The moe. frontline from left: Chuck Garvey (guitar), Rob Derhak (bass), Al Schnier (guitar), and Nate Wilson (keyboards). In the mist behind them is Jim Loughlin (percussion) and Vinnie Amico (drums).
The two guitarists are known for their sympathetic 6-string interplay. They remain as tight as ever, despite setbacks, as they deliver the buoyant, vibrant Circle of Giants, the long-running jam band’s 14th studio record.
Thirty-five years ago, a group of University of Buffalo students gathered in a basement, drank a lot of beer, and played some tunes. They had no goal other than to have fun and party. But it wasn’t long before they headed into a studio housed in an apartment above local guitar shop Top Shelf Music to record the debut moe. album, Fatboy. Slowly, the band built a devoted fan base, crisscrossing the country in a van. As they persevered, the band and their audience grew up together, and now it’s the fans’ children who are discovering the group.
The story of moe. is one of friendship, survival, resilience, and joy. Now poised to release their latest, Circle of Giants—chock full of rock ’n’ roll grooves both lilting and bone-shaking, and anthemic chord progressions—the group is as strong as ever. Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier’s vibrant, bright guitars chime, crush, strum, and wail, and there’s a buoyant spirit and evocative lyrics. The lead single, “Ups and Downs,” is a song bassist Rob Derhak wrote after a casual conversation with a mailman about the peaks and valleys of a long marriage. One of the album’s most moving tunes, the lyrics go:
She looks at him
He coughs into his overcoat
It smells like gin
From a different moment
Sail along, just another wounded soldier
Now carry on, carry on but older
The last bittersweet couplet might well apply to the band. They faced extraordinary challenges over the past six years that all but stopped them in their tracks.
Thirty-five years after forming at University of Buffalo, on Circle of Giants, moe. maintain their close-knit family vibe.
The first blow was Derhak’s battle with oropharyngeal cancer in 2017. With the group rallying around him and fundraising initiated by fans, he went through harrowing treatment, beat the odds, and the cancer went into remission.
Not long thereafter, Garvey had a stroke. He lost partial movement in his left side as well as the ability to speak. “My syllables didn’t know how to find each other,” he recalls. The guitarist had to relearn movement and speech. The band gathered, made music, and helped him heal. All marveled that, even with diminished facility, he still sounded like Chuckwhen he picked up his instrument.“I grew up listening to the Grateful Dead. They were kind of a model, but there were so many other things that I loved as well. Punk, prog, bluegrass…. There was never any question that we could put all of this into the band.” —Al Schnier
There were also personal losses, and then the pandemic came. Suddenly everyone was writing music in isolation, deprived of the companionship they had come to know so well. After regrouping post-pandemic, there was a tragedy at a New Year’s Eve concert in 2023, where several audience members were struck and killed by a vehicle outside the concert hall. Devastated, moe. responded by saying, “We believe in the power of music to heal and unite.”
Al Schnier's Gear
Al Schnier jams out on a Paul Languedoc G4.
Photo by Paul Citone
Guitars
Amps
- Two 1973 Mesa/Boogie Mark I amps loaded with Celestion Cream speakers
Effects
- Zvex Wah Probe
- Analog Man Envelope Filter
- Zvex Fuzz Factory
- Analog Man CompROSSor
- ARC Effects Klone
- Providence Chrono Delay
- Analog Man Bi-Chorus
- Kaden Effects FlutterTone tremolo
- Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus
Strings and Picks
- D’Addario XL140 (.010–.052)
- Dunlop Primetone Semi Round 1.5mm
I asked Schnier how it felt to be making music with his partners after all they’ve been through. “The band brings me a sense of place,” he says, “a sense of identity and affirmation. The bonds between us are so deep. When we’re on the road, and we have a day off, we often all end up back in the bus around 8 o’clock just hanging out together. I don’t know if it’s that we’re creatures of comfort or that we just like each other’s company. It truly is a family.”
“The bonds between us are so deep.” —Al Schnier
The classic two-guitar frontline has defined the band’s sound from the beginning. Currently, Garvey plays a 1973 Telecaster Thinline that he outfitted with Lollar Wide Range humbuckers. His amp of choice is a Tony Bruno Underground 30. Schnier’s number one is a Custom Shop korina Gibson SG, which he plugs into two of the first Mesa/Boogies ever made (numbers 73 and 75).
The band’s guitar parts stem from the interplay between both players. Garvey and Schnier craft their lines by jamming, one riffing off the other—the sense of brotherhood extending to their composing habits. Someone will bring in a sketch and present it at rehearsal. The other members will help to shape the final product. No matter how finished a song might feel coming in, someone will always have an idea to make it better.
Chuck Garvey's Gear
Chuck Garvey’s 1973 Tele Thinline is loaded with Lollar Wide Range pickups.
Photo by Paul Citone
Guitars
- Jerry Jones 6-string Doublecut Dual Lipstick
- 1973 Fender Telecaster Thinline with Lollar Regal Wide Range pickups
- 1994 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan single-coils
- 1978 Ibanez PF200
Amps
- Tony Bruno Underground 30 head with 3x10" cab
- Magnatone M10
- Tony Bruno Tweedy Pie 18
Effects
- Analog Man Sun Face “BART”
- Analog Man Buffer
- Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor
- Analog Man King Of Tone
- Foxrox Octron
- Benson Germanium Boost
- Benson Germanium Preamp
- Klon Centaur
- Italian-made Thomas Organ Company Cry Baby
- Paul Cochrane Timmy V1
- Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl MkII
- Source Audio Nemesis Delay
- TC Electronic Tuner
- Fulltone Deja’Vibe 2
- Lee Jackson Mr. Springgy
- Chelli Amplification Spring Reverb and Harmonic Tremolo
- Vemuram Shanks ODS-1
- Lehle 1at3 Switcher
- Voodoo Labs Pedal Power
- True Tone 1 Spot Pro CS11
Strings and Picks
- Dunlop Primetone Semi Round Smooth Pick 1.4 mm
- Wegen Triangular TF140 White 1.4 mm
- D’Addario NYXL (.010–.046)
The sound of moe. is often described as “genre defying.” I ask what this rather generic phrase means to them. “I grew up listening to the Grateful Dead,” Schnier says. “They were kind of a model, but there were so many other things that I loved as well. Punk, prog, bluegrass…. There was never any question that we could put all of this into the band."
“You never know when you’re going through a crisis whether it’s going to turn out okay.” —Chuck Garvey
Garvey chimes in and talks about his admiration for Frank Zappa. “When we started out at Wetlands in New York City around 1990, it was a very open environment. One day they would program ska, the next some African band, the next a punk band. We were into it all.”
Over the many years, moe. has had many “ups”: innumerable headline tours, international festivals from Bonnaroo to Japan’s famed Fuji Rock, and sold-out shows alongside such like-minded acts as the Allman Brothers Band, Robert Plant, members of the Grateful Dead, the Who, and Gov’t Mule. Next, 2025 brings a long tour. In some ways they’re making up for lost time.
As for the “downs”? Says Garvey: “You never know when you’re going through a crisis whether it’s going to turn out okay. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that our whole family coming together has been helpful for everyone. It’s part of that smaller community—but also that huge community of fans who are right there with us when we go through these things.”
Schnier, with a noticeable degree of emotion in his voice, adds, “It’s all made us closer, stronger. It’s all because we have each other. I couldn’t do it without these guys. I’m so grateful for that.”
YouTube It
Hear how guitarists Schnier and Garvey intertwine their parts and their sounds, creating a distinct guitar vocabulary as moe. tackles the lead single from Circle of Giantslast August in Denver.
John Doe and Billy Zoom keep things spare and powerful, with two basses and a single guitar–and 47 years of shared musical history–between them, as founding members of this historic American band.
There are plenty of mighty American rock bands, but relatively few have had as profound an impact on the international musical landscape as X. Along with other select members of punk’s original Class of 1977, including Patti Smith, Richard Hell, and Talking Heads, the Los Angeles-based outfit proved that rock ’n’ roll could be stripped to its bones and still be as literate and allusive as the best work of the songwriters who emerged during the previous decade and were swept up in the corporate-rock tidal wave that punk rebelled against. X’s first three albums–Los Angles, Wild Gift, and Under the Big Black Sun-were a beautiful and provocative foundation, and rocked like Mt. Rushmore.
Last year, X released a new album, Smoke & Fiction, and, after declaring it would be their last, embarked on what was billed as a goodbye tour, seemingly putting a bow on 47 years of their creative journey. But when PG caught up with X at Memphis’s Minglewood Hall in late fall, vocalist and bassist John Doe let us in on a secret: They are going to continue playing select dates and the occasional mini-tour, and will be part of the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas in April 12.
Not-so-secret is that they still rock like Mt. Rushmore, and that the work of all four of the founders–bassist, singer, and songwriter Doe, vocalist and songwriter Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebreak–remains inspired.
Onstage at Minglewood Hall, Doe talked a bit about his lead role in the film-festival-award-winning 2022 remake of the film noir classic D.O.A. But most important, he and Zoom let us in on their minimalist sonic secrets.Brought to you by D’Addario.
Gretsch A Sketch
Since X’s earliest days, Billy Zoom has played Gretsches. In the beginning, it was a Silver Jet, but in recent years he’s preferred the hollowbody G6122T-59 Vintage Select Chet Atkins Country Gentleman. This example roars a little more thanks to the Kent Armstrong P-90 in the neck and a Seymour Duncan DeArmond-style pickup in the bridge. Zoom, who is an electronics wiz, also did some custom wiring and has locking tuners on the guitar.
More DeArmond
Zoom’s sole effect is this vintage DeArmond 602 volume pedal. It helps him reign in the feedback that occasionally comes soaring in, since he stations himself right in front of his amp during shows.
It's a Zoom!
Zoom’s experience with electronics began as a kid, when he began building items from the famed Heath Kit series and made his own CB radio. And since he’s a guitarist, building amps seemed inevitable. This 1x12 was crafted at the request of G&L Guitars, but never came to market. It is switchable between 10 and 30 watts and sports a single Celestion Vintage 30.
Tube Time!
The tube array includes two EL84, 12AX7s in the preamp stage, and a single 12AT7. The rightmost input is for a reverb/tremolo footswitch.
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Big Black Sun
Besides 3-band EQ, reverb, and tremolo, Zoom’s custom wiring allows for a mid-boost that pumps up to 14 dB. Not content with 11, it starts there and goes to 20.
Baby Blue
This amp is also a Zoom creation, with just a tone and volume control (the latter with a low boost). It also relies on 12AX7s and EL84s.
Big Bottom
Here is John Doe’s rig in full: Ampeg and Fender basses, with his simple stack between them. The red head atop his cabs is a rare bird: an Amber Light Walter Woods from the 1970s. These amps are legendary among bass players for their full tone, and especially good for upright bass and eccentric instruments like Doe’s scroll-head Ampeg. “I think they were the first small, solid-state bass amps ever,” Doe offers. They have channels designated for electric and upright basses (Doe says he uses the upright channel, for a mid-dier tone), plus volume, treble, bass, and master volume controls. One of the switches puts the signal out of phase, but he’s not sure what the others do. Then, there’s a Genzler cab with two 12" speakers and four horns, and an Ampeg 4x10.
Scared Scroll
Here’s the headstock of that Ampeg scroll bass, an artifact of the ’60s with a microphone pickup. Doe seems to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this instrument, which has open tuners and through-body f-style holes on its right and left sides. “The interesting thing,” he says, “is that you cannot have any treble on the pickup. If you do, it sounds like shit. With a pick, you can sort of get away with it.” So he mostly rolls off all the treble to shake the earth.
Jazz Bass II
This is the second Fender Jazz Bass that Doe has owned. He bought his first from a friend in Baltimore for $150, and used it to write and record most of X’s early albums. That one no longer leaves home. But this touring instrument came from the Guitar Castle in Salem, Oregon, and was painted to recreate the vintage vibe of Doe’s historic bass.
We chat with Molly about Sister Rosetta’s “immediately impressive” playing, which blends jazz, gospel, chromaticism, and blues into an early rock ‘n’ roll style that was not only way ahead of its time but was also truly rockin’.
In the early ’60s, some of the British guitarists who would shape the direction of our instrument for decades to come all found themselves at a concert by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. What they heard from Tharpe and what made her performances so special—her sound, her energy—must have resonated. Back at home in the U.S., she was a captivating presence, wowing audiences going back to her early days in church through performing the first stadium rock ‘n’ roll concert—which was also one of her weddings—and beyond. Her guitar playing was incendiary, energetic, and a force to be reckoned with.
On this episode of 100 Guitarists, we’re joined by guitarist Molly Miller, who in addition to being a fantastic guitarist, educator, bandleader, and performing with Jason Mraz, is a bit of a Sister Rosetta scholar. We chat with Molly about Sister Rosetta’s “immediately impressive” playing, which blends jazz, gospel, chromaticism, and blues into an early rock ‘n’ roll style that was not only way ahead of its time but was also truly rockin’.