In just five short years, two scorching albums, and hundreds of electrifying, shock-rock performances (think fake blood and straightjackets like Ozzy, Cooper, and Manson), Starcrawler has earned big-named fans like Elton John, Dave Grohl, Mike Campbell, and Ryan Adams. (The latter produced their 2018 self-titled debut featuring Beck's daughter Tuesday on the cover. Both of them are fans, too.)
Much of Starcrawler's glam-punk swagger is due to the peanut-butter-and-jelly relationship between singer Arrow de Wilde and guitarist Henri Cash. His prickly guitars and redlined Ramones rhythms flank her seething, sneering, sensual vocals making every second of Starcrawler's 28 minutes a gas. And most of it was done on three strings.
"Having three strings allows me to just play," admits Cash. "Half the strings, half the brain power [laughs]… I'm so used to the 3-string setup that it feels natural and I don't think about anything."
2019's follow-up Devour You maintained the daring Stooges' snarl, but incorporated slower tempos and B-Bender moans for the Let It Bleed-esque "No More Pennies" and dream-pop swirler "Born Asleep." The result is still an overall good-time ruckus, but the occasional change of pace makes the faster-paced uppercuts hit harder.
In between recording fresh material for Starcrawler and a new project, gear-gobbling guitarist Henri Cash virtually welcomed PG's Chris Kies into his L.A.-based tone zone.
In this episode, the sharp-dressed man shows off his main custom builds from Randy Parsons (including a 3-string ripper), induces serious gear lust with his collection of Fenders, Gretsches, and Gibsons, and shows off the degrees of burn bustling on his board.
Special thanks to Vice Cooler for all of Henri's video and photography.
[Brought to you by D'Addario Auto Lock Straps: https://ddar.io/AutoLockRR]3-String Parsons White Bat
Harlan Howard described country music as "three chords and the truth." For Starcrawler guitarist Henri Cash, it's "three strings and the power."
Above is Cash's custom-made, 3-string "White Bat" built by esteemed luthier Randy Parsons who has delivered jaw-dropping instruments for Jack White, Jimmy Page, and Joe Perry.
About four years ago, Cash first encountered the Seattle-based builder's work at a NAMM Show when his aunt—custom strapmaker Jodi Head—and Parsons were booth neighbors. Throughout the show, they bonded over music and unusual instruments. At the close, Randy offered to build Henri a custom White Bat model.
The key elements making it his dream machine (a cross of his beloved White Falcon and Randy's original Bat) would be the single TV Jones Power'Tron Plus (Cash only uses the bridge pickup in any guitar), a built-in R2R Treble Booster (approximating the onboard 9V boost found in late 1960s Gretsch Rally models), and a Bigsby vibrato (huge Neil Young fan). For this one, he actually uses partial sets of Ernie Ball Baritone Slinkys (.026–.036–.046).
Parsons White Bat
Here's a full-fledge, 6-string White Bat built by Randy Parsons. This one is chambered like the 3-string Bat and features all the same accoutrements. For his standard 6-strings, Henry goes with Ernie Ball Power Slinkys (.011–.048) for most guitars. (He puts Slinky .010s on his Les Pauls for "Skynyrd" bends.)
1980s Epiphone Les Paul
This 1980s Epiphone Les Paul is where all the 3-string raging started for Henri. His father is a musician and often plays in open tunings. He always tried to play his dad's instruments but couldn't quite grasp it until he broke the part of the Les Paul's bridge and saddles. Instead of taking it to his dad to fix, he removed the strings and quickly realized with the remaining top three strings (tuned to D–A–D), he could cop chords and compelling sounds.
His dad encouraged the musical pursuit knowing his son was a fan of other "mutated" players in the B-52s, Morphine, and The Presidents of the United States of America, but he did warn that if he was going to continue playing just three strings, he should move them further down the neck to balance out the tension. After that (and adding a Stones-y G–D–G tuning to his repertoire), Cash was off and riffing.
When schoolmate Arrow de Wilde approached Cash about playing guitar, he had only played drums and bass in previous bands, but he was interested and most of the early Starcrawler jams were written on this 3-string Epiphone.
1950s Gretsch 6130 Roundup
A recent addition to Cash's abundant collection is this 1950s Gretsch 6130 Roundup complete with the western motif and Dynasonic pickups.
Gretsch White Falcon
Another pivotal guitar used a bunch in the studio and onstage is this big, beautiful Gretsch White Falcon.
Fender Road Worn '50s Telecaster
Since getting it (and before falling for the Parsons), this Tele has probably logged the most hours by his side. He scooped this original-run Fender Road Worn '50s Telecaster at Imperial Vintage Guitars. It's worth noting that the original Road Worn relic'ing was relegated to just the neck, so all the body bruises and bashing has been added by Henri's hands. Starcrawler's 2018 self-titled debut featured mainly this Tele and the 3-string Parsons.
1970s Fender Telecaster Custom
When Ryan Adams produced the band's first album, Cash fell in love with his 1974 Fender Tele Custom. At the time, he couldn't afford a vintage guitar (so he settled for the previous Road Worn Telecaster), but after saving some scratch and lurking on eBay, he landed this (at the time) clean Tele Custom.
He deemed it his No. 1 before heading out to support Starcrawler, but at the first show it screeched and scratched because the pickups weren't potted and Cash plays with lots of volume and gain. He went to Welcome to Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar in Seattle to have it serviced, but still needing to play that night's show, they dropped in a temporary fix—a Lollar Special T. The replacement sounded so good that Henri left it and has the now-wax-potted original single-coil in the guitar's case.MIM Fender Classic Series Tele with B-Bender
Thanks to his uncle Brad Rice (who's played guitar for and collaborated with Keith Urban, Ryan Adams, Jason Boland, Will Hoge, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Whiskeytown, and Jack Ingram) and falling in love with the Clarence White-era Byrds, Cash specifically scored this tobacco sunburst MIM Fender Classic Series Tele so he could recreate White's Parson StringBender (now owned by Marty Stuart). He even added the Nudie sticker (above the neck pickup) and swapped out the stock tuners for banjo tuners. He recorded with it and plays it onstage for the songs "No More Pennies" and "Born Asleep."
Satellite Coronet
Some P-90 bark for the in-progress Starcrawler album was dished out by this Satellite Coronet that is now no longer in production because of a lawsuit issued by Gibson.
Custom Echopark Clarence
When opening for the Distillers, luthier Gabriel Currie gifted this custom Echopark Clarence model before a show in Detroit. A notable first happened with this T when Henri resuscitate it himself with a headstock repair while touring in Europe.
Kauer Banshee
If you share a house with another guitarist, you know where to go looking for your instruments when they go missing. Cash and his father play tag with this custom Kauer Banshee that howls with a single Lollar.
1966 Gibson SJN Country Western
Prior to the quarantine, Cash didn't have a suitable acoustic. And your roommates and neighbors can only take so much noise, so he scooped this 1966 Gibson SJN Country Western. Now it's one of his favorites: "Every time I sit down with it, I feel like I'm getting somewhere."
1950s Gibson LG-1
Cash's friend (and guitar sleuth) "fenderfinder" helped him land this 1950s Gibson LG-2.
Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
Originally a skeptic of the acoustic-electric hybrid, but after spending some time with the Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster, Henri's a believer. He's enjoyed blending the acoustics and dialing up some Weezer-y dynamics.
Henri Cash's Wall of Amps
"Sound guys usually hate me," goofs Cash. "I typically tour with a Showman, Bandmaster, and Vibroverb … but they're only on the two or three!" For much of quarantine and this Rundown, Henri plugged into a Fender '62 Princeton Chris Stapleton Edition and a 1959 Fender Vibrolux that an '80s punk painted red.
Henri Cash's Pedalboard
Most of Henri's pedals fit into one of two categories: mayhem and movement. The wild bunch includes a trifecta of EarthQuaker Devices (Bit Commander, Hoof, Park Fuzz Sound), R2R Electric One Knob Treble Booster, and DigiTech Drop. And for the some subtle gruff, he's got a Way Huge Red Llama. The modulation and time-based boxes are a MXR Carbon Copy, Strymon Flint, DOD FX60 Stereo Chorus, TC Electronic Shaker, and EQD Afterneath. A MXR Clone Looper is a practice tool, Strymon Qjai powers his pedals, a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner keeps his guitars in check, and a Lehle Dual SGoS Amp Switcher controls the Fenders.
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Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
