have any other bands gone to the lengths to name specific instruments used in making albums on the album sleeves..or is it just a SP3/SPZ thing?
Anyone know they they do it...maybe they just like using evocative names of things like Vox Starstreamers....
Naming Instruments on album sleeves
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BzaInSpace
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According to various interviews, instruments are listed so you know that it ain't rocket science - a degree of honesty perhaps?
[This is what it is - and this is what we used.]
But i guess there's a bit of instrument-fetishism going on too...
Some other band list instruments - mainly for sponsorship reasons, see any amount of drummers that "use Splatch cymbals"
[This is what it is - and this is what we used.]
But i guess there's a bit of instrument-fetishism going on too...
Some other band list instruments - mainly for sponsorship reasons, see any amount of drummers that "use Splatch cymbals"
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twentysixdollars
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The Silver Apples included schematics for both the Simeon and the Whatever Drums.
The MC5 listed Fender and Mosrite guitars on their first album.
Cymbals are, as noted, the most commonly touted. I seem to recall that Radiohead were sponsored by Zildjian, for example (they also had amps to sell: was it Mesa or something else?). Anyway, strike one against capitalism for 'em.
My favorite advert was the one the Byrds did for Fender in '65. There they are, all playing Fender amps set to 'off', with McGuinn in particular trying not to look incongruous strummin' a Strat. Not a single Byrd ever actually played a fender instrument of any stripe - with the exception of Clarence White, who wouldn't join till '68 - if I remember correctly.
The MC5 listed Fender and Mosrite guitars on their first album.
Cymbals are, as noted, the most commonly touted. I seem to recall that Radiohead were sponsored by Zildjian, for example (they also had amps to sell: was it Mesa or something else?). Anyway, strike one against capitalism for 'em.
My favorite advert was the one the Byrds did for Fender in '65. There they are, all playing Fender amps set to 'off', with McGuinn in particular trying not to look incongruous strummin' a Strat. Not a single Byrd ever actually played a fender instrument of any stripe - with the exception of Clarence White, who wouldn't join till '68 - if I remember correctly.
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The 'Prunes endorsement of VOX Wah Wah pedals has to be heard to be believed: you've all heard it, haven't you?
"...so, if you're a professional musician, or want to sound like one..."
Preston Ritter says:
The Electric Prunes was the first group to ever use and record with the famous VOX "wah-wah" pedal. We were sponsored by VOX and they gave us the prototype to test. We decided to use it on the second Prunes' album, 'Underground'. The song the pedal was first recorded on (in all rock history) was 'I Happen To Love You'. We had to pay a huge sum of money as a band, because it was the one and only prototype pedal in existence. We, frankly didn't quite know what to make of it, or how to use it to it's full potential. Jimi Hendrix later showed everyone what could be done with the VOXX wahwah pedal! But The Prunes were the first!! By the way, Jimi Hendrix in several printed interviews, stated The Electric Prunes was one of his favorite bands and a big inspiration to him in developing his famous style.
Also, the Gibson Fuzz-Tone effects pedal used by The Prunes to make 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)' and other Prunes' hits, was the EXACT same one used by The Rolling Stones to record 'Satisfaction'. Our producer, Dave Hassinger, was The Rolling Stones' recording engineer at that time (including 'Satisfaction'). The Stones gave Hassinger (and us) the Gibson Fuzz-Tone used for that famous recording as well as several Gibson 'Thunderbird' guitars, and a small amp used by Bill Wyman to play his bass on several Stones' hits, including '19th Nervous Breakdown' and 'Standing In The Shadows'.
The strange sounds on 'Too Much To Dream' have puzzled many to this day. That effect was simply 'backwards recorded' guitar fills. We put the tape in the machine and played it backwards and recorded guitar fills in the empty spaces. When the tape is played forward, the guitar fills now sound strange."
"...so, if you're a professional musician, or want to sound like one..."
Preston Ritter says:
The Electric Prunes was the first group to ever use and record with the famous VOX "wah-wah" pedal. We were sponsored by VOX and they gave us the prototype to test. We decided to use it on the second Prunes' album, 'Underground'. The song the pedal was first recorded on (in all rock history) was 'I Happen To Love You'. We had to pay a huge sum of money as a band, because it was the one and only prototype pedal in existence. We, frankly didn't quite know what to make of it, or how to use it to it's full potential. Jimi Hendrix later showed everyone what could be done with the VOXX wahwah pedal! But The Prunes were the first!! By the way, Jimi Hendrix in several printed interviews, stated The Electric Prunes was one of his favorite bands and a big inspiration to him in developing his famous style.
Also, the Gibson Fuzz-Tone effects pedal used by The Prunes to make 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)' and other Prunes' hits, was the EXACT same one used by The Rolling Stones to record 'Satisfaction'. Our producer, Dave Hassinger, was The Rolling Stones' recording engineer at that time (including 'Satisfaction'). The Stones gave Hassinger (and us) the Gibson Fuzz-Tone used for that famous recording as well as several Gibson 'Thunderbird' guitars, and a small amp used by Bill Wyman to play his bass on several Stones' hits, including '19th Nervous Breakdown' and 'Standing In The Shadows'.
The strange sounds on 'Too Much To Dream' have puzzled many to this day. That effect was simply 'backwards recorded' guitar fills. We put the tape in the machine and played it backwards and recorded guitar fills in the empty spaces. When the tape is played forward, the guitar fills now sound strange."
Architecture in Helsinki has on their album "Fingers Crossed" all the instruments that were used and it's all printed like sort of a cross-word puzzle. very nice. very useful.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ksuth/discography.html
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ksuth/discography.html
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Wierd Instruments;
Dog whistle as the end of Day in the Life
Paul McArtney chewing a stick of celery in the Beatles / Super Furry Animals Collaboration
There is some strange band who only play hollowed out vegetables and fruit as instruments at the end of the gig they cook all the instruments up and feed them to the audience, can't remember what they are called
Kramer - Electric Rake on many tracks
Wendy Williams - Electric Chainsaw
KLF - Sonic Boom Weaponry
As someone said above Silver Apples used some very odd stuff !
Sigur Ros recently used a Keyboard made up solely of pieces of rock sized / shaped to different tones
Sonic Youth often use screwdrivers to play their guitars
As did John Cage with Pianos
Tired now
Dog whistle as the end of Day in the Life
Paul McArtney chewing a stick of celery in the Beatles / Super Furry Animals Collaboration
There is some strange band who only play hollowed out vegetables and fruit as instruments at the end of the gig they cook all the instruments up and feed them to the audience, can't remember what they are called
Kramer - Electric Rake on many tracks
Wendy Williams - Electric Chainsaw
KLF - Sonic Boom Weaponry
As someone said above Silver Apples used some very odd stuff !
Sigur Ros recently used a Keyboard made up solely of pieces of rock sized / shaped to different tones
Sonic Youth often use screwdrivers to play their guitars
As did John Cage with Pianos
Tired now
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will this do?
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buggane wrote:Wierd Instruments;
Paul McArtney chewing a stick of celery in the Beatles / Super Furry Animals Collaboration
Of course the eternally raven haired scouse widower first performed on this instrument on the Beach Boys' song 'Vegetables'.
About 100 years ago someone was talking about a vegetable orchestra from Vienna (I think young Mr Boom proved himself a fount of knowledge on the matter - but he's always known the way out of his gourd -!).
Name a Bonzo Dog Band song. It's probably got an hilarious instrument on it.
(BTW - go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/6music_a ... l?6m_freak
Radio 6 listen again "The Freak Zone". This week it has "Intro/Outro" as the first track, and "Bal-haam" by Peter Sellers at about 15-20 minutes in...fantastic).
RE: Naming Instruments
I'll tell you this much. Spacemen 3 probably did more for new sales of old Vox instruments than any other band since the 60's. Since the Electric Prunes! 
BJM kinda carries that torch now but I remember way back everyone going... Where can I get a fucking Vox Starstream guitar?
Chris
BJM kinda carries that torch now but I remember way back everyone going... Where can I get a fucking Vox Starstream guitar?Chris
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The Sprawl
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Name a Bonzo Dog Band song. It's probably got an hilarious instrument on it.
(BTW - go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/6music_a ... l?6m_freak
Radio 6 listen again "The Freak Zone". This week it has "Intro/Outro" as the first track, and "Bal-haam" by Peter Sellers at about 15-20 minutes in...fantastic).[/quote]
Whether or not anyone is familiar with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band I don't know: If you're not, the lead singer was a mr Vivian Stanshall, Valium-addict and all round peculiar person, notorious for, according to my father, chasing his ex-wife down the street with an axe. Bit of a charmer.
Sometimes when I stayed with my dad as a child we'd go and see Vivian in his stinking flat overlooking the common, and I'd wander through it, my head hidden in my jumper as I tried not to look at the many deeply odd things that would inevitably draw my attention as soon as I entered. A budgie he let loose to fly around the flat, his goldfish bowl complete with four-packs of beer at the bottom, presumably for when the fish got thirsty, or the radiator, festooned with drying pink and purple thongs, from which he would ask me to choose a pair for him to wear.
It was quite frightening for an eight year old boy.
Anyway, I've heard a few stories about him and my favourite anecdote is this one -
Vivian and a friend go into an extremely upmarket tailor in the West End and immediately Vivian asks the guy behind the counter for the best pair of trousers in the shop. He comes back with an extremely expensive pair of trousers and hands them to Vivian with a wink, the implication being that he'd do well to find a better pair of trousers in London. Vivian takes a cursory look at the trousers and dismisses the tailor with instructions to find the BEST trousers in the shop. The tailor scuttles off, comes back with another pair, and Vivian immediately dismisses him again. This goes on for about half an hour until the tailor brings over the most expensive trousers in the shop. Vivian takes a look at them and tells the tailor how wonderful he thinks they are, before reluctantly adding that they "don't fit".
With a look of horror on his face the tailor watches as Vivian grabs the left leg of the trousers, his friend grabs the right, and they both pull violently. The trousers split perfectly down the middle and Viv looks at each half, deeply satisfied. Immediately two one-legged men hop into the shop. Vivian hands the two halves of the former-trousers to the one-legged men, they each put on one half and then hop back out of the shop. Vivian pays, bids the tailor a friendly farewell, and leaves the shop.
Obviously, now I know he'd hired the one-legged men beforehand, but as an eight-year old I always thought it was a hell of a coincidence.
This is how I heard it from both my dad and Viv.
(BTW - go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/6music_a ... l?6m_freak
Radio 6 listen again "The Freak Zone". This week it has "Intro/Outro" as the first track, and "Bal-haam" by Peter Sellers at about 15-20 minutes in...fantastic).[/quote]
Whether or not anyone is familiar with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band I don't know: If you're not, the lead singer was a mr Vivian Stanshall, Valium-addict and all round peculiar person, notorious for, according to my father, chasing his ex-wife down the street with an axe. Bit of a charmer.
Sometimes when I stayed with my dad as a child we'd go and see Vivian in his stinking flat overlooking the common, and I'd wander through it, my head hidden in my jumper as I tried not to look at the many deeply odd things that would inevitably draw my attention as soon as I entered. A budgie he let loose to fly around the flat, his goldfish bowl complete with four-packs of beer at the bottom, presumably for when the fish got thirsty, or the radiator, festooned with drying pink and purple thongs, from which he would ask me to choose a pair for him to wear.
It was quite frightening for an eight year old boy.
Anyway, I've heard a few stories about him and my favourite anecdote is this one -
Vivian and a friend go into an extremely upmarket tailor in the West End and immediately Vivian asks the guy behind the counter for the best pair of trousers in the shop. He comes back with an extremely expensive pair of trousers and hands them to Vivian with a wink, the implication being that he'd do well to find a better pair of trousers in London. Vivian takes a cursory look at the trousers and dismisses the tailor with instructions to find the BEST trousers in the shop. The tailor scuttles off, comes back with another pair, and Vivian immediately dismisses him again. This goes on for about half an hour until the tailor brings over the most expensive trousers in the shop. Vivian takes a look at them and tells the tailor how wonderful he thinks they are, before reluctantly adding that they "don't fit".
With a look of horror on his face the tailor watches as Vivian grabs the left leg of the trousers, his friend grabs the right, and they both pull violently. The trousers split perfectly down the middle and Viv looks at each half, deeply satisfied. Immediately two one-legged men hop into the shop. Vivian hands the two halves of the former-trousers to the one-legged men, they each put on one half and then hop back out of the shop. Vivian pays, bids the tailor a friendly farewell, and leaves the shop.
Obviously, now I know he'd hired the one-legged men beforehand, but as an eight-year old I always thought it was a hell of a coincidence.
This is how I heard it from both my dad and Viv.
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sigur ros semi-recently played with radiohead and used a xylophone made out of ballet slippers, thanks to one of the members' fathers. bobby brown's 'enlightening beam of axonda' is a one-man, homemade, orchestra of bizzarro instruments.. weird multi-stringed harps, tone generator thingies, etc.
http://www.filmcement.org/rummage/archi ... sider.html
3rd one down or so
http://www.filmcement.org/rummage/archi ... sider.html
3rd one down or so
In Keith Moon's biog it is he that is the star of the trousers tale. D'you think he just claimed it as his own or could he have been the friend of Viv ? Are there any other tales of Keith and Viv together ? The biog also mentions a gag he would pull where a crony (Viv ?)would dress as a nun, walk down a busy street only to be dragged struggling into a black limo by shades wearing goons after a very public beating. Boys will be boys .................
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The Sprawl
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Viv definitely told it from a first person perspective, at least from what I remember. Keith Moon was the other guy, if he was involved at all.
I'm sure there are more Moon/Stanshall tales, there's a Vivian Stanshall biography out somewhere, Ginger Geezer I think, which is apparently worth a look, so long as you can shake off the horrible feeling that when you get it home it'll be Chris Evans's lifestory recounted in minute detail, down to the last spunk-stained sock, by roly-poly comic genius Danny Baker.
My dad'd probably have a huge mental library of Viv and Keith stories, although he tends to ignore the 'hilarious' Nazi ventriloquist photoshoot they did together on the grounds that cunts will sometimes be cunts.
I'm sure there are more Moon/Stanshall tales, there's a Vivian Stanshall biography out somewhere, Ginger Geezer I think, which is apparently worth a look, so long as you can shake off the horrible feeling that when you get it home it'll be Chris Evans's lifestory recounted in minute detail, down to the last spunk-stained sock, by roly-poly comic genius Danny Baker.
My dad'd probably have a huge mental library of Viv and Keith stories, although he tends to ignore the 'hilarious' Nazi ventriloquist photoshoot they did together on the grounds that cunts will sometimes be cunts.
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BzaInSpace
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'OUTSIDE 1' is easily the best Bowie LP ha ha ha aha hahah h
Danny Baker still seeks some kind of redemption from the public due to his role in The Making of Chris Evans - Baker was in charge of Evans public rehabilitation - Evans even claimed Danny Baker
"...got him into music - especially the Beatles".
Thanks Danny - was it your idea for Chris to meet John Lennon in an infamous TV Advert for 1-2-1 phones?
I Imagine the ghost of Lennon was happy with that one.
I also imagine in any reality other than Chris Evans' Lennon would have rightly told him to "fuck off" - and probably got Ringo to duff him up a bit...
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Wasn't Ginger Geezer the guy from Cream who went to Africa to teach the natives how to play the drums? Chris Morris & Peter Cook - 'Why Bother?'
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"I was only waving at someone - honest" David Bowie
"...got him into music - especially the Beatles".
Thanks Danny - was it your idea for Chris to meet John Lennon in an infamous TV Advert for 1-2-1 phones?
I Imagine the ghost of Lennon was happy with that one.
I also imagine in any reality other than Chris Evans' Lennon would have rightly told him to "fuck off" - and probably got Ringo to duff him up a bit...
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Wasn't Ginger Geezer the guy from Cream who went to Africa to teach the natives how to play the drums? Chris Morris & Peter Cook - 'Why Bother?'
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"I was only waving at someone - honest" David Bowie
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The Sprawl
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MATMOS.
and what they used on their record "A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure" is a real pleasure.
http://www.brainwashed.com/matmos/discog/ole489.html
Composed entirely from sounds generated while measuring the galvanic response of Martin's skin to a constant flow of electricity.
Liposuction surgery recorded in California utilizing Bard Parker Scalpels, Draeger Anesthesia Ventilators, and Gramm's Medical Liposuction Equipment.
Refractive eye surgery (laser in situ keratomileusis)
Composed entirely from the plucked and bowed cage of our rat Felix (R. I. P.).
"What's your pleasure, sir?" - Hellraiser 2.
and what they used on their record "A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure" is a real pleasure.
http://www.brainwashed.com/matmos/discog/ole489.html
Composed entirely from sounds generated while measuring the galvanic response of Martin's skin to a constant flow of electricity.
Liposuction surgery recorded in California utilizing Bard Parker Scalpels, Draeger Anesthesia Ventilators, and Gramm's Medical Liposuction Equipment.
Refractive eye surgery (laser in situ keratomileusis)
Composed entirely from the plucked and bowed cage of our rat Felix (R. I. P.).
"What's your pleasure, sir?" - Hellraiser 2.
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jacksmiley
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odd instruments
i think the hands-down kings of strange instruments on album covers (although not usually on the front) have got to be einstuerzende neubauten. they've had pictures of their odd anyone seen the bizarre sandwich-like "perpetuum mobile" on their recent record cover? it rotates at variable speeds on a vertical spindle and it's "played" with a nozzled trigger-hose hooked up to an air compressor, aimed at the different openings of plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, etc. as they go past. it makes some really strange percussive/woodwindish/clacky sounds...
as the back cover of the last record i made with our band 9-volt haunted house, i did a black & white reverse-image collage using digital photos of every instrument we used on the record, rather than listing them anywhere in the text. that way if you recognize some of the more obscure stuff it's because you know & love the instruments, rather than because we're name-checking trendy manufacturers.
as the back cover of the last record i made with our band 9-volt haunted house, i did a black & white reverse-image collage using digital photos of every instrument we used on the record, rather than listing them anywhere in the text. that way if you recognize some of the more obscure stuff it's because you know & love the instruments, rather than because we're name-checking trendy manufacturers.
unlike those who don't realize
we are here
on the verge of perishing;
those who do,
their quarrels are stilled.
--dhammapada
we are here
on the verge of perishing;
those who do,
their quarrels are stilled.
--dhammapada
I recall being very, very intrigued by Einsturzende Neubauten's choice of instruments when I first saw the sleeve for their Ende Neu record. Off the top of my head, it features such instruments as "the hum from a 40,000 volt power station" and "an Alfa Romeo engine running at 2,500rpm". Strange chaps, those...
There's a great track on a Man Or Astroman? album - I think it's on EEVIAC - called "A Simple Text File", which entirely features a dot matrix printer printing out an ASCII text file so designed to make a precise rhythmic sound from the print head, completely in time. Very, very clever stuff, expertly produced by the great Steve Albini.
There's a great track on a Man Or Astroman? album - I think it's on EEVIAC - called "A Simple Text File", which entirely features a dot matrix printer printing out an ASCII text file so designed to make a precise rhythmic sound from the print head, completely in time. Very, very clever stuff, expertly produced by the great Steve Albini.