Rig Rundowns

Aaron Marshall loves guitar. “I make a living every day playing the electric guitar. My identity is built around this thing. I’ve been my own boss since 2015,” he declared https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/intervals (in a 2021 PG interview). Aaron Marshall believes in guitar: “Anyone who thinks the death of the electric guitar is upon us is very out of touch. You can’t hold its head underwater. The electric guitar is iconic. It’s not going anywhere.” And Aaron Marshall is never satisfied with guitar: “Everything’s perfect. Let’s change it all,” the Intervals visionary joked during this new Rig Rundown. “Everything is different, which is probably the most on-brand thing I can provide. But hopefully this is the beginning of that not being the case.” The guitar disciple started Intervals back in 2011. He’s been the solo constant member and the band’s musical pilot. He’s put out four riveting, guitar-centric albums to date. And sure, the obvious 6-string influences are foun

Adam Shoenfeld has helped shape the tone of modern country guitar. How? Well, the Nashville-based session star, producer, and frontman has played on hundreds of albums and 45 No. 1 country hits, starting with Jason Aldean’s “Hicktown,” since 2005. Plus, he’s found time for several bands of his own as well as the first studio album under his own name, https://adamshoenfeld.com/ (All the Birds Sing, which drops January 28). Shoenfeld recently let PG’s John Bohlinger in on some of his sonic secrets, running through his session rig at East Nashville’s https://www.3sirens.com/ (3Sirens studio). [Brought to you by D’Addario Nexxus 360 Rechargeable Tuner: http://ddar.io/Nexxus.RigRundown (http://ddar.io/Nexxus.RigRundown)]

Listening to the tidal wave in “Giant Peach,” the riotous “Moaning Lisa Smile,” or the punked-up “Play the Greatest Hits,” it’s hard to imagine Wolf Alice as an acoustic duo. Then talk to Joff Oddie about his integral use of effects—“These pedals can do such crazy things; to not do crazy things with things that can do crazy things seems odd”—and the band’s origin story becomes even more improbable. But it’s true: Wolf Alice started with guitarist/singer Ellie Rowsell and guitarist Oddie playing acoustic-folk music during open-mic nights in North London pubs. After self-releasing an EP, they expanded and electrified their sound with the help of Theo Ellis (bass/synths) and Joel Amey (drums/synths). Now sure, plenty of the band’s repertoire from their four official releases stays in the quieter, softer settings—creating maximum drama—but Joff and the gang give some animation to nearly every note played. (To give further cred to the group’s juxtaposition of floating like a butterfly and stinging like a

Deer Tick was started by self-taught multi-instrumentalist John McCauley as a solo songwriting endeavor in 2004. The band’s instant, ear-perk appeal is McCauley’s wiry, craggy voice narrating personal hardship and loss. When you hear Deer Tick albums, the honesty that pours out of the speakers punches your gut and tears your heart. Originally touring with a revolving cast of supporting musicians, McCauley solidified his rhythm section with half-brothers Dennis Michael Ryan (drums) and Christopher Dale Ryan (bass) before finalizing things with Ian Patrick O’Neil on guitar in 2009. The band’s staying power and relevance is rooted in their ability to cross-stitch ringing hi-fi Americana harmonies and lo-fi alt-country vibes with melancholic Nick Drake moods and trouncing honky-tonk rumblers with tattered rockers perfect for Iggy or Kurt. That amalgamation is both timeless and contemporary. (It’s worth noting that McCauley—a self-proclaimed Nirvana nut—sang and played guitar alongside surviving members Dave Grohl

Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is rock ’n’ roll’s loudest low talker. Onstage, the reserved frontman is overshadowed by his three full stacks, summoning up President Teddy Roosevelt’s quote: “speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” Fellow volume-dealing stalwarts Emmett Jefferson Murphy III (drums)—better known as “Murph”—and Lou Barlow (bass/vocals) helped J form the band in 1984 after their first group, Deep Wound, dissolved. Both left Dinosaur Jr., and then rejoined in 2005. This core group has released eight studio albums of dynamically rich rock that teeters between a runaway locomotive fueled on feedback and buzzing riffs, and hooky, melodic, pop-soaked nimble rhythms that carry more than they crush. While never reaching the mainstream stratosphere like some of their contemporaries (including Nirvana, who opened for Dino Jr. in 1991), this consummate power trio have remained popular in the American underground by continually selling out theaters, splashing into the Billboard 200 (climbi

Founded by the late Neal Casal, this instrumental band of sonic explorers was born out of a request for set-break music during the Grateful Dead’s final run of shows in San Francisco and Chicago during 2015. Originally, CATS was going to be a one-off project, but fan feedback pushed Casal and company to release it as Interludes for the Dead. This wasn’t simply wordless Dead covers, but new creations formed in essence and spirt of the Dead. In 2018, the group released their second double album, Let it Wander, and followed it up with a completely improvised EP featuring drummer Joe Russo. Sadly, a week after tracking their self-titled album https://www.premierguitar.com/pro-advice/last-call/mental-illness (Casal took his own life). Casal urged the group to carry on without him. The group recruited https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/rig-rundown-eric-krasno (Eric Krasno) and Scott Metzger for various tours before settling in with John Lee Shannon in July of 2021. Shortly before a gig at B

Expanding, evolving, exploring, and enchanting are all applicable when describing the orbit of All Them Witches. Since their https://www.premierguitar.com/gear/rig-rundown-all-them-witches (2016 Rig Rundown), the quartet have continued pursuing their sonic mission, unbound by anything but regeneration. Their never-ending musical mutation has yielded three more individualistic, intrepid releases since our last check-in. Sleeping Through the War, in 2017, explored more purposeful, mystical songcraft cloaked in hypnotic, rambunctious rock. For 2018’s ATW, the band’s IV-like retreat (substitute Headley Grange for a Tennessee cabin) extracted a doomier, more chaotic side A equally matched by a side B that’s a psychedelic painkiller. And 2020’s Nothing as the Ideal shows the temporary power trio (drummer Robby Staebler completes the line-up) striking a levitating balance within a menacing, mortar of metal that binds and anchors their emotive, effervescent excursions. (Drop the needle on clo

The Hives are a ripping quintet that formed in Fagersta, Sweden, during the early ’90s. They exploded into American pop-culture consciousness during the garage-rock revival with a pair of chart-splashing, straight-forward stingers (2000’s Veni Vidi Vicious and 2004’s Tyrannosaurus Hives). And while they did take a hiatus in the mid-2010s, they’ve continued rocking the thin line between ragged and refined for nearly 30 years with a total of five albums, four EPs, and a 2020 live set recorded at Nashville’s Third Man Records. Just after soundcheck wrapped at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, the Hives’ redlining guitar duo of Nicholaus Arson and Vigilante Carlstroem welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage to talk gear. The resulting chat covered just how and why Carlstroem’s Flying V has split so many times (supposedly sounding better after each repair), and the reasons why Arson explains his vintage, bridge-pickup-only Fender Telecaster Custom is still the one. Both also quickly detail the torr

Ray Benson founded Asleep at the Wheel over a half a century ago in 1970. Over the course of his career, he’s won 9 Grammys while turning several generations onto Western Swing. PG’s John Bohlinger hung with Benson and his longtime lap-steel player Cindy Cashdollar before a recent Grand Ole Opry performance in Nashville. [Brought to you by D’Addario XS Strings: http://ddar.io/xs.rr (http://ddar.io/xs.rr)]

Do you hear that thunder? That’s the sound of strength in four 100-watt stacks. (Actually, one is a 200-watt bass tube head.) IDLES’ guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan finally have the firepower to match their fury. (Original members singer/lyricist Joe Talbot, drummer Jon Beavis, and bassist Adam Devonshire fill out the band. Kiernan took over for guitarist Andy Stewart after 2015 EP Meat was released.) For much of the 2010s, the bashers from Bristol played on anything and plugged into everything. Low-budget imports and solid-state combos were what they had and they made that work. They toiled around the U.K. sharpening their sneering tongue, quickening their sting, and focusing their vision. Doing so meant playing small rooms as much as possible. So the need and access for big, potent, top-shelf gear was unnecessary. That volatile energy, sensible setups, and Sten-gun attack anchored both 2017’s Brutalism and 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance. The popularity in those releases opened doors to new tools a

About 10 years ago Mannequin Pussy bubbled up from the percolating Philly rock scene. Formed by guitarist/singer Marisa “Missy” Dabice and drummer Athanasios Paul, their primary calling card was a stinging combination of snippy and sizzling ragers. The lineup was eventually filled out with Drew Adler (drums) and Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass). (Paul moved to lead guitar in 2013 and Kaleen Reading took over for drums in 2015. Ultimately, Paul left earlier this year after recording Perfect.) Over the course of three albums and a remarkable brand-new EP, the band’s sound has expanded, evolved, and deepened with more engaging melodies, gallant songwriting, and stouter song structures. Through time, gigs, and reps, Mannequin Pussy progressed beyond the linear rage often dished by young punks. The brazen, brash, locomotive charm in Marisa’s lyrics and the band’s expansive sound has become fully complemented by a refined approach with smoother, swelling dynamics and sharper care of their craft. Touring in supp

Music—and guitar—are therapeutic. The songs we write and riffs we play help reduce the pain, alleviate the stress, and produce some positivity in our lives. Microwave's singer/guitarist/lyricist Nathan Hardy has been using the studio and stage as his leather couch for nearly 10 years. Stovall, in 2014, saw him question his Mormon missionary upbringing. Two years later, Much Love focused on realities versus the romance of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. And 2019's Death Is a Warm Blanket is a dark, heavier, raging deep dive into his nihilistic thoughts. All three albums are honest, coarse evaluations of the pushing and pulling in Hardy's head and heart. Musically, the band has matured alongside Hardy's contemplative subject matter. Stovall and Much Love harness the teeter-totter dynamics mastered by Nirvana and also felt in Microwave's post-hardcore contemporaries like early Citizen and Turnover. While their loudest, most aggressive tendencies were unleashed in Death I

Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) likes a good juxtaposition. Her music is a tightrope act between vulnerability and violence. Scott's lyrics often reflect introspection over a backdrop of angular, explosive guitar sounds, and those lyrics and her imagery combat the standard gender tropes by deconstructing their longstanding definitions and re-empowering them for all people. (Look no further than the cover of Torres' latest album, Thirstier, to see her take on the "classic" guitar pose.) Even her playing style is at odds with itself. "I prefer fingerpicking. I like playing really crunchy, loud, aggressive stuff in the styling of a classical player. And when it comes time to play big power chords, honestly, I just make my fingers bleed," she says. Those divergent personalities and approaches result in singular musical snapshots rather than a predictable path through each performance, song, and album. Sprinter, from 2015, was angsty, urgent, and erratic. And 2017's Three Futures stripped back the guit

Will Swan has celebrated and elevated radical guitar music through the course of nine frenetic, volatile Dance Gavin Dance albums, a pair of releases with his psychedelic post-hardcore side project https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/sianvars-will-swan-beautiful-intensity (Sianvar), and the creation of his https://www.blueswanrecords.com/ (Blue Swan Records) label. The common thread is his hue of beautiful dysfunction and his ethos of pushing the instrument (and its sounds) forward. Make no mistake, Swan can play the guitar. His style is equal parts violence and grace, with pit stops at all points between. He terrorizes the frets as well as he tenderly dances on them—and the results can be chaotic or calming. But what most excites him about guitar is making it not sound like a guitar. "I really like those tones that take the guitar far away from its normal sounds," Swan explains. "I like to layer those with typical guitar tones, and to mix cool sounds with interesting-play

Recently Thrice's Dustin Kensrue (vocals/guitar) and Teppei Teranishi (guitar) participated in https://www.premierguitar.com/videos/hooked/thrice (PG's Hooked). (The video https://www.premierguitar.com/videos/hooked/ (series) features musicians talking about a moment, riff, or song that turned their world upside down and sideswiped them into playing.) Kensrue raved about the Pixies' dissonant melodies, while Teranishi highlighted Metallica's heavy impact. And at the conclusion of the video, they both admit the band has a lot of "Pixies" parts and "Metallica" moments throughout its catalog. Over the course of 11 studio albums—with the help of brothers Eddie (bass) and Riley (drums) Breckenridge—Thrice has explored odd-timing metal (Identity Crisis and The Illusion of Safety), thrashy screamo (The Artist in the Ambulance), maturing post-hardcore (Vheissu and Palms), all-encompassing prog-rock with ethereal escapes and mammoth, surly riffs (The Alchemy Index: Vols. I-

Tired of pretentious music? Are you looking to just have fun and rock out? The good-time, make-you-move-and-groove medicine you're after is what White Reaper dispenses. The band's core was formed in 2012 when Louisville high schoolers Tony Esposito (guitar/vocals) and Nick Wilkerson (drums) started jamming as a duo. Then Nick recruited his twin brother Sam (bass) and Esposito added friend Ryan Hater (keys). And the fearsome foursome released their rowdy, ripping 2015 debut, White Reaper Does It Again, on Polyvinyl Records. Carrying forward their blend of lo-fi garage rock and pop-punk hooks, the quartet added second guitarist Hunter Thompson in 2016, before recording 2017's (tongue-in-cheek) The World's Best American Band. The glee blossomed with shinier, poppier melodies that soared over harmonized guitars—think crossing Cheap Trick with Thin Lizzy. The World's Best American Band graduated them to major label Elektra, where they earned studio time with producer Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Ha

At age 76, Eric Clapton remains a major presence in guitar. He's touring again rather than simply resting on nearly six decades of laurels, and with Slowhand's blessing, Dan Dearnley—the legend's tech for a dozen years—showed us his boss' setup before a September 21 concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Three Signature Strats, Martins, and not much else. Dig in! [Brought to you by D'Addario XS Strings: https://ddar.io/xs.rr (https://ddar.io/xs.rr)]

There's no doubt ZZ Top trademarked Texas boogie. And over 30 years later, the Sword furthered the Lonestar shuffle's legacy by darkening it. The Austin outfit's 2006 debut Age of Winters combined the rhythmic bounce of Tres Hombres with the power and might of Master of Reality. The cross-pollination of Gibbons and Iommi continued in 2008's Gods of the Earth, with heavier right-hand picking and tempos shading towards thrash-y Priest and Thin Lizzy's "Emerald." Traces of proggy psychedelia, like 2112 Rush and late-'70s Genesis, turned 2010's concept album Warped Riders into a swirling voyage of sci-fi conquest and space exploration, with the music matching the otherworldly narrative. And 2012's Apocryphon saw the band settle into themselves, collectively cherry-picking all the things that worked on the previous three albums. Songs like "Cloak of Feathers" and the title track show their musical certainty. High Country, from three years later,

One guitar (with no knobs), one amp, and one pedal is all this punk-rock papa needs to command the stage. It's pretty astonishing that a sophomoric band of misfits and outcasts have chiseled a 40-plus-year legacy of punk rock, but that's what the improbable Descendents have been doing since 1977. Their brand of snotty, snarling, snarky, succinct songs have endeared them to rock titans like Dave Grohl. "[They have] this shameless, love-song aesthetic—none of the other bands had the balls to do that," proclaimed Grohl in 2013's documentary Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. "Everyone was screaming about Reagan or whatever." Additionally, through their blending of hardcore, drag-strip tempos, and melodious harmonies, they designed a vehicle for the '90s pop-punk explosion—paving the expressway for bands like Green Day and Blink-182 to crash into the mainstream. "They're like the punk-rock Beach Boys," said Blink-182's Mark Hoppus in Filmage. And don't forget their iconic, line-drawn mascot Milo, p

Guitarists Tim McIlrath and Zach Blair enjoy tenacious tones with rock's mightiest tag team—Gibsons into Marshalls—aided by a few everyman effects and one mythical stomp. Rise Against rose out of Chicago around Y2k on the back of roaring Gatling-gun guitars, blast-beat rhythms, and defiant, sharp-tongued social commentary. The band's first pair of albums—2001's The Unraveling and 2003's Revolutions Per Minute—are blistering bangers rooted in traditional hardcore chaos, spiced up with fist-pumping, boot-stomping choruses. Siren Song of the Counter Culture in 2004 was their major-label debut, on Geffen. That album highlighted a broadening hardcore sound buffed up with more melody. (Think '90s Bad Religion messaging cloaked in early 2000s AFI harmonies.) However catchy they became, their message still ripped like a dagger. Appealing to a bigger audience with bouncier hooks, acoustic numbers, and string overdubs earned them their first splash into the Billboard 200 albums chart (eve