#138: Guitarlords, vol . 2 – Krangdom Rising (feat. Dan Boeckner) (Patreon)

In part 2 of a 3-part series originally intended to be a single episode until we realized we could talk for 38 straight hours about this stuff, ordained minister and former Royal Canadian Mounted Police explosives technician Dan Boeckner (@danboeckner) – of Wolf Parade, Operators, Handsome Furs, and more – joins MSJ to discuss the true social turbulence of the 1960s: 

Concerts getting bigger.  Hey hey my my.  The relationship between wattage, volume, headroom, and distortion. The tweed, brown, blonde, and black periods of Fender.  PA systems, and the fact that what the band hears onstage is never what you hear in the audience.  How to get the sound of a cranked 10-watt amp but with 100 watts behind it.  And, finally, the incromulent despond of the early titans Fender and Vox, and the rise of the New Titans: Marshall in the east, Mesa/Boogie in the west.

CORRECTION: Oh fuck!  I said "Rumble" was by Duane Eddy.  Duane was a pioneer in his own right, but "Rumble" was LINK WRAY, not Duane.  Listen to both of them.

(Editorial note: Sorry I talk so goddamn much in this one.  We thought we were going to finish up in this show, so the plan was for me to lead the first half and have Dan take the second, but the first half took 2 hours.  Dan will, we hope, be the principal author of the next and final installment, where a $5,000 Centaur frolics through the dewy vales and lush vegetation of downtown Boston.)

(Editorial note #2: I considered referring to Eric Clapton as "Eric Cartman" for the whole show, but somebody might've gotten genuinely baffled.  Also, notice how small Mick Jones's Mesa/Boogie Mark I is in that photo, compared to a Jimmy Page Marshall stack.  They can roar down anything you put in front of ’em.)