BRIAN J. BEATRICE

Gnaw Poster Archive

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:55:05 +0000

Our friends at Conduit Creations are doing an excellent job archiving posters. See most of the Gnaw posters at the following link.

http://conduitflyers.blogspot.com/

The Gnaw Europe 2010 poster is still available via mail order from Conspiracy Records.

GGG Foxx Tone Machine Test

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:06:19 +0000

GGG_FOXX_TONE_MACHINE_TEST

Fuzz Wrong; DAM Fuzz rong vs. DAM MKII

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:47:39 +0000

I recently sold my D*A*M Fuzz rong, a Mosrite Fuzzrite clone, because my name came up on a waiting list for the much coveted D*A*M Sola Sound Tone Bender MKII. I couldn’t justify nor afford to have both, so a quick ebay auction provided a basically even trade for the Tone Bender. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time with it yet, but I’m seriously under-wowed by the Tone Bender MKII. I fell for the hype of it all and it is something to feel like I own a small fading piece of history (it most likely won’t be long before these thing are no longer in production because parts are scarce) but I find it very plain and unexciting. Yes, the classic sound, but obviously Les Paul > MKII isn’t quite unique. I much prefer my Analogman Red Dot Germanium Sun Face (fuzzface clone), It is darker and grittier. To that point, I also preferred the Fuzzrong. It was much gnarlier and had a wider range of nasty fuzz. Then, when coupled with my MXR Dist + clone, which had the ability to round some of the edges, I was really fond of it. Not to mention, the Fuzz rong was just sexier. I had no idea how big the footprint of the MKII was. It is a tank. Sometimes you realize these things too late.

32nd Annual News and Documnetary Emmy Awards

admin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:24:12 +0000

Unfortunately no Sound nominations this year, but three of my shows are up for awards tonight, 9/26/2011.

32nd Annual News and Documnetary Emmy Awards

OUTSTANDING NATURE PROGRAMMING

Nature: Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air
Producer – Ann Johnson Prum
Executive Producer – Fred Kaufman
Series Producer – Bill Murphy
Series Editor – Janet Hess

Nature: Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom
Producer – Gianna Savoie
Executive Producer – Fred Kaufman
Series Producer – Bill Murphy
Supervising Producer – Janice Young
Series Editor – Janet Hess

OUTSTANDING BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC REPORTING – LONG FORM

The New Recruits

Producer/Directors - Daniel A. Miller, Seth Kramer, Jeremy Newberger

Europa – April 17th – $10 – 8pm

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:55:24 +0000

Village Voice Writeup

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:05:09 +0000

SLUDGE MATCH

Metal in a meatgrinder

By CHRISTOPHER WEINGARTEN Wednesday, Apr 6 2011

Crossing the fertile soil between heavy metal, ambient noise, and weird, disgusting bullshit, this four-band bill at Europa is like an expressionistic rendering of a thunderstorm or slaughterhouse. Leading the pack is Chicago’s wildly prolific Locrian, whose ritualistic, smoke-soaked live show is rooted in metal’s brooding overcast skies, but has a sound that leans more toward meditative drones, spectral hums, ghost rattles, and slow-moving foglike drifts of sludge. Similarly, openers Gnaw have metal’s glass-gargling screeches, and monster drumming, but lean more toward sprawling, smeary sound pieces that mix traditional doom with a colorful slurry of deafening static, back masked horror, and homemade noisemakers.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-04-06/voice-choices/sludge-match/

Two Upcoming GNAW shows

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:02:15 +0000

Europa – Sunday April 17th in Greenpoint with Locrian, Martial Canterel and Blacklist. $10, 7pm. Sunday show. Our set should be 9pm. This show is hosted and promoted by Stereogum, Pitchfork, Slate etc contributor Brandon “Show No Mercy” Stosuy.

The Studio at Webster Hall – Saturday April 23rd with Kayo Dot & Retro Grave (featuring original Trouble drummer Oly Olson) $10, 8pm show and Webster Hall clears by 10:30 so that people can get their dance on afterwards. Be there on time.
http://www.websterhall.com/events/show_event_sub.php?id=1334&size=small&cdate=2011-04-23

————————————————————————————————————————
Gnaw is an experimental drone / noise band from New York City, New York, United States formed in 2006 by Alan Dubin. Gnaw is the sawblade-wrapped-in-razorwire brainchild of Alan Dubin (Khanate, OLD), Carter Thornton (Enos Slaughter), Jun Mizumachi (Ike Yard), and Jamie Sykes (Thorr’s Hammer, Burning Witch). Their 2009 debut for Conspiracy Records “This Face” was further infected and finally delivered by engineer Brian Beatrice before being wrought for stage deployment with additional drummer Eric Neuser.

Locrian is an experimental / drone three-piece band from Chicago, Illinois, United States formed in late 2005. The band’s music was described by Allmusic as an “eclectic mixture of black metal, electronics, drone, and noise rock”. Allmusic writer Ned Raggett also identified progressive rock influences on The Crystal World. The band have identified krautrock and 1990s death metal as influences.

In 2006, Olson formed Retro Grave while still playing drums for Trouble. The debut, self-titled EP was released on June 5, 2007 and was written, recorded, and performed in its entirety by Olson with lyricist Paull Goodchild. The following year Mike Schermuly and J Cortes were recruited by Olson to participate in the debut full length, “Again”. The album was initially released in December 2008 as a digital release only via the band’s website.

Kayo Dot is an avant-garde group originally from Boston, Massachusetts, United States (now based in Brooklyn, New York) that was formed in 2003 by Toby Driver after the disband of maudlin of the Well. They released their debut album Choirs of the Eye on John Zorn’s Tzadik label that year.

1996 HIWATT SA210 – the Guts

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:07:45 +0000

Bought some contact cleaner and got this all cleaned up nice. No more crackles and I finally got the goo off the face plate. Someone had marked positions with tape and sharpie. Not sure why you would have to do that with a 5 knob amp. The pots are stamped “Made in the UK 96″, so I was finally able to positively date the amp, not to mention the fact that I completely overlooked the “17 OCT 1996″ stamp that is staring directly at me on the speakers.

HIWATT SA210 COMBO

admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 03:04:07 +0000

The HIWATT SA210, 2×10″, 20 watt combo – Serial Number AB0520, purchased at 30^th Street Guitars on December 30^th, 2010.

I had my eye on this combo in the shop since I bought my Les Paul Custom in June. I kept to the idea that if it was still in the shop in the new year, it was meant to be. Ok, so I fell a couple days short, but had to have it for the weekend.

It is difficult to date this combo. It was manufactured by Audio Brothers, as noted by the “AB” in the serial number, during the mid-nineties. It is the only model amplifier that Audio Brothers added to HIWATT line.

From a post, a fellow SA210 owner says: It differs from the current reissues in retaining the GZ34 valve rectifier stage, and only putting out 13.5W rather than 20W. Very, very solidly put together, ultra-neat wiring, sounds fantastic. No idea how rare these specific models are these days. The Audio Bros stuff doesn’t seem to surface on the secondhand market much these days…but then again, owning one myself, I can fully understand why!

From the Gear Pages :

The Audio Brothers amps are generally regarded as the best of the HIWATT reissues.

Apparently the amp was made in 94′ by a company called Audio Brothers in England. Fernandes owned Hiwatt at the time (after the 80′s when Hiwatt went through some weird changes in owners and build quality) and Fernandes wasn’t tooled to build these so during the mid 90′s they contracted Audio Brothers to make them to the EXACT spec of the original Hylight era Hiwatts; same manufacturers of the materials, and the same military build quality that it was lacking in the 80′s. The people at the Hiwatt forum at the Plexi Palace say that these are perfect clones as far as quality and sound as the 70′s hylight’s but in some ways are a better deal because the caps aren’t 30 years old and won’t need changing for a good while.

From hiwatt.org:

HIWATT – THE AUDIO BROTHERS YEARS

The U.K. Firm THE AUDIO BROTHERS which was headed up by Steve Gibbs and Richard Senior, was contracted by Fernandes Guitars and Biacrown to make reissue versions of several classic models of 70s era HIWATTS from 1992 to 1998.

Using schematics from early 70s models,Gibbs and Senior faithfully reproduced the hand-wired chassis and robust cabinetry that had marked HIWATTS glory years under Hylight Electronics. Sourcing the original suppliers of parts helped produce what was to be the closest likeness to the original HIWATTS that had been achieved since the demise of Hylight Electronics in 1982.

Original reproductions included the DR103 and DR504 AP amplifiers,the SE4123 speaker enclosure and SA112 combination amplifier.The Audio Brothers also brought their own entries into the HIWATT legacy by re-designing the configuration of the original SA212 combo,giving it a vertical cabinet construction, and by introducing two new pieces; the brilliant SA210 combo,and a 4 X 10 speaker enclosure. When they were still in business, Audio Brothers provided paper schematics for their customers, and they looked very much like the ones on hiwatt.com.

More and better pictures will follow, especially if I open up to view the much lauded point to point wiring etc. Sound clips will also invariably follow at some point.

Album of the Year.

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:15:46 +0000

I have yet to sort through things and get a year end list together, but based simply on my recent listening, no other record knocked me over like this one.

Deathspell Omega – Paracletus

I can not stop listening to this CD. It gets better with each listen. I continually listen to it front to back on my commute and in just 3 weeks it is creeping among the most played on my ipod. I’ve really liked a few of their other CD’s, especially the split with S.V.E.S.T., but this is just a master work. It retains all the elements of their previous stuff and yet, despite its epic conception, it is more concise and driving. I can’t get enough of these discordant harmonies, the guitar layers, the lyrical themes, the insanely furious drumming… Record of the year? At least I can say that it has been a while since something grabbed me and it took this record to drag me kicking and screaming from my recent early Maiden obsession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathspell_Omega