Name the equipment in the new War on Drugs video

Not familiar with those brands. Can you link to images so we can compare?

 

By the way, if you like him you should pick up some Kurt Ville. They are/were apparently very good friends and played on all of each other's albums until their most recent stuff. He's pretty phenomenal and all of his vinyl that I've heard sounds great.

I will say that, while Kurt's stuff is fantastic, this War of Drugs album is probably going to be a classic one day. Kurt's stuff is beyon rock solid, but maybe not quite approaching this album.

 

Agreed Brian about Kurt. I'm a Philly guy so well aware of him. Not sure how I missed these guys though.

I've been listening to the mp3 rip from amazon all afternoon through some Sennheiser Momentums.

 

That's the guitar (and pick-ups) being played: Gibson Firebird:

 

Except the one in the video looks like a reverse one with P-90 instead of mini-humbuckes

 

I just grabbed the first image in Google Image Search, apologies if it is not an exact match, I'm not a guitarist!

 

Ha. Thought you were referring to the TT or speakers.

 

Best album of 2014 by a long shot for me.

 

Hard to tell on the little 12" screen on my laptop, but the turntable at least looks to be a Pioneer, PL-12D or something of that ilk.

 

I've been a fan of War on Drugs. Adam Granduciel who is basically the band has hopefully broken in to the mainstream since he's being discussed here and his albums sales for Lost in Dreams. His previous album, Slave Ambient with Kurt Vile is great. Kurt Vile's solo LP's are excellent and more of a young Bob Dylan than Adam. Adam, War on Drugs, reminds me of Springsteen--very Jersey and Philly--where he started his career backing up Vile's band.

Not sure who mastered the double LP of Drugs, but it's old school and has a nice soft/warm fuzzy feeling. He may of even recorded it in analog, just never cared to look because it sounds so good.

 

Vile actually was a member of war on drugs before he went solo

 

According to Wikipedia Vile had contributions to "Slave Ambient". According to Pitchfork it was the first War on Drugs' without Vile.

 

Yep, Vile co-founded War on Drugs with Adam. Adam moved to Philly met Vile and began backing him up and collaborating, which led to WOD.

Vile should of stayed in WOD, they would of been the closest thing to The Byrds since…The Byrds.

 

It's hard for two guys this good to stay in one band. Unless you're willing to double the band's output, the vision will always be compromised. Sometimes that works (Beatles), sometimes it doesn't.

 

I also hear a wee bit of Don Henley in the kinda spoken singing and a little in the guitar, though with more of a psychedelic bend.

 

Greg Calbi

 

Agreed. I bought the new Tape-Op magazine at Guitar Center tonight with Adam in it--hopefully he sheds some light on what he envisioned the album sounding like, because I feel like he IS going for that 80's polished sound or like early Steely Dan. If he is, it would be a complete rebel statement to the indie scene who dismiss any kind of glossy production. Either way, everyone likes the songs. It's top 5 on every major and minor Top album lists.

 

Great interview here on the making of Lost In The Dream.

http://www.tapeop.com/interviews/102/war-drugs/

 

A lot of work to get to that article, but worth it just to get to read that magazine. Never heard of it. I'm not a recording engineer, but I love reading that stuff.

Two interesting things from the article... First, it's funny that so many of us caught onto the 80's influences without having read this. There is definitely that more 80's polished sound and influences, yet it doesn't feel very retro at all.

Second, I was listening the other night thinking that it was obvious that he relied too much on drum machines. I was thinking that what this band really needs is a stud drummer and get rid of the drum machines. If they captured that big "Damn the Torpedo's" drum sound in a more modern way, this already fantastic album might have been even better (nit picking here obviously).

 

My feelings exactly. I love Tape Op magazine, they always have some great interviews. This one also has one with Tom Werman and he dishes out on his love for Cheap Trick (all great musicians) to Poison and Motley Crue ( they lacked musicianship). He may of unintentionally been responsible for the loudness wars? He explains how he would ask the mastering engineer to compress the shell out of it and start from there as a base point.

I was listening to Dreams 3-4 times last night and only now do the drum machines annoy me. The space created in each song is incredible.

 

I picked up the vinyl edition of this the other evening - what a nice job for this release! A very fine gatefold, with thick, heavy cardboard and crisp graphics and images. I have a few other Secretly Canadian releases and they are nice as well. This album sounds extremely smooth and lush on vinyl. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will very quickly become my first choice for my favorite release this year.

 

Secretly Canadian does do first class LP's. I've bought bands (Porcelain Rafts LP) without even hearing the music because the overall package is always nice. They will be a in demand label for collectors.

 

Thanks for the link. Sorry to go off topic, but I really enjoyed the Werman interview, too. Some classic records that he produced.

 

Glad that was online also. I haven't really checked out their website and only looked up to see if they had any info on the interviews. Looks like I can save $5 and just check out their website.

Amazing how when grunge hit or hair metal died, he had no work. But then from reading that he was not a super technical producer--he was more like Rick Rubin minus the record label money.

 

Because of this thread, I am now obsessed with these guys. I remember Pitchfork posting the stream to "Under The Pressure" earlier this year and I wasn't impressed. Funny how music has to come at you at the right time. Well, anyway, I went out this weekend and bought the album on wax. I also plan to see these guys when they come to the Ogden this fall.