the Cd 13 really rocks!

Hi all,really been enjoying the 13 cd lately.Anyone else.Blues Stay Away From Me...brian.Hey T

ohh yeah, I became that Cd for my last birthday which was one week ago now. It's a cool record.

13 gets cool songs:

when hepcat gets the blues, Drugs & alcohol,

the intro of "take a chance of love"... wow

yes, 13 rocks

(i don`t talk about track no. 6, cause i`m not a real rockabilly anyway..... )

And do not forget "Really Rockabilly" with Slim Jim Phantom on the drums...

Your english is just fine.peace,brian

The guitar explodes.
Cool sincere thanks of present 13 gotten from you in Japan

see you next time boss!
4ever keep rock
all the best
moto

brian wrote:

Hi all,really been enjoying the 13 cd lately.Anyone else.Blues Stay Away From Me...brian.Hey T

Cant agree with you there Chief! This is probably gonna be universally unpopular but I have to be honest, I think its the worst album to date!!! Ok we have come to expect that the guitar work is fabulous, accepted, 13 worth the buying for that. But the songs are an absolute cheesefest, corny, half-baked lyrics, totally derivitive of a million and one songs. I personally was very disappointed.

Now bare it in mind that I have been mega fan since '81 and have and would buy anything, both in every avenue of Brian's career, but this has been a bee in my bonnet since it was released. I just feel that there has been a lot of really top quality material by Brian, but 13 is just not that. Really Rockabilly was the track that annoyed and angered me the most, now before anyone says it, Im not a traditionalist, far from it, a child of the 80's in fact, but Brian's career at one point or another has been maintained on the whole by a hard core of traditionalists and this is just plain insulting, some of the rockabilly imagary, dress, tattoes, etc. he has criticised in the song, he has employed himself at periods in his career, now he criticises others for still being there? Don't get it!.

Of course Brian has to move on as an artist and the fans should allow him to do that, but you don't need to shit on the people that have boosted and supported your career throughout the years, thats just plain nasty. In short I have a bad taste in my mouth every time I put the cd on and thats a pity, it really isnt what I would expect of Brian. In my defence I think we as fans should be giving our honest opinion, and that is mine! Am I wrong? Have I got the wrong end of the stick here or what, am I missing something? ........Let the slaughter begin!!!!

Nice. Of all the days to lay on a steaming pile of criticism, you pick Brian's birthday! Bad form indeed!

Let me know when your birthday is, pal, and I'll be sure to mix in plenty o' fiber that week...

Metamucil-billy

Hey I'm not gonna slaughter anybody.
Your welcome to your opinion.
Per the song Really Rockabilly: I think Brian was mainly targeting those individuals who are so enthralled by rockabilly fashion that they actually appear clique-ish and standoffish to those who take it more casually. I like the folks who dress the part at the shows and sometimes I'm one of them but I'll be friends with all. Peace Eire mate.



Diffusing this infernal situation a-billy.

rickabilly wrote:

Nice. Of all the days to lay on a steaming pile of criticism, you pick Brian's birthday! Bad form indeed!

Let me know when your birthday is, pal, and I'll be sure to mix in plenty o' fiber that week...

Metamucil-billy

CHILL OUT!

I can't possibly begrudge Dex's right to his opinion. Just as Brian had a right to express his opinion in that song, you have a right not to agree with or like it. I just thought he could have waited a day before delivering that negative diatribe.

Perhaps I should have used one of those cheesy emoticons to deflect the impact of my comments. - Does that make it all better?

Speaking of diatribes, I really don't want to rehash the war of words held many times over back when the release of 13 was actually current news. But Brian wasn't necessarily attacking rockabilly style and fashion specifically, or even his fan base. Rather, it was a piece of satire criticizing those who want their "rockabilly world" to be this exclusive, elitist club where style rules over substance. Where people argue over the size of the cuff in your jeans or the height of your pomp, and obsess over the music needing to sound exactly like something out of 1956.

These were often the same people who would slag off Stray Cats back in the day (and still do) because they were too modern, and Brian's technique too advanced, or the pomps were too high, and then whine when the BSO came around that Brian needed to return to rockabilly (so they could complain about it all over again!)

While it seems a curious choice of song after a terrific album like Rockabilly Riot, which celebrated 1950s rockabilly music, "Really Rockabilly" is another piece of comic relief that has been present on every album since Ignition. ("Who Would Love This Car But Me?", "Drink Whiskey and Shut Up," "Flatfoot Sam," the ending of "One More Night With You", etc.). I enjoyed it, never took it too seriously, and look forward to the next chuckle.

Read all aboot it in The Brian's own words:

BRIAN SETZER - 13 (release October 23d 2006)

There’s more than one way to rock, and Brian Setzer proves it on 13.

As you might guess, this is the 13th album (of original material) to feature
the three-time Grammy winner’s blazing guitar and swaggering vocals. Whether
fronting a big-band extravaganza or leading the legendary Stray Cats to
superstardom, he’s earned his place in pop history. Consider:


Two great guitar companies have honored him: Gretsch, by creating a series
of signature guitars in his name, Gibson by giving him their Orville H. Gibson
Lifetime Achievement Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of fame tapped him to
induct Chet Atkins. He’s co-starred with the Stones and Tom Petty on The
Simpsons. Hell, he’s even got an honorary poker chip at Atlantic City’s House of Blues Casino.

But with 13, Setzer does something he never did before: Rather than
single-handedly revive an entire musical genre – he’s already been there/done
that, with rockabilly in the ‘80s and swing in the ‘90s – he covers these bases
and many more: You’ll hear Delta blues, jump blues, hard rock, metal, Texas
boogie, a smidgen of Les Paul, a hint of Japanese pop, and even some British
music hall, complete with ukulele and tuba, throughout this tour de force.


“The thing is,” Setzer says, “I’ve always thought that you have to have one
focus on each album; that just made sense to me. But with this one, I’d written
a bunch of songs, and when I played them for people, they’d say, ‘Why don’t you
put them all on one record?’ My argument was, ‘Well, records should have one
focus or sound.’ Their answer was … ‘Why?’”


For once, the normally loquacious superstar could think of nothing to say.

“Instead, I started thinking about the Beatles,” he remembers. “Their
records were pretty much all over the place. And all of my songs are based on
guitar riffs, so that ties them together. They’re all rock & roll in one
way or another. So, I thought, what the hell, let’s do it.”


That’s all it took for Setzer to book time at a studio in Cannon Falls, not
far from his current home in Minneapolis, summon drummer Bernie Dresel and
bassist Ronnie “Crusher” Crutcher as his rhythm section, plug in his Gretsch,
crank up his Fender Bassman and Supro amps, and unleash a set of performances –
13, of course – that hold up against even the hottest tracks in his catalog.


“I picked this studio because it’s got a big, open, wooden room, like a gym,
that let’s me get that live sound I like. I turned my Bassman to seven for the
rhythm and ten for the lead parts, and ran my guitar through the Supro too, for
that solid bottom end. There’s nothing fancy about it; I didn’t even use my
Space Echo on this record, even though I’m normally glued to it. In this case,
it was all about getting loud and playing hard.”


This was what you’d expect from the flashiest, raunchiest, and most irresistible
guitar monster on the planet. What’s surprising is how this approach works on
each of these songs, even with all their variety. You get the point in just the
first few seconds of the opening cut, “Drugs & Alcohol (Bullet Holes),”
where the spirits of Merle Travis and raw, roadhouse rock somehow find common
ground.

To Setzer, though, this performance makes an even more important point. “To
me, this is how modern rockabilly should sound,” he insists. “Instead,
everybody’s trying to be this straight-out-of-the-book, ‘50s character, like
they want to be an exact replica of Johnny Cash. Well, there was only one
Johnny, so why not do something new?”

So there is a theme to 13 after all. Whether you’re savoring the vocal
harmonies of Brian and Julie Setzer – sorry, guys, she’s married –on the
country stomper “Don’t Say You Love Me” or gaping at the blizzard of licks as
Japanese guitar giant Tomoyasu Hotei goes toe-to-toe with Setzer throughout
“Back Streets of Tokyo,” the mission of 13 eventually becomes clear:


“Basically,” Setzer explains, “I’m just trying to piss people off.”


“People,” in this case, means anyone who settles for music that’s more about
hubris than heart. As a kid, Setzer wasn’t immune to the appeal of looking
cool, but it was the soul rather than the look of music that drew him to jazz,
Delta blues, punk, vintage rock – anything, really, that comes from the gut and
pumps out a beat. Whether updating rockabilly with the Stray Cats or yanking
swing into the space age with the Brian Setzer Orchestra, he kept his
priorities straight: Play what’s real and let others worry about turning it
into a fashion statement.


Yet even Setzer can put up with this silliness only for so long: “I remember
being 16 years old and even then there were poseurs on the corner, looking too
cool for school. I mean, when you’re more worried about your look than your
music, that just kills it for me."


This explains “Really Rockabilly,” a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the
tyranny of trendiness, with former Stray Cat Slim Jim Phantom driving the beat.
“Jim and I used to laugh about these guys who live in this ‘50s world,” Setzer
says, “so I had to get his old-buddy rockabilly energy on this one.”

Ditto for
“We Are the Marauders,” a fist-pumping anthem that Setzer actually wrote for a
young band whose story gives him hope even in this era of focus groups and
fix-it studio technology.


“The Marauders are these guys in western Pennsylvania
who are trying to play their own version of rockabilly in a sea of Eminem
wannabes,” he says. “Bands don’t do that kind of thing anymore, where you live
in a crummy basement, fight with each other, love each other, and make your own
kind of music. Instead, you’re taught that you only need to put on a cool
outfit and warble something. You don’t need to play an instrument. You
certainly don’t need to read or write music; someone will write it for you. But
that’s not how it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to be like these guys, who
live their music every day.”


Each of these songs is concise. There’s no excessive doodling. There are
killer solos – being a Setzer product, there would have to be, no? But every
note he plays or sings – the skin-tight lick that kicks off “Everybody’s Up to
Somethin’,” the exotic whole-tone riff that he lays out on banjo at the top of
“Bad Bad Girl (In A Bad Bad World),” the Django jive of “When Hepcat Gets the
Blues” – serves one purpose: to rock as hard as a multi-tattooed,
pompadour-topped, former Long Island street kid can.


And if … when … it pisses people off? Setzer shrugs: “I’m not trying to
prove anything. I mean, Bob Dylan told me once, ‘You’ll never be pure enough
for the purists. And you’ll never be experimental enough for the critics.’”


On the other hand, if all you want is passionate vocals, state-of-the-art
guitar, or just to be pummeled into ecstasy by an unstoppable beat and scorched
by some of the hottest guitar lines on record, 13 is your lucky number.

Just Chillin'billy

Being in and around the "scene" for sometime, I get what brian was saying in the song *i think* haha
Anyone hear "Rebel" of Lee Rockers last album?
hahaha
Pretty much same concept!

Actually, I really like it because it's so different from anything else Brian's done. Variety is the spice of life.

Mike wrote:

Anyone hear "Rebel" of Lee Rockers last album?
hahaha
Pretty much same concept!

yep, got it...

if people don´t like a record..ok. tastes (is this correct?) are different,

but don`t take it so serios.
at the end it is MUSIC!!!
And really good music, handmade, with cool guitar sounds, amazing musicians, good lyrics.
turn the radio on and listen to that sh**!
If 13 is not the best BS Album (what i don`t think) it is 1000 times better than all this "Gangsta-Bitch-Hiphoppel-im-so-evil-trash" comin out the radio or TV channels like MTV.

@Rickbilly: amazing things you share with us. I`m every time impressed again.
And you`re right, it was not nice and the best day for Dexter to come out with his opinion.
This Thread is old.

rickabilly wrote:

I[
[color=darkred]“.

I turned my Bassman to seven for the
rhythm and ten for the lead parts,

any news about the studio?

and BROKEN DOWN PIECE OF JUNK? Great!

rickabilly wrote:

Nice. Of all the days to lay on a steaming pile of criticism, you pick Brian's birthday! Bad form indeed!

Let me know when your birthday is, pal, and I'll be sure to mix in plenty o' fiber that week...

Metamucil-billy

Well, cat, pidgeons, all over the place!! Good! nothing wrong with a frank exchange of views, even if we are coming from different opinions, as long as its expressed in an intelligent manner!

Granted, could have picked a better day!! but I'm not given to sickly sweet sentimentality or sychophancy, what are we children here!

As much as I would not want annoy Brian on his birthday, 'that song' did piss me off, well that was Brian's intention as it says in your attachment Rick. And guys, its not that I don't understand what Brian is saying, I most definately do, I have met these individuals too, who are totally focussed on a period of time, an artist or set of artists and who cant see their faults or wont begin to offer any constructive criticism!!! I just think that it was disrespectful to 'an element' of his fan base, so what if they want to measure their cuffs or pomps, thats their business, I just don't think he needed to be so vitriolic in his condemnation, I mean, "Rockabilly retards"! C'mon guys, I enjoy a good bit of satire myself, as long as its skillfull and intelligently carried out, don't know if this falls into that category. Afterall to some degree they are putting bread on his table. But thats Brian's business.

The point being that I see this as an abberation, Brian Setzer will always be numero uno for me, he has a fabulous catalogue of ground breaking, intelligent, creative material, I just don't think that this album showcases that. (Perhaps with the exception of 'Hennepin Bridge'). Look at the expression and imagery of tracks from The Knife Feels Like Justice, absolutely wonderful, I would personally love to see Brian going there again, in whatever musical genre or style! he's well capable.

Again my opinion! Thanks for listening


Oh and Rick, 28th April, whatcha gonna do about it!!!! (love ya really!)

StanTheMan wrote:

Hey I'm not gonna slaughter anybody.
Your welcome to your opinion.
Per the song Really Rockabilly: I think Brian was mainly targeting those individuals who are so enthralled by rockabilly fashion that they actually appear clique-ish and standoffish to those who take it more casually. I like the folks who dress the part at the shows and sometimes I'm one of them but I'll be friends with all. Peace Eire mate.



Diffusing this infernal situation a-billy.

With you all the way, Mo Chara! don't care for those guys either.

Peace back to ya,

Het TommyM,
Get a bucket of water and defuse this, please! lol!!
Cheers Pete

I'm glad to see you're taking it all in stride, Dex. I was just having a laugh. I've always thought the use of emoticons to give comments context were a bit silly, but seeing as how the written word is so easily misunderstood, I suppose I'll need to start using them more often. If I were actually angry, I'd probably resort to more remedial methods of expression, like using the "caps lock" key. (whew! I nearly forgot!)

You're not given to sycophancy? C'mon, this is fan forum - sycophancy is king!

I do respect the thoughtfulness and diplomacy in your followup remarks, Dex. I've read much harsher attacks on the song by people for whom it may have hit too close to home. I don't feel he was targeting (or sh*tting on) his fan base. I don't think there is an enormous following amongst the "really rockabillies" anyway. I've encountered many who are quite snobbish when it comes to Setzer and Stray Cats. I believe it's a smaller segment of his overall fan base than you might think. Most of the targets of this song wouldn't buying the album anyway, but it seems there are plenty of Kustom Kulture aficionados who did, and it clearly struck a nerve. I love the idea of the song, but wish it could have been executed with less sophomoric lyrics. I find it more on the Weird Al spectrum of satire than the Bob Dylan side. I mean, it is meant to be humorous - it's not trying to be Dylan's "Masters of War." Now that's a song with some vitriol.

Brett, here's some more info about the studio, in an article from Mix magazine:

Brian Setzer's Lucky 13
Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Barbara Schultz

Brian Setzer and others discuss the recording of his 2006 album, 13


Brian Setzer makes a lot of great albums, but he doesn't spend a lot of time in studios. His MO is to begin a new project well-prepared, whether that means writing charts for his 18-piece big band — the Brian Setzer Orchestra — or just bringing in the right rock 'n' roll crew that can speak his musical language and nail a song on the first take. He doesn't like to labor over sounds, and he doesn't want to give music lessons. So he's been happy to work with the same producer/engineer team — Dave Darling and Jeff Peters, respectively — on his past six-plus albums.


“Dave is a producer, but he's also a musician,” Setzer says. “I need someone who reads and writes music like I do. I can't say to most producers, ‘That minor-seven-flat-five, there's something wrong with that chord.' Most producers don't know what you're talking about, but we speak the same language and we get the job done twice as quick. We'll look at each other when a wrong note goes by, or we'll be in a mix and I'll start to say, ‘The guitar is…' and he'll say, ‘The second verse could be louder.' We finish each other's sentences.”

Darling and Peters started working with Setzer in 2000 when the producer and engineer were brought in to remix a couple of songs on the Brian Setzer Orchestra album Vavoom!, including the single “Pennsylvania 6-5000.” “I did a remix version of that tune with a lot of added material — strange-sounding stuff — and Brian's manager and the guys from Interscope loved it, but they thought Brian would hate it because they think of him as a purist,” Darling says. “He's not just a purist; he just has an enormous amount of respect for the type of music he's doing.”

Working with Darling, Setzer has been able to push the envelope in all of his musical incarnations. He may still make 1950s-style rockabilly records occasionally, but he also feels free to experiment, and his latest album, 13, takes him way outside that box. 13 is punk, it's rockabilly, it's rock, surf, sci-fi — it's all original Setzer, and it's probably the album that best displays his guitar virtuosity.

“Brian continues to amaze me as a guitar player,” Peters says. “I think he's one of the most underrated guitar players there is. The rock riffs he came up with on this record are fantastic.”

Setzer began making 13 by recording some simple demos and sending them to the core bandmembers — drummer Bernie Dresel and stand-up bassist Ronnie Crutcher — so they could begin thinking about their parts. Then he went into Pachyderm Studio, a professional facility that's set in an arts-and-crafts house about half-an-hour from Minneapolis (Setzer's newish hometown) to track Setzer's guitars and electric bass, and Dresel's drums to Pro Tools with the help of operator/staff engineer Brent Sigmeth.

“To get a good rhythm track, you've got to have that big gymnasium room,” Setzer says. “A lot of people think they can make records in their closet, but I need that big open room and a wood floor.”

The high-end Pachyderm Studio has that great big tracking room, as well as a large Neve 8068-centered control room with Genelec, Tannoy and Westlake monitors. Peters used some of the modules in the Neve, but he also brought along his own arsenal of rack gear, plug-ins and mics. “I'm a fan of the Great River products,” he says, “so I used a lot of those preamps for guitars and vocals.”

Setzer sang into a Neumann M49 microphone. “For the big band projects, we use the RCA 77DX,” Peters explains, “but on 13, we wanted more of a classic rock sound and the M49 sounded fantastic on his voice. Same thing with guitars. This time we did close-miking with an SM57 and a Sennheiser 409. I've traditionally been using an RCA 44 or the AEA 44 for Brian, but we wanted a different sound.”

Different guitar sounds were also realized with different guitars. Setzer's gear on this album included a new Gretsch SSLVO and another hot-rod Gretsch. “I didn't use any old guitars,” Setzer says. “First time I've ever done that. I plugged them in and they just sounded so good. This is more a ‘rock' than a ‘billy' record. They just cranked a little better.”

Darling also got Setzer unwittingly to experiment with different amps. “Brian generally uses Gretsch guitars and Bassman amps,” he says, “and he gets all the tone out of his fingers. But a few records back, he started using some smaller amps — Supro and some vintage amps that were crunchier. This record, since we knew going in we were going to experiment a little bit, I put a secret amp in the hallway, another amp in a different room and a bank of pedals on it, and I'd go out there and stomp and hope Brian wouldn't figure out what I was doing and fire me.”

After the basic tracking in Pachyderm, the project moved to Flowers Studio in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. Flowers — which offers a vintage Trident 80 Series board, a wide array of mics and outboard and UREI 813B mains — is a smaller, artist-oriented facility owned by producer/engineer Ed Ackerson. There, they recorded more instruments, overdubs and more guitars.

“It's actually an old flower shop,” Setzer says. “It's a cool room. The guy [Ackerson] has a million guitars and a million amps, and it's fun to fool around with all that stuff: ‘Get that old Vox amp. Let me plug the Rickenbacker into that thing.' That's what happened there. Incendiary things like having a whole slew of guitars laying out sometimes makes a big difference.”

One of the songs that blended guitar tracks from both studios was “Bad Bad Girl,” which Darling describes as “Japanese sci-fi surf.” “In Pachyderm, we did the basic track,” he explains. “We did that several times, actually, because we kept speeding it up until it was pretty frenetic. By the time we got to the overdubs, we decided to do a double drum set on it. I think it started out as a ride overdub, but Bernie Dresel started playing the kick and it had this off-kilter '70s vibe to it, so we kept it. And then every overdub we made, we just made sure if fit the criteria of Japanese sci-fi surf. If it wasn't Japanese, sci-fi or surf, it didn't live!”

“That's a really kooky track,” Setzer says. “I play a crazy augmented scale, and then I played the whole-tone scale down. And I wanted it to sound like a Shamisen, the Japanese string instrument. So I just tuned up a tenor banjo, and we did a lot of other weird tricks on that. It almost sounds like there's something going backward or overdriven. The song became more surreal as we worked on it. I love songs like that because it's a rockabilly song, but it's got all this weird, crazy stuff most guys wouldn't have thought about doing back then.”

“Guitarists, or just about anyone, are going to like that he stepped out of the traditional thing, and it shows that he's capable of just about anything,” Peters observes.

Darling mixed 13 on his own in Pro Tools at a friend Rodger Carter's L.A. studio called The Doghouse. “Brian's comfortable knowing he can leave and I'll get it done,” Darling says. “We discussed things before I went in to mix, and we wanted to put an aggressive, modern-sounding mix on an otherwise almost retro record. Some of the things that can take a lot of time on other records don't take a lot of time with his. Every time he plays a solo, it's a keeper. It's more about deciding what we want, not if it's good enough. And we talked about the fact that what we wanted was extremes. If it's a loud song, let's make it really loud. If it's an odd song, let's make it really odd. If it's a fast song, let's make it really fast! He probably could have called the record ‘Really.'”

I think it sums up what I love about 13: The overall sound of the album. I actually enjoy Bad, Bad Girl, not for the lyrics, but for all the craziness that's going on in the guitars and banjo and drums. I've often thought the track would have been a kick-ass instrumental. Lyrically, albums like The Knife Feels Like Justice are stronger, but I just love putting on the headphones and listening to all the stuff that's going on in this rockin' collection of songs.

Riffs and Hooks-a-billy

Have to say, totally agree with you! you make a lot of sense! and appreciate your own diplomacy. (are we still friends? )

Sycophant - abilly

Hey Gang,
Is it just me, or is there a warm, fuzzy feelin' in the air?!?!?!haha
Cheers Pete.

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

Hey Gang,
Is it just me, or is there a warm, fuzzy feelin' in the air?!?!?!haha
Cheers Pete.

Rickabilly farted...

I was farting on my fanbase...



Lest I forget:


-a-billy

rickabilly wrote:

I was farting on my fanbase...



Lest I forget:


-a-billy

Notice my strategic use of

I didn't want anyone to think that you're a really, really, a-really-fart-a-Billy.

Wearin' skidmarked 1956 underwear,
Budgie


PS- Farts always = funny!