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- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
Yeah it's a painful tease that way...i'm hoping it a week or two they'll give us something with a little more meat.
I should probabaly calm down...i've got really excited for this album with all the talk of it being heavier and more classic rock and Zeplin and stuff.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
Michael Anthony: my secrets for recording Chickenfoot's new album
When bassist Michael Anthony got together with his Chickenfoot bandmates (vocalist Sammy Hagar, guitarist Joe Satriani and drummer Chad Smith) in the studio last February, he admits that he thought the group was still in rehearsal mode. Before he knew it, however, they were recording their second album - for real.
"At first, I was a little thrown," he tells MusicRadar. "We were still writing and completing songs. A lot of things weren't fully worked out. But the spontaneity was there, and the chemistry between the four of us was so strong – why would we want to put a stop to that? It was like, 'OK, push the buttons and let's roll!'"
Chickenfoot tracked the record at Hagar's warehouse studio, affectionately dubbed 'The Foot Locker,' with veteran engineer Mike Fraser serving in that capacity and co-producing with the group. "I've worked with Mike before and can't say enough good things about him," says Anthony. "The sounds he gets are so great, so I decided that I should have a lot of bass options available to me.
"I brought a bunch of basses and four different amps with me," he continues. "I even had an amp built for me. When I was jamming and working on stuff with Chad, there was a guy at the studio who was making reissues of these old amps called Versatones. I never even heard of them before, but I checked one out and it sounded great. 'OK, I want one,' I said."
What changed...and what didn'tThe amp set Anthony back $3,000 - a hefty sum, especially considering the fact that he didn't even use it on the album. "We started recording, and it turned out that the best combination for me was the same bass and amp I used on the first album. Everything else, including the Versatone, just sat there."
Anthony returned to using his Ampeg Rocket B50-R, with no regrets. "It's a little amp with just one 15-inch speaker, but it gets a killer sound, better than anything else I've tried," he enthuses. As for his bass, Anthony's trusty Yamaha Rat Rod bass, created by the Yamaha Custom Shop, did the job beautifully. "It was kind of cool, actually. One bass, one amp – perfect. Not having to worry about changing my rig around for every song allowed me to concentrate on other things."
Such as background vocals, which Anthony says are featured more prominently on the new disc than on Chickenfoot's debut. "For some reason, my voice doesn't age," he says. "I can still hit those high harmonies just like I did back in the day." Laughing, he adds, "My wife likes to say I act like a kid, so maybe that's why I sing like one!"
On a serious note, Anthony does cite one major factor for contributing to his increased vocal power: he gave up smoking. "I was never a real smoker," he stresses. "I don't think I've ever smoked an entire cigarette from start to finish. But for years and years, if I was out with people, having cocktails or dinner or whatever, and if somebody was smoking, I'd take a few drags off their cigarette. It was stupid, but that's what I did.
"Recently, though, I said to myself, 'Why am I doing this?' So I just stopped messing around with cigarettes, just cut 'em out entirely. For one thing, I want to live a long life and try to grow old gracefully, so that's a good reason to quit. But I found that my singing improved dramatically. I've always been a natural singer on stage and in the studio – never had a vocal lesson in my life. But by trying to take better care of my voice, I can really feel and hear the difference. I'm pretty proud of my singing on this new album."
Source: http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ … bum-476671
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
Few seconds more of the same song on this one....
Still not a lot to go by - but sounds similar in chemestry to the first album - so for those amongst us who dig it it's a good sign 
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
Even more of the new track on the end of this video.
Doesn't sound like a leap at all from the last album, but still pretty solid. Just sounds like good time party rock, which I dig! 
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
Yeah sounds like it could have been on the last album...which works for me...def party rock...just good fun music to have with a few beers I recon.
Hope satch plays some bad ass solos on this one too, and some big Sammy screams....roll it on I say!
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Chickenfoot Thread
^ Yeah does sound a little that way actually!
Meanwhile the hype continues for this record:
It's the best record I've ever made," Sammy Hagar says of Chickenfoot's second album, which they're so pumped about they skipped right to calling it Chickenfoot III. The supergroup – featuring Hagar, guitar wizard Joe Satriani, ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith – started as a tequila-soaked jam session in Mexico and went on to sell 500,000 copies of its 2009 debut LP.
The follow-up features the same harmony-drenched hooks and huge riffs, along with a few surprises: the R&B romp "Come Closer" experiments with spoken-word poetry on "Three and a Half Letters," and "Last Temptation" is Black Keys-inspired. Says Hagar, "The Keys are one of my top 10 groups ever, going back to Cream and Zeppelin."
The band recorded mostly live at Hagar's Northern California studio, although a bout of writer's block slowed down the recording process. "I was being negative, and I fought with myself," says Hagar, who writes most of the band's lyrics. "The music Joe was presenting was so good, I honestly beat myself up for the first time ever. I didn't want to walk in with something mediocre."
But Hagar had a creative revelation on a trip to his house in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. "I'm sitting in Cabo I'm listening to music – it took three weeks. I was talking to the father of my partner in Mexico" – where Hagar started his wildly successful tequila company Cabo Wabo. "He's 74 years old, and he's got a mistress, but he's still living with his wife. And I'm going 'You got to make the jump, man!' He says in Spanish, 'Same hell, different devil.' I said 'There's my song. What a great line.'" Hagar wrote "Different Devil," which he calls, "Probably the biggest pop hit we would ever have if we wanted it."
Chickenfoot took another blow when manager John Carter died of cancer in the middle of their sessions in May (they pay tribute to him on "Up Next"). Says Satriani, "Now [when I listen to the record], I can hear the dark cloud. I didn't hear it at the time. I think its because we were trying so hard to keep our nose to the grind, and keep a good face for Carter."
"It wasn't fun trying to make the record," Hagar adds. "But when I listened back, I got the goose bumps."
Still, the band had their share of fun making the record at Hagar's Northern California studio. "Everything's there for us. I've got 14 cars – exotics, racecars, you name it, and we can just take a break and I say, 'Here's the keys. They're all on this wall over here, take your pick fellas' and jump in the car and go and burn some rubber down the street. It's a very comfortable environment for a band."
The results are some of Hagar and Satriani's favorite hooks yet. "It's a lot more musical than the last record – the hooks and the songs are better," says Hagar. Satriani adds, "We created a record that was deeper and better than the first one . . . it makes a musician very happy when they can see that they are involved with something that's very moving forward and life-changing."
Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ … p-20110722
