Should old albums be forgotten and never brought to mind? No, fuck that noise. This year saw some awesome new albums. When we sat around talking about the albums that blew us away this year we came up with a list of our favorites. Don’t go into the new year without checking out some of the best music that came out this year.
Sam: Conan- Revengance
Steve: Neurosis- Fries Within Fries
George: Whores- Gold
Jason: Cult of Luna-Mariner
Happy New Years kiddos. Keep it heavy in 2017.
Last saturday we played a pretty fun show. It was at Notsuoh on Main Street in Houston. Despite misty weather and an almost thirty degree temperature drop Main Street was packed. People dressed up in their finest club wear or as santas and elves as far as the eye could see. And in the middle of it all, us in all our scruffy musician glory. Including our new hoodies.
Between the busy streets and tight stage at Notsuoh we decided to run half our rigs. We still managed to be loud and heavy enough to get the metal heads headbanging and casual bar crawlers covering their ears and cowering in a corner.
After how much time Sam and George spent bumping into each other and the stage they might be legally married… By the end of the set there was a decent crowd that was on their feet. It was a damn good time that almost felt like playing a house party.
We might have been an oddball on the bill being a last minute fill in for the Cake Rangers. Dudes had a member get a broken collar bone. But it all worked out and was fun getting to play with bands we might not normally run into. Black Lodge busted out a wild noise rock set. It’s always neat seeing a two piece do the thing. Then Such Marvelous Monsters finished the night with a set full of the kind of indie rock that’s such a big part of Houston’s music scene. Everyone was such cool people. It was a good time.
Well. That’s it for now. If you need us we’ll be getting wasted on eggnog until early January. Merry Christmas erryone.
We’re playing our last show of 2016 on Saturday. It’s been a hell of a year for us. This time last year we were just three guys jamming on the bare bones of three of our songs. We’ve com a long way and grown as a band. We’ve met a ton of cool people and had some amazing opportunities. We can’t wait to spend next year writing, traveling, and playing with even more awesome bands. So keep an eye out for new songs, new merch, and more shows. We’re really excited to see what the future holds.
Come help us celebrate an awesome freshman year as we play a free show Saturday at Notsuoh. 314 Main St Houston,Tx. We play 9:30pm. See you there.
We played what felt like our biggest show yet on Wednesday. It was at White Oak Music Hall and saw us playing with From Beyond, Eagle Claw, and American Sharks. Everyone of them down to earth, nice, and friendly as hell. Everyone played killer sets. Lots of familiar faces in the crowd. It was an awesome night. We’re super grateful to everyone that came out, the other bands, and White Oak for making it happen.
WOMH is fucking NICE btw. The staff are all super cool and gracious. It’s pretty common for sound guys to decide they hate us about halfway through setting up our gear. But not at White Oak. The FOH guy was actually excited to see so much cool stuff on stage and gave us the thumbs up to just do our thing. The drums sounded awesome. Monitors were spot on. Dude is super cool and knows his shit.
After all that awesome music and a few beers nobody was looking forward to loading out. But then someone mentioned getting some grub at Spanish Flowers. It’s right down the road, open super late, and has some killer food. With the promise of tacos, everyone caught their second wind and we managed to gtfo pretty quickly. So, at 2am on thanksgiving day, the Pyreship family sat down to feast on some life changing Mexican food. All of us grateful to be playing music we love together. Hope you all had a good thanksgiving too.
Oh, if you feel like getting your Black Friday shop on we have things for sale online. Nothing is on sale per se, but for every $100 you spend Sam will adopt another kitten. So make a difference, buy our stuff.
http://pyreship.bigcartel.com/
Thanks to https://www.facebook.com/ForseMedia/ for the awesome pics!
Last but definitely not least, we get to Steve. He’s a pretty simple guy, more focused on his playing than his gear. “There was a time when I played a giant hair metal kit. 2 bass drums, 2 snare drums, 4 toms, and about 6 cymbals. It was unwieldy and kind of obligated you to play all of it to justify it being there. A previous bandmate said, why don’t you cut this ridiculous thing in half. I tried it and never went back. I like the creativity of using less stuff, it focuses me on making an interesting beat. Rather than how I’m going to utilize all this stuff.” Now, he gravitates toward whatever works, sounds,and feels right. “I’m a bad gear nerd. Never have been into that side of things. I experiment with different things a lot.”
Steve plays an Pearl Export Customs set with maple shells. “They made this set for 2 years and rebranded and started calling them Pearl Visions or something lame like that. The wood is nicer than poplar, so that’s good.” It has a 22″ kick and 12″ & 16″ toms. “I’ve always played Pearl because that was the brand of my first drum set that my parents bought me. Also, maybe because no drummers gets all gushy over the brand and I think they sound great.” For a snare he has a 14″ Ludwig Black Beauty. “It’s my single best piece of gear.” All drum heads are Remo except the kick which is an Aquarian Super Kick II. Rounding out the kit is a Tama Speed Cobra kick pedal “It’s a double that I just converted to a single for Pyreship.” Steve’s preference for sticks to throw all over the place at practice is Vic Firth Extreme 5B Sticks with wood tips. “They just feel good in my hands.”
Steve’s cymbals are a mishmash of brands. “I used to be a Zildjian guy but I’ve moved away from that… If it’s got a nice sound I’ll buy it. It’s very unscientific.” At the moment, Steve is using a Zildjian dark hi-hat on top of a Zildjian Mastersound bottom, Sabian 18″ Evolution HHX crash, Sabian HHX OMNI Ride Cymbal 22′, a Paiste 19″ Heavy Full Crash, and a Sabian 24′ AA Bash Ride. “Sadly it is starting to crack, but still sounds great. That fucker was over $400 so I’m trying to keep it going until I have to replace it.”
Are you still reading? Fuck. You’re a trooper. Come up to any of us Saturday and say #effyourearholes for some free stuff. You have to say hashtag too or you get nothing. Also, the free stuff will likely vary depending on which one of us you say it to. Like, Sam will likely give you sarcasm and contempt. So , choose wisely.
Saturday. 7pm @ 6922 Harrisburg blvd Houston
Now for the rig that 90% of people don’t care about, George’s bass rig. If we had a dollar for everytime he’s heard “OH, your the bass player…” we’d be getting vinyl pressed. Everything in his rig is huge and heavy. Thank god that shits got wheels. Alright, let’s get this over with.
For basses George prefers Fender basses. “They’re just comfortable and built like tanks. If you break something there’s parts everywhere and they take no time to swap out. I hate being nervous about breaking something. It’s why I got rid of my Gibsons.” His go to bass is a 98′ Fender American standard P-Bass. He swapped the stock pickup with a Rio Grande Muy Grande pickup. “That pickup crushes. It’s got huge magnets and is so overwound it barely fits in the bass.” For a backup he has a 06′ Fender American standard P-Bass with a maple neck and Rio Grande Muy Grandes.
Next stop on the nobody but other bass players care tour is… George’s pedalboard. He’s got a foot switch for his amps, Empress buffer plus, korg pitch black mini, Fuzzrocious Cat Tail, DOD Milkbox, Iron Ether Nimbus, MXR 234, DOD Meatbox reissue, and a Boss DD20. “It’s nice to have some stuff to add some texture to parts here and there. I love it when you hear bass parts with a creative use of something other than distortion.”
When it comes to amps he’s a total Verellen fanboy. “I love Verellen. Ben is the nicest guy. Crushing tone. Blah. Blah. Blah.” He’s got a regular Meatsmoke and a hybrid Meatsmoke. The hybrid Meatsmoke’s preamp has a full eq for each channel that goes into each of the stereo power amps. “I’m mainly using the hybrid right now. It’s got more clean headroom and is a quarter of the weight of the Meatsmoke and sounds exactly the same.” That fucking Meatsmoke weighs as much as Sam. It’s ridiculous. Whichever Verellen he’s running usually goes into a pair of Ampeg 810s. “I’ve got old faithful. She’s a late 90s fridge. Totally indestructible… While Jason rebuilds my other 810 I’m testing a Monarch 1540. I have always hated 1540s but Jason made probably the best sounding one I’ve ever heard.”
See you kids Saturday @ the FCOAW Texas sausage festival. 6922 Harrisburg Houston, Texas. We play at 7pm. Is anyone even reading these? Fuck. One more to go.
Continuing our gear nerd series of blog posts, next up we have Jason’s rig rundown. Which really is almost pointless, since J can’t keep a piece of equipment for over three months. If this guy’s musical ADD doesn’t get in check I’m gonna put the fucker on Ritalin. Although, it is cool seeing what new amazing, rare, high end, or custom gear he’s come up with. I think, some of it is from him owning Mønärch Cabs. He has people constantly asking him to sell or find stuff for them. He knows everyone and gets a heads up on all kinds of stuff before people put it up for sale. He’s basically that guy that when you joke about wanting to buy a tiger, he’s like “I can get you one. I know a guy. I’ll text him…”
Jason’s go to axe is a 2015 EGC Buzzo/Turner 27.5″ Baritone Hybrid acrylic body w/egc humbuckers and as a backup, a 2006 EGC 30″ Standard Baritone hybrid wood body w/egc humbuckers. Both are strung with Kalium Strings G6H-14-70LT sets and he religiously uses Stohn Buffalo Horn Picks.
For a pedal board he’s got a three tier Mønärch pedal board, with rattlesnake flex patch cables. “Dude, all my cables are rattlesnake now. You can just tell they’re heavy duty and super well made. I’ll go out of my way to buy something from a small business owner.” For audio samples he has a Boss RC-3 Loop Station with an FS-6 controller. That’s about the only consistent thing on J’s board. Unlike Sam, Jason’s guitar pedals are constantly changing. The current board features a LWA Outsider, Korg Pitchblack Custom, Visual Sound VV10 Stereo Volume pedal, Strymon Timeline, Eventide Pitchfactor, Strymon Möbius, Hardwire Supernatural Reverb, Eventide Space, TC AlterEgo, EHX SuperEgo, Radial JX-2.
Jason’s favorite amp that he SAYS he’ll never sell is a Science Amps Mother. Although, his new 2013 White Matamp GT1 and “Rare one off Dave Green designed” Matamp Bass 120 have the Mother relegated to practice/cab testing duty. The Matamps are running a Mønärch stereo, chambered, and ported 4×12 “Its modeled after a Peavey 412f with a wide variety of speakers that just work. It’s got one eminence swamp thang , one Peavey Bass 12, and two 1978 Peavey drivers made by eminence.” He also runs a Mønärch Czar with 2 Weber Black Shucks and 2 Weber Michigan 15’s. “That cab shouldn’t sound good. Like, it doesn’t make sense. But it fucking crushes.” But as Jason builds cabs for a Mønärch backline to rent/loan out we expect to see a few different cabs rotate through. Because, real talk, all things in J’s rig are subject to change.
Come barrage Jason with questions at the Mønärch “booth” Saturday at the FCOAW Texas chapter festival. 6922 Harrisburg Blvd Houston, Texas. We play at 7pm.
Since Gear Gods and premier guitar haven’t gotten around to interviewing us we decided to do our own rig rundowns. Slackers. Seriously though, we’re all huge gear nerds and this is totally just an excuse to go super in depth talking about gear.
We’ll start with Sam, or rather his guitar. It’s an RT custom guitar with a DiMarzio, that Sam refuses to disclose, in the bridge. “I can’t give away all my secrets.” Strings are D’Addario 13s. With a tune-o-matic bridge and a single volume and tone knob, it’s built to be a workhorse.
Next stop. Pedals. These come and go but the heart lately has been a Boss TU2, Boss DD3, Lone Wolf Outsider, and Morley Little Alligator. “I keep my boost (Outsider) on all the time for tonal consistency but the Alligator is my volume pedal. It has a minimum volume setting so I can still get sound even when I’m totally backed off. So I feed the boost into the volume pedal and that’s how I get my separate clean/dirty sounds.” Filling in the rest of his pedalboard is an Earthquaker Arpanoid, EHX Small Stone, Eventide Space Reverb, Idiotbox Effects Dungeon Master, Lone Wolf Audio Acetylene Nirvana, Lone Wolf Audio Hypnotic Eye, Lone Wolf Audio LWA 120, Lone Wolf Audio Short Circuit, Lone Wolf Audio Unit 731, Moog Moogerfooger 104M.
All that is going into the amps. There are three that he switches between usually running two at any given time. A Germino Headroom 100 Lead, Retro King Plexi 100, and C3 Amps 1959 Super Lead clone. His favorite being the C3 “The Marshall clone is a little lower gain, so I run it with a boost. Makes for a looser gain structure and a rawer sound.”
The amps are running a pair of Monarch Cabs Czars. Designed after an old Silvertone 200BXL(2×12 & 2×15). “The Czar is just fucking total destruction the 15’s get so much fucking air moving that it feels like laughing gas. Your skin starts to buzz.”
To be in a band with Sam is to know excess. But it’s a very calculated thing. Stock piling amps with rare parts, or for parts to turn into other amps, or simply to get to play something for a while before reselling it for a profit. “This ain’t no hobby fool… I have a gear plan. I don’t just buy random shit.” Piles of amps, pedals, and cabs fill the practice space. Standing in the middle of it all is a guy that likes simple, solid, reliable, old school amps blasting big ass cabs. “Everything else is just for shits.”
Come see this monster take life, Saturday, at the First Church Of Amplifier Worship Texas chapter festival. Holy shit that’s a lot to type. 6922 Harrisburg Blvd Houston, Texas 77011 We play at 7pm.
We decided to do a bunch of posts about gear leading up to our FCOAW show. Makes sense since it’s basically an excuse for a bunch of gear nerds to show off their gear and hang out. So every day for the rest of the week we’re gonna post a “rig rundown” for someone in the band. Knowing that 90% of people don’t give a shit about which exact crash cymbals Steve is using (Steve doesn’t even care, really) we included lots of pictures. So enjoy and see you nerds on Saturday.
After taking most of October off from pretty much everything we’re back at it. Practicing, drinking Topo Chico, causing permanent hearing damage, blogging, playing shows, and most importantly finishing our first album. Yeah that’s right, album. We started recording a demo but it ended up being five songs and clocks in at 35 minutes. That makes it an album according to J. We’re super excited about it. Shits got more heart than a cephalopod. Google it. You know you want to.
Hopefully we’ll have it mastered and can start getting it out there by the end of the month. We may have some unmastered CDs available at shows in the meantime. So keep an eye out.
Pyreship 