Blue Monday Guitar

Check out the instruments used by members of Queens of the Stone Age, Jawbreaker, Bad Brains, Prophets of Rage, New Order, Built to Spill, and others who rocked the Chicago fest.

Think your band’s a nightmare? Try wrangling a cast of 19 rotating members! Here Brendan Canning and Charles Spearin discuss the pains and triumphs of recording Hug of Thunder.

In their new video, Guitar Nerds—a U.K.-based website for guitar fans (and nerds, we reckon)—has taken a look at the five weirdest guitars from the decade with seemingly infinite staying power, the Eighties.

From Prince’s custom Cloud, to a…we’ll call it eye-catching, Charvel, there are some fairly wild instruments here, representing some of the wildest excesses of the decade. You can see them all in the video below.

For more Guitar Nerds videos, visit guitarnerds.net.

About a month ago, Billy Corgan—now officially operating under his full name, William Patrick Corgan—announced a new solo album, Ogilala.

Produced by Rick Rubin, Ogilala is a marked departure from Corgan’s work with the Smashing Pumpkins, relying more on spare, piano or acoustic guitar-driven arrangements.

Now, Corgan has unveiled the music video for the second single from the album, the measured, somber ballad, “The Spaniards.” You can watch the video—which is comprised of scenes from Pillbox, Corgan’s upcoming silent film—below.

“Having written the songs for voice and guitar, I put myself in Rick’s hands to take the music wherever he’d like,” Corgan said of working with Rubin on Ogilala. “Normally I would have done more, and tinkered more on production, but rather Rick put the onus on me to deliver at a molecular level via live takes. The rest was simply a reaction.”

You can preorder Ogilala here.

To unravel the mystery of my first guitar, I first had to trek to Matsumoto, Japan.

The King of Gristle answers fans’ questions, plays some ripping guitar, and shares the secrets of the sit-in.

PG’s Ted Drozdowski tells the story of the exploding SG, the too-sweaty Strat, and other onstage blow-ups.

The post-hardcore power duo dives into their go-to axes, goosed tube amps, and healthy stash of tone-warping noisemakers.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of “Little Devil,” a stark yet sticky new track by East Nashville-based singer-songwriter-guitarist Derek Hoke. The song is from Hoke’s new album, Bring the Flood, which will be released October 9 via Little Hollywood.

In its own plaintive, reverb-drenched way, the album (and “Little Devil”) is indicative of the exciting new sound coming out of the greater Nashville area in late 2017—a sound that’s not quite country, not quite rock, not quite blues, surf or acid jazz—yet full of pith and delicious retro references.

“‘Little Devil’ follows the very long musical tradition of writing about a girl that’s nothing but trouble,” Hoke tells us. “There’s E.L.O.’s ‘Evil Woman,’ Marty Robbins’ ‘Devil Woman,’ etc. The list goes on.

“I had the melody and the chorus to the tune for a few weeks. Just hammering the same four notes out on my ’68 Tele over and over. I used a Prescription Electronics Yardbox to get the point across. Once I had the verses and chorus, my producer Dex Green and I started putting it all together. ‘Simple caveman drums’ was how I described the rhythm I wanted to hear. That’s how we got drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, the Wallflowers) involved. He played a killer straight beat that still swings hard. Dex brought on his friend Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) for the solo and outro.

“We used a Danelectro Back Talk on it; it’s one of best reverse delays out there. Luther played one of his many Gibson hollowbody guitars while we twisted knobs on the pedal. It took us all out of our comfort zones. When we listened back, we knew it was worth it. It definitely added something unique to the project.”

Assisted by contributions from friends and neighbors, including Dickinson, Elizabeth Cook, Langhorne Slim and Aaron Lee Tasjan, then molded into a cohesive whole by Dex Green, Bring the Flood finds Hoke more visceral, honest and intuitive than at any other point in his career.

For more about Hoke, visit derekhoke.com.