AC/DC is currently recording their first album in eight years with Brendan O’Brien. You may know O’Brien as the man behind some the finest albums by Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, and Matthew Sweet, and some of the lamest by by Bruce Springsteen, Train, Papa Roach, and Incubus. Barf. “Rage Against The Machine in the ’90s, Audioslave today” sums up his career pretty well. So who was the bearer of such blase tidings? Why, Eddie Spaghetti! The once and future Supersucker spilled the beans on his band’s Web site.
I’m sure you’re all wondering, “where the hell is that new ’suckers record?”, well rest assured it IS coming. It’s just taking a little longer than we expected to get done. Our current snag is that the producer of the new record wants to make some last minute tweaks and, well, he can’t right now. He’s been detained by a little Australian band called, uh, AC/DC. That’s right our man Billy Bowers, who did such a stellar job on our “Paid” E.P., is an engineer for Brendan O’Brian who is producing the new AC/DC record and so he’s been taken away from our project temporarily.
Now I’ve been pretty excited about AC/DC’s long promised double disc bonanza, but I can’t see the point in such an endeavor (if they’re even still aiming for it), if they’re going to hire some 90s sludge aficionado to guide them. “Hey, I used these mics with Jack Irons’ kit, it should work for you guys.” Rick Rubin, their last high-concept choice of producer, was a washout on Ballbreaker, but I’d rather see them go for some au courant insanity (Brian Johnson on line one, Danja!) than settle for somebody whose moment passed ten years ago and was a pretty sluggish one in the first place.
“Get It Together” status report [Supersuckers est. 1988 via Billboard]
4 words:
Robert John “Mutt” Lange
Yes, I’m so happy that Billboard broke a story that was on the internets SEVEN weeks ago. Duh.
“Hey, I used these mics with Jeremy Irons’ kit, it should work for you guys.”
JACK Irons, maybe?
I wasn’t crazy about what O’Brien did with the last Springsteen record, but this is much less of a stylistic stretch than that was, at least. It could work. And if not, Mutt has a place with Shania in New Zealand, maybe he can make a quick flight over to Oz and try and recapture some magic?
Mutt’s production style is waaaaaay different now than it was in 1980. I’d hate to hear AC/DC sound like one of his Shania records.
@brasstax: lol, fixed.
@brasstax: Really, I was just goofing with that. But here’s a serious name: Howard Benson.
[en.wikipedia.org]
Three more words:
Mike “Rep” Hummel.
What of Vanda and Young?
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: FTW
Who gives a shit what producer they use — the albums gonna sound like every other AC/DC album anyway
Here’s hoping for a concept album where Brian Johnson reads out the letters of Bon Scott while Angus plays a one-note guitar solo. But the title must still be a dick joke.
Which Springsteen record is lame? And in what alternate reality does it exist?
Looking at O’Brien’s work on Wikipedia, I can’t help but wonder why Mr. Miccio here has such a hardon for O’Brien. Sure there are plenty of crappy albums on there, but there are plenty of good ones too. It’s a long list, and - surprise surprise - I’ll bet O’Brien is one out of, oh 5 billion or so people on the planet who have sometimes done jobs they don’t like.
Anthony - do you really think it’s O’Brien’s fault that Audioslave (or Limp Bizkit, or The Offspring) sucks? I think maybe you fundamentally misunderstand the job of producer. Here’s a hint - most producers neither write nor perform the albums they produce. That’s like saying it’s the cinematographer’s fault that Lindsay Lohan can’t act.
Oh, and also - calling certain albums by Train, Papa Roach and Incubus their “lamest” betrays a woeful lack of knowledge (for a music writer) of just how lame those bands’ entire catalogs really are.
P.S. Springsteen fans - the albums he’s talking about are “The Rising”, “Devils and Dust” and “Magic”. Feel free to freak out and clobber him now.
You’re so wrong if you think a producer is the “victim” of the band he is producing. Take a listen to a Brendan O produced song by Soulhat: [music.aol.com]
If you listen carefully to the opening sounds, you’ll hear a distinct BO’B “signature” that is present on his work with the Stone Temple Pilots.
I want the new AC/DC album to kick serious ass and I hope they have a great double meaning in the title and on several tracks. But, I have to question why AC/DC needs a “celebrity” producer. Those that actually listened to the last album heard some great work.
I guess the larger question for me is…how much can any producer affect a band that hasn’t had an original thought in…oh, 30 or so years?
They don’t need a producer. They need an engineer that won’t make it sound sterile like everything since the Back in Black. That man is Billy Anderson.
Or, a collaboration between Anderson, Steve Albini, and Lemmy. Then AC/DC will rock as it should.