Making noise to stop the downfall of rock music

Act: The X-Ray Men. Line-up: Rick Finck (bass, guitar), Eric Geevers (guitar), Rob Louwers (drums, blues harp). Hailing from: Delft. Sound carrier: it's 'demonstrational recordings' and therefore a cd-recordable, the band calls their own label 'Cat's Paw Records'. Style: Link Wray goes wild. Recording: 'Recorded July 21st in the drummer's garden shed using a 4-track machine with only 3 tracks in working order'. Mix at SPOD in Delft. Contact: Kogelgieterij 18, 2614 GX Delft. Phone: (015) 2159387. Email: spod@xs4all.nl. 

'Dear Antje. As long as we don't have a studio CD, this 3-track recording will serve us fine as a demo.' Signed: The X-Ray Men from Delft. And thus the band put one SM58 above the drummer, an SM 58 in front of the guitar amp, and another SM58 near the bass amp so that it picked up a bit of bassdrum on the side. Furthermore, drummer Rob Louwers has a rather special line-up, because he has to play the bluesharp on the side. 'The drummer has a bluesharp on a stand with a microphone attached to it, that mike goes into his amp through an H&H spring reverb, and in front of that amp is microphone number four'. Couple of sixpacks of beer at hand and The X-Ray Men put their instrumental Link Wray grunge-versions onto the three working tracks*. Raw and full of energy, but most of all: 'this would never be possible in a 48-track studio!' As far as this band from Delft is concerned there must come an end to Bono's being  welcomed by the pope and rocksongs being used for American presidential campaigns. 'It's about time to make some good old fucked-up noise again!'

From 'Music Maker' magazine Oct. 2000.

*(NB: the track the drum mike was plugged in didn't work;  all drums were recorded accidentally through the blues harp mike, reverb and all - and this worked out fine. But 'grunge versions'?? - EG)