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A Trip Into The Opinionated Musical Mind Of Eringa

11 Best Guitar Solos

  1. Just (Radiohead) : This fucker went on to completely reinvent the instrument on their next album, but this is pure visceral joy!
  2. Since I Been Loving You (Led Zepplin) : You gotta have a bit of Jimmy & he’s in full flight here!
  3. I Wanna Be Your Dog (Stooges) : DI distortion at its searing best!
  4. Freakscene (Dinosaur Jr) : Just sounds like stream of consciousness guitar playing – so ripping & flowing at the same time.
  5. Beetlebum (Blur) : Not really a solo proper, but I just love all the disjointed bursts of noise over the outro & I wanted a bit of Coxon in there!
  6. Sweet Child Of Mine (Guns & Roses) : Forget the cabaret band they became, this is the sound of pure soul in full flight!!
  7. See No Evil (Television) : The Strokes said they’d never heard this album before they recorded their first – I don’t believe them.
  8. Shine A Light (Rolling Stones (Mick Taylor)) : Such an underrated player, this song & solo is awesome.
  9. Big Mouth Strikes Again (Smiths) : Beautiful, chordy & original.
  10. Shot By Both Sides (Magazine) : I can hear a lot of James DB on this one.
  11. You Really Got Me (Kinks) : Apparantly played by Jimmy Page, really short & really attacking!

14 Best Drums Sounds

  1. Scentless Apprentice (Nirvana) : The best fucking drum sound ever, no argument, period. The closest you can get to standing next to a kit & having your ears ripped off – Albini, & Grohl truly I am not worthy!!
  2. Baby Love (Supremes) : The snare is massive!
  3. Never Mind The Bollocks (Sex Pistols) : No comment required
  4. Race For The Prize (Flaming Lips) : Partly because its massive & distorted, & partly for the way the ambient mics are only in the right hand speaker & fade in & out for the chorus’s. What a glorious fucking mess!!
  5. Immigrant Song (Led Zepplin) : How do you chose which Bonham sound to go for, so I’ll have this one for the amazing pattern!
  6. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac) : The best example of that gorgeous 70’s lo tuned snare – like a warm hug!
  7. Heroes (Bowie) : Couldn’t make up my mind between this & Sound & Vision, but that big room at Hansa Studios in Berlin ended up edging it for me!
  8. Abbey Road (Beatles) : The tea towels are genius, such an individual player & such a definitive sound.
  9. Icky Thump (White Stripes) : Has a reasonable stake on the best bass drum ever!
  10. Where Is My Mind (Pixies) : Big fat & dry, which is quite a hard combination!
  11. Saint John (Cold War Kids) : Love this big pounding roomy thing!
  12. 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins) : The best synthesis of drum machine & live drums ever.
  13. Union City Blues (Blondie) : Clem Burke always sounds like he’s really leathering the kit, but never over plays.
  14. Back In The Saddle (Aerosmith) : This is an awesome rock drum sound, that’s way before its time.

11 Best Guitar Sounds

  1. Never Mind The Bollocks (Sex Pistols) : The whole album – nobody has ever matched this ferocious, searing, strangely boxy but utterly molten tone!
  2. Sweet Child Of Mine (Guns & Roses) : You might have guessed I quite like this one! Ah come on get off your high horse & listen to that tone & that attack!!
  3. First Album (Rage Against The Machine) : He got that sound with a tele, a marshal, a flanger & a whammy pedal – what a fucking bastard!!!
  4. Won’t Get Fooled Again (Who) : Could have picked any Townsend sound really – fuck me he hit it hard!
  5. I Wanna Be Your Dog (Stooges) : Its always shocking just how good it sounds – its like molten metal pouring out of your speakers!
  6. Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley) : The purest clean sound ever – it sounds like a fucking harp for christs sake!! Mesmerisingly beautiful!
  7. How Soon Is Now (Smiths) : Can’t make my mind up between the gated sound & the slide, but you gotta have a bit of Marr, eh?
  8. Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix) : Obvious, I know , but this does after all sound like God talking!
  9. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (U2) : Edges guitar all thru this album is unbelievable, but I particularly like the atmosphere he creates here, with all the distortion, delays & reverb, he conjures such beauty!
  10. Sparkys Dream (Teenage Fanclub) : The really broken up distorted riff that comes just before the chorus – I always loved that sound!
  11. Du Hast (Rammestein) : I know I shouldn’t, but this just sounds so massive it bludgeons you into submission – awesome, but also very silly!

8 Best Bass Sounds

  1. Archives Of Pain (Manics) : I didn’t do this one, so I’m allowed to choose it! Pure, menacing evil!!
  2. Public Image (PIL) : Not as dubby as some of their bass sounds, but so propulsive & never stops driving the song.
  3. Whats Going On (Marvin Gaye) : Could have picked any Motown record really – James Jameson was the don & he played this one in one take, pissed out of his head & lying down – respect!
  4. Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed) : Iconic & instantly recognisable – double bass is cool as fuck!
  5. Sabotage (Beastie Boys) : Hard not to love this one!
  6. Head Like A Hole (NIN) : Always sounds so fucking massive in a club – awesome!
  7. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer (Queens Of The Stone Age) : Had to have a big fuck off distorted one in there somewhere & this is as good as any!
  8. Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith) : Forget the 90’s power ballads, this is a pure groove & it rocks!

9 Best Acoustic Sounds

  1. Hurt (Johnny Cash) : Or any of his American recordings – this album distils pure sadness & makes me cry like a girl every time & the acoustic sounds like its in you head its so dry & intimate.
  2. May You Never (John Martin) : Perhaps the best finger picking player ever – here he makes his one guitar sound like a whole band with the percussion & bass all in the one part. The guitar sounds perfect too. I don’t know anyone who can play an acoustic like this!
  3. Cello Song (Nick Drake) : Perhaps the other best finger picking player ever (!)– this is so fucking good its criminal. The acoustic is really middly & almost boxy, but it still glistens beautifully & has none of the horrible top so many modern acoustics have. Genius.
  4. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp (Led Zeppelin) : What an amazing acoustic player Jimmy was & here he’s hitting it with extraordinary force!
  5. Blackbird (Beatles) : Finger picking again, but this is possibly Macca’s finest moment.
  6. Alone Again Or (Love) : Big acoustic drives this unbelievable dark orch pop gem & never gets lost behind all the layers.
  7. Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young) : Could have been a bunch of lovely Neil Young acoustic sounds, but I like the understated earthiness of this on.
  8. Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones) : I know it’s a bit obvious, but I love the way this sounds so hot to tape & you can hear the wow & flutter & they don’t give a fuck – still gives me goosebumps.
  9. Pinball Wizard (Who) : Another obvious one, but fuck me he hits it hard –this has more electric impact than most bands electric sounds!

10 Best String Arrangements

  1. Joga (Bjork) : This is the last time a record made me pull over the car in astonishment – what an incredible wave of melancholy & beauty all in one.
  2. Design For Life (Manics) : I’m allowed this one as I didn’t do it! Still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
  3. Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles) : Could have been any George Martin arrangement really, but this is the best cello sound on a record ever & its so dark & cool, I love it.
  4. Montague Terrace In Blue (Scott Walker) : Chugging verses give way to euphoric choruses this sounds massive. Like all the best string arranements, they are utterly critical to the music & not just bolted on over the top of everything else.
  5. The Good Humour Man He Sees Everything Like This (Love) : Had to have something off Forever Changes & this is probably the best arrangement on the album.
  6. Disarm (Smashing Pumkins) : My jaw still drops everytime I hear this 14 years after its release. Perfect.
  7. River Deep Mountain High (Tina Turner) : Spector at his unrivalled best.
  8. Unfinished Sympathy (Massive Attack) : A bit obvious, but that middle 8 where it just keeps on climbing is just stunning.
  9. Cello Song (Nick Drake) : Understated beauty.
  10. All Apologies (Nirvana) : Yeah, I know its only a cello, but that’s allowed!

5 Best Recording Studios I Have Worked In

  1. Grouse Lodge (Ireland) : Amazing drum room, loads of natural light, great food, nice people & a swimming pool & sauna – what more do you want?
  2. Rockfield (Wales) : So many classic records from every era have come from here – the people are so nice, there are 3 really different sounding drum rooms in the quadrangle studio (big rock, bright modern & dry 70’s), loads of booths, really good mic collection & Kingsleys stories to boot!
  3. Rak (London) : Again its all about the people – I LOVE working in Rak cos it feels like family. The room is a pure old fashioned drum room – just throw up the mics & it always sounds amazing. The API in there is unique in the UK too. Really big mic collection too.
  4. Abbey Road (London) : Of course! The most iconic studio in the world – it never fails to take your breath away when you walk into the Beatles room – fuck me this is where pop music as we know it was pretty much invented! The biggest & best mic collection in the world bar none.
  5. Water Music (Hoboken, New Jersey) : Great big room, lovely old Neve board & really nice people – they’ve got some pretty fruity vintage amps knocking around too. Great little diners down the road & pictures of Sinatra everywhere!

5 Best Mixing Studios I Have Worked In (in no order)

  1. Abbey Road Studio 3 : Big SSL & amazing monitoring – you take it home & it sounds the same, which is disappointingly rare. Great maintenance as well. And its Abbey Road!
  2. Miloco Leroy Street : All the Miloco studios are great because the staff are all great. I love Leroy street for its well maintained Neve V, great outboard & accurate monitoring.
  3. Air Lyndhurst : Haven’t been there for a while, but I mixed both my number 1’s there (!) & it is the best vintage neve in the world. Lets face it George Martin wasn’t going to build a crap studio was he?!
  4. Strongroom : Again, really nice people, great engineers & good maintenance. Good monitoring too & the lamb burger from the restauant is delicious. Nice to have a bar for the band to decamp to when mixing becomes too boring.
  5. The Way : This is a new vintage neve studio in Hackney – I’ve only done 1 mix there, but it was so easy cos the desk sounded so damn good. Really reasonable rates too, I’m looking forward to going back.

9 Best Music Books

  1. Our Band Could Change Your Life (Michael Azerard) : The story of the American indie scene from 1981 to 1991 leading up to the release of Nevermind when the scene went overground. It’s the story of Black Flag, Minutemen, Mission Of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi, Mudhoney, & Beat Happening & really is the most inspiring thing I’ve ever read. These bands had no expectation of making any money from what they were doing, they really were doing it for the music (man). Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices called it “A galvanized heart & soul report on the last great American rock ethic whose visio became the spirit germ for anything worth listening to since” & I’d have to agree with him. It also has lots of really funny stories about Henry Rollins taking drugs!
  2. Recording The Beatles (Brian Kehew & Kevin Ryan) : The ultimate recording nerd book! This comes in a 2” tape box & exhaustively details all the equipment (from tape machines to desks to mic etc..) the Beatles used to record everything. It goes through every technical innovation like ADT or flanging with unbelievable detail on how everything was done. There are diagrams of how Ringos kit was mic’ed for each individual album & for the really classic tracks there are individual breakdowns of every take, overdub & sound they recorded. This really is the best toilet reading ever!!!
  3. Walk This Way (Aerosmith & Steven Davis) : They’ve got the best rock’n’roll story, so the book had to be great. From the drug addled mess of the 70’s to the rehab addled mess of the 80’s this is hilarious & constantly quotable.
  4. The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell (Marilyn Manson & Neil Strauss) : Whatever you think of his music, Manson is a very clever & very funny man. Contains some of the best lists ever (eg Your’re gay if….) & if even half the stories are true the man is an animal. A very funny & articulate animal! (See particularly the “meat helmet” story for what I mean!)
  5. Wonderland Avenue (Danny Sugarman) : This guy started managing the Doors & Iggy Pop before he was 21 & was a major league heroin addict soon after. Contains all the best Iggy Pop lost weekend stories.
  6. Have Gun Will Travel The Spectacular Rise & Fall Of Death Row Records (Ronin Ro) : Contains all the best Suge Knight stories, especially where he dangled Vanilla Ice off a 22nd floor hotel balony by his ankle in order to get his publishing. Incredible tales of punishment beatings doled out in the Interscope stationary cupboard!
  7. A Riot Of Our Own – Night & Day With The Clash (Johnny Green & Garry Barker) : A roadies eye view of the Clash story that really captures the spirit of the times.
  8. A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones (Robert Greenfield) : Drugs, underage girls, drugs, hells angels, drugs, private jets, drugs,jail, drugs……
  9. American Scream The Bill Hicks Story (Cynthia True) : Ok I know its not a music book really, but Bill was had more rock n roll in his little finger than most musicians have in their whole bodies, so he stays in the list & I love him!


5 Best Potato Styles

  1. Roast : No question. I’ve been around the world & I I I can’t find a better meal than the roast dinner. It truly is the food of the gods & sitting atop it all is the roast potato. A good one is an almost spiritual feast, & there is nothing more crushing than going to someones house over summer & being served a roast with NEW fucking potatoes. Sacrilidge!
  2. Chip Shop Chips : It’s a close run thing here – obviously a great chip is going to beat a crap roasty, but if we are taking both at the top of their games, the roasty will just edge it. Chip shop chips though are monumental & a true testament to why its great to be British!
  3. Cheesy Mash : Mashed with cheese & then more cheese sprinkled over the top & grilled for a crispy top.
  4. Crisps : Sometimes nothing hits the spot like a great bag of crisps – surely Britain leads the world in this field?
  5. New York Home Fries : Don’t want people thinking I’m jingoistic when it comes to my potatoes! Home fries are small cut potatoes fried with onion & they rock!