Mike Mettler

Reference TracksThe S&V Interview
Roxy Music’s Self-Titled ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’ of Rock Convention Gets a Rich 5.1 Upgrade
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 21, 2018  |  4 comments
No one had ever seen or heard anything like it before. When Roxy Music released their self-titled debut in June 1972 — ironically enough, on the exact same day their spiritual brother-in-creative-arms David Bowie released The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars — the art-school-tempered British sextet instantly ushered in an immediate sea change for both the style and sonic character of an already sagging rock scene...
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The S&V Interview
The Music Is Out There: David Duchovny Shares His Every Third Thought
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 07, 2018  |  0 comments
David Duchovny is no weekend music hobbyist. The original music of the noted actor/director/writer (The X-Files, Californication) is now on full display on his second album, Every Third Thought. I got on the line with Duchovny to discuss the importance of vocal enunciation, leaving what he feels sounds “real” in final mixes, and why you’ll never hear his singing voice on The X-Files — even though you’ve heard one of his songs appear on the show.
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Music Disc Reviews
Eagles: Hotel California - 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 28, 2018  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Ah, the ’70s—the literal age of excess, as documented by the “everything, all the time” lifestyle credo personified by pop-music superstars like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. And yet, amidst all that glamour, glitz, and high drama also resided some damn fine music, too. Listen closely, and you’ll clue into a good bit of prescient social commentating by artists very much aware of the pitfalls of their experimentations, even while they basked in the afterglow.
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The S&V Interview
Nancy Wilson Gets to the Aural Heart of Roadcase Royale’s ‘First Things First’
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 21, 2018  |  0 comments
All photography: Jeremy Danger (2017).

Nancy Wilson doesn’t like being idle. The noted Northwest-bred guitarist/vocalist was up for tackling new challenges while Heart, the band she and her sister Ann Wilson made famous, decided to take an extended break — and she found exactly what she was looking for with her new six-piece collective, Roadcase Royale.

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Music Disc Reviews
Def Leppard: Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 14, 2018  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
When the phrase “beast mode” entered the vernacular, it was intended mainly as a descriptor for a singularly focused level of energy and drive as exhibited by certain football players. But it just as easily could have been used to describe the laser focus Def Leppard displayed in the face of innumerable odds while recording the 1987 juggernaut known as Hysteria. It may have taken them 34 months of on/off studio time and a hefty price tag of 2 million pounds to get to the finish line, but the ensuing album sold over 25 million copies worldwide and became the defining sonic template for the scores of pop-metal crossover hybrids that followed.
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The S&V Interview
Joe Perry Continues to Let the Music Do the Talking
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 07, 2018  |  0 comments
Legendary Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has been a hands-on Monster gear user for decades, ever since he first plugged one of their patch cables into his live rig. At CES, Perry and I sat down together exclusively to discuss why he personally must use anything he puts his name on, why reproducing true bass content is critical, and how he insisted everyone who worked on his new solo album Sweetzerland Manifesto utilize the same Elements headphones to establish a sonic baseline.
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Music Disc Reviews
Bob Dylan: Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981 Deluxe Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 31, 2018  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
No other artist in the rock era has followed his own muse as deliberately and as singularly as Bob Dylan has. Right from the dawning of his career at the outset of the 1960s, Dylan has chosen his own lane and then merged into it full-on, regardless of any external pressures or expectations. Whether the message is parlayed with his voice backed only by an acoustic guitar or translated with full band accompaniment, the foremost poet of our times has known exactly what information he wants to share with us every step of the way, critics and cognoscenti be damned.
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Reference TracksThe S&V Interview
David Coverdale Adds a Special Aural Bite to 30th Anniversary Whitesnake Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 17, 2018  |  2 comments
Photo by Neil Zlozower

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of 1987’s mega-multimillion-selling Whitesnake — the album that spawned such massive FM hits as “Here I Go Again” “Is This Love,” and Still of the Night” — Rhino has uncoiled an exhaustive 4-CD/1-DVD box set featuring a disc of demos titled 87 Evolutions, properly mastered live bootlegs, and four of-era videos remastered in surround sound on DVD. Singer/frontman David Coverdale discusses a critical change in his vocals, how Tina Turner came thisclose to singing “Is This Love,” and why those core Whitesnake songs retain such universal appeal.

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The S&V Interview
Kim Simmonds & Savoy Brown Master That Fine Blues Rock Feelin’
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 02, 2018  |  Published: Jan 03, 2018  |  0 comments
Photo: Jim Summaria

British blues-rock pioneers Savoy Brown continue to fly the flag quite mightily on their current album, Witchy Feelin’. Kim Simmonds, their bandleader/guitarist/vocalist for over 52 years and counting, got on the line to discuss the importance of incorporating hooks and riffs together in songs, what he specifically listens for in order to garner creative inspiration, and why he can never relax as an artist.

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Reference TracksThe S&V Interview
The Waterboys’ Mike Scott Pours a New Sound Palette for ‘Out of All This Blue’
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 20, 2017  |  0 comments
Career songwriters often find themselves on a perpetual quest to add new tools to their creative toolboxes in order to keep things fresh. Such has been the case for Mike Scott, chief architect of British alt-rock stalwarts The Waterboys, who turned to GarageBand and some interesting plug-in choices to fuel the almost two-dozen songs that comprise his band’s expansive new double-disc effort, Out of All This Blue (BMG).
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