By Keith Walsh
I want to call the music on Shimmer Bed’s new album Divine ‘rock punk’ rather than ‘punk rock’ because vocalist/guitarist Sean Shimmer’s love for 60s rock and roll is at the heart of their sound.
As I chat with Shimmer while he and his Green Jelly bandmates travel across the desert in a car from Las Vegas to Phoenix, Arizona for a gig, he tells me about some of Shimmer Bed’s inspirations: Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Germs. The new album is extremely dirty in the fashion of these bands, and it shows in the enthusiasm of Shimmer and his bandmates — Jella Lugosi on bass and Tiddies on drums.
Divine is a very loud and aggressive album, in contrast to earlier works by Shimmer Bed. This is down to the freedom of being able to turn up the volume. Shimmer explains: “The earlier albums were all created layer by layer, all by me in a quiet room, where I can’t yell or crank guitars….the new album is us live in the studio, vocals, guitar, bass, drums, all at once. With being so limited in previous work, I finally had the chance to let it all out with nothing holding me back. The volume of the band adds an electricity that inspires me to deliver in a different way.”
That “electricity” is where the punk sound comes in. The songs were written in hotels and apartments in and around Hollywood. Shimmer Bed, which shares members with the notorious Green Jelly, is certainly a Hollywood band. For the new album, recorded live at Uncle Studios in Van Nuys, Shimmer uses a Gretsch Tennessee Rose guitar driving a Fender Twin reverb. For effects he uses an Op Amp Big Muff and an Ultra Metal clone. Shimmer calls the experience of playing loud and live “extremely liberating.”
“With being so limited in previous work, I finally had the chance to let it all out with nothing holding me back. The volume of the band adds an electricity that inspires me to deliver in a different way.”
Sean Shimmer, of Shimmer Bed
Scott Walton runs Uncle Studios , where Shimmer has practiced for years and was surprised only recently to find that there’s an “amazing recording setup in the back room.” Of Walton, Shimmer says “he’s a super nice soft-spoken dude, that can keep up with quick execution. He was a touring keyboardist for Weird Al.”
Shimmer talks about the gear used on the album: “We used our (Gretsch) drum kit, my twin reverb for guitars. The bass amp was Uncle’s SVT Ampeg and my DanElectro Longhorn bass. We used a crappy PA mic. He had a nice Neumann, but I prefer the PA mic. Especially since (the album was recorded) live, I don’t want super fidelity.”
Because Divine was recorded live, including solos, the sound is immediate, with added rawness due to the sound selections. The themes are those that spill over from vintage rock into punk: the search for authenticity, healing from hurts by toxic people, nuclear anxieties, and a love for classic automobiles. And because it’s a live album, the album is reproduced perfectly live. “The album is exactly the live show,” says Shimmer. “The idea was to have something that reflected the live show, because it’s day and night to some of the earlier recordings.”
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