The Blackouts – “Happy Hunting Ground”
Played By: Eric Werner
Eric Werner is a name that is likely unknown in
many guitar circles, but this matters not. In fact,
his bandmates—and one of my favorite rhythm
sections of all time in Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin—
went on to destroy music as we knew it in Ministry
later in the decade. Nevertheless, Eric Werner
was the impossibly original singer and guitarist
in The Blackouts—the best Seattle band you’ve
never heard of. With his incredibly rare Maestro
Brassmaster—a vintage fuzz pedal aimed at turning
a bass into a saxophone—whacked into a chorus
unit of some kind, he developed a guitar sound not
dissimilar from a giant mechanoid wasp hive being
disturbed by an air raid. It is a droning tone with
purring buzzy edges that ebb and flow in electrolegato, intertwining with the actual saxophone
being honked and skronked by Paul’s brother
Roland Barker. The riff for “Happy Hunting Ground”
is barely distinguishable as a guitar and one simply
cannot hear it slithering over the undulating tribal
bass and drums without cracking a serpentine smile.
The Malekko B:Assmaster through a new Boss CE2W is the only way to go if one wants to be The
Blackouts for Halloween.
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TONE TALK //
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