Michael Stipe probably hasn’t heard the new Tojo Yamamoto 7-inch yet, but when he does, he’ll be hearing his band’s “Man on the Moon” recorded with bass pickups pointed at a kick drum, by a guitarist who doesn’t actually like R.E.M., for a release that sits inside a wider cover series tying Memphis wrestling to noise rock.
Two tracks, led by what vocalist Larry Joe Treadway calls their “zany R.E.M. cover,” land on a 7-inch shipping at the end of May.
The single hit streaming on Friday, May 8, and the 7-inch is on pre-sale now. The whole thing sits inside an ongoing cover series Tread and guitarist Elwood treat as a vehicle for what they describe as a marriage of Memphis wrestling and music, “just something interesting to tackle.” The working method is the two of them throwing things at each other in the studio until something lands.
That Memphis wrestling lineage runs deeper than aesthetic.
Jimmy Hart, the WWE Hall of Fame manager, sits in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame alongside his band the Gentrys, and got his start in the business through the Memphis Wrestling promotion itself.
That’s the same wavelength Tread place themselves on, alongside bands they hear in the same lineage: Antiseen, Gordon Solie Motherfuckers, The Cramps, and COWS. “Shannon loved wrestling,” Tread say of the COWS frontman, “we discussed such a couple times back in the 90s.”
The R.E.M. choice is where the band splits in two. Tread saw the band six times before they signed to Warner and “Green” came out, and the first four records still hold up. “Fables of the Reconstruction is a bit of a masterpiece,” they say. Elwood doesn’t share any of it. He likes the band as people, not as a band. Neither half of Tread has really listened to anything past “Out of Time.”
For the cover itself, the bass goes in front of the kick drum and the pickups are used to add a weird sound to the drums. “I am not singing through it on this track,” Tread clarifies, which says something about how often that gets reversed in the band’s setup. Bass pickups become mics, paper shredders show up in the recording chain, devices keep getting collected for the same purpose, and what Tread describe as “a pile of zany vintage crap and bizarro noise makers” sits at the center of it. Elwood’s contributions extend into offbeat tunings and the mis-wired guitars that, Tread say, always make the studio fun.
That gear approach has a history behind it. Elwood was once considered one of the greatest guitar techs in the touring world, with credits including Guns N’ Roses, Steve Vai, Joe Perry, Chris Cornell, and Billy Gibbons. On his own stuff, “he rewires, customizes, trashes, thrashes and does all that with his personal gear. Nothing is precious.” His collection runs through pawn shop and thrift store guitars, all of them unique. Some of the pricey vintage stuff he owns looks identical to the rest, because he’s still a punk and treats it the same way.
The Billy Duffy connection is the cleanest case. Elwood teched for The Cult’s guitarist, and the record Tread are currently working on features Duffy’s back-up Les Paul, which Elwood “bought for a song.” It weighs about 50 pounds and has been carved on with the word “ABUSER.”
How any of this lands on tape is also subject to last-minute reversal. Tread describe rehearsing new songs for a month with one set of guitars, only for Elwood to walk into the studio with none of them and try something else. “He’s a savant.”
Running alongside the wrestling and recording threads is the band’s remix habit.
They’ve been building up their own remix versions of their tracks with the idea of eventually putting them out, “if only for our own edification,” and they pull from a specific lineage of 80s and early 90s 12-inch remixes, more common with British bands than American ones. “The kings really are Killing Joke,” Tread say, “they are still remixing their material.”
The list they cite as foundational: Killing Joke’s “Eighties” Dance remix, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Two Tribes,” New Order’s “Confusion,” Golden Earring’s “Twilight Zone,” and the couple of super long dance versions of The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary,” which Tread suspect Elwood may have worked on as well.
Elwood is currently out on the road with ZZ Top, playing Wednesday through Sunday, which is why most of the press cycle is being run by text from a tour bus. The 7-inch ships at the end of May.
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