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The Reverend Horton Heat: ‘Rev’

Jim Heath’s longtime psychobilly outfit releases its debut for Victory Records this month, and Rev does not disappoint. There’s plenty of freaky tongue-in-cheek thrash on songs like the single “Let Me Teach You How to Eat,” but Heath’s approach is also nuanced and authentic. His vocal on “Scenery Going By,” for example, has a certain sensitivity juxtaposed with the rapid-fire rhythms of bassist Jim “Jimbo” Wallace and drummer Scott Churillo.

Jim Heath’s longtime psychobilly outfit releases its debut for Victory Records this month, and Rev does not disappoint. There’s plenty of freaky tongue-in-cheek thrash on songs like the single “Let Me Teach You How to Eat,” but Heath’s approach is also nuanced and authentic. His vocal on “Scenery Going By,” for example, has a certain sensitivity juxtaposed with the rapid-fire rhythms of bassist Jim “Jimbo” Wallace and drummer Scott Churillo.

Tracking on Rev started in the band’s rehearsal space and then moved to Jeff Saenz’s Modern Electric Sound Recorders (Dallas). Saenz says the band originally intended only to finish basics with him but ended up staying for their overdub phase, which included most of Heath’s guitars and vocals, as well as keys, horns and other embellishments.

Heath sang into a Peluso 22 47 SE (similar to a Neumann U 47), which went through an Avedis MA5 pre and E27 EQ, then a UA LA-2A into Pro Tools. “We put up a Coles 4038 for a room mic during vocals as well,” Saenz says. “And we left those mics up when we tracked his guitars. We used a Beyer M 160 on the front of the amp, that Coles behind it, and the Peluso on omni just in the general area he was performing; it sounded really cool, so we left it right where it was.”

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