In February 2003 The Immortal Lee County Killers II, hailing from Auburn, Lee County, Alabama, released their second album "Love Is A Charm of Powerful Trouble" on Estrus Records, and The Token One, drummer, and Chetley Weise, guitarist and vocalist, toured worldwide to spread their message of fucked up punk blues. The new record, "Love Unbolts The Dark", thematically and artistically ILCK's free exploration into the unknown, begun on "Love Is A Charm of Powerful Trouble", and brings the Token One and Weise's John Lee Hooker and MC5 inspired supersonica into interstellar energy. "Love Unbolts The Dark" will be available in Europe from Sweet Nothing on September 15th. The Immortal Lee County Killers will embark on another European tour, starting September 3rd at Vera, Groningen -club for the International Popunderground! Read on and find out what The Immortal Lee County Killers are all about >> Words: Chetley 'EL CHEETAH' Weise Love Unbolts The Dark features some new surprises from ILCK2. For the first time, ILCK2 recorded much of the record [6 out of 10 songs] in a 'professional' studio. Sarcophagus Studios located in West Point, Georgia has been a constant in ILCK's music. Both of ILCK's previous home-recorded records were either mixed or touched up at the studio. Friends of the band and Auburn, Lee County, Alabama rock n roll scene veterans, Lynn Bridges and Spazz Uertz, have recorded the Quadrajets, Hellacopters, XBXRX, and several gospel choirs. Lynn has recently worked with Jimmy Johnson of Muscle Shoals Sound fame. Jimmy recorded 'Wild Horses' and several other Rolling Stones songs not to mention Aretha Franklin and a list of others that never ends. With these kinds of credentials, ILCK's decision to go into the studio with their friends at the mixing board should be no surprise. Lynn engineered, recorded, co-produced, and mixed the studio side of the record. Lynn used a Mackie mixing board but in conjunction with 1970's era Neve preamps. An Ampex two-inch analog tape machine actually recorded the music. We used 'The Stooges Fun House' as a reference for recording the instruments and the Rolling Stones' late sixties and early seventies records as a reference for the vocals. All music we recorded live with scratch vocals with amps loosely baffled in the room. We wanted to get in the studio the same raw and raucous sounds the band makes live but in 'hi-fidelity' as opposed to the home recorded charm of ILCK's previous records. The band probably will not return to home-recording. Too much music and to many notes are lost to the lo-fi muddle of current home-recording. The feeling, energy and looseness of those home-recorded records are priceless and so much more important than fidelity, but the band has found a home away from home at Sarcophagust. Therefore none of the feeling and emotion has been traded away for fidelity; instead the energy of ILCK will come through your speakers more pure and glorious now than ever. The band recorded 6 out of the 10 songs on 'Unbolts' at Sarco. The other four songs are RECORDED ABSOLUTELY LIVE. No tricks or overdubs used on the live side of the record. ILCK2 recorded two of the songs at their John PEEL live session last year. 'Love Unbolts The Dark' features significant amounts of music recorded both in studio and live environments. The record intentionally presents the band in both lights in order for listeners to hear the band in both its environments. If I may say so, the yin and yang of ILCK2's existence. Chet "Cheetah" Weise will attempt to share some interesting thought about each song. Love Unbolts The Dark The first track is a 20 second sample of one of my favorite poets, Dylan Thomas, reciting the lines from his "Poem on His Birthday" from the Caedmon box set. We borrowed the name of the record from these particluiar lines. I've been fascinated by wordsmiths like Yeats, WC Williams, Poe, and W.Blake for as long as I have wordsmiths such as J.L Hooker, S. James, and R.Johnson. I blame my taste in poetry for the unusual and sometimes precocious lyrical style for which i have been accused. I don't write simple storytelling rock-n-roll style lyrics often. Sometimes I wish I could. Boom Boom [Yeah Yeah] Unlike other recording sessions, I played the same guitar and amps for the entire record. I used my custom made Moon Doggie Mk2 hollow body guitar through a Framptone ABY switcher, Hyper-fuzz pedal, GL guitar cords into an ORANGE AD30 amp for treble and a Fender BASSMAN 100 for the low end. The Orange sat on top of a HIWATT 4x12 cab and the BASSMAN sat on a homemade 1x15 cab. Best guitar sounds I've ever recorded. The song is about my current girlfriend, Rebecah. I wasn't looking for a girlfriend, but when this young lady showed up at my door offering a SKIP JAMES record for me to borrow, I surrendered to her. Her taste in music gave me a window into her soul. I've gone all the way with her. Rock And Roll is Killing Me We recorded this song during the second session at Sarco. We usually record songs in between tours. As usual, the location where we began recording was not the location where we finished. So far, any location where ILCK has recorded more than three songs has met with disaster. We had recorded three songs at our first session at Saco, but while away on tour, the landlord for Sarco sold their building out from under them. Lynn showed up at his studio to find a moving van filled with desks and office furniture. Several people were moving the furniture in. The beautiful building that had been modified into a true to life recording studio had been sold without Lynn's knowledge and now had been turned into an office space. Dauntless Lynn set everything up in his house where we recorded tracks 2,4,5, and 11. Sounds great. The song's lyric describes a situation far to often found in R 'n' R, selling out the meaning and character of a group because of hype and money or from a general loss of objectivism, I used Jim Morrison and the DOORS for inspiration. For many listeners, the surviving members of the DOORS have unfortunately transformed the band's incendiary/macabre jazz, and the contributions/character of their lead singer, into some sort of parody. Stuff like that kills me. Burnin' Hell A John Lee Hooker song we began playing the tour we had just returned from before the session. The recording we have represents only a moment in time for this song. We've never arranged the tune into real parts. Every time we play the tune is different. We did 3 or 4 takes and picked the best for the record. God Bless The Losers Who Try This might be my favorite ILCK song currently. Definitely a song whose feel and structure is unique to ILCK. I sing about all of us who try our best and fail...and then try again and again and again. Peaking of trying again and again, probably Lynn's most profound influence as a producer came during this song. He pulled a keyboard into the vocal booth with me and picked out the vocal melody notes. He made me rehearse singing the parts with the keyboard. As a result, I used a little Casio type keyboard for the rest of the session. Using a keyboard really improved my pitch and strengthened the vocal melodies. I won't ever record again without a keyboard handy. Ain't Goin Down To Well No More [recorded live in Waverly, Alabama, USA] My favorite song in the live set. JR can really belt this Leadbelly tune out. I had no idea he was going to sing it the first time. Now, the song is a feature in our live set and has never been released in any recorded form. Said I'd Find My Way [Recorded at BBC1's Maida Vale Studio for the JOHN PEEL Show] ILCK1 recorded SAID on our first record, 'The Essential Fucked Up Blues'. I feel this is the definitive version. Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive [Recorded live at Club Vera, Groningen the Netherlands] Yet another JL Hooker song. If you listen with a critical ear, you can hear the vocal changing volumes. I have a bad habit of swaying around the mic stand while singing. Also, check out my guitar, during the first half of the song I'm in tune, during the latter half my low e string must be at least one half step off. I compensated by playing only the high strings super soft and occasionally hitting the hyper-fuzz. Once again avoiding disaster forced ILCK into something I feel is good. The big room sound at club Vera sounds great. Let's Get Killed [Recorded at BBC1's Maida Vale Studio for the JOHN PEEL Show] Devil Got My Woman Being that Boom Boom is about my girl giving me a Skip James record, I decided to include a Skip James song on the record. Here is a first take of the James classic ala the Cheetah style. I think sonically Lynn captured the song better than anyone could have. One of the best acoustic sounds on record ever I believe. Is the performance worth a shit? That's for you to decide.