L.A. guitar rockers The Henry Clay People just released their third full-length, Somewhere on the Golden Coast. It follows in the footsteps of their previous releases, but this time around, the album has a more freewheelin’ feel. When recording the album, producer Aaron Espinoza wanted to capture the band’s renowned live show, so he encouraged them to do away with the headphones and overdubs, drink some beers, and record live to tape.
It’s clear that they were thinking about sound when recording Golden Coast, so it should come as no surprise that they sent us a list of “Best Sounding Guitars.” The Henry Clay People will open for Silversun Pickups and Everest tonight at Soma.
Best Sounding Guitars by The Henry Clay People
At our core, we consider ourselves a guitar rock band.  I am obsessed with guitar sounds.  This is a list of some of our favorite guitarists and songs that showcase the goods. Most of them are probably pretty obvious but thats fine.  We’ll let the guitars speak for themselves
1. “My Sweet Lord,” by George Harrison: Slide guitarmonies makes us all weepy. Clearly we could have put on a bunch of Harrison tunes.
2. “Venus,” by Television: Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd kill it on this I read somewhere that Richard Lloyd could double his guitar perfectly while Tom wouldn’t double because he’d be playing it differently each time.
3. “Like a Hurricane,” by Neil Young: Neil is my favorite guitarist. He is like a caveman discovering fire and going crazy with it. Two of my guitars have Bigsby Vibratos on them just because of Neil.
4. “Everyone Chooses Sides,” by the Wrens: The song is great. The guitars sound blown out.
5. “LAX,” by Hot Snakes: San Diego’s finest.
6. “The Slider,” by T. Rex: Marc Bolan plays guitar from the hip.
7. “Away From the Numbers,” by The Jam: Rickenbacker thru a cranked Vox AC30 is probably my favorite guitar/ amp combo.
8. “Heaven and Hell,” by The Who: The opening to the best live rock and roll album.
9. “Broken Chairs,” by Built to Spill: I typically hate “jamming†but I never want this song to end.
10. “Holiday in the Sun,” by The Sex Pistols: Such a massive sound.