For their new full-length, the mighty, masked Los Straitjackets holed up in a secret San Diego location with producer Mark Neill, that renowned mad scientist of sound, to produce the 13 terrifying tracks on their seventh album, Supersonic Guitars in 3-D. Rumors of secret Aztec rituals, animal sacrifice, and other unholy alliances are easy to believe when you hear the gargantuan guitar tones and dominating drum sounds that were achieved. Los Straitjackets broke new ground of heaviness on tracks such as “Squid,” “Time Bomb” and “Tarantula” but still managed to come up with some of their sweetest melodies yet on “Dreamland” and “Can You Dig It.” To add to the fun, some guests dropped by, including X’s Billy Zoom and DJ Bonebrake, Don Fleming and Jon Spencer!

One listen to the bottom-heavy, overdriven guitar growl of “Squid,” the album’s opening track, and even longtime Straitjackets aficionados will be scratching their heads going, “Dawg, this is heavy!” (Think of a band of Troglodytes dragging clubs between boulders.)

“’Chicks dig bass,’ I’ve said it 1000 times,” says producer Neill, who explains that the original concept was to find a cave –yes, an actual hole in the ground – and record the disc there. But between uncomprehending realtors and the logistics of wiring a cave for sound, the idea, but not the aesthetic, was scrapped.

Neill ended up recording at his own studio, Soil of the South, which he designed simultaneously with London’s famed Toe-Rag studios (site of the recording of The White Stripes’ album Elephant). Soil Of the South, located in an otherwise peaceful suburban neighborhood, ably realized the sonic potential of an underground cavern -- minus, of course, the stalagmites, stalactites, blindfish and hordes of bats (and guano!) that the band might have had to contend with.

The album’s sound evokes “a speaker in an echo chamber that’s just about to blow,” says Neill. “The songs had to sound like they were thought up in a cave – a subterranean hole – where crazy people could play crazy music, then I’d bring it back … everything on this album is very weird, with very radial-sounding acoustics on it.
It doesn’t sound like any other record, which is on purpose.”

Recorded with a minimum of mics and overdubs and with some of the most extreme reverbs you’ll hear on a “modern” release, S.S.G.i.3-D recalls older recordings (think Link Wray, Duane Eddy, The Ventures) where a “reverb chamber” might just be an abandoned water tank, and the amplifiers were cranked to the breaking point to drown out incidental sound – traffic, sirens, you name it. While older techniques were employed, the aim was to try to create a new sound that would stand up to next to the dynamic range people expect from contemporary discs.

Beyond the basic two-guitar, bass, drums combo sound that Los Straitjackets are known for, there are some strategic but subtle extra flavors-- even a horn section on one number, “Can You Dig It?” consisting of saxophonist Archie Thompson and trumpet player Mitch Manker (who plays with the Ray Charles Orchestra). Add to this heady mixture a smattering of flute, sax (run through a very overdriven Magnatone amp and a Leslie cabinet), theremin, watery-sounding vibes and “noise particles” (contributed by Don Fleming), and you’ve got a Hi-Fi sonic concoction that’s just plain out of this world.