''Careful With That Axe'' is the seventh solo album by

John 5 John 5 is the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It relates Jesus' healing and teaching in Jerusalem, and begins to evidence the hostility shown him by the Jewish authorities.Plummer, A. (1902)Cambri ...

. It was released on August 12, 2014, and debuted at no. 50 on the '' Billboard'' Heatseekers Chart. The album's first and only single, "This is My Rifle", was released two months prior on June 17, 2014.

Background and recording

Work on the album took place in between his work as a touring guitarist for Rob Zombie. Recording took place in "The Doghouse Studios" in Los Angeles. With it being his seventh instrumental studio album, John 5 desired to mix his process up from the past. Historically, he had recorded all

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

and

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

parts himself, and hired a studio drummer to "Keep the beat and stay out of isway". For ''Careful With That Axe'', he recruited a dedicated bassist, Matt Bissonette, to play all bass parts, and had a co- producer Rodger Carter play all drum tracks, with both players being more interactive in the process. Both were experienced studio musicians, with Bissonette having previously recorded with Elton John and David Lee Roth, and Carter having previously recorded with

Lita Ford Lita Rossana Ford (born 19 September 1958) is an English-born American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the lead guitarist for the all-female rock band the Runaways in the late 1970s, before embarking on a successful glam metal sol ...

and Gene Simmons.

Composition and themes

John 5 described the album as having "a real live band sound" that covers a broad spectrum of different music genre. The track "This Is My Rifle" is a tribute to Al Di Meola, while "El Cucuy" is a tribute to Spanish

flamenco guitar A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar but with thinner tops and less internal bracing. It usually has nylon strings, like the classical guitar, but it generally possesses a livelier, more gritty sound compared to the clas ...

music. "Jerry's Breakdown" and "Jiffy Jam" are both

cover song In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...

, a musician John 5 was familiar with due to his father listening to his albums as a child. The album's title pays homage to Pink Floyd's 1968 psychedelic track " Careful with That Axe, Eugene", while also making a pun on the slang term "axe", meaning a guitar. Both the album's title and many of its individual song titles are references to

axe murder An axe murder is a murder in which the victim was struck and killed by an axe or hatchet. List of axe murders The following are some notable cases. *Wenno von Rohrbach, the first Master of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, was killed by ...

s. "This Is My Rifle" is a reference to Stanley Kubrick and '' Full Metal Jacket'', "Flight of the Vulcan Valley" is a reference to '' Flight of the Bumble Bee''. "El Cucuy" is Spanish for the "

bogeyman The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, bogieman, boogie monster, boogieman, or boogie woogie) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance and conceptions var ...

", while "Portrait of Sidney Sloan", "Villisca", and "The Dream Slayer" all refer to specific real-life murders.

Promotion and release

The album's first single, "This is My Rifle", was released on June 17, 2014, two months prior to the album's release. The album released on August 12, 2014 through record label 60 Cycle Hum. The album's cover art features photography from Ray Gutierrez of StrangeBeautifulArt, who previously done the image's for John 5's earlier album '' The Art of Malice''. The album debuted at no. 50 on the '' Billboard'' Heatseekers Chart.

Track listing

Personnel

– guitars,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Matt Bissonette – bass * Rodger Carter – drums, production

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control John 5 (guitarist) albums 2014 albums Instrumental albums