The Red

Chevelle switched from standard D tuning to drop B for this album. The difference in pitch is a step and a half. The difference in weight is everything. The riff on The Red arrives with purpose. Pete Loeffler’s guitar sits low and controlled. Sam Loeffler drives the drums without filler. Joe Loeffler’s bass locks in underneath. Three brothers from Chicago who grew up playing together in the family basement. They found a lower register and the song became what it needed to be.

Recording at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver was scheduled to begin September 12, 2001. They kept the appointment. September 11 had happened the morning before. Pete Loeffler wrote all the lyrics for Wonder What’s Next in that climate. Nine weeks in Vancouver with producer Garth Richardson. The band layered textures and adjusted tones in ways their debut had never attempted. Their first album was recorded with Steve Albini in standard D tuning. This one came out lower and heavier and it sounds like exactly the moment it came from.

The Red was released as a single on July 22, 2002. The album did not follow until October. In the months between the song found its audience. It peaked at number three on the Mainstream Rock chart and number four on Alternative Airplay. It reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Critics compared Chevelle to Tool and A Perfect Circle. Those comparisons were understandable but also insufficient. Loudwire named it the greatest Chevelle song ever recorded. Twenty-four years later that case is still hard to argue.