"There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.” – Van Halen tour rider, ca. 1981
For decades that line in Van Halen’s tour rider was the most widely quoted contractual demand in the music business, parroted by writers for years as an example of how petulant and self-involved many rock stars had become.
Friday, May 09, 2008 4:34 PM
When discussing guitar modeling software, it usually comes down to how well the included amps sound, but there’s much more to the applications than just amps and cabinets. While the process of re-amping the guitar signal gives guitar players a variety of options when it comes to shaping the tone of the guitar, we don’t have to use the amps. Each of the guitar modeling applications comes with a wide range of virtual effects too.
Friday, May 09, 2008 2:22 PM
On paper it seems somewhat premature to dub Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 release Bleed American a “classic” album, but what the hell. It just is. What the disc lacks in years it more than makes up for with its driving rock songs and the circumstances surrounding its release.
Last week, Geffen Records released a two-disc, deluxe edition of Bleed American― renamed to be self-titled after the 9/11 attacks and only now reclaiming its original title―which contains a bonus CD featuring previously unreleased tracks, rare import-only songs, and an exclusive new recording of “Your House.”
Friday, May 09, 2008 12:57 PM
Yesterday's killer slide guitar lesson from Kelly Joe Phelps was all about technique. And there's noone better to learn slide guitar technique from than Phelps. His mastery of the slide guitar is unprecedented, and his ability to communicate the finer points of his style is remarkable.
Today's lesson is all about applying those techniques to playing an actual song. Phelps version of the classic folk song "Irene Goodnight" is legendary, and today's lesson—divided into two short videos—focuses on how to play the song utilizing Phelps incredible, signature style. If you're familiar with the Lead Belly version of this song, or the '50s version by the Weavers, you will be absolutely amazed at Phelps' take on it. Throughout the lesson, he emphasizes the ability to freely develop your own arrangement of the song, and turn it into a vehicle to express your own emotions—something Phelps himself does with extraordinary ability.
Friday, May 09, 2008 11:52 AM
We often think of the solidbody electric guitar as the instrument that gave birth to rock and roll, citing guitars like the Fender Broadcaster of 1950, the Gibson Les Paul of 1952, or the Fender Stratocaster and the Gretsch Duo Jet (actually a semi-solid design) of 1954. The fact is, however, when these new tools were just hitting the scene—and while the whole concept of a solidbodied guitar was still awaiting judgment from players at large—rock and roll was already being forged on the instruments that great players had been using to make groundbreaking music for a full decade or more.
Friday, May 09, 2008 11:03 AM
Joe Satriani didn’t arrive on the guitar scene; he blasted in―just like the Silver Surfer, the comic book anti-hero who soared across the cover of Satriani’s instrumental debut Surfing with the Alien.
His vocabulary of heavy rock tones―whinnying, howling, whistling cluster bombs of sound colored with liquid lightning picking and two-handed filigrees―was seismic.
Thursday, May 08, 2008 5:54 PM
If you haven't heard of Kelly Joe Phelps, then you've been missing out on one of the most talented slide guitar players in music today. He's been playing the guitar for most of his life, and has managed to develop his own unique style of blues with an authentic infusion of varying depth, range, and technique that has resulted in multiple mentions in various industry publications, and earned him the respect of many of his peers.
Phelps plays his guitars sitting flat in his lap, or Dobro style. He also uses his right hand on the body of the guitar to create a unique percussive rhythm technique, and employs the slide bar and alternate-thumb fingerpicking to achieve an amazing technical and improvisational style that simply defies categorization.
Thursday, May 08, 2008 12:55 PM
That dramatic version of the end of Robert Johnson’s life―hastened by a jealous husband and a bottle of poisoned whiskey at a juke joint outside Greenwood, Mississippi, in August 1938―conjured by the poet and revolutionary John Sinclair is typical of the kind of romantic visions the Delta blues giant’s music and patchwork story have inspired since his recordings were first reissued in 1966.
Thursday, May 08, 2008 12:53 PM
A much ballyhooed reunion has long since become an inevitable part of almost every band’s career cycle, even if there isn’t necessarily a hungry public clamoring for it. But the Beatles’ enduring appeal always seemed to set them apart―at least until they, too, cashed in with their multi-volume Anthology series in the ’90s.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008 4:07 PM
The summer festival season is finally upon us. For discerning music fans this can only mean weekends spent braving sweltering heat, midday downpours, and a mudslide or two for the chance to check out the latest and the greatest bands out there touring this season ...
Wednesday, May 07, 2008 3:19 PM