Category — Bands

Classic Rock goes perfect with a classic tee.  Check out this vintage AC/DC tee shirt.  Made Of 100% Cotton. Crewneck. Features Silkscreen Design. Long Fit. Available In Juniors Sizing.

The new supergroup, Monsters of Folk, surprised their Halloween crowd this year at the Louisville Palace Theater. After a short intermission they came out dressed in full KISS costumes covering Detroit Rock City.  Watch it here:

The Monsters of Folk are Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis.

Anytime you’re given the chance to listen to one of the greatest guitar players ever to walk this planet talk about his new guitar, his new signature model, my advice is to listen.  A few weeks ago we got the chance to listen to U2’s The Edge talk about some of his favorite guitars, and now, we’re being graced with the chance to not only check out, but hear Eddie Van Halen talk about his new signature model he’s unleashing onto the world.

The guitar, called the EVH Wolfgang for now, and due out in stores sometime in 2009, looks like a beauty, and what’s best, it’s exactly up to THE EVH’s strict specifications.  When asked about the guitar, Van Halen said,

“I don’t need to do this for financial reasons. I could have just stayed at home and built this guitar for myself. I do this because a lot of people ask if they can get what I use. Well, yes you can and what you get is identical to what I use….The tolerance of things on this guitar is like NASA standards. It had to be tight, and it had to be quality…They paid attention to every damn detail.”

Paying attention to details is good, but being able to play a guitar that’s up to someone like Eddie Van Halen’s specs?  Priceless, as they say.  At any rate, it’s not out yet, but you can check out a great deal more on the guitar if you so desire.  Stay tuned for pricing and availability…when we know, you’ll know.

Talk about living the dream!  If you were in a local band, hadn’t made it anywhere near the “big time” yet, and just loved playing your tunes, what could be bigger than getting asked to take a coveted spot on Motley Crue tour?!

That’s exactly what happened to a band called the Last Vegas.  According to reports,

“On a recent night at the venerable Los Angeles music club the Whisky a Go Go, the Last Vegas walked away from a battle-of-the-bands contest with what most developing acts can only dream of: an opening slot on a major arena tour, a recording deal and a management contract.”

Wow.  Life really can change with the blink of an eye!  In addition to that coveted spot on the Crue tour, the band will also take home a $25,000 check from The Guitar Center, and another $20,000 in brand new gear from Gibson Guitars.  Um, I’m beyond jealous now.  Just a few days after mentioning not only the 50th Anniversary line of guitars from Gibson, but the Dark Fire as well, I’d do just about anything to get my hands on $20k in Gibson Gear!

Regardless, just goes to show you that even the local guys, even the underdogs, and even the unheard-of’s can make it.  Keep picking away on those guitars, walking those bass lines and turning up the distortion, it could happen to you.

It is official, there was a MAJOR concert and jam session going on in Heaven this past weekend.  Unfortunately for us, however, that means that we lost yet another rock legend over the past few days.  That’s right, Mitch Mitchell, legendary drummer for Hendrix, has passed away.  The fact that there have been many amazing rock drummers takes absolutely nothing away from Mitchell, his sound, his style and his drums were completely indispensible to the entire Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Mitchell, who was 61, was found dead in his hotel room Wednesday of last week.  Reports now are saying the death was of natural causes, and he went peacefully in his sleep.  Sadly, this marks the death of the last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  As mentioned, I do not doubt that Heaven was absolutely ROCKING Thursday and all the way through this weekend.  He will be missed, as he brought a unique style to drumming that few could match.

According to an article on NPR, “Back in the mid-1960s, many drummers came to rock, either from the snap and precision of a youth spent in drum and bugle corps (like The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart) or jazz (like The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts). Mitchell fell into the latter camp, using jazz as a touchstone for what was supposed to be just a two-week gig.”

Two-weeks turned into a lot longer than that, and the entire music world has lost a genius this week.  Rest in Peace Mitch, and to his family that survives him, thank you for Mitch.  Check him out below…he will be missed.

This, is an old story but I’m bringing it up for very good reasons.  Awhile back, Metallica had to lecture their management for doing something that could have been online suicide for the band:  they deleted and removed early reviews of their stuff from the blogosphere.  Oops!  At any rate, the band did something rather unprecedented for them, and even apologized to the bloggers that had been wronged.  Wow.  The Metallica I remember is the same Metallica that went straight after Napster all gun’s blazin’ and even pointed some nasty fingers at online music, NOT the type of guys to yell at their own management for being too harsh on some bloggers that reviewed their early demos of their newest material.  Turns out, Metallica of new, is not the Metallica of old and I’m pleased as punch to see that.

That’s right, the heavy metal rockers backed their blogger fans and the reviews they posted after their management demanded that the bloggers/critics take down the posts.  The silliest part of the managements decision to have the posts removed was that the early rough cut tracks that the bloggers were reviewing were given TO them and invited to review BY the band.  Oops.  Here is the statement Metallica offered up after they caught wind of the unfortunate censorship:

“Once we re-surfaced on Tuesday after a few weeks on tour in Europe, we were informed that someone at Q Prime (our managers) had made the error of asking a few publications to take down reviews of the rough mixes from the new record that were posted on their sites,” they wrote. “Our response was ‘WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record… that makes no sense to us!’”

There you have it, Kudos Metallica, I like what I see here.  So basically, they gave their management a good lecture, reposted the links to the reviews and all was happy in Heavy Metal Land.  What this all means to me is, do you think this is a trend that will be continuing?  Do you think early, rough demos or rough cuts will be “leaked” to certain bloggers and online critics early to help the band, any band, gauge how it might go over?  I know Nine Inch Nails have done some pretty progressive things when it comes to online marketing, who will be next?

Sound off, what do YOU think the “future” of this will be?  Will music bloggers be reviewing things that is motnhs away from launch?  What do you think?

If you polled 1000 serious guitar players, instrumentalists, band members, or just all around guitar enthusiasts what their greatest “guitar” fear is as we progress further into the future, and further away from the music world as we know it, I bet 900 of them would say “That future generations of guitar players will really believe we play the guitar like a Guitar Hero controller.”  I for one, know that scares me quite a bit.  The thought that future musicians will not have to sweat and toil over an old six-string, build painful calluses so they can play longer, or learn the intricatcies of a good solo, but just have to push a series of colored-buttons is terrifying.

Apparently it’s also terrifying to Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, and so he decided to do some designing to show the rest of us the way.  What he did, was design a double-necked guitar that is a fusion of a real, traditional six-string guitar, and a new Guitar Hero controller guitar.  In short…genius.  When asked, well, Why, Coyne said:

“I’ve constructed this great looking Guitar Hero double-necked guitar thing here because there’s a lot of kids out there that think this is actually how you play guitar now — that you just press a series of four or five buttons and and sort of different sort of sequences and it makes every sound that the guitar can make,” says Coyne. “So when you do this stuff, you know (strums actual guitar on the first neck), it’s not as impressive as hitting the right green and red combinations.”

Check out the video here, for further awesomeness and proof of Coyne’s unusual genius.

On October 16th, the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City hosted “Change Rocks” a fundraiser for Obama, mainly featuring Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

Some tickets were priced at $25,000 for the event, which was Billy Joel’s first supporting Obama. The setlist featured collaborative versions of each other’s songs including “New York State Of Mind”, “Sprit In The Night” and “River of Dreams”.

Barack Obama himself appeared onstage towards the end of the event, according to MSNBC…

He called the event “a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech comparing the struggling, everyday people in Joel’s and Springsteen’s songs to the people he’s met on the campaign trail.He warned supporters not to get overconfident because he leads in the polls.

“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up,” Obama said. “I want everybody running scared.”

Source.

I posted earlier about an Obama rally with The Breeders and The National in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. Pitchfork has posted a bunch of awesome pictures from the event so be sure to check them out.

I already regretted not catching Coachella this year even though Breeders were headlining one of the nights. Now I’m regretting not living in Cincinatti because this event seems like it was a lot of fun. I better make sue I catch them when they play at the Wiltern November , 17th.

More Tour Dates:

The Breeders:
11-11 Seattle, WA - Neumos
11-12 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
11-14 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-15 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

The National:
10-24 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-25 São Paulo, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-27 Vitória, Brazil - UFES Theatre
11-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest

Some news has been circulating about Jimmy Page turning down a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. But according to his spokesperson, Page was simply refusing to endorse a campaign conceived by Zeppelin fan, Rocky Dickerson, to add the star.  Dickerson sent a formal letter to the band asking for their approval to begin the process of nominating Page for a spot on the famed sidewalk in Los Angeles.

Page’s accountant clarifies, “There are two letters relating to the [proposed LED ZEPPELIN star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame], addressed to Jimmy Page, which have been passed to me. I have now had the opportunity of discussing these with Jimmy. He has asked me to thank you for this interest but he does not feel that this is something that he can endorse.”

Dickerson explained that he wanted the campaign to be a small, fan-driven campaign and wanted nothing from the star, nor any corporate entity.  In his words, “I want this to be a small thing that we ,the fans, can give back to Led Zeppelin after 40 years of great music.”

Visit Dickerson’s Led Zeppelin website: http://www.ledzeppelinstar.com.

I’m not really sure why Page didn’t “feel that this is something he can endorse.”  As one commenter put it, maybe it’s because the walk of fame is, “most definitely at various times either soaked in urine, covered in vomit, slept on by a homeless hooker.”  Maybe it’s because he does not want to seem like he is helping to nominate himself.  Who knows.