3/16/2012 ( Johnny Ramone)

New York Magazine has some excerpts from an upcoming Johnny Ramone autobiography that appears to have a lot of information on the philosophy of building the band. Johnny was very much in to wardrobe it seems and he also offers this bit about the business of hitting the stage...

Some bands blow it before they even play. The most important moment of any show is when a band walks out with the red amp lights glowing, the flashlight that shows each performer the way to his spot on the stage. It’s crucial not to blow it. It sets the tempo of the show; it affects everyone’s perception of the band.

Now all the mental notes I had been taking over the years came into play. No tuning up onstage. Synchronized walk to the front of the stage and back again. Joey standing up straight, glued to the mike stand—for the whole set. Keeping it really symmetrical. It was a requirement we adopted, a regimen that started immediately when we’d hit the stage, to make sure you immediately go into the song and not lose that excitement before you even start.

3/16/2012 (In Outer Space You Don't Need A Guitar Strap)

 From Larrivée Guitars...

Canadian astronaut (and guitarist) Col. Chris Hadfield (soon to be the first Canadian to command the International Space Station) recently stopped by the Larrivée factory in Vancouver to see where the Larrivée Parlor guitar (that's currently on the ISS) was built - and he talked to us about the challenges and joys of playing guitar in space.

Hadfield points out that there is no need for a strap in zero gravity and that one needs to adjust some technique issues as well.

He will be doing some recording on the space station but, will wait 'til he is earthbound again to do the mixing...maybe it's a compression thing.

Check out the clip. Oh yeah, if you've never heard Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Space Guitar", you must do so by all means.

3/14/2012 (Wow! Jerry Garcia's Takamine Is Worth Way More Than His Harley)

Artdaily has the details about an upcoming auction of Jerry stuff...

Instruments on offer will include a well-known Garcia acoustic Takamine guitar, as seen on the album covers for Pure Jerry Vol. 8 and Ragged But Right, played from 1985-1988 for acoustic shows (est. $100,000-$150,000); an Ibanez guitar, designed for Jerry Garcia by Ibanez and Bob Weir in 1977 (est. $50,000-$60,000); and a Billy Kreutzmann drum set (est. $10,000-$15,000).

In addition, there will be a 1983 Jerry Garcia-owned Harley Davidson, featured on the cover of the book Playing in the Band by David Gans (est. $40,000-$60,000). The auction also includes handwritten set lists, Garcia’s sunglasses, the famous Skull and Roses banner from The Grateful Dead Movie and rare items from the Wall of Sound!

So, you could work out some "Deep Ellum" on the same axe Jerry plays in this clip or hit the open road on the hog and save up to a hundred grand...

Which would you choose?

3/13/2012 (tattoo cachet)

Well, let's see' last Friday, in a post about the upcoming Fender IPO we said this...

it won't take long for the stock to be over-valued as the same cats that decorate their basement rec rooms with $17,000 Custom Shop axes...and Fender Eric Clapton Signature EC Twinoluxs...Will no doubt be using their framed Fender stock certificates as wall candy but...all in all; Fender should be strengthened.

 It appears that we aren't the only ones thinking that Fender stock will be a trendy choice. Businessweek reports...

“It’s up there with Harley (HOG),” says Tom Taulli at InvestorPlace’s IPO Playbook, “as a company that people love so much they’re willing to tattoo the logo on themselves.” That tattoo cachet, as it were, could lure additional investors when the stock starts trading in a few months.

It turns out that the "tattoo cachet" really does exist. A quick image search turned up a great number of items like these...

And, there are a fair number of tattoo songs out there as well. We've decided to go with Rory Gallagher because of his long-time association with Fender...

3/12/2012 (Liona Boyd)

"I was told basically by the doctors ... that I would never play guitar again. Can you imagine?"-Liona Boyd

That's from a an inspiring story at The Star Phoenix called "Guitar's first lady reinvents herself".

Liona Boyd had a well established career as a virtuoso classical guitarist when she was confronted with focal dystonia, a medical condition that developed in her right hand. As a result, she had to alter her technique and change her repertoire.

She has released a couple of albums that feature her voice and is soon to release a third.

These videos show a sort of before and after...

The Liona Boyd website.

3/9/2012 (Fender IPO)

There is a lot of talk about the news that Fender plans to sell some shares of stock.

Businessweek has some interesting analysis...

Fender Musical Instruments Corp., the largest seller of guitars in the U.S., plans to sell as much as $200 million worth of shares in an initial public offering in a bid to bring more Eric Clapton to China.


The company, which increased sales 13 percent to $700.6 million last year, sees growth coming from emerging markets such as China and India as guitar-based music becomes more popular in those nations.

“We intend to extend our reach to a broader global consumer base,” Fender said. The brand is “closely associated with the birth of rock 'n' roll and has a strong legacy in music and in popular culture.”

Hey, if guitar-based music becomes more popular  in markets like China, that's a good thing, right? But, is that true? Are the Chinese picking up on all of the subtle elements of the guitar-based music culture?

Take a look at the trailer for Kevin Fritz's film Wasted Orient; it's clear that some are embracing the Spinal Tap aesthetic...

I think that there is no way to know whether the Fender IPO will affect the future quality of the products but, I tend to think that the stock will prosper. It might be a good buy if you can get it immediately after it goes on sale but, it won't take long for the stock to be over-valued as the same cats that decorate their basement rec rooms with $17,000 Custom Shop axes...

and Fender Eric Clapton Signature EC Twinoluxs...

Will no doubt be using their framed Fender stock certificates as wall candy but...all in all; Fender should be strengthened.

3/8/2012 (Mastodon-System Of A Down)

Would you want to get in to a fight with this guy?

That's Brent Hinds, front man for Mastodon. He seems to be a pretty cheerful sort, good sense of humor and all. Check out this parody ad he did for an Atlanta bar and restaurant...

But, it turns out that Mr. Hinds is no stranger to scuffles, including one that involved bass player  Shavo Odadjian from System of a down that left Hinds in the hospital with a busted nose and a brain hemorrhage.


But, even though there was some blood, apparently no bad blood exists between Mastodon and System Of A Down who are on tour together in Australia.

Mastodon bass player, Troy Sanders, says it's all "a giant piece of false information"...

Mastodon and System Of A Down, we’re all friends. That was not the problem at all, that was a different issue. Our band is so far beyond removed from that incident, but it had nothing to do with… System Of A Down was there, but they’re our friends. It was a different individual that this altercation went down with.

Here's the complete interview....

...good to know...well some of it I guess.

HIGHlarious outtakes from the Hinds commercial...

3/7/2012 (Power Trio-Power Quartet)

So, Van Halen is back...again and, the guitar community is all abuzz as it tends to get every time Eddie Van Halen emerges from the shadows and proves that he can still play.

It appears as well that it is time once again to revisit the old E.V.H/Eric Clapton discussion as evidenced by the fact that I've found myself involved in the conversation with many guitar buds lately.

As we know, Eddie invoked the Eric Clapton influence early on in many interviews. A lot of Ed's disciples don't hear, see or wish to acknowledge the connection.

And the talk often centers around the idea of evolution; both in gear and musicianship. Without getting in to the validity of either of those notions, I would like to point out one simple aspect that seems to be overlooked. That is; the power trio compared to the power quartet (a power quartet being a front man+guitar, bass, drums format for this discussion).

I will point out that when Ed was cutting his guitar teeth, he was smack dab in the era when power trios, namely Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, ruled the guitar roost. That was the stuff floating around the atmosphere and stuff of licks to be copped.

A couple of years later, you had bands like Led Zeppelin coming to the fore and the three piece with a front man unit became all the rage. But, I submit that Eddie, at that point, was already stylistically on his way and when recalls early influences he reaches back before the power quartet (which has always been the Van Halen format) became the norm.

The thing is this; you play differently in a power trio than in a power quartet. If one player, who is responsible for holding down part of the groove, is singing lead at the same time, he/she plays different and therefore the other players play different.

If you have three players backing a vocalist, they have a different level of groove concentration going on.

When it comes time, to solo section or non-vocal sections, in either case (trio-quartet) the overall vibe is going to differ as well because how you attack a section is influenced by what you were doing directly before it.

So, I will say that Eddie Van Halen took something away from Clapton's playing in a power trio, and you can argue tone-phrasing-licks here, and applied it to the quartet format which, allows for different grooves and overall attitude in playing.

And...you may say I'm off my rocker and if so, so it be.

Take a look at the live videos here and notice how the grooves hold during vocal sections and how musical transitions flow in the live settings with the prime suspects.

 Page was so cool with a Tele, wasn't he?

3/6/2012 (Joe Bonamassa gets around)

Joe Bonamassa and well...everybody.

Nobody gets around like Joe Bonamassa.

If he isn't your favorite guitar slinger he probably has played with whoever is.

A quick YouTube search unearths such gems as Joe, as a wee lad, working out with Danny Gatton's bunch...

Stuff you'd expect like, Joe stompin' with bluesers like Walter Trout...

To stuff that may surprise like Joe sitting in with classical rocker Jethro Tull...

And, Bonamassa doesn't confine his collaborations to just those still on this mortal coil either. Check out these clips where he's hooking up with deceased guitar hero's iconic axes...

And really, this is just scratching the surface. There are a bunch more clips of Bonamassa jamming with well...everybody.

Speaks well of the guy I say, works and plays well with others, ya' know?

3/4/2012 (louder isn't always better)

Let me tell you how I got on to the trail of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai this morning; I follow Eric on Twitter (click here to follow Eric) and this morning, E.J. tweeted a link to a Chicago Tribune article by Kevin Williams from January 5th. In it, the writer invoked some info and opinion on the 1996 G3 tour that featured the guitar virtuosi (heh heh...that's plural for virtuoso, I learned that before I left college to go play some Stones tunes)...

There is an immense, veritable pig pile of reasons to love guitar wizard Eric Johnson. Tinnitus is but one.

It was 1996, and the G3 concert tour, featuring Johnson, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani was all the rage...

...The upside is that because of that volume-related hearing problem, Johnson couldn't play loud. Which meant that nobody could. The result was one of the best-sounding shows you'd ever want to hear at the Aragon, which turned out to be a wonderful-sounding room, since a sound engineer wasn't trying to bludgeon it into submission with volume. So there's Johnson to thank for that voyage of discovery, even if the show turned out to be too much of a good thing. Mind you, that won't be a problem this time through, as it's just Johnson, without any other string-bending demons.

This guy clearly favors Johnson and also brings up an interesting subject with the whole tinnitus thing (an I love the phrase "pig pile" too btw), louder isn't always better.

Interesting clip here from those G3 days and notice that E.J. is wearing the headphones...also notice how each guy puts forth some stylistic matter over the basic blues format.

3/3/2012 (Semi-Hollow)

Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour.

A couple of things about this clip really caught my attention...first off; Carlton has this great knowledge and feel of what I call inside/outside playing (the ability to move between relative harmony and altered notes). Check out this intro! There's some stuff he does right after the :30 mark that is way quick and way out. Also, it's nice to hear Larry on the 335 again.

Rit kills me! His solo starts and, if you had your eyes closed, you'd swear it was Carlton playing the gear he had on the Royal Scam record. Great crunchy, bitey yet smooth...

3/2/2012 (KINGS of the Delta Blues)

“If you want to learn how to make songs yourself, you take your guitar and your go to where the road crosses that way, where a crossroads is. Get there be sure to get there just a little ‘ fore 12 that night so you know you’ll be there. You have your guitar and be playing a piece there by yourself…A big black man will walk up there and take your guitar and he’ll tune it. And then he’ll play a piece and hand it back to you. That’s the way I learned to play anything I want.”

Who said that?

Why, Mr. Johnson said that. Yes, yes...but...it was Tommy Johnson not Robert who told this particular tale of going down to the crossroads.

Lots of common ground between these two down to the whimsical Hollywood interpretations and it would be tough to pick one against the other.

One thing is for sure though, if you asked for water and she gave you gasoline, the blues would fall down like hail.

3/1/2012

Tone.

The Blues.

Which came first, the TONE or the BLUES?

How about Billy Gibbons...

...or...

...Ritchie Blackmore?

Yep, these two tunes are revered "blues-based" rock tonal benchmarks, milestones if you will; landmarks along the the long and lonesome blues based tonal highway,

Here we have a pair of versions well down the line from the original cuts. Do you suppose they are re-worked or, do they evolve?

Ahh...there's much to discuss here but, one thing that's technically off the table is the Fender vs. Gibson thread. Look close at the axe in the Reverend's hands, it's a Tokai which is stuff of legend in it's own right. Wiki sayeth...

 The Tokai "Les Paul Reborn" model started in 1978 and by 1980 Tokai had changed the name from "Les Paul Reborn" first to "Reborn Old" and then to the "Love Rock Model". This was in response to threats from the American companies to go to court to protect their copyrights. Thus these models are generically known as "Lawsuit Guitars"