PAUL GILBERT IS AMAZING!

If you pretend to love guitar, you must own some of his solo stuff. If you like instrumentals, get "GET OUT OF MY YARD". If you love vocals, get "SPACE SHIP ONE".

There shall be zero argument. He rocks. And you should buy his stuff.

John Mayer Is STILL An "Insufferable Douchebag"

Why apologize for speaking the truth? Mr. Mayer can't seem to be able to decide if he can sack up or not.

He talks like he doesn't care what folks think, then he turns around and kisses arse for offending folks.

DUDE!

Make up your freaking mind! You can wail on geetar and (supposedly) sing. You have your pick of skanks the likes of Jennifer Anniston and Jessica Simpson! You can probably get WAY hotter tail than THAT too!

So why kiss anyone's ass?

Too strange.

And in other movie news "It Might Get Loud" is coming to our town's Landmark theater on October 9th.

This one should be worth it just for Jimmy Page alone. I have no clue what Jack Stripe's about, but the Edge does some interesting things with effects and sound.

Can't wait!

UPDATE: from John-O: "10/23...or maybe 10/30. We just don't know."

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! (My Charlie Brown impression.)

He Who Hesitates...

...doesn't get to see Les Paul in concert. I have been meaning for years to get to NYC and do a few things, including seeing Mr. Les Paul do his regular Monday night gig.

But the guitar legend passed today. He leaves one amazing legacy. A lot of folks online making their tributes and all have really nice things to say. Even without his ubiquitous signature geetar, his mark on the music world will be felt for all time.

Requiescat in pace, sir. Truly well done.

The Man Is SICKENING!

Just Enjoy...

Bet It Kicks Van Halen's Ass...

http://www.chickenfoot.us/

Not much at that link just yet, merely a silly little video.

But I'm really looking forward to this one. I think all four members of Chickenfoot are great players. This should be one seriously monster-sounding, balls-slamming-rock band.

In case you don't know, Chickenfoot is:
* Sammy Hagar from Van Halen
* Michael Anthony from Van Halen (Eddie is a serious asshole.)
* Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers and Wild Thornberries
* freaking Joe Satriani in his first "band" situation since he became famous as a solo artist in the mid-80's.

Michael Anthony lays it down and makes things feel really good. With him and the funky and slamming Chad Smith as the anchors, Sammy on vocals and guitar and FREAKING JOE SATRIANI... this ought to be good.

I just hope they tour and come here to Indy. And that decent tickets aren't in the Eagles range.

Mike's Music Madness

A few music reviews:

Brad Paisley - "Play"
Country artist Brad Paisley? Yup, you're on the right blog. I read about this one in a guitar mag. It's a mostly instrumental outing by Mr. Paisley and I have been wanting to get some more country music so I figured "Why not?".

Solid, good-feeling music with strong country music sensibility but more than enough smoking playing and creative tunes to keep me from getting bored. I really like Brad's soloing / melodic sense. He gets really sweet, awesome tone with those Telecasters too. He does tributes to surf music, jazz, da blues and a mish-mash of everything else too. All with a country tinge.

But EASILY the best thing about this excellent CD is track 13 "Playing With Fire". That is one... BAD... ASS!!!! track. Brad burns, shreds and sings on that freaking guitar! I would put that track up there with Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover". (That song comes to mind since Brad cops a semi-EJ vibe for it.) I was laughing with sheer joy listening to it for the first time. I was already liking this CD a lot before this one came on. Now I love it, even with the sappy love song final track (which is actually pretty dang good).

I put this review first since I am really glad to see this sort of thing done. It's very nice to see a high-profile country singer come out and do such an odd thing as an instrumental album. And to have it be a solid-sounding CD on top of it... that's just icing on the cake.

Of course, there's a really big down side about my liking this one. It made me realize that I don't own a Telecaster or even a Tele-copy.

Boston (self-titled)
Great classic rock CD. Catchy tunes, awesome guitars and vocals. Excellent drums & keys too. I don't care as much for "Hitch A Ride" or "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" but 6 really good songs out of 8 equals a great album to me.

Tom Scholz' tone is just incredible, it amazes me like few guitarists can. Tom, Neal Schon from Journey and Brian May all hit notes that are just indescribable. Just oozing with masterful tone.

Planet X - "Quantum"
I took a long time to buy this one because Tony MacAlpine left the band and I love his playing on the first two PX CDs. Now I'm kicking myself for waiting!

This is just SICK (read "amazing") rock fusion from keyboardist Derek Sherinian and Virgil Donati on the drums, plus a bunch of awesome guests. Brett Garsed does an amazing job on most of the guitar tracks, with the legendary Alan Holdsworth doing the honours for two of the tracks. Brett's guitar solo on the first track is worth the purchase of the disc all by itself.

Prime Mover: This is instrumental Dream Theater on crack. In a good way. IMHO, Derek Sherinian's solo CDs' output kills DT in every way since 2000.

Paul Gilbert - "Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar"
Pablo Gilberto is just freaking awesome. An instrumental CD with great playing... blah, blah, blah... It's Paul Gilbert! And it has a track titled "Paul vs. Godzilla"! What more do you need to know? Go get it.

Or you suck.

"Not Too Bad For A Blind White Boy..."

http://jeffhealey.com/home.htm

Jeff Healey passed yesterday of cancer at 41. That's too bad for his family, to be gone at such a young age.

He had a good voice and some badass licks on the geetar. I tend to like my blues with more of a rock edge, and Jeff sure delivered. Man, could he wail.

His album "See The Light" is pretty good. In fact, I'm putting it in right... now.

His album "Cover To Cover" is really good. Some killer guitar work on some classic rock and blues tunes.

I always tried to keep an eye out for him touring, it just seemed like it would be a good show. It's a shame, I missed out not ever catching him.

EDIT: I forgot how much I love his version of Hendrix' "Angel" from "Cover to Cover". Great song, great performance.

In pace requiescat, Mr. Healey.

Someone Give Me $20K!!!!!!!

I'd sell my third born for this HERE.

If I had any kids, that is.

Loogie Lady... Hawker Hendrix, Guitar Hero!

At 1:55 on "Foxy Lady", is Hendrix hawking up a loogie and spitting??????? My version is from the Wayne's World (I) soundtrack, so others might have different mixes. Kind cool (and gross)!

What's This World Coming To?

This kid must be depressed that "Stairway" isn't called out like "Freebird" is at cover band shows, cuz he's doing a decent impression of Jimmy Page!

Yet ANOTHER Reason Paul Gilbert Is Cool...

(and why I'm STILL kicking myself for not making me and Jason go to G3 in Boston to see PG, John Petrucci and Joe Satriani... almost as much as I'm kicking myself for going to a cave w/ my Mom & my niece visiting from Boston instead of going to see Zappa Does Zappa on Sunday night... ARRGGGGGHHH!!!!)

Anyway...

WHAT GETS 60 MILES PER GALLON WHILE IT'S HEADING OUT TO THE HIGHWAY?
IT'S MADE OF METAL
IT'S CIRCUITS GLEAM
IT'S (ALMOST) PERPETUAL
IT KEEPS THE COUNTRY CLEAN

IT'S THE...

ANSWER HERE.