And That's Why HE'S Steve Smith...

Watch til the end, it's not very long.

Guitar Hero... Needs To Be Improved

I have zero interest in those games, except maybe the drumset. And my nephew had broken his when I was visiting so no dice.

I keep hoping someone will make a MIDI input for a Guitar Hero type game. Then you can actually play a REAL instrument and better yourself as a player while rocking out the game at the same time.

Extra points for inversions!

I can dream, right?

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.

He Belew Me Away!

Adrian Belew that is. (www.adrianbelew.net)

I saw this show on the Radio Radio newsletter and thought "Cool." But I wasn't sure on going since I was completely unfamiliar with the guy's solo work and only slightly better acquainted with his King Crimson stuff.

But I took a chance and trekked down to Fountain Square, despite being really tired before even getting into the shower.

I took Mr. John Peddie's advice and stopped at Smokehouse on Shelby where they gave me way too much food to eat in one sitting. Great BBQ for a great price. My waitress suggested the pulled pork dinner platter over the beef brisket.The pork was juicy and wonderful. The sweet BBQ sauce was good and tangy. The baked beans had a surprisingly deep flavor. My plate could easily have fed two adults with room for desert. I happily stuffed myself almost sick since, being on the Ninja, a doggie bag wasn't feasible. Though I really hated looking at how much I left behind. I despise wasting food, especially when I done paid for it!

So I walked around the corner to Radio Radio, bought a ticket and a Killians Red. The show seemed to take forever to start and the opening act was a bit on the silly side. The guy played goofy covers on mandolin, then a custom fretless sitar then a dobro. It was extremely well-executed and you could tell the guy can really wail on his instruments. And that fretless sitar thing sounded awesome. But the guy's song choices made me say "HUH?" As good as he played, I suspect he could have written some seriously good originals. Eh, whatever.

Adrian and the Slick siblings (Eric on drums and Julie on bass) took the stage well after 10pm and proceeded to kick major booty. Adrian's fluid screaming guitar, Eric playing thunderously on a small but massive-sounding FOUR piece kit and Julie sounding grooving and slinky on that bass. They do a sort of jammy funky progressive rock thing. I can't wait to order their live CD. Hopefully it's recorded well and I get a better presentation.

Radio Radio is a pretty lame venue cuz if you ain't in the front row you're pretty much not seeing anything. And that's a good part of the fun with a band that is that proficient. The sound was sub-par too. Julie's bass was way too low in the mix and the highs were too shrill.

But despite the sub-par presentation of the band I still had a lot of fun and, from what little I saw, it was obvious the AB Trio was enjoying themselves too. I bought a t-shirt and got the band to sign it and said hi and stuff.

It was great to see a packed house for this sort of obscure artist. Indianapolis needs more nights like that if we're to attract better artists in the smaller venues.

Anyway, if you like King Crimson or good fusion type music, check the linked site for more dates. I think you'll enjoy yourself.

An Actual COOL iPhone Ap

http://www.petersontuners.com/gpbaspbanner

Other than a GPS and a grocery list, there isn't much I would want my phone to do. But this is pretty dang cool.

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.

Sweet!

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.

This One's For YOU, Dave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdDxz2bkfhE&feature=related

UPDATE: I know no one else cares except for Dave, but it's an excuse to watch a great video.

At the end of the guitar solo, the singer says something pretty dang funny.

I Love My Family...

My snare drum family that is...

From left to right they be:
4 x 15 Tama Kenny Aronoff Super Piccolo
8 x 14 Tama vintage 80's Superstar
6.5 x 14 Ocheltree Dangerous (weighs a ton and a half!)
a 6 x 14 "Frankenstein" drum from the shop of Johnny Craviotto
5.5 x 14 Tama Starclassic Performer
5 x 14 Payne Percussion single-ply
4 x 14 Payne Percussion multi-ply
5 x 12 Tama Mike Portnoy Melody Master hammered steel

I have a very nice snare selection. I can get pretty much any possible snare sound I want, except for the big, thin metal sound. But I hope to get another Kenny Aronoff snare in the 6.5 x 14 size to cover that part of the spectrum.

I really want to get a set of 10 lug wooden hoops and put them on either the 5 x 14 Payne Percussion snare or the Craviotto. I'm thinking putting them on the Craviotto would be a better move. It's a bit thin on the tone side and some wooden hoops should thicken things up nicely.

I would also like to stain the naked 5 x 14 Payne Percussion snare and maybe the Craviotto (though I would have to strip that one first). I would stain them the same colour as the 8 x 14, which is the colour of my main 12 piece kit (a gorgeous Cherry Wine finish).

Holy Crap!

This video is just insane. The cymbal? WTF?



Mike Mangini is a pretty cool guy to meet in person too. He spent a long time in 1999 after the Steve Vai show in Columbus explaining his one-handed (freehand, some call it) snare roll technique. I really hope to catch him in a clinic someday.

Turkey Day Danger!



And for Jay, slow-mo DOGGIE madness!

Learnin' Da REAL Blues...

Of the "I Hate The Nanny State" variety. Poor kid.

More of this WunderKind

disappoinment...

and the dealing with the same...

I hate being disappointed. And it seems to be a common theme in my music selections lately.

Example? Rush's "Snakes & Arrows". After my favorite Rush album ever (Vapor Trails), they put out a rehashed hippy protest CD with no balls.

The same with Victor Wooten's last one (well the last two, actually). No spark, nothing to grab me as a listener.

And it just happened again recently with a bassist by the name of Bryan Beller. He put out a really good CD called "View" a few years back. Great tunes, great production and plenty of balls! Most of the songs have a pleasant grit to them. Overall an amazing first release.

Then I get the follow-up, "Thanks In Advance"... and it has no balls. I mean, the songs are nice enough. Good playing... decent production, decent melodies... but no balls. Nothing grabbing and no immediacy to the music whatsoever. Very disappointing.

I just wonder what it is that causes musicians to fail like this. Are they just not hungry enough anymore? Too happy with their home lives? To rich to care?

I don't know, but it sucks big time.

I have Planet X's third studio release in the mail headed my way right now. Man I hope Derek Sherinian and his pals don't let me down with this one...

The Damn INJUSTICE!!!!

Tony Levin, Terry Bozzio, Pat Mastelotto and Alan Holdsworth. On tour. Together.

In JAPAN.

And I can't go.

That just sucks.

And no one here knows WHY that really, really, really SUCKS.

Oh well. I guess I'll just suffer.

Silly Fun In Drumming.

Jus A Country Tune Fer Y'all...

If You Prefer Faggot Versions of Rock Classics...

I've never heard of the band "Cake" before. But man do they suck. Their version of "War Pigs" sounds like a homo singing over MIDI instruments. How lame and pathetic. I need to crank something to get that garbage out of my consciousness ASAP.

It's like someone told them: "Have a take. DO suck!"

Play this version instead:

Here's a Bad Joke For Ya.

Three notes walk into a bar: a C, an E-flat and a G.

The bartender says he doesn't serve minors.

So the E-flat leaves and the C and G have a fifth between them.