Let's talk about music

[Factorial]

Tif, I think you have a very narrow view of what rock music is -- seemingly out of Cream or Kerrang Magazine. Sure, EVH was influential and that's another reason I don't like him. His style was copied by all those bands in the 80's (from Bon Jovi to GNR) and made popular rock music suck until Nirvana came along and put the nail in it's coffin. As others have said above, technical prowess alone doesn't make a guitarist great.

[tifosi77]

I have never said that technical prowess alone defines greatness, nor do I believe that. In fact, my first post on the topic flat out stated that guys like Malmsteen are nothing but the flash and dash, and I consider that type of playing to be almost entirely useless.

But absent a certain level of virtuosity and proficiency on the instrument, I simply cannot call someone a great guitar player. A great talent that happens to express themselves musically on the guitar? Sure. The Edge and Jack White fall into this group, imo. As are most of the old bluesmen from the South. They express themselves, musically, and do it well. But they are pretty rudimentary as guitarists.

Also, I want to be clear that virtuosity with an instrument =/= advanced academic knowledge of music, nor vice versa. For example, when I was younger I could do the three-octave scales, and knew all the diatonic modes, and could right hand tap with the best of 'em. But when I did, it really was just flash and bang, because I did not have a unique musical voice. Hell, I didn't even have my own musical voice, let alone a unique one. It was mere mimicry and empty technique, the end result of six years of advanced schooling and little to no actual collaborative playing. Conversely, EVH never had a single guitar lesson in his life and can't read sheet music. It's what I always refer to as the difference between talent and ability. Just because I can play Van Halen songs doesn't make me as good as EVH.

[MRandall25]

Sorry to backtrack a littlr, but which bands use(d) 444 Hz as opposed to 440? I know Ride The Lightning is tuned slightly higher but don't know the number.

[Kraftster]

So the Brandi Carlile unplugged show at the Carnegie Lecture Hall was pretty amazing. The acoustics in that room were really impressive; it's pretty fascinating how sound works. That was the seventh time that I have seen BC, and I had actually planned on skipping her next couple times through because I've seen just about every song I've ever wanted to see live. I'm really glad that I was willing to change my mind on that given the format of this show. It was one of the more memorable shows that I've been to in a long time, and there really is something rather awe inspiring about hearing a voice like that in such a natural setting.

[tifosi77]

Sorry to backtrack a littlr, but which bands use(d) 444 Hz as opposed to 440? I know Ride The Lightning is tuned slightly higher but don't know the number.

It's not super common, but you're more likely to find it in jazz and ensembles with a wider variety of tonal characters, like a symphony. Supposedly it helps the instrument pop a little bit and stand out because of the different intonation. I mean, you're not even talking a quarter step in pitch. Much more common is to tune the guitar down 1/2 step (iirc A=430 Hz), which results in a slightly chunkier sound and slacker strings which bend a bit easier. I've tried both at various times, but neither really suit me.

Re Ride The Lightning, I remembered that as well, but wanted to refresh my memory before replying. I remembered one part correctly (that it was only on 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', not the whole record), and one part incorrectly (I thought the recording was actually sped up slightly during mastering, but reading the innernets it says the guitars were actually tuned sharp).

[Chefpatrick871]

If you're looking for a good unknown band I highly recommend In the Valley Below, saw them open for Airborne Toxic Event last night and was beyond impressed. Favorite song so far is Searching for a Devil.

[shafnutz05]

Heartbreaking

[youtube][/youtube]

[columbia]

[FreeCandy44]

So...the Foo Fighters/Zac Brown cover of War Pigs is very meh.

[youtube][/youtube]

[cma3585]

The new At The Gates album, their first since 1996, is pretty decent but as I figured doesn't hold the same IT factor that Slaughter of the Soul, let alone the first three The Haunted albums, holds. It's still pretty vicious but not vicious enough given what they used to be. Regardless, they're still better than most of their peers that they influenced. New The Haunted album is actually a fine return to form as well.

[FreeCandy44]

CMA!!!! You should post more. And thank you for getting me into Ghost, I love this band.

[FreeCandy44]

So the new Foo Fighters song is pretty good, id post it....but Mr Grohl says a certain 4 letter word a few times. Although....it does rip off the main riff of Dio's Holy Diver.

[cma3585]

CMA!!!! You should post more. And thank you for getting me into Ghost, I love this band.

Yeah, I went MIA for awhile after getting my new job.

Here's some people into stoner/doom/occult rock should get into.

[youtube][/youtube]

[columbia]

Speaking of playing other people's music.....


Miles Davis’s Jazz Masterpiece ‘Kind of Blue’ Is Redone
The band Mostly Other People Do the Killing is releasing ‘Blue,’ a CD that is a note-for-note copy of the classic album

After listening to a few songs from “Blue,” drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member of the “Kind of Blue” sextet, agreed. “These guys are proficient—I thought they were us at first—but I don’t hear the human part, the individual sound and feel I lived with on those sessions,” he said. “But, hey, classical has been doing this for centuries—playing the notes someone else wrote. If these guys took the time to do this, the music must mean something to them.”

http://online.wsj.com/articles/miles-da ... 1412699010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have it on good authority (aka the drummer, who lived in Pittsburgh back in the day) that they are (partially) goofing on Wynton Marsalis' idea that jazz is America's classical music...ie they didn't much of that idea.

[Willie Kool]

Saw the new Genesis documentary 'Sum of the Parts' today. Definitely worth the watch.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/video ... w-20141010

[Gaucho]

Sleater-Kinney reuniting?

[columbia]

Lots of NSFW during the intro, as Foo Fighters cover Naked Raygun...with Jeff Pezzati:

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This record still rips:

[youtube][/youtube]

[Factorial]

So many better songs on that record they could have done.

[Gaucho]

Sleater-Kinney reuniting?

You can pre-order a new album called No Cities To Love, so yes.

Awesome, I spent the last few months kicking myself for having overlooked them back in the late 90s and never seen them live, and now this. Excellent.

[Factorial]

Greg Ginn of Black Flag makes it on TMZ:

Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn is not to be trusted with his 2 daughters ... which his ex-wife says is obvious to anyone who watches this video of him perving out with a young chick on stage.

Ginn performed with Black Flag in July at a Butte, MT music festival. A young woman jumped on stage and gotta say ... what he does with her is pretty shocking.

The guy who shot the video says it was so creepy ... he contacted Ginn's ex-wife because he feared for the safety of the couple's daughters, ages 10 and 7.

Hardly shocking. I was more surprised with how weak Black Fag sounded.

http://www.tmz.com/2014/10/20/greg-ginn ... z3GhSZOGHe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Troy Loney]

Sleater-Kinney reuniting?

You can pre-order a new album called No Cities To Love, so yes.

Awesome, I spent the last few months kicking myself for having overlooked them back in the late 90s and never seen them live, and now this. Excellent.

I've seen headlines, I thought they were reissuing all their stuff on Vinyl. New album would be cool, would be cooler if she got Wild Flag back together and made another album.

[Kraftster]

Is there any advice on how to tackle Stereolab? I came across a Lætitia Sadier solo song today that I enjoyed and was led to Stereolab.

[columbia]

A lot of the good action was on their endless number of singles, so the first three compilations are pretty nice:

Switched On
Refried Ectoplasm: Switched On, Vol. 2
Aluminum Tunes: Switched On, Vol. 3

In terms of the actual albums, I'd rank them as:

Peng!
Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
Dots and Loops
Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Mars Audiac Quintet

<the rest go here >


That's probably not very helpful..but, yeah, the compilations are probably the place to start.

[Kraftster]

That's useful--there's a ton of stuff, so my first thought was to go for the compilations. Thank you for the confirmation.

[JS©]

This record still rips:

[youtube][/youtube]

I almost forgot about that one.

I still listen to Jettison regularly and have Soldier's Requiem at the end of my gym playlist.

[youtube][/youtube]