Month: April 2011

NEWS: Big 4 to play Yankee Stadium

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Great news for east coast-dwellers who missed the Big 4 show in California last weekend. Metallica just posted this on their site:

“A huge thanks to everyone who came out to the desert this past weekend . . . we felt the enormous love and support, so we just had to find a way to make one more Big 4 show in the States happen. Enter New York . . . that’s right, the Big 4 of Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and ‘Tallica will be in the new version of the famed Yankee Stadium on September 14, 2011! We can’t wait for a night in the Bronx as our second American show and for those of you who love fun facts, this will also be the second live music event hosted at the new ballpark.”

NEWS: Bryan Beller releases live DVD

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PRESS RELEASE

BASSIST/COMPOSER BRYAN BELLER RELEASES WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE CONCERT DVD

Live DVD documents the sole west coast show of Beller’s debut 2010 tour and includes numerous special bonus features

NASHVILLE, TN (April 29, 2011) – Bassist/composer and sideman extraordinaire Bryan Beller (Dethklok, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally) has released his solo project’s first live concert DVD, Wednesday Night Live. An up-close-and-personal 4-camera document of the Beller band’s one-night-only 2010 show at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles, the DVD is a serious statement from an artist who’s quickly establishing himself as one of the elite bass playing and compositional voices in the rock/jazz fusion scene today.

The DVD shares a basic running order and band lineup with the live CD of the same name, but also includes special features such as between-song dialogue not present on the CD, additional videos from previous shows with an expanded lineup, interviews with each of the band members, a rare live video of the impossibly difficult “See You Next Tuesday” from the very first Bryan Beller Band gig ever, and four new remixes of studio tracks from Beller’s first album.

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NEWS: MXR Vintage Distortion + giveaway

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The MXR Distortion + is the legendary pedal that Randy Rhoads used with Ozzy Osbourne. My guitar teacher had one and I freaking loved that thing. I’ve vowed to get one myself some day. I still haven’t checked that one off the list but maybe you can, if you enter Jim Dunlop’s MXR Distortion + giveaway. Check out this snippet from the Jim Dunlop blog:

We got a GREAT Friday giveaway for you diehard vintage MXR fans out there. This week we’re giving away a vintage reissue of a Distortion +, yup its the tone that made Randy Rhoads famous. You won’t find this bad boy in stores because it’s still in pre-production! This is a special model that was meticulously spec’d, and recreated—hand-wired by one of our engineers. MXR Vintage fans – complete the vintage family before everybody else! Generally speaking we usually restrict our giveaways to USA only, but because this giveaways so rad we’re going to open it up to the world.

For details on how to enter, click here.

NEWS: LA Guns ‘Sex Action’ tour cancelled but Guns play anyway! Back In The Day to the rescue!

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UPDATE 1: NEWS FLASH: LA Guns will be playing at Back In The Day (Portland Hotel, cnr Russell & Little Collins Streets) instead, both tonight and tomorrow night, doors at 11pm, $25.

UPDATE 2: Co-promoter Shane Tester has posted the following on the Facebook page for Back In The Day as well as on his own profile: “Tour was cancelled for reasons beyond my control. Please direct all inquiries to Andrew Feder (the co-president of Intense Impact + the co-promoter on this tour + the financier) as due to the many recent circumstances beyond my control I have quit Intense Impact in complete disgust over these said events. Please email all inquiries to Andrew Feder. I will be releasing a statement on Monday as right now I am recovering in hospital from injuries sustained as a result of assault. Police are continuing investigations at my request.”

ORIGINAL STORY: If you’re planning on attending the LA Guns ‘Sex Action 2011’ tour of Australia (with support from Defryme and a mystery special guest band that never materialized), better contact your ticket retailer about a refund. It ain’t happening. Likewise if you thought you were attending the previously advised Metal Health 2011 tour featuring LA Guns, Warrant and Quiet Riot. Metal Health was cancelled after Warrant and Quiet Riot pulled out, and the tour was repackaged as Sex Action 2011. Which was cancelled and replaced with nothing. You probably wouldn’t know this if you checked out promoter Intense Impact’s website because the site still says the Warrant/LA Guns/Quiet Riot tour is still on. But it’s not.

The word on Facebook is that the promoter has allegedly been apprehended by the Australian Federal Police for alleged fraud. Allegedly.

If you would like to keep on top of the latest details, check out the Intense Impact Facebook here.

NEWS: Monkeyfest guitar tuition festival

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UK Guitarist Festival ‘MonkeyFest’ Offers Guitar Tuition from Virtuoso Talent

New UK fest brings guitar tuition from the screen to the stage

26th April 2011

London, UK – MonkeyFest is a new UK-based music festival taking place from the 1st to the 3rd of July 2011 at Bisley Pavilion, Woking. Hosted by Rob “The Monkey Lord” Chapman – who is frequently YouTube’s UK #1 most-viewed musician, and is internationally acclaimed for his free online tuition – Rob is bringing guitar tuition from the screen to the stage at MonkeyFest.

MonkeyFest is a unique event combining tuition and performance, and with a line-up comprising of blistering shred guitarists, smooth classical artists and driving rock bands, it has something to offer everyone. Guitar heroes such as Guthrie Govan, Andy James and Alex Hutchings are confirmed to perform and teach alongside the likes of Godsized, Haken and Sons of Icarus topped-off with rising talent, including Ben Wilshire, Sammy Coulson and Adam Lee.

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Serve the Servants: Unlocking the Secrets of Grunge Guitar

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This week my feature article for Gibson.com is about grunge guitar – something I know a lot about since I was a guitar mag addict during the heady days of grunge. Here’s a teaser:

It’s now 20 years since the grunge revolution changed the course of mainstream music and made the term “alternative” into a buzzword (and a category on record store shelves). Arriving in the wake of a particularly technical epoch – both in terms of gear and guitar playing – grunge redefined what a guitar tone could be, and did away with the more histrionic guitar vocabulary developed during the preceding decade. Grunge may not have had an Eddie Van Halen or an Yngwie Malmsteen in terms of technique and instrumental excess, but the genre was never short of guitar innovators.

Click the link to read the rest! Serve the Servants: Unlocking the Secrets of Grunge Guitar