What's going on there people? In this enthralling edition of One Terrible Blog, I'm gonna discuss some muzak with you. What I am going to discuss is this; no one, anyone, should ever cover the following 3 rock artists: Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, & Pantera. Allow me to elaborate...
First off, all 3 were/are guitar players who cannot be matched. They have a unique voice and style and when others cover their material, it frankly sounds like dog shit. They can't match the vibe or the feel of the originals.
Examples:
Van Halen: EVH is without a doubt one of the most influential guitar players er....ever. The way that he plays off of his brother, Roth/Hager/Cherone, the man with 2 first names/his kid; is unmatched by others.
Pantera: That band just had a groove that cannot be matched or replicated. When ever you see some ass hat on Youtube doing a Pantera cover; it sounds like crap. Also a side note to that...why in the name of all that is good, would anyone, anywhere ever want to hear Zakk Wylde play with those guys? He doesn't have the style to do it. He's all fast stupid pentatonic runs and awful vibrato. Plus if you go onto Youtube you can see him "jamming" onstage with them at the end of Primal Concrete Sledge. One word: supergoddamnfudgingawful.
and lastly....
Hendrix: If you need to know why it should be outlawed covering a Hendrix tune, my only argument is this: search Youtube for Yngwie J. Malmsteen doing a horrendously terrible version of Voodoo Child. That's it. That's my argument.
Anyways, never ever be the guy who covers anyone those bands unless your name is Edward Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell, or Jimi Hendrix.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Friday, October 19, 2012
Case in Point
The other day, I was reading some user comments on a favorite blog/website of mine. It is written by one my favorite musicians, who happens to be extremely knowledgeable and articulate. He is also generous enough to take time out of his busy schedule to respond to most, if not all comments. Although, to me some of the user comments come across as totally off base, uninformed, or just stupid. Case in point: "...the 90s' were a terrible decade for rock and metal period."
Seriously? Period? Here is a brief list of rock/metal bands that formed in the 90s', released some great albums in the 90s', or made it "big" in the 90s':
White Zombie
Alice in Chains
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Prong
System of a Down
Pantera
Metallica (granted they were "big" in the 80s' but they really broke in the 90s')
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tool
Faith No More
etc....*
Yeah, the way that rock/metal sounded and looked changed; BUT to say that the 90s' was "terrible" is just a silly thing to say. These bands wrote good songs and albums, had great tones, pioneered new tunings, and song structures. Saying something like that is very short sighted. If one just looks through their CD collection, iPod, Zune, or even just Wikipedia you can find out that the 90s' did produce some good rock/metal. Now this is not to say that it was with out it's low points, but it did produce very well.
* I know I left off a ton of groups/musicians. This was just a quick off hand list, I know that dozens of groups qualify for this, as well as the albums that they produced. So this was not a slam against any group or musician.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Mysteries of Craigslist
Craigslist is a very interesting thing, for lack of a better more creative description. On one hand you have people who legitimately want to sell, trade, or just get rid of shit. On the other hand you have the rest of the internet. Those people either want to low ball the hell out of you, say they want to acquire said item from you and then never follow through, and then you have the scammers.
As of this being written (August 27th) I'm selling a few items. Items which are not necessarily highly sought after or rare items, but at the same time they aren't chunks of peanutty shit. I know what they are worth, yet the only real responses are from said people I have mentioned. The items that I have online are musical items, and I guess what might put people off is the fact that a) I worked in a music store for 4 years and know how to evaluate these things and b) I own Blue Books that have prices in them.
I'm not sure what drives people to be turds regarding things like this. People like me aren't trying to "rip" others off, yet we don't want to just give it away. One of the funniest instances/experiences I had with someone on Craigslist dealt with someone who actually came to my house to check out what I was selling. This person loved what I was selling, but tried to haggle with me on price because she was able to buy some similar item (it was MUCH lower quality) for less. I explained to her what the deal was regarding Blue Book pricing & knowing what I was talking about. She then said she would have to think about it and left. Mind you she traveled an hour, one way at night to come see what I had, then proceeded to leave.
All I am trying to do along with thousands of others, is get rid of some stuff without taking a bath on it. I fail to understand how the rest of the internet community does not comprehend this.
...somewhat related to this, I made a book about spotting Craigslist scammers, as I have become tired of dealing with them.
As of this being written (August 27th) I'm selling a few items. Items which are not necessarily highly sought after or rare items, but at the same time they aren't chunks of peanutty shit. I know what they are worth, yet the only real responses are from said people I have mentioned. The items that I have online are musical items, and I guess what might put people off is the fact that a) I worked in a music store for 4 years and know how to evaluate these things and b) I own Blue Books that have prices in them.
I'm not sure what drives people to be turds regarding things like this. People like me aren't trying to "rip" others off, yet we don't want to just give it away. One of the funniest instances/experiences I had with someone on Craigslist dealt with someone who actually came to my house to check out what I was selling. This person loved what I was selling, but tried to haggle with me on price because she was able to buy some similar item (it was MUCH lower quality) for less. I explained to her what the deal was regarding Blue Book pricing & knowing what I was talking about. She then said she would have to think about it and left. Mind you she traveled an hour, one way at night to come see what I had, then proceeded to leave.
All I am trying to do along with thousands of others, is get rid of some stuff without taking a bath on it. I fail to understand how the rest of the internet community does not comprehend this.
...somewhat related to this, I made a book about spotting Craigslist scammers, as I have become tired of dealing with them.
Friday, May 4, 2012
(Signature) Signature
This one is rather short and to the point. This little diddy deals with signature guitars, specifically Les Pauls; so here it is. How can someone have a signature Les Paul? A Les Paul is a signature guitar named for yep you guessed, Sean Connery, I mean Les Paul. I mean, is there going to be a signature (insert famous guitar player's name) Dimebag Darrell guitar? No, because it's stupid. It's one thing to have a signature Stratocaster, that is just an existing NON signature guitar. A Les Paul is a god damn Les Paul.
I mentioned this to a former coworker who was a drummer and his response was: "Well, what about signature Vic Firth drumsticks?" My answer was simple: "It's completely different. Vic Firth is a guy and that's the name of his company, like Fender was Leo Fender's company or Marshall was Jim Marshall's company. Les Paul had a signature guitar through Gibson. It's already a signature guitar to begin with. It doesn't make sense."
There you have it, signature series anything, of an already existing anything doesn't make sense.
I mentioned this to a former coworker who was a drummer and his response was: "Well, what about signature Vic Firth drumsticks?" My answer was simple: "It's completely different. Vic Firth is a guy and that's the name of his company, like Fender was Leo Fender's company or Marshall was Jim Marshall's company. Les Paul had a signature guitar through Gibson. It's already a signature guitar to begin with. It doesn't make sense."
There you have it, signature series anything, of an already existing anything doesn't make sense.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Weedely Deedely Deedely Weeeeeeeeee! (Guitar Noises)
One of the few things in life that I know that I am legitimately good at (bordering on genius, okay not that great) is playing guitar. Since I was a little Josh (ages 0-10) I was enamored with it. The first real memory I have of a guitar and knowing it was cool was when my family lived in England or Great Britain or the United Kingdom or....I think that's all of their names. I looked up and saw this bad ass (what my stupid brain told me was bad ass at least) purple guitar; it looked like one of those lame ass C.C. DeVille guitars in retrospect, but I was hooked.
Flash forward to my tenth birthday.
I bugged my parents and finally I got one. It was a cream colored Fender Stratocaster, which I still have and plunk around on when I come home to visit, along with a little Crate practice amp. Immediately I was awesome. By awesome I mean that I made it sound like shit just by looking at it. The first time I broke a string I thought that I was going to get in trouble because I was a stupid child. I didn't tell anyone and kept it in it's case for a while. Eventually I let the cat out of the bag...and caught a beating. Just kidding?
Eventually my mom got me signed up for lessons with my first teacher Ryan. The first thing he asked me was what I knew, my answer: "I can play D." Swish. Well, in my eyes things progressed quickly. I was learning quickly and was one of the few people who legitimately loved to practice. I played all of the standard AC/DC tunes but soon got bored. Around this time Ryan moved to Minneapolis and I took lessons from the guy who taught him, Jeremy. He was great. He challenged and pushed me into newer territory making me better.
Also around this time I began to jam with some people from school, doing the shitty high school band thing. I don't want to say that I was hot shit or anything, but I kinda was. I mean one day the other guitar player's (at the time) was cool enough to give me a ride home and he said this: "...you know you guys are not bad, well those other guys are not bad; but you I can tell, you really like to play and practice..."
Flash forward to my sophomore year of high school.
I played football and broke my god damn knuckle. No guitar for like 6 months. Bye bye callouses, muscle memory, speed, accuracy, blah blah. I did make a triumphant return and I feel that I play better than before even with limited range of motion, just because I had to relearn things instead of just going all guns blazing.
Around this time I also made my first upgrade in the guitar department by winning a music store contest; by being the only one to enter it. Hey $200, is $200. Also my English teacher found out that I played guitar so she hounded me to come in and play for the class; no joke she did. So I did and ended up playing for two classes and missing my lunch. I also did this for a speech class. Needless to say my superstar skills and devilishly handsome looks got me some attention from the ladies.
Our little shitty band made an upgrade by getting my friend Ray to be the other guitar player. We both took lessons from Jeremy and we had a healthy competition between each other which helped us get better.
Flash forward to "real life".
Once college came, boy things changed. Gone were the days of playing for hours on end with out responsibility. It became more of when I could, although I always tried to play at least one hour a day no matter how busy. It got easier to do once I started working at a music store and teaching lessons because I was playing upwards of five hours a day and some of my students were really good. Now that I'm in grad school and inching towards real real life, who knows how much time I will have. I do know that no matter what I will always love to play it is one of my first loves and something that I know I am really good at; there is no doubt about that. The shitty thing is that when school is in session, I can only play maybe 3-5 hours a week if I'm lucky. On breaks "Whoa Nelly" do I go to town. I'd say about 10-15 hours a week. The first few days I suck balls (in my mind), but at about day three or four my callouses are back in full form along with speed, accuracy, and my memory. Side note: I have this game I play with myself. I like to learn tune all the way through, play it about 900 times and then not play it for about six months to a year. Then I try to play it off of memory without the aid of a book. The first time or two I just sort of feel it out, but by take three I have it all the way back.
So as time has gone by I have also upgraded just about everything and gotten rid of almost nothing. I have somewhere around 10(ish) guitars and about 6-7 amps. Even though most aren't really worth a damn or even "sexy" guitars I love 'em all for different reasons. They all have different sounds and feels. I should probably stop getting them because I only have two hands and can only play one at a time, and it gets a bit costly to maintain them. But I love it, it's like crack.
Flash forward to my tenth birthday.
I bugged my parents and finally I got one. It was a cream colored Fender Stratocaster, which I still have and plunk around on when I come home to visit, along with a little Crate practice amp. Immediately I was awesome. By awesome I mean that I made it sound like shit just by looking at it. The first time I broke a string I thought that I was going to get in trouble because I was a stupid child. I didn't tell anyone and kept it in it's case for a while. Eventually I let the cat out of the bag...and caught a beating. Just kidding?
Eventually my mom got me signed up for lessons with my first teacher Ryan. The first thing he asked me was what I knew, my answer: "I can play D." Swish. Well, in my eyes things progressed quickly. I was learning quickly and was one of the few people who legitimately loved to practice. I played all of the standard AC/DC tunes but soon got bored. Around this time Ryan moved to Minneapolis and I took lessons from the guy who taught him, Jeremy. He was great. He challenged and pushed me into newer territory making me better.
Also around this time I began to jam with some people from school, doing the shitty high school band thing. I don't want to say that I was hot shit or anything, but I kinda was. I mean one day the other guitar player's (at the time) was cool enough to give me a ride home and he said this: "...you know you guys are not bad, well those other guys are not bad; but you I can tell, you really like to play and practice..."
Flash forward to my sophomore year of high school.
I played football and broke my god damn knuckle. No guitar for like 6 months. Bye bye callouses, muscle memory, speed, accuracy, blah blah. I did make a triumphant return and I feel that I play better than before even with limited range of motion, just because I had to relearn things instead of just going all guns blazing.
Around this time I also made my first upgrade in the guitar department by winning a music store contest; by being the only one to enter it. Hey $200, is $200. Also my English teacher found out that I played guitar so she hounded me to come in and play for the class; no joke she did. So I did and ended up playing for two classes and missing my lunch. I also did this for a speech class. Needless to say my superstar skills and devilishly handsome looks got me some attention from the ladies.
Our little shitty band made an upgrade by getting my friend Ray to be the other guitar player. We both took lessons from Jeremy and we had a healthy competition between each other which helped us get better.
Flash forward to "real life".
Once college came, boy things changed. Gone were the days of playing for hours on end with out responsibility. It became more of when I could, although I always tried to play at least one hour a day no matter how busy. It got easier to do once I started working at a music store and teaching lessons because I was playing upwards of five hours a day and some of my students were really good. Now that I'm in grad school and inching towards real real life, who knows how much time I will have. I do know that no matter what I will always love to play it is one of my first loves and something that I know I am really good at; there is no doubt about that. The shitty thing is that when school is in session, I can only play maybe 3-5 hours a week if I'm lucky. On breaks "Whoa Nelly" do I go to town. I'd say about 10-15 hours a week. The first few days I suck balls (in my mind), but at about day three or four my callouses are back in full form along with speed, accuracy, and my memory. Side note: I have this game I play with myself. I like to learn tune all the way through, play it about 900 times and then not play it for about six months to a year. Then I try to play it off of memory without the aid of a book. The first time or two I just sort of feel it out, but by take three I have it all the way back.
So as time has gone by I have also upgraded just about everything and gotten rid of almost nothing. I have somewhere around 10(ish) guitars and about 6-7 amps. Even though most aren't really worth a damn or even "sexy" guitars I love 'em all for different reasons. They all have different sounds and feels. I should probably stop getting them because I only have two hands and can only play one at a time, and it gets a bit costly to maintain them. But I love it, it's like crack.
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