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 van halen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label van halen. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
A Different Kind of Circus
As it's January, and it's also that time of the year where musicians from all over the world get together in Los Angeles for the winter N.A.M.M. (National Association of Music Merchants) show; I figured that I would briefly run down the craziness that I was fortunate enough to experience in 2009 when I went. So this not really going to necessarily flow from thing to thing, it'll just be things I saw and experienced. Some will be short one liners, others a bit lengthier.
Without further a due, here we go!!!
*I went to this sweet ass Yamaha party and proceeded to get food poisoning from some bad queso while getting super drunk off of free beer. They next morning we were was supposed to attend an awards banquet for the company I worked for; it was an award for staying in business for 100 consecutive years. Needless to say, I didn't make it. And this was like the second day of the week and a half long trip.
*At the conference I was cut off by Dave Mustaine, twice. Literally. Like he walked right in front of me and I had to stop in my tracks or I would have run into him.
*From across the room, I saw Steve Vai marching across the hall. I say marching because that is one lanky bastard and he was leaving all of his assistants in the dust by about 20 steps.
*John Dolmayan, the drummer from System of a Down, was wondering around like a lost child.
*One day I was leaving and Tony Levin was walking in, looking like some sort of androgynous gunslinger. Parting the seas of people with his bass. And mustache.
*I went off exploring, which is super fun to do there, and saw Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater playing piano to exactly 3 people.
*While wondering around, I found the booth where Michael Anthony was signing at. I got his autograph by inadvertently cutting in front of about 200 people. Oops.
*Oh yeah, and I found a giant ass rave room. Fucking crazy.
*I found Mike Inez from Alice In Chains who was super cool and super drunk (it was like 11AM); talked to him and he signed some autographs for me. And managed to spell my name wrong, even though we were all wearing name tags.
*During one of the days, I found a booth/table where Alex Skolnick and Alexi Lahio were signing. Everyone seemed to be bypassing Skolnick to meet Lahio who was acting like a tool. I was way way more excited to meet Skolnick for the second time and during the whole conversation I had with him, Lahio looked borderline annoyed I wasn't excited to see him. Douche.
*There are like 3-4 levels at this convention. In the basement they have every shit knock off version of instruments that you could imagine by small companies from even smaller countries. It was on this floor that I saw Brooke White; who was on a season of American Idol. She looked so bummed that some sponsor stuck her in the basement.
*This was also the trip that launched the legendary What's That Smell? series I started to write.
*When I was in a meeting with some folks from Randall, I looked off to the side and saw Tommy Shaw from Styx. Styx hasn't been popular since 1983. Tommy Shaw hasn't been popular since 1991. Yet he had a fleet of people with him doing shit for him. And he is short.
*While I was there, I learned a few things. One is that when the famous/well known musicians are out and about, they like to just check shit out without being bugged. They do this by turning over their badges so you can't see their names. One guy I saw who did this was Cris Caffery, of TSO and Savatage fame. He could tell I knew who he was yet shot me a look with his eyes that said "Hey, don't fucking talk to me." And then he walked away.
Well, there you have it. Some weird/crazy/interesting shit that happened during my time there. As anyone who has been there can tell you, that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of famous, big name musicians who are there, tons of half naked models, weirdos dressed up, and tons of musicians who were popular for like 3 months in the late 80s' and early 90s'. In short, it's a good god damn time. Tons of shows and some booths (Alfred) give away free beer. Party on Wayne.
Without further a due, here we go!!!
*I went to this sweet ass Yamaha party and proceeded to get food poisoning from some bad queso while getting super drunk off of free beer. They next morning we were was supposed to attend an awards banquet for the company I worked for; it was an award for staying in business for 100 consecutive years. Needless to say, I didn't make it. And this was like the second day of the week and a half long trip.
*At the conference I was cut off by Dave Mustaine, twice. Literally. Like he walked right in front of me and I had to stop in my tracks or I would have run into him.
*From across the room, I saw Steve Vai marching across the hall. I say marching because that is one lanky bastard and he was leaving all of his assistants in the dust by about 20 steps.
*John Dolmayan, the drummer from System of a Down, was wondering around like a lost child.
*One day I was leaving and Tony Levin was walking in, looking like some sort of androgynous gunslinger. Parting the seas of people with his bass. And mustache.
*I went off exploring, which is super fun to do there, and saw Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater playing piano to exactly 3 people.
*While wondering around, I found the booth where Michael Anthony was signing at. I got his autograph by inadvertently cutting in front of about 200 people. Oops.
*Oh yeah, and I found a giant ass rave room. Fucking crazy.
*I found Mike Inez from Alice In Chains who was super cool and super drunk (it was like 11AM); talked to him and he signed some autographs for me. And managed to spell my name wrong, even though we were all wearing name tags.
*During one of the days, I found a booth/table where Alex Skolnick and Alexi Lahio were signing. Everyone seemed to be bypassing Skolnick to meet Lahio who was acting like a tool. I was way way more excited to meet Skolnick for the second time and during the whole conversation I had with him, Lahio looked borderline annoyed I wasn't excited to see him. Douche.
*There are like 3-4 levels at this convention. In the basement they have every shit knock off version of instruments that you could imagine by small companies from even smaller countries. It was on this floor that I saw Brooke White; who was on a season of American Idol. She looked so bummed that some sponsor stuck her in the basement.
*This was also the trip that launched the legendary What's That Smell? series I started to write.
*When I was in a meeting with some folks from Randall, I looked off to the side and saw Tommy Shaw from Styx. Styx hasn't been popular since 1983. Tommy Shaw hasn't been popular since 1991. Yet he had a fleet of people with him doing shit for him. And he is short.
*While I was there, I learned a few things. One is that when the famous/well known musicians are out and about, they like to just check shit out without being bugged. They do this by turning over their badges so you can't see their names. One guy I saw who did this was Cris Caffery, of TSO and Savatage fame. He could tell I knew who he was yet shot me a look with his eyes that said "Hey, don't fucking talk to me." And then he walked away.
Well, there you have it. Some weird/crazy/interesting shit that happened during my time there. As anyone who has been there can tell you, that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of famous, big name musicians who are there, tons of half naked models, weirdos dressed up, and tons of musicians who were popular for like 3 months in the late 80s' and early 90s'. In short, it's a good god damn time. Tons of shows and some booths (Alfred) give away free beer. Party on Wayne.
Friday, March 4, 2011
The Brown Sound!
Van Halen. Shit they used to be awesome. I feel unfortunate that I was born too late to experience them in their prime. I mean they had everything. Great songs, great vocals, and obviously great harmonica playing. If you watch some old videos of them playing in the Roth era, man there wasn't thing that they couldn't do. To quote John Mellencamp "...even their bad songs are good..." Hell yeah to that statement.
Of course like any band they went through changes; like from Van Halen to Van Hagar to Van Cherone, finally back to Van Halen...minus a key member who really wasn't all that key I guess. We've seen DLR go from the definition of a rock star to a bald guy. And we've seen Eddie turn into a fricken weirdo. He gets cancer, blames it on his metal guitar picks, does music for a porno, then gets a haircut and gets sober. All in like the span of a weekend.
It's great that DLR is back, but it seems like it's too late. Plus since the man with two first names isn't there to play bass and lend his awesome backing vocals; it just feels.....weird. Anyways this was all brought upon because a) Van Halen is bad ass b) I love Van Halen, and c) I was watching some bad ass Eddie Van Halen guitar videos. I mean he was playing "Eruption" and in the middle he starts to improvise and he starts playing what turned out to ultimately be "Mean Streets". Damn that sucks when one person is that good.
Of course like any band they went through changes; like from Van Halen to Van Hagar to Van Cherone, finally back to Van Halen...minus a key member who really wasn't all that key I guess. We've seen DLR go from the definition of a rock star to a bald guy. And we've seen Eddie turn into a fricken weirdo. He gets cancer, blames it on his metal guitar picks, does music for a porno, then gets a haircut and gets sober. All in like the span of a weekend.
It's great that DLR is back, but it seems like it's too late. Plus since the man with two first names isn't there to play bass and lend his awesome backing vocals; it just feels.....weird. Anyways this was all brought upon because a) Van Halen is bad ass b) I love Van Halen, and c) I was watching some bad ass Eddie Van Halen guitar videos. I mean he was playing "Eruption" and in the middle he starts to improvise and he starts playing what turned out to ultimately be "Mean Streets". Damn that sucks when one person is that good.
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