Gillies » I Heart Guitar

A Slice of “Tweezer” From 12/5/2009

Gillies — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:44:03 +0000

Via Engadget, guitar picks made from from circuit boards.

Via I Heart Guitar’s Twitter feed:

WTF? There are GIRLS here to see Dream Theater. Honest to God. GIRLS.

From Saturday night, a slice of ‘Tweezer.’ There’s plenty of magic left.

Little Flashes that are Just Comfortable Visuals

Gillies — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:28:07 +0000

A multitude of bits and pieces this evening.

I’m not sure if this is a phenomenon, but I found myself checking out someone else’s iPod on the Metro the other day. You know, just to see what they were listening to. Call it “iPod snooping.” I got the song, “Contact,” but not the artist. Was it Phish? Was it the Police? I’ll never know. On a related note, I got my first good look at a Kindle this evening. The guy was reading the Washington Post on it.

Hodgson has an interview up with Steve Vai. On improvisation:

Improvising, most of it is listening – responding to what’s coming into your ears and letting your fingers move in an unobstructed way. And there are all these little flashes that are just comfortable visuals, like you’re hearing something and you know that there’s a particular scale or note or atmosphere or chord that’s going to work.

Metro shuffle: XTC, “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead,” followed by “My Bird Performs.” Those tunes just bring me back to the 90s.

FT’s Techblog on Shazam, a “mobile phone music discovery” service that apparently is attracting venture money. Can’t say I’m familiar at all with the company. Maybe I’ll check out their iPhone app. Don’t cost nuthin’.

Bldgblog links to a blogger who captures “the internal sounds of WWII bunkers,” including some freaky pigeon noises.

Dave Mustaine Gives It Up to His Fans

Gillies — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:06:44 +0000

Peter Hodgson over at I Heart Guitar just posted his interview with Dave Mustaine. Towards the end of the interview, Hodgson says that one of the new Megadeth tracks is among his favorites so far in 2009. Here’s Mustaine’s response.

“Really? Aw thanks bud! Well if it wasn’t for guys like you we would probably be over on the side of the road dying from eating roadkill.”

Nice! I might have to check out the new Megadeth record, which drops on September 15.

Links: Pink Floyd, The Clash, Home Recording

Gillies — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:34:19 +0000

To MPomy’s dispatches, I’ll add some dispatches from fretbuzzy world.

The New York Times blogs Pink Floyd’s Moon-Landing Jam Session. Gilmour: “We were in a BBC TV studio jamming to the landing.” Nice.

Chartattack has a tidbit on the Clash’s near reunion earlier this century. Former drummer Topper Headon (real name Nicholas Bowen Headon): “If we’d have played that show you’d have seen Mick being bald, Paul being bald, me being bald and wearing glasses and Joe with a bit of a paunch. It was better the old way.” Well, fair enough, but I don’t think fans particularly care about that kind of stuff. If the dudes could still bring the heat, they could still bring the heat.

I Heart Guitar on home recording. Interesting stuff. I like this thought, one I think MPomy, you’ll appreciate too: “Though I’m a guitar geek, most of my songs start with drum ideas, which I enter either via the mouse in Pro Tools’ MIDI edit window, or by tapping out a rhythm on my inexpensive Edirol MIDI keyboard, then tightening up the performance later if I need to.” I’m not sure about the gear stuff – maybe it’s good, I just don’t know – but I like the idea of starting off a little more songwriting with percussion.