Nuts For Music

I was on my way home from work today and listening to WAAF out of Boston, MA and heard the DJ talking about this site called Rockabye Baby. She starts playing these cuts of rock songs done as lullabies! It was weird at first, but the more I heard, the more and more I thought it was pretty cool.

If you go to their site, you’ll find lullaby CDs done for artists like Metallica, Coldplay, Tool, and Pink Floyd among many many others. The prices are a bit steep with most CDs coming in at at $16.98. The web site design also leaves a little to be desired, but maybe with some success they’ll be able to polish it up a bit! But if buying this for your kids is your thing, go for it. Its definitely an original idea for sure.

I was reading my copy of the February 2008 Maxim and came across an article about Gibson‘s new Robot Guitar. This is the first guitar Gibson has made that can actually tune itself! It has a tiny CPU in the neck of the guitar that can pick up individual string data from the body. It then distributes it in real-time to that string’s corresponding tuning pegs. A ceramic insulated tailpiece minimizes vibrations that allow senors to transmit accurate pitch data to the CPU in the guitar’s body. Wala! Self-tuning! Granted, any self-respecting guitar player should be able to tune his own guitar, but hey, a little help never hurt, especially when you’re in a hurry!

Even though this guitar has state of the art technology built into it, it still looks like a vintage axe you’d expect from the folks at Gibson. The Stroke’s Albert Hammond was quoted in Maxim as saying that the guitar is a work of art, but he can definitely tune his guitar faster by ear. But it’d be good for beginners who’re looking to get into playing the guitar. The only problem for beginners? The $2,499 MSRP price tag. I know when I started playing I wasn’t spending more than $300. Even know I only have maybe $1,000 worth of equipment as a hobbyist. Anyway, it looks cool for sure!

I haven’t listened to The Vines in a while, but I decided to come back to them today. One of those days where all of the music I had been listening to was getting a little old and I needed something different. As I was scrolling through my iTunes library, I came across The Vines’ Vision Valley album. I, as they say, just hit play. This is a fairly decent album in my opinion. Songs like Anysound and Nothin’s Comin’ just rock. Then you can listen to Vision Valley and Going Gone for that mellow sound.

All and all I’d give this album a B+. The album isn’t exactly that long with almost have of the songs under 2 minutes. There are some songs that just don’t seem to fit, but all in all, this is a quality album. I’m not sure who I’d compare The Vines to really. iTunes says customers who bought The Vines albums also bought Blur, The Hives (which are good) and the The Von Bondies. I’ve never listened to The Von Bondies, but I think I might check them out. Always looking for new, quality music.

Favorite Tracks

• Anysound
• Nothin’s Comin’
• Vision Valley
• Going Gone

I’ve been playing Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2 since it first came out. I have all 3 games and am quite an addict when I actually have the time to sit down and jam out on the T.V. (disturbs the neighbors less than my mediocre electric guitar abilities). Anyway, it seems that nothing can keep this great game down and a fourth installment is in the works. Its said that Aerosmith will be starring in its own version of the game, entitled “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith”. Its rumored to hit shelves by the 2008 holiday shopping season (big surprise there, cha ching!).

The game will feature only Aerosmith songs, totaling about 30. I’m sure this will be a great not just for both the Guitar Here franchise, but also for Aerosmith fans. I’ll definitely be picking this up when it comes out. Yet another Guitar Hero game to drive my fiancee nuts with!

It seems Eddie Vedder is continuing his break from Pearl Jam and going out on tour this summer on his own. He’ll be touring in support of his Monkeywrench/J soundtrack that he wrote for the move Into The Wild. Dates start in Vancouver on April 2. It seems unknown who, if anyone, will be accompanying Eddie on his Solo tour. It’d be cool if some great members from other bands dropped in and played with him on this tour. Allstar bands are always cool to catch I think.

On the Pearl Jam side, its rumored that Vedder and the rest of Pearl Jam will sketch out the details for their next album before he goes out on tour. So it seems that a new Pearl Jam album will be in the works and perhaps in our hands some time early next year. This is great news since I’ve been a Pearl Jam fan since high school and always look forward to new music from those guys.

Last night’s weather was horrible in Boston, MA. Snow, sleet, rain. Treacherous driving indeed. But I’m glad I ventured out to Boston to go see VAST with my good buddy Kyle. We got there at about 10pm, right before VAST got on stage (had enough time to buy a beer!). There weren’t many people there, I’m guessing partly due to the crappy weather. But, it made for a great show. It was like seeing a band at my house in the basement with a bunch of my friends. I’d say there were no more than 100 people there. In the end, they played about 20 songs for at least an hour and a half.

I’d have to rank last night’s VAST shows as one of the better shows I’ve seen in years. It’s not often you get to see a great band like VAST in such an intimate setting. I wasn’t really sure what to expect either, but boy was I blown away with how well they played. The sound quality of the show was excellent. I can’t remember the last time a band sounded as good as VAST did on stage. I was also impressed with how well Jon Crosby’s acoustic guitar sounded with the electric guitar in the band. They’re definitely a very talented group and I hope I get a chance to see them again soon.

I didn’t memorize the set list exactly, but it seemed that they played pretty much every song off of the April album as well as some of their other songs like Touched and Free. They also played a new song, one Jon said they wrote the day before. Sounded damn good for a song written a day earlier.

Here’s a partial set list from what I remember from the show (not in any order):

• You’re Too Young
• Dedicate (A Place For Me)
• Everything Passing By
• Sunday I’ll Be Gone
• Tattoo Of Your Name
• Is It Me
• I’m Too Good
• Desert Garden
• Touched
• Turquoise
• Falling From The Sky
• I Woke Up In L.A.
• Free
• Flames (this was the encoure…sounded awesome!)

This time its not great. According to a news article I saw over at RollingStone.com, Scott Weiland entered a rehab facility following their show last Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Apparently it was done voluntarily, which is always good. Messy when courts get involved. Their show on the 8th in San Diego was also cancelled and it looks like the rest of the tour could be in jeopardy. I’m not sure if this will affect any rumored Stone Temple Pilots reunion tour this coming summer, but I for one hope it doesn’t. I’d really like to see these guys come out for a show in Massachusetts. Anyway, Scott, get well and we hope to see you back on stage soon!

I’m definitely a Foo Fighters fan. Like I said in a previous post, I don’t generally watch the Grammy’s, but I was really psyched to see that the Foo Fighters won for Best Rock Album. It doesn’t seem like every year a true, great, rock band gets to win Best Rock Album (ahem, 1989 Metallica loses to who? Jethro Tull?). So, when one does, its refreshing to see. Foo Fighters are definitely a huge band, with what I would consider one of the greatest rock musicians of this generation, Dave Grohl. Lets see, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, sits in with Queens of the Stone Age…you get the picture. I’ll even make the argument that Foo Fighters is bigger than Nirvana. While Nirvana’s music was good for its time and started a new trend in rock, I’m not sure it would have been long lasting. But we’ll never know.

Anyway, congrats to Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters on their big win! By the way Dave, what exactly is a Foo Fighter?

So the Grammy Awards were on last night. I don’t pay attention to these types of shows much, but my fiancee had it on while I was working at the computer, so I caught some bits and pieces. Seems that Kanye West doesn’t like a time limit on his speeches. Dude, the night isn’t just about you, chill out. A very nice showing of The Beatles Love production. Its nice that they did that sow people who don’t get a chance to see it in Las Vegas can see how great and special it is. I believe they won a Grammy for that too. Nice stuff. Lastly, does anyone else out there find it ironic and really sad that Amy Winehouse wins multiple Grammy’s for her album “Back To Black”? Most notably the song “Rehab”? Uh, isn’t she in rehab? Didn’t they let her out to perform via satellite at the Grammy’s? Uhm, yeah, great message people. She needs to just go away. Thanks for coming out.

I was hunting around for new music about a week ago on iTunes and was using my technique of looking at recommended music for bands i already listen to. Interpol popped up during my search so I gave them a listen. I have actually heard these guys before through Kyle, but just never managed to get their album for my own. I must say Antics is really good. Another one of those albums you can just play. I’ve honestly worn out both albums of theirs I got, playing them over and over the last few days. I’d have to say my favorite tracks on the album are Evil, Narc, Slow Hands, and A Time To Be So Small. C’Mere is another good one. Hell, the whole album is just great! If you don’t already have it, I highly recommend you do so.

Related Bands

• Rogue Wave
• Band Of Horses