For those of interested in hearing what Albert Hammond, Jr.'s been up to since Yours To Keep head over to his MySpace page and stream his new album, ¿Cómo Te Llama?, due July 8th. If you like what you hear you can pre-order an autographed copy of the album at Newbury Comics.
Also, make sure to check out this New York magazine article featuring summer playlists/muxtapes from a number of great artists including Albert's here.
The National teamed up with Vincent Moon, of La Blogotheque and Take-Away Shows fame, during the recording of Boxer to film A Skin, A Night. The hour-long film will serve as an intimate look into the creative process of the band as they set out to make what ended up being their most accomplished album yet. As an added bonus, the DVD will be packaged with The Virginia EP which includes twelve tracks of demos, an unreleased cover, live tracks, a radio session and b-sides. You can check out the trailer for the film, due out May 22nd, below.
Aesop Rock is performing live on KEXP today, September 6th, at 4 pm EST. Be sure to head over to KEXP to hear his live set and an interview.
For those of you who want to pretend that you haven't already downloaded Spoon's new record, here is the first single from the upcoming release:
A full, non-radio-ripped version of the new Smashing Pumpkins track "Tarantula" is finally here courtesy of Spinner! All I can say is that I'm ecstatic Billy's back!!! Growing up as a huge Pumpkins fan, I can't wait to hear the rest of this record. Check out the track below:
I mentioned in my review of NIN's Year Zero about a web address that was discovered in the binary code that's visible once the CD is heated. The web address in question is www.exterminal.net. If you go to the site and click the <Classified> link a drop-down appears that lists another link entitled, inmate-exhibitA (36 MB). If you click that link you'll find a version of "Capital G". You can hear it below:
Trent has unleashed a stream of Year Zero for those of us who can't wait to hear what he's cooked up in his studio. Personally, and having only been able to listen to the first half so far, I've been blown away by "Capital G". The track, and what I've heard on the album so far, is absolutely stellar. Along with news that "Survivalism" has has reached #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Chart, the band's fourth consecutive #1 single, it looks like suggestions that Mr. Reznor is at the top of his game are 100% accurate. Then again, who ever said he hasn't always been at the top of his game?
Aside from the album sounding incredible, the marketing hinting to the concept behind Year Zero is like nothing I've ever seen. CNN describes the series of cryptic websites as a, "multifaceted Internet scavenger hunt," which may be a huge understatement. You can check out more fascinating back stories on fan discoveries, research, and insight into the Year Zero story here, here, and here.
I've always loved The Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset" so ever since I heard about David Bowie covering the song, which was included on the Japanese version of Reality a few years ago, I've been searching for the CD or an mp3 of the song. I must be really bad at finding this type of thing because I've yet to track it down.
So, I found myself looking for the cover once again this weekend and still no luck. All was not lost though. I didn't realize it but Dodge recently celebrated MOKB's 2nd birthday (congrats!) a few days ago and in celebrating the milestone posted a few mp3's from in-studio performances that took place at WIUX. One of the mp3's was an Islands cover of "Waterloo Sunset". It's not David Bowie's version but it's a great cover nonetheless.
I also came across a video of David Bowie and Ray Davies performing the song live at the Tibet House Benefit a few years ago. I guess I'm getting closer. Check out the video below if you haven't already seen it. Oh, and feel free to email me the mp3 of Bowie's cover if you have it laying around somewhere.
The message board post I'm quoting below can be found here on the Something Awful forums. The person who compiled the list has a blog called Strange, Weird Thoughts and while I don't necessarily agree or disagree with the content of the list, you can't help but applaud the time and effort that went into it. At the very least, it's worth looking through the list for a bunch of the YouTube videos that are included.
A few months ago, I was bored and I decided to make one of those "best of" music lists that sites, shows, and magazines make all the time. So, flash-forward a few months later, I have compiled a list of what I think are the 500 greatest guitar riffs of all time. I've posted a link to each set of twenty that's on my blog. For most of the songs, I've linked a YouTube video (audio quality may vary for each) and a decent guitar tab for the songs. Apologies for the large amount of anime videos that I ended up linking to, often they were the only ones that weren't a lovely live performance.
My process for determining which riff is better than other riffs is that I basically thought to myself, "Hmm, does Song A have a cooler riff than Song B? Yes!" However, I also took into account the riff's influence, how catchy it is, and how fun it is to play on the guitar. I'm posting this list here because music lists usually generate good conversation on GBS.
I obviously have never heard EVERY rock song ever made, but I've heard a lot.
500-481
480-461
460-441
440-421
420-401
400-381
380-361
360-341
340-321
320-301
300-281
280-261
Continue reading "The 500 Greatest Guitar Riffs Of All Time" »
