I’m just a passing fan of Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band, but I enjoyed Steve Heisler’s blog entry defending the man and his band:
But the source of my shame is that DMB is reviled among music aficionados, and their reasons are numerous: Frat parties and cornhole-fueled cookouts pump “Ants Marching” and “Satellite” almost [...]

We now live in a world where a search on “abe vigoda” returns a top link to a pretty good band instead of the man himself. Just saying.

Holy crap! Michael Jackson is autioning off his entire arcade/pinball game collection. And some of it is cheap. One example is his Megatouch XL, a Merit Industries game that I developed 4 games for. It’s going for $200. Really?!?! Those suckers used to cost like $1500.
Check out the auction site.

So, dear reader, I realize that a post about eccentric actor Joaquin Phoenix has, at best, a tenuous connection to the world of Guitarbalooga, but don’t forget: he was nominated for an Oscar for playing a guy who played a guitar sometimes when he sang…
Anyway, there has been much speculation as of late as to [...]

In the spring of 1996, David Soldier, in collaboration with artists “Komar and Melamid” (who came up with a way to produce the most-wanted and most-unwanted paintings), posted an online poll to gather data on people’s musical tastes. With 500 responses, he and lyricist Nina Mankin attempted to compose the most-wanted and mos-unwanted song. The [...]

After reading Keith Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend, I have new-found respect for Keith’s  unique drumming style and The Who in general. MusicRadar.com reports that Keith will receive the posthumous honor of a so-called “blue plaque” at one of the former sites of London’s famous Marquee Club.
It’s a turnaround in fortune [...]

Get your fill of David Lee Roth sound clips over at the David Lee Roth Runnin’ with the Devil Soundboard, courtesy of thetyser.com.

Holy crap. 13? I wonder if she wants to be in my band…

I admit that I abandoned my vinyl a long time ago. Hell, I abandoned my CDs a long time ago. But, there are those among us who believe that vinyl is the way to go. None more so than Angelis Labor, a company who created the $64,000 turntable:
The Gabriel is made from aluminum, bronze and [...]

A week or two ago, I forced myself to watch this (hopefully intentionally) hideous commercial for Microsoft’s Songsmith, an application that creates accompaniment for tunes you sing into it a cappella:

Works pretty well for the girl with the golden pipes. Could be fun for the kids. OR, I wonder what would happen if you stripped [...]

Here’s some footage of Ed talking about his new EVH, designed partly during a heavy-duty year of touring and partly from over 3-decades worth of tinkering with his guitars:

I’m happy to see that Ed is still looking good.

Update: Jan. 21, 2009
Here’ s some footage from NAMM of Nick Bowcott and Chip Ellis from Fender talking [...]

Jazz.com has an interesting blog that I recently stumbled across and thought I’d plug by adding it to my “blog roll” (the list of URLs under Sites to the right there…). It’s filled with lengthy, article-length posts about jazz, which make for great reading.
The reason it caught my eye is because the lead post as [...]

Just started reading this excellent new biography by music journalist Tony Fletcher. I’ve read lots of these rock biographies and this is so far one of my favorites. It’s quite a page turner and flows a bit like a novel because you know that a train-wreck is coming…
Update: Jan. 4, 2009
Bio of Keith on YouTube. [...]

And thanks for reading Fretz!