Update: July 12, 2009 According to the Toronto Star, United Airlines has agreed to donate $3000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Dave Carroll had insisted that any compensation he receive from United be donated to charity. Dave Carroll did a nice thing to drag United kicking and screaming back to the planet of [...]

A Minnesota jury has found Minnesota mother of four, Jammie Thomas, guilty of copyright infringement. She’s on the hook for $1.92 MILLION dollars for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs, available on iTunes and Amazon for $.99. The verdict, coming after two days of testimony and about five hours of deliberations, was a mixed victory [...]

Sorry to hear about Michael Jackson–one of the best Eddie Van Halen best solos was on Beat It. Regardless of the controversies, you gotta give the guy his due. He was a monster musical figure. Godspeed, Michael. Here’s a link to that great tune (embedding is disabled).

Last Saturday, June 6, 2009, Kyle Busch won the Nationwide series race at the Nashville Speedway. After being presented with a Gibson Les Paul hand-painted by Sam Bass, Kyle smashed it (or tried to–Les Pauls are pretty damn strong), Pete Townshend style. I’ll be honest with you, I’m one of those people who doesn’t really [...]

Now this is Guitarbalooga! (That parrot has no rhythm at all…)

In a new book, Rock Roadie: Backstage and Confidential with Hendrix, Elvis, the “Animals”, Tina Turner, and an All-star Cast, from one-time Hendrix roadie, James “Tappy” Wright, makes the startling claim that Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager, Michael Jeffrey. James alleges that Michael Jeffrey made a drunken confession to him about a year [...]

Guitarist Dave Navarro of the newly reformed and touring Jane’s Addiction recently got on the wrong side of the Louis Vuitton lawyers for wearing a fake LV guitar strap. Here’s what Dave had to say about the kerfuffle: I was shocked by the tone in their letter. So heavy and serious!!!! Lighten up guys! My [...]

Oh for f&*#’s sake. This Viva La Vida melody-stealing thing is getting out of hand. Now Cat Stevens (a.k.a Yusef Islam) is claiming that Joe Satriani and Coldplay stole the Viva La Vida melody from him. Probably not coincidentally, Yusef has just released a new CD, Roadsinger. “There’s been this argument about Coldplay stealing this [...]

Mormon crickets are a particularly nasty problem out west. Periodically, they band together in dense packs and march along, devouring all plant life in their path. They can stop traffic and will even scurry through your house. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them: The Mormon cricket exists in populations of relatively low density [...]

A 10′ Gibson Les Paul statue created for charity was stolen from the front of Graze Restaurant in Orlando, FL. “B Creative” was painted by a local artist named David Brotherton. The statue was expected to sell for thousands and benefit a number of local charities. Gibson, the benefactor of the statue, offered a brief period [...]

This article caught my eye on RollingStone.com today: Fans who’d eagerly bought Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music when it came out in 1975 soon returned to their music stores in droves, demanding refunds and complaining that the record was broken. MMM is Reed’s most controversial record, the black sheep in his catalog: a 64-minute double album that consists almost [...]

Oy. It’s happened again. Guess who showed up on the back of a guitar headstock? That’s right. Jesus! Joe Lepore said he made a guitar recently and about four days after he finished, a mysterious image suddenly appeared. He said you can see Jesus. “I started looking at it and I’m like hey, there’s something [...]

Lee Ranaldo is a guitar player and co-founder of the band Sonic Youth. While on tour in 1999, someone stole a Ryder truck containing all of the band’s equipment. A complete list of the stolen equipment is here. The official story appears on a write up on the band’s web site for their CD, A [...]

YES: (Best sounds at 2:10 and 3:00)

Ladies and gentlemen, the Chewbacca Chord: