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Yeah, Nels loves those amps. He talks about them on his "Amp Du Jour" essay from the Tech Talk section of his website, which if I remember correctly, is a recap of all the amps he used on a tour with Gregg Bendian's Interzone in which he borrowed an amp at each gig: http://www.nelscline.com/tech.html SIXTH GIG: Columbus AMP: another choice!! A Fender Pro Junior, or one of those "tweed" 50+ watt combos (was it a Fender? I think so). Well, we were playing on a cement floor in front of the high stage at Little Brother's, which meant that I could get away with using one of my favorite amps: Th

In Atlanta you're lucky if the first band out of three (or sometimes even four) takes the stage by 10:30 on a weeknight. The headliner winds up playing at 1 am a lot of the time. A couple years ago the city changed last call from 4am to 2:30am, which helped a little, but bands still start unnecessarily late. Or, I should say, the concert goers dick around at home (or don't get off their dishwashing shift) until 11:30-ish before going to hear a band, which encourages bands to get started as late as possible rather than playing to empty rooms.

Wow, that's really early. I'd probably go to shows all the time if that's when they ended, but I agree that it's a bummer when strict curfews cut off a great performance.

Yeah, I remember they were supposed to come to Atlanta, but they cancelled. I probably would have gone to see that. Is the Airplane reunion album any good?

Everyone loves a good rant, no? For the record, my comments were refering to the live music scene in Atlanta. I've been very fortunate to attend (and play) shows in lots of places. I would like for shows in Atlanta to be run on a more predictable time table, similar to my experience in Chicago and other places. In Atlanta, it seems to be a free-for-all. The clubs rarely enforce any type of schedule (except the one that says you have to load in at 7 p.m. even though you don't get to play until 12:30 a.m. or later. ) I think live music would be accessible to a wider demographic than j

I went to Chicago a few moths ago to see a show at the Subterranean. On the front door of the venue was a schedule with the set times for each band. The times were adhered to by all the bands, give or take a few minutes. I was amazed to see that kind of efficiency and thoughtfulness towards the audience after going to hundreds of shows in Atlanta where everyone stands around scratching their ass waiting for the first band to get started. And of course, the first band starts late becase the audience has been trained not to show up until 11:30 or midnight. If you pushed the starting time

I can kind of tell that Tokyo Police Club is an ok band with fairly good songs, but something about the album is hard to listen to. The vocals are mixed way too high for my liking, and overall maybe it's yet another victim of the mastering volume wars. Not necessarily bad music, but a bad sounding album.

As a gear snob, I'd be a lot happier if their bass player would go back to playing his SG bass. Firebird basses are so lame. And what's the deal with the drummer still having KOL spelled out in electrical tape on his front bass drum head? That kind of shoddy self-promotion is not going to cut it in arenas. At least the main guy and the guy that stands to his right have good taste in guitars. "Crawl" is the one XM/Sirius has been overplaying lately.

Well, I have "On and Off" by Mary Halverson and Jessica Pavone. I'm not that into that one. Something seems lacking about it, and I don't think Jessica Pavone is quite up to par as a violinist...or maybe it's viola, I can't recall (I have extremely high standards when it comes to violins/violas, thanks to Carla Kihlstedt and Jenny Schienman). I also have Taylor Ho Bynum's "The Middle Picture" which she's on. This one is good, but I was a little let down. I saw her play last year with Bynum, Pavone and Thomas Fujiwara, and they were fantastic. I got both of those cds at their concert,

They need to fire and/or kill their image consultant asap.

He's definitely a solid drummer...perhaps so solid that he's dull. There aren't many similarities between Clifford and Aronoff's sound and style, so he's sort of an odd choice to be Fogerty's drummer. But I guess he's one of the main go-to guys in the session and concert business. It's too bad Fogerty didn't get Jim Keltner instead. I used to have Aronoff's instructional video from the '80s. In one segment he played some cheesy but highly technical fusion with a guitarist and keyboardist. Despite his reputation for being very meat and potatoes and rarely playing fills or solos, he went

Totally. I have a few records she's on, but this is the first one I've heard that does her playing justice. Highly recommended for folks who like the Nels Cline Singers cds.

It's pretty wide ranging in terms of style. It strikes me as more of a "McCoy Tyner Trio backing up several guitarists who take the spotlight" album than a "several guitarists sit in with the McCoy Tyner Trio" album...if that makes any sense. The trio have their opportunities to shine, but the guitars are the dominant voice throughout most of the album. The hilights to me are the songs with Marc Ribot and Derek Trucks, but it also has John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Bela Fleck.

I haven't listened to a Beck album since Mutations, so I'm probably more out of the loop than you. I bought a lot of music this year, but I think the only '08 albums I've bought are: McCoy Tyner: Guitars Mary Halvorson Trio: Dragon's Head Dr. Dog: Fate Deerhunter: Microcastle (I only ordered it last week, so I don't have it yet) Dungen: 4 Kings of Leon: I can never remember the name of this. I like all of those, so that's my best of 2008 list.

I live in Atlanta and Dead Confederate are from here. I've never heard them, except for about 30 seconds of their Conan O'Brien appearance. It didn't seem like something I'd enjoy. They get tons of press and praise in Atlanta. It's interesting to see that they're getting some attention in other places, too. Atlanta bands, until somewhat recently (and with some notable exceptions), have typically failed to get much national/international attention.

The Beatles - Flying

My band in high school covered that one back in 1990. That was a fun song to play, but I recently got a cd of us playing it from the guitarist and my drumming was pretty cringe-worthy. We also covered "Zap" from his previous album.

I was eight years old at the time, and my only memory of this is being at the mall and seeing John Lennon posters on display at the entrance to KayBee Toys. I guess that must've been a day or two after the fact. I just remembered I have The Beatles Past Masters Vol. 2 in my desk drawer. I'll listen to it now.

oh cool, I didn't even notice that. thanks!

I've only heard one of those.

Satriani's first album came out in '86, so his recording career was alreay in motion before Vai became a hot commodity. There's no reason to believe he wouldn't have made the same second album, Vai or no Vai. I don't know how a guitar magazine interview translates to pop chart success, but I'll conceed that Vai's praise helped Satriani's career to some extent. It's definitely overstating it, though, to say that Satriani would have been nothing more than a no-name guitar shop show-off if it hadn't been for Vai. Maybe I misread your original post, but that's what it seemed like you were say

Yeah, that's EVH. I don't agree with you about the Satriani thing, but maybe I was reading Guitar World while you were reading Guitar for the Practicing Musician. You may be right. I'd say those guys both benefitted from their mutual association. I recall the praise and name dropping coming from both of those guys back in the '80s. A lot of ink was spent on those two in the guitar mags.

What? Let's not firget this dude:

I was in high school and played in a band around the time of Surfing With the Alien. We covered a couple Satriani tunes (the lamest ones). None of the guys in the band listened to David Lee Roth. We'd seen his videos and we knew about the Vai connection, but I don't think any of us would have thought then, or think today, that Satriani owes his career or even his early recording contract to the fact that he had ties to Vai.