Music legend Tony Bennett released his Duets II album on September 20th, and it features collaborations between the 85-year old singer and a slew of contemporary artists, including John Mayer, Michael Buble, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Josh Groban, Natalie Cole, the late Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, and Lady Gaga.
Celebrities and industry leaders have come out of the woodworks over the last couple of weeks to pay tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. his passing has spurred dozens of anecdotes from those that have come into contact with Jobs throughout the years.
Over the past few decades there has been a tendency by blues fans (as well as writers who cover the genre) to seek out the next great electric guitar hero. Since the tragic death of Stevie Ray Vaughan in August 1990, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, even John Mayer have all been championed to fill that elusive role.
Eddie Owen, the man who founded Decatur folk club Eddie’s Attic, is leaving the club for another job, Decatur Metro reports.
Owen, who has been general manager at the club, told Decatur Metro he’ll run a theater in Duluth.
“John’s our talent,” Wilcox said excitedly. “He’s the attraction.
“It’s unbelievable,” he continued enthusiastically. “We play restaurants, block parties.
“But,” he added quickly. “There’s nothing like Friday night football and baseball is still my favorite sport.”
Alas, spring is far away and football is in fashion. So Wilcox excels in that discipline currently.
This weekend, the entire St. Peter community will be coming together to celebrate the town’s first-ever Oktoberfest. Starting at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14, the celebration will commence in the cooler at Patrick’s on third with a ceremonial keg, painted with the colors of the German flag , to be paraded from the basement to the festival grounds.
Let’s face it — Calgary isn’t exactly known for hip hop. Our most famous exports are more along the lines of indie and folk darlings Chad VanGaalen, Feist, Tegan and Sara, and, more recently, Braids. but that isn’t to say that Calgarians don’t know a thing about rhymes and beats. Local rapper Transit broke the cowboy stereotype with his single, “Calgary,” this spring. now we have the brothers Sean, AKA Tiberius Kirk, and Matthew “Casper Buddy” Sinclair, two University of Calgary students working under the moniker “Chief Navaho.” with small beginnings in 2008, the pair have recently released a bounty of tracks and videos on YouTube for which they are quickly gaining recognition, being invited to join Transit on two tour dates this fall. though primarily fitting in to the genre of hip hop and rap, the two certainly don’t want to be labeled as such. “I hate categorizing [our music] as hip hop, because it’s definitely something different,” says Sean. “We’ve always loved hip hop, but I started out as a singer/songwriter, listening to John Mayer and John Legend.” You might not be able to pick up on those sounds now, but you can expect to hear some R&B and soul influences in the near future. “Right now the most hip hop part of [our sound] is the drums,” says Sean. “We definitely want to start incorporating different sounds into it.” The brothers have extremely different tastes and backgrounds, with Matthew writing poetry since an early age and Sean getting his start singing R&B and pop song covers on YouTube. Main rapper Matthew describes his influences as both old- and new-school, saying, “I like both — I used to listen to old-school rap growing up, [but my influences are more new-school] now.” Their early lyrics are more reminiscent of the Beastie Boys: fun and creative, describing ’90s-kid phenomena like Pokemon cards and Nintendo 64. but this duo should be taken seriously, as they’ve got big plans for themselves. Rather than aligning themselves solely with music, they’ve dubbed themselves an artistic collective, much like OFWGKTA and Broken Social Scene, and are planning to branch out with collaborations with other artists, friends, and even a clothing line, called Reggie Leonard. “[We decided on that name] because our uncles are twins, and their middle names are Reginald and Leonard,” explains Matthew. Friends are as integral as family to the brothers’ work, too — their close friend Callum McCormack shoots and directs all of their music and promotional videos, as well as co-produces their tracks. Chief Navaho has taken an interest in working with local band Pico Tera, an acoustic/indie group from the other side of the musical tracks. It’s obvious that the brothers are always striving for “something different.” They’re making some real efforts to separate themselves from the sounds of other Canadian musicians. “We wanted to show people that not every rapper that comes out of Canada sounds like Classified,” Sean says. “We don’t really want to be like anyone else,” he continues. “We could care less whether or not people like it. We just want to do what sounds cool to us and what we like.” this unrestrained attitude certainly sounds a lot like that held by controversial hip-hop artists Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean of Odd Future, both of whom serve as inspiration for Chief Navaho. “Seeing them succeed gives us more faith,” explains Matthew. “They were just putting out music that they loved,” adds Sean. It’s this artistic outlook that translates into Chief Navaho’s still-to-be-released EP, Lofthead, named for their loft studio they record in. Chief Navaho brings in a motley blend of beats and samples on current tracks “Fries and a Milkshake” and “Intergalactic Shit,” the latter of which pays homage to (you guessed it) the Beastie Boys’ 1998 Grammy-winning jam “Intergalactic.” some might say the warped tones and drums sound weird, but to them, it’s a good thing. “Weird is good,” says Sean of their music. Being called “different” or “new” has the same appeal. It’s what they strive for, something next-level and unheard of. “We’re always trying to evolve,” Sean says. Expect a lot from Chief Navaho in the near future, as they put out their EP sometime in November. but they still have room to grow, and Matt and Sean won’t be stopping anytime soon. “My brother and I will always do stuff together.”
John Mayer’s sulty singing voice have been silenced – at least for the time being. The singer announced that he has to back out of two big upcoming shows due to an ailment.
Denmark based T-Rex is making some very useful and versatile stompboxes of late. While their boutique line of pedals have frequently been seen in the pedalboards of Carlos Santana, Gary Moore, Carl Verheyen, John Mayer, Sonny Landreth and many others, the Tonebug series has been a welcome oasis of great sounds on regular musicians’ scant budgets, which are even leaner with the current economic situation.My earlier glowing GGH reviews of T-Rex Tonebug pedals include their Phaser and Reverb, both of which were excellent examples of terrific bang for the buck packages. the fire engine red Tonebug Chorus/Flanger does nothing to end this winning streak, and even raises the ante with a 2 in 1 combo. in addition to saving precious real estate on most pedalboards, having a chorus and a flanger function in the same unit makes a lot of sense, since it is rare that many guitarists would use both modulation effects at the same time, unless there was an unusual sound in mind. Tonebug “Chorus/Flanger” by T-Rex Engineering
Like its Tonebug cousins, T-Rex houses the Chorus/Flanger in a similar retro looking metal case with LED, soft click footswitch, true bypass, 2 silver knobs and a toggle switch in the middle. Although the Tonebug Chorus/Flanger is not stereo, it has the same excellent S/N ratio as its brethren. it also shares the Tonebug insatiable power appetite, with an average battery life of hour to 1 hour max. Using a 9V adapter is recommended. Although Chorus and Flanging are both modulation effects, they are audibly very distinctive: Chorus became an overused effect by many bands in the 80′s, and defined the sounds of the era in songs by the Police, the Pretenders, Prince, Cocteau Twins, and many other artists. it is effective for emulating 12 string sounds and giving depth to sparse guitar parts in a track. Flangers date back to the 60′s, though they initially became popular in the 70′s. Classic rock acts like Heart, Van Halen, Pink Floyd, and Peter Frampton are just a small sample of flanger users from that period. Both effects are still admired by musicians of all ages and genres, and can be heard on many new recordings.in Chorus mode, the Depth and Rate knobs gave the Tonebug a broad range of sounds, from a slight shimmer, to a warble, and to a full on space effect, not unlike Steve Stevens’ ray gun sound on Billy Idol’s records. 90% of the chorus sounds are very musical, and dialing in a good tone is a cinch. the Tonebug’s main chorus sounds lush, balanced, and accommodating – are similar to the Roland JC-120 amp’s built in chorus, which practically defined the effect for the industry. However, T-Rex manages to avoid sounding like a Roland or Boss clone, as there is a clarity to the guitar’s unprocessed sound that manages to cut through as a default that has to sometimes be tweaked on the Boss units. No small accomplishment. the Flanger simulates the familiar jet plane swoosh, but can also give subtler textures, including a watery undulation and a convincing Leslie rotating speaker sound. again, the Rate and Depth knobs control a very wide sonic palette, and the Flanger is surprisingly versatile, given that a number of other parameters that are not adjustable on flangers can affect the sound (ex: the Strymon Orbit Fanger which I previously reviewed for GGH, has a host of knobs and switches for tone sculpting). the Tonebug Flanger’s easy to use sounds while employing only two knobs are a testament to T-Rex’s Danish ergonomic engineering skill. While certainly not capable of the manipulation available on the Orbit or the Ibanez Paul Gilbert Flanger, the Tonebug certainly gets you into old-school MXR and Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flanging territory with minimum fuss.Auditioning the Chorus/Flanger through both Peavey and Music Man amps with a Les Paul, an Epiphone Dot, and a G&L ASAT, there were no discernible sonic guitar/amp combination preferences exhibited. whether using humbuckers or single coils through tube or solid state amps, the Tonebug Chorus/Flanger added their respective effects without changing the character of the guitar itself. other budget units often have to have additional EQ knobs to compensate for bass or treble loss from the modulation phase shifts.Naturally, a package this small on a budget price has to include some compromises. as mentioned before, the unit is mono, not stereo. Splitting the output to separate amps for a wide stereo spread is unfortunately not an option. Additionally, tap tempo has become a feature on demand for many contemporary modulation pedals and rack effects. Perhaps because of its retro design, tap tempo is not available, so modulation rates have to be dialed in by ear on the fly. However, these are relatively minor criticisms, since there are many classic stompboxes that also lacked these attributes and boasted barely a fraction of the sounds that the Tonebug can offer. besides the short battery time, my other pet peeve of the Tonebugs is the hard to see black dot settings against the silver chromed knobs. This is something inherent in the entire line, although I have heard that T-Rex has since rectified the problem in current units.Closing Thoughts Conceived as a budget line, T-Rex’s Tonebug series is proving to be a winner to date in combining quality effects and maximum bang for the buck in an attractive, user friendly package for most musicians seeking a plug and play unit without needing to read a manual. the Tonebug Chorus/Flanger is another sterling exponent of this philosophy, with a host of good, built in sounds from a minimum of tweaking. Keeping to its practical, utilitarian bent, this is the territory that makes the most sense for a budget unit. it will be interesting to hear how the Tonebug series tackles some of the less conventional effects in the future, like envelope filters, if the line continues to expand.Pros: 2 units in1, easy to dial in great sounds, true bypass, budget priced,.Cons: Lacks Tap Tempo, no stereo output, short battery lifeGrade: A+MSRP: US$185.00Street: US$149.00Copyright 2011 Allen & Halberg, inc.All Rights ReservedGuitarGearHeads.com is a Registered Trademark of Allen & Halberg, inc.
Cover story The Gospel at Ground Zero The horrors of 9/11 were not unlike those of good Friday. Russell D. Moore | posted 9/09/2011 09:12AM ADVERTISEMENT
In America, we debate our wars not just with heated speeches but also with dueling banjos. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the radio dial seemed to lurch between the children of Woodstock and the heirs of the Grand Ole Opry. besides visiting the expected themes of war and peace, post-9/11 popular music plucked at an issue we are now revisiting a decade later: whether television networks ought to broadcast the fiery images of the collapsing Twin Towers.