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VIDEO: Eric Johnson talks about his new Eminence EJ1250 guitar speaker

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:19:00 GMT

Any artist who calls an album Tones has got to be serious about sound. Eric Johnson is such an artist. He's been known to spend up to five years crafting an album, and true to form, he was just as meticulous when it came to developing his signature guitar speaker, the Eminence Eric Johnson Signature Series EJ1250.

Johnson worked with George Alessandro to design his signature guitar speaker, aiming to capture the characteristics of late '50s US models as well as late '60s British models.

The EJ1250 was introduced at Winter NAMM 2012, and in the above video, Johnson details and demonstrates his Eminence signature speaker.

King's X drummer Jerry Gaskill suffers heart attack

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:52:00 GMT

Jerry Gaskill, drummer for the progressive rock band King's X, suffered a heart attack last night (25 February), according to a Facebook posting by his bandmate DUg Pinnick.

"Jerry had a heart attack last night," Pinnick wrote today at approximately 3pm EST. "He was operated on and is in stable condition at the hospital. Were all waiting for more info. I will keep you posted."

Gaskill and Pinnick first started working together in 1979 in Springfield, Missouri. A year later, they met guitarist Ty Tabor. The three formed a band called Sneak Preview. In 1985, they moved to Houston, Texas and changed their name to King's X.

The Houston Press reports that the band, currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of their self-titled Atlantic Records debut, was scheduled to begin a tour on 29 March.

MusicRadar sends best wishes to Gaskill for a full and speedy recovery.

Metallica's Lars Ulrich: Lulu criticism "was difficult for Lou Reed"

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:32:00 GMT

Well, we liked it. As for others... not so much. Last year's collaboration between Metallica and Lou Reed, Lulu, was controversial, to say the least, and the other day Lars Ulrich addressed the criticism during an interview with a Washington, DC radio station.

"Obviously, it's fantastic in 2012 that the Internet gives everybody access to voicing their opinions, and I think it's an incredible medium to communicate and to bring the world closer," he said.

"But obviously, as an artist, or somebody who is creating something, you've gotta be careful how deep you dive into what everybody's talking about, because it could really screw with your mind. I've always been in a place where I'm pretty thick-skinned, so it doesn't bug me that much."

The drummer added that the negative reaction to Lulu "was difficult for Lou Reed because he takes everything very personally. And I think he was very surprised. We told him all along, 'Listen, there are some very, very, very hardcore metal fans out there that like everything pre-packaged in a particular little box that looks like this, and the minute that you slightly veer outside of that, then they have a hernia.' And that's fine – I'm fine with that."

Listen: teaser of Slash's new song, You're A Lie

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:44:00 GMT

Slash's new song, You're A Lie, doesn't hit radio until next week, but you can check out a teaser of the track above.

The cut is from Slash's second album, Apocalyptic Love, which is the first record he's recorded with his live band, now credited as Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators.

In the UK, Apocalyptic Love will be released on 21 May in an exclusive Classic Rock Fan Pack form, providing a unique collectable package containing the studio album with bonus tracks alongside a specially created magazine with unseen behind-the-scenes content put together by Classic Rock.

For a look at Slash in the studio, check out these new "webisodes" below. To view the first two, click here.

MusicRadar Deals Of The Week

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:56:00 GMT

29 killer guitar, amp, drum and tech bargains from our recommended retailers

Members of Cream, Living Colour, Santana form supergroup

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:56:00 GMT

Are you ready for another supergroup? If the answer is 'yes,' then you're in luck. The recently formed Spectrum Road features members from Cream, Living Colour, Santana and Medeski, Martin and Wood.

The group consists of Jack Bruce on bass and vocals, Vernon Reid on guitar, John Medeski on keyboards and Cindy Blackman-Santana on drums.

"To be able to play and record in this band alongside three of the most creative and stellar musicians in the world is a longtime dream come true," Reid said in a release. "The idea for Spectrum Road first came about in 2001, and it was the ongoing belief in the kind of record we knew we could make together that made it come to fruition."

The group has played live on several occasions, and this June they'll perform at the Bonnaroo festival on 9 June. The band's self-titled debut album will be issued on 5 June on Palmetto Records.

Interview: Dave Sardy on producing Noel Gallagher, working at Abbey Road

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:15:00 GMT

A lot of folks are saying that Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is the best Oasis record in 15 years, and if you ask the album's producer, Dave Sardy, there's a good reason for that: "It's because Noel wrote all the songs. Those first few Oasis albums were all Noel, as is this one. So there you go - figure it out."

Sardy's association with Gallagher began with Oasis' 2005 album, Don't Believe The Truth, and continued on 2008's Dig Out Your Soul. But it was on High Flying Birds that the two hit a creative peak. "I've been waiting for this album since I met Noel," says Sardy. "He's unlike any other artist I've ever worked with, except for Johnny Cash, in that he's always writing. Even when he's warming up his voice, he's writing material. So I'm not surprised that this record turned out pretty great."

The Brooklyn-born Sardy started out as a musician, most notably with the group Barkmarket, before moving to the other side of the glass. By the early '90s, he became known as a "hardcore superstar," thanks to his work with bands such as Helmet, Orange 9mm and Cop Shoot Cop. Eventually, he helmed well-received discs by Jet and The Dandy Warhols, which caught the ears of the Gallagher brothers.

While Sardy's star rose amongst the artist community, the film industry also took notice, and during the past decade he's worked on scores for films such as Zombieland, 21, the just-released Ghost Rider 2: Spirit Of Vengeance and the upcoming End Of Watch (written and directed by David Ayer, who scripted Training Day).

MusicRadar caught up with Sardy at his LA studio to talk about Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, his approach to production, what it was like for a Brooklyn boy to work in the famed Abbey Road Studios and why he finds film scores so exhilarating.

How did you first hook up with Oasis?

"They had heard some records I did – The Dandy Warhols or Jet or something – and they loved the way they sounded. They sent me a track to mix, and when they heard it they were like, 'Holy fuck!' And then we did some more. The band came over to meet me, without Noel, and then I did an entire version of the record without Noel showing up – it was just Liam and the rest of the guys.

"This is the record that would be Don't Believe The Truth. We did half of it in LA, half of it in New York. Noel listened to it with the band and said, 'This is fucking amazing. We should have hired this guy from the beginning.'

"So Noel called me and said, 'Would you be up for starting over with us?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure. Let's do it right.' That was the second time they had done that record. They had started out with an electronic producer, which didn't work. Then they went into their own studio and did it themselves, sent it to me, and eventually we ditched it all and started over from scratch."

Noel Gallagher on stage with co-guitarist Tim Smith in Los Angeles, December 2011. © Paul R. Giunta/Corbis

You worked with the band in Abbey Road Studios. What was that like?

"I went to the Museum. That's what I call Abbey Road – the Museum. It's more boring than you'd think. Talk about mundane. It was just like any other studio in the world I've ever been in. You sit there for 20 minutes and go, 'OK, I have to try to make this place sound good. Why are we here again?'

"One of the earliest and most important lessons I learned about being in big professional studios was that you still have trust your own ears. So you're in Abbey Road… wonderful. After you say that to yourself, you still have to make sure the speakers aren't blown, or the low-frequency amp isn't messed up.

"Just because you're in a famous place with a big band doesn't mean you don't have to do the work. I'm sure George Martin and Geoff Emerick had to stay on things, so why should I be any different? They worked with The Beatles and I was working with Oasis. 'OK… how does everything sound? Not right? Let's fix it.'

"The fact is, even top studios are just rooms with a bunch of equipment, and the people who maintain the equipment are not the people who actually use it. There's a lot of arguing that you have to have. I'll be in Abbey Road or wherever, and somebody will say, 'Well, who the fuck are you to ask me about gear?' And then I'll say, 'I'm the guy who's paying the bills today, so you're going to have to make things right.'

"Also, so much has changed in a place like Abbey Road. It's not the studio it was back in the '60s, for so many reasons. We had them wheel in a mint-condition EMI TG console, and we placed it in the original position where it used to sit. And Noel and I brought in a bunch of our own gear, so we had two Neve Melbourn sidecars along with the TG console. They sounded great. Noel looked at me and said, 'Ahh! Now I know the secret to Abbey Road: you have to bring in a million dollars of your own gear!'"

When you produced Dig Out Your Soul, did you get the feeling that Oasis might break up?

"Truthfully, I'm more surprised that they stayed together as long as they did than I am that they broke up. I mean, can you imagine being in business with your brother for 20-odd years? It's gotta be intense. Despite everything, they made great art, put together some terrific records and took over the world a couple of times. It lasted a good long time."

Politically, where did you sit when Noel split from the band?

"It wasn't a weird situation for me. Noel is the main songwriter for Oasis – he always was – and whether anyone wants to admit it, he's kind of the co-manager of the band. He's a very smart guy, as is the manager, Marcus Russell. The two have an amazing partnership.

"Plus, I think Noel is a real grown-up in what he does as far as his writing and his music. I mean, I wasn't working with him when he was 18 – I'm sure he's changed, because who hasn't? – but for me, politically, there wasn't anything to think about. Noel is the songwriter, and I'm a song guy. If there was a chance for me to work with anybody in the band, I'd go with the awesome songwriter."

OK, so we know why you want to work with Noel, but has he ever said why he likes working with you?

"No. Never. I assume it's because we do good work together. And I think there's probably a lot of similarities between Manchester and Brooklyn. We're the same people. Our histories are the same, we're the same age, we both come from families without a tradition of music, and we both come from working-class backgrounds where nobody was giving us a leg up. So we speak the same language. We have a mutual respect that we don't really talk about because we're busy working all day."

What were your impressions of Noel's songs for High Flying Birds?

"Noel's songs were great. The recordings needed fixing. I think he started out doing demos and then the excitement grew to the point where he thought he was done. It was presented to me like, 'Here's the album, when are you available to mix it?'"

And then you said, 'We can do better.'

"Pretty much. I flew to the UK and sat down with Noel, and I went through it song by song and what I thought the problems were. By the time we got to the fifth song, he had his head in his hands, and he was like, 'What are you trying to say?' And I said, 'I'm not trying to say. I'm telling you.'

"Basically, we went through each song measure by measure, and every fifth measure or so I'd say, 'And what about this?' or 'What about that?' It wasn't like I said anything that was a shock to him; I just think he was used to the way everything sounded. At the end, he said, 'Well, how do we change it?' And I said, 'Don't worry, leave it up to me.' He had built a beautiful house, but it was sitting on a tarpit. We had to move it and put it on a better foundation."

What did you feel needed to be fixed?

"Part of it was tempos. The best thing about Noel's songs and Oasis songs, unless it's an overtly electronic feel, is that they breathe and kind of move around. He had recorded to a click, and things were very static."

Noel was OK with recording – or rerecording – in Los Angeles?

"Yeah. I think he likes coming out here; it's like he's on vacation. We brought Noel and his drummer [Jeremy Stacey] out. We kept some of the things that were special from the original recordings, but for the most part we recorded over the top lines. It was kind of an upside-down way of working, trying to maintain signature sounds and other things, because we were changing tempos and keys – it was a little insane. Everything you've ever heard about recording Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds? This whole album was done that way."

What kinds of gear does Noel like to play around with in the studio?

"Anything as long as it was made before 1978. [laughs] Seriously, he's pretty hip as far as gear. He's got a massive collection. He's got, like, five consoles – a Neve console, an EMI console, an SSL console, a mastering console… it's crazy. His studio is amazing, but he pretty much ditched it. If you're a touring musician, it's a hassle to keep everything working. You can't just come home after a year and expect everything to be ready. Stuff has to be maintained."

Stop The Clocks made Noel's album. You have a bit of history with that song…

"I've produced that song five different times. It was supposed to be on the last couple of Oasis records. I made a bet with my engineers that it wouldn't make this record, either. I had solid money on it, too. [laughs] 'Cause we did banging versions of it in the past – in every key, in every tempo… Liam and Noel have very different registers, so if you record the song for one guy it won't be right for the other one."

When Noel was making High Flying Birds with you, was he also working with Amorphous Androgynous on this other record that he has coming out this year?

"That was a whole separate thing. My understanding is that he fell in love with those guys for what they do, and he kind of let them go to town. They're really coming from another place. They're coming from outer space, and he's kind of a connoisseur of that."

Let's talk about the movie work you've been doing. How did you get involved in film scores?

"Basically, I'm a musician who became a producer because I was really into how an idea can be executed and translated to a listener. I picked up production by being a musician, but it's not like I just wanted to be a producer. I've always been a big movie fan, so scoring movies has been incredible. I consider it filmmaking – you're telling the story through the music.

"The cool part about scoring is that there are zero limitations. The only limitations are what everybody agrees the feel of the movie should be. You can do an entire movie on zither, if that's what everybody agrees the film needs.

"As far as my first big break, I kind of connived my way in. I had done a lot of pieces of music for films, and the head of music for Sony could tell that I had done some things when the band wasn't even around. She said, 'OK, how are you doing this?' And I said, 'Just trust me. Next time, just call me and you won't have to pay as much.' So I started working on films just by sending in cues and being a capable guy."

With film scores, is there any sort of process as far as presentation? Are you sent files of scenes?

"It varies. I've done movies where I had a script, and I had months to write music before they even shoot anything. I've also worked on films where somebody else didn't work out, so they brought me in, and I'd have five weeks to do an entire score.

"The great thing is that Avid, which 90 percent of stuff is edited with, is made by the same company that makes Pro Tools, so I can import a movie into Pro Tools and work with it that way. Again, there's no one way a film comes together or a movie score comes together. Each time is a new adventure."

Before you got really active in scoring, did you study any composers? Any important influences?

"I'm definitely a fan of film music. I love the way score works in movies. As a kid, I remember being blown away by the scores to Dirty Harry and The Enforcer, the Lalo Schifrin stuff. It blew my head off, as much as hearing The Beatles as a kid and going, 'Oh my God, I didn't know you could do that!'

"Just the way Lalo used a drum kit and an electric piano, it worked more effectively than some of the really big movie stuff. Maybe it was because I grew up in New York, but something about the urban feel to those scores… Put it this way, when shit's going down, I'm not hearing orchestra score; I'm not hearing 200 strings. I'm hearing rock 'n' roll!"

The History Of The Electric Bass part 2: Beyond Fender

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:35:00 GMT

In spite of Fender having set a high standard with the Precision, it was not producing vast quantities at any time during the 1950s. When Fender introduced the Stratocaster the bass was given a new contoured body that was considerably more comfortable than the relatively sharp edge of the original body.

This happened around late 1953/54 and became known as the 'Transitional P-Bass'. It helped to continue interest in the instrument but there was no way that other American guitar manufacturers were going to sit back and watch Fender take the monopoly on the bass guitar. Gibson and Rickenbacker were particularly eager to get in on the act and grab some of this new retail action for themselves.

Gibson

Although well established in the archtop electric guitar field Gibson was now producing the Les Paul so although a solid bass with a carved top, the violin shape of the Electric Bass was actually something of a surprise when it was introduced in 1953.

With a shorter scale than the Precision, a glued-in neck and a huge humbucking pickup positioned towards the neck this bass had a fat warm sound that was quite unlike the Fender. It took a little while to settle as some models featured painted f-holes and a coach line to the body edge whist others were left natural, but structurally each had an extendable endpin so it could be played in an upright position.

This was a great design ploy to temp traditional players into gradually making the change. However Gibson made bigger impact in 1958 with its EB-2 bass, a thinline semi-hollow bodied instrument with real f-holes and like the Electric Bass it initially had banjo-style tuners that projected backwards from the headstock. It also had the same humbucking pickup, a single-saddle bridge/tailpiece and a pushbutton tone switch.

Jimmy Page used one when he first joined the Yardbirds as a bass player although his was the later version with regular tuners. The last of the banjo headstocks appeared in 1959 on the EB-0 bass. This was a cheaper bass (hence the 0 in the designation) and caused the more expensive original Electric Bass to be renamed the EB-1 when it was reintroduced in 1969. The EB-0 drew on the success of the Les Paul Junior guitar and featured basic electronics and a slab body with a double cutaway.

Rickenbacker

By now Rickenbacker was also testing the water. Its early electric guitars and basses sported a very distinctive double horseshoe magnet pickup developed way back in the 1930s by Los Angeles steel guitar player George Beauchamp.

It was first used on the prototype 'Frying Pan' guitar devised by him and Harry Watson who had been working in the National guitar factory. His friend Adolph 'Rick' Rickenbacker had the money and the means to put the 'guitar' into production and naturally the pickup was adapted when the first Rickenbacker bass, the 4000, came into being in 1957.

It was a stunning looking instrument and like Fender had a futuristic look about it with a 'cresting wave' shaped solid body. It also made use of neck-through-body construction, which gave the early models a distinctive stripe on the body and the 'jigsaw puzzle' headstock an even more dramatic appearance.

With the single horseshoe magnet pickup and the chrome bridge/tailpiece dominating the body, the scale length was close to the Precision standard and initially the scratchplate was gold plastic although this was soon standardised to white.

One of the first to adopt the 4000 was Ricky Nelson's bass player James Kirkland. Ricky had a deal with Rickenbacker so for James it was the obvious choice. When he first played it on the Grand Ole Opry radio showit caused quite a stir:"I almost blew the sound engineer's ears out, because he wasn't expecting it. They weren't gonna let me play it at all."

Fortunately they did because the bass guitar had arrived and was here to stay. The 4001 was introduced in 1961 and this had the benefit of a second smaller pickup with a 'toaster' top. The rosewood fingerboard now sported snazzy pearloid triangular position markers rather than the simple dots of the 4000 and the whole instrument was neatly bound.

It looked a million dollars but more importantly it produced that characteristic Rickenbacker bass growl that would be explored to great effect later on in the sixties. But in America yet another bass sound was also being heard.

Danelectro

In 1954 Nat Daniel's Danelectro Company began producing cheaper electric guitars for the Sears Roebuck chain of stores, many under the name of Silvertone. In 1956 Danelectro ventured into the bass marketplace with the first ever 6-string bass!

The U2 was a single cutaway, semi-hollow design that was essentially a guitar with heavier strings and tuned down. It featured on many recordings at the time including tracks by the Everly Brothers and Duane Eddy.

In 1958 Danelectro produced the Longhorn 4423, a 4-string bass with a 33.5-inch scale that was even more unusual than the rest of the ange. It employed the same Masonite and hollow frame construction method as their guitars but it was the symmetrical and extended twin cutaway design that caught the eye.

With a pair of the infamous Lipstick pickups and dual concentric controls it looked like something from Greek mythology and it had a killer sound. Both Jack Bruce and John Entwistle used Longhorns during the sixties in Cream and The Who.

Extra Precision

With so much going on in the guitar and bass market during this remarkable decade Fender decided to take a third look at their Precision bass and came up with what has become the definitive version. The headstock was enlarged for sonic reasons (the upsized Telecaster shape left a dead spot on the upper string) and mimicked the Stratocaster, the cover plates changed shape, the controls and jack socket were mounted on the scratchplate but most importantly the bass was now equipped with an impressive split-coil pickup.

This offset design cleverly presented seperate coils for the bottom two strings and for the upper two strings and each string vibrated between a pair of pole pieces. The result was a much fatter sound than the earlier versions and clarity of sound that appealed to all. This is the P-Bass sound as we know and love it and the one that has appeared on countless thousands of recordings right up to the present day!

So within this remarkable short period of time America had introduced some of the most enduring and copied guitar and bass designs. However things were also happening in Europe during these fabulous fifties..

The Beatles, Apple make 27 songs available as iTunes ringtones

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:58:00 GMT

The Beatles in 1964, back when ringtones were... What's a ringtone? © Underwood & Underwood/Corbis

The Beatles were slow to board the iTunes train, but they're quickly making up for lost time. Today, that most iconic of iconic bands made available 27 of their songs - all number one hits, that is - available as ringtones via Apple's iTunes.

The songs are culled from The Beatles' 31-milliion 2000 compilation album 1, which told The Beatles' story in 'toppermost of the poppermost' fashion, putting all of the group's number one songs on a two-disc package.

So now with ringtones, fans fan answer their phones to Love Me Do, Ticket To Ride, Help!, I Feel Fine and on and on.

Because the songs are all culled from the album 1, ringtones-appropriate numbers such as Good Day Sunshine, Goodnight, and Good Morning, Good Morning aren't yet available. But here's hoping they will be soon. And hey, imagine sitting on the bus and hearing You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)... talk about strange!

The Beatles, Apple make 27 songs available as iTtunes ringtones

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:58:00 GMT

The Beatles in 1964, back when ringtones were... What's a ringtone? © Underwood & Underwood/Corbis

So now with ringtones, fans fan answer their phones to Love Me Do, Ticket To Ride, Help!, I Feel Fine and on and on.

Brit Awards 2012: Ethan Johns named best producer as Adele and Ed Sheeran triumph

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:27:00 GMT

On a night of few surprises, Adele and Ed Sheeran took home two Brit Awards apiece as Ethan Johns scooped the prize for British Producer.

Johns, who recently produced Laura Marling's second album A Creature I Don't Know, saw off competition from Paul Epworth, who worked on Adele's all-conquering 21 album, and Flood, who collaborated with PJ Harvey on Let England Shake.

There was little controversy during the ceremony itself, though television producers were forced to apologise for cutting off Adele's acceptance speech as she won the award for British Album of the Year.

Performances came from Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Noel Gallagher, Olly Murs, Florence And The Machine, Rihanna, Bruno Mars and Outstanding Contribution to Music award winners Blur.

A full list of award winners and a selection of winners' acceptance speeches is below.

Brit Awards 2012 winners

British Female Solo Artist - Adele

International Male Solo Artist - Bruno Mars

Critic's Choice Award - Emeli Sande

British Single - One Direction What Makes You Beautiful

International Female Solo Artist - Rihanna

British Male Solo Artist - Ed Sheeran

British Group - Coldplay

International Group - Foo Fighters

British Breakthrough Act - Ed Sheeran

International Breakthrough Act - Lana Del Rey

Outstanding Contribution To Music - Blur

Mastercard British Album Of The Year - Adele 21

Adele acceptance speeches

NEXT: Ed Sheeran acceptances speeches

Ed Sheeran acceptance speeches

NEXT: Rihanna and Bruno Mars acceptance speeches

Rihanna and Bruno Mars acceptance speeches

NEXT: One Direction acceptance speech

One Direction acceptance speech

VIDEO: David Lee Roth interviews Eddie and Alex Van Halen - Part 2

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:24:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, we posted a video in which David Lee Roth interviewed Eddie and Alex Van Halen, asking about their childhood and how they came to play music. Now you can check out a continuation of that dialogue above.

In this new installment, the three bandmates discuss the businesses Starbucks and McDonalds are really in - and then they get down to strolling down Van Halen memory lane, talking about their first record deal and early record making before bringing it around to how the new album, A Different Kind Of Truth, took shape.

Speaking of A Different Kind Of Truth, you can read our track-by-track review right here. Van Halen kicked off a North American tour in support of the album last weekend in Louisville, Kentucky.

Listen: DragonForce release their 'fastest song' ever

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:01:00 GMT

Sure, it's fast. But is it one of the fastest songs ever? Or, to put it in the proper context, is Fallen World the 'fastest song' that power metal kings DragonForce, known for setting land speed shred records, have ever laid down? That's what they're saying, so check it out above and be the judge.

Fallen World is the first track from the upcoming album The Power Within, due out 16 April. It's the band's fifth album overall, and their first with new vocalist Marc Hudson. He replaces ZP Theart, who parted ways with the group in March 2010.

"The last two years have been the most fun we ever had making an album," said guitarist Herman Li. "Through writing, jamming and touring together, we have built this incredible energy and it has been fully captured on the new album.

"This time around, we've really brought our metal side to the surface and made some of the best music of our career. From the fastest song we've ever recorded to the slower songs, and some things you would never expect from us, this is by far the most diverse DragonForce album yet."

Cool and classic basses: Gibson EB-1 Electric Bass

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:36:00 GMT

This was the first electric bass from Gibson hence the name. However it was rechristened the EB-1 after the introduction of the EB-0 in 1956. It was Gibson's tradition of organising model numbers by their price that caused the EB-0 to undercut this designation because it was cheaper!

The EB-1 briefly resurfaced in 1970 with a few cosmetic changes but by 1972 it was gone again! With its violin shape and endpin it was definitely aimed at bridging the gap between an upright bass and a bass guitar. The earliest versions with a brown pickup cover had a huge single-coil unit inside that was actually mounted on its side. This gave it a cleaner and better-defined sound than the 1958 versions that were given a regular bass humbucker.

Read our profile of the Gibson EB-1 Electric Bass

Bernard Purdie: my six career-defining records

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:43:00 GMT

The Purdie Shuffle – that distinctive, much-imitated marvel of soulful syncopation, interpreted by giants like John Bonham and Jeff Porcaro, just to name a few. Turns out the inventor of the two-measure treasure wasn't thinking drums at all when he came up with it – he was imagining a train.

"The way a locomotive kind of pushes and pulls, that's what I was feeling," says Bernard Purdie. "I played it for my music teacher, Mr Leonard Haywood, when I was a kid, and he tried to stop me. 'That's not the way to play a shuffle,' he said. But I heard what I heard - whoosh, whoosh, whoosh - so I kept it. Eventually, he said, 'OK, you work on that. It that could be something… but not today.' [laughs] That's all right. I knew I'd get my chance."

Bernard Purdie: my six career-defining records

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:43:00 GMT

Interview: OK Go's Damian Kulash on Needing/Getting, high-concept videos

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:19:00 GMT

Damian Kulash on stage with OK Go at the Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco, 2011. © Paul R. Giunta/Corbis

The idea of four guys driving through the desert in a car outfitted with arms and fins designed to play, strike, pound and beat musical instruments of every possible stripe might sound like some sort of juvenile frat stunt.

That is, until you realize it's the latest high-falutin' video from OK GO, one for their song Needing/Getting, and it's been bankrolled by Chevrolet, in fact, to promote the company's new Sonic sub-compact vehicle - in which case it all makes perfect sense.

According to OK Go singer and guitarist Damian Kulash, context is everything, and when it comes to the elaborate clips the band has become famous for since 2006's award-winning, viral-tastic Here It Goes Again (otherwise known as 'the treadmill video'), "The crazier the idea the better," he says, "We're pretty much alone in this arena of videos, so we might as well see what our imaginations can really do."

Over the years, OK Go (which also includes bassist Tim Norwind, drummer Dan Konopka and guitarist Andy Ross) have cornered the market on video genius with clips that feature both stunning dance choreography (A Million Ways, All Is Not Lost) and how-did-they-do-that? mechanical wizardry (This Too Shall Pass). Needing/Getting, co-directed by Kulash and Brian L. Perkins, sets a new creative highwater mark for the band, and with 15 million YouTube views in the two weeks since it premiered during the Super Bowl, it might hit the top audience-wise, as well.

In an interview with MusicRadar, Damian Kulash talks about the making of the Needing/Getting clip, OK Go's unique place in the music-video world of 2012 and where the band might head musically on their next album.

How did the concept for Needing/Getting come about?

"We were just trying to figure out what we could do with a car, actually. Far in advance, we were talking to Chevy. We were inspired by old Italian motorcycle choreography, which led to me thinking, What could we do with cars? That was it.

"In truth, having the idea is always the easy part; turning the idea into reality is what's tough. I think lots of people have insane ideas, but how many of them are naïve enough to think they can actually work?"

Who in the band is mostly in charge of 'insane ideas,' or is it a free-for-all?

"I'm kind of the captain of the video ship. In the case of this video, Brian L. Perkins, the director and I worked together on it for a pretty long time. Some of the videos, the band has been pretty involved in; others are more me and a collaborator. With projects of this scale, of course, you have to draw on everybody's skills."

You had to complete something like two months of stunt driving skill for the video?

"It was spread out over a few weeks, but there were only three days of training, with a lot of practice. It was fun, though. Even if the idea hadn't been pretty good, I probably could have been sold on it because I got to take stunt driving lessons."

Do you know how many instruments were used in the clip?

"Somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 – I'm not sure, exactly. And it depends on what you call an instrument. For example, the set of ceramic tiles hanging off the front of the car, is that one instrument, or is each separate tile an instrument?

"The number is cloudy. We got 58 pianos, and 55 of them are on the track. Then there's 288 guitars, 67 amplifiers, six tubas. And those blue, 55-gallon drums that we made into upright basses, each one with one-string… There were 48 in the verse, and 15 times eight… Wait, what's 15 times eight minus one?... [pauses, does math in his head] So there were 119 basses."

How many takes were necessary to get everything you needed?

"Well, we shot it over four days. Each section of the chorus we ran between five and 20 times, I'd say – with some test runs, as well. We never got the arms that were attached to the car to be robust enough to run the entire length of the course at once. Every third or fourth time of driving, I'd snap a panel of one of the hitting arms off."

Speaking of takes, Here It Goes Again required quite a few. An out-of-shape band couldn't do such a thing.

[laughs] "I guess we got a pretty good workout, but I don't remember being so much physically tired as I was mentally exhausted. The way we make our videos is, we plan for a lot of playtime. We think of scenarios that we think will work – like, we should make a dance video with treadmills, or we should play a song using a car – but the specifics require a lot of planning and trial and error. You can spend all of your day trying to solve problems."

Do video ideas ever come to you when you're writing songs?

"No. Although I love the idea of the art forms overlapping to the point of indistinguishability, so far it hasn't happened in that way for us. It has in how we structure our time. We wake up and try to chase the most creative idea – sometimes it's a record, sometimes it's a video."

Do you feel that making high-concept videos puts the band in a rarefied position these days? You and the Foo Fighters are pretty the only ones doing them anymore.

"We're in a rare and lucky position for a lot of reasons. We've had a ton of success doing what people didn't expect of us, which has made a great career model for us in general. But because we're known for doing these things, it's made it a lot easier for us to find the funding to make these videos.

"Let's face it, no matter how exciting the idea of us driving around a test track and playing over 1,500 instruments might be to a car company, it's not a very wise investment – that is, until you consider that we've done 800 crazy things like that and they've all been pretty successful.

"We like doing these things. Most bands dread doing videos because they feel like they're advertisements - which they are. Essentially, a record label hires a director to make a commercial for the CD they're trying to sell. While the band might be in that commercial, it's not generally the creative output of the band that's in that commercial. So for us to discover this creative outlet lets us kill two birds with one stone. It gave us a way to connect with our fans directly and not have to deal with all of the politics and control structures of major labels. It also allows us to chase ideas that don't fit particularly well into the old categories.

"Everybody's making ones and zeros. Right now, you and I are talking over this digital line to create more digital stuff. Filmmakers, writers and musicians are all making ones and zeros. Architects, too – although, presumably, their ones and zeros will turn into buildings."

Andy Ross, Dan Konopka, Tim Norwind and Kulash at the premiere of The Muppets, 2011. © Frank Trapper/Corbis

"It used to be that all of the different art forms were distinguished and defined by the difference in their medium, but now it's all the same medium; the only difference is whether you're going to read those ones and zeros as sound or video.

"Most creative people I know get excited by an idea more than a singular piece of technology. I mean, I love playing the guitar, but mostly I love the idea of a song scratching that itch deep inside my head. If it takes a guitar to do that, fine; if it takes a synthesizer to do that, fine. If it takes a video or a performance art stunt or, fuck, a smell [laughs] - the fun part is making something. The distinction as to which part of it is art and which part is promotion, that comes down to semantics."

Do you ever worry that people are paying more attention to the band's videos than the music?

"That clearly is the case, and whether or not I should find it worrisome is the real question. We love our songs, and I'm super-proud of our last album – obviously, we'd love for people to love it all as much as we do. By and large, I think they do. We've got tons of fans who come to our shows.

"Because we're pretty much the only people working in this video space, it's no surprise that that's what gets the most attention. We're completely alone here. In general, though, I don't like thinking of it that way.

"If we get to keep chasing our tails creatively and nobody can tell us that we can't do it or it can't be paid for, that's pretty much Valhalla right there. I don't want to keep my head in the 20^th Century logic that songwriting should be walled off creatively from everything else."

Any plans for the next album? Have you started writing and demoing?

"We're writing right now. Our first sort of proper session is at the end of March. We're writing our little hearts out. I can talk about what I think the album might be, but I'd be wrong. The best stuff is always in the surprises.

"One thing I can say, though, is that things are so very… soulful. For the last couple of years, I've been in a big 1960's soul phase. While you certainly won't mistake any of our songs for Solomon Burke or Al Green, the fact is that's all I've been listening to, and it will be in there somehow."

The 'Pirate Brits': the UK's most torrented artists revealed

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:33:00 GMT

The UK music industry is set to pat itself on the back at tomorrow's Brit Awards 2012 ceremony, and to mark the occasion, music analytics company Musicmetric has revealed who would win each of the awards based on illegal filesharing figures.

In many cases, the winners- which show which artists/albums/songs have been torrented most by UK users over the past year - will probably be in line with those of The Brits, but some other results are slightly surprising.

Here are the 'Pirate Brit' awards results in full:

Best Male

1. Ed Sheeran
2. James Morrison
3. James Blake
4. Professor Green
5. Noel Gallagher

Best Female

1. Adele
2. Jessie J
3. Florence & the Machine
4. Laura Marling
5. Kate Bush

British Breakthrough

1. Jessie J
2. Ed Sheeran
3. The Vaccines
4. Emeli Sande
5. Anna Calvi

British Album

1. Adele - 21
2. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
3. Florence - Ceremonials
4. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

British Group

1. Coldplay
2. Chase & Status
3. Arctic monkeys
4. Kasabian
5. Elbow

International Male

1. Bruno Mars
2. David Guetta
3. Aloe Blacc
4. Bon Iver
5. Ryan Adams

International Female

1. Rihanna
2. Lady GaGa
3. Beyonce
4. Bjork
5. Feist

International Group

1. Foo Fighters
2. Lady Antebellum
3. Maroon 5
4. Fleet Foxes
5. Jay Z and Kanye West

International Breakthrough

1. Nicki Minaj
2. Foster The People
3. Lana Del Ray
4. Aloe Blacc
5. Bon Iver

British Single

1. Adele - Someone Like You
2. One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
3. Jessie J - Price Tag
4. Ed Sheeran - The A Team
5. Olly Murs - Heart Skips a Beat
6. JLS - You Make Me Wanna
7. Example - Changed the Way you Kissed Me
8. Military Wives - Wherever You Are

Nicolas Cage wants to be just like Led Zeppelin

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:45:00 GMT

Who wouldn't want to be compared to Led Zeppelin? Well, Nicolas Cage sure doesn't mind, and while promoting his latest film, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, the Oscar-winning actor found a way to note similarities between himself and the iconic rock band.

"I would like to find a way to embrace what Led Zeppelin did, in filmmaking," Cage told the Huffington Post. "Right now, what I'm excited about is trying to create a [pauses] kind of a cultural understanding through my muse that is part of the zeitgeist that isn't motivated by vanity or magazine covers or awards. It's more, not countercultural, but counter-critical.

"[Led Zeppelin] were the biggest band in the world and they remained intimately mysterious - because they just went about it their own way, or against what the advice might have been or what the council might have been.

"And I admire that. And I would like to tap into more exploration of horror films and just everything that I shouldn't be doing, according to representation."

Dave Grohl clarifies his Grammy Awards speech

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:56:00 GMT

Actually, we liked the speech Dave Grohl gave the other night while accepting a Best Rock Album Grammy Award for the Foo Fighters' Wasting Light.

Apparently, some folks out there didn't feel the same way, taking issue with Grohl's comments about the lack of a "human element" in modern music and interpreting his remarks as some sort of slag against pop and other genres not otherwise rocking.

And so the head Foo Fighter has issued the following statement, clarifying his true feelings:

Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin' with Lil' Wayne...meeting Cyndi Lauper's adorable mother...the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet.....much too much to recap. It's really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there's one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance...and then saying this:

"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do... It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."

Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey......I'm a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil' ode to analog recording has. OK....maybe Kanye has me on this one, but....Imma let you finish....just wanted to clarify something...

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5.....I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn't matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician's personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and.....human.

That's exactly what I was referring to. The "human element". That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became "bad" things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily "fixed". The end result? I my humble opinion.....a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance.Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell...I'm not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really fucking hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that's what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don't know how to do what Skrillex does (though I fucking love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that's badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the "craft" is equally as important, I'm sure. I mean.....if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don't give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

Stay frosty.

Davemau5

VIDEO: Tenacious D rock acoustics at Guitar Center Drum Off

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:24:00 GMT

Tenacious D - that acoustic-rocking duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass - performed recently at the Guitar Center Drum Off competition, held at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. The tenacious ones played alongside Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman.

Check out the video performances of the band's classic The Meta (above)l, along with a most tenacious version of The Who's Pinball Wizard (below), complete with a Wackerman drum solo, no less.

Although Black has a pretty happening day job as a big-time movie star, he's throwing himself back into Tenacious D land for the coming months. In May, the band will release their third studio album, Rize Of The Fenix, ahead of their appearance at the Download Festival.

You can stream the title track of Rize Of The Fenix below the second video.

Green Day begin recording new album

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:21:00 GMT

Green Day have begun work on their ninth studio album. In a Tweet this week, Billie Joe Armstrong announced the news: "Happy Valentine's Day! Officially started recording the new record today. It's FUCK TIME!!!!"

Whether or not 'Fuck Time!!!!' is a song title or the possible name of the upcoming album is unclear, but there's always hope.

Green Day have indicated that their next album would be a more straightforward affair and a move away from the successful rock-opera narratives of 2004's American Idiot and 2009's 21st Century Breakdown. Recently, they have performed several new songs live, such as Carpe Diem (see video above), Make Out and and Wow, That's Loud.

No word yet on who is producing the album. Mega man behind the glass Butch Vig oversaw 21st Century Breakdown, but now that he's got his hands full with the reactivated Garbage (another album we're anxiously awaiting), it's doubtful if he'll have the time for outside projects, at least for the foreseeable future.

MusicRadar Deals Of The Week

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:01:00 GMT

29 killer guitar, amp, drum and tech bargains from our recommended retailers

VIDEO: Man makes electric guitars and basses from shovels

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:42:00 GMT

Pavel Yatsyna - Russian frontman of "legendary punk rock band Red Mold, the band that has released 71 albums" - has found a way to turn an ordinary garden shovel into a functioning electric guitar or bass.

Watch the video if you don't believe us, and visit Shovellica to hear garden tools used to make symphonic heavy metal music.

If Pavel ever opens a Custom Shop, we'd like one with a cocobolo handle. At the time of writing, Shovel from the M People was unavailable to comment about a rumoured collaboration. Perhaps he too is being turned into an electric guitar as you read this.

Crazy enough for our gallery of the most outrageous guitars on the internet? You decide...

VIDEO: Alter Bridge Slip To The Void exclusive premiere

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:57:00 GMT

On 29 November 2011, Alter Bridge performed to a sell-out crowd at London's Wembley Arena. Recalling the most significant event in the band's eight-year career, guitarist Mark Tremonti says, "Playing Wembley was a dream we were chasing, but it was never something we were sure we could pull off. For us to headline the place, and to sell it out... we still can't believe it."

Good thing there's proof, in this case the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD titled Alter Bridge Live At Wembley, helmed by Grammy-nominated director Dan Catullo III. Live At Wembley is a stunning visual and audio document which captures Tremonti and the rest of the band (which also includes vocalist/guitarist Myles Kennedy, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips) smashing through a dramatic 21-song set, including the hits Rise Today, Blackbird, Watch Over You, along with their latest single Slip To The Void, which MusicRadar is pleased to premiere as a video exclusive (above).

Shot with 16 high-def cameras, Alter Bridge Live At Wembley will be released on 26 March in Blu-ray and DVD packages, and there will be a CD set, as well. In addition, the package will be issued in 3D this fall. We sat down with Mark Tremonti the other day to get his take on the band's Wembley triumph, their UK success story and the smoking new Blu-ray and DVD.

On Wembley

"When the tour was booked, we saw that there were a few arenas, Wembley being one of them. We were excited and nervous, wondering if the tickets would sell. They did, and we were blown away.

"The first four or five songs of any set are usually pretty nerve-racking; those are the tunes where we're finding our footing and trying to get comfortable. But Wembley was different. Even with all of the cameras and the fact that we were filming and we couldn't make any mistakes, it was fun right from the start."

On UK success

"After the breakup of Creed, we went back to the UK and worked our way up through the clubs and some bigger places. Establishing yourself or re-establishing yourself can be a battle sometimes, but in this case, it's really paid off, and it's all because of the fans."

"I think certain parts of the media in England really supported us. Kids get a lot of their music through the Internet and magazines – it's not so much radio-driven and MTV-driven – and I guess we got out in all the right channels.

"Also, I think they like a different sort of music there. They dig the tenor vocalists and guitar solos. Those kinds of elements seem to connect in England more than they do in the States for some reason."

Lights, camera...pyro!

"We put a lot of that stuff up the day before the show. We weren't using lasers and a lot of the lights on tour, and the pyro was totally new to us. We were just hoping for the best on those things. I have to hand it to Dan, the director, and our crew – they made sure everything worked and came together for a seamless show."

On post-production

"We sat with Dan and went through every song in the editing room. Basically, we picked apart all of the shots. I think we went through three or four rounds until we got the version everybody was happy with. Working on a DVD is just like anything else, and it's just like mixing a record. People have their input, they make their suggestions. You don't always win every argument, but as long as everybody is cool with the end result, that's what counts."

On meeting special fans

"Before the show, we did meet a fan who is sick. That was a pretty special moment for us. Whenever there's a situation like that, whether it's Make A Wish or any other kind of foundation, anybody that reaches out, we always try to do what we can to lift somebody's spirit. Taking a little time out of our day to meet with someone who's going through something pretty rough, that's the least we can do."

The tracklisting for Alter Bridge Live At Wembley (DVD and Blu-ray)

1. Slip To The Void
2. Find The Real
3. Ghosts Of Days Gone By
4. Before Tomorrow Comes
5. Come To Life
6. All Hope Is Gone
7. White Knuckles
8. Brand New Start
9. Metalingus
10. Broken Wings
11. I Know It Hurts
12. One Day Remains
13. Coeur d' Alene
14. Buried Alive
15. Blackbird
16. Wonderful Life
17. Watch Over You
18. Ties That Bind
19. Isolation
20. Open Your Eyes
21. Rise Today