The album is slated for release on September 4th and includes songs from 19 other bands and has 7 exclusive songs.

Head over and check it out.
 

I was initially quite amazed. I listened to it in the car a bit, I ripped it at work and listened to it on my quiet night shifts. Overall I was pretty happy with my purchase. Then, I don’t really know why, but I stopped listening to it for six months or so. A week or so ago I was browsing my CD collection for something to listen to on my daily work commute and I grabbed it almost instantly. For some reason this time around I am so much more impressed with the music. It has hit me on another level all together.

Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucia form a group known as The Guitar Trio. They have released two studio albums, one in 1982 and one in 1996 and then two corresponding live albums. Friday Night in San Francisco was released in 1980. The album is all acoustic guitar. There are no accompanying instruments, no vocals, and the only percussion is made by the guitarists slapping their guitars.

The first track, Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho performed by Di Meola and McLaughlin de Lucia is by far my favorite. It is very jazzy and and classical inspired. The two guitarists play in perfect harmony and timing. As with the rest of the album the track is greatly improvised while keeping a very tight sound. The two players trade off on lead and rhythm. Each lead is just as great as the last as these two players display their inhuman chops.

The rest of the album is just as impressive. On the second track, Short Tales of the Black Forest, there is a little bit of sound play between Di Meola and McLaughlin. The two improvise licks and play off each others rhythm. The song then progresses into a loose playful cover of the pink panther and then further moves into a blues jam. This is another amazing track.

I know some people have stressed to me their dislike for the lack of other instruments to accompany The Guitar Trio, but I would recommend this album to guitar enthusiasts in a heartbeat. The album sounds great as some quiet background music while you are doing some housework, or cranked in your car to get the live experience. Although the album only has 5 tracks it runs longer than some albums with 13, so don’t let that sway you. Also, if you liked this album I would recommend the other Guitar Trio albums as well.

Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia – Friday Night in San Francisco

1980 – Columbia – runtime: 40:43

Track listing:

1. Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho
2. Short Tales of the Black Forest
3. Frevo Rasgado
4. Fantasia Suite
5. Guardian Angel

Other Guitar Trio Albums:

• 1982 – Passion, Grace, & Fire (Studio)
• 1996 – The Guitar Trio (Studio)
• 1996 – Sunday Night in Boston (Live)

In the video interview on CNET News the lead guitarist gives us a few details on how exactly it is done. Basically they hooked the guitar up to the computer and then used a synth program called MAX/MSP to trigger the sounds. I’m not exactly sure how the interface works, but he says he uses the binary system to play notes. So basically you could program each binary number to a note in a scale. That takes all of the skill out of it though because then you could just button mash and never go off key.

Sadly, these guys are about 25 years ahead of their time. If they had have come up with this in the early 80’s [see Keytar] they would be superstar one-hit-wonders already. I do have to give credit where credit is due though, these guys are pretty big geeks. I love to mod electronics to use them in ways they might not have been meant to, so I envy their skills on this one. If you are interested you can check out The Guitar Zeros website for a guide on how you can hook up this rig for yourself.

[Via Now Toronto]

Fleetwood Mac – Landslide
Eric Clapton – Tears in Heaven
The Beatles – Blackbird
Crosby Stills & Nash – Helplessly Hoping
Led Zeppelin – Babe I’m gonna leave you
Zakk Wylde – Another Spoke In The Wheel

So download the above songs and grab the tabs.

I went with a buddy of mine and we arrived after the first band. We got there just in time to watch them setup for God Forbid. They were pretty good for the most part. They had a really rad singer, but their sound setup wasn’t the greatest. You couldn’t hear the guitars over the bass and most of the backup vocals were pretty off key.

The second band up was Chimaira, their sound setup was really quick and very good. All the instruments were really clear. I think they even upped the volume on the lead guitar during the solos so that it was more audible. The lead guitarist was pretty good. He didn’t do a lot of picking shredding, but he definitely had his tapping down. In each solo he had a tapping riff that included tapping and picking and no less than 3- note fretting patterns which I thought was pretty impressive.

Arch Enemy took at least 45 minutes to setup. It looked like they were having a problem with either Michael Amott’s head or something with the bassist’s setup. Finally they got it going and the band came out. For some reason I expected the lead singer Angela Gossow to be really macho and butch, but she was actually pretty feminine (as much as a female metal singer can be). She was pretty playful and looked genuinely happy to be playing Calgary. It was pretty sweet to see them in such a small venue. We were standing at the back of the room but still had a full view of the whole show.

I don’t know many Arch Enemy songs by name, so I couldn’t tell you every song they played, but the few I know that were in the set are Nemesis, We Will Rise, Anthems (instrumental) and Burning Angel. I thought they did a wicked job on Nemesis. It isn’t one of my favorite songs, but it sounded much better played live.

All in all Chimaira was sweet, but I don’t know if I’d make a special trip to see them. Arch Enemy was rad and I would go see them in any capacity, whether it’s a show they are headlining like this one or even if they were just opening.

I have attached a few videos of Arch Enemy to this post below. This first one is actually one from the show that I was at. Someone recorded it and posted it on YouTube.

And then here are some random ones I have found from other shows and stuff.

What is Last.fm

Last.fm is a huge database of music fans. Each user has a music profile that outlines their favorite bands and songs. After signing up you can install a plug-in called Audioscrobbler for your media player that will tell last.fm all of the music you listen to. The site uses that information to build a profile for you that includes your recent tracks, top artists, top tracks, and top albums. The profile keeps track of your overall stats and each week updates your weekly listening stats.

Last.fm also provides a radio player similar to Pandora’s which supports all major operating systems including Windows, OS X, and Linux.

How do I use Last.fm to Find New Music?

The great thing about Last.fm is unlike the handmade database that Pandora uses, the users on Last.fm are what build the database. The plug-in users install into their media player tells the site all of the songs they like. Then when people use the site to do a search for a band or song, Last.fm can tell you all of the other bands and songs that are liked by people who liked the song you searched for.

When I do a search for Children of Bodom for example, there is a lot of information provided. We are given a description and history of the band, a list of the top albums with cover images, the top five songs which are available for preview, user tags, related journal posts, related artists, and much more. Let’s say I already listen to Children of Bodom but not Arch Enemy. I can click on the Arch Enemy link under similar and Last.fm will tell me the songs and albums I will probably like from that band. In the same way, I could click on the death metal tag and it will give me a list of bands, songs, and albums that Last.fm users have tagged as death metal

The defining factor of Last.fm is that it is a community. One of my favorite features is the Charts. This gives you the truest weekly top 10 songs and artists possible. Obviously it is skewed because only people who have access to Last.fm and the internet can participate, but it is still a pretty accurate chart.

I have been using Last.fm for a few weeks and it’s pretty cool to look back and see my listening trends over that period.

If you want to read my previous posts on how to find new music, follow the links below.
Allmusic.com – Where to Find New Music
Pandora – Where to Find New Music Part 2

Nirvana – Come as you are
Nirvana’s come as you was monumental because it was the first song I taught myself to play on guitar. It was a really easy song to pick up and really got me hooked on playing.

Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
In the early days of MP3’s when they could only be found on rogue websites and personal FTPs (the dialup pre-napster days), the Immigrant Song was a song I downloaded just because I thought I recognized the name Led Zeppelin. Little did I know that this song would lead me onto tunes like Stairway to Heaven and would later prompt me to buy the albums I through III in a single day.

Jimi Hendrix – Little Wing
Little Wing is significant because I think it really embodies the guitar central music that was classic rock. There is no song that flows between rhythm and lead like this song does. Although I never mastered it, it remains one of my all time favorites.

Eric Clapton – Tears in Heaven
For the first 4 years I played guitar I only owned an acoustic. For that reason I got into a lot of the acoustic finger picking songs of Eric Clapton and Crosby Stills and Nash. This song was really the first that made me want to learn others of its kind.

Metallica – Orion
For many years I was very critical of Metallica. Since I was mostly playing classic rock acoustic songs I thought their music was much too heavy for me. The problem was I hadn’t really taken the time to listen to them. One of the guys who originally got me into guitar had me download this song one day and I was hooked.

Zakk Wylde – Bullet inside your head
When I started listening to Metallica I eventually looked for other bands that were similar to them. I listened to Pantera, and Ozzy Osbourne. Through Ozzy I was introduced to Zakk Wylde. This song is really important in my musical evolution for a few reasons. First off, Zakk Wylde was one of the first musicians that I listened to that was still making music. Most of my other favorites were either dead, or their music was. Also, this song sparked several years of loyal Black Label Society listening, and I would still consider Zakk Wylde one of my top three favorites.

Himsa – Loveless and Goodbye
Although I did consider the music I was listening to Metal. Himsa was the first band I listened to that was void of singing. Himsa’s lyrics are quite monotone and are all screamed. At first I was repulsed and couldn’t see myself listening to it. However, the song Loveless and Goodbye was just too awesome for me to avoid. I put aside my differences with the lyrics and listened to it for its sheer guitar talent. Soon enough I began to enjoy the screaming. Himsa has opened my eyes to a whole world of music I never would have known. Bands like Dark Tranquillity, Children of Bodom, Darkest Hour, and Norther are regulars in my Playlist.

I’m sure I have missed something somewhere along the line, but these songs are definitely all time favorites of mine and I don’t know what musical path I would have taken without them.

What songs have influenced your musical preference?

In this installment I’m going to show you a ridiculous web application called Pandora that was created by the Music Genome Project. What is Pandora then? Well think of it as your own personal radio station that only plays music that you like! Wouldn’t that be nice? Well Pandora is the closest anything has come to just that. The advantage to Pandora over a site like AllMusic.com is you get to go by the sound of the music, not just the name of a band or song.

So how does it work?
When you visit Pandora it asks you for the name of an artist or the name of a song. For example I gave it the name Eric Clapton. If Pandora has music from that artist in its database it will start by playing a song from them. After that song is done playing Pandora will pick another artist who has a similar musical, lyrical, and instrumental style to the first artist you chose.

After playing I’m Tore down by Clapton for me, Pandora played a live version of Hotel California by the eagles. For each song Pandora plays you have several options that include:

• Why did you play this song – a list of the qualities the song has which made Pandora choose it
• Make a new station from this song – create a station which will play songs similar to this one
• Buy this song from iTunes – so you can add it to your personal collection
• Buy this album from Amazon – so you can own the album for your personal collection
• I like it – will teach Pandora to play more songs like this one on this station
• I don’t like it – will teach Pandora not to play more songs like this one on this station
• Add to your favorites page – adds the song to a list of your favorite songs for later

Pandora (for its own monetary gain I’m sure) gives you direct access to iTunes and Amazon so you can buy any of the music you like. I think this is a really great feature that any music database should have.

Pandora allows you to create a few stations and play around with it but to be able to get the full experience it’s a good idea to register. If you register you can login from any computer and pull up your stations and favorites lists.

If you don’t know about Pandora you should head over and give it a shot. If anything its fun to play with for a while.

For other sites you can use to find new music check out my other post about AllMusic.com.

But what happens when you are in a slum, all of the music you have is old and the thrill is gone. You are looking for something new, but similar to what you are interested in now, but don’t know how to find it. I hope I can shed some light on some great resources for finding new bands.

Allmusic.com is one of my favorite music databases. It has been around for quite some time and has some really great features for finding new music. Some of the features to look out for are:

• Similar artists – Other artists that have a similar sound
• Influenced by – Artists who have influenced ther sound
• Followers – Artists who have been influenced by their sound
• Genre – Other artists in the same genre
• Styles – Other artists who have a similar playing style

If we do a search for Zakk Wylde at allmusic.com we are going to find someone different under each of the above categories. A similar group to Zakk Wylde is Pantera. Randy Rhoads influenced Zakk Wylde. Under the genre Southern Rock we find other bands like The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The genre section provides top albums and songs within that genre as well. Finally by choosing the broader “Rock” link under genre we get a list of all the styles encompassed under rock. However, a downside to allmusic is that it has restricted areas for registered members. If you want to gain full access to the site you will have to register. Regardless, the site still provides a lot of leads for people looking for new music.

Now I know, Pantera, Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd are all common bands, chances are the majority of people probably have heard them. Well, that’s not completely true. Depending on what kind of a music background you come from, you may not have broken into classic rock. Even at that, Allman brothers are not one of the hugest bands. I just picked those ones because they were common. Looking at Zakk Wylde on allmusic shows lots of artists I have never listened to. Judas Priest, Motorhead, Saigon Kick, Skid Row, Danzig, and Tracii Guns to name a few I have never heard.

Now maybe you find someone that sounds interesting. From Zakk Wylde maybe you are referred to Pantera. How do you know what Pantera album to listen to first? You could go for the newest, or the oldest, or you could read the reviews right on allmusic. If you click on the discography tab it will show you that Vulgar Display of Power is Pantera’s most popular album. It even goes beyond that and indicates the most popular songs on that album with a check mark.

The great part is that even if Pantera is a band that you already know, you can look up the similar artists undethem and find others that weren’t listed under Zakk.

Final Notes
Allmusic is an edited database. Therefore although anyone can submit information, an editor reviews it all before it is published on the site. This post here only began to scratch the surface of what is available at allmusic. It is one of my favorite sites and anyone who doesn’t know about it should at least give it a quick look.