Is this good or bad?

I can't tell, halp!


You'd think I'd like this kinda crap intrinsically.  I hate that 4 cello Metallica crap though, and most of these Vitamin quartet songs are not that good.  But this...is good?  I don't know.  wat u think??

The end of Japan

Did you know that Japan's birth rate is below replacement levels and the population is shrinking?  Do you know why?  Well I will show you why.


Yup, a clear case of guitarsterbation.  Such wankery will sour you with fertile women.  I'm sorry, it's true.

Samhain and Steve Vai

Samhain means "summer's end".  Don't let the gringos fool you either, Mr. Booze will not tolerate churlish pronunciations.  "Sow-en", please.  I guess summers in Ireland end about a month later than here, because I celebrated Samhain on September 16th.  It was perfect.  Probably the last day to get in the upper 70s for the year.  Intoxicated out of my mind.  The veil between the worlds was pierced magnificently.

Retrospectively, it was foolish to recycle the previous summer's soundtrack.  It was hot and hectic and stressful.  And that is too bad, because I used to enjoy a lot of guitarist jams during summers.  And it is too bad because Steve Vai has released a new album of guitarist jams.  I guess a month ago.  Should have put it out like 3 months ago so it could be my summer jams.



Now let me explain to you certain things about Mr. Booze, man.

See I am a casual fan of Steve Vai, man.  One of the rare take it or leave it Vai fans.  I love albums like Passion and Warfare and Alien Love Secrets.  But I don't dig the vocal albums.  Like that last one.  You know, the one about religion.  Oh yeah, I guess they all kinda are.  And I don't dig like half of his instrumental albums.  Wasn't the Ultra Zone kinda flat?  And a long time ago?  And wasn't the Fire Garden too self-indulgent and bombastic?

So the clips of the new Vai album are out and to me they are the kind of Vai album I've been waiting for.  You know, guitary but not too self-indulgent.  Which, with Vai, is walkin' a fine line.


See what I mean?


It is too late to be the summer soundtrack of 2012. Which means it will have to wait.  Will it find a place on the godmachine some hot July evening in 2013, intoxicated with the heat and Spanish brandy?  I sure hope so.  Until then, I will do what I always do this time of year and play October Rust.

More guitar fingerwizards: the fastest fingers in the west

Wow that was fast...

That's what she said!

More guitar fingerwizards: Bob Zabek

Once I had a dream that I was at a party and a guy was there with a guitar.  He laid the guitar flat on the ground and started tapping on it.  The music he made was like techno.  I awoke and immediately went googling to see if someone has done this.  They had.



Bob Zabek had done the tapping thing years ago.  Dig the floral Jem, buddy.

I like this stripped down raw performance better than what he recorded for his album, but I also haven't followed his stuff in years.  He has a whole lot of stuff on youtube now, but gone is the floral Jem.  What gives big guy?  Jem or GTFO.

Remembering the 90s: Joe Satriani

If you haven't heard, Joe Satriani plays guitar in the Dad Rock band Chickenfoot.  But for you kids that don't know; before he starting coming out of the speakers of your dad's Blazer as he drives you home from your baseball game, he was a solo guitarist in the 90s.  One of the original fingerwizard instrumental guitarists.



This is pretty much what life was like in the 90s.  Everyone saw this commercial, but few knew that the song playing was not written for the commercial.  It was just Satriani (or Satch as he is known) trying to capture the spirit of the times.  You see, everyone was happy in the 90s because everything was going great in the USA.  Satch's desire to make the soundtrack of our times was immense.  He even went so far as to record a techno album.  So 90s!  Back when everyone was taking Ecstasy and going to raves.  It is actually my favorite techno album.  Suck on that Moby.



It was the soundtrack to countless hours playing SSX on the PS2.  *sigh*

So now you know.  And just so you know, Joe Satriani has another fingerwizard guitar album out called Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards.  Which, yeah, Joe knows his demographic.  Nerds.



I'll bet old Satch has no idea that there was a movie out with a similar title around the same time.  God bless you Satch.  You keep the dream of the 90s alive.  Keep on writing the soundtrack to people staring at computer screens and toiling away, dreaming of riches far away...

Champion of the internet

First, a refresher on the original you all know and love, the Airwolf theme



Airwolf on electric guitar



Awesome!  Please make one for Streethawk.  Thanks!

Available now: Bane Jelic

I mentioned before that I like a Serbian guitarist named Bane Jelic. His stuff is hard to come by, but apparently you can now buy his new album. It is a rock album with vocals, much like how Steve Vai likes to do vocal albums (wasn't his best vocal album the one with Devin Townshend?).



What do you think? Good? Bad?

Buy HERE

Update: Bane has a couple of albums that he recorded but hasn't released, including a "goth metal" album.



What do you think? Is it good or bad?

I really wish I could buy his newest instrumental shred album "East-West". But the interwebs have failed me



To me this stuff is grade A shred all around.

Filler post: Asian guitarwizardary

I am in the process of reinventing my life. I am very busy. I will be calling the shores of the big lake they call mishigami home. Mishi is probably a variant of Gitche and has numerous alternate spellings such as Mitche and means great or mighty. Gami or Gamua means waters.

So enjoy this guitar wizardry from - where else - Asia



Two guitars! What won't they think of next?

This one is for the future Mrs. Booze; Michael Nyman guitarwizardry

Shred the Bach: crank the gain!

Another fusion of Bach and Rock comes from guitarist Ilan Guetta on the disc Ilan Guetta Plays Bach Electric. Here Ilan teams up with the Israeli String Quartet and plays through some classics by J.S. So how does it sound?

To start I should mention that Ilan doesn't crank the gain up as high as Yngwie. For me personally, this is a bit of a bummer because when the gain is turned to 11 that Strat would sing like a violin. Another criticism is that he tends to pluck every single note. Now I'm familiar with many of these pieces and they could use more legato. I think he has to pluck because he doesn't have the gain turned up high enough, which would cause the notes to sing out longer and feedback nicely. Take it from the master. But these critiques aside, it is played very well, much better than I ever could. The guitar marries the string quartet well, and it is a delightful experiment.

Check out samples and purchase Here.

Shred the Bach

Many years ago I spent long hours listening to J.S. Bach. I had the idea of playing one of his inventions on the guitar. One guitar would play the left hand, and another would play the right. It would be electrified. I searched online to see if someone else had beat me to the punch. They had.

I found an obscure CD called Shimmyo - Metamorphosis that had Invention #8 and #13 just as I imagined.

I also discovered that Alejandro Silva had performed such an arrangement on his live CD/DVD, which is quite excellent.



The video quality on the DVD is much better than this rip, and is quite good.

As far as performances go, I think I prefer the Shimmyo version because the guitars have the gain cranked up higher, whereas Alejandro rolls it back a bit. Anyways enjoy them both.

Eleven years in the making

The last Borislav Mitic album came out in 1998. Finally, right before Christmas, there is another. I just placed my order. Hat tip to Vinny for the good news.

I usually don't buy new albums because they will inevitably re-release it a few months later with bonus tracks, a bonus CD, a bonus DVD, a bonus BJ, or whatever. But I have a feeling there will be no re-release.

Shred guitar you might have missed

I'm sure you know the names of all the essentials: Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci (a lot of paisanos in that list), Michael Schenker, George Lynch, Marty Friedman, who the fuck is Eddie Van Halen, etc.

But you might have missed two of my favorites. Fat Mr. Crab and Uli Con Carne Rotweiler. Their instructional DVD Born to Shred 2: Emotional Playing; Stage Positions and Wild Antics is one of the all time best guitar videos ever. Behold:






After watching this, you will understand why I always pronounce Mesa Boogie as "may-sha". I am also prone to complaining about "slow amps". It is also what changed my opinion about 7 string guitars. I looked at it in a new light, which was furthered my Mithras and Morbid Angel (and of course Vai though he is mostly a Jem player). Don't let a bunch of 16 year old dorks from 1999 ruin your opinion of a musical instrument.

People look east

There is something magical about the Orient. The geography and climate is so different. The cultures out there are different too. In Japan, Yngwie Malmsteen is the biggest selling Occidental musician. He outsold Celine Dion in Japan. Crazy, I know, but in Japan he has played with orchestras.



Where can you find this in America? Nowhere!

Is this just crazy Japan being crazy, or are other parts of Asia filled with awesome? Well, boozers and boozettes, I present to you junior Vai:



I can't play as well as her and I am twice her age. Her youtube page says China. So China has officially gotten a lot cooler. I think I will have to keep an eye on what is going on in Asia.

A glimmer of hope

Today, I found some joyous news. Borislav Mitic has finished his new album. It might see the light of day soon. He has 2 new songs on his myspace. Check it out!

A New Hope

Now that you've had time to digest the fallen heroes, I will remind you that all is not lost in shred. There is another. Jeff Loomis has a solo album out, and it sounds like Nevermore without vocals, but with more solos in its stead.



Yes, it is on my amazon wishlist.

Shred guitarists I have known

Sometimes following certain bands or artists' musical output becomes taxing. For example, I followed shred guitar for a while. This was during the dark days before guitar hero, when everyone hated guitar solos. Though I will argue that things aren't much brighter now, and that guitar hero is really a sham and most of the people who play it don't really like guitar solos.

Years ago I found a Serbian guitarist named Borislav Mitic who is really talented, and tried to follow his career. He put out two albums. He hasn't put out any new discs in almost ten years. I checked his website for updates every few months, and the new album is coming soon. It is always coming soon. It has been coming soon for years.



Shred excellence



He is actually a very versatile guitarist.

From there I discovered another Serbian master, Bane Jelic. His CD was very hard to come by. While Borislav was on Shrapnel Records and available at distros like amazon, Universe was hard to come by. My copy was shipped from Belgrade (spelled Beograd on the package!). He recorded a follow up album called East/West that the internet just can't find, which sounded much better. He plays a Jem, and the thing about a Jem is that it is meant to cut through a lot of effects with a pure tone. Just listen to Vai. He carefully layers a lot of effects. So it isn't going to sound good with a dry signal. East/West was a lot wetter, and much the better. But impossible to get.





Sure, you might look at his getup and guitar and say "mini Vai". Well, he isn't so much a new agey sort of guy, more pure heavy fusion. Besides, the world can use another Vai, right? Last time I checked his domain expired. No website, only myspace where he has his resume posted.

I also followed a group called Project Alcazar. They had one album, called Reasons for a Decade. I don't really know what that means, but this was some of the most tasteful shredding around. Not the best chops ever, but really good and really thoughtful playing. I waited and waited for the follow up album, alleged to be called The Scarlet Letter, and it never happened.



Well, really it was one guy named Chris Steberl.



If guitar hero has really brought back guitar playing and the guitar hero, then why haven't my guitar heroes made albums in ten years apiece? Because no one but I bought their albums. Because people didn't really change their attitude since the 90s. Guitar solos are still lame and 80s. The same kids that loved Limp Biscuit in the 90s threw away Chocolate Hotdog and listen to the Shins today and wear thick rimmed glasses and listen to Dragonforce "ironically" because they are making fun of it. Because they still think it is stupid 80s crap. Because of couse Jimi Hendricks and Chuck Berry were playing 80s music.

Fuck guitar hero.