Guitar solos and why less with more of it is usually more (and/or less).

I love a good guitar solo.

I LOVE IT!

Probably my favourite solo is Dimebags in Panteras A New Level.
It builds from a half time break down to a blisteringly fast and aggressive tremolo picked, wah closed crescendo.
It's fairly short too but all the better for it.
It doesn't sound like he's just running scales or exercises, it's brutal.

Some bands see the guitar solo as something that needs to go in after the 2nd chorus, almost as a necessity or convention.
Watch Some Kind of Monster (Metallicas making of St. Anger movie) and look at Kirk Hammets face when James says he thinks they shouldn't have guitar solos. Priceless.

Bands like Dream Theatre have a wealth of musical knowledge, all studied up from university and they craft their solos based on theory and technique.  Each member is so musically learn'ed they come across as being more composed than just a 6 bar whammy freak out.
Take the solo in Lie from about 3:30 on wards.
Starts off with some nice bends and some dirty sounds then it just becomes runs up and down the neck with a few bends.  Very fast, very accurate, very scaley.
True it's technically very very good, John Petrucci is a phenomenally gifted guitarist, but where's the soul?

Right, polar opposite time.

Live - Run to the Water.  Live are an amazing band.  The solo in Run to the Water kicks in at 2:50 and it's a feel solo.
More impactful than Dream Theatres Lie one.  No where near as technical or notey, it does what it has to and says what it needs to say very very well.
The sound of the guitar is warm and wah'y.
Lovely tone.  It sing's "this is part of the song" as opposed to screams "LOOK AT ME!".

Maybe Chris Thorn from Live can't play as technically as John Petrucci, he doesn't need to here.
Neither of them are as well known as Brian May or David Gilmour.
I love Brian May, arguably one of the finest guitarists of all time.  Not because he's the fastest or most technically sound.  
No, he felt every fucking note he played.  He played a guitar made out of a mantel piece with a sixpence.
Gilmour is the master of the Strat.  No question.  He played/ plays blues lines better than any one in my opinion.  Although Eric Johnston is a close second on the Strat.

CG Brian May with the required stance

Just because a guitarist doesn't play fast all the time, doesn't mean he can't.  Being able to pull it way back and do something that isn't 360 notes per second is something that should be learned.

When metal/ rock guitarists/ bassists start to learn, they get into Joe Satriani, Via, Flea, Claypool, Metallica (at least they did when I were a nipper).
I got handed the music for Cliff Burtons Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) about 2 months after 1st picking up a bass.
I didn't know what to do.
So I learned it pigeon fashion, note for note.  No idea why I was hitting those fret numbers, just that I had to.
I played it a lot in the first bands I was in (very badly if memory serves).
All I knew was I had to play fast to be considered good.
Not the case.
The older I got the less notes I played.  Until I was goaded into it or some smart ass tried to out do me :) (Didn't always work, there are waaaaaaaay to many uber-talented people out there).
And sometimes it's best to know when to say when.

Anyway, I digress.

I remember watching a live concert years ago where Clapton came on stage with some young upstart who was technically very gifted but didn't "get" melody yet.  Clapton did his thing, one note saying a thousand words etc, then hit a lick Petrucci would kill for just as if to say "up yours young un, you're good but I'm the king up here".  It was good to see.
I think he did it just to prove that he's not just big bends and pentatonics.  There's still fire there.

I listen to some newer music and the guitar solos just are runs up the neck as fast as possible.  No feelz!

oh look DragonForce.....and walk away.....

If you want to listen to some real guitar talent, I'd advise listening to someone like Guthrie Govan or Devon Townsend.  Look up their videos, these guys have a tonne of stuff on Youtube talking about their music.
Govan just seems like the most chilled hippy ever.  Bit of jazz, bit of rock, bit of blues then POW ridiculous solo break. 
He's like the Bob Ross of guitar.

Bob Ross                     Guthrie Govan

Govan, has studied theory, he has paid his dues, that's why he's so good.

I do like a bit of shred though.

I don't like Kiss.

Anyway, my point is I love guitar solos.  Good guitar solos.  Fast ones with brutality, slow ones with feeling.  Loud ones with screaming, quiet ones with delay.

I don't like sterile 32nd note scale runs.  Getting to from note A to B as quickly as possible is not the point.  It's getting from A to BOOM! via "holy Christ did you hear that" having a quick stop off at "I like what you did there" while "how does he get that sound" in the passenger seat.

Also, if you can pick up "FEELINGS!!!" on the way that would be great.

David Gilmour (Master of the Strat)

I managed to get through a whole guitar solo blog without mentioning Zak Wylde.

SHIT!

BE TOLD!!!!

Bat shit crazy

Its a weird phrase, why is it bat or rat shit thats crazy?
Is ocelot shit any crazier.

Revolver Ocelot, he does crazy poopage!!!

I find cow dung quite banal, also horse dung is not very interesting, although, im not a scatologist so maybe there are crazier types.

I'd rate it as follows (with 1 being the craziest of all):

1. Bat
2. Rat
3. Cat
4. Rabbit
5. Fish
6. Dog
7. Goat
8. Tiger
9. Horse
10. Cow

You'll notice human isn't on the list. Human shit isn't crazy, its funny because its jobbies.  Unless it's this guys:

Here's a site that will allow you to identify animal droppings:
how-identify-animal-droppings

See if you can find some crazy ones.

DO IT!!

BE TOLD!!!

80s action films you have to see or I'll come for you in the night.

A simple list of film to watch and a summary.
Watch the trailers too, most of them have Don "Voice over guy" LaFontaine on them.  He sadly died in 2008.

Between him and Peter Cullen (The voice of Optimus Prime) I'm not sure who's voice I'd rather have.

Anyway...

• Predator
• Enormous crab faced super cool alien kills almost everyone.  Apollo Creed gets fucked up.  More testosterone than the entire WWE roster.
• Rocky III
• Mr T. punches the crap out of Rocky.  Rocky gets a big cats corneas, punches the crap out of Mr T.
• Rocky IV
• Dolph punches the life out of Rockys best mate.  Rocky plays in the snow.  Makes Russia love America.  Ultra cool 80's synth soundtrack.  Dolph Lundgren.
• Action Jackson
• Apollo Creed punches the dude from Poltergiest.  Miraculously rehabs junkie hooker in 30 minutes.
• Robocop
• IT'S A CYBORG POLICEMAN AND IS ULTRA VIOLENT!  ED209.  Clarence Bodicker. EVERYTHING!!!!
• Big Trouble in Little China
• Coolest truck driver ever helps kung fu wizards.
• Aliens
• Halo ripped this off.  Coolest bunch of marines outside of Predator in ACTION IN SPACE WITH ALIENS!!!
• Rambo: First Blood Part II
• Stallone goes on the rampage with a bow and arrow and a knife.  Kills everyone.
• The Terminator
• Dude comes back from the future to sleep with his bosses mum because he's always loved her.  Creepy.  Also, in other news, there's a unstopable killing machine after you that is awesome.
• Escape From New York
• Coolest anti hero ever fights Ox Baker.  Dude from Halloween is the president.  Also dude from Alien, Chef from South Park, Ernest Borgnine and one of the lamborgini girls from Cannonball Run.
• Tango and Cash
• Stallone and Russell go to prison, fight everyone, win. Cheese everywhere.  Dude from Bladerunner has mad accent.
• Lethal Weapon
• Best buddy cop movie ever.  BAR NONE!
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Teacher has a whip and a leather jacket.  Hunts down box filled with God.  Bad dates. Harrison Ford being a proper proper hero.
• Die Hard
• Rambo in a building but now he has a machine gun.
• Batman
• Jack Nicholson plays Jack Nicholson but dressed as the Joker.  Michael Keatons eyebrows play Jack Nicholsons eyebrows.  Best Batmobile.  Lando Calrissian is Two Face.
• Above the Law
• Lanky aikido expert batters absolutely every one.
• Kickboxer
• Short karate guy from Brussells dances badly but is cool.  Gets glass stuck to hands.  repeats fight moves from 9 different angles.
• They Live
• Best wrestler turned actor ever has come here to kick ass and chew bubble gum.  Oh, he's out of bubble gum.  Also PKE meters from Ghostbuster.

Chances are you've seen them all as they are all pretty popular.

Doesn't stop them from being fucking awesome though.

Go watch them.

BE TOLD!!!!

Its too hot

Its hot.
Damn hot.

Hot like Satans pumpkin ass.

Its Scotland not fucking Egypt.
I prefer rain and grey.

Its too hot.
Hot.

80s cartoon intros and why im old.

I grew up in the 80s watching 80s cartoons. I loved the usual things everyone my age did; Transformers, Thundercats, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Battle of the Planets, Ulysses 31 and more.

What always got me though were the intros and the theme tunes.

The intro animations were amazingly slick. shaded, 30 fps, detailed and action packed.  
The themes were hummable, singable and memorable.
This was the showcase for the show.after all.  Most of the time the themes were some mad 80s synth rock track with soaring vocals and guitar. Borderline power metal in most cases (listen to The Silverhawks or Thundercats theme).

 

I loved them.

Then you get to the actual content and program.....
Thundercats is a prime example.
The theme tune and intro animation are arguably the slickest and most exciting of the lot but it fades with a synthed up big cat growl to some crappy flat, jerky drawings.
When I was a kid I didn't care but now when I rewatch it, it ruins it.

Transformers is the same, but seeing as it was a show designed to sell toys its not surprising. The season 2 intro is great. Big flying insignia, 'computer' wire frame ground zooming past and a much higher quality recording of the theme tune. 

Still the same budget animation in the cartoon, missed colours, 3 Rumbles in a scene, shit continuity. I didnt care when I was a kid though.
The cartoon movie is still awesome, although you can see where the animation scenes start and the japanese stuff kicks in.
There's some crazy good 30fps animation in there, look at the destruction of Krannix's planet at the start, the shots in the lab look incredible.  Now compare that to Optimus Primes last haymaker on Megatron, shoddy crap-o-vision.
 But enough about that.

This is undoubtedly my favourite, I absolutely loved this:

Look at the sheer quality of the intro, it is so beautiful.  The side shot of the ship passing, the parallax style scrolling perspective.
The MAGNIFICENT mullet and beard of the hero!!
LOOK AT IT!

LOOK AT IT!!!

It's like Hanks from Dungeons and Dragons but WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better.

While we're on hair, does anyone remember this?

Starfleet

I loved this when I was a kid, I remember making the main X ship out of lego.  I loved it.


Fast forward several years.

What the fuck is going on here?

Who are these people?
It's about fighting yes and there are many flashing colours.  It's like a Michael Bay cartoon.
Go on watch it 3 times and then try and hum the theme.  It has no melody.  No charm.

This does;

Maybe it's just because I don't watch Saturday morning cartoons any more (do they still have that?)
I suppose with the advent of Cartoon Network and everything there's constant cartoons all trying to be louder and brighter than the last (it's like the loudness war with pop music).

The last cartoons I remember watching on Cartoon Network were; Johnny Bravo, Dexters Lab and I like the Batman cartoons (the ones Kevin Conroy voices).

Dexter :D

And some anime type stuff, Appleseed, G.I.T.S., Ninja Scrolls, Cyber City Oedo (which isn't that well known and should be!)

Now that is a good Japanese rock intro.  YAAAAAAAS!!!

Maybe I'm just old and living in the past.
I can still watch them on Youtube or buy the DVDs though so that's good.

Go look up some old cartoons on Youtube.

BE TOLD!!!

LES FEST II

It's done for one more year.

Les Fest II was awesome.
Dave and Fede and everyone else involved really out did themselves.
Lot's of good vibes, good tunes, good chat and good feelings.
I met a lot of cool people.

So to Dave, Fede and everyone involved, from the bottom of my heart:

THANK YOU 

(for letting me run around your festival annoying everyone I could)

It just amazes me how much work that they took on and how smoothly it all seemed to go (from the outside anyway, I'm sure inside they both had 3 hearts pulling 190BPM in shifts :) )

I passed through the production office on quite a few occasions and the 2 of them were never sitting, they pretty much spent 3 days on their feet (again, that WE saw!).
TOP DAWGS!!!!!!

Metal Outlaw TV was on hand interviewing everyone and anyone.  We got some sit down, comfy chair style stuff and some roving reporter maneuvering.

Mr Wood, our director, head of programming, elbow dropping, whip cracking, shot caller and unbending force is currently editing the beastly quantity of footage over the 3 days (I think he mentioned it was 350GB or something).

We caught up with Massive Wagon, Achren, Evile, CCV, Mair, Diementia, Afterlife, Inferno, Dave Acari and The Dogheads among others.
We interviewed a goat and some geese.
I played harmonica to some punters on the Les Fest Express.
I harassed Planet Mosh member and Diementia guitarist Scott Watson after drinking some apple juice.
Played some squeezebox and danced for Dan Dean.

One of my personal highlights was having to do an impromptu Metal Spoken Word for the Metal Angels acoustic stage due to a last minute cancellation.
I have to admit I really wasn't sure if it would go down well live.

Happily my doubt was not based in reality as I saw some one playing air guitar to my spoken word rendition of Dead Skin Mask and got a little bit of crowd participation during "Flipping" Hostile.

So no doubt this along with all the news, gossip, shout outs, music, love and good/ bad behaviour will be available on the MOTV Youtube channel so be sure to hit us up through Facebook to keep yourselves posted.

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On a completely unrelated note.

Check this out
Evil Edison: Hourglass
It's the new video by Evil Edison for their song Hourglass starring Mr William Brownlie from 15 Times Dead

Watch and enjoy it.

BE TOLD!!!!