Reunion Blues Backstage Banter

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Category Archives: music

Review of Phil Angotti and the Lazy Apple Orchestra-People and Places (Our House Records)

What do you get when combining a golden voice, clever songwriting, incredible musicianship, lush harmonies and a love of music? You get Phil Angotti’s new CD release “People and Places”.

Phil draws from American and British power pop influences from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but he has crafted his own style. Phil wrote all the songs, and if you like melody, you will like this release. You also get some great grooves and all the extras. I suggest that you get the whole CD (don’t just download a song or two). None of the songs sound the same and they each help build a total work of art. And with the Lazy Apple Orchestra you get a lot of different instruments on each song that you don’t want to miss.

As song # 6 says, “What happened to the songs with the grooves?” Well, I think he answered his own question. Click HERE.

Nikki Sixx “This is Gonna Hurt” Book Tour

I met Nikki Sixx on his book signing tour.  He hit San Francisco on 4/14/2011.  He was signing his new book “This Is Gonna Hurt” at Book Passages in the SF Ferry Building.  We waited with hundreds of others for an hour and 30 minutes.  When we looked back, we couldn’t even see the end of the line there were so many people.

Nikki told me that the guys were giving him a hard time because he didn’t have a gig bag for his guitar.  He said that “he needs a gig bag”!!!  I told him that the Sonoma Bass Gig Bag, in black leather (model #314 15-29) is 49″, not long enough for his new Signature Blackbird Bass, which is a staggering 57″! Nikki said that he can use it for his P Bass.  Yes!  He now has the RB Sonoma Bass gig bag in black leather.  I also hooked him up with our black Merino Wool Pinstripe RB guitar strap.   DJ Ashba, his guitarist of Sixx .AM., has the same strap,  which I presented to him at the NAMM Show.

Nikki was just as I had imagined … charming, kind, warm, and an all over beautiful person.  Let’s just say that I was 15 when I first started listening to the Crue, and Nikki was plastered all over my room.  You can imagine this meeting was one of the best days of my life!  Thank you Nikki!

Details on his new book are as follows: This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx, is part photo, part journal—but all Nikki Sixx. It is a collection of compelling photography and stories that capture the rage, love, optimism, darkness, and determination that shape his work. Combining the raw authenticity that defined his New York Times Bestseller The Heroin Diaries with a photographic journey, This Is Gonna Hurt chronicles Sixx’s experiences—from his early years filled with toxic waste, to his success with Motley Crue, to his death from an OD and his eventual rebirth through music, photography, and love.

Love story, bad-ass rock tell-all, social commentary, family memoir, This Is Gonna Hurt offers the compelling insights of an artist and a man struggling to survive, connect, and find a happy ending—a search that fuels Sixx’s being.

You can view his book tour dates and videos of the “This is Gonna Hurt” documentary by checking out Nikki Sixx’s official site:  http://www.nikkisixx.net

Motley Crue is on Tour this year!  For all of you Crue fans check out the following link for tour dates near you! http://www.nikkisixx.net/tour/

 

 

Reunion Blues – Adventures at SXSW 2011

Austin, TX - Music Capitol of the World?
Every spring aspiring and professional musicians alike descend on Austin, TX for the annual SXSW music festival, joining promoters, managers, marketers, and music fans for a week of frantic live music, parties, and general chaos. The festival has expanded to include “Interactive” and “Film” conventions catering to the Mobile/Tech and Independent film industry… but the heart of SXSW is clearly the music.

Upon landing in Austin it’s apparent that this is a music town. Guitar cases and gig bags abound, resting in hands and slung over shoulders throughout the airport terminals and dotting the curbs and corners of the 6th street mecca.

Reunion Blues hit Austin to participate in the “Gear Expo” – a sideline convention designed to put MI companies in direct conversations with our most active customers – the musicians slugging it out amidst the crowds and in the clubs, each hoping to catch a break in the ever changing, highly competitive, and always challenging music business.

While the festival has gotten pretty massive in it’s 25 years, featuring some of the top names in popular music (Foo Fighters, Kanye West, and Bright Eyes were just a few of the “headlining” acts this year),  most of the venues served as showcases for new and upcoming “independent” acts. I was fortunate to be able to catch several showcases over the course of the week, enjoying some great young bands I was familiar with and finding a number of new acts that demand attention.

My first showcase experience at SXSW, which also turned out to be the most memorable, was Esben and the Witch, hailing from Brighton, England. Anyone who knows me will confirm my obsession with so-called “dark” music, and having just discovered the brilliant Violet Cries record a few weeks before SXSW, I was really looking forward to this show.

The band loaded in their own gear and did their own soundcheck, which brought back memories of my own gigging past… no rock star egos here, just hard-working musicians getting ready to give their best to the crowd. And give they did.

Esben and the Witch

Daniel Copeman (in silhouette) and Rachel Davies performing "Eumenides" @ SXSW 2011

Rachel Davies’ siren-like voice brought an ethereal warmth to the bleak soundscape of guitar, noise, and pulsating beats constructed by Daniel Copeman and Thomas Fisher. At one point during the performance, all three members took turns battering a single floor tom, which conjured the impression of  some antediluvian pagan rite, and during the closing track “Eumenides” Daniel dragged the drum out into the crowd while Rachel pummeled a crash cymbal for the song’s finale. The whole experience was so “punk”…  it elevated Esben from “band to watch” to one of my favorite bands (and I made sure to catch their set the next night.)

Had that been my only live music opportunity at SXSW I think I could have gone home happy, but this was only day one… and as the crowds descended on downtown Austin, the bands gathered in all of the city’s near 200 venues to play to industry and fan alike (some performing 10 or more times over the course of the week!) Frankly, there were so many bands playing at any given time (over 1800 bands on the “official” showcase list) that inevitably some great talent would be missed (Zola Jesus, I’m sorry!)

Here are a handful of other great bands I caught during the week:

Junius

Junius are one of the best rock bands around in my opinion... making heavy but "artsy" music... no one else could pull off a hard rock art record about Immanuel Velikovsky! They totally owned this crowd.

Menomena

If you haven't heard their "Friend and Foe" record you need to pick it up immediately. By far the most creative CD artwork packaging ever made.

Lavinia

From Boston, MA. Their songs build nicely, from melancholy to heavy rock... their new EP "There is Light Between Us" is excellent!

Tigers That Talked

Hadn't heard of these Brits before SXSW but they won me over... great songwriting with bursts of punk energy.

Weekend

Hailing from San Francisco... The bass player sound checked with "Age of Consent". They sound a bit like Joy Division played through some of Oliver Ackermanns effect boxes and they totally rocked.

Violens

I really love these guys... they play complex pop music that manages to incorporate influences ranging from Norwegian Black Metal to the Smiths and from the Beach Boys to New Order. Awesome.

Braids

Another new discovery for me... lush ambient and psychedelic pop. A great find!

Class Actress

Fat Analog synths and 80's dance pop... Elizabeth Harper was really cool, after the show I mentioned to her that my wife was a huge fan and she dug a CD out of her bag so I could bring home a souvenir. Classy!

Battle Circus

Hailing from New Zealand, these guys play aggressive and complex music that appeals to my proggy side. Looking forward to picking up their record as soon as possible!

All Axess shares another lesson with John 5 – watch here

A couple of weeks ago All Axcess All Axess posted a video taken while John 5 was in Birmingham UK on the UK leg of the Rob Zombie tour, where he went througha little lesson a little lesson for the fans. In that video he went through how to “Chicken Pick”.

This week the guys have posted another video from that series, and this time John 5 shows viewers how to play a Spanish Guitar style lick.

In the step by step video he shows you how to play this style with ease.