Bassist extraordinaire, vocalist and songwriter Les Claypool is never one to rest on his laurels. Not content with his hugely successful band Primus, Claypool has had numerous side projects over the years and in 2014 is back with Les Claypool’s Duo de Twang and the album, Four Foot Shack.
Every now and again you hear rumours of a musical collaboration that makes you sit up and pay attention, The Winery Dogs certainly did that when word first started coming out of a possible album.
It is always exciting going to see a band live but when it is a band you have never seen before it makes it that little bit more of a thrill. This was even more so the case with Clutch as other than liking the music I knew relatively little about them.
The night gave fans a chance to see ‘behind the velvet curtain’, into a world that many of us have watched with interest from afar for many years and it was a real treat to have it delivered to us in such a down-to-earth and heartfelt way.
A sell-out audience at Oxford Town Hall eschewed the option of sitting in a crowded, over-priced restaurant on Valentine’s Day in preference of catching Stornoway.
Unbelievable to think that it was released just over 36 years ago in 1976 when the average house price in the UK was just £12,704 and people watched in awe as Concorde set off on its first commercial flight
“….for something like twenty years, Kevin and I had discussed working on a project together that would marry music, lyrics, and prose fiction. The right idea and timing eluded us for a long time, but at last, both converged perfectly.”
Devin has always been one to go with releasing what he has in his head, rather than worrying about what the current trend might be or what might sell the most records. His back catalogue over the years is varied to say the least, ranging from the extreme ‘wall of sound’ metal made famous by his band Strapping Young Lad through to Ghost; a very mellow, delicate and altogether different recording released last year by the Devin Townsend Project.
Steve Vai is the Marmite (other yeast extract spreads are available) of the guitar world. Talk to any guitarist and they will have an opinion to offer, likely to be either ‘stunning, virtuoso talent’ or ‘widdly, wanky stuff with no emotion’.
I think prog is still considered something of a dirty word in the music community… it is looked down on as pretentious, lacking in soul or just downright weird and to be fair some of it is but there is much out there that is top notch stuff, deserving more attention than it currently receives.
The songs themselves are what you would expect from Slash, powerful bluesy rock riffs that encompass that element so hard to capture and all too often absent in modern rock…. groove.
It’s rare these days that you see an advert for something claiming to fulfill a certain need in your life, stating that it is the next big thing and that it actually ends up doing the job. Well the Pop Phone from Native Union is one of those rare products.
Every now and again you come across a metal album that makes you sit up in your chair and listen that bit closer, an album that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
I am pretty sure that the remaining members of Queen, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, would be the first to admit they aren’t the band they used to be. They even make a point of calling themselves ‘Queen +