IT’S coming and it’s out to get all Fender-loving guitar players, hahahaha (laughs like The Count).

Now would you love to have a guitar that tunes itself? I would. I think Gibson has read my and the rest of the axe-toting crowd’s mind when it comes to making a guitar. With this new rig, you can quickly switch to alternate tunings with a flick of a button/knob. Woah! Excellent! Wanna play like Slash, just whip out the guitar and let the guitar tune itself. Or Jimmy Page in Led Zep’s Kashmir? Or perhaps be like Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix who often play in the E flat tuning (sounds warmer). It really takes a lot of time to detune those strings, hoping you’re in tune.

If you don’t believe me, watch this video to see it live in action. Gibson has also created several interesting videos of the robot guitar. The “Psycho” version is just hilarious. An instructional video is also on YouTube:

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

THIS video made me relive my faith in the power of the T-shirt. Remember the days of rave when DJs wore T-shirts with cool designs? And you thought only punk-rockers can wear one with either Metallica (Beavis), Ramones (assuming the wearer actually listens to the band) or that signature Rolling Stones tongue-wag.

Truth is, tees look great on DJs with enough club-swinging cred like Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay, the French duo behind Justice. French DJs, eh? Remember 90s-era Daft Punk (dudes with equally cool names Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) or the more lounge-y yet swingin’ Air?

Gig theatrics aside (one lugs around a giant cross, the other wears astro-man helmets), Justice sounds more like Daft Punk, with heavy, guitar-churning beats. Not so much present in this song. (Is this their answer to DP’s “Around the World”?). Nonetheless, consider Justice served.

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

DURING the day, C. Palanca Street in Makati City is grey. Located in the the country’s Central Business District, the street is dotted with high-rise office buildings and condos. But you’ll also find bars and cozy restaurants in between office buildings. Of course, you won’t miss the “jollijeeps” parked strategically in street corners. At lunch time, you’ll find yuppies in semi-formal office getup, standing next to each other, enjoying a cheap meal. It’s fastfood on wheels, some describe the jollijeeps.

But as the sun sets, you’ll find the same yuppies in their disheveled office dress gradually filling up the street’s now famous bars and restaurants. Here you’ll find joints like 6 Underground featuring famous and indie Pinoy bands. I remember watching Orange and Lemons in another bar called Gweilos, just next to 6 Underground. Gweilos is where I first witnessed upcoming Pinoy band and Baguio-based Spaceflowers play their “danceable” tunes, and where I interviewed an all-girl band called Wake Up Your Seatmate. A stone’s throw away, you’ll find the defunct 6 Underground, which was literally located in the basement of the Glass Tower building in C. Palanca Street.

I was nice to hear that after 6 Underground closed, a live album is scheduled to come out soon, PhilMusic. com says. The live CD includes recordings of live performances of various local artists at 6 Underground.

Excerpt:

“Take me down, Six Undergriound…” For what seemed like a Camelot-like brief shining moment, the basement of the Glass Tower in C. Planca Street in Makati relived its glory days as a music haven for folks looking for something off the beaten path. Through the decades the venue had been many things — the jazz joint Cafe Alvarado in the 80s, the legendary rock dive Kalye in the 90’s, and a bewildering array of ersatz Irish pubs.

Named after a tune by trip-hop band Sneaker Pimps, it was revived in 2005 as 6 Underground, a venue that sought to relive the glory of the Kalye days, while combining the bar/club concept with a full fledged recording studio that ended up documenting a number of fine live performances for posterity.

To this day, C. Palanca remains a haven for people who want to listen to a lot of undiscovered local artists/bands.

CHECK out this video interview that INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla did for iVDO on Yahoo!

Erika talked to Urbandub band members (L-R) Gabby Alipe, Lalay Lim, John Dinopol and John Mendoza.

Video taken at the EMI office at Universal Tower on Nov. 22.

For more info on Urbandub, visit their official site.

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

I RECENTLY got this e-mail message that says Odysseylive.net is live. Labeled as a “social music network.” So I went to check it out. First impressions: Odysseylive.net seems to have covered all bases. It has streaming music, featured blogs, news about gigs, and classified ads. For artists (or those who want to be a rock star), you can register and upload some of your music. You can also invite friends to join this social music network. It was also quite easy to set up a profile.

The service is still in “super beta.” I am not sure what that means. But I did notice some bugs as I went in to check out the service. You don’t have to register though to listen to the streaming music of featured Pinoy artists on the homepage. What’s interesting here is that you can also upload up to 10 megabytes of data (photos, music, etc.) to your own profile. Personally, I don’t think that’s enough. But this is still the super beta version, hehe.

As I went in to check some of the streaming music available, I found this interesting collection of Filipino bands compiled in an album called Bandtrip2. You can listen to at least 12 of the songs in the album. I thought, “What if you want to download the music you’re listening to?” Hmmm. Currently, you can only listen to the music available online but there are no indications if the music is for sale or available for download.

Here’s another discovery: Beach Head with their chillout (with a mix of hip hop) song called “Freestyle.” According to the group’s profile, “Beach Head is a project band that writes, records and shoots video’s during the songs composition. ” A quick check reveals that Beach Head is apparently a side project of Urbandub’s Gabbie Alipe together with the Kerplunk boys. Beach Head also has a nice video available on YouTube.