| CD Review: Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Indie rock guitar god. Boy does that read funny. What's it supposed to mean? Even the term "indie rock" is tough to nail down. Sort of like "emo", but louder? Or more serious? Or something?I wrested with these issues back when I first listened to Built To Spill's Time Trap compilation. It turns out that Doug Martsch is my kind of guitar hero. Sure, the man's got the chops, but it's his conceptions that really get me going.Unless you're thinking about the music that's been labeled "post-rock" (Godspeed You Black Emperor, and others), one element usually missing (or more likely: avoided) from indie rock is the long song form. While bands from the art rock era loved to extend things to well beyond ten minutes, the "modern rock" crowd tends to stick to shorter songs, tighter construction.Doug Martsch and company manage to split the difference with their music.
Paul McCartney's first guitar on sale
For 100,000 The guitar that Paul McCartney learnt how to play his first chords on is being auctioned and is expected to fetch 100,000. The seller of the Rex acoustic guitar is McCartney's friend Ian James from his schooldays at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. In a signed letter accompanying the item, the former Beatle writes: "The above guitar belonging to my old school pal Ian James was the first guitar I ever held. It was also the guitar on which I learnt my first chords." Ian James taught the 15-year-old McCartney the chords that would later impress John Lennon enough to let him join his band The Quarrymen. "Paul and I hung around together after school," James said. "We both had an interest in rock 'n' roll and I would show him a few chords. I remember one day he told me he'd written a song and I thought 'Blimey, that's hard'." Ian James and McCartney lost touch for 28 years, but were then reunited in 1991 at a Wings concert.
Paul McCartney's first guitar on sale
For 100,000 The guitar that Paul McCartney learnt how to play his first chords on is being auctioned and is expected to fetch 100,000. The seller of the Rex acoustic guitar is McCartney's friend Ian James from his schooldays at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. In a signed letter accompanying the item, the former Beatle writes: "The above guitar belonging to my old school pal Ian James was the first guitar I ever held. It was also the guitar on which I learnt my first chords." Ian James taught the 15-year-old McCartney the chords that would later impress John Lennon enough to let him join his band The Quarrymen. "Paul and I hung around together after school," James said. "We both had an interest in rock 'n' roll and I would show him a few chords. I remember one day he told me he'd written a song and I thought 'Blimey, that's hard'." Ian James and McCartney lost touch for 28 years, but were then reunited in 1991 at a Wings concert.
Wear Your Music
The charity bracelet trend has finally hit the indie rock world, and no, we don't mean those black plastic wristbands you bought to support Hot Topic. Relix magazine and Azu Studio have come together to create Wear Your Music bracelets, fashioned from the very guitar stings played by musicians such as Ben Harper, Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Ziggy Marley. Retailing for anywhere between $99 for strings used by Gibbard up to $150 for legendary Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh's strings, the bracelets are handmade, designed by Azu Studio and bound by a durable silver seal. All profits from the bracelets are donated to worthy arts and community charities like Headcount, the Rex Foundation, Seva and Rock 'N' Wrap It Up! New artists are constantly being added to the already impressive list of participants, which already includes Ziggy Marley, Michael Franti, String Cheese Incident, the Goo Goo Dolls, Guster and Ben Harper.
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