| Weekend Beat/ Axmen of air strike invisible chords
It happens all the time--adolescent boys get interested in guitars to attract girls. At 13, Tatsuya Kobayashi was no different. He bought an electric guitar and a small amp for 30,000 yen at a local music store in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture. Secretly dreaming of passionate glances from teen bunnies, he struggled to master the instrument, following directions in a how-to guitar manual. Alas, he soon discovered there was more to it than he'd imagined. Just randomly plucking at the six strings wasn't working. Kobayashi's fantasy collided with reality and lost. He gave up. The guitar became a dusty ornament in his room. Ten years passed. It was a weekday night in May. The rock club Shinjuku Loft Plus One was packed. Rage Against the Machine's "Guerrilla Radio" burst out of the club's sound system.
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.
Rocker-turned-preacher pursuing pop fame again
BROOMFIELD, Colo. (Reuters) - Rocker-turned-preacher Richard Furay, a founding member of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, says he long felt overlooked for his contributions to two 1960s bands that pioneered the next decade's country-rock explosion. It wasn't until years after Furay stopped pursuing fame to focus on his Christian ministry that the singer-songwriter got his due -- when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Buffalo Springfield in 1997. .
HD-35 Nancy Wilson "Heart" Signature Edition Guitar
Much of the credit for the beauty and tone of the Martin HD-35 Nancy Wilson Signature Edition guitar goes to Wilson herself, who collaborated closely with Martin on the design. A rare combination of premium solid tonewoods gives the HD-35 Nancy Wilson Signature Edition distinctive tonal character. The top of beautiful Engelmann spruce - a tree that grows in the Northwest, where Heart got its start - combines with forward-shifted scalloped braces for full, powerful tone. The sides and the three-piece back wings are East Indian rosewood, while the center wedge is "heart" bubinga, a beautiful and unusually hard African tonewood that provides outstanding projection. A Pisces fish Yin Yang design is inlaid in rare pink heart abalone, mother of pearl and red composite beneath the Old Style "C.F.
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