So I’ve been dorking out playing Rock Bank for the last few hours or so and I have to say, I’m surprisingly disappointed. Maybe I just had expectations that were way to high. I also didn’t like Guitar Hero 3 the first week I played it so maybe it will grow on me.

I have a few issues with it. First, either my guitar is broken or the new strum bar just sucks ass (I can hear something banging around inside the guitar). It’s loose, mushy and just feels like crap. I like that it’s much quieter than the previous guitars and I love the new design (looks like a Fender Startocaster). It’s much larger and feels much more like a real guitar in your hands. The addition of the smaller fret buttons at the bottom of the fret board is nice but they just don’t work that well. It’s not smooth to move between them and the raised bumps on them are too small to easily find your place. Given that you can’t really look down you should be able to feel this very easily, maybe it will just take me some time to get used to it.

Don’t get me started on the drums. Yes, they are built very well and look like they will take a lot of abuse. It is hard to get comfortable with them, you can’t really sit on a couch and need to sit on a real chair to play them well. The issue is they track oddly, or maybe my TV just isn’t calibrated properly. I’ve tried to play them three times (remember, I can sorta play drums, certainly enough to keep a beat with real musicians) and each time I’m getting boo’ed off. I can’t see how, I’m right in beat with what I hear so maybe I’m just retarded.

Don’t get me started on the USB hub. I mean I know that they didn’t need to go nice here but come on, this thing is a tiny piece of shit with a very short power cord. When this system is almost $200 can’t you give me a nicer hub than this? The packaging of the whole system sucks (looks like something for a factory, not a “cool” game). Oh, and from what I can tell so far my mic doesn’t work at all, or at least when I plug it in the game tells me there is no mic connected. Bargh!

So I gotta say after playing a few hours I wish I hadn’t spent the almost $200 on this. I’ll post back in a few days, I did read that single player is pretty weak so on Thanksgiving I’ll be taking it to a friends house where 4 of us can play all at once. That will be the real test… Man I hope it lives up to the hype! I will let you know in a few days, right now I’m back to Guitar Hero 3 for some fun…

So I’ve been waiting for quite a while for the new Joshua Redman album, Momentum, to come out. His last album, Elastic is one of my all time favorites, so I was really looking forward to the new release. He did not disappoint!

Fortunately iTunes had it together and had it available today (the day it was released). My good friend Derek Worth reminded me of the release so I quickly went out and grabbed it. WOW. Just plain WOW. Redman has done it again, this one is great. Continuing his collaboration with keyboardist Sam Yahel he’s continued the feel he started with Elastic. I’m not sure if I like it better than Elastic just yet, while it’s also with his Elastic Band it definitely has that awesome funk feel to it, but it’s a bit more out there in places than the last. When I started writing this I wasn’t sure if that was good or not, but now I’m sure, it is. For someone as amazing as Redman is it’s not surprising to see him branch out into new places. While this is still a Jazz album at heart, it’s really much more than that blending funk, fusion, techno, hip-hop, oh, and of course modern Jazz (no Kenny G crap here!).

It’s also awesome to see the musicians that he’s included on this release, including drummer Jeff Ballard, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarists Peter Bernstein, Eric Krasno, Jeff Parker, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Oh, and saving the best for last Flea (incase you’re clueless of The Red Hot Chili Peppers). Man-o-man can he lay down a groove. Track 11, “Double Jeopardy” is just awesome, the groove he throws on it is funk itself.

While it is getting some mixed reviews, mainly citing that it’s to “reserved” I totally disagree. Where they see reserved I see style, patience, and intent. Redman clearly wanted to go outside the box here without getting so outside that he looses the listener. Listening to it is simply a joy, you can help but tap your foot and do the white boy overbite

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Anyone that knows me know that I’m a Dave Matthews Band fan. I’ve enjoyed their music since their first big release, Under the Table and Dreaming, which is still my favorite (Bofre These Crowded Streets is a close second, as is Crash). However I think they are slipping from what made them the fairly original sound that they are, their hard driving but musically interesting melodies and rhythms (their drummer Carter Beauford is just about as good as modern rock drummers get).

Their latest effort, Stand Up well, basically, it’s TERRIBLE. TERRIBLE. I got it yesterday, couldn’t wait to listen to it, jumped in the car, popped it in and was ready for a very enjoyable 45 minute drive home. 1 minute into I thought “what the hell is this crap?”. So I thought, Ok, it took me a bit to get into Everyday and even longer to get into Busted Stuff and Some Devil – which I didn’t really like at all) I’ll give it a few songs. So I hit next and waited with anticipation. Crap again. Next. Crap. Next. Crap. Next. Ok, not bad, neat progression, oh no, wait, crap. Next. Crap. You get the idea.

I’ve since listened to it more and while a like it a bit better I think it’s just that I really *want* to like it so bad that I’m telling myself “it can’t really be this bad”. Well you know what, it is. What the hell they were thinking is beyond me. It’s pop rock crap, crap, crap. If you’re a fan of the older stuff do NOT get the album. If you hate the old stuff and liked Some Devil then you might like this (but then again you’re obviously a complete musical moron and probably don’t have the sense to be reading this anyway!). Sorry, but 2 very disappointed thumbs way way down, you missed the boat on this one Dave…

Last night I was talking to a great friend of mine, Derek Worth, about music (as we often do). He was telling me a story about Joshua Redman where he said that he doesn’t consider himself a musician, just someone who intensely loves to listen to music. That really made us realize that we, and when I say we I mean society (and even Derek and I to an extent), don’t listen to music anymore. Let me explain.

What I mean is that yes we all have iPods. We all have huge MP3 collections (and we all use Jinzora to stream them, right? MP3 players are selling like crazy. Our cars play them, our phones play them, there are even sunglasses that play them. So with all that music how could we not be listening? Because we don’t. We don’t sit down, close our eyes and spend time just listening to what the musicians are doing. Now part of that is that, in my opinion, most of the music that gets turned out today sucks. But, there is still amazing music being turned out. Why don’t we listen then? We’re too busy and we’ve lost the love of music. We have music on in the car. That doesn’t count, you’re driving (although it’s pretty close). We have music on when we exercise. We have music on at the office, but we’re working. We have music on in the background at home, but we’re doing everything other than listening.

So what can we do. Just shut up, sit down, turn off the lights/TV and put on some good music. If you don’t know what good music is email me and I’ll tell you! But most importantly, even if it’s bad music, listen. Listen listen listen.

Well I guess I’m on a guitarist kick lately, but who can blame me? Again my good friend Derek Worth turned me on to another great guitarist, Tal Farlow. Now Tal isn’t new to the scene, he’s actually had a career that’s spanned over 40 years. However for some reason I just found him, not sure how that happened.

So I wanted to share him with you. His Autumn Leaves album is my favorite, with his version of the title song, Autumn Leaves being one of my favorites. If you really like great guitar jazz make sure to check him out. He’s played with many of the greats and didn’t even start playing guitar until he was 21! Tal left us in 1998 at the age of 77.

Today a great friend of mine, Derek Worth (an amazing guitarist himself) turned me on to the solo guitar work of Tuck Andress. Allmusic.com lists him as “Newage”, but I think he’s pretty much all Jazz. If you like jazz guitar at all check this out!

Tuck’s simply amazing. I’ve never heard anyone funk quite so hard on solo guitar as I have on his version of Stevie Wonder’s I Wish. It’s just plain amazing. Feel free to check out this entire album (which includes his wife Patti – who is great but pales next to Tuck) Dream care of my other creation Jinzora. Enjoy!!!