The Air Guitar World Championships 2008 was held this past Friday in Oulu, Finland, and a new champion was crowned. The winner was Hot Lixx Hulahan (Craig Billmeier), winner of the 2008 US Finals. He takes the title of Air Guitar World Champion from reigning champion Ochi ‘Dainoji’ Yosuke of Japan.
Hot Lixx was seemed quite surprised to win the title.
Honestly I did not anticipate to become a champion, I feel a little like broadsided about the whole thing. Ask me tomorrow morning, no make it tomorrow night actually. - Hot Lixx Hulahan, 2008 Air Guitar World Champion
It’s always inspiring to learn about young musical talent. Here’s a 14 year old guitarist who plays bass, piano, drums and also sings. In this recently posted video, this one-kid-band performs an amazing remake of Love Potion No. 9.
In a recently posted Fly on the Wall video posted at the MissionMetallica site, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett says that his solos off of their new album sound like those of AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
The guitar sound is a little bit more aggro. It’s less creamy and my playing is way different from previous albums. It’s almost like an Angus Young kind of feel….If I was putting a general description on it it’s kinda like Angus Young type stuff. It’s the sound, it’s the attitude, it’s the liveliness, minus all the pentatonic stuff.
Tallan “T-Man” Latz is blues guitarist who has something to be blue about. T-Man is just 8-years-old and a prodigious blues guitarist. He has performed at the House of Blues in Chicago and live with Jackson Brown. But some recent complaints to Wisconsin state officials, perhaps from older jealous musicians, have ended his days of performing in local taverns in nightclubs. By having him perform, clubs were breaking child labor laws, and they now risk being fined anywhere from $25 to $1,000 for each performance. Carl Latz, T-Mans father and manager, is working hard to get the laws changed, but he is also facing opposition from other local musicians. One of them even made a death threat!
Here’s a video from a Wisconsin TV station featuring T-Man Latz.
Child prodigies like T-Man are out there, but very rare. Brad Tolinski, editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine says that guitar players like T-Man only come along once every 4 or 5 years. No doubt we’ll hear more of T-Man if he continues playing.
Warner Music Group, the third largest music publisher in the world, is threatening to pull their music from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, because they feel they are not getting enough money from the use of their songs. Although MTV and Activision, makers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, have paid licensing fees to use the songs, WMG feels it’s not enough. WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman said this:
The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small
I saw these videos on the Gibson web site recently, and thought I would share them here. They are two clips from the popular PBS show, Antiques Roadshow. If you’re not familiar with the program, people bring in their antiques to have them appraised by an expert. In these two videos, you can see two owners each bring in a beautifully preserved 1952 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitars. It’s interesting hearing the experts appraise these guitars, as well as the back-stories from the owners.
There has been an update to the Dean Guitars `Get Your Wings Shredder Search’ contest. Contestants no longer have to upload their vides to the Dean web site, but can now post their videos on YouTube, and submit the YouTube embed code.
Each video should be 60 seconds in length, and display your best shredding skills. Click here to get tips on creating your own video and submit the YouTube embed code.
A new track pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is now available for download at the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live. The track pack has been dubbed the “Guitar Virtuoso Track Pack” and features the following songs by these great guitar virtuosos: “Surfing with the Alien” by Joe Satriani, “For the Love of God” by Steve Vai and “Soothsayer” by Buckethead.
Here’s a sample from the Virtuoso Track Pack. It’s “Surfing with the Alien” by Joe Satriani on expert level.
This track pack was just released today. You can find out more about it here.
