August 14, 2008

Last weekend we sent our newest contributor, Tim J. Nelson, to Baltimore for the Third Annual Virgin Mobile Festival. Let’s see what went down in Charm City…

Feeling festive? So many choices: Lollapalooza, now exclusively based in Chicago; Bonnaroo, in rural Tennessee; and Coachella, in the Mojave Desert – these top music festivals offer mucho musical diversity. However, a relatively new festival to the U.S., the Virgin Mobile Festival presented the entire history of rock-n-roll within the last two summers alone. For overall quality, it’s the clear choice and winner this summer.

This year’s acts included the grandfathers of rock Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, The Stooges (with Iggy Pop), and present-day rock giants Foo Fighters, STP, as well as eccentric crowd pleasers Gogol Bordello. And if you’re thinking that’s not diverse enough for your musical mojo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Latin-jazz-rock-flamenco-whatever uber-guitar duo wowed the crowd enough that at least one person (me) was thinking, “OK, that’s worth $97.50 alone.” You get the point. If not: a blistering display of flying fingers across strings plus guitar-body percussion equals WOW! The two only paused a few seconds between each offering – a real highlight. READ ON for more about the Virgin Mobile Festival…

It’s time once again to check in with irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog The Shark for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays… Preston from Wild Sweet Orange is right –

If a Wilco concert were a storm, Jeff Tweedy would be the rain – the key ingredient that defines the makeup of the event. Without rain, there isn’t much of a storm. But thunder and lightning, in this case drummer Glenn Kotche and guitar wiz Nels Cline respectively, make the storm a hell of a lot more exciting.

On a gorgeous night in Brooklyn on Wednesday, a Wilco monsoon blew through McCarren Park Pool with the band on top of its game and clicking on all cylinders.

Tweedy, in a jovial mood from the outset, led his troops through 27 songs, a longer set than most of the shows on this tour. Weaving in the Total Pros horn section throughout the night, Wilco tore through mostly upbeat numbers, forsaking the lion’s share of their slower ballads for the night, until they ran into the venue’s 10 pm curfew. READ ON for much more on last night’s Wilco show…

Once again it’s time for a special guest to take the reigns of the B List. This week, guitar-maker Andrew Olson of AO Guitars discusses his favorite axes of all-time. AO Guitars makes high-quality instruments for the discerning musician…

This article first ran on January 10, but we liked it so much we’re running it again while we get up to speed this morning after seein’ Wilco last night.

I am a full-on guitar addict — there’s no denying it, and I’m okay with that. It’s cool, however, because my job is guitars. By that rationale, if your work is also your addiction, you win as far as I’m concerned. So when I got the call from Master Scotty B to do this killer column on my top 10 Favorite Guitars, I thought it was going to be a piece o’ cake. The problem is, I’ve been in love with so many guitars over the years that picking 10 is damn near impossible.

I tried to compile actual players’ guitars for this list, as opposed to off-the-wall axes, because they have that certain mojo that gets you fired up and ready to do the power-slide across the stage, ala Pete Townshend or Jables. The ordering is also debatable — depending on what I’m currently listening to, any of these guitars cold be at the top of the list, but the top four (being handmade, one-of-a-kind guitars) really stand out to me due to their inspirations on me and the building of my guitars. Enjoy, and go hug a guitar. Read on for Andrew’s Top 10…