Guitar Hero '80s Final Track List

Newely announced tracks in bold:
Caught in a Mosh (as made famous by Anthrax)
Balls to the Wall (as made famous by Accept)
Electric Eye (by Judas Priest)
Los Angeles (as made famous by X)
Police Truck (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
We Got the Beat (as made famous by The Go Go's)
(I Think I'm) Turning Japanese (as made famous by Vapors)
Seventeen (as made famous by Winger)
Because, it's Midnite (by Limozeen)
Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
The Warrior (by Scandal)
What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister)
I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls)
Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)
Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
Synchronicity II (as made famous by The Police)

My thoughts: There are some awesome songs (especially Holy Diver) on here but Krokus? Did we really need Krokus? I am protesting Radar Love by White Lion. The original Golden Earring version is by far the best. It doesn't matter anyway cuz I don't have a PS2.

Up The Irons Bitches

It finally happened. I purchased an Iron Maiden Signature Fender. I check ebay almost every day for one of these, then watch as the "enthusiastically played" guitar's price climbs over $1,000. I logged on to ebay this morning and saw another one that was put up for sale. However, this had a buy it now price of $700 and the guitar is as close to mint as a guitar that is 5 years old can be (also included a case). Sold. I think I have already made a profit on this purchase, of course I still need to see it live before I can make that determination. This should be in my grubby little hands sometime next week.

At least the trailer is funny

It's a trailer for a new Uwe Boll video game adaptation movie (guaranteed recipe for a perfect storm of crap) called Postal.

My nomination for teacher of the year

Check out this story about a teacher in Italy using less than conventional tactics. I think it's awesome. If I ever became a teacher, I could totally see myself making a kid write "I am a retard" 100 times on the chalkboard.

Papa Gates

This is Brian Haner Sr., father of Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates (a.k.a. Brian Haner Jr.). He is an accomplished musician having played with Frank Zappa among others and played one of the guitars in the flamenco style acoustic duet at the end of Sidewinder (one of my favorite parts of the City of Evil CD). Now he is doing musical standup comedy and he's actually pretty funny not to mention a damn fine guitarist. He frequently opens for Bobby Slayton at Hooters. I might have to go see the show. I encourage you to check out the rest of the videos on his myspace page.

A request for Dan

Please bring your Seventh Son CD next time you visit. I tried to rip mine but it is scratched beyond repair and I am unable to get the last four soungs.

Meet Elwood...

... winner of the 2007 World's Ugliest Dog contest. I have to agree with the judges.

It's really a bit disappointing

I have discovered that any Bad Religion song pre Grey Race is just incredibly easy to play. Power chords, power chords, power chords! The good news is it gives me a huge catalogue of songs to play until I graduate to more complicated stuff.
I can play all the parts of American Jesus but I haven't played them all together yet. I have difficulty keeping my fingers stretched far enough to play the power cords for very long. They tend to get closer and closer together until I am playing the wrong frets. I plan on having it nailed by next weekend.

Evil wears a smile

Check out this video from the Phelps gang. The most disturbing thing to me is that they all look so happy. How can people so full of hate be smiling.
The toddler at the end is a perfect illustration of one of the chapters in The God Delusion. At what point does religious indoctrination become child abuse? I would say that the line has been crossed here.

http://view.break.com/278059 - Watch more free videos

Rock Band update

Behold! These are pictures of the guitar from Rock Band. They obviously went for a more realistic look for the Strat modeled controller. There are 10 frets instead of 5 (the second set for solos) and a pickup selector switch. No pics yet of the other instruments.

July 10th can't come soon enough

Anybody interested in listening to Honest Goodbye from Bad Religion's upcoming album New Maps of Hell can do so on their MySpace page. Another new song, Heroes and Martyrs, can be found there too.
I didn't care for Honest Goodbye the first time I heard it but it has grown on me like a fungus since then. I heard members of Bad Religion interviewed on a radio show and they said it was about Perry Smith, one of the murderers made famous in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Incidentally, I watched Capote this week. Excellent movie.

Grim Reaper first impressions

I had a chance to tinker with the Grim Reaper last night (Niki is out of town shipping Jenny back to Italy). It has a very fast, slim neck that is easy for me to get my hand around. It's a hard-tail so, of course, tuning couldn't be easier. I was playing in drop-D in no time. The mahogany body gives it excellent sustain similar to the Schecter. The action is set much lower so it is much easier to tap and extract sound in general. I really need to have that adjusted on the Schecter. I haven't really developed an opinion on the tone yet but I would say I prefer the Schecter if forced to decide now. That's more a matter of personal taste anyway.
All in all, it is just easier to play and probably a better guitar for a beginner such as myself to learn on. I am very pleased with my purchase. Did I mention the reaper inlay gives me a semi?

Ed has left the building!

Ed Roman is going the way of the dodo. Ed himself will apparently be starting up his own custom shop somewhere but the current store was bought out, lost the lease on their location, and is closing shop. While I was there, reps from Ibanez, Fender, etc. were taking inventory and figuring out what to ship back. This altered my strategy a bit. I wasn't happy with the wear on the Schecter anyway (I didn't bother to look very close when I wasn't planning on buying it).
As I ogled an expensive Ibanez, the Ibanez rep struck up a conversation with me. I told him that I wanted to get one but they were just a bit out of my price range. He said that I should talk to a salesman because they might cut me a deal under the circumstances. When I salesman approached, I pointed at a guitar already marked down to $460 (msrp is $599, lowest internet price is $450) and jokingly said "I'll give you $300 for that one." To my amazement, he replied "Let me see what I can do." He came back and said "The best I can do is $429."
Here is where it gets interesting. I thought he said $499 so I laughed and said "That's not much of a deal!" thinking the price had actually gone up. He went to check again and returned with an offer of $399. I think that is dealer cost or very close to it. Something clicked in my brain and I decided I had to have it. Of course I had to call Niki and make sure I would not forfeit my life by spending that much.
I pulled the guitar off the rack just in time as the Ibanez rep was removing all the guitars that were being returned. Both the rep and salesman told me that I should take good care of it because it is a limited edition (salesman told me only 40-50 were made and were never even put in the Ibanez catalogue)and will most likely be worth something in the future.
I present to you the Ibanez RGR521 GX2 "Grim Reaper"!

Schecter #2

I kicked some more ass at Keno last night so I am going to go buy that used Omen 6 at lunch today. If it is no longer available, I will probably get a similarly priced Ibanez (Ibañez?).

Hold me closer Tony Danza

Actor/singer extraordinaire Tony Danza will will be starring in the Vegas production of The Producers. Did he hassle the Hoff? I don't know. But I do know this... Tony Danza will pay.

Regarding the Eddie Van Halen D-Tuna

While I was looking for the best price online, I discovered an important fact about the D-Tuna. I was under the impression that the bridge must be stabilized during installation. What I found is that the bridge must be stabilized during use too. This requires either "blocking" the bridge (which I dislike the idea of intensely) or installing a tremsetter (far too DIY or Dan). The need for a tremsetter doubles the cost and triples the difficulty of adding a D-Tuna. I think I'd rather just wait until I can afford a second guitar that I can leave in drop d tuning. The fact that Ed Roman is selling a used Schecter Omen 6 for $200 makes the idea all the more appealing and a reasonable solution.

I Am Legend Movie

The trailer for the latest film adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is now available. You can check it out here. I am very excited about the movie because I loved the book. The trailer is a little misleading (assuming the movie is a faithful recreation of the book) but this is not unusual for an early teaser. Future iterations will probably be different.
This will be the third film adaptation of I Am Legend. The first was called The Last Man on Earth (starring Vincent Price) and then The Omega Man (starring Charlton Heston). I haven't seen them because they apparently have very little in common with the book. The upcoming movie stars Will Smith and is directed by Ridley Scott. I have come to expect good things from Scott so I am hoping for an accurate recreation.
If you haven't read I Am Legend, you have until December. It's a short read but extremely good so go get it!

This is the commercial I told Dan about

Feeling Baaaaaaad

Vacation is over.... back to work... blech.

Feelin' Good

I'm kicking back enjoying my vacation right now. Don't expect too many blog posts this week.

Stanley Cup Predictions

I'm sad to say that I don't think the Ducks have a chance. Sure, they're up 2-0 but that may not be enough to make up for their fatal flaw. What flaw you might ask? They don't have the one thing that is necessary for any Anaheim team to win a championship... a Rally Monkey! It's not too late though. If they hurry up and jump on the Rally Monkey band wagon they just might be able to pull it out. Never underestimate the power of the monkey factor.