No band have profited off of yesterday quite like the Beatles. (Mandatory Beatles pun, moving on.) The explosion of creativity that was the band lasted for a mere 8 years from 1962 to 1970. Since then the packaging and repackaging of every mop top move …
The Jam Going Underground Ltd. Ed. London Print Addicted To London’s Sounds from the Streets is a series of limited edition prints giving a big up to bands that made the square mile their home. The Beatles, The Jam and The Clash are bands that addressed …
Gibson Memphis B.B. King Lucille 2015
The great, now sadly late, B.B. King recounted the tale of how his guitars came to be named Lucille. Back in 1949, King was playing a hall that was being heated by a half barrel full of kerosene, common place at the time. A fight broke out and the room was engulfed in flames. Once outside, King realized that his guitar had been left behind and ran back in to get it. Our limited imagination can’t help but imagine an 80-something B.B. King waddling into a burning building to rescue his guitar. Thanks for the smile B.B.
The men who started the fight had been fighting over a girl named Lucille. No word on if she was worth it. The guitar that the young B.B. King ran back in to save was his $30 Gibson, roughly $300 today. Continue reading The tale of Lucille
Ron Wood L-5S The Ron Wood L-5S is based on Gibson’s lesser known L-5S guitar, which is fitting since Wood is a bit of an unsung guitar hero. Ron’s contribution of riffs to the world of rock is impressive to say the least. His entrance into …
Nevermind outtake pic by Kirk Weddle The Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck just keeps on giving. Director Bret Morgan dug (and dove) deep to find all the unseen and unheard Nirvana material he could get into his film. Among the bounty are a series …
On May 17, the Gaslight Anthem will be finishing up their Spring swing of the States at the Skate and Surf Festival in New Jersey. Riffing off the romanticism of the poster he created for the tour itself, Hellgate’s Ernie Paranda has created a gig poster for the single event. Dangerously sweet, the piece gushes teenage age romance. We just hope buddy is reaching for a condom in his pocket and not only lint. And if the board shoots out from under her, she’ll Get Hurt alright (insert rhyme shot here).
Easy to love this single show poster is bound to sell out. Just as an appearance by Gaslight Anthem in their old stomping grounds is bound to be epic.
If you dig, you’d best head over to Hellgate now and pre-order the love. Hellgate has also announced plans to print more of the tour poster, which SNT covered a little while back.
Gaslight will be in Europe for June, but back in North America July 15, where they’ll hit the Ottawa Blues festival. Find the complete schedule at thegaslightanthem.com
The Who are a legacy band with a box set of history behind them. Throughout the years, and today, guitarist, songwriter, founding member Pete Townshend has always been good for an interesting quote. “Rock ‘n’ Roll might not solve your problems, but it does let …
Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Jr
Floyd is the name of Billie Joe Armstrong’s 1956 Les Paul Jr. The Junior was first released by Gibson in 1954 as a simplified Les Paul for beginners. While the Junior is simpler, its P-90 pick up pacts a lot punch as pretty much any Green Day song will attest.
Released in 2006, the signature Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Jr. is based closely on the Green Day frontman’s Floyd, with updates that make it a great punk rock guitar. The P-90H pick up embraces the vintage P-90’s single coil snarl, but cancels the hum. The also differs from the original with a thinner easier to play 60s. Just the thing if you’re looking to act upon any three chord dreams. May we suggest Basket Case as a great beginner strum. Continue reading The Junior’s P-90 has always packed plenty of punk.
Marley Wear Glass Tank Top The above Tank is part of the 2015 Marley Apparel collection. There’s no shortage of Marley merch out there. bobmarley.com offers access to three different lines itself. That’s a lot of one love. Out of the three lines, Marley Wear is the …
So you’re visiting Boston and you want to spend every minute of your time living the rock ‘n’ roll dream. Even when you lay your head down to sleep. Scratch that. Rock stars don’t sleep. But you’re going to need a place to hold the …
The KIngsmen in Person Vintage Vinyl
The story of rock attributes the british for embracing the sounds of Chuck Berry and Little Richard, playing them like only white boys can and bringing the sound back to the US. For the most part this is true, but before the Beatles and the Stones, there were pale Americans in garages attempting to decipher Tutti Frutti.
The Kingsmen were part a cluster of bands out of the Portland and surrounding areas. Yup Portland’s been cool for a while now. The Wailers, Paul Revere and the Raiders and the KIngsmen were bastardizing black music at least two years before the Beatles landed. Just take The KIngsmen in Person and more particularly its centrepiece, Louie, Louie. Released in 1963, it’s a beautiful mess. Louie, Louie doesn’t swing as much as it chugs along. Continue reading A beautiful mess.
Just as 70s punk was slow to be picked up in the US, the John Lydon / Johnny Rotten biography Anger Is An Energy: My Life Uncensored is being released close to a year after it dropped in Europe. The book’s North American release is …
Signed /500 Tim Armstrong Guitar Repeater We hesitated before posting about the Tim Armstrong skateboard collab with /500. It seems we’ve been mentioning the Rancid singer/guitarist a lot recently. While it might appear that we’re on the punk rock payroll, it’s more a matter that …
LPM 2015
An affordable Gibson is a bit of an oxymoron like military intelligence, Led Zeppelin, Keith Richards sober.
The Gibson LPM 2015 is the company’s most affordable carved top Les Paul. At $1,149, it’s not cheap, but compared to the $3,759 of the Les Paul Standard, it’s a bargain. Kind of like today’s Keith looks sober compared to 1972 Keith.
Once you make peace with the price, the quality of Gibson USA is assured. You’re not simply getting the Les Paul look, but the quality part including innovations like the G-FORCE automatic tuning. The tuner is a sticking point for many traditionalist, but it’s easy to get used to.
Part of the Gibson USA 2015 line up, you can see the full specs on gibson.com
