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Gretsch Guitars at Labor Day Weekend D.C. Beatles Festival |
August 31, 2010
Gretsch Guitars will be at the “Abbey Road on the River” festival in the Washington, D.C. area as Beatlemania invades the nation’s capital once again over the 2010 Labor Day weekend. The event’s promoters bill it as “the world’s largest Beatles-inspired music festival.” Abbey Road on the River takes place from Thursday, Sept. 2 to Sunday, Sept. 5 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor, Md. Gretsch is co-sponsoring the event. Abbey Road on the River will feature a near-constant lineup of bands, guest speakers, films, contests and other special events, all of which is staged to celebrate the still-thriving legacy of the Beatles. At the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, the Gretsch Guitars booth will be open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. starting Friday, Sept. 3, with Gretsch girl Kim Falcon on hand for photos and to sign autographs. From 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4 to 1 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5, Gretsch Guitars presents Hal Bruce and the Hard Dazed Knights in concert, playing 214 Beatles songs as a single continuous medley with no breaks or intermission. From 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5, festival-going Gretsch enthusiasts can enjoy a personal appearance by Fred Gretsch III and Gretsch product specialist Joe Carducci. They’ll present the Gretsch Guitars Experience, sharing behind-the-scenes stories about Gretsch history—which includes the Beatles—and a multimedia presentation of the sights and sounds of Gretsch. Abbey Road on the River takes place twice annually; in Louisville, Ky., over Memorial Day weekend and in National Harbor, Md. (Washington, D.C.) over Labor Day weekend. Attracting more than 30,000 fans of all ages per event, Abbey Road on the River is the largest Beatles festival in the United States, founded in Cleveland in 2002 and held at its present locations since 2005. For more details on the event, click here now. |
Katy Perry Shines on Letterman |
August 25, 2010 California Gurl Katy Perry performed her new album title track and latest single, "Teenage Dream,” last night on Late Show with David Letterman. It’s easy to lose one’s luster when standing next to this sensational pop-rock star, but Perry’s guitarists held their own thanks to their gorgeous Gretsch guitars. Letterman also interviewed Perry, discussing her engagement with Russell Brand, how she went from singing gospel music to showing “side boob” in her recent photo shoot with Rolling Stone and what her minister parents think of it all. Watch the complete interview here. |
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Nick Wiggins Wears His Gretsch Bass |
August 24, 2010 In actuality, Wiggins explained via email to our Gretsch artist relations rep that he was “in the woods at the studio this summer when he lost his mind.” Taking this short jaybird walk helped clear his mind and all is now well in Wiggins’ world as he continues recording new material. |
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Rockabilly Rules II at Arizona's Rhythm Room |
August 13, 2010 On Sat., Aug 21, the Rhythm Room will host Rockabilly Rules II, an event proudly presented by Gretsch and the Pinup Angels, a non-profit organization that helps spread good cheer to our military troops overseas. Four of Arizona’s most rebellious, raucous, rockabilly bands — Voodoo Swing, Rooster Coup DeVille, Moonlight Howler and the Heymakers — will be rockin’ the house. Heightening the spirit between band sets will be voluptuous burlesque performers, Lolita Haze, Mellissa Moxie, Mercy Beaucoup and Kara DaFleur. There will also be a pre-1965 car show, barbeque, prizes and giveaways. To help support the Pinup Angels’ efforts for our military troops, an $8.00 donation per person will get you in the door. |
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Soundgarden is Back! |
August 9, 2010
Reunited grunge godfathers Soundgarden played to their largest audience since their breakup 13 years ago with Sunday night’s headlining set at Lollapalooza, which also drew its biggest audience ever with more than 240,000 attendees. Soundgarden lived up to their hype with a set list that included several classics from the ‘90s, such as “Black Hole Sun” and “Rusty Cage.” “Soundgarden exceeded expectations with a tight, nostalgia-bound set that echoed 1992,” says the Chicago Tribune. “Singer Chris Cornell’s long mane returned, his voice sounded tremendous and the band's sludge rhythms thundered with menace.” Soundgarden will release a career-retrospective, Telephantasm, on Sept. 28. Its only unreleased track, “Black Rain,” is expected to hit the radio waves on Aug. 10. |
Titus Andronicus Performs on Jimmy Fallon |
August 6, 2010
New Jersey quintet Titus Andronicus made the late night circuit on Thursday, dropping by Jimmy Fallon to perform The Monitor's album opener, "A More Perfect Union." Here’s what the band had to say about the appearance on their official website. “Hello friends. It is with great wonder that we announce to you now that our humble rock and roll band will be performing this Thursday night on reputable network television program Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Yes, for three and a half glorious minutes, Titus Andronicus will invade the living rooms of America, sweep out all the cobwebs of our bankrupt society and replace them with the seeds of a glimmering punk utopia. Right?" Magnetic frontman Patrick Stickles used his Gretsch guitar, adorned by the American flag, for the appearance, video of which is unfortunately no longer available from NBC. However, here's the official music video for "A More Perfect Union."
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The Dead Weather on Letterman |
August 5, 2010 The Dead Weather headed to the Late Show with David Letterman last night to perform Sea of Cowards track “Blue Blood Blues.” Check out the sea of Gretsch guitars ... beautiful! |
DVD Review of Classic Albums: Damn the Torpedoes |
August 4, 2010 1979 was a grim year for straight-ahead, no-frills American rock ‘n’ roll. Disco fever was sweeping the nation, punk had risen from the gutters and the easy California sound of the Eagles and Jackson Browne dominated the Los Angeles recording industry establishment. But then, from the unlikely Mecca of Gainesville, Fla., came a band with a rock sound both aggressively ambitious and deceptively simple. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would perfect that sound with their classic third album, Damn the Torpedoes. Anchored by the band’s ace musicianship and buoyed by Petty's seemingly effortless command of rock songwriting, the record rose to number two on the rock charts (Pink Floyd’s The Wall ruled everything that year and was the only album that kept Torpedoes from number one) and spawned three Top 40 singles (“Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl” and “Don’t Do Me Like That”). Read the full review here.
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Mike Campbell, a fan of a Gretsch double-cutaway 6120 In fact Campbell’s guitar tech, Chinner, shows off the White Falcon in an exclusive tompetty.com 36-second video. Watch it now!
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Interpol on Letterman |
July 30, 2010 Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler took his Gretsch along to perform “Barricade” on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 29. The song is featured on their upcoming self-titled album, due out Sept. 7.
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Neil Young on the Twisted Road Tour |
July 28, 2010 - The legendary Neil Young played back-to-back sold-out shows the last two nights at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Winnipeg Free Press columnist Rob Williams provided a thorough review of Young's Twisted Road tour return visit to the city where he lived as a teenager. "He's an iconoclast who follows nobody," writes Williams. "He does what he wants, when he wants and remains an unpredictable artist who has managed the rare feat of continuing to be fascinating, diverse and relevant for more than four decades while never latching on to a trend, fashion or fad." That's not entirely true, however, as Young has latched on to a few select instruments, including his Gretsch White Falcon, which Williams mentioned in his review. "He strapped up on his Gretsch White Falcon as he dismantled the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young staple "Ohio," and rebuilt it from the ground up sans harmonies, giving it a slight menacing vibe before another new one, "Sign of Love," a melodic love song built on power chords." Read the full review here.
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Watch Young perform new song, "Walk With Me," at his show in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on July 23. |
Sting is Full of Surprises |
July 14, 2010 - Sting is currently in the middle of a world tour with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, performing songs both from his own enduring solo career and hits from the Police songbook, but with a new "classic" twist. In speaking to the Today Show about the new arrangements, Sting said, “I always want my fans to be surprised by whatever I do. That’s the whole element — surprise and novelty, (I'm) all about it.” The summer Symphonicity tour, heralded as "one of the must-see concerts of the year" by the New York Post, came about after a one-night performance in 2009 with the Chicago Symphony. “They asked me to do an hour and a half of my own music for an orchestra,” said Sting. “I had never thought of that before. It worked so well. I loved it; The musicians loved it; The audience loved it. I thought, ‘Let’s take it on the road.’” |
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New Album from Skinny Jim & The Number 9 Blacktops |
July 13, 2010 - Skinny Jim & the Number 9 Blacktops are set for a mid-July release of their new studio album Daredevil Action, an appropriate title for a southern Illinois trio that dared to stretch its rockabilly wings on their latest effort. “It’s faster and more aggressive compared to our last album (Horsepower! Horsepower!),” says frontman Jim Rotramel. “It’s still rockabilly by all means but the tones are more aggressive and there’s more of a driving tempo. I’m not ashamed to say that this album is hard-hitting rock and roll, but with pop melodies. It still has the same rockabilly beat behind it — the walking bass line, the Gretsch/Fender amp tone — but I think it breaks the mold and is not the monotonous stuff that’s been done a million times before.” Carving out a niche in the rockabilly world is tough to do. As Rotramel notes, “It’s all been done before so you have to break the mold. You can’t just play a song that’s G-C-D because it’s all going to sound like ‘Rock Around the Clock’ or ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’” So Rotramel blended his wide-ranging musical influences — Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Brian Setzer and the Black Crowes — with a tempo borrowed from his childhood exposure to bluegrass music to create a brand of rockabilly that’s been dubbed “hot-rod rockabilly.” |
Photo by Darrell Mankin |
Dirty or Ambient? |
July 9, 2010 Check out the video clips below to achieve an Ambient Gretsch or a Dirty Gretsch sound. In the first clip, Rick Heins plays a Gretsch White Falcon into a Super-Sonic 22 amp set clean, with a higher Treble setting enhancing the warm tone of the pair of Filter'Tron pickups. A TC Electronic Nova Delay is set to 417 milliseconds, in tempo with the pick + finger chord playing.
In this clip, Heins plays the White Falcon, set to the bridge pickup, into a Super-Sonic 22 amp. He's on the BURN channel with a fair amount of preamp gain dialed up, which adds nice harmonic content to the simple, rootsy chordal style. A TC Electronic Nova Delay, patched in to the effects loop for cleanest performance with preamp distortion, is set to a 454 millisecond reverse delay. The clip ends with some nice feedback & Bigsby vibrato bar wiggle. |
Tegan and Sara Make Short List for Polaris Music Prize |
July 8, 2010 Canadian indie band Tegan and Sara are on the shortlist of nominees for the Polaris Music Prize, given each year to the Canadian album with the highest artistic merit. The identical twin sisters earned their first nomination for the prestigious award with 2009’s Sainthood, their sixth studio album, but the first they wrote together. “Our mom made us,” Tegan told Spinner.com of the decision to write together. “Writing together has always been something that Sara and I have sort of been almost horrified when people asked us why we didn’t do it. Even when we were kids and writing songs in our bedrooms, it was always a separate process. This record was our sixth, and we thought we’d try a bunch of different things.” Tegan and Sara recently returned from a European tour that included a show at the 2010 Glastonbury Festival. The New Waver rockers chronicled their tour for PAPERMAG, making mention of an interesting discovery while visiting Tower Records in downtown Dublin. “Tower closed its doors in America in 2006 (sad) but still lives on in a few franchise locations on this side of the world,” wrote Tegan in the online journal. “While we were there Sara found an amazing book about learning to play guitar. Bikini clad women teach the young "lads" how to play basic chords and work on their up and down strokes (seriously). As record stores go the way of the dinosaur Sara and I cling to the hope that playing in the ones that remain will encourage people to buy our record, or any record for that matter. In this case we also encouraged them to buy the guitar book with the bikini-clad instructors.” Speaking of playing guitars, Tegan discussed what was used on Sainthood with EQ Magazine. "Chris (Walla, bassist on Sainthood) has a crazy collection of Rickenbackers, and Sara is a huge Gretsch fan, so there was a smorgasbord of Rickenbackers and Gretsches," said Tegan. "Sara has a couple of Malcolm Youngs, and Chris and I have Duo Jets." The new wave rockers will next join Paramore on the summer-long Honda Civic Tour, as well as a sole performance at Lilith Fair on July 30 in Boston. Get tour information here. |
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ZZ Top Rocks 2010 Crossroads Festival |
June 30, 2010 ZZ Top joined an elite roster of musicians at Eric Clapton's 2010 Crossroads Festival, held in Chicago on June 26. According to Premier Guitar, the blues rock luminaries delivered the “hardest rocking set of the day.” With his Gretsch "Billy-Bo" Jupiter Thunderbird in hand, Billy Gibbons and his sidekicks Dusty Hill and Frank Beard rocked through a set that was highlighted by a fuzz-driven cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and their own classic “La Grange.” ZZ Top is scheduled to perform at this year’s Del Mar Beer Fest in Del Mar, Calif. on Sept. 4, followed by a string of shows with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Get ticket information here. |
Photo by Chris Kies, Courtesy of Premier Guitar |
Australian's Guitar Virtuoso Joe Robinson |
June 30, 2010 Robinson performed solo at the Troo Music Lounge and then later took the stage with Nashville jam band Elmwood. Fans of the 2008 winner of Australia’s Got Talent can watch him pitching in for Elmwood’s song “Woodduck” in the You Tube video over to the right, which interestingly, is how Robinson mastered his chops on the guitar. “I grew up in the country in Australia, out in the sticks, it was like 45 minutes to drive to a supermarket so the only way I could learn the music I wanted to learn was from the internet,” says Robinson in an online video shot at Bonnaroo. “I can remember sitting there and putting on a You Tube video and letting it load, and it would take like an hour for a You Tube video to load because I had really slow internet.But it just taught me so much and it was a really great way of getting new information, even when living in quite a remote area. It was really invaluable for me.” Robinson has been working with acclaimed music industry executive Reen Nalli (INXS, India.Arie, Blue October) and is expected to release his first vocal recording release later this year.
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Joe Robinson with Elmwood at Bonnaroo.
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| Gretsch 6120 Nashville Guitar Autographed By Sugarland to Be Auctioned on eBay |
June 23, 2010 A Gretsch 6120 Nashville model guitar autographed by Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush—better known as Atlanta-based country music super-duo Sugarland—will be auctioned on eBay between June 23 through June 30. The proceeds will go to support educational music programs sponsored by AthFest, Athens, Georgia's long-running music festival. The guitar was donated to AthFest by The Gretsch Foundation, an organization chartered by Savannah's Fred and Dinah Gretsch to help promote music and arts education programs. "When folks who understand the value of music as a way to enrich people's lives work together, amazing things can be accomplished," said Fred Gretsch.
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| Nick Curran Featured in Vintage Guitar |
June 22, 2010 Singer, songwriter and monster blues-rock guitarist Nick Curran — with Grestch guitar in hand — is featured in the August issue of Vintage Guitar magazine. In the Q&A, Curran breaks down a list of guitar albums that changed his life, like AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. "The interaction on Malcolm and Angus on this is so badass," said Curran. "Malcolm holding down the rhythm with a killer Gretsch tone, and Angus playing counter-rhythm parts and ripping blues leads over these great steady grooves. Lay Bon Ccott's sleazy poetry over the top, and wow!" Malcolm Young's Gretsch might have had something to do with why Curran was attraced to a Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet, which he used on his fourth solo CD, Reform School Girl. "I had it painted white on the front and put TV Jones Filtertrons in it, with a Gretsch Bigsby," Curran told Vintage Guitar. "It looks really cool — a great guitar." Check out Vintage Guitar, page 24 for more.
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Photo by Joshua Temkin |
| The Dead Weather Bring the Rain at Bonnaroo |
June 14, 2010 By most all accounts, the Dead Weather — featuring Jack White of the White Stripes on drums and vocals, singer Alison Mosshard of the Kills, and Gretsch-wielding guitarists Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Raconteurs and Greenhornes’ guitarist Jack Lawrence — was one of the must-see performances at the 2010 Bonnaroo Festival, held in Manchester, Tennessee, June 10-13. The rock supergroup — deemed “Best Bonafide Rock God” by Spin — was introduced by comedian Conan O’Brien. “I know it’s been raining on you,” he said to the massive crowd. “But I say, ‘let it rain.’ Don’t think of it is as rain. Think of it as us having a shower together.” As Rolling Stone’s J. Edward Keyes pointed out, “if it was going to rain at any point during the day, it was appropriate that it happened when the Dead Weather were onstage. The group hung like a black cloud in the center of a festival dedicated to the notion of joy and community, their music as ferocious as it was grim and nihilistic.” Prior to launching into set opener, "Forever My Queen," White jokingly took credit for the rain, telling his audience that he had “called in three weeks ahead for that.” But according to Spin, there was something to his claim. “And rain it did, as if his backwoods bluesman persona had summoned the dark clouds with his two flailing drumsticks,” wrote William Goodman. “The Dead Weather's set was a fitting romp of unhinged roadhouse licks, complete with big shiny Gretsch guitars, as she-devil Alison Mosshart tossed herself around in a leopard-print cardigan, tight jeans, and black makeup galore.” |
Watch the Dead Weather perform at Bonnaroo |
| Vintage Guitar Reviews the Gretsch G5191BK Tim Armstrong Electromatic |
June 9, 2010 Be sure to pick up the August 2010 issue of Vintage Guitar for a review of the Gretsch G5191BK Tim Armstrong Electromatic, modeled after the preferred hollowbody guitar that the renowned Rancid frontman has torn up stages with for more than a decade. “Plugged in, the G5191BK does not disappoint,” writes Vintage Guitar reviewer Sean O’Bryan Smith. “Its tone bars and soundposts give an acoustic projection and help it really drive the Filter’Tron pickups. It has the classic jangle and resonance one would expect from a Gretsch, while all that projection is a godsend for styles not necessarily associated with the brand.” Read the entire review on page 156. |
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