massive free live music archive

I recently came across a gigantic online library of free things at:
www.archive.org
Included are thousands of high-quality recordings of live music from many bands and it is all sanctioned by the performers themselves so many of the stingy bands aren't available.
You will find many bands including the insane talent of Umphrey's McGee and the underrated song-writing genius of Toad The Wet Sprocket as well as many, many more.
Some of the music files will need a more versatile unzipper so I recommend the fabulous free app 7-zip
Another great free app for playing high-quality audio formats (like FLAC) is called foobar2000. It can also convert most audio formats easily too.
So get out there and start enjoying!

Victor Wooten Bass Clinic

I had the privilege of going to see a free clinic at Sweetwater recently and was very impressed! I saw a few of our fellow bloggers there too and wondered what your impressions were? What were your favorite tips?

For me, Victor Wooten (bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) was quite impressive as a player and performer but what really surprised me was his humble demeanor and gracious attitude. This is my first time attending a clinic so I'm not sure if this is common, but he seemed very willing to take time and make sure that every question was heard and that every topic was covered.
He had some very interesting ideas on many topics like how to practice by yourself, how to raise kids to love music without making it a chore, how to approach music as a whole to make it more enjoyable to play and create, and much more!
All I can say is that if most clinics are half as good as this one, I'd recommend going to any of them you can!  Below is a little Wooten trivia:
Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist Of The Year and is the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player Of The Year. With the honors came sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances with artists like Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince, Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith), the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack of the Disney film Country Bears.

post your album recommendations here

*edit* I have bumped this thread up again so we don't forget to keep adding suggestions.  also don't forget to check the box to receive email updates on future comments

if you find a new favorite album that you would like to recommend to the rest of us, please post all of them in the comments of this post here. this way we will have a ongoing list to refer to when we want to broaden our listening habits.
also, please post a little info too such as:
☼ why you like it, ☼ things to listen for, ☼ favorite tracks, ☼ sounds like, etc...
if you subscribe to comments then you can easily see when people add suggestions without needing to check back to this post all the time. or when you post your comment, you can check the box to have follow-up comments emailed to you automatically to keep up with new suggestions.

Gear: Guitar Amp?

In my quest for a cheap Fender Tele I was also thinking about getting a new amp. My current amp is a Crate GX65. Nothing spectacular about it. Nice reverb, nice crunch, just nice in general. I want something that excites. I like some of the Fender tube amps that I've played at Guitar Center and I've been researching "boutique" amps. Soldano is mentioned alot.

What are your thoughts?

technique: gettin picky with it

there is a nice article in the latest issue of Sweetwater's guitars & gear newsletter concerning an easy way to tweak your sound on guitar. check it out HERE.

Who's your favorite drummer?

So I was working on learning the song Jenny Wren by Paul McCartney and my wife and I were reminded of how much we enjoy watching Abe Laboriel, Jr. play drums. His passion for the music is contagious. I love how he makes a contribution to the song even though his part of the song is very basic. The drums (drum) kick in at about 1 minute 15 seconds. Linda's favorite part is from 2:24 through 2:40.

• Also, check out Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney - Abe really gets into it about 2 minutes 25 seconds...so much though that the keyboard player and Paul can't stop smiling at him.
• Also, the dude can sing! He starts singing at :42.
• How about any of these three?

Who's YOUR favorite drummer?

(by the way...for the bass player topic, how about Abe's Dad, Abe Laboriel Sr? :)

under the radar - guitar

name one "famous" guitarist who is very underrated or doesn't get the respect they deserve despite their talent.

keep it to national recording acts with relative fame (a recognizable name) and maybe even provide a specific example or even a link to a song or video as proof.

for research purposes check out this list with included audio samples from rolling stone's 100 greatest. (i changed the link to make it easier to read)

Try This!

So with all of the talk about new music I am curious what is in your CD/.mp3 player at the moment? What album would you recommend that I should pick up? Right now I am listening to Kings of Leon's "Only By the Night". Personally, from beginning to end I think it is a four star record. I have their other stuff but I didn't like it all that much. The singer has a really unique voice and I don't think he got a handle on it until this album. They are a Tennessee band so perhaps some of you have already heard of them.

Tom Waits.

Tom Waits should appear an interesting figure to almost anyone. You know who he is, you've seen him in movies, his songs have been (some would say unfortunately) popularized by Spingsteen ("Jersey Girl"), Rod Stewart ("Downtown Train"), and the Eagles ("Ol
55"). You're perfectly aware of him... A perpetually old, perpetually hat-wearing pathological liar, who, after returning to music from a 7-year stretch without an album, told every single interviewer who asked what took him so long: "I was stuck in traffic." But there's STILL a wall around the music itself. It's almost like a big inside joke, because you can't just pick up a record and get into his music.

First of all, there are 20 records between 1973 and today. Ignore the "gravelly voice" thing for now, everyone either gets over it or comes to appreciate it. The first thing to do is provide some chronological context, so you know which end of the spectrum you're in if you decide to listen. Between 1973's Closing Time and 1980's Heartattack And Vine, you have genuine bar sleaze, foraying into the seedy underbellies of jazz and blues. Most recommended from this era is 1976's Small Change, including "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)" and "Invitation To The Blues."

In 1983, Waits was pushed into experimental territory in a reversal of the usual paradigm: by sobering up and settling down with wife/faceless collaborator, Kathleen Brennan (to whom he's still married today). Swordfishtrombones was the first of a trilogy of albums, followed by Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years. Check out "Gun Street Girl," the linguistic evolution of traditional few-strings-short-of-a-guitar blues. "Jockey Full Of Bourbon," "Hang On St. Christopher," and the title track to Swordfishtrombones are other easier-access highlights of the era. After this came Bone Machine, which won a grammy for Best "Alternative" Rock performance, to which Waits responded, "Alternative to what?" The song "Goin' Out West" is most memorable for its appearance in Fight Club, definitely the peak of Waits' growly rock songs.

OK, now, a little soundtrack work, stage productions, and 7 years later we arrive at 1999's Mule Variations. Lots of people like it, I'm not sure about it. More folky than Waits' older work. Next we have two albums released at the same time... Alice. From Robert Wilson's experimental twist on Alice In Wonderland, which figured into its stage context the fact that Lewis Carroll wrote his Alice stories for the eponymous 9-year-old girl who had captured his affections. Listen to the title track, and that's about it. Now this is important: if you only listen to one Tom Waits song, listen to "All The World Is Green" from Blood Money. The album has plenty to offer in between its less accessible pieces, but this is, above all, the doorway to Tom Waits. Then from 2004's Real Gone: "Dead And Lovely" and "Green Grass" are most recommended.

So now that you've gotten your bearings, hopefully you can appreciate the rest of the catalog. Admittedly, nothing is truly accessible, but there is a certain difference between Tom Waits and many other performers. With most, even if you can't get into it at first, there may be a moment when it all clicks and you understand it. With Tom Waits, these things click very gradually... Maybe first it's the lyrics, which lead you to appreciate the voice... Maybe then it's the more traditionally-constructed songs from Small Change or Blue Valentines, and by the time the 80's records roll around into your music collection, you see the transition and understand those a little better, and then you come to understand the more folk-oriented records coming from Waits' growing domesticity.

Before you know it, you'll be bothering your coworkers or your wife or whoever comes into the room with music they probably won't like. I dunno, though, I always liked that feeling.