| Tailor-made music rises from basement
EATON RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- In the basement of an unassuming white house on the edge of Eaton Rapids works an electric guitar player's savior.
The ping and ting of a Fender would be wimpy and barely audible if not for the box he designs, builds and tunes. He's not a household name, but at 72, Max Butler has built a reputation on that box -- a custom tube amplifier he builds for guitar players lucky enough to find him.
"When I got a chance to use some of his equipment, it just blew me away," said Bill Malone, lead guitar and vocals for the Old Town Blues Band.
.
SCHOOL OF ROCK
There is nothing remotely rock 'n' roll about 9 a.m. Nine a.m. is for Starbucks lines and traffic reports and math class; it's not usually a good hour for those who favor late nights and loud music and guitar rigs. But here it is, a few minutes before 9 on a summer morning, and a few dozen rockers are trickling into a school building in north Dallas. They have on baggy shorts and ripped jeans and their favorite rock 'n' roll T-shirts: The Ramones. Nirvana. Fall Out Boy. Guns N' Roses. They're loaded down with guitars and amps, basses and drumsticks. They are trying very hard to act like they didn't just climb out of their parents' Camrys and Explorers and minivans. Yep, these early-morning rockers are all under the age of 16. Some of them are accomplished musicians; others just wanna be.
Avenged Win Over Crowd, System Snore, Ozzy Returns To Form At Ozzfest Launch
AUBURN, Washington - Some of the sun-crisped metalheads packed into the White River Amphitheatre for the first stop on this year's 11th annual Ozzfest were skeptical of "TRL" favorites Avenged Sevenfold being on the festival's main stage. But there they were on Thursday, and the naysayers weren't about to distract the band from the mission at hand: Trying to win the crowd over. So, Avenged, led by the diamond-grilled, Axl-Rose-imitating M. Shadows, pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat by covering -- and handily at that -- a tried-and-true metal classic: Pantera's "Walk." Shadows dedicated the tune to the memory of slain Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, and about three riffs in, the audience -- even the cynics -- were sold, pumping their fists and barking the song's stilted refrain: "Re! Spect! Walk!" And for the rest of the band's set, which ended with "Bat Country," Avenged owned them all.
|
