I haven't recorded a video in quite a while, but there is my latest! Just riding the Keyboard Cat wave...

Well, I haven't posted on LJ in a long time, and I especially haven't posted any music reviews in a very long time... I just came to the point where I couldn't catch up with my backlog of concerts, and got busy with other, more interesting side projects.

However I am happy to announce that I am temporarily coming out of blogging retirement to write about the trip jennhi and I made to Pittsburgh, PA last week-end. We attended the Three Rivers Prog Rock Festival, and had a fantastic time. I felt compelled to write a review of the entire event, complete with pictures and many videos.

Check it out on last.fm if you are interested.

It was truly an unforgettable weekend!

I really doubt I'll get back to blogging more regularly, even though I still browse my LJ friends almost daily. I'm going to be busy with my new project: iPhone applications. Fun fun fun!

Rock star back at university again after 33 gap years

From the article :

Brian May, the multimillionaire guitarist who founded the rock group Queen, has finally completed the PhD in astrophysics that he abandoned more than 30 years ago.

The 59-year-old composer of hits such as Fat Bottomed Girls and We Will Rock You turned his back on the stars for international fame with Freddie Mercury and his band. His thesis on interplanetary dust clouds lay gathering dust of its own in the attic of his home in Surrey.

May’s interest in the subject was rekindled last year when he co-authored a children’s science book with the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. He discovered that remarkably little research had been done in the intervening 33 years.

He dug out his old handwritten notes and spent nine months conducting further research at Imperial College, London, where he had studied before Queen hit the big time.

May revealed his achievement when he received an honorary doctorate at Exeter University this week. He told students: “For the last nine months I’ve done nothing except slave over my PhD, which is now written up, thank God. But there are times when you really want to give up. There are times when you go, ‘Why on earth did I take this on?’ ”

After the ceremony he said: “I worked on my thesis at Imperial from 1971 to 1974 when I had to give it up because Queen became a full-time thing. I kept all my notes and I was able to find them in my loft and start working on them again.”

Using a giant telescope in the Canary Islands, May was able to show for the first time that dust clouds in the solar system are moving in the same direction as the planets. He will receive his PhD next May, provided that his thesis is approved by assessors.

Abigail Smith, a spokeswoman for Imperial College, said: “People are aware he is here and there is a feeling it is pretty cool that he has come back to finish his PhD, even if he has not been hugely visible.”

I am proud to announce the final release of my Java application for cell phones, Guitar Trainer !

It took me quite some time to complete the mobiletutor.org Web site on which it is hosted, but everything is now online and open for business.

Feel free to try out the free demo (that includes unlimited usage of the built-in instrument tuner!), or even purchase the full version.

This small application for mobile devices is an educational tool for musicians to help deepen their knowledge of the fretboard of their instrument. Here's a quick recap of the features :

• Learn the location of notes on the fretboard of a guitar or other stringed instrument.
• Supports a variety of standard and alternate string tunings: guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele, mandolin.
• Training mode allows to focus learning on particular parts of the fretboard.
• Game mode provides a fun way to make progress. Work your way through levels of increasing difficulty!
• Train your ear at the same time as you improve your working knowledge of the instrument.
• Left-handed and right-handed neck types.
• Tune your instrument with your cell phone. Open string tones can be produced for any of the supported tunings!
• Dynamic user interface that works on a wide variety of mobile devices.
• Support for pointer input (stylus, touch screen, etc).
• Available in English, French and German languages.

So if you know anybody interested by this kind of application, please spread the word! This can be an interesting tool for music teachers as well as apprentices, and musicians of all levels. I know I certainly wanted something like this as a guitarist, hence why I ended up writing it myself. :)

www.mobiletutor.org

Here is an amazing rendition of my all-time favorite song, Bohemian Rhapsody :



I should also mention that I have posted two more reviews: the Abe Lincoln Story and Mike Keneally.

This morning, I also bought tickets to go see Rush at the Hollywood Bowl this coming July. w00t!

My review has been posted. Check it out if you'd like.

Going back to the Echo tonight to check out a last-minute show by the Abe Lincoln Story. I met their frontman, Steve Moramarco, at a party last week-end and he let us know about this show. Should be fun!

I've been thinking of doing this for a while, but I will now be posting my future concert reviews exclusively on my Last.fm journal, which is more friendly to this kind of material, providing automatic link to artist pages, events, etc.

It will also free up this personal blog, although I will probably still post links to the reviews here. I have created a syndicated LJ, angryfrenchman, which is just the RSS feed from the original journal. So if you enjoy my reviews, feel free to add it to your friends list!

I have already cross-posted the last 10 or so reviews I have written, so this will mostly save me the trouble of cross-posting. My only regret with this is Last.fm's inferior formatting capabilities for journal entries (no real HTML), but it's a minor detail compared to the community it builds.

And of course, all my old posts will stay here. Once again, feel free to add me as a friend on Last.fm if you have joined the site - which I highly recommend! It just keeps getting better.

I went to Santa Ana's Galaxy Theater last Saturday for a special St Patrick's Day concert featuring the Poxy Boggards and the Merry Wives of Windsor.

( Very quick review of the show... )

Coming up: my review of the fantastic G3 concert from last Sunday. It also looks like I don't have any more concerts scheduled for March, and April should be rather light as well.

On Saturday night, I headed to Hollywood's Knitting Factory to go check out one of my favorite recent side projects, Blackfield, a collaboration between Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen.

( Review of a great show, with some pics... )

Coming up this week: the Poxy Boggards on Saturday, followed by the G3 tour on Sunday at the Orpheum, with John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert!

On Friday evening, I went to the Baked Potato for yet another Frank Gambale gig. I have seen him a number of times in this club now, so I'll keep the review short.

( Quick review, with some nice videos! )

Coming up: review of the Blackfield show on Saturday!

On Tuesday I attended the second edition of WesFest at the Gig in Hollywood, a benefit concert raising funds for the Wes Wehmiller scholarship at Berklee School of Music.

( Review, with many pictures and some cool videos... )

This month is rather busy in terms of concerts. I'm just about to head out to the Baked Potato to check out Frank Gambale, and tomorrow is Blackfield at the Knitting Factory. Then next week the G3 tour and the Poxy Boggards. I also just got tickets for Roger Waters in June, who is coming back to the Hollywood Bowl!

I have been pretty busy lately, and haven't really had a chance to post full reviews of the last concerts I've been to over the last couple of weeks. So I'm going to do the lazy thing and post about all of them in this single post!

( Mini-reviews of the concerts, with pics and videos... )

While February has been rather slow in terms of concerts, I got plenty coming up: WesFest, Blackfield, Frank Gambale, the Poxy Boggards, G3, and the Red Elvises in March alone! The Mars Volta is also playing in April, which I am very interesting in seeing again in an headlining setting. May will be a month of prog festivals, with the great CalProg, but also the newly announced Bay Area Rock Fest, which seems like it will kick ass with my favorite band Spock's Beard headlining its first day. This would definitely be a good excuse for an excursion to San Francisco...

On January 23, I headed back to the Baked Potato for another show featuring Frank Gambale, the renowned fusion guitarist, as part of Alain Caron's band.

( Quick review of the show, with pictures... )

I'm finally all caught up on my reviews! Going to check out Dengue Fever tomorrow night, that should be interesting.

On January 18, I drove up to Agoura Hills to check out the legendary prog/.fusion band the Dixie Dregs, as well as the Steve Morse band that was opening for them.

( Review of the show, with some nice pictures... )

February is going to be a rather slow month for concerts, although there is a couple of Steve Lukather gigs at the Baked Potato I may try to go to. March will be a much more interesting month: the G3 2007 tour has been announced, and the trio of guitar stars that are Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert will be performing at the Orpheum on March 17! Steven Wilson's side project, Blackfield, is also kicking off their US tour in LA in March. Last but not least, many good artists (especially Mike Keneally and friends) will be featured at the Wesfest 2 benefit, which should be lots of fun.

One more review to post before I'm all caught up!

Saturday of last week, I also went to the Knitting Factory for yet another show from VOLTO!, the super-group featuring Danny Carey, the drummer from Tool.

( Quick review of the show, with picture... )

Looking forward to seeing these guys again, maybe at one of their more intimate shows at the Baked Potato, where I am actually headed tomorrow night for the Frank Gambale show. Incidentally, it should be my last concert for this month.

Last Friday night I headed to Highland Park to check out a few local bands playing at Mr T's Bowl, especially the Abe Lincoln Story, a band featuring my friend Kerry Kompost on guitar.

( Quick review of a fun show, with video... )

I am very backlogged in my concert reviews, so expect two or three more following really soon! :)

On Friday evening, I went to check out the John Patitucci Trio at Culver City's Jazz Bakery.

( Review of the show, with pics... )

Busy weekend coming up! Abe Lincoln Story on Friday, Volto! on Saturday... Just found out that Rob Corrdry of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart fame is playing in LA this Monday, so I'll also be going to that. Next week will also bring Frank Gambale and the Dixie Dregs. The NAMM show in Anaheim is bringing a lot of exciting artists to town!

Right on the heels of the Zappa show the previous night, I was back in LA for New Year's Eve and went to check out the Red Elvises, a self-described siberian surf rock band from the area.

( Review of the show, with pictures... )

I have already mentioned my upcoming schedule on my previous post, although it appears that Frank Gambale will be playing quite a few dates at jazz clubs in the LA area this month, which should give more options to see him.

This last weekend of 2006 was rather interesting musically. I had heard that Dweezil Zappa and his Zappa Plays Zappa band would be back to Southern California, but I hadn't really considered attending their far-away performance until I checked to see if it was sold out. I was surprised to see that even VIP tickets were still available a little over a week before the show, and considering that it would be on a Saturday, it could make for a pleasant day-trip to the Palm Springs area where the Morongo Casino hosting the Key Club was located.

( Review of the show... )

January is looking really rather busy in terms of concerts. John Patitucci's trio is playing at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City this week. I'm planning to go check out the Abe Lincoln Story, VOLTO!, Frank Gambale and the Dixie Dregs, all within the next two weeks. Busy!

On last Friday evening I went to the Baked Potato to check out a special incarnation of the great jazz fusion band, CAB, featuring guitar legend Frank Gambale.

( Review of the show, with video )

Tomorrow I am driving to the Palm Springs area to attend the last Zappa Plays Zappa gig of the year, at the Key Club in the Morongo casino. This should be lots of fun, with another close encounter with Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio! Other upcoming shows includes the Red Elvises on Sunday, VOLTO! in January. Frank Gambale will also be performing again with his own trio at the Catalina Bar and Grill. That should be worth checking out.