Every time I am trying to come up with a dissonant or weird guitar solo, I think about this guy. What do King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Frank Zappa, Talking heads, David Bowie, Tom Tom club, Paul Simon, NIN, The Bears, Laurie Anderson, to name a few have in common? They all hired the services of guitar maestro extraordinaire ADRIAN BELEW. Now I have received a great video clip that showcases his incredible contribution to the world of music we all love and grew up on, at least dinosaurs like me.

“Adrian Belew reinvented the electric guitar.” – Frank Zappa

the best musician in the world.” – Trent Reznor

I have seen this guy playing as a trio at the Bottom line in NYC, Seated at a table 3 ft away this guy and stayed with my mouth wide opened the whole show, the versatility, the sounds, the imagination, the humor, just unbelievable.

Now with a new album and US dates and I urge you to go catch him, and watch this amazing trailer….

US Dates:

June 18 – Pawling, NY The Towne Crier

June 19 – Albany, NY The Linda

June 20 – Woodstock, NY Bearsville Theatre

June 22 – New York, NY Joe’s Pub

June 23 – New York, NY Joe’s Pub

June 24 – Londonberry, NH Tupelo Music Hall

June 25 – New Haven, CT Café 9

June 26 – Fall River, MA Narrows Center for the Arts

June 27 – Northampton, MA Iron Horse

June 28 – Cotuit, MA Cotuit Center for the Arts

June 30 – Teaneck, NJ Mexicali Live

July 1 – Philadelphia, PA World Café Live

Tinariwen is one of my favorite bands, a mixture of Touareg poetry and song to the radical chaabi protest music of Moroccan groups like Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala, and the Algerian pop rai to western rock and pop artists like Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Carlos Santana, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Marley. They sound to me like The talking heads Remain in light masterpiece album with desert Algerian rai. This is another Vincent Moon masterpiece that I have found on his site

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Following the October release of their identically-titled debut album, ‘Carpet Madness’ is the second single from FatCat’s latest signing, Get Back Guinozzi! Full of colour and character, it comprises a unique blossoming of hybrid sources – infectiously poppy, quirky and breezy, with a strong French slant and a wide range of influences taking in the likes of Talking Heads, The Feelies, The Smiths, early B-52′s, King Sunny Adé, Lee Perry, Rip Rig & Panic, Ariel Pink, The Slits, The Cure, Animal Collective, Jonathan Richman, and Serge Gainsbourg.

A-side ‘Carpet Madness’ is a mischievous, West African-influenced example of the band’s ability to craft a rewardingly eccentric idiosyncrasy from deceptively simple pop structures and rhythyms. Backed with the sweet and perfectly formed, electronically modified ‘Out Of The Loop’, a previously-unreleased track taken from the ‘Carpet Madness’ album sessions, this single faithfully represents the odd, enchanting and wholly unique songwriting that exemplifies the insatiable charm of Get Back Guinozzi!

Now comprising a 5-piece band based between London and the South of France, Get Back Guinozzi! is driven by two French friends, Eglantine Gouzy and Fred Landini. The roots of Get Back Guinozzi! lay in Fred composing fifteen brief tracks for a contemporary dance company, using a minimal set up of guitar, rhythm box, and only one keyboard sound. Having already collaborated with her on previous material, Fred sent London-based Eglantine instrumental versions of two tracks to work on and the pair were so excited by the results that they decided to form a band. More tracks were sent across the internet during Winter 2007, with Eglantine adding vocals, keyboards, percussion and odd electronics, until an album’s worth of material was formed and dispatched to us. Following further meetings and conversations, tracks were sharpened, more songs recorded, and the resulting album was re-mixed by Michael Beckett (alias Schneider TM’s Kpt. Michigan) and released in October 2008. A five-piece band was formed with the addition of Regis Laugier (bass), Luc Benito (drums) and Fabrice Giuisiano (guitar, keyboard), and GBG played their debut shows in September.

With lyrical meaning often partially obscured (Eglantine refers to her singing “English in a baboon style”), Fred describes Eglantine’s lyrics as being replete with fantasy and a kind of dark humor. “It’s Eglantine’s view of the world. It’s an attempt at Zouk or tropical music with these lyrics that are a little bit spooky.” Influenced by singers like Ari Up (The Slits), Pygmies, Laurie Anderson, Serge Gainsbourg, Allison Staton (Young Marble Giants) and Donna Summer, Eglantine likes “to imagine my own little movies where I can be different characters. I can make doubles of myself, I can transform myself – a real schizophrenic, sometimes within the same track.”

I try to post some great music here and as far as I am concerned great music is timeless. So I`m less interested in music as fashion, nor as a gimmick, and decided I`ll take my year end summary on a different route. I have recently came across Pitchfork`s 70`s & 80`s top 100 lists, which reminded me of  great music, but the choices made me wonder. Since that`s where I`m coming from -those ancient years and music, I`ll use Pitchfork and it`s young writers as a reference.

First of all Respect, respect, respect… Anyone that loves music as I do would understand that placing David Bowie`s heavy Heroin oriented Berlin period Eno Frippish album “Low” at # 1 knows something about music.
70`s: ( Pitchfork 100 )

# 5 :Bob Dylan “Blood on the tracks”

# 4 :Sly & the family stone ” There`s a riot`s going on”

# 3 :Television “Marquee moon”

# 2 :The Clash “London`s calling”

# 1 avid Bowie “Low”

All 100

Kinda strange choices considering some great albums are missing from the top 10. Where are Frank Zappa, Yes, Gong, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Go, Gentle giant, Robert Fripp, Winwood with all his projects, Elton`s Goodbye yellow brick road and many great others you should place before you think about Colin Newman. Seems to me like an odd choice: Pink Floyd at 32 with “The Wall” and “Dark side of the moon” at f….# 70, King Crimson at 72 with “Red”, Genesis`s “Lamb lied down“is completely missing andPeter Gabriel is not even mentioned… Eno`s “Before and after science at 100, Beatles at 28, Talking heads at 45, Sex pistols at 51, the choices seem to be coming from a young writer. With all the respect and love I got for Gang of four and Dave Allen and his Pampelmoose,how could you put Gang of four at the top 10 and Sex Pistols, an album that is a f…. milestone and have changed history of music at #51? ..and then to include every f… Wire album that was released? Not that I have something against Wire & Colin Newman ….
On the other hand there are some great albums you could find there and are truly recommended:
“Before and after science” -Brian Eno
“Rock bottom” – Robert Wyatt
“The Idiot” -Iggy Pop
“Starless and bible black” – King Crimson
“The man -machine” -Kraftwerk
Q:Are we men A: We are Devo -Devo
For Your pleasure -Roxy Music
All -Joni Mitchell
All – David Bowie
Songs of love and hate – Leonard Cohen
All – King Crimson
The Payback -James Brown
All -Pink Floyd
Future days -Can
Bryter Layter -Nick Drake
“Music for 18 musicians” -Steve Reich
“Starsailor” -Tim Buckley
“Live-Evil” -Miles Davis
“More songs about buildings and food” -Talking Heads
“Rumors” -Fleetwood Mac
“Saturday Night fever” -Various
“Fear of music” -Talking heads
All - The Beatles
All - Led Zeppelin
“Here come the warm jets” -Brian Eno
Electric warior” -T rex
“Bitches brew” -Miles Davis
“Maggot Brain” -Funkadelic
“Who`s next” – The who
“Loaded” -Velvet Underground
“Funhouse” -The Stooges
“Exile on main street” -The Stones
“Another green world” – Brian Eno
“Unknown pleasures” – Joy Division
……& thousands more

On the other hand the 80`s was a different animal altogether mainly cause the music world had witnessed two main changes: The first major change was the appearance of MTV and music videos and bands started paying more attention to image and looks and clips and singles rather than to the music and to concept behind albums. The other was the fact that Sony had bought CBS cause they were the # 1 CD player manufacturer and wanted to force CD`s as main format on the record industry. The fact that CBS was the largest company around and had the biggest shelf space in record stores and Sony succeeded and forced a different consumer platform altogether. It was New wave and haircut heaven time now. Not to say we didn’t have some great music around . Another major musical change was the introduction of midi and sequencers and samplers and techniques that had creatednew abilities and new sound for a new generation.
The 80`s choices are excellent and every album of the top 10 is a treat.

80`s:

# 5 :Rem “Murmur”

# 4 :Pixies ” Doolittle”

# 3 :Beastie Boys ” Paul`s Boutique”

# 2 :Talking Heads ” Remain in light”

# 1 :Sonic Youth “Day dream nation”
And many great great others: The Smiths, The Cure, Tom Waits, Joy Division, Public Enemy, Prince, XTC, Public Image, David Byrne and Brian Eno`s “My life in the bush of ghosts“, The Jesus and Mary chain, Black flag, New order, U2, Husker du, Talk talk, N.W.A, The replacements, The stone roses, Kraftwerk, The Police, Big black, Guns and roses, The pogues, Boogie down productions, The smiths, Cocteau twins, Jane`s addiction and lots more….

CHECK OUT THOSE WONDERFUL LINKS…