Native British band Massive Attack will be visiting London during their upcoming tour in early 2010. The February 2010 tour date is set to coincide with the release of the duo’s latest album, Heligoland, which follows closely on the heels of the 2009 EP cheap five fingers shoes , Splitting the Atom.
Comprised of DJs Robert Del Naja (3D) and Grant Marshall (Daddy G), Massive Attack is a staple of experimental music in Europe, boasting of collaborations with the likes of David Bowie, Madonna, and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe during the course of their 22 year career. In brighter times, the well-known duo counted production whiz Andrew Vowles (Mushroom) amongst their ranks, but permanently parted ways with Vowles in 2009 due to disagreements about the future of the band’s sound.
From Bristol to the Big-Time
Massive Attack emerged from the Bristol music scene of the mid-1980s, where the members were previously involved in the band, The Wild Bunch. Not long after, Marshall, Del Naja five finger shoes , and Vowles formed their own act with an eclectic mix of electronic, hip hop, soul, punk, and house influences, leading to a recording contract with Circa Records in 1990.
The trio’s first studio album, Blue Lines, was released in 1991 by Virgin Records, and was unexpectedly met with favourable critical reactions in the UK. The album introduced the band’s signature fusion of melancholic downtempo beats, paired with ghostlike vocals from featured guest singers, most notably Shara Nelson. Massive Attack’s innovative musical style quickly received the label of trip hop, a genre that has since grown to include Portishead and Tricky.
Rocky Moments in the Rise to Fame
Following a disastrous U.S. tour, Massive Attack refueled and released two successful albums, Protection in 1994 and Mezzanine in 1998. Under the lead of former MC, Del Naja cheap five fingers , the band gradually began to incorporate more post-punk influences into their music, a factor that eventually contributed to disputes between Del Naja and Vowles. The 2003 album, 100th Window, was almost entirely dominated by Del Naja with minimal input from the remaining member, Daddy G.
Massive Attack’s latest studio efforts comes in the wake of charity involvement with the Hoping Foundation and several years spent reconnecting with former collaboraters. While tickets for the Brighton Dome tour date have already sold out, devoted Massive Attack fans can still secure a seat at the Hammersmith Apollo in London for February 11, 2010. London hotels will likely be experiencing heavy traffic in early 2010, so non-locals should make appropriate plans as soon as possible. The Hammersmith is ideally located near a range of accommodations, from luxury locations to cheap hotels. There’s no need to miss out on Massive Attack’s tour this year.

Right so you’ve been learning the drums on your own and you now want some tips on technique to get your playing to the next level? There are many common technical problems that I’ve found occur with beginner/intermediate players. Many people that learn on there own get stuck with their bad habits forever, if they are not fixed in the early stages of playing. You can improve your playing tremendously by focusing on these three simple techniques.
Keep your arms low while you’re playing. Keeping your arms high creates tension and inefficiency in your strokes. Having your body in a relaxed state makes it so that you can play fast licks and rolls with ease. Tension in the body is the hick up that won’t allow for fluid motion. Also having a set arm position makes it so you can know exactly how far your arms have to go to hit a drum or a cymbal, without having to look at it.
Play thumbs up and rotate your wrists outward. If you are playing with the regular grip, this is how you want to hold the sticks. This allows you to get the right kind of control and bounce back from your sticks. Keep your fingers around the stick relaxed. Have a controlled but light grip with your thumb and index finger and be barely touching the sticks with the rest of your fingers. When you’re playing on the ride you want to just play thumbs up. It’s better to not rotate your right wrist outward in this case.
Keep your back straight. Having bad posture when playing creates tension which gets distributed throughout your entire body. It also makes you look like you don’t have confidence in your drumming. Another plus to sitting up straight is that you will be able to sing better if you are doing back up vocals. When you sing you are your instrument, and it’s very important to keep your instrument shaped a certain way so that will allow your sound to be more resonant and clear.
Bio: Right so now we need to know where we can learn even more drum techniques. To take your drumming to the next level click on drum lessons

Eric Clapton has used many guitar settings in a career that goes across several decades but people are still fascinated by the sound that people call the “woman” tone. If you don’t know what that means listen to the Cream track, “Sunshine Of Your Love” that features the guitar solo starting with the melody of “Blue Moon” by Rodgers and Hart. With none of the modern technological stuff available to him in the nineteen sixties, Eric just set his guitar and his amp according to his taste and played.
Some of what you hear on record is more to do with what happens as the music is recorded than with the sound Clapton set out to make. Eric Clapton always played with the volume at full tilt and the tone was at a very low setting. The use of the wah-wah pedal and heavy gauge strings also contributed alot to the sound.
Eric Clapton emerged with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in the sixties playing a 1960 Les Paul Standard guitar. His amp was 1962 Marshall forty-five watt 2×12 combination. He fought with producers and engineers to be allowed to play at concert volume in the studio. This was unheard of at that time.
When he played with Cream, Clapton played a 1964 Gibson Les Paul SG. He chose 100 watt Marshall heads and 4×12 cabinets. He was also one of the pioneers of the wah-wah pedal. It was with this guitar and amp that he produced his famous “woman” tone. Do not forget Eric’s Marshall amps were extremely overdriven and this was another major contributor to his sound.
You can buy pedals that are supposed to duplicate Eric Clapton’s guitar settings but you can be more “authentic” by setting the guitar and amp yourself. Because Eric has mostly been seen playing Fender Stratocasters for some years abercrombie sale , we will stick with setting a Strat to try to get that “woman tone”. But remember that Eric was not playing a Strat when he was with Cream so you will need to be creative to get the sound out of your guitar.
You will be using the neck pickup. You need to turn down the second and third volume control knobs to get a fairly muddy tone. From here you need to use your ear to compare your sound with one of Eric Clapton’s records. As far as your amplifier goes, set your bass to around seven and the middle at five. The treble should be set at five. These suggestions are only meant to be a rough guide to start off in the right direction to achieving a tone that you may not have the equipment to duplicate one hundred per cent.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

The global music medium is now expanding its reach among the masses. Music has maintained the widest reach across the global boundaries and thus has complemented the way in which the music has seen ever. Music is now available in the market in all its standard formats however these are collected in a super collection called music album. These albums are now the craze among the masses since they allow the music lovers to get the greater feel of the music and bands.
The music albums are very creative tools that allow music lovers to choose from a comprehensive range of music and song to experience their music senses in very broad manner. Music industry is now having maximum bunches of artists, musicians, composers and singers who are very regular to their efforts to make the music a very final reach to the masses.
Music albums are solving various purposes for the music lovers. The very first thing that they offer is an arranged approach of song collections and musical expressions. These music albums are either composed by the individual artists or by the musical bands. One thing that’s common in both cases that both the formats are indigenous and for revenue purposes.
These music collections should be meant for any type of music whether vocal, classical or instrumental. The beauty of the albums are realized in the manner they are being composed are created. If you are getting bored with listening to the same music again and again then it is the right time to find something new and fresh like your favorite music albums. These music albums are made on the basis of the genre, name of the band or particular song combinations.
You can carry music albums with you wherever you go or when you are on the move. Listen to your favorite and desired songs from the music albums everywhere like gym, parks or shopping stores. The best thing about music albums is that you may enjoy the music over and over again with your headphones and on your computers also. Play the music albums through the computer, or plug them into speakers to get the best dose of music from your music albums.
In.com provides latest Music News, new music launch, music songs and music videos on different latest music happenings. Here you can find a unique collections of Music Albums, Hindi songs hollister , music videos and mp3 songs.

Any serious guitarist respects his instrument as something very high in value to him. He does not treat it as a toy that is thrown around and left lying around if it is slightly inconvenient for him to put it way. What entails taking care of your guitar in the proper way? Well, let me tell you!

I always like to keep my instrument well taken care of. Im even a little hesitant to let other people play in fear they may accidently chuck it across the room or set it on fire. Well, maybe not but I definitely don’t want them to drop it and knick it.

I’ll start with the first thing you should do, even before you pick up your guitar. Wash your hands. Im serious here. The oil from your hands not only corrodes the strings but it shortest the life of the guitar neck (the wood). You’re also going to want to wipe the guitar strings down when you are done playing to remove any dirt or oil from your hands that was left on the guitar when you played. This will greatly increase the lifespan of your strings, which is recommended to be changed about once a month but will always differ depending on how often you play and how clean you keep your hands and the strings

Keep you guitar in an environment that will be free of constant temperature and humidity change. That means dont keep it in your garage because it clutters up your room, as it can warp and damage your guitar.

Every time I change my strings I like to wipe it down with a nice coat of wax that I bought at a guitar center. This will help keep it clean and will also give it a nice shine to show off its beauty. It will also give it a semi protective coat.

If you are looking to keep all the scratches off your guitar I would suggest investing in a back guard. When you stand up and play the back of the guitar rubs all over what you are wearing, and if you are wearing a metal belt buckle that could result in some nasty gouges on the back of your guitar. Considering guitars can be very expensive, that would be most unfortunate.

It can also be good every once in a while to put some type of oil on your fret board when you are changing your strings. I have seen some older guitars with dry dry fret wood, and it is not a pretty sight. Try to keep it moisturized with a lemon oil to keep it from becoming rough or even worse, cracking.

Other than keeping all the nuts and bolts snuggly tightened, that about does it for basic guitar maintenance! Keep those guitars in good shape so they can keep on a blazin.

Oregon Music News
December 2, 2009
Portland band The Very Foundation has just put out a new album This Restless Enterprise and it has all the right stuff with twelve delicious pop-rock songs with floating super pro-musicianship, songwriting and vocals. Listen to the attached song “Run Away to Tokyo” (below) for some amazing Hawaii Five-O brass going on and keys that scream Mod Squad TV shows. This record reminds us that brass is still sexy.
The Very Foundation has hard-working musicians in the fold. The foundation of The Foundation is two musicians: Bevan on drum/drum machines, keys and backing vocals, while lead vocals, guitars, piano and organ are all done by Michael Lewis. The beautiful and warm background vocals belong to Kristie Rethlefsen of Sestina. Michael also plays with Blue Skies for Black Hearts, a band working on their fifth LP, and he borrowed Pat Kearns (who also produced this album), Paul Noel and Kelly Simmons (Thistle) from that group to help on this disc.
So… who’s not on this project? The list of cameos is lengthy. Nate Query and Jenny Conlee-Drizos both of The Decemberists and Calobo fame, Dave Jorgensen (Blind Pilot, Kieskagatoo), Caroline Buchalter (The Upsidedown, Larry Yes) Jasmine Ash (Oh Darling), Andrew Stern (Blue Horns, Future Historians), Chris Chard, Hesse Kinder, and Robyn Freatman.
This act already has their first single out “Feel Anything” with their second single “Dial Tone” going to press within a few days, and they’ve just finished recording a Christmas single called “All Lit Up (For Christmas)” on XO for the Holidays Vol II. It’s a free download here. Rethlefsen is featured on this holiday cut as well as is Sarah K., co-founder and current chair of the 2-year-old San Francisco Girls Rock Camp.
Catch The Very Foundation along with some of their rock star friends for free at their Music Millennium in-store performance.
5 pm, Sun. Dec. 6, Music Millennium, 3158 E. Burnside, 231-8926, Free Read more HERE

FOX reality talent show American Idol is approaching its 8th season. We’ve seen several contestants stand out against their peers and develop careers for themselves. Of those several contestants includes Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first season in 2002. For the TV show and Kelly, they were both lucky to find each other.
Kelly Clarkson has not always had it easy, both pre and post Idol. Growing up in Burleson, Texas, she comes from a family of divorce and hardship. Working several jobs, she tried to stay afloat and make ends meet. Ironically, the very gift that changed her life was never her intention. Kelly Clarkson didn’t even know she could sing until she was in junior high school when the choir teacher overheard her singing. She originally wanted to be a marine biologist.
In 2002, Kelly entered a contest after returning home from L.A. not too long before that. She’d gone out to work with a hit songwriter, responsible for Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman.” However, he fell ill and could no longer work with her. The very day she moved into a new apartment, it caught fire while she went to eat. Living in her car for three days, she returned to Texas where her friend Jessica had given her the American Idol contest papers. Having auditioned in Dallas, she was accepted to the next round in Hollywood.
When Kelly Clarkson first appeared on American Idol, she had no real sense of style but her voice was as big as many out there and her personality lit up faces nationally each week on TV. Singing songs by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Dionne Warwick, she never saw herself sitting in the bottom contestants while in the beginning, she was considered the underdog. On September 4th, 2002, Kelly Clarkson had become our American Idol. She released her winning song “A Moment Like This” and watched it soar up the charts, beating a record on the Billboard Hot 100 previously held by The Beatles for highest jump to No. 1.
In April of 2003, Kelly Clarkson released her debut record Thankful. The record saw moderate success as an Idol souvenir as well as an album to kick off an optimistic future in the recording industry. The album has sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. in part to her lead single “Miss Independent,” co-wrote by Christina Aguilera. The album combined pop elements with a more R&B style. What was about to happen no one saw coming nor took seriously until Kelly found herself as one of the top female vocalists in the world.
In November of 2004, Kelly released her sophomore effort Breakaway. The title, also a song that appeared in a movie, is appropriately titled for many reasons. Kelly had split with manager Simon Fuller in order to hire a company who would be there to help the budding superstar reach incredible heights. No hard feelings were left. The direction of the album had been changed dramatically to an edgy pop rock sound that allowed her thunderous voice to shine. She also had fought the label suites to include material penned by her as well. She had a lent her love for writing to the first record, however, more than half of the new record was penned by Clarkson herself, including hit singles “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” “Walk Away,” and “Because of You.” The latter being a song written at the age of 16 and was a song the record label, RCA, told her she couldn’t include on her first record. The album’s lead single “Since U Been Gone” rocked out radio and clubs nationwide and is to date her best selling single. Breakaway has sold 12 million copies worldwide and brought in her parent record label over $100 million in revenue.
With the success of the record come the perks. She embarked on several tours, three in 2005 alone. Two of the tours in the U.S. were sold out and her international world tour was a success as well. 2006 saw Kelly taking home two Grammy Awards and performing for her peers. She beat out some of music’s biggest names including Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani. Capitalizing on her success, she ventured out on yet another tour beginning June 30th to preview songs she’d like to include on her follow up to Breakaway. She’d reported that she would be ditching the bubblegum pop and would be writing and recording with her backing band. The idea was embraced largely by the public as she included new songs in each tour she’d written with someone in the band. However, the album that was supposed to be the most anticipated of 2007 turned out to be another one of music’s infamous turmoil challenges: the label vs. the artist.
Kelly Clarkson paired up with legendary David Kahne, responsible for songs such as “Manic Monday” and “Walk Like An Egyptian,” to produce her third studio effort. Co-writing over 50 songs, her team narrowed it down to 26 songs to record and kept 14 for the standard track listing. The album that would be called My December, took on a more mature, raw and emotional approach. During the Breakaway era, she’d worked herself to death, missing family and friends and having a hard time finding good people to surround herself with. Needless to say, the stress took its toll, including a relationship that ended shortly before the release of her second record. Dating producer and ex-guitarist of Evanescence David Hodges, she found herself being cheated on with his former girlfriend. He’d produced “Because of You,” “Addicted,” and a track that didn’t make the cut titled “Bleed For Me.” After he married the former flame two months after Clarkson found out, she penned the song “Never Again” that would become the lead single for her next record 2 ½ years later.
Turning in the material to her RCA label, they were not pleased with the record, especially legendary record producer Clive Davis, responsible for Whitney Houston, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Hall and Oates and many more. Clarkson and her manager at the time were executive producers of the record and that didn’t sit well with Davis. He quickly dismissed the record as unsellable, he didn’t hear any hits and it wouldn’t sell more than 750,000 copies. Shelving the record for four months, he tried every trick in the book to get her to change her mind. He reportedly offered her $10 million to replace or change 5 songs to make them more radio friendly. However, after receiving rip off “Since U Been Gone” compositions and a song from Lindsay Lohan’s second record, she stuck to her ground and compromised to release My December as is and she would in turn create a more mainstream record the next time around.
A week before it’s June 26th release date, she fired management The Firm and hired Reba McEntire’s husband for Starstruck Entertainment. McEntire, Clarkson’s childhood hero, had already formed a budding relationship with the American Idol Grammy winner.
RCA had claimed that “Never Again” was too bitter and the public wouldn’t accept it as Alanis Morissette already had “You Oughta Know” in the 90’s. However, numbers proved them wrong. The song only peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100 but has since went on to sell just 10,000 copies shy of being a platinum selling single. While the video reached No. 1 on VH1, the song was being pulled from radio while a second single was planned to arrive in July titled “Sober.” The label not wanting to promote the record at all did not push the single to radio and it failed to chart inside the 100, peaking at 124. The U.S. received no more singles. Fans were outraged that an artist of such calibre would be treated so disrespectfully. Although the record only has been certified platinum one time in the U.S., it proves that real music is not dead and that you don’t need a formula hit song to sell records, especially to your fans. Media was very positive and remained mainly on Clarkson’s side throughout the whole entanglement stating she’d “earned the right to call the shots.”
Connecting deeper with her fans, Clarkson has stated time and time again that she will not release a record just to sell millions. To her, it’s about the music. While many artists need several songs to sell a million copies of a record these days, Clarkson only needed one, proving her to be one of the best in the business today. Her writing ability has been questioned and also put down, stating behind closed doors that she’s “25 and a female vocalist.” Clarkson immediately hung up from the conference call in disgust. To date, she’s won three writer’s awards from ASCAP, two of them being for “Because of You,” in which one was awarded for her remake of her own song as a country duet with Reba McEntire.
Some may say Kelly Clarkson put her career up as collateral when she released My December while many who have actually heard the record defend her stand. Life is bigger than being No. 1 all the time and in order to be No. 1 on today’s music charts, formula songs must be crafted and Kelly has so far stayed true to never releasing the same project twice.
The first American Idol winner will be releasing a fourth record in March 2009, taking elements from her massive sophomore disc, including many of the same songwriters, and injecting it with a more aggressive pop rock. Though Kelly may have been lucky to find Idol when she did, American Idol got lucky to find Kelly’s voice and talent. Unfortunately for her, she will have to tread the murky waters of an industry plagued with corruption, dirty politics and a tendency to manufacture and pre-package their acts to rise above circumstance and release music that will create new fans as well as keep the core group that voted her to No. 1 more than six years ago.
Harry Rackers is WM of: The Guitar Classroom the site to go to for all your guitar lessons