MEDIA
Preview
BY CHRIS KIES, MICHAEL ROSS AND JOE COFFEY
I Hate New
Music:
The Classic Rock
Manifesto
Depending on the
school of rock you
enroll in, “the day
the music died”
conjures up several
memorable dates,
or years. Some
may say it was
December 20, 1957 (Elvis received his draft
notice and never rocked the same), February
3, 1959 (Buddy Holly’s crash) or December
8, 1980 (John Lennon’s murder). However,
as author Dave Thompson explains in I Hate
New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto, it
wasn’t a specific date or event, but a more
generic time frame, and an overarching
movement that began in 1978.
Through this highly one-sided, tongue-securely-in-cheek book, he describes the
culprit—which still fosters crap music
today—as two-fold. First, it was the releases
from bands like Journey, Boston, Foreigner,
and others that were “overproduced,
overwrought and had overindulged awk-wardness…” in 1978. He elaborates on the
overproduction problem as a lack of artistic-driven creativity as a way to sell bad songs
by “pulling the wool over a lot of people’s
eyes” with electronic drums and synthesizers. The second part Thompson talks about
is the lack of bands willing to step in and
take the place of their preceding masters.
Presley was topped by the Beatles, and they
were trumped by Zeppelin, but since then
Thompson believes the record business has
shifted to an industry of mass produced junk
geared only for mega-sales.
Don’t fret, though: the onslaught of
Thompson’s manifesto doesn’t simply attack
this musical problem. He takes off the gloves
and lashes at Nirvana, U2, Radiohead and
other musical sacred cows, but defends
laudable performers like Queen, Phil Collins
and the Stones for doing what “Thompson
rock” is all about. And that’s staying true to
oneself and putting art and creativity ahead
of the sound of cha-ching. With over 100
other music and artist-related titles, articles in
Rolling Stone and reviews for AMG, he’s got
enough experience for this opinionated book
to confidently hit the shelves and not be dismissed as just another graying blogger feebly
trying to hold onto the past. -CK
MSRP $22.95
backbeatbooks.com
The Gibson Les Paul Handbook
Do you ever get the feeling you’re being
subtly nagged? No, it’s not by your overbearing in-laws or inquisitive youngsters, but
your soul mate: your Gibson Les Paul. With
discrete suggestions it begs for your attention to worn frets, dinged hardware and
vanishing lacquer. Do you just play through a
little discomfort and dingy aesthetic because
it looks cool? Or is the real reason you’re
snubbing your personal Holy Grail that you
lack the confidence to repair these flaws
yourself? Well, Paul Balmer’s The Gibson Les
Paul Handbook is a one-stop guide that can
squelch your uncertainties.
The text includes classified sections on
how to buy, maintain, set up, troubleshoot
and modify your Les Paul. While the book
provides a gloss-over history of Les Paul’s
origins and ground-breaking developments
in the solidbody world, the core of its mission is providing an easy-to-follow manual
on several Les Paul models. It walks you
through the workings and quirky characteristics of renowned, highly-sought after classics like the Goldtop and ’ 58–’ 60 Standards
(which doesn’t help most of us, since our
mortgages are less than their value). The
real benefit is found within the pages where
Balmer covers more common Les Pauls,
including some Epiphone models. Here, you
can learn how to repair a neck, adjust pickup
height settings, replace volume controls,
complete a re-fret job, and work on a nut
adjustment to maximize the guitar’s tonal
capabilities and your comfort level.
After thorough documentation on various
Les Pauls and Epiphones, he breaks down
several famous guitars used by Freddie King,
Peter Green, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page,
Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and others. Balmer
insists that it’s not just cars that require routine checkups every three months. He prescribes some quarterly inspections on strings,
bridges, volume and tone controls, action
and fingerboard wear, as a way to combat
wear and tear and prolong the time until you
put your cherished LP out to pasture.
-CK
MSRP $25
voyageurpress.com
The Story of Paul
Bigsby:
Father of the
Modern Electric
Solidbody Guitar
Nearly every generation has them: someone who can seemingly do anything well,
and eventually finds
a true calling, and a way to put a personal
stamp on history. Antiquity had Aristotle and
Socrates; the Renaissance had da Vinci and
Michelangelo. One of the twentieth century’s
difference-makers in guitars was Paul Bigsby,
who was quoted as saying, “give me a
T-square and a French curve, and I can build
anything.”
In this first-time published biography, author
Andy Babiuk (Beatles Gear) tells the story
behind the name known to guitarists and
