Martin Miller Shares Something New
Plus, Nuno Bettencourt Rises to the challenge
This week’s issue has us listening to some cool outtakes from Hendrix, we’re checking out Levi Clay’s tab of Mateus Asato covering Crowded House, going back to the past with Marty Friedman reuniting with Megadeth, and a lot more.
If you want to get some fun songs under your fingers, you should join us in the Chasing Sound Discord chat for this month’s Song Challenge. This month we’re learning “Soma” by the Smashing Pumpkins, and really challenging ourselves with a classic from Extreme - “Rest In Peace”. Reply to this week’s issue and I’ll let you know how to join us.
Alright, let’s get into those links!
The Best Guitar Stuff I Could Find All Week!
- Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Isolated Studio Outtake Tracks - Jimi Hendrix - It was a blast to hear Hendrix's "Vood Child” outtake tracks. I had a Hendrix boxset with all sorts of rarities when I was growing up, and I loved hearing Jimi on the talkback mic, working songs out until they became the versions we hear today. If you check out the rest of this YT channel, you can hear isolated tracks from EVH, Andy Summers, Mark Knopfler, and many other guitarists.
- Plini – "THE GLASS BEAD GAME" (Live 2023) - I can't get over how good Plini's live mixes sound. Listen to “The Glass Bead Game”, in this awesome performance live from Melbourne. Plini is heading to the U.S. in late spring, and I'm hoping to go check him out live.
- Polyphia's Tim Henson Answers Guitar Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED - I love it when Wired has a musician answer questions (I really enjoyed their video with Jacob Collier). Wired recently sat down with Polyphia's Tim Henson, and fed him questions from Twitter. Tim talked about barre chords, pricey guitars, "boomer bends” and much more.
- The '80s Studio Clean Formula Explained | James Tyler Studio Elite HD - This video popped up on my YouTube feed this week, and I'm glad it did. If you're looking to get those sweet 80's clean tones, Kyle Karich has some helpful tips on how to get there.
- Creative Arpeggio Design - Minor Pentatonic Arpeggios Overview - I went down a Tim Miller rabbit hole this week as I was working on arpeggios a bit. In this vid Tim talks about a 2-1-2-1 approach to arpeggios, and applying them to the minor pentatonic and other scales. This simple approach makes old scales sound really different and fresh. If you pick up any courses on TF, make sure to use this link. It helps out the newsletter at no extra cost to you!
- Nuno Bettencourt vows to keep Eddie Van Halen's guitar fire burning on Extreme's first new single in 15 years, Rise - Nuno Bettencourt and the guys in Extreme are back with their first single in a decade and a half! The new song “Rise" features a heavier than usual track for the band, with Nuno's incredible playing on full display, especially during the pyrotechnics of his solo. I wasn't a huge fan of the mix of this song, but I'm hoping the rest of the album which is due out in June is good. What do you think of this track?
- Metallica lean into their strengths on hard-hitting new song, If Darkness Had a Son - Speaking of new songs, Metallica just released their third single from the upcoming ’72 Seasons’, called “If Darkness Had A Son". Clocking in at just over six and a half minutes, the track gives me heavy self titled mixed with ‘Load’ vibes, and I'm very into it. All three songs off this new album have been great listens so far, and I seriously can't wait until April to listen to the whole thing.
- Marty Friedman says his “door is open” for more Megadeth appearances - I can't talk about Metallica without talking about the Megadeth news that happened this week. Marty Friedman finally reunited with Dave Mustaine and co. to play 3 songs in Japan after over 20 years away from the band. I’ve loved Marty's solo work, but it was very cool to see him play stuff like "Tornado of Souls" in front of a packed Budokan audience. It seems Marty and Dave are on good terms, because Friedman said he'd be up to play with the band again at some point. Let's see if we can get something similar in the U.S.!
- Martin Miller - Something New (Official Music Video) - I've been waiting a long time for Martin Miller's follow up to his debut solo album, which was released all the way back in 2013. This week Miller is back with “Something New”, which I can't stop listening to! I love the production, and it's nice to see him bringing some vocals to the track as well as some amazing guitar playing. The album is out at the end of the month.
- Mateus Asato - The MOST INFLUENTIAL Guitarist Of A Generation? - I was so happy to see Levi Clay tab out one of my favorite covers by Mateus Asato. This has to be my favorite rendition of Crowded House’s "Don't Dream It’s Over”. I will be attempting to learn this...slowly.
- THEY DID IT AGAIN | Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ Suite - Neural DSP has been hitting it out of the park with their plugins over the past few years - they always sound stellar. I've been a Mesa Boogie Mark series player for most of my life, so I was super excited to see Neural make a plugin based on that amp. So many people are doing reviews of this new plugin, but one of my favorites came from Jack Gardiner. Check out the video to see him get Andy Timmons-esque tones, Prince cleans, and much more.
- Gibson is selling some of the most valuable vintage guitars in its vault direct to customers as part of new Certified Vintage program - If you're a vintage Gibson collector, but don't love all that comes with hunting for authentic guitars, you're in luck. This week Gibson announced its Certified Vintage program, which will sell some wild guitars direct from the Gibson Garage in Nashville. Here's a direct link to the program’s page if you want to see some of their first offerings.
Hey did you know, not only do I talk guitar each week, but I also teach it!
Try out a half an hour to see how much you can learn when you know the right things to practice. Whether you want to learn guitar, recording, mixing or more, I can help you out!