Les Paul News

Last week, I was faced with a hurdle every parent must eventually face. You see, my wife and I have two daughters, the older one just entering middle school this year. With middle school comes the sudden pressures of acting “grown up,” looking “cool,” and talking about. . . wait for it. . . SEX. The dreaded moment has come for me as a father: the moment for THE TALK.

Somehow it got back to my wife and I that the kids at school have been joking around about sex. “What the hell does ‘joking around’ mean?!” said I. Well, apparently middle schoolers are getting pretty damn cavalier regarding the depth of carnal gossip. It seems that there is definitely a different paradigm these days, a higher bar set. Our youth are exposed to way more stuff, thanks to the World Wide Internets. Gone are the days of finding Dad’s Playboy under his mattress and getting a five-second perusal of some T and A. more

Sure, seeing your favorite musician on stage, at their best, can be an inspiring thing. But let’s be honest: being lucky enough to be around at that special moment when everything goes wrong and that guitar wielding bajillionaire completely loses it…that’s way better.

There was a time when stories of on stage meltdowns were just that, stories. That was before video cameras, camera phones, and YouTube. Now, we get to see it all. For example… more

Federal authorities say they have arrested a blogger suspected of streaming songs from Guns N’ Roses unreleased album, “Chinese Democracy,” on his Web site.

FBI agents arrested 27-year-old Kevin Cogill on Wednesday morning on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. Federal authorities say Cogill posted nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his Web site in June.

The songs were later removed.

According to an arrest affidavit, Cogill admitted to agents that he posted the songs on his Web site.

“Chinese Democracy” is a much anticipated — and repeatedly delayed — new album by Guns N’ Roses that is more than 10 years in the making. more

MyLesPaul (MLP) will be raffling a custom-made Les Paul style guitar to help out MLP. The guitar will me made by fellow MLP member, Roman Rist, using mahogany, maple, and old growth Brazilian rosewood. Peter ‘Max’ Baranet will inlay the MLP logo at the 12th fret. Dave Johnson will age the guitar. Will Boggs will provide his hand wound pickups. BCR Greg will be assembling the guitar and providing the parts for it.

Roman Rist will photo document the guitar’s progress every step of the way!

Ticket is $1 payable through the PayPal. How many tickets you want to purchase is up to you, the sky’s the limit! When the guitar is complete, we’ll randomly pick out a name from the list of donations and announce it on MyLesPaul.com.

The guitar will be presented to the Winner at the Los Angeles Namm show in a lightweight compact flight case lined in blue velvet, and will come with signed by all involved along with it’s own one of a kind case candy. If the Winner cannot attend the NAMM show, it will be shipped to him or her (along with pictures of the people involved in the creation of this instrument).

For complete details, click here

There may not be another band with as divisive a legacy as Led Zeppelin: While many fans see them as the quintessential male rock band, there is an equally large contingent of people that sees them as derivative, even thieving. Doubts have long circulated about the originality of some of Led Zeppelin’s most famous songs — most notably that the lead riff from “Stairway to Heaven” may have been lifted from Spirit’s “Taurus.” Of course, it might just be a coincidence that Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit on their 1968 tour.

Led Zeppelin may or may not have used some dubious tactics to achieve their prestige, but in an ironic twist, dozens of Led Zeppelin rip-off bands followed a little too closely in the footsteps of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham to gain success of their own. It could be manic cymbal crashes, crunchy sweat-drenched guitar riffs or a high-pitched scream, but the following 10 Led Zeppelin rip-off bands each borrowed heavily from the formula that made Zepp one of the most important and controversial bands of the last 50 years. more

Who knows—besides the members of the Scottish band themselves—what Teenage Fanclub were referring to with the title of the final song on the classic Bandwagonesque. Perhaps they didn’t think it was music if it didn’t have lyrics, or maybe it was just too cheerful and simple. Whatever the case, “Is This Music?” surely is music, a terrifically soaring way to end an album that holds up years later—if it didn’t turn out to be as influential as 1991’s other big hype, Nirvana’s Nevermind. more

1. The mighty final chord of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” was played by ten hands in three pianos simultaneously: Lennon’s, Mc Cartney’s, Starr’s, Martin’s (their manager?) and Evan’s (their roadie).

2. In 1968 Jimi Hendrix bought a studio located in the 52 West Eight Street, Greewnwich Village, New York, with the idea of transforming it into a nightclub. His sound technician convinced him of turning it into a studio and in August 27th 1970 “Electric Ladyland” officially opened it’s doors. Both recording rooms haven’t changed a bit since Jimi jammed there (one still has the same paints hanging on the walls and sofas, and the other -Purple Haze- still has the purple console). When The Clash recorded “Sandinista!” there, they swear Jimi’s spirit added an extra guitar line in the album. That may sound weird (and stoned) but the truth is that doors close on their own, floors creak and a magic can be sensed in the air (or so they say).

3. Slash’s favorite song is “Nobody’s Fault” by Aerosmith. As he said, “first heard it at the house of a girl I wanted to date. I went to her house, talked for a while, smoked a joint, and then she put the CD (Rocks), it hit me like a ton of bricks…and I totally forgot about her”. more