“Voyage-Air Guitar, Inc.  is once again invited back to ABCs Hit TV show “Shark Tank”this Friday night at 9:00PM 8c According to Michael Ferrucci VP of Sales and Marketing,  “This will be the company’s third appearance on the show, unprecedented for this program, Voyage-Air is given a second chance to once again change the face of the guitar industry.  I guarantee this is going to shock everyone in the MI business!”   Ferrucci... 

HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARDS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH WHAT: The Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) will take place Thursday, November 15th at the historic Fonda Theater in Hollywood, CA. The HMMA recognizes and honors the music of visual mediums, the talented individuals responsible for creating, producing and placing it, and the music of artists, both mainstream and independent, from around the globe. The event features live music performances,... 

LASTING IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICANAFEST  Artists 3 of 3 Phoebe Hunt Victor Wooten The Trishas The Trishas and Jed Hilly The Mastersons The Howling Brothers Tania Elizabeth Star and Micey Sam Bush Rod Picot Robert Ellis      Read More →

LASTING IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICANAFEST  – Artists 2 of 3 Katie Cole Kurt Neumann Marvin Etzioni and Sam Bush Max Gomez McCrary Sisters Melissa Greener Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman Nicki Bluhm  Read More →

LASTING IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICANAFEST – Artists 1 of 3 The Americana Music Association recently celebrated its most successful event yet with 15,000 fans, 300 artists and over 1,000 industry professionals participating in the five-day festival in Nashville. Our own Jeff Fasano was on hand to capture these vivid portraits showcasing a diverse array of artists. Marvin Etzioni Amy Otey Buxton Chris Daniels Chris Stamey Corb Lund Gretchen... 

Matt Nathanson at the Balboa Beach Music Fest A benefit for The Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation Saturday October 13 2012, on the beach at Peninsula Park in Newport Beach Photography by Jeff Fasano Matt Nathanson at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Matt Nathanson Matt Nathanson at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Matt Nathanson at the Balboa Beach Music Fest                  Read More →

Maria McKee at the Balboa Beach Music Fest A benefit for The Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation Saturday October 13 2012, on the beach at Peninsula Park in Newport Beach Photography by Jeff Fasano Maria McKee at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Maria McKee at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Maria McKee Maria McKee at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Maria McKee Maria McKee at the Balboa Beach Music Fest    Read More →

Lucy Schwartz at the Balboa Beach Music Fest A benefit for The Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation Saturday October 13 2012, on the beach at Peninsula Park in Newport Beach Photography by Jeff Fasano Lucy Schwartz at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Lucy Schwartz Lucy Schwartz at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Lucy Schwartz at the Balboa Beach Music Fest  Read More →

Joshua Radin at the Balboa Beach Music Fest A benefit for The Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation Saturday October 13 2012, on the beach at Peninsula Park in Newport Beach Photography by Jeff Fasano Joshua Radin Joshua Radin at the Balboa Beach Music Fest Joshua Radin Joshua Radin at the Balboa Beach Music Fest      Read More →

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THE WORLD FAMOUS HEADLINERS World Famous Headliners worldfamousheadliners.com How do you know Big Al Anderson still loves his job? Leading this Nashville supergroup, the 65-year-old sounds younger than he did on “No Good to Cry,” the garage nugget he cut in 1967 with the Wildweeds, the Connecticut band he fronted before serving 22 years with cult heroes NRBQ. In fact, singing and playing guitar is no longer Anderson’s main gig. Since the 1990s,... 

MASTA ACE MA_Doom: Son of Yvonne mastaace.com In the flashback skit that begins this hip-hop nostalgia trip, young Duval Clear rechristens himself Masta Ace. The Brooklyn MC has used that tag for nearly a quarter century, influencing scores of better known rappers, but this album’s subtitle, Son of Yvonne, is perhaps the meaningful pseudonym. After all, it was Duval’s mom’s record collection—romanticized on “Ninteen Seventy Something”—that... 

RAFIQ BHATIA Yes It Will rafiqbhatia.com On his full-length debut, guitarist and composer Rafiq Bhatia presides over jagged jazz jams that don’t always feature guitar and seldom feel particularly composed. True, his sharp, spiraling runs are all over “Background Music”—a song with far too many dynamic shifts to justify its self-deprecating name. Ditto “Try” and “Endogenous Oscillators.” But on the seven-plus-minute centerpiece “Annihilator... 

SKYLINE DRIVE Topanga Ranch Motel skylinedrive.me Bless the acoustic guitar—the go-to instrument for rock ’n’ rollers looking to reinvent themselves as troubadours. Among the latest to unplug and rejoice is Skyline Drive main man Derek Thomas, formerly of experimental L.A. rockers 60 Watt Kid. On Topanga Ranch Motel, there’s nothing remotely innovative—just rootsy strumming, craggy singing, woe-is-me sentiments and the seriously sad pedal... 

HARLAN Night Loop thestillbeat.com This Southern duo has everything it needs to make edgy electro-pop for urbane Northerners. There are static-electric synth sounds, restless beats, reverb-rich vocals, cryptic lyrics, and the kinds of bluesy guitar riffs Depeche Mode uses to conjure the mystical dread of the Mississippi Delta. Only this isn’t music for nightclubs. Multi-instrumentalists John Norris and Scott Campbell aim more for planetariums, campfires... 

45 GRAVE Pick Your Poison 45grave.net One generation’s devil’s music is another’s easy listening, and while the return of L.A. “death-rock” pioneers 45 Grave—back after a 27-year hiatus—won’t mean much to today’s bloody-eared extreme-metal fanatics, there’s plenty here to recommend. Like a West Coast cross between the Misfits and New York Dolls, the band does trampy, campy psychedelic bar rock, gobbling up Halloween clichés like... 

KENDRA MORRIS Banshee kendramorrismusic.com Having spent nearly 10 years on the New York City scene, fronting an all-girl band before going solo, this Florida native is too poised and focused to warrant the “American Amy Winehouse” tag she’ll inevitably receive. That said, there are similarities. Like her late U.K. counterpart, Morris is a cool, tattooed retro-soul sister who came of age in the hip-hop era. On her debut, she links Billie Holiday... 

JANIS MARTIN The Blanco Sessions cowislandmusic.com Rockabilly pioneer Janis Martin—dubbed “the female Elvis” during her brief ’50s heyday—died in 2007, but not before teaming with producer Rosie Flores, one of the genre’s finest revivalists, for one final session. After Martin’s death, Flores struggled for years to shop the album, and she ultimately financed this release via a Kickstarter campaign. The result is a bittersweet 11-song... 

RUBY VELLE & THE SOULPHONICS It’s About Time facebook.com/soulphonics The title doesn’t lie: It is about time, and that time is the golden age of soul and R&B. We’re talking Motown, Stax and young Aretha, but rather than mimic any single artist or classic label stable, Ruby and her suit-clad sidemen roll a decade of music into one nattily dressed package. That means a mix of JFK-era love songs—check out the “(Love Is Like a) Heat... 

SUSAN CATTANEO Little Big Sky susancattaneo.com Students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music have a fine teacher in Susan Cattaneo, part-time faculty of the songwriting department. On this EP, she leads a crack Nashville squad through seven pro-built country tunes. Whether stomping (“Let the Music Deliver Me”) or pining (“A Place Called Love”), she places each verse, chorus and bridge exactly where it belongs. Like any master crafter, Cattaneo... 

DISPATCH Circles Around the Sun dispatchmusic.com This insanely popular New England band’s first album in 12 years takes its name from the leadoff track—an underdog story that may be a parable for Dispatch itself. As the song opens, doctors rocket a sickly child into space, and after a few years in orbit, he returns “with a smile as big as the whole world.” Formed in Vermont, this markedly un-hip trio logged mad miles in the ’90s, becoming... 

TUMBLEWEED WANDERERS So Long tumbleweedwanderers.com Are those echoes of Sugar Ray’s “Fly” in “Take It Back,” the closest the Wanderers come on their debut album to penning a summer jam? Could be—the members of this San Fran Americana quintet are children of the ’90s, even if they’d like to pretend otherwise. “This ain’t ’69 / you’ve gotta change your mind,” frontman Jeremy Lyon sings on the soulful “Take It Back,” only... 

PINEY GIR Geronimo! pineygir.com Raised by a Pentecostal minister, Gir failed at speaking in tongues—unless you count “tang-ticky tang-tang-tang-tang,” one of the nonsense phrases she’ll throw into her smiley ’60s-style pop songs. Her sheltered upbringing hasn’t left her naive—just sweet and hopeful, even when life bursts her balloon.  Read More →

LOWTALKER The Marathon EP myspace.com/lowtalkermusic Properly channeled, the rage required to play hardcore can also produce music like this: earnest, surging, scream-along rock for tattooed dudes in touch with their feelings. It gets pretty heavy, but love of classic Midwestern punk keeps this Milwaukee foursome from steamrolling the listener.  Read More →

JOE FIEDLER’S BIG SACKBUT Joe Fiedler’s Big Sackbut joefiedler.com Three trombonists and a tuba player walk into a studio. It has the makings of a joke, but bandleader Fiedler plays it straight, fitting intricate melodies and inventive solos around Marcus Rojas’ anchoring tuba. On “Calle Luna, Calle Sol,” he even makes the t-bone sound sexy. Take that, saxophone.  Read More →

GRACE PETTIS Two Birds gracepettis.com Landing somewhere between old-school country and Top 40 folk-rock, Pettis pens detailed songs about lovers on the mend and young musicians on the move. Through these vignettes, she offers glimpses of her own personality, revealing herself to be an observer and a dreamer—a winning combo.  Read More →

BIRDS OF CHICAGO Birds of Chicago birdsofchicago.com It’s not quite Rod Stewart-meets-Billie Holiday—and that’s probably for the best—but husky-voiced JT Nero and silky-smooth Allison Russell lead a kind of Americana equivalent. They deliver barefoot, butt-shaking country-rock uplift and somber folk meditations, never skimping on poetry.  Read More →

MXR M80 Bass D.I.+ BASS TONE TO DI FOR Live sound techs, studio engineers and bass players everywhere are talking about the new MXR M80 Bass D.I.+. This handy bass pedal delivers a solid compromise between a direct box and the sound of a conventional bass amp. The clean channel provides a touch of color, and the distortion channel allows you to add all the texture you like, plus there’s a three-band EQ onboard. Capable of sounding rude and beefy... 

Roland VT-12  PRO VOCAL TRAINING TO GO Finally, there’s a portable, handheld vocal trainer designed to offer singers the edge they need. The new Roland VT-12 features real-time vocal analysis, and an illuminated pitch meter that detects two voices at once for harmony training. There’s also a built-in metronome and onboard recorder that allows you to sing along to backing tracks. In addition to 50 lessons from the world-standard Concone classical... 

Native Instruments’ Maschine  SONGWRITER’S PLAYGROUND Although mostly adopted by the electronic music community, Native Instruments’ Maschine offers superior songwriting and arrangement tools that nearly every musician can benefit from. Both the DAW-style software environment and the purpose-built hardware controller are fairly straightforward, making it easy to lay down original backing tracks with the included virtual instruments and grooves.... 

IK Multimedia iRig Stomp  IPHONE STOMPBOX INTERFACE There are tons of gadgets that let you plug your guitar into your iOS device, but that’s typically where the signal stops. The IK Multimedia iRig Stomp is a simple stompbox-style device that passes the incoming signal to an iPhone or iPad and returns the result back to your guitar rig. It’s a great way to add iOS app-based effects to any live setup, practice with one of the looper apps on the... 

PreSonus Studio One 2  DAW DREAMS Powerhouse features such as transient detection and pitch correction make PreSonus Studio One 2 more than a match for any DAW on the market. Sheer ease of use makes it one of the best options for musicians who’ve spent more time rocking out than boning up on recording technology. With complex processes, such as tightening up multitracked drums or comping vocals, reduced to a couple of steps, Studio One 2 nicely... 

iZotope’s Alloy 2  SIX MIXING TOOLS IN ONE Packed with virtual processors that cover every major aspect of software mixing, iZotope’s Alloy 2 plug-in delivers the kind of value that seems too good to be true till you hear it. With hundreds of presets to choose from—covering everything from bass to vocals—finding the right jumping off point is a snap. Then it’s just a matter of using Alloy 2’s comprehensive in-depth controls to tweak... 

Avalon V5  PREAMP, REAMP, KILLER DI Perfect for project and pro studios alike, the Avalon V5 preamplifier offers up tons of flexible functionality. Its variable input handles anything from ribbon mics and hi-Z instrument sources to ultra-hot line-level signal like a champ. A musical tone circuit that features settings taken straight from the award-winning Avalon U5 makes dialing in the ideal sound incredibly easy. And thanks to a convenient instrument-level... 

Arturia MiniBrute  FULL-BLAST ANALOG SYNTH Between its brilliant simplicity and modest price tag, the Arturia MiniBrute is one of the most accessible pure analog synthesizers available. Packed with intuitive hands-on controls, even complete synth novices will have a blast experimenting and creating original sounds with the MiniBrute. At the same time, the MiniBrute delivers enough innovative features to satisfy the most seasoned synth player, such... 

Avid’s Pro Tools HD Native Thunderbolt  DITCH THE TOWER When Avid announced Pro Tools HD Native in the fall of 2010, they made huge waves in the recording world. For the first time it was possible to get the near-zero latency of Pro Tools HD, but without the added expense of DSP acceleration. The trouble was musicians still needed a tower-format computer with PCIe slots to run it. With Avid’s Pro Tools HD Native Thunderbolt, you can get the... 

Keith McMillen Instruments’ QuNeo  TOTAL CONTROL FREAK Keith McMillen Instruments’ QuNeo condenses more than 60 individual controls into a single device that’s roughly the size of a tablet PC. Extremely flexible and fully assignable, QuNeo lets you take command of any MIDI-controllable software. The QuNeo features 16 pads (each of which doubles as an X/Y controller), plus a handful of touch-sensitive control strips and more. For those who... 

CASIO XW-P1 PERFORMANCE SYNTHESIZER Sounds in the key of live In an era dominated by soft synths and MIDI controllers, the ultraportable Casio XW-P1 marks a refreshing return to the traditional performance keyboard. Browsing through the presets, we were immediately floored by its array of outrageous lead tones, which would make any keyboard player from Keith Emerson to Jordan Rudess equally proud. Also impressive was the selection of hands-on controls,... 

POSITIVE GRID JAMUP PLUG INTERFACE AND JAMUP APP Rock your iOS The JamUp Plug is a simple and super compact iOS audio interface designed to complement Positive Grid’s guitar effects apps, JamUp Pro and the free JamUp Lite. It’s easy to see why these guitar effects apps have been earning top reviews in the App Store. Features such as a highly flexible signal chain, a handy MP3 import option, and a looping phrase sampler turn an average iOS device... 

TWO NOTES AUDIO ENGINEERING TORPEDO LIVE  Pro Loadbox with digital miking As the trend toward in-ear monitoring and amplifier-free “silent” stages continues, guitarists have been desperate to keep their favorite tones. The Two Notes Torpedo Live is the perfect compromise. This 100-watt loadbox lets you run your guitar or bass head direct to the board, without sacrificing tone. Powerful 32-bit DSP provides 32 cabinet models, eight virtual microphones,... 

AEA RPQ500 MIC PREAMP WITH EQ Preamp tailor-made for ribbon mics The RPQ500 packs the mojo of AEA’s original RPQ ribbon preamp into an API 500 Series compatible module. A specially tailored EQ section addresses the proximity issues most commonly associated with ribbon mics, taming excessive buildup in the bottom end. Bypassable high- and low-frequency controls make it easy to clear up muddiness or add space and air. This was particularly useful... 

JAMMIT APP Jam with the masters If you’ve always dreamed of jamming with your favorite rock stars, now’s your chance. Developed by multiplatinum producer-mixer Scott Humphrey (Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Rob Zombie), Jammit lets guitarists, bass players, drummers, keyboardists and vocalists jam along with a hit parade of original master tracks. Mix the provided stem tracks to create your perfect backing track, then loop and slow playback to work... 

GREEN DAY ¡Uno!  [Reprise] Fourth act, same as the first: That’s the story Green Day aims to tell with ¡Uno!, the first installment in a trilogy of albums they’ll roll out over the next few months. Having played alt-rock heroes in the post-Cobain ’90s and unlikely political rock-opera dramatists in the Bush ’00s, the trio inches back toward its punk roots, crafting restless power-pop tunes that—modern studio sheen notwithstanding—might... 

DIANA KRALL Glad Rag Doll [Verve] Earlier this year, Diana Krall collaborated with Paul McCartney on Kisses on the Bottom, his tribute to pre-rock standards. She displayed an undeniable affinity for the songcraft of that earlier, simpler time, so it’s not surprising that she covers similar ground here. What is surprising: her adventurous approach. With T Bone Burnett producing and a guitar-heavy band behind her, Krall digs into the core of each... 

BAT FOR LASHES The Haunted Man [Capitol] After earning Mercury Prize nominations for each of her previous albums, Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, remains broody and beguiled on her self-produced third album. On this cohesive collection, she spins languid arrangements of gentle electronics and channels the ’80s heyday of Kate Bush—to the extent that she even mentions running up hills. Khan’s aptitude for subtle yet striking rhythm is particularly... 

MUSE The 2nd Law [Warner Bros.] Muse singer Matthew Bellamy has said his group’s new album would sound like the work of three different bands if it weren’t for his voice. That may be an understatement. Yes, Muse’s latest is a set of wildly divergent songs that coalesce around Bellamy’s voice—but the trio’s sheer force of will and considerable musical chops don’t hurt either. With a massive guitar riff and imposing strings, opener “Supremacy”... 

BOB DYLAN Tempest [Columbia] Bob Dylan’s 35th studio effort isn’t his “death album.” He’s been singing about kicking the bucket since his 1962 debut, and fans looking for evidence of Dylan facing mortality will find more clues on 1997’s Time Out of Mind—though there’s plenty of life on that one, too. What’s funny about Tempest is how comfortable Bob sounds staring into the abyss. Whether detailing a deadly love triangle (“Tin... 

AEROSMITH Music From Another Dimension [Columbia] Having weathered interpersonal issues, health problems and frontman Steven Tyler’s American Idol stint, Aerosmith return with their first album of all-original material since 2001. Working with Jack Douglas, who produced Get Your Wings, Toys in the Attic and other records from their prime, the band delivers a slick album, trying hard to meet high expectations. On the Diane Warren-penned “We All... 

TIFT MERRITT Traveling Alone [Yep Roc] Although Tift Merritt has always shown a knack for vivid, poignant songs, her albums have occasionally ducked nuance in favor of emphasizing her robust voice. That changes on Merritt’s latest, a collection that draws much of its power from the quieter moments. She embraces the dusty romance of a solitary life on the road in the title track, sighs through curtains of steel guitar on “Feeling of Beauty”... 

BENJAMIN GIBBARD  Former Lives [Barsuk] Benjamin Gibbard is known for being earnest. The Death Cab for Cutie frontman’s solemn reputation precedes him, and given his recent divorce from singer and actress Zooey Deschanel, fans might expect his solo debut to be a bit dour. To be sure, Gibbard’s trademark broken heart is ever present, but this is no typical breakup record. Featuring songs discarded and half-written over the last eight years, Former...