Welcome to zZounds Beat Connection. Beat Connection is a series that examines modern and vintage dance styles by providing you a musical starting point to get you going in that direction. Today we shift our focus to the tropical-tinged dance music of Puerto Rico: Reggaeton. Reggaeton holds this fascinating distinction of being both a completely […]
On this week's episode, Chris catches up with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Jason Isbell backstage at Los Angeles' venerable Greek Theatre.
Whether you live with roommates or have next-door neighbors who are a bit too close, you’ve likely run into a problem every musician faces at some point: how can I practice through an amp, get decent tone, and avoid infuriating those around me? It’s a delicate balance, but if you take to heart a few principles and use the […]
You probably didn’t expect the funkiest track you’d hear today would have this much bicycle bell in it. Maybe a little bit, but not this much. Yet artist Rico Loop has created quite the groove in this breathtaking video using just a Boss RC-505 Loop Station and a microphone. Watch as he strolls through what appears to be Berlin’s streets, interacting with (seemingly) […]
If you first mistook Lever’s latest album Hover Bored, as a Back to the Future-inspired ’80s rock tribute, it’d be hard to blame you. The first song is called “McFly” for goodness’ sake. But take a listen and you’ll hear that sonically, Lever draws from another era, about 10 years after Marty McFly met Doc. The band describes itself […]
When is a guitar not a guitar? When you plug any guitar into the Electro-Harmonix MEL9, your signal transforms into one of 9 classic tape-emulated sounds. We played an American Elite Telecaster through the pedal, choosing its Strings voice for that slightly grainy string sound you’ve heard on countless psychedelic tunes. We then took a few steps further out of the […]
You’re a guitarist. You’ve been playing music pretty much as long as you can remember. You’re good. People know you’re good, and at long last, you’ve scored a gig in a killer band known the world over. What do you do now? Settle in for that reliable gig with that established, influential band? Not if you’re Nico […]
Sara Watkins breaks the stranglehold of white male dominance on Walking The Floor. Added bonus: she plays an amazing tune at the end.
When a guitarist carries as much esteem as Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, you’d think they would be content sticking to the signature tone they developed years ago. But, just like us lowly mortals, the guitar god still tweaks and adjusts to his tastes, forever chasing the sounds he has in his head. And to that end, […]