Showing posts with label John 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John 5. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 May 2014

The Guitar Man


I didn't know much (=anything) about Johnny Winter until I saw him on the cover of this Japanese guitar magazine (don't ask), but I just couldn't help noticing that the man looks a huge lot like a zef version of Jerry Cantrell O.o

Ever wondered what would happen if Jerry got a little bit Ninja-ed? Or should I say a little Kid-Rock-ed - which is probably the closest Americans can get to zef?

...Or it was, until Rob Zombie shot this music video:



[Don't miss the ever-flawless John 5 doing his thing over there, along with his good old mate drummer Ginger Fish. As you can see, one half of Rob Zombie's current band actually consists of former Marilyn Manson members, which is funny as Hell LOL]

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That's Jerry over there, in case you have any doubts LOL

The similarity between the two turns even scarier when you find out that Johnny looked EVEN more like Jerry when he was younger (he was already in his 40s when the cover shot was taken)...


What. The. Fuck.

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This similarity, however, might not be entirely casual...

Partially quoting his Wikipedia article (which, as we all know, is the universal source of all truth LOL), Johnny Winter is "an American blues musician" born in the über-Southern town of Beaumont, Texas in 1944. That's actually not too far away from the Southern Oklahoma area where Jerry's father was raised and presumably born. Of course, this could be as much of a bullshit claim as saying that all the Russians look alike because they come from the fucking Russia, but I think it's pretty reasonable to guess that Winter (who's actually old enough to be Jerry's father LOL) and Cantrell might have been swimming in the same genetic pool without showering afterwards. Of course, Jerry's Southern genes are dilluded with a fair amount of Northern input... which probably explains why he's not zef enough to be zef LOL

...that said with all due respect to Southern people in general, and to Johnny Winter and Jerry Cantrell Sr. in particular.

In fact, Johnny Winter sounds really cool, based on what I've heard. He has a nice broken voice, and he's pretty vicious for a blues player, which definitely puts him in the Cantrell league... because that's exactly what Jerry is: a genuine Southern musician wonderfully swept by the Seattle grunge wave.

Something good had to come out of that, didn't it? ;)

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I'll end this Southern-flavoured post with a picture of Johnny Winter jamming with (Seattle-born) Jimi Hendrix... because that's the type of stuff people did in the 1960s.


Doesn't look that different from Jerry and Will playing together, heh? ;)


Twenty-two years younger, rocking just as hard.

Unfortunately, there is nobody left to play with at the other end of the next twenty-two year gap.

Fuck my generation.

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But don't worry, ladies and gentlemen... 

The South will rise again.

I swear to God it will.


Friday, 7 March 2014

Australian Summer - The Two Faces of William DuVall


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Image left: February 20, 2014 - William DuVall hangs out with a bunch of kangaroos in Brisbane, Australia.

Image right: February 20, 2014 - William DuVall plays his brand new guitar wearing a pair of badass sunglasses. The photo was captioned as 'rehearsal', even though it should have been re-captioned as "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle". Or should I be the one saying that? Hmm... Still have to find out if he actually owns a motorcycle. Fortunately for him, the other two things are firmly in place still (LOL).

It's funny how he chooses not to wear his sunglasses while standing under the actual sun and then puts them on while being inside... probably because he's so cool he can't even handle it. Impossible to blame him for that.

And so, here you have him: one second he's the nicest guy ever, and the next one he's a vicious bastard who looks every bit as though he's going to kill you just by staring at you.

That's probably why he needs the sunglasses.


...I could do that all day long, but I think I'll just stop now LOL

Of course, you most probably have to be a vicious bastard to play in Alice In Chains. Fortunately for him, I think being the nicest guy ever is also required ;)


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[Brisbane, Australia, February 18, 2014, also from Will's collection]

It's summer in Australia, right now, as we speak. This might sound extemely retarded, but I had never really thought about that before (LOL). It's not that I didn't know it - I'm not 'that' stupid (LMAO); I just never had the need to really think about it until now.

It's pretty hilarious how I spent a large chunk of last month wondering why all the musicians I know (by that I actually mean Alice In Chains, Dir En Grey and John 5 as part of the Rob Zombie crew LOL) seemed to have an urgent need to play in Australia at the same time.

And then, the answer came to me as a mystical revelation: because God, in his infinite wisdom, created a planet divided in two hemispheres with opposite seasons so that musicians would always have a festival season to play. Fall to your knees and praise the Lord, y'all!

That's basically the story of how Australia became my new Maldives - a tiny bit of Promised Land, thousands of miles away from everything, free from all the worries, the bullshit and the evil bastards that plague my everyday. I know it's not true - I just enjoy the fantasy.

And I like to think of Australia as that place where William DuVall hangs with the fucking kangaroos, Toshiya takes pictures in front of local landmarks as every Japanese tourist should do (LOL) and John 5... does whatever the fuck he does. I'm sure he still has a great time in my little fantasy world.

(That's a pretty interracial crew, now that I think of it LOL)

Just like Scorpions said...


Let me take you far away
You'd like a holiday

Exchange the cold days for the sun
A good time and fun

Exchange your troubles for some love
Wherever you are...


[Toshiya from Dir En Grey on top of the Eureka Tower, in Melbourne on February 26, 2014]


 III.

February 23, 2014 - Suicide Silence get interviewed backstage at Sydney's Olympic Park before playing their set at the Sydney stop of Soundwave Festival.

I don't really care about Suicide Silence, but I still found this video quite fascinating.

I wasn't looking at the guys, but I couldn't take my eyes off what was happening behind them: all those people walking around, doing their jobs without really caring about which bands are getting interviewed here or there because they're so used to seeing them all (or because they don't even care about music in the first place); all those unimpressive women (definitely not what Lemmy would call slutty chicks LOL) in tank tops and short summer dresses, casually talking to each other, going through endless checklists, revising the schedules or whatever the Hell they do - impossible to conceive them as part of a heavy metal festival... and yet they are LOL

Everything is sunny and beautiful; you can almost feel the warm summer breeze on your skin; you can see it blowing up the black cloth on the table, the leaves on the trees, Chris Garza's hevy metal mane...

And then, all of a sudden, stormy clouds take over; everything gets dark as Hell, and the summer breeze turns into menacing cold wind. It feels like it's going to start raining at any second - or like the world is just about to end right on the spot.

And then the sun comes out again... just to get immediately obscured by clouds. And the process just keeps on repeating endlessly... or it would, if the video lasted that long.


Beautiful summer afternoon.

Doomsday.

Beautiful summer afternoon.

Doomsday.

Beautiful summer afternoon.

Doomsday.

Nicest guy ever.

Vicious bastard.


Ah, Australian summer...

Like the coldest winter chill
Heaven beside you
Hell within