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I have quite a long plane-ride ahead of me this weekend, so I am currently filling up with some albums to listen to on the plane… some older stuff that I just felt like listening to, and some newer stuff that I wanna listen to closely, and a plane-ride is a great chance to really pay attention. So here is what I am putting on there:

Andy Timmons- Resolution. What a rocking album, been listening to it a lot ever since it came out last year.
Bon Jovi – Lost Highway
Brad Paisley – 5th Gear. Havent had much time to listen to it yet, but I am looking forward a lot.
Buckethead & Travis Dickerson – Chicken Noodles
Buckethead – Colma
Eric Johnson – Ah Via Musicom
Eric Johnson – Venus Isle
Joe Bonamassa – You & Me
Joe Satriani – Surfing With The Alien
Joe Satriani – The Extremist
John Mayer – Inside Wants Out
John Mayer – Room For Squares
Megadeth – United Abominations
Paul Gilbert – Get Out Of My Yard
Shawn Lane – The Tri-Tone Fascination
The Black Crowes – By YOur Side
Tim Pierce – Guitarland
Van Halen – Best Of Both Worlds
Dave Martone – When The Aliens Come
Jeff Beck – Guitar Shop
Brent Mason – Hot Wired
Gov’t Mule – High And Mighty
Hardware – Third Eye Open (Stevie Salas, Bootsy Collins and Buddy Miles!!!)
Stevie Ray Vaughan – Greatest Hits

So, lotsa stuff to wrap my ears around… cant wait!

Surfing With The Alien

You probably heard that Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien” is gonna have its 20th anniversary this year, and Joe is celebrating it with a remastered version, some special shows (where he is gonna perform the whole album) and a special concert at the studio where it was recorded.

Guitar Player magazine already celebrated it in their most recent issue with a really cool feature about this album… some great pictures of the guitars Joe used (boy, did that bring back memories… I used to stare at those guitars in magazines and on posters back then…) and much more.
And reading all that made me relisten to that CD. It was the first Satriani-album I bought back then (I was 10 or so), and I must have listened to it a gazillion times. And it was a load of fun to do so again, as it really is a great guitar album… not only with lots of cool licks, but also with great songwriting, one of the reasons why the album was such a trailblazer considering its chart success.
I even found myself playing along again… its been quite some time since I last played those tunes, but its so much fun to rediscover songs like the title-track, “Always With Me, Always With You” (one of the main reasons I bought an electric guitar back then), “Midnight” or “Echo”. When I first worked on these, they taught me a lot about phrasing, embellishing melodies and of course some cool licks. A great guitar-album to learn from, definitely!

A great album… so influential, and still great to listen to. Gratz, Joe!!!!

Glen Drover / Megadeth

I have had the new Megadeth album for a while now, and I have to say that I enjoy listening to it a whole lot, it really rawks.
Its a bit more “old school Megadeth” imo. I loved albums like “Rust In Peace” and “Countdown To Extinction”, and didnt find myself listening to their later albums that much. However, I am not one of those guys who goes “Ah, I wish theyd just go back to the stuff they did way back when…” or something. I respect when a band moves forward and tries something new, I just wasnt too much into their later albums.

The new album rawks big time, and I have to say that I enjoy Glen Drover’s guitar work on this one a lot! (Of course, same goes for Dave’s playing!). I hadn’t heard of him before (shame on me), and I didnt know what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised… really great player and some awesome metal-solos here!
So if you havent yet, check it out!!