Our most popular content:
We discuss the 25th anniversary of Alex Lifeson’s solo album, Victor, and the 40th anniversary of Rush’s Moving Pictures. Alex also shares his thoughts on the death of Neil Peart, what he’s going to do with his guitar collection, and possible future work with Geddy Lee.
Michael Manring and Joe Zon got together and designed an incredible work of art of an instrument called the Zon Michael Manring Hyperbass. It's got a 3-octave fretboard, quadrophonic pickup, 5-output electronics, Hipshot Extenders, a multi-tuning bridge, etc. Amazing. And he does a great demo of the instrument at the end.
This is a 60-minute interview with Steve Vai. In it we discuss creativity, music composition, getting through ruts, spirituality/religion, rock music, and more. Steve offers a fascinating insight into his creative processes and his worldview.
Upcoming Events on MWM
And in case you’re interested in previous events…
Join Trey Gunn, Jerry Marotta, and David Jameson for a live interview about The Security Project reimagining the work of Peter Gabriel.
Join Club Weird: Where Everybody Knows Your Faves
Confronting Creativity hosted by André Cholmondeley
Here's a great excerpt of Adrian Belew talking about how he got involved with Frank Zappa and what he learned working together.
This is an excerpt from the full Adrian Belew interview.
David Torn shares his experiences working with David Bowie on one of his last albums, "The Next Day." It was recorded in secret! He also shares some great stories of working with and knowing David.
Adrian Belew is a legendary guitarist and multi-instrumentalist well-known for his diverse travels around the musical map. He first appeared on the guitar-world radar on tour with Frank Zappa, who later said, “Adrian reinvented electric guitar”.
DORIT CHRYSLER is a composer, synthesist, singer, educator, sonic adventurer, and one of the world’s leading thereminists. Hailing from Graz, Austria, and based in New York City and Berlin, she is the co-founder of the New York Theremin Society and founder of the first school for theremin, Kid CoolTheremin School.
Carmine Rojas: bass guitarist, musical director, composer, producer. Carmine has recorded and toured with an incredibly diverse list of pioneering and legendary artists including Labelle, Nektar, David Bowie (multi-platinum hits like "Let’s Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love") . He's been on tour with Rod Stewart for 15 years....with Joe Bonamassa for over a decade now......a touring journeyman.
Carmine is one of the busiest bass players in studios playing rock, funk, R&B, and jazz - fitting in perfectly on sessions and gigs with Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Ian Anderson, Herbie Hancock, Tedeschi andTrucks, Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Todd Rundgren, Mike Patton, Macy Gray, Ian Hunter, and with his own flamenco/rock project with Marcos Nand - Ziroq, and many others.
Zack Alford is the longtime drummer for superstar guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei, and is well known for his years touring and recording with David Bowie. His varied drumming and in-demand sessions career includes stints with The B-52’s, Bruce Springsteen & Billy Joel.
Andy West of the Dixie Dregs and Henry Kaiser are joining Andre Cholmondeley to talk about creativity.
Julie Slick is a virtuoso bassist and composer known for her wide array of unique tones and substantial melodic invention. She is best known for touring with the Adrian Belew Power Trio and her band EchoTest.
Beth Fleenor aka Crystal Beth is a powerhouse vocalist and instrumentalist based in Seattle. She defies all genres with her amplified clarinets, primal screaming, vocal percussion, and looping using her own syllabic language.
Whoa! It's been a LONG time since these guys were in a public forum together. We are super proud to host Vernon Reid and David Torn for an hour-long LIVE conversation on creativity.
Join us for a live interview with King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and former member Trey Gunn hosted by Andre Cholmondeley. We'll be discussing creativity, getting through writer's block, and more.
Jaw Droppers hosted by Anthony Garone
Here's my jaw-dropper episode about Björk's 2001 release "Vespertine." Unfortunately, Warner Music Group (and maybe Universal Music Group) have blocked the original version because I included short excerpts (between 20 and 40 seconds) that highlight and substantiate my commentary. Nevertheless, here's a version with all my talking parts and whatever music I could get away with. Hopefully you'll still find it enjoyable.
The jaw-dropper series highlights music that made my jaw drop when I first heard it. This episode is about Björk's 2001 masterpiece, Vespertine.
What do you think about this album? Is it a favorite of yours, too?
What do you think about Björk in general?
What do Pat Metheny and Dillinger Escape Plan have in common? Turns out, the answer is Pat's 1994 noise rock release, "Zero Tolerance for Silence." This crazy album was both critically praised and panned. Let's learn why.
Pat Metheny goes way beyond his signature jazz guitar tone. In this video, we'll dip our toes into some of his most avant garde moments.
Thanks to Gregg Bendian for his excellent contributions to this video.
If you think "prog" means weird time signatures, long songs, epic instrumental solos, and virtuosity, then Béla Fleck's new bluegrass album might be the prog album of the year.
The Bird and The Bee are a Los Angeles-based indie pop duo featuring Inara George on vocals + bass and Greg Kurstin on keys. They have been producing fantastic music since 2007.
In this video, I talk about why their first album was a jaw-dropper and walk through some of the strange chords in the opening track, "Again and Again."
Tally Hall's "Good Day" music video blew my mind when it came out in 2010 and still amazes me today. Find out why!
Calculating Infinity (1999) by The Dillinger Escape Plan is one of the most brain-bending, brutal albums I've ever heard. It's a no-holds-barred tornado of complexity, angst, and genre-defying musicianship. You can hate it, you can love it, but you can't ignore it.
Laurie Anderson's "Bright Red" features a song called "The Puppet Motel," which has terrified me since I was 12 years old. Listen and tell us what you think.
Chris Cornell’s 1999 debut solo album “Euphoria Mourning” was a game-changing record for me. Cornell changed my appreciation for songwriting and vocal performance. What an amazing musician. His death was a terrible loss for the world. What are your thoughts on the album?
Buke and Gase's "Scholars" was released in early 2019 and blew me away on my first listen. Check out this innovative and excellent work of art at BukeAndGase.Bandcamp.com
Man Man's "Six Demon Bag" album dropped my jaw within the first few seconds of hearing it. Amazingly creative and fun. Great production and recording. Completely uninhibited.
Failure to Fracture by Anthony Garone
37 players, 15 nations, 7 months, 1 impossible song.
This is a very special international collaboration of players attempting to tackle Robert Fripp’s “impossible” composition.
In this piece, I detail the difficulties of learning FraKctured as opposed to learning and performing it’s older sibling, Fracture. I close with a performance at the end of the video. It’s adequate!
After 22 years, I am finished with learning and playing King Crimson's impossible song, "Fracture." In this video, I talk about destinations versus journeys and wrap it up with my final performance of Fracture. Thank you to Robert Fripp for his incredible music, technique, and inspiration.
Welcome to the 6th episode of Failure to Fracture, a series that highlights my now-20-year struggle to play the hardest song I've ever encountered: "Fracture" by King Crimson. Robert Fripp, the composer and guitarist on the track, writes: "Fracture is impossible to play." What on earth does this mean?
Music Performances and Concerts
Here is the California Guitar Trio performing their arrangement of Pink Floyd's "Echoes."
The entire set (including video) can be purchased on CGT's bandcamp.
Here's a sneak preview of our upcoming Allan Holdsworth Chord Competition. The chords are from John Vullo, inspired by his very, very excellent video about the 10 hardest Holdsworth chords
Here's some weird new Christmas music for you featuring James Partridge on piano. This one is in 5/8 with a descending chromatic bass line. It's very tricky to play and to think through the chord changes.
Here's the amazing Nick Goodwin performing my arrangement of "We Five Kings," which is "We Three Kings" in 5/4 as a tribute to Dave Brubeck. I was absolutely blown away by Nick's performance. He's playing a B-bender telecaster and a drop D tuning. He came up with that all on his own.
In this piece, I detail the difficulties of learning FraKctured as opposed to learning and performing it’s older sibling, Fracture. I close with a performance at the end of the video. It’s adequate!
After 22 years, I am finished with learning and playing King Crimson's impossible song, "Fracture." In this video, I talk about destinations versus journeys and wrap it up with my final performance of Fracture. Thank you to Robert Fripp for his incredible music, technique, and inspiration.
Recorded live in Albuquerque, New Mexico at GORGG 2017, celebrating the greatness of Gentle Giant.
"Click" written by Mike Keneally, originally released on his solo album "Nonkertompf"
Bass: Andy West
Acoustic guitar: Anthony Garone
A song by Anthony Garone dedicated to his love of Gentle Giant and Jethro Tull. Performed with Michael Manring, Morgan Ågren, and Jake Ineck.
I wrote and released this in 2012. This is just the guitar part. A video with drums is coming soon.
There are 21 guitar tracks on this recording! Crazy!
This video is for the fan-made video submission event Gentle Giant is doing on their website, gentlegiantband.com. Their video won “Music Event of the Year” for Prog’s 2020 awards.
Here’s a bunch of videos of me practicing Fracture, FraKctured, and other Fripp stuff over the years.
MWM on Twitter
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Many musicians have non-music professions. Here’s a great discussion I had about the link between musicianship and… https://t.co/q9zP3Ds030
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Ray didn’t get the credit he deserved for all he brought to this incredible band. What a loss. RIP Ray Shulman. On… https://t.co/C2MXbP8Ln1
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Any of you in Vancouver and want to meet when I visit in a couple weeks?
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9 years ago today, we started Make Weird Music hoping to REACH 250 people. Today, we have almost 22K YouTube subsc… https://t.co/nhFwNWP5Xm
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