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Servidor se va a tomar su primer mes de vacaciones sin compromisos académicos y/o laborales en muchos años. Dado que en mi retiro, tanto espiritual como corporal, prescindiré de conexión a Internet, este mi humilde blog quedará desatendido hasta mi regreso.

Seguramente para entonces haya podido comprar el pedal de wah-wah (a falta de poder probar el Crybaby he encargado un V848, que llegará a finales de agosto) y quizás haya cambiado las pastillas a la guitarra. Había pensado en unas Seymour Duncan, quizás dos SH-6 (Duncan Distortion), o una SH-6 en el puente y una SH-5 (Duncan Custom) para el cuello. Nuevamente, cualquier sugerencia o comentario respecto a éstas u otras opciones serán bien recibidos.

Hasta entonces… 失礼します

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Por desgracia de momento no parece que vayan a hacer parada en España. En todo caso la noticia es que Betallica estará de gira con The Punkles por Europa, tal y como anuncian las respectivas páginas web:

Beatallica.com

7/21/05

It’s official! Beatallica will be touring Europe this October.

Dates will be posted next week after all the bookings are finalized. The band will be playing mainly in Germany and Austria with our brothers-in-armbands The Punkles, and possibly other countries as well. Check back for more updates!

The Punkles

News:
– The Punkles are looking forward to be touring with the sensationel Beatallica in October! First tourdates are confirmed now.

Si se acercasen por Madrid yo iba de cabeza… y qué bien me lo paso con el Google Maps :P.

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El foro oficial de Opeth [wiki] ha sido cerrado debido al filtrado de su último disco, de acuerdo con este post:

I’ve been informed by Opeth that this forum is now closed due to the leaks, etc. It may reopen once the album is released. Plese do not message asking how, why etc. Thanks.

Al parecer Roadrunner Records [wiki] quiere que de momento sólo se pueda escuchar la pista «The Grand Conjuration» a través de la página que han habilitado a tal efecto.

En contraste, tenemos la opinión Alex Webster, bajo de Cannibal Corpse [wiki], que expuso su punto de vista sobre la compartición de música a través de Internet y como les ha afectado a ellos en particular, en una entrevista para Wormwood Chronicles (citada en BlabberMouth.net):

Wormwood Chronicles: What are your thoughts on downloading music for free?

Alex Webster: «It’s another part of how technology is changing the way things are done. I don’t think it really affects a band like us very much, because we don’t sell a lot to begin with. Most of our fans will usually get our stuff anyway, because they like the artwork, but it’s just something else that you have to contend with. I think in the long run it might make it more difficult for people spending a lot of money to make a record, but on the same token when you have the computer programs like ProTools that make it less expensive to make albums, it might not actually be an issue. Record sales will probably drop if people have the option to get things for free. I mean, everybody downloads things, if they can get them, more copies of albums from their friends, you know? It’s just what you do. I did it when I was young, I copied tapes. My friend had an album, I’d make a tape of it, if I didn’t have the money. So I don’t expect anyone to not do that now, when it’s such an easy option ? why not do it, you know? At the same time like I was saying though, the cost of making an album has gone down, because of technology. So even if you’re selling less records, if it costs you less money to make an album, it can kind of even out, I think. It also might have made the whole scene a little bit bigger. People have the ability to try something out before they buy it. That was something that you didn’t have. I used to buy albums based on if the dude in the band was wearing a Kreator or D.R.I. shirt, then I knew the band would be good. You know what I mean? (Laughs) Nowadays you can go to a web site if you hear about a band, and listen to a free download or whatever, and make a decision on if it’s something you want to buy. It hasn’t been the negative effect that people think it is. We do better business now, not sales wise, but for tours and stuff. Everything has been better over the last 3-4 years, which is when the whole downloading thing took off. So it hasn’t hurt us.»

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«Queen + Paul Rodgers Rock Live» será el título del album que nos encontraremos a la vuelta de las vacaciones (cada vez más cerca para algunos), concretamente el día 13 de Septiembre. El primer single contendrá «Fat Bottomed Girls» y «Reaching Out»/»Tie Your Mother Down».

Por otro lado, hace no demasiado se anunciaba que Queen [wiki] había superado a los Beatles en el ranking de permanencia de singles en el listado de Gran Bretaña, tal como recogía esta reseña de BlabberMouth.net:

New research by the team behind the popular music annual «The Book of British Hit Singles & Albums» has revealed that QUEEN has overtaken THE BEATLES as official UK album chart champions, having spent more weeks on chart than the fab four.

According to British Hit Singles & Albums’ unique database of official U.K. chart statistics, QUEEN has spent an incredible 1,322 weeks on the U.K. albums chart (29 weeks more than THE BEATLES). With sales figures notoriously unreliable in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the «weeks on chart» figure represents the fairest, most accurate method of ranking acts, according to David Roberts, editor of the book published by Guinness World Records Ltd.

Thirty years since their first UK #1 album «A Night at the Opera», QUEEN has overtaken THE BEATLES in this Top 10 for the first time.

Top 10 Most Successful Acts of All Time on the U.K. Albums Chart:

  1. QUEEN (1,322 weeks)
  2. THE BEATLES (1,293 weeks)
  3. ELVIS PRESLEY (1,280 weeks)
  4. U2 (1,150 weeks)
  5. DIRE STRAITS (1,136 weeks)
  6. SIMON AND GARFUNKEL (1,114 weeks)
  7. MADONNA (1,032 weeks)
  8. DAVID BOWIE (1,005 weeks)
  9. ELTON JOHN (989 weeks)
  10. MICHAEL JACKSON (966 weeks)

Roberts commented: «Given that QUEEN’s chart career has been much shorter than those of THE BEATLES and ELVIS, this is an incredible achievement. They’ve long been written about with reverence in the pages of British Hit Singles and Albums and this just serves to cement their legendary status.»

And if any proof of QUEEN’s continued status as one of the world’s greatest live bands were needed, the band wind up their current 32-date European tour with FREE/BAD COMPANY singer and musician Paul Rodgers this week, performing in London’s Hyde Park Friday, July 15.

The date, which sees the band joined for the concert by RAZORLIGHT, PETER KAY and special guests Justin and Dan Hawkins of THE DARKNESS, marks QUEEN’s return to the site of one of the most historic of their earlier concerts. Performing a free concert in Hyde Park almost 29 years ago (September 18, 1976), QUEEN attracted a record audience of more than 150,000 to the park.

QUEEN holds a number of records officially recognized by Guinness World Records. The band are lauded for having the biggest selling Greatest Hits album in the U.K. with «Greatest Hits 1» (now over four million) and QUEEN is also the only act to top the chart with the same single twice ? «Bohemian Rhapsody» ? selling a million copies both times. The single, which celebrates its 30th anniversary later this year, was also voted the favorite single of all time in a poll conducted by readers of «British Hit Singles & Albums». «Bohemian Rhapsody» is also the biggest selling non-charity single of all time.

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Blind Guardian está de estreno por partida doble. Por un lado, estrena nuevo diseño en su página web oficial, «mu potita» toda ella. Por otro lado, tras la marcha de Thomen Stauch del grupo, la banda teutona tiene un nuevo batería: Frederik Ehmke. El percusionista, que también tocaba la batería y la gaita (supongo que no a la vez) con el grupo de folk metal Schattentantz, es, desde el día 14, el batería oficial del grupo, con el que harán el nuevo disco, programado para la año que viene.

Para los vagos, aquí el anuncio oficial:

Hallo zusammen,

endlich ist es mir auch mal vergönnt mit einer guten Nachricht aufzuwarten. Einer sehr guten, denn die lange Zeit des Wartens und des Spekulierens findet nun endlich ein Ende. Wir haben gefunden, wonach wir gesucht haben:

Scheinbar aus dem Nichts taucht bei uns vor einigen Wochen ein gewisser Frederik Ehmke auf, bewirbt sich auf fast schon förmliche Weise um den Job des Schlagzeugers und bläst uns mit seiner frischen, ausdrucksvollen und technisch hochwertigen Performance von drei B.G. Klassikern («Journey Through The Dark?, «Time Stands Still? and «And Then There Was Silence?) total weg. Oberflächlich unbeeindruckt laden wir zu Probeaufnahmen eines neuen Blind Guardian Songs unter Produktionsvoraussetzungen ein, um zu prüfen, ob auch die kreative Chemie stimmt. Nach diesen Aufnahmen steht für uns jedoch endgültig fest, dass wir mit Frederik unseren neuen Schlagzeuger gefunden haben.

Uns war es wichtig einen Mitmusiker zu finden, der zum einen alte Blind Guardian Trademarks in sein Spiel integrieren kann, zum anderen aber auch selbstbewusst genug ist vollkommen neue eigenständige Wege in der Schlagzeugperformance zu beschreiten, welche sich trotzdem auf geschmackvolle Weise in unser musikalisches Gesamtkonzept eingliedern lassen.

Frederik ist ein ruhiger, sympathischer Zeitgenosse, der weiss was er kann und vor allem was er will. Für uns ein echter Glückstreffer.

Wir sind uns sicher, dass Euch seine Art Schlagzeug zu spielen ebenso beeindrucken wird, wie sie uns beeindruckt und freuen uns auf den nun vor der Tür stehenden Produktionsbeginn des neunten Studioalbums. Es liegt noch viel Arbeit vor uns, doch kann ich Euch jetzt schon ein hochinteressantes Album versprechen. Die neuen Songs haben es in sich. Wir halten Euch auf dem Laufenden.

Gruss
Hansi

Esperemos que esté a la altura de su predecesor y de las espectativas. Mucha suerte al grupo y a él en particular.

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