Evan's Picks
This is where I get to reccomend cool things to people! Just because I reccomend something here doesn't necessarily mean I own it, but I have used everything here. These are all quality items that anyone would do well to have.
Gear
- Marshall solid state amplifiers - for pure power, you can't beat Marshall
- Fender tube amplifiers - For the great retro clean or distortion sound, Fender is the best.
- DigiTech guitar processors - I own one of these, and it is the best thing that can possibly happen to a guitarist, tons of cool effects and a drum machine all rolled into one!
- Fender pedals - For individual effects, Fender makes my personal favorites.
- CryBaby wah pedals - If Jimi Hendrix used a CryBaby, it works for me! Morley is also a quality pedal lots of other players use.
- Taylor acoustic guitars - Best acoustic guitars on the planet. I just wish I could afford one.
- Fender acoustic guitars - Best affordable acoustic guitars on the planet. This is what you hear on the Acoustic Abuse recordings, and on my solo CD.
- Ibanez Steve Vai Signature electric guitar - For overall tone, style, credibility and playablility, this is tops. Vai is my personal favorite guitarist, and his Ibanez is among my personal favorite electric guitars.
- Fender Stratocaster Deluxe - I recently aquired one of these beauties. Silent neck pickups, Humbucker bridge pickup, best action in the world, great tone, I could go on forever.
- Gibson Les Paul - Another of my favorites. Great guitar for just about everything, but they're a bit heavy for some players.
- Fender Jazz Bass - I don't have a lot of experience with bass guitars, but this is a very nice one for just about any kind of music.
- Washburn mandolins - Again, not a lot of experience in this area, but I have a Washburn, and it has great tone and stays in tune, and I personally can't ask for much more than that.
- Nail Highland Bagpipes - Back when I took bagpipe lessons, Nail was the brand I considered buying most often: affordable but high quality instruments, easy to play, good for beginning pipers.
- Cubase Recording and Engineering software - Needless to say, Acoustic Abuse would be nowhere without Cubase, and neither would my CD.
Other bands
- Vertical Horizon - My personal favorite band, just great music, great instrumentation, great songwriting, great live show, everything. Awesome band, but will always be written off as meaningless pop.
- Phish - No matter what, I always come back to Phish. Great funky, trippy, jam music with enough variety to avoid categorization.
- Goo Goo Dolls - Another band that will always be written off, but they wrote some of the best ballads ever:
- The Replacements - The Replacements are one of the best bands ever. Period. Rockers, ballads, pop songs, they've got it. If the Ramones invented power pop, the Replacements perfected it.
- The Ramones - What can I say. If anyone in rock and roll says they haven't borrowed a riff from the Ramones, they're lying. Badly. If you want proof this band isn't just three mindless chords, check out
- The Clash - Not much to say here. The only band that mattered. Without the Clash, there'd be no political punk rock today.
- Alice Cooper - You say Elvis is the king of rock? Nay, I say Alice Cooper is the king of rock! The father of American heavy metal, glam metal, hair metal and shock rock, Alice Cooper took David Bowie and Black Sabbath's combined schticks, put them together and improved on the final product.
- Bela Fleck & the Flecktones - Perhaps the weirdest of the jam bands, it consists of banjo, saxophone, bass and a drum machine, all played on the virtuoso level. Absolutely amazing, check out any of their live albums.
- Widespread Panic - I just started getting into this very established and respected band recently. Excellent stuff, especially "Tall Boy" and "Little Kin."
- Dave Matthews - Amazing songs, unparalelled instrumentation, great live shows. Gotta love the DMB.
- Counting Crows - Most moving music I've ever heard.
- Tenacious D - How can I not include the D? If it weren't for the D, there'd be no Acoustic Abuse! Kage and Jables, we owe you everything.
- AFI - Best rock songwriters in the game today. Best live show out there today. Period.
- Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dan and I always argue about this: Toad or R.E.M.? I say Toad, but judge for yourself.
- Gin Blossoms - Seen 'em twice, gonna see 'em again, they broke up once, they'll break up again, catch 'em live while you've got the chance. They wrote the perfect alternative pop songs.
- Tsunami Bomb - mmmmm.....Agent M.......it's like No Doubt meets the Bouncing Souls, but better, and showing no signs of going all freaky-dancehall-techno-reggae on us!
- Suburban Legends - Ska band from Cali, single best live show I've ever seen. High energy, fun, funny, skankable....nothing not to love.
- Steve Vai - My favorite guitarist, the man's playing is just sick. Gotta love it.
- Les Claypool - Everything the man touches is genius. Primus, Sausage, Flying Frog Brigade, all of it, plus the fact that he is one of the best bassists to ever touch the instrument.
- Alkaline Trio - Great emo-punk-goth band from Elgin Illinois, who are now huge!
- Fall Out Boy - Another great emo-punk band from Chi-town! Amazing vocals and lyrics, I endeavor to write guitar parts like these guys.
- Iron Maiden - Killer riffs, sometimes deep, sometimes hilariously overdramatic lyrics and Bruce
- Pink Floyd - If you don't like, or at least appreciate Pink Floyd, you have no business listening to music.
- Foo Fighters - I've always been more of a Foo kid than a Nirvana kid, and my songs are becoming increasingly influenced by Dave Grohl and company.
Songs
- Goo Goo Dolls, "Iris" - What an amazing song. The lyrics, the sweeping melody, the grand instrumentation, it's all here.
- AC/DC, "Back In Black" - Hands down the best rock guitar riff of all time. And the vocals aren't bad either.
- Deep Blue Something, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - It's the perfect pop song. It has everything: a distinctive singer, jangly guitars, a catchy chorus, good production, relatable lyrics.
- Steve Vai, "Boy from Seattle" - Vai paying tribute to Hendrix equals one of the best instrumental guitar tracks ever.
- Joe Satriani, "Satch Boogie" - My personal favorite instrumental track, this one will get any party started!
- Treephort, "Midlife Crisis at 21" - Awesome song from the Kings of Nerd-Core, this song drove me to buy their entire CD.
- AFI, "Wester" - Out of all their amazing songs, this is my favorite. It's just so driving, I can't get over it!
- Sausage, "Riddles Are Abound Tonight" - Les Claypool's first band, this is the best song off their album, and it's even better when the Frog Brigade covers it live.
- The Clash, "Safe European Home" - Such a well constructed rock song, the best song from my favorite Clash album.
- The Ramones, "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg (My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down)" - Hands down the best Ramones song.
- The Replacements, "Alex Chilton" - My jaw hit the floor the first time I heard this song. It was my introduction to the Replacements, and made them one of my favorite bands.
- The Pixies, "Debaser" - My introduction to the Pixies, and still my favorite song. You can definately hear where Nirvana's influences lay.
- Dramarama, "Anything Anything" - Just listen to this one song, and you will hear where all of emo music comes from. Not whiny emo either; this stuff hits hard.
- Weird Al Yankovic, "Dog Eat Dog" - A cross between the Talking Heads and Devo, this is the best of Weird Al's original material.
- Widespread Panic, "Tallboy" - Gospel, blues, rock...they all have an amazing home with this song!
- Tenacious D, "Tribute" - What can I say, it's the best song in the world. No, wait....I'm sorry, it's not. It's a tribute to the greatest song in the world. They couldn't remember the greatest song in the world.
- Phish, "Weekapaug Groove" - The band's funkiest song with bassist Mike Gordon hard at work.
- R.E.M., "Harborcoat" - What's a harborcoat? I don't know, and I don't really care. This is from "Reckoning," my favorite early R.E.M. album, and it just rocks.
- Counting Crows, "Omaha" - Quite probably the most poetic song I've ever heard. And I mean that in a good way.
- Semisonic, "Singing In My Sleep" - Just a very moving rock song about devotion. Really sappy, but really good too.
- Vertical Horizon, "The Glass Waltz" - Yeah it's unreleased, but if you can catch it live (or download a bootleg recording) it's amazing. It's in 3/4 time, giving it a very interesting feeling, and the lyrics are some of Keith Kane's best.
- Face to Face, "It's Not Over" - Greatest song to play live ever written.
- Lawrence Arms, "Quincentuple Your Money" - The reason why Brendan Kelly is one of my favorite singers, this song has a great vocal and lyrical performance, and the riff is really catchy too.
- Tsunami Bomb, "No One's Looking" - You have to ask yourself: how could an independant punk band write a song this good?
