Imasculating any so-called guitarist

May 11, 2005 3:26 PM

Double Guitars? Try Two; at the Same Time!Justin King just humbled my sorry guitar-playing self. Also check out the amazing slap-style acoustic stylings.
posted by Dark Messiah (54 comments total)

If the second link doesn't work, use the direct download.
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:38 PM on May 11, 2005

Him and cup-stacky girl should reproduce and create the most amusing kid evar.
posted by RubiX^3 at 3:41 PM on May 11, 2005

sick! see also: Stanley Jordan and Victor Wooten. they practice similar forms of guitar wizardry.
posted by gnutron at 3:44 PM on May 11, 2005

I hate it when I get imasculated.
posted by billysumday at 3:45 PM on May 11, 2005

I thought you meant he was playing two double guitars. He's only playing one.

Okay, so only isn't fair, it's pretty amazing, but..
posted by xmutex at 3:48 PM on May 11, 2005

I'm sorry, but this kind of musical masturbation is just dreadful.
posted by mr.marx at 3:52 PM on May 11, 2005

mr. marx: He's not just wanking, he's making really good music too. He's not Steve Vai or Joe Satriani.
posted by xmutex at 3:56 PM on May 11, 2005

Yeah, it's technically impressive, but it's as musically compelling as if he were juggling two guitars instead of playing them.
posted by jonson at 3:57 PM on May 11, 2005

reminds me of Kaki King. [flash]
posted by squarehead at 3:58 PM on May 11, 2005

Meh. This new wave of JamBand fans turned tapper do little for me with their open tunings, repetitive rhythms, and lack of melodies. Stanley Clark is by far the most musical at this.
posted by sourwookie at 4:02 PM on May 11, 2005

(disregard the flash warning above. that was left over from what I was originally going to link to. replace with "[QT]".)
posted by squarehead at 4:03 PM on May 11, 2005

He's not just wanking, he's making really good music too

I don't hear it, sorry. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
posted by mr.marx at 4:05 PM on May 11, 2005

Yeah, this sounds pretty wankery to me. Open tunings and suspended chords do not good music make. But, he's at least better than that obnoxious Kaki King. Ugh.

If I'm going to listen to technical masturbatory guitar players, I'd rather it be Stanley Jordan, who at least plays decent jazz. The guitar player from Drums & Tuba also does the 2 guitar thing sometimes.
posted by papakwanz at 4:13 PM on May 11, 2005

Q to Kaki: Is Justin King your brother? If so...how come you guys don't ever reference each other in interviews etc.?

Kaki Answers: Justin and I are not related but he is an incredible guitar player and he can write great songs and sing like a champion to boot. How I got signed to Sony and not him is a mystery that I can't understand, but I can only believe it was because I had slightly cooler clothes.

Justin and Kaki show what I meant in the other thread about not needing gain and compression to perform this technique. Granted, compression was used on the miked signal, but if you ever see either of these guys live and up close, the dynamics will blow you away.
posted by mischief at 4:17 PM on May 11, 2005

mischief- they may show how to play without using gain and compression, but unfortunately they don't demonstrate how to write decent music.
posted by papakwanz at 4:20 PM on May 11, 2005

Boo. You said he was playing two double guitars at the same time. I was expecting him to be using his toes as well as his fingers.

Can I do what he does? No.
Would I want to? No.
Can he do what I do with a guitar? Probably.
Would he want to? I doubt it.

It always strikes me that some of the most 'technically gifted' musicians make some of the most stale, soulless, uninspiring music. Artists with great technical skill and the creativity to utilise that skill are sadly rare beasts.

I'd rather listen to Justin King farting into his guitar than playing it the way he does in the video.
posted by nylon at 4:27 PM on May 11, 2005

If Justin King's work isn't considered decent music, I don't want to hear what blares in the hallways of your ivory tower.
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:29 PM on May 11, 2005

hahaha. kaki king interviewed for a room in our loft when i was living in brooklyn. she didn't look nearly as cute in person. nice girl, tho.
posted by gnutron at 4:30 PM on May 11, 2005

I can't tell if the music is good or bad: for the most part all I can hear is the sound of his fingers hitting the strings. Before the string has a chance to oscillate, he's often already moved his fret finger or brushed it with another finger. There's a lot of string hits, but there aren't very many notes.
posted by Bugbread at 4:33 PM on May 11, 2005

There was a guy playing like this on a street corner during the Chicago Jazz Festival last year. Single guitar, though (better too, IMO).
posted by kenko at 4:37 PM on May 11, 2005

He's good, but can he play Smoke on the Water?
posted by etc. at 4:42 PM on May 11, 2005

Yeah, this is more soulless crap in the Michael Hedges vein. Gotta give it a hearty not-impressed. I mean, shit, THIS GUY has amazing technical virtuosity, but it great music? Not so much.
posted by stenseng at 4:45 PM on May 11, 2005

I'm afraid I have to side with Mr. Marx on this. I'm astonished and impressed by his technical ability, but this (and most of the music I listened to on the site) isn't particularly pleasant to listen to. The comparison to the amazing cup stacking girl is apt; both are extraordinary to look at . . . once.
posted by aladfar at 4:47 PM on May 11, 2005

Dark Messiah, if you're into this stuff, check out Don Ross [mp3 demo]. Great technique, great big beard, but luckily also capable of writing a decent tune.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 4:50 PM on May 11, 2005

"Decent music" is in the ear of the listener. I like Justin King's songwriting, but I don't like Kaki's, but both score beaucoup musicality points over Michael Angelo and his ilk.
posted by mischief at 5:00 PM on May 11, 2005

I can't do this, but I bet I can make a not-completely-lame attempt...it's probably not as hard as it looks. I'm not trying to knock the guy at all, but we're just not used to seeing someone play a guitar that way, so it seems more impressive. If you can roll tap your fingers on a table, you're halfway there. It seems to me the best thing he's got going is a great sense of rhythm.

He should get a cooler guitar though...
posted by hellbient at 6:06 PM on May 11, 2005

"You know those guitars that are like, double guitars?"
posted by rxrfrx at 6:14 PM on May 11, 2005

Really, both are novelty acts, although as I left Mefi and went to the supermarket I still had kaki king's tappity-tap running through my head and not justin's. Not that I like kaki's stuff, but it was a little more hypnotic.

Also, both are surprisingly similar in a structural sense (although neither are very sophisticated) and both somehow remind me of the noises of typing pools.
posted by blindsam at 6:18 PM on May 11, 2005

How about three saxophones?
posted by undecided at 6:26 PM on May 11, 2005

That was fun!

Mr. King, this is my friend Fender Jazz Bass. Fender Jazz Bass, this is Justin King. You two should have a lot to talk about.

Marcus! Marcus Miller! Hey man, lookin good!
posted by petebest at 6:29 PM on May 11, 2005

sounds like dave matthews band
posted by Satapher at 6:41 PM on May 11, 2005

blindsam: The progenitors of every style of music would be considered novelty acts until they developed a following.

And this style of playing is deceptively easy. It's contains a lot of notes, but it's not wankery. As long as you have a feel for nodal points and a reasonably accurate touch, you're gold.

And suspended chords do good music make. They're the power chords of postrock.
posted by bunnytricks at 6:56 PM on May 11, 2005

The question of whether post-rock is, in the main, worthwhile remains... All downhill after Laughing Stock.
posted by kenko at 7:19 PM on May 11, 2005

im in a pre-post-rock band
posted by Satapher at 7:36 PM on May 11, 2005

Justin King is brilliant. Seen him live twice and was mesmerized. I think it was 4 or 5 years ago I saw him open for Greg Brown, who really admired the young talent.
posted by alteredcarbon at 7:45 PM on May 11, 2005

Yawn. Only the mighty Frampton can make his guitar talk.
posted by the_bone at 8:21 PM on May 11, 2005

He has the technical ability, yes, but he's no Leo Kottke.
posted by zardoz at 8:45 PM on May 11, 2005

Meh.
posted by ddf at 9:12 PM on May 11, 2005

Test: Close your eyes and see if you're still impressed. Is it the coolness of WHAT he's doing, or does the music, sans visuals, move you?

I'm heading back to George Van Eps now. Ahhhhhh.
posted by cccorlew at 9:47 PM on May 11, 2005

Paco de Lucia outplays every musician cited in this thread. In standard tuning. On a regular-ass guitar. By a huge margin.
posted by DuoJet at 4:29 AM on May 12, 2005

Not a complete wanker though.

The cool thing about what he is doing is that in order to be able to condition his hands to be able to do that on what are no doubt heavy gauge acoustic strings, he must have spent many hours with lots of blisters and blood.

Hang on a minute ... is that cool?
posted by fadeout at 5:03 AM on May 12, 2005

There are a few guitarists mentioned in this thread that need to be imasculated, it might help them make decent music.
posted by fadeout at 5:07 AM on May 12, 2005

Of the two (Kaki, Justin) I found Kaki's music to be a little more interesting, partly I think because it was a little more "song like" and little less "wanking" like. Oh how clever a pun "Knock on Wood" - the guitar, it's made of wood, and I knock on it, get it? christ.

While I will say that it was fascinating to watch, I only need to see it once, because the music did, IMHO, lack any of that particular quality that makes me want to listen to it. The only interesting thing about it is that a single person was playing it in real time. The music itself was neither particularly complex or interesting. I could crank out something similar using Reason (a piece of music composing software) on my computer in about an hour, and I think it would be about as good.

But then - it's all subjective. Some people greatly enjoy technical-music, and others enjoy the raw musical stupidity of punk.

(oh and - nice FPP, very intersting)
posted by jaded at 5:59 AM on May 12, 2005

But then - it's all subjective. Some people greatly enjoy technical-music, and others enjoy the raw musical stupidity of punk.

If it's done well, sign me up for lots of both.
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:15 AM on May 12, 2005

I'm also very unimpressed that no one noticed him playing Pac Man half-way through the second video. And you call yourselves geeks.
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:16 AM on May 12, 2005

When I first saw this post I thought for sure the 1st link was to this guy.

I saw Kaki on Conan several months ago and was glued to the screen while watching her play; as a guitarist I am very impressed with the technique. Her music would sound much better if she would try to sing. I wasn't able to catch her name, so I'm glad she came up.

There's a guy from around here named Stephen Bennett that plays this harp guitar. He did an assembly for my high school a few years ago and he was nice.

There's another local guy named Michael Harvey who is an amazing technical player who also writes great songs, there are not many people that I am jealous of but he is one. I also remember this other guy who's name I forget, who was a great player but also pretentious prick.

What really irks me is this one guy who can sing well and play well solo, but is incapable of backing down in a group setting, playing over the top of the group the whole time and playing zillion note solos. /endRant

I remember another kid who's gotten some radio airplay. He plays a 5 or 6 string bass with a Boomerang, which is a device that samples your guitar playing (or microphone) and loops it back. He would play a line (usually with some 2 hand tapping) and sing the song, loop the main riff back, solo over it, mix some beatboxing into the mix and then finish the song. Pretty cool the first couple times I saw it, but most of the time all he was playing was 5 minutes of the same line.
posted by daHIFI at 6:45 AM on May 12, 2005

Speaking of masturbatory guitar players, what ever became of Yngwie Malmsteen?
posted by cosmicbandito at 6:49 AM on May 12, 2005

cosmicbandito:

"You've unleashed the fucking fury!"

Malmsteen loses it on an airplane, brillant! Watch for annoying ads on the page. Here is mp3 link without the backstory/blurb.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:37 AM on May 12, 2005

Divine_Wino, that's hilarious. I admit that I've owned a few of his albums. His early work is okay, in a neo-classical, wanky sort of way.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:39 AM on May 12, 2005

There is what could almost be called a tradition of musicians playing two instruments at the same time. This dates back to the incomparable Herodoros of Megara who won the trumpeter's competition in nine successive Olympiads (328 - 296 BC) and could play two trumpets simultaneously.

In the interim since then, a number of (non-competitive) saxophonists have done it, e.g. Rahsaan Roland Kirk. A double saxophone has even been invented.

And of course, straight from Branson, Missouri, there's the Amazing Frederick on piano(s).
posted by stacyhall1 at 10:28 AM on May 12, 2005

Been a fan of Victor Wooten for a very long time.

To say he is merely impressive is an insult.

His work with Bela Fleck should silence anyone who wants to play the "this isn't music" card.

The first Justin King clip was unlistenable. Maybe it was an artifact of how it was recorded. But it was just a mess and not at all pleasant.

I highly enjoyed the 2nd clip however. It was "too much" after the midpoint but still quite striking. He treated the top string as a drone, to interesting effect.

Why Justin doesn't play bass is puzzling.

Remember that someone turning a string instrument into a percussion instrument is what brought us the piano.

I also get tickled at people who rail against alternative tunings. It's just a tool... do you get this offended over golf grips?

Jealousy is so cute.
posted by Ynoxas at 12:02 PM on May 12, 2005

Well, I gotta say, it was impressive to watch, but I like McRorie better.

And yeah, the music. Sounded like the 'tempestuous' part of a Windham Hill sampler. Bloodless and safe. Give me soul and sweat above technical geekery any day.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:37 PM on May 12, 2005

daHIFI, your last paragraph reminds me of a guy I saw named Nosfell. In addition to the guitar and percussion, he'd alternate his singing between a gravelly Tom Waits-sounding style and a very passably feminine falsetto, and sing duets with himself. Great stuff, wish I could find some samples of it online...
posted by squidlarkin at 3:00 PM on May 12, 2005

This sort of stuff almost always sounds the same and this is no exception.
Try not watching the video while listening to avoid any visual bias you might have.
posted by HTuttle at 10:14 PM on May 12, 2005