Comments on: The musical equivalent of sneaking around MIT late at night, solving equations left scrawled on whiteboards

The musical equivalent of sneaking around MIT late at night, solving equations left scrawled on whiteboards

teleskiving — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:57:35 -0800

You Don't Mess Around With Jim. And you don't mess around with the mysterious Fret Killer, performer of some of the best acoustic guitar playing to be found on YouTube. But who is he?

There are loads more great songs under the "Fret Killer" link. Happy New Year!

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:12:32 -0800

o'brian is tryin' to learn to talk hawaiian

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:21:50 -0800

Heh. It's actually "Fret Killr". Very web 2.0

By: drhydro

drhydro — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:37:04 -0800

Dang. Who IS that masked man? and.. is that guitar a Martin New Yorker?

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:43:06 -0800

This guy is swell -- thanks for the post! His voice is a bit reminiscent of Leo Kottke, just a bit. "O'Brien" is especially delightful.

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:01:21 -0800

The music is pretty cool, but he kinda comes off as a jerk. Anonymous and won't answer questions about music or equipment, and he doesn't take requests. It would have taken him just as long to say what he's playing and using to record as it does to say he won't say, since it looks like he has the same set up in each video. And what's the point of wanting to remain anonymous? What an ass. I like him.

By: kozad

kozad — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:42:29 -0800

He's like a hundred back porch guitar players I've been around. Nothing special. But I like him. He will never make money doing what he does...this has been talked to death on forums everywhere.... But I wish him the best of luck in lifting the spirits of music-hungry folks everywhere...the 'Net is a bigger back porch.

By: ZaneJ.

ZaneJ. — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:45:31 -0800

Take a gander here for Hoyt Axton's Greenback Dollar. It's delicious. And the mystery man sings.

By: RussHy

RussHy — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:59:56 -0800

This guy does everything I ever wanted to do on the guitar. Makes me feel young again... Great find. Best of the Web!

By: Devils Slide

Devils Slide — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:26:06 -0800

Meh. sorry

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:05:17 -0800

Masked equation solver: Nah. The guy whom it'd be fun to have some beers with at a small get-together barbecue-type thing: Yah. Nice song selection, and I like his voice.

By: HeroZero

HeroZero — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:27:53 -0800

His Auld Lang Syne was the perfect end to my evening.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:07:50 -0800

I dunno, it's decent, but very pattern-bound. The left hand has a neat dynamism to it. Not exactly John Lee or the Rev Gary Davis though.

By: wsg

wsg — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:19:25 -0800

He's got some passion in his playing and singing, which is more than can be said of 99% of what you hear. There's always someone better, but it's nice to hear some unadorned feeling.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:41:47 -0800

It's funny how I'll get sick of Metafilter because of the unrelenting cynicism, and then a post like this will pull me back in. Happy new year, everyone. Try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt in 2008.

By: chillmost

chillmost — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 05:36:20 -0800

Will we see him in a Dr. Pepper commercial soon?

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:37:27 -0800

waxpancake, the secret with metafilter is to completely ignore all the comments (just like one would when surfing youtube).

By: i_am_a_Jedi

i_am_a_Jedi — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:13:09 -0800

I wasn't completely sold until I watched this one. That's damn good.

By: supercres

supercres — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:21:40 -0800

and.. is that guitar a Martin New Yorker? He plays a few different ones, at least one of which (his favorite, it seems) is a lower-end Taylor grand auditorium, like a 214. Same thing I play, incidentally, though he certainly plays it much better.

By: brianstorms

brianstorms — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 09:08:39 -0800

I love his cover of Nature's Way. By the way I just started an Eventful Demand for fretkillr! If you want fretkillr to come to your town to perform, DEMAND IT and who knows, maybe we can all get enough people demanding in various cities for it to be worth fretkillr's while? It would make a great story, that's for sure.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:42:42 -0800

Oh My God!!! He's fantastic!!! I'm in love! It's sublime! Thank you dear teleskiving. Listening to his Jingle Bells tears popped into my eyes and I don't especially like Jingle damn Bells. I love his music. And on Daydream, linked above, he plays, sings brilliantly, whistles perfectly and plays blues harp too. Dang. The guy's a genius. And he's got sexy arms and hands too. Feeling that hormonal rush. woo hoo. You know it's funny, when it comes to guitar posts it's as if envy and competitiveness combined with testosterone turns young male commenters into blunt naysayers. The thing with a great musician is that it's not just about technical skill, it's a combination of finesse, appeal and elegance, which I think FretKillr has. His pages of videos is something I'm going to regularly visit. His Tabourine Man. Norwegian Wood. Here with a tantalizing view of his bearded chin. Love his voice. *sigh I'd buy his CD for sure. Lovely way to start off the year.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:55:16 -0800

Not bad, but let's see him do it on Expert level.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:52:09 -0800

I'm happy that people are enjoying this guy. To my ear, he is the most musical guitarist I have learned of in a long time. nickyskye, did you see my Isaac Guillory post last summer? He's another fantastic guitarist who provoked quite a few wistful sighs from female audience members in his time. And you can see his face!

By: Quietgal

Quietgal — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:50:51 -0800

Nice find, teleskiving.

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:29:15 -0800

If you want to be able to carry these performances around with you, vixy.net will convert flv files to mp3, avi, mp3, 3gp, mp4, or mov format.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:57:32 -0800

teleskiving, Thanks for the tip about Isaac Guillory. Enjoyed his music too. Don't get the rush though, too skinny, too wistful, ethereal but still superb. Sorry to hear he died young of cancer. What CD of his do you most recommend? Can respect he was more technically skilled but I like FretKillr's singing and style better, more meat there, more heft to his style. Here doing Reason To Believe. He has a fine voice.

By: Exchequer

Exchequer — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:55:27 -0800

Harmonicakillr, too? (fun song)

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:27:57 -0800

Can respect he was more technically skilled but I like FretKillr's singing and style better, more meat there, more heft to his style. In that case, you would probably particularly the album Solo, which has a distinctly heavier and more percussive technique than his later stuff. In terms of kind of gut-level emotional response it's my favorite as well, but the others, especially Live and Slow Down are also well worth getting, I've listened to them over and over again. You should definitely download the whole set from the concert that provided those YouTube clips: go to anetstation.com and click on the "Home" button, then click on the little animated picture of Isaac that appears on the main page. There's an unbelievable version of People Get Ready at the end.

By: wsg

wsg — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:02:30 -0800

Thanks for the Isaac Guillory reminder. I was just looking for him the other night and couldn't remember who it was.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:04:01 -0800

Thanks teleskiving for the great Isaac Guillory online listening and CD tips. Much appreciated. The music is loading right now, eager to hear the track you suggested.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:13:20 -0800

It's a pleasure to have any opportunity to talk about Isaac. His music was the reason I first picked up an acoustic guitar back in 1994. In the late nineties I had the privilege to see him perform live which was an amazing experience and a memory that I really treasure. Also, I forgot to mention, if you click on the "Play" link from anetstation.com you can hear quite a few tracks from Isaac's albums - just let the .m3u load into Windows Media Player or equivalent and you should then see a list of tracks you can navigate.