It’s a pretty well known fact that one’s hobbies have a demonstrable effect on personality, but have you ever considered that they might actually alter the way one’s brain functions? A new study conducted at a university in Berlin examined this interesting medical phenomena in the brains of 12 guitarists, and the results were quite surprising. As it turns out, when the 12 guitarists played together, their brain functions quickly synced up. In fact, the brains of these guitarists were…

We’re finally here folks: festival season! With summer just around the corner, we’ve got a whole slew of festivals across the world getting their last touches together before fans start pouring in. Personally, us over here at GND couldn’t be happier about it, but the same cannot be said for the management behind the popular Oxegen Festival in Ireland. Unfortunately, the festival has announced that it must be cancelled and will not take place this year. So far, there hasn’t…

The release of Jack White’s first solo album, Blunderbuss, received a mixed reception from the musical community. On one hand, many critics regarded the album as a money-making effort, in which White slapped together a dozen or so random songs throughout his career rather than crafting a dedicated and focused album. On the other hand, fans and some critics did really enjoy a lot of the music he put up for sale. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, the…

For whatever reason, being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, is a pretty big deal to a lot of older acts. Sure, it’s an honor to be included as a prominent member of rock’s history, but the truth is that after your induction concert, few people really care whether or not you’ve made it into the Hall. However, when the officials behind the Hall of Fame do something borderline ridiculous to a band as large…

Take a minute and look at that headline again. It seems like a bit of a ludicrous question, but we assure you, the formidable voice of the people has risen up in a resounding yes. This is true enough, but let’s back up a little bit. A little while ago, Leonard DiCaprio released a movie titled The Wolf of Wall Street, which portrayed the rougher edges of businessmen existing solely for profit. It was a decent movie, but one keen…

Typically when you hear the word robotic in relation to music, it’s being used as a synonym for describing bland music without any semblance of emotion. Here, however, we are employing a much more literal use of the word: electronic pioneers Squarepusher have teamed up with some robotics developers to create an entirely automated (and slightly terrifying) 78 fingered robot player. The guitarist robot has 22 arms, can hold up to 12 picks at a time, and blazes through licks…

There was a day, long, long ago, when grunge rock icon Billy Corgin sported an impressive set of locks. Since then, Corgin’s hair evaporated, but whatever his vision of his band, the Smashing Pumpkins, remains as strong as ever. For this reason, Corgin has announced the impending release of another new Pumpkins release. If you, like many fans, have grown weary of the band’s recent releases, this new effort might actually be something to pay attention to. Corgin has stated…

Fans, today we have a piece of news for you that’s a bit unusual. Amy Herbst, a singer in the Nashville Opera Company, is suing the government over a botched episiotomy during child birth last February. While nothing life threatening seems to have happened, Herbst did experience one major side effect: the inability to sing without farting. Indeed, every time this poor opera singer opens her mouth to sing a note, her rear end chimes in as well. Herbst claims…

NAMM 2014 brought us quite a bit of excitement this year, but perhaps one of the coolest demos of all came us to us courtesy of Marshall Amps. Their Custom Shop wing teamed up with a group of tattooists to create custom covers for several of their most popular models. The artists selected were typically young and upcoming tattooists, and their artwork features a variety of styles and genres. The heads featured were the JV1H and the JVM410H each with…

Traditional music notation may be more technically accurate, but tabs are pretty much the default way of displaying music for the guitar. Not only are they simpler to understand, they’re also much easier to create with standard word processing software – leading to a boom in user-generated guitar tabs. If you’re not familiar with the basic idea of tablature, learning the basic principles behind it, how to read it and where to find user-created tabs gives you the fundamental knowledge…