Keefer Madness

Eddie Van Halen On ‘A Different Kind Of Truth’: “We Recorded Demos For 35 Songs”

// July 18th, 2012 // No Comments » // Music, Van Halen

I keep reading about Ed having such a back library of unrecorded tunes. Then, he says they recorded almost three dozen songs for A Different Kind of Truth.

While I don’t doubt it, I wonder about quality. After all, they considered re-recording a bunch of B-sides, and obviously used stuff that became other songs.

Regardless, I’m hopeful for more albums to come from my favorite band.

Eddie Van Halen On ‘A Different Kind Of Truth’: “We Recorded Demos For 35 Songs”

Van Halen Rehearsals!

// December 30th, 2011 // No Comments » // Music, Van Halen

OK, I’m getting slightly excited and anxious for early February 2012′s new album release. Sadly, we won’t get to hear the first single till just a few days before the whole album is released.

Anyway, the article below from the Van Halen News Desk drops the bomb that Van Halen has not only been filming the video for the first single (where do videos play now, other than YouTube, BTW?), but they’ve also been rehearsing hardcore for the 2012 tour.

Yeah, I’m a bit psyched.

Van Halen Rehearsals!

Eddie Van Halen's Guitars Through the Years

// June 5th, 2011 // No Comments » // Music, Van Halen

Guitar World has put together a nice little image slideshow of Eddie Van Halen’s axes through the years.

Eddie Van Halen’s Guitars Through the Years

THIS Is Why Eddie Van Halen Is a Freakin’ Genius!

// April 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Music, Van Halen

Fellow guitar freaks, if you haven’t already come across woodytone.com, I highly recommend surfing over there on occasion, or do like I do — just subscribe to their RSS feed to quickly sift through new posts that interest you. Anyway, woodytone.com did a wonderful writeup on the off-the-wall and genius that is (or was if you take to heart a lot of account of the recent state of) Eddie Van Halen.

THIS Is Why Eddie Van Halen Is a Freakin’ Genius!

In Defense of Van Hagar

// February 23rd, 2011 // No Comments » // Music, Van Halen

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love Van Halen. In my book, they never made a bad album — with Roth, Hagar or even Cherone at the helm. I appreciate this guy defending the Hagar-era stuff. It’s always been cool to bash Sammy Hagar, and love Dave, but this guy makes a lot of good points about the Hagar era stuff, though I’d say he’s even overly harsh on Hagar. While I can’t wait for the day there’s a new Van Halen album, I’d be equally happy with David Lee Roth or Hagar helming the band on vocals.

In Defense of Van Hagar

Eddie Van Halen Television Cameo on 'Two and a Half Men'

// September 29th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Music, TV Talk, Van Halen, Video

Never have seen the show, but I meant to check it out when Eddie Van Halen made his cameo. But, I missed it… not really sure when the show’s on, nor did TiVo pick it up for me. Hmm, need to check to see if I still have an auto-record wishlist for Van Halen.

Thankfully, YouTube, is perfect for this type of thing in this day and age. Instead of having to suffer through the half-hour show or fast forward through it on the ol’ DVR, you can just check out the clip below. Not too funny, but at least EVH looks healthy, and we get a little lick from Ed on his new Fender Frankenstrat.

Guitar Hero Van Halen Official Trailer / Web Site

// August 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gaming, Music, Van Halen

On the heels of yesterday’s announcement of the full setlist for Guitar Hero: Van Halen, here’s the official trailer and web site for the game. December 22, is quite a way’s off!

Van Halen Guitar Hero Official Site

Guitar Hero Van Halen Setlist and Release Date Revealed

// August 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gaming, Music, Van Halen

Woo hoo! Guitar Hero Van Halen hasn’t been forgotten and is eventually coming out. I was really looking forward to it dropping at its original date here in August 2009. Now it’s coming out just days before Christmas — December 22nd. What a weird release date. But regardless, I’m psyched for this one’s release!

Here’s the official list:
(more…)

Guitar Hero Van Halen Trailer from E3

// June 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gaming, Music, Van Halen

You can mute this video, as the audio playing is from the trade show floor of E3 and is completely unrelated to the trailer for Guitar Hero: Van Halen. This is the first glimpse of the game that had been confirmed, but didn’t even have a release date, unlike Guitar Hero 5, Rock Band Beatles, etc. So it was finally good to get a visual confirmation, and to just see the visuals.

Unfortunately, it’s looking like a lot of this game is going to be the worst case scenario — current Van Halen lineup — meaning Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, rather than Michael Anthony (or Sammy Hagar). I am holding out hope that both will show up deeper into the game. The article at IGN below references four songs playable at E3 — “Panama,” “You Really Got Me,” “Jump” and “Ain’t Talking About Love.” All of those are Roth-era tracks. Again, I’m holding out hope that the game will have a mix of Roth and Hagar tracks. The trailer shown at the show references 25 Van Halen tracks, which is only 5 shy of my wish list that I wrote up a couple months back.

Regardless, as such a die-hard VH nut, I’ll still be purchasing this one upon release. My fingers are crossed that this one will be as much fun as Guitar Hero: Metallica (which I just snagged this past weekend — review forthcoming).

I’m pretty sure a Van Halen fanboy like myself will get my money’s worth out of this one, regardless of any shortcomings or limitations it may possess. Then again, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Guitar Hero Van Halen Preview

Eddie Van Halen Promises New Album and Tour for 2010!

// June 1st, 2009 // 16 Comments » // Music, Van Halen

Sweet! It looks like next year we’ll finally get some new Van Halen music, with a tour to follow, supporting it. If the tracks are along the lines of the last new tracks with Roth (“Me Wise Magic” and “Can’t Get This Stuff No More”), it should rock. I’m looking forward to finally adding some more Van Halen tracks to my collection — finally!

As for Ed’s comment about Michael Anthony quitting the band — I gotta call BS! The Van Halens weren’t doing anything in the music biz and former Van Halen alum Sammy Hagar was. Anthony had every right and was justified going out on the road with Hagar. Once the Van Halens got Roth back in the mix, I can understand him wanting to be participating. But that being said, the Van Halens wrote Anthony off long before bringing DLR back. On the Van Halen 3 album (with Gary Cherone fronting), Anthony wasn’t involved in the studio recordings, and only was involved in the last Hagar-fronted tour at Hagar’s insistence. So I’m definitely calling BS.

That being said, I’ll be first in line to buy the album later next year, along with the Guitar Hero: Van Halen game [hopefully] this year.

Eddie Van Halen Promises New Album and Tour for 2010!