Stereogum Home

 

May 31, 2006

Brian May Doesn't Like This Bendy Business

Tonight is the second annual VH1 Hip-Hop Honors which the cabler has cleverly renamed Rock Honors since hip-hop is so 2005. Hard to get excited about Godsmack and All-American Rejects playing KISS and Def Leppard songs, but there is one cool part. For Queen's performance, Roger Taylor is joined on separate kits by Footos' Taylor Hawkins and Dave "I'm Not Dead" Grohl. Three drummers = nuts! And if you watch closely, you'll notice Brian May uses not a guitar pick, but a coin. He tells Westwood One:

"It came about 'cause I was using harder and harder picks and I couldn't find anything that was really, stiff enough I suppose, because I like to feel everything that happens at the string in my fingers, I don't like this bendy business because to me you lose contact, I like to actually feel every little piece of vibration, and then one day I picked up the coin and I discovered that not only did I get perfect transmission of the feel from the string to the finger, but I also got this lovely ability to change the attack."
Fun fact: another cool coin tosser ... Peter Buck on R.E.M.'s "Drive."

If you're not on a Mac like I am today you can watch some Queen honorin' here. It's under "Sneak Peaks, Exculsive Performances and Backstage Action." I love pointing out other sites' mistakes 'cause y'all love pointing out the Gum's!

Posted at 4:22 PM




16 Comments

1st

Posted by: g at 05/31/06 9:01 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

I can't stand "1st" kind of posts.

2nd.

Posted by: dude at 05/31/06 9:03 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

the zz top guy uses a mexican coin
how's that for useless vague info???

Posted by: flappppppppa at 05/31/06 9:14 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Also - Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top was known to play with a Peso instead of a pick.

Posted by: Ian! at 05/31/06 9:16 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Awesome. Fuck picks!

Posted by: scott at 05/31/06 9:26 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

I played with a coin once cuz I didn't have a pick with me. It was a nickel, I think, and it was a huge pain in the ass. round edges = no fun for guitars (unless you're an amazing guitar player like may or gibbons I guess)

Posted by: max at 06/01/06 12:33 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Peter Buck said in an interview that he used a coin on "Drive" as a tribute to Brian May.

Posted by: the champ at 06/01/06 1:33 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

i use my cock to play guitar with, thus i win.

Posted by: the idiot at 06/01/06 5:05 AM | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

I use that guys cock too. But I play the mandolin.

Posted by: Robert at 06/01/06 6:18 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

As for the 3 drummers bit - check out Boredoms live if they make it over to the U S of A and aren't arrested for being noise terrorists. Saw them twice last week and they were phenomenal. As for other bits of pointless trivia...Billy Gibbons invented the artificial harmonic in 1968 and accidentally created the 80s.

Posted by: Neilo at 06/01/06 7:40 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

The Sarcastic Idiocy Forum advocates the responsible use of cheddar cheese at all times.
http://sarcasm.15.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

Posted by: Political.Asylum at 06/01/06 9:15 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

There seems to be a crazy QUEEN Renascence going on.
Now everybody's claiming to love QUEEN. But just so there's no confusion we, the poo poodles, have always loved QUEEN.

So, that established, we shamelessly plug our loving tribute to Freddie Mercury:

FREDDIE MERCURY IS PUNKER THAN YOU, PUNK!

Listen now at http://myspace.com/poopoodles

Posted by: poo poodles at 06/01/06 9:58 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Didn't Jonny Greenwood use a paintbrush on "Anyone Can Play Guitar"?

I wonder how much vibration you can feel with one of those.

Posted by: shane at 06/01/06 11:39 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

neilo- you saw the Boredoms twice LAST WEEK? That's crazy. Do they practice in your basement?

Posted by: E at 06/01/06 8:45 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

try using one of my custom "pesopicks"tm by "SOME DUDE'S PESO PICKS"tm check out my site @ "pesopicks.com

Posted by: pesopick dude at 06/12/07 6:16 PM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

PESOPICKS rule! Anyone who has ever used one knows.

Posted by: J.L. from Austin at 10/11/07 6:59 AM | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Leave a comment


Staff

  • Founder/Editor-In-Chief: Scott Lapatine
  • Executive Editor: Amrit Singh
  • Senior Writer: Brandon Stosuy

Info

Contact

Get Flash to see our mp3 player. Here are our mp3s: Cold Cave - Life Magazine (»)
Pants Yell! - Cold Hands (»)
Bill Quick - Take Me Away (»)
Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel (Wallpaper's Mariah Mashup) (»)
Air - Sing Sang Sung (Black Moth Super Rainbow Remix) (»)
Avi Buffalo - What's In It For (»)
Vampire Weekend - Horchata (»)
Small Black - Kings Of Animals (»)
Max Tundra - Which Song (Passion Pit Remix) (»)
Cold Cave - Theme From Tomorrowland (»)
Tegan And Sara - Hell (»)
Jeff The Brotherhood - Bone Jam (»)
Mount Eerie - Wind's Dark Poem (»)
Tigercity - Fake Gold (»)
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (»)
Drink Up Buttercup - Even Think (Andrew W.K. Remix) (»)
Florence And The Machine - You've Got The Love (The xx Remix) (»)
Cold Cave - The Laurels of Erotomania (»)
Jookabox - Phantom Don't Go (»)
Jookabox - You Cried Me (»)

Progress Report logo
Commercial Appeal logo
Premature Evaluation logo
Band to Watch logo
Quit Your Day Job logo
The Outsiders logo
The 'Gum Drop logo