Well it’s all official now, the mighty Van Halen will be releasing a new album this year as well as touring the US after months of “will they, won’t they”?

The new album, A Different Kind Of Truth, will be released in the US on February 7th with the first single from the album, “Tattoo“, and its video debuting simultaneously on January 10th.

Last night they played an intimate gig at the infamous Cafe Wha? in New York. Playing some classics as well as the new song ‘She’s The Woman’.

Cafe Wha? Setlist

You Really Got Me
Runnin With THhe Devil
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Everybody Wants Some
She’s The Woman
Dance The Night Away
Panama
Hot For Teacher
Ice Cream Man
Ain’t Talkin Bout Love
Jump

Beautiful Girls
Unchained

Already some footage is appearing on the inter webs, check out these vids of Diamond Dave talking about Lady Ga Ga, footage of the new song ‘She’s The Woman’ and a little snippet of DLR on acoustic playing ‘Ice Cream Man’:

In the latest ‘Professor Shred‘ Master Govan shows us the chords and tapping section from ‘Bad Asteroid’:

Some great official footage of The Aristocrats playing in Montreal:

This is sounding awesome.

Master Vai working on a new song called “Weeping China Doll” for his next album.

Really looking forward to the new album

I’ve been enjoying Richie Kotzen‘s new album ‘24 hours‘ so great to see some live video pop up on the ‘tube.

Here’s a hirsute Richie playing the title track from the album at Paladino’s on November 23rd:

Buy ’24 hours’ direct from Richie Kotzen.

Been meaning to blog about this for a while, new baby == HUGE backlog .

Anyway, I was lucky enough to hear and see Lyle perform this superb cover at Monkeyfest 2011, and it blew me away. I’m glad to see Lyle has nipped into the studio to record a great quality version:

Check out Lyle’s debut CD, Homegrown, on CD Baby

Punters at the Manchester Zappa Plays Zappa gig were treated to a guest appearance of Guthrie Govan, as Dweezil himself blogged:

Tonight in Manchester my friend Guthrie Govan played with us. He’s a very fine guitarist with superhuman precision. I enjoyed having him onstage. I kept suggesting different musical styles for him to play over and he nailed all of them. Country, Lounge Jazz, super wristy funk and a Classical Etude. Then he let loose on a crazy yet musical solo before we played a few notes together.

…and luckily enough someone caught some footage of it

All hail The Govanator.

Great collection of videos from The Aristocrats performing at the Atlanta Institute Of Music, featuring performances of “Sweaty Knockers”, “Flat Lands”, “Blues F*ckers” and “Boing!…I’m In The Back”:

Check out this beautifully shot video of a stunning recent performance of ‘Sevens’ in Iceland:

Hot off the press:

CHICKENFOOT, the acclaimed US supergroup featuring guitar hero Joe Satriani, frontman Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony (both formerly of Van Halen) and world renowned drummer Chad Smith, celebrate their highly anticipated second album Chickenfoot III with a special concert and Q&A webcast, streamed worldwide tonight (Sept 28th) from 8pm (UK time) at www.chickenfoot.us.

Originally transmitted live yesterday at 6pm PST (2am UK time), tonight’s one-off re-broadcasting is aimed exclusively at Chickenfoot’s European fan base.


Produced by Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica), Chickenfoot III comes complete with innovative, never-before-seen 3D packaging. Each physical copy of the album with contain a pair of Chickenfoot 3D glasses where fans can view otherwise hidden album cover art, 3D pictures of the band, and hidden messages.

Direct link to broadcast here!