Van Halen

Recently, I went on vacation. A real vacation, away from work and away from home for an entire week. This is something I haven't done in quite a while. My friend Nathan was nice enough to let me stay with him in Orlando (aka Fantasyland). Now, Nathan and I have been friends for about a year or so. But since we get along so well I often feel like I've known him forever therefore, I expect to know and understand most of my quirks. This is wrong of me as you shall see. O... MORE

It was a long time in the making, but in the end the reunion tour from Van Halen was totally worth it. David Lee Roth rejoined the band for the first time in 20 years, and the guys racked up $93 million dollars in revenue. The successful tour was temporarily stalled when Eddie Van Halen had to enter rehab in March of 2007. Upon his release things got back on track and the tour stretched into 2008. Van Halen's handlers say this was the most successful tour in thei bands h... MORE

In an interview with Rolling Stone, guitar hero Eddie Van Halen shares, among other things, how important the Kinks are to him sorta. A few excerpts from the chat: RSYou ended up covering another Sixties classic, the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," on your first album. EVH:At our shows, we used to do that and "All Day and All of the Night" and, you know, just a bunch of old, semi-obscure rock tunes. I always liked taking old songs and turning a prop plane into a j... MORE

SIERRA MADRE, Calif. (AP) - A wildfire that broke out in a popular hiking area blackened the steep slopes of the foothills near Pasadena and forced mandatory evacuations for 300 homes, authorities said Sunday. Two hundred homes around Sierra Madre were evacuated Saturday night and residents from 100 other properties were told to leave Sunday, Elisa Weaver of the Arcadia Fire Department said, as the wildfire continued to burn its way through dense brush. Sierra Madre is a... MORE

That is something both crazy AND useful...
- The project
In May 2008 an extraordinary project will bind France, Canada and a single man for an historic supersonic free fall. Michel Fournier will drop out of the stratosphere from an altitude from about 130,000 feet (40 kilometers, nearly 25 miles) above the plains of Saskatchewan, Canada, and will contribute to the development of future technologies and the safety of stratospheric flight.
- The flight will cram 4 ... MORE

Van Halen has rescheduled tour dates that were postponed due to Eddie Van Halen's medical condition. The group returned to glory last fall with David Lee Roth for the first time in 20 years. The guys will resume their travels on April 19th and will play 20 shows before wrapping up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Apr 19: Las Vegas (Mandalay Bay Events Center) Apr 22: Cincinnati (U.S. Bank Arena) Apr 24: Dallas (American Airlines Center) Apr 26: St Louis (Scottrade Center) A... MORE

Van Halen have postponed four concert dates while frontman Eddie Van Halen undergoes "a battery of comprehensive medical tests to determine a defined diagnosis and recommended medical procedures.” Rumors allege that the Van Halen guitarist has gotten back on the sauce due to the publication of his former wife, Valerie Bertinelli's tell-all book. Other rumors point to the his fight with cancer. Eddie has long battled both substance abuse and cancer. Last nigh... MORE

This is the vocal track for Van Halen's Runnin' With the Devil. Anyone have any thoughts on what it should be played over? Let Diamond Dave lead the way...

Say what you will about Van Halen now, but there was a day when they were the baddest, most imitated band on the planet. They made metal a music palatable even non adolescent boys (read: actual real live women!) and changed the face of what party rock was.
While Van Halen is most known for the guitar virtuosity/pyrotechnics of Eddie Van Hallen, but I think this track will rove that ol' Diamond Dave had the chops to put a voice to that guitar. Hell if it wasn't for Dia... MORE

I mean, if Jason Bonham were to wheel the remaining members of Led Zeppelin out in wheelchairs and ask people to pay $250 a seat to see them, $300 for nosebleed seats, I'd go see Zep if they were playing 250 miles within where I lived. As bad-ass a band as Van Halen was, do they still carry the same water as they used to? I mean, with all their stupid missteps.. firing Dave. Later, firing Sammy. (Sammy went on tour with Dave, and even though Sam said he couldn't stand... MORE

It pains me to think of it, but in the time between my first discovering Van Halen and now, two generations of young guitarists have grown up almost completely oblivious as to their importance in shaping the sound of the past 30 years in rock music. What's more worrying is that if the lost generation, who grew up thinking a guitar hero is someone who is good at a computer game, was for some reason vaguely aware of Eddie and the boys, it was more likely they were familiar... MORE

More banks reveal damage caused by subprime-infected debt HOW big the final bill will be is not clear. But most estimates put the eventual tally for defaults by America’s subprime borrowers at $200 billion-300 billion. Sensibly with such a big sum, banks are taking the pain in installments. On Thursday December 20th Bear Stearns was the latest Wall Street bank to add to the $40 billion or so in related losses that its peers have admitted to. The bank suffered a write-dow... MORE