Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:37 pm
Posts: 5501
Location: Threadkill, CA
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Probably no one's cuppa tea in here, but wtf- you guitarists out there might get a kick out of him. I'd never heard of this guy, but Rasputin's was giving away a boatload of CDs they couldn't sell, and Live 2000 was one of them. Wow. I've never heard of this guy before but this 2-disc live set is blowing me away, and is exceptionally recorded, too. Best dynamics I've heard from a trio in a long, long time. ML on guitar, Jimmy Johnson (check out his credits here) on bass & Toss Panos (who?) on drums, playing as though they've been playing together forever.  Because I'm lazy, I'm cut/pasting some reviews from Amazon. this is, without a doubt, one of the finest live recordings i have ever purchased. if you are a fan of true guitar music played with heart and guts, you owe it to yourself to pick up this double-disc release from one of America's finest guitarists.
for those who don't know, Michael Landau is one of the most-heard guitar players in popular music today. not just rock, but jazz, country and r & b, too! as far as i can remember, he has released 2 cds as a solo artist, 4 with "Burning Water", 2 with "Raging Honkies" and one with "Blue Horn". i own all 9, and while they are ALL excellent discs, this one is, without a doubt, the most-played on my system.
his sense of timing, touch, and tone stands out on this set of 14 tunes recorded with his trio, Jimmy "flim" Johnson and Toss Panos (plus Jeff Babko on one track). from the clean tones on "that day" to the beyond-overdrive squeeze of "born in the rain", he uses all the sounds you want to hear, and hits all the notes that the rest of us only dream of pulling.....and that's just the first disc!... his melodic dexterity and sense of groove are beyond compare. Mr Landau is a true original, and in a live set like this (recorded at the baked potato), we all benefit.
do yourself a favor, buy this double disc set. sure it's a bit pricey, but like i said, you get what you pay for. and i mean that in a good way!! And... I find it hard to believe, after over 30 years of listening to electric guitar players, that I am just discovering Landau now. But, better late than never ! Think of all the great players who have some Hendrix vibe to what they do-Frank Marino, Robin Trower, Scott Henderson, SRV, Eric Johnson, Julien Kasper, Jeff Beck. Some pretty stellar company imo. However, I find myself saying as I listen to Landau,"he has the strongest Hendrix vibe of any guitarist on this planet ! " You are in for a treat if you buy this disc. I also have his first solo recording, Tales of the Bulge, but this is really where Landau shines; in a live atmosphere. Jimmy Johnson on Bass and Toss Panos on drums are both simply amazing as well. Strat lovers rejoice ! And... I live in Los Angeles. I've had the extreme pleasure of seeing Mike play a number of times. With Burning Water, the Raging Honkies, Vonda Shepard, maybe Los Lobotomies (?) sitting in here and there. Saw him play in Tokyo when I lived there.
I've seen plenty of other players as well, and I can attest hands down that Mike is the best guitar player on the planet.
If you listened to the radio at all in the 1990's, you heard Mike play on just about every hit, he was one of the two kings of the studio guitar back then (Steve Lukather being the other). The bottom fell out of the studio business soon after that, but I digress.
This album was recorded at the Baked Potato in No. Hollywood, a room about the size of your living room, packed full of people. There is no way that a recording can capture the sound of a room, the walls vibrating from Mike's roaring guitar, the pounding of the drums, ears on the thresh hold of pain, but this album comes close. It has a fantastic live vibe, you can hear the room, maybe bleeding in through the vocal or drum mics. It sounds fantastic.
It's doubtful to me that mere mortals who've never seen him play live can comprehend what's going on by just listening to this CD, but you have to try.
It's the best of the remnants of the fusion movement, without the silly synthesizers and forced changes, blended with Jimi Hendrix on his best, most lucid day. He's a genius, if you listen to this album 1000 times and try your hardest, you'll only scratch the surface of what he's saying.
Get it, and play it very loud. If your brain is wired to understand subtlety and complexity, and recognize and appreciate genius, you'll really, really dig it. Here's his site: http://www.mikelandau.com/
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Old's cool.
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