Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

This is it? Just two CDs devoted (snicker) to one of the great American bands? With the one-two punch of their mission statements "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid" from the early 70's, it's clear that Devo had it all figured out from the beginning. Theirs was a fight against the increasingly alienating modern world, a sort of "if you can't beat it, join it" idea. Devo would find more honest humanity by becoming less human. "Are we not men? We are Devo!" was their declaration, echoing the man-beast experiments in H.G. Wells's Island of Dr. Moreau. Devo were not just academic philosophers, or simple clowns. They could rock! Disjointed beats, Beefheart-worthy rhythms, and strange sounds combined with general outrageousness resulted in a great rock & roll band, and even a hit or two on the pop charts like 1980's "Whip It."

The first of the two CDs on the Rhino compilation Pioneers Who Got Scalped goes down like butter, every song a classic. Two or three more CDs could have easily been culled from these same fertile years between their debut album and 1981's New Traditionalists. The second CD starts to lose the plot a bit as the members of Devo started going in different directions, primarily Mark Mothersbaugh's developing interest in movie soundtracks and scoring. But it does still paint the picture of Devo and where they were during what Jerry Casale, Mothersbaugh's writing partner, refers to as "the enigmatic years."

Until someone steps up and releases the entire Devo recordings and videos together in one big box, this will have to do. And too many great things cannot be said about the 52-page booklet filled to the gills with info and photos. While completists will still be left wanting, this'll keep most spud boys and girls pogo-ing contentedly. --Steve Turner

Practicing consistently and well is a much harder thing to do then it seems and there are many reasons why this is the case. Before I go on, I just want to say that bad practice habits affects even the most experienced blues players but it can be overcome with some help. Here are some of the issues that you may face when practicing and here are some usable solutions:

1) Problem: Getting stuck in a rut. This is a very common problem that affects nearly all guitarists at some point in time. You end up playing the same riff and lick over and over every time you play and you can't seem to move on to anything new.

Solution: I am a firm believer that you should aspire to play everything perfectly. But, if you are stuck on this one thing and you feel like practice is getting a little stale, you should really advance to something else that inspires you. It is so important to be inspired in your practice and you can always come back to something later when you are in the right mood. Jamming over to blues backing tracks will also help in your creativity and inspiration.

2) Problem: Progressing to new skills too rapidly. Also a very common problem, moving on too quickly will without doubt, eventually turn you into a "jack of all trades and a master of none".

Solution: This problem is the opposite of the last problem we looked at. You can now see that there is a balance between too much and not enough emphasis on perfecting a song. My suggestion is that you should master each thing before you go on to the next, but if you are finding a particular skill impossible to master and you are dying of boredom trying, maybe that skill is a little out of your reach. In this case, it is best to go back and learn something less difficult.

3) Problem: Becoming narrow minded in relation to the different areas of learning within musicianship. Some people get into the situation where they are practicing only one style and neglecting everything else.

Solution: Try splitting your playing into parts. For example, I might spend 5 minutes practicing new blues scales or chords, 10 minutes working on writing new music for myself and maybe 15 minutes learning a new song or part of a song. This way, your practice never gets boring and you can achieve a lot more.

4) Problem: Playing things too fast when learning them. This can cause you to become disillusioned with your playing when you are trying to learn a new song.

Solution: A fairly obvious solution here - Slow down. Most blues guitarists, including myself try playing a song or new skill at a slow speed before trying it at a fast pace.

Practicing properly and regularly is the best way to become good at anything including playing the guitar. This requires discipline; not only discipline to practice regularly, but also discipline to stay focused and on track when you are practicing. A great way to keep the passion in practicing is to jam to professional blues backing tracks. There are great compilations of jam tracks from companies such as 50Blues. If you stay disciplined with your playing you will develop into an excellent player.

Zack Roberts is the founder of 50 Blues Music Studios. He is a professional full time musician and guitar instructor, specializing in classic blues and rock music. He also runs a recording studio in Jersey City, NJ

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Extended Play Two

Frank Zappa put it best when he said "Modern music is people who can't think signing artists who can't write songs to make records for people who can't hear".

But what happens when you cut out the "people who can't think"? The artist would become in direct contact with the individual, the record companies have to strictly enforce copyright to not lose their grasp, and new artists become a dime a dozen. Welcome to the future of music in 2008.

By now your 160gb mp3 player is probably starving for new music and with 2008 just starting you want to know who to watch and where to look. The truth is, no one can tell you who to watch and no one should, but we're going to show you where to look to find music you'll like instead of wasting your times with ones you won't.

Pandora - Dubbed the music genome project, Pandora allows you to type in an artist you like and then leads you to similar artists. This free streaming service will lead you from artist to artist as you let it know if it's going in the right direction or not.

Last.fm - If video killed the radio star, the internet brought it back. Last.fm allows anyone to create their own station and you have the opportunity to listen. Their search function allows you to find the artist or genre you're looking for and the similar tastes those people have.

We7 + Spiral Frog - Forget paying to download music, these services are funded by advertisements to give you the music for free. Keep your membership active and follow their guidelines any you'll be able to download this music to both your computer and mp3 player.

Last year, Radiohead released their CD "In Rainbows" through digital distribution on their website. The cost was completely to you under their "pay what you want" system that ran between October and December last year, because like the Eagles and Prince, Radiohead is without a contract and decided that they don't need one. Because of actions like this, expect album prices to go down, digital music sales to continue rising, and bands to compete for your attention at your price point in the upcoming year. When you can stream or download any song you want when you want onto your computer, mp3 player, or mobile device, purchasing a physical or digital album is voting with your money. Make that's one of the two votes you cast in 2008.

Here is nice website where you can find the latest music releases and the most popular music hits of all time, music videos, lyrics, single and album reviews.