by David Banuelos
Copy Editor

Andy McKee:

The age of YouTube, dailymotion, break, and other video-streaming sites has featured legions of guitarists eager to perform for a worldwide audience.

For every teenaged novice with a camera poorly playing Metallica solos in his bedroom, there is an innovator of the instrument pushing its limits outward.

One such player, 27 year-old Kansan Andy McKee, saw his fame skyrocket after his record label, Candyrat, posted clips of his in-studio performances on YouTube.com. One of these clips, a performance of an original song called “Drifting,” has been viewed over 2.6 million times on YouTube alone.

I discovered McKee on break.com under the headline “amazing guitar player.” As a musician, I am often skeptical of such headlines because “amazing” often means “fast” rather than “musical.”

Within about ten seconds of the intro for “Drifting,” my jaw nearly hit the floor.

McKee beautifully integrates percussive techniques, two-handed tapping, and dazzling finger-style guitar work to craft songs that are as enjoyable as they are impressive.

A search through McKee’s other clips yields live show footage and in-studio performances on his Ron Spillers Harpguitar that are a bit new-agey, but still beautiful.

Other guitarists worth searching for include Erik Mongrain, Antoine Dufour, Stanley Jordan, and the late Michael Hedges.

by Jonathan Lavigne
Editor-in-Chief

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show:

Whether surfing the Net on YouTube or MySpace video, you never quite know what you will find next. Sometimes you will stumble upon people making faces, or lip-synching to some god-awful Chingy tune. But not everything you find online is crap.

I have a weird sense of humor. For the life of me I am still baffled by the appeal of Napoleon Dynamite. So, while searching the nearly infinite options of viral entertainment online, I stumbled on this little gem of ADD-inspired goodness.

Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show was written by Kim Evey and directed by Greg Benson. The video is self-described as being “one part Pee-wee’s Playhouse, one part crazy, unpredictable Japanese talk show, and one part whole milk.”

The show is goofy, self-mocking, and pure zaniness. The songs (three in all) are catchy and addictive, stapling themselves to your brain like some hybrid melanoma/tumor which must be medically removed.

Other great finds in odd humor include: Phone Call to God and Sexy Panda.