PhD Will, PhD Will Rock You

(NEWSER) - Les Paul's death today at age 94 has the accolades pouring in:

• Lou Carlozo, True/Slant: "The solid-body Les Paul guitar that Lester developed with Gibson in the early 1950s is rock and roll. Like the Fender Stratocaster, its shape is so synonymous with the genre that any musician can recognize it by its single-cutaway silhouette alone."
• John Cook, Gawker: Without Paul's multitrack recording, "there would have been no White Album, no Radiohead, no nothing." Cook also is in awe of how Paul retaught himself to play in his 80s, when he couldn't bend his arthritic fingers.

Inventor, guitarist 'changed the course of 20th-century popular music'

(NEWSER) - Musical innovator and guitar legend Les Paul died today in White Plains, NY. He was 94. A “virtuoso guitarist” himself, in the early 1940s Paul pioneered the “log” guitar, “probably the first solid-body electric guitar," writes Jon Pareles of the New York Times. His popular Gibson Les Paul guitar and his recording inventions helped him “change the course of 20th-century popular music.” More»

Leo Fender, inventor of the Stratocaster, born Aug. 10, 1909

(NEWSER) - Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a man who forever changed rock and roll—even though he couldn’t play the instrument inextricably associated with his name. Leo Fender designed guitars and amplifiers that have endured for decades, including the legendary Fender Stratocaster, played by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and countless others. “More than just a guitar,” the Strat “is one of the great hallmarks of modern art,” writes Michael Calore for Wired. More»

Eddie and Alex started young, and still finding ways to hold it together on tour

(NEWSER) - Eddie Van Halen took time out from touring to ruminate on the band and his guitar virtuosity with Rolling Stone. Turns out, the Van Halen brothers actually started out on opposite instruments: “I bought myself a drum kit, and my mom convinced my brother Alex to take flamenco-guitar lessons. I had a paper route to pay for the drum kit.” More»

Record will be out in the fall, kick off European tour

(NEWSER) - Freddie Mercury may be long gone, but the rest of Queen still wants to ride their bicycles. The band today said its first album in 13 years will be released in the fall, followed by tours of Europe and Latin America, Agence-France Press reports. The album, which will feature frontman Paul Rodgers, is the band's first recording since Made in Heaven in 1995. The new album is finished but still unnamed. More»