United Airlines Breaks Guitars And Makes Dave Carroll Famous

Here, without rhythm, harmony or rhyme, is Dave Carroll's problem: Last year, while he was flying from Nova Scotia to Nebraska on United Airlines, somebody broke his $3,500 guitar.

Big deal, you're thinking. Who has time to keep track of all the things United breaks? (See bottom of story for some statistics, which suggest that several other airlines are worse.)

But Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, have told their tale with rhythm, harmony, rhyme, not to mention some wicked humor, and their four-minute, 37-second complaint, "United Breaks Guitars," above, is racking up views on YouTube.

Before we tell you what United has to say about all this, here's a quick version of Carroll's saga, as distilled from his website. (Messages to Carroll's home phone and e-mail address went unanswered Tuesday night.):

In spring 2008, Carroll and company headed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, by way of (shudder now, frequent fliers) Chicago. Just after landing at O'Hare airport, says Carroll, one of his bandmates and another passenger looked out their windows and saw baggage handlers heaving around guitars with wanton disregard.

Carroll says he complained immediately to three flight attendants, but was met with indifference. Some time after arrival in Nebraska, Carroll says, he discovered that, sure enough, the base of his 710 Taylor acoustic guitar had been smashed.

But he had gigs to play, so he found a way to do that. As Carroll acknowledges, he didn't attempt to complain again until beginning his return flight a week later.

Over the following days, weeks and months, Carroll made many phone calls to United representatives in Chicago and (who didn't see this coming?) India, but basically he says United did nothing for him.

Meanwhile, Carroll spent $1,200 getting the guitar repaired "to a state that it plays well but has lost much of what made it special."

The capping blow, Carroll says, was an e-mail from a Ms. Irlweg, who denied his claim for compensation because he didn't complain in the right place, or at the right time. The airline wouldn't even give him $1,200 in travel vouchers, Carroll contends.

So he vowed a sort of musical revenge - not one protest song, not two, but three, with a video for each, all to be posted on the Web. Carroll says he told Ms. Irlweg all about it, but got the usual response.

The video was posted on July 6. In its first 23 hours, "United Breaks Guitars" had drawn 461 comments on YouTube, most of them maligning the airline, and one of them hearkening back to Tom Paxton and his tune of aerial guitar trouble, "Thank you, Republic Airlines." (The viewer counter appeared to be stuck at 3,441, but the video quickly went viral, with the Consumerist showing more than 24,000 views by Tuesday night.)

Among the comments: "Revenge is a dish best served with country accompaniment."

So what does United have to say about the song?

"This has struck a chord with us, and we've contacted him directly to make it right," said Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United. (Urbanski also said she "loved" the video.)

Urbanski said a phone meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday, and that before the airline decides exactly what to do for Carroll, "we need to have that conversation with him directly."

Meanwhile, Carroll's website says he's written and recorded the second song, with video to follow soon. And he has all sorts of other plans for a third song, and various tactics to achieve a million Web hits, which he believes will give some sense of revenge.

In fact, he writes, "I should thank United... If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme negligence I'm glad it was you that did it."

By the way: In the U.S. Department of Transportation's tally of lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered baggage in April 2009, United ranked 10th among 19 carriers, with 13,517 "baggage reports" among 4.03 million passengers.

via: guitarnewsdaily.com

Mark Frauenfelder's Cigar Box Guitars

Mark Frauenfelder's (of BoingBoing blog) crafty imagination created these awesome cigar box guitars.

Cigar Box Guitar No. 1

My first cigar box guitar. The frets are crooked, the action is too high (because I forgot that I needed to shave off the part of the neck that's glued to the box), the sound hole cuts into the neck, the neck is split, the fret dots aren't centered. And yet it works! I am already starting CBG #2.

Image credit: Frauenfelder

Cigar Box Guitar No. 2

For my second cigar box guitar, I bought a six foot length of 1 x 2 oak from Home Depot. I made sure the piece of lumber was flat and straight. It weighed a lot more than the pine wood I’d used in my first cigar box guitar, and felt a lot better in my hands. I also bought a small metal miter box from a hobby store to cut the fret slots in the neck. This time, I made perfectly straight fret cuts.

I shaved off the part of the neck that attached to the cigar box so that the surface of the fret board was flush with the top of the cigar box, unlike on my first cigar box guitar. Remembering Mister Jalopy’s dictum, “screws not glues,” I screwed the neck to the cigar box with three fasteners. This way, if I need to make changes or later want to swap in a new cigar box, it will be a simple matter to remove the screws.

I made a couple of small mistakes, like drilling a hole in a spot that hit a screw going in a perpendicular direction to the hole, but this guitar build went very smoothly. The action is low, but not so low that it buzzes, and I can play the strings all the way up to the highest fret (the 20th) without interference.

Image credit: Frauenfelder

For guitar beginners who are trying to learn how to play the guitar, it's nice to learn too on how to create one for yourself. :)

Nike Responds To Van Halen Complaint "Did Not!"

Nike Denies Copying Van Halen's 'Frankenstein' Guitar Design
Eddie Van Halen is suing the company for using a pattern similar to his iconic guitar on Dunk shoe line.

Van Halen are suing Nike over an alleged design similarity between Eddie Van Halen's iconic "Frankenstein" guitar and a new line of the sportswear company's sneakers, according to reports. But in a statement to Footwear News, Nike has now called the lawsuit without merit.

"Based on the information provided to us, we have not infringed on any rights held by Mr. Van Halen," the statement read. "Nike's Dunk shoe design is not substantially similar to any of the Van Halen designs, and Nike has not referenced the 'Van Halen' name or image as part of any marketing campaign or promotional material associated with the shoe."

ELVH, Van Halen's company, filed a cause of action for copyright infringement complaint last Friday in a Los Angeles court against Nike, alleging that the design of some Dunk Low sneakers matches that of Van Halen's famous guitars.

In 2001, the group copyrighted the crisscrossing red, black and white pattern that Eddie created in the late '70s for his hybrid version of Gibson and Fender electric guitars. He's continued to use the design on subsequent guitars. The trim on the side of the Nike Dunks features a red background with black and white crisscrosses.

Credit: vanarts

Earlier in the spring, Van Halen released a line of sneakers featuring the Frankenstein design through a licensing deal with a New Jersey-based merchandising company.

ELVH contends that the similar Nike design caused Van Halen "irreparable harm and damage" and asks for the seizure and destruction of all the sneakers, confiscation of the profits and damages.

Lawyers for Van Halen told Footwear News that they had no comment besides the filed complaint, and they declared their preference "to try cases in court."

via mtv.com

Ozzy Osbourne Takes Legal Action Against Tony Iommi

A statement from Ozzy Osbourne:

“It is with great regret that I had to resort to legal action against my long term partner, Tony Iommi, but after three years of trying to resolve this issue amicably, I feel I have no other recourse. As of the mid-1990s, after constant and numerous changes in band members, the brand of "Black Sabbath" was literally in the toilet and Tony Iommi (touring under the name Black Sabbath) was reduced to performing in clubs. Since 1997 when Geezer, Bill and myself rejoined the band, Black Sabbath has returned to its former glory as we headlined sold-out arenas and amphitheatres playing to upwards of 50,000 people at each show around the world.

"We worked collectively to restore credibility and bring dignity back to the name “Black Sabbath” which lead to the band being inducted into the UK and US Rock & Roll Hall of Fames in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Throughout the last 12 years, it was my management representatives who oversaw the marketing and quality control of the “Black Sabbath” brand through OZZFEST, touring, merchandising and album reissues.

Image Credit: Whiskeygonebad

"The name "Black Sabbath" now has a worldwide prestige and merchandising value that it would not have had by continuing on the road it was on prior to the 1997 reunion tour. Tony, I am so sorry it’s had to get to this point by me having to take this action against you. I don’t have the right to speak for Geezer [Butler] and Bill [Ward], but I feel that morally and ethically the trademark should be owned by the four of us equally. I hope that by me taking this first step that it will ultimately end up that way.

"We’ve all worked too hard and long in our careers to allow you to sell merchandise that features all our faces, old Black Sabbath album covers and band logos, and then you tell us that you own the copyright. We’re all in our 60s now. The Black Sabbath legacy should live on long after we have all gone. Please do the right thing.”

Hendrix Murdered By His Manager, Says Former Aide

The rock legend Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager, who stood to collect millions of dollars on the star's life insurance policy, a former roadie has claimed in a new book.

James "Tappy" Wright says that Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffrey, drunkenly confessed to killing him by stuffing pills into his mouth and washing them down with several bottles of red wine because he feared Hendrix intended to dump him for a new manager, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday.

In his book, Rock Roadie, Mr Wright says Jeffrey told him in 1971 that Hendrix had been "worth more to him dead than alive" as he had taken out a life insurance policy on the musician worth $2m (about £1.2m at the time), with himself as the beneficiary. Two years later, Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash.

Image Credit: Stepale

Jimi Hendrix died in September 1970, aged 27. An ambulance crew found his body in the Samarkand Hotel, west London, in the room of a woman called Monika Dannemann, whom he had known for only a few days.

Hendrix was alone in the room, lying on his back, with the gas fire on and the door open. There was no record of who had called the ambulance. His inquest recorded the cause of his death as barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit, and recorded an open verdict.

Describing the night of Jeffrey's confession, Mr Wright wrote: "I can still hear that conversation, see the man I'd known for so much of my life, his face pale, hand clutching at his glass in sudden rage."

Wright claims Jeffrey told him: "I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I'm talking about.

"I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.

"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."

John Bannister, the surgeon who dealt with Hendrix at hospital, has said he was convinced the star had drowned in red wine, despite having very little alcohol in his bloodstream.

"I recall vividly the very large amounts of red wine that oozed from his stomach and his lungs and in my opinion there was no question that Jimi Hendrix had drowned, if not at home then on the way to the hospital," he wrote in 1992.

From www.independent.co.uk