Catch the Dorktrain to Nerdtown!

So I’m starting a new section of this so-called weblog where instead of harping on American Idol only and taking a well-deserved hiatus from June to January, instead I will point out some cool things that I think everyone should be aware of.

My first entry is a “band” that I happened upon a few months ago and that should have a huge following if everything was right in the world.

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA

Now I speak Italian and took three years of French in Jr. High, so I know that their name roughly translated means, Rodrigo and Gabriela. When I first saw the album cover looking like some sort of midevil dragon’s eye

“What is this crap, Celtic or King Arthur Rock? Dream Theater in kilts? Maybe if I was 47 years old and thought that Queensryche was the best band ever. Not interested.”

But in fact, not only is the image of a crocodile’s eye, (much cooler than a cheesy dragon) but these two crazy kids are some of the best guitar pickers that I think I have ever heard. And I’ve heard like two or three in my lifetime. I mean, my formative years were in the ’80’s during the era of the most ridiculous, awesome guitar music ever invented. Steve Vai or Nuno Bettencourt anyone?

Essentially, Rodrigo and Gabriela are two guitarists from Mexico that now reside in Dublin (?) that absolutely rip on dueling guitars with steel or nylon strings. Heavy metal trained, (and it shows on their covers of Metallica’s “One” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”) they sound like nothing else out there right now that I know about anyway.

Here’s an example of them on Craig Ferguson:

And of course this classic:

Or how about this?

 Are you a fan yet? Good!

I’ll keep you posted of other stuff that I stumble on that in my opinion (really the only one that matters) is cool. And when I say you, I mean YOU, Lilli. My one and only reader.

Do you know of something cool that I don’t? Send me an email and I’ll be sure to include it here if it passes my coolness quotient exam, that is.  A rigorous three day testing protocol that compares your suggestion to the coolness of say, “The Brady Bunch.” Will you come out a winner?