The Guitar Superdork Returns

For all that's worth the guy has a degree in music. You can hear his skill when he plays. The guy friggin shreads. I have great respect for a person who can play anything that well.
 

I'm sorry dude, but you're still going to have to post one more :-).

I'll send it to ya on the weekend X-D
 

a degree doesn't give you a liscense to wank. what if you just channelled all that energy into playing the guitar originally instead of a bunch of gimmicky shit? music degrees are next to worthless if you don't show any musicianship. his face says it all "look at how badass i am. just look. so bad ass. this neck, now that neck. i fucking rule." did they teach him that? guitar wank 4010?
 

anonymous has a point there, alx.

I'm sure he's pretty good, but all he's doing is showing off. Let's here something with, oh, a melody?
 

hear, rather.

Me fail english? That's unpossible!
 

he played at a seminar up here in vancouver canada and was the absolute nicest guy you could ever imagine - changed my whole view of him. self deprecating and hilarious sense of humour.
 

it's about as musically useful as a bag of damp squirrels.

as a previous poster said, having a degree in music does not give you permission to proclaim yourself "King Noodle".

and how practical is a double guitar anyway? i bet it's a nightmare to take on a bus.
i bet you can't get a case for it in Sound Control either...
 

You think 2 necks is awesome? This dude had a guitar with FOUR NECKS!

(http://kytary.muzikant.cz/person/angelo_michael/angelo8.jpg)

I think the 4 neck one got stolen, though.

His band Nitro had a record called OutFuckingRageous. Indeed.
 

Check out his studio. I am jeolous.
 

"and how pratical is a double neck guitar anyway?"
much more pratical than a 4 neck guitar.
I can just picture him sitting on a stool on stage trying to play all 4 necks at the same time with all 4 limbs. that would have been great on "This is Spinal Tap".
And Mr. Dean Spokesperson - wankery and a lot of widdleywiddleywiddleywiddley arpeggios a "serious" talent does not make.
 

As far as I'm concerned, Michael'a job is to be an entertainer. And he certainly entertains me.
 

Entertainment is a great word for it. Like Gene Simmons once said, "We are entertainers, not musicians." Or something like that.

Sounds really cool? No. Really. Looks cool? No, but entertaining in a Rodney Dangerfield sort of way.


He does have skillz, I must say.
 

you gotta wonder what he would sound like without the 3 second reverb and massive distortion...
 

He defintely has skill, however, I would love to hear him play cleanly, on a guitar with moderate action. His wank value is abotu the same as Van Halen, and is certianly no different than say, Jordan Rudess.
 

the assumption that all he can play is guitar wanking seems a little unfair to me.

yes it is something youd expect to see in spinaltap but lets face it, id bet money that the guy could still play half decent flamenco guitar and then go play some four bar punk without batting an eyelid.

being amazing at one particular discipline does not mean you cant do anything with the others
 

I love it. The typical reaction is that people go into ego-saving mode: "I bet he can't play clean" or "he can't play with feeling". Batio's skill level is just plain offensive to any mediocre player.
 

If Yngwie Malmsteen had a degree, maybe he'd play in tune at least occasionally.
 

Everyone is quick to take the piss out of him for using a double necked guitar, but it's no different if you're using both your hands to play a keyboard.

And anyway, this isn't a good demonstration of his playing ability. He has written some really nice melodic material.
 

I was thinking this the other day. What's the difference between a double-neck guitar and a two-manual organ? Or better still, the Yamaha EX-42, a triple-manual organ. A bit like those triple neck guitars that we all play these days...
 

The words "talentless hack" come to mind. Ugh, I'm so glad the 80's are behind us, and getting farther behind every day. Nitro was one of the worst of the worst of the hair bands. All speed and macho bullshit, not one shred of musicality or talent to he had from the lot of them.

If you really want to see someone who can actually play some music on two guitars simultaneously, dig up some video of Stanley Jordan playing Stairway to Heaven. If that doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, then I don't know what will.

BTW, please, no more of these hair-metal losers left over from the 80's. There's no nostalgia for these people. Just let them rest in peace!
 

As a multi-instrument guy I must say that this guy's playing is really nothing special. anyone who can play a classical piano piece and also play a guitar could learn how to play like this.. if they wanted to. Most people don't want to. Any good musician could post some cool video of playing a bass with one hand and a keyboard with the other, and doing it pretty fast. But there is really no point in doing it. Guitars sound better without excess distortion and reverb and there are plenty of virtuosic players who could do this without those effects - ever seen Chapman Stick demonstration? Van Halen was cool because he did similar stuff almost 30 years ago. Really, a 2-tiered organ player is much more impressive although it doesn't look as fun. This guy is ridiculous.
 

Holy Crap,
I haven't seen or heard about this guy since I was fourteen (I'm 30 now). Jesus. The guy rips, but he's all show and theory. Couldn't care less about what feels good, or heart. A showoff, always has been. If you think he's bad, do you remember the cheesetastic singer of the band he was in, Nitro? What was his name....Jim Gillette! God, something like a gazillion octaves, using that horrible falsetto of his (he claims he could shatter glass). Now, if you could get an audio of THAT guy to put on your site, that would make my day. To think, I grew up listening to that. Anyway...great site.
 

this guy (and other hair metal guitarists) did for the guitar what kenny g. did for the soprano saxophone.
 

hmmm. which is worse:
"wank, wank, wank"
or:
"blah, blah, blah"
?

my vote's for the blah's...
 

Batio may be the guitar superdork, but hes got nothing on.... MARK WOOD - VIOLIN SUPERDORK... check this out http://www.markwoodmusic.com/gallery/categories/Voodoo_Violince/media/Monkeybats.mov he has a doubleneck violin! if that isnt completely spazzy i dont know what is :P

Loneguitarist@gmail.com
 

it saddens me greatly that many of you call yourselves music fans and here you are putting other musician's down. that's just sad, and too many people are doing it; maybe to feed their own egos, maybe out of jealousy. either way, it sucks that you can't just appreciate different people for what they do. the cool thing is, playing music brings joy to michael angelo's soul, so he could care less what anyone thinks. the not so cool thing is, it's hard to be a music fan knowing there's so many "music fans" who aren't really fans of music at all and prove it on a daily basis like many of you are doing now. your next lesson should be in humility.
 

Look guys, Batio is good at what he does. But the bottom line is, it's generic. It's nothing I haven't heard before. The invention of his double-necked Vagina-Guitar may seem innovative on a visual level, but musically he isn't creating anything interesting. His guitar is just an excuse for him to differentiate himself from the other players of his style, when in fact as a MUSICIAN he's clearly nothing special. Even on his web-site he said that the only reason he invented that guitar was to "do something different": note that it WASN'T for the sake of musical innovation... it was to "do something different". Those are the words from your everyday image-craving nobody.
Everything he's done on that stupid guitar has been done with looping pedals for the past thirty years. IT ISN'T MUSICALLY INNOVATIVE.
 

Oh please, it's rock'n'roll... innovative-shminovative... the guy's having fun. Rock n' roll can be whatever you want it to be ... it's rather pathetic that there's still people out there who think "their music" is more credible than someone else's. Have a chuckle, but, hey, let's loosen up people...
 

Stanley Jordan? What the @#$@#$?

His little touch technique is really impressive and does a few jazz standards justice (which themselves were imitations of a keyboard technique)

But everytime he approaches a guitar oriented tune it comes out stiff, contrived and ill executed.
 

I see I didn't quite make my point clear to someone. My point here is that his vagina-guitar isn't helping him to create music any differently than a guy with a single-necked instrument. Ergo, he isn't about the music.
Fact of the matter is, while he's definitely a talented player, he's a member of the "dime-a-dozen" community of guitar soloists. You guys want to hear a REAL shredder? www.gregkoch.com -- Greg Koch. My Dad went to high school AND college with this guy; he's the top clinician for Fender guitars, and he's got the chops to lay waste to this ass-clown (like so many other great yet unheard of players in this world).
Oh, and for what it's worth, the guy hasn't got jack-pittily-crap on the early fusion virtousos from where he clearly ripped off his style from (John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia, etc.).
 

He's making money doing something he enjoys. How many musicians posting here can claim as much success as he can? None...Just a bunch of critics (just what the world needs, more critics), go do something productive instead of spewing your hate. Hey I know, go practice! You need it.
 

Hey, this blog is cool! Now I don't have to worry about whether I should be liking something anymore, I can just remove my brain and go with the herd in here! After all, if a bunch of people i've never heard of on the internet say something is bad, it really must be...

As usual in a "bash the shredder" thread such as this, I see the word "musicality" bandied about, with no actual indication as to what it means. Music's music. If you like it, cool. If you don't, just move on. Dismissing what you don't like as being somehow bad for music or "unmusical" (whatever the hell that means) is unbelievably petty and pointless. It's a big world of music out there, and there's room for all of it.

Well, except maybe Chris de Burgh.
 

Yeah, what [5^2] said, except that thing about Chris de Burgh.
 

http://media.koreus.com/200502/double-guitar.wmv
 

lol, funny stuff. I don't see why anyone would bother taking the time to rag on him, though. If you don't like something, you don't have to listen to it. There are all kinds of music in the world and, even if you think this doesn't qualify as music, but rather noise, it's music to someone else. Even if you wouldn't want to play it yourself, it's not easy. I know, I know, there are tons of guys better than this guy. I know them all and own most of their stuff, trust me. I've been playing for about 20 years now, and I'm not as good as this guy, though. I wish I was. I would use it differently, but I can still recognize ability for what it is.
 

My friend Dave, in Mesa Arizona blows the doors off of this douchebag. And as far as Porno faces being made, Dave is better at that too!
 

99% of the "cool" music here is pure noise. It's random bleeps and farts from randomly assembled analog components and broken 20-year-old Casios.

Yet here's all these guys ripping someone for doing the same thing with an odd guitar. News Flash: Your electronic music sucks and almost no one likes it. Bashing a guitar shredder doesn't make your talentless noise any cooler.
 

You electro-geeks are so weak. This guy was shredding on custom made double-neck guitars before most of you were probably even born. He's a talented musician actually playing an instrument as opposed to running sequences and loops through a mac while smugly lounging about thinking how new, original, and cool you are.

"guitar superdork"? Whatever... He hangs with all the greats: Les Paul; Eric Johnson; Joe Satriani; Kerry King; Jim Marshall (yeah that Marshall). Think they respect him? Hell yeah. Think they respect you? Think again...

synth-noise can be fine, and has it's place but don't bash someone who can actually play an instrument, eh?
 

Michael Angelo's playing is sloppy and melodically stupid. It does not take any skill to do what he does. It's called muscle memory and any ape can learn to play that way.
Music is about composition not masturbation.
 

shredding died in the 80's....its dead and has never served any purpose. Neal is an idiot...and obviously has not been outside of his camper van. Electronic music is huge.
 

Michael Angelo's playing is sloppy and melodically stupid. It does not take any skill to do what he does.

Batio's playing is technically sound & his compositions (that I have heard) are well arranged melodically. See:

Speed Lives
Speed Kills

Why (from the comments here) does it appear that electronic musicians feel threatened by those that can actually play an instrument live and do so with surpassing technical ability?

shredding died in the 80's....its dead and has never served any purpose. Neal is an idiot...and obviously has not been outside of his camper van. Electronic music is huge.

Pray tell, are you old enough to even remember the '80s? I will grant you that mindless shredding for it's own sake is pointless. However, there is certainly nothing wrong with tastefully employing technique to your art.

Electronic music is huge, but it's also anyone's game. A talentless hack can learn to copy & paste. There is some great electronic based music being produced but this notion of competition (us vs. guitarists) is foolish & just pointless.
 

every talentless hack can learn to copy and paste but that doesn't give him the abillity to come up with a cool groove, that still requires talent and a great deal of expertise
 

Just get a friend!
 

"Great" deal of talent? No. "Great" deal of expertise? No. The end.
 

i saw this guy in 1989 at a washburn promotion in waco texas, he was funny, great personality and to boot he was the fastest ive ever seen. i know speed isnt everything but he was truly amazing and i bet most of you talkin trash about him wouldnt get on stage and have any sort of competition with him- think about this...if he can do that... then im pretty sure he can do a whole lot of other things, and he did that day, so all you complainers and whiners out there, shut up and practice!!! if god wanted you to talk more than to listen, he would have gave you 2 mouths and 1 ear!!!!!
 

Whether or not you like, someone else might. You can't call something not music. Also, for all you rightys out there, try playing lefty. And then try playing lefty while you play something else while playing normal. That's fucking amazing.
 

this guy came to my school
 

Great Website, I saw him live, loved his picking technique. gregkoch.com was cool but not a shredder. The reason why we all admire speed is because we don't have it. Speed is a key component to elevation in music, thats why we look up to Parker, Paganini, DeLucia, Rackmaninoff, etc. Angelo's a bit goofy but isn't that Jazz? Have you ever attempted to play a sweep (arpeggios)in guitar? one of the hardest techniques. Superdork flyes through them!! are you interesed in melody? listen to Mozart. if you want feeling listen to Albert King, thats where Steve learned it. want a challenge? listen to Gipsy Jazz.
 

^^

Whatever dude. I'm a bass player and I can play faster.

As for this Greg Koch character, I've seen him live before at a bar up in Wisconsin. It seems what he displays on his site isn't him at his best. Regardless, it's a different style and I'm not about to compare the two of them.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7090390871482877555&q=Al+Di+Meola

But this link here is Al Di Meola himself. If Batio watched this, he would go limp no matter how hard his vagina-guitar was grinding on him.
 

The hair does suck, but its cool he can play right and left handed guitar. Is that fair?
 

cut the guy some slack....
at least he's original and
an entertainer... not to mention
paying his dues. He is going to
be 50 this year...
 

[To the poster two spaces up]

Wow. But the fact of the matter is... MANY people can shred like that. All it takes is practice. If anything, you'd find that those strait 16th/32nd notes are, in fact, easier to play than something with pockets and groove.

Are you even really a musician?

I'm not about to doubt that MB is talented, but it's not like he's anything special. Very few people in the music world are special; and MB certainly isn't among those few.
 

Hi, me again (the anonymous poster one space above). Maybe I should clarify: what makes a player special isn't just speed, but versatility and ability to compose. If you notice, every note MB hits is of the same dynamic and quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOVWqhGXVNA&search=john%20mclaughlin

Note here... the REAL virtuosos not only play faster than lightening, but they can keep it interesting by giving different attacks to diffent notes. That's what adds to a little thing we musicians call... musicality.

As Victor Wooten, a bass virtuoso, has stated: when we try to play fast, we can only play hard and loud... what REALLY opens these techniques up is the ability to play anywhere from hard and heavy to light and quiet.
 

ive seen a video of angelo playing acoustic, it was mental. it wasnt sloppy, it wasnt generic, it wasnt lacking melody. it was awesome, he's a good musician and he chooses that the majority of his stuff is plain-out shred, that doesnt mean he can't play guitar then every single person who's looking at this topic
 

^^

What, are you mentally retarded or something? Either your style is different from Batios, or you just suck at guitar, because I know guys that have been playing less than half as long as you that can play "No Boundaries" (by Batio) as well as Batio himself. Strait 16th note shredding isn't that profound of a skill.
Now as for me? I'm a bass player, and through the three-finger method and/or Victor Wooten's thumb method, I can play all that "shredding!" bullshit with a blind-fold on. Now... playing a piece where you "shred" and go through numerous dynamics? THAT'S something worth applauding. And as I've said already, Batio doesn't have that.
 

Great hair though. I wonder if it's real.
 

To you guys who use verbs like "clowning" "shredding" and nouns like "skillz":

This guy's playing is as admirable as juggling. And no juggler has ever changed anybody's life with their novelty skill.

Music, (when it is actually music and not a backdrop for something else) communicates. This guy babbles.

Learn the difference.
 

fag
 

all this tapping and sweeppicking is fucking joke.these guys coudnt play a ritchie blackmore solo (child in time)from made in japan even with these cheap guitar tricks.all fucking jokes
 

Anyone trashing MAB definately doesn't have a clue about what they are saying... You may have seen a clip or two on the net and that's it...
To clear up a few things...
Mike is one of the most accurate pickers in the world...
Mike uses the double (and quad) in the same manner Henrix played with his teeth, Page used a violinbow, Blackmore trashed guitars etc, not to compose music, but to entertain...
Mike playes loads of melodic stuff with great feeling...
Mike never said "betcha can't play this" Guitar World did...
Mike doesn't claim to be either the best or the fastest guitarist in the world... Some magazines does...
Gillette doesn't use falsetto to reach the higher registers...
Gillette can shatter glass with his voice...
Shred is alive and well...
Shred, RAP, Rock, Pop, Eletronica etc. is all great if composed and/or performed by someone with something on their heart and mind...
 

oh. . . it's not all that "untasteful", albeit very cliche'd as of about 1989, it's all just a matter of taste I guess. Impressive technically, but musically kind of average (I mean, if I played those same notes on a piano it would sound very simple, grade-school level).

Showmanship-- I suppose that's the real idea behind this kind of thing, but it's not really to my taste, even on an ironic level.

He has a degree in music? OK, can we hear some of his classical or be-bop compositions? How about something he arranged for chorus or chamber orchestra?
 

As a juggler, I find that comment three above very insulting. Probably written by some wank who can't juggle.

But then most of you circuit benders and synth geeks must just be in it for the elitist feeling you get from lots of acronyms and big words. And what a place to hear about "Musicality".... The same site that features a guy playing with a broken mixer.

As my good friend Opus used to say... Pbbbth.
 

This seems appropriate:

http://www.palmercash.com/product.asp?3=224

and...

Here's a good example of keyboard "shredding":

http://www.archive.org/download/lackluster-as-can-o-lard_-_none_of_what/cw15_10_canolard_squirreldom_64kb.mp3
 

I get sick of people making condescending comments like "That's no music, it's just widdleawiddleawiddlea, where's the melody? there's no feeling in it!"
A) at least he can play.
B) There are more melodies in a Michael angelo batio song than you'll find in most albums, you're just too introverted to notice them.
C) It's people like you who spend five minutes learning a blues scale and practicing really long bends that have no feeling, this guy must have spent every waking hour of his life working on his guitar skills and that's more feeling than you'll ever put into the instrument.
PWNSD.
 

Come on now. I know what the guy does is no longer considered cool, but without guys like him (and countless others) who is to say that guitar would be where it is today. Yeah, its nothing but theory 101, but I bet not 1 person in 500 could do it as good or better. And unless you can do better, stop bitching.
 

if this is wanking showoffy-ness, then what was eddie van halen? all this guy is really doin is rippin the master off