Customer Reviews

Radio Free Gristle

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was just thinking how few attempts have been made to mix "guitar god" playing with humor. Joe Walsh & Paul Gilbert are the only ones who come to mind.

Greg Koch seems to have both. He's good enough to never be heard on the radio and he just happens to be a funny guy, too. BTW, his instructional videos are excellent and yes, very funny. I agree, The Grip is a bit more focused but there's still a lot of meat on Radio Free Gristle.

Greg Koch has done it again!! Radio Free Gristle is a mind-bending cacophony of phenomenal guitar playing that is almost beyond comprehension for the mortal guitarist to ponder. He's not only wickedly good on the six string but he's wickedly funny as well. An ace player who deserves a national audience. Thanks Mr. Vai for putting him on your much vaunted label. Greg YOU ROCK!

That's right, one of Wisconsin's other great wonders besides Brett Fauvre, the Packers and cheese, is a damned good guitar player named Greg Koch.
This guy is amazing! Like his last release on Favored Nations label the awe inspiring "The Grip" this disc continues where that disc left off. Great, great playing.
Playing his various musical styles and showing off his great fingerpicking style you can't help but think after listening to his cd's that "Damn this guy is good, why haven't we heard of him before?!"
Koch has a great sense of humor and it shows in his music and his song titles. For example: Chopin's Redneck Highway, Mulligatawny Delta, Acid Dharta and The Joy of Ax, to name a few.
Don't let the names fool you, these are all great guitar instrumentals.
Find out one of the other great wonders to come out of Wisconsin; Greg Koch. You won't be dissapointed.

Heck if Steve Vai says he's good he his. Greh Koch has the most inventive and off-kilter brain since frank zappa. He is a very quirky guy if youve met him or seen his videos or articles he writes. The music on this album runs the gambit of styles all in all a very good album. and his technique of three fingers and pick makes for some amazing sound and amazingly fast licks.

For hype, see my review of Greg Koch's CD "The Grip". This is just phenominal stuff too. I'm all over my family reminants in SE Wisconsin for not knowing who he is. I'm Flying back to Milwaukee's Summerfest in July 06 just to see his 2 shows. The comedy bits are pretty good too, but the music (every track!) is a stunner.

In terms of the Greg Koch catalog, RFG is the cream of the crop -- a savage, frontal assault on the blues/rock genre that demonstrates (once and for all!) that Greg Koch can take his place quite comfortably alongside the venerable likes of Warren Haynes, Steve Morse and Dickie Betts.

This disc drips a nuclear sweat akin to Buddy Guy's "Damn Right I Got the Blues," and does so without the usual pretention that normally walks hand in hand with guitar instrumental ensembles. RFG shows a ferocious guitarist playing truly for the love -- a welcome foil, by the way, to the current crop of shameless guitar virtuosos, who are more than willing to foist vain, byzantine meanderings through every nook and crany of the fret board on their audiences.

Unlike the L.A. reviewer below, I love Koch's odd, quirky vignettes between the songs! His eccentric wit and trademark humor create an unique one-to-one intimacy, that makes it feel like he's playing and gaggin' with you over a beer in your basement.

The great disappointment of this record is that its TOO good. But, that's both boon and bane. It's rare that real music ever wins a Grammy, and even rarer still that talent comes to the top in a music industry driven by profit rather than art.

5 (((((WHAMMY BARS ))))))!

A radio show for Tele obsessed guitar players!

Great idea for a concept. Like if the guys at National Lampoon all played serious guitar. Those guys were funnier though and cutting edge. Koch is simply thrilled with himself.

It's mildly amusing. Not really out and out funny. Koch is a guy who sounds like he can sit in a room all by himself and crack himself up. There's something to be said for that I guess. It's basically inside jokes for guitar freaks. Our little club where only we get the jokes. Aside from that he can play guitar like nobody's business and can cop all the sought after blues based and country Tele styles.

Kinda like if Steve Vai was from the back woods of Michigan and grew up on Roy Buchanon, Danny Gatton, and James Burton. Then you take the official Steve Vai record producing class and burn away all the spontaneity.

The production has a real claustrophobic vibe. Like it's mostly Koch doing over dubs when everyone else went home. Very anal in a do it all by yourself way as opposed to a true collaboration (Just like Steve Vai!). It would have been nice to hear some real live band interaction with fewer Vai-esque triple tracked over dubbed melody lines from hell. Brian May already beat that to death 25 years ago. Leave it alone and just play!

Koch is chops city and needs to step out of the box and do a real album with a real live band where he can show the world what an incredible player he is without winking, making faces, and over stating the fact that he can mimic all the great Tele players of the world.

Forget the jokes. Just like I don't like comedy in my Martial Arts ala Jackie Chan (I prefer the more serious Jet Lee!), I'm not that thrilled about guitar comedy. JUST PLAY THAT GUITAR LIKE YOUR HAIR IS ON FIRE! What hair there is left.

Just consider each of my rate stars as double.

Another guitar tour de force from MR. KOCH. On this outing we are subjected to even weirder and more bizzare styling then on GRIP. The spoken segments reveal what his musik has always suggested. KOCH has got one of the most outrages senses of humor in musik. After i wiped the laughter tears from my face and picked myself up of the floor, I was left to marvel at the musical insanity perpetrated by MR.KOCH. He is the best and this reinforces that believe. Only KOCH could create and play this.
If you like the guitar you simply must have KOCH's 2 CD's.

Really this guy is a true example of perfect guitar playing! This will not disappoint guitar lovers! I still might like Grip a bit better but still awesome! Awesome tone and style and chops!