The Black Sheep
fr e on e... l ac ike cid ou en r a ta dv l a ic na e l.
Vol. 9, Issue 6
The College Newspaper That's Actually About College
9/25/13 - 10/3/13
The Story of the
Albert Ave. Guitarist BY: Brendon White It’s 1 a.m. on a Saturday night and you just swallowed your Spartan Dub whole. You begin the long pilgrimage down Albert Avenue towards home. Nothing will slow you down, or so you think, until something beckons in the distance. At first you don’t think anything of it, but as you get closer to the source you recognize the riff. It’s the guitar solo from “Hotel California.” When you finally reach the guitar guru, you find yourself in the parking garage across from Leo’s. In front of you is a middle-aged man wailing on his Fender. You don’t dare to look the guitar hero in the eye in fear of your face being melted off by his angelic chord progression. Before you know it, the prodigy transitions right into the solo from “Free Bird.” You don’t know whether you should cheer or drop to your knees in worship of East Lansing’s very own Slash. You have just been formally introduced to the one-man metal band of Albert Avenue. As you regain your vision after being sent into a psychedelic coma from the guitarist’s rendition of “Crazy Train,” you notice he’s not alone. Loyally standing next to him is a bulldog with a 1000-yard stare. Your heart melts while simultaneously having your ears finger-blasted by what sounds like his personal rendition of “Running With The Devil.” After stumbling back from hearing the grand finale “National Anthem” solo, the man packs away his ax and disappears behind the Marriot with his pudgy friend following close behind. “Who was that guy?” you ask yourself while your ears continue to ring. You run to catch up with the outlaw, but all you find behind the hotel are a couple bums sniffing glue out of a paper bag. You ask the derelicts if they’ve seen the mystery man, but they’re too hopped up on Elmer’s liquid cement to be reliable. You finish your voyage home and spend the rest of the night trying to solve the mystery. You try and forget about the guitarist, but as the weeks go by you find yourself putting everything on the backburner. You forget about homework and exams and spend your nights waiting in the garage for the man to give you an encore performance. He never shows. The mystery of the Albert Avenue rock star has never been solved. He is nameless and his past is unknown, but there are many myths and campfire stories to fill the void. One in particular claims he was once a professor here at Michigan State, but lost his mind around the same time Lou Anna K became interim president in 2003. The two are said to have had a relationship back in the 70s, but she broke his heart and
his acid-stained brain never fully recovered. Another legend proclaims he is Mark Dantonio’s baby brother. It is rumored that the two were in a metal band together in 1994 called the “Little Giants.” The name comes from Mark’s second favorite Rick Moranis film. The two were flying high — opening for the likes Metallica and even The Rolling Stones. Their path was paved to stardom, but not every fairytale has a happy ending. Marky Mark, according to the legend, left the band to pursue a career in coaching. Naturally this crushed the younger Dantonio and caused him to lose his mind. Every night since their break up, he goes to the garage on Albert
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Addressing Accidental Anal
How to Win at IM Sports No Matter What
You shot for the moon but didn’t fall amongst the stars.
Avenue and rocks out in hopes his brother will return to the band so they can fulfill their birthright as the best god damn metal band the world has ever seen. No one know for certain who the man with the guitar in the CVS parking lot on Albert Avenue is. There are myths, there are legends, but one thing is for certain—when you drunkenly stumble back from the bars and have a heart-to-heart with him during the wee hours of the morning, he’s lying to you. His identity will forever remain a mystery, but his ax and his dog will forever melt our hearts.
We explain the rules to keeping IM Sports fun.
Keep Up With Us! @BlackSheep_MSU • theblacksheeponline.com
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We Interview: Flux Pavilion We got to chat with the english dj/ producer, playing this friday in detroit!