There was some guy on NPR earlier this week who had a six string violin jacked into a distortion pedal and some other electric guitar goodies. He had a much lower range, approaching cello-ness. At one point, he did a Jimi Hendrix rendition.

At first, notwithstanding the “electric violin” in the title, I saw the word “orchestra” and started thinking in terms of classical music, then the part about your pantyhose getting “rocked off” got me thinking, hmmm… you must be real whack about Beethoven. Got my imagination fired up a bit (don’t ask…) Then I clicked on the link to the website, and all the stuff brewing up in my head came to an abrupt stop.

Seems like pretty cool music, by the way.

I was digging through my music collection and found the “Strung out on U2″ — several U2 songs done by a quartet of violins (et. al). There are samples online:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004RHZ8/cleanlivingcom

On the music scale of Sammy Hagar to David Lee Roth, this rates a Gary Cherone, e.g., somewhere insignificantly in the middle. The best cut is “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” a tune that becomes impossible to enjoy if you think too much about the lyrics.