Surfing with the Alien by Joe Satriani

Surfing With the Alien was Joe Satriani’s third release (following an independent EP and a debut album), but it was the one that earned him two major hits - including the wah-wah extravaganza of a title track - and sealed his reputation as a master shredder.

Oddly, his use of the wah-wah was a spontaneous decision while driving to the studio; he hadn’t used one at all on the previous album. “I made the decision literally as I was packing up my car to go the studio, and there it was sitting on the ground,” he told a reporter. “I thought you know, I hate this thing, but I’m going to bring it and just try it. I’ll plug it in and see what happens. And it was that record that kind of introduced me, to myself, kind of a new way of using the wah-wah pedal. Now of course I do find that it is kind of an extension of my sound.”

Satriani is a fan of music games. As he once told a reporter, “It’s really a special moment in time that video games are playing actual recorded music. People are trying to be in time with the phrases of actual music by real musicians. What could be better than that?”

While not quite the nightmare that “Satch Boogie” is, this I absolutely no picnic. For starters, it has one of the hardest trills ever in the game. It starts off solo one. Make sure to have Overdrive and use the solo keys. Both the solos are really fun, but brutal and long. You won’t be able to just Overdrive your way through - you’ll need to really focus on the patterns in order to not fail out, even with Overdrive deployed. The bass part isn’t terribly hard, but save your Overdrive - you’ll have plenty of chances to be the “savior.”

Since this came out, Satriani has played more flashy solos than anyone can count. He is now in the band Chickenfoot with singer Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony (Van Halen) and drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers).