meandthestereo

I got into work today and was surprised to discover that the hash tag #RATM was a trending topic on twitter.  As anyone who grew up in the 90s knows RATM stands for one of the best bands of that era, the Rock/Rap group Rage Against The Machine.  After doing some quick digging, I found a story that hasn’t really been covered much in the U.S. media because it mostly deals with a strange U.K. tradition.  I think its worthy of coverage, though, because it has given British rock fans one last chance to rage before they go gently into the good night of commercialism that has already overtaken us here in the U.S.

Since the 1970s, the number one spot on the U.K. charts on the Sunday before Christmas (or Christmas day if it falls on Sunday) has been a coveted position for musicians.  Whoever holds that spot will receive a lot of media coverage and records companies stand to make a lot of money.  According to Wikipedia, this started in 1973 when two successful bands released Christmas songs to try and get that spot and it’s now such a big deal that people would place bets on which song gets to number one.  Recently, though, the Christmas number one has regularly gone to whoever wins The X Factor, the British version of American Idol also presided over by the media mogul/TV douchebag, Simon Cowell.

This last fact particularly enraged one British fan who started a Facebook group urging people to buy Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name” instead. The page says “Fed up with Simon Cowell’s latest karaoke act being Christmas No.1? Me too… So who’s up for a mass-purchase of the track ‘KILLING IN THE NAME’ from December 13th as a protest to the X-Factor monotony?”  They stand in opposition to Simon Cowell and Joe McElderry a clean cut cookie-cutter reality show contestant who is singing a cover of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb”.  Ugh.

The campaign has spread all over the U.K. and, as of today, the Rage track is beating the other song by 30,000.  And it has led to a resurgence of interest in Rage Against The Machine in the U.K.  They were even interviewed by BBC Radio and asked to perform a radio edit version of “Killing In The Name.”  Rage to their credit obliged the interview and their performance had to be cut short when Zach De La Rocha went into the non-radio friendly chorus of “Fuck You. I won’t do what you tell me!”.

Unfortunately, despite their early lead, the odds stand against Rage and British rock fans as the physical copy of the reality contestant’s track was released yesterday and it looks to have strong sales throughout the week.  But it gives me hope that maybe in America, someday, fans of original music can stage a futile protest of their own so that our silent minority can’t be ignored at least for one day.

Here are the Rage song, the BBC Radio interview and performance, and their opponent’s song.

TV Show: Glee
Network: Fox
When: Wednesdays 9/8c
Favorite Tunes: “Don’t Stop Believing”
Rating: 4/5

I have never understood why musicals are so divisive.  Approximately fifty percent of the population hates musicals.  At least, that’s what I’m guessing with no evidence whatsoever.  It makes no sense for so many people to be anti-musicals.  A lot of people like movies, and a lot of people like music.  Both put together should have a sizable built-in audience, but its only been recently that musicals have been successful anywhere outside Broadway. Me, though, I have enjoyed musicals for a while now, but especially recently thanks to some of the smarter musical comedies that have been released.  Those that are successful, because they don’t take themselves too seriously.

This is precisely why Glee is successful.  It doesn’t take itself seriously as a musical or as another television show about pretty adults pretending to be teenagers.  The plot is actually pretty similar to the dreadful High School Musical (or so I hear).  A group of misfits who just want to sing make singing seem so fun that eventually non-misfits want to join in too.  But while a regular musical might put more emphasis on making the musical numbers seem as artificially spectacular as possible, Glee takes popular songs and shows the characters enjoying performing these songs.  I mean we can all relate to singing Journey in a moment of happiness right?  Anyone? Read the rest of this entry →

I’m hanging out with some friends:  They are all musicians and we’re philosophizing about the future of music.  This may have something to do with the various substances that are being passed around.  They’re all talking about the artists who influenced them and the rock stars they would like to be like when it hits me.  That’s impossible.  We have come to the end of the rock star era.  There will never be one again.

This past summer, when all the celebrities were dying, everyone was writing about the end of the “monoculture.”  The monoculture is the pop culture that everyone has a shared consciousness of, whether or not they are fans of it.  I don’t agree that is necessarily true.  In twenty years, I think everyone is going to remember being obsessed with LOST and their iPhone apps.  I do believe that it’s true about music though.  I think in 20 years, when people are talking about the music they liked now, they are more likely to get blank stares in return.  And you can already see this happening, now.  I have to admit, until this past summer, I had no idea who Lady Gaga was, which was way later than anyone else.  How did this happen, though? Read the rest of this entry →

Sometimes ten minutes is all you get to make your mark.  That is usually the case for Concert Photographer Amy Willard.  When shooting a band at a concert, she usually gets to shoot for the first three songs.  Fortunately, she thrives on this.  She believes “there is nothing more thrilling or rewarding than capturing the true essence of a performer in under 9.7 minutes.”

She answered some questions for me and explained how she got her start, and elaborated on this philosophy.

On your site you say that you have been into photography for a long time. Was it someone that helped you get into it or did you start on your own?

I remember my mom always making sure I had a disposable camera for school trips, so I think that really got me into taking photos.  Then my older brothers had taken photography courses when they were in high school and college.  My oldest brother was the one who actually gave me his old SLR for when I took my one and only photo class in high school.  He taught me the mechanics of the camera and said “go shoot” and everything just kind of blossomed from there. Read the rest of this entry →

Video Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
Publisher: MTV Games / Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
Systems: PS3, Wii, XBox360
Release Date: September 9, 2009
Decision: 4/5 All in All

1. Background:

Since the release of the game Rock Band, it has seemed like the Holy Grail of music games were the Beatles.  When Rock Band came out it allowed for four players to play at the same time and there were four people in The Beatles.  Also, the same year Rock Band came out Guitar Hero released its first band specific game in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.  But getting the Beatles to even allow their songs to be played in a game seemed like a pipe dream, let alone allow a full game to be made.

The aforementioned Aerosmith game was not exactly a quality product, and the Beatles, who have always been shy to release their music online, did not seem receptive to the idea.  At the time it seemed far more likely that they would join the growing chorus of detractors of the music game genre.  Apparently, though, it was Metallica that convinced the Apple Group, the name of the group of holders to Beatles music rights, that a quality representation of the Beatles’ work could be produced.  Specifically it was the guys at Harmonix playing a Metallica song on an early version of Guitar Hero that did it.

So after so long the game was finally released.  And its easy to see the care that was put into it. Read the rest of this entry →

When Vodes posted his Desert Island list last week, Joey and I thought it was a good list and a great idea.  Joey immediately commanded me to write up my own list for this week’s article and since I had begun thinking up my list immediately after reading Vodes’ post, I thought, “Woohoo easy article!”

Unfortunately, this article was not as easy as I thought it would be.  It turns out deciding on only five songs that I will listen to for the rest of my life (as in as long as the supplies on the plane last cause I’m not much of a survivalist) was not that easy.  My first list mostly represented music from the late 90’s and early 00’s but then I realized I would eventually get tired of all that angst.  I needed to diversify my list and include some more toe-tapping numbers.

My new list is better.  It includes music from more time periods.  It includes some singable songs (for when I get tired of simply talking to my volleyball) and is more of a broad sampling of Rock and Roll.  So here’s my list in no particular order and without any references to LOST.

Come On Lets Go – Ritchie Valens
Its singable, danceable, and gets bonus points for being sung by a Mexican.

Read the rest of this entry →

Artist: Radiohead
Album: Kid A (Collector’s Edition)
Label : Capitol
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Decision: 5/5 Amazing
Favorite Tunes: All of them.

1. Background:

It’s been a big year for reissues.  Along with the Beatles’ reissues last week, Radiohead has been staggering reissues of their entire discography all year.  These special edition reissues have been double-sized affairs with the remastered original album and extra discs with live performance, b-sides, and a DVD with video performances.

When it comes to film, I’m not a fan of collector’s edition DVDs with extra material that wasn’t included with the first release so that fans have to buy their favorite movies twice.  But when it comes to music, it actually makes sense.  Remastering technology helps give listeners a new appreciation of the music they thought they were familiar with.  And the extra material wasn’t really available when the albums were released since performances and music videos don’t often happen before an album is released.  Still, I was skeptical about the Kid A collector’s edition CDs. Read the rest of this entry →

A large leak...kind of...

It has been a big couple of weeks for leaks.  Radiohead and Weezer both experienced song leaks last weeks with varied results.  Radiohead’s song, “These Are My Twisted Words”, was a very good song reminiscent of Kid A, which is my favorite Radiohead album by far.  Weezer’s leak a few weeks ago was less successful musically.  “The Girl Got Hot” was just more run of the mill Weezer from the Green Album rather than brilliant Weezer from Pinkerton (will we ever see that Weezer again?).

More telling than the quality of the songs, though, was the reaction to the leaks or the almost non-reaction.  Leaks have become almost commonplace these days.  Its the price of doing business in these modern times.  And both bands seem to have come to terms with that. Read the rest of this entry →

Dealership is…

Chris Groves – Bass, Vocals
Jane Pinckard – Guiar, Keys, Vocals
Chris Whetherell – Drums, Vocals
Jesse Hudson – Guitar, Bass

1. What is this band?

Dealership would have been on my list of video game inspired music but I wanted to highlight them in my Artist of the Week recommendation.  I first discovered this band because I was intrigued by the theme song for the video game review show Co-OP.

After doing some digging and googling, I discovered that the theme song was co-written and performed by Jane Pinckard, who writes the blog Game Girl Advance.  On her blog profile, I found out that she is a memeber of Dealership.  After a google search failed to give me anything in the way of samples, I checked iTunes.  Itunes had their latest album for ten dollars.  It was now or never.  It was a gamble but it was one that would end up paying off. Read the rest of this entry →

As an avid fan of videogames, I have a soft spot in my heart for video game music.  I’m not talking about video game soundtracks, though.  Those I will write about at some later date.  I will also save covers of videogame tracks for a later date.  Today, I am talking about artists who create original music inspired by, and sometimes using, classic videogames.

Anyone who was born after Pong (1972) probably grew up playing videogames.  So their influence should be reflected in music, just like we see the influence of movies and books in music.  Some bands reflect that influence into the themes of their music.  Both Horse The Band and The Protomen liked the classic game Mega Man enough that they decided to write music about some of the characters.  Horse The Band wrote a great hardcore song called Cutsman.  As the name implies it tells the story of the Mega Man villain.

The Protomen went even further.  Taking their name from Protoman, the recurring character of the Mega Man series, The Protomen composed a rock-opera expanding on the simple story of Mega Man.  When they play live shows they do it in costume.  They even stay in character when they are interviewed.

While these bands show their roots through their lyrics, other bands do it through the music itself.  A lot of bands use the sounds of classic videogames in their music.  This style of music has come to be known as Chiptune.  Chiptune artists use the sound chips from classic systems like the Commodore 64 or the NES to add sounds to their music or compose new tracks altogether.  While most Chiptune artists are relative unknowns, some well known artists have released Chiptune remixes of their music.  Namely, Beck, everyone’s favorite Scientologist, released an EP of remixes of four of his songs from his album Guero.

Beck “Gameboy Homeboy” from wyldfile on Vimeo.

My favorite of the Chiptune bands is Anamanaguchi.  Incorporating Chiptune music into their songs,  Anamanaguchi creates a hard rock sound unlike anything you’ve heard.

Finally, Bitshifter composes original music from those little chips.  But don’t confuse this with regular electronic music.  These compositions would feel more natural playing during a level of Double Dragon than during a rave.

If you want to hear some more great Chiptune artists and/or you wanna hear Chiptune artists in a more comfortable setting, check out this album of Weezer covers from Chiptune artists HERE.