Rock Band DLC: 3/25

“More Than a Feeling”
“Peace of Mind”
“Smokin’”
“Rock & Roll Band”
“Something About You”
“Hitch a Ride”

Well, its certainly better than the last few weeks, but I'm not the hugest Boston fan in the world. As far as place name bands go I think they are the best. Chicago, America, Europe, Alabama, Asia, Earth, Kansas, Nazareth... they all suck. I'm going for cities, continents, and planets so Sleater-Kinney doesn't count. Sure glad that Joy Division changed their name or they might have been cursed. I think this tops my long-standing belief that number named bands are the worst (MC5 and Gang of Four are my two exceptions, and U2 if I'm feeling generous). Anyway, I should be playing "More Than A Feeling" and "Peace of Mind" any day now.

Wristwarmers and new glasses

Man. I am such a poor craftsman. I was never great and computers have ruined whatever skills I ever had. Sewing is easy and essential, but I struggle. No CTRL+Z. Glasses have a Clark Kent vibe. If I make it explicit maybe people will stop offering it like its something new.

Jason Cason

This happens all the time. Every job, school, and function I've ever attended has made this same mistake. Do they think my parents were sadists?

Tornado Damage

And that's when I saw the roof get blown away.

Sons and Daughters @ The Earl

A great (albeit weird) show. Missed A Place to Bury Strangers to see it, but it was worth it. Bodies of Water opened. Never heard of them before, but I was impressed. May pick up their record. Strange Atlanta concert going man was there, so at least my taste is good. Citay stunk the room up with bad jam band-itis. Ugh. Sons & Daughters played rough and unclean, but it suited them. Their guitar player was top. Too bad the lead singer got pissed and fell down. No encore. Maybe they'll transmutate into a three piece.

Rock Band DLC: 3/18

"Blinded By Fear" by At the Gates (master)
"Thrasher" by Evile (master)
"D.O.A." by The Haunted (master)

Yawn. Not getting any of these. I think they program these thrash songs so that you'll wear out your controllers and have to buy new ones.

Rock Band DLC: 3/11

I've been addicted to Rock Band ever since I played it back in January. Finally, here was a slice of entertainment that combined my triumvirate of loves: music, video games, and mindless repetitive tasks. Playing with 3 other people is the most fun I've ever hand playing co-op video games, and even the single player mode is a blast. One aspect of Rock Band that I love is the amount of variety: four different instruments, an almost infinite amount of costume choices, and of course, the wide variety of songs. I have to sympathize with the programmers a bit in that regard. Do they go with the most popular song of a particular group ("Radiohead", Creep) or maybe a less well know song from a popular band (""Queens of the Stone Age", Go With the Flow)? I'm sure that a lot of the decision comes down to the songs that can be programmed, and are most fun to play, but taste has to factor in at some point. In my opinion, Rock Band has the best track list of any of the music games on the market, even if you have to wade through misogyny (Aerosmith) and mediocrity (Fall Out Boy) to get to the good stuff.

Which brings be to the downloadable content portion of this post. Rock Band has another distinct edge over other music games, specifically Guitar Hero 3, in that they publish 3 new songs a week for download from Xbox Live. I've downloaded quite a few and they are almost all worthwhile. I got the Oasis pack out of boredom and was surprised to find that those songs are some of the most fun to play (for me at least). I'm no huge Oasis fan, but I'd rather play "Don't Look Back in Anger" than "El Scorcho" (from a band and album I love) just because, well, its more fun to play. So, I've taken a rather pragmatic view towards the DLC every week. I used to be only interested songs that I knew well, now I'm more open minded.

Here are this weeks tracks:
"Shockwave" by Black Tide
"Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore
"Beethoven's Cock" by Serj Tankian

I'm not reneging on my promise to be more open minded, but I'm a bit let down by these tracks. I've been surprised by unfamiliar tracks in the past (The Grateful Dead, Oasis, The Monkees) but these tracks are seriously underwhelming. Black Tide are a bunch of teenage Ozzfest rejects, Paramore swing from the same branch as Avril and Fall Out Boy and Serj? Well, I used to like System of a Down, but I have no use for his solo material.

I theory I respect Harmonix for going with unknown/new/less popular artists (for a discounted price no less), but in practice I'm not going to get any of these songs. If they wanted to go obscure there are much better bands to go with. I know that licensing and legal issues probably clog up the sources of music, but from where I'm standing these are underwhelming choices. They must have some rubric for choosing which songs are available as DLC, like what percentage of video game users are classic rock fans, pop fans, modern rock fans, etc... I just wish they would include more of the songs I like. Its selfish I know, but I would pay double the normal price if they included more, I don't know what to call it... indie rock I guess. I would love to see some Liars, Marnie Stern (sweet Christ that would be awesome), White Stripes, Spoon, Television, Stooges, Tapes n' Tapes, Modest Mouse, Fiery Furnaces, Les Savy Fav, Interpol, the Cure, Blur, Belle and Sebastian, Deerhunter, Animal Collective, etc... but I know that's probably a pipe dream.

On the walk home

For Reverend Green-Animal Collective
Always Too Late-Annie
Windowlicker-Aphex Twin
Old Flame-Arcade Fire
Recent Bedroom-Atlas Sound
What's A Girl To Do?-Bat For Lashes
Rainbow-Battles
Paper Tiger-Beck
Judy Is a Dick Slap-Belle & Sebastian
O, Dana-Big Star

I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)-Black Kids
Fists Up-The Blow
Badhead-Blur
Kid for Today-Boards of Canada
Swimmers-Broken Social Scene
Everybody's Happy Nowadays-The Buzzcocks
Keep It Clean-Camera Obscura
Dixie Babylon-Cracker
In Between Days-The Cure
Pink Batman-Dan Deacon
Heroes-David Bowie
Hazel St.-Deerhunter
Duplexes Of The Dead-The Fiery Furnaces
M.E.-Gary Numan
Silver Angel-Helium
The New-Interpol
Rough Gem-Islands
The Butterfly Collector-The Jam
Do You Remember The Riots?-Jens Lekman
Insight (Live)-Joy Division
The Village Green Preservation Society-The Kinks
Reformat (Dramatic Reading)-Les Savy Fav
Protection-The Liars
La russe-Malajube
Plato's Fucked Up Cave-Marnie Stern
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Resignation Letter-Matthew Friedberger
Rotten Hell-Menomena
A Different City-Modest Mouse
When You Sleep-My Bloody Valentine
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea-Neutral Milk Hotel
Age Of Consent-New Order
Mass Romantic-The New Pornographers
Lime-Tree Arbour-Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Don't Look Back in Anger-Oasis
Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse-Of Montreal
Willow's Song-Paul Giovanni
Gold Sounds-Pavement
Objects Of My Affection-Peter Bjorn & John
The Burning Ambition of the Early Diuretics-The Pipettes
Caribou-Pixies
Glory Box (Live)-Portishead
Don't Stop Me Now-Queen
Nude-Radiohead
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk-Rufus Wainwright
Crimes on Paper-Self
Girl On The Wing-The Shins
Cemetry Gates-The Smiths
Total Trash-Sonic Youth
Change My Life-Spoon
Take Me I'm Yours-Squeeze
Blinded By The Lights-The Streets
Young Dangerous Heart-Subtitle
The Mercury Craze-SUBTLE
Cheree-Suicide
Thank You For Sending Me An Angel-Talking Heads
Buckle-Tapes 'n Tapes
Poppy-TV On The Radio
Tuff Ghost-The Unicorns
Kool Shades-Videohippos
French Vacation-The Walkmen
The Mollusk-Ween
Why Bother?-Weezer
Summer Teeth-Wilco

Mustache Factory

Making mustaches in the dark since 1936.

The Sorting Hat's Sad Demise

Unemployed and friendless. This is how Jo treats her friends.