Rock Band Downloads: Now Anyone Can Do It. But Is That Really a Good Thing?

Recently MTV Games and Harmonix, the companies behind the smash hit music video game Rock Band 2, announced that independent artists and game developers can now submit tracks to the game's download service. For those who don't know, Rock Band is like a "instrumental karaoke" game of sorts, rivaled by it's elder Guitar Hero. Rock Band and Rock Band 2 have a rather expansive download service where you can actually download new songs, and now it's getting just a little more expansive.

Upon the news of this announcement, indie rock juggernaut Sub Pop Records announced that they would release their ENTIRE CATALOG on Rock Band 2 stating that it would be "another format, just like CDs or Vinyl". I don't know if they're counting the old singles series and everything, but that's still a lot of releases. A few others have announced such desires as well. I might even jump on that bandwagon ("The Manifesto" on Rock Band anyone?).

I guess what I'm confused about is how a song on a video game that only plays correctly if the person playing it is good enough can count as a "format" for a release. It'll be weird when some vinyl and digital only labels start having to say "available on 500 red, 300 orange cream, 200 purple marble, digital, easy, medium, hard, and expert." I'm honestly curious to see how this works for some independent labels. With the fall of Lumberjack Mordam, maybe some labels might actually try this.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty cool that anyone can submit their music to the game. The mentality of some people, such as the people at Sub Pop, thinking that this would be a whole new format to release music on. I mean, it's fun to be able to play the songs, but don't market it to be the greatest thing ever, and don't expect to make bank off of this.

Time will only tell how this works and if it would benefit the already ailing (and corrupt) music industry in any positive way.

This may have made zero sense whatsoever, but I don't care, It's my blog.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time, I'm off to go play Seaweed's self-titled on a plastic guitar and force my dad to sing it or something.

"Mid-Way Through 2009" Roundup

Ok, it's July, 7 months into the year. So, I decided I'd give my opinions on what's been good and what's been bad this year.
Here goes nothing.

GOOD:
Bomb The Music Industry-Scrambles(Quote Unquote/Asian Man): I have a real obsession with this band, but for good reason. Sure this album is kind of drifting from the ska sound a little, but I like the new sound more. This is certainly picking up where 2007's Get Warmer left off and going even further. A great (free) record.

NOFX-Coaster/Frisbee(Fat Wreck Chords): NOFX is NOFX. They're always great. "Creeping Out Sara" is hilarious, they still sound great this far in, they aren't stopping anytime soon, so get it.

Carry the Torch: A Tribute to Kid Dynamite(Black Numbers): Come on! It's some of the coolest bands ever covering songs by THE coolest band ever. Can you go wrong? No.

Paint It Black-Salem(Bridge Nine): You read my review. You bought the vinyl. You know it rules. The end.

Gallows-Grey Britain(Warner Bros.): PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME ANY FLACK! So what they're on a major label? The Ramones were on Warner Bros.! This album is a pretty solid continuation of 2006's Orchestra of Wolves, and from what I can see so far, they aren't milking it for singles this time. That got annoying, there must have been a 45 of every song on Orchestra. It's pretty good, enjoy it with a glass of tea (they were not going to avoid an English joke!).

Shinobu-Strange Spring Air(Quote Unquote): Shinobu is a really great band. Not to sound like a stereotypical journalist, but Shinobu really DOES sound like the "new Pavement." They manage to sound pretty....and cause a ruckus at the same time. If you like Pavement or Dinosaur Jr. or Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, try Shinobu out.

Nightmares For A Week-A Flood Tommorrow EP(Music For End Times): Like Red and Blue, I'm from Kingston (god, that was cheesy). Since I'm from Kingston, I should support the local punk bands, right? Well, there aren't really too many, they've all dissolved, most of the punk is in Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls now and it's really gross hardcore about forties and blunts, too. My opinion of local punk changed with the arrival of Nightmares For A Week. Their name alone shows that they share a favorite band with me, Jawbreaker. I've also seen them play "Want." They kinda threw me off writing an original song called "Tour Song," though. I think the best song on the EP has to be "Bear Mountain," in my opinion anyway. They are a very good live band, and a very good band in general. I highly recommend seeing them live and while you're there you should get this disc. Seriously. They're playing with Frankie and His Fingers at the Basement on Broadway in Kingston, NY on the 26th of July. It's all ages kiddies, so be there.

BAD:
Big D and the Kids Table-Fluent In Stroll(Side One Dummy): You knew this would be here. What a disappointment? What would the Specials think? What would the Mighty Mighty Bosstones think? This isn't a ska album, not even in a traditional way. It's just garbage. I think what we need to do as Big D fans is walk from our respective hometowns to Allston Village, Massachusetts and picket until we get a good, old fashioned Big D record just like Big D used to make.

(Authors Note: I'm very sarcastic in my writing very often. I don't think we should really walk to Boston. Why do you think they invented cars?)

NOFX-Coaster/Frisbee(Fat Wreck Chords): The album is just as brilliant as it is similar to every other album. I guess we have no right to demand "The Decline 2." It's gotta be hard to write an 18 minute skate-punk song.

SilversteinA Shipwreck In The Sand(Victory): I shouldn't even mention this band on this blog, but I've liked Silverstein since I was in the eighth grade, didn't have a girlfriend, had a lot of angst, and skateboarded so much it could have been a social disorder. I kinda thought this would redeem them after what they did with Arrivals and Departures but my assumption was only based on a few songs. Those few songs are great, the rest? Not so much.

I don't really have anymore complaints this year. Not yet, anyway.
Stay tuned for more reviews and such, and thanks for following a solid month of mediocre music journalism.

The Wild "The Wild EP"

So every summer, I find a new band that, for at least that moment, seems like they could easily become a new favorite. This band may very well fill that description. From time to time I do some poking around at Quoteunquoterecords.com, and I'll download something. (Author's note: Quote Unquote Records is fantastic, by the way. You've probably heard of them as they're the first donation based record label). Jeff Rosenstock (of Bomb The Music Industry! fame) certainly has an excellent ear as his label's newest signing, The Wild, is a fantastic little Folk-Punk band from Atlanta (I've done zero research other than that). I just downloaded their EP about 15 minutes ago in my Salt Lake City hotel room, and I'm fairly blown away. The songs are beautiful, and have some very "sing-along" qualities to them. They appear to be a four-piece from their picture on the site, with the typical instruments, though one of the guitarists plays harmonica as well (not a rarity in Folk-Punk, I guess.) As I said I haven't done any research on them yet, but I should. This EP is fantastic! Have I said that before?

Lyrically, each song tells a bit of a story as well as carrying some political subject matter. The guitar sounds are very pretty, with just enough jangle to do the trick. The singer's voice is very smooth with pretty much no growl, which is perfect for these songs. There's a female backing vocalist, as well, whose voice locks in perfectly with the lead singer's voice.
The best song would have to be the closer, "Oh, Alex," which has a sort of "slow-dance" feel to it.

I'm going to go learn more about this band, and you should download this EP at Quoteunquoterecords.com for free (but I'm going to DONATE and you should too!)

This is getting a 5 out of 5.

Quoteunquoterecords.com

Cantine Field Battle of the Bands

This evening (July 3, 2009), I went to the Battle of the Bands at Cantine Field in Saugerties, NY. This is normally a punk rock blog, but none of the bands here really apply, not that it's an issue. The entire lineup was as follows:

Benni's Nightmares and Dreams, an ensemble led by my 12th grade Music theory teacher, Benni Spirig, and a bunch of darling little children playing trumpets, trombones, flutes, guitars, percussion instruments, and singing. This act was hilarious as Spirig was just yelling counts at his kids the whole time. As Connor Kennedy put it, "He sounded like the Count from Sesame Street." It was a fun set, though. They played "Pink Panther," "8 Days a Week," "School of Rock," and "Come Together."

Depot Street, Connor Kennedy (who also plays guitar and banjo for my band, The Good Fight), Connor Milton (of 7.62), Sean Ferraro (of Call It Quits), and Evan Shornstein (of The Defenders) who was subbed for tonight by Joe Marino (Some other band?) playing their "Rockin' blend of blues, jazz and funk. With a good deal of jamming." I'm partially biased because these guys have become friends of mine, but they were pretty good. The jamming was certainly in full effect here. The only thing that really got in their way was the set up of the house PA. But after it was set up, it was smooth sailing. They started with a blues jam, then played "Mustang Sally," "Red House" and honestly, it's 2 in the morning, and I forget what else they played. The two Connors had their fair share of solos, and at the end of "Red House," Kennedy hit the ceiling with his guitar, and I cringed just a bit.

The Number Seven is an awesome post-hardcore band featuring Adam Sauer, Kyle Smith, Chris Pratz, and Mark Corulla. I had wanted to see them for a while. If they ever release anything legitimate, even locally, you best believe I'll have a review. They opened and closed the set with their two best songs, "A2, You Sunk My Battleship" and "Reskinning the Wound" respectively. They played pretty well. They seemed to have a lot of doubt of themselves afterward, but Connor and I were thoroughly impressed. I gave Adam a big hug after they played.

7.62 was a metal/hard rock band, also featuring Connor Milton. Also in the band was James Mason who I knew from the Muddy Cup open mics. They were pretty cool, all their songs were originals, and there was some cool twin-lead stuff going on. The vocal harmonies between Mason and the band's lead singer were pretty solid. Me and Connor Kennedy enjoyed their set with some fried dough and some cheese fries.

I'll be honest, I thought the Face of Fear was horrible. I heard, like, one song from start to finish and the judges were laughing the whole time. Kyle doesn't pull off the whole "girl's clothing" thing. Sorry.

Who was next?
My memory is slipping.

Oh yeah!
Embers Fai..er...I mean...Embers Fall. If you ask me, the whole thing was one big 20-minute-open D breakdown. At one point, the breakdown stopped, and the keyboardist started playing "The Entertainer," followed by the singer going "Y'all want some ice cream?" The whole song comes back in, then at the end everything fades to a rather creepy version of the piano classic played with heavy use of the pitch bend wheel. The guitarist did a sweet around the world at one point, though. Those are cool, right?

The next band, Gabriel, was a screamo band with two singers and no bassist. I guess you don't need one when you have two singers. I guess they were at least decent, though. The people who are into that kind of thing seemed to dig it, so they must be ok at least.

Then came a Pop Punk band called Daddy Long Legs, or Power Lines, depending on who you talk to. They also didn't have a bassist, as he had just left the band. Honestly, you couldn't tell, they had the space filled somehow. The guitarist was indeed a good one, and their drummer was insane, his kicks were thumping and he was hitting everything pretty heavily, but still with a lot of skill. This band was very good. Definitely a good change of pace from all of the screamo/metal bands.

The last band was Stimulus Package. 'Nuff said there.

Sooooooooooooo, we've all been standing out in this grassy swimming pool for hours, who's the winner?
In third was Embers Fall, whatever.
In second was Depot Street, that was pretty cool. They're like family for me.
In first was 7.62, who seemed to have been really excited to have one, and that's pretty cool. I have a feeling this was their first performance, but don't quote me there. They were pretty good, though.

I had fun up there, eating fried food, getting soaked, and heckling Embers Fall. If there is one next year, which nobody knows yet, I'll go. Maybe I'll even play. Who knows?

"Amnesia" Unboxing