I found out about Art of Noise today, just moments ago. After watching this video, they remind me of a cross between The Knife and Justice. It's hard to believe that this song was originally released in 1987. When I realized Trevor Horn was involved, my disbelief was suspended somewhat, but I'm still inclined to agree with my friend John, who introduced me to the song, that they were creating music way ahead of their time. As for the video, I have no clue as to why they are hacking at a grand piano with chainsaws, electric sanders, and what appears to be a lamp stand, among other things, but it seems to go with the song somehow. Perhaps the piano was too grand to exist?
posted by Chris on April 28, 2008 8:45 AM in Movies
I can't even begin to think how someone thought this was a good idea. Online gaming sites run by cleverly nicknamed computer systems with poorly drawn anime avatars made to seek out terrorists who are good at video games? Attractive hackers? If you think this War Games sequel looks like it's direct to DVD, you'd be correct.
All I'm saying is I hope Matthew Broderick has a musical number at the end.
posted by Chris on April 23, 2008 2:28 PM in Games
You can always tell when a game is a labor of love. The amount of detail and quality is noticeable, and when a skilled fan is set to the task, they can take a classic game and turn it even classic-er. Check out this video of a fan game loosely based on Metroid II (originally for the spinach-green screened GameBoy). It skillfully captures what is so captivating about the Metroid series: its isolation. Exploring the murky, eerie underwater depths of an absolutely alien planet while strange ambient music bloops and beeps is an immensely satisfying experience.
Hopefully the creator, Destructoid Community member Von Richter, has the chance to release this game just long enough for me to play it before Nintendo's lawyers sic their pikachus on him.
posted by Chris on April 2, 2008 11:23 AM in Music
It took me a while to actually get into Of Montreal, despite music editor Mike's drooling obsession over Kevin Barnes. I had listened to Hissing Fauna... a couple times and just wasn't convinced of their brilliance. It took a certain mood and about the 10th listen to really dig the groove, and now here I am a staunch Of Montreal fan. This video for Gromlandic Edit features art drawn by Kevin's brother David, proving crazy brilliance runs in the family.
Björk has been in my music library since Post. Here was a woman who literally did her own thing. When trying to label my MP3s, I always have a hard time putting her into a specific genre. Is she electronic? Is she Icelandic pop? I ended up just filing her under "Björk".
While I wasn't too impressed with 2007's Volta, here is one of the tracks that stood out to me. Lucky for us it also comes with an incredible video.
I showed this video to Jinny earlier who responded "I wonder if she's lonely."
Dead Fantasy, a series created by Monty Oum, takes everything that nerds could ever possibly want and puts it into video form. Barring an epic Cheeto vs Mountain Dew battle, that is. It's a mashup of characters, DOA versus Final Fantasy, resulting in one long action sequence. Usually I'd be put off by the blatant fanboyism, but Dead Fantasy is actually really well choreographed. 11 minutes of action can get a little tedious (too much of a good thing, my dear Monty) but it definitely kicks ass.
Here's a hilarious video from The Onion of a future newscast from a world dominated by robots. Deadpan, brilliant and slightly sad. Also featuring one of the guys from Best Week Ever and that dude who did the Top 5 show on Food Network! You know. That one guy. With the shirt.
posted by Chris on March 11, 2008 1:46 PM in Games
The rise in popularity of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other fake-plastic-instrument music games has led to a golden age of videos of those games being played on YouTube. Indeed, we are seeing a virtual renaissance of watching a video screen display color bars to music and now we have an entirely new medium ready to set the world ablaze: Guitar Hero for the Commodore 64.
Tony Westbrook of Synthetic Dreams has created Shredz64, a Guitar Hero sort of game for the Commodore 64 (which he dubs "the best selling computer of all time"). Here we see a video of young Tony, straight off of his job as an extra in Miami Vice apparently, explaining how using a controller works to move around in menus and other boring things. Then at around 4 and a half minutes things get exciting when he demonstrates a suspiciously familiar theme song...
Shredz64 boasts the ability to load new and user-generated music and also the ability to make you look really nerdy and awkward when you talk about it at parties. Check out the video and enjoy.
I am a Mac-loving douchebag through and through. I drank the kool-aid and I freely pass it around. The kool-aid tastes good you guys, and one of the best things about the Mac is that there literally aren't any viruses for the system. No one is writing them, and the security of the operating system is near-inhospitable for the little guys to propagate. Troika art and design studio, however, have developed what they are calling the "Newton Virus" which uses the Mac's motion sensing software (originally used to brace the hard drive in the event you drop the thing). The effect is playful, and I'd love to see this released as an actual product.
The other, more silent half of Penn & Teller released this short film about surviving a zombie apocalypse, which is surprisingly eerie to watch. I imagine this as a real-live account of one (markedly astute) man's observations of a world gone brainless.
posted by Chris on February 27, 2008 2:52 PM in Games
Practice makes perfect, they say, and I have been practicing the drums on Rock Band like some sort of drum beat-craving fiend. Mainly I am obsessed with the drums because I believe I have no real sense of rhythm, and I like the challenge. I've been slowly increasing my skills (almost) daily, and have now reached a point where I am confident in playing any given song on hard difficulty, and can even complete some expert songs in the 90% range. There's no way in hell I will ever be able to complete The Perfect Drug on expert, I have decided after watching this insane video of someone just rocking the crap out of those weird random beats. Marvel at the mad skillz and join me in feeling completely inadequate.
posted by Chris on February 15, 2008 8:36 AM in Music
Ben Folds is one of those artists that when I hear his songs come on my iPod in the car, I can't help but sing along. I listened to his stuff heavily in high school and continued after he shed the "five" moniker, and this song called Not The Same is probably my favorite. I love his little stories, especially this one about a guy who climbed a tree at a party and came down a born-again Christian. I've never seen him live, though I know people who have. They always say it was the most fun they've ever had at a concert, and I believe them. You'll get a chance to experience the awesomeness of Ben Folds this year as he is touring universities around the US, including a stop at my alma mater. Check out tour dates at BenFolds.com.
Back in 2004, four women and one Dungeon Master got together and made a live action show of their role playing exploits. Each woman acted out her character's actions and battle scenes with hilariously bad green screen effects. Inexplicably, Dungeon Majesty is now available on DVD, though the entire series is also available on Youtube.
It's fairly common knowledge that I am obsessed with bacon. I have perfected the art of cooking bacon, I have a wallet that looks like bacon, I have an air freshener for my car that smells of bacon. I wrap my hot dogs in bacon. It's a wonder I am not 500lbs. My love of bacon only goes so deep, however. Not hardly as deep as these guys who made a meat ship.
That's right, a ship made out of meat. Happy Monday morning!
Keeping in line with the Weekly Geek tradition of reporting on everything Bowie, here is a fun mashup of the various political candidates and Bowie's "Changes".
posted by Chris on January 15, 2008 1:32 PM in Music
The Books is my coding music. The kind of music that just puts me in the mode to roll up my sleeves and dive headfirst into work. The Books are just two guys, one with a guitar and another with an electric cello. Mike and I saw them perform this song - Smells like Content - live last year, and the syncopated text playing behind the performers was mesmerizing. What is funny about The Books is that they use a massive amount of audio samples from what sounds like movies from the 1960s or 70s. As I listened to their albums over the years I had a distinct image in my mind of what these people from the sound clips looked like. Then, when I finally saw them perform live, they played the video from the sound clips, and for the most part they matched up. Very strange.
Someone asked me a politics question last week and I realized I hadn't watched The Daily Show in about three months. Where was I to get my news? If you are in the same bandwagon, fear not! For Eugene Mirman is here to provide you with your recommended dose of political tomfoolery. With the writer's strike still on, it's neat to see all these fun videos cropping up all over the web. It feels like a sort of creative state of anarchy just on the verge of revolution.
Zach Galifianakis is probably my favorite living comedian, and this video of him interviewing Michael Cera (Superbad, Arrested Development) is pretty genius. Enjoy "Between Two Ferns".
Amélie is one of my badge movies. One of those movies you whip out in conversation when someone asks "what's your favorite?" I freely admit that I cry at the end of this movie every time I watch it, not from sadness but from sheer uplifting joy. Besides the stunning cinematography, beautiful acting and womanly charms of Audrey Tautou, the soundtrack is one of my absolute favorite film soundtracks of all time. Yann Tiersen is an amazing composer, and as of late I have been listening to his various works. It's the perfect ambient music for working to, but my favorite setting for listening to Yann is a rainy Saturday morning with a cup of tea and my RSS reader in front of me. Here's A Quai, from the Amélie score. Enjoy!
posted by Chris on December 17, 2007 11:36 AM in Music
We should just name this feature "songs in Rock Band that we really like". While I usually scoff at bands that have the pedigree of opening for AFI and the like, Coheed and Cambria fascinate me. Their albums are all part of a huge sci fi story arc surrounding two characters, Coheed and Cambria. They have this fantastic alt-metal epic sound, and this track titled Welcome Home is one of the most fun songs to play in Rock Band. Okay granted, they are all fun.
You just can't beat a music video featuring a double necked guitar. COME ON.
Your Personal Soundtrack is a semi-daily feature at The Weekly Geek where we profile a song that we have stuck in our heads, making it a sort of Personal Soundtrack. Check out the archives here.
posted by Chris on December 14, 2007 12:33 PM in Music
I love Grizzly Bear. Ever since I saw them live at Sasquatch this past summer I've been entranced by their soothing harmonies. This video is just crazy weird, though. Enjoy The Knife from the album Yellow House.
posted by Chris on December 13, 2007 12:21 PM in Music
From Battles' album Mirrored comes this bizarre and excellent track titled Atlas. I am a huge fan of math rock, and I love any song that makes you go "huh?" Also, holy crap does this song get stuck in your head.
posted by Chris on December 6, 2007 9:30 AM in Music
Dancey electronic duo Justice has been called the new Daft Punk, making crunchy delicious club tunes seemingly made by sexy robots from the future. One of my favorite tracks to listen to in the car is this one: DVNO. Turn it up and let it hit hard.
Every time I hear Steve Conte's version of Rain I have to turn the volume way up. I just can't get enough of his voice. His voice has a quality that his female counterpart, Mai Yamane, lacks. Steve's version of Rain wasn't played in the TV series or Movie, so it can only be found on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.
The video has lower quality in some parts, but all that matters is the song, anyway.
posted by Chris on November 15, 2007 3:44 PM in Games
Check out this awesome video Sexcab sent me of a project called Crayon Physics, from youTube user kloonigames. It's like a mix of Little Big Planet, Pictochat and, well, crayons. There's apparently a small demo floating around where you can draw basic shapes. I'd love to see this come to the DS or even, dare I say it, the Wii.
posted by Chris on November 7, 2007 8:45 AM in Music
On today's Your Personal Soundtrack, we see awesome YouTube user nuglah perform Fergalicious. I don't normally advocate exposure to the auditory equivalent of twinkies, but there is something hypnotizing about this guy and his unicorn kingdom antics. I seriously wish I could employ him before some big company snatches him up and makes him rich. I can keep you in mediocrity, nuglah! JUST SAY NO TO THE MAN.
posted by Chris on October 16, 2007 10:26 AM in Music
When Neon Bible was released earlier this year, many reviewers were making comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, with Win Butler's blue-collar man lyrics and powerful voice. Well, a couple days ago, Arcade Fire showed up on stage at a Bruce Springsteen concert to play a couple Springsteen songs. Lucky for us, they also played their own "Keep the Car Running" with Bruce taking the reins for a couple verses. Enjoy this horrible shaky cam footage of this momentous event.
Remember that life-sized X-Wing we were talking about on the show last week? Documentary footage recently uploaded to the world wide inter tubes reveal what really happened. A vast interstellar conspiracy?
Only a few more months until the best show on TV returns to smash our eyeballs into a jillion pieces. In the meantime, enjoy this Season 4 Promo. Obviously, if you haven't seen season 3 thar be spoilers ahead, matey.
How about that, a commercial featuring gamers by a large corporation that manages to be hilarious and avoid derision. Kudos to Toyota for for avoiding the easy jokes.
You have heard the Wilhelm scream even if you don't know what it is. It was originally recorded for a movie titled "Distant Drums" in 1951, and brought back to cinema by Skywalker Sound for Star Wars. Since then, it's been used over and over again as a nod to the movies of yesteryear. Maybe it's also because it's a cheap stock sound effect. Some intrepid YouTube user has cut a bunch of instances of the Wilhelm scream into an easy to digest video for your perusal.
posted by Chris on October 5, 2007 2:37 PM in Music
Ahh, 90's alternative radio. Remember Sneaker Pimps? Remember trip-hop? I lived on this stuff in high school, and just listening to 6 Underground takes me back to the good ol days. And by good ol days I mean awkward and awful bad ol days.
posted by Mike on October 3, 2007 7:28 PM in Music
This, my friends, is comedy gold: Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords impersonating Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. It might just be me listening to Diamond Dogs today that triggered this post, but I couldn't get this episode out of my head if I had a brutal lobotomy.
posted by Chris on October 3, 2007 1:36 PM in Games
For all you hate haters in the comments on this week's podcast post (go on, join the flamewar! I know you want to!) I give you a video that completely sums up my feelings on mediocre mainstream games such as Halo 3. Except way more entertaining than anything I could ever spew from my mouth. Enjoy.
posted by Chris on September 28, 2007 12:46 AM in Games, Music
The Phendrana Drifts theme is probably one of my favorite tracks from the stellar Metroid Prime soundtrack, and in today's Your Personal Soundtrack we see some sort of strange Guitar Hero hack for the Metroid Metal version. It looks pretty intense for such a slow, relaxing song.
Metroid Metal by Stemage is available for free from their website.
posted by Chris on September 26, 2007 11:34 AM in Music
The Blow is one of my all-time favorite bands. Currently consisting of Northwest native Khaela Maricich, electro rocker YACHT created the beats for many of her songs. Actually, I think all of them. After seeing Khaela perform at Sasquatch this year, I can't get her honest, thoughtful voice and insightful lyrics out of my head. In this video for Knowing The Things That I Know, Khaela and YACHT play Magic cards. Romantically.
posted by Chris on September 24, 2007 7:00 PM in Games, Music
One game that has been stuck in my head for the better part of my adult life is Final Fantasy 6 (3) for the SNES. Not only was it a masterpiece utilizing the limited capabilities of the SNES to produce crisp, hand drawn sprites - Nobuo Uematsu pushed the sound chip to the max to create beautiful, sweeping scores. Seriously, the Final Fantasy 6 soundtrack is one of the best game soundtracks of all time and this song proves it. Dancing Mad is the final boss battle theme, is about 8 minutes long, and is completely brilliant. Enjoy.
posted by Colette on September 21, 2007 6:55 AM in Music
I discovered Lamb by accident back in the days when I used to wander around music stores and check out CD covers (no listening stations, people! I know, I'm OLD!) The combination of excellent beats and Lou's dynamic voice caught me like a fish on a sharp hook, and I've been listening ever since. The band members have since split into solo projects which are all quite good, but I still keep coming back to the first self-titled album and loving it every bit as as much as the first time. "Gorecki" was inspired by Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which ought to appeal to you modern classical elitists out there (like me.)
posted by Chris on September 20, 2007 9:35 AM in Music
Remember back when Depeche Mode was a million times more ridiculous than they are now? A stretch, I know! Today's thing to get stuck in your head is Just Can't Get Enough featuring Dave Gahan and Martin Gore both looking like they belong in boy bands. Depeche Mode is another one of my perennial favorites, having first become infatuated with them during my exchange student trip to Germany in 1999. Literally, I'd have my headphones in wherever I walked, and I was usually listening to a Depeche Mode or Portishead CD.
Also, there should be a term in English for the one member of a three person band (usually the drummer) whose name no one remembers.
posted by Chris on September 19, 2007 10:52 PM in Music
I had only recently gotten into Pulp, but as happens with many bands I quickly became obsessed with Jarvis Cocker and his 90's Brit Pop awkward sexiness. For today's Personal Soundtrack, I present to you This is Hardcore, a mini novella porn piece video thing.
posted by Chris on September 17, 2007 10:16 AM in Music
What defines a Personal Soundtrack? It's a song that gets stuck in your head that seems to sync up to the beat of your footsteps when you walk. It's a peek into your mood for the day. Today in Seattle it's a bit gloomy, Fall has finally arrived and instead of sunny days and warm weather we are seeing dark skies and drizzle.
Today's Personal Soundtrack comes from a band named Pelican and a song titled March to the Sea. Pelican creates gorgeous guitar-heavy soundscapes - imagine the near-orchestral guitar arrangements of Tool without the vocals. Perfect song for walking around in the rain with.
posted by Chris on September 14, 2007 2:57 PM in Music
Hey! A new feature at The Weekly Geek! I will be posting (semi) daily links to some music that you really need to put into your life. Today we look at my new current obsession LCD Soundsystem and the single North American Scum. Dig it.
I got the opportunity to play Rock Band early Saturday morning during PAX, before the unwashed non-media masses were sent in to the show floor. Here is some video of the auspicious occasion. Playing Radiohead's Creep are Mr. Destructoid on drums, Flynn DeMarco on guitar, Colette Bennett on vocals, and Chris "I am a spooky Splicer" Furniss on bass. Enjoy.
Imagine for a moment you are a cog in the wheel of the behemoth bureaucracy that is the U.S. Government. As the number of fresh faced recruits to be carelessly hurled into a gnashing maelstrom of carnage and violence begin to dwindle you find yourself tasked with swelling the ranks. But just how does one go about appealing to what is so often described as a generation of apathetic people? I know! A video game! Those shiftless layabout teenagers spend their days absorbed in simulated violence anyway why not propagandize to them while they're at it.
This is America's Army in a nutshell. A video game developed by the Department of Defense to show the Cheeto and Redbull besotted hordes of youth how much fun war is and attempt to convince us that we should sign years of our life away to become property of our government. This is obviously genius in its purest form and anyone that disagrees is an enemy of freedom.
So when a group of veterans from this country's latest efforts at nation stabilization get together to protest the use of a video game to recruit what effectively amounts to children it may give you, the fictional government spokesperson in this tale of 1984-esque tragedy, reason to pause and reflect.
Check out this video of some very brave men and women standing up to the naked propaganda that is America's Army.
posted by Chris on August 13, 2007 10:31 AM in Games
After playing the demo this morning on Live (which is the same demo I played at E3) I literally can't get this game out of my head. Watch the launch trailer that aired on Spike and TRY to wait till next Tuesday. I dare you.
These folks have the Summer Blockbuster formula down pat: take an extreme drift racing plot and mash it with a dinosaur drama. Brilliant! From Dethroner via Ectomo:
We love Pixar here at The Weekly Geek. We talk about their new movies like we talk about an unborn child. Precious, full of potential. It's not often I really like another company's computer animation, but Blur studios made something incredibly awesome with A Gentleman's Duel. They really capture all the good qualities of Pixar, making it their own style. Check out this short, it's freaking cool.
posted by Chris on August 1, 2007 10:11 AM in Music
Mr. Aaron Linde tried to out-wit me today by talking to me about a bunch of bands I have never heard of. His word-music-voodoo led to my watching this video of a pretty lady named Kaki King on Letterman. Her guitar work is absolutely amazing, conjuring comparisons to The Books and math rock. Check it and be amazed!
As far as commercial rappers go, Kanye West is tolerable. He is at the very least unique in his rhymes, and doesn't buy in to the bullshit bling-bling fake culture most other rappers are obsessed with. Take this video, featuring one of my favorite stand up comics, Zach Galifianakis.
Brilliant! Check out Zach on the Comedians of Comedy movie. Comedy as dry as the desert. Love it.
