Thursday, November 29, 2012

Guess Who Didn't Have A Podcast This Week?

Echo Chamber! Nothing to download!

-In RBN News, "Lars Attacks" by MC Lars is now available for the Rock Band Network!

-In Potentially Depressing Rhythm Bastard News, I'm going to be relocating to Florida with the family sometime by the end of the year. It sucks, but I won't let it put a damper on my music. I'll be back within a year.

-So, can we talk about The Walking Dead game? Please? After finishing up Episode 5 a couple days ago, and talking with Ozone really sealed the deal on how awesome this is and how video games can really be used to tell a story in their own way, utilizing things such as tension and catharsis to provide an emotional experience that has now raised the standard.

As a game, it's bare-bones as it gets with simple puzzles, but all this does is hide the seams that "THIS IS A VIDEOGAME". I don't even want to replay the game now, because then it would feel too much like I'm trying to get the "best" result as opposed to "Oh man, what do I do?" There will be a spoilery version of my thoughts, but for the purposes of a "HEY GUYS HERES WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO" post, this'll do.

The beauty of the game is that EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE IS THE WRONG ONE. No matter who you save, the game has a habit of making you feel guilty for it, and you know what? You'll feel bad. Everyone has their charms, everyone has their flaws, and as is with the comic, everyone can die. Just like real life, you'll be wondering "What If?" the whole time.

It's been a blast to see how other people and came to their decisions, and not once has there been a choice that has had a decision swing 100% one way.

-So to pick me up, here's a thrash version of "Pac-Man Fever"


-Then I read the Walking Dead TPB 17 and am now depressed as fuck.

-Todd In The Shadows covers Chumbawumba:


And teases that he's going to review Pac-Man Fever.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Dino Hunter MD: The Sound Track Coming Soon!

COMING NEXT WEEK TO BANDCAMP!!!  

Featuring all the songs from Dino Hunter M.D., the webseries!

Track listing:
1. College Party
2. Pass The Class
3. Robotman's Lament
4. XZ71
5. Heroes Die
6. Invisiball
7. Cliffhanger
8. Hell Yeah
9. Space Tambourin
10. Hell Yeah (Choral)
11. Spectrum

Not sure how much it's going to be yet, but all these songs have been remixed and remastered and actually sound good!

Rhythm Bastard...............Guitar, Vocals, Bass
Jesse Schopher.................Production, Bass, Keyboard
Matt Willemain.................Backing Vocals on "Hell Yeah" and "Hell Yeah (Choral)"

Original Dino Hunter M.D. Series Created By...........David K. Ginn, Jeese Schopher and Justin Meltzer

Monday, November 19, 2012

Echo Chamber Podcast Post Game Episode 19

DOWNLOAD AND MAYBE WE WILL START MAKING SENSE

One thing I always wanted to do is boot up Flash again and do "animated" highlights for our discussions, and there was plenty of fodder here.

-"It's like America's two favorite things: Power and Violence!"

-"They're just yelling YOLO and jumping off cliffs"

-My description of the Crossfire Cartoon, leading into a discussion of My Little Pony

We need topics again you guys.

This Wednesday, RBN Undercover kicks off! ARE YOU STOKED GUYS?

Sunday, November 18, 2012

RBN Undercover Starts This Week!

Special thanks to Fairwood Studios for setting up the thread!

11 RBN Artists, 11 RBN songs. What's gonna happen?

DA LIST:
  • An Endless Sporadic- "Impulse"
  • Bang On A Can All-Stars- "Cheating, Lying, Stealing"
  • Buckner and Garcia- "Pac-Man Fever"
  • Evanescence- "Going Under"
  • Flogging Molly- "Requiem For A Dying Song"
  • iwrestledabearonce- "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon"
  • Jukebox The Ghost- "Schizophrenia"
  • Lemon Demon- "BRODYQUEST"
  • The Main Drag- "Don't Let Me Down (Slowly)"
  • OK Go- "White Knuckles"
  • Rainbowdragoneyes- "Heavy Weather: The Storm Ov The Undead"
A lot of really good diversity in here, with plenty of hits, alongside some solid indie tracks and METAL that the RBN is known for. Right now, I'm updating the YouTube page with links to the Xbox Live Marketplace to buy the songs.

First video goes up Wednesday!


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Todd In The Shadows: Worst of 2004



It's amazing both how memorable and how forgettable each song on this list was.

10. This was one of those first "Oh yeah..." songs, where I remember Jessica Simpson being a big deal back in the day. Like, seriously, EVERYONE knew about about "Chicken Of The Sea" thing. Now, maybe it's just how the pop machine works these days, but is she still doing music? I was on a shoot yesterday, and this was a subject that came up: as big as noone is, artists really don't have albums you can get excited about, it's just a constant stream of singles. Is she even doing that?

9. Nickelback. I've mentioned it on a previous podcast, but I'll gladly take "How You Remind Me" and "Someday" butt-rock Nickelback over "Photograph" acoustic red-state-rock (for Canadians) Nickelback, and "S.E.X." date-rapist Nickelback.

8. Hey guys, remember Sean Paul? More and more, I'm starting to take a better look and what goes on behind the scenes of the music industry, and when I start to see familiar names of producers and songwriters, things become a little more clear. For example, Metallica's "musical un-integrity" era from the Black album through St. Anger was because the producer for all of those albums also worked on a lot of Glam Rock like Motley Crue and Bon Jovi. Scott Storch's involvement in nearly every pop song from '03 to '06 brings a lot of that era into focus. With, as Mr. Intheshadows puts it, world music riff with a hip hop beat. He also did Paris Hilton's album. Wow.

7. The band that made "Crawling In The Dark" was responsible for this shit.LET THAT SINK IN.

6. Good news about text is that I don't have to care how Chingy is pronounced. "Right Thurr" I remember, but this one I forgot all about.

5. Another song I don't remember, but this song is quintessentially the psuedo-RnB comeback that came up a lot in 2004. The interstital song

4. Kelis' "Milkshake" was never really a song to me. It was more like "background noise". Like me and my friends in high school would be at a dance, or in any public place, and this song would just happen in the background. If my life were a movie, this song would not be on the soundtrack to my high school years (that of course belongs to R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" and Green Day's "American Idiot"), but rather in the Official Score To The Movie Based On Rhythm Bastard's Life (the kind of thing that only hardcore movie geeks buy) under the title "There Are More Than 2 Young People In A Public Establishment and Having A Good Time"

This video though was the first time I ever actually saw what Kelis looks like. Not bad.

3. Don't remember. Don't want, moving on.

2. Holy crap this guy is so whiny. I remember the hook "All those kisses didn't mean jack it/Don't want you back", but listening to this again, it sounds like Eamon is crying through out the whole thing.

1. OH GOD. Now, count me in the camp that likes "Funny" Eminem. This is back when that meant "Real Slim Shady" and "Without Me". Listening to this song again is a rehash of "We Made You": No flow, no bite and too juvenile to be taken seriously. It's appropriate that the hook of the sounds like a car horn; it's urging you to go ahead and keep moving, because there's nothing here for you. Seriously, Eminem implies, get the fuck out of here.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Echo Chamber Podcast Post Game Podcast 18

DOWNLOAD AND DONATE 5 OZONEBUX TO THE ARCANON DROPKICK FUND

This was probably the most funnest episode we did in a while!

-THE AWESOME FANTASY!!!


-THE DISAPPOINTING REALITY!!!


-This was another one where as SOON as we went off, I thought off a dozen more, but those were all video game related, and while we did bring up the Halo Theme at the end, it was mostly songs heard in 30 seconds. And to be honest, it's not that memorable to me, at least because I always skip the intros and stuff. But it is a point to make in the "Video Game Theme" episode: Not a lot of earworms in modern gaming. Halo has a good theme, BUT that will not stick in your head the same way anything from the 8 or 16 bit era would. Not to say the games are "scored" these days are to its disadvantage, far from it. However, a "score" and a "theme" are two different things.

-Back to the topic, a "theme" sets the scene for the TV show. A lot of shows these days don't really do that, instead co-opting another song. "Community" is a fucking amazing show, but it's song has not a lot to do with the show itself. Contrast that with "The Big Bang Theory", while I do not enjoy the show itself, the theme by The Barenaked Ladies sums up the show quite well: Science, more science, and friends that all game together because an invisible skyman of events that followed the Big Bang.

-However, the Pysch theme is one of those awesome little coincidences (It's about a guy posing as a psychic detective to solve crimes)


And let's face, the show is pretty damn awesome.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Green Day's DOS! Streaming On Rolling Stone

HERE

"See You Tonight"- Nice little acoustic ditty, reminds me of something by Simon and/or Garfunkel. It's only a minute, so it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

"Fuck Time"- This was the song in the preview for "Dos!". Not a fan of the chorus, though. At least the solo's solid, and it is a nice departure from the usual Green Day fare.

"Stop When The Red Lights Flash"- That hook is really what drives the song, and comes in at just the right time. The solo's OK, a lot of bends.

"Ashley"- They're using the phrase "screaming bloody murder" a lot in these two albums. It's like the phrase "When the lights go out" in Danger Days: The Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance. Of all the songs, so far this is the closest to something of Dookie.

"Lazy Bones"- "The silence is so deafening it's like picking at a sore"? Really? The intro is really close to that of "Give Me Novocaine", but at least they do something interesting with the progression.

"Wild  One"- Eh, is all I can really say. Some good lyrics, but like "Oh Love!" from Uno! it plods on for way longer that it should.

"Makeout Party"- A song written by men who are all married and have children. As a song it fucking rules, but this fact kept going in the back of mind. Tre's drumming is really good in this at least, and the second solo acts as a nice cliff before the quiet bridge.

"Stray Heart"- I'M WORTH A MILLION IN PRI- I mean, it's a great beat and all, but wait- This sounds so much like Jet it's not even funny. Green Day's Power-Pop-Punk now I guess.


"Baby Eyes"- All right, now we're back to the punk! And it's about shooting babies!

"Lady Cobra"- Harkens back to the Foxboro Hot Tubs days, which I liked a lot.

"Nightlife"- Wow. They're really trying to get into the Top 40 with this shit. This must be the first time Green Day had a guest vocalist.

"Wow! That's Loud"- Like Lady Cobra, I'm getting the FBHT vibe from this

"Amy"- Pass.

So overall, it sounds a lot better than Uno!, which I put toward the bottom of the Green Day canon, but this  I'd say resides in the top half.


Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Halloween Party: The Movie

Henry Rollins. Tom Waits. Iggy Pop.

These are just some of the awesome rock legends that also act in cool things watched by awesome people. Tonight, I present to you IN A TOTALLY TIMELY FASHION, A movie by my friends at Cannibal Troll "Halloween Party"!

Also featuring two new songs, "Sounds Of The Macktastic Coffee Shop" and "Halloween Party In Da House". I also heard "Space Tambourine" in there too. 


FUN FACT:: I was wearing that same shirt in my "Pass The Class" video. 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

That Was Halloween

Played a pretty good show despite my setup, danced like an idiot to some Beastie Boys and Foxy Shazam, and crashed on my couch at 3 in the morning wearing a Superman cape. Pretty damn good!

I had a digeriedoo as my opening act. The host was excited and got a couple people singing along to "Hell Yeah" and "Heroes Die", though the songs that went over best were impromptu acoustic renditions of "Party Rock Anthem" and "Teenagers From Mars".

OK, time for the Actual Updates!

1. DINO HUNTER M.D.: THE SOUND TRACK- Is ready for final production. Vocals have been re-recorded for a number of songs, a lot of stuff has been remixed and re-mastered, and there will be a bonus song or two added.

2. ROCK BAND NETWORK UPDATES- "Hell Yeah" is re-uploading as we speak. It's about 1/2-way done with the Peer Review phase, hopefully I can get this and "Lars Attacks!" out at the same time.

The next song  I'm putting on the RBN most of you have already heard if you listen to the Echo Chamber Podcast!

3. FUTURE CONS- Making a list, checking it twice, gonna sign up in advance cause this shit runs out quickly.

4. STATUS QUO RADIO- Once DHMD is done, that's what I'll be focusing on. There's a couple behind the scenes things I want to take care of, like an artist for the cover, and maybe a Kickstarter to pay for physical copies and whatnot.

5. File this under "Found Out About Too Late":