There's a lot of godawful dubstep (I'm looking at you and your Grammys, Skrillex). Hex nailed it: the guy's songwriting sucks. Some dubstep works in parts and then turns super-irritating (go to 1:28) at the drops.
Here's a piece I think works on all fronts. I'm seeing Bassnectar in a week and look forward to being the oldest person in the crowd.
You know you love metal. If you are a metalhead, you probably have genres and sub-genres you like. If you are a little more casual, then you probably like visual kei or classic rock or some related genre of metal. But I'm positive, just like there is someone out there that is right for you, there is a metal song that is right for you.
This will help you figure out what you like, what is related, maybe help you find something else that you like. And it will burn up a chunk of your day exploring. Use the minimap to move the big map around. Click on a genre and in many genres you can listen to a little sample.
Despite being a rabid Devo fan, I only recently got their new release Something for Everybody--their first in 20 years. The band continues to kill. See them live if you can. Meanwhile, check out Human Rocket.
Look, I'm all about bashing Phish. If someone were to start a political party who's platform included a 95% income tax rate, beating up puppies, and hating on Jam Bands I'd be the first in line to vote for them.
But if you're gonna do a joke, then do a joke no one's heard, ok?
See, this would be funny to me if I hadn't already been versed in the "(Insert Musical Act Name Here) Shreds" meme that we featured on this site many moons ago (you know, back when we used to have time to post updates).
Does this video accurately portray the unmitigated suck that is Phish? Yeah, a little. Personally, I'd actually suggest that as a parody it's simply not annoying enough to paint a clear enough picture of just how much Phish sucks, but beggars can't be choosers, right?
WRONG.
Look, if you're out to kill Jam Bands with a parody video, then you need to look no further than MST3K, who assassinated the Grateful Dead in less than three minutes about 10 years ago.
Fatality. Flawless Victory. Now go get a job, hippie.
Do we steer you wrong? Do we? No we do not. The ever-more amazing Martina Fugazzotto, who we love to death, has just come up with yet another winner, as the first entry on Rapping Memes (she also designed the site).
Witness the Cute Times Two as Martina raps to the baby sloth video, then make your own.
Oh, and because people are stupid on the Internet, I'm not suggesting MC Chris stole anything. I'm stealing material from Hex's blog (MC Chris) for this post. Now you know.
It would be really easy for me to overanalyze this one, since I've followed the band for a while, but here's what you need to know: The Walk Ons have a new EP out. The Brookyn-based band has put out five songs that are easy to put into heavy rotation in your head from the first listen.
The songs are all tightly arranged, with a range of styles contributing to the mix, from the Athens sound to Kiss-like backing vocals. My favorite is State of Affairs, which has great guitar work throughout, including a fine solo that doesn't outstay its welcome.
You can listen to all the songs for free right there on the site. You know the drill: Throw the band a few bucks if you like what they're doing.
Holy frijole! All of Mojo Nixon's music is free on Amazon, for about three weeks. As we've mentioned before, Mojo was psychobilly and indie before anyone used those terms. The man is hilarious, brilliant, and blessedly devoid of subtleties (see "Burn Down The Malls"). Go, get edified.
Although Hex and Monster couldn't make it, I joined up with Friend of Highly Recommended Bill in Seattle last weekend for PAX. The video game fan convention, which grew out of love for the Penny Arcade comic strip, now draws about 40,000 fans, and takes up the whole Washington State Convention Center. Six Floors. No lie.
On Friday, after wandering dazed through the expo floor, with game geek cross-mosh of all sorts, we nipped out for some beer tankards and returned refueled. Marketers for Dungeon Siege or Assassin's Elf or some shit had marked Bill as a target, but blood is apparently water-soluble, so no permanent harm was done.
We played about an hour of Halo in the LAN Room of Dreams before getting kicked off.
We started Saturday with a panel of XBox live admins talking about how they deal with griefers. ("And lo didst the griefer cause Os to become 0s, and 3s to become Es, and thus Playername 'Poonhunter' was born. And as Poonhunter didst spread his grief across the network there was much gnashing of teeth in the land.") The Greater Internet Dickwad Theory was mentioned several times.
We also sat in on the Rooster Teeth ("Red vs. Blue") panel, which was good for a few new videos, although the Q&A session was a race to the bottom. E.g.: "I'm the girl who pestered you for an autograph during the signing session. Are you sick of me yet?" Many questioners were booed.
By far the highlight of the convention was Saturday night's concert. Introduced by Wil Wheaton, the show opened with the Penny Arcade guys performing "Are You Really a Woman?" on Rock Band. Then Freezepop took the stage. They were super high energy, and more 80s than any band from the 80s. By the end of their last number, the main camera was shaking from people jumping up and down. Here's a sample:
Comedy music duo Paul and Storm played a solidly hilarious set after that. Their signature piece is a pirate song called "The Captain's Wife's Lament," which lets the crowd cheer ARR! about a billion times. They had to stop several times because of overenthusiastic Arrs. Paul stopped as one person kept Arr-ing and said, as good-naturedly as he could, "Seriously, shut the fuck up." That was great.
Jonathan Coulton went on after 1am. We've already pimped him to death, so just watch as he changes lyrics to his song "My Monkey" Into "Wil Wheaton," with Wheaton there.
The concert lasted until 3am, so Sunday was kind of a blur. We played some Army of Two, complete with wildly inappropriate 9/11 imagery. After that it was off to the train station for the trip home. All in all, a fine, fine weekend. PAX definitely comes highly recommended.
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