The “Incest Map” and Other Interesting Things

1. The Seattle Times brings us a hefty PDF (12MB) of the “Incest Map”, a diagram showing the relations between scores of Seattle bands.

2. It’s official: Dead Space 2! The original was one of my favorite games of 2008.

3. Also from The Seattle Times, the infuriating story of how the IRS spent tens of thousands of dollars to audit an impoverished single mother of two in order to squeeze her for $1,400 in (questionable) unpaid taxes:

4. The Federal Trade Commission has issued its annual report on Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children:

“The Commission finds that the video game industry has made great strides in restricting the marketing of violent M-rated games to children. Although there remains room for improvement – particularly in the area of Internet advertising – the video game industry outpaces the movie and music industries in the three key areas that the Commission has been studying for the past decade.” (Hat tip to Dubious Quality)

5. Finally, here’s today’s examination of the Amazon Top 100 sellers in video games. Yet again, New Super Mario Bros. Wii took the top spot. Wii titles accounted for 34 spots on the list, up from 30 for most of last week. Xbox 360 had 11 titles while the PlayStation 3 had just seven. Interestingly, of the Wii games, eight of them, or nearly one-quarter, were music or rhythm games.

As for the hardware, the Wii was still the top-seller, coming in at No. 2, while the low-end PS3 was No. 18. However, the Xbox 360 Elite bundle saw a big jump, to No. 30, while the Modern Warfare 2-themed ”Super Elite” system was No. 84. At No. 91 was the 250-gigabyte PS3.

Five Things

1. Want to learn to taunt your enemies like a reclusive megalomaniac dictactor with bad hair? It’s the North Korea insult generator.

2. What kind of political system is suitable for colonists on an interstellar journey? Sci-fi author Charles Stross flags some interesting issues.

3. Think movie acting can be bad? Try the 50 Worst Video Game Voice Acting clips.

4.  ”Sometimes his loose-limbed shuffle and sibilant drawl suggest Jimmy Stewart as a crackhead.” That’s The New York Times reviewing Nicholas Cage in his new movie, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”.

5. Crack that whip! Pearl Jam does Devo.

Why “DJ Hero” Isn’t Selling Well

DJ Hero was supposed to invigorate the flagging genre of music games. Yet in its launch month, the hip-hop game with the turntable controller only moved 123,000 units in the U.S. What happened?

It’s not the game. As with all forms of entertainment, people will reasonably disagree about what is fun or exciting, but DJ Hero was well-reviewed, with Metacritic scores ranging from 84 to 88 depending on platform.

And it’s not the marketing. Clearly, Activision is putting serious muscle behind the game with a TV spot that features Eminem, Jay-Z, and uh, some random white dude at the turntable. That spot, incidentally, seems to be a minor hit, with nearly half a million views on YouTube and an average user rating of 4-1/2 stars.

I don’t necessarily think Activision over-estimated the size of the market for the game, as Bill at Dubious Quality posits. It won’t ever outsell one of the flagship Guitar Hero releases, but it should do at least as well as, say, one of the band-specific offshoots of Guitar Hero, like GH: Metallica or GH: Aerosmith.

So what is it? Quite simply, it’s the price. At $120, DJ Hero costs twice as much as Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2 combined. And it’s about a third more expensive than the early Guitar Hero games. On top of that, you have the $200 Renegade edition being heavily promoted in stores, where customers could overlook the fact that there’s a cheaper version.

The original Guitar Hero games succeeded because the extra $20 or $30 they cost seemed like a fair value for a fun and innovative guitar controller. The DJ Hero turntable is a fantastic piece of hardware, but it’s clear that consumers aren’t seeing it as worth another $60. Not in this economy.

My hunch is that DJ Hero needs to hit the $99 price point to really take off, but that it could see a decent Christmas regardless as it ends up being the “big gift” under the tree for many kids.

“DJ Hero”: A Worthy Addition to the “Hero” Lineage

This is a review I just submitted to Amazon as part of their Vine program:

When the Guitar Hero franchise burst onto the pop culture scene, flooding living rooms everywhere with fake plastic instruments, hip-hop fans could do nothing but look on enviously and ask if such a concept could ever apply to their favorite music. (Yes, Konami pioneered this concept with Beatmania, but it never really caught on with home console owners, and Activision’s marketing muscle means DJ Hero will be the first title to gain mass-market awareness.)

Activision has finally answered that call with — surprise! — DJ Hero, what is apparently a well-polished product that should boast the right combination of great music, addicting gameplay, and gorgeous presentation to earn it a spot in the ranks of great music games.

Now for some disclosures: I obtained a demo of the product through the Amazon Vine program. The bundle consisted of a wired turntable controller and a demo disc featuring five songs: one tutorial track, one multi-player track and three for the main game. While grateful for the chance to get my hands on the product early, the demo disc was far too limited to be able to truly write a well-informed review. Hence, the weasel words in this review, such as “apparently”, “should”, etc.

Another disclosure: I am not generally a fan of rap, hip-hop or dance music. Rock, be it of the classic, blues, southern, punk, alternative, or even country variety, is where my soul lies. So it’s a testament to DJ Hero that it managed to draw me in despite a near-total unfamiliarity with the genre. The game will grab many die-hard rockers right from the tutorial, which features a mix of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. While I’m hard-pressed to name the other tracks from memory, I found them fun and enjoyable.

Other reviews have expounded on the gameplay in great detail, so I’ll just say here that if you enjoyed having your dexterity and sense of rhythm challenged by any of the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games, you’ll probably get a kick out of trying to master the tricks of the turntable. The three finger buttons on the turntable look like the fret buttons on a guitar controller, but the similarity ends there. In the course of a song, you’ll be asked not only to hit those buttons, but to “scratch” the turntable, quickly crossfade from one part of a mix to another, and add your own effects in a way similar to the whammy bar in the Guitar Hero games. It’s an intriguing mix of actions that add up to a good challenge.

In a stroke of genius by developer FreeStyleGames, a second person can join using a guitar controller to play the guitar bits of the mixes. This is a great way to get other people to jump in since there’s a good chance you or someone you know already has a guitar controller. It not only up the game to rock-oriented folks who aren’t interested in working a turntable, but it also allows people to play together without requiring another pricey turntable accessory.

A word about the turntable. Rarely does a new controller boast this level of sturdiness and attractiveness. It’s a handsome little unit that turns heads and feels solid and well-built. The on-screen visuals are also top-notch, featuring different house-party and club settings from around the globe. Again, since this review was limited to a demo disc, I was unable to check out the bulk of locales and playable characters. In another nice touch, the game also features an autoplay mode that will just play the music for a party or whatnot. That’s a great feature and one that needs to come to Guitar Hero. Hopefully it will also support tracks you add via download.

So in the end, does DJ Hero work? It does, and it will be interesting to see if the title can succeed in expanding music games to other genres, attracting new audiences and fans as people tire of the rock-based games. If you are a fan of hip-hop who couldn’t get into “Guitar Hero”, this is could be your game. If you’re a huge fan of music games in general and want a fresh challenge, this could be your game. And if you’re simply looking for something to liven up your next party, this could be your game.

Why I Hate Critics

Two of my favorite albums I’ve discovered this year are Ray LaMontagne’s Till the Sun Turns Black and Ben Harper and Relentless 7′s White Lies for Dark Times. Both albums are 5-star efforts in my book, though for different reasons. LaMontagne for his evocative lyrics and velvety melodies, and Harper for a jammin’ collection of pure summer rock riffage. As I often do when I get absorbed into an album, I check out what the critics had to say. And often I am startled and disappointed that not everyone shares my impeccable musical taste.

Here is Rolling Stone on the LaMontagne album, which it rates 2.5 out of 4 stars:

“Neither his hushed murmur nor his raspy vocal swoops pack much charm or originality, and the same goes for his songs. He gets Van Morrison comparisons, but LaMontagne doesn’t approach the Gaelic soul or deep undertow of Morrison’s good stuff. Soundwise, LaMontagne is more like Nick Drake without the drama and emotion, or even a Windham Hill artist — all airy beauty and not much backbone.”

And here is The Onion AV Club on Ben Harper:

“White Lies For Dark Times … is another jumbled grab bag of uninspired blues-folk … the compelling moments are drowned in a sea of bland jams, a churning mix of pointless repetition and noisy, tired riffing.”

They graded the album a C.

I suppose I should know better. I just let my trial subscription to RS lapse after they put the Jonas Brothers on their cover, proving beyond doubt that the magazine no longer packs much charm or originality. And as for The Onion AV Club, home to the snobbiest bunch of critics in the industry, their reviews have always tended to be jumbled grab bags of uninspired derision. Any compelling points are drowned in a sea of bland superiority, a churning mix of pointless repetitio and noisy, tired complaining. 

 

Oh yeah

Confirmed: Guitar Hero: Metallica. Can’t wait.

You can’t kill the metal!

You can’t kill the metal
The metal will live on
Punk Rock tried to kill the metal
But they failed, as they were smite to the ground
New Wave tried to kill the metal
But they failed, as they were stricken down to the ground
Grunge tried to kill the metal. Hahahahahaha!
They failed, as they were thrown to the ground
Aargh! yeah!

                     — Tenacious D, “The Metal”

That was never truer than last night, when Metallica rocked Seattle’s Key Arena.

Having perhaps staged the musical comeback of the year with their album Death Magnetic, the band proved that their potent blend of snarling lyrics, erupting guitar solos and jackhammer double-bass drumming carried over equally well to the live stage.

The interaction with the crowd was remarkable, starting with the unique stage planted smack in the center of the arena that put the band at the center of a huge 360 bowl lined with 17,000 fans. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and new bassist Robert Trujillo prowled the stage, stopping to give fans in different sections a good view. James Hetfield strode about to any of eight microphones, and Lars Ulrich’s monster drum set rotated 90 degrees every few songs.

The thing I noticed most about the crowd was how diverse it was.

When I was a kid in middle school, the metalheads were the weird kids who dressed in black leather jackets featuring some freak named “Ozzy Osbourne” and hung out in the corner of the playground.

Although within a few years I was heavily into bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, I always kept my distance from the metal scene of the 1980s. It was too dark, too weird.

Yet last night there was a grandma with white hair a few seats down from us. There were several avuncular characters with white hair roaming the aisles. A woman in front of us brought a daughter who was 12, tops, and who sat on her lap during parts of the show.

At one point in the show, Hetfield talked to a kid in the first row who turned out to be 8 years old. “You have really cool parents,” Hetfield laughed. This morning on KISW, a 35-year-old woman called in and said she took her two kids, aged 16 and 14.

Metal used to be this scary subculture that had all the parents freaked out over devil worship and stuff like that.

Today, it’s just a night out for the whole family.

I generally like this trend. Were Harlan a few years older, I would have taken him. In the end, it’s all about the music, and more people appreciating the music is a good thing.

I suspect a large part of it also is the popularity of games like Guitar Hero, which have managed to instill a Spinal Tap-esque ironic detachment from some of the juvenile and pretentiously moody aspects of the genre while maintaining a great respect for the intricacy and power of the music.

But while I’m glad that band like Metallica aren’t demonized by ignorant social conservatives anymore, I wonder if something hasn’t been lost. Being a Metallica fan 20 years ago (which I wasn’t) carried a certain badge of defiance. Metal was something that shocked and outraged parents and authority figures, and thereby knit the fanbase into something that was almost familial.

I suppose some sub-genres of metal still possess the power to shock repel — I certainly don’t care one whit for the “Cookie Monster”-style of guttural signing that is popular among many leading metal bands today, and the extreme death metal I’ve read about in some parts of northern Europe strike me as pretty sick.

Ultimately, though, I’m pretty happy that more people are able to appreciate metal, and the Metallica concert was an unexpected example of a lot of different people coming together to get their faces melted off.

A couple quick observations on the show. The band played for more than two hours and tore through 18 songs. Do the math and you’ll find that’s not a lot of songs for that length of time. In fact, each song took an average of 7-1/2 minutes, which is probably pretty close to what their average studio track runs. Metallica is famed for its epic songs with their multiple tempo changes and many richly textured layers.

Here’s the setlist:

• That Was Just Your Life, Death Magnetic
• The End Of The Line, Death Magnetic
• Creeping Death, Ride the Lightning
• Harvester of Sorrow, And Justice For All
• One, And Justice For All
• Broken, Beat and Scarred, Death Magnetic
• Cyanide, Death Magnetic
• Sad But True, Metallica
• Wherever I May Roam, Metallica
• Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Master of Puppets
• The Day That Never Comes, Death Magnetic
• Master of Puppets, Master of Puppets
• Blackened, And Justice For All
• Nothing Else Matters, Metallica
• Enter Sandman, Metallica
• Die Die My Darling, (cover)
• Motorbreath, Kill ‘Em All
• Seek and Destroy, Kill ‘Em All

While I would have loved to see a couple more of my favorites — “Frayed Ends of Sanity” and “Ride the Lightning” come to mind — it’s pretty hard to argue with that set list. “One”, “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman” were definite highlights, though the place was charged with high-voltage energy throughout the whole thing.

The light show was impressive, kicking off with a dazzling laser display that lit up the stage and rafters. There were these giant metal coffins, probably 30′ long, suspended from the ceiling. That was cool enough, but the awesomeness level was cranked to 11 when I realized the coffins were shooting out laser beams.

There was some pyrotechnic prowess on display as well: hot orange flames bellowed out of the stage during several songs, and during “One”, these wicked jets of flame shot up as from giant bunsen burners. Oh, and they changed color, too: blue, green red, etc.

I was pretty pleased to hear now fewer than five tracks off the new album, which is metal album of the year as far as I’m concerned. There’s a pretty interesting back story to this CD.

Turn the dial back to 1991 for a minute. That’s the year Metallica’s hit “Enter Sandman” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” both stormed on to the charts.

It was a turning point for rock music.

The former track marked the high point of popularity for a band that had dominated the metal scene for much of the previous decade with epic albums shot through with equal measure of dark lyrics and face-melting musicianship.

The latter song defined the young decade of the 1990s and launched a million garage bands who hoped that a surplus of angst and flannel would make up for their meager repertoire of guitar chords.

Within one year, Kurt Cobain’s catchy hooks and stripped-down act seemed to make the brooding extravagance of Metallica and other metal bands irrelevant.

The rest of the decade saw Metallica struggle to define itself and its direction. Although St. Anger was released in 2003, the album shared more in common with its 90s predecessors Load and Reload. The musical malaise of the 90s had carried over into the new millennium.

Fast forward to 2008. Death Magnetic hits shelves in September and the cosmos were set right again.

Under the mystic direction of producer/career resurrection druid Rick Rubin, the band crafted 10 songs that harken back to their glory days, when fans threw the horns to epic tracks like “And Justic For All”, “Master of Puppets” and “Blackened”.

This is also one of those rare cases of an album not having any bad songs. None. Even “Unforgiven III”, dismissed by many critics as “unnecessary”, would more than hold its own as a standout hit track on a lesser album.

There are, of course, genuine standouts, starting with the opening trio of songs — “That Was Just Your Life”, “The End of the Line” and “Broken, Beat and Scarred” — that form an intro that must surely rank as one of the best ever.

Other tracks of note include “The Day That Never Comes”, “All Nightmare Long”, “Cyanide” and “Judas Kiss”.

It’s clear that Rubin succeeded in drawing out the best in each band member. Hetfield’s urgent snarl is in full force, Hemmett’s intricate noodling proves he’s still one of the finest lead guitarists out there, Lars Ulrich’s dual bass drums are like twin howitzers blasting away at your eardrums, and Robert Trujillo proves his mettle by serving up meaty basslines that bind the songs like steel bands.

One of my favorite one-sentence summaries of the album was given by a DJ on Seattle’s KISW radio station: “It’s an album that punches you in the face repeatedly, and I mean that in a good way.”

This is an amazing album that instantly revives old-school Metallica and proves Tenacious D’s memorable adage: You can’t kill the metal!

Rock Band 2 tracks

I bought Rock Band 2 yesterday, my resolution to hold off a month until the bundle of new instruments was released lasting all of two hours.

Veryinitial thoughts: I loved how it quickly and seamlessly integrated all the tracks I’d downloaded for the original game. I haven’t yet transferred the songs that were on the Rock Band 1 disc, but the download transfer came off perfectly.

However, I’m a tad disappointed that the avatar creator didn’t get updated with more detailed models or additional choices. It’s basically the same graphical look as the original.

Of course, the real star of the game is the setlist. I’ve only played the first couple venues, but here are my impressions:

FAVORITE SONG SO FAR: “Alive” by Pearl Jam. One of the best tunes from the grunge era, the note chart on this song is interesting and rewarding.

FAVORITE PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN SONG: “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill. An angry yet catchy song from a grrl punk band out of Olympia, Washington, of all places. Wikipedia says they hit their heyday about the time I was in college, but I somehow missed them entirely.

FAVORITE FORGOTTEN SONG: “Hungry Like the Wolf”, by Duran Duran. Loved this staple of 80s rock when I was wearing topsiders and turning up the collars of my pink Izod shirts in middle school. Forgot how really good it is.

SONG I HATE THE MOST, SO FAR: “PDA” by Interpol. Unquestionably the worst piece of whiny emo garbage yet to be released on a music rhythm game. Yes, worse than My Chemical Romance. Even worse than AFI. Yes, that bad. If there was a way to delete songs from the game, this would be the first one to go.

Anybody else out there play the game yet? What are your thoughts on the songs?

I guess people really like “Guitar Hero”

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Activision Inc is adding drums, bass guitar, and microphone to its popular “Guitar Hero” video game, a move aimed at winning away fans of MTV’s rival musical title “Rock Band”.

“Guitar Hero World Tour” will include the ability for two groups of four people each to compete online, as well as let players compose and play their own music, Activision said on Thursday.

The game will feature songs from bands such as Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime, with every song being an original master track, unlike past games where many of the songs were cover versions.

Due out in the fall, the game will mark a new direction for the “Guitar Hero” franchise, in which players push colored buttons on a plastic guitar-shaped controller to match notes on the screen.

“I certainly think it takes the edge off ‘Rock Band’,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners. “What’s ‘Rock Band’ going to do now, add a flute and banjo?”

Activision’s money-spinning franchise got its first real competition last November when Viacom’s MTV unit launched “Rock Band”, which featured drumming and singing in addition to guitar playing.

The “Guitar Hero” series has raked in more than a billion dollars for Activision and has helped drive a 72 percent rise in the company’s stock over the past 12 months.

That compares to virtually flat performance in the shares of Activision’s top rival Electronic Arts Inc, which distributes “Rock Band” for MTV.

Shares in Activision were up 19 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $32.82 in late morning trading on Nasdaq.

Activision did not say how much the new game will cost. Last year’s “Guitar Hero 3″, which came with one wireless guitar controller, sold for about $90. “Rock Band”, which came with one guitar, a drum kit, and a microphone, sold for $170.

“World Tour” will be the third “Guitar Hero” game coming out this year.

Next month will see the launch of “Guitar Hero Aerosmith” focusing on the best-selling American rock group, as well as a portable version called “On Tour” for Nintendo Co Ltd’s popular DS handheld device.

“Guitar Hero World Tour” will come out in versions for Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 consoles.

Back

Today was the first day back at work after a long, sunny week of Spring Break. In other words, it was not a happy day.

It does mean that regular blogging should resume over the next couple days as I get back in the routine. Funny how when my day is filled with work, I somehow find time to blog, but when I have all this time off, writing never seems to get done.

It was a good vacation. Forests were hiked, beaches were walked, new bands were discovered, and beach parties were had.

Not five minutes ago, I finished Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and all I can say is, wow. It’s the first PS3 game I’ve played all the way through, and it was amazing. Think Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider meets Far Cry. Uncharted is simply an eloquent refutation of the idea that video games can’t compete with movies for story-telling, or that game writing isn’t important. 

I’ll probably write more later about Uncharted as it was, for me anyway, a pretty ground-breaking experience. Most importantly, it was just a hell of a lot of fun and captivated me for about four nights running (much to the chagrin of Tala and the delight of Harlan).