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Castlevania music hits it really, really big
Our lives are officially forfeit. At a recent Video Games Live show at Yale's Woolsey Hall, classic Castlevania music was performed on a three-story pipe organ, like it was always meant to be. And we were nowhere near it. What is there to live for now? Oh, right, playing this video of it over and over again. Check out the video after the break, and gasp along with us as Vampire Killer kicks in. We feel bad for the poor pipe organ, having gotten a taste of Vania music and forced now to return to its former life.[Via Joystiq]
Rock fans uninterested in Harrison's PS3 auction
Marketing is all about knowing your audience -- what they'll respond to and what will turn them off. Going by that metric, it seems Sony's Phil Harrison wasn't quite a marketing genius at a recent rock concert.Paul Rose, a.k.a Edge magazine's "Mr. Biffo," recounts on his blog the somewhat embarrassing tale of a Harrison-led PS3 charity auction in the middle of a Marillion festival in Holland. Harrison, who's apparently a friend of the British rock band, reportedly took over the auctioneering duties from the band's keyboardist, raising the bidding price from just above €100 to the €600 retail price as he did. What followed was a debacle that Rose calls "one of the most awful things I have ever witnessed." According to Rose, Harrison was only able to get one bid out of the awkwardly silent two-thousand-plus strong crowd. What's more, Harrison reportedly "became increasingly desperate as it grew clear that everyone just wanted him to go away, and nobody was going to indulge his tasteless attempt at publicity."It'd be easy to spin this as an example of the PS3's high price hurting it's saleability, but really it's just another example of marketing tone-deafness of Sony's part. These people were there to hear a rock concert, not to hear a marketing pitch from a Sony executive who wants them to throw down €600+ for a game system on an impulse. Sometimes, you just have to know when people don't want to be sold to.
Video Games Live holding 14 shows at 10 North American cities [update 1]
Video Games Live continues to spread its musically inclined tendrils across the North American continent, with the announcement of 13 upcoming concerts in 10 different cities. If you can't make the GDC concert next month (featuring Nintendo's Koji Kondo), perhaps you'll find solace in the complete list of events presented after the break.In addition, Video Games Live concerts are currently being planned for several European, Asian and South American venues. Keep an eye (and an ear) out for further announcements regarding international events.
iConcertCal
I'm normally not a huge fan of iTunes plugins– I was scarred on the whole idea of media player plugins back in my Windows days, but iConcertCal might just get me to re-evaluate that opinion. The free plugin scans the artists in your music library and presents you with a calendar of upcoming concerts in your city by those performers.Unfortunately I haven't been able to get iConcertCal to work perfectly on my machine– the calendar only fills the bottom-left 2/3 of my iTunes window, the calendar over-flows the bounds of the visualizer area a bit, and there is something wrong with the mouse rollovers that causes me to have to mouse about an inch above the item I want to see information about. Your results may vary. Technical note: Now I'm no programmer or expert on the intricacies of iTunes plugins, but it seems to me that having a plugin that essentially uses the visualizer as a browser is a bit of a hack.[via Josh Spear]
MHD to air "Gorillaz: Live in Harlem" concert on New Year's Eve
Responding to the request of "more MHD, please," we're thrilled to see the high-definition spinoff giving some much needed love to live concerts shot in HD. In case Times Square is too crowded, or you just aren't much for going out on the town, Gorillaz are hoping that you ring in the New Year with them as MHD airs the band's live concert from Harlem, NY at 9:00PM EST/PST on December 31st. "Gorillaz: Live in Harlem" will be shot at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, and while the original airing takes places three hours before 2007, it will re-air at the stroke of midnight for those who miss the premiere.
Catch a new concert every week on MHD
MTV's high definition network, MHD plans to premiere a new concert every week for the rest of the year. According to Tom Calderone, Executive Vice President of VH1, live concert and music programming are among the top things HD viewers want in a music channel. Of course, that doesn't explain why they only show music videos at 3 AM, but hopefully this is the start of an improvement. MHD launched earlier this year and is already available in half the HDTV-equipped homes in the country. MHD certainly puts up nice concert programming, the problem is they repeat the same content over and over throughout the week. Most networks don't consider adding one new episode of a show each week a major achievement, we'll be very excited when MHD reaches that point.The concert premieres planned: CMT Giants: Reba McEntire, premiering Saturday, November 18 at 8pm ET/PT on CMT and simulcast on MHD The 2006 MTV European Music Awards, premiering Saturday, November 25 at 9pm ET/PT CMT Crossroads: Lindsey Buckingham and Little Big Town, premiering Saturday, December 2 at 9pm ET/PT on CMT and simulcast on MHD Life & Rhymes: Snoop Dogg, premiering Saturday, December 9 at 9pm ET/PT Summer Fest: Lynyrd Skynyrd, premiering December 16 at 9pm ET/PT Isle of Wight Festival: Snow Patrol and Jet, premiering December 23 at 9pm ET/PT
Widget Watch: OnTour - know when your favorite iTunes artists are in town
OnTour is a Dashboard widget that scans your iTunes library and offers concert notifications when the artists you actually listen to are coming to a venue near you. The widget uses OnTour.net to collaborate all this information, and links are provided to buy tickets, as well as to the iTS in case you need to brush up on your choruses. To top things off, the OnTour.net site itself provides even more links to discographies and Google maps for directions. Nice.[via Lifehacker]
Video Games Live hits London on November 25th
Those of us this side of the pond may have been reading the various Video Games Live tidbits with a detached air of mild interest, but finally we'll be able to get in on the musical action. The concert of videogame music will be hitting London's Hammersmith Apollo on November 25th, and tickets went on sale last week. We'll be there, so watch out for the Joystiq t-shirt amidst the crowds; now, if only the concert would do a UK or European tour for those of us aware that London isn't the only city on this continent.
iScorch to the rescue
I lost my lighter to airport security the other day. So I was resigned to being unprepared for the inevitable flame tribute to the bands at the Lyons Folks Festival tonight. That is, until I came across this post at Cult of Mac about the iScorch. I'll just hold up my iPod Video and let this video be my torch. There's also an iScorch for the Nano and the iPod Photo.
PLAY! Symphony plays Prey in Phillay tonight (we'll be there)
Philly is racking up the video game concerts this summer. First, the Video Games Live concert at the Merriam Theater in June*, and now rival production PLAY! at the Mann Center tonight, 8:30.Just to make the evening super special, the promoters added some music from the (better than you'd think) Prey soundtrack to the already impressive program. Other titles on the RPG-heavy lineup include Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross and Trigger, Morrowind, Kingdom Hearts, Shenmue, and more. Tickets are still available so if this is the first you've heard about it, get buying.I'll be at the show tonight with (just a) couple oddly sized Joystiq shirts to give away so, if you can answer me who composed the music for Sonic Rush (don't answer it here!), you may get yourself a fancy tee.*I promise I'll recount my very tardy VGL experience in addition to PLAY! so y'all can compare and contrast.
Video Games Live seats in Indy up for sale
Tickets are now on sale for the two Video Games Live shows planned in conjunction with Gen Con Indy Friday & Saturday, August 11-12.After a stop in Philly earlier this month, the VGL tour is moving on to Houston July 14th, Chicago August 5th, and then Indianapolis the weekend after that. More on reserving seats for the Hilbert Circle Theatre can be found on the official announcement page (via the pic to the right or the Read link below).Judging by the reviews of the Philly show so far, Video Games Live sounds like it could be a lot of fun. If they keep providing public access to Guitar Hero II, they may have sold this blogger on going already. We hope Midwestern gamers not attending the Chicago show can make a pitstop in Indy to keep Tommy's show on the road. So, yeah ... rock on.See also: Official VGL report from Philly (with some local links to boot) Video Games Live ticket purchases opened a bit early The official page for Gen Con Indy PS2 impressions: Guitar Hero II
Blu-ray concert titles on the way from Sony BMG
Sony BMG is adding some music muscle to the Blu-ray lineup, announcing two discs featuring Rod Stewart and John Legend they will be releasing on the format. Rod Stewart: Live at Royal Albert Hall and John Legend: Live at the House of Blues are both described as summer releases, but no specific date or price yet. Both were originally recorded in high definition and will feature uncompressed audio, as well as various behind the scenes features from both concerts. Rod Stewart fans can look forward to Maggie May, Stay With Me, and selections from his Great American Songbook series. R&B singer John Legend's disc will feature his hit Ordinary People as well as guest appearances from Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. After Paramount has delayed their high definition releases including U2: Rattle & Hum, Blu-ray may have the first concert releases between them and HD DVD. That said, the first one to put the Beyonce special that used to air on INHD all the time onto a round disc may get my dollars.
Video Games Live hits Philly tomorrow
The previously canceled but now resuscitated Video Games Live show is ready to play its third show to date at Philadelphia's Merriam Theater in Center City tomorrow night. Like their show at GDC in March, this one is tied to a popular event -- namely Wizard World Philadelphia -- giving them a built-in audience who've already traveled to the city. The GDC show in San Jose sold out, no doubt as a result of the hoards of gaming geeks and industry insiders around, but there are still tickets available in Philadelphia (comic book geeks, what's up?). In addition to the great music, the pre-show festival includes a costume event and a special meet and greet. Philadelphia attendees include Marty O'Donell (Halo), Jason Hayes (World of Warcraft), Martin Leung (Video Game Pianist) and me! Alright, maybe I'm not a celebrity, but I'll be there with a handful of Joystiq t-shirts so if you see me*, ask for one. If there's enough Philly readers going (c'mon guys!) it might even be fun to meet up before hand, play some Metroid Prime: Hunters, you know the deal.*I'll be the tall guy with a Joystiq shirt on!
Chicago signing for Uematsu, Aki, & Roth tonight
Are you in Chicago tonight for the big PLAY! concert tomorrow, but weren't willing to shell out $125 for the VIP meet-and-greet at the event? Well, you might be in luck (even if you're not attending), as a few famous folks from the concert will be on hand to sign autographs in Chicago proper for free tonight.From 7 to 9 PM (presumably Central time) at the Tower Records store on 2301 N. Clark St., Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, bilingual songstress Angela Aki (who wrote and sang the theme song for FFXII), and Principal Conductor and Music Director of PLAY! Arnie Roth will be signing autographs to promote the world-tour premiere of 'PLAY! A Video Game Symphony' and the CD for More Friends - Music from FINAL FANTASY.While this blogger is sadly occupied with prior engagements tonight, gamers in the area are more than welcome to mob that Tower Records and cause the store's employees much consternation and bewilderment. If you don't have any imported CDs to sign, however, don't fret: the store's web site claims to have "some awesome Japanese imports available for you to purchase and have autographed at the event." Not only that, Angela Aki will be performing live as well. Score! Anybody wanna tell us how this evening turns out when it's all sung and done?[Via The Daily Northwestern; image culled from Angela Aki's blog, Nobuo Uematsu's Squenix profile, and Arnie Roth's 2005 interview with IGN]See also: Official page for Tower Clark Street (with details on the signing) Ticketmaster site for the PLAY! concert debut tomorrow Sonic and Chrono composers to join PLAY! in Chicago
8bit musicians announce world tour
Former cellmates Nullsleep and Bitshifter have announced plans to embark on a world tour, blasting their blend of bleeps, bloops, and blizzasts from Boston to Brussels and back again. If you're not an 8-bit believer yet, nothing will win you over except trying it out for yourself. To that end, here are links (1, 2, 3, 4) to some MP3s these torturers of Gameboys, Famicoms and other old-school video game consoles have kindly provided for downloading. If you like what you hear, check the tour page and maybe even drop a few dollars in the donation bucket to help make it happen.
U2's Vertigo tour on HDNet January 29th
If you didn't get a chance to catch U2's Vertigo tour live and in person (or even if you did) you'll probably want to check out the HD premiere of "Vertigo//2005 U2 Live from Chicago" on HDNet later this month. I'm going to grab my Irish flag and pretend to be Johnny Drama, anybody else plan on watching?
