Not everyone likes Guitar Hero. Charlie Daniels, for one, is pissed that his iconic song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" shows up in Guitar Hero III. As NME reports:
He has publicly stated that he would have refused permission for the song to be used if he had the power, claiming that the "very essence" of the song had been "violated."
That's right, they didn't get his permission. Then, doesn't look like they needed to...
At first blush Pitchfork curating a soundtrack for a baseball video game may not make a whole lot of sense from a brand lending/editorial perspective, but think about it: Major League Baseball 2K8 is a video game, and Pitchfork posts videos. That works, right? Almost maybe, but regardless it's a good play for the Forkers to move into video game stuff; hell we even have a Video Games category. Maybe Rock Band: Pitchfork Edition would make a little more sense, but to their credit listening to Battles' "Atlas" while turning double plays in your Starter cap is, at least, a thing. (Also to their credit, Matador and Sub Pop have worked similarly with 2K8 games in the past.) The soundtrack's 17 cuts deep, seven of which come with a Pitchfork Picks asterisks. Check it:
Forever pop culture savvy, the odd couple of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse draft Justin Timberlake (who's showing a lot of his kebab online today) to play host of a TV dance party soundtracked by the tune's retro party soul. Given, we couldn't have asked for another "Crazy," but this is pretty damn good.
Alongside the pop culture know how, of course, comes the attempts to dupe bloggers. The marketing team behind the album is circulating a rumor that "Run" failed the Harding Flash and Pattern Analyzer (used by broadcasters to ensure footage won't induce seizures). Or at least we think that's why someone sent us this...
That's the first screenshot of Guitar Hero's Aerosmith edition, the first one-band installment of the insanely popular timesuck. Says Wired: "Available in June, the game will feature nothing but Aerosmith, from 'Don't Want To Miss A Thing' to 'Sweet Emotion' to 'Love In An Elevator.'" Joe Perry self-tanner sold separately.
It's (Consumer Electronics) Show time in Vegas, and last night's keynote address came packing a pop culture-savvy video designed to give some morale back to the John Hodgmanized ranks of the Microsoft fanboys, by putting their fearless leader in cute situations with lots of people that probably use Macs in real life (or, at least in the case of Bono, have iPods made in their honor). It's like a who's who of notable people! Excluding conservative politicians.
We tried to reach Steve Jobs for comment but were told he was busy being jealous.
At the end of the speech, Bill brought in a ringer to defeat Robert Bach's ringer in Guitar Hero III...
Night owls looking for freshly written jokes received a semi-infusion of comedic relief last night when the late night funny men finally returned for duty (Letterman, Conan, Kimmel, Leno -- Carson did a little while back but we clearly said 'funny men') -- as long as your idea of comedic relief is watching O'Brien beat his own record of spinning his wedding ring for more than 41 seconds. Right: His writers are still on strike, as are the rest of the talk show crew's save Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants negotiated a side deal with the WGA allowing him a full force of professionally minted quips and gags. Didn't stop him from joining Conan in modeling the lastest in strike beard fashion.
[Pics by Dana Edelson for the AP]
Conan without writers means Conan resorting to his grab bag of tricks and ticks: knocking over the big mic, dancing like a fool, staring into the camera as a romantic song plays ("Strike beard ... strike beard ... strike beard ... I love you"), and playing guitar. After the jump, Conan roams the halls playing "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "Purple Haze" while other Late Nighters try to work -- and follows that by playing and singing "Creep" (he knows the music and lyrics, good man) while others jam along on Rock Band. Oh yeah, then he sings "Sabotage" ... if performed by Edith Bunker.
Look we promise, we aren't getting paid to post about Walk Hard. In fact, we think it looks disappointing. But THIS, well this is more like it. Plus, it has "Wave Of Mutilation" in it (whoa indie cred!). Get Drew Barrymore's bf/Mac kid Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, and The Office's Craig Robinson together for a little Rock Band, and watch the relaxed, spontaneous, meta-tacular fun ensue. Via CC Insider:
It's almost like they made it in response to everyone's palpable onset of Judd-lash, no? Also, this and this were just a few months ago, meaning Apatow's not only making bank, he's closing the window of time necessary to effectively self-satirize. Take that, Jamie Fox.
While we're looking for clips of a non-Thin non-White non-Duke from last night's Atlantis Squarepantis (anyone got a clip? don't bother with TurboNick, unless you want to see a commercial with the disclaimer "boy doll is anatomically correct"), we finally watched last week's Guitar Heroic South Park, which was a welcome break from three-part allegorically laden cartoon terrorism:
Tonight's episode is a sobering experience. After watching it come together I feel like maybe we flew a little too close to the nerdy sun with Guitar Hero. Maybe we should take a step back and look at the dark side of being a Guitar Hero...
South Park can usually fly pretty close to that nerdy sun when they want to, since they not only have the freedom to do (almost) whatever they want, but the honesty to bring what they're interested in out, instead of waiting for it to be a drop-in gag at a writer's meeting. Now that Guitar Hero's been firmly planted in the culture industry, though, here's what you can expect.
SNL Digital Shorts does "We Don't Need Another (Guitar) Hero" with Tina Turner
College Humor does "Anonymous Commenter Hero" with old IBM keyboards
The Soup does a lingering throw-away gag with the controller
People does an interview with a young up-and-coming actress, and the pull quote is "I just play Guitar Hero all night!"
Ten minute Guitar Hero bit on the Oscars
Nation mourns photo of smiling John McCain awkwardly handling controller at Generation Dot You with Special Partner Visa event
Momentarily becomes almost not uncool again when MIT students build Guitar Hero-playing Johnny 5 to play "We Need a Hero"
Banjo Hero on Sitcom We'll All Be Hating Next Fall
Then, finally, "Guitar Hero" will never, ever again mean this or this.
Extra Life's Secular Works arrived unknown in our mailbox and quickly found its way into regular rotation. The New York group is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Charlie Looker, who spent six years in ZS, has played with Mick Barr, was a...
Unless you were born with one of those silver spoons, you likely work a day job, sneaking time for your own business when not taking care of someone else's. You're not alone. Brandon Stosuy finds out how our favorite indie...
Three years ago Apologies To The Queen Mary established Wolf Parade as major indie players. Since then, though, the core members' various other projects and collaborations, including Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, and Sunset Rubdown (especially), became the main...
Every week, we dig in the archives for videos that we find noteworthy, memorable, or just unbelievably stupid. And then, Jon McMillan breaks 'em down for you. This week: the worst courtroom video of all time.
Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like. A while back we excavated SPIN's 8th Anniversary Dando-fest; now, through the magic...
Not all of Stereogum's favorite sounds conform to what folks expect us to cover. In this space, resident Bananafish fetishist Brandon Stosuy focuses on bands, albums, singles, and villages in Sweden that may otherwise pass by unnoticed. This installment's eclectic...
We dug Invasive Exotics, Houston crew Indian Jewelry's 2006 long player, but the feedback feels warmer, the structures more assured, expansive, unhinged and less Doors-y/VU-derived on Free Gold!. In fact, even if you didn't like their older work, you might...
