Loading… New Rock Band Content, Guitar Hero DS, PlayStation Comes Home

New Rock Band Content in March

And the rock don’t stop…

It seems we write about this every week, but important news is important news!

Once again, a bunch of new tunes, to be released in March, were unveiled today for Rock Band via Official Xbox Magazine, and once again, metal is taking center stage, for better or for worse…

Thrash Pack – 3/4/08
Evile “Thrashes”
At the Gates “Blinded By Fear”
The Haunted “Shadow World”

Sounds…great? Weves. OK next!

Classic Rock Pack – 3/11/08
The Police “Message in a Bottle”
Bad Company “Shooting Star”
Lynyrd Skynyrd “Simple Man”

At least “Message in the Bottle” should be fun…

Nine Inch Nails Pack – 3/18/08
“March of the Pigs”
“The Perfect Drug”
“The Collector”

Fair enough…

Metal Pack – 3/25/08
Metallica “Fuel” (Really? This is the best they could do? Christ!)
Black Sabbath “Supernaut”
Iron Maiden “Wrathchild”

Except for fucking “Fuel”, this sounds decent to us…

Guitar Hero DS This Summer?

‘Tis no secret that Activision seeks to slather the entire land in creamy Guitar Hero goodness and, according to last year’s financial statements, the company seems to have done a fairly good job to the tune of billions.

However, one little money-making corner of gaming it has yet to conquer has been the handheld market, or more specifically, the Nintendo DS market, which would no doubt rake in countless more dollars in which to bathe with hookers.

While the rumors of a DS Guitar Hero have been swirling for some time, since founder Charles Huang made a comment that they were “exploring” the possibility of a portable Guitar Hero last summer, it seems that a recent trademark all but confirms such a thing is in the works and would come packaged with some sort of peripheral to get your portable rock on.

On January 19, 2008, a trademark was filed by Activision for something called Guitar Hero: On Tour with a French website, claiming knowledge that it would indeed for the DS and would release in June of this year.

Tiny, awkward, dual-screen rocking, here we come!

PlayStation Comes Home This Spring
The much bally-hooed, oft-delayed PlayStation Home, a Second Life-esque application for the PlayStation 3, has been undergoing some changes to due to responses from its Beta tests and is currently set as a free download for PlayStation 3 owners sometime in the spring, which could be anytime between now and June.

First unveiled in late 2006, Home allows gamers to create an avatar in a virtual world and customize their own “apartment” with all manner of gaming and non-gamming related hoo-ha, in addition to being able to see movies, trailers, play demos, bowl, and otherwise loaf around.

The new changes appear to be on the superficial side–the movie theater was moved from an upstairs area to a downstairs area, more styles of apartment will be available (they will also be larger), more scenic vistas will be available for viewing, the bowling alley will be much more identifiable, etc etc.

Nothing more groundbreaking than the application itself but in case you were keeping track, there ya go.

Németh Film

Music created for short avant-garde movies rarely has much broad appeal, and Film, by Austrian synthesist/guitarist Stefan Németh, isn’t going to change this situation. However, within the rarefied realm of experimental soundtracks, this Radian/Lokai member has made a significant contribution with the six tracks collected here. If you’re familiar with Radian’s arid, deconstructed post-rocktronica (imagine if Tortoise recorded for Mego), then Film won’t surprise you at all. Introverted, oblique, and minimalist, Németh’s compositions favor slate-grey guitar feedback, methodical tom-tom tattoos (the disc’s best track, “Transitions,” features a rhythm that recalls that of Can’s “Mushroomhead”), and subtle electronic whorls. Imbued with a vague tension and subtle portentousness, Film–as well executed as it is–will likely appeal mainly to other soundtrack composers.

Clothes Captioned: Freshjive

Back in the day, you couldn’t set foot in a rave without spying a citrus-colored Freshjive shirt (probably a take-off on the Tide or Fruit of the Loom logos), or a copy thereof. Subterfuge and social commentary is still the name of the game for this Los Angeles brand, whose spring 2008 collection alone contains riffs on Afrocentric ’90s hip-hop, cholo culture, and Middle East politics–plus plenty of their now-infamous logo parodies, from a re-release of the aforementioned Tide rip-off to versions of the Pop Will Eat Itself and Oakland Raiders icons. Rhyming and stealing hasn’t always been easy (a recent lawsuit from Stüssy comes to mind) but that hasn’t stopped founder Rick Klotz from pushing the envelope, or the growth of the Freshjive enterprise, which now includes the SoCal surf-inspired Gonz clothing line, a store (Reserve LA, on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood), and the publication of an annual collector’s mag, The Propagandist, which is an outlet for Klotz’s photography and inspirations. Here are some special selections from the company’s spring line.

Breed hat ($40)
The Breed New Era cap, inspired by the classic 1991 MC Breed video for “Ain’t No Future In Yo’ Frontin’.”

Punks t-shirt ($36)
Inspired by the legendary Brand Nubian and their hit single “Punks Jump Up.”

Stand or Fall t-shirt ($28)
From a famous, very poignant quote by Malcolm X.

1989 zip-hoodie ($88)
This one’s athletic-influenced, with an Olympic theme. Freshjive 1989 refers to the year that Freshjive was created.

Resurgent varsity jacket ($290)
This varsity-style jacket’s got a heavy wool body with white leather sleeves, plus a quilted and printed satin liner and hood. Check the O.G. Freshjive logo patch on the chest and back!

Lab Waste “People Talk About Us”

L.A.-based Giovanni Marks and Thavius Beck join forces as Lab Waste once again, back with more of the unconventional hip-hip and electronic delirium we’ve come to expect from the duo. Taken from their forthcoming B.E.A.R. release, this track finds the underground veterans dabbling in Dirty South territory, complete with extended chopped-and-screwed uber-outro. Dangerous.

Lab Waste – People Talk About Us

Solvent Demonstration Tape 1997 – 2007

Ten years of unwaveringly passionate releases in the electro-IDM business deserves a retrospective double-disc compilation, and it’s Jason Amm’s time to be honored. Demonstration Tape covers the best of the best, from his early Suction Records material (“Flexidisc,” “My Blue Car”) to his initial Ghostly hits like “My Radio” and “Think Like Us,” while unveiling some newly hatched killers like “In the Light” and “Creepy Crawler.” The new tracks showcase Amm’s knack for electro-fied 4/4 beats with unearthly vocoder manipulations and omnipresent synth zaps. Remix homage is paid by Adult. (“Flexidisc”), Alter Ego (“Think Like Us”), Mitgang Audio (“My Radio”), and JDSY (“For You”). One might predict the Alter Ego remix to be a snarling behemoth of a techno track–and one might be right.

RJD2 Preps Tour

RJD2 will leave his Philadelphia home this spring to hit the road for several tour dates. The fact that he’s taking a band along means the indie hip-hop producer turned indie songwriter will likely be playing songs from his 2007 XL debut, The Third Hand. Be sure to check him out at one of these dates.

03/01 Sayreville, NJ: Starland Ballroom
04/01 Asheville, NC: The Orange Peel
04/02 Atlanta, GA: Variety Playhouse
04/04 Austin, TX: Emo’s
04/05 Dallas, TX: Palladium Loft
04/07 Tempe, AZ: The Clubhouse
04/08 San Diego, CA: Casbah
04/09 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theater
04/10 San Francisco, CA: The Independent
04/11 Portland, OR: Hawthorne Theater
04/12 Seattle, WA: Chop Suey
04/14 Salt Lake City, UT: Urban Lounge
04/15 Denver, CO: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
04/16 Kansas City, MO: Record Bar
04/17 Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue
04/18 Chicago, IL: Abbey Pub
05/01 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
05/02 New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom
05/03 Boston, MA: Paradise

Prosumer & Murat Tepeli Serenity

Panoramabar resident DJ Prosumer (Achim Brandenburg) is a diehard Chicago-house/Detroit-techno disciple who, along with fellow German producer Murat Tepeli, tinkers with the genres’ templates just enough to avoid blatant homage. Serenity actually suffers from an excess of personality (drama-queen vocals–some by Elif Biçer–with soap-opera scenarios), and most of Serenity‘s 17 tracks come off as pastel, Herbert-lite exercises. Tepeli and Prosumer generate some interesting tones, but the beats often sound too muffled and restrained, and the melodies are sometimes cloying. Serenity works best when Prosumer and Tepeli ditch the vocals and let the music do the emoting, thereby approaching the subtle melodic grandeur and tonal depth of Carl Craig and Theo Parrish.

Wax Poetics: Expanding the Empire

Since its inception in 2001, the bi-monthly Wax Poetics magazine has become a bible for seekers of rarefied grooves, message-laden hip-hop, and ephemera from bygone soul and funk eras. It is to publishing what Soul Jazz is to the crate-digging community–not just a distiller of the finest lost sounds in funk, reggae, and jazz but a griot-like teller of their histories.

Last year, with the help of Amir Abdullah (of Kon and Amir fame), the magazine expanded to include a label of the same name, on which they released their debut compilation, East of Underground, a recording borne of a battle of the bands on a U.S. Army base in Germany in 1971. “We’re following that up with a rare 45 titled ‘Baby I Want You’ b/w ‘Pray for Me,’ the Mizell Brothers’ first release as The Moments,” informs Wax Poetics editor and vinyl enthusiast Andre Torres.

While an MP3 download site of hard-to-find tunes is on its way, Torres’ latest obsession is a pair of books that the magazine will release in association with Puma. “Make Checks Payable to Charles Mingus,” a tale of the legendary bassist’s failed mail-order “record club,” is just one of many intensely researched and beautifully photographed stories recounted in Wax Poetics Anthology Volume 1 (hardcover; $39.95). But to really wax nostalgic, check out Cover Story (softcover; $19.95), a less content-heavy survey of funk, soul, hip-hop, house, and disco’s sexy, strange, beautiful, and hilarious sleeve art.

Both books are out this spring on Wax Poetics/powerHouse Books.

Ghislain Poirier No Ground Under

On No Ground Under, inimitable DJ/producer Ghislain Poirier enlists a vast crew of international pals–from France, Jamaica, and Brooklyn–to pepper his inventive beats with worldly touches of Trinidadian Soca and dancehall. The Montreal-based DJ’s choppy, futuristic hip-hop numbers can easily stand on their own, and in some cases, the guests overcrowd the tracks. But cuts like “No More Blood,” which features dancehall crooner Face-T, and the gritty “City Walking,” where freestyle MC Abdominal visits, are expert collaborations, fitting their vocalists like a glove. Some of the best tracks, though, find Poirier going it alone, like “Hit & Red,” with a broken, reconstructed beat that recalls Rounds-era Four Tet, and the ultramodern, Neptunes-y “It’s a War War War.”

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