The Altsounds Concentrate | Sunday 21st December 2008
Happy Holidays
My apartment is completely decked out in non-holiday-specific decor, Christmas Vacation is on the television, the gifts have been purchased and wrapped in non-holiday-specific paper and yet none of these things have warmed my heart quite like the Altsounds Best of 2008 list. I didn't vote or contribute to the list, so I'm as objective as I can be here - it's the best list you're gonna find.
It's the most honest.
It's the only list based solely on MUSIC instead of hype or sales. Rolling Stone can kiss our non-holiday-specific ass. I actually hadn't heard of a lot of the bands and albums that made the Altsounds Top 50, but I've been checking them all out over the last couple days and there isn't a bad one in the bunch. The Altsounds writing staff did an amazing job putting it together, special thanks to Mark for heading it up.
You can find the Altsounds Best of 2008 list in our new Features section. Keep your eyes on this portion of the site and sign up for the email alerts because this section will be bumpin' hard in 2009. This is where you will find our exclusive interviews, special in-studio performances and behind the scenes features with artists, advice and op-ed pieces from our staff of professionals. We have many more surprises in store for you, but you're either gonna have to be patient or water board a site editor, because my lips are sealed.
Music That's Hot
With a plethora of music to sieve through below is the cream of this weeks ever abundant musical crop.
Simple Plan - Save You (Single)
Lava/Atlantic Records
December 19, 2008, 11:41 PM
Buy Simple Plan - Save You (Single) From Amazon.com
Simple Plan are giants in the pop-punk scene, and rightfully so. ‘Save You’ is what I would call a pop-punk ballad. Vocalist Pierre Bouvier tells us that he wrote this song about his brother’s battle with cancer, a pretty strong subject to base a song on. I personally love this song, and even though Simple Plan appear to have changed their style slightly, they still have that special pop-punk quality about them which separates them from so many bands in the genre. Simple Plan have always been known for their catchy hooks, and this song delivers them in both the lead vocals and the backing vocals.
If you follow the lyrics of this song you can tell it’s based on something close to Pierre’s heart. Some...
READ MORE
The Status - So This Is Progress [Album]
Doghouse Records
December 19, 2008, 07:07 AM
Buy The Status - So This Is Progress [Album] From Amazon.com
The Status’ latest album, So This Is Progress, is a pleasure to listen to. There are two main reasons why.
Reason #1: Catchy, meaningful, and genuine lyrics:
In modern day music one might think it a wild goose chase to encounter lyrics that lift, motivate, and inspire. The Status however, are the wild geese you may have been after. In the poppy intro track, Back On Your Feet, the band urges, “Get back on your feet no more excuses, this is your chance you don’t wanna lose this.” And “The least we can do is try…” A clarion call to listeners who are down and out on life and need a pick me up...
READ MORE
Relient K-Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer
Capitol Records
December 19, 2008, 07:11 AM
Buy Relient K-Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer From Amazon.com
Relient K has produced an excellent Christmas album in, Let Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer.
Traditional Christmas songs such as, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Deck The Halls, and multiple others receive a “pop-punk” makeover Relient K style, aka, fast sharp riffs, and the falsetto perfection of front man and vocalist Matthew Thiessen.
Perhaps the best of these is the mostly piano played medley of Silent Night/Away In A Manger. This soft and melodic...
READ MORE
Battle For Prague - We Could Be Anywhere [EP]
Self Released
December 16, 2008, 11:18 AM
Buy Battle For Prague - 'We Could Be Anywhere' EP From Amazon.com
Battle For Prague are 4 guys from Birmingham (Greg Cox, Tom Whitfield, Greg Milner, Lottie) who have just released their EP ‘We Could Be Anywhere’. A four track EP which will leave you pining for more!
Battle For Prague deserve to go absolutely everywhere. They’re a band that you heart clings to. You can’t help but love their music, it sends you to such a warm and happy place that you just can’t live without. Think of them like the safest, warmest, happiest place you were when you were young. You know, that place where you wanted for nothing, where you were the happiest person alive, that’s the effect that Battle For Prague have...
READ MORE
Book Worm
Are you a big old book worm geek that loves to read? If so, this weeks musical book choices are sure to please you.
Dimebag Darrell: He Came to Rock [Book/DVD]
Doll/Morrow
December 17, 2008, 02:47 PM
Dimebag Darrell was a legend of his time and will be for years to come. His guitar playing ha influenced so many young bands and players all over the world. The "He Came To Rock" book documents his life, starting with his early youth and going through to his very sad departure. The book is emblazoned with a fabulous array of images, showing Dimebag through the ages. It documents his progression into music which seemed so natural to him with various members of his family being budding instrumentalists.
The book contains lots of personal insights in to his life, his character and his career. There are a lot of things I didn’t know about Dimebag and this book has highlighted almost everything you could ever want to know about the legend. For...
READ MORE
The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists - Joel McIver [Book]
December 19, 2008, 02:29 PM
This book is very simple and it does exactly as it says on the cover, which is list the 100 greatest metal guitarists, well according to Joel McIver. The first thing I noticed about the book, when flicking through, was the kind of guitarists that are included. This book is not comparable to a Kerrang list, for example, where there would also be a high degree of influence of popular and current bands. This is also very true of other popular top 100 polls that are based on a public vote system, as it they are not based on technical ability, rather popularity.
This book goes against that by being written solely from the view of one person, giving it a more rounded analytical point of view. This man is Joel McIver, his CV is very extensive and includes writing for many popular magazines and having written many books within this field. This book contains many guitarists...
READ MORE
The Inside Scoop
Want to learn more about your favourite bands and artists? The inside scoop is here to save your ass!
Technical Q&A with Cesar Kuriyama about his Pixilation Music Video work
Animated magic using DSLR's at the best quality I have yet seen
December 19, 2008, 10:14 PM
Recently Cesar Kuriyama got in touch with Altsounds.com to forward us a visually interesting music video he had just finished directing for Fat City Reprise - "Long Gone" . I thought you might find this of interest. Now, what blew my mind most was the fact that I was informed that "No Video cameras were used in the production of this music video". Me being me, the minute I heard this I had to talk to Cesar about the in-depth technicalities of producing such an amazing piece of work.
Altsounds: Your new music video is very ingenious and well put together. I was reading that you did bursts of 60 photos that made about 4 frames per second. How did you convert this post-production to 24 frames per second and what software and processes did you use for this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm an animator, so I'm very familiar with such things as frame rates and methods of generating moving images.
Stop motion animation is a technique of slowly moving ojects and photographing them in order to create the illusion of motion. Film runs at 24 Frames per second. Video runs at 30 FPS. I find most animators, including myself, prefer the look of 24 FPS. There's a similar technique called "Pixilation", which is just like stop motion, but it involves using people instead of objects...
READ MORE
The News Wire
Have your finger on the musical pulse every week by checking out the Top Ten biggest news of the past week
Altsounds users are concert going freaks. The gigs listed below gave our reviewer the horn this week.
Coldplay @ the 02 Arena [LIVE]
Monday 15th December 2008
December 20, 2008, 07:07 PM
You get good value for money at Coldplay gigs, by the looks of it. Not only do you get to see the band themselves leap from classic to classic led by mad musical professor Chris Martin, you get Simon Pegg laughing his way through a harmonica solo, huge balloons spurting confetti, thousands and thousands of butterfly-shaped paper pieces dropped from the dizzy heights of the 02 arena... and even a brief Take That cover. Such is the spontaneity of these concerts, I’d be tempted to say – apart from the fact that there is little difference between this setlist and the song listing of every single other show that’s been played on Coldplay’s current ‘Viva la Vida’ tour. But we’ll pass over that!
First support comes from a bouncy Eugene Francies Jnr and co, who even attempted to win friends by chucking free badges and t-shirts into those he bribed down stage-side.
READ MORE
Last Orders!
Have a happy and peaceful holiday! While you're passed out in a diabetic coma from all the cookies and cakes, take some time to think about 2009 and how you can make it the best year ever! Forget the whole quitting smoking or losing weight or the other bullshit we all forget by February... come up with something that will move you fundamentally in a more positive direction. Like visiting Altsounds every single day, for example.
My apartment is completely decked out in non-holiday-specific decor, Christmas Vacation is on the television, the gifts have been purchased and wrapped in non-holiday-specific paper and yet none of these things have warmed my heart quite like the Altsounds Best of 2008 list. I didn't vote or contribute to the list, so I'm as objective as I can be here - it's the best list you're gonna find.
It's the most honest.
It's the only list based solely on MUSIC instead of hype or sales. Rolling Stone can kiss our non-holiday-specific ass. I actually hadn't heard of a lot of the bands and albums that made the Altsounds Top 50, but I've been checking them all out over the last couple days and there isn't a bad one in the bunch. The Altsounds writing staff did an amazing job putting it together, special thanks to Mark for heading it up.
You can find the Altsounds Best of 2008 list in our new Features section. Keep your eyes on this portion of the site and sign up for the email alerts because this section will be bumpin' hard in 2009. This is where you will find our exclusive interviews, special in-studio performances and behind the scenes features with artists, advice and op-ed pieces from our staff of professionals. We have many more surprises in store for you, but you're either gonna have to be patient or water board a site editor, because my lips are sealed.
Music That's Hot
With a plethora of music to sieve through below is the cream of this weeks ever abundant musical crop.
Simple Plan - Save You (Single)
Lava/Atlantic Records
December 19, 2008, 11:41 PM
Buy Simple Plan - Save You (Single) From Amazon.com
Simple Plan are giants in the pop-punk scene, and rightfully so. ‘Save You’ is what I would call a pop-punk ballad. Vocalist Pierre Bouvier tells us that he wrote this song about his brother’s battle with cancer, a pretty strong subject to base a song on. I personally love this song, and even though Simple Plan appear to have changed their style slightly, they still have that special pop-punk quality about them which separates them from so many bands in the genre. Simple Plan have always been known for their catchy hooks, and this song delivers them in both the lead vocals and the backing vocals.
If you follow the lyrics of this song you can tell it’s based on something close to Pierre’s heart. Some...
READ MORE
The Status - So This Is Progress [Album]
Doghouse Records
December 19, 2008, 07:07 AM
Buy The Status - So This Is Progress [Album] From Amazon.com
The Status’ latest album, So This Is Progress, is a pleasure to listen to. There are two main reasons why.
Reason #1: Catchy, meaningful, and genuine lyrics:
In modern day music one might think it a wild goose chase to encounter lyrics that lift, motivate, and inspire. The Status however, are the wild geese you may have been after. In the poppy intro track, Back On Your Feet, the band urges, “Get back on your feet no more excuses, this is your chance you don’t wanna lose this.” And “The least we can do is try…” A clarion call to listeners who are down and out on life and need a pick me up...
READ MORE
Relient K-Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer
Capitol Records
December 19, 2008, 07:11 AM
Buy Relient K-Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer From Amazon.com
Relient K has produced an excellent Christmas album in, Let Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer.
Traditional Christmas songs such as, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Deck The Halls, and multiple others receive a “pop-punk” makeover Relient K style, aka, fast sharp riffs, and the falsetto perfection of front man and vocalist Matthew Thiessen.
Perhaps the best of these is the mostly piano played medley of Silent Night/Away In A Manger. This soft and melodic...
READ MORE
Battle For Prague - We Could Be Anywhere [EP]
Self Released
December 16, 2008, 11:18 AM
Buy Battle For Prague - 'We Could Be Anywhere' EP From Amazon.com
Battle For Prague are 4 guys from Birmingham (Greg Cox, Tom Whitfield, Greg Milner, Lottie) who have just released their EP ‘We Could Be Anywhere’. A four track EP which will leave you pining for more!
Battle For Prague deserve to go absolutely everywhere. They’re a band that you heart clings to. You can’t help but love their music, it sends you to such a warm and happy place that you just can’t live without. Think of them like the safest, warmest, happiest place you were when you were young. You know, that place where you wanted for nothing, where you were the happiest person alive, that’s the effect that Battle For Prague have...
READ MORE
Book Worm
Are you a big old book worm geek that loves to read? If so, this weeks musical book choices are sure to please you.
Dimebag Darrell: He Came to Rock [Book/DVD]
Doll/Morrow
December 17, 2008, 02:47 PM
Dimebag Darrell was a legend of his time and will be for years to come. His guitar playing ha influenced so many young bands and players all over the world. The "He Came To Rock" book documents his life, starting with his early youth and going through to his very sad departure. The book is emblazoned with a fabulous array of images, showing Dimebag through the ages. It documents his progression into music which seemed so natural to him with various members of his family being budding instrumentalists.
The book contains lots of personal insights in to his life, his character and his career. There are a lot of things I didn’t know about Dimebag and this book has highlighted almost everything you could ever want to know about the legend. For...
READ MORE
The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists - Joel McIver [Book]
December 19, 2008, 02:29 PM
This book is very simple and it does exactly as it says on the cover, which is list the 100 greatest metal guitarists, well according to Joel McIver. The first thing I noticed about the book, when flicking through, was the kind of guitarists that are included. This book is not comparable to a Kerrang list, for example, where there would also be a high degree of influence of popular and current bands. This is also very true of other popular top 100 polls that are based on a public vote system, as it they are not based on technical ability, rather popularity.
This book goes against that by being written solely from the view of one person, giving it a more rounded analytical point of view. This man is Joel McIver, his CV is very extensive and includes writing for many popular magazines and having written many books within this field. This book contains many guitarists...
READ MORE
The Inside Scoop
Want to learn more about your favourite bands and artists? The inside scoop is here to save your ass!
Technical Q&A with Cesar Kuriyama about his Pixilation Music Video work
Animated magic using DSLR's at the best quality I have yet seen
December 19, 2008, 10:14 PM
Recently Cesar Kuriyama got in touch with Altsounds.com to forward us a visually interesting music video he had just finished directing for Fat City Reprise - "Long Gone" . I thought you might find this of interest. Now, what blew my mind most was the fact that I was informed that "No Video cameras were used in the production of this music video". Me being me, the minute I heard this I had to talk to Cesar about the in-depth technicalities of producing such an amazing piece of work.
Altsounds: Your new music video is very ingenious and well put together. I was reading that you did bursts of 60 photos that made about 4 frames per second. How did you convert this post-production to 24 frames per second and what software and processes did you use for this?
Cesar Kuriyama: I'm an animator, so I'm very familiar with such things as frame rates and methods of generating moving images.
Stop motion animation is a technique of slowly moving ojects and photographing them in order to create the illusion of motion. Film runs at 24 Frames per second. Video runs at 30 FPS. I find most animators, including myself, prefer the look of 24 FPS. There's a similar technique called "Pixilation", which is just like stop motion, but it involves using people instead of objects...
READ MORE
The News Wire
Have your finger on the musical pulse every week by checking out the Top Ten biggest news of the past week
- Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez to release 'Old Money'
- EAGLES OF DEATH METAL KEEP CIRCULING THE SKIES IN 2009
- COHEED AND CAMBRIA TO RELEASE 9-DISC BOX SET ON MARCH 17, 2009
- THURSDAY TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM COMMON EXISTENCE
- Protest The Hero - UK tour / tickets deal
- Frightened Rabbit To Release Live Album 'Quietly Now!'
- Was the Blur vs Oasis battle a sham?!
- Bug Lung Baby from Mason Proper frontman
- PRETENDERS TO RELEASE iTUNES ORIGINALS SET ON DECEMBER 23
- Introducing: Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
Altsounds users are concert going freaks. The gigs listed below gave our reviewer the horn this week.
Coldplay @ the 02 Arena [LIVE]
Monday 15th December 2008
December 20, 2008, 07:07 PM
You get good value for money at Coldplay gigs, by the looks of it. Not only do you get to see the band themselves leap from classic to classic led by mad musical professor Chris Martin, you get Simon Pegg laughing his way through a harmonica solo, huge balloons spurting confetti, thousands and thousands of butterfly-shaped paper pieces dropped from the dizzy heights of the 02 arena... and even a brief Take That cover. Such is the spontaneity of these concerts, I’d be tempted to say – apart from the fact that there is little difference between this setlist and the song listing of every single other show that’s been played on Coldplay’s current ‘Viva la Vida’ tour. But we’ll pass over that!
First support comes from a bouncy Eugene Francies Jnr and co, who even attempted to win friends by chucking free badges and t-shirts into those he bribed down stage-side.
READ MORE
Last Orders!
Have a happy and peaceful holiday! While you're passed out in a diabetic coma from all the cookies and cakes, take some time to think about 2009 and how you can make it the best year ever! Forget the whole quitting smoking or losing weight or the other bullshit we all forget by February... come up with something that will move you fundamentally in a more positive direction. Like visiting Altsounds every single day, for example.
