Sometimes You Just Can't Hack It

Sony as a company has had their share of interesting bumps in the road, but none quite as notable as the current security issues they’ve been having across the board. Security issues this year alone have included the over three week down time experienced by the Playstation Network, and a series of other information stealing attacks on their various other services. Sony-Ericsson recently experienced an attack levied solely by SQL-Injection (using standard SQL calls entered directly into text fields that will likely be processed into a database query). Various groups of hackers are being blamedfor the attacks, and with the speed of information being spread around the internet, the attacks are spreading, and growing in number. One of the strangest things that I’ve been reminded of by this whole affair is that this can all be pointed back to, and blamed upon Nintendo.

While Sony certainly cannot blame Nintendo for previous failures like the Betamax, which failed for a litany of reasons despite its smaller form factor, and higher video and audio quality when compared to VHS. Sony can blame their entry into the video gaming industry solely on a contract they had signed with Nintendo all the way back at the height of the Nintendo/Sega feud in the late '80s/early '90s. Nintendo signed contracts with both Phillips and Sony to develop a disc reading expansion utility for the SNES system. While to many gamers it is clear that this never came to fruition, the project with Sony was left to grow for a rather long time before it was officially cancelled. Sony had laid a great deal of the groundwork for what would become the original Playstation on Nintendo’s dime. Continuing forth from that Sony executives were staunchly against creating a game system of their own to rival Nintendo, but the lead engineer on the project persuaded (more accurately, he repeatedly goaded his bosses about how embarrassing it was that Nintendo had jilted them for a partnership with Phillips instead). Still Sony execs were against the console staunchly enough to move production to the Sony Music division.

Sony of course came out ahead in the short run, with the tremendous success of the Playstation, selling over 100million units, and the eventual success of the Playstation 2. The real trouble for Sony came in when the original Microsoft Xbox provided network support. Those of us who weren’t social enough to have friends over to play Mortal Kombat were no longer relegated to playing Diablo 2 on our PCs; we could go on Xbox live and troll games of Halo. This forced Sony’s hand in rushing their Playstation Network to market with an Ethernet adapter for the PS2. That early iteration was a poor implementation of the software, and hardly even a shell of what the current PSN is. Sony may have a huge gap in their understanding of security standards, but we wouldn’t even know it if their executives over 20 years ago weren’t so prideful as to demand they try to best Nintendo at their own game.

As a matter of complete disclosure, I own all three current generation systems, and probably play my PS3 more than the other two. I was not initially a fan of the PS3 for a number of reasons, but I did eventually cave in and buy one second hand. Sony has proved me wrong on a great number of things with this system, and I am rather pleased with my experience overall with the PS3, but I’m also not one to buy much DLC, so my credit card number wasn’t one of the many at risk. Don’t get this confused, I’m far from blaming Nintendo for Sony’s inept security, much more this is meant to demonstrate how one small action can eventually lead to monumental success, and subsequently embarrassing failure.

Danzig, DevilDriver, and my 2Cents

“This stage is too small and these monitors suck big d-ck,” The first words Glenn Danzig said to us after his  new lineup had charged through their first two tracks "Wotan's Procession"and "SkinCarver" on stage. The new Lineup for Danzig now includes drummer Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative fame, guitarist Tommy Victor of Prong , and bassist Steve Zing  who previously played with Danzig in Samhain . Danzig’s words are somewhat in opposition with the concert, while perhaps the stage at Northern Lights is too small, I’m not so sure as it seemed like Peter Steele had plenty of room up there, but given the several times we were subjected to the lovely squelch of microphone feedback during the course of the evening, maybe the monitors really were awful, but what’s more important is that despite that, Danzig’s set was excellent.

Danzig himself is starting to show his age in how he carries himself but he’s absolutely back in his wheelhouse with the newest album Deth Red Sabaoth. Having released several albums, his musical production has varied from his early work with Rick Ruben, which often was clearly blues influenced, through a long period of experimentation where Glenn regularly composed and recorded much of the instrumentation himself, the albums often showing his love of industrial metal in the veins of early Nine Inch Nails . Danzig has put together a great lineup, and they do an excellent job recreating their music live.

Of course, if all I’m talking about is the headliner, I’ve completely missed the point, haven’t I? DevilDriver, the product of Dez Fafara leaving Coal Chamber , has been touring with Danzig, and are perhaps the heavier of the two well known acts on the tour. DevilDriver has done very well for themselves, as Dez proclaimed proudly from stage, their new album "Beast" has made the billboard top 40 with no commercial airplay, and no traditional advertising. DevilDriver was exactly what one could expect from them live, they were heavy, loud, aggressive, and packed their set with songs. Dez perhaps decided to forego some stage banter to really give the crowd as much as they could. DevilDriver has grown away from their first album, which clearly has worked for them very well despite my disappointment in their having become somewhat more typical in their musical approach, toward a more straightforward metal sound from what was once billed as ragtime-metal fusion which was more evident in their syncopated rhythms and clever song structure in the self titled first album. They have however made quite a name for themselves in the metal market, and certainly were an excellent live show in their own right.

2Cents opened the show, and were pegged immediately. My friend and constant concert companion Jaye leaned toward me to proclaim that they wish whole heartedly to be Pantera. They even went so far as to cover the song "Strength Beyond Strength" to close out their set. 2Cents isn’t explicitly bad though, it appears that their album quality doesn’t shine through well to their live show, which may come with a bit of time. There is little more to say about them, they have talent, and appear comfortable with who they are as a band, but perhaps are feeling the pressure of touring with two groups with much more history and are trying a bit too hard.

Overall, despite some minor frustrations, the show was excellent and I’d happily go again if This same touring group were to pass through the capital region again.

Artist preview: Maria Linares

Okay, so music reviews are kind of trite. I certainly don’t care what others think of my favorite bands ? That said, I was introduced to an artist, Maria Linares, by my good friend over Throw the Dice and Play Nice who conveniently has written something of a more in depth look at Ms. Linares with a nice artist Q&A. Once you’ve finished reading this, head over to her blog and check it out.

Briefly, you should well get a bit of background, which can probably best be stolen directly from her personal website

“Maria Linares is a New York city based film Composer, Singer and Songwriter. She has written songs for Telemundo TV series and has composed and produced music for short films, television, jingles and multimedia projects.”

From what I’ve heard she tends to specialize in something of a stripped down one girl with a pretty voice, and one acoustic guitar type song, but as with any rule, there are exceptions within her freely available online catalog.

Maria’s strengths definitely come in her Spanish language music. That is not to take anything away from her English language work, as it is also quite good, but she just sounds more comfortable singing in Spanish, as well she should as a Colombian native. She isn’t going to draw a direct comparison to Shakira a fellow Colombia recording artists releasing English language work in the states. Maria’s music, or at least the majority of what I’ve been able to track down, is recorded with a simple accompaniment for her vocals, and this by no means is a bad thing. Her vocal work is meant to be the center piece to her recordings, and she does a great job of making it exactly that. She is a terrific songwriter, and can more than hold her own with many of today’s popular acts. The only question I have is why I haven’t been so fortunate as to hear this music before. I can’t say it’s what I want to listen to all of the time, but she certainly produces excellent music to relax and unwind to. Despite how beautiful it is I’m a rather heavy sleeper, so much so that I proudly own the Sonic Bomb alarm clock , and as such cannot listen to her soft acoustic tracks early in the morning. I can however enjoy her music, during the work day, once I’m good and awake, or while relaxing in the evening.

I am especially a fan of the track “La Princesa y el Dragón”  which is an excellent representation of what she can do vocally, and what kind of beautiful composition she produces.  Her English language track "Answers" is also an exceptional offering with similar styling to her well constructed Spanish language songs, though despite being well performed and well constructed the vocals feel just a bit forced. To her credit, if I were to sing in Spanish, my vocal line would sound tremendously more strained than hers ever will. She definitely has the talent to become more comfortable with her English language songwriting and can easily grow to being an even stronger artist than she is currently. I don’t know when she recorded “Answers” in relation to when she recorded her cover of Cindi Lauper's "Time after Time" but she does an excellent job with a song that has been redone by near countless artists.  Maria Linares’ cover stands strong against renditions done by more established acts, and can definitely go toe to toe with the original recording.

For what it’s worth, I am certainly eagerly awaiting the release of her full length album.

You See, First You Mine, Then You Craft

While the PSN has been down for over half a month now, I’ve recently picked up Minecraft. I’ve been playing both single player, and in a small multiplayer group for the past few days and thus far I have to say this game is simultaneously adicting, and undeniably pointless. I’m far from the first to feel a compulsion to write about this game but it has been an excellent source of entertainment since I finally cracked and joined the teaming masses that have taken to building underground hovels and elaborate block homes for themselves.

While the game isn’t much on story, in that there isn’t one, it is pretty high up there on the “Indie credibility”. It’s unique, if you can discount the game that it drew its primary inspiration from and it is infectious. I burned through 6 hours of my day playing before I even got off of my couch yesterday. One can certainly get lost in the game, but without a doubt, it’s worth taking a rather long look into the Minecraft wiki before you really dive into any real attempt at playing. The game certainly has its downsides including but not limited to: Surprisingly high system requirements (not that there are official requirements but that a computer over 3 years old will suffer playing a game that looks very much like it was written in the good old days of Doom, “Mobs” that seem to spawn right around when you’re trying to get on with something “important” (like building that ever crucial door so you can actually keep the monsters out of your personal dwelling), and the lack of a minimap.

That said, for every time the game seems to follow the pattern of lag, surround me with enemies, respawn in unfamiliar territory I get to enjoy a good chunk of time building a tower, or tunneling for valuable resources. As Yahtzee mentions in his video you really do need to create your own fun. You need a project, but you can certainly earn all of the resources required to build your highly elaborate new personal dwelling, or your absurd decorative sculpture. I can say that I am immensely happy to have finally stumbled upon this game, but I can also say that there would have been a post up almost 48 hours earlier if it weren’t for Minecraft.

Assuming that the sheer amount of improvement that could go into the game gets put in before it does leave beta, the game will be phenomenally polished, and noticeably more addicting than any MMO I’ve caved on, and played the 7 day trial for. I can say with great certainty that I enjoy Minecraft, and that I’ve yet to meet a person who’s played it, that doesn’t like it. Play the single player demo, get a handle on how things work, and then start in playing with your friends. The game is infectious, and you’ll burn through entre days before you realize that you’ve managed to accomplish nothing that can  be seen outside of the game you’re playing.

Sold out... So what?

Something that’s gone on my entire music conscious life is the complaint that people’s favorite bands "sold out".  This always kind of takes me aback. I’ve got no problem with artists trying to make money for writing music. Honestly, it amazes me that people will brand an artist negatively for success. I know once upon a time Green Day were just a bunch of kids hoping to get famous, but I can say confidently that albums like American Idiot fall right in line with some of my favorite albums released by a pop-punk band, which honestly they were from the get go. The biggest difference between Green Day in ’92 (that’s right kids, they’ve been playing music longer than ½ of you have been alive) and Green Day here in 2011? I can find their CDs in stores. If you walk into any music store now and ask where you can find “21^st Century Breakdown”  you’ll be guided to this nice little section full of Green Day CDs, including re-releases of their older albums like “Kerplunk” and their first major label album (blasphemy, apparently) “Dookie”

I’ve just never grasped the idea of wanting to keep a band you like a private thing. Don’t you want the band to be able to continue recording? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could listen to your favorite underground band and hear everything clearly, rather than having the mix sound like they left it in the hands of their drummer at 3am on Sunday after a weekend long bender? I love music, which is exactly why I want to share it with people, it’s always especially exciting to introduce a friend to an artist they haven’t heard before, but why would you deny them that satisfaction? I’ve been a fan of the band Dommin since receiving a friend request from their singer Kris Dommin on myspace several years ago. When I heard that they had signed with Roadrunner records, my first thought wasn’t that they’d sold out, not that they were going to lose their artistic integrity, I was ecstatic that they had made it. I would be able to see Dommin in concert on their next tour because they were finally able to tour nationally. I saw then, and see now absolutely no down side to their major label status.  In case anyone is still beholden to the idea that Roadrunner is more like “the little label that could” than like the big labels they used to paint themselves as the cool alternative to, take a look at their artists page .

What gets to me, is that the people that complain about “sellouts” are also completely blind to bands that were all but manufactured for success. Paramore for example were all but put together by Atlantic records. In the end, who cares? They’re catchy, the music is pretty darn good (if not always eloquently written) and they are a major label construct. Paramore is signed to Peter Wentz's vanity label Fueled by Ramen because it would look better for them as an alternative rock than being signed to a major label like Atlantic. Their label had no bearing on me liking/not liking their music, how much would it have changed your perception of them if an album like “Riot” had been released without the minor label sticker? They got the same kind of promotion and the same kind of marketing and syndication that they would have gotten signed to Atlantic, Epic, Virgin, EMI, or Sony but they were able to keep the “alternative” feel all the way down to being signed to a little vanity label instead of a major label.

It’s just incredible to me that we as music fans get tied up to this stigma that if a band signs to a major label, they’re bad by default. the Offspring definitely "sold out" but then again, they went and did a lot of different things with their sound on the way, but in the end does it matter what label they’re on, or who else likes them?

The Other Kind of "Pop" Filter

Pop music has for a good long time been meant to be catchy, upbeat, and as the name implies popular. One thing that has become unfortunately popular with the advent of digital recording processes is auto-tune. I’ve got nothing against an artist fixing a take here, or using something to add a bit of flavor to a track in a new or innovative way, but it’s gotten to the point where our pop artists aren’t even singers. Our pop artists are just bodies in front of songs. Pop music went from being talented singers whose ambition was to become famous over an ambition to become accomplished singer/songwriters. 

I’m not saying everyone needs to be terrifically well rounded, and certainly a large number of people have established themselves as very popular artists without being particularly well rounded. However we are in the midst of a revolution of Milli Vanilli type acts. The difference between groups like Milli Vanilli and Ashee Simpson  and these modern pop artists is that the ones that are using auto-tune with such bold frequency is that when we hear vocal lines that clearly don’t belong to these artists, we accept it. When the boys in Milli Vanilli were caught there was a backlash, now if you’re auto-tuned to the point of ill recognition to the “singer’s” vocal line, you’re rewarded with a recording contract and a short skirt or tight pants. Ke$ha here exhibits her talent, but voluntarily will instead prefer to record songs like this and just get them fixed.

I may not have even become so frustrated with this trend until I was driving my fiancé’s Jeep a few weeks ago.  Two of the speakers in that car are blown, and having heard Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, etc. in my car (which has a nice, fully functional stereo) and then hearing them on blown speakers again for the first time in several months was an eye opener. These songs have gone through so many filters, and are so drastically digitized; I forgot the speakers were blown until I hit a song without much of these studio effects, but the biggest culprit is auto-tune. I like techno, and in fact have been playing with A Klokwork Kaos for the last few months, helping round out the sound and add some live instrumentation to the currently all electronic sound.  

What I really have to ask here is how does this happen? Most pop music recorded in the last few years has undergone such extensive filtering that it’s hardly music anymore. Last I checked, you need working speakers to hear music, but if you’re listening to pop radio you can get by with a couple of functioning coils and torn cones, you probably won’t even notice. The strangest thing about this, is that despite my distaste for how this has come around, I don’t hate this music, I just think that we’d be better off with artists  displaying their talents