Wednesday, December 19, 2007

MediaMaster ----->

If you haven't noticed the little radio widget to the right, you clearly don't explore enough when you come here to be told what to think. MediaMaster offers free storage for your music online and then lets you play your whole collection from anywhere you have an internet connection. Right now there is no charge for uploading your music, but there will be eventually, and everything you have uploaded before then will be grandfathered in. The widget doesn't let you skip songs or give you too much control, but the main site allows you to listen to your songs the way you want.

Listen to the music.
"Girl the first time I saw you..." I won't spoil the rest for you, enjoy some Hot Chocolate

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Zeppelin

If you are not aware that Led Zeppelin is getting back together, you must not be a rocker.

Led Zeppelin (with a refocused Jason Bonham filling in for his dad) is getting together to do a full concert as part of a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun this Monday the 10th. Rehearsals have been taking place for almost 6 months and the band is taking this show 100% seriously. This is possibly the biggest rock show ever (unless there is a tour, in which case it will be the biggest tour of all time!), and from the excitement the band is showing, it should be able to live up to the hype.

I'm kind of surprised that there isn't a little more hype. Some people still don't know its happening, even though there are many articles about the reunion and concert. There is even a 24/7 Led Zeppelin station on XM (conveniently just 1 channel down from Soul Street). I knew about XMLed for awhile but really just discovered it Thursday afternoon (I was excited to tell you all about it Thursday night, then the Bears lost and took the wind from my creativity sails). But then I listened to the channel all day on Friday and there were far too many repeats, I am hoping that this was some sort of fluke, but it was almost as if they had a 40 song group that they were shuffling. I really like the "Song retain the name" bit they do for covers, and there are some cool Page/Plant side project songs, but if the station is really going to be around until May they need to do a better job of mixing it up.

Now I would like to address Jimmy Page on what I think could be the easiest way to guarantee that the legacy of Zeppelin will live on, while adding a whole new generation of fans.
A Led Zeppelin version of Rock Band.
If you don't know what rock band is, you may not know what Guitar Hero is either.
I admit I have a problem with Guitar Hero, I both hate and love it (and can assure you that if you ever had images of Tetris run through your head, this game will haunt you). Guitar hero typically looks like this, its a great party game where you play a guitar controller and rock out to some sweet songs, and it is extremely entertaining (especially if there is a cape involved). If you've played but never seen someone play on expert it is mind blowing to watch, check out this article with video of some perfect expert playing.
Rock Band is the next step of Guitar Hero (and Singstar), it comes with a guitar (you can hook up 2 guitars and play guitar and bass), microphone (that's right you sing too) and a drum kit with 4 drum pads and a kick drum pedal. You then rock it together, and it looks like a lot of fun.

So anyway, Jimmy, talk to the Rock Band people about a Led Zeppelin only version of Rock Band, and see if you can work out some guarantee that it would be the last version of Rock Band until 2009 (this would make sure that everyone gets the Zeppelin version even if they're not fans, because they will need new songs) .
Rock Band is going to be huge (I dare you to try and avoid it). And who hasn't air guitar/bass/drummed to a Zeppelin song? There is a huge range of songs, many of which could be the most difficult songs on any game (on every instrument), and they will also be some of the most fun to play.
And besides, if you are going to try and be a rock band why not try to be THE ROCK BAND.