All you need is love (and a lot of plastic instruments)

Should I buy it.. Shouldn't I buy it? It was a massive dilemma considering my current situation. I'd already turned down Batman : Arkham Asylum this month despite a very impressive demo and it getting great rave reviews. Did I really need another Rock Band?

I was mainly undecided because it seemed to go against everything I liked about the Rock Band concept: you buy the software once (okay maybe twice - Rock Band 2 was a pretty upgrade), and then all you buy after that is songs you want. Alarm bells sounded when they buggered it up with the AC:DC branded version, whereby they provided a severely crippled version of Rock Band, which even if you export the tracks to Rock Band / Rock Band 2 worked out much more expensive than a track pack would have been. Then I head the bad news that the Beatles version would go a step further and not allow you to export the songs, or play any non-Beatles DLC.

Not good. I decided I wasn't going to buy it. Then the trailers hit and I realised this wasn't going to be a crippled version of Rock Band, but an entirely rebranded, re-worked game. It showed a proper story mode. Lots of unlockable photos and videos and stuff. Plus: It's the frigging Beatles.

Combine this with a sudden discovery of a cache of Tesco Clubcard vouchers and of course I caved.

Do I regret it? Not at all! I have to say this is the slickest version of Rock Band so far, the presentation is gorgeous and there's lots of neat interface tweaks, for example a difficulty display on the screen where you choose between Guitar & Bass which is a huge help for avoiding tedious bass lines / obscenely tricky guitar tracks. So far we've only played a little way through the Story mode (Cat's still suffering with post-viral fatigue, we have to take things easy) and browsed the track listings but we've really enjoyed it. In fact I practically had to wrestle the controller off her last night and use the classic parenting line "It'll still be here tomorrow" ;).

The bonus content really is something special. We've only unlocked a little, but so far the photos and accompanying text are very interesting and we've learnt quite a few suprising things already. An impressive "prize" extra we unlocked today was the content of a very limited edition Christmas record that was sent out to Beatles fan club members in... 63 I think? Was very silly but incredibly fun to hear, the quality of the recording was outstanding!

Need to have a gathering at some point and see if we can get enough xbox microphones to try out these 3-part harmonies some of the tracks support. Then again I think most of me and my friends struggle to find the right pitch when solo :D

But is this going to happen? I honestly don't know. Even with 45 greatly varying tracks, I don't know how this would go down with my Rock Band buddies. The only couple of friends I know that are definitely Beatles fans don't normally touch Rock Band, and the friends I have really into Rock Band definitely aren't Beatles fans. Perhaps this isn't a match made in heaven?

For me and Cat though it's going to be a fantastic experience, and that's all we need.

Indication #134 you're getting old - Moshpits

Ouch ouch ouch.

I ache all over and have at least two minor injuries :D ... Still worth it though, the buzzcocks were awesome and getting into the heart of the moshpit was great fun at the time. Always nice to get a little of the aggression out of your system ;).

The rest of the day was great too. The Ukulele orchestra did not disappoint (see yesterdays post). Captain Backfire were a fantastic new discovery bringing shed loads of funk to the festival, I'll definitely be looking out for them in the future. Aerosoul were unbelievably good for their age and I hope at least some of them carry on with playing music. The only disappointment were Chumbawamba, they've really changed direction in a big way and that's fair enough, but perhaps a name change is in order to save on the number of confused faces at their gigs? Their new more mellow acoustic sound still contains the same political drive, but you could just feel everyone there was waiting for tubthumping and it's ilk, which they not only refused to do but rubbed the crowds face in it by throwing one or two of the lyrics into their other songs.

All in all fantastic day and really great value, hope next year is as good! Oh and it's always amusing looking back at the photos and realising just how silly you looked :)

Garforth Arts Festvial's Playground Party

Early post today as I'm off to the Garforth Arts Festvial's Playground Party to see amongst others the ukelele orchestra of Great Britain :)



Oh and Chumbawamba and the Buzzcocks too :D Should be fun!

The Wozard of Iz

Having obviously no first-hand experience of the 60s, I really enjoy finding those rare oddities that give you a small taste of the extremes of the culture born in that decade.

The Wozard of Iz is one of those oddities, something a friend pointed out to me a while back, but I've just had a chance to listen to again in full. A fantastical synthesizer-driven alternative version of The Wizard of Oz. Full of crazy sounds helping to put forward some interesting thoughts and ideas.

Download it here for free, give it a listen and see what you think.

Micheal Jackson Tribute Mix

Now this is more like it. No hyperbole, no drama, just a clever mix of some of Michael Jackson's best music.

Nice one Jaguar Skills.

All stores selling second hand media are stealing

Firstly I want to avoid any (undue) criticism by stating firmly: I do not personally believe sharing files online is stealing. I'm just taking the record & movie industries' logic a little further to a quite strange conclusion.

A major contention point with the MPAA & RIAA's arguments is that they've again and again associated file sharing with stealing. Many people argue against this because it's not literally stealing (For it to be literally stealing someone who had purchased the item would have to be denied it due to the file sharer's action). However in a slightly twisted bit of logic, the stealing is explained as stealing a sale from the artist. This takes more than a slight jump in logic when applied to file sharing as it assumes that if you hadn't have been offering the file online on your P2P network of choice at that time, the downloader would have popped straight off to the shops to buy the song legally. Dubious at best, but let's stick with this and take it further.

So: If you prevent the artist/creator from making a sale you're stealing.

I can think of a much more concrete example of this than file sharing: selling second-hand media. Most media retail stores are either in or are starting to grow into the 2nd-hand market. Companies like Game in the UK and Gamestop in the US are enjoying very large profits and a large percentage isn't down to selling new games/films. It's down to selling 2nd hand ones. You see, a company can make a much much higher margin selling a 2nd hand copy than selling a new one, as the publisher and developer get nothing from the 2nd hand sale.

They're doing this very aggressively as well. They'll often check to see if they can offer a 2nd hand copy to a customer standing there cash in hand, already commited to the purchase of a brand new copy, for only a few quid less: This is absolutely 100% stealing a sale from the artist. Not only are these guys blatently "stealing" as per the definition above, the file sharer does it for free and the retailer is making millions from it.

But they're suing the single moms first eh?

Spotify. Now this is the way digital music should be.

I've never really been into buying music digitally for the following reasons:

1. I prefer albums to singles. A lot of the greatest music requires context and doesn't work well shuffled into a bunch of singles. For example I can't imagine listening to a track off "Rossz Csillag Alatt Született" by Venetien snares straight after a track from "Dark side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd . It would just clash too much.

2. I prefer CD quality. I'm far from an audiophile and am extremely skeptical about the merits of high-end equipment, but even with my setup I can definitely appreciate the better quality sound I get from a CD compared to an Mp3.

3. I love CD collections. One of the first things I do when I visit people's homes is browse their CD collection. I love seeing what kind of music people are into, what classics they might own, what guilty pleasures they have. :) I like the physical presence of a CD collection. It feels like I'm buying something real, rather than investing in some bits I'm going to lose next time my PC blue-screens (yeah yeah, I know I should back everything up).

4. It's not usually cost effective. How the hell can it be cheaper for play to deliver me a physical album that contains higher quality audio for cheaper than iTunes can deliver me the same album as MP3s?

But now I've stopped collecting CDs. Viva la revolution! Viva Spotify!

The easiest way to describe Spotify is to think of it as iTunes, but with someone else's music collection on. And that someone else happens to be one of the biggest collectors of music ever.

Before I continue take a moment to go and register and install it. Doesn't take long, it's a very small application, it's 100% legal and it's totally FREE. You'll then be able to click on the links I include in the rest of this entry. Linux users, you're not exempt, it runs fine under Wine.

The range of music is incredible. Here's just a random collection of artists on Spotify: Snow Patrol, Ash, Elvis, Pizzicato Five, Ben Folds Five, Chas & Dave, Flobots

Plenty of brand new stuff too: Bat for Lashes, Lily Allen, Ting Tings, Kanye West

You'll find most things on there unless you get uber-obscure, or are unlucky enough to hit one of the artists that have short-sightedly opted-out of Spotify e.g. Oasis.

Another thing I love is the way it brings music sharing back. Since the big file-sharing clampdown, people haven't been able to legally share their music experiences with other people using the Internet. Now we have Spotify playlists we can bring the fun back into sharing.

• Here's a collection of some of the best and most unusual covers I could find
• Here's a collection of uber happy music
• Here's the music we listened to at a party a few months ago
• Here's the Flobots latest album which I love to bits and think you should all check out

And best of all:

• Here's the official Nick's blog collaborative playlist.

Spotify collaborative playlists are genius. They let you have a playlist within Spotify that anyone can listen to, & add songs to. It would be brilliant if everyone that reads this blog adds a song or two to that playlist (Feel free to also add a comment below about the song if you want!).

The sheer convenience and range of available music on Spotify far outweighs any of my grievances about digital music, I am a convert.

The Catch

There's always a catch, with Spotify it's that the money has to come from somewhere and unless you buy their premium subscription then it comes from adverts. But these adverts are so few and far between they really don't intefere too much. If you really want to get rid of them you can buy day or month passes. I've often spent a quid so I can use Spotify at a party without any interruptions.

Also the music isn't transferrable, so if you listen to music on the move using an iPod or mobile phone, Spotify isn't for you. Yet.

See also

If you're interested in listening to Spotify through your games console or media centre. See my article on streaming spotify to other devices.

Jaguar Skills - Gaming Special

The always crazy Jaguar Skills throws in plenty of gaming lyrics and samples into his usual manic style of hip-hop mixing as well as some crazy obscure 80s stuff for Radio 1s Gaming Weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kl1wk/Jaguar_Skills_25_05_2009/

Favourite moments:

• A foreign version of the Ulysses 31 theme tune (UlysseeeEEeeEEeeeEEees).
• A very strange but awesome Mario / Notorious B.I.G mix.
• Great chiptunes version of Golddigger.
• Parrapa the Rapper!
• Awesome Monkey Magic mix!
• Exploder Trailer - "I'll cry when I'm done killing!".
• retro Pac Man tutorial drum & bass mix.
• Sesame Street pinball tune.
• Cooking with Jaguar & Jamie Oliver.

VERY rough round the edges in places, but lots of fun. I have no idea how someone can manage to fit together enough stuff for a 2 hour show like this!

It's only going to be up until Tuesday 2nd June, so get it stream-ripped by then if you can. ;)