popwreckoning updates |  |
- Guitar Hero Kurt Cobain Avatar Causes Fiasco
- Preview: Monolith Festival
- Bumbershoot: Sunday, Day 2 @ Seattle Center, Seattle WA
- Modest Mouse – No One’s First And You’re Next
| Guitar Hero Kurt Cobain Avatar Causes Fiasco Posted: 11 Sep 2009 01:00 PM PDT When I first saw the Kurt Cobain avatar "featured" on the new Guitar Hero 5, my gut reaction was to pause it after fifteen seconds and to gasp loud enough that it made those around me come running to the rescue. I was found with my hands covering my mouth, paralyzed. I'm not being dramatic, it's that bad. Go ahead and have a look at the damage: and please for the love of God, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me Courtney hasn't completely sold Kurt out while taking boudoir photos with her pet turtles in bed. This is fact and there are TwitPics to prove it. In the video, a clip of which has gone viral on YouTube this week, Kurt is a sort of ringmaster/karaoke clown who is lip-singing alongside cartoon skeletons and anime vixens to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" and introducing the game with an amped-up homeboy bravado that blurts: "…let's show them that we can do this…like we always do this…turn it up…Yeah Boyeeeeeee!" a la Vanilla Ice? The image of Kurt is a much loved and familiar one from the "Smells like Teen Spirit" era, showcasing his signature blonde shag and the pilled Seattle weather-worn brown cardigan that spawned a thousand, an image which Tim Riley of Activision, the makers of GH5, told Rolling Stone Courtney styled herself for the game. Despite the virtual likeness, this is a horrifying image of Kurt, one that bears no true resemblance to the artist who spent his entire career combating the media's misrepresentation of him and Nirvana. Love has apparently spent the past few days blasting, via Twitter, Activision as well as Novoselic and Grohl for the Avatar fiasco and says that she plans to sue. Activision released a subsequent statement confirming that Guitar Hero did indeed secure the proper rights, signed by Love, to use Cobain's likeness as a "fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5." In a statement made by Grohl and Novoselic, the remaining members of Nirvana assure fans, despite love's rusty battle-axe, that they didn't have any hand in creating cartoon Kurt and that they don't legally control the image of Cobain. "We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area." Novoselic and Grohl are urging Activision to "re-lock" the character so it can only be played with the Nirvana songs that were licensed. "While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future. It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better." Let's remember the real thing. Guitar Hero: website Related Posts |
| Posted: 11 Sep 2009 11:54 AM PDT School is back in session, but a summer of music festivals and fun is not at an end. It is not too late to hop on a plane or jump in a car and head to the beautiful Colorado Rockies and catch the Monolith Festival at the breathtaking and acoustically perfect Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver. The festival is a two day event and you can still buy two day passes for $110 or a single day pass for $59.50. The event is a really fun time and a great way to learn about up and coming acts. Bands like the Airborne Toxic Event practically exploded after their performance at Monolith last year. Check out coverage from last year: Saturday part I, Saturday part II, and Sunday. PopWreckoning will be at the event taking photos and covering the festivities, so if you see assignment editor Bethany, be sure to say hi. Below you can find the full line-up. We’ve marked a few recommendations of must see bands. Saturday, Sept. 12: SOUTHERN COMFORT STAGE RADIUS EARPHONES STAGE WOXY.COM STAGE MADELOUD.COM STAGE DJS (ESURANCE MUSIC STAGE) UNDERGROUND /// Sunday, Sept. 13: SOUTHERN COMFORT STAGE RADIUS EARPHONES STAGE WOXY.COM STAGE MADELOUD.COM STAGE DJS (ESURANCE MUSIC STAGE) Related Posts |
| Bumbershoot: Sunday, Day 2 @ Seattle Center, Seattle WA Posted: 11 Sep 2009 10:00 AM PDT Arriving in the Seattle Center on Sunday proved that people don't give a shit about the weather when good music is involved. It reminded me of a movie I recently saw – "Taking Woodstock," where the famous Woodstock festival was almost put to a halt because of a terrible rainstorm. We're Seattle, it doesn't affect us much.
But in defiance of the sky's will, the rain did stop and start during various times during the day – the most ironic one actually was during the Cold War Kids set on the main stage when they started playing their hit "Hang Me Up To Dry." Seriously. Everyone had just put on their hooded raincoats, and the sun came out all of sudden. It was magical. Even the front man Nathan Willett noticed it – "clothes are just coming off all over the place." For being the first set on the main stage, the Cold War Kids rocked Memorial Stadium. Guitarist Jonnie Russell brought a lot of the charisma to the stage, switching instruments, and beating a cymbal with a maraca. It took a little while for the crowd to build up their energy, seeing that it was early in the day, and wet, but the Cold War Kids didn't really give a crap about the rain. They played some old songs and some new songs, but since I was pretty close to the stage, I noticed that the crowd sucked compared to Saturday. But it was early yet, so I didn't mind. And they were great warm up for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were next on the main stage. Holy crap, I'm so glad I had a second chance to see them. They came to the Sasquatch Festival back in May, and I missed them because Bon Iver played at the exact same time, and when I saw that they were playing at Bumbershoot too, I jumped to joy. Let me tell you – that is one live show you can't afford to miss. Karen O came bounding on stage in this multi-colored stringy, almost harness-like get up, with a equally colorful cape, and Nick came out with his ridiculously awesome hair and dark pair of wayfarers, and they killed it. The rain had started again by then, but I couldn't count how many people crowd surfed in that hour-and-a-half. A few people around me actually were dropped because people weren't paying attention to them enough to remember to hold them up. Karen said over and over how awesome the crowd was – and I couldn't argue with her. We were singing along to slower hits like "Runaway" from It's Blitz! and frantically jumping and dancing to older heavy hits like "Date With A Night." Karen O is the epitome of a front-woman, with her melodic singing, fantastic shrieking, and something that sounds almost like an orgasm, especially during "Date With A Night" as she shouts "I'll set you, I'll set it off!" At this point, I was thinking to myself, "why are they playing at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon?" The scheduling for Sunday didn't make much sense, having Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the early afternoon and Jason Mraz being the headliner at 9:30 p.m. But that's a testament to how great a show Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on. During the last half of "Skeletons," where Karen O wasn't singing, and it was just a powerful keyboard solo, a huge gust of wind blew in and tossed the tarps lining the stage around like sails on a boat. I might have been the only one who thought it was cool, but it fit perfectly into the song. But the best part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' set came when Nick switched to an acoustic guitar and we all knew "Maps" was coming. "This is a song about love. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Seattle – Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Seattle – love." And Karen O put her hand on her heart. Her stage presence reminds of Freddie Mercury – with her wild outfits and insurmountable amount of energy. It's amazing. And on this day, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs could feel the love from Seattle, and Seattle – for sure – could feel the love from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. After my sister and I left the main stage, trotting through puddles and slowly ascending the wet stairs, we took a breather to have some lunch and shop around to give my sister's back a rest. At 6 p.m., we headed over to the Broad Street Stage to catch the Vivian Girls. The audience was quite a bit smaller than Matt & Kim or Natalie Portman's Shaved Head from the previous day, but the crowd they did have were really into it. But I think the Vivian Girls music is more fit for smaller c At that point, the batteries in my camera died, so I had to run down the street to OfficeMax and pick up some more AAs before we got in line for Patton Oswalt at the Charlotte Martin Theater. I'll just say this – I haven't laughed that hard in…well I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard. And I'm so glad I got to see him Sunday, because his set on Monday is during Franz Ferdinand – which is the one band I'm not missing for anything. The last act of the night – Jason Mraz, I went merely to appease the wishes of my sister. I own one Jason Mraz album from when I was 14, and since then, my musical taste had changed a bit, so I wasn't nearly as excited to see him as the thousands of girls and frat boys packed inside Memorial Stadium. It's almost insane how much ladies go crazy for Jason Mraz. He has the appeal of a younger Dave Matthews, certainly with the instruments he works into his live performance. Even though it took me awhile to warm up to him, he's awesome live. He's way better than on his record, without a doubt. But it took him a long time to get to the more upbeat, crowd-pleasing songs. At the beginning, I was almost bored, as the songs didn't fit the enthusiasm of the crowd and the greatness of the venue. This is where I questioned the scheduling again. His beachy, surfer-dude, chill persona didn't fit at 9:30 p.m. Chill music doesn't work well with people who are already tired. But once he got to the second half of the show, and busted out with some Lionel Richie, everyone sang along to "party, karamu, fiesta, forever!" It didn't make much sense to me, but I sang along as well. He played some more upbeat songs, "The Remedy" and "Coyotes," which kept the energy up. By then, I was having fun, but what made me and the rest of the people around me extremely frustrated were the constant stream of people leaving. Now, we were towards the front of the crowd, and people who were much closer than we were left 20 minutes in. And they kept leaving throughout the show. I ask you – why squeeze your way to the most crowded area of the venue if you're just going to leave halfway through? I don't get it. The father with his 3-year-old standing right in front of me stayed all the way through. And it was adorable, especially during "I'm Yours," when the 3-year-old sang all the words. That's how big a spectrum Jason Mraz appeals to. You've got middle-aged women, frat boys, boy-crazy teenage girls, and fathers and their young sons. By the end of Jason Mraz's set and he played a wicked version of "Butterfly," I was dancing along like the uber fangirl standing right next to me. From starting slow, to picking up the tempo and getting the crowd more involved, and ending with a bang – Mraz did not disappoint me. At that point, the scheduling made more sense having him as the headliner – because his fans love him. I've still got one more day of this. Yes. Written by: Abby Williamson Related Posts |
| Modest Mouse – No One’s First And You’re Next Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:00 AM PDT No One’s First and You’re Next sounds like what it is, and for what it is, it sounds pretty good. The eight song, 33 minute (legitimately album-length) EP is comprised of songs that didn't make it onto Modest Mouse's last two albums, Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Most of the songs either didn't fit with the overriding theme of the album, were too idiosyncratic, or were too instrumental; but they were strong enough to be deemed worthy of their own official release. It's actually a small testament to front man Isaac Brock's talent and intelligence that he had the good sense not to tack these songs on to two (already lengthy, though excellent) albums, but instead to release them on a lightweight EP where their lack of thematic or stylistic continuity wouldn't be considered unusual or compromising by the standards of the format. The quality of the songs on NOFAYN ranges from enjoyable to impressive. "Satellite Skin" is a perfect opener with its steady-handed chord transitions, catchy, vaguely-familiar-sounding melody, solid, grounding hook, and a surprisingly beautiful bridge, while closer "I've Got It All (Most)" is one of Brock's most poppy and compassionate tracks, bearing a strong resemblance to everything ever put out by Built To Spill. Both are typified by We Were Dead…'s bright, wiry guitars that many attributed to the presence of Johnny Marr. In between those stellar bookends, Brock indulges in a couple of his more cherished sounds in the schizophrenic stomp of "King Rat," the warped brass-band honky-tonk of "Perpetual Motion Machine," the gentle banjo-affected lullaby "Autumn Beds" and the intensified indie-rock jammery of "The Whale Song." Modest Mouse could have done any number of things with these songs: made them bonus tracks, free downloads, saved them for some odds n' ends set down the road, etc. Making them into a stand-alone EP was probably the most profitable way to release them and at the same time make them appear more relevant. In the end, NOFAYN is an enjoyable if inessential release from one of the decade's most essential bands. And that's all that needs to be said. No One’s First and You’re Next is available now on Epic. Tracklisting: Modest Mouse: website | myspace Related Posts |
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