I know many people haven’t heard of the group No More Kings and that’s really sad. They have some very clever music. I was first introduced to them through Pandora.com with the song “Zombie Me” — a song chock full of awesome. From there, I learned of a song called “Sweep The Leg”.

I have to admit this song captured fond memories of my childhood. A song with lyrics ripped right out of one of my favorite 80’s movies… “Karate Kid”. That’s right, Cobra Kai strikes back.

Here is the music video, care of http://www.sweeptheleg.com/youtube:

Make you message clear… check out No More Kings.

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra surprised me by inviting Video Games Live to play in Birmingham. The inner nerd in me shed a tear of joy, as I have been looking forward to seeing one of these performances for a long time.

I had no idea really what to expect when arriving at the BJCC. I had read that the pre-show events had costume contests, gaming competitions, meet and greets with game composers and all that. Needless to say, we were somewhat nonplussed by what was offered.

There was a Guitar Hero 3 competition, but you couldn’t hear the music… and it was displayed on two small LCD panels with a large mosh of adolescent boys attempting to achieve plastic guitar glory. However, the winner went on to play on stage with the Symphony as he attempted to break 175,000 points playing Expert level on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. And the guy won too… handily.

The costume contest had a few entrants. What could you expect from Alabama? We had a Lar Umlaut from Guitar Hero, Ayane from Dead or Alive, Ness, Reno from Final Fantasy, and hand full of other lesser known characters… and we had the winning costume: a three person representation of Pong. I wish I had taken a picture. Simple, clever, effective.

The actual concert… well, it exceeded my expectations. It was an incredible night. The symphony was simply excellent. I will definitely return to see them perform again, whatever it is that may be playing. If it weren’t for some pesky union rules, I’d have shot some video clips to share from last night’s performance. Here is a sampling on what we were treated to last night:

• Mario™
• Zelda®
• Halo®
• Final Fantasy®
• Warcraft®
• StarCraft® II
• Sonic™
• Metal Gear Solid®
• Kingdom Hearts
• Castlevania®
• Metroid®
• Interactive Space Invaders
• Interactive Guitar Hero™
• God of War™
• Civilization IV
• Classic Arcade Medley featuring over 20+ games from Pong® to Donkey Kong® including such classics as Dragon’s Lair, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Gauntlet, Punch-Out, OutRun and more…

If I had to pick my favorite sequence, it would be between the Classic Arcade Medley, the Final Fantasy Piano Medley, or the Metal Gear Solid suite.

The only complaint I had about the performance is the grandstanding done by Tommy Tallarico. No doubt the man is talented… but we were there to see the Symphony, not him galavanting around the stage.

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend attending one fo these events. They are simply spectacular and brought back some very found childhood memories.

I am not very familiar with Amos Lee and his catalog of music, but what I am hearing from his latest album “Last Days At The Lodge” are fairly mellow, R&B inspired songs that resonate with something personal to Lee. Apparently, he wrote all the songs that appear on this album, which I applaud. You can tell there is a great production quality to each song.

Few of the songs are of such outstanding quality (lyrically, musically, or what have you) that you will want to listen to them for days on end. However, I haven’t heard a song that I immediately wanted to skip right past, which is a good thing for me. One song that stands out to me is “Street Corner Preacher.” The blues-ish feel just takes me to a good place.

If you are in the market for good music to work to in an office environment, this could be a good choice to add to your collection. All in all, it’s worth a listen, and if you are a fan of Amos Lee, then a must buy.

Rating: 7/10

I have recently discovered a new music group that is just incredible. The sisterly duo, known as The Callen Sisters, are unique, to say the least. With a pairing of a guitar and a harp, along with beautiful vocal harmonization, they have created a wonderful blend of music.

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This is a great article, in my opinion…

It harps on the rising cost of DRM-less music tracks from iTunes Music Store, to locked content on video games. It’s an editorial piece, with an opinion I can support.

From the article:

There’s a balancing act here: You want to give players substantial, meaningful rewards for doing well, but you don’t want to make them suffer through boring or unwanted parts of the game to get to the “good stuff.”

And of course, you don’t want players who aren’t really good to miss out on any of that costly content you built for the game.

Clearly, the trend emerging now is toward a less locked-down future. One of the big RIAA labels is offering a path — albeit not a well-priced one — to music that you can more easily move around to different devices.

Read on: FOXNews.com - The Cost of Unlocking Everything - Technology News | News On Technology

CNET Reports:

AnywhereCD.com allows you to purchase DRM-free MP3’s that can be played on any portable MP3 player.

This sounds like a good plan to me. However, the freedom to play your songs on the device of your choice comes at a premium… looking to be about $2 USD per album. And this new site doesn’t carry quite the library as the popular Apple iTunes Music Store. And you can’t buy individual tracks, just full albums. So, you can take the good with the bad…

For those music lovers who have a strong distaste for DRM, and who doesn’t, I’d say check out this site and see if it’s got what you are looking for at a price you are willing to pay.

Michael Robertson launches new DRM-free music service | News.blog | CNET News.com

BusinessWeek.com has an interesting article describing how the MP3 format was born and the different people that helped it come to be. And who’d have thought that Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” would become a major determining factor in the technology’s success?
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Ok, this is my first experience with Muse. I picked up the album at the recommendation of some friends and must say that I am enjoying this album immensely. For me, it has proven to be good work music (I’m a desk jockey, remember) so I can jam out while doing my code.

Granted, I’ve only listened through this album once so far. There are better songs than others, but overall, it’s a good mix. My favorite track is “Knights of Cydonia” so far.

Hopefully, I will be able to expound on this more later, but for now I give this 8 of 10. Check it out!

 

Order ‘Muse - Black Holes and Revelations’ from Amazon.com