MusicBox

[Miauz55555]

I realy like the combination from classic instuments with fast drums and this kind of singing:
Rhapsody (of Fire) - Triumph for my magic Steel

Rhapsody (of Fire) - Dawn of Victory

Stratovarius - Black Diamond

[Cat1981England]

Possibly the best cover of a Rolling Stones song.



Thank god the 80's finally died shortly after this.

[ThunderCat]

To add to Cat's post -- I think Marie Laforets rendition of Paint it Black is a worthy candidate

[Cat1981England]

I've posted it before i think, but here's that song i was thinking of Hyden,

[ThunderCat]

This is probably more suited for the Funny Videos section -- but tbh it is one of my guilty (musical) pleasures

[Hyden]

For Hydy:

Sting - Christmas at Sea


It's got Gealic singing, a lady with a harp and our player Sting.

Thanks Ema (also cat who told me what page this was on!) is the harp player involved with him?!

[Pegasus]

Been awhile since the last spotlight post, so let's get the ball rolling again with a quickie.

Even before he went on to make a pair of the most beloved n' popular songs in videogame music with "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone" for the end credits to Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011) respectively, garnering him copious amounts of fan recognition (not to mention bringing him to my attention), U.S.-based composer, songwriter and singer Jonathan Coulton was already hard at work building up his "nerd cred" much earlier in the decade. As a geek with a background in IT (Yale, I think), Coulton - or JoCo, as he is more affectionately referred to by his followers - would write n' perform as a solo creator all kinds of humourous tunes, often invoking sci-fi tropes, campy/cult or otherwise nerdy references n' situations in 'em, that sometimes could be found serving as the backdrop to (kinda?) popular podcasts or other such type of enthusiast, online fare, but would always be released on his own site as the DRM-free, Creative Commons-licensed works of an indie producer going it alone without any studio deals or any other such ties, since as early as 2003 or so.

Although he did eventually go on to produce an actual "studio album" in 2011, with help from members from a band he was friendly with, and somehow even managed to get dragged into a copyright dispute with Fox a few years later, what I'm aiming to showcase here is some examples of Coulton's more "casual", although definitely geeky, released work from before his "post-Portal era" popularity. Some might say those are a more "original" sampling of JoCo's wit and observational humour, but my main concern is that they're diverse n' fun enough in their subject matter. A pair of the songs posted below come from albums he released between 2003 and 2005, while the other two are products of his "Thing a Week" project, where he pushed himself to produce a new song from scratch to finish each week for a whole year, just to try n' stretch himself as a musician, composer or producer. Anyway, these four should give you a pretty good sense of what Coulton's music is about n' help you decide if you wanna dig deeper into it or not. Enjoy .


The Future Soon (2003) - Envisioning the upgraded life!


I Feel Fantastic (2005) - aka Better Living Through Chemistry


Code Monkey (2006) - Professionally programming primates' problems, probably.


Re: Your Brains (2006, later featured as an Easter egg in Valve's L4D2 too) - Staying productive in the post-apocalypse.



Much like several other younger, forward-thinking creators putting their work online these days, JoCo's never been restrictive with non-profit use or remixing of his songs by others, allowing for several pretty good music videos featuring them to appear over the years on YouTube as the plaything of new creators and prolonging his own work's life n' appeal at the same time, so picking something good to share here wasn't particularly hard. On top of that, he's managed to make a decent living as an indie act doing what he's good at and loves without any middlemen imposing terms on him, so that alone should probably make him even more of a success in anyone's book. Dunno what he's been up to in recent years, but when he makes a comeback, I'm sure it'll be with something worth checking out; here's hoping that's sooner than later, too.

[-FuNkY-MoNk-UK-]

After a conversation with a friend about the different raido stations in the GTA series. Thought i'de over the next few posts share some of my favourites and most memorable whilst causing havoc.





EDIT: Spelling.

[Miauz55555]

I think that fits: "Good morning America, how are you?"
Arlo Guthrie - City of New Orleans

[Cat1981England]