Jamiroquai
Along with many other soul-jazz bands coming out of London in the ’90s, Jamiroquai (and groups like The James Taylor Quartet) gave critics a good reason to come up with a new genre for the burgeoning electronic sound in jazz. The result was “Acid Jazz” and Jamiroquai’s 1993 debut “Emergency on Planet Earth” became a key album for the style and led the band to quickly sign an outstanding eight album deal with Sony. The “Stevie Wonder sounding” lead vocalist and bandleader Jason “Jay” Kay sports a trendy earth conscious lifestyle and has an addiction for fast cars, space traveling and funked-out space disco.
- Peter Gavin
My Chemical Romance
In the new millennium My Chemical Romance brought the angsty punk sub-genre known as “emo” to the mainstream masses. With a sound and lyrical content fusing the teenage rage of early hardcore acts like Minor Threat with the gloomy introspection of the Cure and the Smiths and the over-the-top theatrics of Seventies arena bands like Queen, MCR became the Top Ten’s first emo superheroes within three years of forming.
The idea of rock superheroes is key to the band’s success: Singer Gerard Arthur Way graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1999 and was working as a comic-book animator when the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 made him to rethink his priorities. Deciding comic books were getting him nowhere, Way quit his day job and along with high school friend and drummer Matt Pelissier formed My Chemical Romance. The band was named after the Irvine Welsh book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance and its early- lineup was fleshed out by Way’s younger brother “Mikey” on bass, Ray Toro on lead guitar, and Frank Iero on rhythm guitar.
Within three-months of forming My Chemical Romance had recorded and released their 2002 debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love on New Jersey indie label Eyeball Records (who had also signed fellow Garden State emo rockers Thursday). On the strength of tracks like the pummeling 9-11 lament “Skylines and Turnstiles,” the band quickly signed to Reprise Records. 2003’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Number 28, 2005) produced a string of singles including “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” (Number Four Modern Rock, 2005), “Helena” (Number 11 Modern Rock, Number 31 Pop, 2005) and “The Ghost of You” (Number 9 Modern Rock, 2005) and sold over a million copies. MCR was one of the first bands to successfully pioneer the social networking website MySpace to market their music.
In 2004 Bob Bryar, a sound tech for the Used, replaced Matt Pelissie (who later opened Strong Arm Studios, in Harrison, NJ.)on drums. MCR spent much of 2005 on the road opening for Green Day and co-headlining the Warped Tour with Fall Out Boy. In 2006, as MCR was heading back into the studio to record its third album, the group released the CD/DVD Life on the Murder Scene, a documentary that included videos and live footage and sold 2 million copies.
In 2006 MCR released its most ambitious album to date: a bombastic concept album entitled The Black Parade, which sold 240,000 copies in its first week and propelled it to Number Two on the Top 200 Chart . The album’s storyline revolves around the regretful reminiscences of a dying cancer patient (and includes a cameo from Liza Minnelli on “Mama”). The Black Parade polarized critics who either loved the album’s grandiosity or hated its excesses though it too went platinum. Its singles included the Top Forty hits “Welcome to the Black Parade” (Number One Modern Rock, Number Nine pop, 2006) and “Teenagers” (Number 13 Modern Rock, Number 39 Pop 100, 2007).
In the spring of 2008 the band was enmeshed in a controversy after a British MCR fan committed suicide and U.K. tabloids labeled emo and the band a “suicide cult.” The band released the following statement on its website: “My Chemical Romance are and always have been vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. As a band we have always made it one of our missions through our actions to provide comfort, support, and solace to our fans…If you or anyone you know have feelings of depression or suicide, we urge you to find your way and your voice to deal with these feelings positively.”
In July of 2008 the band released its second live CD/DVD compilation entitled The Black Parade is Dead! featuring outtakes from the band’s fall 2007 Mexico City and New Jersey concerts.
The Velvet Underground may have influenced hundreds of bands since the late 1960s, but it was Lou Reed’s second solo album Transformer (1972) that contained “Walk on the Wild Side,” a surprise hit single that introduced the iconoclastic New Yorker to the general public. That uneven album set the stage for much of his career — Reed’s personal, commercial and artistic interests change faster than the times. His despairing Berlin (1973) is a key “darkside of the counterculture” album, while the live Rock N’ Roll Animal introduced millions to revved-up versions of such classic VU songs as “Sweet Jane.” Even as he started working with top session players and recording warm, evocative songs like “Coney Island Baby,” the fledgling art rock and punk scenes embraced Reed with the same enthusiasm that their London counterparts had for his friend David Bowie. With this strong cult following, Reed entered the ’80s as a respected and vital elder statesman and continued to change stylistic hats. Praise for his often hyperrealistic and brutal lyrics obscures the fact that Reed has written some of the best songs of the last three decades, many as sweet as the family dedication “Little Sister.”
- Nick Dedina
A favorite among Progressive Trance followers for his epic DJ sets and
larger-than-life original tunes, Holland-born DJ Tiesto rose to the
forefront of the genre in record time. Not unlike contemporaries BT, Ferry
Corsten, Paul Van Dyk and Sasha & Digweed (to name but a few), Tiesto’s take
on Trance is anything but alienating. His own tracks are grandiose efforts
featuring wispy female vocals embedded in a hypnotic atmosphere awash with
dream-like synths.
- Melissa Piazza
Death Cab For Cutie
Long before The O.C.’s resident hipster Seth Cohen proclaimed his love for the band, the Bellingham, Wash., natives were cranking out sweet, cozy melodies for reflective romantics. After the success of a cassette put together by Ben Gibbard in 1997, the vocalist and guitarist decided to transform his solo project into a full-fledged band. When guitarist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Nathan Good came aboard, Death Cab For Cutie were born. The band took its name from a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song that appeared in the Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour. By 1998, Death Cab’s debut, Something About Airplanes, was released, recalling the off-kilter guitar pop of Built to Spill and the quietly passionate storytelling of Elliott Smith. The band went on to create three more LPs before signing to Atlantic Records and releasing the Grammy-nominated Plans in 2005. Nearly three years later, Narrow Stairs revealed a slightly changed Death Cab, which cited heavy metal as an influence. Though more Band of Horses than Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the brawnier approach worked; it was their first album to top the Billboard charts.
- Stephanie Benson
By the late ’60s, while other bands were thinking of covert ways to make LSD references in their songs, Iggy & the Stooges were playing primal, stripped-down garage rock ‘n’ roll. If their brash, raw music alienated the flower-power set, their live performances went even further to separate them from the mainstream. Onstage misdeeds — mutilating himself with broken bottles, throwing up on the audience, attacking crowd members — made Iggy Pop a notoriously destructive figure. By the time the band broke up in 1974, the Stooges had already recorded three excellent albums and a slew of perfect punk classics (“1969,” “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” and “Search and Destroy,” among others). Pop embarked on a solo career that has had its share of highs and lows, though it yielded the brilliant David Bowie-produced albums The Idiot and Lust for Life. And, thankfully, his onstage antics are now only slightly less destructive and obnoxious than 30 years ago.
- Kali Holloway
Depeche Mode
As with many of the 1980s’ most brilliant pop stars, Depeche Mode have too often been relegated to period film soundtracks and compilations to evoke surface nostalgia rather than their unique emotional and musical complexity. From their earliest days with Vince Clarke (before he left to form Yaz, and later Erasure) creating disjointed, analog Synth Pop that evoked technological and social alienation, to their evolution through the ’90s evoking epic orchestrations of heavier electronics and production with a force that often borders on Industrial intensity, they have always been successful on both the dancefloor and in the music store. Dave Gahan’s sorrowful, impassioned vocals evoke feelings of loneliness as he presents mischievous lyrics of tongue-in-cheek social commentary, sexual politics and bittersweet romance. As they progressed, their symphony of synthesizers no longer represented cold futurism, but an otherworldly warmth via smooth melodies and clean dance beats.
- Marc Kate
PC | Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Mod SDK
The Red Alert 3 MOD SDK provides not only the same, but also greater power than our previous C&C3 MOD SDK. Read the readme for details.
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Sony’s system again bests market-leading Wii, despite no new software titles for any system enticing Japanese gamers.
Earlier this week, Japanese media tracker and Famitsu publisher Enterbrain reported that, for the first time since the two consoles launched in late 2006, one-month sales for Sony’s PlayStation 3 had trumped those for Nintendo’s Wii. For the five-week period ended March 29, the PS3 sold 146,948 units, according to Enterbrain, compared to the Wii’s 99,335 units. Heading into April, the wind appears to still be at Sony’s back.
;)
For the week of March 30-April 5, Media Create reports that the PS3 sold 20,400 units in Japan, nearly 5,000 more than the Wii’s 15,500 total. Both systems built on their lead over Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which turned in 7,800 units for the week. Handhelds once again perched atop Media Create’s monthly accounting, with the DSi and DS Lite combining to sell 62,400 units and the PSP logging sales of 48,100.
Software turned in a lackluster performance during the week, due to no new releases tempting Japanese gamers. Reprising its performance at the top of the charts, Namco Bandai’s Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna Portable for the PSP led software with 34,000 units. That figure just outpaced Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!!, which sold an additional 33,000 units on the DS. Also for Nintendo’s portable, Konami’s Pro Yakyuu Famista DS 2009 debuted at number three with 27,000 units sold.
Titles for Sony’s systems took the next four slots, with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP selling 24,000 units, followed by Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 for the PlayStation 2 shifting 16,000 copies. Musou Orochi Z on the PS3 and Disgaea 2 for the PSP both sold 15,000 units during the week. Rounding out the week’s chart, Super Robot Taisen K for the DS and Winning Post World both sold 13,000 units, while Wii Fit returned to the top 10, selling 12,000 copies.
Week of March 30-April 5, 2009
Software:
1) Kidou Senshi Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna Portable (PSP) – 34,000
2) Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! (DS) – 33,000
3) Pro Yakyuu Famista DS 2009 (DS) – 27,000
4) Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) – 24,000
5) Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 (PS2) – 16,000
6) Musou Orochi Z (PS3) – 15,000
7) Disgaea 2 (PSP) – 15,000 
Super Robot Taisen K (DS) – 13,000
9) Winning Post World (PS3) – 13,000
10) Wii Fit (Wii) – 12,000
Hardware:
DSi – 53,700
PSP – 48,100
PS3 – 20,400
Wii – 15,500
DS Lite – 8,700
Xbox 360 – 7,800
PS2 – 5,400
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
Blade Runner blaster highlights Hollywood auction
The Harrison Ford “Rick Deckard” hero blaster from Blade Runner, predicted to draw bids between $100,000 and $150,000, is among the 1,100 pieces of Hollywood memorabilia being auctioned by Profiles in History April 30 and May 1.
Other items for sale include an original Frankenstein onesheet movie poster ($200,000-$250,000), the original Creature From the Black Lagoon hero “Gill Man” mask from Revenge of the Creature ($60,000-$80,000), Ray Park’s “Darth Maul” fighting lightsaber from Star Wars: Episode 1—The Phantom Menace ($40,000-$60,000) and Charlton Heston’s “Colonel George Taylor” costume and display from Planet of the Apes ($40,000-$60,000).
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