I just bought Manny Pacquiao’s version of “Sometimes When We Touch“. It’s so awesomely bad. Also, I’ve had a few glasses of wine. He’s an amazing boxer, but he can’t sing for sh*t. I love that he released a single. The unintentional comedy value is tremendous.
Not that you can currently use it on your PlayStation 3 at the moment (thanks to external intrusions), but I wanted to get your opinions on Sony’s Qriocity service. A unified approach to streaming music, movies, and television sounds great on paper, but there are separate services that do each of these things so well. I know that a lot of you are big on Netflix and some of you use Hulu. Some of you dig Pandora, while a few of you are Slacker or Last FM peeps. Do you think Qriocity can take the place of those services? Or is it just not good enough?
[poll id=”113″]
Musical parody genius “Weird” Al Yankovic has gotten approval to poke fun at Lady Gaga after seemingly being spurned by the pop star. It turns out that Gaga’s manager was giving Yankovic the runaround. The manager told Yankovic that Lady Gaga did not approve of the parody “Perform This Way”, which is based on the hit “Born This Way” (which is clearly a Madonna rip-off). According to E!, the manager has confessed to never playing the song for Lada Gaga. After the parody went viral on YouTube, Gaga heard the song and loved it. “Weird” Al now has her approval and “Perform This Way” will be the lead single on his upcoming album.
The lessons here are the managers are scum and that “Weird” Al rules!!!
Here’s an awesome version of Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You!” performed on an iPad using NESynth. It’s fantastic hearing a modern song in classic NES sounds. It’s also completely cool that this was done on an iPad. Check out the clip and let me know what you think (please)!
Amazon has launched a streaming music and an online storage service called Cloud Player
This is a bold and exciting move by Amazon. While the company’s MP3 store does well, it’s still way behind Apple iTunes. Offering cloud services (not to mention generally lower prices) could help attract more customers away from Apple. Both Apple and Google are known to be readying cloud-based music-services. Amazon has beaten its competitors to the punch and there’s always something to be said for being first.
Furthermore, Cloud Player looks like another facet of Amazon’s future Android strategy. Last week I speculated that Amazon will almost definitely have Amazon-branded phones and tablets running Google Android. Can you picture an Amazon Android phone with perfect integration of Amazon’s Android Appstore and Cloud Player? Wouldn’t a phone or tablet that offered simple purchasing of Amazon goods — both digital and physical — be a potentially huge moneymaker for the company? It seems so brilliant…and scary.
Let me know what you think of Amazon’s Cloud Player and Cloud Drive (please). Are they services you’d definitely use? Or does music in the cloud not interest you?
I’m completely LTTP on this Nina Gordon cover of NWA’s classic “Straight Outta Compton”. It’s a lovely acoustic rendition that brings soft female vocals to a fierce song. It’s so crazy that it works! My friend Marcus showed it to me and I wanted to share it with you. Check it out and let me know what you think (please).
According to Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Jobs is responsible for killing the music business. Never mind that you can buy dozens of Bon Jovi songs on iTunes. Jon believes that his royal Steveness has killed the experience of buying music. He told The Sunday Times Magazine (via MSN):
Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it.
God, it was a magical, magical time. I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: ‘What happened?’ Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.
I’m a big Bon Jovi fan, but I have to dismiss Jon’s remarks as stupid and out of touch. Digital music, which Apple helped make popular, has definitely changed the way people buy and consume albums and songs. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — just different. Apple, Amazon, and others seem to be selling tons of MP3s, so I’m not sure what Steve Jobs has “killed”. Altered would have been a better word.
Any thoughts on Jon Bon Jovi’s comments? Do they cement the fact that Richie Sambora was always the cool one in the group?
In my review of All-Star Superman, I mentioned that the disc comes with a teaser feature on Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Nathan Fillion takes the lead role as Hal Jordan. He’ll be accompanied by rocker/author Henry Rollins and WWE legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
I’m super psyched to hear Rollins as Kilowog. Once described by a thick Russian woman as “a most interesting warthog creature”, Kilowog has trained thousands of Green Lantern Corps members. While Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner have all the big adventures, a lot of readers view Kilowog as the backbone of the Corps. It was fun listening to Rollins talk about the character — he totally gets it and it looks he’ll do a knockout job.
Sadly, The Hot Rod was not in the feature. Who do you think he’ll play? Are any of psyched for Henry Rollins as Kilowog? On a related note, wouldn’t Nathan Fillion make a better Nathan Drake than Mark Wahlberg?
What’s some of your favorite videogame music? I’m not just talking about soundtracks. If “Pac Man Fever” floats your boat then let’s talk about it! As for me…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the best potato chips, thoughts of CC Sabathia leaving the Yankees next year, or Lindsay Lohan getting sexier as she becomes more messed up, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
What’s some of your favorite videogame music? I’m not just talking about soundtracks. If “Pac Man Fever” floats your boat then let’s talk about it! As for me, the soundtrack to Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite score. Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata did a phenomenal job composing music that was moving and memorable. I’ve been a huge fan of theirs ever since I heard FFT’s music.
Naturally, I love Mortal Kombat The Album by The Immortals. The songs are just awesomely ridiculous. I have fond memories of listening to the soundtrack in college with my friend Wil. It’s just fun screaming, “Johnny Cage is not afraid to die!!!” If you haven’t heard these songs then I highly recommend clicking the link above and listening to the samples. These tracks will change your life…especially Sub-Zero’s song.
Now it’s your turn! What’s some of your favorite videogame music?
I was trying to interview actor Jay Mohr about hosting the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at DICE 2011…but that never really got started. He liked my microphone and thought it was cool that I also use it to belt out Journey songs in karaokoe. This led him to singing a bunch of Van Halen songs. I thought it was cool that he did one in his Christopher Walken impersonation, as per my request. I thought it was cooler that he cut off his interview with Kotaku’s Brian Crescente because he remembered what song he wanted to sing. Ha!
Check out this clip of outtake footage when you have a chance. Bonus points will be awarded if you can name the famous gaming people in the background!
