The News Review:
- Warped Tour not what it used to be
- Nightlife Agenda
- Violent Femmes Go a-Courtin’
- Against Me! plans on blazing the group’s own musical trail
- ‘Boogie’ a fun but flawed music game
Warped Tour not what it used to be
Seattle Times – Aug 16, 2007
Only a few bands on this year’s tour could be called “punk” and they’re dinosaurs. In 2007 Warped bands make variations on mall-punk — music you’d hear if you bought a skateboard at a shopping center. Glam goth hardcore disco — at Warped you can choose your infusion. Passionate melodrama and hyper-specific fashion are common themes and each band is very into its brand: carefully designed posters wristbands stickers — and of course their own recordings — supplement live shows hopefully adding up to something memorable. The bands aim at distinct images but none are more than a few MySpace clicks away from each other. Local act Amber Pacific is on the bill for Saturday’s tour stop at the Gorge.
Nightlife Agenda
Washington Post – Aug 16, 2007
Similar to Roky Erickson and Don Van Vliet if you say Laughner’s name and someone knows what you’re talking about chances are you can have a pretty good conversation with that person. Well let’s revise that. Chances are that person knows his or her stuff about good music particularly pre-punk-era rock music. But that also means the person will likely be incredibly socially awkward and won’t be able to talk about anything besides pre-punk era rock music. Anyway Laughner is a minor rock god who was at the forefront of the vital Cleveland rock scene in the mid-’70s when he was guitarist and songwriter for proto-punk bigshots Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu. He was unfortunately prophetic when he penned the line "Ain’t it fun when you know you’re gonna die young?" Laughner died from pancreatis when he was just 23 leaving behind a limited legacy of teen angst anthems like "Ain’t It Fun" "Life Stinks" "Seventeen" and "Never Gonna Kill Myself Again. " To celebrate what would have been his 55th birthday local singer-songwriter.
Violent Femmes Go a-Courtin’
E! Online – Aug 16, 2007
We're playing better than ever. "According to court papers Ritchie claims he founded the band with drummer Victor DeLorenzo in Milwaukee in 1980 and Gano joined the roster a year later. Their careers took off with the release of their 1983 self-titled debut which featured folky music with a punk sensibility. But per the complaint Ritchie found himself on the wrong end of a flawed business deal in 2001 that gave the band's whiny-voiced crooner control of the publishing rights to the quartet's catalog which led to the current feuding. Ritchie says he was appalled when he learned that Gano had sold "Blister in the Sun" to Wendy's to be used in a burger commercial a decision that alienated many longtime Violent Femmes fans. "My ears perked up. Then my jaw dropped.
Against Me! plans on blazing the group’s own musical trail
Charleston Post Courier – Aug 16, 2007
It meant ‘wave’ in a literal sense coming and washing away mediocrity. “When Gabel started Against Me! as a 17-year-old his rebellious solo acoustic act mixed with his loud and raucous vocals was anything but mediocre. Gabel cut a demo cassette all by himself and thrust himself into an optimistic career in punk rock music. Since then the band has undergone a number of line-up changes and released three indie records “Reinventing Axl Rose” on No Idea Records and “As the Eternal Cowboy” and “Searching for a Former Clarity” on Fat Wreck Chords. In 2006 Gabel along with guitarist James Bowman bassist Andrew Seward and drummer Warren Oakes announced their departure from the group’s former indie labels into the major label territory of Sire Records and they enlisted veteran producer Butch Vig for help on the project. “One of the things I found refreshing in their music in Tom’s lyrics is ? they’re never preachy or anything. He’s saying something that makes you think about what’s going on” Vig said.
‘Boogie’ a fun but flawed music game
USA Today – Aug 16, 2007
Don’t worry — you don’t have to be very good to see encouraging words flashed on the screen. This mode is similar to other karaoke games including Konami’s Karaoke Revolution series and Sony’s Singstar titles. Song selection for both Dance and Karaoke modes includes cover versions of classic dance tracks such as Celebration (Kool & The Gang) ABC (Jackson 5) and We Are Family (Sister Sledge) as well as remakes of newer hits including Let’s Get This Party Started (Pink) I’m a Slave 4 U (Britney Spears) and One More Time (Daft Punk). In total there are nearly 40 songs in the game some of which need to be unlocked by playing well or purchased with tokens in the game shop. Along with the individual dance and singing modes there’s a Story mode but it’s quite lame. The characters don’t talk so all the back story is provided via text dialogue between static characters. Frankly after reading a few lines of dialogue many players will likely press the A button to forward onto the game play… Finally the Video Maker records your voice and your Boog’s moves lets you add special effects and change camera angles and then save it to show off to friends and family. Too bad you can’t export your creation to a memory card so you can upload it to websites such as YouTube. Boogie is a good (but not great) music game for the Wii that has the right idea — cute characters a good song list dancing singing and video editing — but it doesn’t equal the sum of its parts. The game would be a lot more fun if you had to dance instead of making your character dance by whipping the controller around plus the singing component is far too simplistic so you really don’t have to try hard to pass these stages. Contact Saltzman at.