Monkey Island 2: Special Edition coming to iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC and more

Monkey Island 2 will hit the iPhone this summer as well as arriving on Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The new Monkey Island 2: Special edition will be even more polished than last year’s Monkey: Island special edition with new graphics, remastered music and a new voiceover from the original Monkey Island cast. Monkey Island [...] Related posts: Tales of Monkey Island hitting the Apple iPad? The Secret of Monkey Island for iPhone review Monkey Island for iPhone sets sail on App Store

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SXSW Mixtapes Vol. 3 of 3

South By Southwest press registration was a snap. I thought the convention center was managed really well, and yet the woman who handed me my badge apologized for making me wait so long. To make it up to me she gave me complimentary drink cards that if used strategically would get me 40 free drinks over the course of the festival. Ridiculous. Inside the cavernous registration hall are magazine racks loaded with alternative newsweeklies from around the country. I picked up a recent copy of Boise Weekly to share with my Austin hosts. Gotta say we look pretty damn good compared to the national competition. I think I'll go with the Boston Phoenix for best cover in the piles. Looked them up online and found a writer who loaded videos for 25 hip hop acts playing this year's SXSW. Cool. The third and final installment of my SXSW mixtapes is all about hip hop. To get you in the mood for the festivities, I've put together three mixtapes of songs from artists playing official showcases during the music festival. "American: The Bill Hicks Story" Radioactive Gavin's SXSW 2010 Mixtapes Vol. 3: Hip Hop Future Now SXSW Hip Hop Future Now Mixtape tracklist- Invincible "Viewer Discretion a cappella" (Live in Memphis, TN) Slum Village & Dwele "Say How I Feel remix" Bahamadia "Funky For You" (Jay Dee remix) Afro Classics "Do Thangs" Illa J & Debi Nova "Sounds Like Love" La Melodia "Sounds of the City" Madlib "Understanding (Comprehension)" One Be Lo "Propaganda" Zion I "In the Mornin (Caged Bird Part 2)" Invincible "Sledgehammer!" Blue Scholars "Second Chapter" Flying Lotus "Massage Situation" Antipop Consortium "Reflections" Gonjasufi "Ancestors" Madlib "American Dream & Future" (OJ Simpson remix) Sage Francis "Conspiracy to Riot" Tobacco & Aesop Rock "Dirt" Solillaquists of Sound "Marvel" 4th Pyramid "Memories of a Dream" Josh Martinez "All Rapped Out" (Live in Bozeman, MT) Daedelus & Paperboy & Taz "Touchtone" (Thavius Beck remix) Major Lazer "Hold the Line" (Mexicans with Guns remix) [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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What to Download: New Music Today

Today's entertainment goodies just keep on coming! In this week's music releases, a brand new collaboration is hitting the airwaves, alongside an album of previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix tracks. Hear my two cents, and then judge for yourself. A perfect pairing: Broken Bells is the collaborative side project of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and James Mercer. In their self-titled debut, they break free of Gnarls Barkley and the Shins, creating a sound all their own. The result is a dreamily dizzying mix of electronic, synth, and organ that's sure to be a hit with indie pop lovers and disenchanted youth everywhere (as on the haunting "Vaporize" where Mercer sings of "feeling lost"). Listen to it while contemplating your existence - or just do like "The Mall & Misery" suggests and "let your mind go." Cartoon chaos: For a band that's a bunch of virtual characters, Gorillaz sure has a lot of friends. The group brings in everyone from Snoop Dogg to Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash for what's being called their environmental concept album, Plastic Beach. As such, expect to hear themes of consumerism (as on "Superfast Jellyfish") and saving the planet (on "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach"). It's a nice idea, but the mix of artists and sounds - '80s electronic pop to a Lebanese orchestra - sometimes feels all over the place. Where mishmash really succeeds: on the ambitious (and my personal fave) "White Flag." One more release to check out when you read more. Rock legend lives: Even if you're not a huge fan of classic rock, you can still appreciate Jimi Hendrix's posthumous Valleys of Neptune. Complete with 12 previously unreleased recordings, the album pulls from Hendrix circa 1969. "Hear My Train a Comin'" has the wicked riffs that the icon is known for, and "Sunshine of Your Love" is an instrumental jam session. The songs are void of high-tech studio gloss, which gives Valleys of Neptune a bit of a grainy feel - in the best, intimate, old music kind of way.

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Oh look at that... Music from a movie or something.

(3 comments - 109 views) There's a link here... http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/yeardley-original-motion-picture/id356275104 The album is on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and all the major online music outlets. The composer is Steve Pedulla. I hear he's dreamy. - blankfist

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Pi Day and other weekend fun

Pi Day is back this weekend at the Maryland Science Center, along with a pre-St. Patrick's Day event and egg decorating workshops. Thanks to Shruti Rastogi for the list. Find more family-friendly events on our Find Local database: Thursday, March 11: Weird science: The North Carroll branch of the Carroll County Public Library is holding a Homeschoolers Weird Science activity at 2 p.m. Kids can learn about the wind by observing a hair dryer make a ping pong ball float, making paper pinwheels, and making straws fly. It’s for kids ages 7-11. Circus symphony: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Cirque de la Symphonie will come together this Thursday through Sunday to put the French style of circus with performances by a contortionist, a head balancing artist, and more against the works of classical music. Thursday and Friday’s performances at 8 p.m. and Sunday’s performance at 3 p.m. will be at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and Saturday’s performance at 8 p.m. will be at The Music Center at Strathmore. Ticket prices start at $34. Friday, March 12: Tuneful Tales: The Aberdeen branch of the Harford County Public Library will offer Tuneful Tales, an interactive musical story time from 10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m. Kids from 18 months to kindergarten and their guardians are welcome to join in on the story time told totally in music and age-appropriate instruments. Spelling bee: Sixty-four students from grades 4 through 8 will compete in the 6th Annual Howard County Library Spelling Bee at 7 p.m. in Howard High School. The event is free and the winner will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C in May.

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Hevehitta & Dj Unexpected : Talib Kweli – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Hevehitta and Dj Unexpected are back at it again, dropping another dope tape featuring music from Brooklyn’s own, Talib Kweli. They teamed up with illRoots for this one. I’ll let their description give the details: The borough of Brooklyn is said to have 2.5 million stories to tell. An abundance of talent has emerged from Brooklyn [...]

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SXSW 2010: 10 questions for the Dandies

Band names don’t come much more misleading than the Dandies. This quartet out of Lucerne, Switzerland — led by brothers Adrian and Eric Weber, 22 and 20 respectively — play raucous, sweat-soaked, party-ready rock ‘n’ roll that owes a hefty debt to the feel-good hijinks of the Strokes. The brothers Weber sing in English and, according to their bio, have “roots in Baltimore.” Their debut album, out later this year, was produced by none other than Austin’s own Chris “Frenchie” Smith, member of Sixteen Deluxe and producer to such buzzed acts as the Dandy Warhols and Jet. Adrian spoke with the Statesman via Skype to discuss why they went with Frenchie, how two English-speaking brothers wound up playing in a Swiss band and just why they don’t sing in Switzerland’s native tongue. Will this be your first time playing SXSW? Yeah, it’s our first time playing outside of Switzerland in general, so we’re really excited for it. We feel really honored being able to play at a festival like that. Getting recognition and being able to play there is crazy. I’ve heard so much about it, and just looking at the bands is overwhelming. Who in the lineup are you excited about? There’s a couple of awesome bands that we’ve known or just started to check out, like for example We Are Scientists. We love those guys. We kind of like Miike Snow and we’re just starting to get into the Postelles from New York. They have that late 50s, early 60s kind of rock ‘n’ roll sound. We’re really digging them. And of course Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. So being from Austin I have to ask how you wound up working with Frenchie. He’s something of a local legend around here. (Laughs). It’s not hard to believe that he’s a local legend. We wanted to record an album to get some interest from the industry, and our manager, who’s based in England, wrote some different producers that he knew, and Frenchie was one of them. And Jet is a big influence in our music, so that was exciting for us. And right from the outset Frenchie seemed like the coolest guy and the one who wanted to produce us the most. For the others producing just seemed like their job. But with him it was his passion. What kind of strengths did he bring to the record? We’re very young and, maybe at the point where we met Frenchie, inexperienced. So he taught us so many things from A to Z, from how you play guitar on a record to how to sing on a track. He shared all his experiences he had and just helped us so much. He taught us what rock music is all about. He changed the sound and made us a bit more edgy. So the obvious question when talking to you guys is, how did two English-speaking brothers with roots in Baltimore wind up in Switzerland? You should actually ask our parents! My mom’s American, born and raised in Baltimore, so that’s where those Baltimore roots come from. When my mom finished college, she traveled Europe with two of her best friends. And they were in the same train as my dad, who kept walking back and forth through the aisle until he finally worked up the courage to talk to my mom. So we were born in Switzerland, but our household has always spoken English. We’re kind of both American and Swiss as the same time. What led you and your brother to decide you wanted to form a rock band together? For my brother and I it was the bands that came out in the era of 2001 to 2003 that really blew us away and made us want to be a part of a band. The Strokes, the Libertines and especially the Kings of Leon. When bands like that came out, the White Stripes even, it was more than just listening to music for us. It started to become a passion to us. So we said we wanted to create a band, and that was 2005, and we started learning instruments. So we had a few years of being a crap band before we really got good at it. Did anybody in your family have an influence on your music? My dad was a major influence on us. He cannot sing to save his life, and he has no musical talent whatsoever. He can’t even whistle in pitch. But he’s passionate about music and loves listening to it. I remember being a kid going through all of his records from his room to find things to listen to, and he had a couple thousand of them. It went from Jimi Hendrix to every single Beatles vinyl to the Housemartins, to some Cuban Dutch crossover mixed jazz weird stuff you’ve never even heard of heard. We wouldn’t be playing music without my dad. You and your brother kind of share front man duties in the Dandies. Lots of brothers grow up wanting to kill each other — why do you think the two of you get along so well as musicians? Don’t get me wrong, we do want to kill each other every once in a while. That does happen. But we have a very close bond and we always were very protective of each other. That’s how brotherly love works. You have fights, but you move on. When I started high school, I didn’t get along with anyone and neither did my brother, so we were each other’s only friends for a good year or two and that really helped us bond. We’ve always done everything together. Is it difficult being a band that writes and sings in English when you’re based in Switzerland? Nah, I don’t think so. Because all of the bands here write and sing in English. What is frustrating is that, and no offense to Switzerland, but people over here really don’t care much about lyrics. They spend no time on them. Most of the bands sing “Sky is blue and I love you” or “I got drunk last night,” or something like that. There are no metaphors. In the USA or England lyrics are so important, which I think is good because it forces you to really express yourself or tell a story. It gives you a chance to say something that you couldn’t say in regular conversation. Why don’t any of the bands sing in Swiss German? You’d think if they sang in their first language they’d probably have more elaborate lyricism. Man, you do not want to hear Swiss German. It’s very different from German German. When people from Germany hear Swiss German they do not understand what we’re saying. It’s not like a differently accented version of German, it’s like a totally different language. And it’s a horrible language. A while ago Frenchie asked us why were fighting when he heard us talking to each other in Swiss German, because the language sounds very aggressive. It’s very direct. Someone who speaks Swiss German might almost seem a bit rude or offensive to you at first. When you speak Swiss German with someone it sounds like you’re hollering and cursing at each other. If somebody sang a love song in that language the audience, if they weren’t aware of, would probably assume they were singing a song about killing their wife.

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How Can They Keep From Singing

Mara Louw & the African Methodist Choir - African Hymns (ARC Music EUCD 2249, 2009) Soweto Gospel Choir - Grace (Shanachie 66043, 2010) There’s a decided lack of joy in some of the so-called joyful noise that’s made unto the Lord, but that’s not usually a problem when it comes genuine gospel music. It’s certainly seldom a problem with African gospel music, and in the particular case of South Africa, where music of even the most spiritual sort was (and is) a weapon against injustice, a high joy quotient is a given. Apart from occasional hand claps, foot stomps and other rudimentary rhythmic accompaniment, the African Hymns presented by Mara Louw & the African Methodist Choir are acapella songs sung in the Sotho and Xhosa languages of South Africa’s Soweto Township, from which Louw hails. Passionately angelic male and female voices testify their way through hymns of praise, worship and faith rich in African and European vocal traditions, building in power and glory to a concluding “Nkosi Sikelel’i Afrika” (God Bless Africa), one of the most enduring freedom songs extant. Soothing and stirring, African Hymns will raise your spirits and probably a roof or two. A far broader approach is taken by the award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir on their latest CD, Grace. About the only thing it has in common with the African Hymns disc is that both were produced by Robin Hogarth, who states in the liner notes of Grace that the songs are “not necessarily all religious” but rather “refer to beauty, grace and the spiritual.” (Can I get an amen?) Call it commercial if you like, but this outfit’s blend of pop, classical and operatic re-interpretations, traditional songs, African grooves and peppy pieces that wouldn’t sound out of place in a production of “The Lion King” is plentifully pleasing on both a spiritual and purely musical level. Whether singing alongside only percussion or a full band, these voices soar, inspire and reach for the skies on such familiar (but never merely copied) tunes as “Ave Maria,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Put your Hand in the Hand” in addition to a host of African-rooted songs and unusual but inspired offerings like a cover of Little Feat’s “Voices on the Wind.” Worldwide acclaim and rubbing elbows with some rich and famous folks apparently haven’t compromised Soweto Gospel Choir’s humble, down-to-earth approach, and they sound heavenly here. Buy the recordings In North America: African Hymns and Grace. Other recordings available: Blessed, Voices from Heaven, Live at the Nelson Mandela Theatre In Europe: African Hymns and Grace. Other recordings available: African Spirit, Blessed, Live at the Nelson Mandela Theatre, Voices from Heaven

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Photo: Silent Hill Composer Rocks Out at GDC

SAN FRANCISCO — “Audio is my lover,” Akira Yamaoka said as he kicked off his presentation Thursday at Game Developers Conference. Pulling out his guitar, he played some music that he composed over the past day on his trip from Tokyo to San Francisco. Yamaoka is best ... — full article at wired.com

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Breakfast Links: March 11, 2010

Today is March 11, 2010. On this date in 1990, Lithuania declared itself independent from the USSR and Patricio Aylwin was sworn in as the first elected president of Chile since 1970. * DC: Public Safety Review Committee approves 2010 Downtown Safety Initiative * CT: Judge dismisses CT's suit against Doyle over open records delay * Sconz: "Nobody disputed the idea that the governor is obligated to provide records to the press as soon as possible. It seems the Times lost on a technicality." * WSJ: Third air quality alert this week runs through eleven tonight; avoid or reduce driving if you can * JS: Raw milk advocates pack hearing * CP: "Over the past weeks I have reached a tipping point when it comes to those elected officials who have used their positions of influence and power to conduct themselves in unseemly and totally improper ways." * Soglin: "Proclamations honoring Elvis, ('His voice has been heard by more people in the world than any other recording artist in history.'), Bob Dylan ('His music and lyrics have been distinctively creative and highly sensitive...'), and The Who ('Peter Townsend has destroyed more guitars in the line of duty that any other modern day rock performer, outraged parent or disgruntled neighbor...') were the fun part of the job."

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