New Music Tuesday – Explosions in the Sky – Postcards from 1952 Video
Explosions in the Sky are amazing. Nuff said. Watch the video.
New Music Tuesday – Metric
I love Metric. They have a new album out. I want to marry Emily Haines. Listen to the song.
We Are Augustines at The Neptune
A week or so ago I got to see Band of Skulls and We Are Augustines at The Neptune Theatre. It was my first show over at the newly remodeled Neptune which is a great place to see a show. This is the 3rd time seeing Band of Skulls, so I knew what I was getting into with them, a great show. But I was very excited to see We Are Augustines. They can thank REI for using Chapel Song in a commercial and it made me buy their album on Amazon. The show was great, Bill and the rest of the guys played a great set. The crowd was into it. I got a chance to talk with Bill after the show and was super gracious. Good group of guys. Check out my photos. Enjoy.
Video from my PAX East Panel
PAX East 2012 was a couple weeks ago and I was lucky enough to do another panel this year. I love doing panels, they are great fun. This year I partnered up with Steph Bayer to talk about Community and PR and how we deal with issues. We were joined by Logan DeMelt of Signal Studios, Stone Chin of Ubisoft, and Elizabeth Tobey of 2k Games.
I won’t talk about to much of what happened in the panel, but we all had a great time. It was 4:30 on Sunday, so we didn’t have a full room and those that did show up were heathens since it was Easter Sunday. But even with that we were happy with the turnout, had some excellent questions, and another amazing lightning round!
I’m already planning on what to talk about at PAX Prime!! Hopefully I don’t land a 4:30 Sunday spot again! If you take the time to watch the video, give me some feedback. Everyone on the panel would love what you enjoyed and how we can do better panels in the future!
Band of Skulls Live at The Neptune
Band of Skulls played The Neptune a couple nights ago and decided to watch the encore from the 2nd floor. Well I just turned my camera on and recorded. Crazy awesome show. Photos coming soon.
New Music Tuesday – Haim
If you read anything I write about music, there is one thing that kills me everytime. Female singers! Add that fact that they are cute, they rock guitars and drums, and their music is pretty awesome and you can just take my money. I happened to stumble across watch Last Call and they featured Haim, three sister’s who bring a lifetime of music into their own. Growing up playing with their mother and father, they recently decided to write their own music, and it is pretty awesome. Their harmonies are something that you can only learn by living around the same people your entire life. Each voice pairs so well.
The hip thing right now is this growing 80′s feel, and Haim is cut from that cloth, but in all the best ways. You can hear all the great influences just brought into the present. I picked one of their songs from their Forever EP, which you can download for free from their website, Haimtheband.com.
Be sure to check out this awesome clip of Haim playing Go Slow from The Warby Parker Citizen Sessions. You can see how sync the sisters are.
Media Could Careless About Seattle Sports
The baseball season has started! But you probably don’t know that since it appears that no one cares outside of Japan or Seattle. Nationally all they can talk about is how Cardinals and Marlins open the 2012 MLB Season, but the Mariners and Athletics will have played two games. Watching shows on ESPN today, you wouldn’t even know that the Mariners played, let alone played in Japan, or technically opened the season. It just reenforces that ESPN and the national sports media could care less about Seattle sports teams.
Either it be the Mariners, the Seahawks in the SuperBowl, the lack of any real attention or outcry of the Sonics be relocated. Could you imagine if Houston, New Orleans, or Indiana were stolen and the national attention ESPN would put on a story like that? Skip Bayless would have to take a second away from his man crush on Tim Tebow to tell everyone what a travesty it is. SportsCenter will open with a live report from Ed Werder how the Dallas Cowboys practice field hasn’t been mowed, but won’t even mention that Seattle signs someone like Matt Flynn, Red Bryant, or Marshawn Lynch. ESPN will dedicate 20 or more minutes to the loss of to the loss of people like Chick Hearn, but hardly even mention a Hall of Famer like Dave Niehaus passes.
As a Seattle sports fan who loves his teams, it is sad to see outlets like ESPN continue to ignore the teams up here, and I’m talking the whole region. Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle. We might as well be in a different country.
New Music Tuesday – Best Coast
I’m doubling up here! I love Best Coast! I have a huge crush on Bethany Cosentino. Listening to their music reminds me how much of a West Coast people I am and how much I love being on the best coast. Best Coast does have a new album coming out, and the first single is out, The Only Place. Again it reminds you that if you aren’t living on the West Coast, you are doing it wrong.
New Music Tuesday – Japandroids – The House That Heaven Built
Japandroids will be releasing their new album Celebration Rock on 6/5 and everyone should go buy it, because they freaking will melt your face off! They did release the first single, The House That Heaven Built. It is freaking awesome!! Sadly they don’t allow an embed widget, so head over to Soundcloud to check it out!!
Indie Game: The Movie
As long as I’ve worked in games, I’ve always enjoy hearing stories from other developers on what drives them to make games, what makes them tick. Sadly most videos on this are marketing driven and are washed of any substance, but I was thrilled to see a small documentary called Indie Game: The Movie on Vimeo a couple years ago. It isn’t very often you get a real look at the ups and downs of game development and Indie Game: The Movie handles it perfectly following Phil Fish designer of Fez, Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat makers of Super Meat Boy, and Jonathan Blow designer of Braid.
In the movie you get a perfect look inside the development of each game and the struggles of being an independent game developer. These are the stories I’ve always wanted to see and to have it filmed in such a way was truly amazing to watch. Much of the movie follows Fish and his struggles on Fez, either it be funding, bugs, staff limitations, or a lawsuit with a former partner of Polytron. Fish comes off narcissistic, but you can’t help but feel bad for the guy who appears to have awful luck. On the other hand Team Meat are lovable losers. Both McMillen and Refenes remind me of myself as just waiting to stay home and play video games as a kid, being alienated, and growing up with one single goal, to make video games. Watching them go through things like Certification and press embargos, and marketing efforts was painful as I’ve gone through it all myself on various games. It was exciting watching a movie that I could really relate too.
In the end, Indie Game: The Movie is extremely well done and tells three amazing stories. If you work in video games I recommend you go see it, and even if you don’t you will experience a great film with characters you pull for in the end.