Woodkid - An Awesome Musical Find

(Woodkid, aka Yoann Lemoine, via Wikipedia)

I always enjoy discovering new music that speaks to me and makes stop and just listen (rather than having it on as background music). I don't usually talk about it, however, but maybe it's the fact that the MTV Music Video Awards are on tonight, and are apparently atrocious, that is inspiring me to highlight something that's actually good.

(Note: I say "tonight," because I'm writing this on Sunday night, yet the post will publish on Monday morning)

It's even more amazing when such a musical discovery comes from a source that you wouldn't normally think of. When the E3 video game expo was held this Summer, one of the highlighted games was Assassin's Creed: Revelations, a game I've been anxiously awaiting for some time. The trailer that was released was super cool, showcasing some awesome graphics and the promise of a story resolution that has been anxiously awaited.

Yet it was the music that grabbed the attention. Music by somebody named "Woodkid." And it is powerful, moving, and haunting at times too.

Woodkid is the stage name for a French music video and film director named Yoann Lemoine, who is best known for directing Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and Taylor Swift's "Back to December" videos.

However, he is also a musician, and under the Woodkid guise, has released a few tunes on iTunes.

The song that became prominent in the trailer is called "Iron," and here's the original video for it. The song is superb, and gripped me from the first drum beat until the final one.



It's rare when the music in a trailer upstages the images, but with a song this good, that's what happened. Lemoine does sing in English, though it can be hard to understand sometimes. It doesn't matter, because it's the music that gets you.

Here's another song of his, "Brooklyn".



It's so much different than the dark tones of "Iron," almost whimsical and nostalgic, demonstrating his range. (If you click on "Watch on Youtube" at the bottom of the video, the description has the entire lyrics).

This guy is awesome, and I hope that he finds continued success through the exposure that Ubisoft (the game company behind Assassin's Creed) has given him.

He deserves every bit of it.

Finally, if you're interested, here is the Assassin's Creed: Revelations trailer with "Iron" in it.

They did a terrific job of relating the video game action to the music, and it made my anticipation of the game even harder to bear.

Arcade Gaming Shrine - an excellent song about old-school video games

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Dan Americh, even since he's gone to the dark side over at Activision.

One of his side projects, just for fun, is Palette-Swap Ninja, something he does with a friend of his, Jude Sutton. Taking actual songs and creating video game songs out of them, with both Jude and him playing the instruments and Dan singing.

Here's the wonderful song Halo (All I Play-Oh), which I include here because it seems appropriate with Reach just having come out (sung to the tune of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Snow (Hey Oh)"):



One thing I love about this is that they always try and keep not only the cadence, but also the rhymes themselves consistent with the original song. The "Viva Pinata" song is based on the old Pina Colada song ("If you like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain...")

But the reason for this post is because they just released a video for their latest song, "Arcade Gaming Shrine."

This song speaks to any old-time gamer, with so many blasts from the past that I almost cried with nostalgia.

Ok, I didn't almost cry, but I *did* relive some old video game memories. Everything from Elevator Action to Pac-Man, Defender, Zaxxon, you name it, it's in there.

Us old farts probably will get the most out of it, but it's a good song even for those youngun's out there.



What kind of video game memories does it bring back for any of my high school friends? (Yeah, like they're reading this LOL)

Here's the page on the Palette-Swap Ninja site where they talk about how the video was filmed. A lot of the people dancing in the background (as well as featured in a shot or two) are from one of my favourite video game podcasts, "Talk Radar".

It's a treat, and I hope you old-time gamers, like me, love it as much as I do.

A shoutout to Vevo

Long-time followers of this blog know that every Sunday there is a "one-hit wonders" post. I don't think I've missed a week in a *very* long time (I don't even remember if there was a break between the 80s and 90s posts).

With the second batch of 80s one-hit wonders posts, I started embedding the videos on the page rather than just posting links to them. That way, I can always tell if something has happened to the video (or picture, or whatever) in question. It makes things a lot easier because I can see if they're gone and I can replace them as necessary.

There are three types of music videos on Youtube right now (leaving aside the "there isn't one at all" possibility).

1) Something posted by somebody in general, which technically is a copyright violation and is subject to removal by Youtube (which does often happen)

2) Something posted officially (or seemingly so, anyway), but which has embedding disabled

3) Something posted officially that does allow embedding.

Most of the videos I find in the third category are posted on Vevo (which is owned by three music companies, including Sony). Looking at the site right now, there is a *lot* of cool stuff there, especially if you're into modern music. Eminem is on there right now, Arcade Fire, Enrique Iglesias (and I won't name anymore, to avoid accusations of traffic-whoring by including famous names).

What's even better about Vevo, however, is that it allows you to share the content on their site in a lot of ways, including embedding on your web site or blog.

Is this cool, or what? No worries about whether the video's going to disappear one day and leave your post barren (and truly, how many people go back to their old blog posts and see if stuff is still there? I only do it because I'm adding this week's entry to all previous one-hit wonders posts).

No worries about copyright violation. This is an official site.



The people behind Vevo get it, unlike some of the other music companies. When I find a video that just says "Official Video" for a song, but isn't under the Vevo name (especially if it says "EMI Music Group" or whatever the official name is), I click on "Embed" knowing that it's likely going to say "Embedding has been disabled by request."

What's the point? You want people to listen to your music, don't you? You want to get your name known? Or, in the case of the ones I use, get your name back out there because you've disappeared? So why would you disable embedding?

When you go to a web site or blog and somebody says "check out this cool video!" and then gives you a link, how likely are you to click on the link? But if that same video is embedded on the page? You're much more likely to click on it, aren't you? (Assuming you're remotely interested in the content, anyway).

There is a way that you can see who has played your video, even if it's embedded on somebody else's site. So why would you not want that to happen? Do you not want to be listened to?

When I'm searching for a song for my one-hit wonder post and I see in the Youtube list that the song is on Vevo, I almost let out a cheer (though I don't, because I don't want to wake the wife).

So kudos to you, Vevo. Yes, I know it's an advertising-driven site and it is a business that you're making money on, and in fact I know that music companies are evil, etc. But not this time. You could have disabled embedding your videos like everybody else does.

Strangely enough, I guess you want people to actually watch your videos, no matter where they are on the web.

What a novel concept.

Video game music that makes you shiver

Music has always been a vital part of the gaming experience, from the "bleeps" and "bloops" of the old arcade games to the midi soundtracks of the original console generations, to the sweeping orchestral scores of today.  Much of it is iconic, at least to the point where you recognize the game as soon as you hear it (sometimes I still can't get the most addicting song from Dr. Mario out of my head).

The other day, I was happy that I was catching up on the Game Informer news page, because I discovered this gem: Air Dates for Video Games Live on PBS. After checking out the link for scheduled air times, I discovered that in Washington it was going to be on last night.  I quickly set the recording for the HD version of it.  KCTS in Seattle (and probably all of the other PBS stations as well) are using it as part of their annual pledge drive.  For those of you who don't know, Video Games Live takes video game music and has it played by a large orchestra as well as a choir and other performers.  Images from the video games are projected on a huge screen at the back of the stage, perfectly timed to go with the music being played.

When we started watching it last night, I just sat enthralled.  Creator and video game composer Tommy Tallarico has created something truly brilliant.  My hats off to him.  Watching some of my favourite music (as well as a lot of music I've never heard before but which was riveting all the same) being performed live on stage by an actual orchestra is something almost epic.



Yet I found myself disappointed, too.

Why is that?

The show itself was awesome.  But I wanted more.  I wanted a 90-minute special that was actually a 90-minute special.  Not a 75-minute special with three pledge drive breaks in it to pad it out to 90.  Granted, the PBS guy was interviewing Tallarico in studio, so they were still talking about the concert and its genesis.  I don't know how other PBS stations did it, since apparently Tallarico was live in studio (either that, or they taped it and added the images of "operators standing by to take your call" afterward).  But I want my 90 minutes!!!!!

Secondly, I could have done without hearing the same thing said multiple times all in the span of a few minutes.  Tallarico kept emphasizing how cool it was that KIDS ARE ACTUALLY ASKING THEIR PARENTS TO TAKE THEM TO A SYMPHONY!  And that is a cool thing, but I didn't need to hear it four times in 10 minutes.  Tallarico said it multiple times while he was being interviewed, one time being moments before they went back to the PBS special and he said it on the special itself.  My eyes were beginning to roll so hard they almost fell out of their sockets. Yes, we get it, Tommy!  It's very cool that kids are wanting to go to a symphony for this.  Can we please move on?



I don't want to de-value that point, though.  It does look like a wonderful symphonic experience that kids and their parents (and even grandparents) can enjoy together.  Everybody seemed to be having a blast (though I guess they wouldn't be broadcasting it if they weren't, would they?). It was very cool to see the kid get up on stage and play Guitar Hero to Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion" and watching his friends and family as he was doing it.  Everybody was getting into it, and I can only imagine what was going through the kid's head as he was doing it.  "Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up..."

A lot of great music is included in the special.  There's a Mario Piano medley, an ode to old video games, Halo, a couple of wonderful World of Warcraft pieces, Castlevania, an utterly gorgeous presentation of music from Civilization IV, and so much more.

But yet I was left wanting more.  I guess you have to buy a ticket for that.

The video also has a couple of horrible editing spots, though I don't know if that's because of the cuts back to the pledge drive or not.  There's no sense that the concert is winding down, but suddenly everybody's taking a bow?  And performers are out there taking a bow that we haven't seen?

Colour me annoyed.

Still, the special is a wonderful taste of the show itself.  It definitely makes you want to go see the show yourself, in person.  I missed my chance when it came to Vancouver back in May.

In that sense, I guess the video has done its job.

Mashable's "Free Music Mondays" - Great Stuff!

Long-time readers of this blog know I'm a big Mashable fan (one of the great social media and tech blogs out there, I think).

For some reason, one of the regular posts that I had generally ignored is the "Free Music Monday" posts. I don't know whether I was just too busy to really check them out or what, but I usually ignored them. They always sounded interesting, but I never took the time.

Basically musical artists offer up free tracks (sometimes whole CDs!) that Mashable then links to. This gives the artists great exposure (Mashable's audience is freakin' huge!) and it gives the listener a chance to try some new artists out and see if they can find somebody they really like.

I finally decided to go ahead and see what I was missing with this week's post, however. Not because any of the bands in particular looked attractive to me, but just because I was going to be sitting at my desk at work for an extended period of time and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try this stuff out.

Am I glad I did.

The cool thing about Mashable's article is that it gives you a good description of not just the type of music (Indie, Hard Rock, Pop, etc), but also a little bit about the band itself and what style they have.

In doing so, I got to listen to some really great music. I'm only going to link to the Mashable article in order to give them some (ok, not much) traffic, but you can find the download links on their site.

The first one I downloaded was a New York band called "The Seams." Mashable classifies them as "Indie" (I'm not even sure what that means), but I decided to go ahead and download the whole album, because they're offering it for free on their site.

I am not a music critic, and I really don't know that much about the current music scene. Their sound is really familiar, though my knowledge of the music scene precludes me actually naming what bands they sound like (I wouldn't want to tar them with a bad brush if I got the comparison wrong). They are songs that you could easily hear on the radio, though. The CD (if you can even call it that when you download all the songs) is called "Spanish American," and it is truly excellent. Since it's a free download, why don't you give them a try?

The next one I tried was a "Glorious Noise" compilation from the Exploding Sound label. This compilation has rock songs from twenty different artists, and they all have different sounds. Some are softer while others are harder with some great guitar riffs. If you like modern rock at all, there's going to be something on this CD to like.

I also tried the one track Mashable had from a band called Pretty Mighty Mighty, classified as Alternative Rock. The song is "Ten Minutes". This one was pretty good, too. They're from Columbus, Ohio, which piqued my interest for familial reasons.

Finally, I tried InAshton, and their CD called "Red." They're another New York-based modern rock group and most of the songs on the CD were excellent.

Obviously, this isn't a music review, as I know nothing about music and how to critique it, which is why these descriptions aren't that detailed. But I do know what I liked, and these were all great downloads. Since they're free, if you like that type of music, why don't you go check them out? There are other genres on there that you might like.

And maybe there will be something on Mashable's future (or past, even) Free Music Mondays that you want to check out too?

How can you go wrong with "free?"