Angry Web

Tapulous has released the NIN edition of their popular iPhone/iPod Touch rhythm game, TapTap Revenge. The game includes 13 NIN tracks from The Slip and Ghosts I-IV, multi-player mode, and NIN-themed graphics. To get the game on your iPhone or iPod Touch, visit the iTunes store.

Additionally, Tapulous is giving away floor tickets for every NIN show between 11/8 and 12/12 – and one winner will get a Les Paul guitar signed by Trent. To enter, just submit a score of over 150,000 points on any track in the game. Each submission counts as one contest entry, so you can submit as many times as you like.

There are several reasons to not like Hot Chip:

1. They’re from the UK. If you’re not Radiohead, you’re just another Brit band.
2. They have that geek chic look. Their lead singer looks like that kid that was picked last in every school sport. He also has this weird, almost-androgynous voice.
3. They’re on their third album, but they’re not exactly mainstream yet. That means their fans tend to have that hipper-than-thou attitude. “Omg, you’ve never heard of Hot Chip?”

I was pretty ambivalent about Hot Chip until this year. I’d heard a few songs, but I didn’t like them enough to pay for an album. My opinion changed when I heard them at the last Coachella. We caught the beginning of their performance, and I was impressed. Because of the heat, we abandoned the tent before hearing more of their act. I was determined to see them again.

Last night we saw Hot Chip at The Wiltern. Before the concert, I’d been listening to Made in the Dark for a few weeks. I wanted those songs implanted in my brain. I was really looking forward to Shake A Fist, and my boyfriend wanted to hear Wrestlers.

The true test of a band is their live performance. I don’t care how good you sound on an album; you’d better bring have a kick ass performance. There are very few bands who sound better live than they do on an album. I’m happy to say that Hot Chip sound as good, if not better, than their album.

They mostly performed songs from Made in the Dark with a few older songs mixed in. I love lead singers who also play instruments, and Alexis Taylor rocked the keyboards while singing. His voice has such a strange tenor but it’s his real voice, not machine-generated. All six members sustained their crazy energy, and the audience was on their feet for most of their set.

All of their songs sounded great, and my favorites were Shake A Fist, Ready for the Floor, Bendable Poseable and Wrestlers. The crowd really popped for Over and Over, another excellent song. Their performance was a crazy mix of electro, rock, and pop, and that strange combo worked. It was an awesome performance, and they surpassed my expectations.

It is the night after the MTV Video Music Awards and all I have to say is “what the fuck was that about?” Throughout the night we were reminded that this was a special occasion since it was the 25th anniversary of the MTV VMAs. Well MTV sure did pull out all the stops on that show!

During the pre-show, the carpet was surround by preteen girls who obviously have watched more than enough of “The Hills”. Standing there and cheering with their banshee high pitch voices while one hit wonder rap artists and skanky looking R&B singers get there pictures taken by cell phone cameras. To top that off, MTV was kind enough to provide a helicopter for an aerial shot of celebrities arriving in their vehicles…thanks.

Once the show started, we were immediately hit with MTV’s first attempt at making Britney Spears a celebrity again. The pop sweetheart, who can’t sing a lick and has mothered 2 kids, came on for a quick intro and then left the stage only to leave us with what had to be the worst host in VMA history, and that’s not saying much.

Our beloved host came all the way from the U.K. wearing pants that looked like they had to be cut off and had hair like he took a bath with a blow dryer. After making the case that we may not have any idea who he is but he could act like a jerk off because he has some sort of following overseas, he started to bash U.S. politics and pursued the viewing public that England wants us to vote for Obama (which may account for McCain’s 10 point lead in the polls today).

Put all of this shit into a room that is 1/4 the size of what the VMAs provided in the past and you have the most lackluster and disappointing 25 year anniversary that anyone has produced. MTV has quite the history and last night proved that the network has become nothing but a bunch of scripted “reality” shows aimed at homosexuals and teenie bop girls.

I would write more about the events that took place last night but to be honest, I turned the TV off because the loss of brains cells was making me woozie. Thanks MTV.

When one watches a movie that was scored by the legendary Danny Elfman, known for composing the music for most of Tim Burton’s classics like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Edward Scissorhands” and fronting the popular 80′s rock band Oingo Boingo, the soundtrack can easily be pinned to Elfman’s unique style. When recent news dropped that Elfman would be composing the score for the upcoming remake of Universal’s “The Wolfman”, critics were quick to react. According to an article on /film:

AICN has gotten word that Danny Elfman is scoring Universal’s remake of The Wolfman. Elfman has always been hit or miss for me, and I’m not sure The Wolfman will play to his strengths.

Though /film and AICN have a valid point in that Elfman has a very particular style that could  not easily fit the motif of “The Wolfman”, they seem to be forgetting the diversity that Elfman has brought to many movies and television shows. Elfman’s compositions range from not only the music for the film “Chicago” and the title music for “Desperate Housewives” but his score is also heard in movies like “The Hulk” and “Spiderman”. Danny Elfman is nothing short of a musical genius and to question his diversity for the remake of “The Wolfman” is premature. Being a major fan of both Danny Elfman the frontman for Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman the composer, I am convinced that he could write a score that could fit the theme and emotion of the movie whether it is subtle in nature or the musical style that we have come to love from him over the past 30 years.

This is awesome:)

Here’s the official artwork for “The Dark Knight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” scheduled for a July 15, 2008 release. The score will come in 4 different versions: a 1-disc standard CD, a 2 LP set of 180 gram vinyl, a special edition digipack, and a collector’s edition with artwork to come after the release date. Below is the cover art for the 1-disc standard and the special edition, both available for preorder on Amazon.

And the tracklist:

1. Why So Serious? (9:14)
2. I’m Not A Hero (6:34)
3. Harvey Two-Face (6:16)
4. Aggressive Expansion (4:35)
5. Always A Catch (1:39)
6. Blood On My Hands (2:16)
7. A Little Push (2:42)
8. Like A Dog Chasing Cars (5:02)
9. I Am The Batman (1:59)
10. And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad (2:28 )
11. Agent Of Chaos (6:55)
12. Introduce A Little Anarchy (3:42)
13. Watch The World Burn (3:47)
14. A Dark Knight (16:15)…could this be the new Batman theme (???)

Total Time: 73:24

The new NIN album was released today and Trent Reznor has already taken the liberty of making it available for free. The new album is entitled “The Slip” and can be downloaded in nearly all formats including FLAC and Apple Lossless for the audiophiles. Unlike, “Ghosts I-IV”, this new album is not instrumental and is lyrically driven. I want to give you a more detailed review but all I can say about it is it’s Nine Inch Nails. If you are already a fan of their music then this will be a nice addition to their discography. The album comes completely tagged and includes the artwork as well as a PDF booklet. Reznor made it available free of charge as a “thank you” to his fans and you can download it free and legally HERE. Keep supporting free music and the artists like NIN and Radiohead that are willing to make it available.