What with video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band becoming higher-profile vehicles for rock bands to hawk their wares than old-fashioned music-centric venues like radio, the effects of the games’ song choices are of keen interest to music-industry observers. So last week Ars Technica did up a graph showing that certain songs featured in Guitar Hero 3–including Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” and the Strokes’ “Reptilia”–saw large sales jumps, percentage-wise, after the game hit store shelves. Quoth Ars: “The week GH III was released, ‘Reptilia’ sold 127 percent more digital copies than it had the week before. The following week saw another 96 percent jump in sales. That number stayed high the next week as well, as the song saw a modest 3 precent [sic] increase.” All well and good, but it’s hard to figure out just what, exactly, these sales increases actually mean, given that the numbers Ars threw around were percentages and not hard totals. That 127% gain for “Reptilia” would have meant a lot more if it had sold, say, 3,500 copies in the pre-GH week than, say, 1,000 or so. Ars’ graph after the jump.
So YouTube has been invaded by Guitar Hero 3 demo clips in anticipation of the game’s release next week, because what’s more fun than watching other people be pretty good at video games that you’ll probably suck at while you’re stuck in front of a computer? More »
Thurston Moore says the anti-Starbucks contingent of Sonic Youth’s audience is just exhibiting “a knee-jerk reaction from PC watchdogs” and seems to inadvertently call the band’s DGC-era-and-onward recordings “adult contemporary,” which would make for one cool-ass AC station were it true. More »
Thurston Moore says the anti-Starbucks contingent of Sonic Youth’s audience is just exhibiting “a knee-jerk reaction from PC watchdogs” and seems to inadvertently call the band’s DGC-era-and-onward recordings “adult contemporary,” which would make for one cool-ass AC station were it true. More »
What does it mean when Kim Gordon dances? 50% “dance, you assholes!” and 50% “I look pretty great, right?” More »
Mark Ibold is best known for his stints as a member of both Pavement and Sonic Youth, but when he’s not playing bass in a seminal indie rock band, he pays his bills by bartending at the Great Jones Cafe in Manhattan. In an interview with New York magazine, Ibold offers some comments about the restaurant’s famous clientele, anecdotes about dealing with messy eaters and loud drunks, and some vague glimmer of hope for a Pavement reunion tour within the next few years. (“”Our booking agent seems to think we’re going to be doing a reunion tour sometime in the next couple of years,” he says. “But it’s definitely not official”)
After the cut, Ibold answers the most important questIon: Who gets more action, musicians or bartenders?
Camper Van Beethoven, Mudhoney, the Go! Team, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover Sonic Youth. [Copy, Right?] More »
Oh, Jason Lee. You have come such a long way since you were skateboarding for Sonic Youth. And by “come a long way,” we mean “transformed yourself into Rupert Everett.” More »
Buried in yesterday’s New York Times article about the NYPD spying on protestors before the 2004 Republican National Convention was this passage about the musically minded activist group Bands Against Bush: In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with… More »
