Tycho Talk

There's been a Beatles revival in my head thanks to Rock Band. Most of the soundtrack coming from the squishy grey ipod in my skull has consisted of Beatles tracks. The harmonies feature is splendid; today, though, I tried some songs on Expert by myself. Being able to see just one vocal track is certainly less confusing, and I got 6 stars (or technically 5 gold stars, which is one better than 5 boring ol' regular stars) on 3 songs (Dear Prudence, Eight Days A Week, Here Comes The Sun) though I didn't manage to get 100% on any of them- but 99% is not too bad.

I never realized how much of a twangy country song 'Octopus's Garden' was.

'Helter Skelter' vexes me. I almost failed out of it (on Expert, but still).

I think I would like to have several of George Harrison's babies. Great, another dead rock star I love. Hell. I'd like to track down a copy of 'Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows' which was not on the pile of mp3s I got from Threeve. Soon.

First, chores.

I think I'd bitched plenty about the fact that I'd spent all this extra money to get the latest Rock Band game delivered to my door on its release date, only to remember that said date happened to fall on a Wednesday, the day when I go from work directly to choir, and even if I did want to play a video game when I finally get home at 9pm, I couldn't because Eric's D&D group meets here and takes over the living room on Wednesday nights. Well, there was enough whining out of me about it that Eric graciously volunteered to kick his group out by 10pm, so a Rock Band Event shaped up quite nicely. It's a testament that I stayed up until past 2am last night, and woke up at 7am and wanted to run downstairs and play some more. I didn't, though, because other members of the household are sleeping and I've got a shift to complete anyway.

First impressions- the muted color scheme is nice, but the lack of contrast makes things a little more difficult to see sometimes. The artwork is otherwise absolutely outstanding. The song catalog's pretty keen, though of course we didn't make it through every song- and just from an emotional standpoint it was interesting to see them go from somewhat vacuous and happy ("I Saw Her Standing There") to jaded and more bitter ("I'm Looking Through You") to just plain weird ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). It's also neat that there were songs I'm sure I'd heard before but don't recall ever hearing ("Boys").

Anyway, that shift demands my attention. Doubtless I will have more to say on this later.

Here's the DLC coming your way next week! A nice assortment of singles ranging from 90's alternative, bouncy Brit pop, bagpipe infused fun, and more! Dig in!

Tracks available on Xbox 360 (Aug. 18) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (Aug. 20):

Blind Melon - No Rain
Blur - There’s No Other Way
Dropkick Murphys - I’m Shipping Up to Boston
Eve 6 - Inside Out
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot
Foo Fighters - All My Life
Foo Fighters - I’ll Stick Around
Foo Fighters - Lonely as You

Aww hell. Blur and Gorillaz. Stevie Wonder! Johnny Cash! "Under Pressure"! I think I'ma put that on my wish list.

( Guitar Hero 5 song list )

Party mode, switching midstream, et cetera

Yesterday turned out to be one of those days that had nothing planned at the outset then ended up super-packed. I don't mind those usually; part of why I can be so planning-adverse sometimes is that I like to have a lot of wiggle-room for last-minute things.

I did my shift, then taught a class on Hermetic laws. Eh, not my favorite topic but some topics I love, and some I'm just passing on the info. It ended up running long, so there wasn't much afternoon left to me. Dave Huggles wanted to have a Rock Band event, and sometimes it's nice to have them here since there's more room and I can get intoxicated without worrying about a drive home. And that way we don't have to have friends to have a party, we can borrow Dave's friends! Okay, some of them are our friends too, but Dave was doing all the organizing, such as it was, we just provided the space.

Anyway, after the class I had only a little time to start cleaning the place before I had to depart. I went to a chiropractic appointment since my neck had been in such bad shape the day before; she popped it but good, then I visited with their new massage guy. Lest you become irate that your tax dollars are paying for me to get massages (by way of health insurance supplied by the state of Texas), this was that sort of massage where you don't really have the soft-focused Calgon-took-me-away feeling, but feeling closer to crying and cursing the guy as a sadistic bastard, which was really what I needed; it gets the job done. It almost seemed incongruous that he was playing Enya. But I think it's a law that they have to.

I barely had time to get home, take a shower, and leave for madrigals. Some folks in the choir have been trying for months to get me to go to this monthly medieval jam session... there kept being something else scheduled, but I wanted to at least make it once- they kept inviting me, and I don't know from madrigals, but why not, you know? Well, there were eight of us, average age about sixty, and I just completely sucked at it. These are folks who if you point at them in the store and say "sing an F sharp Mixolydian¹ scale!" they could. If you give me a starting pitch and then tell me to give you another pitch I can usually figure it out given enough time, but I was way out-classed by this group. Hey, I started out as an instrumentalist, knowing pitches was a subset of knowing what buttons to push, and not an independent skill usually taught. But they were very encouraging and insisted that I keep coming and that everyone sucks the first time, so I didn't feel like a complete loser.

By the time I got home, it was a pretty full house, and after getting some food and intoxicant in me, I jumped in to the Rock Band festivities. I divided up the evening between singing, playing bass, circulating, chatting one-on-one, and keeping Eric company. Parties aren't usually his thing and sometime he finds a place to hole up away from the noise but he seemed to enjoy himself and was more social than usual. Plus he's really cute when he gets liquored up. I got to meet some new people, catch up with some folks I didn't know too well or haven't seen recently, and visit with some of my favorite regulars, and overall it was an excellent time. I really hated to pull the plug around 2am, and it broke my heart when a spontaneous plan to go out and hit some 24-hour diner materialized but I had to stay home and be responsible and go to bed since I had to work at 8 this morning, but that's okay.

Now I probably ought to quit avoiding my afternoon tasks, which involve de-booking seven bookshelves in preparation for room painting. And we have a good bid and a floor material all but decided on, so the bedroom is quickly headed towards fabulousness.

¹ In making sure I spelled 'Mixolydian' correctly, Wikipedia tells me than songs which use that mode include 'Norwegian Wood' by the Beatles, 'Satisfaction' by the Stones, and the themes to both Star Trek: Next Gen and Katamari Damacy.

Whiney emo setlist that's nevertheless a lot of fun to sing:
'That's What You Get' Paramore (4)
'Hysteria' Muse (1)
'Tempted' Squeeze (4)
'Chop Suey' System of a Down (6)

Not feeling especially emo today, but these are the songs what wanted to get sung. So there.

The Mary Launt Memorial Setlist

"That's What You Get" Paramore
"Girl's Not Grey" AFI
"Sweetness" Jimmy Eat World
"Limelight" Rush

Okay, the last song doesn't really belong, but it was a four-song setlist and I saw 'I Love You Man' and I really wanted to sing fucking "Limelight", dammit.

I call this set "The Set That's Really Tough On Your Bassist, Especially If She Just Practiced For Like An Hour Or Something, And It Will Make Her Brain Go Kaboom And Additionally Be Rather Painful In Her Left Hand Especially, And I Don't Know Why I'm Bitching, I Am The Bassist So I Should Examine Why I Picked These Songs So Tell Me About Your Mother?"

Dani California- Red Hot Chili Peppers (3 difficulty on bass? Really, that's all?)
YYZ- Rush (4 difficulty on bass; I can buy that)

This was a fun set. But, ow.

New favorite set list for Rock Band- the Genderfuck Two-fer:

'I'm Just A Girl' No Doubt
'Sex Type Thing' Stone Temple Pilots ("I am a man, a man, I'll give ya somethin' that ya wont forget")

I can pull off Scott Weiland a lot better than I can sing like Gwen Stefani. Make of that what you will.

Maya is the noisiest cat when she cleans herself, which is odd because she's so jumpy you'd think she'd be quieter. But no, she slurps and snorts so loud you can hear it across the room.

I just broke the top 100 in a Rock Band battle of the bands; 2 metal songs on Expert ('Our Truth' and 'Colony of Birchmen', a song that just makes no damn sense). I'm currently at 89; who knows if I'll stay there, but even if I don't still it's a first. Go me!