For years now I've been pushing the Guitar Hero devs to expand their game to include more hip, obscure, indie music and now that they have, I've come to realize that my heart is made entirely of dark coal and bent nails.
Earlier today Destructoid EiC Nick "Angel Dust" Chester found the following on Major Nelson's blog:
Title: Guitar Hero II
Content: Guitar Hero Indie Label Pack
Price: 500 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Japan
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) MILD LYRICS] Detonation as performed by Trivium, Ex’s And Oh’s as performed by Atreyu, Bury the Hatchet as performed by Protest the Hero. For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see
www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Now of course all of these bands are the antithesis of your "My Chemical Romance"s and your "Fallout Boy"s -- at least as far as their bank accounts are concerned -- and as such, you'd think they'd get me as hard as a week-old baguette, right? Sadly, no. I get the feeling they picked up these groups not for their artistic merits, but because they were inexpensive and were the most obscure facsimilies of bands they were already using.
Take Atreyu for instance: the band's allmusic profile reveals them to be a Death Metal/Screamo band from Orange County. I can't count how many Death Metal/Screamo bands from Orange County I've had the misfortune of suffering through and I'm almost entirely positive that if I were to open my window and yell "my girlfriend just left me" I'd have three or four entirely similar groups asking me if I wanted to front them for an upcoming gig at The Roxy.
I love what Activision is trying to do here, and I heartily applaud it, but seriously, walking down the aisle of your local Target and picking up every album whose cover averages out to a malaise of dark red and jagged lettering is not the way to go about it.
Contest:
7:44 PM on 09.28.2007
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'Cause this is terrible. Is my life a lie?
@ bipolar: RULE! throw in some XBXRX and I'll be in hog heaven. Ex Models would be a good choice, or any of Steve Albini's projects. Or, shit, why not Pavement? Or any other really great "Guitar Band" from the 90s? Let's make our own expansion...
Actually Lightning Bolt doesn't use a guitar, he uses a moded bass =) but thumbs up for showing them some love. I can only handle so much of Daughters and Orthrelm is pretty cool.
@ cousinike
These bands are, in fact, terrible. They're a perfect fit, because they will sell well, but on the grand scheme of things they're awful. It's a good marketing choice, but that's about it.
Throw in some Malkmus or Wilco or TV On The Radio... then we'll talk, bitches.
Yeah, they could have started with almost any band on KRS or Touch and Go Records if they wanted something that rocked. How about some Jesus Lizard - that shit would be _fun_ on GHII.
And before you start labeling me as some "emo" prick defending Atreyu (whom I do love btw along with Trivium and PtH), consider: I sing in a metal band, attend my town's local indie night at my fave bar, mark on the calender nearby jazz festivals, travel two hours for industrial shows and/or big elec.-music fests, blast rap daily, and have Peggy Lee playing on my juke box right now. If you flame me for anything...flame me for not having a narrow mind. I have at least one song from every band listed on here on my computer.
If you think your music is only good because the mainstream hasn't heard of them and you reject everyone on a major label: I wish I could kick your ass. You are a pretentious bastard for those practices. Period.
Would it be cool to play some Arctic Monkeys or some Nuclear Rabbit on GH? OF COURSE it would...but ya know what? You could say that about THOUSANDS of bands. They can't please every asshole on the planet. Get over yourselves.
And I'm done ranting...continue your babble.
I have to disagree with your first paragraph. I don't think there's anything wrong with tearing into music that a person thinks is crap. 70% of bands today suck, in my opinion. Some - say, the Panic At The Discos and the My Chemical Romances, corporate punk/emo and the like - deserve a good thrashing, as do their image-obsessed fans. (And no, I'm not saying they're all image-obsessed.) Still, I respect them and their fans as human beings. I think that respect is the key. I'm not going to berate a person for liking them, even though I completely disagree with them. That's where I think the pretension comes in.
I don't think less of Guitar Hero or Rock Band for including mainstream acts, but I do take issue with them including grossly sub-par rock music just to pander to the lowest common denominator. Perhaps I'm a bit of a music Nazi, but I don't think it's healthy for a person, or for a society, to just accept whatever crap people produce in the name of music, or movies or whatever else. Otherwise, we'll find ourselves drowning in a sea of shit because we were too nice to call a turd a turd - that is, if we're not already drowning in it.
Er, sorry. I could go on about this sort of thing for hours.
Protest the Hero is fairly new on the larger scene, I remember seeing them a few years back when they would just do small canadian tours. They're a great band to see live, and I can't knock a band who puts on a good show, whether I like the music or not.
That said, indie has become a genre itself in music, so I think using the label "indie" might confuse some people as to the music they're buying.
I don't want to argue. Especially with you. But you aren't helping your case. I'm not sure I understand your venom for the mainstream, nor do I know if I want to know what hardships you endured as a young one that would create such disdain for the youth of today; as disenfranchised with reality as they may, in fact, be.
FTR...I do think you are not showing proper respect to Dan Jacobs and other musicians like him. They play in bands that play music that is simpler (as far as large use of power chords)...and for some...more fun than the 'intellectual' music that people also enjoy (Isis, Tool, Radiohead, Pixies, Mudvayne...to name some mainstream examples people might know)...but it does not mean that their members lack musicianship.
Ah well...I probably won't convince anyone who disagrees with me anyway. I'm just some idiot who can't see past what corporate-America feeds me. They've blinded me to the simplistic and therefore not worthwhile ways of some of my many musical tastes.
I really do love you all. But I guess I just despise when anyone about any subject takes the firm stance of "I'm more enlightened than thou"...even if you are.
I hear you brother. I hear you.
fuck it, i am going to keep listening to metal from 20 years ago.
Also, some of my friends like Protest the Hero. I never liked them, but they do have guitar skills, and not just because they play chords quickly. I do find their music to be uninspired and generic, but some of those riffs are pretty face melting.
And yes I have heard both of those songs. I do think they are impressive (tho TVotR is not something I care for a whole lot). I fucking LOVE "Chicago" and I'm not even that knowledgeable about folky-rock. I don't know where you got the idea that I don't like indie music. I did, in fact, explain that I make it a point to attend my town's indie nights. I don't do that to be trendy or "hip". I do it because I love music. I love music of all kinds. I don't even limit the type of music I like based on the complexity or other peoples' views of what makes music good.
I understand most people won't like bands like Atreyu or any other emo-post-hardcore band du jour. Their musics aren't for everyone. JUST like the bands you listed. But there is no reason to dig into the artists or the fans of said artists just because it is not your cup o' tea.
Let's be honest though. We live in a capitalistic society. It would make no sense at all for Activision to cater to such a small group of people by putting small-time indie acts in their expansions. If GH2 were a game that sought to push musical boundaries and expose the lesser known facets of the music industry...then maybe they would do that. But it is a game intended to sell millions of copies and let people have fun in their living rooms pretending to be a virtuoso. If you guys REALLY want to play your lesser known (but equally as good) songs on a GH game...I do know that the option is there.
Don't ever accuse me of attacking a genre of music or trying to discredit it as music. It's not what I'm about and I will not be slandered. If I don't like something I just don't listen. End of story.
trivium isn't too bad and protest the hero has a great guitarist, which is all that matters for guitar hero.