Due to several technical difficulties over the last few months the Band Spotlight will be put on hold until further notice. It will eventually return but for the time being things need to be taken care of before I can resume this feature.

I've been having some server troubles again *sigh* but I managed to get some time to listen to The World, Inferno Friendship Society.

They're pretty laid back, kind of cabaret punk as they've been described and I've been in a bit of a cabaret mood lately so it's appealed me greatly. While not quite as amusing as Voltaire might be they've got enough catchy tunes to make you hum it all day. Currently the band consists of about 11 members who play various instruments and happen to do a good job of things.

One of the more fun songs I've found to be rather delightful has been "Addicted to Bad Ideas" which can be heard HERE. Another one I've enjoyed but can't seem to find a good listen to at the time being is "Just the Best Party"

I Rate them as certainly worth the time to listen to.

So here the low down on Age Verification for what I’ve been able to glean so far from the hidden sub-sectors of the SL Forums.

The idea has been in BETA for a while now, showing off who’s actually old enough for certain areas and the like. Mostly the sex industry stuff because as the age old adage goes “Sex Sell”. But here’s the kicker and the interesting stuff [might want to perk up your ears here] the Age Verification stuff was prelude to another system entirely. By now most of you have heard about Zindra and its interesting little plans to house all the mainland sex industry, themed clubs, strippers, escorts, etc. but what you may not yet be aware of is this. The new word filters. The interesting thing about the new word filters is that it affects EVERYONE, not just the mainland like you’d thought. No this is something that is combined with the Age Verification system and will keep you from seeing anything “Adult” related in the Search or Classifieds.

Some of you may think that this is a hoax and that the information I’m providing you today doesn’t apply to anyone outside the mainland. However these changes are slated to be implemented at the end of the month. Any viewer prior to the new one that lacks the new changes will be unable to see any of the “Adult” labeled content in it. Linden Labs seems to have tried pretty hard to hide this information from the general populace which is pretty sad since they care about what their user base thinks [at least that’s what they say but the proof is quite the opposite].

In order to see the “Adult” content in search and Classified I’ve been informed that there will be check boxes or even Preferences settings that need to be checked, toggled, selected, or whatever before you can search, view, or be allowed into certain areas. LL has also asked that we do the policing for them if we see places that are going out of their way to beat the search system or new classified system but what they won’t tell us is the list of words that the search filter will block if the “Adult” content option is not selected. This has left users with a rather large grey area for their Parcel Descriptions, and has prompted others to try and compile the list themselves from the BETA viewer.

All in all this will be an interesting hiccup and I am curious to see where this will go. Many believe it will damage the grid economy and many say it’s just another bump in the road. We’ll all just need to find out together.

Second Life’s
~FM Bailey~

Since I had some things happen that delayed the June edition of the Band Spotlight I’m posting it along with July's but both as separate entries.

This month I stepped back and had to think some more about what the selection would be for July. I wasn’t feeling the whole 4th of July Patriotic bit and decided to ironically go with something British. So this month we feature British Pop group Girls Aloud and before you all go “ewwww pop music” I will stress that British Pop is much better than American Pop.

Girls Aloud first came to my attention when one of the people I watch on Deviant Art [when I was actually using the site] made an impromptu sound track for one of their little groups. It was then that I heard the song No Good Advice and decided to go hunting for some more by them.

They’ve certainly got the moments as well as a unique sound that could be mixed as rock and maybe a little jazzy in cases. “Sound of the Underground” was very well received when it made its debut and held three singles that made it into the top 5 on the charts pretty easily. The songs seem to be pretty good for the dance floors of clubs and I’ll not discount the energy and vibe they have in them to get you moving out on it.

As an extra little tidbit they’re also listed in the 2007 and 2008 editions of the Guinness Book of World records with some pretty good records to be able to boast about.

Since I had some things happen that delayed the June edition of the Band Spotlight I’m posting it along with July's but both as separate entries.

June was going to be a look at Yet another Finnish band but after some extra though I decided I hadn’t done much in the German department since I started this whole segment. So June ended up being about the band Megaherz.

Megaherz, in its particular sound, can easily be confused to Rammstein to those not familiar with the band. So automatically if you’re a big fan of Till Linderman and his crew then you’ll want to give these guys a look. Started back in 1993 by Alexx Wesselsky the first album wasn’t released until 2 years later. It was around this time that Rammstein was getting to be popular in the US and by the sounds of their musical similarities one could say they took influence from each other or, as is rumored that Rammstein did, they took influence from Laibach.

One of the great differences between the two bands besides members and some assorted sounds is the direction they went with their redux of the song Gott Sein featured as Gott Sein ’04 in some track listings. The original song was able to stand on it’s own with no problems but the redux took an entirely new direction by making it more symphonic with the addition of great bells and a more monastic feel to it with the choir added in. The build up to the start of the lyrics is certainly striking and, dare I say, invigorating.

One of the other things that got me to really enjoy them was their cover of the song Amadeus which is one of those old favorites most people tend to just enjoy for the hell of it. But it’s catchy and well worth a listen as well as well as well done in the sense of metal or hard rock.

The Band Spotlight for June has been delayed greatly due to several factors from Real Life business and I apologize for the severe lateness of it that I'm afraid that July will hold two of them if I can't get around to doing it soon. Now I'm not entirely sure how many of you guys read the Band Spotlight feature to be honest but I'm sure that somewhere out there someone does and would like to see it continue. I will merely ask that everyone be patient and wait just a little longer and the feature will return as soon as I can manage it.

Thanks.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/10/hurt-trent-reznor-half-quits-twitter/

The above link is something that showed up in my inbox sometime last night or this morning. After reading the article all I can say is that I feel justified with never having signed up on Twitter. Like Facebook the site seems to be proving it's worthlessness to me via a lack of ungodly spam and malicious trolls. This is pretty much starting to sound like a much shorter posted 4chan really. Trent Reznor though seems to have made a few rants with several good points and ideas and while he's let a little too much information get out on the miniblog site I can still applaud him for many of his points. So go have a read, check it out and if he does get around to making his own little forum I'm sure I'll be signing up on it at some point just to see what it's like.

As the title states I wonder ... some days I have to wonder what the music loving community is actually thinking. One of those cases happens to be with German band Tokio Hotel's front man Bill Kaulitz.

( Warning Some Language May Not Be Safe For Work )

Today's going to be a bit interesting as I have a few things I've found interesting from one of the groups I've been watching here in LJ. I'm not going to name it as I don't feel the need to put them in any negative or positive light but simply state a few things I find to be ... a bit off.

One of the rules that many DJs I've had the opportunity to talk to in real life like to tell me is NEVER give out your set lists. I've asked them about this on a few occasions and a few had personal reasons for it but the main answer was simply the following. "If you give out your set lists then what are you really? You're providing everyone with the music and sound that makes you unique and eventually no one comes to your shows."

I've found this to be interesting and when I heard about that I gave it a lot of thought and it made sense. The more of your lists you hand out the less it matters if someone wants to go to your shows or not. They've got the list now and know what you play so the only thing you can do is get more new stuff in order to make sure you stay ahead of that little curse that some DJs have claimed plague people they've known.

Now I don't believe in giving out my set lists but I also don't think that the music should be kept hidden. If someone gets curious enough and wants to know what a track is I'm willing to tell them. I also want to try and keep a list of the bands I can offer if a request is made so people can see if I can provide them with music they like already. My trick though is that I keep a small stockpile of things hidden and play it with no mention of what it is and that drives people nuts I think.

This is a question that sometimes I get asked and I'm never really sure how to fully answer the question. It's a hard to answer question but let me list off the following bands that eventually solidified my love for heavy metal.

White Zombie, Rammstein, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Soilwork, Iced Earth, Megaherz, and In Flames.

The above bands are what influenced my love of the particular genre and sort of in the order I remember hearing them in. I do know that White Zombie was one of the first things to reel me in. Lately however I've been on a bit of an Iced Earth kick and I've been enjoying them greatly once more. Matt Barlow was probably the vocalist that I enjoyed the most as "Dark Saga" was the first album I heard from them and to this day I will swear that it is their best work because you just don't stop head banging to it.

Soilwork was one of the heavier influences along with In Flames and they went back and forth against each other for the songs Trigger by In Flames and Rejection Role by Soilwork. In the music videos the bands portray a rivalry of sorts [or that's my guess anyways] and go at one another. The best part being that if you played the videos back to back you could loop them to make it go on and on.

Nightwish to me started BEFORE the album "Once" was released. Sure it's a great album but people thought that the be all end all of the band was JUST that album. Nightwish to me started back with it's earlier albums like "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Oceanborn", and "Angels Fall First". These to me are the albums that made Nightwish as big as it was but when "Dark Passion Play" was released people went so far as to refuse to buy it. I'll admit I was skeptical at first but after a while I realized how good it really was and they kept with their theme and their promise. Congrats to them for keeping with what they believe they should be.

As I sit here and listen to a new album that Vernian Process put out I find myself wondering how many people would actually be jumping on this if it were being sold in stores. The “Sonic Symphony” is pretty much a tribute to Sonic the Hedgehog games from the early years when they were still worth playing. The games and their music generated a cult following that Sega very much tried to milk. But that’s not what we’re here to discuss so let’s move on.

Vernian Process had quickly become one of my more favourite bands when I’d discovered the Steampunk Genre of music. Alongside Abney Park, VP has absolutely no trouble holding its own and I salute them for their hard work and effort in becoming a wonderfully sounding blend of instruments and atmosphere. In “Sonic Symphony” though you can really hear the blend and the absolute harmony of everything that they put in to making it all a tribute while keeping the sound generally close to the original music tracks from the Sega Genesis.

I’m a sucker for Sonic the Hedgehog music just as much as I am for the old school games and when VP released this album I jumped on it without a second thought and much to my extreme delight VP has delivered a sound that in my personal belief I would have preferred to hear in collections like the Sonic Mega Collection Plus as remastered and updated music.

Normally when bands do tributes to game music or other songs other bands have played I find myself feeling disappointed and wondering if the original artist was filled with rage that their song was murdered [Avril Lavigne doing System of a Down’s Chop Suey anyone? That song was murdered so hard in that cover even I was hurt]. Vernian Process on the other hand exceeded my hopes for this particular album as few other bands have for other covers but went so far as to demonstrate just how much the original sound was worth to what may be millions of fans. This is music that an entire generation grew up with and has held cherished for so long that I’d think it worth it to congratulate VP on their excellent work.

While a bit late in posting this month required some thought what with the amount of new music that I had uncovered and just some of the other problems life has been throwing at me. This month we hit closer to home and toss up Scum of the Earth.

Scum of the Earth is done by two of the major players from White/Rob Zombie and since I’ll admit to being a fan of Rob Zombie this is a pretty easy transition to play with. Mike Riggs and John Tempesta I will give credit to for taking over when Rob left to go play in the Film Industry pool. They’ve done well to continue on where Rob left off and I can only wish them luck as they continue on and better themselves with each album and tour.

Sadly there’s not a whole lot of information on Scum of the Earth but I would encourage those of you who are Rob Zombie fans to pick up their albums if you haven’t already done so as they have proven to be pretty good.

While anyone that really knows me knows I'm not much for musicals save The Producers, the soundtrack album of Repo! the Genetic Opera has caught my fancy in a way I hadn't been prepared for. While I admit my curiosity of the movie/opera/whatever was delayed a good look due to Paris Hilton being in it I am told that she plays her part very well. The soundtrack is what we're all here for so I'll get right down to it ... and the reasons you should pick this up.

First The Genetic Opera opens with a nice number, pulling in some quality vocals for a pretty upbeat and metal intro song At the Opera Tonight. The whole album atmosphere is set by the intro and the second and third tracks, Crucifixus, and Things You See in a Graveyard [that one became one of my favorites for the vocals in it, what a voice]. While this is not for people under the age of say 15 or so due to the swearing and some of the suggestive lyrics but with the gothic, metal, and industrial genres pushed into an opera theme I would urge anyone who likes heavy metal music to pick this album up mainly for the experience alone of having catchy tunes stuck in your head for days. I've already called out "Testify!" while driving from one of the tracks and I nearly have the lyrics to Zydrate Anatomy memorized. I'm still working on some of the timing for it.

To the people that produced this I say bravo, to those wanting to hear a review of the album I'm giving you something to work with but unless you youtube a song from it or preview it in your local music store the best advice I can give you is "You're missing out ... go buy it." because it's not often I get into an album like I did with this.

Today we're testing the Xfire code to see if it works properly. Granted I've put in a lot more time with some of the games that are listed in my profile but I never really used Xfire much until after I moved, mainly it's here now only to keep in touch with some of my old college buddies but still ... I find it neat that it keeps track of most of my game play hours.

Truthfully if ever I wanted to keep track of my kids gaming time I'd give them this and make sure they couldn't keep their game times hidden from me. Be a great way to prove if they've done their homework or not I think.

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Staged or Not?

Video from Central Station Antwerpen, great example of what music can do to people regardless of if it's staged or not. 200 People got up and danced for just about 4 full minutes.

On a side Note IC has begun advertising on FA. We've had a few people ask about the backpack and then ask what else we've done. At this point I feel inclined to at least point them in the right direction.

For those that know or care to know, the original form of my name was "Full Metal" upon having the flamel tattooed on my arm. This was do to the series making the ancient alchemy symbol popular and widely know as well as a symbol that I'll always be learning and my path is difficult.

Lo and behold Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood has started in Japan and I've been looking forward to it just as badly as I've looked forward to Hellsing Ultimate [that show gives me chills of joy when I see each new episode]. So what does this mean? This means that I'll be actively hunting down the OST for the series just as I have been for Hellsing Ultimate and did for FMA series 1. I can't say just how successful I'll be but only time will tell. That said I hope you can forgive my major case of fanism towards the series since I've been going "it's here it's here, it's here" in my head this whole time.

This month’s session of the Band Spotlight goes out to Swedish band Nordman simply due to the fact that my mom has two albums and they sound bloody amazing.

To start is a lot of traditional instruments that are strung together with some solid Swedish singing. The History Channel did a special on Vikings and featured the song Vandraren in it and all I can say is it fits really well. Another song that also comes off the 1994 self titled debut album is Laglöst Land which is a rather mellow track and really just something cool to sit and groove out too when you need a little relaxation music. Sometimes you just need something to sit back and relax to and opposed to the things you’ll normally see pop up in my normal sets and the like this is a nice diversion from hardcore heavy metal and electronica.

I will say though that the debut album is one of the best I’ve heard so far and compared to one of the latest ones I managed to sample quickly it’s one of the better works they’ve got. My recommendation is that if you get into this band pick up the first album if you can find it.

Examples of Nodrman’s work
Laglöst land
Vandraren
Be mig

Lately there's been a downflux of posts on my end, somewhat due to a lack of things to say as well as time being taken up by some CCNA stuff and managing things for both LT3M and Wild Things owner Midnight Shirabyoshi.

LT3M Stuff
The main thing is that I've gotten to upload Cascada's Perfect Day and Turmion Kätilöt's U.S.C.H! and in combination was able to convince Mids to get her default stream source to the LT3M source.

Wild Things
Building a demo website and looking into putting PHP onto Soundwave once he's fixed so I can start learning server side coding in my free time. Back to the 9th grade where I wanted to code websites ... it's an odd thing to want without any real formal training but I like using HTML and the like. Just time to upgrade my skills I guess.

CCNA stuff
boring and yet it'll open so many doors ... I may hate the basics but I have to start somewhere.

This morning LT3M owner Inaki pointed me in the direction of a [much more professional looking than me] music review site called IndiePaws. Now you can click on the name or you can goto http://www.indiepaws.net and have a look for yourself, either way pretty much everything I've seen there has been good stuff and I see no reason as to not to promote the existence of such a site. If, however, you're not into the more indie music scene that's fine, that's cool, but maybe you know someone who is that'd like to hear about it. I know there's some of you out there that are basically hardcore heavy metal fans [Geiste Fox I'm looking at you, you can't deny it] but I know you're open to new music and that's what my job is for you guys. I know that a few people that read these journals are interested in hearing what's new, what's interesting, and [from my point of view] what to leave on the rack at the store.

So go give IndiePaws a look and hopefully you'll find something new you may like. I'm still going through quite a bit of the reviews and complimentary music available, some I like, some not so much but still a good find.

Be embarrassed by your friends at every turn you will.

Well what's a birthday without some embarrassment? Not as much of a birthday for some of us. It was nice and quiet for the most part today, got some mini's primed and lounged about like a bum for a bit. Possibly one of the coolest things I could have gotten was a 1984 release of the soundtrack to Metropolis which was really cool. It wasn't the original score to the old Fritz Lang version from 1927 but still it's a rare find and something I'll be holding onto for sure since it's as old as I am.

I'm going out to dinner on Monday and hopefully hitting happy hour so I can get a few drinks in me for good measure even though I kinda stopped drinking. We don't do the happy birthday song and dance number when we go out unless that's what someone wants. We kinda outgrew it a long time ago.

I will suggest to anyone interested in cyberpunk stuff to look into the old Fritz Lang Version that was re-released onto DVD not too long ago. I want to say it was 2007 they did it. Give it a chance since it's old black and white with comment cards for dialogue but still the concept is great.