The First Internet Band

STD...in the flesh!

Kids, it was 1994.
Desert Storm was still fresh on everybody's minds.
The fun Clinton was running the show.
Nirvana was dead and the Spice Girls were just beginning to peek their vacant heads over the horizon.
Oh, and the internet -- most of us were just starting to test out the proverbial e-waters with our digital toes (see what I did there) and just a select few of us were regularly dabbling with a kind of black magic called "email."
Also some guy named Jeff founded a book reselling outfit called Amazon, of all things, but nobody really cared.
Despite the fragile, house-of-cards state of the web at the time, a handful of hippy-engineers from California decided to see just how far they could push this fledgling technology by promoting an event that was likely the first use of the internet to broadcast a live rock-band performance, even though the Rolling Stones would actually do the same thing immediately following it.
Check out the short vid below for a bit of old-school schooling about Severe Tire Damage, the first internet rock-band. Party on, Garth!

VIDEO
HISTORY OF THE INTERNET - SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE

BONUS VIDEO
COMPUTER CHRONICLES INTERNET EPISODE FEATURING SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE - BEGINS AT 3:40


LINK
FOR EVEN MORE INFO VISIT THE OFFICIAL (AND SWEETLY RETRO) SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE WEBSITE AT WWW.STD.ORG BY CLICKING HERE

A-Bit of Doctor Who

8-Bit musician Joe Jeremiah mixes it up with some Doctor Who. You can check out some of his original music here: https://soundcloud.com/joejeremiah. Enjoy!

The Division Bell 20th Anniversary

Some of the many variations of the Division Bell album cover.

It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the last Pink Floyd studio release, The Division Bell, which also ended up serving as their swan song. Since then the band have continued to pay for their wait-staff and limo drivers by repackaging and reselling their extensive back catalog as well as releasing the occasional live album every few years. In celebration of this David Gilmour solo album  classic Floyd album, the surviving members of the band have issued a special 20th anniversary boxed set full of all kinds of crap that only a collector will find of any value, plus a remaster of the original CD. Here's a recap of the entire contents from Rolling Stone:

The set boasts a two-LP, 180-gram vinyl edition of the album, remastered from the original analog tapes by Doug Sax and filled with all the original full-length tracks, which were initially shortened to fit on a single LP. The vinyl will also be available as a separate purchase from the box set.

The box set also includes a version of the album mixed in 5.1 surround sound on a Blu-Ray disc that also contains an HD stereo mix of the album and a brand new video for "Marooned." Directed by Aubrey Powell, the clip opens with digital footage of an ostensibly abandoned space station, before returning to Earth where the camera follows a man as he runs through ruins, which still bear markers of the Soviet Union. The clip was shot in Ukraine during the first week of April, and is streaming below.

The rest of the six disc set will include a CD of the 2011 Discovery version of The Division Bell, plus three replica colored vinyl: A red 7-inch single for "Take it Back" with a live rendition of "Astronomy Domine" on the B side; a clear 7-inch with edits of "High Hopes" and "Keep Talking"; and a blue 12-inch disc with the full versions of "High Hopes" and "Keep Talking," plus a live version of "One of These Days" (the flip side of that last disc also features a laser-etched design).

To top it off, the set will come with five collector' art prints designed by Hipgnosis/StormStudios, who also designed the 180-gram LP's gatefold sleeve.

In addition, Floyd has also released a brand-new video for the Division Bell instrumental, Marooned, which you can check out below.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DIVISION BELL MICRO-SITE

Today in Music: June 1984

From left: Joe Jackson, Culture Club, Phil McKraken, Two of the Pointer Sisters and of course, Sirhan Sirhan

Quick! Can you name all 20 of Billboard's hottest singles for June…of 1984?! Don't know? Don't care? Weren't aware that time goes back further than 1992? Well check out today's video for a little refresher, courtesy of Billboard Magazine!

The Voice…Not.

That's British for "you suck."

Something happened to pop music singers between the 1980s and the 2010s. There was a time not too long ago (or maybe it was) when you could flip on your car radio (car radio?) and get a blast of alterno-caterwauling from someone like Robert Smith of the Cure, Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction or David Burne of the Talking Heads, and you wouldn't feel one bit bad about trying to sing along with them. These folks may not technically have been the best vocalizers in the world of pop-rock, but they managed to stand way out and neatly fit in all at the same time. Their lack of technical perfection was in fact, part of the charm and appeal of their music. Can you imagine Just Like Heaven or Burning Down the House being sung by Robin Thicke or Rihanna? Yeah, that ProTools experiment might be interesting for about half a minute, but the final result would be A) nowhere near as good as the originals, you know it, and B) devoid of any human character, you know that too. Suffice to say, Smith's all-over-the-place vocals and Farrell's raspy whine were artistic statements as much as they were instruments that served the music. So put on all of the meat-suits and funny glasses you want, Gaga, your songs are still pablum.

So there we are in late '89, trucking away to the sound of Van Halen slowly turning into the worst band in the universe, and along comes the 90s. Then suddenly, for some unexplained reason, every male lead singer between the ages of 18 and 35 decided that it would be better if they sounded exactly like Eddie Vedder, even Scott Weiland. Sadly this trend contaminated the genetic lineage of pop music so thoroughly that even today, bands still crop up at random sporting a Vedder wannabe at the mic. Things only got worse when a little band called Green Day came out of nowhere and decided to screw up punk rock forever by putting a professionally-trained singer at the helm. (wtf?) Luckily, Billy-Ray Arrmstrong's over-the-top SoCal accent caused so much confusion amongst the masses that nobody even noticed. "Is he trying to sound British?"

But then, in 2002, the game changed forever. After a decade of everyone complaining about how pop music and its associated artists no longer had any heart and had just become part of a massive manufacturing process which removed anything remotely human from the source talent in order to form it into the perfect plastic product, along comes Simon Fuller with American Idol. Bastard. This Gong Show retread took the world by storm and slowly killed off the notion that anything less than utter perfection in a vocalist was desirable. The inevitable imitators followed en masse and now every kid that's grown up in the last decade thinks Daughtry is the pinnacle of rock and roll.

Digital perfection. That's all popular music is about now. No heart, no earth, no whimsy. Just Taylor Swift.

So since there's no longer anything worth listening to on the radio (was there ever, really?) I'm going to put on some Talking Heads. Enjoy and have a good weekend.


Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime by hushhush112

Abbey Road: Live!

Huh, I guess Paul IS dead.

Hey kids, what could be more retro than the legendary Beatles? Well for the purposes of today's post, nothing! For those of you who don't already know, the Beatles were a very popular rock band back in the 60s who pioneered, among other things, writing their own songs, playing in sports stadiums, and creating concept albums. The band officially broke up in 1970 shortly after the release of their final album, Abbey Road, which was named after the studio in which it was recorded, which itself was named after the street on which it was located. The cover of the LP featured the four members of the group, walking across Abbey Road on a sunny London day. So iconic was this classic rock and roll image that it's now been parodied and homaged dozens if not hundreds of times by the likes of the Simpsons, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and even former Beatles bass-player, Paul McCartney himself. Now, thanks to the magic of the information superhighway, we can pay a visit to this legendary locale any time we like, day or night. Fancy a peek at what those crazy Britons are doing right now on ol' Abbey Road? Click the link below to check it out for yourself via the Abbey Road Crossing Cam, courtesy of Abbey Road Studios. Be warned, you'll need Flash to view the page. Flash, that's almost retro, right?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ABBEY ROAD CROSSING LIVE IN ACTION!

Cassettes Come Back

Courtesy of stealing from the internet.

You gotta love hipsters if only because they do nothing without being ironic. They drink the worst beer on the planet, they wear t-shirts from bands they don't listen to, they love dorky outdated glasses that no one in their right mind should find appealing (even after drinking several of those crappy beers) -- and now these hipper-than-thous have somehow managed to bring back…wait for it...the compact audio cassette, known the world over for having the lowest fidelity and reliability of just about any audio format invented since the 1960s. Yikes. Actual real-life bands have even started releasing their albums on this completely outdated format. Granted, the appreciation of any sort of retro technology makes me smile inside, but I could do without the irony. Check out this video for a look at this recent phenomenon. God help us if those hipsters discover VHS, God help us all.

Merry Christmas, If That's OK

Happy Holidays from the Bots

This is one of my favorite TV show Christmas songs. It comes to us from way back in 1993, that's 20 years ago to you and me, and was featured on the obscure geek extravaganza known as MST3000. At the time this video was originally broadcast, cultural awareness and political correctness were quickly becoming the hot topics of the day. This little Xmas ditty hit the nail on the head and actually might be even more relevant today in 2013, when perhaps our collective level of cultural sensitivity has spiralled so far out of control, that everyone on the planet is afraid of saying anything to anyone. The song, entitled Merry Christmas, If That's OK, does contain a positive message of tolerance, although the performers quite obviously have their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks. Happy birthday, Jesus, don't let the bastards get you down.

The 8-Bits of Christmas

…and a cartridge in a pear tree.

Tired of hearing the same old Christmas music, year after year? Me too! So I went to the website, 8bitpeoples.com, and downloaded an all-star chip tune artist album, The 8bits of Christmas, absolutely free! Now you too can enjoy soon-to-be classic holiday songs like Jesus Holy, Born So Lowly, Last Christmas Hot Digi Rmx and The First Blip Blop Noel (sample video below) all played on retro game and computing gear including an NES, a ZX-Spectrum and even a Commodore Vic-20. You can preview the individual tracks or download the entire thing from 8bitpeoples' site. Cover art included.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO 8BITS OF CHRISTMAS AT 8BITPEOPLES SITE

8-Bit Violin

Sounds like two 8-bit weasels having sex.

For all of you classical geeks out there, check out this working 8-bit-styled violin made by Flickr user, Ranjit. It doesn't play chip tune music or have a MIDI port, it's an honest to goodness, completely functional violin. And by completely functional I mean it technically works as it should, however the ear-piercing, mind-numbing noise it produces needs some fine tuning. Check out the video.



CLICK HERE TO VISIT RANJIT'S 8-BIT VIOLIN PHOTO PAGE

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

I've got to take the kids out begging for candy and have no time to be dashingly clever today, so please enjoy this short, poor-quality video. It's a live rendition of the Misfits classic, Halloween, from 1983 along with the bonus song, Bullet. Heading up the mic is a very young Glenn Danzig not singing about your mother. Happy Halloween!

Something, Something, Something in Cincinnati

Unemployed people.

Way back in the year nineteen-hundred-and-seventy-eight, an awesome little TV show about a rock and roll radio station in Cincinnati hit the airwaves and subsequently made me want to be a DJ when I grew up. Until I found out what they got paid. WKRP in Cincinnati ran for only four seasons but it garnered a lot of respect and attention due to its excellent ensemble cast and hilarious writing, and also because of it use of real rock music within the narrative of the show which, at the time, was unprecedented. It's even been said that the exposure Blondie's music received by being played on the show helped propel the song, Heart of Glass, to the top of the charts. In fact, a gold record given to the producers of the show by Blondie as a thank you can be seen hanging on the wall of one of the sets. Even the catchy title track, co-written by series creator, Hugh Wilson, became a major hit on the radio in 1981.

But what about that song they played over the closing credits? Have you ever really listened to the lyrics? Well try as you might it's nigh impossible to make out what's being said, even with all of our modern technology, and that's because the lyrics are mostly nonsense. Apparently the original demo of the song contained improvised gibberish by the song's performer, Jim Ellis, which was to eventually be replaced with a saxophone line, as his singing on the recording was actually just the product of his joking around in the studio. However when Wilson heard the track, he immediately loved it and decided to keep the garbled words for the final cut, partly because it satirized the often unintelligible lyrics of rock and roll songs, but also because he knew few people would even be able to make the words out due to the common practice of having a station announcer speak over the end credits. Thus much like Louie, Louie before it, the lyrics of WKRP's closing theme became the subject of much speculation and misinterpretation over the years, although most viewers never realized that there was no definitive lyric sheet for the hard-driving rocker. Check out the videos for a few of the of the funnier attempts at deciphering Jim Ellis' mumbo-jumbo.

BONUS VIDEO: THE ALL-STAR FAMILY FEUD SPECIAL - WKRP VS. THE LOVE BOAT

Commodore 64 Bass Guitar

Digital music. You can make it a ton of different ways. This lady turns diva into Devo with her modded Commodore 64 Bass Guitar. Very cool and worth a look.

gAtari Hero

Here at Retrogeeker we believe that the future is the past, and if anything proves this half-baked statement true, it's the way all of these young-uns are suddenly embracing and fulfilling the previously unfulfilled promise of 8-bit music's awesome potential. So without a lot of hubub, I give you the gAtari 2600...

Sheena Easton breaks up with Defender

...because she likes Sinistar better.

Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Music

In recent years, the art of producing 8-bit music on 8-bit hardware has been enjoying a sort of renaissance thanks to the generations of kids that grew up with primitive video-game music like the themes from Zelda and Mario. The digital music created on today's modern computers is generally done in 16-bit or 24-bit, both of which allow for a much finer audio resolution and thus much clearer sound than 8-bit. Then there's 1-bit sound, which was employed in 70s and 80s computers such as the Apple II and early IBM PCs to produce rudimentary sound effects and music for video games. In those types of computers, a signal would be sent to a small speaker directly from the CPU which would result in a simple click sound, and since the speaker was either on (making sound) or off (silent), the single click produced was considered to be 1-bit of audio information. Put enough of these click sounds together in rapid succession while varying the oscillation and you've produced a sine wave, one of the building blocks of synthesized tones. Sweat enough blood and you can actually make music with it as did electronic music artist, Tristan Perich. While there are quite a few 1-bit music artists floating around out there on the net, Tristan has gone one step further and created a 1-bit music album, titled "1-bit Music," entirely in hardware. That is, rather than release a recording of his music on a modern format such as mp3 or CD, Tristan's album combines the player and the music into a portable unit which consists of a simple electronic circuit assembled inside a standard CD case. The case itself has a headphone jack mounted on the side that allows the listener to experience 40 minutes of 1-bit music in, as Tristan puts it, the lowest possible representation of audio. You can't buy the album anymore (bummer) but you can visit Tristan's sites and get a glimpse into some really innovative forms of music and visual art, much of which is produced using the same technologies as the album.


CLICK HERE to visit Tristan's 1-BIT MUSIC site

CLICK HERE to go to Tristan's main site

CLICK HERE to explore more 1-bit music