D.Weatherall

Blog updates. Voltage-Controlled

2011-11-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

My other blog has recently been updated with a new look and a new name. the blog is now called Voltage-Controlled.

The blog covers music production and technology.

Click through and have a look.

Halloween

2011-11-02T03:05:00.001-07:00

If you're like me then you're probably only just recovering from the halloween weekend. What better excuse is there to get together with your friends, dress up in ridiculous costumes and get completely wrecked. With Halloween falling on a Monday I ended up attending three different nights this year. By the end of it I was feeling more like a zombie than most of the people walking around in costume.

Traditionally, Halloween (or All Hallows’ Eve) is the day that is set aside for honouring the dead. But like most things it has been americanised and blown up to be one big commercial excuse to go out and spend your money on costumes and booze.

When I was younger it was all about going trick or treating around home, collecting sweets and chocolate from the neighbours. Obviously I'm a lot older now and if I did even attempt to go trick or treating if would probably end up badly. I can't go trick or treating myself but I have noticed that its a tradition (fair enough, not a real one) that seems to be dying out here in the UK.

I've noticed from just walking around my home estate this year that in near enough every window of every house there is a sign saying 'NO TRICK OR TREATERS'. What's happened to people today? Why has everyone suddenly become so miserable? Young kids these days won't have the same experience as we did when we were their age. They're going to miss out on dressing up and going out with their friends and most importantly they're going to miss out on free chocolate.

In my eyes Halloween has become more of an adult celebration filled with party's and alcohol. The grown ups can go out and have an amazing time while the kids sit indoors doing nothing with no free sweets or chocolate.

Sonic the hedgehog 20th aneversery app

2011-09-07T05:46:00.001-07:00

If you follow me on twitter then you might have noticed that I'm a little bit obsessed with the Sonic the Hedgehog games, especially the ones from the older Sega consoles.

This morning I read an article about Sega releasing a 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog app for iOS so I logged into the AppStore and went to check it out.

The app offers wallpapers, information on iOS Sega games, web links and two playable games (SketchHog and a 30 second preview of Sonic 4 for iOS) along with leader boards.

SketchHog is probably the best thing in this app, it's a little side scrolling Sonic game with just two simple controls (tap to jump, tap again to double jump). It has the look and feel of those doodle iOS games, nothing special but maybe fun for a quick play now and again.

I know this is a free app and I shouldn't really complain but one thing that annoys me with this app is that there is a big, ugly Ad bar stuck in the top centre of the menu bar.

I know Ads bring money in for developers of free apps but in this case I don't see why it's necessary, I mean Sega are a huge corporation and the revenue from iAds are close to nothing to them.

I hate iAd supported apps and for this reason alone this app is going to be shoved in my 'other' folder. It's a cool app and I'll probably go back and have a quick game on SketchHog now and then but I'm pretty sure Sega could have done a lot better to honour it's most loved game.

It is Sonic's 20th birthday after all.

I've got to admit that it's taken Facebook quite a while to release an official iPad app.

2011-07-05T06:12:00.001-07:00

I've got to admit that it's taken Facebook quite a while to release an official iPad app. Considering that social networking is one of the main attractions to using portable devices it seems almost lazy that Facebook have ignored the iPad for so long.

The first iPad was released in April 2010 and now the apple iPad had moved onto the second generation model. There are even rumours circulating the Internet about a third generation iPad to be released this fall.

Because Facebook has failed to release an official iPad app until it has given the third party developers a chance to step in and fill this gap.

Since I brought my iPad I have perchased two different third party Facebook clients to use on my device buy sadly both of them were very disappointing and suffered from a few annoying software bugs.

If Facebook have indeed been working on this app in secret then hopefully we can expect a top quality platform that puts all of those third party developers to shame.

I hope to see that Facebook have worked hard to give their iPad users a good Facebook experience and not just a high quality port of their iPhone app with a few added features.

Various fourms and blogs are stating that we can expect to see a Facebook iPad app hit the app store next week but as of yet I have not seen an actual confirmation from Facebook itself.

Google+

2011-07-05T06:10:00.001-07:00

There seems to have been a lot of intrest surrounding google+ over the past few days and I can see why.

Googles latest take on the social networking site seems to be quite promising, which is surprising considering their track record with social networking sites.

Google Wave didn't seem to have gone anywhere and Google Buzz felt like it just sat there in the background not really getting much attention from the majority of the world.

I'm pretty eager to actualy get my hands on Google+ and have a good look around and test out some of it's cool features for my self.

Could this really be a Facebook killer as some people are saying? I'm not too sure but it definitely looks to rival some of Facebooks' features.

From what I've herd so far the security and privacy that Google+ offers has already put Facebook to shame but with very few users in the beta stage it's going to be hard to tell for sure.

One of the features at caught my attention the most was the friend Circles. With Facebook it's hard to really share what you want with who you want. Google+ gets around this by giving you groups of people that you can share information with separately.

For example, I wouldn't want to share the same links and status updates with my drinking buddy's and my family. The same goes with close friends and online collaborators.

With Facebook you're pretty much forced to share all of your links pictures and status updates with anyone that's in your friends list which to be honest seems a bit clumsy.

Most people on the Internet wont be persuaded to head over to Google+ straight away, it could take years for the majority of the online community to move on to another social networking site.

For most people Facebook's all that they really need to connect with their friends online. I hope that Google+ catches on and just doesn't just fade away like the rest of Googles' social efforts.

Google, if you're listining in, send me a beta invite.

Pocket God app has a new Charlie Sheen feature!

2011-04-06T16:08:00.001-07:00

The new update for the iOS Pocket God app includes the first ever guest Pygmy to visit Oog island.

This new addition to Oog island keeps babbling about 'winning', turning into a tiger and occasionally slicing his fellow Pygmys in half.

Who is he? Well, he's 'a total freaking rockstar from mars' and he goes by the name of Charlie.

The Two and a Half Men mega star has taken the world by storm with his wacky antics and all out craziness.

Now Charlie Sheen has been immortalised on the iPhone and iPad as a bad-ass Pygmy/man-tiger who's out for (tiger) blood.

This new update to the ever popular Pocket God app is definitely winning!

Oh, did I mention... Winning!

CKY go acoustic! + B-sides and Rarities

2011-03-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

On March 22nd we will see American Hard-Rock band CKY release their ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ album on Mighty Loud Records.

As the name of the album suggests the album will be a compilation of material (new and old) from the Philadelphia based rockers.

The album will feature acoustic versions of their tracks ’To All of You’ and ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’.

You can listen to the acoustic version of ‘Too All of You’ on the Noise Creep website HERE.

The acoustic version of ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ can be heard on the Alt Press site HERE.

The band is also hosting a Facebook listening party on Friday, March 18th at 9PM – EST (Saturday, 19th at 2AM – GMT) where fans will be able to listen to the full album on the bands official Facebook Page.

The full track list for ‘B-sides and Rarities’ will be:

1.Afterworld
2.Rio Bravo (Radio Session)
3.Shippensburg
4.Halfway House
5.Chad's In Hi-Fi
6.Santa's Coming
7.Fat Fu*k
8.The Deepest Depths
9.Rio Bravo (Remix)
10.Don't Hold Your Breath (Acoustic)
11.Halfway House (Original version)
12.To All of You (Acoustic)

Pre-order ‘B-sides and Rarities’ by CKY on iTunes now.

New twitter update fixes that annoying trending bar.

2011-03-09T01:38:00.001-08:00

Lots of people complained when twitter last updated their iOS app.
The main reason being that the trending topics popped up at the top of the screen and overlapped tweets in the timeline.
With this new update Twitter have solved this problem by slightly changing this new feature.
The trending topics do still appear at the top of the timeline but they no longer randomly appear and overlap tweets when twitter refreshes itself.
This is only a subtle change but to be honest I think it's a massive improvement to this new feature.
It's good to see that such a large company such as Twitter listen to the feedback from their users and try and solve the problems as quick as they can.
If only this could be said about the social networking giant that is Facebook.
There have been numerous occasions when Facebook have updated their website with features that the users didn't want (such as the new profile layout and the photoviewer) while ignoring the requests that the users did want (Dislike button).
Hopefully one day Facebook will actually listen to it's users and include a new feature that they actually want rather than expecting them to like everything they throw at them.

Grab Minigore now while it's free!

2011-03-08T16:32:00.001-08:00

Chillingo ltd have made their hit game Minigore free for a limited time.
Minigore is an action packed arcade shooter which is guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours.
The iOS game is now available for free to celebrate the release of Minigore episode 5 and Death Rally.
Chillingo are known for their array of games for the Apple devices including such as Cut the Rope and Predators.

Grab Minigore now while it's still free!!
http://minigore.blogspot.com/

March 8th

2011-03-08T04:37:00.001-08:00

Most people see Shrove Tuesday as an excuse to eat pancakes but there are also a number of reasons to celebrate March 8th.

Among these reasons a number of famous British musicians were born on this day.
March 8th sees in the 53rd birthday of synthpop legend Gary Numan.

Numan is considered one of the pioneers of commercial electronic music, Numan is widely known for his hits Are Friends Electric? with his band Tubeway Army and Cars which was his first solo effort.

Upon release in 1979 the single Cars reached number one in the UK and the song became a cult hit in the many years that followed.

The day also marks the birthday of musician Gaz Coombes, best known as the front man of British rock band Supergrass.

Supergrass, known for their iconic Britpop sound broke up in 2010 after 17 years.

Keane frontman Tom Chaplin turned 31 today. Keane saw mainstream success with their debut album Hopes and Fears which topped the UK album charts in 2004.

The album returned to the top of the charts in February 2005 after winning Best album at the BRIT awards.

Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr Celebrates his 54th Birthday today. Burr Played drums for Iron Maiden from 1980 to 1982.

He also recorded drums for three of Maidens most iconic albums: Number of the Beast, Killers and Iron Maiden (Self titled).

The new Foo Fighters album seems promising.......

2011-03-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

The new Foo Fighters album seems promising. I’ve not really being following their stuff since In Your Honour but they seem to be back to their old ways with this new album. Apparently the whole Of Wasting Light was recorded in Ghrol’s garage using only analog equipment (always a good thing) which gives the sound that warm but edgy quality.
I’m not completely sure what to expect but I suppose only time will tell. from what I’ve heard so far I'm quite impressed.

Old Musical Express?

2011-03-01T04:01:00.000-08:00

Once again Muse Picked up the award for being the ‘Best British Band’ at this year’s NME awards.

Is it really fair that the band should win the same award two years in a row?

Muse hasn’t added anything new to the British music scene since their 2009 studio album The Resistance and the band hasn’t even toured since late last year.

Do they really deserve to be awarded the Best British Band award for 2011 considering that they haven’t done anything this year.

Surely there are other bands out there that have worked hard this year that should get the recognition.

After all it is the ‘New Musical Express’ not the ‘Old Musical Express’!

Shouldn’t NME be giving out awards to new and upcoming artists rather than dishing them out to the same people every year.

"If you were stuck on a desert island...."

2011-02-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

"If you were stuck on a desert island and you could only listen to ten tracks what would they be?"

I couldn't possibly decide on ten tracks so here's just a list of cool songs. =D

Daft Punk – Aerodynamic

French house legends Daft Punk are clearly influenced by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos in this track. Classic arpeggios and Moog synthesizers play a huge part in this piece and add nicely to the retro vibe of the album.

Röyksopp – Eple

Melody A.M has to be their best ever album; it’s so chilled out and easy to listen to. Put this on in a dark room and just lose yourself, chill out and drift away for a while.

Skrillex - scary monsters and nice sprites

This is a prime example of keeping music fun, from the clearly visible video game influences to the sample ripped from the cult YouTube video.

HIM - Acoustic Funeral

The only rock track on this list. This band changed the way I looked at music in general and made me pick up my first instrument (the Bass Guitar). Pretty soon after that I moved onto playing other instruments and started listening to other styles of music that I would have overlooked in the past.

Deadmau5 – I Remember

A nice chilled out house track; Deadmau5 has always been a favourite of mine. I Remember is probably my favourite Deadmau5 track to date (and there’s a lot of competition).

Gorillaz – Tomorrow Comes Today

Marking the end of the 1990s the Gorillaz made their debut with their self titled album. This whole album oozes with nostalgia but I think this track is probably my favourite from their debut.

Mr Scruff – Sweet Smoke

Scruffs’ studio work is pretty creative. Sampling his own instruments, vinyl and synths (Or whatever he can get his hands on) and then completely mashing them up to make some truly funky tunes.

VNV Nation – Nemesis

Much more underground than the other tracks that I’ve chosen. I guess that VNV nation are responsible for giving me that push towards dance music.

Chemical brothers - Let Forever Be

This is electronic music at its finest. The track features vocals from Noel Gallagher of Oasis. The drum beat is very similar to the Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows.

Tubeway Army – Are ‘Friends’ Electric?

There’s nothing like a bit of synthpop to lighten your day and the early Gary Numan stuff will do the job just nicely.

Gregg Allman breaks at no.5 on the US billboard chart

2011-02-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

Gregg Allman breaks at no.5 on the US billboard chart with his first solo album in 14 years.

The new album Low Country Blues is the highest charting album in his solo career so far.

Gregg was best known for co-Founding the Allman Brothers with his brother Duane Allman.

The brothers written such songs as Jessica which was featured on the opening of UK television show Top Gear.

After being diagnosed with hepatitis C in late 2007, Allman underwent liver transplant surgery in June last year.

Gregg said that the surgery was the worst thing that he had ever been through.

“It’s the roughest thing I’ve ever been through, I’ve been in military school, through six divorces, heh-heh — this is worse than all that.”

Through his years Gregg tried rehab 14 times, finally getting clean in the 1990s.

Although he has now been clean for some years Gregg claims that it was “was laying dormant for a while and just kind of crept up on me.”

Although Low Country Blues is Greggs first solo release since his 1997 album Searching for Simplicity the new album is made up mostly of cover versions.

Just Another Rider: The only track on the album which is not a cover version was co-written Warren Haynes.

The song is quite obviously a follow up to the 1972 Allman Brothers song Midnight Rider.

No Time for Heroes at the Sugarmill 29/01/11

2011-01-30T11:41:00.000-08:00

Photo by Jay Dickens

Another great night of live entertainment provided at one of the city’s best music venues.

The night kicked off with local 5-piece Hardcore-Metal band No Time for Heroes.

Although they were the first band on the bill they immediately grabbed the attention of the crowd.

A high point of the set would definitely be the cover of Deez Nuts that was played near the end.

Having only been together since mid 2010 and having only played a handful of gigs together the band kicked off the night flawlessly.

Brit Awards 2011

2011-01-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

2011 sees a huge change for the BRIT awards with a brand new venue and even a completely re-designed award.

This year we will see the popular award ceremony held at one of London’s most popular venues, The O2 Arena.

Take that, Plan B, Rihanna and Tinie Tempah are the newest additions to the line up of the ceremony held at the all new venue.

The new additions will be performing alongside Mumford & Sons, Adele, Cee Lo Green and Arcade Fire.

This year we will also see the award itself taking on an all new look with the new “blank canvas” style trophy that will be completely re-designed each year.

This year the trophy is in the hands of Vivienne Westwood Who has given the award its first new makeover.

The collaboration between Westwood and the BRIT Awards signifies the close bond that music and fashion share in the UK.

BRITs Chairman David Joseph commented on the Vivienne Westwood collaboration. “Vivienne stands for all the things we want to inspire in tomorrow’s generation of artists. She continues to be unique, innovative not to mention massively inspired by music and vice versa.”

Vivienne has always been a major influence in the UK music scene with major bands and artists taking inspiration from her work.

This year the awards will be hosted by British TV personality and comedian James Corden.

Corden commented on being asked to host the show. “I have always loved The BRITs and I am honoured to have been asked to host such a prestigious event.”

The 2011 ceremony will be held live at The O2 in London on Tuesday 15th February and will be broadcast on ITV1.

The App store is about to hit ten billion downloads.

2011-01-15T10:48:00.001-08:00

The App store is about to hit ten billion downloads and to celebrate iTunes are giving away a US App store gift card worth $10,000.

The Gift card will be given away to the lucky customer that downloads the ten billionth App.

February 2010 saw apple give away the $10,000 iTunes gift card when the iTunes store reach its ten billionth download and now the App store isn’t far behind.

Both free and paid downloads will count so there’s no worries about breaking the bank while going after the gift card.

Not sure which apps to get, then why not take a look at some of my favourite apps from 2010 in this previous post?

Looking back on the year 2011.

2011-01-14T09:38:00.001-08:00

Here we are at the end of the unforgettable year that was 2011, we can all rest well knowing that this indeed has been the year that has changed the course humanity forever. Our ancestors will never forget the terrifying events and shocking truths that have passed this year.

The year started out generally well, the New Year’s celebrations passed and people started to forward to 2011 with high hopes and a fresh outlook on life. No one ever expected the year to turn out as depressingly bad as it did.

Two months into the New Year the music industry collapsed completely. Physical music collections became irrelevant because too many people had been downloading music illegally online. Over the last few years downloading music illegally had been on the rise. It finally hit the tipping point at the beginning of 2011 when statistics showed that more than 89% of people got their music from torrent sites rather than record shops or even iTunes.

Local music stores continued to sell physical CDs along with vinyl at record low prices in a hope to revive the music industry but their efforts were wasted and they failed keep it alive. Naturally prices of physical media such as CDs and DVDs have now gone sky high due to stores having limited stock. I won’t be long until only serious collectors or the wealthy will be able to maintain extensive physical music collections.

The fall of the industry resulted in all of the major record labels being brought out-right by Simon Cowell who rapidly became the richest and most powerful person in the world. Instead of trying to once again rebuild and monetise the music industry, Cowell set about turning what was left of it in to one huge, never-ending game show. What remains of the world’s major artists and songwriters now have to impress a panel of judges on a daily basis by performing hit songs from the past.

The perpetual game show is now broadcast twenty four hours a day on twelve major television networks across the globe and pretty soon watching it will become a mandatory part of our daily routines.

Although it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the music world, underground musicians stood tall and quickly began attempts to revive the now faded music scene. Open minded music fans began to attend free gigs, download free music using the internet and even began making their own music.

People once again started listening to music that was created by honest musicians that had a strong passion for the music that they were creating. No longer did people feel the strain to conform to a certain group lead by an industry image of a particular genre. People were free to listen to what they wanted to based on what they liked rather than what they were told that they should like.

In their own way, the underground musicians seem to have given the world a fresh start with a tiny bit of hope for what the future holds. The dark cloud above our heads seems to be gradually rising to reveal a distant but bright future. What that future involves is a great mystery to all of us but there’s always hope.

Maybe what will happen to us in the next few months won’t feel so bad after all. Remain indoors.

2010

2011-01-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Now sitting in the year 2011 it’s now time to look back on the previous year and think about what’s happened to the world around us. Although the year seemed to have left us in nothing more than a blur of ash clouds and snowstorms 2010 did indeed leave us with a selection of brilliant music.

In June the chemical brothers released their seventh studio album, Further. The Electronic duo never fails to deliver high quality dance music and this album is not an exception. The duo also released a special edition of the album which featured a video for each track from the release. I can happily say that Further is one of my favourite albums of 2010.

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are probably one of the biggest rock bands in the world and it came as a shock to fans that guitarist John Frusciante announced his departure from the band in December 2009. Throughout 2010 Frusciante has been busy working with quite a few artists on collaborative projects, the most notable been with Aaron Funk of Venetian Snares. The duo quickly started writing music together under the name Speed Dealer Moms and planned to debut their new tracks at the Bang Face festival here in the UK. However the Duo had to pull out of the festival due to equipment failure. Frusciante and Funk released the first self titled Speed dealer moms EP later on in the year.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame has had a busy year. Teaming up with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and Atticus Ross, Reznor formed the Group How to Destroy Angels which went on to release their first self titled EP in June. Reznor collaborated with Atticus Ross again later on in the year to produce the score to the blockbuster movie The Social Network. The soundtrack featured two reworked versions of tracks from Reznor’s previous album Ghosts.

Another one of my favourite albums of 2010 would have to be 4x4=12 by Canadian electro house artist Deadmau5. With a highly polished electro house sound Deadmau5 has also incorporated various other styles of music into his most recent work with some tracks straying towards dub step and even pop music. Although the album was released in December some of the tracks on the album had been previously made available online. I definitely feel that this album was a high point of the year and I’m expecting to hear a lot more from Deadmau5 in late 2011.

Breaking their 5 year hiatus Daft Punk returned with brand new material at the end on 2010 but not in their usual electro house style. The French electro house duo was asked to write the score to the long awaited film, Tron: Legacy. The score tore them away from their familiar house background and took them into the realms of cinematic soundscapes to create an epic fusion orchestral and retro electronica. The score was met with positive reviews and general praise but a few long time fans were disappointed to see the lack of a new Daft Punk studio album.

The best iPhone apps from2010

2011-01-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

Ok so I’m doing a roundup of my ten favourite iPhone apps in 2010. Some of the apps that I’m going to mention may have been around some time before 2010 started but this is a selection that stood out to me the most.

10 – Bebot

I think this was one of the first music apps that I brought for my phone. It’s fun to play and it sounds great. BeBot is a little robot that plays Theremin-like sounds; the grid is pitch locked so that you can set it to a musical scale and whatever you play will be perfectly in key. Price - £1.19

9 – Angry Birds

Angry Birds is somewhat of a modern classic. I think everyone that has an iPhone should get this game. For just 59p you can sit and throw birds at weird little green pigs with a catapult. The designers of this game have got the difficulty level just right, it’s not so hard that you give up straight away but at the same time it’s not so easy that you will complete it in five miniutes. Price -£0.59

8 – Doodle Jump

This is the perfect app for wasting time. It’s so simple yet so hard to put it down, I’ve been guilty of playing Doodle Jump for up to three hours straight with no break (It’s that bad). Price -£0.59

7 – Funkbox

I’ve only recently downloaded this app but I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time. FunkBox is a drum machine app that has some pretty cool features. I love drum machines so this app has quickly become a nice little addition to the collection. I particularly like the email feature; when I’ve come up with a cool little beat I can quickly record it and email it to myself. I can then put the loop into my sequencer on my PC and mess around with it further. It’s a nice little idea starter. Price -£1.79

6 – The Guardian

Every iPhone user needs a news app. It helps you to keep track with what’s happening in the world and allows you to read from your favourite writers. I brought this particular news app because of the arts and entertainment section as well as two of my favourite celebrity writers (David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker). I know that I can read all of the stuff on the Guardian site for free but the small price tag on this app is completely worth it. Price -£2.39

5 – Sonic the Hedgehog 4

The old Sonic the Hedgehog games are probably my favourite series

of all time. When Sega announced that they were releasing Sonic the Hedgehog 4 I was so happy. I brought it as soon as it hit the app store and played it for weeks. However there are a few things in this new addition that bug me; the Physics in the game are not the sample as the originals which made getting use to it a little tricky but as soon as you get over that it’s an amazing game. The only thing that really bothered me was that on release I paid about £6 for this game and now it’s pretty much half that price. I’m sure I’ve had my Money’s worth though. Price -£3.99

4 –Moog Filtatron

Moog are giants in the synthesizer world, they hav

e made some of the world’s most loved machines and pretty much invented electronic music altogether. But if you wish to own any of their equipment you can expect to pay a pretty penny. I was surprised to find that the Filtatron app was going for only a few pounds in the app store so I had to have it. Price - £2.99

3 – TechnoBox

Acid! The Tr-808, Tr-909 and Tb-303 are reproduced in this app with outstanding quality. I can spend hours with this app, it’s just memorizing. The TB-303 clone on this thing uses the same engine as the ABL-2 plugin from AudioRealism and it comes very close to the original. Get this now and start making some funky Acid jams. Price -£2.99

2- Twitter

I use twitter all of the time so I think this app deserves a spot near the top. The official iPhone twitter app is presented beautifully with all of the features that you’d ever need. Need to tell the world what you’re up to? Then go and grab the official Twitter app and get tweeting. Price -Free

1 – Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is my all time favourite app. I use this thing religiously, taking snaps of anything and everything that I can think of. The app is based on an old toy camera and has exchangeable lenses, films and flashes. Just by simply switching the lens you can change the feel of the picture completely. There are also quite a few extra Hipstapacks available as in app purchases and a randomise feature to shake things up a bit. You can take a picture of anything with this app and it will look amazing. Price -£1.19

Underground Christmas Horror Show 28/12/2010

2010-12-29T05:07:00.000-08:00

The Christmas spirit is not forgotten in the stoke music scene with the underground hosting the Christmas horror show. The night saw four of Stoke’s own metal bands celebrating the festive season the best way they know how; with loud guitars, quite a bit of booze and good friends joined together to enjoy live music.

The Underground is at the heart of Stoke’s music scene. The venue plays the best local bands that the city has to offer. As always there’s a friendly atmosphere and a few familiar faces that can only be found deep within stoke’s music scene.

The opening acts of the night were The Art of Ruin and Fallen Inquest. Both of the bands did a good job of warming up the crowd and getting the scene set for the night ahead.

As it was a joint headline the top spot was split between two bands; Your Chariot Awaits and Anaphearo. When Your Chariot Awaits came on stage the crowd’s attitude seemed to change completely. The songs they played seemed to merge into one with no obvious changes and the vocals (in my opinion) sounded horrible.

Anaphearo easily stole the spotlight when they appeared on stage. The band were all wearing matching red shirts for the occasion and went on to end the night on a high point with the audience requesting two encores from the band.

Unfortunately their set was brought to an abrupt end when some inconsiderate fans tried to ruin the night by fighting at the back of the venue. However the outbreak was brought to a stop quite quickly thanks to the venue security and a few helpful audience members.

The death of the Sony Walkman cassette player

2010-10-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Sony has announced that it will cease the production of the cassette-tape Walkman in japan.

But is it really time to throw out our old mixtapes and fully embrace the age of the Mp3 playlist?
Even though it's a little before my time, I still feel the nostalgia of growing up in the 90s, listening to the old cassette tapes.

What I want to hear is your views.
Do you think that the tape has come to the end of its days or do you feel that there's still room for it's old, retro charm?

Please comment below or send opinions to Dan303@hotmail.co.uk
When replying, make sure that you include your email address so that I can contact you.
(If you don't want to leave your Email in the comments section please send me an email instead/as well).
-Thanks, Dan.