Yeah, that's right.

No… this has nothing to do with Ninjas. By NINJA 2009 I mean the Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction 2009 tour. Their site has some real cool stuff… and closely guarded secrets that haven’t been revealed… until now…
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Well… on Paramore.net… they asked fans to review the new live album. So I did. Now I am posting my review here… I got the deluxe edition… so you get to hear about all the extra stuff… ENJOY!

DVD:

Awesome. The performance was great. It was recorded in my hometown… so that is some extra awesome points right there. The power the band gave was awesome. They were very energetic and it made it a pleasure to watch. Not once was I wanting it to just be over. Though… some of the visual effects I could of gone without. Most of the time they were cool… sometimes they just got in the way of the show. The documentary was both informative and funny. It is interlaced with the performance very well and it always leaves you wanting more. The special features on the Deluxe Edition… to tell you the truth… were kinda a disappointment. The extra director’s cut footage was kinda smaller then I thought and most of it was just parts in the regular documentary that was elongated to show you all of it… not saying that’s a bad thing… I just thought that maybe… MAYBE there could of been a BIT more… just a TINY bit. But what they had there was awesome. The photo gallery was pretty cool. There were some real nice pictures there set to some real good music. Now… the thing that disappointed me the most out of all the extra stuff… not saying it was bad… it was awesome… was the music video for “Let The Flames Begin”. That is pretty much my favorite Paramore song and I thought it would be really cool to see a music video for it. Then I saw it and realized it was basically what I just finished watching. The live performance of this song was amazing… don’t get me wrong… but I was just kinda expecting more. The thing that bugged me the most about it is how there was almost a time machine effect in it. In one clip… you would see Hayley get down on her knees for the outro… but then the next clip… you will see the same thing happen again… just at a different angle. Now… that is just me being completely honest. Overall though… it was freaking awesome.

CD:

Also awesome. The quality was real good for a live album and all the intros and outros added to the songs live just SCREAMED for a live CD to come out… and it is awesome to be able to have those extra tid-bits of awesomeness in a CD form so you can have it at awesome quality and officially.

Packaging:

When I looked at the case for the Deluxe Edition… right off the bat… I knew it was something special. I pulled out the art book and looked through it… it was awesome. The pictures in there were either artistic… cool… or just plain funny. It looked just like the tour program so you don’t really feel like you were missing out on anything if you got this. The special long case for the CD and DVD really helps keep them safe and non-wiggly. Though… it sometimes is a pain to get the disks out and put them back in without having to worry a bit about scratching them. The laminate was a nice touch… really makes you feel special… but it could of had a better holder. With my OCD… I always have to keep things from CDs where they were… slipcases… extra stuff… pretty much anything. Every time I opened the CD case… or even took it out from the slip case… the laminate would just fall out. But… still… it was some awesome extra stuff.

So all in all… it was awesome. Totally worth the $35. It is/was limited to 5,000 copies… so if you hurry up… you may still be able to grab the deluxe edition. Yeah… I just checked… the deluxe edition is sadly sold out. BUT: the regular edition is selling at Target for $15. It just has the CD and DVD in a regular CD/DVD case. It does come with a regular booklet… but not with the art book.. photo gallery/director’s cut footage/”Let The Flames Begin” music video extras on the DVD… the fake backstage pass… or the special longer packaging.

Here is where you get to know the best songs by the best bands… the thing is… the best songs are always the hidden gems.

Let’s start with a band I just really got into, The White Stripes

1: “Take Take Take” off of the album “Get Behind Me Satan”. A very unknown song, but one of their best. I talks about Jack meeting a famous person in a bar and how he keeps asking her for stuff, the whole time thinking he is not being greedy. A very simplistic song, just guitar, drums, piano, and vocals. That is basically all their songs but whatever. Panning is a very used effect in this song, as there is even one part where only one line that Jack White says changes speakers about 8 times. Stops very suddenly, but it is just an awesome track.

2: “Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine” off the album “Elephant”. This was the one song that really got me into The White Stripes, as it was in the video game “Skate”. It is a harder song with the guitar blaring and Jack borderline screaming some lines. The drums kicks and snares come hard and fast, like a slap to the face. The guitar solo is also borderline face melting.

3: “Rag and Bone” off the album “Icky Thump”. Yes… it was a single… but it isn’t that well known. This is by far my favorite White Stripes. It is mostly Meg and Jack talking… and it is freaking hilarious. It is calm… but then builds up to very hard with real distorted guitar during the chorus, then calms down again for the talking parts. Just awesome.

If you are a hardcore White Stripes fan… please don’t yell at me for not putting any of their older stuff on.

(Okay… it is a sad excuse for a news story… but at least it is one, right?)

The rock band Paramore, which is pretty much the only band with members under the age of 20 that is AWESOME, released a new single for the movie “Twilight” called “Decode”. The song itself was released a few weeks ago, but the music video for it was just released. It depicts Hayley and company preforming the song in a forest that looks a lot like the forest from the clips shown from the movie. It works… because… naturally… with it being the first single off the soundtrack… it has to have movie clips in it! A good amount of the clips are new and unseen before the music video, so all you teenage girls jump on that. The soundtrack comes out November 4 and the movie releases on November 11. I am going to see this. I don’t care if I am a guy… THERE ARE VAMPIRES IN IT! You can watch the music video here. I hate having to link to MTV.

(Thanks friends over at EPICponyz for the picture and the tip-off!)

So, you MAY have heard of Pitchshifter in the 90s when they broke out with hits such as “Genius” and “W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G,” but they have been long since forgotten, so I thought I would tell all of you about them, because they are freaking amazing.

At first, this band was actually one of the only UK Heavy and almost Death Metal bands. They had the screaming lead singer, Mark Clayden, and the crazy drums and all that stuff. It is now referred to as “Death Industrial” because of the Death Metal like vocals but electronic drums and samples.

A bit later, J.S. Clayden stepped up to the mic from being only backing vocals. He had about the type of singing/screaming as Mark, but changed to their trademark sound for their breakthrough album, www.pitchshifter.com. You may have heard songs from that album in Twisted Metal 3 and Test Drive 5 as “Genius” was the theme to Test Drive 5, “W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G.” was in a level of Test Drive 5, and “W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G.” and “Innit” was featured in the Hanger 18 and Tokyo level of Twisted Metal 3. (I own these games, I know.)

Sadly, in 2003, they had their last show of their “Farewell for Now” club tour, but do come together every now and then for random festivals.

Fun Facts (Thanks Wikipedia!):

1: Pitch Shifter played the Phoenix Festival in Long Marston, UK in 1995. The band’s manager, armed with a tractor, arranged for an enormous crop circle replica of the band’s famous “eye” symbol to appear in the adjoining field to the festival site during the night prior to Pitch Shifter’s performance there. The crowd’s enthusiasm for Pitch Shifter when they performed (in support of their Desensitized album) was so high that they rushed the stage, making Pitch Shifter’s performance the first in the history of the festival to be stopped early.

2: Pitchshifter’s music has been used in video games such as: Test Drive 5, Rallisport Challenge 2, MX Superfly,Twisted Metal 4 and Twisted Metal III, as well as movies, trailers and soundtracks such as: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, The Crow, Salvation, Brainscan, Catwoman, Paycheck, and lastly in commercials such as the Volkswagen ‘Vortex’ bug.

3: The band has released eight studio albums and numerous singles & EPs.

Well, hope you enjoyed this and hope you check out this band!

www.pitchshifter.com