Techno Times Three

by Diana Ciuca

Two bands. One genre. There can only be one winner and one loser.
Whereas one might think, “This genre can’t possibly be big enough of the two of [them],” I will vouch to say you’re wrong. Welcome to the magical land of techno, which encompasses house to trance to electro-pop. Although these sub-genres may be diametrically opposed, just because they lie on the periphery of techno doesn’t mean that the repetitive beats don’t possess the resemblance that it takes to become part of the expansive “techno” genre. Thus, in this realm of new-age realism, I will compare two very diverse, yet seemingly similar songs with an extremely encompassing techno album by the famous producer, David Guetta. Who will rise and who will fall?

First up is Röyksopp, a heavyweight due to its popularity in media through TV series and commercials. However, this comes as both a blessing and a curse. Due to it’s commerciality, Röyksopp has lost any luster as being a potential “indie” band. For this match, they’re presenting their new hit, “Happy Up Here,” and uplifting piece. At the opposite end lies STS9, Sound Tribe Sector 9, a structured band and more than a mere amateur. They’re giving us “Atlas,” a more extended techno piece with a greater compositional variety.

“The fight had it’s turns,” in the words of famous novelist Normal Mailer. Röyksopp won most of the early rounds, but STS9 knocked Röyksopp down in the sixth. STS9 had trouble getting up, but made it, came alive and was dominating Röyksopp again before the round was over. The first sign of weakness arose once Röyksopp maintained the same 4 bar beat and STS9 kept progressing, hitting stronger and stronger.

While Röyksopp failed to promote the usual variety, STS9 included musical climaxes and fade-outs to not only excite the audience but crush Röyksopp. Even with Röyksopp’s previous success, this battle proves that historical precedent does not do justice to present faults. “Happy Up Here” simply is a trite piece of ‘chill-out music.’ Generally not associated with this prolific Norwegian band who has had hits like “Remind Me” and “Poor Leno,” this song exemplifies the negative side of techno: synth, synth, beats, synth. STS9’s “Atlas” beautifully told a story, as would any song that belongs in a movie action thriller. Sadly, that classification does not do mercy to the song itself. Albeit it will not hype you up, it is still quite enjoyable in the end.

Nevertheless, the true winner here is techno. Compare this “battle” to David Guetta’s recent album “One Love” which featured romantic hits such as ‘Sexy Bitch’ (Akon) and ‘I Gotta Feelin’ (BEP). Guetta gained fame through “Love Has Gone,” which includes a relentless beat mimicked in “Gettin’ Over” on his newest album. These songs, as usual, are relayed throughout the radio and on the billboard charts, as he even received a Grammy nomination for his production of Kelly Rowland’s “When Love Takes Over.” Nevertheless, his work exemplifies the level of achievement and success that the genre of techno has arrived to. It now mingles with pop (Black Eyed Peas), R&B (Kelly Rowland), Reggae (Bob Marley), and metal (not on this album, but on other bands’ such as Rammstein). Therefore, with the rise of technology comes the fall of musical barriers as the differences between genres increasingly fade away.

New Moon Soundtrack Review

by Diana Ciuca

The album begins with the quintessential Death Cab for Cutie song, with the electric piano and occasional wavering in and out of loud and soft harmony. The symbol of the equinox in the song displays some astrological influence upon the entire album. So far, I’m hoping that this is a themed album; fingers crossed.

Luckily, or not, the next few songs tend to stick to a similar principle. Truly, the only theme to this album can be summed up in three words: soft, indie, dreamy. After some ups and downs in tempos, beats, and instrumentation (guitars, drums, and piano), the only conclusion that can be drawn is that this is a genre piece. The album advocates the beauty of the indie (sub/counter) culture that has motivated hipsters to invade American Apparel and also the local Salvation Army/Goodwill in search of “hot buys.” They are the picture-hoarding, iPod wearing, Twilight-reading youngsters who are fluent in the language of music and, thankfully, that of texting. By putting all these songs together, I feel like their (the individual song’s and the hip, excitable, teen’s) originality is forsaken; Nevertheless, each song, on their own, is truly a work of art – as are most indie pieces. As Andy Warhol said, “Art is what you can get away with.” Certainly, we have gotten away with much avante-gardness in the past, and this album, as fresh or unique as you want it to be, is no different.

Most critics see this as a medley of wonderful musicians. Still, I can’t help but question what is so great about these musical sensations? Usually it is the voice, or the smooth guitar, or the sound effects. This album has so much of those techniques that it almost becomes overwhelming. In conclusion, the New Moon soundtrack is like food. Sure, I love peperoni pizza, chocolate ice cream, steak, salsa, and salad. But, if you were to throw them all on one plate, I might not enjoy it as much.

The album ends with the quintessential Classical music piece, with the alternating piano and occasion speeding up and down of the tempo. The symbol of the new moon in the title displays some astrological influence upon the entire album – given that it is the title.
Sounds like you’ve heard that sentence before? It sounds like I’ve heard all these songs before, too.

AFI Concert and Press Conference Moved to Revolution Ft Lauderdale! 11-18-09

The A.F.I. concert originally scheduled for the Pompano Beach Amphitheater on Wednesday November 18 has moved venues to Revolution Live, 200 West Broward Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale. Gallows also appears on the bill.

Tickets already purchased for the Pompano Beach show will be honored at Revolution Live. Additional General Admission tickets are still available for $26.50 in advance and $28.00 day of show. Tickets are on sale now at all TicketMaster Outlets and at the Revolution Live Box Office or charge-by-phone: Broward, (954) 523-3309; Miami-Dade, 305) 358-5885; Palm Beach, (561) 966-3309.

The Student Press Conference will also be held at Revolution. Students should meet at will call at Revolution.

Ghostland Observatory Interview

By Brittany Reeber University of Texas Austin

The Monday after Austin City Limits Music Festival was a day of recovery from a weekend with little sleep and lots of noise. I had my doubts about the interview scheduled with Ghostland Observatory for that Monday night. If I was dead tired, I could only imagine how the Austin duo felt after two days of shows, blowing up both Zilker Park at the ACL Fest Saturday night and then downtown at Stubbs’s BBQ the next day. But sure enough, Thomas Ross Turner, exactly one half of the spacey ensemble and master of multi-tasking (managing synthesizer, keyboard, drums, and backing vocals), showed up on my friend’s front porch around ten o’clock.

This weekend has been crazy for you!

-Yeah a pretty intense weekend, a lot of preparation.

How did you feel about your show at ACL?

-That was really good, really large crowd, and everything went really well. The crowd response was really good and we had a good time up there.

Do you prefer playing a festival or a club show?

-They’re all pretty surprising because say you have your mind set on how a certain show is gonna be or a certain city…in the beginning when we were touring, it’d be like ‘Oh this is gonna be the best ever… it’s this city or its this festival,’ and then you’re kind of let down. Or sometimes it’s the opposite, you go in to some town you’ve never been to before and you’re like ‘Oh I wonder how this is gonna go,’ and it end up being insane. So you never know what you’re gonna get, they can both be fun.

Have you always had the whole light show?

-No, because in the beginning, like right after the Paparazzi Lightening record, we’d go on tour and play a show in Los Angeles for like ten people. After we got home, I was like, ‘yeah this may not work, we may have to think of something else.’ Because you know we’d go up to Seattle and there’d be like eight or nine people there. We played some coffee shop in Bellingham, Washington and people were trying to study and we were trying to rock out. And then we’d have to drive all the way home from Bellingham and have to think about that. Like, ‘okay we just did a string of shows that maybe equaled up to fifty people total and things are not looking to good.’ We did a lot of shows like that in the beginning but we just kept going and eventually it worked.

How did you find the motivation? That seems pretty deterring.

-Well we’d come back to Austin and get rejuvenated. We’d play a crazy show at Emo’s or something and there’d be a thousand sweaty, hot people and a lot of energy. It would be so fun and we’d be like ‘Oh alright let’s try it again.’ We’d go back out and more people would be at the shows and it just started to grow like that.

It all seems to very be connected, the music and the lasers, do you guys work it out a lot beforehand?

-Yeah I mean that’s part of our partnership, being together for three years. It’s like a whole unit now: the sound, the lights, the performance, and the lasers. It’s all the show, the whole thing, so everything works together. I guess it’s sort of choreographed in a way to where it’s like nothing should be out of place.

Do you feel like it really enhances everything?

-I think so…with the lighting and the lasers and the different feelings and climaxes and parts of the set. I think it enhances everything because not only are you hearing it and feeling it, you’re seeing things happen. If there’s an exciting point in the set and the lights are going nuts, you see the crowd reacting and it helps.

Your whole setup on stage, you’ve got your keyboards and everything, what’s going on over there? It just looks like you’re doing so much all at once!

-Yeah I’ve got my synthesizers and my sequencer and my mixer and the drums. I’ve kind of got tunnel vision, I don’t really look out too much to the crowd cuz I try to make sure everything keeps moving along and everything is right. I get to groove out back there, but I can’t move around. That’s why I sport the cape, so I can just be back in my little control station.

I read online that your wife made your cape.

-Yeah and she made me a new one for ACL fest and it had lights on it so that’s pretty cool.

That’s a big deal! You never change from the other cape, right?

-I had the original and I wear the original still, and then she made me another one for ACL fest two years ago, but I threw that one in to the crowd.

Was she mad?

-No, she was alright with it, but she made this one and she was like, ‘no throwing this one.’ She spent a lot of time on this last one so I wasn’t gonna do it.

What’s it made out of?

-Hmm, I don’t know materials and things, but it’s some kind of material and she hand sewed it. Then got these lights and got this engineer to help her get all the lights connected to this thing in the back that has a switch and it runs off batteries.

Do you think you’re gonna catch on fire?

-No I don’t think its got enough juice to light me on fire, but it does get hot in there.

Aaron is your other half and he’s out front singing, do you ever get jealous and want to stretch around ?

-He does what he does and I do what I do. He’s more like live and loose and entertaining and I’m just like: ‘Okay, we need to be here at this time. Alright, what are the lights doing? Okay perfect.’ So he’s perfect for what he does and I kind of stay back in my little area.

The sound that Ghostland Observatory has is really unique, in Austin and in general. How did you guys come to find that sound together? Did you have something in mind or did it just happen?

-I think what we were trying to do when we first started creating was just push it out there, you know, be different. We really wanted to make music that was either loved or hated and not just kind of middle of the road. Same thing with our live show, we either want people to be like, ‘oh yeah I love those guys,’ or they show up and are like, ‘I can’t stand them, I would never go to see that ever again.’ It’s either or, you know, and that’s just all we try to do.

Do you believe in life on other planets?

-I’m sure, I mean, you can’t even chart how large the universe is, right? It’s like ever expanding, so how would you even know? You’d be taking a guess either way. There’s no telling what’s out there.

Well because your music is so spacey, how do you think aliens would receive your show if they saw it?

- Haha, hopefully they’d want to groove out. Especially the light set up we had at ACL fest; it was designed to look like a mother ship.

That’s how I felt when I saw it! I could see the show all the way from the other side of the festival.

-Yeah so hopefully they’d be like ‘these guys know what’s going on.’

What are you plans for the future? What do you hope to happen with the band?

-Just first get through these forty shows from now until January, take a little breather, and then start creating again and try to push it even further.

Win a Weezer Snuggie!

Enter to win a Weezer Snuggie and a copy of their new release Raditude.

Send us an email  info@therockstarstories.com and you will be entered to win. Ends 11/18!

The Academy Is Interview with Morgan and Melanie

The 88 Interview

by Diana Ciuca

The 88 is “new, fresh, modern” band as described by the keyboard player Adam Merrin. My interview with him provided descriptive information about where the band has been and where it’s heading. With outstanding appeal along with a strong Californian foundation, The 88 keeps rising to success.



From the Los Angeles region, Adam Merrin described the band’s hometown as being an “upper-middle” area which influenced the band’s music, since most environments tend to have an impact on the overall tone of a band. The two founding members, Keith and Adam both met in high school due to their common affinity for music. Adam remembers the “day that changed [his] life.” He recalled the idea of starting a band as a haphazardly recommendation friend. Nevertheless, Keith and Adam later tried to record a song that they wrote at a party, as that’s when the band finally took off as less of a concept and more of a possibility.The feeling of their first session of playing together – Keith’s great voice and Adam’s guitar talents – really had them saying “this is it,” as if being in a band was what they were meant to be doing. Although the band (formerly titled The Freeloaders) had no real direction or “financial motives,” their mutual passion for music and spirit of hard work helped lead to future success.
As every band knows, the members will suffer a few struggles, especially with the passage of time. Adam recalls how two of the foremost band members left and were succeeded. “Carlos was on the band for 13 years,” Adam mentioned, so it was tough when he left. Carlos was the former bass player who left because touring was taking a toll on the amount time he spent with the members of his other family – his wife and kids. As Adam illustrates it, the band members had always had a real family feel or closeness; He describes by mentioning that “it was difficult even leaving for a weekend” without being heartbroken. Brandon was also a former member of the band but moved on to a more Hollywood career and is featured in the HBO hit Weeds. The 88 actually has a hit on the soundtrack of Weeds along with many other hit TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The OC.
Being in LA is definitely a “great starting place,” as Adam puts it. It really aided in getting the band spots on radio stations and even live performances like on The Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. This helped “spread their music” and commercial success. Bands like The Beatles and The Band are huge influences on The 88. They’ve also toured with big names like the Smashing Pumpkins and one of Adam’s personal favorites, The B-52’s on the east coast and Matt Costa on a Canadian tour. Adam mentioned these last two as being some highlights of his musical career. Nevertheless, the band, known for their energetic shows, put effort into every show. Adam expresses the 88’s shows as if every time they go on, they “try and make it the best show ever.” “We show fun when we’re doing it, we’re not too serious (not on stage at least),” he comments, “but we are very serious about the music we make.” When asked if Adam considers the band “indie,” he replies, “oh yeah, because we do everything ourselves; it’s how we survive as a band.” Their dedication and hard work is clearly evident, especially in their varied music that merits to fit under a broad genre.
With possible plans of a tour to Europe and elsewhere, this band, 19 years in the making, sees no plans for retiring. “I cannot see myself doing anything not music related,” Adam remarks. This is the general ideology of all the band members. Music is foremost. “Writing, practicing and preforming” is what The 88 does best. “We work hard and keep doing what we’re doing, ” Adam summarizes and adds, “we’re lucky and blessed.” A truly appreciative band that deserves the appreciate of fans everywhere, the 88 is a band who continues to thrive since they “open to doing something different because there’s always something new.”

To find out more, check out their website: www.the88.net; their myspace: www.myspace.com/the88, and even their twitter: twitter.com/the88

Paranormal Activity-A Movie Review from Stephanie

Movie Review

Paranormal Activity

By: Stephanie Figueroa

Its been called “the scariest movie of all time” and been demanded in hundreds of cities. What’s with all the hype about Paranormal Activity? Well, its not your typical horror film, thats for certain. Its safe to say, movies like these don’t come around often. If you are easily frightened and prone to sleepless nights, then suggesting to watch this movie would be pointless. If not, read on.

One aspect that sets this movie apart from others is the way it was filmed.

Writer-Director of the movie, Oren Peli, is a fan of slow-burn type movies. He created this film with a nominal crew of himself, his best friend, his girlfriend, and a hired make-up artist. The entire movie is through the point of view of a home purchased camera held by either of the two characters, Micah, played by Micah Sloat or Katie, played by Katie Featherson. The sensation of being a home video is really what is the most eerie, being that it seems realistic.

The couple in the film decide to record their daily lives, including their nocturnal ones, in case they discover what has been creeping around their house. As the movie progresses, Katie and Micah begin experiencing worse and worse “paranormal activity” in the house. On a nightly basis, something always seems to be disturbing their sleep. Whether it be footsteps or slamming doors, whatever it is, it wants Katie and Micah’s attention. And that is just what it gets.

The movies turning point is definitely towards the end. By then, the audience is on the edge of their seats. What comes next is something beyond unexpected. The ending will leave viewers speechless and questioning the little things that go bump in the night.

Alison’s Interview with Kristinia DeBarge

In 2003, Kristinia DeBarge made it to the finals in the short-lived signing competition American Juniors. Though she did not win the coveted recording contract, DeBarge is now proving that you don’t have to finish first to make it to the top. With herBillboard Top 20 hit “Goodbye,” DeBarge is now on tour with Britney Spears playing to sold out arenas every night.

Recently, she got the chance of a lifetime to perform two sets at the famous Madison Square Garden. “It has been an amazing experience,” she said. Though the crowds she currently performs to are in the thousands, DeBarge tries to create an intimate show. “I like to connect with my audience. I want them to have fun no matter where they’re sitting.”

Despite being only 19, DeBarge has experienced a lot for her age and she chooses to talk about her past through her songs. On her debut album Exposed, she sings about everything from breakups to maturation. “I would describe my music as fun and relatable. There is a song for everyone.” It looks like DeBarge won’t be saying “Goodbye” to her career anytime soon.

Check out Kristinia DeBarge in Britney Spear’s Circus. She will be performing at the American Airlines Arena on September 2.

What Bands will still be famous in 100 years?

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