Radiant Rachel Reflecting on Ruby, Rails, Righteous Rants and Random Rubbish
Music
I Will Never Be The Same – Standby
I Will Never Be The Same - Standby
“Standby” is the freshman album from “I Will Never Be The Same“. The man behind the band is newcomer Josh Atchley. From the band’s website, he details that through a year and a half of writing, playing, production and marketing, he has started from scratch to create the apocalyptic sound of “Standby.”
Atchley is the write, lyricist, and sole album band member (except for help on some of the drumming) which reminds me of Trent Reznor solo efforts with his band Nine Inch Nails. Atchley and the live band members of I Will Never Be The Same have started touring the album on the west coast (sadly, I have yet to see anything performed live or on video by the band.) He has dreams of touring the band across the country and hopefully, around the world.
His live band members include of course himself, Josh Atchley (Vocals, Lead Guitars, Keyboards), Brittany Bao (Keyboard/Synth), Taylor Haycraft (Guitars), Francis Ten (Bass), and Adam Waldon (Drums). Haycraft and Ten are also of the band “West Indian Girl” that specializes in some serious psychedelic music, not my cup of tea but check it out if interested!
The album starts with the contemplative “Prelude” and segues into the powerful “I Am Not The One.” “Worldless” exhibits the eminent warnings from the previous tracks and then glides into the electric “Starfields.” Atchley apparently is a fan of fire and includes two tracks alluding to the destructor, “Burn” and “Set Your World On Fire” have much grittier vocals but keeps to the beauty of the album. The other tracks on the album include thoughts and missives to another, the speaker alone and recalling the past. “Eyes Turning Black” is like the final chapter of the story, the world has died with everything with it. The sense that someone has died and the life you saw in their eyes has “faded to black.” “Superloop” is the ending thought that concludes with “Cry Little Sister,” a cover of the “Lost Boys” soundtrack theme by Gerard McMann and Michael Mainieri.
My favorite tracks off this album are “Worldless,” “Starfields,” “Last Goodbye,” “Eyes Turning Black,” and “Cry Little Sister.”
Here is a full track listing:
- Prelude (1:42)
- I Am Not the One (4:18)
- Worldless (3:25)
- Starfields (4:39)
- Burn (4:46)
- Speak (4:14)
- All For You (5:48)
- Last Goodbye (5:45)
- Set Your World On Fire (5:34)
- Eyes Turning Black (5:29)
- Superloop (5:27)
- Cry Little Sister (5:00)
You can pick up the album (electronic download only as of now) via your favorite electronic store: Amazon.com, iTunes, Fixt or eMusic. Also be sure to check out the band’s MySpace (if even just to listen to the music I talked about here), Facebook Page, and Josh even has an entertaining Twitter account as well.
And there you go, my first attempt at an album review! 
Check out this album and let me know what your thoughts are.
Video Games Live
Video Games Live
On Sunday, my sisters, father and I went to see the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra perform Video Games Live! I expected it to be a nerd fest, of course, but this actually was well thought out but pretty much as I expected.
I kind of feel the pre-show was lacking but maybe that was due to the fact that I showed up only 15 minutes before the actual show. Maybe I have high expectations of available nerdy readiness when I go to shows and conventions (etc… etc…) and always seem to be let down in some way.
ANYWAY, my sister, Jennifer had planned long in advance that she was going to reprise her Link (Hero of Time) costume and wear it to the show. In fact, the organizers encourage people to dress up as their favorite video game characters. Right as we arrived, they were judging the costume contest and one brave man dress as Kratos from the God of War series.
Among the audience were quite a few more Links (and Zeldas) and I managed to spot a quite convincing Princess Toadstool and grabbed a picture with her.
The orchestra performed the classics. It was similar to the songs I had heard from bootlegs over other concerts that did the same thing. Of course, the game I most looked forward to hearing was the Legend of Zelda music because, come on, a good chunk of games dealt solely with music! Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed because they seemed to just revolve around the main Zelda theme without deviation into the other great pieces in the series.
Princess Peach and Link
Aside from that, I was joyed to watch the two competition they had. The first one brought a girl from the audience up on stage to become a huge space ship to defend from the Space Invaders. They had her put on a black T-shirt and on the back was a green space ship and there was some sort of tracking device that monitored her position to correspond with the cursor on screen. She failed to move enough on stage to get ahead but it was funny enough to watch her (and the many people yelling “shoot the sides!!”) The second competition was for the Guitar Hero champion. The winner was decided before the actual show and the one with the highest score was invited on the stage later on in the show. His job was to beat Aerosmith on “Hard” and get 200,000 points. The guy was cheeky and said he could do it on “Expert.” Well, he wasn’t successful and was just short of getting the necessary points. Still, WAY better than I could ever do!
Another high light was the appearance of the man whom invented the first video game. They first showcased the first video game demo and then chatted with the inventor, Ralph Baer, over Skype.
All in all, a good evening of nerdyness and entertainment.
