In episode 172 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester chats Paul and Storm who write music that makes people laugh and feel good. They are the co-founders of Wootstock, they co-produce the JoCo Cruise Crazy, a Caribbean cruise/concert festival for fans of internet musician Jonathan Coulton, and now have a new show called ‘Learning Town’ which debuted on Tuesday, January 15th on YouTube’s Geek & Sundry channel.
“LearningTown” follows a fictional Paul and Storm as they try to keep an old-style kid’s show (in the spirit of Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, etc.) going after its original host dies. They hire a producer (“Cookie Tuesdays”) away from a rival show to help them; and they also enlist the help of a superfan (“Teddy”) to handle the puppets. But the challenge is steep, not only because they have no idea what they’re doing, but because they have radically different ideas about how to run the show, and there are lots of other characters who help and/or hinder their cause along the way. Oh…and puppets sometimes catch fire. There will be ten episodes in Season 1, each between 7-9 minutes each in length. There may also be some shorter bonus videos. New episodes will be released every Tuesday starting on January 15, 2013.
A few weeks back in our Crowd Funding Roundup post we covered the Kickstarter campaign for a crowd-sourced SF movie called Project London (and with 2 days left to go, they’ve met their goal, congrats!). While perusing more info about the movie, I ran across this music video, made for the movie, by the band Half-Acre Day. It features scenes from the movie and you can view it as a different movie trailer set to a kickin’ beat. I rather like it.
I can only imagine that money must have been tight in Gotham City back in the 1960s for Batman to take a singing gig on a variety show. Or perhaps he was working undercover to bust a ring of rogue off-key villains? Or maybe he lost a bet with the Joker? Read the rest of this entry
I had the opportunity to see the new Bond flick, Skyfall, this week, and while the movie itself is wonderful, it was the title music that struck a chord with me early on. The folks behind the Bond flicks have always done elaborate opening title sequences featuring music from some of the biggest names around. I remember a quote from Paul McCartney saying something like, “Being asked to do the music for a Bond film means you’ve arrived.” This from a former Beatle.
The music in those opening sequences haven’t always resonated with me. In fact, there’s been quite a few that have fallen flat. I believe Shirley Bassey set the tone for Bond when she recorded Goldfinger, and every band or singer since, has been held, at least in my mind, up to that for comparison. Adele’s soulful rendition of Skyfall harkens back to Bassey’s Goldfinger in a way few others have been able to manage, and has prompted me to do a top ten list of my favorites.
John Anealio writes songs about science fiction and fantasy and other geeky things. Alternate-tuned acoustic guitar picking, soaring synthesizers, and catchy pop hooks power his odes to androids, princesses, and vampires. His newest album, available on his website JohnAnealio.com as well as iTunes is the Chuck Wendig named album Laser Zombie Robot Love. He also recently released a free single to commemorate the fall of Felix Baumgartner from space to the ground. He is the co-creator and co-host of The Functional Nerds and has come up with theme songs for a variety of other podcasts as well, including the one for the SF Signal podcast.
I decided to sit down with John to learn more about him and his writing and creative process…
Paul Weimer: Laser Zombie Robot Love is your newest album. But where did the idea of doing geeky songs, as opposed to, say, covers or homages to Rush or Emerson Lake and Palmer come from?
John Anealio: For years, I was a straight-up folk/pop singer/songwriter. My songs were about relationships and other typical subject matter. As my writing grew, I started to write about all kinds of things. The first CD that I put out as a typical singer/songwriter included a song about vampires and one titled Orbit. At one point, I decided to focus my writing on subjects that would appeal to genre fans and tech geeks. Part of the idea behind this stemmed from my then, new found interest in blogs and podcasts. I was reading all of these Sci-Fi review blogs and I thought if I wrote songs inspired by the books that these folks were reviewing, then they’d probably enjoy them and maybe even spread the word about them. That was the start and it pretty much worked. However, it quickly changed to writing about all different subjects and themes within the genre, not just about specific Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books.
Just in time for this weekend’s return of The Walking Dead to AMC (October 14th – check your local listings), the folks over at How It Should Have Ended have released an extended cut of their popular Zombie Song…
He’s just a lonely zombie.. who could really eat some brains…
In episode 148 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester sits down to chat with Singer/Songwriter John Anealio
About John Anealio:
With little more than an alternate-tuned acoustic guitar and a dog-eared copy of The Hobbit, Sci-Fi Songwriter John Anealio composes and performs geeky anthems for writers, librarians, lovers of Science Fiction, Best Buy customers, and robots. His music sounds like John Mayer, Weezer, and James Taylor playing Dungeons and Dragons together on their iPhones. He is the Co-Host of The Functional Nerds Podcast
The only thing I don’t like about this parody of Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used to Know” used as a vehicle for mocking Star Wars and George Lucas…is the suggestion of a naked George Lucas. That’ll take some time to get over. Other than that, though…pure awesomeness.
Sci-Fi Songster and SF Signal contributor John Anealio shared a stage with Paul and Storm at Nerdtacular last weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here’s the video. John’s set begins at the 26-minute mark.
EDIT (from Patrick): The video is no longer available – we hear there will be a youtube version uploaded soon – when it is, we’ll re-add it back to this post.
Sorry folks – it was a really great video. Anealio’s laser show put Pink Floyd’s live show to shame!
“I Wanna Be a Magician” is a song that the band Fiction recorded for The Great Magician King Song Contest, a contest based on the novel The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Read the rest of this entry
Zack Parsons is a Chicago-area writer known for his acerbic humor at Something Awful, his non-fiction books like My Tank is Fight! and his contributions to various compilations. His debut sci-fi novelLiminal States, described by author Cory Doctorow as “vivid, and relentless, masterfully plotted,” was released April of 2012.
Book, with Occasional Music
When I set out to write my genre-spanning debut novel, Liminal States, I wanted to music to shape the outcome of my creative process. Ending with a free downloadable companion soundtrack from my friend, Conelrad, was something I hoped would excite readers and enhance their experience.
Listening to music while writing was vital for me. It allowed me to shut out what was going on, no matter where I was at the time, and depending on the music, it could serve as an inspiration for what I was writing. My obsession with scoring every moment made me curious about how more experienced authors of speculative fiction use music.
Three sinister gentlemen, a magician and an enormous rabbit populate the fantastical landscape of Emmy-winning director Jamie Caliri’s video for “The Rifle’s Spiral,” a new track by Portland-based indie rock heavyweights The Shins.
SciFi Songster (he loves it when I call him that) John Anealio has just released a new must-listen track “The Empire State“, a song commissioned by Mur Lafferty and Angry Robot Books for the WorldBuilder project, the companion website to Adam Christopher’s novel Empire State.
“LearningTown” follows a fictional Paul and Storm as they try to keep an old-style kid’s show (in the spirit of Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, etc.) going after its original host dies. They hire a producer (“Cookie Tuesdays”) away from a rival show to help them; and they also enlist the help of a superfan (“Teddy”) to handle the puppets. But the challenge is steep, not only because they have no idea what they’re doing, but because they have radically different ideas about how to run the show, and there are lots of other characters who help and/or hinder their cause along the way. Oh…and puppets sometimes catch fire. There will be ten episodes in Season 1, each between 7-9 minutes each in length. There may also be some shorter bonus videos. New episodes will be released every Tuesday starting on January 15, 2013.
Came across these and wanted to share. Both are wonderful versions/interpretations of ‘Over The Misty Mountains Cold. by J R R Tolkien.
Just in time for this weekend’s return of The Walking Dead to AMC (October 14th – check your local listings), the folks over at 
“Hello Gaius, my old friend…”
