A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Paul Di Filippo sent us a link to the song “Everything Changes” by Eytan and The Embassy which, while not sf-related itself, pays homage to Star Wars in the following version of their video.
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Back in 1983, the Alarm released “The Stand, a song based on The Stand by Stephen King. This is the video from MTV (y’know…when the “M” actually stood for “music”…)
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Came across these and wanted to share. Both are wonderful versions/interpretations of ‘Over The Misty Mountains Cold. by J R R Tolkien.
Check them out after the jump.
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?
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Fashion Monster answers the age old question, “What would a music video by a Japanese Tim Burton look like?” The answer my friends is, in all its J-Pop glory, after the jump!
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This soundtrack single from Linkin Park may be the best thing to ever come out of Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon.
The Raiders March (a.k.a. Indiana Jones Theme) is one of my all time favorite pieces of movie music. Vocalist Nick McKaig covers this piece by performing each instrument using only his voice. The result is fantastic.
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Starring: Felicia Day & Jason Charles Miller
Featuring: Grant Imahara (Mythbusters!)
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.
The game Borderlands is a very cool mash-up of Diablo-style hack/slash/loot gameplay within a first person shooter framework, all wrapped up in a sweet cell-shaded skin. Add in a wicked sense of humor and robot ninja assassins and you’ve got a game that’s oozing with style. Said ooze begins at the very beginning, with the intro cinematic, thoughtfully provided for your entertainment:
Ah, but what is that catchy song playing? Why it’s “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”, by Cage The Elephant. According to Wikipedia, Cage The Elephant is an American rock band, but looking at their song charts, it looks like they get more play on the alternative stations, which is probably why I had never heard of them until I played Borderlands. I’ll have to check out some of their other stuff.
Bonus full music video after the jump!
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I’m betting the word ‘Firefly’ made you at least take a look at this post. And since you’re reading this on SF Signal (the purveyors of all fine things science fiction) I’m betting you like Firefly. A lot. You may even have a browncoat to your, but you’ve definitely seen Joss Whedon’s truncated masterpiece several times. You may have even tried to introduce Firefly to that special someone in your life. But what happens when that someone doesn’t like Firefly (I know! Crazy right?)? Singer/songwriter Mikey Mason takes drastic action. Was he in the right? You decide!
Years ago I read and absolutely loved John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, a book that bears little resemblance to the schlocky film adaptation from the 60′s that I saw in my youth. Back then, that movie creeped me out…but nowhere near as much as this “Day of the Triffids” song by 2000AD‘s Henry Flint.
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Song: “UFO Tofu”
Artist: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
Album: UFO Tofu
Last week’s discussion of The Dave Matthews Band got me thinking about other groups that feature non-standard instruments in their lineup. The musicians that make up Bela Fleck & The Flecktones are about as non-standard as you can get.
Song: “Satellite”
Artist: Dave Matthews Band
Album: Under the Table and Dreaming
Bear McCreary’s excellent arrangement of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” for Battlestar Galactica led to an interesting discussion of which artist has recorded the best interpretation of the song. Jimi Hendrix? Michael Hedges?
In the comments section of last week’s post, quite a few people nominated the Dave Matthews Band’s version of the folk staple. While I love DMB’s reading of the song, I decided to feature a more Science Fiction appropriate track for this week’s Tuesday Tune….
Song: “All Along the Watchtower”
Artist: Michael Hedges
Album: Watching My Life Go By
As a follow-up to last week’s post, I thought that I would address my somewhat disparaging statement that Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” was covered by every coffee shop strummer and sloppy bar band. While the song is built on a relatively simple chord progression that even the most pedestrian musician can stumble through, there have been many truly inspired versions of “All Along The Watchtower”.
While most people will point to Hendrix’s seminal recording of the song (and who could argue with Hendrix) as the standard bearer, it is my opinion that the acoustic version performed by the late Michael Hedges might be even better.
Song: “Chiron Beta Prime”
Artist: Jonathan Coulton
Album: Thing a Week Two
Jonathan Coulton is arguably the most successful singer/songwriter of the internet age. Much has been written of his “Thing a Week” project, where he wrote, recorded, and released a new song every week during a 12 month span in 2005 and 2006. Many other artists have tried similar tricks, but Coulton’s success is due more to the undeniable quality of his songwriting rather than any gimmick.
Coulton’s songs combine a Beatle-esque level of songcraft with a They Might Be Giants’ sense of fun and humor. The sheer number of flat-out great songs that he produced during this period is truly remarkable. This week’s Tuesday Tune was written during this time.
Song: “Livin’ In The Future”
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Magic
This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend Philcon in Cherry Hill, NJ. You may ask: “Shouldn’t Philcon take place in Philadelphia?” My best answer to that question is that hotel rates are cheaper across the river in Cherry Hill and that renaming the event “Cherrycon” would mistakenly draw unsuspecting bakers and Warrant fans.
Anyway, I was in the audience for an excellent panel entitled “Why Aren’t We Writing About The Future Anymore?” There was lots of great commentary by Sci-Fi Authors Cory Doctorow, David Louis Edelman, and Gregory Frost.
This got me thinking about songs with “Future” in the title.
Song: Vampires in Love
Artist: Marvelous 3
Album: Hey Album!
Sometimes, I feel like I’ve missed my true calling in life. While I love writing and recording songs about Science Fiction and Fantasy, I think that I would be an awesome Music Supervisor for movies and TV shows. No offense to music supervisor extraordinaire Alexandra Patsavas, but she totally dropped the ball by not including this week’s Tuesday Tune in the upcoming “New Moon” soundtrack. I’ve yet to see “New Moon” or “Twilight” for that matter, but come on! The title of the song is “Vampires in Love”. It’s a no-brainer!
Song: “2112 Overture”
Artist: Rush
Album: 2112
This week we are blessed with the arrival “2012″, the latest cinematic masterpiece from Roland “I like to blow things up” Emmerich. When I first read the title of this film, I briefly thought that someone had made a movie out of Rush’s magnum opus “2112″. Sadly this appears to be another by the numbers world catastrophe movie.
