Category: Recommended

Reviews, praise, or otherwise promoted.

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Recommended

Singstar Rocks US Tracklist

Anyone who’s talked to me about music games since our trip to London in April knows that finally got my hands on Singstar, Sony’s karaoke game for the PS2.

US gamers haven’t experienced Singstar yet; their exposure has largely been limited to Konami’s Karaoke Revolution in terms of singing games. While K-Rev certainly has its appeal, I’ve always been captivated by Singstar’s clean design, original artist recordings and videos, and better designed songlists.

Singstar is coming to the US in two forms. There is the overwhelming PS3 version, scheduled for around the PS3 launch; this is the one that will hook into the online store and have a limitless track selection.

To get gamers warm to the idea of a different karaoke game first, Sony is releasing a new version of Singstar Rocks in the US on November 14th. (“New version” is because the 5th Singstar game in Europe shared the same title.) The game ships with two very nice microphones and is apparently priced at $49.99. I cannot stress how much I enjoy this series and how much you should pick it up.

Anyhow, the track list went out with the press release today, and I’ve broken the tracklist down by which game it came from.

From Singstar

Good Charlotte / Girls & Boys

From Singstar Party

Scissor Sisters / Take Your Mama
The Police / Every Breath You Take

From Singstar Rocks (Europe)

Bloc Party / Banquet
Blur / Song 2
Coldplay / Speed Of Sound
Hole / Celebrity Skin
Jet / Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
Keane / Everybody’s Changing
KT Tunstall / Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
Scorpions / Wind Of Change
The Hives / Hate To Say I Told You So
The Killers / Somebody Told Me
The Offspring / Self-Esteem
The Rolling Stones / Paint It Black
Thin Lizzy / The Boys Are Back in Town

From Singstar Anthems

Gloria Gaynor / I Will Survive

New To The Series

Aretha Franklin / Respect
B52s / Love Shack
D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince / Summertime
Dusty Springfield / Son Of A Preacher Man
Elton John / Rocket Man
Fall Out Boy / Dance, Dance
Gwen Stefani / Cool
Joss Stone / Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin On Me?)
Lynyrd Skynyrd / Sweet Home Alabama
Marvin Gaye / I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Naked Eyes / (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me
The Cure / Friday I’m in Love
The White Stripes / Blue Orchid

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Recommended

NIN Radio Shows

Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy are in the midst of a [five-station radio tour](http://nin.com/current/radioshows/index.html). Each show has some old NIN standards as well as a cover or two. The cover of Nightclubbing is particularly smile-inducing, given [Trent’s history with it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downward_Spiral#Trivia).

I’m not entirely sure how much I prefer Peter Murphy’s vocals on some of the songs, but the interpretations on existing songs are at least *interesting*.

NIN fans who know me should drop me an IM.

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Recommended

Sidekick 3: Hands On

Around the turn of the century, consumerism took an interesting turn: cultism became favorable. No longer was there just the mass market and a void, but small niche markets became common, sought after, marketed at. (No blog post along these lines would be complete without shouting “LONG TAIL!” at the top of the author’s lungs, and I will not break the trend.) I belong to a number of shopping cults: my memberships in [the cult of Apple](http://www.flickr.com/photos/remydwd/19415606/) and [the cult of Bemani](http://www.flickr.com/photos/remydwd/1573382/) are well documented.

Today, I realized that I had a third major cult membership: the cult of the Sidekick.

Don’t get me wrong – I was fully willing to admit my Sidekick addiction for the two and a half years I’ve owned one. It is nearly inseparable from my hand to the point where it often feels like a body part rather than a cell phone. It is difficult for me to survive without one: it manages all of my email, the majority of my IM conversations, serves as my primary syndicated feed reader, and acts as my notepad for random nuggets of information.

But this morning, I stood in line with what I would estimate as roughly 500 people on 41st and Madison, waiting patiently for our chance to purchase a Sidekick 3. Again: these were not giveaways, these were people waiting in line to *buy a cell phone*. Again: **cult**.

With that said: while there are a number of professional reviews available about the Sidekick 3, very few go into the technical aspects and random questions that tech wonks like myself have. This post is my best attempt to answer the questions I had before I got my hands on one. I hope you find this useful.

Continue reading “Sidekick 3: Hands On”