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The Best Video Games for Wannabe Rockstars

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There are those of us out there who just want to rock. With the music flowing through our veins, we desire to be out there on the stage giving it our all and bringing the crowd to a fever pitch. Being a rockstar is something that a great many of us dream of doing.

But the dream doesn’t work for all of us. Most of us go on to do something else, though the dream of rocking that stage doesn’t ever really go away. It then becomes about finding an outlet for those desires, finding other ways to rock.

Now, you can rock away on video games that bring the experience to life. Being able to rock through video games makes it feel as if the dream is still alive and that it can be possible to bring the crowd to their feet.

So which video games are the best for this? There are a few where you will swear that you died and woke up in rock heaven.

Ozzy Osbourne Video Slot

Who is more synonymous with rock than one of the legends of the game? Now users can rock the crowd through the Ozzy Osbourne Video Slot and live to thrill as the British rocker has for so many years.

Thanks to Unibet NJ, users can experience the very best casino games around. That includes slots, jackpot slots, roulette, bingo, roulette, live casino, and so much more. You can go from the casino floor to the stage floor in just a few taps and live the life of a rockstar as you were meant to do.

Guitar Hero

There have been many incarnations of this game throughout the years but the 2005 original set the stage for others just like it. Through the use of a controller shaped like a guitar, gamers could shred with the best in the industry to some of the most classic songs around.

Picking up and learning guitar is not an easy thing but picking up a controller and rocking out to some of the industry’s greatest bands has never been easier. The user just needs to hit the color-coordinated buttons in order to get a higher score and send the crowd into a frenzy.

If you are a part-time rocker, there is no better way to bring the crowd to their feet than through this classic music video game. Even better, there are variations of this game solely dedicated to the rock genre, even saluting rock legends such as Metallica.

Rock Band

Console gamers will know this one well. Back in 2007, it took the genre of music video games to a whole new level. Where it set itself apart from the aforementioned Guitar Hero is that it gave you more than a guitar.

Gamers could take the ax and shred as they could in Guitar Hero but they could be a drummer, a bassist or a frontman too. Even better, this game allowed for friends to come together all in the name of rock. No touring needed; you could rock the crowd each night to a huge array of songs.

Rock Band became a huge hit and surpassed Guitar Hero simply for the greater options. After all, you may not be a great guitarist but you could rip it up vocally or bang out an impressive set on the drums and still rock just as hard.

Rocksmith

Whereas the aforementioned games focused on fun instead of actual technical musical talent, Rocksmith attempted to teach you how to play the bass or guitar. Using real guitar training techniques, it looks similar to Guitar Hero but presents in a much different way.

The difference here is the difficulty level. With Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it can get extremely difficult, make no mistake. But Rocksmith attempts to teach you real chords so that you can have a feel for how to actually play a guitar.

Even with the frustration at times, Rocksmith prepares you to pick up a real guitar. The other games won’t do anything of the sort and being able to transfer your video skills to reality is something that we all have wanted to do from time to time.

 

Video: Lizzo Talks Creative Process and Standing Out In The Music Industry

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Lizzo has been no stranger to patience and perseverance on her road to music success.

Last fall, she sat down with Cuz I Love You producer Ricky Reed in front of an intimate group of GRAMMY U students to share tidbits on her success and insigth on how they can be successful, too. Among her pointers, she talked about how standing her ground got her to where she is today.

The Killers Comment on Mr. Brightside Video

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The Killers grabbed rock by the shirt collar when they blasted outta Vegas in 2004 with the instantly impressive ‘Hot Fuss.’ Brandon Flowers’ passionate vocals roared in front of the band’s explosive moves, and “Mr. Brightside” came on like storm. Our ‘Watch This’ series has artists glance back at their most significant music videos, adding insightful commentary and key insights about the shoots themselves or the career impact of the videos at that time in their career. We invited The Killers in to chat it up a bit about some of their important vids, and Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci took some time to recall a few of their best-known titles. First up, the one the kicked everything off: “Mr. Brightside,” directed by Sophie Muller. “I never felt natural to make a music video,” muses the singer. “It still doesn’t.” That doesn’t mean they’ve stopped however. Their latest track “Caution” is currently topping the Alt-Rock chart and its video is superb. Stay close, we’ll be sharing more ‘Watch This’ chats with Brandon and Ronnie soon.

Music for Mental Health: New resource for stress relief from Make Music Matter

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Ottawa-based non-profit Make Music Matter has launched a series of techniques to help individuals de-stress and strengthen their mental health through a new campaign: Music Reconnects Us: 6 Steps to Relieve Stress with Music. The resource guides people to become mindful of their psychological and physiological state, and ultimately to create an original piece of music.

“In this time of physical isolation, we wanted to offer something to help people strengthen their mental health through what we know best – the creation and performance of music,” explains Darcy Ataman, founder and CEO of Make Music Matter. “We have seen the quantifiable healing power of music, and now, more than ever, people are looking for ways to reduce their anxiety and find balance in their life.”

People are invited to share their creations on social media using the hashtags #MusicReconnectsUs and #MakeMusicMatter.

STEVE HOWE of YES to Release New Solo Album ‘LOVE IS’ July 31

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Legendary YES guitarist STEVE HOWE has announced he will release LOVE IS via BMG Records on July 31. LOVE IS marks HOWE’s first solo album since the all-instrumental Time in 2011 and has a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs.

The album will be available as a CD in a gatefold digi-sleeve with a 12-page booklet, and a black vinyl 180gm LP with a gatefold sleeve, liner notes and lyrics.

STEVE HOWE sings lead vocals and plays electric, acoustic and steel guitars, keyboards, percussion and bass guitar on the instrumentals, while Yes vocalist Jon Davison provides vocal harmonies and plays bass guitar on the vocal tracks. The album also features Dylan Howe on drums.

Many years in the making, LOVE IS brings together a consistently strong and polished listening experience, forging the very best from the writing and playing throughout the album. This may well be considered the real ‘stand out’ album of Howe’s solo career. The instrumentals keep a highly progressive rock guitar style to the fore, with songs that explore stories of lives lived and lives only just begun. “Love Is A River” is the central longer song with several textural shifts, featuring a theme played on 12-string and steel guitars.

“I called the album LOVE IS because it hints at the central idea that that love is important but also love of the universe and the ecology of the world is very important,” says Steve Howe. “Alexander Humboldt went around the world and recognized we are destroying the planet but that was 200 years ago! We are still destroying the planet and, I suppose, my songs show the yearning I have for the love of nature and how beauty, art and music all stem from nature. There is a theme about those things, love, beauty, ecology, nature and wonderful people.

“‘Love Is A River’ just seemed a very important track to me, a sort of quintessential track with lots of moods, lots of interesting things going on with steel guitars and acoustic guitars. Further tracks grew from time spent writing in my studio.

“‘See Me Through’ looks at the idea that we get through life by not driving ourselves that hard but attempting to achieve things with people who help you along the way, and ‘Imagination’ is dedicated to my granddaughter Zuni. It’s about how I see some of the things she’s experienced in her short seven years.

“I invited Jon Davison to sing harmonies with me and add bass on the songs. If he was singing on the songs I thought ‘why doesn’t he play bass’ as well and it turned out nice. He’s been with Yes for seven or eight years and he’s a great guy, great performer and a great interpreter of Yes songs.

“I’ve been singing for years, mainly in harmony but I’ve sung lead on lots of my own albums before and I feel that, as I’ve got older, I’ve got a grip on that and, hopefully, it’s improved over the years.”

The album includes many distinctive STEVE HOWE signatures among the instrumental tracks from the delicate beauty of “Fulcrum,” “Beyond The Call” and “Pause For Thought” to upbeat rock, “The Headlands,” and the jazz-tinged “Sound Picture.”

“The instrumentals are like a mood, a place I went to one day, thought this is nice and then I develop that to a point where it’s a finished track. There might be key ingredients that I thought about using musically that I like, that I’m drawn to, and then developing them into something.” LOVE IS was written, engineered and produced by STEVE HOWE with further engineering and mixing by Curtis Schwartz. “I write in my own studio and then go to see Curtis in his studio,” Howe explains. “We expand the tracks and put them on Pro Tools and everything starts to be possible. At some point, probably around 2 years ago, Dylan came down to Curtis’s studio and we recorded the drums on some of the tracks. I could see a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs and there was a feeling that it was an album, sitting there, looking at me.”

The track listing for Steve Howe’s LOVE IS album is:
1 Fulcrum *
2 See Me Through
3 Beyond The Call *
4 Love Is A River
5 Sound Picture *
6 It Ain’t Easy
7 Pause For Thought *
8 Imagination
9 The Headlands *
10 On The Balcony
* instrumental

Video: Fred Armisen Does Every North American Accent

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Fred’s been around the country a bit. Probably too much.

What Is the Best Way to Convert PPT to PDF?

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PDF, whose full name is Portable File Format, is one of the most popular document formats used by many people today. PDF seems to carry all content in a much clearer way, including text,  lively, using PDF seems to be a more professional way. So for presenting some important things, people are more like to use PDF instead of PPT. If you also need to convert PPT to PDF after finishing creating the PPT content, EasePDF will bring you the help.

Introduction of EasePDF

On EasePDF, you can use all the PDF tools provided by this platform completely for free. As you can see from its tool menu, there are up to 32 PDF solutions offered by EasePDF. You even don’t need to sign up for using them. All the help and solutions provided by EasePDF can be easily accessed without limitations.

The PDF format converters are the most widely-used tools as well as the most representative service of EasePDF. Two main converter types are offered – one is to convert PDF to other document formats like Word, Excel, PPT, etc., while the other is to convert other formats to PDF in contrast. For the purpose today, we should select the PPT to PDF Converter provided by EasePDF to help.

Freely Convert PPT to PDF on EasePDF

EasePDF designs all its tools for users to use most simply. So you can easily get how to convert PPT to PDF once you go to the tool on EasePDF. But still, I will walk you through the guidance below to prevent you from making some small errors. Now let’s have a look.

Step 1. To begin with, open EasePDF official website in your browser. From the menu bar on top, choose All PDF Tools and then go to PPT to PDF listed in the first column.

Step 2. Now you should add the PPT files you want to convert to PDF here. Just press Add File(s) to add it from your desktop. Or click GoogleDrive, Dropbox, and OneDrive to select the files you have stored there. Finally, using the URL that contains your PDF files for adding to EasePDF is also workable.

Step 3. When you have uploaded the PPT files, EasePDF will directly help you convert them to PDF! After waiting for seconds, the files are converted and you can download them directly. Just press the Download button, then you can save the PDF offline.

(It is also workable for you to save the converted files to GoogleDrive, Dropbox, and OneDrive platforms. But if you save this URL, you should back to deal with the converted file within 24 hours, or it will be expired.)

Use EasePDF with These Benefits

  • Free services with no need to pay
  • Starts using easily without an account
  • 256-bit SSL Encryption is equipped
  • Auto-deletion to remove your files after 24 hours
  • Fast speed helps save your time
  • Different services to meet all your needs
  • User-friendly UI makes all functions easy to use
  • Online services with no need to download software

Summary

No matter you want to convert PPT or other formats to PDF, just with EasePDF, you can easily get the work done. The quick services brought by EasePDF will save your time and effort freely. Why not try it immediately now?

Sultans of String Release New Single “The Grand Bazaar” featuring Béla Fleck & Robi Botos

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Sultans of String release gorgeously evocative and powerful single “The Grand Bazaar” featuring 15-time GRAMMY Award-winning American banjo master Béla Fleck and JUNO Award-winning Canadian pianist Robi Botos.

This song has recently been awarded ‘Best Instrumental Song’ by the Independent Music Awards; the album Refuge won the World Producer Award for production work by Sultans of String bandleader Chris McKhool and John ‘Beetle’ Bailey.

“This is a project that is centred around the positive contributions of refugees and new immigrants to U.S.A. and Canada,” says McKhool, whose Lebanese grandfather stowed away on a ship bound for North America a century ago. “We are bringing in special guests that are newcomers to this land, as well as global talents that have been ambassadors for peace.

“We wish to celebrate the successes of those who make the journey here, and bring their extraordinary talents with them.”

“My family’s story involves immigration,” featured artist Béla Fleck reflects. “Of course, we came in through Ellis Island, my grandparents on my mother’s side, Jewish-Russian refugees…

“I was really fortunate they were able to get out of a dangerous part of the world, and that America took them in at that time.

“The banjo is a story of immigration,” he continues. “It’s a perfect story of immigration… Involuntary immigration. The slaves came to the Americas not of their own free will, but when they got there, they brought their culture. They built banjos and they played their music, and it got incorporated into what would become American music and became a major part of it.

“Yeah, if the banjo isn’t going to welcome people from different countries, I don’t know who would.”

“I came to Canada in 1998 as a refugee,” Robi Botos shares. “But my case was rejected and I was nearly kicked out; basically, I’ve almost faced deportation. With the amazing help of musicians, fans, and people from all kinds of places from the music industry who supported me, it all worked out. It was very, very tricky and very hard for me to manage to stay in Canada.

“I feel just like any refugees,” Botos continues. “I always look at any refugees with those eyes, thinking about my case and my situation. I’ve been very blessed and fortunate in the music industry, too, considering I’m an instrumental artist who’s raising four kids.

“We have to look at refugees through those eyes where all of us came here from somewhere else. If it’s not us, it’s our parents or grandparents. I just think it’s amazing what a lot of refugees contribute.”

UK Band Pays Tribute To Canada With WONDERS OF THE YUKON Name, But Makes Alt.Folk For The World

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British alt-folk, alt-Americana ‘Indie for Grownups’ act Wonders of the Yukon have released their newest single, “Cartoon Dreams.” They’ve also revealed Woty.

“It’s a tale of existential angst with a liberal sprinkling of surrealism and absurdism,” band co-front Andy Campbell shares. “It considers the dichotomy between religion and evolution, and pits God against Darwin.

“Faith against genetics,” counterpart Dave Langdale adds.

Set on a bouncing backdrop of squelching guitars and laser-guided melodies, “Cartoon Dreams” captures the stark sense of one’s own mortality. “But this is balanced with random meanings using the William Burrough’s ‘cut up’ technique famously employed by David Bowie,” Langdale continues of the dream-like quality the track takes on. “Afterall, what is life but a sequence of random events?”

“Life is but a dream, right…?” Campbell offers.

Most notably beyond the track’s feisty fortitude is the reveal of ‘Woty’ — the song’s mascot of sorts. “We welcome the ‘birth’ of Woty in this video,” the duo says. “It’s a character that came into existence inadvertently as the stencil left behind from a spray-painted guitar pickguard.

“Woty ‘spoke’ to us when we were considering the artwork for this single.”

As heard since their breakthrough EP Songs of Mild Peril (2018) and follow-up string of singles, “Cartoon Dreams” amplifies the band’s affinity for both toying with the darker side of American culture with their homegrown Northern England sensibility. The results are yet another addition to their library that equally finds its place in the Twin Peaks Bang Bang Bar as would in a weather-ravaged grog shop in the Yorkshire Moors.

With their sound described as having a liquor-soaked romance, replete with soothing harmony and rattling emotion, this is a band that came together by chance; their partners are childhood best friends who also lived around the corner from each other.

Previously, Andy Campbell and Dave Langdale have released records via Columbia and Jeepster Records, respectively. Years before meeting, they shared stages with the likes of Pavement, Granddaddy, Sparklehorse, Bootsy Collins, and more, before joining to create Wonders of the Yukon.

And as for that name… Here’s how that conversation came about:

Dave: “I really like the word ‘Yukon.’”

Andy: “Yeah, it’s cool. It’s a place, isn’t it?”

Dave: “It’s in Canada. It’s bleak and beautiful.”

Andy: “Hmmm. Sounds quite apt for our music.”

Dave: “I was reading about Yukon Territory… Fantastic wildlife, the Northern Lights, vast and wide open spaces, harmonious nature…”

Andy: “Yukon Territory sounds pretty good.”

From there, the pair did a quick Google search, as one does, and discovered like nearly every last (dot) com or Insta-handle or… Y’know, Territory. There was already something named it.

“I just still loved the word ‘Yukon,’” Campbell continued, not inclined to let it go so easily. “It sounded like something from a sci-fi movie, like it came straight out of Flash Gordon.

“‘Ming the Merciless approaching from the planet Yukon.’”

“Yeah, it sounded otherworldly,” Langdale agreed.

Soon, an image came to Campbell: “I just saw ‘Wonders of the Yukon…’ Like a heading or chapter in a novel or newspaper.”

Or… The name of a really great band from Wakefield, England.

“Cartoon Dreams” is available now.

With 700,000+ Streams Across Socials, Windsor/Toronto Singer/Songwriter CHRISTEE PALACE Steps into Self-Defiant “Danger”

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With over 700,000+ streams across Spotify and YouTube, award-winning Canadian pop artist Christee Palace steps into “Danger” with her newest single — available now.

“‘Danger,’ for me, is a song about conscious self-defiance,” the Windsor-born, Toronto-based singer/songwriter says, offering context surrounding the track. “It’s about understanding full well what you are doing, and knowing it has the potential to have serious emotional consequences.

“In this specific situation, I knew what the end result was going to be, but I felt like I was persuaded into staying in that position.”

The video — sitting at 40,000+ views and rising — is a stunningly intimate cinematic peek into Palace’s mindset. “I think the video really takes you on an emotional journey,” she says. “It gets the audience into my headspace and takes you through each phase of emotions I went through.

“Since we live together, we were able to pull this off,” Palace adds of the video’s technical accomplishment. Directed and shot by her photographer/videographer boyfriend Jaden D., the pair created the song’s visuals during some of the earlier isolation days. “I knew my initial plans for the video would have to be altered given the restrictions in place, but we made the most of it and it turned out better than I could have imagined.”

Christee Palace’s debut EP Alive Today — and follow-up singles “Out of Time” and “Light It Up” — kicked off her career, climbing the charts within their first few weeks at radio. From there, sophomore EP Harden My Heart and singles “Harden My Heart” and “Love Me In the Dark” amplified the call, adding to the more than 400,000+ streams (and upwards of 34,000+ monthly listeners) across Spotify, and well over 300,000+ views on YouTube; single “Wrong to Say Goodbye” was featured on influential playlists New Music Friday, New Music Now, and It’s a Bop.

She’s been featured on GlobalTV’s morning show, and opened for the likes of Sean Kingston and Walk Off The Earth. Additionally, she opened for — and received a — 2019 Indie Award(s) after taking top prize in the Jim Beam National Talent Search.

“Danger” is available now.