Guitar Hero Custom GuitarsAuthor: Dap1

11APR

Synthesis homie John LaCroix designed a custom Guitar Hero guitar controller, for Activision and Red Bull, that is being sold for charity on eBay right now. Its a dope controller. It comeswith full LED lighting effects built in that light up when played. Ifyou haven’t heard, a ton of brands, artists and mediapersonalities have created custom guitars (for PS2) to raisemoney for MusiCares.

Check out the eBay online store to find guitars designed by thelikes of Armor For Sleep, Mototek-Ducati, Buckcherry, MyChemical Romance, Danny Masterson, New Era Cap, DashboardConfessional, Nickelback, designer Missy Broome, Paul FrankIndustries, Hot Hot Heat, Quiksilver, Jack Black and Kyle Gass(Tenacious-D), the Rocket Summer, Jack’s Mannequin, the SpillCanvas, John LaCroix, Suicide Girls, Kelly Slater, Sureshot,Martin Bros. Bikes, Tony Hawk, Metalocalypse, WillRhoten-Decade Clothing, Mister Cartoon and The Films.

Sportvision aims for “a digital recordof every single event in sports.”

Sportvision, CBS using FreezeCam on NFL telecasts

By ERIC FISHERStaff writerPublished November 12, 2007 : Page 04

Sportvision, a company best known for its sports TV innovations such as the yellow first-down line, has struck a multiyear dealwith CBS Sports to employ its technology for the network’s lead NFL game each week.

The agreement, which commenced with the widely watched matchup earlierthis month between New England and Indianapolis, includes Sportvision’snew FreezeCam. That technology seamlessly merges high-resolution, wide-angle still camera images with TV replays to show broader perspectives onthe formation and execution of specific plays.

FreezeCam is not entirely unlike Eye Vision, another high-profile visualelement CBS developed six years ago with Sportvision rival PVI, butFreezeCam provides its images at a far lower cost and is not focused on360-degree imaging.

Since the advent of the first-down line in the late 1990s, CBS has beenaligned with PVI. With CBS’s AFC-led broadcasts showing significant ratingsstrength among all NFL coverage, working with the network represented amajor priority for Sportvision.

The CBS deal also arrives in a period of expansion and change for Sportvision. The company is beginning to developcoaching-oriented products to expand its profile beyond consumer-facing TV products. Among the emerging initiatives is to useSportvision’s wealth of data generated through its digital technologies in Major League Baseball and NASCAR to createanalytical tools.

“Generally speaking, we have a goal to have a digital record of every single event in sports, and with our multiyear relationshipswith baseball and NASCAR, we’re getting there,” said Hank Adams, Sportvision chief executive.

The company’s GameDay MLB product, which includes its Pitch f/x technology in partnership with MLB Advanced Media, is upfor a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award, as is its Race View offering on NASCAR.com.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

I'M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, MR.LACROIX: the Explosion have a lot to winor lose with 'Here I Am,' but their label haseven more at stake.

On a rainy Saturday in lateSeptember, the Explosion arespending 12 hours filming the mostimportant two minutes and 47seconds of their career. But thevideo for "Here I Am," the firstsingle from the band’s major-labeldebut, , may be evenmore significant than that: whetherit succeeds may determinewhether there’s a future for VirginRecords. On a set erected insidethe Lansdowne Street club Axis,the band members lounge in frontof a white backdrop, bathed in acocoon of light. Around 11 a.m., thedirector, John LaCroix, a veteran ofthe Boston hardcore band 10 YardFight, gives them a quick pep talk and rolls film. As the band pretend to playtheir instruments, frontman Million Dollar Matt Hock karaokes the chorus:"Here I am, here I am, here I am/I’m back at the crossroads again/Let mestand, let me stand, let me stand/On top of the mountain again."

Although "Here I Am" represents a new sound for the Explosion (their oldsongs were fast, loud, and snotty; this one is mid-tempo, polished, andcatchy), the track’s message is not far from that of their 2000 debut,

(Jade Tree). The song announces itself with the sense thatsomething important has been misplaced — on , that something wasnothing less than punk’s heart and soul — while manifesting a determinationto retrieve it at all costs.

Like much of , "Here I Am" is also infused with the anxiety of aband who’re being groomed for stardom. For the moment, the Explosion areon top of the world, but they’re well aware how quickly they might comecrashing down. There’s a long history of vital Boston punk bands — DMZ inthe ‘70s, Gang Green in the ‘80s, Cave In just two years ago — who’vesigned to major labels only to release watered-down discs that failed toreach a wider audience. Guitarist Sam Cave is aware of the precedent."Yeah, it’s scary. We taking a risk, but we’re pretty young and we’regonna survive. I definitely think there’s much scarier things in life."

David Wolter, Virgin’s senior director of A&R, doesn’t think they have thatmuch to worry about: "I think ‘Here I Am’ is a monstrous hit." Wolter earnedthe Explosion’s confidence because, while at Hollywood Records in the1990s, he signed the hardcore group Into Another and the proto-emo bandSeaweed. And while at Giant Records, he signed Miltown, a Boston

post-hardcore band whose line-up included producerBrian McTernan. "It’s an anthem," he adds of "Here I Am." "If we do our job, Ithink it’s a song that’s going to be on the radio, it’s going to be incommercials."

But it isn’t just the Explosion who’re at a crossroads. Virgin Records hasseen its market share shrink over the past several years. Recent high-profilereleases by Lenny Kravitz, Courtney Love, and Janet Jackson have stiffed,and that plus two larger snafus — the expensive and unremunerativefree-agent signings of Mariah Carey and Robbie Williams — has threatenedthe company’s financial stability. When the Explosion signed to Virgin, thelabel’s parent company, EMI, had recently dropped 400 bands from itsroster. Now Virgin has decided to bank everything on its ability to break asingle band. This past summer, the label axed its radio-promotionsdepartment and brought in Bill Carroll. While at Vagrant Records, Carrollhad helped break Dashboard Confessional on radio; he then moved toElektra, where he broke Jet. When he arrived at Virgin, he perused the rosterand decided the Explosion would be his next focus.

"Bill’s main thing is that he does one band: he did Dashboard, then he did Jet,and now he’s going to do the Explosion," says Explosion manager RamaMayo. "And then the radio department, which is the main focus of any majorlabel, suddenly was saying, ‘Hey, it’s all about the Explosion. This is whatwe’re going to do.’ It literally changed everything for us overnight."

Indeed, the Explosion have become the label’s priority: Virgin has pushedother albums off its release schedule; assembled an internal "TeamExplosion" strike force comprising department heads and assistants at allbranches of the company to oversee an unprecedented marketing campaign;and curtailed its efforts to promote its other rock albums to radio stations inorder to clear the way for "Here I Am." "There’s enough competition at radiostations already," says Wolter. "We’re up against Green Day, GoodCharlotte, the Offspring. You go to a radio station and they’ve got a stack of30 CDs that they’re choosing from. We’ve removed one of the stacks."

No one will say publicly that Virgin needs the Explosion to have a hit in orderfor the label to survive, but privately several sources close to the label haveacknowledged that, in the words of one, "Virgin is counting on this record."David Munns, the chairman and CEO of EMI Recorded Music NorthAmerica, has been with EMI off and on since 1971; he had a hand in signingthe Sex Pistols, and in 2002, he returned as part of a new management teamcharged with turning the company around. Earlier this year, he closed hispep talk at the annual Virgin Records retreat in New York by quoting thelyrics to "Here I Am." "He turned it into the Virgin fight song: ‘Here I am, I’mback at the crossroads again,’" says Mayo. "Like, ‘Virgin: We need to have asuccessful year, we need to break a band.’ "

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http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/music/cellars/multi_1/documents/04171679.asp

BY CARLY CARIOLI

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/music/cellars/multi_1/documents/04171679.asp

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FLASH BACK: the determination toretrieve punk's heart and soul at all costs.

spent shooting the Explosion on thefloor at Axis, technicians scurry toturn the room around so they canshoot the band performing —plugged-in this time — on theclub’s stage before a smallaudience of 25 or 30 fans andfriends. This is, in fact, the secondtime the Explosion have shot avideo for "Here I Am." The firstattempt was lensed by the team ofFrank Borin and Ryan Smith,better known as Smith N’ Borin;famous for their work for GoodCharlotte, they’ve had five of theirvideos retired from MTV’s . But the first shoot was adisaster, and it was scrapped. It was filmed, in fact, in a scrapyard — "Total‘80s metal style," says guitarist Dave Walsh. "We shot in daylight," recallsWolter. "There’s sun in their eyes, Matt’s squinting. I hated it."

Trying to work with a mall-punk video team, though, was a rare mistake: over the past five years, the Explosion seem to have done everything right. In 1999, they signed to the influential indie label Jade Tree, where they stood out as a classic, dyed-in-the-wool punk band on a roster of emo kids. They toured relentlessly, finding allies in up-and-coming bands like the Distillers and the Burning Brides, as well as in commercial punk-pop bands like Good Charlotte and AFI. was hailed as an instant classic, andwhen the Explosion signed to Virgin, they sank part of their advance moneyinto funding their artist-run label, Tarantulas. The label, and the band,became the locus of a nationwide network of friends and bands including theDistillers and the Bronx; Mayo, who brought his previous experience runningthe influential indie label Big Wheel to the enterprise, says he wantsTarantulas to become a punk-rock version of 50 Cent’s G-Unit farm team.

But will all of that work translate into major-label success? "I’ve alwaysbelieved there’s a way to take an indie-label band and bring them to a major,"says Wolter. He does acknowledge that it’s a challenge to market a bandwho arrive with a substantial career under their belts. "It’s something new forVirgin. We’ve all seen examples where an indie band goes to a major labeland then doesn’t sell as many records as they did on the indie. We can’t havethat."

The making of was not without tension. The Explosion beganrecording demos in the fall of 2002, and they spent a year bouncing betweenproducers and cities, all the while sending the results to Wolter, who keptsending the band back to the studio for revisions. He believes the work paid

off. "My job is that sometimes I’m the band’s best friend and sometimes I’mtheir worst enemy." But by the end of 2003, Cave says the members werepulling their hair out. "It’s frustrating when it takes that long to do a record.You can’t do a tour because you’re recording demos, and you can’t generatemuch income." "We thought we were ready [to make an album] the firstcouple months," says bassist Damian Genuardi, "but there was a pointwhere we had growing pains. I think if everyone in the band made their ownsolo records right now, they would all sound so different."

The finished product reflects the band’s growth as songwriters — Hock, whohad never written a song before, penned "Here I Am" — as well as theirdivergent influences. The songs range from "Go Blank," which centers on asingle torn-and-frayed chord, to the Fugazi-ish lunge and feint of "I Know" tothe Hüsker Dü–ish "We All Fall Down." There’s even a song called"Mothers Cry" whose soaring harmonies could pass for punk. But as ifto balance it out, they’ve also re-recorded "No Revolution," the rallying crythat opened . " was written and recorded in such ashort time that it was like the beginning and end of a thought," says Cave. "Ithink a lot of great records are like that: we didn’t really know what we weredoing, but it came out pretty cool. This one is more a collection of songs, notnecessarily coming from one direction. It’s just a snapshot of the band at acertain place and time."

filters down to the front of the stage atAxis, the Explosion attempt to dispel their nervousness with self-depreciatinghumor. "This is going to be embarrassing for everyone involved," saysHock. "So let’s try to get through it." After several takes, though, the crewhaven’t got what they’re looking for. "The shots are fine; it’s the energy level,"LaCroix says. Wolter agrees, and he encourages the band to step it up.Action: fans slam and pogo, the Explosion whip their instruments back andforth. LaCroix, standing at the back of the room, takes a running start andleaps onto the heads of the audience, then runs to the back of the room anddoes it again. Rolling off to the side of the stage, he gestures at the band,whooping with his arms in the air: more, more.

Another take. A young man named Smith, a roadie for the band AFI whoplays the part of the skateboarder in the "Here I Am" video, leads such animpassioned sing-along that he all but strangles Hock with the mike chord.Cut. Everyone takes five, except for Cave, who stays on stage with drummerAndrew Black and plays a note-perfect version of the Misfits’ "We Are 138."The cameras aren’t rolling, but the audience goes nuts anyway, and Caveseems as happy as he’s looked all day. Smith sits on the steps to the side ofthe stage. "Everyone was worried that there weren’t enough people at thisshoot," he tells a friend. "But this reminds me of when I was little: you’d go toa show and there’d be 30 kids who really cared instead of 200 kids standingaround like they didn’t give a shit. I haven’t talked to Matt about it, but I kindathink that’s what the song’s about." Then LaCroix begins calling the bandback for one more take, one last chance to look, for posterity, like theExplosion.

Buzz Giant Poster BoyAmerican Demographics, June 1, 2004 by Noah R. Brier

Byline: NOAH R. BRIER

A face nonchalantly wallpapers urban landscapes in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London and Tokyo and most other

metropolitan areas. Evident or not to passers-by, the black-and-white visage glued to stop signs, light poles, scaffolding,

brick walls and fences around the world is the face of Andre the Giant. The Andre the Giant who fought Hulk Hogan in

wrestling bouts, who was ever so briefly WWF champion and who appeared in Rob Reiner's 1987 film, The Princess Bride.

How did this phenomenon come to be everywhere? Why has the 7'4" wrestling figure gained such posthumous fame - Andre

died in 1993 - that people literally risk arrest to post his image? As a student at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence,

Shepard Fairey thought it would be fun to print up a bunch of stickers with Andre's face, and, in the late 1980s, he started

pasting them up in the streets and alleys of Providence, Boston and eventually New York. The stickers read, "7'4," 520 lbs.

Andre the Giant has a Posse." At first, it was just a few friends that signed on as accomplices in the miniature billboard

campaign. Today, untold hosts of acolytes spread the odd Obey gospel to the ends of the earth.

Some 15 years later, Fairey sticks to his plan, and he's steered a virally crafted wellspring of global goodwill, brand recognition

and buzz into a portfolio of businesses in apparel, skateboards and media astride inner-city hip-hop culture and that of

kindred suburban skater youth society - tastemaker nirvana for marketers. Fairey's inadvertent talent at generating buzz among

tough-to-reach young consumers has also landed him consulting assignments from the likes of Coca-Cola, Nike and the

Gravity Games. Today, Fairey's original intent, to remind people to think about their surroundings and question what they see,

offers a textbook case in building brand identity based on creating a rapport with people that's not all about selling stuff, but

can be all about having people buy stuff as they enthusiastically coalesce and evangelize via a global underground

word-of-mouth network.

As if traditional media business models aren't challenged enough these days, stories like Fairey's - which turn brand marketing

inside out - further call into question the roughly $128.4 billion TNS Media Intelligence/CMR estimates was spent on

advertising in 2003.

These questions intensify as Yankelovich research released at the American Association of Advertising Agencies annual

conference in April says 65 percent of people feel they are "bombarded with too much marketing and advertising," and 54

percent of those surveyed avoid buying products that they feel are over-marketed.

Companies such as Nike and Quicksilver have taken their share of bruises as a result of such over-marketing in the world of

skateboarding where the name Obey Giant carries clout among 15- to 25-year-olds who buy tons of branded clothing and

skateboard items. In 2003, the skateboard accessories market had $5.7 billion in total volume of retail sales, according to

Board-Trac, an Orange County, Calif.-based market research company. Sponsoring pro riders, creating entertainment products

such as video documentaries and advertising in smaller magazines are among the nontraditional marketing channels players in

this arena use to maintain credibility, according to Marie Case, managing director at Board-Trac. Not mega-bucks ad

campaigns.

For an age group that spends $100 billion annually on discretionary purchases, 15- to 25-year-olds make it pretty rough on

media channels trying to reach them. People ages 13 to 24 spend more time online weekly (16.7 hours) than they watch TV

(13.6 hours) or talk on the phone (7.7 hours), according to a 2003 study by Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited.

The reason for this, they cite, is ability to control content and overall experience.

Still, Fairey and art director John LaCroix are going to see if they can strike more lightning in a bottle with a new magazine

concept, a hardcover quarterly called Swindle, whose first issue is due this summer. Swindle's media kit says this of its target

reader, "This is a generation who grew up with pop culture and media as their wet nurse, and it takes a certain skill set to reach

them with success." Ecko, Paul Frank and 55dsl, part of the clothing company Diesel, are among advertisers in the premiere

issue. Most magazines cost around $5, and they're read once or twice and then tossed. Priced at $12, Swindle will attempt to

cross over the line from ephemeral magazine to more permanent keeper status with its readers.

What can mainstream consumer goods and services organizations and other companies large and small learn from what Fairey

has accomplished? "Clearly there's a dramatic change in the marketplace in how you place a brand in a consumer's mind,"

notes Alan Siegel, chairman of the strategic branding firm, Siegel & Gale. "The days of buying national television ads are totally

disintegrating, because the media have diversified so much." Fairey and Obey Giant provide a lesson in brand building in an

increasingly media-neutral world, where young people are Instant Messaging, talking on the phone and watching television all

at the same time.