LIGHTS Debut Album, "The Listening" Will Be Released On 10/6

I just found out that LIGHTS will be performing at the Troubadour on November 3rd!

For those of you unfamiliar with LIGHTS, she’s a tiny, Canadian, World of Warcraft playing, keytar wielding, comic-book-heroine-slash-intergalactic-electropop-artist. In other words, she’s totally my dream best friend (no offense to my actual best friends, but come on, you guys really need to step it up).

LIGHTS’ debut album “The Listening” will be released tomorrow (10/6), but the album is streaming in its entirety on LIGHTS’ Myspace page right now, so go check it out.

But wait, there’s more! LIGHTS is also starring in the cutest animated comic series on MTV and MTV.com called “Audio Quest.” You can watch the first episode here. (more…)

Video Games Live will be performing this Thursday, June 4th at the Greek Theater.  What’s that you ask?  Ha!  It’s a a super fun, interactive concert performance combining music and game culture.

Be there, and you’re in for a treat under the stars with lasers, music from hot game titles, cool projected graphics and images, game sequences and on-stage interactive games for the audience.  It’s mega-fun and it’s the closing celebration for this years E3.

If you want to be there FREE, win our contest!  Okay, so first the contest was just going to be name the top selling game of all time and who composed the music…. but a little research proved that this was pretty sketchy info depending on a lot of variables and we want to know more about you!

Sooo…. here’s what you have to do to win two tickets: Tell us why you are (were) hooked on a specific video game and if this addiction has ever caused a problem in other areas of your life.  Best story wins.  And yes, you can use a game you loved when you were twelve… or the one that broke up your recent marriage.

Los Angeles area gamers can totally pwn some good deedage next Friday, March 13th by donating blood at the World of Wonder gallery on Hollywood Blvd.

Resident Evil 5

Capcom will usher in the launch of Resident Evil 5 on Friday, March 13th by partnering with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive. On the way to pick up their very own copy of Resident Evil 5, gamers in the LA area will be invited to give back to the community by donating blood at the World of Wonder gallery on Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif. from 11 am – 5 pm.

In addition, fans of the series will have the chance to get exclusive limited-edition Resident Evil 5 Blood Drive collectibles, win copies of the game, enter a raffle for one of several exclusive red Xbox 360® Resident Evil limited edition consoles and most importantly, do their part to help a good cause.

Drop-ins are welcome but Capcom is asking gamers who plan to attend to sign up in advance at capcom-unity.com. (more…)

The last time I played Street Fighter, it was a decade ago, in a dirty but awesome arcade called The Reagan Years in Fullerton.  I was beat, handily in two rounds, by some sassy 6 year old who demanded a buck in quarters and a pack of gum from the vending machine as tribute.

I hope that sassy 6 year old was at the Geffen Contemporary on Thursday night.  As frazgo the awesome Mike Winder mentioned earlier this month, Capcom rented out the otherwise closed Geffen Contemporary to host a huge party launching the release of Street Fighter IV and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its highly influential fighting series.

When we rolled up around 8:30, there was a line blocks long.  At first, we thought everyone was there for the Kogi truck, at its usual Thursday night stop in front of the Japanese American National Museum … but, no.  An estimated 4000 people showed up; many were rejected, marshaled out by the fire department, though had they returned a few hours later, like we did after grabbing some sausages and beer at nearby Wurstkuche, they would have been able to get in and experience some serious Street Fighting.  Some choice pics follow:

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I’m a regular visitor to the LA Times’ excellent Culture Monster blog, so I was taken aback when I completely missed a major piece of news they reported last week. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the eagle eye of Taras “20 Minutes into the Future” Matla, I might still be in the complete dark about what will undoubtedly be the cultural event of 2009.

What am I carrying on about? At the end of a recent post about an exodus of board members from the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA Times staff writer Mike Boehm dropped this bombshell:

[T]he museum’s Geffen Contemporary building, closed until at least July as a cost-saving measure, is scheduled to be abuzz on the evening of Feb. 12 — not for art lovers, but for video game enthusiasts who’ll man more than 100 gaming stations during the launch party for Street Fighter IV. The game’s creator, Capcom, is renting the venue for the event.

Wow, talk about burying the lead! Capcom’s party will not only celebrate the launch of their latest entry in their mega-popular Street Fighter series, but will also mark 20 years of the button-mashing franchise’s history. Imagine that! And all without the help of $50 million from the NEA.

The festivities take place from 8 pm to 12 am and is free; you just need to RSVP.

At this late stage of the game, I can only hope that this post gets the word out to Capcom’s considerable fanbase. And no, I don’t mean this guy.

Tomorrow night a new era of Beer Pong will be upon us, with the inaugeration of Beer Pong 2.0.  Instead of all of the bouncing with real ping pong balls, all of the action will be virtual.  There’s still a slot or two open.

(And for the purists, there will be an old skool beer pong 1.0 table set up outside for anyone who just wants to play beer pong.)

It’s at Life on Wilshire, doors open at 8pm.

Sounds like a fun time and it’s change we all can believe in.

picture courtesy of IGN.com

Hello friends! Do you like free things? How about free things which are flammable?

Click here to find out more!

Hello friends! Here at the Mark and Steve Video Game Testing Center, driving games are often ignored in favor of games that are actually fun. Midnight Club: Los Angeles, however, piqued our interest. We posted about it awhile back, but since then, Kotaku has written a nice hands-on impression of the game and a second trailer has been released!

A new release date in October has been solidified, pushed back from September and the L.A. in the game is looking even more accurate than before. We personally are looking forward to reenacting the many accidents at the cursed corner of La Brea and Fountain.

How many L.A. landmarks can you spot whizzing by in the new trailer?

British rockers, The Who are playing a private show at the Orpheum to promote the coming of Mark and Steve’s new favorite game; Rock Band 2! Also, you can download a Best of the Who song pack for Rock Band right now!

From Reuters:

The party and concert, organized by the game’s developer Harmonix Music Systems and publisher MTV Games, will take place at the 82-year-old Orpheum Theatre, which holds about 2,000 people.

The Who’s 1971 anthem “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is among the 58 tracks on the set list of “Rock Band,” which was released to great acclaim late last year.

UPDATE 7/17/2008: Brian Crecente, from awesome gaming site, Kotaku, attended the concert and posted lots of pictures, impressions and even some videos here!

From his article:

Later Townshend said that everyone should buy their children the new Aerosmith Guitar Hero bundle, then a second later added, oh, that’s the other one.

Awesome

Hello friends! Tonight at midnight, Metal Gear Solid 4 finally comes out for the PS3! Several Gamestops and Best Buys will be open at midnight to sell the game to rabid fans who have been waiting years to virtually sneak around a war zone and punch some dude in the crotch… for only $59.99!

The most notable launch event, in our opinion, takes place at 11:45 pm – 1:00am tonight at the Best Buy on La Brea and Santa Monica. The voice of Solid Snake, L.A. native David Hayter, will be signing copies of the game. Also signing are Producer Kenichiro Imaizum and Associate Producer Ryan Payton.

Get in line soon!

Photo taken from Kotaku.com