Level 27

This Saturday (November 8), Level 27 Clothing - in association with WVAU and AUIDA Club - will sponsor the Tour De Force Festival at the Tavern on American University.

The day-long festival will run from 1 PM to 10:30 PM, and will feature twelve exciting acts - including Throne, Big Meanie, and Last Week - as well as Victory Records headliner, Glasseater.

The show is free (with a suggested donation of $5 to AUIDA Club). Click here for directions and more information.

Level 27 Clothing: level27online.com WVAU: www.american.edu/wvau/
Idobi.com

11/6 5:48 pm send feedback

Interview
Talking Mario and Monkey Ball with Good Charlotte
From Electonic Gamning Monthly Magazine
By Scott Steinberg
9/17/2003
Since punk's merger with the mainstream, many punk bands have scored places on game soundtracks. And Good Charlotte is no stranger to that scene, having contributed their single "The Anthem" to last year's Madden NFL 2003. Though Good Charlotte's now an MTV and radio staple, fame and fortune haven't dulled the band's passion for gaming. We caught up with the lads (Joel, Benji, Billy, and Paul) on tour to hear their little song and dance..
EGM: What have videogames done for Good Charlotte's career?
Good Charlotte: Before our last record came out, people would come up and be like, "Whoa...Good Charlotte! You guys were in Madden!" More people recognized us from the game than anything else.
EGM: As a punk band, don't you think licensing music for promotional purposes is selling out?
GC: Screw that. Nobody knows what "selling out" means anymore. We love games and play them every single day. To have a song in one is an honor, period.
EGM: Any of your peers share your passion for gaming?
GC: Yeah, the band New Found Glory. A lot of musicians do it.it's the best way to kill time on a tour bus.
EGM: So just how long do you spend going at it daily instead of getting blitzed or hooking up with random buxom coeds?
GC: Probably three hours, every day. But, you know, multiplayer games can go on forever.
EGM: System of choice?
GC: GameCube. We grew up playing Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong.
EGM: What's currently on the official Good Charlotte playlist?
GC: The best game ever is Super Monkey Ball. We just got Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for Xbox, too. That's the shit, tearing down and rebuilding attractions. But fantasy role-players like Kingdom Hearts are cool as well.
EGM: What upcoming games are most likely to keep you busy when you really should be working in the studio?
GC: Spider-Man 2. The first one was really great. And Mario Kart: Double Dash. Pretty much any Nintendo title based on old characters works wonders for us.
EGM: Not to jinx it or anything, but let's say your career goes belly up. Might there be a possible future for you in game design?
GC: Don't think we haven't thought about designing our own game. It'd be something cartoonish, but scary: a cross between Zelda and Resident Evil.
EGM: It wouldn't be an interview without one cringe-worthy question, so: What's more fun, games or groupies?
GC: The games. When you have girlfriends, screwing around with an Xbox is safer.

11/6 5:23 pm send feedback

Billy's PRS Guitar Interview
What influenced you to start playing the guitar and/or music in general?
I started playing music or just guitar in general pretty much because of the band Silverchair, who coincidentally also plays PRS guitars. I just think when they first came out and they were so young, like 15 or 16, I really like the band at the time and I was about the same age. It clicked in my head: You know what? If they could do it when they turned 15 that I could do it too, instead of waiting until I'm 25 or something. It just really made me want to play guitar a lot, really get better and work harder for it because there was someone else out there doing it who was the same age. So that was sort of the one thing that really got me into guitar in general.
Who are some of your favorite guitar players?
My favorite guitar players are really weird guitar players for favorites because I've never really been into fancy shredder guitar players, cause I just really never got into that. I really like Stephen Carpenter from the Deftones. I really like his guitar playing. I think he's really fluid and has a lot of cool riffs. Silverchair of course I really just like the chord changes and the way they play and I think that lately Daniel has got to be a really good guitar player. When I first got into guitar I really liked a lot of grunge bands, so of course Nirvana was really big. I really liked how Kurt Cobain could make a lot of cool sounds and really just be noisy and dirty with his guitar without really trying to show off. I like Mike from Incubus a lot too. I use a lot of guitar effects and stuff and I really like how he uses so many pedals and stuff like that to get a lot of cool sounds and I think he's just a really good guitar player in general.
Which model PRS Guitar do you play/own?
I have a couple of Custom 24's which is pretty much my main guitar but I just started playing a Singlecut and I really like the way those sound, so I'm probably going to start playing with those a little more often. I really like all the models but right now I just have a [Custom] 24 and a Singlecut.
What do you like about those guitars?
My favorite thing about the guitars in general is that I play pretty hard and I don't have that many problems with them. I mean, they're scratched up and, you know, they get pretty beat up and they still always sound just as good no matter what you do to them.
What bands/albums are you into right now?
The Used is a band that I think is really good. I really like Muse, a band from the UK. I like the new Marilyn Manson record a lot, too. Since that's come out I've kind of been going back and listening to all the old Marilyn Manson records and that's always been a favorite of mine, so I've been listening to a lot of that right now.
Seen any good movies lately?
How does that relate to guitars? I see movies all the time...what do I think is really good...Pirates of the Caribeean was awesome. I think everybody saw that and everybody liked that one. I saw 28 Days Later and that one really freaked me out. I thought that was really good. But I like movies. I like movies a lot.
Do you have any projects going on right now? Recording, touring, writing, side-projects, etc.?
Currently we are getting ready to start the next U.S. Good Charlotte tour. It's going to be called "The Young and the Hopeless Tour". It's pretty much going to be a world tour by the time we finish it. We are going to do about eight weeks in America, then we are going to go to Europe for two and a half/three weeks and then Japan and Australia after that...kinda just finish up everything...one more time around. We've been doing a lot of festival touring, co-headlining, split tours and stuff so we want to one more just Good Charlotte tour around the world to finish up this record.
I don't really have much time for side-projects or anything, but there is a band from Connecticut called tHrOnE which I really like. I've been friends with them for maybe about a year and a half or something like that and I just went into the studio with them and helped produce a couple of songs for them and I've just sort of been helping them out and trying to get something going with them.
That's pretty much it. I'm just getting ready to tour a lot and we are going to make another record next year.
Any advice you would like to give to other guitar players out there?
Don't be discouraged when you look at other guitar players because everybody starts out some how. You just got to play your guitar a lot. I know even at the level that I'm at I see people everyday and I feel like I suck; I feel like I can't even play the guitar sometimes after looking at other people. But if you know you love playing the guitar and you know that no matter how good you think you are, if you love it, just keep playing everyday and just enjoy it.

11/6 4:33 pm send feedback