25

p. 12

p. 20

Music Inferno represents a collection of chaos, which is shown through our wide variety of pieces. We tried to incorpo-rate all aspects of music into one maga-zine, which creates the “inferno”. Some highlights in the magazine are “What’s in the box?”, a review of Pandora radio, “How to make a garage band”, a how-to with illustrations, “Why pod touch? “, a review of the iTouch, and “Under-ground teaching”, a peek into music en-thusiast’s life. Just take a look and be captivated by the chaos!- Music Inferno Staff

Letter from theEditors

read on

Sean S. was born on April 19, 1994 in Austin, Texas. He started playing that piano when he was five years old and dropped it when he started playing guitar about 6 years after. He attended KMS and learned how to edit photos. He has played tennis since he was four years old and is in the top 15 in the state. While at Kealing he also began playing the cello which he continues to play through high school at Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Check out his “Why Pod Touch?” piece on page 15.

Jared C. was born in Austin, Texas on August 10th, 1994. He has two brothers, Jim and Jeff, and is the youngest of the three. Jared swims competitively for Lost Creek Aquatics and enjoys lots of other sports. He carries his iTouch around with him almost everywhere and mostly listens to alternative and rock music. Check out his info-graphic of the iTouch, which will teach you all the basic informa-tion you need to know about the iTouch with an easy to under-stand graphic explanation.

Lambros T. was born in Austin on April 17, 1994. He is the twin of Stefan T. and the son of Yannis and Erin T. He enjoys soccer and listens to the music from time to time. He really enjoys South by Southwest and Austin City Limits music festivals. Lambros finds a lot of new

underground bands when he attends these festivals and shares the music with his friends and family. He hates music piracy and has

stated his stance on it on page 22. He also wrote “Revitalization”.

Chance R. was born in Austin and started playing piano in 3rd grade and continues to this day. He later began working with computers in Kealing Middle School and caught on quickly. Experience with graphic, web, and game design was brought into his schoolwork, and grew and expanded to become hobbies. He also has experience with

traditional and digital art, which can be viewed at www.raineshine.deviantart.com. He wrote “Underground Teaching” and “Crush-

ers” for this magazine.

The Band

Features

Bring me the Horizon, Samy Deluxe

Hadouken, Deluxe dynamite, Digi-

talism, and Jose Stone. She briskly

scrolled through the library of her blue

Ipod nano and selected her favorite band.

“It works! I swear it helps you calm down,”

she said as the sound began to pour out of her head-

phones.

Then she eased her shoulders and laid back in

her chair. She has worked for three years to find the

special combination behind her playlist. Now she has

foreign bands littered through her Ipod library and

JaredCovell

What’s that sound?How foreign music is catching on in teens today

6

What’s that sound?

can’t get enough of them.

Erin DeConcini, a fifteen

year old freshman at the Liberal

Arts and Science Academy in

Austin, Texas, is not your typical

teen who listens to mainstream

American music. Three years ago

she found foreign music bands

while she was watching videos

of her favorite American bands

on YouTube. But once she found

foreign music she was hooked.*

“Well I was just searching

YouTube for artists I liked and I

found some interesting bands in

related videos and once I listened

to [foreign music] I started to

like [the foreign music bands]

more and more,” Erin said.

Erin, among other teens,

found interest in foreign music

and the new dimension it added

to her life. She didn’t hesitate to

add the new bands she found on

YouTube to her everyday music

and soon began to expand on

the bands she already had. After

listening to the songs she already

had from her newly discovered

artists she longed for more and

found new songs and albums by

them.

“Well when I found a few

songs by [foreign music bands]

I was curious to find more songs

and see if they were as good,”

Erin said.”

The foreign music added

new beats and a different kind

of sound to Erin’s ipod, which

quenched her thirst for variety.

Sometimes she doesn’t even un-

derstand the lyrics of some songs

because they are in a different

language, but the songs sound

cool so she likes them.

“I don’t understand the

lyrics sometimes, but [the song]

sounds cool so I like it,” Erin

said.

Foreign music helps Erin

focus on what she is doing or just

to calm down. Sometimes she

listens to it while she does home-

work to help her block everything

else out and just make her think

about the assignment. Also when

she is mad she will tone out her

surroundings with her foreign

music, which helps her calm

down.

“When I can’t focus on do-

ing homework or want to make it

more enjoyable I listen to foreign

music,” Erin said.

Another fifteen year old fresh-

man from the Liberal Arts and

Science, Chad Lewallen, has sim-

ilar interests to Erin’s. He enjoys

foreign music and it helps him

calm down and focus on tasks as

well, but generally listens to it for

entertainment.

“I don’t understand the lyr-ics sometimes, but [the

song] sounds cool so I like it,” Erin said.

7Continued on page 35

The smell

of Greece’s salty sea,

the color of its olive pastures and the

fresh foods sold at the local farmer’s market. This

is what Erin Tassoulas thinks of when she listens to

Cesaria Evora. This one album has penetrated

her five senses and allows her to think of

the culture of Greece. The 50-year-

old interior designer who has

traveled to the country with her

Greek-born husband for almost two

decades has listened to the album for al-

most a decade. “It never gets old and it sounds

different every time,” said Tassoulas Tassoulas.

The interior designer likes to revitalize every-

thing that is around her. From her clients’ homes to the Cu-

ban music she listens to everyday, Tassoulas does her very best

to make a home a palace and a song, a hit. When she plays music

at one of her parties she plays “Cesaria Evora;” a Cuban singer who has

persuaded Erin to invest listening to Cuban music.

“Everybody asks who plays this music, and I get great compliments,” she said. “I

have listened to the album ever since [I bought it].”

After listening to a song in a café in Sifnos, an island close to Santorini, Tassoulas

asked the cashier who the artist was. Apparently it was Cesaria Evora, and her thoughts of

a friend’s taste for music soon changed. “One of my friends recommended it but I didn’t like her

Revitalization

lambrosTassoulas

8

The smell

of Greece’s salty sea,

the color of its olive pastures and the

fresh foods sold at the local farmer’s market. This

is what Erin Tassoulas thinks of when she listens to

Cesaria Evora. This one album has penetrated

her five senses and allows her to think of

the culture of Greece. The 50-year-

old interior designer who has

traveled to the country with her

Greek-born husband for almost two

decades has listened to the album for al-

most a decade. “It never gets old and it sounds

different every time,” said Tassoulas Tassoulas.

The interior designer likes to revitalize every-

thing that is around her. From her clients’ homes to the Cu-

ban music she listens to everyday, Tassoulas does her very best

to make a home a palace and a song, a hit. When she plays music

at one of her parties she plays “Cesaria Evora;” a Cuban singer who has

persuaded Erin to invest listening to Cuban music.

“Everybody asks who plays this music, and I get great compliments,” she said. “I

have listened to the album ever since [I bought it].”

After listening to a song in a café in Sifnos, an island close to Santorini, Tassoulas

asked the cashier who the artist was. Apparently it was Cesaria Evora, and her thoughts of

a friend’s taste for music soon changed. “One of my friends recommended it but I didn’t like her

Revitalization

taste of music.”

Taught by her mother in-law, she

cooks a Greek cuisine for her whole family of

6 people, including two

daughters, two twin boys

and one typical angry

Greek husband. Tassou-

las knows that if she can’t

put food on the table in

time, a lot of empty stomachs will start growling.

Tassoulas meets the deadline by playing Cuban

music to keep her focused.

“Whenever I cook one of my Greek mother in-

law’s recipes, I play this music to imagine myself

in Greece cooking with fresh foods,” Tassoulas

said.

Tassoulas likes to keep the volume high

when she plays the album. She said she forgets

about her children and her husband. Tassoulas

said she will hear slight murmurs from the op-

posite side of the house which are actually yells of

angry children.

“She gets very into the music but then

there is the rest of the family trying to talk when

we cannot even hear each other,” Bessie, one of

Tassoulas two daughters, said.

The music is very calm, and the rhythm

repetitive, Tassoulas said, but there is more to

the music that makes it unique. The album is

very romantic, with calming, melodic notes. The

variety of instruments is also key; Tassoulas said

she enjoys the soft sounds of the piano and the

drums.

“Her [Cesaria’s] vari-

ety is great-one song she has

a guitarist and another she

has a violinist,” Tassoulas

said. “[The music is] all-

natural and with no prere-

corded sounds or any electronic instruments.”

Tassoulas also has also another purpose

when playing Cesaria’s music at parties. She

wants to spread the music and bring it to main-

stream Austin. Introducing this music to her

guests is one of her goals and she said it will allow

them to appreciate a new kind of music.

“This is really good music and I want to

share it with all my friends and introduce some

underground music,” Tassoulas said.

When Tassoulas plays Cesaria, she often connects

the rhythm and music to her designing. The col-

ors she uses are not typical in an average house

in America. Tassoulas is inspired from the music

to use design from abroad, foreign nationalities.

Some colors she uses are derived from Cuban

design.

“My interior designing usually includes

dramatic thresholds from room to room and

rough colors used on flat concrete walls,” Tassou-

las said. “It’s similar to foreign architecture.”

“Everybody asks who plays this music, and I get great compli-

ments”

9

Continued on Page 36

Being a musician has made me who I

am. It is an integral part of my identity.

While playing, I am able to escape into

my own world where I am alone, like a

ship in deserted waters.”

Kate says tells me this while she is sitting in her room, play-

ing the guitar on her bed. When I watch her play, she looks

as if she isn’t even there; her mind is free to wonder about.

This is going to talk about how Kate has used music to help

show emotion and progress in life emotionally and intel-

lectually.

“Rather than show my emotions inappropriately, I am able

to discuss them in music, in the dialogue in my songs and

the emotions that are necessary for the creation of music do

not offend others or put me in bad positions.”

By doing this, Kate, in a fashion, can say whatever she wants

or do whatever she wants in her songs without anybody get-

ting mad or noticing it more. She is also able to let out all her

emotions and relieve herself by doing this. This helps her a lot

when school starts to overload her with work.

“As I moved from elementary school to middle school to

high school, my work load got increasingly time consuming.

While in elementary school I played only two instruments, by

the time I had reached high school, I was playing four. This

doubled the time I spent practicing. It is because of the com-

bination of school and practicing music for my teachers that I

never have free time.”

When I heard Kate say this I thought was it would be like if

I had to practice music and never have any down time. For

Kate, music is basically her free escape into free time; she can

create any song she likes without getting told by anybody to

go do her homework or finish up a school project.

“I am able to escape into my own world, away from home.”

Music Memories

seanspiesman

Garage Band Music Recorder/Player

10

“My grandmother understands the least. She sees

music as merely a pastime for me.”

Even though her grandma understands what music

is for Kate, she says that the rest of her family doesn’t

completely understand everything that her music

means.

“A composer himself, my older brother is the family

member that I feel understands the affects music has

on me fully, just because he is able to directly relate;

he speaks the alternative language.”

Evan, her older brother is her main branch out to express

her emotions to, because he is the only one that can read

the music language her family. Music means a lot to Kate,

it’s her haven of idea’s, it’s her reliever. Music is a way of

speaking through notes and scales to give out a single emo-

tion, and when you add these together, you get a song.

“Music. It is an art form that reflects cultures long past.

It is an art form that no audience has to be educated to

understand. It is an expressive form that people can use to

relate to and understand one another. It is the language of

all people. It is a form of personal expression, the only one,

that I understand and that I feel comfortable with. Music is

my passion, an emotional outlet, and my means of connec-

tion with the rest of the world.”

Garage Band Music Recorder/Player

This is a picture of her quartet. She is the on the far right.

11

Underground

Teaching

ChanCeraine12

More than

8000 hours

of record-

ings cover

the walls of a bright orange

room in Jason’s Hooks

house. But these record-

ings don’t carry the labels

of your average MTV mu-

sician. These are Sun Ra,

Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler,

and many other under-

ground artists. But what’s

truly amazing is what Hook

has done with his wealth of

knowledge.

Hook channels his love of

underground music into Tech-

nology, Underground Music,

and Society (TUMS), a class

he teaches at Kealing Middle

School.

“My goal is to show you ‘here

is the tip of the iceberg’ and

there’s this whole world out

there that’s totally amazing,”

Hook says.

The class itself covers various

genres of underground mu-

sic, starting with the blues and

ending with psychedelic and the modern era.

Throughout the class, he draws on his exten-

sive music experience and his storytelling skills

to excite students about music they’ve never

heard of. And Hook truly has a long history

with music.

“When I was about 3, I went to this garage

sale in Houston, and I ended up getting this

stack of 45’s I wanted to buy. It ended up being

a bunch of old funk records,” Hook says. “My

dad was like, ‘You’ll never listen to this,’ but I

loved it.”

As a teenager, he started going to concerts

of these funk bands he had listened to as a

kid. This turned him on to some of the lesser-

known musicians, and gave him motive to find

out about new, different music. He would lie

in bed at night, tuning into experimental ra-

dio stations at the end of the dial, discovering

bands that the average person has never heard.

His music tastes grew as he grew older, and

punk rock and reggae were added to his already

unusual musical tastes.

“1985: I saw my first Grateful Dead show,

which was a huge experience,” Hook says. “It

was a totally different form of music, as well as

people recorded the concerts.”

This idea, that you could record live shows,

was exciting and new to Hook, and so he began

recording shows himself. Now, an entire room

in his house is devoted to his recordings. This

experience is used to its fullest in his class;

he tells stories of recording in venues that

had a “no recording” policy, he describes how

disgusting the floors were at some clubs, and

interests students in live shows. He also uses

his recordings as prizes. When a student does

an excellent job on a project in his class, he lets

them request a recording from an artist of their

choice. He goes through his extensive collection

of digital music, and burns a disk for the stu-

dent. More often than not, the student receives

exactly what they asked for.

Since his teenage years, he has discovered

a lot of “out there” music from country to rap,

but he has a special love of a certain under-

ground music form.

“The height of underground music is the

avant-garde or free jazz; it really challenges

your views about what western music is,” Hook

says, “but this is some of the least commercially

successful music that there is.”

Since these artists make so little, Hook has

spent countless hours helping musicians like

“My goal is to show you ‘here is the tip of the ice-

berg’ and there’s this whole world out there that’s totally amazing.”

13

14

Cecil Taylor. He believes that many of these art-

ists truly love making their music, and don’t feel

that they need to make money to be successful.

One of his most notable services was creating a

sessionography (a database of every playing ses-

sion of a musician) for free jazz artist Cecil Tay-

lor with the help of a friend. (http://www.web-

mutations.com/ceciltaylor) He says the project

has been going for about 8 years, and they are

still not done. Though he hasn’t received a single

penny for the project, what he has received is a

web of contacts. He takes these contacts’ stories

and blends them into the site to add “dimension”

to the it. This also demonstrates an important

view of Hook’s that music has a community

characteristic.

“The truest way to hear about music is

through sharing with other people,” he explains.

“People would come to me and say, ‘You gotta

check this out, this is the Madbrains or the Ken-

nedys’, so then I would throw it on the turn-

table.”

Hook believes that there is a certain social as-

pect to music. You learn about it from people, he

says, whether in person or by some local media,

and then you spread it on to others. Essentially,

flame ignites another, and it ignites two more,

and soon enough everyone has been introduced

to the music.

Throughout TUMS, Hook incorporates this

social idea in his curriculum. He teaches the his-

tory of underground music to his students, and

explains how Underground has shaped society.

By teaching his students about history and Un-

derground, he hopes that they will pass the info

on to other people, and get them interested in

the music.

Hook has certainly lit many minds in the 4

years he has taught underground music. Former

student David C., a current ninth-grader at the

Liberal Arts and Science Academy says “He in-

troduced me to free jazz, which I really like.”

Comer isn’t the only student that Hook has

strongly influenced. As Hook explains, Frank

Webster (an eighth-grade English teacher at

Kealing) came to him, confused, and told him

about several students who were writing their

English papers about Sun House and other

underground artists. Webster wanted to know

how these kids had learned about these musi-

cians, since they were such obscure names in the

industry. TUMS, Hook says, had given students

new interests and new ideas.

“Kids were taking away an appreciation for

these very underrepresented, very under appre-

ciated forms of music,” Hook says. “It’s impor-

tant to pass the baton on to the next generation

to keep that music form alive.”

Should you spend hundreds of dollars

on the iPod Touch (iTouch)? Wheth-

er you’re into music, movies, or

games, iTouch is the most fun you’ve

ever had with an IPod or mobile device. You can

simply Touch and drag to search through your

music or movies to find your entertainment. With

the iTouch you can take your movies with you in

a plane, car, and just about anywhere and watch

it on the compact screen. If movies and music

aren’t your thing you can go to the apps store and

download tons of free and low cost games and ap-

plications.

The design of the IPod Touch was made spe-

cially to fit right into your hand. The new iTouch

has built in speakers and a volume control bar

along its side. The most amazing part of the

IPod Touch is it’s perfect 3.5 inch display Touch

screen. It’s perfect for scrolling through your

music, browsing your email and watching movies.

The accelerometer in the iTouch is a unique fea-

ture, which reacts to the movements you make,

which greatly enhances game playing.

Some of the greatest things about the iPod

Touch are the applications and the vast amounts

of games that you can download easily from the

applications store (apps

store). You can play all

types of games with the

accelerometer and the

multi Touch screen com-

bining into one device.

The games download

from the apps store have amazing 3D almost real

graphics. There are limitless applications in the

apps store, with many being added every day.

Some of the games are free and some are only

$0.99. If you are not a gamer there are plenty of

other applications to find. There are great utilities

for travel, news, sports, and basically anything

you can think of.

The Apps store is also a great part of the

iTouch, you don’t need to have a computer to

download your favorite games or music, and you

can just tap the application icon and press, “BUY

NOW”. The download will only take a minute or

so, and one it is done downloading you can tap

the application to run it. This is a great free mar-

ket where anybody can develop games and bring

them to you through the apps store.

You get to experience your music tunes in a

whole new way with the iTouch. You can select

Why pod Touch?seanspiesman

Opinions

15

Continued on page 34

In the United States, the teen pregnancy

rate is one in three, the dropout rate is

9%, and 9.7% of youth use illicit drugs.

Taxpayers spend millions of dollars

every year for counselors, education programs,

and police to reduce these national issues. I

have a proposition that will stop this unneces-

sary spending and lower our teen crisis rates at

the same time. We should create a legal music

age, where youth under 18 would be prevented

from listening to music with lyrics. And stop-

ping children from buying it without parent

approval isn’t enough.

First of all, America’s youth aren’t ma-

ture enough to listen to the matter presented

by modern day musicians. Music presents

the same themes that are present in R rated

movies: sex, drugs, violence, and demeaning

portrayals of women. What do you think rap-

per Ludacris means in “What’s Your Fantasy,”

when he raps, “We can do it in the pouring

rain, (or) how ‘bout up in the library on top of

books?” He is clearly idolizing and supporting

sex, without addressing the moral implications.

Meanwhile, The Motion Picture Association

of America rated The Passion of Christ R for

“sequences of graphic violence.” But would you

rather have your children hearing about Ludac-

ris’s alleged acts of “doing it in the library,” or

about the inspiring story of a man who sacri-

ficed everything for his love of humanity? Any

average American would choose the latter. But

what’s scarier than this lack of censorship is

that music may be more dangerous than mov-

ies.

Music, in fact, is as dangerous as alcohol

and tobacco. According to the Alberta Alcohol

and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC), once a

youth’s blood alcohol level reaches .12, he can

become nauseous, at .30, he can pass out, and

at .40, he could die. Another study by the AA-

DAC reports that approximately 15% of stu-

dents who smoke will get chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease, and over 47,000 people in

America die each year from smoking, a habit

that lowers the average addict’s lifespan by 15

Menacing Music

A typical youth who listens to music

ChanCeraine

16

years. The highly acclaimed Society of Music Inqui-

ry, Research and Translation (SMIRT), which has

won awards in the past for their notable research

on how Nazis created rock music, recently came

out with the following scientific conclusions. Chil-

dren who listen to an average of 3 hours of music

a week suffer from an average loss of 3 hours of

time they could have been doing homework; chil-

dren who listen to approximately 8 hours can suf-

fer from up to eight hours of unproductivity; and

children who listen to over

25 hours need something

better to do with their lives.

Our children are losing their

precious time to the music,

much as many people are

losing their time to disease

caused by smoking and alco-

hol. This is time that could have been spent learn-

ing about a foreign country, time that could have

been used to correct that last algebra test, time

that could have been used to edit an English paper

due at the end of the year. But they are robbed of

this time by music. You don’t see the government

letting children buy cigarettes and beer, so why

should Congress let them buy dangerous music?

And the negative effects of music are proven.

Teenagers who listen to the musicians’ said acts of

having sex, doing drugs, and committing violent

acts are more likely to end up in jail than normal

elementary school children according to Musi-

cians Anonymous (MA). They become criminals,

get pregnant, drop out of school, and use drugs,

because they are allowed to listen to dangerous

music. Now, I personally wouldn’t have believed

this, but I have seen the results. My coworker’s 17

year old was caught last Saturday drinking beer

and listening to loud music at a party, while my

seven year old cousin won his first soccer game the

very same day. It seems obvious that music has

made children commit

crimes.

By implement-

ing a legal music age,

our children will be

much better off in the

future. They will only

hear about how sex,

drugs, and violence are bad things from school and

their parents, and consequently, they will be able

to handle the unfortunate situations presented in

the songs by the time they reach the required age.

Never once have I listened to this horrendous mu-

sic, and consequently, I have never had sex, done

drugs, or committed a violent act in my 42 years on

Earth. In fact, I have never I would dare to say that

my own experience clearly shows that my proposed

method is effective on all fronts.

Of course, there will be an outcry at this idea,

as there has been in the past. All new regulations

17

“Children who listen to an average of 3 hours of music a week suffer from an average loss

of 3 hours of time they could have been doing

homework.”

Continued on Page 34

The iTouch:A revolutionary way to listen to music

Front

Return button - Returns user to homepage and if pressed twice will return user to first homepage (first hompage is being displayed)

Headphone jack

Wifi antenna - (allows wifi signals to pass through to the receptor inside with less interfer-ence)

Headphones

Hard drive space - currently you can get an Itouch with 8gb, 16gb, or 32gb of hard drive space

Wifi Signal Strength - If you are connected to wifi the strength of the signal is represented by the number of waves showing

Battery life

Time - Time can be adjusted in the settings on

the iTouch

Normal control bar - You can access music, movies, and photos that have been up-loaded onto the Itouch or connect to iTunes and buy new music and movies

Basic Applications - These are the apps that are standard for the iTouch. There is also a few more not shown such as app store. Settings is where you change any basic settings such as brightness

Number of homepages - Each dot repre-sents a homep-age, you can have up to 9

18

The iTouch:A revolutionary way to listen to music

Headphone jack

Wifi antenna - (allows wifi signals to pass through to the receptor inside with less interfer-ence)

Headphones

Hard drive space - currently you can get an Itouch with 8gb, 16gb, or 32gb of hard drive space

Number of homepages - Each dot repre-sents a homep-age, you can have up to 9

Back Side

Apple company logo

Volume Adjuster Up

Volume Adjuster Down

Speaker and cable connector socket - This is where the usb cable that comes with the iTouch connects and also on the iTouch 2nd generation it is a speaker that will play if you don’t have head-phones in

Sleep/WakeOn/OffButton

JaredCovell

19

JaredCovell

What’s in the box?

andora’s homepage

makes a bold statement; “It’s a

new kind of radio – stations that play

only music you like.” Luckily Pandora is able

to support their state-ment with a fantastic and innovative way to listen to your music and I think that it is a great source of enter-tainment.

20

Pandora Radio Review

Pandora is a physical portrait of the Music

Genome Project, which was started in January

of 2000 with the intent of capturing music at the

fundamental level. It is a constantly updated da-

tabase filled with information about thousands of

songs. Each song is described with 400 different

attributes and a complex mathematical algorithm

is used to organize them. Pandora uses the Music

Genome Project, by finding songs with similar

attributes to play songs on the stations listeners

create, instead of finding songs from artists in the

same genre who play similar music. This gives

users a more accurate range of songs that fit the

specified limits he/she put on their station versus

websites like Last.fm that use the second method

and do not perform as well as Pandora. For ex-

ample when I typed in the Beatles on Pandora,

the station began to play Mrs. Robinson by Simon

and Garfunkel and while listening to the Beatles

on Last.fm this artist did not appear once and

is not in the similar artists list. Pandora played

every artist in the Last.fm similar artist section

for the beatles and more so this shows a more

advanced method of finding music.

Getting started with Pandora only takes

about five minutes and using Pandora only re-

quires a decent Internet connection and a work-

ing email address. After navigating through

creating an account the next step will be making

a station based on any artist or song. Music will

begin to play shortly after making the station and

the album cover will show with a small bar along

the bottom slowly filling to track the progress of

the song. Also there is a thumbs up and a thumbs

down, which signify what a thumbs up or down in

real life would, good or bad. Using these buttons

configures the station just how the user likes it

with songs that interest him/her. Also there is an

options button that will bring up a few simple op-

tions that allow the users to book mark the song

he/she is listening to, buying it, getting an expla-

nation of why Pandora chose a particular song,

moving the song to a different station, and not

playing the song for a month. All of these features

join forming a user-friendly interface.

Well of course there might be some prob-

lems that arise while using Pandora or some

confusion on how to use certain features. This is

why the creators made a large help section with

an extensive faq that can solve any problem that

arises with Pandora without a doubt. I have had

some problems with Pandora, like long load times

or I wanted a better explanation of how Pandora

works, I have found in the help section along with

every little detail and even extra things I found

interesting.

Users might think that Pandora is irritat-

ing because it doesn’t play exactly the specific

songs they want to hear, but instead songs simi-

lar and most the time from different artists. Also

21Continued on page 36

Its

stea

ling

! No matter what!

lambrosTassoulas

Music sharing and download-

ing pirated music has be-

come more popular over the

years and the music pirating

community has become a little less than a third

of the Internet user population. Unfortunately,

bands that have tight budgets or have just made

their first album are threatened by fans who

download illegally. The music industry has been

a declining industry losing 7 billion dollars as of

last year (39-32). The music industry has already

lost 13 billion dollars from music piracy, which

has hindered job growth and music expansion

ever since the music industry started.

I think that music piracy should be abolished and

that people should lose these illegal habits.

When someone downloads shared music from

Lime Wire or from Ares, they betray their favorite

bands, and everyone who helped to get it record-

ed. The Recording Industry Association of Amer-

ica reports that out of the thousands of new titles

released each year by major labels, fewer than

10 percent are profitable because of the amount

of illegal downloads made by the titles’ listeners.

The purpose of buying theses songs is to promote

the band and keep its career prosperous and long

lasting. But to betray the artist and download

shared music just promotes the exact opposite.

In fact, the RIAA has found that their sales have

fallen by 26 percent in the past year due to more

and more subscribers to illegal pirated music.

Music piracy also affects the user. When some-

one downloads shared music, he might get more

than just music. 20 percent of the music pirates

out there are susceptible to pornographic art or

viruses from a survey conducted by the National

Computer Center. The user is in risk when he

chooses to download pirated music. Stealing

music also comes with a price, a price far greater

than buying the music legally. The RIAA can sue

for up to $150,000 per song illegally downloaded.

Over 20,000 music fans have been sued by the

RIAA since late 2008.

To all music pirates out there, you all probably

think that your downloading doesn’t hurt the

artist. The artists sell you their product in return

they get nothing when you pirate music. That is

stealing period and if you think differently than

22Continued on Page 37

1The first thing you have to do is think of an emotion that you want to express through your music. (Sadness, Happie-ness, Love, etc...)

2The next thing you want to do is find the correct scale to use for your emotion. Ex-amplesHappy - Basically any Major scale, usually

C & GSad - Usually a Minor scale C and B minorLove - Usually Major scale C, G and DMysterious - Major or Minor C, D, and A.

3After this you want to come up with a beat. Fast beats are for dancing or happy songs. If you change want to make an an-gry song, just change the song to minor.

Slow and meduim beats are usually for happy and love songs. So just choose one that fits what your feeling.

4Now you need to combine all of your parts together and you get your song! You can add vocals to your song if you want but that is not in this How To.

Make Your Music!seanspiesman

Extras

23

Microphone pre-ampThe pre-amp ampli-fies the sound from the microphone and sends it to the

speakers. The pre-amp also modifies the sound to per-fect it -$100 ART@

zzounds.com

Multi PowerstripThe powerstrip helps out to ex-pand one power outlet to many power outlets.-$10 Woods@Ace

MicrophoneThe microphone allows the vo-calist to ex-pand his sound and to record it. The sound from the mi-crophone goes to the preamp and then to the

speakers-$100 Shure@ zzounds.com

Guitar Amplifier The amplifer takes the sounds from the guitar and makes them louder - $330 Fender& zzounds.com

SpeakersThe speakers pro-duce the sound received from

the micorphone - $350 Behringer@ zzounds.com

Mini FridgeThe mini fridge

serves cold drinks to the band and comforts them - $160 Kenmore&

Sears

Guitar and StandA guitar plays a key role in the band.The guitar stands are

key for organization and for a place to put the guitar.

Guitar-$1.3k Fender@ zzounds.com

Stand-$50 Warwick@ zzounds.com

H o w T o M a k e a . . . . .

24

GARAGE BAND

SpeakersThe speakers pro-duce the sound received from

the micorphone - $350 Behringer@ zzounds.com

RugA cheap rug gives comfort to the band and gives space for fragile objects es-pecially on hard

concrete floors-$90 Basquetweave@over-

stock.com

White BoardThe white board allows the band to write down

ideas and lyrics - $50 Foray@

officedepot.com

lambros Tassoulas

GARAGE BAND

Drum SetThe drum set pro-

duces a unique sound using cymbals and

drums-$400 DDrum@ zzounds.com

Cheap CouchThe couch gives a place for the band to rest and be comforted. A comfortable band is a successful

band-$170 Basic Fu-ton@ afforablefu-

tons.com

25

ComfortableThe phones are covered with foam that keeps the music in and the outside noise out. more foam protects the inner workings of the headphones, making them more long-lived.

PowerfulSkullcrushers are unique because they utilize subwoofers, which are generally only found in non portable sound systems. Although it makes the headphones larger, you can feel the head-phones shaking to the beat, and lets you get into your tunes. You won’t be listening to your Beethoven owith these Heapones.

Portable The heaphones weigh very little for their lare size. They fold physically in half and each speaker then rotates up to make travel easy and safe.

26

Crushers

PurchasingTo Purchase the Skullcandy Skullcrushers, you can go to

www.skullcandy.com and purchase them for $70. They come in 3 different styles with illustrated designs. For a cheaper alternative,

you can get older versions at a Tuesday Morning near you for $30. They don’t have the nice design, but they are much cheaper.

LoudWith a 30mm speaker, and sensitivity of 99dB, these headphones pack a mighty punch. They can reach very high volumes, so metal fans rejoice, these are for you.

CrushersSkullcandy’s Skullcrusher Headphones will rock you... LITERALLY

VersatileThe Skullcrushers come with two extra adapter plugs. One can be used for jamming an air-plane, and one so you can rock on keyboards or electric guitars without disturbing others.

PurchasingTo Purchase the Skullcandy Skullcrushers, you can go to

www.skullcandy.com and purchase them for $70. They come in 3 different styles with illustrated designs. For a cheaper alternative,

you can get older versions at a Tuesday Morning near you for $30. They don’t have the nice design, but they are much cheaper.

CustomizableHow much bass is right for you? With the subwoofer adjustment system, you can have as little or as much vi-bration as you want. It takes one AA battery to run.

LoudWith a 30mm speaker, and sensitivity of 99dB, these headphones pack a mighty punch. They can reach very high volumes, so metal fans rejoice, these are for you.

ChanCeraine

27

Blackout News:Hurricane Style

Excerpt of “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan

28

lambrosTassoulas

12

3

4 5

5BandsInstrumental bands often have little coverage by the media, but these five artists deserve recognition

ChanCeraine

ES PosthumousFormed in 2000 by

brothers Helmut and Franz Vonlichten

These brothers’ music is based off roman philosophy that mu-sic should be a balance of op-

posites, which is accomplished with a mixture of symphonic and electronic sounds. Look

for their song “Pompeii”.

RJD2started in 1993 by

Ramble John (RJ) KrohnRJD2 is a DJ who incorporates in-struments he plays and his singing

into his music. This creates a unique style, but he considers himself as part of the rap genre. Look for his

tracks “ghostwriter” and “Final Fronteir”

Little PeopleFirst album put out in 2006 by Laurent Clerc

Little is known about little people, but his album title “Mickey Mouse Operation” describes his music. It is fun and new, and each song in-

troduces a catchy beat. Look for the songs “Moon” and “Start Shootin”.

Rob DouganStarted Dj-ing around 1990, and put his first

single in 1994Rob Dougan is one of the better

known instrumental artists, from the appearance of “Clubbed to Death” in the Matrix. He uses his own haunt-ing singing in his songs to add to

the effect. Another song to look for is “Furious Angels”.

:Wumpscut:started in 1991 by Rudolf Ratzinger

This German band combines the industrial genre with instru-

mental and mixtapes, which results in a disturbing experi-

ence. Some songs incorporate distorted samples from movies, the most notably being Soylent

Green. Look for “Wreath of Barbs” and “War”.

29

lambrosTassoulas

Elvis Presley QuizThink you know the King of Rock N’ Roll?

Then take this quiz and find out.

1. What year was Elvis born?

2. Where was Elvis born?

3. What year did Elvis graduate high school?

4. What year did Elvis move to Memphis, Tennessee?

5. What year did Elvis marry his wife?

6. What was Elvis’s wife’s name?

7. What was the name of Elvis’s only child?

8. What year did Elvis divorce his wife?

9. What year did Elvis die?

10. How many successful films did Elvis star in?

Life Music

The questions are split into two sections: life and music. Life questions are all about Elvis’s life and music is all about Elvis’s music and related topics to music.

1. What year did Elvis get his first guitar?

2. Instead of his first guitar what did Elvis want?

3. What song awarded Elvis his first gold record (over 1 million sold)?

4. What is the number of Elvis fan clubs worldwide?

5. How many Elvis records were sold world-wide?

6. How many times was Elvis nominated for a grammy?

7. How many times did Elvis win a grammy?

8. What year did Elvis release his first al-bum?

9. What is the number of Elvis’s songs that hit #1 on the billboard charts?

10. What year did Elvis relase his first song?

JaredCovell

30Quiz answers on page 36

Elvis’s favorite sandwich was the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich with french toast

Elvis’s home in Graceland is the second most visited home in America, behind the White House.

Elvis’s favorite sport was football and his close second was raquet ball.

Pepsi was Elvis’s favorite drink.

More people around the world watched Elvis’s con-cert Aloha from Hawaii than the first man, Neil Armstrong, walking on the moon.

photo credit: http://www.sweetestkitchen.com

Elvis earned his black belt in karate in 1960.

photo credit: http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?page_id=2

31

Chris John Martin is an english song singer/writer, he is also the lead vocalist in the band Coldplay. He was born March 2, 1977. He was the oldest of the five children in his family. His father was an accountant and his mother was a music teacher. He palys the guitar, paino, mandolin, clarinet, and harmonica. When they were studying at UCL, he met Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, and Guy Berryman. In 1997 they formed a rock group known as Coldplay. Chris Matrin has also collaborated with many other bands such as Ron Sexsmith, Faultline, The Streets, and Ian McCullock.

Guy Rupert Berryman is the bassist in the band Coldplay. He was born on April 12, 1978 in Kirkcaldy, Scottland. While Berryman was starting and engineering degree at UCL, he somehow heard one of Chris Martins songs, he then demanded to be put in the band, which then consisted of Chris Martin and his best friend Jonny Buckland. He then dropped his engineering degree and went on to play with Coldplay. Berryman plays the bass guitar, electronic paino, vocals, drums, and the madolin. In 2004 he married his Joanna Briston and their daughter Nico was born on September 17, 2006.

Jonny Buckland was born September 11, 1977 in Islington, London. He was encouraged to play music by his older brother who was a fan of My Bloody Valen-tine. He began playing the guitar when he was eleven. He kept playing on because of his great musical influences. Jimi Hendrix He went on to UCL to study as-tronomy and mathematics where he also helped form the band Coldplay. Currently he lives in London with his girlfriend, Chloe Lee-Evans. They have a daughter, Violet, who was born on November 3, 2007.

William Champion was born on July 31, 1978 in Southamp-ton, England. His father was a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton. While growing up his main musi-cal influences were Tom Waits and traditional Irish fold music. While growing up he originally played the guitar but them slowly changed to the drums. He can play the drums, vocals, paino, violin, guitar and bass. When he was growing up he joined a band called Fat Hamster which didn’t last very long. He then went to UCL to study anthropology, where he helped form Coldplay. Before college he had very little experience playing the drums, he learned them in under a year and now plays full-time duities with Coldplay.

seanspiesman

32

33

ColdplayWord Search

songs and create play lists on the go. If you are

listening to a song and would like to hear more

tracks that sound great with it, the Genius tool

will automatically make the selection for you,

which brings a little artificial intelligence to the

palm of your hand.

With the built in WiFi on the iTouch you have

the world at your fingertips, you can search the

internet in the palm of you hand. Also there is a

permanent application for your email, which will

check your email automatically, with your IPod

email you can download documents and look at

pictures like you would with a computer. The

iTouch can easily access Youtube to see the most

popular videos around.

Maps on the iTouch are also another great

feature. While on a Wifi network, you can use

Maps to find your location and get directions

from place to place, you can even get directions

from where you are to a selected place, or find

directions to new destinations like restaurants

or parks. Oh and did I mention that the iTouch

has a great photo album for sharing pictures with

your friends and family?

Why not buy the iTouch? It costs a lot more

than basic MP3 players (but it can do so much

more). Some people find that it has so many

functions that it is overwhelming, but I find it

engaging.

Overall I believe that the iTouch is one of the

mobile devices of the century. It presents an ac-

cessible world of complexity at your fingertips

with an intuitive interface, and it’s light years

ahead of other mobile music players. It becomes a

part of your everyday life. I think that it deserves

five platinum stars

Continued from “Why Pod Touch?”

Continued from “Music Limits”

on dangerous substances have been put in place,

people have complained. When marijuana was of-

ficially made illegal in 1937, it was widely criticized.

When the drinking age was changed from 18 to 21 in

1984, there were protests and disobedience. But the

outcomes have been positive in each case. And these

teens will have to go through withdrawal just like the

drug users. And just like drug users, the outcome will

improve their lives. Although the transition period

will be difficult for law enforcement, we have to look

to the future and all the positive effects that will

come from the limit.

We want to create the best lives for our children

that we can. And this risky music is not the way. We

want them to be safe, smart, and able to enjoy their

time on this earth as God’s creations, not as sick, cor-

rupted, immoral cretins. Lobby to have a legal music

age today and log onto www.godhatesmusic.com to

download the promotional song and ringtone for the

movement.

34

“It is fun to listen to [foreign bands’] accents

and the beats are pretty cool too,” Chad said.

Chad found foreign music bands in a simi-

lar way that Erin did. He was on Myspace and

searched through his friends’ profiles and found

songs that his friends had posted in their profiles

and listened to them. The other way he found mu-

sic was from his brother who would just show him

new music. One day Chad was searching a friend’s

profile and under top music he saw the artist

Hadouken so he decided to listen. Hadouken was

an instant hit for Chad and shortly after he heard

the first song he was downloading it for Ipod so he

could listen to them daily. This incident was what

really got him going into foreign music artists.*

“I was just looking around Myspace on my

friends’ profiles and found an artist that looked

cool and that’s how [listening to foreign music]

started for me,” Chad said.

Chad thinks that bands in America have

friendships with people in foreign bands so their

music is similar, which is part of the reason he is

entertained by foreign artists. Since the foreign

bands make music similar to the bands he already

likes in America, he grew a liking to them.

“I already liked [the American bands] and

the foreign bands made very similar music so I

liked them too,” Chad said.

Foreign music also instilled other interests in

Chad. When he sees members of one of the foreign

bands he likes, wearing bright things, big shoes,

and tight pants he is influenced to do the same

because it is cool in his eyes.

“Part of the reason I started wear-

ing tight jeans and bright shirts was because I saw

guys in [foreign music] bands doing it,” he said.

Erin also is interested in doing certain

things since she listens to foreign music. Part of the

reason she listens to German rap (one of the many

genres Erin listens to) is because she is interested

in visiting Germany. She says it would be a new ex-

perience that would be entertaining like the music

the bands in Germany make.

“Listening to [German rap] really makes me

want to visit Germany some day and that’s part of

the reason I listen to [German rap],” Erin said.

Sometimes Chad is really influenced to do

things because of the foreign music and the lyrics

and beats that they have. At times foreign music

influences him to go out and party or to just to do

more introverted activities.

“It has made me want to go to a rave really

bad before, but sometimes I just want to sit on my

chair at home and listen to [foreign music],” Chad

said.

Both Erin and Chad think that foreign music

isn’t better than American music, but it is different

so the variety makes it entertaining. Sometimes

Continued from “What’s That Sound?”

35

Life1. 19352. Tupelo, Mississippi3. 19534. 19485. 19676. Priscilla7. Lisa Marie8. 19739. 197710. 33

Music1. 19462. a rifle3. Heartbreak Hotel4. 6255. over a billion6. 147. 38. 19569. 1810. 1954

Quiz Answers Cesaria has been a big influence on Tassoulas

and has stimulated part of Tassoulas’ life as well. The

music allows her to multi-task, from her imagination

to the work she does best.

“Whenever I play this music it always brings me back

to Greece,” Tassoulas said. “All the memories and

paradise.”

If you are interested in buying Cesaria’s al-

bum or song, go to iTunes and type in the keywords

“Cesaria Evora”. If you want an album, try her Great-

est Hits album. The album has all her greatest hits

including Sodade, a well known favorite. For more

information, visit http://www.cesaria-evora.com.

Continued from “Revitalization”

there is no “play-back” button so if a song is played

that the user likes then he/she is not able to play it

back to their heart’s content and instead are at the

mercy of what the station gives them. These things

might sound tiresome and annoying at times, but

they actually have positive effects. Since there is no

option to play back the same song over and over

again forcing users to explore new music, which in

Pandora’s case usually finds users new artists and

songs that the user will like and buy for their mp3

player or IPod. Also since it doesn’t play the specific

songs listeners are looking for and similar songs

instead users are again forced to expand their range

and accept new artists. If it doesn’t work out and the

song isn’t what a user wants, he/she can skip to the

next and click the thumbs down button so they don’t

hear it again. Also there might be some frustration

by the inability to skip more then six songs in an

hour, but really since users are allowed to create up

to 100 stations so if a station isn’t satisfying what he/

she wants at that very moment they can just make

another one that they think will please them.

This site has already helped me open my eyes

to more music like the Killers, Coldplay, and much

more so I am sure it can do the same for you. Also it

is free so you have everything to gain and nothing to

lose. If you don’t plan on already opening the site af-

ter reading this, I urge you to just try Pandora once.

You won’t be disappointed.

Pandora’s website – www.Pandora.com

You can also get Pandora on the IPhone and ITouch

as well as on some cell phones.

Continued from “What’s In The Box?”

36

that is very selfish of you. These are people

with jobs and play for a living. They are not

any different except their popularity. There

is no justification that you should steal from

an artist and not from an ordinary working

person.

To stop music piracy we should en-

force the law with greater force. Lime Wire

and Ares and other media sharing programs

must be shutdown or carefully monitored to

see if there is any piracy in the media traffic.

Music files need to be created so that there is

only one copy per file. But in order to obliter-

ate music piracy completely, the individual

will have to decide what is right and what

is wrong. Artists need our help and it is our

duty to abolish music piracy.

Continued from “It’s Stealing, No Matter What”

Chad and Erin look around for not main-

stream music because they just want some-

thing new to listen to. But they said they still

enjoy mainstream and regular American mu-

sic and it helped them explore and find these

new genres. The different type of music is

important to Chad and Erin because it helps

them get into a certain mood and it adds

more variety to their life.

“I think that [foreign] music isn’t bet-

ter than American music, but I am weird and

I like foreign music,” Erin said.

Continued from “What’s in the Box?”

37