Music to rock the chrome heart..., Not your average music thread! Options

[Adarael]

This is all to help me better run a series of 'flashback' games set in 2050 as a counterpoint to the 2070 game I intend to run...

So I was in the car the other day, and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" came on the radio right after Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" did. I couldn't stop laughing. And then I started to think back in time to the genesis of Shadowrun and the bands that may have influenced the musicians of 1st and 2nd edition. All those bands mentioned in canon are wearing tight silver spandex pants, bandannas, huge earrings, too much makeup. Like glam rock went and fucked hair metal and had some kind of speed glam metal autistic baby. A short list of bands that seem to have informed the 1st and 2nd edition rocker sensibilities:
Journey
Foreigner
Rod Stewart
Asia
Yes
Survivor
Toto
Any other horrible, purple-power-ballading 70s and 80s band with bandannas and big hair.
Granted, much of the newer music seems to have drifted from the roots, but here's my question for all of you:

Using the above mold of 'power rockers', invent some new Shadowrun bands that play in the style of Concrete Dreams, Shield Wall, Maria Mercurial, et cetera. Write a short blurb for them, if you feel like it. Go freakin' overboard, because I wanna set the games against that kinda bad hollywood glitz.

Wounded Ronin, I know how much you love your 80s cyberpunk. Cut loose. Please.

[Cthulhudreams]

This is easy: Just google for some random indie bands and slam dunk!

Vision Bell with Mike Mineo.

Featuring intense arrangement of guitars, lively percussion, and a mass diversity of backing vocals and effects, Mineo concludes the title track of the latest album with a rather surprising question. “What does it mean to take off all our clothes and look into your eyes and say, ‘I mean it’?�

Hell, this is hilariously easy and cool thanks to sites like this: http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/Vi...x?artistid=4238

A Fate Worse Than Your Empire
Genre: Metal

Members: Daniel Styles - Guitar/Backup Vox, Aaron Mcgowan - Screams, Brodie Stevenson - Bass/Cleans, Jason Styles - Guitar/Sweeps Aiden Gallager - Drums DAN SAVAGE - Keyboard

Daniel Styles and Aaron McGowan decided to form AFWTYE. Guitarist Daniel soon asked his younger brother Jason to join as the two Mosh the fuck outta their guitars well together. Brodie was forced in to playing by front-man Aaron. and then they begin their quest in Destroying the Gates of Oblivion!!! .......i mean begin writing some mosh songs.

[Kerris]

Nowavelikethenext
Genre: Metal?

These guys take a cappella to the next level. They literally sing everything in their music, but due to the use of advanced voice-synth technology, it sounds like drums, guitar, and bass.

Members: Artie Funk - lead singer/backup vocals/"bass"; Noah Riley - lead singer/backup vocals/"guitar"; Alexander Reed - backup vocals/"drums"

[MaxHunter]

Do you remember a band called "Europe"? They had a hit called "the final countdown" and big hair....

Cheers,

Max

[Adarael]

God, a friend of mine used that as his cell-phone ring. Don't remind me.

[MYST1C]

[It trolls!]

You mention weird hair? Cheesy costumes and make-up? Don't forget the 80's Wave and early Gothic Rock bands!

Sisters of Mercy
Siouxie and the Banshees
Clan of Xymox
The Cure
Depeche Mode
Camouflage
Bauhaus
etc.

I'm sure some of the other posters can comment more on the matter since I grew up in the 90s but I associate obscure lyrics and synth-based music much closer to early SR than power metal (maybe because the latter lasted until the late 90s over here).

[Naysayer]

You could also check out the j-rock and visual kei scene for inspiration or blatant ripoff.
Weird stuff from Japan, they make 80's hair-bands look like a bunch of accountants!
While sounding just as cheesy!
And it's in Japanese! What more can you want for that old-school, nippocentric SR-feeling?!

[nezumi]

Description from my only SR4 character:

Brock Socket, born Brian Turner, is now 23 years old and pissed. He's the lead throbber player and vocals on a mostly dead punk rock band, "Donny's a Nob". As a youth, he rejected the money and affluence his parents wielded after seeing the other side of the coin when he got a girl pregnant half-way through college. Things quickly turned sour and Brian went his own way, paying good money to have his SIN partially wiped, and moved to Seattle. After a little cosmetic surgery, he fell in with the music scene. His electronics skill meant he was reasonable with most of the electronic equipment. He was in a series of bands, one after another, and only his most recent was at all successful. While he was noted as having a major part in writing some true social commentaries, such as "Only the SINless go to Hell" and "B-wab", his only real claim to fame is a thirty second clip of one of his catchier tunes that's used in an advertising campaign for the new Ford Aquarius. The band went into a tailspin when the lead guitarist ODed after finding his girlfriend sleeping with Brock. With the band scene sagging again and addictions to feed, Brock has no choice but to put his skills to other purposes, and hopefully score some tail in the process.

Mentally, Brock is what some might call 'self-destructive'. Part of him wants to believe he's working for a greater purpose, singing about the plight of the downtrodden, but really, Brock is just trying to run away from his mistakes (while making plenty more on the way). He's a very smooth talker, but once he's in, he can't help but mess things up somehow.

Physically, Brock likes the classic rocker look. He uses a faux-English accent and wears a lot of make-up, making him look sexually ambiguous at times. His classic get-up is his heavy, armor jacket with shock frills fully extended, dark tights or leather pants and combat boots, (think David Bowie from Labyrinth and you're on the right track). He loves big hair, usually brightly colored, and changes his eye color every chance he gets. His body is covered with light-tats, showing shifting, oftentimes offensive scenes and slogans.

[Adarael]

[It trolls!]

Touché, I wanted to open up the spectrum for discussion and exploitation but I think mostly due to sleep deprivation I completely forgot about actually contributing something.

Ok, I'll try:

"The Hornettes"
Genre: Glam Rock
These four females are a force to be reckoned with as they are actually male trolls equipped with voice modulator implants to sing in alto and soprano voice and crossdressing in skimpy outfits on stage. They typically dress in patent leather pants alon with corsages but they've been seen on stage with anything from a ball gown down to bikinis that don't leave much to the imagination.
Their singing features fast-paced rock rhythms, sometimes grimy guitar riffs along with elements of chanson and cabaret singing.
Line-up:
Glenn "Sarah Sensual" Mulder - lead singing, guitar
Robert "Roweena Fatale" Hastings - bass, accordeon
Nate "Molly Rouge" McFarley - drums
Marc "Latifah Lascivia" DeMoines - guitar, synthesizers

[Adarael]

I am speechless with amazement.
This wins. SO HARD.

[MaxHunter]

Can't win now! this is what I had

"Glamer"
Genre: Glam Rock
These are four elves acclaimed for their incredible hairdos, out-of-this-world wardrobes and their famed after-concert parties. Their lifestyles and behaviour are so outrageous they come up in trid news every week. There is also a thriving market of Glamer merchandising and memorabilia, from AR "themes" to psychmeds.
Nobody really cares much about their music, all songs are quite alike and include frantic guitar play, top of the lungs singing and catchy subliminal bits.

The following rumours have popped up in your last datasearch:
-Glamer is actually a group of political activists against the guv of TirNanOg and they secretly raise funds to finance terrorist and help extract disidents
-The lead singer is the domineering lover of one of the top Highstar Execs (male-male bondage)
-The band are actually following orders from a Dragon

[ Spoiler ]

(Another take) -the group started as an elven poser gang until "discovered" by Horizon, people who found out the truth have died in mysterious unrelated accidents.

Line-up:
Sean "The Devil" Cassidy- lead singing, guitar, piano
Tommy "Tiger" Soriyama - lead guitarist, vocals, replaced dead member
Paul Eisenhower -songwriter, bass, vocals
Eric Dancer -drummer, SURGEd in 2062

[Adarael]

More than one person can win! I refuse to determine who is the winningest person. :)

[Asheron]

For some reason this thread makes me think of Gwar...


"Penitent"

These hard-rocking Germans from the Free City of Berlin have been at the front wave of the reemergence of neo-shock-power-black-industrial fusion metal. Dressed in outrageous latex costumes and couched in extreme stage personas, Penitent is reminiscent of Gwar and Lordi from the 1980s and 1990s, Anglican Gut Rot and Clivitity of the 2020s, and War On Slime from the 2040s. Their music has been described as the noise of the damned by critics, and they have been banned from performing in dozens of cities and countries due to their alcohol-fueled musical rampages.

[Zhan Shi]

Turn the members of Gwar into orks, add a dash of rap to their music, and you have a good example of an "Orxploitation" band (see SotA for details).

A quick off topic aside: for those who like to play "that other game", some years ago Dragon magazine published an issue in which they rewrote several pop songs with "DnD" type lyrics. One was Bob Sieger's "Simply Irresistable"; they did it as "Simply Ressurectable". Very funny stuff, if you can find the issue.

[gknoy]

[Lagomorph]

Band Name: Short Bus
Style: Thrash Metal
Description: An up and coming ultra-violent band from the Redmond Barrens. Short Bus is the kind of sound only a deaf person could love. Their faces, the kind of face only a blind person could love. Until they played a "Thrash-Ballad" we were pretty sure they didn't know how to play their insturments. The barrens denizens seems to eat it up and we're not quite sure why.

Members:

Grog: Troll - Lead Vocals/Guitar - Surged with hair all over, can spit poison and breath fire. An adept with amplified voice and his "ax" which is a combat axe that has had synth guitar parts glued on, more effective as the former than the latter.

Tarbomb: Orc - Backup Vocals/Drums/Special Effects - Surged with tar black skin, and fangs, Tarbomb is the groups drummer. His internal air tank and voice modulator allows him to perform one of the groups signature performances the "Scream Solo". Hearing a 30 minute scream, really opens ones ears to the darker possibilities of what people will call music. His idea of special effects is to throw flash-paks and IR-smoke grenades into the audience.

Shaggy: ??? - Keyboards/Special Effects - With more hair than nature intended, we're not sure if its a surged human or a yeti with a hormonal deficiency. Can play the keyboard well, but is the groups primary special effects artist using Phantasm spells to give audiences some kind of distraction from the auditory assault that they're receiving.

[ Spoiler ]

these were actually 300 point gutter level characters that we played for a few months, with the intention of actually making a band

[Spike]

Off the Cuff
Genre: Unknown, distinct roots in various rock subgenres (including trog rock)

OtC is on the face of things just four dudes who get together and jam. They are, by some measure, an 'Anti-band', in that they have almost no stage production at all, no sets no fancy equipment, no 'outfits', literally the band members walk on stage and sit at ordinary instruments in whatever clothes they were wearing that day.

In short, OtC is... or should be... boring.

But they are not. First of all, aside from the very 'jam session' nature of their sets, it is obvious that they are all very skilled musicians, and work very very hard on 'songwriting'. The oxymoron is resolved when you realize that they don't actually write the songs per se, but merely establish a framework arrangement to structure various jam sessions around... and every jam session is performed in front of a screaming audience of fans. They have only released albums on bootleg chips and through independent distributers (read: Street hawkers), and encourage technically minded fans to make recordings of their concerts to sell. Given that no 'song' is ever performed exactly the same way twice, and that any member on stage can spontaniously chose the next 'song' in the set (even halfway through the current song), this makes each recording unique and precious to fans, though some purists refuse to commit the ephemeral performances to the mundanity of recording.

They are

Dwight Hallbach: Dwarf, Lead singer, sound man, and second Guitar (Dwight plays a seven steel string custom detuned base 'accoustic amplified' guitar). He refuses to use platforms, and with the often low stages is often hidden from view by the taller members of the audience. His bass growl onstage often has him mistaken for a troll by those who haven't been to shows, and his folksey 'CAS' accent is charming in person. Trivia: Dwight is also a technomancer, though he mostly uses his talent to run the soundboard from the stage.

Albrecht James: Elf, Drummer. Favors DNI 'thumper' floordrums and old school cymbals with actual sticks. Has been known to use the DNI linked drums to coax 'odd' sounds from his drums, such as the sound of screams hidden behind each hit. A known BTL head, though the rest of the band only plays when he isn't currently slotting. Older recordings when he was actively chipping during performances are prized by some collectors as 'true drummer genius'.

Nolan Erick: Ork, Lead guitar (plays an ordinary bass guitar, a thirty year old antique, refuses to upgrade saying the newer guitars sound like shit). Nolan is seen by some as the heart and soul of the group, the most technically proficient (he went to college to study music and can play half a dozen instruments, and has conducted 'big band' groups prior to forming 'Off the Cuff'.). He is quite the ladies man, and provided you have a thing for Orks is considered by some to be the most handsome member. He has had legal problems stemming from his backstage behavior with groupies, however, this only seems to make him more popular. He does play up the 'Street Thug Ork' stereotype in interviews, mostly as an inside joke, as he is the most erudite of the band, and is responsible for penning some of the more interesting lyrics used by Dwight.

Hasim al-tajikii: Human, Synth and Sax. Hasim is the most 'flamboyant' of the band, being into extreme body mods, heavily tattood, peirced and with custom cyberware. He is also, however, the least interesting to watch onstage as his performances, barring the times he breaks out the sax, are entirely performed through VR, slumped in a chair off to one side of the stage. Interestingly enough, Hasim was previously a member of the Humanis Policlub, and later the Draco foundation, though currently his only interest is the band. Hasim learned music while serving time for assault and battery.







If you think that is sort of raw and out of place, well read the damn name of the band, yo.

[eidolon]

tangent

[Spike]