I got the first Classics of Love release Walking in Shadows without even hearing a note simply because I had been such a huge fan of Common Rider for many years (and of course Operation Ivy), and really hoped to hear more of that wonderful sound I had been missing for so many years. The EP did not disappoint at all it was more of Jesse’s unique melodic yet rough singing style and the music had those same catchy riffs, driving syncopated rhythms, and wonderful hooks. Walking in Shadows almost seemed like it was leftover songs from Common Rider’s last album This is Unity Music. 

When I read Mike Park’s initial description of this new full length album as Classics of Love was in the studio recording I was really excited for this album to be coming out. Mike described it as more of their unique Hardcore sound with touches of Ska bringing it back to a more Operation Ivy style. You can definitely hear that in this album but the Common Rider sound is not gone either which makes for a very varied album with a lot of great touches in style. The first two songs show this perfectly, the song What a Shame opens up with this screeching feedback and instantly goes into this fast and driving hardcore song with some of Jesse’s roughest vocal styling. But the chorus and bridge goes right back into more of that Common Rider sound with the great hooks and melody’s (despite still maintaining a rougher edge). The second song Castle in the Sky is the first Ska track and it is great, again keeping those hooks and melody’s but having a much rougher edge and once you get to the bridge and hear Jesse over just the Ska guitar and drum rhythm you might think you are listening to Energy for a minute.

The rest of the album continues like this, if you’re drawn in like I was by the first two songs none of the others will disappoint you at all. There will be a couple of surprises though such as the track Moving Pictures which just slows everything down and grooves, a welcome change in the mix with the layered vocals in the chorus making a great song to sing with. If you like anything about Punk, Ska and Hardcore you’ll love this album. If you are a fan of anything Jesse has ever been involved in you simply need this album. The only downside to it for me was that it was way too short. With only 13 songs and most of them not even getting to two full minutes the album is over in a flash, it is like that carnival ride that only goes around once before stopping; as fun as it was to go around at break neck speed you are kind of disappointed to stop so quickly.

Classics of Love’s Self Titled album still hasn’t hit the streets and is still up for Pre-Order on Asian Man Records’ website. All of the full bundles are gone (sorry no more T-Shirts), but it is still worth every penny and you still get the promotional poster.

Order Now At Asian Man Records

Part 1: Exploit for 4.3U

You are going to want to use the LetterBomb exploit which is for the newest Wii Menu 4.3U(E/J/K) and luckily the easiest exploit I have ever seen for the Wii.

You are going to want to go to here http://hackmii.com/2011/08/letterbomb/
This is the easiest way to do the exploit as well, there are other instructions out there but this works with little to no hassle.

Read up about the exploit first, just to get an over view of what you are doing.
Now go to http://please.hackmii.com

Turn on your Wii and go to your system settings and grab your MAC address and type it into the boxes. Also make sure the “Bundle the HackMii installer for me!” is selected. Now I have no idea what the difference is between cutting the red or blue wire is (maybe I missed that instruction but I doubt it) but lets just do what I did, fill in the Captcha and click Cut the Red Wire and your download will begin.

Now all you will need to do is unzip this archive and move the contents over to your Wii SD card root. If you are worried about damaging your Wii Save files and other information I’d suggest backing up the entire SD card or placing this exploit on a different FAT formatted SD card and then moving the files installed after the exploit is finished to your original Wii SD card.

Ok put the SD card into the Wii and turn it on like normal. Go to the message board and go back to the previous days until you see the red letter (probably will just be going back one day) and then click on it. This will reboot your Wii and begin the exploit and install process.

You are going to want to follow the instructions on the screen. Make sure you install both the Homebrew Channel and the HackMii installer. Once you have done both of those you will have no more options then to close the installer and restart your Wii.

Once you reboot you should be met with the BootMii loader which gives you the options of booting your Wii, going straight to the Homebrew Channel, exploring the SD card or setting some options. Play around with this if you want (You’ll need a Gamecube controller to explore the menu) but make sure you boot to the Wii menu and check that the Homebrew channel installed properly to your Wii Menu.

If all of this is ok, the congrats your Wii was soft modded properly! it is suggested that you go to your Wii settings and turn off WiiConnect24 to avoid any accidental updates that could undue all of this.

Prior to the next step you can back up your Wii NAND in case you brick your Wii by doing the steps wrong or just something accidentally goes wrong. To do this go back to the BootMii menu (either by a reboot or by clicking the Home button in Homebrew Channel), then scroll over the the Settings (the two cogs). Then select the icon with the SD card and Green arrow; this will download your NAND to your SD card (provided you have room).

Part 2: Installing USB Loader GX and Getting it to Work

Finding information about a proper USB loader is like searching for BigFoot. Finding out what you need to do to get it work after you install one is even harder!

I chose to use USB Loader GX, it had good reviews and what I saw of it I liked the most.

To get USB loader on your Wii you’ll need to grab the proper files of course. So go herehttp://usbloadergx.koureio.net/downloads and download the Easy Installer for Windows. If you don’t have windows you’ll need to grab one of the all in one packages, click on that link and grab the one for ios249.

If you have the easy installer, just put your SD card in your computer and follow the instructions. Don’t select to install the Channel files or the cheats files, hit next and once it is done you’re good to go.

Next you’ll need to download and install the cIOS d2x files to your SD card. These files will allow you to flash new IOS information to your Wii NAND that allows the USB loader to run and for games to boot up. Go to this linkhttp://www.mediafire.com/?2zlbu5h2ejw6aag download, unzip, move to the SD card apps folder. The apps folder should of been made when you installed the USB Loader GX.
You’ll need your Wii to be online for this to work. You’ll need the cIOS bases installed on your SD Card if your Wii is not connected.

Go here http://www.mediafire.com/?b91uv7gich1bbgl

Download that and unzip all the WAD files to the root of your Wii SD card. After that you put the SD card back in and go to the homebrew channel then run the installer like before and follow the original instructions. I have not tried this personally but it should work! Make sure your NAND is backed up before proceeding. 

Ok, insert the SD card back into the Wii and and go to the homebrew channel. Click on the d2x Ios Installer and lets begin that. You should be running ios58 and it will select that for you. You will now begin to select each numbered slot and install into the proper base. Make sure you have d2x-V7-final selected for each install

Follow this chart in order!
version: d2x-v7-final
base: 37
slot: 245
Press A and wait for it to complete, then select the select the next slot, press A again to continue.

version: d2x-v7-final
base: 38
slot: 246
Press A and wait for it to complete, select slot then Press A again to continue.
version: d2x-v7-final
base: 53
slot: 247
Press A and wait for it to complete, then Press A again to continue.

version: d2x-v7-final
base: 55
slot: 248
Press A and wait for it to complete, select slot then Press A again to continue.

version: d2x-v7-final
base: 56
slot: 249
Press A and wait for it to complete, select slot then Press A again to continue.

version: d2x-v7-final
base: 57
slot: 250
Press A and wait for it to complete, then Press A again to continue.

version: d2x-v7-final
base: 58
slot: 251

Press B to exit once you are done with this one!

You should now be ready to run USB loader GX.

But we have one more step before you should try.

Part 3: Formatting your USB hard drive

You will need WBFS Manager to do this, and it will come in handy later if you want to install ripped Wii game ios files from your computer. Go here http://wbfsmanager.codeplex.com/releases/view/26808 and download the proper 3.0.1 for either your x36 (the x86 files) or x64 system. This program does not work with Linux or MacOS so if you have those you’ll need to have something like WINE running.

Install WBFS to your computer and then plug in your USB drive. First format your USB hard drive to FAT 32 to start with a clean slate. Once that is done, open up WBFS manager, make sure your USB drive is selected and format it again. This should take no time at all since the drive is already clear but it will now be ready to be read by your Wii and USB Loader GX and WBFS. It can not be used on your computer anymore without WBFS manager opened.

Now take that USB Hard Drive and plug it into the usb slot closest to you left side of your Wii. Boot up your wii, go to the homebree channel and you should be good to go. If USB Loader GX won’t boot you did something wrong with the d2x files, if it doesn’t recognize your USB Drive close the program, switch usb slots and try again. If it still doesn’t work you should reformat it.

I’m assuming everything worked so with USB Loader GX open insert whatever game you want, you’ll now see the on screen prompt to install the game. Select yes and wait for it to rip (shouldn’t take too long, most games aren’t actually near the 4.7 GB disk size they are burned on Animal Crossing Wii for example is 0.35 GB).

Once it is finished, you can now take out the disk and boot the game for the USB. Your disks and disk drive can now take a break from being used and abused!

Legal Junk:

This guide is for soft modding your Wii for your personal enjoyment. I take no responsibility if you brick your system. Be advised that soft modding your Wii does void your warranty. I also do not advocate piracy, this guide for USB Loader GX is for saving your game disks and disk drive not for getting free games on your system.

When it comes to video games there are actually two grades to consider; CIB just means all the original packaging and inserts are included with your game, there is also NIB which is sealed and nothing in the packaging has ever been disturbed. Not surprisingly there is a bigger gap in the prices for those. So, is all of that worth it? Is having the cardboard around my game really worth the large premium? I’m in the group of collectors and players that says “No…hell no”. Using a cheap game as an example I’ll tell you why, so lets check out the game Last  Battle which was a launch title for the Sega Genesis. Loose this average to poor game costs/goes for no more than $3 on a good day, but check out eBay for a minute and see what people want for CIB copy. Did you see one for $20 or maybe $15? I wouldn’t be surprised if you did and if you didn’t they sit for around $10 very often which I’m almost certain you saw; so on average people want to ask four to six times more to include a box and maybe a manual around your game. When you consider that Genesis games had a hard clam shell case and not flimsy easy to fall apart cardboard this makes things even a little crazier, it isn’t like these boxes even disappear or fall apart as often as SNES or NES games. I’d hate to imagine what people would want if the game has some plastic wrap around it still; it would a $40 game! This is not an uncommon trend in video game collecting and it is kind of ridiculous to me. I would think double or triple the loose value would be more than fair, but that doesn’t seem to be the popular opinion. Of course CIB games look much better displayed and will be better protected, but charging a premium for that seems almost criminal.

When it comes to toys things are a bit different but not by much. One thing should be considered though, MOC is the same as NIB for video games. When a toy is MOC, it is sealed and has never been touched, even if the cardboard backing was exposed the whole time. The toy itself though was kept sealed away from the world for years, unless that card is mint it should be considered loose though. If the figure and bubble has come away from is cardboard that figure is now exposed and loose, and probably can never be resealed. Now the other big difference here is toy packaging was made to be thrown away, once the kid ripped that toy open there was really no way to put the toy back and usually no reason to anyway. This makes toy packaging much more rare than game boxes, game boxes are just like DVD, CD and VHS boxes; you are meant to put the game back when you are done playing it. While there are some people who just threw the boxes away this is not the norm by any means and is only becoming normal for some of the older games because the packaging is so frail and it has been 25+ years now. While these kind of things will make the price go up it doesn’t justify such a large gap, 5-10 times of a price increase is just an attempt to rip people off by acting like it is more rare than it is. Before you pay that $50 for Super Mario Bros 3 in box, look around it isn’t as rare as you might think; I got mine for $9!  The good thing about toys in this situation is they look just as cool (if not sometimes even cooler) out of the box and posed behind some glass than sealed away. Personally as a collector I’m content with having my toys loose as long as they are complete, takes up less space and looks real cool. When it comes to games I’d like to have them in box for display and protection purposes but I won’t touch them unless for a fair price, I’ll just buy loose for the sake of owning the game to play.

One of the big things he talks about in the article is how venues book shows and how they are really only letting themselves down in the long run; I’ve seen venues do this before and yeah it does hurt that venue in the long run. He talks about venues booking the messy local (probably cover oriented) band because they bring an immediate flock of friends and thinking that this will bring more people to the venue on a regular basis. While the first, second and maybe even a third time that band will bring in their friends and it will seem like that is really helping your venue, the reality will kick in (hopefully) soon that none of those people care about your place or any of the other music you bring in. Once their friends are done playing and once they get their fill, those friends aren’t coming back to support your place or the other musicians you bring in, they are there to get drunk with their friends playing a cover of Come Sail Away and that is it. A lot of those people won’t even stick around or come early enough to see the other band, you have filled your venue for 30 mins, congratulations. The best way to get your venue hopping is to book a variety of talented bands and musicians that people show interest in even if the venue isn’t packed each and every time. Why? Because you get a reputation of booking good music and people will start just coming a few nights a week to see what bands you have that night while enjoying the food and/or drink. It is at this point that you have fans and friends of the musicians on top of a good steady regular crowd, then some of that regular crowd becomes fans and brings more people to see their favorite musicians. It is like running a store, you are selling merchandise in the form of live sound entertainment. The better goods and services you offer the more people want to come and enjoy that! It may take some time but that is the business world, your venue will never take off from one night of having a force fed decent house.

He also talks about bands and musicians doing the work of the venue and being stiffed for it. Musicians these days have turned into bookers, promoters, advertisers, ticket sellers, and the entertainment. Many venues have stopped advertising all together and the booking process is done by outside sources or the bands themselves, then we get a stack of tickets to sell or we don’t get paid no matter how big the crowd is we play to. Something is wrong in that scenario and by something I mean everything. The venue needs to be willing to advertise and help keep their place filled with regulars if it hopes that these local musicians are going to bring in more people each time they played, selling 15 tickets to my friends isn’t going to help your venue in the long run most of the time (see the above section again in case you forgot why). I’m sure the short run results are nice of course, but basing everything on that short term is a poor decision as well. Besides the fact that it hurts the musician when they are stiffed after playing to a nice full house and they are told  they get nothing because they sold 10 tickets instead of 15, they probably won’t want to come back.  Taking out an ad with all of your upcoming shows for the month should be the minimum the venue should do. I’ve never planned on making a  million dollars for playing local shows but when I play to a good house I do expect to be able to get dinner and fill my gas tank a little. Bands and musicians are the entertainment, when we entertain we have done our job for the night and more work then that with all that we have to do these days. You wouldn’t ask your part time employee to bring 15 friends into work today before they get paid for the 9 hours of other work they do would you? Of course not!

I’ll leave this post to stop here and let you read the original one by David, it is a fantastic read for anyone involved in music. My original post about the local St. Louis scene will be after the break.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78468650/La-Club-Owners

]]> http://kevinwillingham.com/the-venues-and-the-scene/feed/ 0 http://kevinwillingham.com/june-july-2012-midwest-tour/ http://kevinwillingham.com/june-july-2012-midwest-tour/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:48:23 +0000 Kevin http://kevinwillingham.com/?p=50 Details and Dates TBA