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Video: Jonathan Coulton performing 'Still Alive' in Rock Ban watch!

joystiq.com — Geek-rock troubadour Jonathan Coulton performing his song "Still Alive" in Rock Band at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. His backing band includes Veronica Belmont, Leo Laporte, and Merlin Mann.

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  • Hortnon, on 02/25/2008, -10/+11I need to buy Rock Band before this comes out...I must play this song.
    • tidu, on 02/25/2008, -1/+29There are actually a lot better reasons to buy Rock Band.
      • Hortnon, on 02/25/2008, -1/+3My roommate had it but he moved out...so yeah, I know, but I've already played it a ton. So this is added incentive to buy the game myself.
    • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -4/+8You're going to pay nearly $200 for THAT song?
      • Spamcan, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1It's $170 now, and I've seen it as low as $150. I'm going to buÂ¥ it as soon as I can get it with a second guitar for under $200. All that DLC is expensive too and I'm worried about another gaming addiction sucking up all my spare cash.
        • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1It's $170, but tax adds about another $15.

          I got it for $135, should I say that's the price?
        • capiCrimm, on 02/25/2008, -2/+4for $200 I could buy 3 *real* strat copies w/ amps...
          • blahtastic, on 02/25/2008, -3/+6Ohh, boo, I could play a real guitar drums and bass and sing in a real band instead of your game that everyone likes. Boo hoo, poor "real musician" me.

            Can you buy a life with $200?

            (Yeah that was a bit much, but seriously, we don't need this in every guitar hero/rock band story. Some people don't want to devote a couple years to being a mediocre musician, and just want to have fun with the game. Oh, and amazingly, a lot of people who actually are musicians like these games too! Go figure)
          • capiCrimm, on 02/25/2008, -1/+2@blahtastic

            you missed my real point. Not that you should buy a strat copy, but how overpriced these games are. A real guitar and amp are more complicated to build then a plastic guitar with five buttons. Yet I can buy three of those for the price of one rock band.
          • blahtastic, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1Oh, sorry bout missing the point then. Gotta admit it just sounded like the play a real instrument argument, though. Anyways, I still have to disagree with that statement.

            Rockband isn't just a plastic guitar. It's a game, a plastic guitar, a plastic drum set (which can be used with a pc and some freeware programs), and a microphone (actually a USB mic you can use with your PC if you wish).

            Games are 60 dollars on ps3 and 360. So thats 110 left for the guitar, drumset and mic. An average of 36 dollars a piece isn't really too bad.
          • capiCrimm, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1"Games are 60 dollars on ps3 and 360"

            yes, but it doesn't cost that much to actually make a game, a lot of that is gravy. Let's face it, this game is not rocket science to build. With the guitar there wasn't even development costs to recoup. An individual guitar will cost $60 according to wiki. Again, more then a real beginners guitar. I wouldn't be surprised if they were making over 60% profit off of that thing.

            I don't know drum prices as well, but I'm pretty sure you can get a decent starters set for around $50 too.

            Mics vary too much in quality to say if it's good or not. I'm guessing it's a $10 mic, but I don't know.
      • Hortnon, on 02/25/2008, -1/+2The simple answer is yes.
    • AutomatorXV, on 02/25/2008, -0/+4You're gonna pay $170 for the ability to buy a $.99 song?
  • iamchampuk, on 02/25/2008, -6/+37This could be the best piece of downloadable content EVER
  • hopchetd, on 02/25/2008, -6/+26yeah, there's no video on that page anymore. fix it? okaygoodthanksbye.
  • int10h, on 02/25/2008, -8/+51Huge success!
    • funkytommyman, on 02/25/2008, -11/+1It's hard to overstate my satisfaction upon reading your comment.
      • tidu, on 02/25/2008, -10/+2I'm making a note here: this is going to be one long thread of Portal quotes.
  • pennyfan87, on 02/25/2008, -0/+218Fixed link:
    http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/24/video-jonathan-c ...
    • cryonix, on 02/25/2008, -0/+16thanks, i was starting to thinking i was blind.
    • doshindude, on 02/25/2008, -2/+16i thought my adblock was broken, thanks.
      • perral1, on 02/25/2008, -1/+12Same.

        How is this story front-page with a broken link?!?!?!
        • Pritchard, on 02/25/2008, -1/+2Someone posted a fix.
          • MasteRR, on 02/25/2008, -0/+2But that is in the comments. How does a story that with a broken link actually make the frontpage? It has to be people digging by title and not the actual article.
      • MasteRR, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1I thought noscript was breaking it here. Temp whitelisted every site on that page (6, sheeshe) and still no go.
    • RawrAtYoo, on 02/25/2008, -0/+2thank you sir.
    • notthemama, on 02/25/2008, -2/+2Bah. flash 9. Just what I need, drm.
    • cdallacosta, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1the sound is pretty awful quality... the cheering drowns out the song which is quite hard to distinguish already...
      • LordKaT, on 02/26/2008, -0/+2if you're a geek you'll figure it out :P
  • r3m1x, on 02/25/2008, -8/+1beats. from PC Playstation Store + "Still Alive" = appy for Rock Band "Still Alive" DLC

    C'mon PSN Thursday!
    • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -5/+5Something much better is coming on Thursday, NIN.
      • GuitaristTom, on 02/25/2008, -11/+1wow... i dont think anyone else in the entire world thinks Nine Inch Nails is a remotely good band... ohh look at us... our band sucks and is gay... its gonna be soo funny when a gimmicky song like "still alive" sells better than that NIN *****... but come on people, we need like beatles or the dead or how about a claypool song...
        • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -0/+6Claypool? Haha, yeah dude...enough said.
          • GuitaristTom, on 03/11/2008, -0/+1yeah claypool... god forbid someone is good at their instrument... oh, no lets play whole songs with drop d power chords... i cant believe music is dying so ***** bad... it sickens me...
            look, im no famous musician but i have been teaching guitar for about 3 years now, and playing intensely for 13 and been playing drums for as long as i can remember and seriously, i can tell you without a doubt nine inch nails has not one instrumentalist who displays any sort of knowledge of how music is created... im almost sure they sit and play a bunch of random ***** until it sounds good... for christs sake... i could rant all day but ill stop because no ones gonna ever read this
          • GuitaristTom, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1... a 22 year old transgender who still likes pokemon... okay, please never reply to me again mywhitenoise
        • FallenWings, on 02/25/2008, -0/+3GTFO.
  • Shorties, on 02/25/2008, -16/+10This was a triumph.
    • matt.rubin, on 02/25/2008, -12/+4I am making a note here
      • h4mx0r, on 02/25/2008, -1/+17C-C-C-CAKE BREAKER!
        • LMaxey, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1aw that probably made a lot of people sad
      • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -2/+18Do you guys need to do this all the time?
        "NERDS UNITE! We must write down the lyrics every time there's a mention of Portal!"
        We all know the song, shut up already.
      • cigawoot, on 02/25/2008, -7/+2HUGE SUCCESS
        • legoalert33, on 02/25/2008, -3/+1Its hard to overstate my satisfaction.
    • Kymeleon, on 02/25/2008, -12/+2Huge success.
      • 55fifty, on 02/25/2008, -7/+1It's hard to overstate my satisfaction
    • Hartley1942, on 02/25/2008, -10/+2Its hard to overstate my satisfaction.
    • goldenratiophi, on 02/25/2008, -4/+1Aperture Science: We do what we must because we can.

      ps I dugg all of you down to look cool.
  • xOKxWhy, on 02/25/2008, -12/+6Lies, there is no cake.
    • earlysound, on 02/25/2008, -1/+15There was actually cake at the performance. Does that make the cake *not* a lie?
      • therightclique, on 02/25/2008, -1/+13I'm pretty sure the cake in the ***** game makes the cake not a lie.. i swear, nobody actually played this game.
        • piwy, on 02/25/2008, -0/+8The fact that YOU don't get any cake still makes it a lie tho. Glados would rather kill you that share her cake.
  • chrisaug18, on 02/25/2008, -17/+13Whos that?
    • MioTheGreat, on 02/25/2008, -6/+14Coulton is the guy who wrote 'Still Alive'
    • BugMeNot2, on 02/25/2008, -0/+11Jonathan Coulton wrote the song 'Still Alive'.
    • Verz, on 02/25/2008, -0/+5Why is everyone digging him down? He's obviously quoting Portal.
  • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -18/+2I love that venue. That song is dumb, and the bassist really sucked.
  • Sairynn, on 02/25/2008, -6/+5I wish they'd tell us when it's going to be released (April Fools would be my guess). Still, it's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
  • TobiasParker, on 02/25/2008, -6/+1***** awesome. but seriously, can i get a mirror?
  • HiKevinRose, on 02/25/2008, -23/+9Sorry, but can someone explain to me why I should care? I don't know jack about this guy.
    • mrmacky, on 02/25/2008, -1/+15I'm pretty sure he composed Still Alive
      • HiKevinRose, on 02/25/2008, -7/+1Oh. K, thanks. Good song, decent performance.
    • digitalMessiah, on 02/25/2008, -0/+6Yes, he did create the song for Valve.
      You can also be proactive about your comments and do a tiny bit of searching. http://www.google.com/search?q=jonathan+coulton+st ...
      • HiKevinRose, on 02/25/2008, -6/+2Or you can ask the damn question on everyone's mind and get one answer for everyone. :)
        • LMaxey, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1Or read the comments first. It's already been mentioned a few times.
    • ZeRux, on 02/25/2008, -2/+2Agreed, just because he wrote a song for Portal doesn't mean he's a rock superstar.
  • ozid, on 02/25/2008, -1/+79since when does widescreen = high def?
    • wafflez, on 02/25/2008, -1/+51a video like that is considered 'high def' for flash because youtube set such a ***** standard =(
  • cuj0, on 02/25/2008, -2/+46hahah Leo Laporte failed
    • bobakanush, on 02/25/2008, -0/+21He needed to "call for help" several times
    • Twister594, on 02/25/2008, -0/+0Noooooo, Leo!!! Poor Leo, he made them fail at out 99%. I really wish that they would not let you fail out after the last note in the song.
  • element4l, on 02/25/2008, -4/+46nerd fest?
    • h4mx0r, on 02/25/2008, -4/+2or sausage fest?
      • consonance, on 02/25/2008, -1/+13You do realize Veronica Belmont is posting in this story's comments, right?
      • Gizza, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1Same thing in most cases.
    • digitalMessiah, on 02/25/2008, -0/+3Actually not a sausage fest at all. About a 50/50 mix with lots of cuties. If anything it was a zombie fest.
  • suriyou, on 02/25/2008, -3/+31Leo in his cowboy outfit, so epic.
  • edwintait, on 02/25/2008, -30/+6who on earth is Jonathan Coulton? and why would i ever want to play this song on rockband?
    • legoalert33, on 02/25/2008, -2/+10GTFO!
    • manitoba98xp, on 02/25/2008, -1/+9Jonathan Coulton is a songwriter popular among geeks, primarily for "Code Monkeys", a song parodying the mundane life of a stereotypical cubicle programmer, and "Still Alive", the credits song for Valve's popular Portal title.

      He's fairly popular among the Digg community, needless to say.
    • schroeder, on 02/25/2008, -1/+3He's a very popular geek songwriter (wrote the song "Codemonkey") and this song is the song he wrote for the end credits for the game Portal. It's something a lot of gamers are excited about. He also had a song a week project where he wrote one song a week for a year and posted for free download on the internet a couple years back.
    • q1006662, on 02/25/2008, -2/+1Troll >:/
  • deezp1, on 02/25/2008, -5/+11Rock Ban?
    • neocognitism, on 02/25/2008, -2/+5Rocks are Banned, obviously. The Stone Age is officially over.
  • widebhoy, on 02/25/2008, -3/+57Leo Laporte = Legend, instant digg.
  • Julirocks, on 02/25/2008, -3/+49dugg for veronica belmont.
    • yossarian24, on 02/25/2008, -13/+2shes my cousin. I don't see her much cause shes out in cali while everyone else is in CT.
      • TheNik, on 02/25/2008, -1/+14Cool, thanks for that little nugget of completely useless information. I will use it to the best of my abilities.
      • IHaveIssues, on 02/25/2008, -1/+5She's my cousin too. Did 'er.
    • ChristianMagic, on 02/25/2008, -9/+1Why? I mean if she can't even play the Rock Band bass, what good is she?
      • Julirocks, on 02/25/2008, -0/+12You do realize that she was playing lead guitar, right?
      • markperia, on 02/25/2008, -0/+7and she's the only one who didn't fail.
    • MixMastaKooz, on 02/25/2008, -0/+8Wow. You know we're geeks when a Leo Laporte comment gets dugg higher than Veronica Belmont...
  • Windows9d8, on 02/25/2008, -1/+6Anyone catch the goon wearing the City Name Sports Team shirt on the right?
  • D3koy, on 02/25/2008, -0/+10For a video that relied heavily on sound, you'd think there would be better audio...
    • digitalMessiah, on 02/25/2008, -0/+4It was shot from the audience. Not a lot they could do. The event itself though was filmed for his DVD though.
  • machocheese34, on 02/25/2008, -3/+24Wow they really suck, except maybe the singer since he kinda wrote it, but everyone else was horrible.
    • tomzvrl, on 02/25/2008, -0/+10It might be a little harder to play Rock Band when you're on stage in front of a packed auditorium. I can't fault them, even if they were on medium and easy.
      • earlysound, on 02/25/2008, -0/+24Thanks! Yes, it was a little nerve-wracking. It was also the second time we had ever played the song! I usually play on medium/hard, so I gave guitar a shot on medium.
        • brettmurf, on 02/25/2008, -0/+4I was trying to figure out what you guys even had to look at for the timing. I was really sad with the fail, just because I wanted to see if he got 100% on the vocals, but it kept the crowd pretty involved.
      • StolenLamp, on 02/25/2008, -0/+2No one can expect to play well with those crappy Rock Band guitars... I'll take my GH3 Les Paul any day of the week.
        • MasterGrief, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1Now I haven't ever used the Les Paul but I can't help but feel you're being a little hard on the Stratocaster... I dislike the squishy strum bar quite a lot, but that is one finely engineered fake plastic guitar, man.
      • saradipity, on 02/26/2008, -0/+0I liked it.
    • pharekyz, on 02/25/2008, -0/+7The girl on the lead guitar was actually pretty good relatively speaking. She saved leo and the drummer a couple of times.
    • below413, on 02/25/2008, -8/+1How is it possible to be that bad on the bass? I've seen girls who never play video games try for the first time and they aren't that bad... Seriously...
      • earlysound, on 02/25/2008, -1/+18I wasn't ON bass. The screen was reversed! Sheesh, if you'd actually pay attention to the video, you'd see that!
        • MixMastaKooz, on 02/25/2008, -0/+3Yea, at first I thought Leo was rocking out, but he was just being his usual goofy self...you were concentrating a lot more, and that's when I had my, "Ohhh!" moment.
        • below413, on 02/25/2008, -2/+1I wasn't talking about the girl... I'm not retarded. I was saying that he's worse than a lot of girls.
  • doshindude, on 02/25/2008, -4/+7Wow....the lead guitarist didn't have much to do for much of that song...
    • earlysound, on 02/25/2008, -0/+44It was the bass behind me on the projection. I was lead guitar, and that was on the right hand side of the screen.
      • nreynolds, on 02/25/2008, -0/+33question: you're really attractive.

        EDIT: Dang, I think I ***** that up.
  • rawnzilla, on 02/25/2008, -13/+2THE CAKE IS A LIE, LOL! APETURE SCIENCE LOL! GABE NEWELL LOL!
  • dontaskagain, on 02/25/2008, -1/+5Ah JC, glad he is getting the recognition he deserves for sticking to his dream.
    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM
    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA
    • EvilDr.X, on 02/25/2008, -0/+3Yeah, here's hoping he gets some more stuff in Rock Band. I'd love to play "Code Monkey", personally.
      • kyouteki, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1It would be boring. Have you ever listened to the guitar part in Code Monkey? It's a great song, but not Rock Band material imo.
  • schmimd04, on 02/25/2008, -12/+3ive never heard of this song
  • mcduckov, on 02/25/2008, -13/+5I assume this is funny because of how much it sucks. Oh...uh, hahah.
    • dmsteg, on 02/25/2008, -0/+3you refering to your comment?
      • mcduckov, on 02/25/2008, -2/+1No, the band sucks ass, and balls and the notcha too. Granted that when something sucks that much it can be funny. I might even laugh too if not for that f-tard laporte. Just seeing his name makes me taste a little vomit in my mouth.
  • Kazbaeden, on 02/25/2008, -1/+5Damn, I was hoping to see expert mode. Medium seems rather boring. Then again all songs are boring on medium.
  • hokeywebb22, on 02/25/2008, -0/+7I totally thought they had barely made it through the song until the very end. 99%!
    This was a failure.
    • scojerroc, on 02/25/2008, -0/+2"this was a failure"?
      i'm making a note here: huge suckfest
      • DrvThruPnk, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1it's hard to understate my disappointment
  • paco1524, on 02/25/2008, -1/+15All Portal quotes aside, things like this are why Rock Band is leagues ahead of Guitar Hero. You'd probably never see something like this released for Guitar Hero. Instead you'll see Activision trying to take your money by offering packs of songs, one or two of which you don't want, and charging you like $5. On the other hand Rock Band is coming out with new, reasonably priced DLC every week with four times the note charts of Guitar Hero. Maybe it's not always something you'll like, but they release enough that there's bound to be something you want to buy every once in awhile.
    • UtopiaInTheSky, on 02/25/2008, -3/+1Are all Rock Band songs that easy?
      Seriously, that song is boring it's so easy. I've never played Rock Band, though.
      • MiDri, on 02/25/2008, -0/+7They played it on easy, from the look of it (no orange notes on guitar below hard level.)
      • tyler2k, on 02/25/2008, -1/+0Even though the song isn't complex to begin with, overall, the songs are fairly easy compared to the last half of the songs on expert in guitar hero. It's almost like comparing guitar hero 2 and guitar hero 3 on overall difficulty and difficulty curve.
  • anyone4apint, on 02/25/2008, -13/+1I'm making a note here, great sucess.
  • Rupan, on 02/25/2008, -9/+2Wow, they sucked horribly at that. I can say in some amount of vanity that I could of easily smashed them in that game minus the singing. I cant sing worth a *****. Can't wait for this song to come out.
  • s3xt0y, on 02/25/2008, -11/+8***** THE RIAA!
  • AutomatorXV, on 02/25/2008, -2/+0I bet the Harmonix guys were probably starting to hate the song by this time, imagining how many times they had to hear it making tracks for each instrument, but I guess hearing it live is probably a completely different experience.
  • lukeredfive, on 02/25/2008, -0/+6ohhhh my goodness. the great jc is probably my favorite internet god. i was so proud to learn he did "still alive" when i finished portal.
  • Tommydukes, on 02/25/2008, -11/+5Why does anyone like this song again???
    • therightclique, on 02/25/2008, -1/+9its only good if you experience it for the first after completing portal. if you listened to it without beating portal, you are a tool and have ruined a huge part of one of the greatest games ever made for yourself. congratulations!
  • gcacho, on 02/25/2008, -1/+21Still Alive = nerd anthem
  • bobtimmons, on 02/25/2008, -1/+2simply awesome
  • camkerr, on 02/25/2008, -0/+14Not only do I like the fact that it is DLC for Rock Band but the fact that Veronica, Merlin and Leo are playing with Jonathan makes it just that much more amazing.
  • beldenge, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1Amazingly Amazing
  • screwloose45, on 02/25/2008, -3/+4Wow...That's sad.
  • xadamxwaltonx, on 02/25/2008, -1/+9If you read on, you will find that Jonathan Coulton hit 95 percent of the notes correctly... but I'm not even angry.
    • weeman43302, on 02/25/2008, -1/+6are you being so sincere right now?
      • KloroFormd, on 02/25/2008, -1/+5Even though it broke your heart and killed you?
    • HydrogenOxide, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1He missed four or five notes at the beggining.
  • yossarian24, on 02/25/2008, -16/+1Veronica Belmont is my cousin so all of this veronica swooning is always REALLY weird for me haha
    • TargetDog, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1Really?
    • earlysound, on 02/25/2008, -0/+28Oh really, you're my cousin? News to me! Also, re: your earlier comment about "being my cousin" I don't have any cousins in CT. Weird, huh?
      • hardcorecomb, on 02/25/2008, -0/+15Oh god that guy has to be embarrassed now!
      • TargetDog, on 02/25/2008, -2/+2Nice TWiT earlysond except that JoCo hogged up too much of the time. It's always good when you're on though.
      • 0crabby0, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1lmao
    • mywhitenoise, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1attention whore.
    • jetfuel, on 02/25/2008, -1/+2Pics or GTFO
    • yossarian24, on 02/25/2008, -6/+2haha no we actually are I promise I just found out. My mom is a Parker/McCormac and is 1st cousins with your dad. John actually came over my house for Christmas, it was really weird we like started talking about some tech stuff and he mentioned you were his sister
      • StolenLamp, on 02/25/2008, -0/+9This should probably be a message to HER, not the entire website.
    • StolenLamp, on 02/25/2008, -1/+5Even if she were, I would still hate you for making so many unnecessary posts, and trying to draw as much attention to yourself as possible.
  • Lawr, on 02/25/2008, -0/+6ahhhh, Leo and Merlin... too funny. DUGG.
  • wilf_brim, on 02/25/2008, -0/+2Pretty interesting. Nice job on guitar, V. BTW.
  • nollek, on 02/25/2008, -3/+1Dugg for Jonathan Coulton being a GOD
  • lazyfisherman, on 02/25/2008, -3/+1Isn't still alive a Megadeth song? Still alive, blood of heroes, never die etc. Maybe it's called something else.
  • jshusterman, on 02/25/2008, -2/+0Rock Band is really the only video game I actually ever play anymore. It's such a great game!
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