This is kinda a test… I still can’t get eSnips to take my mp3s… even ones of me breathing heavy, so long as they are in mp3 format. At least, not to a shared folder. You know, a folder where more than just me can hear them.

But, it looks like the song I wanted to upload last week is already up there by someone else… so I get to share it anyway. For now.

So, this song is Killing Machine… by the L.A. Guns. That’s right, this is part 2 of my ‘BBB does the ’80s’ special edition retro flashback.

Back in the day, I loved the CD this came from, and I still have it. I played it to death while truck driving, and a few cuts are still on my “big butt playlist” (copyright pending). I have long thought that this song was oh, so appropriate to how I feel in kitty mdoe, slashing and clawing my way through Deadmines.

I hope you enjoy the hair-band awesomeness.

I apologize in advance.

Recently, eSnips has changed the way they do things so that the music I own I can no longer share with you, even in a format that you cannot download and save for your own personal use.

I really like only sharing an audio track with you, and letting you add your own visuals with your imagination. But it seems, until I can figure out some other way of streaming mp3 files, that I will have to use Youtube to share a Raid Song instead. Which, frankly, sucks. I look at at a cheesy 80s video, and it’s hard to get past the incredible crappiness of the outfits and sledgehammer crudeness of the visual images and suggestiveness to hear the awesomeness of the music.

For those of you that get this blog to your portable devices, or from behind corporate firewalls that block Youtube, I am very sorry. I will try to figure something out.

I’m in kind of a wierd mood this week, and so I present to you Raid Songs… the 80’s version. If only I could get David Hasslehoff or some other hack to do a 5 second VH1-style soundbite before each one. I guess it’s sad when you’re so low budget you can’t afford a VH1 celeb, huh?

Okay, this first track is for my Resto Druid friends out there, and any other friends of the healer-type persuasion. Concrete Blonde was one of my favorite influences in the 80s. This song, technically, came out in early ‘93, but sue me… Concrete Blonde, for me, is part and parcel of the 80s’ experience.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEvm4yp2vkY&rel=1]

While you decide whether that is too emo to enjoy, I’m going to try to figure out how to stream mp3 files to the blog.

I hope you enjoy!

This one is more of a curiosity, really. My mp3 lists it as celtic Mystery - Foxhunters’ Slip Jig.

I love the song, but I have no idea who the actual artist is any more. My MP3 version is all that has survived, since I had this on a CD that got stolen in a case years ago.

Is it really ‘Celtic Mystery’? I have no idea.

I just know I really like the fast paced music that encourages you to get off your big butt and dance the Shredding dance.

Also, I don’t really want to get into it right now, but I have my reasons for wanting to imagine a sly feline slipping through the trees at high speed, to make an artful and successful escape as the hounds that are hot in it’s heels lose the scent.

In other news, I’d like to report that, thanks to the thoughts and prayers of my fellow raiders, (some of whom I am sure were simply praying for me to shut up about it) my Tier 4 Gloves finally dropped off Mr. Curator last night.

And there was much /cheer to be heard in the shadowed halls of Kara.

Have a great weekend, folks!

BBB note - eSnips does not like my purchased TSO -A Mad Russian’s Christmas being uploaded, so I had to snag a YouTube instead this time for Cassieann’s post - sorry.

Last week’s Raid Song of the Week had a number of comments posted and people talking about the music they use when playing. That got me to thinking about how I don’t play the game with music. I even have the in-game sounds turned off because I can’t stand that irritating “job’s done” message you get when you finish gathering quest items and the sound of swords clanging and stuff dying (I want to kill it, but I don’t need to hear it). Now true, I usually have the television in the background playing some show that our son is watching, such as the Backyardigans, Sesame Street, etc (which is probably more irritating than those in-game sounds).

But last Friday, I was in a festive mood and suddenly realized that I hadn’t hauled out my Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD that just has to be played at the holidays. So I dug it out and decided to use it while playing that evening. I’m not a raider yet, but I had some quests that required hours of grinding to kill various beasts and bad guys, so I thought I’d see if it made a difference to play with some rousing music on.

And I have to report that it did make a difference. Unfortunately, it did not enhance my playing ability. I was fighting along listening to the music and thought to myself that I wasn’t killing things as fast as I usually did and seemed to be taking a bit more damage than was typical. So I started watching my game play with a closer eye and realized that instead of paying attention to what I was doing, I was timing my Sinister Strikes and Eviscerates to the beat of the music. Oops!

So this Raid Song of the Week - Holiday Edition comes with a warning to use in battle at your own risk (or at least with more skill than I did)!

Cassieann

This weeks’ song is The Highwayman by Loreena McKennitt from the album The Book of Secrets. If you really like this song, another very popular song from that album is The Mummers’ Dance, in case you go looking around on iTunes.

This song fits in my raiding playlist as one of my background songs while taking care of the pulls between bosses.

There is a LOT of Loreena McKennitts’ music that I love for playing in general. If I were to recommend only three songs for you to enjoy, however, I would have to go with The Mummers’ Dance and The Highwayman from The Book of Secrets, and The Lady of Shalott from the album The Visit.

If you like this music, and know of any other music you really enjoy that is of this same kind of elemental celtic-influenced romantic type of thing, please mention it in the comments. I know I’d love to find more artists as wonderful as this.

As an aside, I was talking to some guildies, and a few of them seemed surprised that I listened to music while raiding, what with all of the directions and conversations that go on over Teamspeak. Especially since they don’t hear music in the background when I talk. What I do, of course, is use a headset with a sound canceling microphone, and I have the sound on my music player turned a bit down so it doesn’t interfere with hearing commands.

Just as an FYI, I use a Plantronics .Audio 90 Headset for my raiding and chatting. It isn’t USB, although most of their newer headsets come with a USB adapter so you can use regular analog OR USB connections. If they had that option when I was shopping around, I would have gone with that. I have found the .Audio 90 to be perfectly comfortable and cushiony soft, while at the same time so incredibly lightweight that I can wear it, literally, for hours and hours without any discomfort. It is way outside my normal price range for personal electronics… I’m one of those guys that sneers at the cost of an iPod, when I can buy a knockoff ram-based mp3 player that’ll hold hours of songs for $50. But every other headset I’ve ever worn, whether for music or for chatting, would hurt the top of my skull or be too heavy to wear long, and would give me a massive headache. This thing… even for $50 at the time, it is the awesome. If Plantronics were ever to seek endorsements, I’d fricken sell out and do one, because I swear by the product, instead of AT it. Oh yeah… and no, I didn’t get paid for that plug. I just love my headset that much. I’m pretty sure no one at Plantronics has any idea I exist.

Although, if any of Plantronics’ PR guys read this and want to send me one of their awesome wireless headsets to write up a review for them, send me an email.