I know what I want for Christmas.

Accordion Hero II [Shadenfreude Interactive GmbH]
via: Accordion Hero makes you want others in the genre [Make:blog] and MITer Cati’s blog Architectradure. (Nope. Can’t pronounce that, Cati.)

Come on, you know this was your first thought when you saw the original Guitar Hero. (I know it was mind. I also wondered about maybe Contrabassoon Hero.) And check that double-bellowed controller. Perfect for playing the song lineup:

• Leichtensteiner Polka, Traditional
• The Bowling King, Those Darn Accordions
• Can’t Touch This, M.C. Hammer
• Ya Ya Wunderbar, Frankie Yankovic
• Pictures of Matchstick Men, Status Quo
• In Heaven There Is No Beer, Traditional [Ed.: Whoo! My favorite!]
• Ride The Lightning, Metallica [Don't Fear the Reaper could sound good on accordion, too.]

I have touched the Future

All of this xxx Hero and Rock Band and Harmonix stuff does raise the question: how will we listen to music in the future? Will we have new interactive platforms for music that turn us from passive listeners into active. What will that platform be like? Some of you expressed, to put it kindly, a healthy dose of skepticism when I said I thought a new Harmonix-developed game for the iPod suggested new possibilities for mobile, interactive music.

Now I understand why. The real interactive platform for music could turn out to be a marker and your hands (if you, like me, weren’t one of the 7 million people who found this on YouTube, just wait until about halfway through for it to get interesting):

See also Daft Bodies, though that’s strangely less successful.

Sampling and remix culture is the future, right? Not if you ask a lot of music lovers at the moment. The guest for the CDM Random Rant of the Week is our friend Liz. It’s an issue I suspect has troubled some readers here, especially as music technology is equated to the sample/remix culture (especially if you believe Wired Magazine and we’re in the age of mash-ups.) Sure, tracks sampling other tracks is nothing new, but the legal battles over hip-hop aside, is there a backlash brewing? Do people want to hear something original, after all? And can Kanye, erm, speak truth to power with both the President of the United States and mysterious French electro duos? -PK

…Do[es] anybody make real shit anymore?
Bow in the presence of greatness
Cause right now thou has forsaken us
You should be honored by my lateness
That I would even show up to this fake shit
So go ahead, go nuts, go ape-shit
Especially on my best stand, on my Bape shit
Act like you can’t tell who made this…

“Stronger,” ft. substantial elements of Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger”

Before I clicked on the link I’m about to share with you, I was a hardcore, devil-fist-throwing Daft Punk mega-fan. After the link jump at the end, I had to reluctantly join the melancholy ranks of jaded music fans who’ve seen through the hype to the source, eventually admitting that what I had admired was blatant plagiarism.

Daft Punk is on a mind-blowingly cool tour. Aside from, you know, being Daft Punk, they’ve assembled dazzling futuristic visuals, slick leather jumpsuits, and sophisticated, animated LED helmets.

What? You want to tour with LED helmets, too? It’s easy, outlined in a PDF by the creators. I can make the steps even more brief:

1. Cast your face and make a bust of the face and clay models of all the parts.
2. Modify a motorcycle helmet for the electronics.
3. Design your own LED display and controller board.
4. Glue in LEDs … one … at … a time … and connect three feet of wiring per LED.
5. Build another custom PC board for a control keypad on the armband. (Hey, step #3 was easy enough, right?)
6. Custom manufacture all the exterior plastic and finishing.
7. Paint

The best way to experience all of this is in person, naturally, but here’s a roundup of some terrific coverage.

Daft Punk Concert report and lots of technical details, via our friend Chris O’Shea / Pixelsumo (who points to all the details on the visuals and costumes)

Word of an Upcoming Daft Punk Movie, from our friend and CDM contributor Quantazelle (Liz McLean Knight)

Many, many, many Daft Punk videos on dailymotion.com

Brilliant black-and-white snaps backstage on Flickr from leather jumpsuit designer Hedi Slimane

Alien, futuristic action figures — because they can.

Gobs of videos of the pair in action: