So we meant to have this contest finished on Monday, but since we’re loathe to ever stick to any sort of deadline (and the server went tits up for the better half of yesterday), we’re just now getting around to it. I want to say first that it was a blast getting all the questions together and talking/arguing with you all about the answers, and I think in the end, we all learned a little more about music, about life, and maybe just a little bit about love. It’s been a journey of transformation for all of us, but a little bit more so for Michael Lah of Austin, Texas, who is the (hopefully) proud owner of a shiny new 20GB HP iPod. Congratulations!
I’d also like to give a nod to Mike Cattle, who gave the hands-down most complete set of answers, along with source pages (some of which I’ll quote after the jump with the answers). If we were giving away the iPod based on most complete answers and not just random winners, you’d be the winner.
1. Name the all-synth pop band whose founding member went on to form the group who sang about “Chains of Love?”
We would have accepted either ‘Depeche Mode’ or ‘Yaz/Yazoo,’ as both were all-synth (or nearly all-synth, in the case of Depeche Mode) groups started by Vince Clark, who went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell.
Source: http://www.onges-erasure-page.co.uk/biography/
2. In issue #2 (or #3) of the original Transformers comic book series, what song is Jazz playing on his radio while ignoring Optimus Prime?
Jazz was playing Madonna’s “Material Girl”. However, it was issue #9, and Jazz was ignoring
Ratchet, not Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime’s head was in the posession of Shockwave at that
time.
We had originally said issue #2 or #3, but we were quickly proven wrong by readers.
3. What guitar amp did Clapton use when recording the 12 note guitar lick in his hit song “Layla”?
During Derek and the Dominoes, Clapton switched to maple neck Fender Stratocasters and Fender
tweed Champ amps for recording the “Layla” album.[Guitar Player January 1999]. On stage, he
used either Marshalls or a Fender Showman.
Oddly, we were under the mistaken impression that Gregg Allman had played the opening lick (which is more than 12 notes, if you count them, but we’re tricksy bastards), but discovered we were wrong as no one was tripped up by our “trick question.”
Source: http://www.ericclaptonfaq.com/guitars_and_amps.htm
4. What piece of electronic music hardware often includes buffalo wings, mozzerella sticks, and fajitas?
The ‘Sampler’ (GET IT OH HO HO). We had presumed this would be the easiest question on the quiz, but someone’s wild hare guess in this thread caused many of you to guess “The Moog Keyboard,” which was wrong, knocking you out of the race. I did not expect this question to kick so many peoples’ asses.
5. Name the spoof band whose album appeared in the same movie as the singer whose 1995 album included a song named after a reanimated corpse?
Autobahn. Aimee Mann appeared in the movie The Big Lebowski (as the female nihilist minus a pinky toe). Her 1995 album “I’m With Stupid” included the song “Frankenstein”.
In The Big Lebowski, the fictional German techno-pop band in the movie, “Autobahn”, is a parody of/homage to the ’70s band, Kraftwerk. The “Autobahn” album cover is almost a carbon copy of a Kraftwerk album cover and the group name “Autoban” is the name of a Kraftwerk song.
It was an oddly/poorly worded question, I’ll grant you all, but it was also meant to be our Great Equalizer. Quite a few of you answered GWAR (or Spinal Tap). While Spinal Tap is a spoof band, they don’t meet the rest of the question’s qualifiers. As for GWAR, odd as they may be, they are a real band.
Amusingly, though, there was an additional correct answer that we did not know about: Crucial Taunt, a spoof band in the movie Wayne’s World, which also happened to feature Alice Cooper, whose 1995 greatest hits compilation “Classicks” featured his song “Feed My Frankenstein.” (Thanks, Greg!)
Sources: http://www.gracenote.com/xm/pcd/contempfolk/b40bba3146c53ba4b8a5ad77dd18a34b.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/fullcredits
http://imdb.com/title/tt0118715/trivia
6. What electronic effect did jazz legend Miles Davis use in the ’70s? On what color
instrument?
The effect was the “Wah-wah”, and his trumpet was black. There was a specific book we were reading about Davis at the time of the questions which enumerated which trumpet specifically was rigged to the wah-wah pedal and it was black, although at the time Davis was also playing horns of various colors, so we also allowed red, blue, or green, as long as the first answer was correct.
Source: http://images.google.ca/images?q=Miles+Davis+Album+Covers
7. What color were the CGI girls in the video for Poison’s “Unskinny Bop”?
Green, the same color as their logo. We checked.
8. Which Brazilian bossa singer cursed and showed his tongue to a huge audience claiming the brand new theater acoustics were not good enough for him?
Joao Gilberto. He was getting excessive feedback from the sound system.
Source: http://www.brazzil.com/pages/p45mar01.htm
9. Name the company whose second-generation audio oscillator was used by Disney to test the twelve specially-equipped movie theaters that first showed Fantasia?
Hewlett-Packard
Source: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0002/0002history.html
10. Is terrestrial broadcast television transmitted in AM or FM?
All analogue television systems use vestigial sideband modulation, a form of amplitude
modulation (AM) in which the lower sideband is incompletely suppressed. However, the audio portion
of the signal is frequency modulated (FM). Short answer: both!
Source: http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting.com/broad/autv2.html
It was great fun, and thanks again to everyone who entered. We’ll do it again sometime soon, I promise.
