Alesis Vortex brings back the Keytar, piano-neck tie, songs on MTV forthcoming

The guit-board is clearly the finest instrument to grace stadiums of decades past, but despite the innate bad-assery of the instrument, it faded into ironic-hipster use like the Eigenharp and Tenori-On. Fortunately, the geniuses at Alesis refused to let it pass into obscurity, releasing the Vortex in an attempt to propel the shoulder-slung keyboard into the stratosphere. Whilst plenty of body-mounted keyboards are available (Roland's AX-09 springs to mind) on the market, these guys went with 1985-grade body styling and a neck that you wish Steve Pocaro would rock out on (he never did, tragically). The MIDI/USB controller comes with 37 touch sensitive keys, velocity sensitive pads, octave and pitch wheels along that glorious neck. Hook it up to a Mac or PC and it'll draw power from the bus, connect it to any iOS device (USB adapter required) and you'll need to bring batteries. There's an MRSP of $400, but the company lists the expected "street price" at $250 -- if it's closer to the latter, we'll pick up a pair for the Engadget-street band's next world tour.