What I’m feelin’ #3

So I’m back.  I’m really trying to make this a usual thing, I have it on my calender for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Todays choice was pretty easy.

The Cure

The newest album release by The Cure, “4:13 Dream”, was release 3 weeks ago, to mixed reviews.  Rather than being a very direct theme as many of their previous albums had, “4:13″, mixes it up a little more.  Where “Bloodflowers” fit into more of a gothic tone and “Boys Don’t Cry” had the dance thingy going on, “4:13″ runs back and forth between between the dark and light, hanging out a little more in the light.  So this isn’t quite to the extremes of “Wild Mood Swings”.  I bring all this up because I started off with a distaste for the new album, but it had grown on me pretty efficiently.

It’s hard to compare Cure albums because they do fit into so many mediums of Rock music, but when it comes to what made them who they are is they Robert Smith’s voice can seem to beckon a hurt soul.  There is something about his voice calling out in pain on a track like “Pictures of You”.  It makes you feel better in that dark place.  People always think I am some weird, sad, dark guy when I say that The Cure is probably my favorite band ever.  Listening to The Cure doesn’t make you sad, it makes you feel okay while sad.  It makes you feels as though someone else is right there with you.  It’s no longer a lonely void.  Dammit, I just proved the weird, sad, and dark theory.  The Cure wasn’t the birth of emo music, blame that on The Smiths.

There is very little music that will move me and my emotions every time I listen to it, and The Cure is one of those bands.  There isn’t a Cure album that doesn’t directly correlate to a particular time period in my life.  Just like John Legends album “Once Again” always reminds me of a big mistake, The Cure’s “Disintegration” reminds me of that rough break-up, “Bloodflowers” was there for the awkward Jr High to High School switch, and “Boys Don’t Cry” made me not care about leaving after High School.  The Cure very well could be the sound track of my life, all the good, all the bad, they influence so much, while nullifying most.

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What I’m Feelin’ #2

I guess this is technically a day late but it is still Monday to me, so by my clock, I’m on time.  I have been listening to an array of things for the past couple of days so it has kind of become a mess, but right now I would have to say I am enjoying “Islands”

Islands

The Islands have an interesting tone and mixture in their sound.  They have an almost generic indy guitar rock sound to them, but they have these tribal style drums in the background, laid out over strings, with a tropical feeling during their relaxed times.  They will jump back and forth between a relaxed tone to being full tilt rocking out.  I can almost see it being a soundtrack to a dream where I am being pulled back and forth between a light world where everything is happy and good natured, and another dark seedy underworld where all things are embodied with bad intentions.  There is a conniving tone to it.

I think the most interesting things would be Nicholas Thornburn’s vocals.  It feels like he is enjoying you along this same journey.  His vocals will fluctuate from a beautiful high note to a low whispered cry, then immediately drop to a scream.  He will surprise you an almost Billy Corganish vibe on a few tracks.  He is very talented, as we all know if you have heard the Unicorns, whom he and other Islands band mate Jaime Thompson were members of.

I feel this journey is very well worth it.  Sit back relax, let your mind wonder wherever the music takes you.  That’s what this music is intended for I do believe.  This isn’t background music, it isn’t party music, you almost have to be ready for it to take you away.  I think I just figured out why I didn’t finish my homework.

I recommend “Arm’s Way” by Islands and if you enjoy that check out “Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?” by The Unicorns.

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What I’m feelin’

I have a reliance on music that strikes some people as weird and uncomfortable.  I can’t stand silence, and I’m not talking about an awkward silence that occurs when two people are in a room and no one is talking, I’m talking about a lack of background noise.  I am always listening to music and if I can’t then I actually get kind of uncomfortable.  Even if I am having a conversation with someone, it is preferable to have music in the background, otherwise I lose my train of thought and my mind wanders.  I have a tendency to listen to a wide variety of music all the time, seamlessly jumping from Bob Dylan to The Misfits without it being uncomfortable.  So I thought something that I would enjoy and maybe reignite a love for a band you haven’t listened to for a long time would be highlighting a band I have been listening to, whether it be old, new, or even archaic.  I am hoping to do this eavery Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Modest Mouse & Sun Kil Moon

I don’t know if I am listening to Modest Mouse because of Sun Kil Moon or Sun Kil Moon because of Modest Mouse.  I was listening to “Lonesome Crowded West” by Modest Mouse and after running across “Convenient Parking”, and “Truckers Atlas” I decided I had to listen to the “Tiny Cities” by Sun Kil Moon, which is a Modest Mouse cover album.  I made a playlist that was the original track by Modest Mouse followed by the cover by Sun Kil Moon.  It was really interesting to hear the change that happened jumping from the seedy and grand instrumental scale with the angsty vocals of the Modest Mouse original, then hearing the Americana/folk interpretation by Sun Kil Moon.

Modest Mouse has an extremely identifiable sound between the distorted guitars and clamoring drums, while Sun Kil Moon can almost be lost in the sea of contemporary folk music if it wasn’t for a near expertise use of an acoustic guitar and well matched vocals.  I’m not a huge Modest Mouse fan but I like to dabble and they do have a few amazing albums, and a few that fall a little flat for me.  Their best albums in my opinion would be “This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About” “Lonesome Crowded West” and “Building Nothing Out Of Something”.  What struck my about “Tiny Cities” is that it felt like a personally made best of album for me.  The songs on the album would be my favorites, leaving a few still to be added, but the point being is that the album is composed of their best songs, and covered very well.

Right now I am feelin’ Modest Mouse and Sun Kil Moon’s covers of Modest Mouse.  I have been doing a lot of these playlist projects.  this cover thing, the Bloc Party comparison, and a weird little Cure Mash-up.  What is your favorite kind of playlist?  Do you stick with a genre theme, mood theme, or do you try to mix things up and play with an interesting idea?  I’m looking for new inspiration so let me know.

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Fallout 3…fun?…what?

I guess my title is a little over emphasized with my opinion rather than trying to consider other opinions.  This game is getting unreal reviews, people everywhere are talking about it as though it’s the greatest game ever.  I can understand the appeal especially considering how many people loved Oblivion, but honestly, did we really need another Oblivion.  Oh sorry, Oblivion with guns.  And what’s with people saying this isn’t Oblivion with guns?  That is exactly what it is.  You start a mission and it tells you to go to this town.  You go to that town, start talking to people, and they say go talk to this guy.  So you go speak with said guy, he says “Yeah.  I saw yo’ daddy.  Gimme some money or go kill this hooker.”  so you go to kill this hooker but along the way you are stopped by five fucking people who think them finding their family or writing some book is more important than you finding your dad.  Fuck you and your egos.

So now here you are running around trying to find some bitches parents only to find out they are dead then you have to find her brother who got kidnapped by some raiders.  Meanwhile you accumulate 3 more missions along the way.  So now you have 8 freelance missions and meanwhile from the sounds of it your dad is off doing far more badass things.  Is the purpose of this game to ignore the story entirely?  What the fuck is that?  This is a different kind of a RPG game than what gamers like myself are comfortable and I also think it points out a flaw within contemporary game development, where did the story go?

It seems as thought the era of well developed story lines in games have gone down the drain and it’s sad.  There are still some amazing games that are popping up, Tales of Vespiria, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, Gears of War, Bio Shock, fuckin’ hell Dead Rising does a better job of exposure to a story than Fallout 3.  I understand the appeal of games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion.  It is cool to have a completely wide open world where you can go anywhere and do anything, but there should be something that dialogue and story progression makes you WANT to do.  I have a hard time finding this in Fallout 3.  Any time it tries to share some of the story with you, it makes you go grab a fucking relay dish.  Come on dude, I got 500 caps and I am sure if I give you these and tell me where my fucking dad is, I will have 500 more for the guy in the next town who is going to ask me to do god knows what.  I don’t care about finding my dad anymore because I am sent on retarded quests that have nothing to do with my dad to find out where the hell he is.  Sorry duder, but I checked out a long time ago.

I do understand where fans are coming from but at the same time I can’t help but think the real essence of games is falling apart.  The escapist platform that video games have the capability of being is astounding, but I rarely see it being executed with contemporary games.  I just think Fallout has the ability of being an amazing game for more people if they would have fired on all cylinders.  I also think it is weird that it is getting such amazing reviews when it is obviously lacking in many places.  Could this just be a product of fear caused by the Kane & Lynch/Gamespot fiasco?  If you look at many of these publications you will see that they are advertisers on these sites.  I’m not going conspiracy theory on this, just pointing something out.

I’m also not saying that a game has to have the most unreal story ever.  Look at Gears of War.  Simple story, badass action, ultra violent, and some pretty sick curb-stomping animation (Doesn’t beat Dead Space in that category though).  Gears is a game that appeals to everyone; a douchebag frat guy, a geek who lives in his mothers basement, a dad who told his wife he bought the console for his kids but plays games after they go to bed, or people like me who are in a weird purgatory between being a core gamer and a casual gamer.  I think Fallout 3 for me is an example of a game doing the little things perfectly but failing at the core of a video game.  But then again I grew up playing Zelda, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros., Chrono Trigger, and Metal Gear (original series as well as the Solid era).  Gameplay and story carry me, not big & pretty.

Feel free to yell at and disagree with me.

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Bloc Party – Intimacy

Bloc Party has had a career that most fans agree on.  It seems that everyone loves Silent Alarm and hates A Weekend in the City.  Hate is a strong word.  Maybe they don’t hate it, they just find a plethora of faults with it while comparing it to an extremely strong freshman release.  I personally was not a huge fan of Bloc Party when they first arrived on the scene.  I eventually warmed up to them and still came to the same conclusion that most others did.  I still think the best thing To come out of them was actually a remix of “Banquet”  on the DJ Green Lantern Mixtape “We Major” for Fort Minor.  But that is besides the point.  What we are really here for is a review for their newest album, “Intimacy”, which I absolutely love.

I genuinely feel that “intimacy” is one of Bloc Part’s most cohesive album.  I can feel the progression from track to track, a feel where it should go next, and to my surprise, that is exactlly where it goes.  It feels right, It feels clean, and it is a blast to listen to.  It has been a while since I threw in a cd and immediately started to enjoy it from track 1 straight to it’s conclusion and not once feeling as though something was out of place.  I was able to enjoy the whole album without thinking that something was wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a perfect album.  It has it’s elements that bother me.  I love a song that has claps, but occasionally they get a little “clap happy” and it becomes too much of a distraction.  The track “Biko” immediately comes to mind.  I do love this track, but maybe that is just because I saw the track title and thought they were doing a Peter Gabriel cover and immediately wrote it off.  I had other things to write here but after thinking a little more about what I was feeling, I disproved the faults I had previously found.  I was going to say the over use of synth was drowning out their extremely driving drums,  But it’s not really the abundance of synth, just when they use a significant amount of synth, they scrap the drums for the most part, or just simplify them drastically.  Like on “Signs” for instance.  The other thing I was going to say is that it feels a little repetitive, but after reviewing each track one by one, it’s not repetition, they are just all that good.

I think all the tracks are worth highlighting but I think that becomes a drone.  They album is simple a blast to listen to.  It fits well with anything from sitting at home relaxing and throwing it on as some fun background music, or for sitting back and contemplating.  I wouldn’t necessarily say it is a great party album just because it’s toned down points very toned down.  The hustle and bustle comes to a pretty screeching halt when you run into tracks like “Biko” and “Signs”.  These are slow downs I welcome.  I will point out that I think “Mercury” is the worst track.  It feels broken.  The chorus seems slapped together and the verse almost non existent.

I love this album and I am currently contemplating it being better than Silent Alarm.  I think it is a great album and something everyone should pick up, take home, and just let yourself enjoy it.  Don’t read into it.  Let it play in the background while you do some stumbling, play some solitaire, or write that blog you have been putting off.  Just enjoy the music.  I will get to my beef with that in my next blog, which may be posted about 30 minutes after this one.  My challenge  to you is, listen to this album mixed with “Silent Alarm” and see how similar they are in their overall feeling.  I think that can point out many of the things that everyone seemed to think was a breath of fresh air with Bloc Party’s first release, and since has become a standard and almost boring.  I think people are badmouthing them for not recreating previous greatness, rather then praising them for making another move into something new, which is a different greatness.

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

8.9/10

EA drops the hammer:Banned on the forums? Banned from the game.

EA is bringing the pain and making it well known what that pain entails.  I saw this over at Ripten as well as being mentioned on Kotaku.

The following is a post from an EA Community Staff Member on the EA boards.

Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you’d actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It’s all one in the same, so I strongly [recommend] people play nice and act mature.

All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but its what we have to do.

Those banned will stay banned, but like most other internet services, its not that hard to create a new fake e-mail account. However, its a lot harder to get a new serial key =)

This comes down to a few things.  It is lame they are administering such hard punishment on people voicing their opinions on the EA message boards.  People aren’t just being banned for dropping the F-Bomb too much or generally being an offensive cock-bite.  People are being banned for discussing the DRM attatched to EA PC software.  Next, I do have to admit, at least they are giving fair warning to the people on the boards what exactly the penalty of being banned is.  Finally, the freedom of speach we are offered on something like a message board is something that only serves a purpose if it can make some sort of progress.  I find it interesting that people are still bitching and moaning on the EA forums when obviously it isn’t making a huge difference.  Yes EA did adjust the number of installs from 3 to 5.  There was some progress.  But people are still barking on the boards.  If EA was going to give you a better deal, they would have already.  It is becoming a fruitless battle.  Keep it on boards that don’t involve such a hard penalty.  Yes this sucks, but at the same time, if you are told what the consequences of your actions are, then change your practices ya’ll.  Keep it on another board.  Rationality is lacking in the gaming world anymore.  Let’s try acting like adults yo.

I will be back later today or tomorrow with a review on the new Bloc Party album “Intimacy” my initial impressions of Fallout 3, news about a Mirror’s Edge demo, and hopefully a review for the new The Cure album “4:13 Dream”

Great Web Comic

Occasionally I will start reading a web comic only to realize that it’s stride has past and the characters were only entertaining for a glimpse.  I would continue reading hoping that the glimmer of hope was some king of oasis that was tricking my mind by altering my hopes and wishes.  Eventually I see the light and stop reading.

This brings us to my subject.  There has been one and only one web comic that I simply stumbled onto multiple times, and each time had a nice little chuckle.  I eventually stumbled onto an issue of the comic that peaked a character interest that I decided to explore.  So I started reading from day 1 and proceeded until I was satisfied.  Two days and 1232 comics later, with no outside web browsing blogging or reading done, I had reached the end, still desiring more.  I didn’t think it was possible for a web comic to be so well developed and have such entertaining characters to grab me so much.  But there is the web comic out there and it’s called Questionable Content.  Since the day I finished the archived episodes, I have it book marked and it is checked on a daily basis to catch the next issue.

Questionable Content is a very fun, humorous, tongue-in-cheek, web comic about regular everyday normal guys, who have a bad ass Anthro PC and a Hypochondriac neighbor.  I have found very few things to be more consistantly entertaining in my day than a tiny little four panel comic from Questionable Content.

Run by their page, read from the beginning, watch the art work increase steadily, and watch the creativity grow.  I don’t think I have seen something chronicle the growth of an artists in so many ways so well.

Jeph Jacques, you write a great comic and one that I am consistently checking in on all the time to see what happens next in the adventures of Marty & Friends.  Good job, good sir.  Good job!

Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls

Released September 30th, 2008

Label:In the Red Records

Vivian Girls come out of the gate with an energy and concise sound dug deep with in their distortion that can’t help but be captivating.  Their low fi sound combined with the ramonxiousness of a showgazey rocker something I can’t deny.  Their debut cd has received a total of 16 cycles on my iTunes as of writing this and I can see that it will only grow significantly more from here.  Considering the length of their debut album is only 22 minutes, a single listen doesn’t require that much time, but the astonishing thing is how you don’t even notice that short time span pass.  You start listening and before you know it, you hit the end of the disc and eventually realize you should just put it on repeat and get it over with.

A cd this short does leave a bit to be desired.  Especially when it’s something you enjoy so much.  If I had to describe them comparatively to another artist, I would say it’s like Sleater-Kinney going a little low fi and caught a chilled out early 90’s vibe from the Cranberries.  Vivian Girls is an all female trio hailing from Brooklyn who is a part of a swarm of hyped band coming out of Brooklyn.  I haven’t heard everything emitting from the hype, but from what I have heard Vivian Girls are the first to stand out to me.

The songs are quick, high in energy, vocals are thrown into the backseat, being replaced by loud drums and distorted guitars (trying to distinguish many of the lyrics would be one hell of a task), with what feels like an attitude so simple you can’t help but be pulled in by it.  Surprisingly enough, even with the short album time, there is a great similarity from one song to the next that can make you feel like your player just repeated the same track. but there is always a distinction from song to song within the almost mourning like tone of the vocals.  It’s very recognizable and distinct.

When it comes down to it, Vivian Girls, is a very refreshing addition to my collection that I know I will be enjoying many times and share with anyone who gives me the chance to mention them.  They have a funk and a flare that I think almost anyone can enjoy.  And I can’t help but point out that they are hot rocker chicks.  I have a thing for hot rocker chicks.

“Vivian Girls” by Vivian Girls

8.9/10

Defense for The Black Kids

This is kind of old news but I haven’t written anything about this and they just played here in Seattle and I wanted to say something concerning what the indy media has become.  Also to preface this; I love Pitchfork and Scot Plagenhoef is one of my favorite writers for them.

People have been bashing The Black Kids since the release of their album, “Partie Traumatic”. The Black Kids released a four song EP called “Wizard of Ahhhs”, on their Myspace page, or if you did the right kind of digging you could find a version which had eight tracks. Their EP was recognized with great acclaim from media outlets like Pitchfork, whom is a great outlet for finding new bands.  Upon the release of their debut album entitled “Partie Traumatic” on Almost Gold; Pitchforks review can’t even be considered a review, more like a hald-assed attempt at a pretentious apology.  The following is their excuse for a review.  I f you don’t believe me click the pic to be linked to their page.

This is the type of pompous arogance that I hate about some members of the Indy community.  Don’t get me wrong, when I first saw the review I thought it was hilarious, but it was still a low blow to the band whom Pitchfork is owed a certain amount of gratuity for bringing them into the spotlight.

I will talk about the EP that I got.  It was 8 songs, two of which were removed, and four new tracks added to their full length.  The sound quality was cleaned up and the vocals were full, lacking the echoey sounds they had on the EP.  This did remove some of the dramatic effect the EP had, but by no means did it ruin it.  So if their gripe was an increase in sound quality and addition of a professional tone, WTF YO! They changed some of the beats on tracks like “I Want to be Your Limousine” by adding some additional synth, replacing the wailing guitar, but I don’t think that constitutes this kind of a review.

The review of “Wizard of Ahhhs” was written by a gentleman named Marc Hogan and “Partie Traumatic” was reviewed by Scott Plagenhoef.  So this could be just a difference of opinion but as a writer for a prominent website you aren’t only representing the opinion of yourself, but for the website as a whole.  If Mr. Plagenhoef disagreed with the original review he could have prefaced his review by stating he disagreed with Hogan’s original review.  By putting up this picture it seems as though he is apologizing for introducing people to this band.  This could just be a simple misunderstanding, but a simple misunderstanding can always be avoided by thinking before you post.  That’s what an edit button is for.

This is like a public display of the pretentious opinion of a reviewer, who has beef that a band their site helped  elevated into stardom, has become to popular, but not classic enough for them to like.  That may have been a harsh statement, but at the same time coming from a person who enjoys music for the joy, sorrow, anger, fluffiness, or any other emotion under the sun that it can impose on you, it feels like you think you are too cool for school.

I just wish people would enjoy music for being music.  Who cares if it’s a number one album, or if no one has heard of them.  I like Bryan Adams, and yes I do think “(Everything I Do) I Do it For You” is a great song.  I think Gwen Steffani’s solo albums were a blast.  Why bother yourself worrying about the popularity of an artist.  That just prevents you from enjoying some potentially good music.  And if you fell in love with a tiny little unknown band, then I think it is your job to try and make them as popular as they can possibly be.

For the record, I love Pitchfork and Scott Plagenhoef is one of my favorite writers for them.  This just “Grinds my gears”, thank you Peter Griffin for putting it so well.

Blitzen Trapper – Furr

Released on September 23, 2008

Label: Sub Pop Records

Picture this.  You are hanging out with your band in the basement of a pacific northwest home.  You are all trying to pull out the inspiration to make your first album after being signed to Sub Pop Records.You are listening to everything from Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, & The Beatles, to Fleet Foxxes, Iron & Wine, & Conor Oberst.  Suddenly it hits you.  This is it.  This is what you want your label debut album to sound like.

That is what the new album from Blitzen Trapper feels like.  They have very poignant song writing, paired with very quaint folk sounds which meet a pop sensibility, as well as a classic and timeless feeling.  I’m trying to come up with an artist who feels like this.  They have an originality among a blend of influences, and they do it so well. In all honesty, I have never listened to Blitzen Trapper.  “Furr” is my first escapade into their musical world.  I must say, though, I am very impressed.  They have a diverse and landscaping sound that doesn’t become obnoxious or overwhelming.  They span genres, but keep everything organized to allow the listener to enjoy the album as a whole.  The album has flow that works very well as a whole, but still has a few lulling points.

The album opens up with “Sleepytime in the Western World” which gives a good introduction to the album as a whole.  Not too moody, but not too poppy.  The lyrics feel very autobiographical, with a 70’s style wailing guitar at times.  “Gold for Bread” kicks it up a notch and adds a southern rock tone.  The album title track “Furr” is probably the best track with a timeless feel that few contemporary songs have.  “Saturday Nite” slows everything down and has a quirky funk.  “Black River Killer” makes me want to listen to Tom Petty, I’m still trying to figure out if that is a good thing.  “War on Machines” is rhythmic to tapper.  Right here is where the slump comes in.

The next two tracks “Stolen Shoes & a Rifle” & “Echo/Always On/EZ Con” leave a sour taste in your mouth for the end of the album.  They don’t feel like they belong on this so far well paced and enjoyable album.  “Stolen Shoes & a Rifle” isn’t as bad, but it leads into the inevitable confusion of “Echo/Always On/EZ Con”.  It just doesn’t feel natural.  It’s starts with a nice lo-fi sound and falls into this 70’s stoner music.  It’s like a jam band, trying to coordinate.  It just kind of hurt my head having to sit through those two tracks to get to the beautiful final track.  “Lady On the Water” is a gorgeous track to end the cd with.  It has a heavy Dylan vibe.  It’s very peaceful and nurturing.

All in all I think “Furr” by Blitzen Trapper is a great album.  It has a great opening series of songs which introduce what they are doing, cuts loose when it feels right, and mellows out when it’s called for.  It feels good and sets itself up for multiple listens in single day, as well as be an album you will surely come back to multiple times.

“Fur” by Blitzen Trapper

8.6/10

This is where I have a request for anyone who happens to read this.  My little review here, does it feel too long?  Too short?  Is my writing boring?  Intriguing?  Let me know what you think so I can shape this into something we all can enjoy, and I get a better idea of what people want to read.  Thank you.