Zombi 3
Fulci literally phones this one in. A few interesting shots, but mostly poorly paced and horribly acted with no tension
Children of Men
A great sci-fi film with lots of long-shot action sequences that will have you wondering how the heck they co-ordinated the action.
Bacon Dogs
I’ve Added a Quick Links Nav to the Site
A little maintenance note here: I added a few links to the home page in the form of that quick links widget off to the left. If you click the bar at the top it disappears. Pretty neato keano I’d say.
Twilight Zone for Your Listening Pleasure
Yesterday I came across this incredible Web log, Twilight Zone for Your Listening Pleasure. This guy posts tons and tons of great garage and rock ‘n’ roll records with large cover scans and links to the full albums in MP3 format. Usually, you just click in to the comments of each blog post and you are given a link the the MP3s in zip format. Cut-n-paste the link and you can grab the files for free. There is a limit of one package download per hour, but it’s worth the wait to get your ears on some of these comps.
Revisiting Old Music Part III (Ch-De)
Happy New Year! My overview of my entire CD collection continues.
The Challengers – Lloyd Thaxton Goes Surfing with The Challengers
One of the best of the early Sixties surf bands. A very polished sound.
The Challengers – K-39
Another great Challengers record with even more focus on Delvy’s drums.
The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – Ferociously Stoned
Great song writing, lots of hopping big band-ish numbers and the wonderful The Lifeboat Mutiny. A couple of funk laden stinkers, but aside from that and maybe some thin production on the drums, I love this record.
The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – Rapid City Muscle Car
A far more consistent album than the previous, and just as good. The best tracks here aren’t quite as good as the best ones from Ferociously Stoned, but nothing to complain about.
Chrome – Half Machine Lip Moves / Alien Soundtracks
Contemporaries of Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome were just about as noisy. Chrome stuck to a more traditional guitar, bass and drums for the core of their sonic abstractions. There are some toe tapping tune hidden in here.
Circle Jerks – Group Sex / Wild in the Streets
A punk band that everyone had to have listened too when they first discovered punk. The songs don’t hold up that well these days, but they are short and it’s over before you get bored.
Circle Jerks- Wonderful
I think I bought this CD for 2 or 3 dollars used. The lyrics are funny and the musicianship is improved, but the songs are really stale compared to my favorite Circle Jerks’ record, Golden Shower of Hits.
The Clash – London Calling
I don’t know. I think this may be one of the most overrated records ever. It’s not awful, I guess. But it just doesn’t clique with me. There are plenty of memorable moments, but outside of The Guns of Brixton I find this stuff plain boring. It’s like fairly proficient bar-band music with (politically) revolutionary lyrics. Meh. And if I never hear the excruciating anthem Death or Glory again, it will be too soon.
Chris Connelly – Stowaway
RevCo / Ministry singer does his best David Bowie impersonation yet.
Coyle & Sharpe – On the Loose
Incredible man-on-the-street gags. Pure genius.
Coyle & Sharpe – Audio Visionaries
More Candid Microphone weirdness. Not as good as On the Loose but still is hilarious.
Criswell – The Legendary Criswell Predicts! Your Incredible Future
Be amazed as Criswell gets about 99.9999% of his predictions wrong. Nakedness is a key element of many of them. Funny and weird and mastered as a single 45 minute long CD track.
The Dave & Deke Combo – Moonshine Melodies
Hillbilly bop. Great musicianship and a great sense of humor.
The Dave & Deke Combo – Hollywood Barn Dance
More swinging hillbilly music. Better than the first CD. A whole barnyard of fun.
Sammy Davis Jr. – Greatest Hits
I have a real soft spot for Sammy Davis Jr. There’s a lot of delicious cheese mixed in with the big band numbers, and man was that guy an Entertainer (with the capital “E”). The live version of Come Back to Me will blow your socks off. It makes any live rock band you’ve heard feel like a 2 hour conference call with regional HQ.
The Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
When I started this project, I was dreading revisiting these DK albums. Jello became soooo annoying later on in his career. Anyhow, I was surprised that much of this was still pretty good. It holds up much better than the drab SoCal punk of bands like Black Flag. Inventive guitar playing and more abstract political snarkiness make this a classic. Even though the CD I got is mastered like crap.
The Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters / In God We Trust, Inc.
More awful sounding production/mastering from the DKs. The music is still pretty good. In God We Trust, Inc. is the weaker of the two albums on this CD. Not quite as inspired as Fresh Fruit but good.
The Dead Kennedys – Frankenchrist
This album sounds great. Too bad most of the songs are crap. The lyrics are forced and the songs are starting to get too long without going anywhere.
The Dead Kennedys – Bedtime for Democracy
Jello is in full on annoying mode on this record. Again, the songs are too plain or just go on too long.
The Dead Kennedys – Give me Convenience or Give me Death
A great compilation of singles and imports. Mostly from before the band went sour.
Death Valley – ¡Que Pasta!
Nice Ennio Morricone Spaghetti Western inspired instrumentals.
Deke Dickerson – More Million Sellers
Wonderful collection of rock ‘n’ roll and country numbers from Deke.
Deke Dickerson – Mr. Entertainment
A collection of extras and rarities. As one might expect, not as consistent as his albums but includes some of his best songs such as Double Zombie and Muleskinner Blues.
Deke Dickerson – In 3 Dimensions
Another great record from guitar geek Deke. Nicely divided into three groups of styles: rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and hillbilly.
The Denison/Kimball Trio – Walls of the City
Jazzy guitar-drums combo. Some pretty off-the-wall guitar work, but suffers from every song sounding pretty similar.
The Denison/Kimball Trio – Soul Machine
Much more diverse and interesting than the previous CD.
Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
An all-time classic from the definitive new wave band. Quirky, energetic and flat out genius.
Devo – Freedom of Choice
My favorite Devo album. The perfect blend of electronics and standard rock instrumentation. Most punk-types prefer their 1st album, but this one works much better as a whole for me.
Devo – Total Devo
The “comeback” Devo album that was a flop. It’s not awful, but the spark is gone. Too overproduced and sequenced, unlike the early era albums which were a melding of man and machine. This was the first DDD CD I ever owned.
Revisiting Old Music Part II (Bu-Ca)
My overview of my entire CD collection continues. Lots and lots of Cabaret Voltaire!
The Budget Girls – On a Tight Budget Two screaming gals front this wonderfully crude and trashy garage rock outfit.
The Buggles – The Age of Plastic We all know the hit “Video Killed the Radio Star” but there about 2 or 3 more songs on this New Wave disc that are just as good. Some crap too.
William S. Burroughs – Dead City Radio The only way to appreciate Burrough is his spoken word recordings. He could read the farm report and it would seem meaningful. But, let’s face it. His books are well-written but in the end, are just meandering, plotless garbage. In this case, the short format suits him better.
William S. Burroughs & Kurt Cobain – The “Priest” They Called Him Painfully short and Cobain is there in name only. Mostly just feedback. Lame.
Cabaret Voltaire – 1974-76 Cabaret Voltaire at their rawest. Barely listenable.
Cabaret Voltaire – Mix-up A few good tracks, but they hadn’t quite got the idea that music needs some structure to make a person want to listen.
Cabaret Voltaire – The Voice of America The first decent Cabaret Voltaire record. The noise begins to become more musical. Still, not for the feint of ears.
Cabaret Voltaire – Three Mantras 2 Long tracks make up this good early Cabaret Voltaire record. World music has begun to creep up into the noise-scapes.
Cabaret Voltaire – The Living Legends A compilation of early recordings. Pretty good.
Cabaret Voltaire – Red Mecca The best of the Chris Watson era Cabaret Voltaire records. Dark, dense and challenging. Not to be missed.
Cabaret Voltaire – 2×45 Almost as good as Red Mecca with more natural sounding instrumentation and some genuine grooves. A perfect transition into the next phase of their sound.
Cabaret Voltaire – Hai! A post-Watson live recording of some of their early material. Surprisingly improvisational in nature.
Cabaret Voltaire – Listen Up With Cabaret Voltaire A 2-disc compilation of early and mid-career tracks. Highly recommended if you want to hear some of their old material, but don’t want to dive right into the hardcore stuff.
Cabaret Voltaire – The Crackdown This record is the start of the funky, danceable era of Cabaret Voltaire’s records. My favorite of their long career.
Cabaret Voltaire – Micro-Phonies The noisier side of Cabaret Voltaire is almost completely absent from this recording. A solid record that includes the super-excellent “Sensoria” remix.
Cabaret Voltaire – Eight Crepuscule Tracks A dreamy journey back to the noisy-era.
Cabaret Voltaire – The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm of the Lord Found sounds and noise are brought back into the songs. It’s definitely danceable and funky but the added harshness is a nice change.
Cabaret Voltaire – Code They really lay on the funk on this record, with pounding drums and electric guitar. The sound has once again been cleaned-up and minimalized.
Cabaret Voltaire – Groovy, Laidback and Nasty Another dramatic shift in the direction of the band. This album is filled with traditional Chicago-house electronica and Mal actually sings melodies. In hindsight, a mediocre release, but a necessary transition into their electronica period.
Cabaret Voltaire – Hypnotised (cd single) The best song from Groovy, Laidback and Nasty gets some remixing.
Cabaret Voltaire – Keep On (cd single) More remixes from Groovy, Laidback and Nasty.
Cabaret Voltaire – Body and Soul This record is a great improvement on the previous. Richard H. Kirk is beginning to get a handle on the computer music. The music still lacks some edge but is pretty good nonetheless.
Cabaret Voltaire – What Is Real (cd single) More remixes. Cabaret Voltaire – Percussion Force A few remixes of “Don’t Walk Away” and several new tracks. Highly recommended.
Cabaret Voltaire – Colours The last recordings to feature the singing of Steven Mallinder. Along the same lines as Body and Soul with some further refinement in the style.
Cabaret Voltaire – Plasticity Much of the spirit of the old Cabaret Voltaire has come back in this CD. The music is pure dance electronica, but there is a return to found sounds and exotic world-music samples. Alas, no more singing.
Cabaret Voltaire – Technology: Western Reworks 1992 They dip way back into their catalog to find songs to remix/re-record using the power of computers and such. The result as a dazzling mix of noise and beats. I think this record changed the way Kirk/Mallinder approached electonica. Perhaps one of the earliest examples of I.D.M.
Cabaret Voltaire – I want You / Kino Remixes of the remixes.
Cabaret Voltaire – International Language A collection of new songs continues to refine the electronica meets noise.
Cabaret Voltaire – The Conversation Cabaret Voltaire’s swan song is a sprawling 2-disc masterpiece. It ebbs and flows through various themes and closes with an epic 40 minute track filled with hypnotic sonic beauty. Awesome.
Revisiting Old Music
The past year or so I have been an iPod owner and have not paid much attention to my wall o’ CDs. Well, the same songs are popping up just a bit too often during shuffle, and I thought it would be a fresh change of pace if I started popping in a good old CD every now again. To make sure not to miss anything, I decided to pull the CDs down for listening in alphabetical order. I happened to be listening to Big Sandy and the Fly-rite Boys when I made this monumental decision, so that’s where I started.
So here’s where I am so far: There’s the aforementioned Big Sandy CD. It’s listenable yet unremarkable rockabilly stuff. Next, a slew of Blonde Redhead records. The first two CDs, when they had a bassist, are the best. They start to get tiresome up until Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons which is when they start adding electronics and some weirdness to their songs. These were followed by my two Blue Hearts CDs. The first is their U.S. release, Blast Off. It’s a collection of some of their best songs from their first 3 Japan-only albums. Amazing. Next is Bust, Waste, Hip which isn’t nearly as good because the punkishness is toned down quite a bit. Moving on we have The Blue Meanies’ Pave the World featuring fellow Nonagon‘er, Tony on drums. Lots of ska rhythms and horns, without being a ska band. Bomboras, Savage Island is next with lots of organ tinged surf. Pretty good but not their best. Bongwater, The Big Sellout: it’s funny, catchy and psychedelic all at the same time—a very good record. The Boogie Patrol Express La Polyester Fantasy is the only(?) CD from this early 90’s Eugene, Oregon band. Straight-forward, ever-so-mildly ironic disco music, played expertly with real instruments by talented kids. Next, I have two wonderful Boss Hog CDs, Boss hog and Whiteout, both of which are great loud . Finally, we have Brian Brain’s Time Flies When You Are Having Toast—A solo effort by then P.I.L. drummer Martin Atkins. This is a weird CD with lots of late 80’s sounding synths in front of Atkins pounding drums. Some of the tracks would be at home on a childrens’ record. It is about as far from Atkin’s Pigface as you can imagine, but, you know what, I love this CD. It was 99 cents when I got it!
Well, that was shelf unit 1 of my big Ikea CD rack. I will report back when I get through the next section.
Grim Fandango on PC
My overview of the video game classics continues with the LucasArts adventure game, Grim Fandango. In many ways Grim Fandango can be seen as the high point of point-and-click adventures. The genre, at least as a commercially viable entity, has since retreated into the more uncomfortably geeky corners of gaming world’the gaming world’s parent’s basement as it were. Rather than calling these adventure games, these keepers of the flame prefer the term interactive fiction. The hardest of the hardcore scoff at the notion of representational graphics cluttering up the ASCII purity of a command prompt. However, even these holdouts can’t deny the artistic vision and narrative brilliance of Grim Fandango.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the game requires a user to click and solve puzzles, Grim Fandango has the makings of a Pixar-type animated feature. We all know the tried and true Pixar formula. Take a group of non-human things: ants, toys, cars, fish, etc. Anthropomorphize them, and show us the secret workings of their society when the people aren’t around. In the case of Grim Fandango, we get to see the secret life of Mexican Day of the Dead statuettes.
Grim Fandango’s Land of the Dead a fully realized fictional world, with its own set of rules and customs. The art direction is a combination of Mexican folk art and forties noir cinema. A host of these cinematic clichés get turned inside-out, and are transformed to work within the game world. The end result is an engrossing story that is fresh and unmatched in the repertoire of video game storytelling.
There came a point during play when I stopped caring about the puzzles, and was tempted to download walk-throughs just to get on with the narrative. Eventually, I did have to cheat a few times, due more to my ineptitude rather than my impatience. In addition, I did have a few adventure game hair-pulling-out moments during the course of playing the game—Grim Fandango does have its fair share of glitches. Most notably for me, there’s a point in the game, very near the end, when, in order to pick up an object, the usual hit the enter key action does not work, you need to use the more specific pick-up item key (which I never used the whole game up until that point). There are also times when you are picking up objects just because you can, and you know there is a puzzle waiting for them somewhere. The metal detector comes to mind.
But, like I said, the story is enough to overshadow these shortcomings. I can think of a few great games that while I was playing, I felt like I was part of a story Half Life 2 comes to mind, but, in hindsight, I couldn’t begin to tell you what the narrative was. Let’s see, something about a gravity gun and helicopters and physics puzzles. In Half Life or just about any first-person shooter you, as a player, are far more immersed in the world than you are in an adventure game. I mean this in the sense that your mind is tricked into believing you are within that virtual space. But in Grim Fandango, I never felt that I actually was Manny Calivera. Rather, I acted as his guide. I don’t, in any way, see this as a bad thing. The designers took the time to develop (in the narrative sense), not only the main character who the player controls, but the dozens of side characters. You understand Manny’s motivations and so you begin to have a vested interest in his survival and eventual triumph regardless of whether or not you feel truly immersed in the environment.
Grim Fandango is a computer game fully worthy of its legendary status. LucasArts really needs to get back in the adventure game business. The Nintendo DS is ripe for this type of game experience, oh, and PC users would like it too!
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo 64
Well, I just finished The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and I have to say that it does live up to the hype. I’ve always noted that whenever they come up with top ten lists of the greatest games of all time, this one is always near the top of the list. And by they I mean game reviewers and critics… you know, those bespeckled nerds who provide the four pages of non-advertisement content in the video game magazines. By the way, is it me, or is the top-ten list the primary literary device of these publications? Whatever happened to the plain old 500 word, rhet 101 essay about a topic of interest? If Swift were alive today would he be known for his Top Ten Most Modest Proposals… year after year, number one would always end up being Citizen Kane.
Anyhow, back to the point… which was, lemme think… oh yeah, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So the game was pretty darn fun and, despite the crude 3-D modeling capabilities of the Nintendo 64, doesn’t look too bad. I suspect, this is mostly because the artists weren’t shooting for photo realism in their character design. The general design direction that Big Famous Japanese Video Game Designer Guy must have given his art team was to go for Hello Kitty and then bring it back just a few notches.
What makes this game great isn’t the look of the game, it’s the intuitiveness of the game play and the solid storytelling. It is billed as an RPG, but it never gets bogged down with the shortcomings of that genre: mainly inventory management and complicated fighting systems. Battles in Zelda require a smidgen of tactics, but mostly it plays like an action, hack and slash game. The real challenge of the game comes from the puzzle solving it takes to open up new parts of a dungeon and finding the weak point on the end bosses.
The simplicity in the mechanics allows for the story to be told in a way that never gets convoluted or dull. Admittedly, this isn’t heady stuff, but it’s enough to generate an emotional response from the player when one accomplishes his goals.
Now, the game is not perfect. It has its share of annoyances. For example, every time you pick up a bomb, you are given a 2 or 3 screen text dialog to read through. The second time you explained it to me was plenty, thank you. The camera would occasionally get obstructed by a wall, or, even worse, the baddie you were trying to vanquish. Oh, and a jump button would have been nice.
But these are minor grievances. This is a game you must at least try to play through once in your lifetime if you want to maintain your gamer cred. I would also highly recommend playing it on a PC emulator. You get much higher video resolutions than were ever possible on the actual hardware. Project 64 is a very good option if you ware using Windows. Also, most emulators allow for state saving, rather than the built-in save game mechanism of Zelda. A real time saver for a someone like me who has more games to play than time to play them.