At school my (and presumably your) musical taste was very much influenced by one's friends. It was rare to really be into a band that nobody else liked, let alone had never heard of. Such is the social melange of highschool and the nature of network effects but unless my memory is deeply degraded (always a possibility) I seem to remember being the only person who listened to Eat.
I'm guessing that I probably first got into them because of their early Swamp Grass-esque sound, something an early introduction to The Masters of Reality and the Black Crowes had fostered but 1993s "Epicure" was more of a psychedelic indie sound. I have strong recollections of listening to "Shame" repeatedly, probably because of some doomed teenage romance or maybe just because I liked the lyric "verbal ram raid, tongue of steel"
I admit - I'd never seen this video until this morning, when, my interest piqued by uncovering a stash of long forgotten CDs, I went digging through YouTube. You can almost see exactly what went through the marketing peoples's heads when this video was being made - "Right, so Pearl Jam are big and Ange Dolittle had a heroin problem just like most of the Seattle scene so try and make him look like Eddie Vedder right. But we also like that Nirvana video with the Anarchist Cheerleader chicks where all the extras rush the band so try and work that in too. Ok? Sorted"
However, if there's one thing this video tells us is that a man should be able to wear an oversized polka dot smock with pride and not be ridiculed for it.
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11/30/08
Mercury Lounge NYC (also: Faith) New York City, New York
12/10/08 The Goldhawk (also: Wynne Paris) Hoboken, New Jersey |
I'll see what happens, but if they go out of business by next week, I'll have to switch back to my original podcast address over at gcast.com. You can find widgets and how to subscribe through that website. With the widgets - please tick the 'auto-play' to "no", it is on autoplay by default.
Download Episode #33 (43 min)Download each segment individually:
Part 1: Devi
Part 2: Mary Shelley Overdrive
Also, I don't normally jinx myself for announcing future guests on the show, but we have three scheduled next week. Hopefully the one from overseas will work out, so I'm crossing my fingers.
So, I also suggest you check out Emelia's previous mention of Del Shannon's "Runaway" and my article and fascination on the morbid "Jack the Ripper" and 50s-inspired The Raveonettes.
This week:
PART ONE: DEVI
devi-rock.com ♥ myspace.com/devirock
Devi (pronounced "Davy") is a rock trio from Hoboken, New Jersey. Debra was kind enough to stop in and talk to us about her debut album, Get Free, which was just released a few weeks ago. They just also finalized agreements with Red Eye Music Distribution, so you'll be able to find their music at the usual places. In the meantime, you can get their album for $10 CD or $5 digital download via cdbaby.
Topics up for discussion:
- The name Devi and its origins
- How she met her band
- "Demon in the Sack" and "C21H23NO3" explained
- "Runaway" Del Shannon/Bonnie Raitt cover
- Hair-blowing photo session
- Special guest appearance on Get Free
PART TWO: MARY SHELLEY OVERDRIVE
maryshelleyoverdrive.blogspot.com ♥ myspace.com/maryshelleyoverdrive
Simon and Mark from Mary Shelley Overdrive, a band based out of South Carolina, in need of a drummer, as I just found out.
We talked about:
- The Secret Origins of Mary Shelley Overdrive
- Using the Internet to distribute music, etc.
- "Jack the Ripper"
- Pop culture, comics, and horror movie influences
- Werewolf on Motorcycles cover artwork
- fond of masks and playing live
So hopefully, if you're already subscribe to our show via mypodcast, you don't need to switch or make any changes. However, going forward, I'm still uploading to gcast as well (since I still cannot update my mypodcast).We had problems increasing disc space. Now...
We had problems increasing disc space. Now everything is fixed. There's plenty of free space for podcasts.
So there you go. Hopefully they'll get some bigger raids.
S.
Links:
www.weheartmusic.com
podcast.weheartmusic.com
news.weheartmusic.com
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Crypticon 2008 ♥ Radisson Hotel - Roseville, Minnesota |
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So what does one do at these conventions ? Usually buying stuff, like 8x10 signed actor portraits and sometime overpriced merchandises. My sister did get a nice deal on the Lost action figures Todd McFarlane put out a few years ago. I contemplated on buying bootleg Hellraiser and Evil Dead stuff, but instead got an autographed Hellboy II. Was disappointed that there were not more obscure horror DVDs and packages for sale (it seems I already own 90% of whatever they were selling).
My brother took most of the photographs, including James Duval (Frank the Bunny), Chris Sarandon (famous for playing Jack Skellington), Doug Jones (Pale "Jazz Hands" Man), and here's a picture with Michael Berryman (that The Hills Have Eyes dude). Berryman, no offense or anything, is such a nice guy, but he's really scary-looking. He even seems like a fanboy as he was collecting autographs from the other attendees!
My complaints and suggestions for future shows is to keep the cost down. $30 per day is really expensive, and adding on additional purchases, you can easily tap out $100. The other problem is that the convention extends for three days - perhaps just keep it to the weekend. I also think that it would've been better to have it in the Summer or perhaps closer to Halloween (but I can understand that October might be too insane to try and organize anything).
Other disappointment was that legendary make-up artist and actor Toni Savini canceled out.
Other than that, it's worth checking out these conventions if you want to meet actors and get more merch. I wouldn't mind attending a Star Trek convention one of these days if they held one closer to home.
Links:
crypticonminneapolis.com
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Nov-18 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
Discography
Nov-19 Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy 3 Nov-20 London, UK - Scala Nov-21 Brighton, UK - Brighton Digital Nov-22 Paris, FR - Le Showcase Nov-23 Heidelberg, DE - Karlsorbahnhof Nov-24 Cologne, DE - Gebaude 9 Nov-25 Hamburg, DE - Uebel and Gefahrlich Nov-27 Zurich, CH - Stall 6 Nov-28 Milan, IT - Magnolia Nov-29 Bologna, IT - Covo Dec-01 Barcelona, ES - Bikini Dec-02 Bilbao, ES - Kafe Antzokia Dec-03 Madrid, ES - Joy Eslava Dec-04 Lisbon, PT - Lux Club Dec-06 Porto, PT - Casa da Musica Dec-12 St, Louis, MO - The Pageant Dec-13 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall Dec-14 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Dec-15 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre Dec-16 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom Dec-17 Newport, KY - Southgate House Dec-19 Omaha, NE - Sokol Auditorium
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 The Faint Set List ♥ First Avenue, Minneapolis (11/14/08)  The Faint ♥ First Avenue, Minneapolis (11/14/08) |
Everyone in the band was dressed in dark clothing, except for singer Todd Fink, who came out with tinted circular glasses/goggles and dressed up as a mad scientist or chemist. He does his same dance he does for all the songs, smiling and laughing the whole time, while the rest of the band do their thing. I will have to say that "Dapose" rocked out pretty hardcore on the guitar.
There was a long experimental noise intro before "The Geeks Were Right", which was well-received, although I suspect fans weren't used to their new songs.
Speaking of which, and I won't spend too much time on this, the audience seem to be a lot of younger kids (with black marked "X" on their hands indicating they are under 21), and they all seem to be really into their hair.
The ended their set with a three song encore, including the very last song, Agenda Suicide, which is not listed on their set list.
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As for Baby Walrus, they are from Nebraska, and they seem to be more blues-influenced, with a bit of Ben Folds with the keyboard-thing. I don't know the song they ended their set, but it was really good.
Links:
thefaint.com
myspace.com/thefaint
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11/13/08 Merrifield, VA
11/14/08 New York, NY 11/15/08 Annapolis, MD 11/18/08 Philadelphia, PA 12/03/08 Philadelphia, PA 12/05/08 Fairfax, VA 12/06/08 Vienna, VA 12/08/08 Blacksburg, VA 12/09/08 Charlotte, NC 12/10/08 Decatur, GA 12/14/08 Palm Desert, CA 12/18/08 San Franscisco, CA 12/20/08 San Diego, CA 12/21/08 Los Angeles, CA 01/17/09 Miami, FL 01/18/09 Miami, FL 01/19/09 Miami, FL 01/20/09 Miami, FL 01/21/09 Miami, FL 01/22/09 Miami, FL |
Before you let his youth and good looks fool you, this guy definitely can write music. His songs ranges from pure pop, sensitive arena rock (as in "All I Want") and even some funk (as in the intro to "Tell Me I'm Wrong"). Although his album sounds very produced with lots of guitars and bass, I suspect his songs should just be as interesting when you stripped it down to just his voice and acoustic guitars.
I actually liked his songs when it tells a story, and I would be very interested in hearing the story behind "Heart Will Fall" - this sounds like a bit lover's mistake/one night stand or something. Is it about himself or someone he knows (singing "you fool/risking it all for one night...")?
My favorite song on this album is "Holding Me Down". It's very rocking, but not that rocking, if you know what I mean? You'll find yourself toe-tapping and dancing to this song.
Overall, a very good, polished pop record from The Control Group. If you enjoy John Mayer, you'll need to give Curtis Peoples a try.
He's currently on his Winter tour on extreme coasts, before ending in Miami, Florida, for at least a week! You can currently get the album/T-Shirt combo for $20 at his official merch store. If you want just strictly the album, there's always amazon.
Read more about Curtis People on news.weheartmusic.com
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Their much-anticipated debut album, Alight of Night, came out late October, and I'll have to say if you're a fan of Joy Division and early Jesus and Mary Chain, you'll absolutely LOVE these guys. They also seem to have a lo-fi indie quality to their recording too, and the singer, JB Townsend (?), kind of have a bit of a dark tone to him.
My favorite songs on the album is actually the more energetic jangy guitar numbers like "Departure", because they sound like the song was written in the 60s. Actually, most of their songs seems to be in that 60s vein, but they are not quite as poppy... again, probably to do with the dark brooding singing and lyrics. The free song they are offering is "Crystal Stilts", which they evidentially wear their influences like a badge of honor.
Here are those tour dates:
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Nov. 21 New York, NY Less Artists, More Condos
Dec. 07 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom #
Dec. 08 Boston, MA Great Scott #
Dec. 10 Montreal, QC La Sala Rossa #
Dec. 11 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern #
Dec. 12 Detroit, MI Magic Stick #
Dec. 14 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle #
Dec. 17 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge %
# = w/ Love is All
% = w/ Vetiver
If you want to get their debut EP, you can get it for $10 on Woodsist Records (amazon is selling it used for a ridiculous amount of $50, so I do not recommend that).
IDEO really knows how to party. Astrid's Dutch Apple Tart won 1st place in the pie bake-off. Sorry, no photo of pie... but their BBQ display was impressive...
With games, as in life, sometimes being forced to do something different turns out to be the BEST. THING. EVAR.
Of course, sometimes it turns out to be a steaming pile which leaves you a broken, hollow husk of a human, screaming nigh animalistic laments every night as you vainly attempt to get some sleep despite the theater of the macabre that is playing inside your brain. But that's less common.
A case in point - the GBA port of Broken Sword. Lacking a stylus the developers were forced to find some other way to manipulate George and the various oddly useful objects he stumbled across in his struggle against the Knights Templars. Whilst purist fans of the point-n-click genre thought it an abomination many other sane people thought it a revelation - the direct control of the character (as opposed to clicking somewhere and then waiting, fingers tapping whilst they sauntered leisurely to wherever you'd directed them) meant you felt more involved and the ability to cycle through all selectable objects using the shoulder buttons relieved the player from the tedium of scrubbing the mouse pointer back and forth on each scene trying to discover the one pixel that would allow you to select the rubber chicken to combine with the pulley in order to get across the water to the voodoo lady.
So it was good, and the developers' diary about the process, long gone but kindly archived here by some philanthropic soul, is well worth a read if you're into this sort of thing.
I had a similar feeling the other day play rRootage on the iPhone.
rRootage is a game of the shoot'em'up persuasion, often referred to as schmups because gamers aren't, as a rule, the wittiest people ever to grace the face of the earth. In fact it's an example of what are often known as Bullet Hell games (or, if you're the kind of person to whom the word otaku is a compliment, not an insult then 弾幕 danmaku or, literally "bullet curtain" games) which, as the name suggests, are what would happen if hell was populated by spaceships firing millions of tiny shards of flaming death in your diretcion.
Bullet Hell games are bewildering to 99.99% of people watching them. A mixture of frenetic activity, psychotropic paint patterns, completely superfluous storylines and, strangely, often ridiculously cutesy anime girls
rRootage is one of the increasingly interesting, and usually free, home brewed shooters - if you get the chance then go download such gems as Every Extend and Warning Forever. The original rRootage by Kenta Cho, available for free from the author's page uses the BulletML language and some nifty genetic algorithms to present you with an every expanding and adapting tableau of ways to die in horrible firey pixel death. Recently the bewitchingly named Lazrhog ported it to the iPhone and iPod touch. Lacking a D-pad he had to innovate and struck upon making the ship follow your finger around.
Now the reason why most people stare slack jawed at people playing Bullet Hell games, like so many inbreds gumming awestruck at a shiny, metal horseless carriage, is that they're thinking about it the wrong way. The secret to most of these games is that, no matter what the size of the ship is, the only thing that can take damage is the cockpit, usually a scant 4 or 5 pxiels across, and this is what allows players to dance gaily through flaming fields of coloured mayhem. Secondly, they're not, despite what the name says, shoot-em-ups. Most of the time the ship auto fires for you anyway so the game is reduced, in its purest form, to merely guiding those 4 pixels through the ever shifting ebb and flow of bullets - in short it becomes more like that wobbly hand game where you try and guide the wire loop over the twisting wire without making it buzz.
The touch screen method of controlling the ship brings this fact out into startling clarity and suddenly your perspective shifts like you've been staring at a poster of messy green and red ducks in a row and suddenly you can see the fricking sailboat for the love of god, YES! FINALLY!
So yes, go play rRootage, experience the flip, enjoy the rush but don't come complaining to me when your nervous system goes for a burton and completely shuts down on you. I'm just saying.
What I absolutely love about the iPod Touch is the built-in speakers. Seriously, all iPods should have built-in speakers.
If you are interested in getting movies you own from DVD, I recommend the paid DVD Fab and for free, I hear Handbrake does a great job (although I've never used it). Set pixels to 480x* to optimize for the iPod or iPhone.
Oh, yeah besides the internet, watching movie, and games, it also plays music. If you're in the market for a new music device, you may want to reconsider getting the Touch. The cheapest model is 8 gigs for $229, it's cheaper than most Netbooks so keep that in mind if you are thinking of getting a net device for travel.
PROS: Too many to mention, see description above.
CONS: You have to use iTunes. You must use its touch interface, so if you have no fingers, you're out of luck. I also don't like that you can't play videos in 'sleep' mode and there is no controls in landscape mode for audio (seriously, WTF is that about?). The chrome back is easily scratch (as with all iPods) so you must spend another $30 on a iPod case. The cost associated with any Apple products is unbelievable too. So before you dive into Apple, make sure you can afford it.
Below is my guide to ten applications that I love (mostly free too!). PLEASE send me your suggestions... I am a cheapskate, so I prefer the free ones.
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GOOGLE EARTH
earth.google.com ♥ mobile.google.com/apple/earth PROS: This is such a cool application, if you've never tried it on your computer, you're in for a treat. New features on Apple includes that crazy pinching and expanding touch and rotation... such a pleasure to use! CONS: Unfortunately, if you've paid for a Google Earth Pro account ($400), this application doesn't have any of those benefits. |
VAY
somoga.com/games/vay ♥ iTunes PROS: I've been waiting for a game like this! It's a port from a 1994 Sega game, and it's classic RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy. Right now I'm not very far into it, but I love it. CONS: Some things could be improved, like wouldn't it be awesome if you click on the character's icon and it brings up their equipment/inventory? |
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POCKETPEDIA
bruji.com/pocketpedia ♥ iTunes PROS: Despite the lame icon and name, in my opinion, this is actually a pretty useful tool if you want to remember what you own or compiling a wishlist. CONS: If it doesn't exist on Amazon, apparently it doesn't exist. |
WORD FREAK
anniyalogam.com/word_freak ♥ iTunes PROS: Five letter word for this game? GREAT! There is a paid version, but the free one is just as fun. Spent hours and hours playing this game. CONS: Ugly graphics and user interface. |