Great Sophomore Records! i began an entry three years ago. this is the conclusion.

They say you have a lifetime to write your first album, and six months to write your second. Alternately, it took me about a lifetime to write the second part of this thing. Again, these are in no particular order, they just have numbers next to them.

( Under cut for size and one probably NWS album cover )

I...can't figure out why the text got really small.

if you haven't finished Persona 3 or 4, i think i avoided spoilers. still, to be safe i'm putting it under a cut.

( Read more... )

so yeah, Atlus, go ahead and make this game.

it's all i want to talk about.

here's one - sony is now employing the same tactics your dad did when the PS2 came out. "Well, here! This one's just as good and it's only $100!" does it come with 10 used copies of Spyro the Dragon, too, sony?

if you don't own one, now's your chance! it is probably the last game system that will be remembered as just that pure, giddy, childlike symbol of fun in this dreary world. modern game systems have to wear many hats, and the 360 does a great job of keeping a constant stream of simply wonderful games coming both in stores and on XBLA, while maintaining that "it's not just a videogames system! image that allows adults to feel okay about buying one and keeping it in their living room. the wii is, sadly, becoming a platform for shovelware. and the ps3 is just this awful thing that you are ashamed to admit you own because it makes you look like the kid in school who was always talking about how rich his dad was. beat that kid's ass.

i bought sonic's ultimate genesis collection and i've spent the last week just losing myself in the original SMS Phantasy Star. it's very likely my favorite game of all time, and for every bit of inelegant menu navigating, frustrating battle randomization and poor localization (which, to be honest, i find to be part of its charm) that shows its age there's a minutely-detailed locale, a perfectly realized enemy or a memorable music cue that still puts it head and shoulders above most contemporary RPGs. much like GTA IV and the Legend of Zelda, it communicates the feeling that the world is a huge, scary place and you are ill-equipped to deal with it. not that exploration is punished - just the opposite actually. i can still distinctly remember playing this game as a kid, wandering too far from home, getting my ass handed to me by a manticor and thinking, "there must be some wild shit beyond those mountains."

other thoughts on sonic's UGC:
- was "Flicky" really a genesis game?
- Golden Axe III is literally the worst game ever made. it totally looks like one of those retrofits of a still-born franchise launch to fit into an already successful one, complete with the "WTF IS THAT?" characters and backgrounds that look like they were recycled from "Karnov" for the NES.
- the original Golden Axe is still completely awesome. though playing the arcade version on XBLA is the preferred way to experience it, the genesis version included a bonus level and a pretty sweet alternate ending that gave names and stats to all the enemies (which remain some of the coolest ever to appear in a beat-em-up).
- Golden Axe Warrior for the SMS was copyright infringement on Legend of Zelda, Dragon Warrior, and probably one of the Ultima games.
- Final Fight knockoff Streets of Rage has some of the best music ever in a videogame. seriously legit house and techno for the era. best music since Revenge of Shinobi.
- speaking of Revenge of Shinobi, where is it? guess they've got to save something for the inevitable volume II, because in most other respects the wad is shot. i mean, it already has all four phantasy star games, right?

is anyone interested in hearing about my Persona 3/4 spinoff idea?

15. The Middle East - The Recordings of the Middle East (self-released)

It's rare that a record truly comes "out of nowhere." Sounding like the legitimate, church-sanctioned offspring of Sufjan Stevens and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, this Queensland, Australia band sent their debut record into a cold, indifferent world in May of this year and promptly broke up. I really have no clue if word of mouth has been good or what, because I found it on accident while I was searching for something else. A look at their myspace page tells me that the LP is sold out ("we have to make up some more cds..."), but the band is apparently now "not done." Next step - get signed, record your follow-up and conquer the world.

14. Palms - It's Midnight In Honolulu (Rare Book Room)

I miss the days when indie rock bands dared to be this self-consciously artsy fartsy, before everyone was trying to make a career of it - indeed, when you had to convince yourself and everyone else that you were serious artists because playing sold-out shows at mid-size venues in every city and getting your songs in network TV shows wasn't an option. This cross-continental collaboration between a New Yorker and a Berliner sounds like it could have been made by Yo La Tengo's straight-faced younger siblings - more into PJ Harvey, Einsturzende Neubauten and White Light/White Heat than Nick Lowe, Neu! and The Velvet Underground & Nico, and desperate to be "taken seriously" in a very cute, endearing way. I can imagine this record being in Maude Lebowski's LP collection.

13. Lloyd & Michael - Just As God Made Us (States Rights)

Somewhere between the Indigo Girls and K Records folk there exists Lloyd & Michael. Just As God Made Us is an obvious labor of love - it's charming and funny, but musically deep with nods to the complex song structures of Yes and the hymn-like harmonies of Judee Sill. But...recorded in four days. Off the cuff, but always aspiring to be more than it is, Just As God Made Us sort of reveals Kimya Dawson's terrible music for the thumb-sucking infantilism that it is.

12. Clinic - Do It! (Domino)

Still plugging away at five albums and two collections of non-album material, Clinic are years removed from being "the band to watch" this decade. Like the long, imaginary experimental film for which it sometimes seems they are providing the soundtrack, many have turned away from what has seemed for some time like a road to nowhere. Do It! is more than a revitalization - it's a validation of the entire enterprise so far.

11. Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (Kill Rock Stars)

Marnie Stern's singular approach to guitar-based rock music opens new possibilities to all musicians, but to take advantage of them I guess you'd have to be her. This Is It... is streets ahead of her debut, which was so unique that it was easy to overlook its weaknesses. No such grace need be extended this time, as Stern and drummer Zach Hill demonstrate excellent chemistry while still at times sounding like they are playing in different time signatures. Stern's singing is more confident and less shrill now as well. The songs are obsessively addictive. This album not only delivers on the potential of her debut, but sets the sky as the limit for the rest of her career.

Top 40 songs of 2008, part 2

30. Max Tundra - Number Our Days
29. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
28. Cut Copy - So Haunted
27. Metallica - the Day That Never Comes
26. Da L.E.S. - We On Fire
25. Vivian Girls - Tell the World
24. Magnetic Fields - California Girls
23. Jay Reatard - Trapped Here
22. Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
21. Lil Wayne - Let the Beat Build

30-21

someone make a loop of Axl singing, "but i don't want to do it" in the mexican vampire voice from that song "Sorry" on chinese damnocracy. i swear, it will sound like Air France.

20. Minisnap - Bounce Around (Magic Marker)

Kaye Woodward has been playing guitar and singing harmony in New Zealand pop group the Bats basically since I've been alive. This is the first album of her own songs, sung with her own voice. As something this long overdue, it's no Chinese Democracy, but I'll gladly take this embarrassment of riches for indie pop fans over Axl's magnum opus. Woodward's sweet, however limited, vocals wrap comfortably around melodies like warm scarves spun of so many cliche representations of twee coziness. There's something to be said for records like this. And that something is, "Thank you."

19. Jay Reatard - Matador Singles '08 (Matador)

I could have included In the Red's Singles 06-07 which was also compiled and released this year, but it's honestly not fair to other artists to stack the deck that much in Jay Reatard's favor. His run of limited edition singles for Matador records was less revealing than the 06-07 songs, which were the first to pull the curtain back on his debut Blood Visions' ferocious attack to reveal his affection for acoustic-driven pop (most notably, Go-Betweens cover "Don't Let Him Come Back"), but arguably makes a stronger showing overall once you take the element of surprise out of the equation. One hopes he doesn't succumb to faucet-like prolificacy as an excuse for sub par material the way Bob Pollard has over the years, but even if he does it seems like he's entering the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes stage of his career. Blood Visions' proper follow-up should be something special.

18. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale EP (Chocolate Inudstries)

I wonder if the Cool Kids spent as much time deciding how not to act as critics have spent congratulating them for not acting that way. The fact is, Cool Kids are only nominally an underground hip-hop group at this point. Their debut doesn't feature any guest appearances from (fellow Chicagoan) Kanye West, so we lazily categorize them as underground. Then again, the Bake Sale also doesn't feature any appearances from (fellow Chicagoans) the Kidz in the Hall, so does that make them mainstream by default? The important thing is that Cool Kids make all the beats, and rock all the rhymes on this record and when they say they're "Bringing 88 back," they aren't trying to make their music sound better by associating it with our rosy view of "the old school shit", they're just making great music about how cool their bikes, shoes and clothes are.

17. Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game in Town (Hydra Head)

Harvey Milk's 2006 comeback was the reunion no one was asking for, but by which several people were delighted. In the mid 90s, Harvey Milk played heavy metal much as a cement mixer plays concrete. Time, plus a desire to emulate ZZ Top, has pushed the leaden tempos of old into moments more aptly described as lead-footed. Still, there are plenty of times where the music sounds like it is slowly hardening before your ears. "Death Goes to the Winner" is going on all my Christmas 2008 mix CDs.


16. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont'd. (Kranky)

With all the correct influences in place, Deerhunter have the outsize ambitions to be the indie rock messiah you're looking for - you certainly want to believe this band has a Daydream Nation in them somewhere, but that's like wishing for an album like The Chronic from one of today's indie hip-hop rapper/producers. In other words, Sonic Youth and Dr. Dre weren't following anyone else's blueprint. This sprawling double album is nevertheless a compelling odyssey if you give yourself to its epic running time. Frontman Bradford Cox hogs too much of the limelight with his striking appearance and oddball persona, but even when he relinquishes the singing and songwriting duties to guitarist Lockett Pundt (now THAT'S a name!) on the tone-setting "Agoraphobia", the song may as well be describing Cox's sickly shut-in backstory. With Cox's woozily romantic self-loathing leading the charge, Deerhunter's daydream isn't any bigger than a teenager's bedroom, but it's a reminder how rare it is for introspective music to be this unifying.

Top 40 songs of 2008, part 1

40. M83 - The Skin of the Night
39. Quiet Village - Pillow Talk
38. Shearwater - Rooks
37. Love is All - Wishing Well
36. Plague Bringer - Focused Regression
35. Three 6 Mafia - I'd Rather
34. The Mountain Goats - Autoclave
33. My Teenage Stride - Theme From Teenage Suicide
32. Sean Garrett (feat. Ludacris) - Grippin'
31. Gang Gang Dance - House Jam

40-31

So...it's not the worst album released by a respected mainstream artist since Self-Portrait. Far from it, actually. There's a lot to weigh here: Kanye does get points for trying something different, even though it is a semi logical next step after the particular influences exhibited on Graduation. The fact that it manages to be both completely out of the blue and Kanye's natural next move speaks pretty highly of him as an artist and how he's continuously confounded expectations. On the other hand, Kanye's actions are just as often unbelievable because of their sheer stupidity as because of their innovation. On a graph where sampling "Sing Swan Song" is one axis and throwing a girly fit backstage at an awards show is the other, 808s is in the same region as beating up a paparazzo. That is to say, it's a move I understand and even applaud, but it's still a little iffy.

When Jay-Z declares, "Kanye! You a genius!" we all know what he means, and we don't begrudge him even if we know Kanye isn't a genius in the strictest sense. He's more of a savant. I don't think he studiously boned up on a bunch of Kompakt releases to prepare himself to make this album. For Kanye West, hearing a few tracks - possibly in a club, while drunk - is enough for him to absorb the sonic patois European dance music and convincingly deploy its tricks. He has, and he does. He thinks he made a Pink Floyd album.

Junior Boys is a decent reference point, even if many of the joys of JBs are derived from the unassuming homespun-ness of the songs. Unassuming is not something Kanye West is really about, needless to say. The disconnect between introspective blips and muted 4 AM beats and Kanye West's extreme extroversion is jarring on the more experimental tracks. But my ears tell me it's all very skillfully done.

The album picks up steam when it dedicates itself to making pop, not art. The stretch from "Love Lockdown" to "Street Lights" is gorgeously executed, and gets to me in a way that I never imagined it could have hearing this record leak piecemeal over the last few months. When the martial drums come in on "Love Lockdown" it's still as thrilling as it was the first time i heard the unmastered version on the internet. Paranoid might be my favorite track on the album, with a chorus that ought to make Alan Braxe and Fred Falke flush with jealousy. The appealingly silly "Robocop" wouldn't sound out of place on Robyn's first half, and the almost twee "Street Lights" would fit nicely on its more low key back end. Robyn, in case you forgot, is one of the best pop records of the decade.

"Bad News" brings things back down, and while its dubstep beat and gondola strings remind me of In Rainbows, it unfortunately reminds me that In Rainbows suffered from some melodic aimlessness in places. "See You in My Nightmares" is a perfect storm of douchebaggery. Lil Wayne sings an "AAAA BBBB" rhyme scheme in his annoying nasal "monotune", reminding us for the umpteenth time that "Lollipop" was the only "Lollipop" we ever needed. Kanye, for his part, does that awful "i'm really mad" voice he's abused in the past.

But the album saves one of its best tracks for last (not counting the bonus track, which is a throwaway) with "The Coldest Winter". Perhaps it's coincidence, but I'm reminded of Everything But the Girl's brilliant "Before Today". I'd love to have heard Tracey Thorn sing it. I'd actually love to hear another album like this done 6ths style with different singers. Maybe they should write their own lyrics, too.

...since no one else seems to want to:

Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak might be destined to become the worst album released by a respected mainstream artist since Bob Dylan's Self-Portrait.

i'll admit to enjoying "Love Lockdown". but the more tracks that "leak" from this, the more it becomes obvious that Kanye West can't write a song or a lyric or a melody to save his life. the most baffling thing is that he didn't have to, he could have you know kept rapping and making sick beats because that's what he's good at.

i mean, would you listen to a hip-hop record made by Jeff Mangum? yeah, i know, some people would. just like millions of people are going to "like" this record for a few weeks before christmas. it doesn't make it a good idea.

so i've had this idea in my head for a while, and i'm actually taking some initiative on it now.

many modern directors use pop music in their movies as opposed to a traditional score. it's absolutely essential for a teen movie to not only perform in the theater, but for its soundtrack to sell a bunch of major label mall punk at the same time, for example. but we can all think of examples off the tops of our heads of directors who make great use of great music in their movies. so i'm compiling a list of directors to make "imaginary soundtracks" for an "imaginary movie" of theirs. i'll get started with the three i'm most poised to compile at this time, and a brief description of basically what that soundtrack would include.

Guy Ritchie - some britpop, some punk rock, some reggae, some rave music, perhaps even a little hip-hop. overall, this one is probably going to be the most listenable for me when i get done with it.

Wes Anderson - popular folk music, british invasion, garage rock, a rolling stones b-side, more obscure tracks from popular folk and pop artists. his soundtracks tend to embody the influences of modern indie rock bands while strenuously avoiding modern indie rock itself, in most cases.

Quentin Tarantino - vintage soul and funk, surf rock, re-appropriated b-movie soundtracks, maybe some girl group music or glam rock. basically a really cool guy who died in 1979's record collection.

any other suggestions?

here's me, months ago, praising Clinic's resilience to trends: "They [Clinic] have never been remixed by an Ed Banger artist."

here's this, today: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/146817-premiere-clinic-tomorrow-dfa-remix-stream

it's not a sign of the apocalypse or anything, and DFA =/= Ed Banger, but close enough to be ironic, right? it sounds a bit like Ade Blackburn doing guest vocals on a Hercules and Love Affair track, which is unsurprising considering that Tim Goldsworthy did the drum programming on the Herc album and Ade Blackburn is Ade Blackburn.

i was browsing the official rock band.com forum and - while i've been truly pleased with the selection offered via DLC - i was incredibly disheartened to see the thread history and realize that the bulk of what gets released as DLC is actually culled from people's suggestions on the forum!!!

ostensibly, this is why the internet was invented - why such a forum should exist in the first place. you make your requests here, we do our best to fulfill them. simple.

but we all know what the internet has become. google-search "cake farts" if we're not on the same page yet. furthermore, we all know basically what type of music the mean (in the sense of "average") sensibilities of a bunch of message board posters is going to yield. hey, love Rush as much as the next guy, but having gotten "Moving Pictures" i am fucking satisfied, awright? let's not have Harmonix waste a full-album download on "2112" as well, okay? they asked for Trapt. they got Trapt. they asked for Staind. they got Staind. they are diametrically opposed to including any music made by non-whites - the embargo on 1960s and 70s full-band soul and funk music featuring stellar instrumental and vocal parts for all involved continues unabated. i know, i know...it's called "Rock Band" - fuck you. it's not called "Folk Band" or "Gay Band" but we've got "Tangled Up in Blue" and plenty of Duran Duran to go around. if it's about growing the library and offering a song selection as diverse as the demographic they wish to serve, then more modern angst-rock like Papa Roach and would-be prog like Coheed & Cambria is limiting your audience to the 13-year old boys who have time to make their whiny voices heard on your message board. adults will simply lose interest and move on.

it's not like i'm asking for more indie rock or anything. some valuable lessons have been learned by getting exactly what i asked for. half the songs on "Doolittle" are no fun to play. "Daydream Nation" would be an absolute bore, based on my experience with "Teenage Riot".

i could bore everyone with a personal wish-list, but that's kind of my point - the hell with everyone's personal wish-list. bring the widest variety of music you can within the confines of the game you've made. so far, they've been doing a fine job of this and i'm sure they know there's room for improvement. i'm just worried that the voice of the "community" will begin to drown out the desires of the consumers. the sort of people who love this game enough to post on the internet (like me) are NOT the people i want deciding which songs to put in the game.

it has seemed to me for a while now that Guitar Hero was the game for score-mongering weenies who want to play Dream Theater songs on fake instruments, while Rock Band succeeded because it unleashed the fun inherent in these types of games. i'd hate to see that balance be disturbed. hopefully once GH's full band installment is on the market, these two camps can neatly divide once again and the Queensryche albums can come out for GH for the people who want to study charts for fake instruments, while Queen's Greatest Hits can come out for RB for the people who want to get drunk and sing "We Are the Champions".

huge congratulations to my oldest brother and his wife as, very early thursday morning, they welcomed their first child - a boy - into the world. they had not previously picked out a name, and mom was recovering from surgery (c-section, and doing fine) last i heard, so i don't even know what to call it. i cast my vote for a run-on sentence of all the Final Fantasy characters, ever, Bane.

Braid is really pissing me off right now.

you know, no matter how arty and wistful-romantic your game is, it's still just a cheap-ass horseshit game when the puzzles are complete bullshit and the game is fucking you in the ass because you're not doing it the prescribed way.

like ICO, it's for people who will play a horseshit game as long as it advances the idea that games can be art. you keep the art - i'll take gears of war's godawful script and polished-turd graphics or soul calibur's ridiculous octuple-D heroines any day, thanks.

at least those games don't make me want to saw my penis off with a key. a key that goes wherever the fuck it feels like going regardless of what i've done in the past or the future to get it up to that platform.

on the upside, Tiger Woods '09 is the first iteration of the game i've found enjoyable in any way since '05.

this is a little overwhelming right now.



and this



and to answer your question, yes, those are the two best songs on the album and the rest of it is not as good.

Cadence Weapon, House Music


vs.

Three-6 Mafia feat. UGK, On Some Chrome

i first saw weirdosquad post about this on a forum, and i wasted no time in tracking it down for my own listening pleasure.

basically, it's the "lost" mount eerie album. lost in quotes because it's not as if it was recorded, waiting to be released, but these songs have a common genesis (an acoustic guitar in a cabin in Norway) and phil began playing them live around 2003. this built expectation for the next Mount Eerie album to monumental heights, what was to become 2005's "No Flashlight", which was met with confusion, disappointment and sometimes outright hatred. "No Flashlight", as all reviled-upon-release albums will do, became a subject for revision, and for understanding phil's intent and the context in which it should be received.

still, where were the Norway songs? as they began to trickle out on various releases in mutated form, phil continued playing barebones versions at live shows. more than just a bunch of unrecorded songs, these had become some of phil's most beloved creations, and when one thinks of Mount Eerie, the image of a solitary human caught in animistic antagonism with nature-ghosts comes most prominently to mind. these are the songs accompanying that image. the fact that no actual record of them existed seemed like some kind of historical erratum - the record is there, but we can't seem to locate it.

well, here it is. untouched, un-doctored - the proper version of phil's arctic cabin album that suggested itself into existence over the course of five years. thanks for answering our knock at the door, phil.

ps - at a show in 2006, phil began taking requests. i yelled out "who" - a song i'd only heard on "11 Old Songs of Mount Eerie", which as you'll recall, entirely consisted of Casio versions of songs. phil was very gracious and said he couldn't remember the words (i knew them by heart, but didn't want to cross over from "fanboy" to "creepy guy" by suggesting i write them down for him to sing), but strummed a few bars of it anyway. those few bars were shattering, and i thought his forgetting the words meant he'd abandoned the song. i thought i'd mention, in case anyone loves it as much as i do, that "who" is featured herein.

http://idolator.com/400563/tracey-thorn-pops-her-head-up

the part you should be paying attention to is where she says her next album will be, "a mic, a guitar and Jens Lekman on his laptop."

Jens Lekman's last album was hands down my favorite record of last year, and one of the more exciting things to come out so far this decade, while Tracey Thorn's last one was a wonderful mix of folk and dance pop that was easily as good as anything she did with Everything But the Girl and proved, if nothing else, that her voice is still one of the greatest things we've achieved as a species.

long story short, this is basically a dream collaboration. which means, cross your fingers, it could be a mess or never materialize at all. but holy wow, think of how good it will be if it works.