I've been catching up and revisiting a lot of old music lately. I've been left out of the cold sonically for a while because i can only listen to the radio in the car and my ipod broke. Luckily my lovely girlfriend Jackie let me borrow her ipod. So i've been catching up on things at work. As well as listening to too many giant bomb and talkradar podcasts. Anyways, here's some gems i've been enjoying lately and recommendations to everyone. you know, if you're into that sort of thing.
Moving Mountains- Waves
At first I wasn't too sure about this album. It's way different from their previous efforts but still very much the same. It's old moving mountains, with lots of appleseed cast like hooks. But this is much more aggressive than anything they've ever put out. I've given this album a good listen to about 5 or 6 times now and it continues to grow on me. Imagine appleseed cast with a little yelling and that's what you get in Waves.
Fireworks- Gospel
Just like the moving mountains album. I wasn't sold on this at first either. But it took time to grow on me. This effort by Fireworks is much more mature. Not quite the same transition brand new made between your favorite weapon and deja entendu. But it's similar. It's got all the same great poppy hooks and melodies. But the songwriting seems more grown up. It still makes you reminisce and feel younger than you are. But at the same time it feels more mature like yourself. It's like that time in your life in your mid 20's where you leave your childhood and enter total adulthood. I don't know if that makes sense. And if you're too young to understand you will someday.
Talib Kweli- Gutter Rainbows
This is one of the best hip hop albums I've heard in years. I admit I've been a big Talib Kweli for the better part of the last decade. But he just has this thing that few other entertainers in general have. People tell you about rappers that are intellectual and everything. But no-one is like Talib. He isn't going to rap about quantum physics but he will tell you about real life problems in a very witty way. Everything from a soldier who comes home and doesn't know what to do with himself. To the hardships of poverty. He has some of the smartest best thought out rhymes i've heard from anyone and at times can rap at a very quick pace. Something a lot of rappers can't put their head around. This may just be my favorite album of the year so far. I'm glad their is still good hip hop in the world. P.S. Radio rap fucking sucks and always will.
Make Do and Mend- End Measured Mile
This album came out what.... like a year ago. And i still listen to it almost every day. Everything to the aggressive upbeat riffs to the most sincere lyrics. If Hot Water Music and Small Brown Bike had a baby. I'd imagine this is what it would sound like. I highly recommend listening to this if you haven't already. I'm very excited to see what this band brings in the future.
Billy Joel- Everything He's Ever Done
Cause Billy Joel is the fucking man.
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Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
RANT: Noob Saibot
Noob Saibot has the sweetest fatality in MK9 so far.
This game is pretty righteous.
This game is pretty righteous.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Review: I Saw The Devil (Delightful Revenge)
A little bit of spoilers*
I Saw The Devil directed by Ji-Woon Kim (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is a Korean revenge tale much like the Revenge Trilogy by Chan Wook-Park. In fact one of the leads is Oldboy's very own Choi Min-Sik. He plays Kyung-Chul. Who is a sadistic serial killer who thrives on preying upon helpless young women who usually are stuck somewhere with no-one around. It essentially starts with Kyung-Chul taking and killing a woman named Ju-Yeon. Well it just so happens that she is the daughter of a retired police chief and the pregnant fiancee of elite special agent Soo-Hyun (played by The Good, The Bad, The Weird's LEE Byung-hyun). So expectedly Soo-Hyun tracks down Kyung-Chul for revenge.
The movie does a really good job of bringing the suspense up and down. But it never really quite hit me emotionally til the very end. It was a nice escape from the plot of normal revenge movies. because this one was especially violent but not too twisted. Soo-Hyun finds Kyung-Chul with the intention of killing him but instead decides to leave him alive to continue finding him, beating him, and torturing him. He makes his intentions clear when the first time meet. He tells Kyung-Chul after he has already beaten him close to death that "his nightmare has only just begun". That sure was an epic line to me. The cat and mouse game continues to ensue until the climax at the end which left me very satisfied. It was untraditional but very well done.
Overall I enjoyed the movie very much. The violence was well... violent. The cinematography was well done but not miraculous (unlike Oldboy. The acting was very well done and I need to find more movies that Choi Min-Sik is in because I really enjoy his acting. Like I said it never really hit me deep down emotionally but still left me wanting more and excited to see the outcome of the tale.
7.5 out of 10
I Saw The Devil directed by Ji-Woon Kim (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is a Korean revenge tale much like the Revenge Trilogy by Chan Wook-Park. In fact one of the leads is Oldboy's very own Choi Min-Sik. He plays Kyung-Chul. Who is a sadistic serial killer who thrives on preying upon helpless young women who usually are stuck somewhere with no-one around. It essentially starts with Kyung-Chul taking and killing a woman named Ju-Yeon. Well it just so happens that she is the daughter of a retired police chief and the pregnant fiancee of elite special agent Soo-Hyun (played by The Good, The Bad, The Weird's LEE Byung-hyun). So expectedly Soo-Hyun tracks down Kyung-Chul for revenge.
The movie does a really good job of bringing the suspense up and down. But it never really quite hit me emotionally til the very end. It was a nice escape from the plot of normal revenge movies. because this one was especially violent but not too twisted. Soo-Hyun finds Kyung-Chul with the intention of killing him but instead decides to leave him alive to continue finding him, beating him, and torturing him. He makes his intentions clear when the first time meet. He tells Kyung-Chul after he has already beaten him close to death that "his nightmare has only just begun". That sure was an epic line to me. The cat and mouse game continues to ensue until the climax at the end which left me very satisfied. It was untraditional but very well done.
Overall I enjoyed the movie very much. The violence was well... violent. The cinematography was well done but not miraculous (unlike Oldboy. The acting was very well done and I need to find more movies that Choi Min-Sik is in because I really enjoy his acting. Like I said it never really hit me deep down emotionally but still left me wanting more and excited to see the outcome of the tale.
7.5 out of 10
Sunday, June 12, 2011
RANT: E3 Part 1
My first entry (I apologize now for all future posts for my bad grammar). How sweet. Essentially for the most part this blog will be about my thoughts and reviews on media. Music, movies, books, video games and whatever the hell else i feel like talking about past, present or future.Hopefully this will be somewhat enjoyable for people. If not, hey, at least i may get some kicks out of it. To kick this bad boy off lets start with a recent event that just concluded a few days ago. E3.
Press Conferences Of The Main Three:
Microsoft- Thoughts: Poop
I am in no way whatsoever left with a good taste in my mouth after Microsoft's press conference this year. Gears of War: check. Halo: check. Fable: check. A bunch of games I don't give two shits about: check. What else did they spend time on besides these big overplayed franchises. Oh yeah. The Kinect. My most hated video game related device at this moment in time. Microsoft should get this through their heads. The people that have supported your company since the original Xbox do not care about the Kinect. I think there's a reason that most people who play games more than casually do not have a Wii as their go to system (or maybe it's because the Wii has no third party support). The point of this is that Kinect and motion control gaming suck an infinite amount of balls. Cloud saving is cool. But I don't need to use it.
Sony- Thoughts: Dynamite
Sony- Thoughts: Dynamite
First of all I am Sooooooo excited that there was not an insane amount of mention of the Move (See above for how much I hate motion control gaming). But there was a lot about Uncharted and the NGP with the freshly minted name Vita. All I could think about after watching the press conference is that I need both right now. The potential to play cross-over titles on either system has me giddy like a schoolgirl about to get her first finger blasting by the cutest kid in class. I am thoroughly looking forward to this fall. Thank you Sony. More than you know.
Nintendo- Thoughts: Ehhhh
I was very conflicted about my feelings on Nintendo's press conference. First, the 3DS content coming out slowly is making me come around to the system. They have a lot of good titles coming out within the next year which may just validate buying the system. SMT Devil Survivor 2 and Star Fox being big reasons. The biggest reason may be the gameplay I saw from the Kid Icarus game. I don't know why but i immediately wanted to get a 3DS at that moment just to be ready for when it came out. Not too mention the weapon variation and online features seem heavenly. I'm glad they didn't have anything really about the Wii. But why would they when now they can push the Wii U. At first I was thinking to myself "this is pretty cool". But after some thought is this really going to be that much of innovation for me. Do i really want to do moves and commands on a touch screen. I am very accustomed to the traditional control. Even the Sixaxis on Sony controllers bothers me most of the time (except when I play Flower, cause Flower is just awesome). If they somehow find a way to make me have a good time with this whole new experience i may get on board. I was also thrown off by my assumption that these controllers would cost a pretty penny a pop if you wanted to play multiplayer. But Nintendo squashed those concerns since. Since the conference the reports are that it seems as though at this time it will only support one controller at a time. Which is a little weird. Let's see what they can do with the system and if their will be enough exclusive games and content for it to be a success.
That about wraps up my quick thoughts on the big three's press conferences this year. I will post a part 2 about individual games I'm looking forward to and games that look like utter garbage. Please come back and visit.
I was very conflicted about my feelings on Nintendo's press conference. First, the 3DS content coming out slowly is making me come around to the system. They have a lot of good titles coming out within the next year which may just validate buying the system. SMT Devil Survivor 2 and Star Fox being big reasons. The biggest reason may be the gameplay I saw from the Kid Icarus game. I don't know why but i immediately wanted to get a 3DS at that moment just to be ready for when it came out. Not too mention the weapon variation and online features seem heavenly. I'm glad they didn't have anything really about the Wii. But why would they when now they can push the Wii U. At first I was thinking to myself "this is pretty cool". But after some thought is this really going to be that much of innovation for me. Do i really want to do moves and commands on a touch screen. I am very accustomed to the traditional control. Even the Sixaxis on Sony controllers bothers me most of the time (except when I play Flower, cause Flower is just awesome). If they somehow find a way to make me have a good time with this whole new experience i may get on board. I was also thrown off by my assumption that these controllers would cost a pretty penny a pop if you wanted to play multiplayer. But Nintendo squashed those concerns since. Since the conference the reports are that it seems as though at this time it will only support one controller at a time. Which is a little weird. Let's see what they can do with the system and if their will be enough exclusive games and content for it to be a success.
That about wraps up my quick thoughts on the big three's press conferences this year. I will post a part 2 about individual games I'm looking forward to and games that look like utter garbage. Please come back and visit.
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