Grindhouse Double Feature: Taylor-Taylor and Robinson/Robinson

THE DANDY WARHOLS - WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE (2003)

I was introduced to Monkey House in two separate routes. The first was from the British TV show Brainiac: Science Abuse. Track 5, “I Am a Scientist” used to play at certain points in fragments throughout the show, although at the time I was not aware that weird little song was by the same guys who did “Bohemian Like You” back in the day.

So it took me until sometime last year before I was properly introduced to the album. There’s a great American detective show called Veronica Mars that was tragically cancelled after only 3 seasons a few years back. It’s a brilliant piece of neo-noir, well-written, well-performed, and deserved a much larger audience than it garnered, but I’ll leave that for another rant. The show’s theme tune was “We Used to Be Friends”, track 2 on Monkey House. THIS is how the album came to my attention.

Eventually I bought it on the increasingly-archaic Compact Disc format, and found it to be a surprisingly strange, yet enjoyable package. It’s rather pop-infused at times, borrowing some synthy 80s-y new wave-y sounds, and yet working them into a quite unique, modern sound. And Courtney Taylor-Taylor (born with just one Taylor...) is a pretty dynamic vocalist, offering a wide variety of sounds, from the falsetto highs of “Plan A” and “The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone” to the droning lows of “I Am Sound” and “I Am Over It”. Backing vocals are pretty cool too, and that always helps increase my opinion.

Definitely worth a shot for anyone who likes weird, retro, new wave, kitsch stuff.

THE BLACK CROWES - THE SOUTHERN HARMONY AND MUSICAL COMPANION (1992)

Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto series has long been known for its extensive, varied and generally excellent soundtracks, featured across a range of in-game radio stations. In GTA IV, the classic rock station plays some awesome stuff, some I already knew, some I didn’t. Genesis, Black Sabbath, the Stooges, David Bowie, Queen, and R.E.M. are just some of the stellar names included.

With somewhere probably over 100 hours logged on GTA IV, I’ve had plenty of time to appreciate these tracks, and one that sticks out is “Remedy” by the Black Crowes, from their second studio album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Which, naturally, I bought on the cheap (in the new-fangled MP3 download format).

The result was another pleasant surprise. The album features a wonderful mix of various styles, and draws influences from a range of great artists. The overriding style is one of hard southern rock, reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 70s and 80s efforts. The saxophones and trombones and violins are gone, though the upbeat piano remains, and in their place is a much harder drum sound, and lead guitar pieces that seem to have been inspired by the legendary work of Angus Young for AC/DC. Add to that the gruff, powerful vocals of Chris Robinson (backed with the stirring, gospel-esque female backing vocals), and the interesting lyrics of the Robinson brothers, and you get a fantastic album that could have come from any point in the last 4 decades. 

Expect more random album 'reviews' in the future.

To all 1 of you readers out there

Apologies for the complete lack of posting, and serious distance between the last two posts. Most of my October was occupied by university, depression, a crippling absence of motivation, and various combinations of the three. Also, video games.

I will try and post more often from now on, but as December approaches, so do the deadlines for several important pieces of uni work. No doubt all of the problems listed above will return over this time, and I'll probably be making another post similar to this one in a few weeks.

But hey, I finish the first semester on Dec 16th for 5 weeks or so, meaning I can pollute the internet with plenty more of my unnecessary ramblings during that time.

GAMEfest and Other Tales

GAMEFEST...

A few weekends back, the NEC in Birmingham hosted the first ever GAMEfest - an exhibition for British, poverty-stricken, saddos who can't afford the cost or effort of going to E3 or Gamescom or TGS or whatever. All the big publishers (Activision, Bethesda, EA, THQ, Ubisoft, Capcom, etc.) along with PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, came along to show off their newest and upcoming games. And at the low low price of £10 per ticket, I couldn't resist...

And to no surprise at all, it was totally worth it. Even though I didn't get to play some of the games I'd gone there for (Batman: Arkham City, F1 2011, Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, among others), simply because of the massive queues, I still tried out a load of great games. And some not so great games.

The very first thing that happened, against my will, was the involuntary grabbing of free Mountain Dew, which had been hastily thrust at me during the great stampede as the hall opened, followed by a try-out of the new Sonic game, Sonic Generations. Which was fantastic - looks like it should be as entertaining as the original Sonics on Mega Drive (<3). Next was a trip to the Ubi booth for a hands-on with the next Rayman game, Rayman Origins. THIS I have been waiting eagerly for. The original Rayman on PS1 was, and still is, one of my favourite games ever, so a new one, akin to the original instead of the 3D crap they've been churning out heartlessly for a few years, is very welcome. To my joy, it was thoroughly enjoyable, although not as good as the original...

Also, I didn't get to play Rayman Origins straight away because some chumps were hogging the booths, so I had to play The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - The Game (dumb title) in the interim. NOT A GOOD SUBSTITUTE. The general rule that video games adapted from movies suck, remains true. Playing the game while being watched by the Ubi booth man, and trying not to hurl my opinion at the screen with a flurry of expletives was more of a challenge than the game itself.
BUT YAYAYAUGYUDFSIULFLB RAYMAN.

Other highlights included shift-switching with a friend in the 2-and-a-half hour queue for Mass Effect 3, managing to play SSX, Dark Souls, Journey, and more, win a Batman poster, steal a Skyrim/Rage bag without having to suffer the extensive Bethesda, all while my friend held our spot; A couple guys completely breaking WWE '12 with a Stretch Armstrong-esque glitch (I imagine they were swiftly removed from the booth and never seen again); showing everyone my skillz on the Assassin's Creed Revelations multiplayer and winning a Driver soundtrack vinyl for my troubles; and laughing at some people who'd queued for hours at Bethesda only to find Skyrim wasn't even playable.

Got to play Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (bugged to fuck, way to ruin one of the best games ever guys), Ace Combat 3DS, Gears of War 3, Street Fighter X Tekken and Lord of the Rings: War in the North as well. Didn't play any Kinect games liked I'd hoped though. Not because I love looking like a knob, but because I've not experienced the fancy tech myself yet.

...AND OTHER TALES

I shall reserve for another post. This has already become a risk of tl;dr.

I should go.