Category: Music

Noteworthy

A short while back I got fed up with having like 7 BitTornado windows open at once, and finally got around to installing this program called Azureus. Good stuff. Hold on, I’m going somewhere with this. so I’m looking for “test subjects” down at the old torrent dump, and I come across a peculiar anime movie called “Sonic Adventure 2”. I’m like “Hey, that’s a game, not a movie!” And I downloaded it because I like and own the game. Impressions are as follows.

It was indeed an anime movie based on the Sonic Adventure 2 game. I was shocked, because I was sure I would have heard of such a thing. Anyhow, it’s surely a movie of the Sonic X anime, which is very, very loosely based on the first Sonic Adventure game. Only, the anime introduces many new characters and of course, takes away a lot of element from the games. So if you’re still following me, the movie’s story is that of the game, but changes just enough to make it fit in with the anime’s plot. And as I can only assume (because I stopped following the Sonic X anime and pretty much anything I was watching when I started working), the movie introduces several plot points and characters, which will carry over into the anime with no explaination, leaving all of us who live outside of Japan to wonder what’s going on. Only I’m on the inside now, because I’ve seen the movie.

With that moderately confusing paragraph behind us, let’s discuss some other stuff about this particular movie, shall we? The thing that I first noticed is that opposite to all toon-to-movies I’ve seen in my time, the animation in Sonic Adventure 2 is inferior to that of Sonic X. In fact the overall quality was somewhat lower than I would expect, leading me to beleive that no-one involved with Sonic X had anything to do with this movie. Of course, I’m not going to research this at all, so if you can tell me different, go right ahead. My E-Mail address is at the bottom of the sidebar. Also noted was that they managed to keep all the main ideas of the game’s story mostly intact. While a bunch of anime-exclusive character story was added and intertwined with the base story, they also did a pretty good job of explaining the main plot, whereas the game left you kinda confused at several points. Of course, it was somewhat connected with the Sonic X story, so if you hadn’t been watching that, you might be left in the dark on several occasions. Lastly, the subtitles were pretty poor. they were there and all, but the translators were clearly not that proficient in English, as the Engrish is piled on throughout.

Other interesting news bits for this update include: Mike has re-arranged his website. Again. It once again has content on it, much to my delight. The last couple incarnations did not, so it makes for a nice change. Steve also writes for this website, and it features a message board much like my own. I would urge you to post at either, but you’re really better off at the Mists of Avalon Online forum. More people, and they actually post every once in a while.

The full version of the Rockman.EXE Stream anime opening theme, Be Somewhere, has been released. Find it from here. While we’re talking of anime themes, you can download the opening and ending themes of the Viewtiful Joe anime at this website. You’ll have to sign up if you want them, but they’re not great, so unless you’re a huge VJ fan like m’self…

And as much as I hate relying on Gorillamask for things to post about (I try to find stuff myself, but I don’t have hundreds of people e-mailing me things they find interesting every day), here’s a nerd test. Take it, see how much of a nerd you are. Apparently, i’m barely a nerd at all. I was slightly surprised, but I guess I’m just more anti-social than nerdy.

Band of the month – January 2005

Ah, it’s time for the monthly review of a band of my choice. Sure, the review is a little late this month, but I’ve had the band picked since sometime in the first week. I’m getting better. A couple more and I’ll have this done between the first and fourth every month. Assuming I can continue to find bands that I like until I give up maintaining this site. But that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I like a lot of music. Oh yes, and I hope you’re enjoying this paragraph. Pure filler! Hahahaha! It’s just a clever ruse to make you believe this post is longer than it actually is! Well, I guess it’s onto the real stuff now then. Oh, and excuse any bad spelling, I’m typing in the dark and have no access to a spellchecker.

So here’s what I propose to you this month: I review a band, you read it and pretend you enjoyed it. Simple, no? If you hadn’t clicked the album cover on the sidebar, this month’s band is Story of the Year. I originally caught wind of them when they were the main attraction for the Nintendo Fusion Tour back in September/October. While I ne’er got to attend the show, I looked up a couple songs from each of the bands, and aside from Lostprophets and My Chemical Romance (whom I already liked), SotY was clearly the best of the featured bands. So I listened to a couple songs and then I bought the CD. Totally a worthwile buy. While most of the NFT promotional stuff called them emo, I’d say they’re a regular punk rock band. The sound is rocking, not whiny. The lyrics are close to emo, but whatever. It don’t really matter what genre they’re classified as, they’re a good band either way.

They’re a new group, so they’ve only got the one CD, Page Avenue. It’s an excellent album, and easily recommendable to anyone who can enjoy a fine mix of fast rock and slightly slower rock. While there is a bit of screaming, it’s never annoying or off-putting (EX: Billy Talent) and is usually placed in key points of songs. I’m not really complaining, because I love drums, but the only real downside to the CD is that the guitars are kinda downplayed by the vocals and drums. Really, you might not even notice guitars on some songs unless you listen for them specifically.

The disc starts strong with a very hardcore “And the Hero Will Drown”. As I stated in the paragraph prior, a lot of drum influence in this one. Then come their two biggest and similarly titled hits, “Until the Day I Die” and “Anthem of Our Dying Day”. The second is slightly slower, but I feel is it the better of the two. After that is one of my two favorite songs on the CD; “In the Shadows”. Funny, because it’s probably the screamingest song on the album, and I’m not a fan of screamy music. I dunno exaclty what it is about the song that I like so much, but I think the pacing is good and again, the drumming is superb. My second favorite song is closer to the end, and is also the slowest on the disc; “Sidewalks”. It’s a nice acoustic-esque piece that is… touching, for the lack of a better word. I unno. I like slower rock songs. So sue me. Ooh, and it’s got violins in it. I like violins. The last song, “Falling Down” is quite good, and features guest vocals by Ray Cappo. I don’t know who he is, but he’s pretty good at that singing thing. Overall, it’s an A+ CD. At the very least, you owe it to yourself to download the thing, if you just can’t commit yourself to spending $20 on it. Easily worth it though.

The CD also features some cool CD-ROM bonuses, including two music videos and one kind of band overview video called “Fellowship of the Wang”. If that hasn’t convinced you to check it out, you’re a lost cause. The video is quite funny, with some great lines and band antics. The music videos are, well, music videos. I’ve never really liked music vids to begin with, and these are just run-of-the-mill punk videos, to tell the truth. Nothing special. And to top it all off, there is some slightly disturbing band tomfoolery as a “secret track” on the end of the CD. It’s funny, but not exactly, shall we say, sane.

And so another edition of Band of the Month comes to a close. I’m not sure what else to type, and it’s starting to feel awkward, so I’ll just close it here. Seeya next post, suckers.

ADDENDUM: While playing Resident Evil 4 the other day, my friend and I were talking about, well, exactly what the newest VG Cats comic is about, even stating that Scott would produce something exactly like what he did. Psychic powers? I think yes.

It’s beer! Hooray beer!

While I’m not a huge beer drinker, I still feel the absolute need to direct you to the site for Red Sripe beer. The commercials, PSAs, and radio spots on the site are just hilarious. If you only follow one link from my site this year, make it this one. I know it’s early to say that, but these are just plain great. They’ve almost gotten me to the point where I want to try this beer, if only to become beautiful.

The next order of business is the latest kickass Zelda remix. (Actually, it’s been out there for a few months, but anyway…) But, this time it does not come from OC Remix. Strange, no? This one is found on VG Mix. It’s called “Blood of Ganon”, and is a truly awesome hardcore Zelda medley containing music from the Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, and A Link to the Past. Great stuff. Direct link, for those of you too lazy or stupid to navigate the site yourselves.

Remember when I said I was downloading a bunch of games? Well, they finished, and sadly, my computer was running in f’d-up mode at the time, and most of the files became corrupt. In an ironic twist of fate, the only one that ended up working was GTA3.

Ah yes, and I bought Resident Evil 4 today. The game kicks ass like none before it. It’s tons of frantic fun, as the enemies are really adept at killing you. You see, they can climb in windows, climb up ladders to higher windows, break down doors, throw molotov cocktails and axes (which you can explode/reflect with a fluke shot), and run at you like there’s no tomorrow. I’m not very far, but the game has already taken a few cool plot twists, and I’m totally impressed by everything. The new gameplay style is great, though precision aiming is a little hard at first. Graphics are possibly the best I’ve ever seen, and the voice acting turned out rather well. Ooh, and there is shootable livestock. I saw a chicken for the first time and said to my brother “I’m so gonna shoot that chicken”. And then I saw the cows. It’s just a superb game on every level, and I think I’ll have to go a little more in-depth with the reviewing once I finish it. A testament to the greatness of Capcom and the Gamecube, this is surely not a title to be missed.

Why I need a Mac (plus mini-BOTM)

Things have gone from “worse” to “as bad as it gets”. Which, on the upside, is really more inconvenience than actual bad happenings. So yes, I’ve lost all my new site files (the old articles and crap are still safe), but fortunately, a good percentage of them are still hanging out on the internet, from where I can poach them quite easily. Poach was probably a bad word for that sentence.

So it’ll be awhile until I’ve recoved everything and resume the few things I’ve been working on lately. But you know what won’t take a little while? The band of the month feature. I know the title is all wrong, and it’s past the halfway through December point, but I’m not just going to sit here and let it go undone. It’s gonna be half-assed though, since I’ve got very little time to be updating. I really should be tending to my site restoration and Windows-loading. But meh.

This month’s band: Disturbed. Notice how I didn’t even bother to put in the picture. Yes, that’s how lazy this is going to be. So I quite like the band. As far as I know, they’ve got two CDs, and only one song has ever even made it close to mainstream. Of course I could be wrong, as when it comes to mainstream music, I really have no clue what’s going on. all I know is I saw the “Prayer” video on Much Music one time and that’s pretty much it. Anyway, back to what a good band Disturbed is. We all appreciate metal (or should anyhow), and Disturbed does a pretty good job on that front. At least on the first album.

The Sickness is the first of two Disturbed CDs, and probably the faoured one of fans. I’m not sure, that’s just usually the way things play out when a band makes two CDs that sound very different. So back to this. Again. It’s a great CD, which I only recently got around to purhasing.
It contains many great songs like the infamous “Down with the Sickness” and “Stupify”, which was featured on one of the Big Shiny tunes CDs of yore. Back when they had good music on them. Another great song is their cover of “Shout”, aptly renamed to “Shout 2000”. You know how I said HIM’s cover of “Solitary Man” was freaking awesome back when I reviewed their greatest hits CD? Well it’s like that – only more hardcore. My personal favorite song on the CD however, it the first, “Voices”. It’s a great song to start off on, and sets stage for the rest of the songs quite well. “The Game” is also quite a noteworthy track. All in all, excellent CD.

The newer release, titled Believe is not quite as good as the first, but is also a CD worthy of my praise. The main factor in this judgement is that fact that it’s a lot slower than the Sickness. I mean, of course, most of the stuff is pretty hard, but it’s also softer at the same time. It’s quite hard to explain. You’d have to listen for yourself to truly understand what I’m trying to get across. All in all though, it’s good CD, boasting some exellent tracks such as “Prayer”, “Liberate”, “Remember” and “Darkness”.

I’m really sorry this has to be so short, but I’m really pressed for time, and I just couldn’t let it go undone any longer. It’s not like I could have extended it much more without getting really redundant and going over the same things over and over again. But I guess I’ll go out saying that Disturbed is a great band, and I’m certainly looking forward to their next release. I just really need ot get to bed now. I’ve got work early in the morning, and I’ve already stayed up far too late. I’ll fix typos some other day.

Coming up for air

OK, I’ve spent pretty much all the time I’ve been home today up until now immersed in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It’s a really, really, really awesome game. Fuck Halo. You can’t turn into a ball in Halo. There aren’t any zombies in Halo. Sure, you can hold two guns, but my gun is 5-in-one. Plus, Samus is a babe. (If you need proof, search up the ending pics for Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission in the VG Museum)

But no, I didn’t come here solely to bash Halo, though I do take pleasure in the activity. No, I have much more important stuff to discuss. Like what I did with last night. You see, I got the most excellent opportunity to hit the opening night concert for the MTS Centre. Possibly the biggest thing that’s ever happened in Manitoba ever, this was a pretty important event. Not only have we been craving this new arena for decades, but it was the first freaking anything that happened there.

I’d like to go into a lot of detail, but Aether calls, so I’ll have to keep it short. Short-ish. Basically, the new arena is awesome. It’s way fancied up, and it’s got like statues and shit all over the place. One thing I noticed that was really cool is that the lights under the stairs cast a cool glow on people either ascending or descending them. Sadly, the trough is gone, and that means lines for the men’s bathroom. If you’d never been to our quaint old arena, the men’s bathrooms had pissing troughs. Seriously. It was awesome. But never again. Oh well, I guess they made up for it by having every seat made the same, and not giving the big spenders the comfy ones.

So what about the show? Well, it started with a gymnast doing some seriously wicked shit on a couple of like… big… drapes. I have no idea what they’re called but it was impressive like nothing else. At first I couldn’t tell if it was a chick or a guy, but then we got the ass shot. That was the definitive moment. Totally a chick. Now I was impressed and aroused. Not a bad opening act. Then the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra played some stuff and it was cool. Then another gymnast who was notably less impressive, but very, very flexible. Finally, we got some more WSO, and then the show really started.

Our first big name act: Randy Bachman. You know, from BTO and the Guess Who. There was some “Takin’ Care of Business”, a little “Let It Ride”, and an ineffable performance of “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. Of course, he did some of his own stuff too, and even busted into Neil Young’s “Keep on Rocking in the Free World”. It would be quite the act to top. And the next guys didn’t quite do it for me. Some young country group going by the name of Doc Walker. Never heard of ’em before, and I’m not gonna go and start hearing of ’em. They weren’t bad, but you know. They were following up Randy freaking Bachman. While they did put on an enjoyable show, they were without a doubt the least entertaining of the 5 major acts.

Oh, did I mention that the thing was hosted by Fred Penner? Yeah. It was cool. Funny guy. He did little skits and stuff between acts to show off all the cool stuff in the new arena, like the Moose locker rooms (which, by the way, must be what Heaven is like) and the giant loading dock. Also highlighted were the dining hall and the suites. Oh, and the arena itself. But back to the show.

The third act, and what I thought would be the most disappointing, was Chantal Kreviazuk. You see, I didn’t realize that she’s smoking hot. Turns out she’s a pretty talented pianist and singer too. And she kept heckling the lighting guys to do stuff for her, but they wouldn’t. It was funny. The only thing I didn’t like was the fat idiot sitting two seats over that kept yelling things to her, even though we were sitting way up at the top of the world. Yeah, we were in the very highest seats, but as the Penner man pointed out, there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

After Chantal packed it up and Fred and co-host Adam Beach did their bit, on came my personal favorite act: Tom Cochrane. Booya. Kickass rock and boatloads of showmanship to boot. He was the only guy to actually get the people in the floor seats up and dancing. Somehow, he managed to sing all songs that I don’t know, except for the token “Life is a Highway”. I think if Tom Cochrane ever played a concert anywhere and didn’t do “Life is a Highway”, the world would implode or something. But I digress, this was the highlight of the show for me. But as a collective, we the audience had a huge surprise waiting for us.

Me, I had no idea who I was going to see, I just took up the offer and went. But apparently, nobody in the audience knew that Burton Cummings was gonna be there, based on the uproar that uprose when Fred announced that he would be the last act. Indeed, Burton did not disappoint. He did a few songs accompanied by the WSO, and then it got even better. Randy came back and then they did “No Sugar Tonight”. And then a bunch of Guess Who stuff from back in the day. The crowd was certainly pleased, what with more applause, whistling, and hollering than I imagined could possibly be contained inside a single building. I was entertained as well, even if it was mostly stuff I’d never heard before. I can’t say I’ve ever really listened to a lot of the Guess Who or, for that matter, anyone who performed last night, but I was able to pick out quite a few songs, and I knew everyone who played (with the exception of Doc Walker, of course), so I wasn’t totally out of the loop.

And that was it. It wasn’t straight up my alley (some parts were, but some weren’t), but I can’t deny that I enjoyed pretty much the whole thing. Only one or two songs total did I find annoying or disagreeable. A sweet-ass concert for sure, you’re sorry you missed it. I don’t care if you hate all the stars that showed up, it was a huge event that really defied musical preferences. I really don’t have much else to say. I can’t stop thinking about the Echoes.

On a totally different note, I got the new Rammstein CD today. Kinda goes without saying that it kicks ass. And that’s the end of my show. DONK!

Band of the Month – November 2004

Oops, I’ve gone and done it again. Band of the Month is very late once again, and since this is only the fourth installment of the featurette, I’d say I’m off to a pretty bad start. I’m not sure if it’ll keep up like this. You remember how the weekly article thing went down the shitter real fast. I’ve got a lot more slack with this being once a month, but I’m still managing to muck it up. But enough about how I’m a failure, you want to know about some sort of “band” thing.

I’ll admit that I only started liking POD (Payable on Death) a couple years ago when their song “Alive” hit it big. And what can I say? I’d never heard of them before. But after that, my buddy Mike (who may have liked them before, I don’t know) got really into them, this came to that, and boom (no pun intended) I had their latest CD. Which as far as I know, is the only one with a slew of hits on it. Their first major release, as I understand, wasn’t big enough to warrant any radio songs, but the second had at least three. As for the third and most recent release, well, I haven’t heard any of the songs on the radio yet. My brother had apparently heard one, and the song “Change the World” seems to be very hyped on the official site, so maybe it has been played on some radio or TV station, I don’t know, I don’t listen/watch the stations that would be playing it.

While their first major release, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, came in 1999, it wasn’t their first. I’m not going to look up independent release info, but I’ve heard they’ve got 11 CDs in total, so I’ll assume that the eight independent productions came before this one. Nuff said made up, onto the CD review. I never owned The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, but I have listened to it. It’s a good CD all in all, but I just never got very into most of it. Some songs, particularly “Rock the Party” (which just screams HARDCOOOORE!!) and “Bullet the Blue Sky” (a very nice U2 cover) are quite enjoyable. Also noteworthy is the pseudo-title track, “Southtown”. But the rest, I can’t really remember the rest, and that doesn’t say anything very good. I’m sure I liked most of the other songs (I did burn the CD after all. Illegal copying abound!), but I just can’t put the titles to the beats. In any case, listen to at least the songs I mentioned and come to your own conclusions, because I clearly don’t have one to give you.

The next one is the big one: Satellite. Great CD from start to finish, I think. OK, that’s not entirely true. I find the song “Ridiculous” to be ridiculously annoying, but it comes after the soothing instrumental piece “Celestial”, and the excellent title track “Satellite” so it works out somehow. And then afterwards is my personal favorite song on the album, “The Messenjah” and the second instrumental, “Guitarras De Amor”. So the annoyingness of the single song I don’t like is negated very well by the songs immediately surrounding it, making it that much easier to bear. Other songs you might want to check out are, as popularity would dictate, are “Alive”, “Boom” and “Youth of the Nation”. Hell, pretty much everything on the CD is worth listening to, and did I not already own it, I would pay up to an inflated $30 for it. But it’s probably not that expensive yet, so let’s not worry about it. You can probably still find it for between $15 and $20, and if you don’t yet own it, I highly suggest changing that. You know, I’ve not really gotten into what kind of music POD plays yet. I think that’s something I usually make mention of by now. Basically, what they are is this group of Christian rockers, and the lyrics heavily reflect that. Satellite here is a very metal CD, but most of the other stuff I know takes elements from metal, rap and reggae, somehow combining them in this original fashion that manages to make everything work out just perfectly and sound really awesome in the process.

And with the mention of genre-splicing comes the newest major release, Payable on Death. This self-titled disc is so different from the las that if it weren’t for recurring themes and Sonny’s instantly recognizable voice, you may be fooled into thinking it’s a different band altogether. While I’m not sure, I think this is the point where long-time fans would say something like “POD gets back to their real style after that last sellout piece of garbage.” I really just made that up, but I hear it a lot when doing research for these Band of the Month things (of which I did surprisingly little for this one), so I’m pretty sure that’s how it would go down. Anyway, this album, or so I’d like to believe, introduces a new guitarist to the crew, after they apparently had some differences with the last one. Personally, I’ve never been able to point out a guitarist (or any musician) by his playing like some people can, so it don’t make much difference to me. I think I’m gonna have to move to a new paragraph to continue this one…

As I was saying, Payable on Death is hella different from Satellite. And isn’t that supposed to be how it is? Well, most bands stick to a very similar style of music, but as I said, Satellite was mostly metal, while this one gets really into the reggae groove. Of course, you still get a good amount of metal and hip-hop. Simply put, it’s a mixed bag of genres. Oh, yes, and it’s a good CD too. Strangely, it takes a while to truly appreciate. For example: at first, I didn’t really like “Will You”. But after a few listens, it quickly became one of my favorite songs on the disc. It’s like that with a lot of the songs, but they grow quickly. The only other band I’ve seen display this phenomenon was My Chemical Romance. I guess you’ll wanna know which songs to look out for on this one, eh? “Change the World” is rather good, and “Execute the Sounds” has a sound that is executed rather well. Also, “Revolution” is pretty hardcore with a slick rhyming verse, and I like that one a lot. But I think that the best track on the CD is probably the last one, “Eternal”. It’s a nice, mellow guitar duet that ends up as a great piece to go out on. If I should mention, the CD is a little extra expensive because it comes with a lot of bonus material. First is the ability to download the secret-esqe song, “Space”, but my computer just starts shitting itself whenever I try to download it. Also, there are a bunch of videos about the band, and a bonus DVD disc with a demo of the PS2 game Amplitude that features only “Space”. Yes, it’s appropriate, but I like my rhythm game demos to have at least 2 songs. In any case, as far as Amplitude can tell me, “Space” isn’t all that worth downloading anyway, so I’m not too disappointed about it.

OK people, that’s a wrap. I’ve really got nothing else to say but to go listen to a couple of the songs I mentioned and see for yourself the awesomeness that is POD. In other news, I suck at reviewing bands, so here are some links.

A cute little turtle – Kind of. I really don’t want to spoil what’s at the other end of this link, but I guarantee it’ll have you going something like “Holy shit!”. I, personally, think it’s really cool.

The Jones Soda Holiday Pack – Apparently, mashed potato & butter soda doesn’t go over so well with most people. Another proof that people will flock to anything with a “limited edition” sticker on it. It’s Matt’s first real article since Halloween, and now I don’t mind having waited so long. Ah, the joy of watching other people suffer mildly.

Resident Evil 4 controller – And in this corner, the king of bad ideas! Really. I want to hammer a nail into the head of the idiot who thought this up.

Super Mario 64 DS preview – If I don’t post for a while (like a month or so) after the 21st, this, Metroid Prime 2 and Viewtiful Joe 2 will be the ones to blame, not me.

West coast, it’s my beautiful day!

Did you know jackets are expensive? Yeah, it turns out they are. You see, I’ve never had to shop for a jacket before today, so I had no idea. But I did make a purchase, and at $100, it seems as though I got one of the cheaper ones. Gah.

In other news, if you’re reading this, you should go check the forums. And maybe post a bit too. Seems we’ve got a new member, and I’ve been posting in an attempt to get her posting as well. So there might be a short revival. You know we had some good times on there back in the day.

I thought up a pretty funny comic while I was sitting on the throne earlier today. You can check it out here. I could have spent some more time on it, but I think I’ve gotten my point across. And it’s very in the vein of both Penny Arcade’s and VG Cats’ humor. I’m not very sure how accurate it is, but let’s just accept that it’s somewhat funny.

In much more awesome news, Babamania has released the full version of Doobee Doowop Communication, which despite the really odd name, is a kickass song. If you didn’t check it out when I gave you the link, it’s the ending theme of the Rockman.EXE Stream anime. It’s got some really mellow parts, a rocking chorus, and is sung by at least three people, both male and female. Plus a lot of English lyrics that are sometimes humorous, and even the Japanese singing is funny in parts. It’s a very original song, and I don’t think I’ve ever reccomended anything more than I do this song. Download it, I can almost guarantee you’ll like it. If you don’t, it’s simply to spite me. I don’t see how anyone could not like the song. It’s just so catchy and loveable.I just listened to it like 6 times in a row. Time for an intervention. Hooray Pikmin soundtrack!

Ah yes, that’s the next thing I have to cover. Check this shit out, yo. PopJapan Torrents, you are my God. Or at least my hero. You see, if you scroll down a little and click the “Older Torrents” button, you’ll find a bunch of torrents to complete game soundtracks and arrangements! Hooray! It’s like a party in my ears and all my favorite games are invited! That sounded a lot less stupid in my head, trust me. Oh how I praise this site for it’s brilliant torrent collection. Oh the Pikmin soundtrack, how I adore thee. Next on my list of to-gets the the Tales of Symphonia soundtrack. Battle themes, away! did I mention they’ve got the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack? I knew THAT would get your attention. Suckers. (Note: It seems the Pikmin soundtrack is gone now… So get ’em while you can! And I still have the torrent if you want it.)

Finally, I have a very short review to make of Ape Escape, which I played for at least 6 hours straight yesterday. The game is fun, there’s no denying that. The premise is real stupid, and the voice acting could have been much better (And worse too. See RAD, MegaMan X4), but those weren’t nearly enough to keep the game down. Swimming is hard and stupid, but once you get the flying-majig and the RC car, you’re having boatloads of fun. The game is a litte too rip-off of both Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but I can forgive them, because Monkey Boxing is way too nonsensical not to love. The graphics blow, but that’s what you get with original Playstation games. It’s a huge game, with many, many monkeys to capture. I enjoyed my time with it, and did I care enough, would find a way to finish it 100%. But I really don’t mind. For the first time in my life, I can just let it go uncompleted.

Wow did I have a lot to say today. And frighteningly enough, I know I forgot a lot of stuff. Oh, and I’m going to start moving the old work blog over. The October edition should appear sometime soon. Probably within the week. Whenever I remember to bring a diskette to work.

Band of the Month – October 2004

Computer’s still broken. I cleaned out a clump of spyware, but the scanner’s getting stuck on something and freezes up when it gets so far, so there’s probably something bigger afoot. In any case, we’re halfway through the month, and I haven’t done the Band of the Month yet. I did change the link and picture on the sidebar though, so I clearly haven’t totally forgotten about it. So yeah, I think now’s the time.

This month’s band is good old Saliva. I’m sure most of you have heard of them. As far as I can remember, they’ve only had two big hits, with only one being overplayed on the radio, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re still a band that most people probably know of. Boy, my banter is even more annoying and senseless today, isn’t it? Well, it sounds like it as I read it back, but I’m gonna leave it that way. I’m not going to go through the trouble of trying to salvage this train wreck of a paragraph. I just don’t really have it in me. In any case, Saliva’s put out four CDs so far, and I believe that it’s the time where I briefly summarize them for youse.

First up was Every Six Seconds. An excellent CD, which I never got around to actually buying. I dunno why. I loved it, but I guess I just never saw it anywhere. In any case, the hit off this one is clearly “Click Click Boom”, which probably went unnoticed for a while, until it was used in “The Fast and The Furious”. Or at least that’s what I hear. Not sure if it got much radio time, but I personally haven’t ever heard it there. Just in movies. But that’s not the only good song on the disc. You’ve gotta take “After Me” and “Your Disease” into account too. Now that I think of it, the latter may have been a radio song. I’m not sure. I only listen to the 80’s rock radio stations. That aside, all the other songs on the CD are good too, and worth your bandwidth if you wanna give ’em a shot.

Then comes Back Into Your System. This one held their real claim to fame; “Always”. Holy hell did that song get a lot of radio time. And it’s nowhere near the best song on the CD. Not by a long shot. While this CD is a lot slower than the first, it’s probably my favorite. “Superstar II”, which is somehow a sequel to a song, is a great song to start with. Along with great tracks like “Rise Up” and the somber “Rest in Pieces”, it makes for some great listening, particularly for those who like a rollercoaster style album, with both hard rock and slower songs intertwining the whole way through.

The latest CD is called Survival of the Sickest. It’s, well, very different than the last. This CD is all about rock n’ roll. The first track, “Rock N’ Roll Revolution” sets that up pretty well, and the rest of the album follows up with it pretty well. It’s not as slow as Back Into Your System or as fast as Every Six Seconds, but it does find a perfect little niche right in the middle, and always manages to sound good. At first, I was a little on edge about some of the songs, but after listening through it, I’ve warmed up quite nicely to the different sound of the disc. Particularly “Bait & Switch” and the hidden track “Sex, Drugs and Rock N’ Roll”. It sure takes a turn from the last two albums, but in a good way.

And after a little research, I should mention that Every Six Seconds was only the first major release. Before that, they had one independent, self-titled CD. I’d never heard of this CD before now, to be honest, and I only know three songs from it, being “Beg”, “Greater Than/Less Than” and “800”. The first two because they’re also on Every Six Seconds and the third because I’d downloaded it before. In any case, fans of the band seem to like it pretty well, so I guess I’ll just have to refer you to those opinions for now.

Another notable fact is that they’ve done a few extracurricular projects too. Like the uber-popular collaboration with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback: “Hero”. If you’ve ever played… Well, I’m not sure of the year, but I think it’s “Tiger Woods 2002” or something like that, but the soundtrack is like half Saliva, and a few decent remixes too. Finally, they also recorded a song for the Daredevil soundtrack called “Bleed For Me”, which I love. On a different note, the Daredevil soundtrack seems to be quite a find itself. A little too much Evanescence for me (any is too much for me), but the rest seems pretty good. But I should get back to the topic at hand.

Or not. I’m pretty much done. I guess this band of the month feature just started off as album summaries, and has been like that up until now. There’s not a lot else I know to say about music except for pointing out songs I like. But yes, that’s going to be the end for now. I’ll do my best to get future editions done during the first week or so of the month, rather than halfway through. For now though, it’s back to trying to fix my computer. Maybe this is a sign that I should go back to using Opera instead of Internet Explorer. Well it’s worth a shot, right?

“Boo!” and such

As you can see, I’ve slightly altered the site to look more in the spirit of the Halloween. I don’t really have any Halloween-type articles or reviews in line, but I’ll see what I can dig up. I’ve got almost a whole month, so it should be enough time to get at least one spooky bit of writing out there. I do have a review for a zombie movie in mind, and that’ll be done on Thursday. Why Thursday? Because I like writing on Thursdays. While you’re waiting for me to pull something out of my ass, make sure to visit I-Mockery and X-Entertainment for all your ghoulish needs.

As for work, it gets a little better every day. I’m becoming more accustomed to actually serving people and understanding those accents that just aren’t made to be understood. I’m also finding myself to be happy while I work (which I never expected), particularly in the last couple hours when the people I’ve made friends with start working. And on a similar note, being the naive and hopeless kind of guy I am, I’m very confused about some recent events. Can anybody tell me if I’m charming at all? Do I have what it takes to make someone particularly enjoy my company? Would it be an accurate statement if someone were to to call me handsome (I’m still pretty sure it was jokingly though)? I once thought I was totally undesirable, but now I’m very, very confused… But you don’t want to hear about this crap. It’s sounding too much like a real blog.

Now, let’s see. What kind of entertaining spiels can I come up with on the spot? Oh yes. Much like I would, I bought a couple of the MegaMan NT Warrior action figures. (You must realize that it’s the collector’s spirit. I don’t actually play with these toys.) They’re of solid construction, and have some neat features. The only problem is that there is one little point of articulation missing in the arm that just skews the glory of being the ultimate toys that they would have if the elbow were there. On the upside, they look awesome posed on my dresser along with my other MegaMan toys. Oh yes, and they all came with battlechips, which makes the little PET game so much easier. If you’re into collecting toys, or you’re a fan of the blue bomber, I totally suggest you pick up a couple of these guys. Sure, they don’t look quite as cool as some of the Spider-Man figures out there, but you just cannot resist the awesomeness that is ProtoMan.

Lastly for today is something very important to me. I don’t remember if I’ve ever linked you to them before, but you should totally go to OC Remix and download The Atomizer and Haunted Hell. Easily two of my favorite remixes ever, and they blend in perfectly with the season. So yes, that’s going to be it for today. I really need some new concluding phrases. These ones I’m using are getting real stale.

Good riddance to bad work

I’ve been thinking it over, and I like my job, but I detest working. Full time, anyhow. It’s just way too much for the guy who’d never worked a day in his life to take in all at once. But I’m not going to give up because it’s a little rough, that wouldn’t be like me. Not anymore. I guess it’s time I started facing reality and stopped running from everything that showed even a slight sign of hard times.

But enough of my whining and revelation crap. I’m gonna start sounding deeper than I actually am. Ugh. So the band of the month isn’t decided yet, and I haven’t made the September archive either, as I’ve been working all morning and napping until like 20 minutes ago. Naps are great. They make me feel happy. You should totally try them out. All the cool kids are doing it.

I’ll have the BotM up either Sunday evening or some other time around then. as for the archive, that’s easy, so I’ll do it up now… or not. But first, there are important things to take care of. Things like links.

SuprNova.org – It’s not the site you need to see, but some things the site provides. Do a search “Mario Big Band” and download the result. It’s a sweet live performance of a bunch of Mario and Zelda tunes. Just the Wind Waker theme alone is worth downloading the entire package.

Halloween X-E – Matt’s favorite time of the year has come around again, and that means another Halloween countdown along with it. That’s one article – albeit a short one – a day. No wonder I idolize the guy.

GameFAQs – Character Battle #3 is nearing it’s end, and it’s looking to end up much like it did last year – with shitty results. Don’t let that weener Cloud win again. Help fight the good fight by voting for anyone else and telling your friends to do so as well.

Shopping for Danger – The third installment in the best G.I. Joe parody ever – Cheat Commandos! How could you possibly resist? Rock, rock on!