Category: IRL

Boom. Check this, kids. This month’s band is another one of those foreign ones. Also, they’re another one of those bands that nobody’s heard of, and I only came across because they were featured in a video game. And to top it all off, they play a style of music I almost never talk about, but absolutey love to listen to. Today, we pay tribute to the Asianest surf gutar band this side of anywhere: the Surf Coasters.

Yeah, they’re this Japanese surf band that absolutely rocks. Well, that’s maybe saying a bit much. You see, I’ve only really heard about a total of seven or so songs from them, but trust em on this one, they’re good. I originally heard of ’em when I found out they were headlingin the soundtrack to Musashi: Samurai Legend. Turns out they were just doing the main theme, but any publicity is good publicity, right? After I sampled the sweet tune known as “Samurai Struck”, I myself was quite struck and immediately went on a search for more. Sadly, music by the Surf Coasters is harder to come by on the internet than a website without ads. It’s out there somewhere, but you’re going to spend a lot of time and effort looking for it.

So here’s something new to learn about me: I love surf music. Not a big fan of the sport so much, but nothing can even compare to the wail of a surf guitar. And you all know what I’m talking about, whether you think you do or not. The Surf Coasters (just like any other surf band worth it’s salt) has covered “Misirlou”, and you know “Misirlou”. Think Pulp Fiction. If nothing else, it’s the easiest SC song to find, so go check that out. You’ll recognize it immediately. The only surf song more well known is Wipeout, but that’s like the definition of surf music. Anyhow, Surf Coasters rock.

The “Misirlou” is great, but at least some of their other stuff shines too, like “Shark Attack” and “Kuroshiro”, or even the mellowed-out “Adventures in Paradise”. I really haven’t heard many songs other than the ones I mentioned, and I’m not about to make a complete list, but it’s all been good. I’d say more, but I’m not sure what to say, and I’m pretty much satisfied with giving a more obscure band a turn in the spotlight. So yeah, go download some tunes by the Surf Coasters, if for no other reason than to help me in my search for more. I’d import, but it’s damned expensive.

Also, good news for me! Planet Megaman is finally back after being down for like the whole summer. (EDIT – Or not so much…) You probably don’t give much of a damn, but it was an important part of my “daily rounds”. And on a completely different note, I go back to school in three and a half hours. After 14 months of not-learning, my brain has gotten used to being used as little as possible, so we’ll see how this goes.

OK, This month is gonna be a bit off as far as Band of the Month goes. No big long review this time, just a short summary, because I have a lot of other stuff to go over and I’ll be gone until the 11th. So let’s get it on.

This month’s band is none other than German metal band Rammstein. One of my buddies turned me onto these guys some years ago, back in the day when “Du Hast” was still relatively unknown to the general public. Perhaps because I listened to them while playing Unreal Tournament endlessly (Funk Master R. Valentine loves the UT), I was hooked on them. To this day, I still love Rammstein, and I’ve wanted to use them as a BotM for what seems like forever. Just never remembered when it came time to commit to a band each month. Conevenient. For a while I was just listening to a whole bunch of new(er) bands, somewhat leaving behind some of my old favourites. Rammstein was one of them. It wasn’t too long ago that they released their newest album, Reise Reise, which brought me back to the day when I listened to Rammstein all the time. If this story is slightly confusing and irrelevant, I apologize, I’m just typing whatever pops into the old noggin, not bothering to think it out. Anyway, too much anecdote, not enough review.

The first album, Herzeleid, is good but isn’t exactly what I’d consider to be the best of Rammstein. Yes, it’s got some greats like “Asche Zu Asche” and “Heirate Mich” which I love, but a lot of it is just so – for lack of a better word – underdeveloped compared to the Rammstein I was first introduced to, that I can’t fully appreciate it. The second release, titled Sehnsucht, was the second that I owned, but probably my favourite. It’s got a lot of the songs that I was listening to when I first got into Rammstein, like “Sehnsucht”, “Engel” and the ever-popular “Du Hast”. Plus it features an awesome hidden track, “Stripped”, which is a bit slower than usual Rammstein fare, but I find to be one of their greatest songs.

While Sehnsucht is my personal favourite of the four Rammstein albums, Mutter comes in a very, very close second place. “Mein Herz Brennt”, “Links 2 3 4”, “Sonne”, “Ich Will”… Those are just the first four songs, and I might as well type in the whole track list if I were going to type out the best songs on the album. Lastly is Reise Reise. It’s about a half-and-half deal. Not that half is bad, per se, but just not quite up to par with what I’d expected. The singles “Mein Teil” and “Amerika”, coupled with greats like “Reise Reise” and “Amour” make the CD worth buying, but some others like “Dalai Lama” and “Los” seem more like filler than actual kickass metal. Oh well. They’re all excellent albums, and I own all four. I’ll probably buy the next one that comes out too. No, I’ll definitely buy the next one. Just like I buy every HIM CD that’s released. If you’ve never heard of Rammstein (they were popular for a while back there, I imagine you’ve heard “Du Hast” at the very least), I recommend looking into them, as always.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, news time. I wanted to get the article I mentioned last post (henceforth referred to as the “super-article”) done before I left, but no such luck. I suppose I have 5 or so hours before I have to get ready for work, but I should go to… (trails off). Yes, so the super-article will have to wait until later this month. I project between the 13th and 15th.

In the meantime, I should also mention that today will be my last day working at Tim Horton’s. Boom. Dropped the shocker bomb there. Exactly why I quit is unimportant and will not be discussed, but apparently my girls are going to miss me. I may go back in September (as they keep requesting of me), but I may also have a new job and not need to go back. Clouded by the dark side, the future is. God knows I’ll visit every once in a while to keep tabs on the place and to appease the ladies, but I’m not going to lie, I’m glad to have gotten out of there. Not that it was a bad job, but I’d certainly had enough. And at the very least, I’m getting this whole “I don’t want to do this anymore” thing out of my system while I’m still young and can afford to be indecisive about my employment. Call me stupid if you must, but it’s all good for me. I learned a lot while I was there, and I grew a lot too. Spending nine months almost exclusively in the company of females is not something I ever expected to go through, but it was a good experience (for the eyes, if nothing else). Strangely, I think I might actually miss some of them. Oh well, we both knew it wasn’t going to last forever, one way or the other. But enough of this crap. You know I’m up too late when I start to write about less superficial subjects.

Anyway, here are some things you might see upon my return:

• Thoughts on the new Span CD Vs. Time
• Review of Meteos (DS)
• Review of a Corn Pops box
• Comparative review of MegaMan Battle Network 4 and 5
• The Super-article (dun dun dun)
• Ryan’s Sweet Cottage Adventure (see the Quest for the Cube FAQ for details)

The list is pretty much to help me remember what I wanted to do (and an excuse to make a list), but feel free to get hyped about anything there, particularly the last item. Considering reader praise that resulted from the source material, I’d say it’ll be a pretty hot ticket. Anyway, I really need to end this post. It’s gonna be a long day for me. Oh yes, and happy Canada Day. We rock, eh.