Album review: Weebl’s Stuff’s “Yesterday’s Lemon”

Anybody who knows anything about the Internet knows about Weebl, or at the very least about Badger Badger Badger. Turns out that Weebl, otherwise known as Jonti Picking, has his own website, where you can find all sorts of cool animations. His signature style is to make a cartoon with his own music that makes no sense and loops indefinitely. Lo and behold, he has released some of his tunes on his new album, “Yesterday’s Lemon.” I picked up the album on iTunes, and after listening to it on repeat for the umpteenth time, I am ready to review it.

Track list:
1-Amazing Horse
2-Electro Gypsy
3-Narwhals
4-Owls
5-8bit Shrooms
6-Blimp
7-Electro Gypsy (Angle Grinder 8 Dnb Remix)
8-Baby Baboon
9-Pelican

The first three tracks on this album are a trifecta of addictive electronic beats. “Amazing Horse” soars with tight synth melodies with a nice panned drum kit to back it up. “Electro Gypsy” sings a ballad about future music while bringing credibility to the title. And then there’s “Narwhals”, a happy go lucky tune about nature’s oddest sea mammal. These three tunes will be stuck in your head for the next two weeks after you hear them. You might even sing along. It’s an incredibly strong opening to an album.

Ironically this album has no songs about lemons. Five of the nine tracks are dedicated to animals. This album should have been titled “Weebl’s Menagerie.” “Yesterday’s Lemon” relies heavily on comedic value, since most of the songs were designed for looping Internet cartoons. It’s really obvious where the loops were meant to end, because it’s where the breakdown of the song is. Some of the songs have a children’s music feel to them similar to They Might Be Giants. However, when you produce an album with the line “Look at my horse, my horse is amazing… With a stroke of its mane/It turns into a plane/And then it turns back again/When you tug on its winkie”, you’ve exited the realm of children’s music. The humor of this album is superb in my opinion, but if you’ve ever watched a Weebl cartoon and thought to yourself, “Fuck this noise,” then you won’t like this album.

The only other song on this album I found notable was “8bit Shrooms”, because I’m a Mario fan (I grew up on the NES) and its the sole heavy metal song in “Yesterday’s Lemon.” Weebl’s vocals are clear and solid throughout, and some of the tracks are even supplemented by female vocals. Personally I’d like to find out what kind of home studio setup Jonti Picking is using. The production values of this album are slick, and remind us how pretty much anybody can release a record these days. The only shortcoming of this album is the remix of “Electro Gypsy”, which has a hard hitting edge to it that sticks out like a sore thumb (too much compression on the drums). I didn’t find the remix particularly creative, and would have preferred more original songs.

If you are willing to give these tracks a chance, they’ll worm your way into your regular listening schedule. The songs may be short in length, but their brevity is made up for by their replayability. If you don’t already love narwhals now, you soon will, and realize that they are in fact the most awesome sea mammals in the world.

****/*****

I Heart Music Mashups

I wanted to share this music mashup I just discovered: The Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden” mashed with Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, appropriately titled “Glass Octopus.” You can download the track here. Both songs are hummable tunes I could listen to on repeat for an endless amount of hours. This mash up is a match made in musical heaven. Ringo’s voice blends seamlessly with Blondie’s discotheque new wave beats. You can hear some of John and George’s guitar work blending in with Blondie’s synthetic grooves and Debbie Harry’s smooth as silk vocals. Even John’s compressor backup vocals make an appearance. “Octopus’s Garden” is a classic that’s been swimming in my head for a while now (get it? swimming? in an octopus’s garden? ha ha i kill myself). “Heart of Glass” however is one of those 80′s tunes I love to hate. It’s cheesy as hell, and Blondie really sold out their punk rock mentality when they produced it, but god DAMN, it’s a really danceable tune! It’s almost worth it just so this mash up could exist.

There’s something about the subtle art of the mash up that really hits me deep down. It’s a union of two unrelated musical pieces made to conform in pitch and tempo as a single expression of pop culture spirit. This particular mash up is like an underwater disco party where every sea creature is invited. There are other mash ups out there on the Internet that can give food for thought.

Rick Astley and Nirvana are two music acts that usually incite a groan of disapproval from yours truly, but for some reason if you put the two together, all is forgiven. I can’t explain it; something about the unholy matrimony of these two songs that captivate my attention and adoration.

I don’t know if this one counts, because its sort of a remix of a remix. I don’t even know what you would call that. It’s still a great mash up.

This mash-up is nuttier than a bag of squirrels. They even kept the 11/8 time signature of the Outkast song and made it work with “We Will Rock You.”

And this is where we get into the just plain weird. I don’t know who came up with the idea of mashing a David Bowie song with a children’s TV show theme song, but whoever did is a freakin’ musical genius, even if it was made on someone’s Mac.

And so in conclusion, the musical mash up: a modern day invention made possible by means of digital manipulation of audio, an auditory oddity that defines the creative side of my generation, nostalgically looking to the past to create songs to incite a moment of ecstatic musical joy in the present.

LURCHWORLD.COM IS GO!

You can see my website now! It’s chock full of A/V goodness!
Click here!

That’s all for now. I’ve got some shameless self promoting to do.

The Pinball Wizard is old and dying a slow painful death

I’d like to share this piece of photo/audio journalism I found

Click to listen

“Pinball is just about dead.”  That’s the fate of the pinball industry.  I tell you people, it breaks my heart.  I used to play pinball machines all the time.  To me, pinball is a game as important as Monopoly, Major League Baseball, and Donkey Kong combined.  Pinball is the quintessential gaming experience:  no stupid plot or character development, no inventory to manage, no avatar or dumbass gamer tag.  It’s all about you, expressing the fine art of flipping a metal ball around a board filled with ramps, bumpers, colorful lights and quirky sound effects.  Pure fun revolving around the physics of a tiny ball against gravity, each push of the flippers sending it closer to jackpot heaven.

The next generation will know nothing of the joy I have just described.  The pinball industry is dying.  I don’t think anything can save it.  People hardly ever buy pinball machines; it’s up to small businesses to buy a machine and exhibit it to the public for profit.  I suppose there central issue lies there:  a couple quarters from a few people isn’t paying off the investment.  When I go to bars all I see are those convoluted touch screen games.  I wouldn’t play one of those machines even if you paid me.  It’s pathetic to think of myself playing a video game–in public–by touching a dirty screen other drunken pathetic people have played with–in order to gamble with video poker.  I’m not giving my money to a machine that’s rigged to screw me over!  A pinball machine is all about the SUPREME SKILLS you have, your personality personified within the pinball.  The precise timing and the well placed power push that finally gets your ball over the mega multi-ball bonanza ramp, unleashing a slew of pinballs in what becomes a freak juggling act.

The end of the age of the pinball is drawing to its close.  When companies stop manufacturing pinball machines, all the remaining machines will be finite in number.  They’ll be the last pinball machines on the planet.  With little supply, pinball machines will be in huge demand driving up the prices to ASTRONOMICAL AMOUNTS of cash.  This is terrible!  How could this happen!?

Woe is me, ladies and gentlemen, when the slow march of time takes away my beloved pinball machines.

Review: Team Fortress 2. Great game, or the greatest game?

I’m going to attempt to do this whole “blog” thing and voice one of my many, many opinions.  I fancy myself a critic of sorts, because who doesn’t like telling what people what they should or shouldn’t pay attention to?  It’s a racket I want in on, so here goes.

I’ve decided to start off easy before I start getting into what bugs me about today’s pop culture.  This particular review analyzes the awesomeness that is Team Fortress 2, created by Valve Software.  If you’ve already played this game, you don’t need to hear what I have to say.  Once you jump into this fragfest of a game you either love it or hate it.

I’m going to try to apply what I learned in high school:  in order to criticize something there are four basic steps that must be taken.  First, describe the material in question.  Second, analyze the material in question.  Third, interpret the material in question.  Then finally, judge the material in question.  This is the basic format I’m going to try to stick to when playing critic.

So what is Team Fortress 2?  It’s in the name.  First of all, there are two teams:  Red and Blu.  Red team has to defend its Red base, and Blu team has to defend its base, or obliterate the Red team’s “fortress”, which is usually control points, or a destination at the end of a pushcart rail.  All the game modes on TF2 are some variation on this concept.  The “2” in “Team Fortress 2” of course indicates this is a sequel.  It is indeed a sequel; to a game known as “Team Fortress Classic”, which originated as a Half-Life mod.  It’s simple:  red people versus blue people duke it out to the death, which happens quite often.  TF2 isn’t a “Game Over You’re Dead” kind of game.  You “respawn” within a given amount of time, and you jump right back in the game, and you’ll keep respawn until either you complete your mission or fail it.  TF2 won’t baby you in a stalemate.  In the case of a draw, everybody loses.

Team Fortress 2 is what is known as a first person class based action shooter.  You take on the strengths and abilities of nine different classes.  The offensive classes like the East side trash talking Scout, the World War Two American Soldier (which plays a lot like using the rocket launcher in Quake 3), or the mysterious and inaudible Pyro.  The defensive classes like the black Scottish cyclops known as the Demoman, the Russian large-framed Heavy, or the Texan good ol’ boy Engineer.  The supportive classes, like the German speaking attentive Medic, the Australian head-shooting Sniper, or the cigarette smoking backstabbing Spy.  Each class has their own unique abilities, and when they work together towards a common goal they are a lethal tour de force.  TF2 is a testament to the power of teamwork.

Each class has a unique variety of weapons.  A Scout gets a scattergun, a pistol, and a baseball bat.  A Soldier has a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a shovel to pummel his enemies.  The Pyro gets a flamethrower to set his enemies on fire, and as a bonus can use compression blast to put out his teammates if they’re burning, AND can reflect enemy projectiles, minus the bullets.  A Demoman is the only class that can use grenades; either traditional grenades or sticky grenades that can be detonated at will.  The Heavy wields a gigantic chain gun that can level enemies in a matter of seconds.  The Engineer—you guessed it—builds stuff, from overpowered sentry guns to health giving dispensers to teleports.  This game has teleportation technology!  The Medic is an essential class that heals teammates in the heat of battle.  The Sniper uses his zoom scope rifle to blow people’s heads off.  It’s a very satisfying class to play, if you play the class discretely.  The same goes for the Spy, who uses stealth technology to hide himself, impersonate the enemy, and backstab with his trusty knife for instant kills.  The Spy is also handy for destroying the Engineer’s buildings with an electronic sapper.

Team Fortress 2 is a game you play over the Internet with no charge.  Just buy the game, hook up your Internet connection and you’re ready to go.  You can play TF2 on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but to get the most out of it, PC is the way to go.  PC play includes regular free updates to the game, custom level downloads, and lots of other neat things people like to do to modify their gaming experience.  For example, you could frequent a server that records how many kills you have made, and earn a rank.  The more you play and the better you do, the more you rise up through the ranks.  The other advantage to using PC is the amount of simultaneous players you can have on one server.  On console the player limit is set at 24 people.  On PC, you can set the player limit to 32.  You haven’t played a decent online shooter until you’ve been in a 32-person war zone.

Team Fortress 2 has elements of strategy involving the dynamics between the different classes, but it is not like most multiplayer online games.  There is no endless grind, no meaningless quests to hunt for gold or artifacts.  No, in TF2 it’s all about staying alive and taking down as many enemy players as you can.  The gameplay of TF2 reminds me a lot of a game I used to play in my youth:  Smash TV.  In Smash TV you are alone, but you are also trying to destroy as many enemies as possible all while trying to collect cash and prizes.  The amount of enemies seems endless, just as it does in TF2 because of the respawn system.  Smash TV was about being stuck in a game show killing spree.  TF2 doesn’t explicitly imply it’s a TV show like some bad rip off of Running Man, but there is an unseen Announcer telling each team what the objective is, or how much time is left.  Sometimes it even comments on how well the team is doing.

Users of Team Fortress 2 are in a constant battle filled with frags and more frags (i.e., killing people who then return after respawn).  Watching an enemy explode from head to toe as a result of your well-timed grenade or rocket is a memorable experience.  There are no bots in TF2.  An individual user is controlling everyone playing the game.  There is no central leader to either Red or Blu.  Each team has to learn how to work together as a cohesive unit or else they will fail the mission.  With no leadership positions to be fulfilled, each user has a choice as to how they want to benefit the team.  For example, a team with no Medic is hardly a team at all, and in full matches it takes at least two to keep the team alive.  If there are no Medics on a team, a teammate has to volunteer for the role for increased chances of success.  There are countless team dynamics that users of TF2 will discover after repeated play.

I think the most compelling aspect of Team Fortress 2 is the individual personalities that come with each class.  Each class responds to what’s happening on the battlefield in their own unique way.  The cartoony Depression-Era visuals make the game stand out compared to other gritty, realistic first person shooters.  Each class can be easily identified by their voice, or by their silhouettes.  After being in development for a long nine years, the final product called “Team Fortress 2” was well worth the wait.

There are multiple user-made videos on the Internet taking the character concept into unique directions, all supported and even encouraged by the Valve development company.  Here’s a short list of some of my favorite videos:

I miss Billy Mays. :’(

This will give you a good idea of the individual classes… from the Spy’s point of view.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for the soldiers that died on the set of Saving Private Ryan.  But watching this video gives you a great sense of the kind of auditory design that creates the world of TF2.

Give this video a chance.  It may actually move you.

There’s no grand scheme behind Team Fortress 2, no final destination to “beat” the game.  It’s all about what the mission at hand is, and what role you are fulfilling for the team.  It’s a great time-wasting activity, but what multiplayer online game isn’t a waste of time to begin with?  There are items you can obtain in TF2, like new weapons, and if you’re lucky you can randomly obtain a hat with no special ability whatsoever, but it adds a new cosmetic touch to your character.  The non-linear nature of TF2 enables a carefree come-and-go-as-you-please attitude to the game.  If you get frustrated with the server you are playing on, you can be a few button clicks away to another server with completely different users playing a completely different game mode.  The menu layout of TF2 makes it easy to keep track of your friends or your favorite servers.  This is my kind of game:  no rhyme or reason, no boring questing, just balls to the wall first person action gaming.

If you’re thinking of getting Team Fortress 2, all I have to say is: it is definitely worth $20.  Make sure you have a machine that can run it if you intend to buy for PC.  If all your specs make the cut, it is an experience you’ll return to again and again whenever you want mindless violence and gore mixed with strategic teamwork.

*****/*****

My favorite painting by a French guy

I dare you to stare at this image and not laugh.

New Icon!

I changed to icon to be my logo (the eyeball with planetary rings).  I feel like a real blogger already!