Review of Madness album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate

My review of The Liberty of Norton Folgate got posted at Punknews.org.

I also had my review of Misery Signals' gig at Corporation published on the same site last year.

Beach Boys' and Ramones' influence on SpongeBob

I remember going to see The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie a few years ago when it came out at the cinema, and it struck me how many great songs there were in the movie. A song called "The Best Day Ever" by SpongeBob & The Hi-Seas (sung by SpongeBob's voice actor Tom Kenny) is one of them, and listening back to it recently I realised how much it sounded like the whole of Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. So doing a bit of research I found out that the song was co-written and produced by Andy Paley, someone who has indeed worked with Brian Wilson in the past, and you can definitely see Wilson's influence in this song.



After being released on the movie soundtrack, the track also became part of another SpongeBob release, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Best Day Ever, and Brian Wilson himself was actually involved in this album, recording all the backing vocals on a track called "Doin’ the Krabby Patty". Paley phoned him up to take part and he apparently agreed because he has two daughters who are big SpongeBob fans, so Tom Kenny went to pick him up in his car.

Tommy Ramone shows up on the album as well, playing drums on a Ramonescore track called "Ridin' The Hook". Amazing.

Review of Hysterics by Rolo Tomassi

Here's an unpublished review for Rolo Tomassi's Hysterics album released in September 2008. I wrote this about a year ago but it never got used.

"I've seen Rolo Tomassi twice in their, and my hometown of Sheffield, UK, both times supporting HORSE the band on one of their wild gallops across the world. Maybe the fact that both bands have synth players landed Rolo Tomassi the support slot in the first place, but after witnessing them the first time around HORSE will have made sure to book Rolo Tomassi again - this band have an amazing live show. When you first see cute female vocalist Eva Spence tiptoe onto the stage you're not at all ready for the explosive screams and sounds that soon burst forth. At first you'll be shocked, then you'll be drawn in, as Rolo Tomassi tear through a set of dynamically diverse and unpredictable pieces, some long, some short, but entertaining throughout.

I once heard an interviewer describe this band as "Too metal for the indie kids, but too indie for the metal kids", and that's as good an indicator as any of where this band's sound lies. Part abrasive screaming, part complex and experimental, part Nintendo-styled synth, Rolo Tomassi have their own way of playing music. Thus the band have created quite a stir, at least in the UK scene, not at all hindered by the novelty of having a female vocalist who looks like someone out of a shampoo advert.

So their debut album, Hysterics begins with "Oh, Hello Ghost", a great first track, opening the album with an ominous electronic intro, then catching you off-guard, lunging early into a fierce and precise riff section, the band suddenly jolting into life. Things segue into tracks two and three, the band really starting to hit their stride as they lead into "Abraxas", the closest thing you'll find to a single on the album.

Next we hit the middle section of Hysterics, where Rolo Tomassi continue to mash up moods and styles you wouldn't necessarily put together, showing that that first few tracks weren't just some horrible production job gone wrong. By this point you'll have learned not to try and anticipate what's coming next, just accept and enjoy.

Aside from some of the synth sections and accompanying effects, Hysterics is a fairly simple sounding recording for the most part, the band themselves creating a great dynamic between quiet and loud throughout the album. Also, each member of Rolo Tomassi has their own distinct voice here, everyone showing some musicianship without sacrificing coherence.

However, while at points the album soars with big, repeating slabs of guitar and spiralling synth lines such as those in "Abraxas" and "Scabs", at other times things become slightly slow and unmemorable. Yes, while these sections are probably needed to contrast with and emphasise the more aggressive parts of this album, it's sometimes easy to lose interest, so Hysterics definitely loses a bit of steam towards the end, with a whole track of rather mundane noise in "Everything Went Grey". But we finish up with "Fantasia", which clocks in at over 14 minutes and showcases everything the band are good at. In some ways it feels like the whole album is building up to this final showpiece, which ends with a giant trademark Rolo Tomassi progression and wraps things up nicely.

All in all, Rolo Tomassi have managed to produce a very good first album which belies their youth, although the album does fall slightly flat in some parts, where things slow down just a bit too much, or where the jazzy experimentation starts to get a bit boring. I feel the band are best when spitting out sharp bursts of noise or throwing up massive, swirling riffs which you never really want to end. But it's hard to sustain such energy over the course of a entire album. Or maybe the interviewer's quote which I mentioned earlier is true, and the band are stretching themselves too far across a massive gap in the musical spectrum. But then again, that's what makes this band interesting, and will probably propel them to greater success and recognition in the future. Hysterics is highly original and does shine very brightly at times and is worth checking out if you like music that messes with your head a little bit."

The Virtual Revolution: Homo Interneticus?

I just watched a fascinating program on BBC iplayer called The Virtual Revolution: Homo Interneticus?. The program discussed how Facebook, the internet and hyperlinks are altering the way the human brain works, feeding humankind's natural short attention span, and fulfilling our desire to be constantly connected with each other. There are interviews with Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, and other important internet people, and also a professor who came up with the recognised theory that humans can have no more than 150 people in their circle of friends. There's insight from Korea as well, where it is suggested that the internet is making Korean kids the smartest in the world, but also creating internet addictions for others. Thoroughly interesting, and echoes many of my thoughts and theories on the internet and human interactivity. Check it out.

Rage Against the Machine at Leeds Festival

So yesterday I went to the 2nd day of Leeds Festival 2008. I'd been looking forward to this ever since I bought my ticket 3 months ago, mainly because because I would be seeing Rage Against the Machine!

We started off the day by catching a coach from Sheffield to Leeds at around 10am, passing the Tinsley cooling towers which would be knocked down at 3am the next morning. We arrived at the bus station in Leeds about an hour later and then caught a shuttle bus to the festival site, where we showed our tickets and got our wristbands before heading towards the main festival area. We had to get rid of all our drinks before we went in though, which sucked because water was £2.20 a bottle(!) and I got abnormally thirsty later on.

As we made our way over to the main stage I was surprised by the sheer scale of this event. There were so many people everywhere, but we managed to locate some of our other friends who were there all weekend while Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly was playing. Not my kinda thing really, but he was OK actually. Next up was Taking Back Sunday who I wanted to see, so we moved nearer to the stage. They were good, playing some of my favourite songs of theirs. After that was Dizzee Rascal, and the main stage suddenly got really busy. We didn't want to watch him though, so we moved back toward the food stands and made our plans for achieving the best possible position to watch Rage. After much debating we decided to go down to the front of the main stage fairly early on, but not before we'd had a bit of a wander. As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to see Goldfinger and Tiger Army who were both playing on the punk stage, but we couldn't actually figure out where that was. So after grabbing some (very expensive) vegan fast food we headed back over towards the main stage just as Serj Tankian was finishing up. His music is even more ethnically-inspired than System of a Down, and it sounded kinda freaky to my ears, but cool nonetheless.

As Serj finished we made use of the temporary movement of the crowd, and followed a slipstream to the front of the stage. I was pretty pleased with how easy that had been, but now we had to stand through 4 bands we didn't necessarily want to see without needing to use the toilet or eat/drink.

But Biffy Clyro were good actually, even though I only knew one song. Next was The Enemy who were OK, but after that it was The Fratellis who weren't very good at all and I only knew one of their songs too - that one that goes "da, da da da, da da da, da da da da da da da". Apparently that was the last time they'll ever play that one live as well - they probably got tired of people only wanting to see them for that one song. But they didn't look very interested throughout their set, and neither did the crowd. In fact, I was surprised by the lack of crowd interaction from all the bands we saw, even Rage Against the Machine. It always makes things a bit more interesting and involving when bands say something in between songs.

Next up were Queens of the Stone Age, and up until this point it seemed like people had been moving in and out of the crowd just to see one band, but by now it was getting dark and the crowd was pretty much packed in, to the point where you couldn't really enter or leave.

There had been pits and crowd surfing up until now, but nothing too bad. But when QotSA came on they started with No One Knows and we all went crazy. But it's so weird when there are thousands of people in one area all trying to move or dance. The crowd swayed in waves, and you had no choice but to sway along, although at times it felt like you were about to fall over and get crushed by everyone. I'd been at shows in clubs where this had happened, but nothing quite on the scale of this before. Fortunately just about everyone managed to stay on their feet, although some people began to push their way out as it just got a bit too much.

To be honest, the rest of the QotSA's set bored me. I know they're meant to be stoner rock or whatever, but I didn't realise how monotonous they could be. And being crushed to the point of not being able to breath properly, as well as having endured the heat, being really thirsty and feeling kinda tired from standing up for hours on end sent me into a zoned-out state where I stopped paying attention. I think I might have concentrated and enjoyed it more if I'd been in a club and had some space and a drink in my hand.

Eventually QotSA finished and Rage were the next band up - we'd made it! As we waited for them to come on we moved back from the front a bit so that we'd have a more stable place to stand, and this proved to be a good idea.

Rage were scheduled to come on at 9:30, but they were about 20 minutes late coming out in the end. Everyone forgot that though as Tom Morello started with the opening riff to Testify, and when the drums kicked in everyone just went wild. After that was Bulls On Parade, and everyone was still going crazy. I'd personally been building up to this show for a while, and all the previous bands that day had been building up to this too - it was a really great feeling being part of this show.

After People Of The Sun things calmed down a bit, but then something weird happened. Halfway through Bombtrack the drums stopped, then someone came on stage and told the rest of the band to stop. Apparently things were looking kinda dangerous down at the front and Zach asked everyone to move back so that people weren't gonna get crushed. This was good to see and a lot of people applauded. The band then finished off Bombtrack though and played through the rest of their set - all classics. Again, it would have been nice to have a bit more crowd interaction, and every song was played at the same or slower speed than the recorded versions, which is odd for a live show, but nothing could spoil seeing this band live. It's just something I thought would never happen, but it did, and it was awesome. And that's all there is to it. They finished with Killing In The Name, applauded the crowd, linked arms and left the stage. Amazing.

The fun wasn't over yet though. Everybody started to leave the main stage, and I took out my phone to text people to find out where we were meeting (we'd lost each other in the crowd). However, halfway through writing the text message my phone ran out of battery! Now I had no way of getting in touch with everyone (although I probably should have used my head and looked for the massive flag we'd been waving all day). Anyway, I made my way back toward the shuttle buses hoping to catch the guys in that area, but after not finding them I decided to take the bus on my own rather than risk being stuck at the site overnight. After that I managed to get the last coach home to from the bus station and then get a taxi, arriving home at 2:45am.

It turns out the guys were all still waiting for me in front of the stage wondering what had happened to me. They managed to catch the last shuttle bus back, but there were no coaches from Leeds to Sheffield until about 5am. I felt pretty bad for them when I found out today, but it's good to know they were concerned over where I was!

So in the end I didn't get to see all the bands I wanted to, but seeing Rage Against the Machine was mind-blowing and something I'll always remember.

Here's the full setlist and an article about the Rage show from the NME website, and I've uploaded some photos I managed to take to Facebook.

My reaction to Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

I bought the DVD ages ago, but the other night I got round to watching Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. This one is different to the live-action Street Fighter film released in the same year (1994), which I haven't seen, but I'm informed the animated film is much better. I was actually hoping for the film to be viewable in Japanese for a bit of language practice, but there was no option for that, so I watched it in English.

The movie centres around the characters of Ken and Ryu, but more so Ryu, who is wandering the globe in search of worthy opponents to spar with. However, Ryu is being trailed by the Shadowlaw, a crime organisation run by Bison, who wants to capture Ryu and turn him into a Shadowlaw henchman. The storyline's pretty predictable overall, but all the other main characters from the games make an appearance, leading to some interesting fight scenes. Some characters play larger roles than others though - I was disappointed to see that my childhood character of choice, Dhalsim was hardly involved in the film at all.

The animation quality varied throughout, but the film looked fairly good for the most part. And the soundtrack was interesting, composed mainly of hard rock/grunge type stuff, some of the tracks being supplied by bands such as Korn and Alice in Chains - I guess that's what was in fashion at the time. I was also surprised to hear the DVD menu audio was all songs by The Mad Capsule Markets.

I get the impression this was a pretty big film when it was originally released, probably more so in Japan than in the West. In fact, some of the new characters and storylines from the film eventually made their way into the Street Fighter games, and I'd recommend this film for anyone who's a fan of the games. It's nothing amazing, and a lot like most other anime action films, but it's still enjoyable to see all the characters from the games duking it out and stuff.

I really wanna play some Street Fighter II now actually - hado-ken!

My reactions to The Dark Knight

So I'm going to have to agree with everyone else and say that the The Dark Knight is AMAZING. I went to see it on Friday night, and although I don't go to the cinema all that often, it has to be one of the best new films I've seen in years.

I'd been hearing very good things about it from all my friends, but I still entered the cinema with a degree of scepticism. By the end of the film though, I had no doubt in my mind that The Dark Knight is a top quality film, setting itself apart from all the other action movie and blockbuster trash that's being made these days. The other day I was trying to come up with a recent 'great' movie and couldn't really think of one, but after seeing The Dark Knight, I believe it is such a film, one that will go down as an important film of our time.

There are a few different sub-plots and themes involved, but the main storyline focuses on the battle between the Joker and Batman, the Joker committing numerous murders in an attempt to force Batman to step down as Gotham City's crime fighting vigilante. And the Joker was the best part of the film for me - a thoroughly interesting character, with methods and schemes that are always really intriguing and unpredictable, almost turning being a criminal into an art form. His plans eventually come to involve the whole population of Gotham too, creating massive, involving moral dilemmas, and really getting you thinking.

Heath Ledger's Joker is a different character to the one played by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 Batman. He's less off-the-wall crazy, and more powerfully evil, but surprisingly, you find yourself empathising with him at times. And I found it interesting that during the film the Joker basically admits he has no real reason for doing what he's doing, other than to cause general anarchy and mayhem, which I appreciated, as it made the film seem more 'real'. Instead of just presenting him as a comic book super-villain, the Joker did actually feel grounded in reality, as did the rest of the film; whereas some other comic book movies struggle to fully integrate their characters into the real world, I found The Dark Knight did this very well.

There are a couple of awesome scenes from the film which stick out in my mind, but the most memorable is one where the Joker is skipping away from a hospital which is about to blow up in a nurse's uniform. It's darkly funny and striking, and I bet it'll become one of those iconic film scenes in years to come.

And I think I'll end there. I won't talk about the rest of the story, as I'd probably give too much away for anyone who hasn't seen this yet, and you DO need to see this. I've heard there's going to be another sequel too, which I'm already looking forward to.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I recently watched a really great documentary called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I heard about the film through a podcast I listen to, and the hosts agreed that it was one of the best films made last year so I decided to check it out.

Set within the world of competitive gaming, the documentary follows two players of Donkey Kong, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Mitchell is recognised as one of the best competitive gamers of all time, and when the film begins he holds the world record at Donkey Kong. Wiebe is a relative newcomer to the scene, but quickly becomes well-known through his attempts to break Mitchell's record.

I won't spoil the movie, but it's a thoroughly interesting watch as you get to see inside the politics of competitive gaming and all the personalities involved. And all this competition is set against the day-to-day lives of Wiebe and Mitchell, school teacher and restaurant chain owner respectively. It's such a great story that it's often hard to believe it's real life, and I thoroughly recommend the film if you're into video games at all.

Also, the DVD contains a few chiptunes from some artists that I play on my podcast, as well as a fun little animation by Gabe Swarr, who I know is a listener of the podcast too.

The Best of Isaac Asimov

I've recently finished reading The Best of Isaac Asimov, which is a book containing a good cross-section of Asimov's work up until the time when it was published in 1973. I'd never read any of his stuff before, so I thought this would be a good place to start. I picked the book up in quite good condition from Amazon Marketplace for a penny, and it has a cool front cover, although I'm not sure which story the picture refers to, if any.

There are twelve short stories, and each one is enjoyable in its own way. I like Nightfall for its dramatic ending, The Martian Way for its adventure and creativity, The Deep for its view of Earth through the eyes of aliens, The Dead Past for its grippingly dark plot and The Last Question for its thought provoking look into the far-future.

The fact that these are short stories means that without investing too much time in each one you can still see an interesting progression, and Asimov's background as a professor of biochemistry helps add a certain realism to everything. In fact, he actually made some fairly accurate predictions in these works of fiction, describing, for example, the feeling of euphoria experienced when walking in space before anyone had actually done so. Really good stuff.

The Transformers: The Movie - my review

Last night I watched The Transformers: The Movie, which is different to Transformers, which I talked about here. The Transformers: The Movie is the animated film released in 1986, and I picked it up a while ago from Tesco really cheaply, but only just got round to watching it. Well, I did try to watch it a few weeks ago, but the first couple of minutes turned me off. Let me explain.

This is probably one of the worst films I have ever seen.

I'll start with the visuals. The first thing you notice is the really low frame rate, which, when combined with the poor animation, makes it quite hard to tell what's actually happening on screen. There are some points in the movie when things look good, but these are few and far between and don't last long - the majority of the film looks terrible.

Next, the storyline is generic and dull, and quite hard to follow. Much like the recent live action movie, it feels like you're simply watching a series of big fights, with no real idea of what's going on. A lot of things happen that don't really make sense, and there's just a general feeling of confusion. Like when the Autobots suddenly make friends with the natives of the planet Junk and everyone starts dancing - it took me a moment there to figure out exactly what was happening. After a while I just stopped taking this movie seriously.

The script here is very poor, basically 85 minutes of bad one-liners. And the dialogue is so hard to make out that I couldn't understand what was being said much of the time. The voices were really quiet and heavily synthesised, which makes them sound kinda cool, but hard to decipher.

Also, I couldn't really tell the difference between the characters visually, or remember their names well. (As a side-note, the villain in this movie, Unicron, bears a huge resemblance to Galactus from the Silver Surfer)

However, I did actually really enjoy the music in this movie. Throughout much of the film there's a cool, synthy, hard rock soundtrack pumping in the background (just about every cartoon from this era seemed to have this musical style - it's so awesome). Sometimes instrumental, and sometimes with lyrics, the music here is great. There's even a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic! In fact, I might get the soundtrack because I enjoyed it so much.

I missed out on Transformers altogether as a kid, which may have affected my experience, but overall this movie is extremely bad. Yes, it was aimed primarily at kids, but can even they enjoy something as poor as this?

I do have to say though that I am now quite intrigued by the Transformers toy line. As a toy they are a really, really great concept, and I might actually look into getting my hands on some. I remember Beast Wars from when I was younger, but they weren't as cool, and were really complicated to transform, so didn't really work.

So, in conclusion, The Transformers: The Movie is not that great of an actual film at all, but it's kinda interesting, so you might wanna check it out anyway. And do excuse me as I go and search for some Dinobots on eBay...

This Is England

I went to see the film This Is England last Friday. I'd been wanting to see it ever since it came out, and as they were showing it at my university union for only £1.80 I decided to go along. It was one of the best films I've seen in a while; probably the best British film I've ever seen.

The film was set in the 80s, and as well as using 80s fashion, housing, cars etc. there was a slight grain to the film, which made it feel authenticly 20 years old. The acting was realistic too - something I really enjoy in film. I love films like this, or TV programs like The Office, where it just feels like things aren't scripted - it really helps immerse you. I also enjoyed the elements of ska music and the exploration of the skinhead movement. I find it interesting how this culture is split so markedly over issues like nationalism and immigration. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

While checking out my web stats I came across a site called Technorati. I'd heard about it before but never visited. It basically indexes blogs, allowing you to search through them and see responses and popularity for certain blogs. This blog is on there, and it's always nicely narcissistic/strange to find sites like this that hold information about you.

The other day I read about Radiohead and their new album. Radiohead are one of those bands that a lot of people seem to like, but that I've never really checked out properly, and the stuff I have heard isn't that interesting. They've set up a site though where you can download their new album In Rainbows before it's released as a CD, and the twist is that you can set the price of the download, even download it for free. It's quite a novel concept, and I doubt that Radiohead will end up making much money through this venture, but it's great to see such a massive band circumventing the music industry in this way (I didn't actually download the album, as you had to sign up for an account or something).

Bomb the Music Industry!

I first heard the band Bomb the Music Industry! on the Ska Is Dead compilation, and I was impressed with their fast-ska/punk-with-synth sound. I recently heard an interview with them as part of a podcast that I really like - Sound Scene Revolution - and during the interview they talked about the fact that they release all their music for free, hence the name. The have their own label, Quote Unquote Records, which releases full albums by BtMI! as well as other artists for free and runs through receiving PayPal donations.

Now I'm quite involved with netlabels and such, and my band releases all our stuff for free too, but it's good to see a band get this big doing so. OK, they're not massive, but quite a few people know who they are, and their music is cool. This kind of thing raises some serious questions about the future of music. I don't have a problem at all with people making money from the music that they make - I believe that if you're paid to make music, you're going to have more time and maybe motivation to make great music. But I do have a problem with the way the buying of music is organised currently, so my hope is that as more and more bands start releasing stuff for free we might start to see a breakdown and rearranging of the music industry.

I picked up my new 17" Z Custom Rock Crash cymbal from the shop yesterday. And I'm happy to say that it sounds as good as I hoped it would. Usually when I buy a new crash cymbal it takes quite a lot of playing to get used to the sound, but this one took me about 4 hits before I liked it. It isn't the most distinctive sounding cymbal, but it just sounds so rich and cutting. It does have quite a long sustain, but that's probably the only negative for me. I'm glad I stepped up an inch from what I'm used to; it's loud and powerful, and I can't wait to get back to playing it.

MxPx

If someone was to ask me who my favourite band was I'd probably say MxPx. I got into them a few years ago after hearing from a few sources that they were worth checking out. I took a risk and without listening to any of their music bought their newly released 10 year anniversary compilation Ten Years and Running. It was definitely worth it though, as I've probably listened to that CD more than any other in my collection.

Since then I've bought everything the band have put out, but like most MxPx fans I actually prefer their earlier stuff, and it was only recently that I decided to get their supposed best album, 1996's Life In General. I'd heard most of the tracks on LIG elsewhere or had them on Ten Years and Running, but I really should have bought this album earlier, 'cos it's amazing.

First off, the production is spot on. Everything sounds so simple and clean, which is how I tend to like my music, and it compliments the material extremely well. Second, the album art is great; cartoony and colourful, setting the tone for the lyrics and the whole "high school punk rock" feel of the album. And, most importantly, the songs are astoundingly excellent. I really like the vocal harmonies in Destroyed By You and the chorus chord progression in Your Problem, My Emergency is one of the best I've ever heard.

LIG epitomises why I like the band. The lyrics are emotional, balanced and humorous and not over-worked or crammed full of metaphors. Everything is so melodic - I love the arpeggio-style bass, and the drumming is insanely fast and energising. Like a lot of MxPx albums it treads the line between pop punk and straight up punk, most of the time siding with pop punk - that's another reason I like MxPx, they're nearly punk rock, but without all the pretentiousness.

Apart from the occasional slow section the album hurtles along at breakneck speed for 45 minutes and I can't really stress enough how great LIG is. So MxPx's recently released Secret Weapon had a lot to live up for me. I picked SW up, mostly out of obligation, but I actually can't stop listening to that either. The opener is the title track, and it's an really energetic, simple 2 minute blast of punk rock. The video is pretty good too, at least compared to the band's recent efforts - the videos for songs from their last album Panic were some of the worst I've ever seen.



The next two tracks on SW are really decent too, before things slow right down with Top Of The Charts. Apparently a B-side from Panic, this track is generic and whiney - I don't like it. Next up though is Punk Rock Celebrity which seems to borrow a verse from Secret Weapon before, launching into attack against an unnamed punk rock celebrity. Probably Fall Out Boy, as the end of the song turns into this elaborate crescendo with piano and horns, much in the style of FOB. If that's the case I think it's rather clever.

Things move on at a fairly fast pace. I really like Angels and then Drowning for it's sheer speed. Chop Shop is a really unique song too, written about a murder which happened in MxPx's home town. The song sounds a lot like a soundtrack from a crime movie or something.

The album stays interesting but loses a bit of steam towards the end, maybe a couple of tracks could have been cut to help the album flow a bit better, but you can't really complain about getting too much music on an album. The penultimate track Not Nothing is great, with a rather catchy chant of "goosfraba" towards the end and the last track Tightly Wound is good too.

Unlike an album like LIG, SW is very varied. The album isn't over-produced, but there is quite a lot going on. The album art is pretty cool if a little gimmicky - a play on the phrase Secret Weapon, with the band in a workshop, working on a "secret weapon".

I remember being really hooked on their last album Panic at first though, and I grew tired of it eventually. I have a feeling the same might happen with SW. I hope not. This album feels for the first time in a while like it suits MxPx; like they felt comfortable making this.

So if you're into pop punk I can recommend both Life In General and Secret Weapon, although if you're prioritising definitely grab LIG first.

Transformers

I just went to see Transformers this evening. I really liked the film, more than I expected to. It looked great, and I enjoyed learning about the whole Transformers storyline. I'm not sure whether the film stayed true to the TV series and comics - I don't know all that much about Transformers as I wasn't quite old enough to catch the first wave over 20 years ago.

The Transformers as characters are cool. I liked their 80s cartoon-style morals, and they transferred well to the big screen. I didn't follow the movie all the way through, especially the plot line reason for the giant battle towards the end. I did find Shia LeBoeuf entertaining though. I really like Even Stevens and Holes, both of which he starred in. I guess there'll be a sequel, judging by the current state of the film industry and a short clip during the end credits.

Transformers is yet another example of something rather geeky and/or childish hitting the mainstream. I don't quite know what to think about this development we're experiencing; seeing comic books become blockbuster movies and sci-fi all over mainstream TV. It's kinda cool, as it's now semi-OK to be a geek, but by the same logic it's not as radical. I think one of the reasons for the trend is that people who liked comic books, action toys, video games etc. 20 or so years ago as kids are now coming towards the age where they want to relive that, so they're the people making films or whatever, and going to watch them.

A few other new films I want to see this summer are Knocked Up, The Simpsons Movie and Superbad.

Ska compilations

There was a time a few years ago when ska music would be just about all I would listen to. I was in a ska band too, although we never got anywhere. Things have changed now, but I still listen to it fairly often. There's such a happy, fun feeling present in most third wave ska, and the melding of horns and punk or rock just makes for a weird, highly enjoyable combination. I'd still really like to join another ska band at some point.

A few months ago I remember searching the internet for a ska compilation, and, to my surprise, there weren't that many about. In the end I found one on Ebay called This Aren't Two Tone: A Ska-Punk Compilation. It came from the US and has a massive 35 tracks, mainly from bands I hadn't heard of. Although the sound and song quality isn't all that consistent it's pretty fun, with some great tracks such as Don't Worry by The Hippos, or Rok by MU330.

More recently, I was pleased to hear Asian Man Records announce a ska compilation - Ska Is Dead, named after the recurring ska tour (which I missed when it came to the UK). I received it in the post the other day and it's a great compilation with a healthy 23 tracks from the biggest (not just third wave) bands in ska at the moment. Also, as usual with Asian Man, the price is extremely low for such great music - I got it for £5 from Amazon. So far I really like Don't Stop Everything (Dancehall Version) by Go Jimmy Go and Raise Your Glass by The Planet Smashers.

Incidentally, it's now been just over a year since I started writing this blog. Seems like longer.

Reaction to recent Super Smash Bros. Brawl updates

The guys developing Super Smash Bros. Brawl have stayed true to their word. They've been posting constant updates regarding details within the upcoming game over at the SSBB website (mentioned in this post). Doing this raises awareness and anticipation of the game, but for a fan like me it's really interesting to see all these new levels, items and music from the game revealed.

The Final Smash item looks like it will add a whole new important gameplay concept to the game. Before, battles have mainly been about pummelling your opponent over and over until their damage is high enough to kick them off the screen. This new idea could change the whole way the game is played, hopefully in a positive way.

I'm pleased to see Delfino Plaza chosen as a level, and the fact that you fly down towards the town square whilst fighting makes it even cooler. We owned Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube a few years back. Though I never completed it I really enjoyed the game, one of the main reasons being the whole tropical setting and feel, so this stage should be fun.

There's also a nice little excerpt from a piece entitled Yoshi's Story: Ending. It's been produced by Kazumi Totaka, the composer who wrote the actual music for Yoshi's Story on the Nintendo 64. Although that game didn't go down as a Nintendo classic, it was a fun experience, at least when I was a kid. I was into Yoshi back then and I remember the game being really easy.

Up until the release of the game I might post reactions like this fairly often.

Toy Story 2

I watched Toy Story 2 on BBC One last night. Years ago I caught a few minutes of the film and logged in my brain to watch the whole thing at some point. I remember the first Toy Story being released in 1996 in the UK. Toy Story 2 was released in 2000, over 7 years ago - it really doesn't seem that long ago - and the film is miles better than the majority of animated films that I've seen more recently. A lot like old games consoles didn't need the powerful graphics to make great games, a lot of the good animated films were made earlier on, almost exclusively by Pixar. I haven't seen the more recent Cars, but I've seen just about every other Pixar film, and I'm amazed at the high quality of pieces such as Finding Nemo. It's a shame Pixar have now been bought by the evil empire of Disney. Hopefully they'll still carry on making great films. Toy Story 3 is actually down for a release in 2010. I hope they don't sequelise and ruin Toy Story here.

The Toy Story 2 storyline is quite clever, involving a toy collector who steals Woody to sell him as part of a collection to a museum. The difference between owning toys for fun or for a collection is interesting to watch (I guess the latter is for adults who still wish they could do the former). There are nice humorous references to this kind of behaviour and "toy culture" - one of the toys is left in his original packaging, and as a result is constantly bitter.

I believe one of the reasons for the success of the Toy Story franchise is that the whole concept is just so much fun, and really captures the imagination. Toys, an obviously childish theme, are taken and given personalities and character. This attracts kids who want to see their toys come to life, and adults who wished their toys would have come to life. It's great to imagine that all the toys in the world have their own secret world when they're not being played with. This is one of the most interesting features - seeing real toys such as Mr. Potato Head or a cowboy figure come to life and interact with the real world. It's quite ironic how the characters of Toy Story went on to become high-selling toys outside of the films.

Toy Story 2 is filled with great humour and one liners (it's probably the most genuinely funny kids' film I've ever seen), there are Star Wars references and I love the animation style too - really vivid and smooth with a slight 50s tinge. There's just so much going on in this film, so many parallels and clever situations.

I personally enjoy anything with bright colours and memories of childhood and so I really enjoyed Toy Story 2. Definitely recommended viewing if you haven't seen it already.

Toy Story 2 official webpage

Borat and Demetri Martin

Last night I finally got the chance to see the Borat. When the film was originally released, unlike a lot of my friends, I had never heard of Sacha Baron Cohen's character. I was surprised to see the film receive good reviews and various friends had told me that the movie was unbelievably funny. I was slightly sceptical, but I can say the film is extremely entertaining and I don't think I have ever laughed so much whilst watching a film.

The concept goes that a news reporter from a backward town in Kazakhstan travels to America to learn about foreign culture. The film is produced as a documentary, but whilst watching I did wonder which, if any, parts were not staged. After some internet research I was quite surprised to find that the majority of the scenes were not staged. Although there are various conflicting reports, this site does a good job of separating the scenes into fact and fiction. Knowing that the scenes were filmed with real people, not actors, makes the film even more entertaining.

It's interesting to see all the problems surrounding the film. Many of the participants have filed lawsuits, stating they were tricked or lied to. The Kazakhstan government denounced the film, saying it is misrepresentative of their culture, and launched a campaign called "Heart of Eurasia" to counter the effects of the film. At least the nation has been brought to international attention of some form - we don't often get to hear about the Eurasian region. I know I'm behind the times in seeing this film, but I find the whole scenario interesting enough to mention.

Recently, I've also been watching a lot of comedian Demetri Martin. I first saw this guy when the BBC screened one of his stand-up shows a couple of years ago. Martin combined humour and clever word play with anagrams and palindromes to excellent effect. He uses one liners really well, and often plays an acoustic guitar whilst telling his jokes, which helps move things along nicely. Many claimed he would blow up in popularity, but that hasn't happened yet, although Martin has recently created some short animations to be used in an advertising campaign for Windows Vista. If you get the chance, definitely check this guy out. Very funny, very clever geeky comedy.

Further reading: Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Wikipedia article and Demetri Martin Wikipedia article