First Article

Since my switch from full time music student to communication bum, it has been pretty crazy. I know that Wildcat Baseball is wildly popular among the Cat Fancy audience, so here’s my first article that came out in the CWU Observer yesterday:

Wildcat Baseball Prepare for Spring
Young team builds up in off season to compensate for loss of star players

As the Jose Vidros and Richie Sexsons of the world sit at home this off-season praying that they will find a job next summer, a new batch of talent will be conditioning this fall. Eager to see what is on the horizon in their young baseball careers, Central will spend the off season preparing for another run at the post season.

This Wild Cat team is definitely one of the youngest head coach Desi Storey has seen in recent years. With nine seniors graduating last year, it is going to take some serious recruiting and some critical performances from returning upper classmen to keep this program competitive.

Probably the most devastating loss to this team is the departure of short stop Jamie Nilsen, who graduated and is now playing in the Kansas City Royals organization. Nilsen, the only player in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history to have over a .400 career batting average, obliterated just about every school record at central.

“We’re not going to replace Jamie; he’s the best player in school history,” Storey said. “Our goal is to have a great core group come in. With the absence of Jamie not only do we have to find a quality shortstop, I think we need to get better in the places that we lost guys.”

Some of those players could be guys like corner infielder Frank Donangelo. Donangelo was in the top five in nearly every offensive statistical category in the 2008 season. He batted .349 with an outstanding OPS (On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) of .972. Donangelo’s season is surely going to be one to keep a close eye on.

When asked what his personal goals are for the season he said what most competitors would say. “Win a championship; I think that’s the goal of every player,” Donangelo said. “Especially now that I’m a senior, it’s kind of what we’re all pushed to do.”

As for the hole at short stop, junior Kevin Walkenhauer seems to be the logical choice. A two time MVP in high school at short stop, Walkenhauer played mostly second base in 2008 due to injuries at the position.

It is, of course, unfair to compare Walkenhauer to Nilsen, but from a team evaluation standpoint, the question must be asked.

“Average wise, Kevin should hit for a high percentage, and he’s got really good power,” Coach Storey said. “Whether or not he can match Jamie’s numbers I don’t know, but Kevin’s going to get his share of home runs too. He’s pretty strong.”

With only a handful of positions solidified on this team, a strong freshman recruiting class is going to be crucial to build not only a winning team in 2009, but for years to come.

Sophomore transfer from Whitworth, Mac Collette commented on the level of competition during the fall workouts so far.

“It’s definitely tough,” Collette said. “There’s a lot of good talent and quite a few good transfers.”

Unfortunately Collette will be sitting out this season with some hamstring issues and is rehabbing for a hopeful return for next year.

There are plenty of reasons to be excited for Wildcat baseball this spring. Most of the pitching staff is back and there is talent throughout the roster. There are still some key positions with holes and it will be interesting to see how the roster looks when it is finalized in January.

Dig Out Your Wallet

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul

With a boom, crash and a shock of lightning Oasis are back in full firing form with their latest groove heavy orgy of rock that is Dig Out Your Soul, so far my favorite album of the year. An epic blending of retro stylings with hard hitting rock anthems to create an exciting and memorable album for this veteran group of Brit rockers.

A mighty followup to the overlooked gem that is Don’t Believe the Truth, Oasis latest album truly grabs you from the get go and never let’s go. The first thing that really hit me about this album was the elaborate production of each song. Guitars and Bass are heavier than ever, the drums call back to the brute intensity of John Bonham, various electronics and retro keyboards create a swirling texture and there are plenty of both lush, overdubbed and raspy vocals to accompany this strong collection of Oasis tunes.

Everyone brings their “A” game with plenty of memorable riffs, melodies and performances to really bring out the best in this strong collection of songs. Zak Starkey (Who had a falling out with Oasis after the album) shows off his skills as one of the greatest working drummers today and really adds a lot to the trademark Oasis sound. Noel has written some of his most memorable tunes in awhile while Liam, Gem and Andy add some outstanding material as well.

It’s pretty tough for me to think of any thing negative, or something I would of liked to see on the album. Perhaps It would of been nice to have a few more acoustic numbers such as Liam’s “I’m Outta Time” with it’s beautiful Lennonesque quality. For the most part I think this is the best that an Oasis fan could of asked for and an album that wont soon be forgotten.

“Dig Out Your Soul” is pure rock gold for any Oasis fan and if your one of those listeners who hasn’t really payed attention to Oasis since “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” than I suggest you sway your ears over to the sounds of Oasis’ latest venture in Brit Pop. Well it’s getting late so I’ll finish up here, this is some great rock music and totally worth diggin’ out the dough for, Otteni out.

Favorite Tracks: “I’m Outta Time”, “The Shock of Lightning”, “The Turning”

Retrospecticus: Oasis

I’m pretty excited to go pick up Oasis’ latest album tomorrow, so in honor of their latest release I figured it was time for retrospective of the Oasis discography, or as we like to call them here at Cat Fancy “Retrospecticus” let’s begin.

Definitely Maybe (1993)

Signed to Creation Records in 1993 this young quintet started the recording of their debut album with some initial difficulty. Working with producer Dave Bachelor, Oasis just couldn’t capture the heaviness of their live sound and soon enough fired Bachelor. Taking the tapes to Tim Abbott to salvage the already recorded tunes, Oasis still struggled to find their sound in the studio. Time passed eventually leading Oasis to re-record the tracks, this time working with producer Mark Coyle. So It was decided the best technique would be to record all the instruments simultaneously, then magic happend. From then on the tapes were sent off to be polished by engineer/producer Owen Morris, stripped of some extra guitar overdubs and eventually remolded. Finally becoming that hard hitting sound that the band was looking for all along.

It was some journey to get this album to perfection but in the end I’d say it was totally worth it. Combining Beatlesesque pop with huge guitars and heavy rhythms, Definitely Maybe would prove to be an instant classic and would pave the way for the blossoming “Brit Pop” genre of music. The dynamic of Liam’s English swagger, obviously inspired by Lennon and Noel’s talent for penning great tunes would become the perfect stepping stone for this band’s fresh new sound and a grand contribution to rock music.

There’s just too many great songs on this album to list and it’s definitely one of my favorite’s of the 90s, Oasis were fresh and in firing form on this balls to the walls British Rock infused record and were ready to take on the scene of the decade of the extreme.

Favorite Tracks: “Live Forever”, “Supersonic”, “Married With Children”

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

Now I already wrote a review for this album a while back on this blog so I’m gonna make this brief. “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” is pretty much the best album these guys have ever put together. With track after of top notch single material and heavy guitars this is a classic staple of 90s music. This was also when Oasis was probably at their peak popularity and an exciting time in music, if you haven’t heard this album than I highly recommend it.

Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, “She’s Electric”, “Wonderwall”

Be Here Now (1997)

After the major success of their previous two albums, Oasis were now riding a huge wave of success. While the band was certainly big on the music scene, the Gallagher brothers had themselves become popular if not controversial celebrities within the media often caught publicly fighting, but of course that would never tear these two apart and soon enough they were ready to start work on their most ambitious album yet.

Heading into Abbey Road in October of 1996, after Noel had recently gone through a stage of writer’s block. Noel had a vision on making an ablum of epic proportions basically deciding to throw the whole kitchen sink into this one. There’s mellotrons, strings, sitar, psychedelic guitars and even slide guitar played by who else but Johnny Depp. The sound here truly is epic but unlike most of the critics who initially praised the album, I was never too big on this record.

Now the compositions here a fairly good, perhaps not Oasis’ most catchy or memorable tunes but the melodies and progressions are pleasant. The main problem here is every song is so god damn freaking long. With most songs well above 5 minutes this 71 minute album is just too tiring to enjoy on the same level as previous Oasis works. I mean most of the songs make their point in about 3 minutes but then just keep going and going. I just find it boring after awhile and I really think this could of been better if Oasis had simply cut back a little.

I’ve never really been sure about what Oasis personally though about this album, but on their 2006 greatest hits compilation “Stop the Clocks” there isn’t a single song from “Be Here Now”… Hmmm, very interesting…

Favorite Tracks: “D’You Know What I Mean?”, “Stand by Me”, “All Around the World”

The Masterplan (1998)

Although a B-sides I compilation I think “The Masterplan” is worth touching on. There’s some really swell numbers on here including; “Acquiesce”, “Talk Tonight”, “Half the World Away”, the moody ballad “The Masterplan”, and an excellent live cover of The Beatles “I Am the Walrus” I’m not sure why these songs didn’t make it on any albums, but I guess that’s the beauty of a compilation disc.

Favorite Tracks: “Acquiesce”, “Half the World Away”, “The Masterplan”

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)

In 1999 a Oasis faced a difficult transitional period, with the departure of founding bassist Paul McGuigan and rhythm guitarist Paul Arthurs. Noel, Liam, drummer Alan White and a collection of other studio musicians would make up the body of work for “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants” probably Oasis’ most experimental album to date.

With two key members leaving the group during the recording process, “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants” would not only require lead member Noel Gallagher to fill out the extra guitars and bass work but also push the band to try out some more experimental techniques including; drum loops, mellotron, electric sitar, flute and other unique tricks in the studio.

Looking at this album as a whole it’s neat to see Oasis try out such a psychedelic approach to their new songs but I can’t help but feel this album is somewhat of a bore in spots. I love all the bizarre sounds and textures, not to mention Mark Stent’s producing, but I think they should of set the bar a little higher regarding the quality of the songs. “Go Let it Out” is easily the best song on the album with it’s stadium sounding drums and single friendly melody followed by the Zeppelin inspired/partially instrumental “Fuckin’ in the Bushes”. As for the rest their just typical generic rock wrapped in a trippy package. There’s lots of moments where I find myself really into some of the little grooves here and there but also segments where I’m just tired.

Over time I’ve found this not to be a bad album necessarily but definitely not one of this band’s more impressive efforts. I understand that it was a strange period for the band and I appreciate their attempts to stay fresh, they just needed to work out a few more of the kinks.

Favorite Tracks: “Go Let it Out”, “Fuckin’ in the Bushes”, “Gas Panic!”

Heathen Chemistry (2002)

It was in 2000 that Oasis became whole again (Though this would be Alan White’s last album with the band). After a few setbacks on their last album Oasis recruited Andy Bell, formerly off the Brit Pop band Ride on bass and Gem Archer of Heavy Stereo on rhythm guitar (Both members already having played on the Oasis live album “Familiar to Millions”). Filling in a much needed void in Oasis’ lineup both Bell and Archer would not only bring talented musicianship but as well contribute many ideas to the sound and song writing of Oasis.

Recorded in 2001-2002, Heathen Chemistry was an attempt at getting “back-to-basics” with the strength of the songs being top priority over effects or fancy production. it was definitely a step in the right direction for this band and for the most part was received warmly by fans and critics. Heathen Chemistry was a nice change of pace from the more elaborate Oasis albums that had recently proceeded it and pretty strong regarding the quality of songs.

Liam has definitely improved as a songwriter penning his first Oasis single titled “Songbird” a simple yet sweet acoustic number that’s easily one of the best on the album. Noel’s found a good rockin’ niche here while still managing to whip up another brooding ballad with “Stop Crying Your Heart Out”. There’s some other nice highlights throughout and this album and overall it’s a pretty respectable entry into the Oasis catalog. Aside from the last track having a 20 something minute bonus track that I often skip, it’s good listening and reminds me of why I love these guys.

Favorite Tracks: “The Hindu Times”, “Songbird”, “Stop Crying Your Heart

Don’t Believe the Truth (2005)

Not long after Heathen Chemistry Oasis were already laying down demos and sessions for what would prove to be their most collaborative album yet. For not only would we see compositions from Noel but multiple songs penned by Liam, Andy and Gem rounded off by the fantastic Keith Moon inspired drumming of Zak Starkey.

Now though Oasis’ star status had waned over here in the states I think it’s safe to say that this album was Oasis in top form. I mean sure they were great in the past with former members Paul McGuigan and that bald guy Paul Arthurs but it’s not like thise guys ever made that much of an impression on most listeners. The addition of Andy and Gem on the other hand really seemed to make the band a more collaborative group. Not only do Gem and Andy both play more than their respective instruments on this album but as well write some really great tunes. Archer’s a “A Bell Will Ring” and “Love Like a Bomb”, co-written with Liam are beautiful guitar infused alternative rock while Andy Bell has success with “Keep the Dream Alive” and especially with the opening track “Turn Up the Sun” which immediately grabs you with it’s dreamlike picking that heads right into pure rock heaviness. Liam’s song-writing, while perhaps a little more basic, has found a good middle ground. “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” is an enlightening acoustic number and “The Meaning Soul” is your basic fist pumping rock number.

Everyone has a lot of great ideas on this album, but you can never count out Noel, who shows he’s still the master of the rock in this band. “Lyla” is your typical catchy Oasis single, “Mucky Fingers” is an energetic riff driven rocker, “Part of the Queue” is a more morose yet intriguing acoustic song, “The Importance of Being Idle” is a retro Kinks sounding tune and “Let There Be Love” is of course a beautiful sweeping ballad. Quite a collection of songs overall and a very satisfying record.

The reception for Don’t Believe the Truth was for the most part pretty positive even if there wasn’t a whole lot of strong promotion behind it. I think this album will always have a place in my heart as the Oasis album that made me a fan, it wasn’t long after that I attended one of their shows and here I am now giving you an Oasis retrospective, it’s funny how things work out.

Favorite Tracks: “Lyla”, “The Importance of Being Idle”, “Let There be Love”

Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
I’ve probably heard most of this album since it was added to Myspace, but I still wait to review it later this week. Based off what I have heard and from Oasis’ show at WaMu last August, it looks like yet another satisfying rock/pop record from the bad boys of Brit Pop. Zak Starkey’s drums sound Zeppelinesque and Oasis has really put together a heavy collection of powerful grooves and melodic pop. A lot of critics are calling it Oasis’ best album since “What’s the Story” so it’ll be very exciting to sit down and groove to the whole album in the comfort of my own home, can’t wait.

The Time Has Come

Rock Band 2

I have beaten almost every song in Rock Band 2, conquered most of the world tour and dabbled in the other game modes. So, finally, I feel like I can review one of the most anticipated games of the year.

Simply put, Rock Band 2 is the perfection of the first game in the series; it forgoes much innovation for renovation. Online multiplayer and single player were most certainly Harmonix’s focus here, and I feel like they accomplished all their goal of making Rock Band a viable platform for future musical releases.

With the first game, many complained they were unable to play world tour online, Harmonix has fixed that this time around. Since none of my friends play online, this was never a problem for me, but logging into profiles was. No one liked wasting the time and those without Xbox 360s needed to be guided through the login process in the first Rock Band. No more is that a problem, as all the band and character data can be linked to one profile, streamlining the process. Furthermore, band world tour can be played singleplayer, and you can even put your band mates in as CPUs, so you don’t have to deal with some of the freaky NPCs showing up in your band.

The biggest new feature is the battle of the bands mode, which consists of daily online challenges. People can duel for the best vocals score on “Master Exploder,” for example. While I’m not particularily interested in this feature, I know a lot of players only care about score rankings and the like and this is a great mode for them.

Rock Band was toted as a viable way for people to learn the basics of drumming, and we all know how that turned out. Rock Band 2 tries to take this learning concept further with a full drum trainer mode, which is interesting but ultimately boring. I’ve never been to into the practice modes in these games anyway, but I think it’s really cool that they’re putting in the effort. At least people can go into the fill trainer mode and learn stuff a little more creative than the smack hte bitch technique.

But the most important aspect of Rock Band 2 is its track list, and its a respectable one indeed. At 84 songs, there had to be some duds, and I do have my fair share of complaints. For example, the top tier difficulty songs are all lousy metal songs that are all very fast, very difficult, and very bad. But the majority of the tracks are great, and very cleverly chosen. Most songs are fun to play on something. Sure, “Tangled Up in Blue” is kind of painful on guitar, but it’s a blast to sing.

With the ability to import all but three Rock Band 1 tracks, and all the DLC, many players already have hundreds of songs to play, which is incredible. Just browsing through my own music collection is kind of incredible, and I haven’t even exported the first game yet. With all the great DLC coming out, like the Offspring pack and “All Right Now” by Free this week, our music collections are going to keep growing for a while too.

Rock Band 2 perfected the Rock Band formula. With this title, Harmonix are in the position to establish this as a platform for all future content. And they seem aware of that too, I think it might be a while until we see Rock Band 3. Just look at that Walmart-exclusive AC/DC pack, it seems like they might be trying alternate ways of releasing new discs. Anyway, no matter where the franchise is going, at least right now it is in a great place.

Diamond in the Rough

Appaloosa

With a whole slew of movies that opened this weekend, It was certainly difficult deciding on what movie Peter and I would check out. Where I figured we’d end up seeing Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist Peter reminded me of a movie I’d totally forgot about, the well received yet limited release western Appaloosa, a nice little gem unfortunately caught in the rough of some much bigger releases. Going in I really didn’t know what to expect but looking back I have no regrets.

Set in the 1880s in New Mexico I believe, Appaloosa tells the story of two friends, Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) who are hired to defend a small town from a murderous rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his goons. With their hands tied in keeping the town safe and not to mention some romantic tension from the arrival of an attractive widow (Renee Zellweger) Virgil and Everett’s friendship is ultimately put to the test in this charming old fashioned western.

Opting for a much lighter, comedic tone in many of the social sequences Appaloosa still has it’s fair share of tense standoffs. A well photographed film Appaloosa is a pleasant mix of contemporary westerns and the old fashioned westerns of the 50s and 60s. Ed Harris makes for a likable lead while still keeping as cool as a cucumber and the soft spoken Viggo is an excellent choice for Harris’ quite yet courageous companion… Actually the film has a pretty damn ensemble of actors. Jeremy Irons delivers as usual in the role of the devious Randall Bragg, Renee Zellweger adds a nice bit of cheer, Timothy Spall of Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd fame is some nice comic relief, and the always intimidating Lance Henriksen is tough as nails as one of Harris’ deadly rivals.

The action is tight and suspenseful, the dialogue is sharp and the story, which may occasionally ramble, is a classic western tale right from the pages of Robert B. Parker’s novel. One of the only aspects working against this feature would probably be the pacing. A few scenes dragging on a little too long and the mood and structure at times is a bit puzzling. It was actually pretty surprising to see the film was only 114 minutes once the ending credits finally rolled. Definitely one of those movies where you really have no idea where it’s going to end and I think that tended to be distracting.

All in all if you like westerns or even just watching Viggo Mortensen act bad-ass, this is pretty good. Ed Harris definitely has skill as a filmmaker/screenwriter to go along with his already impressive acting talents and in the realm of modern day westerns this is a solid entry.

There really is only one October

I can’t express how excited I am for playoff baseball in words. These series are some of the most interesting match ups in the last twenty years. Baseball is changing. Teams are changing their philosophies on evaluating talent and how to build a baseball team. These play offs have a little old school and a little new school. After a long six months we finally see the product of two separate leagues giving it their all. Here’s my predictions.

National League Divison Series

Philadelphia Phillies Vs. Milwaukee Brewers
This is probably the hardest to predict, but I’m gonna have to go with the Phillies. The Brewers barely got into the post season solely on the back of CC Sabathia who pitched on three days rest three different times. With out their other ace Ben Sheets, they are not really as intimidating in a 7 game series as they would have been.

Los Angeles Dodgers Vs. Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are the better team. With two absolute studs in Rich Harden and Carlos Zambrano anchoring their staff, they are the clearly better than the Dodgers who came out of a weak National League West. But we must remember, this is the Cubs. They have recorded unfathomable collapses year after year, and haven’t won for a century. Anything can happen in this series.

American League Division Series

Chicago White Sox Vs. Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays have overcome too much adversity to fall apart now. They have won at home, on the road, and without some of their key contributors. They just find a way to get it done. They play great defense, have great pitching, and they hit the ball over the fence. As much as I want Jr. to win, I can’t help but feeling what a waste all this would be if Tampa’s dream season were to end here.

Boston Red Sox Vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
I hate the Angels. I also have a great resentment of the Red Sox, but they are the lesser of the two evils in my opinion. I think very highly of general manager Theo Epstien, and think the Red Sox are not really a wild card team. They’ve been here before, they know how to win, and it will be proven once again that the Angels can’t get it done in October.

So with Tampa and Boston advancing in the AL and Chicago and Philidelphia advancing in the NL, here are my Championship series predictions.

National Leauge Championship Series

Chicago Cubs Vs. Philidelphia Phillies
This is a really tough one. Philidelphia has some great key role players as well as a solid pitching staff. Also you have two of the most experienced managers in the game with Sweet Lou and Charlie Manuel. I’m gonna have to get on the Lou bandwagon and pick the Cubs because they are the best in the National League, and you can’t mess with that pitching staff.

American League Championship Series

Boston Red Sox Vs. Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay won the American League East. Tampa Bay proved to those national media bimbos time and time again that they are for real by beating the Red Sox in key situations. Home, Away, it didn’t matter. This young team knows how to play and more importantly they know how to win.

World Series

Tampa Bay Rays Vs. Chicago Cubs
The National League sucks. It is weaker in every aspect. This Tampa Bay pitching staff including James Shields, Scott Kazmir, and Edwin Jackson will eat apart this Cub lineup and the offense will hit their share of bombs. I give your World Champion Tampa Bay Rays.

Newtendo

Nintendo had an event in Japan today, and they revealed what industry insiders have been predicting for days now, the new DS model. Called the Nintendo DSi, this new version features slightly larger screens, a camera, an SD card slot, and new Internet features.

The DSi has a web browser, and better WiFi features, I guess. Also, Nintendo has the DSi Shop coming out, from which players will be able to download games and whatnot to their console.

The only bad news is that the DSi won’t have a GameBoy port. Looks like the ol’ GBA has finally died.

The SD card slot is part of a bigger initiative by Nintendo to use the cards for memory. DSi owners will be able to play MP3s through the improved speakers off of their SD cards. Also, finally Wii owners will be able to download to and load from their SD cards, which is why games like Rock Band 2 will finally have DLC. The DSi is going to cost rougly $180 and be out in Japan in November. It won’t be out in the U.S. until next year, because DS Lites are still selling fine here.

Nintendo also announced some new games. Not bull shit like Wii Music, real games. There’s an adaptation of a DS game, Another Code. Also, the stale Dynasty Warriors franchise will make its first Wii appearance. In better news, they are bringing back two awesome franchises with Sin & Punishment 2 and a new Punch Out. The first Sin & Punishment was a neat N64 rail shooter that didn’t come to the U.S. until it hit the virtual console a year ago.

Nintendo of America also announced that Club Nintendo was finally coming to the U.S, so crazy fanboys finally get to sign up for wacky merch from the house Mario built.

So us Wii gamers finally have something to look forward to. And you DS hold-outs, the wait is finally over; you’ve got a great new version to buy. Pretty soon, it’ll be hard to come up with an excuse not to have at least one GameBoy Pen in your house.