Dream Team

Beach House – Teen Dream

I’ve been listening to this third album by Baltimore duo Beach House for a couple weeks now, and I can already tell that it’s one I’ll be coming back to quite frequently. Coming from the fact that Beach House is a band known for their lush sonic experiments, this album doesn’t seem like one that I’d like, after all I wasn’t really that big on that Antlers album that Sean’s all about, but there’s something about these songs that really grab me.

Beach House has often been described as dream-pop, and that seems like an appropriate label although this album seems to be a bit more on the poppier side. Songs like “Zebra” and “Used To Be” are able to convey a very big expansive sound, while somehow sounding haunting and intimate at the same time.

Much of the album’s charm comes from the interplay between singer Victoria Legrand, who has one of those great deep, breathy voices, and the keyboard work of multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally. Scally’s unobtrusive style of guitar picking also complements these songs quite nicely, and it feels as if each instrument is trying to complement each other without drawing too much attention to themselves.

Teen Dream is an album in which the songs kind of bleed together into one continuous beautiful stream of music, so it’s kind of hard to pick out any stand out tracks, but they’re all very good. I have no idea how this album stacks up against any other of Beach House’s albums since this is the only one I’ve listened to so far, but I guess I should check them out, ’cause this is some good shit.

Favorite Tracks: “Zebra”, “Walk In The Park”, “Used To Be”

There Will Be Blood

Surfer Blood – Astrocoast

I figured I’d keep this recent influx of posts going by delving in to a pair of albums that I’ve been listening to recently. The first is a nifty little debut entitled Astrocoast from Florida-based band, Surfer Blood.

What first drew me to this album was the band’s break-out track “Swim”, a song that almost catches you off guard at first with it’s reverb-drenched vocals. But once it breaks into the refrain of “Swim to reach the end”, it’s kind of hard not to get on board with the song’s anthemic quality. The rest of the album lives up this stellar track, and most of the songs are in the same guitar-driven, hooky vein.

The chunky electric guitars and catchy pop melodies definitely give the band a sound that’s easy to compare to the alternative rock bands of the ’90s. Songs like “Twin Peaks” and “Take It Easy” have an exotic rhythmic quality and there’s a fair amount of experimenting with song structure that makes Surfer Blood seem like more than just some Weezer throwback. However, the shorter poppier songs are where the band really finds its sweet spot, as the album’s two longer cuts “Slow Jabroni” and “Anchorage” both show the band trying to fit a few too many ideas into them.

It’s always nice to find an album that’s able to take the tried and true alternative formula of loud guitars and big choruses and breath a little bit of new life into it, and Surfer Blood manage to do it on this debut.

Favorite Tracks: “Swim”, “Twin Peaks”, “Catholic Pagans”

PlayStation Wii

Sony announced they like to move it move it today at GDC when it unveiled the new motion controller, the PlayStation Move. While it at first looks like a black Wii controller with a lightbulb screwed into the top of it, the device is actually pretty cool.

Using the PlayStation Eye, the camera that you probably don’t already own, Move allows gamers more precise motion controls than we’ve experienced before. It can read your movements in three dimensions, and it looks like it works really well. It sounds like this is a really functional next step for motion controls, pretty much invalidating the Wii, but not taking as crazy a leap as the unproven Project Natal. Oh, and that “light sphere” on top of the controller? It changes colors.

It looks like players can expect to use any combination of one Move controller, one Move controller and a sub-controller, or two Move controllers. The sub-controller looks to be exactly like the Wii Nunchuck, except wireless, so it can never actually be a nunchuck. The sub-controller has two triggers, a d-pad, an analog stick, the X and O buttons, and the PlayStation button. The Move controller has a trigger, start and select buttons on the sides, X, O, square and triangle, along with a PlayStation button and what appears to be a Move button.

Sony showed off a couple of games, starting with Sports Champions, probably Move’s version of Wii Sports, which has a sword and shield gladiator mode. There’s another game called Move Party, where you are intended to use Move at a party. SOCOM 4 will use Move and the sub-controller. And there’s a fighting game called Motion Fighters. LittleBigPlanet will be update for Move support, as will EyePet.

There will be three ways to get move later this year. You can get the controller alone, with an Eye (for less than $100) or with an Eye and a PS3 (for probably a lot more than $100).

Boneretta

Bayonetta

One of my favorite PlayStation 2 games was Hideki Kamiya’s Devil May Cry. Kamiya went on to join Clover Studio, the developer responsible for a remarkable barrage of classics (Viewtiful Joe, Okami) in its short life. In the wake of Capcom closing Clover, Kamiya joined some of his fallen comrades in a new company, Platinum Games and landed a three game deal with Sega. The first of those games, Bayonetta, is a return to the crazy action that made Devil May Cry great, but with one of the most bizarre video game stories I’ve ever played tacked on too.

You play as Bayonetta, a badass witch who uses four guns, two in her hands, and two as high heels, to kill angels, who are evil for some reason. Gun high heels are nice, but Bayonetta’s real weapon is her hair. Most of the time, her hair just acts like her leather outfit and, well, hair, but when the time comes, she can transform it into giant monsters capable of decimating her foes. And of course she gets pretty scantly clad doing that, after all, can’t waste hair on clothes when you’ve got to make a giant dog head. The sexuality of Bayonetta is definitely among the strangest parts of the game, with the heroine constantly getting into compromising positions and performing what are essentially stripper moves. I guess you could say it’s a response to the hyper-masculinity of most video game main characters, but it still feels weird.

Anyway, so you’re killing angels. It turns out you don’t have much of a memory, so you’ve got to figure out your past too. And there are some other people. Honestly, despite having some painfully long expositional cutscenes, I never quite got a full grasp on what was going on in this wacky game. But that didn’t really bother me, because actually playing the game is quite fun. The combat is reminiscent of the Devil May Cry series, obviously, but it hasn’t felt tighter than here. The classic guns, quick and heavy melee attack controls return, but they’ve added some twists to keep things interesting. Most importantly there’s Witch Time, which triggers when you perfectly dodge an attack, slowing down time so you can get in a good combo. Bayonetta is exactly the kind of third person action I love to play.

The action is mixed up with occasional sequences that harken back to Sega arcade classics. As Platinum Games’ first title with Sega, there a numerous other references too. Bayonetta can turn into a panther and leave a trail similar to Amaterasu from Okami and the shopkeep occasionally says “What are you buyin’?” Stuff like that keep the game interesting enough for you to rush through the 10 or so hours it takes to beat it. After you finish up, there’s still plenty to unlock and rank up to keep you coming back.

Bayonetta is a weird one, that’s for sure. It seems targeted toward the people that like modern anime, full of wacky stupidity and awkward fan service. I was able to tolerate that enough to enjoy the great game underneath all the madness. If you think you can as well, by all means, take this bitch out for a ride.

R.I.P. Mark Linkous

Mark Linkous
1962-2010
I was schocked to read this morning that singer/songwriter Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse had committed suicide by gunshot. For those who don’t know Sparklehorse, it was more or less solely Mark Linkous with a revolving door of collaborators.

I wasn’t a huge Sparklehorse fan but I loved his 2006 album Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain now his final album. A moody collection of lo-fi indie pop songs produced by frequent collaborator Danger Mouse. It was one of my favorites of 2006 and it’s worth checking out for any indie fan. Though it’s a sad occasion perhaps the news will introduce new listeners to his music, I already plan on taking a deeper look at his catalog.

If you don’t know any Sparklehorse tunes the popular “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” has always been my favorite. It’s a good representation of what his sound is all about, so I found some video with trippy images accompanied by the song.

Macs Get a Little More Steamy in April

Valve announced today that Steam, their digital distribution platform, and the Source engine will be ported over to Mac OS in April. They also announced a new feature called Steam Play which allows Mac users who purchased a game on PC to play on their Mac for free and vice versa. This means games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead can be played on your Mac laptop and desktop PC with one purchase. And, with Steam Cloud, you can even keep playing the same save file on both computers. Furthermore, all future Valve games will be developed with the Mac as a “tier 1” platform, meaning if PC gets it, so does Mac; at the same time. The first example of this will be Portal 2 which is coming to PC, Mac and Xbox 360 later this year (but not PS3… burn). All this is making me really happy that I spent so much money on upgrading my PC last year. We live in a beautiful world.

Alice in Wonderbland

Alice in Wonderland

I’ll finish off this weekend with my feelings about the latest from Tim Burton. It seems to me that some film fanatics fearlessly stick by their directors or “autuers” as if they can do no wrong. I’ve seen all of Burton’s films, though I’ll be the first one to tell you if one sucks. Sure he always has an exciting artistic vision, but in other categories he’s become more and more inconsistent. Alice in Wonderland is his latest, I’m not a big fan of the source material, but I was intrigued with Burton at the helm. Hey, maybe he’ll finally turn it into a good story instead of a pointless series of events? Well I’m sorry to say that it still feels like style without substance.

The new spin here is that Alice has dreamt of this “Wonderland” for years almost as if she’s been there already. Why this is in the story I’m not sure, I must of missed something. So after escaping a dreadful pre-planned engagement, Alice spots the White Rabbit and chases him down a hole to Wonderland or “Underland” I guess only Alice calls it the former.

Surprisingly, we meet practically the whole cast in the first ten minutes. Going in I figured they’d spread it out, but we meet all of them right off the bat. I don’t care for most of the CGI characters with the possible exception of the Cheshire Cat (played by Stephen Fry). I don’t care much for this interpretation of the Mad Hatter either. I like Depp and he obviously has fun with the role, but I wasn’t digging his clown-like appearance and bizarre off and on Scottish accent. Helena Bonham Carter and Crispin Glover (who I always enjoy seeing) are mildly amusing as the Queen and Knave of Hearts, but Anne Hathaway as the White Queen was completely uninspired and Alice herself was just meh.

The attempt to come up with a new story here never really took off. In this adaptation Alice has been lured to Underland to slay the Jabberwocky (this dragon thing voiced by Christopher Lee) as it has been prophesied. I don’t understand why they felt this was more interesting then simply retelling the original story with a little more direction. So it’s your typical fantasy adventure story that we’ve already seen about a million times. Yeah it’s got fancy schmany effects, but all in all I’d of preferred Burton to come up with something meaningful. Maybe he should try and actually make a movie that’s neither a remake or an adaptation of something, he needs to sink his teeth into something new.