Month: July 2013

Earworm: “Ocean’s Deep” by Born Ruffians

Judge my indie music taste. I dare you.

[Disclaimer: hipster music has gotten to me.]

Born Ruffians is a band incredibly popular on SoundCloud, and I realize why. Their sound is infectious. “Exuberant pop,” I heard, was one of their taglines on SoundCloud. And it reigns true to its word, this description.

Lead singer Luke Lalonde has one of those whiny voices girls swoon over, but I’m glad zero of my friends know of this band, for they’d ruin it for me.

My largest fear for indie bands (and yes, this is so ‘hipster’ for me to say) is to see them become a radio/production company puppet. One where their music no longer comes from the heart but from trying to make pop hits. Acts lose their integrity from fame, it’s the sad truth. Sure, some bands handle it properly, such as Fall Out Boy and Paramore and Panic! at the Disco (all coincidentally signed to Fueled by Ramen records). But many bands just go to shit.

Born Ruffians is unheard of, and they’re unspeakably good.

Have a listen to this acoustic jam.

And here’s the regular edition.

Let me know which one you prefer!

Bloodmasque(erade) iOS

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[Reiterated from my (cringe) facebook.]

So I stumbled on this iOS game called Bloodmasque. It’s an action RPG that let’s you take photos of your face (casual, pleased, angry) and plaster it on the main character to show the in-game emotions he or she is supposed to display on a given situation.

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Needless to say, hilarity ensued in the first 10 minutes just by taking these shots!

[Having a chat with the local wenches.]

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At least I won my first boss battle against a vampire demon!

DEUS EXCELLENCE

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DEUS EX Has been in my mind lately. So much so that I’ve been focusing on three out of the four of its iterations: DEUS EX Classic, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, and DEUS EX: THE FALL (hereafter referred to as DX, DXHR and DXTF).

Starting with DXHR, which is actually the first DX game I purchased during release, I became intrigued with its world and story as it ranks itself within the Cyber Punk genre, as with DX games in general. Judging from its trailers and gameplay demos it looked like something I’d want to immerse myself in. I did the usual thing that I do when I set myself up for a definite want and preordered DXHR. While waiting for this game to make to my doorstep other things occupied my time. Work, friends, family, and other games filled that time.

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Once I did finally get DXHR I put it aside to finish other projects and games. DXHR stayed in the cut. Fast forward to now and it’s still unopened but has been on my mind, among my other games. Lately though, as recent as a few weeks ago, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix decided to release yet another DX outing, though in the mobile landscape, called DEUS EX: THE FALL (DXTF). The lot of DX fans were in an uproar because they would have rather had a full blown sequel on console. To those who did give this game a chance, as I have, will be pleasantly surprised. While I have yet to play DXHR I’ve watch enough gameplay clips to say that DXTF looks, and smells just like DXHR. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this mobile fanfare since release and its been enticing me to crack open DXHR. I’ve read that much like DXHR, DXTF is also a prequel to the original DX, though it runs parallel with DXHR. The characters are from the novel DEUS EX: THE ICARUS EFFECT (DXIE). (more…)

Kotobukiya Female Commander Shepard Figure

I was able to finally pick up this figure of Female Commander Shepard of Mass Effect fame.  It went on sale at Forbidden Planet, a NYC comic book shop for 50 beans, so I picked one up.  I’ve been wanting to get a Kotobukya figure for a while, and with a $20 price drop, I could not pass it up. After taking some photos of it, I am very happy with the level of detail and fit and finish of it.  Below is a quicky shot.  I will post up the rest shortly.

Close up of Kotobukiya Femme Shep. Character rendition by Shunya Yamashita

Close up of Kotobukiya Femme Shep. Character rendition by Shunya Yamashita.  Photograph by me.

R.TYPICAL

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Hey boys and girls. I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything (yet again). Life anyways seems to take precedent but rest assured that content is forthcoming. One way I’ve chosen to remedy this is to add content in short bursts, either thru short ramblings or perhaps some app reviews in the form of short gameplay videos.

Since my last post I’ve been experimenting with ways to capture gameplay on my iOS device. I’ve come upon 3 apps: RecordMyScreen, Record Screen, and xRec. I’ll probably do a review on them in the near future but in order to save time and expedite this piece to you all ill just jump right into the first app I’ll take about for this article. Let’s get to it shall we?

Everyone knows the side scrolling space shooter R.TYPE. Or at least they should. This classic was released in arcade form in 1987, has made it to classic consoles, and has now made its way to mobile platforms, namely iOS. Having played it I feel that the lack of tangible controls really isn’t much of an issue with the inclusion of the option to have an autofire button. I was actually playing this on one hand while feeding my 10 month old so this options is a definite boon.

Gameplay wise R.TYPE still retains its fun factor and you can toggle difficulty settings in the menu. I played on Normal but got my butt whooped a handful of times, not because of control issues, but rather my skill level and trying to evade every friggin enemy and hail of bullets while being on the offensive, as my gameplay clip below demonstrates. (Apologies for the clip as there is no sounds. I have yet to fiddle with the screen recording apps).

No matter how you slice it, R.TYPE is definitely a great addition to any mobile device of your choosing. This lovely gem is available for iOS and Andy (my nickname for android, haha).

COME GET SOME!

Earworm: Tegan and Sara – Closer

I didn’t like this song at first, but the more I heard it, I grew to love it.  It’s so catchy, and sort of reminds me of Franz Ferdinands “Take Me Out“.  Enjoy

and here’s Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out”

Earworm: “The Run and Go” by Twenty One Pilots

Who knew Ohio could produce such great musical duos?

Akron already blessed us with The Black Keys, and here come along twenty | one | pilots from Columbus?

Surely they were a well known band before I discovered them, but wow my ears are pleased. Very pleased. They’re another fantastic band signed to Fueled by Ramen.

My friend Marco had been trying so hard to get me to listen to their music, always plugging them into conversations here and there. At around 4 in the morning, I decided, hey, what’s some new music to listen to? Oh, right, these guys! And here I am. Pointlessly rambling to a computer screen hoping for you guys to read this and listen to the same music as I do.

Unfortunately, the voice of lead singer Tyler Joseph does have a bit of a resemblance to Nate Ruess, lead singer of fun.

So here. Enjoy it.

Magna Carta Holy Shit.

No, I’m not calling Jay-Z’s newest album shit. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

I have never been so hyped about a new hip-hop/rap album. Kanye’s recent Yeezus got me excited, but I’m calling it right now, Magna Carta Holy Grail will be rap album of the year. J Cole’s Born Sinner is of the same caliber, with great music as well, but MCHG… Damn.

Seen all those Samsung commercials promoting it? Heard the background music? Those teasers do not do this album justice. Of course, you get a glimpse of the production process. But once you hear the album, you’ll be blown away. I know I was.

Here’s the tracklisting for you.

  1. Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
  2. Picasso Baby
  3. Tom Ford
  4. F*ckwithmeyouknowigotit (feat. Rick Ross)
  5. Oceans (feat. Frank Ocean)
  6. F.U.T.W.
  7. Somewhereinamerica
  8. Crown
  9. Heaven
  10. Versus
  11. Part II (On The Run) (Feat. Beyonce)
  12. Beach Is Better
  13. BBC
  14. Jay Z Blue
  15. La Familia
  16. Nickels and Dimes

Here’s my advice. Don’t hesitate to download this album. This is going to go down in history as one of the best rap albums of all time. Jay never disappoints.

 

Earworm: “Do I Wanna Know?” by Arctic Monkeys

Alex Turner and his gang of Monkeys are at it again. The Arctic Monkeys put out an album just two years ago with Suck It and See, and now they’ve already begun to drop singles for their new album, said by Turner himself to be titled AM. You’ve no idea how excited I am for this, actually. All their albums are tremendous, and there doesn’t seem to be a reason to believe their next album won’t be as good.

With the upcoming release of their new album, the Arctic Monkeys will have five studio albums (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s what I’m Not, Favourite Worst Nightmare, Humbug, Suck It and See, AM), akin to my other two de facto favorite bands, Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory, Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns, and Living Things) and The Strokes (Is This It, Room on Fire, First Impressions of Earth, Angles, and Comedown Machine).

Actually, GQ stated the music of Arctic Monkeys can only continue to improve, as Alex Turner has been named was named as a Survivor in 2011 (http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201111/alex-turner-gq-music-issue).

Do I Wanna Know? is the second (or technically third) single to drop, only preceded by R U Mine? and its B-Side, Electricity. Do I Wanna Know and R U Mine are heavily influenced by a hard slapped bass guitar, and it’s been a while since a song (or in this case a set of songs) has made me literally drool from excitement.

The song is accompanied by a ridiculously artsy music video, if I do say so myself.

Have a watch. Beware though, animated naked ladies. I don’t know if this is SFW or NSFW. Take heed, though.