Parental Advisory I've gone a bit overboard this week and this column has had a liberal use of the word "fu..." ...wait. I don't want to use it again, but you know what I'm talking about.
Although this column has received nothing but praises from you fine readers, I'd like to know what you think about this. I'm not much of a mainstream media guy and GWX is anything but a mainstream site, but if my casual and somewhat verbose vocabulary makes you at all offended or uncomfortable, I'd surely like to know how you feel about it.
The thing is, when I'm with my friends hanging out and carrying on, the..."F Word" tends to slip out quite frequently. I use this column as sort of an extension of talking to my friends. As I stated when this column began, it's a laidback format where any topic is welcome. If you want to drop me a line and carry on about anything that's on your mind, I'll be more than willing to discuss it. However, a few members of our elite GWX staff have expressed some concern that my "casual" approach may be turning off some of our more conservative readers.
Never one to offend, I though I'd take it up with you fine folks and get your opinions. I suppose I should give you some incentive for writing in as well. Whether you have positive or negative comments, the first five people that write in will receive a shiny new GamingWorld X T-Shirt. That will surely make you the envy of all your friends. You can say, "Hey, look at me. I've got a shirt that advertises a website you've never heard of. I'm so much cooler than you."
So send me an email, and tell me your thoughts. You may be a winner!
American Idol Ok, I admit it. I watch the god damned thing. I started out the first season just checking it out expecting to ridicule it like I did with that fucking "Making the Band" crap, and wound up hooked like a boy band on circle jerks...or something like that...
-Speaking of Making the Band, have you seen that new one with P. Diddy/Puff Daddy/Douche Bag No Talent Rapper? Did I mention that I hate MTV?-
Anyway, much like the rest of the country, I watch the show with complete fascination and awe at the tone deaf carnival folk ("small hands; smell like cabbage") stumbling over cheap, show choir medleys. In doing this, I realize I'm encouraging this sort of behavior, but what can I tell ya? I'm an American. Whatever that means.
I've given some thought to this whole Phantom story and while the jury's still out on whether or not this wonder machine is real, it has given me some real food for thought.
Now, I warn you, I'm not going to be all that cohesive from here on out. Humor me.
You see, I was in my gaming prime during the transition between 16-bit and 32-bit machines. During that time, new consoles were announced nearly every week. The Amiga CD, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, JVC X'Eye, Memorex VIS, Phillips CD-i, Pioneer Laser Active, and so many more were announced right around the same time as the Saturn, PSone, and Nintendo 64. And, as history has shown, they all failed miserably.
Fast forward to the recent past. The Indrema never even made it to market and the GP 32 is merely a blip on the import scene. Gaming is a big business and it's a shame that start-ups and do-it-yourselfers have next to no chance of breaking through. In fact, they have even less of a chance than ever.
I was one of the handfull of people disappointed that the Indrema was never released. I'm also a guy who has an Atari Jaguar and doesn't hide it underneath his "cooler" systems. Sure, 90% of its titles sucked total ass. And don't get me started on that hideous controller. But fuck it, man. It's a cool little thing to have. So next time something like the Phantom is announced, think twice before you wipe the snot off your nose and say, "That's stoopid...nothing will ever beat my peeee es tooooo. It r0x0rs!"
Sorry, I'm not that good at internet fanboy jive talk, but you get my point.
So anyway, before I insite a slow clap and "We are the Champions" breaks out in the background, I'm going to close for the evening. I'll try to make a bit more sense tomorrow.
Oh, one more thing. I found a site about the Indrema, in case some of you never heard of it. Check it out.
A Match Made in Heaven With all the music ranting going on lately, I decided to post this bit of amusing drivel. I'll say it: I can't fucking stand Limp Bizkit, their lame, corporate rap/rock, angry teenaged white-boy schtick, or their baseball cap-wearing poser frontman. Similarly, and for similar reasons, I have an equal distaste for the Disney-made pop "princess" known as Britney Spears.
Well wouldn't you know? It looks like the two have formed some sort of evil tryst and are now a happy, yet bombarded-by-the-media celebrity couple.
If Fred Durst isn't telling people to "Break Stuff" and then shunning the blame when they riot, he's making asinine comments on the band's self-congratulating website.
Here's a sample: "well i'm sure we've had it up to our necks with all the hype. isn't it amazing how something very simple, pure, sweet, and innocent can be blown so far out of proportion? who really gives a shit that i wanna be with britney spears? it seems as if everyone does. the only person that should give a shit is britney. i never meant to be in this situation. shit happens. whats the big deal? yeah she is a big POP star and her last relationship with another big POP star was a big deal, but damn y'all need to chill. do you think i should not like someone because you don't want me too? fuck that!! you people are my family and i respect you and as you should me. i never meant to fall into all of this. all the media is doing is trying to create a lot of controversy. to them its just more interesting to make up lies and crazy dramatic shit. i've heard and seen some unbelievable things since i've been liking her. now all the media has done is twisted the whole thing around and made other people come back running. and i assure you that anything besides that fact that i definately have feelings for britney isn't true. it is simple, honest, and pure. thats that. i feel bad for britney having to have her life put on blast and manipulated by the media like this. now i've been brought into it. i don't give a fuck about anything anyone thinks and definately the media. lets just drop this right here in the bizkit camp. lets move on. im dropping a sick and heavy album in a couple months and we dont need to be waisting our time worrying about some birds and bees shit!! next time ill fall in love with a tree. i hope all the haters are lined up when this album drops because its gonna knock'em all down with a dominoe effect. pahleeze bahleeve. oh yeah, kiss my ass and i love you."
My, my. For an aging corporate rock star, he sure does keep it real with the pre-teen suburban white boy set, doesn't he?
Yo, yo, Fred. I'll heed your warning and not become a hater, because I sure as hell don't want to be on the receiving end of one of your jack-off, wank rants. You and Minnie Mouse can do whatever the hell you want to, just don't call down the thunder on me!
Now in the words of Fred Durst: "Break Stuff"...or was that Beavis and Butthead? I forget.
Adam Responds It looks like I've caused quite the ruckus with my little music rant a couple days ago. I've responded to Will, who in turn responded to me quite politely and intelligently. Our Sony Senior Editor, music fanatic, and all around good guy Adam Matlock also wants to share his two cents. Here it is:
"Glad to see some people not on dedicated message boards who like metal. Blind Guardian kicks serious ass.
I'm going to cautiously disagree. Good music is good music to me - I don't feel that just because an album is popular automatically disqualifies it from being good. So many albums (across all genres) that last 70 minutes, are filled to the brim with throwaway tracks used to pad out the length. I love progressive rock and metal, but off of 90 % of Dream Theater or Symphony X CDs, at least 10 minutes of could be chopped off with the album retaining it's overall quality. And I sure don't mind it when a CD is a little shorter then most, if it means that I'm not listening to inane skits and tracks that don't fit the tone of the album. And simple songs are also quite good - I can enjoy being knocked on my ass by the sudden change into acoustics in a 10-minute Opeth track, but it's hard to headbang to a song written in a 7/4 time signature.
The complexity elitism is what lead to egos like those of Yngwie Malmsteen, and is what leads so many great acts to make crappy records, simply because they believe that they are the shit. I may not be able to change anyone's mind, cuz I'm not the most eloquent speaker when it comes to music, but having been in multiple bands (as a keyboardist, a vocalist and a drummer), I don't think cynicism should get you to instantly condemn any bands. If that was the case, no band would EVER get along, and we'd be stuck in a new age of solo singer-songwriters, and the only thing I'd like less is to have Richard Simmons and Gene Simmons to start a synth-pop duo."
Right on. Actually, Will wrote back prior to Adam's response and nearly said the same thing. I too agree that a good song is a good fucking song, regardless of whether it has three chords or is a full on symphony. Shit, I've been known to get into the sound of an amp buzzing at different randomly...
I'm too tired to get my point across.
I'm telling you guys: Read John Cage's "Silence" and you'll get what I'm trying to say.
Panzer Dragoon Orta Review Hey All. I just thought I'd let you know that the Panzer Dragoon Orta review is up. It's not on the main page because our webmaster is on vacation until Monday evening. In the meantime, check it out by clicking here.
Overload I expected to get a lot of feedback from my last entry regarding the sad state of the music industry and my desire to see it go down in flames. And I expected for most of it to be negative. However, to my surprise, I've received nothing but positive feedback, and it seems that many of you agree with most of my views. Here's a letter from Will:
Hey, Nevermind the AOL address, my family has it and won't switch to something worthwhile, and I don't give out my real e-mail address. That was just incase you have some inclination against AOL user's, or their opinions.
Anyway, the reason for this is your CWJ on music. I fully agree with you, as a fan, as a consumer, and also as a musician.
The following only applies to the USA: Popular music sucks. The business is complete shit, ran by a bunch of cocknazi's. The artists, and I use that term lightly, eat much butt.
The rest is just random: Well now that that's out of the way, as a fan of music I tend to like either classic rock (60s and 70s) or metal. The metal half takes a bit of explaining though, due to the fullness of shit in this genre. Glam/Nu/Rap-metal sucks. Why? All of those artists conformed or were just cashing in on what's popular. I don't care when the band is from, if it's a true metal, it's good.
I'm sitting here with Blind Guardian's live album, Tokyo Tales, blaring on my stereo (I actually found the CD, and then bought it). These guys have been around 15+ years working their asses off and it shows. They're fucking huge in Europe and Japan, they even have a Blind Guadian festival. Now in America, they finally just had their first tour. I did get to see them, at a local night club. Yes, from 150,000+ people festivals to an 1100 person night club. They were awesome, they gave it their all, and the crowd was truly only real fans of the band. How, can I be sure, you might ask? Well, we sang down the lead singers in one of the songs, and parts of most songs it was the crowd you heard, not the vocalist.
That is how it's supposed to be, in my opinion. Fuck arena tours where people are there so they're 'cool'. I think I'll spend my 70 bucks on 10 shows like the Blind Guardian one I saw.
As a consumer, I'm used to high prices. Why? I tend to only like imports, but then again I have no problem with putting 20 down for a CD with 70 minutes of quality music. No crap tracks, no 45 minute CD's passed off as a complete album. Yes, I like it when I can get albums for only 13 bucks, but I'm willing to pay what it's worth, and some albums are worth quite a bit. The problem is, a new or popular group hasn't put out a song with the space on a cd, so an entire album is out of the question.
As a musician, I can't stand popular music. I'm a lone guitarist, I suck by my standards (which are very high), I have a few friends I can jam with to good music. Anything that I can play on my first try, or without any trouble, sucks. Simple music generally is popular music. I can't say I've seen a time where very complex music has been popular (with the excpetion of maybe Iron Maiden 'Somewhere in Time'/'Seventh Son' era and Metallica 'Justice' era). And its disheartening, that these piece of shit 'musicians' can make so much money playng things I played a month after I started playing.
I'll leave with 2 things: The music industry is fucked up, big time. It won't change, ever, because the average teen is to impressionable...no, too fucking stupid, to realize they're getting it up the ass. The rest of us aren't a big enough piece of the demographic to make any change. All we can do is support our bands, keep the crusade going, and most importantly: Never sell out to whats cool or popular in music.
And a few bands I like: Iron Maiden (they might've been popular, but they've never changed their sound to fit in) Blind Guardian Iced Earth 80s Metallica (pre-black album) Helloween Some early Queensryche 70s and early 80s Judas Priest Led Zeppelin Some Clapton Hendrix Pink Floyd Deep Purple Symphony X (like Kansas on a lot of steroids)
~Will
Will, I definitely agree with you on about 95% of your letter. The majority of the music out now surely does "eat much butt." However, and I don't want to get into a whole thing here, the school of thought that suggests that educated musicians are the only ones that can make quality music and that complex music is the only kind worth listening, is flawed. Yes, I do have a degree in music and by many standards am somewhat of an accomplished musician. However, this does not mean to me that I am by any means more qualified or more able to compose or perform a quality piece of music than the average "layman". This attitude is what got us into trouble in the first place.
Again, I'm not going to get into to much detail here, but for more on this subject, I highly recommend reading both John Cage's Silence and A Year from Monday, as well as Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music. Partch certainly disagrees with the notion that music is something reserved for the highly refined and educated individual.
If you'd like me to expound further on the subject - which I doubt - drop me a line and let me know.
And now for something on the lighter side, Rod passed on this link. Holy hell. That's good stuff. Are you too dirty to wipe your booty?
And I think on that note, I'm out. Talk to you later.
