For the last three years or so, Microsoft has had a short-standing tradition of releasing five Xbox Live Arcade titles, one each week, in the middle of summer. It’s a good plan as summer is traditionally bereft of big game releases, since they seem to all either release right before Christmas or, if they missed their ship dates, soon after the New Year. This “Summer of Arcade” usually has games that either spotlight the best independent game developers or capitalize on nostalgia. And there is no nostalgia like gamer nostalgia. The gems this year:
Limbo – Spooky, startling, sparse, superb. Worth the price of admission.
Hydro! Thunder! – It’s Hydro Thunder, what more do you need to know?
There’s a Castlevania game that looks good in theory and I guess it’s fun, but the old sprites hurt my eyes. So I’m taking a pass on that one. But next week, the final game comes out that I’m really looking forward to out of all of these. I’ve never been a huge fan of Tomb Raider games in practice– I usually end up drowning or getting gutted by bears or something– but “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light ” plays a bit differently. The world can always use more co-op dungeon-crawling puzzle-solving goodness:
Thao & Mirah, with respective melded bands and songs, played last night at Mississippi Studios, a show I was foolish enough not to get a ticket for beforehand. So naturally this was the one show I’ve tried to see this year that was indubitably sold out. Shortly before finding this out, I did get a glimpse of Mississippi’s new expanded digs and the place looks pretty nifty, but with the Saturday dwindling on the tail end of a street fair, it was packed and I was anxious to make myself scarce if I couldn’t see the show.
A great poster, regardless.
A little bit of searching, luckily, at least gives us a glimpse into what they sound like live together. Both tracks are Thao songs: the first is a new song (the first song written after Know Better Learn Faster was finished), with a video at the yourstru.ly link; the second taken live from a show on the current tour, from the aforementioned album.
A lot of favorites in here. “Body” is a new one, “Blood” one of my favorite Pearl Jam tunes, “Legs Away” and “Hands” have both been in my heavy rotation for some time now, so I guess the Frankenmix was inevitable. “Best Friend’s Arm”, of course, is from one of my all-time favorite albums. And, yeah, I like the Nirvana version of “Molly’s Lips” better than the original, so that’s the one that goes in the list.
The other great thing about building around random criteria is the discovery of songs that you had but hadn’t ever given just time to. GBV’s “Skin Parade” is definitely in this category, a song that starts out beautiful and wistful, lingering in an ashtray-laden greasy spoon atmosphere before kicking in to a driving rhythm in beautifully fuzzy high gear. Music to build monsters by.
Oh, Sunday night shows, why couldn’t you be on any other night of the week?
With a sunny day firmly one day back and allergies having officially begun their assault on my sanity for the season, and both Amy and I riding the crest of a wave that promises a long day on Monday once it breaks, we’re lethargic at best heading down to Holocene, but we’re both really excited to see Born Ruffians. Music that hyper and infectious has to be good live, right?
We arrive with Strange Holiday already in full swing and find a seat on one of the couple of couches to watch. They’re a fairly full band, five or maybe six people and the lead vocalist keeps changing up to one strange instrument after another which sometimes works to great effect, but not always; I think I recognize the bassist and soon enough we piece it together. He works with my brother at the Cricket Cafe. We met Ben officially last weekend (although we’ve been visiting the Cricket frequently over the last few months because the food is top notch). The music is good, enjoyable, and to my mind recalls The Besnard Lakes, although it’s a bit too reverby for Amy’s taste. But it’s pleasant and toe-tapping and I look forward to seeing where these guys will go with it.
Young Rival was up next (after some Cotton Jones intermission music, yay!) , a much more stripped down band, two guitars and a drummer, Blues Explosion style, promising to play us some rock songs, a promise they amply kept. They had their name spelled out in letters set up across the stage, which I thought was a nice touch, but even so I keep confusing their name in my mind with that of Local Natives as I tried to recall their name later. But of the rocking, there was much to be had with straightforward, catchy, toe-tapping tunes (and vocals that occasionally called Mark E. Smith to mind) that enthused what turned out to be a pretty good and appreciative crowd for a Sunday night. Part way through the set, though, our view from the couch got obscured and so Amy and I opted to hang out in the spacious lobby for the rest of it playing some fierce Quordy matches against my iPod. The music was plenty loud there, too, so there wasn’t much to miss outside of some hand-clapping that we didn’t participate in.
There are some bands who defy my expectations of what they look like, upon finally seeing them live; like seeing a movie based on a well-loved book, you build up a idea or at least a vague notion in your mind of what these fellows are like. That wasn’t Born Ruffians; they looked like the Born Ruffians had in my head, and they rocked every bit as much as I hoped. They sounded great, played well, were affable with the crowd, and scorched through tune after tune with a ton of energy, opening with the first track off of their new album (“Oh Man”) and bouncing back and forth between the newer songs and stuff from 2008′s “Red Yellow & Blue” (including a super fun rendition of… “Barnacle Goose”, is that the song?).
They– and I too, I suppose– were surprised by the number of people dancing about given that it’s a 21+ venue, but Holocene usually has an enthusiastic crowd. (“Not quite sure how in the HECK you people moved and shaked liked you did, but you did,” said their post-show Facebook post.) Unfortunately, they hadn’t hit the stage until quarter-after eleven and being the old folk that we now are– at least when it comes to Sunday night shows– we left shortly before midnight, the fading strains of “Retard Canard” wafting out behind us.
Cotton Jones, P.S. Eliot, The Soft Pack, Cat Power, Harlem, Jaill, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Tune-Yards,
The Besnard Lakes, Born Ruffians, Young Rival, Forest City Lovers, Howe Gelb, Karen Elson, Mynabirds, Land of Talk,
Admiral Radley, Band of Skulls, Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Endless Boogie, Knight School, Marnie Stern, Quasi, Portland
Cello Project
