Music Review: Honeycreeper

I haven't heard any good rock music in a long time. They just don't seem to make it anymore. No one alerted the press or sent out any memos that good rock music production was on the fritz but we all know it has been for some time.

Well I finally found some. A couple weeks ago, I stumbled into a punk bar in downtown Louisville and discovered a little band called Honeycreeper out of upstate New York. I asked the guy at the door what type of music we were about to hear and he replied, "The loud type." Although the bar lacked any kind of respectable stage, the bands set up in what looked like a large bay window at one end of the bar, which of course is an acoustical disaster for any aspiring group. The band launched hard with a gasoline meets gun metal cut from their CD Frequalizer and it was clear that the guy at the door wasn't kidding. It was loud and it was damn good.

The Honeycreeper sound is a unique blend of metal and ska that teeters on the edge of funk, soul, metal and punk. The band is fronted by a sax playing vixen who's vocals hit the mark in every song. Fast and somewhat furious, her tone fits the band's style like a leather facemask with zippers. There's only one thing hotter than rocker chicks who can sing: Rocker chicks who can sing AND play the saxophone. She's also backed by a great bass guitarist who's fast walking baselines carried more melody than your average bassist (partly due to the fact that Seth, the ex-guitar player had quit the band a couple days prior to the show - we all got to yell F#@K SETH over and over in triumph with the band as they got over this supposed "loss"). The sweet thump thump pow of their drummer nailed the perfect balance of free-form rock n roll and precision-based drumming. This guy was drumming like it was his last gig ever and that made me feel damn good inside. The band was a blast to watch and everyone around me had an excellent time. Although Honeycreeper was only the opening act, they were by far the best. We're all hoping they headline if they come back around this way.

I grabbed the CD before leaving and it's one I HIGHLY recommend. You can actually stream or download it off the net >> Here's the Link from the band's website << . The songs are great fun and being able to listen to them as they were intended with the guitar is cool, although the guitarless trio that played live was equally as impressive. The high tone of the sax and the singer's voice brought enough balance with the bass and drums to easily shrug off a missing guitarist. My only complaint would be a moot one, since it deals with the guitarist on the CD. He used the same type of distortion in just about every song. This tends to muddy up the guitar crunch causing many decent riffs to get lost in a buzzy, thrash effects pedal feel from 1991. The band is all pro, but the guitar sounds as if it is still confined to the garage. This doesn't hinder the songwriting or the band's ambition however, as the feeling of good ol' rock n' roll jumps out of this CD with every song. Make with the clicks and buy it >> here <<. Be sure to check the band's website for tour dates!

Too much time...

This guy has way too much time on his hands. But at least he set a world record for Halo 2.

Today's Society

Ok, first Blog ever so bear with me. I was told at a local High School that they would be able to arrest me and prosecute if my daughter missed more than 6 days of school without an excuse, however I read today here that the parents whose child took a gun to middle school and discharged it into a wall, will not be charged. Ok, so they didn't provide him the gun intentionally, or knowingly, but having a LOADED gun within reach of an obviously not so responsible teen is about as reckless as you can get, wether it will be used to commit a felony or not. (Kentucky Revised Statute 527.110).

As far as I can see, if I don't send my kids to school, I go to jail. But send them armed and I'm in the clear.

Voyager Presents...The Sounds of Earth

Here's an image and brief article about the LP sent to deep space with Voyagers I and II. The diagrams are meant to show alien civilizations how to play the LP and extract music, diagrams and the Story of Earth. Old news but cool photo for your work-diverting pleasure.

Dead Rising Reviewed

It's been a while since I did an actual game review that I couldn't sum up in 2 or 3 sentences, so I'm going to lay the smack down on Capcom's newest gem for the 360: DEAD RISING.

The Setup: Dead Rising is a game where you play a cutting edge photojournalist named Frank. Frank gets dropped off at a shopping mall in Colorado in hopes of uncovering the truth behind an outbreak of zombie infestation in the area. The mall of course if jam packed with zombies to kill, psychopathic humans (boss fights) and survivors that need rescuing.

The Game: Frank has the entire mall at his disposal. He can change clothes, use almost anything as a weapon, pick up foods for health, slay unlimited hoardes of zombies and unlock new areas of the mall by beating the bosses in each area. He can also take photos for easy XP that he uses to learn more fighting skills, do more dmg, get additional inventory slots, etc. The story pushes the gameplay in a series of time-sensitive missions and case files to uncover. This keeps the kill counts up while pushing the story forward. Stopping to kill everything around you is impossible if you're trying to do missions, therefore the gameplay consists of running and dodging like a hyper football quarterback through endless mobs of zombie crowds.

Enemy Smarts: The AI of the zombies is incredibly realistic. They're not too smart but they know how to use their numbers against their victims by surrounding, pinning and sometimes chasing them down. If they're facing you as you run up on them, expect them to reach out and try to grab you, bite you, or pull you down for some serious brain munching if you're not careful. Each zombie moves, reacts and is dressed differently than the next. Some are more aggressive than others, some are faster than others, some wander aimlessly into walls and off scafolding, many will attack you with a weapon and then drop it after you kick them in the face.

The Graphics: Dead Rising utilizes the power of the 360 perfectly. You can literally see hundreds of individually animated zombies on screen at once. The environment of the mall is rendered perfectly and the transitions between day and night are outstanding (zombies get much more aggresive and dangerous at night and when the lights go out, you can see the red eyes glowing). From the thick coat of wax on the supermarket floor to the blood splatter on Frank's white shirt, this game lets no detail go unrendered.

The Bad: I really love this game, but the complaints I have are major enough to keep this good game from being great. First of all, the save feature is ridiculous. You can only save at given locations (bathrooms and the storeroom) and saving is done manually, so if you can't make it across the courtyard, through the plaza, up the stairs after rescuing 5 survivors with one health bar left and you die right as you're unbuckling your pants at the urinal, too bad. You just lost an hour of your life and gameplay that you can never get back. Oh and you're going to have to go back and kill that boss again too.

Another issue I have is that you're expected to run far too many errands/quests/rescues in a very limited amount of time, therefore you constantly feel rushed while playing this game, especially in the 72 Hour Mode. Unless you want to cheat your way through by following the strategy guide step-by-step, there's just no way to get everyone out the mall, kill every boss and still manage to solve the case files in the time given. It's a shame to have such an awesome playground to kill the undead, locate hidden weapon spawns, experiment with different food recipes and not have any time to do anything because you're rushing from case to case. I suppose this is what makes unlocking the Unlimited Play Mode more fun. If you bomb the major cases, you're done and must load your last save point.

My third and final complaint is related to aiming controls. Any time you pull a firearm out, you have to go into aim mode if you want to hit anything. Unfortunately you can't run while in aim mode and your crosshair defaults to center pitch each time you go into aim mode. That is to say that if you're aiming at one of the several bosses who jump around awnings, rafters and high shelves (amazing how almost every boss loves to take the high ground and shoot/throw things at you) but you release the aim mode trigger so you can run to avoid a bomb, gunfire, a creeping zombie, etc. and you then pull the trigger to get in aim mode again, no matter where your camera is looking, your aim defaults to center so you have to manually move your aim pitch back up again. This may not sound like a big deal, but having to readjust your pitch every time you move and take aim makes the boss fights in this game more infuriating than fighting bosses in Kameo.

The game is great, bloody fun overall. Despite my critical gripes, I can't wait to unlock the Unlimited Play Mode so I can spend some time unlocking achievements, running around finding good weapons, and killing hoardes of undead. The game has six different endings, so the replayability is pretty decent, especially if most of your survivors die the first time through like mine did.

Too much Xbox 360

Chromehounds.

Dead Rising.

Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting.

No time to type. Must play more Xbox.

TWLE Breaks Google Page 2

I just did a Google search for "Chromehounds Parts Checklist" and The Web Log Experiment showed up on Page 2 of the search results! Click the image to see the screenshot. It almost brings a tear to your eye!

Although we didn't actually have a Chromehounds Parts Checklist at the time of the search, we do now.

Backyard Astronomy - Fun for a Penny

Here's an interesting photo of a neutron star flare. It reminds me that there are amazing things going on elsewhere in the universe. Understanding the sky and astral objects is something few people can say they have a real grasp of. Ask your average person why the sun and moon move along the same path across the sky and see how many people respond with "the plane of the ecliptic". Ask the average person on a clear night how many constellations they can name that don't have "dipper" in their title.

I love the sky and I'm proud to be a proclaimed, self-taught backyard astronomer thanks to this little book: 40 Nights To Knowing The Sky by Fred Schaaf. It's an interactive guide to help enthusiasts along and it's a fun way to spend a few minutes outdoors at night learning a little something about the world around us. Note: Used copies on Amazon are $0.40 each. That's like a penny each night! What the heck can you do for a penny these days?!

Its a good time to be...

an Xbox Live subscriber.

This past week has seen the release of several top notch demos and the release of one of the most highly anticipated Live Arcade games to date. The demo's to Saints Row and Ninety-Nine Nights (N3) were released and Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting is now Live. Ive downloaded all three and they are all very good games.

Ive decided if Saints Row ever hits the bargain bin Ill pick it up no doubt. Plays much like GTA only better. The graphics are not super top notch but look good and the sound is great. It controls well too. N3 is a more hack-and-slash version of one of my favorite Xbox games, Kingdom Under Fire. I miss the more tactical element of KUF but the action is top notch.

Street Fighter is a great port of the old school arcade game. My one complaint is the 360's controller is not perfect for the game. The D-pad feels too "slippery" to accurately pull off the moves and using the analog stick is just a disaster.

So if your bored for the next few days its your own fault because there plenty out there to play.

Another Shot to Blu-ray

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD...which side are you on? I've been leaning towards HD for a long time now because the more I hear about comparisons, the more it sounds like Blu-ray is an expensive piece of junk. Here's one of the first head-to-head comparisons of movies from the two formats and why you DONT want Blu-ray.

Liquid Body Armor

It's real and it will be on the market before 2008. Read how it works so you'll have something interesting to talk about with people who aren't as smart as yourself.

Military Technologies Stop The Bleeding

Once again, I'm floored by the innovation and forward-thinking by the US Military's advancement of technological research and development. Now they're working to develop an ultrasound tourniquet that stops bleeding using soundwaves. "Sounds" awesome!

For the profile...

Man this guy looks like the coolest guy I've ever known...wait a minute...it IS the coolest guy I've ever known!