stopped doing titles.
few things on the docket this week, but it should still be a short post.
Work is going strong, this is my second to last week and its been very fun. every firday the school takes the kids, i think mainly the lower school, on a field trip during this summer program. the field trips the past 2 weeks have been rough though. First was the DC Aquarium, which isn't bad, but its nothing compared to the baltimore one an hour away. the DC one is just small and its in the basement of a federal building. Then this past friday was to the kennedy center where we just got a tour. It was cool and all but the kids clearly wanted to see a show, so maybe somehting small coulda been organized. That and the Guide seemed to not know what to expect wiht the kids, as they all have learning disabilities of some sort. I get thta the school is cutting back cause of finances, btu still, the fieldtrips have been kind of lackluster.
I head back to EC about 2 weeks from tomorrow (thursday). Kinda weird. Assuming my dad and i drive out, we'll drive out on thursday and friday and then have all day saturday to do whatever and then drive the routes i'd take to go grocery shoopping, to the movies/ Walmart, etc. SHould be a fun road trip. So weird i'm going back so soon! looking forward to running NSO though.
In other news, my youtube channel is gonna proverbially explode with video amountage (technical term) in August. I've got Skystalker and Brawn from the second movie toyline coming at various points in the month. I've got the new Rodimus and Red alert figures pre-ordered, and they might be waiting for me at Earlham. Also, theres one more review in there, i cant remeber, but yea. its gonna be insane.
Reccomendation time:
Music first. Check out a band named Taddy Porter. Theyre kind of bluesy-rock/ southernish rock. Theyre very good. I really like their sound. Look into them on itunes. They remind me of a more grungy, less fine-tuned version of The Black Keys, not that the latter band is over produced or any of that. but yea.
Games: If you have Steam look into PEggle extreme and Geometry wars. The former is a causal strategy game type thing similar to snood. The second is a old school shooter where you have to shoot geometric shapes before they hit you. the first is free and very fun, as the sound effects are very funny at times. the second one requires some strategy, but not much. Both are great Pick-up and Play type games.
Look at that, a quick post! IF you want more on anything, let me know.
--Zack
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Weekly update 7-21-10: Another Quick Hit
Boy am i running out of things to say in these weekly updates. Honeslty, as fun as fats as this summer has been, not a whole lot has happened that i can write about on this blog where all is anonymous. So anyway, here goes this week's bloggage.
Work, my internship at a school earby for kids wiht learning issues, has been very fun. The cool thing today was because the mian teacher i'm wokring wiht was out for the morning i got to teach 8 and 9 year olds basic math. Its something we take for granted until we actually ahve to teach it to a kid who doesnt get it. ITs a great feeling when they do get it, and its why i'm an Education minor and why i wanna do somethin with kids and learning disabilities as my career.
Secondly, i think last week i blogged about something that happened to my car. Now, tit was suggested that i not blog about it, but i feel its enough in the past that i can, with still some degree of anonymity. Basically, the long and short is i was out getting som drving practice wiht my dad on a saturday, we were heading home finally, and i got into an accident. All parties involved were ok, including the other driver and my dad. a few days later, my car was labelled as totalled because i had spun into a fire hydrant and not stomped on the brakes after the collision. Anyway, based on the insurance stuff my family has, we were covered up to a certain point on a replacement. The replacement is a pre-owned, silver 2007 VW JEtta. I love the thing. Runs fairly smoothly, handels great, the color is awesome and yea.
third, got two new transformers in the past week. Drift from the Generations line and Seaspray from the Hunt for the Decpeticons line (the latter is a slight continuation fo the toyline based off the movie from 2010). Seaspray does not feel like a movie-line figure to me. If you want my full nerdy thoughts on the figure, check out the link here: http://zackec2011.blogspot.com/2010/07/extended-impressions-text-revie-02.html
While you're at it, if your head hasnt exploded from the nerdiness, check out the mian page of my transformers blog:zackec2011.blogspot.com
Now As most of you knwo i'm trying to lose wieght again this summer. If i'm lucky i'll be down to 180lbs by august. I still would like to be aroudn 170 by graduation in may though, so thats 8 months for 10 pounds (not inclduign holiday weight and assuming i'm at 180 in august). THe only issue with that is once thigns ramp up wiht senior year psych stuff and dacne alloy, i dont know how often i'll be able to hit the gym and do really intense cardio. We'll see.
Lastly, I'm gonna post a game review right now to end this update. The review is also up on facebook.
Game: Alien Swarm
Price: Free on Steam
Thoughts:
Ok so this is essentially a DMOD or GMOD (whatever those mean) game that the folks at Valve issued via Steam. It seems to be laregely a 4 player co-op online multiplayer, but it has a single player offline mode. So i was doing this earlier, and there's a handy tutorial as you go through the first mission. but the prompts only op up every so often.
Beinng the casual gamer i am, i was expecting a tutorial type mini level where i'd be told most of the controls. i.e. healing squad mates and reloading and such. but this was not the case. you have to go to the pause menu and look at the contorls. This is fine, juts unexpected for me as i'm nto much fo a shooter guy and this is a shooter/action/strategy. Anyway, other than that, my next complaint is the persepctive. You have a 3rd person perspective, but its not right behidn the character you're playing as. Rather, its up in the air a considerable amount. This distracts from the immersion slightly in my experience.
only 2 other complaints is that with my wireless mouse, the looking control seems to be way more sensitive than it should be. On my first play through of mission 1, i accidentally shot one of my squadmates alot because there was a alien swarming him. He died later in the mission. on my second playthrough of mission one (which i still havent completed), i was better wiht not shooting people, but i still ran into an issue, fairly early into the mission. There's one member on yoru team that apparently can never die, otherwise you fail the mission (at least at that stage in the mission) . Apparnetly he is the only guy for a while that can weld dthe doors shut to prevent alien swarms. There is no indication from the game that you need to weld certain doors to prevent alien swarms until he dies. Then, the game tells you. I suppose this should be understood, but for the average joe who goes into the game cold, it is rather annoying to be jarred into "mission failure" like that.
To the Pro points. THough, welding the doors is easy to do and such and it adds an element of strategy to the game. The other pro for this game is that the controls. While the W-S-A-D (to move up (north), down (south) left (west), right (east) respectively) are a bit wonky as they as mainly just strafing controls. THey respond very well, as does the "turn the head" control that the mouse has. they worked best in tandem. But still, the controls can be a bit sensitive if you get caught in a swarm.
The other pluses is that the graphics are visual stunning for a free game. The Aliens acan be a bit suprising as a lot of mission one has murkyness to it. The biggest thing for me wiht a game like this is if its fun and seems infintely playable as a standalone singleplayer. I feel it is, even if i apparently fail right out the gate at getting though the first mission. I had a lot of fun playing it and despite the perspective issue it feels like i can stay to it for hours. The only other game wiht similar strutcutre that i have from Steam is Plain Sight, and that seems more pick up and play. And the Multiplayer on that is kind fo weak.
The long and short: Most of the flaws i point out will be because i'm not one who often plays action/shooters/ stragety games when they blend together that often. sTill, this game was very enjoyable for me. and i will continue to plsy ti when i feel like it. I can see it being up there with Torchlight as a game i play most often on steam.
Plus, its free, as in $0.00 so you really cant go wrong.
Thats probably a one-off thing. I'm considering an unpaid movie reviewer intern position at a site thats an offshoot of tomopop.com where one of my friends posts, but i dont think i can financially afford to see a movie every weekend or whatever.
Thats all for me this week. see you all on the 28th.
--ZAck
Work, my internship at a school earby for kids wiht learning issues, has been very fun. The cool thing today was because the mian teacher i'm wokring wiht was out for the morning i got to teach 8 and 9 year olds basic math. Its something we take for granted until we actually ahve to teach it to a kid who doesnt get it. ITs a great feeling when they do get it, and its why i'm an Education minor and why i wanna do somethin with kids and learning disabilities as my career.
Secondly, i think last week i blogged about something that happened to my car. Now, tit was suggested that i not blog about it, but i feel its enough in the past that i can, with still some degree of anonymity. Basically, the long and short is i was out getting som drving practice wiht my dad on a saturday, we were heading home finally, and i got into an accident. All parties involved were ok, including the other driver and my dad. a few days later, my car was labelled as totalled because i had spun into a fire hydrant and not stomped on the brakes after the collision. Anyway, based on the insurance stuff my family has, we were covered up to a certain point on a replacement. The replacement is a pre-owned, silver 2007 VW JEtta. I love the thing. Runs fairly smoothly, handels great, the color is awesome and yea.
third, got two new transformers in the past week. Drift from the Generations line and Seaspray from the Hunt for the Decpeticons line (the latter is a slight continuation fo the toyline based off the movie from 2010). Seaspray does not feel like a movie-line figure to me. If you want my full nerdy thoughts on the figure, check out the link here: http://zackec2011.blogspot.com/2010/07/extended-impressions-text-revie-02.html
While you're at it, if your head hasnt exploded from the nerdiness, check out the mian page of my transformers blog:zackec2011.blogspot.com
Now As most of you knwo i'm trying to lose wieght again this summer. If i'm lucky i'll be down to 180lbs by august. I still would like to be aroudn 170 by graduation in may though, so thats 8 months for 10 pounds (not inclduign holiday weight and assuming i'm at 180 in august). THe only issue with that is once thigns ramp up wiht senior year psych stuff and dacne alloy, i dont know how often i'll be able to hit the gym and do really intense cardio. We'll see.
Lastly, I'm gonna post a game review right now to end this update. The review is also up on facebook.
Game: Alien Swarm
Price: Free on Steam
Thoughts:
Ok so this is essentially a DMOD or GMOD (whatever those mean) game that the folks at Valve issued via Steam. It seems to be laregely a 4 player co-op online multiplayer, but it has a single player offline mode. So i was doing this earlier, and there's a handy tutorial as you go through the first mission. but the prompts only op up every so often.
Beinng the casual gamer i am, i was expecting a tutorial type mini level where i'd be told most of the controls. i.e. healing squad mates and reloading and such. but this was not the case. you have to go to the pause menu and look at the contorls. This is fine, juts unexpected for me as i'm nto much fo a shooter guy and this is a shooter/action/strategy. Anyway, other than that, my next complaint is the persepctive. You have a 3rd person perspective, but its not right behidn the character you're playing as. Rather, its up in the air a considerable amount. This distracts from the immersion slightly in my experience.
only 2 other complaints is that with my wireless mouse, the looking control seems to be way more sensitive than it should be. On my first play through of mission 1, i accidentally shot one of my squadmates alot because there was a alien swarming him. He died later in the mission. on my second playthrough of mission one (which i still havent completed), i was better wiht not shooting people, but i still ran into an issue, fairly early into the mission. There's one member on yoru team that apparently can never die, otherwise you fail the mission (at least at that stage in the mission) . Apparnetly he is the only guy for a while that can weld dthe doors shut to prevent alien swarms. There is no indication from the game that you need to weld certain doors to prevent alien swarms until he dies. Then, the game tells you. I suppose this should be understood, but for the average joe who goes into the game cold, it is rather annoying to be jarred into "mission failure" like that.
To the Pro points. THough, welding the doors is easy to do and such and it adds an element of strategy to the game. The other pro for this game is that the controls. While the W-S-A-D (to move up (north), down (south) left (west), right (east) respectively) are a bit wonky as they as mainly just strafing controls. THey respond very well, as does the "turn the head" control that the mouse has. they worked best in tandem. But still, the controls can be a bit sensitive if you get caught in a swarm.
The other pluses is that the graphics are visual stunning for a free game. The Aliens acan be a bit suprising as a lot of mission one has murkyness to it. The biggest thing for me wiht a game like this is if its fun and seems infintely playable as a standalone singleplayer. I feel it is, even if i apparently fail right out the gate at getting though the first mission. I had a lot of fun playing it and despite the perspective issue it feels like i can stay to it for hours. The only other game wiht similar strutcutre that i have from Steam is Plain Sight, and that seems more pick up and play. And the Multiplayer on that is kind fo weak.
The long and short: Most of the flaws i point out will be because i'm not one who often plays action/shooters/ stragety games when they blend together that often. sTill, this game was very enjoyable for me. and i will continue to plsy ti when i feel like it. I can see it being up there with Torchlight as a game i play most often on steam.
Plus, its free, as in $0.00 so you really cant go wrong.
Thats probably a one-off thing. I'm considering an unpaid movie reviewer intern position at a site thats an offshoot of tomopop.com where one of my friends posts, but i dont think i can financially afford to see a movie every weekend or whatever.
Thats all for me this week. see you all on the 28th.
--ZAck
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Weekly update: 7/14/10
No more titles, can never think of witty ones.
Anyway, hey everyone, hope you didnt miss this blog too much during the week. You can totally tell its summer because there has really been nothign major going on. There is something that happened over the course of the weekend that i'm nto gonna blog about. but ask if you wanna know.
speaking of whcih, i have a seque. You all remember how after Kal Penn's Charater in House M.D. committed suicide, everyone, including House, was off their game and such. that's how i felt these past few days. I had no punchyness/swagger/smarkyness or whatever you wanna call it. And it sucked. But i got it back today and it felt awesome.
Work this weekn has been going slow, which is funny, because thats how it was last year. the first week went by fast lats year, and then the middle two weeks went slow and the last 2 went by pretty fast. This afternoon went by fast, but the rest of the week has gone by slowly . the one thing i'm not looking forward to abotu thursdays where i work is the kids i work with have a double block (90 minutes) of language arts, which is reading and writing for the. and it feels slow as molasses to me, every time it appears (both last year and the one this year). I can't imagine how slowly it must go for the kids.
speaking of reading (look at me wiht the segue's this week), If i wanna be an advisor aide during NSO (new student orientation (which i'm already doing) for the freshman, i need to read the book theyre required to read. Called, Half of a Yellow sun, the book is 540 some pages and is by Chimamanda Adiche. Its really not grabbing me. it seems to be a charcater driven drama about a certain section in southwest Nigeria wanting independance fomr the government of the mian country. thats all fine and dandy, but the plot is very broken up as the book follows five charcaters: 1)a guy who is supposedly a revolutionary socialist in the state at the time, who has made a name for himself somehow. 2) his hosueboy 3) #1's mistress who we dont find out is his mistress until the chapter after her own family is introduced (her parents are remotely relevant so far) 4) an angsty, emo, british writer guy who doesnt seem to fit in with the culture or with the crowd that 5) the woman he has come to love ( who is the "twin" sister of the revlutionary socialist's mistress) hang out with. Now coming along to why i'm not liking this book, which may cause me to not be an advisor aide. It's dry, the only interesting dynamic is between the numbers 1-3 above, and the writing is very not captivating. That and the last few chapter have been stopped before they could end because Chimamanda feels compelled to put in something about the process of the actual writing of the book the british dude is researching. I am not being grabbed by this book at all, and its very slow to get going and to get me to actually care about the characters. Maybe if i knew some more about Nigeria and what it was like in the 1960's i would actually care about the atmosphere of the time and how that is a good context for the book.
Looking at the above paragraph, i can definlty say that last sentence is my real issue. The book assumes right out of the gate that its readers know something about Nigeria in the 1960's and how it's southwest region, Biafra, wanted to eb independant. I prefer to books that dont do this, and give some background wihtouth being dry.
one more slightly negative commentary piece. there was something that kind of annoyed from one of the people i watch on youtube. he did a serious video clips of his day, and in one of them he and his family stopped for lunch, and one of his daughters couldnt go in, why i dont know. but this guy had the audacity to turn on the camera and say they were at the restauarant and then turn the camera on his wailing/crying daughter and say " and she's crying because she cant go in" in a mockingly "i feel pity for her" tone ( from what i gathered). This astounds me, no dad should film his daughter against her wiil, let alone make fun of her crying daughter because she cant go into a restaurant. You shoudl go someplace and get drive-thru where she can eat. IT's not that hard. And seriously dodnt film your own offspring crying in a video you let masses see, thats disturbing!
Yea i fell like i dont make my point clearly in those mini-rants.
anyway, to end on somehting more positive. below is a link to remix/mashup i've had stuck in my head since i ripped it from youtube. It's by DJ Earworm and its a mashup of the top 25 billboard hits from 2009. Its pretty good, and apparently he does it every year. idk if the 2010 one is out yet. here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzrwh2Z2hQ
That is all.
--Zack
On a more positive n
Anyway, hey everyone, hope you didnt miss this blog too much during the week. You can totally tell its summer because there has really been nothign major going on. There is something that happened over the course of the weekend that i'm nto gonna blog about. but ask if you wanna know.
speaking of whcih, i have a seque. You all remember how after Kal Penn's Charater in House M.D. committed suicide, everyone, including House, was off their game and such. that's how i felt these past few days. I had no punchyness/swagger/smarkyness or whatever you wanna call it. And it sucked. But i got it back today and it felt awesome.
Work this weekn has been going slow, which is funny, because thats how it was last year. the first week went by fast lats year, and then the middle two weeks went slow and the last 2 went by pretty fast. This afternoon went by fast, but the rest of the week has gone by slowly . the one thing i'm not looking forward to abotu thursdays where i work is the kids i work with have a double block (90 minutes) of language arts, which is reading and writing for the. and it feels slow as molasses to me, every time it appears (both last year and the one this year). I can't imagine how slowly it must go for the kids.
speaking of reading (look at me wiht the segue's this week), If i wanna be an advisor aide during NSO (new student orientation (which i'm already doing) for the freshman, i need to read the book theyre required to read. Called, Half of a Yellow sun, the book is 540 some pages and is by Chimamanda Adiche. Its really not grabbing me. it seems to be a charcater driven drama about a certain section in southwest Nigeria wanting independance fomr the government of the mian country. thats all fine and dandy, but the plot is very broken up as the book follows five charcaters: 1)a guy who is supposedly a revolutionary socialist in the state at the time, who has made a name for himself somehow. 2) his hosueboy 3) #1's mistress who we dont find out is his mistress until the chapter after her own family is introduced (her parents are remotely relevant so far) 4) an angsty, emo, british writer guy who doesnt seem to fit in with the culture or with the crowd that 5) the woman he has come to love ( who is the "twin" sister of the revlutionary socialist's mistress) hang out with. Now coming along to why i'm not liking this book, which may cause me to not be an advisor aide. It's dry, the only interesting dynamic is between the numbers 1-3 above, and the writing is very not captivating. That and the last few chapter have been stopped before they could end because Chimamanda feels compelled to put in something about the process of the actual writing of the book the british dude is researching. I am not being grabbed by this book at all, and its very slow to get going and to get me to actually care about the characters. Maybe if i knew some more about Nigeria and what it was like in the 1960's i would actually care about the atmosphere of the time and how that is a good context for the book.
Looking at the above paragraph, i can definlty say that last sentence is my real issue. The book assumes right out of the gate that its readers know something about Nigeria in the 1960's and how it's southwest region, Biafra, wanted to eb independant. I prefer to books that dont do this, and give some background wihtouth being dry.
one more slightly negative commentary piece. there was something that kind of annoyed from one of the people i watch on youtube. he did a serious video clips of his day, and in one of them he and his family stopped for lunch, and one of his daughters couldnt go in, why i dont know. but this guy had the audacity to turn on the camera and say they were at the restauarant and then turn the camera on his wailing/crying daughter and say " and she's crying because she cant go in" in a mockingly "i feel pity for her" tone ( from what i gathered). This astounds me, no dad should film his daughter against her wiil, let alone make fun of her crying daughter because she cant go into a restaurant. You shoudl go someplace and get drive-thru where she can eat. IT's not that hard. And seriously dodnt film your own offspring crying in a video you let masses see, thats disturbing!
Yea i fell like i dont make my point clearly in those mini-rants.
anyway, to end on somehting more positive. below is a link to remix/mashup i've had stuck in my head since i ripped it from youtube. It's by DJ Earworm and its a mashup of the top 25 billboard hits from 2009. Its pretty good, and apparently he does it every year. idk if the 2010 one is out yet. here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzrwh2Z2hQ
That is all.
--Zack
On a more positive n
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Music review: Freestate's debut Album "Surrender"
**Disclaimer*: if anyone from the band Freestate, related to its members or affiliated with the band sees this, what follows is my opinion and i do not mean to harm or offend anyone in the band. **end of disclaimer**
Ok, so this is an attempt at a music review of a band called Freestate and their debut album, which came out last year, entitled Surrender. its available on itunes, but i took part in the promotion they did through tunelab.com where the band would email you 2 track from the album every other week. This was fine and dandy but 1) the tracks werent; sent in order and 2) there were massive delays in emailing the tracks to me and after getting about 6 of the songs initially the emails completly stopped. Thats what i call a succesful promotion *sarcasm* Ok rant done.
So i was hoping i could get the rest of the album at some point, maybe off itunes, but then abotu a week or so ago. The band did another promotion through tunelab.com offering the entire album for free, Which made me happy. so i just downloaded it then and there, overwriting the files i had. now back from what i had prior, there were 2 tracks that really grrabbed and the rest were solid or meh. now i have the full album, so i'll attempt to do a review of it. This is mianly because theyre gonna be recording thier sophmore effort stateside in september (so probably an April/May 2011 release). The sophmore album will make or break the band on my radar and below is why.
HEre's the track brakedown and my thoughts:
1) "SOS": A very solid opener, one of the ones that grabbed me right away, the musicianship is great, especially the drumworks, andd the lyrics are well crafted and nto cliche.
2)"Necessary": I beleieve this was the first single. I liked it initially and the musicianship is still solid, and the lyrics on the verses isnt bad. But the hook and chorus is what kills the song for me and makes it seem otu fo place for a band who went wiht a hard rock sound to open the album. The lyrics on the chorus are initially along the lines of "we'll find nothing's necessary to keep our love alive" or something. Gag me please, but i believe these words should never be paired with hard rock riffsm because they always come out emo-y.
3) "Lately": The first song wiht more of a Rap-rock/ feel and it totally doesn't mesh wiht the album's sound from the past two tracks. The opening sounds so promising too, like a good hard-rock song. But then the drums get somewhat tribal and it sounds like they're ripping off a B-side from 10 years' debut album, which means it essentially sounds like a more artfully prog sounding Tool. This sound only works for Tool and Maynard James Keenan. 10 YEars have sinced changed things up and i really want to look into them, cause i like their sound now. but that another post. This song also has a bti of Serj Tankian on the verses, but more melodic. but this is a typical. "I should listen more to me because i hate you and what you did to me" song. and i feel there's supposed to be some bite to this song, btu it falls flat in my opinion. The Chorus is too rap-like and the word feel is repeated at the end of both the first lines in it. And half the lyrics in the second line are said so fast theyre nearly mumbled.
4) "The Man who COuldn't Lie": I dont mine this song, but i kinda wish i had the full lyrics to the chorus. the opening sounds too much like old Theory of a Deadman, and the chorus, as far as i can tell is "I'm runnign away til i find, preistesses standing before you, sad lies. Cause i'm the man who can't lie, see the truth's here without you, said lies" or something. but the vocalist croons too much on the chorus, make the parts i believe to be "sad lies" and "said lies" impossible to understand. IT's a decent song though.
5)TWice Alive: Again not bad, but this song just plain doesnt do it for me, and dthe ending is polluted wiht too much vocalness and its overall a bit too repetitive for me
6) "Surrender" : Dont like how the track opens, Can't get into a song that opens with "once in a while a person comes along and makes you smile" Especially when the guitars and rums have so much OOmph after the acapella opening that you expect somethign different.
7) "Heart of Stone": It's nto bad, and i liek the atmospheric/ alt rock guitar riffs, but nthign grabs me here.
8)"Again". Filler song about how whoever wrote the song should've done what someobody said and not procrastinated. Bad topic, reptitive song that the hipster masses would eat up. I dodnt like this song at all. "If only i did what you said i'd listen to you" are some of the lyrics.
9) "Naked": It tooks us this long to get to another excellently crafted (both in musicianship and lyrics) song about tossing everything away and becoming anonymous to an extent. Really like the feel of this song and i love the solo.
10) "Fire fly": love the opening riff. verse lyrics are a bit weak. cliche topic of going all out, giving everythign and charging in for something you have passion for. but the chorus isnt half bad, and the vocal dont pollute the instrumentals, like on most of the rest of the album. The bridge is a bit cliche and drawn out, but i dont mind it. I feel like there coulda been a solo after it though. There's a very solid solo at the end after more of some bridge lyrics after the chorus repeats. I dont like the fadeout on the solo though. just extend the song so its ends after the solo. All in all, this isnt half bad of a song.
11) "Clarify": Interesting opening part. feels like a good driving song. not the best in terms of lyrics, but nto bad, they get better as the verses go. Chorus feel very forced, especially in terms of vocal range. The chorus seems a bit basic in its lyrics. smal guiatr solo after the second shorus and bridge, nothing special, then we get into "gang vocals" where the backing members (so the bassist and drummer for this band probs) do the vocals to get the crowd going live essentially. i dont like "gang vocals" and theyre hard to explain.
12) "Phoenix": more a world music opening. non-lead isnger vocals on the verse and then paired wiht his on the chorus. not bad chorus. but who is the other vocals, a guest guy or the bassist? nthign about a Phoenix in this song. bridge lyrics overlap, and are thus mixed poorly. obsession wiht the words "feel, real" and the word "scream is thrown in for filler over what coulda been a nice solo. seems this carries over to the chorus. How does this song pertain to a phoenix, or phoenix characteristics? Not bad, but nothign grabs me about it especially when it seems the churs is "fell real, scream to feel inside".
13) Mystery man: too punkish of an opener for me. the verses are quick, bland and forgettable. the chorus is weak as its just a lot of "ay" words like day,way and such rhymed together. dont like the vocal effect on the verses.
I think "Space and time" and "Phoenix (acoustic) were bonuses wiht the free download, so yea. not reviwewing them
In short, Download "SOS" and "NAked" those are your strongest tracks. Then maybe look at "fire fly" and "phoenix". but dont get the full album unless you're curious based on my descriptions.
--Zack
Ok, so this is an attempt at a music review of a band called Freestate and their debut album, which came out last year, entitled Surrender. its available on itunes, but i took part in the promotion they did through tunelab.com where the band would email you 2 track from the album every other week. This was fine and dandy but 1) the tracks werent; sent in order and 2) there were massive delays in emailing the tracks to me and after getting about 6 of the songs initially the emails completly stopped. Thats what i call a succesful promotion *sarcasm* Ok rant done.
So i was hoping i could get the rest of the album at some point, maybe off itunes, but then abotu a week or so ago. The band did another promotion through tunelab.com offering the entire album for free, Which made me happy. so i just downloaded it then and there, overwriting the files i had. now back from what i had prior, there were 2 tracks that really grrabbed and the rest were solid or meh. now i have the full album, so i'll attempt to do a review of it. This is mianly because theyre gonna be recording thier sophmore effort stateside in september (so probably an April/May 2011 release). The sophmore album will make or break the band on my radar and below is why.
HEre's the track brakedown and my thoughts:
1) "SOS": A very solid opener, one of the ones that grabbed me right away, the musicianship is great, especially the drumworks, andd the lyrics are well crafted and nto cliche.
2)"Necessary": I beleieve this was the first single. I liked it initially and the musicianship is still solid, and the lyrics on the verses isnt bad. But the hook and chorus is what kills the song for me and makes it seem otu fo place for a band who went wiht a hard rock sound to open the album. The lyrics on the chorus are initially along the lines of "we'll find nothing's necessary to keep our love alive" or something. Gag me please, but i believe these words should never be paired with hard rock riffsm because they always come out emo-y.
3) "Lately": The first song wiht more of a Rap-rock/ feel and it totally doesn't mesh wiht the album's sound from the past two tracks. The opening sounds so promising too, like a good hard-rock song. But then the drums get somewhat tribal and it sounds like they're ripping off a B-side from 10 years' debut album, which means it essentially sounds like a more artfully prog sounding Tool. This sound only works for Tool and Maynard James Keenan. 10 YEars have sinced changed things up and i really want to look into them, cause i like their sound now. but that another post. This song also has a bti of Serj Tankian on the verses, but more melodic. but this is a typical. "I should listen more to me because i hate you and what you did to me" song. and i feel there's supposed to be some bite to this song, btu it falls flat in my opinion. The Chorus is too rap-like and the word feel is repeated at the end of both the first lines in it. And half the lyrics in the second line are said so fast theyre nearly mumbled.
4) "The Man who COuldn't Lie": I dont mine this song, but i kinda wish i had the full lyrics to the chorus. the opening sounds too much like old Theory of a Deadman, and the chorus, as far as i can tell is "I'm runnign away til i find, preistesses standing before you, sad lies. Cause i'm the man who can't lie, see the truth's here without you, said lies" or something. but the vocalist croons too much on the chorus, make the parts i believe to be "sad lies" and "said lies" impossible to understand. IT's a decent song though.
5)TWice Alive: Again not bad, but this song just plain doesnt do it for me, and dthe ending is polluted wiht too much vocalness and its overall a bit too repetitive for me
6) "Surrender" : Dont like how the track opens, Can't get into a song that opens with "once in a while a person comes along and makes you smile" Especially when the guitars and rums have so much OOmph after the acapella opening that you expect somethign different.
7) "Heart of Stone": It's nto bad, and i liek the atmospheric/ alt rock guitar riffs, but nthign grabs me here.
8)"Again". Filler song about how whoever wrote the song should've done what someobody said and not procrastinated. Bad topic, reptitive song that the hipster masses would eat up. I dodnt like this song at all. "If only i did what you said i'd listen to you" are some of the lyrics.
9) "Naked": It tooks us this long to get to another excellently crafted (both in musicianship and lyrics) song about tossing everything away and becoming anonymous to an extent. Really like the feel of this song and i love the solo.
10) "Fire fly": love the opening riff. verse lyrics are a bit weak. cliche topic of going all out, giving everythign and charging in for something you have passion for. but the chorus isnt half bad, and the vocal dont pollute the instrumentals, like on most of the rest of the album. The bridge is a bit cliche and drawn out, but i dont mind it. I feel like there coulda been a solo after it though. There's a very solid solo at the end after more of some bridge lyrics after the chorus repeats. I dont like the fadeout on the solo though. just extend the song so its ends after the solo. All in all, this isnt half bad of a song.
11) "Clarify": Interesting opening part. feels like a good driving song. not the best in terms of lyrics, but nto bad, they get better as the verses go. Chorus feel very forced, especially in terms of vocal range. The chorus seems a bit basic in its lyrics. smal guiatr solo after the second shorus and bridge, nothing special, then we get into "gang vocals" where the backing members (so the bassist and drummer for this band probs) do the vocals to get the crowd going live essentially. i dont like "gang vocals" and theyre hard to explain.
12) "Phoenix": more a world music opening. non-lead isnger vocals on the verse and then paired wiht his on the chorus. not bad chorus. but who is the other vocals, a guest guy or the bassist? nthign about a Phoenix in this song. bridge lyrics overlap, and are thus mixed poorly. obsession wiht the words "feel, real" and the word "scream is thrown in for filler over what coulda been a nice solo. seems this carries over to the chorus. How does this song pertain to a phoenix, or phoenix characteristics? Not bad, but nothign grabs me about it especially when it seems the churs is "fell real, scream to feel inside".
13) Mystery man: too punkish of an opener for me. the verses are quick, bland and forgettable. the chorus is weak as its just a lot of "ay" words like day,way and such rhymed together. dont like the vocal effect on the verses.
I think "Space and time" and "Phoenix (acoustic) were bonuses wiht the free download, so yea. not reviwewing them
In short, Download "SOS" and "NAked" those are your strongest tracks. Then maybe look at "fire fly" and "phoenix". but dont get the full album unless you're curious based on my descriptions.
--Zack
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Weekly update 7/7/10:Not a lot to say,
Ok, I'm gonna be honest. i really dont have much to put in this week's post, so here goes nothin.
I'm home. and have been since saturday night. vacation was fun, my dad's still a bti under the weather with a fever and everything after getting better for a breif bit, he;s going in to see his doctor tomorrow, but is on a prescription powerful antibiotic, so hopefully taht clears that up. The last few days of vacation were very uneventful (except for one harrowign experience that i'm not gonna post about on here on the internet cause i dont want it in a public forum like my blog (if you wanna hear about it, ask)). the main food highlight from the end portion of the trip for me was this awesome Penne pasta i had with a creamy-ish tomato sauce and fresh crab meat. OMG, so wonderful and decadent and the flavors worked so well! I really wish Crab meat was going to be more available in the fall. I hope Jungle Jim's has it.
So i've started work for the summer. For the purpose of anonymity, i cannot say much, but i am currently and unpaid intern at a school for kids wiht learning issues. Its my second year wokrign there for their summer program and it s a veyr fun and rewarding job, even if its tiring. though the past 2 days have been fairly low key. I only started on tuesday cause of monday being a federal holiday. Maybe yesterday and today were low key because i'm an assistant teacher/ intern in a room that already has 2 teachers and we've only had 3 kids both days this week for whatever reason. we're supposed to have 7 or 8. Today was more organized than the first day, which made me happy, and i know 1 of thhe kdis i have this summer from last year. The program is 5 weeks, and we're ending mid-week, i think on august 10th. So yea, and then i ehad back on the 13th of August, which i just found out is a friday (whooo boy). and i'm driving back out to school to help wiht NSO so that should be fun (if i'm left wiht any extra $ i may hit up Wally world that first night, or when i have a lull in NSO stuff). So yea, for the remainder of my summer, i'll be wokrign, which will be fun and rewarding. I'll give more thoughts on work as the weeks progress, after all, i do hahve 4 more posts while i'm working there i think.
Two minor things i wanna touch on to wrap up this post (see i wasnt jokign when i said i had little to post about).
1) Music: Slaves to Gravity, one of my favorite new rock bands who are making waves now (more so here in the USA than with thier debut i feel), have posted a video on youtube and an mp3 on the website for free dowload (the mp3, not the video) for their 2nd album's new single: "Good Advice". The vidoe is a bit weird, but i really am diggin the more hard hittign sound with driving beats the song has. Their first record was very nice, but it was mroe along the loines of your breaking Benjamin type bands in that it was mor alt-rock minus the Emo and angst but it also wasnt ad radio ready as some of BB's stuff. Anyway, if this first single is any indication of the album, its that hopefully the upcomign sophmore effort (underwaterouterspace is the name) will be more hard rock with hints of metal, which makes me happy.
2) With regard to my youtube channel (zizzlerizzle8707), i'm slowing crepign towards 200 subscirbers (which is mental) and i'm starrting to consider applying for youtube partnership, mainly so i can not be restrained by the 11 minute time limit i have as a non partner. but i have several questiona btou the whole thing, that maybe someone could elucidate for me in the comments below, or the corresponding Status messgae on facebook. heres my questions:
I'm considering looking into youtube partnership in the fall. Looking at my videos list and there views, i ahve three videos with over 1000 views and several more wiht over 300. I have no idea if this enough, hence the questions below i would like you guys's opinion on.
I'd mainly be Applying for partnership to get rid of the 11-minute time limit non-partners have on youtube.
So here's my questions:
1) what are some of the other perks outside what i mentioned a few line up?
2) whats the rejection rate?
3) do you have to have, for example, around 10 videos that are aroudn 1000 views total, or do you have to constantly get views in the tri[ple digits?
4) If i want to make partner, i fear i may have to re-do a helluva lto fo reviews, basucally all of mine from about February 2010 onwards, as one of the stipulations is you have permission to make money off of the music you use, or its your own music (none of my old garageband stuff is good enough for intro music and its all on an older comp which runs vista). Now the money thing i coudl care less about, but I really dont want to be using the music i've been using so far from "outerzone blues" by Dead End Lake (whcih i already use freely with permission from one of my collector friends, as something seems very "Wrong" or not fair to me about that. This si more of a comment, so i guess respond.
5) Is partnership acceptance dependant on number of subcribers?
Just some thoughts, dont expect much of a response on that from this blog's audience.
Thats it for me this week guys. See you on the 14th of July.
--Zack ZB
I'm home. and have been since saturday night. vacation was fun, my dad's still a bti under the weather with a fever and everything after getting better for a breif bit, he;s going in to see his doctor tomorrow, but is on a prescription powerful antibiotic, so hopefully taht clears that up. The last few days of vacation were very uneventful (except for one harrowign experience that i'm not gonna post about on here on the internet cause i dont want it in a public forum like my blog (if you wanna hear about it, ask)). the main food highlight from the end portion of the trip for me was this awesome Penne pasta i had with a creamy-ish tomato sauce and fresh crab meat. OMG, so wonderful and decadent and the flavors worked so well! I really wish Crab meat was going to be more available in the fall. I hope Jungle Jim's has it.
So i've started work for the summer. For the purpose of anonymity, i cannot say much, but i am currently and unpaid intern at a school for kids wiht learning issues. Its my second year wokrign there for their summer program and it s a veyr fun and rewarding job, even if its tiring. though the past 2 days have been fairly low key. I only started on tuesday cause of monday being a federal holiday. Maybe yesterday and today were low key because i'm an assistant teacher/ intern in a room that already has 2 teachers and we've only had 3 kids both days this week for whatever reason. we're supposed to have 7 or 8. Today was more organized than the first day, which made me happy, and i know 1 of thhe kdis i have this summer from last year. The program is 5 weeks, and we're ending mid-week, i think on august 10th. So yea, and then i ehad back on the 13th of August, which i just found out is a friday (whooo boy). and i'm driving back out to school to help wiht NSO so that should be fun (if i'm left wiht any extra $ i may hit up Wally world that first night, or when i have a lull in NSO stuff). So yea, for the remainder of my summer, i'll be wokrign, which will be fun and rewarding. I'll give more thoughts on work as the weeks progress, after all, i do hahve 4 more posts while i'm working there i think.
Two minor things i wanna touch on to wrap up this post (see i wasnt jokign when i said i had little to post about).
1) Music: Slaves to Gravity, one of my favorite new rock bands who are making waves now (more so here in the USA than with thier debut i feel), have posted a video on youtube and an mp3 on the website for free dowload (the mp3, not the video) for their 2nd album's new single: "Good Advice". The vidoe is a bit weird, but i really am diggin the more hard hittign sound with driving beats the song has. Their first record was very nice, but it was mroe along the loines of your breaking Benjamin type bands in that it was mor alt-rock minus the Emo and angst but it also wasnt ad radio ready as some of BB's stuff. Anyway, if this first single is any indication of the album, its that hopefully the upcomign sophmore effort (underwaterouterspace is the name) will be more hard rock with hints of metal, which makes me happy.
2) With regard to my youtube channel (zizzlerizzle8707), i'm slowing crepign towards 200 subscirbers (which is mental) and i'm starrting to consider applying for youtube partnership, mainly so i can not be restrained by the 11 minute time limit i have as a non partner. but i have several questiona btou the whole thing, that maybe someone could elucidate for me in the comments below, or the corresponding Status messgae on facebook. heres my questions:
I'm considering looking into youtube partnership in the fall. Looking at my videos list and there views, i ahve three videos with over 1000 views and several more wiht over 300. I have no idea if this enough, hence the questions below i would like you guys's opinion on.
I'd mainly be Applying for partnership to get rid of the 11-minute time limit non-partners have on youtube.
So here's my questions:
1) what are some of the other perks outside what i mentioned a few line up?
2) whats the rejection rate?
3) do you have to have, for example, around 10 videos that are aroudn 1000 views total, or do you have to constantly get views in the tri[ple digits?
4) If i want to make partner, i fear i may have to re-do a helluva lto fo reviews, basucally all of mine from about February 2010 onwards, as one of the stipulations is you have permission to make money off of the music you use, or its your own music (none of my old garageband stuff is good enough for intro music and its all on an older comp which runs vista). Now the money thing i coudl care less about, but I really dont want to be using the music i've been using so far from "outerzone blues" by Dead End Lake (whcih i already use freely with permission from one of my collector friends, as something seems very "Wrong" or not fair to me about that. This si more of a comment, so i guess respond.
5) Is partnership acceptance dependant on number of subcribers?
Just some thoughts, dont expect much of a response on that from this blog's audience.
Thats it for me this week guys. See you on the 14th of July.
--Zack ZB
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