You might expect some serious space rock from a band called The Asteroid Shop. Song titles like “Planetary” seem to confirm the suspicion that you’re in for the kind of shoe-gazing guitar rock that might soundtrack a zero-gravity flight into the great unknown.
But band leader Eric Brendo (interviewed on this blog here) brings an earthy road-weariness to his baritone vocals and guitar work on this Austin, Texas band’s self-titled debut. While the album opens in space with the thundering “Destroyer,” by the second half The Asteroid Shop has landed in the dusty desert of the American West. A lot of bands pick one sound and stick with it, so it’s refreshing to hear this band unplug the guitars and bring in instrumentation more common to the folk and country genres. The result is some real winners like the folksy “Ashes” and lovelorn “Silver Lane.”
Under the stars...
Not every song works and the album drags somewhat in the middle. The lyrics are unlikely to stick in one’s head and Brendo’s vocals are a little rough around the edges. The instrumentals are what’s compelling here. Atmosphere may be one the album’s greatest strengths, whether in the thundering bass of opener “Destroyer” or the shimmering guitar and synths of “Dandelion.” They’re also not afraid to surprise with a quick tempo change, as they do to great effect with the groovy ’60s organ jam in the otherwise sleepy “Planetary.” While not all the songs engage the listener, this is a promising album by a band that knows how to set a mood.
I’ve been following the DC Comics reboot with a lot of interest. I’ve always been a comic book fan but for the last several years have felt a bit left behind. Too many conflicts in the so-called “continuity” had made it hard for even a fan to explain what was happening. Some heroes had died and come back, others gone evil and back. Or both, in the case of Green Lantern.
So I’m glad they’ve decided to start fresh and renumber every comic back to #1. I know some people out there are miffed at the lost history, but I personally was getting tired of having to go to Wikipedia every time a comic referenced a mysterious super vortex first seen in issue 367. I was also getting sick of all the crises constantly afflicting the DC universe. Seriously, they had a “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” an “Infinite Crisis” and a “Final Crisis,” and the last two happened in the span of a few years. I don’t care about earth-shattering events; I just want to read a good story!
Swamp Thing #1: Better than you might think!
And good stories they are. DC so far has only released about 14 of the planned 52 books labeled #1 this month, but there have already been some winners. I’ve read five of them — Justice League, Action Comics (Superman), Detective Comics (Batman), Swamp Thing and Batgirl. Justice League is a great introduction to the DC Universe and has more action than a Michael Bay picture (in a good way). If you’re looking for something a a little darker and more sophisticated, check out Detective Comics, which is a classic Joker story with a twist, or Swamp Thing, a devilish tale of horror (environmental horror?)
Action Comics reminded me of old-school 1940s Superman, but didn’t wow me as much as the others (though I guess some might find it interesting seeing Superman in jeans and a T-shirt). But then, I’ve always been more of a Batman fan. The Batgirl book has strong writing, but feels very much like the first in a larger story arc. Oddly, it also seems to require some knowledge of the character’s past.
The thing I think is really going to boost sales at DC Comics isn’t the narrative reboot, though. It’s digital comics.
Have you heard about this yet? You can now buy digital versions of all of the new comics, the day they are released, and read them on your PC, smartphone or tablet.
This addresses two of the main reasons I stopped buying actual issues of comic books:
I had to make special trips every time I wanted to go to a comic book store. The two shops I know of in Washington, DC are in Georgetown (which takes a Metro ride and a bus transfer to get to), and Union Station (which also requires a $2 Metro ride)
I have very little space to store comic books.
Digital solves both of these problems. I can buy a comic with a mouse click or a tap on my phone’s touch screen, and they’re all stored online so I don’t have to buy an entire filing cabinet. The price per comic feels a little steep since it’s the same as what you’d pay for a print edition, but damn if it isn’t convenient. Longtime comics fans might scoff at the idea, but I am sure it’s going to bring in a lot of people like me who were having trouble keeping up.
What do you think of the DC reboot? Does digital distribution make the difference? Please leave a comment below!
Story-driven video games can be as engaging as a novel or film. But unlike those other mediums, games require some level of interaction with the player. The point of a game isn’t to watch but to participate. But achieving the right balance can be difficult.
Giving the player a choice of what to say during characters’ conversation is one of the most basic ways to involve the player. But different games handle this in different ways. A game like Final Fantasy XIII pretty much bars players from having any role in the conversation, forcing them to sit back and watch. (Arguably, even FFXIII’s gameplay forces the player to sit back and watch, but that’s for another article.)
Other games occasionally pause the conversation to give players an option of what to say. In Fallout 3, players are presented with options that are fully written sentences. In other words, you say what you see. This is an approach that has been used in countless RPGs. It’s a proven winner, but not the most interesting. The biggest downside is that it pretty much forces players to think before every little thing they say. I hope this doesn’t sound cynical, but people don’t do that in real life.
Fallout 3: What you see is what you say
To address that weakness, Mass Effect goes for a more emotion-based approach. Like Fallout, this sci-fi RPG presents players with a choice of responses. But the replies only give a vague idea of what the protagonist will say. If you select “You’re crazy,” Shepard (the hero) won’t say those words exactly (he has a little more tact than that), but he certainly will get the message across.
Mass Effect provides the gist of what Shepard will say
L.A. Noire takes the concept a step further, and perhaps too far. When you are interviewing a person of interest in connection to a crime, you are always presented with the same three choices after the POI gives an answer: You can guess he is telling the truth, you can doubt the veracity of his response, or you can accuse him of lying. This simplified approach sounds good on paper, but in practice isn’t always intuitive. What do you do, for example, when the suspect seems to be telling you only half the truth? Sometimes selecting truth encourages the POI to tell you more. Other people need a little threatening, and “Doubt” is the right way to get him talking.
L.A. Noire: Truth, Doubt or Lie?
Maybe it’s just because I’m a reporter, but interviewing isn’t so black and white. When I’m talking to a source, it’s not like my only three options are to agree with her answers, tell her that I don’t believe her or outright accuse her of lying. What about asking the question again but in a different, more roundabout way? Why can’t I “doubt” an answer without accusing the person of wasting my time (a quick way to end a conversation)? Perhaps if L.A. Noire gave a little better idea of what hero cop Cole Phelps was going to say next, I might choose the right response more often. Game critic Chris Kohler seems to agree in his review for Wired.com’s Game|Life column.
If you were to ask me, the Mass Effect method to conversation is the winner. It engages players in conversation and encourages gut-level responses so that players to make choices based on their own personalities rather than what they think the game wants them to say.
Agree or disagree? Let me know what you think in the comments section!
Interesting post on writing here by Dan Wilson. He was the singer of Semisonic and co-wrote top-selling songs by Adele and the Dixie Chicks.
I’ve been thinking myself lately about how two writers can have incredibly different writing styles and both be great reads. In his article, Dan talks about a writer whose talent is incredibly long-winded writing that still keeps the reader tantalized. Contrast that to someone like Kurt Vonnegut who had the talent to express some of the greatest ironies of human nature in a succinct, biting sentence like “So it goes.”
I personally tend toward the Vonnegut side of the writing scale, and it probably comes from my journalism background. I’m of the opinion you can say a lot with few words (provided you have the right words). I don’t like writing paragraphs that go on for half a page. I don’t like telling readers every minute detail. I try to give them just enough information so that they can see the scene in their heads.
But you know, that’s just what works for me. I’ve read authors who describe things in exhaustive detail and it’s brilliant (take Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness). And even the most succinct writing can be boring if nothing is happening in the plot. Then again, Franz Kafka’s whole shtick is writing stories in which the protagonist never gets anywhere, and he’s a genius too.
So what is it that makes a good book? How much of it has to do with the writing style, and how much of it is the story? What makes one book boring and another something you can’t put down?
One theory I have is that a good book (or a good song or movie) strikes an emotional chord. For example, the reader relates to how the protagonist is feeling. Going back to Kafka, maybe The Trial is so compelling because it so perfectly captures that feeling of hopelessness we feel every time we wait hours in line at the DMV.
What do you think? I’d love to read your comments below.
One of my favorite eccentric British bands, Kaiser Chiefs, have come up with a novel concept. They have just released 20 new songs and are asking fans to pick 10 of them for their new album, The Future is Medieval. This is no election, mind you — everyone gets their own custom mix of the CD with personalized cover art to boot! And even more mind-blowing, everyone gets to sell their custom album to the world!
To be honest, I was actually a little annoyed when I found out about all this. It was a Friday evening after a particularly long day at work. Picking ten songs from twenty, based on mere samples of the songs, seemed like a tall order. What if I left out a great song? What if that song I thought was great actually ended in three minutes of Billy Corgan screaming the letters of the alphabet?
The Future is Medieval (Faded Wave edition)
So I decided to put off making the album until Saturday morning after I’d had a good night’s rest. The result can be streamed and purchased for download at www.kaiserchiefs.com/fadedwave.
I’m happy to report that I rather like my/their album. It’s got everything — super British pop (“Problem Solved”), synthy silliness (“Heard It Break”) and even poignant balladry (“If You Will Have Me”). I think I found a great balance between the band’s fast rockers and slow grooves. But in the immortal words of LeVar Burton, don’t take my word for it.
