\o/

/A drinker and a fiend

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:52:13 -0500

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/Scope

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:37:29 -0500

Just watch.

I let out an audible gasp when I realized what was going on.

[Via Hoygeit's tumblr]

P.S. If there was a way to keep up with people's other blogs from my Vox account, that'd be sweet.

Self-defeating, but sweet.

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/What is Tomopop?

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:59:54 -0600

Topher has created a monster. He's gotten me and mines ~~addicted to~~ interested in vinyl toys, what with his Bastardino icon and his Tirehead-dog-thing-humping-his-360. After buying some for the missus, signing up for the Tomopop newsletter (what is Tomopop?), and playing with Castle Crashers, I'm pretty sure I'm hooked.

Thankfully, web 2.0 is a vast labyrinth of deep links upon deep links, leading me to various and sondry (that's the Middle English spelling. I'm taking a Chaucer class, but more on that later) factoids, pichurrs, blog entries, and this video.

Colette's c-blog --> Colourlovers --> Digg --> Video.

"The Vinyl Frontier" Comic Con Trailer

In other news, I'm off to cover Lanwar 40, which will entail finding stones, and trying to squeeze blood out of them. After that, I will need to find a molehill, and attempt to make a mountain out of it. Maybe some sensationalist yellow journalism will make it seem more interesting than a bunch of dudes playing G.R.A.W. 2 or whateverthefuck.

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/An angel's hug from behind her is her seatbelt

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:07:25 -0600

Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends

When andrea sent me the video to the right, I instantly fell in love with it. It's just so happy and catchy and layered (you know I dig on that), and the animation is everything that I love right now. I don't know enough about pop art to know what I'm trying to say, but I'm totally in love with the little characters and the Web 2.0 curves. The only description I can think of is it that makes me think of vinyl toys. I spend a lot of time looking at Tokidoki and StrangeCo and if it weren't so cost prohibitive, I would be snatching them all up. Is there a catchy buzzword or -ism that I can use in the future, just for clarity and brevity's sake?

Anyway, YouTube's "Related Videos" feature is a godsend, especially when it comes to obscure indie artists and their obscur-er videos. I don't know ... is Daedalus obscure any more? I'm so out of touch, I couldn't begin to tell you about his hipster status. Maybe he sold out, for all I know. Whatever -- I like the fuck out of him, and have since I discovered him in high school through Epitonic. "Quiet Now" by Busdriver is by far the best track on the little collection there, but they're all worth a listen. And they're free! And legal!

So yeah, more Daedalus videos -- all poppy, all catchy, all with a similar aesthetic, all jawsome.

A friend and I were discussing music videos a few days ago (specifically Animal Collective's "Peacebone") and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't sure why artists made them any more. I can't remember the last time I actually saw one on TV, much less one that was visually and orally compelling. But then I just spent an hour watching artsy-fartsy Daedalus videos and I remembered why people still make them: because they can be fucking awesome.

P.S. The fine folks at NinjaTune have Daedalus' Fair Weather Friends EP available for stream. See Orcist stream. Stream, Orcist, stream.

Daedelus - Just Briefly

Daedelus feat. Busdriver and Pigeon John - Something Bells

Daedelus - Sundown

Daedelus - Lights Out

Daedelus - Taking Wing

Animal Collective - Peacebone

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/Peach fuzz

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:39:09 -0600

Hey meng

So -- I've never filmed myself before. Let me clarify -- I've never filmed myself before and put it on YouTube. That shit is for crack-addled teenage girls and pretentious boobs. Seriously, nobody gives a shit.

But.

What if someone did give a shit? What if half a dozen someones gave a shit? What if making videos of yourself is an incredibly effective procrastination tool?

One of the good things about the whole Destructoid thing is that, once you're a part of it, you can relate, at least on a few (perhaps perfunctory) levels, to everyone else there. We might not all like robots, or toys, or flannel shirts, but we all like Destructoid enough to have signed up for it and to check out where the mascot came from.

For the record, I didn't plan for the fucking robot to stall out at weird times and interrupt me when I was talking. I also don't know what compelled me to a.) use this take or b.) do this at all, except for the fact that it was more fun than studying.

I like to think that when you break your YouTube cherry, it's acceptable to compulsively watch yourself over and over. But, that might be my raging egocentrism talking.

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/Oh, Yoshimeh

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:19:53 -0500

Poking around Ectomo instead of tackling a huge and sexy to-do list, I stumbled across this Flaming Lips video. Thank you, Ross Rosenberg, for reminding me of this delightfully quirky and endearing tune.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1

But, seriously, he's right. It would be bad if the robots won.

And since I'm here, check out this sweet tattoo:

The Kraken

As cuddly as Cthulu and Yggdrasil are, the Kraken will always be my favorite mythological beast. Sorry, Lovecraft.

[via Ectoplasmosis and Ectoplasmosis, respectively]

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/Left right, left right

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:01:24 -0500

Beirut

Hey guys, remember that time I wouldn't shut up about the new Beirut album? Well, it came out earlier this month (the 9th to be precise), entirely unnoticed by yours truly since I cheated and got it early. If you're still on the fence about whether or not to purchase what I feel to be a very impressive collection of folk-pop lovelies, then La Blogothèque's Take Away Shows should help you make a decision. They've all been uploaded to The Flying Club Cup website (finally) for your viewing and squee-ing pleasure.

Or even if you could give a shit about finely-orchestrated gypsy music, the videos are overly artsy enough to be disdainful of.

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/Banana brains

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:47:03 -0500

New Order - Blue Monday

M.I.A's "20 Dollar" is what we in the know call a "grower" which is to say that, the first time I heard it, I was mildly disinterested and aggressively unimpressed. I mean, I guess that referencing the Pixies is cool, but choose a more obscure song for maximum street cred. Much to my chagrin, I couldn't seem to escape the damned thing until I realized that it was growing on me.

In an equally hip, yet vastly more subtle, move, M.I.A also managed to lift

Orgy - Blue Monday

the chord progression from New Order's "Blue Monday," which might be inferior only to Orgy's version of it. The "20 Dollar" bass line is slowed, distorted, and digitized, but at it s core we're looking at the same chord structure. At one point in my musical career, I could've told you which chords they were, but ...

Seriously, give it a listen. The Orgy version might actually make this phenomenon easier to hear. Either way, it explains this song's peculiar ability to get stuck in my head even though I don't know any of the goddamned words. Actually, that might ruin it.

For now, I'll just enjoy what amounts to an elaborate New Order/Pixies mash-up.

Not that that's a bad thing.

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/Did I win?

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:51:13 -0500

"You're really good and getting killed."

Over the weekend, I got my first taste of Halo 3, and my disdain for its multiplayer community shouldn't overshadow my general enjoyment of a solid, solid console FPS series. While I find it odd that there would be two whole posts contributed to a game (and genre) that I'm generally ambivalent about, this video was just too cool to pass up.

I like troubling my little head over really abstract notions of "providence" and "fate" and "coincidence" and "probability" -- due, in part, to Dr. Conn's "God, Death, and the Meaning of Life" course 2 semesters ago (God, I hate that man) -- and this seems like some sort of cosmic, digitized message that conveys ... absolutely nothing at all. It was just a really sick throw.

[Via Gameroom]

Editor's Note: This in no way signifies my support of Major League Gaming. I'm of the firm disposition that video games are not a sport and shouldn't be treated as such. Also, watching other people play video games is boring as balls. I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy.

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/Let's leave the yelling to Jamie Stewart

nobody@vox.com(orcist) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:34:03 -0500

Final Fantasy - This Modern Love

Remember when I mentioned that Final Fantasy had worked with Bloc Party? Gleaned from Shugobot, here's a video of Owen Pallett's rendition of "This Modern Love," played at The Great Hall in Toronto.

Part of what I really like about ambient music, and, to a lesser extent, hip-hop, is the way each seemingly-unrelated layer builds on those preceding it to build a sort of wall of sound (I'm looking at you, Album Leaf, Daft Punk, Air ...). It's almost like a musical puzzle: you start with a basic line -- in some cases, it couldn't even really be called a melody -- and then throw another layer on top of it, ad infinitum, until you've got a really full sound that's greater than the sum of it's meager parts. I like Final Fantasy's version of "This Modern Love" precisely for this reason.

On the other hand, the vocal harmonies from the original are gone (and are missed), and some drums would've been nice to keep things sounding a little tighter. Worst of all is Pallett's "Jump left!" which totally shatters any semblance of the whole ambiance-thing he had going on. That may be the point -- it's certainly unsettling, but unpleasantly so.

Nevertheless, the skill with which Pallet constructs each layer (on the fly, I might add) more than makes up for these relatively minor shortcomings (except the yelling -- I can't get over that). Seriously, though, check out Pallett's digital shenanigans -- he plays a layer, records it, and then loops it as he moves on to the next line of music. It's really quite genius and brings a really ... organic feel to his music.

In the meantime, check out Xiu Xiu's "I Luv the Valley, OH!" for a more effective, and chilling, use of screaming at inappropriate times.

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