Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
The Punk Group is calling it quits, at least in Portland. But before they threw in the towel they released one final album. With a running time of just over 16 minutes this album is jam packed with instant classics that are sure to make you miss those crazy bastards. I am particularly fond of “Why Don’t You Just Shut The Fuck Up” as well as the Devo Cover of “Patterns”. They asked me to post this new album “Pink Foam” online and available here for download. Below you will find all 9 tracks from this release in 192kbps MP3. Enjoy the Pink Foam, and to the Punk Group; Thanks for the laughs and great tunes guys, Portland will miss you dearly.
01-The Punk Group _ Roy Assburn
03-The Punk Group _ Why dont you shut the fuck up
04-The Punk Group _ All my friends are food
07-The Punk Group _ Two Ghosts
08-The Punk Group _ The Taco Fairy Is Real
09-The Punk Group _ Gimme Head
Park Chan-Wook’s fantasticly creepy vampire film was horribly overlooked by the Academy for a best Foreign film nomination. In recent years hollywood has been almost overtaken by the vampire film genre, but it took a Korean filmmaker to really get it right. The film looks fantastic, and the performances totally hit the mark. Of course, all of the usual themes are there, but the overriding theme that continues to be missed or dumbed down by American vampire films, is that of SELFISHNESS. Wanting to live forever, have super powers, and literally suck the life of others plays into our desire to feel special, powerful, evil, and thus sexy. Thirst fleshes out this nasty selfishness in such a skin crawling manner that it smashes other vampire films’ faces into a bloody pulp, and then pukes blood on their corpses.
The Short Version:
Any type of gamer will enjoy New Super Mario Bros. Wii, especially if you have any nostalgia for Mario games in general.
The Long Version:
How much you like New Super Mario Bros. Wii is gonna depend on how much you like older games in the ridiculously popular Mario series. Now don’t get me wrong, I think everyone is going to enjoy this game, but some more than others. My girlfriend can’t stop playing it and she has no prior Mario experience. I played them a lot as a lad and enjoyed almost all of them. I am of the generation of kids who’s first video game experience was the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge that came packed with our (Regular) Nintendos. In the classic Fred Savage/Beau Bridges/Christian Slater/Rilo Kiley flick THE WIZARD revealed Super Mario 3 during the climactic videogame battle, I, like just about every other kid, was frothing at the mouth with anticipation. Super Mario World, the next game in the series and the pack in game for the Super Nintendo, is probably the game I played the most in my whole childhood. Mario 64’s graphics and large levels blew my mind. The games that followed were quality for sure, but continued in the style of Mario 64 3D landscapes and gameplay. New Super Mario Brothers Wii’s 2D gameplay is a welcome step back to the older games styles.
One of the aspects of the game that I find to be spot on, is it’s level of difficulty. Just challenging enough at first to make it fun, increasing steadily as you progress until you really have to work at it in order to finish. Along with the normal mission of beating levels in order to reach the end there are lots of other things for you to do as well. There are special coins to collect in each level, alternate level exits to find, warp cannons that shoot you to worlds that are yet to be reached, as well as missions that have you go back through levels you’ve beaten already in order to save Toad, who is hidden in the level somewhere.
Another aspect of the game that I find to be pretty awesome, is that its a sort of mish-mash of all the games that came before it. The map area where you navigate to the levels you want to play is pulled from Mario 3/Super Mario World, there are some jumping and manuvering controls that are pulled from Mario 64, POW boxes from Mario 2, and enemies culled from all of them. Along with this mish-mash are a wide array of new aspects that fit in perfectly and feel quite natural amidst all of this. The new power-ups are a good example of this. Theres a propeller hat, ice flower power, a penguin suit, and a mushroom that shrinks you down to tiny size, which makes my girlfriend keep going on and on about how cute the character is.
One new feature of the game is the simultaneous multi-player. There are advantages and disadvantages to playing through the game with 1, 2 or 3 friends and for the most part its a blast. One thing about it that I was disappointed by however was the selection of characters for multi-player. You get Mario, Luigi, Yellow Toad, and Blue Toad and they all control exactly the same. This is pretty boring to me. I would have liked it if you could have chosen between Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess (or someone else since I guess Princess is captured by Bowser in the game) and, just like in Mario 2, they would all have different jumping abilities or something. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to make the multi-player something quite special. Despite this, it is still fun.
Overall, I think this is a fantastic game that I would recommend to anyone, but especially those who grew up playing the other games in this series.
For Cheats, and Hints for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, IGN has a very helpful page:
IGN Cheats
Love,
sledgbrainerd
Although I have been on 2 compilation albums with The Punk Group, this review will not be biased toward them in any way. You will only find a hard hitting, nail biting exclusive review of the latest album from Portland’s best Slam Pop Duo in the NW. Their latest release is a self titled album worthy of its name, which features 10 tracks dripping synth pop goodness.
The album starts off right with Creamed Spinach, and is a great reminder why we all love The Punk Group. “Salt and Butter, Sour Cream…” is an infectious line that will make you wanting to actually eat spinach after. (If not then you are not a healthy person and you know it). Track 2 BF Jeff is a synth explosion of sorts, that is so thick and layered with awesome synths and kick ass drums, kinda like sombody loaded a potato gun with a Mini Moog and a Nord and fired into a 70’s porno flick. Quota Liotta sounds raw and discharged, and well, I must admit I love this song. The drums again are amazing. Very cool break beats, with enough low end drops to make your tail shatter. Quota beautifully fades into Fred Schneider which is my favorite song on the album. It is so f’n catchy and cool. The melody is very reminiscent of Kraftwerk and of course the B52’s harmonies. Track 5 is Fish Sticks for Jesus and starts with a tight bassline that will have you dancing before you know how fast your feet could actually move. The vocals on this track deserve a mention as I really liked the arrangements leading up to the end of the track. Ok so we are halfway through the album, and I feel like this might be a good time for a snack. Maybe I’ll have Deep Fried Pumpkin Through a Gravy Tube! Oh how bizarre that is the name of track 6! Well thank god I am not alone with my obsession of Deep Fried Pumpkin Through a Gravy Tube. OK so remember how I said that Fred Schneider is my favorite track on this album? Yeah well, I was wrong Track 7, Skull Country has just made it to my top favorite. Eat my Ass Fred Schneider! Skull Country has an obliterating sweet melody and features some rad vocals that sound as though they were recorded underwater. Also there is a percussion instrument of some kind, possibly a marimba or vibraphone and is a super cool touch to the already amazing song. Alright so we have convered the basics so far, Spinach, BFF’s, Quota (whatever the hell that is), Fred and Gravy. What about Zombies? Oh shit here they come! Track 8 is full of those f’n bastards! This track has an amazing chorus and for anybody who loves Zombies as much myself will marvel at the actual Zombie sound effects. Also the bass track is worth mentioning for driving out the massive line in the nick of time! Alright now let’s talk about Neanderthals. The next song is called Travis is An Orangutan, oh wait not it not. Its called Homewreckin’ Alcoholic, and yes this song is also pushing the limits of syncopated vocal tracks! I mean holy shit guys this vocal breakdown is pure genius! I hope this song is about a real person so I can egg them! Alright last track ladies and gents! The song is Frosty, and by the time you get to this song you will hopefully be toasty (I know I was). “Bow Chi-ca Bow Wow…” is an amazing chorus line and don’t forget the awesome mid song drop out that may trip you up on the dance floor. Hell yeah guys, this album was great. I really think it sounded great as well, so nice work on the overall production.
Here is a link where you can buy this crazy shit! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ThePunkGroup1
The Punk Group Official Web Site http://www.thepunkgroup.com
Here’s a free download of the Quota Liotta song!
[cincopa 10544297]