November 29, 2006 at 3:12 pm · Filed under General, Music
Seattle is currently having some of the coldest weather in the last couple years and it is the week Hymns decides to come to town. On the way to my place they had a battle of black ice vs the van and as you can see in the photo the black ice won. The van slide into a ditch about half a mile from my apartment where they were going to crash while in Seattle. Thankfully everyone was alright outside of being very cold waiting for the tow truck and somewhat shaken from sliding off the road, and the van sustained no long term damage.
November 29, 2006 at 3:01 pm · Filed under Music, Photos
What a day. I will write more later, but I thought I’d get photos up. Hymns played a great show opening for The Lemonheads and VietNam. Here are some photos. Click the headline to see all the photos.
November 29, 2006 at 2:56 pm · Filed under Music, Photos
So the other opening band for the Lemonheads was VietNam, who before last night I have never heard of and wasn’t sure how they would sound, but their set was a very pleasant surprise. Somewhat folky rock with a slice of the 70’s in there for some flavor. Along with the sound was some great voice work that you really wouldn’t expect from the singers in the band. Very surprising. I snapped a couple shots, so take a peak. Sadly VietNam does not currently have an album out, so they had only t-shirts to sell. So in the meantime check their myspace to hear a couple of their songs from their album coming out in January.
November 29, 2006 at 2:44 pm · Filed under Music, Photos
So last night The Lemonheads played the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. The Lemonheads played a really good show and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, accept for this guy and his girl but I’ll talk about that in another post, and Evan Dando closed his normal set with some acoustic songs, took a short break and returned to the stage with the entire band and was ready to start playing another song and then just lifted his guitar and walked off stage. No one could really figure out what set Evan off, and the crowd started to get pretty pissed. After a couple minutes of boos and some foul language aimed at Evan the house lights turned on and security started asking people to clear out. It was pretty funny to witness. But I did snap some photos, take a peak.
November 27, 2006 at 2:50 am · Filed under Television
So I previously wrote about the show Dexter about a month ago and my addiction for the show is growing with each episode. First the Ice Truck Killer, and just recently the whole real father angle. I just keeps getting better and better. If you have Showtime you should watch this show, as I consider it the best new show on television this fall.
Sometimes at work or at home I want to listen some great instrumental music and what do I start to play, none other then Explosions in the Sky. There aren’t many bands where I can just sit back and zone out, but that is exactly what Explosions in the Sky do. On February 20th, they plan on releasing their first proper album in four years with the release of Miss Everyone. You can take a listen to one of the songs Welcome, Ghosts. I really hope that they come to Seattle to support this album, as I totally spaced out the last time they were here. That will not happen again!
So it was launch week in the video game world with the launch of the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, both causing crowds and lines and general panic among gamers across the United States. As for me, I was happy with my year old Xbox 360, which has released some really awesome games over the last month. So here is a sample of the games I have been playing on my Xbox 360.
Early in the month I got Splinter Cell: Double Agent, which I really wanted to get into but quickly stopped playing. I like the idea behind the Splinter Cell games, but the trial and error nature of their design just turns me off. I want to enjoy the little time I have to play games for real entertainment, not be frustrated.
So there was now a void in my game playing, so in comes the big game for the Xbox 360 this winter, Gears of War. Gears of War was just the game I needed. Challenging, but not hair pulling frustrating, easy to play for bursts, absolutely beautiful even on my non-HDTV, and lots of explosions! The guys at Epic really have crafted a great game. I need to spend more time with multiplayer, but I have been very happy with the single player. The pacing is extremely well crafted, the story does its job, and the combat is just very satisfying. The addition of the active reload system is genius. It is a ridiculously simple idea, but even more puzzleing that no one has done it before. Congrats to the guys at Epic for making such a fun and visually impressive game.
In the middle of my killing in Gears of War comes the family friendly Viva Pinata, which my girlfriend really wanted. She loves games like The Sims and Animal Crossing, so this was right up here alley. We both fire up the game and see this very polished and beautiful looking game with rich colors and cute characters, but shortly after playing we see the darker side of Viva Pinata. The killing! The sex! The cannibalism! If it happens in nature, it happens in this game, but with pinatas. It actually is a very well crafted god game. I really have no idea what I am doing half the time, but I feel I need to breed more whirlms (worms). It is a great time killer, and really worth checking out at any age. Don’t like the nice kid friendly exterior fool you.
And last on the list right now is Rainbow Six: Vegas, the next installment of the highly successful game from Ubisoft. This time the game takes place in Vegas (who would have thought), but the game starts out in Mexico. I am not very far (just got to Vegas), but so far the game is very well crafted. The weapons feel right, the controls are spot on, the graphics are amazing looking (outside of the characters), and the story is pretty good. I need more time playing single player, but I am pleasantly surprised with the game, as I was never a big fan of the earlier games in the series. The real buzz about this game is the multiplayer, which friends and co-workers will not shut up about. Pretty much take CounterStrike and give yourself a persistent character to play with, so you can build up armor, buy weapon modifications, or change your outfit. It really adds something to the game if everyone can modify what they have and keep it. I might be playing some matches this weekend, so look for the guy that sucks.
So as your can see there are some amazing games out for the Xbox 360 right now and you don’t have to wait in line or pay some insane price to play some great games.
So I went through a very long stage of listening to Bloc Party and their wonderful first release, Silent Alarm. The guys in Bloc Party are ready to release their second album on February 5th called A Weekend in the City. I really hope they are able to capture what they had with the first album. Take a listen to their first single, ‘The Prayer’.
So Guitar Hero 2 was released today and it is great fun. They added a pretty good mixture of songs and some new characters. The new Encore feature is pretty nice when you beat a level you can perform an encore for the fans. They really did some work on the graphics, which are extremely clean for a PS2 game. I wish there were some more songs from the last five years. They have some good classics, but Guitar Hero was also a great game to play with your lady, and not many girls are going to know some of the songs on Guitar Hero 2, it is really hardcore rock where Guitar Hero was more modern rock. There are some really great songs though. I had a blast playing Freebird, and Killing in the Name Of was also really fun. But I feel good with the purchase. My arm is sore after playing for the last couple hours though. Hopefully it feels better tomorrow for Gears of War!!
November 6, 2006 at 1:34 am · Filed under Music, Photos
I got to check out Band or Horses over the weekend at The Showbox. It was a wonderful show. I was really impressed how much better their show has gotten since I saw them at the Block Party during the summer. They played all the great songs from the album and played a couple covers as well. I almost wanted to go back again tonight and see them again, but wasn’t feeling that well. In a sad note I took my camera, but the memory card was not in it, so I was limited to the internal memory which allowed me to take six photos on economy quality. So the photos might not nearly be as nice as previous ones and they are pretty limited. Hopefully next time they come to town I remember the memory card.
My good friends Hymns are heading on tour with the Lemonheads on a 22 city nationwide tour. Please go out and support them, they are awesome guys and have some great songs, and put on a great live show as well. Here is the concert schedule as well as two songs from their album, Brother/Sister which you can get in iTunes.
My good friends 
