Enjoy! The audio is attached and the transcript is below!

Del Mar – Artist on Artist Interview
Interviewed by:
Allan Kaspar of The DnA Project (mediaconsumesme.com)
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(members of Del Mar present: Nicole Gaugh, Bud Gaugh, Matt Bode, Mike Martinez)

Mediaconsumesme.com: OK I want to keep this pretty informal and relaxed. So lets just start, for the fans that don’t know you, with some introductions. Who’s all here with us and who does what?

Nicole Gaugh: Alright this is Nicole Gaugh, I do rhythm guitar and vocals (sometimes).

Matt Bode: Matt Bode and I do lead guitar and vocals.

Mike Martinez: Mike, I play bass and… that’s it (laughter)

Bud Gaugh: I’m Bud… and I’m master of the MOTHERF*&(ER!

(more laughter)

Nicole: That’s all he does.

MCM: That’s awesome, awesome. So Del Mar, you guys have come about, was it all at once? Did you guys sit in a room and say, “You know what, this is it!” I know your myspace page said you formed to “keep outta trouble with the law…”

Bud: Yeah me and Matt were in jail on a drunk bender and we were like, talking about how much music SUCKS on the radio, so were all, “We should just start our own band!”… No really it was, Nicole and Matt and Mike were all jamming together in a band earlier and… take it away Nicole!

Nicole: Me and Matt were in a punk band, later on that band kinda dissolved and Matt and I were… actually it was Matt’s idea to do a surf band, and we came together and Bud wanted to play music again, so it was the three of us. Then Mike joined, and thus Del Mar was born! Really for fun at first.

Mike: It was a mixture of making the punk into the surf because we’re all… kinda California..

MCM: Hell yeah…

Mike: Well, I’M from California, Bud’s from California.. I dunno about the ..

Nicole: California SUUUCKS!

(laughter)

Matt: Just mixing the surf stuff, I like mixing the surf with the rock and roll, its fun!

MCM: Absolutely and yeah its definitely evident on the album and you guys do it very well. So you’re all friends then, you’ve all known each other for a while then. It shows through the chemistry with the music that I’ve heard with After The Quake (their album). And you guys brought it up, your sound is just an incredible mix of surf, punk, and really just fist in the f*(*ing face rock. There’s no other way to put it you guys just got something all your own. You can really tell, I was listening to it (After the Quake) again for probably the 10th time now… the diversity of style that each of you have. You all have different influences but it all comes together great. You got some instrumental surf jams (like the track Broken Surfboards on the Beach). You’ve got ‘Pot Bandits’ which just makes you want to start a pit and punch somebody in the face. Do you guys have the same influences? One of you way out there? You still find ways to come together and make it work?

Mike: Well it comes from all of our music influences. I got a lot of music influences myself, a background with metal and all kinds of punk. Matt comes with his surf music that he loves, and that actually got me into it so… we all have a wide variety of music that we all like and it just all gets put in the mix.

Bud: Yeah I like a lot of old Long Beach punk rock, just like old school punk rock

MCM: Cool

Bud: 80s… 70s and 80s punk rock. Old school like Angry Samoans, Minor Threat

MCM: Yeaah!

Bud: I mean all kinds of shit, you know. I got a wide array of influences everything from African Jazz, Reggae, Latin, all kinds of music. So the surf stuff was really easy for me to adapt to. I mean I love surf music already as it is and a lot of the surf rhythms kinda have like a Latin flare to them. My instructor Billy Wilson (Rest in Peace), he was a jazz drummer and he taught some African, Cuban and Latin rhythms so that was instilled at an early young age. I like psychadelic rock, anything that will take your mind elsewhere…

MCM: Absolutely.

Bud: Anything that’ll make you want to… punch somebody in the face or… give them a flower or whatever it is! (laughter). If its changing your mood then its good music. Good music is good music, period, and thats where my influences come from.

MCM: It shows. There’s a lot of influences in the music, and its very good. It definitely shows in what you guys do. So you all had a hand in writing the music then? Everybody contributes? (to After The Quake).

Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Pretty much with every band that I know of at least, its really a group effort. Definitely for Del Mar anyway. There’s never just one song is written solely by one person, we all come together and make a song what it is. Sometimes Matt will start one or I’ll start one and bring it in, and we’ll all put a bass line to it, or a drum beat to it, we’ll switch things up. An album is like… and I’m sure you know because you’re in The DnA Project so, an album is a very… its a group thing, not a single person effort.

MCM: Yeah it’s definitely organic. I mean we do the same thing, so its kind of refreshing and cool to hear that. You do hear stories of where its just one person doing all the writing… you can really just tell when everyone is contributing. It reflects in After The Quake as well, you have tracks with in your face hilarious humor. The intro track can make me laugh EVERY time I hear it.

(Laughter)

Bud: We also have to throw a shout out to Burt Susanka and Rob Perez. Rob Perez engineered the album and co-produced with us and Burt Susanka from The Ziggens and Astronaut Love Triangle, his new band. There is a little kind of Ziggen-esqe flare on a couple of the songs. Like the intro to ‘Rats On A Sinking Ship’, that was something we had talked about wanting to do but it was really Rob. He got some actors to come in and do some voice overs. We kind of told them the story about how Slitherback (Laughter) had stolen one of our songs and given it to that FUCKED up movie ‘Knocked Up’

MCM: Whoa, for real?!

Bud: I guess the guy gave John a blow-job, no wait I think it was Phil gave that guy a blow-job…

Nicole: That would be right because he’s a bottom.

(More laughter)

Bud: So that’s what that’s all about. That was definitely kind of a Ziggen thing going on there with the character voices, you can almost hear ‘em turning into rats as they talk, ya know?

MCM: Yeah, I was actually going to ask about that—if that song had some subliminal undertones aimed at certain people but you pretty much answered that for me right there.

(all laugh)

Bud: Call them Slitherback, you don’t have to call em Silverback!

MCM: I liked Silverlack… one of my favs… jerks

(all laugh)

MCM: How have your fans response been so far about After The Quake? How do you guys feel its been received?

Nicole: We’ve gotten really good reviews actually. Its more of a matter of distribution and getting out there. To get shit played on the radio you have to be on a label, or give someone a blow-job or whatever so… We’re just doing it super DIY style, just getting the CD in peoples hands or over the internet, having them download it. We’ve had a lot of the comments we’ve gotten are like, “Wow this a great album! There’s nothing out there right now that I can relate to or listen to like this because so much of what’s on the radio is just crap.”

Bud: We don’t want our songs played on the radio, because the radio music will actually INFECT our music and we don’t want that to happen. We were in Hawaii on vacation recently and this guy noticed me in the store, in the grocery store. He was kind of upset, upset in a good way because he had sent for an autographed Del Mar CD and Zippy… ASSHOLE! ZIPPY!

Nicole: It was MY fault it wasn’t Zippy’s fault! I didn’t send it back…
Bud: He was waiting for months so, it was kinda cool because Nicole and I were there and we scratched on the CD (signed it for him) and gave him a couple copies for him to give to his friends. I told him to pass it around because thats the main thing. We just want people to hear it, we’re not trying to get rich. We just want to pay the bills on it so we can make another one.

MCM: Yeah that’s pretty much been our thought as well. I think our big dream… if we can just make enough to match the salaries we all make in our Clark Kent day jobs we’ll be thrilled.

Bud: I’m not even talking about that we just want to be able to go back into the studio again. We all have regular day jobs. I’m being a Dad right now so…

Nicole: (referring to Sublime) and drummer of some band that nobody’s really heard of… they’re called Subliminal or something?

MCM: The band that shall not be named for legal purposes? Kinda like some Lord Voldemort thing?

(all laugh)

MCM: Actually that does bring up another question to me. Now that you do have a family, Bud and Nicole (and I dunno if the rest of you do too), but how has that…

Nicole: We’re married to each other.

MCM: Well no I KNOW that, are you guys married to Matt and Mike too?

(cracking up)

Mike: He was born in California I was born in Nevada!

Nicole: Yeah exactly… the Nevadans WON’T marry the Californians! Except for you, Bud!

MCM: Ahhhh…

(laughs)

MCM: How has that influenced, say, touring plans.

Bud: Our daughter really loves to travel so, thats not going to be an issue I don’t think. We’re working stuff out right now, we got a little legal issue that we gotta straighten out. I don’t really want to comment on that right now as its still ongoing and I don’t wanna piss on my own boots so…

MCM: Yeah I don’t want to piss in your pool either so we won’t bring it up.

Bud: I can tell you there’s a couple of RETARDS at the base of it. They’re really upsetting all of our fans too so. We just wanna get out there and play the music we helped to create (in Sublime). Also Del Mar is going to jump on board on that tour as well. Its going to be a lot of fun. I’m going to be doing double duty… but I think I can hack it.

MCM: Yeah I think you can manage it pretty well.
Bud: Yeah.

(laughs)

MCM: That’s great though. Do you guys have any plans to come out to the Northeast? Do you have a set touring schedule yet or…. is that kind of up in the air?

Bud: Yeah it’ll be nationwide for sure.

MCM: Sweet!

Nicole: Yeah we’ll get you guys back there (referring to The DnA Project) when we’re out there. Now you guys are in the Poconos right? Close to Philly?

MCM: Yeah, yeah, we’re pretty much at the hub of everything. We’re near Philly, we’re near New York, i’m sure if there’s enough caffeine involved we can get there. Its a hub… central line!

MCM: Kinda going back to the Internet though, bands like Del Mar, and of course ours and many many others. I’ve felt recently with a lot of the internet developments with say, Myspace or Reverbnation, its really opened up the doors to get yourselves, or any good band heard in ways we never could before. I was curious, I know you guys use myspace (or sites like reverbnation or even garageband), how have you felt they’ve aided, or even hindered you in getting your album out there and your message to your fans?

Nicole: Well myspace is a huge help. A lot of selling an album DIY means a lot of touring which we haven’t had the opportunity to do too much of. So we just have to really step it up on the promotions angle. But I think myspace is a really great thing, it enables us to really connect with the fans, and we have a twitter site we’ve been kind of neglecting… oops i’ll get on that. Reverbnation I don’t deal with directly with that. Our President of Half or Nothing Records, Zippy, I think he’s kind of handling that so I’m not really sure about that one.

MCM: Yeah there’s a few sites out there, I’m pretty much a media whore and I try to get us everywhere I can. You have reverbnation, myspace, garageband. Only downside with Garageband is that its (your music) reviewed by other musicians most of the time, so the reviews can be kind of snobby, but it does have the chance to get you a lot of exposure.

MCM: Going back to myspace again. I noticed Myspace is starting to take a decline.

Nicole: Yeah.

MCM: Do you worry if myspace goes away… will another take its place?

Nicole: Oh yeah, Facebook!

Bud: I hope its not Facebook, I HATE FACEBOOK!

(laughs)

Bud: I signed up for an account there and they email you three emails anytime anyone comments on a picture or asks you to be their friend. Seriously, I had EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT emails in a three day span! That’s why I closed out the account I was pissed!

(laughs)

Nicole: I think we’re going to have to move on to the new, whatever is the most out there. I guess its Facebook or Reverbnation and all that. We’re so focused on just having a good time and playing music together that we don’t take a whole lot of our time to do promotion… but we probably should.

(everyone laughs)

MCM: Now I noticed on your myspace page you guys are doing the Reno eNVy Christmas Party? For fans that have no idea what it is, you want to share with them whats going on with that?

Nicole: Sure! Reno eNVy is a local clothing line here. They focus a lot on humor, white trash. They’re pretty funny and awesome guys.

Bud: They’ll have Clowns and Midgets making balloon animals…

MCM: They’d fit right in up here!

Nicole: Yeah we’re gonna play the show, Rome’s gonna play it as a possible special guest (sidenote: he’s the lead singer should Sublime be able to reunite).

Bud: Free Soda Pop and Wieners for everyone!

MCM: Sounds awesome!

Nicole: Should be a great time!

Bud: (singing)

MCM: I’m sorry, what was that?

Nicole: Bud’s just singing circus music, ignore him.

(all laugh)

MCM: No worries, well I don’t wanna take up too much of your time here. Is there anything you guys would like to share with your fans specifically about Del Mar, your plans, After the Quake, or a future album?

All from Del Mar: Buy the CD!

(laughter)

Nicole: Buy the CD, support the good cause, we’re going to be (like Bud said) touring with Sublime so we’ll be able to make some new fans that way. We will eventually record a new album, we’re kind of making our music more diverse, sticking to the surf punk but breaking out a little bit.
Bud: Yeah it really all started from us watching Spongebob. ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! HULLOOOOOO!

Matt and Bud: SCURVY BASTARD! SCURVY BASTARD! WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA!

Nicole: … see what I deal with?

MCM: (laughs) It sounds like my guys so its all good. Except I dunno if they watch Spongebob, but if it provides THAT much musical inspiration we may have to check it out.

(laughs)

Mike: Great surf music on Spongebob!

Nicole: Yeah there is!

MCM: Well, I definitely want to thank you guys very much for taking the time to do this interview. I know mediaconsumesme.com is very appreciative. I wish you guys the absolute best. You have a great album, a great sound and attitude and I think you guys are just going to kick total ass when you go on tour.

Nicole: Awesome, thanks Al!

Bud: Rock on!

Nicole: Thank you a lot, and you’ll have to send us your new CD too as soon as you have it wrapped up!

MCM: Yeah its almost done we gotta get a few things finished, couple more songs written then its off to master it. Again its a DU—or DIY operation but its almost there. So you guys will definitely one of the first to get one.

Nicole: Cool! Thanks again Al it was great talking to you!

MCM: Great talking to you guys too!

The artists Stenobot, Wheelie H. Cyberman, and Tron Juan have joined forces to create a deliciously nerdy musical journey. Supercommuter’s self named album was inspired and created by Stenobot using a Gameboy’s synthesizer for the music, Cyberman’s rhymes as lyrics, and Tron Juan’s engineering prowess.

The music is phenomenal. Discovered during my routine search for news on my favorite nerdcore artists, I hit up the myspace for Supercommuter. I found myself listening to the 4 tracks previewed at least twice before deciding, “I must have this”. Cyberman has always been among my favorite rap artists and his smooth, creative rhymes are really reinforced by the nostalgic beats of Stenobot’s Gameboy. Clarity, quality, and consistence on the album from Tron Juan really seal the deal.

The only thing better than jamming to this in my car is where the proceeds go; 100% of all profit earned from this album is being donated to Child’s Play. What are you waiting for? Go get it!

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/supercommuter

Child’s Play: http://www.childsplaycharity.org

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out Part 1 if you haven’t already. Below is the transcript plus extra bits for reading.

Immediately after the release of Fallout 2, Black Isle Studios began working on another sequel to the series. Interplay at the time had just gone public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and their shares began to take a nosedive after several years of reporting loses. Even though Interplay published some great games, they were purportedly spending boatloads of cash on projects like Star Trek: The Secret of Vulcan Fury,a project I was eagerly awaiting, having seen a preview in PCGamer magazine. Fallout 3 along with many other upcoming projects were cancelled.

Interplay was funding its projects through credit agreements, game sales, and loans from the head of the company himself, Brian Fargo. They never kept much cash at the ready, and once troubles grew out of their hands in 1999, Titus Interactive, a French based production company, acquired a majority interest in Interplay. In 2001, Brian Fargo, the original founder, left the company and Titus Interactive’s own Herve Caen took over as CEO. A deal with Vivendi Universal was signed to publish Interplays games, giving a much needed lifeline to the troubled company.

Black Isle Studios returned to making Fallout 3, codenaming their production Van Buren. Details began to emerge and fans salivated at the thought of another game in the franchise.  The game would feature 3D graphics, using the Jefferson engine developed for Baldur’s Gate 3, and continued the Fallout storyline in the American southwest in locations such as Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. The player would have started off as a prisoner thrust into war between factions of the New California Republic (featured in Fallout 2) and the Brotherhood of Steel. It also featured a mad scientist named Victor Presper bent on using a Ballistic Missile Satellite to destroy what was left of the post-nuclear world. Supposedly at the end of the game, the player would have to choose where the satellite would target, something very familiar to players of Bethesda’s Fallout 3 DLC, Broken Steel, but we’ll get to that later.

Even though a good percentage of Van Buren was complete, on December 8th, 2003 Interplay cancelled it and closed Black Isle Studios. The troubles had escalated even with Vivendi Universal picking up publishing duties. The next year, Interplay was slapped with an eviction notice from its landlord, and shut down because of non-payment to some of their employees. Somehow though, Interplay survived moving to a smaller office space, possibly one with a lower overhead.

The Dream that turned into a Nightmare

Years later in 2007 a leaked version of the Van Buren tech demo was released on the internet through No Mutants Allowed, a hardcore Fallout fan site. The demo contained a small incomplete tutorial level from the game, giving fans of the series a “what could have been” look at the cancelled game. Although the game was to feature real-time combat  and turn-based combat like that of Fallout Tactics, a requirement Interplay insisted on, the demo sadly only has real-time mode. Interplay also insisted on a cooperative multi-player mode.Once loaded up, a character is created in the updated creation system, and the player’s character starts off in an unnamed town during the Great War somewhere in the Midwest Commonwealth. Your character is escorted by a Corporal of the 4th Infantry Division through the war torn streets of the town, fighting against communist insurgents, as you make your way to a Vault located at the end of the level.

Playing the tech demo, fans easily saw the potential Black Isle Studios’ Fallout 3 had. The graphics, even though most were placeholders, were spot on echoing the atmosphere of the rest of the series. The tech demo is very buggy with almost all options missing (including the female character’s top), but it is great to see for anyone who is a fan of the Fallout series. It is hard to say how well the game would have succeeded with the new engine in its final release, but maybe if there was some alternate universe in which Black Isle’s Fallout 3 was finished, I am sure the Fallout fans residing there would have been more then happy with the final outcome then what occurred here, back in our dimension.

Going back to 2004, after cancelling Fallout 3, Interplay sold the rights to Bethesda Softworks, the makers of another successful RPG series, The Elder Scrolls. Bethesda at that time was in production of the fourth game in their TES series named Oblivion. Bethesda announced they would be starting production of Fallout 3 immediately but it was speculated that production didn’t fully start until Oblivion was finished. Leading up to Fallout 3’s release date, fans of the series were split on whether Bethesda would give the series a faithful update.

Bittersweet Candy

Eventually in 2008, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 was released for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. The game featured the same engine (Gamebryo) as Oblivion, and it was easy for fans to see that it had less in common than what they were used to in a Fallout title. It was transformed into a real-time RPG First Person Shooter, and no longer exhibited many of the traits fans were used to in the previous installments. To fans, it looked like a big budget Oblivion total conversion, but you could tell Bethesda tried very hard to make the story and atmosphere resemble as closely as possible to the original games.

You start at the very beginning of your character’s life, literally being born on screen, from your own point of view, you emerge from your mother’s womb. You are introduced to your dad, voiced by Liam Neeson, who through a series of questions lays down the basic name and appearance of your character. What follows is a small tutorial chapter inside the vault you inhabit from a small child to an adult, choosing your character’s skills and traits along the way. The first few times you play this section it is refreshing, but after awhile of replay the linearity of the vault sequence starts to show. Most of your choices are sometimes redundant too, as after your escape you are displayed a screen giving you a chance to undue what you previously selected.

Once you have broken free into the Capital wastelands, the choice is yours to venture wherever you choose. Although you are pointed in the direction of the main quest, to find your father, the game let’s you traverse to any number of locations. The game’s map is gigantic, and with exception to downtown Washington D.C. , is pretty much free of the usual obstacles to keep a player from freely traversing the area.  The graphics are immense, rendering the post apocalyptic landscape with numerous amounts of rubble and debris, and although I would have liked to see the long expansive deserts of the American southwest, you have to admit Bethesda did a perfect job in bringing the environment to life. The only real problem regarding graphics is the color palette, which never really leaves the boundaries of its dusty grays, yellows, and greens.

The story and main quest take a little time to actually get moving, and for a bit is very entertaining, but after a few seminal moments, feels a little dull, especially for the Fallout series. Most of the time you will be preoccupied with the side quests, which too after awhile get a bit tedious and feel like basic fetch this item, kill that guy, kind of missions. There are only certain times when you can actually try different routes using your charisma and speech unlike it’s predecessors, and even then they feel a little limited. There are excellent payoffs during certain quests early in the game, most notably if you choose to play an evil character. The dialogue is good, but not necessarily on par all the time, with some characters sounding phoned in, but nevertheless better then Oblivion. The character’s in many circumstances aren’t very memorable, since they all share a weird likeness in the uncanny valley.

Anyone up for some Ice Skating?

Using the same engine as TES: Oblivion brought Fallout 3 most of the same good and bad points that Oblivion had. The interface was greatly updated from previous Fallout games, to give us everything in a seamless PipBoy transition, but suffers from console disease brought on from Oblivion’s simplistic inventory and map. TES 3: Morrowind had a very intricate interface for PC, and felt like an advanced RPG, but when Bethesda updated it to Oblivion and the console, a lot went the way of the dodo.  As far as the action goes, Bethesda tried to appeal to Fallout fans by incorporating the V.A.T.S. targeting system. Entering into this mode targets a nearby enemy, and using your action points let’s you choose which body part will be the focus of your attack. Adding in this option helps the game play, as much of the action in Fallout is clumsy, but once you have used V.A.T.S. around a few hundred times throughout the game, and your character has become god-like, watching the gory slow motion deaths get’s a little tedious.

What Bethesda did right is give the player a giant map to explore like in their previous TES series, and create a story of his/her own. Being able to just explore a game without any purpose other then that of discovery is something that I longed to do in my childhood before many sandbox style games were introduced. Sometimes I wish they would even forgo a main quest line for a more open ended experience. During your adventures, the PipBoy interface also gives you limited radio stations to tune into, giving you a break from well produced wind sounds and event timed soundtrack. You could also stumble upon radio transmissions useful in finding locations or quests.

Throughout the game the player will pick up numerous items, some will be useless at first, but almost all of them have a use at some point. There are tons of weapons to find, or create, expanding possibilities in combat, but again once the player has gone through most of them, they will probably end up picking their favorite and using it again and again (ahem…plasma rifle). There are so many objects in the game that during the first half you’ll be picking up all of them and schlepping them back to your house or apartment just to watch your collection grow. I would usually pick up unique objects, then store them in appropriate containers, and end up forgetting about them.

Bethesda could have spent more time developing some of the towns, as they felt much smaller then those in previous Fallout games, but they had much more on their radiated plate. In it’s first release Fallout 3 contained numerous bugs. Just like the first Fallout, some quests were incomplete, and the non-linear approach sometimes backfired. The game physics would also get a bit wonky during certain times, throwing corpses across the screen like mashed up ragdolls, or letting the player slip through the ground and become stuck between geometry. After some patches though, most of the problems were fixed, but Fallout 3 still suffered from an ending that left a sour taste in a lot of fans’ mouths.

In the next year Bethesda would roll out five add-ons as downloadable content, pricing each at ten dollars.  The first up was Operation Anchorage, and at first look, seemed like an exciting concept, but once I was able to play through it, I found it was the worst of the bunch. It is more focused on action then RPG elements, something Fallout 3 was just hanging on by a thread through much of the vanilla game. The story and setting are great, taking place inside a simulation of the war in Anchorage, Alaska. The levels are somewhat linear, and much of the stealth game play is wasted. The only prize at the end of the frozen tundra are some weapons, armor, and items that make the rest of the game even easier then it already is.

The second DLC to be released was The Pitt. It featured one of the best storylines and environment of the downloadable content, forcing the player into tough decisions, even though the outcomes and rewards were similar in the end. It had the Mad Max 3: Thunderdome feel being able to explore a rundown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was controlled by raiders. My only problem was I wish it could have been a little longer, but the ride was well worth it, rewarding the player with an ammo supply and interesting weaponry. The Pitt was sadly released with a boatload of bugs for the Xbox 360 version, and was pulled from Xbox Live until Bethesda was able to iron them out.

The third DLC was Broken Steel, which opened up the end game for the player to continue the main quest, helping the Brotherhood of Steel against remnants of the Enclave that were scattered throughout the Capitol Wasteland. This DLC was a must as it changed the level cap from 20 to 30, adding as usual more weapons, armor, items, and perks. It provided some interesting plot developments and some memorable moments, like Mirelurk campfires down by the river.

The fourth and largest of the DLCs released, was Point Lookout, giving the player a whole state park in Maryland to explore. There are plenty of locations and side quests, and also hillbillies and tribals to fight. The mood and atmosphere is up there with The Pitt, with a twisted storyline that even features a drug induced dreamy sequence.

The final DLC to be released was Mothership Zeta. Finally players got a chance to board an alien spacecraft, get their hands on advanced weaponry (like there wasn’t enough already), and live the dream of fighting from deck to deck against alien hordes, something  I’m sure Travis Walton wish he could have done. Although it is again an action oriented DLC, the new textures and environment, along with the story, make it stand out a lot more then Operation Anchorage.

Of course, hardcore fans upset with any of the features in Fallout 3, can download Bethesda’s free editor, named appropriately after a Fallout 2 plot device. The G.E.C.K. was released shortly after Fallout 3 hit store shelves, and has already spawned many modifications focused on balancing game play, or adding in elements some felt were missing. Bethesda knew they wanted to keep fans busy between game releases, and they have done the same with past games in their Elder Scrolls series. If you have some time on your hands, you can pick up the G.E.C.K. Fallout 3 editor here from the official website, which also contains tutorials on using the program.

The Best Oblivion TC Available!

Now that all of the DLCs have been released and featured in the Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, it’s time to look towards the future of the Fallout franchise, past all the legal troubles of intellectual property between Interplay and Bethesda. There has been a number of games proposed, like Bethesda’s Fallout 4, Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas, and Interplay’s Project V13. They all have me excited, and worried at the same time for the franchise. Where will they take us? I hope to one day make a Part 3 featuring them, but until then, I would like to thank the Fallout community over at No Mutants Allowed for their support and critical response to my articles.

Download the Van Buren Tech Demo

That should all change with the release of Billy Talent III. Once again they deliver 11 scorching post-punk/classic rock inspired bits of pleasure. As usual, singer Ben Kowalewicz delivers thought-provoking lyrics that tell tales of despair, death and lost love. Throw in a tale of a witch being hung, from the witch’s perspective… you get the picture.

The coolest part of this album, though, is the killer guitar tone of Ian D’sa. He wears his 70’s rock influences on his sleeve without ever sounding dated. Honestly, my biggest complaint with this record is that the first five tracks are so good it took me a week to get to the end; my iPod’s repeat button is getting a workout.

Add the contribution of super-producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, STP and Bruce Springsteen are a few of his clients)  and you have a set of songs that may put Billy Talent on the map in the states as one of the best rock bands working today–right where they belong.

Standout Tracks (click and turn it up):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nearly two years have passed since the release of Eat Me, Drink Me. In this writer’s humble opinion it was one of his greatest releases to date. Eat Me, Drink Me brought together the best of all his previous albums, mixed with the theme of a dark, twisted and fucked version of Wonderland.

Nearly two years later has Manson done it again? Has his previous album release set the bar impossibly high?

I’m glad to say no to both cases. In fact, The High End of Low turns out to be a complete reinvention of the sound that you know as typical Manson.

The opening track, Devour, makes it very evident in the first 20 seconds that this is a VERY different album. Gone is the heavy industrial sound that has made Manson the idol of lunchbox toting teens and the most misunderstood figure in music.

The High End of Low also brings about the long awaited reunion with Twiggy Ramirez, and all this reviewer has to say is, “About time!”. Their ability to compliment and drive each other to new creative lengths comes to the surface stronger than ever.

The result? Musical brilliance. Sure, some tracks ring with a sense of the familiar. “Pretty as a ($) sounds” like it could have easily fit on Antichrist Superstar. “Arma…geddon” could have fit on Golden Age of Grotesque.
However, many tracks on the album are practically acoustic, and that is by far where it shines. This is definitely a side of Manson you’ve never, ever heard. “Running To The Edge Of The World” (which is about 95% unplugged) and “Unkillable Monster” will blow the minds of Manson fans.

There’s basically something here for everyone. This album could easily gather new fans completely unfamiliar to Manson’s previous works. Long time fans of Manson’s, or those who haven’t been keeping up, should purchase and listen to this album immediately.

To conclude, The High End of Low is a work of pure music genius. Marilyn Manson is far from losing his touch, and has shown once again that there is no one out there like him. It is definitely one of Manson’s biggest ventures into unexplored territory and sound. Manson purists may find the difference to previous work a bit unsettling at first, but given time this album could grow on anybody.
Manson says of the new album, “I think my life definitely ended and began. The record sounds very final, but it’s almost optimistic – though that feels like a strange word to use. It’s a phoenix from the fire and a redemption resurrection.”

This reviewer could not put it any better. As far as I’m concerned this is easily his best work to date, and the Antichrist Superstar hasn’t lost his ability to shock and amaze.

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iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiii radiohead – these are my twisted words iiiiiii
iiiiiii iiiiiii
iiii artist…….radiohead iiii
iiii title……..these are my twisted words iiii
iiii label……..?????????? iiii
iiii cat.nr…….????????? iiii
iiii style……..’dificult’ iiii
iiii nr of tracks.1 iiii
iiii total length..5.32 iiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiii audio source.CD Advance iiii
iiii encoder……LAME 3.93 iiii
iiii quality……320kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo iiii
iiii size………12,70 MB iiii
iiii ripper…….sca[GG]er iiii
iiii rls.date…..2009-08-17 iiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiii i just wanted to reassure readers iiii
iiii that following representations iiii
iiii seeking confirmation iiii
iiii that before your very eyes iiii
iiii behind the wall of ice iiii
iiii that the box is not under threat iiii
iiii however they are set to remove iiii
iiii other boxes iiii
iiii in fact i have the list in front of me iiii
iiii i went to a briefing on their plans iiii
iiii and challenged them to tell me iiii
iiiii exactly what the cost would be iiiiiii
iiiiii iiiiiiii
iiiiiii they spoke in broad terms iiiiiiiiii
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iiiiiiiiiii we’re looking for: talented puppeteers iiiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiii worms, disgruntled executives, sacked flies iiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiii genres: doomcore, folktronica, ukf iiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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Those cheeky-bastards! Doomcore? Don’t insult me, Thom, we all know you have the most gigantic lying mouth of all time. I can see right through your “i”’s, you’re up to something.

This section here is most peculiar to me:

iiii that the box is not under threat iiii
iiii however they are set to remove iiii
iiii other boxes iiii
iiii in fact i have the list in front of me iiii

Oh, and this:

iiii rls.date…..2009-08-17 iiii

Bring on the wild speculations!

Nevermen is a collaboration of Doseone (Subtle, Themselves, cLOUDDEAD, etc etc), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk, and probably a dozen more). While the Nevermen is mostly about these three frontmen, The Chapman Brothers, have been asked to help glue it all together.

Excited?

Well don’t get too worked up yet, as this DoseOne/Pitchfork interview reveals, we are still months away from hearing any of it yet. “We’re going to make and finish the record. It may be out this winter, but I am reserving the right to change that…One of the things that I’ve really learned and really want to bring to this group is that there’s no rushing the music. I won’t have it anymore, ever again.”

Fine. As long as it lives up to the potential, I’ll survive the wait. And Doseone sells it like it will:

“We’ve taken our time and had all these amazing sessions together, and I think that it’s stuck. It’s really growing in a certain way that’s completely unique. It sounds like a band’s first record, but also sounds like three rock stars together at last…I’m trying to have it so it’s like the whole record is a three-headed dragon. There’s no, like, Mike Patton song with me and Tunde beatboxing, you know what I mean?”

If that’s not enough to make you explode, did I mention that they will also be collaborating with Alan Moore? Yes, that Alan Moore. Seriously, check out the interview.