Music News: Loretta Lynn announces hand picked artist listing for forthcoming tribute album

The Queen of Country herself, Loretta Lynn, has just announced a hand-picked list of artists for forthcoming tribute album Coal Miner's Daugher: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, out the 9th of November in the US.

As you'd expect the list features a crash course in big-name contemporary country music singers rubbing shoulders with a few veteran greats. However a couple of surprising bands also crop up in the mix.

Paramore will be turning in a version of 'You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man). I'll be upfront, I initially wanted to write this little comment piece to rip on the fact that these extra names felt record label-shoehorned in. Paramore are pixie-stix filled with ground glass: a sweet jagged sugar rush to be sure, but they'll leave you with one hell of a headache if you aren't careful. Could they manage a Loretta Lynn song, particularly one as well known as 'You Ain't Woman Enough...' and not butcher it in some fashion? Well...

That's not too bad. I feel more confident about it than I did a google search earlier, but it all depends if they stick with that stye. I can see with painful ease the ability for them to take that audience reaction and turn it into a hardcore teeny-bopper fist pumping anthem. We'll just have to wait and see.

The other major surprise is the presence of Kid Rock squeezing out a version of 'I Know How.' Unlike Paramore, a google search only turns up references to the fact that he'll be on the tribute album, so I have nothing to assuage me this time. However his highest charting track is Picture, a country ballad he recorded with Sheryl Crow, so we'll use that.

The track is a little bland, but once again nothing offensive is going on. It should of course be noted that this was something of a sea change for Kid Rock, and to an extent even for Sheryl Crow. So I'm torn. I don't really like 'Picture.' I don't really like Kid Rock. However I am dying to hear him quietly croon 'I love him like he wants me to and I know how,' which might almost make it all worth it. I suppose it could be worse. He could just sample 'I Know How' then spit half rhymes about groping pills or whatever 'All Summer Long' was about.

The White Stripes are the final odd ones out on the list, but their presence is both easily justifiable and easily explained. Jack White has been adulating Loretta Lynn since he was four years old, dedicating White Blood Cells to her and finally producing her grammy award winning comeback album Van Lear Rose. Their contribution to the tribute album, 'Rated X,' has been a staple of their live set for years sung by either Meg or Jack:

Honestly, even without that evidence I wouldn't have been that worried about the Stripes. They've consistently proven they can handle country and blues, and I feel convinced their presence will feel natural with the other more traditionally country artists.

So I turn it out to you, the Internet. What do you think of the artist list? Anyone you would've rather seen on there? *cough*Mary Gauthier*cough* Are my fears unfounded? The world must know!

-Dashiell 'The Coal Miner's Canary' Asher

Have You Heard This?- Sonny Terry's Washboard Band Review

This entry marks the first of a recurring series of articles which will aim to shed light on lesser known music albums and bands. The inaugural entry looks at the album Sonny Terry's Washboard Band.

Sixty five years ago the non-profit record label Smithsonian Folkways Recordings put eight tracks of Sonny Terry to vinyl accompanied by a washboard band. The album, only twenty-six minutes long with a humble orange and white album sleeve, currently sits in the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and for good reason: it's a dizzyingly raw and breathtakingly brilliant snapshot of both a blues artist at the height of his talent and of the washboard band, a slowly fading genre of music.

Sonny Terry, born Saunders Terrell, was a blind blues harmonica player famed for his energetic performance style punctuated by successive rapid fire harp licks and blues yelps. Already well known in his home state of North Carolina, Terry was discovered by wider (read white) audiences in the early fifties, accompanying many major folk singers of the day such as Woody Guthrie. It was during this period of folk revival that Sonny Terry's Washboard Band was recorded.

For those who aren't up on their old-time washboard bands (and I mean REALLY where have you been?), the basic setup works like so:

A percussion section is created from a variety of found objects such as sticks, frying pans, washtubs and, of course, washboards. Through a mix of scraping, tapping, tinkling and slamming a propulsive junkyard rhythm is born. The sound is powerfully infectious, clattering and shimmying its way along like a freight train of mamboing skeletons.

In fact, this image isn't far from the truth. Alongside the found items, washboard bands are known for using an instrument called 'bones' which are either wooden sticks or literal pieces of bone which would be, (according to the Folkways circa-1955 liner notes) 'held between the fingers and clacked… [to] provide a sharp percussion note.'

This shaking rhythm is underscored by the ghostly bumps'n'thumps of a washtub bass. Here a single bass string has been strung from a broom handle onto the bottom of an overturned washtub to create the distinctive hollow note sound. Meanwhile melody riffs are carried by sinuous and raw blues harp sometimes blown by Sonny Terry himself, other times by his nephew (also named Sonny Terry).

But the stars of this show are Terry's incredible vocals. Equal parts train whistle and fox yelp; his voice blasts out over every track like a shotgun. It's the glue that holds the ragged structure together, crafting hollering melodies that fill every inch of the sound. This extends to his affect on the lyrics, each track given a wink and a grin by Terry's delivery. Blues though it may be, he makes depression sound fun. From a smattering of double entendres (Custard Pie Blues, Digging My Potatoes) to the wild ways of boozing women (Wine-Headed Woman) every track pulls you into a toe tapping embrace and that just won't let go.

The album is equal parts intimate and raucous. On the one hand you feel like you're sitting in on a band jam, while at the same time a good-god-allmighty party whirls on around you. It's these contradictions that lie at the heart of the recording that make it so compelling. Sonny Terry and his band manage to craft songs that are catchy but powerful, shimmying but downbeat, ragged but tight, all held together by the goodtime grin ever present in Terry's voice. There is a whole lot of electricity to be found in what's almost the ultimate expression of an unplugged sound.

Need a final bit of convincing? If nothing else, this album will have you playing air-washboard. Need I say more?

Hear the album now on Spotify: Sonny Terry – Sonny Terry's Washboard Band

iPhone Review- Emergency Dangerous: Fire Fighter

Old game? Sure. But this is an old blog. So hush.

Emergency Dangerous: Fire Fighter is one of those titles I tend to mention to people when they ask me about games on the iPhone, only to get a blank stare in return.

I understand. It doesn't have the pick up and play appeal of Doodle Jump, the instant recognizability of Bejeweled, or the appealing cutesy-insanity of Angry Birds. In fact the nearest reference point I could think of for it is the Exit series of games by Taito. There, as a 'professional escapologist' named Mr. ESC, you made your 2D way through boldly coloured cutaway buildings during various emergencies (fire, flood, earthquake) in order to rescue survivors from certain death as a timer counted down in the corner. The game was quirky, challenging and funny, even if Mr. ESC controlled like a drunk washcloth.

ED has a similar premise. You control an expanding team of fire fighters tasked with rescuing people from large burning buildings while a timer counts down. As the game goes on the buildings and flames get bigger, and you're expected to rescue more and more of the distressed occupants.

To accomplish this dangerous (or should I say EMERGENCY DANGEROUS) task you'll steadily order your fire fighters to take one of four actions: bust down doors, put out fires, apply first aid to survivors, and of course rescuing them from the building itself. The catch is each member of your team of fire fighters can only carry out one given action at a time. Strategizing becomes essential as the clock ticks away: should you put out that raging fire on the third floor or rescue the slowly dwindling survivor locked away on the second?

Actions are given out through a simple tap interface. Tap a fire fighter to bring up their selection of abilities, tap again on the one you'd like them to use, then tap on the section of the building you'd like them to perform the action. Once complete, the fire fighter will return to the bottom of the screen waiting for your next direction. Though it can be hard to retain a cool head under fire (wahey), choices must be made carefully. If you ask the fire fighters to perform a task that they can't complete (such as rescuing a survivor from a still locked room) they will spend valuable time making their way to the spot, give you a confused look, then walk back to the bottom.

Fortunately you are not without aid in your struggle. As you complete missions you earn points to be spent at an Item Shop where you are able to upgrade your various abilities and stats, as well as adding up to two additional members to your motley squad.

Looking around the level is equally simple, but almost unforgivably never explained by the game itself. Scrolling up or down on the screen will move your view to the various floors of the building. A small red arrow indicator appears in the corner to warn you when there are floors out of your sight with survivors on it. However, you'd never know it if you leapt straight into the game. In no tutorial or help menu does ED mention this aspect of the gameplay. It's a small point of presentation, but is a surprising omission nonetheless considering how key it is to the game past the first few stages.

ED's graphical style is a 2D sugar rush of eye popping comic book drama. From the flaming title screen with letters that make their presence known by screaming at you in garish colours to the angular buildings jutting out of the ground, the design is silly and fun. There isn't a mammoth amount of design variation over the course of the game, but in some ways this is a good thing. This is a game focused on snap decision making, and by keeping the look familiar throughout the levels the experience is kept streamlined and at your fingertips. It serves the gameplay first and acts as visual flash second.

The music, while entertainingly epic and exciting, has slightly less excuse for its repetition. Fun though it is to have thundering drums, choppy electric guitar and synth choral voices soundtrack your first missions, it starts to feel far less dramatic when you've heard the same three loops sampled to death an umpteen amount of times.

In terms of replay value the game offers a small set of unlockable trophies and the main globe trotting campaign comes in three flavours of difficulty, the highest of which must be unlocked. Admittedly, this doesn't seem like a particularly big lifespan. However I would also point out that ED was very clearly designed with the short bursts of play characteristic of gaming on the iPhone in mind, so arguably that helps balance things out a bit.

Overall, Emergency Dangerous is fun, addictive, and surprisingly fast paced for a game requiring you to take things strictly one step at a time. It's easily worth the £1.20 ($1.99), and there's even a trial version for those of you left unconvinced by my gushing.

So go! Buy! And feel safe in the knowledge that you too will now get blank stares when you mention the game to your friends. Enjoy.

-Dashiell 'Not Quite An Emergency' Asher

Images courtesy of Mad Orc Team, 2009

Review: Machinarium

Machinarium is a beautifully crafted point-and-click graphic adventure game set in a clinking and clanking world of rust, dust, and robots.

The developers at Amanita Design are chiefly known for their Samorost games: another series of point-and-click adventures in which the gamer solved environmental puzzles as the diminutive titular character in order to accomplish outlandish goals. With a combination of surreal collage art and whimsical animation, the Samorost games were a joy to play through.

Machinarium feels like the natural evolution for the company from their previous efforts. The game focuses on the trials and tribulations of a small nameless robot who looks like the most adorable flip top trash can you could ever hope to meet. As he explores the dystopian machine city the game is set in, you help him take down gangsters, break out of jail, and even play a little Space Invaders. Just a day in the life for a walking bug eyed rubbish bin really.

The game opens with our hero crashing unceremoniously into a scrap pit, literally falling to pieces. As you work on putting him back together, the game begins to introduce it's basic control scheme and mechanics.

As is the norm in point-and-click games, clicking on the environment will move the character about. Similarly, clicking on specific hotspots will make the character interact with them. The game establishes early on that you can only work with hotspots that are nearby (read literally next to) your character. While this adds realism to the gameplay it also has a few niggling drawbacks. The only way to tell if an object is clickable is by scrolling over it. However the cursor won't change if you aren't next to the object, making key puzzle pieces easily missable.

One of Machinarium's unique control features is the ability to stretch and squash the central character on a vertical axis whilst sacrificing speed of mobility. This is used in a variety of contexts such as stretching to reach hidden away nooks or squatting to fit into sewer drains. This ability feels very organic, helped largely by the charming character animation and design that accompanies it. The only downside is that if you forget to return him to normal height, you'll be moving at an uninterruptible snails pace until you reach your destination. This is particularly tedious in the game's few timed puzzles.

Graphically the game is absolutely gorgeous. Amanita Design have managed to create a visual style entirely their own. The look is equal parts children's picture book and steampunk eccentricity all conveyed in a wonderfully tangible pen and pencil sketched style. The backgrounds are filled with incidental details. Pipes spiral off into the sky, small mechanical creatures rush through the shadows and oil slicks pool under the glow of stuttering neon signs.

The character designs can be described as nothing else but charming. Each robot is unique and has their own specific animations and personalities. The game is devoid of any actual dialogue or voice acting. Instead conversations between characters play out in animated speech and thought bubbles.

This technique is also utilized by the in-game hint system. If the gamer gets stuck they can instigate a thought bubble from the protagonist on the current proceedings that will give them a nudge in the right direction. A more direct walkthrough is also available at the cost of playing an intensely tedious side scrolling shoot-em up mini game in which you guide a key into a lock. This worked as a decent deterrent the majority of the times I was tempted to use the walkthrough. You really, really don't want to play that game.

Also worthy of mention is the soundtrack, which comes with the game in MP3 format. It contains elements of ambient electronica mixed with wheezing machinery. The effect can be likened to hearing science fiction lullabies whistling through a junkyard. It perfectly matches the game's sense of wide eyed innocence meeting dark industrial landscape.

Overall Machinarium is an absolute charmer. It bursts with originality of design and setting. The only other major drawback is it's relatively short length, say five to eight hours. Whether this is worth the twenty dollar price of admission is up to the gamer. Personally, I'd say it's worth it. I can guarantee you won't have played a game quite like it before. So really, do yourself a favour: get lost in Machinarium's wonderful world.

-Dashiell 'The Diminutive Hero' Asher

Motion Control -or- How I Like To Bitch About The Future

Everybody and their mother wants motion control. With the raging success of the Wii, it's understandable. But is the slow move away from traditional gaming inputs for the best?

The tech demos so far have been relatively underwhelming:

The PlayStation Motion Controller was clearly pushed out of the gates a bit early, it's demo essentially being a sado-masochist's playground of different toys, paddles and whips to fiddle about with. The fact that the touted First Person Shooter mode was actually a phallus that spurts liquid from the centre of the screen says it all really.

The big push for Microsoft's full body motion control detector Natal came in the form of Lionhead's 'game,' Milo. Peter Molyneux described the project in an interview with eurogamer.com:

'Milo can recognise the emotions on your face and the emotions in your voice. He can recognise certain words you say... He can recognise what you're wearing. If he notices you've got dark bags under your eyes he will say, 'You look tired today.'

This may well be. But in the demo I saw, all he did was go fishing with his hands, and then stole a drawing for his homework. So assuming this is representative of the total game experience, alongside what Molyneux has described, Milo will insult me, laugh at me, plagiarize me, and then ask me to go fishing. At which point I would like to drown Milo.

Pot shots at the tech demos aside, the biggest reason I'm unwilling to embrace full body motion control is this: How the hell will you, or your character, gracefully walk from one room to another? Or even walk around? This is a question which seems to have been more or less ignored in the presentations by both Microsoft and Sony. Sure, they haven't been forthcoming with many details as it is, but the basic act of movement seems to be a pretty crucial one.

But in considering the issue, finding an elegant solution proves to be more difficult than you'd think.

Natal's Milo appears to be, for all intents and purposes, on rails. And while that will work fine for some titles, it won't be a fix all solution. Ditto for the Sony Motion Controller's FPS-mode.

I've had people suggest to me that adopting a pose like you're about to run, or are in mid movement, could work. Natal or the PlayStation Eye could recognize the position and have your character begin to move.

But everyone who exemplified this tableu vivant of movement just wound up looking like they were doing an impression of an Emergency Exit sign. I refuse to play games looking like I forgot what I was doing midway through my best impersonation of The Flash.

The solution that seems most frighteningly obvious to me is having gamers jog in place to get from point A to point B. I don't think I could keep a straight face playing a game in this fashion. Imagine the scene: You're playing an epic RPG. Your hero is standing in the door way of a dimly lit cathedral. A bright white dove floats across the rafters, becoming engulfed by the darkness of a ceiling spiraling high above you. The villain stands across from you on a gleaming pedestal. Flames roar out of the ground as wings sprout from his back and he begins to soar to the heavens, raining death and destruction all around. The hero steadies himself, and runs forward.

...Only he doesn't. He jogs forward. Maybe even half asses it a little: bobbing up and down in place while hoping no one is looking.

The whole mess can be summarized in three simple words: Saviours. Don't. Jog.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but neither do gamers. I'm not in any way trying to push the tired image of video game enthusiasts being overweight and lazy. What I'm concerned with is developers taking what's a largely cerebral experience and making it so that our main interaction with it is a physical one, which seems to me to be a really great way to lose a lot of business.

It all really comes down to that old question of whether gamers will be willing to exchange the highly passive role they've been taking in their favourite past time for a more active one. I don't want to sound supremely cynical in saying, 'I doubt it,' but until some of these core questions regarding interface are answered, I for one will have trouble getting totally behind it. After all, we have to learn to walk before we can run.

-Dashiell 'The Jogging Saviour' Asher

RGGS: Lollyphile! -or- How I Learned To Feel The Burn

I'm beginning to feel that Lollyphile has let me down. The evenings of sweet and sugary joy I was breathlessly waiting for have turned out to be little more than empty-if-not-novel candy booty calls.

I'm feeling cheap and used. The saloon lights are glowing dimly above me as I soak my sorrows into a strong drink.

'Damn you, Lollyphile...' I whimper, 'Damn you to hell.'

Suddenly the doors are kicked open by a a pair of snake skin cowboy boots, followed by long legs clad in black jeans with Japanese Dragons stitched up the sides. 'Bad to the Bone' begins thumping from the old jukebox as this mysterious strangers straddles the dusty floor boards. He pulls a zippo lighter from his jacket: it's made of metal that burns as brightly as the flame. He produces a smoke from thin air and cocks his head sideways as he sucks in the fire as it's reflected in a pair of obsidian shades.

'It's the hot one...' I hear someone whisper to my left.

The cool customer slides up to me, blowing smoke over his shoulder.

'I hear you've had your heart broken a few times.'

He smells like fire and spice.

'Who are you?' I barely choke out.

'Who am I?' He replies with a grin, 'I'm Wasabi-Ginger.'

The Look: This is the first truly good looking lolly I've had so far. It's a dark burnt orange with flecks of red just under the surface. As you suck on the treat you'll find that these little flecks slowly worm their way to the top, like tiny flecks of crimson glass. It looks like a little dark ball of fire. Which is goddamn exactly how a lollypop made of ginger and wasabi should look.

I like this lollipop.

The Flavour: This is also the first lollipop that has actually tasted entirely like what it purports to be made from. About. Fucking. Time. The base candy tastes like the sweetest ginger syrup you've ever had, with a delicate warmth that slowly gives way to the potent mustard edge of the wasabi. Further into the treat the heat intensifies as those little shards of red begin to emerge. They are, I believe, tiny pieces of crystalized chili peppers. They have a tendency to scratch your tongue while sucking on the lolly, which I found to make the spice more intense as my tongue became raw. Genuinely enjoyed it the whole way through, which is a first.

Should you buy it?: Are you serious? I give you my total blessing. I really loved this lollipop, and am definitely considering getting more of them.

I suppose, to give it some balance, I should point out some potential downsides to this sweet. Buyers beware of these caveats:

1. The whole thing SMACKS of ginger, and will do nothing to convert those who don't like the spice to the cause.

2. The whole 'raw tongue' aspect, I could that see turning folks off. I suppose not everyone wants their tongue to be going through an S&M session to get the sugar. But they just don't know what they're missing.

3. The heat, while never overwhelming, is strong enough to be the key sensation to this treat. This is sweet, sticky, and HOT.

GOD DAMN this is a SEXY lollipop.

So yes. Oh godddd yesssss...

To be continued in: Lollyphile! -or- How The Dude Abides

-Dashiell 'The Sexy Bon-Bon' Asher

Image Courtesy of Lollyphile.com

RGGS: Pornogrind -or- How To Fuck Like The Frog

I'll keep this brief.

There is a musical movement known as pornogrind.

Awesome.

One of the bands involved in the movement are called Cock and Ball Torture; a charming group of young men from Germany who craft pop gems with titles like Titty Torture Bondage Boys, The Taste of Animal Sperm and of course, Anal Sex Terror.

Fuck. Yes.

Sadly the whole thing turns out to be as sexy as a venereal wart.

Dammit.

The music is essentially bland death metal with vocals that literally sound like a frog drowning. As far as I can tell, outside of the titles, there is nothing even vaguely pornographic.

Maybe we can pretend the frog was choking on a penis.

-Dashiell 'Amplexus' Asher

PS. Before you go googling Pornogrind, be careful of the images. Even with safe search. Seriously. Semen on cornflakes is the softest image you'll find. And the least violent. Now go do it anyway. You Sick Fuck.

Image courtesy of some dudes myspace, for reasons listed above.