Katamary Damacy the text adventure

ruxxell has turned Katamary Damacy into an absolutely fucking fabulous text adventure.

"You are standing on the floor of a bedroom.
Your Katamari is 10cm.

> N

There is a PAPER CLIP here.

> ROLL CLIP

I do not know what a CLIP is.

> ROLL PAPER CLIP

You roll up the PAPER CLIP.

You are standing on the floor of a bedroom.

> LOOK KATAMARI

Your Katamari is 10.2cm.

> N
You are standing on the floor of a bedroom.
There is a bottle of WHITE OUT here.

> ROLL WHITE OUT

You attempt to roll the WHITE OUT. You bounce back with a jarring force!

You are standing on the floor of a bedroom.
There is a bottle of WHITE OUT here."

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Katamary Damacy lyrics

Some dude has translated the lyrics of the Katamary Damacy soundtrack into English.

"I sprinted, I twisted,
I tried to run about everywhere
I spun, I was spun,
I rolled into anything I could find
I was attached, I felt included,
hey! I just picked up so much stuff!

I tried to avoid it, I tried to flee,
But the power was too much, came crashing down on me
I tried to push it, I tried to pull it,
At the end of my rope, I tried to cast it away
I crashed, I snapped,
A huge thrill ran through my body"

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Album Review: Summer In The Southeast

You’ll be hard pressed to find a review about Will Oldham that doesn’t contain the word ‘enigmatic’. Certainly, Oldham has a reputation for being grumpy and uncooperative. However, his talent is never in doubt, something reinforced by the release by Drag City of Oldham’s first live album.

Whether working as Palace, his own name, or Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Oldham’s albums are never particularly embellished with production trickery, but Summer In The Southeast allows an even greater focus on the songs themselves.

Master and Everyone erupts in a way it didn’t when housed on the 2003 album of the same name, while the classic Appalachian sound of Nomadic Revery is enriched by the live recording and the fragility of fatalistic anthem, I See A Darkness, means it almost disappears altogether until its emotional crescendo. And there are yet more changes to mainstays of Oldham’s catalogue, I Send My Love To You gets a full boom-click-boom country makeover. May It Always Be is noisily transformed from the version on 2002’s Ease Down The Road album, while the Celtic folk of Madeleine Mary gets a bluesy makeover.

O Let It Be from 1997’s Joya is the album’s one true rock song. But it is the repertoire of love songs that has Oldham at his most tender; the barely-there melody of Beast For Thee is one of the set’s standout moments.

Bar some irritating whooping from the typically excitable US audience, of which I dare say Oldham wouldn’t have approved, this is an enjoyable listen from beginning to end.

Album Review: Fancy Barrel

After two celebrated EPs, Aidan Smith decided to move from Twisted Nerve to Analogue Catalogue and, with the change of labels, upgrade from a 4-track to a professional studio for his debut album. Fortunately, the ramshackle nature of his approach has not been tainted.

Smith manages to blend jauntiness and tragedy with some ease and is more than able to seamlessly negotiate between the every day humour of Jam Will Suffice and dark tales of violence like The Cuckold, without ever letting his smile slip. In fact, Smith plays the latter track with so much levity that the listener may initially miss the fact that the song is actually a bitter story of suicide.

Yet, Fancy Barrel is not just some throwaway comedy album. The opening track, Aeroplanes, Pigs etc, offers some excellent jazz drumming, whilst the sinister pseudo-lounge core of Bert’s Violent Rage is another example of Smith’s slightly skewed approach to songwriting.

Whether elated or afflicted, Fancy Barrel proves that Smith is a talent without any obvious limitations.

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Secrets of the Haunted Mansion

Here's a stunning tribute site to Disney's Haunted Mansion.

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Gallery of new wave record covers

The Endless Groove has an incredible gallery of scans of punk and new wave record sleeves.

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Murray Wilson drunk rant

Here's a magnificent piece of audio. It's Murray Wilson (father of Brian, Dennis and Carl of the Beach Boys), drunk, ranting and abusive in the studio.

"January 8, 1965: The Beach Boys enter the studio to record what will become their second number one hit, Help Me Rhonda. Well into the session, a drunken Murry Wilson (Brian, Carl and Dennis' Dad) arrives and proceeds to commandeer the session with psychodrama, scat singing and weepy, abusive melodrama."

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Latest column at ComeOnBoro.com

ComeOnBoro.com have published my latest column.

You can read it here

Latest column at ComeOnBoro.com

My latest column for ComeOnBoro.com has been published.

You can check it out here

Album Review: Tanglewood Numbers

David Berman and his Silver Jews have always been something of an enigma. Part of the Jews’ mystique was a lack of solid information about David Berman; his refusal to play live or grant interviews. But now, with news of Berman’s addictions and suicide attempts made public, the veil has been lifted. What’s more, it’s helped Berman create his greatest album.

From the opening seconds of Punks In The Beerlight, it’s clear that the music matters more than it ever has. With guest spots from Will Oldham, Bob Nastanovich, Paz Lenchantin and Stephen Malkmus, perhaps it’s not surprising that the music is of high quality, but more importantly, there appears to have been a shift in the way that the songs are performed and structured. If its predecessor, Bright Flight, was a muted country record, then Tanglewood Numbers is straight-up band orientated rock and roll. In fact, only the ballads I’m Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You and Sleeping Is The Only Love offer respite from the otherwise non-stop romp.

It’s no surprise that Berman - probably the most talented lyricist of his generation - refuses to allow his words to be overshadowed. Lines like “Andre was a young black Santa Claus / Didn’t want to be like his Daddy was,” allay any fears that Berman’s intentional drug overdose two years ago has dulled his wit. What’s more, his singing voice, nominally the weakest part of any Jews record, is more forceful and intense than ever.

It would’ve been easy for Berman to turn Tanglewood Numbers into a maudlin, autobiographical account of his drug addiction, but nothing could be further from the truth. As Berman chants “I saw God’s shadow on this world,” with almost insane conviction, you know that he has used his adversity to create an altogether triumphant rock record.

Album Review: Fall Heads Roll

Thirty years have passed since The Fall released their seminal debut, Live At The Witch Trials. While the band appeared to be in decline, 2003’s Real New Fall LP was hoped by many to indicate that the fire and passion that saw them knock out classics like Dragnet, Grotesque and Perverted By Language with almost casual regularity has returned.

Opener Ride Away is as jaunty a tune as they’ve released since their version of The Kinks’ Victoria. The electronic swirls bop along to a ragged reggae skank and a one-two beat with Mark E Smith’s cheeky, intermittent, “hey hey” is a perfect introduction to what is the most frequently brilliant Fall album since This Nation’s Saving Grace.

Pacifying Joint has Eleni Smith’s synthesiser zipping over the kind of dirge guitars that only The Fall do this well. That Smith’s lyrics are delivered in the perfect drawl is but icing on the cake. Blindness, having appeared on both Interim and the Peel Sessions Box Set, will be the track most anticipated by Fall fans. Harking back to their long-standing rule that ‘longer is better’ and sounding meaner than ever, Smith’s band demonstrate the magic that can make seven minutes of the same riff feel like a far too short length of time. Later, Smith deconstructs The Move’s I Can Hear The Grass Grow by literally tearing apart the original’s multi-layered arrangements and turning it into a raucous singalong.

Only the Mark E Smith-less Trust In Me (which, annoyingly, closes out the set) sounds out of place on an album which not only proves that The Fall can live up to their legend but, in fact, are more than able to surpass it.

Supercage

Nicholas Cage has named his new son after Superman: Kal-El Cage.

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Latest column at ComeOnBoro.com

I've had a few weeks off but I'm pleased to be back writing again for ComeOnBoro.com.

My latest column is here