MentalPolyphonics » Sublime http://mentalpolyphonics.com Committees exist to share blame. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:29:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Using Real Music… http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/using-real-music http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/using-real-music#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:17:42 +0000 Jack http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/using-real-music Something I’d like Samhain‘s games to do is use real music (obviously hiring musicians is a longer-term goal). Here’s what 8-bit sounds like analog:

Here’s Sublime’s rendition of Hong Kong Phooey from Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits:

Real music: It just sounds better. Here’re the Ramones with Spider-Man, same album:

Wizards and Warriors with the fuzz generator replaced with actual guitar and bass:

The iPhone/iPod platform is fundamentally about music.

]]> http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/using-real-music/feed 0 Comfort Music http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/comfort-music http://mentalpolyphonics.com/posts/comfort-music#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:42:59 +0000 Jack http://mentalpolyphonics.com/?p=1316 New Years day is one of those border times. The combined psychic weight of our planet-wide slacking and recovery gives the day a ruddy, lazy quality — even if you yourself are up and about normally.

I pay close attention to the albums I listen to New Years day. I try to enjoy complete albums that reinforce my worldview, to start the year with a reminder of what I hold dear. Here are the five I started this year with, in order.

1. Warren Zevon, Warren Zevon (1976)

My current favorite album. Warren Zevon wrote track seven, Mohammed’s Radio, in one manic all-night session after he failed to meet Hunter Thompson at a costume party one Aspen Hallowe’en, inspired by one of the guests’ costumes:

When I sit down with my screenplays and start writing scenes I often put a single track on loop that conveys the feeling of the sequence to me (and then I usually write it into the script, even though you’re not supposed to). As it repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats I get the nuance and rhythm and try to write something that hits the same emotional note.

The indie script I’m working on is action-oriented and Mohammed’s Radio is the track I looped for the relaxed, vaguely menacing opening sequence.

2. Pink Floyd, The Wall (1979)

The Wall Cover Art

The classic isolation concept album, Dr. Z clued me onto this one back in ’06. It took over my brain so quickly, with such resonance, that I used it in therapy in ’08.

Partially responsible for me flaming out of accounting, The Wall literally changed my life. Ahh, the corporate drone mentality: Stress, drugs, and rock & roll. I wish I missed it.

3. Sublime, 40 Oz. to Freedom (1996)

40 Oz. to Freedom Album Cover

Soulful, heroin-fueled surf-reggae punk music from Brad Nowell, the second most influential rock musician of the 90s after Cobain (I’ve never been a Nirvana guy). Someone also once called Sublime “the second most important reggae act” after Bob Marley. That’s good for a best double-finish award.

Life is too short, so love the one you got…

4. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral (1994)

The first time I heard this album was Summer 1994 and I thought it was catchy. It took until 1996 for it to really set my brain on fire.

An all-time favorite. Perennial.

5. Marilyn Manson, Portrait of an American Family (1994)

I learned the word “cunt” from this album, Manson’s best. His albums until 2007′s Eat Me, Drink Me were successful variations on Portrait.

I learned the more complicated and interesting pejorative “cuntfucker” from Cake and Sodomy. Great workout music.

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