Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen

Per Dave Richards’ story in Comic Book Resources, Cloak & Dagger are coming back to a Marvel mini-series next year. All the cameos in Secret Invasion and Civil Wars seem to have paid off. The story linked here has a great interview with the writer, blogger and comic book editor Valerie D’Orazio, who seems to have a good bead on the story: it’s about their relationship, not their clobberfests – and D’Orazio promises to give the characters some kind of resolution. She also promises to use New York City, instead of dicking around in Europe or outer space or whatever happened in those last series in the ’80s. So far, so good.

I wrote about my obsession with the comic for Pitchfork last year, and while I was skeptical that anyone could do justice to these characters, I’ll give D’Orazio a chance. And ditto anime-influenced illustrator Irene Flores. (Too bad though that Rick Leonardi wasn’t able to do the art … )

A few years ago I contributed a couple podcasts to the late, great Stylus Magazine. One mix that I made but never got around to running was an experiment: how many one minute songs did I have in my collection, and how many could I string together in one mix without coughing up something that was unlistenably jarring?

So, I figured I’d post it here. I won’t give the tracklist just yet – it’s more fun if you don’t know going in who you’ll listen to, though some are easier to recognize than others. I think I sequenced it pretty well for minimum aural whiplash. Comments welcome.

21 Songs in 22 Minutes (20 mb)

Yesterday ABC News printed a casual chat caught by open mic between presidential candidate Barack Obama and British Tory Leader David Cameron.

No gaffes or bombshells here, but I loved the article because it’s an intriguing look at how two of the world’s biggest politicians handle leadership and specifically, managing their teams and their time.

For example:

“Do you have a break at all?” asked Cameron.

“I have not,” said Obama. “I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who — not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process — said that, should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be — “

“These guys just chalk your diary up,” said Cameron, referring to a packed schedule.

“Right,” Obama said. “In 15 minute increments …”

“We call it the dentist’s waiting room,” Cameron said. “You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.”

And on micromanagement – Obama:

… The truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know ten times more than we do about the specifics of the topics. And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.

In weighing Obama versus McCain, I’ve come to think that if something blew up the day after the inauguration and one of them had to deal with it, Obama would know he didn’t have the first-hand experience – but he’d likely keep a cool head while he worked with his team to get the best solution. Whereas I’m worried McCain would start going “GWWAAAAAA” and slamming his fist on the red button.

But if McCain hadn’t spent so much of this year tarnishing his own foreign policy credibility, with silly gaffes and naive moments of trust for the wrong people (like Musharraf), I might give him more credit.

My friend Ed mocked my feeble BlackBerry blogging from the festival this weekend, so I thought I’d take a moment to review highlights from the weekend. It was a really nice weekend – the crowds and the atmosphere were perfect and the weather was tricky but never turned horrible. Here are some of the best moments, accompanied by some awful photos I took with my BlackBerry.

FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS

Obviously, Public Enemy.

That’s Flavor Flav – no really. Their track-by-track performance of It Takes a Nation of Millions went well, but things got insane when they moved on to their greatest hits. As for Flavor Flav, he may have gotten boos when he plugged his reality show, but never count him out: he still owns the stage. At one point, he was leaning into the crowd from the stage, and a large guy behind him had a finger hooked into his belt to keep him from tumbling off. But Flav turned and waved the guy off – he was okay. Better than okay.

SATURDAY

The rain in the afternoon broke into intense humidity in the afternoon, but that was fine. I caught up with too many great people to list; I hung out with Gus Mastrapa and his pal Sam Santos, talked to almost all the ‘Forker except Grayson Currin, and really only missed getting to talk to the posse of ex-Stylus writers who disappeared somewhere in the afterparty.

The headliners had the best shows – Animal Collective did their tribal/trance thing with a stunning light show, and the only thing that set it back was that in the midst of all the weird lights and beats, Avey Tare insisted on wearing a dopey buckethat. Most of the ‘Forkers were enraptured by Jarvis Cocker, and watching him shuck off his jacket was one of the coolest moments of the day. I also enjoyed Atlas Sound, bringing his loops and whispy vox to the (to use Dave Maher’s term) grove-like side stage at the back corner. I remember the DJ tent from 2006 and all the people crammed in and enduring 120 degree heat to catch acts like Matmos; while this year could have used more (any) DJs, the side stage was a terrific space.

I should also mention, instead of crashing on Rob Mitchum’s couch per usual, I stayed at the Pitchfork office in Wicker Park with a couple other staffers (who may not want their names in print in this context). I stayed there last fall to work on the Pitchfork 500 book, and found it surprisingly homey. But this weekend was tougher. Friday night we all slept lightly: we had the windows wide open to get any breeze we could, which also meant we heard the car alarms, and the guys breaking beer bottles at four in the morning, and also, someone started yelling “HELP! HELP!” at one point … but they stopped pretty quickly, so that probably just worked itself out.

Saturday was quieter, thanks to a torrential downpour. Luckily, that waited until one in the morning – but like I said, it was rainy and muddy all day. A handful of kids actually went and rolled around in the mud. I can’t say it was a good idea.

But I had a blast.

SUNDAY

Hot but pleasant all day. I got there right on time to see The Dirty Projectors, who along with Fleet Foxes were one of my must-catch bands.

I finally realized what I like about Dave Longstreth: he’s a jittery, abrasive Sufjan Stevens. He’s flanked by cute, talented hipster girls. He knows where to find a good drummer. And he practices high concept music that doesn’t necessarily require overanalysis. Rise Above is one of my favorite discs of last year, yet the fact that he adapted and art-ified a Black Flag cassette doesn’t seem to “mean” much. The outsider lyrics sort of fit him – he’s a gangly, distant figure on stage, and may not have been one of the popular kids at high school – yet he’s not exactly an outcast, either. There are no queer or dork signifiers in his use of the music: he basically seems to like the tape and used it to inspire his music. In the same way, his diffident posture beside his cute bandmates and their matching ultra-soprano harmonies bring a kind of sex appeal to the stage, but the music is not sexy in any way. (I’m sure indie kids have sex, but it’s not like they ever come.)

I know why I like the Dirty Projectors: I dig that stuff from my nervous system on down. Those jittery, scribbly guitars and high vocals and the way he’ll throw in a “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” as the hook on a song like “Fucked for Life” appeal to me in a completely non-intellectual way. And on that front, they were dead on, and may have won some fans – though probably not as many as Fleet Foxes the day before, who are definitely dudes who get down with lots and lots of girls and with those voices, deserve it.

I missed Hold Steady. I stayed away from the side stage – HEALTH really harshed my mellow, it was just too abrasive for the weather. On the other hand, Spiritualized’s set at the end of the daylight was a near-miracle. They knew exactly how you’re supposed to sound at sunset on the last day of the festival.

I walked around talking to people the rest of the night, and had a great conversation with Joe Tangari about of all things, Jethro Tull, right when I was too tired to try to remember if I’d ever heard a single song by Bon Iver or the Ruby Suns or whoever else I wished I’d kept up with. As an aside, the Make a Wish foundation should offer kids the chance to spend a week listening to records with Joe. I bet that would be awesome.

And I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and flew home. I’m really tired.

UPDATE: Official concert videos are now being posted to Pitchfork.tv. And thanks to Eric for the Animal Collective clips in the comments.

Doing a little blackberry blogging here from Chicago. It’s night one of the Pitchfork festival. I missed Burma’s set – too busy standing back talking with fellow staffers. Missed Sebadoh – same deal. Now Public Enemy is on, and they’re standing around talking too. It’s just old home week for us all.

Night’s humid with a threat of some rain this weekend. But the show will go on.

Update: flav just plugged his reality show. Crowd booed.

UPDATE: Okay, this hasn’t been much of a liveblog. But yesterday’s sets were good. Animal Collective kept up with their amazing light show. Fleet Foxes hit all their harmonies and repeatedly hushed the crowd. Rain made mud made mud-stained hippies. Atlas Sound’s solo set – in which he promised just to “wing it” – gave that corner of the park entrancing loops and eerie vocals. Saw lots of pals and colleagues. Today (Sunday), looking forward to The Dirty Projectors, Cut Copy, and hopefully no thunderstorms ’til the afterparty.

So a couple months ago we hatched a plan at The Onion AV Club to string together some cool interviews around the topic of games and music. We shortlisted some musicians who work on games, game developers who are obsessed with music, and came up with four interviews that represent very different points on the spectrum.

The first one ran today: Gus Mastrapa interviewing the amazing Mike Patton, vocal talent for The Darkness, Portal, and other titles; frontman for Faith No More and Mr. Bungle; and a soundtrack composer in his own right, who had fascinating things to say about the difference between game music and film music.

Friday – Harmonix Music (a whopping four-interview special about the culture, influences, and weird cyberart of the team behind Rock Band)

Monday – Tommy Tallarico (long-lasting game composer and self-made legend in the gaming community – the quotes are priceless)

And headlining on Tuesday – Jonathan Coulton - oh yes.

Dig it.

UPDATE: I’m updating links as we go. In today’s Tallarico interview, we got to include a lot of the interview, but some of the discussion of the Video Games Live tour was cut, for length and maybe accuracy. I enjoyed it, particularly the part about the AARP magazine spread, so I’m reproducing it here:

But what really makes Video Games Live and why it’s become the huge success it has, is that we’re not just catering to hardcore gamers, or hardcore Final Fantasy fans. What we’re doing is catering to families. Catering to grandparents, just as much as we cater to an 8-year-old.

AVC: How do you get grandparents to go?

TT: We advertise to symphony crowds, because when we use a symphony, they have a mailing list of 100,000 people over 50 years old. Are you familiar with the AARP? We have a huge spread coming out in AARP Magazine next month. Grandparents would love nothing more than to take their grandchildren to the symphony. Give ‘em a little culture, right? The reality is, young people don’t view symphonies as something cool that they want to go to. Symphonies and orchestras have lost touch. They’re not connecting with people under 40, right? Because people 40 and under like myself, we grew up on video games, rock and roll, laser beams, interactivity, MTV, and Star Wars. Right?

So, from a grandparents’ or parents’ standpoint, the spin of the article is basically, “I didn’t know what to expect when I saw this thing. I don’t know the first thing about video game music, but oh my God I was completely blown away. And how refreshing was it for my grandkids to be taking me to the symphony! For the first time ever, I told them about it, and they wanted to go and they wanted to bring all their friends, and so now I was the cool grandma. And by the way, I never knew how amazing video game music was, and how powerful the imagery was, and the characters, and the storylines, and – I get it now! Now I know why my kids are so into video games. Thank you so much.”

This is a typical letter that we get. Every time we do a show, we get hundreds of those.

AVC: And at the same time, maybe they can get the kids to listen to Beethoven after that?

TT: Um … probably not, honestly. [But] it’s one of those things where, not only are we changing perception around the world of what video games and their music are, but on the flip side of that, we’re also ushering in a whole new generation of people to come and see a symphony. Now, will they go see Beethoven the week after next? Maybe, maybe not. But at least they’re being exposed to it, right? Whereas, previously, there was no exposure to this world at all. Because again, when we think of symphonies we’re like, “Oh, a bunch of old people on stage in tuxedos. Not for me.” We’re making it for them. And all of that haughty-totty wine-sipping, cigar-smoking, tuxedo bullshit? We throw that out the window.

Feist, “1234″

We just started watching TV with our kid. Before now, I’d only let him watch videos on YouTube and occasionally, The Simpsons. Why did we shelter him from television? Obviously, because we’re smug, smug assholes.

Anyway, we’re trying some children’s television with him. Word World and Super Why? are two new shows on our local public television affiliate. Both use digital animation, and both are obsessively pedagogical: coming from the education space, I could imagine the scripts for each show with the lessons and word parts to study meticulously bolded and commented by someone with a PhD from the Harvard Ed school.

I found them both pretty soulless. Word World has a few gags, but it’s thoroughly uninspired, down to the animal names (dog is named “Dog,” duck is named “Duck”). Super Why? was tedious and insufferable. They spent half the show setting up how everything worked, and what the little bouncing light meant, and who the stupid characters were, and what it means when they’re walking, and what it means when they’re flying, and a baby was crying, and it’s like, dude, if you want to tell the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” just tell the damn thing. Better yet, let’s just read it ourselves. I’m sure it’s on the net.

Then we tried Sesame Street. I haven’t watched it closely in almost thirty years. But the kid was already a fan of Ernie and Bert, and the Silly Songs CD is highly recommended as a kid’s album that won’t make you want to die. But tonight we watched a good half of an episode, and I was pretty bowled over. The jokes are funny. The corny jokes are also funny. The scripts and songs are actually, on average, so good that you can image every struggling writer and singer in New York City passing through the Children’s Television Workshop pitching their hearts out on their way to Off-Off-Broadway. And real culture finds funny ways of seeping in: we saw a segment tonight that made a joke about abstract art without belittling it.

Oh, and the guest stars. Tonight they had Alec Baldwin riding a tricycle, and R.E.M. singing “Shiny Happy Monsters.” Not bad!

All in all? Sesame Street trumps Saturday Night Live, in every way: it’s smarter, funnier, and pulls better talent – and it works for people over the age of 10.

REM, “Shiny Happy Monsters”

UPDATE: OMG.

I’m not at E3 this week. No regrets. I guess I can wait five minutes ’til the first journo liveblogs the news that Far Cry 2 is, in fact, coming out. And am I bitter that I spent two days with Harmonix but didn’t break the Chinese Democracy story? Naaahh.

Of the three major game shows, E3 is the one I’m least interested in, after GDC and then PAX. The stripped down, all-business one is no doubt a hoot, but it’s also one big scrum with few chances for a scoop. Not that I chase scoops anyway. I chase weird little stories nobody cares about and hope beyond hope someone will care. And there’s not much of that either.

But I am going to the Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend. The line-up looks terrific, and I’m busy checking out bands that I’ve slept on to date – my God, Fleet Foxes are fantastic, aren’t they? The guy’s voice absolutely kills me on “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.” They take everything mournful and enveloping about English folk music and rip out the twee signifiers, and write melodies that don’t sound recycled. Haunting and awesome.

Also looking forward to:

Dirty Projectors
Jarvis Cocker (so I can watch Scott Plagenhoef’s face glaze in awe)
Animal Collective (still haven’t caught them live)
Mission of Burma (who played probably the best set in ‘06)
Fuck Buttons
Anything Joe Tangari tells me to check out (after I slept on Glenn Kotche that one time)

Too bad they had to book Vampire Weekend – but with three stages running, I’m sure I can avoid it.

If you’re stuck at home, check the site I just linked – apparently they’re webcasting a lot of the festival live.

I’m posting a link to the interactive fiction game Aisle, by Sam Barlow, for two reasons: one, it’s an unusual experience where you get one move, and one result, which hands you one part of some story – and then you play it over again, and try a different move, and get a different part of the story.

Two, the text is implemented in a browser interface. No interpreters, no downloads, no cryptic installs – you just play it via Parchment (which is still in beta, but seems to work). I was wondering why noone had done this.

And by the way, you can also play Lost Pig via a browser too. And you should. (UPDATE: It also works in Parchment; apparently, Parchment will load any .z script hosted on a server and run it for you. Slick.)

(Found thanks to Emily Short’s review at PlayThisThing.com.)

I’ve been going down to Harmonix’s offices in Cambridge, to do a feature for the AV Club on how they work, what they’re like, and what we’ll get from Rock Band 2. The full feature runs next week, but today we ran a hands-on preview of Rock Band 2 itself. A couple key details were still embargoed – for example, I could mention “add-ons” to the drum kit but not state exactly what they were – and I couldn’t name any but the ten songs they’ve already announced. As much as I howl and I whine, I can’t even tell you the best song I got to play when I was in their office this week.

But I was pretty happy with the preview, especially at the end, when I got to talk about their “indie initiative”:

As Greg LoPiccolo, VP of Product Development, explained, “We have a very ambitious indie initiative that’s cooking now. It’s not really ready for any detailed announcement. But long-term, we see that as a significant component of the Rock Band universe, that gets used actively by the independent music community to debut new material. We think that it’s an ideal way for people to explore new music.”

As news of Rock Band 2 continues to leak into the press, I’ve heard a lot of consternation about the lack of user-generated content. Penny Arcade’s Tycho all but calls it a dealbreaker, saying that Guitar Hero IV, with its songwriting tools, has “outflanked” Harmonix’s Rock Band. Personally? I think Harmonix made the right call.

Except in small doses, user-generated content generally sucks. Especially when the tool is as limited as this screenshot suggests it’ll be:

You could argue that it would lead to some good music, and that the good music will prevail. Mitch Krpata made that argument today, and it’s totally fair. I have no idea how the user-generated tracks will turn out. I used to think that live music had a future on Second Life; since then, I’ve stopped making predictions.

But here’s the main reason I’m against it: it’s not really that hard to make music. You need to cross certain hurdles – buy a cheap instrument, or download software on your laptop, or just make yourself clap and sing. But if you’re even slightly determined, you can get started. I bought a $40 ukulele this winter and recorded an album. It’s not good, but I went through the steps of actually sitting down and making music myself, instead of monkeying around with some tool in a video game.

The thing about Harmonix is that even though they strive to bring total non-musicians closer to music, they still mark a clear boundary between playing music and not. The instruments can’t make music within the Rock Band software, but you can plug them into a PC and do whatever you want with them. Harmonix didn’t build a music-creation tool, but they did provide a drum trainer that could actually, sort of, basically teach you something about how to play drums. And like I said, my uke only cost $40. I have to keep it in tune and play in time and work out the chords and try not to screw up. And that’s how you learn.

That’s not the same as a closed music-making system. I don’t know much about what Guitar Hero IV is doing. I’ve read that their system resembles using Apple GarageBand, which wouldn’t be bad, although it doesn’t support vox (which makes “song”-writing kinda tough). It may be flexible – but it’s not as flexible as picking up an instrument and learning to make some noise yourself. You can’t just throw in some harmonics or crank the distortion or screw around just to see what the thing’ll do. What it mainly does is take away the small amount of initiative it takes to make music for real.

And by the way, if more people took that chance? They might find it’s not as hard as it seems.