Thrasher editor Jake Phelps hits the Crailtap Couch this week. Part one yo.
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Author: Crossfire
Baltimore’s The Dangerous Summer have announced details of their debut album to be released this Spring. The record, Reach For The Sun, will be released on 12th April through Hopeless Records.
Reach For The Sun was produced by Paul Leavitt (Circa Survive, All Time Low, Dashboard Confessional), who the band have been working with since being in high school.
Check out the video for Where I Want To Be, released last year;
SEGA
PS3/XBOX360
(official site)
Cos-play devotees are gonna have a field day with SEGA’s modern day witchy affair, Bayonetta, a thirdperson action game that has some outstanding visuals and boss fights with a storyline that ultimately becomes a blur of clichés.
With pistols strapped to her stilettos and all manner of other weaponry, Bayonetta is a witch looking to avenge a wronged past. This story of a witch wronged, is a muddled affair not helped by numerous and lengthy cut-scenes that do very little to connect the player with past and current events or the characters. Bayonetta herself is one big, lolly-pop-sucking, skin-flashing, flirtation that will keep young teens and men that should know better, glued to hope that she’ll do some sort of naked dance each time a boss is taken down. Fighting a way through the many angels, that block the linear path to the next boss battle, seemed designed to develop a technique of button-mashing frenzy which feels deliberate at times but mostly heightens a feeling of luck when a combo is achieved – and be warned there are many, many combos in Bayonetta.
There’s very little else to amuse the gamer who loves a deep storyline with fully fleshed-out characters but saying that, if your picking up Bayonetta for some deep ‘n’ meaning videogaming expressionism, then you are doing yourself a disservice. At Bayonetta’s heart is a pumping, ultra-violent shooter cross beat ’em up cross that sometimes feels like it’s playing itself when the action becomes too frantic. At those moments, all thoughts of hand-to-eye co-ordination jump headlong into a dried up swimming pool from 150 feet up. Combat in Bayonetta leaves you brain feeling liquidised and ready for consumption and your nerves aching for a sedative.
Bayonetta is part pleasure and part pain, it is there to simultaneously reminded you how videogame combat can be fun without being ultra-realistic but also how cheesy story-lines and make-shift characterisation can combine to make a total and utter mess of things. So if you can get passed Bayonetta’s cheeky but clichéd pantomime and the overly long cut-scenes then what you’ll be delighted with is a riotous game of frightful fighting mayhem. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you!
7/10
David Osbon
Here’s one for the old school visitors to this zine. Vans continue their band collabs on shoes with none other than Suicidal Tendencies. Click below for the full collection and look out for various ST DVDs and re-issues throughout the year.
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New Thermals single
Portland’s finest power pop trio The Thermals have released a new single through Kill Rock Stars. The track, entitled Canada, was written on the road as the band finish off touring last year’s Now We Can See.
Meanwhile the ever industrious band is finishing up recording for their new album, set to be released later this year. Personal Life will be produced by Chris Walla and released on September 7th.
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MGMT reveal album details
The hugely awaited follow up album from MGMT will be released this April, the band has announced.
The release of the record, entitled Congratulations, has been marked by a countdown on the duo’s website which is due to end on April 13th, coinciding with the release of the record in US (the album is released a day earlier in the UK).
Congratulations was produced by the band themselves alongside the more experienced head of Pete Kemeber of Spaceman 3. The tracklisting reads;
It’s Working
Song for Dan Treacy
Someone’s Missing
Flash Delirium
I Found a Whistle
Siberian Breaks
Brian Eno
Lady Dada’s Nightmare
Congratulations
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Lil Wayne’s prison sentence delayed
Lil Wayne’s prison sentence has been postponed until the beginning of March so that the rapper can have dental surgery.
Although Lil Wayne was expected to begin his sentence for gun possession yesterday (February 9th), he will now have surgery this coming Friday and spend the rest of the month recovering.
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New Chris Cole demo footage
Strange to think now that he originally rode for Enjoi, there is no question this man is among the very best in the world.
Chris Cole Zero Demo footage from Ian Berry on Vimeo.
We Are Scientists have announced the first single from forthcoming album Barbara.
The track will be titled Rules and is scheduled for release on April 5th. Meanwhile the full length record features former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows behind the kit, and will be released in June.
New songs from the album will most likely be road-tested when they play Hoxton’s Bar & Grill on February 23rd.
Jamie Lidell has revealed an esteemed list of contributors for his latest album Compass. The record set for release on May 17th will feature the likes of Beck, Grizzly Bear, Feist, Gonzales and Wilco’s Pat Sansone.
The record was partly recorded at Feist’s Canadian ranch, and shall be released through Warp Records.