She’s a pop star with a song on the billboard top 100 that claims be a rebel, oh boy!

I first heard her song Tik Tok back in early January on the radio. At first, I thought it was a new Millionaires song. Then I realized it wasn’t nearly as raunchy or as dance-oriented. Unlike that group, this song was actually kinda good. I found myself nodding to it in the car more than I would an Avenue D song or Millionaires.

Like usual, the radio didn’t tell me who it was. I was left wanting to hear more, and I can never remember enough lyrics to do a sufficient Google search. Incidentally, I am a fan of Conan O’brien and she was on his show later that day. What luck I had!

Shortly thereafter I procured her album from Itunes, and checked out the whole thing. Big mistake. I guess this is why they invented things like itunes, so you can only download the songs you like.

Animal is a mess.

Most of the songs are fairly forgettable and tend to blend in with each other. It starts on a high note, but then seems to lull until you get to D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R which sounds like what most hipster pop anthems aspire to be like. It’s a catchy song, but it goes down all the same roads I’ve been down before.

Her hit single, Tik Tok, might be a pretty catchy song, but try not to actually listen to the lyrics. Sometimes I wonder if Ke$ha even knows what Mick Jagger even looks like. The Rolling Stones are probably before her generation anyways. The fact she’s from Brentwood, Tennessee doesn’t really help her case either.

Being a Tennessee resident myself, you start to notice patterns of behavior of certain individuals from different neighboring towns. It might be a little hard to see where I’m coming from unless you’re familiar with these areas. On a similar note, Taylor Swift grew up in my home town of Hendersonville, and Miley Cyrus grew up in Franklin. I’ve met tons of people from these areas, and some of the things these pop divas say can’t surprise me much.

While she probably does know what he looks like, she’s just playing ignorant. What kind of message does that send? It’s pop music, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter much. As a listener, you’re not supposed to care about these things. You’re just supposed to have fun and dance.

Shortly after her appearance on Conan, Ke$ha also appeared on Jimmy Fallon wearing an Indian headdress. Seriously.

I thought her performance on Conan was pretty cool. She dressed up like a normal modern pop star might. Her appearance on Fallon was vomit-inducing. Perhaps this is just personal taste, but white kids wearing Indian headdresses is plain insulting.

I hate to toss around the word hipster too terribly often. A lot of people are just expressing themselves, and some people just don’t “get it.” Sometimes it just seems like people are trying too hard. She calls herself a rebel, but she does the headdress thing and wears American Apparel.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of those things, but how often do you see rap artists have “Chicken & Watermelon” being part of their image?

The point: I don’t care about your fashion, just don’t call yourself a rebel when you are so damn cliché.

Like I’ve stated before, this is pop music. It’s meant to be fake, so taking I don’t take it personally. Though I do find it humorous how that culture has crossed over into the pop realm. It’s not bad, but it does raise curiosities about what the future will bring.

I don’t hate Ke$ha, and I don’t hate her album. Though she does make it quite hard not to roll my eyes at the things she does. The album seems like a great way to start 2010. Though, I’m hoping we’ll see much stronger releases in the months to follow.

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Some fun things have gone down in the past few days, so I decided to address some of that with my first set. Other than that it’s a set of brand new music (two of the songs were released in the past 24 hours) and another with some older punk stuff from the 70s. Hmm, I seem to have an affinity with newer music and 70s punk, or at least that’s what it seems like on the show. Trust me, I have more to me than just that, like J-Pop, which is what we end this week’s episode with! So, won’t you give it a download and take a harmony joy bus ride?

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Playlist

Fuck Buttons – Surf Solar [00:00]
Intro [09:53]
Flight of the Conchords – Foux Du Fafa [10:53]
Wesley Willis – Suck A Caribou’s Ass [13:36]
Dead Kennedys – Nazi Punks Fuck Off [15:58]
Reel Big Fish – Your Guts (I Hate Em) [17:01]
Dinosaur Jr. – Over It [19:07]
Segway 1 [22:52]
The Dillinger Escape Plan – Farewell, Mona Lisa [23:37]
Hot Chip – One Life Stand [29:02]
Gorillaz – Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack & Mos Def) [34:22]
Segway 2 [38:12]
Bomb The Music Industry! – (Shut) Up The Punx!!! [39:45]
The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner [42:18]
Joy Division – She’s Lost Control [46:20]
Public Image Ltd – Public Image [50:06]
Outro [53:00]
Mini Moni – Telephone Ring Ring Ring [55:07]

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On this week’s  webisode we discuss the nostalgia epidemic that’s been plaguing our culture for quite some time. We also have Avatar in 3D, brand new anime, Little Red Riding Hood zombie massacres, and (500) not so literal days of summer.

itunes | RSS | MP3 | podcast@blackflowermusic.com | twitter | Public Wave

Hit the jump for shownotes and more!
Read more

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Everybody seems to have an opinion on all the drama regarding Jay Leno’s cancellation during prime time, and Conan Obrien’s refusal to step down. So do we!

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BFM Special Podcasts could be seen as an equivalent to other podcasts’ “Gaiden” episodes. These are short impromptu podcasts of things we desperately feel the need to podcast about. We’ve done stuff like this before; however, they now have a name and are numbered.

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Now, it’s probably a little confusing since Ghost In The Shell has a sequel, but this release of the movie is actually a revised version of the original.

I can’t speak for the DVD version, but the blu-ray version has both new and old cuts of the movie on the same disc. One can watch either or, there is no split screen option for comparison. The new version features a lot of touched up animation, and segues of CGI animation.

For those unfamiliar with Ghost In The Shell (GITS), one could describe it as the quintessential work of early Japanese animated cyberpunk.  The title has spawned two movies, and two TV shows. It is based off of a manga originally created in 1989.

The genre of cyberpunk usually refers to something that deals with cyborgs, and a ‘junky’ sort of urban aesthetic. If you’re familiar with the movie Blade Runner, then you’re familiar with cyberpunk.

So what’s the big deal about this re-release?

I was a big fan of the original film, but I had sold my copy years ago. I bought this in hopes that it would simply be a touched up for high-definition edition. You know, nothing special like most anime blu-ray.

After I finished watching it, I enjoyed it just as much as the first. However, as the more I thought I about it, the more like this version had turned its back on what made the original so unique.

The concepts regarding artificial intelligence were still in tact, but it seemed like the grittiness was taken out. GITS 2.0 had removed what made it feel like a dystopian society, and replaced it with a polished and clean look. That’s not what the movie was about.

Originally, everything came together in a nice package. The gritty atmosphere, action scenes, music, and characters were all apart of what made the movie great. In the 2.0 release of this movie, it feels like they tampered with what made the movie so great.

Something was lost in translation.

This is still a very beautiful film, but it feels just like every other big budget sci-fi anime movie that’s been coming out for the last ten years. It’s uninspiring.

One final thing to touch on are the copious amounts of added CGI. A respectable amount of the 3D computer generated graphics seem well-placed. For instance, all of the gadgets and displays in the backgrounds, or a spinning display of a brain. Those don’t seem out of place with the rest of the 2D animation.

What does seem out of place are the “cutscenes” in the movie. In GITS 2.0 various scenes are completely replaced with CGI rendering. Certain scenes like the escape from the building in the first scene, or the part where Kusanagi is swimming in the bay.

It looks too pristine, too showy. You can’t capture the aesthetic of a run-down city with much precision using CGI. At least, not in this movie.

Even with all of the negatives that Ghost in the Shell 2.0 presents, most are ignorable if you’ve never seen the movie before. It’s fairly well done, and has been given a leg to stand on the realm of ‘modern movies.’ It just doesn’t recapture the spirit of the original.

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This week our music podcast is chiptunes!

There’s not really much else to say. I suppose one could label this week’s choosing as diverse, but it’s all the same genre. Even so, it could still be said of this playlist that it contains a variety of songs.

Who really cares though! It’s chiptune music. Good old fashioned fun music usually made with the sounds of game systems before they all made the switch to modern PCM and had their own unique sound chips!

itunes | RSS | MP3 | podcast@blackflowermusic.com | twitter

Discuss on Google Wave

Playlist

YMCK – Magical 8bit Tour [0:00]
-intro- [2:29]
撲殺少女工房 – Witch’s Lunch [Bokusatsu Shoujo Koubou] [3:45]
Aliceffekt – 32x [8:02]
USK – As Vivid As Possible [10:11]
NNNNNNNNNN – NYUU A GO!GO! [14:10]
Bubblyfish – Chlorinée [19:40]
-midtro1- [23:35]
ヒゲドライバー – KOKORO BEAT MAX [hige driver] [24:40]
Dubmood – Monkey Iland – AtariST edit [28:33]
Nullsleep – Axel F (beverly hills NOP) [30:20]
Zan-zan-zawa-veia – Silk Webs [33:00]
momo-i – ムーンライト伝説 (instrumental) [35:32]
-midtro2- [36:52]
Koji Kondo – Athletic [39:03]
PSG～Picopico Sound Generation～ – 魔法大漢 ブラズァ～☆ガイ [41:10]
girls w/ bombs – moving castles [45:12]
pixel_play? – Commit Your Soul [47:10]
-outro- [52:00]
Nullsleep – Depeche Mode Gameboy Minimix! [53:56]

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It’s no secret that 2009 was a big year in gaming all-around, but 2010 appears to be the year that many long-awaited titles finally arrive.

Last year saw the likes of New Super Mario Bros., Ultimate Shooting Collection, Onechanbara Bikini Zombie Slayers, House of the Dead Overkill, A Boy and His Blob, MadWorld, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Little King’s Story. While many of these games aren’t AAA titles, they were at least devoid of that shovelware mentality.

One frequent complaint amongst many gamers is that the Wii doesn’t boast very many games for the niche hardcore markets. Last year certainly seemed nullified those sorts of arguments. The coming year continues that same trend.

Since we here at BFM consider ourselves to be apart of that lonely niche market, most of the games in our top five are not shovelware, or games for the casually-inclined. Not to say that those are bad games, but one does not usually anticipate those sorts of titles enough to place in them in any respectable list.

Moving onwards! Here are the top five games I’m looking forward to in 2010 coming out for the Nintendo Wii. (WiiWare not included)

#5 – Sakura Wars: So Long My Love

I’ll be honest, I have yet to actually play any of the Sakura Wars titles. This one gets in the top five based on the premise that I actually enjoyed the anime it was based off of, and that there have been a number of Sakura Wars games released before this one. I mean, if it has a ton of sequels, it has to be cool right?! Perhaps this is some unwarranted anticipation, but strategy and action-RPGs are my thing.

#4 – Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

While this game looks like more JRPG nonsense, I have been delighted by all of the trailers I’ve seen. This game is created in part by tri-Crescendo, the team that also created Eternal Sonata. While I cringe at the thought of ever playing something like Eternal Sonata again, Fragile seems like it steers away from cutesy and veers more towards the more mature.

More specifically, the game seems to have a much darker atmosphere, and the gameplay features a few survival horror elements.

#3 – Sin and Punishment 2

I like shooting things. I enjoy the games Treasure makes where I get to shoot things. If it’s from the creators of games like Mischief Makers, Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Gunstar Heroes, and Bangai-O then how can I I really say no? Their track record makes it sort of difficult to ignore this one.

#2 – No More Heroes 2

The original was one of my favorite games from 2008. If I had my way, Travis Touchdown would be the Wii’s mascot. He’s cool, and at least he has a personality. The first game was far from perfect, but I have high hopes after watching trailers for the sequel. They’ve taken what I liked about the first, and put extra in the second.

So far, I know they’ve added extra characters and extra mini-games. Not sure yet if the hub world and the graphics are still as blocky as in the original.

#1 – Super Mario Galaxy 2

Does Mario really need to be explained? I rather enjoyed the first Super Mario Galaxy, and I’m hoping that I’ll enjoy the sequel even more. Considering the title is alleged to focus less on story, and more on gameplay I hope this is worth the wait. If New Super Mario Bros. is any indication, Nintendo still has what it takes to make an amazing game.  That being said, hopefully Yoshi will be used on more than a couple of levels!

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The List

These are also known as honorable mentions: Tatsunoku vs Capcom, Epic Mickey, and  Metroid. Let’s face it, most lists are terrible. The reader is always hoping for his number one game to make it to the list. There was nothing inherently wrong with these games, I’m just not that interested. Tatsunoku vs Capcom might have been cool earlier on. I was spoiled by last year’s onslaught of top-tier fighting games. Tatsunoku vs Capcom just seems like too little too late.

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Ever go to a Japanese restaurant and see those fancy oil paintings on the wall? In Muramasa, the traditional art of Edo era Japan comes to life in the form of a 2D side-scrolling action game with a tinge of RPG elements.

If you’re familiar with Vanillaware’s past endeavors such as Princess Crown or Odin Sphere, then the concept of Muramasa should come as no surprise. You pick between Monohime and Kisuke and travel around Japan killing things and forging new weapons.

The game is relatively simple. Each character has a unique storyline and unique bosses. All you do in Muramasa is go from screen to screen fighting varying amounts of enemies and collecting points to aid in creating new weapons.

Swords are the name of the game. While previous games took more of a fantasy action-RPG approach, Muramasa in turn puts the action before the roleplaying elements. You can hack and slash your way through each mission, instead of worrying about spells and the like.

Muramasa isn’t just some cheap attempt to capture an American audience’s infatuation with Japanese culture. It’s deeper than that. It’s not just an art style, the whole game is homage to the ancient Japanese Edo period. While I’m not wholly familiar with Japanese folklore, I have noticed there is plenty of it to be seen. And not in the fish-out-of-water style that Shin Megami Tensei does it. This is the real deal.

The cooking system isn’t complicated, it’s there more for show. You can buy ingredients, and it will show the food being made. No, there’s no “potions” in this game. For the most part, it’s all authentic Japanese food. You can even go to in-game restuarants, and the screen shows the dishes prepared.

Previous efforts such as Odin Sphere held a very similar torch to the likes of Muramasa. While the games are similar, this isn’t simply a case of mindlessly approving a sequel based on the original. Neither is this a case of preferring Norse mythology to that of Japanese.

Muramasa feels more spot-on than any other game in this genre I’ve played. It feels complete. Everything about it comes together to make a great package.

One of the only problems with Muramasa seems to be its leveling up system. In a manner of speaking, the enemies will level up with you as you progress through the story. If you go back to old cities, however, the battles will be easier. In essence, it seems like power-leveling only does much good in regards to boss battles and bonus fights. I suppose I can live with that, but the old-school gamer in me was expecting leveling up to mean a bit more than it does in Muramasa.

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