2 posts tagged “fanboys”

Alright. Kill Hannah's a band you probably haven't heard of, nor should you, unless you're from Chicago and were into the alt-rock scene. To be brief, they play a wonderful mix of the Cure, Garbage and the Smashing Pumpkins, with all the flair, pomp, makeup and eyeshadow that goes along with it.

And an old, old friend of theirs from way way back reviewed their record, and she was happy with it.

Kill Hannah made the cut on Until There's Nothing Left Of Us and escaped the crusher of forgotten artists for yet another day.

And, of course, there's a couple strange uses of the word emo and pop-punk, Unwanted has a "pop-punk" chorus? Jesus christ. Love You to Death has an "emo" singing style? Huh? Whatever.

Ridiculously strong singles material "Lips Like Morphine" and "the Collapse" are lampooned as Kill Hannah phoning it in. Jesus, you get some of the strongest alt-rock singles since "Hurt", and this is what you call it? I suppose we're from different times in Kill Hannah's history, but I'm just happy with the music if they're honest about it.

Point is, singer Mat Devine said "I had my entire life to write this CD." He knows that lots is riding on Until. And some turns of phrase are wonderful. Some aren't so good. The reason the review gives is that Until was written in haste. Sorry, but I don't believe it. For Never And Ever was released in 2003 (October 13th, according to allmusic) and Until on August 1, 2006. For the record, I was there, in line for both.  It's not like Kill Hannah spent every minute of their waking life on the road, (I can only remember three tours they've done since FNAE, and it's not like these were 3 month long excursions stopping in every state you can think of. One was with HIM. Another was with the Sounds, and another was with the lostprophets.)

FNAE was, let's be honest, a greatest hits of Kill Hannah with a couple new songs ("Is Anyone Here Alive?" and "Race the Dream", in case you're keeping track). Until is the first  LP/disc of completely new material in about 6 years. So, if you're at least a little bit intrigued, go pick up For Never And Ever, and if you like that, then get Until There's Nothing Left Of Us. You'll be happy you did.

Thanks to Kotaku, I found a little dissection of console fanboys. These are not your average GAYSTATION, CELDA LOL, M$ fanboys.

These are the true believers. The "Starcraft 2 will come out in 2010, and then the Angels will win the pennant!"

The guinea pigs were all asked the same question: “What about (insert platform here) makes it the best in your opinion”?

Raphael (Nintendo) “Nintendo started it all, they deserve the highest spot on the gaming mantle. People are playing more and more violent games because of Sony and Microsoft, and I think that is horrible. Nintendo brings true innovation onto the landscape of gaming. The Wii will be the biggest innovation in gaming since Pong, and that is what gaming is about, anyone who says different is a noob!"

Mike (Sony) “Sony for the past ten plus years has shown that they are the true gamers company. They have sold more consoles then the other 2 combined. They don’t rush their products to market like some other companies do, and they don’t try and milk their fans out of every last dollar. Sony = quality, and that has no chance of changing anytime soon. They will continue to dominate the gaming world for years to come, with technology like Blu-Ray and the Cell Chip Sony has again shown that they are the market leaders.”

Rory (Microsoft) “Why would anyone want to play anything else but Xbox. Xbox live is the greatest online service and it will never be beaten by the likes of Sony or Nintendo. Xbox has the best Fps’s and best action games. Sony and Nintendo are for kids with too much free time. Xbox is for the true dedicated gamers, and with the 360 Microsoft has upped the bar and neither Sony nor Nintendo will reach it!"

Here's the best part: Guess how old they are. Alright, look at the quotes, then think of the corresponding age in your head.

I'll wait.

Ready?

Mike (Sony's guy)  is 27.
Raphael (Nintendo's man) is 26.
And Rory? He's 30.

This brings up a couple conflicting feelings. First, there's terribly little news here aside from the age of these people.  But more importantly, I guess I assumed gamers were...you know...smarter than this. I mean, sure I had heard rumors of guys who believed in game companies like Hazbollah believes in explosives and Osama Bin Laden believes in using dirt-poor Muslims to do his dirty work, but I didn't believe people this old thought like that. I mean, sure some 15 year old guys on the IGN forums, sure. But 30 year olds? This is insane.

And yes, I'm aware that the stereotype of a gamer is a overweight clown who hasn't heard of fruit except to insinutate people's sexual preferences. And, of course, the point of the articles is to find these people and get the most outrageous ones on tape. Or on email. You get the point.

But I LIKE gamers. They're my friends. They're the people that I can feel comfortable around and I hope in the future we represent ourselves better. That we get more Penny-Arcade and less...Ctrl-Alt-Del. But until then? Fox News will have no trouble taking this and turning it into a story about how gamers are violent, anti-social psychopaths that are a menace to society.

Or, it'll at least be a "point and laugh" piece. And lord knows there aren't enough of those going around about gamers.