Three by Reuben Wilson 

By Carl Hanni

Let us now praise Reuben Wilson. 

Like many of the things that ended up getting seriously under my skin, I happened upon Reuben Wilson haphazardly. A few years ago I grabbed his LP The Sweet Life out of a monster vinyl sale for ten cents, easily the best use of a dime in my entire life. I was pretty much gone 30 seconds into the first track, an instrumental cover of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues." Who was this sweet looking, smiling man on the cover, who looked more like a gospel preacher than a jazz-funk organ master? And who, on inspection, was produced by the great Sonny Lester who had done such memorable work with another jazz/blues/funk cross-over organ giant, Jimmy McGriff?

Reuben Wilson is one of countless jazz cats who flew just under the radar of mass popularity but managed to produce a substantial body of work, make plenty of fans and garner the respect of his peers in a career that dated back to the early 60s, but really picked up speed with his first recording in 1968, On Broadway. He cut some records for the standard-bearer Blue Note Records in the late 60s and early 70s, moved over to the terrific Groove Merchant for some more platters in the mid 70s and eventually recorded for Dusty Groove, Jazzateria, Cannonball, Savant and Scufflin'. The last disc I see listed is 2009's Azure Te from 18th & Vine.

My knowledge really only covers 3 LPs, Love Bug (1969, Blue Note), The Sweet Life (1972, Groove Merchant) and The Cisco Kid (1974, Groove Merchant). This was a great time for jazz funk, soul jazz and blues jazz, especially the jazz organ players of the time. Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Lonnie Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes and Jimmy McGriff all cut many of their most vital and funky sides during that time, before the double threat of disco and smooth jazz sucked the grease out of the music and replaced it with some strictly artificial, non-organic, non-nutritional substitutes. 

But things have a way of coming back around, and it was only a matter of time before the first generation of crate diggers, DJs and revivalists started poking into the vast treasure trove of funky, break-beat heavy sides these cats collectively cut. From acid jazz and punk funk to hip hop and downtempo, a couple of generations of musicians, DJs, mixologists, re-issue labels and the sharpies at Wax Poetics magazine have all paid tribute to a scene that laid the ground for much what came next. Reuben Wilson has certainly been a key playa in all of this, with his stuff being sampled by (amongst others) Brand New Heavies, A Tribe Called Quest and NAS. 

Wilson's music extrudes good cheer, a relaxed approach, a fat tone and is accessible in the very best sense of the word. Perhaps not a true innovator, he nonetheless took the pulse of the times and turned it back out as well an anyone. His work on the Hammond B-3 is right up there with all the other legendary organ slingers of the time. Not as bluesy as Jimmy McGriff or straight-up jazzy as Jimmy Smith, it might be closer to Brother Jack McDuff and Wilson's one-time mentor Richard "Groove" Holmes, but he always had his own thing all the way. Fluid, melodic and empathetic, he can ride a groove with the best of them, with a great sense of when to step out and when to lay back and let his cohorts do the talking. And, he certainly has a knack for surrounding himself with world class players. Love Bug features a mouth-watering line-up of heavy jazz talent, including Lee Morgan, Grant Green, George Coleman and drummer Idris Muhammad, who lays down some sublimely funky grooves behind Wilson. Roy Haynes and Sam Rivers also played with Wilson on some of his other five releases for Blue Note.

The Sweet Life and The Cisco Kid both feature different players, including the great studio ringer Melvin Sparks on guitar, but have a very similar sound and groove thanks in no small part to producer Sonny Lester, who clearly knew just what to do to get the most out of Wilson in the studio. All three of these records feature an even mix of Wilson originals and covers of signature songs of the times like "Superfly," "Last Tango in Paris," Stanley Turrentine's "Sugar" and songs from the Hal David/Burt Bacharach song-book. With a couple of exceptions (including a terrific take on Gaye's "Inner City Blues" and the War number "The Cisco Kid") Wilson's originals cut the covers to shreds, a good sign by any marker. Wilson's numbers are funkier, grittier and more groove happy, and numbers like "Hot Rod," "Groove Grease," "The Sweet Life," "Creampuff," "Snaps," "Love Bug" and "Back Out" must be considered high-water marks in jazz funk in the pre-CTI era, after which the connection between jazz funk and low-carb ear candy became much more pronounced, with radically mixed results. 

Reuben Wilson went on to record numerous records after these three, although he took a twenty year break from recording between 1975s Got To Get Your Own and 1996's Live at SOB's. One of these is a collection of Beastie Boys covers he and some cohorts recorded, called Boogaloo to the Beastie Boys, which is more than appropriate given how much of their all-instrumental output can clearly be traced to Wilson and other jazz funk instrumentalists. These records are all outside of my ears and will stay that way until I happen across them on vinyl or CD--ain't no downloads in this house. Wherever Rueben Wilson is, he is sitting on a life's work of great vitality and joyous grooves, and the world would most likely be a better place with a few more like him around.

***

You can leave comments below or e-mail them to me directly at modmedia@theriver.com .

Carl Hanni is a music writer, music publicist, disc jockey, book hound and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He hosts an occasional concert and film series at The Screening Room in downtown Tucson, "The B-Side" program on KXCI (Tuesday nights midnight - 2 a.m.) and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He currently writes for Blurt, Tucson Weekly, and (occasionally) Goldmine and Signal To Noise.

In which The Ettes' frontwoman gets in the final word. Hello, Miami Herald!

By Coco Hames

Despite the myth of tryptophan leading to excessive sleepiness having been debunked -- and despite the fact that I'm vegan anyway -- the goon at the Miami Herald's blog seems to think he can skewer the Ettes as being tour flakes who don't know how long the State of Florida is.  Considering I was born and raised there, and Poni and Jem both lived for long stints in the Miami area (one Google can tell you that, guy) we're all well aware of the distance between cities.  Another quick Google search might suggest to you the constant touring, both in the US and abroad, the Ettes have done in the past 7 (that's seven) years.

And while it's a bit more fun and reads WAY cooler to cite an imaginary "arrest" or a faked "drug overdose" (you know who you are) there might actually, really, in the world of both the human and the professional and touring rocker, be a "family emergency".  Because we don't lie to our fans and because we always make up any missed shows (of which there are blissfully few) we told you the truth.  And you, Miami Crybaby, spew bitter nonsense in response.  You got one thing right: the Ettes do have the best singer.  And she's not impressed with you.

What is wrong with you?  Are you mad because you wanted to see our show?  Are you pissed because Miami is so far down America's wang that so few artists you want to see actually make the drive?  Because if so, I get it.  You even state in your "article" that I get it.  I had to drive nearly every weekend to Atlanta or Athens (at LEAST to Gainesville) when I was in high school, just to see a rock show.  Because nobody ever came down!  It sucked!  But considering I booked the motherfucker, I think you should reconsider your incorrect stance that I just think Florida is "the land of the '90s" (first, turn on your fucking radio station and argue with me; and second, Florida IS the land of MY '90s, fact) and settle down.  You're barking up the wrong tree and you don't mean it.

And also, BUUUGHH you're clearly one of those people who went on A [you don't even own A gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate a gun rack] tour run and think you know EVERYTHING about it.  Look at YOU!  Oooh and with an ELDERLY rocker, to boot!  Oooh lemme cite my tour with Sky Saxon then!  Or wait, Radio Birdman!  Oh wait, no, I was actually PLAYING those shows...  You people are TOO common, and TOO exhausting. 

I'm glad for your experience, but you looked through a window, friendo, you don't live it.  I DO live it, and I LIKE it, that's why I do what I do.  Fancy booking agency... what is this?  Who ARE you?  Oh never mind who you are, I'm not interested.  Just, for your sake, get your facts straight before you prattle on like a monkey in a tree, you sound like an idiot who got a B+ in writing at school, got in a bad enough mood to type at your computer (how many proofreads did you do?  Bet it took you at least 45 minutes!), and who's simply burned by the fact that you wanted to see us (thank you) but couldn't (sorry).

See you soon, Miami.  Thank you for all the well-wishes from people who actually care about the band and who know we'll be back.  And Herald Blogger, I agree that "family emergency" is too vague and blanket a statement, so I won't take it personally that you don't know what you're talking about.

Constant vigilance,

Coco Motion
The Ettes

***

Blurt "co-co-editor" and advice columnist Coco Hames fronts The Ettes, which include Jem on bass, Poni on drums and Johnny on guitar. Their Greg Cartwright-produced album Do You Want Power arrived in stores last fall, their music was featured in the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It. They're currently working on their fourth full-length and additionally released a new collaboration with Cartwright called The Parting Gifts this fall. For music, tour dates and details, check out the band at the MySpace page and the official website.

 [Photo credit: Marc Averette, via Wikimedia Creative Commons]

Column #15: Splatterhouse, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Pac-Man Party and uDraw Game Tablet. Incidentally, don't miss the debut of "Play For Today - The Print Version" in the Fall 2010 issue of BLURT, on newsstands now.

By Aaron Burgess

Splatterhouse

Rating: M

Target audience: Metal-mad adolescents (at heart) intimately familiar with both the Evil Dead franchise and four-letter words

Why they'll dig it: If the Splatterhouse name strikes a familiar chord, congratulations: You're old-or at least old enough to remember the cult-classic 1988 horror romp that merged side-scrolling, beat-‘em-up 2D action with a gore-soaked aesthetic straight out of Friday the 13^th. Several iterations into its undead life, Splatterhouse has rebooted with this new, 3D edition, which fans will be glad to discover is simultaneously bloodier, louder and more over the top than all of its predecessors combined. Visually, it's also among the-don't laugh-most beautiful games of the past few months, even if the more squeamish players among us will be too busy averting their eyes to notice.

Flush with obscenities (aural and otherwise) and fittingly single-player (a family-friendly good time this ain't), Splatterhouse once again throws you into the shoes of the series' lead character, Rick Taylor. After a predictable, if entertaining, setup during which his gal pal Jennifer is snatched away, Rick dons the Mayan Terror Mask that turns him into a muscled mass of mayhem, and proceeds to spend the rest of the game turning his environment into a Cannibal Corpse album cover. (Incidentally, death-metal fans will love the game's soundtrack.) Everything from Rick's fists to the walls of the mansion he's searching becomes a weapon, and for those who find mere impalements, shootings and dismemberments to be lightweight, the game's Splatterkill finishing moves make the Evil Dead series' legendary bloodbaths look like spa treatments. Bloody good fun, indeed.

Get it from: Amazon

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

Rating: T

Target audience: Fantasy-gaming fans who wish The Neverending Story could be recast with the Rockbiter in the lead role

Why they'll dig it: To steal a line from Captain Beefheart, I love you, you big dummy-at least that's the way most kind-hearted players will feel after spending some time with Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom's primary character, the "Majin" (read: ancient big-monster race) Teotl. While you don't necessarily play as Teotl-your character, Tepeu, is actually a cunning thief who, through his ability to communicate with sentient creatures, guides the adorable oaf-you do get to know him intimately as the adventure progresses. The result, which should take you around half a day's worth of gameplay to explore thoroughly, is equal parts battle epic and buddy story, and well worth the price of admission to either.

The lumbering Teotl, as you might guess, is naturally well-equipped for combat-a trait that becomes quite handy as you move through Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom's wonderfully surreal boss battles. You can aid Teotl in battle by combining feats and lobbing the occasional object at your opponents, but he generally does the heavy lifting. The big Majin is also a surprisingly sharp learner, however, and along with the slew of environmental puzzles he (via you) is required to solve, Teotl picks up spells, abilities and other upgrades that both aid you in battle and allow you to reach new areas by revisiting formerly blocked pockets of the (forsaken) kingdom. Above all, though, it's his simple, childlike personality that will endear Teotl to you-and

Get it from: Amazon

Pac-Man Party

Rating: E10+

Target audience: Everyone capable of operating a Wii Remote

Why they'll dig it: Anyone needing proof of Pac-Man's continued playability (and we're talking the original yellow orb-gobbler, not the ensuing generations) need have merely looked to Google's homepage earlier this year. But even for those of us who don't remember a time when arcade games were not just gleefully simple, but also coin-operated, Pac-Man's sundry console offshoots have also produced some winners (most notably, the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition DX).

Packing over 45 minigames into a vaguely Mario Party-like shell, Pac-Man Party rides the sweet spot between both of these extremes. Younger generations will appreciate the game's ambitious events-based competition, which finds developer/publisher Namco Bandai casting our concentric yellow hero and friends (up to four players can compete simultaneously) in events ranging from Wii Remote-based dance competitions to track and field. Older players, of course, will carry some affinity not only for the basic Pac-Man storyline-here, as ever, you chomp your way through the boards-but also for the inclusion of other coin-op titles. Dig Dug, anyone?

Get it from: Amazon

uDraw Game Tablet

Target audience: Artistically minded Wii gamers (kids in particular) you'd never trust with your Wacom tablet.

Why they'll dig it: New this month, the uDraw GameTablet marks THQ's ambitious first entry into a peripheral-happy holiday season dominated by Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move. Unlike those physically fitful gadgets, however, uDraw aims to occupy your brain instead of your body.

Sturdy, chunky and intuitive to set up, the uDraw partners with your Wii Remote-which you pop into a slot in the tablet's left-hand side-to connect to your Wii console. The tablet draws power from your Wii Remote's battery, so the only wire is the one connecting the stylus to the tablet itself; and, along with its obvious drawing capabilities, the stylus affords you additional control through buttons that mimic your Wii Remote's C and Z options. Pair these with the uDraw's built-in tilt and motion sensors, and you have a creative extension of your standard Wii Remote that feels like a giant-sized version of your Nintendo DS' stylus screen.

The uDraw GameTablet ships with the Microsoft Paint-esque uDraw Studio software package, which offers a novice-friendly crash course in the tablet's artistic capabilities. uDraw Studio is a good way to acclimate yourself with the stylus' tools, palettes and media choices while getting used to the uDraw's plasticky 4"x6" surface-just don't expect to create a masterpiece with it. (That's what your Wacom is for.)

Just two other games-a rather excellent version of Pictionary (screenshot above; a logical fit for this type of controller) and the bone-simple platformer Dood's Big Adventure (in which you control the action, DS-style, using stylus and motion controls)-are available to purchase separately, but THQ is promising additional titles for 2011. Here's hoping some even more ambitious games are in the works, because there's much potential yet to be tapped here.

Get it from: Amazon

***

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters

Column #14: Monopoly Streets, and more Kinect entries than you can shake a bundle at, including The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout, Dance Central, Kinect Sports, EA Sports Active 2 Bundle, Sonic Free Riders and Kinectimals. Incidentally, don't miss the debut of "Play For Today - The Print Version" in the Fall 2010 issue of BLURT, on newsstands now.

By Aaron Burgess

Monopoly Streets

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii

Developer/Publisher: Electronic Arts

ESRB Rating: E

Even before coming to current-generation consoles, the classic board game Monopoly already existed in dozens, if not hundreds, of different incarnations around the world. But slapping a new skin on a rosewood game board and transporting a board game to a new medium are two very different tasks, and with Monopoly Streets, EA has done Monopoly fans proud.

At the most basic level, the game plays just as you'd expect: You "roll" the dice with your controller and move from Start to Start again, strategically picking up properties along the way. As your opponents follow suit, they pay rent upon reaching your properties, and the last one to survive the loop without going bankrupt-jail, Chance, Community Chest and other diversions notwithstanding-is the winner.

Of course, how you achieve these goals in Monopoly Streets becomes quite a different experience when you get behind the controller. First, there's the board itself: You can move throughout a 3D version of the classic game board, literally experiencing everything from to Mediterranean Avenue to Boardwalk as a living environment. There's not much depth beyond the idea that, "Wow, so this is what Park Place looks like in 3D," however, so the game itself doesn't change in the process. The elements of Monopoly Streets that you can control, on the other hand, really add something to the experience.

Monopoly Streets technically legalizes all the annoying cheats your kid sibling used to get around the standard rules-but it does so within tight boundaries. You can create custom games that follow rule sets you lay down, or choose from multiple default game settings (including, as purists will be glad to hear, the standard version). Once you're in, you play by the new rules-and for those who've always found Monopoly to be a little too, er, monopolizing of your time, speed  games like "Bull Market" (which limits the duration to 20 rounds) let the game adapt to your attention span.

Unlike the board game, Monopoly Streets also lets you play against the computer - a rather fair, if easily overtaken, AI - but you'll have the most fun playing with friends either locally or online. And even though you can tweak the settings to suit your ADD, Monopoly purists will be glad to know that Monopoly Streets, like its real-world sibling, can also go as long as your stamina can handle it.

Rating: 8/10

Kinect, Connect, Kin...

Microsoft's Kinect sensor launched earlier this month, essentially negating the need for a controller while adding a new piece of hardware to your Xbox 360 console. Games for the peripheral have already started to come our way faster than we can review them, so in the spirit of staying on top of our options (read: overwhelmed by choice, tired from playing), here's our look at some of the better Kinect games on tap for the holiday season.

The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout

Though it launched alongside a Wii-ready sibling (The Biggest Loser Challenge), this fitness game based on the hit TV series is in a class by itself for Kinect. Offering over 120 different exercises, The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout tackles every inch of your flabby, overweight frame, aiming to get you into shape via a progress-based regimen that tracks what you've done; maps out where you're going; and even fine-tunes (via 50 in-game recipes) what you put in your belly.

Dance Central

Where Dance Dance Revolution keeps you bound to the foot controllers, Dance Central forces you to match that fancy footwork with an equally full-bodied sense of rhythm. The first mat-free console dance game "reads" your body as you move in front of your Kinect, keeping the pressure on you by flashing on-screen prompts that coordinate into complete dance-routine challenges. The game offers a solo workout mode that tracks calories burned, but it's a lot more fun with a room full of friends and a lack of inhibition.

Kinect Sports

We know, you've been to the Wii Island and conquered those challenges, but there's a big difference between flailing around with a remote and using your entire body to fill a 3D space, and Kinect Sports bridges that gap. This means that track-and-field events-while limiting you to run in place-require you to keep all four limbs going, while both soccer and bowling require precise coordination across more than just the limbs where you move the ball.

EA Sports Active 2 Bundle

For those who find Kinect Sports to be too lightweight, EA's first Kinect-powered sports entry brings a legitimate personal trainer into your living room. The circuit-training game tracks your progress via wireless leg- and arm-strap motion sensors and a hear-rate monitor, delivering real-time feedback on your goals as you play. You can work out either alone or with friends, basically eliminating the need for another gym membership after your holiday binge this year. 

Sonic Free Riders

Every Sonic the Hedgehog game pounds you with enough light-speed action that you want to get off the couch and into the game-a state that Sonic Free Riders is all too happy to accommodate. The racing game throws you onto a hoverboard (look down and imagine it), which you zip, grind, sail and boost through a dozen-plus beautifully designed tracks while lobbing attacks that keep your opponents in the trailing position. Yeah, you've seen a similar Sonic ride on other consoles-but you've never felt it until now.

Kinectimals

Hooray for those of us with pet allergies, because Kinectimals is the soft, saccharine-sweetest we'll ever come to interacting with real, live furry critters in our home. It's clearly aimed at the youngest Kinect users, but the game frees players of all ages to collect, train, nurture and (of course) play with a menagerie of wild kitties. Though playtime is fun enough, thanks largely to an array of minigames, the wide-open environments make it easy just to get lost in the wilderness with your Kinectimal.

***

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters

For those of you who don't know... it's true... I got married! And the guys over at BLURT Magazine were crazy enough to include the below in a recent newsletter. AWESOME.



We Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock ‘n’ Roll (still does…)

To every thing, there is a season, especially at BLURT, and this fall it appears that the season is for nuptials. Specifically, our very own Kate Bradley, who heads up our advertising department (both online and print – record labels, get in touch), and who recently took a walk off the gangplank, er, down the aisle [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Column #13: Saw II: Flesh & Blood, Castlevania - Lords of Shadow, Power Gig: Rise of the Six String, Rock Band 3.  Incidentally, don't miss the debut of "Play For Today - The Print Version" in the Fall 2010 issue of BLURT, on newsstands now.

By Aaron Burgess

Halloween Deathmatch!

Saw II: Flesh & Blood

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer: Zombie Studios / Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: M

Fun factor: There may be a "II" in its name, but this sequel to the 2009 survival-horror game actually takes place between the first and second Saw movies (themselves  already up to number VII-er, 3D). Not that this changes the way things flow in Saw II: Flesh & Blood. Now as ever, Jigsaw wants to play a game, and you-as newspaper reporter Michael Tapp (son of the films' Detective Tapp)-are his pawn. You race to solve puzzles while wriggling your way through traps that are designed to kill you and other characters from the films-a feat that's less challenging than it could be thanks to repetitious level design and generally tedious puzzle logic.

Fear factor: Can you remember the last time a Saw movie actually made you jump? Good, because you'll have the same sense of ennui not long into Saw II: Flesh & Blood. The storyline is just as flimsy, the gore is just as gratuitous (albeit creatively so), and the characters aren't just disposable; they're repellent enough to make you regret saving them. While not genuinely scary, the game is incredibly stressful, thanks to quick-time-event combat schemes and puzzles that find you dodging, flailing and scramble to complete sequences or lure opponents into hazards. Then again, considering the sadomasochism that drives the Saw film series, maybe all of this is the point.

Rating: 6/10

Castlevania -Lords of Shadow

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer: Mercury Steam / Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: M

Fun factor: Though technically a reboot of the 25-year-old Castlevania series, Lords of Shadow often feels like God of War III (a good thing) with vampires, goblins, werewolves and other traditional monsters taking the place of Greek underworld inhabitants. You play as the supernatural-slaying knight Gabriel Belmont (voiced, in one of many star casting decisions, by Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle), who, armed with the familiar Castlevania chain-whip, a light/dark magic system and an arsenal of epic combos, faces the evil Lords of Shadow in an attempt to restore harmony and revive the beloved wife these fiends took from you. (Got all that?) Yes, it sounds clunky, but the game's masterful design and graceful internal logic tie together these and other disparate elements into an experience that's larger-than-life-if barely the Castlevania we remember.

Fear factor: None, really-but suspense and thrills abound. The game's dark, sweeping and fantastically rendered environments go beyond the castle to build atmosphere that, figuratively speaking, takes you to hell and back. Combat is the focus here-and from God of War-style combos to Shadow of the Colossus-level boss fights, you'll have plenty. But the game also builds a rhythm through slower-paced exploration sections and gorgeous cutscenes (narrated by Patrick Stewart as Gabriel's compatriot Zobek) that keep the story moving while making you forget you're sitting through load times. Although you can't control the camera, this minor setback is as deeply as Lords of Shadow ties you to Castlevania's formerly 2D world. From its atmosphere to its playing time (easily 15 hours) to its surprising nooks and crannies, the game feels like an open-world adventure-one that only has upward to go from here.

Rating: 9/10

Battle of the Fake Bands!

 Power Gig: Rise of the Six String

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer/Publisher: Seven45 Studios

ESRB Rating: T

Purported rockitude: When members of Rush can't play their own songs on videogame peripherals, you know there's a reality gap between playing music games and actually playing music. This, promisingly, is a gap that Power Gig: Rise of the Six String looked ready to close, what with its inclusion of a real (if plastic) working six-string guitar in place of the traditional colored-button-mashing device. And, indeed, when you open the box on this package, that's just what you get: a pint-sized axe that works wirelessly with your console in addition to rocking through your amp when you depress its beefy plastic pickup button.

Actual rock power: Power Gig: Rise of the Six String's diverse track listing covers guitar heroes both old school (Eric Clapton) and new (Mastodon). Unfortunately for those who just wanna rock, the game wedges these songs into a corny, over-the-top storyline that's equal parts Footloose and Aerosmith's Revolution X. Things aren't helped by the game's visuals, which look surprisingly low budget for such a high-profile title; and though it's nice that you also get compatibility with drum and microphone controllers, developer Seven45 might've made a tighter experience had it kept its focus on maxing out the guitar controller. As for whether you'll actually learn to play real music on the thing, the game itself doesn't let you try anything tougher than a power chord (otherwise it's the basic hit-colors-in-time). And while kids might enjoy having a "real" guitar to toy around with outside of the console, anyone who's picked up a real six-string will realize that plastic components plus high action equals an out-of-tune-disaster.

Rating: 5/10

Rock Band 3

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS

Developer: Harmonix / Publisher: MTV Games/Electronic Arts

ESRB Rating: T

Purported rockitude: Outside of adding vocal harmonies and scoring some amazing licensing coups (see: LEGO, Green Day, The Beatles), Rock Band hasn't changed too drastically over the past three years. With Rock Band 3, however, developer Harmonix gives us a new peripheral (keyboard) to go along with our fake guitars, microphones and drum kits, and a significant gameplay refresh that will no doubt find competitors racing to update their own titles accordingly. Some of the updates-the new Pro modes, for instance-come at a literal cost, as they require you to buy not only the new keyboard, but also cymbals and an enhanced version of the standard Rock Band guitar. But you don't need this hardware to enjoy Rock Band 3-and that, frankly, rocks.

Actual rock power: Want to experience being in a real rock band? Join a real rock band. Even with 100 buttons (the new Mustang PRO guitar), fake cymbals and a small, if impressively competent, set of keys among its options, the core Rock Band experience is still about hitting colored plastic in time to music. That being said, the game is as fun as ever to play with friends, and if you're more of a lone wolf, the Pro Modes-for which you'll need those extra controllers-provide dozens of hours' worth of advanced solo play. The game's 83-song set list also hits on all the right notes, with tracks that run the gamut from Dio to the Flaming Lips. And, thanks to a new career mode-and a mammoth supply of downloadable content-your challenges can adapt as the set list and available genres on your hard drive expand. Yeah, even this means that you'll need to spring for a little something extra if you want to get the most out of Rock Band 3-but this is one game where even the least available options feel huge.

Rating: 9/10

 ***

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (10/2 - 10/26).

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Teenage Fanclub - Live @ The El Rey - 10/11

Atmosphere - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Basement Jaxx - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Cypress Hill (B-Real) - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Cypress Hill (Sen Dog) - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Damien Marley - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Nas - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Erykah Badu - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Incubus  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Las Rakas  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Living Colour  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Living Legends (Murs) -  Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Maldita Velcindad - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Manu Chao  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

MGMT - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Pablo Hasan  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Paul Oakenfold  - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

Slightly Stoopid - Live @ The Smoke Out Festival - 10/16

***

Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.

Column #12: Medal of Honor, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Plus a look at the ZigZag Tower for Xbox. Incidentally, don't miss the debut of "Play For Today - The Print Version" in the Fall 2010 issue of BLURT, on newsstands now.

By Aaron Burgess

Medal Of Honor

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developers: Danger Close/DICE / Publisher: EA

ESRB Rating: M

This year's Medal Of Honor arrives with some contentious, if publicity-boosting, baggage to go along with its dog tags and bullet holes. Set in present-day Afghanistan, the game is the first title in the 11-year series to drop you into the middle of an active conflict-where, controversially, you can play as either an Afghan insurgent or the game's real hero, a U.S. Tier 1 special operative.

Typically, much of the hoopla around Medal Of Honor 2010 comes from outside of gaming circles. Spend a few hours actually playing the first-person shooter, and you realize there's no attempt to radicalize at work here. Regardless of whether you enter Medal Of Honor as G.I. Joe or as Taliban Sam (though, thanks to a last-minute change, EA has stripped out the "T" word), the game is at heart a classic good guys/bad guys affair.

Medal Of Honor's taut, tense single-player campaign slips you into the boots of a U.S. soldier in the middle of Operation Enduring Freedom. Though it's a relatively quick play, the campaign keeps you engaged through rich level design and some of the most vivid-and disturbingly realistic-audio you'll ever hear in a military game. (Indeed, the game was developed with input from real U.S. combat forces.) Similar in feel to its closest competitor, Modern Warfare 2, the game winds from Afghanistan's craggy hills to the cockpit of an AH-64 Apache helicopter, where your tasks range from surgical assaults to hammer-crushing blows against an enemy whose biggest weapon is its unpredictability.

Tension and playability both increase in MOH's excellent online multiplayer mode,  which supports up to 24 players across both Tier 1 and Taliban (or, as the name has been sanitized, "opposition") forces. As in real-life combat, teamwork is everything here-so while you can boost your own ranking and abilities by taking out enemy soldiers or performing medal-worthy feats of courage, none of this stuff will matter if you lead your friends into an ambush or sniper attack.

Medal Of Honor lands amid some tough FPS competition-the aforementioned Modern Warfare 2 on one end; the new Halo: Reach on the other.  But for those who prefer their military action raw, rugged and unflinchingly realistic, this is one operation that truly endures.

Rating: 8/10

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light

Platform: Nintendo DS

Developer/Publisher: Square Enix

ESRB Rating: E10+

Hard to believe that in roughly two dozen franchise games, spinoffs, sequels and prequels, Final Fantasy has never had an original Nintendo DS title until now. With Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light, series creator Square Enix compresses the FF world into storybook size, where designer Akihiko Yoshida's fantastic illustrative work makes the DS-exclusive role-playing game feel bigger, and dreamier, than life.

If the art style and platform have you thinking The 4 Heroes Of Light is Final Fantasy Jr., you may want to break the shrink wrap before handing the game to your little sibling. The game offers a world of depth beyond its visuals, with four divergent storylines and multiplayer capability for up to four players (hence the title). The deceptively simple-to-grasp Crown Job System further deepens play, thanks to over 24 unlockable, class-based crowns that let you assign attributes, and even aesthetics, that can boost your character's chances of making it through the game's battles and dungeons.

Combat itself is simple and turn-based, but unless you invest serious time in strategy, you'll be at a terminal disadvantage against most foes. Luckily, thanks to its long, engaging story and seemingly endless customization scheme, The 4 Heroes Of Light gives you plenty of time to plot your next move-provided you don't get lost in the details, of course.

Rating: 8/10

Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer: Ninja Theory / Publisher: Namco Bandai

ESRB Rating: T

Although it's loosely based on the 16^th-century Chinese literary classic Journey To The West-as diluted through 400 years of popular reinterpretation-Enslaved: Odyssey To The West takes place 150 years into our own future, in a post-apocalyptic U.S. that's literally a shell of its former self.

Bound together in a journey toward freedom-but really navigating a complicated romantic relationship based on self-interest and subjugation-heroes Monkey (your playable character) and Trip (your tech-smart female counterpart) traverse Enslaved's wasteland under constant threat of peril.

Peril, of course, translates in this single-player title to tactical gameplay with a ton of awesome, epic battles driven by Monkey's acrobatic (if simplistic) melee-style attack capability. Indeed, the fighting and level exploration alone would make Enslaved a perfectly great way to kill a weekend. The problem comes when the game gets too hung up on its own storyline.

Hindered by the medium, and the genre, in which it's working, screenwriter Alex "28 Days Later" Garland's script struggles to eclipse the complex, allegorical weight of its source material. Rich (if super-long) cutscenes and terrific voice acting-particularly from Lord Of The Rings' Andy "Gollum" Serkis as Monkey-wonderfully draw you into the story, sure. But the story here needs subtlety to shine-and that's an area where even the greatest game developers, with their understandable need to draw everything back to the action, can only be heavy-handed.

Rating: 7/10

File Under: Extras

Level Up Storage Towers

$49.99 and up

Sure, milk crates and plastic clamps will hold your gaming rig just fine, but if you're looking for a sleeker way to keep your gear together, Level Up's storage towers have form and function to match their flair. (See what we did there?) The ZigZag tower for Xbox 360 (pictured; also available in gray) holds four controllers in its molded dock and up to 13 games or DVDs in its tower. You stash your console below the game shelves, in a recessed and ventilated bay that helps to keep components cool, while the hooks on either side of the tower let you keep a pair of Rock Band axes at the ready. Similar models are also available for Wii and PlayStation 2/3 consoles-check out the whole line at Level Up.

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Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters

One of America's great troubadours, interviewed by a fellow songwriter.

By Kasey Anderson

At this point, the fact that Peter Case is one of the most important American songwriters of the last 30 years goes without saying. However, in my never-ending quest for superfluity, I just said it. And I'll say it again, but this time using different words. To attempt to classify Peter Case's songwriting, or quantify his impact on American Rock  ‘N' Roll and Roots Music, would be an exercise in redundancy. Between his time fronting the Plimsouls (whose recently released Live: Beg, Borrow & Steal, recorded in 1981, finds the band in particularly blistering from) and his extensive solo catalog, Case's sphere of influence is damn near all-encompassing.

To that end, I can not think of a better way to kick off this series than to discuss songwriting - specifically, the songwriting of Bob Dylan and, more specifically, Dylan's tune "Jokerman" from the 1984 album Infidels - with Peter Case.

KA: Do you remember the first time you heard the tune? I was pretty young when Infidels was released but, growing up, my dad would usually put on a Dylan record and then play me his favorite tune from each record. "Jokerman" was that tune from Infidels.

PC: It was 1984 and I was still in the Plimsouls, but outside of a couple tours that year, we had wound down, and I was just knocking about, living alone in a tiny pad up in Laurel Canyon. (In the same cottage the Melvins eventually moved into, after I split!) I was writing songs for what was gonna be my first solo LP, and felt like I was on the moon, 'cause I was living at night, isolated, kinda living in my dreams and musical ideas, and I didn't have to show up anywhere or anything, it was woodshed time. It was a good time. I was 30 years old, freed up for the first time from a lot of things that had been bugging me.
       So I picked up the new Dylan LP at Tower on Sunset, and took it straight back home, threw it on, and was completely transfixed by "Jokerman."
       The first thing that got me about it was the Sly and Robbie groove, unlike anything I'd heard before; it's not rock or reggae either, but something new, very open. As usual with a Dylan record you hear every word. He delivers that very clearly.
       On first listen the song hits you with a strong sense of life, of what it's like to be alive in the world at that moment, a sense of NOW. The complexity, color, seductive sensual lure, sense of danger, of freedom, of possibility that one feels in the world - call it the Modern World - is all communicated so vividly, that the flash of recognition I felt upon hearing it, EVEN THOUGH I HAD NO REASONABLE IDEA WHAT HE WAS ON ABOUT, gave me a rush of companionship. That's the first thing about the art of his songwriting, he wins you with the representation of what it's really like to be alive. And you feel that before you understand it.
       I think "Like A Rolling Stone" did that for its time. And the song "Dignity" hit me with that kind of force, when I first heard it on the radio, and had to pull the car over. It's a hugely exciting thing. I'm not sure to this day that I could say I understand the song really. But I find it really moving.
       The lines about ships, mist, snakes, glowing eyes... all were like kindling. I went up in flames when he hit: "freedom just around the corner for you / but with the truth so far off what good will it do?"
       That's what I mean about him reflecting the true complexity of being alive, instead of the party line, which would be something like : "Gotta get free!" or "I'm free but with freedom comes responsiblility." You know, "freedom: good!" I was in a period of my life when I felt a bit of freedom, but the nagging thoughts about the validity of what I was doing were unexpressed, kinda murkily swimming about in my mind, then PRESTO! Dylan's said it,. and I'm pushed into a new dimension of thought. All of this I just felt, though, on that first listen.
       "So swiftly the sun sets in the sky," yeah especially if like me you're getting up in the afternoon and turning night into day. "You rise up and say goodbye to no one." Check. "Shedding off one more layer of skin, staying one step ahead of the persecutor within." He does it again with this one. Shedding off skin: sounds good, that's what I was trying to do; reinvent myself, renew my musical vision, evade the weights and mistakes of my past. "One step ahead of the persecutor." It was like he was reading my mind. I'd been feeling guilty for my impulse to ditch the band and go solo, though it seemed necessary from a purely artistic point of view. So, those lines hit me too.
       As they would anybody I think, who was actively going through the kind of changes life threw on individuals at that time, which is still THIS TIME, by the way. The struggle of freedom, guilt, knowledge, power, foolishness, that we all experience.

KA: The groove, the Sly & Robbie thing. Not to get too anthropological about it but I have always found White Guy Reggae and White Guy Blues to be really hollow and hokey, with a few exceptions - you and Dylan being two of them. What do you think it is that he taps into, and that you tapped into, that so many imitators can't get their heads and hands around?

PC: White guy blues? Well, the first thing about that is, a white guy can't really be a blues singer now. I'm not sure there really can be any blues singers now, in the way there once were.
       Bob Dylan uses roots music to tell his story, his way. That's what I try to do as well. But you have to know your limits. Dylan is the best at that, he's got that "bullshit detector" that lots of people talk about. It better be real or forget about it.
       I grew up in a house when blues and jazz and early rock and roll were just coming out, and the records were constantly being played on our record player, and my sister and her friends (who were all about the same age as Dylan) were attempting to play the music, too, on piano and other instruments. And that 50's music was all blues-based, or country. And then there was Elvis, who I experienced as a three-year-old. He's the original white boy with the rockin' blues. I feel like he died for my honky ass, so I could sing any kind of music I can feel. He had the feeling on the Sun Records, and the early RCA, and I just soaked it up. Also the Everly's, Chuck Berry, Link Wray (the first HEAVY guitar), Richie Valens, Fats Domino, and Little Richard and Jerry Lee on TV. All of that is blues.
       Then Dylan and the Stones, Beatles too, and I followed the streams and discovered Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, and I just loved all of that so much. And it got deeper from there. Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson, McTell, Gary Davis, etc. I just loved it and listened endlessly. And kept TRYING to play and sing it, and I HATED what I sounded like at 17, 18 years old, so young and white and reedy. It was EMBARRASSING. The story of all this is in my book, As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport.
       Somewhere in there it all opened up to me, but you still gotta keep a sense of humor, and the bulllshit detector trained on yourself. Look out!
       You gotta work to be YOURSELF, sing through the influences.

KA: I often wonder about Dylan's tunes, how much of himself does he put into the characters? Do you feel at all like this song is Dylan addressing Dylan?

PC: Jokerman, that's him singing about himself, and maybe about Jesus in verse three, and maybe about the silence of God at the end. But it's also anybody. The Fool, jokers trying to get serious (by that I mean living with their eyes open), not "asleep 'neath the stars with a small dog licking your face"; an image of a childish, maybe foolish sort, but also attractive in a way.. The nightingale's tune, is that like Keats' Nightingale, the Muse, or Imagination? Flying high by the moon, that is almost in the dark, moony, lunar, almost lunatic inspiration, like the sub conscious, or unconscious (I mix them up!) which it always seems like Dylan relies on. For example, he always insists the songs come "through him" and the creation of his early work had to do with "power and dominion over the spirits."
       It does seem like he is singing, at least in part, about himself. And it's relevant to you and me, to the degree we want to apply it.

KA: I love the notion of Dylan conveying clearly what it means to be alive. I've read a lot of criticism of his writing as cold, detached, esoteric, inaccessible, and I think that's just nonsense. What he does is tap into the most universal experiences and distill their complexity into one or two lines. Had you heard "Jokerman" ten years earlier or later, how drastically different would the impact have been?

Well, there's a great difference between his best work and his other stuff. "Jokerman" is one of his great songs, right in there with the best of the early work, and the best of the 70's. One of the things that makes it great is this really alive quality it has, which isn't present in some other songs. "Neighborhood Bully" doesn't have this kind of impact, whatever you think of its message. "Man Of Peace," likewise. I think "Union Sundown" is a great piece of work, but as a song lyric, though it's good, maybe someone else could have written it. He merely covers the subject. Another song like that, from a later album, is " Everything's Broken" from Oh Mercy. It's strong, complete, but not necessarily "Dylan-esque," in that it's not communicating that super-vivid and 360 degree sense of life, of what's it like to be alive at that moment. And when you hear the songs that have that quality, it's like a mirror, or a trick window. You almost feel as if you're looking through reality, getting a glimpse "behind the screen," and that's what makes it so valuable.
       So some of it is cold, detached, etc., but people need to hear his great stuff. His Greatest Hits, Volume 3 is pretty powerful, for that reason.
       If you don't get Bob Dylan, you don't get much, in my opinion. Complaints about his voice are a sure sign of ignorance of music and history. It's not a matter of taste. It's a matter of mind or not. I know as time goes on it may be harder for younger people to get in on, but it's worth trying to find the door in. A whole universe opens up.
       A lot of it comes down to words. Can you relate to another mind, as related in language? Beyond the either/ors of binary choice: Democrat/Republican? Hot/Not? Young/Old? Yes/No on this or that issue? Pro choice/Pro-Life, etc. Talk about manipulation and dream twisting. The media are reducing everything to sound bites and pablum.
       But we all know that. Sorry. The point is love of language.
       Dylan comes into that spiritual and mental gridlock and makes entirely new roads through it, expresses true thoughts of a lightning mind, and we get a huge blast of energy from it. Which is why it's always "Christmas" when his records come out.

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Kasey Anderson is a songwriter, singer, dog owner and bacon enthusiast from Portland, Oregon. His three albums, Dead Roses (2004), The Reckoning (2007), and Nowhere Nights (2010) have earned plenty of praise from critics (No Depression, USA Today, The Onion) but, unfortunately, have not as yet yielded the Swedish Fish endorsement Anderson so badly desires. If you'd like to have Kasey Anderson sing, play harmonica and strum a guitar at you, you'll find him on tour all spring and summer (dates and info available at www.kaseyanderson.com), or if you'd simply like to read on as Anderson discusses various songs with other artists, writers, friends and cohorts, you're in the right place.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (9/2 - 10/1).

By Scott Dudelson

(above and below) KISS - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com - 9/25

Asleep at the Wheel - Live @ The Grammy Museum (www.grammymuseum.org) - 9/2

Blood Brotherz (feat: Jay Lane of Primus) - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 9/5

James McMurtry - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 9/5

Against Me! - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

Bad Religion - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

30 Seconds to Mars - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

Bush - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

DMX - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

Big Boi (of Outkast)  - Live @ Epicenter Festival (www.epicenterfestival.com) - 9/25

Jerry Lee Lewis - Live @ The Grammy Museum (www.grammymuseum.org) - 10/1

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Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.