Dog Problems

Real talk - I had a theme for this week’s newsletter in mind last week, but so much happened over this past weekend, that I forgot what I was gonna right about. It’ll come to mind eventually and I’ll write about my forgotten theme. But not today. I think it was about being happy and finding joy in the little things…. but like I said, I forgot and The Undertaking! writes songs about death.

1. The Format - Kylee and I caught The Format on Sunday night. Keith was there too. Music is weird, guys. It’s hypnotic and transportive. There’s nothing like it. Here we are (Kylee and I), standing in Soma, 20 years later, watching The Format. 20 years ago, we were dating and in college and life was just getting started. 20 years later, we’re older, have 3 kids and life’s still just getting started. But for an hour and half, Nate and The Format crushed 20 songs that took us back to 2006. MUSIC IS SO SICK. They put on a really good show. Lots of energy. Sounded amazing. For reals, Nate sounded so good. Very good night. Glad we went. Joy.

2. A Lot Like Birds - We caught up with our Bird pals on Thursday. They came through San Diego with He Is Legend and played Brick. Shout out Brick. In our conversation, though, the Birds dudes and us were reminiscing about our Saosin shows. A good remember that those shows ruled so hard. They were huge and really fun. But you kinda file it away as a “hey, that happened” type thing. Fun to take those memories outta the box and remember how fun it was. Hope we can do that again some day. A Lot Like Birds rules. Funny that they dress up in bird costumes. Joy.

3. Disneyland - Took the kids to Disneyland last Friday. Played hookie from school. I know theme parks aren’t for everyone, but… uh, theme parks are awesome. Hit a bunch of rides. I don’t have much to say other than Disneyland is fun. Happy.

4. Album - we’re in the tinkering stage. Which can get frustrating and/or exciting. What does that mean? Well, we have 11/12 demos. 11 with vocals. One was played live last weekend (Never Die). The riffs are there. The structures more or less will exist how they’re written. But we start to tinker. With melodies. With cadences. With phrases. With hits (Johnny just pointed out that certain guitar/drum hits should match up with a vocal line). I’m constantly tinkering with lyrics. What words feel more impactful. What’s lame? What sticks out? What isn’t natural? What doesn’t feel like me? Tinker mode turns into recording mode pretty quick. Death.

MOVIES - I watched the OG Star Wars trilogy with Henry this weekend. He likes it. The story is there. He’s a little apprehensive to how old it is now. I get it. I showed him a trailer for The Force Awakens and he’s like “yea, that looks normal” hahaha. 

I’m rewatching “Station 11” right now. Highly recommend. It’s on HBO. A flu decimates the world. Set during the initial outbreak and 20 years in the future. Came out in 2020/21. Weird timing for this type of show. It’s really good. “I remember damage”

Johnny’s Video Game Corner: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

I feel like Metroid fans would stone me for this statement but the 3D Metroids aren’t that great (to me). Give me a 2D Metroid any day; absolutely loved Metroid Dread, and Fusion might be one of my favorites from the series.

That said, Prime 4 wasn’t terrible but two big things bother me about this game and it surprisingly it wasn’t the chatty NPCs that help you along the way.

First is the scanning. Why? Why, do I have to scan everything in this game? It makes the gameplay sooo slow and doesn’t feel rewarding at all. Sure, you get some backstory but even then I don’t know why I should care about this alien civilization on a remote planet I’m trying to leave or why the main villain in the game is here to kill me and my comrades. From the few short cut scenes, I’m guessing revenge.

The combat is another thing that missed the mark for me. Your beams and missiles don’t feel satisfying at all on impact. Not sure if that’s a sound design issue or visually I wanted more recoil from the arm cannon, but it just wasn’t there. I’m always hoping for more of a Halo-vibe with the Prime games’ combat so maybe that’s on me.

I understand that this series is supposed to engage that feeling of isolation but it doesn’t have to be done in such a bland way. Driving through a huge empty desert and scanning every plant isn’t the way to do it. Take a bigger swing and make it more of a detective horror game where you slowly uncover the world, limiting combat for big “oh crap” moments when you finally stumble upon an enemy.

It seems like the game ended with room for another chapter, so I’m sure in 18 years we’ll get another lackluster Prime installment. If we’re still around I’ll give you my thoughts on it.

CONCERTS/SHOWS - bought our Nashville flights. See you then (June 12). 

Uh… buy some merch. Uhh… listen to our music. Uhhhh… join our discord.

Song of the Day