Pop Culture Band

“Rolo Tomassi”

“Who?”

Here I am, watching LA Confidential for the first time in 20+ years. Pretty solid movie (spacey aside… newsletter convo for another day… what do we do with actors who are bad people. can we separate art from their actions?… see also as I lay dying). Came out in 1997 and lost most Oscar’s to Titanic. Bassinger won but I thought she was kinda bad in this. Young Russel Crowe. young Guy Pierce. LA set noir. Rad. 

But here I am, watching LA Confidential and who drops in?? Rolo Tomassi? The band? What?!? Half assed internet research tells me they named themselves after this character. 

Here I am, learning something new. Love a good pop culture reference. Funeral Psalms turns 5 in April and that thing is littered with pop culture references. 

1. “The Problem With Being Included In the Apocalypse” - the title is about “The Last of Us”

2. “No Friends” - refers to Russell Westbrook saying he’s got no friends but basketball

3. “Plague” - not sure there’s much pop in this one

4. “Holy Smokes” - inspired by “Devs” and our buddy Nate’s song called “this simulation is a good one”

5. “Oh, Negative” - obviously Pet Sematary and I snuck a CS Lewis “great divorce” line in there. 

6. “Demon Season” - duck vs rabbit season. Good ol Looney Tunes. 

7. “Nostalgia” - uhhh… cowabunga. 

8. “Wrenches” - this is now about time repeating. Hate that. “Don’t be afraid. Fear can’t save you now” is a line from “Lovecraft Country” HBO mighta buried that one. 

9. “River” - title comes from Jeff Goldblum in Hotel Artemis. He says “well, send me down the River, baby”. I also ripped heavily from Watchmen. Specifically the “Little Fear of Lightning” episode where the silver masked guy goes to counseling and talks about being in a tunnel. 

10. “I Really Don’t Want To Be Here” - not a ton of pop but this is the most underrated song on the album. 

11. Knuckle Sandwich… I mean “…And Everything Worked Out Just Fine” - I don’t know. I just listened to “I Really Don’t Want To Be Here” again. I remember crushing the recording of that song. 

Oooof. I haven’t thought about those songs in a long time. Brings back good memories. 

I’ve talked about it before but I enjoy writing. I love listening to music or watching a movie and having a line of dialogue hit me with inspiration. My phone notes are littered with just absolute sh*t ideas and I gotta filter through all that to find the good stuff. I’m never going to stop burying pop culture references in our songs. It’s one of my great joys as the vocalist. 

Oh oh oh - pet peeve is when a band uses a pop culture reference or a line from a movie and tries to kinda claim it as their own. like… guys… we’ve all seen The Fountain.

Our upcoming concerts have been announced. More in the works. Trying to play some rock n roll this year, yall! Let’s go!

Merch is coming in soon. 

WELCOME TO JOHNNY’S VIDEO GAME CORNER!

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown

The Prince of Persia series is a blind spot for me. I came close to playing Sands of Time once and that’s about it so I really have no reference point for this game.

Convincing voice acting, a Killmonger haircut, and a solid story premise that maybe could have been executed better is overshadowed (in a good way) by the satisfying combat and platforming-traversal of the game’s 2D levels. I’m not always a fan of Metroidvania-style backtracking, but The Lost Crown’s map isn’t huge and the ability to add screenshots of areas to it helps any confusion or tedious searching once you receive new abilities. Each new ability essentially makes you more agile so by the time you’re in the latter half of the game, you’re swinging, dashing, and backflipping through each area.

I struggled hard on the second boss I faced, so spending some time off the beaten path completing challenging Celeste-like platforming to collect upgrades eased the combat heavy sections. After putting in the time, I felt pretty unstoppable at the end game. 

If you’re into 2D action-platformers, this one’s worth playing and honestly makes me want to check out more Prince of Persia games to see what I’ve missed. Would love some recommendations in the discord.

Good bye for now.

Song of the Day