8 posts tagged “chris merritt”
I've never really been much of a Pac-Man connoisseur. For that matter, I've never been much for Ms. Pac-Man, either. Sure, her bulbous yellow mass and strangely proportioned legs might've given me lustful pause in previous years - but that's all a part of that awkward prepubescent stage, now long since past me. Besides, back then I never really worked up the nerve to catch Pac-Man fever. Things are different now, though.
When J and I got the XBox, we justified the purchase by saying that it would serve not only as a gaming console, but also our DVD Player. And, to that end, it has served us well. Only in the last couple of months, though, has it become a focal point on one of the strangest addictions I've ever had.
Growing up, my good friend Chris was one of those kids that could play a Pac-Man game for upwards of three hours on a single quarter. This, of course, proved to be something of an awkward problem when it came to socializing at any one of the fine Pac-Man equipped establishments that we happened to frequent. Granted, I was always mighty impressed with his boasts of having his initials in the number one spot on every Pac-Man machine within a hundred mile radius - but that awe rarely spread to anyone beyond our ever shrinking circle of friends.
Back then, being much less skilled than Chris left me far too intimidated to foray out into the world of blinking dots and multi-colored ghosts. Things changed with the release of the Championship Edition on XBox Live.
As I recall, it was mere months ago when I downloaded the game when Chris was in town. We spent the entire night playing, working out the necessary patterns to maximize our per-minute point gain. After the first few hours, I'd caught the fever and, ever since, Chris and I have been in contact trying to determine the best strategies through which we might be able to conquer the leaderlist on XBox Live.
With that said, I've been trying to lay low with my addiction - I don't bring up in casual conversation the fact that the orange ghost, Clyde, tends to follow a set path instead of going straight for you. Instead, I stick to normal topics like the weather and local football.
Ok, maybe not football.
And then there was that party last night. J's future brother-in-law, Z, invited us over to his place for dinner and board games. When we showed up, however, I found that the board games were relegated to the ladies who were attending while the gentlemen fragged each other on the 57' screen in the living room. As the night went on, and the beer bottles emptied, Z broached the subject of Pac-Man CE. He said that he'd noticed my high score on XBox Live and wanted to know how I got there. Within minutes I found myself the center of attention as that blessed white controller was handed off to me. Within mere seconds, everyone present (and still sober enough to keep track) was cheering me on as I wiped Z's former high score off the map.
I went to bed last night knowing what Sparticus must've felt deep in his heart as he saw his first domineering victory in the colliseum.
And now I must return to my couch where I will continue to fight my way toward the leaderboards, toward freedom. Am I a nerd? Maybe. Is this the kind of thing that might suck the life out of me? Almost definitely.
But for one fleeting evening, I was a God amongst insects. Drunken insects, but insects all the same.
(Woah. This'll be embarrassing to read to myself later.)
I'm trying to update here when I can. Really. I just don't have much time while I run around LA with my mother.
New video from Chris Merritt:
Chris
Merritt's new album, 'Hello, Little
Captain,' brings to mind a seemingly common nightmare for me.
You know the one I'm talking about - you're bent over your little desk, No. 2 pencil in hand, not sure if you should be
filling in the circle for answer 'A' or answer 'C' on your ScanTron sheet.
That's when, suddenly, you realize that you can feel the cold plastic curve of
your chair making direct contact with the skin of your buttock. In a panic, you
quickly think back to that morning and don't recall ever putting any pants on.
You take a quick glance at your lap to verify and, to your horror, you realize
your mistake. Those little bubbles on the ScanTron don't seem so damned
important anymore. Your eyes dart frantically around the room to see if anyone
else has noticed your exposed flesh and, as if on cue, people start to turn and
look. Without missing a beat, you jump out of the seat, shirtcocking it out of
the room as fast as you can. Once out in the hallway, you can hear everyone in
the classroom murmuring about your awkward appearance, some of them laughing.
You feel the entire surface of your skin blush bright red. The bell rings and
students begin to pour out classroom doorways as far as the eye can see, all of
them laughing and pointing at you as you desperately try to cover up your
exposed flesh. That's when you discover that your shirt's gone missing, too.
Oh, god.
This is the point at which
you’re most likely to wake up from this particular nightmare, covered in sweat
and feeling horrible.
Well,
that's what this little album does for me. Only, instead of some nondescript
classroom from my high school, this time I'm at an all girls' school somewhere in the mountainous
countryside of Sweden. And it just so happens that I'm the only one who
remembered to put on clothes that morning. Darn the luck.
Yes, folks, this
album makes me feel very good, indeed.
So, with that glowing review in mind, may I be the first to unveil to the world Chris Merritt's latest masterpiece, 'Hello, Little Captain' in all it's rock and roll glory:
001. The Palace Flophouse
Without a doubt, using this song as the introductory piece for the entire album was a good choice. After listening to this track, you get a pretty good idea of what you're in for with the rest of the album - and you're in for some good stuff.
For those of you that were wondering, yes, it's a song about a book. John Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row,' to be specific. If you've never read it before, you definitely should.
Allow me to repeat myself on this one:
...This song is one that Chris originally recorded a number of years ago for a demo he released, but later couldn't decipher the lyrics for...Chris opted to start improvising the lyrics live at shows. The results always turned out to be entertaining enough to continue playing in his live sets...
To my recollection, this song has been in the hopper for about two years now. My best guess is that this song is about a girl. A girl with hands.
You know how they are.
004. Virginia
By far, 'Virginia' is one of the most powerful songs on the album. It kind of makes you want to turn down the lights and settle into a good, cold beer.
Call me crazy, but the melody on the verses have a distinct Frank Black flavor to them.
Another literature-related song. The original story behind this song, 'Beowulf' happens to be one of the most well known examples of Anglo-Saxon literary work. It also happens to be a pretty badass story.
If you close your eyes and listen closely during the guitar solo at the end, you should be able to hear the clinking of ancient Scandinavian beer steins (or whatever they drank out of back then).
Chris first wrote this song as part of an assignment for a songwriting class. He got an A+. Go figure.
Funny sidenote: his professor in that songwriting class was convinced that John Mayer was the second coming. What a mistake to make! Everyone knows that God hates John Mayer.
Another song about a girl. She probably has hands, too.
I hear a lot of Frank Black in this one, too.
I can't even count the number of conversations that Chris and I have had regarding the distinct difference in the way that the concept of space is perceived in southern California as compared to our upbringing in the backwoods of northern Virginia. From what I can tell, this song's about overpopulation and all the joys that come with it.
Another song about a girl. That, or it's about a guy.
Beautiful song, either way. Don't you agree?
Chris is normally pretty comfortable with showing me his songs when they're still in the early stages - but I had to coax him into letting me hear this one in its entirety. Frankly, I think that Chris feels this song to be a little too close to his heart. Luckily, he came to terms with his sensitivity about the subject matter of this song and included it in the album. I don't cry a lot when it comes to music, but I was sobbing the first time I had the chance to listen to this one. If you really believe in the power of music, open your heart and your mind to this song. I think it could change your life. Really.
And there you have it, everyone: my Swedish girls-school fantasy.
And some rock and roll.
Feel free to tell all of your friends about this post, link to it from your fancy little blog, or just pretend that you wrote it yourself. Whatever makes you feel like you did something to help bring a true artist one step closer to his ultimate dream of world rock&roll domination.
If my association with Chris doesn't make you too wary of him, perhaps you would consider pre-ordering the album off of him. You can find it for sale on his MySpace page - just scroll down a bit and click on the 'Buy Now' button located in the left-hand column. The first 150 orders get a fancy CD with a bunch of demo songs on it. Now doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
Yesterday I didn't make a post.
I've come to grips with that and would like to apologize to Scrambler, my arch-blogging-nemesis for my temporary lapse in judgment. However, I've got a decent excuse: I spent my evening with Chris discussing the possibility of previewing his as-of-yet unreleased album right here on my Vox. We also had a beer or two. It was a busy night, dontchaknow.
So, when I get home from work later today, I plan on not only providing you with this weeks installation of 'Tuesdays With Big Brother (on a Wednesday),' but also with a full 14 track preview of Chris Merritts new album, 'Hello, Little Captain.'
And, while I realize that most of you probably haven't bothered to check out the fine samples of his work that I've posted in the past, I implore you to give it a chance this time around. Think of this as a way to pay penance for that Limp Bizkit album you bought in your reckless youth, or an opportunity to counterbalance the fact that you used to sing along to Dashboard Confessional because you thought that girls might think you're more sensitive for it. This is your chance to right the wrongs you've committed against your tortured eardrums, with all the garbage you've forced them to suffer through over the years.
This is the taste of freedom, ladies and gents, and I'd be remiss to keep it from you.
Chris Merritt, musician and zombie aficionado, emailed me yesterday in response to my recent post about the possibility of trying to use my injured knee as a means to blend into any zombie communities that might take hold in the near future. For the public good, I thought it best to reproduce his statements here, in case someone took to heart my joking tone in that post. Remember, kids, zombies might be funny, but they pose a serious danger in our society.
Just one correction: sorry, this is going to be of embarrassing for you. Your post contains a glaring error. Zombies can "sense" the presence of other zombies, and so regardless of how you act, a zombie can always tell if you are really a zombie or not. Some conjecture that they have very precise motion detecting skills and can recognize the difference between someone faking to be a zombie and the real thing, this process all being very instinctual and far removed from logic, of course. Some think it has more to do with the presence of the virus Solanum, which is the sole creator of the undead. As the virus takes complete control of the brain, rendering the frontal lobe useless, it in effect creates an almost entirely new organ, which is inferior in almost every way to a healthy human brain, the exceptions, of course, are sensory perception and the fact that it is oxygen-independent. A zombie can see, hear, and smell just as well as a living human being. A popular theory, however, is that they tend to rely on olfactory smell more than sound and sight, and can smell the living with keen perception. As Max Brooks writes in his definitive survival guide,
"Unlike with sound, the undead have a more acute sense of smell. In both combat situations and laboratory tests, they have been able to distinguish the smell of living prey above all others. In many cases, and given ideal wind conditions, zombies have been known to smell fresh corpses from a distance of more than a mile. Again, this does not mean that ghouls have a greater sense of smell than humans, simply that they rely on it more. It is not known what particular secretion signals the presence of prey: sweat, pheromones, blood, etc. In the past, people seeking to move undetected through infested areas have attempted to "mask" their human scent with perfumes, deodorants, or other strong-smelling chemicals. None were successful. Experiments are now under way to synthesize the smells of living creatures as a decoy or even repellent to the walking dead. A successful product is still years away." (reference 1)
Historical research, coupled with laboratory and field observation, have shown that the walking dead have been known to attack even when all their sensory organs have been damaged or completely decomposed. Does this mean that zombies possess a sixth sense? Perhaps. Living humans use less than 5% of their brain capacity. It is possible that the Solanum virus utilizes an unused section of the brain that has been forgotten by evolution.
Sorry, W! The fact remains that zombies can not be tricked or mislead in any way. That sort of thinking is going to get you killed.
References:
1. Brooks, Max.
The Zombie Survival Guide, 2003. Three Rivers Press, New York.
This song is one that Chris originally recorded a number of years ago for a demo he released, but later couldn't decipher the lyrics for. Instead of following in the footsteps of a more pretentious band and suggesting that the lyrics were actually a part of a new language with a lame name like 'hopelandic' (Sigur Ros - fucking hippies), Chris opted to start improvising the lyrics live at shows. The results always turned out to be entertaining enough to continue playing in his live sets.
For this new album, though, Chris has been talking about honing his lyrical prowess and finally wrote out some new wording for this tune. Personally, I'm of the mind that 'Always On My Mind' is a smashing success to that end. You've also got to hand it to his ethnically-diversified bandmates for their role in this little ditty - the bass line and the drum work function as smoothly in this recording as anything I've heard from Chris in the past.
This one's a keeper, folks, even if my review of it isn't. And this time Chris actually gave me permission to post it online for your listening pleasure!
I hate to do this two times in one week, but I've got to postpone my 'Tuesdays With Big Brother' post until tomorrow because J's office is having their annual Christmas get-together tonight. I'd like to pretend that I'm more exciting about doing some political ranting than getting to this event on time, but J doesn't work in any old office. She works for a rather successful computer game company. This means that I get to go and challenge other nerds to see who's got the biggest nerd-rep.
Unfortunately, I'm more of a geek than a nerd - but it should be quite a fun time all the same.
However, I am kind of hoping that posting this song might make up for my disappointing blogging performance this week. This here's a song by my good friend Chris Merritt. I tend to refer to him as 'C' in entries that aren't music-related because, well, I really don't have a good reason to. At least Google won't be catching on to my clever trick, eh?
Anyhow, he and I went through middle and high school together and ended up moving out to California together through some rather interesting twists of fate.
No, we are not in love.
This song is called 'It's Been Sad' and this particular recording of it hasn't been released yet. In fact, Chris just finished up mixing in the vocals last night when he emailed it to me - and I can't imagine that he'd look kindly upon my having posted it online for the general public just yet.
But, let's be honest, I have a total reading population of about three and none of them are going to be telling him about this, right?
The album that this song is soon to be included on looks like it's going to be something worth celebrating. I've been listening to Chris' stuff since he started getting serious about song writing back in seventh grade and the man is graced with some kind of genius.
Give the song a little listen and then get your ass over to his MySpace page where you can sample more of his fine wares. Just don't tell him who sent you.
It's been a relatively quiet weekend.
I went out with some friends from work last night for dinner at the House Of Blues in Anaheim. I can't say I appreciated the food that much, but the people standing in line to see Queensryche made the entire event worthwhile. Where else will you see all of those old metal-heads making that important social connection with the newest generation? Nowhere, that's where.
Today I'm meeting up with C before he begins laying down the vocal tracks for his latest album. All things being equal, it's looking like the entire thing will be completed within the week. Who knows when he'll get down to the knitty-gritty details on when to release it to the world.
Them's the breaks, though.
Gah, I had blogging on Sundays.
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