Electric Six and Other Hijinks from Ciato

[Luther Lansfeld]

Hello and welcome all! I’ve decided to make a topic of random shit that comes to my mind. Today I’ve been filtering samples in a clean room and I decided to just turn Electric Six on shuffle. I realized that it would be fun to give a guide/my opinions on E6 CDs as I realized which CDs I was enjoying more or less. My brain is a little craaaaaaaaaazy right now due to weird sleeping patterns so bare with me.

Dick Valentine has estimated that "90 percent of our songs, maybe even higher than 90 percent" are "about absolutely nothing." Songs by Electric Six are often concerned with subjects human sexual behavior, masculinity, dancing, hypersexuality, fast food and fire.

Thank you Wikipedia! And now, for my blathering.

Note that the favorite lyric is not from any of the songs mentioned. I dunno why!

Fire

Fire is Electric Six’s first CD. It is ridiculous and wacky and awesome and completely blew me away. I thought to myself “I am going to try to pinpoint a favorite song from each CD” but with Fire it is so very hard because there are about five songs that I absolutely adore. I think it does a great job of blending comedy with catchy music.

Favorite song: Naked Pictures (of your mother). It is so delightfully evil; it’s a song about sexual blackmail. As most E6 songs are, it is quite fast and catchy. I’m not really a great music critic because I don’t really know much about instruments, I just know what makes me happy.

Honorable mention: Improper Dancing. Improper Dancing always makes me want to dance improperly in the middle of the street. I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT I’M SEEING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET

Favorite lyric: I’m a man and I’m torn between vengeance and fashion.

Senor Smoke

I actually received both Fire and Senor Smoke at the same time, and I listened to them as a mismash so I can barely tell which song is from which CD. After reflecting on their track lists, I realized Senor Smoke’s songs just don’t quite appeal to me anymore the same way that Fire’s continue to.

Favorite song: Jimmy Carter. A much slower song than the average E6 song and not really about sex, but it does have the words nuclear war so we know it’s still them. It’s just a really random song and has lots of president names in it.

Honorable Mention: Be My Dark Angel. This one on the other hand is very catchy. The questions-the queries-the rhetoric-the theories is just a really fun little beat goin’ on there.

Favorite lyric: Girl I need to make you understand… I’m a man not a disco ball~ (Or “making money oh-my-god!”)

Switzerland

Switzerland goes for a bit of a different approach; less about fire and dancing and more about partying, drugs, and sex. I mean, the last three are present in the other CDs but not as much! I feel like this CD is a mixed bag; some of the songs hold up really well (Pink Flamingoes), whereas songs like There’s Something Very Wrong With Us don’t really hold up very well and just bore me a bit on listening to them again. Band in Hell is an interesting song; it’s very much against the E6 style in that it is possibly the only song I can think of that is purely serious. I quite like it, personally.

Favorite song: Pink Flamingoes. This song’s blend of hilarious camp western and awesome rockin’ness just really appeals to me. I really like the lyrics though; sexual in a different way than normal and just kind of silly. Second verse is good stuff; makes me think of Dick Valentine as a rebellious sheriff or something.

Honorable Mention: I find this one to be really tough. Rubber Rocket is deliciously stupidly innuendo-tastic, Slices of You has Shakespeare quote and is slightly more subtle in its perverseness. Mr. Woman is really catchy too. Slices of You I think it is though.

Favorite Lyric: I gave you my heart, I gave you my soul, now I’m just another number at the Center for Disease Control.

I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master

Because one word titles just aren’t coooooooooooool. Exterminate is different that basically any other Electric Six CD in that I can’t really say “I absolutely love this song and it is my favorite!”, but I feel like it has a lot of really solid tracks, just nothing that stands out as the best, but I think I have a couple of selections in mind. A little edgier and less silly but still has mostly silly moments regardless.

Favorite Song: Dirty Looks. This is a song I love to quote because I think it has a lot of good lines. I like the more cautious, less gung-ho about immediate sex approach the song takes (“If we make love… would it be a mistake? Would the aftermath be hard to take?”). In fact I feel like the song is just a goldmine of great lyrics and the smooth, electronic background with the sax is sweet. Reflecting on it, Dirty Looks is definitely my favorite song but in a pretty subtle way so it’s easy to overlook.

Honorable Mention: Lenny Kravitz. The song has nothing to do with LK until the end when he is randomly burned. Very catchy.

Favorite lyric: You're broken machine has questions for me wants to know a little bit about my history wants to know why I write these ridiculous songs wants to know everything that turns me on~

Flashy

I know there are a few people who are disappointed with the quality of the last two CDs even though I disagree, and most of these people like Flashy.  I also like Flashy because it’s awesome. It is a self-referencing mofo though so you should probably listen to the other CDs first. It has a couple of songs I am not enamored with like Formula 409 but is chalk full of great stuff. It has ten songs which I will outright go out of my way to listen to due to badassery, which is high even for Electric Six.

Favorite Song: Gay Bar Part 2. It is quick, catchy, shamelessly self-referencing, and awesome. It is unusually rockish for Electric Six and it works. Highest amount of plays on the ol’ iPod.

Honorable Mention: …this is really fuckin’ hard. Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart is delightful (and I smacked ya’ll with that in the music contest), Witchy Witchy Women is a man singing a song about being a sexy lesbian which is surreal in its own way, and Making Progress describes how I feel too often. Empires it is though.

Favorite lyric: THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH LIKING A FLASHY MAN!

Kill

The latest release, while solid, isn’t as good as Flashy and I got them at the same time. I’m actually still working on listening to it obsessively and thoroughly like the others. So you could call this a work in progress, even if I will give opinions.

Favorite Song: My Idea of Fun. Love the kind of… I can’t describe it. Old school music style it offers?

Honorable Mention: Simulated Love, my current obsessive song. I am disappointed that I forgot to quote it at DLC5 (I travelled a thousand miles just to cop a feel!)

Favorite lyric: Dunno yet, but there is a song called Newark Airport Boogie which has to be Super’s theme song.

In general, I feel like my ratings are as follows:

Fire > Flashy > Exterminate > Switerland > Senor Smoke, with Kill pretty closer to the bottom but gets an incomplete for now. Flashy I enjoy listening to more than Fire but it’s probably because I’ve listened to it less to death.

This was totally random and Grefter will probably come in and pwn me but whatever!

[VySaika]

Heh. Fire had to grow on me, I didn't like it much at first. For me it was Senor Smoke that really caught and held my attention. I like Fire alot now, but there's still like 5-6 songs on Smoke that I'd put over anything on Fire.

Those are the only ones I've listened to at length so far though. Just got everything but Flashy from Gref, so that will change soon~

Though I will note that your favorite lyrics from Fire and Smoke are the same as mine! Such good lines.

[Luther Lansfeld]

^_^~ I'd at least grab Pink Flamingoes from Switzerland if nothing else. Exterminate is worth picking up too. I think I like Senor Smoke less than most people for whatever reason, but that's taste of course.

[VySaika]

Oh, I'll be listeneing to all of Switzerland/Exterminate/Kill soon enough. They're just on Jenna's comp now and we haven't moved them over yet~

[Luther Lansfeld]

Yay!!! I need to force Elfboy to listen to all of them too.

[Grefter]

Wait dammit, I still haven't ripped Flashy to my regular music folder?  I will have to fix that when I get home, I can hook you up with FLashy if Ciato doesn't. 

Bought the album, took it to work, ripped it there and forgot to put it on my PC instead of just on my iPod.

Edit - And of course Ciato totally picked all the wrong songs.

[Shale]

I don't have Kill yet and I am very annoyed about this. Also, seconding Super's new theme music.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Edit - And of course Ciato totally picked all the wrong songs.

When you say this about Electric Six, I will just nod because whatever you say will probably be awesome too!

[Grefter]

Exactly.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I feel this is utmostly relevant to this discussion.

[metroid composite]

I feel this is utmostly relevant to this discussion.

Pfft, the actual music video is weirder than that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulPgWVC08KI


While we're at it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4gyJsY0mc

[Grefter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvGpCMqZ358

Closing is the gift to the night shift and you've got ten minutes to go.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Zodiac

The seventh Electric Six CD. After listening to it quite a bit it is very solid, maybe my third favorite? It's a little different but still great fun.

Favorite Song: I Am A Song! Very silly and random~

Honorable Mention: Jam It In the Hole. I'M GOD'S LOVE BABY! I'M COURTNEY LOVE BABY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!

Favorite Lyric: Every house can be a home if push comes to shove...
But I really gotta know is there enough space... enough space for all this love?

[Luther Lansfeld]

So after a month and a half of having a tea store next to my apartment I have been absorbed into full tea-snob mode. lulz.

I'm going to talk about everything I have sampled so far and what I think about it, mostly for my own amusement/memory.

Black Tea

Buttered Rum - Not a great start overall. It's a little too greasy? or something. It has vanilla bean and coconut, and it's okay but not great. I may need to try it again because I did make it a little too strong I think.

Cream of Earl Grey (organic!!111) - I am a big fan of Earl Grey in general so I wanted to try some variants on it. This one, which is just vanilla, is definitely my favorite of the variants; it's like buying a London Fog Latte except it costs 25 cents instead of $3.50. I actually bought a 100 gram tin of this a couple of days ago and I've been bringing a cup of it to work most mornings or at least drinking it with my breakfast.

Earl's Garden - Another Earl Grey, this time with raspberry and strawberry flavoring. Another delicious one, but not as good with milk as the cream variant so I like it a little bit less to put in my cup in the morning.

Green Tea/Fermented Green Tea

Toasted Walnut - My second favorite of the things I've tried so far, it is what it is. It has some pineapple/nutty mixed flavor in there and I think it's just strong enough to suit my fancy without having overwhelming taste.

Opposites Attract - Peppermint! This is fine but nothing I couldn't find in the store for cheaper. In fact, I have a box of bagged teas which taste eerily similar... ~

Long Life Oolong - Peach! This on the other hand is delicious and way better than store counterparts. It has some almondy flavor mixed in and it's pretty good with sugar.

Rooibos

Lavender Rooibos - Has a coconut tilt, is pretty good but really weird~

Herbal Tea

Dulce and Banana - Absolutely awesome. Banana flavored tea sounded really weird, but it smelled amazing so I took it. Good choice!

Forever Nuts - Pink tea! It was apple cinamony, but it wasn't really my favorite. Also expensive because it was denser than other things I bought because of all the nuts in it.

Things I want~

Caramel rooibos, pear black/rooibos, vanilla Oolong, other things~

I am a nerd

[Grefter]

We are totally going to party down with some White teas.  Also still blech at Earl Grey.  Aromatic and weeeeeeak.  Need to hook you up with some good English Breakfast or work you into stronger teas.  Lapsang Souchong is great if you like a smokey tea (which is like the polar opposite to what you have been hitting mostly), Irish Breakfast is pretty freaking sweet as well.

Lots of Flavoured ones there, always fun, but I always end up back to my bases personally, but I grew up on straight tea, it wasn't an acquired taste thing.

Any interest at all in trying any Tisanes?  They have a tendency to be fairly sugary (is the easiest base to use for it) which if you are dieting are worth avoiding for regular teas, but they are pretty nice and make for a good Iced Tea.

Also Organic is always good in my experience.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Not even sure what tisanes are.

I had a cold white tea which was pretty good (coconut-y flavoring IIRC) but since I only drank a sample glass I had no real ground to stand on with regards to actually judging it.

[Grefter]

Best quick and dirty analogy is anything that a Tea shop will sell that doesn't have actual Tea leaves in it.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Oh, I've had some of that. Most of the things labelled herbal tea on that list~

[Luther Lansfeld]

After discussing where I wanted to place FF4 in my RPG ratings after playing it my second playthrough, I have been debating if FF8 or FF4 is better. I know that people have a wide range of opinions on this, but I have a pretty neutral opinion on both games!

Where I think FF4 wins:
-It is more innovative for its time. In terms of developing genre staples, FF4 has a lot under its belt. It has distinct characters and a quicker moving gameplay system than the games previous to it. FF8 is graphically superior to all games before it and has new ideas for combat like Junctioning and Drawing, but Drawing has never been replicated as far as I know and Junctioning/having stats change based on equipment or whatever is done occasionally.
-Its gameplay is generally smoother and easier to get through. FF8 suffers from having the excessive graphics with GFs and the Draw system, which encourages snail-paced battles, even for randoms.
-Its plot quality is more consistent. I’m not sure if this is really a compliment. In general the game is more consistent in terms of pacing as well.
-FF4’s world feels a little less empty and the setting is a little less disjointed

Where I think FF8 wins:
-More aesthetically pleasing for its time. I don’t feel like FF4 is a significant improvement over its contemporaries whereas I feel FF8 is.
-Has better characters (Squall and Laguna)
-Has Disc 1 which is legitly pretty interesting.
-It has more customization
-Triple Triad! I know this is a contentious point though~~

Where I think both games falter:
-Overall plot is not wonderful
-Both have character issues. FF4 barely has characters aside from Cecil a little bit and FF8 has the PC cast of suck.

I’m interested to hear opinions, especially people who are fans of one and dislike the other~

[Nephrite]

This is a very interesting topic. I'm sure you chose it because of it being such.

I would say that I agree with most of your points, though I'm probably an avid FF4 fan, though hopefully not unreasonably so.

FF8 had a lot of potential to be very interesting -- I loved the concept of SeeD and them going out on missions. They really dropped the ball on actually fleshing out the world and absolutely failed on making the player care, at all, about any of the characters. The fact that the game came out when it did is even more inexcusable than FF4's (lack of) character development.

I will say the remakes of 4 have helped bring out some more of the actual personalities of the characters though they could always be improved. I think if I were to be asked which cast would I rather know and hear more about, it'd be 4's. It doesn't help that I think most of the cast of 8 needs to jump on a boat and sail up river, of course... Irvine being the worst. I will agree that Squall and Laguna are interesting and probably more interesting than individuals in the FF4 cast, but the game didn't really delve deeply into any of them so it's not a comparison I think can be so easily made.


FF8 lost a lot of points for the fact that A) Drawing existed at all and B) I felt penalized every time I actually USED a spell if it was junctioned to something.

I guess I feel like 4 is the better game just because it does what it does well enough. A lot of people harp on it nowadays but I feel like if they'd played it when it came out and didn't have the hundreds of other games that have come since then to compare it to, they'd think it was better, relatively.


(I didn't like Triple Triad at all)

[Grefter]

Final Fantasy 8 is the better game by far, because it contains a minigame that is a better and more interesting game with more character depth and strategic combat than FF4.

Triple Triad > FF4.

[Nephrite]

That is a funny way of saying Triple Triad sucked!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Drawing is a pretty interesting issue, really. It's an interesting system to me to have items that you attach to Junctions to make your characters better, but the tedium of Drawing in battle and the fact that your Junctions get worse when you use spells makes it a less-than-desirable system. I don't think I ever really used magic in FF8.

I think a lot of people seem to overhate on FF4 for being, well, kinda old. Of course it's old, but it also has some good ideas which were implemented in later games. I just feel like FF8's plot inconsistency is a bigger deal because it was written in an era where that is a little less acceptable. I think the game had some good ideas (I like the Squall/Laguna dynamic but I think their relationship is rather poorly expounded upon). Irvine/Zell/Rinoa are just totally unacceptable and Quistis hits a sore spot with me (why is she 18, she looks 24 (orphanage), and why the fuck does the competent teacher devolve into lust over the main character before she COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS). I like Selphie for being a total fucking loon and having ridiculous hair but she is objectively bad.

I would like to get on my soap box about FF4's gross anti-feministic themes (hi Rosa) because of that RETARDED scene where EDWARD protects Rydia and Rosa, but FF8 has Rinoa who is a whiny ball of helplessness and the aformentioned problem of Quistis. So neither game can claim anything approaching victory in that regard.

[Nephrite]

I had honestly never thought about anti-feminist views in terms of FF4 but I can certainly see them, though I would argue that Rydia turns into a potentially strong character with what goes on.

I would also say that Rinoa manages to take feminism a few decades backwards in terms of what she ends up doing.

[Grefter]

Yes Triple Triad is not particularly good.

Eh, Rinoa has a lot of problems, most of them aren't really shots against feminism though.  Rinoa is the leader of a rebel group and clearly the one in charge of it delegating responsibilities to underlings that are capable at specific tasks, she takes action at the end of disc 1 on her own, she engages the relationship and is only a passive member of it when she is comatose.  Yeah she fails badly at not having her plot centred around a male character, but it is a romance story, so that one was never going to work.

The real problem there is that she happens to be dumber than a piece of plywood.

As a premierre FF4 hater, mang I don't hate it because it is old.  I hate it because everything it does was done earlier and better.  FF4 gets praised heaped on it for its amazing story when Ultima 4 gave us a bigger cast with about as much personality (which is to say not heaps) and gave us an epic quest to become the embodiment of the 8 Virtues.  It is essentially an Arthurian tale told as a Meritocracy rather than just being this totally awesome dude hey?

Where does that leave FF4?  A buggy not particularly interesting or fun game to play with flat boring characters that didn't innovate.  What it brought was a bit more polish than Paladin's Quest and not much more.

Edit - Honestly the more I think about it the more FF8s love story honestly is pretty decent on the feminist literature scale.  Probably because it is a fucking terrible love story, but it is really only the end of disc 1 where she walked into the enemy base, the parts where she is in a coma or voluntarilly submitting herself to being launched into space that she is the damsel in distress part.  One she got herself into because her plan was stupid but was at least proactive, one was the result of a fate forced on her by another female character and one was her choice.  Comparing that to FF4 chicks?  Yeahhhhhh she is batting a pretty good score there.