After one listen:

So the Gorillaz have a new album… this only happens once every four years or so. So as much as it’s nice to get a new album of wicked songs, I’m also reminded that I’m still doing the exact same thing as when the last one was released!

I pop the CD in on my way to work. The first track hits and I’m barely awake (classic pre-coffee mode), then something amazing happens; Snoop starts rapping. Its not that Snoop is still good at rapping (he’s not), it’s just that no matter what kind of nonsense he spits out, it always sounds cool. I’m laughing so hard because I swear that Snoop just said, “Belly flop into a bubble bath.” Oh man, this album is going to be good! The first couple of tracks fly by and I’m rocking out. White Flag has a really interesting back and forth with the two rappers. There is an amazing moment when both agree to truce and put up the white flag. About halfway through the album, I pull out a Continue Reading…

After one listen:

I open the package only to find out that this album is three discs. Three discs?? Are you kidding me? Only Kid Rock, Extreme and the Red Hot Chili Peppers would try to pull off such shenanigans to a child born of the Nintendo Generation. My first listen of this album is very hard to describe. I have heard Joanna before but wasn’t really that into it. I respect the music a lot, but don’t find many moments in my life when it is applicable. The new album is kind of what I expected it to be; challenging, beautiful, long, and at some points down right un-listenable. Her voice is a thing of wonder, going from Indie to Opera as fast as any car can go from 0 to 60mph. In fact, I became mesmerized by one particular part of the song, “In California.” At about the 7:55 mark, she manages to shift the pitch of her voice to some sort of inhuman level, almost mimicking a violin. As for the rest of the tracks, I’ve really had a hard time discerning one track from another. They’re just so similar to each other and when the Continue Reading…

Well, it has come to this, reviewing New Moon but the sad thing is.. I wasn’t really dreading it. As much as a pile of shit the first movie was, I wanted to see how badly the fucked up this one.

Edward leaves Bella, after a close call incident with the Cullen family and it turns her whole world upside down. Heart Broken, Bella turns to Jacob, her best friend, to fill the void left by Edward. As time goes by, Bella learns that there’s more than just vampires in the little town of Forks.

I was surprised to find myself actually engaged in the movie this time around. Having a better script writer and director really helped New Moon move along at really brisk speed and not cringe at every damn word that fall outs of the actors mouths.

The greatest thing that they did was take Edward out of the movie at 20 minutes in and not bring him back till the last 20 odd minutes. Those 40 mins are the only parts of the movie that actually dragged, proving without a doubt that Robert Pattinson is a crappy actor. Taylor Lautner and Kirsten Stewart really bringing Continue Reading…

I’ve been waiting for this for awhile. I sadly did not follow the previous Jack Staff series and I really wish I did, but I am so glad to have this comic in my grubby little hands.

What’s really nice is that this issue sets up everything quite nicely for those who have never read or even heard of the series before. All the characters are introduced, their motives for what the are doing are explained, mysteries are set up and Jack Staff barely even appears in the books except a flashback, nicely done Paul.

The writing is sharp and engaging, each character has their own developed voice, but mind you they have been around for awhile already.

The artwork is brilliant. I love Grist’s work. Efverything is very simply drawn but at the Continue Reading…

AFTER ONE LISTEN:

Is this the Stargate DVD or the RJD2 album? Judging from the cover art it’s very hard to tell. Although, I’m sure James Spader would feel right at home listening to this CD. RJD2 has been making music for 10 years now. I remember the first time I heard Soul Position and instantly fell in love with his amazing knack for creating perfect atmospheric backdrops to the lyrics Blueprint wrote. It was one of the first Rapper/Producer full album collaborations I can remember.

This is his 4th full length album as a solo artist. The first two were great front to back, considered classic by the hip hop community! You probably know him because he created the theme song to your favorite TV show.  His third album was not well reviewed and I never really gave it a chance. One of those situations where a friend tells a friend who tells another friend that he read a bad review and then told me about it, so I Continue Reading…

Rating:

For a few months I have ignored tweets about Foursquare. They were annoying, pointless and I couldn’t care less where anyone was at any particular time. That was the case right up until I downloaded the highly addictive app and started on a Foursquare frenzy.

The concept is incredibly simple, people “Check in” to all sorts of venues (parks, restaurants, stores etc.,) and tell Continue Reading…

Imagine my surprise when I get home from being away for a few days to find another Asylum movie sitting in my mailbox. I was pretty stoked. I dug Sherlock Holmes and I was pretty sure, like 80% sure, that I was gonna like whatever they sent me this time.

I opened the box and pulled out Meteor Apocalypse, right away I liked the title. Fur sure stuff was gonna get blown up with meteors crashing into the Earth. Second thing I noticed was Claudia Christians’ name on the box. I was even more stoked, I’ve liked her ever since I saw Babylon 5 and The Hidden. I was ready to sit down and watch this movie.

The premise of the movie can literally be summed up by the on box description; “A gigantic meteor enters Earth’s orbit and begins to disintegrate, showering the entire planet with debris.” Yep, that pretty much sums it up, well, there’s also a guy David, played by actor Joe Lando, looking for his family when a meteor crashes into a local water supply and anyone who drinks the water ends up getting poisoned and then dies and his daughter ended up drinking the water, gets quarantined along with his wife and he tries to find them. Yep.. that sums it up maybe a little better.

I have to say.. I did like this movie. It was really good. Extremely well acted, Continue Reading…

I remember seeing the solicit for this, and thinking it was just a one off making fun of the industry and I really had no interest in actually picking it up. I would flip through it but it’s a 4 dollar 32 page one shot, which to me is a bit of a rip off.

Thankfully writer Rich Johnston was kind enough to send me a preview copy of the comic to review for us here at Wander Tech.

Chase Variant is a Government Assassin, 9 were created but only 2 remain and every other Government in the world wants her and will stop at nothing to get her. That’s the basic story but on the bottom of each page is a card game going, which relates to what happens on the page above it.

I was a little confused about the card game at first til you realize that the card game is really determining the story. Its kinda neat.

I completely brushed this comic off at first sight, but now having actually read it, I would really suggest picking it up, as it is a great read. The artwork was pretty good. Saverio Tenuta and Bagwell do a great job bringing Chase Variant to life and as an artist I have never seen before, I would love to see more from them, outside of Heavy Metal.

I asked Rich if there would be a possible ongoing series if this one shot does well and he said ” I’d love to take Chase on an long adventure through many gaming styles…” I would love it too.

Chase Variant is out Feb 17, so look for it. And grab both covers if you can. Its by Rob Liefeld and we all love Rob.

The package Is cool but I can’t figure yet what the hell the statues are all about? Is that the head of David floating about there? I put the Album on at work, it’s really dancy. You see, Hot Chip has always been fairly dance floor ready (get it?), but the first portion of the album sounds like the members have been on vacation at the German love parade or remixing Dance mix 94’. I shouldn’t be surprised that the album is extremely upbeat, there biggest hit to date was “Are you ready for the floor” but I guess on first listen I felt like most of the humor that used to stick to all their music is lost. I also felt like the first tracks ran into each other and I couldn’t tell when a track started or when a track ended. Then I hit the song “Slush” and the ol Hot Chip is starting to return. It’s an amazing ballad complete with hilarious backup vocals and harmony’s that have been long a staple of there production. The following track “Alley Cats” comes on and I’m in love. I break my oath of listening once through and literally listen to the sign 5 Continue Reading…

For years, comic book companies have tried to put out anthology collections and 9 outta 10 times, they completely fail. They pair up subpar writers with subpar artist on D-List characters, it’s a recipe for failure.

4 years ago, Image released Popgun. A collection of independent creators, and some better known ones, doing short 2 – 30 page stories of varying genres.

I was hesitant to pick up the book based on its price point, 29.99 USD, about 40 CDN. And the fact that its filled with unknown creators but I had 100 bucks in gift cards from my birthday so I thought why not? I was able to get them for less then 20 bucks CDN from Chapters online store. You can’t beat that!

What really surprised me overall, is that there wasn’t a single story I didn’t like in all three volumes. Yes, there was some gnarly artwork throughout, but over all it was pretty good.

Continue Reading…