The Buzzcocks were great. They played a set full of old-school goodness (12 of the 20-ish tracks were from Singles Going Steady and the entirety of the set was of material from their first incarnation) and put on a fine, fine show.

I stood at the front, right in front of Pete, which had a couple of downsides in that I nearly passed out due to being tired and hungry and having to withstand the pressure of people pushing and piling onto me; and the fact that I couldn’t really hear the vocals. Of course, it didn’t really matter that I couldn’t hear the vocals because, y’know, I know most of their songs by heart anyway.

I will fully admit to tearing up a bit during their set, particularly when they played Ever Fallen in Love? and You Say You Don’t Love Me. I know, that’s not particularly punk rock (or even manly, I guess) but fuck that shit. I first heard Singles Going Steady at least six years ago, and from the first listen I knew that I wanted to see them live. It seemed to be nothing more than a dream back then, being able to see Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle on stage, but it came true on Sunday.

My life is really so much more complete now, and the fact that they played the aforementioned You Say You Don’t Love Me really made my night. Fuck it, it made my year. Being able to sing along to it, live… goddamn!

I don’t have the cash to see La Quiete this coming weekend, which is a bit of a bummer, but fuck, it’s a tradeoff I’m more than happy with.

Even less of a life than I used to have. Yeah.

Borderlands is very fun. Yes, the storyline sucks and yes, it could have been so much better, but as it is I’m finding it immensely enjoyable. Enjoyable enough for me to start a new character immediately after I finished my first. It’s not an incredibly deep experience (story- or gameplay-wise) either: it’s more an action-filled FPS with some RPG elements (levels, items/lewt, quests) here and there for good measure. A solid role-playing experience Borderlands ain’t. But I don’t think that was ever the intention. It’s almost a single-player MMO, really, with only the most rudimentary elements of a storyline present just to get the player to kill more things, find more loot and gain more levels. And I think that’s fine. I love shooting things and being able to gain something from the shooting that’s not advancement in a storyline. Weapons, XP/levels, proficiencies, etc.

And, if I may be allowed to put in my RM0.02 about the endless comparisons between Borderlands and Fallout 3: they’re really two different experiences overall. Fallout 3 is more of an RPG with a first-person viewpoint and somewhat subpar FPS mechanics and is more story-based, whereas Borderlands is, as I mentioned a good FPS with RPG elements here and there. FO3 is the better RPG experience, no doubt about it, but it really ain’t half as fun as plowing through enemies in Borderlands playing a Lilith with a kickass mercenary mod.

If I wanted a good role-playing experience I’d play the first two Fallouts or Baldurs Gate or Planescape: Torment (BEST <3), so yea.

And then there’s Torchlight, which actually shares a lot of elements with Borderlands. And yes, that includes having a shitty story. Basically the whole premise of corrupted ember and a mining town in trouble is just there to give a reason for your character being there and having to battle through waves of enemies. These monsters (particularly boss monsters) drop lewt. Some of the loot may turn out to be quite phat. Phat lewt = happiness. Sound familiar?

Yeah. Torchlight is a Diablo clone through and through. It doesn’t try to hide it, it doesn’t try to shake the formula up (although it does add a few very welcome elements), it doesn’t try to break the mold. It’s a Diablo clone and it’s proud of it. And when were Diablo clones a bad thing?

Oh yeah, when they sucked. But Torchlight is the exception. It’s like General Surgery to Diablo’s Carcass. A clone, but a damn good one. It nails the whole “just one more level” or “damn I hope this boss drops some phat lewt” or “wait what it’s 4am?” (and so on) vibe that made the Diablo games such enjoyable experiences. Hell, it’s even got a Matt Uelmen soundtrack (which is quality, btw).

At the same time, however, it’s a bit of a nicer experience than Diablo. The pet system is great: it acts as a mule to store stuff on, it attacks (doing not-inconsiderable damage) and you can even send it back to town to sell the items in its inventory. Which means that you don’t have to take a break from slaughtering hordes of monsters in order to do such trivial tasks such as selling off five useless axes. I like the fact that it doesn’t use an inventory system like Diablo: huge axes take up the same space (one slot) as scrolls of town portal. Less inventory management, more hacking and slashing = win.

These two games are keeping me away from Football Manager 2010, and that is something. Although yeah, might just be me slowly growing a bit disillusioned with the whole FM thing.

I. CANNOT. WAIT. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *schoolgirl-esque scream of glee*

Allunan Symfonny studio in Sunway Mentari was the scene of my first live performance as Jerk Kerouac and damn, was it something. I wasn’t expecting a lot of people to be into the whole noise thing but, as it turned out, a lot of people (some of whom didn’t look like they’d be the type to enjoy noise) enjoyed my set, haphazard and unrehearsed as it was.

I managed to lose my shaker box once (threw it violently on the floor and I don’t know where the fuck it bounced), cut myself a broken cymbal piece, accidentally unplug my contact mic a few times, nearly ruined my set by killing the power to my Bass Synth Wah and, yeah, probably made the sound guy/s more than a bit worried with my crunch and feedback.

Quite happy with my set though, although I did feel a bit unsure and reserved early on. Got into the groove quickly though, and once that happened, well . . . all hell broke loose. The crowd really seemed to like the bit where I stuffed my contact mic into my mouth.

My shaker box has quite a significant dent in it now due to me stomping on it. Shall have to cobble together another one.

My only kind-of regret is the fact that I decided to play through a guitar amp instead of the PA. Probably would’ve sounded a bit better through the PA. Either that or my volume was a bit too low. I was worried about what the sound guys would think, so I didn’t really crank the amp.

A bit bummed that Justice didn’t catch my set but I don’t blame him. Jetlag is a killer, man.

If I get any pics I’ll deffo put ‘em up here.

Well ok, that’s not exactly true: I do have a lot to say. I still have opinions (that will undoubtedly result in some people being offended and so on and so forth), I still think for myself and I still philosophise about the world and its contents. It’s just that, y’know, I’ve gotten a bit lazy. And am, truth be told, a bit disillusioned about the whole blogging thing. Sure, having one’s own personal soapbox is pretty nifty and all, but who really cares anyway, in the long run? I only ever seem to get responses when I go out on a limb to attack things which certain groups of people (most of whom I can’t stand) hold dear to their hearts, which isn’t what I want to keep on doing (at least, not ALL THE TIME). I don’t mind offending people, it’s just that it gets a bit tiring sometimes.

Of course, blog posts about what I did today or the latest college drama (not that there is ever any, at least not where I go to) would be easier to write and would result in a much-increased posting rate, but unless there’s a point to be made it’s kind of pointless to be posting shit like that, eh? I certainly wouldn’t be particularly keen on reading such posts. If having a blog and posting on it is already syok sendiri (and it probably is, you know), then filling it with posts like that is syok sendiri x 14.8. And I’m not particularly keen on that.

(Syok sendiri is basically when someone does something just to amuse themselves. Posting on a blog just to be able to look back and go “yeah, I wrote this” instead of trying to say something or express themselves. I think. Something like that. Meh. Translation is not my forte.)

Maybe someday after this thoroughly tiring (and seemingly pretty fucked) semester is over I’ll start posting more regularly again. And, yes, with more opinions, rants and sarcasm. I’m sure some of you miss that side of me. Eh?

Yeah. I bought another pedal today. ‘Tis the yellow Boss ODB-3 on the left. Mint condition, with box and all the literature, for below RM200. Which I think is a pretty good price.

Haven’t had time to seriously put it through its paces in a noise setting (aside from recording a short demo of  a contact mic being run through it for a friend) but I did try it out with guitar and it sounded pretty good. A bit hard to find a nice balance between too little bass and BASS OVERLOAD, though. And, hey, if it’s good enough for King Buzzo…

Speaking of noise, I’m planning to start a small label to release Jerk Kerouac material (splits too) and, perhaps, stuff from other noise/noisy/wierd/lofi/harsh/heavy projects that pique my interest. Mainly going to be CDrs early on, although I’m not ruling out venturing into tapes somewhere down the road.

I’ve kinda figured out the direction the artwork will take, too. Minimal, with simple graphics (stills from films ala early Godflesh, drawings, image manipulation, etc) and regular, readable fonts (again, Godflesh-esque). Going to avoid anything particularly gory or violent or disturbing, though, as I feel it’s a bit overdone, which will probably lead to a bit of dissonance between the artwork and the musical content of the CDrs.

Imagine getting a CDr with a cover like this in the mail:

Yet have some harsshh noissszz blast out of your speakers when you play the CDr.

Yeah, I guess I’m a fan of contrasts.

Also, I still need a name for the label.

“Mati Gabah Jasus/Jerk Kerouac Split Mini-CD (Mati Gabah Jasus play brutal harsh noise with a screeching and annoying vocal from Indonesian, Jerk Kerouac shout from Malaysia, play 17 minutes of torturing harshness noise that can make your ear blow) Mini Cd-r printed in glossy paper. released by New Wife Records.”

Six copies of the split are on their way to me. Three of those six have already been accounted for, though, so if you want a copy you’d better be quick!

President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

HERE or HERE for more info.

Looking for RM1.2k.

PM me on either forum or leave a comment here if you’re interested. Looking to sell ASAP, to be honest.

Yes. I am working on new literary material, namely a zine of cut-up poetry. Been experimenting a lot over the past week or so, with a lot of very surprising results. Early on I wanted to do a zine of cut-ups based mostly on a similar formula of “religious text + something unrelated = art!” but it felt a bit too limiting, so I ditched the concept and broadened my scope of source material. It’s not as good a concept (and not as potentially blasphemous, which is something I was somewhat juvenilely shooting for) but, based on my experiments and results, seems to result in much better reading.

I will admit to not being totally enthralled by the whole cut-up poetry thing but, at the same time, I think it’s an avenue definitely worth exploring. Perhaps I need to create a more focused concept instead of just “cut-up poetry.” Perhaps. I dunno. I’m not really trying to present a message through these poems, mind you, perhaps except that sometimes good stuff comes out of giving in to random chance and sifting through the debris/results.

I’m not really writing a lot of this stuff, though, I have to admit: I feel more like I’m taking care of plants, but instead of trying to make them grow a certain way, all I’m really doing is trimming off branches/leaves/thorns in order not to poke people in the eye and/or trip them up. Lame analogy, but yeah, I think it’s pretty accurate.

In totally unrelated news, I’m hoping to be able to buy a Fender Tele by the end of the year or so. Won’t be able to afford the American Standards and all that, though, so I’ve set my sights on a Mexican Tele. To be frank, I’m not exactly buying it for the Tele twang, but rather for the look and feel of it. I am quite interested in getting that single coil tone, though.

But yeah, I’m just totally in love with the Tele body shape right now.