The last few months, I have been BioWare’s bitch as Dragon Age Origins and now Mass Effect 2 have completely taken over my gaming minutes.  As such I haven’t had as much time to jump in and kill zombies with my online crew.  Yes Lefty, I know you still find time, but I am sooooo close to nailing this alien chick that I… well, I digress.  

Now this doesn’t dissuade my love for Left 4 Dead 2.  It is perhaps the most fun multiplayer experience out there.  It’s challenging, tough and yet clever and fun.  There are some spoilers coming up, but seriously if you haven’t played this game yet, walk away from the computer now and get to it….NOW, I SAY!!! 

Ok, one of the best story endings in Left for Dead 2 takes place in Dark Carnival where you have to survive a wave of zombies in of all places a county fair rock concert stage.  The band that was supposed to be playing (we’re not really sure if there were eaten, or still in the trailer getting high) was called “Midnight Riders” and they claim to have the loudest and biggest stage show on the planet.  One player will activate the sound check tape from the booth while yet another activates the kick ass pyrotechnics show.  Not only is all of this crazy fun, but the rock and roll really added to the experience.  Simply put, it kicked ass and I could replay that scene all night (If I didn’t have alien chicks to bang). 

I often wondered if I might hear more from the Midnight Riders, perhaps in some DLC or in Left for Dead 3.  Then last week I was watching AOTS and Chris Gore was giving his DVD review.  I sat up and adjusted my eyes as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but Chris Gore had on what appeared to be a Midnight Riders concert t-shirt.  That’s effing awesome I thought and I immediately searched to see if these were actually available or if he just knew somebody.  Turns out, and I may be late to this party but who cares, the Midnight Riders actually have a website complete with audio tracks, a CD (which you can’t order yet) and yes Concert T Shirts!  It’s part of a viral campaign for Left for Dead 2 that I hadn’t heard of until now. 

http://www.midnight-riders.com/

It’s just another sign of just how much Valve loves you.  Not only do they make awesome games that I will keep in my collection forever.  (Seriously, ever play a bad game from Valve?   Think about that…)   But they create an immense back story on something as seemingly insignificant as the band whose music is played at the end of a level.  We read in the blog about how they are gonna keep on touring even though the airports are shutting down.  We have a bus and it works just fine!  I laughed out loud while reading how their late bass player Riggs Donner passed away twenty-four years ago.  There are even You Tube videos of their music that look like they made them themselves.  Don’t expect much from the visual sense, but I dare you not to crack up with their Christmas hit “All I want for Christmas is to Kick Your Ass!”  You’ll want to check out the CD that you can only get on tour, as the song titles are funny as shit.  Hopefully they’ll release “Get Your Friends (I’ll Take Y’all On)” or “Stick it in your Craw” sometime soon…we can only hope.

Much like life, movies with limited release, or those that go straight to DVD, are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are gonna get.  But occasionally, you can find a straight to DVD gem or two that deserves discussion.  Such is the case with this Sundance Film Festival fan favorite Dead Snow (trailer). 

Now, John tweeted a few weeks ago that this awesome movie would be streaming on Netflix.  Sadly, our friends from Blockbuster video have claimed this movie as an exclusive for the next few weeks.  So you can’t get it from Netflix, RedBox, or any other rental place, only Blockbuster.  I left the wonderful world of Blockbuster rentals a few years ago when they charged me yet again for a late fee on a movie I returned days before.  I vowed to never rent there again, but this being the only way to enjoy Nazi Zombie goodness, I signed up again.  And I will say is, this film was well worth signing my soul away to the devils at Blockbuster.

The story of Dead Snow is not an unfamiliar one; some rather attractive people go to the mountains to spend Easter vacation at a cabin.  One of the campers had goes and meets an untimely demise.  Her worried boyfriend takes off in his snowmobile to look for her, leaving the rest of the campers behind.  The couples drink and pair off when then suddenly a wandering old gentleman interrupts their party.  The old man insults their coffee, smokes cigarettes and provides us with the necessary exposition to move the story forward. He tells them the dark history of the region: during World War II, a force of Einsatzgruppen led by the dreaded Standartenführer (Colonel) Herzog occupied the area. During three long years the Nazis abused and tortured the local people, and near the end of the war, with Germany’s defeat looming, looted all their valuables before starting to withdraw from the area. The citizens managed to stage an uprising and ambushed the Nazis, killing many. The surviving Nazis, including Herzog, were chased into the mountains, and it was assumed that they all froze to death. The hiker says the area still has an evil reputation.

The old guy leaves and wouldn’t you know it, the couples find a box of gold below the floorboards.  Reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, some gold falls on the snow to awake a hoard of killer Nazi zombies.  The zombies attack the campers, killing a couple of them.  Breaking a few horror movie rules, the remaining campers decide to split up; the guys will defend the cabin while the girls try and get back to the SUVs and get some help.  What ensues is a very bloody series of chases and fights in the snowy mountains. 

There is a lot to like about Dead Snow.  First, what could be better than a hoard of killer zombies?  A hoard of killer Nazi zombies, of course!  It’s the perfect combination of evil and I can’t believe we had to wait this long to see it on screen.  You immediately love to hate these dead assholes and that makes the movie a ton of fun.  The best is Standartenführer Herzog who barks zombie orders to his dead minions. 

Next, there is a ton of action, especially at the end of this movie.  The guys who stay back to defend the cabin find a shed loaded with zombie killing tools including a bright red chainsaw.  Surrounded, these two yuppies take out a whole field of zombies in some very cool and unique ways.  Oh, we can’t go wrong with a sub machine gun mounted to a snowmobile…

Finally, the movie is gory as shit and there is a ton of blood.  And blood on the white snow stands out quite well, might I add.  The Nazi’s love to munch on their victims entrails and you get to see a lot of them.  Thankfully, the heroes in this film are not at all likable because their deaths are quite gruesome.  It’s the kind of gruesome that is so over-the-top that it should be shared with a room of people. 

Dead Snow was filmed and produced in Norway, so unless you speak fluent German you will either have to endure subtitles or a decent dubbed version.  I chose the subtitle route as I prefer trying to glean some sense of nuance from the original language.  In either case, the language is not a barrier and this movie won’t be known for an outstanding script as it’s pretty b-rated.  You’re gonna watch Dead Snow for its zombie goodness, fantastic fight scenes, and a very BAD ASS ending!  The Rotten Tomatoes consensus sums up this film quite well, “Though it doesn’t cover new ground, Dead Snow is an entertaining mix of camp, scares, and blood and guts.”

The Holiday Season is well under way, and those of with kids might feel overwhelmed with countless adventures in Toys R’ Us and Wal-Mart.  It wasn’t too long ago that I remember fighting massive crowds of crabby, frustrated parents looking for that last Tickle Me Elmo.  So this year, why not do your kid a favor and prepare them for the Zombie Apocalypse in a fun and education way by purchasing Plume and Robinson’s book “There’s a Zombie in my Treehouse.”  I first heard about this book on “Night of the Living Podcast,” and all I can say is…it’s BAD ASS! 

The story is pretty simple, our hero, Johnny, has an amazing tree house where he spends many happy days pretending to be a knight in shining armor, a cowboy, or other heroic figure.  But then one day we seem Johnny sulking on the curb.  When asked why he isn’t playing in the treehouse he explains, “Because there is a zombie in my treehouse.”  Several people try to console the young boy, explaining that the zombie is all in his imagination.  So one by one they ascend into the treehouse (and this is the BEST part) never to be seen again.  There are no gory scenes, no explanation, they just simply disappear.    

The story is cute, easy to read, and has some great artwork from Len Peralta.  Perhaps I am a horrible Father, but I wish I could have read this book to Tiny when he was younger instead of “Goodnight Moon” for the 100^th time.  So if you want a unique gift for a zombie loving parent, visit http://www.zombieinmytreehouse.com and pick up a copy of this book!

Part Two: Recording From Afar

Sadly, I live in a different place to John, Moe and Hilden. Very different, over 4,000 miles away different actually. I really wanted to keep an active involvement with the ZomBOOsical after heading home and we’d already tried musical collaboration over the internet before with the Shmopera and it worked surprisingly well.

So how does it work? Well more often than not I’d get a mail or something from Hilden with an mp3 of a rough track that they were working on with some vague ideas of what they need on the guitar and what bpm the track would be set to. As luck would have it, Hilden and I both use Logic Pro on the Mac so our process for recording and mixing is very similar, which made the process a little smoother. On top of the direct emails, I’d be chatting with John on a pretty much daily basis via Skype, MSN, Email and Facebook chat to keep up to date with what’s going on and input the occasional idea here and there.

My thought process for recording was to provide Hilden with as dry and raw a sound file as I could so that he could easily edit and mix later on to fit with the other things he had. This can be quite a difficult thing to achieve, you want to provide enough EQ to give direction to how you think it should sound but not enough that it limits or forces the mix in a particular direction. Electric guitar is also fun given that you’re generally talking about adding a truck load of different effects to get ‘that sound’ so another balance to hit for example was ‘how much delay and reverb’.

The way I approached these issues was to create a rough mix with all instruments included as a reference point to a) where my parts should be time-wise and b) a rough idea of how I’d mix it. That’s mainly where things sit in the stereo mix, how much effects I’d go with a rough EQ pass. Following that file I’d send each separate audio track with a small amount of EQ, minimal effects and no stereo mix.

One of the things that I wanted to make sure that I captured with the actual performances when recording was the ‘recorded on the spot with minimal thought process’ feel that we had from the first session. Thankfully, the way I approach recording guitar melody/lead work is to set the section I’m working on into a loop, hit record and improvise for a few runs. From there I’ll either find one of the performances that I already love or listen through them all and pick out the bits that I think worked and record what I call a Frankenstein Track, all the bits I like stitched together.

As a treat, here’s some of the guitar work that I did that didn’t make it into the final tracks…

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A while ago I put together a little ditty about the hunter.

Promises of more were made. And not kept.

I lie about stuff. A lot.

However, I have decided the new infected are too good to pass up, so based on the lovely demo (which B Nerdy from..somewhere…graced me with), I bring you these…

…creations.

Enjoy!

The Spitter (To the theme of “Oops, I did it Again”)

Oops!
… I did it again.
I spit acid on you
Face lost in the drain.
Oh, melted baby.
Oops!
… You think I’ll explode
That I’m just a boomer
but I’m gonna spit acid on you

The Smoker (To the theme of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”)

You don’t know how you got it
You just that you’re caught
Oh Lordy you’re a-runnin’
From the horde and you got caught
In the intestines
All stretched out
You’ve been smoked!

Oh no, don’t be shy
You don’t have to go hide
I’ll hold you, choke you, lick you, kill you

The Boomer (To the theme of “Baby Got Back”)

I like to puke and I cannot lie.
Just love to see that bile fly.
When a survivor sneaks in with a clean mug
and an itty bitty gun I get BLEEARGLBLPTHH *explode*

The Charger (To the theme of “Hold My Hand”)

Hold my arm
Want you to die right now
Hold my arm
I’ll slam you down you’ll see
Hold my arm
You don’t have a choice when I come
‘Cuz I’m going to pound you down into that trash can
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October, Halloween, ghosts, and the ZomBOOsical. All these things make a guy like me want to get his scare on, and so off to the Netflix cue I go. 

Based on a recommendation from the Drunken Zombies and the fact that it was the talk of the Toronto Film Festival, Phneri and I decided to check out the indie film DEADGIRL.  At its core, this movie is a zombie movie, but then again it’s not.  It’s disturbing and yet thought provoking, artfully filmed and well thought out; and yet so very hard to watch.  It’s for these reasons that I am torn on recommending this film, but discussing it is a must for zombie fans and so a thread I shall start. 

Ricky and TJ are two very lost teenage losers.  They are ridiculed by their peers, shunned by their parents, and not far from kids I knew in high school. They are representative of the awkwardness of the teen years.  One day they decide to skip class and drink a few beers at an abandoned mental hospital.  They kick over chairs and break some stuff until they venture deep into the basement where they find something unusual.  There, barricaded behind a door is a woman, chained to a table and covered with a plastic sheet.  TJ and Ricky freak out at the sight of what must be a dead girl when they notice that she is still breathing.  Ricky wants to call the cops, but TJ recognizes that there are opportunities to be had with a woman tied to a table and that losers like them should take advantage of that.  Ricky gets pissed and leaves TJ and the mystery girl behind. 

The next day TJ pleads with Ricky to come back to the hospital. There is something he needs to show him, something he can’t explain as Ricky would never believe it.  Ricky reluctantly agrees and back to the Asylum they go.  Here TJ explains that while he was trying to have his way with her, the mystery girl kept trying to bite him, and so he broke her neck.  But there on the table the girl lay, very much alive.  TJ takes out a gun he stole from his Dad and shoots the girl.  Ricky screams in horror only to see that she indeed is still breathing.  TJ explains that she is obviously not human and that they should continue exploring with her.  Ricky agrees, only if TJ can keep this a secret.  The secret eventually gets out, and to the worst person imaginable: Ricky’s teenage crush, JoAnn.  What follows is a twisted tale of a teenage fantasy gone astray and the horrifying mess that is left in its wake. 
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Part One: Recording the First Tracks

I recently stayed in Minneapolis with John during the first couple of weeks of September. One of the first topics for discussion when I arrived was how much fun the Shmopera had been to record earlier in the year. Over an afternoon BBQ with a couple of pints, Moe and I joked away at the ridiculous lyrics and my very last minute inclusion of those guitar solos to the finale. Somewhere in the conversation, among some ideas for the next Shmopera, jokes about Russian Chorus and some bratwurst, the idea of a ZomBOOsical was mentioned.

What’s this? ZomBOOsical???

Of course the timing was great, we were planning to get some tracks down for release starting in October and we already had a month’s head start on what we’d usually pull out of the hat. In all honesty, there were no big concepts simply the idea that we’d do a Halloween album all about Zombies.

On the first day of recording, John and I headed out to pick up Moe before driving over to Hilden’s to record the week’s DGR. It was in the car that we started discussing our first ideas. We’d crammed some gear into the car, I don’t remember exactly what but Moe had the Sax ready to go on John’s request. The only idea we had at this point was that John had a drum beat in mind and the thought that Moe should play the most obnoxious Sax possible. I think the exact idea was – “play until you throw up.”
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It’s been a long labor of love with more than a little lost sleep but we’re proud to bring you the full ZomBOOsical! in all it’s Zombie glory!

With all the story bits added in, the ZomBOOsical! clocks in at a total of 30 tracks! With 17 of those being pure music tracks, you’ll have more tunes stuck in your head than you can handle this Halloween.

Also included in the ZomBOOsical! download is a very special episode of After Hours where we talk through the making of the work in as much detail as our drunken selves could handle. At any rate, you can hear how Moe came up with all those awesomely odd tunes!

We’ve also included a lyric sheet in case you want to sing along. You know, cause what else would you do with a musical?

To get to the ZomBOOsical!, you can click the big logo at the top of Robot Panic. We’re asking for a $10 donation to the site/show if for no other reason than to justify to our families why we’ve been barricaded up in my attic for days on end, screaming about a Zombie invasion.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the ZomBOOsical! and let us know what you think about it in the comments section!

Also, special thanks to my brother, the all mighty Justin Hilden, for creating that kick ass ZomBOOsical! logo! And another thanks to Phil Haymes for all his added awesomeness!

This being the most wonderful time of the year, I thought I might share with you a kick ass non-gaming podcast devoted to the horror genre.  I accidentally discovered this podcast last summer while searching for zombie stuff for my kid’s birthday party.  Of course with a name like “Drunken Zombies” I just had to check it out. 

Brian, Dave, Uncle Randy and Wes are from Illinois and each week they watch a review a scary movie or two.  Eerily there are some similarities between the Drunken Zombies and the Drunken Gamers.  Of course they both drink, swear like sailors, and are funny as shit, but the similarities go deeper than that. 

First, these guys are real, they let let you know exactly what they think about a movie.  If it sucks, they will let you know, and I for one appreciate that.  Second, they have a love for the classics and the old-school way of filming horror movies.  They feel that CG takes center screen too often and they yearn for the more films using makeup and latex to gross you out.   

Third, like our friends the Drunken Gamers, they are experts in the genre that they love.  While dissecting a Cronenburg movie like The Fly, we glean deep insights into themes and social commentary that quite frankly I missed.  For fans of the genre, it’s quite fun to listen to. And lastly, the Drunken Zombies have a cast of crazed, and often hilarious fans.  For a while they had a caller deemed “The Pervert” who could easily put Phenri and Fluffy Nuts to shame.  Weekly reports from a horror aficionado named “Lord Blod-Rah” gives us a glimpse into horror movie  history; it’s well produced, fun, and provides cool horror trivia for parties.

So if you’re wanting to get a deeper look into things that go bump in the night.  Check out the Drunken Zombies, and prepare for a good time. 

http://drunkenzombie.com/blog/

Alright, so Zombieland technically isn’t a proper horror film, but fuck it: it’s got zombies and lots and lots of gore. Good enough for me.

I’ve wanted to see Zombieland since the moment I saw the first trailer. That shit was funny and it seemed to capture the zombie experience perfectly. I managed to get out to see it on opening night, and it didn’t disappoint. The movie is nonstop entertainment from start to finish and moves at a steady clip. Again, it’s more of “zomedy” than horror, more “Shaun” than “Dawn”, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some stunning kills and scares to be had. And when there aren’t dozens of zombies on the screen, there are plenty of laughs to fill in the blanks.

Zombieland follows four zombie survivors as they attempt to navigate through the new landscape of abandoned cars, abandoned buildings, and bloodthirsty zombies, looking for the fabled zombie-less safe zone. Survivors are few and far between in Zombieland, so the story almost completely involves these four characters. Almost.

As you’ve probably worked out from the trailer, Woody Harrelson is a complete bad ass in this movie; a bit dimwitted, sure, but hiding a tragic secret. Jesse Eisenberg goes from Adventureland to star in Zombieland and is turning out to be the next Micheal Cera. Emma Stone from Superbad is hot and naughty in this movie as Eisenberg’s eventual love interest, and her sister is played by Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail Breslin. It’s a strong cast and the chemistry is perfect.

Zombieland is in theaters now and I highly recommend paying your admission and seeing it in that atmosphere. You’ll find the audience cheering and even applauding at times as the movie brings all the best elements of the zombie genre and adds a ton of laughs.