Mortal Kombat review 84/100

(Open this in a new window before reading further, then start reading)

Ok, full disclosure here, I thought Mortal Kombat was going to suck. I hated on it for quite some time. I played the demo on the ps3 (ya know, back when the PSN wasn't a catastrophe) and it just felt awkward and slow. After sinking a lot of time into it I can safely say I was wrong. The game is good, in fact, it's very good. The depth is a lot better than I had anticipated and the gameplay is very fun.

Radiohead - Supercollider/The Butcher 64/100

On April 18, 2011, every person who purchased the newest Radiohead album through their website up to that date and time received an email titled "Thank You." Upon opening, they thanked their fans for buying the album and directed them to a section on their site where they could download two songs for free, "Supercollider" and "The Butcher." Initially, these songs were planned for a vinyl-only release to coincide with Record Store Day this spring. Their continued generosity remains unmatched by any band of such magnitude. Although neither song will pique interest outside of completists, when viewed as a stand alone single in the classic A-side B-side format Supercollider/The Butcher acts as a token of appreciation to the most loyal fan base in the world.

Interestingly enough, neither song resembles anything on The King of Limbs, although they were recorded either during or directly after the sessions for the album. "Supercollider," easily the better of the two, waivers about for seven minutes. The glitchiness, machinated percussion and augmenting electric piano immediately conjure their Hail To The Thief days with a smidge of the electronics from Yorke's solo effort The Eraser. Yorke shows off his vocal skills throughout the song and Colin Greenwood supplies a great bass line that acts in tandem with the piano. Despite both of those things "Supercollider," feels just a little half-baked, at least for Radiohead.

B-side "The Butcher" fares a touch worse. Phil Selway lays down a great tribal drum beat and complementary shuffles, but the song bumbles about and never establishes anything worthy of memory. Perhaps Yorke would have been better off developing this track as a solo act or with his recently formed Atoms For Peace project. Overall, Radiohead deserves more accolades for the altruism of this release than the music itself. And while that may sound striking for a band of such high regards, no need to worry about a few cast offs presented as gifts. Consider "Supercollider/The Butcher" as such and look forward to their next surprise.

Portal 2 (single player) Review 96/100

Some games are flashy, some games are beautiful. Some are mind-blowing and others are mesmerizing. But very few of them are brilliant, and that is exactly the word needed to describe Valves latest game Portal 2.

The original Portal was a side project that ended up winning game of the year awards and silently became one of Valves biggest franchises. In the game, you play as a silent protagonist who is being used in experiments in the name of science by the results craving AI Glados.

Portal 2 picks up where the original left off, and not only does it live up to the hype of the original, it completely blows it away as well.

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 19 Part 2

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 19 Part 1

Extras Review (with South Park rant for no extra charge) (90/100)

Extras was perhaps the perfect follow up to The Office by Ricky Gervasis and his unheralded co-writer Stephen Merchant. Merchant is probably as important to Gervasis as Matt Stone is to Trey Parker. If you review Gervasis’s work throughout his career, you’ll notice Stephen Merchant helps out in someway on almost all of it.

As a fan of Seinfeld, I couldn't help but think of Extras as Ricky Gervasis’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Both shows are follow-ups to hit sitcoms, based loosely around the actors’ real life experiences. The difference here is that Ricky decided to go the pre-office, up and coming route, while Larry David went rich and successful. Both series work, but for very different reasons.

Childish Gambino - EP - 80/100

Childish Gambino is the brain-child of actor/comedian/rapper Donald Glover best known for his role of Troy on the NBC show Community, his campaign to get an audition to become the next Spider-man, or often being confused with being the son of Danny Glover.  While he may not have succeeded at becoming everyone's favorite web-crawler, Glover has been successful with his music career.  As he references on EP, due to his comedic background most people thought Gambino was a joke but after releasing his album Culdesac Glover quickly gained serious interest for his music.  How does a side project from a comedian named after a Wu-Tang Clan name generator fair?  Does Childish Gambino hold up well being taken as a serious release or just a distraction from Glover's true calling of acting?

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 18 Part 2

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 18 Part 1

Retro Reviews: U2 - War 100/100

Politically charged rock music exponentially increases the likelihood of failure. With high stakes subject matter comes zero sum consequences. The success rate is closest to a batting average of a Major League pitcher. Sound trite (Green Day), over-thought (post-1996 R.E.M.), preachy (Neil Young) or vapid (Black Eyed Peas) and the results can be embarrassing. Their creators often must deal with the long-term effects of alienating current/potential fans, pissing off the wrong people or seeming uninspired. All of those reasons signify why it's so damn impressive when somebody actually pulls it off. Making that kind of record for your third, and possibly make-or-break release? U2 laid everything on the line with War and made one of the greatest albums of all time.

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 17

Download My Morning Jackets new track - Circuital

http://www.mymorningjacket.com/circuital/

Just go to the link above, enter an email and you get the track "Circuital".  Look for their new album to drop May 31st and be sure to check back shortly after to get the Air Hearn review!

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 16

NES Dungeon Backlog Game Reviews

Resident Evil 5 (Multi-Platform)



ActRaiser (SNES)



MOAR COMIN' FROM THE WOODZ. STAY TUNED.

TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light 74/100

The dreaded scenario for any artist: following up a masterpiece. In 2008, TV On The Radio finally scored their long-awaited breakthrough with Dear Science. That release found them not only on the charts (briefly), but near the top of year end lists and even secured them a Saturday Night Live performance. The Brooklyn unit returns with Nine Types of Light, an enjoyable album that finds TVOTR scaling back their sounds and with it, some of the soundscaping that propelled them above many of their peers.

Wiz Khalifa - Rolling Papers - 47/100

Pittsburgh based rapper Wiz Khalifa hit the scenes with his hit single “Black and Yellow”, paying homage to his hometown Steelers. The song quickly became the anthem for the team and was the source of many remixes for other teams around the league for better or worse.... I'll go with much worse. But for Khalifa the fame extended beyond NFL recognition “Black and Yellow” hit #1 on the Billboard top 100 as well as landing him on countless magazine covers and top up and comer lists. So with so much moment going into his first release under his new label Atlantic how did Wiz Khalifa fair with Rolling Papers?

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 15

Foo Fighters, Wasting Light - 72/100

Even though they've been one of the most consistently successful bands of the last 16 years, the Foo Fighters are a weird band. Most rock bands start out with visceral hunger, surviving on energy and potential before they get the songwriting and hook-writing down. Dave Grohl's platoon have it backwards. The hits, hooks, melodies and pop craftsmanship have been there since the beginning, but it's taken over a decade for them to really show their teeth for more than a moment. That moment is Wasting Light.

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 14

Your Highness Review 75/100

In 2008, Pineapple Express became an instant stoner classic. Starring Seth Rogan, James Franco and Danny McBride, the movie was about ordinary stoners getting caught up in a huge drug war and literally having to fight their way out. The concept was basically Cheech and Chong in an action flick, and it worked quite well.

Your Highness is a very different movie, however, despite starring McBride and Franco as well as being directed by the same man, David Green. For starters, this is NOT a stoner comedy. (this might be a little more surprising to some than others) There are one or two scenes where marijuana is referenced but never by name and that's about it. This is quite a contrast from Pineapple Express since that movie's humor was entirely based on smoking, selling, distributing, growing and fighting over pot. Your Highness has a much more traditional fantasy plot.

Retro Reviews: The Smiths - The Smiths 91/100

Fans, critics and musicians tag acts of yesteryear with the "genius," "spokesman" and "game changer" titles far too often. One heralded release can garner so much revisionist attention that an outsider would think the creator assisted in the engineering plans for the Saturn V rocket but never received due credit. We end up devaluing our most precious artists by keeping them in the same company as their lesser but still enjoyable peers. Consider UK indie pioneers The Smiths among those deeply effected. Before them, charismatic frontmen were frowned upon by the scene as overindulgent. They belonged in bands that made music for blockheads (Quiet Riot, Motley Crue). Enter Steven Patrick Morrissey as the one to embrace lead singer flamboyance. By bombastically emphasizing contrarian ideals of intellectualism, philosophy and black humor, he made it ok to admire straightforward passion. In that context The Smiths represents the reformation of the underground, the modern indie rock equivalent to the 95 theses. And just like that historical event, The Smiths earns its importance equally as much for what it launched as what it contained.

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 13

Full House Poker - 81/100

I've always scoffed at the notion of poker as a "sport". It's not. Yet, the World Series of Poker has dominated post-primetime sports television for nearly a decade. Poker websites (both free and paid) have been sponsored countless sporting events. And while secondary sports channels have become notorious for airing non-sport competitive activities (think "The Ocho" in Dodgeball), poker stands head and shoulders about the crowd (sorry billiards, bowling, darts, and dominoes).

Panda Bear - Tomboy 95/100

At some point everyone encounters a slump. Whether that occurs in music, academics or the workplace, humans eventually falter. Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) does not adhere to that notion in the slightest, especially over the last five years. Every eighteen months he seems involved in something that increases the stakes for his contemporaries, whether it be his day job in Animal Collective or his ever-burgeoning solo project. Although it is tough to call Tomboy his masterpiece with 2007's Person Pitch still lurking as the most influential indie pop album of the past decade, it is equally difficult to justify placing it on a much lower podium.

From the Vaults: Old Air Hearn Videos

Ahh, I miss the old days...

At the potential risk of hideous embarrassment, I present some old videos I found floating around on Google that I made with friends years ago. I want to say it was 6 or 7 years ago, but who knows. I laughed my ass off, I hope you do too.

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 12 Part 2

Air Hearn Podcast - Episode 12 Part 1

Mass Effect 2: The Arrival (DLC) Review

2010's Game of the Year has had a few DLC add-ons released in the past year with Lair of the Shadow Broker being the best of the offerings. Now BioWare has released their final piece of Mass Effect 2 with The Arrival. The Arrival isn't just a piece of DLC however, it's a complete bridge between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.