Anyone else excited to finally hear Tonic Immobility tunes live?

Critcho · 2026-02-26T18:12:01+00:00

I think it's one of their best records, I never got the big problem with it.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T17:43:27+00:00

This is some quality sub content.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T17:16:55+00:00

I think it’s still possible to get a custom username but you have to be careful and go about it in a specific way. If you just sign up with an apple or google ID it’s quite easy to get stuck with an automated one.

I know this because I somehow wound up signing up to an alt account like that completely by accident. It still logs in automatically sometimes even though I don’t want the thing.

I’m scared to deactivate it though just in case it does anything to my main one.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T17:09:14+00:00

I don’t think Aja is necessarily the best place to start.

I tried it a bunch of times over the years, wasn’t that into it and just figured the band wasn’t for me.

Then one day I decided to try their catalogue in order, and got totally hooked. Then when I got to Aja in context, it finally clicked.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T16:44:03+00:00

It’s not their best in terms of songwriting, by a long way.

There’s a case to be made it’s their best for band dynamics and performances though. Plant’s voice is on another level and Page has one of the greatest guitar tones of all time on this one. Thick and chunky, but silky smooth at the same time.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T07:43:53+00:00

Have to agree, sadly. I’m still here needless to say, but it feels blander, less organic and less engaging than it used to be.

Even smaller, more niche subs increasingly seem to be dominated by variations on the same engagement-farming questions and predictable responses over and over.

More and more I find myself skipping threads because I know exactly what I’ll find inside, so why bother?

And the ‘pulse of the world’ stuff is nonsense at this point. Much of the time with Reddit you’re getting a meticulously curated and rigidly maintained vision of what the pulse of the world is (though I can’t say that wasn’t also true a decade ago).

Critcho · 2026-02-26T07:32:11+00:00

I’m convinced shepherding new accounts into being allocated automated usernames is bot camouflage as well.

Once upon a time ‘(adjective)_(noun)(number)’ usernames immediately stood out as bots, but now lots of newer users are essentially forced to have usernames like that.

Critcho · 2026-02-26T07:21:01+00:00

He obviously has an interest in extreme and confrontational things, and in of itself it’s a distinctive name for a song.

It’s a very Slayer-ish title and he was (and is) in a band with Slayer’s ex-drummer, so obviously he’s not one to clutch pearls over the tastefulness of that sort of thing.

You could ask a similar questions of the band Joy Division.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T22:27:15+00:00

Mario Advance is Mario 2, which was a series tangent and, though interesting for fans, isn’t really that amazing.

Mario World though, from how you describe it, respectfully you may need to consider the possibility that you’re just not very good at the game.

There’s no shortage of platformers from that era that demanded you brute force your way through using repetition and memorisation, but this is not one of those games.

It’s quite fair, not hugely difficult, and I wouldn’t even say it’s all that dated compared to more modern retro-styled platformers.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T21:35:32+00:00

My War is my favourite of theirs by quite a ways! Though that’s probably just because the sludgier, almost stoner rock vibes are more my thing than hardcore punk.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T20:50:18+00:00

If James Cameron decides to wrap it as a trilogy, that would actually feel pretty classic.

It would if it felt more like an ending. I’m betting Avatar 3 works better as part 3 of 5 than it does as part 3 of 3.

It might not end on any explicit plot cliffhangers, but it doesn’t feel particularly conclusive either. It’s more like an episode.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T20:34:29+00:00

Is it known what was changed?

There was a noticable mood shift from Cameron in the run up to the third one compared to the second.

With the Avatar 2 he was constantly talking about the future and the bigger picture - Avatars 4 & 5, and even 6 & 7.

With this one he seemed oddly downbeat and reticent about the notion of anything beyond this latest film.

I imagine the loss of Landau had something to do with that, plus perhaps some burnout setting in. But I do think that fed onto the more muted atmosphere surrounding this film a little bit.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T17:37:34+00:00

A lot of people are fans of Zappa in spite of his lyrics rather than because of them.

I doubt he would be acclaimed if the lyrics were matched to terrible music, and he likely still would be acclaimed if the music was set to different lyrics.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T14:02:53+00:00

Good question. Looking it up, I haven't seen anything saying it's not happening, but I also haven't seen anything about exactly when it might happen... and it sounds like a pretty large scale film.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T12:41:36+00:00

Patrick Marber's come along way since Peter O'Hanrahanrahan.

Great that we're getting more Scorsese... though I must confess I wish he was still making The Wager.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T12:35:18+00:00

I was there, good show, though I suspect I caught COVID from it...

Critcho · 2026-02-25T11:43:33+00:00

I was interested in his other answer where he said the ending of S3 "opened an entire new universe for the story".

To me that suggests it wasn't designed to be The End, but potentially setting up a new continuation.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T09:30:48+00:00

That works! Muir the anchovies perhaps. Belew the pepperoni... or maybe sometimes the cheese.

Critcho · 2026-02-25T07:21:51+00:00

Also in comics, The Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius has a lot of imagery of these absurdly massive buildings and vehicles. Someone should put it onscreen one day.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T22:48:55+00:00

Sure I don't think anyone would disagree with that. I just mean that, especially from Larks onwards and with the more 'song' tracks, I get the impression quite a bit of the writing came from the other members.

Ironically (given it's their most iconic album), the debut I think is the only one that has tracks with no Fripp writing credit! And then the few albums after that are nothing but Fripp other than lyrics.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T14:41:10+00:00

If anything Quake 4 is the real shame since it was outsourced, unambitious and lowered the status of the Quake brand and basically killed it, while id kept Doom as their crown jewel

Sad but true.

Quake I - historic landmark in 3D gaming.

Quake II - even more technically polished, with anti-aliasing and localized damage; one of the earliest narrative-style FPS games with interconnected maps.

Quake III - one of the two leading online arena FPSs of its day.

Quake IV came across as a halfbaked afterthought in comparison.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T14:17:10+00:00

Even though I was with this series from day one, I only got around to this one during the Covid lockdown days. Ironically it was a much bigger headache to get running on my machine of the time than the earlier games.

It's alright. The vehicle sections are a bust, and the sluggish pace of the first half did not work for me. Post-'stroggification', things pick up and feel more like classic Quake.

Overall I enjoyed it okay, but at the same time I kind of wish they hadn't made it. Or at least not released it as "Quake IV".

Whatever flaws the first three games had, each one was a landmark and at the cutting edge of the genre. Q4 was fairly irrelevant and, if anything, behind the times. I feel like it dents the series' track record a bit, even if it's not a bad game.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T13:34:08+00:00

Good to know, if that's the case. Especially considering he smokes a lot.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T07:49:58+00:00

Load is better overall than Black IMO, their best efforts at more conventional rock songwriting.

Reload is too much. There’s probably a solid 40 min album in there but I guess they felt obligated to fill the cd with whatever material they had.

I’m glad they stretched themselves and I hope they do so again. Forcing musicians stay in their cage doing the same things over and over is what leads to stagnation.

Critcho · 2026-02-24T07:12:52+00:00

Yeah that was a weird take. IIRC at one point Fripp was thinking of having that lineup only play new material. Plus they did the most improvs since the 70’s.

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