Song of the Day:

MGMT - Time To Pretend

I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and **** with the stars
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars

This is our decision, to live fast and die young
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute

Forget about our mothers and our friends
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend

I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah, I'll miss the boredem and the freedom and the time spent alone

There's really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew
The models will have children, we'll get a divorce
We'll find some more models, everyting must run it's course

We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah

The Greatest Bands of All Time: Mansun j k

The Greatest Bands of All Time: Mansun

How can a four-peice band from Chester, England whose three albums were released over the course of four years before they silently disappeared into the midnight be considered one of the greatest bands of all time? Such a question can be raised only by those who never heard or understood the bands story--and more importantly--their music. Mansun is a tale of success, self-sabotage and ultimate failure woven through approx. three hours of beautiful, ambitious, original, daring, pretentious music.

It all began in 1997 with the release of Mansun's debut album, Attack of the Grey Lantern. It shot straight to the UK number 1 spot knocking down Blur's self-titled album - a band which was at their peak at the time. It was praised by critics, fans and other British bands - Radiohead were quoted as saying that the album was "a real musical achievement". And that it was. In a time when Brit-pop was all the rage, Mansun came in with something completely different and were actually a great success in every way imaginable. From the haunting and harmonious orchestrations of the album opener "The Chad Who Loved Me" to the fantastically ambitious 9-minute epic "Dark Mavis", Attack of the Grey Lantern never ceased to offer something new and unique to the listener at every turn. It didn't matter if it was a stroke of pop genius that was "Wide Open Space" or a rock-anthem-turned-club-banger "Taxloss".

Mansun also showcased their lyrical genius. Attack of the Grey Lantern is somewhat of a concept album with re-appearing characters such as the mysterious Mavis, it also contains jabs directed at faith and religion. "Stripper Vicar" revolves around Paul Draper (vocals, lead guitar) writing a series of letters to Mavis discussing their local vicar and his publically unknown weakness ('Should we lie while he's still alive? Cause when the vicar strips, he gets away with it'). The topic is further addressed in "Dark Mavis" ('His tights are nylon, his nails by Revlon, he's got high heels on...and his flock don't care now').

Only a year later, Mansun released their sophomore effort, Six. By this time, the band already had a reputation of changing musical styIes as fast as changing their image. Their live performances were drastically different from anything recorded in the studio and they regularly changed outfits. In the wake of the Six review, NME put the band on the cover with the headline - Mansun: The Changing Men - Who Do They Think They Are Now? This time, Mansun weren't critical darlings, Six was dismissed as being a prog rock mess. What they missed was its sheer and utter brilliance. It's certainly not in any way accessible nor does it ever attempt to be. Whereas Attack of the Grey Lantern treated the listener with something new with every track, Six did it almost every minute or two for over an hour. Songs like "Six", "Shotgun" and "Cancer" literally changed direction and styIe multiple times. "Cancer", in particular, goes on for 9 minutes and changes as often as six times ranging from loud, repetetive guitar riffs, mellow singing to a piano solo. The albums' lyrics are extremely self-aware and pretentious with "Cancer" once again being the prime example ('I'm emotionally raped by Jesus...what now of my faith? Just a desperate exercise to limit pain...uninformed, you have harboured those who nurtured Europe's war').

The remarkable thing is, with all its extremes - it works. Only a handful recognized its excellence. Six made critics and the mainstream fall out of love with Mansun and Mansun wouldn't have had it any other way. On "Special/Blown It", Draper prophetically notes 'Just one more Greatest Hits Tour for the devotees, the same old faces came, they loved their Summer spectaculars...they could've bought me a brand new car and a house in France...I've really blown it now, blew it all away on a whim...I could've been somebody special' which does nothing but indicate that Six was, in fact, a deliberate attempt of a commercial and critical sabotage. Remarkably, the song is followed by another painfully prophetic affair - "Legacy" ('I wouldn't care if I was washed up tomorrow, you see...I feel so drained, my legacy...a sea of faces just like me...nobody cares when you're gone'). In a yet another prophetic take, "Legacy" truly turned out to be Mansun's biggest legacy, it is by far their best song and one of the best songs I've ever heard.

A Time To Say Goodbye

Two years later, after a hard creative and recording process, the band released their third and final album, Little Kix. Of course, they did a complete 180 yet again, this time going in a straight pop/rock direction. The result wasn't nearly as amazing as their first two efforts and despite a few truly superb tracks ("I Can Only Disappoint U", "Electric Man", "Until The Next Life"...), it was a merely "good" Mansun album. It was a critical and commercial disaster. The closing song of the album is entitled "Goodbye".

Mansun probably remained nothing but a brief encounter or a complete unknown for the vast majority of people, but for me, it's one of the most interesting and amazing stories in music. Their music marked my teenage years unlike any other band and for that they will have my eternal adoration and gratitude. They may be long gone, but as long as the sounds created by their genius keeps blarring from my stereo, they will live on.

Thank you for reading.

Welcome to another edition of my feature where I'll round up the games/music/movies I've been indulging in for the past month. Let's just get right into it.

Games

• Team Fortress 2
• Publisher: Valve Software
• Developer: Valve Software

In a month in which the Pyro weapons and achievements hit, I was actually playing a lot with Medic and Heavy. You see, even though the Pyro is one of my main cIasses, I'm a team player first and foremost so I feel stupid playing Pyro when there's already like five Pyros on my team. So this has turned out to be a good time to get some Medic achievements (need four more to get the Ubersaw) and break in the Heavy a bit more which turned out to be a lot of fun. Of course, I'm not neglecting Pyro completely.

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks/2K Games
• Developer: Bethesda Softworks

I always planned to return to Cyrodiil someday and that time has finally come. On my first walkthrough I was a goody-two-shoes warrior who saved the world and stuff. This time around, I'm playing as a female High Elf whose prowess lies in the arcane arts of conjuration and destruction. She is not interested in higher goals so she just walked up to Jauffre in Weynon Priory, handed the Amulet of Kings over to him and told him to go **** himself effectively erasing the main quest from the log. Not possible, you say? Oh, but it is - with mods. Speaking of mods, this time around, I'm modding the game to hell and back.

• Gears of War
• Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
• Developer: Epic Games

So I finally played Gears of War. A good game, but didn't exactly blow me away - then again, I never expected it to. What it did provide was 10 hours of visceral combat. However, the game has more than its fair share of issues. The AI is downright moronic (Dom, don't run into the wilderness like an idiot--again!), the level design is fairly predictable (pillars and blocks galore), even the combat itself isn't as intense as I expected. That said, I'd definitely love to play it through in co-op so any of you guys with the PC version, give me a shout if you want to play.

Music

• The National
• Boxer
• 2007
• Beggars Banquet

Boxer is my first exposure to The National, a band originally hailing from Cincinnati but now belonging to the New York indie scene. Upon hearing the opener, "Fake Empire", I was immediately reminded of Nick Cave and, to a lesser extent, Tindersticks--mostly because of the lead singer's deep baritone voice and sort of mumbling as opposed to full-on singing. But that would be selling The National short. The music they make is not only great in and of itself, but wholly unique. Boxer isn't an album that will floor you on the first listen, it will rather creep its way into your heart with you barely realizing it until you're quietly mumbling the lyrics while working and listening to the album first thing as you arrive home.

• Highlights: "Mistaken For Strangers", "Brainy", "Apartment Story"
• Definitive track: "Slow Show"
• Rating: 8

That's it for this edition. Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you haven't already, check out these games, check out the music, leave comments, and take it easy. This is UpInFlames, signing off.

Just a little announcement. I created a Steam group GameSpot GGD Players. Basically, it's a little place for all the GGD regulars to come by when on Steam. We will also use it to schedule game nights and stuff like that. All guys and girls from GameSpot are welcome to join up. So if you're on Steam, drop on by, kick up your feet - but watch out for those stickies!

CROATIA 2 - 1 GERMANY

The city is burning. The country is in delirium. It's hard to describe. I feel higher than the Sun right now. For such a small nation to beat the mighty Germany...there are no words. Not only did we beat them, we outplayed them.

HRVATSKA!