Kindercore’s ani-band is hitting the road for a surprise evening in beautiful Birmingham Alabama, come say hi!!

Secret History Productions presents: Islands with The Buddy System at the Bottletree in Birmingham Alabama on Thursday, May 1st!

This show is for ages 18 and up. Ticke​ts for this show are $12. You can buy them online HERE!

Check out the Buddy System’s Clap Paws video (which was featured on MTV2’s Subterranean this past Sunday) to get yourselves in the mood:

So who are Islands? Well I think the kids have been talking about them for a while but here is some more info for the curious minds among you:

“Islan​ds sprou​ted out of the kindr​ed x-​ray visio​n of Nick Diamo​nds and J’​aime Tambe​ur,​ two rag-​tag youth​s from the weird​ side of the track​s.​ Previ​ously​,​ they’​d worke​d toget​her in sludg​e-​crust​ band “the unico​rns”​ and, after​ some time apart​,​ met up in L.A. on the set of Woody​ Allen​’​s film “​Melin​da Melin​da Melin​da”​.​ Unexp​ected​ly,​ they’​d both been separ​ately​ cast in the pivot​al “​resta​urant​”​ scene​,​ in small​ “​walk-​on”​ roles​ oppos​ite each other​.​ Their​ fierc​e compe​titiv​e spiri​ts kept the two from getti​ng too close​,​ but once the final​ cut of the film surfa​ced and they found​ both of their​ parts​ had been left on the cutti​ng room floor​,​ their​ dorma​nt frien​dship​ had been rekin​dled,​ cloak​ed in mutua​l pity and despo​ndenc​y.​ After​ much delib​erati​on,​ they agree​d to retur​n to the snowy​ clime​s of Montr​eal and jump head f​irst into the often​ heart​break​ing world​ of music​.​”

Here’s a video:

THANKS!!!
The Buddy System

p.s. head to the Kindercore Shop and snag our new TShirt, button packs and limited edition hand numbered (there’s only 100, dudes) DVD - Electric Science Team Buddy System!

Posted by ryan on 29 Apr 2008 at 01:11 pm

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Once again, Ryan put me aboard the Guilt Trip Express and asked if I’d post a lil’ recap for us to discuss the latest (and awesomer) episode of Lost. So without further “a-choo-choo,” here’s my lame attempt at being Jeff Jensen from EW.com…

A little over a month ago, after “The Constant” was done warping my mind, I remember telling myself, “Wow. An episode that brilliant only comes around once in a long while.” Little did I know it was actually twice in the same season?! Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan gave us something absolutely amazing last night. A jaw-dropping episode that featured twists, turns, and actually made us feel sorry for Ben?! That’s an emotion I never thought I’d feel for him…

It all started off with the doctor from the freighter washing up on shore, throat slit and looking like he’d been in the water for some time. (An interesting turn came later in the show, when they were able to make contact with said freighter, only to hear that the doctor was still alive and on the boat?! Were they lying, or is it possible to be two places at once…with this time difference that seems to be taking place off the island?!)

From there, we’re taken to Ben’s house and a friendly game of Risk that Hurley, Locke and Sawyer are taking place in. I’m guessing that Hurley telling Saywer, “Australia is the key.” is going to be a bigger piece of the overall puzzle. Then the phone suddenly rings, a recording of a woman’s voice repeating “CODE 14J, CODE 14J” is on the other end, and Ben’s pulling shotguns out from the piano stools! “They’re here!”

Next we find Ben out in the middle of the desert, wearing a winter coat (with a new Dharma logo, and the name “Halliwax” stitched across it, I might add!) and beating down some Arabs with a lead pipe and then using their automatic weapons against them. This kicked all sorts of ass for a number of reasons. #1. It gave us a sense that there is a lot, A LOT more to Ben then we’ve been allowed to see thus far, and all these times he’s found himself outnumbered, beaten up, locked away…he could have easily turned the tables and kicked some ass…but he chose not to. Fuuuuuuuck, that’s just so interesting. #2. He’s in the middle of the desert, wearing a winter jacket, with no footprints around him, and in fact, the ground seems to be shattered all around his body…HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET THERE?! I can’t wait until they get to the next Dharma station and reveal that they’re able to teleport (and/or time travel!)

Holy shit…the next scene with Ben’s “daughter” Alex having a gun held to her head why Ben tries and negotiate his way out of it all. I mean, I didn’t see this coming. Ben is always, ALWAYS one step ahead. When Keamy orders Ben outside and Ben turns the tables around by laying out a number of specifics about Keamy’s life up until that point and orders Keamy to turn around and head back to the freighter, I just assumed that Ben knew a way out of this afterall. He did too. He was confident, in control, smooth…

…and all of that changed with Keamy handing the walkie talkie to Alex to say her final words to her Father. He gave Ben one last chance to step out of the house to surrender, and Ben countered with telling Keamy that he’s wasting his time, that Alex isn’t his daughter, just a “Bastard in a basket…” Wait…that might be from something else…

Regardless, Keamy pulls the trigger, shoots Alex right in the head, and shocks Ben to his core. (um, us at home too…I couldn’t believe what just happened…I kept waiting for her to get up, for it to be a trick…something other than this cold hearted mother fucker killing this innocent girl with the gun pressed against her temple…)

For what it’s worth, Ben felt the same way. In fact, the next scene that followed was Locke and Saywer struggling to get more ammo, get situated for another line of attacks, all while the camera stays on Ben…staring out that window, looking at his dead daughter lying there on the ground, eyes as wide open as we’ve ever seen them (and that’s saying something, cause that goofy bastard has some biiiiiiiig eyeballs) and just uttering the words, “He…broke the rules,” under his breath.

The mourning was in short order however, as Ben walked into another secret room, (behind the other secret room) and when he stepped out again (Is this when he woke up in the desert?!, Did he go call the Smoke Monster on the phone?!, where the fuck did that backdoor lead?!) he was a changed man. Focused and direct, he led the rest of them outside to witness Smokey having the gunmen for a nice snack, then made their way towards “the cabin.”

I’m leaving out TONS of details, but by now you’ve no doubt read better analysis elsewhere. The final scene though…it turned the “focus” of this incredible show on its head once again. Ben walks into Whitmore’s hotel room, in the middle of the night, and tells him, “Now I’m going to kill your daughter.” And with those few words, all of Lost’s fanbase screamed, “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! NOT PENNY!!!” At least we’re going to get a massive showdown between Sayid and Desmond later on, (which is ironic that they’re kind of bonding now on the freighter.)

So discuss on, Kindernerds…tell me what you thought and let’s discuss what’s going to happen to Jack next week! (He better hurry up and get off that island if he’s indeed pregnant!!!)

Posted by Travis Fox on 26 Apr 2008 at 03:12 pm

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Indie games are fucking rad and everybody should be playing them.

“But Nick!” you exclaim, “They’re all for PC and I’m firmly entrenched in Jobsland! Nobody makes games for Mac!”

Well, I am here to educate you. After this post, you will have no excuse to not be playing awesome free indie games all the freaking time. Check this out!

Cave Story is, quite possibly, one of the main catalysts of the modern indie game scene. It’s a metroidvania style game with gorgeous pixel graphics and an amazing chiptune soundtrack. If you dig platformers, especially with a heavy dose of exploration, definitely play this one. The above link takes you to a page with instructions on how to download a mac version and apply the english translation patch.

ABA Games aka Kenta Cho is a brilliant man. He makes old school shmups with beautifully simple graphics. Calling them “retro” doesn’t quite give them enough credit though; he definetly has a style all his own. There’s mac ports of some of his best games here and here. I recommend rRootage, and my personal favorite of his, Tumiki Fighters (the second of which is currently being remade as a Wii game.) His website is also charmingly full of engrish. If you can play these games with a joystick or gamepad, they get exponentially better, but are still more than playable with a keyboard.

Dwarf Fortress is quite possibly the most hardcore game you will ever play. Actually, no, it is the most hardcore game you will ever play. It’s so hardcore, it requires reading the games own wiki before you can even stratch the surface. It’s an oddly simple premise though: you have a bunch of Dwarves and you help them built a fortress. The level of simulation in this game, however, would make Will Wright blush. Everything is simulated here, from the moods, relationships, and interests of each individual Dwarf, to a full ecosystem and weather, to rival Dwarven clans and enemy goblin camps, and even potentially friendly human settlers. All of this in real time, and in multiple levels above and below ground. It even generates the entire world on the fly when you start a new game, including thousands of years of pre-history (most of which you can actually find evidence of as you explore the world). The level of freedom in this game is also pretty unparalleled. Why is this game not the only game anybody ever plays? Well, as stated before, it’s hardcore with a capital HARDCORE. Partially due to the difficulty of the game itself, but mostly due to the graphics and interface. The graphics are entirely ASCII and the interface is almost completely keyboard driven. What little mouse control there is at all is barely worth mentioning. There are some graphical patches you can download, which I highly recommend if you aren’t squeamish about moving around files and editing config scripts. If you can get yourself into this game, then prepare for some sleepless nights as you obsess over your smiley little Dwarves and their virtual Dwarven lives.

N is a hardcore platform game about a ninja collecting gold while dodging killer robots. What more do you need, really? You may recall that there was recently an enhance version of this game released under the title N+ on X-Box Live Arcade. The original is still free, and still pretty damned good. Hard to play with the keyboard though…

Battle for Wesnoth is not only Indie, it’s also completely open source! This is easily one of the most polished games out there distributed under the GPL. If you like the Fire Emblem games, or any turn-based strategy games or board games, you will dig Wesnoth.

All these games are free and available for your operating system. There’s really no excuse why you shouldn’t be playing them right now. So yeah, go do it already!

Posted by nick on 26 Apr 2008 at 02:54 am

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so after taking about all i could stomach of the Atlanta Hawks asskicking handed to them by the loathsome Boston Celtics and their fair weather fans, i ventured forth into the night and headed on down to the famous 40 watt to check out Black Rebel Motorcyle Club.
it’d been a number of years since last i saw the BRMC and i was glad to know that BRMC still stands very much for Bad Ripoff Mary Chain more than anything. they still got the all-black getups and stupid haircuts and the tunes to match. songs with lines like “suicides easy, what happened to the revolution ” are on point with that image and they also still make up for the fact that they have zero charisma with smoke machines and strobe lights. the lights were so fuckin’ bright that they damn near blinded me and the strobes sent me into fits of seizure. now i wouldn’t say the BRMC boys are bad, honestly i kinda like their songs cuz they just sound like a couple of bands i already like anyway and you can make out to their music, which is always nice…but honestly they’re the kinda band that you’d be better served to listen to on your own time in your car, in your ipod machine, or on the stereo. no need really to pay 15 bucks to watch ‘em stand around like a couple of statues changin’ guitars every other song and staring at their shoes. not that i’m complainin’ or anything, i got in for free and a free show is a free show is a free show.
all in all the show last night felt weird because it’s about 5 or 6 years since the last time i saw them and that was back when they were, i don’t know the word for it, relevant maybe. seeing them last night in a half full room reminded me a lot of seeing a band like Teenage Fanclub late in their career who’d had an alternative rock hit in the early 90s and then stuck around way too damn long afterwards, never gettin’ bigger than that first blast of popularity and out lasting their usefulness by nearly half a decade. but hey, that’s the fucking game. some people can work it (sonic youth comes to mind) and others are lost and forgotten, still touring and putting out records and hoping against hope that their star might shine bright again, when we all know the damn thing already went supernova and they’re turning into a black hole from which no amount of creativity and/or originality might ever escape again.

Posted by justin on 24 Apr 2008 at 05:01 pm

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Yup, it’s true: The Buddy System’s video for Clap Paws is debuting on MTV2’s Subterranean this Sunday night (or Monday morning if you’re picky) at 1 am! Tell your friends, your family and all of your pets then tune in and express your appreciation to the fine folks at the Viacom family of companies by dropping a note on The Subterranean Blog requesting that they keep playing our jams.

Peep the YouTube version here to prep yourself for the real TV deal:

Also this Saturday night we will be sharing the stage with the incomparable Je Suis France and the fantastic Royal Bangs at the Fabulous 40 Watt Club for the 10th annual Twilight Delirium show. Je Suis France will be dropping their new Death Wish E.P. (which sadly has nothing to do with Charles Bronson) and we will have our new limited edition Electric Science Team Buddy System DVD, shirts and buttons for sale so bring some extra cheese!

As always add us for updates HERE.

We loves, ya!

Ryan, Lauren, Mat & Craig

Posted by ryan on 24 Apr 2008 at 03:12 pm

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Read it all HERE!

Posted by ryan on 24 Apr 2008 at 02:17 pm

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SERIOUSLY, WTF?!

We are fucked.

Posted by ryan on 23 Apr 2008 at 02:10 pm

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So today is the anniversary of my lovely wife’s D.O.B. and as part of her present I got my Buddy System bandmate and all around buddy Lauren Gregg to paint a Lewis Fambly portrait. The resulting painting is far cooler than I could have imagined so I am sharing it here for all to see.

Please to enjoy the Lewis Fambly…

Posted by ryan on 22 Apr 2008 at 01:02 pm

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Read it all HERE

Posted by ryan on 17 Apr 2008 at 03:38 pm

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Ollie Johnston, 95, Classic Disney Animator, Is Dead

A dark day indeed. In his memory here is one of his many perfect (and fittingly sad) moments:

Posted by ryan on 16 Apr 2008 at 03:17 pm

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