Ari Picker felt exhausted and burned out by Lost In The Trees’ A Church That Fits Our Needs. The 2012 album memorialized Picker’s mother, who committed suicide in 2008. The project was deeply personal and deeply ambitious. It made many critics’ 2012 top-10 lists (including the top spot for the Wall Street Journal), and it led the North Carolina band to appear at New York’s Lincoln Center for the American Songbook Series. But the tour that preceded that show was fraught with challenges: Rock clubs weren’t the ideal venues for the band’s delicate dynamics and string arrangements for cellos and violins. After all that, Picker questioned his desire to make another album. But he has made another. Past Life (Anti-) jettisons many of Church’s identifying markers: It’s abstract and impressionistic rather than overtly personal, and it’s minimalist rather than maximalist. Picker will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Lost In The Trees feature.
Picker: I’m nostalgic for classic “point and click games.” These are adventure-themed third-person games where you point and click where your character walks, who they talk to, what they pick up, what they do with it, etc. The golden age for PAC games was in the early ’90s, when companies like Sierra were putting out Space Quest, Quest For Glory, Leisure Suit Larry and on and on. George Lucas was also in the biz with LucasArts, who in my opinion put out some of the best adventure games ever. There is something about the digital soundtracks and pixelated graphics that creates really haunting atmospheres, and any technology limitations there were were made up with good story telling, something current games lack. If you’re sick of the modern first-person shooters and you want a blast to the past, I highly recommend these. There are some really great emulations, re-releases and websites to find these old gems. Just google Classic DOS games formatted for Mac.
A few classics that should never be forgotten:
Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel
Full Throttle (an amazing motorcycle gang game)
King’s Quest and Quest For Glory (AGD is a company that has scooped up the rights to these Sierra classics, revamped them and give them away for free)
Day Of the Tentacle (the sequel to Maniac Mansion)
Video after the jump.
