Tsar Bomba

Bride has been one of my favorite bands since the first time I heard them. Like many people, my first introduction to the band was the seminal "Snakes in the Playground". I'm not going to glaze over the fact that I haven't liked a lot of what Bride has put out since "Scarecrow Messiah", but Snakes and Scarecrow were awesome enough to keep me faithfully listening to their new stuff and exploring their back catalog for many many years. Other than the off-the-reservation rapcore "Fist Full of Bees" (which I thought was totally awesome) most of Bride's releases in the last 12 years or so have only offered one or two tracks I could really get into. It might be shallow of me, but I've been hoping for another in the style of "Snakes" or "Scarecrow" since those albums were released. Tsar Bomba doesn't deliver on that hope, but it may actually go one better - if I could set my nostalgia aside, I might actually consider it a superior release.

I just got my copy of Tsar Bomba in the mail this evening and finished listening to it. It's nothing like Bride has ever done before, yet unmistakably Bride. What's more, it is one of, if not the, best albums they have ever produced.

As I listened to track after track of crunchy, sweet, gut-pounding delicousness I found myself comparing it to the slick production quality of a "Project Band". Magdalen, RedSea, Liars & Theives, and Neon Horse spring to mind when I try to search for an equal to Tsar Bomba in terms of quality. It really feels like about three times the work went into this one than any previous release, and TLC seems to ooze out of every note. Each track is my favorite one. The quality, originality, and pace are relentless. IMO, Troy's guitar work has never shined so brightly.

I can't really pick out any individual songs to review because I think the album has to be enjoyed as a whole. Unlike most other Bride releases, there's no unifying musical "theme" here (except maybe raw coolness). You won't find a lot of repetition or same-y style on this marathon record, just infectious, crunchy guitar hooks, energetic multi-layered solos, and vocals that are all over the map. Every little corner of the music is filled with sonic goodness.

Tsar Bomba can be best described as two best-of albums, but with songs no one has ever heard before, stacked on top of each other with smoky maple syrup poured on top. There's so much going on, it really is like listening to two albums at once. The riffs and solos are amazing, Dale's vocals haven't lost any of their luster, and there's no skimping on the quantity. Super awesome sauce.

Bride's message is, as it has always been, one of salvation through Jesus Christ and the struggles of life through the eyes of a Christian. Throughout their long career they have never waivered in that. For fans that have been following the band, this won't be a surprise.

Speculation has abounded since their 2003 release "This Is It" that Bride was going to call it quits, but there has been no speculation with Tsar Bomba. Members of Bride's mailing list started getting messages from Dale Thompson that Bride wanted to do "one last album" before retiring, and called on the fans to help. I'm not sure if this has ever been done before, but the band started taking donations from fans that wanted to see one last album from the band. Donate $20 and get a CD in a year when it is finished, plus the knowledge that you directly contributed before-the-fact to the creation of that album. The fans spoke and the album was made - that really says a lot for the kind of following that Bride has inspired. Maybe this isn't the end for Bride, but if it is, they couldn't wish for a better send off.

Turbo Express Get!

I am a veteran of the console wars that raged through the late 80's and early 90's. At school the Nintendo and Sega fanboys would have such heated discussions that it would sometimes actually come to blows. I was a staunch defender of Mario and his ilk, and I could quote the NES and SNES specs by heart. The SNES color pallet blew the Genesis out of the water - who cares if the Genesis is fast if it's ugly...okay, I better change the subject. (Man, that's easy to slip back into!) So in the midst of the chaos came a relatively unknown. The Turbografx-16.

Like a stranger from out of town come to upset the balance between the two dominant gangs, the Turbografx looked almost as good as the SNES and moved almost as fast as the Genesis. But perhaps the thing that most set it apart was its penchant for paradigm challenging. Two things in particular stuck out in my mind. Firstly the system was the first to market with a CD-ROM add on - if it had not been so prohibitively expensive, that alone might have cemented victory for NEC's little contender. But the other thing that really stuck out was the Turbo Express - a handheld system from NEC that actually played the same games as the home console. Both of these revolutionary ideas were mimmicked by Sega later on, but NEC set the precedent.

I have had a Turbo Duo for some years now - I managed to score a brand new one from TZD.com before they closed up shop. But I never could bring myself to spend the cash on a Turbo Express unit. Despite being nearly 20 years old, the little handheld console never really dropped in market value. It was one of those rare items that went from being expensive because it was new and hot directly to being expensive because it was collectable.

I have been a member of PCEngineFX.com off and on for the last few years. As a former member of the now defunct R.I.G.G. I found them to be an invaluable resource for Turbografx/PC Engine fans. So when I saw a practically brand new Turbo Express on Ebay going for practically nothing because the video had failed, I stopped by PCEngineFX.com and sure enough found a repair guide for it. I bought the Turbo Express from Ebay and a $1 capacitor from Radio Shack and when it arrived, I went to work.

Things didn't turn out perfectly however. The capacitor that had to be removed was a "surface mount" capacitor, and it was very difficult to weaken the connections.

(This image is magnified about 8x)

The advice I read was to gently twist the capacitor with a pair of pliers. Well, gentle as I was, I still managed to lift the negative trace right off the board.

(Without the little solder pad there was nothing to connect the negative leg of the cap to...)

You'll probably notice the scratch marks where the negative trace should go. The printed circuit boards (PCB) in these NEC systems are multi-layer so i was digging in desperate hopes of finding the rest of the trace buried somewhere under the pad I had lifted off with the capacitor. It took me a while to notice the little trace that had lifted just adjacent to it because it was so small. It looked like a sliver of paint to me (you have to remember these photos are magnified a bit.) The trace went straight to the leg of the little transistor/MOSFET. That was what I needed to find an alternate soldering point.

(The negative lead is connected to the alternate soldering point)

I decide to "remote mount" the capacitor because the legs of the capacitor were stiffer than a couple of thin wires and the connection was extremely fragile - I didn't want to do a lot of twisting and adjusting after the leads were attached.

(Here is a greatly magnified view of the alternate solder point)

So, while the experience was harrowing, I was fully rewarded when I popped in Bonk's Adventure and the game screen displayed normally on the formerly blank console. It was worth the fun, though repairing these things probably isn't for everybody.

11:00 AM is Disco Party Time

I had always heard that having a new baby meant losing sleep. My new son has not been a disappointment. I fully believe that if I still worked nights, 8:00 am would be party time.