Spring checklist: Listen to tunes, flip pin, become a God
Sup to all the new goofenbachers in chat!
Hola goofenbachers,
As the world descends on TPF, we’re having a different kinda week. A deep, introspective week where we walk around listening to songs and kicking a can down a deserted street, etc. No, we’re not depressed — you can’t be depressed when you live this sexy, but our thoughts do turn to the beginning of Nudge. Why? Welp, we’re frickin’ reprinting issue 1!
That’s right. You asked, we answered. In just a few short months, you’ll have access to one of the great lost tomes of pinball. Read pinball music reviews, marvel at the insanity of The Ann Arbor Pinball Festival (Yes, we do cover the *ahem* bathroom situation as well as the single erotic pinball game we found there), and read great articles from faves like Charlotte Fillmore Handlon, Iggy, JRI, and the rest of the frickin’ crew.
We’ll have an announcement on here for preorders in a couple weeks, but don’t worry OGs, it’s gonna have some alternate cover action and be a lil’ different than your first run copy. You can still sell that for a million dollars — though you might wanna collect the variant covers if you’re a TRUE FAN.
The other thing true fans do? BUY LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRTS
Are you at TPF? Nice. Don’t go insane.
To all the homies headed to TPF: Enjoi ya selves and don’t get lost in the BBQ sauce. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at big-ass cons and expos, but in our experience it’s the most fun when you find the homies, smoke a giant doink in the parking lot, and then focus on a couple things you REALLY wanna do. Don’t try to see it all. The human mind can’t comprehend the entirety of TPF all at once. It will literally break your sanity. You’ve been warned.
Listen to this: Nudge 6
Y’all, we’re getting back in the habit of creating Nudge playlists. Mostly because as a newly minted “headphones tourney guy” it helps me stay in the zone. Before we get to the new stuff, I did want to point out some of our old playlists. This one has helped PUMP me up for the last week. Sure, it’s about summer, but with global warming really hittin’ us hard, it’s basically been like June all february here. Plus, this has some of the best cover art we’ve ever done.
NUDGE VI: Let’s hang out this summer
Themed playlists for your pinball pleasure
(Disclaimer) Spotify sucks. Why Spotify? That’s not very punk of you.
Well hey, who died and made you punk rock sheriff? But seriously, legit question. As a buncha former middling musicians and dudes who are still friends w real musicians who struggle to make money: Why are we doing a Spotify playlist? Spotify is notorious for not paying artists what they’re worth, they ruined downtown Oakland, and uh, the whole algorithm approach to liking stuff weirds us out. That said, we’ll give you a couple of reasons why we decided on this format.
It’s easy. We don’t have a team of hackers working around the clock to get you amazing content. We have a guy smoking weed at 11:30 PM and just sorta figuring stuff out. Spotify makes it insanely easy to make and embed playlists.
They have a ton of music. Do they have everything? Hell no. Not even close. They do have a surprising amount of awesome stuff.
Our goal is not to get you to support Spotify. It’s to support these artists. When applicable (and available) we’ll try and link to better, more equitable links for the artists we feature. That’s gonna include a buncha Bandcamp and other streamers who put artists first. IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND ARE AN ARTIST AND DON’T LIKE SPOTIFY, CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY AND WE WILL TAKE YOU OFF — NO QUESTIONS ASKED. That said, I hope y’all take this in the spirit with which it is intended: we wanna showcase dope artists that will make you play pinball better. That’s it. We good?
NUDGE VOL VI: Let’s Hang out this Summer
Summer changes people
Summer is the best season. I’m not going to debate it. Yeah, fall is beautiful and spring is whatever — but last time I checked you didn’t get three months off as a kid during THOSE seasons. So unless you have a more compelling argument than that, I’m going to politely ask you to STFU and move your winter lovin’ ass down the road. Seriously, even now as adults when we have to work during the summer, it’s still just more fun. Is there anything better than sweating your ass off then entering the air conditioned paradise of a dope pinball spot? Last year, I used to ride my bike every day to the Emagine Theater in Royal Oak so I could play Data East Star Wars, NBA Fastbreak, and (when I had to) Fishtales. Sidenote: Y’all, fishtales sucks. I don’t even know if that’s how you spell it, and I’m definitely not going to look it up. I just assumed it was a bad pun because everything about that game seems ill-conceived to me.
Anyway, last summer was the start of a change for me. I’d ride my bike, get a Hi-C, hit my vape pen, and just kinda jam. Ideas came and then floated away. I kept thinking about how I could interact with pinball in a meaningful way. By the end of that Summer, Nudge was created. Kinda makes ya think: What’s gonna happen THIS summer? Relationships ending, people moving, graduating, getting summer jobs, having summer hangs, staying up too late on summer nights. I will say that summer hangovers are about a thousand times worse. Waking up feels like someone baked your tongue inside your mouth. So who cares that we’re entering into a facist dystopia and the water wars might start this year. I’m gonna enjoy this summer. At least no matter what else happens, we finally get a new Stern game in August.
This is 55 minutes of summer
This mix was designed to distill summer into 55 minutes of pure awesome. There’s some old hits, some new stuff, but mostly it’s just about cultivating a vibe. I realize that I usually make MY mixes (I don’t know what the rest of the contributors do) to have the first half coincide with when I’m driving to pinball and need to get pumped up and the second half be more of a comedown after I’m driving home. You can absolutely listen to this the whole way through, but if you’re struggling to see the delleniaation, I’d put it around All I wanna Do by Sheryl Crowe.
Yeah, we put Sheryl on here. LOTS of Sheryl. Here’s why
What’s on the playlist?
We’ve got lots of dope stuff on this one. From some No-Hit Wonders like The Nerves, to the pure pop punk beauty of All Dogs to some dope ass frickin Pusha-T. You wanna feel cool? Listen to Numbers on the Board on repeat while you just spam the multiball on T2. Put your sunglasses on, black leather jacket. Look around and sneer at any small children. Go outside and rip that vape pen. This is your world now, we’re all just living in it. You put numbers on the board.
The incredible music picks of Tyler Jerome White
Social media is 95% dumpster fire, but every once in a while you get a follow that changes your life. For us, that was Tyler Jerome White, known on insta as @therealblacksethrogan. This dude, This dude, this dude. I mean, first off he’s a baller. A true Los Angeles pinball god that has taken some of the dopest pictures we’ve ever seen. P much seems like he’s always having fun, drinking, eating, and popping off on Bad Cats.
I mean look at this picture. Here he is WINNING A PINBALL MACHINE in front of like 100 people. How many times have you done that? Yeah, this dude Fuuuuuuuucks.
But that’s not the reason we’re here. The reason we’re here is because this guy also picks non-stop bangers to play on his insta stories. Seriously, from Mase to Fallout Boy to whatever. It’s honestly made me re-assess some artists, which is more than what I can say about Pitchfork’s last 10 years. So Tyler, if you’re reading this, baby, keep up the good work. We’re listening.
So what’s off Tyler’s list this month? Just two songs that make you feel like a world beater, Feels so Good by Mase and Numbers on the Board by Pusha T. We’ve already spent too much time talking about Pusha, so just know that no one is too cool for Mase. Seriously, listen to that track and try not to get down. You can’t do it, can you?
The Nerves
The Nerves only existed for 3 years — from 1975 to 1978. During that time they only recorded like 13 songs. For a long time you could only get your hands on them if you were some sort of vinyl freak (the records, not the BDSM stuff). Then I think in like 2008 they did a reissue of basically everything they’d recorded plus some bonus stuff. I’m not gonna go down that rabbit hole because there are better, smarter music writers than me that you can read talk about them (also, if you wanna be bored you could read the pitchfork article). Let’s just say that they nail the jangly, sad aesthetic that every pinballer has in their hearts. If they have hearts. Still not convinced about Raymond Davidson. Is this man a pinball playing cyborg? We may never know.
GOOD JOB. YOU ARE DONE READING. GO FORTH, FLIP PIN, LISTEN TO TUNES.
Next Week: The Return of NudgeMatch
That’s right, me and Rick debate the age old argument: Is it better to headphones or not headphones? Of course, I’m the pro headphones camp and of course I’m going to win. See you then!
Doc Monday
Editor in Chief, Nudge Magazine
Please stop encouraging my grandson to share giant doinks in the parking lot. (I’m not actually sure what a “giant doink” is, but I think I have a pretty good idea.)