#*looks at current song playing*

[miss-sternennacht]

[okaydiscount]

practical problems screenshot redraw!! :DDD

[solarmorrigan]

Steve Harrington gives me Beach Boys vibes

Like. Steve's a little neutral on pop; he doesn't hate it, but it's not usually his first choice. But like a lot of kids, his musical exploration begins with his parents' collection

He finds his mom's Beach Boys albums when he's about twelve, a little after they start leaving on longer trips and he starts poking around the house because he's bored and alone. He can sort of remember his mom playing them when he was really young, can remember her dancing around the kitchen and being silly in ways she usually isn't

He starts playing the Beach Boys when his parents are gone, just sometimes, because the songs have a pretty good beat and the lyrics are fun and it makes him feel a little less lonely. He's got one playing one evening when his parents get home earlier than expected; his dad just shoots him a look at tells him to "turn down the damn racket" (which Steve does, quickly) before stalking up to his office, but his mom stands in the living room doorway, just watching him for a moment

It's the first time in a long time he remembers her just sitting down with him, smiling, laughing, listening to the music with him. She tells him about the first time she heard the band on the radio, and about how she'd gone out to buy their album the very next day. She tells him that his dad had called in to the local station more than once to request "Barbara Ann" because he knew it was her favorite (Steve can't imagine his dad doing anything like that, but he guesses his mom would know better than he does). She tells him that when he was little, too little to really remember, he would ask her to play "the surfing song," even though she was pretty sure he had no idea what surfing was

They don't do it again, but Steve holds onto the memory

He keeps playing the albums. He gets them on tape, when he happens to see them, and then he can play them in his car when the mood strikes. He wouldn't call himself a fan, exactly, but he doesn't have a better word for it. He ends up memorizing a lot of the lyrics, and finds that he doesn't mind having that knowledge at all

December of '85, the first holiday season Steve and Robin spend together, Robin is ready to tease Steve mercilessly for not only knowing all the words to "Little Saint Nick," but for singing along with it while standing at the counter of Family Video. In public. Steve takes it with good grace, but he also makes sure she also knows all the words by the end of their shift. They sing it together every time it comes on the overhead speakers after that

(Steve gets the feeling Robin's enjoyment is half ironic, but he doesn't mind. Her joy as she sings is sincere, and that's the important part)

Robin isn't the last convert he manages to induct, either

"Kokomo" comes out in '88, and Eddie wants to hate it. Really he does. It's really not his speed, he doesn't like surf music, but he just - he can't quite bring himself to dislike it. Not when Steve is listening to it on the radio in the kitchen, singing along, dancing around unselfconsciously while he does the dishes (moving his hips in ways Eddie does not want to associate with the Beach Boys)

But of course, the second Steve catches Eddie listening with anything other than disdain, it's all over. He turns all his attention on Eddie, singing to him, trying to beckon him into the kitchen to dance with him while Eddie valiantly tries to hold out against the fucking dork-ass romantic he's been dating for over a year

Steve points him and then curls his fingers in a "come hither" gesture as he croons along with the radio, telling Eddie to "come on, pretty mama," and Eddie has to let his head hang back while he tells Steve "I hate you," just so Steve won't see how hard he's smiling

He does end up dancing, his head resting on Steve's shoulder because he's laughing too hard to hold it up on his own, his eyes watering while Steve continues being ridiculous just for him

(It is absolutely not their song, but many years later, it does end up on Eddie's carefully curated wedding playlist. He disavows all knowledge of how it got there)

[hinamie]

daily megu

[likesummerrainn]

watch that poison blossom

Hangman Page Birthday Week 2024: ⤷ Day 6 - Favorite Feud: HangSwerve

[cloud-makers-make-pollution]

One day when I have a partner and we’re adults we’re going on a stargazing date this is beautiful

[somederangedwierdo]

So I look in people's windows,

Like I'm some deranged weirdo.

I attend Christmas parties from outside.

I look in people's windows,

In case you're at their table.

What if your eyes looked up and met mine

one. more. time? 🪟✒️☁️

[fakemagicjaye]

I HAVE FIVE PAGES. LEFT. TO DRAW.

[jessamine-rose]

/obey me! vent/

[avian-hearts]

HE'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SQUEALS AND KICKS MY LEGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[narsh-potatoes]

DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO BITE OFF HEADS WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[seaofreverie]

New (new for me) Sparks album time, Interior Design. I really like it!!! I'm now at this point in my catching up adventure where most of the albums I have left are mostly the more divisive or just less talked about ones, but even among those I found that I'll generally land on the "it's underrated" rather than "it's worse" opinion, or even "it's super underrated" in the case of Introducing and Balls.

So yeah, I agree that this album's underrated. I do also agree though that you could consider it not exceptionally innovative or anything like that. And well, that's fine by me. All I can say is that it's a pleasant listen start to end. Maybe I just like this particular style, even if it's very clearly indicative of that time and that could make it dated I suppose. Still though, something about the, let's call it, "aggresively 80s" Sparks albums makes them very charming to me.

My favourite song is definitely Love-O-Rama, but Stop Me If You've Heard This Before is a close runner up. (I also really like Let's Make Love, it feels like a very unique song to me in a way that I can't really explain, I mostly love the vocal delivery on that one part, you know, the "feelin in my HEART! feelin in my SOUL!" part. And You Got a Hold of My Heart instantly reminded me of like, Gamecube music. I don't knowwww, but I like it)

Also I like coming up with place or setting associations for albums. So here my brain immediately pictured driving around a big city on a rainy summer day. I think it fits so I'm sticking with that image.

[baalzebufo]

playing one dnd session was a mistake because now im in one single campaign the desire to make 500 player characters overtook my soul. ive got like five current character sheets filled out for ‘just in case i need them’ characters and every day i think of a new potential guy i want to play... tabletop roleplaying is a slippery slope to terminal oc creation

[steakout-05]

i think having TF2 as a special interest really early in my childhood influenced so many things about myself and my identity.... my gender is big men my sexuality is big men and my sense of humour is big men. i even named myself after the "very tiny and scrawny but still big" big man and i think about all the big men in TF2 on a semi daily basis,,,,,, anyway yeah i like the men in TF2 :)

[waugh-bao]

So I’ve been thinking more about the asks I was sent about Keith on this tour and what the change up in concert structure (one solo song by Keith instead of two) portends for the band and the long term reception of this tour.

I’ve said it before, but I have to repeat, with even more emphasis, that I’m almost blown away by how much criticism there is of the musical quality of this tour 2 shows in. Especially after Keith has started sitting to play some of the songs.

There’s still people, generally Boomers, hitting back, but it’s never a real defense of their musical integrity or ability, just an appeal to age:

(Also the ‘they don’t need the money’ take is kind of stupid because UK death tax is a bitch and any of their British assets that aren’t tied up in the band’s Swiss based corporation are going to vanish by almost half when they’re split. Not to mention two of them have a ton of kids that it will probably need to be divided amongst. And Mick has always been money hungry).

And the rest of the comments look a lot more like this:

I was especially struck by the person who termed it ‘grading on a nostalgia curve’, because I think that’s a spot on description for the typical defense, whether it’s coming from Boomers who spent $800 on a ticket or not:

You may see it panned by individual critics or newspapers, I sincerely doubt any big music writers or magazines will be that harsh towards the tour because the Stones sell and they want access to the band more than integrity. It’s the same reason Hackney Diamonds got such glowing reviews. All the Stones’ albums since Steel Wheels get amazing mainstream reviews and then 5-10 years later everyone goes back and admits they weren’t that good/outright suck. By the same vein, I think once the band is genuinely over and a few years have passed, the consensus will shift to ‘they would have had a lot more integrity and dignity if they called it quits after No Filter, because everything that followed was the band rapidly becoming a parody of itself.’

And I do think the end is coming sooner rather than later. Tour insurance only becomes harder to secure with time (Mick would never take the risk of financially wiping himself out that personally guaranteeing a tour would run and most venues wouldn’t want to deal with liability that anyway) and they know it’s only getting worse musically whether or not they’ll ever own up to it. Embarrassment will win over eventually if physicals don’t. I tentatively doubt they’ll ever officially announce a last tour, because they have a longstanding aversion to the kind of pity involved in that, but I don’t seriously believe we’ll see more than one more European tour and maybe a final US/North America one.

I’ll close on the less depressing note of the unintentionally funniest (dark) comment/reply I’ve seen in a while:

[touchlikethesun]

when you get this ask you could perhaps maybe bless us with 5 of ur fav songs (currently or of all time), and then send this ask to 5 of your moots who you think have good taste! <3

ahhh omg thank you for thinking i have good taste that's so sweet <333

it was so hard to pick just 5 i debated for a bit, and in the end i just went with the first 5 that came to mind, so this might be a tad eclectic :')

coming soon by annie di russo - it's been an unfortunate anthem of mine for the past few years

baltimore (or san cristobal) (or wait forever baby) by mal blum - mal blum is one of my fav artists of all time and his album every time you go somewhere is very relatable to early 20-somethings

wasting my time by klaus nomi - incredible voice, incredible musical vision, incredible performer, klaus nomi has been the soundtrack to many a contemplative walks lol

wobbly by ezra furman - ezra furman is another long time fav but somehow i hadn't heard this song until this past week, and that's a travesty

la groupie du pianiste by michel berger - ohhh this one is so much fun! the lyrics are... not fun. but the beat's so funky and it's so much fun to sing like you're in a musical

if you can't tell i tend to think of fav artists instead of fav songs for the most part lol, also i feel like i might have already recced a few of these but... they warrant being recced again xx

thx for the ask <3