#Colin Medley

[stickto-otherartists]

Camille Léon and her band captured by Colin Medley in Montréal || 09.27.23

[sinceileftyoublog]

Honey Harper Interview: Intentionality Over Authenticity

Photo by Colin Medley

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Honey Harper started out as a love story and became a country story. 

Singer-songwriter William Fussell met keyboardist Alana Pagnutti, who was from Toronto, in New York City in 2013. Pagnutti’s visa was running out, but she was able to move to the UK with an Italian passport. (Keep in mind: pre-Brexit.) Fussell had fallen in love with her, so he went to the UK with her. Eventually, they decided to start a family and moved to Toronto where they could rely on the support of her family. And they also wanted to make music.

While the earliest Honey Harper songs sound like a Fussell solo project, they’re anything but. Pagnutti was the one who first encouraged Fussell to record music full-time and helped draw up the songs. Then, she joined the live band. Eventually, on Honey Harper’s debut record Starmaker, she took on a larger role. The band billed their gorgeous dream pop-country hybrid as “country music for people who don’t like country,” more 22, A Million than Glen Campbell.

Now, Honey Harper seems limitless, much because their follow-up, Honey Harper & the Infinite Sky (ATO), is a full-band record, with heavyweights like bassist and contributing writer Mick Mayer, John Carroll Kirby, Spoon’s Alex Fischel, guitarist Jackson MacIntosh, pedal steel guitarist Connor Gallaher, and TOPS drummer Riley Fleck. With this all-star, genre-traversing cast, Honey Harper is consciously making “country music for everyone,” challenging the assumptions of previous generations, toying with Internet obsessions over authenticity, all rooted in the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard. Yes, you read that right. 

But if that sounds like some misguided, B-rate Coen Brothers-esque gobbledygook, fear not: Honey Harper & the Infinite Sky is, simply, fun as hell, a well-paced album with something for everyone. “Reflections” opens with the pedal steel twang from your favorite country records, eventually subsumed by sparkling keyboards, trotting drums, and strummed acoustic guitars, a plaintive, deep-voiced Fussell winking and nodding to, “Take my dreams and put them in your pocket for somebody else to see”. “Ain’t No Cowboys in Georgia” is straight country rock, while “Broken Token” adopts a Southern rock choogle. “One Thing” is a crooned waltz. "Boots Mine Gold” is cosmic country funk; “No honky tonk could save my soul,” sings Fussell, belting at the end among Bee Gees-level harmonies. “It’s hard to make a living when you’re not living at all,” Fussell sings on crunchy stomp “Hard to Make a Living”, the type of universal line that’s so simple, yet so powerful, no wonder he’s priming to write for massive country pop artists.

First things first, Honey Harper is still a DIY project. The band’s tour with Amanda Shires--planned entirely by Fussell and Pagnutti--has been up and down, with a few dates cancelled due to COVID and one broken-down van. But they’re keeping on, with the opportunity to present Honey Harper both as a full rock and roll band and as a stripped-down three-piece that acts as a bridge between Starmaker and Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky. The band’s opening set tomorrow night at SPACE in Evanston will be comprised of the latter, a true gift for those of us who like our country music in all of its forms.

A couple months ago, I spoke with Fussell over the phone about the history of Honey Harper, why he’s interested in ideas of authenticity, pedal steel, guitar harmonies, and scams. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Angus Borsos

Since I Left You: When did you decide to have Alana take on a bigger role in Honey Harper?

William Fussell: She’s really been involved the whole time. The project wouldn’t exist without her. I was working on something in the studio in 2016-2017 in London. That morning, I was playing songs for her. She said, “You should record that song today.” She was the one who told me to record “Secret”, the first song I ever recorded for Honey Harper. I went to the studio that day, recorded it, and came back and she said, “This is what you need to be doing.” I took all the songs I had made, and we formulated them together. She’s been involved since the beginning, just in the back. She joined the live band in 2019. It was a natural progression of her becoming more and more involved in the project until she joined the band full-time. It’s the first time I’ve worked with a partner. We’ve done a lot of music together. It creates really amazing situations, for sure, as you know each other so well. She’s a great editor. She’s an author, too. She’s done a lot. She’s a very smart person, and I needed someone like that to help. She gives my esoteric nonsense all meaning.

SILY: On this record, why did you decide to expand the sound and play with a full band?

WF: It was done painstakingly over about two years, piece by piece, going to Paris to work with producers, going to Hungary to record strings with the Hungarian Studio Orchestra. [In the beginning,] we were sitting on our assess the first two months of the pandemic being sad about stuff, thinking, “It took us two years to write the last record. Let’s write this one in two weeks.” In order to do that, we needed a good band, and a good studio, and we ended up finding those things. It was all intentional to do it quite differently. We recorded songs three times and took the best take. If you feel that live energy, that’s why, harkening back to 1970s California. We recorded it in California, so I think we achieved it.

SILY: There are some pretty big names here. Had you worked before with John Carroll Kirby and Alex Fischel?

WF: John Carroll Kirby was all over Starmaker. I met him through Sébastien Tellier in Paris in 2018. He’s a wizard, man. He’s a genius. He’s one of the best piano players of our time right now, especially with his taste. What he can do with the synthesizers is very cool as well, a little bit of a Herbie Hancock/Stevie Wonder situation. His own music is very different, too. He’s a great producer. I love that guy.

SILY: In the album bio, you talk about playing with ideas of authenticity and what country music is. You’ve called Starmaker “country music for people who don’t like country music.” And there are definitely certain ways that the genre is splitting, ambient country players versus more traditional players. Why is exploring non-country country music something you’re interested in doing with this project?

WF: It’s interesting: It is happening with folks like Sturgill [Simpson] and Metamodern Sounds In Country Music and folks like Daniel Romano who were doing it back in 2013. Those are the forerunners of this new modern wave of things, obviously influenced by some stuff in the early 2000s like Beachwood Sparks and Neko Case. This is an interesting time for [country]. [With Honey Harper,] we’re trying to come at it from a bit of a different perspective, a postmodern ideology that’s kind of aware of what it’s doing. That’s what I mean by playing with authenticity, with my belief that nothing is truly authentic. That idea is a bit outdated, and the idea of continuing to create [authenic music] kind of stifles you in a sense. This record really tries to break that mold by incorporating ourselves fully really deep, choosing to do it in three takes, taking the photos, using this imagery. It’s all very intentional. None of it is to make it less than, it’s that wherever you come from or whatever you do, this music is for everyone, now. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. It’s not geographically located anymore. For so long, it was. 

I also don’t want to overthink it. I was talking to my uncle about Baudrillard the other night, and he said, “You gotta stop overthinking shit so much. Just play the music, man!” It’s hard. We want to give the music meaning and life and think about what we’re reading and let people into our heads. But at the same time, it’s supposed to be fun. You could break this down and I could talk to you for hours about Americana and country music. [At the same time,] this sounds like a fun 1970s country record.

SILY: From what perspective are you singing in “Ain’t No Cowboys in Georgia” when you sing, “Sick and tired of three chords and the truth / I think I’m ready for some computer blues”?

WF: That’s a lot that has to do with the Baudrillardian idea of authenticity. It [was written during] a time period in my life when I might have been a bit more angry that it’s impossible to break into the idea of reality. None of it’s really about truth. Everyone’s just making up stories. There are so few people that sing truthfully. It was a bit of a passive-aggressive line, for sure. It’s meant to be a bit funny, as well. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek.

A lot of this record was based in this conversation we were having in the studio about Baudrillard’s idea of simulation, and our initial idea of what’s real was based on something created not too long before it, and that was based on something created not too long before that. 

The song title itself was given to me by my papa. I did an interview with Interview Magazine a while ago, and I was talking about my deteriorating relationship with my grandparents, and Trump being elected and this divide that happened in so many families. It happened in my family, and I got mad. [My grandfather] read the interview and got mad and sent me a long string of messages. He’d always end messages in very crazy ways. In the interview, I had said, “You can't always trust a cowboy,” speaking about my family in Georgia. So he ended his messages to me with, “By the way, there ain’t no cowboys in Georgia.” I was like, “Damn, that’s a good song lyric. Thank you for that.”

So the song has two places it’s coming from. This idea of trying to create a world that is Honey Harper right now, living in the farce of authenticity, but also talking about deep relationships with my grandparents. And now that they’ve passed away, the harshness that comes from that deep mourning and that loss, but that the relationship had already died long before. There’s a dual meaning behind that song to me, part personal and part philosophical.

SILY: How much does your aim to reclaim country music for everybody have to do with the fact that certain areas of country music are traditionally associated with conservative politics?

WF: That’s big talk, now, with Maren Morris and Aldean’s wife. It takes a lot of guts inside of that industry to do [what Morris did]. We listened to this really interesting podcast about how mainstream country music became a tool for the right. At first, it was folk songs for union boys that were very antigovernmental. In the 50s and 60s, it kind of got taken over again. In the 70s, it went to Willie and Waylon, the exact opposite, outlaw shit. Sometime in the 90s, it started becoming a tool for the right, and in the early 2000s, when 9/11 happened, with Toby Keith and all these people writing these crazy patriotic songs about soldiers going to Afghanistan. It’s interesting what happened. Many books could be written about the political and philosophical idea of what happened inside American country.

SILY: As much as your uncle said, “Don’t overthink this so much,” even the moments when you are being philosophical come across as conversational. You’re just riffing with people.

WF: It’s not clickbait. It is a little bit. It’s a little bomb you can drop to see how people will react. It’s a conversation starter. I’ve witnessed a little bit of that in my older years of people who like to do that stuff.

SILY: On “Tired of Feeling Good”, when you sing, “John says that the band sounds tight,” are you talking about John Carroll Kirby?

WF: I’m talking about Jon Salter from ATO Records. I think that line was written by our bassist. That was another tongue in cheek, Dr. Hook kind of song. I like talking about people in our lives and the music industry. Jon Salter was at a show, and we ended up talking to him later on. I’ve done that in the past on my EPs, just quote people. Some of the best lyrics in the world are just people talking.

SILY: How did you approach the sequencing on this record?

WF: We were working with this management group for a few months. The label and Jon had some ideas too. It was a collaborative effort for sure. One thing I knew was I wanted “Reflections” to be the first song. The last song and the first song I knew what I wanted. Everything else kind of fit in between it. “Reflections” to me is a nice bridge from Starmaker into the new record. It starts out in this synthy world, and by the end of it, you’re in this country rock thing. I love the song, too, the chorus in it and that we’re content creators these days and addicted to our cellphones and our self worth is in social media. Everybody talks about that.

SILY: The pedal steel these days is making a huge comeback, and it’s sort of that bridge between traditional country and ambient country. Did you have any input in Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel playing, or did you let him do what fit?

WF: These guys are great at what they do. The etherealness of what he would do was all Connor. I had some hooks in my head that I wanted the lead guitarist to do. A lot of it is electric guitar and the pedal steel doing guitarmonies, which is my favorite thing in the world. More than vocal harmonies, when guitars harmonize together, it’s just so sick. There’s no other way to put it. It’s so fun to listen to, so unapologetically awesome and stupid. Any time you hear it, it’s always good.

Starmaker was influenced by [Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Roger Eno’s] Apollo. When I first heard that, I thought, “This is what cosmic country should sound like.” That to me, sonically, is the most cosmic country record ever made. Synthesizers and pedal steel. It’s so cool.

SILY: Do you listen to Luke Schneider and Chuck Johnson?

WF: Yeah, I love them, they’re great. And Harold Budd. I wanna work with [Luke] one day. [I also like] North Americans out of California.

SILY: Andrew Tuttle?

WF: Hayden Pedigo out of Amarillo. There are a bunch of cool people. William Tyler, Jake Xerxes Fussell. [Jake and I] share a last name. Maybe we’re related. People like that I’d love to work with and make something like that. The next move, I have some ideas for it. It’s kind of in the works. There are two ways to go with it.

SILY: Do you have a favorite guitarmonies song ever, or one that you think best encapsulates the idea of it?

WF: There are obvious ones, like “Layla” or “Bell Bottom Blues”. All Allman Brothers songs, like “Ramblin’ Man”, are amazing guitarmonies songs. The intro to “Ramblin’ Man” is so freakin’ good. I could listen to that intro over and over again, which is why “Broken Token” was created, because it was a tribute to that kind of thing. Little River Band’s “Lonesome Loser”.

SILY: I always think of “Reelin’ in the Years”.

WF: Oh yeah, Steely Dan. Duh.

SILY: Do you have a favorite song from the record, or a favorite song to play live from it.

WF: “Crystal Heart”. “Lake Song” and “Crystal Heart” are very Starmaker-y. “Crystal Heart” is about when we almost became Scientologists but ended up changing our minds. We were considering it, walking in London and thinking, “Let’s go get our thetans tested.” We thought more about it and realized, “This is how they get you.” You go in and think, “This seems fun to do” and then you spend the rest of your life praying to Zorb or whatever. It got into my head, the whole idea of being taken into this cult. That’s what the whole idea is about, going clear and what not. It was a brief conversation that turned into a bigger story.

SILY: Are you the type of person especially prone to scams?

WF: [laughs] Probably, honestly. I really love people and probably trust them a little too much. I think Alana has taught me how to be less vulnerable to scams. If you can catch me by myself, you got me, but if Alana’s there, you got no chance. That’s just a little news for anyone there trying to get me to join their cult.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the cover art?

WF: We wanted to have something that was a continuation of Starmaker. We thought that was a cool idea, almost a transformation. This young, blonde pretty angel came to earth in the middle of the pandemic, got stuck, and came out the other side older and grizzlier and more tired.

SILY: Is your live set these days mostly these songs?

WF: I have two different bands for this tour. I have a full rock and roll band. But when we play Evanston, it’s going to be a different show. It’s going to be a 3-piece that’s more of a bridge between this record and Starmaker. I have two amazing musicians joining me. I’m excited that I got on this tour and had two options. You’ll hear more of both records with a three-piece. My full band is all the new record.

SILY: Have you played SPACE before?

WF: No. I haven’t played Chicago as Honey Harper. But I’ve played Empty Bottle and Schubas and Lincoln Hall.

SILY: What’s next for you in the short or long term?

WF: This tour is taking up the rest of the year. I’ll be working some things in the meantime. It’s a lot of prepping for this tour and next year in Europe and more in the states later on.

I’m getting into producing for some different projects in Nashville. I’m trying to get involved in songwriting for bigger pop-country artists.

One of the directions we’ve discussed going is going even deeper into the idea of authenticity and creating a bit of an alter ego, a pop country Honey Harper. It’s so fun to write [those kinds of] songs, even though they can be kind of ridiculous.

SILY: How’s touring with Amanda Shires been?

WF: So far so good! My band and her band go back a long ways. The keyboard player for my band and the drummer and bassist of her band used to play for Butch Walker. The bassist in my band and the bassist in Amanda’s band are dating.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

WF: I’ve been listening to a lot of Ethel Cain. She’s one of my favorites right now. Rina Sawayama. Chappell Rone. A lot of Carpenters. I’m all over the place. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Melvins. 

[behind-the-screen-of-bangtan]

MUSE

Release date : 19 July 2024

Official page

Announcement

Pre-order notice

Teaser

Promotion Schedule

Highlight medley

Recording Behind

Official YouTube playlist

Official Merch

Thanks to Eng translation

Jimin's second release after this first solo album FACE. Several parts of the concept reference the smeraldo flower, a fictional plant from the Bangtan Universe (BU)

Right before the announcement, a discussion channel was opened on the official BTS account on Instagram to tease it. It featured a picture of a music sheet titled "La Lettra", that ended up being "전하지 못한 진심" (the truth untold) (src #1, src #2, src #3) from the album Love Yourself 轉 Tear. As for the "You will always find the first letter" hint, it was implying to check the first letter of each circled word to get "Closer Than This", a track of the album released in December 2023. The last picture sent on the channel is of a handwritten letter (eng trans).

It seems Jimin worked on MUSE and FACE at the same time since in the documentary Jimin's Production Diary that followed Jimin during FACE conception, he has the same nails as in the MUSE teaser (see this Bangtan Bomb at 0:13, cr.). In addition, there was a handwritten letter in the documentary that was titled 전하지 못한 진심(The Truth Untold) (src).

People also pointed out that in his Festa letter, released just a few days before the announcement, Jimin promised to come back with a letter, possibly hinting at the "La Lettra" music sheet (src).

On the day of the album release, the BT21 account posted a cute video of Chimmy (the character created by Jimin) with a smeraldo flower.

The album comes in two versions : BLOOMING and SERENADE. There is also an exclusive Weverse version. On the BLOOMING ver. the ME letters are bigger while on the SERENADE ver. the US letters are.

Tracklist

The pre-release track and the main track titles were teased through a crossword poster on the Instagram channel (archive).

Rebirth (intro)

Interlude : showtime

Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)

Slow Dance (feat. Sofia Carson)

Be Mine

Who

Closer Than This (see this post)

You can find all the lyrics and their translation on Bangtan Subs website, here.

Colin made a thread with his lyrics translations.

Mood Photo, concept photo & concept clips

Release date: 21-22 June, 6-7 July 2024

Mood Photo - BLOOMING ver. (BTS💜ARMY Weverse post)

Mood Photo - SERENADE Ver.

Concept Photo & Concept Clip - SERENADE ver.

Photo Sketch

Jacket Shoot Sketch

Melon exclusive photos (archive)

Outfit and accessories : belt (cr. BangtanStyling)

Smeraldo Garden Marching Band video

Release date: 28 June 2024

Lyrics

Teaser clip

Behind

Photo Sketch

Outfits & accessories: black suit

Jimin mentioned this title in the Jimin's Production Diary documentary (src). It's also mentioned in the Weverse magazine article "When you look into Jimin’s heart, this is what you find".

The concept is inspired by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album from the Beatles (src).

Like in the choreo for "Permission to Dance", the dance here features some sign language that says "love" (src #1, src #2).

Who

Release date: 19 July 2024

Teaser

Photo Sketch

Shoot Sketch

Dance analysis by JiminUncut

The MV was filmed on the New York backlot street at Korda Studio, in Hungary (src).

The Truth Untold : 전하지 못한 진심' 전시 개최 안내

Held on: 11 October - 3 November 2024

Announcement

Promotion, articles, and interviews

Nylon: "Jimin shares a new photo to go with his sunny, just-released single - exclusive"

Weverse Magazine: "Producers for Jimin’s album MUSE Pdogg and GHSTLOOP: “In that sense, love becomes his muse”"

NME: "Jimin – ‘Muse’ review: in the mood for love"

'Who' @ The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (teaser, Instagram post with pictures of the set, the performance was filmed at Suanbo Waikiki Hotel (src))

[dustedmagazine]

Jon Mckiel — Hex (You’ve Changed)

Photo by Colin Medley

Jon Mckiel treats songs like miniature epics, rendering each detail in glowing, psychedelic hues. Though the basic framework of his music may be familiar, the feeling is perpetually off-kilter. On 2020’s Bobby Joe Hope — which I would have written about for Dusted’s Slept Ons in early 2021 if I’d have discovered it early enough — Mckiel combined the often mutually exclusive worlds of songwriting and sampling into a unique and beguiling brew. This knack for the uncanny continues on Hex, which feels even more kaleidoscopic.

Mckiel and co-producer Jay Crocker understand how peripheral details, such as backing vocals and percussion, can transform a song from good to great. Take “String,” for example, which begins with a disorientating and scratchy guitar loop. Next comes swirling synth arpeggios, then multi-tracked vocals, plus multiple rhythm guitar and percussion layers. The songform seems to warp and bend in real-time, an endlessly malleable resource. Best comparison is Olivia Tremor Control reined in, and Mckiel’s voice falls somewhere along the continuum between fellow Canadians Andy Shauf and The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman.

On one end of Hex’s musical spectrum we have “Concrete Sea,” a spare acoustic cover of a 1972 song by Terry Jacks, rendered simply with a smattering of slide guitar and percussion. At the other end we have “Memory Screen, pt. 2,” which begins as a gently wavering bedroom pop song, before unspooling into three-and-a-half minutes of spacious, swooshing ambient. In between there’s the fantastically groovy title track, an addictive slice of dusty, retro sampladelia with a gorgeous saxophone solo; “Still Life,” which features a long, tropical-sounding instrumental introduction that could almost be off a dub record; and the gorgeous “Everlee,” which harks back to the 1960s sun-shining tunefulness of Bobby Joe Hope’s“Deeper Shade.”

In Hex’s 34 minutes Mckiel ventures far and wide, but always brings you back to the strangeness of seeing something familiar in a new light, wondering at the possibilities.

Tim Clarke

[dannyreviews]

Rolling Stone Magazine Top 200 Singers - The Omissions List

Once in awhile, I’ll do a music themed blog post and boy do I have a post for you. Rolling Stone Magazine opens 2023 with a list that no one asked for. Their 200 Singers list is an all time low for the once flourishing magazine. When you include auto-tuned singers like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Ray and dull as dishwater singers (again, my opinion) like Morrissey, Courtney Love, Michael Stipe, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder, you lose credibility in my book. Here are the singers of different backgrounds, genres, and vocalizations (in alphabetical order) that Rolling Stone failed to include on their inept list:

Jon Anderson

Julie Andrews

Paul Anka

Tina Arena

Charles Aznavour

Michael Ball

Jimmy Barnes

The Bee Gees (Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb)

Pat Benatar

Tony Bennett

Andrea Bocelli

Jay Black

Colin Blunstone

Michael Bolton

Gary Brooker

Jack Bruce

Eric Burdon

Maria Callas

Eric Carmen

Paul Carrack

Enrico Caruso

Shirley Cesar

Peter Cetera

Eric Clapton

Petula Clark

Joe Cocker

Nat King Cole

Phil Collins

Perry Como

Burton Cummings

Bobby Darin

Sammy Davis Jr. 

Neil Diamond

Judith Durham

The Everly Brothers (Don and Phil)

John Farnham

Dan Fogelberg

Marie Fredriksson

Art Garfunkel

Judy Garland

Vince Gill

Ian Gillan

Lou Gramm

Daryl Hall

Johnny Hallyday

Morten Harket

George Harrison

Russell Hitchcock

Noddy Holder

Mick Hucknall

Billy Joel

Brian Johnson

Tom Jones

Eddie Kendricks

Carole King

Johnny Maestro

Steve Marriott

Dean Martin

Michael McDonald

Meat Loaf

Ethel Merman

Klaus Meine

Liza Minnelli

Jim Morrison

Anthony Newley

Harry Nilsson

Luciano Pavarotti

Gene Pitney

Leontyne Price

Maddy Prior

The Righteous Brothers (Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley)

Paul Rodgers

Sam and Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater)

Neil Sedaka

Bon Scott

Beverly Sills

Carly Simon

Paul Simon

Levi Stubbs

James Taylor

Frankie Valli

Sarah Vaughan 

Anthony Warlow

Dionne Warwick

Ann Wilson

Carl Wilson

Steve Winwood

Robin Zander

[thoughtswordsaction]

Ontario Alternative Band Cuff The Duke Share Hopeful New Single "Leaving It All Behind"

Photo by Colin Medley After a 10 year vanishing act, JUNO-nominated roots rockers Cuff The Duke‘s comeback album, Breaking Dawn (out September 6th), reflects frontman Wayne Petti‘s process of coming to terms with his mental health, capturing the various stages of his journey. The musical interludes throughout the record serve as a representation of the ever-present anxiety that Petti has learned…

[senorboombastic]

Release Rundown - And So I Watch You From Afar, Fucked Up and Personal Trainer

Words: Ben Forrester (Photo credit: Colin Medley) And So I Watch You From Afar – Megafauna(Pelagic) Possibly one of the most consistent bands in the math rock cannon, And So I Watch You From Afar are ready to get back into the thick of it with their seventh album. With predecessor ‘Jettison’, the Irish quartet turned in their most ambitious effort, acting more as one continuous piece that…

[rcmndedlisten]

Cola - “Landers (Alt Version)”

Photo by Colin Medley

Cola, the band featuring the remnants of cult beloved Canadian post-punks Ought in guitarist Tim Darcy and bassist Ben Stidworthy alongside drummer Evan Cartwright (also of the Weather Station and U.S. Girls -- busy, popular guy!,) released a very underrated and delightfully dystopian debut last year in the Alan Watts-inspired Deep In View. If you missed it, here’s round two: An expanded version of the album featuring demos, plus this one -- an all-out redux of its closing track “Landers”, now less stark and loungey and made into a lackadaisical daze to sink deep into.

Directed by Maxwell Farrell

Spring Tour Dates:

Cola’s Deep In View (Deluxe Edition) is available now on Fire Talk.

[biglisbonnews]

Rihanna Reveals Why She Walked Back on Super Bowl Boycott In 2019, Rihanna made headlines for turning down an offer to perform during the Super Bowl Halftime Show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers player who caused a rift in the NFL after he knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.When Rihanna was announced as the halftime show's 2023 headliner, her earlier boycott resurfaced. In a 2019 interview with Vogue, she even said "I just couldn’t be a sellout" in reference to attempting to take the stage. However, an estimated 113.06 million viewers tuned in for the game and her performance this past weekend. So, what changed?Related | Rihanna Is Definitely Not Working on New MusicIn an eye-opening cover story with Vogue UK, the Fenty Beauty founder not only revealed some lovely photos of her first child, but she also opened up about the thought process behind reversing her boycott of the NFL. "There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes, but it’s powerful to break those doors and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level," she tells the publication. "Two Super Bowls back-to-back, you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.”Rihanna is referring to the star-studded 2022 performance which saw the likes of West Coast rap legends Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar join forces with Mary J Blige to perform a medley of their hits.The "Diamonds" singer saw the proposal to perform as a challenge for herself as she adjusted to postpartum life. "It’s this knowing that you can do anything,” she explains, “even things that seem the craziest, like, ‘I’m going to say yes to the Super Bowl in the middle of postpartum?’ What the heck am I thinking? But you’re geeked on a challenge like that because you know what your body just did. You feel this sense of ‘Nothing is impossible.'" The performance was her first in seven years.As for Kaepernick, he has remained a free agent since 2017, eventually filing a grievance against the NFL alleging that they were blackballing him after teams refused to sign him. Despite reaching a settlement in 2019, he has remained a free agent and has remained active in the fight against police brutality and racial injustice.You can revisit Rihanna's 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance here.Photo by Adam Bow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images https://www.papermag.com/rihanna-superbowl-boycott-2659428264.html

[rain-in-the-clouds]

I don't normally vent on this blog, despite it being my main, mostly I just try and share what I love and whatnot. But like so many my age, older and younger, I have a love/obsession/hatred of tiktok.

It's a fun app that can be so nice and a great place to build community, have fun and be silly. But my fucking gods, that is not what its like 99.99999% of the time. And no I know I'm no one special in saying any of this. But I gotta vent, and at least here I can scream into the void knowing if anyone is gonna scream back it's gonna be about something completely different and probably about cats, food, boobs, or Fandom, and honestly that's what makes this the best site.

Anyways, I've struggled with anxiety for the majority of my life, depression as a side helping, and a medley of other things. About six months before the pandemic my anxiety skyrocketed, I started having massive panic attacks every day multiple times a day. At one point it felt like I was just existing through the day to eventually deal with a night filled with the feelings of death.

It was awful, I was barely living.

This is a tangent, but if anyone knows the song Overkill by Colin Hay, I used to sing that song a lot as a kid, like 6-7 years old singing that song, one day to gorw up living the life the song depicts. The lyrics that stick with me: "I can't get to sleep. I worry over situations I know will be alright. Day after day it reapers, night after night my heart beat shows the fear."

It was night after night after night, months went by like this. By middle of 2020 I was.... I wasn't ok. A way I had helped myself during that time, before I got some help and the meds I need, I would use tiktok. Now I'd use its worst attributes to my gain.

It's short form content and use of short attention spans was, especially in the moment, very helpful for subduing (most of the time it just delayed the panic attack) but my goal was never to outright stop the panic attacks, cus I had no way to do that, but to distract my brain long enough to get tired and pass out. It worked for a good while. It especially worked for stopping an attack right as it was starting.

Fast forward to now. Just like prior to the panic attacks I use tiktok to have fun, goof around and see cool stuff, (don't get me wrong I'm all about activism, and I use tiktok like any other for that too, but that's for when I'm in a good place mentally) but now, idk it's like I've let it corrupt me. The past year especially, I've gotten into more arguments in tiktok comments then I've gotten into arguments irl, doesn't matter if the argument was valid or not or even worth arguing over.

And I know it's the internet, nothing stays innocent forever, yes I know. But what I'm saying is tiktok in particular has somehow become more toxic then the majority or surface level internet. To me, it seems like it's trying to become the next 4chan more then the next tumblr. And I had hopes that it was heading in the direction of this hellsite, the Fandom elements there, book lovers, science, all of it: seriously seeing people ask ScienceTok, or BookTok, just makes me flashback to the days of "Science side of tumblr what does xyz mean?"

But no, instead we get the love child of vine and 4chan, it's half cousin-brother reddit somehow looks better next to tiktok.

It's dumb, it really is, cus yes the simple answer is, get off tiktok. But it's not simple, my livelihood relies on social media, for many reasons, like many people. The answer I've been going with is limiting myself on time spent, and I've been successful, I go a week or two without even opening the app, then hop on to check in, post and get a good laugh. But somehow, even if it's just one day, it has the power, (that I give it by gods) to suck me in and make me mad at something, even if it is something to be mad about, doesn't mean it's something I have to let get so under my skin it causes this to happen, (the this being moving to my og site and venting my woes)

It's just such a disappointment. At least I'll always have tumblr.

[mistermixmania]

JULY TALK veröffentlichen heute ihr Album REMEMBER NEVER BEFORE 📣 https://mister-mixmania.com/de/news/musik-news/july-talk-veroeffentlichen-heute-ihr-album-remember-never-before/ Tagged as July Talk Die kanadische Alternative-Rock-Band July Talk, bestehend aus den zwei Frontleuten Leah Fay Goldstein und Peter Dreimanis, sowie den zwei Gitarristen Ian Docherty und Josh  Warburton und den zwei Schlagzeugern Danny ..... : #musiknews #musik #JulyTalk Foto Credits: Colin Medley

[trustkosher]

Post haste flash cards

Post haste flash cards free#

Now, poor baby Ben's baby bottom is blistered. On an ill-advised suggestion I fed baby Ben salsa last night to go along with our chipotle rubbed lamb chops, red potatoes au gratin, and steamed summer vegetable medley. He's one heck of a man! I love my rootin' tootin' hubby! Even when he's covered in lemur fur or rambling on about the midnight wanderings of the giant bipedal chinchilla (chinchilla humongostandupfurballera) I can just gaze upon him adoringly and zone out on my Bo love. Every time Bo goes galavanting around the globe I appreciate him a little more. Bo isn't very domestically handy, but that's not what we love about him. It definitely keeps me sane to have Bo around so we can tag team little Ben. Honestly, I don't know how you single mommies do it. Well neighbors, Bo is off on his lemur brigade so it's just baby Ben and I, Betty. Posted by Betty Bluecorn at Thursday, August 19, 2004 I'm off to smooch that handsome hubby'o'mine. A couple of rubs should have you singing, "ZippityDoDa!"īo's home from Lemurland. "Bulgunzerdabba!" which we think is his word for 56.ġ. He'll concentrate on it and then he says, I made them myself from an every day paper plate, neighbor! They said that we'd have to wait until he was at least a year, but they were wrong! I've been using multiplication flash cards with excellent results. Heavenly!īaby Ben is working on his multiplication tables. Hold it together with those crispy chow mein noodles for legs. Perhaps my famous Spamipillars- Spam and gherkins diced and whipped up with pimentos, and equal parts Cheez Whiz and mayonaise- 0nly Hellman's, hellions!- rolled in squares of American cheese. I'll have to serve cold plates for dinner. I'm staying out of the kitchen today, neighbor. (Prince William residents, call 70.But not me.

Post haste flash cards free#

* To hear a free Sound Bite from Porcupine Tree, call Post-Haste at 30 and press 8131. What clicks are "Shallow," "Open Car" and other tracks that reveal the band's ingenuity and energy.Īppearing Friday at the 9:30 club. The 12-year-old band sounds too mellow for its own good at times, particularly on the rippling piano ballad "Lazarus," and some of the abrupt shifts in tone pack the wallop of a telegraphed punch. Guest guitarist Adrian Belew turns in a wonderfully skittish cameo on the Floyd-tinted spiritual "Halo," but for the most part, Wilson and his bandmates - keyboardist Richard Barbieri, bass guitarist Colin Edwin and drummer Gavin Harrison - are left to their own devices and designs. Inspired in part by a film script co-written by Wilson, "Deadwing" is riddled with ponderous lyrics and cleverly designed soundscapes. If "Deadwing" sounds oddly familiar, well, that's pretty much the point. Then, too, there are plenty of allusions or links to the likes of Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Coldplay. The result is a contemporary take on progressive rock that embraces, in no particular order, death metal, ambient washes, symphonic tacks, piano-driven ballads and neo-psychedelic excursions. Nothing seems to please him more than creating layered tracks that alternately emphasize some of his favorite things. That's because Wilson doesn't draw on his influences so much as scan them, as if riffling though a stack of flash cards. Chances are sooner or later he'll hit on something more to your liking. If you don't like what Steven Wilson, the prolific composer and singer-guitarist for the British band Porcupine Tree, is up to on "Deadwing," stick around.

[half-a-tiger]

THE WEATHER STATION - “Robber”, new single out now on Fat Possum

Directed by Tamara Lindeman

Produced and Shot by Jared Raab

Edited by Colin Medley

Featuring:

Erin Poole - The Dancer

Terry Jansen - The Newsman

Akshay Amin - The Courier

James Robertson - The Cameraman

Johnny Spence - The Man

Adrian Tam - Watcher / Panhandler

Ada Dahli, Sukh Gill, Masha Gruntovskaya, Kseniya Miller-Gruntovskaya, Caitlin Wolfe O'Brien - Watchers

Ben Whiteley - Distant Runner

[dustedmagazine]

Tomb Mold — The Enduring Spirit (20 Buck Spin)

Photo by Colin Medley

Brief excursus into the Biz: It may be a sign of how big Tomb Mold is getting that 20 Buck Spin had publicists hold off on widely distributing promotional materials for The Enduring Spirit until after the record had dropped into its wider markets for purchase and circulation (NB, this reviewer has no illusions about his relative significance in the Biz, thank goodness — but much juicier metal review venues like Grizzly Butts and No Clean Singing seem to be rushing text to press, having received their copies of the music relatively late in the game). Certainly it’s significant that Pitchfork has the death metal outfit on its radar, publishing a “band announces forthcoming record” notice for The Enduring Spirit and, more urgently, including it on a list of “9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now.” Yikes. Is Tomb Mold ready to be exhumed and exposed to the light?

The album art for The Enduring Spirit suggests that’s the case. A feminine, humanoid figure greets sunshine and verdant plant life, arising from vaguely mechanical and organic forms that root into a soppy, brown, slithering morass. Maybe it’s not meant to be allegorical, but check out these lyrics from album opener “The Perfect Memory (Phantasm of Aura)”: “We are given the heat and friction of light / To moult in our delirious memories / Now we dream only in familiar depths / What in the bitter night speaks to us?” That sure sounds like allegory: the “familiar depths” and “bitter night” of death metal, and a band that want “to moult” and change in “the heat and friction of light.” Sure, Max Klebanoff growls the words in death metal’s characteristically harsh fashion, but the song’s precise, musical riffage and super clean production project the tune toward brighter terrain.

There are listeners that will be drawn to and make much of the brightest moments on The Enduring Spirit: the breezy string work at the beginning and in the middle section of “Will of Whispers”; the guitar tone and most theatrical moments in “Servants of Possibility,” which may put some in the mind of Steve Howe, c. 1971; the long slide through melodic atmospherics in the second half of “The Enduring Spirit of Calamity.” This reviewer prefers the tougher stuff — like the signature riff of “Flesh as Armour” and the neck-snapping dynamics of “Angelic Fabrications.” But others will point to the clean, proggy elements of the record and comparisons to Dream Unending and Blood Incantation will surely abound.

In some ways, the comparisons are valid. Guitarist Derrick Vella is one half of Dream Unending, and that project’s experiments in “ambient death metal” (as we seem to be calling it) have no doubt influenced his contributions to Tomb Mold. And the SF concepts that Tomb Mold has worked through on previous records, like Planetary Clairvoyance (2019), resemble Blood Incantation’s space-opera sensibility. But inasmuch as all that is true, the culture industry is no doubt delighted at the prospect of death metal bands that are somehow more “musical,” or more “serious” — bands that Pitchfork can call purveyors of “Best New Music” alongside Boy Genius and Big Thief and Lana Del Rey. They can have it, and Tomb Mold can have the bright lights. I’ll stay in the dark, where things are moister and nastier, and generally more interesting.

Jonathan Shaw

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Weird Nightmare Returns with the Feel Good Power Pop Anthem "Lusitania"

New Video: Weird Nightmare Returns with the Feel Good Power Pop Anthem "Lusitania" @weird_nightmare @METZtheband @subpop @subpoplicity

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ.  Interestingly, Edkins’ new side project Weird Nightmare sees the METZ frontman showcasing a new side of the long-established songwriting that has won him acclaim and fans across the globe: enormous power chord driven rippers…

[greywindys]

Okay, so we’ve reached A Point, and I feel okay sharing some excerpts of a fic I definitely, 1000% won’t finish. But I still wanted to make it a post. Why? Because I want to talk about one of my favorite bands, The Decemberists, which was part of the plan back then, but I never got to do it because I never finished this fic lmao.

Anyhow, this is a long lost 2Doc week fic. The prompt I was trying to fill was “favorite song,” using lyrics from the song, “Engine Driver” to frame the tone of the fic. The concept was to create a medley of scenes depicting moments in which Murdoc inspired 2D over the course of their tumultuous relationship, and how those moments of inspiration found their way into various Gorillaz songs.

I typed up a total of 5 pages in word before I ran out of time lmao. But like, I’ve always wanted to give a shout-out to The Decemberists, specifically Colin Meloy, whose way of weaving emotion and fantasy into his songs has always gotten to me. I get teary-eyed listening to “The Crane Wife 3″ the same way I did the first time I’ve heard, and I’ve listened to this song countless times. Also, thanks for teaching me words like “dirigible,” “sibylline,” and “palaver,” to name a few. Thanks for inspiring me to research ancient folklore from around the world.

I’ve learned so much about story-telling from the time I’ve spent listening to this band. It’s a bummer I wasn’t able to deliver on the fic due to my own time management issues (I think I was still writing TA), but there’s always the next story!