#I can generally put one a video or a podcast on while I work

[ferronickel]

Hail, flatter! This one, who is a layperson of the arts and comixcraft, has a query for you:

So like, what is flatting?

I've seen your flats in Wifwulf, and I've read about the flats in Looking Glasses, and generally get that it results in an image with similarly coloured areas sharing the same false-colour.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this? Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones? How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

Thank you! I come in the spirit of humility wishing to relieve my ignorance of your noble craft!

OHOHOHO!!! You've activated my trap card and now I get to ramble about comics craft! And in my area of professional expertise, too! Be prepared for a long post

I'm going to start with the last part of your question:

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

So the thing about comics is that it is one of the most intensely time consuming mediums to create. One person can make comics on their own fairly easily, but it takes forever to produce. Consider that I've been working on Looking Glasses for 18-19 months and have drawn about 87 pages. Now, the western comics industry expects issues to be produced monthly, generally 24 pages in length. It's very difficult for a single person to work at this rate, so the labor of producing comics has been divided. Generally these jobs become:

Writer (writes the script)

Editor (edits the script)

Artist (draws the lineart)

Colorist (colors and renders the art)

Letterer (adds balloons, dialog, and sfx)

Flatter (sometimes 'color assistant' they take the art and prepare it for coloring)

This isn't comprehensive though, there are a bunch of other jobs, like designers and layout artists. Occasionally the artist job gets broken into Pencilers (who sketch the art) and Inkers (who ink the sketch). Basically, by splitting the work amongst a number of people you can produce comics much faster. Not all of these jobs are required, and creator-owed books might have artists do their own coloring and lettering, while big work-for-hire books might have twice as many people working so they can pump out a spider-man book every other week.

Okay, so why Flatters?

Flatting at it's most basic level is just coloring inside the lines. You take a black and white page of art, and you have to fill in every part of the page that will eventually be colored. It's a pretty time consuming task depending on how involved your lineart is.

Flatting a page of Looking Glasses doesn't take me all that long, usually less than a half hour, which is pretty quick. Looking Glasses pages tend to be... optimized for flatting though. There are only ever a few characters and there aren't a ton of background details.

You mentioned Wifwulf (created by my longtime friend and collaborator Dailen Ogden), here's one of it's pages:

Basically everything that's a different base color, (every tree, plant, bit of moss, character, etc.) needed to be picked out separately. Each page of Wifwulf took me a few hours to flat. If Dailen had been doing that themself, those hours would have really added up, but instead they could spend that time drawing and coloring. Now, that said, these pages have a lot of texture, so it's hard to see exactly what I did.

Here's an example from a comic I worked on early in my career. (Lineart by Patrick Custodio)

The writer for this comic loved to put in these incredibly complex crowd scenes, which is something the artist excelled at drawing. I was coloring and flatting at this point on the book, and before I could even start coloring properly, I would need to flat for like eight hours. (I have a much more efficient method these days) It was frustrating because I just wanted to work on the actually creative part, but the majority of my time was spent on something monotonous. As soon as I got the writer to hire a flatter for me, coloring a page would take me only one or two hours, not nine or ten.

So that's why flatters exist, mainly to ease the workload on colorists.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this?

Flatting serves a couple of purposes. It's main function, like I said above, is just coloring in the lines. After finishing your lineart it has to get colored in, so in a layer below the lines, you add colors.

The secondary function is preservation. I like to work in a way that is non-destructive, basically, at any point in the process I can restore an earlier version of the drawing if I make a mistake or don't like something. Flats are integral to this.

In digital art, there's this thing called anti-aliasing, where the edges of a line or shape have a drop off of pixel color or opacity. It makes the edges look smoother or blurrier. The three dots on the left are Anti-Aliased, while the one on the right is Aliased, there's no drop off, just hard pixels.

Anti-aliasing is fine until you need to change the color using the paint bucket, or select using the magic wand...

See how the anti-aliased art doesn't play well with these tools, but the aliased art does? So with something like Wifwulf, the final art is going to be full of texture that makes it impossible to select anything again once it's painted. By having a dedicated aliased flats layer under the rest of the artwork, you can always re-select any part of the image you want.

I always leave my flats layer alone, and do any detail work in layers above. For example when I was painting this, it really helped to be able to select just the titan so I could work on those paints without worrying about brushstrokes overlapping the rest of the characters.

One of the other things you can do with flats is quickly selecting certain elements. On most pages, I flat my panels, figures, and background elements separately. Later, with a single button press, I can select just the characters in the scene, or entire panels at a time, which makes things like shading a whole lot easier.

Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones?

If you're flatting for other people you often don't know what the final colors are going to be, so you just pick random ones. Garish colors can be helpful because it makes it obvious that they're not the final colors. Why don't I use the correct colors on my own pages when I'm flatting? Habit, mostly. It's also faster to grab random colors than to track down the correct ones. Sometimes two different things will have the same final color but I like to flat them with different colors so I can select them individually if I need to.

You can see the process a bit here. In my flats, Lancer's spade (eye? eyes? thing) is a different color from his tongue, even if they end up being the same white in the final image. This would help if I ever needed to select just his eyes for some reason. You can also see how I select his body fur color and then add details on top, like his colored fingers and the grey on his arm. Those elements have blurry anti-aliased edges, and it would be impossible to re-select them without flats.

How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

I use the default "additional color set" palette in clip studio and just work my way through it. I pick row and work my way down (for a change of pace I vary which row I start with). How many is mostly dependent on the artwork. You just keep going until you run out of individual objects to color. I have worked on pages where I've run out of colors on this palette and had to start making up more. Typically a page of Looking Glasses only needs around 20-30, though.

So! That's flatting! It's a little known job, and it's how I got started with my comics career, so I have a lot of thoughts on it. I was trying to be concise (lol), so I hope this all makes sense, but I'd be happy to clarify or answer any other questions about this process. I know I didn't really go into how I flat my work, so I can make that post if anyone is interested.

[kairologia]

How to start your day according to your rising sign.

Your ascendant/first house represents the sign that was rising above the eastern horizon on the moment of your birth. However, within a broader cosmological framework, where houses each represent a different time of the day according to where the sun is, the First House represents the time of the day where the sun had just risen above the horizon. After a bit of experimenting, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to start your day is to align your early morning activities with those associated with your rising sign’s ruling planet. Here I explain how.

· Aries rising: start your day with a stimulating activity, something that gets you fired up and ready to engage with the day ahead. A workout session, a morning run, some stretching, or something as simple as a walk under the sun. Either way, you’d better get moving as soon as you get out of bed. Avoid getting your most challenging tasks of the day done as early as you wake up — rather, start with the simplest tasks and work your way up as a form of motivation.

· Taurus rising: take as much time as you need to get up. You have your entire day ahead of you, so make sure your morning remains a leisurely time — though I advise you to write a list of tasks down to make sure you have a roadmap of your day planned ahead. No matter how busy things get, make sure you at least start your day with a generous breakfast while enjoying your surroundings by eating in a balcony or somewhere you feel cozied up and relaxed. Investing in a morning skin care routine that works for you can only prove to be beneficial.

· Gemini rising: immediately engage in some mental stimulation. read a few chapters of a book, listen to a podcast, read some news, watch a video. Hell, even scrolling through social media wouldn’t hurt. Give your brain some much needed dopamine shots to get it going. If you’re learning a new language, try to memorize a couple words every morning. If you’re a student, try to study a bit right after waking up. If you have some manual tasks planned, get them done first thing in the morning.

· Cancer rising: schedule your morning routine around moon phases & transits. There are certain lunar transits (cardinal signs) or phases (new moon) where I would recommend starting your day with a workout and energy demanding activities, whereas on other transits (fixed signs) or phases (full moon), I would recommend taking things one step at a time, waking up gently, having a warm cup of your favourite drink, taking a bath, cooking, doing some gardening, and enjoying a relaxing morning before starting your day.

· Leo rising: Make sure that each morning is «you» time and let nothing get in the way of that. Soak up some sun light, start your day with positive affirmations, do 10 minutes of dancing, listen to music, meditate, draw a bit. Get yourself in the mood where you feel most confident and yourself, as there’s one watching you — you’re performing for no one but yourself. Self-care can mean many things and you need to find the form that works best for you. If you enjoy doing make up, do a creative look. If you like reading, read. You can even adapt your morning routine according to the sun’s transits.

· Virgo rising: it goes without saying that starting off your day with some journaling, list making, intention setting, tidying your place up and task planning can prove to be globally beneficial for everyone, but even more so for Virgo risings. You need as much mental stimulation as Gemini risings, if only with some added structure to it. Put yourself in the right mood where you can be productive instantly, get your tasks done starting with the most difficult ones so you'll have the rest of entire day for yourself, and remember to take breaks. It’s still early in the morning, after all!

· Libra rising: your mornings set the tone for the rest of your day — so make sure your day starts off on a harmonious note. Create a classical music playlist & play it every morning, have a nice breakfast – a nice drink and your favourite treat, do some pilates, read a couple page of a book you love, set your intentions for the day, do some bird watching, take a walk in a nearby green space or riverside and enjoy the aesthetics of nature & the scenery, choose an elegant outfit and pair it up with some jewelry & a nice perfume. Harmony is a balanced act that can easily be disturbed so make sure you keep your mornings free of external disturbances.

· Scorpio rising: you will benefit from starting your day gradually, & at a very measured pace. Try to weed out the eventuality that unexpected disruptions may arise (as that might disturb your inner balance & emotional state) by establishing firm boundaries and prioritizing activities that bring you joy & contentment. Any activities that promote focus, introspection, and empowerment would be great — namely journaling, meditation, deep breathing exercises to center yourself, or a 30 minutes workout session. If you enjoy writing, write down your feelings in the form of prose or poetry. Lists will also help you stay structured throughout the day & ensure you won’t spend it entirely inside your head.

· Sagittarius rising: start your day by doing some manifestation. Pick a method you prefer, and make sure you spend at least 5 minutes manifesting and setting intentions for the day ahead, as well as some long-term goal you’re working on. If you’re into philosophy, read a few pages of a philosophical book of your choice first thing in the morning. If you enjoy language learning, spend ~30 minutes learning new notions teaching yourself a full lesson. Drawing or making a moodboard can also help you manifest for the day. A morning walk where you take in your surroundings will also help you get into the right mood.

· Capricorn rising: buy a planner, and start your mornings by writing down your to-do list. Make sure you also have a couple pages dedicated to short term projects, and long term projects — try and check out a case from either every so often, every morning. Doing so will fill your mornings with intention as you will feel like you did something great for yourself (and you did indeed). And as is the case with every other cardinal signs — include a physical activity into your mornings. A 15 minutes run, a 30 minutes walk — whatever you deem best.

· Aquarius rising: write down your dreams & ideas fresh out of bed. Your mind comes up with the best scenarios & concepts early in the morning, so write them down — you never know, maybe one day you’ll find the resources, energy or will to expand on one of them. I have noticed that Aquarius risings come in two fixed archetypes, the type that enjoys socializing fresh out of bed and the type that needs 3 business hours before being able to utter a single word to others – so my advice is simple: if you’re the former: start your day with some socialization, text your friends, post on social media, and if you’re the latter: put your headphones on, read something (anything) and block out any and all external noise.

· Pisces rising: the transition from the realm of dreams to the waking world is a tougher challenge to you than most, so try to start your day slowly and gently. No abrupt and aggressive tasks, no strong drinks, no heavy food. Pressure is of 0 benefit to you so do not put yourself in your “awake” mode until you’re about to go outside. If you’re working on an art piece, draw some of it right now. If you’re writing a book, write down a couple lines as soon as you leave bed as your dreams might provide some extra insights & creativity you wouldn't be able to conjure up while awake. If you have plants, water them. If you have a balcony or garden, spend some time there just sitting & doing absolutely nothing.

If you’d like a reading, more details can be found here!

Have a nice day!

[ark-fork]

💌Love letters; 👨‍🌾content farm

Recently, a situation happened to my blogger friend that really pissed me off. It took me some time to put my thoughts in order and think about what I wanted to convey in this "podcast".

(Yes, this column is back because you, beloved and dear anons and not only, are constantly doing something crazy)

To begin with, let's start with something less complicated and scary but just unpleasant.

🔴Declarations of love to bloggers \ flirting with them.

Okay, I think this already sounds crazy, for the simple reason that you confess your love to a media personality in their inbox.

To begin with, this is not just strange - but also rude to some extent because a blogger does not always want such attention to themself. Many of them already have their soulmate in life, which is why most declarations of love or flirting are considered ignorance and an unpleasant event.

But still, the prevailing part of them may simply not be looking for a relationship here. Therefore, the best solution would be NOT to TRY to impose your feelings on them and not talk about it.

(Considering that some of you actually write something like: "Haha, I'm obviously going to regret this decision later, but I'll do it anyway because I want to").

If you like this blogger and personality, keep your flirting and declarations of love to yourself. You will spoil your relationship with them in this way. It's stupid and embarrassing for both of you if you still admit your feelings to him. Damn it, there may be a hundred, a hundred, or more of you who want to confess to them!

Ahem, I hope the general point can be grasped because I'm not so good at talking about anything and simply expressing my feelings about the situation as a whole and, for the most part, being hot on the head.

🟠Accusing someone of making low-grade content.

This particular situation infuriated me the most.

Now, I want to talk about what "content farm" is and what they are eaten with.

To begin with, the content farms are YouTube channels that strive for more views on this site and get to the recommendation pages for your kids. These are common unflattering animated videos with questionable context contained in them.

Their distinctive feature is repeated stock images of characters, stolen pictures, and designs, interweaving characters from completely unrelated works with the one based on which they make their videos.

Well, I hope this brief description of what content farms are is enough.

I don't understand people who see the obvious, admiration for the author of any show and create their content with care and soul, investing ideas and efforts, and accuse them of being one of these pathetic bastards from YouTube who absolutely don't give a fuck what they release on the platform, caring only about views and clickbait.

Before you write insults to the author in the anonymous mode in their inbox, think a little, damn it. Just think how much you insult a person who is burning with their art and ideas by saying such words to them while under the guise of anonymity, a fucking coward.

[copperbadge]

Well, Still Salty.

I was cranky yesterday and I thought a good night's sleep would provide some adjustment in perspective, but unfortunately "spending yesterday not on tumblr" also offered perspective and got there first.

Up front: feel free to comment or reblog on this post (replies may be heavily delayed) but if you feel the urge to Like, I'm going to ask you to take one more step and go to https://www.tumblr.com/support, select "feedback" as the category, and enter a line or two about the new dash. It can be as simple as "Your new dash design is difficult to use and is driving people off the site". I'm not asking everyone to do it, but if you're going to Like this post, that would be a helpful action in addition. You can delete any response they send; no reason to expose yourself to the unique combination of incompetence and condescension with which they handle feedback generally.

Also up front: yeah, if I find somewhere else to go and go there, I will certainly let you guys know beforehand, I'm not going to just evaporate. I'll be broadcasting about Tumblr's replacement on Tumblr very heavily. But I can't deny that it is now an active goal of mine to find a viable replacement for this site. (More on this in a moment.) You will always be able to find me on AO3 as copperbadge, or via copperbadge@gmail.com. (More on this in a moment also.)

This kind of thing is why I refuse to fuck with staff now or ever; I don't trust them and I never will. Watching @wip respond to almost every complaint or suggestion with "but that would be really hard" is telling. Whoever is pushing blocks around at Tumblr wants a lucrative site that's easy to code, but lucrative is hostile to community and code is difficult by nature, and when the architecture of the meeting hall is hostile and cheap, people don't stick around.

I've been watching the site as every change made it incrementally worse, from a buggy post window that doesn't allow ease of editing to the new dash (which is the reason I'm writing this in a text window off Tumblr). I genuinely do not think I can use desktop Tumblr like this unless I can install something that will put it back the way it was, and roughly 40% of the content you guys get HAS to come through desktop. It's impossible to do on a phone or so time-consuming it's not worth it. I cannot code Radio Free Monday on a phone; it's a struggle to code it on a single-monitor laptop (I usually write it on my work computer, where I have two monitors). Even writing image IDs on the phone is difficult and something I rarely do. Tumblr is becoming an actively difficult place for me to make content, introducing friction left and right.

But where does one go? I've tried other platforms and they're either worse to use or they don't have the constituency. The problem with a lot of discourse around internet addiction is that it often points out how glued people are to their phones without asking what it is they're doing on those phones. I'm not addicted to social media; I don't doomscroll, I don't care what celebrities have to say, I don't find 140 characters useful or interesting, I don’t find most “funny” videos very interesting. I create a lot of original content for public consumption, significantly more than many social media users, and if that becomes difficult, then the site suffers more than I do. But it's undeniable that social media, and this social media in specific, is where my people are, and yeah, I like seeing you all every day. It makes it difficult to leave even when Tumblr is the best of a bad set of options.

It seems like a lot of the internet, lately, is the best of a bad set of options.

All that said, Tumblr forced a sudden, unwanted, and unchangeable reskin on me a day after I listened to a two-hour podcast about addiction while working on building a newsletter system for my author site. I spent the evening before this happened in contemplation of my relationship to social media and to my readership and how I might alter it to my benefit regardless of whether that's also to Tumblr's detriment. Their poor timing, I suppose. A lot of the theories advanced on the podcast were, to put it kindly, bunk, but one of the suggestions for people questioning their relationship to an activity was a dopamine fast -- removing something in your life that gives you quick but unsustained dopamine hits, so that you can take some time to level out and examine your behaviors. On the one hand, that's not at all how dopamine works; from the jump it's a bad theory. But on the other, pulling back from something you think may be causing you difficulty is generally speaking a good tactic.

Removing myself from Tumblr yesterday was an active process: because I have ADHD and often will forget something exists if I don't systematize my engagement with it, Tumblr is normally pinned to my browser, with the app on my phone's top screen. Removing the app and closing the window meant that while I occasionally reached for Tumblr, it was less frequently than I expected, and the lack of access reminded me why I wasn't there. I missed you guys, but I didn't miss getting distracted from work by my dash, or the pressure to respond to the volume of communication I receive through the site daily. I don't think my use of tumblr as my sole social media has been unhealthy, per se, but certainly yesterday felt both quieter and calmer after I walked away.

But that's a temporary relief, because you are my community, and not only do I not want to leave my community, it's a resource for me. One of the reasons I do things like Radio Free Monday and the weekly Hug on Saturdays is that I try to make sure that resource is reciprocal. Leadership involves service. Leaving would be easy in the short term, but in the long term, leaving my community without having another place to meet it, or another community to go to, would be harmful to both of us. I'm already someone who isolates, and while I have a strong brickspace circle of friends, they fulfill sometimes different needs.

Though I do appreciate the wild vote of confidence from the comments to my last post telling me people would come with me where I went. That means a lot to me. I will attempt to make it either unnecessary or as painless as possible. Just know, I see your faith and friendship and I appreciate it.

Sometimes at my old job I'd be in very tumultuous meetings where a lot was discussed and not much agreed on, and the most useful thing to me was always to say, "What are our next steps? What would you like me to do because of this meeting?" So what are next steps, all this being the case?

First, I'm going to be off Tumblr, mostly, for another couple of days, because clearly I need the break and a few days won't matter too much. Again, I will be back either to continue on the site or to let you guys know, at length and volume, where I'm headed. The former is much more likely.

Second, I'm going to be actively looking for both a widget I can install to reset the dash (recommendations welcome, I currently don't even use xkit) and a wholly new platform that's a realistically viable alternative. Even if the dash gets reset, the shitty post editor is here for good. Attempts to source alternative platforms in the past have taught me that it needs to have a mobile-friendly site or an app, a similar structure to tumblr, and a reasonable chance of actually attracting users. That's a heavy venn diagram unlikely to be fulfilled anytime soon, but I'm now invested in finding it, instead of just passively waiting for it to happen to me (as Tumblr did when it pulled me off LJ).

Third, I do have an email newsletter in the works! I'm just wrestling currently with setting up how people sign up for it. This wasn't meant to be "my main broadcast platform"; it's meant to be a once-monthly email to share book news, targeted at people who aren't on socials or who just really love content from me, I guess. :D The plan was for me to assure Tumblr users that it was not extra content, just select content repackaged into a digest. But it will be one way to ensure that if I'm moving around outside of Tumblr, you'll know about it. I hope to have a link to a signup page soon. (I'm....dealing with some code issues.)

Fourth, I'm going to be combing through the last ten years I've spent here and pulling anything I think is of value into an archive. For now everything will remain here as well, and I'll let you guys know if I think that's going to change, but it's clear that this space is moving only one direction, towards a place I can't exist, and when/if it crumbles I want to have already evacuated what's important.

So there you go. I'll possibly be posting sporadically (the Saturday Hugs are queued six months in advance so that'll happen) but if nothing else and if not sooner, I'll be back full-time next week starting with Radio Free Monday. I appreciate your patience and your kindness in the meantime!

[single-malt-scotch]

Mindcrack had many moments of interacting w fandom in a way people basically don't see at all anymore that it's understandable people are surprised and put off that doc "suddenly" said he wanted to read fan fic or whatever.

I mean for one, if you're not watching doc already you should know that tbh hes like on of THE most fandom involved hermits by far imo. Seriously. He's been a huge supporter of fan art no matter (well ya know to an extent) what it is. He commissions fan artists and asks permission for unpaid fan art to be thumbnails in his videos and always credits them in the intro. He's actively taken up 'headcanons' to his skin (goat horns, butterfly wings) or other things ppl draw him in (maid dress). He has talked many times about ships with him and seems generally unbothered and jokes about it.

So in mindcrack days it was not at all uncommon for them to pick up a fan fic to read (at a podcast or something)- which iirc they asked and got permission for (at least some I know of, it has been a while). But they also (mostly) knew about shipping too and talking about it esp in context to when they'd read fics (because yes they did read some ship fics). They had their "that's weird" moments for sure but that was kinda it. And well, back then many of us on our lil Tumblr space did think it was cool because we were excited they interacted with us at all lol...

This isn't to say you can't be uncomfortable!! Of course. Idk if doc has read anything on stream yet but I wouldn't be too worried as I'd also expect him to ask permission (and as fans maybe take openings to remind him to do so).

I think we all know rule number one as a fan is "don't show the cc stuff unless they ask for it". But rule number two in regards to them is "if the cc goes looking it's their fault and their responsibility for what they find". You might still worry about cc reaction despite that and to that I say stop giving a shit. Let go of shame and fear. Anyone can see your public posts. A cc might be looking right and now you'd only get uncomfy if you knew it, but you don't. You'd can't control people and if the cc are an ass about it despite looking for it? Feel free to say something but otherwise shrug it off because it's not your fault. (And if they're enough of an ass stop engaging with them lol). Mcyt (and other similar) are real people fandoms and you gotta remember that. You cannot control this and that's alright that's just how this kind of fandom has to work. So stop worrying about it

[alicearmageddon]

USEFUL ANARCHIST AND LEFTIST SITES ON THE WEB

1: The Anarchist Faq: this attempts to answer any questions one might have about anarchism. (the anarchist library, which this faq is on, is also an absolutley excellent rescource and maybe the biggest collection of anarchist theory on the web)

2: the tv tropes page for anarchism (yes, im serious). this manages to be a suprisingly well done and easy to read explanation of what anarchism is, what its about, and the different types of anarchists idealogies.

3: Anarchopedia. like wikipedia, but specifically for anarchism

more resources below the cut! and feel free to add more in reblogs.

4: the iww. the iww isnt anarchist, but im putting it here as its a member-led, grassroots union for all workers of the world.

iww.org

5: Zoe Baker has a PHD in anarchist history and is one of the few well researched and well read left politcs channels on youtube

youtube.com/@anarchopac

6: Organize magazine is a good source of anarchist news in the UK

organisemagazine.org.uk

7: Freedom News is another great source of anarchist news in the UK

freedomnews.org.uk

8: Mutual Aid Hub (afaik this is US only)

mutualaidhub.org

9:Black Rose Federation (also US only)

blackrosefed.org

10: symbiosis revolution (US only)

symbiosis-revolution.org

11: Marxists Internet Archive. while this site isnt really anarchist, it is leftist and has some anarchist texts. i also think marxism is worth learning about even as an anarchist whos views do not align with Marx.

Marxists.org

12: Neighborhood Anarchists. Neighborhood Anarchists is a direct action anarchist group based in Springfield and Eugene Oregon.

neighborhoodanarchists.org

13: Anarchist News. This is a site that provides news that is relevant to or about anarchism

Anarchistnews.org

14: A-Infos. This is a multi-lingual news service by, for, and about anarchists.

https://www.ainfos.ca/en/

15: CrimeThInk. This is an international network of aspiring revolutionaries all over the world.

crimethinc.com

16: It's Going Down. This is a digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements across so-called North America.

itsgoingdown.org

17: Libcom. This is is a resource for everyone fighting to improve their lives, communities and working conditions.

libcom.org

18: Unicorn Riot. This is a decentralized, educational non-profit media organization.

unicornriot.ninja

19: Submedia. Submedia is an anarchist digital media collective that produces videos and podcasts

sub.media

20: Zine Library. This is a compilation of anarchist zines and booklets, imposed for easy printing, as well as a few posters. (zines can be downloaded by pressing code > download zip)

github.com/rechelon/zine_library

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

Okay so now that the semester is over, here is a list of actual things my paleontology professor said/did during lecture and discussion:

“I've watched this like 20 times now” (Prehistoric Planet 2 trailer)

“Hi yes I am me, an exemplar of our species. A prime specimen.”

*visible confusion while reading the Colossal website*

“Turkeys can be terrifying. Birds are terrifying in general”

“That’s David Attenbourough not a bird.”

“Thank you for clarifying.”

“You’re welcome! It’s what I’m here for! This is why I have a Ph.d!”

“You need to have a healthy bullshit meter to read any paleontology paper.”

“As I keep telling you, life hates us.”

“Look at the size of the head compared to the body. This is just stupid.”

“Look at the butt of that thing!”

*measures with hands on screen*

“This is a stupid looking animal.” (Cotylorhynchus romeri)

"for example comparing femur robustness is ... what does that even mean?"

“You can laugh…this is a stupid looking creature!”

“Then of course you have your penis worms.”

“Holding fossils from the Burgess Shale is a religious experience.”

“It would be a very mossy world, which I am not opposed to. I like moss :)”

“Taxonomy is a clusterfuck.”

“This is probably one of the most ridiculous animals to have ever evolved.” (Whales)

“It looks like a strange monster from the black lagoon.” (Maiacetus)

“It’s a magical Liopleurodon!”

*does push ups on a table to show us how a fish would have walked*

*showing us a video of a crocodile taken by someone in the water*

“Do NOT do this. Don’t jump into the water with a crocodile. It will end very badly :(“

“This was like one of the weirdest papers I’ve seen. Alright so Ken Carpenter is a very legitimate paleontologist in Colorado. He normally worked with dinosaurs but he also decided to try and figure out how mosasaurs swim. So you look at the skeleton but then you also put two undergrads in a pool, one grabbing the other one's legs to see how that double-limb locomotion would work. It's like the kookiest thing I’ve ever seen published… but yeah I'm not even sure how he got the approval for this… I don’t think this was grant funded… “I would like some undergrad volunteers to jump in a pool, one holding the other ones legs to see if they will drown.””

*rants about the size of the mosasaur in Jurassic World and debates with a student whether or not an actual size mosasaur could pull a T. Rex into the water*

“I like owls. They look like they are wearing trousers :)”

"The Ice Age movie was a missed opportunity. There were so many cool animals they could have used and they didn't use ANY of them! There were giant ground sloths that were so big you can stand in their fossilized burrows! Yeah sure we have that one guy...what's his name...Sid? Yeah sure we have Sid but Sid is NOT a giant ground sloth. That's not even mentioning all of the horses and bison and bears and lions! Its disappointing!"

...

"I was on a podcast about this :D"

[tieflingkisser]

What Newsroom Nepo-Babies Don't Get About the UHC Scandal

The media never seemed quite so out-of-touch as they do with the general public's feelings about Luigi Mangione and American healthcare.

Writers in newsrooms from The Atlantic, to The New York Times keep putting out dimwitted op-eds reducing Mangione’s violence to meaningless barbarism, failing to engage with the horrifying realities of healthcare in America. We are a sick country, and one with businesses that profit from us staying sick and dying. Couple that with the fact that healthcare is largely still tied to employment, and we have millions of people too sick to work, but somehow working, just so they can get the medical care they need, and it doesn’t take a damn rocket scientist to see why people aren’t falling over themselves sad about the killing. It’s no wonder desperate people seek out snake oil salesmen like RFK Jr. for alternatives to medicine they can’t afford to access. I’m not saying it’s right (obviously), I’m just saying I get it. When you facilitate an environment of desperation, people will take the cheaper “solution” every time. And that might be listening to podcasts from people who are not intelligent selling an alternative to the doctor’s office. But I digress… What you won’t see in any of these bloviating scribbles is a description of withholding care as violence. I don’t purport to love Luigi Mangione’s Goodreads ratings, but I certainly understand what would push a rich and privileged someone in chronic pain, whose mother writhed in pain nightly—to violence. The Times says he walked away from his affluence and became radicalized, but more likely, his affluence convinced him there’d be someone to save him if there was ever a problem, and what he found was that even with loads of resources, adequate healthcare is overpriced and hard to come by.

[...]

People have had enough. People are tired of feeling like our lives don’t matter. We watch in 4K video as the ultra elite eat on the hard work of generations of people they never have to meet, while we struggle to make ends meet on our end. Most Americans are one emergency away from being homeless. If you have $600 in savings and you get hit by a car, your life might be over even if you survive the crash. That’s how real it is for most people in the richest country in the world. When the workers don’t share in those profits, the empathy gap widens. Piece after piece has compared our current state to the Gilded Age, but we are also in something completely new. In the Gilded Age, the poor could generally ignore the wealth disparity. The quality of life differences were there, but they weren’t broadcast constantly in the faces of those starving in the streets. Now we have an internet that throws it in our faces minute-by-minute. And in this instance, it wasn’t a wealth gap that was illuminated, though United Healthcare is a huge enterprise worth nearly half a trillion dollars. That’s money that sick people have paid into it and not gotten reciprocal value. I’m not saying people should be murdered, but I am saying a lot of people have died waiting for people at that company to help them and it rarely makes a headline.

[klonnieshippersclub]

Loved the Mikaelson ball dress and I saw that podcast video where Kat said she was styled differently than everyone else. Can you show examples of her bad style? How would you change it?

I love any excuse to use Pinterest, so thanks for this question. The fashion of tvd is really bad in general. Some of that is being a product of the late 2000s and early 2010s. However, the issues with Bonnie's costuming are unique to her. When you look at Elena and Caroline's clothes, they are meant to fit their bodies. Bonnie spends most of the show drowning in fabric and she is the only one dressed like a Disney Channel which is crazy because Bonnie is very petite and curvy unlike the others. They get to dress sexy and hot while putting Bonnie in sweatpants and colors where she can fade in with the background.

Bonnie’s fashion isn’t unique to her as a character. Elena gives simple, Caroline is preppy but Bonnie doesn’t have that. Bonnie’s dressed in layers and multiple patterns. Nothing that signifies who she is as a person. This is a problem. Bonnie is just as desirable as the other women. She deserves complimentary clothing that hugs her figure.

At the very least, the first season or so attempts to give Bonnie an earthy vibe. They fail to do so in a way that actually looks good. Flowy fabrics aren't supposed to suffocate bodies. I would dress Bonnie more like the collage pictures above. The "modest" fashion of Bonnie just pushes the narrative that Bonnie is asexual. She doesn't get to be sexy or have a healthy sex life. She gets to lose her virginity to her cheating boyfriend in season FIVE, while being passed through. Why doesn't Bonnie get to be sexy? Why doesn't she get to enjoy sex? Her fashion is connected to the show's poor storytelling.

Season 6 Bonnie started to wear more fitting clothes. It wasn’t on par with the 90s closely. But the inspiration was there. I can see Bonnie during her college years wearing more midriffs, fitted jeans, things that build her confidence up and gives her body some flare after a year in isolation. In the prison world she would’ve had more time to decide what works for her and what doesn’t. No more baggy t-shirts, and sweatpants all day remaining unseen. Bonnie isn't seen as an equal with her costuming in tvd but these changes would fix that.

[jaeyunkisser]

EOS: ENDLESS OPTIONS OF SOUND

────୨ৎ────

omg so one thing i’ve really wanting to post about is an app idea i’ve had that i’ll be scripting into my drs and i’ll also be the ceo of in one of my drs!!! the app is called EOS (endless options of sound) and it’s a music streaming platform. i first thought of this idea after watching a youtube video of a creator redesigning spotify’s entire UI. the end result was so cool and i was thinking why don’t i script something similar to this in my drs? so i did! it took a while to come up with all the ideas but i’ve finally got most of it—not all because i still have more ideas for it from time time—planned out.

in my enhypen dr the ceos are aliyah haughton and rihanna and they launched the app on october 31, 2008 with the hope of allowing everyone a chance to stream good quality music for free. it not only provides listeners with any song at their fingertips but also podcasts, audiobooks, music videos, interviews, merch, and concert tickets.

the first thing i wanted to implement was a better algorithm since spotify, apple music, and any other streaming service i’ve used has never had a good algorithm. it’s either the same songs over and over, songs i haven’t listened to in years, or stuff i don’t listen to at all. with EOS, these issues are nonexistent! the app provides a seamless algorithm that all listeners enjoy and never get tired of! playlists are curated based on listening habits, new and old, and are full of music you’ll actually enjoy by artists you already know and some you don’t. say goodbye to hearing the same five songs play when you click shuffle on your favorite playlist and say hello to new music each time. no matter how long the playlist, new songs will play each time because EOS can remember each song it’s played on that playlist, how many times you listened to it, and detects your mood based on your current listening habits.

one of my favorite features is eosoulmates. it allows listeners to connect with other listeners over shared music tastes through chatting, creating shared playlists, and streaming music together.

one thing i hate the most about spotify is its inability to load lyrics when i need them most. this won’t be a problem for EOS! lyrics will always be available even if an artist doesn’t upload them, there’s a team for this specific task working around the clock. imagine getting to listen to music all day just to upload the lyrics for other listeners!!

while spotify has its downsides it also does have some pretty good features. one of my favorites i’ll be implementing into EOS is exclusive presale ticket codes. these won’t just be for any listeners though! this will only be available for top listeners of the artists.

one last feature i’ll discuss is eos karaoke: sing it your way! this feature is inspired by the karaoke feature apple music created but i wanted to put more into it. lyrics will always be displayed in-sync with customizable colors, users can adjust the volume of the original vocals (muting, reducing, or adding harmonies), and pitch tracking provides real-time feedback along with a practice mode and timing guides. there will also be fun features such as autotune, voice effects, and reverb plus a dual-screen mode to connect to tvs during gatherings. users can duet with up to 10 people and eosoulmates of course. karaoke playlists are curated based on listening habits, mood, and vocal range which can be tested in app! sessions can be recorded and saved on app to playback or share on social media.

as stated previously, EOS is free. i wanted to create a space to unify people during hard times because music has always been a safe space ive turned to. “how will artist or employees get paid though?” revenue is generated through multiple sources such as: a share of money from concert ticket sales and merchandise sales, in-app donations directly supporting artists (i intend this for smaller artists and will probably put a limit on who can use this), sponsorships and partnerships, and grants from philanthropic organizations.

EOS will be the only music streaming platform in my drs and i’m super excited for it! it’s available on any device and has the best sound quality. my most favorite feature or my only favorite feature about apple music is dolby atmos and the sound quality that it produces. i was shocked that it sometimes costs artists thousands of dollars to get their art remixed (?) this way so it’ll be free to all artists on the app in my drs. i’m not sure if i’ll be dolby atmos in my drs, it might be of another name or i’ll make a higher quality option. not sure if many other people will care about this but i’m super excited to see most of the streams all in one place. of course music videos will still be uploaded on youtube but i’ve always loved streams and stats of music so it’s exciting to see it all be in one place. if you read all of this, thank you, i know it’s pretty long but i really wanted a better way of streaming music since most of everything else in drs is upgraded!

[rouge-fauna]

I rewatched some old vods and I don't think their friendship was fake. theres enough evidence to show that tommy looked up to dream and wasnt doing all it for clout though I'm referring to 2020-2021. In 2022, people said that tommy wanted to meet dream but based on tweets I've noticed ,it seems like he only wanted to meet him for the sake of content and once he wasnt doing vlogs anymore, he suddenly didnt want to meet dream anymore. Theres also a ton of moments where tommy defends dream in 2022-2023, but its really hard to tell if its genuine and from his own thoughts or if he is making fun of dream stans who say it. I noticed he put dream on a very high pedastal and he complimented dreams youtube videos a lot and compliments dreams advice to him but he rarely ever compliments dream as a person which contrasts how he spoke about his other friends. I think their dynamic was very complicated since like every person tommy liked would always get into problems with dream like bitzel, harry, jack, and tommy had a problem with people leaving him on read and dream struggled with responding to people which complicated things further I'm guessing.

Though I go by what Dream said. They were close in 2020-2021 until Tommy made that grooming joke about him then Dream distanced from him. They were friends on a content creator level after that like dream a while back hinted at how no one turned on him and that everyone he was close with a year ago (2022) he is close with now and mentions creator friendships. And then 2023 they were on good terms for the start of it. If tommy genuinely saw dream as a friend, he must have no idea how that works because from what I've noticed, he prioritized content creation and fan praise over friendship which is horrible. Tommy in his podcast referred to him and dream in the past as close while simultaneously insulting him and viewing everything he did as negative, that was weird to me.

People can be very good at lying… I mean I’m not saying Tommy was but it also wouldn’t surprise me. Sure it looked real in 2020-2021 but that don’t really mean it was… I mean Tommy was kind erotic at that time sometimes treating even Tubbo like shit so it’s hard to say. Not that I’m trying to say your observation skills are bad, but that if we are assuming the absolute worst of Tommy and assuming he’s a manipulator who maybe even lacks much empathy then, it could be fair to say he’s a good actor and liar.

As far as 2022-2023 goes I think the reasoning Dream is currently thinking about is that he was staying loyal for the sake of the USMP. I didn’t think about his friends having issues with Dream that is an interesting point… Dream leaving people unread? Oof how adhd of him XD lol, too relatable. But also all my friends do the same to me sooo I can considerate with the other side, it is frustrating (what I get for having like majority of friends with adhd lol)… yeah I have noticed that Dream will compliment Tommy as a person and say he’s funny and stuff but Tommy doesn’t really do that for Dream, course I just figured that was a personality and he didn’t do it in general but hearing that he does for his other friends is definitely interesting…

I didn’t get pick up that the grooming joke in 2020-2021 was the start of Dream distancing himself. I thought they were using it as an example of an instance where Dream sense too long of text message that came across as aggressive and upsetting for Tommy? And that because Tommy made jokes like it even before the allegations it made it okay or at least made sense why he’d continue to do so or something. Maybe I’m wrong. The finale was in what? November so they were friends up until the end of 2023, maybe not as close because they weren’t streaming together all the time anymore but still friends at least from Dream’s perspective…

“If tommy genuinely saw dream as a friend, he must have no idea how that works because from what I've noticed, he prioritized content creation and fan praise over friendship which is horrible. Tommy in his podcast referred to him and dream in the past as close while simultaneously insulting him and viewing everything he did as negative, that was weird to me.” I think you are on the money here, it’s my thoughts exactly. If Tommy and Dream were really friends this is a not how you treat him and it is weird to talk about how close you were but also claiming he manipulated and abused you or whatever. Like which is it? Were you close friends? Or did he manipulate you and hurt you from the start? Which is it’s all the times you’ve talked positively over the years about Dream or recently shit talking him? I mean yea as Tubbo says you can change your mind about someone but this is different because Tommy isn’t saying he’s stopped being Dream’s friend because of a recent thing he’s done but if past things which doesn’t make sense. As someone said recently - how can Dream manipulate and abuse you and stuff when you’ve never met in person. Just hang up the phone and stop talking to him. If he was so horrible and you continued to be his friend that’s because you were using him…

[goodluckclove]

True ScAry Story: "The Goobus"

This is real and I don't have much time left. You must listen carefully if you don't want to meet my name fate.

My name is Josh and all of this started when I was at a yard sale looking for retro video game.s I was so excited when I found a real, working cartridge of my favorite N64 game, Gotta Eat Paste!, which is no longer sold in America after the liberals won. I asked the woman how much it would be, and she said it was free.

"all you have to do is take this framed photo with you," she said, looking creepily at me with her photo-realistic eyes.

It was weird but I really wanted the cartridge so I took it without looking at what it was and just went home. But when I put in the cartridge and started what looked like a perfectly normal game of Gotta Eat Paste!, something happened.

I played the game. It was really fun and cool. I ate so much paste. Classic game, really holds up. I wish the developer didn't bomb that embassy.

Anyways before I went to bed I decided to look at the framed.photo. it was a weird monster but I figured maybe it was ai-generated or whatever. At the bottom someone scratched a message into the film.

THE GOOBUS IS COMING FOR YOU IF YOU SEE THIS, it said. YOURE GONNA GET GOOBED INTO BONES SORRY.

I thought that was weird but maybe it was Gen Alpha skibedy slang. But then scary things started happening. The podcast I listen to while I go to sleep started having a new conversation, even though it was an old episode I'd heard before. They were talking about The Goobus!

They said how the Goobus is really scary and dangerous, like at least two The Devils. He shows up to anyone who sees his face, even in picture, and he goobs your bones out - which hurts and sucks. They were about to say how to keep him from Goobing, but before they could my Zune got a Blue Screen of Death! But it was RED like BLOOD.

What they didn't say though is that the Goobing gets to your brain and makes you want to get OTHER people goobed. And I feel it happening. I'm fighting it off the best I can, but it sucks. I have to show you the Goobus, he demands it like Slenderman. But I must fight it off and keep other innocent people from having a shit time and then dying. The best I could do is hide the image in THIS VERY POST in a way NO ONE will find and be REAL CURSED by..

don't go looking for it that's dumb.

Ah dang I'm bones now.

[xdreamie]

socialblade doesn't lie, and while george has lost some followers across all his accounts, it's really not that many in the grand scheme of things. punz lost more, proportionally speaking, even hannah had a day where she dropped like 1.5k followers on twitch this week. those losses will hurt those two a LOT more than george's # drop since he still has millions more than them. the other ccs and companies dropping him would no doubt come running back if he makes content and still pulls numbers in the future - they can say this is about supporting victims, but $$ is ultimately what they all care about most. unfortunately i think the business side of this backlash is a side effect of the lack of regular content over the past year(s)... these agencies and other ccs (minus his actual friends) will not stick their neck out for a creator who isn't generating income for them, it sucks and is one of the more shitty an unethical aspects of this whole situation but i do think that's part of why gnf is getting dropped from things. it's much easier to drop a semi inactive cc than one who is regularly putting out content/collaborating with others/etc. but the good news there is that it means it's all very reversible, and across yt and twitch we've all seen other ccs come back from much worse. i hope george takes a good long break from everything (esp twitter, bc everyone is being very normal about all this literally everywhere else) for his mental health, and not the kind of break where he's just procrastinating work, but the kind where he disconnects entirely. and maybe spends some time with family (+ dream) and really takes some time to heal before having a jschlatt like comeback... maybe a controversial statement, but love him or hate him, he DID come back from being canceled and widely hated online, plus nearly having a mental breakdown/quitting being a cc entirely, to now having a successful podcast with his best friend and regularly showing up in videos with some of the biggest creators on youtube. i'd love that so much for george

^ yeah this. i do hope if he doesn’t choose to take a break that he starts grinding out content which hopefully dreams project will help with that! i honestly didn’t know schlatt ever left i thought he just stayed popular so like 😭

[betweenlands]

reblogged all the positivity from yesterday so i can Make My Own Post TM about the epidemic of "this should've been a miniseries" -- because pacing-wise, tone-wise, plot-wise, Ocean should never have been three hours long. it's one of Legs's longest non-compilation videos and it is also full of a lot of... not much happening besides the same core gameplay loop.

that'd be fine if i was looking for podcast/"second monitor" content that i could put on in the background while i do something else, but 100DMV is an ARG. there is no reason to make a video this long for a series that is, secretly or not, part of a running plotline. the two are at odds with each other. an ARG needs to be something you want to give your full attention to, make sure you aren't missing anything, pick apart and rewatch multiple times to analyze strange details. a three-hour video is directly hostile to that and a timesink for no reason.

i don't have a problem with longer videos -- there's a reason i cite hbomberguy as my usual exception to the Three Hour Balk Point -- but with Legundo's stuff, i'm increasingly finding it just doesn't have the same substance to hold together its own runtime. i mean, Ocean is longer than:

Sculk Apocalypse (kind of on the long side and could be shorter, but generally uses that runtime to keep a strong sense of tension and fighting to survive. has a very strong hook, multiple "time limits," and a clearly defined endgoal from the start.)

Undercover (a video with Legs actively trying to pretend he's not playing on the server he's playing on, consisting of secret community interaction, cool builds, the potential for a lot of lore drops, and a clearly defined time limit/endgoal from the start.)

Nights (the S1 finale of 100DMV, containing a whole bunch of separate mods to tinker with that hadn't previously been seen before, a good deal of lore, uses its runtime to keep a strong sense of tension and fighting to survive)

the Zombie Apocalypse scenario (full of interpersonal tactics and tension, contained a lot of person-to-person interaction and discussion, had a clearly defined time limit/endgoal from the start)

Dimensional Doors (the video that got me into 100DMV! full of strong plot beats, had variety but began cutting stuff when the dungeon pockets got too repetitive, contained a good deal of lore. also had the bonus of namechecking a mod i knew, recognized, and enjoyed that then made up a good deal of the playthrough's runtime)

the entirety of Deceit Season One, including the wrap-up episode (I DON'T NEED TO TELL YOU HOW INSANE DECEIT MAKES ME. JUST. HUH???)

and then there's the one i suspect started it all, the Game of Thrones scenario.

the GoT scenario is long. it clocks in at a little under 3 hours. but the difference between GoT and a lot of the other long videos is that it uses every single second of its runtime. there is a clearly defined endgoal and a time limit for that endgoal. there are a lot of different mods that play off each other and are used in interesting ways for interesting tactics (as well as smart use of vanilla mechanics). it has clearly defined sections for people that don't want to binge-watch all at once (including one that is pointed out to the viewer in-video as a good time to take a breather). it has, and this is critical, multiple running subplots owing to the fact that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ players on the server, most of whom are working for one team or another.

GoT works because of interaction between other players. a singleplayer quest for the Iron Throne would not feel nearly as tense or engaging -- but because there's a great deal of interpersonal politics, planning, and battle tactics, it keeps up the variety and nicely flows between downtime, negotiations, and battles. and, because there are multiple players in the conflict, something is always happening offscreen. the world of GoT isn't static, and doesn't only change when Legundo Specifically does something. it is always changing, all the time, when even a single person is logged in, and it means that there is no possible way to get stuck in one gameplay loop for too long because someone is always going to either finish that loop or throw a curveball into it from completely offscreen.

i've made my peace with Haunted Winter being so long, even though it probably should've been a four-part miniseries with one episode per each season. it still has those clearly defined "season" segments, has multiple mods that are being used in different ways at different times, and contains both a known time-limit and interesting editing that keeps up a decently strong sense of tension. it's also the S2 finale of 100DMV, so i can understand how it'd run a little long.

but, and i cannot stress this enough, there is no good reason Ocean -- which consists almost exclusively of a core "loot ships, return to current base, build/mine, loot ships" gameplay loop with no real variation until the mod in the thumbnail really comes into play on day 74 -- should be three hours long. there's no good reason for it to be longer than GoT, than Sculk Apocalypse, than Deceit S1. in the time it takes to watch Ocean, i could rewatch most of Deceit S2. if i set the Ocean video to loop and walked away, i could go rewatch every single Dominion episode that Legundo has ever uploaded and come back in time to find the Ocean video only partway through its third loop.

i really hope this doesn't keep happening. 100DMV used to be something i could recommend without caveats, at the most go "it's got some slightly clickbaity intros, and it might start a little slow, but it picks up quickly and stays really good." now i'm in a situation where the second season runs incredibly long and i genuinely don't know if i'd tell people to get into it anymore -- because right now, at the pace the story is progressing, with the length of videos being put out, it just is not worth the time investment.

i like 100DMV. i like 100DMV a lot. i mean, i'm writing a multichapter fanfiction about it, of course i like it. but if i hadn't gotten into it when i did, with an hour-and-a-half long video about Dimensional Doors, i would be seeing 2-3 hour long videos in my recommended, shrug and go "nah," and then go watch something else.

and this frustrates me. i know 100DMV can be good. i know 100 Days videos can be tightly edited, engaging, interesting fiction with a lot of strong plot hooks despite having a fairly repetitive gameplay loop. i know there's got to be a way to fix this, but i can't do that. all i can do is point out how it comes across to a specific subsection of the audience and hope that it doesn't just come across as needless bashing on something kind of popular.

because it's not. i say all this because i love storytelling in MCYT videos -- it's why i've been here for so long. i say all this because i don't want it to become a lost art for more and more people because long videos do better in Youtube's algorithm.

[dustedmagazine]

Slept Ons: 2023

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter

If you write for Dusted, you listen to music all the time and you try, at least within your general area of interest, to stay current with what’s current. Ask any of our significant others, and they’ll say we listen to too much music, to which we inevitably reply “What’s that, this ‘too much’ you speak of?” We listen to music while we’re eating, while we’re working, while we’re exercising, while we’re driving from one place to another, even while we’re brushing our teeth sometimes; though, admittedly, the sound quality is not that great in the bathroom.

Even so, we miss things. Here, in what has become an annual tradition, we revisit some of the albums that slipped away in one fashion or another, the ones that we kept putting off until it was too late, the ones we somehow didn’t catch wind of until well into January, the ones we discovered tardily on other people’s lists and year-end podcasts and radio shows. So here are our late finds, a favorite or two each that we never got the chance to write about. Fortunately, unlike bread and fresh fruit and bunches of cilantro, albums don’t go bad if you let them sit for a while.

Die Enttäuschung und Alexander Von Schlippenbach — Monk’s Casino Live At Au Topsi Pohl (Two Nineteen)

This record wasn’t so much slept on as patiently sleuthed. Die Enttäuschung, the long-running German quartet (their name translates as The Disappointment, an appellation that says more about their sense of humor than the quality of their ever-buoyant reimagining of bebop and early free jazz) started selling it at gigs in the spring of 2023. I bided my time, and when I made it to Berlin last fall, scoring a copy was on my agenda. To this day, the record and the internet are near strangers; while you can buy it from Bandcamp, there’s no download, streaming or videos. So, you’ll have to just take it from me that Die Enttäuschung’s reunion with now-octogenarian pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach will take wrinkles off your brow. The first time that these musicians recorded together as Monk’s Casino, back in 2005, they performed every one of Thelonious Monk’s compositions over three CDs; pith was essential. The repertoire hasn’t changed this time, but the approach is looser. Crammed into the intimate confines of the now-shuttered Au Topsi Pohl just as Omicron started ruining parties, the five musicians goose the tempos, spike the solos with impertinence, and veer around Monk’s sharp angles with a combination of intimate familiarity and belt-busting abandon.

Bill Meyer

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter — SAVED! (Perpetual Flame Ministries)

Not slept on so much as avoided— and why, at this point I am not entirely sure. When I saw Kristin Hayter perform under her previous Lingua Ignota moniker back in December of 2022, she opened with a set of devotional songs on piano, a variety of metallic objects set and chains draped across the instrument’s interior string works. It was extraordinary, and SAVED! features the same basic set of raw, austere elements: that prepared piano, Hayter’s remarkable voice and the problematics of faith. The avoidance may stem from my own fraught relations to the sort of grim Protestantism Hayter reimagines; I spend some time around fire-and-brimstone Baptism as a child, and it left a mark on me. She wove some of that language and those textures into the excellent Lingua Ignota record Sinner Get Ready, but there they were much more symbolic, and largely couched in specific fundamentalisms (Amish and Mennonite) that distanced them somewhat. The sounds and spiritual gestures on SAVED! are a good deal more familiar to me, and they haunt. Likely the haunting is the point. Certainly “All of My Friends Are Going to Hell” and “I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole” smolder and then burn with varieties of hellfire I have smelled before. One can also hear those songs more metaphorically, and “I Will Be with You Always” (the best thing on the record) is replete with images and intensities that call to multiple levels of meaning, simultaneously and sublimely. SAVED! is a hard record for me to listen to, and that’s why I have come, somewhat belatedly, to prize it so highly.

Jonathan Shaw

Illusion of Safety — Pastoral (Korm Plastics)

Daniel Burke has been carefully and consistently nurturing his Illusion of Safety project for 40 years, and I’ve been embarrassingly ignorant of the output until now. Burke released multiple audio artifacts in 2023, including a 40th anniversary ten-cassette box set, so choosing a single album to write about for the Slept On column was a daunting undertaking. Pastoral is unique in that it shows off a more delicate and expansive side of the Illusion of Safety oeuvre. It’s also one of the few music-focused objects that the stalwart Korm Plastics label has released in years; the imprint focuses on the written word these days. Sonically, Burke has established a series of vignettes that follow a similar pattern. The music flows from short, sharp attacks into lengthy sustained quietude. Burke unleashes his jarring, frantic salvos both percussively and synthetically, and these brief but unsettling periods morph into slowly churning drone swarms. Given that this is just one example of Burke’s sonic vernacular, I’m excited to hear more. Thankfully, when it comes to Illusion of Safety, I’ve been a veritable Rip Van Winkle.

Bryon Hayes

Malla — Fresko (Solina)

So slept on was Malla Malmivaara’s second solo album that even the normally reliable Beehype missed it, but even if you did happen to notice its inclusion on my midyear list, overstating how well-crafted and immersive Fresko’s dance-pop tracks are is hard to do. It makes sense given she’s better known for her acting career, but Malla’s been in the Finnish music game for a long time, too — first in the short-lived mid-aughts house trio Elisabeth Underground, then as herself with 2019’s “Sabrina” single (which got a Jori Hulkkonen remix, a guy who once redid M83) that ended up paving the way for her self-titled 2021 debut full-length. Despite using similar synth arpeggios and a healthy dose of vocal reverb as she did on Malla, Fresko is a little bit darker, moodier, more down in it. Lead single “Moi” (“hi” in English) tells the tale, its perfectly crafted video full of young Rolf Ekroth models doing things like looking impossibly cool in ridiculous outfits and having fashion shows with ATVs in snowy back alley Helsinki parking lots are a perfect marriage of audio and video, images and a melody burned in my brain the moment I saw it. It is very much a dance record flush with tech-house tweaks and no grander artistic ambitions, but Malla’s barely crested 40; now that she’s pledged more time to her music career, it’s entirely possible Fresko is but a warmup for something bolder — and even if it’s not, you could do much worse than a third album full of body movers like this. Hi is right.

Patrick Masterson

Kevin Richard Martin – Black (Intercranial)

Ostensibly a eulogy to Amy Winehouse, Kevin Richard Martin’s Black is a deeply humane expression of isolation, loss and grief. Built from the ground up, the bass deep and warm, swathes of glacial arpeggiated synths and beats that hint at the club. Notes echo and ripple away to create silhouettes of solitude, a tangible manifestation of absence. Despite the deep weight of his music, Martin imbues Black with an incredible delicacy. His abstract architecture allows the mind to roam and the listener to connect with emotional truths. It’s the balance Martin finds between the particular and universal that gives Black it’s power. In the strutting bassline of “Camden Crawling” smeared with narco/alcoholic fuzz, the looming threat of “Blake’s Shadow” and the bleary saxophone in “Belgrade Meltdown” there are the faintest echoes of Winehouse’s sound which emerge from the depths of Martin’s echo chambers. A work of terrible sadness, great beauty, empathy and comfort.

Andrew Forell

Derek Monypeny — Cibola (2182 Recording Company)

Cibola eased into the world as 2022 turned into 2023, but it took me nearly a year to get to it. Monypeny is a confirmed westerner, having lived in Arizona, Oregon, and (currently) the California desert, and an awareness of both the wrongfulness and the good fortune of living in that neck of the woods infuses Cibola, which is named for one of the American southwest’s legendary cities of gold (helpful hint; if you ever encounter a conquistador looking for gold, tell them it’s somewhere else). Monypeny alternates between guitar, shahi baaja, and on electric autoharp the LP’s seven tracks, and Kevin Corcoran contributes time-stopping metal percussion to one of them. The music likewise toggles between stark evocations of space and swirling submersions into nether states. In either mode, Monypeny effectively suggests the gorgeous immensity and pitiless history of the land around him.

Bill Meyer

The Sundae Painters — S-T (Flying Nun)

One minute, The Sundae Painters are churning wild screes of noisy guitar, the next they construct airy psychedelic pop songs of a rare unstudied grace. The band is a super group of sorts — Paul Kean and Kaye Woodward of the Bats, Alex Bathgate of the Tall Dwarfs and the late Hamish Kilgour of the Clean — convening in loose-limbed, joyful mayhem in songs that glisten and shimmer and roar. “Hollow Way” roils thick, muddy textures of drone up from the bottom, the slippery bent notes of sitar (that’s Bathgate) and Woodward’s diaphanous vocals floating free of a visceral murk. “Aversion” lets unhinged guitar shards fly over the thump of grounding drums as Kilgour chants inscrutable poetry. The two HAP tracks, I and II, stretch out in locked-in, psychotropic grooves, relentless forward motion somehow dissolving into an endless ecstatic now. This full-length, sadly the only one we’ll ever have from the Sundae Painters now that Kilgour is gone, is as good as anything that its esteemed participants ever did in their more famous bands, and that’s saying a lot.

Jennifer Kelly

U SCO — Catchin’ Heat (Self Released)

Here’s the extent of what I currently know: Someone I have on Facebook posted a link to it as one of his favorite records of the year, and someone I don’t know responded that they bought a copy of the cassette before the first track even finished. U SCO are Jon Scheid (bass), Ryan Miller (guitar), and Phil Cleary (Drums) and they are from and/or based in Portland Oregon. According to Discogs and Bandcamp Catchin’ Heat is the first thing they’ve released since 2016. That’s it! I started listened to this with the same box-checking, due diligence energy I tend to have for the dozen or so records I hear about one way or another after I’ve already done my year-end writing; most of them, every year, I don’t even make it through one play (the fatigue has fully set in by this point in the process). But sure enough before the end of that first track, I knew this was going to have to be the record I slept on. It’s perfectly structured, with extra-long, absolute blowouts beginning and ending the record, the second and second-last tracks being the two shortest and the only moments of relative calm, and the middle two making up a strong core that both brings in some elements not found elsewhere on Catchin’ Heat (the vocals on “trrrem”) and is just the most straightforward version of the absolute burners U SCO can clearly summon up on command (“woe dimension”). As great and arresting as that opening track is, though, the closing “abyssal hymn” might be the real highlight here, bringing in clarinet and saxophone to add a whole new layer of skronk to what they’re cooking. I’ve listened to this record about 10 times in a couple of days, and they deserve to sell out of that run of cassettes.

Ian Mathers

[thisaintascenereviews]

End Of The Year Media Extravaganza (with @jakeh2987)

Now I know what you’re thinking: based on the title alone, the end of the year has come and gone, so what gives? I’ll admit that this was supposed to come out way sooner, but this thing called “life” gets in the way. Christmas, as well as an unexpected family emergency (and a random snowstorm on top of that) pushed this back. Hell, there are still some lists trickling out, so it’s not totally late. Nonetheless, list season is the epitome of the year as a music fan. Throughout the year, my buddy Jake and I come together to talk about our favorite pieces of media throughout the last handful of months, including music, movies, video games, TV shows, and even extending it to podcasts and other pieces of media. We’ve been doing this every three or four months, so it’s time for the zenith of it all — the end of the year list. This time, however, we’re going to be something different… An awards show!

Well, sort of, anyway. Introducing the End Of The Year Media Extravaganza Awards Show, where we’ll be nominating a total of five bands / artists for certain categories, both good and bad, ultimately picking a “winner,” and talking about many other albums and artists in the process. We’ll still be talking about a bunch of albums, bands, and artists, but we figured we’d try something a little different this time around, while keeping it fun, lighthearted, and conversational. It’s something we’re trying out, and I don’t know about Jake, but I’m all for it.

Speaking of which, how ya doin’, man? It’s been awhile since we’ve done one of these, but this is the one that I’m most excited for. I know it’s a little late, but I’ve been excited to work on this, nonetheless. I guess the first question I have to start this off is what you thought about this year as a whole, especially for music. What did you think about music as a whole this year, and how do you think it compared to years past?

Hey man! As always, I'm super stoked to get together to do this, but I'm especially excited to do it this year because of this awards show idea we came up with. It's gonna be a chance to do what we always do, but in a new and creative way!

Anyway, I'm doing okay! I think the rush of the holidays and general end-of-year stuff took a lot more out of me than I realized, because I've been spending a lot of time just resting and taking it easy, but besides that, it's been a nice reset of sorts! When I do think back on 2024, though, I think it was a really strong year for music, but almost sneakily so. Last year had some really heavy hitters, like new albums from Fall Out Boy and Metallica, so in comparison, you could look at this year and say it wasn't quite as big, but I think a lot of really great stuff came out throughout the year, and then we did eventually get some heavier hitters as the year went on. I'm curious about what you think, though, what stands out to you as you look back on 2024?

I love the idea you came up with for the awards show, because it really is a unique spin on what we already do, so we’ll still be able to talk about music, just in a fun and more engaging way. Anyway, I can say the same thing about what how 2024 stood out; we had some heavy hitters last year, especially bands and artists that hadn’t put out albums in a long time, such as the aforementioned ones, but this year shouldn’t be disregarded, either. We still had a lot of great stuff, even if we only really had a few albums that truly transcended the scene they’re apart. It’s also truly been a diverse year in music, and my personal list has a lot of different stuff, definitely more than usual. I will also say that my lists have been pretty different the last few years, and not a lot of heavier music has appeared on my lists from the last couple years. I listened to a lot of heavy music back in the day, and while I still do, not a whole lot really stuck out enough to throw it on my list. While this year wasn’t as big, what came out and what we ended up loving was truly special.

I did want to ask you one thing before we get started: what made you come up with this idea of an awards show? I love the unique spin on our classic formula of just shooting the shit, and having some fun, but what was the inspiration behind it?

In our last check-in piece, I talked about the gaming YouTube channel/podcast MinnMax and how they have some unique spins on some very tried and true formats and shows, and another thing they do in a unique way is their end-of-year list content. They have what's called The Two Tens, where they compile all the hosts' favorite game releases and build out a top 20 list, and The MinnMax Awards, where they hand out various accolades for stuff like favorite boss fight in a game, best performance, and so on. I thought this idea might be fun to translate to a music discussion, and after planning it out over the last while, I'd say we came up with a really cool format!

Oh, that’s such a cool idea! That’s a cool way to spruce up yearend accolades, especially more than just saying what was good or bad. Even bad stuff can have good stuff in it, and a lot of people fail to realize that, and instead they just see things as black or white without any room for gray. Translating this to a music discussion is awesome, what do you say we get this ball rolling, huh? Would you like to do the honor of introducing the first category?

So, before we get into these, I'll offer a brief disclaimer; when it comes to the more genre-specific categories, whatever wins might not necessarily be our favorite release in that category, but it's still something we both very much enjoyed and that we both feel best represents the category.

Speaking of, our first category is Best Pop/R&B/Hip-Hop Album! I'm gonna let you mostly take the lead on this one, because you're way more versed in these genres than I am, but I do have a few nominations for it all the same:

Kendrick Lamar- GNX

Lupe Fiasco- Samurai

Childish Gambino- Atavista/Bando Stone and the New World

Just because I’m more familiar with these genres doesn’t mean your nominations are any less valid, because I was going to pick those as well! I had those on my list, too, and I’d like to nominate two more:

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was

Lil Dicky - Penith

And the winner is…

I feel like with the year he's had, it's gotta be Kendrick Lamar's GNX, and it's really not even close. The beef with Drake (who may or may not appear later) was the talk of the spring and summer, and "Not Like Us" in particular really was a massive hit, so Kendrick really had nothing to prove this year, but he decided to surprise-drop an album to cap off the year, and it's some of his most accessible and fun material to date, but without losing anything that makes him one of the best in the game. GNX shows a man on top of the world, and I for one think it's really well-deserved.

Oh, yeah, no complaints here! My pick would easily be GNX by Kendrick Lamar, and it’s truly one of my favorites of the year, although I wish it would have come out earlier in the year, because I would have loved to have spent a lot of time with this one throughout the year. Nonetheless, this record is a lot of fun, engaging, and celebratory. It really is a man on top of the world, and you can’t help but get sucked into it, too.

Onto the next category, the best pop-punk album of this year! I’m gonna let you take this one, since you enjoy the genre more than I do, but I got a couple things I’d like to nominate, because the genre truly was something special this year:

State Champs - S/T

Neck Deep - S/T

The Story So Far - I Want To Disappear

Pop-punk really did have a great year, but one thing in particular that I think stood out this year was the variety of releases within the genre. You had your more straightforward bands, like State Champs and Neck Deep, both of whom I'll also nominate, but you had others who play in different subsets release banger albums, including:

Boston Manor- Sundiver

Trash Boat- Heaven Can Wait

I feel like this one might be another pretty clear-cut winner, but it doesn't make any of the others any less awesome. And that winner is...

I don’t know if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, but it has to go to State Champs by a mile. I haven’t heard your picks, but I may check those out throughout this year, because I know you were hyping those up, although the self-titled State Champs album blew me away. It was even better than Kings Of The New Age, and even that record was already great. They really doubled down on what makes them stick out, but they added some new stuff to keep their sound fresh, at least fresh enough to keep themselves interesting.

Yep, State Champs absolutely takes this one, and you nailed why; they're a band who does what they do so well, is led by one of the best vocalists in the genre, if not the best, and for this album in particular, they doubled down on what made Kings of the New Age so great and added a few new flairs to their sound, including a song that wouldn't feel too out of place on modern country radio. They just know how to make effortlessly catchy and fun pop-punk, and if they keep up this current hot streak, we'll have a lot of great music from them for many years to come.

Our next category is going to be one of many that we have that isn’t about a specific genre, but we wanted to go back to years’ past: the best album not from 2024. This is as broad of a category as you can get; you don’t have to only listen to newly released music in any calendar year, as you can listen to music that’s new to you from any year, so what are some albums from years’ past, which you discovered last year, that you want to nominate?

So, I could have really gone anywhere with this, but when I think about albums I really gravitated towards in the last year aside from the new releases that I hadn't heard before, I have a few that came to mind. These are all pretty different releases, but they all stuck with me one way or another:

Mike Shinoda- Post Traumatic

Wage War- Manic

Tonight Alive- The Other Side

I'm very curious to see what your picks for this are, because again, it could be absolutely anything.

This is something I had to sit and think about, because I discovered a good amount of music this past last year, but I went back to a lot of stuff, too, so I have to remind myself that I found an album a couple of years ago, versus this past year. Mike Shinoda’s debut solo album is a good one, and I’d put that here, too, because I listened to that when I got more into Linkin Park. Here are a few I got, though:

Teddy Swims - I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy, Pt. 1

Frank Sinatra - L.A. Is My Lady

And the winner is…

I think for this one, because the category is so broad and we both have very different picks, I say we make this one a co-winner, with each of us choosing an album! I'll go with Mike Shinoda's Post Traumatic for my winner; in the midst of Linkin Park's comeback this past fall, I did a deep dive into their discography for the first time in many years, but I also finally gave this album a proper listen, and it's a very raw and honest look into Shinoda's grief in the immediate aftermath of Chester Bennington's passing, and it was also a look at some of what Linkin Park was gonna end up doing sonically on their comeback album. This album hit me pretty hard and stuck with me as the year came to a close and Linkin Park's From Zero was in full swing.

So, which would be your winner here?

Ooh, okay, I like that, actually. Both of my nominations both mean something different, but if I had to go with one, I’d pick Frank Sinatra’s L.A. Is My Lady. I’ve been a Sinatra fan for many years, but I only really took a deep dive into his music a couple of years back, and this album is his last solo studio album. It was re-released and remastered last year for its 40th anniversary, but I ended up finding an original copy right before Christmas on vinyl. It’s an underrated album in his body of work, because you can tell he’s aged, but he’s having so much fun with it. It’s also an album done with the late Quincy Jones, who passed away just a couple months ago. As much as I loved Teddy Swims, I’ve done even more of a deep dive into Sinatra this year, and it’s been such a blast getting a lot of his albums on vinyl.

Four our next category, we're gonna take a look at Comeback of the Year, and there are really two main criteria for this one; either a band/artist put out a great new release after coming back from hiatus or just not putting anything out after a few years, or they came back after a bit of a career slump and released an album that got people back on board. My nominees for this category are:

Linkin Park- From Zero

Green Day- Saviors

Those are good pieces of criteria for Comeback of the Year, especially the latter, since there are a handful of bands that put out albums that got people back on board. Now I would also certainly nominate Linkin Park with From Zero, but here are my couple of nominees that I got:

Usher - Coming Home

Lil Dicky - Penith

Childish Gambino - Atavista / Bando Stone

And the winner is…

So, I think the easy winner here would be Linkin Park with From Zero, but I am open to hearing you out if you have a different idea! But, this was easily music's biggest comeback story, both in terms of just the story itself and for how well-received From Zero turned out to be. It's the band's first album in seven years with a new vocalist who was doing the impossible in replacing Chester Bennington, and I don't think it could have gone any better. What do you think, though?

It’s no context — From Zero wins this. That record was the epitome of a comeback. They came back almost out of nowhere, and people rallied right alongside them. They did the impossible, like you said, so I totally agree.

With that said, our next category is the biggest surprise of the year! This can be a mixture of an album that really blew us away, and we didn’t expect it to be as good as it was, or an album that came out that we had no idea about, but it was great. My nominations lean into both of those, but here’s what I got (and a couple of these may overlap with the last one, actually):

Linkin Park - From Zero

Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Bilmuri - American Motor Sports

I wonder if some of these will be the same for you, but I’m curious as to what really surprised you this year.

I'm definitely with you on both From Zero and American Motor Sports, and I can give you GNX for this nomination as well, because all three of those were great albums that came out of nowhere, for one reason or another. To round out the nominations, I'll throw these into the ring:

Windwaker- Hyperviolence

Cory Wells- Harboring the Hurt I've Caused

And the winner is...

I’m torn between From Zero and GNX, so unless you have another pick, I’m happy with either of those, because those are the two albums that surprised me the most, although Bilmuri surprised me a lot, too, because I had never listened to his music proper. My gut is leaning towards From Zero, though, because that album really surprised me, where I was never a fan of Linkin Park beforehand, but what do you think?

Funnily enough, I was torn between Linkin Park and Bilmuri, and since we talked about Linkin Park a good bit already, I'll get into a little bit of why I think Bilmuri is one of the picks deserving of this spot. Like you, I had never listened to this band's music before, but when I started hearing the singles for this album, I was really blown away by just how good they were, and that goes for the album as a whole. It almost has no business being as good as it is, because at first glance, country songwriting with djenty metalcore riffs really shouldn't work, and yet it does so well.

That said, I'm happy to give it to From Zero, because like we both mentioned before, no one saw this coming, and even more so, it turned out better than anyone could have hoped for.

That’s why Bilmuri surprised me, because I hadn’t heard his music before, but the country instrumentation with djenty riffs and breakdowns really caught me by surprise. GNX caught me by surprise for being a great album that literally had no hype or anticipation, it just showed up, and it was awesome. From Zero, however, takes the cake for me for being an album I didn’t expect, but also being an album I ended up really loving. It really made me a fan of theirs, and that’s genuinely the biggest surprise I had for the whole year.

Our next category is another kind of surprise — biggest disappointment. These are albums that we were excited to hear, but they fell short a bit. I combed through all my reviews and I found a few that I wanted to nominate:

Cane Hill - A Piece Of Me I Never Let You Find

Many Eyes - The Light Age

Belmont - Liminal

Let me stress that this doesn’t mean these albums are bad, and these are far from it, but these are albums that let me down a bit, so what do you have for your nominations?

Like you, I'd say that the albums I chose for this bit aren't at all bad, but for the most part, I was underwhelmed because I expected to at least enjoy them a solid amount and listen to them more than just a couple times.

10 Years- Inner Darkness

Seether- The Surface Seems So Far

I think for our winner, I'll get behind Many Eyes out of our nominations. I still thought that album was pretty solid, all things considered, but considering the other member of Every Time I Die put out an absolutely banger of an album with Better Lovers, Keith Buckley's first album back post-ETID breakup just falls a little flat. What say you?

The debut Many Eyes album is my pick, too, especially out of these, but the new Cane Hill is a close second, just because of how long it’s been since their last album. I liked both of these, but yeah, I only listened to Many Eyes a few times and got tired of it, because it was just like everything he did with Every Time I Die. Many Eyes gets it, for better or worse, but hopefully their next album is more interesting.

Our next category is best unpopular album, and these are albums that weren’t very liked by a lot of people, but we found enjoyment with them, anyway. I only have two, but I’m curious to see what you have, too:

Lil Dicky - Penith

Justin Timberlake - Everything

So, I only really have one nomination for this myself, but I think it's one you'll definitely agree with, at least based on our previous discussions, and that's Wage War's Stigma.

This is an album that a lot of the metal community didn't like, and while I can understand why, it's only to a certain extent. I think I personally prefer Manic, but Stigma is an album that further expands on what they've been doing for the last couple reasons, and they take some really cool left turns along the way. The unfortunate thing is, it's not the same crushing metalcore a lot of their fanbase wants, so I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate.

Honestly, I would say that's my winner for this one, but I'm curious about what you think. I could see a case being made for JT, but at least with him, I kinda get why people's view of him as a person might cause them to just dismiss the album, regardless of quality.

Yeah, I’d say that Stigma wins for this category; I liked Manic a lot more, too, but Stigma is still a solid album. I could make cases for my picks, but I can at least get why people don’t like my picks, even if they were unnecessarily hated. Stigma is an album that really fans didn’t like because it just wasn’t as heavy, so Stigma gets it. With that said, what’s our next category?

For our next category, we have Best Underground/Unknown Album, and this is basically just an album from a band or artist who isn't on any label or has any real name recognition yet, but we feel like they should, because they put out an awesome release in 2024. What are some of your nominees for this one?

For this one, I went with exactly what you said: albums from bands that aren’t either on a label, or have any real name recognition, and I got three, at least out of stuff on my list, anyway:

Brigette Calls Me Baby - The Future Is Our Way Out

Out Of/Into - Motion I

Fluorescents - Scream It At Me

What have you got?

Ooh, yeah, that Fluorescents album was great, and would definitely be one of my picks as well! Here are my two others:

Midfield- self-titled

Lily Kershaw- Pain & More

I'm honestly happy to give the win to any of these, so I'll turn it over to you! I'll give the edge to Fluorescents, though; I think that album shows a ton of promise, especially for a debut album.

Yeah, Fluorescents totally works, because I really love that album, especially as a debut album from a band that’s from my neck of the woods (well, home turf, anyway). Fluorescents gets the win, in that case, and a well-deserved one, at that.

Our next category is most underrated album! This category is slightly different, as these are albums that were relatively popular, but they just didn’t get the love they deserved, or the very least, got overshadowed by other stuff that came out. Here’s what I’m going to nominate:

Bayside - There Are Worse Things Than Being

Lupe Fiasco - Samurai

Rain City Drive - Things Are Different Now

I’m curious to see what you have, because they could very well be the same!

Well, you would be absolutely correct, both Bayside and Rain City Drive made my nominations as well! Both were very loved by their respective fanbases, but didn't quite as the broader love and support they deserved. My other picks for this category would be:

Makari- Wave Machine

The Early November- self-titled

I'm tempted to give the win to Bayside, but I almost think the reason it's underrated is because a lot of people almost take Bayside for granted in how consistent and solid they've been for the better part of a decade+, and this album really was them at some of their creative peaks. But, I can also see a case for Rain City Drive; it's pretty much an unspoken rule in life that any band Jonny Craig is kicked out of automatically gets better, but I feel like Rain City Drive got left behind after their first album with current vocalist Matt McAndrew, and they didn't deserve that, because this album rules.

I gave one of mine to Lupe Fiasco, because as much love as the album got in the hip-hop scene, it didn’t get much love elsewhere. Even after a bit, people kind of forgot about it, unfortunately. I thought the same for Bayside and Rain City Drive, too, because Bayside is one of those bands that’s been around for a long time, yet Rain City Drive were dealt with a bad hand after they kicked Jonny Craig to the curb. I’ll give it to one of them, so I’ll leave it up to you.

You know what, I think I'll give the win to Rain City Drive here, because I think given the chance and exposure, they could really take that next step, and I think that's worth celebrating.

Next up, we're gonna flip this one on its head and talk about Most Overrated Album. These are albums that are good, maybe even great, but we felt like they got more attention then they maybe deserved, at least in place of more exciting releases. My nominees are:

Alpha Wolf- Half Living Things

Real Friends- Blue Hour

Cane Hill- a piece of me i never let you find

Honestly, Rain City Drive getting the win seems right, because they’re a band that’s underrated in their own right. Anyway, I’m definitely surprised at your picks here, although I certainly agree with all three. I went towards more mainstream music for mine, and these might even be contentious and controversial, but hear me out:

Jack White - No Name

Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter

I picked these, because as good as they were, they weren’t defining releases of the year, especially in Jack White’s case. I respect Cowboy Carter more than I really like it, but it was a messy album that didn’t know what it was trying to do, especially throwing a lot of ideas at you. I’m surprised you put the new Real Friends album, too; I liked that album, but I never reviews it, because I found it kind of boring, at least in the sense that it may have been their best album, but it felt like it came out ten years too late. Really, any of these have a shot at winning, but what do you think?

I watch a lot of music YouTubers who happen to listen to primarily metal, and almost all of them were really hyping up the new Alpha Wolf to be one of the year's best releases, so I was excited to check it out, but while I thought it was good, I didn't really see what everyone else was seeing in it that made it *that* good. Like, sure, the Ice-T collab was awesome, but I wish the rest of the album had more of that swagger and fun. And as for Real Friends, I think it's one of those cases where the pop-punk community wants to hype this band up still because they were one of the OGs of the 2010s scene, but unlike State Champs and Neck Deep, among others, I feel like this album didn't really do anything to make them take that next step, even if they improved a good amount since they switched vocalists. They feel like a band stuck in time, and I don't quite get why they still get the love they do in the scene.

I haven't listened to either the Beyonce or Jack White albums, but I will say, from everything I hear about it, the new Jack White seems like it's just a "tr00 rawk" fan's fever dream, and I don't know if anyone outside of them have really cared since after the White Stripes days, so I'm leaning towards that one for our winner.

Yeah, the new Alpha Wolf album was good, but it was boring beyond belief, like it was just breakdowns and harsh vocals. I also sorta feel like the nu-metalcore trend is starting to get overplayed, like we’ve heard it a million times before, and they just didn’t do anything with that sound. I feel the same way about Real Friends, too; their new album is good, but it still feels like they’re stuck in 2014.

As for Jack White, honestly, I’d go with that one, too. I liked it when it came out, but I honestly kinda forgot about it. I’ll go with that one, too, because it is a good album, but it’s a generic blues-rock album that admittedly does have some cool riffs and ideas, but that’s it.

Our next category is, well, best country MAGA heel turn from a butt-rock singer, and all I’ve gotten written here are:

Aaron Lewis - The Hill

Aaron Lewis - The Hill

Aaron Lewis - The Hill

Do you have anyone different? This is just odd that it’s all the same name and album!

Huh, that is odd, let me check to see if I have anything different:

Aaron Lewis- The Hill

Aaron Lewis- The Hill

That's so weird, I have the same album, too! I wonder how this happened!

Well, I guess the winner is Aaron Lewis with The Hill, don’t you think? I believe this is what they call “foreshadowing,” wink wink, because this album will most likely be spoken about again. I will say, however, that this album blew me away for how blatantly MAGA-coded it was.

Aaron Lewis had been going down this path for the last several years now, but this was the album where the mask fully slipped, and it's honestly baffling just how awful and pandering to MAGA it really is. It honestly feels like Lewis fired up ChatGPT, fed a bunch of Fox News transcripts through it, and then told it to generate the most generic and bland country album you can think of. I mention Fox News specifically because nearly every lyric is pulled right out of the MAGA grievance playbook, and he genuinely believes he's speaking truth to power or whatever nonsense.

The first track of this album is literally about how people should get along, regardless of political affiliation, and instead go fishing, but he slips a “let’s go Brandon” remark in there, like he can’t help himself. Not only does that make it so dated already, it just plain sucks. This album really does feel like Fox News and ChatGPT got together, but it’s truly bafflingly awful.

Speaking of awful, the next category is a band who should just stop. These are bands that either put out music this year, or they’re just so bad, they need to stop. Here’s who I got, and I put a few more here, because I figured ours might be the same:

Falling In Reverse

Eminem

Staind

Skillet

Nothing More

I have no objections to any of these nominations, and I would have picked most of the same ones, so I think we're set here! Now, let's break these down a bit.

I think I'll eliminate Nothing More first, because while I very much think they're a band who are very far up their own asses and they can never get out of their own way to reach what potential they might have, I at least think they *could* turn it around one day if they wanted to. I don't think they ever will, but I can at least sort of see the vision there. Next, Staind honestly isn't even worth mentioning, because it's so obviously just something Aaron Lewis pulls out every so often when he needs an influx of cash, and if there's one thing the red-state radio rock crowd loves, it's nostalgia for bands way past their prime, or who arguably never had a prime in the first place. So, I think this leaves us with three main possibilities with this one, so I'll throw it back to you for your thoughts on those artists!

I’m fine with taking off both Nothing More and Staind, especially with the former having some potential, and the latter just not even being worth mentioning, because Aaron Lewis is a solo artist now, basically, and only dusts them off when he needs the cash. I say take off Skillet, too, because as bad as they are, they’re more or less harmless in that their brand of hard rock is so tame and milquetoast, they don’t even have any impact to speak of.

Both FIR and Eminem have a case against them; Ronnie Radke is just one of the worst musicians of all time, and with the MAGA pills he’s swallowed, he’s only gonna get worse, but Eminem is a case of where he’s just too old. His new album was basically him trying to relive the glory days, and it’s really bad, so he should just give it up at this point, so I don’t know which one is worse. You could say Ronnie Radke is, but Eminem is just as harmful, because he uses a lot of transphobic language and slurs on his new album, basically because he can, not because he has anything to say. What do you think, though?

I'll also agree about Skillet, because while vocalist John Cooper is a MAGA, Fox News-pilled asshole now, Skillet's music as a whole is the kind of bland and generic radio rock that you can just ignore, because it's mostly harmless, even if it does have its particularly bad moments.

When it comes to Eminem, I think it's interesting, because while there's no denying the impact and influence he had in the 90s, and I think that gets him at least some points, he hasn't been able to take that and use it to evolve his career beyond that, or when he has tried to, his fans didn't like it as much, so he had to revert back to his same tired tricks. His latest album is a perfect case of this, and at this point, it's just tired. It's okay to admit that you don't have it anymore, that your only move is resorting to being edgy and barely hiding bigotry, and I really wish Em would.

On the other hand, Ronnie Radke is someone who never had it to begin with. I know people have some form of nostalgia for that first Escape The Fate album that put him on the map all those years ago, but even that hasn't aged very well at all, and Radke's a massive reason why. I've never been able to tolerate him as a vocalist, and even back then, he had this air of douchey, wannabe tough guy energy, but the thing is, that's all he has, and this new album is just so played out. The man really just needs to drop the pretense and start a show on Rumble or something, because all he does now is go on TikTok and air out his grievances with people who dare to criticize him. And the music does not at all justify any of it, it's the most generic yet try-hard Octanecore you could imagine, only further "bolstered" by Radke's supreme asshole and bigoted behavior.

This is all a rather long-winded way to say that I think our boy Ronald takes the cake here. Falling In Reverse just needs to stop, because nothing justifies giving a man like Radke a platform under any circumstances.

That’s a good assessment, for sure, so Ronnie does get it, especially where Em had talent and a career to begin with. Falling In Reverse just never did, and somehow they have a bunch of fans, which constantly baffles me, because I don’t get it.

Anyhow, our next category is best metalcore and post-hardcore album. I wanted to put these genres in their own category, because these are huge genres that span a lot of sub-genres and styles, and the world of metalcore and post-hardcore throve in 2024. You may have a couple of the same ones I do, but I wanted to nominate a couple more, just in case you do (and the list of great albums were a lot):

Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go

Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible

The Ghost Inside - Searching For Solace

SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup De Grace

Looking back on this year, I think it was particularly strong for the heavier scenes. There were so many great releases across the various subsets of metal and post-hardcore that you can't really go wrong. I would agree that Knocked Loose and Better Lovers are deserving of nominations, but I have a few of my own I'd like to throw into the ring:

Too Close to Touch- For Keeps

Void of Vision- What I'll Leave Behind

Windwaker- Hyperviolence

Bring Me The Horizon- Post Human Nex Gen

It's gotta be Knocked Loose, right? It may not totally be my thing personally, but there's no denying how great that album is and the impact it had this year.

Oh, yeah, that new BMTH album was pretty solid, I forgot about that one! That was a good album, and those others were solid, too, but Knocked Loose would get the win from me, personally, because of how good it is, and how it made them utterly massive. Hell, they played Jimmy Kimmel this year, and that’s crazy on its own, so if you’re cool with that, I say we give it to Knocked Loose.

For our next award, let's talk about Most Listened To Album! This is pretty self-explanatory; it's simply the album we played the most throughout the year, the one we just couldn't get enough of. Since this is another pretty broad one, I think we can both choose a winner for this, so here are my nominees:

Bilmuri- American Motor Sports

State Champs- self-titled

Bayside- There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive

Linkin Park- From Zero

Bring Me The Horizon- Post Human Nex Gen

All of these albums are great, but they're also ones I kept playing as the year went on, or that I just couldn't get enough of after they came out. What are some of yours?

Ooh, yeah, I like the sound of that! I wasn’t sure how you wanted to do that, but I love the sound of each of us having an individual winner. In that case, here are the few albums I kept playing all throughout this year. I played more than five quite a lot, but these are the five that I played the most, or went back to the most:

Linkin Park - From Zero

Lil Dicky - Penith

Lupe Fiasco - Samurai

Childish Gambino - Atavista

Denzel Curry - King Of The Mischievous South, Volume 2

So what’s your winner gonna be?

Without hesitation, it's gotta be Bilmuri's American Motor Sports. It came out at the tail end of June, and it was basically my album of the summer. At 28 minutes (although he's since released a deluxe edition, which is also great), it's an album you can replay over and over again and not get tired of it, and we talked about it a little bit earlier, but the mix of country and metalcore combined with Johnny Franck's ability to write some of the catchiest hooks you'll hear all made for an album that's one of those lightning-in-a-bottle releases.

What's your winner?

Bilmuri’s American Motor Sports was one of my most played albums, but it wasn’t quite in my top five. I think if I did a top ten, it would have made the bottom half, but it was a great album, nonetheless. I do agree that it’s one of those albums you can play at any time, because it’s so short and sweet (the original version, anyway). Mine is a similar one, and I have to give it to Linkin Park again with From Zero. It would have been Lil Dicky’s Penith, because that album was my most played for most of the year, but I kept playing From Zero, and I couldn’t stop. That album is great, too, because it’s a crisp 32 minutes, so it’s something you can keep going back to. It’s got the right amount of hooks, heaviness, and replayability that I kept playing it.

Our next category is Going Out On A High Note, and these are bands or artists that released their final album this past year, or what could be their final album (especially because I only got two, although technically three, because one artist dropped two albums this year). So here’s what I went with:

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

Childish Gambino - Atavista / Bando Stone

Judas Priest didn’t release their final album this year, but it very well could be, and if it is, this thing is quite good. What about you, though?

My two nominations are bittersweet, but for very different reasons:

Too Close to Touch- For Keeps

Sum 41- Heaven x Hell

Sum 41 decided to call it quits after nearly 30 years as a band, and are just wrapping up their final round of touring as we write this, and this double album is really a celebration of their entire career, and while I wouldn't quite put it in the best of their discography, I think it's a very admirable final release from a band with a very storied career.

Too Close to Touch, on the other hand, got dealt a really tragic hand with the passing of vocalist Keaton Pierce a couple years ago. No one really knew what was gonna happen, but they had an album's worth of songs they had been working on prior, so they decided to call in the help of some friends in the scene to complete it and put it out as their final release. This is is admittedly not gonna have as big of an impact if you're not a fan already, but for myself, it was a very effective, if bittersweet, album to go out on.

I think out of all of these nominations between the two of us, I can make a pretty good case for Childish Gambino; it goes without saying that Donald Glover's had a very prolific career, so him deciding to retire the Gambino name is a huge deal, and then on top of that, we got two albums as a final swan song, both of which are very good, even great. What do you think, though?

Honestly, the new Sum 41 album is quite good; I’ve never been a huge fan of theirs, but I thought it was solid for what it was. Same goes for Too Close To Touch, especially where they’re from my neck of the woods, so that’s a bittersweet ending, too. I’d absolutely give it to Donald Glover, however, just because of him releasing two albums (one of which being a remaster, so to speak, of an album he dropped in 2020 that had little to no fanfare), and with him being a prolific Renaissance Man by making music, acting, directing, writing, producing, and many other stuff, he can do almost anything. Hell, he also got nominated for a Golden Globe this year for the show Mr. & Mrs. Smith, so that has to tell you something.

No arguments from me there, so our winner is Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino! I am very curious to see what he does next if he decides to make music again, I imagine it'll be very different and that's exciting.

Next up is Best Record Label! These are the labels who kept putting out consistent bangers throughout the year and led the music community buzz. I have a couple of nominees for this one, including:

Pure Noise Records

Sharptone Records

Hopeless Records

The best record label is a fun one, because there are a handful of labels that keep the music community buzzing. Your nominees are great, because I had a couple of those, too, including Pure Noise and Hopeless, but I’ll add a couple for the sake of it, too:

Blue Note Records

Epitaph Records

Although, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, Pure Noise wins by a mile. They put out the new Knocked Loose, State Champs, and SeeYouSpaceCowboy albums, as well as many more, but what say you?

Yep, I was definitely leaning towards Pure Noise as well! They had a really great year across a few different genres, but in particular, the Knocked Loose album alone hitting as much as it did puts them on top for me.

For our next award, we wanted to switch things up slightly and present a specific artist with a highly esteemed award that not many artists get: the lifetime of awfulness achievement award. This award is for artists so bad that they’ll go down in history for how bad their material is. The recipient for this year’s award put out a song so awful that it puts anything else to shame. That artist is Tom MacDonald, and he wins this award for the song he released with Ben Shapiro of all people. This song is one of the worst things to ever be created in the name of art, and I’m more than honored to award MacDonald with a lifetime of awfulness achievement award. What are your thoughts on this amazingly terrible artist and song?

I'll be honest, before this song, I had never heard of this guy before, but sometimes, something comes along that's so utterly baffling and awful that you can't help but pay attention. And this collab with Ben Shapiro is exactly that; if you wanted to hear what you get when you mix your dime-a-dozen SoundCloud rappers with neo-Nazi, white supremacist talking points, and add in a "verse" from Ben Shapiro, you'll get that when you listen to "Facts." That pretty much says everything you need to say right there without any further explanation, because it's just an awful combination all around.

I’ve known about Tom MacDonald for years, and he’s been the epitome of bad rap music that conservatives like, because he speaks against the status quo and doesn’t talk about the same things other rappers do (which basically just means they like him for being white). These are the same fans that say they “don’t like rap, but…” then mention him, Eminem, J. Cole, or a rapper that’s cool to like. Having Ben Shapiro is just icing on the cake, because why include that clown? This song deserves an award all its own, hence why we gave it to Tom (who’s also Canadian, by the way; he isn’t from the United States).

The next category is something better, thankfully, and that’s best rock / alternative album. This one is a little broad, and I made it that way on purpose, so any album that falls into the rock and alternative spectrum works here. Here’s what I decided to nominate, so let me know what you picked:

Bayside - There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive

Rain City Drive - Things Are Different Now

Brigitte Calls Me Baby - The Future Is Our Way Out

Ah, we're lining up pretty nicely here, too, because I would totally nominate Bayside and Rain City Drive as well! I do have some others, though, and those are:

The Early November- self-titled

Stand Atlantic- Was Here

Anberlin- Vega

This one is a real toss-up, I'd be happy to give it to any of these as they are all really deserving. That said, I think I'll throw my hat in for Bayside! In terms of just straight-up rock/alternative albums, I probably loved Bayside the most. What say you?

Bayside it is, because I was going to give it to them, too! You could technically call Bayside a pop-punk band, but they also call into alternative, rock, and even hard-rock with some of their heavier moments. There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive is definitely my favorite rock album of this year, because it took everything that I first loved them for, but updated it for 2024. I first listened to them back in 2007, and that record reminds me a lot of The Walking Wounded from that year.

With that said, let’s move onto the best hard-rock and metal album! Again, this one is pretty broad, so I recycled a few picks from other categories, but if it falls into hard rock or heavy metal of any kind, it works:

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

Linkin Park - From Zero

Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go

What do you have for this one?

From Zero absolutely makes my list of nominees for this one, but there were plenty of other great releases, including:

Fever 333- Darker White

Bilmuri- American Motor Sports

Now, here's where we can have a bit of a debate, because I think it's pretty much between Linkin Park and Knocked Loose. Knocked Loose shot themselves to the top of the metal and hardcore game with this new album, and Linkin Park came back under the most impossible of circumstances and released one of their best albums in years. It could really come down to a coin flip, so I'll let you take the lead on this one.

Those are the main two that I’ve been thinking about myself, but personally, it all comes back to what I revisited more this past year. Knocked Loose’s newest album was a behemoth record, but if we are talking what the more accessible album is, and what album falls into a broader definition of metal and hard-rock, I say Linkin Park gets it. It really is down to a coin flip, because they both really could, honestly, but From Zero just inches past the edge for me, personally.

I can definitely see your thinking there, so Linkin Park and From Zero takes another one!

Next up, we have another bit of a fun one, the Biggest Embarrassment Award. This one goes out to the band or artist who just, for one reason or another, just couldn't get out of their own ways and really just kept falling flat on their faces. I have a feeling we're gonna have the same nominees, so I'll let you reveal yours before we discuss!

Now this is a fun one, but these are all artists or bands that just embarrassed the hell out of themselves this past year, like you said. I guarantee we will have the same picks, so here’s what I got:

Drake

Ronnie Radke / Falling In Reverse

Tom MacDonald

Aaron Lewis

Hardy

Yep, these are all my picks as well, minus Hardy, but only because I honestly forgot about him and that he dropped an album this year. He totally fits, though, but anyway, let's talk this out. I think it would be easy to just mail this right in to Drake, because man, he had about the worst year anyone could have on the losing side of a beef. None of his tracks against Kendrick Lamar hit at all, and the way he went about making some of them rubbed people the wrong way, like for example when he used an AI-generated Tupac vocal in one of them. And even worse, he dragged down all the artists who were still willing to work with him. No one in that orbit made it out unscathed, really. All that said, I to think there's a case to be made for a couple others on here, namely Ronnie Radke and Tom MacDonald. We talked about both of these guys above, so there's not too much else to say, but I think what makes Ronnie embarrassing is that he genuinely seems to think he's some badass edgelord rebelling against his haters by making bank and topping the Octane charts, when in reality his reputation outside of the FIR diehards and the Octane crowd is so laughably low that no one even really pays him any mind anymore. And in Tom MacDonald's case, the most noteworthy thing he's done is make one of the worst rap songs anyone's ever heard by putting Ben Shaprio on it, and that's all you really need to say. So, where do you think this all ultimately shakes out, and who takes the win in your mind?

I put Hardy here for one big reason: his new album is bad, but at the same time, his whole schtick now is that he isn’t going to quit despite what the haters say. His latest album is titled “Quit!!” because of that, and it’s so embarrassing to me. I know he won’t get it, but I wanted to round our lineup. As for who gets it, you can make strong cases for each of them, especially Ronnie Radke and Tom MacDonald. Radke not only put out a bad album, but consistently puts his foot in his mouth by saying and doing stupid stuff, whereas Tom MacDonald just lets his bad music speak for itself. If I had to give it to someone, though, it’d be Drake, hands down. Imagine being on the losing end of the biggest rap beef in the last couple of decades, maybe more, especially losing that badly. He had the most public embarrassment of the entire year, and then Kendrick released one of the best albums of the year on top of it, whereas does anyone remember the album that Drake put out in 2023? That album was awful, so he’s been on the downswing for a long time.

Congrats, Drake, this might be the only W you take this year!

Next, while we love talking about music ourselves, something we introduced last time we did a check-in was shouting out other creators we enjoyed! So, this next award is Favorite Music YouTuber. These channels provided us with plenty of entertainment this year, showed us some new music, and helped make the online music community a brighter, less toxic place. My nominees are:

Emo Social Club

The Breakdown with Nath and Johnny

Roguenjosh

Emo Social Club is one I mentioned in our last update, but they're a channel I discovered through TikTok over the last year, and they talk a lot about nostalgic music in our emo/pop-punk/alt scene, and the two hosts are a lot of fun and seem pretty chill when it comes to their tastes and how they present their opinions without being gatekeepy or close-minded, which this community needs. The latter two are both reaction channels that primarily focus on metal, but I really like Nath and Johnny because their dynamic reminds me a lot of ours when it comes to how we talk and think about music, and Josh used to be the bassist for a post-hardcore band called Capulet, and I enjoy hearing his perspectives as a musician in that genre.

What were some of your favorite music creators this year?

When we first met back in 2012 / 2013, I was heavily involved in the music reviewing scene, but I got very disillusioned with that whole scene as I got older. I felt like that a lot of the bigger creators were more about the clout than the music, and I still feel that way about a bunch, but I’ve gotten sort of into that scene again. The ones I do follow certainly bring positivity into the scene, and they’re about the music, versus about how cool they are for listening to. With that said, I got a few that I wanted to nominate:

The Metal Meltdown

BangerTV

Cereal At Midnight

Channel 33 RPM

For some context, The Metal Meltdown is a metal channel that mainly talks about metal and hard-rock, but the guy behind it, Robert, talks about how he does like other kinds of music, and he’s been a champion against elitists and metalheads that think all kinds of music suck except for metal. BangerTV isn’t just one person, but a whole collective of creators that specialize in one or two sub-genres, such as death metal, black metal, folk metal, stoner metal, or even nu-metal. Cereal At Midnight is a channel that deals with physical media, but he loves all kinds of music and movies. Channel 33 RPM is similar, too, but he talks about vinyl, yet their content is both the art forms first, not just having stuff and being cool for it.

I say we each pick a winner, because we both had creators this past year that we loved. For my pick, it’ll be The Metal Meltdown. I don’t have a lot of heavier releases on my list, but I always tuned in to his videos. What about you?

For my pick, I'd have to go with Emo Social Club. They're the channel that probably had the most impact on me this year as far as what I listened to when I did that big When We Were Young fest album deep dive, and I just really appreciate having a show based around a lot of nostalgia for our scene but also not being afraid to say when something hasn't aged well or when something is just straight-up problematic (apparently, they pissed off Ronnie Radke a while back, which is hilarious that he even saw it, since they're really not a big channel in the large scheme of things). It's also really nice to not have that cynicism I feel a lot of internet music communities fell into, it's just all love, and honestly, the world could use more of that right now as we go into another few years of, shall we say, interesting times.

That’s a channel I need to watch more of, because I love they don’t sugarcoat when something hasn’t aged well. I can’t stand a lot of the “elder emo” scene these days, because all they do is jerk off these bands, even though a bunch of them haven’t aged well. Hilarious that they pissed off Ronnie Radke, though, because he seems to watch everything that he hates. We could also do without the cynicism, too, especially when we have too much of that in other scenes.

To be continued in part 2!