#I've seen WTNV live like 5 times

[getvalentined]

I feel like a lot of people don't know how 100% Tumblr Culture the character of Cecil Gershwin Palmer is. This is a character who, in the first episode, outs with the fact that he's gay so plainly and bluntly ("and I fell in love instantly") that some people didn't believe it was a thing until he got with the object of his affections several episodes later.

He has no canon character design. We do not know what he looks like. He's described as being "neither tall nor short, neither thin nor fat," and that's all we've got.

He lives in a paranormal surrealist horror town where there are ghosts and angels and monsters and a floating cat in the bathroom of the radio station, the manager of which is some kind of horrifying tentacle monster.

Cecil lost his mother under mysterious circumstances when he was a kid—not because of the paranormal surrealist horror, but because she was a severely mentally ill alcoholic who could not take care of her children. He delivers a beautiful soliloquy about it that is one of the best parts of the entire series.

His love interest, Carlos, was originally voiced by one of the writers; eventually they re-cast him to be played by a queer POC because the character is a queer POC and the team did not feel right not representing him properly.

His actor, also named Cecil, is an openly HIV+ gay man who brings some of the best energy to a live show that I've ever seen; if you get the chance to see WTNV live, do it.

This show is such a cornerstone of fandom on this platform that the WTNV crew was invited to DashCon as guests of honor. (They showed up, too, but I think we all know how that went. 2014 was a hell of a time.)

Anyway vote for Cecil, thanks.

[majorshatterandhare]

Okay, so, for @cultralcryptid and @shortassdood, who asked for general recs… uh, I’m gonna list them out, then do a “read more” and put my notes for each there. I think the majority of these musicians/bands are pretty popular so, IDK that you'll see much you haven't heard of but, I was asked so I am providing. Also this has taken so long because I was trying not to make it ridiculously long! This doesn't focus on concept albums, although I have made notes where artists mentioned have made concept albums. I personally struggle to consume new-to-me media so I haven't necessarily listened to the concept albums but figured that may well be what y'all are interested in so I included that.

-Spose -.Jxck -The Mallett Brothers Band -Jonathan Coulton -No More Kings -Phish -the Grateful Dead -Pink Floyd -Cake -Say Anything -Kimya Dawson -Jeffrey Lewis -AJJ -Dorian Electra -Those Poor Bastards -Ska (specifically Streetlight Manifesto) -WtNV weathers

I'm gonna preface this by saying five things: 1) I don't listen to a lot of *new* music, honestly the Mechs are some of the newest music I listen to, even of the artists I listed who have newer music, I am often not familiar with recent stuff. Which leads me into 2) I am not familiar with the entire discographies of any artist listed here, let alone the entirety of the (third wave) ska genre or every single Night Vale weather. 3) Related to point two, I am not familiar with the reputation of every artist mentioned, sorry if anyone is a shitty person. I know there are a few who have, for example said certain words in certain songs that I am not fond of, but all things considered I like their music enough as a whole to ignore things like that, especially because many of these were recorded anywhere from 20 to 50 years ago. 4) Some of this music might make you uncomfortable because of the topics, you can figure that out yourself. I'm giving a *lot* of suggestions here so there will be plenty that doesn't and I have some specific warnings for some of the music, but uhhhh, if you're seeing this you listen to the Mechs, so I'm sure you can at least handle enough to figure out what you don't want to listen to. 5) Related to points 1 and 3, my music taste tends to lean pre-approximately-2010. I grew up listening to classic rock and 90s alternative and grunge because that's what my parents listen/ed to.

Local Music I figure if I'm going to be recommending music I might as well recommend some from my state. This is the music you are least likely to have heard.

Spose -From southern Maine -Rap, alternative hip hop, underground hip hop -I'm only aware of because my college roommate from California likes his stuff -Most popular song is I'm Awesome which is fun, but is one of those songs that gets a little annoying when you've heard his other stuff. Got national radio play IIRC though. -I would recommend the songs We All Got Lost and Alien -I've seen him live twice (summer 2022) and talked to him after and he's a really nice guy! -His name is Ryan and his most recent album is called Get Rich or Die Ryan and its two CDs. -If you wanna just hear a bunch of Maine shit, Loon Song

.Jxck -pronounced like the name Jack [for screenreaders: spelled *period* J-X-C-K] -Also from southern Maine -Similar music style to Spose, although less comedy I think, although he has some jazzier stuff that's *really* good that he said he was gonna be releasing a new album of last time I saw him perform (summer 2022), which has not been released yet. -Both times I saw Spose play .Jxck opened for and played with him. -Have spoken with him and he is also very nice! -Most recent album is called Beautiful Day

The Mallett Brothers Band -I know even less about this band than the other musicians in this section, but they are "an independent rock and roll / Americana / country band" -Two of them are the sons of David Mallett who is also a musician from Maine. He does folk.

Nerd Music Do you like Weird Al or Hank Green or They Might Be Giants or the Barenaked Ladies?

Jonathan Coulton -Wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone from Portal and Portal 2, respectively. -Has a song called Artificial Heart about a guy getting his heart replaced -Has a song called I'm Your Moon, which is from Charon to Pluto -Also: Re: Your Brains; Future Soon; Shop Vac; Mandelbrot Set; I Crush Everything; and more -Huge discography

No More Kings -Named after a School House Rock song -Have three distinct songs about zombies (Zombie Me, The Living Dead, and They're Coming to Get You Barbara) -Have at least two songs about DnD (Enter the Dragon and Critical Hit) -Reference pop culture a lot: Sweep the Leg (the Karate Kid), Leaving Lilliput (Gulliver's Travels), Robots Don't Cry (Short Circuit), and more. -Only three albums

Drugs Music (affectionate) IDK how to describe this. Bands that have a particular reputation for having fans who enjoy getting high. You don't have to be high or enjoy getting high to like this music though. Seems to lean towards long-ish songs. (Looked it up, what I mean is probably "psychedelic rock" but I'm gonna stick with "drugs music")

Phish -Huge discography -Not that we all have wildly different tastes, but at least four of the five people of my immediate family (myself included), like Phish, and I wouldn't be surprised if the fifth does too. -"Jam" style music, so there's some repetitive parts but there's a lot of layering and slowly shifting of each part into something new. -My two favorites by them right now are Bouncing Around the Room (about being high I guess?) and Bathtub Gin (about... making bathtub gin, which is homemade alcohol, and just, they say some insane shit and there's a "Joker"). Both are from the album Lawn Boy. -Just, the music is cool??? Listen to Bathtub Gin, the music is cool the lyrics are cool. (Someone sneezes multiple times, as part of the music I'm sure but... sneeze.) -The lead singers voice is really nice -The other Phish songs I have downloaded to my phone are Guelah Papyrus (about a spider), Farmhouse (about... a farmhouse, and being able to see the stars, and how much cluster flies suck ass), Sample in a Jar (about... being a sample? I think, definitely from the pov of being high), and Wolfman's Brother (what it says on the tin?). -Rolling Stone named them the most important band of the 90s in 1998, if that means anything to you -They were very inspired by the Grateful Dead. As such they allow people to record and disperse the audio of their concerts (if I understand correctly). -The band is from Vermont! -Rift is a concept album

The Grateful Dead -I know less about the Grateful Dead but I don't think I can really recommend Phish without recommending the Grateful Dead as well. -I *highly* recommending going to see a Grateful Dead tribute/cover band perform live. It's a great experience. The music is great, the environment is great, and you will almost certainly see some older folks dancing to the music they did when they were in their 20s and hippies and whatever. It's just really good. -Don't have a lot of specific song recs since most of my experience with them is in the form of the tribute/cover band live performance. -They are the ones with the colorful bears.

Pink Floyd -Feel like this section is me just recommending bands that everyone already knows, but like, how much do you actually know of Pink Floyd's stuff? Or maybe this will just be a reminder to go listen to it again! And its hard for me to judge what is typical for other people to be familiar with because I am *very* aware that my childhood media consumption was atypical. -They have SIX [all caps reads: six] concept albums! Six! I think the Wall is the one everyone knows is a concept album, since there was a movie made of it and its the album that Another Brick in the Wall and Comfortably Numb are both from. However the Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Final Cut, and The Division Bell are all *also* concept albums, if that's your thing -If concept albums aren't your thing, they have nine other albums! -Re: Wish You Were Here. It is very much about former member Syd Barrett and the album is mostly Shine On You Crazy Diamond parts 1-9, which are split 1-5 and 6-9, but if you total their length it's 26 minutes long. In between the two parts is three other songs, including the titular Wish You Were Here, which I do adore. -Also just. Us and Them

Other rock genres I guess?

Cake -I feel like Cake and the Barenaked Ladies go together but maybe that's just me. They're also... funny? I guess? in they're music. But Cake is still like... more... normal...??? IDK how to describe it. -Everyone knows Short Skirt/Long Jacket. I feel like maybe their second most known song is The Distance, but I don't know that for a fact. -My favorite Cake song, atm, is Comissioning a Symphony in C from the album Comfort Eagle. Short Skirt/Long Jacket is also on this album. -Fashion Nugget is also quite a good album, The Distance is on this album -They did a cover of I Will Survive and I was 15 years old the first time I heard the original. I don't remember hearing the Cake version for the first time. I remember being in gym class and for some reason we were suggesting music for the teacher to play through the speakers and I said Cake and he liked Cake a lot so he put Cake on and I Will Survive played and this girl in the class got surprisingly mad about this cover! They say fuck in it though so.... -Their album art is really cool and most if not all of them are in basically the same art style and I like that. -Lead singer also has a particularly nice voice.

Say Anything -Honestly, most of what I know by say anything is ...Is a Real Boy, and even from that it's mostly Alive With the Glory of Love, but the song is really fucking good! It is based on the story of Max Bemis' grandparents meeting during WWII though... and they were Jewish... so uh, its got some themes! Its a banger though. -The second song I really like by Say Anything is Wow I Can Get Sexual Too, which, as you might imagine, is quite sexual, so, you've been warned. It's very funny though. -Their album In Defense of the Genre is a concept album. I don't know much about it, but there you go, concept album.

Folk/Anti-Folk

Kimya Dawson -I think Kimya Dawson is really popular? It's hard for me to tell these kinds of things -Their music was pretty heavily featured in the movie Juno, because Elliot page was asked what music he thought Juno would listen to and he said Kimya Dawson. -The album I listen to most is Remember That I Love You. I know all of the words to the majority of the songs and the majority of the words to the rest. One thing I do when I can't sleep it try to remember all the lyrics to music and that album is a pretty common one for me to use. -I really really feel My Mom. And Caving In. And I Miss You. And Loose Lips. And The Competition. -And I can't *not* mention Thunder Thighs! --If you need to cry and can't, I recommend Walk Like Thunder. --The Mare and the Bear is a children's song! With children on the track! --Quite possibly my favorite Kimya Dawson quote is "Try to walk like thunder leaving footprints that are light" which is from the song Driving Driving Driving -I was attracted to their music because while they sing very well for sure! their voice isn't perfect and I really like that. You don't get to hear that often from their type of voice. -They were also part of the duo The Moldy Peaches, which I'm not super familiar with, but is the same genre.

Jeffrey Lewis -large discography -songs tend to be... morbid? -I recommend Whistle Past the Graveyard (I accidentally have developed a collection of zombie songs....) and East River and Back When I Was Four -Also the pair Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane (about his shit experience with LSD) and LSD Tonight (about how people took the last song to mean that they should offer him and pressure him to do LSD when that was the opposite of what the song meant!) -Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis also did some music together. AJJ -Again I feel like if you listen to anti-folk (or whatever) you're probably aware of AJJ??? -Their name wasn't always AJJ but they changed it sometime a few years ago. -Decent to large discography (depending on what exactly you do and don't count) -The majority of their music that I listen to is from the album People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World. -Their song Children of God was a WtNV weather and I think Mechs fans might like that one in particular. It's kind of just a lot of words. Like so many words that give you vibes but are a bit more difficult to take meaning from, but like; "the sky was full of teeth;" cannibals mentioned; "in a puddle of body parts / inside a bowl of angel hearts / that the children were eating;" vampires mentioned; "and out the corner of my eye / coming out from the teeth filled sky / with eyes as red as a dog's asshole when you see it shitting / I saw the children of god / as they walked on slovenly by / the USB ports in their arms were bleeding." I don't know what more to say than that. I have no fucking clue what that song is about but I like it. It's got a lot of words, a lot of visuals. -I have been told that many AJJ fans don't like Christmas Island (the album Children of God is from) because it is quite different from their previous stuff, but that doesn't mean you and I can't like both.

Other other

Dorian Electra -not folk or alternative or rock or anything like that, they're hyperpop! -not overarching stories either (this is a lie, you'll see further down; didn't know until I was reading up on it for this) -but so god-fucking-damn queer and very campy. It's ridiculous. Legitimately. The genre is so different but I don't think there's anyway anyone seeing this won't find at least one Dorian Electra song they like. -Again, I feel like they are pretty popular, but what do I know? -Now we have warnings... -I would recommend starting with the album Flamboyant. Their music videos for Flamboyant are gorgeous and they are pretty safe. Some have some, like, BDSM wear aesthetics, but I think its fine (I must emphasize that I have *no fucking clue* what is "appropriate") --Do you believe god made you queer and perfect just as you are? Adam and Steve. (lit. "they want to destroy me / they will all enjoy it / say I'm an abomination / but I'm god's creation") --Do you want to see two guys (gender neutral) (not actually) beat each other up and then kiss about it? Man to Man --Do you believe in the inherent homo-eroticism of being a workaholic? Career Boy --Do you just like fucked up eyeliner on a "guy"? Guyliner --Do you just want to see how camp Dorian claims to be? Flamboyant --Do you wish you had a sugar daddy? Daddy Like --I am a bit less familiar with other songs on the album -Okay... so... My Agenda *is* a concept album, "from the perspective of a conspiracy theorist who is watching their country being taken over by a gay dictator (Carolyn Droke, Uproxx, 16 Oct. 2020)." It's like, satire, I guess. --I cannot get into each of the songs on this album here. It is a very good album in my opinion; however it does have much more explicit themes of BDSM and sex, which can be overwhelming, depending on the song, the person, and their mood at the time. It is very much making fun of the incel type in many of the songs. I'm willing to bet that most sensible parents would not consider this teen appropriate, so I'm not recommending this to anyone under 18. And it's kind hard to recommend to adults either because of the themes. --Sorry Bro (I Love You) is pretty fucking safe though so you can listen to that. I think the song My Agenda is also safe. It's about the "gay agenda" and "turning the frogs gay," very funny. Also the Village People feature on My Agenda. -I have not listened to Dorian's newest album. I don't even know what it's called.

Those Poor Bastards -I feel like y'all must have heard Those Poor Bastards. -Some of the theme music for Old Gods of Appalachia is by them. -They are "gothic country doom" -Themes of "I'm a sinner and I feel so fucking awful about it but I literally cannot change my ways and I will suffer in hell." But like, it doesn't make *you* the listener feel bad. -Probably cathartic if you grew up with guilt re: christianity? -Decent discography volume? -I am really primarily am familiar with the album Satan is Watching. -I recommend listening to the first song followed by the last song (This World is Evil and No One, respectively) if you want a quick idea of if you'll be interested. -You may want to skip the song I Will Bring You Dead Flowers. It's from the perspective of a guy telling his ex that he'll do better now if she just comes back to him, he'll bring her dead flowers and carry her bible, and then not even half way through he's trying to convince her to have sex with him and saying he "needs" it. So... it's gross. But also its short. -Very christian themed. Not pushing christianity, in fact its a lot of talking about how the narrator is trapped by it. -I made a post comparing the song No One to DBB so, IDK if that's some kind of incentive for you.

Third Wave Ska -People like to make fun of ska, but I think most people (or at least most USAmericans who listen to 90s music?) have probably heard and enjoyed ska music. -The history of ska is pretty interesting, IMO. (Also, First Wave was 50s, Second Wave was 70s, Third Wave was 90s, so we're over due for a Fourth Wave of ska....) -Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, and Save Ferris all have ska music. Save Ferris is actually quite interesting because they are one of very very few ska bands with a lead singer who's a lady. -Goldfinger has a cover of 99 Luftballoons (called 99 Red Balloons) that is very good and retains some lyrics in German. -Okay, so, I listen to a lot of Streetlight Manifesto. They have quite a bit of music, it's quite fast. The guy who wrote a lot of the music for Catch 22 started Streetlight Manifesto, so they do a lot of the same songs, but noticeably faster. -My high school had a fixation on Keasbey Nights by Catch 22, for reasons unknown to me. It played second to last at every school dance. No idea when or why that started, or if it's still played at every dance, but everyone liked it. While I had been listening to some ska before that, I know what ska *is* because of that. -I really really like Better Place, Better Time by Streetlight Manifesto. The narrator is telling another person not to kill themself and its just. Not sad. Like it is if you think about it too much. But the music is ska so its still wicked upbeat! It's kinda funny to me. -The version of Come On Eileen is the one by Save Ferris which has caused arguments because for a long time I didn't know that it was a cover as, as far as I know, it was the only version I had heard. Also it's sung by a lady! It's gay! -Look, I play many instruments, however, I played saxophone in band in school for 6 years plus 2-ish years of community band, of course I like ska.

Welcome to Night Vale Weathers -Okay, look at me. You do not need to listen to Night Vale to listen to the Weathers. The Weathers are music that, by and large, has been submitted months ahead of time by bands from all over. The vast majority of it has nothing to do with the story, and those that do, have very minimal to do with the story and can be listened to and enjoyed without the story. -As the music is submitted by people from all over, there is a huge opportunity to find new musicians/bands that you like. You like one song, check out their others. I personally tend to just listen to that one song because, as previously stated, I am not good at consuming new-to-me media; however, I did discover AJJ because of their song Children of God being a WtNV Weather, and I have purchased several other Weathers because I liked them very much! -There are over 200 episodes of WtNV, so what you do is you search "wtnv weathers" on youtube or spotify or whatever and you find a playlist with a fuck tonne of songs on it and you listen to that. You want new music, there you go. That's my best suggestion. (For set songs. I used Pandora a lot when developing my own music taste in middle/high school). -IIRC, The Mountain Goats had more than one song as a Weather. I think they do tend to lean folk-y. -Some Weathers I really like include i Know This by Rachel Kann, Bremen by PigPen Theatre Co., Despite What You've Been Told by Two Gallants, Ghost Story by Charming Disaster, True Trans Soul Rebel by Against Me! (which you should all listen to), Table Song by Katie Kuffel, My Postcard by Toys and Tiny Instruments, I Love You Oddly by Rebecca Angel, Second Song by Joseph Fink, The Lethal Temptress by The Mendoza Line, The Ends and the Means by Robby Hecht, and This Too Shall Pass by Danny Schmidt. --I went on to listen to some other Danny Schmidt music, recommend him, and made a playlist with Table Song, The Ends and the Means, This Too Shall Pass, and three other songs, two of which are also by Danny Schmidt, which I listen to pretty frequently. So.

If you made it this far, sorry it's so long, but I hope you found something new to listen to. I have a headache so I will be taking an NSAID now. Also I figured I don't need to tell you to listen to the Mechs members solo music.

It is very obvious to me that I like music that tells stories. (ALL music tells storie. Every song tells a story.) I like concept albums, I like musicals.

Therefore I find it very funny both that my favorite Mech’s album is one of the two that don’t have an overarching story *and* that my favorite My Chem album is the one that doesn’t have an overarching story.

[your-mom-friend]

I posted 2,816 times in 2022

That's 1,549 more posts than 2021!

190 posts created (7%)

2,626 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@theonlythingimfuckingisstupid

@identitycrisis-electricboogaloo

@passion8alot

@obsidiancreates

@guardianrex

I tagged 643 of my posts in 2022

#rem rambles - 184 posts

#tma - 49 posts

#the magnus archives - 43 posts

#ask and ye shall receive - 17 posts

#tma s5 - 16 posts

#tma s5 spoilers - 15 posts

#wtnv - 15 posts

#tma s4 spoilers - 14 posts

#family stuff - 14 posts

#tma s4 - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but this was too good of a point and “gay sex will always be a stronger force in the world than transphobia” is too excellent to not reblog

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Jon facing the entities: hey there demons, it’s me, ya boy

Jon showing up in people’s nightmares: hey there boys, it’s me, ya demon

Jon becoming The Archivist: Hey there me, it’s ya demon boy

957 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#4

So in love with the idea that very few of the ghosts actually want to attack or hurt anyone and are kind of their as glorified personal trainers for Danny.

Like this newly formed half-ghost child is insanely powerful and no one understands why but what they DO know it that ghosts shouldn't go withhout using their powers for very long or it causes problems so they all show up to Amity to cause problems so that Phantom has a way to actually use and train with his ghost powers and release energy before he explodes or something.

And all his villains are so tired like god damn the kid has a new power one of you go handle it.

And after he defeats Pariah Dark and is technically in line to be the new Ghost King when he dies, his villains become INVESTED in making sure he lives as long as physically possible because no one knows how an untrained, over powered teenager is going to use the powers that seemingly show up at random.

And it is BECAUSE he is a child that they don't use his civilian identity against him because come on the kid does not need us outing him to his parents when they might KILL HIM (yes I'm aware they wouldn't but the ghosts don't know that)

I've seen this or a version of this covered in a BUNCH of fics (can't remember which ones so if you do feel free to mention them)

Idk just, the concep of Ghost Children being valued and protected as well as Phantom's Rogues Gallery just being there to make sure his powers don't blow his city off the map

1,476 notes - Posted March 8, 2022

#3

me going from social to social documenting how the different environments are reacting to a drastic unexpected change to the internet landscape that they cohabit:

1,717 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

#2

Ah yes, Jonathan Sims. He plays many famous and fantastic characters. Namely Jon Jonny and John

2,181 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

No but like one of the BEST tropes in fanfiction is definitely "local Hero's community definitely knows their identity but refuse to say anything" it's hilarious. Particularly when the hero is young, like Danny Phantom or Spiderman or Merlin.

This is ESPECIALLY true when the characters kinda just come together to make life easier for the hero

Like Amity Park having collective amnesia over anything Phantom related whenever the GIW come around, or the residents of Queens learning self defence so they can handle some petty crime so that Spiderman has time to actually do his homework, or servants and knights in Camelot making up excuses for Merlin or taking over some chores so he doesn't get in trouble

Any attempt to out the hero is quashed immediately on pain of total social ostracisation

Just give me people protecting the local teenage hero because god damn it he's doing good and he doesn't deserve all the shit he's getting

2,640 notes - Posted March 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →