#SYNTH CITY RECORDS

[soundrooms]

O O R A   |   Federico Chiesa, NYC

Here’s our interview with OORA about workflow, inspiration & creativity ➜

https://soundrooms.tumblr.com/post/633443550895489024/soundrs-oora

[twistingcells]

Wendy Carlos in her New York City studio (1979), photograph by Leonard M. DeLessio

[fancypantsrecords]

Megan McDuffee & Friends - River City Girls 2 Original Game Soundtrack | Limited Run Games | 2023 | Black

[tapiocalad]

Art for Wild & Moody (1984) by Yukihiro Takahashi. Originally put out on Yen Records, an imprint of Alfa Records that ran from 1982 to 1985 led by Takahashi and Yellow Magic Orchestra bandmate Haruomi Hosono.

[dinosaurcityrecords]

Emma Russack's new LP About the Girl is out this Friday, August 23 via Dinosaur City. Pre-order HERE.

When desire loses its direction - with no person or object to pin itself to - it has a strange tendency to turn us toward the past. We find ourselves surveying past infatuations and failed romances. Armed with the knowledge of hindsight, previous entanglements reconfigure and reveal themselves. Sometimes, we become privy to the true nature of our attraction, or learn the patterns that have played out across our romantic lives to which we have been blind. Nothing can be quite as bracing or mortifying. 

Emma Russack would know. These reassessments and revelations stretch across About The Girl, her brilliant, searching sixth record, produced by Russack and long-time collaborator John Lee at Phaedra Studios. This is an album about longing’s impossible force, tackling how relationships both muddle and illuminate one’s sense of self. Russack says the record is partly inspired by the dissociations brought on by dating apps. “It’s about the funny experiences that happen when you’re untethered” she says, “I had these awful experiences and encounters, that made me also reflect on my past experiences with different people, romantic or otherwise.” 

Often, Russack sings in a daze, trying to grasp the contours of memories that have blurred. But she hauls specificity back with hard-won vigour, pasting details together and creating new constellations of understanding. In the thrall of past experience, Russack’s songwriting reaches new heights; merging plain-spoken disclosures with mordant humour. History’s constant murmur is felt through the record’s spectral, spacious sound, full of elegant harmonies, heavily strummed guitar and ominous synths that reverberate and splutter.

Fascination sits at the glistening centre of the record. It appears in full-force on the title track, a beguiling synth-pop song about the allure of the inscrutable. Russack was thinking about Todd Field’s Tar, but also the brilliant and puzzling people in her own life who are full of persuasive charm (Russack perfectly verbalises that eternal predicament we often find ourselves in with friends: “go out for one drink, stay out for more”). For the song, Russack had imagined a wave of strings, but ended up doing the parts herself, modulating her voice to replicate orchestral movements. The results are hypnotic and sly. 

Obsession is also the subject of ‘In 2001’, a diaristic track where Russack recounts her consuming adoration with Dave Grohl as a preteen. “My friend and I would go to the payphone on a weekend, call the telephone directory in the U.S.A. and ask for a David Grohl in Virginia, where he lived at the time,” says Russack. Its particular genius is how it braids together the titanic feelings of a formative crush with the arrival of the home computer. Here, desire is not only relegated to daydreams, but finds a new conduit in technology - which, as we know, will come to absorb our attention not unlike romance does. With hushed vocals and delicate finger-picked guitar, the song has a profound intimacy, as if Russack might be recording from her childhood bedroom. She may be looking back, but Russack is acutely aware of the cyclical nature of existence. “Fragile, I have become, a lifetime of reruns,” she sings on ‘Time’, a lamentation on how those head-spinning heights of adoration grow elusive as one gets older, and more used to disappointment. The sound is similarly mournful, with Russack singing with a breathy languor, as murky synths ripple throughout.

That’s not to say that growth is impossible. ‘That’s Not Free’ contains the realisation that the impulse to win or prove oneself after the end of a relationship helps no one. “Or even striving to win in any kind of argument or disagreement,” says Russack, “learning that it doesn’t equal freedom.” 

And then there is ‘Everything is Big’, a tender, booming track where personal crises tangle with the wider calamities of the world. There’s a rattling urgency here, with swelling harmonies (provided by musician Nathalie Pavlovic), fuzzy guitar lines and contemplative vocals. The song asks: how do we determine what is trivial, and how does one establish personal hierarchies of importance? Russack knows that sometimes we can only be certain of our own small desires: “I just wanna see you around.”

Emma Russack was born in the coastal town of Narooma, NSW. She first gained traction as a teenager, belting out covers of Joy Division and Neil Young on her YouTube channel. She has spent the past decade performing across Australia and Europe, as well as releasing a string of beautifully spare, and oftentimes impish, records on loss and devotion. Her previous full-length solo albums include the Australian Music Prize nominated Winter Blues (2019), Permanent Vacation (2017), In a New State (2016), You Changed Me (2014) and Sounds of Our City (2011). She has also recorded several duet records with musician Lachlan Denton, and plays in the group Snowy Band. She lives in Melbourne. 

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

Lyric Video: JOVM Mainstays L'Impératice Teams Up with Cuco on a Woozy Bop

Lyric Video: JOVM Mainstays L'Impératice Teams Up with Cuco on a Woozy Bop @Imperatrice__ @microqlima @WeAreGoldAtlas @ingiepop @0xCuco @Interscope

Rising Paris-based electro pop sextet L’Impératice — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — formed back in 2012. And in a relatively short period of time, they quickly developed a reputation for being extremely prolific: Within their first three years together, they released…

[empressgeekt]

Trolls - Accidental Knight and the end of the world (Field of Forget-me-nots au - what if?) -PART 3!!!!

Okay, so this is a what if off of second movie of the FoF au (this post), where Barb won. This was inspired by the fic "The Beginning of the End" by AnimationFan2006 on Ao3. Pls go give it a read. I highly recommend that anyone go to look at the rest of the Field of Forgetmenots au. And I had to split it in half because I posted the first one at 2:00 am. Here is that first post! and here's part 2

Now on to the plot...

Lets jump into the ocean and at the rubble of the techno kingdom. Synth wasn't sure to count himself horribly unfortunate or incredibly lucky. He had rushed off to the restroom, during the last rave. Said rest room had been destroyed by the Rock troll subs and Synth was left unconscious after the ceiling caved in on him. He wakes up to his home destroyed and a pounding headache. For about an hour or too, he flits around looking for any other survivors. Eventually, Sharks chase him out of the reef, now that there's no guards on duty or music playing, predators are flooding into the place.

The open Ocean is tough, Synth feels tiny with all the giant fish, whales and sharks. Also very lonely, he had grow up always surrounded by people, now there was no one. He doesn't remember much of the attack, but he does remember the Rock music. Usually other tribe music wasn't played in the reef, but the few records they did have were used in school so children could learn how to identify the difference between them. Well, all the tribes but pop and the sub-genres. If Rock had turned Synth needed to find help. So he just kept swimming....and swimming...and swimming.

Its after who know how long of dodging Fish, Squids, sharks, whales, and Dolphins (He thought they were friends, yo!), exhaustion and nearly starving to death, that he decides to find fresh water. Most land creatures lived by fresh water sources right? And even better he wouldn't have to deal with sharks....Well Swimming in land had it's own issues. Fresh water had Frogs, and alligators, and unknown plants. But that wasn't even the worse part. In land rivers were flooded with Zombified techno trolls. Synth is horrified by these monsters with the faces of his friends. Thankfully however the zombies aren't as good with their hydrokinesis as Synth was, so he could defend himself. However, by this point he was running on fumes. After a particularly bad fight, he passes out and the river current carries him into the lake, where he's sucked up into a bunch of pipes and is spit out in Bridget's bathroom sink.

Bridget has had a hard few weeks. There was still no word from Poppy, and she was getting really worried. Gristle was her rock, and she loved him to bits for it, but still she found that she didn't like no knowing what was going on outside. Word of Mount Rageous falling and Vacay island was shocking and scary news, especially when you consider how big those cities are in comparison to troll village. They still weren't sure what exactly was attacking them, but Gristle has put in mass emergency protocols in to place. Meaning, stocking up on water, food and other supplies, fortifying defenses and putting up a curfew to keep their people safe. All the stress of the passed couple weeks, has Bridget unable to sleep, so she tries to calm her self with a water cup, only to turn on the sink and shriek when something other then water falls out of the faucet. Gristle is running into the bathroom hearing her shout, and they both marvel at the tiny creature that infiltrated the castle. At first Bridget thought it was troll, but the glowing skin and fins didn't fit with the troll they know. Still they notice that the little creature is wounded, so Gristle orders for a physician for the creature and a plumper to check the pipe filters, because they are clearly not doing their job.

The doctor can't really do much for the creature, as they don't know much about their physiology. However, they do try to wrap their wounds (a challenging task with the small limbs and delicate/super slippery skin) and recommend to the King and queen-in-waiting that they set up the creature in a shallow water filled tray with a padded bottom. Bridget does her best to follow the doctors orders, padded a water tray and laying the creature in the water leaving their face above water and the rest of their body submerged.

Synth eventually wakes up after a few days. He's sore and hungry, but he's alive. Even better, someone had wrapped up his wounds. He had finally found help! It takes a little effort, but Synth figures out how to flop of the lovely water dish he woke up in and walk on his fins. Bridget finds him like this and after some initial shock on both sides the two get to talking. Synth talks about how Rock trolls attacked his people and he's looking for help. Bridget learns a lot more about the troll world and with answers in hand she takes Synth and they go talk to Gristle. The Bergen king is a little unsure about what to do with the new information. Bridget wants to go out and find the rock trolls, but Gristle once more has to hold her back, since they have no idea where the rock trolls are. Still Gristle does allow Synth to stay as long as he needs, and if they every come up with a plan to save his people they'd help. At this moment, Chad and Todd enter the room, and inform Gristle and Bridget that their are some Vacationers outside of the gate asking for sanctuary.

Brandy has had a hard few weeks. She and the other mothers (plus a few single dads) had spent a few weeks on the open water, before beaching on the main land and moving on foot. Her little ones are in different states of shock. The older ones (and Labreezy), are scared but they're putting on brave faces for their younger siblings, who are missing their daddy, and about three steps from a meltdown at all times. All the mothers and single dads are pulling together to keep all the kids safe, a fact that Brandy is grateful for since nearly half of the children there are hers. She listens to the radio every night after the kids are asleep, the other's used to listen too, but when they hear of the fall of Vacay island, they stop. Brandy never stops.

Eventually, after long weeks of traveling they come across BergenTown. The rest of the group is eager to ask for aid after their food and water supplies have been completely depleted, however Brandy is hesitant. Her children are half troll. There were many nights when she and Bruce had first gotten together when she would hear him wake up crying from nightmares about the place. Living as livestock, even from just hearing about it, is no way to live. Brandy wasn't sure she could take her children in there and watch these creatures feed off her husband's people with out going mad. However, they had no more food or water. Her babies need a proper meal and a good night's rest. Brandy reluctantly agrees, but makes the other's swear not to mention her husband. Her babies might not be troll sized but she doesn't want to take chances.

After speaking with the guards, they're told that only one may come in to plead with the king. The other adults decide that Brandy should go in. She is by far the smartest of them, and she knew about bergens before coming here. Inside she is a raging kermit (seriously just because she knew about them, doesn't mean she knows how to talk to creatures who ate her children's grandparents!), however she keeps all that inside and lets the guards lead her through the town. Bergentown isn't like Vacay island. The colors are dulled and leaned more towards green then yellow and blue. The People make her feel small, Vacationers being only half the size of Bergens at best, and she couldn't imagine what it was like for Bruce to grow up here. In the corner of her eye she sees what could only be the troll tree, and she looks away quickly, not wanting to see her love's people trapped, but at the same time missing that the cage is gone and the tree is empty.

To her relief, The Bergen King is a young man, and on the smaller side. A little less intimidating then she thought he would be. Brandy thinks she's doing alright, until another bergen walks in. A girl around the same age as the king, in a fancy pink dress. The look she shares with the king is one that Brandy recognizes, young love. Then she notices what the girl is holding. A tray with a Techno troll on it. Techno Trolls usually stopped by the island every now and again, but Brandy knew they never came this far inland. For a moment she fears that she's about to witness a troll losing their lives, but then said troll speaks up, asking her name. When she answers, The Troll asked if she ran the cantina, and upon confirming she did, to her shock the troll advocates for her and the King listens. The king and the girl leaves for a moment, and Brandy approaches the troll asking if he was alright. Synth, after introducing himself, says he's as good as he's going to get. Bridget and Gristle are good hosts, and from him Brandy learns about how there's supposedly peace between the trolls and them, and from her Synth learns about the whole eating trolls thing. Which he is grossed out by but he'd been there for over a week, most of which he was unconscious for, and nothing bad has happened. Still he'll ask. The King returns and says that her people will be given sanctuary, and since he knew that she worked in the restaurant he offers for Brandy to work in the kitchens while her family is housed in the castle. She accepts the offer a little skeptical, and vows that if any trolls enter that kitchen she'd let them go.

After two weeks, Brandy is relieved to find that the peace was an actually true thing, and the kitchen staff was treated very well in BergenTown. She forms a quick friendship with Bridget, who has a habit of cleaning when stressed so she helps Brandy after dinner is served, despite practically being a princess. The Bergen girl is sweet, and it isn't too long before, Brandy is handing out advise to her that could be described as motherly. IT also helps that Bridget loves playing with the children (yea, Gristle was a little shocked by the sheer number of children he just invited into the castle). Things seem to start to settle by this point. Brandy has a way to keep a stable life for her and the kids, and for now their safe. She still misses Bruce, but she hasn't given up hope on him yet. Especially when she starts getting morning sickness. When she figures out that kid number fourteen is on the way, she laughs, because of course she and Bruce would have a child in the middle of the apocalypse. Still she keeps calm and carries on, hoping for another girl.

Back at the golf course, Demo excitedly reveals that the letter is from Hickory and that he has opened a line of communication with Pop troll prisoners, including Queen Poppy. Viva jumps on that, she wants to know everything about what's happening to her sister, and if they had seen her Dad. There's nothing in the letter about Peppy, much to her distress, and all that's on Poppy is that she was being tortured and that they want her out sooner then later. Viva is horrified, and wants to get her sister out right now, but everyone has to tell her to slow down. They need a plan first. Keith asks if they can get Branch out and the letter does mention him but Queen Barb is keeping him close, so they might not be able to. Keith is heavily disappointed.

For now all they can do is keep sending letters back and forth, slowly forming a plan to get the prisoners out. They do get something solid going. It's a long shot but it could work. However, when the subject of leave the golf course comes up, Clay becomes very vocal about not leaving, and surprisingly Viva doesn't back him up. This causes the two of them to argue, Clay wanting to know why Viva has changed her mind and suddenly wants to abandon everything they've worked for, and Viva cant' lose her sister again. Especially if she's out there being tortured (basically reversing their movie roles).

John Dory Floyd and Bruce all pull him out of the room, and start a long over due conversation. This only serves to piss Clay further off, especially when John and Bruce are agreeing that he's out of line. The middle brother just loses it at them, screaming about how he had finally found a place where he was respected as a leader, and now John has come running into his life trying to control everything, and that everyone is blind to what JD is doing, controlling them, trying to get his band back together, with made up story.

Bruce: Whoa whoa whoa, what are you talking about?

Clay: Oh so now you want to listen?!

JD: do you really think I would orchestrate the end of the world just to get Brozone back together?

Clay: Of course you would! All you've ever done is try to ruin my life with that stupid band of yours!! You did it when we were kids, but that wasn't enough for you ! You had to come back and do it again! Well guess what I'm not going to let you trick everyone and ruin everything again!

JD: I never wanted to ruin everything Clay! I want you all safe.

Clay: pfff, yeah right. You just want me to be your dancing fun boy puppet. Keep me in a little box! Never take me seriously!

JD: I didn't mean to put you in a box...

Clay: Oh, yeah then what did you mean to do? Make me into a doll?

JD: no! it was to keep you safe and get food on the table!

Clay: Don't try to make yourself into a hero here, John Dory, you were just a bossy controlling parasite. How in the world would making me a 'fun boy' keep me safe!

JD: Because the Chef never took trolls that made the others Happy! That was the whole point of the band! To make you all more important alive then on a platter! So ,you wouldn't get taken like...like...

Silence....

Floyd: John?

JD: *sigh* The last thing mom and dad told me was to take care of you.

Bruce: and the band was your way of doing that.

JD: yeah...I first I thought it would just be me, doing shows, earning money, putting food on the table. One by one you each wanted in and...*shrugges*

Clay: W-what about Grandma, she had money you didn't need to sacrifice our childhoods to put "food on the table"

JD: She was retired, sure her pension was enough for her to live off of but plus five growing boys? And that's not even covering the house bills or ya'lls school.

Clay: well, what about the perfect family harmony?

JD: What?

Clay: You know perfect family harmony? The thing we failed and then you abandoned us for !

JD: Oh...that...it wasn't my idea originally.

Clay: What?

JD: yeah, King Peppy asked me to do it. It was supposed break the cage...so we could escape...

Clay: what?!

Floyd: That's why you were so stressed...you were trying to save us...

Bruce: why did you say anything. I could've helped you. If I had understood what was going on....

JD: you would've panicked. Besides it wasn't your job to help me. I was the oldest, I had to be the leader, I had to be the one to worry, so the rest of you didn't have to.

Clay: *rolling his eyes* yeah real good job you did there.

Bruce: Clay...

Clay: Oh please, sure he's not as big of a jerk as I thought, but don't tell me you've forgotten all he did to us! He shoved us in to roles and made life hell! Floyd had issues talking about his own problems, because he was so busy dealing with ours! I couldn't even keep my hair its natural color! You couldn't even look at yourself in the mirror without having horrible thoughts about your body!

Bruce: Clay I-

JD: I'm sorry...I-I never wanted to hurt you.

Clay: Then why did you?

JD: Because I thought if I gave you roles then you wouldn't have to change yourselves. Bruce was young, handsome and obsessed with romance novels. Floyd could cry at the drop of a hat. You were always laughing or jumping onto something. I thought if I gave you labels then you wouldn't have to change for the fans. I was trying to make it easier for you. If you were wild no one would judge you. If Floyd cried no one would call him names. If Bruce flirted with a random girl it wouldn't be seen as weird. I-I just didn't think you'd out grow them so quickly....I'm sorry.

Bruce: Oh Johnny...

Clay: You-you should've told us all this.

JD: I know.

Clay: So, you really aren't here to ruin everything, to force me back...now that i'm serious?

JD: Of course not! Clay you could be and evil psychopathic murderer, and i could care less! I'm just happy you're alive! I mean after I went back and the tree was empty...

Floyd: You went back? Even after 'goodbye forever'?

JD: I didn't mean it...I always meant to come back...but when i did...no one was there. *sigh* But enough about me, there's one other critter in the room we need to address. Clay what's your issue with Keith?

Clay: Issue I don't have an issue.

Bruce: Clay, tell us what's going on.

Clay: Nothing's going on! So, what if I fucked up so bad that Branch had to go live with a foster parent and got saddled with a kid and then got turned by psycho evil queen! It's fine!

Floyd: Clay you didn't fuck up...

Clay: I did! I never left the tree! I just moved to a different pod and...never talked to Branch or grandma...I wanted to after the escape...but...I should've been there, I should've stayed with them...Branch had to find a new family and it's all my fault...

Floyd: It's not just you're fault Clay, we all left. Hell, I promised I'd go back and I never did! now Branch is gone and...*Weeps*

JD: We're gonna get him back *hugs Floyd* and nothing's going to keep us apart again. This family's going to stick together best we can from now on.

Bruce: Keith included.

Clay: I need to apologize to him...

JD: We all do...to both of them...

(wow that segment took way too long)

With the air cleared between the bio-brothers things move on a little smoother, Clay is still hesitant to leave the golf course considering the threat but he wants Branch back now two. The apology to Keith didn't go great, kid still hated all of them, but Clay wasn't hostile anymore.

Demo continued to keep writing Jovi, and soon they had a plan in place. Demo would sneak back into the city, and help Jovi move the prisoners outside the boarders, hiding them in stage equipment and shipping them out to an out of city venue for an obsure band that hired Demo as a manager. The out of city venue would be Rhonda, where a team of select trolls would be waiting to receive the escapees. Along with Jovi since it's getting harder to hide his mixed nature and he's worried about getting Zombified. The date and place is set...

What they don't know is that Debbie had intercepted their fruit bat and Barb knows all about the deal. Originally she wanted to take out Jovi immediately, however Riff suggests that she waits so she can crush all of the rebellion at the exchange. She likes this idea better, after all she had been looking for the perfect place to execute the pop queen, what better then to do so in front of her allies with the blade of her noble knight. Hickory catches wind of this, and manages to send the large amount of Rockers that Barb originally wants to intercept the trade off on a wild goose chase. He thinks he's saved the mission.

Demo enters the city with a sick stomach, he's now and enemy of the state. it's hard to interact with Val and Petra after everything. He's really glad when he meets up with Jovi to get the other's out. The prisoners or Snackpack as they were called her honestly really sweet, and he felt bad about what they went through. And shockingly amongst them was the funk princes, unturned.

Poppy isn't so sure of the hope that bubbles in her belly at the sight of two trolls that sneak into her cell late at night. Jovi has proven to be kind but she's still wary of this Demo guy, though he is amusing with all his formalities around her. Seeing her brother and friends was a balm her soul needed, though it didn't settle her fear as they were sneaked out the city. It isn't until the heat of the sun and fresh air, hit her skin outside of the city and she sees the little green trolling running into her arms do her colors begin to brighten. Poppy would Hug Keith with all she had. In the back ground she could hear the others talking with the trolls that Demo had found and came in contact with, but she didn't pay them any mind well until the whislte of and arrow shots past and someone screams. Poppy would look up and whisper in horror, "Branch?"

----

There will be a part 4

[therightrighthand]

And Pt.2 of the Fallout-Delv-erse lore! Because honestly, I couldn't pick between soft lovable herbo, and murder hobo, so we're getting both.

D.31-A, rouge Courser jerk of the Commonwealth.

Follow on from Dee & Rolls

~

Lore:

[???] "Audio recording, date [REDACTED] between Doctor Langstrum, Senior Institute Bio Division, and myself [REDACTED] regarding project D.31-A"

[D] "Again, I am going on record to state that there was plenty of oversights on project D.31-A and-"

[???] "Please Doctor, let keep to the questions. How about we start with what D.31-A is, and it's history."

[D] "Hmmph ... Fine. -sigh-, well we may as well start at the beguining with the Synth Program. After the sucessful test run of our 3rd generation Synth in the Capital Wasteland passing undercover as human in 'Rivet City', full production of next gerneration syths were approved for masss production."

"And whilst the topic of Synths seemed focused on under-cover intigration, security was also a keen concern. Our second genration synths, though tough, were far from subtle, and a militerised third generation synth seemed nessasery. The goal was to create something with a bit more bite, a single agent, rather than dozens of gen-1's and 2's littering the commonwealth."

"D3.1-A was the answer to this, our first official prototype of the Courser's we know today."

[???] "Why was D.31's biodata used for the Courser program? And can you explain in detail why they were so well equipped for a prototype?"

[D] "Well, obviously, D.31's DNA proved to create a natural resistance to radiation, so it only made sense to base D.31-A on their genetic makeup and memories, as we had done with Gen-3 synths so far."

"As for their ... 'equipment', you must understand that in the early days of testing, D.31-A wasn't built like our truly synthetic Coursers. They were designed to combine the most physically powerful elements of our Gen-2s with the outer fleshy coating of a Gen-3. Machine, wrapped in flesh."

"At the time, we believed Courser's would be going toe-to-toe against Death Claws and super mutants, so we ... built them to durable, strong and-"

[???] "Exessivly costly?"

[D] "Effective. We built them to be effective. However, as time went by, we realised that less was more, and discreet agents worked more effectively than super-powered assassins."

[???] "Can you tell me what led to losing D.31-A in the field?"

[D] "... again, I want to stress the oversight wasn't just on myself or my team at the tim- ok ok, fine."

"After successfully activating D.31-A and testing them rigorously for months, we felt it was time for a field test in the Commonwealth. So we fitted her with an old raider outfit, had her infiltrate an encampment, and simply let her get to work."

"Needless to say, she was effective—almost ferocious, in fact, if you could call it that."

"But, unfortunately, during the fight, a nuclear device was launched, which knocked out our communication with the Synth handlers observing the experiment. After several hours, we deployed security teams and mercenaries to scout the location and report back. There was no sign of D.31-A ... or her handlers, whom we believed to have been killed by D.31-A"

[???] "What led you to believe it was D.31-A?"

[D] "The entire team had been torn apart and stapled to a concrete bunker with steal poles through their chests and their power systems removed. The working theory is that the blast may have ... damaged ... D.31-A's hardware and left them to go-"

[???] "On a five-year-long murderous rampage of Institute assets, including research centres, 23 mercenaries, 12 staff members on the field, and 18 Courses?"

[D] "... Look, it's been months since we've heard from her, and this speculation that she is helping the railroad is preposterous. It's more than likely that her power core has started to falter, and any information on the institute has been damaged in the process."

[???] "Which brings us to the point of this interview: to uncover the lack of oversight that led to a hostile agent that we cannot stop with information on our most sensitive security protocols. What makes you so sure that information has been destroyed?"

[D] "Because I built her [REDACTED] and if she still had access to our location, our relay, and our defences, we would have been dead a long time ago..."

[INTERVIEW END]

-- Find my Discord and other sites: linktr.ee/The_red_right_hand Do not use, repost or claim (rp) my art/character  Art © The-Red-Right-Hand

[luckyshinyhunter]

Adventure Time Headcanons

Jake, Lady and Prismo are in a polycue relationship.

Finn, Marceline, Bubblegum, Betty and Simon are autistic.

After the events of Princess Day, Lsp and Marcy have a girl's day off, and invite their friends if they're not busy.

Finn and Jake still do movie club, but also invited new members like Ice King and Gunter, Jermaine, Flame Princess, Banana Man and many more.

Abracadaniel has a secret crush on Ice King, but Ice King is too oblivious obviously.

Marceline and Ice King do jam session sometimes, bonding and making new songs like they used to in the post mushroom war era.

Neptr go their own adventures when the boys are gone.

Finn and Jake visit Jermaine often and helped him with his paintings.

Simon used to be in a band, he would be the backup singer, use the synth and will be the drummer.

Ice King visits Island lady and they often catch up on life and stuff.

Death and Peppermint Butler used to date.

Simon often slips in when Ice King sees or hears something that triggers flashbacks to his past life.

Jake and the puppies have a family day.

Peppermint Butler has a secret criminal record.

The wizards of Wizard city still go on road trips.

Jake, Marceline, Simon, Flame Princess are Bisexual.

Finn, Bubblegum, Prismo, Lady Rainicorn, Peppermint Butler, Huntress Wizard are Pansexual.

Jermaine, Abracadaniel, Mr. Fox are Gay.

BMO, Shelby, Banana Man and Cinnamon bun is Aroace.

Simon, Betty, Lemongrab, Life giving Magi and Tiffany are Trans.

Neptr is Non-binary and Susan Strong is a Lesbian.

[breadandblankets]

here's something no one asked for: bats fallout 4 au

cass: made as an institute courser and the best of the best with a perfect clear record until she was ordered to execute a traitor and she bounced, she drifts for years anywhere and everywhere, eventually ending up in goodneighbor and through Coincidences into the office of one Barbara Gordon

babs: a doctor in goodneighbor specializing in human/machine interface and neurobiology, aka railroad agent oracle she and her partner Dinah run the memory den, part therapeutic establishment part front for synth liberation activities Babs helps deprogram synths and let them lead normal lives

Jason: he was taken into bruce's vault after his parents died, he was born human but turned into a ghoul thanks to a near death experience and a radiation bath, by the time we meet him, he's a drifter blown into goodneighbor hiring out his services as a merc, steadily moving in organized crime through some maneuvering

duke: a psyker (kinda like the forecaster if you played NV), he has the ability to see into the future if he concentrates, however it leaves him with huge migraines, his parents went missing after a raider attack and he joins the minutemen (honestly what is more MM than WAR) to try and find them

steph: both she and her mom are prewar ghouls (all of the cluemaster stuff still happens but he doesn't survive the bombs in jail), they used to live in diamond city until all the ghouls got kicked out, they lived in goodneighbor for a time, with steph working at the local clinic, run by leslie, eventually they both moved north to the slog (a settlement run by ghouls in an old swimming pool) when crystal wanted to get clean, steph works there as basically the town doctor

tim: (spoilers for a ten year old game but:) kinda like synth shaun he is a permanently stuck at the age of like ten, still a tech genius but like.... litol (did I say this just cause I thought it was funny.... yes)

alfred: a fuckin mr handy

bruce: vault dweller that imprinted on said mr handy like a duckling after his parents died

dick: you can literally keep his backstory intact and he makes perfect sense, haley circus is just from new vegas, after his parents murder he joined up with lyons pride and moved east with the brotherhood of steel, when the new elder rose to power after the lyons' death dick started to see the writing on the wall of fascism and jumped ship leaving that life behind, joining up with duke's new and improved MM to protect people from people he swore brotherhood to

damian: obv still bruce and talia's kid, talia is a pre war scientist and businesswoman, keeping herself and her half siblings alive and young as long as they keep their father and his weird artifact locked up. damian grows up in the closest thing to pre war luxury the post apocalypse has to offer. Eventually he wants to go out and see the world, meet his dad, write a guide to wasteland fauna. talia hires jason to guard him so he stops trying to rush down feral ghouls with a sword.

[miserymet]

Posting another piece of writing! This one is the opening chapter for a Bass-centric Modern AU. Much longer than the Drabble I posted, but rereading it made me nostalgic for this old AU. I’d like to do some art for it at some point.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the fic:

His name was Ballade.

Bass doesn’t know much more than that. All he knows is his name and that he was year above him. He either doesn’t remember the rest or never learned it. See, that was the problem with Ballade. He was completely and entirely irrelevant. A stain on ruined shirt, a blemish against tattered skin. He didn’t matter, not in the grand scheme of things and not to anyone at school. A nobody in every sense of the word. Bass doesn’t remember what was so annoying about him either. All he remembers is that one day he said something, and Bass wasn’t in the mood to hear it.

Ballade was the first to end up on the pavement, blood leaking from his face. He was not the last.

Bass Wily’s history is best described as “colorful.” From a young age it was easy to see that he was different from his peers. Teachers described him as difficult, classmates as terrifying, and parents as concerning. That was only the beginning. His first fight was in elementary, with the aforementioned Ballade, but his real beginning was in middle school. Why, the list of his enemies was so long they could make it into a phone book. The list of people he beat to a pulp wasn’t quite as long, but the amount of fights he lost wouldn’t even take up a footnote. As you can imagine, this was a nightmare for his father.

It’s no wonder the old man got sick of him. He came out of freshman year with bloody knuckles and a bad attitude. Most would have sent him to a boot camp. Most would have the shame to admit that they had failed somewhere along the way. But not Wily, no, he could never call his own blood a lost cause. Not when his rotten son ending up in juvie was sure to make the headlines. No, Wily had a different plan in mind. A plan that got Bass out of the way and wiped his record clean. A plan he never planned on filling Bass in on until it was too late to make a run for it.

A plan he named Zero.

That’s how Bass finds himself in the passenger’s seat of a car he’s never been in before, staring out over a dark and endless highway. The lights are few and far apart, covering the car for only a moment before cutting out again. For as far out as they are, there’s nothing to see. All around them are miles and miles of roads and fields and lifeless desert that threatens to swallow him whole. It’s a wasteland. That’s all that lies between the cities out here. Dirt and dust and rock. It’s miserable. At least now it’s too dark to see anything.

The inside of the car isn’t anymore comfortable. His jacket hangs loosely over him, unzipped and falling off his shoulder. It’s just cold enough to make him uncomfortable, but it’ll be too warm if he zips it up. So he doesn’t. Bass just slouches in his seat and breathes a deep sigh. 

The radio buzzes in his ear, playing something that was probably popular thirty years ago. Now it’s nostalgic. Retro. A pathetic ploy to remember the past as better than it actually was. It’s so easy to remember those years as too much synth and makeup, as bright lights and exposed skin. It’s just music. Music that said nothing and meant even less. Bass hates that. Hates that the same people who call modern music soulless praise this garbage because it’s old. Hates that they’re all listening to the same bubblegum bullshit, but from a different time. 

He doesn’t know why he cares. People have been touting their self importance since the dawn of time. He can imagine their prehistoric ancestors measuring their sticks to see whose was the biggest. Only now people care less for sticks and more for music that takes itself too seriously. That’s the issue, he guesses. Everyone cares too much. Wily cares too much about his image, Bass cares too much about everything, and Zero…

Bass doesn’t know what he cares about. Doesn’t really know the guy. At all. 

He reaches for the radio and switches to another station. Bass is immediately inundated with a different kind of garbage. Modern electronic music. At the sudden change, Zero speaks up for what must be the first time in over an hour. 

“I was listening to that.”

Bass rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t.”

They lapse into silence again as Bass switches through various stations. Some play pop, some rock, some are pure static. None of it is worth listening to. Bass didn’t think any of it would be, but at least playing with the radio gives him something to do. His phone died forever ago, leaving him with whatever he has on hand to entertain himself. His backpack is full of sentimental junk, nothing he can really use to distract himself. Treble is napping in the backseat and Bass doesn’t have the heart to wake him. So this car radio is all he has for company. Zero doesn’t count. He’s not company. 

Bass barely even knows the guy. Which is why he’s trying so hard to distract himself. If he thinks too hard he’ll remember that he’s riding with a stranger to a city he’s never seen before. The knob turns in his hand as he thinks, sliding between stations haphazardly. He’ll be in a new place, away from everything he’s ever known, living with someone he doesn’t know. Someone unpredictable. Sure, anyone that isn’t Wily is probably an improvement, but Bass is used to Wily. He knows how the old man thinks. Knows how he works, how to deal with him. Bass doesn’t know Zero, hasn’t for five years. Which makes the man unpredictable. Which makes Bass nervous. He fiddles with the knob just a bit faster, static breaking through the speakers.

“Forte-,”

“Bass. It’s Bass now.” He keeps his eyes trained on the car radio, watching the stations flicker by. “Has been for a while.”

Zero sighs, loudly. “Well Bass, pick something or turn it off.”

He lands on static. Bass is pretty sure he sees Zero’s eye twitch out of the corner of his eyes, but he chooses to ignore it. The satisfaction of annoying Zero lasts for only a minute. After that, he quickly realizes the consequences of his actions. There’s several hours between him and his destination. Several hours he’s going to have to suffer through with the sound of static accompanying all of it. How lovely. It’s times like these where Bass almost wishes he were someone else. Of course, that’s only when his difficult nature affects himself. Any other time and he’s perfectly happy being the most antagonistic person in existence.

People are stupid. People like Wily, like Zero, like his teachers and his peers. People that look at him and see only what they want to see. People that look at him and see Forte. See this teen with a bad attitude and dark clothes and assume that they know everything about him. Bass exists to defy those assumptions. He is not the expected, not the convenient. He’s loud, abrasive, aggressive. He’s everything Wily pretends he isn’t. He’s whatever’s going to infuriate Zero the most. He’s whatever pisses everyone off. A contrarian. A problem. Bass gets to control what everyone thinks of him. He gets to pick what he wants to be. Everyone else just has to deal with it or move on.

Most choose to move on. Even the most patient people in the world get sick of him eventually. The smart ones leave as soon as they can. As you can imagine, it leaves him on his own more often than not. That’s fine. Bass has been on his own for a while. He’s used to it. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of Zero. This won’t be any different. A change of scenery won’t fix what’s wrong with him. Bass won’t change, won’t get better, won’t get worse. He’ll just continue on as he always has. Zero will get sick of him eventually. Send him back in a few months, throwing Wily’s mistakes in his face once again.

The thought isn’t as comforting as it should be. As nervous as he is about this move, the idea of returning home isn’t thrilling either. That house, that city hasn’t felt like home for a while. It used to. It used to be familiar and comforting. It used to be his. Now it feels like any other place. Those long halls, those labyrinthine streets, they don’t feel the same. Not since…

Wily certainly chose a convenient time to get sick of him. After everything, it figures the old man would cut him loose after he’s already been hanging from a string. He wonders, briefly, if that was exactly Wily chose to do this now. The old man never cared much for the company he kept, so why would he get rid of him after his old gang had left? Why wait until he had nothing to ship him off? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe it was just convenience. That he was waiting for Zero to come home, that this was always the plan. Of course, that just leaves one unknown variable.

“Why…” Bass falters and hates himself for it. “Why are you doing this?”

Zero grips the steering wheel a little harder. “Doing what?”

“This! The move, the new house, the new school-, why? Why any of it? Why?”

Bass flails his arms in useless gesture. The man next to him huffs in what might be amusement, which makes only one of them. He slouches in his seat and turns away from the man. Pouting, he knows, but he figures he’s earned the right. His life is being upended by the only two people that still hold any power over him. Two people that don’t even know him, for all the years he’s lived with them. Wily and Zero never cared to learn anything about him, and Zero’s missed a third of his life. Bass was ten when Zero left, ten. A lot changes in five fucking years. And Zero doesn’t know the half of it.

“Didn’t he tell you what you’re dealing with? My record? My ‘attitude problem?’”

Zero stiffens a bit at that. Bass wouldn’t have gotten as far as he has if he didn’t know how to exploit a weak spot. He prods further.

“C’mon, how much do you know? I have to know what the old man said about me, which one of my greatest hits he told you.” Bass tugs on Zero’s jacket, jostling him a bit. “Was it that kid whose nose I broke? Or the one who got his older brother involved, who I destroyed by the way. What about the one who showed up with a bat-,”

“Bass.” His grip is harder now, jaw clenched as he stares dead ahead.

“What? I just want to know-,”

“Why are you proud of that? Of what you did to those kids? What-,” Zero takes a deep breath, barely keeping it together.

Bass rolls his eyes. “What’s wrong with me? A lot. I’m sure you can make a few guesses.”

“Do you enjoy hurting people? Is that fun for you?”

“I enjoy winning.” He pulls back his hand, crossing it over his chest. “I enjoy being better than all the idiots who see someone whose barely five feet and thinks that they can take him. I enjoy when everyone else is wrong. I enjoy making them admit it.”

“Well, you weren’t doing much of that when I came home! Your father said you weren’t doing anything. That you hid in your room all day. That you stopped leaving the house. That’s what he told me.”

Bass opens his mouth. Then shuts it. He honestly didn’t think the old man noticed. No, the truth is that he honestly didn’t think the old man cared. So what if he was in his room? It’s his room. It’s his house! He’s allowed to be there! The alternative was being somewhere else, doing something illegal. Most parents would be happy that Bass wasn’t doing any of that. That he was somewhere they could see, that they could keep him out of trouble. Actually, considering how fond Wily was of pretending his own son didn’t exist, this was almost textbook. Figures the old man would only care because he had to suffer his own son’s presence. Still…

“What do you care?”

Zero doesn’t answer him, not right away. Bass spares him a glance. He’s kinda like a monolith, in a way. He sits straight, arms stiff and limbs locked into place. He’s about a foot taller than Bass so he almost towers over him in his slouch. Zero has towered over him for a while. A monument to everything Bass is not. Zero is tall and lean, with smooth features and a pretty face. His skin is tan, his hair blonde and his eyes a vivid blue. He was a straight A student all throughout high school, at the top of his class, and he even got valedictorian. Not to mention the Ivy League school he went to, which he graduated a few months ago. With flying colors, of course. 

Bass is nothing like him. He’s short and awkward, his face round and features mean. Bass is a darker complexion, with black hair and dark eyes. What’s worse is that these features only look bad on him. If Zero had them, he’d look great. But Bass isn’t Zero. His grades are mediocre, his attendance record awful, and he’s never gotten anything more than a participation trophy. And, not to be redundant, but the record. Even if it’s being swept under the rug here, it still exists. Bass did everything he got in trouble for. Beat up every name in that file. He’s every counselor’s nightmare.

“I care because I don’t think you’re a bad kid.”

He blinks at that. “You’re insane.”

“I mean it, Bass.” Zero takes another breath. “Your father isn’t…a good person.”

“He’s a shithead, I know.”

“Yeah, he is. And having a father like that doesn’t make for a good environment to grow up in. It leads to…people like us.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“We’re not normal, Bass. Normal people don’t beat people up for fun, they don’t have rampant anger issues, they don’t pick the farthest school from their family because the thought of living in that house makes them sick.”

That explains why Zero never visited. Bass kinda assumed he was too busy studying or whatever to bother, but it makes sense that avoiding Wily was his main motivation. Bass did the same thing, although he could never get as far away as Zero did. And he eventually had to come home. But every moment he spent away from Wily was one he savored. Even if he was just loitering or hanging out in empty parking lots. Anything to not have to be home. Bass remembers staying out for hours, far after sunset, just so he could be sure Wily was asleep.

Sometimes one of his friends would wait with him. Tengu’s presence was typical, seeing as he didn’t have any good reason to go home either. His parents weren’t ever around and Bass learned not to pry. He wasn’t good company, though. Bass kinda got the feeling he only stuck around because he felt like he had to. Burner sometimes stuck around too. Usually to get the smell out of his clothes, but sometimes he didn’t want to go home either. Bass didn’t like Burner, for a lot of reasons, but he could be nice when he wasn’t on something. 

His friends weren’t normal either. Bass knew that, instinctively, but that was why he hung around them. Because they knew what it was like to not be normal. To be ugly and awful, to be unforgivable to everyone else. They were so not normal that it made Bass feel normal. Like he wasn’t some freak of nature. Like it wasn’t his fault that he came out like this. That it just…happened. Like it did with all of his friends. 

Zero is the opposite. He’s a stark reminder of how messed up Bass is. Because if Zero ended up as perfect as he is, then Bass doesn’t really have an excuse. Bass just isn’t good enough. Someway, somehow, he is insufficient. Flawed. Imperfect. But hearing Zero say that he isn’t normal, that something wrong with him? It’s bittersweet. It doesn’t fix Bass, but it does make him feel better to know that Zero isn’t as high and mighty as he might seem. But again, that only explains part of what’s going on. Bass knows why Wily sent him away, knows why Zero wants to leave, but it still leaves one thing unanswered.

“That explains why you’re moving, but why the hell did you bring me along?

“Because getting away from that-,” Zero falters for a moment. “Getting away from our father was good for me. College was good for me. Getting to be around normal people with normal lives made me realize how fucked up ours was. It made me realize that things didn’t have to be like this. That we don’t have to be like this.”

Bass doesn’t say anything. He got what he wanted. Now he knows that this is some strange attempt to “fix” Bass. He’s not sure how Zero thinks he’s going to accomplish that, but he’s welcome to try. It’ll be entertaining to watch him fail for the first time. Well, second if you count what happened in Zero’s junior year, but Bass doesn’t. Zero did win, after all.

“You deserve a chance to have a normal childhood. With someone who hasn’t given up on you. I…want to give you that. I want to try. God knows someone has to.”

They fall into silence again. Bass doesn’t know what to say to that and Zero seems to have said all he had to. Now it’s just them and the open, empty road. There’s a part of Bass that’s hopeful, despite everything. That thinks maybe this can work. That he and Zero can play pretend. That Bass can survive for a little bit longer. But it’s only a small part. Every other part of him tells him not to hold his breath. Bass sighs and turns his attention to the window. The sky seems to be brightening, which means that morning isn’t too far off. He relaxes in his seat.

When he wakes up, he’ll be in a new city. When he wakes up, he’ll have to figure this out all over again. Bass closes his eyes and dreams of nothing.

[octaviasdread]

I hereby conduct this tortured poets society album meeting in all of its mania and sorrowful blues as I move from unhinged impressions to unhinged first-listen analysis because I am incapable of saying less.

(and to all the Aimees i’m so sorry but that’s on Kim)

This Anthology is taking me so long to process, but nothing feels like the first jarring moments of I Can Do It With a Broken Heart - the cacophony and flashes of a birthday breakdown bopping to 80s arcade game synth. It's crumbled cake and mascara streaks when Bejewelled is actually a delusional Mirrorball,

and The Secret Garden reference in I Hate It Here, oh god, she’s so me:

I hate it here so I will go to / secret gardens in my mind / people need a key to get to / the only one is mine / i read about it in a book when I was a precocious child

I need to come back to that. But the whirlwind of Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? Plans cancelled. IM THE ONE barricaded in the bathroom with a bottle of wine, actually. It's me chained-up in that poor things victorian mourning dress shrieking elegies in my tortured nightingale screams.

She's Grammys Taylor looking at the crowd of her peers rolling their eyes, she's the litany of snide jokes diminishing her success, and the children, sisters, friends, and girlfriends of those who wronged her loudly singing her songs.

so i leap from the gallows and i levitate down your street / crash the party like a record scratch as I scream / who’s afraid of little old me

i was tame i was gentle til the circus made me mean / don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth

ohhh, the throwback to Speak Now and the significance of MEAN. The song and its titular word show how childish language encapsulates that pointless spite and the bone deep hurt mean behaviour breeds - but now she’s a phoenix risen, and they hurl her youth and her downfall back in her face - word for word, surprised face - its the dark side the The Lucky One, of not escaping the cage of fame games.

you lured me and you hurt me and you taught me / you caged me and then you called me crazy

i wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me / you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me / so all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs / i’m always drunk on my own tears isn’t that what they all said?

PUT NARCOTICS IN MY SONG took me out. This album is funny in the most sardonic and absurdly humorous ways,

like the classic cowboy western guitar strings in her crime songs (I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can - pistols drawn), but especially the ones leading into Fresh Out The Slammer. Fucking genius, and to follow on with static sounds at 2:26ish to the house where you still wait up, is exactly the kinda detail I adore.

Naively, I thought Florence was done with me after Florida!!! It's a lyrical meme for single 20 & 30 somethings who moved away from home,

my friends all smell of like weed or little babies / and the city reeks of driving myself crazy / little did you know your home’s really only / a town you’re just a guest in

and the haunting morphs from the ghost of your girlhood into the catalogue of decisions and delusions which get you through adulthood. Yet it feels almost like an interlude within the song when

me and my ghosts we’ve had a hell of a time / yes i’m haunted but i’m feeling fine / all my girls got their lace and their crimes / and your cheating husband disappeared/ well no one asks questions here

appears like an alternative pov for No Body, No Crime with the girls and their ghosts and their pacts made over wine. Every Action has an Equal Reaction. Run away to Florida, or Texas, and lose yourself to lose the heartbreak. Its self-destruction, it's trauma-healing, bonding, and its breaking.

(what a song for an angsty girl collab, problematic girl in hand with problematic girl, lyrically and thematically, maybe the real love story is the friends we make along the way.)

And that wasn't even the last of it. It's Florence 2.0 with B side Cassandra, but instead of Dance Fever, its Taylor’s glorious mythology with all the allusions, parallels, intertextual and lyrical ruining of my mind:

when the first stone’s thrown they’re screaming / when its burn the bitch they’re shrieking / when the truth comes out its quiet

so they killed cassandra first cus she feared the worst / and tried to tell the town / so they filled my cell with snakes i regret to say / do you believe me now?

No apologies anymore. A girl given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, the GOD OF POETRY, is cursed with her prophecy never being believed: Burning all the witches even if you aren't one, indeed. She saw the truth of the Trojan horse, and the Trojans insulted her. Rep snake branding and the current cultural view of KK and Ye. I don't need to say anything else.

i was in the tower weaving nightmares / twisting all my smiles into snarls

the family the pure greed the christian chrous line / bloods thick but nothing like a payroll / bet they never spared a prayer for my soul

I literally played that THREE times before I got over it enough to finish my first listen,

and i’m still thinking about Clara Bow and that Stevie Nicks tambourine we collectively freaked over from the Spotify installation, and all the silent movie speculation from the track title release.

you look like Clara Bow in this light - you look like Stevie Nicks in '75 - you look like Taylor Swift

Three women whose public profession became entangled with their pain. Silver Springs. Boyfriend songs. The jokes. Clara Bow.

Clara feared being left behind by 'talkies.' Miss Americana. The fear of 30 bringing death to a woman's Hollywood/Musical career,

beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more / only when your girlish glow flickers just so / do they let you know?

Three women who beat the odds - three women whose talent, craft, and popularity carried them through.

But there's something more to unpack here with cycles and patterns - of the past endlessly repeating. It's the transient nature of fame and our fleeting view of beauty mapped out in the untouchable, ever-changing, and culturally worshiped moon.

It's a body of physical craters, a natural body we call discovered, and fight to claim. We project emotions and create rituals of worship - you're the new god we're worshipping. Endless stories are told about her, but we can never fully see the moon with human eyes. Eclipses, shadows, - 'half moonshinе, a full eclipse' - half-truths and half-moons:

this town is fake but you're the real thing / breath of fresh air through smoke rings / take the glory, give everything / promise to be dazzling

There's a play on light and a play on words in the repetition of Dazzling, shining so bright so blindingly bright. Who is dazzled? Who is doing the dazzling? There's an instability between Director - Public - Star. It's Hollywood lights, No one in my small town thought I'd see the lights of Manhattan / No one in my small town thought I'd meet these suits in LA.

She beat the 'War Big Machine' - but for me, there's ambivalence and illusion on all sides of the final lyrics, you've got edge, she never did / the future's bright, dazzling.

(and ‘Edge’ is particularly ironic when you consider the songs on this album…)

Moving again into the B Side, it's Taylor's departure from Invisible string, red strings of fate, and golden threads à la the golden chain of fate in Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities that strikes me.

First, I thought her writing was a complete departure from the themes of destiny and fate, but then, The Prophecy:

cards on thе table / Mine play out like fools in a fablе

it isn't an absent symbol; it transformed. It's the evermore forest amped to the max. Witches, folklore, fairy-tale and fable - a homeric epic. Its the hero's journey distilled as she opens the song with a move from 'full throttle' adventure, to slowing down 'Hand on the Throttle' to appeal for Supernatural aid at the hero's transformative fall.

and it was written / I got cursed like eve got bitten / a greater woman wouldn't beg / but I looked at the sky and said / please I've been on my knees / change the prophecy

Lover asking Traffic Lights becomes spending my last coin so someone will tell me, and this might be the most slept-on heartbreaking line. Her search for reassurance can't be framed as an arbitrary musing anymore. It can't be dismissed as a mere thought on her drive home, or something triggered throughout the day - its intent. It's a quest for answers, a plea, a last-ditch hope difficult to deny.

and I sound like an infant / feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen/ a greater woman stays cool/ but I howl like a wolf at the moon / and I look unstable /

gathered with a coven 'round a sorceress' table / a greater woman has faith But even statues crumble if they're made to wait / i'm so afraid I sealed my fate / no sign of soulmates

She's asking for a gift from the Gods, and when the God's won't answer, she plunges straight down from heaven or Olympus into the self seizure of power in witchcraft. And when it fails, she descends further - Spending my last coin so someone will tell me it'll be okay - paying mortal fortune tellers, even if they lie.

The song leans on figures without redemption, on the Eve's, on the women cursed and punished, and those who scream like infants rather than enduring burdens and pain in silence. She's poisoned, infected like Aurora from the wound of the pricked hand with dreams of him. Is this a punishment?

She's infected, cursed like Eve got bitten, [lyric of all time!!!!] but does a monster always do monstrous things? Who is the monster? Who is the folkloric, the literary Mad Woman? Perhaps she's written from the desperate, the scarred, and the wronged.

and the transition into another tale with Peter? As in Peter losing Wendy? Is it an epilogue to the Betty trilogy? or a different use of the metaphor?

and I didn't wanna hang around / we said it was just goodbye for now /said you were gonna grow up / then you were gonna come find me / words from the mouths of babes / promises oceans deep / but never to keep

The triangle is echoed in love's never lost when perspective is earned, reflecting the different povs of Betty, August, and James, and placing Peter as the new conclusion - the shelf life of those fantasies has expired / lost to the lost boys chapter of your life/ the woman who sits by the window/ has turned out the (porch?) light.

Promises wear out. Wendy's window closes, and so does this chapter in her life.

my lost fearless leader / in closets like cedar / preserved from when we were just kids / is it something I did? / the goddess of timing / once found us beguiling

is also - intentionally or not - Narnia coded. Is the storybook collecting dust in her closet? Or is the closet still holding a portal to another fairytale land accessible only in youth, another home you can't return to (and another folklore parallel with mtr, anywhere I want just not home).

Side B is so harmonious with ttpd being the end of a chapter as the anthology moves through all the seven stages (or Taylor playlists) of grief.

The Manuscript, the signing of the autopsy, is the Death of the Author. It's the Roland Barthes realisation of All Too Well reborn in joy and fan culture, the story isn't mine anymore, of the Eras - 'I hope you hear these songs and think of this night' - Tour. She knew what the agony had been for - art. connection. - and its these things that create the hope lost in ttpd's journey through mania, disorientation, loss and despair. It all leads to healing, nothing left but a manuscript.

So many thoughts from listen no.1 and they’ll probably change, but i’m so exhausted from this 31 song rollercoaster that I'm just gonna let this sit. death of the author, I guess.

[sophaeros]

julian casablancas for mojo magazine, november 2024 / issue 372 (x x)

Rock'n'roll Confidential: Julian Casablancas

The Strokes/Voidz mainman talks entitlement, respect and Arctic Monkeys

3AM (Pacific Coast Time) is an atypical hour to schedule an interview. But here's Julian Casablancas, zooming from Los Angeles, where the singer, for so long synonymous with the grit and glamour of New York City, has lived since 2020. He's a busy man: as well as fronting long-running garage rock classicists The Strokes - whose sixth album The New Abnormal won a Grammy in 2020 - he's found a refuge of sorts in his experimental, '80s synths-enabled group The Voidz, whose new LP Like All Before You is imminent. Talking to MOJO, Casablancas remains in shadow, his eyes occasionally reflecting dim light. "I can be a vampire," he promises. "You want a real rock star, bro? But I can be flexible and go into family mode too…"

What are you doing up at 3am, talking to MOJO? It's about the only time I have free. The rest of the time, it's videos and working with managers, going to concerts, social things… so l go all the way around, to crazy night hours.

The new album starts with Overture and ends with Walk Off - is there a concept lurking within? I guess a little. Maybe subconsciously. It hopefully hits if you have taken mushrooms. I had just watched Gone With The Wind, and they used to have overtures at the beginning of movies, and then we end the album with a synthesizer version. But it is not a rock opera story. If anything, the concept was going to be a one-word album title. At first, it was Zeal, then Perseverance.

How do you switch mindsets between Voidz and Strokes songwriting? Voidz songs are where my mind has been pushing me, and where I want to go, and where I am. But the ability or capability or muscle memory of writing Strokes-sequel stuff is just always going to be there. When those songs appear, it makes more sense to put them in each category, but it's not always that clear. But there's more 'no-limits' with The Voidz.

You recently said, "My current solution is to tour with The Strokes and then use the money to record with The Voidz." How did that happen? Years of drama and betrayals and horseshit (laughs). Honestly, l am cool with most of the dudes, and now we're more mature. It's not what I set out to do, but it's a fun, cool day job that I feel blessed to have. But let's just say I was only in a band called Zog, and whatever I worked on 10 years ago in Zog, I would not be interested in any more, I'm only interested in what I'm working on now. It's just the nature of music and creativity, you know?

What did you set out to do with The Strokes? I just wanted to challenge boundaries, and to have an ambitious collective of respectful teammates. Is that The Voidz? For me, yes.

The cliché about Strokes issues is that you were rich kids who weren't hungry enough. Any truth in that? Success affects people in different ways. I'd say there are some elements, probably from me as well, where you can be entitled… all kinds of bands have fallings outs and drama. It wasn't like, Oh, we don't need the money. I think it did take a lot of hunger to get there, but then after you've achieved something, when everyone is kissing each individual member's ass… OK, let's get back to work and do it again. It was like, Uh, no thanks. That's my assessment.

The Arctic Monkeys song Star Treatment starts out, "I just wanted to be one of The Strokes." What was your reaction? I thought, Be careful what you wish for. It was funny, and flattering. I have a lot of respect for Alex and those boys.

Tell us something you've never told an interviewer before. I've been trying to communicate with crows lately. I heard they have an intricate sonic language, but I haven't had any luck. It occurred to me that food would help, so I was trying to feed one M&M's earlier, but he wasn't having it. People can catch me making weird noises, trying to mimic the crow. I think the crows are more startled than the humans.

As told to Martin Aston

JULIAN, DOPE Five of Casablancas's crackers.

Brian Eno Burning Airlines Give You So Much More (ISLAND, 1974)

Benny Goodman Good-Bye (VICTOR, 1936)

Kate Bush Why Should I Love You? (EMI, 1993)

Max Richter Path 5 (Delta) (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON, 2015)

BEAK> Secrets (INVADA, 2024)

[randomvarious]

Chicago House Playlist

Alright, folks, here's something that's been a long time coming: a playlist of house tunes that came from the city that gave birth to the global phenomenon in the first place, and also kickstarted the whole evolution of electronic dance music as we currently know it. When house music began, most dancefloors had moved on from disco to a mishmash of post-disco, boogie, hi-NRG, dance-pop, synthy funk, electro, freestyle, and a whole lot of other stuff, but there was something different that started to brew itself into a movement during the mid-1980s among a predominantly black, gay crowd in the city where disco had first been symbolically murdered in 1979.

And eventually, it became known as house music, named after both The Warehouse, the place that the genre's godfather, Frankie Knuckles, would have residency, and the posters that would be hung up to advertise the venue's events, which referred to 'house parties' and 'house music.' The Warehouse would open up in the late 70s and close in the early 80s, but in 1983, Frankie would open up his own club, The Power House, which would then change its name to the Power Plant, and then change its name again to The Music Box, after another legendary house DJ, Ron Hardy, would take up residency there.

So, a lot of this playlist channels the greatness of some of those halcyon Chicago house days. And so much of it is just pure, primordial dance music bliss; lighthearted, unserious, super fun, revolutionary grooves. There was an amateurishness to a lot of it back then that gave it a significant level of goofy charm, and that's something that seems to have gotten mostly left behind as the music continued to grow into the 90s. Songs like "Move Your Body," by Marshall Jefferson, which opened with this rich and clanging, jauntily unpolished piano rag of sorts, was so infectious, and his plainly bad, but passionate singing voice that would follow that iconic intro couldn't help but be adored too. And the song on this playlist that currently comes after that one, "Love Can't Turn Around," by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk & Jesse Saunders, is in much the same vein, as featured vocalist Darryl Pandy goes over-the-top berserk to start his second verse, making for another song that you really just can't resist 🥰.

Another total favorite of mine on here is one that was produced by Frankie Knuckles himself: "Let the Music Use You," by the Night Writers, which is a near-eight minute masterpiece that has a divine, string-pad-and-bell-laden beat that immediately shows you why Frankie was revered as such a master of his own craft. And that beat gets paired beautifully with Ricky Dillard's soft and tender, heartfelt vocals too.

And then there's Kevin Irving's "Children of the Night," which features his excellent, soulful voice on a beat that combines string pads with prickly electro stabs, and was made by Larry Sherman, the founder of the most important label in the history of Chicago house itself, Trax Records, which has also caught a lot of flak over the years for its shady business practices.

A couple more notes: first, be forewarned that the track that starts this playlist is another tremendous classic, "Mind Games," by Quest— which features the voice of Liz Torres and some great and dreamy freestyle-type synth work—but even though it's on Spotify, it is, unfortunately, pretty damn scratchy. Luckily, I was able to include a much cleaner version on the YouTube version of this playlist, though 😊. And second, I like to keep these playlists as chronologically ordered as possible, but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out when Screamin' Rachael's "Bip Bop" was actually made. It has an aggressive male rap vocal on it that's reminiscent of Turbo B's on Snap!'s "The Power," so it could be from that early 90s period, but I really don't know. So I just put it at the end, where it will stay until I one day possibly figure out when it was actually created.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible and links are provided below to songs that have been posted about previously in order to give them more context:

Quest - "Mind Games" Marshall Jefferson - "Move Your Body" Farley "Jackmaster" Funk & Jesse Saunders - "Love Can't Turn Around" On the House - "Pleasure Control" Housemaster Boyz - "House Nation" Ralphi Rosario - "You Used to Hold Me" Night Writers - "Let the Music Use You" Dalis - "Rock Steady" Kevin Irving - "Children of the Night" Bam Bam - "Where's Your Child?" Paul Johnson - "3rd Dimension (Remixed by Armando)" Screamin' Rachael - "Bip Bop"

And while there are some incredible moments in that Spotify playlist, I still have way more Chicago house music to show you in the YouTube version. Some tracks that stand out in this bonus crop are the first one, the silly and campy "Undercover," by Doctor Derelict, which has about 3,500 plays on YouTube across a couple uploads; another one from Frankie Knuckles, which is a rare remix of his very popular "Baby Wants to Ride" that has ~31.6K plays, and features some political opining from vocalist Jamie Principle, and even a detouring interpolation of "America the Beautiful" in its second half (😆); and then one from a later era of Chicago—'99, to be exact—called "Testing & Balancing," by Jimminy Cricket, aka James Curd, that has around 170 plays and liberally samples from Al Green's soul classic, "Love & Happiness."

Doctor Derelict - "Undercover" Jungle Wonz - "The Jungle" Steve "Silk" Hurley - "House Beat Box" On the House - "Ride the Rhythm"Libra Libra - "I Like It" Paris Grey - "Don't Make Me Jack" Liz Torres - "Can't Get Enough" Frankie Knuckles - "Baby Wants to Ride" On the House - "Let's Get Busy" Mister Lee - "Come to House" Jimminy Cricket - "Testing & Balancing"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So, with the Spotify version of this playlist, we currently have 12 songs that total an hour and 16 minutes, and with YouTube, we're at 23 songs that total 2 hours and 24 minutes. Clearly, there are a whole lot more goodies in that YouTube one.

And if you want a Chicago house playlist that's a bit shorter, I have one that's made of stuff that's solely from the 80s too.

1980s Chicago House: Spotify / YouTube / YouTube Music

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[stylecouncil]

ignore your lame anon and tell me some fun facts about that mormon guy

how dare you call him that mormon guy but I’ll ignore it because I love you. hunky dory is his mission. that’s one of the fun facts he said he found hunky dory at 19 and never went on a mission trip, so that was his mission. his parents met in a trailer park. he moved to a town with no stoplight when he was 9 but ran off back to vegas when he was 16 and got a fake id. his father was an alcoholic from a long line of alcoholics who his mom would take brandon with her to look for drunk in casinos but stopped drinking when he converted to mormonism (so there are layers here). he used to say he gets angry when he sees happy college students and he still gets a bit of an ache about it because it was never an option for him. he was a fat kid who got called a fag and felt completely out of place. andy of andy you’re a star fame is a real person he went to school with. he used to religiously read every morrissey and noel gallagher interview he could get his hands on. he stole morrissey demos from morrisseys guitarists bag when he was a bellhop. he kept the teacup morrissey drank out of when he came into the restaurant he worked at. he stalked morrissey for an entire night at a hotel while morrissey knew what he was doing the entire time. his first band was a synth pop band called blush response with a guy named trevor he met at a golf course job who he felt like was one of the first people he ever truly clicked with. they bonded over morrissey and depeche mode and the pet shop boys erasure etc they used to dye each others hair black. and when brandon was kicked out of the band and trevor moved to la with his girlfriend he almost drank himself to death. seeing don’t look back in anger at the hard rock in a show he only managed to get into at the last minute because someone handed him their ticket as they were leaving was what made him think he could really do it and that he wanted to be in a guitar band specifically. he hates any oasis song not written by noel. he made lou reed laugh by showing him that perfect day has the same chord progression as perfect day when they were recording tranquilize. he said every emo band needed to be beaten to death and never took pete wentz up on his offer to get sushi. his teeth were all falling out by the time he we like 26. he used to have to drink to get through every show. sam’s town is a real casino and he said it was like a beacon on the road from the trailer park where his parent were from that showed you were getting some place, you were getting to the city soon. he used to sleep on a morrissey pillowcase. he met his wife at a vegas thrift store and her cptsd has factored into his writing quite a lot. he almost fired that one annoying lorde producer that isn’t jack antonoff but almost as annoying 4 times while making the desired effect (I feel like you might appreciate this one idk why). he references a paul simon song in caution by the killers (another one for you). he’s notoriously tactless and mouthy and has tried to tone it down sometime after sam’s town because it became all that people could say about him (alt rock azealia banks) but it’s not really entirely worked (partially because a lot of that is just….him despite what he says so it hasn’t gone away but) it just got replaced with harping on the mormon thing despite him kind of being theologically all over the place with that in reality/seemingly clinging to it in name etc for a multitude of complicated reasons. he almost got an oasis tattoo as a teenager. he called hunky dory a working class album. uhhhhh I think he’s very interesting and a bundle of contradictions in the best way and funny and one of our last great frontmen who is also a great and varied songwriter. is that enough fun facts some of these aren’t fun. he’s been saving his beard trimmings in a plastic ziplock bag for years to give to neil tennant of pet shop boys fame.

[andyzreality]

⋆ band dr intro !

｡‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ — I come home, [he] lifted up [his] wings I guess that this must be the place...

｡‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ — I will find a city, find myself a city to live in...

december 5, 1974.

i moved to new york city in october with the help of my uncle (whom i had been staying with since i graduated from yale in may). it's a small, kinda dingy place, a bachelor on the lower east side, but with how much i was making, it was about as much as i could afford, and i really don't want to end up having to ask my parents for help, as much as they'd probably chip in. i'm taking a gap year (that might end up being two), to figure myself out and decide if i should try to apply for a graduate program, and in the meantime, i've been working at a record store a few blocks from my apartment. like i said, it's not the greatest salary in the world, far from it, but the place is pretty cool and i like the other guy working here, Danny. his parents own the place. people also come in sometimes to post ads on the corkboard near the entrance.

speaking of which, when i came in this morning, Danny pointed out an ad someone had put up looking for a bass player. he knew i played and was looking to be part of a band. that really is the whole reason i was doing the whole "gap year" thing, after all. i want to make this music thing work. it's been my dream since i was a kid. that, and being an author, of course.

so, i wrote down the number on the ad...

｡*ﾟ about me !

｡‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ — Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down...

name: anders "andy" stephen alden gender: male pronouns: he/him age: 22 dob: 10/31/1952 sexuality: biromantic bisexual

occupation: record/music store employee education: b.a. in english from yale (class of '74) languages: english, german, french hobbies: playing bass and guitar, writing, listening to records, reading, cooking

instruments: bass guitar, bass synth, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, double bass

appearance:

｡*ﾟ relationships !

｡‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ — Strange but not a stranger...

⋆ david — bandmate / (future) significant other

he's the voice of the band, our lead singer. he can be pretty quiet, even a little awkward at times, but he's incredibly intelligent. there's something about him that captivates me.

⋆ tina — bandmate

ah, tina! sweet, smart, creative. she plays guitar and does some of the backup vocals. she was actually reluctant to be part of the band, but chris convinced her.

⋆ chris — bandmate

chris is cool! we get along well enough. he's our drummer and he's also tina's boyfriend. he also has a large record collection that i "borrow" from time to time.

⋆ jerry — bandmate

so, he's not part of the band yet. after the modern lovers broke up earlier this year, he went back to harvard to get his master's. he's cool though, and talented. he can do vocals, play guitar, keyboards, synth.