#and I���ll listen to their top songs then start going through their albums

[evanox]

LL M4 and music,, except my music taste sucks and i’m just projecting

felix

went through like 10 different music phases throughout his life

whatever theater kids listen to,, probably lin trash; if you get enough alcohol in him he might hop on a table and start singing his heart out, encouraged by sage jumping on the table with him and anisa cheering them on

enjoyed mcr at some point, doesn't claim danger days (but sage really liked the album so felix lets it slide bc it felt validating that his friend was willing to give the band a try)

also liked p!atd but only up until vices and virtues

probably was into other alt rock stuff,, thought he was Hot Shit for listening to Deep Meaningful Lyrics unlike these hoes (sage)

eventually matured into a mitski (by rime's recommendation) and hozier stan,, but he still listens to gerard way's solo songs

anisa managed to get him into BTS only after Wings was released because the vampire aesthetic was... doing things to him, ended up sticking around bc he got invested in the lore but doesn't listen to them as much

I think,, if he ever gets introduced to Fairouz's music he'd really like it 👉👈

so you ask him what music he’s into and he just,, blanks because everything from every phase is mushed into one "Liked Songs" playlist, and he didn't have the heart to remove the songs that meant something to him Once; still ends up using all his skips on these songs and that's why he uses Escell's credit card for spotify premium—he’s no one’s first choice when it comes to handling the aux cord because of the constant whiplash

his only organized playlist is his study playlists—mostly classical stuff—except he's never used it to study for school, but only whatever books interested him,, out here living his dark academia dreams

anisa

makes the best playlists and is very meticulous about it,, one for driving to work, one for driving back from work, one for the gym, one for pre-game, chill lofi beats for studying, etc

another one she likes to call her “cleaning/chores” playlist except half way through she ditches the work to dance and that’s how her place always looks like a tornado visited

she LOVES dancing by herself even if she has no choreo in mind, loves the feeling of her thick curls bouncing as she swings around,, eventually it evolves into singing at the top of her lungs to adele like she’s the one going through a divorce

I think her mom's music taste transferred to her by osmosis so anisa probably sings just as passionately to celine dion, dolly parton, backstreet boys, selena quintanilla,,, ooh ayanna holding baby anisa as they swing to si una vez around their small kitchen

twice stan bc i said so,, annie doing the likey dance in front of her mirror while dressing up in all pretty for a date she’s so cute,, do you think she can convince elowen to film dancing tiktoks with her,, I think tulsi would be down

thanks to @mauve-days I'm thinking of anisa trying to get elowen into kpop,, elowen secret loona stan

secret one direction phase,, she made sage and felix sign ndas to never talk about it

she makes the boys sit down for listening parties whenever taylor swift drops something new,, felix prints out the lyrics and brings a highlighter for his favorite parts, but sitting still for that long and trying to focus only on listening is difficult for sage so he just listens to the beat while doing something else, if it slaps he just *Ajayll vc* "lemme put a mark to it"

otherwise her and sage's tastes cross often (beyonce, britney spears, bad bunny etc) so she trusts him with the aux cord once in a while

him and Anisa exchange citypop recs, annie's more of a kikuchi momoko and meiko nakahara girl while felix enjoys mariya takeuchi and taeko ohnuki

i think she’d also really like hey violet

sage

embodiment of “songs i listen to with the boys vs songs i listen to alone,,” i like to imagine that the griefers’ main 3 share a lil van and they’re an absolute nuisance if you have to stop at the same traffic lights; their windows are rolled all the way down, volume all the way up, headbanging to... whatever the Boys listen to

but then he’s driving by himself on the highway in the middle of the night to unwind and his playlist is angsty shit,, nbhd, arctic monkeys, tøp, mr. kitty, fob, 1-800-pain, gorillaz, have a nice life, esp their album deathconsciousness the only one I actually know lmao

if he’s drinking his sorrows at home, his sad bitch hours playlist is the same but there’s also mitski, tswift (by anisa's recommendation),, some daddy yankee sprinkled in bc you gotta take a break n shake ur ass a lil before you go back to brooding

pov you're tulsi and you haven't seen your brother the entire day but then you hear crashing in the kitchen at 3am,, and there he is swinging around to Yo Voy, bottle in hand as he makes a bowl of instant noodles

ooo sage and tulsi jamming to lizzo like that scene in someone good 🥺 juice always makes me think of him

he’s a major simp for lizzo and doja ough

not that good with playlists actually he just stole anisa's sad hours playlist and made edits until he was satisfied,, however his sex playlist is meticulously crafted and felix hates to admit he listens to it from time to time

he’d enjoy weird cupcakke remixes; initially because felix hated them but at some point it just became unironic

also also i think if he actually tried he’d have a really nice singing voice

Rime

I don’t want to make any assumptions bc like i said my music taste is tragic and i’m willing to bully the main 3 with it but i feel like rime would haunt me if i try to slander him HOWEVER i am a firm believer in rime enjoying olivia rodrigo as a guilty pleasure

idk why I feel like he’d enjoy kesha, lady gaga, bad bunny,, anything that's party music or feels rebellious,, 

random but i think he’d love going to raves

how do we feel about barb rime

...probably had the halsey/melanie/troye/p!atd phase,, but unlike felix i think he would’ve preferred death of a bachelor and twtl;trtd 

 also lana del ray and marina (esp the family jewels and electra heart),, 

i feel like he had a crystal c*stles/ sidewalks and skeletons phase that almost passed, until sage once asked if rime summons demons to that music and now it’s his whole personality out of spite

i think he'd really enjoy alice glass, grimes, evelyn evelyn, princess chelsea, maybe billie eilish too

He Has Left Us Alone by silver mt zion but he refuses to listen to the songs individually, can only listen to the entire album in its original order, in the dark, when he wants to feel the religious crisis hitting him in waves

found an unexpected friend in tulsi as they both enjoyed metal,, except the only metal band ik is babymetal,, i still think the pair would love them 

probably has a secret YouTube channel for piano covers

[swan-of-sunrise]

The Winter Soldier (Chapter Four)

Summary: (Y/N) and Sam worry about their new super-soldier friend after it’s revealed that he’s on the run and wanted by S.H.I.E.L.D., the very agency he’d dedicated himself to.

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings/Disclaimers: None

A/N: Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Four (Previous Chapter)

“It’s such bullshit! Captain America’s a criminal now?!”

“I know, Greg.”

“They haven’t even said what he’s done!”

“Yep, it’s ridiculous…”

“How can they organize a manhunt for him but not say what he’s supposedly done?!”

(Y/N) pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a frustrated groan. “Greg, you’re my friend and I love you but I can’t keep having this conversation with you.”

The line was silent for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been having the exact same conversation for almost a half an hour! You can’t believe that Cap’s a criminal, I agree, you complain that they haven’t said what he’s wanted for, I agree, then you start going all ‘Law and Order’ on me!” She exclaimed, immediately regretting her outburst; with a sigh, she sat down in her desk chair and rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry, Greg, that was rude. I don’t like what’s going on either; Captain America stands for freedom and honor, he always has, and it just seems…wrong that he’s the subject of a manhunt. I seriously doubt that Captain America of all people did anything to break the law.”

“Wow, when did you become such a big Cap fan?”

“I went to his exhibit when I was at the Air and Space Museum yesterday, and I guess it got me interested.” (Y/N) half-lied, fidgeting with the sleeve of her sweater as she pressed her phone closer to her ear. “Anyway, the reason I called was to tell you that it might take me a little longer to get the draft of my book to you; I still need to look over the last couple of chapters and with everything happening…it might be hard to focus on writing today.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mike’s busy reading through a nine-hundred-page thriller that was sent in this morning so that’ll give you some time. Sorry to cut this short but I’ve gotta go, I have to check on mine and Mara’s dinner reservation for tonight, so I’ll talk to you later, (Y/N)!”

“Talk to you later, Greg!” (Y/N) hung up and set her cell phone down on the desk with a sigh. Ever since she and Sam turned on the television at breakfast and saw the breaking news, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong; Steve Rogers wouldn’t be on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. unless he had a damn good reason to be. I’m sure he’s fine, he’s probably been through much tougher scrapes than this, she thought to herself with forced optimism as she turned on her laptop and began typing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Humming along to Billy Joel’s ‘Movin’ Out’, (Y/N)’s fingers flew across her keyboard as she typed and she smiled, proud of the fact that her writer’s block from the week before was now officially over and that she was so close to completing her very first novel. Not bad, not bad at all, she thought, hitting the ‘save’ button and stretching her arms over her head to relieve the build-up tension in her shoulders.

“Now this is good music, Booksmart!”

She spun her desk chair around to see Sam standing in the doorway of her bedroom and raised her eyebrow as she turned down her music. “Oh, so Billy Joel’s okay but everything else I listen to is garbage?”

Sam gave her a teasing eye-roll. “I never said that your music was garbage, I just said it was weird. How’s the writing going today?”

“I edited twelve pages and just spent an hour trying to describe a Soviet Cold War-era missile, so it’s been okay. How was work?”

“It was good, I didn’t have any meetings scheduled so I spent most of the day playing chess with the old timers. I swear, I think Gary cheats but I can’t figure out how he does it…”

(Y/N) shrugged. “Or maybe you should just accept the fact that you’re terrible at chess and the old timers take great pleasure in seeing you lose.”

“Ha, ha, very funny. You still cool with driving me to the shop to pick up my car?”

(Y/N) got up, turning off her computer and unplugging her MP3 player from her speaker with a grin. “Of course! Driver picks the music, though!” She laughed and practically skipped out of the room as Sam let out a groan of defeat and followed her. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Birdbrain, it’s not like I’m making you listen to a CD of ambient throat singing!”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if you had some of that…”

Five minutes later, they were on the road and the two of them were singing along to her one of Panic! At The Disco’s newest singles at the top of their lungs; out of the corner of her eye she could see other drivers shooting them odd looks but she couldn’t care less, she was enjoying herself far too much.

Sam chuckled as the song came to a finish. “Damn, their new album is good. You know, I didn’t start listening to alt-rock until I met you.”

“Then you should be thanking me for bringing such good music into your life!” Giggling, (Y/N) turned down the volume and glanced over at the cheerful man sitting beside her, her smile faltering as she asked, “Do you think he’s okay, Sam?”

Her roommate’s expression grew serious and he shook his head. “I really don’t know. I saw on CNN earlier that inside sources claim he’s wanted by S.H.I.E.L.D. in connection to the assassination of their director, but I don’t buy it. The guy we’ve met, who’s so dedicated to his job that he hasn’t bothered getting a life outside of it, wouldn’t be a part of something like that. I think something else’s up and I’ll bet anything he’s out there trying to figure it out.”

(Y/N) bit her bottom lip, nodding after a moment. “Yeah, me too.”

“Just you wait, this whole mess with S.H.I.E.L.D.’ll be cleared up in no time. I’m calling it right now, Steve’s gonna ride up to the VA on his motorcycle and dramatically whisk you off your feet, and the two of you are gonna ride off into the sunset together while one of those sappy love songs you pretend not to like plays in the background.” Sam's teasing smirk widened when her cheeks flushed. “C’mon, Booksmart, you both were mooning over each other like teenagers after the meeting yesterday; I felt like I was in the live studio audience of a soap opera taping.”

“You know, I could always kick you out of the car and make you walk all the way to the shop, if you'd prefer.”

“And I'd still get there before you ‘cause you drive like a grandma...”

Soon after, she pulled into the auto repair shop’s lot, parking under the shade of a tree before turning to Sam with a smile. “Did you want me to stay just in case your car isn’t ready yet?”

“That would be great, actually, thanks!” Sam gave her a grin before getting out of the car and heading into the shop.

(Y/N) rolled down the windows and sighed when she felt the soft spring breeze against her skin. Taking advantage of the peaceful moment, she let her imagination wander and began brainstorming different stories and characters in her head. You should probably finish the book you’re writing before you start on another one, she thought with a playful eye-roll. Her childhood dream of becoming a published author was in the middle of coming true, and she couldn’t be any happier about it.

Just then, her eyes drifted to a silver truck that was driving past the parking lot. It was going fast so she couldn’t get a very good look at the driver, but for a split second she could have sworn that the man driving the truck had the same blonde hair and chiseled jaw as Steve Rogers. Chalking it up to worry for the runaway super-soldier, she closed her eyes and murmured, “Whatever he’s up to, I hope that he’s staying safe.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I’ve created a Spotify playlist inspired by this series, and I’ll be updating it every time I upload a new chapter. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BenknAqQQnOWY8NmSa23V

Tagging: @mrs-obrien​ @lahoete​ @awkward117​ @cminr​ @momc95​ @awkwardnesshabitat​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @khuang3​ @supersouthy​ @benakenalove​ @brooke0297​ @hufflepeople​ @becausewelie​​ @outoftheregular @supreme-tantrum​

Chapter Five

“The Winter Soldier” Masterlist

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

Till There’s Nothing Left - Harry Styles One Shot

*Based on the song Till There’s Nothing Left by Cam 

**

You awoke just as the sun starting peeking in through the curtains of your bedroom. You looked over to the other side bed where your boyfriend of a few short months lay. He was wrapped up in the sheets as he slept on his stomach, drooling onto the pillow. You held back a bit of a giggle as you gently pressed  kiss onto his head before slipping out of bed. You picked up his shirt up off the floor where it was discarded last night. You slipped your arms through and buttoned it up. 

You walked over to your dressing to get a hair tie and pull your crazy sex and bed hair up into a bun. You then snuck over to get your journal from the drawer beside your bed. You make sure your movements were done quietly so as to not wake your boyfriend up. Once you got everything you needed, you tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door behind you. 

You went down to the kitchen making yourself some coffee before grabbing your guitar and heading out to the backyard. You had an amazing view of the ocean at your house in Malibu and it was the perfect place to get some writing done. For the last few days, you had this melody stuck in your head and you were finally able to sit down and brainstorm a song for it. 

You took a sip of your coffee and put it down onto the table taking you guitar into your hands. You messed around with some chords and strumming patterns to find the sound you heard in your head. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough and gave you something to work with. 

As you played the melody on the guitar, you looked out towards the beach. You smiled as you saw some of your nearby neighbors getting a run in already. You started humming along, which is something you always did prior to writing a song. It was weird, how you would just be playing a melody over and over again, start humming and then eventually words would replace the humming. 

“Till there’s nothing left... Till there’s nothing left,” you sang a bit as you continued playing the guitar. 

You weren't sure how much time had gone by, but when Harry emerged outside carrying his own mug of coffee you had written everything but the bridge and end of the song. When you saw him walking towards you, wearing nothing but some jogger pants and sunglasses, you closed your journal and smiled over at him. 

“Morning,” you smiled. 

“Morning, baby,” he smiled kissing you quickly before sitting in the chair next to yours. “How long have you been up?” 

“Not sure,” you said. “Maybe an hour? A little longer.” 

He nodded running his hand through his hair, “So, can I hear what you’ve been working on?” He gestured towards the guitar in your hand. 

“Maybe once it’s actually finished,” you smirked putting it down, propping it up against the edge of the table. 

“Aw come on,” he said. “Just a little sneak peek.” 

“When it’s finished,” you said. “I’ll promise I’ll play it for you before I even record it.” 

“I can handle that compromise,” he said taking a sip of his coffee. 

You got up from your chair walking over towards him. He opened his arms letting you sit on his lap and wraps his arms around you. 

“What?” He asked as you stared at him with a smile on your face. 

“Nothing, just, thinking about how much I love you,” you smiled pushing a stray hair from his face. 

“Okay, what do you want?” He joked. 

“Other than you? Nothing,” you smiled. 

“Well, you’ve got me,” he whispered.

“Good, because you’ve got me till there’s nothing left,” you whispered. 

He looked at you with furrowed eyebrows. 

“You’ll understand it soon enough,” you smiled. 

**

A few days later, you and Harry were laying on the couch, a movie on Netflix playing in the background, a bowl of half eaten popcorn on the table. Your head was laying in his lap while he played with your hair. You looked up at him and he happened to catch your eye. 

“What?” He asked. 

“Let’s go for a drive,” you smiled. 

“But it’s raining,” he laughed. 

“Exactly,” you said sitting up. 

He looked at you suspiciously, but you just smiled pulling him up from the couch. You grabbed your bag while he got his keys and phone before heading to his car. When you two got in, you put on your seatbelts and he turned down the radio so it was barely a whisper. 

“So, where to milady?” He smirked looking over at you. 

“To wherever we end up,” you smiled. 

“Okay,” he laughed putting the car into drive and pulling out of the driveway. 

You two had been driving around for a little over an hour, not really saying a word, just listening to the pelting of the rain and holding hands as he drove down by the coast. You smile over at him bringing his hand up to your lips before you notice something nearby. There was a little quiet, pull off area just off the main road. 

“Pull over there,” you said nodding in that direction. 

He doesn’t say anything, but does as you say. He pulls into the shaded area and puts the car in park before looking over at you. 

“Do you need to pee or something?” He joked. 

You laughed shaking your head,”No.”

“Then why did you want me to pull over?” He asked. “Want to head home?” 

“Not quite yet,” you whispered taking off your seatbelt. 

You turned around and climbed over into the backseat. “Care to join me?” You smirked. 

He raises an eyebrow at you before climbing into the backseat with you. You smile wrapping your arms around his neck pulling him in for a kiss. He smiled against your lips pulling you closer to him. The backseat of his car wasn’t the biggest, but you were determined to make it work. 

“Had I known you had this mind, I would have brought the Range Rover,” he whispered as you ran your hand up under his sweatshirt. 

“We’ve done this in smaller spaces,” you giggled. 

“True,” he laughed. 

You giggled pulling his hoodie over his head, throwing it into the front seat, which would then be joined with the reminder of your clothes. Every kiss, touch, and movement felt like slow motion as the rain pelted against the car. You were on top of him and his hands roamed your back while his head laid against your chest. 

When both of you were finished, you pulled his hoodie over the two of you. 

“We should probably get going soon,” he whispered pushing hair out of your face as he kissed your forehead. 

“I know,” you sighed. “But I don't want to leave just yet.” 

“Okay, we’ll stay a few more minutes,” he smiled poking your nose. 

You giggled laying your head on his shoulder. 

**

Harry was currently out with a group of his friends and you had decided when he came back after dinner is when you would play him the new song you had been working on. It was finally finished, at least in the sense before you would record it and add all the little final touches to it. You really wanted to set a mood for it, so since the weather was nice outside, you knew you wanted it to be out there. You lit candles and turned on the fairy lights that were hung out in the back. 

When Harry arrived home, he saw the note for him to meet you in the backyard. The first thing he saw was the light of the candles and then you sitting down with your guitar on your lap. 

“What’s this?” He smiled. 

“Well, the song I’ve been working on is finally finished,” you smiled. “And I wanted to set a little scene for it.” 

“Fancy,” he smirked sitting down. 

You laughed, “I thought about telling you what it’s about before I sing, but I want the lyrics to speak for themselves... and if they don’t then, I’ll tell you.” 

“Okay,” he said. “I’m all ears.” 

You smiled taking a deep breath, “Okay, here it goes.” 

You closed your eyes as you started strumming on your guitar. 

“I wanna steal every breath of fire from every star in the Southern sky. I wanna lay down in the dark and take a match right to your heart”

You sang, looking at Harry the entire time. He put his hand on his chin as he watched you. 

“I wanna hide with you in the rain in the eye of hurricane. I wanna call it for what it is and give you everything I’ve got to give.” 

You sang, feeling the emotion behind the son building up as you went through the song. Halfway through the song you noticed tears were welling up in his eyes, but he never took them off of you.

“Till there’s nothing till there’s nothing left Me and you in the backseat Drivin me crazy Killin me baby

Till there’s nothing left Till there’s nothing left with the windows up Spendin’ ll my love Prayin God don’t save me Till there’s nothing left,” 

You finished. 

Neither one of you said anything for a few minutes before he got up to walk over to you. He took the guitar out of your hands and put it down on the table. He put his hands on cheeks looking into your eyes before pressing his lips against yours. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he reached down putting his hands on your ass before picking you up, with your legs wrapped around his waist before carrying you into the house. 

**

A few months later, it was time to release your the single off your upcoming album. The single would be the song you had written about Harry and had played for him that night at your house in the backyard. The music video would also be released at the same time and you knew there was probably going to be some backlash, both good and bad, from it. 

When it came to the music video, you wanted Harry to be in it. It just didn’t feel right having someone else in it or making it about something that didn’t have anything to do with the song. But you and the directors were able to come up with an idea where he could still be in it and not really tell, however, you knew the fans would be able to tell. 

But it didn’t matter. 

You were at the Brit Awards to perform your song for the first time and before the single and video would be released. Of course, Harry was there and he had heard the song countless of times since that first night, but it would be the first time he would see it being performed. When you came out, you were standing in the middle of the stage, wearing a beautiful gown. The screen on the background made it appear as if it were raining and showed snippets of the music video. 

The crowd was silent as you sang and Harry watched every second of it. As soon as it was over, everyone erupted with cheers and the camera focused in on Harry, who was whistling and wiping tears from his eyes. 

After the performance, social media had exploded between your fans and Harry's. Everyone was talking about the song and making their speculations especially with the video’s playing in the background.  Neither of worried it about because that night was for the two fo you. 

When you got back to his house after the party, you washed the makeup from your face and he wrapped his arms around your shoulder. 

“You did amazing tonight,” he whispered. “I’m so proud of you.” 

“As did you,” you smiled. 

He smiled bringing his lips down to yours, “I love you,” he whispered. 

“Till there’s nothing left?” You smirked. 

“Till there’s nothing left,” he smiled. 

“I love you, too,” you smiled pressing your lips against his once more before pulling him down onto the bed with you. 

**

I usually link the song above, but for some reason youtube isn’t pulling up on my computer, so I couldn’t get a link. I do suggest you give it a listen because it’s a really good song! 

Anyway! Hope you enjoyed this one shot! Let me know your thoughts!

[1dfangirls35]

Voir Dire- N.H

A fake dating AU about contracts, soulmates and risking it all for love.

Masterlist // Tell Me What You Think!

A/N: I’m back!! The past month and a half has been craziness! My ER rotation had me working ALL THE TIME. But now thanks to coronavirus, my rotations have been cancelled at least for the next three weeks (maybe longer) and now we get the stress of wondering if we will get to graduate in December. So for the next few weeks I’ll be listening to Heartbreak Weather on repeat and (hopefully) updating Voir Dire!

sixteen

Kelsey checked the time. Again. The numbers glared at her from the brightness of her phone screen. 

3:01pm

The results were supposed to be sent out at 3.

Did she not get registered? Had they lost her test? Had she given them the wrong email? Kelsey's mind was racing through a million reasons as to why her LSAT score wasn't coming through her inbox at this precise moment.

Two weeks ago, Kelsey had sat in front of a computer with a hope of redeeming herself. Unlike the first time she'd taken the LSAT, this time she had been calm and collected. She had started the morning off with breakfast in bed and a large cup of coffee courtesy of Chef Niall, himself. He'd walked her to the door as she left his house, holding her in his arms and whispering in her ear "You've got this". And that morning she did. She felt like she had it.

But as another minute ticked by on the clock, she began to doubt that she'd "got this" all over again.

Kelsey refreshed the page again. Still nothing.

"Refreshing that page fifty million times isn't going to make it load any faster darling," Niall said sternly, placing his head into Kelsey's shoulder a little further. Kelsey had told Niall several times that there was no need for him to be with her when the results came in. She could handle the relief or disappointment all on her own. But then he reminded her that she'd been with him on his big night, the least he could do was return the favor, and he "didn't even have to change out of the sweats" for it. And she had to admit, leaning against Niall's chest as she refreshed the page for the tenth time was kind of nice.

"They should be up by now, it's..." Kelsey watched her screen refresh once more, this time a new email popping up. "Oh my god it's here." She felt her heart begin to race, and shoved the phone into Niall's hands. "Open it."

"It's your score, you should open it," Niall argued back, trying to push the phone back into Kelsey's grasp.

She shook her head adamantly. "I can't do it Ni, please." Niall looked at Kelsey's pleading eyes, they are filled with a fear he hasn't seen across them in a while.

He knew she was nervous. She'd worked so hard for this over the past year. He had tried his best this morning to rehearse what he was going to say if it all went south. He hoped it wouldn't. And as stood in front of his mirror, coming up with all the wonderful things that he hoped would make Kelsey realize she was so much more than a test score, he realized how silly it all was. Because she was going to pass. There wasn't a doubt in his mind.

He sighed. "Fine." He clicked open the message, taking his own deep breath before reading.

Kelsey tried to read Niall's eyes as he opens the email. But he kept his poker face strong, which only antagonized her more. "Well?" she asked.

Niall raised an eyebrow with a smirk as he watched Kelsey squirm in her seat on the couch. "172, that's great Kels!"

"172," Kelsey repeated slowly, hardly believing her ears. "Are you sure you read that right? It's not like a 127 or something?"

"Kels," Niall said, bringing the phone in front of Kelsey's face. "It's a 172. You killed it."

Kelsey read the numbers for herself, seeing that Niall was indeed correct. "I'm going to law school," Kelsey breathed.

"You're going to law school Kels. I never doubted it for a minute." He planted a kiss on her forehead, wrapping his arms around her in an almost smuggling embrace.

"I did it. I DID IT," the volume of Kelsey's voice raises with each word she said. She stood up from her place on the couch, pacing circles in the living room. She didn't know what to feel. Relief? Excitement? Pride? A mixture of the three?

Kelsey knew it might seem premature, celebrating a test score when the actual admission was yet to come, but she also couldn't help but feel like she'd overcome the biggest barrier. A barrier that had plagued her for over a year, reminding her of all the things she'd been through and just how fragile her life had been. She had doubted herself so much over the past year, her self-confidence had vanished, and this- this score, was proving to her that she wasn't a failure. Her life wasn't a complete mess. And maybe she was coming out of a valley. Maybe she could be at a peak for a while.

"We've got to celebrate," Niall exclaimed, breaking Kelsey away  from her thoughts.

"I've got a bottle of wine in the fridge I've been saving. And I guess Becca has a bag of peanut M &Ms..."

Niall stood up next to Kelsey, placing a finger to her lips before she can even finish her sentence. "Forget the wine and the M&Ms darlin', what's the one thing you want to reward yourself with at the moment?"

"Honestly I could go for some chocolate ice cream. I can text Becca and have her pick some up on her way home..."

"Well let's go get ice cream then," Niall stated. 

Kelsey looked at Niall cautiously, because she couldn't have possibly heard him correctly. "Go get it? Niall you know we can't be seen."

"We can drive through and pick it up can't we? Or I can get out of the car?"

Kelsey gave Niall a questioning look, still unsure of this suggestion. Of all the things to go out in public to do, this seemed like the least important thing on the list. But Niall is unwavering, pulling out his keys from his pocket and dangling them in his hands like a treat. 

"This is a special occasion Kelsey. I don't care what you say we are going to get that ice cream. Twenty minutes there and back. No one will be the wiser."

Kelsey sighed, knowing that this was one thing that Niall wasn't going to change his mind about. She reached out and grabbed his hand, following him to the door. She locked the apartment behind them, as Niall headed down the elevator to grab the car. 

Kelsey couldn't tell if she was high on excitement because of her LSAT or because she was riding in the passenger seat of Niall's car for the first time since they had "broke up" in the eyes of the label. No longer hidden behind the blacked out rear windows of a sleek black escalade, Kelsey felt on top of the world. Nothing could be better than her hand intertwined with Niall's as the LA sunshine warmed them through the windows and Niall's album played softly in the background. 

Kelsey began to wonder what she had worried about when they pulled up to the ice cream drive-thru. There are no other cars in sight, and no one paid a second glance to the messy haired brunette with the thick sunglasses pulling up to the window. Niall ordered a hot fudge sundae with extra fudge, Kelsey a chocolate malt with Reese's. 

"Mmmm," Kelsey said taking a bite out of her treat. "This was a good choice."

"Told you to just trust me," Niall smiled, setting his cup in the center console as they pulled away. 

"I'm so proud of you," Niall said, gazing at Kelsey in a way that made her heart flutter. 

Kelsey smiled. She was pretty damn proud of herself too. 

************************************************

The second Kelsey saw the email from Mr. Alan Michaels she knew they were in trouble. There was no subject, but somehow without even opening it, Kelsey knew exactly what it was going to contain.

The contents were simple.

Miss Benton,

If you know what's good for him, you'll meet with me tomorrow at 10 am sharp. I trust you''ll keep this meeting to yourself. I would hate for another party to become involved and complicate our resolution.

Sincerely,

Alan Michaels 

There was one attachment. But Kelsey didn't need to click the image to know what they'd been caught doing. Suddenly, she wished she hadn't been craving ice cream yesterday after all.

"What's wrong love?" Niall asked, as Kelsey quickly exited out of the message. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Nothing," Kelsey said, trying her best to form a fake smile and grabbing his hand again. "Now tell me more about this set design."

Niall began rambling on. About lights, guitars, set lists and which songs he was most excited to play live. But all Kelsey could think about was the email sitting in her inbox. 

Her mind began to race with all the things that this could mean. What exactly could his label do? Niall had warned her once before that the music industry could be a brutal environment. She knew that there were consequences to every action, consequences that could ruin careers if certain rules or agreements weren't followed. 

Kelsey wanted to believe that she wasn't scared of these people. She wasn't in a contract with them, and therefore, she had no obligation to even entertain the idea of meeting with them. She owed them nothing. And she certainly did have to play by their rules. 

She thought about showing the message to Niall. But each time she went to bring it up, something stopped her. She knew what that something was.

Niall would take the fall. He would risk the loss of his music, his tour, his livelihood, all for Kelsey. Kelsey knew it. But she wasn't going to allow that to happen. She wouldn't allow him to sacrifice what he had worked so hard on, the career that he so loved- for her. 

"Kels," Niall nudged her his elbow at Kelsey, whose gaze was fixated on the corner of the room. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," Kelsey replied quickly, snapping her gaze back to Niall and shooting him a smile. "Just tired." She rested her head on Niall's shoulder. 

"You sure you're okay?" Niall asked again. Kelsey had been acting off over the past few hours, and he couldn't figure out why. She wasn't the best at hiding her racing thoughts. 

Kelsey turned, placing her hands on either side of Niall's cheeks and staring into his icy blue eyes. "Niall, I'm great. I've got the LSAT score of my dreams and an incredible man who I love more than anything and who loves me. What more could I need?"

"I love you," Niall replied, planting a kiss on Kelsey's lips.

"It's just been a long week for me. A good week but a long one," Kelsey mused as she snuggled deep into Niall's arms. She inhaled deeply, basking in musky, cool scent of Niall's cologne. She didn't want to think about what their relationship might look like if she attended the meeting tomorrow. Or what it might look like if she didn't. 

When Kelsey got back to her apartment later that evening, she poured herself the biggest glass of wine she could find. Kelsey knew Niall had found it odd that she was leaving his house so early in the evening, but she brushed it off as needing some rest. She couldn't bear to tell him the truth: that every minute she sat in his apartment her anxiety about just what would happen at the meeting tomorrow was growing exponentially. 

Kelsey tipped back her glass of Moscato, gulping it down like a housewife at a dinner party gone awry. Becca walks into the kitchen at that precise moment, giving Kelsey a side-eyed smile. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kelsey answered quickly. The word was slipping off her tongue easier the more times she said it. 

The email had been explicit: no outside parties. Plus Kelsey already knew what Becca would say. Becca ask why Niall was even considering negotiating with the label when he had the power of his fanbase and the media to shift the story. A story of forbidden love? According to Becca, people eat that shit up. 

"Hmm let's see," Becca scratched her forehead, leaning over the kitchen countertop. "You're back from Niall's before 10pm, you are chugging a glass of wine like its a magic elixir, and you keep glancing at your phone like its going to jump out at you. There's a lot more than nothing going on, so pour me a glass and spill."

Kelsey sighed, grabbing another glass from the cupboard and pouring Becca a glass and herself a refill. She clicked open her phone to the email and slid it across the counter to Becca, watching as Becca's face turns from a sly grin to a face of concern.

"Well for starters, Niall needs a new agent," Becca said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "But this is messed up Kels. Seems like more of a threat than a suggestion."

"More like blackmail," Kelsey replies with a roll of her eyes. She makes her way into the living room, sliding down onto the couch before taking another lengthy sip of her wine. 

"What did Niall say about this?"

Kelsey stayed quiet.

"Kelsey..." Becca stared her down. "You didn't mention this to him?"

"The message didn't exactly sound like they wanted him to know about it."

"And so you thought he didn't need to know that his label is basically blackmailing you to break up with him?" Becca responded. 

"Niall," Kelsey began, taking a deep breath. "Niall thinks with his heart. I didn't want to tell him and have him make a rash decision based on what he was feeling. Especially with something like his career."

"But you don't even know what they want Kels," Becca argued. 

"I'm pretty sure what they want is for me to not see Niall anymore. They made that very clear the first time we met with them." Kelsey's mind flashed back to the last time she visited the Capitol Records office. It wasn't a memory she looked back upon fondly. Her heart raced just thinking about being in that situation again.

"Are you going to meet with them this time?" Becca asked.

"I think that whatever they tell me at that meeting has to be a far better alternative than if I ignore the meeting in the first place."

"What's the worst thing they can do to you Kels? Being in love with their musician isn't illegal," Becca reassured. "Besides, Niall already released his music. He's a former member of One Direction, no one's gonna pass up on the opportunity to sign that moneymaker to their label."

Becca had a point. The worst Capitol Records could do to Kelsey was a slap on the wrist and a warning that she shouldn't see Niall again. A lot of bad things could happen to Niall because of this, a cancelled tour, a loss of his contract...but maybe none of that was career-altering. For a moment, Kelsey thought that she's made up her mind. That maybe going to this meeting was doing exactly what Capitol wanted her to do. They wanted her to be scared into being their pawn.

But then Kelsey remembered what Niall told her back in the beginning. About the music industry be far more connected than you would think. About being blacklisted from every record label in the country. She thought about Niall sitting on his couch strumming his guitar to a melody that had just surfaced in his mind. Or the way his blue eyes glowed when he told her about the feeling he got hearing an amphitheater full of people singing the words he wrote back to him. 

Becca could tell Kelsey was still deep in thought, and so she stood, walking to the kitchen and placing her now empty glass in the sink. "Whatever you decide Kels, I'm here, okay." Becca walked towards her room. As she reached the doorway, she turned around, meeting eyes with Kelsey again. "Besides now they have to come after both of us."

Becca's comment turned Kelsey's lips into a small smile, even if just for a moment. Kelsey made her way to her bedroom, sliding under the grey comforter and burying her head into her pillow. Her mind racing with a million thoughts.

She loved Niall. More than she had ever loved anyone before. The selfish thing would be to not go to the meeting. To be defiant and keep Niall to herself. But the world needed Niall Horan and his music. And Niall Horan needed his music more than he would ever need Kelsey, even if he didn't know it. 

So she would go to the meeting. And she would listen to the terms. And if it came down to dating Niall and his music career, well, she would pick his career. Because he wasn't going to pick it for himself.

As she lay in bed, her phone buzzed with another notification: an email. 

Tomorrow. 10 am sharp.

Tag List: @awomanindeniall​ @ihearthemcallingforyou @niall-is-my-dream​ @stylishmuser​ @thicksniall

[randomvarious]

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - “Lost in Emotion” I Know What Boys Like! Song released in 1987. Compilation released in 1996. Pop / Freestyle

From an old biography on Billboard.com:

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were one of the most musically diverse and successful recording acts of the '80s. With hits produced and written by Full Force, the six-man performing/songwriting/production team from East Flatbush/Brooklyn, NY, they scored million-selling hits with dance-based tracks ("I Wonder if I Take You Home"), beautiful ballads ("All Cried Out"), and unabashed pop tunes ("Head to Toe," "Lost in Emotion"). They were one of the early exponents of what later became hip-hop R&B. With five gold singles, two number one singles on both the R&B and the pop charts, two platinum albums, and inclusions on various compilations and movie soundtracks, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were the most successful act of Full Force's "One Big Family" roster of acts.

A constant theme throughout Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s history is the influence of Motown. Motown music is what seemingly brought them together and it’s what ultimately led them to achieve gargantuan levels of success throughout the 80s and early 90s. But it all started in 1984 with a struggling New York-based hip hop / R&B / funk / electro band called Full Force. They couldn’t get a label to bite and decided that they needed a change in direction. Having witnessed the success of R&B boy band New Edition, who were transparently packaged as an 80s rehash of the Jackson 5 (a new edition, if you will, of a Motown group), the members of Full Force formed an idea that they thought was sure to hit: an 80s rehash of The Supremes (an all-girl Motown group!). Full Force would write,  produce, play the music, and provide backing vocals while a group of girls would take care of the main singing parts.

Full Force percussionist and roadie, Mike Hughes, would then come upon a 17-year old girl named Lisa Velez at a New York club called The Funhouse, which is also where Madonna ended up being discovered. Velez, who had visions of pop stardom, was a member of a traveling troupe in school that performed Motown hits and showtunes. Initially impressed by her looks, Hughes would invite her to an audition at a house in Brooklyn where three brothers from Full Force resided. Velez wouldn’t tell her protective older brother (she had nine siblings, by the way!), probably out of fear of him denying her request that she be allowed to go, and hopped on the D train to chase her dreams.

But it wasn’t all initially hunky dory. In fact, Velez’s first time meeting Full Force was rather creepy. From a 1988 interview and profile of Lisa Lisa in Spin:

...”I sit on a stool in the basement, and I’m looking around, and I see pictures of these big, big guys. Six big guys. I’m saying to myself, ‘Oh shit, they’re gonna kill me.’ I didn’t know what to think. I had just met Mike. Enter the six big guys, and I almost shit in my pants. Paul Anthony was the first one to come up to me, and he bent down and he kissed me and he says, ‘God, you’re very pretty.’ That’s when I thought, ‘Oh Jesus, he’s gonna rape me now.’”

But her fears were soon alleviated.

...Lisa started to sing. “She was singing this song that Mike Hughes wrote for her to do,” says Lou George, “and it wasn’t kicking at all. It was horrible, plain and simple. Because it had her singing so off-key, because the way the song was written, she was singing all off. I was just laughing until my tears came down because of the fact that she was off and Mike had wrote it, and it was just so funny the way the notes was going. And I was by the bathroom crying in tears, and Lisa couldn’t see me.

“Then she sang ‘For Your Eyes Only,” [the theme song from the 1981 James Bond flick] and that’s what got it. Everything fell into place. 

Full Force would end up auditioning more girls, but in Velez they had found the Diana Ross piece to their 80s Supremes puzzle: an attractive young woman blessed with a high-pitched and innocent-sounding voice that MTV-watching teenybopper types could fawn over and try to emulate. Rather than wait to fill out the rest of the group with more singers, Velez and Full Force got to recording. She would be given the stage name Lisa Lisa, a sort of play on the Full Force-produced, 1984 breakthrough hip hop hit, “Roxanne, Roxanne” by UTFO. Mike Hughes and a guitarist and bassist who was associated with Full Force named Alex “Spanador” Moseley would make up Cult Jam. LL&CJ would then debut in 1985, finding decent chart success in a platinum-selling album with songs like “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” “Can You Feel the Beat,” and “All Cried Out,” the last of which would reach the top ten in the US. A couple years later, they followed up with Spanish Fly, achieving platinum status again thanks to two chart-topping pop singles, “Head to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion.” Both songs would be noted for their clear infusion of Motown influence.

“Lost in Emotion” really is just a perfect piece of sun-drenched 80s pop. And yet, despite the fact that it’s clearly such a bop, and that it reached #1, it still feels a bit overlooked today. Throughout all my years of listening to the classic pop and rock radio format, I feel like I’ve never heard it on there. Similarly, I also feel like I don’t see it included on all that many 80s mixes or playlists. I mean, this song has over 4 million plays on Spotify, which is a lot, but “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul, which hit #1 the following year, and has that same type of young and innocent girl vocal affect, has over 40 million plays. They’re both good songs, no doubt, but go listen to both of them back to back and tell me which one holds up better today. The answer is “Lost in Emotion” and I will fight you if you disagree.

Ultimately, this song reflects a fantastically catchy pairing of an in vogue and upbeat, poppy freestyle sound with old chunks of Motown mixed in. Alongside slapping percussion, flooding synthesizers, and twinkling, sort of tropical-sounding melodies courtesy of a combination of xylophones and bells, Full Force divine their main inspiration for this song from a pair of Mary Wells hits (she was a Motown star!), “Two Lovers” and “You Beat Me to the Punch.” And if you listen to those songs, you can hear the bits and pieces that ended up motivating Full Force to write “Lost in Emotion.” 

But this sweet 80s jam struts with more than just Motown flair. The main, funky bassline that undergirds the whole thing has a definite Ben E. King “Stand by Me” feel to it, which is still 60s, but not Motown, and the extended bridge section, which also contains a nice sax solo, showcases even more glints of non-Motown 60s sounds. The male bass baritone backing vocal that briefly swoops in the outro portion is a clear callback to doo-wop groups of the 50s and 60s, which wasn’t Motown’s lane, and Lisa Lisa also appears to give tribute to Del Shannon with her own backing vocal by briefly wailing an “aye-yai-yai,” mimicking the iconic “why-why-why” from the early 60s rock-and-roll-pop masterpiece, “Runaway.” It’s these combinations of Lisa Lisa’s naturally nubile voice, not to mention her sheer attractiveness, along with Full Force’s expert mixing of both old and contemporary sounds that would enable “Lost in Emotion” to be the most popular song in the US during the summer of 1987. It’s also a tune which proves that, when done right, Motown doesn’t go out of style. At least it clearly hadn’t by then.

Of course, there was a music video for “Lost in Emotion,” too, which plainly shows Lisa Lisa lip syncing the whole song as she and her friends move through a crowded street fair rigged with carnival games and a stage, which Lisa Lisa graces at the end. According to Wikipedia, it was the fourth-most played video in 1987 on MTV.

An absolute classic banger of an 80s pop song that shows Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam at their peak. You ignore this flawless summer earworm at your own peril.

[peppersjam]

My Top 10 Albums of 2019

2019 presented me with a handful of incredible events and memories (I turned 30, I got married, etc.), while also serving me a big challenge (my partner is temporarily living on the other side of the country). In a poetic world, these things would have a significant impact on the music that I listened to and loved, but no, not really. This year is pretty on the nose for me, music-wise. Oh, except that I got really into Taylor Swift in the second half of the year.

Before we hop into boring Steve's boring top 10 list, let's revisit the 2018 list. The only album on the list that I barely listened to in 2019 was Cardi's Invasion of Privacy. Everything else gets at least semi-regular spins, although I'd elevate Historian, boygenius, and Big Red Machine above these others.

My biggest disappointment this year was Charli XCX's CHARLI, which is a solid album, but it didn't grab me nearly as much as Pop 2 did a couple years ago. It hasn't stuck in my rotation.

Runners up:

Bon Iver - "i,i" (I love it when I listen to it, but for some reason I'm not often compelled to listen to it)

Ariana Grande - "thank u, next" (Staple of early 2019, but fell off)

Carly Rae Jepsen - "Dedicated" (Great, but I'd rather listen to E•MO•TION)

Taylor Swift - "Lover" (Some true standout tracks, like Lover and Paper Rings, but too many cloyboys and CRJ rip-offs)

Weyes Blood - "Titanic Rising" (I could see this growing on me over the years, like a Radiohead record)

And the pre-2019 albums that should've made my respective yearly lists:

Beyoncé - "4" (2011)

Beyoncé - "BEYONCE" (2013)

Big Thief - "Capacity" (2017)

Big Thief - "Masterpiece" (2016)

Perfume Genius - "No Shape" (2017)

Snail Mail - "Lush" (2018)

Taylor Swift - "Red" (2012)

10. Big Thief – U.F.O.F

Early in the year, I "discovered" Big Thief. I don't know how I missed them before. Specifically, the song "Masterpiece" got right up in my brain and has been hanging out there since. Then Big Thief gave us U.F.O.F. which was yet another great Big Thief album. See #3 below.

9. Andrew Bird – My Finest Work Yet

Look, I'll stop putting Andrew Bird records on my end-of-year lists when he stops making them.

Andrew Bird turned a corner with the release of Are You Serious where he basically acknowledged that he was now going to work with other people and write scrutable songs. It was a good album, but My Finest Work Yet refines this Andrew Bird 2.0 and delivers some of his... finest work yet ("Sisyphus," "Manifest," "Olympians"). While I still prefer earlier Andrew Bird (A Nervous Tic Motion into Fake Palindromes into Measuring Cups... my gosh, that's 10 incredible minutes of music), I understand why he's moved on to something else.

8. JPEGMAFIA – All My Heroes Are Cornballs

I've been in a rap rut. Kanye is putting out self-indulgent gospel albums. Chance and Drake are boring now. JAY Z is working with the NFL.

But the rut is mostly a lack of imagination on my part. There's a lot of rap out there that hasn't made it through my naive filter, and I want to seek more of it out in 2020. Case in point: JPEGMAFIA. He's weird, political, funny... all the things that the aforementioned rappers aren't (or at least, aren't anymore). All My Heroes Are Cornballs is the most hypnotic rap album I've listened to in years. The glitchy beats and effortless flow makes it impossible to turn off mid-album.

7. BROCKHAMPTON – Ginger

GINGER is a proper follow-up to the SATURATION trilogy. While Iridescence had some good tracks on it, the overall experience was jarring (not without reason, given what the group was going through with Ameer). GINGER reads (ok, plays) like an album in a way that the Saturations never did. While it may be spiritually linked to the Satursation, it's a complete departure sonically. Even though it's more constrained and less bombastic than their hits from that era, it feels much bigger and, ahem, More Important. That might not be to the taste of some of their fans, but I'm happy to have both versions of BROCKHAMPTON in my music library.

6. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!

Music publications couldn't get over the fact that on NFR!, Lana, yes LANA DEL REY, was wordsmithing at a high level. Is it that hard to believe that someone would become a better poet as they gained more life experiences, inching closer to the mystical 10,000 hours? Some of the praise may have gone a little overboard (and, frankly, seems rooted in a narrow, misogynistic view of Who Can Do Music Good™️™️™️), but I agree with the underlying principle of the praise: that this is a collection of well written and well performed songs. It has my favorite album closer of the year, "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have - but I Have It." I get chills just thinking about it.

5. Clairo – Immunity

I enjoyed my first listen.

On my second listen, I wondered if it was maybe too simple. I didn't listen again for several months.

But then, when I was working from Pittsburgh the week before Christmas, I listened again. And I couldn't stop listening. It's simpler music than many of the albums on this list, but it appeals to me for the same reason I had a fixation with Snail Mail's Lush this year: it's incredible that songs that sound so "simple" (and I truly do not mean simple in an insulting way) can still be different than anything we've heard before, and can still transfix us in new ways. Behold ye, the power of combinatorics!

4. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

Channel Orange to Blonde was 4 years. There's nothing you can do to get your favorite artists to make music faster. There's some beauty in that... that if an artist is financially successful enough, they don't need to rush.

Modern Vampires of the City to Father of the Bride was 6 years (i.e., 20% of my lifetime). But at least there are no duds here, and "Harmony Hall" might sneak into my hypothetical favorite-songs-of-all-time pantheon.

3. Big Thief – Two Hands

Oh, but then a few months later, Big Thief gave us another album. They started working on it right after they finished U.F.O.F, which tracks based on every interview I've read with Adrianne Lenker. She talked about the insane touring and album release schedule they've been on in the past four years, but her point wasn't "I'm getting tired," but rather "let's see if I can do this forever." I saw them play at The Fillmore after they released Two Hands and I got the sense that Adrianne has to make and perform music. She was uncomfortable engaging in the standard nearly-identical pleasantries that artists share with the audience. She was shy. She was surprised to find that we were hanging on her every word and chord. It was relatable. She's the closest to a genius I've seen in an indie rock band in the last several years, although I'm sure she'd hate anyone calling her that.

That genius produced Two Hands, an affecting indie rock record that practically demands that you close your eyes because you need to experience it and only it.

2. Tyler, the Creator – IGOR

This year, I listened to IGOR over and over again. The hooks, verses, beats, and vibe are all infectious. Boring Steve says "hey, look, it's just a great album." I don't have a deeper thought about it. I eagerly await Tyler's next project.

1. Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

This year, like 2009 a decade ago, was an exciting year to be an indie rock fan. Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver cemented their elder ("elder") statesperson statuses, Big Thief came into their own as a true force of nature, and acts like Clairo and Nilüfer made me extremely jazzed about the Ghost of Indie Future.

Nilüfer has a unique and delightful voice that punches through some really fun songwriting and arrangements. Like, what a dumb, awesome lyric:

Although I cannot tell if I'm paranoid

Or it's all in my head, it's all in my head

Miss Universe is her debut full-length album, and it's a lovable and off-kilter thesis statement for what I assume will be a lovable and off-kilter music career. I can better explain why some of the other albums on this list are great, but suffice it to say, the system rewards unique performances.

[x0401x]

Yuukei Roadshow Reports and Highlights

Compilation of info found on Twitter and Privatter. Many thanks to ayara-resara for indicating them all!

Translations Index || Next Show >>

@taro4oto2:

Me: Jin-san, in your mind, what kind of adult will Kisaragi Shintarou become in the future...? Jin: Ah~! Kisaragi Shintarou, huh; he is who he is~. I’m thinking of writing songs concerning him from now on too. I’m currently 28, and if I think about him at around this age... I guess he’d probably be a teacher or something like it.

@BlueD01:

“Jin-san, what do you think Momo-chan will be in the future?” Jin-san: Let’s see... *thinks a little* An actress, I guess. “‘An actress’?” *thought process stops* Jin-san: She might also go... overseas. (Memory is faint here.) “Ooh.” Jin-san: I want to write these stories about the future next time. (At last.) “Thank you very much!”

@920ms:

My hands were shaking during Jin-san’s autograph session. Hella.

Although it was a commemorative autograph section for the release of MekaRelo, I’d wanted to tell him no matter what that I get strength from listening to Otsukimi Recital when I have to lighten up... So, I told him this, but I accidentally ended up babbling that Hibiya and Momo’s interactions were the most interesting to me and that I liked them a lot. And then Jin-san said, “I like them too! What will happen to them from now on?? I’m really curious!” as if to dig into it.

Of course I knew that he liked Hibiya and Momo’s combo, but the “What will happen to them from now on?” has been echoing in my brain the entire time... I had a bunch of other things to say, like, “The songs of Momo’s friends are also the best” and, “I’d been listening to Mekakucity Days/Records/Reload a~~ll the time coming the way here”, but my attention was drawn too hard by Jin’s words, so I couldn’t do it...

@BrainBurnShout:

Started with an explosive crossfade.

The host was the woman in charge of KADOKAWA’s Mekakucity Talkers (she’s a beauty).

Jin entered the stage slurping the Shissou Word-themed drink like, “I’d wanted to eat the pancakes but they sold out before I got to it.”

He had his first impression of VOCALOID with “Melt”.

The origin of his conceptualization of “stories told through music” stemmed from Kinniku Shoujo Tai and The Who.

He had planned on the narrative even before Jinzou Enemy, and while gathering up the pattern usage of “a story that ~ the eyes”, the first one he came up with was the one that “locks the eyes”.

One sentence of the initial concept that remained in his PC was: “Medusa does not come out of her house.” (original text)

KagePro is a “curse from his 19-year-old self” because his period of training was long.

He struggles with the consistency of the plot, like, “This and that don’t connect!” and, “That’s my old self~”.

During the innitialization of his PC, he interpreted the “name registration” wrong and accidentally named his PC “Frederica”.

*PC falls down the stairs during moving* Jin: FREDERICAAAAAA!!!!!

He had the ending of the story decided from the beginning.

Due to this, he couldn’t introduce new characters even though he’d always wanted to.

He’s been writing the sequel while thinking that if it turns out impossible to publish, then so be it.

Host: Are you going to make them reincarnate in a parallel world? Jin: That would be a spin-off... like, “Kagerou Quest” or something.

What hides beneath Ayano’s gentleness was something he’d come up with since the initial stages. (He didn’t mention it on Twitter or the like, though.)

[In regards of a question about “becoming an adult”] Jin: Until joining (Edword) Records, I had been in the position of Big Bro, but now I’m a full-fledged Uncle.

Since he’s an adult, he has to pay taxes. He’s been somehow making ends meet with the money that everyone bought the CD with.

[In regards of a question by an Asahiner from the audience about My Funny Weekend] The cheerful verses like the one that goes, “move forward” were said by Hiyori.

The Asahiner who had been waiting all this time for a Hiyori song is overcome with emotion.

The reason why there wasn’t a Hiyori song from the start is that, “If I had included her, everyone’s worries would have been relatively...”

Jin-san: Hiyori-sama.

He has the image of the adult Mekakushi-dan.

It seems Kido will be a caretaker in an orphanage.

When he talked about that image to Sidu-san, the MV’s adult!Kido was suddenly brought up. Jin: Did you turn her into an adult already? Sidu: Should I not have done that?

Hibiya will be an archeologist, and since the Medusa is said to have her roots abroad, he might do a research on that.

Even in Jin-san’s own mind, there are many interpretations: “So and so will get married”, “No, it’ll be so and so”. “The one Shintarou will marry is Haruka!” *audience acclaims*

Jin-san will write the interpretation of the winner of his peerless inner fight.

Haruka is main heroine.

Rather than saying that the albums go from 1st and 2nd to the 3rd, it’s more like the 1st and 2nd are an omnimbus and the 3rd is a backside.

What he depicted with Imaginary Reload was the strength of Mary, who isn’t there just to be protected.

The top was reached by drawing out the 274BPM Konoha~

Remind Blue has parts of Summer Time Record that he hadn’t been able to write about.

It was supposed to be Shintarou’s song, but the lyrics turned out as something that applies to everyone. (Seto has his own Remind Blue and it might be that Kano thinks the same things.)

As a result of Jin-san’s definition of friends, which is “we think alike even without saying anything”, it ended up becoming a song about the whole Mekakushi-dan.

From Jin-san’s childhood experiences, fireworks = summer’s end (an element also used in the novels).

Therefore, the English version of “Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni” is “Fireworks in the Summer End”.

@ndfakvnico:

Shissou Word “She’s bad with words, and I’m the same as her, so I made that into a song.”

Additional Memory A song about regret. Jin-san’s grandfather passed away, and for a while upon coming to Tokyo, he hadn’t been able to see him at all. After the funeral, Jin-san found a file with cutouts of himself from magazines that his grandfather had kindly gathered up. He regretted not having been able to convey anything to him.

Lost Day Hour A song about friends. There was a time during middle school in which he found himself unable to go to school. “If you don’t go once, you become less and less able to.” Back then, he encountered wonderful music. A-kun (provisory nickname), who told him that he also liked said music, came around and the two of them formed a band together. Jin became able to attend high school. He didn’t know what a friend was until then, but he thought, “I guess he’s my friend”.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni A song with the image of summertime fireworks. “Tokachi District holds the second largest fireworks festival of the country. I wonder what being second place is like. Just what are they fighting on this? (laughs)” It’s like the scenery of Gin no Saji; a place with that kind of feeling to it.

Remind Blue “Summer is hot and I don’t like it, but it has its charm. I wonder if I was properly able to make that end of summer into a song.”

As always, he drank a lot of water. Actually, in addition to the four bottles that were put there, he also brought a lot of water with him.

As he talked about each song, he would play them with his accoustic guitar.

“Such an honestly pretty library. So many books. It’s my first time singing in a place like this, so I’d been wondering if I wouldn’t get chased out if someone like me suddenly showed up and started singing. (laugh)”

By the way, he was indeed wearing a jersey... lol.

He was super cool when he was singing, but during the time of exiting the stage, he made his way out unsteadily while bowing, so he gave off a feeling of ordinary Nii-chan and it was heartwarming.

He’s good at singing. (my childish reaction)

His manner of speech was extremely gentle, and though I really enjoy the excitement of live concerts and the like, that calm atmosphere and his kind way of performing and talking had me going, “Aah, this totally goes well with Jin-san. It totally goes super well with him. Play-and-talk live concerts are the best...”

There were 100 people with regular tickets, lots of others were standing behind them, the costumers of the nearby Starbucks were all looking too, and many people also stood watching in rows at the second floor’s corridors.

The venue was a Jin World.

I’d been reflecting on the meaning of him doing a library live, and I think it’s something amazing. At the end of it, a staff member asked something by requesting people to raise their hands, and turns out that there were mostly middle and high scholars attending. It felt like there were also grade scholars and college students. Is there any other rock musician who would open an event at a middle school or a public library? Well, there might be, but that’s still incredible...

We were told that we couldn’t enter the venue unless we had a regular ticket, that it was okay to enter because it was a public space, that we couldn’t get autographs, that we actually could get them even without the ticket, and, hum, get your information... together... (tiny voice)

He talked a lot more about the songs, but it’s not coming to me... aah.

In one sentence, it was awesome.

@kugamiryou

The moderator this time was the editor of Mekakucity Talkers, and her hairstyle was kind of similar to Azami-san’s.The song order of the rendition was “Shissou Word”, “Additional Memory”, “Lost Day Hour”, “My Funny Weekend” and “Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni”... but! Guess what: Jin-san said, “I wanna play them after all” and additionally performed the first part of “Imaginary Reload” and all of “Remind Blue”!! Jin-san’s hopping as he played was cute.

The general course of events was that a teaser movie soon played, then the host came on-stage and called Jin-san over, Jin-san showed up slurping a Shissou Word drink, choked while drinking it, and then performed Shissou Word. After that, it was announced that there would be a lottery and some of the prizes were Jin-san’s personal belongings.

The first corner was “Jin-san Talks About Kagerou Project”. It was a talk about why he started making KagePro. With the trigger being that the band he had in high school broke up, he decided to make stuff on his own, and he started creating a story first from the fact that “There are many depictions of ‘eyes that do ￮￮’, huh!” or something of the sort.

“Locking eyes” ➡ “Medusa” ➡ “This is it!!” ➡ “A Medusa who doesn’t want to lock eyes with anyone won’t come out of her house!” - with this trend, it seems the first thing he planned out was Kuusou Forest.

Apparently, the stories of the novel and manga progressed with him deciding their ending first, and he indeed wants to write the next novel. If he ends up unable to publish it, he’ll write it like, “whatever” and turn it into a book anyway, and he talked about writing something like “Kagerou Quest”, lol.

After he finished performing Additional Memory, he stated that he “couldn’t mention it on Twitter”, but he had wanted to say that “Ayano isn’t just a gentle girl”. From then on, we had a questions-and-answers corner.

Q.: What was the moment in which you thought, “I’ve become an adult”? A.: That’s a theme I want to write about in the next novel. I thought, “I’ve turned into an adult, huh” when I was making Lost Day Hour and suddenly felt like calling my friends. Also, when I started paying taxes.

From someone who’s been an Asahiner for 7 years: I want to know the reason why you made My Funny Weekend. A.: I’d wanted to use Hiyori, but I couldn’t until now. Hiyori is strong, so if I’d used her before, she would make everyone else’s worries dim. It feels like Hiyori made me write the parts that go, “being greedier is just fine”. I’m not the one who came up with them.

From a person who used to stan Shintarou and started stanning Ayano after Additional Memory: Please tell us the reason why you gave Ayano that moment in AddiMemo. A.: It’s the one song in MekaRelo in which someone is dying alone. Sorry for going, “I’m sorry” right after singing, “It’ll surely be an even better day!”. This is actually a story that I wished I had included in the manga.

Q.: I would like to know about the Mekakushi-dan of the early stages. A.: There are parts of the way the loops work that I haven’t written yet. There’s a possibility that, epending on the loop, the characters of the first Mekakushi-dan might show up (like the female Konoha).

Q.: I would like to know about the Mekakushi-dan of the early stages. A.: There are parts of the way the loops work that I haven’t written yet. There’s a possibility that, epending on the loop, the characters of the first Mekakushi-dan might show up (like the female Konoha).

Q.: Will you write the story of the characters turning into adults? A.: I’ve already thought out what kind of jobs each will have and who will be married to who. There are many stories in the minds of everyone, but I want to write something like, “This kind of future also exists”. For example, Kido taking over the orphanage and Hibiya becoming an archeologist to investigate the Medusa abroad. But whenever I try to make so and so get married, another side of me cuts it off like, “Wait a minute... the one who will marry Shintarou is Haruka, right?”, so whoever wins this unique armed struggle tournament inside my brain will be the one to write.

~About MekaRelo~

He had wanted to make songs regarding what he couldn’t write in the novel.

Imaginary Reload: it’s about the girl who had been waiting to be rescued in Kuusou Forest going off to fight on her own will, and doesn’t just wait to be saved. It’s 274 BPM, so it’s the fastest song?

Shissou Word: it’s based on the fear that Jin-san experienced when he was a child from continuously being asked, “Why can’t you do such a normal thing?” and from wondering, “What is ‘normal’ even?”

My Funny Weekend: it’s the song that feels the most final episode-like to him.

Additional Memory: a song that he thought he “had to write”. It’s the saddest one.

Lost Day Hour: the song that had him thinking, “I have to make this” back when he was writing volume 6.

Remind Blue: a song that made him think, “This is the last summer song”. It’s a song packed with the things he didn’t manage to write about in SumReco. It has the image of Shintarou, but there are parts about Haruka, about Seto and about Kano, so it’s kind of a song with no definite protagonist. Makes one think about not forgetting summer.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni: since the fireworks festival that he once watched in his hometown is his image of the end of summer, so he had wanted to make a story that ended with people watching fireworks, but he was indecisive, because “the last battle happens in the basement of a school, what do I do~” (said originally with a northern accent). He didn’t want to let summer end, but if it didn’t end, it would be weird and unpleasant.

After this talk, Jin-san was about to play My Funny Weekend, but realized that the Shissou Word drink he was having had disappeared without him noticing and was like, “Where’s my Never-Lost Word!?”. He drank water instead, sulking.

“I might make a mistake, sorry!” ➡ *makes a mistake during the hook* ➡ “There were no mistakes, right!?”

Then, we had the big lottery. Sadly, although I had a number in hands, I wasn’t able to get Medusa, the amplifier that Jin-san used when making Imaginary Reload. Sad.

And so, we had the last song, Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni. Jin-san played while saying, “I wanna do collaboration drinks again~”

Everyone frantically lined up to pay their checks and buy goods, but then Jin-san suddenly came back, said, “I wanna do this after all!” and played Imaginary Reload and Remind Blue while drenched in sweat. “Why is it that I’m sweating so much even though I’m playing while seated?”

And then it really was the end... however, people quickly queued to get autographs as if racing to board the last train. While stiffly shuddering, I also got autographs on my CDs and MekaTalk, then handed a letter to him.

I was happy to get a “Ah! It’s a folded paper crane!” reaction from him, but I was nervous for real, so I turned into the typical figure of a useless otaku. When he was signing, I told him, “I won’t be able to go to tomorrow’s autograph session, so I’m happy to be getting it now.” and he replied, “I’ll hold lots of other events after this one! So when the time comes, please! Do attend them!!”

I’ll go.

@Hiroyannn168

I arrived at the venue a bit too early, and when I was waiting for the opening, the staff people and Jin-san passed by me like it was nothing...! He was giving off a civilian-like aura. He boarded the elevator crammed with staff members as if having fun, and when the door was closing, he waved a little at us.

During Jin-san’s play-and-talk live, there was a questions corner and Jin-san discussed about the compositions. He had always wanted to try creating collaboration drinks based off the songs, so it seems he talked it over with the personnel like, “Shissou Word is this kind of song” and, “This color will do~” and, “Could you make this thing float? Is it impossible?” in order to have them made. The band BACKHORN, which Jin-san likes, had been doing these kinds of collaboration drinks, so he had wanted to try his hand at it no matter what.

There were also two types of pancakes that had the image of song compositions, RED and BLUE, and just when Jin-san thought of eating them too, he was told by someone from the staff, “There are only five left” and went, “Incredible” www... They were mad popular, so there was a lot of people eating them.

When Jin-san entered the stage, he brought with him a Shissou Word-themed glass and was drinking it like, “Yummy”.

He’d said on Twitter that he wanted to do something like explaining about the compositions of the songs, so he tweeted about it just a little, but he hadn’t been able to tweet at all after that, apparently because he had been practicing for the live and doing all sorts of things in the meantime. It seems that, since Jin-san was late to tweet about it, he decided to do it properly if he had the chance to tweet later. Is what he said. That he wanted to “explain a little about the song compositions tonight~”.

First track was Shissou Word. At the applause that rose naturally from the audience, Jin-san bashfully said, “thank you” in-between the lyrics. The motif behind Shissou Word was Jin-san’s experience with being asked, “Why can’t you do normal things?” Even though normal things are easy to do for other people, they’re difficult for him... that’s what the song says.

He looked happy when he asked a girl sitting at the far right of the first row, “What are you drinking?” It seems that this person was having the Additional Memory drink (it was red).

Second track was Additional Memory. The song goes like, “Ayano has a so-called gentle girl image, but she also bears these kinds of feelings”. I sensed that listening to the hook with Jin-san’s live voice made it resonate even more sharply in my heart. A shout of her emotions... is what it felt like, I guess?

Jin-san also said something along the lines of, “It’s great being able to expand my range of expression by not just using VOCALOIDs but singing with my own voice too~”.

It seems Jin-san spent a period in truancy during his childhood, and what gave him energy back then was music and books. At any rate, by the looks of it, that had been a truancy amongst truancies.

He’d wanted to form a band in high school, but the bassist quit, so he quickly became spineless about it. It appears that when he was like, “What do I do?”, a senpai of his recommended VOCALOID to him. He came to admire songs with high levels of story settings, similar to the ones from Kinniku Shoujo Tai, and started wanting to create something like an album that would turn into a story – that was the beginning of KagePro.

He said, “It’s interesting that there are lots of phrases about things you can do with your eyes.” Like, “Averting one’s eyes is Hikikomori-ish, concealing one’s eyes means that kind of stuff.” (“That kind of stuff”, you say!? This is just the kind of specific term I wanted~)

It seems that the plot of back then is still in his computer. “The Medusa is a shut-in”, and things like that.

Jin-san is still burdened with the curse from when he was 19 years old www

He also talked about how his computer fell from the second floor when he was moving www and about he wound up naming it Frederica www

Q&A corner. It was a corner where he received questions from people that he’d randomly point at after they raised their hands. The contents of all questions were amazing...

Someone who’d been an Asahiner for over 7 years said something along the lines of being really happy that there was a song about Hiyori-chan, and Jin-san commented that Hiyori-chan is a character with an extremely firm notion of self, so he had wanted to release it sooner but it seems he hadn’t been able to. That’s because, back when the Mekakushi-dan members were still fretting and saying stuff like “oh, my dirty”, if Hiyori-chan had been there with her “Move forward! There’s no mistake that tomorrow will be a much more wonderful day~”, she would cut them off with a single stroke.

It seems she’ll have a lot of screen time from now on. And it looks like rather than Jin-san writing the part of the lyrics that goes “being greedy is just fine”, it felt more like Hiyori-chan was “making him write it”. Hiyori-chan is awesome.

Someone asked Jin-san, “At what time do you think you became an adult?” and he answered that, in the past, he would think of himself as an Onii-chan when looking at children, but now he thinks he’s an Oji-san. That he was paying taxes, laying out a path and keeping it clean www. He said he “ended up becoming an adult when creating Lost Day Hour”; he could see his friends everyday when he was a child, but it seems there’s no such thing after growing up, and he’d find himself thinking, “I wanna give my friends a call”.

Imaginary Reload is 274BPM, and apparently that’s the most in all songs he’s made so far. Incredible. By the way, the maximum for BPM is 300.

It seems Jin-san also likes Remind Blue. Even though he had said, “I’ll make this one and then I won’t write songs about summer anymore!”, he made Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni right after that www. His 28th summer song...

Questioner: Even though I’d never budged from Shintarou until now, I ended up coming to like Ayano-chan the most after listening to Additional Memory. Jin-san: It seems a derby happened there. Is this a horse race or what www

Additional Memory is a bit of an unique song even for MekaRelo. He said, “I’m sorry... for bringing about a song that falls down with a hard thud immediately after saying that ‘tomorrow will be an even more wonderful day~’ with My Funny Weekend.” Like, “She dies all by herself...” He also said that what he was going to discuss from that point on were spoilers.

Shintarou’s snake is... The snakes exchange the abilities for lives... Then, lives are their,,,...???

He was like, “Please don’t spread this on Twitter and the like~”.

Remind Blue. This song was supposed to be Shintarou-san’s, but the figures of everyone overlapped in it, and it feels like each of them is being nostalgic in their own spot. The lyrics go, “together with the me of yesterday”, so Kano-kun and Seto-kun were also in it... is what Jin-san said. The way of talking is masculine. So it felt like it turned into everyone’s Remind Blue. Jin-san did say that, to him, friends are people who think the same.

Jin-san had Saiyuki-san draw the manga extra from MekaRelo A, and it seems it went like this: “Is it all right this way?” “It is.” “Is Kido-san okay like that?” “She’s exactly like that.” “The Kido-san that Saiyuki-san draws is really cool!” Jin-san said with great admiration.

Speaking of which, it seems that there’s already a conception of the Mekakushi-dan as adults in Jin-san’s mind and he’s decided things such as, “This person will be like that” and “Their occupation will be this”.

Kido-san will run an orphanage; taking over the will of that orphanage is very much like her. Hibiya-kun will be an archeologist. There are legends about Medusa all over the world, so he’ll be researching that.

He talked about how an adult Kido-san appeared in the MV of Shissou Word after he commissioned it to Sidu-san... something like that. It looks like he’s thinking along the lines of... “this person and this person will get married” as well. But Jin-san also said, “Shintarou’s wife will be Haruka-san (laughs)”. Apparently, these Jin-san’s are on a peerless inner fight inside him, and the Jin-san who wins will have his scenario come to life.

Haruka-san is KagePro’s main heroine www

Jin-san asked the audience, “Do you want to see the children of the Mekakushi-dan?” (I do.) “I wanna write novels,” he said. He was like, “I wanna introduce new characters!”

A parallel universe (one of those that are trendy nowadays?) called “Kagerou Quest” might happen www

Alternatively, it might be set in outer space, and it’ll be like a Martian version of the Mekakushi-dan fighting? Something along those lines? (Martian Mekaushi-dan!?!?)

There was a break of about 10 minutes. In that meantime, we lined up for the sale of goods, ate pancakes, etc...

The latter half of the live started.

My Funny Weeked. Jin-san seems to think that this one is the most last episode-like song. He said something like, “It’s my first time playing it live, so if I make any mistakes, pretend you didn’t notice~” and began playing. There was clapping from the audience seats as if to cheer on him, and he stopped playing right before the hook for an instant, but soon resumed it. After he finished singing, he asked, “See, there were no mistakes, right~?” (lol)

During the play-and-talk part, Jin-san drank water because he was out of options, since he had left the Shissou Word drink that he was having at the beginning somewhere, but he heard someone say from the seats, “The Never-Lost Word has been lost” and replied with, “You say some clever things www”.

Jin-san mentioned that he “was bad at conversing”, but I enjoyed his talk.

Big lotery. I ordered food and drinks and received an application coupon with the second item. The prizes were a set of guitar picks, a set of can badges, a volume of Mekakucity Talkers, a poster of MekaRelo (with Jin-san’s signature), a set of ticket holders and cards that came with the novels as appendix, which Jin-san claimed to have turned his house upside-down in order to bring over, and Jin-san’s own CDs (of Mekakucity~) and guitar effector (he apparently recorded Imaginary Reload with it, and its name is Medusa too). To the people who were sorted, congratulations~!

It seems Jin-san has only told about a part of KagePro until now, and he hasn’t yet talked about the extent of the loops.

When he was a child, he used to think, “I don’t want the new semester to start. It’d be good if summer didn’t end.” but an endless summer is somewhat disturbing, just like the two people living together in the last volume... of the novel.

Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni. It seems the last chapter of KagePro closed with fireworks. That’s because, in the past, when Jin-san lived in Hokkaidou, there was a huge fireworks festival, and he thought back then, “Summer is over, huh”. He was like, “But how will I bring up fireworks when the story led up to the school’s underground, a place that has nothing to do with it!?” (lol)

ENCORE!!!

From a wing of the stage, Jin-san got his face out and peeked through (?) from within the curtains with a glance. He’s kinda cute despite being an adult man...

It seems he was being considerate towards us and saying, “It’s late into the night and there are people here who have to go home...” He then played Imaginary Reload (but just the short version of it). And in the end, he was like, “I do want to do it after all!” He sang Remind Blue.

He bid his goodbyes with waving hands~!

Jin-san, you’ve granted me really fun and good memories tonight. You’re indeed by yourself when you’re making music and writing novels... you’ve also gone through hard times. Tonight was super enjoyable, and even though it was a play-and-talk live, you up and said that you were sweating bullets www

“Please let me perform live again,” he said to us.

It was a tremendously fun night. Good job, and thank you very much.

[leoninapelliolovesconchitawurst]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION ( Jeannette Nobbe)

VOLSKRANT.NL 31/01/20

by Mennon Pot

https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/conchita-wurst-sorry-dat-ik-zo-n-wandelend-cliche-ben~b0477817/

(Conchita) Wurst: 'I'm sorry I'm a walking cliché'.

Above all we know Conchita Wurst as the bearded 'female 'singer who won the ESC in 2014. But we've moved on and are a bit wiser. It´s just Wurst now, but the beard is still there.

With light feathered steps, Thomas Neuwirth (31) enters the conference room of the hotel in Groningen where he is staying: black combat boots, black leather pants, tight black T-shirt, the black beard and the perfect short trimmed jet black hair..

He introduces himself as Tom. It's not difficult to recognise the bearded drag queen Conchita in him. (Kopenhagen, 2014, remember?) but the dress and wig are stowed away for a while. Conchita has a sort of sabbatical, so to speak.

Neuwirth is on tour as a man. Stage name: Wurst. Yesterday evening he performed in Groningen; the next concert will be 7 february at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. His new album 'Truth over Magnitude' also carries the artist´s name Wurst.

Let's get this straight: when the subject is Conchita Wurst, the word 'transgender' sometimes comes a long. Wrongly. Neuwirth is a man, ('but incredibly gay, of course'), who has a choice from now on: being on tour as a drag queen (Conchita) or as a man (Wurst) .

´a lot of fun, being a masculine stage persona', he says. Conchita will turn up again somewhere else.

Holland appreciated Conchita's 'Rise like a Phoenix' with the highest score, almost 6 years ago.

Neuwirth didn't forget: twelve points, douze points from Holland for the bearded diva from Austria.

Then hectic years followed. 'After the Song Contest I thought, I have to make the most of it now, build my fame and cash it in. So I surrounded myself with all kinds of experts, managers, stylists, make/up artists, the whole circus. After 3 years I was exhausted. I couldn´t do it anymore. I told my audience every nigh, be yourself, believe in yourself. But along the way, I forgot myself.´

He got rid of the experts’ circus and is having a relaxed tour now, with a small entourage. He feels good again, although in 2018 he had to announce he is infected with the HIV virus. His manager politely asks, almost in an humble manner, not to talk about that.

Tom doesn´t appear to be very worried about that. There has seldom been a star who starts an interview so cheerfully. ´A great photo shoot and after that talk about things I find beautiful and fun.

Terrific, I was already looking forward to it when I came out of bed.´

´Curriculum Vitae'

1988 – Born as Thomas Neuwirth in Gmunden, Austria

2007 – Candidate at the talentshow Starmania, and boyband Jetzt anders!

2011 – Debut as female persona Conchita Wurst, the debut single `I´ll be there´

2012 - Second place at the Austrian Songfestival

2014 – ESC winner with ´Rise like a Phoenix

2015 – First album ´Conchita´, co-presenter ESC

2018 – Second album ´From Vienna with Love´

2019 – Debut as male stage persona ´Wurst´, third album ´Truth over Magnitude´

2020 – Wurst ´Trust over Magnitude´ Sony Music

Wurst will be performing in the Melkweg in Amsterdam on February 7

SOUNDTRACK

Music from the Motion Picture Titanic ...1997

´My first CD. I was 9 years old when I bought it. `My heart will go on´’changed my life´. As it were, Céline Dion gave me permission to be utterly dramatic and to be over the top. When I came out of the closet, I heard that song in my head.

It was also a liberation for me as a singer. My mom always sang with a thin, high falsetto voice. I thought that was how it should be. Dion taught me, you may yell as hard as you can, with all the power you have in you. When you sing so loud, you can’t fake it. The sound you push out of your body, is the sound of your body, unique and by definition authentic. Céline Dion taught me that singing is something really physical.´

SERIES

The Crown ..Netflix..., 2016 until 2019

´For me it´s getting difficult to watch a movie to the end. I guess that´s because of all the series on Netflix and HBO. My favorite is `The Crown´.. ´the intro alone is so beautiful, that liquid gold that forms a crown, such art. I used to watch it twice. Ít says something about the fact that I can´t choose between the two women who play Elizabeth and the two men who play prince Philip. All the actors are great. The costumes, the stories, the palaces, it´s so delightful. The history also intrigues me, after every episode I checked on Wikipedia if it was really what had happened.

PARTIES

´At Christmas I always come back to Vienna. I love the lights, glitters and decorations, my inner Mariah Carey is looking forward to it every year. Christmas 2019 was extra special because it had been a long time since the whole family came together at my grandmother´s house.´

I would love it to be like that every year... A couple of days being together in one home. Talking, getting to really know my family. Maybe now you think, days on and on with uncles and aunts, such horror! It is easy to say that I don´t really have much in common with these people. But I do, Really. They all have a story and similarities with your stories. Ask them about your life and tell them about yours.´

That´s what Christmas is all about to me. To me, the birth of Jesus has not that much to do with it.´

ISLAND..

I have an agreement with my best friends to go on vacation at least once every two years. We have been to Mykonos a couple of times, THE especially gay island. I´m sorry I sound like a walking cliché.´

The sun, the sea, the beaches, the small streets, so cosy. We rent a house with a pool and for a week or two we live in our own little paradise, actually being a bit tipsy the whole time. Go shopping and cook.´

`What´s also very important, on Mykomos, the wind is always blowing the right way. I love to watch the women, because their dresses and their hair flutter so beautifully.´

STYLE ICON

Victoria Beckham

I was and still am a big Spice Girls fan and I especially admire Victoria Beckham, because she lives her life the way she wants. She appears in tabloids every day, but has survived a crisis in her relationship and has stayed happy with the love of her life and her family. I think that it´s really strong.´

In regard to her style, she can go from very classy to very trashy, I like that. One day she´s wearing a designer dress, the next she and David Beckham are walking in identical jogging suits. She couldn’t care less. I think that it´s inspiring.´

´I think she is utterly authentic, raging through the glamour. Although I have never met her, I´m sure that I could have a lot of fun with her. I´d love to drink some tequila with her for an afternoon or so.´

AGE

30

´I thought becoming 30 was really special, I lost my wild behaviour, came to be more restful. Some way or another I think a lot about some things my mother said: in my twenties, I ignored those lessons, but now I´m 30, I suddenly realised she was right for example how important family and friends are.

I´m 31 now, I have inner peace and my life in order, but I still feel young. I´m convinced that this the best period of my life´. My advise to everybody... be 30.´

ALBUM

Recomposed by Max Richter / The Four Seasons ..2012

I don´t play any instruments and until not too long ago, I didn´t really know much about music. I really found that a pity sometimes. Fortunately, my good friend Martin studies at the School of Musical Arts... !! He´s studying the history of music intensely and tells me about a lot of great composers. I learn a lot from that.´´I never understood classical music and didn´t really know anything about it, but thanks to the listening sessions with Martin I fell in love with Vivaldi..

The pop artist of the classical artists.

´Max Richter interpreted Vivaldi´s Four Seasons and composed it in a modern fashion. It´s a modern, post minimalistic piece, completely different from the original one, but you still recognise it. Greatly done, at the moment it´s my favorite album.´

BOOK

Friedrich Schiller « Ueber die aesthetische Erziehung des Menschen ». About the aesthetic upbringing of the people..´

´A good friend advised me to read the philosophical letters from Friedrich Schiller ..Letters, 1794-1795)

That´s a hard job to do. Because of the old fashioned German I had to read some sentences 5 times. You always have to wrestle yourself through a thick layer of 18th century sexism.

´But further on you´ll find something beautiful. Schiller writes a lot about finding your inner beauty and your own truth. Dare to be yourself. Embrace your darker sides. Those are important as well.´

´At the same time he preaches self-perspective.. don´t take yourself too seriously, you´re not the center of the universe. That is very worthy to me. Namely because I DO think I´m the center of the universe, haha.

`Still it´s very wise of him, to send a message from 1795 to a 21st century queen with a Mariah Carey complex.´

CLUB

Circus in Vienna

´The Arena is a huge complex in Vienna, a concert building with a mega discotheque. A couple of times a year they organize Circus, my favorite gay club night. I always go there with my group of closest friends, but it´s actually a bit of a rule that we lose each other and disappear into the crowd.´

´I roam around all night- Every room, every floor has its own musical theme and decoration. I love the types of people I meet there, their clothes, their fetishisms, everything.´

….Arena Vienna, Baumgasse 80, Vienna

CITY

Amsterdam

´I live in Vienna, I love Vienna and I will always come back there, but the greatest city I´ve been to is Amsterdam – since then I traveled all over the world so I know what I´m talking about.

´Of all the cities I visited, Amsterdam is the only one where I would want to live a period of time. So that´s what I´m gonna do, this summer, for a few months to begin with.´

´I can see that Amsterdam also has the flagship stores from all known store chains. And a lot of tourists, like every special city. But I see all these small jewelry shops where they sell their self-made jewelry. Little bakeries. Cosy streets. And a lot of water. I love water. I love cities with lots of water.´

[ourfavcanadianshawn]

Walking on a Tightrope- Shawn Mendes Blurb

Authors Note- Hey guys, I wrote this earlier in the car while listening to music. Hope you enjoy this blurb, thanks!

-

City by city. State by State. Country from country. Airport from airport. Stage to stage. Fan to fan. Shawn was living his dream. Most importantly he was living his dream with her, hell, she was apart of the dream.

A year of touring and she had never left his side. They were both in it together. Both in this dream together.

Sure, she was second guessing her choice in traveling the world with him. But sometimes you have to take risk.

She took on this dream with him. If feels to her almost as if they’re walking a tightrope above the world, going to catch one another if they fall, hand in hand, staring down at the land below taking it day by day.

From day in and day out, she was there. Supporting him, watching him live his dream. He was there, watching as she lived her dream. Traveling the world. Living life to the fullest.

Just like when they were in Paris, France on one of Shawn’s days off.

Shawn watched her take in the Eiffel Tower from the ground, noticing her eyes not wanting to miss a feature about it. He didn’t even bother looking at the view when they reached the top of the Tower. He was to focused on her, her loose curls flying in the wind, eyes glistening as she saw the view. Smile getting bigger as she pointed out a small dainty building further out in the horizon. He didn’t miss a step of what she was doing.

Even the time he took her to Amsterdam to see all of the World War ll monuments. He will always remember her face when she saw the office that Anne Frank hid out in with her family and close family friends. When she would comment things like “could you imagine living here?” or “they had to keep quiet for such a long time during the day, I can’t do that,” it just made his heart flutter even more.

Or maybe even what she noticed about him living his dream. Just all the moments of watching belt his heart out on stage and strum the life out of his guitars made her smile big.

When they were in Orlando a couple months ago, he was at soundcheck and she got lucky enough to watch it all.

He started to preform Patience when she sat down in a couple levels up, not wanting him to see her.

He had a very concentrated look playing on his face as he started to strum the first few chords. “You hit me up it’s late at night, this is the same old story. Your friends should take your phone away,” he brought his mouth to the microphone in front of him and his voice started to rattle the arena. A smile showing on his lips as he continued onto the chorus. The big screens next to the stage cut on, the cameramen wanting to get them working. Shawn’s face plastered on them.

She smiled staring up at one of the screens, taking in the man she fell in love with 3 years ago. Both of them were 20 when they met at a Beyoncé concert.

She took in all of his features, the way his hair was already getting sweaty, his cheeks painted with a rosy pink color, perfectly straight smile that gave her goosebumps still to this day just looking at it, and his eyes twinkling with little crinkles bunching up by the corners of his eyes as he sung through what was her favorite song of all time on any of his albums, ‘Kid in Love.” She saw his happiness and passion for what he was doing right there in plain sight.

They were walking on a tightrope, through the mountains and valleys and all the rivers and oceans that come between those. Hand in hand they were lost in a dream, promising each other to catch one another if they fall.

Both found happiness and compassion in one dream they both shared, love.

[airadam]

Episode 145 : Setting Levels

"Appetite for construction..."

- Swigga

We celebrate another birthday for the podcast this month, marking twelve full years since that inaugural experimental episode! This month's mix includes new tracks from artists who are setting themselves new standards, as well as some deep album cuts, B-sides, and unreleased gems. Sadly, we also mark the passing of Gift of Gab of Blackalicious, who left us just a few days ago. We include just one of his tracks this month, but he's an MC who left a deep body of work behind for us to continue to celebrate.

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Children of Zeus : I Need You

Manchester's finest are back with their brand new album "Balance" and this was an early favourite of mine. Not uptempo, but much more so than "I Want You", with lots of bump, Tyler and Konny gave themselves a perfect canvas to get busy on the vocals. Go get that album!

Ilajide : Please Set Me At Ease

If Ilajide punches as hard as his beats are, a lot of heavyweights could be in trouble. Always bringing the heat, he shows his literal chops right here on this beat from the "Latex" LP.

Cocoa Brovaz : Get Up

For those that never knew or had forgotten, there was a period of almost ten years when due to the threat of legal action from the firearm manufacturer of similar name, Smif-N-Wessun had to change their name to Cocoa Brovaz. During this time you could hear the Brooklyn legends popping up on all kinds of quality records, and this was no exception - the B-side to the Mos Def/Pharoahe/Nate Dogg "Oh No" single, and a worthy inclusion on the "Lyricist Lounge 2" collection. Hi-Tek's beat on this was unconventional back in 2000 and still stands out as unusual today.

Special Teamz ft. Sean Price : Boston To Bucktown

Special Teamz was a Boston supergroup made up of Edo G, Jaysaun, and Slaine, who dropped the "Stereotypez" album in 2007. As signees to Duck Down Records, it was a natural move to tap them up for a guest appearance - and here, the late great Sean Price joins them on this Pete Rock-produced cut.

LL Cool J : Summer Luv

The B-Side to "Loungin'" and an inclusion on the deluxe edition of "Mr. Smith", this is a track I just don't hear enough! LL isn't showing love to the weak MCs he takes out on this one, and Rashad Smith's beat is a punchy and relatively sparse bit of 90s boom-bap crispiness.

Rakim : Last Resort

I think this one may have slipped past a lot of listeners - I got it on one of those random bootleg 12"s - entitled "Unreleased Jewels", released in 2003. According to Discogs, Da Beatminerz provided the beat, and it's an overall solid track. The hook is borrowed from a line from one of my favourite Rakim records, "Teach The Children" from the "Don't Sweat The Technique" LP.

Moods, Yasper : Vibe Vibe

From the "Endless Sunday Vol.1" album, these two Dutch producers on the Chillhop label do indeed bring the vibe. This would do the job for cruising with the top down, BBQing in the backyard, relaxing in the park - it's a pure summery feel-good track!

Swigga : Pendulum

1/3 of the great Natural Elements crew here, from his brand new LP "Sunset Mindset (Swigga SZN)". I can't quite describe the sound - it's dramatic, with a little rock edge to it - almost like a stadium track. Swigga (who some of you will have known as L-Swift) matches the vibe without going head-to-head in loudness, and keeps the flow accessible on the surface - but check the multisyllabic rhymes.

Blackalicious ft. Lyrics Born : Do This My Way

RIP Gift of Gab. He may have been in less than ideal health for some time, but his passing still hit the community hard. On this track from the Blackalicious debut LP "Nia", Lyrics Born of Latryx produces as well as supplying his half-sung, half-rapped vocals as the special guest, but without Gab, it wouldn't have been the tune that it is. He holds down his side of the lyrics with the skill and insight that made him a favourite for those that knew throughout his whole career.

The Mouse Outfit : Sunrise (Shift Ops Remix)

We switch into a little D&B mode here with a remix of a fairly recent track by The Mouse Outfit - in fact, I played it here on episode 132 when it came out! You still get the vocals of One Only, but Chini and Metrodome's production has to move over a little for the work of fellow Mancunian Shift Ops, with sharp drums and plenty of low end.

Lenzman & Konny Kon : Food

Staying with the vibe for one more track, the Metalheadz veteran combines with Manchester's own Konny Kon - no stranger to D&B by a long shot - who flows at half time over this extra-clean track from the 2019 "Bobby" LP.

[Charlemagne] Natural Elements : Paper Chase (Instrumental)

A dope 80s sample for those in the know, with the added bass and slow-walking boom-bap drums on the top make this a personal favourite. 100% check the vocal version of this track by the incredibly underappreciated Natural Elements - I played it a while back, pick up a copy if you can!

Mobb Deep : All Mines

"...where the people do murder for money" is a hell of a half-bar at the kick-off of the second verse, the kind of classic Prodigy line that would have been scratched and sampled in the late 90s for sure. Not much info on this track, which was on a 2005 bootleg release, so I don't know if Havoc produced it or not, but that menacing beat with that muted trumpet accent running through it is dopeness for sure.

Skyzoo & Aaria : St. James Liquors

Brooklyn bars from Skyzoo, from his new "All The Brilliant Things" album, which is themed around the gentrification of his home borough. Kenny Keys' beat is a bass-heavy gem, and Detroit vocalist Aaria adds a little sparkle on the hook.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth : What's Next On The Menu?

Classic Pete Rock and C.L! This was banging heavy on the pirates and mixtapes when it dropped back in 1993 - it was on the soundtrack to the Hip-Hop cameo-packed "Who's The Man?" as well as the apparently unofficial "Never Coming Out" EP (banned from Discogs). Pete Rock blends three huge staple samples on this one but still has ir sounding fresh, and C.L. glides on the jeep-rocking beat. Straight winner.

Platinum Pied Pipers ft. Jay Dee : Act Like You Know

Heavy, nasty, grinding. Perfect. The late great Jay Dee/J Dilla features on this track produced by Waajeed, one of his protoges. Waajeed and Saadiq made up PPP, whose debut "Triple P" definitely worth having in your collection - a mix of Hip-Hop and soul with a kind of jazzy sensibility in places. 

Marco Polo : Ps and Qs (Remix Instrumental)

Just a nice instrumental from Marco's "Baker's Dozen" compilation. I had to loop this up a little bit to stretch it out, as he kept it very short and sweet. MP on the MP strikes once again! 

Nipsey Hussle and Jay-Z : What It Feels Like

A cross-continental meeting of the lyrics, if not the minds, as the late Nipsey Hussle combines with Jay on this selection from the "Judas and the Black Messiah : The Inspired Album", taking its spark from the film about the assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Nipsey recorded this verse eight years ago, and didn't like the song at the time. It was developed in stages over years, with more and more instrumentation and arrangement, plus Jay's verse rougly a year ago. The final product is bombastic and epic-sounding, with the production headed up by Mike & Keys, and there are a stack of guests in the background - for me, highlighted by the distinctive vocals of James Fauntleroy. It was clearly worth the wait,

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[ariamakesit]

Hey could you do an imagine where the reader takes Dan to a muse concert (as friends) then it turns a fluffy?:)

(I combined it with another imagine i’ve had in my head for a while now, i hope you enjoy, i might write a part two if i get the inspiration)

Love in the Starlight

“What?? You never been to a Muse concert?” my friend Dan said to me in disbelief “My god woman, have you ever lived?” he said dramatically and gave me a crooked grin.“Shut up Howell! I smacked his arm, tried to look offended but I could not hide my smile, he always had that effect on me even if I didn't want to, we had been friends since primary school but we had drifted apart when i had to move with my family to Sweden during secondary school but since recently I moved back we started to hang out again now we were tighter than ever, Although there were a huge catch… I had been in love him since I knew love was but he never seemed interested so I never told him about my feelings, and i thought that moving would make the feelings go away and they did for a while but as soon as I got back and we hang out a lot my feelings bloomed again and I was trapped again.

“This is not acceptable Y/N, I can’t believe that my best friend haven’t seen Muse!” “Hey Mr! I just haven’t had the time to go to concerts and it’s not like I had someone to go with anyways” He knew I hated the few years I lived there cause I was just as socially awkward as him and I made no friends. “Well nonetheless we have some catching up to do for you, Muse will come to London next  month and we are going to listen to as much Muse as possible and I will take you to the concert” he paused “Well me and Phil of course he would kill me if we went without him” “yeah…” I said with some thought, a bit disappointed, he obviously didn’t want to be anything more than friends that for sure…The next few weeks we spent almost everyday together and listen to muse and just hanged out, i think i masked my feelings pretty well, not sitting to close or inappropriate touching.

The afternoon of the day of the concert I headed over to his flat to help him pick an outfit, myself didn’t need any help with that i knew there would be a lot of standing so obviously i took my favourite sneakers, black slim jeans and my favourite tank top with The 2nd Law album cover. my hair was a mess as always so I brushed through it rigorously until I tamed it

When I got to Dan´s flat, Phil opened the door and gave me a big bear hug “Hi there Y/N, Dan will be right down, he just had to finish up a video and straighten his hair” I smiled and said “Oh then it will be another hour I presume?” Phil laughed “Don’t worry I’ll keep you company” when we were sitting in the lounge chatting, waiting for Dan I realised something “hey why are you dressed for tonight yet? I know Dan is the master of procrastination but you are always early, what´s up” Phil avoided my gaze and I saw that he was blushing “Well there is this girl that I really like at the BBC and we kinda have a date, and I didn’t want to reject her when she asked me out so I said yes to the first date suggestion which is tonight and hey it’s just a concert” “Oh my god Phil that´s awesome for you” I said and hugged him “Yeah Philly is gonna get some tonight” I heard behind me. “Don’t be so crude Howell” I scolded him while turning but I almost dropped my jaw when I saw him, Dan stood in the doorway grinning, he had tamed his hobbit hair and looked absolutely gorgeous in a new outfit i hadn’t seen before on him (A/N: use you imagination ;) ) “hey I though you invited me early to help you with your fashion choices” I gave him a little glare but couldn’t keep my eyes off him, thank god my makeup hid most of the blushing “I wanted to surprise you cause I´ve made you listen to muse every single day this month so I’m taking you out for dinner before so we don’t starve during the concert, i know how peckish you can get” I didn’t know what to say cause this sounded a lot like a date but I knew Dan didn’t like me that way. “You ready to head out Y/N?” he asked me with that smile that made me weak in the knees. “Yeah I´m just gonna grab my purse and then we can go” I turned to Phil “Good luck tonight” I told him. “You too Y/N” and he gave me a weird smile before we headed out.

“When you said we were going to dinner I thought you meant like Mcdonalds or Starbucks not the fricking Hawksmoor” I said a bit shocked and a bit excited, I had always dreamt of eating here but the prices were always out of my price range. “Well I wanted to show you how much I appreciate you Y/N, I missed you so much during those years you weren’t living near me and I kinda took you for granted before that” my thoat dried up a bit “I missed you to Dan” He looked at me a bit suprised “That’s the first time you called me Dan since you came back” he said and gave me that crooked smile. I didn’t want to think about how much I blushed right now so I cleared my throat “Well it’s your name and I can´t use your last name forever, can I?” I instantly realised that what I said and tried to explain but all that came out was stutter, thankfully a waiter came to our table and started to taking our order “And what will it be for the gorgeous girl?” he said and being extremely flirty but he wasn’t really my type, he was to much to muscular for my taste almost like a he been eating to much steroid´s, I said just “the whole sea bream please” when I looked up from the menu I saw him staring at my cleavage, sure there wasn’t much to see but i felt like an object, I looked at Dan and it looked like he had bitten a sour lemon “We´ll have a bottle of white wine too” Dan added. “Certainly Sir” he said now a bit annoyed that Dan talked to him.

As soon as the waiter left the table I leaned towards Dan “How much are you betting that he is eating steroids like Phil is eating your cereal? Which made Dan chortle and he whispered in my ear “I don’t know but maybe they shouldn’t have let him out of the gorilla cage and put him in a costume” and I could almost not stop myself from laughing out loud. When the food came the waiter slipped me a piece of paper and whispered “Call me gorgeous” Dan looked annoyed again and I looked at the note “Anytime you want a booty call me, gorgeous” I had enough so after we had our meal I called the maitre´d and said “Yes, could we please get another waiter cause that one is hitting on me and have been looking down my cleavage all evening and I’m pretty sure the waiters aren’t allowed to give customers their phone number for a booty call as it says here on the note. The maitre´d read the note and said with a calm voice “Of course Milady, I will handle it at once”. Dan looked at me in shock “Damn Y/N that was savage, remember me to never get on your bad side” I just smiled at him “Although the creep was right about one thing” “What” I said confused. “You really are gorgeous tonight” I didn’t knew what to say so I just smiled like an idiot and avoided it and said “What time did the concert start?” “19:30” he replied. I looked up at him with my eyes widen “That’s in 20 minutes, you spork” and we paid our meal and then hurried out to a taxi.

Then at last we were at the stadium and we got some good seats so we didn’t need to fight for our places. After a couple of songs they started to play my favourite Starlight and I leaned toward Dan that wrapped his arms around me from behind “Thank you so much Dan for this, I’ll never forget it” he whispered in my ear “Me neither” that it made my skin tingle, he continued to hold me and after a while he sang along quietly to the song in my ear“Hold you in my arms I just wanted to hold You in my armsMy life You electrify my life Let's conspire to ignite All the souls that would die just to feel aliveNow I'll never let you go If you promised not to fade away Never fade away”

I turned around to see him looking deeply in my eyes, holding one hand around my waist and the other caressing my cheek, then like magnets our lips crashed into each other. After all these years I finally got to kiss him, taste his kisses and really relish on the whole situation. After a while we had to both gasp for air and he said to me “I have been waiting so long to do that, I love you Y/N” my heart fluttered “I love you too Dan, with all my heart.

[kxlebcross]

for the quarantine asks, multiples of 2, please :)

are you fucking serious???? i’m gonna get back at you for this, i’m smol and ready to fight!!!! (under the cut >:3)

2. Grilled cheese or PB&J? grilled cheese, always... idk, maybe i’m too european for that but pb&j just seems gross to me (noah fence to anyone who likes it tho)

4.  Your go-to bar order, if you drink? usually it’s a mojito, a gintonic or a vodka-tonic, depending on the place and its’ prices... and if i’m not that low on money sometimes an absinthe slips in, but that’s really rare, i’m not that young anymore and my body just can’t keep up with the alcohol anymore dfsdfd

6. Top three cuisines? uhhhh..... italian, hungarian and..... i don’t actually have a third hdgfhsd can i just generally say that ‘asian’? tbh i tried like 3-4 dishes from various asian countries which imo is way less than enough to choose a fave, and there’s also a lot more i’d like to try sometime... but my city doesn’t have many places to go to, and the only “chinese” restaurant we have is a cheap ripoff which never served a proper chinese dish in their life.... ordered from there twice, beforehand researching each dish i ordered and let me tell u.... they weren’t even close to what they were supposed to be......

8.  What’s a job that you’ve had that people might be surprised to find out you’ve had?  i once worked at a strip club..... no, not as a stripper, i was a waiter/bartender, and honestly i wouldn’t even mind talking about it if the place wasn’t shady as fuck.... one of the national tv stations even made a full time documentary series about all the illegal shit that’s going down there..... but i never really did any unconventional jobs so there’s nothing fancy, but if i were to tell stories about what i’ve encountered during my ordinary jobs...... oh boi.......

10.  Do you own any signed books/memorabilia in general? i have a signed photo with Flowsik from his Warsaw concert.... and i think that’s the only thing like that, if i ever had anything else it’s long forgotten and probably is laying in some box in my mom’s basement lmao

12. What do you get on your bagels? What WOULD you get if you had access to anything you wanted? i only have bagels in the kfc breakfast offer so it’s usually some chicken, salad, cheese, egg and mayonnaise? i think? or was that the ciabatta? fuck me if i remember...... but if i could choose anything i’d probably go with smth similar, some chicken strips, veggies, bacon, cheese and moyinnaise? yeah, probably, im a man of simple tastes dsfdfg

14.  Favorite mug you own i wish i wasn’t so lazy and just take a picture of it, but i’m a lazy fuck so here i go explaining XD so its actually a middle-sized coffee mug, it’s pastel greyish-pink with two cats on it, and one of the cats is chilling on a guitar.... it was a bday present from my mums friend and it came in a cat head-like box which i kept.... it’s now on the top shelf in it’s all grotesque cat box glory..... like the ceiling cat meme

16.  Pick a song lyric to describe your current mood (and drop the name and artist!)  uhhhh tbh my mood is usually a blank space, apathy be fun like that... so ill just list some that i’m generally vibin’ with

Take a knife in the back, wanna feel my pain Make a slice to the wrist to reveal those veins I could see your face, man I feel insane

Such a mess when I'm in your presence I've had enough, think you've been making me sick Gotta get you out of my system, yeah

MGK - In These Walls

I just can’t get enough of you, but that’s alright Feeling like going on a joyride with you through the night I keep accelerating on the road with you at my side

Lexie Liu - Like a Mercedes

And it's nights like this when I'm on my own And I realize that you'll never feel like home No, I can't feel you now (Feel me now) And I try my best to stick around But when you're broken like me, you just gotta get out 

Bring Me The Horizon -  ±ªþ³§ feat. YONAKA (but i’m generally vibin’ with the whole album that this song is from)

18.  What’s that one TV show that you’re a little bit embarrassed to watch but you still like nonetheless?  okay so i’m probably not gonna rewatch it ever again, but... when i was a kid there was this german series on tv and it was called medicopter 117.... so in exam season i realized that as a kid i never got to finish it so i decided to rewatch... listen, it’s a 1997 series... but damn it was actually better than some of the crap ppl call tv show now....... not gonna rewatch tho, some moments and plotlines were frustrating as fuck

20.  Do you match your socks? yes! but only because i either have them all black (which will match anyway) or funky colorful fruit patterned ones that look a bit much even on their own so i wouldn’t really wanna mix’n’match those in fear they would just look tacky as fuck

22.  What was your “phase” when you were younger? (i.e., Mythology Nerd, Horse Girl, Space Geek, etc) well for a while i was the horse kid, then the cat kid, then the car kid and then i ended up being the resident class emo with a weird obsession over Lord of the Rings.... it was a wild ride, though the emo phase sort of stuck with me even now

24.  What’s your opinion on Lazy Susan’s (the spinning tray in the middle of tables)? the what? i stg i never encountered it in my life so i’m not really having an opinion on it, sorry to disappoint

26.  You can only have one juice for the rest of your life, what is it? definitely orange... apple has a weird aftertaste, tomato is gross, banana feels like having jizz in ur mouth.... yeah, we’re sticking with orange (also please don’t ask me to elaborate on the jizz part)

28.  What’s one thing you’re trying to learn/relearn in your downtime right now? i’m actually trying to get better with some overwatch heroes i never learned before... since the lockdown started i got a lot better with snipers and i1m actually pretty proud of it

30.  Where could someone find you in a museum? most likely in the souvenir shop trying to find the cheapest thing..... or chilling on some bench/chair after watching all the art pieces, i’m usually way too lazy to stand around and wanna get out pretty fast, but i think it has more to do with the fact that i don’t really like to hang out around people and museums tend to always have a few of those

32.  Rainbows, stars, or sunset colored clouds? stars and clouds.... but man i actually really miss stars........ that’s the only thing that’s shitty in living at the city that i can’t see the stars

34.  Do you have more art on your walls or more photographs? i think art.... i mean i have three movie posters, an overwatch one, a religious calendar from my mum, and then a pride flag and some tacky painting the landlady insisted on keeping on the wall.....

36.  Pick a superhero sidekick to hang out with uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... okay i’m gonna admit, i’m not really into superheroes so i’m not that well-informed about their sidekicks either.... can i just hang out with loki instead or smth?

38.  Favorite mid-2000s song oh no.... assuming it was around 2005.... i was like 7 at that time? what the fuck did  i listen to back then? uhhhhhhh i’m pretty sure that was a basshunter time back then? so i’m gonna go with Basshunter’s Now You’re Gone as i remember having it on my mp3 player dfjhjkdf

40.  Where do you sit in the living room (we all have a preferred spot, and you know it)? usually at my pc, even when i have guests over because i don’t trust anyone with the playlists...... and when i’m over at someone i usually choose a fotel or smth and lay down in it as if i’ve never used a fotel before or couldn’t sit like a normal human being.... and if there’s no fotel then i’m sitting on the armrest of the sofa because apparently i can’t sit like a normal human being sdshfghsdf

42.  A song you didn’t think you’d enjoy but ended up loving  it’s this one.... one day just popped up in my youtube recommended and i was like what the fuck??????? but i’m not gonna say what it is, see for yourself ;)

44.  Are you a “Quote that relates to the photos” caption-er, an “explanation of where I took the photos” caption-er, or a no caption kinda person when you post pictures online? i..... try not to post at all??? but if i do it’s either no caption or “i randomly decided to post some pictures at 3am without thinking about a concept or caption so i’m just gonna wing it” kind of bullshit, no inbetween, i just can’t write meaningful shit under my pictures 

46.  What’s the freezer food that you stock up on when you go to the grocery store? fries..... i’m a slut for fries, best food ever......... give me fries......... i think i actually might buy some later now that we’re talking about it

48.  Do you like Jello? once again i’m way too european to have an opinion, sorry.....

50.  How are you at climbing trees? when i was a kid i was doing pretty well..... now, around 15 yrs and a few fucked up joints later i’m not sure how would i do....... if this stewpid lockdown is over i might actually convince my friend to find some trees to climb and then we’ll see....... (and then i hopefully won’t accidentally k*ll myself because he will be there to catch me if i fall lmaoooo)

[celebritylive]

Lady Gaga is uniting famous faces to put on the One World: Together at Home special amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly two weeks after she announced the star-studded benefit special, the singer, 34, led the two-hour broadcast, which was hosted by late-night stars Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel.

Gaga kicked off the benefit concert with an uplifting cover of Nat King Cole’s classic “Smile” from her home. “What I’d like to do tonight is give you permission, at least for a moment, to smile,” she said.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve witnessed unbelievable acts of bravery, courage and kindness all around the world in response to this global pandemic. Everyone from the doctors and nurses on the frontlines to the volunteer mental health specialists, grocery store workers, delivery workers, mail workers have all shown unprecedented levels of kindness throughout the fight against COVID-19,” she said at the top of the event.

“We want to get to the other side of this pandemic and I know you do too. But tonight is not a fundraiser so put your wallets away,” Gaga added. “It’s our love letter to the world.”

Thank you, @LadyGaga, for your commitment to the @WHO and healthcare workers around the world.

Join us and take the pledge to stay home at https://t.co/26xVXSb0qy. #TogetherAtHome pic.twitter.com/udStJRw3Q3

— Global Citizen (@GlblCtzn) April 19, 2020

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RELATED: Lady Gaga and Global Citizen Raise $35 Million and Announce Virtual Benefit Show for Coronavirus Relief

View this post on Instagram THE SHOW STARTS NOW!!! Btw look at that kiss

– #ladygaga #littlemonster #ritabot #anywhere #thefame #thefamemonster #bornthisway #artpop #joanne #love #peace #liveshow #live #girlsgirlsgirls #roararepublic #enigma #stupidlove

A post shared by Little Monster & Ritabot (@gaga_rita) on Apr 18, 2020 at 5:01pm PDT

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Hours before the start of the benefit, the Oscar winner tearfully thanked fans on Instagram Live. “I love you all so much, I love the world so much. What Global Citizen has done with the World Health Organization is so beautiful,” she said.

“I’m so grateful to the healthcare workers and the medical workers, the grocery store workers and delivery people, postal workers, all the other non-profits that are working so hard. I just want you to know that this is really a true love letter all of you all over the world. I hope it’s a reminder of the kindness that’s occurring right now, you’re all so special. The world is a special place,” she continued.

The star later added, “Since I was a little girl I always wanted to make people happy and I didn’t know why, but I think I know today. I love you very much.”

“What I’d like to do tonight is give you permission, at least for a moment, to smile.”

@ladygaga #TogetherAtHome https://t.co/F6SR52rqSO

— Born This Way (@BTWFoundation) April 19, 2020

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Gaga previously revealed that she and Global Citizen have already raised $35 million for the World Health Organization.

The A-list special will raise money through the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund to support local and regional charities providing food, shelter and healthcare to those in need amid the ongoing health crisis.

During the special, there will be appearances and performances by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, J Balvin, Andrea Bocelli, Burna Boy, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Elton John, John Legend, Chris Martin and Alanis Morissette.

Pianist Lang Lang, Lizzo, Maluma, Paul McCartney, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Eddie Vedder and Stevie Wonder will also be featured, along with David Beckham, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Shah Rukh Khan.

In addition, Alicia Keys, Amy Poehler, Awkwafina, Camila Cabello, Celine Dion, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Lopez, LL COOL J, Lupita Nyong’o, Matthew McConaughey, Oprah Winfrey, Pharrell Williams, Sam Smith, Shawn Mendes, Taylor Swift, Usher and Victoria Beckham are set to make cameos.

Along with celebrity cameos, frontline doctors, nurses and families from around the world will be headlined.

RELATED: How Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga and More Celebrities Are Social Distancing During the Coronavirus Pandemic

We’re LIVE! Tune in to One World: #TogetherAtHome for performances from some of the world’s biggest artists, stories from frontline workers, and insights from health experts. It's all in support of the @WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Watch now: https://t.co/Yu68OWPvHG

— Global Citizen (@GlblCtzn) April 18, 2020

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Gaga, who has been social distancing with her boyfriend Michael Polansky, recently spoke with Fallon about planning the special, telling him: “We’re going to have amazing hosts and and the truth is that we’re also going to do a lot of other things that are going to be different and exciting, and this is what I really want to do with the show.”

While Gaga has been keeping busy and organizing the special, her little monsters will have to wait a little longer to hear her new album, Chromatica.

In March, she told fans that she would be delaying the release of her upcoming sixth LP due to the global health crisis. “I wanted to tell you, that after a lot of deliberation, I’ve made the incredibly tough decision to postpone the release of Chromatica,” Gaga said, adding that the record, previously planned to drop on April 10, would be coming out later this year. “I will announce a new 2020 release date soon.”

RELATED: Tired of TV? PEOPLE’s Favorite Music, Podcasts and Audiobooks to Enjoy Listening to While Social Distancing

Gaga continued, “This is such a hectic and scary time for all of us, and while I believe art is one of the strongest things we have to provide joy and healing to each other during times like this, it just doesn’t feel right to me to release this album with all that is going on during this global pandemic. Instead I prefer that we spend this time focusing on finding solutions. It’s important to me that the attention is on getting essential medical equipment to healthcare professionals, making sure kids who depend on public schools for meals get the assistance they need, and that we help those who will be financially impacted by this pandemic.”

Chromatica will be Gaga’s first new album since 2016’s Joanne, which became her fourth consecutive record to reach number one in the United States. For her 2018 film A Star Is Born, Gaga also wrote and recorded a few tracks, including the Oscar-winning song, “Shallow.”

In February, the Grammy winner released “Stupid Love,” the first single off of Chromatica (though the song had leaked back in January).

The One World: Together at Home special will air on April 18 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET/12 a.m. GMT.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here.

from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2XTgcIO

[newyorkisartsyfartsy]

Final Exam

Question #2 Gone but Not Forgotten

The Beastie Boys and MCA Forever

Since High School, the Beastie Boys has been one of my favorite rap groups.

When I was in high school, my musical taste began to stray away from the pop hits the short playlist of chart toppers that streamed all day on 96.7 Kiss FM (the pop radio station in Austin) and I started to explore more obscure, indie music that my friends liked and older music. Both of my parents, my dad especially, have always been old school hip hop fans. When I finally joined Instagram (my dad was on it before I was), he would tag me in or DM me photos of artists who I should check out, like Mos Def, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC. At first, I resisted. But eventually I gave it a try. Run-DMC was the first group I got into, and I really liked the simple beat of the music and their cool style (I am actually wearing the Superstar adidas that I bought in high school). But eventually, because of their collaboration with the group in the mid-‘80s, I eventually ran into the Beastie Boys, one of my favorite groups to this day.

 I have gone through a series of phases of obsession with certain artists throughout my lifetime in which I watch all of the artists’ music videos, listen to each of their albums in order, and buy various t-shirts of the artist, and I definitely had a Beastie Boys phase. I liked that the group, Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch, did not take things to seriously, their music was fun, if sometimes problematic. I liked their IDGAF attitude, that was very much the opposite of my self-conscious self in high school. And I liked that their music dipped into the genre-bending and experimental realm. Since the group started out as a rock band, each album usually had a rock song or at least one that combined rock and rap, like the anthem “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” on their first album “Liscensed to Ill.” And “Paul’s Boutique,” although it sounds like a conglomeration of sounds with its various samples, seamlessly blends one song into the next, and I have to listen to it in order every time. I was not yet a Beastie Boys fan when Yauch died in 2012, but the first summer that I spent in New York City for an extended period of time, visiting Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights was on my to-do list.

 _____________________________________________________________________ Question 3 The Significance of Wesley Morris’ “The Last Taboo” 

Morris combines historical context and personal essay to critique the 2016 film “Moonlight.” 

 “The Last Taboo” by Wesley Morris, published in the New York Times, is a piece of criticism that made me think about the role of the critic and offered a new perspective on what a piece of criticism should look like. In this critique, Morris uses the black penis as a motif to explain the ways in which the depiction of black male sexuality in film has changed over time, how it affected him as a gay, black man, and how we eventually got to see a film like Barry Jenkins’ Academy Awarad winning film, “Moonlight.” 

 The main thing that makes Morris’ critique effective is his use of context. Before getting into the history of the depiction of black male sexuality in films, he begins the piece by discussing more modern depictions of or representations of male sexuality in modern films and television shows, like “Ted 2” and the HBO series “The Night Of,” comparing and contrasting the way that these shows and films depict the sexualities of black men versus white men. Then he goes into the introduction of and racist history of black men in mainstream film and TV in “Birth of a Nation” and he goes into explaining the significance of Blaxploitation films. So before Morris gets into the main work that he critiques, the reader has a clear idea of where he is coming from, why what he is talking about is important, and because one of the main points of his critique is explaining how we got to seeing a film like “Moonlight,” he shows the reader exactly how by laying going through all of the context.

 Towards the end of the essay, Morris talks about “Moonlight” and the importance of Jenkins’ nuanced depiction of, the main character of the film, Chiron’s sexuality in the movie. And then at the very end of the critique, Morris gets into the personal piece of the essay and provides a personal anecdote that sums up how the depiction of black male sexuality affected him growing up and why “Moonlight” and this topic matter to him. Morris’ piece made me reevaluate the role of the critic and the importance of the critic’s point of view. Not only is the critic able to display their response to and opinions on a piece of art, but why the piece of art matters to them specifically and most importantly, why they are writing about it.

 _____________________________________________________________________ Fun (but serious!) 1: Thundercat’s “Walkin’” is a Futuristic Bop 

 “Walkin’” from Thundercat’s 2011 album, “The Golden Age of Apocalypse” has an old school beat with more futuristic sounding instruments thrown on top of it with upbeat lyrics sung by Thundercat himself, Stephen Lee Bruner. 

 The song begins with the drum beat and then, a guitar with what sounds like effects pedals begins and Bruner sings, “When it’s just you and me, there’s no place I’d rather be.” And the repetitive lyrics throughout sound like a love song that a 1960s boy band like the Beatles sang at the time. The song, only about two minutes long, is short and sweet, like a walk down the block with a friend on a nice day. 

 The song’s music video was produced as seemingly simply as the song itself. It looks as if Bruner and some friends stepped outside their front door with a digital camera on a sunny day, took some footage, and put it together with Windows Movie Maker. In it, Bruner walks down a suburban sidewalk with a girl, both in matching glasses and t-shirts as some weird things go on around them, a zombie offers them snacks, and a guy in a wizard beard blows bubbles with faces in them. The greatest Blockbuster effect of the video occurs at the end, when a friend shoots lasers out of his eyes, blows up another guy’s head, and then Bruner and his laser-eyed friend go for a high five which ends in an explosion.

 _____________________________________________________________________

Fun (but serious!) 2: Arts, Culture, and Fashion Criticism 

 What sticks out to me on the worksheet and its summation of my interests now and in the past, is how much my interests growing up affected me as a writer/critic. In my personal essay on “Mean Girls,” I think I wrote that in high school, my friends and I were pretentious and purposefully listened to music, watched movies and TV shows, and liked things that went against the norm of what everyone else at school liked. I also remember that we used to discuss the arts and culture that we consumed as if we were critics as well (i.e. why we thought the Arctic Monkeys were a better group than One Direction.) So I didn’t realize it at the time, but now I have realized that I was beginning to form opinions on and think about the music I liked in a critical way, even though I thought sometimes that perhaps we were a bit too opinionated. 

[airadam]

Episode 126 : None More Black

"These evil streets don't sleep..."

- Pharoahe

Here's an idea I've been holding for a while - an episode showcasing Hip-Hop tracks that took a rock sample or influence! I thought it'd be an interesting one to select and mix without reaching for the most obvious standby picks, and we've got tracks spanning almost thirty years at the extreme ends. Don't worry, the guitars come along with plenty of bars and beats!

Links for the month... Michelle Grace Hunder - wicked music photographer!

The Flyest Xmas party on Dec 20th, featuring The Soul Twins

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Ice-T ft. Jello Biafra : Shut Up, Be Happy

One of those tracks that seems more relevant now than ever, this was the opener on Ice-T's underrated 1989 album "The Iceberg". A great marrying of elements, as Jello Biafra of the punk band Dead Kennedys delivers a totalitarian announcement (based on his own "Message From Our Sponsor" over a Black Sabbath loop. I couldn't put this anywhere but as the intro to the episode!

Camp Lo : 82 Afros

Kicking the pace up a touch, we move straight into a killer Camp Lo cut from the "Black Hollywood" LP, with Ski cooking up a banging rock-based beat. The kick and snare are straight boom-bap, but the toms add an unexpected extra element on top of the distorted guitar and vocal sample. Cheeba and Geechi might be known for their smooth styles, but this is just one demonstration of the fact that they can get busy over any kind of beat.

J-Zone : Moonwalk / Gel N' Weave Remix (Instrumental)

I was struggling to find just the right instrumental for this spot, but went back to "The Headband Years" to find this beat from a producer who could make a beat our of almost anything. He's full-time on his funk drumming now, but has a great catalogue of Hip-Hop that can't be fronted on.

Kobaine : Ko.Bain

This is an artist I know very little about, as as far as I'm aware this is his only release to date, a nice little contribution to the 2002 "Subway Series Vol.1" compilation on Major League Entertainment. I got this on digital release which had no credits included, so I'm not sure who produced it - I can imagine it being a Nick Wiz or Tribeca track though.

Agallah : Ag Season

Brownsville's Agallah has often channelled the rockstar vibes in his career, and this woozy-guitared track from "Bo : The Legend of the Water Dragon" sounds entirely natural for him. Self-produced as always, it's short, rock solid, and to the point.

Fabolous : Breathe

Fifteen years old, already? This was a huge single for Fabolous, taken from his "Real Talk" album, and is one of his best-known tracks even after all these years. Just Blaze laced him with a beat based around Supertramp's "Crime of the Century", and got a surprise when Fab told him he'd written his lyrics around the "breathe" vocal sample on the track...because that's not what it said! However, on hearing the bars, Just went back and made some changes to align the audio with what Fab thought he heard!

Ras Kass ft. Killah Priest : Milli Vanilli

Ras Kass' "Quarterly" was collection of tracks he released once a week, finally brought together in late 2009 - and there are some great cuts in there. Here's one, with Veterano's beat sounding like a cybernetic heavy metal group trying to destroy the speaker stack! Ras cuts through it regardless, and special guest Killah Priest (fellow member of THE HRSMN) matches him bar for bar as always. The hook of course channels the then-recent Lil Wayne track "A Milli", which was a heavily-used beat for freestyles around this time.

Body Count : C-Note

This was one of the shorter and gentler tracks on the debut Body Count album, but was always one of my favourites - Ernie C makes that guitar cry for real. Ice-T's metal project was waved off by some doubters in the beginning, but the music was solid from their first appearance on the "OG: Original Gangster" album and they're still killing it to this day.

Bumpy Knuckles : Swazzee

This one is so aggro, you have to love it. Seriously, you'd better. Bumpy Knuckles is in fine form on this guaranteed weight-training motivational track from "Konexion", taking out sucker MCs, snitches, haters, and pretty much everyone else. The hook is reminiscent of an old Sly Stone cut, and Knockout's beat is ferocious - precise, measured drums with the harsh guitar over the top. Bumpy might be the king of the third verse but a track like this lets you know he can handle the first two just fine!

Public Enemy : Go Cat Go

The "He Got Game" soundtrack was unfairly overlooked by too many heads, but is an absolutely worthy entry in Public Enemy's long and storied discography. Chuck D's political awareness and love of sports (he actually wanted to be a sportscaster at one point) combined for a really interesting listen. Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto and Danny Saber of Black Grape cover this one in heavy guitars which would drown out most MCs, but not Chuck! As the album subtitle says, this one is about the game behind the game...

Boogie Down Productions : Ya Slippin

It's hard to think now of BDP being a crew with a future in doubt, but this is how it was back in 1988 as "By All Means Necessary" was released, not long after the murder of founding DJ Scott La Rock. KRS might be young here but he rhymes with the confidence of someone who left home as a child to become an MC, survived homelessness, and achieved his goal. He scolds weak MCs like "The Teacha" he is, and gets down on the production too - the rock heads will recognise this guitar sample a mile off!

Pharoahe Monch : Got You

Shout out to Vicky T for reminding me of this tune! The lead single from the "Training Day" soundtrack is one where I think the radio version (as heard here) surpasses the original. Monch perfectly encapsulates the essence of Denzel Washington's character, who is one of the classic movie villains of modern times - and strikingly, is based on real police.

[J-Zone] Boss Hog Barbarians : Celph Destruction (Instrumental)

Zone again, and while it one didn't come to mind immediately, the aggressive sonics of this instrumental get it the nod here. The Boss Hog Barbarians (J-Zone and Celph Titled) album is an absolute tribute to ignorance (intentionally), but if you can deal with that then it's an excellent addition to your collection.

LL Cool J : Go Cut Creator Go

Another 80s classic hard rocking track, from LL's "Bigger And Deffer" album. It's the kind of track we don't get now - the MC just bigging up the DJ. DJ Cut Creator was with LL from the very beginning, and was the one who actually helped him to get him name known, so it's nice to hear the appreciation. The scratches still stand up today and cut through even the loudest of the guitar samples on the track!

Sly Boogy : Fatal Mistake

Sly may not have put anything out for a while, but the San Bernadino native did drop a few nice tracks in the early 2000s. This one has him totally disregarding the common standards of Hip-Hop song structure, opening up with a thirty-two bar first verse just to show he's not playing. DJ Revolution provides the cuts, and production is courtesy of a then-emerging Jake One. This actually doesn't have a rock influence, but is here because of how well it goes with the next instrumental...

[Rick Rubin] Jay-Z : 99 Problems (Instrumental)

The combination of this and "Fatal Mistake" is one I discovered while doing a mix years and years ago, and wanted to bring out again when the opportunity arose! You probably all know the vocal version of this track, which appeared on Jay-Z's "The Black Album". While working with the legendary Def Jam co-founder and producer Rubin, Jay said he wanted something like the flavour he used to give to the Beastie Boys and this was the result - a meshing of several ideas that came together perfectly.

Public Enemy : She Watch Channel Zero?!

Let's be real - the sexism is heavy on this track! It'd be entirely reasonable to argue that spending all day watching sports on TV isn't any better than soap operas, but that's just my opinion :) 1988's "...Nation of Millions..." yields this song which had an interesting connection - sampling the group Slayer, who were produced by Def Jam founder and major PE supporter Rick Rubin. 

Lacuna Coil : The Game

Going pure rock on this selection from this veteran Milanese gothic metal band! I actually learned about this group from "Guitar Hero" of all places, and "Our Truth" led me to the 2006 "Karmacode" album that included this track. It always reminded me a little of "Channel Zero", and while the guitar riffs are definitely fire and the drums bang, it's the combined and contrasting vocals of Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro that can't fail to grab your ear.

RJD2 : Exotic Talk

Prog rock meets Hip-Hop sensibilities as RJD2 twists and turns, chilling things out in parts before bringing the thunder crashing back in. Definite standout from 2004's "Since We Last Spoke".

Z-Trip : Rockstar

We close with a standout track from the "Return of the DJ, Volume II" compilation, with Phoenix's Z-Trip putting together a masterpiece of DJ/producer song construction. The sample list is long, and since I don't know what was and wasn't cleared, I won't give anything away here!

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[yasbxxgie]

On January 30th, 1973, only six months after the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex, five men were tried and convicted of conspiracy, burglary and violation of federal wiretapping laws. That, of course, was not the end of the matter, as the trail lead directly to President Nixon himself. That same January, veteran soul and R&B singer Roy C. Hammond released a politically charged 45 called “Impeach The President,” a rock-solid drum workout with a funky guitar riff that perfectly captured the zeitgeist. He might have seen the writing on the wall for Nixon, but little did he know that the first four bars of the song were destined to become an iconic hip-hop drum loop, sampled in over 696 songs.

The slew of ’80s and ’90s hits built upon “Impeach” reads like a list of rap classics – MC Shan’s “The Bridge,” Audio Two’s “Top Billin’,” “Jump” by Kriss Kross, “The Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That)” by Digable Planets, “I Get Around” by 2Pac and “Unbelievable” by Biggie Smalls, to name just a few. Even dance and pop acts from Soul II Soul to Janet Jackson have utilized that song’s boom-bap, and you know a beat is special when master lyricists like Chuck D. (“Rebel Without A Pause”) and GZA (“As High as Wu Tang Get”) reference it in their rhymes. The making of “Impeach The President” and its enduring influence not only illuminates an important chapter of hip-hop history, but it also provides yet another familiar tale in the perpetual struggle of artists to get fairly compensated for their work.

Known for such hits as “Shotgun Wedding” (Blackhawk Records, 1965) and “Don’t Blame The Man” (Mercury, 1973), Hammond cut “Impeach The President” with a bunch of all–black high school musicians from Jamaica, Queens whom he dubbed The Honey Drippers. He doesn’t even remember the drummer’s name now, but says, “I had to spend many hours with him after school, but he turned out to be pretty good.” Recorded at Broadway Recording Studios in Manhattan – in the same building that currently houses the Ed Sullivan Theater – “Impeach The President” was too controversial for Mercury, to which Hammond was signed at the time, so he released it on his own imprint, Alaga Records. Without the promotional power of a major behind it, it went on to sell only a few thousand copies and was relegated to the stacks of obscure funk 45s.

Flash forward to the T-Connection, a popular hip-hop club on Gunhill Road in the North Bronx. In 1980, Aaron Fuchs, the founder of hip-hop label Tuff City Records and one of the early journalists to write about hip-hop, was the guest of Bronx DJ Afrika Bambaataa. “When you see a guy coming to a gig with a little laptop and you remember what it was like to see Bambaataa and his posse come to a gig with four or five guys carrying crates of records behind him, it was very tribal, man, a whole ’nother experience – very post-gang,” says Fuchs, now 69. “He [Bam] showed me the extraordinary respect of letting me see his records,” he continues, and “even with certain stuff scratched out, I knew enough about music and its history to fill in the blanks.” Among a record collection that Fuchs calls,“the most expansive panoply of the musics that nurtured hip-hop,” he identified a 45 of “Impeach The President,” with Alaga Records’ trademark red and yellow label.

“‘Impeach’ was cultish,” says Fuchs, “It kind of separated record purchasers from crate-diggers.” Always trawling through the lists of distributors’ cutouts, he managed to score a 50-count box of “Impeach The President” for the bargain price of 25 cents a copy. “What I did was, if I’d go to the Roxy and I had a new record for Afrika Islam, I’d throw in a couple copies of ‘Impeach,’” says Fuchs. “I never got into or was able to get into greasing people or paying people off, but I could really live with using that type of stuff as currency.”

Based in Long Island City at the time, Fuchs started working with a young, up-and-coming DJ/producer from the nearby Queensbridge projects named Marlon Williams AKA Marley Marl, one half of the very first commercial rap radio show, Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack, on New York’s WBLS-FM. Also an intern at Unique Studios in Manhattan, Marley was just cutting his teeth on production and had a small set-up in his sister’s apartment in the projects that included a four-track, a Roland TR-808 drum machine and two SDD-2000 sampling digital delays by Korg. In 1984, Marley would produce a track for Tuff City artist Spoonie Gee called “Take It Off.” Interviewed by Dubspot in 2013, he recalls, “Fuchs said, ‘Here, I can’t pay you for this Spoonie Gee session, but you can take this pile of records.’ In that pile was “Impeach The President.”

According to Fuchs, “Marley was voracious, and as soon as I gave him something, it was used one way or another.”

Marley went on to sample the Honey Drippers’ kick and snare (with accompanying ghost notes) to each of his SDD-2000s, adding a hi-hat and a kick from the 808 to bolster the sampled kick. He shaped a hook by sampling a reverbed horn fanfare from The Magic Disco Machine’s 1975 record “Scratchin’,” and reversed it to play backwards so it sounded like a stab of pure noise. Finally, he brought in his cousin Shawn Moltke AKA MC Shan to christen the track with lyrics.

“The track ‘The Bridge’ was made not to be a record. It was made as intermission music for the Queensbridge festival that we had in Queensbridge Park in 1984,” Marley says. “Now the first time the track played everybody’s heads turned. Everybody was like, ‘Wow, it’s a song about Queensbridge.’ Everybody was like, ‘Play it again, play it again.’ It was so popular that day that we played it in the park, one of my nephews took the tape and spread it around Queensbridge. Everybody in Queensbridge had a copy of that song and it wasn’t a record yet. I had to do something about that.”

Though “The Bridge” was made in 1984, it only saw the light of day as a release in 1986 on Bridge Records, becoming an instant classic. Marley, who helmed a crew of now legendary artists known as the Juice Crew – featuring Shan, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, Craig G. and Masta Ace – went on to use the “Impeach” beat on many subsequent productions, including such certified rap hits as 1986’s “Eric B. Is President” by Eric B. & Rakim and 1986’s “Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz” by Biz Markie. He even accidentally handed the beat over to the competition when BDP made “The Bridge Is Over” the following year.

“The funny story about ‘The Bridge is Over’ is that I had met BDP for the first time at Power Play studios when they was playing their demos for Mr. Magic,” says Marley. “So he went into the room, the music was very loud. He did not like it at all, so it got really, really heated. In the rush to vacate the studio, I forgot my famous drum reel with all my drum sounds on ’em. Fast forward, I’m listening to the radio and I hear this song called “The Bridge Is Over” utilizing my drum sounds. I was like ‘Yo! That sounds like my drum sounds. Who’s that?’ ‘That’s them kids that Magic dissed in the studio the other day.’”

By the time “Impeach The President” appeared on the DJ-friendly Ultimate Breaks & Beats series – Volume 11, released in 1987, to be exact – the cat was out of the bag, and that break was on its way to becoming a standard building block for rap tracks. In that year alone, it was used in “I Got An Attitude” by Antoinette, Dana Dane’s “Dana Dane With The Fame,” Cool C’s “Juice Crew Dis” and Audio Two’s mega-hit “Top Billin’.” Fuchs even took his own stab at a version, getting Spoonie Gee to drop some lyrics on a track called “You Ain’t Just A Fool, You’s An Old Fool.”

Ironically, Fuchs decided to go after his old buddy Marley, who had produced two hits from LL Cool J’s comeback album on Def Jam, Mama Said Knock You Out, in 1990. “Around The Way Girl” and “Six Minutes of Pleasure” both used elements of “Impeach The President,” to which Fuchs claimed to own the rights in a New York Times piece on April 21, 1992. He eventually settled out of court with Def Jam for what he describes as “low to mid-five figures.” Of course, these were not the only songs at the time that sampled “Impeach,” and Fuchs went after other artists and labels as well. “There were some lawsuits that had to be filed,” as he puts it, “but eventually it got to a point where it became business as usual.”

During this time, Roy C. Hammond had moved down to Allendale, South Carolina, where he currently runs a record shop. One day while listening to the radio, he heard the song, “Luv Me, Luv Me” by Shaggy and Janet Jackson, a cut from the How Stella Got Her Groove Back soundtrack that was released in 1998. He immediately recognized his own song in the mix, and after doing some calling around was able to track down Fuchs, who had authorized its use in the movie. It turns out the two had met back in 1968 when Hammond was singing tenor in The Genies, a doo-wop group, and Fuchs was a young reporter for Billboard and Cashbox.

“He said, ‘Look, I’m trying to make you some money.’” recalls Hammond, 77, of their reunion 30 years later. “I said, ‘Hell, you should have got in touch with me.’ He had it listed with ASCAP and I’m a BMI writer, so I went over and questioned them about it, and they took it out of there immediately.” It still means that from 1990 through 1998, Fuchs was profiting off “Impeach” without even trying to track down Hammond.

“And he was tellin’ me how much money I was going to make,” Hammond continues, with Fuchs eventually persuading Hammond to sign a five-year licensing deal for the track. Fuchs sealed the deal with a $500 check that apparently bounced.

But Fuchs tells a different story. “You know what’s crazy?” he says, “I never made a deal specifically for ‘Impeach.’ I do all kinds of reissues if you look at my catalog. I put stuff out from the ’40s to the ’80s, you know? And I actually put out a Roy C. album. He had had two albums on Mercury – one was called Sex and Soul and the second album was called More Sex and Soul. And then he had a bunch of stuff he had done independently. So, you know, I had a few things by him and that was one of them.”

“I didn’t authorize none of that,” Hammond maintains. “After he got a contract to license it [‘Impeach’] for five years to give it out to different people for beats, he was supposed to pay me, and he didn’t pay me.” Ask Fuchs, however, and Hammond profited, “hugely.”

Hammond has since taken Fuchs to court several times but hasn’t been able to receive the compensation he says he deserves, and puts it down to the failings of his lawyers, of which he’s gone through several. “The one in New York asked him [Fuchs] for half a million dollars or something, and we wind up getting $100,000,” he says. “And the most I got was $40,000 after lawyers fees.” That was ten years ago. “Just a few months ago,” Hammond adds, “I talked to this attorney and after that Fuchs sent me $32,500. Now that’s the biggest I ever got from him.”

But he is not bitter in the least. “I feel great that I contributed something [to hip-hop]” says Hammond. “But I’m still going to fight this guy, and I’m going to find a good lawyer that’s going to be honest and bring this thing in front of a jury.”

Editors’ Note: Following the publication of this story, RBMA Daily received an email from Aaron Fuchs, the president of Tuff City Records, contesting Marley Marl and Roy C. Hammond’s claims. Fuchs denies Marley Marl’s claim of nonpayment for the recording session of Spoonie Gee’s “Take It Off.” He also contests Marl’s quote from the Dubspot interview regarding a “pile of records,” stating that “I have never offered any DJ or producer ‘a pile of records,’ but rather specific records that I curated and deemed to be of value either to their production needs or fund of knowledge.”

Fuchs also states that Marley Marl was not named as an individual in his 1992 lawsuit against Def Jam, which was filed in response to the label’s release of songs produced by Marl on LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out LP. Furthermore, Fuchs states that agreements made with Hammond prior to 1998 were accompanied by advances, and seeks to clarify that “No check I ever wrote to Hammond or any other artist has ever bounced.”