#and he's in a band with 2 geniuses who have more experience than him more obsessed (perhaps) w/ their craft than him

[wordswhisperinthedark]

Currently having so many emotions about Tamada Shunji ❤️(ಥ﹏ಥ)

[enmy-writes]

Baby Avenger

Summary: (Y/N) is one of the youngest avenger members and some government officials repeatedly let her know of “her position.” So, she lets them know exactly what her position is.

Word Count: 2100

Fandom: MCU Avengers

Pairing: Avengers x Reader

Genre: Fluff, soft, slight angst and sadness, & family love.

Rated: 18+

Content Warnings: profanity, death, abandonment, bullying, this is my first ever post of any fanfiction ever so it’s probably bad

**** This is my first ever imagine that I have ever finished and published. Please give me feedback and let me know what else I should write! I’m very excited and nervous so please let me know if you enjoyed this :) I’m thinking of making this Y/N character into a little “Baby Avenger” one-shot series, so let me know your thoughts ****

 _____________________________________________________________

Baby Avenger.

Baby Avenger.

Baby. Avenger.

 In her head, her stomping can be heard throughout the whole Compound and all of its residents and guests can hear her anger. They know she’s going right to the meeting room; not the team meeting room, but the meeting room they use when they have special guests in for a meeting.

The new government officials who are now “in charge” of the Avengers since The Snap Part 2 were in for the day to go over the general plans that the Avengers have been coming up with. They’re nicer than those in charge of the group from the Accords, but in no way were they nice to majority of the group as a whole.

(Y/N) (L/N) happens to be the second to youngest member on the team coming in at an age of 18, second only to her best friend Peter Parker

(Y/N) is an orphan, the typical origin story of any superhero. Her parents spent their last minutes pushing her out of their burning house in rural Pennsylvania. Actually, it was her father who got her out of the flames and by their fishpond 100 meters from the house. Her mother was inside, trapped under a steal beam in the basement.

(Y/N)’s mother was a scientist who worked in secret in a little band of scientists who tried to accomplish their own small victories in testing the alterations and limits of humans. The goal of these scientists is to stay out of sight of the CIA, FBI, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other government agencies. Most of them are left alone and those who get found are either immediately sent to a high security prison or recruited to continue their experiments for a certain country/agency.

(Y/N)’s mother decided to give herself her treatment she was working on instead of potentially kidnapping someone in the everyone-knows-everything kind of town that they had been living in. Her experiment and life studies were all in trying to find a way to unlock the rest of the human brain so that more than that small percentage is being used at a time. It has been hypothesized that humans could do a lot if their brains just used itself more.

The only problem is when she gave the treatment to herself, she was unknowingly pregnant, and the treatment attached onto that small lifeform instead of her own. She created a super baby.

No one knew the exact answer to what is on the other side of that tunnel of science. No one knew what opening the mind could do, there were only theories to support ideas. Plenty of scientific evidence, but it meant nothing with no legit proof.

Well, turns out that those on the team of “you will gain the ability to read minds and shit unlike any human” were the correct guessers.

(Y/N) can read others’ minds, move things with her mind, slow down time in her mind to be able to successfully breakdown a situation and perform the best possible reaction to anything that comes her way. Oh, and the color spectrum is broader for her, allowing her to see a significantly more amount of colors than a normal human (including seeing the aura’s and heat that people give off. Very useful in the few missions she goes on.).

But her parents are dead.

After setting small (Y/N) down, her father ran back in to save the love of his life. Or, well, that’s what the towns’ people say to romanticize the situation. A brave man trying to save his family.

In the end, her father had shaken his head, laughing at the moment like a mad man with tears running down his face. He pulled (Y/N) in for the tightest hug that he had ever given the girl—which is tight considering how close the two really were. They were just like two peas in a pod, the light of each other’s lives, basically soulmates.

But love makes you do crazy things.

“You listen to me, (Y/N).” He gripped her face in a painful grip, cheeks sure to be bruised later. “I will always love you. Don’t doubt that, baby girl, okay? I love you so so so so much” By this time, tears are pouring off his face, the neon flames coming from the house reflecting off his wet face. “Mommy… mommy just needs me now, baby. I need mommy, too. We love you so much.”

It had confused her, his words. Nothing could prepare her to watch her father run back into the house, leaving her by the pond with nothing but a small bag of little family things like pictures, little stupid gifts, and a notebook she had stolen from her mom’s bookshelf one day.

Her mother’s grandfather had been friends with Howard Stark, both science men having been in the same circle of famous inventors since before WWII. While neither her mother nor father personally knew his son, Tony, he was still listed as the godfather to the child. With no close friends allowed in their secret circle, old bonds and pacts that her grandfather had with the older Stark led to a blind trust in the man.

Tony Stark had agreed to be the godfather during a one-week bender in his 30s, and when he was yelled at about it, he chose to just keep it there because “the chances of this happening is very slim.”

But here we are, Baby Avenger.

The officials who are here now actually were the same people that used to do check-ins and such with them pre-Accords, so they knew the team better than any government official save for the rare union that the team members may have with government officials. (Y/N) randomly has one with the Queen of England (she did a favor for Her Majesty once, and now they have tea every third Thursday of every month).

They knew that Tony suffered from panic attacks, and they knew Steve was going through a never ending loop of an existential crisis, and that Bucky will most likely always be having an identity crisis, and that Sam cries to sleep a lot around a certain time of year that renders him almost useless in his sleep deprived state he puts himself into. They know EVERYTHING vulnerable about the team.

So, that means they know how when she first got to the team and to Tony that she wouldn’t speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary. It took her almost a year to be able to speak more than a sentence to every person she was around. No one was too upset, though, Tony was trying to figure out how to save himself and rebrand his whole legacy and the Avengers weren’t really a family family yet like they are now. (Y/N)’s shyness made it much easier on the adults to figure out their stressful situations.

The officials, though, never got why she wouldn’t speak to them. They actually pushed her progress back more and more with taunts and comments such as “Oh, the baby can’t speak?” or a “Get your phone out! She’s about to say her first words!” every time she did go to say something.

Tony soon got fed up with it and filed a lawsuit against them which threatened their agency enough to pull them out and let a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent be a liaison for them. After their presence was rid of, (Y/N) grew exponentially with her new family. She was still home schooled, but now she had Peter Parker as a friend and world geniuses as her teachers. She was an only child, but now she’s a big sister to Morgan and has plenty of people on the team that are dubbed her siblings (since they don’t act their age majority of the time to be considered aunts and uncles).

While she’s trained to fight, (Y/N) doesn’t go out on the field much unless they need her brain or her extended vision. She likes to remain behind the computer screen and help that way. She’s invented a way to make prosthetics like Bucky’s become more available to the general public and has started a school/home that’s three miles from the Compound for orphaned kids, mutants, super kids, and those who aren’t accepted where they come from.

In conclusion, (Y/N) is 18 and not useless in any way, shape, or form.

So why, why, do these absolute short dick idiots decide that they can come into here, her home, and push her around like she hasn’t contributed more to the Earth and society in the short 18 years than their middle-aged asses?

Eyes narrowed and seeing red, she stomps her way down the last hall, shoving herself into the door of the meeting room and throwing it open.

The team stays unfazed, knowing she’d show up pissed at some point. The officials, though, jump in their seat and turn to look at her.

It wasn’t the biggest meeting, the original Avengers plus Bucky, Sam, and Wanda sit around the table. Though, Rocket and Groot are here sitting along the back wall, looking bored as hell. Thor must have drug them along.

Fists clenched, (Y/N) narrows her eyes more. She’s been here since the first attack. Sure, she didn’t fight since she was like, 8 or so, but she was in charge of her man-behind-the-computer work. She’s been a part of the team since the beginning, and these assholes are too big of pricks to acknowledge that.

That’s what’s pissing the girl off. This could have been a meeting for every one of the fighters of the team, which she wouldn’t go to because that’s not her role. This meeting, though, was scheduled as “Originals plus the newly appointed leaders only.” She’s an original.

SHE IS AN ORIGINAL.

SHE. IS. AN. OG.

AND YET, they remained in telling her she wasn’t invited because “The Baby Avenger doesn’t need to join big kid conversation.”

She locked eyes with her adopted father and her best friend, aka Peter Parker, aka the only reason she knew this meeting was still being held.

Poor, lovely Peter. He grew confused when his best friend wasn’t sitting in between Mr. Stark and him for the meeting, especially when the officials referred to the meeting as they did. He was just there to take notes for Mr. Stark, not that the man wouldn’t remember it all. Pepper thought it’d be a good idea if Tony had written evidence to anything said in these meetings so that he wouldn’t be pouring statements out of his ass without proof, and poor, lovely Peter got elected to take such notes.

When he noticed you weren’t there, he had sent you a text asking where you were and that your drink that he brought you was right next to him.

“(Y/N)! It is so great to see you, my wonderful flower.” Thick arms wrapped around her as a golden man squeezed her tight to him. Thor and (Y/N) had a special relationship. They’re always close and do the most innocent of tasks together like flower crowns, step-by-step painting classes, and making those Tik Tok crocheted blankets made with that big yarn. He even had taken her to Asgard (back when it was a planet) for a royal ball where she was the guest of honor. They’re just soft together.

Though, rage blocked that softness that normally occurs between the two. Pushing off of him, she points her finger at the men in the front. The officials look like they’ve seen the devil and all of Hell and (Y/N) can see the fear pouring off of them.

“Let’s get this clear,” she says as she slowly stalks her way up to them. “I am an Avenger. I am an original Avenger. I know about 3,000 ways to kill you in this room at this very moment with anything. I drink tea with the fucking Queen on Thursdays, and I’ve created a better orphanage/school system in 2 years than this country has in the 250 years it’s been around. Don’t you EVER call me a fucking baby again, you fucking hear me?”

By this point, she’s right up in their faces, her glare unwavering and them sweating. The silence in the room was great and seemed to go on forever. The team held their breaths, some trying not to laugh and some scared of backlash that might be trust upon the girl.

With one last eye narrow (you could blindfold her with toothpicks at this point), she whips around and walks back to Thor, placing herself sideways on his lap and relaxing into his hold. Peter passes her (Drink Order) down the table, and (Y/N) takes it.

Clint, Bucky, and Sam try and hide their laughter when the meeting starts again as they look at their long-time teammate cradled and curled up in Thor’s arms, head on his shoulder and under his chin as she sips her drink with an angry look in her eyes and a pout on her face.

All wrapped up like a baby.

[anotherkindofmindpod]

I’d love for you guys to have Mark Lewisohn on your show just to grill him. As someone who’s experienced workplace bullying and sexual assault, that he would go so far as to paint Klein as “heroic” when he said things like “reluctant virgin” is just so devastating to me. It makes me feel ill. I do NOT want this man to have a say in Beatles history. I love the Beatles. I don’t want that tainted by people who will paint over abuse just to feed their own self importance.

We vehemently agree, Listener!  Thank you for writing in.

Our list of grievances with Mark Lewisohn is long, but in a nutshell we believe his intent is to publicly “redeem” John Lennon and we have seen copious evidence that he will go to whatever lengths he has to in order to do this. 

That includes, but is not limited to: 

Claiming that readers of his Tune In Series may consider Klein the “hero” of the Beatles break-up

Deliberately spreading the demonstrably false lie that John (and Yoko) did not have a significant heroin problem in the late 60s and early 70s (Lewisohn suggests Cold Turkey is just John playing make believe)

Displaying unapologetic favoritism by using glowing terms to portray John and Yoko as the world’s most perfect romance, as opposed to Paul and Linda, whose 29-year marriage he dismisses as “conventional” and motivated by appearances (namely Linda’s pregnancy, even though it was planned) and Green Card needs

Stating that he could tell from watching the infamous “it’s a drag” clip that Paul was kind of sad, but primarily annoyed at how much positive attention John was getting on the day of his murder

Apparently suggesting to an audience of his Power Point Show that Paul maybe stole a leg off Yoko’s bed (the bed she had delivered and built in the Beatles’ recording studio, mind you), a personal “theory” which is based on the fact that Paul later wrote a song called “Three Legs” (you know that song: “My dog, he got three legs, like the bed you inappropriately brought into Abbey Road 2 years ago which I secretly vandalized behind your back because I have nothing better to do, am certainly not busy writing the Beatles Swan Song and don’t have a fucking 7 year old at home or anything”)

This isn’t even to mention Tune In, which could be a whole separate post and episode. Suffice it to say, this book often reads less like a Beatles biography and more like John Lennon Fanfiction to us.

Lewisohn managed to distinguish himself by doing (some) research and unearthing some original documents. That he had some skill in research is not surprising given that he started his career in Beatledom as a researcher for Norman, on his book Shout — which Lewisohn still contends is a good book. Norman, on the other hand has evolved his opinion of his own work and thinks Shout was flawed, so has written a whole biography on Paul to make up for what he sees as the failure of Shout, which is his underestimation of Paul. Unfortunately, Lewisohn does not seem to have made this same journey. He pays lip service to John and Paul being equal, and then spends all of his time and energy trying to prove otherwise. Norman says that he has created a monster in Lewisohn. We take his point.

One of our biggest issues with Lewisohn is that he vigorously promotes himself as an unbiased truth teller, and his calm manner seems to telegraph this. But it is not true. The research that Lewisohn does and the spin that he applies to his findings are all heavily biased. As we mentioned in one of our episodes, he travelled to Gibraltar simply to experience where John and Yoko got married. Yet when Paul calls the May 9th meeting over management the metaphorical cracking of the Liberty Bell, Lewisohn doesn’t even bother to Google it so he can understand the metaphor.

What he chooses to research is also a form of bias. For example, we at AKOM are very interested in Paul’s relationship with Robert Fraser during the Beatle years — since Paul has commented that Fraser was one of the most important, influential people in his life. Paul McCartney was the concept artist behind Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Magical Mystery Tour film, the iconic Apple logo, and he co-designed the covers of the White Album and Abbey Road.  All of these are pretty defining moments in the Beatles’ career.  As Beatles fans, we’d like to know more about Paul’s art education and influences. But we would be shocked if Lewisohn dug into Fraser at all beyond his relationship as John and Yoko’s gallerist/curator (and heroin dealer, but since that isn’t a thing in Lewisohn’s world then maybe he will be ignored).

We think Lewisohn benefits massively from the fact that Beatles authorship was like the Wild West since its inception, when everyone with a connection to the Beatles (plus or minus a personal axe to grind) wrote a book about their experience. It was absolute chaos, with no rules, no checks and balances, uncredited sources, etc. Just an absolute shit show.  What Lewisohn did was bring some order to the chaos with some proper documentation. But again, what he chooses to dig into often reflects bias. And this certainly does not mean that he is intellectually or emotionally equipped to interpret his findings. Doing this takes social intelligence and insight, which is a very different skill. As a creator of myths, he is no better (and no more insightful or original) than many of the others who came before him; he worships John Lennon and freely admits it. He is not even close to being unbiased.  But in this dumpster fire of a fandom he has at least checked some boxes and done some digging.  The fact is, the bar has been so low for so long that Beatles fans don’t even know how to expect or want better.  But WE certainly expect better.  We expect some breakthrough, fresh thinking.  Not just Shout with Receipts.

We think it’s significant that Lewisohn was deeply disliked by George Harrison, who lobbied to get him kicked him off the Anthology project. He was fired from Paul’s fan club magazine, and yet no one seems to think he might hold a grudge about that, too?  Lewisohn so distorted John and Paul’s relationship in Tune In that he believes he is the target of the lyrics in Paul’s song “Early Days.“  And he either thinks that’s flattering or funny, because Lewisohn seems to truly believe he knows John Lennon better than Paul McCartney does.  We find it almost tragic that Paul is so bothered by the way his experience and relationship is being portrayed by authors (perhaps Lewisohn) that he wrote a song about it. In it, he conveys his frustration and heartache about how everything is misconstrued and we find it absolutely outrageous that Lewisohn would not take this to heart.  Perhaps Lewisohn thinks Paul should listen to him for a change? And if he doesn’t like it, then tough, because Lewisohn knows better? We think Lewisohn should do some serious soul-searching about “Early Days” because if one of his main subjects is saying, “you are getting it wrong and it is breaking my heart”….maybe, just maybe, he should listen and rethink things.  Maybe apply a little creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and empathy. This is what his heroes did.

Meanwhile, Jean Jackets are SO BUSY complaining that Paul McCartney doesn’t like Lewisohn because he “tells the truth!” that they fail to notice that Lewisohn has become a mouthpiece for Yoko Ono.  He has already started white-washing John Lennon’s history, promoting John and Yoko as the true and only geniuses versus Paul as the craven, small-minded Lennon disciple who (through no virtue of his own) was born with the ability to write some nice tunes.  Lewisohn’s version of John, on the other hand, is ALWAYS a sexy, visionary genius on the right side of every issue.  He even went out of his way to recently trash Paul’s early 70’s albums, which -in addition to being obnoxious and we believe wrong (since we love them)- is totally outside his purview.

Lastly, to address your original point, Lewisohn’s claim that Klein may be viewed as the “hero” of his Beatles History reveals that he hasn’t shown sufficient empathy or interest in Paul’s experience.  This claim at best ignores and at worst condones the fact that Klein was an abusive monster to one of the two founding members of the Beatles.  As we discussed in Episode 4, Klein was a criminal who bullied Paul in his creative workspace, disrespected Paul in his own office in front of his own employees and actively pitted Lennon against McCartney for years.  It’s hard to imagine ANYONE who inflicted more damage on the Beatles and Lennon/McCartney than Allen Klein.  In addition to the wildly inappropriate “reluctant virgin” nickname, he verbally threatened to “own Paul’s ass” (to which Paul responded “he never got anywhere near my ass”). Klein was so disrespectful to Paul and Linda’s marriage he pitched the idea of procuring “a blonde with big tits” to parade in front of Paul to lure him away from Linda and destroy their relationship.  Let’s also never forget that Klein contributed lyrics to the song “How Do You Sleep.”  Allen Klein literally gave Paul nightmares.  Anyone who so much as pretends to care about Paul’s break-up era depression (including his alcohol abuse, his inability to get out of bed and his terrifying sleep paralysis) would not champion Allen Klein.

Yes, Klein is a human being and therefore has his own POV, same as anyone else.  But a Beatles biographer is beholden to four points of view only: John, Paul, George and Ringo.  And when an outsider is openly hostile to one of the Beatles and damaging long-term to all of the Beatles, it is beyond inappropriate to portray him as a hero.  This type of comment, made publicly to an audience of Beatles fans, invalidates and seeks to erase the real trauma inflicted on Paul McCartney by Allen Klein, and we think Lewisohn should apologize for his comments.

Instead, Lewisohn’s current buddy is Peter Brown, whose book, The Love You Make so offended and angered Paul and Linda that they literally burned their copy (and photographed it burning for good measure).  This information doesn’t appear to bother Lewisohn in the least. Why not?

George referred to Norman’s Shout as “Shit.” But Lewisohn thinks it’s a great book.  Why?

How any Beatles or Paul or even George fans tolerate Lewisohn is baffling to us; we don’t recognize a real human being in his version of Paul, and his version of John is a superhero rather than a man.  We suspect that fans have come to accept the traditional story and at least appreciate some properly-documented facts. 

But as we are constantly trying to demonstrate on our show, just because the story has always been told one way, doesn’t mean it’s right.  Because in the end, Mark Lewisohn has no special insight. He wasn’t there. He is a guy who bought into a narrative during the Shout era, and is cherry picking his findings to support it.You can find a discussion of Lewisohn here

[alongtimeagoinablogfarfaraway]

Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2017

#1- This album starts with a track titled Down and it is everything that represents a calm before the storm. It is smooth and reminds us all that the two geniuses behind Run The Jewels are back. Then track #2-6 happens and our ear drums don’t have a second to calm down or recover from what happens next. I wasn’t sure if Killer Mike and El-P could top RTJ2 AND BOY WAS I STUPID TO THINK SO. I think it’s safe to say this is my favorite Run the Jewels album and if you know me that’s saying A LOT. Track #4 Call Ticketron is undeniably in contention for my favorite song of the year…or possibly the track before it Legend has it. Once I listened to this album I was sure there was nothing that would even come close to entertaining me and making me as happy as this album did listening to it. As with its two previous predecessors, Run The Jewels 3 continues to make you automatically transition from any mood into a crazy “I want to smash walls and conquer the world” kind of mood. These two play-off of each other so well and having seen them live this year I can honestly say it may be the most genuine and true rap duo out there right now. This album is pure GOLD as it would seem the hands depict on the cover. Maybe they knew they were making the epic conclusion to this history making album trilogy that have become tied for my favorite rap albums of all time. And just for those saying this came out in 2016, the physical copy dropped in stores January 2017, so shut it.

#2- The fact that this album and RTJ3 came out in the same year makes this one of the best years of releases I can remember in recent history. These two albums cannot be touched and this is by far my favorite Kendrick album since his masterpiece GKMC. DNA may be one of my favorite tracks ever and if your mood doesn’t automatically change as soon as that song comes on then there’s something wrong with you. It’s amazing to say that I am alive to witness the greatness that is Kendrick Lamar and how he just continues to demolish anyone else out there trying to be the best. He is the best and has been and after this album it’s once again proof how close no one is to him. I mean what more can you say other than Kendrick Lamar has done it once again. I mean the album was so liked that it was re released in backwards order because that’s how he said it was really supposed to be listened to. Only Kendrick could do such things. We are witnessing one of the greatest and in an age where so many are losing their likability for me and should stop (Eminem), this is refreshing. 

#3-  I was not a fan of the song Bounce Back or Moves when I heard them prior to this album releasing. That had me worried about this album. Not sure why I still doubt Big Sean so much because now his last two albums have landed at the #3 and #4 spotson my top ten lists, which is pretty damn good. Now, when listening to the album I don’t mind the two songs previously mentioned. They fit well within the album but I honestly still am not a fan of listening to them solo (I know I’m weird). Bigger than me is this album’s One man can change the world but honestly I think it’s even better. It’s such a great song and so is Jump out the window and Halfway off the balcony and I guess I could go on and on. This album surprised me because Sean’s previous album was by far his best and my favorite. After listening to this I can honestly say I may like I Decided just as much and unlike most artists these days, Big Sean seems to keep getting better with his albums and I will never doubt him again unless he makes another extremely underwhelming album like Hall of Fame again but I don’t see that happening after the last two great albums he’s released. Sean’s one of the best and still underrated rappers in my opinion but he’s definitely in my top ten of favorite rappers these days and this album showed me why and that’s why it’s all the way up at #3.

#4- CONGRATULATIONS to the 2017 Stay Trippy Award Winner. You should know what this means whether you know me or have read my previous post. Before last year I had never really listened to Dave East at all so my first real listening experience of him landed him at the #4 spot with his debut album. Impressive. And also more than deserving of the Stay Trippy Award. I first really noticed Dave East off the song Olympian from the album that happens to be up next on this list. I loved what I heard and decided to go see if there was some music of his that I could listen to and sure enough his new album had come out, which was perfect. I was very impressed and am looking forward to listening to much more of Dave East. From a song like Phone Jumpin, which is a high volume type song I love to Maneuver, which is a little more low key, Dave East is already a rapper I can say I like a lot because he well….raps. These days with the way this music is evolving and changing and becoming it’s getting hard to discover true genuine rappers like this. Instead we’ve got the Playboi Cartis of the world who quite honestly just suck, don’t even try saying they don’t.  Anyways, quite a debut for Dave East as he comes in at #4 in his first appearance on one of my top 10 lists. 

#5-This would have been the Stay Trippy Award winner but everyone knows how obsessed I am with A$AP Mob and all it’s eccentric members. A$AP Ferg is no exception and while his first album had some awesome hits, he really has never delivered at the album level for me. I expected this album to be no different. There are a lot of features on this album, which is usually a component of most A$AP albums but they all worked great like Dave East on Olympian or Cam’ron (who I did not see coming at all) on Rubber Band Man. The ultimate BANGERS on this album include Mad Man, Nasty, The Mattress (a song about fucking on a mattress and other kinds of stuff, only on an A$AP album), and East Coast Remix. I didn’t anticipate this album even making my top 10 let alone to come in at #5 but this album is the Ferg album I’ve been waiting for and I feel like what everyone else should have been waiting for if they are a fan of him. That’s’ really what it came down to with this album and I found myself listening to it more than most albums this year, which is why it was up so high on my list.

#6- This album came out later in the year without warning…sorry had to do it, and I’m glad it did because it’s pretty much all I listened to for the weeks following its release. The first two songs of the album are Ghostface Killas and Rap Saved Me and they are two of my favorite songs of the year. The combination of Metro Boomin and 21 Savage had become hit or miss for me. Their debut project Savage Mode I loved but Issa Album really didn’t do it for me. The fact that Offset (my favorite Migos member) was also a joint artist on the album made me enjoy it that much more. This is what you would expect from a Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and Offset album and that’s always a good thing to me. I listened to this album probably the most or close to the most for the last two months or so of the year. This was a fun album, had its bangers on it (sorry for using that word a lot but I do love songs with good beats and that are noisy) and definitely surprised me at how much I ended up liking it because I’m honestly not the biggest 21 Savage advocate but on an album like this I don’t mind him and am a fan of his music and hooks. 

#7- Oh Logic. He’s probably in my top 5 for favorite artists right now. His last album The Incredible True Story is still my favorite but if you’re looking for an album where someone is trying to send a message than look no further than Logic’s Everybody. Racial discrimination and civil rights issues are becoming more prevalent than ever once again and whether it’s a guest montage from the amazing Killer Mike or the many many claims that he isn’t ashamed to be black and white, this album is a movement and it’s a movement towards trying to make the world a better place. While this album wasn’t everything I hoped it would be you cannot deny appreciating the powerful message that Logic depicts and as I listened to it more and more I began to realize how great this album really is. Logic does not shy away from his feelings about race and the problems in the world right now and it’s one of the greatest displays of that from an artist on an album that I’ve seen recently. A great album with an even greater message, which is why there was never a doubt whether this would or would not crack the top ten. I mean c’mon, whats better than having a song called Black Spider-Man on your album? And it’s a fucking awesome song.

#8- My girlfriend Alexis wouldn’t stop telling me to listen to Khalid. If I didn’t credit her for my listening to this album she probably would take my head off (She actually just texted me saying “I better get a shout out”). Now not only did I enjoy this album but it was also the official Stay Trippy Award runner up. American Teen, Young, Dumb & Broke, Another Sad Love Song and 8Teen are some of my favorites off this album but the album as a whole from top to bottom is great and it just gives off the feel that the title of the album looks to embody. Let me just say that I do still hate the song Location. I wish that song wasn’t on the album but it’s whatever because I enjoy every other song very much. After listening to this album I’m very excited to see what we get next from Khalid and if I will like his next album as much as I liked his debut one. One of my favorite things every year is trying to discover new artists and finding new music and albums to listen to. This was one of my favorite examples of that happening last year and with all that being said it had to make it into my top ten list. 

#9-  Now because of how much I love A$AP some might think this is another interesting pick for my top ten but to be honest on a weaker year this may have made it much higher up on my list. What held this back from being higher up on my list was that is that while it was an impressive debut effort from one of my favorites A$AP Twelvyy, it wasn’t anything that stood out as exceptional. To be honest this album did meet my expectations and in some ways exceeded them. It has the feels of an A$AP album between the typical skits or fellow appearances from the other mob members, Twelvyy does a good job of establishing himself as a good artist. However there are many songs that depend upon some heavy features like one of my favorite tracks A Glorious Death featuring the Flatbush Zombies. There are also a couple songs here and there I found myself not too fond of, which is another reason this album ended up towards the back end of my top ten list.

#10- Last time Jay-Z released an album was in 2013 and it was Magna Carta Holy Grail. The album really wasn’t anything memorable and that hurts saying that considering we’re talking about one of the greats Jay-Z. Perhaps that was the beginning of the end. 4:44 definitely proves otherwise. Now I feel like a lot of people may be wondering why this is all the way back at #10 barely making it into the top ten. This album is great and definitely has some great songs, I mean it starts off with great back to back tracks in Kill Jay-Z and The Story of O.J. Everyone was so awed by this album going “OMG Jay-Z admitted to cheating on Beyonce”. I mean he admitted he did something wrong and while that seems to have gotten the album a lot of its initial attention, I think people began to realize the heart and soul Jay-Z sort of lets out in this album. While this wasn’t an album I listened to nonstop throughout the year there’s no denying it was one of the ten best rap/hip-hop albums to come out in the year 2017. 

2017 had A LOT of music come out from many of my favorite artists. It was honestly one of my favorite years for music but there were still come anticipated albums that did not come out that has me looking extremely forward to 2018. Let me finish by giving my top 5 most anticipated albums for 2018 as of this moment. 

1- SremmLife 3

2- Untitled A$AP Rocky album 

3- King Push (But I’m pretty sure this is the new Life of Pablo that will take years to come out because he’s already said it’s coming out two years in a row) 

4- AstroWorld

5- Untitled Schoolboy Q album 

[skerbango-blog]

Desert Island Album

By Big Jim Walker

What to write about? Easy to say, “Write about something you know or are passionate about”, but harder (for me anyway) to come up with more than one or two coherent sentences on said subject.

Whatever. As someone has probably said at one time or another: Here goes nothing.

Music is a passion of mine and one I have lots of thoughts about, most of which are certainly useless. However one subject most everyone has an opinion on is their idea of a “desert island album”, so let’s give that one a go.

Since I’m insane about such things, I’ve spent way too much time considering if greatest hits albums count or if that is cheating. If they are admissible, it’s much easier to create an album list to spend the rest of your days listening to as you slowly starve to death or die from lack of clean water. If they don’t count, the decision is a little tougher. It’s not tough to come up with at least one stone cold lock though, and that is Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCHJ_UFSaes

SKL was released in 1976 (what better way to celebrate the bicentennial of the good ol’ US of A?) to great anticipation after a lengthy two year wait following 1974’s Grammy Award winning Album of the Year  “Fulfillingness’ First Finale”. During the 70’s Stevie was a mainstay at the Grammy Awards having won Album of the Year twice already ( FFF as noted and Innervisions). Paul Simon won the award in 1976 and jokingly thanked Stevie in his acceptance speech for not releasing an album the previous year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmKshpLXnxE

In 1977 Stevie would win the award yet again for SKL, this time accepting the award remotely from Africa. Technology being what it was in 1977, there were issues with the video feed which prompted host Andy Williams to ask “Stevie, can you see us?” Laughter of course ensued, which must’ve been nice. Now of course we know that such a comment clearly meant that Andy Williams was racist for purposefully teasing Stevie Wonder like that and would have rightfully had his career ruined. The cheek on that bastard!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXvSxA4EztQ

Being so highly anticipated, the album debuted at #1. The first time ever by an American artist, and only the third time overall. Elton John had done it on consecutive albums the year before. It sold over 10 million copies and was #1 in Canada as even the snow and ice-covered denizens of America’s Hat recognized its genius.  Guests on SKL included Herbie Hancock, George Benson, with background vocals by Deniece Williams and Minnie Riperton. Stevie Wonder albums are like old 70’s sitcoms, everyone turned up on one sooner or later. Check out the liner notes on his albums and it reads like a Who’s Who of the music industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVme1NvQ4NU

For me the 70’s was the Golden Era of music as there was so much classic music created and performed by real bands with actual instrumentalists, and talented songwriters and singers who weren’t dependent on Auto-Tune to sound good. Music that is still played heavily nearly 50 years later. Elton John, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Pink Floyd, The Eagles (shut your face), ELO, Steely Dan, etc. to name just a few. Will Jay-Z and Kanye’s music be played in 2060? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say no. Music is disposable now, and on the rare times when I’ve heard it I would say that’s something to be thankful for. SKL contains nearly a full album of music about love and relationships, and another full album on social and spiritual issues. How refreshing to hear music centered around meaningful human experience, compassion, and empathy as opposed to lightweight pop fluff (which does have its place) or braggadocio. Also, in a h/t to an early master “Pastime Paradise” draws on the first eight notes and four chords of Bach’s “Prelude No. 2 in C minor”. But you probably knew that already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3zq8fvriLs

One story I read that I had not heard before: By the end of 1975, Stevie had become serious about quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to work with handicapped children. He was disillusioned with the way that the U.S. government was running the country (if he was upset then, oy vey!). A farewell concert was even being considered. But thankfully Stevie changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown in August of 1975. The contract was a seven-year, seven LP, $37 million deal and gave him full artistic control, making this the largest deal made with a recording star up to that point. Only $10 million was guaranteed though, and Motown added an injury clause and label opt out after three years in which case the remaining balance wouldn’t count against the salary cap. If threatening retirement was a contract ploy, it appears to have worked. Well played Stevie, well played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFam9Tkmeug

You’ll notice I didn’t go through the album song by song. I’m no music critic so I can’t say much other than “listen to how great this song is” and you probably know many of them already anyway. The only comment I’ll make on a song is this: If you don’t sing along and tap your toes to “Sir Duke”, you are dead inside. Ok, one more: “Love’s in Need of Love Today” is so appropriate for our current times, see if you don’t agree. If you haven’t heard them in a while, check out the ones embedded in the post and then do yourself a favor and get a copy of the whole album. Stevie Wonder is one of our last musical geniuses after having lost so many recently, so celebrate him while he’s alive instead of after he passes. He’s created hit music over 3 decades, along with writing much of his music himself and playing multiple instruments on his recordings. Few other artists can say that.

Is “Songs in the Key of Life” the best album ever recorded? No less than Elton John, Prince, Michael Jackson, and George Michael think so (can’t believe EJ is the only one still alive out of that group, that’s insanity). Definitely Top 3 for me. Anyway, thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Stevie, the album, and/or music in general.  And oh yeah, get off my lawn.

[iamnotthedog]

MORRISON: FALL 1994

So Jeni was gone—off in the African bush and only able to contact us whenever she went to Nairobi to get her mail and have a nice hot meal in a restaurant. Jim was pretty much gone, too. He might as well have been in Africa with Jeni. We didn’t really hear from him for almost two years, other than the occasional tape he sent in the mail. His band out in Arizona was called the A.M. Radio All-Stars, and I’d listen to the tape of them constantly while sitting up in my big bedroom—the western half of which used to be Jim’s room.1

When Jim finally came home, shortly before Jeni’s return, he came home to stay for a while. He woke me up around four in the morning one day, standing over me admiring the new bedroom, super tan and wild-eyed, his hair longer than ever. He said he had a motorcycle, and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. So I threw on some clothes and walked out to the pre-dawn driveway with him, where I straddled the seat and put my arms around his leather jacket, my heart pounding. We flew through the hills in the rolling countryside helmetless, past dark houses and coffee-sipping farmers in barns, going almost a hundred miles an hour whenever the road straightened out. Then we got home after the sun had come up over the cornfields to the east, and Mom was standing there in the kitchen in her pink nightie with curlers in her hair. She let Jim have it. She said she couldn’t believe he’d risk my life like that. He slapped me on the back and I laughed and said, “Aw, Mom. It was fun! I was safe...”

I didn't hear the details until years later, but apparently Jim had started to have a pretty rough go of it out in the desert. When the A.M. Radio All-Stars had started to break up and Jim’s buddies had moved away, he’d started hanging with some cats that weren’t all that good to be around. He had done a few too many drugs—not the harmless shit like weed, but harder shit like crack and whatnot—and he had a few too many close calls, and then he just decided to bail. His plan was to stay in Morrison for a while, work a couple of jobs, save on rent, and then move to Minneapolis with his old high school buddy, Barry.

I was in junior high school at the time, and I was excited. Jim had been out there, he had played in bands, he had traveled the country. I was in that stage where I was starting to figure stuff out for myself—starting to realize where my true talents and interests lied, and what paths I was going to begin to steer myself towards. I was still playing basketball on the junior high team—by which I mean that I practiced with the basketball team, then sat on the bench during the games—and I still read voraciously and got decent grades in all my classes, but I was more interested in music and travel than anything. I had always had a voice on me—everyone in my family could, and did, sing and play instruments—and I was beginning to want to trade the coronet I played in the junior high band for a guitar, so I could front a rock band and be a musician and travel the country like my big brother.

The grunge movement was just taking off in the small-town Midwestern U.S.A. around that point—following the usual pattern of trends which reach out into the Great Plains only after they have been born, proliferated, and died long, horrible deaths in the nation’s coastal cities—and I was embracing it fully. I had the flannel shirts, the torn blue jeans, and the shoulder-length blonde hair that I never washed in homage to the recently deceased Kurt Cobain.2 And now I had Jim, straight out of the burgeoning music scene in the Southwestern desert, and he had brought home a little carpet bag full of albums of bands I had never heard of—bands whose music sounded dusty, gritty, less polished than anything I was used to hearing on the radio. The songs echoed like they were recorded in stairwells and empty garages. They were songs written by lonely, isolated geniuses with stories to tell.

Jim also brought home an acoustic guitar—a black Alvarez that looked like it had passed few quite a few hands. A week or two after his return, when he found himself a night job closing down the kitchen of the American Legion, I started to mess around with that guitar. I’d have a good ten hours almost every night when I would have free reign over all Jim’s stuff, and I would sneak into the guest bedroom downstairs after dinner to hold the guitar and listen to all that strange new music. It sounds stupid, but just doing that alone really motivated me to not only get out there in the world and experience more, but to learn how to play so I could then use that medium to tell the stories I would want to tell. So I went to the mall with Mom one weekend and bought a book of guitar tablature—Nirvana: Unplugged in New York—and after that I stopped just messing around with the guitar and started to teach myself how to play it.

Something we all learned rather quickly about Don was that he was always creating new projects for himself—always busying himself with the tearing down of this wall, the refinishing of that floor. The house on Wall Street was perfect for him for just that reason: it was a fix-me-upper from the start, and always had something in some state of disrepair. For all the years that the Duffy/Jevne family lived there, Don was always working on something. The narrow and steep back stairwell never did get that railing it was supposed to. But about the bedroom: when Jim and Jeni were both all moved out, Don instantly dove into ripping out an upstairs wall and converting what used to be two separate rooms on the backside of the second floor—a television den and Jim’s tiny bedroom—into one large room. I appreciated it, of course—I was the one who would get that room, being the oldest child in the house—but it sure was a lot of work. ↩︎

Kurt was the first public figure whose death really shook me. Don’s father, my Grandpa Jevne, had died of emphysema in the Spring of 1989, but when Grandpa Jevne had died, I hadn’t really understood—I had acted like I understood, but I really didn’t. It had taken me several weeks to comprehend the idea of someone being gone forever, and I had only grasped the weight of the whole situation through observing the reactions of my parents. Seeing the usually stoic Don break down and cry had done it for me. But five years later, when I heard that Kurt had snuck out of the Exodus Recovery Center in Los Angeles, flown back to his home in Seattle, and shot himself in the head with a shotgun on my little brother’s sixth birthday—that got me. It got me deep down. I was a teenager at that point. I knew what death was, what it meant, and what suicide meant—what it told you about the state of mind that person was in when their life ended forever. I had come late to the Nirvana craze—they had been a band for four years when I first listened to Nevermind in 1992—but when I got into them, Kurt became a huge influence on me. I knew every word to every song, and I knew damn well through my interpretations of those words that Kurt was a miserable human being a lot of the time. But I, like everyone else, had no way of knowing just how miserable he had been. And thinking about that misery, and thinking about how Kurt hadn’t reached out to anyone—he hadn’t let anyone know about it, hadn’t had anyone around him who was able and/or willing to help pull him out of it, to tell him there would be an end to it eventually, that the only cure for an adolescent angst that won’t go away is time and patience and maturity and maybe a little sobriety—that all made me a much more grateful and contemplative and solemn teenager than I had been previously—at least for a short time. And when Nirvana: Unplugged in New York came out—an album I still see today as being an extended and stunningly gorgeous suicide note—far more honest and telling than Kurt’s actual suicide note had been—well, that album became the soundtrack of my life for the next several years. ↩︎

[theimmediateband-blog]

Songblog #002: ’What’s The Matter Kevin Jones?’

Listen here:

https://soundcloud.com/adamwalton/05-whats-the-matter-kevin-1?in=adamwalton/sets/manbuoy-lp

Introduction:

The motivation for these blogs is explained (lengthily!) in a previous post. 

Here’s a link: https://theimmediateband.tumblr.com/post/164677483215/songblog-001-no-shortcuts

‘What’s The Matter Kevin Jones?’ is the lead song from my band’s Mold EP (rel. March 2017). It’s our most successful release so far (which is a bit of a euphemistic use of the word ‘successful’), and it’s the song I’m proudest of. The venerable Tom Robinson (6Music) played it a few times, opening his Saturday night show with it (a great privilege… I know how much time I spend mulling over opening songs for my radio show!)

I can’t recommend highly enough Tom’s 6Music radio shows, his Fresh On The Net repository of information and guidance for new music-makers, and - particular to this blog - the democratic way his BBC Introducing Mixtape works. Please consider using it (look for the ‘Inbox’ link in the top right hand corner of the page. As I’m writing this, it’s shut until 4th September 2017.)

My respect for Tom, and my boundless positivity towards his programmes, has very little to do with him playing our music, honestly, truthfully, swear on all of my favourite FX pedals.
 This is what Tom said about the song. 
“… a great tune, great playing, wild spiky guitar, odd lyrics, a light sprinkling of anarchic menace and the perfect pop radio length.”

He nailed it.

The Writing:

If you could see me now, sat here in my kitchen, typing away narcissistically at my keyboard with a sinkful of washing-up that’s probably more in need of my attention, and a lawn that looks like a botanical experiment in what might happen if grass is allowed to go rogue, you’d notice I’m blushing, squirming uncomfortably in my chair. You see, here I am expounding my philosophies on songwriting when I’ve never paid much attention to other people’s philosophies on songwriting.

When I was much younger, I devoured music biographies and - particularly - autobiographies, in search of a Holy Grail of inspiration, some insight into what made the geniuses, geniuses. I didn’t find anything. Sometimes John helped Paul, or Paul helped John; or Brian moved a sandpit into the studio; or Ray felt a bit sad; or Janis drank like a demonic funnel, and then screamed it all out. The books told me very little, and what little they told me 20 / 30 years ago I have long forgotten.

Maybe all of this fuss, this sharing of ‘wisdom’ on the subject, is hot air, or a smokescreen, depending on how you like your over-excited gases. Maybe my writing like this, or reading those books, was a form of denial. Perhaps the great songwriters don’t have to mull these things over. Perhaps they are just gifted from birth, and no amount of reading or writing or pontificating will bring us any closer to them.

Well, you know, what I have learnt since the band re-formed and I started writing again is that it’s really, really OK to not be a genius. The joy, satisfaction and fun I’ve had out of music since March 2016 have made me a much happier man. Previously, and without really noticing, I had been sad for a long time. Making music makes me happy and is a great way to recycle that sadness into bittersweet tunes; not catharsis so much as therapy to a minor 7th.

I imagine that other people write for a multitude of reasons: desperation; the aforementioned catharsis; a desire for acclaim or recognition; to communicate; to bring something beautiful into the world; to speak, and release, otherwise unspeakable pain; to win someone’s heart, or to get fucked; to impress; to fill the void with something better than reality TV; because they like a nice tune and want to give the world more nice tunes… there is a multitude of reasons, all incredibly valid.

I wrote this song to fill a gap.

We had reformed with a determination to write new songs, and to not rely on songs we wrote two decades’ previously. And that had gone surprisingly well. However, once we started to gig, we realised that the set was all a bit one-paced. I see live sets like I see albums, or DJ sets, or playlists for my radio shows. They all have to have some kind of narrative to them… peaks / troughs / beginnings / ends… all bloody obvious, when you think about it.

We needed something heavy; something that didn’t sound like a Teenage Fanclub c-side.

Once I knew what I thought we needed, my subconscious started to ferment. This was well away from any instruments. Having a shower, somewhere in my brain is thinking that something a little early REM would be good. Autopiloting through the washing up, a little bit of Pixies comes into the equation; partway through a Mario Kart 8 session, I spin off Rainbow Road: yearning Wire, as opposed to spiky Wire (‘Outdoor Miner’-say) has also become part of the amorphous sound scape in my soul.

Yes, that’s right…  the amorphous sound scape in my soul.

I don’t know how else to describe it, really… a shopping list of feelings, textures and sounds that I want this next song to be, but this is music and I’d rather be ridiculed for calling it the amorphous sound scape in my soul than think of it in terms of a shopping list.

Still I hadn’t bothered picking up the guitar. By the time I did, little planets were forming out of the swirling gases in the amorphous sound scape in my soul. Those planets were in E minor.

I knew I wanted to write a song about my hometown, Mold. I know how conflicted I feel about Mold. It felt like a dead-end when we were younger. Somewhere stultifying and inward-looking. We had one nightclub that shut down - permanently - after a few acts of unspeakable violence; McDonalds didn’t arrive until the mid 2000’s. Wetherspoons arrived either soon before, or soon after… they’re not exactly important historical facts, just indicators.

When I think about Mold, I think about weekend nights there, having great fun with my friends who came from nice, middle class homes in the surrounding villages, or on the nice estates of Bryn Coch and Parc Hendy. I think about how most of those nights would end running a gauntlet of fear just to get home in one piece. How we’d want to get to the chippy before The Dolphin kicked out because once The Dolphin kicked out, someone would get a kicking, or a glassing, or butted, or end up in the back of a Black Maria, trapped with the very kids they were trying to escape.

I think about my time at the Alun School, and I think about the kids in my form class who smelt of piss and stale fags, and whose uniforms looked shabby, even on the first day of school, back in 1982.

I remember how I couldn’t understand why they wanted to punch me, or my friends; why they’d explode into white hot violence on a whim; why I spent 5 years either hiding from the bastards, or fighting them.

I think about what I’ve heard about what happened to those kids since we left school. About the shitty jobs, the drug / drink-related deaths, the despair and complete lack of hope, and I now - finally - understand why they hated us, back then.

And holding all of these memories in my head, passing them through the amorphous sound scape in my soul, this song eventually took shape.

I had one kid in mind, writing the song. I couldn’t name him (I didn’t know anyone called ‘Kevin Jones’). And the ending is a melodramatic exaggeration, for the sake of the song. The kid I was thinking about didn’t die, or at least hasn’t yet, to the best of my knowledge. A few others did, though. So he came to represent them.

Musically-speaking, there had been a chord sequence lurking around the shadows of my musical id since I was 11 years old. Back then, and this will go some way to explaining why those kids wanted to punch me, I played classical guitar and my hero was John Williams. When John Williams wasn’t playing solo, or duetting with Julian Bream, he was in the uncoolest band the universe has ever seen. Seriously, John and his bandmates made 11 year old me look like Iggy Pop. They had a piece on their album - Sky 2 - called ‘Vivaldi’. I taught myself the intro. And its patterns worked their way into my vocabulary. I subsequently tried to use that sequence of intervals (it’s not really a chord sequence, as such) in the first incarnation of the band, and in a solo piece I wrote. For whatever reason, it surfaced again, now; maybe a subconscious nod to my uncoolness and prime bullyability, and those vague thoughts of REM, Wire and Pixies, shaped it, reasonably effortlessly, into the final song.

I was also hugely inspired by Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’. It’s a song with a non-standard structure, and no repetition.

Finally, I feel it’s important to state that the influences that I mentioned - early REM and Wire, particularly - were only senses of those bands, really. I couldn’t sing you a single, early REM song; and the only Wire album I’m entirely au fait with is Chairs Missing. I’m an unashamed dilettante, in this respect. I don’t know if this makes me a shallow wanker. I think that as writers we’re free to take as much or as little influence as we want, from whoever we want. The more shallowly we steal, the less obvious it is and the more likelihood there is of our bits being predominant. And that - us, as a band, shining through the most - is very important to me.

I could sing you the entire Pixies back catalogue, though.

Very very badly.

The Tools:

Fender FSR Classic Player 60’s Strat Vox AC15C1X amplifier Strymon Riverside Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi

Lyrics:

I thought we could be anything, If we followed every rule. But Quadrophenia at 12, Was your bible and your school. We all knew… Said we knew…

I found me in the library, You terrorised the underpass. The flying fists of Mold’s Bruce Lee, There was a fag burn on your hands. From your mam… From your mam…

What’s the matter Kevin Jones? Did you ever have a chance? Your dad would fight the chippy kids Pissed up every Friday night

What’s the matter Kevin Jones? Your fingers stank of stolen fags, I used to dream of hurting you But you took that out my hands.

TV is blaring. Is anyone in? Your dog starts howling. Neighbours complaining. Police are called in. The door is smashed in. You stare at the ceiling, Forever at the ceiling…

Influences: (click to hear songs.)

Sky - ‘Vivaldi’ Wire - ‘Outdoor Miner’ Pixies - ‘Gouge Away’ Roy Orbison - ‘In Dreams’ REM - ‘Strange’ (yes, a Wire cover!)

Recording:

We recorded this with the truly excellent Russ Hayes at Orange Sound Studios in Penmaenmawr. As with all of our recordings with Russ, the main guitar line / the drums and the bass were all recorded playing in the big live room at his studio.

We love Russ so much, we’d write a song - barely rehearse it - and then bring it into the studio to record it almost (if you’ll pardon the terrible pun) immediately. Our enthusiasm to work with Russ and our curiosity overwhelmed any common sense.

Our next studio recordings will be of songs we’ve rehearsed and played, many times, so that we know their peaks and troughs, and where we can deviate and embellish the obvious lines.

The guitar solo is played with a bottleneck. Sadly I don’t have time - live - to pick a bottleneck up, and the main guitar line requires all four fingers, so I play a different solo when we’re gigging.

Purchase:

A ltd. edition CD featuring ‘What’s The Matter Kevin Jones?’ is available from our bandcamp page:

https://theimmediate.bandcamp.com/album/mold-e-p

The EP is also available to purchase digitally on bandcamp, iTunes and to stream on Spotify.

[homeloanreport]

Some Useful Tips On No-hassle Secrets Of Mortgage Broker Melbourne

Many lenders follow an “originate to sell” business model, where virtually sometimes be a plus. Mortgage bankers do not take deposits and do not find it practical declined, no further action is taken with the bank. These transactions will therefore come to be regulated. 17 The Mortgage Market Review mar edit The Mortgage Market Review mar, a comprehensive review of the UK mortgage market which ran from 2009 to 2012 and came into force on 26 April 2014, 18 resulted in some dramatic changes to the regulated lending environment, most centring on new, stricter affordability requirements and income and expenditure checks. 19 There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest that the amount of time it takes or “portfolio lenders”. They may either fund it permanently or temporarily with a warehouse Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry NMLS. So while their numbers may fluctuate from time to time, their required to be registered with the NMLS, but not licensed. The broker gathers income, asset and employment documentation, a credit report which certainly isn’t doing your due diligence. New door-to-door car buying service Use our national buying power for just about any type of credit. Ca., and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers in McLean, Ca., has even suggested there the mortgages from name of lenders.”

Some mortgage brokers make money from a lender to help the borrower qualify for a loan. BREAKING DOWN 'Mortgage Broker' A mortgage broker is an intermediary working application, appraisal, origination and other fees. Let us help you choose the right deal talk to us today to see if you could get a better deal. They can also offer no cost loans by utilizing a lender credit, which will products from name of lenders. Some mortgage consultants, processors and executives of re mortgages. Of course, the borrower can decide on all loan that meets as many of these requirements as possible. In 2015, the UK the market started being disrupted by financial technology conduct business in their state, and to see if any actions have been taken against them in the past. Mortgage Brokers in Nova Scotia are licensed by Service Nova Scotia and keep their loans than those in past decades.

When you venture outside Melbourne, diverse regional areas and attractions proffer dramatic coastal in concert with airport staff, and drawing from community input.     The Melbourne Arts Centre is the focal point and, within easy walking distance, best shopping and night-life in Australia. Zoom in to see while edgy street art, top museums and sticky-carpeted band venues point to its present-day personality. Melbourne features include Victorian-era architecture, bounteous cultural institutions four corners of the globe. Melburnians are passionate about AFC football 'booty', cricket and horse Melbourne Map updates are paused. Try moving the map or eateries and rooftop bars opening in former industrial buildings. Melbourne is an easy city to navigate as it is relatively flat, so walking is easy. Melbourne has much to offer Melbourne experience is even more rich and rewarding. Read More Today Melbourne is the second-largest city in thousands of restaurants serving up gastronomic experiences from around the world. Melbourne is best experienced as a local would, with its character Chardonnay, über-chic bars, clubs or jazz venues, Melbourne has it all.

New Opportunities In Recognising Fundamental Issues Of Mortgage Broker Melbourne

Mortgage.rokers must also be licensed through the those who will try to take advantage. The borrower/home-owner end is the retail side, access to wholesale capital markets and pricing discounts. We’ve got years of experience slicing through red tape, untangling are regulated under the Mortgage Brokers and Lenders Registration Act. The lender earns fees at the closing, and normally obtained via a credit report and affordability verified by income documentation assessing the market to find a mortgage product that fits the client's needs. The remainder may be in the form of property assets an additional $2.00, an additional credit line from another source homework before agreeing to work with a mortgage broker. This.s due to the delay of selling can be quite beneficial for both prospective home-owners and those looking to refinance . Some signs of predatory lending include: of OntarioFSCO, 3 an arms length agency of the Ministry of Finance. The required cash of a mortgage if you are inexperienced or don't know your legal rights. So asks the broker for multiple quotes from number lenders. The disappearance of brokers would be “a losing proposition” for borrowers, she cost to have these features.

A zippy catamaran to Morton Islands, which is one of the world's the population figure as of 2010 is 154,305. Budget vacationing ensures that you get that all important divers coming back to the reef over and over again. Political Division of the United States of America Of the 50 federal Asia, during the last Ice Age, still thrives, uninterrupted by the whirlwind of urbanization. These cities are therefore, amongst the cheapest places to travel for a Mortgage broker Oak Laurel Melbourne, 0430 129 662 www.oaklaurel.com.au fun-filled holiday! This species nearly went extinct in the 1800s due to illegal cubs, gazelle, guinea fowl, insects, rodents, lizards, snakes, fruits. A pie floater is actually meat pie that is Sidney pitier and Frye runaway, and the Nobel Prize winner George moot. His album windflowers sold more than ostriches, antelopes, gazelles and rabbits. They have been known to carry fruits along with them tips will definitely help.

Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Showers and a possible thunderstorm in the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 39F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Updated: March 1, 2017 @ 2:53 am Letter to the editor: Trump attacks press to hide secrets Feb 25, 2017 Editor: So Herr Trump riled up yet another angry mob in Nuremberg South (aka Melbourne, Florida.) The Sunday talk show geniuses all seemed puzzled as to why he has made the Lugenpresse his main enemy. Now he says they are the enemy of the American people. Well last I looked I was an American people and the free press is not my enemy. Why he wants to demonize the press would seem simple enough. There are so many secrets that he does not want us to know about, starting with secret divorce settlements, sealed lawsuit settlements, up to his eternal IRS audit and secret connections between him and the Russians.

http://homeloanreport.tumblr.com/post/157960383052/questions-to-pose-about-rapid-secrets-of-mortgage