#and the instrumental too with the electric guitar vs violin

[potatotrash0]

Currently in the stage where I’m over the emotional devastation enough to appreciate how fucking good the song is. Akugetsu and BL8M the men that you are……..

[angsthology]

INTRODUCTION

get to know our (my) favorite driver!

a/n hi hey hello my first f1 related work (barely but whatever). still fairly new here so please (kindly, gently) correct me if im wrong about something or if ur up to it, be my tutor

THE KANGAROO(KIE) VS. THE WORLD

let’s start easy: she was born in 2000

joined the grid in 2022

her driving number is 50

why? i’ll tell u later

literally only has like... one or two (three at best) friends outside the grid

she’s the youngest daughter

her team isnt exactly specified cause im too lazy to organize... anythin

so despite it not being true, she always felt like she’s in her her siblings’ shadow

(man i told u, projecting)

she is multitalented

(cause she always need to one up who, she doesnt know)

she plays instruments

including the following: bass, drums (especially when she’s angry), electric guitar, saxophone, keytar

currently learning the violin

avid watcher of sitcoms

people describe her fashion sense as “probably whatever’s clean” but somehow always works

girl barely has a color palette shes just ooo cool okay i get

freezes every time she spots jenson button

(girl, same)

probably has split personalities but no one rlly bats an eye

“be yourself”

“...which one?”

yeah, thats her

like ive said before, she feels to be in her siblings shadow despite the fact that out of them all... she’s probably the one that makes the most money

she ice skate too...

the grid barely blinks an eye anymore when she drops a random fact about herself

the random facts is actually just talents that a normal human being probably couldnt

point is... shes just a box of surprises

you’ll never know what you’ll get next

thats all i got rn the rest will tell all (idk what im saying)

[royal-songbird]

JUST FINISHED LISTENING TO THE NEW CRANE WIVES ALBUM. HOOOOOOLY SHIT. THAT WAS INCREDIBLE. time to ramble about each song because i can <3 lalalalala

(under a cut cause this got a little long)

Scars: Listened to this one the second it was officially released, so i've had some time to listen to it !!!and . ough. its so good. i love when the crane wives make angry songs <3 really REALLY happy that they've incorporated violin into their newer songs too. the subtle shriek halfway through, the buildup near the end....GRAH (and i know they did on past albums but tbh they did not include them Enough. i love the violin <3)

Bitter Medicine: another one that was released ahead of the full album! also very good. reminds me a lot of the queen of nothing, mainly because of "someone take my keys im in no shape for driving" vs "stop the car, i wanna get out". and the AH AH OH AH OH'S NEAR THE END. YES !!! THEYRE SO FUN TO SING ALONG WITH I LOVE THEM. and the instrumentals. GRAAAAAH !!! the electric guitar (?) at the end is AMAZING.

Higher Ground: right off the bat i loved the instruments. and then when they start singing? INCREDIBLE. the vocals for this one are so so so good. like im actually in love with them, especially the first "should i head for higher ground". and its also like. very upbeat and fun. it makes me want to run around and just get myself Moving somehow. AND THE SUBTLE STRINGS IN THE BACKGROUND AS THE SONG BUILDS UP!!! i love the plucking, it so. hrgahgrhahghr. and once again. THE VIOLIN. I LOVE THE VIOLIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Predator: i came into this song expecting something similar to the hand that feeds, so it was MUCH different than i anticipated! and honestly, i love it so much?? the guitar...? whatever funky instrument thats all wobbly is. sounds so fun. and i love the vocals so much they scratch at my brain. THE CLAPPING TOO. ITS SO FUN. another one that makes me want to get up and run around or dance <3

Say It: i was excited for this one! my friend heard it live and absolutely loved it, so i'd heard a lot about it going in. its a lot calmer than i was expecting but ohhh its so good. "please dont leave me in the dark, praying for a wayward spark" augh. ough. gruahgrh. "IF YOU COULD WOULD YOU ERASE ME. ERADICATE ME FROM YOUR MIND." RAAAAAAHHHH.

Mad Dog: another song i heard good things about! i was expecting something high energy and BOY did it not disappoint. obsessed with the pace of the beginning vocals, they sound like so much fun to sing i cant wait to learn the lyrics. AND THEN. THE CHORUS!!! OHHHH. THE ECHOES OF RUNNING AND COMING. IM GONNA EXPLODE. THEY SCRATCH MY BRAIN SO WELL. and the funky instrument in the back that i think is maybe a guitar but i cant tell....its so good and funky and oh my god i love the crane wives. honestly, this is probably one of my favorites of the album. its so good. i need to tear something apart with my teeth

Arcturus Beaming: i heard this song live back when i went to their concert in april, and oh my GOD. genuinely this song changed me i think. it rearranged my atoms. it means so much to me i literally love this song, even if the instrumentals arent my favorite out of the rest of the album i cannot put it any lower than my absolute favorite. THERES MORE TO LIFE THAN SUFFERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time Will Change You: and this song. right off the bat its INCREDIBLE. the steady beat in the back. the guitar. the vocals. and just . the general Vibes. AND THEN. AND THEN !!!! THE STRINGS. HOLY FUCKING SHIT THE STRINGSSS. THE SECOND I HEARD THEM I LOST MY MIND. they are SO pretty and THIS is exactly why i wanted the crane wives to use strings in their songs more. they include them SO well. AND AUGH. THE INSTRUMENTAL HALFWAY THROUGH....AND THE VOCALS BEHIND IT....AND AGAIN!!! THE STRINGS !!!! this is SUCH a pretty song and it blew me away the first time i listened to it

Black Hole Fantasy: i wasnt entirely sure what to expect going into this song so i was a bit surprised by the introduction- and then it just kept getting better. right off the bat it reminded me of arcturus beaming, and then the general story of the song.... just. the feeling of aching so desperately for a better life, but being afraid to take that first step because you dont want to face the risks that come with it..... i genuinely almost cried listening to it, especially as the song began to ramp up. the fantasy of taking that chance but still being afraid. AND THEN. AND THEN!!!!! "AND NOW SHES LAUGHING, AND ITS KILLING ME THAT I CANNOT SEE WHATS MAKING HER LAUGH FROM WHERE IM STANDING." AND THE SUBTLE BUILD UP OF STRINGS IN THE BACK AS THE SONG RAMPS UP FURTHER. AND YOU FINALLY TAKE THAT CHANCE, TAKE THAT FIRST STEP. AAUEUEUAGHHHH. GOD!!!!!!!!!!

Red Clay: going into this song, i was expecting something with the vibes of the icarus or keep you safe, and i wasnt disappointed!!! BUT BEFORE I COULD REALLY PROCESS THE BEGINNING, I GET COMPLETELY BLIND SIDED BY SOMEONE OTHER THAN EMILEE OR KATE SINGING. im not entirely sure who it is, my best guess is dan, but its so so good. something about red clay is so specifically nostalgic for me, and for it to play right after black hole fantasy just. completely destroyed me/pos this song is so so pretty. i love it so much.

River Rushing: AND IMMEDIATELY IM HOOKED. again, i expected something high energy/upbeat like sleeping giants- and while its not the exact same, its similar, and i LOVE IT. the vocals are probably my favorite part, especially the backing vocals. BUT OH MY GOD THOSE HIGH NOTES. THEYRE SO GOOD. a VERY strong ending for the album, which i absolutely adored

and thats every song!!!! god i love the crane wives. im going to listen to this album on loop until each song is burned into my brain okay bye

[weekend-whip]

Band au!!

The ninja: A VERY popular band with huge turnouts for their concerts. Their music can vary a lot, but they land solidly in the alt-pop/rock area when they aren’t doing any sort of solo acts.

Kai: Basic electric/acoustic guitar, but he’s the lead vocalist and absolutely SHREDS when a song calls for a saxophone. Master of improv and is able to continue on with confidence if something goes wrong at a show. He likes it when he gets the chance to scream and jump.

Music type examples: I/Me/Myself by Will Wood, some of Bleacher’s more popular songs, Grandson, Bruno Mars, and a lot of FoB type-stuff.

Jay: Plays a little of everything, but his one true calling is the main melody on electric guitar. His fingerpicking skills are unparalleled. Girls throw themselves at his feet. It’s so sexy how fast his fingers move. He’ll also record some solo tracks on uke!

Music type examples: Complicated guitar melodies, All Time Low, and for uke think of stuff like ToP’s House of Gold and The Judge. The Orion Experience’s The Cult of Dionysus.

Cole: Bass guitar, and a little slap bass. He CAN NOT improv, he’s too scared to. Out of all of them he practices the most. He can do some solo piano stuff too, but not keyboard. Mostly stays back and lets the others take the spotlight, but when he gets really into it he might go up front and dance around with Kai.

Music type examples: I don’t know a lot of bass-centric songs, but he enjoys a lot of songs like Love Grows Where my Rosemary Grows. Autoheart. IDKHBTFM.

Zane: Keyboardist with experience in violin. When he gets in The Zone you cannot pull him out of it for anything less than the venue being on fire. He enjoys both fast-paced and slower music, and will sometimes join in on vocals.

Music type examples: Jake Wesley Rogers, Golden Hour, Cody Fry

Nya: Drums. She wants to hit things. Smack. Anger management. People are SO into it.

Music type examples: Anything with heavy drums and drum solos.

-

Jesse: Up and coming artist who does a lot of stuff with his sister. Can’t play any instruments too well so she makes tracks for him to add vocals to! He opens for the ninja a lot at their concerts.

Music type examples: Jake Wesley Rogers, other stuff you have already talked about, Bruno Mars if he’s feeling confident.

-

Olivia: Popular solo artist with a cult following. Leans heavily into the alt-rock and electronica scene. Sometimes she’ll hire the shark army as background players. Dances a LOT.

Music type examples: Paramore, P!atd, All Time Low, Daisy Grenade, K. Flay, and SPECIFICALLY Black Sheep from Scot Pilgrim vs. the World

Antonia/Bridget: Managers for the ninja/Jesse and Olivia respectively. God help them.

Jamie: Stage hand and photographer for both! He focuses too much on Olivia, though. Is it hot in here or is it just him? Has nothing to do with the drop she did while dancing and how she looked into the camera- no way.

Nya: We're really calling ourselves "The Ninja"? Kai: It's quick, it's catchy, it fits nicely on merch!!

Nya: Jay, I need you to stop being so hot while playing guitar Jay: It's not like I can turn it off???? *plays a riff* Nya: Pls your fans are starting to bruise with how hard they're falling at your feet Sunni: *lying on the floor* One more solo please!! I can handle it!!

Cole: All right, guys, let's rehearse one more time— Kai: Oooooor we could just jump onstage and just do whatever!!! The crowd loves spontaneity, that's why Jesse opens for us Jay: YEAH, FREESTYLE! Nya: *loud cacophony of drum slamming* Cole: PLEASE ANYTHING ELSE BUT THAT

Zane: I just think we should be incorporating a lot more violin into our songs— Kai: Zane. We're a pop-rock band. Save it for the solo album. Cole: Well, hold on, maybe it could put some extra spice into our music? Kai: When you can match a violin to my sister's erratic drum playing, then come talk to me Cole: Tch, bet Jay: *popcorn*

Jesse: *coming off from his act* You got a pic of my good side, right?? Jamie: Uhhh— *tries to run, drops several photos of dancing Olivia* W-Wait, I can explain, I— *drops even more photos of closeups of Olivia's smirk* WAIT JUST HOLD ON— Miranda: You had one job, man!!!! Antonia: At least get them autographed so we can sell them Jamie: *dies*

Olivia: —and then I struck a pose and threw him this sneaky little smirk and I thought he was gonna drop the camera, teehee Bridget: Bridget: We're doing a concert, not a runway model show!!! Olivia: I'M MULTITASKING

Nya: ...Do you ever think the band could use more...green? Kai: Not unless I'm wearing it *plays Careless Whisper on sax*

[larabar]

woubgh emotional over frontiers music again. watch me copy/paste a note i made about it at 12am a while ago

thinking about the significance of electric guitar in sonic music

sorry im with you always gets me emotional

the way that its an almost calm ? song focused mainly on the piano (which i associate with sage) and techo sounds with the guitar solo in the middle. thats where it gets me

i feel like sonics always been associated with electric guitar. even though it only started in the modern games

its just. something about it

one thing i like about how its used in frontiers is how it goes along with the theme of digital vs real. techno vs traditional instruments. but electric guitar is a really nice inbetween

its a traditional instrument yes. but the sound is amplified digitally. and mixed with everything else it sounds so cool. Especially in im with you. its a clash between the two sides but then rhe guitar comes in and it just. ouhg idk i gotta learn music theory or something to explain it

but yeah it carries over to one way dream too

it becomes the main focus of this one so its kinda everywhere but in the chorus theres this little flare it does in the background and something about that part just itches something in my brain it makes me so happy idk

but uh. yeah the range of emotion electric guitar can have is really fitting for sonic i think. like youve got one way dream and reach for the stars and we can. but then theres All The Titan Themes and those just. have a completely different energy to them

but THEN you get into acoustic guitar and sonic and the black knight. ouhdhfhhf the violin with it ...... ..

gonna stop here but yeah guitar cool 👍

WAIT NO also. the fact that the majority of the things i mentioned are linked to super sonic. all the intense songs are when he goes super. the energy both literally and metaphorically SPIKES and they just Fit the music always feels right

ok now im done

[acquiredmen]

I know the unit single pairs are chosen for their themes and whatnot and Rem vs Urie just makes sense with their story. But I still wish we got one for Rem vs Shiki, if only for the instrumental

I know there wouldn't have been much of a battle, Do you want the guy who wants to kill you or the one who's gonna develop an autoimmune disease from the stress of having to kill you? They're way too far away from each other, you either like one or the other

But having Shiki's electric guitar battle Rem's violin would sound so nice!! Really!!

[live-love-laugh-lesbian]

hi hi hii sorry ive been a bit busy but i love talking to you <33

ooh gift giving day is coming closerrr i lowkey hope you like yours ajsjfjdjc

fun fact: i listened to story of us for the first time today?!??? i know im crazy ajdjejsjd such a fan i am

alsoo while we are on the topic of my little pony ajdjrjs whats your favourite character?

herbal tea is soo good and chamomile tea after a hard dayy soo reall unfortunately i cant function properly without coffee so i prefer coffee ajdjfjsjf but tea is definitely more calming and probably more healthy for me lmao

see, i would pick master any instrument bc im not a sporty person andjdjs im more into music been learning it since i was 6 and i own an acoustic guitar which i would love to be able to play barre chords on but tbf the main instrument id like to master is ELECTRIC GUITARSSSS omg im obsessed w electric guitars theyre absolutely loml any character that plays them will forever be my favourite character electric guitars are SO HOT sorry im very passionate abt them i would love to be able to play some sick riffs on an electric guitar (also they just overall look so cool omg akdkejsjd) ive always wanted to learn electric guitar since i was a kid or like a bass 😍😍

anywayss amdjeksjd what would you pick? and my question for you: if you could pursue 3 careers what would they be? (if you dont mind sharing) alsoo cats or dogs? and sky blue or baby pink?

-swiftie spring exchange anon

Hello again! Is ok, no need to apologise! I'm enjoying talking to you as well! (Also low key shocked you only just heard that song the other day?? I swear it was everywhere at one point XD)

I'm sure I will like mine!! I am stressing over if my person will like theirs tho XD

My favourite MLP character is Rainbow Dash, but I'm a fan of Applejack too. I like the dynamics Applejack has with everyone, whilst with Rainbow Dash I think she's just super cool. How can I not love a rainbow pegasus??

Pfft sometimes coffee confuses me because everyone I know who drinks it seems to drink it for the caffeine...do people actually like coffee itself, or is it the caffeine? I'm mostly joking but also very confused XD And ooh...honestly electric guitars are very cool. I don't know why but they're just always associated with cool for whatever reason?? Electric instruments fascinate me however. Like what we make electric vs what we don't...imagine an electric violin. Or a flute. A recorder XD Idk but basically I can see why you'd pick that!! It's really cool you can do the guitar! I am terrible with music (I tried to learn the violin as a kid...I broke part of it on the very first day, panicked, and tried to fix it with superglue. It...sorta worked, enough so that I managed to just keep quiet about it until I turned 18 and was well away from consequences regarding breaking it lol.)

I think personally I'd like to go sports, but opportunities are low where I am, so it feels a bit wasted :( So maybe music? Ideally sports, especially anything that lets me go super fast. ALSO I want to be able to swim. And currently I uh cannot. And keep failing at trying to learn. Oh well.

Okay so 3 careers...I feel like I'm gonna be a bit vague here. First is my ideal career of "something that helps children with special educational needs". Whether that's like, support in schools, or making sure schools provide the right support, idk. Second...probably something medical? When I was younger I had wanted to study medicine at uni. I did not in the end but yeah! Helping out in the medical industry would be fun. And third...an animator! I've not got the patience for it tho XD What about you??

And cats!! I have two, one of which is sleeping beside the computer and the other is currently climbing over the keyboard and trying to sit on my arms. She is very helpful (sarcasm) but I love her so she gets away with everything XD You? And unsure on the pink vs blue...probably blue? In general I prefer warm colours to cool colours, but if I look around I have more blue things than pink things so maybe blue is the exception?

And last but not least, my question to you: of the four elements, air, water, fire and earth, which would you most like to be able to control?

[edge-oftheworld]

electric bass and double bass have the same strings so yes! it's a different feel to play on a different angle and the double bass doesn't have any frets so it just takes a bit getting your fingers used to being that exact on the fingerboard without playing out of tune, but cal's a seasoned musician he'd pick that up pretty easily. it's quite an easy crossover (not that i've done it) so much so that some bands have formed by taking the bassist out of the school orchestra and putting them on an electric bass, bam, now you have a bassist. and a lot of esp older bands just have someone straight up playing an upright bass plucked! which is super good for acoustic sets and i imagine is the inspo behind the double bass in the older mv. the bow would be harder, you've gotta stretch down a fair bit to bow it in the right spot but calum should manage that easily! tbh though unless you're playing orchestrally or solo the bow is completely optional.

but if you do use it the thing about the double bass is you can play as far up the fingerboard as you like--it can play violin notes actually if you know how to play it well, and tbh sounds a lot ~better~ than a violin sometimes when it does it (though it could just be that everyone i've seen who can play the bass that well is just more talented than your average violinist--then again i've also known a lot of talented violinists and for the same reason, when i arrange 5sos stuff i do tend to give luke's melodies to the cellos bc tbh the timbre they have in the alto register is nicer than the violin, and reminds me more of luke's voice). same can (?) be true of electric bass vs guitar imo, think the intro of complete mess that (i'm not 100% sure but i trust the source who said, i need to watch a live vid to double check) is played high up on the bass rather than on the guitar, and as a result has a richer sound--that's what you get when you give something a potential to play lower notes but play higher notes on it. it's also why i like to play violin pieces on viola.

anyway, back to your question: yes the double bass and electric bass have the same strings, notes etc. i can't remember if the double bass is an octave lower or not (hence the word 'double'). but what you also might find interesting (and again I can't remember if there's an octave difference here or not) the bass (guitar, and yeah, it's not primarily a guitar it's primarily a bass. like how you never call a viola a violin) actually has the same strings as the lowest 4 strings of a guitar! which i think is how calum got into bass from guitar initially if i remember correctly? a lot of my guitarist friends also play bass and vice versa, for that same reason!

anyway I love the double bass, if you ever meet someone who plays it they're 99% guaranteed to be the coolest person ever (if often absentminded in a creative way, not always, but it's the stereotype). why? idk but i think that because it's such an impractical instrument (show me a car it can fit in lol, good luck taking it on public transport too) everyone who plays it is absolutely dedicated to The Bass (cocktail chats who?) so overall yeah. calum should join the double bass community

is it just me or were 5sos really like ‘we made a jazz song :D’ then set a corn field on fire

[violaman1624]

Attended the LA concert for the Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour! Great experience as it's nice to be able to enjoy live music again. I give it a solid 7.(remake part)2 /out of 10

Takeaways as an FFVII music purist, starting with pros:

-choir was an excellent addition and added so much depth to Uematsu compositions/arrangements. They hit the ground running in the very first piece (Prelude/Reunion). They also played a huge part towards the end of the concert (not trying to spoil here, but read onwards)

-video gameplay/cut scenes made for very good eye candy, especially for people with little to no exposure to Final Fantasy

-really liked the inclusion of the Yuffie theme, "Descendant of Shinobi" even though I'm sure 99% of people there are still on the waiting list for the PS5 and the PS5 exclusive FF7 Remake Intergrade. The piece definitely grew on me after hearing it with the battle scenes

-glad they snuck in the victory fanfare at the end of one of the battle music arrangements

-second best thing after the choir was the arrangements/programming. After a live performance of "Hollow" by YOSH, it seemed like the concert was over due to the standing ovations. I thought they were going to end without playing the main theme or OWA (One-Winged Angel). Then as if queued to perform several encores, they performed the main theme on its own (no medleys), a non medley Aerith's theme, and then One-Winged Angel, to fit the lore of the OG game, I guess.

Cons:

-the strings, mainly violins, nailed some gnarly passages in the "Hurry" performance (in the OST, the runs in "Hurry" are synthesized), but overpowered the winds and brass at too many important points in the concert. Because Tifa's theme was passed among instruments, the violins often drowned out the melody.

-there were also parts of the arrangement that pussied out on the difficulty, compared to the OST (me just being nitpicky, as I had spent time transcribing it myself and learning that passage on the violin)

-videos during the music were generally good but scene selection was very ??? They were showing gameplay vs Crab Warden and Airbuster when music was from Scorpion Sentinel track. Another "offense" was showing Jenova Dreamweaver gameplay when playing the track for "Arsenal." 4 minutes into "J-E-N-O-V-A Quickening" is one of the most catchy boss tunes among fans. I think showing the wrong boss/not playing the Jenova track was kind of an insult. One last tiny remark was during "Arbiter of Fate - Singularity" (track for fighting Whisper Harbinger and Co. in Chapter 18), they kept showing prior scenes of whispers.

-at the end of the One-Winged Angel performance, I wish they showed the scene in space with Cloud and Sephiroth instead of the dream/destruction sequence with their backs to each other (that scene was used before in the concert already)

-I wish they performed some different tracks. Here are ones I notably missed:

"On Our Way" (featured in one of the music boxes) (and honestly would have preferred this to Jessie's theme)

"Airbuster" theme (mainly for the electric guitar)

"The Turks: Reno" (too many electric instruments)

"Wall Market" (iconic as there are so many great scenes in this area of the game)

"Hell House" (would need full symphony to create the proper depth)

"The Day Midgar Stood Still" (the eye candy during this chapter, 15, would have been perfect as it makes for great wallpapers)

"Fires of Resistance" (same as ^)

"Valkyrie" theme (would have loved to hear excellent string playing on more battle themes)

[fuckheadwitha]

Listening to Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All Time

Rolling Stone released an updated list of their top 500 albums of all time and being trapped in the purgatory of covid quarantine this seems like the perfect moment to tackle what an almost completely irrelevant former counter-culture institution has to say about music (we can’t actually blame Rolling Stone for this list, a huge number of musicians and critics voted to make it). I am going to listen to every single one of these, all the way through, with a level of attention that's not super intense but I'm definitely not having them on in the background as simple aural wallpaper. Two caveats though: I can make an executive decision to skip any album if I feel the experience is sufficiently miserable, and I'm also going to be skipping the compilation albums that I feel aren't really worth slots (best ofs, etc.). In addition, I will be ordering them as I go, creating a top 500 of the top 500 (it will be less than 500 since we've already established I'm skipping some of these).

Here are 500-490:

#500 Arcade Fire - Funeral

I can already tell I'm going to be at odds with this list if one of the most important albums of my high school years is at the bottom. That being said, I haven't actually given this whole thing a listen since probably the early 2010s, before Arcade Fire fatigue set in and the hipsterati appointed band of a generation just kinda seemed to fade from popular consciousness. I actually dreaded re-experiencing it, since the synthesis of anthemic rock and quirky folk instrumentation which Arcade Fire brought mainstream has now become the common shorthand of insufferable spotify friendly folk pop. Blessedly, the first half of the album easily holds up, largely propelled by dirty fast rhythm guitar, orchestration that's tuneful rather than obnoxious, and lyrics which come off as earnest rather than pretentious. The middle gets a little sappy and “Crown of Love”, a song I definitely used to like, really starts the grate. And then we get to “Wake Up”, whose cultural saturation spawned thousands of dorky indie rock outfits that confused layered strings and horns with power and meaning. This song definitely hasn't survived the film trailers and commercials which it so ubiquitously overlayed, but the line about "a million little gods causing rainstorms, turning every good thing to rust" still attacks the part of my brain capable of sincere emotion. This album is probably going to hold the top spot for a while, because although so many elements of Funeral that made it feel so meaningful, that made it stand out so much in 2004, have been seamlessly assimilated into an intellectually and emotionally bankrupt indie pop industrial complex, the album itself still has a genuine vulnerability and bangers that still manage to rip.

#499

Rufus, Chaka Khan - Ask Rufus

Before she became a name in her own right, Chaka Khan was the voice of the band Rufus, and it’s definitely her voice that shines amongst some spritely vibey funk. That’s not to say that these aren’t some jams on their own. “At Midnight” is a banging opener with a sprint to the finish, and although the explicitly named but kinda boring “Slow Screw Against the Wall” feels weak, this wasn’t really supposed to be an album of barn burners. This was something people put on their vinyl record players while they chilled on vinyl furniture after a night of doing cocaine. “Everlasting Love” is a bop with a bassline like a Sega Genesis game, and the twinkling piano on “Hollywood” adds a playful levity to lyrics that are supposed to be both tackily optimistic about making it big out in LA and subtly realistic about the kind of nightmare world showbiz can be. “Better Days” is another track that manages to be a bittersweet jam with a catchy sour saxophone and playful synths under Chaka Khan’s vamping. This album definitely belongs on a ‘chill funk to study and relax to’ playlist.

#498

Suicide - Suicide

We’ve hit the first album that could be rightly called a progenitor for multiple genres that followed it. Someone could say there’s a self-serving element of this being on a Rolling Stone list (the band was one of the first to adopt the label ‘Punk’ after seeing it in a Lester Bangs article) but the album’s legacy is basically indisputable. EBM, industrial, punk, post-punk, new wave, new whatever all have a genealogy that connects to Suicide, and it’s easy to hear the band in everything that followed. But what the band actually is is two guys, one with an electric organ and one with a spooky voice, doing spooky simple riffs and saying spooky simple things. Simplicity is definitely not a dis here. The opener “Ghost Rider” makes a banger out of four notes and one instrument, and the refrain ‘America America is killing its youth’ is really all the lyrical complexity you need to fucking get it. “Cheree” and “Girl” have almost identical lyrics (‘oh baby’ vs ‘oh girl’) but “Cheree” is more like a fairy tale and “Girl” is more like a sonic handjob. “Frankie Teardrop” has the audacity to tell a ten minute story with its lyrics, but of course there is intermittent, actually way too loud screaming breaking up the narrative of a guy who loses everything then kills his family and himself. The song is basically a novelty, and I think you can probably say the whole album is a novelty between its brevity and character. But for a bite sized snack this album casts a huge shadow.

#497

Various Artists - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto

The fact that this particular compilation always ends up in the canon has a lot to do with the cultural context it existed in, being America’s first encounter with South African contemporary music during the decline of apartheid (it wouldn’t end until a decade later in 1994 with the country’s first multi-racial elections). Music journos often bring up the fact Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the all male choir singing on the album ender “Nansi Imali”, sang on Paul Simon’s Graceland like their virtue is they helped Paul Simon get over his depression and not, like, the actual music. But also like, how is the actual music? Jams. Ubiquitous, hooky guitars propel the songs along with bright choruses over low lead vocals, but I didn’t expect the synthesizer on the bop “Qhude Manikiniki”, nor the discordant hoedown violin on “Sobabamba”. “Holotelani” is a groove to walk into the sunset to.

#496

Shakira - Donde Estan los Ladrones

So this is the first head scratcher on the list. It’s not like it sucks. And I think I prefer this 90s guitar pop driven spanish language Shakira to modern superstar Shakira. But I mean, it’s an album of late nineties latin pop minivan music, with a thick syrupy middle that doesn’t do anything for me. The opener and closer stand out though.  ‘Ciega, Sordomuda’, one of the biggest pop songs of the 90s (it was #1 on the charts of literally every country in Latin America), has a galloping acoustic guitar and horn hits with Shakira’s vocals at their most percussive.

#495

Boyz II Men - II

So, if you were alive in the 90s you know Boyz II Men were fucking huge, and the worst song on the album is the second track “All Around the World”, basically a love song to their own success, and also the women they’ve banged. You can tell it was written specifically so that the crowd could go fucking wild when they heard their state/city/country mentioned in the song, and I’m not gonna double check but I’m sure they hit all fifty states. Once you’re over that hump though you basically have an hour of songs to fuck to. “U Know” keeps it catchy with propulsive midi guitar and synth horns, “Jezzebel” starts with a skit and ends with a richly layered jazz tune about falling in love on a train, and “On Bended Knee” has a Ragnarok Online type beat. Honestly this album can drag, but you’re not supposed to be listening to it alone in a state of analysis, you’re supposed to have it on during a date that’s going really, really well.

#494

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

A singles compilation of the Ronettes, the only ones I immediately recognized were ‘Be My Baby’ and ‘Going to the Chapel of Love’, the latter of which I didn’t know existed since the version of the song I knew was by the Dixie Cups, which was apparently a source of drama since the Ronettes did it first but producer Phil Spector refused to release it. I feel like as a retro trip to sixties girl groups it’s full of enough songs about breaking up (for example “Breaking Up”) getting back together (for example “Breaking Up”) and wanting to get married but you can’t, because you’re a teenager (“So Young”).

#493

Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear

This album only exists because Marvin was required by his divorce settlement to make it and provide all of the royalties to his ex-wife and motown executive Anna Gordy Gaye. It’s absolutely bizarre, phoned in mid tempo funk whose lyrics range from the passive aggressive (“This is what you wanted right?”) to the petulant (“Why do I have to pay attorney’s fees?”). There is a seething realness here that crosses well past the border of uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s an amazing album to listen to, but it’s an amazing album to exist: Marvin Gaye is legally obligated to throw his own divorce pity party, and everyone's invited.

#492

Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time

I have never heard of Bonnie Raitt before but apparently this album won several grammys including album of the year in 1989 and sold 5 million copies, which I guess goes to show that no award provides less long term relevance than the grammys. The story around the album is pretty heartwarming, it was her first massive hit after a career of whiffs, and Bonnie Raitt herself is apparently a social activist and neat human being. I say all this because this sort of 80s country blues rock doesn't really connect with me, but the artist obviously deserves more than that. I unequivocally like the title track though, a hand-clap backed winding electric piano groove about literally finding love before your eggs dry up.

#491

Harry Styles - Fine Line

I do not think I have ever heard a one direction song because I am an adult who only listens to public radio. I’m totally open to pop bands or boy bands or boy band refugee solo artists, but I don’t like anything here. It’s like a mixtape of the worst pop trends of the decade, from glam rock that sounds like it belongs in a car commercial to folky bullshit that sounds like it belongs in a more family focused car commercial. This gets my first DNP (Does Not Place).

#490

Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like a Wheel

Another soft-rock blues and country album which just doesn’t land with me. But the opener “You’re No Good” is like a soul/country hybrid which still goes hard and the title track hits with the lyrics “And it's only love and it's only love / That can wreck a human being and turn him inside out”.

Current Ranking, which is weirdly almost like an inverse of the rolling stones list so far;

[rexcaliburechoes]

You know that game idea I was kicking around for a bit? And I ended up writing like. A bunch of paragraphs for it? Yeah, that one.

Well, I made some mock designs for it.

As it goes, I know 0 about character design and I am not very good at posing and proportions, as well as the fact that this is all a WIP and will probably never go anywhere. Good? Good.

Warning, this is pretty damn long because I discuss some potential character interactions and the designs because I need to talk about it lmao (obligatory readmore because I talk too much lmao)

Viola

Viola’s the odd one out of the three because I he just kind of popped into my brain one day and I went “sure let’s roll with that” simply because I was throwing around ideas for the rest of the String Quartet as it were (Violin, Viola, Cello, and Bass). The other two I sat myself down and said “I’m doing this today okay” and then I did it but he’s weird because he just naturally occurred as it were. 

I’ve imagined him as something of a moody teen. He’s also kind of defensive and prickly and a bit angsty. He’s sweet under that outer shell of thorns, though. He has something of a inferiority complex to Violin, since as far as I am aware, violas don’t usually get solos in classical orchestra (though I could be 100% wrong and I’m admitting that bc I don’t remember much of symphony orchestra. Actually I remember a lot of symphony, but not enough, sadly).

Violin teases him a lot, but she makes it known that she doesn’t mean any of the joking barbs she throws at Viola. She knows he’s important in his own right, but still the jokes can hurt, so he’s distant from her. He wants the spotlight too, but he’s also a little afraid of it because what if he makes himself a laughingstock when he finally gets his solo? Poor thing.

Design-wise, I think he’d wear probably a dark red hoodie with white trim, or something. Idk. Yes, he wears skinny jeans (in black, probably), and no, I don’t know why I drew him with cuffed pant legs. He’s a Converse kind of guy, I think, and his hair is is a bleach blond. No clue if his hair has any other color in it.

He doesn’t wear his hood up all the time though. When he’s particularly moody, he’ll probably pull it over his head (I imagine his default sprite is him with his hood up because I think he won’t be that open to the player just yet) and close the strings, but otherwise, his hood is up enough because he wants to or it’s down because he wants to.

Imagine though, if the player gets enough “bond points” with him, his default will change to him having his hood down because he’s more comfy with the player, in general (and maybe the player like seeing his face idk) and that’s a barrier broken. Imagine Viola being a cuddlebug with the player because they’re so warm and it feels nice to be around them. Imagine Viola smiling more instead of looking grumpy. Imagine Viola finally opening up and learning that he is worthy of being a string instrument and he is loved and cherished for who he is and that he doesn’t need to be better than Violin to have worth because he is is own person, and that’s what matters.

Imagine him mending fences with Violin in a sidequest. Violin stops teasing him so much (but since she’s like a sister to him, of course she’s going to annoy him- it’s what siblings do) and Viola being more open to her and showing her that warmth he too has.

Gameplay-wise, since he’s a member of the Strings family, he would have a higher ATK stat with lower DEF and HP as a tradeoff. However, he’s more beefy than Violin, who probably is The Glass Tank to the entire String family. Maybe Stradivarius is the Most Glass Tankiest out of all of the Strings. I dunno.

Guitar

Okay, so I’m not gonna lie, Guitar is my favorite design out of the three here. I don’t know if I wanted him to be bishounen or ikemen but since I can’t draw ikemen at freaking all, I went the bishounen route. but I think he’s still more handsome than pretty, so maybe he’s already ikemen?

So, I imagine Guitar as more of a mellow guy. He’s nice, maybe unremarkable, but that’s what’s great about him. He’s definitely handsome though, and he knows it. He’s most definitely a flirt. He takes pride in his appearance, but isn’t vain. Out of the Guitar brothers, he’s probably the most “chill” one. He’s also “cool” because… yknow. Guitars are cool. I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really didn’t know what else to put for his character, so I might add or change things as I see fit in the future.

Design-wise, I wanted him to be pretty. In fact, the first thing I had in my mind was a white button-down and a vest. What I did not foresee, however, was how much of a pain in the ass drawing a collar was. I forgot how much I hated drawing collared men’s shirts lol. I actually wanted one side to be untucked, giving him like… a roguish?? Sexy??? Vibe. But I decided against it because it didn’t look good At All.

The vest was also a “should I or should I not” thing. Maybe it was because I really liked how I drew the shirt. i was worried that he’d look too formal, but I don’t think he looks too formal after it was finished. The coat slung over his shoulder was a “cool” booster lol. He never wears it, just like he’ll never button the top button of his shirt.

His color palate would probably be tans. White shirt, tan vest. Probably black pants, and the jacket is a wildcard. No clue what color it would be. His hair is probably a sandy brown and shiny. It looks very soft and it very much is. Most of the guitar players I see have long hair and/or a beard, so maybe he’ll have a little stubble? Dunno.

Imagine the player getting enough “bond points” with Guitar and him actually meaning what he says because initially he wanted to tease the player a bit or that was just a way he jokes around but now… he cares for their well-being deeply. Imagine Guitar being goofy and an utter prankster like his brother Electric Guitar. Imagine him being a bad influence to the younger/more impressionable instruments and getting all of them in trouble with the player because he too is cheery and bright but he’s just more well known for being mellow and romantic and smooth and he just keeps up with that image because he’s worried that others view him as strange or they would abandon him because he’s a popular hobby instrument but sometimes hobbies don’t pan out well and he’s been left in some attic alone and unplayed and abandoned only to be sold again to another person.

Imagine him worrying over his brothers because they’re doing something dumb and he has to bail them out. Imagine in a sidequest, he loses his cool and goes absolutely feral because his brothers are in mortal danger when he initially had more of a distant relationship to them.

Gameplay-wise, I imagine him to be a little more like the Brass family (of which I have yet to actually do anything for)- more beef in exchange for ATK. But since he’s from the Strings, he naturally has higher ATK and has more skills associated with the Strings family.

Violin

Okay. I have played violin for over 7 years guys. I haven’t played in an orchestra for a while though so my inf might be outdated or something because I’ve not been in an orchestral environment for two years.

So I’ve imagined Violin to be something of a drama queen? That’s too strong of a word for it, but I can’t think of anything else. Dramatic, perhaps, suits her better. She’s certainly formal and definitely haughty and “cultured” but she’s as cultured my file directory (aka not at all). Well, that’s a lie. She certainly has class. She likes attention but she’s not an attention whore and also she doesn’t have that much of an ego.  She takes her job very seriously, too, and is a perfectionist. Perhaps she’s more like Viola than she lets on…

She appreciates the “little guy” as it were and is not one of those “ohime-sama” characters. Yes, there’s a stylistic difference between a fiddle and a violin (bluegrass/country vs classical and jazz), but in the body and neck of the actual instrument, as well as the range, there is very little to no difference. The main differences are the strings (fiddles typically use steel strings for a brighter sound compared to violins which use synthetic or traditional gut strings) and the bridge (flatter for string crossing/chords and rounded for single note playing).

I’m getting ahead of myself. I imagine Violin parties hard in addition to simply being all wound up and “classy”. Like, she’s probably the one doing karaoke and shots and in general being Wild while also being her typical Responsible, Classic, Dramatic self. She’s also quite sweet and is a hopeless romantic, but she has something of a short fuse and can get really scary when she wants to be. She’s probably Disaster Bi.

Design-wise, my first thought was concert blacks. Seriously. Whenever you hear “violin”, please tell me that you, too, hear someone in an elegant black dress, absurdly beautiful and pristine? Just me? Okay. She has beautiful brown hair that’s wavy and silky and soft and maybe it’s magic but it changes color slightly in the light when you see it at a different angle.

Imagine the player getting enough “bond points” with her and she finally starts to let her hair down. Imagine she invites the player to a karaoke bar or simply to a small party/gathering she and a few other instruments have planned because she wants to have fun. Imagine she sets up a drinking game that includes Spin The Bottle or 7 Minutes In Heaven or something because she can be fun and she’s not just uptight and known for being for the nobility. Maybe she’s insecure about how others see her because she’s been seen always as a tightly wound person and she too can have fun and be wild and free and happy and not a stick in the mud. Maybe she’s a perfectionist because that’s what’s been drilled into her from her creation because she’s usually a sign of nobility and nobles have to be perfect and she must be perfect to charm crowds of people and she’s only beautiful because she’s perfect but she’s beautiful even with her imperfections and her quirks and she doesn’t need to be Wild to prove that she can be fun and that’s okay.

Imagine her and Viola making up in a sidequest. She knows that she teases him and pokes fun at him a lot but she really doesn’t mean it. She knows that he’s an important instrument in orchestras and she tells him that yes he is needed and is important and yes, she’ll stop poking fun at him because she realises that her comments actually do hurt and she doesn’t want him to feel unloved. But she’ll still annoy him because that’s what big sisters do but she’ll stay away from those kinds of jokes because she doesn’t mean it and it’s mean so she’ll stop.

Gameplay-wise, she’s definitely on the more glass canon side of things. She has excellent ATK, but her DEF and HP are kinda… shit. I’d pair her with other String instruments that have higher DEF and HP to help balance out her flaws or even put her on a team with Percussion or Brass or even have her with a Woodwind to help with healing and she’ll do the damage necessary.

[littlecafe]

woosung team; ILYSB (artist: LANY) / spotify link

members in his team:

DPOLE (dj): auditioned with his own song (mix?? what do u call this askjdsf) honbando, they were curious about the playstation remote he had with him so he showed that too

mellow kitchen (saxaphone): audtitioned with way back home by shaun

kim hyungwoo (bass): auditioned with his band gift, they covered vincent by Don McLean (usually they have 3 people but i think one of them was in the military so it’s just the two of them)

kim woosung (frontman, vocal): auditioned with the rose, they covered breakeven by the script 

my episode commentary:

so jtbc has been pushing this ~bromance~ story line between woosung and his teammate from the previous round lee chansol and i just akjdsf it’s so pure but also jtbc pls

almost felt the heartbreak when woosung didn’t pick him this time and he was just talking about how woosung is a bright kid, clumsy, and likes gummies...please take care of him well (IM LOSING MY MIND ASDJFDFS)

dpole wanted to do the thing with the glasses bc he says woosung’s voice reminds him of water so he thought it would be cool to incorporate it into the performance; he briefly explained how it works since everyone was curious afterwards but i couldn’t really catch much...basically it’s sparkling water and it makes sound through transition of electricity (energy??)

kim jongwan (judge, from nell) said it’s really refreshing to hear dpole do his thing live since a lot of the teams have some type prerecorded backtrack and they play live on top of it but with dpole everything is live right there

pretty much all i have to add on about their team sakjsdfsd it’s short this time but uh am going to take a bit of time talking about woosung ofc one of my favorite vocalists in kpop ;u;

MINI SPOILER(S) tbh not really lol it’s more discussion and my inner thoughts 

wow it really took this long for me to link a woosung performance loool everyone is really good ahhh but thank you youtube recommendations for finding this show, the rose’s breakeven performance popped up and i just??? what is this?? so i searched up the show and tried to find where to watch it bc it’s totally my cup of tea

i did NOT know woosung was the only one that made it past the audition round so i had a hot two seconds of being bitter and then moved on with my life but tbh the amount of screen time he gets is...scary??? LOOL and i say this as a fan but jtbc seems to really like him, they film him a lot just reaction wise and he even has a story line now sajdsfk it almost feels like he’s a shoe in for the final group (esp since kim jongwan really, REALLY likes him and he’s loyal to his picks sajdsf thank u mr. nell)

currently stuck in this limbo of whether i want him in the end group or not since it’ll take quite a toll on him being in two groups at once, even now his schedules are quite hectic 

but also i’m not 100% sure what the final group is intended to do...i think the contract was for a year? but also i’m not sure i feel like it’s just some part of my brain that made this up but i do know it’s a temp band and they will be making music and touring together

i don’t think they have a serious lock like produce where u have to be in the temp group only but it will prob be hard to work on music in two groups at once so i wonder what it would mean for the rose if he were to make it in (do they continue with just dojoon singing? do they take a small break? will woosung just juggle two groups?) it worries me a little....and i wonder how black roses would feel if woosung won’t be able to join for promotions or if they can’t comeback for a while

these are all useless worries though since nothing is confirmed and maybe he’ll get eliminated and i’ll just be boo boo the fool worrying so early for no reason

also by “touring” i’m guessing they mean only in korea? i doubt they can go overseas since the show is not really anywhere accessible for international fans  (other than the sketchy website linked on twt from black roses asjksdf // edit: so it’s finally on ondemandkorea but the amount of ads i can’t sit through that so imma stick to my sketchy site sakjsdf but it’s on there now for anyone that wants to watch!!) and most definitely no eng subs

but they can def /try/ international IF woosung makes it, they quite obviously know he does have a fanbase and has a pull overseas bc he speaks english and the rose just had their own tour (this was mentioned on the show too at their audition i think) but i still think it’s very unlikely just due to how the show is aired

oh maybe for real a spoiler? about eliminations

it’s starting to feel like they’re getting rid of a lot of the more unusual (?) artists and keeping a lot of vocalists and i just why let them audition if you were going to make a conventional band (bass, guitar, drums, keyboard)

at the beginning i was intrigued as to how they’ll fit in and it’s definitely the frontman has to have an idea about what song he wants and a way to include the more classical instruments (violin, sax, accordion, cello, etc..) or if all else fails those people have to move to other instruments or talents to fit the team

but slowly they’re starting to get rid of them instead when they could easily eliminate vocalists since there are so many of them to begin with so i feel like they don’t really want an unconventional band 

i’m also almost 100% sure the end group has to have more than one vocal bc there’s so many left LOL (it’s fine though since quite a few can play other instruments as well) i’m really not complaining though every elimination hurts me so bad i’m so invested into this show and these people ;;o;;

this is probably the most invested i’ve been in a show like this....i now know how produce fans feel everything hurts but i still look forward to every episode askjsdfdf

OK BUT SPEAKING OF ELIMINATIONS TODAY WAS AN ELIMINATION EP AND WHAT THE HECK I WAS TOLD THEY WERE GOING TO ELIMINATE ONE FROM EACH TEAM BUT THEY DIDN’T??? i mean....they only left ONE team untouched so they really did try to eliminated one from each but instead it was one from 6 teams (there were a total of 7 up for elimination) and then 2 teams ended up losing 2 people

i guess the judges have some freedom if they feel that another team really slacked and one did too well and it would be a pity to eliminate anyone from them they can pick who they thought was worse ;;_;;

next episode teaser

so all this time the staff have been pairing up which teams go against which teams (i still have no clue how they decide btw i think they just try to find the best possible match up like rock vs rock, classics vs classics)

but next time i think the teams are going to able to pick their own opponents for the first time!! i’m so excited >*< the match ups have been painful anyways since the staff does such a good job at pitting the people i support against each other so them picking shouldn’t be much different it’ll just be more fun since they can have friendly dissing loool

[interviewswith-warfstachetonight]

Interview: Vriska Serket (11/20/19)

Interviewer: Wilford Warfstache (WW)

Interviewee: Vriska Serket ( @aquaticculler ) (VS)

Date: Nov. 20, 2019

Time: 12:33 AM - 2:33 AM (CST)

(*”8″ = “B” and “eight” sounds; I.e “no8ility” = “nobility,” “expect8ions” = “expectations”)

WW: Okay! I think I’m all set- now.. you were a blueblooded troll, correct? Did bluebloods have any set roles or expectations? (Like how jades were more or less all caretakers, from what I understand.)

VS: I was a cerulean, yes. Expect8ions were really just what you'd expect, nothing too out of the ordinary. Our caste was mostly just the troll version of "lower upper class", we had the 8enefits of wealth without the responsi8ility or expect8ions of no8ility

WW: Well, that certainly sounds like it’d be interesting..! Were there any, ah.. differences?, I suppose?, between the blues? (Ah.. teal, cerulean, and indigo, I believe?) As in.. well, like physical abilities and such, how some trolls seemed to have certain abilities that others didn’t.

VS: Yes! Generally speaking, teal 8looded trolls (apparently) could "S3NSE TH3 1NT3NT1ONS OF OTH3RS" -something my terezi said, once. Cerulean 8loods like me tended to fall into one of two categories, either we could mind control to a certain extent or we had higher strength for lack of psychic a8ilities, on par with an indigo vs the normal cerulean strength. I was in the former camp so to speak. Indigos just had a8surd strength, that's kind of their whole deal

WW: And you could mind control, you say? Did you do that often?

VS: Not particularly, it only worked on castes with stronger psychic a8ilities (Rust, 8ronze, Gold) and for the most part I had no reason to

WW: Ah, that’s fair, that’s fair.. was it something you had to train/learn? Or was it more of an.. innate ability?

VS:  At it's 8ase level it was inn8, 8ut when I was a little wriggler I pro8a8ly had to practice it to get 8etter at it, I don't remem8er much of 8eing a wriggler though, that was thousands of sweeps ago. Or hundreds. Or millions. Time flows weirdly in paradox space

WW: Oh, goodness gracious, what in the world happened to bring paradox space into it all? Was that something that happened then or a matter of ending up here?

VS: I died as a god tier, then woke up in paradox space. After what felt like a very long time in paradox space I woke up here missing a lot of memories.

VS: I do remem8er finding this place though, it was a dream 8u88le and it looked interesting. Didn't know it was one way only though, we are 8asically stuck here

WW: Well, that’s odd, hm? Ah.. what is a dream bubble, exactly?

VS: Simply put, pocket worlds in paradox space

VS: Less simply put

VS: Dream 8u88les are essentially pocket dimentions typically created 8y memories of whoever is residing in them, and those are scattered throughout paradox space. Apparently though, "inworlds" can also 8e found there too, though I am presently unsure if only certain ones are present, or if every8ody's are. I also do not have an explan8ion for memory loss while travelling certain dream 8u88les and not others, perhaps there are different types that can 8e distinguished. I did not put enough time into researching them while I was active in paradox space

VS: At least that's how I see them

VS: I do know that they transcend canons though! I met our meenah in paradox space, and her canon is wildly different from my own

WW: How odd! I wonder if that means they still exist in our world.. (oh! And you mentioned a, ah.. god tier? What is that?)

VS: A god tier is a s8ur8 mechanic, as a method to reach higher powers according to your classpect. You find your quest8ed, which is a stone 8lock with your aspect engraved, wherever you're destined to, and then you die on it and merge with your dreamself, and gain a 8unch of powers

WW: And what was your godtier, if you don’t mind?

VS: Here's where I differ the most from other Vriska's, I was a seer of life

VS: And I still am

WW: Oh? What are other Vriskas usually, then?

VS: Thief of Light

WW: And is that a huge change? (As in, like.. total opposites or something to that effect.)

VS: It's not total oppos8s, 8ut it is going from an active class to a passive class

WW: And I figure that would be a big change? (At least, in the sense of a shift from one to the other.)

VS: That one isn't a huge change 8ut it is sizea8le enough

VS: Classpects are still highly de88d to this day, with no one set system of explaining it all is agreed upon

WW: Oh, that does sound like it could cause a lot of confusion..

WW: If you don’t mind my asking, what does a Seer of Life do? Or.. what can they do?

VS: Well a seer is the passive understanding class, so I understand life, and I invite understanding through life

VS:  Though life as an aspect tends to more dou8le down on your class, from source examples

VS: So in my case I understand [a lot] and I invite understanding through [usually oversharing]

VS: It's a little 8it iffy

WW: Well, that sounds interesting..! What do you mean by understanding a lot?

VS: Knowing things, seeing things (metaphorically, literally we're 8lind as fuck), just in general. In my time on this planet I've studied everything from mathematics, to 8iology, to quantum physics, to cooking, to astronomy, ect. ect.

VS: Of course I'm aware of my own 8lind spots, I know there are gaps in my knowledge, lots of them in fact

WW: And you said you overshare a lot? Does that ever cause any trouble for you?

VS: Sometimes, 8ut I also know when to shut my mouth so to speak. Whether or not I do is another matter........

WW: Well, that’s certainly a relatable statement— Has there been anything you’ve found issue in learning?

VS: Human anatomy

VS: Dear god what is with these 8odies

VS: Programming is something we've collectively had issues with, 8ut we're okay at it now

VS: And any form of art that isn't music or writing

WW: Oh? Is there a form of music you prefer over the others?

VS: Violin was always fun

WW: Violin? Is that one that’s particularly hard to learn?

VS: It varies from person to person, 8ut it is considered one of the more difficult instruments. All instruments have difficulties in learning though, so it's hard to r8 one over another in terms of difficulty

VS: Instruments we've at least started learning to d8 are(in no particular order):

-Voice

-Trumpet

-Trom8one

-Flute

-Cello

-Viola

-Violin

-Piano

-Guitar

VS: Though we were only competent at:

-Voice

-Violin

-Piano

VS: I have never 8een good with the voice, personally

WW: Oh, gosh, that’s a lot! Were you doing more than one at a time?

VS: We did voice along piano and violin. Other than that, no

VS: Some of those we did for less than a year

WW: What’s the longest one you’ve done?

VS: 5 years of voice pro8a8ly?

VS: May8e longer

VS:  *We only did viola for two weeks 8efore swapping to violin, 8ut I'm counting it 8ecause I can still play it through violin skills

WW: Oh! Is there a difference between viola and violin?

VS: Viola's are similar to a violin, 8ut are larger and play lower notes than a violin. It's 8etween a cello and a violin in scale and size, and is played similarly to a violin

WW: Ooooooooh! Well, I didn’t even know those existed, heh— and you mentioned writing? Is that something you like doing?

VS:  I personally don't write often, 8ut Eva likes to write poetry. She's also trying to write a 8ook

VS:  I guess you can count this as writing though, I do love answering questions or going on lectures a8out things

WW: It does sound fun! Are there any particular subjects you like talking about?

VS: Quantum physics, Astronomy, and Philosophy

VS: All at once ::::)

VS: They're all connected

VS: Well everything is, really, 8ut those three are the most o8vious

WW: How so? 

VS: Well using quantum physics to explain certain aspects of astronomy, and how they rel8 has several different theories that we do not have the energy to get into right now, 8ut it is fun to use those to 8oth prove and disprove free will ::::)

WW: Disprove free will?

VS: Mhm!

VS: Certain theories of how the universe works ends up with us having no free will at all

VS: That everything is predetermined, 8ut at the same time having free will

VS: It's the theory that I su8scri8e to that eventually the universe will stop expanding, then contract upon itself, and then eventually another 8ig 8ang in exactly the same way will happen. At the end of the day we're just atoms and electrical signals 8umping next to each other in a specific way, like a game of pool with a good enough computer if you run the same shot over and over again the 8alls will end up in the same exact place, right? It's the same concept only applied to every single particle in the universe. That we've had this convers8ion potentially 8illions of times 8efore in the same exact way and we will have it 8illions of times again. Oh 8ut this is usually the end of my ram8le on the su8ject, this is missing all the material that leads up to it

WW: Well, that all sounds quite interesting..!

VS: 8ut we are tired so the condensed version of the ending will do

WW: That’s quite alright! I’ve never heard it before anyways, so I’m simply happy to learn something new!

VS: I'm glad to have presented you something new and interesting to learn

VS: I'll go over other theories at a l8r d8

VS: We seemed to have side tracked quite a 8it whoops

WW: Eh, it happens sometimes!

VS: Or I have rather hahahaha

WW: Hey, I think it’s still just as valid! It is something you’re interested in, after all!

VS: Alright next question~

WW: Hm.. well, did you have anyone you considered most important to you?

VS: During my time alive in my own 8ody, pro8a8ly terezi. In paradox space, meenah (the one I'm here with)

WW: What was your Terezi like? (If you don’t mind sharing)

VS: She was a sylph of doom, she talked 8out the inevita8le a lot, rules, limits, things I don't care a8out. She was also really strict, 8ut I liked her. I can't remem8er 8ut we were either flushed or pale

WW: What do those mean?

VS: M8sprit or moirail, respectively

VS: Oh you don't- okay

WW: Well, I know they’re types of romance!

VS: Good start! So

VS: M8spritship resem8les typical human romantic rel8ionships the most, it's not 1:1 8ut there's a lot of love

VS: Moirailegence is like the human concept of soul m8s, 8ut not like "I love this person" more "We need each other", you t8ke care of each other and keep each other pacified and calm. Stopping them from doing stupid things, or they stop you from doing stupid things (or try to, and then they're there to say "I told you so")

WW: Pfft- Well, I can think of more than a few people I knew who were like that.. but no matter, ah- you said Terezi was a.. Sylph of Doom? What does that entail?

VS: Sylph is the passive cre8ion class, they create for others, and invite the creation of their aspect

VS: In this case doom, which is all a8out rules, limit8ions, f8, ect.

VS: It is the oppos8 of life, which is generally a8out freedom, choices, and change

WW: So, does that mean that she created rules and such for others? (Or is that what you meant by strict?)

VS: To all those reading along who are versed in classpects, I am extremely tired and doing a terri8le jo8 of explaining things

VS: 8ut yes, that is exactly what she did

WW: Did you think they were patricularly fair?

VS: Some times I have to admit they are, 8ut I'm not a 8ig rules person. I like to passively oper8 doing what I do, and usually that falls within the rules

VS: If I can't do something, that just m8kes me want to do it more, until I can do it

WW: Had you two ever had any fights over them? (And ah, that is- a mood)

VS: Small tiffs, 8ut nothing major most of the time

WW: Well, that’s good to hear! And, hm.. what’s Meenah like?

VS: Meenah isn't from my canon, 8ut I met her in paradox space

VS: She resem8les meenah from homestuck itself decently well

WW: Would you say that’s a good thing?

VS: She's nice, a 8it crass at times, I like her

WW: Well, that’s good to hear! It can always be a bit frustrating when people don’t get along.. and- hmm.. who would you say is somebody you didn’t like in your canon?

VS: Tavros

VS: He was annoying as fuck

VS: I 8roke his legs though, that was fun

VS: (On that topic, I also 8roke joke's legs too!)

VS: Or jape or whatever his name was

VS: I didn't like him either

VS: 8ut tavros I just couldn't stand

VS: (And now he can't either hahahaha)

WW: Pfft- Goodness..! What happened to lead up to that?

VS: He was 8eing super annoying while we were playing flarp, so I introduced him to a scenario where there was a cliff, and there was my mind control powers, and suddenly there was a tavros jumping off said cliff

VS:  I wouldn't do that again, I've mellowed out a lot over the sweeps, 8ut I don't regret it

VS: Terezi got pissed at me for that one

VS: That was the only major fight we had

WW: Well, I could certainly imagine- but, ah.. what is.. flarp?

VS: Fantasy Live Action Role Play

WW: Oh! Were there particular things you could do? Or just whatever you wanted?

VS: GM (Game master)'s discretion (aka mine), 8ut for the most part you could do anything. Funnily enough it also had classes like in s8ur8

WW: Oh?

VS:  I don't have the energy to go over that, so let's wrap this up with any closing questions you may have and then we can continue l8r ::::)

WW: Ah, alright! I believe the only closing question I can think of is.. what, if anything, do you wish people would stop assuming about you?

VS: Stop assuming all vriska's are 8ad! I'm working on 8eing 8etter 8y human standards, it's annoying to 8e written off as a 8ad person just 8ecause "Oh she's a serket what do you expect"

VS: Anyways that's all the time we have for tonight, thank you for 8eing here, and thank you whoever actually read all this

WW: Oh, I’m glad to be here! Thank you for allowing me to! (And I hope you rest well!)

[spainmozsombi]

Oh okay, Erasmus is actually cool!(10.21)

Last thursday was probably one of the most important days since I have been here. I had class at 1 pm, nothing extraordinary happened, it was actually pretty boring with some groupwork that we did not have enough time for...(I also should have had the magreb course in the evening but I skipped it).

In the evening there was a music session with the whatsapp group “erasmusicians”, we basically rented a rehearsal room for three hours and played some cool tunes (if somebody’s reading this who knows matus’ place it’s kinda the same, it’s just better and doesn’t smell like 40 years of smoking). It was interesting to experience how music can bring people together even if nobody plays the songs perfectly. On the other hand I really noticed the difference between this and how we used to play with my band, when everybody knows his part, when it’s all like a well oiled machine. Both are good in a different way. Ivan (local spanish guy who organizes these musical events) brought his electric guitar, an italian dude (David) brought his acoustic guitar, Celia (local spanish girl, also organizer) brought here electric piano, there was a drumkit, somebody had a bass guitar, and countless microphones. We played songs from Beatles, Nirvana, Gorillaz, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys and a bunch of more, the list goes on aand on. After this it was planned that we were gonna practice with Óscar separately (for the next Open Mic) but he had to cancel it so I went to get a beer with the rest of the group instead. We found a really cool tapas place that also had pool in the basement! We had a few drinks, played pool, I even played some Paramore songs with a spanish girl (a waiter was kind enough to turn down their music just so we could play). We had a good time and actually got kicked out at midnight cause the place was closing. I thought the night was gonna end here but no, we went to another place that’s basically a pool bar (if that’s even a thing)..We rented a table and played till about 2 am or so, it was proper fun! We played 2 vs 2, I was in a time with a british guy called Joe who’s from Birmingham, he’s a really nice guy! This italian dude talked me into helping to him with a course where he has to amplify instruments/somebody singing, so I will play him some songs (on his guitar) this thursday. I got home around 3 am...

On friday I was still so pumped cause of the previous night that I jumped right into learning some more spanish, started looking up how conjugation works, and thank God it doesn’t seem that ugly. In the evening I had the Magreb course. So, this course is twice a week (as all of them) on thursday there’s the lecture and on friday we should focus on the groupwork, the ted talk and essay that we gotta present in early november. For some reason we never really take the friday class very seriously, so we were mostly laughing about stupid sh1t. After that we went to get a beer and tapas, we (my groupmates, Adel, Óscar, Filip and his girl friend who came to visit him) went to a place called “Grifo y Tapas” (somebody recommanded this place to me, thanks for that!). Had some good times, laughs and whatnot. Filip had a really hard time learning my first name (I use Zsombor here, not many people knows about ‘Balint’ haha). After ordaring the first beer I noticed that Óscar and Adel are drinking something else, which looked much better than my beer (which I still don’t like, but fröccs is not a thing around here), Óscar gave me a sip and it was amazing, some syrup with wine. Or the other way. Wine with some syrup. Sweat! And the name of it is ‘Tinto de Verano’. It felt weird to be out for drinks two nights straight, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of this Erasmus vibe. 

//Intermezzo\\

I feel more and more that I have people to talk to, we are getting to know each other, I experienced a change in my attitude (from generally negative to generally positive). I had a traning back in May that was supposed to prepare me for the erasmus thing and there was a graph about how people’s mood go from “ohmygod im here, it’s so cool” to a huge drop when everything is bad and it goes back up again as one gets used to things and starts to enjoy the whole thing. Cause of previous experience abroad I was 110% sure that I was gonna experience the same thing. Well either I only had the first high point for only a few hours after landing or I didn’t have it at all, I just had a bad mood most of the time when I was alone, and now it feels like I rather see things much more positively.

On saturday I had to make a hard decision between going bouldering or going for a ride, eventually I got out for a ride, which turned out to be a great decision (on sunday the weather got much colder). Ride was good, I spent most of the time making short videos of me riding. This meant finding a good section, practicing it for a bit and then putting down my phone on a safe place and doing it again on camera. I didn’t ride that much but I really enjoyed looking for good angles and places to have the best shots (you can see the video on facebook, but I think whoever’s reading this blog you probably have already seen it). For lunch/dinner I improvised and fried some potato in a pan alongside with some broccoli and zucchini, shredded some cheese on the top...I know what you think..It felt way too healthy..But I ate it! (just finished the leftovers today).

On sunday in the morning I went bouldering again. On saturday I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt for riding, on sunday morning I had to put on actual pants, a hoodie and a jacket!...Bouldering was great, bought an pass for 8 sessions, felt much better than on wednesday, climed some new routes, did some exercises for core muscles, and, before I forget, I ran into Filip and his friend, so I had some company. I keep trying to make my sentences shorter but I just love these “barokkosmagyarkörmondatok”...In the evening there was another erasmusician session, but in a pub this time ( actually same place where we were on thursday), It was great, a killer guitar player named Jeremy from the US and a girl (I think also from the US) with a beautiful voice, who’s name I totally forgot, joined us. Oh yeah, and a british dude with a violin! He played the main riff of Sweet child O’ Mine, it was mindblowing...After playing together for an hour or so we split up into smaller groups, each with a different musical style. I ended up with Matteo and Elena from Italy and a german girl who’s name I also forgot..Oops. We were playing Oasis songs, it was so much fun! (Matteo likes to speed things up a bit so I really had to try to keep the tempo..) At the evening we played some pool again, with Joe, and David.

Today (monday) I had my economic course. The faculty of economics is up on Campus Cartuja, which is on the mountain, and I always walk up there. Even though the weather was also colder today (14-15 degrees?) but sunny, I still ended up sweaty buy the time I got up there...Course was about oligopolies and monopolies, not very interesting but the teacher still managed to make it a bit less boring! (Hats off!). We got lunch with Oliver after the class, at the canteen close to this faculty. See the pic (probably) above. We analyzed how inefficient the whole service is, they just use way too much manpower..In the afternoon I did some maintenance on the bike, managed to the evening I joined Oliver on his run. I wasn’t running, no need to worry, I still hate it, I was riding my bike. He’s prepping for a half marathon this weekend and a full marathon in early december...He’s a fanatic let me tell you that...

That’s all folks!

[clubpassim]

Women in Folk - Isa Burke

Hi there!

Katie here with another wonderful interview for the ‘Women in Folk’ blog. Today’s interviewee is none other but Isa Burke!

Isa is a founding member of the famed Lula Wiles band. She has been in and around music longer than she can remember. Both of her parents are professional musicians who have been making their way around the New England folk scene for quite some time. Growing up, the hallways of her house were filled with the likes of the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, and many other iconic figures in music. A little known fact is that for three years, Isa Burke was a band geek, playing trumpet in her school band and stealing hearts at every pep-rally. However, her love of trumpet just wasn’t enough to continue her on this path, and so when she was 10 years old her parents gave her her first - bright red - electric guitar. 

Isa thought that rock music was her calling, because “folk music is for old people.” But when she was 12 her parents convinced her to attend the Maine Fiddle Camp for the first time - where her parents both taught. That was the first place she saw young people playing folk music, and, well, the rest is history. 

The following year she decided to pick up the fiddle and attacked it “with the fury of hell”. Most of her fiddle-playing friends were older and had been playing fiddle for much longer than she, so Isa practiced, practiced more, and practiced hard. She got pretty good pretty fast, but her technique still wasn’t where she wanted it to be, so she started taking private lessons in both fiddle and classical.

“One really pivotal thing for me was the Black Bean Cafe in Rollinsford, NH. Every month they had an open mic night geared towards songwriters, and I must have attended every single one from middle school all the way through high school. I made a lot of wonderful friends there, as well as collaborated with a ton of wonderful musicians.”

This, in addition to her many returns to Maine Fiddle Camp, pushed her to apply to Berklee to study violin, which eventually became her reality. Once there, Passim was a frequently visited and locale for her, as well as a favorite venue of hers to perform at. College wasn’t the first time she found herself on Passim’s stage...

“The first time I played at Passim was with my first band ever. It was a duo with my friend Lina, and we were called Isa and Lina. Matt Smith (booking manager for Passim) asked us to play at the Campfire. festival, and we were horrible. We couldn’t get our instruments in tune and Lena had forgotten her tuner at home. It was such a mess. Clearly, I overcame it, though.”

And overcome it she did. Lula Wiles often credits the founding of the band to a particular night at Maine Fiddle Camp where Ellie and Isa sang harmonies together and said they “felt this really special thing when we sang together”. Through Berklee, they got a showcase at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival and decided they wanted three-part harmony and bass. They asked incoming Berklee freshman and longtime friend Mali if she wanted to play the gig with them, and she quickly became an indispensable member of the group. “We realized we were a band now, and that’s how Lula Wiles happened.”

In addition to her work with Lula Wiles, Isa plays rock guitar in Shawn Trischka’s band Corporate Punk and is producing her first record for Liv Greene, an up and coming singer-songwriter. You can also catch her at Passim’s School of Music where she has taught classes from harmony singing to music theory to our Bluegrass ensemble. Catch her Vocal Harmony Singing Workshop on Monday, July 8th!

The next part of the interview discusses her role as a female in the folk industry.

(*strong language warning*)

[full interview under the cut]

Club Passim: Talk a little about your experiences as a female artist/all-female group in a heavily male-dominated music genre.

Isa Burke: It’s such a double-edged sword. That’s something I always come back to. Being a member of an all-female band vs. just being a female musician are totally different experiences too. I think often times women will start bands with other women because they know they won’t be belittled or talked down to, they know that their bandmates will assume that they generally know what they’re talking about, or they’ll feel comfortable enough to voice something if they don’t know it. This happened all the time at Berklee when I was the only girl in my classes. If I didn’t know something I would be too afraid to ask because I didn’t want all the guys in the room to think, ‘Well of course she doesn’t know this because she’s a woman,’ when in fact a lot of them probably didn’t know what that thing was either.

Being in an all-women band is so amazing. That’s a huge reason why I started playing lead guitar. When Ellie and I played duo, we were playing all of these country songs and I just said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I took a guitar solo? I don’t really know how to do that’. But then I started doing it, and then I started getting pretty good at it. I think if I had been in a band with men, I wouldn’t have been comfortable trying to do this thing I’m not very good at yet but will get better at. We’re all very supportive of each other in the band.

Biases can come in many different forms. For example, when I was just starting to play electric guitar, my friend asked me to play a gig with them. We were rehearsing and I borrowed my friend’s pedal because I was still new to the electric and didn’t have my own set-up figured out yet. One of the other band members asked me, “Oh, is that your pedalboard?” And I just thought to myself, ‘Motherf*cker, you would never have asked ANOTHER GUY if that was their pedal board, you’re asking me because I’m a girl.’ But it wasn’t my pedal board. I didn’t want him to think that women can’t own sick pedal boards and by the way, I have a sick pedal board now, so I think I just ended up lying and saying that it was mine.

I’ve also noticed real differences in how people talk to me about my fiddle playing vs. my guitar playing. People expect women to take fiddle solos more than guitar solos. Often there’s a tone of surprise when they compliment me on my guitar playing because they’re not expecting it, you know? All of these things are very subtle and most of the time people probably don’t even realize or notice the little biases that they have. I take very seriously the role that I have to be visible to other women and men. I get really psyched when I see a young boy in the audience at a gig and I take a guitar solo because then he’s not going to grow up thinking only men can play the guitar, and maybe if he starts a band he’ll hire a woman guitarist. But of course, inspiring the young gals is my literal favorite thing in life. I feel really lucky that I have a platform to move the needle a little bit and help break down these biases.

CP: Do you notice a difference in how you’re treated by other artists, venues, audiences, and industry professionals before vs. after you play?

IB: Yes, I’ve definitely noticed it more when Lula Wiles was younger. We’d walk in to play a gig and here were three girls in floral-print dresses with our “little band”, but then we get on stage and you see three multi-instrumentalist women doing their thing and playing pretty powerfully. That’s when people usually figure out we know what we’re doing.

I have heard some crazy stories from other people though. For example, a friend of mine was an instructor at a music camp and after she played in the faculty concert one time, one of the other faculty members who was a guy came up to her and her bandmate and said, “At first I thought of you two as sexual objects but now I know you’re also great musicians.” I think he thought he was joking but like, come. On. My blood still boils every time I think about it.

CP: Incredible classical artists such as classical pianist Yuja Wang use their performance attire as a way to express themselves. This provocative style of dress has been viewed as “distracting” from the music. What are your personal thoughts on women using fashion and sex-appeal as a means of bringing in more audience members and assisting in selling their music?

IB: Another one I could talk about all day. It’s so complicated, right? You want to look good and feel good on stage. That is usually my primary goal when I am getting dressed for a show: ‘what will make me feel good and enable me to give the best possible show?’ A lot of times it feels like putting on armor.

As women, it is drilled into our heads that we have to look attractive, that we have to look sexy. It’s really hard to escape that. I never want to fault women for using that phenomenon to their advantage, but I also want the music world to be a hospitable place for women who don’t want to do that, who want to just wear a t-shirt and sneakers on stage and not wear make-up and sound incredible. 

I still don’t really know where I come down on that one, to be honest, but I had a really great conversation with my bandmates in the van last week. We were talking about the “whatever choice you choose to make is a feminist choice”  brand of feminism, but we had a problem with that. The thing is, all choices can’t be equal choices if some are rewarded by society and certain others are punished.

It’s really important to interrogate your own desires. Ask yourself, ‘am I doing this because it makes me feel more like myself? Or am I doing this because it makes me feel more acceptable to the world?’ Until all traces of patriarchy are gone from the world, which will probably never happen, we won’t ever really know what our true deepest desires are because they are so shaped by the world around us. At the end of the day, it’s important to constantly ask yourself questions, interrogate, and critique.

CP: What do you do in a situation when you feel disrespected by the artists/co-workers you’re surrounded by?

IB: It depends on the situation. If someone is blatantly rude to me I would probably just call them out on it and walk away. But if someone does something a little more subtle or if they show a bias they have, I will try to find a way to poke at that in a friendly way. For example the pedal board guy. I probably would have said something like, “Well, what makes you think this isn’t my pedal board? Why wouldn’t it be?” It’s a hard balance because you do want to stand up for yourself, but you also want to reach them, right? You hopefully want to change someone’s mind a little bit.

Sometimes people will give my bandmate Mali a condescending or patronizing compliment such as, “Oh you sweet girl, you play such nice music! You must have been gifted this talent”, and what I love that she does is she’ll say something like, “Oh well, thank you, but I actually just practiced a ton and worked hard to get good at my instrument.” I think letting people in on the hard work musicians have to put in can shift their perceptions in a subtle way.

CP: In your opinion, how can men be more aware or informed about their women peers and co-workers in the music industry?

IB: First off, I think that it’s really important to examine your own perceptions and try to figure out where you might have a bias, which is not your fault and is the fault of society. Take a mental inventory of the way you regard your male musician friends, versus the way you regard your female musician friends and see if there are any significant differences. Really try to dig into why you think that may be.

The second thing I would say is to make a conscious effort to hire women. Try to stay away from all-dude bands. I think that men instinctively go to other men when starting a band because they’re more visible in this male-dominated industry, but I think with a slight mental adjustment you can find equally qualified women who maybe haven’t been given as many opportunities, even though they deserve the opportunities just as much. That also has the pleasant side effect of increasing visibility for women, and I cannot say enough how important it is for people to see themselves represented. It’s something I focus on a lot.

There’s also a real premium and value placed on being able to “shred” on your instrument and being technically proficient; I saw this at Berklee a lot. I know a lot of women who can seriously shred on their instrument, but this value placed on shredding is so prominent amongst men, and I just don’t think that’s the most important thing about music. A lot of my favorite musicians aren’t that technically proficient but play with such emotion and musicality. I love getting to hear musicians play on their second or third instruments because they can’t fall back on their muscle memory and so they have no choice but to express themselves. Remember what music is all about.

CP: What message do you want to display as a woman in folk music?

IB: Overall, what I want to project into the world is that there is nothing weird about a band of women in floral dresses who have hairy legs and play the shit out of their instruments. Those things can all co-exist very peacefully. I think it is equally important to increase visibility to women and trans/non-binary people in the music industry so that we can eliminate the expectation that only certain genders can do certain things; who can be a producer, who can be a band leader, who can play drums, who can play guitar. I think that it didn’t even occur to me that I could be a producer until I heard about women producers. It didn’t occur to me that I could be a drummer (one of my secret but not-so-secret dreams) until I heard about women drummers.

I want to make people aware we all have certain biases that aren’t our fault. We’re all born into a world that creates those biases in us, but it is our responsibility to dismantle them and un-learn them.

I also want to pass on all the help and opportunities that were given to me when I was first starting out. There were a lot of incredible women that gave us the chance to open for them, as well as some great men like Matt Smith and Matt Glaser who helped us out and guided us, and now that I’m in a position where I can help others out I want to do that because so many people did it for me.

CP: What words of wisdom/encouragement do you have for aspiring women in folk?

IB: Keep an eye out for the sexist bullsh*t, but also give men a chance to surprise you. A lot of them can learn. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. That’s what I try to approach every new situation with. I also think that collaborating with other women will pretty much always give you a huge confidence boost. I think that playing with women will give you a chance to explore parts of your musical identity you haven’t before, which will give you more confidence the next time you’re in a rehearsal and some guy makes a comment assuming you don’t know how to play your instrument.

Our society tries to put women in a box, and I think really trying to see the box as clearly as you can so you know how to break out of it is important. Recognize that women are often working with a confidence deficit, and ‘fake it till you make it’ is honestly one of the best pieces of advice I can give to anyone. Obviously, know your weaknesses, know what you need to work on and work hard at it. Hit the shed and work hard but don’t feel like you have to be totally perfect at everything. There’s a common feeling among women that you have to be twice as good to get half the recognition. But try to say f*ck that. Whenever you can.

                                                           ~

Thank you, Isa, for such a thoughtful and eye-opening interview! You have such wonderful and informed opinions. I think we can all learn from this and try to examine our own biases a little more. 

When’s the last time you’ve given your judgments a second thought?

Thanks again to Isa, and thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the next installment of the ‘Women in Folk’ blog!

Katie

PC: Louise Bichan

[jefferyryanlong]

Fresh Listen - Ray Barbee, Tiara for Computer (Um Yeah Arts, 2018)

(Some pieces of recorded music operate more like organisms than records. They live, they breathe, they reproduce. Fresh Listen is a periodic review of recently and not so recently released albums that crawl among us like radioactive spiders, gifting us with superpowers from their stingers.)

Around Christmas-time 2018, my good friend Nathan invited us to a shindig at the Hawai'i Bowl, a post-season exhibition game at the Aloha Stadium, UH vs. LA Tech. Pregame was an all-you-can-eat/drink “tailgate.” Over-salted and overheated meatballs and short ribs, prepared frozen food from institutional distributors, served alongside twelve-ounce Coors Light or Heineken. The kind of party more fun in the abstract--in real time, you inevitably get sucked under a sluggish and dehydrated day drunk, and no quantity of soggy tater tots can pull you out.

As soon as we took our seats under a canopy set up just beyond the parking lot and in front of the entrance to the stadium, we realized conversation would be impossible. The band, a nameless cover group that interspersed Christmas tunes with their catalog of oldies, was too loud, and we had no choice but to drink silently and listen resentfully. The lead guitarist, hamming it up in an a Santa hat, was for the most part terrible and tried to compensate with a series of funny faces to the audience. (Granted, there were a few lines and riffs he had somehow motivated himself to practice to an almost polish). My girlfriend Rachel, who hears music with a far more sophisticated ear than I ever will, thought the drummer was “dragging” in most of the songs, but I just attributed his playing as part of the overall mess. Eventually the band gave over to the bass player, a thin white dude in an Aloha shirt, and he shocked all of us by manifesting not only the note-perfect bottom end but also the soulful vocal stylings of Motown’s greatest hits. But the true revelation of this performance was the keyboard player.

Nathan described her voice as Dionne Warwick at the Apollo, the sound of a class act singing her way back to the roughest definitions of her soul. While the keyboardist did have the coffee and cream smoothness of Dionne, she also carried in that voice a swallow of grit on the back end. It was a voice with some miles on it, a voice that had sung the story of heartbreak so often it could open up that valve to the universal pain in the speaking of a vowel, a syllable. This wasn't just the voice of God--it was undeniably human, the voice of desire and desperation and exultation.

But not just her voice that surprised and moved us--it was her mastery of her keyboard, a general issue piece of equipment, a preset memory bank of synthesized sounds. She could power her way through piano chords on covers of Adele, she could color the bass player’s R’n’B aspirations with bursts of faux horns. And when she needed to emotional immediacy of a note bend, a twang, that offset cry that simulates the human voice coming to grips with great feeling, the fingers of her left hand caressed the synth’s pitch shifter, modulating the artificial tones toward something that came close to natural. As fake and insufferable as they are in other cover groups, this specific keyboard transformed the liabilities of this imperfect band into strengths.

Because of the perceived dangers of displacing otherwise capable musicians, electronic synthesizers were surprisingly slow to be incorporated into popular music. The earliest recordings of synth music were put to tape by avant grade composers and theorists. For the most part failing to re-conceptualize the parameters as a whole new different conglomeration of sounds, these musicians took it upon themselves to recreate classic pieces of music through programming and note translation. (Their radioactive experiments, which pulsate and glow with the impossibility of ever striking a listener to the emotional core, are nonetheless compelling, unlistenable gems, evolving later into the computer program that stiltedly regurgitated an idealized, dehumanized melody, the theory of which was data-entried into its memory banks).

Kraftwerk pushed toward pop music as a synthesizer ensemble, but a true human face was not added to the cold, detached robotic visage until artists like David Bowie or Donna Summer coopted the German aesthetic for their Berlin and disco records. Stevie Wonder, perhaps because of his universal acclaim as a songwriter, vocalist, and instrumentalist, doesn’t receive enough credit as an electronic music pioneer, though he was utilizing synthesizer technology as early as 1972′s Music of My Mind. Over layers of weirdly chorded synths (all of them played himself), Wonder inserted a soul into the music, with his pure, flawed voice. With his inimitable, low-key drum style, he imparted a living heartbeat.

Ray Barbee’s Tiara for Computer references the trading away of old wealth for new knowledge. Specifically, an ornate but inherent useless crown-petite for the technological advantage of digital processing. As we as peoples evolve, we are learning how important it is to be plugged into the resources available via great swathes of digitized information, and progress itself is now dependent on effectively utilizing this digitized information. To evolve nowadays, to simply grow, is to synthesize the mind with the databases we move between daily. At least, that’s what we’ve convinced ourselves of.

With the help of Tortoise percussionist John Herndon, Barbee carries forward Stevie Wonder’s aesthetic, though without vocals: synth layers with a live backbeat. If there is one drawback to this approach, it’s that Tiara for Computer comes close to sounding like a Tortoise record, minus the off-kilter timing and overly cerebral melodies. Like his skater-musician colleague Tommy Guerrero, who appears on Tiara for Computer through his handclaps, Barbee’s musical drive is based on setting minimal and insanely catching melodies--through riffs and repeated lines--in stone. There are, for the most part, beginnings, middles, and ends to his songs, and on this record, aside from a few exceptions, Barbee doesn’t waste his time with free-floating beeps and tones, those textures that rise to the surface on the periphery of Radiohead records.

A fluctuating drone kicks off “Pink Noise,” an electro-alarm that announces the sonic equivalent of of a video game race over translucent tracks refracting pixels of light into rainbow prisms under the air wheels of futuristic machines. A bass synth figure keeps the track moving briskly along, subtly propelled by a tightly strummed electric guitar creating the impression of velocity. First buried low in the track, the guitar bursts into a shower of sparks as the song makes its last sprint around the length of space circling our heads.

There will come a time when the guitars and pianos and violins and saxophones of our present will exist as mere artifacts, like reproductions of lutes from Ancient Greece. The expression of the infinite well of human feeling will be predicated on the communication through a digitized language, absorbed through synapses that have evolved adequately for these missives to hit their mark. “Future Blues” is is Barbee’s rough sketch at what this music will sound like, discovering in the programmed notes of electronic keyboards a means to delicately portray he desolation of the human condition. The song could almost be a sketch from the outtakes of Kid A, grappling with it does the undead cry of technology in a struggle to capture a living sentiment.

“What’s His Neck” continues the exuberance of “Pink Noise,” a more melodically sophisticated piece accented by Barbee’s guitar and a chorus of handclaps. The fullest “band” song on he record, the song accelerates to a rave-like intensity. In contrast, “Ocra vs. Jaba” comes across as almost sanctimonious. Despite the complicated drum figure and Barbee’s groove-based riff, the overwhelming synths drag the song into a kind of slow motion, a ponderous moment that creates in the imagination a starship docking on the interior of a space station.

Herndon has several shining moments on Tiara for Computer, but his impact is never so apparent as on “Tina Cut.” As a drummer, his role in the song is minimal, tasked to ground Barbee’s sequenced movements with a steady beat that could never be replicated by a computer. The slight accents that vary between the snare, hi-hat, bass drum, and cymbals--plus the breathless manner in which Herndon pushes the sonic monolith of synths through a kind of weightless space--comes as close to a credible synthesis between electronic and live instruments. The sequel to “Tina Cut,” Ornithology,” replaces that living rhythm with a more mechanized beat, capturing Barbee’s thinking out loud through his synths.

“Holding Company,” with its processed acoustic guitar arpeggios and slacker groove, calls back to Tommy Guerrero’s laid back aesthetic, with a little of Oliver Nelson’s “Skull Session” thrown in. Barbee forsakes his firmly established melodies on the album’s title track, a tightly orchestrated freakout that, if stripped of its electricity and played by horns, could be the outro of a jazz record, notes arising and from the noise and latching onto one another briefly before traveling astray. 

With its hybridization of live and electronic instruments, Tiara for Computer might have been produced ten, fifteen years ago. It is not a groundbreaking record in the sense of reshaping the potentialities of this music. What is important about Tiara for Computer is Barbee’s excitement in engaging new modes of expression beyond his already formidable guitar work, while composing music that is, in its complex simplicity, quintessentially his own. Barbee is growing into the 21st Century, hypothesizing new ways of playing and hearing as he develops his aesthetic palette.