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bunchashapes · 2 years ago

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any music recs?

i could have made this very short or entirely too long. i opted for the latter:

HAVE YOU LOOKED FOR SOME NEW MUSIC TO LISTEN TO? LOOK NO FURTHER, FOR HERE IS

I know. There's a lot of music out there. Well have no fear, because I've selected, organized AND categorized a fine number of music selections, just for you! I tried to keep it to just stuff you probably haven't heard of before, but I make no promises. Hopefully you'll find at least one new thing you can take with you into 2023.

MAKE YOUR SELECTION:

1 - MIKE, I'M LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO GROOVE TO. SOMETHING I CAN GET DOWN AND VIBE WITH OR PERHAPS LISTEN TO WHILE I WORK:

Sounds good! Let's start with a few of those:

Vulfpeck - Okay you may already know about Vulfpeck. Sorry. If you HAVEN'T, they're a wonderful group of dudes from Michigan that are all insanely talented. They have a wide-range of styles they cover and pretty much every member has gone on to do other solo stuff, which may also suit your interests. They also have a spin-off band called The Fearless Flyers that I'll cover a little further down.

Jacob Mann (As well as his Big Band) - Jacob's solo stuff has a nice laid-back feel to it, while his big band stuff is slightly more bombastic, but all of it is fun and groovy. Great example of a musician effectively switching between different toolsets, whether its a whole group of talented musicians at his disposal or just a bunch of nice Roland presets.

EMEFE - They haven't been very active lately but EMEFE is an incredible ensemble with plenty of amazing music for you to listen to. Their live album from 2017 makes me wish i could go back in time and watch it live.

Louis Cole - Louis Cole's also pretty popular, but maybe you haven't heard of him! Originally hailing from Knower, he's collaborated with a ton of musicians (including Vulfpeck AND Jacob Mann Big Band, mentioned above) as well as produced an impressive array of solo music. I can't understate how much I love this guy.

Thundercat - Know who else he's collaborated with? Thundercat. Have you listened to Thundercat? You should really do yourself a favor and listen to Thundercat.

Sammy Rae and The Friends - Only learned about Sammy Rae very recently but The Feeling (linked) was an earworm that lodged itself in my brain for months. Infectiously positive vibes, a great ensemble and really brilliant singing.

Silk Sonic - Okay they played at the Grammys so it definitely doesn't count as a deep cut but listen to Silk Sonic anyway okay? Okay.

2- MIKE I NEED SOMETHING THAT WHIPS ASS. SOMETHING TO COMPLETELY KNOCK MY SOCKS OFF.

Can do. Your metric of kickass may vary but at least one of these should work for you:

King Gizzard and The Wizard Lizard - King Gizz has put out such an unbelievable volume of music that it's hard to just recommend ONE thing from them. I've linked Nonagon Infinity, a great little album with the fun gimmick of seamlessly looping front to back. They really haven't put out a single bad album, so just go wild.

Royal Blood - Royal blood's bassist plays through an octave pedal, giving their stuff this fuckin' beefy sound that's well-rounded enough you'd never guess the band is just a bassist and a dummer. Their style has gotten poppier lately but it's still all worth listening to.

Tricot - Tricot's been around for around 10 years now and their stuff has only gotten better over time. I feel like Math Rock is kind of an obtuse genre for most people but their recent stuff is absolutely worth checking out even if that's not your usual sort of thing. Makkuro (真っ黒) is my favorite album of theirs by far.

Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail is probably one of my favorite prog albums ever and you'll probably like it too. Insanely good ensemble (the amazing triple threat of sax/trumpet/violin is such an integral part of their sound) and really fun vocals.

Nova Collective - Another incredible prog group. As far as I know they've only put out one album but it whips ass.

Ask My Bull - These guys popped out of the woodwork a few years ago and I've been obsessed with them ever since, I can't wait to see what they do next. If you're a horn-loving freak like me you absolutely need to listen to them.

Fearless Flyers - The previously aforementioned Vulfpeck spin-off band, guest starring Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy and the incredible Nate Smith on drums. Their album Tailwinds is easily one of my favorite albums ever, the addition of a sax trio takes their stuff from incredible to legendary.

Daikaiju - Kaiju-themed surf rock. That's really all that needs saying.

3 - MIKE I NEED SOMETHING THAT'LL MAKE ME SAY "DAMN THAT'S COOL"

Well you're in luck! A wide range of things fit the bill:

Snarky Puppy - A powerhouse jazz/funk/rock ensemble full of insanely talented musicians. Just give this song a listen, you won't regret it.

The Dear Hunter - Dear Hunter (not Deerhunter. Different band) has remained my favorite band since high school. The band has a number of different projects, A collection of EPs for each color of the rainbow, a 5-part rock opera/narrative concept album (with a 6th part that may be a movie??) and other more straightforward albums that still cover a broad range of genres and styles. I think they're great and hopefully you will too.

Hiromi Uehara - Hiromi's probably my favorite pianist ever. Just watch that video. She's ridiculous. She also plays in an incredible trio and guest stars on my favorite Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra song! Preposterously talented and insanely fun to watch. I love her.

The Bad Plus - Speaking of great trios, you can't go wrong with The Bad Plus! Really vibrant arrangements and generally incredible musicianship throughout their work.

Esperanza Spalding - Obscenely talented bassist AND singer AND songwriter. As someone who sings and plays bass (not at the same time, of course) watching her do effortlessly do both at the same time is mesmerizing. I love her.

Chon - Chon's also pretty big now but I want you to imagine you're me at a Dear Hunter (see above) concert back in 2015 and one of the opening bands walks onstage and you're like "well okay what's these guys' deal" and then they start playing these fucking insane picking solos in perfect unison. I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing. I wish everyone could experience Chon through those eyes.

4 - MIKE THOSE ARE COOL AND ALL BUT WHAT I'M REALLY LOOKING FOR IS SOME MUSIC TO GET BUNDLED UP AND GO TO SLEEP TO

You need ambient? I got your ambient right here.

Hiroshi Yoshimura - I was first exposed to the wide, wide world of Japanese ambient music back in college and in all my years since then, few things have been able to beat Yoshimura's atmospheric soundscapes. If you need music to shut your brain off (and who doesn't, from time to time), look no further.

Chihei Hatakeyama - Another Japanese ambient powerhouse, Hatakeyama's got a huge discography of music and all of it will knock your lights out (very pleasantly).

Green-House - Very much inspired by Japanese ambient, Green-house is described as "music for plants". I only wish there was more of it.

Joep Beving - Not exactly an ambient artist but a masterful practitioner of minimal, atmospheric piano. His style is understated but filled with emotion, a great mix of more classical elements with a modern cinematic flair. Great to work to!

5- MIKE EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT JAPANESE CITY POP, JAZZ FUSION AND EARLY ELECTRONIC MUSIC BUT I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START. GET ME ON THE GROUND FLOOR HERE

You got it boss:

Yellow Magic Orchestra - You've probably heard of these guys by now. I've only known about them for 6-ish years after they had a moderate burst of fame here but I think it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say these guys were one of the principle pieces of genetic memory that coalesced into the DNA of modern electronic music. All three of the principle members, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi (rest in peace) have all had really prolific solo careers in a ton of styles of music that are all worth your time.

T Square - An absolute titan of Japanese jazz fusion, their album Adventures is a veritable Rosetta Stone of video game music, directly inspiring a good number of video game songs including the dang mario brothers theme! Their stuff is an absolute joy to listen to.

Tatsuro Yamashita - Yamashita is often called the king of city pop and is (according to wikipedia) credited for pioneering Japanese "soft rock". Having grown up on the pacific coast, there's some ineffable truth in his schmaltzy surf music that touches me deep in my soul. You may not have the same experiences as I do, but I hope listening to him will allow you to tap into that divine spark and enjoy it for yourself.

Masayoshi Takanaka - Perhaps not quite as famous as Yamashita, Takanaka is a brilliant guitarist and musician known for that same schmaltzy pacific rock (just look at that damn guitar. I love him) as well as a number of other styles of rock and jazz fusion. He's got a huge discography and it's all incredible.

Casiopea - I would be remiss if I didn't mention Casiopea. I'm not an expert in Japanese music obviously, but I think it'd be fair to say they and T-Square are the two titans holding the glory of late 70's-early 80's jazz fusion like Atlas shouldering the world. Do yourself a favor and listen to Mint Jams.

Himiko Kikuchi - Truthfully I don't know much of Kikuchi's discography other than Flying Beagle (linked) but she absolutely killed it. Do yourself a favor and listen to that too.

6 - WELL MIKE THAT'S ALL WELL AND GOOD BUT WHAT IF I WANT SOMETHING WEIRD THAT DOESN'T FIT IN ANY OF THOSE CATEGORIES

I'm always happy to recommend unconventional stuff. Here's a few albums that I love to close us out:

Tom Waits - Alice - First of all, you should listen to Tom Waits. I know you know him as the Funny Voice Guy but he's had such an incredible musical career that starts great and only gets more and more amazing over time. Anyway, in the 90's, Tom and his wife (and writing partner since the 80's) Kathleen Brennan were scoring weird experimental musicals in Germany, namely The Black Rider (also worth listening to) and Alice. The musical is a strange extrapolation of Alice in Wonderland, namely inspired by Charles Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll) relationship with Alice Liddell, generally accepted as the real-life inspiration for Alice. Though the actual specifics of their relationship are uncertain, the age discrepancy and Charles' general fixation with Alice leads many to assume....the worst about their relationship, an interpretation the musical runs with. The actual musical is hard to find evidence of (there's some documentary footage from the 90's and I've found the script) but Tom rearranged his music for the show and released it in 2002, which in my eyes is the definitive version of the music. The album is unbelievably melancholic, heart-wrenching, at times deeply uncomfortable, and absolutely filled with beauty. Lost in the Harbor is maybe one of my favorite songs of all time. If ANY of this sounds even slightly interesting to you, I implore you to check it out. It also has Colin Stetson on saxophone and clarinet, which segues quite nicely to the next album.....

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2 - You may have actually heard Colin's music before, he's scored films like Hereditary, Color Out Of Space and the newest Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. New History Warfare is one of his experimental solo projects, most characterized by Stetson recording basically everything in a huge room filled with microphones, creating this incredible impression of scale. It's filled with some of the craziest shit I've ever heard someone do on a saxophone; long, galloping phrases with no pauses for air thanks to circular breathing, mixing in the sound of the valves opening and closing, and an incredible unnatural-sounding delay all achieved with live recording. The Righteous Wrath of An Honorable Man is one of the coolest things I've ever heard in my life (you've probably already heard it before) but the whole album is absolutely captivating.

Caroline Shaw - Partita for 8 Voices - Caroline Shaw is an amazing musician, singer and composer. All of her stuff is really beautiful and worth listening to, but few things stand out as much as this composition, written for and performed by a cappella group Roomful of Teeth (which is probably the sickest possible name for a choral group). I feel like a cappella music has a woefully bland perception among most people (thanks in no small part to Pitch Perfect); all lavish arrangements of pop music with absolutely no soul. If this is what you think all a cappella music is, I urge you to listen to this album. It's a masterful blend of speech, song and energy, filled with a vibrancy and passion I have a difficult time putting into words. You really just have to listen to it.

#music reccomendations #this one got long.....

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omegalomania · 3 years ago

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I think tumblr ate my ask or it just didn't sent but what are your favorite Bastille songs / what are some songs you recommend?

i did NOT get this ask im very sorry anon.

it's genuinely hard for me to narrow down cause bastille is pretty up there in terms of favorite artists. i love all their shit, but a special mention goes out to their second studio album wild world since it's the one that made me a Fan

uh so here's a primer i guess i spent too much time on this lmao.

if you wanna listen to their big hits:

flaws - their first single in the uk. if you ever listened to ship playlists on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 then you've probably heard this song or a variant on it at some point.

pompeii - this is the song that really put them on the map and you definitely know it. it dominated the charts all over the place.

happier - the marshmello song that you've definitely heard before too. i think bastille wrote this for justin bieber or some shit but then decided they liked it too much to give it to him? lmao. anyway if you're not digging the version you hear on the radio all the time i recommend trying the stripped down version

good grief - their big hit off their second album. big in the uk, didn't really make as many waves elsewhere, but it's a really solid song anyway. one of those "upbeat tunes that's actually really fucking sad" ones

things we lost in the fire - another one off their first album. if you live in a wildfire area this might not be one to turn to. or maybe you'll find it cathartic idk i certainly do!!

quarter past midnight - a song about escapism, as was fitting when it was released in 2018 and equally fitting now. running away for a night of fucking around with friends, craving any kind of brief departure from the chaos of the modern world

skulls - this one was not a hit or a single and is technically a bonus track but i'm including it because once again if you ever clicked on a ship playlist on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 you've heard this one. and you know what that was justified this one is also good

if you wanna feel existentially depressed:

their whole discography. i mean i kid but i also don't. that's just kind of how bastille does it. BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS ones that hit me in particular would beeee

two evils - kind of a grim, haunting one introspecting about morality of the self.

oblivion - musing about the afterlife, love, and how time changes all of us.

those nights - contemplating what it is we seek when we plunge into reckless escapism, and the inherent loneliness of it; how even when surrounded by people there's still the pressure of the world outside, continuously coming to pieces

the draw - this one was written about the pull of pursuing a career in music vs. staying home with family and friends. in a broader sense, it can apply to a lot of things. i always felt it resonated with feelings of paranoia and displacement

winter of our youth - discusses childhood, nostalgia, and regret. if it feels like everything's slipping away, is it easier to relive the past, especially if the past is tinted rose?

sleepsong - loneliness, desperation, and the cyclical, abyss-like nature of all it encapsulates

if you want discussion of serious topics:

final hour - a bonus track off their second album that also became a bonus track off their third album? anyway this song talks about climate change and gun control. happy stuff

doom days - this one talks about, uh, everything! doomscrolling, political divides, escalating national tensions, climate change again, etc.

the currents - a song centered on political rhetoric and the power that figureheads have over the masses, the way they can orchestrate hate. basically it's not so subtly aimed at donald trump lmao, dan's literally sung it as much in a few live settings

WHAT YOU GONNA DO??? - social media addiction and the way capitalism and corporate interests have annexed our online experiences, fighting desperately for our attention as they seek to monetize every available aspect of our lives

four walls (the ballad of perry smith) - well this one is about uh. perry smith. who was charged with the death penalty for killing 4 people in the late 50's. but it's less directly about him and more a discussion of the morality of the death penalty and capital punishment

snakes - burgeoning anxieties and the impulse to turn to easy outs, like ignorance or alcoholism, to escape the world's global problems

if you want some pop culture sprinkled on top:

icarus - greek mythology. i like this one because it addresses something that i feel isn't addressed enough in discussions of this myth, which is that icarus is a very young lad. less about the pride of the fall, and more about the inherent tragedy of that.

laura palmer - the whole song is a david lynch shoutout. i've never seen twin peaks myself but the song still slaps.

daniel in the den - christian mythology. discusses the biblical tale of daniel in the lion's den and links that up to themes of betrayal and family.

poet - this one's a double feature, referencing both william shakespeare's sonnet 18 and edmund spencer's sonnet 75. also one of my favorites.

send them off! - this is another one of my favorites of theirs. it's also been described by dan as "othello meets the exorcist" and it very much delivers there

if you want something uplifting:

joy - while bastille (understandably) has a bit of reputation as a band that makes sad music about sad things, they've definitely got some happier songs in their catalogue. pun intended cha ching. this one's one of their more straightforwardly happy tunes

survivin' - this was a song they wrote while they were touring and then felt weird about releasing once the panini hit because it felt a bit on the nose. they ended up releasing it anyway and i am so glad they did cause it's a mood

act of kindness - the "happy" part here is debatable but i'm gonna include it anyway. it’s when someone does something nice for you and that impulse Changes you way down deep you know???

warmth - one of those "the world's going to shit but at least we have each other" kinds of tunes

the anchor - one of those "the world's going to shit but you're the one fucking thing that's still keeping me here" kinds of tunes

give me the future - their latest single as of this writing and one of the more optimistic tracks in their catalogue imo! it's yearning, but it's also with a genuine hope for the future.

and LASTLY. because im going to take every chance i can to plug this band. im going to throw some collabs and covers at you because there's one thing this band does SUPER well and it's collabs and covers.

of the night - this is the big one. it mashes up rhythm of the night by corona and rhythm is a dancer by SNAP! and it's so good they still do this one live and it goes off every time.

no angels - a mashup of "no scrubs" by TLC and "angels" by the xx, poured into a strangely mournful tune with clips from the hitchcock movie psycho. doesn't sound like it should work but it does. kinda really does.

torn apart - with GRADES and lizzo no less!!! it's got two parts but they're both excellent listen to them both

weapon - collab with angel haze, dan priddy, and F*U*G*Z and one of my absolute favorites

remains - remix of their song "skulls" but featuring rag'n'bone man and skunk anansie that adds an entire new dimension to the song, really fucking excellent

old town road mashup - lil nas x's old town road meets lizzo's good as hell meets radiohead's talk show host meets talking heads' road to nowhere meets the osmond's crazy horse. "what the fuck that shouldn't work" i KNOW and yet here it is!! BLATANTLY BANGING!!!

we can't stop - one of the few times dan smith subtly changes the lyrics of the song he's covering (most of the time he opts to keep the original pronouns and the like, which is very nice to see). anyway this one mixes miley cyrus's we can't stop with eminem's lose yourself and billy ray cyrus's achy breaky heart. and also the lion king's i just can't wait to be king is there. yes i know it sounds batshit especially because the whole thing is surprisingly melodic and heartfelt and you know what it works.

anyone but me x nightmares - mashing up joy crookes' anyone but me with easy life's nightmares and absolutely one of my favorites.

bad guy mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "bad" in the title? we've got bad guy (billie eilish), bad decisions (bastille), bad romance (lady gaga), and bad blood (taylor swift). bastille even has a song called bad blood and they didnt use it. they used taylor swift's version. also the distinctive guitar riff from dick dale's misirlou is there.

somebody mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "some" in the title? someone like you (adele), somebody told me (the killers), somebody to love (queen), use somebody (kings of leon), and someone you loved (lewis capaldi). seriously these guys take mashups to a new level.

final song - this is a cover of MØ's final song. it also adds in craig david's 7 days and, impossibly enough, europe's final countdown. how does it work. how.

ALL RIGHT. THATS ALL IVE GOT IN ME. HOPE THIS HELPED ANON AND IM SORRY IF THIS IS TOO MUCH

#askin hours #anon #bastille #ill put this in the bastille tag why not #this is predominantly a fall out boy blog but if any bastille bloggers are out there....all like 20 of you....#i see the work u do in this fandom and i love u for it

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sanstropfremir · 4 years ago

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Okay, time for my weekly rant so buckle up. The vocal stages were okay-I cant really remember them well because I watched them only once so take what I say with a grain of salt. Well I watched the Spark one once and I only got through half of the other one because I can’t stand ballads especially when there’s no interesting movement on stage to keep me engaged. Like it’s no fault of the members themselves or the song (I actually think their singing was incredibly beautiful and Eunkwang always sings like his wife just left him with the kids which is how you know he’s good) but I physically could not pay attention. That’s why I liked the spark stage a bit better-there was enough movement that I was able to focus on it. I really liked the use of the fire and the way they were walking in and out of the frame trading off parts so there weren’t too many awkward moments where the other members where on stage but not doing anything. The opening was gorgeous with each members being lit by the spotlight as they harmonize. So stagewise, I prefer Spark but vocally I think the other group was stronger. I love Spark and Taeyon is such an incredible vocalist (I mean the song is great because of her) so I don’t get why their delivery was, I don’t want to say weak, but subdued might be a better word. The only one that really stood out was Junhoe (but also that man couldn’t not stand out even if he tried, not with that incredibly rasp) and even he seemed to be holding himself back a bit. Though it was a bit slow it built up well to the two last choruses but still the first half could have been stronger. I know they were trying to draw it out to a strong pay off but I don’t really know if it was enough. And yes the suits were *chef’s kiss*. I think at this point in their career the FNC stylist has put SF9 in so many suits they’ve got it down to a science. Also I’m a sucker for those shirts with the triangle cut out and we got not one but two of them here.

Okay moving on, I’m not sure which group was next but I’ll talk about the Ikon stage. It seems like they finally realized that they’re on a performance based competition show so they decided to pull out the big guns. Love the little skit at the beginning (making sure people don’t forget that they’re YG), it was cute and refreshing. I really appreciated how they leaned into the campy acting in this stage (Stray kids did it too-just adding to the similarities between their stages). The song was meh but I also don’t really like BP especially not their recent stuff so it’s not a big deal. I would have preferred if they had gone with another song maybe Whistle or As If It’s Your Last or if they’d done a 2NE1 song like Chanwoo mentioned some point in the episode. I also think the stage would have been way smoother if they’d let Ikon and Lisa interact. Like if the boys appeared in her set after her section and then they all moved back to the first jungle set and then the whole thing turns gold and they did a dramatic outfit change (but with better jackets because theirs look like they came out of Party City). I also get what you mean about the dancers outfits not being that great. I actually really liked the outfits of Lisa’s dancers in isolation but they didn’t match with her or the set so they threw me off a bit. At least with the ikon members they were going for a modern look so the dancers outfits didn’t look that strange in comparison. Do you think it would have been better if they were white? How would you have improved then? The best way I can describe this performance was that it was a stage, stuff happened, I enjoyed myself but I don’t plan to revisit it anytime soon. Oh and we also have to give points for them cursing on national television not once but twice (at this point Jinwan deserves to say fuck).

Now to Stray Kids. So I feel like I need to preface this with the fact that I am actually a stray kids fan (I won’t call myself a stay because I don’t associate with the fandom) and though I’ve been really critical of them and their stages tend to be my least favorite I still have a soft spot for them (I got into this show because of them after all). I loved, loved, loved the intro with Felix (and yes his biggest flaw is that he’s Australian but I forgive him for it) and the way it immediately transitions into the chorus of DDD-the abrupt transition does fit really well with the Deadpool theme and I guess it is the closest they’re going to get to the feeling of yeeting themselves into traffic like in the movie. Interesting choice to start with the chorus. Now that I’m rewatching it I do really wish they stuck with the comic theme. I think that’s my gripe with SKZ-they have a lot of good ideas but they move on too quickly from them. Just pick a handful of things and sprinkle them throughout instead of cycling through them at breakneck speed. Like okay they’re doing Deadpool and he’s a comic character so keep the comic styling (it would have been a good thing to put in the projection behind Seungmin’s scene), maybe in the subway they could have had some fight choreo so the guns coming in at Lee Knows part aren’t out of nowhere (also someone please tell me they were trying to recreate the meme with the cat and the knives, please I need to know). I absolutely agree that them having a goal or an antagonist would have really helped the story along. I mean they literally have a spoken intro so why couldn’t Felix just tell us who they were fighting (and I’m pretty sure in the movie Wade tells us he’s trying to kill Francis in that scene sooo). As always they put more focus on the rappers (please can we get less Changbin and more Seungmin, Jeongin, or Lee Know or at least give Felix more parts). Seungmin was the real mvp of this stage and he had the best outfit (I think it qualifies for Hanya’s best gay little outfit list). Personally I with they hadn’t gone with Gods Menu again. I’ve been hoping that they would perform My Pace (and maybe remix it with their B-side TA off their Go Live album) because that would be such a fun stage. Again, I enjoyed myself but I won’t revisit it anytime soon. At this point the only groups I actually look forward to are BTOB and SF9 (they’re doing fucking Move and I don’t know whether to be excited or terrified-there’s a clip of Taeyang covering Move from a variety show or interview and I think he does it really well so I know at least one of them can pull it off). Again thanks for creating space where I can info dump and I hope I said something of interest to you!

i think you wrote more than me!! i love this, im gonna put my response under a cut im not being super obnoxious on the dash.

i get that the mayfly stage would be not as visually stimulating for people and usually i would count myself in with that crowd because i love a good spectacle but i think because i watched the spark stage first and my colour perception is sometimes weird so when there's a lot of movement with very little colour variation my tiny pea brain loses track of whats happening really quickly. especially with red. so it was kind of difficult for me to pay attention to the spark stage in the second half. also i absolutely HATE watching people flub on stage because it brings up such visceral secondhand feelings that i couldn't even watch the stage when i started the full episode today.

i love a good suit but you know what i would also love: sf9 in more costume variations. tbh im just getting nitpicky about it because im a costume designer down to the core and i got trained by a designer who specialized in doing avant garde costuming so i tend to skew more towards wild than reserved. it looks like the move stage wont be be suits so ill take it, but oh man to do i want to see some really crazy stuff. which i know they'll never do because idols have to be pretty at all times or the fans get mad but oh i want it so badly.

do you mean how i would improve ikon's backup dancers outfits or lisa's? here why dont i do both. for lisa's dancers i would have just done away with that harness shape all together, its almost exclusively a military style. the jackets by themselves would have been fine but really what they should have done was put them in something that matched the gold but contrasted enough to give them shape. by having at least her dancers in all black on a gold stage there was a lot of "haha look at me do a duck walk because lets throw in some voguing for spice." they could have gone with a mesh bodysuit idea similar to what she was wearing or even just different colour coats. as for ikon's backup dancers, firstly pants. not black. or even a longer skirt. genuinely a part of the reason why i dont watch girl group content is because i HATE the hem length of the shorts they make everyone wear. words cannot describe how much i hate that cut. kpop is so obsessed with showing off women's bodies and especially their legs but they do it in the LEAST flattering way possible because it "can't be too risqué," just shoot me now. i hate it. i hate it so fucking much. yea yea everybody was on cocaine in the 80s whatever but at least they were all wearing french cut bodysuits so their legs looked fantastic. stop interrupting the lines!! anyways. pants so the only section of skin showing is thigh to mid calf, especially because they weren't even doing any fun legwork! if they really wanted to keep the full sleeve bodysuits they shout have done them in a fabric with a texture or external embellishments, like a patent/vinyl or sequins/rhinestones. something to catch the stage lights so we can actually see the shape of the limb. but the easiest way to fix it is literally just cut the arms off the bodysuits. stages are lit to show off skin, sometimes the best way to have something be seen is just to have it bare.

i agreed skz cycles through ideas way too fast, they need to just pick a couple and stick them out through the stage instead of just adding more and more different ones throughout. also ok good someone else noticed that there is just...so much changbin. we don't need that much changbin. i know there's other boys in the group let them do something! also im pretty sure theyre not recreating the cat knife meme but actually the promo image from john wick chapter two, which i also could have sworn i saw a deadpool version of as an instagram ad back when movies were happening, but now that im looking for it it doesn't exist so i might be crazy.

im excited for the move stage but im also trepidatious because...its move. i have NO clue what the concept is from the previews so i just hope its weird enough to take it enough out of the taemin context for me to enjoy it.

#kingdom #youre very sweet im glad you like sending asks in!!#realistically im just trying to replace going out to the pub and talking about art with people #this is my virtual pub you are welcome to a have a pint at my table!!#theres some costume talk in this one for anyone who reads the tags first #as you can see do not get me started on the shorts issue because it is one of the few things that gets me irrationally angry #i can ignore it most of the time by willfully not thinking about it #kpop questions #text #kingdom asks

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deanky · 5 years ago

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Here are some little like ‘reviews’ of all the Oingo Boingo albums... Under cut LOL... I just like to talk about Oingo Boingo I am so obsessed right now they have become tied for Mr. Bungle as favorite band... But anyways... Hope you enjoy ^_^

Only a Lad: Very fun sound as a whole. I enjoy how like poppy and synthy it is and stuff and that one weird electronic voice Mr. Elf man does in like every song. I remember like actually not liking most of the songs first time I heard it and I’m not sure why because I enjoy 9/10 out of them a lot now... But then again I like almost never really like an album the first time I hear it LOL I have a mean soul. A lot of the songs have pretty evil words in them but I have like slight respect for how much hatred Danny Elfman seems to have had for everyone on the entire planet at the time of writing. And for the majority of songs I cannot really complain about because I think it fits theme of like very happy sounding song but nasty words in it duality of man and such. Only one I really do not like is Capitalism because it has the whiniest lyrics of all and also it just does not sound good like as a song I think I am sorry. I must say it. Forgive me. I was so thrilled hearing Nasty Habits for the first time because I really like songs that sound like a homosexual cartoon villain would sing them to you. Well that’s all. Only a Lad itself was one of the first songs of theirs I heard except sped up and it had a picture of anime Bart Simpson on it. I like it. Good song. Recently I cannot stop getting it and Little Girls stuck in my head. That’s all

Nothing to Fear: Everything about this album is sooooo sooo good it is like so incredibly catered specifically to my tastes. One of the few albums I have loved immediately as soon as I heard I finished listening for the first time and was immediately like oh this is going in my favorites. I add some points also for absolutely incredible beautiful cover art it’s got weird colors weird animals logo made of worm things it’s so beautiful it makes me want to cry. I think it gets SLIGHTLY weaker in its second half but that is hard not to do with albums. That said though a lot of songs that I felt were slightly worse at first have risen to being my favorites of the album like Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai. Didn’t know what to think about Running on a Treadmill at first but I think it works very well in its simplicity and it is very catchy I can imagine people like singing it on actual treadmill and like jumping around abd being in zero gravity for some reason it is like that music video where they are in the plane but it is treadmills. Well, hi. The only ones that feel like slightly slightly worse to me are Whole Day Off and Islands but I think I am growing to like both of those a lot more too. My favorites though are Grey Matter and Insects and Wild Sex and also Nothing to Fear the titular song and Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai which is over half of the songs so I think that’s good. I remember listening to Private Life like 5 times before listening to the rest of the album but I always forgot how it went immediately after not sure why because I’d say it is a reasonably catchy song. Anyways INCREDIBLE album. Rude lyrics? Still a thing but tend to be much more agreeable like it is obvious who is being made fun of in like Grey Matter and Nothing to Fear and I say the fun making is well deserved! Even though I may be the target of Grey Matter I understand and I am sorry. The general sound is also amazing I LOVE all the weird noises and metal stuff and clanks and clonks and all the xylophone. Dude the xylophone is so good. Synth and xylophone and guitar they are all best friends and they sound so cool together and I think xylophones should be more widely used in like “pop” music as a whole whatever that defines. I keep wanting to start a band and just play xylophone. Like what’s anybody gonna do to stop me? I love xylophone. That’s all

Good for Your Soul: I wasn’t so impressed by this one the first time I heard it but it quickly wormed its way up to a very close #2 and possibly even tied with Nothing to Fear as my favorite album of theirs. The album art on this one is also really good I will say! I felt like slightly let down at first by it just because it’s so hard to live up to how beautiful of a cover Nothing to Fear has in my mind. But its art is so cool too. Muscle man in wobbly world. What’s more to love (Side note I enjoy the song Wobbly World it is not an Oingo Boingo song it is by Devo I should listen to more Devo.) The first time I listened the only songs that REALLY jumped out at me super hard were No Spill Blood and Fill the Void, and I think those 2 are still tied as my favorites. I LOVE the whole like rhythm No Spill Blood has going on and the weird animal noises and also the lyrics they are not about Animal Farm they are about The Island of Dr. Moreau he did those surgeries don’t you know he made the animals have to be men and they were like are we not men but they didn’t say they were Devo sorry I keep talking about Devo in this Oingo Boingo album review. And BTW Fill the Void also is really great and has possibly my favorite set of lyrics in any song ever to exist which is the part like “Every little thing is a piece of a larger thing / Every little fish is a tyrant of the sea / Every little atom is a master of his family / Every single piece calls my name / What do they want from me?” It is so good it makes me go so insane I love it. Another song that works really well in just being a simple thing. It is so nice and cool it feels like being in space and you are in one of the levels of one of those Kirby spinoff games where he’s like a ball and you’re rolling him around NOT Canvas Curse the other ones like Dream Course I think. Anyways though while I wasn’t super big on all the other songs they ended up like slowly coming back into my head one by one until I was obsessed with all of them. First it was Pictures of You. Then it was Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me (would put that in my top 3 as well) and then Dead or Alive and then Little Guns and then Cry of the Vatos and then Wake Up It’s 1984 and then Sweat and then the titular song AND Who Do You Want to Be it was like. Wow. What a world. WDYWTB + Good for Your Soul + Sweat were the 3 that didn’t really do it for me as much for a while but now I’ve been really enjoying them too so I think I can say I love every single song on this album. It is becoming my best friend. It’s sooo good. It feels like living in one of those fake Utopian cities and there’s actually something sinister going on behind the scenes. Like I will start seeing colors and freaking about it any time soon. Random memory that unlocked in me is that I used to be incredibly obsessed with The Book Thief and its concept of death when I was in like 6th or 7th grade like uncannily so but I never talked about the book ever I just hid it away in my mind. My sad story. Sorry everyone. That’s all

So-Lo: This one is technically just Danny Elfman but you know it is an Oingo Boingo album man they got the whole band there they were just having licensing issues because new label and stuff is my understanding. And they were like. Well let’s take advantage of this and do some less standard Oingo Boingo songs. That is how I grasp this situation I don’t know how correct I am her I actually don’t know that much about O.B. outside of the songs at this point I still cannot name any non-Danny Elfman member and I am really sorry for this and must learn to atone for my ways. This is a good album though. Once again has really good cover art I will say. It’s like well hello there Mr. Elf man you’ve got some eyes sliding off your face and some funny colors and are controlling some little puppet things maybe it’s like you do you man LOL am I right or am I right! I like this album. This was yet another one where I listened the first time and was like. Man I’m not really feeling it with any of these songs. However I do enjoy that they all sound kind of like they were recorded on a Sega Genesis. I mean it does have very Genesis-y noises I know this was the 80s and it would be more accurate to say the Sega Genesis soudns like this album but you know what I mean. Anyways nothing grabbed me at first but upon my second listen I became extremely obsessed with the song “Go Away” and then listened to it on repeat for 2 hours straight and it still hasn’t got old for me I still like it very good song. Definitely my favorite. Tied with Everybody Needs which is also a very fun song I became similarly enamored with like a day later but didn’t listen to quite as much LOL. But anyways I went through that oh-so-familiar process which I must warn you is also the process I go through for every single album after this! - Where all the other songs started worming their way into my head and I was like oh brother I am beginnign to like them all now! Good for Your Soul, I think, marked like more obvious change from songs tending to be like “This is what Danny Elfman thinks of the world phrased in a humorous way” to more like actual stories and stuff, although the former wasn’t rid of entirely and the latter hadn’t just popped up or anything. But I think this album continued that in a really nice way and while it can be vague, listening to it I always feel that there is like one solid story all the song narratives go throughout. Someone pointed out in like Youtube Comments that Go Away feels like the sadder side of Cool City and to me it feels like the whole album is kind of in that vein. Seems to me like all the songs are in the Cool City itself and you’re seeing like the various different horrible things that go on in that town and horrible people that live in it. Yknow? Like Tough as Nails and Everybody Needs make me think of like various awful weird a$$ holbs living there and then stuff like Sucker for Mystery and Lightning and It Only Makes Me Laugh. Well they are clearly from the perspectives of some guy. The same guy? Maybe maybe not I don’t feel like they are the same guy. But it feels like they are like experiencing weird horrible sh*t in this horrible town that is filled with racists but also gay people. I like this album I enjoy it

Dead Man’s Party: OK I am sorry to say. This is a good album but it hasn’t COMPLETELY grown on me yet. But I DO like it a lot. I enjoy it it’s good. I really really love Just Another Day and the titular song and Heard Somebody Cry and Nobody Lives Forever and Weird Science which is over half of them so not bad all things considered. And I do not DISLIKE any songs. But the other ones haven’t quite grown on me yet. This album does kind of shift into like the more commercial stuff it’s not like generic pop or nothing. But it is like slightly strange to get used to. That said. The songs I like I REALLY like thye are so good. No One Lives Forever is an incredible incredible song just like Nasty Habits it fulfills my love of songs that sound like they are being sung by evil guys in cartoons but are not they’re actually being sung by Danny Elfman who is an evil guy in real life. Sorry I didn’t mean it he probably is not that evil I’m sure he’s perfectly nice Mr. Elf man if you are reading this I apologize. Anyways though. I like the general sound of this album I will say! I think though it has thing going on where like, in my mind, some of the songs feel like way too happy and overly peppy almost like mocking. I have a weird mind and a weird way of processing things and I am also incredibly afraid of everything on this planet so keep that in mind BTW I am sorry. But like Stay and Fool’s Paradise and Help Me and Same Man I was Before all have that kind of feeling to me, it’s like these are so cheerful and cheesy sounding to me it kind of scares me a little bit. However... I am starting to feel this less with Help me and Stay, and also I felt this a little bit with Heard Somebody Cry at first as well and I no longer do. So maybe I’m still going through the motions of song-liking as I do. As I said though the favorites on here are incredible. Weird Science may have been written for strange movie deal and they may be really saddened by its memory or maybe just the music video’s memory but it’s a very fun song nevertheless. Dead Man’s Party itself it really fun true classic. Very orange song to me. It’s orange and purple like I hear it and I am like ah yes I am experiencing orange and purple. Very nice shades of orange and purple though, and they are mixing together in pleasing ways and throwing a big party and everyone’s invited you might even say it’s a dead man’s party heh heh heh (grins devilishly). I think this like takes the kind of narratives in Good for Your Soul and So-Lo and like takes it to best form! In that it has a very clear yet not super specific narrative going on throughout the whole album, I really like whenever an album has songs set up so pleasingly and nice like that it makes me sad when they’re just like in random order. But of course this album is all about death and accepting it and stuff and like all the different feelings of sadness and happiness and stuff that all go into it! And I like its message a lot, like obviously you shouldn’t want to die but don’t fear it. It has a very nice depiction of the afterlife. I like all the stuff in Beetlejuice and Corpse Bride with their similar interpretations too although Beetlejuice isn’t quite as positive about it LOL. I want to watch Corpse Bride again. I want to see another singing Danny Elfman skeleton. I want to see the Peter Lorre worm. My one complaint with the album narrative is that Weird Science goes at the end it kinda ruins the whole story a little bit but I can’t fault them because like where COULD they put it? I think it might work kind of well as the first song because like trying to make frankenstein guy before all the accepting death stuff makes sense. But also. It would be a weird opener. Also the album art is so incredible I love it I want to join their party it’s beautiful. I did not mean for this review to get as long as it did. They just keep getting longer each album I’m sorry the length does not show my opinion but I just keep getting more excited each album

Boi-Ngo: Will admit this one is my least favorite. And once again my bias shows because it has cover art I don’t like very much. It’s just real guys looking at you. Where’s the funny Oingo Boingo touch where’s the charm people!??!? it makes me sad. And also, as a whole, while I DO like most of the songs I feel like I don’t like them as much as I like any of the ones on other albums, and it also has my least favorite song I’ve heard other than Capitalism which is We Close Our Eyes sorry I’ve seen a lot of people who really like that one but it just scares me. It feels so insincere to me it makes me feel that thing once more where it’s like this song is waaayyy to happy and peppy to not feel like it’s kind of sinister deep down. I apologize. It is a fun album however! I think it kind of goes back more to “Danny Elfman’s humorous observations about life”, which is not always a bad thing, but it seems to revert a little bit too much back to like him just being kind of whiny and not making much of a point in like, say, New Generation. Although it is a nice song I think! It scares me when he goes like now he’s got you by the balls. I understand the point of that lyric. But it frightens me. I think my favorites are Home Again, Elevator Man, Not My Slave (although lyrics feel like slightly concerning), Outrageous, and Pain. Which once again is more than half the album so shows what I know complaining about it this whole time.

Dark at the End of the Tunnel: I feel bad for this album because before listening to it I always forgot it existed, like I listened to Boi-Ngo and was like aw man I only have one album left! Oh wait nevermind I have 2. And now I keep fearing there’s another one I forgot not including like the live albums and singles stuff. Maybe there is.... haunting me But anyways... I already did like incomprehensible post talking about this one earlier LOL which inspired me to do more equally incomprehensible things on all the other albums hence this post. So I’ve already said a lot of what I have to say about this and hope not to repeat it too much... but... LOL I was so afraid wondering if I would actually like this one or not... I wanted to just because of how awesome the cover art is. And I was afraid because I wasn’t really a big fan of most of the songs at first. But I think with this album and the whole Boingo era they were moving towards like more orchestral stuff and changing their sound and all... So it was a bit strange to get used to at first but the more I listened the more I enjoyed everything I guess like taking in all the instruments and textures and what not. A lot of the songs in this one also feel like kind of creepily cheery but I think it works best for this album specifically, because as I’ve said before it feels very intentional - there is like whole dual thing of more dark mysterious sections and light-hearted happy sections in most of the songs. Although my top 3 are all songs that mostly just have the former going on... Right to Know, Long Breakdown, and Run Away. I also really enjoy When the Lights Go Out, Skin, Out of Control (though it still feels like vaguely scary to me LOL), and Glory Be... But I keep finding myself getting all the others stuck in my head as well. So still growing on me LOL! I am beginning to appreciate all the other songs more for those cheerier parts as well yknow... I think this whole album has a very fantastical vibe to it LOL but definitely like, a very old fantasy. Like they discovered this album in a giant wizard’s tower like ten thousand years ago and now it’s been unearthed again. But it was created by a child wizard who was like 5 years old. But still had a wizard beard. That’s the guy on the cover I’ve decided. Little wizard from long ago. However... It does feel like it’s kind of setting up something. Like all the songs do... whole album is good but feels like it’s kind of a preparation for the next one. Which doesn’t make it bad! Just like I feel like it’s kind of part of a set... Incomplete on its own yknow? I would probably rank it in my lower 4 of all the albums but I’ll still say I enjoyed it quite a bit, that is no insult. And I like wizards

Boingo: This album is SO good dude. I’m glad this is what they left off on. Really great finishing album... I have a weird timeline involving this one because it was actually the first album I listened to, my dad showed it to me, but I only ever listened up to Lost Like This before very recently and by recently I mean today and I am still listening to Changes for the first time as I write this which is probably a bad idea but I am doing it anyways. Anyways though... The first O.B. songs my dad showed to me ever were Insanity from this album and Dead Man’s Party the song, and despite how different their two sources are they both have extremely similar structure I think. And so I kind of painted this picture of like all Oingo Boingo songs being similarly structured around 6-7 minutes and mostly repeating the same different sections in slightly different ways. And I am pleased that this album kind of fulfills that - a lot of the songs are like 2-3x longer than they really need to be but I enjoy that because I love long songs. As I mentioned earlier, DatEotT feels like it’s just the beginning of something, and this provides a very satisfying ‘second half’. I think it works well by itself too, though! Boingo marks such a big change musically from everything else before even DatEoT but it somehow stays very true to their old spirit anyways.. But everything feels so much grander and I really like it. Almost every song has a pretty wistful melancholy feel but at the same time ALSO almost every song but like a different set of almost every song is very big and bombastic. So it definitely has that “well this is our last album goodbye” feel to it. But it’s OK. It’s like a big grand finale. If there was a like an Oingo Boingo musical that had every single song for some reason and lasted like 10 hours I feel like the other albums could be switched around the whole thing regardless of their actual releases, but this one would HAVE to be last. Adding to that, I feel like it really like takes a lot of the earlier concepts I’ve liked a lot in previous albums and had them return. Like So-Lo, many of the songs have pretty different narratives, but all feel like they can be one loose intertwined thing. Pedestrian Wolves and Lost Like This definitely feel connected for one... and like Insanity and Changes provide like nice bookends where the first is like analyzing the world around us and then the second is analyzing the self. Side note. Danny Elfman is always referring to himself as stupid in Oingo Boingo songs. And sometimes it’s just like PoV character or something. But it ticks me off a little bit because he is like clearly not stupid he is like a crazy evil genius. But ALSO I’m not really sure what exactly the whole story of Boingo is, but it just feels connected in some sort of mysterious way yknow? Maybe it will appear to me later... If Dark at the End of the Tunnel was created by a little five year old wizard ten thousand years ago, this was created by the same wizard when he was reaching the end of his life and was in the wizard’s nursing home in like the 1920s. It still feels like mildly aged, there is SOMETHING about it that feels like it’s meant to be played on like an extremely old awful record player, but it has a much more modern feeling. It almost feels like another interpretation of the afterlife... Maybe that more Beetlejuice kind where it’s just like real life at first but if you peek around the corner you’ll find all the weird sandworms and colorful ghosts and stuff. Anyways though. This album is so good. Not my favorite right now, but definitely in top 3, like at the moment of writing this I would say. #1 is Nothing to Fear. #2 is Good for Your Soul. #3 is Boingo. But I am loving it soooo much on my first actual full listen even though I’ve had time to like absorb half the songs already admittedly. So it might end up being my favorite after all! I think my 3 favorite tracks also on this are Insanity, Lost Like This, and Hey!. Random completely unrelated parallel to my other favorite band. I like that they have a song called Hey! and Mr. Bungle has a song called Hi! It all fits together. And they both have the exclamation point. But anyways ALSO since I’ve only finished listening for the first time Changes finished while I was writing this BTW. I am still figuring out my opinions on the rest of the songs. Don’t think the I am the Walrus cover QUITE does it for me, I like Spider and War Again but not sure if they’re favorites. I hated Can’t See/Useless the first time I listened but now I like it how about that! ONE MORE thing I like about this. Is its songs feel like continuations of stuff in other albums. Although that may just be because of similar themes! Like, War Again feels like a continuation of both Nothing to Fear and Little Guns but it’s about similar subjects to both. And Tender Lumplings, Little Girls, no real explanation needed there. Insanity and Nasty Habits match up pretty well, with both just being like about hating the world although Nasty Habits is more specific than that LOL. Mary is a girl who is unfairly ostracized, Johnny of Only a Lad is a boy who is unfairly praised, you know. And also one more thing ONE more I know this one ALSO kinda has the classic Danny Elfman yells about things stuff going on but I feel like this is the album where it works best. But maybe I am just a hypocrite. OK that’s all. Hi

#definitely going to delete this later LOL I get embarassed #but i had fun writing all this incomprehensible stuff

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avvidstarion · 5 years ago

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For the album ask game... how about The Black Parade?

oh ABSOLUTELY. i LOVE you. this is all subject to change at the drop of the hat bc im wishy-washy and i love all of these songs anyway so

this got WAY too long so i am putting it under a readmore shhvkldlkdgjlkdsj

not including b-sides:

1. Teenagers- kind of a basic pick i know, BUT, in my defense, the song slaps. it’s such a fun song, especially when you’re singing it at the top of your lungs. the guitar part is super cool too- im trying to learn it rn but it’s a slow process bc im bad at guitar.

2. Mama- what can i say. it fucks. the old time-y feel, the harmonies/background vocals, the layers. the guitar goes so fucking hard. banging lyrics- “you should’ve raised a baby girl, i should have been a better son”??????? songs to be trans to.”but the shit that i’ve done with this fuck of a gun” is the kind of lyric that you can only properly convey if you’re screaming it at the top of your lungs. the whole ending is just. mind blowing

3. The End.- LISTEN!!!!!!!!! the end is WAY TOO FUCKING UNDERRATED!!!! oh my goddd i love it so much. i love it SO much. it’s such a perfect beginning to the song. the lyrics are great (”now come one, come all, to this tragic affair” if you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, you can find out first hand what it’s like to be me”, “another contusion, my funeral jag. here’s my resignation, i’ll serve it in drag. you’ve got front row seats to the penitence ball, when i grow up, i want to be NOTHING AT ALL!!! SAVE ME!!! GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!! SAVE ME!!! TOO YOUNG TO DIE, AND MY DEAR!!! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME JUST WALK AWAY AND TAKE ME!!). the bit with the snapping and the ooooohs is fun too. such a good song, it could honestly be 1 or 2 but my ranking system isnt based in logic and makes no sense to even myself

4. House of Wolves- house of wolves was my favorite mcr song for a good chunk of time, but as a result i’m kinda burned out on it, which is why it isn’t higher. however it is still number four because it’s objectively a fucking amazing song. the guitar is so fuckin fun, the lyrics are great, and it’s just. fun to dance around and sing it at the top of your lungs. you better run like the devil cause they’re never gonna leave you alone!!!!! tell me i’m a bad, bad, bad, bad man!!!

5. Welcome to the Black Parade- the big man itself. the titular song. their biggest hit. a lot of people shit on wttbp for being popular and, like, pretty much the only song of theirs to ever be on the radio anymore (and even then it’s once in a blue moon), BUT. it got popular for a reason. it’s a really good song. i love the structure of it, i love how it builds and builds and builds. the lyrics are wonderfully done- “a world that sent you reelin from decimated dreams/ your misery and hate will kill us all”, the whole “do or die, you’ll never make me” stanza is The Ultimate rallying cry. and the “im just a man, i’m not a hero” is just. ughghghdlkslakdjglsdkg. the titular song of an album entirely about death and dying and misery being SO hopeful and SO upbeat really portrays the album as a whole much differently- mcr is known as The Emo Band because, yeah, their aesthetic is dark and their songs touch dark stuff but they have never been all whiney and boo-hoo-y and melancholic for the sake of melancholy. there’s always been a positive note to their music and a lot of people just don’t get that which makes me sad. anyway. wttbp is fun and i like it and i like the drums and the trumpets at the end. marching bands fuck

6. Blood- ok so the pattern here seems to be that i favor the fun songs over the slow ones, and blood sticks with that. much like with mama, i love the old time-y feel. i love that this is like a fun little bonus ditty to end the album on. the lyrics are silly and fun and jovial, and the piano is great. love it and it makes me happy

7. Disenchanted- OUGHH. OUUUUUGH. i know cancer is objectively the saddest song on the album, but disenchanted just hits different. “when the lights all went out, we watched our lives on the screen/ i hate the ending myself, but it started with an alright scene” just DECIMATES me, man. the acoustic guitar is a nice change of pace, and the vocal performance is just. so fucking emotional. especially the “woahhhhhhhh-ohs” at the end. great song, makes me Feel Emotions

8. The Sharpest Lives- ok so i know this is pretty much in the middle of the list, but i want to stress that i dont hate any of the songs on this album, so even the middle of the list is pretty fuckin good imo. the sharpest lives makes me go batshit. the lyrics are so fucking wild. “a light to burn all the empires, so bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be” is SO fuckin sick like OH my god. what a line. also “there’s a place in the dark where the animals go/ you can take off your skin in the cannibal glow/ juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands/ drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, romeo” like WHAT?????????????? GERARD POPPED OFF W THIS ONE FOLKS!! also i love how at the beginning the whisper-y vocals bounce from ear to ear. also “so why don’t you blow me......a kiss before she goes” is fuckin hilarious. honestly this song should be higher but i havent gone through a phase where i’ve been obsessed w it yet so it stays down here for now. one day it will take hold and be all i can listen to for a month straight and THEN it will climb the ranks.

9. Cancer- makes me cry like a liddol baby. my mom doesnt let it play in the car cause it makes her too sad. twenty one pilots covered it and it was FUCKING AWFUL so the song is kinda ruined now cause i can only think about their shitty cover. like the AUDACITY. but anyway besides that the song is heart wrenching and amazing. the hardest part of this is leavin you!!!!

10. Dead!- look, i know technically the end. and dead! are the same song/ are just continuations of each other but i’m listing them separately bc dead! is, to me, the worse of the two. not that it’s bad or anything, it just doesn’t pop off the same way the end. and all the songs before it on the list do. however i do love the guitar at the beginning and the solo, and the “one! two! one two three four! LA LA LA LAs” are super fucking fun.

11. Famous Last Words- i used to hate this song!!!! i truly did!! it’s obvs not on the top of my list now or anything, but i have grown to appreciate it a lot more than i used to. like with wttbp, it is the silver lining of the album that betrays its optimistic side. it’s a happy final message to a dark album. the ending is fucking amazing. I am not afraid to keep on living!!!! i am not afraid to walk this world alone!!!!!!

12. Sleep- Sleep is, unfortunately, just kinda boring in comparison. i almost forgot to even put it on the list. however, i do like the “the hardest part’s the awful things that i’ve seen” and the “a drink, for the horrors that i’m in. for the good guys and the bad guys, for the monsters that i’ve been” lines. also the “three cheers for tyranny, unapologetic apathy!” line. but overall it’s just. eh

13. This is How I Disappear- i have. complicated feelings on tihid. on one hand, it reminds me of my favorite oc, re, and is on their playlist. on the other hand, i have grown bored with it over time. it just doesn’t stand out to me at all really. that being said, i do really like the “who walks among the famous living dead” and the “can you hear me cry out to you” stanzas.

14. I Don’t Love You- while i dont think idly is a bad song at all, it just simply isnt my kind of song. i do think gerard’s vocals are extremely strong throughout, especially during the “when you go, would you have the guts to say/ i don’t love you like i loved you yesterday” line. like wow ok maam please continue. but overall i just dont vibe w breakup songs bc i cant relate

including b sides: 1. Heaven Help Us

2. Kill All Your Friends

3. Everything else

4. My Way Home is Through You

my reasoning:

heaven help us is tied for my favorite mcr song Of All Time. everything about this song is catnip for lil old me. the angsty christian imagery, the vocals, the guitar. all of it. the lyrics make me lose my mind, especially the “will you pray for me? or make a saint of me? and will you lay for me? or make a saint of- cause i’ll give you all the nails you need/cover me in gasoline/ wipe away those tears of blood again/ and the punchline to the joke is asking ‘SOMEONE SAVE US’” and the “you don’t know a thing about my sins/ or the misery begins/ you don’t know, so i’m burnin! I’m burnin!!!” parts. like i absolutely vibe with this song so fucking hard. i sing it constantly, it’s great to sing (very stimmy for me), it sounds beautiful. i am obsessed with it through and through

similarly, kill all your friends also speaks to my very soul. i can’t pick favorite lyrics bc id just have to copy and paste the whole song. i love the build-up, i love the time progression throughout the song (it’s been TEN FUCKING YEARS since i’ve been seein your faaaaaace rounnnnnd heeeere), i love the “you’ll never take me alives”. literally everything about this song makes me emo. it just Gets Me. it’s literally about my greatest fear. all my friends growing up and moving away and getting on with their lives without me, leaving me to rot in my hometown waiting for them to return. we only see each other at weddings and funerals, so it’s time to kill all your friends so we can party when the funeral ends!! it’s probably tied with heaven help us, but i’m putting it at number two just because it didn’t hook me as strongly as hhu did. it’s more of a strong, steady favorite than a “this song has latched on to my very soul and i have to listen to it on repeat over and over and over again”, if that makes sense. it’s still in my top 5 mcr songs though

i never vibed with my way home is through you. i don’t listen to it often, and i just don’t really feel it. it’s not bad, it’s just. eh.

anyway if you’ve read this far down i love you so much. thank you for listening to me ramble, mcr means a lot and i love to infodump about my music tastes. i really really appreciate being given an opportunity to do so <3

#mcr #asks #anon #SERIOUSLY. ILY. MWAH.

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pleaserelaxslowly · 5 years ago

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Quarantined!

A 30 day song challenge from instagram that I decided to do. I didn’t post it though. As always, my playlists are for myself or for others as gifts. It’s not like I have anything else to do as I’m currently self-isolating due to COVID-19 trying to stay healthy and not carry anything if I’m infected but asymptomatic.

Day one A song you like with a color in the title: “Crystalline Green” by Goldfrapp A good start for a playlist

Day two A song you like with a number in the title: “700 Mile Situation” by Res A sadly underplayed song in my library

Day three A song that reminds you of summertime: “Resonance” by HOME Simpsonwave driving in the car in a summer sunset

Day four A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget: “Back That Ass Up” by Juvenile Mirna

Day five A song that needs to be played loud: “Horror Head” by Curve Driving in my car, volume all the way up to hear all the background and effects mixed low in the track

Day six A song that makes you want to dance: “Oranges” by Mark E Downloaded it and loved it. Boy Friend posted it on Facebook and captioned it “It’s the 90s!” Danced on ecstasy with several others at a party at Kassandra and Fatih’s apartment after I sneaked over to Fatih’s DJ setup and played it while he was away. Came over another day to find that Kassandra had been playing it on repeat

Day seven A song to drive to: “In the City” by Chromatics Driving after 4:00 in the morning through the backstreets of Detroit

Day eight A song about drugs or alcohol: “Heroin” by The Velvet Underground I did heroin once. It made me very sick and I never did it again. My very good friend at the time, Megan Cole (and another friend Melissa Nazarek), got addicted to it (and crack), and after leaving a crack pipe in my house, I was forbidden from seeing her again. After that we lost touch. I often wonder what happened to them, if they’re alive, where they may be now. Last time I saw, Megan had children and was married, living in the same city, working at a pizza parlor

Day nine A song that makes you happy: “Adult Oriented Cha-Cha” by Pizzicato Five Japanese cha-cha from the 90s. So strange. It makes me smile

Day ten A song that makes you sad: “The Spangle Maker” by Cocteau Twins The laying in a bathtub suicidal thoughts harrowing song. I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote this. I can only imagine

Day eleven A song you never get tired of: “Black Milk” by Massive Attack I’ve been playing this track since it came out. The first playlist that remains containing this track is the old “Karma Therapy” playlist from about 2000. The last time was when we took LSD on Büyükada in İstanbul (me, Fatih, Kassandra, Ubeyd, Mark and Annes) and Matt came along with a speaker and played our “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Part 2″ playlist with this song on it. We stopped on the way back from the woods headed to the AirBnB, and I was in a heavy head-space going through a low moment in the cycle. I sat on the curb with Faith, this song playing, and watched the stone gate across the street, each stone resembling a face twisting into a sinister expression

Day twelve A song from your preteen years “What Is Love” by En Vogue The first tape I ever bought was “Funky Divas” by En Vogue and I loved this track.

Day thirteen A song you like from the 70s: “St. Elmo’s Fire” by Eno I love Stereolab and found a great cover of theirs of this track, so I decided to check it out. No wonder they wanted to cover it

Day fourteen A song you’d love to be played at your wedding: “It Could Be Sweet” by Portishead I always imagined this song playing at the reception. I wouldn’t want the typical wedding garbage played at my wedding, more like low-key lounge-y stuff

Day fifteen A song you like that’s a cover by another artist: “Gruesome Castle” by Wild Nothing I almost chose “Sweet Jane” by Cowboy Junkies, but I love the original just as much. I opted for this one because I like it more than the original. My first summer in İstanbul with friends enjoying a full social life saw me leaving my apartment walking down the street to Kassandra’s house listening to this track

Day sixteen A song that’s a classic favorite: “Rhythm Is a Dancer” by SNAP! How sad that 90s tracks are now considered “classics”

Day seventeen A song you’d sing a duet with someone on karaoke: “The Closer I Get to You” by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway I love love love this track. In high school, my friends Kristen and Stephanie (who are black) laughed at me and said I like the music their parents listen to (i.e. 60s, 70s and 80s R&B). I don’t even care, I like anything that’s good

Day eighteen A song from the year you were born: “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” by The Smiths February 20, 1984. Very close to my birthday

Day nineteen A song that makes you think about life: “If You’re Feeling Sinister” by Belle & Sebastian Riding on the servis to work in the morning thinking deeply about the lyrics and imagining other possible lives I could live

Day twenty A song that has many meanings to you: “Sullen Girl” by Fiona Apple Lots of sad nights alone, but also once I was told that a gay guy that I was interested in sat at Denny’s with another friend and they drunkenly sang this song together. I bought this album one summer staying at my grandfather’s house for vacation in Oklahoma. I saw the “Sleep to Dream” video on MTV and went out to buy the album and “Supa Dupa Fly” by Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott

Day twenty one A song you like with a person’s name in the title: “Steve McQueen” by M83 From one of the playlists I made of people’s names. Love how gay and dramatic this one is

Day twenty two A song that moves you forward: “Everybody Got Their Something” by Nikka Costa Great hopeful inspirational lyrics. ‘People keeping score so better hurry up and gets yours because somebody else has got your spot before you even try... Busy holding on so the roof don’t fly’ really speak to me. I saw the video for ‘Like a Feather’ and loved the sound and her voice

Day twenty three A song you think everybody should listen to: “Vista” by iamamiwhoami Chris showed me this group because it’s sad electronic music with female vocals (which he knows I love). I instantly fell in love, and think Jonna Lee could be way more popular than she is. It’s hard for foreigners to make it in the US. I shared her with my friend Holly, and Holly fell in love, and Holly’s not necessarily living for sad electronic music with female vocals in particular. It shows the power to transcend taste

Day twenty four A song by a band you wish were still together: “Bocca della verità” by Boy Friend After SLEEP ∞ OVER broke up, two of the members formed this band. In fact, I almost chose a song from SLEEP ∞ OVER, but all the best songs are after Stefanie Franciotti was alone, so technically not a band. Boy Friend publicly showed support for the LGBTQIA+ community, which I love. Sadly, they are no longer performing together. More sad electronic music with a female singer

Day twenty five A song you like by an artist no longer living: “Miss Brown to You” by Billie Holiday Such a sad life, and an even sadder demise. That’s how it was for blues and jazz singers in those days

Day twenty six A song that makes you want to fall in love: “Without Your Love” by The Venus Transmission A long time ago, I made a delicious (sadly now lost) playlist of thick atmospheric deep tracks for Valentine’s Day. This was on it, a lost jewel from the days of MySpace artists that never really got to see any serious success

Day twenty seven A song that breaks your heart: “Walk This Earth Alone” by Lauren Christy How is this different from day ten (a sad song)? Anyway, I can’t even ever really listen to this song the whole way through. I can’t get past more than a few seconds. As I write this list, I listen to each track I’m discussing as I type. For this entry, I paused the track, I just can’t listen to it. It’s from when I was a paperboy and realizing I was gay and feeling the worst, most loathsome, darkest, most hideous and violent, dangerous feelings that I never ever want to feel again

Day twenty eight A song by an artist whose voice you love: “Paradise (Remix)” by Sade It’s always a tie for me between Sade and Seal. I decided on Sade. Such a smokey delicious voice. I always say if Sade and Seal ever had a child, it would be over in the recording industry

Day twenty nine A song you remember from your childhood: “Calling All Angels” by Jane Siberry featuring k.d. lang My mom used to have a compilation CD called “In Search of Angels.” My mom loves the idea of angels and guardian angels. Her home is full of angel-related art and knickknacks. She probably bought the compilation from The Hallmark Store or some awful place like that. Either way, it reminds me of childhood. I used to steal the CD and listen to this track. It’s super adult contemporary and super soft-serve, but I like it anyway. Like I said before, if it’s good, I like it

Day thirty A song that reminds you of yourself: “Immature” by Björk This one was the hardest one. No songs really remind me of me. I don’t relate to music that way, I think. Either way, this does take me back to a time when I might have tried to get back with my ex-boyfriend Dan Lopez. Good think I didn’t, we are NOT good together

#30-day song challenge #playlist #play list #covid-19 #corona virus #coronavirus #quarantine #isolation #social distancing #stay at home

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collinnmckinley · 6 years ago

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Siege OC: Anna Fisher (SS Agent), unique questions.

#squad: who’s friends with who? what are the squad dynamics like? Alex Reed, her only long term friend friend. Her Protective Detail Team. Collinn “Warden” McKinley.

microscope: zoom in – describe the little, insignificant details about an OC. Anna has a scar under her left ear, it was caused by her childhood friend Alex, when they used to not like each other.

fragrance: what do your OCs smell like? Most likely leather and dry cleaning suit smell (idk how to describe her smell) and she uses YSL’s Black Opium now and then (it was a gift from her team for her birthday). Note: my sister has it, and its the closest thing I could think of.

photo album: describe one of your OCs’ favorite memories. When she defeated Collinn in CQC for the first time. That day she laughed and smiled like she never had before, even Collinn was surprised by it because she’s always stoic and has this resting bitch face.

Wardrobe: what’s your OC(s) style like? Dress shirt, suit jacket, suit trousers, black boots, black necktie, sunglasses, black leather gloves. Typical SS Agent wardrobe.

lightning: who’s the most impulsive character? and who is their impulse control? Collinn, He taught her to control her anger and and not to act impulsively, and when she’s about to do it he’s there to remind her in one way or another.

ufo: identity! what are some key identifying qualities or traits of your OC(s)? how to they identify in regards to gender/sexuality? Anna has sharp jawlines and short hair, some people mistake her as a “pretty boy”. She got that reputation grow for her pretty quickly and Collinn would tease her for it, calling her: “Hey! Pretty kid! you ready to roll?” and she would give him the death mixed annoyed stare. Collinn would just chuckle at he expression, he always found it cute.

love note: who likes who? crushes? relationships? are they mutual or unrequited? Collinn was her mentor for the longest time (until he moved to Rainbow), she looked up to him, admired him, but never thought of him as a man until later on. When team Rainbow visits DC for a mission, and they meet again after a long time. She realizes that she missed him more ways than she could ever think. As for Collinn, he never saw her as anything beyond this kid who he mentored, until she got injured pretty badly one day and he realized he could’ve lost her that day.

poison: vices/bad habits? what are they? how do they affect your OC? Anger issues, Anna has had them from when she was a teenager. It slips from time to time, but she learned how to control it. Anna also avoids being with people, she likes to do her job but hates being around people. Ignores what people say to her, she doesn’t do it intentionally she’s just more interested in what the higher ups in the room has to talk about. (a habit she got from Collin). Also she’s WAY to blunt for he own good, she doesn't get a good first impression that much.

compass: who’s the moral compass? in general: what are your OCs’ morality like? do they have high morals, or not? are their morals self imposed, or do they base their morals on religion/family/influence of others? Anna’s moral is based on logic and truth. If she senses something fishy, she would dig it up until she actually finds the dirt. And she would used that dirt to straighten people’s act or to protect what needs to be protected. And she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty in order to maintain peace. She hates her family so there’s no way she puts her belief in them.

track & field: which (if any) of your OCs are athletic? what sports to they play? which of your OCs would go HARD in P.E.? Anna would go HARD in P.E, that's one of the methods she uses to control her anger issues. Also she likes to play basketball when she can, something she got used to do when she was in the navy. She somehow persuaded her protective detail squad in making that habit.

parachute: who does your OC(s) trust the most? who makes them feel safe? who would they do absolutely anything for? Collin (Warden) lmao even tho he tells her not to trust him blindly as much as she shows but she does it anyways, also Alex, her only friend.

conspiracy theory: what are your OC’s beliefs? are they skeptics or do they believe easily? who acts on blind faith? who needs to see to believe? Anna doesn’t believe in crap like that, she believes in logic but She thinks that there is some form of god somewhere.

zodiac: what’s their sign? does it influence their personality? do they care about astrology? Virgo, again, no Anna doesn't believe in stuff like that.

contact: how does your OC(s) feel about touch/physical contact? are they affectionate? if so, how do they display affection to others? Anna doesn’t do physical contact, unless it’s a combat/protecting someone matter. Other than that, she’s not affectionate at all. That changes later on tho, With Collinn( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

interiors: describe your OC(s) bedroom/home/or a place they consider “theirs”. what’s in it? do certain items have a special significance to your OC? Anna lives in a studio apartment, and it’s pretty dull, how ever she has a collection of her medals from the NAVY, and her high school certificate. Also her cameras that she collected it in time since she was a teen and some of the picture she had taken from her journey.

hobby: what do they love? what captivates them? what are their passions? Anna has a an odd habit of random stuff, it’s one of the things she enjoys doing and it’s very very rare that she does it, Collinn caught her taking pictures only ONE time when they were on a trip with the president in Norway. She lays a bit of guitar as well, something she learned from Alex, he’s a music producer. Besides that, beating up people, holding dirt on people, more protection.

psyche: what’s their head space like? do they have any mental illnesses? how do they process difficult or emotional situations? what are their coping mechanisms? Anger Issues. I have mentioned this more than one time lmao, she deals with it by in the practice range, or at the gym, however if it was in a tight situation, she would try to calm down for the moment as much as she can, so later on she would get it out in a CQC match with the person who angered her. She never received any affection since she was 10 so she doesn’t know what it feels like nor recognizes it when someone else shows it.

shooting star: if your OC(s) could have one wish what would it be? To fix the poverty problem her hometown, Detroit, has in some places. To Remove all the bad roots of the politicians. To expose the dirty people who think that they work for the righteousness. To be able to meet her nephew.

wild card: talk about any OC! anything you want! Anna isn’t in team Rainbow, Collinn (Warden is the only connection to Rainbow she has. However, she might join in late on, who knows (I still don’t have a gadget for her).

Thanks @zephours for suggesting these, quite the unique questions they are.

Also @tsarethan, I know you would like to these as well.

#oc ask meme #ask meme #oc: Anna Fisher #r6s #rainbow six siege #qwewed

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mum-for-da-sons · 6 years ago

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Very messy Delta review

Hey gang, i sat & typed & spiraled while listening to delta for the first time just now, so if that interests you to read barely legible thoughts, it’ll be under the read more thing. dang i’m sad!! BUt spoiler alert: GOOOD ALBUM! I’m SAD!! (do note I don’t find the album or many tracks all-around too sad, I’m just a depressed bih)

Delta thoughts: okay i’m not gonna really edit what i wrote but for everyone’s sanity i’ll bold the song titles, okay?

42: BINCH! See a sign, I need some guiding light,,, eff ME UP OKAY?? This is such a strong start i’m already getting teary-eyed, huh. Ugh, it’s so satisfying… well effing done lads,, well done

Guiding Light: Hot dang the whispered beginning?? I really need to fix my computer speakers because this sounds heavenly in my over-ear headphones,, gosh dang. Discover some new TRUTH! Gosh dang this is not a comprehensive review in the slightest but i don’t care!! Binch!! I can’t even say anything good… when beloved or darkness visible makes me cry, i guess beloved is fourth? So if it does it’ll be first, anyway, when i start crying maybe i have something cooler to say. Not crazy about the “dubstep build” on this, after the bridge, just because i don’t believe it, like it’s not long enough, and resolves unconvincingly. But, anyway.

Woman: literally FRICK i thought if i say was next this start is cool and very Winston. Oh vibes?? Oh worm?? Woman?? I’m like 15 seconds in and this is… yes. Can you ever really know? No. is ths song even about anything lol i don’t think i care?? Issa vibe, gang. Chorus?? Eff me up. He said frosty… wendy’s come collect. Oh that was the pre-chorus?? This is f*cking me up… VIBES. i ‘ve been waiting for them to try this in a song of theirs and not like a cover.. I knew they were capable…. The range they’re displaying rn? I love it. I love them wtf!! Oooh man i wanna see this live? There’s this drumstick noise, like rimshots? That sounds so satisfying. Yes, clackety clack. This is nice. Nice song. Don’t really know what they’re singing, bt this is warm. I like it. Mumford & sons finally said it’s 2018, huh. I just got a youtube notification of me commenting on their radio appearance and i literally said “the range they’re showing? Fantastic” and yanno what,, same

Beloved: this song started like right away huh. He said darling… dang he did that. He’s fitting a lot of words in on this one. Ohh the lord has a plan? It is hard to understand… i love these lyrics.. Big brain meme. Are you afraid? The attack.. Hand come through the mirror?? That visual!!! O f*ck me up. Before you leave :(( yeah it’s getting to me aHAHA.ohh this breakdown? Yes. these drums are especially nice. Ugh i really missed these guys wtf :(. AND AS YOU LEAVE, YOU MUST KNOW YOU ARE BELOVED> yes. Yes. as you LEeeeEEeaaveee. See my children playing at your feet?? BOI.. i’m so soft wtf.. They’re really putting it all out… i wanna hug them i’m so… this is so sweet aw. Oh no the song is fading, no don’t do that song

What song is this the piano can f*ck me up: ben man, you’re doin that huh. No literally did we have to jump to this painful… frick. This violin? Is nice. WE SAW BIRTH AND DEATH. Oh frick. They’re just going for it this is a lot i’m soft. Lemme actually see what song this is lol.. It’s The Wild. i have like chills & i can’t tell if it’s because i’m cold or not. Do not be afraid :(. OH they stripped it back!!! THIS IS NICE! Binch! Puts the fear of God in me :( this is so nice .. it’s hard to pick what to focus on. What’s that i see binch? I think it’s the wild… marcus is really do THAT with these vocals, huh. There was like a breath and.. The atmosphere during this part?? Nat Geo who??? Ohhh i like this so much.. It’s like a soundtrack.. The sampling of noise?? The background?? It’s cool, doesn’t specifically sound like them at all, but, aw these drums :( now it’s like a war movie.. This is so interesting. Those drums remind me of the drums in winter winds that i can sometimes here & it’s very drill-like and marching band-esqe and i love it. Aw birds??? You know what this reminds me of…. I won’t say

Next song: marcus is playing no games with these vocals, jesus. October Skies.. Isn’t this his favorite one… ooh ted I hear that bass,, eff it up.OooooOOOoooHH. The range… i love these guys. I’m blinded by the light of october skies… the movie with Jake Gylenhaal, and in the valley I am free :( where’d the silehute go? OOOooooOOOOooooHH YOUr’e esesjfsfshesal!! The fear of what’s to come.. CRIPlin’ me :( binch. Is this synth lowkey?? Brand it on my mind is such a great visual, like the “press my nose up to the glass around your heart” line.. Who wrote it. Oh is the sonG_ OOOOOOoooooOOOOOOoooooHHHH. Maggie rogers is that you? Hot dang

An upbeater!! Wipe those tears baby! Is this the just smoke of this album. This is.. Slip Away. “stoic smile” i see you… haha. Ooh this chorus is nice COME AND SUFFER HERE, LADIES! Mood!! Holding my breathe for you? F! In this violence of a mind’s eye… i like everything except maybe---- ohh this falsetto?? I’m.. i’m tearing.. Oooh we just found a song to cry to in the middle of the night, huh. It’s misleading with the beat vs. the lyrics.. I wouldn’t have it any other way!! Gosh i’m so depressed! Lol!! There’s a pulsing beat of some kind that’s nice.. Also some nice guitar work on here, some clackety things… go gently… be still…. Go gently….now… be still… Go Gentlyyyyy nowwwww, be stiiiilllll. Ugh they.. They’re doing this… i’m so proud of them wtf. Is this winston?? Who is singing.. Marcus?? I can’t.. Tell? No i think its marcus but we’ve truly never heard that high-end from him for that long

Okay: next song is pretty interesting- ooh! Right off the bat! This has to be the one they said sounded like ngalma? However you spell it… clap clap clap clap clap, this is a drum-machiner one for sure. I will be yours & you will be mine, ever our lives will be entwined binch! This noise after “my rose of sharon” is a mood. Ugh this is so cute.. Imagine being happy w/ someone else, what a concept ! eeeeeee yuh! That’s what they’re singing in the back.. My rose of sharon, my rose of sharon, BRR BRR BRN NER! Did the song-- what’s up with these abrupt endings

That being said, Picture You sounds v vibey right off the bat. Okay lads! I thought it best you didn’t knowww. I’m so proud of Marcus for flaunting these vocals, i stg, I’ve spoken on this before but... like he can do that!! I’m so glad he’s,, doing it! Ooh the “away” is v nice. I love full-stops in music, where the sound gets sucked out like here or just stops entirely… yes boys. Okay.. not crazy about this kind of.. Breakdown but it’s still cool. Just not in-rand as much as some other things. I mean, this sound is V different of course but they’re workin’ it. Okay i kind of stopped paying attention for a sec… there’s sampling… ohhh oh no it’s getting dark… hohoho no guys.. I’m excited but the anxiety is jumping out… holy smokes this is cool tho. It’s pretty. Hope that never comes, that comes to all.. Torture without end… yet from the great flames no light,,, but rather.. .DARKNESS VISIBLE. I’m gonna check if it didn’t seamlessly bleed into darkness visible…

Oh it did!! Their minds!! God, i already know i love darkness visible,, it was my pre-album listen fave on details about it alone,, we’re depressed sweeties let’s pop off… it’s so nice >:(. And just like that it ended!!!! BINCH!!! Ooh they’re like not even vocally in that one… i like that ish!! Not the “them not being in it” in that way but OOH! That was effing cool

If I Say: is still v v nice,, sounds effing expansive and beautiful with good headphones, i’m picking up all the lil details and prettiness.. The synth line after “if i say i love you, well then i love you” is sooo satisfying too. Ugh this orchestra,,, it’s building.. Truly their minds were so big on this album, huh. I’ll tell you what It doesn’t mean that i feel better! It doesn’t mean that I feel better! I’m, haha i still kinda hate this chorus but their so passionate i can’t hate it all the way,, like they love this ish and are into it & i love them so it’s allll good homies. I dig. I’ll be fake and wild out when they play it live, don’t worry. But peace you never find :( the guitar tone is crispyyyy,, the instrumentation… ugh it’s so nice. Violins can murder me or someat and I’d accept it. AND IF I SAY I LOVE YOU, THEN I LOVE YOUUUU. Ugh,, so so nice man

What’s NEXT: ooh some seamlessness in that transition.. .is this ghost of tom joad i’m hearing lol, mortal once again!! Oh this is a mood, freak.. Sigh no more marcus really jumped out on this one. This shuffling maraca thing is so nice. I’ll hold you by the jaw!! Hoo hoo bihhh. “It took a wild heart to tame mIIiine” this is so nice wtf!! Ugh this is so nice. I wouldn’t have you any other way,, awwwwwWWW!! Who want a love that makes sense anyway? I’ll effing say! Ugh this is very nice. These lyrics are so interesting… this is a good one guys, quiet & sweet but there’s some pretty cool things also going on, like it’s simple but its… this is it, ya know? This piano is sweet too. This whole thing is sweet, maybe that’s a dumb word to use but. This is so sweeeeet ugh!!! The vocal riffs on “mine” … ugh!! I kind of like the echoey vocals too.. Soft rain patter for two seconds at the end??

Reverse noises w/ a big breath from Marcus: let’s effing go w/ this album, gang!! What song is this reminding me of… whispers in the dark? He did some late-babel, early wilder mind voice thing.. Wait it’s forever isn’t it. I heard this one i think, like 3 yrs ago.. Yup, Dare I Say Forever.. I still don’t like do it for the girl” cos it’s too straightfoward, ,”i’ve known pious women” LOL where is this going. Only mumford & sons can really put that word in a song and just, keep singing. We stan tho, we stan. Think of london,,, we love. The DAAaaYS you defend will turn to gold,, this could easily be the last song on the album, this is like a last-call at the bar song,, in a good way, i’ve linked arms with my buddies & we’re all yelling this song like goons,, yes. Lighters a-waving,, are we too sentimental to not look back atnd!! WOW he realy did that with stare!! I couldnt finish typing that.. Is this part auto-tuned?? Dare I say.. Why? I’m choosing to hear it as a vocoder and many harmonies so i don’t hate that but uhaha they.. Hm they tried that i guess. Other than that the vi- oh why did the violin exit like that

The song is bouncing in my ears weird!! It’s giving me monster vibes atm. There’s a definite thread of messages goin thru this album & oof i love being sad,, the children come & go as you weep? Lol i love being sad. I am a waste?? My words are empty [as the bed we made]. Wilder mind is comin out on this, the album, huh!! The optimism on this album is-- I”LL MEET YOU OUT THE DELTAAA< WHERE THE RIVER”S RUINNING TO THE SEA,, GOD i love it. Ooh these drums, cool cool, it’s.. This is cool. Also sampling marcus’s children is sure way to eff everyone up, but that’s for another post,, ooooh i’m soft!! When it feels like nothing else matters :((((( lets go with this build!!! I wanna go for a run and have a cry.. Ooh man i took a moment there… this is so nice :( i’v missed them!!! Whats goin on with his vocals here,, the recording is like too close,, on purpose?? Hm. dust to dust!! I see you!! Marcus is truly giving his all here,, ugh I”m so proud of all of them, they put their LIVES on this, didn’t they!!! This song is such a feeling,, i can’t describe it i’m sad, but awwwW! I don’t kno wtf these kids are saying but wow that was cute as all heck!!! I”m so soft!! The album is over!! They did it!! Frick i don’t know how to feel!! Good really, but wow!!! Trying to not let my own sadness affect this review haha but !! what a nice body of work they produced!! In all the best ways, mostly!! I love them!! I wanna have another listen!! Aw!!!! Frick guys. Frick. Can’t imagine anyone wants to slog thru this and have a read but,, anyway thanks if you did i guess, special thanks to Mumford & Sons for being my favorite band and always :( always being there when I need it. I needed this. wow. wow. Wowww!!! Oof, haha i’m sad

Okay wait also he should’ve repeated the “I’ll meet you at the delta part” at least one more time but eff my criticism that song captures all stages of life and i truly wanna cry, so there’s that. Theses guys put it all out there & I really love them for that.

#mumford & sons #mumford and sons #oooof im sad!!#mumfamily #wow!#delta

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charmingpplincardigans · 6 years ago

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Music for De-stressing Chaotic Brains

This is an email I mentioned sending to a friend on twitter and a couple folks ask me to share with them as well.

For context, said friend and I had to sit in a work meeting today about dealing with stress and the people running the meeting mostly mentioned soothing things like nature sounds, and tea, and being next to the ocean. And I was like, uh...I listen to the most cacophonous shit I can find because it forces my incredibly unsteady and un-smoothable ADD/Anxiety brain to find a thread to focus on. My friend asked for a list, so I sent her one.

Some of this is truly cacophonous or atonal. Some of it is more melodic and just good to write to. All of it is GREAT. My taste in music is AMAZING WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

Anyway. The email:

This is more than you wanted, but! Maybe there will be something in here that will click.

Music without words, mostly!

Giraffes? Giraffes!

Werewolf Grandma With Knives [Part Two: Don’t Die], which is the song I send to people when I’m like, LISTEN TO THIS RIDICULOUS MATH ROCK BAND: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NebA3-nfrE8

My favorite album of theirs is More Skin With Milk-Mouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_AdDoXTBrg&t=7s

Hella

Also cacophonous math rock. The song I listen to most often is Baby in a Coma/Child of No Calendar:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTv5UVm_Os

That’s off the album of theirs I listen to most, Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02yzKhM9mzI

Some vocalizations/words in the mix but not usually lyrics as such, I don’t think.

Covet

Another Math Rock band, more melodic than G?G!, but still mainly vocal-less and good to listen to when writing. My favorite album of theirs is called Currents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZqDFjS_UA

How to Count One to Ten

The last math rock band, I promise! On the more melodic end like Covet. Here’s a video for Parade:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igTiVW8O_XI

That’s off the Album Method of Slow Motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78cSqksPP3s

Andrew Bird

You probably know about him, he’s an indie folk dude, but he has two very good non-vocal albums where he went out into nature and just like, played along with it with his fiddle.

Echolocations: River: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsejzIbYV4o&list=PLRRt2dVrVcbKEJIjMelMMsEzyEm7fetL0

Echolocations: Canyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6knHD_iL1vA&list=PLJNbijG2M7Oxt3-SsPy5D1nYQQCDfpma6

Zoe Keating

Just a woman with a cello and a loop pedal. I love her music so much. The song I listen to the most, because it’s on the gay cyberpunk playlist, is Escape Artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYrcXX4nWOA

That is on Into the Trees: https://music.zoekeating.com/album/into-the-trees

But all of her albums are great.

Break of Reality

A string quartet! They have an album of covers called, creatively, Covers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYxEbKOv_pM&list=PL-N1xO3_tNfYn0nCFWcp4DfndhqtB62re

But they also have original music, including a song that makes me feel very epic when I’m walking by the river. Spectrum of the Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQ6KJfkFdQ

Giacinto Scelsi

Is a surrealist composer, I shit you not. His pieces are written for orchestra but they explore things like pitch and microtonal alterations. I’m a fan of the album Musica Viva, Vol. 17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4X6wQuIwxI&list=PLPjY5k71DEX9ea71JQDikUmExVtS3hbAO

Gerard Grisey

A French composer who also concerned himself with exploring tone, but less drastically than Scelsi. I’m fond of the album Les espaces acoustiques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXQ5c8GUsUM

The Glitch Mob

For when you’re thinking to yourself, what would a shithead like Kavinsky listen to? I ask myself that a lot, tbh. I like the album Drink the Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVqPx5mUj0g

There are some vocals I think, but mostly it’s just good old fashioned glitch/electro.

Music with words you won’t understand probably!

Igorrr

Look, he is a French metal guy, but his music so eclectic and weird that I love it? This crowdsourced video for the song Cheval is what really got me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZzYxGZ7Hmc

There’s lots of screaming, because metal, and some operatic singing, but it’s not in English. Savage Sinusoid is the album I’ve been listening to lately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBakgOHKI-g

Movits!

I love them! They’re a Swedish jazz/hip hop group! The song that got me hooked was Äppelknyckarjazz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8fIVTH0TiM

The album by them that I end up listening to the most is also called Äppelknyckarjazz.And the main dude was on a song with Swedish rapper named Zacke called Spela Mig På Radion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izu7Au946eQ

I kind of love it. Why? Who knows!

Random music I shove at everyone!

The Books

This is a bonus band. It will definitely not help you concentrate, but Music Made For a French Elevator and Other Oddities is one of my favorite albums of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTJLwHBazVA&t=174s

Also, they have a song with the Jabberwocky in it called Vogt Dig for Kloppervok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNPl8pq_b-g

Uh…enjoy?

-KL

#music #my brain is a very confusing place #at all times #and music is the savage beast #or something like that

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patricksilvrrozartistry · 7 years ago

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Current Music Obsessions: July 16 - 31, 2018

July is over, but this series goes on. Let's see them honorable mentions.

Phosphenes - People You Love Become Ghosts Morbid Violence - Knights Evictus - The Heart of Pandora Aural Vampire - Flare Stack Hatemagick - God ov Worms Eleine - Echoes Fleesh - Time Lapse Helion Prime - Silent Skies Vrsty - Neon 69 Chambers - Metamorphose 69 Chambers - Chemical Poetry Chaos Heidi - Anubis (Septicflesh cover) Twenty One Pilots - Jumpsuit/ Crystal Viper - At the Edge of Time Aquaria - Your Majesty Gaia Desdaemona - Invisible Thread Hell City - Your Darkest Hour 69 Chambers - Machine Aeternitas - A Case of Revenge Lullacry - Crucify My Heart Allamedah - Perspective Soul Desire - Rapture Lejana - The Dirty adn the Beast Eluveitie - Ira Sancti (When the Saints are Going Wild) [Powerwolf cover] Flyleaf - Broken Wings Tomoko Tane - Broken Wings I:Scintilla - Boxing Glove

And now for these obsessions.

1) To Paint the Sky - The Ghost

I recently cracked into my old YouTube account and decided to check out some of the music I was into back in the day and found this song. I'm honestly shocked by the fact that I genuinely enjoy this track. It's a catchy, fun jam and it's got emo/scene queen written all over it, but I really enjoy it.

2) Charli XCX - 5 in the Morning

I got curious as to why gay twitter was all over this song, so I decided to give it a listen and holy hell is this song absolutely amazing. I was blasting this song for weeks. It's such an epic jam. I really need to look more into her music.

3) Once - The Hour of Eden's Fall

I knew that their music was going to be amazing and was very excited when I heard they were going to be dropping their debut single, but I wasn't expecting this. This is some dramatic and powerful symphonic metal goodness right here. I've been a fan of Alina Lesnik for a few years now and I'm so happy that her own project is finally releasing music. I can't wait for the album to drop, because it's bound to be full of many more epic tracks, and maybe some even better than this one.

4) Zeromancer - Send Me an Angel

Another track I found on my old YT account. This song grew on me so quickly. Like I already enjoyed it, but as I continued to listen to it, I got really hooked on it. It has a really great industrial rock vibe going on with it that I really dig.

5) Ariana Grande - God is a Woman

This song is everything. Of all the songs she's released, this has to be my favorite. I know the gays are probably mad that I'm saying this, but this surpassed Into You for me. It's so powerful and beautiful and is absolutely everything. And the video. Oh my god, the video is STUNNING. And I love the screaming furry friends. So much yes.

6) Florence + the Machine - The End of Love

Not gonna lie, her new album didn't impress me that much, but this song really stood out to me. It's songs like this why I love Florence. You can hear so many of the beautiful dimensions of her voice here. It's full of so many emotions and is so captivating. Absolutely love it.

7) Foscor - Encenalls de Mort

Found this song through their record label. It's a really chill post rock/metal track. It might even fall into the blackgaze category, but I'm not familiar with that genre at all, so don't take my word for it. Anyways, this is a great track to just veg out to. It's very soft and soothing, but also has this broody kind of atmosphere to it.

8) Estrum - Abiosis

Once again, another find from my old YT account. I'm so glad I found this song, because I've had the music video for it stuck in my head for a few months now. This is a really great gothic metal track and I love how deep the singer's voice gets during the verses. I also love it when a female singer can hit some low notes. I'm definitely am gonna check out more from them.

9) WonderOnce - Morrigu

This was a random YT find and I absolutely need to hear more from them. This is such an epic symphonic metal track. The fantasy vibes are so real here. It has such a catchy feel to it. I love the blending of all the singers' voices. It just adds to the epicness of the track.

10) Synkvervet - Room of Angel (Akira Yamaoka cover)

I rekindled my love for this wonderful cover. I honestly prefer this over the original. These guys are such a great blackened symphonic gothic metal band and they turned this cover the fuck out. It's so beautiful and still just as haunting as the original, just with some added drama, and we all know how I feel about dramatic music at this point.

11) Thy Shade - Dies Irae

These guys recently released a video for my favorite song off their debut album. This song is powerful and dramatic. Pure symphonic gothic metal right here. It has some Therion vibes to it which fuels my love for it even more. I will say this though, the studio version is way more epic since they cut a decent amount out for the video. I hope they have more songs like this on their next album. And I also hope their front woman's voice has gotten a lot stronger since this release.

12) We are the Catalyst - One More Day

I'm always seeing an ad for them on Facebook and this song is always playing and it finally got stuck in my head. This is easily one of my favorites from them. It's so simple, but the amount of energy and emotion they put into it really makes it what it is.

13) Rhapsody of Fire - Magic of the Wizard's Dream feat. Christopher Lee

Ok. How am I just learning that Christopher was an opera singer? Not only that, but that he also did a song with Rhapsody of Fire? Holy tits. This is such an amazing duet. Fabio's voice is already so iconic and wonderful, but the two of them together is a match made in heaven. Such a powerful ballad track.

14) The Gathering - Eleanor

I recently got my hands on a copy of Mandylion, which is probably my favorite album of theirs from their doom days. This song wound up really sticking on me. It's a lot faster than a lot of the tracks off the album and has really pretty "orchestrations" in it. Such a gorgeous track.

15) Twenty One Pilots - Nico and the Niners

I've never really bought into the hype with these guys, but I really dig this track. I'm a sucker for pitch shift harmonies and that's exactly what this song has. But the vibe of this track is so cool. It has a bit of a trip hop kind of vibe to it and the chorus is really catchy. And don't get me started on that epic bridge.

16) Yuki Kajiura - Bloody Rabbit

I got curious as to what all anime soundtracks this iconic composer/singer has done and found out she did Pandora Hearts. I haven't gotten around to watching it, but I read the whole manga and it's a really cool story. This track is just pure amazingness. I miss the days when a lot her songs were like this; when they had this progressive pop vibe to them. Don't get me wrong, I love her cinematic stuff, but the pop and rock stuff are always gonna be my favorites.

And that's it for July. August is looking to be pretty interesting, and I'm also gonna dive back into my old YT to find more old jams. Shit's gonna get wild.

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musicalmarauder · 8 years ago

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BTS B Tracks

With our fandom growing ever and ever bigger, there are always new ARMY that may need some bonus BTS songs to listen to once they’ve fallen in love with all of their singles. So I’ve created a recommendation list of B tracks for new ARMY or just people who haven’t bothered finding anything besides the mvs. Hope you can find a new song to love (if you’re not someone like me who literally has a 176 song playlist of bts covers, predebut songs, mixtapes, and every album track......)

2 Cool 4 Skool: Like To be honest there isn’t much to choose from on this teeny album, but this song is perf anyway and I’d still suggest it.

Bonus: We Are Bulletproof Pt 1 this song isn’t even on this album but Pt 2 was one of their singles and people need to know that part 1 exists.

O!RUL8,2?: Coffee This song is sweet and soft and especially cute during a time when they were still trying to be all hard (N.O. was their title track during this album, very different from Coffee)

Bonus: Rise of Bangtan /Attack on Bangtan……it varies depending on the video you click on. Quintessential Bangtan Sonyeondan. This is a very important song to know. (I thought it was a relatively well known b track but apparently it’s underappreciated, so it’s here bc it’s important.) PS Yoongi’s voice at the beginning. 👌👌 Top notch.

Skool Luv Affair: Tomorrow This is quite possibly my all time favorite B track of theirs and it still hurts my heart a little when one of my friends tells me they’ve never heard of this song. I heard part of this song in a compilation of Jikook harmonizing in live stages and went on a hunt for this performance from the tiny snippet.

Bonus: Skool Luv Affair was repackaged and gifted the world with Miss Right

Dark & Wild: Look Here Party song. Top notch rapping from the leader. Great song.

Bonus: What Am I To You This is the album intro so it only has Rap Mon, not the whole group, but this song is so cool. It goes from a happy love song to some angsty nonsense and you CAN HEAR IT IN THE MUSIC. Which is so cool. It goes hard by the end. (the sweet beginning part is featured in Boy in Luv mv intro so....fun little tidbit you’ll be in on)

Wake Up: I Like It Pt 2 Surprise, I even have a song for you from their Japanese album. This song is the second greatest thing to happen to me during Festa 2017 bc they released the gorgeous dance practice and introduced me to the only b track that could rival my love for Tomorrow. I listened to this song for like a week straight. And if the song alone doesn’t do it for you, watch the hip thrusting dance practice a few times.

HYYH Pt 1: Boyz with Fun is right. This song is just a good time waiting to happen.

Bonus Song: Converse High I feel bad bc I keep doing similar song due to my personal taste in music but it would break my heart not to include Converse High. Plus in the live version, our lord and savior Kim Seokjin sings for half the song and it saved my whole entire life.

HYYH Pt 2: Whalien 52 Every single ARMY needs a song in their life where they can hear Jeon Jungkook sing “I’m a whale” and then they proceed to sing about being a lonely whale. Thank me later.

Baepsae Just in case you somehow missed one of Bangtan’s most iconic b tracks, choreographies, dance practices.....here it is.

Wings/YNWA: Listen, this whole album is gold. But go show our beloved main dancer JHope some love and watch Boy Meets Evil. And then like....listen to the rest of the album. And then all the above albums.

For the hell of it, have some non album songs.

Tony Montana from Yoongi’s Agust D Mixtape (but the important version with Jimin)

Danger Mo-Blue Mix even comes with a completely different mv than the original version

Even If I Die It’s You Tae and Jin did an OST song for the show Tae was in (Hwarang) and it’s glorious. Go fall in love with Taejin. They deserve all the love in the world.

Change RM did a collab with a Western artist and talks about world issues? Yes. Yes, please. You should be so lucky as to listen to this song.

And bc I mentioned I Like It Pt 2 as the second best thing that happened to me during Festa, have the first: Jikook’s cover of We Don’t Talk Anymore

PS I just need everyone to hear Jimin singing live in Let Me Know.

#bangtan sonyeondan #bts #bulletproof boy scouts #beyond the scene #bts army

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kchatjjigae · 8 years ago

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Remember when I was all Eh, B1A4? Remember when I was all, oh, I don’t think I love them as much as I once did. When I was all, I’m just going to hang out with friends but I’m not super excited about the concert? Remember that? Yeah. That me was stupid. You should never, ever listen to past me. Past me obviously, has no taste. Past me obviously forgot what a good show B1A4 put on. Past me obviously forgot just how adorable these boys are.

Oh past me. So Silly.

After having an (as expected) amazing time with my fellow concert goers, affectionately coined the Kpop Nerd Herd, we were ready for the main event. To see our boys in concert. To be in the same room with them. To literally be touching them. (Yeesh.) We walked from the ladies hotel room where we had rested before the concert (because we are those people) to the venue, Stage 48. There were a few of us who decided, some might say foolishly, to go sans jacket so we wouldn’t have to lug it around with us during the concert. No jackets. In February. Yeeesh.

Actual Kpop Trash Viewing Kpop Trash

When we got there, it was organized just as well as any other K-pop concert. Ie. Badly. Where were the p1’s supposed to line up? Answer. Here. The GA’s are on the other side. Who are all these people in our line? GA’s. Um? Are we in the right line? Answer: No. P1 is supposed to line up against the wall. Us: Um. Yeah. But eventually, the wall ends. Where do we go from there? Who has the wristbands? Answer: Some short Korean guy has the bands. Us. Not helpful. Short Korean man with a box: no, I don’t have the bands. Man with bands who eventually comes by: I don’t have enough bands with me. Don’t worry, you’ll get banded before going in.

It was confusing. It was worrying. It was more stressful than it actually needed to be. I still have the urge to reach in and help organize things. Please. Please. Please. I’ll even do it for free. It will only cost you the random band member–but just think–there are usually so many members to kpop bands that one missing boy will hardly be missed.

Funnily enough, we actually met people in line. someone who knew me from Kcon, some girls who recognized me from standing in line together for the last B1A4 concert. How funny is that???

It was a great time actually standing in line with friends this time around for the concert. With the exception of Corrinne. Corrine who kept literally making me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants. Come on Corinne. This is my first high touch, I can’t meet them smelling like pee. I don’t want to be remembered like that.

When we finally got in (with our bands) I realized just how tiny the club was. It was teeny. Teeny-tiny. Which, for us, good. For the band? Considering they hadn’t sold out? Not so good. But I tried to push that out of my brain so that I could fully enjoy the concert. Emma, one of the Kpop Nerd Herd proudly unwrapped her light stick and waved it for all to see. I frantically tried to get my fingers to work before the concert started. How could I take any sort of good photos if my fingers were so frozen they had turned into fish fingers?

The crowd was happy to be there. We were happy to be there. The bars were open and hoping for business (sorry boys, wrong crowd). We were actually pretty close to the stage. (Although with the size of the place, there wasn’t really any place of the from that was far away from the stage.)

Then the lights went down and the crowd went wild. There they were. B1A4 in all their (still) adorable glory. They all wore matching plaid on plaid on plaid suits. Whoever dresses them still obviously loves dressing them like a mom dresses twins. Baro unveiled to us some adorable pink hair. It was pink! It was cute! It made me want it! (My own, not his. That’s creepy.)

They broke out into song and after the break, introduced themselves. Explaining they don’t speak English very well, but to bear with them and have fun anyway. They also asked if we liked their new album. The crowd cheered. I cheered (although I don’t really love their new album.) He said good because they would mostly be performing new material.

Uhhoh.

Luckily, great news. Just because you don’t want to listen to something on an album, doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t enjoy it performed live. Cuteness and light performing in front of you can make you like anything.

Well. Except for Sweet Girl. Still, don’t like Sweet Girl.

Baro was ON that night, like capital O, Capital N. I think he took power from the pink hair. If he’s not the leader of the group, then he should be because he’s quite good at it. He took the lead talking to the crowd, engaging the crowd–throwing water on the crowd. From the number of pictures I took of him, I’m pretty comfortable in saying my bias has swapped over from CNU (who from the pictures perhaps wasn’t as pleased to be there as the rest of them) to Baro who just makes a fangirl happy in her heart-heart.

Jinyoung? It was odd to see him after just seeing him on the tv. He’s so pretty and he totally knows it too.

Partway through the concert, the boys asked what was our favorite song of theirs in the past. What we thought their top song was. There were lots of Solo Days, lots of What’s Ups, lots of (insert your favorite B1A4 song here). They said, since this was a very important night, they decided to bring us a time machine. The very expensive time machine which would take us back to the beginning of their career. They spun and laughed their way across the stage and then broke out what turned out to be a medley of their past top hits. They did everything. Luckily (or unluckily) I had started recording at the beginning and then recorded the whole thing because I couldn’t stop.

Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed they decided to lump everything together, that they decided to do the highlight reel. I felt a little bit like those really popular bands who are all, I won’t perform my classics, or “Material Girl? I don’t even remember that anymore.” But, as time goes on, I guess I’ve become more accepting of it. It over 15 minutes long and was a fairly good way to get more of their songs in.

And yet I still pout a bit.

As we got to the end of the concert, Baro fell in love with throwing water on the crowd and you know what? It was amazing every single time. Yes Baro, yes, please throw water on us!

But then it came time to end the night. The boys announced their ‘last song’ and left the stage. We were left there to give the obligatory chant for an encore. I dislike this part. However, I’m proud to say I managed to change the direction of the crowd by chanting out B-1-A-4 and then we just chanted that. Pleased I was.

Soon over the loudspeaker, we heard Baro–you’re not going home? You want more? As good fans, we all screamed and shouted with whatever voices we had left and they came out and sang 3 more songs. This is when Baro really got excited about throwing water on us and proudly pulled out a whole crate of water. The crowd went wild. Wild I tell you. (Or maybe that was just me.) We screamed and jumped and egged him on. It was amazing.

They thanked us for being fans. They promised to work harder. They thanked us for coming out and finally we were done. Spent. It was an amazing time that was over way too quickly.

Except it wasn’t over.

We still had the high touch. Yeesh. I was nervous and a little squidged out as I’d never done a real high touch before. I’ve never paid money to touch someone before. There was just that guy who was kicked out of the band because he was talking bad about fans, about how gross he thought high touches were. Oh, noes.

After some more badly organized whatnots we were hustled upstairs to a room where the boys waited, ready to receive us. At this time I got separated my friends and had to go in by myself. I literally got nervous and stepped backward like I was going to leave. I needed a minute. But these boys are busy. They don’t have a minute to spare. First up was Baro and we got a rolling double high five. Turns out I have no cool. No chill. I was all up and awkward in their grill. HI! HI! Hi! HI!HI! Startlingly loud and fake friendly. Yeah. That’s all I had for them. I’m sure they super remember them. The hi-touch hi-ambush.

Again. B1A4 is a good show. Whether Il love their news stuff or not, yeah, I’d go again in a heartbeat. How could you say no to those faces???

Check here for the gallery of my other photos.

B1A4! B1–aaaaa-4! Remember when I was all Eh, B1A4? Remember when I was all, oh, I don’t think I love them as much as I once did.

#B1A4 #Baro #CNU #Concerts #Gongchan #Jinyoung #Sandeul

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boaws · 8 years ago

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BOAWS Top Records of 2016

Welp, I finally got around to doing something on here and finishing up my top 20 records of the year list. Wooooo. Anyway, activity around here has been slim, I know that, but unfortunately work and all that crap has gotten in the way a little more than I'd like. Hopefully the coming year will see a bit more reviews and maybe even a podcast or two if time allows. Who knows. But for now, BOAWS is still going and will not go anywhere. Without further hesitation, here is my top 20 recordsof the year. Have a good one. 20 – Spit-Take – Frog Rock (Ice Age) Real quick and to the point indie-rock jams from this Connecticut group. Caught my attention with their first full-length not all that long ago and then followed it up nicely with this second, and even better, helping of songs. Definitely a nod or two to the plentiful 90's indie-rock heritage of bands that focused more on the quirkier aspects of the sound like maybe Archers of Loaf or Sebadoh, thanks to instances of unpredictably that waver between some emotionally charged slower numbers to jolting aggressive bursts that burn brightly for roughly a minute or so and then leave before you know it. Interesting album in approach and songwriting, but isn't short of on the solid tunes. Spit-Take – Awful Long (stream) BUY IT! 19 – Youth Code – Commitment to Complications (Dais) I can see why people wouldn't particularly like this, especially those that would consider themselves very involved industrial enthusiasts (whatever the fuck that means), but I've never really been the biggest cheerleader of industrial music in general. I have nothing against it, and I like my fair share actually, it's just that I'm particularly picky. Youth Code, for all intents and purposes, probably aren't even really an industrial band...as they seemingly just bust out really harsh music that propel out of the stereo like hardcore music with drum machines and stuff. That's basically what I think the goal is, and probably why I'm as in tune with it as I am...since yet again, it's hardcore music and it's unwavering in its approach for better or for worse. Thankfully, to these ears, it's often for the better and for the duration of Commitment to Complications, it chugs and beats its way through songs that will fluctuate in sheer ugliness, but no less leave some sort of impression. Cathartic of sorts in its, occasionally over the top, aggression. But I'm digging it, big gross warts and all. Youth Code – Glass Splitter (stream) BUY IT! 18 – Fake Limbs – Matronly (Don Giovanni) It seems almost unbelievable that these guys haven't popped up on a previous best of list of mine, as their two albums prior to this one were both fantastic pieces of noisy, yet intricately designed noise-rock of sorts. There are plenty of bands that turn and choose to ravage the already fairly stripped mines of Chicago/Midwestern based noise-rock/math-rock, but Fake Limbs are a band that seems to get it more so than most. There doesn't need to be a strictly adhered sense of nostalgia here, there CAN be some fun to be had with it, which is one of the brightest spots to this band. Just by song titles/theme alone, you can gather that they can easily poke fun of themselves, just as much as the whole entire musical landscape of which they proudly occupy. In the process, they do it with being nothing short of riff monsters, slinging fuzzy goodness and shaping it in ways that have only been heard few and far between before. There is skill here, which is often disregarded when coming up with rock music that is simply designated and designed to be “noisy”. Fake Limbs have been ripping apart the idyllic stagnation of noise-rock one album at a time, and Matronly is just the latest and greatest of their efforts. Fake Limbs – Lil Bit (stream) BUY IT! 17 – Multicult – Position Remote (Reptilian) Multicult are certainly no stranger to these pages, as pretty much every album of theirs has absolutely destroyed in some way or another. Scarily consistent they are, which is why Position Remote is popping up here because it hardly deters from what has made the band so great. Skilled musicians doing interesting and actually strangely catchy things with the mathier side of the rock equation. It's hard to do, yet Multicult have been pumping out tunes that zig-zag in ways that could easily cause bouts of dizziness. To me, they've always shared the same quality mind unraveling aesthetic of the great Table, which in my opinion released one of the greatest and unheralded math-rock albums ever. So, for Multicult to have the same kind of craftsmanship and melodic sensibility as a band like that, says plenty of their music. It's not too late to get on board with this, as there are plenty of prior albums to dig and chew through if this one happens to hit that sweet spot. Multicult – Tesseract (stream) BUY IT! 16 – Bruxa Maria – Human Condition (Extreme Ulimate) First time hearing of the band Bruxa Maria and the label that put out their record Extreme Ulimate, which after hearing Human Condition is eerily accurate to what is portrayed here. Going through my list of favorite records this year, it actually turned out to be a pretty solid year for noise-rock, which I'd thought had been kind of suffering for the past couple years or so (probably longer). Between Bruxa Maria and that new Conduit EP, there may be hope yet! With Human Condition they come out with a bit of a red herring with the tune “The Hipsters and the Heathens”, which seems like some innocuous ramped up noise-punk, but quickly runs into the next track “Socially Cleansed” wherein that notion is immediately dispelled with jarring blasts of noise/distortion and electronics before locking into a grotesque distorted groove. The overall aggressive nature of this one is impressive, and is no less matched by vocalist Gill Dread, who screams and wails over this entire mess with little regard of the destruction that is likely being placed on her vocal chords. Dedication if there ever was such a thing. Bruxa Maria – Human Condition (stream) BUY IT! 15 – Behavior – 375 Images of Angels (Iron Lung) Interesting addition to the plentiful catalog of quality Iron Lung releases, Behavior takes on the minimalist side of post-punk to relatively decent results. Understandably, I don't think a lot of people really dug this record very much, but for whatever reason the unevenness of everything taking place on 375 Images of Angels seems to gel with me musically and personally I suppose. Behavior seem uncomfortable on every level of what they are doing, but do it in a manner that tries to maintain some type of freedom or outsider rock. I'm not sure, but it's the uncomfortable tendencies that draw me in and they sound pretty exhausted doing it. Have I reached that level yet? Possibly, but I envision Behavior and this album as my ultimate landing spot of pure disdain for everything around me. Overall, the songs range between sparse post-punk to compositions that come surprisingly fleshed out, but writhe in a distinct chill that still feels terribly rigid and tense. Good album, although I'd be shocked if we hear another from them. Behavior – 78 (stream) BUY IT! 14 – No Sister – No Sister (Self-Released) They have a song on this album called “This Heat”, which I feel like is more than just a reflection on a moment of sweltering weather outside for one or more band members, despite what the lyrics may suggest. Listening to No Sister, it's not at all out of the question that they got just a touch of their influence from the great avant-rock/experimental giants This Heat. While notably more tuneful and less experimental than This Heat ever were, No Sister strive for a sound that is similarly harbored in the deteriorated sounds of such a world, but skirting and lurking around in the dark depths of NYC no-wave shadows like Sonic Youth, Live Skull, DNA, or Band of Susans. Pretty much every song here is anchored by a heavily driving bass roll, while the jangle and squall of the guitars do the rest here. Very cool record that serves as a very nice flashback to a small sect of time where music like this was flourishing. No Sister – Making Wheels Spin (Louder Than Words) (stream) BUY IT! 13 – Lazy Legs – Visiondeath (Wild Patterns) There has always got to be one record that roots itself in shoegaze yesteryear that I will fall in love with, and this year it happens to be Visiondeath from the Chicago based Lazy Legs. Obviously I'm not going to sit here and try and kid anyone into thinking that this album is by any means some sort of genre altering excursion, because it's certainly not, however Lazy Legs do all the things right with Visiondeath that you'd pretty much want to hear out of a record of this nature. Taking a very similar approach to peers Cheatahs and implementing a fuzzier/grungier type of rock element sound allows it to be every bit as dreamy as it needs to be while still being able to maintain a bit of an alternative/rock edge that helps fill out of the sound and fulfills the small hole of proper noise that is always welcome but often sorely missed in a lot of modern shoegaze. Lazy Legs – Snaketeeth (stream) BUY IT! 12 – Human Hands – Morning Sun (Time as a Color / Strictly No Capital Letters) Still is somewhat of a shock that these guys are from the UK, because Morning Sun sounds so much like the great midwesterny slowcore/emo that was pretty common in the 90's. I probably spouted the same shit when I actually wrote about this record (one of the very few I motivated myself to do this past year) a handful of months ago. But whatever, it's true. These dudes are pulling all the right strings of the Codeine/Bedhead/C-Clamp area of things and don't make me want to fall asleep while listening to it, which is a real achievement...because lord there were a lot of bands like this that were just flat out fucking boring. I still haven't went back and listened to their prior album, which from what I understand is a bit different than this one, but if they decide to continue with this trajectory of sadness, then I'm on board. Keep being miserable guys, it's working. Human Hands – Cell (stream) BUY IT! 11 – Blue Smiley – Return (Self-Released) I've listened to a couple or so albums by Blue Smiley prior to this one and none of them really ever stuck, but from the get go of Return things were noticeably different. There is just something so effortlessly otherworldly to their music that kind of nestles itself between the norms of indie-rock and the jangly fuzzy nature of shoegaze, but doesn't quite fit in comfortably with either of them. It's odd. However there was something always in the back of my mind with Blue Smiley and Return that I knew it sounded vaguely like something that I've heard before, and then it finally struck me...they bare a bit of a resemblance to the underrated 12 Rods. I don't know, I think it's just the same kind of garish melodic choices that get me. Certainly fuzzier and warmer sounding, Blue Smiley are about as easy/breezy as it gets on Return, catapulting off of the basis of jangle-pop and ending up somewhere in fucking space. Really good record folks. Blue Smiley – Spin (stream) BUY IT! 10 – Horse Jumper of Love – Horse Jumper of Love (Disposable America) Lately Boston has been very rich on indie-rock that prides itself on appearing carefree/slacker-esque, however under all the posturing is a noticeable amount of nervous/anxiety ridden folks making music. It's been kind of glorious in a way, as bands like Pile have really taken to it like no other. However there are plenty of others to be found within that scene that are making similarly incredible/captivating music, and Horse Jumper of Love is one of those. It's easiest to think of them as a drowsy/sleepier version of Pile or Fat History Month, sounding as if they are occasionally medicated to some degree to help relax or reflect, whichever. While still sharing much of the same off-kilter note bending that much of their contemporaries feature, Horse Jumper of Love obviously have desires to be somewhere not heavily populated and stress free. The feeling of exhaustion within the album is heavy, but it's entirely relatable and they convey very well through songs that feel of desolation, isolation, and having to apologize for who we are. Horse Jumper of Love – DIRT (stream) BUY IT! 09 – Giant Peach – Tarantula (Don Giovanni) I know I mentioned it in my initial write up of this record, but I was thoroughly surprised to know Giant Peach was still a band. After releasing a single that I enjoyed about four or five years ago, they ultimately seemed to disappear, only to pop up out of nowhere with this fantastic record on Don Giovanni. Surprised in the best way possible I guess. Really, from what I can remember from that single, not a whole lot has changed in terms of approach on Tarantula, maybe just a bit tighter and ever so slightly more polished. However, if catchy throwback indie-rock is your type of thing then this record absolutely brings it. “Deserted” is easily in my top songs of the year, as its essentially a masterpiece of crunchy fuzz and melody. Any band that cut something as good as that wins my respect any day of the week. Thankfully Tarantula doesn't just tease with that song alone and reels off a bunch of other solid tunes that are of near ear worm quality. Hell, at least if the band decides to disappear for years again, they'll have at least released this fantastic slice. Giant Peach – Deserted (stream) BUY IT! 08 – Spray Paint – Feel the Clamps (Goner) Spray Paint have always been a band that kind of makes their living reveling in the darker corners of the world, however it's always been kind of a vague sense of ominous behavior or a sneaking suspicion of something amiss. On the Feel the Clamps the band decided to go all in on that aspect of their sound and what is created is a very lurid and scary mess of post-punk that rattles its way through eleven tracks. It's apparent that this record didn't quite go over as well as some of their earlier releases, and I feel like the absolute focus on moving into a more sinister space probably had something to do with that, or it's also possible that this record just isn't as good. But nonetheless, I'm a fan and it's a record that I envision towns like Big Tuna in Wild at Heart being the entire inspiration for or the sort of record that Chop Top from TCM 2 would make if he were a musician. Just entirely creepy from start to finish and the hammer like bass just never ever quits, even when the guitars seemingly fall apart or deteriorate into whatever bizarre black hole they initially crawled out of. Spray Paint – Burn Barrel (stream) BUY IT! 07 – Notches – High Speed Crimes (Cat Dead Details Later & Young Modern) Heard High Speed Crimes at the very beginning of the year and it still holds up. On top of that it produced one of my absolute favorite songs of the year with “Cure for Feeling Cool”, which is entirely too catchy and exceeds at being sort of an anthemic blast of, dare I say it, fuzzed out pop/punk? Either way, it's reigned in and self-aware enough to not become cheesy or overbearing, Notches are simply about good fun, high energy, and songs to match. The completely open guitars make for an extremely loud and noisier affair than the typical slick sounding bullshit that seems to gestate from this area of things, as High Speed Crimes delves into the sloppiness and gritty nature that Jawbreaker showed signs of in their earlier material. No matter, Notches harness a type of energy here that translates into an extremely fun album. Notches – Don't Care About You (stream) BUY IT! 06 – Animal Faces – Other Places (Self-Released) I listened to this record earlier this year without any kind of knowledge that this was the same Animal Faces that I'd heard like five or so years ago with their 7-inch Analytical Dreaming. As you can imagine, the reason being that they sound entirely fucking different from what they did then. The band I remember was a decent, but not overly inspiring post-hardcore/emo band. I mean, I kind of forgot about the single altogether, so that should tell you something right there. Apparently they'd been popping out a single or something of similar degree every year since but I failed to follow. I'm not sure if the trajectory on those records would have foresaw this or not, but Other Places is practically a record from a different band. What is found here though is very good and if it took years to get to this, then it's been well worth it. Animal Faces have adapted a very loose, easy going form of indie-rock that weaves in and out of odd harmonies and melodies for the majority of it. Sometimes it turns things up a bit and gets a fair bit noisy/fuzzy in an 90's alternative kind of way, but for the most part things are more or less centered on the sleepier/exasperated type of indie-rock that isn't too far from what Pile have been doing. In fact, the singers vocals sound eerily similar at times...along with some of the guitar tones. Can't really blame them though, it's working, and Animal Faces seem to be taking it in a bit more of a straight forward rock/emo territory, which kind of fits back with their roots anyway. Really odd way to end up liking a record, but I'll take it however I can get it these days. Animal Faces – Halfgrown (stream) BUY IT! 05 – Tongues - I Really Have to Get My Life Back on Track Before I Cut All My Hair Off (Moniker) Feels good to have a local band this far up on the list. Tongues are a duo from Kansas City that have undoubtedly spent a lot of time with some Godflesh, Big Black, and early Swans records at some point during their brief lives. The first song is called “We Live Under a Bridge”, and if I'd not already seen these guys, then I'd be inclined to almost believe that. The music, if you haven't already gathered, is of the grotesquely loud and monotonous pounding variety...employing added abuse from a drum machine that ranges from a slow breathe knocked out of your chest force or the speedier punk ADD fueled sounds that echo back to Mr. Ablini's earlier ventures. Honestly the drum machine plays a large roll into the success of this record, as the sound they get out of it is fantastically cheesy and dated that it works so well with what they are doing. Like they pulled it out of a dumpster somewhere, fired that piece of shit up and made some music. Indecipherable vocals are added to the mix, which only make things that more delightfully muddied and/or terrifying. Pretty excited to know these dudes are in my backyard of sorts. Tongues – Killing (stream) BUY IT! 04 – Exploded View – Exploded View (Sacred Bones) Late addition to the list, as this is probably the last great record of 2016 that I managed to hear, despite it likely coming out months ago. That's the way I operate now folks. Exploded View are a group featuring Annika Henderson, political journalist turned musician after her collaborative effort with Geoff Barrow. With Exploded View she takes her deep and somewhat breathy spoken word vocal style and pairs it up with the pulsating rhythms of cold post-punk and no-wave. Occasionally surrounding the rolling bass lines with a flurry of guitar hum/rattle, most of the work here is definitely being handled on the low-end. The real achievement for Exploded View lies in the atmosphere that is given by the record, as it's certainly a mood piece in many ways. It's cold, but not entirely lifeless...but also feels like the musings of the sole survivor drifting in a lost space station somewhere. The bleeps, bloops, and chimes that often crop up throughout only go to solidify this type of mood. “Lark Descending” is essentially staring out the port hole into complete nothingness, but boiled down into the musical equivalent. Exploded View seem to capture a bit of a noir feel throughout the album, but never fully latch on to it or go too deep with it. As much as it tends to rattle the walls, it's also very easy to let your mind drift to this one...an album that undoubtedly engulfs the listener from the very first notes. Exploded View – No More Parties in the Attic (stream) BUY IT! 03 – Wrong – Wrong (Relapse) Go ahead and give me all the shit you want about this one, but I'll go to bat for this record any day of the week. Wrong delivered the best heavy rock album there was to be this year with a set of songs that revel in full on taco riff glory. A lot of my love for this record goes back to simpler times when bands like Helmet, Tad, and Fudge Tunnel were the light of my life. Some of that desire to listen to those bands has survived...despite Page Hamilton's very best efforts to ruin anything good there ever was about Helmet. What Wrong do with their debut album is pretty much take all the best aspects of that era of rock/alternative and make a whole fucking album out of it. What's not to like? It's obviously not going to win any awards for originality, but there also hasn't been a record that sounded this good, that is of similar nature, since any one of those aforementioned bands were still releasing (meaningful) records. All in all, Wrong is pretty much a goldmine of riffy goodness and if you're like me and get WAY too excited about bands like Paw doing a one off show somewhere, then this album is for you. Wrong – Fake Brain (stream) BUY IT! 02 – Autolux – Pussy's Dead (30th Century & Columbia) Aside from being wonderful musicians, Autolux are also a group of the absolute best procrastinators. At least that's what I like to think, but there is probably a lot more to it than that...like you know...actually writing songs and stuff. However, whatever it may be, Autolux have become synonymous with the term “glacial pace”, as they've squeezed out 3 albums over the period of roughly 13 years. Their debut Future Perfect, in itself, had long been anticipated prior to its release in 2004 (unsurprisingly one of my favorite albums of that year). While 2010's Transit Transit was a bit of disappointment from my perspective, I thought Pussy's Dead was going to lead down the same path, but it didn't take very long to warm up to this one. I was hoping for something different and that's what I got with Pussy's Dead, although I thought it might be more of a return to the more rock version that had graced their debut. Instead Autolux threw me for a loop and pushed further into the electronic/dub/experimental side of things. In fact, when listening to Pussy's Dead there is very little in terms of actual “guitar” here...just a lot of bass, synth, and cut/chopped electronic fuckery, From what I understand, their stage setup for their live show is pretty impressive/daunting. Autolux has always operated within the dreamier side of rock/pop, and despite the push towards more electronics/beats, they still manage to come off as the orbiting spacey presence that they've always been, just in a very regrouped form. A song like “Brainwasher” is the type that bores its way into our skull and never ever leaves...it's brutally heavy in a way that most people wouldn't even begin to think of. There are aspects of this that remind me of the atmospheric qualities that are shared on HTRK's Psychic 9-5 Club, but not on the same level of minimalism. Honestly, this one gets better with each listen, and I know that's a pretty cliched phrase, but for once I think it's actually true. Shoot me. Autolux – Brainwasher (stream) BUY IT! 01 – Sigh Down One – Memory is Short Longing (IFB & L'oeil du Tigre) This was another album that I wasn't even sure was actually ever going to happen. The band had been trickling out digital only singles since around 2013 or so and the updates were pretty far and few between. Plus, I'm pretty certain that the majority of the members all play in different bands too. So yeah, this one was definitely nice to see arrive this year as I'd greatly enjoyed the little bits and pieces that they'd floated out there. The debut Memory is Short Longing is on one hand a throwback to the grungier alternative days of the 90's, but it's balanced out with the heftiness of bass heavy fuzzy tones that land them also in the good graces of shoegaze fans too. The band is almost as if Lush had opted for more distortion as opposed to heading down the Cocteau Twins ethereal path. The melodies are obviously the selling point with Sigh Down One, every song is just loaded down to the gills with them and tonally is strikingly heavy at times too...one slip up and it's easy to envision the band becoming a sludge-rock/doom act. No shit, things are that thick and syrupy here. I give them kudos, they did everything right here, nuanced to a tee and catchy as hell. Sigh Down One – Lake (stream) BUY IT!

#best of #top 20

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