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lucienballard · 3 years ago

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The Velvet Underground’s 30 greatest songs – ranked!

30. Ride Into the Sun (1969)The Velvets recorded two versions of Ride Into the Sun: a fabulous 1969 instrumental laden with fuzz guitar and a hushed 1970 vocal take backed by organ. Somewhere between the two lies one of their great lost songs; Lou Reed’s disappointingly flat 1972 solo version doesn’t do it justice at all.

29. Run Run Run (1967)For all the shock engendered by the lyrics of Heroin and I’m Waiting for My Man, the most malevolent-sounding track on the debut album might be Run Run Run, a powerful R&B groove lent a gripping darkness by Reed’s noisy guitar playing and the screw-you-I-take-drugs sneer of his vocals.

28. Beginning to See the Light (1969)The title suggests awakening, the melody is bright, but the lyrics are dark and bitter. They may have been directed at John Cale, who played on an initial version of the song, which was subsequently re-recorded after Reed sacked him, against the wishes of his bandmates. A ferocious 1969 live version amps up the tension.

27. Foggy Notion (1969)Reed was a lifelong doo-wop fan. His passion usually found its expression when the Velvet Underground recorded backing vocals for their ballads – as on Candy Says – but the tough, rocking Foggy Notion went a stage further, gleefully stealing a chunk of the Solitaires’ 1955 single Later for You Baby.

26. The Gift (1968)In which the band set a two-chord grind that may, or may not, have been based on their instrumental Booker T in one channel and a blackly comic Reed short story read by Cale in the other. “If you’re a mad fiend like we are, you’ll listen to them both together,” offered the producer, Tom Wilson.

25. Guess I’m Falling in Love (1967)Recorded at the White Light/White Heat sessions, but never completed, the April 1967 live recording of Guess I’m Falling in Love – taped at the Gymnasium in New York – will more than suffice. It boasts three chords, a distinct rhythm and blues influence, Reed in streetwise, so-what punk mode and explosive guitar solos somehow potentiated by the rough sound quality.

24. Temptation Inside Your Heart (1968)“It was not Mein Kampf – my struggle,” the guitarist Sterling Morrison once reflected of the Velvet Underground’s career. “It was fun.” A delightful late Cale-era outtake that inadvertently captured Morrison, Cale and Reed’s giggly backchat as they recorded the backing vocals, Temptation Inside Your Heart bears that assessment out.

23. New Age (1970)New Age comes in two varieties. Take your pick from the world-weary, small-hours rumination found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, or the more epic studio version that the Velvets biographer Victor Bockris suggested was “an attempt to present some encouraging statements to a confused audience as the 70s began”. Both are superb.

22. After Hours (1969)The Velvets’ eponymous 1969 album ends, improbably, with the drummer, Moe Tucker, singing a song that could have dated from the pre-rock era. The twist is that her childlike voice and the cute melody conceals an almost unbearably sad song, ostensibly a celebration of small-hours boozing, but filled with longing and regret.

21. I Can’t Stand It (1969)Amid the Velvets’ songs about drugs and drag queens lurked the plaintive sound of Reed pining for his college sweetheart, Shelley Albin, the subject of Pale Blue Eyes, I Found a Reason and I Can’t Stand It. The latter’s cocky strut is disrupted by a desperate lyrical plea: “If Shelley would just come back, it’d be all right.”

20. The Black Angel’s Death Song (1967)There is something folky and vaguely Dylan-esque at the heart of The Black Angel’s Death Song, but by the time Cale had finished with it – alternately strafing it with screeching, insistent viola and hissing into the microphone in lieu of a chorus – it sounded, and still sounds, unique.

19. I Found a Reason (1970)It is one of the ironies of the Velvet Underground that the most forward-thinking, groundbreaking band of their era could occasionally sound like old-fashioned rock’n’roll revivalists. Buried on side two of Loaded was one of the loveliest of Lou Reed’s loving homages to doo-wop, complete with spoken-word section.

18. Some Kinda Love (1969)Musically straightforward, sensual in tone, Some Kinda Love is a complex business, part seduction soundtrack, part refusal to be hemmed in by standard categories of sexuality – “no kinds of love are better than others … the possibilities are endless / and for me to miss one / would seem to be groundless”. Killer line: “Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.”

17. European Son (1967)European Son isn’t a song so much as an eruption. It sounds like a band overturning the established order of rock’n’roll, almost literally: after two brief verses, it bursts into thrilling frantic chaos with a verbatim crash, like the contents of an upended table hitting the floor.

16. Rock & Roll (1970)It is hard to see Loaded’s driving, joyous hymn to music’s redemptive power – “her life was saved by rock and roll” – as anything other than disguised autobiography on the part of Reed. The suggestion that music will endure “despite all the amputations”, meanwhile, seems to look forward to his departure from the Velvet Underground.

15. Candy Says (1969)No one else in 1969 was writing songs remotely like Candy Says, a stunning, tender pen portrait of the transgender Warhol superstar Candy Darling set to a gentle doo-wop inspired backing. Its melancholy seems to presage the note Darling wrote on her deathbed in 1974: “I had no desire for life left … I am just so bored by everything.”

14. Sunday Morning (1967)Sunday Morning was written at the behest of Wilson. He wanted a single that might conceivably get on the radio; he got a haunting, melancholy sigh of a song, its battered wistfulness and undercurrent of paranoia – “watch out, the world’s behind you” – the perfect encapsulation of morning-after regret.

13. What Goes On (1969)Morrison maintained that the studio incarnation of What Goes On wasn’t a patch on the live versions the band performed with Cale on organ. Maybe, but the studio incarnation featuring Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, is great. It prickles with nervous energy, Reed’s guitar playing is amazing, its churning coda takes up half the song and it still feels too short.

12. Femme Fatale (1967)Apparently provoked by the damaged, doomed Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick – with whom Cale had a brief affair – Femme Fatale is as beautiful and fragile as its inspiration. The story of a wary, ruined former suitor warning others off the titular anti-heroine is lent a chilly edge by Nico’s delivery.

11. I Heard Her Call My Name (1968)In the Velvets’ early days, Reed purported to be “the fastest guitarist alive”. A berserk claim, but his Ornette Coleman-inspired solos on I Heard Her Call My Name are some of the most extraordinary and viscerally exciting in rock history, frequently atonal, spiked with ear-splitting feedback and pregnant pauses.

10. Ocean (1969)The Velvet Underground recorded Ocean several times – one version is supposed to feature the return of Cale on organ – but never released it in their lifetime, which seems extraordinary. It is among the greatest of their later songs, its atmosphere beautiful, the epic ebb and flow of its sound completely immersive.

9. I’m Waiting for the Man (1967)An unvarnished lyrical depiction of scoring drugs tied to music on which Reed’s rock’n’roll smarts and Cale’s background in minimalist classical music – the pounding, one-chord piano part – meld in a kind of relentless perfection. Amusingly, there is now a pharmacy at the song’s fabled location of Lexington 125.

8. I’ll Be Your Mirror (1967)A song about Reed’s affair with Nico that could just as easily be about Andy Warhol’s approach to art, I’ll Be Your Mirror is one of those Velvet Underground tracks that makes their initial commercial failure seem baffling. How could a pop song as wonderful as this fail to attract attention? Nico and Morrison on stage at the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry annual dinner in 1966.

7. White Light/White Heat (1968)A delirious paean to amphetamine, its subject reflected in the lyrics – “I surely do love to watch that stuff tip itself in” – and the turbulent, distorted rush of its sound. The band appear to be barely in control as it careers along; the chaotic finale, where Cale finally loses his grip on the bass line, is just fantastic.

6. Heroin (1967)Heroin was the deal-breaker at early Velvets gigs, provoking a “howl of bewilderment and outrage”. The shock of its subject matter has dulled with time, but its surges from folky lament to sonic riot still sound breathtaking. Oddly sweet moment: Reed’s chuckle as Tucker loses her place amid the maelstrom and suddenly stops playing.

5. Pale Blue Eyes (1969)“High energy does not necessarily mean fast,” Reed once argued. “High energy has to do with heart.” Hushed, limpidly beautiful and almost unbearably sad, Pale Blue Eyes’ depiction of a strained, adulterous relationship proves his point. In its own vulnerable way, it is as powerful as anything the Velvet Underground recorded.

4. Sweet Jane (1970)Sweet Jane started life as a ballad – see the versions recorded live at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1969 – but, sped and toughened up, it became as succinct and perfect a rock’n’roll song as has ever been written, based around one of the greatest riffs of all time.

3. Venus in Furs (1967)For a band who inspired so much other music, the Velvet Underground’s catalogue is remarkably rich with songs that still sound like nothing else; they were as inimitable as they were influential. Venus in Furs is a case in point: umpteen artists were galvanised by its dark, austere atmosphere; none succeeded in replicating it.

2. Sister Ray (1968)A monumental journey into hitherto-uncharted musical territory, where a primitive garage-rock riff meets Hubert Selby-inspired lyrics and improvisation that sounds like a psychological drama playing out between Reed and Cale, all at skull-splitting volume. Fifty-three years later, it is without peer for white-knuckle intensity.

1. All Tomorrow’s Parties (1967)Ninety per cent of the Velvet Underground’s oeuvre consists of no-further-questions classics. The astonishingly high standard of almost everything they did makes picking their “best” song a matter of personal preference, rather than qualitative judgment. So let’s go for Warhol’s favourite, on which the sour and sweet aspects of their debut album entwine faultlessly. The melody is exquisite; the music monolithic and unrelenting, powered by Cale’s hammering piano and Tucker’s stately drums; Nico’s performance perfectly inhabits the lyrics, which turn a depiction of a woman choosing what dress to wear into a meditation on emptiness and regret. It is original and utterly masterly: the Velvet Underground in a nutshell.

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watusichris · 3 years ago

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Rock Gunfight in the Antipodes

Listening today to the hot new Grown Up Wrong! comp by Sydney’s Lipstick Killers, whose lone officially released single was produced by Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, it occurred to me that my old Music Aficionado faux faceoff between Australia’s pioneering bands of the ‘70s (all of which I dearly love) has disappeared into the online ether. It’s time to bring it back.

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By Chris Morris

The mid- to late ‘70s were fertile days for rock ‘n’ roll in Australia. Here and there across the vast but not terribly populous island continent, fires were started by several attitude-filled bands bent on doing things their own damn way. They all managed to make their way off the island, but if they hit the American consciousness, it was for little more than a nanosecond during their heyday.

Who were the truest Rock Wizards of Oz? For this Down Under face-off, I’ve selected three contenders: the Saints, Radio Birdman, and the Scientists. All of them had fairly slim discographies; ironically, the act probably least known in the U.S., the Scientists, recorded most prolifically, with their core line-up producing several magnificent albums and singles during a productive four-year stretch in the early ‘80s. But none of these bands ever stayed together long enough to make a deep impression among the Yanks.

So where’s the Birthday Party, you ask? There are a few things to consider. First of all, though the band and its precursor unit the Boys Next Door were in business from 1976 on, they didn’t release their first LP until 1980. Also, Nick Cave is well known enough that more (king) ink needn’t be spilled on him. Finally, I still resent the fact that Cave stole PJ Harvey away from me, so it’s personal.

On with the showdown…

HIT ME LIKE A DEATH RAY, BABY

The Saints, founded 1974 in Brisbane

The prime movers of the Saints were a pair of literal outsiders: vocalist Chris Bailey, born in Kenya to Irish parents, and guitarist Ed Kuepper, raised in Germany. Thus the otherness of their work is no surprise.

With schoolmate Ivor Hay – who over time would play drums, bass, and piano with them – the pair founded a combo originally known as Kid Galahad and the Eternals (borrowing their handle from a 1962 Elvis Presley picture), but they swiftly renamed themselves the Saints and began playing in their hometown on the northeast coast of Australia.

Listening to their records, which were made in something of a cultural vacuum, it’s difficult to get a handle on where the Saints’ distinctive, aggressive sound came from. To be sure they were aware of such homegrown precursors from the ‘60s as the Master’s Apprentices and the Missing Links (whose 1965 single they covered on their debut album). It’s safe to assume they were conversant with the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and Lenny Kaye’s 1972 garage rock compilation Nuggets. Yet they bred something utterly their own in the ocean air of Brisbane.

With Hay on drums and Kym Bradshaw on bass, Bailey and Kuepper mounted noisy local gigs that swiftly attracted the antipathy of the local constabulary; they wound up turning their own digs into a club to play shows. In 1976, they recorded and issued a self-financed single featuring two originals, ��(I’m) Stranded” and “No Time.” These dire, ferocious songs were distinguished by venomous lyrics, unprecedented velocity, and guitar playing by Kuepper that sounded like a (literal) iron curtain being attacked with a chainsaw.

The record died locally, but a copy of its U.K. issue found its way into the hands of a critic at the English music weekly Sounds, which declared it the single of the week. This accolade got the attention of EMI Records, which signed the band and financed the recording of an album, also titled I’m Stranded, in a fast two-day Brisbane session.

The album, which was ultimately released in the U.S. by Sire Records, blew the ears off anyone who heard it, and it landed with a bang in England, where punk rock was lifting off in all its fury in early 1977. It was hurtling, powerful stuff that stood apart from punk in several crucial ways: While some of the songs were clipped and demonic in the standard manner, the Saints proved they could take their time on expansive numbers like the almost Dylanesque “Messin’ With the Kid” and the sprawling, hellriding “Nights in Venice.” And one has to wonder how British p-rockers took to their perverted take on Elvis’ squishy “Kissin’ Cousins.”

Made by musicians who never considered themselves “punks,” and who in fact abhorred the label, (I’m) Stranded is nevertheless one of the definitive statements in the genre, and it has maintained its force to this day.

Settling in England for the duration, the Saints decided to throw a curveball. One could not find a more profoundly alienated album than Eternally Yours (1978), a series of yowling protests, twisted prophecies, and savage put-downs, including the snarling second version of the single “This Perfect Day.” But, though the record was loud and for the most part swift, the group applied the brakes to their sound somewhat, and a couple of songs, including the caustic album opener “Know Your Product,” were dressed by a soul-styled horn section. Punk loyalists ran for cover.

By the time Prehistoric Sounds was issued in late ’78, the dejected Bailey and Kuepper were moving in different directions, and you can hear it in the grooves. The record is slow, almost listless at times, and its logy originals are complemented by incongruous Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin covers with none of the energy of earlier Saints soul-blasts. It is an album primarily for loyalists, and by then there were few in that number.

Kuepper exited the band on the heels of the third album’s release and returned to Australia, where he enjoyed a long career as leader of the Laughing Clowns; Bailey continued to perform under the Saints mantle with a shifting lineup that at last count numbered more than 30 players over the course of 37 years

Bailey and Kuepper reunited for one-off gigs in 2001 (at the ARIA awards ceremony) and 2007 (at Australia’s Queensland Music Festival).

THERE’S GONNA BE A NEW RACE

Radio Birdman, founded 1974 in Sydney

People who toss the “punk” handle around often throw Radio Birdman into the mix, but the sextet from Australia’s Southeast Coast may be best referred as the world’s youngest proto-punk band.

Its mastermind was guitarist, songwriter, and producer Deniz Tek, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who emigrated to Sydney in 1971 to study medicine. As a teen, he got a chance to witness Detroit’s most explosive pre-punk bands – the MC5, the Stooges, and the Rationals; he would later wind up collaborating with important members of all those groups.

After apprenticing with and getting bounced from a Sydney band called TV Jones, Tek formed Radio Birdman (its name a corruption of a lyric from the Stooges’ “1970”) with singer Rob Younger; the lineup ultimately solidified with the addition of guitarist (and sometime keyboardist) Chris Masuak, bassist Warwick Gilbert, drummer Ron Keeley, and (on and off and then on again) keyboardist Pip Hoyle.

Rapidly acquiring a fan base made up of some of Sydney’s lowest elements, including members of the local Hell’s Angels, Radio Birdman ultimately took over a bar, re-dubbed (in honor of the Stooges, of course) the Oxford Funhouse, as their base of operations. The band’s severe Tek-designed band logo emanated fascist-style vibes for some; at a co-billed appearance in Sydney, the Saints’ Chris Bailey remarked from the stage, “We’d like to thank the local members of Hitler Youth for their stage props.”

Despite much antipathy and some attendant violence, the band maintained a loyal local following, and in 1976 it issued a strong four-song EP, Burn My Eye, via local studio-cum-independent label Trafalgar. This was succeeded the following year by a full-length debut album, Radios Appear.

Anyone looking for something resembling punk will likely be disappointed by that collection. The band wears its all-American hard rock/proto-punk influences on its dirty sleeve. Radios Appear is dedicated to the Stooges (whose “No Fun” was the lead-off track on the Aussie issue of the LP), and a song co-written by Tek and Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, “Hit Them Again,” was cut during sessions for the record. Tek pays deep homage to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer with his playing, and blatantly cops a signature lick from the 5’s “Looking at You” at one juncture. The album title was lifted from a Blue Öyster Cult lyric, and the Tek-Masuak guitar-bashing bows to their multi-axe sound. Finally, in both Younger’s sometimes Morrisonian vocalizing and Hoyle’s Ray Manzarek-like ornamentation, homage to the Doors in paid in full. Given that Sydney is a beach town, there’s even a frisson of surf music in the mix.

Bursting with power-packed originals like the apocalyptic “Descent into the Maestrom,” youth-in-revolt anthem “New Race,” the cryptic, insinuating “Man with the Golden Helmet,” and Tek’s autobiographical “Murder City Nights,” Radios Appear was a power-packed set that established Radio Birdman as Oz’s leading rock light.

However, renown did not equal success in Antipodean terms. In 1978, the band cut its second album, Living Eyes, at Rockfield Studio in Wales; it was a solid effort that included remakes of three Burn My Eye numbers (including the wonderful Tek memoir “I-94,” about the Michigan interstate) and excellent new originals like “Hanging On,” “Crying Sun,” and “Alone in the End Zone.” But, with success seemingly within their grasp, Sire Records – their American label, and the Saints’ as well – switched distribution and cut their roster, leaving their new work without a home. Within months of this catastrophe, Radio Birdman disbanded.

The principals scattered, to Younger’s New Christs and Tek and Hoyle’s the Visitors; Tek, Younger, and Warwick Gilbert later joined MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson and the Stooges’ Ron Asheton in the one-off New Race. Tek also later recorded with Wayne Kramer and Scott Morgan of Ann Arbor’s Rationals in Dodge Main.

Radio Birdman’s original lineup reunited for a 1996 tour; in August 2006 – after four of the original sextet regrouped to record a potent new album, Zeno Beach – the band played its first American date ever, at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theater. Your correspondent was there, and it was freakin’ incredible.

IN MY HEART THERE’S A PLACE CALLED SWAMPLAND

The Scientists, founded 1978 in Perth

Among the important Aussie bands of the ‘70s, the Scientists were among the first to be directly influenced by the punk explosion in New York.

As guitarist-singer-songwriter Kim Salmon – the lone constant in the Scientists’ lineup during their existence – wrote in 1975, “Reading about a far-off place called CBGB in NYC and its leather-clad denizens, all with names like Johnny Thunders, Richard Hell, and Joey Ramone, got me thinking…I immediately went searching for Punk Rock. What I found were The Modern Lovers and The New York Dolls albums.”

Salmon first dabbled in the new sound with a band bearing the delightfully punk name the Cheap Nasties. Cobbled together in Perth – the Western provincial capital of Australia – from members of such local acts as the Exterminators, the Victims, and Salmon’s the Invaders -- the early Scientists were as derivative as one might imagine. Their early songs, heard on their self-titled LP (the so-called “Pink Album”) and an early single and EP, sport original songs authored by Salmon and drummer-lyricist James Baker, the backbone of shifting Scientific crews through 1980. The tunes range from straight-up Dolls/Heartbreakers rips (“Frantic Romantic,” “Pissed On Another Planet,” “High Noon”) to buzzing romantic pop-punk in a Buzzcocks vein (“That Girl,” “She Said She Loves Me”).

Not terribly promising stuff, but, after the departure of Baker for the Hoodoo Gurus in 1981 and a brief stint in a trio called Louie Louie, Salmon assembled a new Scientists who would prevail for nearly four years. That outfit – Salmon, guitarist Tony Thewlis, bassist Boris Sujdovic, and drummer Brett Rixton – promptly relocated to Sydney and started making the noise they are noted for.

By that time, Salmon had begun cocking an ear to the Birthday Party (and no doubt paid careful attention to the sordid noise on the Melbourne group’s 1982 album Junkyard), had discovered the miasmic voodoo of the Cramps, and started grooving to the dissonant, slide guitar-dominated racket of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. In short order, he would also absorb the bluesy downhome assault of Los Angeles’ roots-punk outfit the Gun Club.

The Sydney-based Scientists hooked up with indie label Au Go Go, which issued a devastating run of careening, mossy records by the band in 1982-83 – the vertiginous singles “This is My Happy Hour”/“Swampland” and the corrosive “We Had Love” (backed by a faithful cover of Beefheart’s “Clear Spot”), and the heart-stopping mini-album Blood Red River, which bore the churning “Set It On Fire,” “Revhead,” and “Burnout.” Others were essaying a similar style, but the Aussie youngsters were beating their elders at their own game.

Eying the big time, the band moved to London in 1984. Some opportunities presented themselves initially: The band got European tour slots with the Gun Club and early Goth act Sisters of Mercy. But their deal with Au Go Go fell apart acrimoniously; while they made a pair of fog-bound albums, You Get What You Deserve (1985) and The Human Jukebox (1987) for Karbon Records (and a set of re-recorded songs, Weird Love, was issued in the U.S. by Big Time Records), they scraped by in Britain.

Defections from the ranks commenced in ’85, and by early 1987 the depleted Salmon used money from a housing settlement to move back to Australia, where he founded a new band, the Surrealists.

Still valued among the cognoscenti, Salmon, Thewlis, Sujdovic, and latter-day drummer Leanne Chock appeared, at the invitation of Seattle’s Mudhoney, at London’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in 2006. Earlier this year, Chicago-based archival label the Numero Group issued a comprehensive four-disc box of the band’s original recordings.

So, at the end of the day, who is the all-time champeen of ‘70s Oz rock?

Scoring on points, the Saints are tops for Being Punk First with additional wins in the Pure Noise and Weltzschmerz categories, Radio Birdman takes the Technical Ability and Old-School Attitude slots, and the Scientists prevail in the Loud Young Snot and Grunge Thug division.

And the championship belt goes to…the Saints!

Of course, that could all change tomorrow, but that’s rock ‘n’ roll for ya.

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wings-of-a-storm · 4 years ago

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So there’s a scene in ‘Love, Victor’ that I can’t seem to stop thinking about. It just fascinates me to a ridiculous level (probably more than it warrants, to be honest). It’s when Benji sings ‘Call Me Maybe’ to Victor at Battle of the Bands.

Yes, this moment! I have yielded to its power.

Like where the hell do I even begin to start unpacking the existence of this kind of moment so early on in the show?

To start with, I used to be haunted by the question: Was Benji actually singing to Victor with that intense eye-contact for the whole song or was the entire thing just “Victor Vision” and symbolic of what Victor wishes was happening?

And at first, my answer was: There’s just no wayyyy Benji could have actually done that! For the simple reason of HOW THE HELL WOULD HE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO JUSTIFY THAT TO HIMSELF? Singing a love song inspired by another guy, to that guy’s face, while the boyfriend he is super committed to is literally standing beside him, dropping phat beats on his bass to help the song come to life?

And yet…over the course of the performance, Benji starts to look almost angry/bitter/sad as he’s singing.

And as soon as the performance wraps up, Benji’s eyes are still locked right onto Victor’s as he steps off the stage. Like there is no searching, he knows exactly were Victor is and heads straight to him. And even more telling, once his Singer Persona drops off, he is nervously fiddling with his hands as he walks to Victor, like he’s waiting for Victor’s verdict of the performance. Kind of like: “Did you like it? Because I know how much you love that song and I sang it for you.”

I mean… Excuse me, sir? Consider me convinced that Benji really was singing it while staring at Victor the whole time, and Victor Vision just embellished parts. And you know what, that suddenly turns a fairly tropey scene into something so much more psychologically stimulating. Welcome to the holy trifecta of burning questions:

- Why did Benji make a cover in the first place? - Why did he sing it staring at Victor the whole time? - How did he justify it to himself?

The beauty of Benji's enigma is that the answers to those questions can be anything you want them to be. So many reasons fit, and so many overlap. It’s really rather fun to try and figure it all out, especially when there aren’t really any wrong answers.

So I guess here are mine:

WHY DID BENJI MAKE A COVER IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Fact: After sharing a fun Moment with Victor (dancing together like no one but Victor’s mother was watching, hah), Benji went home inspired to turn that song into a cover of his own. Why? Looking at it logically, their time together must have meant a lot to Benji, more than anyone could have realised. It affected him to the point where he had to preserve that moment, live in it for a bit longer, and also unpack it in his own mind in a way he’s most familiar and comfortable with: a creative outlet.

I love the idea of Benji listening to ‘Call Me Maybe’ over and over again when he got back home. At first just to relive the high he got from sharing such an uninhibited Moment with Victor (a rare occurrence after spending so much of his time walking around egg shells with Derek?). But then, after the nth play, getting the inspiration to make his own slower version of the track to better explore his feelings about that night and the way Victor makes him feel. Then finally re-listening to the song over and over again but this time to get the right chords and the right splicing/arrangement of lyrics that could convey his feelings but not completely cross the line into full on romance…

But Benji making that cover could have been inspired by so many tangled up reasons, like:

- He realised the lyrics were mirroring his own thoughts and experience, so singing it out loud was helping him process the harmless crush he seemed to be developing

- He wanted to preserve the memory of their dancing Moment because it gives him a dose of happy feels to relive it

- He may have partly intended to make the new version as a sort of gift to Victor that he’d one day play for him (maybe even at Battle of the Bands if Victor changed his mind and showed up). A gift that would further tie them together and cement their friendship, be a way to show Victor how much their friendship already means to him, and give back a little to Victor for trusting Benji with personal/embarrassing information about his guilty pleasures. Like a pre-Drawing gift, with similar energy

And let’s be real, also to try to impress Victor so that Benji can feel a little cool and desirable since it seems he doesn’t often get to feel that way around Derek. Like seriously, who can forget the lingering looks of anticipation Benji gave Victor when he first told him he was a Lead Singer in a Band. He wanted to impress Victor so badly. And who wouldn’t crave Victor’s sweet brand of attention?

Okay, so now Benji has a cover. But…

WHY DID BENJI SING IT STARING AT VICTOR THE WHOLE TIME?

Well firstly, how passionate must Benji have been behind the scenes if he was able to arrange a cover in less than 24 hours before the contest and prioritise it in band practice so that everyone was on board with his musical whim? (And how did he convince Derek to play such an unpretentious song?)

But I imagine the Intense Staring was probably a mixture of:

- Benji had probably spent a lot of the night hoping that Victor would miraculously show up after all (that mood of secretly looking through the crowd every so often throughout the night just in case…). And then when Victor actually did show up, Benji made the band play CMM even though they were still workshopping it, and got so caught up in his excitement and determination, he zeroed in on Victor hard and forgot to reign it in

- Because Benji feels something for Victor (even if he can’t name what exactly that is), and performance is a safe way to express the things he’s not meant to be feeling. It’s a safe space because when you’re performing something, you have the creative freedom to be someone else, to become another version of yourself, a persona, with the license to use whatever emotions you have in your arsenal to tell a story. Benji could express his yearning and fascination (etc) for Victor with the distance of a parallel universe or alternate reality. Stage Benji is allowed to stare

- Because Mia was there with Victor and Benji felt compelled and determined to win Victor’s attention back. You know, some good old fashioned jealousy born of insecurity -- that feeling of being a little insecure and protective of a new friendship, of wanting that person to just see you as special, of feeling like you have something to prove or you’ll end up forgotten in the background. (And maybe he was also a little sick of straight(?) girls having it so easy with the cute guys…)

- Because Benji subconsciously wanted to telegraph to Victor that he is interested in him (and is bitter that it’s not that simple) and wanted to see if Victor bites back. For science

- Or maybe because Benji saw a perfect chance to perform the song as a cute gift to Victor since he actually showed up, but then his intentions quickly unravelled into the prior points, haha

And that leads me to…

HOW DID HE JUSTIFY THE INTENSE* STARING TO HIMSELF?

(*Because even if the song was meant to be something innocent like a homage to an in-joke with Victor or a harmless means to process his feelings on this new and exciting friendship with an attractive boy, the intensity with which he sang it felt like something else entirely. It transcended friendship into a very ambiguous zone. And there was so much yearning in it. Particularly by the end...)

I think Benji probably justified his behaviour by thinking:

- It’s okay for Lead Singer Benji to stare at his muse while performing a story. (It’s just a persona, there’s no need for guilt!)

- It’s normal to be excited by a new friendship and it’s okay to want to sing a giddy song about that experience. And at worst, it’s just a harmless crush that will eventually fade once the novelty wears off. It’s not like he has any intention to do anything further with it since he is committed to Derek. It’s just fun to feel the tingles of a teeny crush…….

Alright, that’s it. I’m out. I’m done. I’ve got nothing left. Thanks for the ride, Benji, you mysterious, complicated, hopeless romantic.

#Love Victor #Benji Campbell #Victor Salazar #Venji #Battle of the How Dare You

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randombtsprincessa · 5 years ago

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Author: Randombtsprincessa

Characters: Jung Hoseok x Kim Seokjin

Words: 4.1k

Genre/Rating: Smut/fluff (NC - 17)

Prompt: 2seok with bad boy Jin (think tattoos, motorbikes, intimidating af but rescues kittens type) and model student shy and sweet Hoseok.

Warning: Clubbing, social drinking, mentions of drunken sex, tattoed blond Jin, flirting, LGBTQ+ fic, MxM fic, bad father, bad childhood mentions, volunteering work, kissing, blowjob in a garage, unprotected oral (male receiving) [be safe folks].

A/N: The following work is a part of @ficswithluv ‘s amazing project Change With Luv. It was commissioned by the lovely Ducky ( @diedinwarofhormones ) Thank you for the commission and let’s hope the donation helps bring about some really needed reforms! It is my very first mxm fic so please be a little lenient in judgement and I kept the smut not very explicit just in case (also because I exceeded the word limit shhh) so yeah. I hope you enjoy! Please do check out the project to help bring some change to the world and art to the world!

Now, do welcome the gif that brought together the last scene of the fic!

In life, there are three sets of people who go hand in hand.

There are the people who are completely alike, do everything together, share hobbies and end up being the ‘goals’ that are usually portrayed on every hyped up couples instagram.

There are people who seem to just mesh well, go about in their personal bubbles as things either go well or not.

And then…there are the people who are nothing alike. They are poles apart, one league away from each other.

Yet, they are brought closer and closer to each other and gel together in a manner that astounds the people surrounding them.

Or so Jung Hoseok had read somewhere; in a book, maybe in his adolescence, in those past teen years that seem like a dream.

He was grown up now, in college and while he had kept on the rosy tint in his cheeks, he had shed off most of his earlier romantic notions.

After all, college was a step forward towards the future he craved desperately. And he worked hard for it, to graduate and then carry on further into a blissful, stress free life.

So, when he came in touch with the circle in which Kim Seokjin moved, well…

All those ideals and notions came back like a sucker punch.

To be very honest, a club scene where there was too much light but nothing could be seen, where a bass thumped that irritatingly made you feel like you had a second heartbeat, too many sweaty bodies that merged, collided to a rambling beat and alcohol that cost half a days’ worth income – even on a campus ground, was not to Hoseok’s taste.

However, his best friend Namjoon had dragged him out of his room this time, screaming, wailing, and crawling – for once to pry Hoseok away from those chemistry books that still had equations pounding in his cranium.

Many minutes after arriving at the party, Namjoon had disappeared.

Hoseok had no idea where; if there was someone who was more shy, nerdy or awkward than him…it was Kim Namjoon.

He hoped he was getting laid somewhere, that way he’d be much less annoyed when Hoseok inevitably left to go home.

He turned his torso around to the crowd, and although he could see absolutely nothing clearly, he tried, he really did.

He reached up, straightened onto the bar stool so he could look over the multiple heads. Most of the flashing lights glinted against his glasses, blinding him and he sighed. Slumping back, he admitted defeat, looking along the length of the bar.

Maybe he should order another drink?

It wasn’t midnight just yet. He could make it till 12 and then slip away. After all, if Namjoon was around and…not otherwise occupied, he would come over so they could both go back to the dorm.

They both had early and lengthy classes for god’s sake.

As he stretched out a hand, to attract the bartender’s attention, he saw him.

The angle the man sat at made it impossible for him to get a clear look at his face. However, it was easy to discern the hunch of his shoulders, too wide, clad in a smooth leather jacket that exploded rainbows whenever a streak of light bounced off of the man.

Deep blond hair ruffled on top of the head and he could barely make out the hints of a neck tattoo.

The bartender soon came over to take his order and after refilling the drink, Hoseok decided that he could stay a bit more, just to see what the stranger looked like maybe.

“Buddy, take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

Hoseok started, the rim of the glass jolting against his teeth at the move as the man turned his head to look at him head on, one dark eyebrow quirked.

Suffice it to say, the man was breathtaking.

The soft blond hair accentuated the poufy lips of the man, glistening wet from the alcohol. The leather jacket showed off a swimmer’s body, a silver clasp at his thin waist.

Hoseok was tempted to think that this man put his last boyfriend to shame.

“I’m sorry; I must’ve just stared at you. I was zoning out.” Hoseok excused himself.

“Don’t worry about it.” The man grinned, leaning forward so he would be audible. “You here with someone?”

“My roommate…he’s disappeared.”

The stranger nodded, taking a swig from his glass. “Yeah, that happens around here. If you wanna zone out a bit more, feel free but only cause you’re cute.”

Hoseok’s mouth fell open at the flirting, gaping like a fish as the man grinned yet again, this time feral.

“I…I wasn’t…”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it, pretty boy.”

The man was taking the final gulp, placing the glass next to Hoseok, along with a couple bills under the glass. “Buy yourself a drink from me, would you?”

Hoseok could only stare at the glass and money, still shocked at the bold advance of a complete stranger.

“Oh and hey pretty boy,”

Hoseok turned to look at the exiting male.

“Next time, I’m gonna start charging.”

He turned after that, not hindered by any of the swirling bodies in his path, leaving Hoseok to wonder if maybe he should’ve gotten the name of the man, or at least given his own.

“You’re, like, not even listening to me.” Namjoon snapped Hoseok’s attention towards himself, a pen tapping insistently against his notebook.

“Yes I am,” Hoseok immediately defended but it was too late.

Namjoon had already shoved the study materials that were strewn across the table to one side, both arms coming up to cradle his head. “Go on, purge.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you, I swear.” Hoseok could hear the defensiveness in his own voice and while it was partly true, he knew he would have to cave in the face of his best friend.

“Fine…I met this guy at the club party a couple nights ago.”

Namjoon stared.

“The one you left me alone at.”

That seemed to jog his memory, causing a delicate sheen of plum to spread along his cheeks. “I said I was sorry, I mean...I saw Taehyung and he looked like –,”

“A dream, yes, I got that.” Hoseok stopped himself from rolling his eyes at the slightly…enormous crush that Namjoon harbored towards the popular junior.

“You didn’t tell me about this guy though,” Namjoon continued.

What was there to tell? Yes, he’d conversed briefly with an absolute stranger for not more than five minutes. Yes, he had never felt this wildly attracted to anyone before. At least, not so much that warranted mooning over him for more than a day. He also knew that there was a good chance that he would never run into him again.

He didn’t even know his name. There was nothing tying the both of them.

Unless he wanted to end up like Namjoon, in a puppy love with a guy he was too scared to talk to, he’d have to move on.

After all; Hoseok thought back to the sleek black lines that ran along the man’s skin, the tight leather that clung to him, smelling of liquor that was alluring in its own right; he was someone Hoseok would not usually find himself associated with.

He was probably a patented bad boy, and Hoseok well…he was model student.

“You just flaked on me again, bro.” Namjoon poked his arm.

“Sorry, so, you didn’t get laid that night then? Why didn’t you come find me?”

“I kind of did; but I don’t know if you can call it that. The chick and I both were pretty smashed and all I could think about was Taehyung’s --,”

“No thanks, I don’t need that imagery in my head.” Hoseok interrupted with a sharp flutter of his hands, raising them to cover his ears.

Namjoon broke out laughing, before shaking his head. “So, do you know anything about this mysterious man of yours?”

“No, but I do know, we have a test tomorrow, so let’s get back to work, shall we?”

Yes, he did know one thing. It was to never hold true to ideals about anything. Somehow they always got smashed to pieces.

Hoseok had been right to let go of past ideals as he grew up.

He was sitting in the café, books open as he checked the answers to his test. A smooth cream latte sat near his hand with a plate of the café bakery’s special made chocolate chip cookies. Hoseok and Namjoon being regulars meant the staff knew their preferences and it was a god send when the both of them would stumble in, bleary and hazy from their workload to a ready steaming cup and some desperately needed sugar.

He had attempted to put away thoughts of any blonde men that may have crossed his path to solely worry about how chemistry worked in anatomy and it had somewhat paid off, if only all his answers mirrored the ones in his notes.

So, when he heard that same voice, calling out from the wide open door that had haunted him for the past few days, he had to look up.

In the daylight, if possible The Stranger looked much more beautiful than what the club lights paid homage to. He was awfully tall and broad, the same leather jacket and belt still wrapped around him, only this time, he had a helmet clasped under an arm and his hair was mussed from probably being trapped under it.

Big boots thudded, as Hoseok watched the man make his way to the counter, a hard smile ready for the counter worker who clearly stuttered in talking with him, while boxing up a few things.

Must be another regular; Hoseok thought back if he had ever seen him around but glossed over him. Nothing came to mind, even as the man slid over his payment before grabbing the handles of the bag, laughing at something the barista said.

Sensing that he was about to turn about, Hoseok looked down quickly, nearly burying his face behind the book.

He prayed; eyes closed that he hadn’t been caught. While he had hoped for another sight of his stranger, Hoseok hadn’t accounted for what he would do if it did happen. All the times, he’d imagined meeting up in his daydreams, they always stopped short when it came to a response on his part.

“…hey, it’s you.”

Hoseok gulped, wondering why he wasn’t invisible as he looked up, caught in the dark gaze of The Stranger again.

“It is you. Remember me?” The man tilted his head, shifting the helmet in his arms.

“Oh…yeah, in the club, of course,” Hoseok’s voice shook, hands dropping the book to the table as he worked hard to form coherent sentences.

The man’s eyes flashed to the books, grinning with those teeth flashing. “You’re a student.”

There was no room to deny it even as Hoseok chuckled. “Yeah, what about you?”

“Oh I’m done. I just hang about now.” He lowered his voice as if admitting to a mock crime and after a deep breath, Hoseok let out a much more relaxed grin.

In the light, it was easier to tell how different they really were. He was leather-clad, motorcycle helmet laden. Hoseok was wearing a knit sweater and simple jeans and sneakers, a school bag at his feet and his books strewn about a table.

Worlds apart…

Hoseok was someone easy to approach, to talk to, while this man was obviously not someone who anyone would go to first. However, even with the dark aura that hung about him, the way he talked, to ease Hoseok up, revealed something much softer beneath him.

“Speaking of which, I need to go. I will see you around I guess.” The man said.

Your name - give him your damn name, Hobi.

“My name is Hoseok. I forgot to mention it last time.” He said quickly.

The man paused in opening the door, a quirk to his lips. “I’ll remember that.”

And he was gone, with Hoseok watching his walk to a Harley parked nearby, straddling it as he put on the helmet. The Stranger hadn’t afforded Hoseok his own name…

Maybe they were too different. And maybe Hoseok wasn’t the only one who was aware of that fact.

Even if - Hoseok thought as he stared at the boy sitting opposite him - he wasn’t the only one who knew how different their lives were, neither seemed too intent on cutting their losses just at the moment.

Hoseok hadn’t timed himself, he swore up and down that the reason he was frequenting the café more and more was the increased need for coffee and not the need to catch an elusive Seokjin, whose name he’d caught only accidentally when the barista called for his order.

However, now here they were sitting across from each other.

He was still just as intimidating at first glance, a cold tilt to his head at anyone who he didn’t favor approaching him. A light scoff followed whenever he overheard something particularly obnoxious and rough looking fingers that Hoseok couldn’t help but want to touch.

He was in too deep, he figured. His mind had compartmentalized the raging crush he harbored for the new and exciting addition to his world but he knew that amidst his straight As and glowing recommendations, Jin would not only not sit well, but also appear…unsavory.

And Hoseok absolutely, blissfully, just didn’t care.

He had had a bad childhood, Seokjin had told him. A rich father, who had abandoned his family to ‘fuck about’ as he put it, with packets of money deposited for their upkeep but Jin didn’t touch it.

His mother had paid through the money in a trust after he had graduated in business but instead of putting his degree to use, he’d started working in a garage, now partner in it.

That explained the motorcycle, Hoseok had joked while Jin had only shrugged.

“I also volunteer a lot of my free time. My mom, well, I love her but she’s got her own life now…and she puts all of my father’s money in the trust still so I don’t have to bother her about anything. I don’t think she enjoys having a reminder of my dad around anyway.”

All Hoseok could do was nod his head sadly at him.

So when Seokjin offered to show Hoseok about the volunteering he did, he jumped at the opportunity. He had a chance to see what the man really was like under the façade of the cool bravado and Hoseok could feel intrigue tingling at his fingertips.

He wasn’t disappointed.

Seokjin took him to an animal shelter first, filled with puppies with big eyes, kittens that purred and curled up under their chins, bigger dogs and cats that were soft to touch and clearly abandoned and starved for loved. There were birds too, brightly colored and some wild and a couple of pigs and horses. Each animal that Jin visited seemed to love him, curling under his touch, molding them to him.

The next place they visited was a children’s library. A large group of toddlers shrieked when they saw him, swarming up to him and begging for a story. Hoseok watched with a bemused smile for an hour as Jin made animal and vehicle noises to entertain the spellbound kids.

When finally, they visited a retirement home, it was then that Hoseok saw the brief haunted look behind Seokjin’s eyes. It was just a glance, as he wiped an old woman’s mouth as she chuckled motherly at him, the rice that clung to her chin not fazing Jin in the slightest.

“It’s like having a family of my own.” He whispered as Hoseok put a hand to his shoulder, still hesitant.

“You miss them.”

“I do, but I would rather do this than let them be burdened by my presence again.”

“Maybe, they don’t feel that way.”

Seokjin didn’t reply to that, instead standing with a lovable smile to the lady who waved goodbye. “I’ll drop you off at your dorm.” He said.

His voice scared Hoseok. There was an air of finality there, as if he knew he’d shown Hoseok much more than was necessary. More than he needed to, to a guy who he probably wouldn’t see much of in the future.

“I’m not ready to go just yet.”

Hoseok knew he sounded desperate but there was nothing he could do. He had to accept his reality.

Seokjin turned with a curious look, puzzled at the heaviness in Hoseok’s voice before smirking. “Then there’s one more place I can show you. Let’s grab some dinner first.”

“This is amazing.” Hoseok whispered, awed as Jin flicked on light switches.

When Jin had said he was going to take him to his garage, Hoseok expected something like a shed, greased and metal barred. This was, this was sleek, all black steel and huge lights swinging from the ceiling.

“I spent a good deal of dad’s money on this. Hence, why I got the partnership, I saved the place from sinking. The upscale décor brings in some solid clients so, I guess you could say my sense of style did the job.” Jin kicked at a few strewn crates, turning to throw a wink at Hoseok.

Hoseok looked down at the remnants burger in his hand, biting the piece down into his mouth so as to not answer.

He watched, surreptitiously as Jin undid the jacket, removing his arms from the leather sleeves to reveal an extremely thin white tank top that sent a swoop down Hoseok’s throat, settling somewhere in his gut.

Jin turned; pausing Hoseok’s ogling at his muscled back as he stretched out his arms over his head, a thin strip of his stomach showing.

Hoseok swallowed loudly, the bite of burger going the wrong path and he broke out in coughs.

“Hey, what…” Seokjin laughed, pulling out a water bottle from a mini fridge to pass it to the wheezing boy. “Calm down, pretty boy. I know the burger’s good but eat slowly.”

Hoseok pulled the bottle away, eyes still watering.

This was too much; here he was, Hoseok, a nice kid who tried to steer clear from all sorts of ‘trouble’ and he was here with Kim Seokjin, someone who people would say embodied trouble.

And what was he doing?

Why, all he wanted was Seokjin to ram against him on the surface of one of the cars of course.

He was worse than Namjoon.

“I think…I should go.” Hoseok stuttered, casting his eyes down. This was it, the final time he put himself in the path of such temptations. Jin would never look twice at someone like him. He was in way over his head.

“Hey pretty boy,”

Hoseok looked up at Seokjin, who now stood too close to his face, blond hair hanging in his eyes, lips pulled into his teeth.

“Tell me something, why are you so scared of me?” Jin asked.

Hoseok blinked, all previous concerns evaporating. “Wait, what…? I’m not scared of you.” He said, conviction strengthening his voice.

“Really,” Jin moved in, eyes dropping to the way Hoseok chewed on his bottom lip. “So, why do you keep pulling away? You stare at me, flirt with me, hold on to me on the bike, but when I bring you here and when we’re alone for too long you withdraw.”

Hoseok thudded back against something and Jin took advantage, lifting his hands and putting them on either side of his body, caging him in.

“I’m…I’m not scared of you.” Hoseok sighed, giving in. “I’m scared of well, my feelings, as cliché as it seems.”

“Why?” Seokjin asked smoothly.

“Because we’re so different; I mean you’re a rich kid who acts like a bad boy but is so kind and sweet under all that toughness and I’m…I’m a good sweet boy who would never - never be able to keep up with someone like you. I’m putting myself up for disappointment when you realize it too.”

Seokjin stared at Hoseok, hard and deep. He looked almost angry – dangerous...gorgeous.

“You know what I realized actually?” He asked. There was a pleasant lilt to his tone but Hoseok could feel the undercurrents of a threat to it.

He leaned in, making Hoseok press himself to the wall, his body almost vibrating from the proximity.

“I realized that you’re exactly the kind of person who can keep up with me. I realized that it doesn’t matter if we belong to different circles. I realized that I should probably kiss you right now because you might be a grade-A kid but baby, you’re fucking stupid.

Hoseok had no time to even draw a full breath. Jin had reared back and then slammed Hoseok back again. The hands that Hoseok had dreamed of touching now gripped his cheeks, Jin’s mouth fully on his, swallowing the surprised squeaks he embarrassingly let out.

Seokjin chuckled against his lips, pulling back just enough to nip at his chin. “Fuck, I should’ve done that in the club.”

Hoseok reached forward to tug Jin back, taking over the kiss this time as he delved into the older boy’s mouth, tasting the soda on his tongue.

“Not a complete good boy, then.” Jin commented, reaching back to tug off the tank.

Hoseok lounged against the wall, idly tracing over the tattoos that ran over Jin’s exquisite body. “What do they mean?” He asked as Jin tugged off Hoseok’s shirt too.

Jin paused, glancing down at his torso.

“This,” he raised his arm. “A compass to point me in the right direction,” He moved to his shoulder. “The lion to keep me strong and brave,” he smirked suddenly, grabbing Hoseok’s hand and placing it against the burning skin of his chest. “The tree keeps me kind and nurturing.”

Hoseok met Jin’s gaze, running his hand down to his belt, fiddling with the clasp.

“Wait,” Jin stopped him, shoving his hand away. “This is about you. Let me take care of you tonight.”

“What do you mean, oh,” Hoseok’s voice pitched higher as Jin fluidly sank to his knees in front of him. Deft, nimble fingers undid the buttons and zipper on his jeans, pulling the band and the underwear down to free his gorged shaft.

“Fuck,” Jin and Hoseok both let out as Jin swept his hands against the soft skin. He was hard, Hoseok marveled, hard enough to drip over Jin’s palms which he smeared back onto his skin to make the slide easier.

A loud moan escaped Hoseok’s parted lips when Jin engulfed him, first the tip and then most of his length. He jolted, head falling back as his hips pushed forward on their own volition.

Jin kept his eyes on him, a smirk straining his lips at the vulnerable stance of the lithe man. While he would usually be on the receiving end of this, there was something so sexy, so erotic about watching a man lose it over head as he throated as much as he could.

Hoseok meanwhile fumbled with his hands, alternating between fisting his own hair and tugging at Jin’s to further lower himself into the heat of his cavern. If he knew this was what he would be missing out, there would’ve been no way he would have agonized over it for this long.

Seokjin continued moving, squelching sounds echoing throughout the empty garage that sounded so wonderfully taboo, Hoseok nearly came right there. The thrill of it; the way someone could walk right in, catch them with Seokjin sucking him deep into his mouth caused his eyes to roll back.

“That’s it, pretty boy. Come for me.” Jin coaxed from below and before he could catch his breath, his throat closed up, his body hunching when Jin pulled him back, and the tip of his cock brushing the back of his throat, deeper still.

With an almost pornographic groan, Hoseok unloaded himself into Jin’s throat, his lover keeping him in till he was fully empty.

Jin pulled away from him, color flaming high in Hoseok’s cheeks at the wet sound that echoed through the near empty garage.

All he could do was fall into the surprisingly sweet kiss that Jin pressed to lips, the taste of him mingling in his own mouth. Jin handed him his shirt with an impish grin.

“Next time,” he pulled Hoseok in by the waist. “I’m going to make you pay for ‘zoning out’ in the club.”

#changeswithluv #ficswithluv #smutcentralnet #btsbookclub #jhope smut #jin smut #bts smut #jhope #jin #bts #bts fanfic #jhope fanfic #jin fanfic #jhope x jin #2seok fic

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daggerzine · 4 years ago

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European Sun say you’re never too old to be young!

Ok, I could name every single band (and nearly every song) that Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher had been in but who was this gent Steve Miles? And where did this band European Sun come from? The record cover and band named name certainly looked intriguing, an obvious homage to the Velvet Underground, and the songs had some Velvets chug to them as well. Their debut came out a few months ago on WIAIWYA label in the UK and I really love what I had heard. Some oddball spoken word folk nudged up against some truly sublime chamber pop. I wanted to know more so I bribed them with tea and biscuits the next time I’m in the UK (17 years from now or so) but they were still more than happy to answer my questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, European Sun!

Steve how did you meet Amelia and Rob?

Steve: I knew Rob in my youth when I was a hermit: he stopped by from time to time to bring me news from the outside world. Sometime after that, Rob and Amy became a couple, as destined in the stars, while I stumbled reluctantly and inexpertly into the world, and we lost touch for a few decades. Then we met again and they said they would like to record some of my songs. The rest is European Sun.

Rob: What Steve says is true. He was a hermit, and he was probably the only vegan I knew back in the 1980s. He referred to me as ‘the Ambassador of Decadence’ because I did things like have the occasional pint with other people in a pub, and eat the occasional sausage roll.

Steve: I still consider that decadent...

Amelia, Steve and Rob in the woods.

When did the band form (like exact second- ha ha …I’m not funny am I?).

Steve came to play a solo set at an indie weekend in Kent, and Rob and Amy accompanied Steve on one song. We all liked it so much we decided to do more of it.

Steve, I know Amelia and Rob’s musical history, but how about you? Were you in any previous bands?

Steve: I was and am still in The Short Stories. We released four CDs between 2007 and 2013. Ten years before that I drummed in Modesty Blaise. It feels a bit ambitious to me trying to be in two bands at once but Rob and Amy are in about seventeen so it’s nothing by comparison.

Rob: We are in four, to be precise. The Catenary Wires, Swansea Sound, and the Drift. And of course, European Sun - which, for the purposes of this interview, is the best of them.

How did you guys hook up with WIAIWYA?

Steve: Rob and Amy know John Jervis (WIAIWYA) from long back, and John really liked and understood the first ES recordings we did, so it went from there.

Rob: John has been a good friend and a wonderful supporter of our music for a long time. He released the first Marine Research single years ago, and the first Catenary Wires single more recently. He also runs the finest Merch Store in the Western World.

The album cover

Tell us about the recording of the record? Was it COVID-style in separate rooms/homes or together in a studio?

Steve: It was pre-Covid but actually a precursor thereof as we live on opposite sides of the country. I did initial bits at home, sent them over the internet and Rob and Amy worked on those from there. Then there was a glorious period where we were all together, which was the best part - you can see photos on the website – and then some more was done remotely. But once I have created the songs, Rob and Amy (and Ian Button) do the bulk of the playing, and all of the technical aspects. We got together again in late Summer for an online gig and to record a video, both of which can be seen on our Facebook page and YouTube.

Rob: We didn’t know it, but we were rehearsing for lockdown when we produced this album. There was that brief period where we were all together, but the rest of the work was done remotely, with us sending mixes and arrangements down the virtual M4 to Steve. We discovered that it is perfectly possible to work in this way. It helps that European Sun songs are gentle. There is no loud drumming. I did a bit of thunderous bass, but I monitored it in my headphones, so the thunder was private and untroubling to the neighbours.

Steve: ‘Rehearsing for lockdown’ could in fact have been the title of the album, if only we’d thought of it sooner...

Whose idea was the cover of the record (and who did the artwork)?

Steve: I think it was a collective thing but the credit goes to John Jervis, who did all the artwork. As I said, he really understood the ideas and feelings of the band from the outset, and the musical places we came from, so from the idea of Venus for the first single came the idea of the ice cream for Favourite Day and thence to the Velvets pastiche/tribute. We were all surprised it hadn’t been done before, as far as we are aware. If we get rich and famous, we will re-release it with a lickable cover…

How has the response been so far? Any strange reviews?

Steve: No strange reviews - other than by Daggerzine - just lots of really positive feedback - some wonderfully kind comments. It’s perhaps disappointing that we haven’t had more play on the radio so that more people can hear about us. Worth of mouth is great but slow. What has surprised Steve is that almost all the songs on the album have been a ‘favourite’ for one person or another, which is unusual on a record, and clearly justifies the range of styles and moods on there. Releasing it in a pandemic and on vinyl/digital only is probably not marketing move of the century, but it really seems to mean something to the people that have liked it, and that’s worth far more to us than a million people buying it who only listen with half an ear while they exercise or do the washing up.

Once this pandemic is over will a world tour be in order?

Steve: We are hoping that Taylor Swift will ask us to support her on her next outing. Failing that, we will try to organise some gigs ourselves and invite her to support us.

European Sun’s #1 fan!

Tell us some of your favourite current bands.

Steve: The older I get the wider my tastes become and the further back in time I go, so the proportion of new bands on my playlist becomes smaller. My favourite band of people under 25 are Blackwaters. The best album I bought this year is Craig Finn’s I Need A New War, although it came out last year. But if I can also recommend a now defunct band to you because not enough people know about them, it’s the cruelly under-appreciated The Beauty Shop from Illinois – I am starting a campaign to get them to release something new with this sentence, which people in the US are much better placed than me to make happen, as they don't return my emails.

Rob: I have been a bit hopeless at keeping up with new bands. I like the new Jetstream Pony single, and I like the Jeanines. Oh yeah, and I liked the last Rosehip Teahouse single as well. Actually, that’s not so bad is it?

Amy: I like Red Red Eyes and Penelope Isles. As The Catenary Wires we played two shows with the former, and would love to play shows with the latter.

Steve: Discerning readers might be able to piece together what European Sun sound like from a composite of all the above tastes, and some creative imagination. Or better still, buy the beautiful vinyl itself...

Will there be more recording in the (near) future?

Steve: Rob and Amy never stop recording – you can listen to The Drift or Swansea Sound if you want evidence! I am less prolific; I am currently writing the next European Sun album, however, buoyed by the success of this one and the wonderful partnership with Rob, Amy and Ian. It took me seven years to write the debut album but I’m confident I can produce the follow up in at least half that!

Rob: I am sure there will be more recording. We have got pretty good at doing it all at home, though we do rely on our friend Ian Button for drumming (he is able to do this remotely) and mastering. We are actually about to start a new label. It’s called Skep Wax. We will use it to distribute a lot of what we are currently doing, and may start to release other people’s music (if we haven’t made a complete mess of releasing our own).

www.wiaiwya.bandcamp.com

Still in the woods.

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djdavidbonobo · 5 years ago

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Raices & Resistance: The Liner Notes

Raices & Resistance: The Brown Sounds of L.A. 2000-2010

There are sometimes fortuitous moments when the spotlight on music falls in just the right place at just the right time: New Orleans during the 1920s, San Francisco in the Age of Aquarius, or Seattle in the Grunge Era. Each moment different, but equally a watershed. Then, there are also the times and places where the seeds of genius are budding all around, but those pioneers of the day are ahead of their time, or they simply don’t get the financial or promotional watering that they need to flourish. Think of New York’s Jazz scene during WWII, or the American pioneers of Punk Rock in the early 70’s. Those eras are the ones that are most akin to what happened in L.A.’s Latin music scene of the 2000s.

At the end of the 90’s, Ozomatli had gained much deserved recognition with the release of their eponymously titled debut album in 1998, and it seemed as if the spotlight was about to fall on the Latin music community right when it was in the beginning of a renaissance. Yet, when the new millennium came, times were tough everywhere, and nowhere could this be more clearly seen than in the music industry. Internet platforms like Napster made free online music downloads ready for the masses, and caused the industry’s near collapse. MySpace emerged as the first social media platform for new musicians to connect with audiences, but it lacked the reach of today’s YouTube and Facebook. As the L.A. Times noted in 2004, “Major multinational labels, struggling with an economic downturn, are reluctant to invest what it takes to break new acts, especially in a genre (like Latin Alternative) that gets little airplay and needs significant label support.”

By the 20teens, things were looking very different as the music industry had reinvented itself (albeit with missing limbs and less money in the bank), and it had again turned its eye toward the L.A. Latino music community with Grammys handed out to Quetzal and La Santa Cecilia. The buzz of L.A.’s Latin talent was spreading to audiences in the U.S.’s Spanish speaking communities, so as the economy began to resurge, bands were having an easier time with self-marketing, tours, and album sales.

So who was there during this creative explosion of L.A.’s Latin music community of the 2000s? And what were the common threads running through this musical tapestry? These are important elements to consider when creating a title for this compilation, and the diversity of the scene made this a difficult task. Not all of the artists were rock. Most sang in both English and Spanish. A couple of them only sang in Spanish. Most had roots in local community oriented civil rights activism, but not all. Hmmm. Simple, yet complex. Despite the eclectic range of all these artists combined, they were (or still are) a close knit group of musicians: a musical community. For example, I don’t know all of them personally, but I know that there is no more than one degree of separation between me and any of the artists on this compilation.

There were community centers and connections like the L.A.C.E.R. after school arts program where many of the artists on this compilation worked and met. There was Tia Chucha’s, Smoke N Mirrors, S.P.A.R.C., Casa 0101, KillRadio.Org, KPFK and others. The abuelita of them all? Self-Help Graphics. These cultural centers gave a platform for artists in the community, and deserve credit for fostering the incredible music that continues to emerge from the Latin community. The EZLN movement in Chiapas was still fresh in peoples’ minds in the 2000s, and it fostered things, too. It was a revolutionary inspiration in the face of the post 911 America when gentrification began to sweep through the eastside of L.A., and The South Central Farmers were forced off their land to make way for so called “progress.” Bush was president, the country went to war under false pretenses, and we forged a spirit of resistance for new immigrants, Indigenous peoples, urban gardening, art, love, peace, and understanding. Some things change. Some don’t.

By the 20teens, in the wake of the creative explosion that happened during the 2000s, came a time when the spotlight came back around to this same community with Grammys given to Quetzal and La Santa Cecilia. Latin Electronica game to be included under the larger category of Global Bass. The rise of Subsuelo also came, along with the rising careers of artists like Captain Planet, Rafi El, Buyepongo, Las Cafeteras, The Boogaloo Assassins, and more. My ultimate hope is that we can all see the debt owed to these pioneers of the 2000s, and that we never forget their musical legacy. With 60 million Latinos living in the United States in 2020, the audience for this music ain’t going no where!

Note: I know some of you out there will be disappointed in the selections I made, and that’s okay. We can only see things from our own perspective and the experiences that inform it., These are the artists that I experienced, and this is just a sampling of some of my favorite songs. If Menoman or Mark Torres did this, you’d probably get a totally different angle. Also, know that I did my best to research all of the artists and tracks listed here, but sometimes that information was not available. In those instances, I had to employ my imperfect memory. You can post a comment to let me know corrections that should be made, or share out who think I should have also included (but remember, only artists with releases during the 2000s).

Agave Ocotillo (Fósforo - Even The Sun 2005): The trio consisted of three high school friends that grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Proving themselves to be beyond the scope of their peers in both musical and lyrical range, Fósforó penned their sound as Punky Reggae Jungle. Playing with rhythms such as Reggae, Jungle, Drum-n-Bass, Cumbia, Rock and more, vocalist/songwriter Rafi B. of Argentinian and Israeli descent, also sang in English, Spanish and Hebrew. Fósforo would forge an alliance with L.A.’s other Latin Electronica pioneers: Mezklah. Rafi B. would later become DJ/Producer Rafi El for the Dutty Artz label while Cesar Ventura would become a percussionist for the Fania label’s Boogaloo Assassins. The song featured here is a poetic homage to the enduring strength of “La Raza.”

Crazy Baldheads (Quinto Sol - Barrio Roots 2003): The name “Quinto Sol” is Spanish for the “fifth sun,” and it is a reference to the Aztec myth of creation and destruction. The band got their start in 1994, but Barrio Roots was their first full-length album release. Quinto Sol has intimately connected themselves to the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, and they have used Roots Reggae as a vehicle to delve into their own Meztizo roots. Their latest album, Spirits of the Martyrs, was released in 2014.

Chango AraÑa (Mezklah - Spider Monkey 2005): Making their stage debut in 2000, Mezklah emerged as the first Latin Electronica band in North America. Borrowing music from around the globe, singer/songwriter Angel Garcia and guitarist Greg Hernandez forged a sound that was Spanish/Bilingual, but completely different from their contemporaries. They crafted bass heavy electronic rhythms to fuse Cuban Son, Reggae, Drum-n-Bass, Blues, Hard Rock, Psychedelia, Cumbia and more into tightly structured and hook filled socially conscious pop songs ready for the dancefloor. In 2004, they were nominated by L.A. Weekly as the city’s best World Music/Recombinant Artist, and in 2005, they won L.A.’s Battle of The Bands. After one album and an EP, as well as tours in Mexico and the Southwest, Europe and Japan, Mezklah disbanded in 2010. They announced their reformation on KPTZ 91.9 FM in December, 2019. A new album is expected in 2020.

Cumbia de la Flor (East L.A. Sabor Factory - Party At Louie’s 2002): Headed up by frontman Ricky Ray Rivera, the trajectory of East L.A. Sabor Factory was straight up when they first appeared on the scene 1999, but unfortunately, their momentum didn’t carry them far enough. They changed their name after the release of Party At Louie’s, and broke apart shortly thereafter. This track captures the danceable high energy of the band and was a crowd favorite when they played live, but doesn’t feature Rivera’s bilingual rapping. In 2007, Rivera would go on to release a solo album titled Neighborhood Fame.

Nada Mio Es Fake (Los Abandoned - Mix Tape 2006): No other artist arising in L.A.’s bilingual music community seemed like such a clear bet to wear the glass slipper of success as Los Abandoned. They were sharing the stage with the likes of Café Tacuba, The Breeders, Julieta Venegas, Molotov, and Aterciopelados, and they signed with Neil Young’s Vapor Records in 2005. They released a Christmas single and two EPs before releasing Mix Tape as their first full length album in 2006. The critics loved them, their songs were catchy (the pop song I’m featuring here was not even one of their released singles), and they had a sexy singer. Vocalist Lady P. (Pilar Diaz of Chilean descent) was the primary creative force behind Los Abandoned, and just as their success was in full bloom, she called it quits in 2007. Lady P. has since released two solo albums under the name Maria del Pilar.

Trouble In My Soul (Mexican Dubwiser - Revolution Radio 2010): Before becoming a superstar DJ/Producer duo with Kinky’s Ulises Lozano, Marcelo Tijerina was solo stepping on L.A. as a transplant from Montery Mexico’s Avanzada Regio music scene. This version of the Trouble In My Soul single features San Francisco DJ/Producer Romanowski.

Luna Negra (Olmeca w/Los Cojolites - Self Release 2005): Olmeca should be recognized as one of the hardest working music artists in the Chicano music scene. Placing himself in the same corner as Hip-Hop elder KRS-One, he identifies himself as a music artist, activist, and scholar. In 1999, he joined L.A. band Slowrider. After their 2003 album Historias En Revisión, he stepped out as a solo artist. He has gone on release several albums (including 2019’s Define), toured universities as a guest lecturer, and he is currently faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Interdisciplinary Gender and Ethnic Studies Department. Los Cojolites are a Son Jarocho group from the Mexican state of Veracruz that is often noted for their candid social commentary.

Jarocho Elegua (Quetzal - Sing The Real 2002): Formed by guitarist Quetzal Flores in 1992, the band Quetzal released their eponymously titled debut album in 1998 after vocalist Martha Gonzalez joined the band. Continually fusing social activism with music, Quetzal has received accolades from the world of scholars and activists, as well as receiving the 2013 Grammy for Best Latin Pop, Rock, or Urban Album for their release of Imaginaries.

No Me Te Pido Mas (Domingo Siete - Quitate La Mascara 2005): Martha Gonzalez is not the only one in her family to possess musical talent. Her brother Gabriel Tenorio did just fine for himself as the singer/song-writer/guitarist for Domingo Siete. They toured Europe, they shared the stage with Los Lobos, Cheryl Crow, & Ozomatli, and they released two full length albums. Dame might have been the single that Gabriel would want me to highlight, but this one was always my favorite.

Cuenten Lo (Pe Ere - Demo Collaboration w/producer Rafi Benjamin of Fósforó 2006): Pe Ere was most often seen performing as a duo with Pantera. The two were immigrants from Nigaragua with a passion for Reggaeton. Pe Ere demonstrated great stage presence during his time in the scene, and this song reflects that he was not afraid to try new innovative sounds, but his run was too short. Where are you now, P.R.?

La Sirena (Beatriz Torres - La Sirena E.P. 2002): Produced by her soon to be husband, Angel Garcia of Mezklah fame, this song and E.P. reflect a vibrant new take on Trip-Hop from a Chicana perspective. Torres’ performances incorporated both poetry and performance art. She took the stage across L.A. opening for Mezklah and Fósforó, and she toured Mexico with Mezklah and DJ David BoNobO in 2003. She retired from performing in 2004 with the birth of her first child.

Pa La Paloma (Alquimia Remixed by David BoNobO - Single 2005): Alquimia was a band out of Bogotá, Colombia that featured singer Janio Coronado (he would go on to sing for Sidestepper). DJ/Producer David BoNobO has played parties in Cuba, toured Mexico in 2003, and held residencies in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2005, and 2008. He also shared the stage with the following artists on this compilation: Beatriz Torres, Fitter, Fósforó, Go Betty Go, Mexican Dubwiser, Mezkalah, Olmeca, Pe Ere, Quetzal, Very Be Careful, and Xochisoneros. This song was his first venture into the realm of producing and remixing. How BoNobO, a white guy transplanted to L.A. from Portland, came to be part of this scene is still a matter of great contention and debate.

Celosa feat. Locos Por Juana (Palenke Soultribe - Oro 2009): Palenke Soultribe transplanted to L.A. in 2006 from Bogotá, Colombia. The group initially consisted of producer/bassist Juan Diego Borda and keyboardist/producer Andres “Popa” Erazo, but grew to include a rotating list of musicians collaborating with them as a collective. This track displays one of several connections Miami’s Locos Por Juana made with Angelinos during the 2000s.

Warriors feat. Will.I.Am - BEP Remix (Burning Star - Eponymous 2003): Upon the release of their debut album, Burning Star said they aimed to “utilize art as a tool for the reconstruction of the community through the participation of community based programs,” and they had the talent and work ethic to back up such an ambitious statement. At one point in time, you could find a vinyl Burning Star sticker on the light post of every intersection or crosswalk in the city of L.A. Despite their hard effort & amazing line-up of musicians, the flame burned out after just one album. Bassist Emilio Saenz went on to play with the Boogaloo Assassins, Drummer Cisco Huete later played drums for Monte Carlo 76, percussionist Gerry Morales went to Spain to study Flamenco guitar and became a featured artist at Subsuelo, Joshua Alvarez did some collaborative work with Black Eyed Peas, and vocalist/keyboardist Quincy McCary has gone on to work with the likes of Quetzal, Bitbull, Mayer Hawthorne, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Jack White. In 2019, McCrary released a solo debut under the name Qemistry.

Street Signs (Ozomatli - Street Signs 2004): Street Signs was the title song from Ozomatli’s third studio album, and it followed the success of Embracing The Chaos, the one that earned them the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. Their first studio release came in 1998, and it featured rapper Charli 2na and DJ Cut Chemist, and it put L.A.’s Latin music scene back on the map internationally. Since then, they have very much been the leaders of the pack. Their eighth studio album Non-Stop: Mexico to Jamaica was produced by Sly & Robbie and released in 2017.

The Garage (Monte Carlo 76 - Marisa 2008): Birthed in 2003 from the remains of keyboardist Gomez Comes Alive and guitarist Jeremy Keller’s former group Slowrider, Monte Carlo 76 painted vignettes of growing up in East L.A. with their lyrics. Behind that was a musical tipping of the hat to classic 70’s Chicano Rock that never sounded retro. Completing two albums during their run with the help of producers Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores of the band Quetzal, Monte Carlo 76 garnered them a L.A. Weekly Music Awards nomination for Best Latin Alternative Band.

The Coconut Tree (Fitter - Through The Green Jungles of Plenty… 2009): Fitter found success and acclaim in El Salvador, the nation their families came from, despite the fact that they were hard to classify. A fiercely innovative rock band, they took frequent influence from Dub Reggae and African music. Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Wilfredo Mendez was noted for having electrified a traditional folkloric guitar from El Salvador to produce new sounds that had never been heard. They collaborated with Fósforó’s Rafi B., and released two albums in the 2000s. Unfortunately, things came to an end for them when Mendez suffered impairments to his speech and motor skills due to a benign tumor in his brain in 2012.

Haves And Have Nots (Aztlan Underground - Single 2000): Having roots in East L.A.’s hardcore punk scene of the 1980’s, Aztlan was championed by Rage Against the Machine’s Zack De La Rocha when they released their debut album, Decolonize, in 1995. By the 2000s, they were like the scene’s thundering elders reminding newbies of the need to stay socially conscious with their music through lending their voice to numerous community events such as the Farce of July, and the second protest concert in support of The South Central Farmers. They’ve released three albums and played Mexico, Canada, Australia and Spain. They released the single Black Lives Matter in 2019.

No Hay Perdon (Go Betty Go - Nothing Is More 2005): Formed in Glendale in 2005, this all female group proved that they could rock hard while also being able to compose more melodic ballads. They joined the Vans Warped tour in 2004 and 2005. The track highlighted here features the vocals of Nicolette Vilar who left the band in 2006 and rejoined them in 2012. Their third studio release came in the form of an EP titled Reboot in 2015.

El Hospital (Very Be Careful - Escape Room 2010): They may have started up in NYC in 1997, but this band belongs to L.A. While the style they play is traditional Vallento, they are often credited as the L.A. band that made Cumbia hip again. Formed by brothers Ricardo and Arturo Guzman after being inspired by a trip to visit family in Colombia, the group is comprised of five friends who grew up within blocks of each other, plus the Guzman’s aunt Deicy to helps cover the songwriting duties. Releasing their first full length album in 2001, the VBC have gone on to release seven albums to date. They’ve played the giant Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, and the reknowned Glastonbury Festival in England. Their music may be acoustic, but their shows are rawkus bawdy, and filled with Punk attitude.

El Caballito (Xochisoneros - El Caiman 2003): Formed by musician and anthropologist Hector Marquez and musicologist Efren Luna, Xochisoneros brought a flavor to the scene that was more Mexican and less Angelino. Crafting traditional songs in the styles of Son Huasteco, Son Jarocho, Son Cubano, and Colombian Cumbia, they almost exclusively played community or protest events as they used their musical platform for social justice, and to help to show that Mexico has its place in the lexicon of Carribean music. La Marisol of the Grammy Award winning band La Santa Cecilia was a student of Marquez, and she would join the group while she was still in high school. That was an education that you could not put a price on!

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nodava · 5 years ago

Audio

(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bhBFr3byXIJpTsHjDqqlM?si=IHZbX6kfSjuuZYUFS29e_A)

MAGIC PLAYLIST ANNOTATION

Magic can be defined as the use of special powers to make things happen that would more times than often be impossible. Or it can be defined as special quality that makes something or someone stand out compared to others. Personally, I stand by the second definition－with life and with music. Athletes such as LeBron James, Tom Brady, Leo Messi and Serena Williams have that magic. I call that kind of magic the “It factor.” Magic doesn’t have to always be about pixie dust, fairytales and happily ever afters. Magic is a feeling. The songs I selected for my playlist are all “magical” in their own way, mostly relating to love. Note: songs are set in a “shuffle mode” way so the flow of the playlist is a bit inconsistent.

Childish Gambino, ‘Summertime Magic’

Donald Glover, known by his stage name as Childish Gambino released “Summertime Magic” with “Feels Like Summer” as part of his EP titled “Summer Pack” back in the peak of summer in July of 2018. The “magic” in this song is captured by the tropical steel drums that start the track off to Gambino’s love-like lyrics: “Is it summertime magic that makes me want to dance all night long?” This tropical pop/r&b twist of a song will definitely cause some head bobblin’ and shoulder shakin’.

Yung Gravy, “Magic”

Whether this song is intentionally humorous or not, it’s one for the books. “Magic” is Yung Gravy’s fourth and final single off of his debut studio album “Sensational.” Yung Gravy drops several comical bars explaining how he’ll steal your girl with magic while the bass heavy trap beat invades the listeners eardrums. The “magical” essence of the instrumental is resonated with the repetitive keyboard striking and the occasional acoustic guitar strum.“Gravy get near, your b*tch disappear, I call that sh*t magic, She was your b, now she with me, ain't that sh*t tragic?” The hook of the song demonstrates Gravy’s use of magic. Yung Gravy has made a name for himself in the rap game with his unique tone, bars and with his interpretation of trap.

Tyler, the Creator, “NEW MAGIC WAND”

Shifting the tone of the playlist, “NEW MAGIC WAND” is Tyler’s aggressive and desperate attempt to convince someone he loves to not leave him, however the person he loves is still in love with his ex-girlfriend. Tyler threatens to use a “magic wand” to kill both of them in order to get what he wants. The “magic wand” can be interpreted as either the magic wand tool in photoshop or a gun. In one verse he says “I need to get her out the picture, she’s really f*ckin’ up my frame and in another he says “she’s gonna be dead, I just got a magic wand.”

FKJ, “Is Magic Gone”

Shifting the tone back down to Earth, if not lower, “Is Magic Gone” is FKJ’s hopeful and wistful sonic journey of having to let go of something magical, his love. Just like the rest of his songs, FKJ always takes his listeners on a trip with his production. Sometimes slow, dreamy and spacious like this song, and sometimes funky and energetic. In this song FKJ feels like it’s too soon to end his relationship. I've been waiting now for too long, I have to tell you now all my thoughts

Our flame is only getting bloomed, Is magic gone?”

Rodriguez, “I Think Of You”

“I Think Of You” beautifully complements the tone of the previous song in the playlist, “Is Magic Gone.” Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, otherwise known by his stage name and last name, Rodriguez, sings about love and memories. Not only does he sing for the magical memories he had with the women he’s loved, but also for the memories of who he once was as sang in the last verse. “Now these thoughts are haunting me, Of how complete I used to be, And in these times that we're apart, I'll hear this song that breaks my heart, And think of you.”

Erykah Badu [ft. Andre 3000], “Hello”

Probably one of my personal favorites off of this playlist, Erykah Badu cover’s Todd Rundgren and The Isley Brothers’ “Hello, It’s Me. It kicks off with birds chirping and someone walking through a field of some sort then finally opens with nothing short of another eclectic and original verse by Andre 3000. This is the third collaboration between ex-lovers Erykah Badu and Andre 3000 and it’s their most surprising and monumental one as of today. After Andre’s verse the rest of the song is basically a complete cover with the exception of the duo simultaneously singing “Don’t change, don’t change, squirrel” instead of “Don’t change, girl.”

Amy Winehouse, “Mr Magic (Through The Smoke)”

From one R&B A-List artist to another, I figured I’d pay homage to the late Amy Winehouse. Where there’s love and magic, there’s also Amy devoting her love to the green herb with her rendition of Mr. Magic, the hidden final track off of her debut album “Frank.” Originally an instrumental by Grover Washington, Jr., “Mr. Magic” serves as Amy’s anthem to marijuana. “Laying on my bed, I reach over for you, And you so fresh you even make the standards new,

Burn the tip to get you through,” insinuating Amy reaching for a joint/blunt.

Sade, “Your Love is King”

Sade has gradually become one of my favorite musicians as a whole this past year. She might not have an unearthly vocal range, but most of her work is complete and her band always brings their A game. Sade’s no stranger to singing about love, as seen on “Your Love,” “No Ordinary Love” and “Lover’s Pride.” In this songs case, the love expressed is through a woman receiving oral sex. “Touching the very part of me, it's making my soul sing I'm crying out for more, your love is king.” You could say this is Sade in her sensual prime.

-N.D.

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industrious-sloth · 3 years ago

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4. Ashlyn – ASHE Following in Halsey and Lady Gaga’s footsteps, Ashe has decided to use her real name in a title. While this makes sense for the ones above, who did it pretty far along in their careers to signal a gear towards “authenticity”, (Gaga’s ill-fated Joanne and Halsey’s marvelous Ashley) this is Ashe’s debut album – that is, if you don’t consider the two EPs she put out in 2019, Moral of the Story: Chapters 1 & 2, an album in disguise, which I absolutely do. They have the same title! You could argue that they are only eight songs long, but how long does an album have to be these days? I’m just confused as to what constitutes an album for Ashe (and everyone else), that’s all. Is it a chapbook or a short story collection? And, if there are two chapbooks under the same title but divided into chapters one and two, aren’t they part of a collection? In any case, Ashlyn steals its predecessor’s title track. That’s right, Moral of the Story is in this album, even though it is a two-year-old song that has its own album (fine, two EP’s) titled after it. And not only is it here, but there are two versions of it, one featuring Niall Horan, who was always the least annoying member of One Direction. The other feature on the album is Billie Eilish’s brother FINNEAS. I wonder who’s next, Joshua Basset? Lance Bass? I’m sorry, I’ve been seduced by cruelty – it’s not my fault: here I am trying to say nice things and all I do is nitpick. My talents for insult and compliment are unbalanced – I blame my parents. If I don’t have anything bad to say, I don’t say anything at all, which is why most of these critiques will probably just be me listing whatever’s wrong with each album, and the one with the shortest list wins. For instance, Ashlyn is not as good as Rabbit Hole or Moral of the Story, despite the recycled content. However (and here I am employing so much effort), it is in itself a fun album with solid tracks.  There are not a single bad song here, in fact. Whereas song order is a bit confusing and all over the place (Ryne’s Song between Serial Monogamist and Kansas is… interesting? I guess we needed some contrast), there’s always shuffle (even though Adele tried ruining it). Also, the two tracks listed above, Serial Monogamist and Kansas, are an altogether sonic landslide.  You know how, when you show your grandparents any “current” music, they say it sounds like The Beatles? My grandmother said that about both SR-71’s Right Now and Wannabe by the Spice Girls. But Ashe? The Beatles influence is legitimate, as well as that of classic jazz. You see, the most fascinating thing about Rabbit Hole was the level of reference it carried: We Get High is a reformulation of When I Get Low I Get High, and Someone to Lose pays homage to Strawberry Fields. With reference, nevertheless, comes reverence – and the less blatantly deferential Ashlyn could mean Ashe is hearing different choirs in her head. Not that I find originality that important, or that this album is some avant-garde item. It’s still got a 60’s/70’s vibe to it. Old-school vocalist that she is, Ashe brings both jazz vocal tricks and Beatles influence into her music, just in a subtler, less winky-wink way. But yeah, you can definitely hear the Lennon / McCartney version of this. Like if Magical Mystery Tour were made today. Of course, then today’s music scene would be completely different, but you get it. Taylor and I’m Fine are extra Beatles-infused. Not to sound like a grandma, but this album really is a full-on jam session.  Best Song: Moral of the Story will be a classic some day, but it must be disqualified due to its previous links to other albums. Serial Monogamist is the winner.  Skip: Always did not get a like from me, so I assume it doesn’t song great.  Best lyrics: I cannot get over the moment in Moral of the Story when her mother and her lawyer ask her “where did you find this guy?”. Let’s just cite it as the Niall duet version so it won’t be disqualified.

#ashe #ashlyn #best of 2021

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thesinglesjukebox · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

NICKI MINAJ - BARBIE DREAMS [5.10] Wake up Ms. Maraj!

Rebecca A. Gowns: Each new Nicki single is more of a letdown. I remember when I first saw her, in "5 Star Bitch," and her verse was electrifying -- her energy was playful, new, exciting, out of this world. I must have watched that video a hundred times. From 2009-2014, I was a devoted fan. In the past four or five years, her enthusiasm has waned, and along with it, so has mine. This is not even to mention her squabbles, her issues with her family, her relationships -- all of which give me pause -- but just listening to the music, there's a fire that has dwindled down to embers. Here, she's going back to a track from an early mixtape, trying to stoke the flames, but she's going to need a lot more than re-animating "Dear Old Nicki" to get some of that magic back. [4]

Julian Axelrod: Of all the things Nicki's lost this year -- her credibility, her chart supremacy, her chill -- I miss her sense of humor the most. She's one of the most influential figures in the last decade of rap not just for her machine gun flow, but for having genuinely funny punchlines in an era when everyone takes themselves too goddamn seriously. Cut to "Barbie Dreams," a cheeky novelty single designed to play into Nicki's ball-busting bombshell persona. But are we really so starved for humor that we're stanning this sub-Catskills atrocity? The only thing worse than being humorless is trying this hard to be funny, and you can practically hear Nicki cracking up after every lukewarm bar. Each toothless jab digs her grave deeper as she goes from corny (Uzi, Fetty Wap) to offensive (Young Thug, Desiigner) to downright clunky. ("I tried to fuck 50 for a powerful hour" sounds like a robot trying to comprehend human sexuality.) If these rappers really are her sons, that explains why every line is so labored. By crafting a diss track full of love taps, Nicki tries to have it both ways -- a "Control" verse for a rapper who has none. [2]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: It's weird: despite spending the past few months in a near constant PR disaster -- from collaborating with noted sex criminal 6ix9ine and beefing with hip-hop's current It Girl Cardi B to getting into a protracted fight over her (pretty damn good) first week sales that brought together Travis Scott, the Kardashian/Jenner family generally (including the babies), Spotify, Billboard, and Harriet Tubman as the subjects of her rantings -- Nicki Minaj has had a pretty good year musically. "Barbie Dreams" is an encapsulation of her year -- the skill with which she raps on the two halves of the track is obvious in the way she effortlessly chains her punchlines together like she's racking up combos on a fighting game, and in the poise she so clearly owns. Yet most of the talk around "Barbie Dreams" comes from its rolodex of name-drops, which... is a clever marketing gimmick, at least. As long as it gets people listening to some eminently skilled raps, that's fine, but maybe the puppets were a step too far? [7]

Alfred Soto: Minaj has gotten a lot of deserved shit for tiresome boasting and repetition, but "Barbie Dreams" boasts some of her tightest recent rhymes, despite the return of the Biggie sample. Pop music and context are indivisible, therefore a track in 2018 by a woman in which she fantasizes about fucking and besting male competition in a tone that will give Harold "Anxiety of Inluence" Bloom a skin rash sounds fresh. But Bloom would balk at the casualness with which she says "my Jew." Slow down, Nicki. [7]

Nicholas Donohoue: Two criticisms: 1) Far be it from me to dictate who Nicki Minaj should associate with, but she should really talk with someone about some quality control of who she associates with; and 2) my skin crawls whenever anybody says "my Jews" or talks about Jewishness. Other than that, this is excellent and is miles more comfortable than Biggie's take. [8]

Nortey Dowuona: Plush, wood drums with a light dusting of guitar drifts along while Nicki puts her feet up and wryly makes stale jokes about the dudes she'd like to fuck. Also there's a slick, dazzling rap left at the end over a hollow, stumbling bass drum beat. [6]

Katie Gill: Turns out that "these are all the people I'd like to fuck" is a boring concept no matter what gender is singing it. Add in the last minute and a half (which is a completely different song) and you've got something that's somehow both half-assed and trying too hard. [4]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Amusing how I'd be more forgiving of this song if its final minute and a half were a separate track (or at least given its own title). As it is, its presence only shows that Nicki can't kill her darlings or her rap queen insecurities. Considering "Barbie Dreams" was bound to be the most viral track on Queen, there's a sense that this final stretch is a preemptive defense against anyone who doubts her technical abilities. Its self-serious tone retroactively makes the first half feel depressing, revealing that this was nothing more than a ploy to get as many streams as possible. An homage to Biggie? Well, that sounds like a good way to get more people to press play. [2]

Maxwell Cavaseno: A decade ago, it felt refreshing for Nicki Minaj to come out of Queens as adventurous and elastic as she once was. However, over the years the same rapper has become surprisingly cloying and conservative in her rap approaches. In a baffling turn of events (or perhaps the fear of her media appointed rival in Cardi B stealing the "Queen of New York" title by simply feeling less tyrannical) this has resulted in her last album, Queen, being a frantic flailing of NYC Real Rapper Posturing -- complete with, what else? A Biggie Tribute. The "Barbie Dreams" revival of the "Dreams of fucking an R&B Bitch" concept isn't inherently bad because it's been done before. It's bad because it finds Nicki surprisingly unfunny and charmless, as a result of her over-commitment to the True School antics. The original was essentially a tribute to Too Short's "Freaky Tales" and understood that the sexcapades don't make you look cooler unless you look ridiculous, and Onika Maraj refuses to allow herself to look ridiculous anymore. Ironically, that makes the hollow echoes of this clunker all the more absurd. [4]

Stephen Eisermann: Nicki's at her best when she doesn't overthink things. It's been a while since she has cut loose and just had fun, so this funny, jab-filled, well-rapped track is a nice change of pace. Although the material of Queen often gets lost in itself, songs like this remind us that, hey, Nicki's still got a dope-ass flow and some fun wordplay, even if it hasn't been all that prevalent as of late. Also, that ending, whew. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#nicki minaj #music #rap #hip-hop #new music #music video #music writing #music reviews

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thorntonkrell-blog-blog · 3 years ago

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New Normal Sharks

My brother-in-law Rocky is a Harley ridin' outdoorsman. One day we asked his wife Judy if Rocky watches a lot of teevee. Judy said "How many times a year is Shark Week broadcast? "

Sharks

Always a new normal for sharks.

They used to be swimming around minding their own business or being a cool gang name for West Siders rumbling with Jets. Then Peter Benchley came along followed by Stephen Spielberg and all of a sudden sharks became public enemy number one. We sent out the vigilantes who slaughtered sharks at an unprecedented rate far in excess of the feeding that sharks were doing on humans.

Next thing ya know, there was Saturday Night Live with the Land Shark. Women would hear a knock on their apartment door and when they asked who was there, they got an unintelligible answer until they opened the door and were immediately devoured by a walking shark.

Now sharks were a joke.

Still the one sided war between sharks and sharkhunters persisted.

Next was Sharkboy....a kid with fins who had shark superpowers.

Shark as half human hero.

Then gigantic, super-intelligent sharks like the one who devoured/interrupted Sam Jackson smack dab in the middle of Sam's rousing speech about how if everybody worked together they could defeat the sharks.

Then the jokes...

What's the difference between a bass and a shark?

A shark is a hundred times bigger than a bass and is trying to devour you.

Then shark week

Then Sharknado Thousands of sharks flying through the air and devouring people as they flew into business offices or dropped on washed up actors from out of the sky. Sharknado became a sensation and was the genesis for at least five successors.

Sharks were a big hit on cable.

Last week, we saw the two latest iterations in the new normal of sharkdom.

The first was a "film" on SYFY called Zombie Shark. Yep, once again a scientist trying to save the world accidentally creates another super shark who has the ability to come back from the dead and thus destroy human civilization. Not only does the shark come back from the dead but also people that he devours come back as regurgitated zomboids. Furthermore, the shark is named Bruce in homage to Speilberg's mechanized shark in Jaws (named after Stephen's lawyer) has the ability to communicate with other sharks and has started a herd of contagious zombie sharks who are intent on devouring a tiki bar. The patrons of the tiki bar decide to fight back again to rescue humanity using chain saws and weedwhackers.The tiki bar bartender attmepts a Sam Jackson Henry the Fifth at Agincourt speech as they foolishly prepare to attack the sharks in the water. He warns the human army..."Don't get bit....If they bite you, you'll turn into a zombie."

On my couch, I ad libbed/improvised the next exhortation

"But if YOU bite THEM.......

Lynn finished it off

"They'll turn into morons."

We started laughing as we tried to imagine the behaviour of moron Zombie sharks.

The movie swam/sank on to its final inxeplicable resolution.

Another new normal in shark world.

Finally, we rented the new version of Suicide Squad starring Idris Alba. Margot Robbie. John Cena and Sylvester Stallone. We kept waiting for Stallone to show up. He never showed up until the cast of credits revealed that Stallone was the gigantic walking shark god who was really a ferocious fish out of water looking for new friends.

Yup...good old Sly Stallone was trying to save his career playing a gigantic, walking, talking, heroic, sympathetic shark. Pretty sure that in the next new normal, Stallone's Supershark will get a movie of his own...perhaps fighting off zombie moron sharks as they attempt to swim up Niagara Falls to spawn in Canada as they attempt to get the hell out of Buffalo.

Can't wait.

Sharky 2, 3,4, and 5.

Pretty sure Rocky's gonna tune in, if he's not out fishing or shooting into a barrel.

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior’s January 2021 Preview

Happy New Year!

So we’re gonna do things a little different this month. If it works out, I might do this as a regular thing until I feel comfortable writing about box office on a weekly basis again. It may be a long while. As you’ll see, this is a fairly comprehensive preview of the month ahead, as it stands on the first day of posting this, which hopefully is Wednesday, January 6.

I will be updating this post regularly with reviews and any date changes, etc. If you want to keep track of which movies I’ve reviewed, your best option is to bookmark my Rotten Tomatoes page, since more than likely, any new reviews will be added there at the same time they’re posted here.

Why do I have this bad feeling that doing the column this way is just gonna give me more work? (I was correct. Instead of writing about 6 movies every single week, I ended up writing about nearly 30 movies in one week.)

What’s surprising is that there are far fewer wide releases in January than any previous year, as I only count two or three in total. That’s not good.

Definitions:

Theatrical – Movie will play in any number of movie theaters, either in select locations or nationwide. Some of these may have a digital/VOD component.

Streaming – Movie is available to watch any time as part of a subscription streaming service aka Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Shudder, Hulu, etc.

Virtual Cinema – Movie is available to watch through a ticketed system which shares profits with any number of local or nationwide arthouses or festivals. Some of these may be geoblocked.

VOD – Video on Demand, movie can be rented, downloaded and watched either for a set amount of time (24 hours+) or bought to watch any time, available on a variety of platforms including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango Now and others. (Also may be called “Digital,” “PVOD,” “TVOD,” or merely “On Demand,”)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 5

Digital/VOD: Gun and a Hotel Bible (Freestyle Digital Media) Scooby Doo director Raja Gosnell teams with Alicia Joy LeBlanc to adapt the award-winning play starring Bradley Gosnell as Pete, a desperate man who is about to commit a violent act when he encounters Daniel Floren’s Gideon, a personified hotel bible, as they get into a philosophical discussion. It will be available to buy or rent on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, DirecTV, On Demand, YouTube Movies, Vudu, Xbox, & FandangoNOW.

Streaming:

History of Swear Words (Netflix) No less than Nicolas Cage stars in Season 1 of the “educational series” on swear words that goes into the origins of all of your favorites!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6

Virtual Cinema:

MY REMBRANDT (Strand Releasing) Dutch filmmaker Oeke Hoogendijk’s documentary looks at a few of the just 37 private owners of Rembrandt paintings, particularly Amsterdam’s Jan Six, a young art dealer and member of a family who has owned many Rembrandts, but he’s obsessed with an unknown painting that might even have Rembrandt having painted himself into the picture. Another owner, Baron Eric de Rothschild, is obsessed with selling two paintings, creating a bidding war between two top art museums. The film will be available through New York’s Film Forum Virtual Cinema and others.

Streaming: SURVIVING DEATH (Netflix) The new six-episode doc series is directed and exec. produced by Ricki Stern (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work) and based on Leslie Kean’s best-selling book that looks into the possibility of an afterlife.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7

Streaming:

FEATURED FLICK!

PIECES OF A WOMAN (Netflix) Kornél Mundruczó’s drama starring Vanessa Kirby and Shia Labeouf as a Boston couple who lose their baby in a difficult home delivery will hit the streamer. You can read my review of the film here.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8

Theatrical:

FEATURED FLICK!

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… (Amazon Prime Video) Regina King’s narrative directorial debut will open in more theaters after playing in Miami over the past few weeks will expand to other cities nationwide for a one-week theatrical release before streaming on Prime Video. You can read my reviews of the film here and here.

FEATURED FLICK!

THE REASON I JUMP (Kino Lorber) Naoki Higashida’s best-selling book that was translated into English by David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) is turned into an arty doc directed by Jerry Rothwell. It’s based on Higashida’s revelations as a 13-year-old boy suffering dealing with autism blended with portraits of five other young people with autism.

Quick Thoughts: I haven’t read Higashida’s book or its English translation, but it makes a beautiful and lyrical accompaniment, as narrated by Jordan O’Donegan, for this look inside the life of a number of young autistic people, as their parents talk about trying to help their children without fully understanding what they’re going through. In many ways, this doc may offer some of the best insights into what it’s like to be autistic or dealing with an autistic family member in order to create some much-needed empathy for a condition so many face. The film is haunting and even horrifying at times, but it’s beautifully filmed to create a fully immersive experience.

REDEMPTION DAY (Saban Films) Hicham Hajji’s action thriller stars Gary Dourdan (CSI) as U.S. Marine Captain Brad Paxton whose wife Kate (Serinda Swan) is kidnapped by a terrorist group while working in Morocco, which forces him back into action to save the woman he loves. It also stars Andy Garcia, Ernie Hudson and Martin Donovan, and it will get a limited theatrical release and be available on Tuesday, Jan. 12, On Demand and Digital.

Quick Thoughts: While Hajji seems to bring some authenticity to this Mideast revenge thriller, the film starts out as a tribute to our fighting troops but then soon turns ridiculous, first with the kidnapping of his wife less than 24 hours after going to Morocco, and then some of the politics involved with helping her. Eventually, Dourdan goes in guns a-blazin’ in a way more apt for a movie from the ‘90s, and Hajji undoes a lot of the good will the film would have received if things were handled even somewhat tastefully. Appearances by better-known actors like Garcia, Hudson and Donovan tends to distract from the story more than adding or enhancing what was already a problematic premise.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN? (Vertical) Actors Meagan Good and Tamara Bass make their directorial debuts with this movie about four high school friends (Good and Bass are two of them, presumably) who are brought back together to help one of them during a crisis. From the official summary: “It’s a story of love, forgiveness and the incredible bond between women.)

Digital/On Demand:

STARS FELL ON ALABAMA (Samuel Goldwyn Films) V.W. Scheich’s romantic comedy stars James Maslow as successful Hollywood agent Bryce Dixon who returns to Alabama after 15 years for his high school reunion, only to learn that he is one of his few friends not married with children, so he pretends his client Madison Belle, to pretend to be his girlfriend. American Idol winner Taylor Hicks appears in the movie as himself.

FEATURED FLICK!

THE DISSIDENT (Briarcliff Bryan Fogel’s documentary about the murder of journalist Jamal Kashouggi will be released On Demand today via ITunes. Reviewed in the previous Weekend Warrior column.

Deon Taylor’s thriller Fatale (reviewed last month) will also be available to watch via VOD starting today.

Streaming:

WORTH WATCHING!

PRETEND IT’S A CITY (Netflix) No less than Martin Scorsese directs this 7-part limited series about his long-time friend, critic and essayist Fran Lebowitz, as they explore New York City, presumably pre-pandemic. As someone who is celebrating my 34th year in New York City this week, I absolutely loved the series. Lebowitz is absolutely hilarious and Scorsese really pulls some amazing stories from out of her in this series that’s like a “how-to” for anyone who might ever want to live here. A truly joyful albeit crotchety take on New York living, which is the perfect combination to keep this series entertaining.

FEATURED FLICK!

HERSELF (Prime Video) Phyllida Lloyd’s dramedy, starring Clare Dunne (who co-wrote the script) as a single mother trying to create a home for her two daughters and who decides to build an affordable home for them, hits the streamer today. Also reviewed in the previous Weekend Warrior column.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10

Critics Choice Super Awards The inaugural edition of the Critics Choice’s genre film and television awards show will be broadcast on the CW tonight, hosted by Kevin Smith and Dani Fernandez.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 12

Digital/VOD: SKYFIRE (ScreenMedia) The Simon-West directed thriller is set on the Tianhuo Island in a Pacific Rim volcanic belt where a young scientist (Hannah Quinlivan), who has invented a volcanic warning system, returns to prevent more death only to find that it’s been turned into a volcano theme park by Jason Isaacs. Okay, then. This will available On Demand.

THE BID (GVN Releasing) Marquis Boone’s directorial debut has him and co-writer Richard Harris (not that one) playing Philadelphia rappers who get framed by a police officer who sends them to prison to fight the prison system from the inside. As I started that last sentence, I presumed it was a comedy until I got to the last half of it.

CURSE OF AURORE (Freestyle Digital Releasing) Mehran C. Torgoley’s horror film is about a “Dark Web” thumb drive found by a YouTuber that involves a trio of American filmmakers including Liana Barron’s Lena, who are in Quebec researching the true crime case of a young girl named Aurore Gagnon, murdered in 1920 by her parents in a case of child abuse. As the filmmakers investigate the place where she was killed, they experience paranormal occurrences… and yes, it’s 2021 an we’re still getting Blair Witch Project “homages.”

GO/DON’T GO (Gravitas Ventures) Alex Knapp writes/directs and stars in this “psychosexual thriller” in which he plays the sole survivor after an unknown cataclysm with visons of his best friend Kyle (Nore Davis) introducing him to Olivia Luccardi’s Kay, the love of his life. It will be out via digital and cable VOD platforms.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13

2021 New York Jewish Film Festival This long-running series from Film at Lincoln Center will run virtually this year, beginning with the Ophir Award-winning Here We Are from director Nir Bergman (who won Best Director), a road trip tale of a divorced dad hitting the road with his autistic son. The festival’s centerpiece is Winter Journey, co-directed by Anders Østergaard and Erzsébet Rácz, and starring the great Bruno Ganz. The festival also includes Israel’s entry to this year’s Oscars, Ruthy Pribar’s Asia. You can read all about the films in the program here and can get a 17-film All-Access pass for the entire line-up for $125.00.

FEATURED FLICK!

THE WHITE TIGER (Netflix) Ramin (99 Homes, Man Push Cart) Bahrani directs this comedic adaptation of Balram Halwai’s 2008 Man Booker Prize-winning bestseller. Halwai is played by Adarsh Gourav, as it follows his journey from being a poor driver who uses his wit and cunning to become a successful entrepreneur in India. Although Balram has been trained by society to only be a servant, he finds a way to work his way up through the system and try to change things from a new position within society. This will get a very limited theatrical release today before hitting Netflix on January 22.

Streaming: STALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER (Netflix) Tiller Russell’s docuseries tells the story about a serial killer that struck Los Angeles in 1985 in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave, the victims ranging from six to 82 years old.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14

Theatrical/On Demand: BLOODY HELL (The Horror Collective) Alister Grierson’s violent horror-comedy stars Ben O’Toole as a man with a mysterious past who flees the country to escape his personal hell only to end up somewhere much worse. It opens in select cities and On Demand, and then will be on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, January 19.

Streaming:

LOCKED DOWN (HBO Max) The Doug Liman-directed romantic comedy, starring Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, about a heist set during a pandemic that’s written by Steven Knight will hit the streamer today. This movie was fully made during the pandemic.

HUNTED (Shudder) The live action English debut from Persepolis and Chicken with Plums director Vincent Paronnaud will stream on Shudder today. It stars Lucie Debay as Eve, who becomes the target of a misogynistic plot against two men who pursue her through the forest where she’s forced to survive. From the synopsis: “But survival isn’t enough for Eve. She will have revenge!” (Okay, that exclamation point is my own. Definitely sounds like something that would require one.)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15

Note: This is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday weekend, so many government agencies and schools are off on Monday. Not sure that will really have an effect on anything.

Theatrical:

THE MARKSMAN (Briarcliff/Open Road) (NEW REVIEW!) Liam Neeson stars in his second theatrical release in the past six months, Robert (Trouble with the Curve) Lorenz’s action-thriller in which Neeson plays a rancher on the Arizona border who ends up defending a young Mexican boy who is trying to escape from cartel assassins that followed him into the States. I haven’t seen this yet, nor do I know if I’ll have a chance. I’m guessing this is being released as a typical January release and not as an awards contender with the Oscar deadline pushed back to February 28.

Mini-Review: Here we’re into a brand new year, and yet, we’re getting the third movie about an old man watching over a young child. This time it’s Liam Neeson as Vietnam sniper Jim Henson, who is living on his ranch in an Arizona border town with his dog Jackson with financial problems that might take his home away from him. A chance encounter on the border when Jim witnesses a single mother with her son being chased by the cartel, leaves the mother dead and the young, Miguel (Jacob Perez), in danger of being next. Jim decides to take the boy across the country to his family in Chicago, chased the entire way by the cartel.

While The Marksman attempts to create a topical action-thriller, it isn’t one that necessarily feels very timely, only because we’ve seen so many border-set movies over the past few years, maybe for obvious reasons. Director Robert Lorenz is a long-time Clint Eastwood collaborator, both as producer and assistant-director, and you probably will notice a number of similar stylistic flares in common – you also can totally see Eastwood playing the Neeson role if he was twenty years younger.

The movie comes across more like last year’s Let Him Go rather than Neeson’s own 2020 movie, Honest Thief, and maybe that’s for the better since this seems to be better suited for his specialized skills, both in terms of action and drama. Not that there is a ton of action in the movie, but the few shootouts and chases are decent enough, but nothing too insane. I’m sure ultra-liberals might have issues with certain scenes like how easy it is for Jim to buy a gun or teaching the young Miguel to use one, but that just seems creating an unnecessary political overlay.

While the majority of the film is Jim and Miguel on this road trip, there’s a nice role for Katheryn Winnick as Jim’s border police—well, it’s never really clear if she’s his daughter or not--but otherwise, the Mexican actors are not particularly good compared to Neeson – sadly, very stereotypical – and the writing is probably on the weaker side compared to the score by Sean Callery that goes a long way towards enhancing the emotions and tension when needed.

The Marksman is a decent enough dramatic thriller that feels a little by-the-books but gains enough humanity from Neeson’s performance to make it a worthwhile watch.

Rating: 7/10

THE DIG (Netflix) Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes star in this drama that takes place just before WWII with Mulligan playing a wealthy widow wo hires Fiennes’ archeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate in which they make a historic discovery. I like when movie titles are very literal like this one. Will be released to select cinemas before its Netflix debut on January 29.

MLK/FBI (IFC Films) Sam Pollack’s doc that’s had a successful festival run will get a small limited run as well as be available On Demand today. As the title implies, it studies the FBI’s attempts to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as his movement towards the Civil Rights Act continues to gain momentum. I didn’t like this as much as a few of Pollack’s other docs, including the recent Two Train Runnin’ and his co-directed doc, Mr Soul!

SOME KIND OF HEAVEN (Magnolia Pictures)

Lance Oppenheim’s first feature doc, co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, looks at the largest retirement community in America, the Villages in Central Florida, where a few residents are unable to find happiness despite the community’s pre-packaged paradise.

Quick Thoughts: This was a very different movie than I was expecting, since at first it seemed to thrive on the quirky personalities of the resident and their party-centric activities, but it then quickly focuses on three very particular cases, an elderly man named Dennis who is living in his van on the site of the Villages, trying to find himself a relationship (hopefully one with money). There’s also a couple who has been married for 47 years with a woman who has to deal with her husband’s ever-increasing eccentric behavior that involves drugs and troubles with the law. Lastly, there’s a widow who is trying to find happiness and companionship in the Villages, which is a particularly lonely experience as she goes from one group or club to another. All three of these stories keep the viewer invested but especially Oppenheim’s look at loneliness of people in that age group, which made it impossible for me not to think of my mother who has been suffering through the loneliness of the pandemic and not being able to be around other people her own age because of it. A terrifically insightful film that makes you think and hard about your own aging and mortality.

FLINCH (Ardor Pictures) Camron Van Hoy’s crime-thriller stars Daniel Zovatto as a young hitman who lives with his mother (Cathy Moriarty) who falls in love with a girl (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who sees him kill someone. Since he can’t kill her, he instead brings her home and learns there’s more to her than he thought. This will ALSO be on TVOD starting on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

ACASA MY HOME (Zeitgeist, Kino Lorber) Romanian filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc’s directorial debut doc, which premiered at Sundance last year (receiving an award for its cinematography), about the Enache family who lives in harmony with nature in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta. When the area is turned into a public national park, they’re forced to move to the city where things are very different. It will open in select cities and via virtual cinema.

GOODBYE, BUTTERFLY (Gravitas Ventures) Tyler Wayne’s directorial debut is this crime thriller starring Adam Donshik (House of Cards) as Ryan Olsen, a family man whose five-year-old daughter is murdered, but with no leads, Ryan starts suspecting his oddball neighbor Stan (Andy Lauer), so Ryan takes the law into his own hands. This is getting day and date theatrical with TVOD (no idea what that is) and digital.

VOD:

AMERICAN SKIN Nate Parker’s second film as a director following the Sundance Prize-winning Birth of a Nation has him starring as a Marine veteran working as a school janitor who tries to fix things with his son, who is killed by a police officer who isn’t even put to trial for the death so he takes matters in his own hand. The drama also stars Omari Hardwick and will be available on iTunes and other VOD platforms.

Two of my favorite movies of 2020, Emmerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (Focus Features), starring Carey Mulligan, and Paul Greengrass’ News of the World (Universal), starring Tom Hanks, will be available starting today via PVOD, rentable for 48-Hour rental. These both should be in the Oscar race, so don’t miss them!

Virtual Cinema:

TRIBUTE TO SAM POLLARD Film at Lincoln Center is running a one-week retrospective to editor, producer and director Sam Pollard to tie in with the release by IFC Films of MLK/FBI, which played at the New York Film Festival last year. It will include some of his own docs (including, hopefully, the excellent Mr. Soul!), as well as his collaborations with Spike Lee, St. Clair Bourne and Henry Hampton. Hopefully, there will be a line-up as it gets closer to the series start, and I’ll add that when it becomes available.

FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO (Cinema Guild) Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, Lynne Sachs used various media, including 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images to capture a portrait of her father, Ira Sachs Sr, a Park Cit, Utah businessman, in order to understand the web that connects a child to her parents and a sister to her siblings. This will open in Virtual Cinema through the Museum of the Moving Image, Laemmle and others around the country. MOMI will also be holding a 30-year virtual retrospective of Ms. Sachs’ work, starting on Jan. 13.

MY LITTLE SISTER (Film Movement) Switzerland’s official Oscar entry is Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond’s drama starring Nina Hoss (Phoenix) as Lisa, a brilliant playwright who has stopped writing and now lives with her family in Switzerland. She dreams of returning to Berlin to be with her stage acting twin brother Sven (Lars Eldinger from Proxima) who is facing an aggressive leukemia. Lisa’s attention to her brother causes a rift in her marriage, but she hopes to write something that will get Sven back on stage before the inevitable. You can find a list of theaters showing this via virtual cinema here.

THE WAKE OF LIGHT (Laemmle) Renji Phillip’s drama stars Rome Brooks as a young woman who has to choose between seeking love with Cole (Matt Bush), a young man she meets who wants her to join him on his road trip, or caring for her aging father . This will have a virtual theatrical release through Laemmle Theaters today and then be available through Digital Platforms on February 15.

MANDABI (Janus Films) Senegalese novelist and the “father of African film” Ousmne Sembène’s 1968 film about an unemployed man who finds a windfall of money will get a release through Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.

Streaming:

OUTSIDE THE WIRE (Netflix) Anthony Mackie stars in Mikael Håfström’s sci-fi thriller, playing android officer Leo who is teamed with drone pilot Harp (Damson Idris) to locate a doomsday device in a militarized zone before insurgents do.

WANDAVISION (Disney+) The long-awaited Marvel Studios television series that ties directly into the MCU, spinning-off Elisabeth Olsen’s Wanda and Paul Bettany’s Vision into their own series that seems to be playing with other dimensions and worlds but also

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… (Amazon Prime Video) Regina King’s powerful drama will finally stream on Prime Video, so those who haven’t had a chance to see it at a festival or awards screening or in theaters will get to see it. Woohoo!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16

Streaming: SERVANT (Apple TV+) Season 2 of the M. Night Shyamalan produced thriller series will debut. I hope to have some more to write about as it gets closer, since it’s currently under embargo.

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MONDAY, JANUARY 18 VOD/Digital:

STALLONE... FRANK, THAT IS (Branded Studio) Derek Wayne Johnson’s documentary takes an in-depth look into the life and career of Frank Stallone, the younger brother of the far-more-famous Sylvester Stallone, whose own four decade career has earned him three Platinum Albums, ten Gold Albums and five Gold Singles… which is odd, since I don’t think I could name a single one of his songs. He’s also done soundtracks for many of his brother’s films including The Expendables 2, the first three Rocky movies, Rambo II and more and appeared in 75 films and TV shows. Obviously, I’ll need to watch this doc to learn more about him.

YUNG LEUN: IN MY HEAD (Momento Film/Nonstop Entertainment) Henrik Burman’s doc about Swedish hip-hop artist Yung Leun aka Jonathan Leandoer, who turned his love for rap music into a career by making music on his computer and putting the results up on YouTube, but soon, the imaginary character he has been portraying starts to take over, leading to drugs and mental illness.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20

Virtual Cinema:

THE SALT OF TEARS (Distrib Films) Philippe Garrel’s black and white drama about toxic masculinity involving one young handsome man put amidst three vulnerable women will play as part of Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 22

Theatrical:

NO MAN’S LAND (IFC Films) Conor Allyn’s thriller stars Frank Grillo as border “vigilante” Bill Greer, whose son Jackson (Jake Allyn) accidentally kills a Mexican immigrant boy while on patrol. Although Bill tries to take the blame, a Texas Ranger, played by George Lopez, urges Jackson to flee south via horseback into Mexico to hide out, chased by both rangers and Mexican federales, as he seeks forgiveness from the boy’s father (Jorge A. JIminez). Simultaneous theatrical and VOD.

FEATURED FLICK!

OUR FRIEND (Gravitas Ventures/Universal) Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson and Jason Segel star in Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s adaptation of Matthew Teague’s novel The Friend: Love is Not a Big Enough Word (adapted by filmmaker Brad Ingelsby), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019. It tells the story of the Teague family – Afleck’s Matt, a journalist, his wife Nicole (Johnson) and their two daughters – and how their life is upended when she’s diagnosed with terminal cancer, forcing Matt to take on more responsibilities as her caretaker and parent, so the couple’s friend Dane (Segel) offers to help out. The film will be in select theaters and On Demand.

THE HUMAN FACTOR (Sony Pictures Classics) Oscar-nominated doc The Gatekeepers director Dror Moreh takes a look at the peace process between Israelis and Arabs over the past thirty years through the eyes of American mediators, spending time with all of the key players in the conflict trying to find a solution.

BROTHERS BY BLOOD (Vertical) Jérémie Guez’s revenge thriller, based on Pete Dexter’s novel, stars Joel Kinnaman as Peter Flood, who as an 8-year-old saw his little sister be killed in a reckless driving accident, for which his father sought violent revenge. 30 year later, he’s still trying to deal with his guilt and tries to distance himself from his family crime business and his cousin Michael (Matthias Schoenarts) who has been rising up in the business. In select theaters, and on VOD/Digital.

PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN (RLJfilms/Shudder) Steven Kostanski’s horror-comedy follows siblings Mimi and Luke (Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre), who resurrect an ancient alien overlord who had been entombed million years ago, nicknaming the evil creature “Psycho Goreman” aka PG (Matthew Ninaber), using an amulet to make him obey their wishes. Soon, lots of PG’s friends and foes from across the galaxy realize he’s been released, and they come to Mimi and Luke’s town to resume their battle. This will also be in select theaters, On Demand and digital.

BORN A CHAMPION (Lionsgate) (NEW ADDITION!) Dennis Quaid and Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints) star in this mixed martial arts film directed by Alex Ranarivelo (American Wrestler: The Wizard) that hits select theaters, digital, and On Demand today before being released on Blu-Ray and DVD on Tuesday, January 26. Flannery plays fighting legend Mickey Kelly, who lost a blood-soaked jujitsu match in Dubai only to learn many years later, that his opponent cheated, so he has to get in shape for a revenge match.

Digital/VOD/Virtual Cinema:

IDENTIFYING FEATURES (Kino Lorber) (NEW ADDITION!) Having just won the Gotham Award for Best International Feature on Monday (after winning the audience and screenplay awards in the World Cinema category at Sundance last year), Fernanda Valadez’s Mexican border thriller will be released on Kino Marquee and via various virtual cinemas nationwide. It stars Mercedes Hernandez as middle-aged Magdalena, who has lost contact with her son after he’s left their town to cross the border into the U.S. to find work. She ends up following on an equally dangerous journey to find him while a young man named Miguel (David Illescas), recently deported back to Mexico crosses paths with her.

ATLANTIS (Grasshopper) Ukraine’s Oscar selection is this film from Valentyn Vasyanovych set in a desolate post-war Ukraine where former soldier Sergiy delivers the rare resource of water and volunteers his time to recover the dead bodies of fellow soldiers in hopes of healing. This will open exclusively in Metrograph’s Virtual Cinema system Friday.

NOTTURNO (Super) (NEW ADDITION!) Gianfranco (Fire at Sea) Rosi’s new documentary is Italy’s entry to the Oscars, as the filmmaker spent three years on the borders of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon capturing the day every day life that follows the tragedy of the dictatorships and civil wars within those countries. It will get an exclusive virtual cinema launch today and then be available on Hulu and On Demand starting Jan. 29.

COMING CLEAN The new doc from Ondi Timoner (Dig!, We Live in Public) takes a comprehensive look at the opioid crisis, and the part in it played by Purdue Pharmaceutical and how it deceived patients (and doctors) to lure them in and get them hooked. Available via Virtual Cinema after its virtual festival run.

PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN TIME (Greenwich) Hungarian filmmaker Lili Horvát makes a love story set in the male-driven world of neurosurgery, starring Natasa Stork as Márta Vizy, who returns to Hungary after time in America to discover that a colleague with whom she had a passionate affair says he’s never seen her before. This will open in Virtual Cinema at Film at Lincoln Center and other places. Part of Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema, as well as Hungary’s official entry for the International Film Oscar.

BREAKING FAST (Vertical Entertainment) Mike Mosallam’s romantic dramedy set in West Hollywood stars Haaz Sleiman as Mo, a practicing Muslim who recently had his heart broken. When All-American Kal (Michael Cassidy) agrees to come to nightly Iftars (the traditional Ramadan meal), they soon learn that they have more in common than they thought. Available on VOD and digital.

Streaming:

THE WHITE TIGER (Netflix) Ramin (99 Homes, Man Push Cart) Bahrani’s comic adaptation of Balram Halwai’s bestseller hits the streaming service today.

THE SISTER (Hulu) Neil Cross adapted his own novel Burial into this four-part original series starring Russell Tovey as Nathan, who has been keeping a secret from his past, a party that ended with the shocking death of a young woman. Only Nathan and Bob (Bertie Carvel) knew what happened, but then Bob appears on Nathan’s doorstep with horrifying news.

PIXAR POPCORN (Disney+) The Disney streamer debuts a series of short films starring your favorite Pixar characters from Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars and The Incredibles.

Blown Away and Busted! (Netflix) Season 2 of the glass-blowing competition reality series and Season 3 of the amateur celebrity sleuth series begin.

Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix) Brian Young’s live-action version of the Italian cartoon “Winx Club,” a coming-of-age journey that follows five fairies as they enter the magical boarding school called Alfrea.

Derek Delgaudio’s In and Of Itself (Hulu) The comedy directed by Frank Oz and exec. produced by Stephen Colbert that’s “a new kind of lyric poem.” Telling “the story of a man fighting to see through the illusion of his own identity, only to discover that identity itself is an illusion.” Yeah, no idea what that means but even Oz isn’t able to describe it, so that’s pretty weird.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 26

Theatrical:

WRONG TURN (Saban Films) Mike P. Nelson’s remake of the 00’s horror franchise will debut as a Fathom Event today. It stars Charlotte Vega, Adain Bradley, Bill Sage, Emma Dumont, Dylan McTee, Daisy Head, Tim DeZarn and Matthew Modine. It involves a group of friends hiking the Appalachian Trail who… you guessed it… make a wrong turn and end up in the land of the Foundation, a community of mountain dwellers who want to protect their lifestyle.

Digital/VOD:

CAGED (Shout Factory) Aaron Fjellman’s thriller stars Kenyan-born actor Edi Gathegi (The Blacklist), Melora Hardin, Angela Sarafyan, Tony Amendola and James Jagger. Gathegi plays an affluent African-American psychiatrist who is convicted of murdering his wife (Sarafyan) and sentenced to life and put in solitary. While trying to file an appeal, he’s pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard (Hardin), causing him to question his innocence and sanity.

#LIKE Sarah Pirozek’s thriller stars Sarah Rich as a Woodstock, NY teenager named Rosie who a year after her sister Amelia’s death from suicide after being cyberbullied learns that the man responsible (Marc Menchaca) is back online looking for new victims. It will be available via TVOD on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vudu, FandangoNow and more.

A WOMAN’S WORK: THE NFL’S CHEERLEADER PROBLEM (1091) (NEW ADDITION!) Yu Gu’s documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, will be released on VOD today. It looks at a couple cases of professional NFL cheerleaders who re making far less than deserve, almost working at minimum wage while having to pay out of pocket for their own beauty, transportation and uniforms, putting them into debt. So they sue the Oakland Raiders in a class-action lawsuit.

WEDNESDAY, JANURY 27

Streaming: PENGUIN BLOOM (Netflix) Glendyn Ivin’s adaptation of Bradley Trevor Greive’s novel stars Naomi Watts as Samantha Bloom, an Australian mother of three boys who travelled with her husband Cameron (Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead) in 2013 and became paralyzed from the waist down after falling from a rooftop. She ends up bonding with a black and white bird her kids name “Penguin” that helps her heal.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28 The Sundance Film Festival begins today, running until February 3. Hope to have some coverage here and on Below the Line.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29

Theatrical:

FEATURED FLICK! THE LITTLE THINGS (Warner Bros/HBO Max) John Lee Hancock directs this psychological thriller that puts Oscar winner Denzel Washington back into Bone Collectormode, as he plays Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon, who is sent to Los Angeles to gather evidence but ends up looking for a killer terrorizing the city with a local Sergeant, played by Oscar winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody). Getting involved in the case, brings up secrets from Deke’s past. A third Oscar winner, Jared Leto, presumably plays the killer. This will be in theaters and streaming on HBO Max day-and-date. I will have a review for this closer to release.

FEATURED FLICK! SUPERNOVA (Bleecker Street) Harry Macqueen’s drama stars Colin Firth and Stanely Tucci as twenty-year partners Sam and Tusk, who travel across England in a camper van visiting friends, family and places from their past after a life-changing diagnosis that will test their love for each other. Look for my review of this very soon.

FEATURED FLICK! MALCOLM AND MARIE (Netflix) (NEW ADDITION!)

A week before its debut on the stream, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s new drama, starring John David Washington and Zendaya, will hit select theaters. Made during the pandemic, Washington plays a filmmaker on the night of the premier of his first feature gets into a very heavy conversation about their relationship with his partner (Zendaya) who doesn’t think he appreciates her and her contribution to his craft. Will have a review of this sometime later this week.

SAINT MAUD (A24) (NEW ADDITION!) Rose Glass’ acclaimed directorial debut starring breakout star Morfydd Clark as Maud, a hospice nurse who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient (played by Jennifer Ehle) but sinister forces try to stop her. This will get a theatrical release today and then will get some sort of Epix Pay TV release on February 12. The movie just received eight nominations from the London Film Critics Circle, but honestly, I saw the movie so long ago, I don’t really remember it very much.

APOLLO 11: QUARANTINE (NEON) (NEW ADDITION!) This new doc short by Todd Douglas Miller follows up his Emmy-winning documentary, Apollo 11, this one covering the astronauts of the first spaceflight to the moon as they quarantine for three days after arriving back on earth. This will open in IMAX theaters this day and then be available On Demand starting February 5.

FINDING YOU (Roadside Attractions) Brian Baugh’s adaptation of Jenny B. Jones’ novel There You’ll Find Me is a romantic drama starring Rose Reid as violinist Finley Sinclair who is studying abroad at an Irish coastal village after failing to get into a New York music conservatory. Once there, she meets heartthrob movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre) who is there filming his fantasy-adventure franchise, and a romance blooms between them.

THE NIGHT (IFC Midnight) Kourosh Ahari’s horror-thriller stars Shahab Hosseini and Niousha Noor as a married couple with a baby who take shelter in the eerie Hotel Normandie after a night out partying with friends. Over the course of the night, they realize they’re locked in with a malevolent force.

HAYMAKER (Gravitas Ventures) Nick Sasso wrote, directed, edited and stars in the action-thriller in which he plays a retired Muay Thai fighter working as a bouncer who rescues a transgender performer (Nomi Ruiz) from a thug and becomes her bodyguard and protector in a relationship that also forces him back into the world of fighting. It will open in select theaters, On Demand AND Digital.

Virtual Cinema: DEAR COMRADES! (NEON) (NEW ADDITION!) Andrei Konchalovski’s 1962-set Russian drama about a rebellion and a strike following the rising of food prices in the industrial town of Novocherkassk and the massacre that follows. Following its December one-week qualifying, it will open in virtual cinemas this Friday (Jan 29) and then will be available On Demand and on Hulu starting February 5.

On Demand/Digital:

SAVAGE STATE (Samuel Goldwyn Films) David Perrault’s French-tinged Western takes place at the start of the Civil War as a family of French colonists in Missouri decide to return to France, but first they have to cross the entire country to get back to New York, led by a dangerous mercenary named Victor (Kevin Janssens).

Virtual Cinema: WHAT HAPPENED WAS... (Oscilloscope) Actor Tom Noonan’s 1994 directorial debut is a dark comedy about dating based on his own play, starring Noonan and Karen Sillas as co-workers who are stuck together on a Friday night after an intimate dinner that goes sideways. This won the Grand Jury Prize and Screenwriting Award at the 1994 Sundance, and will be added to Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.

THE FUNERAL HOME (Uncork’d Entertainment) (NEW ADDITION!) Mauro Iván Ojeda’s supernatural thriller, which premiered at the Fantasia Fest last year, will hit virtual theaters today before its digital release on Tuesday, February 2. It’s about the dysfunctional family of an undertaker who experience all sorts of paranormal manifestations, but it could just be that they’re all MAAAAAD!

THE REUNITED STATES (Dark Star Pictures) (NEW ADDITION!) Ben Rekhi’s doc is about a group of unsung heroes trying to bridge the political and racial divides in the country as it’s being ripped apart at the seams.It will be available via virtual cinema today and on VOD platforms February 9.

Streaming:

THE DIG (Netflix) The Cary Mulligan-Ralph Fiennes drama is scheduled to hit the streamer.

PALMER (Apple TV+) Justin Timberlake stars in the Fisher Stevens-directed drama as an ex-convict who strikes up a friendship with a boy from a troubled home, played by Ryder Allen. It also stars Juno Temple and June Squibb.

BEGINNING (MUBI) (NEW ADDITION!) Georgia’s (the country, not the state) Oscar entry is the debut feature from writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili, a drama about a Jehovah’s Witness who undergoes a dramatic crisis of faith. Ila Sukhitshvili plays Yana, the wife of a Jehovah’s Witness leader whose community is attack from an extremist group that creates Yana’s discontent to grow.

WE ARE: THE BROOKLYN SAINTS (Netflix)

The new four-part docuseries from Rudy Valdez (The Sentence) looks at the youth football program in East New York, Brooklyn, where the Brooklyn Saints program gets 7 to 13-year-old boys ready to play and succeed in athletics, while also creating a community.

That’s it for January. Again, check back over the course of the month to see what reviews/movies have been added. Hopefully, we’ll be back to your normal weekly Weekend Warrior by February, but we’ll see.

#TheWeekendWarrior #MonthlyPreview #Reviews #Movies #Streaming

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wozman23 · 4 years ago

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Ode to Elf

Today, Netflix released a new miniseries, The Holiday Movies That Made Us, which features 45 minutes of insight into the creation and making of Elf. It’s worth the watch for any Elf fan. I made plans today to watch it, and immediately chased it with the full length film. I’ve always been a ginormous Elf fan! I think it is debatably Will Ferrell’s best film - rivaled possibly by Step Brothers, and with a few others close on its heels. But I’ll even one up that statement by saying it is easily the greatest Christmas movie, as well as one of the greatest movies of all time. (My Top 3 are probably The Jerk, Billy Madison, and Elf.)

The mini-documentary is the perfect supplement, really putting a bow on what makes Elf so great. I encourage everyone to go watch it, but I'll be bringing up just a few of the things discussed in it, and elsewhere, for the sake of further proving that Elf is a classic.

As is seen in many Hollywood cases, there was some trepidation going in. The screenplay was written ten years prior in 1993, with Jim Carrey in mind. At one point, there were talks to feature Chris Farley, but writer, David Berenbaum, did not like that direction, citing it would have been a very different movie. And as much as I love Farley, and wish he were still around making movies, I agree. Both he and Jim would probably have been great playing their own version of the character in their own unique way, but, while I may be biased since Will Ferrell is my favorite comedic actor, I think the role ultimately found the perfect Buddy with Will. He just hits perfectly on playing the sweet, naive, innocent yet clueless fish-out-of-water. It’s also what makes Step Brothers so good. Even many of his other characters, like Ron Burgundy, have a little bit of that DNA dipped into contrastingly more vain, reckless, foolish personality traits. I think there’s no greater type of comedic hero than the innocently stupid comedic hero. It’s pretty apparent from my Top 3, as well as my love for similar archetypes like Will Forte’s MacGruber, Joe Dirt, or Conan himself.

Now I’ve been on the Ferrell Train since the mid-90s, growing up on that generation of SNL and Night at the Roxbury. In college, not long before Elf, I went to a screener for Old School, which was one of Will’s early big screen breakout performances. Yet apparently, in the process of getting Elf greenlit in the early 2000s, prior to Old School, there weren’t many executives willing to take a shot on a movie where Will played the lead. What a bunch of cottonheaded ninnymuggins!

But those involved stuck to their guns, and they eventually convinced someone to hand them 30 million dollars to make the film. From there, an incredible string of smart decisions were made as talent was brought on board.

Writer, David Berenbaum, and his team of relative unknowns at the time had some key qualities that they wanted Elf to have. David took a lot of inspiration from the Rankin/Bass stop motion classic, Rudolph - which if you know much about me, you know how much I love it as well, being a misfit and all. (I wrote about it here six years ago.) Yet I never really realized just how much Rudolph inspired it, so it was a joy to see the documentary explain just how much of Rudolph permeates Elf’s story, themes, presentation, costumes, and set design.

When director Jon Favreau signed on, he shared some input that really cemented him as the perfect director. He too wanted to double down on the Rankin/Bass homage. He also wanted it to be a nice family Christmas movie, one that you could share with your kids, as well as a timeless Christmas classic. Check, check, and check! Mission accomplished!

There were some other interesting facts I didn’t know as well. The casting feels perfect. However, the original casting choice for Walter, Buddy’s dad, was for Garry Shandling. With great respect to Garry Shandling, I think their back up, James Caan was a much better fit. Caan really brings home the qualities of a cold, isolated businessman that a likeable Garry would have had to really sell. You need that non-comedic straight character for that role. Ed Asner plays a perfect Santa, as we’ve seen multiple times. And Bob Newheart is a terrific Papa Elf. Plus, this brilliant pairing of Will and Mary Steenburgen was just a hint of what was to come via Step Brothers and The Last Man on Earth. There are a lot of great supporting actors as well, like the writing duo of Andy Richter and Kyle Gass, and the secretary, Amy Sedaris. And last but not least, Zooey Deschanel. She’s been my muse for years now, but Elf was the moment I fell in love with her. Her character was pitched as everything under the sun, but finding a singer just complements everything so well. The one thing that’s always seemed weird to me is the shower scene. What kind of department store has a full locker room with a shower?! But when logistics is your only complaint about a movie, you know it must be good. One other interesting casting tidbit involves Jovie’s boss, played by comedian Faizon Love. He was a last minute add. They thought they had Wanda Sykes onboard, so much so that they already had the Wanda name tag for the costume. Faizon stuck with it, donning the name tag, so the character remains Wanda. I don’t know that I ever noticed that.

Early in production, the decision was made to avoid using CGI. Effects with actors were all achieved via some trickery with perspective. And the stop motion characters duties were handled by The Chiodo Brothers, who I oddly just learned about a few months back when I stumbled upon the 1988 cult classic, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, tucked deep in my Netflix recommendations. (If you enjoy campy horror films, I highly recommend it.) Growing up on the works of Jim Henson, I’ve always appreciated the use of analog means over digital options. Choosing that route for Elf paid off immediately, and will go a long way at allowing the film to maintain that timeless quality. As with any movie, there were conflicts. When the movie was originally screened, execs thought it would be smart to cut the final heartwarming singing scene and just end with Santa flying away - once again adding to a tremendous pile of dumb ideas that the suits have had over the years when it comes to controlling creative projects. The team was a bit taken aback by it, but apparently with Will Ferrell’s recent box office success with Old School, there were thoughts of cutting the film differently, favoring a style similar to Will’s Frank the Tank character instead of the lovably innocent Buddy. Cooler heads eventually prevailed when they realized that would be impossible given the footage, and we got the film as it stands today, as intended.

I vividly remember anticipating the movie. It’s probably one of my most anticipated films of all time. It felt like every week there was a new preview, a new cut chocked full of new jokes and gags. After what seemed like a dozen of them, I was growing a bit concerned that there would be nothing new left to see when the film found its way to theaters. Then release time came, I paraded myself off to the theater, and I was dumbfounded by just how much comedy was packed into that 90 minutes. The quantity and quality of the humor is impressive. Every scene feels important, and was iterated on for maximum humor. Will’s improvisation constantly enhances scenes. Like many of Ferrell’s movies, it’s an insanely quotable movie, but it’s not all just written jokes and physical comedy. There are some great silent parts, like just capturing Buddy’s reactions. And one of my favorite moments can easily be missed, when Buddy is caught on the evening news, traipsing through Central Park. It’s staged exactly like Patterson–Gimlin Bigfoot footage, with a similar gait, a peek over the shoulder, and somewhat blurry camera footage.

Little details like that are precisely the things that make Elf the classic is set out to be. It feels like it was written for a misfit like me, catering to my loves for Bigfoot, Rudolph, and a lovably naive comedic hero. It’s funny and silly, yet heartwarming and endearing. And its a film I’d happily sit down and watch with any kid from one to ninety-two, regardless of whether it’s the month of December, or some time in early April. P.S. There have been talks about a sequel. James Caan recently conjectured that it never happened because Ferrell and Favreau “didn’t get along very well.” Those two are both far more successful these days, and could easily back the project if they wanted to. But as much as I love Elf, sometimes things are just too good to risk repeating with lackluster results. Look no further than the last franchise I wrote about, Ghostbusters. An Elf 2 would probably easily make a profit, regardless of quality. It could even be a good movie. But there’s probably a greater chance that it wouldn’t hold a candle to the original. The story is perfect, and contains itself well. There’s no need for a continuation. It’s really hard to top something when the bar was set so stratospherically high the first time. And attempting to do so could easily diminish the efforts of the original, sabotaging everything Berenbaum, Favreau, and the team achieved. Elf is the Rudolph of this generation: a timeless classic with a tremendous amount of heart. Let’s just appreciate it for that, and leave it as it is, for everyone to enjoy with everyone they enjoy.

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metalindex-hu · 4 years ago

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„I was happy to get a second chance with Abomination”

„I was happy to get a second chance with Abomination” - http://metalindex.hu/2020/11/30/i-was-happy-to-get-a-second-chance-with-abomination/ -

Paul Speckmann’s name doesn’t need any introduction. In this interview he speaks about one of his bands, Abomination’s first full length record, that was released 30 years ago.

Paul, before I ask you about Abomination, being based in Chicago, do you think that Trouble and Zoetrope were the first original heavy metal bands who were actually really heavy and not hard rock?

This hard to say because although I followed the bands in the beginning like everyone else, the notoriety of the two really became evident after the Metal Massacre 4 was released which also included Witchslayer, War Cry and Thrust which were also booming on the scene by this time!

Were they the first to maybe define a sound of heaviness in the scene and maybe everyone kind of took that sound a little?

Not in my opinion. I would say they helped shaped their own future of course early on, but there were many other bands evolving by this time in the Chicagoland area.

They (Zoetrope and Trouble) were the earliest bands that brought everyone together, weren’t they?

Both of them were influential…

Abomination

Was the early Chicago metal scene a traditional heavy metal scene? Do you think that Zoetrope, Trouble, Witchslayer, Slauter Xstroyes (previously Naj, White Which), Hammeron and a little bit later Thrust, Iron Cross, War Cry, Mayhem Inc. etc. belonged to the first wave of Chicago’s metal?

The Thirsty Whale connection was certainly there, so I guess you could call this the first wave! Many of the bands supported one another during this time period before some bands got signed and jealousy prevailed, but this was later on! We would meet up for drinks nearly every weekend, was really quite the scene I would say. We had a blast in those early days!

Were all of the bands different from each other and just sounded completely different from each other?

All the bands were influenced by early Heavy Metal, some more pop than others, etc. Many of bands were paying homage to the Glam scene as well! There was quite a mix to be honest, at least in my opinion!

On the Metal Massacre IV compilation appeared five Chicago bands (Trouble, Zoetrope, War Cry, Thrust and Witchslayer). In your opinion, did it help a lot to attract the fan’s attention to the Chicago based outfits?

Honestly only Trouble, Zoetrope and Thrust did anything after this release. Nothing came of the scene, the exact opposite really. I left War Cry after hearing Venom, Slayer and Motörhead repeatedly! Chicago never really gets credit for influencing the rest of the world with their excellent bands!

Abomination was formed in 1987 by you on vocals/bass, Aaron Nickeas on drums and Mike Schafer on guitars. How did you get together?

Actually, the band was formed by Chaz Baker and Mike Paul and Nickeas respectively! I went to see the original lineup a few times and was interested in the drummer. Needless to say, late nights after the Funeral Bitch rehearsals in 1987, I would join Nickeas for these late-night rendezvous with Shafer as we began our own band. Aaron decided that the name Abomination was his and soon we became Abomination.

What was your goal that you wanted to achieve Abomination with?

Obviously, we were a crossover band with many different ingredients at play in the music. We were trying to succeed in bringing the band to the world’s stage and in the end, we had several opportunities to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Was Master on hold or did the band break up at this point?

The band had broken up by this time for several years already. I was happy to get a second chance with Abomination.

How about the musical past of Mike and Aaron?

Mike was playing guitar in Impulse Manslaughter before we met up!

Two demos (Demo 1 – 1988, Abomination – 1989) were released; can you tell us any details about them?

Not a lot to tell: Shafer came in with a few songs he had written and I wrote the rest. Mike sang his songs on the first demo, and I sang all the tracks I wrote. The only sad thing about the first demo was the crappy guitar sound. Shafer had no clue about sound at the time. Greg from Znowhite actually came to Seagrape Studios in Chicago to help me with the mixes, but said he could do nothing with the shit guitar sounds and left. After a falling out with Shafer over who knows what anymore, Aaron said he had a friend that was a killer player and this would prove to be true. I wrote all the tracks on the 2nd demo and we began rehearsals with Dean Chioles (R.I.P.) and proceeded to record again. This time the guitar sound was better, but still a bit rough.

Were these tapes heavily spread around in the scene?

The tapes were spread around the scene just as the Death Strike and Master demo were. Some of these early demos went on the influence a heavier genre of music later labelled as Death Metal!

Did you try to draw the fan’s attention to the band and to attract labels’ interests?

No, no one was interested in Abomination whatsoever until that fateful day at the woods. I had just finished working my moving job and my partner Mick said let’s go drink a few cold ones at the forest near where we worked. I cracked open an Old Style just as a few Harley’s pulled up. I smiled as I saw one of my high school rivals get off the bike with another fairly already well-known character from the band Righteous Pigs. I laughed as Ninos was speaking his usual nonsense to me and about me, when Joe Caper began burning Ninos and talking about my bands, Master, Death Strike and Abomination, mentioning that he had seen a few gigs and liked what he saw. As luck would have it, I just happened to have a copy of this latest red demo from Abomination in my pocket. Caper spoke of this new label called Nuclear Blast, and honestly, I didn’t hold my breath, because in this world talk is cheap. Well, the legend Joe Caper spoke the truth and a week or so later I received a letter and contract for Abomination from Slatko from Nuclear Blast Records. A week later another contract arrived for Master.

Did other record companies also show any interest in signing the band?

When did you start working on the debut album?

Obviously shortly after Chioles joined the fold we began to put together a repertoire for the first release!

How did the recording sessions go?

Actually, in my opinion the recordings were pretty weak in the end, Bob Pucci was recruited by Chioles and Nickeas to mix and produce this first album at a commercial studio. After listening to these recordings of some commercial Heavy Metal bands Pucci produced, they convinced me that this was the way to go. This was actually the first time I recorded outside of Seagrape Studios in many years.

Do you agree with, where Master played a raw Death Metal influenced Thrash Metal, Abomination is more straight Thrash Metal?

Hmm, there was no Death Metal at the time?

Was it a conscious decision to diverge from Master’s musical direction?

YES, the idea was to forge a new direction with Abomination and I believe we succeeded.

Paul nowadays

Did you manage to do a more interesting, varied album compared to Master/Death Strike?

You’d have to ask the listeners. I personally sat at the helm and produced the 2nd album with Mike Konopka again at his Seagrape Studios, and this is by far the best representation of the band at least sound wise. There were some great songs on the first release but the sound was shit!

Is it a pretty raw and unpolished version of US Thrash Metal, played loud, raw and with a savage attitude?

Sure! We were never about nail polish!

This album was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Donald Robert Speckman. Was he your father?

Yes, my father and mother died during these periods of recording!

To support the record, you went on tour with Master and Pungent Stench. What do you recall of it? Can you tell us detailed about it?

This was a difficult tour in the middle of winter. Today in November it has yet to snow, but back then snow covered the ground. Chioles, Martinelli, Nickeas, Jim Daly and I had to snuggle up together to stay warm in these Volkswagen vans to keep warm. We had many adventures, trials and tribulations during this tour. The band split up after this adventure and we all went our separate ways for years. One thing I will always remember was driving around after the shows looking for vegetarian restaurants in the bitter cold to help the PS fellas to survive! This was difficult sometimes in the bitter cold because these special places didn’t exist as they do today. Man, times change! Thankfully in today’s day and age all these animal lovers can find their vegetables without worries!

Abomination seems to be active again. Any plans for the future?

Abomination was only active for a few decent paying gigs to keep the previous band members working, and of course to share some of the killer tracks with fans in Europe.

#interjú

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doomedandstoned · 7 years ago

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THAL Pave Way For The Heathen Invasion

~By Billy Goate~

I knew there was something special about this band when I first picked up their trail a few years back and listening to their debut album confirms this. It's especially effective listening in the dead cold of night, I've noticed. You've picked up on a badass stripe of stoner metal known as THAL. The Columbus duo of John "Vince Green" Walker (vox, guitar, bass) and Kevin Hartnell (drums, guitars, synth) proves yet again that the Ohio heavy underground is a definite force of reckoning. THAL's new album is called 'Reach for the Dragon's Eye' (2018), the band's second full-length following 2016's Glitter (which I remember playing a track from back then on The Doomed & Stoned Podcast).

The new record has THAL continuing to kick major, major behind, but with a renewed sense of purpose and resolve. It's as if Down and Kyuss had met for a handshake and bumped into Acid Bath on the way to the head shop as I listen to a song like, "Under Earth." Others, like "Her Gods Demand War," give us a groovy Goatsnake beat fueled by some genuine Midwestern metal steam. You'll delight in the vocal collaboration with Sophie Steff at this point in the record, a musician I know little about but suspect we'll be hearing more from in the future.

You came here for hard-driving, riff-driven southern-fueled American stoner-doom, though, right? "Thoughtform" scratches that itch and then some, putting it in good company with bands like Pale Divine. There's a purity and simple forthrightness to the music-making here (see: "Soulshank") that pulls in a lot of what I love about Jerry Cantrell's Boggy Depot . The vocals jockey between clean and Neil Fallon dirty. All eight tracks have kept me company on the drive to and from work and I suspect you'll be riding them just as hard.

THAL's Reach For The Dragon's Eye drops Friday, February 16th in digital and CD formats via Argonauta Records. You can hear the record right here, right now on our bitchin' lil blog!

Give ear...

Interviewing THAL's Vince Green

What inspired you guys to start THAL?

I actually never touched a guitar until I was in my 20’s. I was into producing and recording hip-hop back in the 90’s. As I started getting older and maturing, my tastes started to change and I was feeling very limited by the hip-hop genre. Around that time my friend in college introduced me to Clutch and I was immediately hooked. THAT is the kind of music I wanted to make. So I started learning the guitar by playing an acoustic along to Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters records; learning basic chords and such. I also began to digest as much heavy music as I could. Obviously Sabbath was at the top of the list and I also got into Hendrix, Buffalo, Sir Lord Baltimore, Pentagram, The Obsessed, Kyuss and literally hundreds of others -- I have a very large record collection.

Finally, after getting to the point that I felt competent enough to record. I started making heavy music under the THAL name. It was just my solo thing for a few years. I played all the instruments and wrote/sang all of the lyrics. After I met David Jones -- my guitar partner in wytCHord-- and he introduced me to Kevin Hartnell, who came onboard as our drummer. Making the first wytCHord album with those guys was some of the most fun I’ve ever had creating music. In the meantime, I kept writing THAL songs on the side and decided to see if Kevin would have interest in drumming on my next record. He said yes and not only drummed, but provided quite a bit of additional instrumentation including two songs on the album, "Thoughtform" and "Death of the Sun," that are completely his instrumentals. I’m hoping Kevin would like to continue making music as THAL with me and that we can continue to evolve the band.

I know THAL is an acronym, but I thought I’d let you explain its meaning to the readers and tell us exactly how you came up with this for the name of your band.

THAL stands for The Heathens Are Loose. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek representation of modern society. Rock & roll is “music for heathens,” right? So I wear the title proudly. I also wanted something that when you broke it down into an acronym sounded primitive and heavy. THAL. As an interesting side note, I recently found out that Thal, Austria is the birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger whom I admired greatly as a bodybuilder. Totally unplanned.

You’re no new kids on the block – you’ve been making music for 4 or 5 years, right? Has the band evolved musically, stylistically, thematically from your earliest singles to your last record, ‘Glitter’ (2016), and the new album, ‘Reach For The Dragon’s Eye’ (2018)?

I posted the first THAL song up on YouTube in 2013. Listening to that, I think the biggest thing that has changed is the quality of the recordings. As I’ve added to my arsenal of tools and had more practice, the sound quality gets better each time. Also, I was not as confident vocally in 2013 and was still trying to find my voice. In 2016 Sam Durango of the mighty Rage of Samedi released Glitter on his Voodoo Chamber Records label in Germany. That was a great experience and was the first time a larger group of people were exposed to what I was doing and it was very well received. At this point, I am relatively comfortable with my range and do my best to work within that. I am far from the world’s best singer, so taking more chances with harmony and phrasing has “improved” things, at least in my mind. Ha! Thematically, I think my earlier stuff was more occult based and over time I am reflecting more on the struggles of modern life; although still from an esoteric viewpoint.

I’m really excited about debuting the new album. Can you take some time to walk us through each of the songs and tell us a little something about each? Could be the song’s history and development or meaning.

Absolutely! We are excited and honored that you are debuting the album, so thank you! Keep in mind that I think a song can mean something different to each person, so my intentions when I wrote the song may not match up to the meaning when you hear it and that is 100% okay.

"Rebreather": This is actually the last song we recorded. I was sent a piece of poetry by a friend named Randy Blood. That poem ended up being the words in the chorus and I built the narrative around it. It’s about us as a society being thrown into the deep end of the pool with all the snakes and trying to breathe for as long as we can. The title is homage to an amazing band from Ohio.

"Under Earth": I had written the riffs on this one for another vocalist that I thought I might work with at some point. That ended up not happening and it became the first THAL song that Kevin and I collaborated on. He sent it back to me with drums and a working title of “Under Earth”. Those words conjured images in my mind and it almost wrote itself. Each generation buries meaningful truths before it until we have a false representation of the way some things are meant to be.

"Her Gods Demand War": Ever since I came across Sophie Steff’s Sound Cloud, I wanted to collaborate with her. She has a crystal clear voice that conveys a lot of emotion. I sent her the instrumental along with the title and told her to write what came to her. She recorded that as the chorus and sent it back to me -- all the way from France! It was gorgeous. I wrote my parts around her choruses and added some harmony as well. In addition to the drums, Kevin added the beautiful guitar harmonies. One of my favorite songs on the record.

"ThoughtForm": Kevin sent me an instrumental he had been working on and it felt like Christmas morning to receive this track. Of course I was going to add vocals to it! This song has more groove than any other song on the album and is more about a personal struggle with the world kicking you when you’re down.

"Soulshank": I wrote this song not long after I was out of the hospital. I had just been through a surgery; hence the lyrics “Stick the knife into my soul and twist.” It’s an imagining of someone dying and returning to take the world back from the pieces of garbage that are running it now.

"Death of the Sun": This is the other track where all instruments are played by Kevin. It’s as “soulful” as I’m going to get when I sing. Haha! The concept was Kevin’s about the world ending and the words son/sun being used interchangeably at times. Basically, when the end comes we are all going to be in it together. The time for judging each other is done and whatever is going to happen is going to happen.

"Punish": I don’t normally call people out specifically when I write my music. I prefer to be more metaphorical. But in this case, I will gladly say it is about three pieces of shit (Shawn Whaley, Brandy Shaver and Gary Bubis) that tied a little girl to their truck and dragged her in addition to other abuses. Her mother was also complicit! The story horrified me and broke my heart. This song is basically my hope for their complete and utter destruction.

"Reach For The Dragon’s Eye": The “Dragon’s Eye” is an esoteric representation of knowledge and light, both spiritually and physically. You can assign whatever deity you want -- or no deity at all. Maybe the Dragon is your inner strength. Either way, the Dragon is meant to be a positive although sometimes we must go through a lot of negative to get there. That is what the album is about…ascending against the forces of negativity.

What message are you hoping to get across, if any, through THAL’s sophomore LP?

In the fall of 2016, I was in the hospital for a time and was in pretty bad shape. I had a lot of time to lay there and reflect. With that came internal realizations and “proof” to me of the things that are important in life. At that time, the US election season was in full force with many negative things happening in the United States and the world at large. It’s a helpless feeling seeing the country being manipulated and turning on each other. The only outlet I really have is writing songs, so those thoughts and feelings got tangled up into the lyrics.

How’d you get hooked up with Gero at Argonauta Records?

My good buddy Aaron Wall of the killer band Red Beard Wall is an Argonauta Records artist. I had contacted him for advice on what my next steps should be regarding signing with a label and distribution in general. He was very encouraging and recommended sending the album -- it had already been recorded and mastered at this point -- to Gero, the lead man at Argonauta to see what he thought. About a week later, he reached out and said he would like to sign THAL and put the album out on his label. Gero has been very good to work with. Since he is involved as a musician himself, he knows what it is like on both sides. He is relatively hands off and is all about the artist keeping control of their own music. I still handle my own Bandcamp and he gives advice on when to do certain things, etc. Not to mention, his stable of artists is amazing and Argonauta is the fastest rising label in the underground. It was really a no-brainer for me. It is an honor to be part of the family!

Tell us a bit about the recording, production, and mastering process – who did you work with to lay down tracks, how long did it take, and what instruments, pedals, and amps did you find most helpful in this process?

In terms of who I worked with, the whole thing is DIY. I recorded all guitars, bass and vocal parts in my home studio. Kevin tracked his drums and synths from his home studio (we live about two hours apart). Typically a song will start with a guitar riff idea. I’ll usually program some scratch drums to flesh out the arrangement and record bass parts as well. I’ll do a pre-mix of those tracks so that they sound generally “right” and then send the files to Kevin. He will track drums and additional parts on top. He will then do a more final mix of the whole instrumental and send those files back over to me. I then have the instrumental to write and record vocals over. I will do a final tweak to the mix, make sure the vocals are sitting correctly and then I will master the mix in my studio. I use a combination of rack gear and a software called Ozone for mastering. Everything is tracked in Cubase.

My go-to guitars are Les Pauls. I have a 2013 Gibson Tobacco Burst, a '77 Ibanez Custom and an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Silverburst that I am in the process of modifying. The low end comes from a black Squier Classic 70’s Precision Bass run directly into the board through an Ampeg DI box. An Orange OR50 stack and a 70’s Sunn Concert Lead are my workhorse amps, although I recently acquired a 100 watt Marshall DSL head and 4x12 cab that I am falling in love with. As far as pedals go, I use mostly Black Arts Toneworks for my dirt (Pharaoh Fuzz, Black Forest, Oath, Boneshaker), a Jimi Hendrix Crybaby Wah, and a Carbon Copy delay, EHX Small Stone and Small Clone for phaser/chorus effects. Kevin’s drum kit is a Tama with Zildjian and Paiste cymbals, and Vic Firth drum sticks. He uses a Korg Triton for keyboard parts.

What is in THAL’s crystal ball for 2018 and beyond?

I will always make music as THAL. It started out as a solo thing for me to get my musical ideas out and has now grown to include an outstanding drummer/multi-instrumentalist. I like how things are developing organically at their own pace. It is possible that we continue to add members such as a bassist and a second guitarist. Possibly some regional shows? The most satisfying part for me is the songwriting and recording process. It is truly a release. Reach For The Dragon’s Eye comes out on February 16th. After that, we may take a short break but we’ve already thrown a couple of new ideas back and forth. It wouldn’t surprise me if we released another album or EP by the end of this year. Otherwise, 2019 for sure. We want to thank our beautiful families and friends including everyone that has shown us support by purchasing an album, writing a review, or leaving us encouraging messages. Thank you Doomed & Stoned for highlighting what we are doing and for spreading the word about great music for as long as you have. Getting respect from those that appreciate music is the best part of the whole thing!

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