#casino funk

[another-lost-mc]

When MC Feels Burnout/Emotionally Numb THE DEMON BROTHERS 4.1k words | SFW | gn!Reader | Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Fluff & Angst A/N: The relationships between MC and the brothers can be read as romantic or platonic. The twins' sections are combined. ♫ [ MC's POV: Song Rec ]

─── LUCIFER:

Lucifer is concerned when you come to the dining room table for breakfast looking worse for wear; there's dark circles under your eyes like you haven't slept. You pour yourself a cup of tea and wrap your hands around the warm porcelain, but you don't drink it. Your breakfast plate remains untouched, and eventually you shuffle out of the room without a word.

He keeps an eye on you at RAD, but you're unusually withdrawn. You follow his brothers from class to class, eyes downturned and silent despite the lively conversations going on around you. Everyone walks home together that afternoon, but when he glances back to see how you are, he notices you’re lagging behind the rest of the group. He slows his pace to match yours, but you barely seem to notice; the walk home is silent.

When dinner time comes and goes without any change in your behaviour, he decides he needs to do something to snap you out of this little funk you're in. Later that evening, he invites you to keep him company in his study while he finishes his work. You accept in a monotone voice; it could be misconstrued as boredom, but he knows better.

Sometimes you read and listen to cursed records while he works at his desk, but tonight the random book you plucked off the shelf lays unopened in your lap. You stare unseeing into the fireplace, and your body is tense like you can’t relax.

He picks up something he was supposed to finish tonight—a folder full of documents to review and sign— but you barely notice when he sits beside you. He gives up all pretense of working when he places the folder and your unread book on the floor by his feet. He tucks you under his arm and pulls you against his side. You lean against him, a little reluctantly at first, until you start to relax. Your cheek is pressed against his chest and his heartbeat thumps gently beneath your ear.

He’s not sure how much time passes when you finally drift off to sleep. There’s something vulnerable about the way your body melts against his, and he wonders where he went wrong that led you to be in such a state to begin with.

He considers waking you so you can go back to your room to sleep. He contemplates carrying you somewhere more comfortable so he doesn't have to wake you—his room is closer, and maybe you won’t mind sharing a bed with him if it’s only for one night. Light and shadow from the fireplace dance along your skin, and you’re so warm in his arms; moving now seems like an impossibility.

A sore back in the morning seems like a fair price to pay when he decides to keep you exactly where you are. He maneuvers so carefully while he leans back against the armrest and holds you to his chest. He pulls the blanket off the back of the sofa and makes sure you’re covered before he closes his eyes. He doesn’t even notice that he syncs his breathing with yours, and he falls asleep not long after.

─── MAMMON:

Mammon eagerly tells you about his day—the things he bought, his wins at the casino, how his part-time gig is going—and he’s used to getting some sort of reaction from you (good or bad).

Today, you look at him blankly and tell him that’s nice in a quiet, emotionless voice that worries him. Having you scold him for being financially irresponsible (while you bite the inside of your cheek to resist the urge to smile) would be better than this. He’s stunned by your lack of a reaction, and you turn away from him when you’ve decided you don’t need to focus on paying attention to him anymore.

After dinner, he goes to your room and finds you laying in bed, staring at your ceiling and drumming the mattress idly with your fingertips. 

"Whatcha doin’?" he asks, even though he knows what you're going to say next.

“Nothing,” your quiet, flat tone replies.

“Good. Come on,” he says in a much chipper voice than yours as he grabs both your hands and practically pulls you out of bed. He leads you outside the front door where his car is parked, thrumming gently while the engine runs. He flips on the seat warmer for you and glances at you occasionally from the corner of his eye; he hopes you’ll melt into the warm leather soon.

“We're just goin’ for a little drive,” he explains, even though you don't bother asking where he's taking you in the middle of the night. The radio is streaming music from his phone, and he keeps the volume low. He nods towards his D.D.D. on the dash. “You can change it if you want,” he offers, and he’s not surprised when you decline.

He drives away from the bustling streets of the Devildom. The road is empty and the skies are clearer here, but he knows brief moments of tranquility aren’t enough to alleviate whatever it is that’s bothering you.

He’s never been good with words, but he rests his hand palm-up over the gear shift. He’s not sure you even notice since you’ve been staring out the window most of the drive. After a few moments, you surprise him and put your hand in his. He squeezes your hand gently before lacing your fingers together; it feels like a victory when you don’t pull away.

Every once in a while he squeezes your fingers between his, and he smiles at the dark, open road when you do the same.

─── LEVIATHAN:

Leviathan knows what it’s like to feel numb. Sometimes he feels that way when his self-imposed isolation wears him down. Talking to Henry and surrounding himself with his games and manga and toys isn't always enough to fill the black void of jealousy that makes his tone sharp and his fangs even sharper.

He gets that way when he thinks about all things he wants but doesn’t have—he notices you become this way from doing too much for everyone else until you lose yourself in the process.

Between the two of you, you should be able to find some sort of balance. He feels like you should both know better, but here you are, drowning in your own black void while he watches helplessly. He can barely help himself; how can he possibly help you?

For lack of better ideas, he invites you to his room to play games. Usually you’re so animated when you play together; you jeer at him when he spins out due to a perfectly-timed banana, or you toss your controller aside and tickle him when his shell knocks you out of first place.

That level of enthusiasm is gone today; you tap the controller pad in total silence. You don’t care when you come in last place, and you don’t care when Levi throws the match so you can win. He turns off the TV and shuffles on the floor so he’s facing you. You glance at him occasionally but go back to staring at your lap.

Levi hates it when you cry, but he hates this dead-eyed stare of yours even more. He grunts in frustration when he gets up suddenly and grabs a small tin off his desk.

“Come here for a sec, I could use your help,” he says, and he shakes the tin in your direction until you get up from the sofa and shuffle to his side. He leads you to the aquarium where Henry bobs peacefully in the crystal-blue water. Levi hands you the tin and unfolds a step ladder he keeps tucked away. He climbs the ladder carefully so he can open the window at the top of the tank.

You open the can of fish flakes when he asks you to, and he sprinkles a generous helping across the top of the water. You’re transfixed by the sight of Henry dashing through the water for his supper, and Levi can’t stop staring at you.

“Sometimes he’s good to talk to,” Levi mentions off-handedly. “Henry is a good listener.”

(Both his Henry’s are good listeners, Levi thinks.)

“What do you talk about?” you ask him quietly, still watching the fish eat the tiny flakes.

“All sorts of stuff. Anything you want—he doesn’t judge.” 

(You have that in common, too.)

Levi sputters a little, embarrassed by all the things he’s telling you, his little self-care rituals he normally keeps to himself. He thinks that even in your worst moments, like the way you are now, you’re still not nearly as pathetic as he is. You don’t deserve to feel like this, ever.

You glance away from the aquarium and meet Levi’s eyes just as tears begin to collect on his lash line. He clears his throat and takes the tin from you before putting it back on his desk. He pretends to organize things so he has an excuse not to turn around.

“Maybe you can come by tomorrow night and help me feed him again,” he manages to choke out.

A pause, and then you whisper, “I’d like that.”

Levi bites his lip to muffle his sobs.

─── SATAN:

Satan watches you during class and realizes you’re not acting like yourself. You tap your pen idly on the desk and stare at nothing. This is your favourite class but you’re not even listening.

Sometimes you come to his room after dinner and read, but not today. After school, you brush past everyone else and head to your room. He’s worried about you, and he’s not going to let you blow him off tonight. He knocks on your door, and your lifeless voice asks why he cares so much. He gets tongue-tied deciding how to respond:

I like spending time with you. You like reading nearly as much as I do and I don’t want that to ever change. It kills me to see you like this.

“It’s important to me,” is all he manages to say, and you must sense his desperation because you finally agree to follow him back to his room.

You sit on the bed while he picks the book off the shelf for you. You make a quiet noise of surprise when he places a pillow in your lap and lays down. Normally he reads to you, but his eyes are gentle when he holds the book out to you instead.

“Can you read a bit tonight?” he asks quietly. You frown and look like you want to argue, but he pushes just a little more—”for only a few chapters, okay?”

You take the book from him and pull out the bookmark when you find the right chapter. You glance down at him and when he smiles encouragingly, you start to read.

Your tone is quiet and dull at first, and your speech is slurred; Satan has trouble understanding you sometimes. He wonders if this was a stupid idea after all, but then you huff in amusement when you read a funny passage. He peers up at you and the little smile still tugs at the corners of your mouth as you finish the chapter.

You read another whole chapter after that, and Satan nearly melts in your lap when your free hand lazily combs through his hair as you read. Your eyes are a bit brighter when you finally stop reading and close the book.

“I can read a bit more if you’d like,” he asks you when he sits up. He almost expects you to refuse and shuffle away, but you nod and lay down when he sets the pillow in his lap for you to rest on.

He reads another chapter, quieter and slower than usual, and he stops reading when you fall asleep. He sets the book aside and moves you gently off his lap so he can settle into the space behind you. He drapes an arm loosely over your waist and contemplates other ways he can help you feel better.

─── ASMODEUS:

It breaks Asmo’s heart to see you like this. Your lovely complexion betrays the long days and poor sleep you’ve had. Your warm, shining gaze is dull. Your brow is creased with little lines and your mouth is downturned—he misses your easy smiles the most.

Sometimes Asmo feels like a ghost when he smiles at you but it feels like you see through him, not really acknowledging him or anything else around you.

He switches apps on his D.D.D. when he sees your message ping the group chat. You say that you’re not cooking dinner tonight (no explanation given) and that Lucifer should use part of your allowance this week to order food for everyone instead.

Asmo doesn’t blame you for not wanting to cook for seven hungry demons, but he has a suspicion that you plan on locking yourself in your room all night and skipping dinner for the third night in a row.

(You might’ve been at the dinner table every night this week, but he noticed that you just moved the food around in your plate without eating anything.)

No, he won’t let you do this to yourself. He understands wanting space and having lazy days, but that isn’t what this is. This is isolation and sadness and exhaustion, and if he feels this upset seeing how affected you are, he can’t imagine what you feel—or don’t feel—inside.

Asmo sends a quick message to Lucifer and asks him not to order anything for dinner just yet. Worst case scenario, Asmo will cave and order dinner for everyone later—but for now, Asmo marches to your room with a plan instead.

You’re buried under the covers when he lets himself into your room. He doesn’t bother turning on the lights; he can see you perfectly without them. He sits down slowly on the edge of the bed and rests his hand on your hip.

“How are you feeling, sweetie?” he asks quietly, and normally you laugh away his pet names for you, but today you shrug under the comforter instead.

“M’fine,” you mumble into your pillow.

“I could use your help with something,” he says, leaning down closer to your ear. He presses lightly against the side of your body like a poor imitation of an embrace. “How about you get up and keep me company, hmm?”

You’re quiet and don’t say anything, and Asmo’s hopeful smile starts to drop when he thinks you’re ignoring him. After an awkward minute of silence, you sigh and turn your head slightly towards him. “Help you with what?”

He’s not going to give you the chance to change your mind, and he stands up and reaches for your hand. “I’ll show you in the kitchen.”

Asmo steers you towards a barstool in the corner of the kitchen so you can relax while he makes dinner. He has an assortment of ingredients spread out across the counter. The family recipe book is opened to one of your own additions added to the back pages. 

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” he grins and winks over his shoulder at you. “I’ll cook tonight, and if I get stuck, who better to help than you?” He taps his chin thoughtfully and takes his D.D.D. out of his pocket and hands it to you for safekeeping. 

Asmo might not be the most skilled cook among his siblings, but he’s confident enough that he follows your recipe correctly—for the most part. If you didn’t know him better, you would think he was exaggerating his movements and adding commentary to each step to be silly. But you do know Asmo, and you recognize this as his natural playfulness when he does something he enjoys. 

Nearly twenty minutes later, there’s splatters of sauce on the front of his apron and he adds more salt and pepper to the pot with a flourish. When he turns his head to check on you, his mouth purses in surprise when the flash on his phone camera lights up the room. He blinks rapidly when he realizes you took a picture.

He jabs the stirring spoon in your direction with a playful glare. “I hope you got my best side,” he jokes. He’s self-conscious about the spices he knows that got in his hair somehow, and there’s something sticky on his cheek.

You slip the phone into your pocket and slide off the stool so you can reach for a clean cloth. You run it under the lukewarm tap for a moment, and your lips twitch into a smile when you wipe away the smear of sauce near his mouth. 

“You’re doing great,” you murmur quietly, glancing at the pot simmering on the stove.

“Does it smell good enough to eat?” he asks nervously, and he beams when you nod.

He wraps his arms around you and laughs as he hugs you as tight as he can. He knows the apron is making a mess on your clothes, but he doesn’t care. Neither do you, apparently—you wrap your arms around him after a few moments and hug him back.

─── BEELZEBUB & BELPHEGOR:

Beel walks to his room dejectedly, and not even the bags of treats from Madam Scream's hanging off his arms makes him feel any better.

He invited you to go with him to the pastry shop after school today. He knows you're not eating properly, but that combined with your bleak mood and dull expressions convinces him that there's something wrong beyond not being hungry.

He watched you during meal times every day this week: you shuffled your food around on the plate and didn't eat anything, or you took little nibbles out of something then dropped your fork on the plate with a sigh and left the rest uneaten.

He went to the bakery after school today, alone. Even though he invited you, you said you weren't in the mood and walked home without him. He bought a few boxes of his favourites, and some for his brothers to share, and he bought a half-dozen Blood Velvet cupcakes especially for you.

He knocked on your bedroom door when he got home and told you he had a surprise, but he was met with silence. He heard the faint creak of mattress springs, but you didn't come to the door and you didn't respond. He frowned, but he explained in the cheeriest voice he could muster that he brought you some cupcakes.

“Thanks, you can have 'em, though,” your muffled voice replied through the door. 

It’s an understatement to say that Beel is extremely concerned about you.

He walks to the room he shares with his twin. Usually Belphie naps in the attic after school (more often than not, he convinces you to nap with him). It’s a surprise when Beel finds Belphie sitting cross-legged on his bed with his pillow in his lap, and his eyes snap to his brother’s as soon as the door closes.

“They're not eating enough,” Beel tells his twin. He sets aside the boxes of pastries he bought, his appetite and mood completely soured.

“They're not sleeping enough either,” Belphie replies. He doesn't tell Beel about your sleepless nights, but his brothers would have to be blind not to notice your haggard appearance and the dark circles blooming under your eyes. You haven't napped with Belphie in over a week either, and he misses you—but he keeps that complaint to himself.

"What can we do?" Beel asks as he drops heavily on the edge of his bed, the mattress dipping under his weight. He leans forward, elbows on his knees, and runs a hand through his hair.

Belphie is quiet for a moment, and he glances at the boxes of abandoned pastries Beel brought home. "What’s the plan for dinner tonight?"

Beel looks up and scratches the back of his head. "Some of the others are busy so Lucifer said it was a free-for-all night."

(That usually means everyone orders takeout while Beel eats whatever is left in the house himself.)

Belphie stands up and tucks his pillow under one arm while he wanders over to the stack of bakery boxes near the door. He rifles through the bags until he finds the one he's looking for, and he gestures for Beel to follow him. "I have an idea. Come help me in the kitchen."

It’s peaceful in the deepest corner of the House of Lamentation gardens. Even if the others were home, there’s enough distance from the house to offer peace and privacy—it's nice out there.

Belphie thinks a picnic might be relaxing enough for you to enjoy; the hard part is convincing you to join them. The twins are determined and they both go to your room and insist you have dinner with them.

“You have to eat something,” Beel says in a pleading voice, eyes sorrowful with worry for you. It wasn’t quite enough to convince you to get out of bed, but you swallowed around the lump in your throat as your eyes burned with emotion.

Belphie crawled onto the bed next to you, dangling over the edge precariously while he reached for your hand and laced his fingers with yours. “Please,” he whispered, eyes just as sad as his twin’s, “it feels like I haven’t seen you all week. I miss you.”

You can’t possibly say no to both of them, not when Belphie’s face is so close to yours and his lower lip trembles with too much emotion. You know he can be manipulative, but even in your bleary-eyed daze, you realize he’s being unusually honest now.

You wipe away the stray tears that pool in the corner of your eyes and nod your head. Belphie slides off the mattress so Beel can help you up, and they both hug you before they lead you outside. By the time they take you to the garden, you’re all sniffling quietly, but the twins are smiling a bit now, too.

The blanket Belphie lays across the ground keeps you from getting too cold, and you all share portions of the improvised picnic the twins packed: sandwiches, a thermos of warm soup, a container of diced cheese and poison apple slices. You don’t eat as much as the twins do, but they look content that you finished eating everything on the small plate you made for yourself. 

Beel offers you one of your cupcakes next. He brought the whole box—optimistic, Belphie said earlier, raising his eyebrows before shrugging and putting the box into the basket.

You sort of remember Beel knocking on your door earlier and asking you if you wanted one, and you know that you refused. You accept one now because you can’t bear to say no to him twice.

When the food is eaten and the dishes cleared away, Belphie lays back on the blanket and gently nudges you to lay beside him. He rolls onto his side and lays his head on your shoulder, and you can see him looking at you from the corner of your eye. 

“Have I told you the story about that star?” he asks quietly, pointing towards the sky.

He probably has, considering how much time you both spend in the planetarium together, but you lean your cheek against his brow. “You can tell me again if you want to.”

He tells you the story about that star, and the other stars near it, and when your eyes start to droop heavily with sleep, he smiles and keeps going. He whispers more stories until your breathing slows and you start snoring gently in his ear; he hopes the stories follow you into your dreams.

Beel sits nearby on the large blanket, watching over both of you with a keen eye and soft smile; his belly is warm and full from a pleasant meal and your company. Belphie carefully maneuvers himself to his knees without waking you, and he stands up and stretches out the kink in his neck. Beel stands and lifts you so gently into his arms, and he cradles you to his chest while Belphie hurriedly packs up the picnic basket and blanket. 

The house is dark and quiet when they slip back inside, and Belphie leads Beel to your room. They both tuck you in��Belphie pulls back the covers and Beel lays you down and slips off your shoes. Beel squeezes your hand and waits for his twin by your door; Belphie murmurs a final goodnight as he brushes his lips across your forehead.

The twins head back to their room, and all three of you have the best night's sleep you've had in days.

[sosa2imagines]

You, me and Vegas! Part 1

Warnings- Fluff, drunk idiots.

The city of Las Vegas, Nevada is known for its vibrant strip of casinos, hotels, and entertainment venues.

The bright lights, glitzy resorts, and non-stop excitement create an atmosphere that draws people from all walks of life. Whether it's the high-stakes gambling, world-class shows, or luxury dining, Vegas promises an experience unlike any other city.

Bucky Barnes, a man in his mid-thirties, sat at the bar, his steel-blue eyes reflecting the dim lighting of the room. He swirled the glass in front of him, taking a long, slow sip.

His thoughts were heavy, as the recent job loss hung over him like a dark cloud. He was struggling to keep up with the secret and the pressure was mounting.

Bucky's parents, George and Winnifred Barnes, were prominent figures in society, known for their wealth and social standing.

They had always had a clear vision for Bucky's life, meticulously planning out every detail, from his education to his future career. The pressure to meet their expectations had been a constant presence in Bucky's life, casting a long shadow over his own desires and ambitions.

Bucky took another sip of his drink, feeling the liquid burn as it went down his throat. He stared into the amber depths of his glass, his mind racing.

Losing his architect job had left him feeling lost and confused. The stability he had grown accustomed to was suddenly gone, leaving him grasping for purchase in the chaos. He didn't know what the future held, and the uncertainty gnawed at him relentlessly.

Peach, a woman in her early thirties, sat at a table across the room, her sparkling eyes full of mischievousness.

She was a writer, a free spirit who reveled in life's unexpected turns. Clutching a colorful cocktail in her hand, she observed Bucky over the rim, intrigued by his brooding demeanor.

Despite her own financial struggles, Peach harbored an unshakeable optimism. She was determined to push her worries aside and revel in the moment. Tonight, she was in the mood to enjoy the scenery and escape the constraints of everyday life. And something about Bucky's brooding presence caught her attention.

As Peach made her way to the bar, she couldn't help but notice Bucky, his furrowed brow and taut frame drawing her attention.

She took a seat beside him, her laughter bubbling over as she smiled warmly. “Hey there, tough guy…” she teased, her eyes glimmering in the dim light.

Bucky looked up as Peach took the seat beside him, surprised by her easy-going smile. He gave her a sidelong glance, his eyes roaming over her infectious grin. “What's so funny?” he asked, his rough tone softened by curiosity and the buzz of alcohol.

Peach shrugged, still smiling. “You…” she replied bluntly. “You look like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders. Mind if I lift some of that burden?”

Bucky huffed, his expression a mix of bemusement and irritation. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?” he asked, taking a swig of his drink.

“Well, first, I think we need to get you out of this funk. You can't solve anything by brooding in a dark bar...” she chided gently, flagging down the bartender.

Turning to Bucky, she added, “And then we might just make a plan. What's got you so weighed down, anyway? I��m Y/n by the way, but everyone calls me ‘Peach.’”

Bucky's shoulders sagged, the weight of his worries pressing down on him. He stared into his empty glass, his eyes cloudy with frustration. “I’m James, everyone calls me Bucky and I lost my job.” he confessed, the words heavy on his tongue.

Peach's grin faded, her expression softening into sympathy. “I'm sorry,” she said sincerely. “That must be really tough.”

Bucky nodded, rubbing his face with a weary hand. “It's more than tough. It's... crushing. I thought I had it all figured out, a steady job, a plan. And now... I've got nothing.”

Peach reached a slender hand to rest reassuringly on Bucky's shoulder. “It might feel like that right now, but there's always a way out.” Her voice was gentle yet firm.

Bucky looked up, meeting her earnest gaze. There was a glimmer of hope in those blue depths; a hope that he didn't want to extinguish. “You make it sound so simple.”

Peach laughed, her eyes sparkling. “Loosen up, Bucky! A little too serious for a weeknight, don't you think?”

Bucky glanced at the time, the alcohol making the numbers blurry. He sighed, pushing himself off the stool. “It's getting late.” he mumbled.

“Ah, come on! Don't leave yet...” Peach protested, a hint of disappointment in her tone. “The night's just getting started.”

Bucky ran a hand through his hair, the alcohol making it difficult to focus. “I... I really should go.” he said, his voice rough.

Peach chuckled, her words slightly slurring as the alcohol took its toll. “Why are you such a tight ass?” she teased, leaning a little closer to Bucky. “You're so tense, so uptight. You need to loosen up.”

Bucky bristled at the accusation, his cheeks flushing slightly. “I am not a tight ass!” he protested, the denial coming out a bit louder than he intended.

Peach smiled slyly as she leaned in, her breath hot against Bucky's ear. “Prove it...” she whispered, a challenge in her voice.

Bucky swallowed, his heart thudding a little faster. Her proximity was intoxicating. He took a deep breath, determined to prove her wrong.

Bucky, feeling a sudden rush of determination, signaled the bartender. “Two more shots!” he barked, his voice rough with drunken determination.

Turning to face Peach, he set the shot glasses on the bar between them. “I'm not a tight ass!” he said firmly, meeting her gaze.

Peach smirked, amused by his sudden display. “You're on...” she retorted, raising her shot glass in a mock toast.

They clinked glasses and downed the shots in one swift gulp. The liquid burned as it went down, fuel for the budding rivalry between the two. Bucky slammed his glass down onto the bar, his eyes locked on Peach's.

“Another!” he declared, a hint of challenge in his voice.

Peach raised an eyebrow, impressed by his defiance. “You're braver than I thought.” she teased, flagging down the bartender for another round.

The second shot burned just as much as the first, but with it came a wave of liquid courage. Bucky leaned slightly towards Peach, his inhibitions fading with each shot.

“See? I told you. I'm not uptight...” he said, a cocky grin playing at the corner of his lips.

Peach chuckled, enjoying the change in Bucky's demeanor. “One more to settle this.” she proposed, signaling for yet another shot.

They downed the third shot, the alcohol fueling their banter. Bucky felt the alcohol coursing through him, emboldening his words and movements. He leaned a little closer, meeting Peach's challenging gaze.

“Satisfied yet?” he asked, a cocky smirk on his face.

Peach leaned back, her smirk widening. “Almost...” she confessed, the alcohol making her bolder than usual.

“Almost, huh?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. His heart was pounding now, fueled by the alcohol, the challenge, and the unexpected chemistry between them.

And so, fueled by liquid courage, Bucky ordered another round.

As the night wore on and the alcohol fueled their conversation, Bucky and Peach found themselves sharing more than just drinks. They opened up about their dreams, their disappointments, and the sheer absurdities of life.

The buzz of alcohol in their veins loosened their tongues, and they laughed loudly, feeling lighter than they had in weeks. The weight of their worries faded, replaced by the warm, almost giddy sensation of carefree banter.

With the fresh night air hitting their faces, the laughter doubled. They stumbled out of the bar, the neon-lit streets of Las Vegas a dizzying backdrop to their tipsy giddiness.

The cool night air was a stark contrast to the heated banter and alcohol, but it didn't dull their good mood. They leaned on each other for support, their steps unsteady.

As they weaved through the crowds, Peach grabbed Bucky’s hand. “Let’s do something wild!!!!” she declared. “Something that defies all reason.”

Bucky’s heart raced. “Like what?”

Peach pointed to the 24/7 wedding chapel ahead. “Let’s get married.”

Bucky's eyes widened as he followed her pointed finger towards the wedding chapel. The bright neon sign glowed, advertising the one-stop shop for quickie weddings. He stared at Peach, his mind spinning with the implications of her words.

“You can't be seriousss,” he managed to say, the alcohol making his words slur together.

Peach pulled him towards the chapel, her grip on his hand unwavering. “Oh, I'm dead seriousss…” she replied, her eyes sparkling with mischief and a hint of a drunken bravado.

The chapel was small and cozy, but somehow it added to the charm of the moment. The Elvis impersonator, with his sparkly jumpsuit and greasy pompadour, looked on serenely as Bucky and Peach stumbled towards the altar.

They didn't have rings, witnesses, or even proper clothing, but none of that mattered.

The words of the vows were slurred, and they couldn't keep straight faces, but they were serious in their own way. As they pledged their love, or whatever passed for it in their current drunken state.

Bucky and Peach had never felt more alive.

And as they kissed, “I now pronounce you man and wife,” the Elvis impersonator declared, his voice booming with exaggerated gravitas.

Bucky and Peach looked at each other, eyes wide and filled with laughter and incredulity.

They had done it—they had drunkenly gotten married in a Las Vegas chapel with an Elvis impersonator officiating. It was insane, ridiculous, and the most spontaneous thing either of them had ever done.

Together, they stumbled back into the night, as husband and wife, weaving their own story amid the glittering lights of Las Vegas.

Part 2-

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@pono-pura-vida @renegadesgirl1991 @iwudbutnah @ghalouha @sebastians-love @saranghaey @greatmistakes @baw1066

@bucks-babe @lolzies123r @lovely-geek

[haereticus]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐄 𝐃'𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐎 ...

𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝… 【 rachel sennott //. cis woman //. she/her 】 welcome, ROSALINE D'ANGELO. you have successfully been loaded into THE HUB. according to our records, you are TWENTY-SIX YEARS OLD and have held citizenship for FOUR YEARS in the barrier city, neo california. your key attributes have been identified as EASY-GOING and RUDDERLESS. please confirm your CHAOTIC NEUTRAL status to proceed. our data indicates that you are currently employed with INFERNO CASINO AS A CROUPIER //. SŌWAKATSU-KAI AS A SHATEI. for your safety and security, it is crucial that all background information is accurate. further analysis of our archives highlights your alignment with BUZZCUT SEASON BY LORDE. ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ verification 100% complete. please adhere to all local regulations and laws during your stay. we trust that your time here will be both fulfilling and safe.

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒.

full name. rosaline elizabeth d'angelo. nickname(s). rosie. gender & pronouns. cis woman & she/her. date of birth. september 29, 2118. age. twenty-six. hometown. neo california. current residence. neo california. nationality. american. occupation. croupier. affiliation. inferno casino / sōwakatsu-kai. education. high school diploma + two semesters of a bachelor of fine arts.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘.

positive traits. offbeat, creative, easy-going, self-assured, amiable. negative traits. impulsive, rudderless, lazy, deceitful, irresolute. mbti. esfp-a ( the entertainer ). enneagram. type seven ( the enthusiast ). moral alignment. chaotic neutral. deadly sin. sloth. heavenly virtue. humility. western zodiac. libra. parallels. maeby funke, arrested development / mordecai, regular show / fleabag, fleabag / sokka, avatar: the last airbender / ilana wexler, broad city / pj, bottoms.

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘.

tw: alcohol & drug use, parental abandonment, tomfoolery

You never meet your mother. Well, this isn’t technically true – but you don’t remember the woman, so it might as well be. You like to think that, maybe, when you were a newborn – kicking and screaming and red as a tomato – that maybe, she had swaddled you in blankets and tucked you close to her chest. That, maybe, she had felt something akin to love. That, maybe, she would feel a pang of regret at the actions she would soon take. Of course, you can never be certain – nowadays, you don’t even remember her face. Erin O’Connell had abandoned her family on a cold winter’s evening – leaving behind a three-month-old baby girl, a son not yet old enough for school, and a husband who had seemed to genuinely adore her. She had packed a bag in the middle of the night and left town – no note, no goodbye. Her husband imagined she’d return one day – her photos remained on the walls, the police were notified, and the front door left unlocked every night in case his darling wife ever decided to come home. She didn’t, and in your earliest recollections, the photos are gone. The woman who birthed you no more than a ghost who once knew her.

Your childhood, beyond the unexpected abandonment of your mother, is relatively unremarkable. Your father works several low-paying jobs to make ends meet. He moves you and your brother around several apartments in NEW YORK as you grow up – each one shittier than the last. You spend most afternoons in the care of your grandparents, or your aunts, or your friends’ parents, while your father breaks his back to make ends meet. You want to make him proud, but you are never a particularly bright child. They will later diagnose you with something called ADHD – but nobody at your elementary school bothers to think of the loudmouthed, fidgeting, distractible, vulgar child at the back of the class as anything but a nuisance. As a result, you never do particularly well in school. You say this does not bother you, but each failing grade feels like a knife to the heart. Another disappointing stain on your family name. You try and you try, and still, you fail. Eventually, you realize the only course of action is to stop trying altogether. At least then the sting of failure won’t be quite as sharp.

Whilst you may not be academically gifted, you are a creative child – in more ways than one. Art class is the only place you ever truly excel – you learn to paint and sculpt and draw at a young age with the limited resources available to you at your elementary school. It is a way to express yourself that doesn’t require the written word, and it captures your attention in a way that nothing else does. You are also an imaginative child. When you realise you won’t be winning your peers’ respect through your intellect, you switch tactics. You decide to make them laugh. You lie to them, because real life is never very funny. You sharpen your tongue into a weapon – your wit becomes your greatest asset, a way for you to deflect from what you view as your other flaws. It works to an extent – you toe the line between amusing and annoying like an acrobat.

In all honesty, college had never seemed particularly attainable to you. By the time you near the end of high school, you have ceased to apply yourself in any way that doesn’t involve a paintbrush. Your grades are abysmal, and you spend more time smoking in your friends’ parents’ basements than you do trying to improve them. And yet, your art teacher insists you send your portfolio out to various colleges. You never know, she says. You do it because she is the only adult left who believes in you. You’re not sure whether she’s a psychic, or whether you’re extremely lucky – but, somehow, your portfolio is enough to earn you a spot at a relatively prestigious university. It should have been everything you wanted – studying art, painting and drawing all day, every day. But it isn’t. College is hard. Your art gets picked apart by people who claim to know better, and you flunk out of art theory. You can’t hack it. You drop out after two semesters.

At twenty years old, you are unemployed, homeless, and a university dropout. The next two years are spent completing odd jobs – shop attendant, bartender, personal assistant, hairdressing apprentice. All are short-lived, and generally end with your termination report reading incompetence. You sleep on the couches of friends before landing yourself a more permanent arrangement. You don’t know how you manage to convince a girl with her own apartment to go out with you – but you do, and you quickly make yourself at home in her penthouse place. You contribute to rent where you can – though you are rarely able to hold a job for more than a week or two. We’ll call this relationship what it was: a bail out. A salvation from homelessness, or worse, from admitting defeat and moving back in with your father. She must see something in you, something that isn’t completely hopeless, because she lets you stay.

Even saints have their breaking points, though. Countless promises have been made and broken – to get a job, to pay rent, to stop drinking and smoking. You don’t know why you are the way you are – but each broken promise numbs you to the next one. Each terminated contract steels your resolve. Failure tastes a lot sweeter when you convince yourself you never cared at all. Eventually, your girlfriend offers an ultimatum – and when it comes to pass, you are back out on the streets with barely a dollar to your name. You are twenty-two, unemployed, homeless, and entirely broke. You haven’t a hope in the world. Not in New York, anyway.

You tell yourself NEO CALIFORNIA will be a fresh start. The other side of the country, where nobody knows your name, where nobody knows what an abysmal loser you really are. You spend your last few dollars on a plane ticket and embark on your new life. You tell yourself you’ll get a real job, a real apartment, make real friends and be a real functioning member of society. And, to your credit, this is exactly what you intend to do when you seek employment at the INFERNO CASINO. And, for the first few months this is what you do. You collect your paycheques, show up on time, annoy the heck out of your coworkers, but, overall, do a pretty good job. Alas, as it tends to, ruination soon comes for you. And, as it tends to be, your demise is self-made.

You hadn’t planned on stealing from the house. But it occurs to you during a shift that they have so much money, and you have so little. You are living on the couch of an elderly man you found on the internet. Your sneakers are falling apart, and your clothes are wearing thin. You’ve been living off instant ramen for months, and you can barely afford to keep yourself alive. So, you skim a little off the top. Not much – just enough for a nice hot meal. A few dollars, at most. The next shift, you take a little more – you count cards and cheat the players out of their winnings. This is enough for some new shoes. The next week, you’re buying a designer handbag you decidedly do not need. You honestly don’t know how you get away with it for as long as you do – but you soon find yourself being called into the office of HANEUL SEON, and you know what he is going to say before you even sit down.

See, most casinos would have simply fired you – but you have made on glaring miscalculation. The owner of the casino is affiliated with the SŌWAKATSU-KAI, and, apparently, they don’t take kindly to thievery. He presents you with two options: you will pay with your loyalty or your life. You’re not completely stupid, so you quickly find yourself being sworn in as a SHATEI of the most notorious Yakuza gang in America. No big deal, though. At least Haneul didn’t fire you. So, this is where we find you: twenty-six years old, college dropout, employed by the Yakuza to cheat rich men out of their stolen dollars. It’s not as bad as it sounds, really. It’s not as bad as it sounds, right?

[demonsteapot]

What type of music do you like / have you been jamming to recently? Any recommendations?

(my internet died halfway through this so i nearly had to rewrite it)

you caught me at a bad time i was schmooving to a sewerslvt playlist yesterday ;-;

okay to be serious for a moment. uh. i don't think i have super good or interesting (or normal) tastes in music? i can point you to some of the things i think are cool and good, and i can also point you to things that i listen to for mood.

ive also probably mentioned some of these before (probably all of them?) so sorry if there's repeats

(okay this ended up being longer than expected so cut vv)

good (mostly not depressing stuff?):

Bill Wurtz – weirdly dreamlike jazzy stuff (?) i recommend 'At the Corner Store' and then i recommend you listen to all his other stuff

Ujico*/Snail's House: ive probably ranted about this guy before; 'Cosmo Funk' is probably your entry level snails house song. sweet adorable future bass, my go to for free serotonin

Heaven Pierce Her – Ultrakill: Violence, the game's newest EP. generally melancholic but really sick especially in context. 'War Without Reason' is probably my new favourite track in the whole game? (you can tell i like amen breaks lol)

also ofc i have to mention john / TOOBOE!! shout out to @donutinsideofashark for introducing me to this guy. some recs: 'Tablet', 'Roman', and 'Appare kanpai' – stuff goes hard and makes me wish i knew jp so i could actually remember lyrics

mood (depressing and/or weirder stuff):

vivivivivi's Dead but Dreaming: concept album about a dead god, mostly chiptune instrumental stuff until the second-last track – personally I LOVE this album, but as someone said, it probably sucks unless you have autism (disclaimer: i'm not diagnosed autistic, this is a reference to the pinned comment). this particular album influences a lot of my works to be honest

two more vivivivivi beepbox albums, ones that are a little more lively: Sisyphus and Silly Little Songs from my Silly Little Head. probably not to the tastes of sane and normal people but i like the beeps and boops :)

sewerslvt: breakbeat stuff from a dark place. people seem to not like sewerslvt fans which is why i'm reluctant to talk about this one but whatever. idk what you'd call their genre (i've heard it described as ambient jungle, trance, something or other dnb, but most importantly NOT breakcore. call sewerslvt breakcore and you are signing up for a hell of a flamewar) listen if you like amen breaks and hate yourself (i hope not…) idk what to even recommend here… i stumbled across her first with Drowning In The Sewer years ago. i've been getting back into their stuff recently, which is probably not a good sign for my mental health… currently listening to 'was it weird that i listened to im god by clams casino's when i lost my virginity' which is a hell of a title

Heaven Pierce Her again – The Enigma of Heaven and Other Daily Delusions: weird album about religion and the internet. since this is hakita again there are amen breaks. good if ur fuckin WEIRD. i recommend most of HPH's work

i've also been listening to an ultrakill fan artist called Marzuku, who does – guess what – more amen break stuff. i don't know man, but 'At Ends' is pretty good

shit fuck of course the jvne section ends up being a whole paragraph just to say don't listen to their stuff.

THAT'S IT IT'S TIME TO WRAP THIS UP THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK. damn this got long. this is what happens when you ask me about my interests LMFAO

[olivcrhaycs]

character information

name: Oliver Hayes

faceclaim: Nicholas Galitzine

gender & pronouns: cis man & he/him

sexuality: homosexual

age: 30

birthday: January 21, 1994

place of birth: New York, NY

occupation: Sous Chef

neighborhood: Driftwood Haven

time since arriving in kismet harbor: Since June 2024

aesthetics: Cold brew coffee, Oversized hoodies, Bags under his eyes, Cat hair

pets: Gray & White Cat named Barkley

town activities: Parchment Ponders, LGBTQIA+

appearance:

faceclaim:  Nicholas Galitzine

height:  6’

build:  Semi-build

eyes:  Blue

hair:  Brown with blonde highlights

piercings:  Left nostril & Ear lobes

tattoos:  Pineapple on his calf, Arrow on forearm, Geometric symbol on leg

personality:

traits:  Creative, Rational, Insubordinate, Overthinker

labels / tropes:  Golden boy

mental health:  Meh

physical health:  Healthy as a horse

likes:  Collecting funk pops, Snow globes, Vinyls

dislikes:  Liars, Wearing snow boots, People who snore (even though he probably does)

fears:  Snakes,

phobias:  None

hobbies:  Reading, Singing

skills:  Can Touch his Nose with his Tongue

pet peeves:  People who drive slow in the left lane, Impatient Customers

biography: 

Having two parents who didn’t give a shit about you was something that Oliver could relate to. He was always there for his siblings and he was a parent at the young age of five. He enjoyed being a big brother and he didn’t care what he had to sacrifice in his life for his siblings to have a better life. He was always cooking for them and changing their diapers to make sure they didn’t suffer. Of course they were left with a maid or baby sitter all the time but they were constantly taking advantage of Oliver’s parents and trying to just collect a check. 

Oliver loved taking care of his siblings and didn’t mind being the parent of them while their parents were constantly out at the yacht club and casino trying to win even more money that they didn’t need. They were so engrossed in the thought of being the richest people that they forgot they even had kids, especially because Oliver was more than willing to take care of them. 

When it came to school, Oliver wasn’t the best but he was doing okay so that he was able to graduate high school. When it came to post high school life he had a choice to make if he wanted to remain in his siblings life as a caretaker or allow his parents to still ignore them. He knew what he needed to do and that was get a job so that he could save up for his own place. He didn’t want anything to do with his parents money, but at this moment in time it was helping to take care of his younger siblings that he was going to take advantage of it. 

While he was working and taking care of his siblings (who had more of an idea on how to take care of themselves), Oliver was now in college and he was getting himself a real education in something that he was super passionate about and that was cooking. He managed to graduate at the top of his class. By the time he graduated college, his siblings graduated high school and they were out and about doing their own thing. 

When Oliver decided it was time to leave New York and go somewhere new and one of his friends was living in Kismet Harbor and suggested it to Oliver. Oliver decided that he was ready to build a new life for himself because he rode his parents name as far as he wanted. He wanted to make a name for himself where nobody really knew him except for his buddy from college who knew who he was outside of his parents. Being here for the last four months, Oliver has enjoyed his life and he’s trying to convince his siblings to come out and join him to get away from their toxic parents. 

[fictionalmenaremytype]

Percy Jackson Episode 6 Spoiler!!!!

Percy Jackson episode 6 highlights:

- In Percys' dream, the way Kronos has embodied Percy's old headmaster has so much messaging behind it! It shows that he does not necessarily has more power than Percy, but due to fear of wronging him, he is more powerful.

- The breaking of the fourth wall...shudders!

- Annabeth you're so clever with that prism look at you go! But where tf did u get that from?!?!

- SEAWEED BRAIN

- The first Iris Message!! The way Luke's demeanour immediately changes from hopeful to slightly scared before he covers it again when they say they know who the thief is.

- LUKE HOW DARE YOU BLAME CLARISSE!!!!

- Their argument about what was when is so accurate and shows just how much stress and how abnormal this situation is for everyone.

- "Monday you died in the river." Luke must be so confused...

- "When did you turn into an old married couple?" Annabeth's look is so 'my brother needs to stop meddling with my love life' its actually funny. Luke knows, he's going to go tell Silena. Percabeth was the true bargaining tactic. (Iykyk)

- Ooooh they've already started to mention May?!??!

- Awww Grover helping the animals escape! I always forget about that.

- "this seems dangerous" "they'll be fine..." "I meant the people."

- Annabeth's sass about the Lotus flower! He really isn't observant.

- " You were like 2 seconds ahead of me" sure

- LEVITATING?!?!? Perfect song! It bridges the gap between the older and younger generation. I could imagine this playing in an arcade and a casino separately let alone together.

- "Did you read the Odyssey?" "The graphic Novel. It counts" Yes!!! This is a PSA that Audiobooks and Graphic novels are books and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! (I'm looking at you, year 5 teacher, who told me they didn't count)

- WISE GIRL

- The way Walker said WiseGirl endearingly? Sir knows what he did!

- Don't believe him Grover!

- "if I tell you something do you promise not to make fun of me" "Dude..." it's Giving 'I am never going to make things easy for you, Seaweed brain'

- I was unsure about Lin as Hermes bit I'm not now I think it actually makes sense. I know a lot of people said he's not slutty enough to play Hermes who has the most or second most amount of kid at camp but Hermes doesn't need to be slutty. He's a charmer because he's funny. It's like Joey Tribiani's sister Gina said "you'd like him, he's real funny". And like Joey every child of Hermes to their parent would just be screaming "If you like him you laugh!!!"

- Lin how dare you remind them of their trauma!!!

- HE DID THE DISNEY VILLAIN EYEBROWS

- "Then I feel a lot better about stealing his keys" "exactly...wait what?!?!" I cackled this is brilliant!

- "You picked Hermes' picket???" "I'm multitalente." YES YOU ARE QUEEN!!!

- The Lotus flowers as thing you breathe in is so sinister! The more I think about it the more funked up it is.

- The whole pumping the Lotus flowers thing through the air is so smart! But I find it so ironic that Disney, who are known for putting different smells around restaurants to make you buy their food, are portraying this as evil.

- "Man, Grover got really old."

- FUCKING RUGBY TACKLES GOAT MAN

- Grover in Vr gear is the strangest thing to see

- All those cars from different decade puts things into perspective Jesus.

- "Are we late because of me?" "It's okay, we're going to be okay." Percy stop telling people things are okay when they aren't!!

- Hermes left them a note !!!!!

- PERCY CANT DRIVE OH MY GOD. I know he's 12 but this is still so funny. Truly what it's like to drive a car for the first time with no experience.

- ROAD RAGE PERCY OH MY GOD!

- The way he's looking at Annabeth so accidentally scrapes the car up the wall. He was doing so well until that!

- Oh my god that car scared me I was like, no way are they going to kill Annabeth off before the end of season 1.

- "it's easy to forget what's important when you're alone." Foreshadowing for a certain person on a certain island??

- That nymph (Nereid? Nyad? I get them confused.) Is so scary...more scared of her than I am of Kronos can't lie. Shes beautiful but I'm scared.

- Four Pearls woooh

- I didn't think before that the episode are too short but now I'm starting to. There was so much crammed into this one that there wasn't much time to digest anything before the next thing happened. I'd say there was roughly the same amount that happened in this episode and the last but the last felt more cohesive because it was all about Ares and what Ares needed them to do. I don't know. This probably isn't my favourite episode, but it's still really good.

Spoilers for the snippet at the end of the first credits.

- How is Percy staying behind if they have the right amount of pearls?? This will probably be answered, but I'm just worried that it won't completely make sense.

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Thu 13 June // Day 259 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

Abbott Elementary (with mum) 3x04 Smoking

After a student is caught smoking, the staff come together to revamp the outdated drug policy; Janine tries to prep the new substitute teacher for her class, but finds it challenging to give up her former role.

I was surprised there weren't any repercussions for the teachers from the video that kid posted. Some pissy parent would absolutely have complained. Relieved that it appears to have FADEd away.

High School 1x04 Welcome Home

After a turn in her relationship with Phoebe, Sara is in a serious funk and can't stop feeling sad; to distract her, her new friends decide the best way to cheer her up is to take her to a rave which gets a little weird.

The game the twins have at such a young age. Getting all the girls to fall in love with them. It is definitely something they inherited from their mum.

Amphibia 1x14 Snow Day / Cracking Mrs. Croaker

When a winter cold snap freezes all the frogs in Wartwood, Anne must protect the townspeople. / In an effort to make Mrs. Croaker like him, Sprig digs up a secret from her past.

I hope we get to learn more about Croaker's spy days. She probably didn't like Sprig after she saw the photos of him and Anne using their frozen-in-hibernation bodies as bowling skittles lol.

Sweet Tooth 3x01 The Beginning Is Also the End

Gus and his cohorts set out for Alaska to reconnect with Birdie, who's working on a cure for the Sick. But first, they test their luck at an old casino.

A wild Cara Gee appears and seems a little in love with Gus's mum only to tearfully hug goodbye. It would soften the blow of it being the final season if she returns.

[mondoradiowmse]

05/22/24 Mondo Radio Playlist

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "The Heat Goes On", featuring punk-funk, mutant disco and more. If you dig it, don't forget to also follow the show on Facebook and Twitter!

Artist - Song - Album

James White And The Blacks - Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix) - Off White

James Chance & The Contortions - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Live) - Soul Exorcism Redux

Bush Tetras - You Can't Be Funky - Boom In The Night: Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983

ESG - UFO - Dance To The Best Of ESG

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing - Nightclubbing

Judy Nylon And Crucial - Trial By Fire - Pal Judy

Lou Reed - Disco Mystic - The Bells

The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around - Nude On The Moon: The B-52's Anthology

The Waitresses - The Comb - Punk 45: Burn Rubber City, Burn! - Akron, Ohio: Punk And The Decline Of The Mid-West 1975-80

Pylon - Gyrate - Chomp More

Glorious Strangers - Move It Time - New York Noise, Vol. 2: Music From The New York Underground 1977-1984

Robin Flower And The Bleachers - Babies With Glasses - Babies With Glasses

Talking Heads - I Zimbra - Fear Of Music

Lizzy Mercier Descloux - I'm Liquor - Zulu Rock

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) - Remain In Light

Material - Upriver - Memory Serves

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice - Double Fantasy

Liquid Liquid - Optimo - Def Jam Recordings 30

Public Image Ltd. - Swan Lake - Second Edition

Casino Music - Viol Af Dis - Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979-85

Suicide - Shadazz - The Second Album + The First Rehearsal Tapes

Blondie - Heart Of Glass - The Best Of Blondie

Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love (Live) - Stop Making Sense

Blondie - Rapture - The Best Of Blondie

Common Sense - Voices Inside My Head - Disco Not Disco

Loose Joints - Tell You Today - Disco Not Disco

Kid Creole And The Coconuts - Darrio - The Last Party - Music Inspired By The Book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco And The Culture Of The Night

Was Not Was - Tell Me That I'm Dreaming - The Last Party - Music Inspired By The Book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco And The Culture Of The Night

The Clash - Rock The Casbah - Hits Back

The Clash - Radio Clash - Hits Back

[mending-up-your-fences]

Alright, Cuyahoga “mending finally went to a full length show and will never stop talking about it” post show breakdown. Also my eye didnt attempt to blind me. And the weird voice thing I heard at bourbon and beyond was a weird festival amp thing that was not present here.

First: Cuyahoga is a stunning venue. Absolutely great. I don’t know how I lucked into face value seating so close and central to the stage but I did.

Second: katie pruitt has a new song that talks about wanting to be Superman and I cried as she was performing it for the first time, so good luck to us all when that’s released. Also, Out of the Blue was freaking incredible live. Her voice rocks.

And now for the meat and potatoes:

Starting with Stay Gentle is a war crime. Plain and simple. I think I’ve experienced every emotion possible listening to this song, so I did not cry at this point, but the swell of the strings when she sings “be amazed by the sky”. Also, the linked arm thing is cute.

Over the Rainbow: her voice. Overall what a mood set.

Broken Horses: hahahaha wtf. It absolutely rips. Also, went on a side quest to the rock and roll hall of fame and they have where she wrote the lyrics, and you can actually see where she gets more intense as her writing goes along.

Things I Regret: fun song and good little sneaky vocal warm up for Brandi. Also slaps. Very fun song.

You and Me on the Rock: boy she loves an amphitheater of her fans. Chauntee, Kyleen, and Monique have very tight harmonies now! And so fun seeing all the lesbians dance together.

The Story: RIPS. Absolute carnage. It takes a special talent and focus to sing a single song thousands of times and make it still sound special. But then at the end, this wild thing happened where the applause went on for two minutes? Just one of those magical live performance moments, but Brandi genuinely seemed touched and overwhelmed by it (for reasons we will get to later).

The Eye: see this is where they got me. I have never once in my entire life cried to this song. But tonight? Wtf. The harmonies are so good, and the lyrics are so pretty and so yeah, I cried. Tim and Phil are the goats. If they don’t get memorialized together when they make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’ll riot.

After that cute moment I got emotionally assassinated: that’s right. It turns out cath and the kids are at home and one of the anniversaries was yesterday so Brandi has been in an extra “I’ve been touring all summer and now everyone’s at home without me funk.” And she referred to herself as a human casino thursday. So what does that mean?

It’s time for The Mother. Fuck my life. I cried. I thought about my mom, I thought about future kids. I thought about the gay parents in the audience. I can’t believe she did it. I think she’s performed it one other time this summer at a not solo show or special event. Was sure I was gonna live vicariously forever. But here we are in this new world where I’ve seen the mother performed live.

Acoustic mood? Sounds great. Now we’re gonna do Right on Time two ways (for real this time). ITCH was as great as on Thursday. But immediately followed by my first time hearing Right on Time (ITSD) which holy shit. Absolute banger. And vocally insane (featuring her demon laugh when she knows she’s just done something vocally wild).

Time to rip into My Song/they were too small of a band for U2 to nail them at the time for plagiarism but lol. She sings and performs this song in a way that makes her almost visibly time travel to being a sixteen year old busking her heart out.

Solidly into the rock part of the show? Wrong. It’s Mama Werewolf time. The concert version of it is perfect. It’s a perfect song and they sing it perfectly. Did not cry because I was emotionally exhausted at this point and could not dwell on the cyclic trauma of it all, but GD her and the twin harmonies.

So now foot’s off the pedal and we’re on cruise control right? Wrong. Because this is the moment I think the people surrounding me realized I am not a casual fan At All, the way I physically reacted to them playing the intro to Again Today. Another bucket list song checked off. Her voice. It’s just another “this song could end the whole concert and it’d be a great concert but this is Brandi carlile band so this is what our discography is like.” Fuck them, this song slaps, still mad it’s not a standalone track that I can loop.

Banger city now because it’s time for Raise Hell which absolutely blew the roof off the place. It was so loud and raucous at this point. Side note: but is insane that Raise Hell is so good and that the discography is so deep that it’s a special occasion now??? Anyway, no one has sat this whole show. I had been told we were a concert sitting people, but it seems like that era is over. People are bouncing, yelling, riled up… So naturally what song is next?

Remember this?

Party of One. LMAO. This concert was sequenced by an insane person. But whatever, I got redemption to see it twice. And it was awesome. The applause for the string quartet went on forever. I cried. Standard stuff.

Mainstream Kid! With Katie Pruitt! That is a girl that spent a lot of time singing along to that track in her car during college. But it RIPPED. That voice combo is crazy. And Tim got to do his best ever guitar solo. Brandi so clearly invests emotionally into these artists that repeatedly open for her, I just have a lot of BoB thoughts.

Sinners, Saints, and Fools aka “we do not deserve Sista Strings but Chauntee and Monique have decided we get to enjoy their gifts for this moment in time”. Fun fact is that they apparently saw a symphony concert at the venue as children! Other fun fact: Geraldo Rivera was at this performance. Kinda wanted to say ��Hey this whole thing is about grifters like you.” Anyway, it slaps.

The Joke: nothing groundbreaking to report. I cried. Her voice is stupid. People should stop trying to cover it. Forever thankful that this song finally got BCB the recognition they’ve deserved the whole time.

Hold Out Your Hand: it’s so fast and so fun. It’s also another moment that amplifies the band a part of what makes them so special. They are just people. There’s no tight corporate control, no musical director/concert choreographer dictating every movement. It’s just a bunch of talented adults playing music together, and occasionally being a bit goofy.

Live and Let Die/We Are The Champions: Adam Lambert and Brandi Carlile could pull off this tandem. End of list. All you should need to convince anyone of how great Brandi is right now is to say “She has the stage presence and vocal ability to kill this cover as an encore at all her shows”. It absolutely works live.

Anyway, this was my favorite concert I’ve ever experienced. Hope my ramblings made you laugh a little. They’re mostly for me here so I remember as much of tonight as I possibly can. Love to y’all. Good night.

[tumblasha]

a review of the first week of cabo verde

so i've officially landed in the praia, cabo verde, airport seven (7) whole days ago, and i want to share my initial thoughts. this will be long, so here's a numbered list :)

1 . i feel like i'm a kid back in brazil but also a 21 y/o tall kid

so caboverdians speak portuguese (bc it's taught in formal schools) and they also speak kabuverdianu (creole, different across all the islands). being someone that can translate / speak at the store for the person they live with [1], it just feels like i'm a kid with a limited vocab

living in a beach town where everything is at a slower pace and is within walking / bus / taxi distance made me feel happy :) vacation!dasha is alive and well

2 . cabo verde is also a tall kid (but 48 y/o)

this one is sorta very much on me.

so i did the classic American Tourist thing and never actually learned anything about the history of the country i will be traveling to (sorry). since coming here and asking my co-workers and friends-of-misti about the general vibes of this country, i've learned so much! a lot of which Make Sense, a lot of which Confuse Me

older caboverdians tend to see themselves as not-african. i also learned that some ppl in some countries in mainland africa also don't consider themselves african bc of the way that the label "africa" comes with various histories, most of them negative bc of europe. this is why "kriolu" / "creole" are such popular words ! also younger caboverdians acknowledge that they are african / black if that applies to them

race is phenotypical here. which is what i expected (closer to how latam sees race ig?? more like how brasil sees race ig??). what i'm trying to say is that if you introduce yourself as "from the usa", they'll always say "no, where are u Actually from" and won't rest until u say something like "peruvian, chinese, etc." bc a lot of ppl outside of the usa don't believe that the usa has "actual indigenous ppl anymore" [2]. it also means that speaking english in the street invites ppl to ask you ur race

being east asian (chinese) in cabo verde is sorta .. rough. the microaggressions that i've seen in the two (2) days that my chinese-american roommate face is kinda Wild. when the person leading our cultural training said "oh sometimes ppl will call u 'china'" to my friend i thought that it meant that it would replace "ma'am" in the usual "yes, ma'am" / "no, ma'am" conversations with strangers, not that random ppl will yell "china!" multiple times to my friend when we're sitting on the sand. this has ties with macau and the rest of the chinese gov't building universities, casinos, and having a Business Presence in the country. but at least we got tourism industry students to invite us to clubs bc my friend is chinese-american??? [3] it's just really weird to me bc i haven't faced any racial / appearance-based ... acknowledgements ... even tho i clearly look like a foreigner in a sorta-racially-homogenous place (talking abt the mostly black island santiago)

independence day is not really celebrated here : ( ppl have conflicting opinions on the independence of the country. most of the country likes the day (july 5) bc it's a day off from work. other ppl say that it's hard to be a country with growing pains and would rather have portugal's gov't deal with building the infrastructure. other ppl are putting in the work to ease the growing pains. kinda sad since massachusetts, rhode island, and brazil (afaik) have big celebrations (fireworks and everything) rather than just a random ceremony where the president speaks for a bit and everyone goes home

a lot of the night life is european. someone pls teach me how to vibe to edm and house music and general non-lyrical music fjewiaofj but also shoutout to that club with brazilian funk. if only i learned the dance that my são paulo friend taught me </3

3 . the food is sorta fantastic here ngl

yes, i'm behind on the foodposting, and idk if i'll ever catch up lmao

for my lovely friends who eat meat, cachupa / caxupa is one of the loveliest things to eat. it's a meat-based (with veggies!) soup dish ?? it usually has either fish or pork tho. it's the national dish for a reason <33 also the seafood is good. sola-approved!

for my lovely friends who don't eat meat, i found a vegan place like 8 min away from my apt! also bc i'm in a City, it's easy to ask for things to be made vegetarian (plus there's always couscous and salads lol). also veg cachupa exists

for all my lovely friends, the food isn't Too too varied. i feel like the most common foods are pizzas, pastas, burgers, and shwarmas. also chinese foods are translated in an interesting way: noodles are pasta / spaghetti, dumplings are pastels (the empanada-esque brazilian translation), etc. there are also a bunch of brazilian churrascarias and one (1) indian restaurant

also i tried to be Cool and add some hot sauce to one of my pastas and i had to pretend i didn't want to kill myself in front of the Adults on the table

4. kabuverdianu is a cool language

i learned duolingo's haitian creole to get the vibes of a creole language. though this is attached to portuguese instead of french, a lot of the characteristics are the same. the words borrowed from the european language are spelled in a way that makes sense (maybe in a way that makes more sense to spanish-speakers?). i also like how gendered things tend to just be made gender neutral (usually defaulting to the masc way). i can hear it and understand it if spoken to me slowly, but after that ... oof!

5 . marcha do orgulho made me v happy

what if i change my "go to carnaval in every continent" goal to "go to pride in every continent" hehe. i think it was so Good how the pride that had 30 ppl last year exceeded their goal of 100 ppl this year by A Lot. even though there were a lot of ppl from the EU who backed the event (logistically spread the word i think??), the ppl who showed up were mostly black and made it such a fun time :,)

i also met a trans woman who claimed was the only trans woman in her island :,0 [5] she traveled all the way to santiago for pride

6 . overall i'm excited for the summer

i think that i'll spend a lot of my time reading a book by the beach and learning kabuverdianu while telling myself that i can maybe be an immigrant like my parents [4] or at least work abroad for a few years maybe. i'm excited to be an adult. i went to the beach (one on the other side of the island) today, and i just feel refreshed. i got to swim in the water like if it were a pool and hang out with the fish lol

---

[1] my parents as a kid, my roommate as a taller kid (now)

[2] overheard at a bar in barcelona

[3] my roommate will prob talk abt it more since she's doing the indentityX blogposts that misti hosts lol

[4] for those that don't know, there's at least a two-gen moving maternal history in my family line. my grandma moved across the country after high school. my mom moved across the continent after college. i wanna Continue that somehow bc i feel like it'd be cute

[5] lots of gays and lesbians, according to her, but being trans is a whole different thing there

[mbsanandreas13]

🖤 good night y’all 🤍

🩶 hope y’all enjoyed ur day like always, sadly i gotta be back at work early tomorrow… at least I just have tomorrow and Saturday left though! But I always got this 🧡

[theknightofsolitude]

Aiiight so the homie @form-less got me on this.. Put my whole library on shuffle and show the first 10 songs.. this would be interesting.. but here we go.

Believe it or not i don’t have Spotify lol.. some of these songs are from the old way of having a memory stick of tracks, downloading mixtapes (when they came out for free lol) or having a homie give you a link for a song you want lol. Still in the trenches when it comes to getting music lol.

[fieldsofplay]

Michael Gorwitz’ Top Albums of 2022

25.  Daphni – Cherry

Hello and welcome to 2022. You made it. We made it. Things kinda seem like they’re getting better, no? So what better way to kick off this annual survey than with a perfect little dance record, Daphni’s Cherry.  Daphni is the pure dance alter-ego of Dan Snaith, better known as Caribou (and once upon a time, Manitoba).  So if you ever wished the song craft would stop getting in the way of albums like Our Love or Swim, then Cherry is the record for you.  Side projects often let artists flex muscles that don’t get enough workout in their main gigs, and thus often provide simple pleasures in unadorned forms, and Cherry is no exception.  No one is reinventing the wheel here, but more importantly, nor is anyone trying to do so.  The first track “Arrow” tells it all, a steady, brisk beat, a fun vocal loop, and that’s it, but really, what more do you need to get your booty shaking? More importantly, that simple purple and pink cover is just too beautiful to behold, so it had to go first to set a lovely hue for all the good music to follow.

24.  Vince Staples – Ramona Park Broke My Heart

Vince Staples is approaching a similar place to Kevin Morby (see below) where his supreme consistency is starting to almost work against him.  Ramona Park Broke My Heart is Staples’ fifth album, and its just as perfect as the proceeding four, which does create a bit of indistinguishability with each successive release.  Unlike Morby however, Staples’ string of releases do chart more a stylistically-varied path, even if it’s a bit circular.  Summertime ’06 was the stark Clams Casino produced statement of purpose, Big Fish Theory was a fascinating detour into club beats, FM! was experiment in minimalism.  Last year’s self titled was the first without a formalistic construct, and thus felt closest to Summertime ’06, and this year’s Ramona Park is more of the same.  However, that same remains some of the best hip hop around.  The one-two of “Papercuts” into “Lemonade” are some of Staples’ best songs.  If this is what it sounds like to be in a rut, why not revel in a place of such excellent output.

23.  Toro y Moi – MAHAL

MAHAL is emblematic of a fun phenomenon, namely, where you pick up a release from artist you once cared about, but not a ton and haven’t checked in in a minute, and you’re pleasantly surprised that they’ve still got it.  Toro y Moi was simultaneously kind of a chillwave also ran, and also someone who seemed like would be around after the hype-wave crested.  MAHAL is definitely not chillwave, but it’s definitely good.  It has a 70s skronk to it, and a summer bounce, like T. Rex it’s equally good for a sunny road trip and to chill out to.

22.  King Gizzard – Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava

Jam bands (whom I do not like) often try to cloak their musical meanderings in the intentionality of jazz, as if to say “we’re not bullshitting here, we’re engaged in serious praxis,” when in reality, they’re just hitting the bong, then the record button, and just going with whatever wanders out of their instruments.  This year’s King Gizzard album (I’m not typing that whole title out, banner year for long-ass album names, shouts Sufjan!) is dangerously close to being a jam-band record, but I’ll point to one key stylistic divergence.  Unlike a jam band pretending its playing a version of jazz, King Gizzard here are working in funk, with all the looseness, energy, and yes, jams, that that genre entails.  For generations, funk has given artists room to spread out, find a groove, and lock in, taking the listener along for the funky ride.  Am I splitting hairs? Perhaps.  But if you swapped out of the vocals on “Ice V” I think you’d be hard pressed to tell it wasn’t a deep cut from Sly’s Family Stone.

21.  The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Summer at Land’s End

When I write these lists I normally try and serve two masters: the first is the larger story of music in a given year, the second are my own idiosyncratic predilections. Summer at Land’s End is definitely me looking in the mirror and doing finger guns, and hey, its my list, so why not?  One of my favorite forgotten records of the last 20 years is Wild Nothing’s Gemini, and while Summer at Land’s End lacks that record’s uptempo jangle, it traffics in the same gauzy reverb guitars and sad structures.  As pop music and R&B continue to steamroll the “discourse,” I continue to light a candle for these little off kilter guitar albums.

20.  Sorry – Anywhere But Here

Sorry got a lot of hype two years ago for their debut 925.  Honestly, it never did much for me, it just kinda sounded like a band that liked the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as much as I did (not a knock, well it’s kind of a knock, but liking the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is cool).  Normally, that means I wouldn’t have paid much heed to their follow up, but when I heard it was breakup album, I was interested enough to give the band another go (I don’t know what it says about me that I thoroughly love a good breakup album, but here we are).  Less interested in being “experimental” for its own sake, and more focused on channeling those artsy influences into rock solid songwriting, Anywhere But Here takes Sorry’s conflicting interests in pop and trip hop and channels them into a rain soaked album (there’s literally a song called “Screaming in the Rain”) that surmounts the sum of its parts rather than always breaking apart into arch referents.  Take “Baltimore” for example, a tiny piano intro is passed along to bass and guitar, with the vocals hopping along in lock step with the bass in classic post punk fashion.  On Anywhere But Here, Sorry live up to the initial hype.

19.  Kevin Morby – This is a Photograph

As briefly discussed above with Vince Staples, Kevin Morby is fully a victim of his own consistency at this point.  This is a Photograph is arguably the best album he’s ever released, and if that’s the case, why is it down here at 19? The reason is by putting out great albums of similar sounding (or, at least, structured) music every single year, it becomes impossible for any one release to break through not only the crowd of music in a given year, but even amongst his own catalogue.  If this was Morby’s third release instead of his eighth (!) it might top this list, it’s that good.  Gelling all the elements that have come to define prior Morby releases, This is a Photograph stands as his best statement of freewheeling americana.  “Stop Before I Cry” actually moves me to tears, it’s that beautiful.

18.  Wild Pink – ILYSM

Wild Pink’s ILYSM is an interesting pair with Morby’s This is a Photograph.  Billed months before it came out as the band’s Yankee Hotel, that advanced praise actually proved to be a bit of a disservice, setting the expectation bar at unreachable heights.  However, unlike Morby’s eternal consistency, ILYSM actually does take some big swings at stylistic experimentation, which of course, are what generated those Yankee Hotel comps in the first place.  Opener “Cahooting the Multiverse” sets the stage perfectly, opening portals to different universal variants of this band’s maudlin country pop.  The music cuts out for a few off-kilter beats, backup singers join in, and the music warbles through processors.  “Cahooting” presents several different versions of a Wild Pink track, all withing the same song. The title cut employs a robotic chorus to chant the album’s mantra (“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH”), and the whole song comes off as the most interesting War on Drugs song in several years.  

17.  MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs

While Lenderman’s main act Wednesday made waves with Twin Plagues, it was their cover album Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘Em Up that caught my ear, and on his solo album Boat Songs he continues the drift into more countrified sounds evinced on Mowing the Leaves.  While his lyrics—fixated as they are on ‘90s sports icons—have garnered a lot of attention, I sometimes find them too cute by half.  What makes Boat Songs truly great is the way Lenderman is able to make big sounds out of low fidelity.  He gets a lot of comparisons to Jason Molina, and you can hear why.  These are capital “G” guitar songs that share Molina’s reverence for Neil Young and Dinosaur Jr., but whereas Songs:Ohia tracks usually collapsed back into themselves, Lenderman’s tend to burst outward from the speakers, taking the listener along for a ride through his twangy tales of Dan Marino and actual Dolphins.  

16.  Beach House – Once Twice Melody

Beach House have no business being relevant in 2022.  Perhaps it’s just because I’m old and they’re not actually relevant, but I’m still seeing lots of love for Once Twice Melody on the year end lists (though again I could just be reading the lame lists).  Except for the brief period when the band employed an actual human drummer, the band has spun gold from nothing more than Victoria Legrand’s narrow vocals & lush synths, stuttering drum machines, and Alex Scally’s slide guitar.  As all of the great bands of their (read: my) generation have slowly faded away into irrelevance (Deerhunter, Animal Collective) or broke up (the Walkmen) somehow Beach House remain at the same level they were at when their self titled debut first made me swoon way back in 2006. I’m not going to go so far as to say Once Twice Melody is their best album (Teen Dream still holds a special place in my broken heart), but the fact that its in the conversation is a testament to their unparalleled abilities.  “Another Go Around” is not only one of the best songs of their career, but a perfect encapsulation of this record’s place in 2022.  

15.  The Soft Pink Truth – Is it Going to Get Any Deeper?

The Drew Daniel half of Matmos continues his excellent recent run of form with the cheekily titled Is it Going to Get Any Deeper?  Whereas his last full length, the stellar Shall we Go Sinning so that Grace May Increase?, was devotional music disguised as house music, the equally questioning Is it Going to Get Any Deeper? worships at the altar of the dancefloor.  While I can’t imagine actually dancing for the entire 11 minutes of opener “Deeper,” this is house music in the sense of envelopment, of losing one’s self, if not always in the sea of the dancefloor, then at least in the gently undulating currents of the throb of the music itself.

14.  Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry

King Push is back.  Splitting production between Pharrell (😍) and Kanye (☠️) It’s Almost Dry is fascinating as it shifts back and forth between Neptunes-style slinky bangers (“Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes”) and vintage Kanye’s trademark chipmunk soul (“Rock n Roll”).  It’s Almost Dry is Pusha’s strongest release since 2013’s My Name is My Name, if not his Clipse days.  From top to bottom, this album is filled with songs that live up to the strength of the production.  While many knock his continued lyrical fixation on coke dealing, “Diet Coke” was probably one of the biggest songs of the year.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  Beyond merely continuing a proven recipe, on It’s Almost Dry Pusha elevated his craft to its highest levels, constantly pushed there by Pharrell and Kanye’s first rate production.  

13.  Palm – Nicks and Grazes

These days it seems like the most interesting ideas in what used to be called good old fashioned indie rock are coming out of Philadelphia, but on seeing Palm live this year I realized the Philly band have more in common with Baltimore’s Animal Collective.  It isn’t necessarily that Palm sound like Animal Collective (they don’t really), but Palm meld ecstatic exuberance with odd time signatures and vocals that are more tonal layers than sense conveyors that is spiritually, if not sonically, akin Animal Collective in their heyday.  What was so cool about that Palm show was that it was readily apparent that this was a bunch of kids who grew up post Animal Collective and managed to import their spirit without aping their sound.  Sometimes seeing the torch passed from generation to generation can you make you feel ancient, but other times it makes you thrilled to see the youth pick up the spirit of something you once cherished and make of it their own.  So long as there are weirdos making fun music who barely seem to know how to play their instruments, there’ll be bands like Palm.

12.  JID – The Forever Story

In a year where Kendrick Lamar put out a (bad) record, it was JID who to my uneducated ear put out the most technically interesting flows.  While speed is impressive (see: Twista), and JID can unfurl 20 words in the time it takes zanax rappers to get out a single syllable, these aren’t speed trials devoid of rhythm or sense.  While a bit overstuffed at 15 songs with an hour runtime, on The Forever Story JID continues to match top notch chops with first rate story telling.  In a year in which Kendrick put his first foot wrong, give JID a chance instead.

11.  Panda Bear & Sonic Boom – Reset

Speaking of Animal Collective, even though Time Skiffs was well-reviewed, I had long ago given up on them doing anything of interest, which is totally fine seeing as they put out five consecutive albums that completely rewrote the possibilities of “folk” music.  (2003’s Here Comes the Indian through 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion).  It’s arguable that the most important album of that run wasn’t even put out by Animal Collective proper, but was Panda Bear’s seismic Person Pitch (2007).  While he continued to release great solo albums, often produced by Sonic Boom, like his main act, Noah Lennox seemed to be gradually receding from the center of cultural relevance.  While Reset doesn’t rewrite the fabric of pop music like his previous towering achievements, it does make you remember why we all fell in love with Panda Bear in the first place.  Pared down to pop perfection, songs like “Getting’ to the Point” and “Edge of the Edge” remind you that when Panda Bear gets his Brian Wilson on, there is almost no one who can write a better pop song.

10.  They are Gutting a Body of Water – S

Despite possessing the worst band name of 2022, They are Gutting a Body of Water put one of the year’s most interesting albums.  If you liked last year’s release from Spirit of the Beehive (a very narrow group of people) then S is precisely for you.  Without sounding much like them, They are Gutting a Body of Water remind me a lot of the Unicorns, but maybe that’s just because their lead singer also put out a hip-hop album this year. (Th’ Corn Gangg Anyone??? [This is a joke just for Brad Romsa if he is reading this]).  On S, They are Gutting a Body of Water (I can’t believe I have to keep typing that out, but I hate acronyms so here we are) are constantly shifting shapes, but most of the songs are sonically tied together by shimmering processed guitars that sound like they came from Broken Social Scene’s early records.  The songs that aren’t outright instrumentals often featured chipmunked vocals, or shoegazy coos that barely constitute “vocals” proper.  If you’re looking for 2022’s most sonically adventurous rock record, look no further than S.  

9.  Axel Boman – Luz

Along with Kornel Kovacs (whom I love) and Petter Nordkvist (not familiar), Boman founded the influential Swedish label Studio Barnhus. With Luz, Boman put out my favorite electronic album of the year.  Like the aforementioned Kovacs, and DJ Koze, Boman traffics in house music shot through with psychedelia.  The normally steady rhythms of house tend to bend and shift across the course of his tracks, as the music takes you more on a voyage of the mind rather than getting your hips moving.  Take, for example, penultimate track “Grape.” What starts out as a bouncy Herbert homage, gradually picks up cascading vocals, and then stuttering jungle, until finally dissolving as the sea of rhythms it had gradually built up begin to recede like the tide.  Each track on Luz is a journey,  so why not see where it takes you.

8. Anteloper - Pink Dolphins

2022 not only was a big year for jazz, it was a big year for Jeff Parker (see below).  On Pink Dolphins, the sadly dearly departed trumpeter Jaimie Branch and percussionist / electronics guy Jason Nazary (who combined constitute Anteloper) paired with Parker in the role of producer, to stunning effect.  If not for They are Gutting a Body of Water, Pink Dolphins would probably be the strangest record I’ve heard this year. The review I read compared the album to Live-Evil era Miles Davis, and that was basically all I needed to know.  Pink Dolphins is like a new age version of that Miles, and I’ve also read the album’s sound described as aquadelica (aquatic psychedelica).  The pairing of Anteloper and Jeff Parker is a match made in heaven, as he helps the duo push their sound out to the moon, where Branch’s trumpet functions more like a stab of noise rather than a source of melody.  On “Earthlings” the driving force of the song is Nazary’s scattershot drum beat paired with a haunting bass line, as a series of electronic effects and Branch’s understated but effective vocals swirl around like a whirlpool. Her trumpet doesn’t cut through the swirl of noise until about 4 and ½ minutes into the song.  It is terrible to comprehend that Pink Dolphins is the last thing we will ever get from Branch, but at least it’s a hell of a way to go out.

7.  Beyonce – Renaissance

We can keep this one short. You don’t need me to tell you anything about Beyonce. All I need to say is someone derisively said of lead single “Break My Soul” that “it sounds like C+C Music Factory.”  My only complaint with Renaissance is that I wish it sounded more like C+C Music Factory.  

6.  Yard Act –

The Overloard

Yard Act are the most british band on this list, by a mile.  There is just some sort of bratty nonchalance that only the Britsh can pull off, and The Overloard is soaked in it.  While most post punk—especially the vein currently back in vogue—is defined by dark brooding, Yard Act practice a different type of post punk always very close to my heart, the minimalist, strutting, arty variety perfected by The Fall, Wire, and Buzzcocks several decades ago.  So long as there is someone somewhere sipping a coffee, smoking a cigarette, reading a book (Kafka?) over the top of wayfarers perched archly at the end of their nose, but more importantly, always aware of the ludicrousness of such a pose, there will be bands like Yard Act.  According to internet-based statistics, “Dead Horse” was my most played song of the year, and there is no surprise there. It’s everything I love in a song and nothing else.  

5.  Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

For a folk-rock outfit that doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, Big Thief’s permanent position towards the top of this and most other lists year after year is fairly outstanding.  It’s not that their sound has changed from Masterpiece to Capacity to U.F.O.F./Two Hands to Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, but their sound has somehow gotten better with each successive release.  A sprawling double album in the truest sense of the word, Dragon New Warm Mountain is where it all should have gone wrong.  Their familiarity should have grown a little tiresome as they drowned in the sea of their self indulgence.  Instead, the name of their first album notwithstanding, Dragon New Warm Mountain stands as their clear masterpiece.  Like the Beatles on the White Album (which has become my favorite Beatles’ record as I’ve aged), here the double album format allows Big Thief to focus a little less on perfecting their folk gems and allows them to spread their wings a bit.  Like the Beatles, rather than resulting in a slip-shod series of half baked results, the looseness of the double album allows their genius to shine through all the brighter.  Top to bottom, start to finish, this thing is absolutely stuffed with perfect little songs.  For my money (which is none, because this is free) of all their small gems, “Certainty” is the best they’ve ever penned.  

4. Destroyer - Labryinthitis

Well Dan Bejar, you’ve done it again.  I have no idea what number Destroyer release this is (I just checked, it’s the project’s 13th!) but with Labryinthitis Bejar continues his recent run of excellent form.  Destroyer never really puts out bad records, but his sea of releases has crests and troughs just like any body of water controlled by the moon.  To my ear, those peaks occur every three or four albums or so (Streethawk, Rubies, Kaputt), and while I really enjoyed Have we Met, I think Labryinthitis is his best release since Kaputt.  Mixing the electronic textures of Ken and Have we Met with Kaputt and Poison Season’s chill, Labryinthitis is a culmination of all of Bejar’s recent preoccupations (see “June.”) If “The Last Song” were not only the cap to this excellent album, but to an outstanding career, it would be a fitting testament.  And as someone who once thought “I used to live in New York” constituted a personality, there is no biting line than “you wake up / you stand up / you move to LA / you’re just another person that moves to LA.”

3.  Cola – Deep in View

There’s a pretty easy test for whether or not you’ll love Cola as much as I do: does the phrase “the slow Strokes” appeal to you? If so, this is your band.  Formed out of the ashes of the occasionally great Ought, Cola take Ought’s nervous, angular guitar rock, give it a nice glass of white wine on a balmy day, and unwind that pent up energy into the best chilled out strummers this side of Julian Casablancas and Albert Hammond Jr.  At one point I declared Deep in View to be the “album of the summer,” and now with a little perspective I stand by my own dashed off opinion.  This is music for driving around with the windows down and nowhere in particular to go.

2.  Jeff Parker – Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy / Forfolks

If Alex G had the best album of the year (spoiler alert!), no one had a better year than Jeff Parker.  In addition to producing Anteloper’s Pink Dolphins as discussed above, he also put out two outstanding, and completely different, albums under his own name.  While I enjoyed Suite for Max Brown, Forfolks is the record that really got me into Jeff Parker (not counting all his excellent records with Tortoise of course).  Comprised almost entirely of looped acoustic guitars, it somehow sounds the most like Django Reinhardt of anything put out since the days of that unequaled gypsy.  While Forfolks is excellent, and would have made this list somewhere in here, Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy is Parker’s best achievement in a year filled with his excellent music.  Comprised of recordings from a two year period (presumably on Monday nights) at the LA cocktail bar (to which I have never been, but now hold in almost religious esteem based on my time listening to this record), Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy is one of the most hypnotic jazz albums I’ve ever heard.  Fitting in perfectly with Nala Sinephro’s excellent album from last year, this is ambient jazz of an entirely different variety.  The product of a quartet—Jay Bellerose on drums, Anna Butterss on bass, Josh Johnson on saxophone, and Parker of course on guitar—locked in to one another with laser-like focus, on these four recordings you can hear the air in the bar hum with the energy of their playing, and also the tinkling of the bar patrons’ glasses from time to time, which gives the album a lived in energy.   These songs are somehow simultaneously taught and languid, electric and unplugged, looping and driving.  Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy is the product of four players at the absolute heights of their powers, and probably the best “modern” (i.e. post 70s Miles) jazz record I’ve ever heard.  

1.  Alex G – God Save the Animals

Without having gone back through my records, I’m not sure a single artist has ever topped these lists more than once, but with God Save the Animals, Alex G has once again proven himself to be the best around (and lets be fair, if I was publishing these lists in the mid Aughts, I would have put every Sunset Rubdown release at number one).  It isn’t that God Save the Animals is somehow different from, or better than, House of Sugar, but instead it feels like a continuation of the slight turn Alex G took on that exceptional record.  While all his albums have trafficked in the same basic building blocks (pitch shifted vocals, acoustic guitars, little pieces of Elliott Smith without ever really sounding like Elliott Smith) on House of Sugar things got just a little bit weirder, and the results were absolutely stunning.  With God Save the Animals, I continue to be stunned.  While these songs seem fixated on God / the divine, Alex G never loses his connection to the here and now.  Before the album even came out my friend John sent me a live version of “Miracles” and told me it brings him to tears, which is perfectly understandable.  What is strange is that another song on the same album, “After All,” has the same effect on me.  To my ear, it’s not only the most beautiful song on the record, but one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.  In an album filled with God, blessings, and miracles, the truly divine thing is we continue to get more albums like this from Alex G.

[judyreppart]

The Edge Pavilion Announces Headliners for Q1 2025 Featuring Engelbert Humperdinck, Tower of Power and WAR Edgewater Casino Resort’s premier live entertainment venue The Edge Pavilion, located at 2020 S. Casino Drive in Laughlin, is adding three powerhouse headliners to its 2025 lineup: legendary pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck on Saturday, Jan. 11;  funk powerhouse Tower of Power on Saturday, March 1; ... Read more

[rotterdamvanalles]

Het Casino de Paris in Villa Parkzicht in het Park, 1974.

In de 18e en 19e eeuw lag hier een buitenplaats. Adriaan van Swijndrecht kocht het terrein in 1723. Hij bouwde hier een buitenhuis. J. Valckenier nam de gronden in de 19e eeuw over en liet het buitenhuis staan. In 1852 werd het terrein aangekocht door de gemeente en werd het oude Heeren Huys vervangen door een officierssociëteit met muziektent en kreeg het muziekkorps van de schutterij toestemming van de toenmalige eigenaar, de gemeente, om het vervallen buitenhuis van Valckenier te gebruiken als officierensociëteit.

In 1912 werd het huidige gebouw neergezet. In 1931 beëindigde de gemeente het contract met de officierensociëteit. In 1946 heeft de gemeentearchitect Voskuyl het gerenoveerd en van decoraties voorzien. Sindsdien was hier een theeschenkerij, in de zestiger jaren nachtclub Casino de Paris en in de jaren tachtig en negentig was hierin de discotheek Parkzicht gevestigd.

De discotheek in het statige pand bestond al in de jaren 80 onder de naam Parkzicht. In die tijd werd er vooral New wave en punk gedraaid. Aan het einde van de jaren 80 werd de naam ervan veranderd in Ibiza en qua muziekstijl werd er disco, R&B en funk gedraaid.

In 1989 kreeg Ibiza twee nieuwe eigenaren die de oude naam weer aannamen en het ombouwden tot een disco waar iedere vrijdag een band live optrad en maandelijks een speciaal themafeest werd gegeven.

De vaste dj was Rob Janssen (DJ Rob), die op de vrijdagavond begon te experimenteren met het draaien van de destijds in Nederland opkomende housemuziek. Deze nieuwe housestijl sloeg al gauw aan bij het publiek en de vrijdagavonden trokken steeds meer publiek dat van ver buiten Rotterdam op Parkzicht afkwam. Zo werd Parkzicht een housediscotheek die wekelijks uitverkocht was. De househit The beat is flown van DJ Rob en MC Joe (Ludie Smitshoek) werd in deze tijd in Parkzicht opgenomen.

De fotograaf is Ary Groeneveld en de foto komt uit het Stadsarchief Rotterdam. De informatie komt van Wikipedia.

[mondoradiowmse]

05/31/23 Mondo Radio Playlist

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "Do the Punk Rock", featuring punk-funk, mutant disco and more. If you dig it, don't forget to also follow the show on Facebook and Twitter!

Artist - Song - Album

James White And The Blacks - Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix) - Off White

James Chance & The Contortions - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Live) - Soul Exorcism Redux

Bush Tetras - You Can't Be Funky - Boom In The Night: Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983

ESG - UFO - Dance To The Best Of ESG

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing - Nightclubbing

Judy Nylon And Crucial - Trial By Fire - Pal Judy

Lou Reed - Disco Mystic - The Bells

The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around - Nude On The Moon: The B-52's Anthology

The Waitresses - The Comb - Punk 45: Burn Rubber City, Burn! - Akron, Ohio: Punk And The Decline Of The  Mid-West 1975-80

Pylon - Gyrate - Chomp More

Glorious Strangers - Move It Time - New York Noise, Vol. 2: Music From The New York Underground 1977-1984

Player Piano - Plinkety Plank Plunk In Hi Fi - S.F. Record Tid-Bits

Talking Heads - Mind - Fear Of Music

Lizzy Mercier Descloux - I'm Liquor - Zulu Rock

Talking Heads - I Zimbra - Fear Of Music

Material - Upriver - Memory Serves

John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice - Double Fantasy

Liquid Liquid - Optimo - Def Jam Recordings 30

Public Image Ltd. - Swan Lake - Second Edition

Casino Music - Viol Af Dis - Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979-85

Suicide - Shadazz - The Second Album + The First Rehearsal Tapes

Blondie - Heart Of Glass - The Best Of Blondie

Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love (Live) - Stop Making Sense

Blondie - Rapture - The Best Of Blondie

Common Sense - Voices Inside My Head - Disco Not Disco

Loose Joints - Tell You Today - Disco Not Disco

Kid Creole And The Coconuts - Darrio - The Last Party - Music Inspired By The Book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco And The Culture Of The Night

Was Not Was - Tell Me That I'm Dreaming - The Last Party - Music Inspired By The Book The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco And The Culture Of The Night

The Clash - Rock The Casbah - Hits Back

The Clash - Radio Clash - Hits Back