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notafraidofredyellowandblue · 1 year ago

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OOR 1997 - Nr 21 - Rammstein interview

Rammstein

They are German, they play a mechanical-like form of metal and seem to be infatuated with fire, blood and different forms of pleasure. It could hardly be more wrong, but this interview with the usually quite reserved singer Till Lindemann shows that there is more going on than sensationalism.

I don't understand how people can get so upset about us

by Hans van den Heuvel, photo Niels van Ieperen. With thanks to Monique Aerts.

They are German, they play a mechanical-like form of metal and are infatuated with fire, blood and deviant forms of the experience of pleasure. You simply can't be more wrong than Rammstein.

But what is even more important: the former East Germans are certainly not ashamed of this. Under the motto: there are so many prejudices about Germans that even an entire human life is not long enough to get rid of them all, they go one step further. Rammstein sings about SM, necrophilia, incest, sex between brothers and sisters, sex with animals. And all in the imperative mood: Küss Mich, Bück Dich, Bestrafe Mich, just to pick three stylistic flourishes from titles from the recently released CD Sehnsucht. The face is completely equal. Buck Dich. I don't care about your face. Bend down! You would expect that the entire women's movement would immediately rush to the barricades, but the opposite is the case. Or could that be because the band is mainly attributed a homoerotic appearance? For example, the Dutch magazine Blvd featured the band in an article about glamor cousins, which would also include Freddie Mercury, Divine, Village People, Liberace and Adam Ant. Rammstein's mention was accompanied by the following text: 'What should you do with this combo from East Berlin? Are they dangerous? Are they scary? Are they subversive? They have shock value, that's for sure. It will all be Rammstein and that is actually the only correct attitude. It could be sadomasochism, it could be degenerate, it could be a temporary phenomenon. In any case, Rammstein is hot as hell and their music is irresistibly good. That's what it's about. Pop is entertainment. People with need for a message should just go to the toilet. Or to Albert Hein 1).

Just like with Rockbitch, we are confronted with a strange phenomenon at Rammstein: people come up with all kinds of excuses to not have to like the bnad, but after some insistence they admit to doing so anyway!

At the basis of all this fuss is an incredibly infectious thump, which balances perfectly on the razor's edge between metal and electronic dance music. The terrain that acts such as Frontline Assembly, The Prodigy, Moby and The Chemical Brothers are looking for from the other side. Rammstein succeeds where a similarly German band like Krupps failed. And manages to break records in that Heimat. For example, their second CD, Sehnsucht, entered the album charts at Number One, after the record had remained on the shelf for more than half a year because its predecessor was still being sold. The band adapted to the situation very quickly. Interviews may not last longer than twenty minutes, take place with a random band member (because everyone is equally important; that is why there are six different versions of the CD Sehnsucht and the T-shirts based on it, each with a different band member on the front ), must be conducted in German and photography is not allowed.

With those rules in mind, we start a six-hour car journey to Erfurt, the first stop in the former East Germany and home of speed skater Gunda Niemann 2). Faded posters urge you to attend the Giants of Rock tour, featuring Meat Loaf and The Scorpions. There is no poster anywhere for tonight's concert: Rammstein has completely sold out the Thüringerhalle. The people come for the fireworks and they get fireworks. Rammstein brings an arsenal of explosives that even Dio and Venom could have smelled in the heyday of hard rock. It is so over the top that it becomes fun again and the presentation of the singer Till Lindemann, who came straight from the mocking school (according to some, the sex symbol of the nineties) has something so charmingly clumsy that we - based on Rammstein's music - not entirely illogical - The thought that this would be the man who will pave the way to the Fourth Reich should immediately be banished from our minds. The chance of that happening is just as small as the CD winning the elections under Janmaat. Lindemann has actually seen it up close. something like Claw Boys Claw frontman Peter Te Bos and he is almost as sympathetic. Although the vocalist with the ultimate beard in his throat almost never does interviews, in this case he even appears to be willing to answer - while chain-smoking, that is. to the question whether Rammstein consciously wanted to be as politically incorrect as possible, or whether this was just a bonus.

"I used to play drums in a punk band, which only consisted of bass and drums. We worked with guest guitarists, mostly Paul and Richard. We did a short tour, where I switched instruments with the bass player in the encore and put on a low voice. It was so popular that Richard insisted on setting up a project in which I would sing. Gradually other band members were added. But it was only when I moved from Schwerin to Berlin that the band took serious shape."

Your group takes its name from the Ramstein air base, where a plane crashed about ten years ago. The force of the explosion that followed caught up with fleeing victims and scorched them in front of the cameras. Not only did you name your band after that airport, but you sing the song Rammstein dressed in a burning coat. That seems quite harsh to the surviving relatives.

"We saw those images on television. This hellish accident hit us with such intensity that we wanted to create a musical memorial for it. At the time we didn't have a name for the band and Rammstein was one of the first songs we finished. We thought it would be good to continue that... I have never heard a single spectator complain about our name, only journalists look for something behind it. We simply describe what we have seen: crying mothers and dying children. Even the birds stopped singing. singing at the sight of this total inferno. You would expect time to stand still, for the earth to darken. But the strange thing was: the sun simply shone through. That's such a strange contract, with every catastrophe that strikes humanity: life just goes on..."

Otherwise you'll rub salt into the wounds with your burning coat!

"Some people feel bad because they think we are making things ridiculous. But I see it as a form of identification. And a show element. A person is burning is quite easy to sing, but I try to take it a step further." to continue by wearing a burning coat. And I regularly burned myself..."

For someone who sings songs about SM, that must be a real pleasure.

"Punished Mich has nothing to do with SM. Although I am an atheist - the whole band is by the way - I have the feeling that I am constantly being punished for something. When one believes in a higher power, it is logical that all the good that comes to you falls is attributed to that higher power: Der Herr Gott nimmt, der Herr Gott gibt. That is a saying from the Bible. God has rewarded me, assigned something good. But He only gives to the people He loves. I feel only punished. And it's not just me who is screwed, a large part of the human race is punished. Why else is there so much misery and injustice in the world?"

Why do you feel punished?

"It would take us too far to go too deeply into this. It is a whole series of little things that keep coming back. All my love relationships, for example, end in disappointments and sadness. Just like the four seasons, the misery keeps coming back. Why is it possible Don't just spend more than three months in summer? You can go on vacation to enjoy summer longer, but if life itself doesn't offer you that summer time, there is no escape. And I'm not just talking about myself, but also about the situation in which others find themselves. For example, our song Tier is about incest. Sex between father and daughter is something that is only normal among animals. Was power a man among two men and animals not unterscheiden kann, I ask myself in the start from scratch. There are so many things going on. If you want to, you are happy. You are your own self. I have a twelve-year-old daughter that I am trying to raise. And I do my best to understand how someone can make it for themselves. can justify making love to his own child. I simply can't imagine anyone lying down against that in excitement. In the first verse I describe the situation, with the only conclusion being that only animals can do something like that. Because this is in no way distinguished from animal behavior. In the second verse I wonder: was power a Frau, who between their Tier and Mann, could not be separated? where the focus is on the child who has grown up to be a woman, but has to go through life with that nightmare from her youth. She writes a letter to her own youth, to herself. When her father slept with her. She actually becomes an animal too. The fact is that she has been more or less destroyed. It is a cycle: what you experience in your youth, you carry with you throughout your life."

"When I have written a text, there is a lot of discussion about whether it is acceptable. With the other musicians, the producer, the record company, with some friends. You look for confirmation: can you make this or not? Is it possible? was it misunderstood? Or can you put it out like this? We have six people in the band. So you understand that quite a bit of discussion takes place before anything comes out. But the entire band fully supports everything that has been said. of us has been published. The limitation lies in the German music legislation. Things like love with animals and incest are on the index, so you know in advance that you don't have to put energy into certain lyrics, for the simple reason that they be banned and a beep will appear on your record. That happened with the first pressing of our first CD. But the complaint was declared unfounded, after which the censored CD was withdrawn from the market and became a collector's item again for collectors. item has become. Because of those beeps... However, when we started working on our second record, that process still hung like a shadow over our heads. Our record company then took a square stance and said: if we don't get the first CD through the index, we can completely shake things up with Tier. But nothing happened. And we are happy that we stuck to our guns."

Is your goal to shock? Or is that just a nice bonus?

"I want to put myself in the mindset of certain people: how a certain situation that has gone off track comes about. I want to enter their brain room: a space with many colorful and black and white corners. Sometimes a bit dark, sometimes light. I try to hide all those corners from the darkness with a flashlight. Even the cobweb-covered corners that you normally wouldn't go near, the chaotic piles of rubbish you find there! I'm just trying to describe, without attacking. I understand that people can be shocked by this. I even read in a newspaper five minutes ago that we would incite people to violence. I read that often. But the reaction that has affected me personally the most is a letter from a girl who was raped when she was nine or ten years old. She wrote that she could identify with the song Weises Fleisch - which was briefly on the index - because I talked about rape, while she herself did not could. She had grown up thinking that she had to keep that passage from her childhood a secret, not to tell anyone. My love made her understand that it was something to talk about. She was very grateful that I wrote the song... By the way, I don't understand how people can get so upset about us sometimes. I have seen what happens to children and prostitutes in Indonesia. And if you knew what goes on behind the curtains in this city at night, my lyrics would be very innocent. Those small studios and basement stairs of the red light district, those small SM shops with cages and whips. How sick is humanity? And how trivial are the themes I address in my lyrics, or the things I do on stage?!"

Yet you are obsessed with the things that happen in those small boxes, because that is what you write your lyrics about.

"That has more to do with the fact that all those other topics are so annoying. Everything has already been said before! What I hear of German music doesn't grab me by the balls. It's about love, tralala?"

Love in Rammstein goes from: Bück dich, dein gesicht ist mir equal?

"That comes from the film Tokyo Dekadenz, about an incredibly rich man from Tokyo who is married to three or four women. But he cannot find satisfaction. He invents all kinds of things, buys the most expensive things and pays a lot of money for sexual excitement, but he is not happy. He works twelve to fourteen hours a day, his whole life revolves around his work. With a lot of money he tries to buy the love he lacks. Despite all his money, he does not succeed, which makes him even more unhappy to feel."

Do you think people who see a Rammstein performance will experience the song the same way?

"Most people want to see a good show. If some of the lyrics stick, that's a bonus. But in our latest single Du Hasst I put myself in the position of the registrar and sing: Will you remain faithful to this person, until death do you part? the entire audience shouts at the top of their lungs: No! I don't even have to sing it anymore, the audience will do that. I find the vow you take when you get married anyway questionable. You can still Don't fixate on one and the same person all your life?! Marriage is not a tattoo!"

Attention dear reader. You might miss it after the serious tone of the preceding, but that last comment was a joke!

Rammstein's music definitely contains a humorous element.

German humor can certainly be funny, but it is usually based on power. And you have to be able to handle that. While some Dutch people think that nothing good has come out of Germany since Hitler 3), Germans are often sensitive when we make jokes about the Second World War (the most obvious comment being that we want our bicycle back). But there were also many casualties on the German side. The uncle of one of Rammstein's musicians, for example. It fell from a watchtower in the concentration camp.

"Even though we sound pushy and serious, we try to put as much humor into our show as possible, so that it all becomes a bit more light-hearted. But we are not a cheerful band. If it is not in your nature, you should not try to add it artificially. Maybe one day it will work out. With Engel we have already taken a different path. The female voice we have added gives the song a pleasant contract."

Was Heino perhaps an influence as far as your own singing is concerned?

"No, much more the Sisters of Mercy. That deep voice. I didn't want to imitate that, but there is a bit of exaggeration in it. I have a low voice, I can't help it. What strikes me is : when you sing in English, no one cares what you are talking about. Just listen carefully, what kind of dark things bands like Marilyn Manson, Type O Negative, Ministry or Megadeth sing about! Just because we are German, they try open a drawer."

There is also something frighteningly militant about your music and the German language.

"It's not that we want to be a German band, we just are! I know that many Germans are ashamed of their origins. Because of the warlike character of our forefathers, I understand that tendency, but I'm German. That's the problem with all those German bands. Whether they make crossover, punk or whatever, everything comes from somewhere else, has no roots. In the sixties the German Schlager still existed, there was a clear German music landscape But at some point things changed, they started fixating on America or England. They tried to copy things and bring them into the country. I don't know what exactly it is, but for me Kraftwerk was the first real German band. An example for many. After The Scorpions, the only German band that represents something worldwide and certainly the only band that is known all over the world with the German language. Because they are unique. Kraftwerk was not a copy, they were themselves! But links to the Ȕbermensch idea were also made at Kraftwerk. However, we are not interested in politics at all! We are more likely to stand next to reality. It is an exaggeration to say that we are only artists, but we stand for our music and not for messages. We come from the former GDR, maybe it has something to do with that. We have not always had it easy, but we can say from the bottom of our hearts that socialism and everything the GDR stood for also had its good sides: harmony and a sense of solidarity. Strongly focused on the collective and the community. You mainly heard in the news that things were so bad in the GDR, but it wasn't that bad. There were things that were not good, but you could live quite normally without the consumer hunt that people have now and which does not make people any happier. It was about other things. Life was arranged, there was work for everyone, wages were low, food cheap. There was free childcare, all social conditions were well taken care of. Commercial things were lacking. A good TV cost five to six months' wages, and you had to wait at least ten years for a car. Commercial things - consumer goods they called them here - came in second place. The fact that man was not satisfied with that, because he wanted everything, is somewhat lost sight of. People wanted a VW Golf, or a hi-fi system. And they wanted to be able to travel. That's why the wall had to be removed. But an idealistic wall still exists. If we need computer parts or something, we still have to go to West Berlin. There are still no such specialty stores in the ancient East. Although there are no boundaries anymore, there is still a mental barrier. Which hopefully will no longer bother our children, but which will continue to exist throughout our lives. I am also convinced that many people would like to have the wall back, to return to the old situation. There used to be unity, but now there is a lot of loneliness. Currently there are unemployed, homeless, beggars, skinheads and right-wing radicals. They didn't exist in the ancient East. They were immediately put under lock and key. Everything was arranged down to the last detail. Capitalism has come over us like a tidal wave. And many people drowned.”

Would you like the wall back?

"Besides the bassist, I am the only one who worked 4). The other band members could earn their money by making music. When you made music seriously, you were recognized as an artist and you had relatively much freedom. If you had to work you were given the less pleasant sides of socialism: subordination, one was more equal than the other, you know. So I didn't really feel the need to rebuild the wall. And now that our music is going so well Not at all. But for a while I did have doubts."

1) Bit hard to translate, dutch word 'boodschap' means 'message in music' (as in a meaning to the music, and not just some fun), need to go to the toilet (nr 2) or an errand at a grocery story like dutch supermarketchain Albert Hein.

2) Speedskating is one of the most popular sports in the Netherlands, and Gunda Niemann at the time was a very succesful skater from Germany, the name probably more familiar to a dutch reader than many others mentioned

3) I was surprised to read a phrase like that, i'm sure a journalist wouldn't even think of writing that down nowadays but 25 years ago, apparently this was okay.

4) from other interviews we know the others had sidejobs too

List of other Rammstein OOR interviews

#rammstein #rammstein OOR interviews #till lindemann

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actual-lich-queen · 10 months ago

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Ghost History: Hammer of Doom IV (debut ritual)

Five days after Opus Eponymous was released by Rise Above Records, Ghost performed their first ritual on October 23rd, 2010 at Hammer of Doom IV[1]. It was not the most auspicious of beginnings. Set to go on stage at 1:30pm [2], Papa Emeritus I and the Nameless Ghouls arrived on stage 15 minutes late and 10 minutes later suffered the loss of one of their guitar amps[3].

Some, hearing Ghost live for the first time, had their doubts.

“In short: even though the band got back on track towards the end with their hit “ritual”, they could live up to their previous praise. [Papa Emeritus’s] charisma on the microphone was simply not tangible enough for that; The band has to make a lot of progress here, because especially when they appear so distant due to their self-imposed image, the lack of communication simply has to be replaced by the aura of the musicians.” -Patrick Müller via Google Translate[3]

“[On the whole] the material couldn't really convince me, the dusty Seventies Rock sounds too toothless and arbitrary. The reactions in the hall were very ambivalent, so some celebrated GHOST with their theatrical appearance with inverted crosses, [mitre] and a lot of incense as the hottest shit since the invention of the electric guitar, others on the other hand withdrew with a smile towards the beer counter, because the performance there provided better entertainment.” -dekleenenils via Google Translate[4]

But the devil worshiping ministry’s mission to spread their unholy gospels[5] is targeted towards “individuals who have a void in their life perhaps caused by some form of emotional trauma or upset [...] so that in time the easily manipulated will come to share the views and goals of the Coven’s ministry and can prepare their own plans for the downfall of humanity.”[6]

Not all in that first crowd were unreceptive to Ghost’s ministry.

“Musically, I can only say that I really enjoy the mix of seventies rock, progressive parts and a large amount of NWoBHM*! This organ! Hammer! The biggest surprise of this kind. The satanic lyrics that the band [...] want to bring to humanity are the most lovely melodies and the clear, beautiful vocals! Now the term “Powerpop,” which they advertise on their MySpace page, finally has a meaning. Very contradictory, but absolutely convincing as a whole package! [...] I also had no luck with the [buying of] the T-shirt. I first wanted to wait and see whether the band could convince me musically and when I went to the merchandise stand after the gig, it was completely sold out.” -Chris via Google Translate[2]

And it only takes a spark to light the fires of hell. The ministry of Ghost had only just begun.

“Our mission is not as much about conversion as it is about underlining which path you have chosen to go, and where it will ultimately lead you,” declared Ghost in a rare communiqué. “We are the file playing back in your digital earpiece while you are carelessly approaching the end.”[6]

*Common abbreviation of New Wave of British Heavy Metal

[1]Ghost Concert Setlists (page 90) | setlist.fm

[2]Festivalbericht HAMMER OF DOOM IV (amboss-mag.de)

[3]Obliveon :: Metal und Gothic Webzine (archive.org)

[4]Hammer Of Doom IV - 23.10.2010 - Würzburg, Posthalle @ Bloodchamber.de

[5]Ghost – “Ritual” - Stereogum (archive.org)

[6]Ghost's 'Opus Eponymous' To Receive U.S. Release In January - Blabbermouth.net (archive.org)

Decided to start cross-posting the work I was doing for my fansite because I am vain and like attention to help preserve it against the careless history (or lack thereof) of the internet.

#the band ghost #pro-memoria #the band ghost ritual history #both things are actually true #I am vain and I want to save information

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diematrosen · 1 year ago

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Barbenheimer: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Moviegoing Again

When I first heard that Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer were being released on the same day - July 21, 2023 - I didn't think much of it. After all, wildly disparate movies have been released on the same date before, and in an era before MCU/Disney dominated theaters, cineplexes had a variety of films that catered to many different audiences. The smash superhero sequel The Dark Knight and the ABBA-inspired musical comedy Mamma Mia! were both released on July 18, 2008, but social media was much less of a thing back then. (I've never seen Mamma Mia!, but my Dad and I did see TDK opening weekend.) Honestly? Initially, I didn't think people were really going to see both films on the same day, I thought people were joking. Boy was I wrong.

On their own, both films would have been hits with built-in audiences (love him or hate him, Nolan sure has dedicated fans). But by July 2023, the hype around the Barbenheimer phenomenon had gone nuclear. There were memes, T-shirts, and people bought tickets to see both movies in theaters on the same day, or at least the same weekend. The two have little in common, besides being high-profile studio films starring non-American actors as very American subjects, but that didn't matter.

On opening weekend, my friend and I saw a 70mm print of Oppenheimer on Saturday and a sold-out screening of Barbie on Sunday at the Village East theater in Manhattan, with a day break in-between. We had initially only planned to see the former, but even I was swept up by Barbie mania (I also enjoyed Gerwig's two previous films). There was an energy at the movie theater that I had not felt in a very long time outside of repertory cinema - people were genuinely excited to be there. When I was in line for the bathroom, a woman in front of me joked that you could tell who was there to see which movie. Lots of people in pink, Barbies and Kens abound, and even a few men (and one woman) dressed like J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. I did not dress up and I don't care much for the color pink, but it was still fun! It was a record-breaking box office weekend for both films - one a fantasy comedy about the world's most famous doll, the other a 3-hour doomy historical drama showing in premium large formats including IMAX. After a decade and a half of Marvel fare dominating theaters, this was a game-changer. Were superhero movies in their early '90s hair metal era?

I worked at a few movie theaters in suburban New Jersey in the 2000s, and this felt like a return to an era when word of mouth reigned supreme and people got dressed up for midnight screenings (people did this at a screening for one of the Harry Potter films, no lie). The hype also reminded me a bit of Titanic, which dominated the box office in 1997-98 when I was in 8th grade and everyone talked about it (weirdly enough, I did not see it until it was in a second run theater for some reason). But three years after the beginning of the pandemic, I was ready to go back to the movies - one of my favorite pastimes. I had seen a few films in theaters since 2022, once I was fully vaccinated and boosted, but this felt like a new beginning.

I enjoyed both movies and have now seen them twice (including an IMAX 70mm screening of Oppenheimer - if you have the opportunity to see it in this format, do it!). Barbie is charming and fun, with eye-popping production design and costumes and nods to directors like Jacques Demy. Margot Robbie (bringing humanity to a plastic doll) and Ryan Gosling are fantastic, and the film is a genuine crowd-pleaser. Oppenheimer is an intense, well-crafted drama with a few jaw-dropping sequences and a great, controlled performance by Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer and a stacked cast. The editing by Jennifer Lame is phenomenal, and this might be the best work of Nolan's career. To date, Barbie has crossed the billion dollar mark worldwide, and Oppenheimer has made over $500 million globally - a huge deal for an R-rated talky period piece. Is this the beginning of better, more diverse movies in multiplexes across the world? Or just a weird fluke? Possibly the latter, but we'll see.

That said, the films aren't for everyone. I know people who have seen Barbie but have no interest in Oppenheimer, and that's okay! And if you don't care about either, I would recommend the documentary The Day After Trinity followed by Todd Haynes' Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story as an alternative, at-home Barbenheimer. It's just nice to see people excited about going to the movies again.

#barbie #oppenheimer #barbenheimer #movies

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concerthopperblog · 3 months ago

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K-Rockathon Reboot 7.27.2024

The 2024 K-Rockathon made a triumphant comeback after a 6-year break to "reboot" the festival. Although the show may not have been sold out, the turnout was fantastic. This year's K-Rockathon featured Puddle Of Mudd, Hoobastank, Nonpoint, Stabbing Westward, Boy Hits Car & Brand New Sin, all of which are alumni of this event. When I arrived at the venue, I was greeted by a huge crowd of fans eager to see what the day had in store for them. Between each set, one of the event sponsors, Sweet Grass, handed out free drink cozies, bracelets, keychains, and T-shirts. There were also various food vendors offering options ranging from ice cream to cheesesteaks and more. Additionally, Monster Energy provided free water and energy drinks to keep the fans hydrated. Towards the end of the show, anyone who purchased a ticket was entered into a raffle to win a Monster Energy-branded bicycle. But enough about the vendors—let's dive into the main part of the show.

Brand New Sin opened the show, hailing from Syracuse, NY. They were the only local band on the bill and alumni of the K-Rock Festival. The band members are Kris Weichmann, Chuck Kahl, Joe Altier, Brian ("Slider") Azzoto, and Mike Rafferty. They have performed alongside well-known acts such as Slash, Godsmack, Dope, Chris Cornell, Deftones, Drowning Pool, Audiovent, and Dillinger Escape Plan. In 2006 Brand New Sin recorded Big Show's theme song "Crank It Up" for WWE Wreckless Intent. Despite having released 6 albums, they have not put out new music since 2011. Hopefully, they are working on some new material. I enjoyed their energy and sound at KRock; I hope that I can catch these guys again at another show.

Boy Hits Car is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1993. They have released 4 albums to date, with the latest one being Stealing Fire. The band's setup is noteworthy: the singer, Cregg Rondell, had his acoustic guitar set up on a stand so that he wouldn't have to keep picking it up and setting it back down each time he wanted to move around the stage. Cregg was very energetic, jumping around the stage and at one point even had to put his shoes back on due to the high temperature of the stage, which was absorbing the hot sun because of its black color. However, this didn't stop the band. My favorite song from this set was “Man Without Skin” The next day, they performed again at The Jugg on Teall. At the end of their set, Cregg even got on top of the crowd to connect more deeply with the audience.

Stabbing Westward is an American industrial rock/alternative rock band. Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus formed the band in 1985 in Macomb, Illinois. Stabbing Westward has released five albums to date. The band has not released any new music since 2002, apart from their most recent single "Hex." During a recent performance, the band displayed great passion and energy. Despite lead singer Christopher Hall being injured, he still gave his all during the performance. He even apologized to the crowd for not being able to give more but made light of his injury. Nevertheless, the show went on. At the end of their performance, a person climbed into a large bubble ball and crowd-surfed on top of the fans, which was a definite highlight of the day.

Nonpoint is an American nu-metal band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The band currently consists of vocalist Elias Soriano, drummer Robb Rivera, rhythm guitarist Rasheed Thomas, bassist Adam Woloszyn, and lead guitarist Jaysin Zeilstra. The last time Concerthopper covered Nonpoint was on the Kings & Queens Tour with Butcher Babies. Seeing Nonpoint on this bill was exciting for me. I remember them having a lot of energy and amazing stage performances. Since their debut, they have released 11 albums, with the latest one being To The Pain (Deluxe Edition), and their latest single “Underdog” dropped earlier this year. During their performance, Rasheed Thomas started doing the robot while he was playing his guitar. Before they ended their set, Elias Soriano, their lead singer, said that he wanted to hear everyone sing to the next song, "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, as he believed everyone should know this song regardless of whether they had listened to Nonpoint before. Everyone sang along in response to his request.

Hoobastank, sometimes stylized as h∞bastank and originally known as Hoobustank, is an American rock band formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California. The band consists of lead vocalist Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and bassist Jesse Charland. I couldn't contain my excitement all day in anticipation of seeing these guys come on stage. When I was younger, I vividly remember hearing the song “The Reason” when it came out and was on MTV during the days when they still played music videos (I was only 5 at the time). The band played for a whole hour, and right before they started playing “The Reason,” they asked the crowd how long they had been listening to the band. They found out that some of the younger fans only knew about the band because of their parents. Once they started playing, I noticed that many couples began singing and dancing together, which filled me with joy. While we were in the pit taking photos of the bands I turned around and saw a ton of green balloons being bounced around on top of the fans. Monster Energy had a bunch of balloons at their stand and threw them onto the crowd. They even had “Rock On” hands and I saw a little boy holding them throwing his hands up inside the balloons showing how much of a good time he was having to each set.

Puddle Of Mudd is an American post-grunge band formed in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1991. The band has sold over seven million albums to date and has been nominated for, and won, several awards for "Song Of The Year," "Best Album," and "Favorite Pop/Rock Album." After numerous lineup changes, the band's current lineup consists of Wes Scantlin, Josh Gilbert, Michael Anthony Grajewski, and Marc Slutsky. During a recent performance, Puddle of Mudd received a warm reception from the fans. Lead singer Wes Scantlin made a grand entrance onto the stage dressed as an old man, creating an element of surprise for the audience. The crowd's energy reached new heights when he revealed his true identity. The band played from 7:30 to 9:00 PM, treating the audience to a mix of older and newer songs, including classics like "She Hates Me" and "Blurry.". Wes also made a lighthearted joke while tuning his guitar, pretending they were about to play a new song called "Pitchin’ a Fit," even though the song was released back in 2009.

Who else is ready for K-Rockathon 2025? I can't wait to see who will be performing next year. Stay updated on the latest music events and concerts by following Concerthopper on Instagram and Facebook. Join our community today to make sure you never miss out on the most popular music experiences. Immerse yourself in the heart of the action and be a part of unforgettable music moments with Concerthopper!

#2024 #concert photography #Concerthopper #concert review #Concert #Review #Alternative #Alternative rock #Rock N' Roll #photography

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changbinslovelylegs · 8 months ago

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It gets worse before it gets better - Seonghwa part 4

Pairing: no specific pairing right now

WC: will always be between 2k-4k words

Warnings: Language, sexual references, Hwa, Joong and Minnie are poly

If you wanna be tagged lemme no!!!!!!!! You can find previous chapters in my masterlist

Preview, description, characters here

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The crisp wind sent a chill down Seonghwa's back as he got off the train and made his way into work. Sighing to himself as he wished he'd worn a jacket but knowing it was too late.

The bell made a distinctive ding as he opened the door of "records and more" which was the shop where he worked. Records and more was a music/coffee shop which sold everything from records to cd's to kpop even! also selling band tee's and right down the back was a little coffee place where you could get a hot drink and obsess over what you just bought.

Song mingi was the guy who owned the place, he was 30 years old and the shop was passed down to him when his father died. So far the shop consisted of Mingi, Seonghwa, and Jeongin who was the shop's barista (he only worked in the coffee section while Mingi and Seonghwa tackled the music section)

As Seonghwa walked inside he was greeted by Mingi and Jeongin as usual but also two other people. They were sitting on one of the many armchairs each sipping on what looked like an iced americano.

"Morning guys..." Seonghwa trailed off.

"Ah Seonghwa come in I want you to meet my two new employee's! This is Yunho. He's going to be Jeongin's assistant helping with coffee but if Jeongin doesn't need help Yunho will help us clean" Mingi introduced a tall lanky dark haired male who only nodded in response. He and Jeongin walked off so that Jeongin could show him the ropes.

"And this is Jungkook! he's going to be just another employee like you but i'd like you to train him up first, show him how we run things" Mingi introduced another dark haired male but this one was much more buff and had a smile on his face.

"Hi Seonghwa-ssi It's lovely to meet you" Jungkook stood up and held his hand out for Seonghwa to shake, he did.

"It's lovely to meet you too Jungkook-ssi"

Mingi left to go to his office, which meant that Seonghwa and Jungkook were alone for now until customers started arriving. He spent that time showing Jungkook first how to use the computer and till (as he thought this would have been the most important thing to show first) Then took Jungkook on a tour of the shop showing him where all things were kept.

"It's all organised by genre. Pop's what you first see when you walk in because Mingi believes it's the most popular. Then you move into rnb, rap, soul, jazz, country, reggae, kpop, then all of the rock genres, metal, punk. We have both records and cds available. Over here is just a broom cupboard which has all of the cleaning supplies I believe that will more so be Yunho's job rather than ours but just be prepared to help lets say Yunho was sick one day" Seonghwa tried to be tourer but he also had to be quick as customers would start arriving any minute now.

"Closer to the back we have the t-shirt section, mainly band tee's or kpop related tee's but we have a couple of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé ones. Right here is the bathroom, blue door for boys, pink door for girls. We can use this and so can customers. The last two things are the cafe over there where you see all the lounges and upstairs has the break room plus Mingi's office. Ooh and a locked red door never try to open it Mingi lives on the second floor so that leads to his apartment" Seonghwa finishes with a great sigh, a lot of information to spill out in the small time he had. Spot on he was because he just heard the first ding of the day, signalling the first customer.

The rest of the week went on well for Seonghwa, but nothing fantastic happened either. He was either working or studying, or holding Wooyoung tight when he had an unexpected episode during lunch.

Someone had made a comment in passing about the "crazy one" which just sent Wooyoung into a frenzy. He yelled at them asking what would they do if one of their friends died in their arms? then just broke down sobbing when they left. Sometimes it was tough being the mum friend of the group, but he knew that if he wasn't his entire friend group would turn chaotic.

You see, Wooyoung was a little damaged having witnessed one of his friends being shot then dying in his arms bleeding out, he developed PSTD because of it, but he wasn't gonna let that depress him. He just has episodes sometimes and needs to be comforted. Felix and Hyunjin are a little wild, they love to go out and while Seonghwa usually prefers a night in; he will go with them to make sure they're safe.

Yoongi and Jimin are wild too, they like going out as well. Jimin is a cam boy 3 nights of the week but as long as it isn't one of those nights he's always down to go out. Then there's Taehyung who prefers staying in like Seonghwa but he also has huge FOMO meaning he hates missing out on things, sometimes Seonghwa can convince him to just stay in and watch a film together but most times the FOMO wins. Seonghwa can tell he isn't really enjoying it however and would have rather watched that film.

Lastly there was Seungmin and Jisung who the main group were only casually friends with as they were in a frat. There included in the main group chat and get invited to all the nights out but not necessarily get invited to more intimate things. They're both lovely people but the frat usually keeps them busy with frat things. Seonghwa doesn't know what frat things in-tales as he isn't in a frat but frankly he's thankful for that.

A couple of days later he was having lunch with Felix, Taehyung and Jimin. Felix was discussing the plans for the party on Saturday. Apparently we don't hate Jongsung anymore? they were Felix's words anyway, Seonghwa didn't really mind he hated picking sides unless it was black and white what side he should be on.

"How was work Seongie? hows that new omega you work with?" Taehyung asked, slowing sipping on his iced americano.

"Oh no he's actually an Alpha" Seonghwa corrected taking a bite of his white choc raspberry muffin.

"Alpha? are you sure? when I hugged you just before all I smelt was omega?"

"Ah yeah unfortunately he's always mistaken for an Omega because he has an Omegan smell and can be quite submissive but he swears he's an Alpha and I don't wanna judge so..."

"Right, so like a sub Alpha?" Jimin pipes in.

"They exist?" Taehyung surprisingly asks.

"An Alpha who wants to bottom, that's like saying an Omega who wants to top" Jimin starts to laugh.

"I mean, a persons wolf is different from their sexual preferences" Felix states, wincing from how hot his americano is. Felix was always the odd one out who got a hot drink during lunch.

"Well I've never met one, most Alphas just wanna pound you into next Tuesday not that I'm complaining about that" Jimin says.

"How'd your heat go Taehyung? Yours was last week yeah?" Felix questions.

"Aw you had to spend it alone didn't you, sorry baby" Jimin pouts before kissing him on the cheek.

"Don't be sorry I mean yeah it was fucking painful but Jimin's right I didn't have an Alpha so there was nothing I could do" Taehyung shrugs.

Chan had invited Felix to one of their parties and it was fine for Felix to bring friends so that he wasn't alone or anything. Seungmin and Jisung couldn't come as it was wrong for them to attend other frat parties plus they had their own frat party to host, but the rest of the gang was invited.

As recently expected Felix left to be with Chan and go dance. Seonghwa loved how cute they were, smiling to himself while he watched them be free with one another. They started making out and he was almost thankful someone bumped into him because it pulled his eyes away from the quickly heating scene.

"I'm so sorry, wait your like so hot" the mystery guy was staring straight into Seonghwa's eyes, it was hard for lim to look away.

Not that he wanted to anyway because the man Seonghwa was staring at had to be the most beautiful man to ever exist. His ashy hair was parted in the middle and the wild scent of sea salt mist hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Oh thank you" Seonghwa was blushing, thankful for the dark lighting.

"Hey do you wanna drink? have a beer" the man handed Seonghwa a red cup filled with the gold liquid. As the mom friend he knew better than to except a drink from a stranger but before he could refuse it was like the man saw the scared expression on his face.

"Ah please don't stress Binnie asked me to get him a beer and I re-filled my whine but your way cuter. Hongjoong babe come meet..."

"Seonghwa" he stated, taking the beer and a sip of it. Another man "Hongjoong" came over at the mention of his name.

"Isn't he hot babe!"

"Please excuse Minnie here he can be quite forward after a few wines, but he also isn't wrong you are hot" Hongjoong exclaimed, taking him in.

"Do you think we should ask him?" Minho whisper/yelled into Hongjoong's ear, "He seems like he could be down."

"I'm sorry down for what exactly?" Seonghwa asked, a confused look on his face.

"Well to be frank, were a couple, a polyamorous couple to be exact and we've been looking for someone to connect with, hopefully have sex with, someone who shares the same feelings as us. No pressure though feel free to shut us down if you're not poly" Hongjoong explains and Seonghwa gasps.

The thing is, Seonghwa is poly. He figured out he was poly during his first threesome when he really enjoyed it and could see himself having multiple life partners. It was always hard trying to find love after that encounter because of course not everyone is poly so when Seonghwa would tell people he would be ok with a third that's usually when the relationship ended because the other wasn't poly.

He's just decided to tell people from the beginning now that he's poly so that others know what they're getting into before they get into it. Sadly the last time Seonghwa had sex was a few months ago because of this, but he can't change who he is. He just has so much love in his heart and wants to share it with more than one person.

The fact that someone else is telling him that he's poly! was Seonghwa dreaming?

"I actually am poly, wow is this real? I've been looking for someone to connect with too! and you guys seem so nice I would love to grab a coffee sometime!" Seonghwa was beaming. Hongjoong and Minho, two of the most stunning guys he has ever laid his eyes on were asking him out, HIM!!!!

"You wanna have sex with us too though right?" Minho giggled, it was clear that he had had one too many wines but it was safe to say that Hongjoong would look after him, considering he has his arm wrapped around him.

"I mean I haven't been laid in over 3 months so sex sounds great" Seonghwa winked in their direction, "Here put your number in my phone, I'll text you then you'll have mine" Seonghwa handed over his phone, finishing the last of his beer while he waited.

All of a sudden it was like the mood changed, Jimin came rushing up to him surprisingly sober; "You gotta come outside with me NOW! Wooyoung and Yoongi are fighting"

Hongjoong and Minho looked confused as they handed Seonghwa back his phone, "everything ok?"

"Sorry no I have to go. But I am heavily interested I promise to text you" They were Seonghwa's parting words as he left with Jimin to go outside.

Seonghwa expected maybe some small argument but he never expected this.

Felix was in hysterics as he tried to help Taehyung stay awake which sent alarm bells off in Seonghwa's head!!! Over on the other side he saw Yoongi and Wooyoung in what seemed to be a screaming match!

Jimin was trying to break it up so that things hopefully didn't get physical, "Fuck! Where's Hyunjin!" He yelled out.

Seonghwa knelt down besides Felix and Taehyung, Felix crying uncontrollably while holding Taehyung who was groaning.

"Felix baby what happened?" Seonghwa needed to know, his beta needed to know.

"I don't know, I think he was drugged! one minute he was fine then he left to go get a drink so I continued dancing with Chan but I noticed that he never came back so I went looking for him and found him outside here vomiting" Felix ranted, clearly overwhelmed with the situation.

"Ok here's what were gonna do. Felix, I want you to take a deep breath for me ok? you're scaring me a little with how worked up your getting" Seonghwa started and was cut off when Felix tried to speak but he shushed him; "I will call 911 for Tae, and I want you to call Hyunjin and ask him to come help Jimin break up the fight alright?"

"Ok Hyung" Felix croaked, using his shaking hands to take out his phone.

Fucking hell.

Seonghwa never guessed this.

Who could have drugged Taehyung? why would they want to? what were their intentions?

Seonghwa's head was spinning but he knew he had to look after his friends first.

"911 whats your emergency?" the operator asked.

"Hi my name is Seonghwa and I'm currently at a Jongsung university frat party, my friend Taehyung appears to have been drugged and isn't responding well" he explains, hoping he said everything correctly.

"Ok thank you, I just have a few questions before I send anyone. Do you possibly know how he was drugged?"

"Well were at a party so I think his drink was spiked."

"Ok, and has he vomited at all?"

"My other friend Felix who found him said yes he did."

"You said he isn't responding, how?"

"His pupils are heavily dilated, it's hard to keep him awake, he just keeps groaning!"

"Alright thank you sir an ambulance is on it's way." with that the call ended, so did Felix's call with Hyunjin.

It was going to be a long night.

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biglisbonnews · 2 years ago

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Meet Me @ The Altar Gives Disneycore a Rock Makeover A large illuminated sign in the entryway of the concert’s venue says “SOLD OUT.” Tonight, Meet Me @ The Altar, an internet-born rock triad, will grace the The Union Stage in Washington, DC to promote their debut album, Past // Present // Future. Formed in three separate states with the power of social media at hand, MM@TA, as they shorten their name to occasionally, has flourished, from recently having their daytime and nighttime television debuts to being featured in a Taco Bell commercial. The stage is nestled in the corner of a basement room right under the city’s Wharf. It’s an intimate and hip space with warm low lighting, setlists of previous headliners like Arlo Parks and Coi Leray line the otherwise blacked out walls. The audience is thrown 15 years back by design as the venue speakers broadcast a pre-concert playlist curated with nostalgia in mind, playing songs like Miranda Cosgrove's “Kissin’ You” and The Script's “Breakeven. Young people in front of me are clad in plaid leggings and Dr. Martens and they bounce up and down in anticipation, waving the Xs on the backs of their hands. “For the girls, gays and theys” is printed on a t-shirt hanging above the merch table. Young Culture just finished a high energy set complete with crowd surfing and guitar shredding. We pump our fists and jump up in down in unison joining in on the new audience wide chant, “YC fucks!” This is only a taste of what’s to come, the electric buzz coursing through the venue reaches an all time high when the playlist cuts out. The band will be on stage at any moment now. The room explodes into a roar of applause. Bassist Téa Campbell is the first to come out from behind the heavy black curtain. She stands out in a white backwards cap, cropped curls tucked underneath, strumming a metallic silver bass guitar. The crowd goes wild when the band’s vocalist, Edith Victoria, picks someone’s phone off the floor of the stage, turning to video herself with the audience, black lipstick spreading into a wide grin: “DC, make some noise!” With neon green box braids piled atop her head, she stops to softly check in with the crowd ever so often between introducing songs. Save for the mic and the platform stage, an almost conversational repartee ensues throughout the show. Someone in the audience shouts back, “We’re okay! Are you okay?” Campbell stops to crack one of many jokes: “It’s so hot, I'm going to pass out. I can see the steam rising from your bodies.” Drummer Ada Juarez chimes in from behind her kit, flipping her straight long hair over her shoulders: “Did you guys wear deodorant? Be honest.” In the back, an older crowd lines the bar, swaying with their hands in their pockets. One man has a hoodie stamped with “surviving out of pure spite” inside a heart stencil, what seems like a nihilistic 2022 version of a once-catchy Tumblr slogan: “Grab my butt and buy me pizza.” Someone behind me says, “Their lighting guy needs a raise,” as vibrant blue and pink hues streak over our heads.Halfway through the set, each member of the band reveals their favorite song before launching into a short cover. Victoria's choice was “You Oughta Know” by her idol Alanis Morissette, followed by Juarez’s choice, Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” and lastly Campbell’s, “Take Me Away” by Christina Vidal, a track featured in 2003’s Freaky Friday. People of all ages scream-chant the words to each song in its entirety. The walls around us vibrate. Victoria’s vocals are on fire, sounding just as sharp and strong as she does in recordings. Her voice has a raw edge similar to Paramore’s Hayley Williams, a near constant comparison of Victoria's since being signed to Fueled By Ramen, Paramore’s former label. With very few front women in rock, music journalists and fans alike make the mistake of easy comparisons, opting out of assessing the individuality of each artist. Nonetheless, Victoria settles into her own categorization that is uniquely hers. Her highest notes are so bright and clear that I’m sure the glass of our camera lens will shatter. During songs like “Rocket Science,” she channels the likes of Demi Lovato, divulging to the crowd that it is their “Disney rock”-inspired song. Her voice shines the brightest during an acoustic version of “Feel a Thing,” one of the band’s more vulnerable songs about feeling apathetic in a world that demands your attention. Fans use their phone flashlights and wave their arms to the rhythm of the song, evoking an arena rock tradition that never goes out of style. Stripped down to the clean strum of Campbell’s guitar, Victoria showcases something completely of her own. It’s clear she’s not imitating anyone but her most authentic self. Below, read Meet Me @ The Altar’s exclusive interview with PAPER to discuss pulling inspiration from nostalgia, stage fright, dramatic frontmen and their most successful year yet before the release of their debut album. First off, I want to say congratulations, you guys are blowing up right now. You're literally everywhere, and it happened pretty fast. How does it feel? Edith Victoria: I don't know what's happening. When you said that, I don't even know if I've noticed. It's really odd. I wish I could be not in our shoes to see how it's actually going.Téa Campbell: Ever since Taco Bell, it was like Taco Bell and then Stephen [Colbert’s show] and then Kelly [Clarkson’s show] and everything else that's happening right now. EV: Just like [Ada] says she wishes she could see us play, I wish we could see it happening from another perspective.How's your family reacting?EV: They're so supportive.Ada Juarez: Yeah, really excited.EV: They're so used to good news at this point.AJ: So true. My family doesn't entirely understand it. All of my family isn’t from here. They're from the Dominican Republic or El Salvador. They didn't know who Stephen Colbert was. They don't know Kelly Clarkson. But I would just tell them that we're on TV. The Taco Bell commercial came on when my mom was watching her soap operas. It was the Spanish version of the Taco Bell commercial, but it was my song. I remember going up the stairs in the kitchen. I was like, "Mom, that's my commercial!" And she was like, "Oh my God, I didn't even notice!" Yeah, they're all really excited. They don't really know what's to come next either. How are you feeling before the release of your album?EV: We've been holding on to it for so long that we're just ready for it to be out.So it's been done for a while?EV: Yeah. We started writing it a long time ago now. What was the try session? June 2021?AJ: That was the first song that was written for the album. We've had it in its entirety basically since April. We have a couple new songs, but it's been a long time that we've just been sitting.EV: We sat with it so long that I'm not even listening to it anymore. I'm ready for it to be everyone else's.And when you revisit something that you've already created, and it's like, "I said that?"EV: Exactly.How old are you all? EV: 22.TC: 22.AJ: I'm 24.Okay, so we're the same age. I saw that you guys met online. Then I read something that said you telecollaborated before meeting. How did that look?TC: I would put the audio together. Ada would put the video together. We would put our videos side by side.EV: It's a puzzle.TC: It came so naturally. Ada already did YouTube. We all grew up on the internet. People are always confused about how we made a band in separate states work.EV: I think it's because people think too hard about stuff. It's not as hard as you make it.TC: You have iMessage, you can talk. Dropbox, you can put files in there.It's comfortable for us. What was it like when you finally met?EV: I remember when I finally made it in [the band], I didn’t tell my parents what was going on because I kept everything a secret. When I'm trying to do something, I don't want to tell people because I don't want to jinx myself. So they had no idea I was even wanting to be in this band. When I finally was in the band, I told my mom, "So I met these girls on the internet, we made a band, and I want to go to New Jersey to meet them." They're like, "What are you talking about?" But then they eventually understood. It took them like three days to talk about it between each other. Then my dad flew with me to New Jersey to meet them where we played our first show.You put together an album, had that, you're doing your first show, and that's when you met officially.AJ: It was the day of. Yeah. TC: It was like six in the morning. AJ: Breakfast, then we went to the show. EV: We were talking online and stuff but the first time we met was the day of our first show with me. What if your parents said no?EV: I don't know. I feel like that wouldn't have happened. It would have just been a matter of when. I might have had to sit on it for longer, but I know they eventually wouldn't want to block me.How old were you then?EV: I was 17.Did you have a plane ticket to New Jersey at that point?EV: My dad bought it for us.AJ: You booked the show, and then you told them? Edith!EV: I knew they would say yes. What were your initial impressions of each other?TC: Ada and I had already been talking for so long because we formed in 2015. Edith knew of us then too. So we were talking the whole time. It's like "Oh, finally meeting the band." EV: I was stalking a little bit. TC: Yes, you were Hailey Baldwin!AJ: I thought Edith was gonna be a lot taller. TC: I thought you were gonna be Coco Jones’ height. EV: I get that a lot. Whenever I meet a fan, that's one of the things they say to me, that I'm short. Like, thank you so much! I think y'all are exactly what I thought you'd be energy wise.AJ: [Téa and I] were texting constantly. So I think we knew each other's personality. Edith was still new to us. EV: I remember being very like, "I don't want to fuck anything up so I'm gonna just split my personality in half" instead of freaking anyone out at first. I was thinking a lot and not saying most of the things I was thinking since you didn't know me well enough.AJ: And then screaming Edith started happening.You seem pretty close now, when did that happen?TC: It was gradual. At this point, I don't even remember. Did you go into it thinking, I'm gonna be friends with these people?EV: It helped that we were so young. We weren't in a business mindset. We knew we wanted to do it for life, make it work. But we were young, so of course we'd be friends.AJ: Yeah. We had a set of guidelines too. They had to like the same stuff as us, same music, same political party.EV:They asked really important questions.AJ: Yeah. It was right at the time when like Trump was coming up, and we're like, we don't need no Trumpie. EV: When we were answering the Q&A portion of the audition, once they narrowed down all the auditions, it was over Kik. TC: This was 2014. AJ: It was easier. Not everyone has a phone number. EV: I was 14 at the time that was going on. I remember they asked all these questions. I think I asked Ada, "Bitch, why the fuck didn't you choose me?" And she said it was my answer of who I wanted to be the president, even though you can't even fucking vote.AJ: It was very specific. I regret this now. EV: They said who would you vote for? I said Hillary, I guess they wanted me to say Bernie. AJ: That's so stupid, because that is a great answer. EV: I said that because she's a woman, and at the time... yeah.What was the vocalist you originally chose like?AJ: They liked the same music that we did. They did not last for long. TC: Not a great singer. AJ: And a bitch.TC: I mean, if you want to get specific with the terms. AJ: I mean, Edith is a bitch too, but not in the same way. EV: There's genres of bitch. TC: It was an audition to join our band. She came in and kind of wanted it to be her show, like Ada and I were the back. EV: That's what I was very cautious about when I first met you guys because that's so ugly. That's a very bad quality that a lot of front people have. I wanted to make sure I didn't present that way because you had a bad experience.TC: She would throw unnecessary shade at me all the time to the point where my parents were like, "What was that?" AJ: Literally, Téa's parents getting involved. TC: My parents hated her.It's better this way. So you live together now?AJ: No, not anymore. EV: I moved back to Atlanta. Our lease ended around the same time we went on tour, when the world opened back up a bit. TC: It was only a year. Over the pandemic you lived together?TC: Yeah. Everyone else separated and we came together. I think that's a good idea. TC: It kept things moving when the world kind of stopped. That was the first time that we worked really hard, because we got management for the first time, we had an attorney, we were talking to labels. Things were really picking up.Why did you choose Davenport? Who's from there?TC: Me. We played Orlando a lot. We have a drum kit down there and all the gear and stuff so it was a very logistical reason. Especially because we also have two touring members who were there, so anytime we need to practice for stuff, we didn't have to fly them out. It was just easier to be together. We had that amount of time, no more no less, like that was the exact amount of time we needed to be together and it was fine. EV: The lease ended perfectly when we had to go out for tour.TC: We were moving out of the house and then went on tour the nextWhere are you living now?TC: I still live in Davenport. Did everyone go home?AJ: I stayed [in Davenport] because my partner lives there. But if it was my choice, I might have done the same thing Edith did. EV: I don't like it. I went back. Do you live with your parents or do you have your own place?EV: I'm still in my cave upstairs. TC: I had my own apartment that I just moved out of like three days ago. I'm paying rent for what? We're on tour all the time. So now I'm moving back in with my parents. EV: That's how I felt, like why am I gonna do that?So if things go really well, are you going to move back in together? Would you move to LA or something?TC: We would always stay separate. I definitely see a few years in LA in the earlier part of my 20s. That's pretty cool. It's like you work from home.TC:Yeah! Well, and then work from not home all the time.EV: I think that's a very healthy way to do it as a band. You're together a lot on tour already. AJ: You need a break.EV: It's like work and then not work. We can be away from each other when we're not touring, so then when we're touring it's easy. I think it's healthy to miss people and to separate yourself for a while.You guys have a really good outlook on making it work. Again, you seem really close. Your new album comes out March 10. I read on my own what it's about, but I want you to tell me in your own words.TC: It's hard to boil it down into one thing, because we really focused on diversity and variety in this album. But essentially, it's our experiences just living life the past few years. We really focused on honesty in this record and sharing all aspects of our lives. Not only the positive, because that's kind of what we've done in the past is really only focused on the positive, because there's so much negative in those genres. This time, we wanted to have a well-rounded, balanced body of work that is cohesive, because that's something that pisses us off. Like you listen to an album, there's a couple good songs, and then the rest of the album is trash, like, how did we get here? So we didn't want to do that. Sonically we really pulled from the music that we were listening to growing up, which was all that radio rock at the time, P!nk, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, The Script, Jonas Brothers, it was those kinds of artists. We're tying in our pop punk influences, pop, our rock influences and nu-metal. There's just so much that we blended in this.I saw a promotional tweet that said this new album is genreless. I think you even called it “nostalgia-core”, which is really exciting.AJ: Yes. Disney-core.I'm excited. You're pulling a cord with people our age. TC: This is something that's so sad, because everything was so good back then, like Camp Rock, Lemonade Mouth. They don't have that anymore. No more Hannah Montana. AJ: We need more rockstars.TC: I don't care what anyone says, that music was fucking good. I think that's why we've distanced ourselves from the scene necessarily, because it's full of people who think they're too cool for that kind of stuff. No music should be a guilty pleasure if you like it. Those songs were good. No one takes from that kind of stuff anymore. We're doing it in a catchy way, because it's pop, but it was with rock music. That's what we're doing.What was the decision that led to, "I'm gonna make an album that is a portrait of what we're doing right now."TC: An identity crisis.Okay, say more on that.EV: At the beginning of this writing process, our people, our team was like, "Maybe you should bring in some co-writers." Then we were like, oh my gosh, because we've never co-written before. We like to do things our way, so we're really scared of someone missing that dynamic. We're getting into rooms with all these people, writers that made a lot of sense on paper. Right? They'd be like, want to go in with so-and-so, we would say yeah, that would be a cool writing session. Then we'd go in, and it would be completely so bad. Somehow the songs, even though we were giving input, wouldn't sound anything like us. If you don't vibe with the writer it's gonna be so bad. We had miss after miss after miss. We had a breakdown.AJ: You were losing your mind. EV: I was. We got this specific writer for multiple days in a row before we even knew if we liked him. After we decided we didn't like him in the first session, we still had four more sessions. I would say something, he'd pretend he was acknowledging it, then he'd completely disregard it. I was going crazy. TC: It was gaslighting!EV: The songs sounded terrible. I'd have to die before those are released. TC: It was hard because you shouldn't have to fight like someone to listen to your ideas. Every time we would come up with a song, it didn't feel like us. They were so generic they could go to anyone. We absolutely hated that about pop punk resurgence. There was no heart and soul in it. Then we were like, well, we are working with the people who were responsible for that. We ended up finding our people and that's when the album started taking shape. After that, we were like, "What the fuck do we want this album to sound like?" We just didn't know. Then we thought, we keep going back to the same vibe from the same time period, early 2000s. We started using those as reference points for our sessions with the writers that we did mesh well with and ended up hitting it out of the park. We got that nostalgic vibe, but it's new. EV: The same feelings that the music back then brought, like a new sound was going on.So when you say you want something that sounds like you, you mean old but new.EV: Right.TC: Especially on this record, we experimented with a lot more and didn't trap ourselves in the box of genre necessarily. We were just creating what we wanted to create. The official music video for Meet Me @ The Altar's song "Kool"Listen now: https://mmata.lnk.to/koolPre-order the new album 'Past // Present // Future' now: h...I have pretty bad social anxiety, I think it's pretty common with our age group. How was it performing? Going from the internet, to meeting everyone, to going on tour literally the same day. Was that a challenge at all?EV: I think that's one thing about performing, for a lot of artists, it feels like home. It feels very familiar somehow. An artist could be completely awkward and anxious, when they get on stage, they're a completely different person. You wouldn't even ever guess that they have that kind of anxiety. A lot of artists just feel more comfortable on stage than anywhere else. They're performing their art that they love. I have met a lot of awkward bandmates, though. It's so funny because they're completely different on stage.TC: The meeting part was the aspect that would give me anxiety out of anything. Not so much anymore, because we've had to talk to so many people where it's natural now. But it's awkward talking to people you don't know, especially if they're awkward.EV: Sometimes you have to carry the conversation. If you don't say anything, no one will say anything.TC: Exactly. AJ: I think that's how I knew that this is what I wanted to do, though, because I hate talking. Period. On stage it's different. TC: Yes dude, the anxiety.AJ: That's the worst thing ever. Even just going in front of a classroom. I would have panic attacks about that. EV: I could easily go in front of a classroom and sing, but I would not be able to talk for some reason. It's terrifying.AJ: It's different when it's something you love. TC: Right. And you feel confident in. AJ: Yeah, like, why am I giving a report on this? I'm not an expert. What if I trip up my words? But it's not a constant thought anymore. Like, what if I dropped my stick? Now I've done it so many times. I'm confident enough to know that I can do it again. I think once you do it once. My very first time I must have been nervous. We were nervous on [our tour with Coheed and Cambria.]And you're like, “Well, I must be doing good if we're here.”AJ: Yeah. The support coming back, them cheering after everything. If they didn't it would be completely different. Turning to the genre, would you describe yourself as pop-punk?EV: Not anymore. At the time when we didn't have anything else out other than pop-punk, definitely. Our catalog, as the years go by, as the albums come out, it's gonna be so diverse. I think it's safe to call us a rock band. We do have pop-punk. This record is very rock. It's safe to say everything in our catalog will always be just rock.Real. So, two of you are from the South, one is from New Jersey. My experience being a person of color from the South, I had to find rock music. It was not accessible to me. So I want to talk about how you guys found that home in rock music. Not even just music, but alternative style and the subculture as well. EV: I started wanting to express myself a lot. By being on the internet, I found Bring Me The Horizon and Pierce The Veil. I really did, at the time, connect fashion and emo with the genre. Then I found Warped Tour. That's when the hair and clothes came. I started finding more emo bands from the internet. Then, okay I'm gonna go to a show. I just looked up where to go to a show. Then after that, I found this whole amazing community of hardcore and alternative music through my local venue. Thanks to the internet, basically. After I found everything I just never left. TC: For me, I never found that community. Growing up in the Orlando scene, it was extremely gatekeep-y. When I was like, 14, when the band first started, I would go to local shows, but there was no one there that looked like me. I would stand in the corner with my dad and that was that. I feel like now I'm just finding my community through us and through our fans. Atlanta is so different. EV: So close to each other, but so different. All my best friends I found through music, I know them because of shows. I've met so many great people, but it's different from Orlando. There's an actual scene in Atlanta that is accepting. All my friends are people of color that I found through Warped Tour and metal. AJ: For me, I grew up in a really Hispanic-centered town. We didn't have a scene either. Jersey kind of has more stuff, like Asbury Park, which isn't necessarily near where I'm from. My scene would have been New York, but like, New York scene, that's literally everything. I was also too anxious to go to shows by myself so I'd go with my dad and I can't meet people with my dad. I'm not going to be away from him either, he has to be in my vicinity or I'm going to have a panic attack. So I found my scene online also, it was mainly like Tumblr, Facebook. EV: I didn't want to go to shows alone either because I was too young. My mom wouldn't let me go to shows yet. I used to look up geotags of my local venue and see who went, that's how I met people. AJ: That is so smart. I wish I did that.You used to be able to find out where people live through Instagram. I read that you guys redefine what it means to be in a rock band in the modern era. What does it mean to be a rock band in the modern era?TC: I have mixed feelings about that. We're just a band existing.EV: Maybe for us, being in a rock band means making what we like. TC: We’re always gonna make music for us and not anyone else. If people love it, that’s great, if they don’t, maybe the next album will be for you. AJ: I think we have more freedom today to be as creative as we want. TC: Yeah. We’re pulling from so many different genres and having rock be the base. I feel like that’s not something you hear of a lot. Pop punk is pulling from trap, that’s it. We’re pulling from pop, so many different things. There’s some twang, some R&B, some Beyoncé vocals. Who else inspired you artistically growing up?EV: Alanis Morissette. Beyoncé. TC: There are some no name bands like Everlife that had a couple songs on Disney movie soundtracks, but we played those to death.What’s on your playlist now?AJ: All that still. Sara Bareilles, Katy Perry, Kesha. So much pop.I saw a comment on one of your posts saying “Oh my gosh, It’s so exciting to see someone who looks like me in rock music.” It was really heartwarming. How does that feel? Is there any pressure?TC: It feels good to be in that position, because growing up, we didn’t have that. We assumed something would come up along the way, and then we’re like, “Well, I guess we’re it.” I wouldn’t say we feel pressure because we knew how rare a band like us was as soon as we formed, and we always had the intention of being that.There’s no pressure. At the same time, the music should be the primary focus. Everyone knows we’re of color, some of us are gay. At this point, we can just exist and let the music speak for itself.EV: There’s also no pressure because we didn’t start to be that for people, we started because we like music. We never thought about it. Now that people are saying we are that, we’re like, “Okay, let’s keep doing what we’re doing.” Past // Present // Future is out now on all streaming services.Photography by Jonathan Weiner https://www.papermag.com/meet-me-at-the-altar-2659567557.html

#Gen z #Nostalgia #Tea campbell #Edith victoria #Disney rock #Ada juarez #Meet me @ the altar #Peyton Gatewood #PAPER

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slavghoul · 3 years ago

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Tobias Forge’s t-shirts, part 1

As promised here’s the first part of a series of posts where I’ll be talking a bit about the gazillion shirts Tobias owns, most of them music and film related of course. Tobias is an avid pop culture memorabilia collector and many of the shirts you see him wearing are genuinely vintage and come mostly from the 80s and 90s, scored from ebay and the like. Funnily enough, because sometimes the sellers don’t ship stuff to Sweden, he orders them to the band’s manager address and she handles it from there.. one of the more unusual aspects of the job I guess, hehe! I will be going through the shirts alphabetically and linking to Youtube where possible so you can listen to the bands pictured.

From left to right

At The Gates - The Red In The Sky Is Ours: At The Gates is a Swedish death metal band, this 1992 longsleeve features their debut album The Red In The Sky Is Ours, on the back there are lyrics to the song The Red In The Sky Is Ours / The Season To Come- but they’re actually misprinted! The actual ones are ‘hunger, soulrot’ not ‘hunger, so rot’.

Autopsy - Mental Funeral: Autopsy is an American death metal band, what Tobias owns is a 1991 or 1992 longsleeve featuring cover art of their second album. On the sleeves there are logos of the band and Peaceville Records (which you may find is similar to the current grucifix design) and on the back lyrics to the eponymous song.

Bathory - ‘Yellow Goat’: this is the well-known 'yellow goat' (or 'gula geten') shirt which has been printed and reprinted to hell and back for years, it features the cover artwork of Bathory’s debut album. Those familar with black metal scene may know the story of how Euronymous made a bootleg print of the shirt to be sold at his Helvete store, but only to people who were 'worthy' within the scene. Whether Tobias is worthy of owning that particular print will remain a mystery... There were two types made - Norwegian one where the horns of the goat are placed in between the logo lettering (as pictured) and a Swedish one where the horns are placed below the logo.

Black Sabbath - Born Again Tour: 1983/1984 Born Again tour shirt featuring cover art of the album under the same name and tour dates on the back (not pictured here, so take my word for it). It was the only Black Sabbath tour which featured Ian Gillan of Deep Purple’s fame on lead vocals.

Black Sabbath - Mob Rules Tour: 1981/1982 tour shirt featuring cover art of Mob Rules on the front and the tour logo on the back.

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi’s Dead: 1980s/90s shirt featuring cover art of the band's most recognised singles I think - Bela Lugosi's Dead. The photo on the cover was actually taken from a 1926 film “The Sorrows of Satan”.

Bauhaus logo: this one features the famous Bauhaus logo. I think most people associate the name and the logo with the band, and that’s what the shirt refers to as well, but the band actually appropriated them from the Bauhaus School of Design, which was a German art school operating in the early 1900s.

Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus: Candlemass is a Swedish doom metal band and this is a late 80s shirt featuring art from their debut album. They have been a huge inspiration for Ghost and it’s best heard on Opus Eponymous. Tobias once sang The Well of Souls live with the band - in a very unusual but interesting vocal style!

Carcass - I Reek of Putrefaction: again, you can’t really see it in full in the picture so you must take my word for it, but this is a bootleg Carcass shirt featuring art from Reek of Putrefaction LP.

Carnivore: this shirt features artwork from Carnivore’s debut LP. Carnivore was an American trash metal band which existed from 1982 until 1990, and was fronted by Peter Steele who you might recognize better from Type O Negative.

Carnivore - Retaliation: this one features the cover of the band’s second and final album, after which they disbanded and Peter Steele formed Type O Negative. Some songs, such as Jesus Hitler, may come across as very controversial to you but keep in mind the lyrics were done tongue-in-cheek for the sole purpose of outraging listeners..

Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk To Fuck: this one features cover art for the punk band Dead Kennedys' single Too Drunk To Fuck. Fun fact: it was the first UK Top 40 single to include the word "fuck" in its title and radio stations often shortened it to just “Too drunk to” or straight up never mentioned it instead going for “a record by a group calling themselves The Dead Kennedys”, ha!

» Part 2

#tobias forge #the band ghost #trivia

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herrlindemann · 3 years ago

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Interview with Richard for METAL HAMMER N°3 - 1997

The tension in the Rammstein camp is increasing: their second album, Sehnsucht, is due to be released in April. Henning Richter wanted to know how the climbers of '96 cope with the pressure that weighs on them.

Is there actually a Rammstein concept? With a few ingenious associations, resourceful critics had created a wonderful concept: with their flamboyant singer, the group wanted to commemorate the burning victims of the Rammstein air show disaster, while the blazing flames symbolized the easily ignited lust of heated bodies in trembling beds... Nothing there : With a short, disillusioning sentence, guitarist Richard Kruspe destroys all these dreams: “There is no Rammstein concept. We started with a sparkler, from which this show gradually developed, which we are also keeping by the way. On our next tour we will employ a pyro company though. During the last concert in the Berlin Arena, our backdrop caught fire, things fell down, there were people who bled a little... But we visited them all, there are no complaints“, at least that's what he hopes.

But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. So hit the rewind button again and rewound. The afternoon began with a short audio sample of the upcoming Rammstein album Sehnsucht in a shoebox-sized studio in Prenzlauer Berg. Five titles resounded from slender speakers, although not quite finished yet, they point to the future. One thing is certain, their “Techno-Metal mit Drill-Deutsch” (WOM-Journal) has become more varied. The song 'Du has(s)t' in particular surprises with its rather soft vocals and its harmonious melody. Other numbers like the mercilessly heavy 'Bestrafe mich' are total techno trash. Richard is satisfied, although the expectations of his band, which has sold an impressive 180,000 units of their debut Herzeleid, are of course huge. "You can only lose with the second album," he fears, "either people complain: 'They haven't developed at all' or they complain: 'That doesn't sound like Rammstein anymore'.”

What remains are texts that often deal with "sex and love in extreme forms," says Kruspe, "I'm interested in relationships.” Masochism and sadism are dealt with, frustration and lust are addressed. Incidentally, relationship frustration was a cornerstone of Rammstein. “When we first met in the rehearsal room, we all had stress with women, it went to the point of sheer hatred, which is also reflected in the lyrics. Frustration was a good creative driver, and it also bonded us as a group.” In the meantime the stress seems to have disappeared, almost all Rammstein butchers have wives and children, Richard already has two. “Kids take you out of your world, they give you a new perspective. Get kids,” he recommends, but frankly, he doesn't quite convince me.

In the course of the interview, Richard's will to stand out from the crowd with Rammstein shines through again and again. “I like bands like Metallica or The Prodigy, who see their own way. That's why I'm also into techno, because it's European music that differs from the vast amount of American productions.” He sees America as a real challenge for his combo. Since Kraftwerk and the Scorpions no German band has managed to be recognized there. After all, Rammstein has had two good experiences with American artists so far. On the one hand, cult director David Lynch used two of their songs for the soundtrack of his new film "Lost Highway", on the other hand they toured with the Ramones. “It was certainly an unusual composition, but it worked. The fans accepted us. The Ramones themselves were great, bassist C.J. always wore a Rammstein shirt from day two. Joey used to sing (mimicking a typical American R) in the dressing room, 'Rrrammstein, Rrrammstein'. He has a bar in New York where he constantly plays a live recording of our concert.”

My interviewee reveals that computers played an important role in the creation of the new material. “Up until a year and a half ago, I was also very skeptical about samples and computers. Now they fascinate me. I feel like making modern computer music, after all you can't resist the development of the times. When it comes to composing, I picked up the guitar again after a while. A lot of these techno computer freaks don't play an instrument, that's definitely a disadvantage. I love songs, and they're just easier to write on the guitar.” Several members of the 'Tanz-Metaller' now work with a computer, curiously enough keyboarder Flake doesn't have one, although bits and bytes should actually be closest to him. It is also strange that singer Till Lindemann does not give any interviews, as Kruspe explains in a dry and nebulous manner: "He doesn't say anything because he simply has nothing to say.” Ah.

That is completely natural, as is Lindemann's strongly rolling R, claims Richard, "the man comes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, people sometimes talk like that there.” When I asked whether Rammstein “Jean Claude Van Damme-Double” is close to East German singers such as Eugen Balanskat from the Skeptics, my counterpart vehemently denied: “Till is more into Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys.” Right from the start, it was important for the sextet to appear as a group and not to single out any member, maybe frontman Lindemann's non-appearance has something to do with it... The effort to always appear together was put to the test when the Prenzelbergers started their career: “We calculated that we were together for 200 to 250 days last year,” groans the muscular guitarist, “that was really hard.” The men even marched together to swim to keep fit on tour. At the moment the musicians are enjoying their freedom, taking care of the kids before they go on an extended tour of Germany again at the end of April.

The disc was recorded in Malta, in the same studio where Braunschweig's Such A Surge recorded their major second division AGORAPHOBIC NOTES. The capital cities again hired Jacob Hellner as the sound coach, and the recordings were again mixed by the mix genius Roland Prent. "It's about time we changed producers, though. At first we still had a lot of respect for him, but now we've noticed that he only cooks with water. That's why we co-produced the album,” says Kruspe with a touch of disappointment. The record company also tried to have a say, which he thinks is only natural. “They invest a lot of money and now want to make money. But we didn't listen to the Company envy, relying more on our instincts.”

Rammstein are sailing their very own course, summarizes Richard, who appropriately wears American sailor pants today. Musicians are like sailors, I say, they're always on the move and there's a bride for everyone in every port. “If you mean groupies, all I can say is I'm not into them. I like equal women, groupies are so submissive. But one thing is true: like sailors, we are rarely at home.”

#Rammstein #Richard Kruspe #Till Lindemann #Paul Landers #Flake #Oliver Riedel #Christoph Schneider #interview #translation #1997 #*

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twopoppies · 2 years ago

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I thought it was normal practice that the venue gets a cut of the artist's merch income. It's not? https://twitter.com/seaninsound/status/1556701700978868224?s=21&t=_xuHLVcdredBOOVcWXcm9w

Hi sweetheart. That’s not what he’s saying. It is normal these days and many people think it’s wrong that they do it.

His article is long, but it’s very interesting (emphasis below is mine).

Above and beyond the setlists and soundchecks, touring is tough and requires a lot of focus on the pennies and the pounds. Whether we're talking about an eleven album deep doom-metal trio trying to make a living, or newbies who are simply trying to avoid making a loss, touring requires the construction of a web of planning, such as savvily pre-booking Premier Inns on their advance rate or deciding between four or seven hours sleep (knowing the difference is often several hundred pounds saved on cheaper flights).

Whether bands play to 500 people or 50,000, being able to predict the right number of medium-sized T-shirts to print so they don't sell out (or get saddled with hundreds of pounds of left over stock) is boring but more important than ever.

Like any small business, understanding a profit and loss spreadsheet is crucial to live music. If you can’t get cancellation insurance due to COVID and fuel prices are continuing to rocket, every single hoodie and hand to hand record sale counts more than ever. So, aside from knowing how to impress a crowd, being able to set reasonable prices for merchandise to generate maximum sales and a decent profit, is more integral to a successful tour than it has ever been.

[…]

At many grassroots venues there’s an independent owner, who is often also the promoter. When you move up to larger venues, it’s far more likely the venue is being hired by an outside promoter (sometimes from an affiliated subsidiary company, who also seem to take some of the mysterious ‘booking fee’) and every penny from the bouncers to laundering the towels, is on a spreadsheet of show costs. It’s at this level where venues tend to charge a commission to sell merch, which is perhaps understandable when there are ten different merch points dotted around The O2 arena.

It’s not just the platforms raking in vast sums: Lucian Grainge, the head of Universal Music Group (UMG) recently received a "stonking" £123 million bonus. Meanwhile, a recent Guardian investigation discovered that UMG receives a share of Academy Music Group’s (AMG) profits from the sales of merchandise. These sales at O2 Academy venues are outsourced to company trading as Concessions Management International Ltd., which is part of Universal’s Bravado merchandise division. The report found that AMG and UMG take a cut, even if the act whose merch is sold is not signed to UMG.

[…]

She explains the maths of the merch desk: “For example, on a £25 LP sale, our label take £13.20 (fair enough, they are trying to recoup their investment, we have a very artist friendly deal with a great label). The venue take £7.50, they have no responsibility for paying for stock, they are only open to profit, no risk. The band then earn £4.30. Almost half of what the venue takes but the band have all the costs to get to the show plus the years of work that goes into that LP.”

“As for tees. If we sell a tee for £15. We pay £6 to print it. The venue takes £4.50. And we take £4.50. Again the venue profit as much as we do but without any of the liability involved in the design, print or delivery costs.” It all adds up doesn’t it? Of course, if you’re a massive act the economies of scale outlined in this BBC piece mean tees get cheaper and artists can consider fair trade & eco-friendly options like vegan inks, re-milled materials, or take the risk of commissioning multiple designs without passing too much extra cost onto fans.

Read the full article here

Featured Artist Coalition (or FAC for short), whose members span from acts playing their first gigs to stadium stars, have long pursued the issue of venues taking a cut of merch, but in recent months this campaign has ratcheted up, causing many venues agreeing to give 100% of the merch money to artists. Over 350 venues have already signed up to the FAC’s directory

#touring facts #touring costs #harry’s merch #Louis’ merch #cost of touring #merch prices #music industry

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itryandfeelthesunshine · 2 years ago

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Saturday, August 6th, 2022;

Hey! I would like to announce something. Today there are two important anniversaries! 🥳

Please read it all to the end! Thank you!

First of all:

On this day in 1988 Appetite For Destruction reaches #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart for the first time! 🎸🔥

Secondly:

I started this blog in August 6th in 2015 (it was 7 years ago!) 🙈🎉

And I was regulary posting to 2017.

I published the last post in November 22nd 2017 at 7:03 PM before I dissapeared without any explanation.

And after 5 years (!) I came back and started to be active again. 💥

On February 6th 2022 everythig has changed. I started the post of that day with words:

"I haven't posted here since 2017, but today is the day. Today on February 6th 2022 W. Axl Rose turns 60".

And this was the big comeback. 😄

Besides, I discovered that my blog is followed by 355 people! You have no idea how shocked and incredibly gratefull I am! So, since there are 355 here of you, I would like to thank you all! You're all amazing! ❤️

I've decided to write few things about me. Normally I don't like sharing that kind of information, but today let's make an exception. ✨

My name is Magdalena. 👋🏻

I'm turning 22 in 20 days. 🎂

I'm a vegetarian. 🍏

I don't drink coffee - absolutely hate it.

I lead a specific, rather destructive lifestyle. 🙉🙊

I don't sleep at nights, not because I'm suffering from insomnia, but because I don't want to. I read, watch movies, write and do many other things during that time. I just lead a nocturnal lifestyle. 🌌

I love rain and snow! 🌧️ Winter is my time in the year ❄️

I have a cat and I'm obsessed with her! 😍

I've studied English Philology and now I study Scientific and Professional Terminology of Library and Information Science. 🎓

I write short stories since 2007. ✍🏻

Since 2013 I'm writing a book. Currently I'm working on 3 books at the same time. ✒️

Since 2021 I belong to the editorial office of the student magazine for which I write articles, interviews and short stories. 📰

I love reading books and creating. I read A LOT. 📚

I'm an introvert. 👤

My first word was "nie" which means "no" in Polish. (it makes me think of Izzy) 😂

I know Guns N' Roses since always. 🎶

When people ask me what have I listened to before GN'R I start to laugh. I don't remember times when I haven't known them. While my mother was pregnant with me she was listening only to Guns N' Roses, ABBA and a Polish band called Dwa plus Jeden (It means Two plus One). When I was born GN'R was the first band I had contact with. Litteraly I know and listen to them since the moment I was created. You could ask: "Weren't you too young to listened to them? Why your parents let you listen to them?" Wanna know the answer? NO, I WASN'T TOO YOUNG AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY LET ME LISTENED TO THEM. My parents are strange people. So am I. 👽

In primary school I was wearing my dads T-shirts with GN'R logo (no matter that they were way to big, my dad encouraged me to wear what I wanted since always and at that time I used to have long hair, because I wanted to look like Axl. 🤩 I was six year old when my mom let me have my ears pierced. That were those "cool years" for me.👩🏻‍🎤

I've always loved music. To be more precisely: rock music. 🎸

All you have to know is that back in 2004 unfortunately my dad sold ALL the music records that we used to have. Hundreds of vinyls, CDs and cassettes dissapeared in one moment. These were all the things I loved. I was mad, angry and full of hate. But now I know why he did this and I respect him for that, because he sacrificed everything he loved to raise money and fight for the life of someone he loves. Now I know that. 💽

I listen to rock (classic, hard, glam, psychodelic...) from the 60's to 90's. I also like metal and grunge.

Guns N' Roses are obviously my favourite band of all the time, but I also listen to other bands. I love The Doors, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, KISS, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Blondie, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Judas Priest, The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane, Linkin Park, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and some others. The only new artists I listen to is a metal band Black Veil Brides. Rarely I discover some new bands e.g. Classless Act (Found them litteraly yesterday! 🙈) I think they all have potential. 🔥

And the last, most important thing about me:

I'm hopelessly in love with Axl. 🙈❤️

M. 🌹

#anniversary #confession #guns n' roses #axl rose #slash gnr #duff mckagan #izzy stradlin #steven adler #dizzy reed #frank ferrer #melissa reese #richard fortus #blog post

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plant-flwrs · 3 years ago

Text

Eternal Spring // wolfstar

Chapter One: Calholme

masterlist!

series masterlist!

series summary: Remus was fine being alone until a mysterious and loud man crashes his motorbike into Remus’s life.

a/n: hi!!! i have a series!!! i’ve got a couple of series and chapter stories in my drafts, but i’ve never really had the courage to post them. i have put so much into this story, though, and i really hope you all like it :) leave me some feedback! i’ll probably post more once i know that its not a complete and utter flop. also, i’ve posted it on my ao3 so you can go read it over there too <33

(1.9k)

It was a drowsy, subdued place, in Remus' opinion, every moment of the year except for spring. Where he grew up, and where he currently resided, the entire town took a green glowing hue for the season. It was cold in the mornings, so when Remus went outside to spread chicken seed on the dewy grass, he put on a sweater. It warmed up as the sun rose, and from the time it took the sun to travel from the horizon to the middle of the sky, Remus was comfortable in a t-shirt and loose-fitting jeans. When the sun was at its peak, Remus might start to sweat through his shirt, maybe going as far as to change into shorts if he was outside, which he usually was. He couldn't stand to be inside during spring.

The gravel driveway that led to a dirt road was sprouting an abundance of weeds and weeds that looked like flowers. The trees captured light, glowing, instead of the way they seemed to absorb and trap light in winter. Remus's backyard was a large forest, and Remus had never taken the time to check where his property line ended, so as far as he was concerned, the entire forest was his. If you went deep enough in any direction, you would come to a clearing where the knee-high grass dove into some grass that only tickled your ankles. After the ankle grass, there was an unnaturally blue and unnaturally large lake. Remus' mom had told him that the lake was so blue and so large because it was natural, that no person could ever make something so beautiful, and Remus found himself agreeing as he got older.

With his mother and father gone to live somewhere where it was spring weather all the time, living on a vast farm with no animals and a huge lawnmower that his father comfortably sat on every weekend to trim the fields, Remus now lived in his slightly renovated childhood home. It was only slightly renovated because it was a great deal messier and almost every surface was covered in coffee or tea stains and a book. Remus also got a television that he rarely used and turned his old bedroom into some sort of reading room/ garden. So, slightly renovated.

Past the gravel driveway littered with weeds and imposter weeds, past the dirt road that served as a crossing and sometimes rest area for the wild animals in the area, was the more populated town. Calholme had two public libraries; three hardware stores, one of which sold exclusively fishing supplies; a psychic who did palm readings and sold handmade jewelry and was rumored to have built the house she did aforementioned things in herself; three gas stations, one on each side of the outskirts of town, and one right in the center; two banks, one of which was relatively new that not many people frequented due to either a lack of trust for banks or simply because it was new; a multitude of fruits and vegetables stands with products grown in the area, delis in which the products ate the grass not 20 miles away, and bakeries that sent a sweet aroma into the air; a record shop that doubled as a coffee shop, candy store, and sometimes a furniture store when the records weren't selling too well; a car repair shop called Matt Mocks's garage that also repaired tractors and other broken farm equipment, and if the right guy was in that day, you could get your television repaired, too; and any other storefront that the simple people of Calholme thought they needed. They were quite resourceful in that sense.

So, down one end of the road was Calholme, and down the other were a few scattered cottages and large farmhouses, and even further down was a paved road that brought Sirius Black into town.

---

Remus had opened the window in his kitchen and stood in front of it as he waited for his tea to steep. It was that wonderfully chilly morning, so he shivered a little as the cold air clipped his crooked nose and sharp chin. He wrapped his long arms around his body to give some sort of comfort but found his lack of sustainable body fat and bony arms were more of a hindrance than not. Sighing and turning away from the window, he retrieved a cardigan that was draped over the couch, shaking off some loose crumbs before putting it on and returning to the window. He passed the sink on the way, a large white ceramic hole in the counter that looked more like a tub than a sink, and filled up a cup of water for the plants on the window sill. The house was in disarray, as usual, but Remus kept his plants alive. Most of the ones on the sill were herbs that he cooked with, with one or two flowers mingled in. If he kept the window open all day during this time of year, butterflies would come to the flowers and find themselves fluttering around the kitchen until they could find the window again. Occasionally, they just make themselves at home.

Window plants watered, arms covered and no longer shivering, tea fully steeped and mixed with the right amount of milk and honey, Remus stood in front of the window again. He could hear his chickens clucking by the other side of the house, and the rustle of the trees, the faint hum of a tractor miles off as people started their day. Then, he heard the roar of a failing engine. Not long after that, he heard the harsh sounds of metal scraping and a yelp of surprise that soon turned into groans of pain.

Remus ran to the door, tripping over his discarded rainboots, then running his shin into a coffee table, then shouldering the wall before falling on his face after tripping on some more shoes. When he finally got to the door, the chickens were louder, and so was the groaning.

His driveway wasn't too long, but it was still long enough and curved enough so that the house couldn't be seen from the road. The gravel crunched under his feet, eyes surveying the weeds, hands warmed by the mug he had forgotten to put down and somehow, miraculously, had not dropped on his way out.

There was a lump that may have been a human body or may have been a Greek god that had fallen down to the earth. Besides this was a discarded and seriously fucked up motorbike. A few feet away was a duffel bag with its contents spilled out onto his driveway. Telling from the skid marks, Remus guessed that this Greek god had lost his footing, or maybe hadn't seen a pothole, and veered into his driveway for somewhat of an easier crash than what would have been in the woods. The marks also told Remus that the driver was coming into town.

"Are you alright?" Remus tried, taking the groans as a sign of life and creeping closer to the body.

"Oh, fuck," they groaned, "fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Do you need help?" Remus knew it was a stupid question, one with the answer right in front of his face, as they began to writhe around the ground and get their wits about them.

Remus moved over to the scattered possessions, setting down his mug and gathering the various items back into the duffel. He ignored the magazine with David Bowie on the cover, ignored the criminally small shirt that had tears in the collar and Remus knew would make the Greek god look even more godlike, ignored the eyeliner pencil, and politely folded things when necessary before putting them away.

"Where the fuck am I?" the body had moved into a sitting position, feet on the ground and legs bent at the knees. There were rips in his black jeans, blood seeping into the denim, and a tattered hole in the sleeve of his leather jacket that also left red dripping onto the gravel. His face wasn't too scuffed, just some road rash on his cheekbone and jaw. Greek god confirmed. Fallen from heaven, straight from Olympius, carved by the hands of Zeus himself.

He was strikingly pale, which made his eyes and hair striking as well. His eyes were a deep blue, blue like Remus' lake, and his black hair was long and cut into a choppy sort of shag with lots of layers. He looked disheveled, obviously, because he was just in an awful motorbike accident, and Remus was staring at him.

"Just outside of Calholme," Remus almost called him 'sir', despite the fact that he hadn't called anyone but his teachers and his father 'sir', and this boy was obviously close to Remus' age. But the boy had a commanding presence, one that made people want to call him 'sir', and tremble with nerves as they did so.

Shuffling a bit, still sat down, he surveyed the damage. No longer groaning nor writhing, he was somehow even more attractive. His brows were furrowed-in pain, concentration, just pure Greek god sternness? Remus could not tell- as he pulled at the new holes in his jeans. He didn't wince, but he did scowl, and his fingertips ran through his blood for a moment before sighing. He twisted to look at his arm, and he winced then, but only because of his beloved jacket.

"Motherfucker," he mumbled, taking care to slip off the arm of the jacket and pinch the torn edges together as if they would magically stitch together.

Remus realized he was still holding the boy's duffel, so he dropped it gently on the gravel between them.

He cast his eyes up to look at Remus for the first time. "Thanks," he said softly, pulling off his entire jacket now.

It was cold, and Remus was wrapped tightly in his cardigan, and this boy was bleeding, his motorbike dented and silent even though he had never taken the keys out of the ignition.

"Can you walk?" Remus asked, surprising himself with the nervous tremble in his voice. Remus didn't talk much during the day, besides to his chickens and the lake and the flowers and the butterflies, and occasionally to the stray cat that would make the long trek from the neighboring properties. This boy was a little different than talking to those things.

He struggled to his feet, easing gently on his knees and not putting his scraped hands on the gravel. He bent his legs, only grimacing a little, and said, "Yeah."

"Do you want to come inside? It's warmer."

The boy craned his neck, looking at the heavily forested area around him, his bike, and Remus. He looked at Remus a little longer than these other things and nodded briskly.

Remus grabbed his mug and turned to walk up the driveway, listening to the crunch of the boy's footsteps behind him. They were strong and sure, despite the trail of blood he was leaving.

"This your house?" The boy said from a few paces behind Remus once they got close enough to see it. He sounded neutral, not apprehensive or suspicious of Remus, but not grateful or relieved. Remus found it a little unnerving, especially with his back to him. He shivered and turned to face him, nodding and opening the front door.

#wolfstar #Remus Lupin/Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #remus lupin fanfiction #remus lupin x sirius black #remus lupin fanfic #remus x sirius #Sirius Black #sirius black fanfiction #sirius black x remus lupin #wolfstar fluff #wolfstar fic #domestic wolfstar

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pink-flame · 3 years ago

Text

Not Working - For Lilly 💜

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLY!

For @chickwiththepurpleguitar

So, this is set in the world of WFW about a year after Julie left but it's not canon (yes I have my own canon 😂) within the WFW universe. In the world of my actual fic Luke and Bobby are just chaotic best friends/brothers who show their platonic love through fighting constantly. However, Lilly wanted Bobby pining after Luke in this universe and I love her so I have created this un-official splinter universe for her hc to live in. It does incorporate some of my actual ideas for the end of Sunset Curve in that original timeline though, just minus the pining. 😂 I hope you like it, my friend! 🥰(Also, I only went 100 words over our agreed upon word limit. Aren't you proud???)

It wasn’t working.

That was Bobby’s main thought as they packed up all their gear at the end of one of the final shows of their first tour. It was at least 2am, possibly later and they were all dragging as they forced their bodies through the second nature routine of getting everything safely into Beatrice. They had been all up and down the West Coast for the past few months, playing to decent sized crowds and getting a good response. The problem was this tour was supposed to be the thing that pushed them to the next level of success and that...that clearly wasn’t working.

Radio stations were completely uninterested in booking them to promote their performances.

Multiple venues had pulled out of hosting them at the last minute despite tickets already being sold, leaving them scrambling to find alternatives or canceling stops outright.

Even the company that printed their cheap t-shirts had politely declined their request to re-up their order.

It was like Sunset Curve had gone from being a band on the verge to a band on the verge of being unable to book a gig. None of this was that surprising given the fact that they had gone against Dec from Red Rose Records, an executive famous for holding grudges and exerting every bit of his influence to make things difficult for his targets. Part of Bobby had wanted to believe that Queenie would be able to intervene on their behalf, that she would finally stand up to her dad and find a way to make things easier for all of them. Part of him had wanted to believe she still cared enough about him to try.

Maybe she had and maybe she hadn’t and at the end of the day he couldn’t blame her either way. It had been a terrible situation all around...Luke’s attitude and Queenie’s dad insisting on that unfair contract and Bobby himself being completely incapable of putting everything out in the open when he was so scared of losing either Queenie or Luke. And that was to say nothing of Julie...all the absolute insanity that had been going on with Julie even though none of them knew it. It was because of her that he knew things could have gone much worse, could have ended with his friends dead and him as a hollow rockstar who betrayed the people he loved the most.

So even though he had loved Queenie (was probably still in love with her) and things with the band were quickly going downhill, he couldn’t bring himself to be entirely as depressed about those facts as he would have expected. He had his friends, they had each other, and they still had music. That wasn’t something anyone could take from them. It wasn’t perfect but it was enough. For him it was enough.

But he was also a realist and the reality was that things with the band weren’t working.

By the time they made it back to the questionable motel where they were staying for the night they were all dragging even more. Alex and Reggie disappeared into one of the rooms right away, barely pausing to wave goodnight to Bobby and Luke before they were shutting the door in their faces and presumably collapsing directly into bed. At the start of the tour they had all four shared a room in an effort to make their almost nonexistent tour budget stretch a little further but Alex had promptly declared Luke’s talking (and sometimes singing) in his sleep to be a crime against humanity and that to avoid him ending up with a murder charge they were going to need seperate rooms. Reggie had immediately started listing off various games he and Bobby could play to decide who got stuck sharing with Luke but Bobby had shut them all up by volunteering. That had earned him an odd look from Alex but Luke had clapped him on the back and made a speech about how it was nice to have someone on his side and the warm feeling that bloomed in Bobby’s chest was enough to help him forget opening his mouth meant he wouldn’t be sleeping much for the rest of the tour.

If he was being honest though he hadn’t exactly slept well for the better part of 2 years now. Even before Julie had arrived and all the madness that followed, Bobby had spent most nights laying awake for hours unable to fully ignore the fact that Luke was out in Wonderland curled up uncomfortably on that damn couch he still hadn’t figured out folded out. Bobby had spent a lot of time thinking about that and why exactly he could neither bring himself to go out and unfold the dumb bed himself and make sure Luke was ok or just fall asleep and ignore his friend’s relative comfort. So instead he had drifted off most nights tossing and turning, worrying about the boy who was so close and yet a world away.

So it really wasn’t that big of an adjustment for Bobby to be lying awake in various seedy motel rooms, trying no to think about how thoroughly the sheets had been cleaned and listening for the even breaths that would indicate his friend was getting some rest. He was often awakened again before long when Luke started talking in his sleep, snippets of nonsense bleeding into half-finished song lyrics fading into Julie’s name.

Bobby pretended to be asleep. He pretended not to hear.

He was a coward in some ways, always had been.

He didn’t have Alex’s wise advice or Reggie’s unexpected insights or Luke’s inspiring speeches. He didn’t have Queenie’s blunt truth telling. He didn’t even have Julie’s ability to make everything better simply by making sure you knew she was with you.

He just had good intentions and a tendency to avoid his problems, a useless combination.

But even he couldn’t ignore the way on this particular night Luke’s breathing never did even out. Instead, after barely twenty minutes of both of them lying still in their uncomfortable beds, Bobby listened as Luke slipped out of bed, pulled on his sneakers and slipped outside. He instantly sat up in the darkness and debated his next move. The typical Bobby move would be to lay back down and pretend he hadn’t noticed. That’s probably what Luke expected him to do. It might have even been what he wanted Bobby to do.

But Bobby was so sick of turning away and pretending he didn’t see what was happening around him. Pretending he didn’t see the blow up between Queenie and Luke coming, pretending he didn’t see that Julie was hiding something, pretending the writing wasn’t on the wall when it came to the future of Sunset Curve. Pretending he didn’t see how Luke still missed Julie like a phantom limb, an empty space that nonetheless managed to be an aching wound. Pretending Queenie didn’t represent the same to him. Pretending that despite the fact that he had loved Queenie (probably still did) he also thought...maybe...the other ache he felt came from loving something else...someone else...so much closer yet just as out of reach.

That wasn’t something he could ever say out loud. It just wasn’t. He was a realist and the reality was that Luke had loved Julie, still did and always would in a way that Bobby couldn’t fully understand even though he had witnessed it up close. He was never going to be the brave one, the one who told the truth just for the sake of doing it, just for an impossible chance.

So he couldn’t say out loud his inconvenient truth that maybe he had fallen in love with his best friend, just a little bit. He couldn’t.

But he could force his sock clad feet down onto the disgusting motel carpet. He could put his shoes on and slip outside and make sure his best friend was ok.

He could do that.

So he did.

At first as he blinked into the semi-darkness of the parking lot, a few flickering bulbs the only available source of light, he didn’t spot Luke at all. He felt a brief sense of rising panic flicker through him until the sound of shifting metal had his eyes darting over to the spot where Beatrice was parked. He squinted and could just make out Luke’s silhouette, hauling himself up onto the roof of Bobby’s van.

Bobby’s concern quickly melted into annoyance as he stomped over, coming to a stop next to his van and hissing up at the boy on top.

“What the hell are you doing up there?” Bobby demanded. “You’re going to put so many dents in the roof!”

Luke just scoffed, leaning over to peer down at Bobby with an annoyingly not at all repentant smile.

“Come on, Bobby,” He fired back. “Beatrice is 90% dents at this point. It’s part of her charm.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong there.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re up there,” Bobby grumbled.

Some of the cockiness drained out of Luke’s voice when he spoke again.

“Couldn’t sleep. Sometimes...sometimes looking at the stars helps.”

Bobby didn’t have to ask what exactly looking at the stars helped. He knew. And it wasn’t falling asleep.

It was missing Julie.

So Bobby didn’t fire back any of the relevant and bitingly hilarious retorts on the tip of his tongue. He simply sighed deeply before gripping the hood and hauling himself up to join his friend. If Luke was surprised by his decision he didn’t say anything, only reached his hand down to help pull Bobby up the rest of the way until they were both settled on the roof. Luke laid back and rested one of his arms behind his head as a pillow and Bobby mirrored him on the other side, their shoulders just brushing.

He had to admit, the view of the sky was a lot better than it had any right to be given where they were. Apparently they were just far enough outside of the city that the stars had a chance against the glow of civilization. The tiny pinpricks of light stretched out as far as he could see, their patterns and forms probably lost on Luke but he doubted his friend had come up here for a lesson on constellations and myths so Bobby kept his mouth shut.

Or at least he did for about 30 seconds before he glanced over at Luke and immediately regretted that decision. It was too hard to ignore all of the things he had been working so hard lately to ignore when they were this close.

He cleared his throat and brought his focus back to the reason he had followed Luke out in the first place.

“Any better?” He asked simply, rolling his head back to its original position so he could stare at the much safer vision of the stars again.

Bobby felt Luke shrug, his shoulder jostling against Bobby’s briefly.

“A little,” He said, sucking in a deep breath and then releasing it. “I just figure these are probably the same stars Julie’s looking at, you know?”

“Except for the ones obscured by 25 years of additional light pollution,” Bobby agreed.

“Wow, thanks, buddy,” Luke said dejectedly.

Bobby sighed and tried again.

“You know none of the stars we’re seeing are actually as they appear now, right? They’re so far away that even though that light is traveling to us extremely quickly it can still take years to get here.”

“I didn’t come up here for Bobby’s science time,” Luke mumbled.

“I’m saying that looking at the stars is like looking into the past,” Bobby insisted. “Julie’s probably not only looking up at the same stars, some of the one’s she’s seeing are how they appeared right here, right now. Isn’t that kind of cool?”

There was a brief pause giving Bobby just enough time to wonder if he had blown it again before Luke answered.

“Yeah,” Luke grumbled begrudgingly. “That is cool.”

Bobby couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction at that. Science could be comforting at times even if literature was his first love. The point was it had worked and he and Luke were back on solid ground again, or at least back on the creaking and protesting roof of his poor van.

“Have you heard from Queenie?” Luke asked, startling Bobby from his thoughts.

Bobby stiffened and shook his head before realizing it was too dark for Luke to see that gesture.

“Nah,” He answered, keeping his voice forcibly casual.

“Sorry,” Luke said simply.

“I’m sorry it’s still so hard,” Bobby returned. “Without Julie.”

“It’s fine,” Luke replied quickly. “Well, not fine, it’s hard everyday. You know that, but...I’m ok. I really am. You don’t have to worry.”

“But I obviously do,” Bobby snapped before realizing his mistake. “I mean all of us do.”

If Luke noticed his slip he didn’t comment on it.

“I’m always going to miss her,” He said softly. “But I believe she’s happy with her family and I have you guys and music and I’m happy too. Mostly. Usually.”

Bobby tried and failed not to let that traitorous warmth grow in his chest again at the thought of being one of the things that made Luke happy.

It wasn’t working.

So he turned his attention to the other thing that wasn’t working, the other conversation they needed to have, in an effort to distract himself.

“The tour’s almost over,” He started carefully. “Time to make some decisions.”

Luke let out another one of those deep breaths, Bobby instinctively scooting just half an inch closer until he could reassure himself with the feeling of Luke’s next inhale.

“I know,” Luke acknowledged, his voice sounding tired but not pained.

“Dec’s never going to let this band make it big,” Bobby continued gently. “And we’re almost out of money. Again.”

“I know that too,” Luke said softly. “I just wanted to finish out the tour before I made myself accept it. Even with all the struggling it has been pretty rad, hasn’t it?”

Bobby thought back to the hours and hours of driving in a smelly van and the gross motels and the cancellations and the crappy pay and the absolutely crushing exhaustion. He also thought back to the time spent with his best friends, and the small crowds singing their words back to them, and their dream, or at least some small portion of it that they had scraped and bled to come true.

He thought of Luke’s elated grin when they were playing their first song every night.

“Yeah,” He agreed with a soft smile that he knew Luke wouldn’t be able to see. “It’s been pretty rad.”

“We could keep trying…” Luke offered half-heartedly. “If we keep pushing long enough maybe something in this industry will give.”

“Or we’ll end up washed up and hating each other,” Bobby countered.

“That’s another possibility,” Luke sighed yet again. “But this is all we’ve got, Bobby.”

“Reggie’s been applying to film schools,” Bobby said, cringing at the groaning metal noise that came with Luke’s surprised reaction as he rolled toward his friend.

“He has? Why didn’t he tell me?” Luke asked.

“Nobody wants to let you down,” Bobby explained gently, turning his head to meet Luke’s confused gaze. “We love music, we do. We wanted this, so badly, you know that. But...it’s not like it is for you. It’s not...everything.”

“He could have told me,” Luke grumbled. “I would have been happy for him. I am happy for him.”

“Hey, you can tell him that tomorrow,” Bobby reassured him. “I figure we’re due for one last band meeting.”

“This sucks,” Luke huffed out, turning his head back up to the stars. “Like I don’t have any regrets cause we gave it our best shot, and I want all of you to be happy even if that’s not in the band. But on top of...well, everything else...it still sucks.”

“Yeah,” Bobby agreed simply. “It really sucks.”

“What are you going to do?” Luke asked.

“I don’t know,” Bobby offered honestly. “Maybe go to college? Study literature or psychology.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to be a shrink like your parents,” Luke teased.

“Hey, I think we’ve all proven that there are a lot of kids out there who could use someone to talk to about their messed up family dynamics,” Bobby said.

“Too bad they might get stuck talking to you,” Luke joked, bumping his shoulder with Bobby’s and sending an incredibly annoying shock of happiness through him.

“Shut up,” Bobby mumbled, not meaning it. Not at all.

There were a few seconds of silence before Luke spoke up again.

“I really am happy for all of you to do whatever you want,” He said firmly. “Seriously. But I can’t give up on music.”

“I know,” Bobby said softly. “It won’t be easy.”

“Hey,” Luke replied. “I figure impossible is relative in my life at this point.”

Bobby couldn’t resist a short bark of laughter at that.

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

They were silent again for a few long moments before Bobby found just enough courage to give voice to one last fear.

“Hey, Luke? We’re still going to be friends right?”

Luke’s answer came quickly.

“Of course, man. You’re my best friend. Band or no band.”

Bobby nodded, not caring this time that Luke couldn’t see him. When he answered he could hear the held back tears in his voice and he was pretty sure Luke could too.

“Band or no band.”

Luke reached out blindly and latched his hand around Bobby’s, just for a second, but the contact was enough to leave Bobby’s fingers tingling long after his friend had retracted his.

He tried to pretend that it was just the result of some kind of electric shock but…it wasn’t working.

Still.

He couldn’t bring himself to be sad about managing to fall in love with yet another person who couldn’t give him everything he wanted.

Julie had taught them a lot of things but one of the big ones was that something didn’t have to end the way you hoped it would for it to be beautiful, and meaningful and worth it. Love didn’t have to be forever or even returned in the same way to be beautiful, and meaningful and worth it.

Bobby had loved both Queenie and Luke (he probably still did) and he didn’t regret either.

Queenie would always be someone he wished the best for from afar and Luke?

Luke would always be his best friend.

Band or no band.

And that would keep working

He would make sure of it.

#my fics #we found wonderland vibes #lobby #lukebobby #not canon #but some delicious pining for my friend #because what is friendship if not creating ultra specific splinter universes to cater to each other's tastes #HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLY

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undiscovered-horror-icon · 4 years ago

Text

SlipKnot Members [Part Two]

[All of this info was copied form the archive of this blog on Skyrock.com circa 2009 -2010: User: maggot777 on Skyrock. com ]

[I’m just sharing it and take no credit]

[This post will include the current members, circa 2010]

Name: Sidney George Wilson Position: DJ N ° 0 Nickname: Monkeyboy or Ratboy Born March 15, 1978, Sid is the youngest of the group and by far the craziest. His scenic escapades helped to build the reputation of SlipKnoT in its early days. Since the European tour where he accidentally injured a fan during the concert in London, he has calmed down somewhat. Although with British origins, Sid is American and was born in Des Moines. Passionate about music, he creates a posse of Djs called Sound Proof Coalition. It is thanks to this posse that he will meet the group during Dotfest in 1998. “I don't know why, but this skinny dude with his red T-shirt and green shorts caught my eye that day. And then it must be said that a guy who listens to punk while scratching on hip-hop is not common, ”Shawn declared. Six months later, Sid will go to the Hairy Mary Club to see the band in concert. That night Shawn jumps into the audience and comes face to face with Sid. From this impromptu meeting was born the friendly rivalry between them, the goal being to knock out the other during the concert. For the record, this is the only time Sid has beaten Shawn. After this concert, Sid will meet SlipKnoT and tell them that he wants to be part of the group. The legend says that Shawn will not think more than ten seconds before saying yes, estimating the man enough barjo to join the group. Since then, Sid has been a mainstay of the band, justifying his presence with samples and scratches on many tracks, he's also working on a more personal project for which he took over his DJ name Starscream and released a solo album called Full Metal Scratch It in reference to the movie Full Metal Jacket. The album announced for 2001 did not actually see the light of day until 2004 following a number of problems with the label that was to release the CD. In the end, it was N2O that played the role of distributing the CD containing most of the samples that Sid uses in SlipKnoT as well as in various other projects. He also collaborates with Ampt, a band from New Jersey that he joined as a DJ.

Name: Nathan Jonas '' Joey '' Jordison Position: Drums N ° 1 Nickname: Speedball Born April 26, 1975 at the Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, Joey spent all his childhood and adolescence in the small town of Yankee, located fifteen kilometers from Des Moines. Very introverted because of his small size (1.60 m), Joey has often served as a pain reliever for his classmates, but he knew deep down that one day he would prove to them that he was better. than them. Arrived in high school, he is deeply into Kiss and Black Sabbath and decides to start a group; he held the position of guitarist there. The guitar has always been his passion and he plays it whenever he can. However, the pitiful level of the drummer in his group pushes him to get behind the barrels. He finished his studies in high school and decided to get into music. One of his groups (Modifious, of which Paul and Craig were part) has had some success but not enough to make a living from it. There is a job at a gas station. Working at night, he occupies his days rehearsing with the group. One evening, his best friend comes to see him with a certain Corey Taylor. Corey doesn't make a good impression on him and the evening ends with a sentence to his friend about Corey (who is red-haired and had long hair at the time): "Bring Dave Mustaine (singer-guitarist of Megadeath) to to treat, it is too serious this guy. " Some time later, he will be contacted by Paul to join an even more obscure called SlipKnoT group. Outside of the group, Joey is involved in various side projects, the most successful of which is Murderdolls, a punk / glam band in which he is a guitarist and with whom he released an album. one owes the magnificent tribal S and as well as the logo of the group. SlipKnoT's capital K is due to the fact that at the time he drew it Joey was a mega-fan of Korn.

Name: Paul Dedrick Gray Position: bass, vocal backing N ° 2 Nickname: Porky or Balls Born April 8, 1972, Paul is the only member of SlipKnoT who is not originally from Des Moines. Born in Los Angeles, he followed his family when they moved to Iowa. Paul is one of the creators of the group along with Shawn. Very discreet and yet very influential, he played with Joey in Anal Of Blast and in various other groups before creating SlipKnoT. He had moved back to Los Angeles when Shawn asked him to come back one evening because he had an extra project he couldn't miss. He died at the age of 38 on May 24, 2010 of an overdose.

Name: Chris Fhen Position: percussion, vocal backing N ° 3 Nickname: Pornochio or Mr Piklenose Born February 24, 1972 in Des Moines, Chris is the little comic of the group. Always playing the puppet, he does everything to be noticed and is happy to go on stage. Chris is one of the last to join SlipKnoT. He joined the group after Brandon left and his integration was not without difficulty ... for him. Shawn called him in for a rehearsal in which he had to prove himself. After two hours of playing, the group reunites in the garden while Chris, alone at the other end, paces. After letting him run around in circles for thirty minutes, Shawn finally waved him over and said, "Sorry man, you're not up to par." Annoyed, Chris lowered his nose and said, "Okay, it's okay guys," turning on his heels. This is the moment that Joey chooses to say to him, “We're kidding, man! », Before bursting out laughing with the rest of the group. But that was just a little taste of what to expect. He's the one we hear vomiting on the hidden SlipKnoT track while Paul laughs beside him. This memorable streak was actually Chris' initiation into the "SlipKnoT spirit", the others having forced him to watch a hardcore movie. Chris played an important role in the recording and mixing of SlipKnoT. He helped Ross Robinson and Joey with the post-production work. Ross Robinson says of him, “Chris is a great guy. He really has his heart set on his feet. "

Name: James Root Position: guitar N ° 4 Nickname: The Peach Born October 2, 1971, James (or Jim) is the giant of the group, dominating the situation of his 1.90 m. He joined the group at the end of the recording of SlipKnoT as a starting point for the previous guitarist, Josh. Prior to being a part of SlipKnoT, James was playing in Atomic Opera and Deadfront with which he released an album and was about to record another when Joey called on him. The latter explains: “James was one of the best guitarists in Des Moines. With Atomic Opera, they were by far the leaders of the Iowa metal scene. And then I knew the guy, he had the job profile. He also stars in Stone Sour.

Name: Craig Jones Position: sample N ° 5 Nickname: 133 mhz (we nickname him like that because he's crazy about machines and 133 times 5 plus 1 equals 666) Born February 11, 1973, “This guy is definitely the most crossed out of the nine. He never says anything and that's what gives me the fuck. It is there and yet we forget it. Having said that, it's better if he doesn't say anything. The only time he opened it we had nothing but shit. This is how Craig is described by Ross Robinson. This is hardly flattering but nevertheless very true: Craig is the “ghost” of the group, always the last to arrive on stage and the first to leave. He joined SlipKnoT as a guitarist to replace Donnie Steele. He will prove himself during the recording of Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat .. He also contributed to the ambiences with his samples, which really impressed Shawn in addition to his performance on the guitar. Seeing his mad passion for machines and computers, Joey and Shawn decided to promote him and integrate him full time into SlipKnoT. In three weeks, Craig went from replacement guitarist to official sampler of the band.

Name: Shawn Michael Crahan Position: percussion, vocal backing N ° 6 Nickname: Clown or Kong Born September 24, 1969, Shawn is at the same time the leader, the pillar and the dean of the group. SlipKnoT is her baby. It was he who chose who would be part of the adventure and that from the start. Before joining SlipKnoT, he set up various groups which were only successful with critics. Unable to live on his music, he then manages with the means on board. He was first hired as a welder (this experience would later be used for the creation of drum-kits). The savings he made enabled him to buy the Hairy Mary Club, a bar in Des Moines called to become the SlipKnoT's lair for a few years. As a wise businessman, he will regularly organize metal evenings in his club and the Saturday night concerts will quickly become an institution in Des Moines for any metal and rock fan. It is during this period that SlipKnoT is formed. The future members of the group all hanging out regularly in the club, convincing them to play together will not be very difficult. Next is the recording of Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. Which costs Shawn all his savings and pushes him into heavy debt. He sells the Hairy Mary Club to repay his debts, before the scale gained by SlipKnoT allows him little by little to live on music. The Hairy Mary Club having been sold, the group had no room to rehearse, and it was only natural that Shawn put his family to contribution: SlipKnoT invests in his parents' cellar. They spent almost two years there, Ross Robinson came to see them rehearse before signing them on his label. It was also in his parents' garage that the photo was taken that served as the cover for SlipKnoT (album). Married with four children, Shawn is a very cultured person; he adores Cézanne and Picasso, which contrasts quite a bit with the image of the slightly psychotic Clown that we see at concerts (I confirm). He also likes to philosophize about life around a bottle of wine, which makes tell Corey, “Shawn is a very smart guy, even if you don't always understand what he's saying. "

Name: Michael Thompson Position: guitar No. 7 Nickname: Log Born November 3, 1973, Mick spent his childhood in Des Moines. Big fan of music, his tastes range from Jimi Hendrix to the Beatles through Morbid Angel and Deicide. He joined a group for the first time at the age of sixteen. Subsequently, he is part of various formations with the future members of SlipKnoT, but seeing that it is hard to make a living, he decides to give guitar lessons. It was then that one evening, taking advantage of Donnie's departure, Paul called him and asked him to join SlipKnoT. “I was really pissed off at that time. When Paul called me I jumped at the chance, ”says Mick to explain his arrival in the group. Outside the group, Mick is a very discreet person; he describes himself as a person who likes to live at night.

Name: Corey Taylor Position: Vocals N ° 8 Nickname: Faith or The Sickness Born December 8, 1973, Corey is in a way the guru of the maggots. His singing, his tone of voice and his charisma (I also confirm) make him a unique singer in the metal scene. Corey initially wanted to be a drummer but decided to write songs after listening to Screaming Life by Soundgarden and Bleach by Nirvana. Born of an unknown father, (but now we know who he is) he lived for a long time with his mother and his sister, traveling the North-East of the USA and sometimes (even often) finding himself homeless to sleep. Completely addicted to cocaine from the age of fifteen, he overdoses twice. The second made him realize the fragility of life and he went to settle in Ohio with his grandmother, to be far from his bad company. It was there that he developed a taste for music thanks to his grandmother's record who listened to rock 'n' roll and in particular Elvis Presley, of whom he became a very big fan. At eighteen, he chose to take his independence and return to the roads to finally return to his hometown of Des Moines. There, he assembles the group Stone Sour, with which he begins to record some titles. On several occasions, his path crosses the path of the members of SlipKnoT. And it is finally after a Stone Sour concert that Corey sees Joey, Mick and Shawn unload in the sex shop where he works. Corey sums it up in a few words: “Basically, they told me that if I didn't join their group they would give me my birthday. I admit I hesitated a little but finally I said to myself that it was the right choice for me. " Corey is very involved in songwriting; his difficult childhood is a source of inspiration for him. However, he refuses to talk too much about it. In early 2004, he married Scarlet, his long-time fiancée, with whom he had a son, eighteen months earlier.

[Might do a part three on new guys, maybe]

[feel free to leave corrections in the replies]

#slipknot #slipknot members #sid wilson #joey jordison #paul gray #chris fehn #jim root #craig jones #shawn crahan #mick thomson #corey taylor #Micky is a fuck Log ammirght lads?

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jaybe11 · 3 years ago

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he music business is full of hard-luck stories, but no Austin band rose faster and fell harder than metal band Pariah in the 1990s. Like Guns N’ Roses three years earlier, they were signed to Geffen Records by golden boy talent scout Tom Zutaut. But there were no multiplatinum records or stadium tours for the former classmates at Clark High School in San Antonio.

“We were on the label for five years and have only one album to show for it,” said singer Dave Derrick. “It was a frustrating time, to say the least.”

After relocating to Austin in 1990, Pariah regularly sold out 1,000-capacity venues, but on their final show, soon after officially being dropped by Geffen in 1995, they played to less than 300 at their home club, the Back Room.

Two weeks later, the band’s bassist and driving force, Sims Ellison, put a shotgun to his face and pulled the trigger.

But in taking his own life, Ellison, who suffered from anxiety and depression for years, eventually helped save the lives of other musicians. His suicide was the inspiration for the SIMS Foundation, which provides low-cost mental health services to uninsured musicians who, because of irregular working hours, low pay, easy access to alcohol and drugs and often-volatile intraband relationships, have a unique set of psychological needs.

“Anytime SIMS sets up anywhere in the public, we have at least one person come up to us and say they wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for SIMS,” said Tricia Forbes, executive director of the foundation.

Ellison didn’t drink or smoke, but the band was his life. When it crumbled and his mates, including younger brother Kyle Ellison, went their separate ways after nearly 10 years of constant camaraderie, it was apparently too much for 28-year-old Sims Ellison. On top of that, his girlfriend of nearly three years, then-unknown actress Renee Zellweger, had broken up with him six months earlier.

“I miss him every day,” says Pariah singer Dave Derrick, who will play a Pariah tribute set Saturday at the Austin Music Hall as part of the 15th anniversary SIMS Foundation Benefit Bash. “It bothers me that most people only remember Sims as the guy who killed himself, if they know him at all. He was the sweetest guy you could meet, with a goofy sense of humor. He spent every waking hour working on making Pariah as successful as possible.”Pariah drummer Shandon Sahm, who currently plays with the Meat Puppets, recalls Sims Ellison as full of nervous energy. “He used to say, ‘If you ain’t stressed, it ain’t happening,’” said Sahm, the youngest son of Texas music legend Doug Sahm.

“If he was in a place where people knew him as Sims, the bass player for Pariah, he was totally cool,” said Derrick. “But if he was in any other social situation, he couldn’t cope. He’d show up at a backyard barbecue and pace for 10 minutes and leave.” Derrick said he never saw Sims Ellison finish a plate of food. “He would constantly stir his food, but not eat it.”

Derrick wondered if two middle school incidents forged Sims Ellison’s social phobia. “When he was about in eighth grade he bought a Mötley Crüe T-shirt at a concert and was robbed of it at knife-point in the bathroom. Then a few months later, a bully went up to him at the mall in front of his friends and cold-cocked Sims for no reason. Knocked him out just to show off,” Derrick said. “He knew that, as a member of Pariah, he was protected — no one was going to hurt him.”

The three years with Zellweger, when the band was signed to Geffen, were Sims Ellison’s happiest, Sahm said. Zellweger’s best friend at the time, her “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation” co-star Lisa Newmyer, dated Kyle Ellison, younger than Sims by three years, and the four practically lived together at the Railyard Apartments downtown.

In December 1994, Zellweger split with Sims Ellison and moved to LA, where “Jerry Maguire” would make her a star less than two years later.

Derrick said Sims Ellison bought himself a shotgun for Christmas that month.

Meanwhile, Geffen Records had decided to drop Pariah and pay the band $50,000 to dissolve the two-album deal. The band, rounded out by guitarist Jared Tuten, decided to take a hiatus after one last show at the Back Room.

“Sims was really bummed about everything,” said Derrick, “and I told him he really should get a dog. His eyes lit up and he said, ‘That’s a great idea!’” That was the last time Derrick saw Sims Ellison, who got a job at Urban Outfitters on the Drag two weeks before his death.

“Some people were theorizing that he killed himself because Renee left him or because the band was being dropped, but it was deeper than that,” Derrick said. “Being on Geffen was worse than being dropped by Geffen. That wasn’t it. There was something inside him that none of us could see. You play it back in your head, like ‘I should’ve done this or done that,’ but the truth is that we were all in shock when it happened.”

David Garza, who will serve as music director for Saturday’s benefit, is one of thousands of Austin musicians helped by the assistance program inspired by the Sims Ellison tragedy. “I was having a hard time a few years ago with a personal relationship and with my label,” said Garza, who released two critically acclaimed but soft-selling albums on Atlantic in 1998 and 2001. “I was raised Mexican American Catholic. We didn’t go to therapy — that was for weirdos. If you had a problem, you went to confession.” But Garza had musician friends who’d been helped by SIMS, which provides counseling and psychiatric services and refers clients to a network of 60 therapists and treatment centers that charge greatly reduced rates. With an operating budget of $600,000 a year (about 25 percent of which comes from KGSR’s “Broadcasts” CD), SIMS helps an estimated 600 Austin musicians a year.

Obviously, such musician-aimed services weren’t available to Pariah, whose disappointing career could be summed up by the night in early ’94 when the members gathered around the TV to watch their video for “Powerless” debut on MTV’s “Headbangers Ball.” They waited and waited for almost three hours until just before 2 a.m., when their video aired, the last one of the night.

Signed after a South by Southwest showcase in 1990, Pariah had to wait almost three years until the release of “To Mock a Killing Bird” in 1993. In between, Nirvana exploded and grunge made Pariah’s brand of glam metal obsolete.

“Pariah had the worst timing ever,” said the band’s co-manager Wayne Nagel, who founded the SIMS Foundation in June 1995 with his Austin Rehearsal Complex partner Don Harvey and Sims’ father, Houston oil engineer Don Ellison. “If the record had come out the year after they were signed, it would’ve been a whole different story.” Instead the band was forced to wait more than two years while Geffen threw all its clout and resources into the much-delayed Guns N’ Roses “Use Your Illusion” two-album project.

“Sims was saying, ‘What are we going to do? Metal’s not cool anymore,‘” Sahm said of one of Ellison’s obsessions. “We started off as a hard rock band like Guns N’ Roses and somewhere along the line we turned into Smashing Pumpkins. Still, I think we were getting better as a band by expanding our horizons.”

Geffen didn’t see it that way, according to Nagel. “Zutaut was the king of metal,” Nagel said of the A&R man who signed Mötley Crüe and Metallica before Guns N’ Roses. “He wanted the band to keep it metal.”

Treated like kings by Geffen before “To Mock a Killing Bird” came out, the band couldn’t get phone calls returned when the album didn’t take off.

Pariah met Zutaut, who did not answer an e-mail request for comment, backstage at SXSW 1990 after a scorching set at the Back Room. “He said he didn’t have time to sign another band, but that, just by him coming backstage, we were going to get signed,” Sahm said, with a laugh.

Nagel said Pariah received eight offers from labels after that SXSW appearance. It turns out that Zutaut did sign Pariah to Geffen, but he wasn’t kidding about being too busy. “It was all about Guns N’ Roses,” said Derrick. “We weren’t the only band put on hold.”

Sahm said, looking back, the band should’ve signed with Chrysalis, who Photoshopped a group photo of the band so they looked at home inside the label’s headquarters. “They loved our song ‘Shatter Me’ and were ready to put it out to radio right away. But instead we went with the big shot. Chrysalis couldn’t give us a $100,000 advance, but Geffen did.” The label also gave Pariah a $250,000 recording budget that soared to $500,000 by the time the album was finished at Madonna’s Maverick recording studio in LA. (Sims Ellison hit it off with Madonna and appeared in her “Deeper and Deeper” video.)

“We were young and stupid,” Derrick said of signing with Geffen for the upfront money. “But we were all in it together. If there was any motto with Pariah, it was ‘The band comes first.’”

The SIMS Foundation, named after a lovable, yet troubled Austin musician, was formed for what comes next.

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