#it was cool and unexpected and gave me the inspiration to make like 80% of this au (and nearly 100% of the angst)

[that-one-loth-cat]

Thinking about stuff for my Knightwolf AU and oh man. The night after Marrok dies in ep 4 must have been rough for him and Shin.

But first, some background:

I my au, Marrok is under an enchantment—a deal he made with Morgan shortly after joining her team. Part of this enchantment includes keeping him in a state of undeath (since that was a big thing with nightsisters) BUT! Every time he comes back he gets a little less corporeal. After he died the first time, signs of fading only just began to show. This life he’s still able to manipulate objects to an extent, but he’s see through and most of the time his body just moves through anything he isn’t wearing. He has the armor on full time because it’s easier to make it grab things than to try to hold on to them himself.

He’ll be back, but it’s clear he doesn’t have a lot of lives left. He and Shin have figured out where Morgan keeps the crystal holding his enchantment but they can’t just break it because then he’d probably die completely. They’ve been looking for a way to break his enchantment and bring him fully back for 2 years, and they’re not making much progress.

At the time of Ahsoka, Shin is trying so, so hard not to worry. Not to let Baylan or Morgan see how much his state is affecting her. And now he just died again. She thought they might have another year or two. Now it could be months, maybe weeks.

But they’ll figure it out. They have to. Because if she thinks about it too long she’s going to break down. And that’s not going to happen. Not when she’s fighting an angry Mandalorian and not when the person even kind of keeping her love alive has a job for her. That can happen later, when she’s safe and in her own room (and he can be there and maybe hold her. oh force, will he still be able to hold her this time around? To touch anything?) And to top it all off?? Now the angry Mandalorian is coming with them, and Shin can’t even hurt her. She’s is having a great day 🙃

Jump to like 11:30pm. Shin’s gotten Sabine where she needs to go and checked in with Baylan and basically is ready to go to bed for the night. She comes back to their room and it just hits her that he’s gone. Usually he comes back after a few hours but it’s almost midnight. She ends up on their bed, not crying, just in shock. Because she thinks she was wrong. He didn’t have enough life left to come back and now she’s alone and they didn’t even get to say to say goodbye. But then she hears his voice. For one moment she’s relieved, and then he’s apologizing that she can’t see him very well and he’ll see what he can do and somehow that’s what breaks her. He’s here but he’s also not and now they have no idea how much time they have left because how do you kill a shadow? (He could be here forever or he could be gone tomorrow) They end their day with her curled up on the bed, sobbing, and him wrapping whatever’s left of his essence around her, just as sad but still trying to offer comfort 😭

[lifeofacomplexmixedgirl]

Surviving a Quarter-life Crisis

15-minute read | to be listened with: ‘Our Destiny’ by Hinda Hicks

It's November 30th, and I'm sitting at the corner of the bed, having a panic attack, hiding underneath the warmest cobija I could find in Tio Edwin's cold and abandoned room. The only clean and conveniently isolated corner of this entire house - buried behind mountains of hoarded clothes, furniture, and mail from the '80s - to shield myself from Abuela's nightly rage. If I silence my thoughts, I can hear her shouting from the attic, "Pinche cayajera…siempre yendo y viniendo. You make me so mad!" Five minutes later, she's baiting me with a peace meal, "Mija, ya comiste? I cook for you some arroz," only to get caught in her next course of torment - no, thank you.

Surrounded by unfinished ink drawings plastered along the walls, a few discarded guitars, and a hot wheel collection, I volunteer to solitary confinement as I wait till she exhausts herself to sleep. Tonight's interrogation began the same as every other - with my face cradled in my hands, asking, "why the fuck am I here?". I fall back onto the bed, close my eyes, and take deep breaths until my mind saturates with fantasies of the free and steady life I long for. The sight of my own home decorated with open space, natural light, greenery, walls filled with photos, and shelves of books evokes earlier memories of what I used to have. Suddenly, my mind becomes inflamed with countless regrets, and I cry - depending on my tears to flood away the fires that have been set ablaze inside of me for some time. Feeling desiccated, I reach for the phone and call the only person who can restore me... mom.

Answering the first ring, I immediately drop a dumbbell of weightless questions in hopes she will have the solutions to maybe one or two - but let's be honest - all of my problems.

"Um… hello? Ma, did you hear what I said?" I ask irritably.

"I'm listening… sounds like you're having a quarter-life crisis kid," she jokingly remarks.

"Ha ha ha…-_- I need to get out of this house like now. Abuela is stressing me OUT! I ain't gonna make it…" I respond in desperation.

"Do you want me to pick you up?"

"PLEEEASE!"

"Be cool, gymshoe. I just dropped your brother off at home. I'll be there in about an hour."

"Alright, bet."

I'm checking the time every few minutes, then finally an hour elapses. A rush of energy fills my body, and I jump out the bed, grab my jacket, and race out the back door in an escape. Just in time, I see mom pull up through the rain, and I hop in the driver's seat as she climbs over to the passenger side. "You hungry, lovebug?" she asks. "I stay hungry," I assure her. We bop in-sync to our favorite R&B throwbacks driving east down Division to scoop a pound of jumbo shrimp from Goose Island and make our way to my mom's mentor and long-time friend, Dr. O.

Dr. O'Bannon is the epitome of black excellence - a woman of independence, knowledge, and self-love. Dining at her table, pouring glasses of cabernet wine, in a high-rise that overlooks Navy Pier and Lake Michigan, everything about her exuded strength. As she and my mother are sharing childhood stories, ancestry, and accomplishments, I'm leaning in to listen and absorb it all. After a few hours, I'm so inspired and loaded with courage that I ask her if she would be open to having me as a guest for a week, and with the help of my mom, she accepted. 

And with this new blessing, I'm setting out to heal, learn, and reach a higher state of self because in ten days... I'll be 25.

How I Prepared Turning 25 in Ten Days

Day One: Sunday

I woke up to a new day, new week, new month, so I decided to start my day by doing something active. League of Their Own, a Chicago based women's recreational sports group that meets up every other Sunday, was holding a double dutch event - I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to enjoy some culture and bask in positive girl energy. Afterward, I had a healthy breakfast - drank some fire peach coffee - and engaged in pleasant conversation at Peach's in Bronzeville with one of my homegirls. Then I kicked it back to the crib for the rest of the day to indulge in self-care rituals and prepare for the week ahead. 

What it cost: $20 (splendid breakfast + tip) What I gained: Strength and timing - I have to get my footwork right before I step into the new decade. 

Day Three: Tuesday

On my way home from work, I decided to take a detour through Millenium Park, and I saw everyone crowd around the rink to watch the staff resurface the ice. Out of curiosity, I went to inquire about admission and told myself, "If this is more than $15, I ain't skating". Ha - it was $13, so I took it as a sign to go out there and take a break from adulthood. Unconcerned about time or priorities, I put my headphones on, skated for an hour, and reminisced on my favorite childhood memories. Remembering when my mom placed me in ice-skating classes for the first time and how much I loved it. I couldn't remember why I stopped going, but alas, there I was - my child-like spirit being awakened inside of me.

What it cost: $13 (skate-rental) What I gained: Childish innocence - my most appreciated attribute - and a new activity to keep every Tuesday during the winter to stay active.  

Day Five: Thursday

I picked a route and stuck to walking home for the rest of the week. With an enormous love for all things design, I stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to check out the Chicago Architecture Biennial. I have this goal for when I turn 30, which is to go back to school for architecture, design my family's home in Mexico, and successfully retire as 'the ultimate designer.' I walked through the exhibit, sat down, and sketched. I looked up at my favorite piece and just knew that this was something I'm committed to accomplishing. 

What it cost: FREE (Admission is always free to the public) What I gained: Inspiration and reassurance of my future goals. 

Day Seven: Saturday

After drill, I stopped by Abuela's to pick up some things. I made my way towards the back door, and when I opened it, there stood at the top of the stairs, my Tio Huber's savage-ass dogs. I was still until one started barking, and the other three charged for me. "Oh shit," is all I could think as I turned around and dipped. Once I made it to the gate, I felt a sharp pain pierce through my thigh and pull me back before I could jump over. At that moment, I gave up and broke down in tears - because as much as I've tried to keep my spirits high and pass on positive energy, I'm always thrown a curveball. I let them bite and claw at me as I made my way back to the door to attempt to run again upstairs.

While trying to care for the wound and Abuela shouting at me, I realized that my time living here has come to an end, and come January, I need a new place to stay. Sharing this news with her made her even more upset, but I left for the hospital, accepting my circumstances. On my way out, my tio's friend shares with me, "Life is really kicking your ass right now...everything is going to be okay, remember it's only temporary. The universe is preparing you for something greater." - Great, what in the possible world could the universe be preparing me for? -_-

What it cost: We're not even getting into this... What I gained: Acceptance.

Day Nine: Monday

I took it slow today. I went to work, then home. 

As I poured a glass of wine and appreciated the views, I reflected on the past 5 years of my life. I pulled out my secret journal, wrote down my lessons, blessings, goals, and planned my next steps. What else should do I be doing the night before I turn 25? 

What it cost: It doesn't cost anything to invest in yourself.  What I gained: Closure and enthusiasm for a new and healthy beginning.

Day Ten: Happy 25th Birthday

"Happy 25th birthday to me!" I yelled in excitement- I hope I didn't wake Dr. O, but I couldn't help it. I usually keep special days like this to myself and only share with close friends, but I wanted to make an announcement to the world that I'm here, healed, healthy, and loved. I went to work and had a beautiful dinner with Dr. O. It was the perfect night to wind down from an amazing week. 

I planned a get-together tomorrow night with all of my day ones at my favorite bar, Estereo, so my birthday isn't over until I'm hungover, haha!

What it cost: Vulnerability and patience. What I gained: Genuine support, long-time friends, and healthy relationships. 

It's hard for me to accept that things aren't going to go the way I intended, but I've learned to accept it because everything really does happen for a reason. One of the biggest lessons I learned this year is to lead a life with no expectations because life itself is unexpected - who we meet, where we go, what we say, when things happen - that way, I'll never be disappointed. 

Your girl,  ~Eva

[bpoole500]

Tusk Revisited

This fall marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Tusk, Fleetwood Mac’s defiantly offbeat opus that was underappreciated in its time, even as it presaged trends in music.

After the unprecedented success of 1977’s Rumours, the Mick Fleetwood/John McVie/Christine McVie/Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham incarnation of Fleetwood Mac pretty much had carte blanche to do whatever the band wanted. A situation like that gives an artist several avenues for their potential next act.

Many acts have followed up a landmark album with “Part 2.” Think of Adele’s 25 or Michael Jackson’s Bad. The artist delivers a follow-up that’s very much in the vein of their big last album. Reviewers will tend to be less enthused, but it will sell well and produce more hit singles, usually pleasing most fans and the record label. It’s a good career move, even if the follow-up can’t help but be overshadowed by its celebrated predecessor.

Other artists respond to a significant breakthrough album by, essentially, not following it up. Perhaps a live set might emerge or some earlier recordings are repackaged for the new mass audience that came aboard for the big hit. There could be live shows. But in essence, the artist just chooses, for any of a variety of reasons, to sit it out. Look no further than the trajectory of Lauryn Hill after The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Fans usually never understand it, even if it makes sense to the artist.

And then there’s the path that Fleetwood Mac took with their follow-up to Rumours. As has been pointed out many times, there is no topping an album like Rumours, a collection that earned strong critical accolades, major sales and cross-genre airplay dominance. It’s one of those albums that, even decades later, remains a strong seller, as new generations discover it (and often access it in new ways, thanks to media evolution). Warner Bros. would certainly have been thrilled if the band had delivered Rumours II. That would have played well with fans, as well.

But that ignores the fact that Rumours was a “lightning in a bottle” moment, the kind of personal/professional alchemy that a band can’t plan. And in the case of this group, likely would not have wanted to re-live even if they could have.

Instead, the band followed the third path that acts sometimes embrace after a major success: go in an unexpected direction. No description drives record company execs to the antacid bottle more than “experimental.” Especially when its affixed to the new album of a key act. But that’s what Fleetwood Mac did with Tusk.

Buckingham is widely acknowledged as one of the guitar virtuosos of the rock world. He’s also recognized for his love of studiocraft and production experimentation. So with a blank check, the band essentially handed the wheel to their resident mad genius and let him steer them into waters that took a different path from the era-defining sound of their recent hit. The result was Tusk, a double album misunderstood at its time, that only years later would be embraced as a lunatic masterpiece.

While Buckingham was thoroughly grounded in the classic rock idiom, he listened to, and was inspired by, everything that was going on in the industry at the time. The restless energy of post-punk and the trashy electro-sheen of new wave. The fearless disregard of tradition of art rock and the sonic collage experiments of industrial music. He was inspired to go beyond what a band could produce using instruments and voices, using production not just as a facilitator, but as a sonic medium in its own right. He wrote numerous songs that sounded little like what he’d produced before and then wrapped his feverish sonic ideas around Christine and Stevie’s more traditional compositions, pushing them to unexpected places. At its core, Tusk was a major, mainstream classic rock band charting the future of alternative music.

As has been pointed out many times, Tusk often feels like the mash-up of two different albums: Buckingham’s paranoid opus, full of sharp edges and nervous tics, contrasted with the more conventional songs produced by his partners. It’s not an unfair paradigm, but even though Tusk has Buckingham’s imprimatur firmly stamped on it, it’s still definitively the work of a band. Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie follow their guitarist’s lead and achieve the kinds of beats and rhythms necessary to execute Buckingham’s ideas, while the layers of harmonies he envisioned wouldn’t have hit with the impact they did without the unique interplay of his voice with Christine’s and Stevie’s.

Still, Buckingham did go in some startling directions. Bits of everything from rockabilly and the Beach Boys to punk and World Beat are evident in the mix, the album often presaging trends that would dominate the music scene in the decade that followed. The title track is a prime example of Buckingham’s ideas coming together in a striking manner. It boasts the sinister paranoia of many of Buckingham’s contributions, using almost tribal rhythms that referenced African sonic traditions half a decade before Paul Simon’s landmark Graceland. Married with layered harmonies, distorted guitars and an actual marching band, it was like nothing else on the charts in 1979.

“What Makes You Think You’re the One” was another moment where Buckingham managed to translate his impulses into something with commercial appeal, working nervous energy, edgy rhythms and echoes of doo wop harmonies and instrumental flourishes into an engaging stew. Throughout, Buckingham’s songs were filled with off-kilter melodies, production tricks and distortions, layers of harmonies that pushed song structures that could have been familiar into some places listeners hadn’t been before. He borrowed the economy of punk, with most of his compositions clocking in within the range of two to three minutes, often ending abruptly or on an unexpected moment of dissonance. He surrounded the songs with spacey, detached qualities, adding propulsion even to quieter moments. With titles like “The Ledge,” “Walk A Thin Line,” “I Know I’m Not Wrong,” “That’s Enough for Me” and “Not That Funny,” with unsettled lyrics and performances that communicated a certain alienation, Buckingham’s songs more dared listeners to engage with them than invited them in. It’s not what you might expect from a superstar release, but it was brave and creative.

While some critics were inclined to dismiss the more conventional tunes that Christine and Stevie composed, one of the more fascinating aspects of Tusk was seeing how Buckingham co-opted those songs to fit his vision for the album. You got Christine’s sunny SoCal pop and Stevie’s mystical rock and folk run through Buckingham’s offbeat paranoia, for some often interesting results.

Take Christine’s “Think About Me,” a charming Top 30 hit that’s often overlooked today. Buckingham’s production is drenched in the surf pop of the Beach Boys, but spikes it with fuzzy edges, jittery harmonies and wailed vocal counterpoints. Deceptively simple songs like “Over & Over,” “Brown Eyes” and “Honey Hi” took on more complex structures as Buckingham injected the emerging New Wave ethos into them, giving them layers and textures that pushed them out of Christine’s usual comfort zone, adding tension and friction that provided contrast to her cool, clean vocals. Even a gentle ballad like “Never Make Me Cry” got a jolt from the subtle pulse of a strummed electric guitar that Buckingham ran throughout.

Unsurprisingly, Stevie’s songs provided a robust canvas for Buckingham’s production work. Tusk is best remembered for hit single “Sara,” one of Stevie’s more engaging poetic explorations. Even in the edited version (which chops off nearly two minutes, including the entire second verse), it’s a beguiling mix, with Buckingham using a complex layering of harmonies that builds slowly to surround Stevie’s lead, giving an exotic charm to the mix, while he adds fuzzy touches to the edges to give the song an insistent energy. He transformed “Angel” into a harbinger of the country-pop that would come to dominate Nashville a decade later and gave a jittering, unsettling edge to the gentle “Storms” that set out a roadmap for the contemporary folk sound that was right around the corner. Most daringly, Buckingham used Stevie’s mystic rock opus “Sisters of the Moon” to pioneer the template for the dance rock that would become a staple of alternative radio.

Fans and critics didn’t know what to make of Tusk. The title track became a hit because anything that Fleetwood Mac released after Rumours would have made the Top 10. “Sara” and “Think About Me” succeeded with radio as the best examples of the band’s traditional sound melding seamlessly with Buckingham’s futurist production. But many critics at the time didn’t get the album and fans who had bought Rumours in droves didn’t embrace Tusk. It was seen as a failure and would set the stage for a retrenchment (the far more conventional Mirage (1982) and Tango in the Night (1987) would bring this chapter of the band to a close on a more commercial, mainstream note).

But Tusk has had a healthy afterlife. While it hasn’t enjoyed the long-term sales power of Rumours or the group’s eponymous 1975 album, it has remained available consistently and won over new converts over the years. Critical re-evaluations of the album, especially in the context of the ‘80s alternative revolution that followed, came to appreciate how ahead of its time Tusk was and what a crucial touchstone it became for the development of modern rock music. It grew into an “artists’ album,” one of those works cited by other musicians as one of their influences. Both “Tusk” and “Sara” have remained in regular rotation on classic rock and soft rock radio formats, while “Sisters of the Moon” developed into a cult favorite among Stevie’s loyal fans. The band included several cuts from Tusk on their various “best of” collections and incorporated them into their latter day tours to strong effect.

Tusk makes almost perfect sense when viewed from a remove of forty years. Fleetwood Mac took advantage of the opportunity that success afforded them to go out on a creative limb. And in the process, thanks to Buckingham’s feverish creativity and work ethic, helped advance the evolution of rock and alternative music.

[airadam]

Episode 144 : Multiples Of Twelve

"It ain't f-ing sensible."

- Strategy

I ended up completely changing the selection this month when, taking the lead from a few tracks I was considering, I decided to go with an all-downtempo selection - a continuous unbroken mix once the first lyric hits. That said, there's a serious mix of genres so you get a bunch of variety inside the hour-long show! Get yourself plugged in...

RIP to the legendary Chi Modu - the man responsible for some of the most iconic images in the culture.

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Duett : Video

An extremely short track to open things, just for the flavour! Duett, is a UK synthwave artist (only one person, despite the name) who has released some amazing records channeling that electronic 80s vibe. This one is drawn from the "O U T L I N E S" mini-album from last year - all tracks that were done in a day each - and is a bite-size motif that you could imagine as the sonic logo for a film company or TV station from the VHS era.

Meyhem Lauren ft. Hologram & Big Body Bes : Lexus In The Lobby

I was originally saving this for a future mix, but even though it would have fit perfectly thematically, it's so much slower than pretty much everything else that it may not have ultimately made the cut. This is an absolute gem from the original "Glass" EP, with Harry Fraud on production building an absolute vibe with a quality sample that may be familiar to German listeners and some heavy 808 action. Meyhem Lauren is of course the best MC on the cut but Hologram on the first verse definitely kicks a memorable opening quatrain!

Mikhail Chekalin : As If It Was Not From Here

Going super left-field early for this instrumental bed! Chekalin was a radically-innovative composer from Russia who was not embraced by the Soviet government - they felt his work was too "Western" and while his music was heard by some plugged-in people in the outside world, he wasn't able to tour internationally or release his music outside the USSR. Thankfully for music lovers, times have changed and the "ГАР001: Михаил Чекалин «Экзальтированная Колыбельная 1979 – 1987»" collection (don't even think about asking me to pronounce that) is now available on Bandcamp, and is a great collection of his electronic work - his own take on what could be done with the synths of the time. His sound is a worthy companion to the other greats who were also experimenting at the time, from Jan Hammer to Jean Michel Jarre.

TY ft. Rootz & Deborah Jordan : Eyes Open

It's been a year this month since TY passed and I was glad to find one of his tracks fitting into this pace perfectly, one from his excellent final LP "A Work Of Heart". He was always an excellent MC from the first to the last, and he does himself proud here, spitting thoughtful lyrics with a rapid sharp flow. OG Rootz (formerly Durrty Goodz) is a solid complement, and Deborah Jordan adds a vocal decoration that puts the whole self-produced track over the top. I do like the unexpected switch to French for the hook later in the song too, just *chef's kiss*.

Bumpy Knuckles : Step Up

If you're a real Hip-Hop geek, the highlight on this track might just be the brilliant cuts by DJ Rukas on the hook, not only sharp but incorporating a very clever manipulation of a line from the stone-cold classic "Top Billin'" by Audio Two. Bumpy Knuckles goes in with a quasi-double-time flow in typically rugged fashion over the production of BeatBanga, who gets his only Discogs credit in fine style. You can find this on the "Konexion" album, which is well worth having.

Flatbush Zombies : Laker Paper

It might not be the most conscious track in the world, but it does have the exact type of sonic energy to fit into this spot! Despite the production style (courtesy of Erick Arc Elliott) and the track title, the clue is in the name - this is a trio from Brooklyn who released this cut on their debut mixtape "D.R.U.G.S". They don't try to dazzle with a quick flow on this beat, they stick to their style and settle into it at its native speed.

Samantha James : Come Through

Even for those who might not be into a record like this most of the time, I thought that bassline and the underlying lazy drum break might draw you in! This track was one of the highlights of the 2007 "Rise" LP from LA-based Samantha James. If you like a varied electronic music album, it's one you should check out - a little house, a little broken beat, some singer-songwriter vibes, a showcase for a singer comfortable with working with different production types.

Jake One : Evelen Gravest

We bridge the first and second mixes with a beat from the man Jake One, taken from his free gospel-themed "#PrayerHandsEmoji" beat tape. It'd be worth a purchase, but for zero dinero it's a must-have!

Kano : Ps & Qs

Coming out of East Ham, London, this is one of the early breakthrough grime tracks from a pioneer of the scene. This 2004 debut 12" release was a bit hit on the underground and helped Kano build momentum into the release of his "Home Sweet Home" album. DaVinche's big bombastic beat is an iconic one - a perfect underscoring for Kano, and can still mash up a dance even today.

DJ Quik ft. Hi-C and James DeBarge : Ev'ryday

One of my favourite cuts from Quik's 2002 "Under Tha Influence" LP (which, being a relentless perfectionist, he probably hated the minute he finished it). At the time there really wasn't much, if anything, out that sounded like this, and it was interesting to hear a musician and engineer of his skill level bring that to that double-time style. That stuttering bass and the skipping drum pattern work together brilliantly, and James DeBarge coming through with that hook might just be the vocal highlight.

Strategy : LengBreak

Time flies, and it's already been ten years since the release of the "Pre-Season Training" mixtape from Salford's Strategy, who continued to build his skills in fine style. "Bleep Test" and "Kill 'Em" were the standout tracks for me, and this one kind of passed me - maybe it was my personal taste in beats, maybe it was that I just didn't smoke! I gave it another listen this month and very much deserves a proper airing. One question for those of you who partake - all these years later, how do those prices sound? 🙂

Tobe Nwigwe ft. Royce Da 5'9" and Black Thought : Father Figure

Easily one of the best and most unique MCs to emerge in years, you'll have heard Tobe on this podcast a few times before and his collective have continued to impress and to elevate their profile. This killer is from last year's "Cincoriginals" album, and it's a meeting of heavyweight MCs. The fact that Tobe holds his own against both Royce and Thought, who is widely regarded as the MC's MC, while maintaining his own style, shows that he deserves all the praise he's been getting and more. Nell on production, as always, with the heavy low end for your system.

9th Wonder : Black Album Rejects, Track 15

One more of the instrumentals that 9th Wonder brought to Jay-Z for "The Black Album" that was ditched in favour of the brand-new "Threats" beat that launched him into the consciousness of many. The "rejects" were still dope as anything though.

Children of Zeus : No Love Song

Brand new Zeus! If you know what's good for you you'll be going to place a pre-order for the upcoming "Balance" album, but we've got this as an appetiser for now. Beat Butcha provides the laid-back soulful groove on which Tyler and Konny emphatically don't give you the love song that most other artists would given the same production. If you've been following this podcast, you would have first heard CoZ in the SoundCloud days, and it's been amazing to see this Manchester crew continue to produce great music - and the rest of the world catch up!

Corinne Bailey Rae : Walk On

Representing the city of Leeds lovely, Corinne Bailey Rae is a fine musician who brings the quality every time out. Her third LP, "The Heart Speaks In Whispers", was a worthy follow up to "The Sea", and saw her pairing with Steve Brown on production. This starts with a jazz club reserve and builds from there as she offers inspiration to keep on pushing through difficult circumstances - a message certainly relevant to the current time.

Rae & Christian ft. Lisa Shaw : Should Have Known

I'd somehow forgetten I even had this one! Lisa Shaw is best known for her deep house career, but her sublime voice is a versatile one and she's also on some soulful/downtempo stuff like this Manchester production from the Grand Central Records founding duo. The "Central Heating 2" compilation might be worth owning for this alone.

Zero 7 : Spinning

We finish a coincidentally all-UK segment with a track that didn't make the cut for the original UK release of the "Simple Things" album (twenty years ago!), but I believe was on the US version (plus the recent special edition release) as well as on the B-side of the "I Have Seen" 12". Sophie Barker takes the vocal reins, and it's a beautiful song.

L'indécis x sad toï : Dog Days

For the final instrumental break, we go to the Chillhop label, which specialises in releasing this kind of material - in this case, on the "Chillhop Essentials - Fall 2018" compilation. This track is an all-French connection, with sad toï (sic) alongside Grenoble's L'indécis for a relaxed and partly-acoustic beat that suits a lazy summer day just as much as the autumn.

Scritti Politti : Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder

"The day began to decline" - I think many of us can relate to that feeling! One more UK track to close the episode, and this is the one that I think will divide listeners the most. Personally, I love this. It's one of those tunes where no-one seems to agree on the exact meaning of the lyrics, but when Green sings "...some keys they found there"...well, that could be read multiple ways! This was a great close to the "Anomie & Bonhomie" album, with a long instrumental outro to cool us all the way out at the very end of the episode.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Ready Player One

Hooooo boy, have I been eager to write this review. Movies like Ready Player One are the reason I started writing these reviews. There is a LOT to unpack here, so I’m just gonna dive right in. So did this inspire me to get out my quarters, my hair gel, and my ever-so-artfully picked Duran Duran track? More importantly, did this make me want to live in the world of the OASIS? Well...

If the OASIS existed in the way that it could according to the movie’s own internal logic, then yes. But we don’t see that OASIS. Instead we see a collection of pop culture nuggets thrown into a blender and turned into a nostalgia/inside joke smoothie. Let me back up.

I’ve read the book and I genuinely enjoyed it. I couldn’t put it down, actually. The plot is pretty basic - it’s the year 2045 and everyone basically lives their lives in a virtual reality platform called the OASIS, designed by a kooky Steve Jobs type named James Halliday (played with actual depth and acuity by Mark Rylance, who is far and away the best actor here). When Halliday died, he hid 3 keys in the OASIS - whoever finds all 3 keys gets the hidden Easter Egg, which grants them half a trillion dollars and complete control of the OASIS. Our plucky hero, Wade Watts, is on a hunt for the keys. Oh, and the only way to find the keys is to know absolutely everything about all the pop culture stuff that Halliday was obsessed with, which basically means music, movies, tv, and video games from the 80s, but just the ones that were targeted at white male nerds with a persecution complex (can you believe neither Madonna nor Prince are mentioned in a book obsessed with the 80s?)

I am a person who enjoys collecting bits of trivia, who prides herself on knowing who directed that thing with that one guy in it who was in that other thing I liked. So I don’t have a problem with the archival aspect of fandom that is presented in the book or in the movie. However, the other side of the fandom coin is transformative work - your fanfic, your mashups, your trailer recuts, etc. Taking something that you love and asking “what if this happened?” and creating something new. I honestly felt like the book was a transformative work that took great joy in re-imagining a grail narrative. As much as I wanted the film to feel this way too, it ends up feeling like a cash grab and not much more.

The one exception is the sequence that made me feel the same kind of unexpected joy that I felt in the book - (mild spoilers ahead). One of the 3 challenges that Wade faces in the movie involves the characters walking through The Shining - and once they figure this out, they go through a door and are literally standing in the lobby of the Overlook Hotel. It looks exactly like our CGI protagonists have been photoshopped into the celluloid rendering of Stanley Kubrick’s film, and it is really fucking cool. They wander the halls and we see all the classic moments represented - the elevator of blood, the twins, Room 237. It’s all lovingly recreated while our characters wander through and interact with the environment in interesting ways. I loved it not just because it did something transformative with its source material but also because Stanley Kubrick would have hated it and that guy was a fucking asshole. Unfortunately, the magic of that 10-minute sequence doesn’t carry through the rest of the movie.

Some thoughts:

I don’t want to make it seem all bad. I was entertained! And it *is* a fun game to pick up the tiny references to obscure things (my proudest was probably a movie marquee advertising Jack Slater III because I still love Last Action Hero, I don’t care who knows it). But those tiny hits of dopamine from playing HEY I KNOW THAT THING shouldn’t be the thrust behind your entire narrative.

Tye Sheridan, who plays Wade...I have to hope that with a better script he would just...do better. 

Nice to see Olivia Cook (Art3mis) as another entry in a long line of female characters whom we’re supposed to see as physically flawed when she’s actually a very beautiful actress. Her character has a port wine birthmark over one eye - aka SHE’S HIDEOUS AND WADE IS A SAINT FOR LOVING HER. 

I do love that they gave Lena Waithe’s character more to do and a more interesting presence in the movie because she deserves everything. 

Also it SUPER sucks that TJ Miller is the comic relief here because 1) he’s really fucking funny and 2) I hate the TJ Miller basically represents all of the shit that people hate about this book and movie. 

I love Steven Spielberg, but honestly, I did not enjoy the visual experience of this movie. I’ve watched uncanny valley CGI avatars before in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. The character design is just so ugly to me, it’s honestly distracting.

The other thing I enjoyed the most besides The Shining sequence was the music. Alan Silvestri did the score, and he’s using lots of recycled themes from all the blockbusters that are being referenced in the film. Every time I heard the horns from Back to the Future it was hard not to react with glee. It’s almost hardwired, Pavlovian style, to react to these classic movie themes like this, and the effect is used incredibly well in this film.

This is a divisive movie for a lot of reasons - if you can find entertainment in bright, shiny, lamely-scripted blockbusters, you’re gonna find entertainment here! If you’re looking for any kind of effective social commentary, protagonists who are complex, intresting characters, or any sort of lasting reflection on the human condition, well uh...Black Panther is still in theaters!

[too-many-fandoms-to-choose-one98]

Hey guys, so I was in a creative writing class and All Too Well was an inspiration for this story, so I thought I’d share it!

The Missing Piece

The girl in the red dress sat in her car for what felt like hours, biting her manicured nails that would not break no matter how hard she tried. This is what the 20 minute drive from the city to the suburban town had consisted of: nail biting and overthinking. Finally, she had done enough waiting. She mentally commanded her hand to extend out to the door handle.

As soon as the door opened, a wind of chill, late-autumn air blew in. It seemed to turn to needles of ice that went straight to her heart. That was the thing about fall in Wisconsin; one day you’re sweating like you have never sweat before, and the next you need to dig out the trusty winter jacket. The dead and dying trees gave their last gift of beauty by offering their leaves to the wind. The clouds hung low in the sky, and seemed to grow darker by the second. Her legs were freezing. The front door of the modest ranch-style house was merely feet away now. She could handle that.

The girl again rehearsed what she was going to say. Hey, it’s Elizabeth. She brought her finger to the doorbell. I just wanted to stop by to- She heard the family dog barking and footsteps approaching. There was no sound of the front door unlocking, as she knew there wouldn’t be. He had always left the doors unlocked, much to her dismay. The door opened to reveal a once familiar face with raised eyebrows.

“Ellie. Hi. This is…unexpected.” His voice was just as she remembered it: low and smooth, but now filled with a reserved curiosity. Ellie watched as the boy did a sort of dance to keep the excited dog behind his legs and not wreaking havoc outside. Her eyes followed his gentle hands up to his curly light brown hair.

“Yeah, I...uh. My scarf.” Ellie cursed herself for messing this up before it even started.

He just stood there a moment, staring at her before he said, “Right, I think I have it. Come in.” He opened the door just wide enough for Ellie to squeeze through. She held her breath once she was inside and thought about the way each person’s house has a particular smell. This one smelled of dog, a cozy sweater, and of the boy she once loved.

The boy’s heart caved in on itself the moment he saw her. It had been months since they were with each other last, and it wasn’t exactly on good terms. The couple had often gone to each other’s houses for family dinners. As she shuffled past, Andrew couldn’t help but notice the way she smelled of her usual perfume, La vie Est Belle. He knew because he had purchased her a bottle of it for her birthday. And of course, there was no ignoring her dress. It was just her color, a rose red. It fit her perfectly, curving around her hips and cascading down her legs. She had bought it specifically for their third anniversary, and had always excitedly admitted she had the perfect shade of lipstick to match. He wondered why she had worn both today.

As Andrew closed the door, he turned around to see his dog Noodle running from the couch to the chair to the front door and back again. She seemed to be unable to contain her excitement upon seeing her old pal. He sighed, watching Ellie’s clear hazel eyes light up at seeing the familiar dog.

“She always liked you better than me.”

Ellie felt some of the tension lift. She knelt down in an attempt to calm the enthusiastic dog. It was true, after all. The spritely beagle would never even respond to Andrew if he was trying to get her to come back inside. However, Ellie would just have to call the dog’s name and she came running, in hopes of getting a treat in return.

“Well, Noodle was like, 80 percent the reason I ever came over anyway.” Ellie watched as Andrew appeared to allow a small chuckle come from his lips. She used to be so good at making him smile. Ellie remembered one day about a year ago when Andrew was having a particularly bad day. The two were still in school, and Andrew had just gotten a test back that he thought he had aced, when in reality his grade was a low C. On top of that, when he went back to his car, he found the entire passenger door had gotten scratched.

Ellie had already gotten done with her classes and decided to surprise her then boyfriend of two years. She went to the store and bought all of the ingredients for a homemade spaghetti sauce. She was going to make the sauce herself. By the time Andrew had texted her letting her know he was on his way home, the meal was nearly finished. She had waited at the elevator in her favorite flowery blue dress. It made her feel like she stood out among the gloomy depths of the fifth floor low-rent apartment building. Eventually his face appeared in the elevator doorway, and seeing it stretched Ellie’s lips to a smile. Before he could say anything, Ellie instructed he close his eyes, an order to which he complied.

Ellie led Andrew through the hallway, away from the elevator. Once they passed the perpetually flickering light, the musty, old hallway smell began to transform into something different. One passing by would be able to pick up the hunger-inducing smell of garlic, tomatoes, and warm bread.

“Ellie, what’s this?” Andrew said once they got into the apartment and opened his eyes, a smile on his face and in his voice.

“Let’s just say you have been dethroned as head chef of this household.” They both laughed, a fading sound in Ellie’s mind now. Her reverie was broken as Andrew’s melancholy voice gently pushed its way through her fading memories.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked, “I have water, Dr Pepper, tea…” Ellie followed him into the kitchen as she shook her head no. It was just a short walk to the right of the living room and through a wide, arched doorway.

Andrew nodded, and proceeded to take a soda out of the refrigerator for himself. He felt the cool crack of aluminum that matched the sharp noise the can made as he opened it. Taking a sip, he heard Ellie ask, “Where are your parents?”

He looked up and noted the way she did not sit down at the L-shaped countertop. Her shoes were still on, in fact.

After college, Andrew and Ellie had continued to live in the apartment they had rented together their junior year. It was to be the beginning of their adult lives, a humble start they would smile back at in the years to come. Soon after school ended, though, their relationship met its fate, and the two were left with the decision of who should leave. It didn’t take much convincing for Andrew to offer to move back in with his parents for a while. After all, Ellie had the place decorated the way she wanted and had recently gotten a substitute teacher job, so she’d have some income at least.

“They’re in Cedarburg for the weekend. It’s the Fall Festival.”

“Aww, I love Cedarburg. We sh-” Ellie caught herself before she finished. She had let her guard down. She would not be inviting the boy who broke her heart anywhere. There would be no more ‘we should’, only ‘we did’. The tension and awkwardness was driving Ellie crazy, so she reminded herself of the reason she had come. “So you said you have my scarf?” She asked, getting back on track.

“Right, yeah.” Andrew set down his Dr Pepper and Ellie turned around, about ready to leave.

When Ellie faced away from the counter, she stood looking over the yard through the screen door just past the kitchen table. The muted sunshine forced its way through the thick, looming clouds above. It was going to rain soon. Ellie started thinking about how she should have brought her raincoat, as her eyes travelled from the trembling leaves on the dozens of trees to the puzzle sitting on the kitchen table. The pieces were all scattered, so she couldn’t tell what the completed picture would be. She and Andrew always loved doing puzzles together. As she remembered it, her left hand floated out toward the table and grabbed one of the pieces.

It had been a snowy day, and both Ellie and Andrew decided the roads were too unsafe to drive on. That’s what they told themselves anyway, as they put on their robes and made some hot chocolate. The puzzle was of a flower garden, which made it exceedingly difficult to connect the various pieces due to so many colors that blended together. With the help of some snacks and Christmas movies playing in the background, they managed to complete the flower garden picture-- all except for one piece.

“No!” Ellie remembered exclaiming in frustration. “Are you kidding me right now?” Andrew just laughed, in his contagious throw-your-head-back, crinkled eyes sort of way. “What? We just spent forever on this.”

Andrew dramatically let out a breath of air and got up from the table. He meandered back toward the kitchen. Ellie stood up and felt her feet chill with each step she took on the cold tile.

“Well,” Andrew sighed, “Whatever shall we do?” He leaned against the countertop and crossed his arms. Ellie looked down to see a small piece of cardboard sticking out from between his thumb and forefinger. She scoffed and mock-punched him, but only before he entangled her into a big hug. This was where she loved to be, and felt safe in his strong arms. Ellie looked up into his sparkling eyes. Those damn eyes. They were whatever color they felt like being, but usually settled on a gray with a honey-gold ring around the edges. “It looks like I’m your missing piece.”

Ellie snapped herself back to reality. She mocked herself internally for how stupid she was making herself feel. Real life was not supposed to feel like a fairytale. It was supposed to be full of hardships and anger and slowly becoming more cynical as you grew older. She knew her memories were pleasant with the assistance of sentimentality. Yet somehow she kept herself thinking that happy times were all they shared together. She knew she had to stop lying to herself.

Meanwhile, Andrew walked the opposite direction of Ellie to get to the stairs leading to the basement. He skirted around Noodle, who found a half-eaten bone to keep herself busy with. The transition from the cold tile to the plushy carpet felt comforting, much like the scarf he was on his way to retrieve.

It smelled like her. That first week after the break-up, Andrew surrounded himself with the comfort of video games and junk food. He had been playing on his X-Box, letting his frustration with himself be taken out on a bunch of pixels, when a notification came up that his remote was almost dead. Andrew knew he didn’t have new batteries anywhere, so he looked around for his TV remote. After ages of skimming his clutter-filled room, he remembered it had fallen under his bed. Crawling on his knees, he slid some old scrapbooks and random pieces of paper out of the way to grab the remote, but was surprised when his hand touched a bit of fabric. He pulled it out and discovered Ellie’s scarf. It was meticulously hand-knitted. He thought he remembered her mentioning her grandmother being a knitter. It was a thick, sunset yellow scarf that smelled like Ellie and it broke Andrew.

All the previous days, he had been telling himself it was no big deal. Yet in that moment he let the tears fall. He felt so stupid. It was just a scarf. Not knowing what to do with it, he laid it in a drawer of his nightstand and continued his search for the TV remote.

Andrew blinked his memories away. He paused before opening his bedroom door. He took a deep breath in and braced himself before gripping the knob and turning.

“Hey baby,” He greeted the girl lying in his bed. He quietly shut the door behind him on his way in. “How are you feeling?”

The girl definitely did not look the best. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she was breathing through her mouth. She sniffled, her irritated red nose making a choppy gurgling sound. The garbage can next to her was filled with used tissues, and there was a Halloween movie playing on the TV across from the bed.

“I feel like trash,” She choked out.

Andrew sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the girl’s blonde hair, now pulled up into a loose bun.

“Oh man. You’re feeling pretty warm, Sarah. I’m making you soup, it should be done in a little bit.”

Sarah smiled weakly. “You’re so sweet, taking care of me like this.”

“I hate seeing you sick. I love you.”

Andrew looked into her dazzling eyes. They looked like the top of a mountain, shimmering and blue. He tried to appreciate them but felt his heart on fire. It slammed like a thousand horses stampeding around inside his chest. He knew he couldn’t stay in this moment any longer. “I’ll be back, just have to go check on the soup, and then we can watch Hocus Pocus together, okay?”

Walking around his bed to the nightstand, Andrew’s feet seemed to turn to lead yet his head was floating up in the clouds. He slid the drawer open and quickly grabbed the scarf, tucking it into his sweatshirt pocket.

Ellie soon heard footsteps coming up the staircase. She got up from the table and took one last look outside. The clouds had gone from ominous to angry and it began raining. The water fell heavily onto the ground, soaking everything not covered up. Ellie turned around when she heard Andrew approach. A flash of light and the loud boom of thunder that followed made them both jump.

She looked down as Andrew extended the scarf out to her. She was careful to take it without letting their hands touch, though some part of her wanted them to. She finally admitted to herself that she wanted Andrew to run his hands through her curly dark brown, almost black hair and pull her into his chest in an embrace. But she couldn’t want that. She needed to know something first.

“Andrew,” She started, “Why did you do it?”

This question paralyzed Andrew. He thought he could get through this pain-filled interaction without talking about it. His already pounding heart now shuttered cold, the icy chill filling his whole body.

“Wh-Why did I do what?” He fully knew what she was asking. He could never bring himself to think about the pain he caused the one he loved.

Ellie rolled her eyes. Patience wearing thin, she gripped the wool of her scarf tighter.

“Why did you cheat on me?” Her voice cracked midway through the sentence. Even after the time had passed, she still found it difficult to say outloud.

The day it happened started like any other. It was a Saturday. Ellie and Andrew both had to work. Ellie was surprised when she got back to their apartment and Andrew wasn’t there yet. She thought he had gotten off before she did.

Exhausted from eight long hours of  being a waitress and serving rude customers, she decided to just flop on the couch and look at her phone while watching some TV. Apparently she had fallen asleep without realizing. Eventually Ellie woke to the warmth of a blanket and the sight of Andrew sitting on the chair to the right of her.

“Hey sweetie,” She said groggily. Andrew didn’t smile when she looked at him. He didn’t even look back at her. His eyes were glued to a spot on the ground. “Andrew what’s wrong?”

“Elizabeth.” His voice sounded weak and coarse. “We need to talk.”

Her heart quickened at his words. First of all, the phrase he finished with is never a good one to hear. Second, Andrew never called her by her full name. She pushed the blanket away and sat up. “Yeah? What’s up?”

“I don’t love you anymore.”

Those words made Ellie feel like not only her heart, but her whole body shattered. The conversation that followed was a soft one that turned into a screaming match. She knew Andrew’s method of dealing with his feelings. He had to say the most hurtful thing he could think of so he didn’t have to face the truth. After some time, Ellie was able to push it out of him. He had been seeing a girl he met at school in secret for two months.

He cried in pity of himself. She cried in mourning of the perfect picture they had created being ruined.

Even to this day, Andrew simply could not answer why he did it. Ellie stood in front of him, her hazel eyes pleading for answers.

“I...I don’t know.” Andrew managed to stammer out. The bad memories continued to flood Ellie’s mind. The lies. The secrets. Soon, she was fuming. A burst of lightning flashed through every window around them.

“That’s not good enough.” Ellie growled, her eyebrows pulled in low. She had had enough. Pushing past Andrew, she stormed towards the front door. Noodle wagged her tail and whimpered at the sound of thunder above.

“Ellie wait!” She could hear Andrew running toward her. She had her hand on the door but paused.

“What?”

“I still love you. And I am so sorry. I can’t say that enough. You were everything to me, and I screwed it all up.”

Ellie stood, staring into his eyes. She took a few deep breaths before saying, “Goodbye, Andrew.”

She held out her keys and ran out to her car. The key fob was broken so she had to insert the key into the door to unlock it. The rain soaked her hair and made it stick to the skin around her neck. Eventually, she made it inside her car.

Andrew stood staring at the door, letting his mind catch up with what his heart was  now feeling.

Ellie’s tears could compete with the pouring rain outside.

After about five minutes, Andrew turned and began heating up some soup.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Tomberlin has shared 'Wasted,' a lullaby-esque stunner about secrets that are hard to keep. Tomberlin engages in some clever wordplay as the song ambles along, each line bleeding into the next: “Can you tell the difference?/ I can tell the difference,” she sings. “Maybe you’re the difference/ Please don’t be indifferent/ I could make it different. "'Wasted’ was the most fun song to record. I brought the song with the guitar part and knew I wanted drums, but wasn’t sure what kind of beat I wanted,” Tomberlin said in a statement, continuing: "Alex played this drum beat for me and was all ‘kinda left field but maybe this would be cool.’ It took the song to a whole new level. Sad song or summer banger? You tell me. The video was made with the help of Busy Philipps (who directed) and Marc Silverstein (who shot it), who are more like family then friends at this point. I was quarantined with them and their girls in South Carolina and we came up with the idea and shot it in about 4 days on an iPhone." [via Stereogum]

With their debut EP Tell U set to land on October 30 via House Arrest, New Yorks’ Couch Prints - aka Jayanna Roberts, Brandon Tong, and Jacob Truax - have shared the video for the title track. “I wrote the first iteration of this track while living in Denver - I was working this job I hated and had this feeling that life was speeding by,” Brandon says of the new track. “I ended up moving to New York a few months later, and shortly after Jake came out from Paris to record some of the music we’d been collaborating on the past year. While he was [In Paris] he had worked on music with Jayanna, so he called her to come sing on the tracks. We showed her the tracks and immediately she was humming along and had this incredible tone and way of singing, so we started recording for ‘Tell U’ and finished it that night. With so many moving pieces coming together so serendipitously, the final song came to celebrate this feeling of transience and movement and leaving the past behind. When we gave the song to Mayachka for the music video, she took that wistful feeling and our experiences, and created a story about a supposed three-way love triangle between us - with all the romance and nostalgia of a 2000’s soap opera. It perfectly captured the melancholy and strangeness of our first year coming together.” [via DIY]

Setting her art rock-inspired single 'Battleship' against a stunning clip directed by Pete Majarich, the new one from Jordan Laser deserves all your attention. [via Happy Mag]

New Jersey-based artist PYNKIE releases lead single 'Personality' from her sophomore album #37 out October 16 via House Arrest. A self-proclaimed ode to divorce (more specifically Radice’s parents divorce), the track is as sharp and witty as you’d expect from PYNKIE. It possesses this off-kilter touch that we’ve seen her adopt since her self-released 2018 debut album neoteny. The track references specific interactions between PYNKIE’s parents as they fight over possessions in the messy divorce. Lines such as “Furniture, Furniture/Over my dead body” are sung with a delightfully naïve charm, effectively capturing the sometimes obliviousness or misunderstanding that children have when it comes to events of such grandeur. With its buoyant bassline, jangly guitars, stoic percussion and perfectly imperfect slacker vocals, 'Personality' is musically a raw joy to behold. It’s flawless in its mixture of the known and the unknown, expected and unexpected. Skilfully wrong-footing the listener by setting up expectations of direction and then changing at the last minute is something that PYNKIE excels at. Lo-fi ethics and embedded nostalgia have become a staple of her music. This 90s nostalgia also takes the main role in the accompanying Kelli McGuire-directed visuals. We see Radice with her hair in bunches, wearing chokers, double denim that’s been scrawled on in felt tip pen and jelly sandals. The lighting is soft yet colourful with a light fuzz that gives it a retro warmth to it, casting our minds back to childhood. With vibrant graphics breaking up the video, topped off with the karaoke-style lyrics at the bottom of the video, the effect is one of wistful fondness. With its combination of unadulterated playfulness, darker tones and gleefully childish sensibilities, 'Personality' speaks to a larger theme that will carry through the upcoming album #37. [via High Clouds]

No Joy releases the official music video for 'Dream Rats' from their album Motherhood which is out out. The video and track features frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz’s sister, Alissa, of deathcore supergroup Arch Enemy. The video also features an amazing duck named Success who is somewhat of a local celebrity in Montreal. The White-Gluz sisters want to take this opportunity to spotlight the Le Nichoir Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centre, a non-profit organization located in Hudson, Quebec. Their mission is to conserve wild birds as part of our natural heritage.

Actor and singer-songwriter Maya Hawke released album opener 'Generous Heart' as the final preview of her debut LP Blush, out now. A new interview with i-D reveals that 'Generous Heart' is one of Hawke's favourites from her record, and was created from a poem about love that she wrote as a senior in high school. Hawke also revealed the inspiration behind her debut album title to i-D, "I am a person who really struggles with embarrassment and shame, but it’s such a weird thing to talk about. There’s something embarrassing about even talking about being embarrassed. And the word blush, or blushing, to me is this sort of feminised take on embarrassment. Someone will be like, 'Oh it’s so cute, you’re blushing!' But on the inside, you’re dying. I liked the idea of taking this feminised word for shame, and making it the album title - because I struggle with both the feminisation of it, and the thing itself." She adds of the album, "Something that feels really important to me - and the record is sort of all about this - is how, even as you grow up and start to go through more 'adult' experiences, you’re still a kid. You’re still the same person that you always were. And so there’s the need to remember that throughline of your own humanity. I wanted to have those children’s voices to add a reminder of 'this might sound like a woman’s voice, but this whole childhood life is connected through all these stories'." [via Line Of Best Fit]

GRETA is making waves. The Copenhagen-based German musician - real name Greta Louise Schenk - has peppered 2020 with a string of superb singles, re-casting Nordic pop in a sci-fi gaze. Working towards her debut album, GRETA has been spending time in the studio with Farao, who has been producing those enormously imaginative sessions. New album Ardent Spring Part hits home on September 4, and it's led by the drifting future-facing pop of new single 'Again'. A gorgeous return, 'Again' is GRETA at her most defiant, an attempt to break out the cycles of behaviour that define us. She comments: "It's a song about the patterns we humans keep repeating even though we would like to break them. How we spend our entire life waiting for it to happen instead of living it." Stine Thorbøll directs the video, a tour de force of female Nordic talent that features the likes of Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff (Brimheim), Julie Christiansen (We are the way for the cosmos to know itself), Mary Jean Moore (MARY JEAN) and Luna Matz (Takykardia). GRETA explains... "The video for ‘Again’ is about a transition to something new and about preparing for that change. About being afraid of uncertainty, but finding strength in each other and oneself. It is about taking its place in the world. About strength and vulnerability. It is an invitation to be with everything you are and a promise that everything is more beautiful on the other side." Bold, and hugely imaginative, 'Again' seems to exist on its own terms, a defiantly independent piece of pop music. [via Clash]

Australian pop/R&B singer Clairy Browne is making her return to 2020 with her dance-worthy hit, 'Not The Only'. Drenched in glamour and extravagance, Browne has dropped an atmospheric tune with anthemic hooks and enthralling choruses. 'Not The Only' signals a new chapter for the artist as she breaks away from her kitsch retro-pop sound and explores a new neon-tinged soundscape. The songwriter is gearing up to release her next EP ANGEL later on this year and we’re curious to see what else she’s got in store for us. [via Wonderland]

In these dark and uncertain times, there’s no arguing that we need some relief, and fast. And one act giving us an instant burst of feel-good energy and sonic elation is MRCH with their glittering electronic number 'I Like You'. Drenched in optimism and bouncing into life with retro 80s-style synths, undulating rhythms and ethereal vocal hooks, the Phoenix-hailed duo – made up of Mickey and Jesse Pangburn – are lifting spirits with the synth-pop dance floor filler. The track is the first offering from their forthcoming new EP, out later this year – and has fans excited for their usual riveting live performances when life resumes. The visuals are a trippy retro throwback with the pair bopping and jamming, and making us miss a full throttle hedonistic night out. “Making songs is how we tell ourselves we aren’t alone, and hopefully how we tell other people they aren’t alone either,” explains Mickey. “Ironically, the hardest year for us has produced perhaps the cheeriest of MRCH songs, and absolutely one of our favourites.” [via Wonderland]

The artist Elohim has been an enigma since she first broke on the scene a half decade ago. She's since stepped out from behind the anonymous persona she originally crafted, and through her tender exploration of mental illness in her art, has reached millions of fans — proving true authenticity has no labels. The Los Angeles-based artist and producer was in the midst of her headlining Group Therapy Tour when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and like so many artists, she had to step back from performing live. But she quickly recalibrated and has been performing live from her home studio — and also working on the visuals for her single, 'I'm Lost.' The supremely trippy, Chase O'Black video captures the surreal experience of dissociating — something Elohim says she's been experiencing she was 7-years-old. "A lot of the art I create is speaking about these experiences (i.e. hallucinating)," Elohim tells NYLON. "'I'm Lost' examines this part of my brain, which is something difficult to put into words, so we decided to share this experience through surreality in the desert. Creating this new music filled my life with the most freeing moments, and making this video felt similar." Take a trip with Elohim to the California desert (and the infamous Slab City — an ideal setting for any artist on an inward journey) with the 'I'm Lost' video [via NYLON]

Australian pop extroverts Confidence Man return with new single 'First Class Bitch'. The band's extra-dimensional pop activities are the stuff of legend, with their lysergic live shows infused with glorious ear-worm melodies. New single 'First Class Bitch' injects some Confidence Man energy into this quarantine summer, and it's a dazzling return. The central hook is worthy of a Charli XCX project, with the neat, acid house leaning production tapping into the buoyancy of their famed live shows. Singer Janet Planet explains that the title 'First Class Bitch' actually has its origins in London. She comments... “I'd been thinking about this for a while now... It all started in London, when I saw a pair of socks with the words 'first class bitch' embroidered on them, hanging in a shop front window. I suddenly realised, I too was a first class bitch. I rushed back to the penthouse and penned this hit. Ever wondered what you hear when you die? This is it.” [via Clash]

[onestowatch]

The 15 Most Important Albums of the 2010s

From emo lofi vaporwave to another genre category that I cannot tell if Spotify is making up just to mess with me, music in the 2010s sounded more varied than ever before. Artists, mainstream and bedroom-produced alike, gave way to strict stylistic and genre conventions, ushering in a generation of music that is best described as multi-hyphenate. So, rather than end the year and decade fighting amongst ourselves as to who did what best, we wanted to take the time to reflect on a collection of albums that stood out amongst their cohorts.

These are 15 of the most important albums of the last decade. Without them, the 2010s would have sounded and looked a whole lot different. 

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

The idea of choosing a single Kendrick Lamar album as his most important body of work can at times feel like a fool’s errand. How do you deny the raw, unfiltered power of Section.80? The haunting reality of good kid, m.A.A.D city? The beauty found in the unexplored notes of untitled unmastered.? The life lived and lost in DAMN.? Maybe it is a fool’s errand, but To Pimp a Butterfly arguably saw Lamar at his peak, reigniting hip-hop’s long-held love affair with the sounds of funk, soul, and most notably, jazz through a story that explores themes of African-American culture, institutionalized discrimination, and racial inequality.   

Mac DeMarco - 2

By no means did Mac Demarco invent indie music, but modern-day indie music would likely not sound or look the same without him. The release of his 2012 sophomore album 2 arrived as a collection of lofi soft rock jams, but it was the standout single “Ode to Viceroy” that really cemented his place as indie music’s cool uncle. And while albums like Salad Days and Another One would see him refining his trademark sound and exploring weightier themes, it was 2 that paved the way for both DeMarco and for indie music to flourish in the coming years.

BTS - Love Yourself: Tear

A lot came and went with the 2010s, but few things brought as much staying power as K-pop. Now one of the most successful commercial genres in the world, it was BTS that served as the initial test to see if K-pop could really leave its impact on Western audiences. First making their debut in 2013, it was their 2018 concept album Love Yourself: Tear that would earn them their first spot atop the US Billboard 200, as well as making them the first Korean act to ever have an album top the Billboard charts. BTS kicked off K-pop’s global takeover in glorious fashion.

Kanye West - YEEZUS

By all accounts, YEEZUS is not Kanye West’s best album, of his career or this decade for the matter. But what it is, is the start of a figure who, for better or worse, grew beyond the realm of rap superstar and into a larger-than-life figure. YEEZUS was the beginning of a decade that would see West pushing the boundaries of his artistic genius, his role as a public figure, and questioning whether society was willing to and should separate the man from the art, the genius from the person.

Flume - Flume

The 2010s marked an electronic music boom. With festivals, from Coachella to Lollapalooza, booking more and more DJs each year, skeptics hailed it as a bubble soon to burst. In reality, it was more of a fizzle that saw EDM carving out its own seemingly-permanent niche in the music landscape. Amidst that boom, we were introduced to one Harley Edward Streten. More popularly known as Flume, his 2012 debut solo project launched his career and ushered in a wave of more subdued, adventurous future house.

ANHONI - HOPELESSNESS

No album touched upon the atrocities of our war-torn reality quite like ANOHNI’s 2016 debut album HOPELESSNESS. Produced by Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke, HOPELESSNESS is a dark experimental electronic project that does not shy away from its difficult subject matter. Rather, it parades them for all to see in haunting, angelic fashion. A world on the brink of an environmental crisis, drone warfare under the Obama administration, capital punishment, and constant government surveillance all lay the groundwork for one of the most provocative and important protest albums of the 2010s.

Frank Ocean - Blonde

Plain and simple, there is no creative out there like Frank Ocean, and his sophomore album Blonde may just be the best album of the decade. Blonde saw an Ocean unrestrained, freed from an unsavory record label deal and genre conventions. Not quite an R&B or pop album, Ocean’s sophomore effort is akin to gently floating through the inner-psyche of this idiosyncratic creative. From unexpected voicemails to space-age melodies that drift into nothingness, Blonde is Ocean’s best work to date and a high point for music as a whole.

Lil Peep - Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2

The world has not been kind to emo rap or its brightest stars. 2017 saw the loss of Lil Peep. 2018 saw the loss of XXXTentacion. And most recently, 2019 saw the loss of Juice WRLD. Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2, the first posthumous and final album from Lil Peep, is a heartbreaking portrait of the star that could have been. More than anything, it sounds like the beginning of a dialogue we need to start having about how do we help and protect artists at their most fragile and broken?

Grimes - Visions

Grimes gave credence to the term bedroom pop before it become a hackneyed blanket term for indie pop as a whole. Before she was an art pop purveyor or dating a tech mogul with dreams of space travel, she was an artist out of Montreal who found her footing going viral on Myspace. Blending the leftfield pop approach of Björk, experimental electronica honed during her time spent playing raves in Canada, and a knack for Logic, we were gifted with Grimes’ 2012 breakout project Visions and its alien hit “Oblivion.” It is difficult to imagine 2019’s wave of bedroom pop and anti-pop existing without Grimes’ Visions to demonstrate the worlds you can create within your cramped bedroom walls.

Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy

If not for the release of IGOR, Flower Boy could have easily stood the test of time as Tyler, the Creator’s magnum opus. An earth-shattering project that saw Tyler examining themes of isolation, identity, and his own sexuality, it felt like listening to the birth of a whole new artist. And in many ways, it was. Flower Boy was Tyler’s first step into exploring the limits of his creative depth, sonically and artistically. This was the birth of one of the most innovative and fascinating creative minds of our generation.

Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO?

Billie Eilish may just be the most famous person on the planet. The pop prodigy had the eyes of the world on her before she turned 18. Suffice it to say, it would be an understatement to say that the pressure and expectations surrounding her debut album were monumental. The result? An immaculately produced piece of dark pop that saw a Takashi Murakami collaboration and proved pop stars are getting younger and younger and better and better.

88rising - Head In The Clouds

Hybrid management, record label, video production, and marketing company 88rising is bringing Asian voices into the mainstream. A powerhouse of creatives that features the likes of Joji, Rich Brian, NIKI, Higher Brothers, AUGUST 08, and more, 88rising is a veritable cultural phenomenon. That growing phenomenon was captured in full on their debut crew album, which demonstrates the collective’s range across R&B, hip-hop, and beyond. Head In The Clouds is an embodiment of the exact kind of Asian representation we need to be seeing in the music industry at large.

Beyoncé - HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM

Beyoncé’s Lemonade may be her opus, but HOMECOMING is her raison d’être. Recorded live at Coachella in 2018, the live album signaled a landmark in black excellence. HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM is the sonic telling of the black college experience, the story of the first black woman to ever headline America’s largest music festival, and an ongoing chapter of the power of black feminism. Beychella was awe-inspiring and nothing quite captures the historic experience as excellently as HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM.  

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

There is no denying that streaming is king. Whether that means the end of artists being able to make a living from their music is still out for debate, but one artist in particular who has benefited from music’s streaming globalization is undeniably Chance the Rapper. Releasing all of his projects either free on Soundcloud or as digital-only mixtapes, Chicago’s native son may just be the only reason the aforementioned Soundcloud still exists. And while Acid Rap first illustrated exactly what Chance could do on his own, it was Coloring Book that finally made the music industry at large pay attention, netting him the first-ever streaming-only album to ever win a Grammy.

BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION III

The Saturation trilogy is the story of how a group of teenagers went from meeting online over a shared love of Kanye West to becoming America’s favorite boyband. It is a trilogy of unabashed creativity paired with an unmatched drive that showcases BROCKHAMPTON at their highest and lowest. The pinnacle of this journey arrives in the conclusion and ensuing climax that is SATURATION III, which turned the cult sensation into an international one. Now, with 2020 around the corner, the departure of Ameer Vann, who adorns the cover art of each part of the trilogy, Saturation stands as a crystallization of the journey BROCKHAMPTON has taken to make it to this point.

Additionally...

Various Artists - 7-Inches for Planned Parenthood

The most important albums are those that leave their mark long after a single listen, whether that be in their lasting influence or through a salient, real-world impact.

This project is a chance for artists and fans to take meaningful action to protect access to health care for millions of women, men and young people. We hope to further Planned Parenthood’s mission to build a world where we all have full control over our own bodies and can determine our own destinies - regardless of race, immigration status, socioeconomic status, gender identity, or sexual orientation. It’s writers, artists, musicians, comedians, visual artists, and other public thinkers - all making something together in support of health care and human rights.

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: Museum Punk Show in Need of A Sound Guy

Gardar Eide Einarsson, “Always Carry A Bible / All Cops Are Bastards,” 2007

Punk. Sus rastros en el arte contemporáneo Museo Universitario del Chopo Curated by David G. Torres Until March 26th, 2017

Featuring: Tere Recarens, Martin Arnold, Johan Grimonprez, Federico Solmi, Dan Graham, T.R Uthco, Ant Farm, María Pratts, Iztiar Okariz, Chiara Fumai, Raisa Maudit, Fabienne Audéoud, Eduardo Balanza, TRES, Raymond Pettibon, Die Tödliche Doris, Mabel Palacín, Christian Marclay, Guerrilla Girls, Brice Dellsperger, Jordi Colomer, Pepo Salazar, Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Jota Izquierdo, Israel Martínez, Aida Ruilova, Antonio Ortega, Luis Felipe Ortega, Daniel Guzmán, Jimmie Durham, Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler, João Louro, Paul McCarthy, João Onofre, Santiago Sierra, Yoshua Okon, Miguel Calderón, Nan Goldin, Enrique Jezik, Guillermo Santamarina, VALIE EXPORT, Kendell Geers, Laureana Toledo, Sarah Minter, Semefo, DR. LAKRA, Gardar Eide Einarsson.

MEXICO CITY– I’m struggling to watch Aïda Ruilova’s 2009 video “Meet the Eye,” in which the actress Karen Black alternately attempts to seduce and crazily berate Raymond Pettibon between rapid edits. She’s wearing babydoll-style makeup, which gives her a subtly Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? vibe, and I’m hooked to the melodrama. But I have no idea what the argument is about, because I can barely hear the audio track over the sound of gunshots, a faint electroclash song playing somewhere, countless indistinguishable noises, and the invitation “Let’s go for it!” being repeated in a grating child’s voice.

The gallery is an ADHD nightmare. It contains not one, but two talking Mike Kelley works and several videos by other artists. In one, the Spanish performance artist Itziar Okariz is pissing on a parked car in the middle of New York City. On the other (source of the electroclash track) I catch a glimpse of what appears to be a dead-eyed princess dripping with cum.

By the time I turn back to Ruilova’s piece the loop has ended. My questions are unanswered. The curatorial strategy here leaves me with so many more.  

From Raisa Maudit’s 2012 “FART: Global Art Fair”

Punk. Sus rastros en el arte contemporáneo, now on view at Museo Universitario Del Chopo, is sort of a mess. That’s not to say the work here isn’t good—it’s great—but the show is an overwhelming, over-stimulating experience that’s often draining when it should be wholly inspiring. I can’t think of another exhibition I’ve been to in which I’ve loved nearly every artwork yet couldn’t wait to get the hell out of each gallery. Maybe that abrasiveness is deliberate? The experience did, after all, remind me of trying to have one-on-one conversations with dear friends while a noise musician performs on the other side of a party in a squat. If the past 35 years have rendered audiences numb to “shocking” artworks, perhaps subverting museum-caliber curatorial conventions is the last punk gesture.

That’s a thought I might not have had, were it not for the fact that (I think) I entered the exhibition backwards. The galleries are stacked in a concrete box addition inside the museum—an airy 1902 glass pavilion that, appropriately, was home to Mexico’s famous punk market “El Chopo” until the late 80s. I started from the top floor, the library, where punk memorabilia is arranged in vitrines, more or less chronologically alongside didactic text. This part of the exhibition, at least for me, was surprisingly enjoyable. The text places punk in an art historical context, citing Dada, the Situationists, John Waters’ films, and Warhol’s factory as conceptual forefathers. Alongside the familiar narratives of the CBGBs scene and parallels in London, the curators discuss Spain’s Movida Madrileña—one of my favorite, under-historicized moments in subculture—the Spanish-speaking world’s more recent equivalent of the experimental Weimar Republic years. I got an undeniable thrill from seeing a video of all-female Basque punk band Las Vulpess’ cover of “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” enshrined in a museum (in Spanish, the song translates to “I like being a slut”, and its broadcast on television sparked a debate about censorship, gender, and “decency” in Spain’s relatively new socialist democracy). From photos of drag icon Divine to punk band Eskorbuto, never had I felt more cool nerding out in a museum. Importantly, the show ties the influence of both European and anglophone punk to Mexican subculture in the 80s and 90s. That’s a topic I’m glad the show gave me an introduction to. (Indeed, I’d like to revisit Sarah Minter’s hour-long video “Alma Punk” from 1992 in a less overwhelming context. It’s a candid DIY document of Mexico’s punk scene from that era.)

Enrique Ježik, “La fiesta de las balas,” (The Bullet Party) 2011.

If the academic and “precious” vitrines of punk history and artifacts were unexpected, the gallery beneath it seemed like a contemporary assault on the culture of display—quite literally. The aforementioned gunshot sounds are from an Enrique Ježik sculpture, “La fiesta de las balas,” 2011. The piece comprises three bulletproof glass display cases, evocative of Damien Hirst works, riddled with craters from bullets. They’re installed in their own room, like a shooting range, but the sound from the shooting recording reverberates through half the museum. The piece stuck with me beyond my initial reaction (a teen boy destruction fantasy) as a commentary on both the cult of art object worship, and the futility of resisting it. Like Warhol’s “Shot Marilyns”, the piece’s value lies in it doubling as a record of the violence committed against it.

But “La Fiesta de las balas” also points to two of the exhibition’s most glaring problems: it’s one of the few works here that actually should be experienced as a physical object, and it’s loud as hell. There are only a few other sculptural works in the show, and at least half of them involve an audio or video component that’s competing with other sounds in an echoey gallery.

Still from Brice Dellsperger’s “Body Double 16“

And sound is a big, big problem for a show that’s overwhelmingly based on video. Don’t get me wrong: nearly every video here is fantastic. I spent untold hours diligently viewing relatively short works such as Raisa Maudit’s 2012 “FART: Global Art Fair” (in which the artist parodies the gallery/artist relationship in a tiara and semen during a fake interview with herself) or Ant Farm’s 1975 “The Eternal Frame,” in which the artists reenact the assassination of JFK, complete with drag Jackie O. But in such a busy exhibition, to expect visitors to sit through Dan Graham’s hour-long “Rock my Religion” is asking a bit much. If you’re curating a program with more time-based-media than a museum has hours, perhaps a gallery exhibition isn’t the way to go. I couldn’t shake the impression that Punk would’ve made a fantastic screening series and publication, with perhaps a much leaner gallery install where noise-emitting sculptures had more space to breathe. It felt like a missed opportunity for content with so much potential for event-based programming and critical writing—especially considering the museum has its own movie theater.

It’s frustrating to view video works when they’re all looping at different rates in a gallery context. There’s a rich history of subversive cinema as a collective viewing experience, and so many of these works would be better on the big screen. I am thinking especially of Brice Dellsperger’s “Body Double 16.” It’s short, but screams for cinematic treatment. In the piece, Dellsperger assumes a variety of characters in drag, committing various acts of violence against the other characters he’s also playing. The artist recreates scenes from A Clockwork Orange and Ken Russell’s Women In Love with surprisingly beautiful cinematography that makes the punk/masochistic content so much stranger. 

Pepo Salazar, “Yoga Alliance,” 2015.

It’s one of many highlights lining the ramp gallery (which is either the entrance or exit, depending on the route one takes). There’s really too much excellent work here to talk about it all—but I’d be remiss for neglecting Pepo Salazar’s assemblage “Yoga Alliance,” which is arguably one of my favorite artworks of the past few years. It comprises a digital print of bald Britney Spears, from her very public meltdown a decade ago, and a black wig hanging from the piece. It has a very “Punk’s not dead” (rather lurking in unexpected places) vibe, and the physical wig almost reads like an invitation to the viewer to join in the rebellion.

Install view with Die Tödliche Doris, “Das Leben des Sid Vicious,” 1981 (L); Christian Marclay, “Record Players,” 1983-84; and Guillermo Santamarina, “Frei vom jedem Schaden!” installation of albums thrown like a discus at the wall in the background.

Descending the ramp, through more video projections, the last piece I encountered (or the first for viewers who start from the bottom up) was Catalan artist Jordi Colomer’s “No Future.” The video follows an old car mounted with an electric sign bearing the titular text as it drives across European cities. The piece is from 2006, and as the “NO? FUTURE!” message crossed a likely expensive, Calatrava-looking bridge, it felt eerily prescient. Filmed just before the global recession and the political turmoil that ensued, Colomer seemed to know that punk would suddenly become relevant anew. If The Decline of Western Civilization is accelerating, at least somebody is still having a little fun while we’re along for the ride.

Jordi-Colomer-No-Future-2006

  from Art F City http://ift.tt/2lEylVI via IFTTT

[lindyhunt]

14 Copywriting Examples From Businesses With Incredible Copywriters

You all know the Old Spice guy, right?

The years-old "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was memorable for many reasons, but one of them was that it gave Old Spice a voice -- voice that came through in every video, commercial, tagline, Facebook update, tweet ... you name it.

And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral?

Copywriters. The ability to find the exact right words to tell your company's story isn't an easy feat, and it's even harder to do so consistently.

So when we come across companies that are doing it successfully, we think their copywriters deserve a pat on the back (and a raise?). Take a look at some of the companies we think have stellar copywriting, and if you're looking, maybe get some inspiration for your own brand, too.

Copywriting Examples

UrbanDaddy

Articulate

Moosejaw

First Round Capital

Trello

Velocity Partners

Intrepid Travel

Cultivated Wit

Cards Against Humanity

R/GA

innocent

GymIt

ModCloth

Ann Handley

1. UrbanDaddy

UrbanDaddy has mastered the art of getting me to open emails. And when I click into them, they don't disappoint.

Below is the copy from an email they sent me with the subject line, "Fun."

There are a couple things in this email that caught my eye.

First of all, there's no long preamble. The writers get straight to the point -- a wise choice for something as simple as a rubber band gun lest the reader feel cheated reading sentence after sentence for something so common.

Secondly, take a look at the purposeful sentence structure. This copywriter eschews conventional grammar rules by combining run-on sentences and traditional product promotion copy in sentences like:

Lock and load with Elastic Precision, a Kansas City-based workshop that manufactures high-powered weaponry except not at all because they actually just shoot rubber bands, now available online."

Keep reading, and you see a conversational tone that mildly mocks the silliness of the product, but also loops the reader in on something kinda fun.

And then, of course, they close with badgers. And how can you go wrong with badgers?

Best of all, UrbanDaddy's unique tone is found in every single piece of copy they publish -- from emails, to homepage copy, even to their editorial policy:

This company clearly knows its audience, which jokes to crack, and has kept it consistent across all their assets.

2. Articulate

Articulate, a HubSpot Agency Partner based in the U.K., is an inbound marketing agency, and their website copy is full of witty, confident copy on pages where you wouldn't think you'd find it. Here's exhibit 'A':

The copy above introduces Articulate's "Meet the Team" page -- not a page you'd think can pull off witty copy, right? Well, Articulate's page goes beyond employee photos and their job titles.

In addition to the playful header, "not the usual blah blah," the copy above takes on a farm theme, assuring visitors that employees aren't simply "caged hens." Rather, they're a "free-range, artisanal, cruelty-free team." Funny on the surface, but helpful to job seekers who, much like food, want to know where their work comes from and how it's made.

3. Moosejaw

Not many brands are brave enough to touch the products they're selling with unconventional copy ... but Moosejaw isn't afraid to have a little fun.

The outdoor apparel outlet store uses humor as a way to sell their products without being overly forward about it. By appealing to people's emotions, they're more engaging and memorable.

Here are a few examples:

Same goes for the call-to-action buttons that show up when you hover your mouse over a product photo -- like this one, which reads, "Look This Cool."

Does their brand voice carry over to the product descriptions, you ask? See for yourself:

If you think the brilliant copy stops at their homepage, think again. They extend it to their return policy, too. Here, they do a great job of not sacrificing clarity for humor. Their copywriters successfully made people laugh while still being helpful.

4. First Round Capital

While a sign of great copywriting is making people smile, another is making people feel understood. The copywriters at First Round do a phenomenal job at letting the value of their offerings for their customers sell themselves.

For example, they hold over 80 events every year connecting their community together. Instead of just explaining that they have events and then listing them out, they begin that section of their website with a simple statement that hits close to home with many entrepreneurs: "Starting a company is lonely."

Using words like "imperfect," "safety net," and "vulnerable" encourages readers to let their guards down and feel understood by the brand and their community.

Plus, you've gotta love that last line about stick-on name tags. Those things get stuck in my hair.

5. Trello

Do you know what Trello is? If the answer is no, then behold the copywriting on their website. Their product description -- like most of the copy on their site -- is crystal clear:

And then check out how clear this explainer content is:

Some of the use case clarity can be attributed to how smart the product is, but I think copywriters deserve some credit for communicating it clearly, too. They call it like it is, which ultimately makes it really easy to grasp.

And I couldn't write about the copywriting talent at Trello without including the clever references in the microcopy of their login page:

Each time you refresh the login page, you see a different, equally clever example email belonging to a fictional character, like Ender from Ender's Game and Dana Scully from The X-Files -- a great example of nostalgia marketing. This is a small detail, but nonetheless a reminder that there are real humans behind the website and product's design. Delightful microcopy like this kinda feels like I just shared a private joke with someone at the company.

6. Velocity Partners

No post from me about excellent copywriting would be complete without mentioning the folks at Velocity Partners. A B2B marketing agency out of the U.K., we've featured co-founder Doug Kessler's SlideShares (like this one on why marketers need to rise above the deluge of "crappy" content) time and again on this blog because he's the master of word economy.

What is "word economy"? It's taking care that every word you use is the right word. It means getting your point across concisely and not dwelling on the details when you don't have to. In a world of shortening attention spans, this is the ultimate goal when communicating your message.

And since we're talking about word economy, I'll shut up and let you check out one of Kessler's SlideShares for yourself:

Source: Velocity Partners

Whereas SlideShares are typically visual, Kessler's is heavily focused on copy: The design stays constant, and only the text changes. But the copy is engaging and compelling enough for him to pull that off. Why? Because he uses simple words so his readers understand what he's trying to say without any effort. He writes like he speaks, and it reads like a story, making it easy to flip through in SlideShare form.

The copy on Velocity Partners' homepage stood out to me, too. Check out, for example, how humble they are when introducing their case studies:

I also like how casual and honest they kept their email subscription call-to-action. The header is especially eye-catching -- and it plays off of the popular SlideShare about crappy content we mentioned earlier.

In fact, Velocity Partners' Harendra Kapur recently wrote a blog post on what goes in to great B2B writing -- starting with this disclaimer, of course.

7. Intrepid Travel

The copywriters at Intrepid Travel, a Melbourne-based adventure travel company, are on this list because they're at the intersection of interesting and informational.

I love seeing copy that is totally and utterly functional -- that delivers critical information, but is so pleasant to read that you actually keep reading. Quite a feat on the internet these days.

Take a look at their company description, package names, and package descriptions below for some examples of this fantastically functional copywriting in action:

Of course, they do benefit from quite a lovely subject matter, but still -- hats off you to, Intrepid Travel.

8. Cultivated Wit

The copywriters over at the "comedy company" Cultivated Wit do a great job of embracing their own brand of quirk throughout their site. They already have one of the best "About" pages in the game, but their delightful copy is spread throughout their site -- sometimes in the most unexpected of places.

For example, take a look at the copy around contact information at the very bottom of their homepage:

This section of the homepage is an afterthought at best for most companies. But for these folks, it was an opportunity to have a little fun.

They also have two, unique email subscription calls-to-action on different pages of their website. They're very different, but both equally funny and delightful. Here's one from the homepage:

And one from the "About" page:

9. Cards Against Humanity

You may or may not be familiar with Cards Against Humanity, the self-declared "party game for horrible people." It's a card game -- one that's simultaneously entertaining and inappropriate. The copywriting on the cards themselves are guaranteed to make you laugh.

The brand voice is very distinctive, and can seem a little abrasive, and even a little offensive. But that's their whole shtick: They're not trying to appeal to everyone, and that's perfectly okay. What they do do a great job of doing is appealing to their target audience.

One look at their FAQ page and you'll see what I mean:

Here's a sneak peek into some of the answers to these questions. You'll see they make fun of both themselves and the reader -- which is exactly what the card game is about.

10. R/GA

With the exception or UrbanDaddy, I've been focusing a lot on site copy so far, so I wanted to check out some examples of excellent social media copywriting.

I know you all like to see some more B2B examples in here, too, so I surfaced one of the best examples of the holy grail: Twitter copy, from a B2B company, that's funny. Behold, some recent highlights from the R/GA Twitter account:

HOW CAN I RELAX WITH ALL THESE WEEDS pic.twitter.com/T1x78HnPhr

— R/GA (@RGA) May 24, 2016

Your extended family going all caps with the Facebook posts like, hey we're all just people here and I've got some OPINIONS

— R/GA (@RGA) May 24, 2016

Imagine living in a time when horrible music wasn't pumped into every square inch of public/commercial space.

— R/GA (@RGA) May 19, 2016

Just saw a list of top tech talent referred to as "poachables," which sounds delicious. Like sophisticated Lunchables.

— R/GA (@RGA) May 16, 2016

If only audience segments knew how they were referred to in strategy decks.

— R/GA (@RGA) May 11, 2016

11. innocent

Check out U.K.-based drink makers innocent, and you'll see a language, style, and tone that matches their philosophy, product, and even their branding and design. It's all just clean, straightforward, and simple. And believe it or not, simple is a really, really hard thing to nail in copywriting.

This stands out best on their "Things We Make" page. (Isn't that page name even beautifully simple?)

This same straightforward-but-charming copywriting philosophy extends to their site navigation:

Their meta description is pretty awesome, too:

And my personal favorite:

12. GymIt

I've always loved the copy at GymIt. In fact, I check their site and social profiles all the time to see if they've freshened anything up. Luckily, they're no one-trick pony. They continue to keep their site fresh with captivating copy.

Here are some of my favorites, all of which hit on the pain points of gym-goers that they try to solve -- and actually do solve with their customer-friendly policies.

I can vouch for that one. I know how much of a hassle it is to move far away from your gym -- and how refreshing it must be to be able to walk in and just ... quit.

All of this rolls up to their philosophy, espoused eloquently on their "About" page, that gyms should just be about working out:

Talk about having an understanding of their core audience. The copy both in its value proposition and across its marketing materials reflects a deep understanding of their customers.

And how did their copywriters choose to make sure everyone knew what this new gym franchise was about if they didn't read that "About" page? This tagline:

Doesn't get much clearer than that.

13. ModCloth

ModCloth is a brand that has always had an excellent grasp of their buyer persona, and it comes through in their pun-filled copywriting. All of their products are silly plays on words -- check out this screen grab of some of their new arrivals, for example:

Dive into their product description copy, and it's equally joyous, evocative, and clever -- just like their customers. Often, it'll also tell the story of what you'll do while wearing their items:

After reading their descriptions, one can imagine what their life would be like if they owned this product. That's Copywriting 101, but so few brands can actually pull it off like the folks at ModCloth do.

14. Ann Handley

When it comes to building up your own personal brand, it can be easy to get a little too self-promotional. That's where the copywriting on your site can make a big difference.

On Ann Handley's personal website, she added bits of microcopy that shows, despite her many accomplishments (like being a best-selling author and award-winning speaker), that she still doesn't take herself too seriously.

Check out her email subscription call-to-action, for example:

Anyone can be a successful copywriter with the right brand voice -- and a little editorial guidance along the way. Want to learn how to write awesome copy for your business? Grab the free ebook below. 

[derkastellan]

Musings: Staying on-topic in setting design

I gave myself the time to read some RPG products, and I ended up in the genre of horror science fiction. I have an enormous backlog of products I have bought over the years but haven’t read, and so I simply picked some - Jovian Nightmares (for Call of Cthulhu), Eldritch Skies (for Savage Worlds), and Shadows Over Soul (especially Siren’s Call but also all supplements, for Saga Machine). Let me say I enjoyed the last series of products so much I basically have not found time to delve deeper into Eldritch Skies.

Jovian Nightmares introduces itself as a supplement for Cthulhu Rising, itself a setting supplement for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It focuses on “Circum-Jove”, the Jupiter system. Since Jupiter is a gas giant science fiction settings usually focus on the colonization of its moons, or in rarer cases, interaction with Jupiter’s upper atmospheric layers.

Ever since reading the Buck Rogers XXVc roleplaying game in the early 90s Jupiter (and by extension Saturn) have fascinated me. The excellent material from the game box was evoking and interesting, and the distant world of moons and moonlets have kept drawing me back in over the years. So when I saw this supplement, I simply grabbed it. Also, a book can do worse to get my attention than having a dead astronaut on its cover.

So, this started me on the path to reading a bit of sci-fi. (Spoilers ahead, so ye be warned.)

The Jovian Nightmares setting is well-detailed, and you have to read quite a while to notice how the setting misses the mark. Practically all of the book is simply a science fiction setting supplement - and while interesting enough (more about that in a moment) it lacks one thing: Lovecraftian horror. Given it being advertised as “nightmares” this seems surprising. You might miss it if you’re not inclined to look for it. 

The book contains 5 pages of setting secrets, several of which are repetitive paragraphs. Your mileage may vary, but almost without fail I have ended up being disappointed in products that feature a few pages of setting secrets. Almost invariably these come down to a paragraph or two per setting secret and end up not being very evocative, leaving the job almost entirely to the GM. Jovian Nightmares is a bit better than that, but the reality of it all is that its setting secrets are almost entirely useless.

A setting secret must not be “too secret.” Yet some of the secrets have no impact on gameplay by themselves. Who cares what lies at the heart of Jupiter? Or what is the reason for the Great Red Spot? We all do, but the players won’t care because the way the book establishes things they won’t ever find out. It’s useless information. The book also refuses to innovate in terms of Lovecraftian horrors, either repeating same-ol’-same-ol’ by parading out Mi-Go doing Mi-Go things (yes, they still put brains in jars in the 23rd century... we can only assume it’s a fetish), and some randomly tied-in Fire Vampires, Colors-Out-Of-Space, some Deep Ones, a possible tie-in to R’lyeh...

Boring.

Here is someone capable of writing a whole sci-fi supplement of a decent quality, quite readable, and then forgets to put actual horror in. Horror that lurks and waits for players. Horror that wants to jump at players. Yes, there’s a short story and an adventure in there, but in my opinion a setting has to evoke and convince by itself. It is not enough to give it to a GM and say “Now you come up with what to do in it.” After reading it a GM should be inspired, have hooks and leads, and maybe already the spine of a campaign. Here we are left wondering what’s so horrible about the whole thing. 

Another, minor gripe. Circum-Jove is actually not humanity’s farthest outpost. Instead, it fuels humanity’s exodus to other stars. A new element called “Foscolium” is introduced, considered to be vital for interstellar expansion. But it is not tied into the Mythos. That seemed like a big opportunity passed by, the chance to tie a new door opening for humanity with something more sinister. And as I read the supplement I wondered what cool new things humanity would discover elsewhere. This makes Circum-Jove less interesting. It’s not the final frontier. It’s just a frontier. Space travel within the solar system naturally becomes less interesting if somebody can just hop to Alpha Centauri or Barnard’s Star instead. If stuff becomes too hard there, why bother? New vistas!

The setting tries to tie in mining Jupiter moon Io for the new element as precondition for interstellar expansion. This means that the players are working stiffs doing their job so others can go to new worlds and build new lives. That seems awfully prosaic. And while there is a place for such science fiction one is left to wonder if this was a great choice for the supplement.

Jovian Nightmares, in other words, inspired more reading elsewhere. It is a solid work but it has its limitations.

I don’t want to go too deep into Shadows Over Sol since I still want to play it in the future, and saying too much here might spoil it to players. But general thoughts are valid to share.

By not introducing faster-than-light (FTL) travel SOL actually manages to have a foot in two worlds - the 23rd century where humanity expands into the Jupiter and Saturn systems. And the 27th century when human colonists arrive in Alpha Centauri - a 400 year one-way trip. By separating these settings both have validity. The settlers of Siren’s Call have a different world and different problems than the Martian and Jovian settlers of the core game. Both stories remain engaging. By expanding the game into the interstellar realm this way the original game still stays playable.

SOL does a great job of portraying a hard sci-fi setting with humanity split into cultural instead of national tribes. It does a great job of portraying a world of fading nation states, ascending corporations, a networked, simulated world, a “meatspace” world... It seems a tad to conservative on plotting the progress in AI and Augmented Reality, but if you want to write a sci-fi setting not completely colored and taken over by these issues, this is valid. And reality seems to play odd tricks on sci-fi anyway within precious few years - 2015 is already three years ago...

The setting of SOL doesn’t have horror written in big letters over it, anyway. It’s horror seems more personal, encountered by few. Which is of course appropriate. To be entirely fair one gets a much better feel of the horror inherent in the setting by looking at the released adventure books than the core book, which is a weak point it shares with Jovian Nightmares. Nevertheless the book seems to be willing to create its horror from the fact that humanity is always a step ahead with its ambitions of what it can safely do. While this isn’t per se more interesting than Lovecraftian horror, it allows for unexpected variation more than sticking with somewhat tired Cthulhu tropes. (I’m not trying to piss here on the whole Mythos, I’m just saying that some authors simply recycle stuff up to 80 to 90 years old while others definitely expand on the Mythos in interesting ways.)

You could remove the horror entirely from both settings and you would at the very least get a decent (Jovian Nightmares) or excellent (SOL) sci-fi game. In the end, SOL does several things much better than JN. The game constantly expands on setting seeds, introducing some (and originally with the same limitations mentioned above) but also expanding some in interesting ways. Where JN fails to even remotely give the GM an answer, SOL introduces either an answer or several eventually, giving GMs both concrete ideas and a choice. Not all seeds are gold. But some I simply wanted to know more about many of them. I’m in fact waiting for future supplements to tell me more about this world.

So, staying on-topic, eh? Kinda missed that boat myself. Both settings do a bit, too. Both are science fiction settings first and foremost. But SOL makes room for horror, and its adventures give you a guideline how to do horror here. It doesn’t simply throw you a setting and say “Hey, here are some Lovecraftian horrors, do something.” It stays on-topic much better than the other, if in the end not perfectly. It, on occasion, shamelessly recycles other horror as well. I won’t excuse that but hey, that’s what RPGs often do. 

So, what is staying on topic in setting design? If you want to make a horror game, make space for horror. Expand the Unknown. Your world ideally has a dark underbelly which the characters learn about. Something which changes your conception of the world. Something which turns your ideas about the world on its head - you’re not the apex predator. You’re in danger. You’re not safe. They’re coming for you. Frankly, both settings fail this test. Lovecraft (the original) does them both one better. His time-traveling species invade your mind. His classic Ctulhu invades your dreams and tries to subvert the world. His monsters appear and you can do precious little about them. And many of his successors stuck with that - meaningless victories, invasion, loss of control. These themes have to come to the front and be part of the struggle players face. 

That would be staying on-topic in the horror genre. Each genre or mix of genres has its own way of staying on topic. I still wait to do myself a satisfying version of Fantasy Horror. Given how horrific lots of monsters are, the horror part of the experience is frankly still explored too little.

And now to get back to reading Eldritch Skies... Its approach to Lovecraftian sci-fi seems exciting but I cannot say yet anything about the quality of its execution. Another time...

[rockrevoltmagazine]

Show Review & Photo Gallery: Slayer, Lamb of God & Behemoth - Boston, MA

Slayer – Blue Hills Bank Pavilion – Boston, MA – July 25, 2017

Nearly four decades into their existence Slayer are playing to as many sold out crowds these days as they ever did back in the golden age of metal, the 80’s. 

The heavy metal community should consider themselves lucky that classic thrash and speed metal bands such as Slayer are still touring, let alone taking into account the band continues to perform at such a high level.

They probably should also take solace in the fact that behind the Slayer’s of the world there are a handful of metal acts that at least have the possibility of carrying the metal torch the band lit in the 80’s into the next millennium.

Acts such as Behemoth and Lamb of God, both of whom pulled up their tour buses alongside Slayer to the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts this past week, may very well one day establish the kind of legacies Slayer has built.

The evening of metal mayhem in Boston began with an abbreviated but dynamic set by Polish death metal stalwarts Behemoth.  Taking to the stage behind mic stands in the form of wrought iron snakes and demonic symbols while dressed in black leather and chainmail armor, Nergal, Seth, Orion and Inferno immediately drew the Beantown metal crazies into their web of dark metal madness.

What clearly separates Behemoth from many of their contemporaries in the world of death metal is the fact that not only is their musical acumen beyond reproach, the band’s presence on stage as well their ability to connect with any audience makes them of all things, likeable.

Behemoth would go on to crank out resplendent versions of tracks such as “Ov Fire and the Void”, “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” and “Alas, Lord is upon me.” 

The biggest takeaways from Behemoth’s time on stage, however, had to be less about what songs they played and more about the sheer force of their musical performance as well as the instant connections they seamlessly made with the Boston audience.

It’s rare for an opening act playing in the daylight hours to invigorate a crowd to the degree that Behemoth was able to. By the time Behemoth had started to play the opening chords of their second song on the night, “Conquer All,” the vast majority of those in attendance were no longer milling around at the merchandise booths or grabbing a slice of over priced pizza. 

Instead most of the crowd had already been entranced by the evil metal spell the band had cast over them, and rightfully so.  The one negative in terms of the Behometh’s performance in Boston could only be tied to the simple fact that they only played for a mere thirty minutes.

Next up were Richmond, Virginia metal heroes Lamb of God.  It’s worth tipping the cap to Behemoth once again as their set more than primed the Boston audience for what was to come on the evening.  

From the opening chords of “Laid to Rest” Randy Blythe and Lamb of God had the entirety of the audience wrapped around their proverbial metal fingers.   

LoG have never and likely will never be an outfit that relies on too many bells and whistles in terms of their live stage production.  Beyond some post apocalyptic imagery playing on a few video screens behind the band, Lamb of God let their music speak for itself and boy did it ever.

The band’s set was fiery, captivating and soul crushing while also offering up countless moments of metal intensity the Boston crowd eagerly ate up throughout the duration of the band’s time on stage. 

When Blythe turned to the audience signaling them to sing the lyric, “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For”, their ensuing reaction was nothing short of spine tingling, as nearly every last one of them in unison repeated those very words back to Blythe. 

One of the elements that any metal fan has to admire about Lamb of God is there’s not a single act out that there today that even remotely sounds like them.  LoG is their own genre of metal. They’re like this evil metal unicorn or devilish forest Leprechaun that has to been seen live and in the flesh on stage to be believed.

The band’s performance in Boston turned out to be nothing short of brutally beautiful.   Their set surely had to have inspire some of the younger audience members to go home and pick up the guitar or at very least crank up a Lamb of God record and mosh unapologetically in their bedrooms while their family’s cat or dog looks on in bewilderment.

It would be difficult to single out any one specific song or moment that served as the primary highlight from Lamb of God’s set. That fact alone speaks volumes about the overall quality of any LoG live performance.

If forced to single out a few choice moments from the band’s time on stage in Beantown tracks such as the old school “Ruin” and more modern day favorites including “Walk With Me in Hell” as well as set closer “Redneck” had to be considered high points of the evening. 

Prior to launching into “Redneck” Blythe made reference for the second time on the night how it was unusual to be at a metal show that had seats, this time commenting,

“Normally we call for a circle pit on this one but that’s not going to happen so do something weird, just freak the fuck out.  Go crazy, get naked, stick your cell phones up your asses, do something freaky Boston.  Let’s get bizarre mother fuckers.”

Based on the crowd’s vocal and physical response to the front man’s request, anyone in attendance would have to admit the audience reacted in ways Blythe and company surely must have been impressed by.

The final act of the evening of course were southern California speed and thrash founding fathers Slayer.  Again without sounding like a broken record, nods have to be given to both Behemoth and Lamb of God for delivering sublime performances as well as for drawing the audience that much furhter into the show.   

Both opening acts got the crowd’s metal blood boiling for what would turn out to be an awe inspiring performance by Tom Arya, Kerry King, Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph.

A funny thing has happened along the course of Slayer’s career in terms of their live performance, they’ve become showman.  Yes, the music itself is still the glue and the burning ember that powers the Slayer machine. However, the band has made strides in terms of their live show as it pertains to creating show pace, building anticipation and even their stage production.  

For decades Slayer would just hit the stage with nothing more than a curtain donning their name behind them and without anything besides their instruments that could even remotely be considered a prop.

These days the thrash and speed metal kings are touring with somewhat of an elaborate light and laser visual production that also includes its fair share of blinding pyrotechnics.  

Slayer has never needed and never will need anything beyond their music to bond with their metal brethren but it’s kind of cool to go to one of their concerts these days and be taken aback by their shows’ production values.

The band began their set in Boston with only a gargantuan white curtain spanning from stage end to stage end as the Repentless track “Delusions of Saviour” built an organic dark swell of anticipation that slowly washed over the Boston crowd.

Not exactly the U2’s Zoo TV tour set up by any means but sometimes the old ways are the best ways. The pale drapery slowly began to become awash in a sea of blood red with huge white crosses spinning aimlessly until coming to rest in their familiar upside position.

As the instrumental track made its way to conclusion the cross imagery morphed into four pentagrams that would eventually come together to form Slayer’s iconic symbol. The band’s symbol quickly gave way to the four shadowy figures that comprise Slayer taking the stage before the curtain would fall and the band would launch into “Repentless.” 

Again Slayer has evolved their live show in terms of set pacing over the years.  They seemingly have taken into account that not only what they choose to play but when, can have a profound effect on how any audience reacts to a show.  Has Slayer actually become thoughtful or gasp, introspective?  Oh the horror!

The front end of Slayer’s set focused on balancing classics such as “Post Mortem” and “War Ensemble” with more recent material that included tracks like “Disciple” and “Hate Worldwide.” 

It’s worth nothing how much Slayer’s more recent material was embraced by the audience.  It was next to impossible not to notice that many of those in attendance were singing the lyrics to the new material word for word.

That’s not only a testament to the power of Slayer as a band, it also speaks to the fact that the band is still cranking out records that their core fan base continues to connect with.

After the pitching and swaying between the new and the old, the metal engine that is Slayer really began to purr as the band annihilated the audience with a crushing salvo of  fan favorites “Mandatory Suicide,” “Hallowed Point,” “Dead Skin Mask” and “Born of Fire.”

It would almost be a crime not to mention the camaraderie shared by many of Slayer’s fans throughout the evening.  A shining example of this metal brotherhood would come during the performance of “Dead Skin Mask,” as something quite unexpected happened.  

One wouldn’t think thrash and speed metal would present too many opportunities, if any, for crowd wide sing-a-longs but 80% or more of the crowd sang the lyrics,

“Dance with the dead in my dreams. Listen to the hallowed screams. The dead have taken my soul. Temptation lost all control.”   

Fans of Seasons in the Abyss certainly must have been elated as Slayer would end up playing five of the record’s ten tracks.  Super old school Slayer fans, however, may have walked away wishing the band played a bit more early 80’s material as “Hell Awaits” and “Chemical Warfare” wound up being the only pre Reign in Blood songs performed on the night.

Speaking of “Hell Awaits” it may be one of Slayer’s classics but visually the band has brought the track into the modern age.  No song performed on the evening, outside of “Reign in Blood” was more visually inspired as the pyrotechnics and blinding visuals that accompanied the song’s performance created a surreal evil metal fueled sensory overload.

Who knows how much longer Slayer will continue to tour or for that matter even record.  Both Araya and King have made some rather cryptic comments lately about the band’s future, which I’m sure have many fans feeling as though the end may very well be near.

Fortunately there are some acts such as Behemoth and Lamb of God that give both old and new school metal fans hope that transcendent metal music will carry on for generations to come even should Slayer call it quits one day in the near or distant future.  

Regardless of how many days, weeks, months or years fans have left to enjoy Slayer on the lighted stage I’m guessing this sentiment will always reign true, On and on, south of heaven!  On and on, south of heaven!

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  Connect with Slayer (click icons):

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All Writing & Photography:  Robert Forte

Instagram: 40_ photography  http://www.instagram.com/40_photography/

Facebook: 4zerophotography http://www.facebook.com/4zerophotography/

Show Review & Photo Gallery: Slayer, Lamb of God & Behemoth – Boston, MA was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[consciousowl]

Neuroplasticity: How To Get Smart Fast

I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…

Psalm 139

Have you ever hit one of the Big Numbers: 30, 40, 50 or 60? If you are like many of us, you dread the very thought of being “over the hill,” and assign unique value to one number over all the others. I remember turning 20, and realizing that I would never again be a teenager, and therefore, I would never again be “cool.”

While this is laughable to me today, I realize that this was a big deal in my childhood. Back then, you retired at 65, and if you were lucky, you would hit your 70’s. You went to school, graduated from college or served in the military, got married, had children, retired, and then promptly kicked the can. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy to slow down as you grew older and reduce your expectations.

Somehow, the world changed, thanks to dietary improvements, powerful medicine and greater concern with health, including strength training. Now you are good through your 80’s, and reaching into the 90’s is to be expected. Even making it past 100 is no longer newsworthy.​

Could this be true of our minds, as well?​

What Is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity refers to your brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. These synapses are formed from infancy through childhood into our teens. We have over 10 billion neurons, or nerve cells, and the potential combination of them is actually more than the number of particles in the Universe.

As we learn, biochemical connections are formed, and as we repeat new information, those connections become more solid, almost as if they were etched into the brain. It was originally supposed that, once they were formed, they remained indefinitely, and could not be reorganized. It was supposed that each section of the brain, and each neuron, were dedicated to a specific purpose, and could not be altered.​

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We now know that this is not true. The brain tends to remember its connections, but it can remap itself throughout an entire lifetime, beyond adolescence into early adulthood, the middle years and finally maturity. In extreme cases, parts of the brain can change their function to support new demands, such as assuming the role of providing acute hearing to the person who has suddenly lost his eyesight.

How the Discovery of Neuroplasticity Changed Everything

It had long been known that the brain was a powerful instrument of association, and that it could develop definite habits that supported deeper learning. For example, after you learn how to ride a bicycle, you give little thought to what you do to maintain your balance.

What was not appreciated was just how malleable the brain actually is, which appears to the naked eye much like packaged oatmeal.​

By creating new associations, you can dissolve old ones. You can erase bad habits and imprint healthy ones. You can neutralize negative memories and painful experiences, such that they have no more command value.

Tony Robbins, with his early appropriation of NLP, popularized the possibilities all the way back in the 1980’s. He became famous for curing people of snake phobias in 15 minutes or less, and deconditioning people’s attachment to addictive food, such as packaged candy. Tony did this through the power of words to generate new associations. He even pioneered “pattern interrupts,” where you do the utterly unexpected, such as shouting or clapping your hands, to break a negative train of thought.

A Whole New Model of the Brain

In the last decade or so, neuroscience has gone through a revolution. Multiple factors are at play. We had finally decoded the human genome, computational power had gone up astronomically and the combined knowledge of humanity via the Internet ended up doubling every year or so.

We went from an old static model of the brain, where all the limits were set by heredity, and you could really only learn anything worthwhile in your youth to a very dynamic conception of the brain. For example, biomolecular engineering and new paradigm scientific thinking, such as systems theory, helped us realize that every cell is conscious, including every neuron in the spinal cord, as well as the brain.​

A new discipline of making maximum use of your brain emerged with Accelerated Learning, amplified by a profusion of digital interactive media on smart phones, tablets, laptops and digital TV’s, Computers, using either DVD or the Web, became powerful allies to learning a new language in record time, simulating total immersion. Mastering French, Hebrew or Mandarin became a practical goal for people in midlife.​

Lifelong Learning Our Birthright

Until the last few years, most of us had a good excuse for confining learning to school and college. Once you graduated from college, you would get all the rest of your education from “the real world.” We didn’t have the time or the money to keep going back to school. We wanted to simply get on with our job and our career, and that was that.

With the information economy emerging out of the computer revolution, inspired first by the P.C., and then the Internet and finally the mobile revolution, continuous learning was not only an option, but the preferred way to get ahead. Perhaps that is why Starbuck’s has upstaged MacDonald’s as the preferred destination for individuals and families.​

We now know that our brain cells can keep changing and remapping themselves every year of our lives. We even know of people who have lost an entire lobe of the brain. Eventually, everything was remapped and they went on to assume a normal life. Today’s classroom now looks quaint and industrial. With the World Wide Web, Google, YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia… information and ideas are instantly accessible. The boob tube TV has lost its attraction; besides which, you can play it off your laptop, if you insist.​

Countering the Threat of Alzheimer’s Disease

The big one for most of us is Alzheimer’s Disease, as was experienced by our late President Ronald Reagan, who ended up forgetting he was ever in that High Office. Associated with the rise of Diabetes, this is one of the maladies we fear most. Dr. Rudy Tanzi of Harvard Medical School, in association with Dr. Deepak Chopra, recently published a ground-breaking guide to optimizing your brain through integrative medicine, Super Brain.

If you keep your brain active, you have less of a chance to succumbing to the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s. You can actually learn to make new associations and exercise your brain, much like you would your body. You also can use deep meditation to get your brain in synch and avoid fogging up.

The authors are optimistic that when we get in touch with our inner dimension, our latent spirituality, we can then utilize our brains to the maximum. When we realize that we have a brain, but that we are NOT our brains, we can appreciate the brain for the wonderful gift it is.​

Mobilizing Our Best Friend

As we probe our inner depths, we begin to notice the observer witness the flow of thoughts. We distance ourselves enough from our thoughts to recognize another Self, the Source of Life and our very Being.

We begin to realize that all of our experience lies in another dimension, what Dr. Chopra refers to as “qualia.” When you gaze at a glorious sunset, where is that sunset? If you look closely, you will realize that it lies, not “out there,” but “in here.” Yet when you actually probe each neuron, you will see that the sunset is far more than a chemical reaction. It lies in another dimension.

Our brain is the ultimate tuning mechanism for the Infinite. It doesn’t create thought. It translates thought, much like a radio or TV station, that transmits the sound and images over the air. They are very fast vibrations that have to be stepped down for the human ear to hear and eye to see. The pop band is not in your computer, nor in your brain. They are simply media triggering a qualitative experience.

Related Article:  Can The Human Brain Create Consciousness?

Our brain can be thought of us our best friend, a wonderful servant, but a wretched master. We can treat it as the precious gift that it is. We make the greatest possible use of it while we have it. What if someone gave you a brand new Tesla Model S? You would want to immediately take it out for a spin, drive it every day and take it in for maintenance punctiliously. Why not do the same for your brain?

Mastering Neuroplasticity the Easy Way

You can learn the basics of neuroplasticity, and actually experience it for yourself, through a delightful course developed by Gregory Caremans, neurocognitive psychologist, who developed the Brain Academy in 2014 to take the latest developments in neural and cognitive science out into the world.

This online course is replete with videos and over 30 exercises to get comfortable using neuroplasticity. Gregory has an irrepressible spirit of fun and playfulness that is infectious. Over 40,000 people have taken his courses and given him very high marks.

Why not give your brain the treat it so richly deserves? Exercise your imagination. Get your creative juices flowing. Learn how to learn once again.​

Neuroplasticity: How To Get Smart Fast appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.

[spynotebook]

What makes a comic worthy of a “Best of” list? Uniqueness. I’m sure we can all agree that it’s easy for our pull lists to grow longer and longer. We read new comics every Wednesday, but not all of them make the same impression. This year Rich Johnston and the Bleeding Cool writers (not Jude) give you 11 comics to reflect on as we say good riddance to 2016 and welcome 2017 with nervous worry.

Jonathan Rich

Motor Crush #1 by Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr.

Though this very website posted a few retailers experienced initial trepidation in ordering a new independent title featuring a black female protagonist, the release of Motor Crush #1 from Image Comics proved those fears were largely misplaced and misguided. The terrific trio of Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr built upon their pre-Rebirth success reinvigorating DC’s Batgirl to forge a new path with a unique creator-owned title that manages to visually and narratively surprise as much as it delights. The art collaboration of Stewart and the Tarr fluidly moves on the printed page and Fletcher does double duty contributing to the writing of the main story as well as a backup feature previewing his upcoming Isola publication with art by Karl Kerschl. Anyone wanting something different from what’s offered from Marvel and DC should line up at the start line to get their monthly Motor Crush fix before this becomes the next big thing in comics. The buzz surrounding this title became louder at HeroesCon and echoed when the goods were delivered at the end of the year. 2016 may be remembered as a dumpster fire for many other reasons, but Motor Crush gives hope new voices will be heard and have something to say throughout 2017 and beyond.

Eliot Cole

  A-Force #4 by Willow Wilson, Kelly Thompson and Jorge Molina.

I’m unsure that I really have the words to sum up issue four of A-Force, but suffice to say it’s basically a perfect comic book. This book, more than any other that I read this year gave me hope, pride in general, and a sense of comradery in the team that I have just not felt from any team book, or indie on the stands this year. Jorge Molina and Laura Martin’s art evokes the main characters so well and (if I were to focus on one of them) brings the innocence of Singularity to the page like Alphona did with Molly Hayes in Runaways, but Singularity is SO pure, and SO there, that you HAVE to know what’s going to happen to it next. Script wise, G. Willow Wilson and Kelly Thompson just give us everything; non-clunky exposition (A HOLY GRAIL), science, science fiction, conversational depth without overly long dialogue, clever characters, bold heroes, snarky witches, and remnants of a universe that should never have existed as a single entity fashioned in a human form. Finally, though, this year I’ve not gone through the gamut of emotions as hard as I did in this one book, it enveloped me wholly, and took me over. Read the first trade of the post Secret Wars A-Force and tell me that which ever part of it is covering issue four doesn’t get you in your sweet spots, and I’ll give you a jar of my tears to help you along. Stay feely, Bleeding Cool. Oh look, I can did wordsings.

Jeremy Konrad

Superman #6 by Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz and Rob Leigh.

When Rebirth was announced, I was relived. For me, Superman was one of the characters that suffered the most during the New 52 era. I felt DC never really had a concrete idea on what to do with him, always preferring to keep him…ahem…Grounded. That is not Superman, he needs to be portrayed as the ultimate hero, high in the sky. The opening arc of the Rebirth run accomplished that in the first 10 pages of issue one, but it was this issue, and the page here that brought a tear to my eye. My Superman was back, and this is one of my favorite Superman images of all-time. Yeah, it invokes other images and even Superman 2. But I don’t care. This creative team was born spin tales of the Man Of Steel. I could have picked any issue of the run so far, they are all damn good. I can’t wait to keep taking the ride with them for as long as I can.

Joe Glass

DC Comics Rebirth Special #1 by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, Ethan Van Sciver, Gary Frank.

After years of darkness, grim and gritty takes on favourite superheroes, and seeing characters get maimed, raped, mauled, immolated, decapitated and every other imaginable way of dying, Rebirth brought a breath of fresh air.

When DC announced the Rebirth line of books to come, I was initially cautious and pessimistic. I’ve been burned before.

But then this one shot came out. And it was Geoff Johns at his absolute finest, going to almost every corner of the DCU and bringing back much-needed light and, most importantly, hope. With a cavalcade of artists each bringing their absolute A-game, the book couldn’t be put down. In fact, I read the book three times in a row, before coming back again and again for subsequent readings later.

In a year that’s been pretty rough all over, it’s been nice to have a bit of hope shown, even if just in a comic book.

And I am not ashamed to admit, it drew a tear to my eye once or twice too.

The possible reveal, if it really is as we all are suspecting given the strong visual, structural and dialogue clues throughout, of the Watchmen characters being brought into the main DCU, and what’s more, being essentially the antagonists behind many of the dark times that have been mixed into comics since the 80s, was controversial, but excellently executed.

And if it is how it plays out, I am intrigued to see how that works out. But of course, it all started here.

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu

  Black Panther #1 by Ta-Nehesi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze.

The Black Panther was such an important character for my friends and I growing up in Nigeria, where the scarcity of black superheroes was felt, more so an African one. Thirty years later, saying Black Panther #1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel) is the comicbook I waited for throughout my childhood might sound like stretching it, but it’s the simple truth. Other runs by other great writers and artists still stand solidly, but the current volume touchesA on almost everything I’ve ever wanted in a Black Panther book. The words which opened the issue set the tone perfectly: “I am the Orphan-King who defied the blood, who defied his country and was divided from you.” And thus began T’Challa’s journey through the deepest troubles he’s ever faced as a king, and as the costumed superhero Black Panther. The issue has it all, including a beautifully-realised Wakanda, new characters, and then there’s the awesome new way the titular character’s costume comes on, no doubt inspired by Kirby-esque tech. The story, which sees the king of Wakanda grappling with internal strife in his kingdom – basically an insurgency – is nicely tucked in at the end by DVD-style extras that proved a splendid touch. This creative team, for me, most certainly put out the best single issue of a comicbook in 2016, and I’m hoping they keep it up in 2017.

Ray Flook

Black #1 by Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith III, Jamal Igle and Khary Randolph.

Black #1 is as in-your-face a comic as I’ve read in years; and in a comic book world populated with mega-crossovers, shared universes and books tailored more for the screen and less for the reader…it’s refreshing to be reading something that’s bold and righteously unapologetic. Writer Kwanza Osajyefo (with co-creator/designer Tim Smith III and artist Jamal Igle; and powerful covers from Khary Randolph) offers-up a world to us that’s sadly and strikingly similar to our own but with one catch: superheroes exist in their world…but as the title strongly suggests, in their world super powers aren’t meant for everyone. Osajyefo’s world is our world but with a twist…and that “twist” quickly forces the reader to confront their personal views on racism, police brutality and our country’s long, bloody and violent history with race relations. Black #1 is one of those rare books that you need to reread once you’ve finished it…and then reread it again a week later to truly appreciate what it has to say. It changes how you think. It changes how you feel. And that’s a pretty rare thing these days. Oh…one last thing: definitely remember the name “Kwanza Osajyefo” because his voice is an important one and one that I’m sure we’ll be hearing from for some time to come.

John Odum

Vision #12 by Tom King, Gabriel Walta and Jordie Bellaire.

It’s the rarest joy to find one of those handful of books, songs, films, paintings etc, that manages to hit every note just right. A work that simply makes you incapable of nitpicking because you’re completely lost in it. Add the entire Vision series to that list, but no issue more powerfully than the final one. If quality is measured by emotional impact, Vision #12 gets my unconditional vote as the year’s best. From issue one, a palpable feeling of dread manifests itself into ever-deepening layers of full-blown crisis, in the process forcing the reader to confront uncomfortable questions about humanity and morality. Married to an artistic style that creates a pitch perfect synergy with the text, Issue 12 not only rises to the lofty expectations set by the previous eleven, but exceeds them with that rarest of things: a truly unexpected – and emotionally devastating – final turn. Read with tissues handy. I’m not kidding.

Rich Johnston

Pope Francis Goes To The Dentist by Paul B Rainey

You know the kind of people who will bore anyone by talking in extreme details about a specific medical problem they are suffering with? My mother-in-law and her eyelashes, my mother and her ears, and get me in a pub corner and count the seconds till I start talking about my gout. Well, with Pope Francis, it’s his teeth.

And possibly my favourite comic of the year. A compilation of strips, mostly involving Pope Francis and his obsession with his local dentist – I say local, but it appears to be in British suburbia. Oh and his dad is also a Pope. And his mother is a nun. This is never commented on but it makes for a slick suburban sitcom that is the funniest, surrealist sketch that Monty Python never did, with lines that ground this most ridiculous situation with the mundane. Add a few appearance of the 14 Year Old Stand-Up Comedian and the French artist Monsieur Octopus and this is a real gem of 2016.

Providence #11 by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows

This issue of the League Of Extraordinary HP Lovecrafts comic Providence marked the first time that I realised how Alan was using the actual name of Lovecraft in the story, a magical term, a way of making people love, to obsess, to have desire for someone or something else through whatever means possible. It was achieved through the repeat image of the song “You Made Me Love You” until the dissonant images hammered it home. Jacen Burrows making each oh-so-similar image distinct as he rips the comic book through the decades, in a way that outdid Eddie Campbell’s similar portrayal of passing time in From Hell. It’s been said that good writers give readers the chance to fill in the circle themselves, it’s all about judging how wide a gap to leave. In Providence, Moore leaves wider circles than most, but they are such a thrill when you make that jump.

Providence is published by Bleeding Cool’s publisher, Avatar Press.

No Mercy #9 by Alex De Campi and Carla Speed McNeil.

From the opening page of this teen survival story flashback issue, there is incredible disconnect between expectations and reality, never more effectively portrayed than with the facial expressions of the characters and the double meaning of “coming out” in high society, as well as what is meant by “be yourself”. No word is wasted, every syllable targetted in one direction, from beginning to end it’s a devastatingly clever, poignant and angry take on the gap between children and their parents.

And the second page personifies both as two distinct figures, the person and the clothing, and the mental anguish divides the two, quite literally covered up. In those opening two pages, No Mercy managed to say more than most comics managed in a five year run. The rest of the comic? It matches up. Page four was probably the angriest page of the year…

And then the gap becomes so wide it breaks your heart, and you spent the rest of the comic looking for the light amongst the dark – until you find it. If you squint. A possibly perfect comic book. For emotional effect, no other comic came close for me in 2016.

Chew #59 by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

An example of one of the greatest bait and switches in serialised comic book history. Chew has always been a most entertaining comic, telling the story of an impending alien invasion, the banning of eating chicken worldwide, and super powers related to food emerging all over the place, all dovetailing together. But with its penultimate issue, John Layman wrote something very special. We’d already had a teased vision of the future that turned out to be a vicious tease for the audience, but we were grateful for the dodge, the people we thought would die, didn’t, it was all beautifully explained away in a previous issue as it headed for its denouement. And then with #59, it did it all anyway. This issue was a masterpiece of structure, and its a credit to Guillory that he created such depressing scenes while maintaining the cartoony style that had defined the look of the series. One of the crueller pieces of torture inflicted upon an audience and masterfully cast.

Bleeding Cool’s 11 Favourite Single Comics Of 2016