#it's just a short clip but the vocal was clear and consistent

[cantquitu]

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[jules-has-notes]

Harrisburg, PA — VoicePlay live performances

When the VoicePlay guys were touring regularly, they often included educational outreach at schools near their concert venues. So in the spring of 2019 they headed to central Pennsylvania for a workshop with the music students of Susquehanna Township High School, followed by an evening show at the Rose Lehrman Arts Center.

Unfortunately, the person who posted videos from the concert mostly recorded short clips instead of full songs, but you might still enjoy what is available.

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Their school workshops include some performances, and this arrangement is a good demonstration of harmonies, diction, volume control, and group cohesion.

Details:

title: Ride

original performers: Twenty One Pilots

written by: Tyler Joseph

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 14 March 2019

My favorite bits:

Eli's lovely, clear tone

Layne managing to be audible to the camera's onboard mic

the snapping silliness (such goobers)

that fast patter in three-part harmony, whew

Geoff's descent on ♫ ⇘ "I'm falling sooo" ⇘ ♫

J.None and Eli's little hand gesture to illustrate the vocal hitch

Trivia:

The guys originally recorded this song during the first season of their PartWork series, with just Eli, Geoff, and Layne covering all five vocal parts.

This recording was originally posted to a student's Facebook page.

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This recording is missing several bits, as it has been stitched together from shorter clips. It mostly consists of the segments featuring the playful rivalry between Geoff and Earl, which is still a good time. (Though I do miss J and Eli's solo bits.)

Details:

title: Elvira

original performers: The Oak Ridge Boys

written by: Dallas Frazier

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 14 March 2019

My favorite bits:

that first beefy bass note

the "Earl can go low, too" gag

that fantastic riff, and the audience's inability to replicate it

the lovely ascending dissonance of ♫ ⇗ "on fi-i-i-rrre" ⇗ ♫

extended beard stroking

and, of course, that big ending

Trivia:

This piece was an enduring favorite in VoicePlay's live shows for many years.

They have never made a video for it because the audience reaction is such an integral part of the performance, but there is an audio recording available to their Patreon patrons.

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This video is also pretty choppy, containing excerpts from three different numbers. But those pieces are all performed with the boys' usual skill and flair.

Details:

title: clips — aca-Disney mashup // "Panic! in 4 Minutes, part 1" medley // "My Shot" from Hamilton

original songs / performers: "Arabian Nights" by James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie and the cast of Aladdin (2014); "Fireball" by Pitbull, featuring John Ryan // [0:15] "Miss Jackson" by Panic! at the Disco feat. Lolo; [0:35] "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" by Panic! at the Disco // [0:47] "My Shot" by the cast of Hamilton: An American Musical (2015)

written by: "Arabian Nights" by Alan Menken & Tim Rice; "Fireball" by Armando "Pitbull" Perez, "John the Blind" Ryan, Andreas Schuller, Ricky Reed, Joe Spargur, Tom Peyton, & Ilsey Juber; "Miss Jackson" by Brendon Urie, Dallon Weekes, Lauren "Lolo" Pritchard, Jake Sinclair, Amir Jerome Salem, & Alex Goose; "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" by Brendon Urie, Spencer Smith, Butch Walker, & John Feldmann; "My Shot" by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Alex Lacamoire

arranged by: "aca-Disney" by VoicePlay; "Panic! in 4 Minutes" by Layne Stein & Earl Elkins, Jr.; "My Shot" by Layne Stein

performance date: 14 March 2019

My favorite bits:

Eli's big old belt, and the other four bopping in sync 🕺🕺🕺🕺

the smooth hand-off from Eli to J.None during the transition from "Miss Jackson" to "Mona Lisa"

that lovely rising harmony contrasting Geoff's big drop

Layne's precise cadence at the beginning of "My Shot"

Trivia:

The "aca-Disney" mashup was created as a collaboration with Disney On Broadway as part of their 20th anniversary in 2014.

Their "Panic! in 4 Minutes" medley was released in two parts the previous summer.

Their cover of "My Shot" was released shortly before the 2016 Tony Awards, at which Hamilton took home awards in 11 categories.

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This video actually contains the full number! The twist is that the boys aren't in their usual configuration for "Aca Top 10" countdowns with chairs and mic stands. They're on their feet and moving around as they pass the lead vocals between them.

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 – Bro Country

original songs / performers: [0:10] "Truck Yeah" by Tim McGraw; [0:37] "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" by Kenny Chesney; [0:55] "Online" by Brad Paisley; [1:10] "Dirt Road Anthem" by Jason Aldean; [1:31] "Corn Star" by Craig Morgan; [1:54] "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" by Joe Nichols; [2:15] "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith; [2:37] "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line; [2:44] "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Trace Adkins; [3:06] "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by Big & Rich

written by: "Truck Yeah" by Chris Lucas, Preston Brust, Chris Janson, & Danny Myrick; "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" by Jim Collins & Paul Overstreet; "Online" by Chris DuBois, Kelley Lovelace, & Brad Paisley; "Dirt Road Anthem" by Brantley Gilbert & Colt Ford; "Corn Star" by Jeffrey Steele, Shane Minor & Craig Morgan; "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" by Gary Hannan & John Wiggins; "Red Solo Cup" by Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Brad Warren, & Brett Warren; "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line, Joey Moi, Chase Rice, & Jesse Rice; "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Dallas Davidson, Randy Houser, & Jamey Johnson; "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by William Kenneth "Big Kenny" Alphin & John Rich

arranged by: Layne Stein & Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 14 March 2019

My favorite bits:

the way J.None interacts with his harmonic partners

the slow layering in the second half of "Dirt Road Anthem"

Eli conducting Earl and J's glissando in "Corn Star"

Earl's sweet whistling for "Red Solo Cup"

the fun video game sounds Layne makes after Geoff sings ♫ "Donkey Kong" ♫

everyone's coordinated galloping

that cool stuttering descent

Trivia:

The guys originally filmed their music video for this medley with guest singer Chris Rupp in July 2016.

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This is just one brief clip, but I couldn't resist including it because it's from their "Road Trip" skit, which is always fun.

Details:

title: Road Trip excerpt

original songs / performers: "Why Can’t We Be Friends" by War; "That Smell" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

written by: "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by Papa Dee Allen, Harold Ray Brown, B.B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Charles Miller, Lee Oskar, Howard E. Scott, & Jerry Goldstein; "That Smell" by Allen Collins & Ronnie Van Zant

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 14 March 2019

My favorite bits:

There's not much to say about this one, since it's so short. Go watch the full professionally filmed version for context.

Trivia:

This piece had been a part of their repertoire since the 4:2:Five days, but they didn't release a video of it until they had the opportunity to capture it live during the 2014 Sing-Off tour.

[old1ddude]

Faith in the Future Troutdale, Oregon

Okay, I saw Louis in the flesh a few weeks ago and it’s about time I wrote up my experience.

The McMenamins-Edgefield amphitheater is a lovely venue for outdoor concerts.  There are plenty of tall trees surrounding (and a few within) the field, so the whole thing is shaded fairly early on June evenings.  Due to heavy traffic through greater Portland, we were not as early as we had hoped, but did find a spot for our low beach chairs about halfway back.  The venue was not crowded (except for right in front of the stage, which was a separate, roped off area I think.)  I believe it was roughly half of full capacity (which would have been quite crowded.)  As it was, halfway back, we had respectful distances between our party and those who surrounded us.  85%-90% of the crowd appeared to be females in their mid-late twenties.  There were a few men around the same age scattered about along with some couples who were 50 plus.  If I had to guess, I’d say the vast majority of the crowd were old 1D fans.

I didn’t know what to expect from Andrew Cushin, but his short set blew me away.  He was charming, humble, grateful and disarming  when he talked to the crowd and poured out his entire soul with every song he sang.  He only himself, a guitar, and a keyboardist -- and that’s all he needed.  He sang about some very painful things (such as his alcoholic father) but he has an absolutely beautiful voice.

Next up were the Snuts and I would have enjoyed most of their songs had it not been for the lead singer’s voice.  His sound is harsh, shrill, nasal and just plain ugly.  I’m sure he could sing nicely, but this is apparently his style, or brand.  I HATE ugly art!  It was quite a contrast with Cushin (who made beautiful art from ugly, painful experiences.)  The Snuts make otherwise good songs obstreperous and ugly.

I’ve Been Lying to Myself

While I’m not one to watch much fan video of live concerts (the audio quality is just awful and you often hear the crowd more than the artist) I have seen many, many clips of Louis performing live.  Upon seeing these clips, I have consistently (in my head) blamed any deficiencies in Louis’ vocals on things like the crowd singing off key.  (And to be fair, the crowd, more than often, does sing VERY badly and no where near in key.)  However, after listening to a live show in person, it’s clear that Louis can’t carry a tune very well.  At the beginning of every song, I would hope he had hit his stride and would pull off a decent vocal - only to end up wincing at some point, because he would hit some absolutely sour notes.  Now, a lot of very famous artists (Springsteen, Petty, etc.) could be a little off key, but gratingly sour is another matter.  I think Louis might well be aware of his shortcomings, because he doesn’t seem to have much confidence on stage.  His voice is mixed like a background singer, so his very proficient band comes through much, much louder and clearer than his vocal.  Meaningful interaction with the audience seems limited to those within twelve or fifteen feet of the stage.  I certainly didn’t expect to make eye contact with him (especially with those sunglasses he wore -- what was up with those?) but please make some effort at playing to the whole venue.  Louis as a live performer is in one word, disappointing.  I take no joy in saying the most memorable part of seeing Louis live, for me, is sour notes and very little stage presence.

“Faith in the Future” is one of my favorite alums.  My favorite tracks include:  “Written All Over Your Face,” “Face the Music,” “Chicago,” “All This Time,” “Headline,” “Silver Tongues,” “Common People” and “Angles Fly.”  The only songs I usually skip are: “The Greatest” (it’s okay, but I was never into Imagine Dragons music) ” Bigger Than Me”  and “She is Beauty...”  Louis writes some very good music and is occasionally brilliant with his lyricism.  The thing with lyrics is, the way they sound is just as, or more important than what they say.  Some of his best lyrics come from “Silver Tongues” such as:  “You said love was a pretty lie, And I choked when your smoke got in my eye...” and  “ You said grass was a dirty drug. You like to preach with a vodka in your mug.”  Also, the way he delivers those lines on the album is sublime. 

I’m sure Louis has a long future, if he wants it, in music, but I don’t know how long he can sustain a career as a live performer.  Something tells me that even people like Swfity (who shows zero talent for music, lyricism, or staying on key) must have impressive stage presence.  From what I’ve seen a thousand times in clips, but only admitted to myself after seeing him live, Louis just doesn’t have “it” on stage.  I wish him the very best and I hope he proves me wrong one day.  For now, I’ll continue enjoying his music, but don’t see myself paying to see him live again.

[musicvalla]

7 Advanced Music Knowledge Tips to Level Up Your Tracks

Music production is an ever-evolving art, and advancing your music knowledge can make the difference between a good track and a great one. Whether you’re recording, producing, or mixing, understanding the nuances of sound can lead to high-quality audio songs that resonate with listeners. Here are seven advanced tips to help you elevate your music production game, while also touching on related aspects like mixing vocals, monetizing your content on platforms like YouTube, and effectively sharing your work on Instagram.

1. Embrace Advanced Music Theory

While basic chords and scales are essential, diving deeper into music knowledge opens up creative possibilities. Experiment with modal interchange, extended chords, and polyrhythms to craft unique melodies and progressions. This deeper understanding can set your music apart and contribute to creating truly high-quality audio songs. Use these techniques to add unexpected twists to your tracks, ensuring they stand out in a saturated market.

2. Perfect Your Vocal Mix

One of the most challenging aspects of production is mixing vocals. Advanced techniques like parallel compression, dynamic EQ, and multi-band compression can help you achieve a polished and professional sound. Layering harmonies, applying subtle pitch correction, and experimenting with effects like saturation and reverb can give your vocals an edge. Remember, a great vocal mix not only highlights the artist's performance but also elevates the entire track, ensuring it reaches the level of high-quality audio songs.

3. Use Reference Tracks

Even seasoned producers rely on reference tracks to ensure their mixes meet industry standards. Pick a song that embodies the sound you want, whether it’s for mixing vocals, overall balance, or mastering. Compare your track to this reference during mixing and mastering to identify areas for improvement. This practice enhances your music knowledge, as you’ll notice trends in professional tracks and incorporate them into your workflow.

4. Enhance Your Production with Creative Sampling

Sampling is not just about taking snippets from other songs; it’s about reimagining those sounds. Advanced producers often manipulate samples through time-stretching, pitch-shifting, and layering to create entirely new textures. When done right, sampling can contribute to high-quality audio songs that feel fresh and innovative. Don't be afraid to explore obscure sources or your own recordings to add uniqueness to your projects.

5. Prepare Your Music for Monetization on YouTube

Creating high-quality audio songs is only part of the journey; monetizing your work ensures you reap the rewards. To apply for monetization on YouTube, ensure your channel meets the platform’s requirements: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months. Upload tracks with clear metadata, such as song titles and credits, to avoid copyright issues. Integrate strategies like consistent posting, engaging content, and cross-promotion on other platforms like Instagram. For example, a well-mixed vocal performance paired with an eye-catching lyric video can draw significant attention to your channel.

6. Optimize Your Music for Social Media Platforms

Instagram has become a powerful tool for artists to promote their music. When you post music on Instagram, ensure the audio quality is optimized for mobile playback. Use short, impactful clips from your songs—whether it’s a powerful vocal section or an infectious hook. Pairing strong visuals with your audio can amplify engagement. Knowledge of how to tailor your mix for compressed formats, especially when mixing vocals, will ensure your music retains its impact even on social media platforms.

7. Invest in Your Sound Design Skills

Advanced sound design allows you to craft unique tones and textures that define your signature style. From synthesizer programming to creating your own sample libraries, investing in this aspect of production pays off in the long run. Strong sound design skills contribute to high-quality audio songs and deepen your overall music knowledge. Tools like Serum, Massive, and Kontakt are great starting points for creating customized sounds that set your tracks apart.

Final Thoughts

Achieving success as a producer or musician isn’t just about creativity; it’s about continually refining your craft and embracing new techniques. Deepening your music knowledge, mastering advanced production skills like mixing vocals, and creating high-quality audio songs are crucial for standing out in today’s competitive landscape. Equally important is ensuring your work reaches a wider audience. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram provide opportunities to showcase your talent, but understanding how to apply for monetization on YouTube and strategically post music on Instagram will amplify your efforts.

By combining technical expertise with strategic promotion, you’ll be well on your way to producing tracks that captivate listeners and sustain your career. So, dive deep into your craft, stay consistent, and let your music speak for itself!

[prettywordsyouleft]

Out Of The Shadows - Part 8

Summary: Singing was the only thing that kept you breathing. To Kihyun, you were too talented to step away from. And by a cruel twist of fate, because of him, you became a singer - except you only sang in the shadows.

Pairing: Yoo Kihyun x female reader

Genre: idol au / angst / drama / romance

Warnings: Y/N has a serious injury, and ongoing implications from it that might trigger some people. In this part: betrayal, and the dark side of the entertainment industry

Word count: 2046

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Final

You didn’t want to admit it just yet, but there was something about all this that didn’t sit right with you. Two months had almost gone by since signing with Starship, and whilst you didn’t have a direct understanding of what it was like to prepare for a debut, you had assumed it would be different than this.

You spent most of your time in the studio. Each day was spent around the Starlet team, planning out your first mini-album, recording potential songs to release on the EP, and vocal training.

But that was it.

You hadn’t once been sat down to talk about your appearance or asked to go on a diet. You had, of course, opted to be more conscious of your image, but no one was strict on it. If anything, they were more concerned about your voice being in optimal condition.

There was also no training around being interviewed. You had no understanding if you should start practising your English either, knowing your pronunciation was only good from singing, not speaking the language. You knew there were multiple classes an idol took before debuting. And you weren’t attending any of them.

Maybe they weren’t going to put you up on a stage right away. That was the only conclusion you could come to over the lax details around your swiftly upcoming debut.

That was until you met Nina.

“Y/N, this is Nina. She’s joining the Starlet project today,” Terry announced with a broad smile, and you looked at the newcomer in awe.

Nina was effortlessly beautiful. Even with her unnaturally red locks, she looked like a goddess compared to you. She was slender, yet her feminine curves were soft and shapely. Her eyes were a light brown, and her skin a perfect creamy milk consistency. She was a good ten centimetres taller than you, and her legs seemed to go on forever outside of her shorts.

She was the epitome of idol beauty.

And she was extremely friendly as well. “I’m so nervous to meet you! Seriously.”

“You? Nervous?” you echoed softly as she shook your hand in greeting. “Why?”

“I can’t believe we’re going to be working together. I heard a clip of your voice today, and wow. You’re going to have to guide me in the singing department, Y/N. Wait, are you older or younger than me? Should we establish how we talk with one another now?”

“Ladies,” Terry cut in, smiling when he had your attention. “It seems you’re both off to a good start. Nina here excels in dancing, and Y/N, we all know you can sing. You’re a perfect match.”

Glancing at the girl beside you, who equally looked confused, your thoughts started to turn dark.

Here was everything they wanted an idol to look like. Nina had to be dieting to be in great shape like that. And if she couldn’t sing…

No. You shook your head to remove the thought building in the darkest corner of your mind. You would simply work as a duo and become each other’s strengths. Nina could help you learn how to get in better shape and teach you to dance if that was part of your concept. So far, your songs hadn’t taken on a direct concept. You had recorded ballads, pop, and rockier tunes all this time. Nothing had been put in place yet, so you still had time to figure this all out.

Despite trying to convince yourself otherwise, that nagging inner critical voice didn’t quieten at all.

A week into working with Nina, it was becoming all too clear what the plan was for the Starlet project. You hadn’t voiced it out loud, but when Nina worked on all the tasks that you hadn’t and wasn’t found in the studio recording tracks, you began to suspect that your voice would be heard by the nation.

But you wouldn’t step in front of them.

You were struggling to come to terms with how slighted you had been by Terry. How desperate you had been for this opportunity at the time that you hadn’t once thought about how you would be presented as a soloist. And even if you had tried to fool yourself for a day or two after meeting Nina, you knew now there had never been a chance for you to stand on stage and sing your songs.

“You know, I’m confused,” Nina whispered to you when you finally met with each other to eat dinner. Leaning across the table towards you, she glanced around before letting out a little breath. “If we’re on the same team, how come it feels like we’re training apart?”

“We are,” you replied, spearing a lettuce leaf from the bowl in front of you. One of the staff members had tried to offer you a more substantial meal, but you had declined after seeing what they had served up to Nina without asking her if that was okay.

You couldn’t even bring yourself to hate the girl before you, knowing full well she would be the one going up on stage alone. She just hadn’t come to figure that out yet.

“But why? We’re in this together, Y/N.”

“Nina,” you started and noticed Melody, your manager, approaching the table. Smiling briefly, you merely stabbed another vegetable into your mouth. Nina looked at your sudden quietness and chose to follow suit. You had found she was only a few months younger than you, and she had started to look up to you.

In some weird way, you were protective of her already.

“Girls, your debut date has been set,” Melody announced with a smile, but neither of you were able to match the warm gesture back. Melody frowned. “Are you not excited?”

“Of course, we are. I can’t wait to stand up on stage with Y/N,” Nina suddenly enthused, and you were acutely aware of how rigid Melody became.

Your suspicions grew.

“Right. Well, uh, it’ll be in three weeks. Terry is finalising the song tracklist tonight.”

“I haven’t sung anything yet,” Nina murmured, her gaze catching yours before you could divert it. She fell silent, no doubt coming to the conclusion that there was only going to be one true Starlet performing.

Nina.

“Y/N!”

As much as hearing that familiar voice calling out your name warmed every part of you initially, your reaction soon fell away to dread, and you darted your gaze around the hallway you were walking down, trying to find something or someone to pull you away.

However, Kihyun caught you easily, stepping in front of you with his signature smile that turned his eyes into half-moons. All at once, you found yourself drowning in emotions. Yearning hit you the hardest, not aware of how much you had missed seeing Kihyun in person. You raked your wild stare over him from head to toe, noting the new haircut and colour first. Although he had bags under his eyes from comeback promotions tiring him, he seemed to be full of energy.

Yours drained in comparison.

“Y/N,” he repeated, though this time with more concern. Just as you had, Kihyun’s examination of you didn’t conclude with the same excitement. You hated how easily you showed your emotions in front of him, especially when you were trying too hard to hold everything together. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Swallowing, you nodded your head once. “Of course.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am not.”

“Your nostrils flare when you lie,” he pointed out, and you cursed inwardly at how well he knew you even when it had been so long since you last saw each other.

You went to step back, but instead, you moved forward, reaching out instinctively for his hand. Kihyun noticed your gesture and shook his head. “Not here. Come on.”

Following him down the hallway, he investigated a window on a door before stepping inside and shutting it behind you. Once secured away from anyone who walked down that hallway, Kihyun stepped right into your personal space, forgoing the hand you reached out to him and pulled you in for a hug instead.

You forgot how to breathe, and yet you had somehow inhaled his scent, closing your eyes as the fresh ocean cologne he wore washed over you. Finally reaching around him, you placed your hands on his back, nestling your head over his chest.

The moment was too intimate, though in that moment, you didn’t care. You had missed him, and with your world cracking underneath you, it was as if he appeared right when you needed him the most.

Like always.

“You’re scaring me,” he murmured, reluctantly pulling away. You watched as his ears reddened, his gaze not quite meeting yours. “I uh, don’t know why I went for the hug.”

“I’m glad you did. I needed it.”

“Want another one?” he offered with a hint of a smile that you mirrored. He hadn’t fully let you go, his hand still threaded through your hair, ready to tug you back into him.

You took the step back that was needed to bring clarity into the situation.

You couldn’t tell Kihyun the bitter truth. Not after how hard he had worked for you to get this opportunity. He had been your biggest believer, and even now, you could see he was still rooting for you, his eyes warm with appreciation.

You owed him this debut. Your voice would be heard by thousands all because of him.

But Nina will be the one to showcase it, you thought.

“Y/N?” he said, lowering his head to search your eyes. “Tell me what’s got you down.”

“I’m just exhausted. I know you warned me, but this training business is tough.”

“Especially when you’re still working your old job too,” he muttered, and you gaped at him for knowing how you spent your nights.

It wasn’t as if your schedule could fill an entire day when all you did was sing.

“Boah’s been talking to you.”

“She’s worried and missing you. Might pay to give her a call to ease her thoughts,” he suggested, and you nodded distantly, trying to squish the painful emotions rising in your chest.

The words were on the tip of your tongue now, desperate to let Kihyun know. You fought to shove them back down your throat and bury them in your stomach. When you did, you attempted a smile. “Starlet has a debut date.”

“Starlet? You can’t even refer to yourself as the one with a debut date?”

I’m not debuting, you answered internally and pushed that down too. “Yeah. It feels weird.”

Kihyun grinned. “Are you excited? Nervous?”

“I guess a bit of both.”

“When is it?” he wondered, and when you told him it was in a week’s time, his face lit up for only a second.

And then he looked you over from head to toe again, his expression darkening.

Don’t pick up on it, you begged silently. You knew he was looking you over for the usual signs of promotion. Your hair was the same. Your appearance too. Sure, you had toned up and lost a bit of weight, but that was naturally done. It wasn’t enough of an upheaval to show that you were idol ready.

You almost laughed out loud, thinking back to Sewoon’s offer of singing together when you were an idol. It wouldn’t happen now.

Kihyun’s phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts, and he didn’t break eye contact with you as he answered it. “Yeah? I’m with Y/N at the moment. I found her in the hallway.”

You tuned out of the conversation, edging towards the door and mouthing that you had to go. Kihyun shook his head whilst talking, his eyes still contemplative. You were certain if you spent any longer in his company that he would figure it all out on his own, and you needed to escape – immediately.

Waving, you darted out of the door, but Kihyun was just as fast. Having hung up in the process of your departure, his hand shot out for you and tugged you back into the room, shutting the door before pinning you against it.

You both stared at one another breathlessly from the sudden proximity, and Kihyun’s gaze narrowed.

“You’re not debuting properly, are you?”

_________________

Part 9

All rights reserved © prettywordsyouleft

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[dossi-io]

An introduction to DeVita

Do you want to learn all about the AOMG artist DeVita? This article will cover everything you need to know about the third female member to join the labels roster.

The content of this article is also available in video format, embedded at the bottom of this article.

Prelude

In early April of 2020, the Korean hip-hop label AOMG ambiguously announced that a new artist was signing onto the label. This label was grounded by the Korean-American triple-threat; Jay Park, who’s also one of its executives. This is a label with a very organic feel and artist-oriented nature, which stands out compared to many other music labels.

On April 3rd, the label’s official Instagram account posted a video. It was titled, “Who’s The Next AOMG?” where fellow AOMG members talked about this upcoming recruit. They sprinkled small hints and details by sharing their thoughts on the artist without mentioning who.

Around the world, fans immediately began speculating on who this could be. The major consensus was that it had to be the solo artist Lee Hi, due to reporting like this: “AOMG responds ‘nothing is confirmed’ to reports of Lee Hi signing on with the label”

A few other names got thrown in fan speculations like Hanbin (B.I), previous member of IKON, Jvcki Wai, and MOON (문) aka Moon Sujin. This despite a few of these already being signed to other labels.

On April 6th, three days later, the account was updated with a part two. This time dropping more hints, which would exclude many names from fan speculations.

On the 7th of April, the label’s official Instagram account posted a short teaser. The video sported an 80’s retrofuturistic setting, with a woman turned from the camera, dressed in all black, rocking braids, and some glistening high-heels. As it seemed to be a female, some were now certain that it had to be Lee Hi. A small few actually guessed correctly that the one who would be joining AOMG would be Ms DeVita.

Finally on April 9th, it was official! She debuted with the music video, from which the teaser clips was taken from, EVITA!, which accompanied the release of her EP, CRÈME.

What does the name DeVita mean?

The name DeVita, draws inspiration and meaning from two things. Firstly, Eva Perón – also known as Evita – who was Argentina’s former First Lady. When Chloe was learning about Eva’s life, it inspired her to combine “Devil” and “Evita”, thus creating “DeVita”. The name signifies the duality of how both Eva Perón and DeVita could be perceived. Either being a devil, or an angel depending on the eye of the beholder. Secondly, Salvatore Di Vita, a character from Cinema Paradiso, was also a source of inspiration.

An introduction to DeVita

Chloe Cho – now known under the artist name DeVita – was born and raised in South Korea, until the age of eleven. In 2009, she moved to Chicago, where she would learn English.

In 2013, she went back to Korea and participated in the third season of the show; K-pop Star. A talent show, where the “big three” (the three largest music labels in Korea) hosts auditions to find the next big k-pop star. However she didn’t win, therefore neither got signed.

Later on, she returned to Chicago and graduated high school. After reflecting on what she wanted to do next, she decided to make music. In 2014, her pursuit to become an artist brought her to the talent show Kollaboration. On this show, she performed covers and actually ended up being a finalist. Despite her talents, she did not triumph as the winner of the show.

Not letting these losses stop her, she started releasing music on Soundcloud. The earliest release I could find, Halfway Love (Ruff), was from 2016. Her catalogue consisted of both covers and original music.

One day, Kirin, an artist and CEO of the music label 8balltown Records, was introduced to DeVita’s music. He liked what he heard and the two linked up. In May of 2018, WEKEYZ, one of 8balltown’s producer duos released a track titled Sugar. This track featured both DeVita, and the AOMG rapper Ugly Duck. This was the beginning of many collaborations to come.

On August 28th of 2018, just a few months later, AOMG released Sugar (Puff Daehee Mix).

This was a remix done by Puff Daehee, the alter ego of Kirin. Along with this track, it was accompanied by a music video starring Kirin, DeVita, and Ugly Duck. For most people, this was their first time seeing DeVita.

DeVita continued doing features on many songs by Korean artists while creating a little buzz for herself. There’s one notable feature, which could be seen as an important milestone in her career. That is her feature on the track Noise, from AOMG artist Woo Won Jae’s project, titled af.

In a tweet a few days after the release of CRÈME, she shared the significance of this moment.

“I was still making minimum wage working at a restaurant back when Noise dropped- I wrote my part during my shift on the back of this receipt paper. This was about a year and a half ago. A little bit after that I got a call from Pumpkin at 3am Chicago time. He said Jay wanted to meet in Philly in 4 hours. They put me on a plane and the rest is history.”

The phone call she mentioned in her tweet, about Jay wanting to meet, must have been made around September 2018. Jay was performing in Philadelphia at the time. The moment they met in Philadelphia was actually captured through a photo of the two. However, this picture ended up getting removed later on.

Fast forward a few months and Jay had just released his Ask About Me EP. The project focused on a western audience, so he went to the States on a promo run. During his visit, he also met up with DeVita once again, as can be seen here.

Finally, on April 9th, her being signed to AOMG was officially announced and she debuted with her EP titled CRÈME. Her joining AOMG, looked like something that happened pretty naturally. The vast majority of artists she had collaborated on tracks with happened to be AOMG members. Getting comfortable with the AOMG family, likely made the decision to join crystal clear.

Artistically

Just a quick look at her body of work thus far, a majority of it is in English. However, she has no issues singing in Korean, as proven by her feature on Code Kunst’s; Let u in. The tone in her voice has this sort of mixture of many singers, a melting pot of sorts. It reminds me of Audrey Nuna, SAAY, H.E.R, some vocal riffs from Dinah Jane, and at times, just a tiny bit of Ariana Grande.

As an artist, she’s still in the early stages of carving out her own unique sound and style. There’s incredible potential here, but her distinct identity is not completely there yet. I see before me a caterpillar that within a couple years, will transform into a butterfly, with its own identifiable pattern to spread its wings out on.

From what she’s shown so far, I would say she seems most comfortable doing R&B and soul music. However, beyond a quick description I prefer to refrain from categorizing her. Mostly because artists generally feel limited when categorized. More importantly, because we have no idea what she has in store for the future.

Debut EP: CRÈME

CRÈME is DeVita’s “crème de la crème”. She constantly modified the tracklist to present her debut project in a way that held her personal standard; essentially presenting us her best tracks. The result is CRÈME, which consists of five tracks, with a runtime of fourteen minutes altogether.

This EP showcases the fact that she is a competent songwriter, able to write some soulful, emotional ballads. It is completely in English and all the tracks are written by her, telling both life stories of her own and that of others. A majority of the production was handled by her “musical soulmate”; TE RIM, but other notable names, like Code Kunst show up as well.

Tracks:

Movies, introduces the project in a very gentle manner. In the track, DeVita paints a picture of a criminal couple, getting a rush, by committing crimes together. The lyrics feel inspired by movies like Bonnie and Clyde. My initial thoughts were that, for some ears, it could possibly be “too” calm as an opener. It doesn’t demand attention the way EVITA! does. Simply put, it’s not a bad track. I would just have put this track later on in the EP.

EVITA!, is something different compared to what I hear from others in the K-R&B lane. I love the 80’s aesthetic in both the track and music video. Sonically, the nostalgic saxophone riffs, warm lush synth pads, thumping bass line, results in a trip back to the 80s. With this recipe, topped with DeVita’s “current” contemporary soul and R&B voice makes for an interesting combination. The music video had that futuristic 80’s look with the neon colors, and I loved how the guns she played around with looked a lot like the “Needlers” from the Halo franchise.  The title is once again just like DeVita’s name, an ode to the controversial Eva Perón. The instrumental was originally used by TE RIM, the producer of the track in 2017. His version has the same title as DeVita’s version and I recommend giving that one a listen as well, as it has a different feel to it. This track was definitely one of the highlights of the EP.

All About You, is a simple yet beautiful piano love ballad. Originating from her own tales of love, her vocals effortlessly capture what she felt during these moments.

1974 Live, is yet another ballad, but this time, with a calm guitar backing, playing a poppier R&B chord progression. DeVita’s voice is given a lot of space to be in the center of the track. As soon as I heard this track I became curious. What was the significance of this year, which would have her title the track as such? My questions were left unanswered… until the EP had marinated a while, when she tweeted: “1974 Live is about Christine Chubbuck”. In case you’re unfamiliar, Christine Chubbuck was a television news reporter, who made history in 1974. She was the first person to commit suicide live on air. According to her mother Christine’s suicide would on paper be due to an unfullfilling personal life. All throughout her life, she had experienced unreciprocated love. With this information tying back to the track, it becomes a lot less ambiguous and reveals a more cohesive narrative.

Show Me, is the final track of the EP, featuring immaculate production from the talented CODE KUNST. The sound is very moody, which fits her voice like a glove. This is my favorite performance on the entire EP, both lyrically and vocally. The lyrics present someone who’s fed up dealing with men, who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Now she’s looking for love with someone who’s honest and “real”.

With the project being a year old now, it has already gotten her nominated for both Rookie of the Year along with EVITA being nominated for Best R&B & Soul Track in the 18th iteration of the Korean Music Awards.

A majority of listeners seemed to enjoy the project. Many seem to be in love with her voice judging by the endless amounts of praise she has received, often described as painfully addicting, soothing, smooth, and so on.

I also asked a friend who’s a huge fan of Korean music, especially the hiphop and r&b scene to share her thoughts on the project. Here’s what she said:

"This whole project is empowering, in particular the tracks Show Me and EVITA! DeVita being a new artist, managed to impress me and many more listeners through this EP. As mentioned earlier, empowering lyrics with unique melodies and beats. Especially with the track EVITA! The fact that 1974 Live and EVITA! was referring to, two historically important women, is something that I love. This is one of my favorite EP:s of 2020 and DeVita is now included in my list of favorite artists." @Haonsmom

From what I’ve seen, only a few have been vocal about not really being too fond of the project. Some were left a bit disappointed, as they were expecting more hip-hop and R&B from an AOMG artist. The lack of “danceable” tracks was also a concern to some. Despite these criticisms, one thing was always mentioned; the girl has a beautiful voice and is obviously talented.

After listening to this EP, I hear a lot of potential. Being an EP with just five tracks, it definitely avoids overstaying its welcome. It’s brief enough to allow a listen through the entire project, no matter what you’re doing. My favorite tracks would have to be Show Me and EVITA!, but I found the whole project to be enjoyable. This EP is sprinkled with lovely vocal performances and simple but captivating production. I do still stand by my opinion that Movies would have fit better later in the tracklist if you’re chasing that mainstream ear.

I think the way EVITA! kicks you in the face, demanding attention, would’ve been a better fit as the opening track. In contrast to the other tracks, the energy level is unique, making the placement feel odd as the rest of the tracks have a chill vibe. All in all, this project gave me a taste of the “crème” but left me with a curious yearning for what this chef will whip up for dessert.

Bright future ahead

The addition of more female artists to the AOMG roster was much needed. Hoody was the first and only female member for about four years. This was the case up until late 2019, where she was then joined by sogumm, who had just won AOMG’s audition program called SignHere. Now funnily enough after DeVita, Lee Hi actually did end up officially signing with AOMG on July 22, last year.

Based on what I’ve heard during Devita’s Kollaboration days, she has improved immensely. This topped with her leaving the impression of someone passionate about their craft, bodes well for what's to come. She seems to be someone who'll constantly evolve.

Following an artist, at the early stages of their career, is something that I always find exciting. With such a lovely debut, I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for DeVita.

To view the content of this article in video format simply play the video embedded below.

Thanks for reading, watching. If you enjoyed this content feel free to follow my socials to stay up to date on when new content is posted.

https://allmylinks.com/dossi-io

Credits:

The first image in article: Original photo, pre-edit from @jinveun

Gif from the Sugar Puff Daehee MV: @moxiepoints

[intubatedangel]

Cold Snap: Chapter 6

 Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 |

Dave was stood on the dock, looking out at the foundering boat when it exploded. He was filled with panic and fear for his partner, but soon had to put that aside. The first patrol boat had pulled up and Dave had to lead the response. He spent the next ten minutes in something of a daze, helping people from the patrol boats, checking them over and directing them to an appropriate holding area or ambulance team.

It was only when the last patrol boat, with quite a badly hurt young man was empty that he realised he hadn't seen any sign of Lucy. The fear came back as he stared out at the larger boat, seeing it slipping into the water, replaced with relief, as he saw one final patrol boat racing across the river towards them, and could make out Lucy's high-vis uniform coat. He heard the radio call of the parked patrol boat and looked more intently at the incoming one.

As he watched, he saw what Lucy was doing. "Bring a gurney, now!" He shouted to a pair of paramedics who were now just hanging around, with most of the patients dealt with and on their way to the hospital. They jumped, then looked where he was pointing. Even at this distance, it was clear to see the Lucy was performing chest compressions. The paramedics ran over with the gurney, suddenly focused.

The suspense was agonising, as it always was, when they knew a situation was grave but there was nothing they could do right now. They watched the patrol boat get closer and closer, the first made way, and a minute later the final patrol boat finally came to a sudden stop next to the dock. One of the medics jumped into the boat, strapping the body of the young woman to the backboard she was already laying on., then coordinated with Lucy.

As soon as she finished the round of compressions, Lucy and the medic grabbed the back board and lifted it, head up, towards the dock. Dave took the board and along with the other medic they lifted her fully clear of the patrol boat, quickly aligning her with the gurney. Dave immediately began compressions.

Lucy pulled herself up the ladder, with clearly aching arms, handing the ambu bag, which she had taken from a damp looking police officer, to the other medic on the dock. He sealed the mask over the girl’s face, hyperventilating her with rapid breaths. Lucy got herself up, grabbing on side of the gurney. Dave transitioned to one handed compressions, the other medic dropped the ambu bag by the young woman’s head, and between the three of them, they started to push the gurney towards an ambulance.

The last medic was helping the officer out of the boat, trailing along behind as Lucy, still breathing hard started her report.

* * *

"This is Shona, early 20's. Trapped and drowned in roughly freezing water. She's profoundly hypothermic and in cardiac arrest. No pulse for nearly 20 minutes at this point. Closed fracture on the right leg, and a minor head injury, both of minimal importance." Lucy rattled off, giving the important information to the others. The gurney rattled and bounced across the dock as they ran to the ambulance, pulling up just short.

Lucy hopped in first, pulling the head of the gurney into the back of the van, while Dave managed to keep his hand firmly planted between the pale breasts of their patient, pressing down hard but consistently. "Drive." He said to the other paramedic, not looking, focused on his attempts to keep blood flowing through Shona's body. He barely noticed when another figure entered the ambulance and was directed to sit down by the last medic, who the closed the doors giving the side of the ambulance a firm slap to alert the driver.

"This is Matt Jones." Lucy told Dave. "Also hypothermic, and exhausted, but no injuries?" she leaned over, double checking, while she picked up the ambu bag and forced breath into Shona's lungs. Jones nodded, still shivering sightly. He pulled the blanket a little tighter, settling back into the corner to rest. Lucy watched him for a moment, but the way he shuffled to make himself more comfortable put her at ease. She focused on Shona.

Lucy grabbed an oxygen line, attaching it the ambu-bag and touching some controls, directing heated air into the bulb. She gave some more breaths, then stood, bracing a hand on the cupboards as the ambulance started to move. She pulled open one of them, extracting some chemical heating pads. She cracked them to activate the effect, then started to place them around Shona's body, starting with one under each armpit. She leaned around Dave, even as continued compressions wordlessly, placing one heat pack across Shona's bulging abdomen. She dumped the others on the side of the gurney, realising that Shona was still wearing her saturated trousers.

"Switch Dave." Was all she said. He gave three more hard compressions, then stepped back to the side, giving Lucy access to Shona's chest, while he grabbed some shears and went to work on the damp clothing. Lucy planted her hands once more, pressing down. It was easier than before. Two minutes of Dave's more powerful compressions had weakened Shona's ribs, and now Lucy didn't to put as much effort into squeezing the young woman's stopped heart between her sternum and spine.

For now, Lucy ignored the ambu bag, rocking over Shona and caving in her chest at a rate of 100 a minute, while Dave cut away with the shears. After removing the straps of the backboard, he sliced down each leg, then tugged the pants off. He then sniped away her underwear, casting it aside too, leaving Shona naked on the gurney. He grabbed the heat packs, they were already giving off considerable warmth. He placed once between Shona's legs, being gentle as he manipulated her limbs, considering the broken leg. The last two he draped over her thighs.

With some haste he also took out a splint and wrapped it around the broken bone. Then opened another cupboard. He took out something shiny and metallic, unfolding the mylar blanket and handing it to Lucy as she stopped compressions. Dave slipped his arms under the pulseless girl, lifting her a few inches off the backboard, being careful with her spine, but knowing that re-warming her was more important. Lucy spread the blanket beneath Shona, then Dave lowered her down. They wrapped the reflective blanket around her, then threw a thick woolen blanket over that too, almost creating a cocoon.

* * *

 Only a couple of minutes had passed in the back of the ambulance, the two medics working through a whole list of things that needed done, while still keeping up near constant compressions. With the girl wrapped up, Dave took over compressions again, allowing Lucy to focus on the rest. She started two IV's, one in each arm, hooking up warmed saline to each via thin tubes. Next, she took a much bigger tube, and a metal cylinder with a blade. She slid the laryngoscope between blue lips, into Shona's mouth, advancing it until she could see her slack vocal chords.

"Hold." She said, grasping the tube, then sliding it along the blade as Dave halted compressions. "In". Lucy said, but he had already resumed the body rocking compressions. She inflated the cuff of the tube, pulled the mask of the amub bag and tossed it to one side, then connected the bulb to the blue tip of the 7.0 ET tube. She squeezed in warmed breaths with on hand, dancing a stethoscope around Shona ghostly pale chest, hearing the welcome woosh of air flowing into her lungs. She could also hear the slight gurgling of the residual water.

"Gotta suction her out." Lucy muttered, to no one in particular. Dave was intent on the compressions, showing no signs of tiredness, and Jones was leaning into the corner, eyes following their actions, but too exhausted to do anything to help. She gave another couple of chest swelling breaths, which Dave could feel against his hands, then unhooked the bag, dropping it again as she dragged a suction unit from one side, threading the small catheter down the ET tube and into Shona's lungs. The device slurped and hummed as it drew the last bits of water out.

With Shona's lungs clear, Lucy tore off a few strips of inch-thick tape, wrapping them around the tube then sticking them to Shona's cheeks, smoothing them gently, almost caressing. She looked at Dave, who was starting to feel the burn in his arms now, after 4 minutes of compressions. He nodded to her, starting to count softly. "45...46...47...47..." As soon as he reached 50 he pulled his arms back and let Lucy slip in front of him to take over. She had dropped the ambu-bag, letting the tube pull Shona's head to the side. Her fingers interweaved, lowering down to the soft, cold and already slightly bruised skin of Shona's chest. Her fingers brushed slightly against Shona's breast as she started to press down again.

Dave concentrated on the monitor, unravelling the leads, attaching electrodes and removing the backing from those electrodes. He then placed them around Shona's chest, worming his hand under the blanket for the lower two tabs. The monitor came to life, immediately singing the asystolic whine. Neither Dave nor Lucy reacted. They knew there would be no cardiac activity, Shona had been down for long enough and was cold enough that even if she had been in V-fib at first, that would have faded away before they had a chance to shock her.

Dave grabbed other sensors, clipping the O2 sensor to one of Shona's fingers, and placing a temperature sensor on her chest. It wouldn't give them a perfect reading of her core temperature, but it would be close enough for them to have a good guess.

"22 C on the surface sensor, with the heating packs, core's probably 18, could have been down to 15." Dave said with a sigh, taking a better look at her. Her lips, though covered with tape, were still clearly blue, and her skin was a pearly white. She was clinically dead, and looked it. It was hard to have hope looking at someone in that state. But he had seen it work out ok, been involved in it in fact, back when he was a fresh-faced paramedic like Lucy. They just had to keep working, keep bending her ribs and compressing her heart, pushing bloody through her body. Because as the saying goes, they aren't dead til their warm and dead.

Once they reached the hospital they would be able to give her more intensive warming and would be better placed to give additional life support. They just had to get there. "How far out are we?" He shouted through to the front.

"Another minute, we're on a clear run in!" The driver replied.

Dave pumped the ambu-bag, then began to package the gurney for moving Shona into the hospital, where Dave desperately hoped they would be able to save her life.

[twomoonstwosuns]

thanksgiving break

back to you [series masterlist]

previous part · next part

pairing: professor!poe dameron x reader

warnings: smut (18+), swearing, age gap (reader over 18), everything consensual

word count: 4.3k oops

a/n: get ready, i’m turning this into a full series (my first ever series and i’m STOKED). it’s gonna be full of smutty, fluffy, angsty goodness. i’m making a tag list, hit me up if you want to be added. i’ll link the masterlist when i have it made. also sorry not sorry i got really carried away and basically just wrote a porno.

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You hadn’t seen Poe since that night.

You weren’t purposely avoiding him. In fact, you had caught yourself looking for him within a crowd of people, in line getting coffee, or walking outside between classes. Since his class was over, you had no reason to go to the building he taught in. And it would definitely be weird if you started showing up to his office hours without a reason.

Midterms were rough on you and everything after that just seemed to be getting harder. Studying for multiple tests and writing long papers took over your life for the month of November. Graduation was one semester away and you couldn’t take your foot off the gas, so you pushed yourself hard. Your diet consisted of energy drinks and whatever you could nuke in the microwave or get delivered late at night. Luckily, you weren’t alone in your stress. Your apartment-mates Karé and Jessika were in the same boat as you.

It didn’t help that you couldn’t stop thinking about your hookup with Poe, the way he kissed you, the way he sucked on your skin, and especially the way he fucked you just on the cusp of rough. It was good, so good, and you wanted it to happen again, which is probably why you were seemed to be looking for him everywhere you went. What would you even say if you did see him? Hey Professor, wanna fuck again? just didn’t seem like the right way to ask.

Thanksgiving break was a very welcome interruption.

You turned in the first draft of your thesis paper, the invisible weight on your shoulders lifting as you walked out of Professor Holdo’s office, wishing her a good break. Your phone buzzed inside your pocket and you saw your older sister Tallie’s name flash across the screen.

“Mom wants to know what time you’ll be home.”

You pulled the phone away from your ear, checking the time.

“Probably in like an hour, hour and a half? I’m heading back to my apartment now and have a couple last minute things to pack. Why?”

“She’s running to the store and wants to know what you’re making to bring to dinner tomorrow. If you answered your phone, you’d know that.”

You scoffed at her attitude.

“First of all, I don’t know what I’m making yet so tell mom I’ll just stop at the store myself. Second, I know it’s been awhile since you’ve been in college, but let me remind you that I still have classes the day before Thanksgiving.”

“Yeah, I got that. Sorry.”

Tallie’s answer was short, clipped. At this point you were seriously debating staying at your apartment during break and eating a box of mac and cheese if this was the attitude you were going home to. All you wanted was a relaxing break. You needed it. You deserved it.

“What the hell’s your problem?”

“Nothing. I just—it’s our first holiday since dad left and I’m more angry than I thought I would be.”

You stopped in the middle of the hallway, making students around you have to sidestep you. You shot them an apologetic look as they passed. You understood why your sister was giving you attitude and gave her the benefit of the doubt. You knew it was Wednesday but had forgotten the significance of the day. Today was the day your parents’ divorce would be finalized. You let out a heavy sigh.

“I get it. I’m angry too.” You said.

Another person coming down the perpendicular hallway caught your attention and when you looked, you saw him, the person you’d been looking for. You gave him a smirk as he walked closer and he gave you one back when he made eye contact with you. Everything your sister was saying was passing through your head without being processed as you discreetly checked him out. A black sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms was accompanied by dark blue jeans and a brown leather bag hanging off his shoulder, the shoulders you had fond memories of holding onto as he pounded into you. Poe Dameron was effortlessly dreamy. You held a finger up, silently telling him to hang out for a second. Poe slowed his walking and took out his phone, lingering an appropriate distance away from you.

“Look, the way I see it, we can stay angry or we can not think about it and just have a good break. I haven’t seen you since the summer.”

“I know, I’ve missed you. We’ll have to do something before you go back to school. And you’re right about being angry. I’ll let it go, for you…and for mom. I hate it when you’re right, by the way.”

“I’m always right, I don’t know why you’re not used to it by now.” You heard Poe laugh quietly and you gave him a look. “I gotta go, but I’ll be home soon.”

You hit the end call button and looked back up at Poe.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Everything ok?”

“Yeah, um—“ How much do you tell him? It was just sex the one time, it’s not like you were dating. You shook your head, deciding not to burden him with your family drama. “It’s nothing, really. My older sister’s a little bit of a drama queen sometimes.”

“Ah. Only child; never had that.”

“Consider yourself lucky.”

The air around you was tense, wrought with sexual tension that could be cut with a knife. You couldn’t help but bite inside of your cheek as you looked at him. The way Poe was raking his eyes over you was nearly the same as the way he looked at you at the club. He wanted a repeat of that night too. The words were on the tip of your tongue and you could tell Poe wanted to say something too. You wanted to say them so bad, but you didn’t know who might be lingering behind doors or around corners, so you settled for small talk.

“You heading out?”

“Yeah, I’m flying out to my dad’s tonight. We’re doing friendsgiving with a couple of his Air Force buddies and a few of my friends who don’t have much in terms of family.”

“That’s sweet,” you said. “Is Beebs going with you?”

Poe chuckled. His orange and white corgi Beebs had become very popular when he had his laptop hooked up to the monitor in his class and everyone saw the adorable dog as his computer background.

“Unfortunately no, he’s getting dropped off at doggy day care. Flying stresses him out.”

You thought you ‘awwed’ in your head, but the way Poe snickered made you realize you had actually said it out loud. You couldn’t help it though. The way he adored his furry companion was too sweet. Poe looked around him before taking a step closer to you.

“Give me your phone.”

“Why?”

“Give me your phone.”

You gave him a look as you handed your phone over. He held onto it for a minute, typing something in quickly before handing it back to you. His fingers brushed over yours and your whole body felt warm. You looked up at Poe, his eyes on you as he leaned in.

“See you later.” He said lowly in your ear as he passed you. He was playing a dangerous game out in the middle of the hall like this, but you found yourself growing wet instead of caring. You bit your lip to contain your smile before looking back at him, your eyes landing on his ass that just looked too good in those jeans.

“Tell your dog I say ‘hi’.”

Poe threw his head back and laughed loudly. He turned to look back at you and winked. You walked away in the opposite direction, the smile never leaving your face.

》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》

Thanksgiving dinner ended up being a lot more pleasant than you anticipated. Since your dad walked out, you had expected his side of the family to be awkward towards you. You actually expected them to not come at all. But they showed up with unconditional support that made it clear they were on your side and were very vocal about their disapproval after several glasses of wine. It was reassuring in a way.

It was Saturday afternoon when Poe texted you. You were lounging on the couch working on homework with reruns on as background noise. He asked if you wanted to get together, to which you texted back embarrassingly fast that you’d love nothing more. You’d never admit to it to him, but you had been anxiously awaiting a text since the minute you got home.

He texted you an address to a hotel in the city. Confused, you gave your mother some excuse about going to meet a friend to get coffee and work on homework. With your backpack full of random books, you drove into the city towards the hotel. You nearly sped down the streets, the anticipation at having Poe between your legs again making you want to clench your thighs together.

You arrived at the hotel, texting Poe that you were in the lobby. He gave you his room number and you were having a hard time standing still on your way up. The thoughts that swirled around your head were sinful, and you were so caught up in how aroused you were that you almost missed the room. You knocked twice before Poe opened the door and pulled you inside He pressed you against the door.

“Hi,” Poe said, giving you a sexy smile as he took your jacket off.

“Hi.”

You grabbed the front of his shirt and crashed your lips against his. He wasted no time sliding his tongue into your mouth and tangling it with yours. He was half hard already and you wondered if he had been thinking of you. You groaned at the feeling, heat pooling in your belly at how good it felt having his denim clad cock rubbing against your clothed core. Poe lifted your shirt over your head, breaking the kiss to do it but immediately reconnecting your lips. He pulled you from the door, his hands warm as one hand splayed across your lower back, the other kneading your breast through your bra. He turned you into the room, walking you in.

You unhooked your bra, flinging it somewhere in the room and bringing your fingers to the hem of his t-shirt. You paused as he helped you lift his shirt over his head, staring at his chest. The sneak peek you got through his shirt on Halloween gave way to a broad, muscular chest, tanned and toned. A silver chain lay against his skin, a ring hanging on the end of it. You traced your finger down his sternum, hooking it around the necklace.

“God, you’re sexy.” You breathed. The look he gave you nearly made you melt. Poe grabbed the back of your neck, trailing his lips from the curve of your jaw back to your ear. He left a trail of wet, hot kisses and you nearly lost your breath when he ran his teeth over your pulse point.

“Easy—fuck—easy on the marks this time.” You said breathlessly. “I still have to see my family tomorrow.”

You felt Poe chuckle against your skin, bringing his lips back up to yours and gently biting your lip.

“Good thing it’s scarf season,” he smirked before darting his tongue out to trace over where he’d bitten.

He unbuttoned your jeans and dipped his hand inside, cupping your heat through your underwear. You were embarrassingly wet, everything he was doing was making your body temperature rise. The back of your legs hit the bed and Poe gently pushed you onto it, removing his hand long enough to scoot you back. He pulled your jeans down your legs, unhooking them from your ankles and tossing them into the piles of clothes on the floor.

“Well well, what do we have here?” Poe said with a salacious grin, running his lips over the small tattoo on your side. He ran his finger along your slit over your underwear, feeling you soaking through. “Fuck, you’re so wet.”

“Poe, please…”

“Please what?” He had a playful glint in his eye as he traced his finger along your underwear down to your inner thighs, avoiding the place where you really wanted him.

“Touch me. Please touch me.”

Poe practically ripped your underwear off and brought his fingers to your clit, pressing light circles on it. Your hips bucked up looking for more friction. Poe placed a kiss on your stomach and then on your breast before coming face to face with you. His eyes were nearly black with lust.

“Like that?”

His voice was rougher than you’d ever heard and it made you even more wet. You whispered out a ‘yes’ as he slipped a thick finger inside of you, pumping it once, twice before adding a second. “Fuck Poe, don’t stop.”

His thumb circled your clit as his fingers pressed inside you. You clenched around him, your orgasm blindsiding you and making your stomach flutter. Poe dragged his fingers out of you, bringing them up to his lips. Watching his tongue swirl around his fingers collecting your arousal made your pussy ache with need.

Your hands immediately unbuttoned his pants and he pushed them off with his briefs. You hooked your leg around his waist and pushed him onto his back, the underside of his cock against your pussy. You kissed him quick before making your way down to his neck, biting just above his clavicle.

“No bite marks,” his throat vibrated underneath your lips and you felt his breath catch as you palmed him over his briefs. “I’m teaching all day Monday.”

His reasons were as valid as yours, but you knew he was teasing as well. You kissed down his sternum, the metal of his necklace cool on your lips, and looked up at him from under your lashes.

“You could rock a scarf.”

Poe sat up, grabbing your face and kissing you hard as he flipped you back onto your back. You squealed at being manhandled that way and it surprised you how much you like it. Poe pulled away long enough to reach onto the nightstand and grab a condom. He tore the package open and you took it from his hand.

“Let me,” you said softly. You pumped his cock gently, leaning down and pressing a kiss to the tip and licking the pre-cum off your lips as you rolled the condom down the length. Poe thought he could’ve cum right on the spot. He pushed you back and lined his cock up with your entrance. He looked up at you, checking to make sure you were still good. You nodded and he sunk into you slowly, the both of you moaning as your back began to arch. He pulled out nearly all the way, the head of his cock remaining in side you and pushed in again at a slower pace, the month apart making you need a minute to adjust to his impressive size.

“Poe—god, so—“ A big swing of his hips silenced you, a victorious grin on his face. He grabbed your thighs, wrapping them around his waist and thrust into you. Your back arched when he hit that particular spot inside of you, the one that made the coil inside you start to tighten.

He sat back on his knees, scooping you up and hauling you into his lap. Your arms went around his neck to steady yourself as he rocked up into you and you caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the back of his shoulder. The new angle made him drive even deeper into you and when you rolled against his hips, the moan you released was downright pornographic. His large hands grabbed your ass, his fingers digging into your cheeks as he bounced you in his lap.

“You feel so good.” Poe’s mouth latched onto your breast, sucking marks onto the skin while his tongue flicked over your nipple.

“Fuck, Poe—I’m close—“

Poe increased your pace on his cock, slamming into you to bring you your release. Your eyes nearly rolled back into your head.

“Poe—“

“Look at me,” Poe grasped your hair, keeping your head in place. You opened your eyes. His eyes held a look of determination. “That’s it sweetheart, cum.”

You came apart in his arms, ecstasy taking over you and your moan sinful as your fingers tugged his hair. Poe tipped you back onto the mattress, grunting as he came. His thrusts slowed as you both rode out your highs, your bodies glistening with sweat as he collapsed on top of you. He was heavy on you, but it kept you grounded when you felt like your body was going to levitate. Your legs were twitching with pleasure as Poe rolled off of you. He caught his breath before getting up to discard the condom. When he came back, he slipped his boxers on and picked up his t-shirt, making no effort to put any more clothes back on. He pulled you up by your hand and slipped the t-shirt over your head. Your heart fluttered at the tenderness of the action. He was making sure you were comfortable since the blankets were bunched up and wrinkled underneath you and you had noenergy to move beneath them. You flopped back down on the bed and Poe lay next to you, looking at you with a lazy smile on his face.

“I think you nearly killed me this time.” You said, still attempting to catch your breath. Poe laughed, his eyes crinkling at the edges. He knew just as well as you that this time was hookup was different and much more preferred. While it was just as quick and deliciously filthy as it was in the alleyway, you both had more time to get to know each other’s bodies and what made the other tick, which you took full advantage of. “I meant to ask you, why are we at a hotel?”

“I may or may not have locked my keys in my apartment when I was rushing to get Beebs out.”

You laughed loudly, the smile never leaving your face as he told you the full story. At the end of it, you joked with him, telling him it was going to become your mission to steal his adorable dog. He then asked about your holiday and you asked about his. The conversation was easy and effortless, like you were friends; friends who had just fucked each other’s brains out, but friends nonetheless. You heard your phone ring a few times, but couldn’t find yourself to go find it. Talking with Poe was much more interesting than anything anyone on the other end could say. The conversation turned to the current semester, how things were going from both a student’s and professor’s point of view, and then it turned to Halloween.

“So, I’m curious,” you said, rolling onto your side and resting your head on your outstretched arm. “You were awfully quick to seduce me at the bar—“

“You were quick to say yes.”

“How long had you been thinking about this?”

“Awhile.” He answered, shrugging his shoulders when you raised your eyebrows. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“How many times have you thought about fucking me?”

The directness of the way he spoke was making you hot, making you wet and your thighs sticky with arousal. You hummed thoughtfully, trying to decide if you wanted to tell him just how long you had thought about him. Poe seemed to notice your hesitation and gave you a suggestive look.

“Tell me,” His voice was soft but demanding as his fingers playing with the hem of his t-shirt as he inched closer.

You stretched your other arm above your head, your movements cat-like as you stretched. His eyes followed and settled briefly on your chest.

“Probably like once a week since the first day of your class.” You admitted with a flirty smile. Poe rolled over onto you, stretching his body along yours and holding your wrists above your head with one of his hands. The other traced the curve of your breast, gently playing with your nipple. He rolled his hips against yours.

“Is that so?”

You arched your eyebrow, giving him a look that dared him to do something about it. He leaned down, his lips brushing over yours, when your phone started going off for the third time.

“Oh my god.” You were annoyed, both at the person trying to call you and yourself for not turning your phone on silent. Poe got off of you and grabbed your phone, handing it to you. You huffed in annoyance when you saw your sister’s name.

“Hello?” You pressed your finger against Poe’s lips, urging him to keep quiet. He gently bit the top of your finger before sucking it into his mouth. You clenched your thighs together.

“So get this, Chris forgot to tell me—“

Whatever she was saying about her husband, you didn’t hear. You were too focused on Poe, who had pushed his shirt up and started tracing your tattoo with his tongue. He then moved down and lifted your leg, settling it over his shoulder, and without warning licked a strip from your slit to your clit, making you gasp.

“You ok?”

You squirmed under Poe and he laid his arm across the lower part of your stomach to keep you in place. He’d proven to be good with his mouth, but this was an entirely different kind of pleasure.

“Yeah, just ran into the corner of a table.” You felt Poe smile against you and bit your lip to keep from crying out. He inserted two fingers into you, curling them in succession with every flick of his tongue against your clit.

“Short notice, I know, but do you want to do happy hour tonight? Say, 7 o’clock at Coakley’s?”

You glanced at the clock on the nightstand, seeing it read 5:30. Between the sex and the conversation, you had been there for hours without realizing it.

“Sure, sounds—“ You pulled the phone away from your mouth, biting your lip to silence a whimper as Poe worked you towards your orgasm. “Sounds good.”

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah, fine, that table just really hurt.” You tugged his hair with your free hand and he eased off, removing his fingers just as you were teetering on the edge. You whined at the loss of contact as he nibbled at the skin of your inner thighs. “I’ll see you at 7.”

You made sure you were disconnected before throwing your phone aside and moaning loudly as Poe delved his tongue into your pussy like a man starved. He was quick to bring you back to the brink of orgasm. Your legs trembled against him as you came hard,the pleasure overtaking you and making you lose all train of thought. Poe withdrew his fingers, running them through his mouth and collecting the rest of your juices. He kissed your sensitive folds once more before crawling back up your body, licking his lips as he did.

“That was so cruel.” You said breathlessly, but the smile on your face showed you didn’t mean it one bit. You swiped your thumb on his chin, collecting what remained of your juices and sucking it into your mouth. He pressed his lips to yours, his tongue slipping into your mouth and letting you taste more of yourself.

“You have to get going.” He muttered as he pulled away, lifting himself off of you and pulling you up.

“I do.” You frowned, reluctantly getting off the bed. Your legs were still shaky with instability. “I feel like I’m always slipping out on you. But I can’t go to drinks with my sister smelling like I just spent the last couple hours having sex.”

You gathered up your clothes, making sure you were leaving nothing behind. You looked in the mirror above the dresser, trying to make your hair look somewhat presentable and making sure the hickeys you told Poe not to leave were completely covered.

“I’m being serious, you know.” You said, putting your underwear on. They were still damp and it made you tingle with the memory. “I’m going to steal your dog.”

“I don’t know about stealing him, but you’ll meet him when we do this again.”

You looked over your shoulder as you buttoned your jeans.

“Yeah? Again?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Good.” You slipped your jacket on and walked towards him. “Because this is a lot of fun.”

Poe stood from the bed and slipped his hand into your hair, pulling you into one last kiss. It was softer than the ones you’d previously shared. He pulled away and whispered ‘bye’ against your lips, pecking them once more before releasing you. You grabbed your purse and left with a wave and a wink.

He made you absolutely giddy. If someone had told you that you were going to have a sexual relationship with your professor, you would’ve laughed in his or her face. What made it so great for you was how natural your chemistry was. It was good, lighthearted, sexy fun, something that both of you craved during stressful times.

For the first time in awhile, you couldn’t wait to get back to school.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Texan-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and TikTok personality Allison Ponthier makes a splash with 'Cowboy' – it's the enthralling first taste of her upcoming EP. Finding a path away from her conservative upbringing, queer singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier is another artist making country music her own. Taking references from Kacey Musgraves and Orville Peck, Ponthier's take on the genre is high camp and features a kaleidoscopic visual world too. Growing a huge following on TikTok, 'Cowboy' marks the start of a whole new chapter for Ponthier with her debut release with Interscope and Polydor. The track itself references her move from the bible belt to New York City and her journey accepting her sexuality. Warm and inviting 'Cowboy' is cinematic pop with some real heart-on-sleeve confessional songwriting. Complete with a masterful music video that runs like a mini-movie complete with impressive special effects, on reflection, cinematic is an understatement. The video itself is a striking and exciting introduction to this new artist, “I probably watch movies more than I listen to music,” Ponthier says of the video. The clip, directed by Jordan Bahat (Christine and the Queens) adds a whole new cosmic energy to the track and aims to amplify the lyrics' detailed storytelling. As she unveils more of her forthcoming debut EP, Ponthier explains what we can expect from her; “a lot of my songs are about being uncomfortable in your own skin but getting to know yourself better, figuring out who you really are.” [via the Line Of Best Fit]

Miley Cyrus has shared the full video for 'Angels Like You'. The pop rebel returned in 2020 with her excellent album Plastic Hearts, a series of superb empowerment anthems. Album highlight 'Angels Like You' has received the video treatment, shot at the Superbowl in front of an audience of fully vaccinated healthcare workers. Miley has also provided a note for the video describing her feelings of gratitude to these workers. [via Clash]

LA punk four-piece The Paranoyds have dropped a new video for track 'Egg Salad', taken from their album Carnage Bargain which is out now on Suicide Squeeze. The video's director Nicole Stunwyck comments "The video presents the glitzy & glamorous world of a teenage girl who, after accidentally catching a beauty pageant on TV, dreams of her rise to stardom & subsequent downfall... It’s not a commentary on anything but an experimental depiction of my own personal fascination for young tragic starlets alà Valley of The Dolls."

Noga Erez and collaborative partner ROUSSO have shared a fifth compelling new single from forthcoming album KIDS which is set for release on March 26 via City Slang. 'Story' is a snappy, addictive song about how couples relationships are always a relationship between two people’s past and present. "Everyone brings their past experiences to the relationship even if things are great" Erez comments. "Sometimes past situations come in and take over." As with the album's previous singles 'Story' is brought to life with a captivating video, starring Erez and ROUSSO, who also provides vocals on the track. "ROUSSO is my partner in music as well as my partner in life" she explains. "This is the first time we tell a story about our relationship in a song and video. It’s a song about a couple fighting and how, in that situation, sometimes what you hear the other person say is not what they actually said. The making of this video was a 10-day couples therapy session for us. As we rehearsed the pretend fighting and martial arts moves we knew that, at times, one of us would get punched just a little too hard. It was so intense and interesting to live in this world, where our relationship comes alive in the most physical way."

After announcing Detritus with lead outing 'Stories' last month, Sarah Neufeld has unveiled the album's second single 'With Love and Blindness'. Neufeld says of the song and Jason Last-directed video, "The video for 'With Love and Blindness' came together through a long-time collaboration between myself and videographer Jason Last. I knew that Jason and I would work together again on some visual aspect for my third solo release, and it so happened that before I even began recording the album, we were presented with the opportunity to do a mini residence on Corsica with Providenza; an amazing collective with a farm, cultural laboratory, festival and residency program." She continues, "I was doing a short solo tour in Europe in the summer of 2019 in order to re-work some of the pieces from the dance collaboration to begin to find a shape for the album that was to be recorded in the Fall. In the middle of that tour, Jason and I travelled to Corsica for several days (graced once again with a suitcase containing Esteban Cortazar’s unique and beautiful creations). Besides performing in Providenza’s outdoor amphitheater, we were immersed in nature, literally staying in a treehouse perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the dramatic coastline." Neufeld adds, "I found that the pulse of the landscape resonated with the essence of the music, especially "With Love and Blindness"; a sense of rawness, of sensuality, of a strange gravity intensified by the hypnotic summer heat and the general otherworldliness of the place." [via the Line Of Best Fit]

Molly Burman was brought up around music. At every family event, every party, the soundtrack would resonate with her, providing an education in itself. Both parents were gigging musicians, and she always wanted to follow in their footsteps, to use performance as a means of self-expression. Lockdown brought the time and space to bring these ideas into focus, and she's working to unveil a series of one off singles. Her debut single proper 'Fool Me With Flattery' is out now, a blissfully melodic piece of indie pop with some whip-smart lyricism. There's a tongue in cheek element to her sound that is fantastically endearing, matched by the subtle lo-fi elements of her bedroom pop confection. She comments: "I wrote the song after a long day of feeling overlooked and ignored by some of the guys in my life. I was fed up, angry and used the stereotype of a mansplaining misogynist to let it all out. This song is for anyone who feels belittled and like they’re being made to shrink themselves; be as big as you possibly can, and don’t let anyone fool you with flattery." The video is a hilarious showcase for Molly's offbeat sense of humour. [via Clash]

Punk provocateurs Pussy Riot have unveiled their latest song 'Panic Attack', as well as a music video that features a hologram of singer Nadya Tolokonnikova. This is the final release from Pussy Riot’s new Panic Attack EP, a collection of three linked songs that, for now, can only be streamed as separate singles. The title track features punk guitars underneath a tinkling music box melody, as Tolokonnikova turns anxiety into a sports cheer. “Gimme an A,” she says, “Gimme a T/ Gimme a T/ Gimme an A/ Gimme a C/ Gimme a K/ Okay? Okay.” While upbeat and seemingly cheerful, the synth-punk song comes out of the trauma she experienced in a Russian prison camp. As she explained in a statement, “After serving 2 years in a labor camp, I’m still struggling with mental health issues. Trauma, fear and insecurity never fully go away, causing depression episodes and deep anxiety. ‘PANIC ATTACK’ was born as the result of me staring at the wall for 24 hours in the middle of the pandemic, feeling 100% helpless. I was trying to write something uplifting to encourage people to get through the tough times. But I was just failing and failing. Magically, at the second I allowed myself to be honest and write about despair I was experiencing, I wrote the track in like a half an hour. Depression is a plague of the 21st century, and it tells me that there’s something broken in the way we treat each other. The video ‘PANIC ATTACK’ reflects on objectification of human beings, loneliness, disconnection from the environment that causes us to feel small and powerless. And it’s us who caused it with our own hands – that’s why in the end of the video I’m fighting with my own clone.” The music video for 'Panic Attack' was directed by  Asad J. Malik. He used 106 cameras to capture all angles of Tolokonnikova, then converted that information into a photoreal hologram. Afterwards, Tokyo-based creative technologist Ruben Fro built out landscapes reminiscent of video games through which the virtual Tolokonnikova could frolic. But as the visuals progress, those idyllic settings give way to a hellscape, and the singer faces off against a clone of herself. [via Consequence of Sound]

The wait is finally over. BLACKPINK’s Rosé shines like the star she is with her official solo debut. On Friday, she released two solo songs on her debut single album titled R, 'On the Ground' and 'Gone.' With its deep lyrics, angelic bridge, and Rosé’s high note at the end, 'On the Ground' is an exemplary song for her solo debut. Add the fact that Rosé is credited as a writer for the song, and one can really tell how much time she spent perfecting it for release. The accompanying music video, meanwhile, expands the story of life and growth. Rosé starts off looking lost and trying to find herself amidst all the wildness of life; she eventually encounters past and present versions of herself while searching for answers and purpose. By the end, she finds herself and her path forward, and one can’t help but smile as she sings an explosive outro. [via Teen Vogue]

On Ellise's latest alt-pop concoction the rising pop star gets gothic as 'Feeling Something Bad...' transforms a crush into an obsession. An expert at catastrophising everyday experiences, the LA-based artist has arrived fully formed with not only a consistent and cohesive sound but a striking visual identity too. That's even more clear when you press play on the accompanying video for her latest infectiously catchy track. With the clip directed by Joakim Carlsson we get to see Ellise in her absolute element as she brings "Feeling Something Bad..." to life in a macabre world of its own. “I just love dramatising little everyday feelings in life, so this is my big dramatic ‘I have a crush on you’ song,” Ellise explains – it's a song she wrote about a boy she barely knew. [via the Line Of Best Fit]

With President Biden determined to get the majority of American adults vaccinated by summer, bands are earnestly beginning to look forward to the return of live music. Purity Ring are the latest to announce 2021 tour dates, which they’ve shared alongside the video for their track 'sinew'. The song comes from WOMB, the synth-pop duo’s first album in five years that was released just before the pandemic struck. Directed by Toby Stretch, the clip brings back the abstract graphics and costumes that featured in the 'stardew' music video, continuing the enigmatic story of the domed bicyclist and their sun-headed sidecar companion. [via Consequence of Sound]

Australian Pop Princess, Peach PRC releases the official music video for her debut single 'Josh'. Peach PRC comments on the official 'Josh' visuals, “The music video was inspired by growing up watching the same five infomercials, morning news channels and old movies on my little pink box tv when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep on a school night. The idea was to have “josh” feel just as harassed the more he tries to call. Every creative step along the way was entirely my vision, from writing the music video script, to the lyrics and everything in between. I’m so happy and hope all the girls, gays and theys who dated “josh” will sing along.”

[richard-bishara]

Richard Bishara: how to do video marketing

Do you have a business you run? If the solution is of course, at that point you most likely understand only exactly how difficult ensuring your own self can be. Now that there is technology most people have access to; it is much easier to spread the word about your business than ever before. Video recording advertising is one terrific method to make use of the Internet to your business' presence. Read this post to discover how you're capable to market by utilizing video recordings for practical suggestions on video recording advertising and marketing.

The method to possess your video participates in an essential function in its own effectiveness. It is actually not consistently the very best technological video camera to make a video clip. If they have relevant information that they think is important, people will watch videos that are alright.

Development value doesn't need to be one of the most significant factor to consider in producing your video clip marketing web content. You perform certainly not automatically need to devote a lot of views even if you invested a considerable amount of funds creating something. Even big providers like Dell made lots of sales.

Make a video clip demonstrating how to use your product. You will certainly be actually resolving the problem for those that have inquired about it as well as receive brand-new clients in this manner also.

If you yearn for people to purchase something, at that point don't fail to remember to consist of a web link that leads all of them somewhere that they may purchase it. This link must in fact be actually within your video clip player. Doing it by doing this will always keep the link with the video even when embedded.

Make certain your web content interesting.Make your online video can keep the visitors' attention.Putting your videos on a hosting site like YouTube might attract extra guests, however your recognition will definitely drop quickly if your online video isn't appealing.

Get your office involved in your advertising and marketing initiatives. Make an effort to make use of someone who likes the video camera adores and also possesses very clear speech. When deciding to use multiple employees if need be, don't hesitate.

Don't forget to include a form for your emailing checklist on the site's web page where the video recordings are.

Do not make an effort to get every thing on your own. It is testing to locate brand new approaches and also tips for your videos all on your own. Have these treatments consistently to ensure you stay on best of the sector.

Online video advertising and marketing can be used to advertise sites and also social networking sites presences.

Keep video recordings quick and quick. People have really short attentions online. If you want people to start surfing for another video, try to keep your video under 5 minutes. Even though your online video includes valuable content, it will definitely refrain from doing any great if your customers wander off or obtain sidetracked in the middle of it.

By doing this, where your products and services can easily likewise be actually looked at. You will certainly still get credit history for your views given that the logical tools created accessible to YouTube users keep an eye on viewers who checked out the video recording by means of one more website.

You don't must have the most ideal tools to market with video recording. Most computers are capable of the job. You can also use your cell phone!

Think about commercials you've viewed and you'll realize that popular music spruces up any type of video recording. Think of a songs that will definitely collaborate with your style and add it to it. Customers will see the entire online video more pleasing with music. If your face isn't going to be onscreen, this is also a good way to replace a voice recording.

Perform you obtain certain questions repeatedly again from your clients? You can then utilize the video recordings to aid respond to these inquiries. A short online video presenting a particular method or even describing exactly how the item features might provide consumers some assurance about what you must provide.

Must read post: Richard Bishara sharing latest marketing trends that everyone should follow

Beginning your video clip notification along with a private greeting to create your consumers feel extra comfy. Let them understand who you are actually and what your business at the video starts.

Customers will certainly like viewing exactly how services function as well as thinking that they're experts.

Vocal overs can be great if you're as well shy to seem in person.You may be among the many people who do not feel like being seen onscreen. You can just want to show your products and use a voice over. Just record what you have to say and then play it over the video.

Podcasts are a popular yet under-used component of video marketing. This provides other marketing avenue and lets you charge a fee for the best demos or interviews. Make sure you make this fee low so people think they are getting something that is a minimum to avoid losing listeners.

If you're marketing to a country that speaks another language, be sure to hire a high-quality translator. Do not rely on an online translator if you want to market your services or wares to people who speak a different language and/or have a different culture than yours. When people can understand what you're trying to sell them, you will be more respect.

A smart method of utilizing video marketing to help promote your business is to use it as a tool to interact with customers. Create videos that respond to questions rather than just messaging them back. This can help your customers appreciate you a little more.

Once you've grasped the basic concepts behind online marketing and advertising through the Internet, begin using the more advanced techniques such as creating weekly podcasts. Podcasts are becoming more and more popular these days. Why don't you take advantage of this new niche? Many people will enjoy downloading your podcast you are putting out so they can watch it later.

Watch the videos produced by your competitors are posting. Don't try to do exactly what they do, but rather find ways to make your video stand out. Watch a lot of videos so you're able to know how to differ from them.

Clearly, video marketing offers great possibilities for business promotion. These days, countless individuals view videos online. They're waiting to see what you have to say. Implement the tips shared by Richard Bishara to grow larger and more sophisticated with each passing day.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird “We Come in Peace.”

This was difficult to write, and I am not sure if it makes much sense, but I promised to write this one for you, and I did my best. If you like writings about the logistics of a first contact situation go ahead and send me more ideas. I was thinking about learning about simple human biology would be interesting, 

As always I hope you enjoy feel free to comment, question, critique, message or anything else. 

Captain Kelly stood below the ramp of the strange alien ship surrounded on all sides by her most trusted companions. To her left, her first lieutenant, to her right, her linguistics specialist directly behind her three of her most experienced men, and right to the back…. The 2nd lieutenant who had begged her on his knees to tag along. He was young and inexperienced, but then again, he had shown resolve under pressure and probably kept them from being shot. Because of him they were taking their first steps into communication with an alien race.

Above them, the ramp began to lower releasing light downwards upon them. At the top a set of sentries watched them with tense anticipation. She may not speak alien, but she knew caution when she saw it. She urged her team upwards, the boots of her space suit thudding against the strange material.

Lieutenant Vir hurried up to stand next to walk next to her a bounce in his step, eyes wide with childish wonder. She sort of hoped he never lost that, she also hoped that he would never have a reason to.

They stopped at the top of the ramp, as the door hissed shut behind them leaving them alone and stranded aboard an alien ship.

***

The atmosphere of frustration was clear. The galactic assembly’s best specialists had been sent out to attempt and make communication possible between the two species but so far, they had made no real progress. The variability in the creature’s intonations and voices made it structurally impossible to tell what they were trying to say and even identify if they were saying the same thing. A hiss from one sounded completely structurally different from the hiss from another. Additionally, they seemed to refer to themselves through a multiple combinations of the sounds.

On the other hand, scientists had made greater headway in learning about the creatures genetically and structurally. The human leader, the small one, had handed off the green-orbed creature for scientific testing, and despite its constant need to touch things, it was easy to deal with. From examination, they learned that the creature spoke based on a system of fluctuating air pressed out from its esophagus, through two vibrating vocal bands, and the interaction of its mouth, specifically a muscle within the mouth. Unfortunately each creature had varying sizes of vocal cords, tongues, teeth, and nasal passageways making communication completely different creature to creature.

Conversely, the creatures seemed to be growing irritated, as they did not understand their complex, additional, body posturing. One specifically including one digit pointing in random directions, and then the creature would get angry when they didn’t understand.

Things had ground to a halt at this point. The main creature was resting its head against the table, the second one was frantically gesticulating towards and unknown device, and the other three looked saggier than usual. The only one who didn’t seem to have changed was the green-orb creature watching from close by as a scientists took measurements about his chest.

The curious-eyed creature had been watching silently for some time before shrugging himself away from the scientist, to range across the room gathering all the chairs and dragging them into a large group. Creatures and member of the council alike stared at the creature with confusion. By the time he was finished all the chairs were piled in the circle at the center of the room. Everyone was standing ty this point having had their chairs confiscated.

The creature pulled one of the chairs forward a sharp chirp and a growl. He brought forth the next one and repeated the sound. He did this over and over again, and then urged the other creatures to do so one after the other.

“Wait, wait, I think I understand.”

“Someone, start recording.”

They ran statistics comparing the different sounds and found they had the same rhythmic pattern to them. “Chair,” They repeated.

***

“Why didn’t they get it when I said that?” Their linguist asked angrily as the aliens chirped to each other excitedly. They grabbed a chair and made a noise. It was a weird kind of sequel and hiss.

Adam did his best to copy it. The aliens parroted it back to him a few times excited with his copying rendition.

They sat down again moved by a new vigor. Captain Kelly finally let the boy over. He was proving himself to be more useful to this mission than he had any right to be, and if they were going to communicate with these inhuman beings, than they were going to have to use all of their available assets.

***

It was important to first establish the nouns for objects. Each one had to be carefully statistically analyzed for difference in language pattern, but just because they knew the names of objects meant absolutely nothing. The rules and meanings of their language would be difficult to puzzle out.

Personal pronouns proved to be an issue that took them some hours to puzzle out. Certain ones accepted He some accepted She and all accepted they although they could be an identifier for a group of the creatures though a group of creatures was not called a “They”. We was used when the creature speaking was part of the group indicated. They themselves could not be part of a they, but they could be part of a we. They seemed very reluctant to explain the difference between a he and a she, and so they left that particular mystery for another time accepting what the creatures told them as fact.

They eventually got the name of their race, though, of course, there was no direct translation. The word consisted of a short exhalation of air then a hum a chip and then another sort of humming sound.

“Human.”

It took an entire session just to explain these personal pronouns in relation to the nous they already understood.

The humans came back the next day with new equipment proceeding to draw images, and symbols that apparently represented the sounds that they made. It was fascinating to find that they had a written language proving once and for all that they were a sentient species equal to any in the galactic assembly.

The green eyed human remained integral in these discussions. Despite his inferior position in the hierarchy, he was the first to act, and sometimes, the first to understand. He was the one who made it clear that body language was just as important to the “Humans” as was spoken language. Pointing with a single digit was to indicate attention be focused on a specific object. A head shake meant no and a nod meant yes. The lifting of both shoulders was an indication of confusion neither agreeing nor disagreeing.  

“I” and “Me” were indications of the self though each creature also had a personal name. In certain cases they had three names…. Though that wasn’t discovered until later.

“I was usually followed by an action I run, I walk while “Me” Denoted something happening to a person, for me, to me, with me. Us and We acted the same way.

“You” was the word they used when speaking to another creature, when not unitizing their personal name.

Motion words followed their personal pronouns. The leader spoke the words while the green eyed creature demonstrated. He waked, he ran, he spun and he jumped.

Going, was a general term indicating the movement to somewhere, coming meant to return or to journey FROM a location.

The first sentence, “I come.”

“You come.” The creature said pointing at one member of the council.

Hesitantly they walked forward towards the human.

The room around erupted as the creatures began shrieking and showing their teeth. They fled backwards away from the horrible display of maddened barbarism. Upon seeing this the humans calmed hands in the air vital organs exposed.

No words could be shared, so no one understood what was happening.

How were we to know that facial expressions were so important?

It took another day to explain wanting something and then possession.

I want, I have, we want, we have.

General verbs followed that, beginning with easy concepts not abstract. To speak, to fly, to breathe.

All throughout they learned question words beginning with what paired with that. What to ask what something is or was, but usually paired with other words to determine context. Where for location, when for time, who, for a specific person. All which had a matching answer who paired with personal pronouns or names what with that where with here or there (here for right next to a person) there paired with a pointing gesture or some other context.

The humans surprised them indicating that their language also utilized the pat and the present is and am indicating something in the now while others required prefixes or suffixes to indicate past. Their translating equipment was beginning to pick up short sentences now, and with excitement the humans accepted the strange technology.

The green eyed human most of all.

***

Lieutenant Vir marched aboard the ship with the strange alien translation device clipped to his right ear. He was going to speak with an alien today, he was determined. Not just a sentence, he was going to get an answer to a question.

The first alien he saw had been there every day, a simple soldier, nothing more, but Lieutenant Vir walked right up to him. The creature watched in tense worry and confusion, “What is your name?”

Seconds passed.

“Gurt.”

***

It took weeks to understand the question why and even longer to explain abstract concepts. They had been there for months.

But the day came. They sat across the tale from each other Captain Kelly sitting next to her linguist and her soldiers.

“Why are you here?” The alien asked in its stilted and halting voice. It almost sounded like a bird or a parrot talking. It could have spoken through the translator, like some of the others did, but like the linguist it insisted.

“We come in peace.” Came the reply…. A reply that humans had thought up for thousands of years, in every science fiction novel and television show. An intergalactic hand of peace extending across space and time. “We want to know….. To understand.”

“You want knowledge.”

“We wanted to know that we are not alone, and now we want to be…. Friends/allies.”

“You…. Are danger.”

“Why?”

The alien paused for a long moment rubbing its head…. A gesture it had picked up from the humans, “You run quickly, jump high, sharp teeth. You want….. Eat us?”

“Predator?” The word was passed around explained and translated in the next thirty minutes.

The humans looked appalled, “No!”

“You ran and chased, following at first….. You make fear for us.

The humans convened for a long moment glowering at the green eyed creature who seemed shocked for a second butting in to the conversation, “No. I did not want to eat. I wanted…. Uh…. Allies…. I was….. Pleased.”

The translation was broken, the meaning algorithms struggling to piece together understanding form one separate mode of communication to another.

The entire room shifted in confusion and surprise. How could this be?

The predators had crossed the galaxy searching. They sought friendship in the stars despite their barbaric nature and their powerful, predatory instincts. What drove them was not hunger, or even knowledge.

Alone in the universe they sought proof…. Proof they were not alone.

[interesting-blog-name]

LOOSE REVIEWS (It Looks Sad., Pablo’s Paintings, Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Steve Lacy)

Just a bunch of very quick, very throwaway reviews that I put together while I’m writing the Björk discography post (I’m currently at Vespertine, so this shit is gonna take a while). Mostly slightly underground bands, all very short projects and one of them don’t even have a project, but you should check them out. Anyway.

It Looks Sad. – Songs For Quarantine

Not much to say about this. It is a 9-minute EP, obviously not meant to be taken as a serious, ambitious release, but it’s from a band I wanted to check out: It Looks Sad.. They’re categorized as emo, but their style reminds the listener a lot more of shoegaze and dream pop, at least from what I’ve heard by them (right now, this and Drool, which fits cozily in my Summer playlist).

If you want some moody music for the quarantine (if it’s still going on by the time I post this) and you don’t care if the songs sound like they were recorded in an underwater cave, then go ahead and listen to this I guess. It’s average as fuck but whatever, that’s the point.

 WORST TO BEST: Eyes, Love, Waves, Bug

 bedroom music/10

“*insert shoegaze mumbling here*”

 It Looks Sad. - Kaiju

2015 EP. Two tracks, one sucks and the other is tolerable. Like I really don’t know what the fuck the singer was trying to do with Creature, he’s hollering all over the place, and the delivery would be more at home in maybe some poorly-recorded punk song, but the instrumental is nothing like that, as it’s pretty much indie-rock 101; not to mention the lyrics, which are the blandest broken-hearted songwriting I’ve heard yet, probably. I now understand how truly emo they were.

For Nagoya, I can at least say the hook is pretty cool, but that’s it really. I guess I’m grateful they changed their style.

 2.45/10

“Best friend this is terrible. You know it’s inevitable. I hope you come back, I hope he comes back.”

 Pablo’s Paintings

Just wanted to give a shoutout to the underground Leeds, Yorkshire band Pablo’s Paintings. I had listened to Lizard a long while ago, and loved it, so I decided to check out the rest of their stuff today (May 25th), and it’s very solid. The track You’ve Got A Long Way To Go draws heavily from a psychedelic influence, while Paint’s Gone Dry and So Long (All Your Friends) sound like something The Beatles would maybe write.

I guess you could call them formulaic, but their mixing and distinct sound are all pretty good for a band that hasn’t gotten a song with over 2000 streams on Spotify. Their songs can be a little to bubblegum-ish, such as So Long (All Your Friends) which doesn’t really stand out as many others, but for the most part, they deliver. Can I Draw You Something? has a slight edge to it, in comparison, but still sporting cute lyrics about just drawing for someone, and Ghost In The Machine has a great progression to it, and a very cool cover art to accompany it. It’s clear the band has a taste for visual arts, from the lyrics to the band’s name.

In short, they do have a long way to go, and I hope they release an album soon, considering all but two of their Spotify singles were from last year; I’d be the first to listen to it.

 WORST TO BEST: So Long (All Your Friends), Paint’s Gone Dry, You’ve Got A Long Way To Go, Can I Draw You Something?, Lizard, Ghost In The Machine

 good band check them out/10

“I draw these lines and take them for a walk. I find that I say things better when I don’t need to talk”

 Vancouver Sleep Clinic – Winter

Contrary to the name, the band Vancouver Sleep Clinic is from Australia. Led by ambient singer (a term I didn’t know existed until today) Tim Bettinson, from my understanding, the band have partly built their audience by reeling people into the music by putting having the songs feature in TV shows and movies and whatnot, since there’s a hefty list of times their songs have appeared in this type of media on their Wikipedia page. I decided to listen to Winter because I discovered Stakes from the fact that the $uicideboy$ sampled it on the song Sold My Soul To Satan Waiting In Line At The Mall, and liked it a lot. The EP as a whole, however, not nearly as much.

To start off with the main problem I have with Winter, the tracks are all the same. Seriously, I cannot distinguish one from the other; all the songs are soaked in reverb and mainly center around simple acoustic guitar chords and generic pianos, mixed with Tim’s head voice and sometimes the dumb decision to include a synthesized drumming track, like in Vapour, where the fast-paced hi-hats sound so out of place and clip so badly in your ears, it sounds like your earphones are having a mini seizure, but not in a cool way. Meanwhile in Flaws, there’s this unnecessary, wack finger-snapping that makes it sound like I’m listening to some techno song with around 3000 views on YouTube (I do like his backing vocals in the track though).

At its best, tracks like the opener, Collapse, offer an actually powerful passage, in that song’s case, the hook breakdown, where the 808 drum patterns are actually very welcome, and the synths under it are very beautiful and harmonize really well. The final track, Rebirth, also attempts a grand breakdown of sorts, but falls flat because the song is so unnecessarily stretched out and weirdly segmented, and it’s so unexpected: the song is a slow piano/guitar ballad as usual, and then, around 3 minutes in, after the song fades out almost entirely and tricks you into thinking it ended, the drum kicks start rising and all of a sudden there’s... something? I don’t even know what instruments are playing apart from the  superimposed drums and what I think is an electric guitar, because it sounds like god knows what, an overheating computer mixed with some shrieking sound, which I assume is the guitar, way off in the background. And then Tim sings a last verse and the song suddenly ceases to exist. Same thing happens with the shortest track here, (Aftermath), consisting of 4 lines, your average piano and strings, and of course, the reverb. It builds up an epic instrumental, and after the brief singing section, just ends. No further instrumental work, just woosh. It’s gone.

I will give credit to Tim’s verses. Even though they’re always delivered with the same intonation, his lyrics are alright, and at least in Stakes, he employs some backing vocals that really make the track, and the hook is magnificent. They tend to blend into one another, with constant themes being metaphors for words he should have or regrets saying, the cold (obviously, given the EP title), sometimes drowning/large bodies of water, and of course, all tracks are about melancholy and heartbreak. But in some parts of the EP, his verses really do feel like some alright poetry, such as the awkward last verse in Rebirth (“I’m starting again, tearing my flesh, stripped to the bone, the all that I’ve grown. Leaving behind, breathe like a child. It’s taken the winter to find who I am”) or the already mentioned beautiful hook in Stakes. In most of the songs, however, I find his themes to be too repetitive and, I wouldn’t say uninspired, but run-of-the-mill.

So overall, the EP doesn’t amount to much. All the tracks attempt to go this emotional route, but they’re very repetitive, and that numbs them and robs them of their emotion a lot. Listen to it if you want to relax, or maybe even sleep to it if you want to take their name literally.

 WORST TO BEST: Vapour, Flaws, (Aftermath), Rebirth, Collapse, Stakes

 4/10

“I sunk in oceans blue, now they’re all frozen over. I should have took your hand, we should have crossed the border.”

 Steve Lacy – Steve Lacy’s Demo

Member of The Internet, singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, drummer and producer Steve Lacy is an artist I’ve wanted to check out for a while. I have at some point in my life heard his song Looks, off this demo, but thankfully I forgot how it went so I can check it out again. It’s gonna be a quick listen and review, but I’m curious (and while looking him up I found out he won a Grammy with Kendrick’s DAMN., for producing, backing vocals and songwriting, so that’s cool, congrats Steve).

Right away, I’ll just mention this project is very lo-fi. As in, the drums and his voice are poorly mixed. I’ll give it a little bit of a pass because this man played all the instruments in here and I appreciate the fuck out of that, but anyway. You can tell right at the first track that singing isn’t Steve’s forte, at least in this album, at this time. The hook in that song is just bad, the good part are the instruments, the guitar riffs and the very dynamic bassline, plus the fun little bongos. However, just like all songs here except Dark Red, this is waaaaaaaay too short. It has two short hooks, the verse, and that’s it. The songwriting, I feel, is one of Steve’s more substantial talents; this song I just mentioned is mainly about how a relationship can’t progress because the two involved don’t like much about each other apart from their looks, and Ryd is all about taking a girl to your backseat, but even though these themes are very simplistic, Steve fleshes them out into something more interesting and melodically rich. In Ryd, his smooth vocals surf over the sunny riffs, but what takes away from it are the weirdly mixed drums, as they sound like they’re playing way louder than they should be. The track is groovy though.

The most focused song here, Dark Red, tells the story of a man who’s worried his girl might leave him soon. The instrumentals are nothing special, very basic, and same with the vocals, even though they’re more rooted and solid in this song. The next song, Thangs, emphasizes its bass way more than other songs, but once again, Steve’s voice is not pleasing to listen to, specifically his high-pitched backing vocals, they’re awful. The lyrics are the most basic here, and this song just goes by without leaving any impact after ending pretty abruptly.

Haterlovin is weird. The vocals are way too low, but I like how they differentiate themselves by not going the melodic route, instead Steve chooses to rap them, and his flow in the verse is impressive, but at the same time the hook is way too repetitive for the song to work, and even though it’s nice he switched up and focused the track on the drums, it still leaves it pretty bare.

To close it up, Some brings some promise, with a pretty funky bassline and hook, but then ends out of nowhere and starts a hidden track, Snaily, which I admit has nice falsetto vocals from Steve, but I don’t know why I couldn’t be a separate track. Overall, the album isn’t great, but I appreciate how organic and talented Steve is. Throughout the songs, his creativity is pretty noticeable, so I can’t hate his efforts, but unfortunately his ideas don’t find the right light to shine here.

 WORST TO BEST: Thangs, Haterlovin, Looks, Some, Dark Red, Ryd

 4.5/10

“Next thing I know she was feeling on me, and I was in the M double-O D when she said park my car down the backstreet”

[tycoons-official]

♛Ｔｙｃｏｏｎｓ♛

.•♫•♬•Ａｌｂｕｍ Ｄｅｔａｉｌｓ•♫•♬•.

• Tycoons' self-titled debut album 'Tycoons The Album' was released on the 3rd of January, 2017, 07:00AM KST.

• JYP released two trailers for the music video a month prior to the release date, however they didn't attract too much attention as they were first advertised like regular ads that would appear on most YouTube videos, sometimes even other JYP idols' music videos to maybe draw a bit more interest, as the trailers uploaded on JYP Entertainment's YouTube channel did not do so well as expected, at first. Although this, once the album and official music video came out, people started realizing that 'Tycoons' was actually a group and began drawing in a huge crowd.

• The album focuses a lot on storytelling, through music and lyrics, telling the day-to-day life of two siblings taking over their family's money wagering, illegal weapon dealing empire within the vast Mafia and how they run operations as well as the drama that will commence throughout half of the album.

• The album starts with catchy hip hop beats and dance/house trap drops, giving a sort of Stray Kids vibe to it. As the album goes on though, the lyrics and mood start to take on a more emotional tone and meaning. Just as the mood changes, Tyke and Carmen's [the Characters] lives are changing along with it.

• A majority of the songs in the album are written by both members of Tycoons [and the music video is also partially directed by them since the CEO was curious as to how this duo plans to start off their careers after training for a good amount of time] and most of the music [in the album and the music video] was also made and produced by Tycoons themselves.

• 'Tycoons: The Album' was a success, initially selling a total of 1.7 million copies in Korea and 1.65 million internationally within the first week and a half of so. But when the album began gaining some traction, the numbers spiked to 3.18 million copies in Korea and over 4.19 million copies internationally by early February.

.•♫•♬•Ｔｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ•♫•♬•.

▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一 25 minutes & 20 seconds

• MAFIA

• 우리는 (We Are)

• Hands Up

• GSW

• Heir

• 만족하니? (Are You Satisfied?)

• Losing It

• Fire With Fire

• Outro: The End

.•♫•♬•Ｓｏｎｇ Ａｎａｌｙｓｉｓ•♫•♬•.

1. MAFIA - ⏱ 4:05 - Title track

'MAFIA' is the title track of the album as well as the first track in the lineup of Tycoons' debut album. It is also the only song in the album that got a whole music video dedicated to it. Being that the album was written and co-produced by Tycoons themselves, they wanted this album to tell a story; to be the first chapter of their characters' stories and build up on their development as they evolve and grow in the music industry. They promoted the album, the title track and it's B-side heavily, going on several interviews, TV and music shows for 3 weeks straight, all at once [though Tycoons themselves quote en quote 'didn't mind the busy schedule, as they have been preparing all their trainee lives for this moment', courtesy of Carmen].

'MAFIA' is a song about the 'dangers' of the Mafia world and how they rose to the top with sheer resilience and smarts, as well as available weaponry and other form of utility such as soldiers. Tyke and Carmen the characters describe a glimpse in their life in a line taken from Carmen's rap verse:

'in this dangerous place

where Alphas roam wild

one shot dead in the streets

echoing cries for miles and miles

with blood dripping on their face

as they lie cold there like a stone

truly a beautiful chaos

this is home; how we live our lives'

The song is hits hard with a hip hop style dance beat, an interesting use of common synths, a fresh twist on melodies that are often used, heard and reused, and carries an intense tone throughout the whole song. Added to that the ranging high and low notes that Tyke hits, especially in the bridge, and Carmen's consistent deep growls in the rap verses. Said factors when merged create this harmonious yet unpredictable title track that would be considered 'perfect to set the tone', as Tyke puts it. Fans often compare this song to the style of Stray Kids' and BAP's music, and although some people say that this is the 'least JYP' JYP song ever according to some fans, Tycoons have confessed to have let the company add their flair to this song, so it's safe to say that it was an even game when it came to producing.

There were also special effects to the song to amp up it's chilling vibe. For example, throughout the song, there would be gunshot fire sounds inserted, as expected from a group with a dark concept, however fans pointed out that as the song reached it's climax, the shot sounds start condescending to the point where it even tricks some people into believing that there was an actual gun fired next to them, and therefore have them either scared or even more in love with the song. This effect however was not the only sound [or even visual] effect inserted into the track; in the official music video, Tycoons are shown to present almost everything you'd want in a perfect music video; great clothing choices, beautiful sets and decor, a nice harmony of dark and bright colors throughout, flattering camera angles and lighting, makeup and filters galore, only to then show the Characters' reality, showing various ruined sets littered with blood, dead bodies, empty bullet cannisters and bloody knives on the floors, yelps of pain, stab sounds and the final groans after getting shot, make the atmosphere even more spine chilling.

Critics praised this title track for it's unique concept, style and visuals, however they added that there could've been a more clear trigger warning before the MV starts, as it could easily trigger a younger audience. So to appease them, the company temporarily took the video down to add an extra 10 second trigger warning clip accompanied with a subtle rain sound effect that goes well with the beginning of the MV where Tyke and Carmen are seen walking through the gloom streets while it's raining.

2. 우리는 (We Are) - ⏱ 3:46 - B-side

'우리는' or 'We Are' in English is the next song in the tracklist as well as the album's B-side track. 우리는 Is mostly written by Tyke, therefore it's fairly vocal heavy for the most part, however he does give his sister Carmen the bridge and the last verse of the song to rap, but the rest is Tyke. It's a more story telling song that has a much softer, but more mysterious vibe to it. This song doubles as a deeper look into Tycoons' Characters' backstory as well as a song that shows off Tyke's light and clear contratenor voice with the occasional sassy run as well as stable vibratos and falsettos.

The song carries a nostalgic feeling, as if you've heard this song before some other place or time in your life, but not exactly in the way one'd originally think. It has a sad-ish tone, despite having happy nostalgia inducing guitar, piano, a variety of classical instruments, hip-hoppy snare and slightly lighter trap drops, that is meant to symbolize Tycoons' not-so-happy childhood that is the consequence of their family joining the Mafia.

Overall, the song has a fairly light hearted tune with variety and a nicer, clearer beat compared to it's title track, however if you look at the lyrics and analyze them, they hold a much darker meaning:

'you can't run

you can't hide

hold your breath

close your eyes

turn your ear to the sky

you're not safe here anymore

this is who we are, now

who we are, now'

The unsettlingness of the lyrics combined with the strategic classical orchestration make for a song that's meant to feel like, quote en quote 'a false security blanket that shields you from the actual good reality, or even a blindfold that makes you see everything in life with a different filter', courtesy of Tyke.

This song isn't exactly a favorite of the people, therefore dubbing it 'under appreciated' or 'underrated' by Capos, however critics applaud this song as much as it's title track for the same factors, but they have less critiques for this song as there wasn't any music video, however for some critics, the sense of false security and lack of straightforwardness was not exactly their cup of tea.

3. Hands Up - ⏱ 3:25 - Inizio

The third track in the album is titled 'Hands Up' and is the introduction to Carmen's [the character] personality and role in her and her brother's business. This track is mostly written by Carmen and contains mostly rap verses, with Tyke included briefly in the chorus, the bridge and as backing vocals to go with Carmen's raps. 'Hands Up' is has traces of inspiration from hip-hop songs, with it's more uppity, 'in your face' beats.

The story, or message, this song is trying to convey is to never disrespect those whom have helped you and built you up and explain the diligence and perseverance you are going to need in order to survive in the Mafia industry, and that once you think you got there, that means you still have ways to go, or to put it in Carmen's words; 'Don't get too comfortable, life can take 10 steps ahead of you just like that.'

The bold beats and sassy lyrics can be quite jarring to some, but the song overall is very well received by Capos and music critics alike. Although a minority of Capos did make an argument about 'Hands Up' being a better B-side track for 'Tycoons the Album' than '우리는', however this dispute is easily dismissed by favor over the idea of "'우리는' and 'Hands Up' being equally great overall, but '우리는' is a B-side for a reason that we don't know yet/we will have to speculate more on to know why", given by K-pop commentary channels such as KPOP Junkee and Korea Scouter TV.

The topic of respect and being respectful is heavily mentioned in the song and due to this, some Capos said that 'it almost seemed like they were demanding respect' and this ideology was shared around with a portion of the fandom, however Tycoons responded to this issue by saying that they only wanted to portray their characters, not the actual people themselves.

4. GSW - ⏱ 3:02 - Continuazione

'GSW', short for 'Gun shot wound' is the next song in the tracklist and another hip hop dance song in the whole album. 'GSW' is co-written by Tycoons and this song carries a more JYP style of music for the group, but with that said, the JYP 'signature style' was definitely beneficial for Tycoons' versatility in music styles. What makes this track different is the lack of lyrics and the main focus on the dance aspect that goes with the track.

The music was intense like the title track and had a variety of different musical tones incorporated, like at some points of the song there could be a more deep atmosphere and in others it could be softer, or faster, or sad. Though the song may be lacking in lyrics, it compensates for a complicated, but amazing choreography. The only verses in the song are the first pre-chorus, chorus and bridge, and these verses are fairly brief;

'just when you think there's a settled score

the battle has just reborn

comes swift like an avalanche

come to steal what you just got back

at your back like a loaded gun

and the night has just begun

steady now breathe, breathe'

This song took the longest to practice in terms of dance. According to Tyke, he stated that they've had to practice this dance longer than any of the other song's dances combined. The choreography is much harder and more technically challenging, and it also involves the usage of various props as well as stage actors to accompany Tycoons in their action sequences throughout the dance. The CEO even opted to postpone the actual date of their debut because of how challenging this dance was, as he had doubts that the group could actually meet the deadline. But hard work and dedication pulled through and the duo clearly succeeded through all the hours of work.

5. Heir - ⏱ 4:45 - Conflitto

The song 'Heir' is sort of like the climax of the album. This is when the tone of the song shifts to a more calmer, simpler tunes and faster timing with more room to add story telling lyrics and catchy raps. Tyke and Carmen worked on this song together and therefore rapping-to-singing ratio is pretty equal, and their inspiration for this album can really be sensed here, or at least that's what they think anyway. At the beginning, this song sounds quite to 'MAFIA' because of how Tycoons' characters are connected to the person next in line to their 'throne' but they found out something was wrong and they go searching for her. Shown briefly in the music video, this 'heir' is a baby, almost a toddler, who's sleeping in a crib inside a dark nursery but the scene is shown to flicker to a clip of people in full black outfits taking them away, resembling a kidnapping.

In the music video for 'MAFIA' we briefly get video shots of Carmen turning around to face the camera angle with a distraught expression before running towards a hallway as if rushing to get something, and Capos think that this is Carmen running to save her 'heir.' Tycoons soon confirm the rumors surrounding this mysterious heir however didn't drop every detail, but did mention said heir's name; Chloe.

The song itself is intense just like it's title track, but with added drama and theatrics by an orchestral pre-chorus and followed by another dirty dubstep/trap drop and bridge. The classic parts meant to symbolize going back to the classics, where king and queen take care of their heirs as they rule their kingdom, but by the end of the song the orchestra melody doesn't complete itself and loop, instead for the last 5 seconds of the song, it's heard glitching and skipping certain beats before eventually quieting down.

This strategic, but harmonious symphony of classical and trap genres seems to be the critics' favorite and it definitely made sense for Capos to enjoy it just as much. However some added that the drop sounded too much like 'MAFIA' and when put side by side, they almost have the exact same notes. Tycoons took to answer this predicament right away, explaining that, though taking care of children aren't the characters, Tyke or Carmen's, front suit, their heir still plays a role in their journey to the top, by being more careful, thought out and responsive to anything, and eventually the crowd died down.

6. 만족하니? (Are You Satisfied?) - ⏱ 4:30 - Calore de momento

'만족하니?' or 'Are You Satisfied?' in English is the 6th song in the tracklist and right off the bat is a rap-heavy trap style song, going back to harsh, dirty beats and Carmen's growly voice. This song is meant to represent the heat of the moment and a continuation of the previous song 'Heir', after they realize that the next generation of their 'royal family' was taken from them. Carmen wrote this song feeling her own anger to the horrible people present in her life as a child, and after some fine tuning from Tyke so it doesn't sound too much like a diss track [though according to some fans, it still does], the lyrics to the song can really convey how angry and angry [and rather sadistic] their characters were over loosing their 'heir':

'you think this is fun?

that this is all just a game?

well I'll tell you this now, you pricks

that you'll regret this mess you made (yuh)

you've dug yourself deep in a hole

where we will throw you a rope

and drag your body to your neighborhood

and cut you open wide!

does that sound good?

are you satisfied now?'

The rather horrifying lyrics of this song and the glitchy sound effects added makes it one of the least favorite songs in the album to fans, along with 'Losing It', but as the internet is known for divided opinions and constant fighting over the slightest things, Capos were no different. One side said that this song was okay and 'the others who can't stand the lyrics are actual babies', quoted from one Capo, and 'the other' side of the fandom just did not appreciate the gory lyrics and 'would just listen to the album without this song overall', quoted from another Capo.

Critics also agreed that this track and 'Losing It' in particular could've been less gory, however they did understand why Tycoons wanted to make it so that it would sound sadistic and scary and all that, even if it was their least favorite song concept. Tyke quickly defended himself and his sister by stating that they wanted the album to be raw and true to their characters' personalities and the storyline, and at the end of the day it was just some lyrics in a song that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Some people saw this as Tycoons' over-involvement with their fanbase and turned them away from the group but a couple of them have since returned to being a Capo after realizing that the reason why Tycoons called them their 'Capos' is because of their wish to be engaging with their fandom and that they were forgetful to the meaning of the name in the first place.

7. Losing It - ⏱ 2:04 - Climax

'Losing It' is the very next song and yet again, a continuation of the previous song '만족하니?' but unlike the last one, 'Losing It' is much calmer but at the same time, was just sinister and a little vocal heavy. The song was one of the quieter songs in the album but kept that deep and mysterious aspect about it, which made fans appreciate this track more than the previous one. In this song, Tyke really showed that he can rock to a quicker paced song as well as a slower one, as 'Losing It's melody incorporated a few transitions from a fast paced beat to a slower beat.

The electro synths and more vocally challenging melody and high notes made this song one of the hardest songs to sing in the album, if not the hardest song to sing in the album. It was more of a ballad with the occasional trap build up leading to a softer EDM drop as per usual. The song's varying speeds also made it a challenge to sing as you first go up high, then low, then mid-range before climbing back up again and several different variations of this pattern were incorporated so no verse sounded the same, nor did it have the same lyrics. Speaking of, the lyrics to the song describe the disappointment and shame the characters had to go through when they found out their family member had been kidnapped and it includes a few hints pointing towards Tyke's depression really helping out during this song [even though it was actually written by Carmen since Tyke was depressed when the song was written, so his low mood helped this song convey the sadness and frustration properly]

8. Fire With Fire - ⏱ 2:50 - Vendetta

'Fire With Fire' is the finale of the album, and though it may be only less than 3 minutes, the song holds a deep passionate beat and had probably the most memorable ending drops throughout the whole album. Mirroring 'GSW', 'Fire With Fire' was dance dominated with a few lyrics, but due to its short length, the choreography was more complicated and faster paced, 'ending with a bang' as Tyke would say. And though the choreography wasn't as complicated as 'GSW', and did not need any props, it was definitely just as tiring, according to Carmen.

Capos compare the drop to that of Stray Kids' 'Miroh' for it's electro house instruments but broken down, it doesn't sound too similar, though people managed to merge the two songs together to create a song that even Tycoons listen to and they gave the person that made the first remix a very well deserved shout-out.

9. Outro: The End - ⏱ 1:14 - La fine (per ora)

The outro song wasn't originally needed in the album but Tycoons added it in there to add some hype on the next album coming up as well as a quick sneak peak and Capos and the rest of the world were definitely excited for what's to come

.•♫•♬•Ａｃｃｏｍｐｌｉｓｈｍｅｎｔｓ•♫•♬•.

• 'Tycoons The Album' was nominated for album of the year at the MAMAs 2017 however did not win.

• Tycoons themselves won Best New Artist of the Year at the same event as well as 3 other music show awards; from the MGMAs, AAAs and Soribada;

• 'MAFIA' won Song of the Year at the MGMAs and Tycoons won Rookie of the Year at the AAAs and New Artist of the Year at Soribada.

• 'MAFIA' peaked at #5 place on the MelOn chart, #6 place on the Gaon chart, #8 place on both Soribada and iTunes Top 10 and #39 on the Billboard hot 100.

• '우리는' made it to #18 on the MelOn chart and dropped to #20, #17 on Gaon, and #16 on iTunes Top 20

• 'Hands Up', 'GSW' and 'Heir' made it to #49, #50, and #52 on the Billboard hot 100 charts. But jumped to #35, #38, [surpassing their title track] and #40 and stayed there.

• 'GSW' was actually nominated for Best M/F Dance Performance at MAMAs but unfortunately did not place.

.•♫•♬•Ｅｘｔｒａｓ•♫•♬•.

• Carmen has a painting that eventually became the official cover of the physical album and the company's design team thought 'why not put that design to good use', since Carmen already did the work for them, and she didn't mind them using her design, as she was credited in the back of the album as well as inside the photo book. Where there were photos taken of her actually recreating the cover painting on canvas while wearing her *ⁱᶜᵒⁿⁱᶜ* elbow-length-sleeved shin-length black skintight dress, long cherry red satin gloves, matching-color kitten heels and beret in the 'boudoir' set [also featured in the music video].

[parsons98897979]

Vidnami Reviews - Eleven Things To NOT Do In Video Marketing

Vidnami Reviews - Eleven Things To NOT Do In Video Marketing

Vidnami Review: Some of the best beneficial on-line projects for business seeking brand-new recruits is how to generate a purchases video. The sales video is a digital representation of the business's product or even solution. A well-written, engaging video will definitely certainly not only receive possible customers taking a look at a service's website, however it will certainly also promote all of them to produce a purchasing choice, depending on to just how they recognize the video's content. Creating a good impression is actually important. Just how to produce a purchases video is actually not an easy activity, but along with the assistance of some valuable video production software, one can make a video that will absolutely work in recording prospective clients and enticing them that a particular organization is a suitable choice for them.

Visit the link here for the best Video Creating Software: https://linktr.ee/vidmarketing

There are plenty of providers that provide video development companies for those thinking about just how to produce a sales video. The crucial to discovering the correct video development company to partner with is actually to research the different possibilities they deliver, both in phrases of costs and also content. Seek firms that give extensive solutions, such as editing and enhancing, initial music, as well as visuals concept. For those thinking about how to create a purchases video, it is actually necessary to possess a well-rounded outstanding video, one that is professional-looking plainly conveys the notification, and ensures the provider's trademark name.

Video Marketing Made Simple for Any Business

Once an individual has chosen to create a purchases video, she or he needs to have to develop what form of video are going to be actually very most reliable. There are numerous different forms of videos, consisting of commercials, demos, item demonstrations, and teleseminars. Developing a video that interacts leads, supplies relevant information and also urges customers to create a buying choice takes a various capability than developing a marketing video or purchases discussion.

When looking at how to develop a video, it is vital to know which kind of video is actually very most proper. A teleseminar supplies the greatest return on expenditure considering that prospective consumers can easily listen to as well as pick up from a specialist in real-time. Vidnami, While lots of people prefer to see videos during the course of the training course of the time, others delight in viewing videos at certain opportunities, including when they are relaxing or resting. Videos should be actually developed around the requirements of the intended reader. If the viewers is actually more mature, for example, a video presenting somebody opening a jar of beer would certainly be much more helpful than a video of the same guy selling tires to teenagers.

Advantages of Online Video Marketing!

To discover just how to create a purchases video, the very best measure is actually to go to a site that provides instruction or even examination solutions. These web sites frequently feature online video calls with effective online marketers that can easily assist individuals discover exactly how to develop a professional video. They will certainly show people exactly how to select the ideal background songs and also monitor format, along with just how to integrate captivating graphics and also sound impacts. An additional great information is actually how to create a purchases video for a web site. This source will feature videos from companies like JVZoo, which give instruction on how to use YouTube and various other video-sharing services to advertise services and products.

The creation of a video is actually a two-step procedure, depending upon the reader and the targeted information. For instance, a video for an overall "individual" will likely be different than one for an individual looking to obtain a watercraft. The tone of the video and the language made use of are various also. The message needs to be actually very clear and also concise so that viewers will certainly know the planned significance of the content. Having said that, videos need to likewise be actually properly designed so that potential clients are going to prefer to watch them. Customers will create a judgment about a video based on the appearance of the video and the quality of its own vocal.

Video Marketing Strategy: Determining What Will Work for Your Audience

Vidnami testimonial, There are actually lots of methods exactly how to develop a purchases video. The 1st step is to select the subject matter, which will determine the design and also content of the video. Next, generate a title that will detail the content of the video in one of the most efficient way. Videos must be actually enjoyable and informative to store the viewer's focus while they are actually knowing something.

The moment you have a short however appealing sales video, it is opportunity to provide it to web sites that permit folks to discuss videos online. Some websites need a video to be actually submitted for a particular function, while others simply want a basic one. It is necessary that your sales video presents real people instead of merely a faceless business. You can easily even put in little clips of recommendations coming from real customers to prove that you can easily provide worth to your clients. This how to develop a sales video tutorial will aid you make a stimulating sales video that will certainly maintain viewers seeing as well as curious about what you need to claim.

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<blockquote class="reddit-card" data-card-created="1613566146"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Brown890/comments/lif4ou/vidnami_review_and_demo_2021_easy_way_to_create/">Vidnami Review And Demo 2021 - Easy Way To Create Videos Like Profession...</a> from <a href="http://www.reddit.com/u/Brown890">u/Brown890</a></blockquote> <script async src="//embed.redditmedia.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>

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Vidnami Reviews - Relevance Of Online Video Marketing For Business

Vidnami Reviews - Relevance Of Online Video Marketing For Business

Vidnami Review: One of the absolute most beneficial on the web ventures for providers finding new employees is actually exactly how to develop a sales video. The sales video is actually an online depiction of the firm's services or product. A well-written, engaging video is going to not only receive potential clients looking at an organization's web site, yet it will certainly also urge them to create an acquiring selection, depending on to just how they view the video's content. Creating a good very first feeling is actually critical. How to develop a sales video is certainly not a quick and easy activity, however along with the aid of some useful video production software, one can easily create a video that is going to certainly work in grabbing prospective customers as well as encouraging all of them that a particular company is an optimal selection for them.

Visit the link here for the best Video Creating Software: https://linktr.ee/vidmarketing

There are lots of providers that give video production companies for those considering just how to develop a purchases video. The key to locating the appropriate video creation business to partner along with is actually to investigate the various options they provide, both in relations to pricing and also content. Try to find business that deliver comprehensive companies, like editing, original songs, and graphic concept. For those curious about how to generate a sales video, it is actually important to possess an all-around exceptional video, one that is professional-looking clearly shares the information, as well as markets the provider's trademark name.

Elements of a Successful Video Marketing Plan

When a person has chosen to develop a purchases video, she or he needs to create what kind of video will certainly be actually very most helpful. There are actually many different sorts of videos, consisting of infomercials, demos, item demonstrations, as well as teleseminars. Making a video that interacts customers, delivers details as well as convinces visitors to create a purchasing selection takes a different capability than producing an advertising video or sales presentation.

When thinking about how to make a video, it is necessary to understand which style of video is very most appropriate. A teleseminar delivers the highest possible profit on financial investment because possible customers may listen to and also gain from a professional in real-time. Vidnami, While lots of people prefer to enjoy videos in the course of the course of the day, others delight in checking out videos at particular times, such as when they are actually loosening up or even resting. Videos need to be actually developed around the needs of the target reader. If the viewers is actually older, for instance, a video showing a person opening a bottle of draft beer will be extra reliable than a video of the same man marketing tires to adolescents.

The 5 Stages of Effective Video Marketing

To discover just how to produce a sales video, the greatest action is to see an internet site that delivers training or examination solutions. These sites typically include live video phones with successful marketing professionals who can easily assist folks find out just how to develop a professional video. They will definitely show folks just how to pick the right background popular music as well as screen format, as well as how to include stunning graphics as well as sound results. Yet another great resource is actually just how to develop a sales video for a site. This source is going to include videos coming from business like JVZoo, which use instruction on just how to use YouTube and other video-sharing companies to promote services and products.

The creation of a video is actually a two-step method, depending upon the audience as well as the targeted information. As an example, a video for an overall "home owner" will likely be actually different than one for a person seeking to purchase a boat. The tone of the video as well as the language made use of are actually various at the same time. The message should be actually very clear and also succinct in order that viewers will certainly recognize the planned definition of the content. However, videos should additionally be actually well-designed in order that potential customers will certainly intend to enjoy them. Visitors will make an opinion regarding a video based upon the appearance of the video and also the quality of its own vocal.

Why Video Marketing Is So Effective

Vidnami assessment, There are several methods how to generate a sales video. The 1st step is to decide on the subject, which are going to influence the type as well as content of the video. Next off, formulate a name that will certainly explain the content of the video in the absolute most effective technique. Videos need to be exciting and useful to store the viewer's focus while they are discovering something.

When you have a short but intriguing purchases video, it is time to provide it to websites that permit people to share videos online. Some sites require a video to become provided for a certain objective, while others only yearn for a standard one. It is necessary that your purchases video presents actual people instead than simply a featureless business. You can also invest little clips of testimonies coming from true consumers if you want to verify that you can easily give worth to your customers. This just how to create a purchases video tutorial will certainly help you produce an engaging purchases video that will certainly always keep visitors viewing as well as curious in what you need to claim.

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Vidnami Reviews - Relevance Of Online Video Marketing For Business

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<blockquote class="reddit-card" data-card-created="1613566146"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Brown890/comments/lif4ou/vidnami_review_and_demo_2021_easy_way_to_create/">Vidnami Review And Demo 2021 - Easy Way To Create Videos Like Profession...</a> from <a href="http://www.reddit.com/u/Brown890">u/Brown890</a></blockquote> <script async src="//embed.redditmedia.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>

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