#nanobots 2013

[isopodretina]

bro thought the oedipus complex was for ONE DAY ONLY!!!! HE MAD!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 reposting this on mothers day

[dingleberry-7708]

so i have these TMBG CDs so far:

No! (2002, Idlewild/Rounder release)

I Like Fun (2018, Idlewild/Megaforce release)

Nanobots (2013, Idlewild/Lojinx release which is apparently the UK release for some reason?? Even though I live in the US!!! Actually thats kinda cool ngl-)

the Pink Album (1987, Bar None/Restless)

(hopefully) 1 other that supposedly hasnt come in yet.

That one other may be one of these:

Lincoln

Flood

Apollo 18

Miscellaneous T

Something else I'm unaware of

I'm thinking if i get a dvd player set up at some point soon (or even an external disc drive for my computer) I may see if I can get Direct from Brooklyn (DVD, I think it's from 1999) someday

My CD player has a cassette deck too so I might as well acknowledge that somehow

[duckprintspress]

Aetherpunk

By a member of the Duck Prints Press staff who has chosen to be anonymous.

Note: Punk genres are diverse and always changing. Duck Prints Press is not trying to give a complete explanation of aetherpunk here but rather a bit of inspiration. Take what you want from it to create your own aetherpunk worlds!

On January 5th, Duck Prints Press will be launching recruitment for our next anthology: Aether Beyond the Binary, a collection of stories featuring main characters outside the gender binary living in modern or near-future aetherpunk Earth! This begs the question: what IS Aetherpunk? Well, read on and learn all about it…

Prologue: From the Aether

Scenes from the Aether #1: Bloomington, Indiana, 2013:

Lin steps into the café down the street from their apartment. The lights of the shop glow a pleasant green, reminiscent of the owner’s own magical aura. Soon, when Del opens the shop for customers, they’ll turn a more standard blue, but for now Del’s shop is cozy and quiet. Lin smiles, looking forward to seeing their friend. 

A shower of blue sparks flies from the kitchen’s open door, and Del scrambles out, cursing. When he sees Lin, he breaks into a wry smile. 

“Breakfast on the house?” he offers, his shorthand for pleading. 

“That’s the third time this week,” Lin chides, barely holding back their smile. They roll up their sleeves to go tinker with Del’s new, “improved” baking oven. “Why not use your old one?”

“The aether this model uses is supposed to be more efficient!” Del exclaims. Then, with a sad smile: “Plus no one trusts my powers. They still think the color’s associated with… you know.”

“Yeah.” Lin knows. They think of Del’s infamous brother, the deadly alchemist. “I’ll help you, but this is the last time.”

“Mhm,” Del says, nudging Lin’s shoulder, and adds telepathically, You say that every time.

You could try not being so smug about it, Lin half scolds, half laughs. 

“Why wouldn’t I be smug? My handsome, brilliant friend, the undisputed genius of the IU School of Aetheric Engineering, is fixing my pipes for free.”

Lin blushes but maintains their chiding tone as they say, their warm face hidden behind the stove where the power supply has once again leaked from its pipes, “Not for free. For breakfast.” 

Part One: What’s in a Punk (genre)? 

There’s been an explosion of punk genres since Bruce Bethke’s 1983 story Cyberpunk launched the genre. Though Bethke’s story may have given a name to this phenomenon, in his Etymology of “Cyberpunk” Bethke credits William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) for really defining the core tenets of the genre (Bethke, 2000). He also marvels at how the cyberpunk character trope (“a young, technologically facile, ethically vacuous, computer-adept vandal or criminal”) has stayed remarkably stable over the years since his story was published. In 2022, when I’m writing this, it’s still very similar. The cyberpunks in the cyberpunk genre are the sorts of lone heroes who often arise in the isolating environments fostered by advanced computer technologies.

Why am I rambling on about cyberpunk? Because, dear readers, cyberpunk is the progenitor of all genrepunks. As the most widely explored and utilized punk setting, it has provided the blueprint on which other punk genres are built. In essence, every punk after cyberpunk is a reaction to cyberpunk, either embracing or pushing back against its ethos. After cyberpunk came steampunk: a retro, adventurous answer to cyberpunk’s gritty and dystopian futurism. Then came others: dieselpunk, sandalpunk, biopunk—even the very meta “mythpunk” to which Neil Gaiman’s work is often attributed. These days, even non-punk fantasy is often punk-adjacent. 

So what makes punk stories… punk? For a story to be classified in a punk genre, it typically requires two key elements: a distinctive type of technology (whether social technology like myths and lore or physical technology like steam engines, diesel-powered airships, or nanobots) and a point of view about that technology. 

The technological distinctions can seem fairly obvious: atompunk features tech powered by nuclear energy; nanopunk, tiny robot technology; biopunk, genetic engineering and biotech; dieselpunk, diesel-powered machines. But focusing on only the tech aspects can make people miss the point of having multiple different punk subgenres. 

Take this paraphrased version of a forum conversation, circa 2015: 

[User 1]: Hey, I’ve been hearing more and more about this genre called ‘aetherpunk,’ but I can’t figure out what it is. How is it different from just steampunk but with magic? 

[User 2]: Sorry to tell you, friend, but it’s basically just “steampunk with magic.”

[User 1]: Ah. So, completely useless, then.

This view is common but misses the point. The tech alone does not make punk punk. The second necessary element is the cultural context of the technology: how does it affect the people who use it every day? How dissociated do those people feel from their environment? From their government? From the inevitable march of society, driven at least partially by technological advances using the genre-specific tech? Punk genres live and breathe for their exploration of the intersection between technology and culture. 

Genreunk is a response to the world we live in. Cultural evolution happens when technologies—lore, steam engines, printing presses, atomic bombs—intersect with cultural habits and traditions and shake them loose. We don’t live in the only, or the best, possible world. When we write punk, in some ways, we’re rewriting cultural evolution. We’re asking for a new way of thinking about the past and how that carries forward into the future. How we would be different. How we would be the same.

Punk isn’t just a genre. It’s a tool for understanding humanity. 

Part Two: Clear Air, a History of Aether

In the beginning, gods breathed their essence into the emptiness of space, and aether entered the universe as the material through which the stars and planets moved. Humans in ancient Greece, attuned to this invisible presence, named it “clear air” and declared it the fifth element, along with earth, water, air, and fire. Other cultures gave this energy different names or didn’t name it at all but nonetheless knew it was there. Over a thousand years later, medieval Europeans called it “quintessence” and hypothesized that this element, rare on Earth, could be distilled in order to cure mortal ailments. Aether was a substance that could make rocks burn and lights glow. It became a key ingredient in classic alchemical experiments in the West.

Aether has always been the bringer of light, the unchanging medium through which energy travels in waves from its source to the lenses of our eyes, to the leaves of hungry plants, to everywhere on the planet and throughout the universe. Indeed, it was so recently believed in and well-known that late 19th-century spiritualists took photos of ectoplasm and declared that ghosts could send messages through the aether. 

Then, a mere hundred-odd years ago, we lost faith. 

The idea of aether seems preposterous now, when we know about electron fields and the theory of relativity which states that nothing in the universe is stable or unchanging (and we certainly don’t need a special medium that exists to move light around)—but is it really so much harder to believe in aether than in electron fields? Or in dark matter?

Why shouldn’t we be swimming through aether like a fish swims through water?

Part Three: What is Aether/Punk?

Aetherpunk, the genre, explores what the world would be like if, rather than finding out aether was simply a confused explanation for how energy moves through space, we discovered that it was a real element, something we could both detect and harness. The nature of the aether isn’t what makes aetherpunk what it is. Rather, it’s the exploration of the development of society from the turning point when we discover that the aether is real—how that changes the world, the people, the past, and the future. 

Aether, the invisible force, can be everything and nothing. It can be magic, or it can be material. In some disciplines, like alchemy, it’s both. Aether is made of faith. It’s ephemeral, often immaterial, and only visible once the viewer knows what they’re looking for. It can cause disaster or provide beautiful, clean energy for wondrous technologies. It can be a source of progress or of fear. But in the end, it’s still a thing that must be discovered and cultivated. It can’t be forced into existence.

Aetherpunk as a genre is more naturistic than earlier punk genres like steampunk or cyberpunk. Natural materials find their way into clothing and buildings and weapons and tools, and the shapes of these man-made elements are designed in ways that enhance their ability to harness aetheric power. There might be constructs of stone or finely-honed metal held together by aetheric energy, beautiful steel weapons that cut through stone using atom-thick edges of pure aether, skyships and buildings of gold, or of clear stone, or of glass and crystal. And the technology bathes its surroundings in a luminous glow of aetheric light. 

Like solarpunk and lunarpunk, aetherpunk is a hopeful punk genre. When aether is discovered and harnessed, it brings about flourishing communities and can help to heal the world. Of course there are dark sides—the dangers of a volatile power source that not everyone can control, the frustrations of the people who are unable to use that power for themselves—and anyone is welcome to write a dark aetherpunk story. But aetherpunk doesn’t come with the same inherent baggage as steampunk or cyberpunk. Likewise, people can write utopian steampunk and cyberpunk, but that’s the opposite of the “standard” core of the genre. Aetherpunk wants to explore humanity in a universe where we don’t struggle simply to light our homes. Where the power that runs everything suffuses the universe, and therefore everyone can reap the benefits. A world where our source of power doesn’t send millions of people to an early grave. What sorts of stories would emerge in this sort of world?

Part Four: Steampunk but with Aether?

Now that we’ve described what aetherpunk is, let’s return to that dreadful forum post, and ask for ourselves: what makes aetherpunk more than just “steampunk but with aether”? 

In short, everything.

First is the nature of the energy that powers the technology. Steampunk is a retrofuturistic genre that centers on the era when steam, fueled by wood and coal, was the main power source, around the turn of the 1800s during the Industrial Revolution. It harkens back to the aesthetics of the era, with wood and steel and glass materials, wooden ships that ply the air, clockworks and rivets and tangible, heavy things that work through sheer force. Steam is a thing with weight. It will melt your flesh from your bones, and it’s born not of faith, nor internal strength, nor the careful distillation of spirits down to their quintessence, but instead through fire. Another resource needs to burn to make it. Entire lives are spent feeding coal into the voracious maws of steam engines. 

Aetherpunk, as we’ve described, is born of magic, and thus the technology to use it focuses on cultivation and focusing energy rather than on producing something by force. Even the most cursory look at the nature of the energy source shows us how every aspect of society linked with producing that energy is different between steampunk stories and aetherpunk stories.

There’s also a very important cultural distinction between aetheric stories and steam-powered stories. In steampunk, the adventures of sky pirates and nobility are built on the efforts of a vast lower class who are systematically shut out from steam’s benefits. It may not matter to the story at hand, but the underlying class tension is always there. Like cyberpunk, steampunk takes inequality as a given, and places singular heroes into that world.

Aetherpunk is more utopian and egalitarian. There’s no assumption built in that in order for a person to use their magical flying ship, someone else must suffer to create the energy needed to fuel it. This distinction makes all the difference in how aetherpunk and steampunk stories are told. 

In either case, the power source can be wonderful or terrible, can fuel dystopian nightmares or hopeful solutions to the troubles that ail the world. But the fundamental nature of these technologies affects the way characters think and speak about the world they inhabit. Is it a place of smog or of shimmering lights? Is it a place where magic competes with technology, or is it a place where magic is the technology? The answers to these questions are different in every punk genre, and those differences should have a profound impact on the story’s narrative.

Where will your aetherpunk story take you?

Epilogue: From the Aether

Scenes from the Aether #2: San Francisco, 2043

Shining, multicolored bridges bend but do not break in the powerful earthquake that, in previous eras, would have shaken buildings from their foundations and dropped bridges into the bay. Drivers and pedestrians cling to whatever safety they can as the structures sag and sway and finally, after all is done, snap back to form as though the past minute was only a bad dream. 

Trill breathes a ragged sigh before stepping back onto zir motorcycle and kicking the starter. A blue glow and a warm hum are the only signs that the bike is powering up before Trill finishes crossing the bridge, a little jumpy from the unexpected shaking but no worse for wear. Ze has a long way still to go before ze arrive at Heloise’s house. Ze can’t wait to see zir friend, who is finally home after her long trip to Lima where she was training magicians to harness their power. 

Trill rides north into the mountains while the sun sets to zir west, out above the ocean, and the world glows orange and pink. By the time ze powers down zir bike, the sky is silky black and filled with stars. Trill climbs toward Heloise’s small house, which is built into the slope; the soft blue glow of natural aether in the rocks lights the way. Ze knocks on Heloise’s wooden door;  Heloise answers with a hug around Trill’s waist, her face pressed into Trill’s chest. Trill laughs, something in zir heart finally relaxing.

It’s been a long eight months. 

She pulls Trill inside, into this warm place she’s made in the lonely hills above the bay, and even though ze doesn’t deserve it, Trill revels in her welcome. It feels like coming home.

Examples of Aetherpunk

As aetherpunk is a young genre, examples are sparse, and there are many opinions on what “counts” and what doesn’t. For example, some people consider Lord of the Rings to be aetherpunk, due to the way it brings magic and technology together (especially in Mordor and in Sarumon’s plot line) and the way the magic interacts with society. The below list should not be considered exhaustive, just as this post shouldn’t be treated as The Last Word on the nature of aetherpunk.

Books:

The Aether Chronicles by Abi Barden

Aether Frontier by Scott McCoskey

Chasing the Lantern by Jonathon Burgess

Strange Skies by Loud Silence

Games:

Eberron

Final Fantasy

Genshin Impact

League of Legends

Magic the Gathering (specifically the Kaladesh Plane)

Xenoblade Chronicles

About Duck Prints Press

Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

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Sources

r/aetherpunk on reddit

“Different Punk: A to Z of Punk Genres,” April 30 2019, by Isaac

“The Etymology of ‘Cyberpunk’ ” by Bruce Bethke

“Please Define ‘Aetherpunk,’ ” November 15 2015, by Union Jacknnife and Nostil.

“Something is Broken in Our Science Fiction,” January 15 2019, by Lee Konstantinou

[why-its-kai]

Hi Kai I'm interested in listening to They Might Be Giants after following you for so long and I'm curious how you rank their albums and the best ones to start with?

Ahhhh so exciting I'm glad you are interested in check them out !!! I always recommend Flood (1990) as a good place to start since it's possibly their most well-known album with some of their most popular/iconic songs ("Birdhouse In Your Soul", "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", "Particle Man") as well as my number 1 favorite!

They have a HUGE discography covering at nearly 40 years at this point so their sound has evolved quite a lot so I find it difficult to rank their albums definitively. My personal top 3 are Flood, The Else (2007), and Factory Showroom (1996), but after that I don't have a solid ranking for the rest. I honestly don't dislike any of them though some are definitely "stronger" than others.

But after Flood, for a newcomer I'd recommend checking out Lincoln (1998), Apollo 18 (1992), John Henry (1994), The Spine (2004), The Else (2007), Nanobots (2013), and I Like Fun (2018). Not necessarily in that particular order, of course, just ones I think would be a bit more "accessible" and covers a good range of their sound over time.

They currently have 23 studio albums at this time and even more eps, singles, compilations, live albums, commercial/soundtrack work, deep cuts, etc.... heck there's over 1800 articles in the songs category on the TMBG wiki !!!! There really isn't a wrong place to start and so much to discover, and I'm still coming across works by them I haven't heard before despite being obsessed with them since 2006 !! You will definitely not run out of content anytime soon if you decide to explore their work and that's just so exciting aaaaa

(sorry if this became overwhelming at all haha, infodump mode was activated. if you have any other questions or need me to explain something better please let me know!!)

[giantlove]

TMBG Songs As Random Memes

Say Nice Things About Detroit (Phone Power, 2016)

Stuff Is Way (Nanobots, 2013)

No One Knows My Plan (John Henry, 1994)

Spoiler Alert (Join Us, 2011)

The Bells Are Ringing (Factory Showroom, 1997)

My Man (Mink Car, 2001)

Rabid Child (They Might Be Giants/The Pink Album, 1986)

The Mesopotamians (The Else, 2007)

Particle Man (Flood, 1990)

[cyberfaer13]

MK-Ultra Mind Control

I’m aware that essentially the entire conspiracy theory community knows about MK-Ultra but I’m going to give a brief description of what it is before I jump into my theory.

For those who don’t know, or just want more detail, MK-Ultra was an experiment lead by the CIA in the 1950's to the 1960's. During the early time of the Cold War, the CIA believed that the communists had developed a form of human mind control and were also intent on figuring out how they could control the thoughts and actions of humans. They thought that maybe they could accomplish this goal with the use of drugs, though this was not the only method used. Their mission was utlimately unsuccesful in the end and so they shut the project down. Or, well, they at least told the public that they shot the project down.

MK-Ultra experiments were mainly carried out on prisoners, but they also did quite a few at research centres with volunteers from the general public. During these experiments, people would be given extremely high doses of psychadelic drugs, electroshock therapy and paralytics. Some of the subjects were aware that it was a study and others were blindly tested. Many lives were lost during these experiments.

Now, you're probably thinking, how could such a huge experiment not be shut down? Especially with the laws on human experimentation, the fact that psychadelic drugs are illegal and electroshock therapy is extremely outdated?

I see your point. However, I believe that this wasn't the first time people attempted to weaponize the human mind by attempting to control it. And in my opinion, it certainly will not be the last.

Many of you may also know about the Nazi Medical Experiments during WW2. German physicists carried out horrific experiments on prisoners, always without consent. There was a physician - Dr Kurt Plötner - who worked in the concentration camps. He believed that he could "eliminate the will of the person examined" with the use of Mescaline - a psychotic alkaloid that naturally occurs in the Mexican peyote cactus. This was the main drug used for these experiments. After experimenting on 30 inmates, Plötner decided that Mescaline was "too unreliable" to be effective for this usage as it worked sometimes and other times, it didn't.

We have now established that mind control experiments have occured at least twice in the last hundred years of our history. But what if I told you it is still happening?

In 2013, when Barack Obama was President, he announced to the public the concept of something named the BRAIN Initiative. The project initials for BRAIN mean "Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies". There is a theory that the White House BRAIN Initiative is attempting to unlock the secrets of mind control with nanobots in some form or fashion, though as of right now, there is no evidence that this has been successful.

I do not believe we currently have the technology for mind control. However, we have many different kinds of technology that have similar purposes, so I strongly believe we are not far off unlocking the secrets of controlling the human brain.

[flightyfinch]

sometimes i still seethe about the tall guys in front of me at the they might be giants show who just politely listened to anything not off flood

when they played nanobots one leaned over to the other and said "i guess they gotta play the new stuff too huh" nanobots came out in 2013 you FUCKS let me stand there

[tsalamincomm461]

AI predictions from 2010 to 2015: How close are we?

In 2013, Wired magazine predicted that AI could help predict which flu virus would cause the next deadly human outbreak. This prediction has come true to some extent, as AI is now being used to monitor emerging flu strains and predict their impact. However, AI's role in the COVID-19 pandemic has been limited.

In 2018, CNBC predicted that AI would result in mass unemployment. This prediction has not come true, as AI has actually created more jobs than it has destroyed.

In 2016, TIME Magazine predicted that "smart machines" would be working alongside humans in the workplace. This prediction is underway, as AI is already being used in many industries, including healthcare, retail, and gaming.

In 2015, Ray Kurzweil made several predictions about the future of AI, including:

By the late 2010s, glasses will beam images directly onto the retina. This prediction has not come true yet, but there are several companies working on developing this technology.

Ten terabytes of computing power (roughly the same as the human brain) will cost about $1,000. This prediction has come true.

By the 2020s, most diseases will go away as nanobots become smarter than current medical technology. This prediction has not come true yet.

Normal human eating can be replaced by nanosystems. This prediction has not come true yet.

The Turing test begins to be passable. This prediction has come true, as several AI systems have now passed the Turing test.

Self-driving cars begin to take over the roads, and people won't be allowed to drive on highways. This prediction is slowly coming true, as self-driving cars are becoming more and more sophisticated.

In 2018, Forbes predicted that there would be a move towards "transparent AI" and useful AI assistants. This prediction has come true to some extent, as there is a growing demand for transparency in AI, and AI assistants are becoming increasingly useful.

Overall, the predictions about AI from 2010 to 2015 have been mixed. Some predictions have come true, while others have not. However, it is clear that AI is having a profound impact on our world, and it will continue to do so in the years to come.

https://blog.re-work.co/revisiting-old-ai-predictions/

[ticketstubs-and-pits]

They Might Be Giants

Nanobots tour @ the Warfield, SF

a great time! even if i hadn't listened to them much since college

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/they-might-be-giants/2013/the-warfield-san-francisco-ca-bd9d1f2.html

added 9/27/23

[isopodretina]

hour 2 of pour outage. im listening to nanobots and i think chica fnaf is gonna get me. withered chica. from fnaf 2 stingray.

stone cold coup d’etat - 10/10

[libraryfag]

sometimes an album is not an album, she's my girlfriend

[tmbgareok]

YouTube suggested this to me. It's by CapitalQ

This is my attempt to document all of the musical/lyrical/poetic references and samples in released They Might Be Giants & solo project songs. This project has been a few months in the making, and I hope you enjoy and discover some great music to listen to! Thanks to the research of hundreds of fans on TMBW.net for making this project possible, as well as the great work by projects like the Don’t Let’s Start Podcast. Many of these references will likely never be confirmed by TMBG, but I’ve tried including ones that feel intentional. Non-TMBG clips I’ve included in this video are meant to represent the most well-known version of each song (that the Johns were more likely to have been exposed to), and I’ve noted the original writers of each included song in the end credits. The years I’ve specified for these songs are typically when the song was first released by the relevant performer. Some clips have been further edited for timing/content to highlight relevant parts of songs. Dates for Dial-A-Song tracks are best guesses from TMBW. Covers such as “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” and “New York City” are not included in this video, as they would form another video just as long - which may be coming.

00:00 ‘80s Demo Tapes 01:10 They Might Be Giants (1986) 03:17 Hotel Detective EP (1988) 03:54 Lincoln (1988) 07:55 They’ll Need a Crane EP (1989) 08:40 Miscellaneous T / Don’t Let’s Start (1989) 09:34 ‘80s Dial-A-Song 11:45 Flood (1990) 14:05 Istanbul EP (1990) 14:18 Apollo 18 (1992) 15:02 The Guitar EP (1992) 15:12 Hello the Band EP (1993) 15:37 John Henry (1994) 17:31 Factory Showroom (1996) 18:50 Mono Puff - It’s Fun to Steal (1998) 19:23 Severe Tire Damage (1998) 19:41 John Linnell - State Songs (1999) 21:08 TMBG vs McSweeney’s (2001) 22:10 Mink Car (2001) 22:45 No! (2002) 23:36 Direct from Brooklyn (2003) 23:58 Indestructible Object (2004) 24:30 The Spine (2004) 25:29 Venue Songs (2004) 27:52 TMBG Podcast (2005) 28:33 The Else (2007) 30:09 Cast Your Pod to the Wind (2007) 30:41 TMBG Friday Night Podcast (2008) 31:03 Here Comes Science (2009) 31:37 Almost Alice (2010) 32:02 Join Us (2011) 32:47 Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (2011) 34:49 Nanobots (2013) 35:53 Glean (2015) 36:04 Why? (2015) 36:32 Phone Power (2016) 36:54 I Like Fun (2018) 38:27 My Murdered Remains (2018) 39:29 Roman Songs (2021) 39:46 BOOK (2021) 40:07 Credits

00:00 ‘80s Demo Tapes 01:10 They Might Be Giants (1986) 03:17 Hotel Detective EP (1988) 03:54 Lincoln (1988) 07:55 They’ll Need a Crane EP (1989) 08:40 Miscellaneous T / Don’t Let’s Start (1989) 09:34 ‘80s Dial-A-Song 11:45 Flood (1990) 14:05 Istanbul EP (1990) 14:18 Apollo 18 (1992) 15:02 The Guitar EP (1992) 15:12 Hello the Band EP (1993) 15:37 John Henry (1994) 17:31 Factory Showroom (1996) 18:50 Mono Puff - It’s Fun to Steal (1998) 19:23 Severe Tire Damage (1998) 19:41 John Linnell - State Songs (1999) 21:08 TMBG vs McSweeney’s (2001) 22:10 Mink Car (2001) 22:45 No! (2002) 23:36 Direct from Brooklyn (2003) 23:58 Indestructible Object (2004) 24:30 The Spine (2004) 25:29 Venue Songs (2004) 27:52 TMBG Podcast (2005) 28:33 The Else (2007) 30:09 Cast Your Pod to the Wind (2007) 30:41 TMBG Friday Night Podcast (2008) 31:03 Here Comes Science (2009) 31:37 Almost Alice (2010) 32:02 Join Us (2011) 32:47 Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (2011) 34:49 Nanobots (2013) 35:53 Glean (2015) 36:04 Why? (2015) 36:32 Phone Power (2016) 36:54 I Like Fun (2018) 38:27 My Murdered Remains (2018) 39:29 Roman Songs (2021) 39:46 BOOK (2021) 40:07 Credits

[themole]

love that TMBG interview for nanobots (2013) where the interviewer mentions the song “Call You Mom” being disturbing for its mommy issues subject matter and they get really defensive dkjfgsdfhksjd

[aurallyaddison]

hey bro do you have recommendations 4 tmbg songs

uhhh i have yet to listen to their entire discography and most of what ive heard is their newer (2013 onwards) stuff so thats what i'll go off of

as for before then? everybody knows flood, birdhouse in your soul and istanbul (not constantinople) are very well-known but always worth another listen

i'll just put my favorites from each album ive heard

i like fun: mrs. bluebeard, push back the hands, let's get this over with

phone power: apophenia, say nice things about detroit, what did i do to you?

glean: erase, answer, unpronounceable

nanobots: nanobots, sleep, stuff is way

misc (basically stuff from flood/songs from the idlewild compilation that arent on any of the albums ive heard in full):

birdhouse in your soul, the mesopotamians, experimental film, the lady and the tiger, cloissonné, am i awake?, damn good times

[spearxwind]

LONG OC ASK POST LETS GOOO

I dont think so! They probably swap outfits a lot specifically to confuse people even further bc they are identical

they’re like tattoos/markings yeah, but they DO look like cracked ice! and are more prone to being covered in frost at random

answered above! they’re tats that looked like cracked ice :3 

and YEAH as of now, david + spencer + everyone else is stuck in Hell, and they’ve got these two bastards to deal with as watchdogs :3  Demons arent super common where they are but theyre certainly not uncommon. Theyre also for sure not as jacked as the twins 

Oughhh... probably ethan, he’s got a pyromania problem

ive answered this a bunch, it used to be dianne but she’s not active anymore so I genuinely couldnt say right now. It’s probably Alex right now since I made him in 2013 or so!

BRO.......... I SPEND MY LIFE REDESIGNING MY OCS I CAN NEVER ESCAPE 

i have kinda been wanting to give everyone in oxy another big overhaul though

LEAST FAVORITE.... probably adri 1.0. His design was so bad it made me abandon him for a solid year before i thougth “man, the concept was kinda cool let me revisit that” and since then I have never known peace

Cercerion, he’s a literal god AND a godkiller 

Im genuinely sorry because most of my process is my ocs developing themselves in my head whenever i listen to music kjdkh. 

It’s definitely an abstract concept but if you make an oc and give them a very very basic personality and then put them in situations to watch them react they will develop on their own. Trying to force things onto a character doesnt work from my perspective, youll probably know if something fits or not

Well, its not like hes just a mechanism, all his nanobots are independent of each other like a swarm so he couldnt like. Get Stuck bc he could just break apart and reform whenever  however if he condensed himself into a solid form and then got hit with an EMP he’d be stuck like that for the duration of the EMPs effects 

Adri loves people, rats and peaches :)

also uhh. he’s about 5 yrs old in canon and goes through a person a week more or less so it’d be around 300 individual people (not counting the casualties he caused when he first came into being which probably were a bunch too)

[sirsapling]

Tony's tumor in ultimates is an infinity stone? How does that happen exactly?

ANON, I have had this post sat in my inbox for at least a year now, and I never answered it because I got so excited to write it but I kept faltering on how to do so.

HOWEVER, blessed book club has finally lead me to I think the best answer to this question canon can provide. (This post is also going to use some of the panels and thinking from THIS fantastic explanation by @copperbadge​, however we come to different end conclusions)

TW: Artistic depictions of surgery, Discussions of suicide, Frequent mentions of Terminal illnesses

STOP READING HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PAST ULTIMATES COMICS: THE ULTIMATES 28# YOU WILL BE SPOILED. 

(If you make it to the end however there’s a little surprise)

To begin with, its good to know what just what an infinity gem is (comics uses gems over stones, I’m not sure there’s actually a difference). 

Because earth 1610 is a never one to slack, it had EIGHT gems rather than five, and Susan Storm works out that Gems are formed by earth changing events. While the comics only really clearly details a few of these, it's not too hard to work out possible others.

[From Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #25, 2013.]

This gives us half of the gems. The earths formation is most likely what plonks the power gem right smack dab in its core, Reeds destruction of Asgard in The City forms another, that's two more. So we’re left with two to go, and one of them is smack bang in the middle of Tonys head. (We can assume Anthony is not any of these other gems, because Sue doesn't know of his existence) 

Now we’re entering theory territory, but hear me out. While most of the gems are found sort of in and around the things that created them, Anthony seems to form an interesting point that he's IN Tony’s head. We don't get many clues about Ant’s specific growth, since we only find out what he is as he’s being removed, but Reed gives us one big ambiguous clue:

[From Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #27, 2013.]

This is a comic book, so he doesn't actually explain this story. However this is enough of a clue with Tony to look at different points in canon Anthony could have formed. For instance, Tony has attempted suicide in the past, It could come from his cancer forming, or when Natasha Betrayed him, or when his brother dies.

Cross reference these events by looking at possible world shifting events linked to them, and the most damning one I found was Greg. And the timing fits PERFECTLY for Anthonys development. Greg’s death comes as the result of him slowly creating and selling off super human secrets across the globe to stage pro-democracy rebellions, in order to put himself in centre stage as someone controlling the globe. He also engineers himself some nanobots in a way that essentially gives him the powers of a god, he is even able to wield mjolnir with ease. In a couple hours Greg changes physics and entire areas of the globe.

[From Avengers vs New Ultimates #6, 2011.]

At the same time Peter Parker is killed as a result of being attacked by the sinister 6, shifting the faith of many people in Super heroes, this may have also contributed to the volatile state of the world

In the end, Thor ends up killing Greg, despite to Tony’s evident distress and believe that Greg didn't need to die. Tony very clearly loved his brother a lot, bonded as many twins are despite the clear dysfunction of their relationship. I think it is this time period of likely intense grief and depression that gave the gem a place to form in Tony, he had been right at the epicentre of this event, right where a gem could find a now missing spot in his head for his brother and form up, attracted to his grieving. It’s right after this that Anthony first develops, after Steve has run off the the desert to have feelings and Thor likely distanced himself from Tony’s choice to talk to Ant, give him a chance, comes from extreme loneliness.

[From Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #11, 2013.]

This shows where Tony finds out his cancer has returned, and you can see a big, white, circular lump on the scan, deep in his head, right where Anthony is later pulled out of. Tony had already been receiving chemo before Gregory died to try to combat his cancer, and it's likely discovering that it hadn't worked and the mass in his brain had just got newly bigger, Tony decided not to continue treatment. His symptoms suggest a blend of grief linked mental illness, and him beginning to speak to Anthony.

Why does Tony never discover a big old lump of gem in his skull? Well, Anthony is quite sweet, and Tony seems to take to parenting him on instinct. They make a deal: If Ant agrees not to grow, Tony won't continue treatment. Without digging Tonys brain open and looking, It can be pretty hard to tell what things are on scans. So if every time Tony had a scan, Ant didn't grow, then Tony had no reason to go looking really. And I doubt he’d really want to, Tony adores Anthony, why wouldn't he love a mental manifestation of his childish self? Someone without any of Tony’s stresses, still innocent and bright, a time likely before Tony felt his own brother begin to pull away from him when they were children.

[From Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #22, 2013.]

SO that's where I think Anthony comes from, a blend of Tony’s intense depression and grief along with the entire world shifting from his brothers reality bending mental break, boiling up and forming something extra ordinary right in Tonys own Skull, completely unnoticed till Reed Richards finds him and takes it all away again.

[From Ultimates Comics: Ultimates #22, 2013.]

I know it could be potentially argued that what happened with Greg isn't such an earth shattering physical event as the others given, but I’d say that it is, even if it wasn't physically. It's never defined what gem Anthony is, he's just shiny and orange. It's possible Anthony could be the Soul gem or the mind gem as he has his own independent consciousness. Both of those could be formed by the massive mental shifts that occur as Greg dies. Several governments topple, and all of America is faced with the horror of finding out Spider-man has died. Tony himself has to shift from being a twin, part of one soul, to being on his own. His reactor even splits right down the centre.

[From Avengers vs New Ultimates #6, 2011.]

If you managed to get through reading all of this, here’s a little surprise Anthony to thank you. He’s having a sulk because Tony still won't build him is own suit, meanie.