#paste magazine

[hldailyupdate]

“The thing I always found impressive is that they work really fast. Even if they don’t really know what they’re doing, if we’re just chucking shit at the wall—Harry’s made records before, he’s really good at being decisive. He just has the confidence to say ‘Let’s go there’ and not be fearful of trying things and trusting the process with the people that are around him, including me. He didn’t need to make music with me. I had nothing, I didn’t even have a resume. But he trusted a feeling, which is also another thing to take note of if you’re anyone. I don’t know what it’s like to do co-writing with very many other people, especially with someone of his caliber, but he let me do a lot of driving.”

-Mitch on Harry trusting his guts and collaborating with Mitch at the start of his solo career. (18 October 2023)

via Paste Magazine

[fionaapplerocks]

Fiona Apple interview by Chi Tung for Paste Magazine

[dovesmelodyproject]

Among their demands, the multi-fandom HYBE divestment campaign calls for the removal of Braun and other figures associated with the company who express Zionist ideology, a commitment not to collaborate in the future with artists or companies who have expressed support of Zionist ideology, and a general commitment to take these concerns seriously and to do thorough research before future collaborations. They have communicated these demands through tactics such as email campaigns, sending protest trucks to HYBE office in Seoul, organizing an in-person protest at the HYBE America office and calling for a boycott of HYBE products and services until the divestment demands are met. Boycotts are one of many tools in the collective action toolkit, and they can take many forms. Often, they manifest in an organized commitment to not buy from a company as a way to communicate disapproval and/or to demand structural change. “History has proven to us that divestment and boycotting of entities that support and fund these ideologies plays a major role in dismantling apartheid and colonialism,” says Deeja, using the role boycotting played in the end of South Africa’s apartheid as an example. “This also goes for cultural boycotts.” This cultural boycott is an act of solidarity with those who are living amidst the injustices of a regime or state who is not adhering to international law and human rights. The BDS-affiliated Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) “urges international cultural workers and cultural organizations, including unions and associations, to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israel, its lobby groups or its cultural institutions.” While a HYBE group has never performed in Israel, film projects put out by HYBE have been screened in the country. In April, when HYBE and theatrical film distribution company Trafalgar Releasing announced that D-Day: The Movie, a concert film of BTS rapper Suga’s 2023 tour, would include screenings in Israel, more than 12,000 people signed a petition asking them to reconsider. They did not. “We’re asking HYBE to take a stand and be on the right side of history because we are their long term fans and consumers, we have been loyal to their artists for years and have helped build the empire that HYBE has become,” says Deeja. “We want to consume art knowing we’re not giving money to a company that supports genocide and apartheid. We deserve to feel safe in our fandoms. HYBE is a globally influential company and they have the responsibility to respect human rights, to be on the right side of history, and to take proper measures to do so.”

[nalyra-dreaming]

And more reviews...

[rustbeltjessie]

Our Band Could Be Your Life author Michael Azerrad wrote that “The Replacements made a career out of a prolonged adolescence” and dubbed Westerberg “the poet laureate of the American teenage wasteland.” It’s not as if Westerberg and the Replacements were the first to sing about the disillusionment of adolescence. That’s been the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll since its inception. But Let It Be does so in a way that steps into those timid teenage sneakers and actually takes all the fragile, frustrating shit of those formative years seriously. On “Androgynous,” we get a gender-fluid love story (in the ‘80s, no less) that reminds us that it’s normal to be figuring oneself out and that things will eventually fall into place. A line like “Wanna be something / Wanna be anything” from “Favorite Thing” rings utterly sincere when we recall how those years feel like one never-ending holding pattern. And the big, dumb, jangly “Unsatisfied” finds Westerberg stumbling and screaming to express the ineffable adolescent feelings of being emotionally gagged by not knowing what to do next. The Replacements may not have any concrete answers, but they sure as hell make us feel like we’re not alone while we search for our own.

[jbaileyfansite]

Bailey, in particular, is a wonder throughout, and his performance is ultimately the series’ beating heart. Running the gamut from wide-eyed naivete to furious rage, his Tim is a man in search of his own truth, struggling to reconcile his faith and sexuality, accept himself for who he is, and to find a space in which his feelings for Hawk are allowed to fit. Vulnerable, warm, and righteous by turns, Bailey gets more overtly dramatic material than Bomer does and makes the absolute most of it.

Excerpt of Paste Magazine's Fellow Travelers review [x]

[seoul-bros]

20 Best K-pop Songs of 2023, Paste Magazine

Post Date: 24/12/2023

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Aoife O’Donovan - “King of All Birds” (Paste - 2015)

As a lovelorn avian, Aoife O’Donovan has a message for her latest suitor:

Pull my feathers one by one/put ’em in your pocket when I’m gone

She’s singing “King of All Birds” as captured Dec. 17, 2015, at Paste Studios and backed by Anthony da Costa’s electric guitar and Steve Nistot’s hit-with-brushes drums. Da Costa is particularly essential, recreating the studio version’s string arrangement on six strings while O’Donovan leads the decidedly Mitchellesque number.

Anyone that I might want in this world/they’re asleep in the arms of another girl/who will they be when the lights come up/everyone that I ever loved in my life/now calls somebody else their wife/who am I to you, she sings.

Originally recorded during the In the Magic Hour promotional cycle, “King of All Birds” was re-released as a standalone. And the song and O’Donovan’s quirky psychedelic-folk trio sound as powerful as ever.

Grade card: Aoife O’Donovan - “King of All Birds” (Paste - 2015) - A

2/21/24

[indelicateink]

Despite reports that LGBTQ+ representation in film and television is heading on a downward spiral, there are still pieces of media breaking through the never-ending static of moving images. From coming-of-age series’ like Heartstopper to stand-out bottle episodes found in shows like The Last of Us, queer characters are still being highlighted, but the archetypes that are allowed to exist usually all have a common denominator: they’re nearly perfect. 

There has always been a consistent lack of queer characters that actually feel like real people in mainstream media, and it feels as if the end of the 2010s ushered in more than a handful of saccharine depictions of queerness, from the aforementioned Heartstopper (and its distinct lack of conflict) to slightly-heteronormative couples like Modern Family’s Cam and Mitch. Along with these perfect products of queerness are characters that aren’t necessarily given a chance to be fleshed out, instead existing in the background as a diversity check-mark rather than a meaningful inclusion in these series. Despite this overwhelming commitment to “good” representation, there has been a small uptick in shows that are showcasing unapologetically problematic LGBTQ+ characters—to incredible results. 

Of course, bad queer characters on screen aren’t necessarily new, but it feels like television is almost catching up to cinema. From the films of Gregg Araki to Pedro Almodovar, queer characters on the big screen have, thankfully, long been given the grace of being messy. While it’s taken some time, we’re headed in a direction where queer characters on TV are finally allowed to be “bad,” if the first half of 2024 is anything to go by.

The first show of 2024 that has highlighted more than just a few dynamic queer characters is Season 2 of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. At the heart of this series is a group of queer vampires whose stories are interwoven to the point of meshing with one another, incapable of letting each other go. Despite decades and sometimes centuries, the vampires at the helm of this series don’t learn with age, and continue to be messy, manipulative, and so enticing to watch. 

In Season 2, these characters become even more complicated, as does their queerness. While there are many relationships in the series, the one between Armand (Assad Zaman) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) is the standout from this season, and one that is so tangled it’s impossible not to love. At the core of their relationship is the desire to be something they’re not and forget their pasts, and it quickly unfolds into a sensual and shattering BDSM relationship. The past is inescapable in Interview with the Vampire, and the two’s decades-long relationship slowly begins to crumble under the weight of each of their harbored secrets. 

It ultimately results in a shattering revelation that Armand was more than just complicit in Claudia’s (Delainey Hayles) death. Yet, when their relationship ends in glass shattering and walls cracking, it gives way to two separate, and equally as messy, relationships with different people: Lestat (Sam Reid) and Daniel (Eric Bogosian). There’s an unapologetic nature to Anne Rice’s vampires and the messy relationships they cultivate, and, thankfully, Season 2 upped the ante. By allowing these characters to bask in the deceit and treachery that defines this messy and pointedly queer relationship, showrunner Rolin Jones has offered fans a world where queerness and vampirism are intrinsically linked; where neither state of being is inherently “good” nor “bad,” but rather simply as complicated as a queer existence is in our real world. And in doing so, these characters have quickly become some of the most important representations of queerness offered in this century of television. [...]

[nonesuchrecords]

Among the 70 Best Alt-Country Albums of All Time per Paste magazine are Hurray for the Riff Raff’s LIFE ON EARTH, Yola’s Walk Through Fire, Rhiannon Giddens’ Freedom Highway, k.d. lang’s Ingénue, Billy Bragg & Wilco's Mermaid Avenue, Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig, Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball, and Wilco's Being There. You can see the full list here.

[wormdramafever]

Goodbye Volcano High on PASTE Magazine's Best Games of 2023!!

30. Goodbye Volcano High It isn’t easy surviving high school—or an extinction-level event. Goodbye Volcano High, a story-driven adventure game from the designers of 2017’s charming interactive toy box Gnog, charges its teenage ennui with the threat of Armageddon, as its cast of anthropomorphic dinosaurs are fully aware an asteroid is coming to destroy their civilization. These lizards share our human frailties, grappling with anxiety, indecision, questions about their identity, romantic hopes and failures, and the chasm of uncertainty we all face as we enter adulthood. Oh, it’s also a rhythm game, where you help its lead character write songs for their very 2020s-sounding indie band. (It turns out songwriting is just as hard as high school and impending doom.) Goodbye Volcano High is more of a visual novel than a traditional game, but its well-told emotional story will resonate with anybody who has ever felt depressed and confused—so pretty much everybody. Also there’s a cute triceratops who won’t shut up about bugs. She’s cool.—Garrett Martin

[perfunctory-idols]

Beck in Paris, France, 2006

Scanned from Paste Magazine November 2006

Photos by Autumn de Wilde

[jimin-updates]

Paste Magazine names Like Crazy the 8th best k-pop song of the year!

Jimin joins fellow BTS members RM (at 14, for Smoke Sprite) and Yoongi (at 1, for Snooze) on the list.

Please make sure to interact with the original article!

[shineearticles]

[rustbeltjessie]

I've tried my best to keep up with new music (especially the punk rocks) this year, but I had only heard five of the releases on this list. Now I'm making my way through the rest. There's a lot of good stuff here, from what I've heard so far.