#recorded in the mid-70's

[spilladabalia]

Ron Asheton's New Order - Sold For Cash Girl

[kitwalkblr]

Omg I can't believe another unreleased Nihil song got leaked!!!

[cartermagazine]

Today We Honor Donna Summer

LaDonna Adrian Gaines better known as Donna Summer, was a singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s, and became known as the “Queen of Disco.”

A five-time Grammy Award winner, Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the U.S. Billboard chart.

Summer first rose to fame the mid-’70s, thanks to “Love to Love You Baby.” The song, with Summer’s whispered vocals and orgasmic groans helped define the mid-‘70s disco trend and hit No. 2 in 1976. Summer followed the song with such hits as “I Feel Love,” “Last Dance” and a disco-fied version of the Richard Harris hit “MacArthur Park,” which outdid Harris’ version by hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. It was Summer’s first of four chart-toppers.

But with her 1979 album “Bad Girls,” Summer broke out of the disco mold as the genre, which had become renewed by the success of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, was feeling a backlash. “Bad Girls” demonstrated Summer’s vocal and stylistic range and produced two No. 1 hits, “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls,” as well as a Top 10 ballad, “Dim All the Lights.”

And, in 1983’s “She Works Hard for the Money,” became a big radio hit.

Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said. “Her talent was a true gift to the music industry.”

CARTER™️ Magazine

[cpunkwitch]

Hey let's talk about the punk genre, what punk stands for, what the punk genre really is and what it actually means to be punk

Because so many people are completely misunderstanding the punk subcultures of to-yester-day that people are just simply considering them aesthetics and alternative life styles when it's so much more complicated then that and leads to people spreading misinformation like "cpunk is for ALL disabilities and not exclusive what so ever"

Note: I realize during my talk I mention punk subgenre when really I'm talking about punk subcultures, please keep this in mind while you read! Thank you!

For starters; the term punk, first used in the late 1500's at the earliest to refer to prostitutes, was popularized in the mid 1900's when in 1971 a rock journalist (Greg Shaw) used the term to describe The Guess Who's music.

What became as a synonym for "hoodlum" or "ruffian" got adopted in the 70's by rock bands like Sex Pistols as a form of rebelling against how "commercial" rock'n'roll music had become in the 60's and to continue the counterculture movements from that previous decade.

Overtime the word and therein punk culture gained the association of rebellion and community built on common ground against a certain thing or towards a common objective (such as being against record labels restricting musicians, wanting accessibility for certain people and fairness for people regardless of class and wealth status etc).

People who would attend the "punk rock" concerts would show up in the work out clothing they had and whatever they could afford at the time, second hand clothing, ripped jeans, worn out leather jackets, and thus earned themselves getting called "punks" or "punk rockers" for their "inappropriate/poor dress" and the controversial bands they would listen to

This carried over to that sort of dress becoming an alternative style commonly worn by those who liked rock and metal bands and this monopolized upon by capitalism (the exact thing punk rockers were against to begin with, as most rock bands at the time were literal garage bands)

And this evolved to the reason elderly would yell at teenagers calling them punks and what the punk genre has become today.

As for what it means to be punk, it can vary from person to person and subgenre to subgenre, more specifically it varies from person within subgenre to person within another subgenre.

Punk rockers might define being punk as in going against the dress codes and such that restrict you from self expression, allowing people to attend concerts without have to pay ridiculous amounts of money, being anti-capitalist etc

Whereas cpunk or as we call ourselves "cripple" punks (as is what the c in cpunk stands for) it is clearly defined by the coiner of our community who is no longer with us, taking back the slur cripple for ourselves, fighting for accessibility and having a sense of community at all for physically disabled folk. Some have even said the most punk thing we can do is survive the day living authentically in a world that's literally built against us deformed and physically disabled folk.

To be punk can mean plenty of different things but most commonly it's to fight for equality, to be ourselves, to be seen. It's to go against the rules and authority that want you to conform to their ideals, and plenty of other similar beliefs.

Punk folk have always been labeled as such because of how we are treated for how we look, act, what we listen to and believe, and in general for how we stand out.

Punk fashion started as a DIY, punk music was always about anti-authority and anti-capitalist views, punk as a genre has always been about individuality in community and things many corporations hated.

It's always been more complex than just wearing a leather jacket with an edgy patch and spiked or coloured hair while listening to a band with heavy guitar. It will always be more than an aesthetic or life style.

Why bring this up?

Because these past few years a lot of punk's history have gotten ignored, stepped under the rug and misunderstood.

There's been people forcing themselves into spaces like able bodied people trying to claim to be cpunk when the community isn't for them.

There's been people gatekeeping punk in completely misinformed ways, when to be punk is that you don't fit in a box at all (hence the non conformity)

And there's just been non stop misinformation all together.

Punk is pro-sex workers. Punk is anti conformity. Punk is pro equity. And punk is not for those who harass others and insult them for any reason, regardless of how much you disagree with them.

Regardless of how you define punk, the most important thing is that you listen to voices of others. Don't disregard them like people have done to us all this time.

Thank you so much for letting me ramble off I hope this post has been helpful!

I also apologize for the lack of ids.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Consider the fertilizer sector. The tripling of fertilizer prices in 2020-22 – which drove up food prices – was partly fueled by higher costs for nitrogen fertilizer, which reflected the rising price of natural gas. But new data from GRAIN/IATP show that leading firms hiked fertilizer prices well beyond what was needed to cover increased production costs, increasing their operating profits to 36%, even as they sold less product. The resulting profit ratios were three times higher than before the Ukraine war began, and well above the 13% average posted by S&P 500 firms. Global grain traders have similarly been able to translate tighter supplies into record profits. In mid-2022, grain multinational Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) recorded its highest-ever quarterly profits. Its rival Cargill also banked record profits, with total revenues soaring by 23%. Such profiteering is made possible by growing corporate concentration in the food and fertilizer sectors. ADM and Cargill are two of the four “ABCD” firms – along with Bunge and Dreyfus – that control an estimated 70-90% of the world grain market. Just four firms account for 75% of nitrogen-fertilizer production in the United States, and 72% of the potash-fertilizer market globally. Through decades of mergers and acquisitions, such firms have been able to expand their influence up and down the supply chain, while amassing huge amounts of market data. Now, a proposed $34 billion merger between Bunge and Viterra – the grain arm of the commodity giant Glencore – would mean further concentration of soybean and canola processing and distribution across the Americas.

[cuddlytogas]

it's possible I made an extended playlist to give context to the classical (non-technically speaking) music in OFMD, with the pieces listed in historical/chronological order, and in the context of their full pieces (mostly - I'm not literally going to put entire operas on there, but symphonies and concertos have mostly been finished)

and it's possible that that playlist is ten hours long

and it's possible you can find it on spotify right now, and that below the cut is the full chronology

(edit: corrections welcome btw!!!! i am by no means a music historian, nor have any higher level music education, just a lifelong association and interest <3 if you know better than me, PLEASE let me know so it can be more accurate!)

N: most of the Vivaldi pieces don't really have any dates I could find, so they're just sort of scattered through the first few decades of the 18th century. and yes, technically the opening Corelli isn't in there, but I think putting another La Folia in is important for the context of s2!

1700 - Arcangelo Corelli, Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op 5 No 12 "La Follia"

1703-6 - George Frederic Handel, Keyboard Suite No 4 in D Minor, HWV 437

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Cello Concerto in G Minor, RV 416

1711 - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto No 11 in D Minor for Two Violins and Cello RV 565

1715 - Georg Philipp Telemann, Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in G Major TWV 41:G1

1718-20 - Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in G Minor Op 8

Early/mid C18 - Domenico Scarlatti, Keyboard Sonata in F Major, K 107

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerto in C, RV 452

1720s? - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, RV 531

1727 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe, BWV 156

1725-35 - Georg Philipp Telemann, Concerto for Recorder and Viola da Gamba in A Minor TWV 52:a1

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in G Minor, RV 576

1730 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestral Suite No 3 in D Major, BWV 1068

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Piccolo Concerto in A Minor, RV 445

? - Antonio Vivaldi, Trio Sonata in D Minor, RV 63, 'La Follia'

1738 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Harpsichord Concerto No 4 in A Major, BWV 1055

1738-9 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto for Harpsichord, Strings, and Continuo No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056

Early/mid C18 - Domenico Scarlatti, Keyboard Sonata in E Major, K 380

1741 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

1747 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Musical Offering, BWV 1079

1747-8 - George Frederic Handel, Concerto in F Major, No 16, HWV 305a

1773 - Mozart, Symphony No 25 in G Minor, K 183

1782 - Mozart, String Quartet No 14 in G Major, K 387

1795 - Beethoven, Piano Sonata No 2 in A Major, Op 2 No 2

1792 - Beethoven, Piano Sonata No 3 in C Major, Op 2 No 3

1780 - Mozart, Symphony No 34 in C Major, K 338

1786 - Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (excerpts)

1810? - Beethoven, Bagatelle in A Minor, WoO 59: Für Elise

1811-12 - Beethoven, Symphony No 7 in A Major, Op 92

1826 - Franz Schubert, Ständchen (Serenade) "Horch, horch, die Lerch!" D 889

1827 - Franz Schubert, 4 Impromptus, Op 90, D 899

1833-4 - Felix Mendelssohn, Lieder Ohne Worte, Book 2, Op 30

1835 - Frédéric Chopin, 12 Études, Op 25 (excerpts)

1838 - Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op 15 (excerpts)

1838 - Franz Liszt, arr., 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S 558, No 9

1842 - Frédéric Chopin, Waltz No 12 in F Minor, Op 70, No 2

1871 - August Wilhelmj, arr., Air on a G String

1874 - Giuseppi Verdi, Messa da Requiem (excerpts)

1878 - Antonín Dvořák, String Sextet in A Major Op 48

1888-91 - Claude Debussy, Two Arabesques, L 66

1890 - Claude Debussy, Rêverie, L 68

1888, 89, 90 - Erik Satie, Trois Gymnopédies, Gnossienne No 5, Trois Gnossiennes

[kemetic-dreams]

Go-go is a subgenre of funk music with an emphasis on specific rhythmic patterns, and live audience call and response.

Go-go was originated by African-American musicians in Washington, D.C., during the mid-60s to late-70s. Go-go has limited popularity in other areas, but maintains a devoted audience in the Washington metropolitan area as a uniquely regional music style and was named the official music of Washington, D.C., in February 2020.

Performers associated with the development of the style include Rare Essence, EU, Trouble Funk, and singer-guitarist Chuck Brown. Modern artists like Charles "Shorty Corleone" Garris continue the go-go tradition in D.C.

Origins

Although Chuck Brown is known as "the Godfather of Go-Go", go-go is a musical movement that cannot be traced back to one single person, as there were so many bands that flourished during the beginning of this era that they collectively created the sound that is recognized as go-go of today. Artists such as Marvin Gaye, Van McCoy, Billy Stewart, Peaches & Herb, Black Heat,Experience Unlimited (E.U.), Vernon Burch, Sir Joe Quarterman & the Free Soul, the Moments, Ray, Goodman & Brown, True Reflection, the Unifics, Terry Huff & Special Delivery, Act 1, the Dynamic Superiors, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals, the Choice Four, and the Fuzz that played soul music during pre-go-go era.

The term "gogo" (as it applies to a music venue) originated in France in the early 1960s, at the Whiskyagogo nightclub, named after the French title for the British comedy "Whisky Galore!".The club also featured go-go dancers. In January 1964, capitalizing on the emerging popularity of "go-go dancers", the name was licensed to a Los Angeles club, the Whisky a Go Go, and from there the term "go-go" spread nationwideThe Cafe Au Go Go in NYC was also in business during that time, gaining notoriety when Lenny Bruce was arrested there in April 1964. By 1965, "go-go" was a recognized word for a music club, as evidenced by the TV show Hollywood A Go-Go (march 1965-1966), or the song title of that year's hit Going to a Go-Go by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (released November 1965). At a go-go club, dancers could expect to hear the latest top 40 hits, performed by local bands and DJ's. (The French Whiskyagogo had been one of the first venues in the world to replace live music with records selected by a disc jockey.)

In Washington D.C., minor group Wornell Jones and the Young Senators were formed in 1965, beginning a fierce competition with Chuck Brown and Black Heat on the local club circuit. The Young Senators later became known for their song "Jungle" released in 1970 by Innovation Records. Guitarist and bandleader Chuck Brown is widely regarded as "the Godfather of Go-Go".

Chuck Brown was a fixture on Washington and Maryland music scene with his band Los Lotinos as far back as 1966. By the mid-1970s, he had changed the group's name to The Soul Searchers, and developed a laid-back, rhythm-heavy style of funk performed with one song blending into the next (in order to keep people on the dance floor). The beat was based on Grover Washington Jr.'s song "Mr. Magic," though Brown has said in interviews that both he and Washington had adapted the beat from a gospel music beat found in African churches.

Washington, D.C., funk's early national chart action came when Black Heat (the first D.C. go-go band to be signed by a major record label) released their Billboard top 100 hit "No Time To Burn" from their second album on Atlantic Records in 1974. They then toured with such national acts as Earth Wind & Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Ohio Players, The Commodores, and others. In 1976, James Funk, a young DJ who spun at clubs in between Soul Searchers sets, was inspired (and encouraged by Brown himself) to start a band—called Rare Essence (originally the Young Dynamos)—that played the same kind of music.

[randomvarious]

Chicago House Playlist

Alright, folks, here's something that's been a long time coming: a playlist of house tunes that came from the city that gave birth to the global phenomenon in the first place, and also kickstarted the whole evolution of electronic dance music as we currently know it. When house music began, most dancefloors had moved on from disco to a mishmash of post-disco, boogie, hi-NRG, dance-pop, synthy funk, electro, freestyle, and a whole lot of other stuff, but there was something different that started to brew itself into a movement during the mid-1980s among a predominantly black, gay crowd in the city where disco had first been symbolically murdered in 1979.

And eventually, it became known as house music, named after both The Warehouse, the place that the genre's godfather, Frankie Knuckles, would have residency, and the posters that would be hung up to advertise the venue's events, which referred to 'house parties' and 'house music.' The Warehouse would open up in the late 70s and close in the early 80s, but in 1983, Frankie would open up his own club, The Power House, which would then change its name to the Power Plant, and then change its name again to The Music Box, after another legendary house DJ, Ron Hardy, would take up residency there.

So, a lot of this playlist channels the greatness of some of those halcyon Chicago house days. And so much of it is just pure, primordial dance music bliss; lighthearted, unserious, super fun, revolutionary grooves. There was an amateurishness to a lot of it back then that gave it a significant level of goofy charm, and that's something that seems to have gotten mostly left behind as the music continued to grow into the 90s. Songs like "Move Your Body," by Marshall Jefferson, which opened with this rich and clanging, jauntily unpolished piano rag of sorts, was so infectious, and his plainly bad, but passionate singing voice that would follow that iconic intro couldn't help but be adored too. And the song on this playlist that currently comes after that one, "Love Can't Turn Around," by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk & Jesse Saunders, is in much the same vein, as featured vocalist Darryl Pandy goes over-the-top berserk to start his second verse, making for another song that you really just can't resist 🥰.

Another total favorite of mine on here is one that was produced by Frankie Knuckles himself: "Let the Music Use You," by the Night Writers, which is a near-eight minute masterpiece that has a divine, string-pad-and-bell-laden beat that immediately shows you why Frankie was revered as such a master of his own craft. And that beat gets paired beautifully with Ricky Dillard's soft and tender, heartfelt vocals too.

And then there's Kevin Irving's "Children of the Night," which features his excellent, soulful voice on a beat that combines string pads with prickly electro stabs, and was made by Larry Sherman, the founder of the most important label in the history of Chicago house itself, Trax Records, which has also caught a lot of flak over the years for its shady business practices.

A couple more notes: first, be forewarned that the track that starts this playlist is another tremendous classic, "Mind Games," by Quest— which features the voice of Liz Torres and some great and dreamy freestyle-type synth work—but even though it's on Spotify, it is, unfortunately, pretty damn scratchy. Luckily, I was able to include a much cleaner version on the YouTube version of this playlist, though 😊. And second, I like to keep these playlists as chronologically ordered as possible, but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out when Screamin' Rachael's "Bip Bop" was actually made. It has an aggressive male rap vocal on it that's reminiscent of Turbo B's on Snap!'s "The Power," so it could be from that early 90s period, but I really don't know. So I just put it at the end, where it will stay until I one day possibly figure out when it was actually created.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible and links are provided below to songs that have been posted about previously in order to give them more context:

Quest - "Mind Games" Marshall Jefferson - "Move Your Body" Farley "Jackmaster" Funk & Jesse Saunders - "Love Can't Turn Around" On the House - "Pleasure Control" Housemaster Boyz - "House Nation" Ralphi Rosario - "You Used to Hold Me" Night Writers - "Let the Music Use You" Dalis - "Rock Steady" Kevin Irving - "Children of the Night" Bam Bam - "Where's Your Child?" Paul Johnson - "3rd Dimension (Remixed by Armando)" Screamin' Rachael - "Bip Bop"

And while there are some incredible moments in that Spotify playlist, I still have way more Chicago house music to show you in the YouTube version. Some tracks that stand out in this bonus crop are the first one, the silly and campy "Undercover," by Doctor Derelict, which has about 3,500 plays on YouTube across a couple uploads; another one from Frankie Knuckles, which is a rare remix of his very popular "Baby Wants to Ride" that has ~31.6K plays, and features some political opining from vocalist Jamie Principle, and even a detouring interpolation of "America the Beautiful" in its second half (😆); and then one from a later era of Chicago—'99, to be exact—called "Testing & Balancing," by Jimminy Cricket, aka James Curd, that has around 170 plays and liberally samples from Al Green's soul classic, "Love & Happiness."

Doctor Derelict - "Undercover" Jungle Wonz - "The Jungle" Steve "Silk" Hurley - "House Beat Box" On the House - "Ride the Rhythm"Libra Libra - "I Like It" Paris Grey - "Don't Make Me Jack" Liz Torres - "Can't Get Enough" Frankie Knuckles - "Baby Wants to Ride" On the House - "Let's Get Busy" Mister Lee - "Come to House" Jimminy Cricket - "Testing & Balancing"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So, with the Spotify version of this playlist, we currently have 12 songs that total an hour and 16 minutes, and with YouTube, we're at 23 songs that total 2 hours and 24 minutes. Clearly, there are a whole lot more goodies in that YouTube one.

And if you want a Chicago house playlist that's a bit shorter, I have one that's made of stuff that's solely from the 80s too.

1980s Chicago House: Spotify / YouTube / YouTube Music

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - March 5th, 1976

Eddie Howell "The Man From Manhattan" 7" single released

Freddie Mercury: producer/piano/bvs

Brian May: guitar

Excerpts from an interview

Jacky Gunn-Smith - Official International Queen Fan Club

Eddie Howell’s ‘Man From Manhattan‘ is one of the best known and best loved of all Queen’s collaborations.

Recorded in mid January 1976 at Sarm East Studios in London, the song was produced by Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals on the track and featured Brian May on guitar. The record is so reminiscent of “A Night At The Opera” in both instrumentation and mood, that many fans regard it as virtually an “Opera” out-take. When it was launched as a single on Warner Bros records in 1976, it became a turntable hit in the UK and looked set to chart until music industry bureaucracy halted it in it’s tracks.

Birmingham born Eddie Howell began his professional career in the late 60’s, when Chrysalis music picked up on his songwriting demos and introduced him to an independent record producer, who in turn licensed his first single “Easy Street”, as a one-off deal to Parlophone in 1969.

Working as a songwriter throughout the early 70’s, Eddie’s next venture into recording came in 1975 when he signed to Warner Bros records as an artist. thursdaysHe released two singles, “Long Story” and “Can’t get over you”, and his debut LP “The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record”, which featured members of “Brand X” and guitarist Gary Moore.

The album was launched at a promotional gig at Thursday’s club in Kensington. Eddie’s band included Phil Collins on congas, Jack Lancaster on saxophone and Robin Lumley on keyboards. Explains Eddie, ”In the audience that night was Freddie Mercury who had been brought along to the gig by my manager David Minns. It was there that he first heard “Man From Manhattan”, which was a newly written song included in the set. After the gig we met and he was very complimentary about the song and offered to produce it. I remember we all went down to ‘The Elephant on the River’ to celebrate”.

Enthused by the prospect of his first foray into production, Freddie wasted little time in getting started. ”I gave him a two track guitar/vocal demo of the song” recalls Eddie, ”and a couple of days later he called and said let’s get going. Studio time was booked at Sarm East Studios and true to form, Freddie quickly took control of the sessions; ”He did lots of pre-production work on the song’s structure and the harmony arrangements”, reveals Ed. ” He had a mini cassette recorder loaded with ideas for the track, backing vocals and answering phrases”.

”We took a week to record the song”, remembers Eddie, ”which was a long time in those days, but because of Freddie’s involvement, Warners gave us a blank cheque. The sessions were quite intense, there was never a lull. Brian came in to play hismikestone2 guitar parts and the musical rapport between him and Freddie was plain to see, they were on the same page. One day, a hand-held spinning bell-cymbal in the key of ‘D’ was required by Freddie for one ping at the end of the track and the studio didn’t have one, so a runner was dispatched to scour the streets of London in search of one. The session was adjourned for half a day while we waited down at the Shazam Indian restaurant in Brick Lane for the bell to arrive. It eventually arrived and took about a minute to record, it must have been the most expensive ping ever recorded”.

On the final day of recording, a trio of Warner Bros top brass flew in from California and made a beeline for Sarm East studios to meet Freddie. Recalls Eddie, ”They probably thought the red carpet would be rolled out as they were paying for the recording sessions, but instead they were kept waiting in reception for about four hours. When they were eventually granted an audience, the charm offensive was full onlongstory3 and it was all smiles and bonhomie. At the end of the session, after the final playback, Freddie turned to me and said, ‘If this isn’t a hit, sue Warner Bros ‘ ”.

The finished article obviously had a heavy Queen influence with the presence of Freddie and Brian on the track, but ”Man from Manhattan” was far from a tribute to Queen. ”I wrote the song after my first trip to Manhattan in late 74”, reveals Eddie, ”I was reading ‘The Godfather Papers’ by Mario Puzo and the song was about those mafia characters who lead a double life. Musically, I had ‘Dead End Street’, by the Kinks in mind, complete with trombones and a walking double-bass”.

Prior to the ban, ”Manhattan” made top 50 in the UK, top 20 in Australia, Belgium and South Africa and top 5 in Holland, but sadly, as a consequence of the ban, it was never released in America or many of the world’s other major territories.

When it was issued as a single in 1976, Warner’s publicity department played up the Queen connection as much as they could, and “Manhattan” rapidly became a turntable hit in the UK. The record received heavy rotation on the airwaves – particularly in Europe where it became a big hit. Then, just when it looked set to climb the charts in the UK, the Musicians Union mysteriously discovered that Jerome Rimson, the American bassist hired by Freddie for the sessions, had been working in Britain without a permit. This obliged them to place a ban on any and all further UK media exposure due to his ‘Illegally’ recorded playing. A decision which effectively killed off the record.

Having recently regained the rights to his back catalogue recorded during his time with the label, Eddie is now releasing the tracks digitally. ”Man from Manhattan” is first up, more to follow…

(source: https://manfrommanhattan.wordpress.com/)

📸 Pic: Freddie Mercury and Eddie Howell in control room

[ttccprojectoverdrive]

Time for some general info about each Manager!

Here’s an important note going in: in this world cogs are born either the natural way (which surprises toons because they didn’t realize that toon and cog reproduction wasn’t all that different) or are commissioned to be built using their parents genetic material/coding

William Boar

Late 30’s-early 40’s, bi trans man, white boy, autistic, shares a dad with Desmond but different moms since Will’s mom passed away before his dad remarried to Desmond’s mom, dating/eventually marries Rain and has what’s (to their knowledge at the time) the first documented cog/toon hybrid post main story, daughter is named Olive and she's more cog than toon

Buck Ruffler

Mid-late 30’s bi man, Chilean, AuDHD and (family inherited that manifested after the stress caused by his failed toon up) Schizophrenia, mom is still alive but dad passed away, married to Dave and has one daughter with him whom they commissioned to be built named Gliss (short for the piano term Glissandro)

Brian (Monarch but shhh he doesn’t put that last name in his records bc of their secret shady dealings)

Early to mid 40’s, bi man, white boy, Autistic (I plan to potentially add more considering what he does in the story so I wanna see if more than just autism explains his behavior besides psychopathy) mother is alive but dad “mysteriously “ died, has a lot of siblings and he’s one of the youngest, married to Ben and they commissioned a daughter together whom they name Chime

Misty Monsoon

Mid 30’s, bi demigirl, Afro-Hispanic, AuDHD OCD and Bipolar, mom is a single mom, marries Mary and Holly and I plan to give them at least two bubbies (kids)

Mary Anna

Mid to late 30’s, Filipino, AMAB intersex bigender bisexual individual who uses he/she, has a mom and dad and a few siblings, married Misty at first and eventually maybe Holly too if the two develop feelings for each other lol, has a kid with Misty

Holly Grayelle

Mid to late 30’s, British with a medieval inflection, bisexual woman, Autistic, has a mom and dad and younger brother, marries Misty first then maybe later Mary too, has a kid with Misty

Alton Crow

Early 40’s, Texan white boy, bi man, AuDHD (which means autistic and ADHD btw), comes from a big family, is married to a buff and tall cow based cog lady and has a son and daughter with her

Prester Virgil

Late 50’s to early 60’s, cishet, white boy, Depression and PTSD, comes from a big family, is a struggling divorced dad to his one daughter whom he eventually gives custody of to Chip and his partner after situations that cause Prester to realize he’s not mentally well enough to be a father

Winston Charme

Early 80’s, cishet, white boy (subject to change may make him and Dana black), possibly AuDHD with a form of Dementia and PTSD, only living relative is his great niece Dana whom he ends up in the care of after a legal case between the ye olde toontown elders and the lawbots

Benjamin Biggs

Early 40’s, bi man, British, OCD in the forms of obsessive love and organization and possible either sociopathy or psychopathy (still working out that one), mom and deceased dad, married to and has a kid with Brian

Cathal Bravecog

Mid 20’s, pan demiboy, white (subject to change though I’m tempted to make him half asian from his mom’s side) might also make him autistic but idk, divorced mom and dad, honestly haven’t put much thought into him yet but I wanna maybe give him a partner

Dave Brubot

Mid 30’s, bi man, Haitian/Brazilian/Italian, AuDHD, has a mom and dad and four younger siblings, married to and has a kid with Buck

Belle Dama

Early 70’s, cishet, white (possibly subject to change but I also kinda want her to be an ally white grandma who doesn’t like any form of discrimination and will give you hugs and cookies if you need it), possibly autistic but idk, comes from a big family, widower with several children and grandchildren, eventually dates Cosmo

Cosmo Kupier

Early 70’s, cishet, Italian, comes from a big family, widower whom can’t have kids so his mob is going to his henchmen when he dies, eventually dates Belle

Flint Bonpyre

Mid 30’s, bi demiboy, Afro-Venezualan, Autistic and General Anxiety Disorder, two moms, married to and eventually has a kid or several with Graham

Chip Revvington-Campbell

Early to mid 40’s, bi man, white boy, Autistic and PTSD, adopted by Spruce’s family when he was very young but has since regained contact and is friendly with his bio mom, dating/married to and eventually has several kids with his assistant Bubblegum Pop along with their adopted child from Prester named Nixie

Spruce Campbell

Mid to late 40’s, pan man, white boy (Scottish mostly), comes from a big family, thinking of giving him a partner eventually

Tawney C. Esta

Mid 60’s, genderfluid heteroasexual, tempted to make them either Mexican or Hispanic or from another Spanish speaking country bc of how their name is a pun for siesta, comes from a big family, wife but no kids

Graham Ness Payser

Mid 30’s, bi (male leaning) man, mixed (mom is white dad is black, his older sister looks more black than he does and it’s a running joke that she took all the melanin leaving Graham looking white) ADHD and Narcissistic, has a mom and dad and an older sister, married to and eventually has one or several kids with Flint

Desmond Kerosene-Boar

Early 30’s, bi man, white boy, half brothers with Will, in a poly relationship with Buck Wilde and Dana and whom I may eventually give three kids

Buck Crow Wilde

Early 30’s, bi man, Texan white boy, Alton’s cousin, in a poly relationship with Desmond and Dana and whom I may eventually give three kids

Dana S Charme

Early 30’s, pan genderfluid, white (subject to change), Winston’s great niece, in a poly relationship with Desmond and Buck Wilde and whom I may eventually give three kids

[ineedahugtm]

Hello! This was into response about someone complaining about Hazbin Hotels (admittedly) pretty bad pacing so strap in for 8 paragraphs outlining the history of television and how Hazbin hotel’s terrible pacing fits into this.

So here’s a little (unneeded but still fun) history of television. So as we transitioned from the Radio Era a full season was 39 weeks (3 quarters of a year) and was preformed live, during the rest of the year that time slot would be designated for replacement shows because show hosts have to vacation at some point in their lives.

Anyways due to primitive recording techniques making reruns virtually impossible, the industry standard of replacement shows continued into television. Although finally by mid-fifties reruns were more possible and commonplace. From this point on the number of episodes began to decline, by the late 60’s the 46 episode standard season became 26 instead. (1ep per week is half the year meaning reruns for the other half so that every show could be repeated once a lot easier than the longer seasons of the past )

Essentially broadcast networks wanted more bang for their buck

Then came the miniseries format in the 70’s. Usually about 13 episodes telling stories week to week that were self contained (Think Phineas and Ferb, the episodes have no impact on each other) Also 13 is half of what a normal season was so networks would use this if a project was on the edge of cancellation.

Also in the 70’s networks would cancel shows mid year (now it’s after the November sweeps) so they’d order shows in 12 episode groups and if the ratings weren’t good enough a new one would replace it in January.

By the 90’s it kept getting shorter ordering shows in either 8, 16, or 24 episode seasons. For almost all new shows that a network isn’t sure about they give 8 episodes to test out the waters and see how fans react and that’s what I believe Amazon Prime did for Hazbin Hotel.

And so after an entire history lesson of television, let’s talk about Hazbin Hotel.

So let’s get one thing straight, yeah the pacing of HH is not great and definitely could be improved upon. From what it looks like, we’re supposedly watching a show that has a time span of about 6 months in between 8 episodes which gives no time to develop almost anything but plot relevant to the extermination. However like I just spent the past 4 paragraphs leading up to, season’s episodes are only getting shorter and shorter, not to mention that it’s up to the networks to tell the show how many episodes it’s going to be getting. So with 8 episodes to tell decades worth of planning a world out for Hazbin Hotel I’m sure that’s a little hard, especially with all of the characters that we love and want screen time for (remember how everyone was mad at Encanto for the pacing as well? The plot was there but the movie was too short for the amount of characters and stories that they wanted to tell)

Additionally it’s been said that the team didn’t know that the show was getting a second season until half way through production (I don’t have any sources to back this one up but I’ve heard it going around a few places) so it seems like this season was planned like it was the only season we would be getting which would explain why everything is so fast paced.

Hopefully with that second season (and maybe more) they will feel more fluid and organic but for now we need to understand that this is just the first season and that the rough start shouldn’t be entirely on the blame of the show itself. If your mad about something sure, I’m down to put the blame on those responsible- but I think instead of being mad at the show, or saying “I’m disappointed in the show” we should shift the blame onto the networks who put such small episode constraints on not just Hazbin hotel- but all new shows! Sure if you have a well thought out story that you can tell in 8 episodes then that’s great! But too many shows are forced to rush through their plot because of greedy networks enforcing restraints on the creativity of the shows their hosting

[therecordconnection]

Playlist: Aboard a Tidal Wave - An Ode to The Beach Boys in the Seventies

Youtube Version (For Non-Spotify Users) Can Be Found Here!

Cover Photo: "Peachy Wave" by Heidi Heiser // Record Border Created By: @saradika-graphics

Playlist Description: An exploration of The Beach Boys' work in the 70s. While they were no longer hitmakers starting with this decade, they were still a creatively ambitious and wildly interesting group.

I watched that new Beach Boys documentary on Disney+. I thought it was alright, but it was definitely made for people who have no knowledge about who the Beach Boys are. I ended up being disappointed by it because most of the documentary covered their beginnings and hitmaking years in the sixties. There wasn't much talk about their career in the seventies, which is the period of their career I find the most fascinating.

Brian Wilson's mental breakdown and subsequent mental health issues left him M.I.A. through most of the decade, which meant that the other Beach Boys were left without their captain. Also, the boys were hit by the tidal wave of being strangers in a strange land. The California that the band had immortalized in song had changed and moved on without them in the mid-sixties, with their stomping ground first being dominated by the likes of hippy rock bands like the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix, then the rock bands of the seventies like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. The Beach Boys were written off and considered nothing more an old nostalgia act and a relic of another time.

Despite Brian Wilson no longer being at the helm of the songwriting, the Beach Boys weren't completely out of the water. If the downside was that they were probably never gonna be chart topping hitmakers again no matter what they did, then the positive was that they were free to do whatever the hell they wanted to try. There are no real expectations if everyone thinks you're gonna fail anyway.

Here, you will find thirty songs pulled from the eight albums they made throughout the seventies (from 1970's Sunflower to 1979's L.A. (Light Album). I initially just had them in chronological order, but eventually decided that it would be more interesting to shuffle them all and present it that way. No matter how I organized it, none of them really fit nice and clean into common themes. The boys all went in wildly different directions during the decade and you'll hear all of that here.

To give you an idea of some of the things you'll find here, I'll give you a short list:

The Beach Boys doing Steely Dan months before Steely Dan released their debut ("Here She Comes")

The Beach Boys more-or-less inventing Shoegaze/dream pop before it became a thing ("All I Wanna Do")

The first few seconds of "Deirdre," a very happy and lovely song, later being used as a sample to create the creepiest music piece from Earthbound ("The Place")

Carl Wilson getting psychedelic and other-worldly ("Feel Flows")

Brian Wilson getting their at-the-time-manager Jack Rieley to sing the lead vocal for "A Day in the Life of a Tree" because he thought Jack's voice sounded the closest to what a tree would sound like.

Brian Wilson strange lines, "Neptune is god of the sea-ea-ea / Pluto is too far to see-ee-ee" and "If Mars has life on it, I might find my wife on it" ("Solar System")

Mike Love singing a verse in Japanese ("Sumahama")

The Beach Boys attempting (and honestly kinda nailing) disco ("Here Comes the Night")

The Beach Boys were so so SO much more than songs about surf, sun, cars, and girls and this playlist is in honor of that beautiful and delightfully strange decade of creativity where they were just trying anything they thought would work. They were, as Frank Reynolds would say, "gettin' weird with it." They did what Mike Love hated and fucked with the formula. We're all better for it. If you've ever wondered if there's more to the Beach Boys than "Fun, Fun, Fun" or "Wouldn't It Be Nice," or you're just discovering them for the first time, then I hope this playlist gives you some new songs to enjoy. :)

Track Listing:

Sail On, Sailor

Funky Pretty

You Need a Mess of Help To Stand Alone

Here She Comes

The Trader

All I Wanna Do

Deirdre

At My Window

Disney Girls (1957)

Long Promised Road

Feel Flows

A Day in the Life of a Tree

'Til I Die

Cool, Cool Water

All This Is That

Surf's Up

Solar System

The Night Was So Young

I'll Bet He's Nice

Let's Put Our Hearts Together

She's Got Rhythm

Rock and Roll Music

Wontcha Come Out Tonight?

Susie Cincinnati

Match Point Of Our Love

Lady Lynda

Full Sail

Angel Come Home

Sumahama

Here Comes the Night

Bonus: The greatest and weirdest Beach Boys song ever recorded: "Ding Dang." It wasn't included in the playlist because it would've been unfair to the other songs. You wouldn't have wanted to listen to anything else.

[burlveneer-music]

Herandu - Ocher Red - Boomkat describes this as "something like early Squarepusher crossed with Weather Report" and that's all I needed to hear

Once again it's quite difficult to pin down exactly what's going on through Herandu's debut album, Ocher Red, but its a little bit like Metalheadz meets Weather Report out on the Siberian steppes... Herandu are brothers Evgeny and Mikhail Gavrilov from Novosibirsk in Siberia. Mikhail and his brother have played music together since they were very young eventually forming the band FPRF together in the mid 2000's. Eventually the group split as the members dispersed around Russia, but Evgeny and Mikhail continued to make music, Evgeny under the alias Dyad and Mikhail under the name Misha Sultan (some of you may remember his excellent cassette, Roots, which came out on Hive Mind in 2022). Herandu was born in 2022 during several studio sessions they managed to grab whilst both visiting Siberia. They both quickly realised that together they were making music that didn't quite sound like either of their solo projects but which was influenced by the music of their formative years. Their friend Vladimir Luchansky was invited in to add saxophone and the result is an 'urban music' that's as influenced by the gritty cityscapes of '70s TV cop thrillers as it is by 21st Century urbanism. The paintings on the album cover are by Italian artist Mauro Reggio, who kindly allowed us to use his work, and whose paintings seem to convey something of the mood of Herandu... Mikhail Gavrilov: Keyboards, guitars, basses, flutes Evgeny Gavrilov: Programming, basses, xaphoon, keyboards, guitars Vladimir Luchansky: Saxophone Music composed and recorded by Evgeny & Mikhail Gavrilov in Novosibirsk & St Petersburg, 2022

[singlesablog]

Fantasia.

“Magic” (1980) Olivia Newton-John MCA Records (Written by John Farrar) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1

ONJ, queen of the echo, absolutely stole my heart the 4 weeks this was No. 1 on the top 40 charts for all of August, but I am sure it went on long after, because I vividly remember running home from 9th grade to wait by our giant television stereo console—6 feet long, in walnut—to hear it hauntingly waft over FM radio one more time and once again fuel my dreams.  The strings, the guitars, the little bit of ELO-like synthetic thing happening with the voices behind her, and yes, an echo on her voice to make Phil Spector weep, it was and is one of the greatest singles ever.  For certain it was one of the gayest.

The big push behind the Xanadu soundtrack was that one half of the LP was Olivia (and I know now her genius producer and songwriter John Farrar) and the other half a then riding-high ELO (Electric Light Orchestra).  Now ELO will show up here again; in the mid-70s the band produced Beatle-esque pop songs I adored, but at this stage I felt the singles were starting to verge on bombast (“All Over The World”, “I’m Alive”,  and “Xanadu”—which is possibly even more camp than the movie, and a famous flop—were the hit singles by ELO).  I also felt that the gorgeous things on her side of the record were rather sneered at as Top 40 pap, even though if you were to turn on any 80s station today it would be clear that the lasting hit from the soundtrack is “Magic”, and that you would be very hard pressed to hear “All Over The World” ever in your life again.   But no one is prepared to admit that, even though neither artists where ever considered cool, then or today.

The Pan Pacific Auditorium, built in L.A. in 1935 and used as an exterior for the motion picture Xanadu (1980).

I actually loved the movie, and ran home eagerly right after to make paintings inspired by the Los Angeles/Art Deco fantasia it presented, plus Olivia’s hair and clothes, which were peak that year.  All of the songs on Side ONJ (the album, which I am looking at, actually says ELO side and ONJ side!) were the really dreamy ones, and included two underrated ballads, “Suddenly”, her duet with Cliff Richard (Billboard No. 20) and “Suspended in Time”, another pyramid of echo.  But none of them could touch the hem of “Magic”, where the planets aligned so rare, and there were promises in the air, and she’d bring all your dreams alive…. for you.  

Well, me.  Especially me.

-

“Magic” 1980’s third biggest seller, was right behind Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in The Wall” and behind the no. 1 of the year, Blondie’s “Call Me”, the theme song to the motion picture American Gigolo, starring Richard Gere, written by Giorgio Moroder with lyrics by Deborah Harry (based on her impressions of the movie).  Gigolo, a film about a straight hustler in Armani clothes who works for a gay pimp, is one of the true style representations for the L.A. of 1979/80 (a feast for the eyes in terms of fashion and West Coast interior design), signaling both the extreme 70s feel of the movie, alongside the more Euro-centric eye toward the clothes and modernism that would define the first half of the 1980s that lie ahead.  It would be a Los Angeles/Art Deco fantasia of a very different and darker attitude.

As a further aside, Gere’s hustler character in the film was named "Julian", which was soon to be borrowed for the drug dealing character Julian in Bret Easton Ellis’ classic dystopian novel Less Than Zero (1983), leading to a vision of L.A. even darker still.

[dollarbin]

Nickel Bin #12:

The Roches' Losing True

Ah yeah, Dollar Binners, it's Roches time. We celebrated the beginning of this already silly year with Maggie, Terre and Suzzy's epic monster track, The Hammond Song: five minutes of bizarre and perfectly harmonic storytelling swirling around Robert Fripp's equally bizarre and perfect guitar effusions.

Losing True, from the sisters' third record, Keep on Doing, is the natural sequel to The Hammond Song. And, unlike the Roches' coveted first record, Keep on Doing is a certified Dollar Bin mainstay: it's relatively easy to track down alongside mid to late late seventies Carole King albums (which are optional to your collection) and the essential to us all 70's titles from the Lord and Lady of the Dollar Bin, Gordon Lightfoot and Linda Ronstadt.

Take a listen.

There's no better surf to be had than on this swell of voices. The sisters curl and churn around one another, cradling us in warmth and bold sun sparkle.

We already know that they skipped town, risking everything, to go down Hammond, and, as promised, they never came back. Losing True tells us what happened next. They, or maybe it's just the iconically elfin and yet deep throated Maggie, who wrote both songs, wound up with the wrong guy. But now they're ready to ditch Loudon Wainwright, who seemingly had a thing going with every female singer-songwriter of that era, like a dead skunk in the middle of the road, and reunite with one another in jubilant song.

Happily, they invite Fripp to the reunion. He'd sat out their underwhelming and poorly produced sophomore record but he's back on Losing True with his signature, other-worldly harmonics and blatant skills. Fripp knows better than to upstage the ladies and it's a shame we don't have 16 more sequels to The Hammond Song to keep on spinning on a suddenly sweet weekday.

Cheers Everyone...

[japage3moondog]

mid-70's! john lennon hc's

walls and bridges is my fav john album let's kick it

this john is fully focused on loving you. he will put aside his work at the drop of a hat. he truly is just a phone call away.

he's definitely more mature but he's still the same cheeky, jealous guy. so instead of getting jealous that you're dancing with someone else at the casbah, he's getting jealous you're talking to another painter at his art exhibit.

you are credited on every album, single, anything as his muse. he will try to record your voice when you're not paying attention to 'capture your natural essense' and he incorporates them into his songs.

he'll take you on very elaborately planned dates but his favourite thing to do is just stay in with you and do nothing. he loves the way you look when you're comfortable.

he insists you're present for every interview because he will lose his shit if they bring up the beatles and you aren't there. i know very trope-y with the 'his s/o is the only one who can calm him down' but it's literally john. you even him out and vice versa.

he still kisses you like a desperate teenager. a little sad but he lives every day like he'll never get to see you again. it's cute but sometimes you have to remind him that you're not going anywhere.