#so nostalgic. like a nostalgic summer sunset in the 2000s

[wp100]

for some reason i can just imagine bolvar listening to blue oyster cult while sitting outside, watching the sunset, with his daughter, cooking something in a campfire or grill (or, yknow, with his bare hands)

[verysmolnerd]

Double-shift Drowsiness

Drabble: You're ten minutes from closing and your former professor comes in asking for directions.

I think it’s blatantly obvious that I don’t like working minimum-wage jobs. Hell, my very first fic posted on the internet was because I was treated like shit at a retail store. Now, it’s a little better but that doesn’t mean I’m still not getting the butt end of a stick. This be a vent drable… my bad. 

Cw: Swearing

God fucking dammit. 

You’re here again, for another summer, to take a ludicrous amount of bullshit from your coworkers just to shell in a few more dollars towards your college tuition. 

Normally, the shifts are bearable and you can come home fine, but when you’re there all day sunrise to sunset, it isn’t ideal coming home with so much grease on you. When you shower, you don’t even feel the water on you for a minute because of how much grease had gotten in your skin. 

As for the coworkers part, it’s mainly just one blonde bitch in particular. Specifically, a carhop that’s more entitled than the angry customers here and has the audacity to be a douche to anybody and everybody. When she speaks it always sounds like she cops some sort of attitude when she comes back into the kitchen. 

The only time -as of recently- when she isn’t acting like a punchable brat, is when the general manager of the kitchen staff is around. You had pointed out to them that she was only doing this to be in their good graces, and they agreed; explaining to you that they’ve already talked with her numerous times but she still refuses to listen. You could only hope that one day she’ll get the boot like someone that everyone else in the kitchen even refuses to talk about. 

It always feels like when one problem from the kitchen gets extinguished, three more pop up. With whom that shall not be named is gone, all the kitchen staff are comfortable with talking with each other and making jokes without someone coming in to ruin the mood or harass you. Now, the problem is the one carhop acting like the next cockroach of the damn place and new hires refusing to do work. May you be reminded that you’re only here for the summer and ONLY HERE TO MAKE MONEY FOR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR.

…

Why do you care so much? It’s just who you are, sadly. 

Now you’re here, still at the restaurant ten minutes to close. You were calmly wiping down the countertops while the general manager had some nostalgic slow songs from the 2000s playing on a Bluetooth speaker that somehow is still working after months of straight abuse and constant use. 

Your other coworkers in the kitchen -you guys just call each other comrades at this point with how tight you are with all the workers that have those strong skills back here- were sweeping and restocking the fridges for the deep fryer or grill. It’s peaceful, well, as peaceful as a food service kitchen could be. 

Everyone was just as tired as you were because it was really late and a long day for those who didn’t work a double shift like you. You needed the hours, what else could you say? Unfortunately, the amount of tiring work doesn’t dawn on you until you’re working over forty hours a week. 

You could see the silhouette of two cars pull in from the packing window, and you sighed. Late stragglers. Somehow, the most desperate people to get to a cheap chain restaurant are also the people who order half of the menu, it infuriates you to no end. 

One car pulled right up in the spot in front go the building, and the other pulled in at a farther spot. You close your eyes and exhale, this is a common thing to happen so you’re not surprised. You are, however, annoyed that everyone in the building is bitching about it. 

What you weren’t expecting, was the person who parked so close to the building to come inside. It’s not like you truly cared anyway, you were just upfront to refill your drink; you haven’t done so in hours and you were beyond parched. 

Your back was to the counter as you waited for the machine to finish pouring your drink, not expecting your name to be called. You turn around, thinking it’s some sort of coworker calling you….

But it was Otto. Your former professor of all people. Dressed in those turtlenecks that hug his figure with dress pants and completing shoes that shine under the restaurant lobby’s lights. 

You lock eyes with him and freeze, both of you staring at each other in shock. “What are you doing here?” You ask him, you’d never thought that you’d see him again…period. “I could say the same about you,” he responded, fumbling with his hands. 

You can feel a few of your coworkers peer through the small window to look at you and the front staff watch the conversations from the blind spots of the counter. You sighed, “This is my hometown. I work here in the summer.” Otto glanced over the counter and noticed the nosy staff, they quickly retreated to the backrooms when they were discovered. 

“I just came to ask for directions since my phone died.” Otto held up the dead device. You nodded, setting your cup down on the counter, “Where are you headed?.. Or where do you think you’re headed?” This isn’t a common thing when people want to go somewhere in this part of the state but end up getting lost, the maps are outdated when you’re this rural, so you’ve had to point a few people the right way. “A retreat where some of my colleagues are, it’s supposed to be more up north..” He paused, you know Otto very well; he hates making mistakes, to be seen as an idiot when he genuinely didn’t know something, “but I think I took a wrong turn- ” he told you the name of the camp with a few descriptors of the place, and you nodded. 

You walked up near the front of the store and picked up a pamphlet, “I think this is the camp you’re talking about,” You handed the advertisement to Otto. He smiled brightly, “Yes it is.” You can see the relief across his face. 

“Good news then. You’ve only got two more hours worth of driving on the main road.” Otto’s face fell, it seemed that the urban convenience he’d had his whole life might’ve been a stunt to his patience. Though you don’t blame him, night driving in the countryside can be quite nerve-wracking.  Deer are the most ruthless to people from the city. 

You let out an airy chuckle, “Is it bound to get dark soon,” You eyed the electronic clock, it displayed the time 9:00 pm, “Are you sure that you want to drive when it’s dark out?” Otto looked like he wanted to say yes, but he stopped himself. 

“You’ll crash at my place tonight.” Otto opened his mouth to protest, but the carhop of your nightmares entered the restaurant and walked right up to him. “Hi! How can I help ya?” You clenched your jaw at the sickly-sweet tone she uses. Otto waved her off, “Ah, no thanks I’m just asking for directions from a friend of mine.” Otto gestured to you with those huge hands of his. You felt yourself heat up with pride, he sees you as more than a student; well, you do have his number…

You can see that the source of your dismay clenched her teeth with a customer service smile before walking away. Otto cleared his throat, “About earlier-“ “Yeah, you can just follow my car home.” You gave him zero room to say no.

“Ah, just a sec,” You walked into the kitchen to see if it was okay, but the team lead already waved you off and said, “Go.” 

Well shit.. alright then..

You grabbed the stuff you brought with you and you clocked out on an outdated machine up front. You waved to Otto to follow you, to the parking lot. You got in your car, and he got into his, and now you’re leading him to your place. 

It wasn’t that far of a drive, the longest part was making a left turn from one of the main roads, there always seemed to be cars there when you wanted to make a turn.

You pulled into your driveway and were now getting your keys out to unlock the front door. You felt the warmth of your previous professor at your back fighting the chilly night air. It was about time that the nights got cooler again, it’s nearly September after all…

You open the front door and hold it for Otto, but he uses his height to keep it open; his hand is high above your head to keep the door open, “No, it’s fine you can go in first.” You thanked him and went inside.

You were in the process of putting your things away in their respective spots when the front door shut behind Otto, he was watching you move around your house with ease; like clockwork. “You keep yourself on quite the schedule.” He watched you move around your kitchen, but then you stopped to look at him after he said that. “Oh, don’t let me stop you.” He moved his hands in a manner to tell you to keep moving. “No, I was just wondering if you’ve already eaten dinner? I can whip something up if you’d like.” You explained yourself, Otto nodded and you swore his face was a bit pink, “I did, thank you for asking, but about staying here-“ You cut him off again, “What kind of person would I be if I didn’t let the person I care about stay here for the night,” You turned to shut off the kitchen lights and show him to your bedroom, but you stopped yourself to relay that information to him, “You can stay in my bedroom, what kind of host would I be if you’re not comfortable?” 

“I was just going to say that I can sleep on the couch,” Otto protested, but you weren’t having it. 

“No, I’ll be fine. I have tomorrow off, you need the rest so you can drive.” “You need the rest so you can have a nice day off.” Otto folded his arms.

“No-“

“Let’s not-“ 

You both cut each other off in the argument..

….

You and Otto are now both dressed down in bed, looking at each other completely flushed and in partial shock from the stubbornness you both share. 

You click off the night, and Otto speaks, “Well, good night.” “Love you.” You automatically responded. You froze and Otto laughed. 

“Love you too.” 

[crestedcorvidae]

I listened to Precipitation by Bears in Trees for the first time while on a flight across the country. it was released minutes before I boarded my flight and I decided to wait until we were in the air to experience it fully.

of course there's no wifi at 40 thousand feet, so I opened up my notes app and wrote down my first thoughts while looping it. it's too long to screenshot so I've decided to copy and paste it here :]

Precipitation - Bears in Trees

very first listen on a plane

First thoughts:

• reminds me of watching Bolt (2008) in the summer

• looking out the window of the plane and seeing clouds made the song 10000x better

• makes me think of sunset drives in july with the windows down. soft sunset orange and bluish silhouettes of mountains and trees

• getting gas station coffee way too early in the morning

• having the ambience of the plane behind the track made it feel like a true liminal space, except not in a creepy way. more like a car trip to your best friend's house after you've been away for months

• makes me think of sunflowers, red fences, and old brick houses in summer afternoon lighting. dandelions and warm breezes

• "you don't eat at all in front of other people but one day we'll try a whole menu" hit me harder than I expected. lots of emotion about that line. recovery is possible

• also reminds me of mid-2000s/early-2010s game soundtracks. very good and nostalgic

• I'll always associate this song with the little girl that's sitting next to me on this plane. I think her name's charlie and she is very sweet

• accidentally in love by counting crows

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 254: ind_fris

Much of my time over the past few months has been spent exploring the dreamy fusion and house landscapes of ind_fris, the Osaka based musician and producer who runs Scaffolder Recordings and who has operated the nomadic 異レギュラ (iRegular) party throughout Japan since 2010. As a high school student in the US during the mid 2000s, ind_fris discovered the Digital Performer DAW by MOTU, which was the genesis of his interest in songwriting and production. Over the years, he patiently honed his craft, also using the iRegular party to further explore new sonic worlds and take in increasingly diverse influences. In 2017, he started Scaffolder Recordings, using it to shine a light on like minded travelers as well as release his own work, which has thus far proceeded across three volumes carrying the title Portfolio. Each of these cassettes flows like a balearic mixtape in the most classic sense, with ind_fris combining mediterranean atmospheres, deep house expanses, exotic fusion journeys, new age dreamspells, future jazz zone outs, dance floor psychedelics, city-pop enchantments, and 90s chill-out grooves to delirious effect. And he continues inhabiting and expanding on these musical environments with his newest (and first) LP Sink in, a romantic seaside adventure built from aquatic guitar shimmer, analog electronic warmth, and vintage Rhodes magic.

ind_fris - Sink in (Scaffolder Recordings, 2019) The title track sees wavefronts of droning ocean mesmerism surrounding deep house pads and squelching synth textures. Crystalline pings and gemstone glimmers pan around colorful sea creature while strange liquids boil and bubble...as if ind_fris is rendering the microcosmic ecosystems of a primordial tide pool into sound...all while bass pulsations weave deep sea lullabies and acoustic guitars swim through mirage hazes. And high in the sky, new age synthflutes overlap with joyous bird chatter and long arcs of screaming feedback. The swelling orchestrations and foggy symphonics of “Guitar under water” surround a gently jacking kick beat while repeated washes of euphoric sound crash against faraway seashores. 303s swim through mermaid kingdoms while skittering snare static morphs through dubwise delay fx and everything seems to rotate about some hidden center, with swirling vortices contracting while building in velocity as dreamworld synth leads are buried under layers of murk. The titular underwater guitar flows on rainbow currents and sunlight filters down through the water’s surface, with the aching six-string runs cycling endlessly through heart-throb hooks and post-rock ecstasies. Later, a beatless expanse of aquamarine ambiance is followed by an ascendent climb towards swaying twilight exotica, with stuttering broken beats, panoramic rimshot rhythms, boiling acid lines, and layered shakers pulling the body into deep dance hypnosis while piano leads glisten on currents of ether.

“Wave transition” starts in a world of hippie beach folk, all dusty acoustic guitars and relaxed hand drums locked into an Ibizan sway while oscillating lasers and spiraling space synths suffuse sampled wave crashes. Big bulbous basslines dance in the distance as ind_fris slowly yet magically morphs everything towards a floating house epic, replete with hypnotic shaker motions and acid lines that sound like they are beamed in from a different dimension. At some point the rhythms vaporize, leaving behind a golden new age glow and intertwining layers of electro-acid, rainforest percussion, and filtering synth vocalisms. But the bubbling basslines soon fade back in, bringing with them a pillowy kick drum locked into a four-four glide. There’s an ethereal dream logic at work as the song flows effortlessly between distinct yet blurred movements, sometimes seeing pianos soloing softly while crazed fx sing out like alien birds, other times letting chewy 303 lines chug through aqueous expanses while hats and snares lock into a jazz-kissed break. The energy escalates once claps start cracking through the air, with the song flowing ever closer to 90s ambient dancefloor perfection as radiant ivory melodies seek out the heavens. And all throughout the stereo field, a morphing talkbox lead wavers, breaths, and stokes the heart with nostalgic melodic magic…the whole thing coming off like Peter Frampton scoring a tropical sunset using the sonic vocabulary of DJ Sprinkles-style deep house.

The rhythms of “Airplane going nowhere” are carried by jazz-wise snares, propulsive shakers, and storming kick beats reduced to a pitter-patter pulse. Infinite echo hazes smear around doo wop basslines and guitars and pianos are woven into a web of diamond refraction, their melodious crystal liquids and late-60s fusion riffs blurring into indistinction. An accordion sings songs of the sea and brings a perfect touch of mediterranean magic while crazed oscillations sometimes obscure the mix. And the air is thick with salt and the smell of the see as beautiful ships unfurl their sails against a sunburst sky and bass guitar romances intertwine with aching reed melodies above a joyous balearic glide, one that evokes roller skating down a summer boardwalk within the romantic haze of youthful nostalgia. Then in “Mean time”, a tick-tock percussive pulse of bell tones and mid-bass drum taps is surrounded by deep blue hazes and oceanic riff cycles, with guitars swaying through a stormy breeze. Rays of sunshine break through the swirling shades of grey and an exotic drift emerges, created from galloping octave basslines and shuffling drum hypnotics dominated by brushed snare accents. There’s a moment where the track fades into a beatless float, wherein panning sonar pings are obscured by searing currents of noise. Rhodes pianos mimic new age flutes while moving through psychedelic oscillations and as the basslines build in urgency, they return us to a world of groovey tropicalia, though everything sounds progressively submerged within an oceanic dream fog.  

Stars shoot though the night sky and lackadaisical hand drums generate an equatorial pulse in “Moon inside me,” while a triangle splashes metal radiance across the mix. Laser flutters and incandescent drones give way to a downtempo future jazz zone out, with contrabass riffs locking in over a bopping chill-out drum groove. ind_fris’ piano playing is loose and free, with his oceanic chordscapes and dreamy leads heading nowhere in particular, and as tapped ride cymbals are cut-up and layered, sickly streaks of synthesis bend across the spectrum and aquatic pads ascend through sharp attack slopes before decaying like a polychrome mirage. The final track here is an instrumental rendition of the age old standard “Blue moon,” which starts with color morphing wah wah melodies descending over island breeze hand-drums. Then comes the melody…that familiar and prototypical 50’s progression, all heart and soul magic and ice cream colorations dancing within a tropical paradise and carried by screaming organs, frying synthesizers, and fluttering guitar chords. The mixture of 50’s jazz and blues romance and South Pacific exotica recalls nothing so much as the late 70s work of Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita, especially the trio’s Pacific…just heart-warming sonic magic that sweeps the spirit away to some faraway beach locale where palm trees sway in a warm breeze and impossibly blue water laps against a short of sparkling white sand. As things progress, the guitars space out, leaving behind the touching jazz ascents while flowing into post-rock psychedelia, with dreamy-delay fx carrying the six-string vibrations towards a moonrise horizon.

(images from my personal copy)

[babyblanket2001]

What are your top 5 most nostalgic songs?

i have quite a lot of songs/artists that make me feel nostalgic, and there’s no way i can narrow it down to five. :p so i’m just going to list the ones that affect me the most. all of these are personal to me and most come from my childhood, which is why they stir such a deep nostalgia in me. this is going to be a much longer list than you asked for, haha.

- puff the magic dragon by peter, paul and mary. this song always makes me cry. it makes me feel so nostalgic that it’s hard to listen to. i can’t place any distinct childhood memories from this song, but i know it was there in some way.

- put one foot in front of the other, a song from the christmas special called santa claus is comin’ to town. i used to watch this special every year during the holidays, and this song always gets me. it’s another one i avoid because it’s hard to listen to. another song from this special that is nostalgic to me is if you sit on my lap today. my dad used to sing this to me and my sister when we were little kids, changing the lyrics to “if you sit on my lap today, a hug and a kiss is the price you pay.”

- sweet caroline, song sung blue, and cherry cherry by neil diamond. since i was little my dad would always play his neil diamond cd in the car for me and my sister. these were our favorite songs to replay, and they bring me right back to those car rides to and from his house. song sung blue reminds me of when my dad would change the lyrics to “selsun blue”, so i always associate this song with the shampoo as well, haha.

- fire on the mountain by the grateful dead. again, this is connected to my dad’s house as my dad is a massive dead head. i loved this song as a kid, and he’d play it often. it reminds me of road trips, dad’s garage, and the outdoors.

- the forrest gump soundtrack. that movie is one of my favorites, but sometimes it’s hard for me to watch it because of the music alone. my mom would play the forrest gump soundtrack cd in the car every day in the very early 2000s. it reminds me of rides to and from school (around kindergarten-first grade). 

- leaves that are green by simon and garfunkel. i grew up listening to them sometimes, and their sound is so nostalgic to me. i love this song in particular. the lyrics make my heart ache.

- pretty much anything by marcy playground. this band is not from my childhood, but i really like them. they have such a 90s nostalgic sound. i particularly like the songs sherry fraser, gone crazy, cloak of elvenkind, it’s saturday, and st joe on the school bus. 

- chemistry by semisonic, soak up the sun by sheryl crow, am to pm by christina milian, and gotta get thru this by daniel bedingfield . these songs were on a couple of very early 2000s myscene doll cds that my mom would play all the time for me and my sister in the car. we were obsessed with this cd to the point where it annoyed my mom, lol. myscene dolls were popular back then and came with a mix cd. i had the nolee and madison cds.

- almost anything by daniel johnston. this wonderfully eccentric, genuine, pure, original, and soulful artist isn’t from my childhood, but his music is extremely nostalgic to me. he just has that sound. he takes me back to his era: the 80s-90s. my top favorite songs by him are true love will find you in the end, loner, honey i sure miss you, and i am a baby in my universe.

- the lizzie mcguire theme song, and the songs from the lizzie mcguire movie. i have a hazy memory from when i was about seven years old of standing close to the tv in the living room and watching the red balls bounce during the theme song. i also had a little plug-in karaoke machine as a kid, and i had the lizzie mcguire karaoke cd. i can still remember the echo of the microphone. 

- believe by cher. i used to hear this song in the car as a toddler all the time. for some reason it makes me think of being in my carseat and watching a red-orange hot summer sunset as mom was driving. every time i hear this song, i always go back to that. every time.

i could go on and on, but i’ll leave it here. ♡ honorable mentions include the 90s grunge and punk scene. i didn’t add any of them here because they’re from my teenagehood and now adulthood, not my childhood. but i love them and they give me nostalgic feelings all the same due to their distinct 90s sound. i love music from the 90s so much.