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fuckyeahvanhalen86-95 · 3 years ago

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By the time Steve Vai crossed career paths with David Lee Roth, he'd already had a busy career that included working in his teens with Frank Zappa.

Still, Vai found new challenges taking on the music written by Eddie Van Halen, which he notes was "perfectly orchestrated."

Now many albums removed from the experience, Vai continues to find new ways to challenge himself. Inviolate, his latest record, arrives Jan. 28 digitally and will be released on vinyl in March.

"It's very 'Vai,' whatever that means," he says, going on to further term it as "just very honest music."

Vai is the first to admit his work can get pretty complex, which is why he wanted to keep things simple this time around. "A lot of my records, they're long and there's a lot of concepts and playing around with stories. This one has none of that. This is nine pretty dense all-instrumental compositions that I wanted to capture and record so I could get out there and play them live for people."

He'll hit the road later this year in support of the album, armed with a new multi-necked guitar "christened the Hydra" that would make Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen jealous. We spoke with Vai via Zoom recently in advance of the album's release.

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What was it like working up the Van Halen songs you were playing on tour with David Lee Roth? What sticks with you from that whole experience?

Well, just how great they were. As a guitar player, playing Edward’s parts, it’s a joy because they’re perfectly orchestrated. They fall on your hands beautifully. They’re just engineered so beautifully. Now, you can learn how to play them, but it’s not going to sound like Edward. You know, it will always sound like you. They sounded like me playing Edward’s parts. I did my best to pay respect to them, because they’re great fun to play. It was nice. It was such an incredible opportunity and a joy to play those songs in front of 25,000 people a night.

What was the most challenging one?

[Vai pauses.] The challenging aspect for me in playing those tracks was also the educational aspect, and that was how Edward quantified his parts. They had no sharp edges – this is hard to explain, but they’re well rounded edges. His ability to sync to his brother was magical. Finding that groove [was interesting] because his brother didn’t play straight like a drum machine, but the way that they locked was remarkable. That’s something that you can’t really learn by learning where to put your fingers. That’s an internal thing. You’d have to be playing with Alex [Van Halen] to understand how you would navigate those parts the way Edward did. I played them with Gregg Bissonette, who is a fabulous drummer. He’s a little more straight ahead in the groove. It’s like, Alex flows more; Gregg is locked. So I was playing to Gregg, so that was a bit different.

For your new album, you have a new guitar called the Hydra that's unbelievable. I'd love to hear more about the experience of designing it.

I’ve always [liked] multi-neck guitars. In the past, I played that big red heart guitar and I’ve had triple necks and these kinds of things. I’ve always tried at some point to incorporate the other necks into a performance. But with the Hydra, I wanted to really create something where everything is integrated in one performance. It originally started about five years ago. I was watching Mad Max: Fury Road where they’re flying through the desert and there’s this guy strapped to the front of a truck. He’s playing this wild guitar. I thought that was really cool, but it’s fake. I’m going to make it real and really do something wild. I came up with the idea of creating this guitar that had a 12-string neck that was half fretless and a seven-string and a three-quarter-inch bass neck that was half fretless [with] harp strings. I was into the steampunk motifs at the time. I gathered a bunch of materials and sent them to Ibanez. The designers and engineers in Japan flipped out. They just went above and beyond. I couldn’t believe it, because they’re usually very conservative. They sent me back a rendering of a Hydra and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “You’re going to build this?” And they’re like, “Yes we are, Mr. Steve!” They started to build it and took like three and a half years. They actually even made a prototype. Finally I got the guitar and I couldn’t believe it. When I opened the case, it was like, “What?” It was awesome and it was intimidating. Because I knew I had to write this piece of music with it. I put it up on the stand and it sat in the studio for about a year.

You mentioned that it’s heavy. As the years have passed, have these kinds of guitars gotten any lighter than they used to be?

Unfortunately, the older you get the heavier things get. [Laughs.] Luckily, I have a brilliant guitar tech, Thomas Nordegg, and he devised this strap that puts all of the weight of the Hydra on my hips. It’s really great. But the thing is so heavy. And it doesn’t move like a guitar, so when you’re walking with it – like, if you take a step to the right, the Hydra thinks, “Oh, you want to go that way? Okay, well let me take you all of the way to New Jersey!” [Laughs.] It just keeps taking you, so your equilibrium is whacked out – but that’s fine, I feel very confident. I know that I can totally perform it, given the time to work it out. I obviously want to be able to stand up and play it. I haven’t gotten quite that far yet, but on a stand, it’s much easier, obviously.

Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick is famous for his similarly crazy guitars. How much was that an inspiration also for the Hydra?

I have a quirky imagination. That’s where it takes root. I think that’s where it takes root in Rick. You know, we love him. He’s got a great sense of humor. He’s a badass player and a historical songwriter. He can do whatever he wants. I’m glad he did that. But it definitely came from his [mind]. I mean, look at the paint job on it. Look at what he’s wearing when he’s playing it! It’s so him. It’s beautiful. The Hydra came about the same way. There’s nothing unique about having a multi-neck guitar. It’s what you do with it and how you present it. It takes a village. Guys like me and Rick can come up with the idea, but you have to have a team of people that find it interesting enough for them to build it. You know, because I can’t build it. It would remain a rumor in my own room if I had to build it – a legend in my own mind! But yeah, it’s fun too. When you have people like that surrounding you that are interested to build whatever you have in mind. That’s really nice.

"Knappsack" is one of the songs that you put out prior to the release of this album. Kids start posting videos of themselves playing your song. Are you fascinated by how quickly the songs come back to you in that way these days?

I didn’t think I was going to see somebody trying to play “Knappsack.” Exactly as you mentioned, days after I released it, there was this one kid, he had made two videos. The first part and the second part. I couldn’t believe it, this kid was nailing it. It was fascinating. Just recently, I released the song “Little Pretty.” It’s a very dense piece of music. It has some real ethereal qualities. The solo is very melodic and relatively death defying because of the chord changes that exist underneath it. I’ve already come across four videos of kids who have tried to play the song or are playing it, or are making tab or commenting – already. I wrote to one of them and said, “How did you do this so quick?” It’s nice to see that. It means that there are people out that find it of interest and that’s great.

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You're doing really interesting things with Alien Guitar Secrets and also, your Patreon, which opens up a whole different creative exchange. What are you getting out of it? In one sense, you get to workshop your material.

Yeah. You know, for my whole life, I’ve always loved the idea of educating and teaching. I always felt that by the time I check out, I want to have some kind of platform that offers everything that I know. All of the experience that I believe I’ve had that could be helpful for people who are interested in having a career in a similar field. I’ve got a wealth of [things to share]. I’ve been an independent artist my whole life; I know this business. There’s so many things that I’ve discovered – and music, in general. I wanted to create a place where I could just dump all of this stuff from my life. Push finally came to shove during the lockdown. Before I started working on Inviolate, I carved out about four or five months and I created a ton of content. I didn’t know what platform to put it on, because I’m not really aware of everything that’s available, and everything’s constantly changing. So I sent my peeps out to find the best platform and they came back and they said, “We think the Patreon platform is going to be great, because it has folders and you can create categories.” If you go to my Patreon, there’s all of these categories. There’s stuff like "Lift the Riff," where I just show people a riff, or "Tall Tales," where I just tell stories. It’s hilarious shit, too. That worked out great. They said, “You’ve got to charge something, you know.” That was the tough part. I said, “Okay, what’s the least? Like five bucks a month or something.” Okay. But really, the value, if you’re interested in recording guitar, there’s a whole episode I did on delay, on miking, there’s a great wealth of information when it comes to engineering. I’ve engineered all of my records. So the Patreon is really nice – and also, I can go live and talk to those folks and they get a little something special.

#post van halen #1988 #david lee roth #steve vai #2022 #ultimate classic rock #news #Inviolate #youtube #video #hydra #alex van halen #Gregg Bissonette #ibanez #knappsack

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dustedmagazine · 4 years ago

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Dust, Volume 6, Number 10

The Slugs

September seemed to be the month when all the records on endless delay finally got kicked out the door, COVID or no, ready or not here we come. We’re deluged with music, some recorded before the world changed, some clearly cooked up mid-pandemic. There are a lot of covers EPs, lots of solo material, lots of home-made lo-fi, lots of benefit comps, and who are we to complain? Better, instead, to reach for the headphones, load up the hard drive, pile on the LPs and do some listening. Here’s some of the stuff that caught our attention, as usual ranging all over the continuum, from traditional to edgy and experimental, from silly pop punk to enraged death metal to bookish electro-acoustic improvisation. Contributors this time out included Jonathan Shaw, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Derek Taylor, Ray Garraty, Tim Clarke and Andrew Forell. Happy fall.

Amputation — Slaughtered in the Arms of God (Nuclear War Now!)

Slaughtered in the Arms of God by Amputation

Given the degree of smugness that accompanies utterances of the phrase “Old School Death Metal,” it’s frequently instructive to listen to some. Right on time, the misanthropic bunch at Nuclear War Now! has delivered some seriously Old School sounds to our digital doorstep. This new compilation LP gathers both of the demos of Norwegian knuckle-draggers Amputation, along with a contemporaneous rehearsal recording. Likely the resulting record will be of principal interest to fans of Immortal, the long-running, on-again-off-again Norwegian black metal band that Amputation would morph into in 1991. The songs collected on Slaughtered in the Arms of God have some additional musicological significance, as they document the sounds of 1989 and 1990, transformational years in Norway’s metal scene. Mayhem and Darkthrone tend to get most of the attention, for reasons both good and bad; and like Darkthrone, Amputation made death metal before transitioning to blacker, more brittle sounds. The music on Slaughtered in the Arms of God is muddy, thudding and thick. Perhaps that’s the result of the primitive recording tech the band used, likely of necessity. But through the murk (and to some degree because of it), you can hear the influence of Stockholm’s fecund death metal scene, especially Dismember’s earliest stuff. Scandinavia’s metal currents run deep and dark. Whether that means that Old School Death Metal is intrinsically a good thing is a different matter.

Jonathan Shaw

Anz — Loose in Twos (NRG) 12” (Hessle Audio)

Loos In Twos (NRG) by Anz

I love the idea of listening to DJ mixes of original or all-new material; it’s probably why I still value, say, Ricardo Villalobos’ Fabric 36 so much. Manchester’s Anna Marie-Odubote, aka Anz, has been doing just such a thing annually since 2015 and really went wild with spring/summer dubs 2020, which compiled 74 tracks into nearly an hour and a half of new music. That would’ve been more than enough amid all of this (imagine me gesturing around vaguely), but “Loos in Twos (NRG)” on the venerable Hessle Audio imprint is an equally formidable, decidedly tighter release I played a lot at the start of September. Three club-ready tracks here break down acid, jungle and footwork, and while all three are heady breaks, the looped vocals and bongo of “Stepper” make it the one for me. Get those feet moving digitally now so they’re comfortable once the vinyl arrives in early October.

Patrick Masterson

Ashes and Afterglow — Everybody Wants a Revolution (Postlude Paradox)

Ashes and Afterglow drops pop punk melodies into deep buckets of fuzz, lets them bubble and bob to the surface before shoving them under again. The band is mainly the output of one Luke Daniel, who appears to have been in other band called Sea of Orchids, but neither outfit has left much of an internet trail. And sure, this is the kind of thing that could easily get shuffled under; it breaks no moulds. And yet shuffling “To Take a Look at the World,” has a heart-worn resonance, Daniel’s voice echoing in reverbed hollow-ness against surging tides of guitar noise. “My Yesterday Girl” churns a little harder, with a bright, pop-leaning sort of hopefulness hedged in by seething feedback. It’s not bad, but it never hits a melodic vein the way that similarly inclined artists like Ted Leo or Ovlov or Tony Molina do, and it never pushes the noise over the top, either. Neither pop nor punk but somewhere in middle.

Jennifer Kelly

Ballister — Znachki Stilyag (Aerophonic)

Znachki Stilyag by Ballister

A cake is still a cake, whether you put chocolate frosting and strawberries or white icing and a fondant roses on top. And while they don’t all taste or look exactly the same, a Ballister album is still a Ballister album, and the first Ballister album in three years does not mess with the recipe. Dave Rempis (alto and tenor saxophones), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello and electronics), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion) still trade in a particularly hard-hitting form of total improvisation. The changes are ones of emphasis — Lonberg-Holm sounds like he’s using a wah-wah pedal and deploys some especially slashing feedback tones, there’s a bit more space in Nilssen-Love’s intricate beat configurations, and Rempis left his baritone sax at home — and of location. Znachki Stilyag was recorded during the fall of 2019 in Moscow, Russia, which may explain why the big horn stayed at home. But the ones you hear still cut and thrust with broadsword force and rapier precision. This is a cake you can trust.

Bill Meyer

Vincent Chancey — The Spell: The Vincent Chancey Trio Live, 1987 (No Business)

Vincent Chancey likely isn’t alone amongst his peers in feeling exasperated by folks singling out his instrument as uncommon or unusual to jazz. It’s a form of damning through faint praise and one that feel

s even more lackadaisical with any time spent with his music. Chancey plays the French horn and he’s plied it in settings as diverse as Sun Ra Arkestra, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra as well as gigs supporting Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello. It’s unclear whether the trio documented on The Spell was a working concern, but that hardly matters given how well bassist Wilbur Morris and percussionist Warren Smith gel with their convener. Spread across two sides of an LP, the concert recorded at a New York City art gallery covers four pieces, two by Morris bookending one apiece from Smith and the leader that stitch together very much like cohesive suite. An unadvertised surprise comes with Smith’s ample application of marimba alongside a regular drum kit. Recording quality isn’t optimal, but Chancey’s rich, rounded, phrases gain extra gravitas through the sometimes-grainy acoustics. Woefully underrepresented in the driver’s seat discographically, his acumen as both improviser and composer is easily vindicated by this limited edition (300 copies) release.

Derek Taylor

Che Chen — Tokyo 17.II.2012 (self-released)

Tokyo 17.II.2012 by Che Chen

Nowadays Che Chen has earned a measure renown as the guitar-playing half of 75 Dollar Bill, and all the praise is earned. But before that, he played a roomful of instruments in the True Primes, Heresy of the Free Spirit and duos with Robbie Lee, Tetuzi Akiyama and Chie Mukai. The through-lines to all these efforts is a willingness not to play things the way their supposed to be played, and a gift for supplying the right resonance in any setting. Since 75 Dollar Bill is a New York-based band made for social occasions, the COVID-19 lay-off has been especially hard — so there’s no better time to see what’s in those hard drives in the closet, right? Chen has released this solo concert from 2012 via Bandcamp. In Tokyo for a brief layover, he played amplified violin at a party held in the basement of someone’s apartment building. The amplified part is important; dips and swells of feedback count as much as in this 25-minute performance as the fiddle’s bright, plucked notes and rough, bowed tones. Chen moves purposefully from one mode to next, taking time along the way to savor the room’s lively acoustics.

Bill Meyer

Jeff Cosgrove/ John Medeski/ Jeff Lederer — History Gets Ahead of the Story (Grizzley Music)

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Odds are that even the estimable William Parker would be surprised by the prospect of a William Parker cover album. But that’s essentially what History Gets Ahead of the Story is as organized and realized by drummer Jeff Cosgrove. That the project is the province of an organ trio only adds to the potential consternation quotient. John Medeski officiates the Hammond B-3 console and saxophonist Jeff Lederer, doubling on flute, completes the combo convened by Cosgrove. The latter’s connections to Parker stem from a trio he was part of with the bassist/composer and pianist Matthew Shipp that disbanded in 2015 after fruitful collaboration. Parker’s personage and music left an indelible mark and the seeds for the present album were sown. Collective creative license doesn’t get in the way of soulful, energizing renderings of such staples as “O’Neal’s Porch,” “Corn Meal Dance” and “Wood Flute Songs,” but troika also cedes time for a triptych of strong originals that align aurally with their dedicatee’s inclusive tone world sensibilities.

Derek Taylor

Derelenismo Occulere — Inexorable Revelación (Le Legione Projets)

Inexorable Revelacion (FULL LENGHT 2020) by Derelenismo Occulere

This sounds like a rehearsal gone wrong. In the time of the COVID pandemic, Neo Apolion, a guy responsible for the music in this Ecuadorean duo, recorded a demo and sent it to the band’s vocalist Malduchryst with a message to do with it whatever he wants. Malduchryst took his band partner’s words all too literally. With complete disregard to the music he began vomiting a noisy, messy mass of screams to a microphone (has he never heard of a black metal with no vocals?). If it sounds totally batshit, you can rest assured that it is. This is what makes Inexorable Revelación actually great black metal. When a lot of metal bands these days are just Backstreet Boys with leather jackets on and with guitars, Derelenismo Occulere care about only fury and mayhem. Their Argentinean mix man Ignacio only adds more chaos to the album. The only flaw this tape has is that it is 15 minutes too long.

Ray Garraty

Whit Dickey — Morph (ESP-Disk)

Morph by Whit Dickey

Drummer Whit Dickey and pianist Matthew Shipp have been recurrent partners since the early 1990s, when they were both members of the David S. Ware Quartet. It’s fair to say that each man is a known quantity to the other, and that one of the things they know about each other is that they might still be surprised by the other’s playing. Dickey’s retreated from time to time in order to revise his approach, and while Shipp has often threatened to quit recording over the years, he has never stopped working or evolving. This double disc combines one duo CD and another that adds trumpeter Nate Wooley to the pair. Wooley’s done a number of dates with Shipp in recent times, but he and Dickey were musical strangers before they entered Park West Studios in March 2019. Without Wooley, Shipp and Dickey seem very free and trusting of each other, transitioning with dreamlike ease from abstracted gospel to sideways swing to restless co-rumination this the ease. The trio seems more considered. The trumpeter dips quite sparingly into his extended technique bag, favoring instead linear statements that instigate fleet perambulations from the pianist and more supportive, less overtly dialogic contributions from the drummer. Both sessions work, and their differences complement each other quite handily.

Bill Meyer

Dropdead — S/T (Armageddon)

Dropdead 2020 by Dropdead

Yep, it’s that Dropdead, the Providence-based powerviolence band that hasn’t released a proper LP since 1998 and was on a long hiatus through much of the 21st century. Since 2011, Dropdead has put out a string of splits, with heavyweights like Converge and Brainoil. But a whole record? Maybe the unrelentingly shitty condition of our political and economic conjuncture motivated the four guys in the band (three of whom have been affiliated with Dropdead since 1991) to write the 23 burners, rants and breakdown-heavy hardcore tunes you’ll hear across Dropdead’s 25 minutes. It’s a welcome addition. Bob Otis’s voice doesn’t have the shredding quality of days of yore — but that ends up being useful. You can hear the lyrics, and they’re drenched in venom and righteousness. The rest of the band hasn’t lost a step. Pretty impressive for a bunch of guys with that much grey in their beards. That said, they don’t pull any intergenerational, “we’re-older-and-wiser” moves. This is still music that wants to collapse boundaries, between stage and mosh pit, between races and genders, between species, even. Not so much class positions: “Warfare State,” “United States of Corruption,” “Will You Fight?” Late capitalism’s depredations still bear the principal brunt of the band’s anger. Things have gotten worse, and Dropdead respond in kind. They may be a lot older, but they’re even more pissed off.

Jonathan Shaw

Fake Laugh — Waltz (State 51 Conspiracy)

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Earlier this year, Kamran Khan released his second Fake Laugh album, the charming, playful Dining Alone, which made its way into Dusted’s mid-year round-up of favorites released in the first half of 2020. Khan’s third album, Waltz, is a very different beast, featuring just piano, vocals and the odd keyboard texture, casting his songwriting in sharp relief. Undoubtedly created in this stripped-down way out of lockdown necessity, it’s hard to listen to these wistful, melancholic songs without imagining where Khan’s knack for colorful arrangements might take them, given the chance. (As a tease, closing song “Amhurst” offers up a shimmering electronic melody and some sighing synth chords.) There’s no doubting Khan’s way with a tune, and his naked vocal, though occasionally showing strain, suits the mood. It’s understated and undeniably lovely, yet Waltz feels like a minor release for this talented artist.

Tim Clarke

David Grubbs / Taku Unami — Comet Meta (Blue Chopsticks)

Comet Meta by David Grubbs & Taku Unami

In the 23 years since Gastr Del Sol fell apart, David Grubbs has done many things that don’t sound much like his old band with Jim O’Rourke. And Taku Unami has worked in such varied settings and ways that the most persistent quality of his engagement with sound is its ability to induce question marks and ellipses in any train of thought intending to decode it. So, it’s both remarkable and delightful that this record, the duo’s second collaboration, sounds rather like parts of Gastr Del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife. The foundation rests upon the way two guys who can and do play intricate guitar duets make subtle use of other elements — creeping acoustic piano, humming synthesizer, urban field recordings — to make music that thickens atmosphere and accumulates mystery with such subtlety that you don’t notice it until you’re in it.

Bill Meyer

Guided by Voices — Mirrored Aztec (Guided by Voices Inc.)

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I know, I know, it’s another Guided by Voices record, the fifth since 2019, but hear me out. Pollard is still tapped into the fuzzy, rackety, melodic sap of the rock and roll universe, and he has only to knock his hammer a few times against the gnarled tree of life to extract more of what sustains us. Shorter version: he can do this all day, every day, without any noticeable let-up in quality. So, let us celebrate another batch of Who-like power chords, of rumbling drums and monumental bass thuds, of melodies that curve out delicately like spring’s first vines, then thicken into thundering climaxes and triumphant refrains. Let us give thanks again for inscrutable lyrics that drift off into poetry then pull back in the most ordinary artifacts of the spoken word. “I Think I Had It. I Think I Have It,” crows Pollard in a voice that has been blasted by time but come out more or less intact, and yes, Bob, you still do.

Jennifer Kelly

Edu Haubensak & Tomas Korber — Works for Guitar & Percussion (Ezz-thetics)

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The celebrated Wandelweiser aesthetic serves as a loose overarching impetus for the four interpretations of compositions by Edu Haubensak and Tomas Korber that comprise Works for Guitar & Percussion. Classical guitarist Christian Buck and improvising percussionist Christian Wolfarth ply their instruments through pairing and isolation. Essayist Andy Hamilton describes context by delineating a distinction between music (based in the language of tones) and soundart (which is non-tonal) and placing the duo’s interpretations in the opaque border between these realms. Repetition and timbral disparity frame Haubensak’s “On” while Korber’s “Aufhebung” applies scrutiny to microtonal diversity and temporal impermanence. Wolfarth fields Korber’s “Weniger Weiss” from behind snare drum, trading recurring stick rolls with varying segments of silence that compel ears accustomed to Western musical structures to consciously fill in the blanks. Haubensak’s solo “Refugium” finds Buck bending two closely tuned strings in an extrapolation of an Arabic maqam that feels tenuously connected to the form, at best.

Derek Taylor

Inseclude — Inseclude (Inseclude)

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Brad MacAllister of CTRL and Blue Images and Benjamin Londa of Exit have been working in the darkwave and chillwave scenes for several years and their first album as Inseclude is a long distance collaboration that mines the darker side of 1980s alternative and electronic rock. From Pennsylvania, MacAllister sent musical ideas to Londa in Texas who added guitars, lyrics and vocals to produce a set of songs that are well made and enjoyable if largely unmemorable. There are a number of contemporary bands doing similar things — Hamilton’s Capitol and Manchester’s Ist spring immediately to mind — taking the Cure, New Order, Sisters of Mercy template and why not? Unfortunately, the passage of time and the law of diminishing returns have led to overfamiliarity with this style of music that makes for easy and perhaps unfair comparisons. When they stretch themselves, Inseclude’s songs do hit. “Sondera” and “Failing To The Pulse” carry some real menace with the juxtaposition of wide-angle synths and paranoid vocals but elsewhere the pair seem held back by a restraint and lack of bottom end that diminish the impact of some pretty decent songs.

Andrew Forell

Kvalia — Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines (Old Boring Russia)

Схоластические Грёзы Силовых Машин by Квалиа

Krasnoyarsk sits on the banks of the Yenisei river in southern Siberia and is known both for the natural beauty of its surrounding landscape and for its primacy as an aluminum producer. Local musicians Aleksander Maznichenko and Aleksey Danilenko reflect the latter on their new five track EP Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines, an icy, metallic collection of post-industrial clang pitched somewhere between Einstürzende Neubauten and early Clock DVA. Their machines are forceful but cranky, rusted, near obsolete. Maznichenko keeps the thrum of turbines is steady but the drum machines lurch and thump, the keyboards whine and scream, the Russian vocals protest their obstreperous charges. Danilenko’s bass is post-punk elastic skipping amongst the raining sparks hinting at a will to dance with his mutant riffs. They sound like they mean it and the result is a terrific EP full of fire, fumes, steam and sweat.

Andrew Forell

Mezzanine Swimmers — Kneelin’ on a Knife (Already Dead)

Kneelin' on a Knife by Mezzanine Swimmers

These songs circle around noise-crusted, repetitive beats, the drumming stiff and mechanical, the riffs chopped to short bursts, the vocals woozy and distended. “Sexy Apology” reiterates a three-note keyboard lick ad infinitum, as main Swimmer Mike Smith drawls the title phrase, similarly on repeat. Yet within this unchanging structure, chaos erupts in detuned keyboards, miasmic feedback and corrosive noise. It’s hard to say whether these songs are too tightly organized or too loose, a bit of both really, and yet, get past the headachy thud and there’s an unhinged psychotropic transport. No one ever said that kneeling on knives would be comfortable.

Jennifer Kelly

Mosca — The Optics (Rent)

Mosca · The Optics [RENT001]

Part of the initial wave of neon-infused dubstep hedonism surrounding the Night Slugs camp at the turn of the last decade, Mosca’s Tom Reid has since survived on the strength of a regular slot behind the decks at NTS and sparingly deployed releases on such renowned labels as Numbers, Rinse, Hypercolour and Livity Sound. “The Optics” debuts his new Rent imprint, conceived as a way to get out music that doesn’t fit in elsewhere. (Originally, this was to be an a-side for a coming AD93 release, but as he says, “There's only so long you can keep a track with a baby crying in it back from the masses.”) Supposedly inspired by the Under the Skin beach scene, the five-minute track immediately throws you off with a dub-heavy shuffle and metallic, alien sounds that zoom around the mix. The main thrust of the melody arrives around a minute in, and gradually the sounds close in on you. There’s bells, birds, a baby crying and then, just when you’re feeling completely stressed out, it all falls away; a driving jungle rhythm carries you the rest of the way. Deeply satisfying dance from a head who hasn’t lost his way.

Patrick Masterson

Prana Crafter/ragenap — No Ear to Hear (Centripetal Force Studio/Cardinal Fuzz)

No Ear to Hear by Prana Crafter / ragenap

When Robert Hunter, the poet who wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star,” “Ripple,” “Truckin’,” “Terrapin Station” and many other songs, died in late 2019, long form psych musicians Prana Crafter (William Sol) and ragenap (Joel Berk) mourned separately but simultaneously. The night he died, both took solace in improvised music, which didn’t so much evoke or represent Hunter, but captured some of their feelings about his work and their loss. When they talked, soon after, they found that both had made lengthy open-ended meditations on the same person. Those two extended pieces make up No Ear to Hear. Prana Crafter’s entry, “Beggar’s Tomb,” is weighted and slow moving, building gradually from simmering drones into towering edifices of feedback and dissonance. Although performed largely on guitar, the sound is filtered through gleaming effects and layers into astral strangeness, a mystic’s trip through mental interiors. ragenap’s “Nightfall” also takes shape slowly out of looming sustained notes and black velvet quiet and sounds that scratch and vibrate at the edges. A solitary acoustic guitar takes up space at the forefront finally, carving a hesitant melody across the hum. The tune turns fuller and more agitated as it progresses, adding layers of feedback and distortion. Neither of these pieces sounds much like the Grateful Dead, and of course, neither has any sort of lyrics. I doubt that anyone, hearing this album for the first time would say, “Oh yeah, Robert Hunter.” And yet inspiration works in strange and, in this case, fruitful ways. You can enjoy this even if you don’t like the Dead.

Jennifer Kelly

Raven Throne — Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) (self-released)

Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) /The Return (The Chronicles of the Serpent Darkness) by RAVEN THRONE

These Belorussian black metal veterans are true materialists. On their seventh album, they show that nature is a social construct, not something given. And boy, their nature is not a loving mother. Unlike many metal bands convey nature via field recordings, Raven Throne craft their ferocious sounds with guitars and drums. Aren’t these as natural instruments as stone and wooden sticks? The atmospheric black metal subgenre has been contaminated by pop and folksy metal so that it’s hard to maintain a truly evil sound, while still bringing the atmospheric elements into it. Raven Throne pull it off. This is how darkness should sound.

Ray Garraty

The Slugs — Don’t Touch Me I’m Too Slimy (2214099 Records DK)

Don't Touch Me, I'm Too Slimy by The Slugs

The Slugs are an exuberantly lo-fi punk pop duo out of London who bash and thump and shout short, acidic ditties about being female, in a band, under assault and under the weather. Liberty Hodes, who is also one half of the comedy duo A Comedy Night that Passes the Bechdel Test, plays a jangling, forceful electric guitar, while her Phoebe Dighton-Brown bangs away in brutal simplicity on the drums. Both sing, sometimes in unison, sometimes in rough harmonies, occasionally in slashing counterparts. (One chants “Feel sick/can’t be sick” while the other rolls out mellifluous “ah-ah-ah-ahs” in “Feel Sick.”) There is a charming, unstudied quality to their music, which is a bit too smart and biting to be primitive, but nonetheless eschews frills. It’s hard to pick favorites—the whole EP is over in five tracks and 11 minutes—but “Pest” is giddy fun, with its slouching, battering guitar-drum motif and slacker choruses. The shout along chorus of “Don’t touch me! I’m too slimy!” is the best thing on the record, hitting a rebellious, unwashed spot of resonance in the work-from-home era. Second best, the gleeful tirade about sleazy male promoters in “Girly Gang” (“Give you all the gigs if you touch my wang”), which builds in round-singing euphorias until it ends suddenly and a la Jane Austen in matrimony (“Married in a dress by Vera Wang”). People are comparing the Slugs to the Shaggs, but that’s just short-hand for banging away anyway without all the training. The Slugs are smarter, slyer and more autonomous, and if they sound a little rough, that’s exactly how they meant to sound.

Jennifer Kelly

Tobin Sprout — Empty Horses (Fire)

Empty Horses by Tobin Sprout

Blessed with one of the finest names in music (alongside dEUS’s Klaas Janzoons), Tobin Sprout is best known for being part of the Guided by Voices line-up that created classic albums such as Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes in the 1990s. Though Sprout’s subsequent solo output has been a steady stream compared to Robert Pollard’s deluge, Empty Horses is his eighth solo album. In it, the now-65-year-old ruminates faith, mortality and American history atop a spare, country-tinged backing. There’s a deep ache to many of these songs, the kind of emotional weight that manifests in pointedly low tempos, sparse drum parts that hang behind the beat and vocal performances that are almost uncomfortably intimate. Running to a succinct half-hour, with many of the songs clocking in at just a couple of minutes each, Empty Horses confronts demons seemingly too pernicious to overcome. Yet, when the music becomes more expansive — such as the graceful pedal steel of “Breaking Down,” the woozy modulation of “Antietam,” or the biting fuzztone of “All In My Sleep” — Sprout sounds like he may be on the verge of making a much-needed breakthrough.

Tim Clarke

Son Lux — Tomorrows I (City Slang)

Tomorrows I by Son Lux

Son Lux’s songs embed unsettling sounds in deep wells of silence, finding disturbing textures in string sounds, electronics, percussion and the fluttering soul falsetto of founder Ryan Lott. Tomorrows I, reportedly the first of three related albums, has a quietly dystopian vibe and a moist, echoing unease that might remind of you Burial’s classic Untrue. A brief, looped, keening violin motif punctures the opening cut, “Plans We Made” with all the threat of Bernhard Hermann’s shower music for the film Psycho, while Lott trills haunted phrases about being afraid to let go. “Undertow,” near the end, brings in a whole string quartet to swoon dissonantly, as a knocking beat (drummer Ian Chang) sounds like a body being dragged across the floor. “Just waiting for the undertow,” sings Lott in the dread empty spaces between, in arias of muted desolation. Minimalist and menacing and mesmerizing.

Jennifer Kelly

Ulaan Janthina — Ulaan Janthina (Part 1) (Worstward)

Ulaan Janthina (Part I) by Ulaan Janthina

Steven R. Smith contains multitudes, and Ulaan Janthina is the latest manifestation of his mutating musical self. This release exemplifies three aspects of Smith’s practice. First, he likes to make beautiful things. Hard copies of this tape come in a custom-oriented box that contains tinted photos, shells and printed communications as well as the cassette. And he’s project-oriented. While other iterations have been devoted to an Eastern European vibe, or guitar noise or a virtual ensemble sound, Ulaan Janthina results from a decision to work primarily with the keyboards in his house. It’s a winning strategy, since his synthesizers, organ and harmonium all benefit from the grittiness of Smith’s recording methodology, and his spare playing style makes his melodies stand out quite starkly from the background atmosphere. Like the name says, this is part one of the Janthina (named for a genus of sea snail that makes its own floating platform — not a bad metaphor for the survival-oriented independent musician) venture; a second, similarly packaged cassette is pending from Smith’s Worstward imprint soon, and a future release is already planned by Soft Abuse records.

Bill Meyer

Various Artists — Spr Blk: Liberation Jazz and Soul From the '70s and Beyond (Paxico)

Liberation Jazz and Soul by Marcus J. Moore

Author Marcus J. Moore (late of The Nation but also found everywhere from Pitchfork to WaPo) has a book on the way in October, The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. In advance of its release via cassette devotees Paxico, Moore cobbled together “rare and somewhat familiar” Black music from his own crates. “These are the kinds of songs I play when walking through New York City or driving through Maryland,” he says in the release. What that means for you is a two-sided mix that burns slower on the A and gets more percussion-heavy on the B. Leading off with Doug Carn’s fittingly titled “Swell Like a Ghost” and featuring jams from Willie Dale, Milton Wright, Ronald Snijders and other lesser jazz, soul and funk lights, it’s a revealing mix that will no doubt pair well with that fall reading you’re about to get going on.

Patrick Masterson

Vatican Shadow — Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era (20 Buck Spin)

Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era by Vatican Shadow

Dominick Fernow is hugely prolific, and most folks with ears tuned to the densely churning worlds of noise and industrial music will be familiar with his abrasive, unsettling output under the Prurient moniker. Fernow’s releases as Vatican Shadow are fewer in number, and more attuned to ambient, even melodic movements and textures. That’s sort of odd, given that the Vatican Shadow records thematize and explore Fernow’s obsession with the history of the Middle East, especially post-9/11 collisions of Western military force, Islamic traditions of resistance and the tactics of terror used by both sides. Relaxing stuff, that ain’t. Consistent with the larger project’s tendencies, Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era claims an interest in the CIA-coordinated Iranian coup (MI6 helped out, too, those imperial scamps) that deposed Mohammed Mossadeq, installed the Shah Reza Pahlavi and inaugurated some of the principal tensions that have shaped the last half-century of world history. It’s unclear how Fernow’s pulsing, shimmering, sometimes juddering synth sounds are meant to represent or otherwise engage that history. For sure, record art and song titles summon all the right semiotics, sometimes with an interesting edge. But “Taxi Journey through the Teeming Slums of Tehran” sounds more like a malfunctioning MP3 player than a taxi or a “teeming slum” (can we all be done with that phrase now?), and “Moving Secret Money” is pleasantly trance-inducing, rather than insidiously evil. Musically, it’s quite good. The packaging seems to want strike other notes. Maybe that’s the point — too many folks are too busy consuming quietist pop to bother with the grind of the political. But is this the intervention we need?

Jonathan Shaw

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thedollarcrate · 5 years ago

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50 Best Albums (That I Own on Vinyl) of the Decade

It’s hard to comprehend how much transpires over the course of a decade or wrap your head around how long (or short) of time that really is.

But what better way to try than to make a list!

Now, I know “Best of” lists like this one are inherently subjective – and probably say more about their maker’s preferences than actually reflecting the best music released in a particular time period. And, I’ll be the first to admit that the list below is incredibly limited, and that I need to widen my exposure to more artists and genres.

But hey, this is all in fun.

So feel free to debate, pick apart or share your own favorite albums from the past decade. But before you dive in, just a few quick points for context:

-I only ranked albums I actually own on vinyl released between 2010 and 2019, which limited my choices to about 170 records.

-I only ranked new music released this past decade, so no reissues or older material released for the first time (sorry Prince’s Piano & A Microphone and Originals).

-I first started buying vinyl around ’09-’10 and started off purchasing mostly new releases before my habits shifted and I started looking for older records. This shows in the list below – nearly a quarter of the albums below were released in 2010 and almost 70% from the first half of the decade.

And we’re off…

50. Centipede Hz, Animal Collective (2012)

Let’s be honest, it was impossible for Animal Collective to top a universally acclaimed and era-defining album – and it was unfair to expect them to. But maybe the continuous onslaught of bizarre and eclectic music found on Centipede Hz was just what we needed after all.

49. Singles, Future Islands (2014)

So much more than Sam Herring’s pelvis busting dance moves and “Seasons (Waiting On You),” every track on Singlesbursts with life and heart pumping energy. To quote Letterman: I’ll take all of that you got.

48. Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph, Frog Eyes (2010)

I don’t think I’ll ever understand Carey Mercer’s lyrics, but I’m certain I’ll never tire of getting lost in his hidden words and knotty melodies.

47. Leaving Atlanta, Gentleman Jesse (2012)

Thirty seven minutes of Pure Power Pop Perfection (note the capital “Ps”).

46. Burst Apart, The Antlers (2011)

If there’s another album with a song titled “Putting the Dog to Sleep” that is as haunting and beautiful as this one, I don’t want to know about it.

45. Carrion Crawler/The Dream, Thee Oh Sees (2011)

With John Dwyer churning out record after record in the ‘10s, it should come as no surprise that at least one landed on this list (and they’re all great). Garage rock. Surf rock. Post-punk rock. Psych rock. Noise rock. Rock rock. I don’t care what you call it, Thee Oh Sees put the pedal to the metal on Carrion Crawler/The Dream, taking you for a wild ride that never lets up.

44. 1989, Taylor Swift (2014)

Irresistibly catchy, everyone needs to satisfy their pop sweet tooth every now and then. 1989 is so sugary, it might just give you a cavity or two.

43. City Music, Kevin Morby (2017)

The city. The countryside. A beach. Aboard a train. At the pearly gates. It doesn’t matter where you listen to City Music because Kevin Morby’s jams will immediately transport you to your own laid back, happy place.

42. Remind Me Tomorrow, Sharon Van Etten (2019)

You’ll regret it if you keep waiting to listen this powerhouse – and powerful – synth-soaked record.

41. You Want It Darker, Leonard Cohen (2016)

It doesn’t get much darker, bleaker or sparse than this, but I wouldn’t want it any other way from the masterful Leonard Cohen.

40. American Dream, LCD Soundsystem (2017)

Retirement never sounded so good.

39. Capacity, Big Thief (2017)

Quietly captivating, mesmerizing and elegant, Big Thief knock you out without you even realizing it.

38. St. Vincent, St. Vincent (2014)

Annie Clark’s shapeshifting album won’t only shred your face off, it somehow makes you feel smarter, too.

37. Before Today, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (2010)

So, so weird and so, so good.

36. Expo 86, Wolf Parade (2010)

Like #50, Wolf Parade might always live in the shadow and expectations of a towering classic, yet somehow Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner still continually craft eccentric and bombastic rock albums. Expo 86 is no exception, and it is an underrated classic in its own right.

35. Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves (2018)

Like a sunset or sunrise, Golden Hour radiates beauty and warmth with each of its glowing tracks.

34. Yuck, Yuck (2011)

Despite their name and its hideous album cover, there’s nothing gross about Yuck’s infectious indie rock.

33. Play It Strange, The Fresh & Onlys (2010)

I once saw The Fresh & Onlys play at a tiny club in D.C. It might’ve been the loudest show I’ve ever been to – my ears rang for days. This record is just as rollicking, hazy and good as that show was loud.

32. Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass (2015)

There’s a reason “Welcome to 1979” is stamped in tiny letters on this vinyl’s inner ring – it’s silky smooth, filled with impeccable soft ballads and finely tuned jams – and just a tinge of funk.

31. I Am Easy To Find, The National (2019)

Few bands matched the consistent output of quality albums in the ‘10s as The National. They had one heck of a run, and I Am Easy To Find was a fascinating way to end it – a 21st rock album that felt more complex and expansive than anything they’d done before.

30. Melodrama, Lorde (2018)

Everything a pop record should be and then some – bold, breathtaking and exuberant.

29. Just Enough Hip To Be Woman, Broncho (2014)

If you can’t tell from its playful title, this pop rock album wants nothing more than to have fun – and it succeeds on every level.

28. Avi Buffalo, Avi Buffalo (2010)

Sometimes all you want is a light, sunny and meandering album to wash over you and get lost in, and this one will do the trick every time.

27. Hippies, Harlem (2010)

Imagine a band practicing inside a garage inside a garage inside another garage and you’ve got Harlem. This is garage rock to the max – and at its rambunctious best.

26. Puberty 2, Mitski (2016)

It’s hard to describe Puberty 2. Sure, it might sound like simple dreamy indie rock, but it ebbs and flows in unexpected ways that leaves you guessing where it’s heading next.

25. mbv, My Bloody Valentine (2013)

Picking up right where they left off – even if it was more than a decade later – My Bloody Valentine reminded everyone why they are the masters of reverb soaked shoegaze.

24. A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead (2016)

Even after all these years and albums, Radiohead still found a way to reinvent themselves and push the boundaries of rock music – and our expectations of them. With gorgeous arrangements and slow-burning, tension filled tracks, AMSP proves that even Radiohead can still take risks – and proves rock bands can make quiet, intimate songs sound epic. Oh yeah, and it has “True Love Waits.”

23. Art Angels, Grimes (2015)

Grimes gave us the future of pop music before most could even envision it. This laid the groundwork for all the challenging and intricate – and danceable – pop music that would follow. And it still sounds ahead of its time.

22. Meet Me At The Muster Station, PS I Love You (2010)

The first sounds out of Paul Saulnier’s mouth on Meet Me At The Munster Station aren’t words at all but two short, ecstatic yelps. And this same boundless energy and passion bleeds through on every fuzzy, raucous second of every track. Did I mention there’s a song called “Butterflies & Boners”?

21. More Than Any Other Day, Ought (2014)

You really ought to listen to Ought if you aren’t already. Tim Darcy and co. sound a bit uneasy, paranoid and self-aware, but they make the most minute challenges sound so exhilarating and life-altering – even the struggle deciding between two percent and whole milk at the grocery store.

20. Lemonade, Beyoncé (2017)

All hail Queen Bey.

19. Twin-Hand Movement, Lower Dens (2010)

This album sounds like 2 am on a dark, rainy Saturday night – in the best way imaginable.

18. Tomboy, Panda Bear (2011)

You can always count on Panda Bear to make hypnotic, loopy electronic music sound so breezy and effortless.

17. Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend (2013)

I don’t know why, but I want to dislike Vampire Weekend so much. But that’s impossible when their music is so damn good and every note sounds so neat and perfect.

16. Past Life Martyred Saints, EMA (2011)

Just do yourself and listen to this album please.

15. The Archandroid, Janelle Monáe (2010)

Blending too many genres to count, this is what I imagine music sounds like in space.

14. Carrie & Lowell, Sufjan Stevens (2015)

I’ll let you know how I feel about this one after I stop crying.

13. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire (2010)

It’s everything you either love or hate about Arcade Fire. Grand, sincere and sweeping rock that swings for the fences with every guitar chord, drumbeat and horn blast. I love it.

12. Silence Yourself, Savages (2013)

Savages grab you by the throat and never let go – this is one intense album.

11. Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes (2011)

This might be the epitome of ‘10s indie rock – and for good reason. Introspective, sensitive and searching for some greater meaning, Robin Pecknold holds nothing back and lays it all out on Helplessness Blues.

10. Kaputt, Destroyer (2011)

Dan Bejar is an enigma and seemingly reluctant rock star. I saw him perform an acoustic set where he spent a majority of the time playing with his back towards the audience (although in fairness, it was at a free outdoor show on a college campus with people mostly chatting obnoxiously over him), and yet it’s as if his creativity requires him to constantly release new albums and show them off. Kaputt is as equally strange and mysterious – and just as creative – as its maker.

9. Black Star, David Bowie (2016)

Take away the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding this album’s release and it would still be in the top tier of David Bowie’s extensive catalogue. Experimenting until the very end, Bowie morphed into something entirely new one last time. Part jazz, part rock and part I’m not sure what you would call it, the results were once again out of this world. He couldn’t give it all away, but we’re sure thankful for what he could.

8. Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)

Shedding the cabin in the woods vibe, Justin Vernon took a giant leap forward with Bon Iver and made ‘80s soft rock popular.

7. Celebration Rock, Japandroids (2012)

Perhaps the most aptly named album on this list, no other album exudes the joy of making music and rocking out with your buddy than this one. It’s hard to believe all that noise and energy comes from just two people.

6. Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Angel Olsen (2014)

Angel Olsen’s hypnotic and seductive vocals, lyrics and guitar suck you in immediately, mesmerizing you from the first gentle strums to the peaks and valleys of “Lights Out” and “Stars” all the way to the closer’s pulsing drumbeats and majestic piano.

5. Black Messiah, D'Angelo And The Vanguard (2015)

Oozing with cool, sexy and confident R&B funk, D’Angelo returned after 14 years with an instant soul masterpiece.

4. The Monitor, Titus Andronicus (2010)

It says a lot when a band can a.) make an hour plus punk rock record b.) loosely base it on the Civil War c.) quote Abraham Lincoln d.) close it out with a 14 minute track inspired by a famous naval battle and e.) still make you want to listen to it over and over and over again.

3. Lost In The Dream, The War On Drugs (2014)

The rare album that can feel vast and ambitious and yet deeply private and personal all at once. You really will get lost in these soaring songs.

2. Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter (2010)

At times perfectly melodic and structured and at others feeling on the brink of falling apart, Halcyon Digest is a paradox – sounding peaceful, bright and idyllic while also peering over the edge into something darker. This is a remarkable record from a remarkable band. If not for the abrupt end to the darkly beautiful closer “He Would Have Laughed,” Halcyon Digest sounds like it could go on forever.

1. Let England Shake, PJ Harvey (2011)

A stunning, thought-provoking, and moving – not to mention endlessly listenable – transcendent piece of art about life and the Great War. PJ Harvey doesn’t hold back on the brutality and absurdity of armed conflict, and the album’s devastating closing track – “The Colour of the Earth” – will linger in your mind long after the record stops spinning. As powerful today as it was eight years ago, this album will remain timely and important for years – and decades – to come.

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harryandmolly · 6 years ago

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i could write it better than you ever felt it - one

A/N: I’m dedicating this fic to the author of the first fics I fell in love with as a curious middle schooler on Quizilla, soxlongxjimmy. Thanks for the memories.

Warnings: Language, miscreants being miscreants

Word count: 3.2k

Val rolls over, blindly scrabbles for the cherry red Sidekick blaring “Miss Murder” under her tufted black PB Teen comforter.

“Raf Calling”

Val stifles a knowing smile, though she’s alone in her bedroom. She answers, lifts the phone to her ear.

“How much do you love me?” he asks, a self-deprecating chuckle in his voice.

Val giggles back. “Enough.”

Rafael and Valentina Moreno were born at 6:43 and 7:04 (respectively) on the morning of April 22, 1985. From then on, it was chaos.

Two was quite enough children for ambitious professors Miguel and Fernanda Moreno. They were scholars, children of knowledge, who wanted a small, quiet family. They envisioned docile walks on the beach, Saturday trips to museums, maybe the occasional University of Miami football game.

They got Raf and Val instead. The twins were at each other’s throats nearly from the time they were born – Miguel tells a story every holiday season of placing both babies in the same crib to bond when they were a few months old. The new parents turned around for a minute and looked back to see Val rolling on top of Raf trying to smush his face into the cushions.

From then on, separate cribs.

But the twins, despite their ongoing hostilities, couldn’t be separated. It was as though their energies thrived on one another. One summer when they were 12, Raf left for sleepaway soccer camp. A few days in, Val woke her mother up in the middle of the night in tears begging them to bring her brother home. He came back at the end of the summer and two days later she threw an ice cream cone in his face.

Miguel and Fernanda were faced with a new reality – noise. Their kids were loud before they even picked up their respective instruments. The Morenos thought music lessons would be a good outlet for their wild children, so they had them classically trained from a young age. Once again, their good intentions wrought chaos. Valentina was a menace on the drums – though a very talented, well trained menace. And Rafael was a gifted guitar player.

It wasn’t until they were 14 and started sharing practice space in the Morenos’ garage that they could be in the same room without ripping each other’s heads off.

And then, against all odds, they joined forces. The Moreno twins finally discovered they were stronger together than apart. That’s not to say they didn’t still fight like cats and dogs, but they loved each other just as viciously as they bickered. Miguel and Fernanda could live with that. They had to.

Streets of Gold was a stupid pet project, it wasn’t supposed to be anything. Until it was.

Val was original music buff of the family. She used to sit in her closet with the door shut and the lights off listening to her dad’s record collection. It made her feel cool, listening to old vinyl. But she didn’t really get it until she got around to hearing The Ramones’ “Rocket to Russia” for the first time. Everything changed then for the Morenos.

Raf was hesitant at first – could he really let himself like something Val discovered, something Val thought was cool? But he couldn’t hold out long. Because it was cool. It was really cool.

Valentina became the Encyclopedia Brown of pop-punk. You could name a song and she could tell you what band, what album, what year it dropped, whether or not it was a single, and what label released it. She was a goddamn savant. Raf started using her like she was a walking party trick with his friends, some of whom also started to think pop-punk was cool.

Streets of Gold started, as many shitty garage bands do, as a blink-182 cover band. They played birthday parties, then house parties, then veteran halls, then underground Miami clubs. They were signed by Stuck in the Suburbs Records in 2002 and struck out on their first supporting tour. They’ve barely been home since.

Everything changed once again for the Moreno family when Val took a step back. She loved the band, loved the music, even loved touring, but there was a piece of her that was more like her parents than she ever realized or wanted to admit. She craved learning and missed academia after she finished her GED. She secretly applied to the University of Miami and sought out her replacement for the band, gearing up for a fight.

Raf lost it, at first. They had the worst knock-down, drag-out sibling fight of their entire lives. It ended in tears with Raf holding Val against his chest as they sobbed. They started training her replacement Naveen the next day.

Among Val’s fondest memories of drumming in Streets of Gold are the two years she spent with the band on Warped Tour. Warped was every scene kid’s wet dream, every garage band’s Woodstock. It was the be all, end all of pop-punk music. Warped is a fickle mistress – it makes and it breaks, it gives and it takes and it’s not for the faint of heart.

They call it rock band summer camp, and it is. It’s day after day of heat and sweat and drugs and sex and music, so much fucking music. But the showers are scarce and sleeping in a van with five guys, driving through the night to reach the next stop, it wears on you.

But it’s all about the kids. They come in droves, self-professed outcasts in girls’ skinny jeans, hair Manic Panic-ed and razored past the point of recognition, the uniform of kids without a cause. They gather like the Island of Misfit Toys for a chance at community, to throw themselves into a world they recognize, a world they’ve created for themselves. It reflects them, it accepts them, it inspires them, and Warped Tour is where it truly comes alive.

The kids wait for hours in the heat, withstand insane conditions to see their favorite bands. They go hard, they leave it all out on the fields, in the amphitheaters, screaming their lungs out as thanks for giving them somewhere to belong. It’s a chorus of angst and otherness and, somehow, hope. It’s Valentina’s favorite song. And she misses it.

Raf dropped the hint two weeks ago that there might be a chance at return for Val. Things are different now – Streets of Gold is starting and finishing the 2007 Vans Warped Tour on the main Lucky Stage, a far cry from their humble beginnings playing to a handful or a dozen curious onlookers from Hot Topic Kevin Says. They have a bus now with a shower and actual air conditioning and, holy shit, they have actual bunks.

And their merch guy Jamie, Raf told her casually, has to step away from the tour due to a family financial situation. Can’t be avoided. They’re checking their network for replacements, but, if they can’t find someone in time, could he beg her to come along? One last summer on the Warped Tour before she leaves for the UK in the fall?

Val played it cool – “I’m exhausted,” she reminded him, “After everything this year…” (And she doesn’t need to elaborate, because he knows all too well) “And I just graduated…”

But the truth is, Val found herself wondering about it. She hasn’t been on tour in three full years. She’s gotten her fixes visiting their shows, bobbing her head from side stage singing the words she still writes for the band with her brother, but it’s not the same. It’ll never be the same.

After only a few days, Val wasn’t just wondering – she was hoping. She had it wrapped around her heart now, this idea of returning to something that always brought her hope and comfort when she needed it. And like she told Raf, after the year she’s had…

She got the call four days before the first stop in Pomona. Raf needed her. She’d better start packing.

She couldn’t wait for the summer at the Warped Tour, she remembers the first time that she saw him there.

“Oh, thank fucking Christ!”

Shawn rolls his eyes and throws the lurching white van into park. It scuttles to a stop.

“Shut the fuck up, dude,” Shawn mumbles, wrenching his rusty door open and stepping out onto the grass to survey the area.

Francis’s head pops up over the roof of the van wearing a disapproving glare.

“All in favor of banning Shawn from driving for the rest of the tour, say aye!” Francis crows.

A chorus of ayes fall out of the sliding doors of the 15-passenger van as they open and pour smelly 20-somethings out. Shawn sighs and plants his hands on his hips.

“I got us here an hour before we were supposed to be, I deserve credit for that,” he whines, sliding his Ray Bans up into his dark curls.

Francis looks unimpressed. “You nearly killed us all at least four times. You don’t get shit.”

“Maybe this was his strategy,” Bobby offers with an eyebrow lifted conspiratorially, “Maybe he pretends to be a shitty driver so he can get out of driving the van between stops.”

Shawn smirks. “I’ve been a shitty driver since I was 15. That’s a long con.”

“Alright, assholes, time to start unloading,” calls a voice from near the trunk. Shawn groans and licks his lips, flicking at the black enameled ring he got pierced there a couple months ago.

He ambles back to where the truck has pulled up beside their rickety van. Andrew climbs out and runs a hand through his hair. “Shawn, man, you’re fucking impossible to follow. You were doing 85 on the freeway, you know that?”

Shawn opens his mouth to defend himself when the rest of his band starts choking on laughter. He holds up his hands in surrender. “Fine, fuckers. Drive yourselves.”

Shawn turns and looks around at the Pomona Fairgrounds. He’s never seen anything more beautiful in his life. There are stages going up left and right, tents and skate ramps and those inflatable floating human-shaped things that flop around and wave at car dealerships. It’s mania, and he’s so fucking excited about it.

Warped Tour has always been the dream. It’s always been a reality just out of reach. Always a spectator, never the spectated.

He’s been nomadic for the past few years since he first picked up a guitar and started playing old The Starting Line and Jimmy Eat World covers. He’s been in at least eight different bands, all of which showed promise at the start and ended in various states of the decay of teenage boredom. No one wanted to go the distance with him, not until he met Francis, Bobby and Seth through friends of friends of friends. Then suddenly, Warped Tour wasn’t just within reaching distance, it was fucking happening.

Shawn’s a sentimental sap so he’s standing on the hill overlooking the manifestation of his dreams. Seth, the band’s fan-anointed “quiet one,” claps a hand on his shoulder.

“We fuckin’ made it, man,” he reminds Shawn breathlessly. Shawn chokes on an emotional inhale and nods.

They’ve gotten good at load-in now. Everyone has their assigned tasks and Andrew’s a seasoned enough tour manager to be able to wrangle them into efficiency. Or, near efficiency. They’re a little distracted today, overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.

They’re quieter, too. They’ve felt big in their britches for awhile, having been invited out on tour supporting bands like Valencia, My American Heart and All Time Low. But this is a new ballgame. They’re very much little fish in a giant fucking pond, a very intimidating pond.

They stare at the buses of pop-punk legends as they wade past with amps and instruments and risers in hand, feeling like it’s the first day of kindergarten and the eighth graders are all settled in and looking cooler than anyone ever has ever. Shawn actually, embarrassingly enough, nods in reverence at Streets of Gold’s bus. He’s glad none of his band and crew notice and razz him for it.

Being new and not a huge crowd draw, they’re one of the first bands of the day on their designated Smartpunk stage. Shawn doesn’t so much mind playing Smartpunk. It’s a small stage but plenty of amazing bands have gotten started there. He’s just happy to be on the tour. And if they impress and end up drawing in some attention and wind up spending a couple of tour dates on Hurley.com or even, dare he dream it, the Hurley stage, he’ll be a happy kid.

But at 19, with his best friends at his side and their sophomore album release date coming up in only a month, Shawn feels like he’s at the edge of the world looking at the start of something he can’t quite make out yet, but it feels so fucking good.

Val is already sweating her balls off, no surprise there.

She’s had some merch girl experience, naturally, having been with the band since its infancy, a time where everyone wears a lot of hats. But now that Streets is a bona fide Warped Tour Band, a destination, a band people make the trip to see, it’s a new ballgame.

She unloads box after box of shirts, hats, hoodies, wristbands, CDs, booty shorts, whatever else they can hawk at an upcharge. Raf and Naveen eagerly help her and she suspects they’re trying to play nice because they know she didn’t have to come on tour and help them. Val doesn’t want to get used to it – in about a week, they’ll be a lot less eager to haul boxes around and will make themselves scarce.

As she’s setting up the tent above the table, she looks around with a smile.

Returning to Warped feels a little like coming home. It’s a dry, hot, smelly home with sun-scorched grass underfoot and an overabundance of men in women’s jeans but there’s just something about it—

“BABYYYYYY!” cries a voice that belongs to a woman who soon careens straight into Val’s side.

“Oh my fucking god!” Val squeals, throwing her arms around the violet haired cling on. She bounces back and forth as they laugh and babble incoherently.

Finally, she pulls away and Val holds her by the shoulders to look at her.

“Why, Bea Easton, look at you!” Val giggles.

Bea, all four-foot-eleven inches of her, strikes a pose complete with duck face and popped hips in her low-slung Bullhead skinnies. She breaks into a laugh, shaking her head.

“Miss me, Moreno?”

“So much that I’m back on tour with these hooligans again,” Val sighs, angling her head at her bus where her tourmates are arguing over the Xbox.

Bea chuckles. “Thank god. It was getting dull in the scene without you.”

Val shoots her a suspiciously amused glance. Bea makes an exasperated noise, throwing her hands up.

“Well the scene is never fucking dull, that’s kind of the point, but I missed you, kid! You’re not so easily replaced, you know.”

Val scrunches her face and pulls Bea into a proper hug, tucking her face into her freshly-dyed hair and rubbing her back. “Ditto, dude. College was cool but… I couldn’t really resist one last shot at all this.”

Bea stands back and loops her arm around Val’s waist as they observe. After a moment, Bea pinches Val’s side gently.

“Hey, how are you?”

Val’s body tightens instinctively. She knows Bea feels it. Bea only asked a question everyone’s been asking her for months. And Val’s still shit at pretending it doesn’t bug the fuck out of her.

“I’m fine. Really. I went to the doctor recently and he did some tests and confirmed that I’m human and not a big walking china doll.”

Bea’s bleached eyebrows lift as she smirks. “Point taken. Have you started checking out the talent, then?”

Val scoffs. “You and your locker room talk.”

“This is what equality looks like, bitch. But seriously, tell me that’s not half the reason you’re here. A little palette cleanser.”

Val runs her tongue across her lower lip. Bea knows her oh so well.

She elbows Bea gently. “Stop that, I already have a reputation,” she hisses teasingly.

“Mmm, that’s right,” Bea replies, playing along, “The biggest slut in the scene is back on Warped Tour. Better start lining up for a taste.”

Val laughs heartily, shaking her head. “I swear to god, Bea, you—”

She stops dead in her sentence, words have failed her. Her brain fritzes out. She stares straight ahead, exhales in a loud puff. Bea notices and turns to look at what, or who, Val has spotted.

He’s tall. That’s probably the first thing anybody ever notices about him. He’s really fucking tall. He’s also not as scrawny as the rest of the twiggy white boys that populate the scene these days. He’s built – broad in the shoulders and the thighs. He’s wearing the uniform black skinnies, though, so he’s probably a band member rather than a volunteer. And he’s got the presence, somehow, of a frontman. Maybe it’s because Val’s pretty well versed in scene guys, but she can just tell he’s a lead singer.

His dark curls are tucked under a backwards Blue Jays hat and his eyes are unreadable under black Wayfarers. His facial structure is sinfully architected, marred only by the black lip ring that’s pierced through his full lower lip.

His hands are tucked in the pockets of his impossibly tight jeans as he cruises easily on a skateboard through hordes of bands and crew prepping for the day. He seems unbothered by the hard work going on around him, content to observe and take it all in. It gives him an ethereal sort of glow, that he’s untouched by reality.

Val swallows like a fucking cartoon character and watches his mighty leg strike the ground, black leather high top Chucks kicking up a cloud of fairground dust as he propels himself past the tent without a glance. She feels like a ninth grader who’s caught her first glance at the senior quarterback. She sniffs. It’s been a while since she’s felt like that at all.

Bea elbows her again. “Holy damn.”

“Say it again, sister,” Val chuckles, watching the back pockets of his jeans stretch over his very fine ass as he launches himself down the sidewalk, weaving and bobbing through the crowd.

“HOLY DAMN!” Bea crows, throwing an arm around Val’s shoulders and shaking her. Val sniggers and peels her eyes away, nibbling on her pillowy lower lip.

“I’ll do some recon, find out who he is,” Bea offers, smirking. Val isn’t about to turn that down. Bea’s the most well-connected merch girl on the tour, being as seasoned as she is, having toured with New Found Glory since ’97. She nods her thanks and waves goodbye as Bea rushes off to check on the status of her own merch tent.

Val turns back to her table, fumbling through price tags and pushpins. Her mind is elsewhere. Specifically, it’s somewhere in the back pocket of that skateboarding guy. She can smell trouble on him from here.

She doesn’t mind. She could use a little trouble.

Boys, raise your glasses/Girls, shake those, go, go, go/We're the party, you're the people/Let's make this night a classic

Taglist: I literally don’t know who my taglist is anymore so lmk if you want to be added but for now here @smallerinfinities @the-claire-bitch-project @stillinskislydia @achinglyshawn @infiniteshawn @alone-in-madness @alone-in-madness @singanddreamanyway @accioalena

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes fan fic #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes fan fiction #shawn mendes au #shawn mendes fic #shawn peter raul mendes #punk!shawn #warped tour

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omegaplus · 7 years ago

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# 2,346

Rosie’s Vintage shopping list, 2018.

Two more stops to go before the music shopping spree is history. Whatever locations are on the list seems to be further away each time. Today’s theme is the record annex which is picking up on Long Island. It started a year-and-a-half ago when Hideaway Vinyl set shop in Rosie’s Vintage in Huntington. Looks like they have an online presence still despite nothing being updated in a few months, so why not take the trip to see what it’s all about?

It’s been quite a while since being in Huntington. I do have some personal history there. My ex- Yenny brought me over to work there (our second job working together) for several years and it’s where she used to live. And let’s try to forget a dreaded miserable summer post-rain day out with former friend and staffer Molina, who took me through a cemetery, burger place, and an isolated park in an attempt to get close to me. No dice.

I walk in to Rosie’s and it’s bonafide vintage. Looks like the owners took over a small Fifties-style house in white-bread suburbia. Walk in and you’ll certainly feel the loud creaking of the all-wood floors. Its’ living room, dens, bedrooms, and many closets are filled with tons of kitsch, knick-knacks, and collectibles from the mid-century. Street signs, old threads, compasses, jewelry, board games, wardrobes, dolls, salt-shakers...I can go on. There’s many stories and tales to be told by each and every object that survived its’ era; all neatly organized, piled, and sorted. As an added touch, there’s the classics played on the overheads. Collections were posted on its page and testimonials from its customers recall their purchases: old vials and medicine jars, pill and spice tins, matchbook collections, sports pennants, dishes, and the occasional naughty glassware. I can still go on if you want me to.

The guy behind the register greets me and asks what he could do for me. I’m here for Hideaway Vinyl, I say. He tells me that they left shop a few months ago. Could’ve fooled me. They no longer exist. They’re still present online on social media but it all made sense why the lack of updates. Had Hideaway stayed, there’d be a presence of punk, hardcore, surf, ska, and rockabilly. He did show me where all the vinyl is now deposited by Vinyl Paradise. Remember them? There were twelve shelves top and bottom of pre-owned vinyl, four of the same across from those bins of newly-pressed and Record Store Day releases.

Of the first twelve were plenty of rock, pop, dance, and 12″ dee-jay singles most for $10.00 and less with the occasional new hardcore pressing. I found a lot of 12″ hip-hop and dance singles; Nice & Wild and Harold Faltermeyer were two hits New York’s Z100 played growing up during my single-digit Eighties youth. Everything else in Shabba Ranks, Mad Skillz, Boogiemonsters, and Blahzay Blahzay were all summer hits going to Brentwood. WBLS, Hot 97, and Kiss FM played them all. As always, there’s the pop-rock quotient from Genesis and Dire Straits. Hello, nice to meet you again. Also relieved to find was the complete Malcomb McLaren & The World Famous Supreme Team’s “Buffalo Gals” in a die-cut label sleeve.

In comes Thea, co-owner of Rosie’s Vintage in her rockabilly / Rosie The Riveter motif. She says hello and sees the stack in my hand. She offers to put it aside for me which I obliged. I kindly ask if there would be more vinyl and does tell me there might be some upstairs. That’s where I’m going. Heading up is possibly one of the steepest set of steps I experienced walking. I also had to dodge a heavy-set punk couple decked with gauges, tattoos, low-cut tank tops and tees coming from downstairs. I walk up and there’s a closet with a secret crate of records on the floor containing The Talking Heads’ 77 for $20.00 and its’ sister Tom Tom Club’s Close To The Bone for $15.00. Shucks. I scour the upstairs to find many more antiques. Compasses, typewriters, old magazines, books, brochures in one room with very little traces of 7″ records in one crate. The kitchen was full of dishes, glasses, and silverware stacked in the sink and on its’ counter but no records to be found.

Thea rings me up and I’m golden. This became the shortest time spent in any store with the smallest stack and the least amount of money paid. 45 minutes to look through 16 bins of records for a total of $29.00 and I say good-bye to Rosie’s Vintage and Huntington until next time. Only two more stores are on the list to go before calling it quits on record-shopping for a while: Sunday Records in Riverhead and Innersleeve Records in Amagansett.

Genesis Abacab

Nice & Wild “Diamond Girl” 12″

Shabba Ranks “Mr. Loverman” 12″

Dire Straits self-titled

Mad Skillz “Nod Factor” 12“

Boogiemonsters “Recognized Thresholds Of Negative Stress 12″

Blahzay Blahzay “Danger!” 12″

Harold Faltermeyer “Axel F” 12“

Spyro Gyra self-titled

Malcomb McLaren & The World Famous Supreme Team “Buffalo Gals” 12″

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chaos-and-recover · 7 years ago

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ALL OF THE ASKS 🖤

EVERY TIME.

Alright let’s do this.

1: Favorite band?

AFI and/or July Talk

2: Favorite song?

Of all time? I think I realized recently that it is in fact Falling Slowly. The fact that I have like 7 different versions in my music library was a solid clue that I fucking love it.

3: What’s a band/artist you loved as a child but can barely listen to now?

My brother and I loved Kris Kross when we were little. That’s some cheeseball rap right there. Also when I was 12 I was super into Prodigy. But then, Firestarter is still a good fucking song.

4: Did you ever see a band/artist live?

Yes? A lot? Many times?

5: Are you going to any gigs soon?

I was supposed to go to Chicago next weekend to see my boys the Plain White T’s but they cancelled the show and I’m bummed.

I’m seeing Jimmy Eat World on December 5th and I’m stoked about it.

I’m also seeing July Talk three nights in a row on the 20th, 21st and 22nd because I have no self control and I love them.

6: Ever been to a festival?

Yes, several. I used to love them and now I’m too old for that shit and there’s too many of them and the bands are spread too thin and no one festival has enough bands I like to justify it lol.

8: A song with a number in the title?

Green Day - 21 Guns

9: A song that gets you through shit?

AFI - Narrative of Soul Against Soul

10: A good song for long bus rides?

Anberlin - Autobahn

11: A song you’d have sex to?

Take That - Pretty Things (I mean it’s kinda weird but uh I’m into it)

12: A song to shut everything out?

36 Crazyfists - Slit Wrist Theory (like 90% sure this song almost got me sent to therapy given how many times my 17 year old self blasted it)

13: A song for when you’re lonely?

The entire “Cities” album by Anberlin is my security blanket. I’ll saw The Unwinding Cable Car though.

14: A song that’s become a joke between you and your friends?

Jack’s Mannequin - Dark Blue ( @sinceubeenjon knows why)

15: A song to jam out to at 4AM?

The Used - The Taste Of Ink. Because it literally references 4:00 in the morning lol

16: An album you could listen to for days on end?

I’m pretty sure I did listen to Decemberunderground by AFI for days on end in 2006. And like… constantly ever since.

17: A song that punches you in the gut every single time?

Anberlin - Atonement. Fuuuuuuuck me :)

18: A song for when you’re crazy angry?

I wanna saw Slit Wrist Theory again but I’m also trying not to repeat songs so uhhhh The Used - Box Full Of Sharp Objects. I have a lot of angst apparently.

19: If you had to pick one song to represent what you’re feeling right now, what would it be?

It’s not actually Christmas but it is a holiday in the US and I have a cold so “It’s Christmas And I’m Sick” by MxPx. Honestly, I have nothing else. I have no feelings right now lol.

20: A song that calms you down?

The Used - Bllue & Yellow

21: A song that makes you feel alive?

Anberlin - Dismantle.Repair

22: A band with an insane fandom?

Are Twenty One Pilots fans still bonkers? That’s one. Or a certain segment of 1D fandom. You know the one (the Larries. Jesus christ people.)

23: What are some lyrics you love to pieces?

There are so many. Here are some of my favourites:

“It’s not about the money we makeIt’s about the passions that we ache forWhat makes your heart beat fasterTell me now what does your body long after?”-Time & Confusion by Anberlin

“And as the days go onThe love, the lust, the buzz that wasReduced to dust, could be becauseIt never was something moreThan just a void filling feeling”-FL,GA by The Rocket Summer

“I saw you every time I closed my eyesIn the Hughes film I had scored, produced and starred in in my mindI could recite you, well I’d written every lineBut you strayed far from the flawless script on which I’d spent a lifetime”-Veronica Sawyer Smokes by AFI

“I tried, but it rang and rang, I called all nightFrom a payphone, remember those? From another lifeIf everything I meant to youYou can’t lick and seal then fold in twoThen I’ve been so blind.”-Dizzy by Jimmy Eat World

“Let it out, let me in, take a hold of my handThere’s nothing like another soul that’s been cut up the sameAnd did you wanna drive without a word in between?I can understand, you need a minute to breatheAnd to sew up the seams after all this defeat.”-Handwritten by The Gaslight Anthem

I’m gonna stop there.

24: Would you ever get any song lyrics tattooed? If so which ones?

I have some! I have “Just point to the light that casts out the dark” from White Fireworks by The Rocket Summer in Bryce Avary’s handwriting and I’m pretty damn pleased with it. I’d probably get more. He also wrote “Be reckless, be bright” for me from The Rescuing Type that I wanna get done.

25: What’s a band/artist you’d addict your children to from an early age?

Kids? Gross. I’m gonna try to get my niece into some good shit. When is an appropriate age to get her into AFI?

26: A vocalist you love?

I’m perfectly neutral and rational about Davey Havok, tbh, I’ve never been extra about him a day in my life.

I also love me some Adam Lambert and have very strong opinions about him fronting Queen (they are all variations of “he’s great at it fight me.)

27: Has a band/artist ever inspired you to do something?

Yes, usually dumb shit, like travel across a country/continent/ocean to see them.

28: A band/artist you love but no longer exists?

MOTHERFUCKING ANBERLIN.

29: What was your favorite band/artist when you were 12?

The Backstreet Boys, lol.

30: A band/artist you can’t stand?

Twenty One goddamn Pilots. Also ask me how I feel about Metric some time. (I FUCKIN HATE METRIC.)

31: What’s your favorite genre?

I honestly don’t have one. The music I like is all over the goddamn map.

32: Can you play any instruments?

I played percussion for 6 years in school and was self-taught on bass, though I haven’t pulled mine out in literal years. (One day I’m gonna get it out again and learn Pink Eyes by AFI. It’s gonna happen.)

33: Do you sing?

Hahahahahahhahahaa not so anyone can hear me.

34: If you could be a member of any band for one show, who would it be?

I would Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory because I still maintain that he only has to sing like half of every song and the crowd does the rest.

35: Do you have a favorite piece of merch?

My current favourite merch item in the world is my 36 Crazyfists hoodie. It’s so soft, so warm, so comfy. My Anberlin carabiner has served me very well over the years too.

36: What’s the first album you ever bought with your own money?

I always tell people it was the first BSB album but it was actually a Raptors promo CD released ahead of their first season in the NBA. BSB just sounds more like it’s a real thing that existed.

37: Do you prefer buying physical copies of albums or do you download them on the internet?

Physical. Digital versions just… I don’t connect with them as well? I don’t know, I don’t feel like I really own them if I can’t touch ‘em.

38: CDs or vinyls?

Vinyl. Also, not to be a pedant, but the plural of vinyl is vinyl.

39: Do you play your music out loud or with headphones?

Headphones. Used to be out loud all the time back in the days of desktop computers when I’d be alone in a room on the computer and could do that without annoying everyone lol.

40: A band/artist a friend showed you?

I guess I can blame Raven for how much I love Eric Church, does that count?

41: A song that gives you the chills?

Anberlin - The Unwinding Cable Car, but like, a very specific recording of it. This one, in fact, starting at 3:08 when Stephen is singing the bridge and the crowd comes in with “this is the correlation between salvation and love” part completely unprompted and it builds up until he’s holding “heart” and we’re holding “dark” and it’s fucking magical and you know what’s not captured on the audio recording? The look on Christian’s goddamn face when that happened. That was a hell of a show.

42: A song to play at your funeral?

I mean, you could go ahead and play that version of Cable Car linked in the last answer because it’s probably what killed me anyway, but if you wanna be more cliche just bust out Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World.

43: A band/artist with amazing an instrumental but really bad lyrics?

I listened to BedLIGHT for BlueEYES for the first time in a few years the other day so um. Them. The lyrics have not held up super well but my GOD they’re catchy. (Although “But I guess I shouldn’t hat you you, in fact I oughtta thank you for helping me write this song / If this album tops the Billboard I think I’ll save the quarter to call you and let you know” from Too Late still fucking kills though.)

44: A love song?

Any love song? 200,000 by my sweet baby boy The Rocket Summer, it’s the cutest fucking song in the world.

45: A song you love to sing to yourself?

I don’t sing to myself, that’s embarrassing (it’s probably like, Raise Your Glass by Pink or something, though)

46: What do you listen to when you go for a run?

When I did run more often it was to movie soundtracks. 127 Hours had some really good running tunes. Also there’s a song on the Inception soundtrack that was perfect for a good sprint.

47: A song that represents a deserted city at night?

The Taste of Ink by The Used kinda gives me that feeling, I guess.

48: A wild song?

Wild? How about Wild by AFI, is that good enough lol.

49: An upbeat song with grim lyrics?

Motion City Soundtrack - Everything Is Alright.

50: What are some song titles you love?

Okay so I can’t really think of any but it took me until entirely too recently to realize that “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off” and “But It’s Better If You Do” by Panic! At The Disco fucking… they go together. They’re supposed to be read together. Years that took me. That album was my second most-played in iTunes and I didn’t… figure that out. I’m dumb as hell.

51: If your life ended today, what song would you chose to represent it?

One song, to represent my entire life? Hell if I know. Probably like, Tonight by NKOTB though, let’s be honest.

52: Can you give me a 5 song playlist on ___?

ON WHAT I NEED A TOPIC.

53: Do you listen to instrumental music?

Sometimes, sure.

54: Weirdest band/artist you know of?

Foxy Shazam were weird as hell. We put their album on at work years ago because the sticker… I can’t remember what the sticker compared them to now but it was a mix of bands that made us say “that can’t POSSIBLY be right” and then it was? (one of them was Queen, I remember that). They were fucking weirdos and I miss them TERRIBLY.

55: A song about drugs?

You know who I haven’t mentioned in this yet? Lucky Boys Confusion. They have a lot of songs about drugs. 40/80 comes to mind. What a jam. What a band.

56: A heart-wrenching song?

This might seem like an odd choice but 11.24.11 by 36 Crazyfists. It goes hard as hell but then “don’t plan to live forever but I wanted her to,” and it’s about his mother, it just fucking wrecks me.

57: A band/artist you’re proud of?

July Talk. They deserve to be bigger but they’re doing so well and I’m so proud of them and if they were any bigger I would absolutely be insufferable about it.

58: A band/artist who’s music could bring you back from the dead?

If I had been dead for like five years but you told me Lucky Boys Confusion were going on tour I would be up and at every single show in a snap, I want to see them again SO BADLY.

59: A band/artist with a sick aesthetic?

Listen, I fucking love July Talk’s black/white, light/dark, sweet/rough contrasting aesthetic. It is everything. It is so well-executed. Talk to me about the first album and how well they played into it. I love them. I love everything they choose to be. I FUCKING LOVE JULY TALK.

60: A song that has a lot of meaning to you?

Plain White T’s - Radios In Heaven is a bit of a thing for me.

#nikkihorrorxx #ALL THE ASKS #who's gonna read this nikki #this is so long #long post

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Eight ways wine will change in 2020 - more lifestyle

What a decade this has been for wine—both good and bad.The 2010s saw the rise of serious global concern (at last!) about the effect of climate change on wine. That will continue big time, especially with 2019’s scorching heat waves in France and catastrophic fires in Sonoma, Calif., and South Australia.The rosé juggernaut of the past decade continues, as luxury players move in to Provence. LVMH acquired two rosé producers last year, including a majority share of Château d’Esclans, maker of ubiquitous Whispering Angel. Chanel, owner of three Bordeaux châteaux, snapped up Domaine de l’Ile.Natural wine captured the zeitgeist of the decade, which ended with trade wars slamming wine in the form of U.S. tariffs on French, German, and Spanish reds and whites, with the uncertainty of more to come in 2020. Brexit is still a problem, and wine caves, once a major tourism attraction in Napa, Calif., turned into political footballs. (Tip for cave owners: Don’t turn on the chandelier.)Hard seltzer also captured hearts, minds, and tongues this past year, with sales surging 210% in the U.S. To my dismay, they’re poised to triple by 2023, according to the drinks market analysts at IWSR. Why not make wine spritzers?On the plus side, fizz continues to effervesce, even though the French are drinking much less Champagne. To supply ever-increasing global demand (and at lower prices), Brazil, California, New Zealand, Oregon, and Tasmania are producing better sparklers than ever.At least, unlike the roaring ’20s of a century ago, 2020 won’t begin with Prohibition.Here’s what else I see in my crystal glass for 2020:- Global warming will ramp up wine experiments everywhereYou’ll see the bottled results of dozens of experiments, and more will be started. Sparkling wine from Nova Scotia? Definitely. Historic and new hybrid grapes that can cope with heat better? Spain’s Torres winery is on it; ditto Bordeaux, Champagne, and Napa. Fresher, brighter whites from high-altitude vineyards? Look to Chile and Argentina, including even the cold extremities of Patagonia.- Unfussy piquette will become a thingCasual, low-cost, and low-alcohol drinks that offer gluggable simplicity are having a moment, and they’ll be even more important in 2020.The fashion for pét-nats (pétillant naturel wines) and even hard seltzer (ugh!) are part of this trend. The latest addition is piquette, a worker’s drink popular centuries ago. Not technically a wine, it’s made by fermenting pomace—the leftover skins, seeds, and stems of grapes—to create a drink that’s 4% to 9% in alcohol with light bubbles to perk it up. It’s zippy and refreshing, akin to a sour beer. Wild Arc Farm in the Hudson Valley released four in 2019, including one in cans.- You’ll learn about wine in spaceThe past decade has seen wineries experiment with aging their wines under the sea. For 2020 and beyond, they’ll look to space.This past November, Luxembourg-based Space Cargo Unlimited started a project that sent bottles of red wine to the International Space Station to be aged for 12 months. The idea is to investigate how exposure to more radiation and microgravity affect the evolution of a wine’s components. When the wine returns, the University of Bordeaux will analyze it and compare it with wines aged on Earth.- The no- and low-alcohol movement will gain a foothold The health and wellness craze will affect wine beyond the idea of “Dry January.” Cutting back on how much you imbibe will be one of the biggest drinks trends of 2020, according to London-based retailer Bibendum. Alcohol-free Real Kombucha, introduced in 2017, is now available at more than 50 Michelin-starred restaurants and touted as an alternative to sauvignon blanc.Expect a boost of interest in organic and biodynamic wines—“health-focused” wine club Dry Farm Wines claims its offerings are all-natural and lab-tested for purity—as well as those naturally low in alcohol, such as riesling, lightly fizzy Spanish txakoli, and slightly sweet Italian moscato d’Asti. All are far more delicious and just as healthy as wines from “clean wine” companies such as FitVine. - You’ll buy luxury wines from vending machinesInsert token, receive a small bottle of Moët & Chandon brut or rosé. What could be simpler? Nabbing a bottle at a test machine in the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla., was cheaper, more convenient, and more fun than waiting for room service. New York got its first machine in October, and in 2020 Moët plans to spread 100 of them across the U.S. (You can even buy your own—$35,000 at Neiman Marcus—but stocking it with 360 mini-bottles costs extra.)The machines reflect the growing demand for instant access, even for luxury wines. Expect other wine companies to jump on this bandwagon. But because of France’s alcohol laws, don’t look for one in Paris.- Enotourism will get biggerFor starters, a €100 million ($112 million) World of Wine project is opening in 2020 across the Douro River from the city of Porto. The Fladgate Partnership, owner of several top port houses, is transforming 300-year-old warehouses into a series of wine experiences including a wine school and cork museum.In France, Champagne Bollinger is opening its doors to the public via membership in its special Club 1829, Château Lafite Rothschild will open a new hospitality center and wine school at Château Duhart-Milon in time for harvest, and Burgundy breaks ground this month on its own Cité des Vins.But the most interesting new wine travel development is the global DIY winemaking timeshare the Vines Global. Membership will let aspiring vineyard owners test their mettle making wine in a dozen regions with top winemakers. It started in Tuscany’s Montalcino last September; next year it will add Priorat, Spain, and two other places, with more to come.Just want to see vineyards? The World’s Best Vineyards, a new annual ranking of the 50 most amazing ones to visit, will help you know where to go.- Wine packaging will surprise youNo longer a fad, canned wines are expected to reach sales of $4.6 billion by 2024. Now that canning has been normalized, and higher-quality wines skip the traditional glass bottle, keep a lookout for ever more innovative packaging: refillable, reusable jugs and flat bottles made from recycled plastic, as well as green-friendly components such as zero-carbon corks.As for the staid wine label, more than 500 wineries across the globe are turning to augmented reality to bring labels to life through apps. And in Washington state, Chateau Ste. Michelle’s new Elicit Wine Project will act as an innovation hub for brands to take an info-rich, creative look at names, labels, and bottle design; for instance, its Fruit & Flower brand comes in both cans and bottles with themed label images to mirror the flavors of the wine inside.- Wine shops will become less conventionalU.K. department store John Lewis has added bookable wine master classes. Stranger Wines in Brooklyn, N.Y., plays vintage vinyl records and is expanding to snacks, and Manhattan’s just-opened Peoples is a wine bar that doubles as a retail wine shop, even if they have to have separate entrances because of liquor laws.Nielsen predicts AR and virtual reality technology will transform wine shops with navigation apps and electronic shelf beacons. The future will surely bring artificial intelligence-powered robot assistants. At the same time, buying online via phone apps will soar, again helped along by new technology.But as the year progresses, I still have plenty of questions. Will wine lovers continue to lust after the wines LeBron James posts on Instagram? Will interactive wine lists on tablets take over in Michelin-starred restaurants? Will South Africa be the value region of the year? I’ll be watching and reporting on these stories and many more in 2020.(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.)Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Read the full article

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cloudydamage3 · 5 years ago

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SHADES OF BLACK: DER ROTE MILAN, NUSQUAMA, ONDFØDT, BLUE HUMMINGBIRD ON THE LEFT, OMEGAVORTEX

I wasn’t able to write a SHADES OF BLACK column for last Sunday due to feeling like hell. I felt somewhat better than hell yesterday, and decided to pull this together now rather than wait until next Sunday. I have more new music from the black realms that I’d like to recommend, and will try to fold them into a different kind of round-up later this week. What you’ll find below are songs from four albums slated for release early next year and a mid-2018 promo EP that I’ve just discovered.

DER ROTE MILAN

Der Rote Milan‘s 2016 debut album Aus der Asche was an intense blending of grim ferocity and melancholy beauty, a powerfully affecting sequence of songs that makes their new album also worth close attention. Entitled Moritat, it will be released by Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork on February 1st.

The new album, we’re told, narrates local stories (in German lyrics) based on real events that transpired during The Thirty Years’ War fought primarily in Central Europe during the 17th century:

“A central character is the historical figure Schinderhannes, an outlaw considered by some to be the German Robin Hood. These stories, which take place in the southwestern Germany’s Hunsrück region, are connected to the present through themes of freedom, fear, and fighting oneself in the face of death”.

“Die Habsucht” is the new album’s opening track. Slow crystalline notes and shimmering ambient sound lull the listener into a moody yet blissful reverie at first, but the band rudely terminate the dream with a typhoon of pummeling percussion, frenzied/jolting riffing, and caustic shrieks. Filaments of melody gleam through that violent surge before it subsides, replaced for a time with beautiful strings that emerge over a heavy bass-and-drum rhythm, reintroducing that early feeling of dreamlike wistfulness… before the music boils again.

Moritat will be released in digipack-CD and red vinyl editions.

PRE-ORDER: https://unholyconspiracydeathwork.bigcartel.com/category/der-rote-milan https://derrotemilan.bandcamp.com/album/moritat

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/derrotemilan

NUSQUAMA

Nusquama is a new collaboration among members of Laster, Fluisteraars, and Turia. If you know the music of any of those Dutch black metal bands, you’ll know that whatever they’re doing together in Nusquama will be well worth hearing. And what they’ve done is to record a six-track album named Horizon Ontheemt, which they’ll perform in its entirety at the next edition of the Roadburn festival. To quote from the press release we received:

“There’s a melancholic – sometimes almost resigned – feeling ebbing and flowing throughout the songs, befitting of the story behind the NUSQUAMA name. The word is Latin for ‘nowhere,’ but, more importantly, it was the word used by Thomas More to describe both the necessity of a hopeful alternative, as well as its impossibility. The story goes that it was how he referred to what would become of Utopia”.

Nusquama, I’ve since discovered, was the working title of More’s most famous book all the way up to publication, when its title became Utopia — Greek for “no place”, which also resonates in the distinction Plato drew in The Republic between the city of his birth and that other city “whose home is in words, for I think it can be found nowhere on earth”.

What I’ve heard from the album so far is the track below, “Vuurslag“. Hard-hitting drumwork and warm, vibrant bass notes provide a compelling undercurrent for a wash of scintillating guitar vibrations, whose melody indeed has an unearthly quality, with a beguiling brightness that contrasts with the fireball of pain that emerges in the vocals. The soft guitar notes that echo across an interlude in the song make the music even more mesmerizing, and there is a sense of grandeur that comes through, in which melancholy and wonder seem equally present, when the main line of the song resumes.

Horizon Ontheemt was mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studio. It will be released by Eisenwald (CD and LP) on March 22nd, with a cassette tape edition coming from Haeresis Noviomagi. Pre-orders will be launched in January.

(Thanks to Miloš for alerting me to this track.)

BANDCAMP: https://nusquama.bandcamp.com/track/vuurslag-2

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/NusquamaOfficiel/

ONDFØDT

The Finnish black metal band Ondfødt released their debut album, Hexkonst, in 2014. Their new one, Dödsrikets Kallelse, will be released on January 25th by Immortal Frost Productions.

“Den Sanna“, the first song to be revealed from the album, gets the pulse pounding from the very beginning. There’s a heavy pounding and bounding undercurrent in the song that you can feel in your spine, and a whirling, dervish-like quality in the riffing, along with a soul-spearing gloriousness in the vibrating lead that soon surfaces. With further intensity added by the wild savagery of the vocals, the song overpowers the senses with a feeling of unbridled freedom, though it’s lined near the end with a sense of ominous peril.

This is the kind of track that seems to end too soon, picking you up and sending you aloft and then suddenly leaving you up in the air, and falling. Fortunately, it’s very easy to just play it again (and again).

(Thanks once again to Miloš for recommending this track.)

BANDCAMP: https://digital.immortalfrostproductions.com/album/d-dsrikets-kallelse

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Ondfodt666/

BLUE HUMMINGBIRD ON THE LEFT

Occasional NCS contributor Conchobar wrote me about this next track by Blue Hummingbird on the Left, whose members are within Southern California’s respected Black Twilight Circle. Their name is a translation of the name of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli, and as Conchobar wrote to me, the track below — “Hail Huitzilopochtli” — is “as ferocious as its namesake”.

The song comes from the band’s debut album, Atl Tlachinolli, which will be released on February 8th by Iron Bonehead Productions, Nuclear War Now! Productions, and Crepúsculo Negro. It strikes fast and hard, the battering-ram drum rhythms laying into your skull as the fiery guitar work sets the air boiling in your lungs and the cacophonous, reverberating vocal tirades put fear in your heart. It’s an electrifying and utterly warlike experience, segmented by massive, neck-bending grooves and with an atmosphere that does begin to seem mythic.

BANDCAMP: https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/atl-tlachinolli

OMEGAVORTEX

Omegavortex is a new name for the German black/death metal band formerly known as Ambevilence, and based on the promo EP you’ll find below, it’s a well-chosen name.

The four tracks on the EP are raw mixes of new material that will be included on the band’s debut album, on which work is still progressing, and these four are absolutely ferocious. These may be raw mixes, but the sound is extremely powerful, and the thrashing energy that rushes through the music is almost breathtaking. The drumming is fury incarnate; the riffs are a blood-boiling, mind-warping representation of chaos and lunacy; the soloing is hot enough to melt lead; the scalding vocals are terrifyingly bestial.

The technical capabilities of the performers are especially impressive when the band are moving at lunatic speed, but the songs deliver more than speed and savagery. There are potent, head-moving hooks within these songs as well as brute-force, heavy-weight rhythms and flurries of strange and sorcerous melody that give the music a distinctly occult air, and the band do switch things up enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The EP is an evil, four-track thrill-ride that will kick the adrenaline in your bloodstream to the max and put shivers down your spine. Can’t wait to hear the debut album — though I can’t imagine what they can do with these four songs in finished form to make them any stronger.

BANDCAMP: https://omegavortex.bandcamp.com/album/promo-2018

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/OMEGAVORTEXblackdeath

Source: https://www.nocleansinging.com/2018/12/18/shades-of-black-der-rote-milan-nusquama-ondfodt-blue-hummingbird-on-the-left-omegavortex/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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sdpoolrepair1-blog · 5 years ago

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Pool Maintenance Tips Archives – Arizona Mirage

Pool Tips And Advice - Pool Repair And Maintenance ...

Only correct swimsuits must be worn in the swimming pool. Street clothing can bring chemicals, fibers and other impurities into the water. Also, the swimming pool chemicals can damage your street clothing. So keep them out! Swimsuits need to be washed by hand in mild cleaning agent and hung or laid flat to dry after EACH TIME they're used.

You have actually got your safety glasses. You've got your foam noodles. And of course, you've got a large, fantastic swimming pool. You're all set to enjoy swimming in your home for many years to come, right? The response depends upon your technique to swimming pool upkeep. Much like a vehicle, a computer, or a secret burrow concealed inside an undersea volcano, your swimming pool needs routine maintenance.

When you understand how your swimming pool works, the very best methods to take care of it, and how to prepare for it, you'll be all set to resolve practically any potential swimming pool problem that floats your way. pool repair bario logan. Before you can correctly take pleasure in or care for your pool, you may require to review all the parts of your pool.

However understanding the fundamental parts of your swimming pool, and their functions, helps you keep everything running smoothlyand makes it easier to deal with problems when they happen. Like the majority of significant house improvements, you can get as elegant as you like with your swimming pool. You can include advanced heating and lighting, install modern swimming pool covers, and even enjoy music while you swim with underwater pool speakers.

Swimming Pool Maintenance Tips - Premier Pools & Spas ...

Keeping it clean, clear, and balanced safeguards you and your household from impurities and toxins. It also assists you avoid pricey hardware repair work due to corrosion or mineral build-up, and helps your whole swimming pool last longer. The walls of your pool liner remain in continuous contact with swimming pool water, and everything that enters it.

The pumping heart of your swimming pool is also its liver. OK, that sounds a little odd. But consider it: your pool pump draws water keeps your water distributing, like your heart does with your blood. Your swimming pool filter clears dirt and other pollutants from your water much like your liver filters last night's cheese fries from your blood.

Without a functioning filter system, your swimming pool will quickly be a cloudy, contaminated, and unswimmable mess. Depending upon your setup, you may have a cartridge filter, a sand filter, a diatomaceous earth (D.E.) filter. Or, if you have a salt water system, a salt water chlorinator (swimming pool repair). If your swimming pool's filter is its liver, then your skimmers and returns are its veins and arteries.

And like your veins and arteries, they work best when they're tidy and clear of obstructions. No two pools are alike, and you'll no doubt encounter swimming pool upkeep challenges specific pool plastering san diego to your swimming pool as time goes on. But if you've got a firm grasp on these 4 pool parts, you'll be well geared up to face down most upkeep difficulties.

Pool Maintenance Tips Every Pool Owner Needs Right Now

Even if you never set foot in a Scout meeting as a kid, you probably understand that stagnant, still water is (to borrow a term from our own youths) grody to the max. In your pool, as in the fantastic outdoors, moving water is cleaner, clearer, and more secure. Correct pool circulation is key to healthy and safe swimming.

Keep your pump and filter system running daily to optimize circulation.How long should you run your swimming pool pump!.?.!? Ideally, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But because that's not practical for everybody's budget or devices, we advise running your filter at least 10 to 12 hours a day.

The other crucial part to excellent swimming pool flow is frequently backwashing your filter. Forget concepts of "floaties" in your beverage. In this case, backwashing refers to reversing the circulation of water through your filter and shunting the filthy water and built-up impurities to the waste port, carrying them out of your pool.

The technique you use to clean and backwash your filter depends on the kind of filter you have, but the underlying concepts are largely the same. If your pool has a sand filter, add a cup of D.E. powder to enhance its filtering power. Cloudy water will clear faster as the D.E.

Hydrostatic Pressure With Inground Pool - Tips To Prevent A ...

If it has appropriate circulation, you have actually already made cleaning your swimming pool much simpler. However you'll still require to apply some excellent old-fashioned elbow grease. The fundamental tools you'll need are: Both Mother Nature and the folks using your pool bring all sorts of wild and wacky things into your pool, from leaves, mold, and the odd duck or frog to residues from shampoos, perfumes, and hair items. pool repair escondido.

Skim, brush, and vacuum your pool weekly, at a minimum. This will keep particles out of your water, and your walls gleaming tidy. Sodium bicarbonate paste works especially well as a standard scouring cleaner that won't damage fragile tile or a vinyl liner when you brush. We eliminated all the confusion of swimming pool upkeep in this easy-to-read illustrated ebook and video course.

It won't eliminate the requirement for routine skimming and brushing, however it'll make both tasks easier, releasing you up to hang around enjoying your swimming pool instead of cleaning it. You can likewise make your cleansing life easier with a few unorthodox additions to your pool. Toss a couple of tennis balls into your skimmer basket, or even right into the pool, and they'll absorb surface area oils left by suntan lotion, cosmetics, etc.

Just change both the tennis balls and the pantyhose when they start to reveal indications of wear. If you have an inground pool, the drains pipes built into the bottom of the deep end will assist pull water into the filter and make it simpler to clear particles loosened up during cleaning.

Swimming Pool Easy Diy Repairs - Fixd Repair

Merely connect your vacuum to your filter system and location it in the middle of your above ground pool, making sure the vacuum is. Turn it on, and it'll act as a primary drain to help you clear cloudy water quicker. You can also clear cloudy pool water quickly with flocculant.

Click here to learn more about using swimming pool floc. Step far from the Bunsen burner. Pool chemistry may sound challenging and complicated, but you don't have to stress. While it is a crucial part of effective pool maintenance and water care, basic swimming pool chemistry is surprisingly straightforward. The most important tool in your bag of water care techniques is your water testing package.

So prior to you reach for the chemicals, do some swimming pool water screening. Comprehending what's in your water, and what isn't, is the primary step to stabilizing it. The 3 essential parts of swimming pool water chemistry are: The procedure of how acidic or standard your swimming pool water is. Low pH levels are acidic, while high levels are fundamental.

Functions as a pH buffer and assists avoid huge spikes in basicity or acidity. The ideal range is. And you can utilize baking soda to increase your pool's alkalinity level. The amount of chlorine, bromine, and so on in your swimming pool water. Appropriate levels differ depending on which kind of sanitizer you pick.

North County Pool Repair

San Diego, Ca

(760) 585-7985

Business Hours

Mon: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Tue: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Wed: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Thu: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Fri: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Sat: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Sun: 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM

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jimblanceusa · 5 years ago

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Easy recipes from Frasca, Colorado’s James Beard nominee for outstanding restaurant

Owners of small food businesses are struggling to find many reasons to be thankful — let alone to celebrate — during the coronavirus shutdown. But Boulder’s Frasca Food and Wine can point to a bright spot already this spring, and there is another coming up this summer.

Earlier this month, Frasca was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant. And in July, Frasca’s first cookbook, “Friuli Food and Wine,” will debut on store bookshelves and via online retailers. The book’s release was postponed from last month.

Co-owner Bobby Stuckey knows that Frasca is fortunate.

“We’re going to reopen all four of our restaurants” (Frasca and Pizzeria Locale in Boulder, and Tavernetta and Sunday Vinyl in Denver), Stuckey told The Denver Post last week. “We are very lucky that we’re going to weather this storm,” he said, during a conversation that centered mostly on Italy, wine and recipes.

“I don’t want to be dramatic,” he said, “but if we don’t get a restaurant stabilization fund, there’s going to be one-third fewer restaurants in the U.S., and they’re not going to get replaced by someone else. It’s just a mere numbers deal.”

The timing of a national award nomination plus a cookbook publication at a time when many other restaurants won’t reopen is bittersweet, to say the least.

RELATED: The near future of Colorado’s restaurants could depend on our biggest asset: the outdoors

When Frasca opened in 2004, Stuckey writes in the book, it took a leap of faith just to move “to the culinary middle-of-nowhere in Colorado to open a restaurant where the food and wine would be inspired by the relative middle-of-nowhere Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.”

The region lies to the northeast of Venice and shares a border with Slovenia and Austria, in addition to Italy. There, the Carnic Alps spill into the Adriatic Sea, and because of this unique location and landscape, the wine is so diverse and compelling, Stuckey says, and the food so surprising and yet still unknown to Americans, that they had to just “go straight into it.”

“I was so nervous because, when you think about it, when we were working on this (business) 17 years ago, there were no micro-regional restaurants out there, really,” he said. “To be, like, fully into Friuli was just wonky.”

Seventeen years later, Friuli is still largely unknown to Americans. “It is so non-touristy, it could go up 100% and you wouldn’t know,” Stuckey says. On a relatively recent visit during the peak summer travel season, he said “the only other Americans we saw were Kelly (Jeun) and Eduardo (Valle Lobo), our chefs now.”

Now, with Jeun and Valle Lobo running the kitchen (they’re currently offering weekly take-home meal kits), Frasca maintains its micro-regional focus. The cookbook features recipes from them as well as co-owner and founding chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, as well as the team’s befriended chefs in Italy and other cooks who have impacted Frasca’s kitchen along the way.

And it reads equal parts food, wine and travel. So its authors hope to transport you during this time — to a restaurant dining room, a less-touristed corner of Italy or, just generally, temporarily out of our current situation.

Here are a few recipes from the new cookbook, courtesy Frasca and Ten Speed Press.

A photo from the Friuli region of Italy, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Recipes:

Why haven’t we always paired wine with eggs?

or Frittata with Mountain Herbs; makes 6 servings

Frittata with Mountain Herbs, from “Friuli Food and Wine,” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

This recipe makes a great simple lunch or afternoon snack in Friuli. It’s so popular, in fact, that you’ll be able to pick up a packaged “frittata herb mix” at most any seller of fresh produce. Restaurants buy it, and you will even see the packets of dried herbs in farmers markets. The formula is simple: two eggs per person, whipped with a fork, and lots of minced fresh herbs.

Ingredients

12 eggs (two per person)

1 tablespoon minced fresh mint

1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon minced fresh chervil

1 tablespoon minced fresh lemon balm

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork until blended. Stir in the mint, parsley, chervil and lemon balm.

In a large, ovenproof nonstick pan over medium heat, warm the butter and olive oil. Pour in the egg-herb mixture and let the bottom set for 30 seconds. Then, with a nonstick spatula, spread the top of the mixture around until most of the egg feels set but the top is still wet, 2 to 3 minutes.

Turn out the frittata onto a plate, then slide it back into the pan, cooked-side up. Finish in the oven until the bottom of the frittata is completely set, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Your weeknight spaghetti wants this facelift — and your kids might thank you

or Spaghetti con Funghi al Cartoccio; makes 4 to 6 servings

Spaghetti con Funghi al Cartoccio, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Imagine a dish that arrives in a little parchment-wrapped package (known as a cartoccio, or cartouche) like a baked gift from the spaghetti gods. You open it up, and with the warm steam comes the scent of olive oil, parsley, white wine and wild mushrooms. Bam! That’s this dish right here. It’s very simple to make and is also a great way to get children to eat fungi.

Ingredients

1 pound dry spaghetti

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound mixed fresh wild mushrooms, such as black trumpets or chanterelles, trimmed

2 small shallots, minced

fine sea salt

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 2 minutes short of the timing for al dente on the package.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large sauté pan over high heat, warm the olive oil and butter. Add the mushrooms and sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes. Push the mushrooms to the side of the pan, turn the heat to medium, add the shallots and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes, seasoning with salt as you go. Stir the mushrooms into the shallots, add the wine and cook until it is almost completely absorbed, about 3 minutes. Pour in the vegetable stock, turn the heat to high, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer until the cooking juices reduce slightly, about 5 minutes.

Drain the undercooked pasta and stir it into the sauce, mix in the parsley, and then stir in the extra-virgin olive oil.

On a work surface, lay out one parchment square per person. Place one portion of pasta onto the center of each square. Moisten the edges of the parchment with water and fold up into a triangle shape, crimping along the edges to make a seal. Gently lift and transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining squares.

Bake until the parchments puff up (from the steam inside), about 5 minutes. Use a large flat spatula to transfer each parcel to a plate. Serve immediately, letting your dinner guests open their own cartoccio!

New Zoom or IRL party trick: Chocolate Salami

Confectioners’ sugar gives it that aged meat look; makes two 7- to 8-inch “salami”

A Chocolate Salami, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

This dish was created by Frasca pastry chef Alberto Hernandez. It also happens to be one of the simplest dishes in the book. It’s a great end-of-meal nibble for a large group, or it could be the surprise hero at your next party. The quality of the chocolate is very important because the salami is all chocolate; look for chocolate wafers made by Callebaut or Valhrona. Make sure your hands are clean before rolling the logs in the powdered sugar, and let the salami come to room temperature before serving.

Note: Amaro Nonino Quintessentia is a digestive herbal liqueur made by the Nonino family in Friuli; they infuse their grappa with a blend of herbs, spices and roots, including gentian, saffron, licorice, rhubarb, sweet and bitter orange, tamarind, quassia bark, chinchona bark and galangal. You’ll find the amaro in all good liquor stores. Sicilian pistachios are smaller and sweeter than the ones that come from Iran, California, or Turkey. They are grown on the foothills of Mount Etna and are also known as Bronte pistachios. They can be purchased online.

Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, left, and Bobby Stuckey, in a photo from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Ingredients

1/4 cup hazelnuts

1/4 cup shelled Sicilian pistachios

1 cup bittersweet chocolate fèves (discs or wafers)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons Amaro Nonino

1/2 cup biscotti crumbs

finely grated zest of 1/2 orange

confectioners’ sugar for coating

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts and pistachios, taking care not to mix them together, on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 8 to 9 minutes. Skin the hazelnuts by putting them between two sheets of paper towel or a clean kitchen towel and rubbing vigorously. Pick out the hazelnuts from the dark flakes (it’s OK if some patches of dark skin remain).

In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water), regularly stir the chocolate until melted, about 2 minutes. Alternatively, microwave the chocolate in short 10- to 15-second bursts, stirring well after every burst, until completely melted. Set the melted chocolate aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed, cream the butter and granulated sugar until combined, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and continue to mix until incorporated. Then add the melted chocolate and amaro and mix well. Stop the mixer and, using a spatula, manually fold in the biscotti crumbs, orange zest, hazelnuts and pistachios.

Lay out two large squares of plastic wrap on a work surface. Divide the chocolate mixture into two equal parts. Place one half of the chocolate mixture in the middle of each square and, using a spatula, spread into an approximation of a log shape, 4 to 5 inches long. Pick up the plastic wrap at either end and use it and your hands to tighten and smooth the log into a nice even shape — the log should be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 7 to 8 inches long. Twist each end, as you would a candy wrapper, to tighten. Repeat with the second half of the chocolate mixture. Transfer both logs to a small plate or tray and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Pour confectioners’ sugar onto a large plate. Unwrap the chocolate logs and roll in the confectioners’ sugar to mimic the white edible mold on an aged salami. Shake off any excess sugar. If you’re feeling fancy, you can also tie up the salami in twine.

The salami will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 1 week. Make sure you let them come to room temperature before slicing and serving.

Subscribe to our food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.

from Latest Information https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/19/frasca-food-and-wine-cookbook-recipes-friuli/

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laurendzim · 5 years ago

Text

Easy recipes from Frasca, Colorado’s James Beard nominee for outstanding restaurant

Co-owner Bobby Stuckey knows that Frasca is fortunate.

The timing of a national award nomination plus a cookbook publication at a time when many other restaurants won’t reopen is bittersweet, to say the least.

RELATED: The near future of Colorado’s restaurants could depend on our biggest asset: the outdoors

Here are a few recipes from the new cookbook, courtesy Frasca and Ten Speed Press.

A photo from the Friuli region of Italy, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Recipes:

Why haven’t we always paired wine with eggs?

or Frittata with Mountain Herbs; makes 6 servings

Frittata with Mountain Herbs, from “Friuli Food and Wine,” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Ingredients

12 eggs (two per person)

1 tablespoon minced fresh mint

1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon minced fresh chervil

1 tablespoon minced fresh lemon balm

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork until blended. Stir in the mint, parsley, chervil and lemon balm.

Turn out the frittata onto a plate, then slide it back into the pan, cooked-side up. Finish in the oven until the bottom of the frittata is completely set, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Your weeknight spaghetti wants this facelift — and your kids might thank you

or Spaghetti con Funghi al Cartoccio; makes 4 to 6 servings

Spaghetti con Funghi al Cartoccio, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Ingredients

1 pound dry spaghetti

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound mixed fresh wild mushrooms, such as black trumpets or chanterelles, trimmed

2 small shallots, minced

fine sea salt

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 2 minutes short of the timing for al dente on the package.

Drain the undercooked pasta and stir it into the sauce, mix in the parsley, and then stir in the extra-virgin olive oil.

New Zoom or IRL party trick: Chocolate Salami

Confectioners’ sugar gives it that aged meat look; makes two 7- to 8-inch “salami”

A Chocolate Salami, from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, left, and Bobby Stuckey, in a photo from “Friuli Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press, July 2020). (William Hereford, provided by Ten Speed Press)

Ingredients

1/4 cup hazelnuts

1/4 cup shelled Sicilian pistachios

1 cup bittersweet chocolate fèves (discs or wafers)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons Amaro Nonino

1/2 cup biscotti crumbs

finely grated zest of 1/2 orange

confectioners’ sugar for coating

Directions

The salami will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 1 week. Make sure you let them come to room temperature before slicing and serving.

Subscribe to our food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.

from News And Updates https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/19/frasca-food-and-wine-cookbook-recipes-friuli/

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wildwaxshows · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

FEVER B (USA) will support MASKED INTRUDER (USA) & THE HAWAIIANS (D) on 20/07 at Molotow, Hamburg - presented by WILDWAX SHOWS!!!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1076872735831765/

Präsentiert von Ox, Livegigs.de, SLAM Magazine und Wild Wax Shows Straight outa Rikers. Straight outa Cook County, straight outa that prison in Louisiana that everyone says is horrible, but I can’t be bothered to Google, it’s MASKED INTRUDER, four melodious felons in ski masks with rap sheets, matching converse and some of the catchiest tunes this side of Johnny Cash, Live in Folsom Prison, and they’re coming at you with their second full length, the semi eponymously titled M.I., scheduled to break out on Fat Wreck Chords on May 27, 2014.! Some say they hail from Wisconsin, some say their accents on stage betray a New Jersey heritage and some people think they’re just Chixdiggit in disguise, but one thing’s for sure, Blue and the gang have been crafting some of the sweetest pop-punk gems about breaking and entering, stalking, and muggings that you’ve ever heard. Not many grown men in ski masks can claim to be the very favorite band of Fat Mike’s daughter, for example (not many men in ski masks should be around children at all) but that’s what makes Masked Intruder so special. They’re more than a gimmick. They’ve got chops. They’re weird, kinda arty, fairly goofy, vaguely dumb, relentlessly smart and they appeal to pretty much everyone, from their fellow hardened criminals to little girls and everyone in between.! Now, they’re back on the lam in support of M.I., featuring thirteen tracks of broken hearts, broken promises and breaking and entering. Recorded by Matt Alison at Atlas Studios in Chicago (Alkaline Trio, Lawrence Arms, Menzingers), M.I. boasts the Intruders at their toe tapping, jewelry stealing best. I mean, if there’s a better title for a love song than Don’t Run Away, I sure as hell haven’t heard it.! In support of M.I., and in order to stay a step ahead of their parole officers, the Intruder duders are hitting the road nonstop, traversing the globe, from Europe to Australia to the US of A, with bands like the Dwarves, Face To Face and more, bringing their heart-stealing songs to the people, all while merch dude, stage security and exquisitely mustached lawman Officer Bradford makes sure that hearts are the only things Masked Intruder steals. Officer Bradford may not wear a smile during a Masked Intruder show, but everyone else in the house sure is, and you can bet your ass that whether live or on record, the boys in Masked Intruder are sure to have you singing along and looking for your wallet. Oh, that prison in Louisiana is called Angola. Score one for memory. Take that, Google. The Hawaiians are back!!! Nach einem musikalischen Beitrag zur amerikanischen TV-Serie Hawaii Five-0 im Jahr 2017 sind die Westerkappelner Surf-Punks endlich mit der neuen Single "Four-Headed Shark Attack" (Kamikaze Records) am Start. Drei Akkorde, die primitiven Gitarren der Ramones und ganz viel 50's Rock n' Roll sind nach wie vor die Rezeptur des hawaiianischen Party Cocktails, der am 20. Juli auch im Vorprogramm von MASKED INTRUDER konsumiert werden darf. FEVER B (USA) Brian Hermosillo a.k.a. Fever B has been a part of the underground San Francisco music scene since the 90s. The world famous Purple Onion and Chameleon bar were his home away from home for awhile as a member first of the Retardos and then the Fevers. Since the Retardos were Superteem label mates with The Donnas who labeled themselves “Donna A.”, “Donna R.” etc... on their records he decided when the Fevers got their record deal with Tina Lucchesi’s Lipstick Records,as a tribute to old label mates,to label his band on the 45 sleeve in the same way and so he became “Fever B”. Brian moved to Minneapolis a few years later to escape the dot com invasion and save the Fevers who’s drummer had quit to move to Los Angeles by working with a drummer friend who lived in Minnesota. The Fevers recorded two Lps for the German label Alien Snatch there in MLPS with the new drummer and toured Europe. Brian came back to Europe with his Minnesota band Skipper(Chocolate Covered Records) playing mostly in Italy a few years after that version of the Fevers had also ended. Brian moved back to California and the Fevers soon returned to Europe with the original lineup(Fever G,Fever K,and Fever B)a few years after Skipper. He also flew to The Netherlands for an extended weekend to record a 45 as The Sweet Faces in Utrecht with local indie pop legend Michel Van Der Woude on drums sandwiched between those two Fevers tours somewhere. One weekend in Saint Paul,Mn. in between all this excitement, Brian got snowed in. A wall of snow blocked the doors and windows and trapped him in his apartment! Of course he could dig his way out or call somebody -but he didn’t. He had beer,cold pizza, drums and guitars, and an 8-track reel to reel set up in the living room so he decided to stay inside and make a one man band style recording. He recorded five songs. A Burger records tour featuring their own band Thee Makeout Party came through town soon after. They are long time friends of Brian’s and came to visit his apartment and see his home studio. He gave them a cassette of his recordings just for fun and never thinking it would be released. They listened on their way back to California and decided it should be released on vinyl. It was an honor since Burger had mostly done cassette only releases at the time . Some folks in Milwaukee who were fans of the Fevers began calling Brian “Fever B!” at some point -which was by now an obscure reference- when he came to their town and whenever they came to Minneapolis and the name stuck with him. So he decided to call his solo release on Burger Records “Fever B”. The record was more successful than Brian imagined it could be. 90s mainstream power pop star Matthew Sweet even recently covered the song This Sea Is My Life from the EP! Crazy. The original version of the Fevers still plays every now and then. Brian plays most regularly with Fever B and the Sea. A band he put together to play songs from the Burger 12” and other songs he has written over the years including lots of new ones he’s hoping to record with his band the Sea. They play around the Bay Area including a recent show at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley. The Sea is Lyndsey Hawkinson(Hondettes/Sweet Haughts ) on drums ,and a life long friend Tim Tsuda(sometimes member of Colossal Yes) on bass. -John Denery of the Hi-Fives saw Fever B and The Sea at a club in San Francisco recently and said they sounded like the great garage pop side of K Records with a guitar hero twist!

#masked intruder #the hawaiians #fever b #molotow #WildWax Shows #upcoming #videos

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