#that vocaloid butterfly headphone thing

[seagullcharmer]

grrrr bark wanted to draw more hylineth but with my stylus broken my wrist aches too much.... sad!

[kindafooey]

okay so apparently they're supposed to be father and son, but uhm...... i mean... it's a little uh........

[tubbytarchia]

I was hit by a vision. But for the Trash Version of Magnet specifically referenced Magnet lore for those unaware

I've seen a couple of people say not to have known what this is referencing so I feel like it's my duty to educate... Magnet is a Vocaloid song that just hit its 15th anniversary! A lot of people especially in the west regard it as their gay awakening etc for being a love song sung by Miku and Luka, two female Vocaloids, but it gained traction everywhere and it became a trend/meme to redraw the original illustration (seen in the song link) with other characters. Most popular anime etc ships are almost guaranteed to have a Magnet parody illustration of them lol. The pose is the main thing but it's also very important to include the butterfly wing headphones

The "Trash Version" linked way above is a parody of the original song with lines such as "We’re as straight as boards, I know you know that too, so why do I pretend I’m gay for you!?!". It's just funny lol

[endearingwiggin]

Hello endernation I’m alive again sorry! Here is art I made last month or so? Idk

Brief tbhk ref bc i hfx on it for like two seconds and gave up

Also the peterachilles was moved to a new canvas and is being worked on as a separate project fyi and like guys so honest it all started as stupid recreation of the vocaloid butterfly headphone yuri like look

Ender’s hair made me mad just remembered I didn’t finish it but wtvr I’ll post his full design later plus updated ones of these bc this is so OLDDDDDD I’m sick really someone hit me repeatedly so I’ll draw them again

Wait I lied one more thing actually

Rotterdam design of Achilles, unpopular opinion I fear but I really liked his stupid shirt in the comics

okay the end bye for an unforeseeable amount of time

[frosted-wonders]

it’s like the vocaloid thing where they’re wearing butterfly headphones or something

<< i swear my blogs get the weirdest anons sometimes because genuinely what does this even mean >>

[magicalgirlsirin]

"But Sinclair, why do you hate magnet so much"

Bc it sucks. Next question

Okay in all seriousness bc I am tired of explaining miku is 16, canonically, forever. Luka is 20. These are things stated by crypton and unfortunately we do have to be adherent to it because people who like being Weird relish in these facts and that means it's our duty to also pay attention to catch people who like being Weird about it. Anyways. Magnet is a song about the throes of forbidden love and by use of miku and luka to the viewer would be led to believe it's about being lgbt and I would never deny that interpretation, however the fact that it /does/ deign to use miku and luka as the faceclaims for the speaker* implies a dimension of pedophilia that I am simply not okay with like

I don't think this is an lgbt win . I really don't. Those butterfly headphones are my mortal enemy

*"but Sinclair" I hear people saying, "doesn't every song using vocaloids imply that the mascots are singing it?" Literally no cat walk envy just features some girl even if it uses miku's bank it's not impossible to make ocs to represent the speaker good fucking bye

[dentarthurdent]

catching up on tag games!

if you tagged me in something and I didnt see it pls yell at me.

tagged by @lordoftherazzles -!

this picrew!

picrews are so fun to do...makes me think of being in middle school & sneaking to play girlsgogames in the computer lab. rip flash

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hot shower or cold shower // texting or calling // earphones or headphones // paperback or hardcover // matte or gel // 12 hour clock or 24 hour clock // blue or green // sunsets or sunrises // tulips or orchids // candle light or moon light // sci-fi or horror (but can't I pick both???) // pen or pencil // pandas or koalas // gold or silver // sneakers or boots // denim jacket or pleather jacket // pink or purple // wind chimes or dream catchers // chocolate or sour candy // deodorant or perfume // drive-in movie theatre or the cinema // pastel colours or neutral/earth tones // butterflies or honeybees // lemonade or iced tea // past or future // constellations or aurora borealis

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tag nine people you’d like to catch up with or get to know better!

tagged by razzy & @edhil !

favorite color green! especially verdant colors.

currently reading Various fic + the giant anthology book of the h2g2 series

last song Rasputin!

last film Beauty and the Beast haha

last series the 80s Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

coffee or tea coffee!

currently working on a drawing commission, ch4 of Beside Myself, and The Terran (which i suspect to be a dozen or so chapters but dont wanna post til its done)

---

tagged by @nhydrxl !

rules: you can usually tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to! put your music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then tag 10 people.

I'm a caveman so I dont have any easy spotify lists to shuffle. Last time I did this I did a real convoluted dice rolling thing. This time i took the lazy route & just typed youtube into the url bar and saw which songs popped up.

Symphony of the Night - Dragonforce

There and Back Again - Wind Rose (BILBO SONG)

Out of Touch - Hall & Oates

Hootsforce - Gloryhammer

I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

Nightfall in Middle Earth - Blind Guardian (uh... the whole album)

Journey of the Sorcerer - The Eagles (H2G2 theme song)

Tokio Funka 『トキヲ・フャ��カ』 - Reol cover

Treasure Island - Alestorm

September - Earth, Wind & Fire

6 powermetal, 3 70s-80s classics, and 1 vocaloid. Dunno what that says about me

[dotzines]

Artist Spotlights!

🎤 Penco 🥁 PikaPlushing 🎷 Pine

🎺 Pip 🎸 Primarinite 🎻 Propaganda101

Interview below the cut!

Introduce yourself

🎤 Hello hello! Penco here! I've been drawing ever since I was little but it's only been recently that I've started to take art a bit more seriously. I like digital art but traditional art has been my favourite form for years, particularly watercolour art. You can find me on Instagram and Tumblr as pencokun! 🥁 I'm a digital and traditional artist. I'm interested in video games, Japanese culture, Anime, Vocaloid, Cosplay, Sewing, etc. (its a longggg list www). I'm really quiet and awkward in person, but once I get to know you, I'm pretty much cursed trash. You can find my art accounts here: https://www.instagram.com/vladslab/ , https://twitter.com/vladslab98 , https://vladslab.tumblr.com/ 🎷 I recently turned 18 and reside in the chaotic state of Florida. A common theme in my drawings include clowns, angels and demons. I have a hard time finding interests but I like Demon Slayer and had a long addiction to Overwatch along with Osomatsu-san (which I don’t understand but glad I had fun hehe). I post art only on dA:@pinekun and iG:@pinefii :,D 🎺 I'm a being of chaos and insomnia, im both a traditional and digital artist as well as an aspiring animator you can find my art at my Instagram @jl_artsandcreations and Tumblr @jl-artsandcreations 🎸 I'm a 19 year old digital artist! My usual art has a very cartoon style, with my main drawing interests being furry oc's and Pokemon. My art blog is primarinite.tumblr.com and my art Twitter is twitter.com/primarinart. 🎻 Hey, the name's Wreath! I don't know how to write these types of things but i'll try! I like drawing, musical theater and fashion. I'm mainly a digital artist but I do traditional art on occasion. You can find me on Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/propaganda-101

Do you do commissions post? Where can we find the info?

🥁 https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17930193547305258/

🎷 https://www.instagram.com/p/B4wCeeWBUr_/

🎸 https://primarinite.tumblr.com/post/189367724219/ive-redone-my-commission-sheet-to-include-updated

Do you listen to music (or tv shows/films/anything else) when drawing?

🎤 Mostly music but I also like to work in silence whenever I'm working on details. 🥁 Usually I'll have my headphones on and listen to different types of music depending on the feel of the piece I'm trying to make. 🎷 I like to listen to music or watch an anime while I draw! 🎺 Yes, I listen to music while drawing 🎸 I have a playlist full of my favourite songs and go to that when I want some music. 🎻 Yup! I find that I work better if i'm listening to music especially if the music fits with the theme/aesthetic. But if i'm bored I might watch youtube while drawing.

What’s your favorite music artist/band? If you could ask your favorite band/music artist one question, what would it be?

🎤 My number one is definitely ABBA! I grew up with their music, after all. 🥁 I love anything Vocaloid, but if I had to choose, my favorite producer would probably be Neru or Deco*27. As for bands, Autoheart, Three Days Grace, Mother Mother and Breaking Benjamin. One question I'd love to ask any of them would be what inspired them to start music and what keeps them going. 🎷 My current favorite artist is Conan Gray but I also really appreciate Hobo Johnson. Hm, what’re their favorite songs? :^0 🎺 I don't really have a favorite music type if I like it I like it but if i had to choose it would be the singer Nico Collins sice i love all his songs 🎸 My favourite band is either Deaf Havana or Wolf Alice. 🎻 Though they are technically a fictional band, my favourite band is Hello Happy World. Their music warms my cold dead heart. I don't actually know what i'd ask them, i'd probably ask them for a hug and to have a good day.

Do you play an instrument? If not would you like to play one? Which one?

🎤 I can play the melodica but I'd love to be able to play the piano and any of the string quartet. 🥁 I've played the piano for nearly my whole life. 🎷 I used to play violin in orchestra for one year, which my tiny hands do not cooperate with. I also had one year of guitar class. 🎺 I don't play an instrument now but I use to play the clarinet but now i would like to play the piano 🎸 I would really like to learn the guitar one day! 🎻 I mean, if your voice counts as an instrument then yes I do, but if not then i'd like to play drums.

Which song(s) are you going to draw?

🎤 I've drawn Lenka's "Trouble Is A Friend" for this zine and I'll also be drawing Cecile Corbel's "Bal de Chats". 🥁 My main piece is Flower Tail feat. KAITO by yuukiss. 🎷 I think Conan Gray-Comfort Crowd, unless I have some big brain blast moment for another song. 🎺 Killing Butterflies by Lewis Blissett and if i finish this pices early i may do another using the song Lullaby by Ellise 

🎸 Free to Breathe by Cold War Kids 🎻 Revolting Children from Matilda the Musical, because it's been stuck in my head for a full month.

What do you expect from this zine?

🎤 I expect to see real cool stuff! 🥁 I can't wait to see the wide spread of different types of music as well as all the talent of all the different artists! 🎷 To learn about what a zine community is like and to face the deadlines, as well as learn the process of one. 🎺 To broaden my horizons and get more attention on my blogs and art work 🎸 I'm excited to see all of the wonderful art being put forward for this. It's great to see so many artists from different walks of life coming together. 🎻 I expect to get introduced to a bunch of new music and artists.

Anything else you want to add?

🎤 Good luck y'all! 🥁 I'm so happy and excited to be a part of this project and I hope the best to absolutely everyone involved! Much love and take care! Please stay hydrated and sleep! 🎷 Thank you for your hard work! :^D

[alpha-incipiens]

Favourite music of the decade!

This is some of what I’d consider the most innovative, artistic and just great to listen to music from 2010-2019.

First a Lot of very good songs:

Crying - Premonitory dream

Arcade Fire - Normal person

Sufjan Stevens - I want to be well

Deerhunter - Sailing

Foster the People - Pumped up kicks

Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy problems

Grimes - Butterfly

Travis Scott - Butterfly effect

Future - March madness

Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj et al - Monster

Juice Wrld - Won’t let go

Danny Brown - Downward spiral

Kendrick Lamar - Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst

Kate Tempest - Marshall Law

The Avalanches - Stepkids

Iglooghost - Bug thief

Vektroid - Yr heart

Ariel Pink - Little wig

Mac Demarco - Sherrill

Vektor - Charging the void

Jyocho - 太陽と暮らしてきた [family]

Panic! at the disco - Ready to go

The Wonder Years - An American religion

Oso oso - Wake up next to god

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - I can be afraid of anything

And my top 20(+2) albums:

Calling Rich gang’s style influential on trap would be like saying Nirvana may have had some impact on early-90s grunge. In 2019 with trap so omnipresent in popular music, hip hop or otherwise, through the impact of artists like Drake and Travis Scott it’s almost hard to remember when this was a niche genre - it was Rich gang that popularised its modern sound here. Birdman’s beats with their rattling hi-hats and deep bass could have been made 5 years later without arousing suspicion, while Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug deliver consistently entertaining flows and numerous bangers between them. Thugger, this being his first major project, steals the show with his yelpy and hilarious rapping style. This may have once been the defining sound of house parties in the Atlanta projects; now it can be heard blasting in the night from white people’s sound systems around the world.

Early 21p may have never aimed to be cool, to avoid a certain appearance of lameness, but they did have a knack for writing some really catchy pop with an optimistic message. To the devoted, the critics of Pilots’ apparent mishmash of nerdy rap, sentimental piano balladry and EDM production were just stuffy, wanting music to stay how it was back-in-the-day forever and unwilling to get with the times. This viewpoint is understandable when you approach this album openly and actually listen to Tyler Joseph’s lyrics about youthful anxiety and insecurity, delivered with real conviction and sincerity, actually recognise that disparate musical elements are all there for emotional punch. A few songs do underwhelm. But this is emo for post-emo Gen Z’s and it’s easy to see why to some it can be deeply affecting.

The musical ancestor to the ongoing and endless stream of ‘lo-fi hip hop beats’ youtube mixes, chillwave filled the same low-stress niche, and Dive released at the peak of the genre’s relevance. Tycho’s woozy, mellow sound prominently features rich acoustic and bass guitar melodies over warm synths, enhancing the music’s organic feel compared to that of purely digital producers in the genre. The experience of starting this album is like waking up in a soft bed, the cover’s gorgeous sunrise reddening the room’s walls, while a guitarist improvises somewhere on the Mediterranean streets outside. And it is indeed great to study or relax to!

Simple, minimal acoustic guitar and vocals. If you’ve got talent this type of music shows it, or else it doesn’t: perfect then for Ichiko Aoba. Her touch is light, her songs calm, meditative, in no rush to get anywhere. As if serenely watching a natural landscape, one can best understand and enjoy Aoba’s music in quiet and peaceful appreciation.

Through the incorporation of genres like shoegaze and alternative rock, Deafheaven managed to create a rare thing: a metal album that’s both heavy and accessible, needing no sacrifice of one for the other’s sake. Over these four main songs, there’s a sensation of being taken on an intense, atmospheric and even emotional journey, with the band stepping away from the negativity and misanthropy that dominates most metal. The vocals, closer to the confessionalism of screamo than classic black metal shrieks, express more sadness than they do aggression, and in respites between solid blaring walls of guitar and drums, calm pianos and gently strummed guitar passages set a pensive tone. This totally enveloping, flawlessly produced sound can take you away, like My Bloody Valentine’s best work, into a dream or trance.

By the late 2000s MCR had taken their thrones as the kings of a subculture formed from the coalition of goth, emo, scene and other assorted Hot Topic-donned kids, and earned a lifelong place in the hearts of many a depressed teenager. But after the generation-defining The Black Parade Gerard Way took off the white facepaint and skeleton costume, ditched the lyrics about corpse brides and vampires, and embraced an anthemic, purely pop punk sound. The silly story of Danger Days, set in a dystopian California where villainous corporations rule and only the Punks can stop them, serves as a kind of idealised setting for the all-out rebellion against authority and normality that so many fantasised about taking part in. The band’s electrifying performances are the most uplifting of their decade making music. For many diehards the upbeat sound here was a celebration that they’d made it through the most difficult years of their lives, and a spit in the face of those who’d done them wrong.

The teller of rural American tales, the indie legend, the teen-whisperer himself. John Darnielle, long past his early lo-fidelity home recordings and now backed by a full band, loses none of the heart his songs are famous for. The theme of the album, taken straight from John’s childhood when the pro wrestling on TV offered an escape from his abusive stepfather, is complemented by the country and Tex-Mex flavouring to the instrumentation. Some of the best lyrics in his long career infuse the stories of wrestlers with universal meaning - his characters try, fail, lose hope, reckon with their mediocrity, and when they step into the ring they’re up against all the adversity life can throw at them. John Darnielle’s saying that when that happens, you stand up and sock back.

Folk music was always a major part of the Scandinavian black metal scene during its peak years, so when American musicians began exploring the genre naturally they incorporated American styles of folk. The complex, oppressive and sometimes hellish compositions here, starkly contrasted with bluegrass that sounds straight from the campfire circle, give the impression of life in the uncharted woods of the American frontier, in the middle of a brutally cold winter. Almost unbelievably, one-man-band Austin Lunn plays every instrument on the album: multiple guitar parts, bass and drums as well as banjo, fiddle, and woodwinds.

Andy Stott seems to delight in making his music as unnerving, haunting, perhaps even scary, as possible. The female vocals these songs are built around become ghostly, echoing and overlapping themselves disorientingly. The percussion, audibly resembling metal clanging, rustling or rattling in the distance, is often left to stand for its own, creating a tense space it feels like something should be filling. UK-based club and dub music can be felt influencing the grimy almost-but-not-quite danceable rhythms here, but the lo-fi recording and menacing vibe makes this feel like a rave at some sort of dimly lit abandoned factory.

There’s so much Mad Max in this album you can just picture it being set to images of freights burning across the desert. True to its title, the nine songs on Nonagon Infinity roll into each other as if part of one big perpetual composition, with the end looping back seamlessly to the start and musical motifs cropping up both before and after the song they form the base of. With its fuzzy, raw sound, bluesy harmonica and wild whooping, the Gizz create a truly rollicking rock’n’roll experience. The band would go on to release 5 albums within twelve months a year later, but Nonagon shows these seven Australian madmen at the height of their powers.

Sometimes you just want to listen to fun, hyperactive pop. The spirit of 8-bit video game soundtracks and snappy pop punk come together to create a vividly digital world of sound that seems to celebrate the worldliness, connectivity and shiny neon colours of early 2010s internet culture and social media. The up-pitched vocals and general auditory mania recall firmly Online musical trends like nightcore and vocaloid, while the beats pulse away, compelling you to dance like this is a house party and the best playlist ever assembled is on. It demands to be listened to at night with headphones, in a room lit only by your laptop screen.

“You hate everyone. To you everyone’s either a moron, or a creep or a poser. Why do you suddenly care about their opinion of you?” “Because I’m shallow, okay?! … I want them to like me.”

The fact that that Malcolm In The Middle quote is sampled at the emotional climax of this record should give some idea to the absurdity that defines Brave Little Abacus. It’s not even the only sample from the show on here. And yet the passion and urgency so evident in Adam Demirjian’s lispy singing and the band’s nostalgia-inducing, even cozy, melodies are made to stir feelings. The tearjerker chords and guitar progressions are so distinctive of emo bands with that special US-midwest melancholia, and they are interspersed with warm ambiance and playful sound effects ripped from TV and video games, seemingly vintage throwbacks to a sunny childhood. Demirjian’s lyrics, yelled out as if through tears or in the middle of a panic attack, verge on word salad in their abstraction, but that’s not the point: you can feel his small town loneliness and sense the trips he’s spent lost on memory lane. The combined effect all adds to Just Got Back’s themes of adolescence and the trauma of leaving it. While legendary in certain internet communities for this album and their 2009 masterpiece Masked Dancers, the band remains obscure to wider audiences.

These Danish punks know how to convey emotion through their raw and dramatic songs. Elias Rønnenfelt’s vocal presence and charisma cannot be ignored: his husky voice drawls, at times breaks, gasps for breath, builds up the deeply impassioned, intense force behind his words. The band sounds free and wild, unrestrained by a tight adherence to tempo, often speeding up, slowing down or straying from the vocals within the same song, as if playing live. Instrumentally the command over loud and quiet, tension and release, accentuates the vocals in crafting the album’s pace. Horns and saloon pianos throughout give the feel of a performance in a smoky, underground blues bar, with Rønnenfelt swaying onstage as he howls the romantic, distraught, heartbroken lyrics he truly believes in.

At some point on first listening to Death Grips, a thought along the lines of “He really yells like this the whole way through, huh?” probably crosses the mind. When Exmilitary first appeared, quietly uploaded to the internet, the rapper’s name and identity unknown, another likely reaction among listeners might have been “What am I even listening to?” But perhaps more revolutionary than Death Grips’ incredibly aggressive sound and style might have been its foreshadowing of how over the next decade underground rap acts would explode into the mainstream through viral songs, online word of mouth and memes. It showed all you needed to come from nowhere to the top of the game was to seize attention, and it did that and far more. MC Ride’s intoxicatingly crass, intense rapping captures the energy of a mosh pit where injuries happen, the barrage of sensations of a coke high, while the eclectic mix of rock and glitchy electronics on the instrumentals is disorienting in the best way. If rap were rock and this was 1977, Death Grips would have just invented punk. Ride’s lyrics paint a confrontational, hyper-macho persona; unlike much hip hop braggadocio, the overwhelming impression given is that Ride truly does not care what anyone thinks. He just goes hard and does not stop. It’s music to punch the wall to.

Inspired by classic rock operas, this concept album represents some major ambition and innovation in musical storytelling. Delivered in frontman Damian Abraham’s gravelly shouted vocals, the complex lyrical narrative of the album follows a factory worker, an activist and their struggle against the omnipotent author (Abraham himself) who controls their fates. Featuring devices like unreliable narrators and fourth-wall breaking, it takes some serious reading into to untangle. But it’s the bright guitarwork, combining upbeat punk rock and indie to create some killer riffs, that gives the album its furious energy and cinematic proportions.

Joanna Newsom is enchanted by the past. Like 2006’s ambitious Ys, the music on Divers makes this evident with its invocation of Western classical and medieval music, throwing antiquated instruments like clavichords together with lush string orchestration, woodwinds, organs, folk guitar and Newsom’s signature harp. With her soulful, moving vocals leading the way, it’s hard not to imagine her as some kind of Renaissance-era country woman contemplating nature, love and mortality in the fields and the woods. As always Newsom proves herself a stunningly original and creative arranger with the sheer compositional intricacy and flow of these songs, and most of all the harmonious intertwining of singing and instrumental backing.

Burial’s music is born from the London night: the bustle of the streets, the faint sounds from distant raves, the buskers, the rain on bus windows. This EP’s dreamlike quality makes listening to it feel like taking a trip across the city well after midnight, watching the lights go by, with no idea where you hope to get to. Every single sound and effect on these two songs is so precisely chosen, from the shifting and shuffling beats, the swelling synths and wordless vocals that sound like a club from a different dimension, the ambient hiss and pop of a vinyl record. Musically this sound is drawn from UK-based scenes like 2-step and drum ‘n bass, but twisted into such a moody and abstracted form as to be nearly unrecognisable as dubstep. Just when this urban, dismal sound is at its most oppressive, heavenly soul singers or organs cut through like a ray of light in the dark.

There’s an imaginary rulebook of how construct music, how to properly make tempos and combinations of notes sound harmonious, and Gorguts have spent their career ripping it up and throwing it in the bin. On 1998’s seminal Obscura, their atonal experimentation sounded at times like random noises in random order. But listen closely to Obscura or Colored Sands, their return after a long hiatus, and the method behind the madness emerges. One mark of great death metal is that it’s impossible to predict what direction it will go even a few seconds in advance, and the band achieves this while presenting a heavy, slow, momentous sound. The density of inspired riffs, and the intricate balancing of loud and quiet, fast and slow paced throughout these songs are exceptional. In instrumental sections the guitars will echo out as if across a barren plane, then the song will build up to the momentum of a freight train. Behind the crashing and twisting walls of guitar the patterns of blast beat drumming are almost mathematical in nature. Luc Lemay’s harsh bellows sound like a warlord’s cry or a pure expression of rage to the void. It’s threatening, menacing, unapproachable, but it all makes sense in the end.

Futuristic yet deeply retro, Blank Banshee’s music takes vaporwave beyond its roots in the pure consumerist parody of artists like Vektroid and James Ferraro and makes it actually sound amazing. Songs are built out of a single vocal snippet processed beyond recognition, new agey synthesisers, Windows XP-era computer noises, hilariously out of place instruments, all set to the 808 bass and hi-hats of hip-hop style beats. The genre’s pioneers intentionally sucked the soul from their music using samples pulled from 70s and 80s elevators, infomercials and corporate lounges - here the throwback seems to be to the early 2000s childhood of the internet, and the influence of a time when email and forums were revolutionary can be felt. The effect of this insanity is an album that whirls by like a techno-psychedelic haze: the atmosphere of dark trap beats places you squarely in a 2013 studio one moment, the next you’re surrounded by relaxing midi pianos and humming that a temple of new age practitioners would meditate to. Still, at some point when listening to this album, perhaps when the ridiculous steel drums kick in near the end, you realise that this is all to some degree a joke, and a funny one. It’s hard to overstate what an entertaining half-hour this thing is.

While 2012’s Good Kid, m.a.a.d City presented a movie in album form of Kendrick’s childhood and early adult years, TPAB’s journey is one of personal growth, introspection, and nuanced examination of the state of race in post-Ferguson America. It’s simultaneously the Zeitgeist for the US in 2015 and a soul-search in the therapist’s office. Sounding deeply vulnerable, he openly discusses depression, alcoholism, religion and feelings of helplessness. The White House and associated gangstas on the cover give some idea to the album’s political themes, with Lamar contrasting Obama’s presidency to the political powerlessness and lifelong ghetto entrapment of millions of black Americans. Everything I’ve written about the lyrics here really only scratches the surface because the words here are substantive, complex and dense with meaning. Near enough every bar can be analysed for multiple meanings and interpretations, essays can and have been written on the overall work, anything less does not do justice. The musical versatility on display is astounding: the album acts as an extravaganza of African-American music, from smooth west coast G-funk to east coast grit, neo-soul and rock to beat poetry, and most of all jazz. Like an expertly laid character arc the record progresses through its ideas in such a way that they’re all impactful, with the slurred rapping imitating a depressed drunken stupor followed later by exuberant, defiant cries of “I love myself!”, the white-hot rage against police brutality balanced by the hopeful mantra: “do you hear me, do you feel me, we gon be alright”. Perhaps the most culturally significant album of the 2010s and an essential piece of the hip-hop canon.

This harrowing hour chronicles the struggles and everyday tragedy of a series of characters and their relationship with the city they live in, narratively driven by some outstandingly poetic lyrics. Jordan Dreyer’s wordy tales despair at the poverty, gang violence and urban decay in the band’s native Grand Rapids, Michigan, an almost childlike open-hearted naivete in his words as he empathises with the broken and alienated people in these songs. There’s no jaded sneer or sly lesson to be learned as he sings about the child killed by a stray bullet or the homebird left alone after all their friends move away, just genuine second-hand sadness and a dream that compassion and community will eventually heal the pain. Taking elements from bands like At the Drive-In’s fusion of punk and progressive, and mewithoutyou’s shout-sung vocals, La Dispute hones its sound to a razor edge to put fierce instrumental power behind the lyrics. Not an easy listen, but a sharply written songbook and a perfect execution on its concept.

Around 2008, Joanna Newsom met comedian Andy Samberg. Within a year, their relationship was becoming the basis upon which the poetry of Have One on Me was spun. Newsom’s lyrics, exploring her relationship with her future-husband, nature, death, spirituality, are above all else loving. Through her warm and vibrant voice, at times an operatic trill and in others deeply soulful, she expresses the joy of love for another, the peace and earthly connection of her beloved pastoral lifestyle, deeply affecting melancholy and grief. Contemplative, artful, genuine or expressive: every lyric in every sweet melody is used to offer her ruminations on life or overflowings of passion.

More so than her previous and next albums, the feel of the album is of not just a folkloric past but also the present day, with drums, substantial brass and string arrangements, and even electric guitar anchoring the sound to Newsom’s real, not imaginary, life in the 21st century. Yet songs here with moods or settings evoking simpler lifestyles and the women living them in 1800s California or the Brontës’ English moors still have a universal relevance. Whether rooted in past of present, the instrumental variety of these compositions, from classical solo piano, grand orchestral arrangements led by harp, to the twang of country guitars or intricate vocal harmonising, makes it apparent that this is the work of a master songwriter in full command of well over a dozen talented musicians. Ultimately, what makes this my favourite album of the decade is that, very simply, it is one stunningly beautiful song after another, all collated into a cohesive 2-hour portrait of Newsom’s soul.

[cosplaytutorial]

Fabrickind, I'm revamping my old Vocaloid Magnet cosplay by adding lights into the ribbon/bow around the waist and into the butterfly shaped headphones to make them glow along with the ribbon around the mini top hat that goes with it. I've never worked with lights before. Would LED or EL lights be better? What's the best way to diffuse them?

Hello there!

With where you want to lights and the fact that you seem to want to edge things in lights, I’d go with EL wire.

EL wire is great for things where you need a thin, continuous line of light without the need to diffuse multiple spots, or where you need some (but not a lot) of flexibility. The drawbacks are that it isn’t as bright as LEDs in many cases (especially if you get the cheap wire), can be damaged easily if it is flexed too much or too far, and requires a large and somewhat noisy converter box to hide the batteries/convert between AC/DC that would need to be hidden somewhere.

I would put LEDs in the headphones themselves and find a way to hide the batteries, since this would be easier to diffuse through the colored plastic, and use EL wire to edge the ribbons and such.  With LEDs, you really need them to be over a larger area and underneath something so that you can make an entire area glow, rather than something small like a bow.

As for getting started, Adafruit has a lot of great tutorials on how to work with lights and electronics.

Note that I am not much of an electronics person myself, so if someone has better suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

I hope that helps! Good luck :] 

—Fabrickind / Q&A Staff

[multapohja966]

1, 16 and 17 ~

o! thank you

1. Favorite vocaloid?

*drum roll*  Miku. There’s nowhere to go about it. I love len from the bottom of my heart, my crush on luka might be the most long lasting relationship in my life and I think V-flower has the best and most interesting voice out of all of them. (also lily desperately needs more songs her voice is incredible!) But no one gives me as much happiness as Miku. she’s that one thing that always lights that lil sparkle in my heart. sparkle sparkle 

16. Favorite VOCALOID song of all time?

Butterfly on your right shoulder. ALWAYS.  

That song will be the greatest bop for forever and i will never grow tired of it. When I’m 95 years old and close to full body shut-down on every moment. I’ll still be jammin to this song with my robot butler or smth.

But yea i have to mention some other faves: hyperdontia, kisaragi attention, the speaker people, boku wo sonna mede minaide, spinal fluid explosion girl, Kami no manimani(!!!), step to you, world’s end dance hall, electric angel, hibikase, panda hero.

way too many songs make me emo..

17.Best memory involving VOCALOID?

ok. this is going to sound greasy af but, few winters ago, it had just snowed for the first time and our whole yard was covered in like 10cm of snow and it just kept coming. i had my headphones and it was really dark. so.. i just fucking played butterfly on your right shoulder from my cheap mp3 player and danced until the whole yard was covered in my foot prints. honestly that whole scene let out like months of frustration and i was so happy after it. 

I really spent many years growing with vocaloid, so really the best memory with vocaloid is just the whole memory of those years of my life. Some songs remind me of moments I cherish and some remind me of people who matter to me.  

(also, random fact: I had this miku necklace which i didn’t take off for almost a year. it was really small and to me it represented like happiness and being true to yourself. lame. but yea. i look back fondly to those times when i was a giant nerd.)

[talithakalistair]

I kinda wanna draw Team Voltron with those Magnet headphones... Like, the Vocaloid song? These headphones with the butterfly wings attached. I'd probably draw the characters separately but in the same Format, maybe as a matching icon type of thing so ppl could mix and match them according to what they ship i think that would be a neat little (read: huge) project and I'm a sucker for ship positivity I'd just have to get my drawing tablet running again oh lord help me

[insanity-is-contagious]

ts4 mod rec. (ˊ•͈ ꇴ •͈ˋ)b

Well, I mean... This might be a sign.

In any case, this whole thing will include the following:

♡ Must Haves: And why you need them ♡ Favorite Mods: Clothing/Makeup || Furniture || World Tweaks          And why I like them (+flaws imo). ♡ Mods I Fancy:          And haven’t gotten to yet... I’ll probably cover this next time. ♡ Useful Guides & Links:          I might also have to get on this tmr... or some time.

Must Haves

➀ 【The Sims 4 Mod Manager】 I love & hate this because I uses this religiously for my TS4 game... But I’m always encountered with it not opening properly. Sometimes it could be resolved for a very brief time simply by reinstalling, but then it would go back to the way it was... staying invisible ‘till I maximize the program through the Task Manager. There are, of course, other mod managers, but I could only work with this one unfortunately. And I don’t really think the rest work as well as this one.

➁ 【Sims 4 Studio】 Ok... Maybe this one isn’t a “Must Have”. But if you ever want to edit a particular .package file (i.e. export texture from a couch that you want to recolor later on another image editing program like Photoshop), then you might need this. You might want to edit those posters on the wall or try to edit the texture for that bed you have lying about into your waifu’s theme.

➂ 【More Sims in the World】 I really like this mod because it brings the empty Sims world into a much needed popularization. The downside to this mod is probably having too much sims standing around right outside of your doorstep; if you’re working as a police, then when you have to issue an APB or trying to go out to do patrols might prove to be slightly more difficult.

➃ 【 Basemental Drugs 】 You can plant & cure weed, you can even sell the buds if you got a yard sale table (<<< it’s an in-game furniture). I don’t like how every single sim wants to take a pill whenever they’re near the vicinity of one, and the hangover--- they suck. Also, you can’t really sell packaged weed (I think), so keep that in mind.

Favorite Mods • Clothing/Makeup

➀ 【白无垢しろむく Snow Cloak】via 小罗而  (^ Don’t carry a child with this on... It’ll look hella weird lmao)

➁ 【 女天狗 Nyotengu ��Dead or Alive 5）Cosplay 】 via kavin_ni (^ If you zoom out with this on, it’ll look like an ugly skin colored bodysuit.) ➂ 【Butterfly Headphone （Vocaloid @ Magnet）】 via Studio K KARZALEE

➃ 【Cheetaro’s Neko Ears】 via Cheetaro @ The Sims Resource ➄ 【Frilly Clothes (TERA?)】 via Zauma @ The Sims Resource (^Note: A lot of them doesn’t seem to appear in game.) ➅ 【School Girl Outfit & Etc】 via imadako ➆ 【Korean Fashion】 via marigold ➇ 【Horn with Rose】 via Studio K KARZALEE ➈ 【Mermaid Tails & Animation】 via Merman Simmer ➉ 【Make Up & Others】 via MYOBI  @ The Sims Resource

Favorite Mods • Furniture

➀ 【Oriental JP Furniture】via maminatumi ➁ 【Modern Furniture】via mio sims   ➂ 【Themed Buildings & Furniture】via dominationkid 

Mods I Fancy

➀ 【Fox Ears】

Useful Guides & Links

How to Download Mods Waterfall Guide Split Level Guid

The Sims Resource Studio K Creations Sims 4 Updates

[*Make sure to select Sims 4, because if you’ve downloaded a mod from another Sims series, it might have mod conflicts due to the different type of files for mods.]

[groundramon]

I only just now learned the origin of those butterfly headphone things (vocaloid headphones) but those Trump x Cruz memes were funnier before I knew that tbh

[magicalgirlsirin]

look guys i have real genuine beef with magnet as a song i die a lil inside every time ppl redraw that stupid hands touching butterfly headphones thing bc the song is literaly just. kind of homophobic and also bad Implications bc miku is literally textually 16 and luka is 20 and the whole song is about the curse of forbidden love or whatever and i am Going To Kill Myself do not come into my box to debate me about vocaloid ages i dont care didnt ask plus you have no literacy about use cases for the mascot attached to the vocal bank