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stacyswirl · 5 months

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Once again, the list was pretty much sorted by early February, but it took me a while to write up the post. Here's my notes on my Top 15 albums of 2023!

15. Metallica - 72 Seasons

I haven't truly loved a Metallica album since last century, and their previous album, 2016's "Hardwired... To Self Destruct" was exceptionally boring to me. Modern day Metallica songs are mostly long and kinda repetitive, without much of the inventive structure that made their classic material great, nor their occasional experimentation and pop chops that boosted the best of their ‘90s music. 72 Seasons is a bit better than Hardwired, it's more on par with 2008's "Death Magnetic". The reason it manages to make the list though is the final song, "Inamorata". An 11 minute long epic complete with a wah-pedaled slow solo in the middle. It is very reminiscent of their trio of epics from 1996's "Load" album; "Bleeding Me", "Thorn Within" and "The Outlaw Torn". Metallica hasn't made a song that sounded like this in nearly 30 years, and it just fills me with such happiness.

14. Pierce the Veil - The Jaws of Life

A truly strange album. It's kind of like... if My Chemical Romance were simultaneously more poppy and more heavy? There are some truly deep, heavy metal moments on this album, mixed in amongst the screamo vocals and tiktok trap beats. It's a very modern mix of genres , which is why I think of this album as carrying the nu-metal torch in a way. The first song I heard was a relatively soft pop-rock single called "Emergency Contact", it really reminds me of Placebo.

13. Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

Olivia's debut "Sour" was a great pop-punk punch to the gut in 2021. Her followup has a few really great tracks (the first three especially; "All-American Bitch", "Bad Idea Right?" and "Vampire") but the album as a whole hasn't grabbed me as strongly as Sour did. Still good though.

12. Alex Lahey - The Answer is Always Yes

A great straight ahead rock record, Alex Lahey's third album is really fun and chill. The opener "Good Time" has laid-back swagger reminiscent of Beck, and lyrics espousing how everyone needs a good time after the last few years have been so rough for us all. She has a wonderful punk edge to her voice, but can sing a very pretty melody when called for. The music has gained some extra layers since her debut in 2017, there's occasional pleasing fuzz tones to the guitar. This album has some pretty indie rock ballads amidst the fun rockers too. A really well-rounded rock record.

11. Paramore - This Is Why

I've never really connected with Paramore, they seem like a great pop-punkish group that I should like but I just never got into them in a big way. This new album (their sixth) does something a little different than I've heard before. Exemplified by the title track "This Is Why", they've brought a jagged, start-stop new wave sound to the music. Recently I've listened to a bunch of old Talking Heads and Blondie, and "This Is Why" has a similar sonic pallette to those late '70s/early '80s weirdos. It was intriguing enough to get my foot in the door and enjoy everything this band had on display. A very unique and interesting album, great to erratically dance to.

10. Blink-182 - One More Time...

My first favorite band, my first concert, Blink-182 have been a very important soundtrack to my life. I didn't dislike their last two albums without founding member Tom Delonge, and did not foresee this reunion actually happening any time soon. That said, I'm glad it finally happened. Their first song released from it "Edging" was a little stupid, and didn't make me expect too much. But then in September they released the video for the title track "One More Time..." and I cried while watching it. This stupid pop punk band has meant so goddamn much to me over the years, and this song delves into their personal history and breakups and makeups. Just hearing Mark and Tom trade vocals on a beautiful ballad like this feels so good. The album has a lot of songs, 17 in total, but being punk songs the whole album is still only 44 minutes. I'd say the album as a whole skews closest to their 2003 Self-Titled album in sound. Which most people probably consider their creative peak, so it's not a bad choice. Who knows what will happen in the future, but I'm glad these guys got together one more time at least. I'm seeing them in concert this summer, for a full-circle nostalgic trip. It's good to have them back for however long it lasts.

9. Metric - Formentera II

Metric put out a "part 2" of sorts to my 2022 album of the year. It has a gloriously catchy, synthy sound mixed with their signature smooth guitar sound. There's a lot to love on this album, from the meandering soft rock of "Days of Oblivion" to the disco swagger of cheating anthem "Just The Once". I'm so glad this band has continued to thrive for over 20 years, it seems they'll never lose their effortless cool.

8. K.Flay - Mono

2022's Inside Voices/Outside Voices album was a creeper hit for me, I listened to it more and more over time. I was still in full fledged fandom mode for it when she put out Mono. I listened to a little bit of it but it took several months before I seriously gave this album a chance. It has won me over big time. I'm impressed by how big and loud so much of it is, especially the song "Irish Goodbye" featuring the singer/guitarist of Pierce the Veil. It uses dubstep-like drops in its chorus that never fails to make me bang my head. It's not all big guitars though, there's lots of her softer, weirder songs too. "Spaghetti" is a wandering stoner monologue of a song, set to '90s alternative guitar and a simple boppy drumbeat. K.Flay has consistently put out weird, interesting music that mixes her punk-white-girl-rapper past persona with the complicated experimental soundscapes of her elder millennial existence.

7. Kesha - Gag Order

The final album that Kesha had to make under her record contract that connects her to her abuser, Kesha pulls no punches on it. She enlisted legendary producer Rick Rubin for this album, and it's unlike anything she's done before. Swirling cold synths and tinkling acoustic guitars surround her natural voice while an ominous deep robotic bass throbs underneath. This is the music of PTSD, a survivor being supported to tell her truth. It's a very powerful statement, I recommend the visualizer video for "Eat the Acid", it's surprisingly intense in its simplicity. Lyrically I also really like the song "Hate Me Harder", for anyone who wants to stand up to their haters or abusers.

6. Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust

Fall Out Boy has taken me many years to appreciate. I really liked their 2015 album American Beauty/American Psycho, and a couple of their previous album's hits, but hadn't gone much deeper. But within the last year I've fallen in love with both their first greatest hits collection (of their music from 2002-2009) and this, their newest album. It has everything I love about Fall Out Boy and more. They take the pop-punk-emo playbook of the early 2000s and inject it with a sweeping, cinematic epic quality that is hard to quantify but instantly pulls me in. The song "Hold Me Like a Grudge" is so ridiculously catchy, they've injected a slight disco-riffic quality, with a danceable bassline and handclaps. Handclaps for God's sake! I can't not dance around when this song is on. As for that epic quality I mentioned, the song "Heaven, Iowa" has it on full display, going from a soft crooning intro into a full blown prog explosion over the course of its 4 minutes. They've got my full attention now, and I am listening intently.

5. Crosses - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

Deftones' gothy synthwave side project Crosses finally puts out a second full length album ten years after their first. It's a bit more dynamic, a bit more electronic than their debut, big and booming, sexy and dark. I took Phoenix to see them in concert earlier this year and this sound was so cool to hear live. Chino's sexy, ethereal whisper-to-a-scream voice is on full display, dancing on top of the pulsing beats and sharp synths. Listening to Crosses makes me feel like I'm in an underground vampire club in the late 80s, hoping to be bitten by a femme fatale in sunglasses and patent leather.

4. Cannons - Heartbeat Highway

Cannons shot out of nowhere for me in 2022, with their debut album landing at #2 on my list of that year. Their retro dream pop that captivated me then is in full force again on their sophomore effort. It took me a little while to warm up to, at first I was a little disappointed because it seemed so similar. But it didn't take long for that to not be a con at all, and now I am completely in love with this album, just like I was with their first. I can see the small differences, and appreciate both albums on their individual merits. This album has consistently been one of my top listened to in the car, their soft soothing sound has been there for me when I need something to make me feel better.

3. Various Artists - Barbie Soundtrack / Mark Ronson - Barbie Score

The Summer's movie hit was also a gigantic musical hit for me and my whole family. The soundtrack had some instant classics, including Lizzo's adorable "Pink" and "Pink (Bad Day)" and Dua Lipa's modern pop disco anthem "Dance the Night" (easily one of my most played songs of the whole year). Ryan Gosling's breakaway book number "I'm Just Ken" and hilariously over-the-top cover of "Push" always brought a smile to our faces. It's so much fun to sing along with his mushy mouth vocals. Billie Eilish's piano whispery wonder-anthem "What Was I Made For?" somehow embodied the message of the movie perfectly and always gave me a chill when I heard it. Most of the rest of the soundtrack was filled with modern pop tracks that ranged from kinda meh tik-tok autotune pop to really engaging fun songs ("Choose Your Fighter" and "Man I Am" being highlights of the latter). This brings me to the score. Mark Ronson, retro producer known for his work with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars, has taken the colorful plastic world of Barbie and given it a '70s sunshine and lollipops soundscape to match. Many songs are of a piece with the Lizzo and Dua Lipa tracks, which he also produced, and by the time of "Beach Off" he's in full '80s technicolor soundtrack mode. There are softer bits too, he uses Billie Eilish's pianoline as a soft introspective theme for the film's quieter moments several times. This score has been wonderful to put on in the background while working or cleaning, it picks me right up, never bores, and always has something new to hear.

2. Linkin Park - Lost Demos

I'll admit this isn't a normal album. But its significance can not be understated. It begins with "Lost", a 2002 era song, fully finished but cut from their second album Meteora and subsequently forgotten about. Meteora has always been my favorite LP album, and being able to "go home again" and hear a new track with that perfect early-'00s nu-metal blend of rough guitars and smooth electronic production was great. LP hadn't sounded like this in years. Of course, the real draw was the late Chester Bennington's unique emotional howl, unheard on new material since his sad passing in 2017 (the day after my birthday of that year). "Lost" dominated radio last year, and rightfully so. The next two songs on the album are standard Linkin Park songs, juxtaposing Mike's rap verses with Chester's emotionally charged choruses in a wonderful showcase of the band's musical alchemy. After that are some songs that do include vocals but are clearly a little less fully realized. The bulk of the rest of the album are demos of Meteora era songs, some with alternate lyrics and completely different ideas on display.�� Taken as a whole it's not as strong as a full studio album could be. It is instead an interesting complement to Meteora and a welcome window into a past that we'll never be able to fully enter into again. RIP Chester, thank you for bringing us one more badass banger from the archives to remind us of your legacy. And thank you Mike for packaging it into this alternate historical document of an album.

1. Dessa - Bury the Lede

Dessa's transformation into pop princess intelligentsia has taken its largest step ever. The first steps were taken on 2018's "Jumprope", followed by the gloriously giddy 2021 song "I Already Like You" (included on this album). Her sophisticated wordplay and quick rap skills are still front and center on almost every song. Now they are accompanied by bright and catchy beats, with zippy melodies that infuse the album with a bubblegum sweetness, all floating amongst the feminist smarts and vulnerable feelings on display. My favorite song has to be "Tell Me Again", with its amazing '80s synthpop sound complete with handclaps and saxophone overdubs. Opener "Hurricane Party" showcases her witty political commentary rap over a unique bell-clangs and skittering-synth-hits beat. Every song has something new, Dessa is in full experimental mode, throwing the pop playbook at the wall and seeing what works best to amplify her intense songwriting so that her audience will think and dance at the same time.

#music

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vitaminwaterreviews · 8 months

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Wonder Girls - Reboot

So traditionally, I listen to the album, then decide which songs to add to my playlist after I’m done. This time around I figured I’d add songs as I go, so I don’t forget any of them later on. I ended up adding 10 out of 12 to my main playlist. So I did in fact add the remaining two to my playlist just to make sure.

It’s hard not to compare this album to Pink Tape for me, but I don’t actually think it’s all that similar? It did have a Toy moment in Oppa, but I think it stuck to its sound and its genre a lot more than Pink Tape does. It explores a lot within that sound and genre though; I didn’t get bored at all, which is good for a 12 song album. I also didn’t totally understand what to make of a lot of the songs. Like, they were Good, but I feel like I didn’t Get them. I’ll have to go back and relisten to a lot of these before I feel like I can have a solid opinion about them.

A couple of 9’s, several 8’s, but no 10’s. Nothing did that for me; I keep saying that Oppa had a “Toy moment”, which it did, but the positioning in the album and the type of song that it was made it surprisingly predictable. Like, when it happened, I didn’t freak out; I was like “oh yeah, I guess it’s about time for this isn’t it?” Plus the change was like, from one type of hip hop to another type of hip hop, as opposed to whatever Toy does with its rap rock to dubstep. The 9’s were both really good, but again, they didn’t do that for me. Average score of 7.8 which … maybe a bit low? I’d round up to an 8 but it’s close enough that I’ll let the literal average do the talking. I think I will definitely grow to enjoy this album more though; there’s a Lot here to learn to appreciate, and a first listen can only do so much.

- Baby Don’t Play

Welp this sure was intended to be listened to with stereo audio

Yeah this definitely Feels 80’s

Dude the synths in the chorus here

Are they strings? Or just string-inspired?

Haha I’m reminded of Apink’s What A Boy Wants for some reason in this post-chorus

Back to distorted stereo vocals I guess

Yeahh I’m not a fan of that kind of alternating from side to side thing

It feels … kinda tacky to me?

7/10, nice solid start, pretty good

Candle (feat. Paloalto)

Who’s Paloalto I wonder?

Yep, we are still 80’s

Oh is this supposed to be a sexy song?

I don’t think 80’s music will Ever feel sexy to me

Mkay, we’re rapping now

The rapping definitely doesn’t feel 80’s in this context

Yeah I dunno about the rapping yet. It’s fine but I don’t know if I like it

That said I do think I’ll be adding this song to my playlist, it’s very unique

Here he is

(who is he again?)

I don’t think he added too much but it was alright

7/10 but I suspect I may grow to like it more

I Feel You

Jay Whay Pee!

And the Wonder Girls! We’re Back!

Lmao

This isn’t the title track is it?

Oh it is! Why doesn’t it have the most listens then?

I did intend to not watch the MV regardless, on average I think I can analyze songs better when I don’t see the MV

Speaking of analyzing the songs, this song is kinda crazy

Like the synth chime thing with the melody is fun

I think I like this actually?

8/10

Rewind

Okay, this is the one with the most streams on Spotify. Plus the name makes it sound like it should be the title track

This feels suspiciously like a ballad

The ooh’s are cute

Mkay, not a true ballad

I don’t know how I’m supposed to be feeling though

Dude those string hits in the bridge are Kinda annoying imo

Oh wait there’s a rap section?

I really have no idea how to feel about this song

7/10 I guess?

Loved

Kind of a chip bass

Opening with a rap

Mkay and now we’re singing

The background synth here is super nice

The “you know / I know / we know” is really cool

Mmmm yeah, I like this

The bridge is kinda … underwhelming? I think I want more here

Yeah I guess it builds a bit

The vocals in the last chorus are Excellent tho

8/10

John Doe

Sparkles!!

Wowowooowooooowowowommmp

And now we forget about both of those

Oh ok we get the sparkles back

Haha the horn section, that’s nice

Hey wait, who’s their rapper? Like what instrument does she play live?

And likewise, who’s the drummer?

More sparkles!!

So many of these songs feel like, somewhere between a 7 and an 8

8/10

One Black Night

Cute drums

80’s noir or something? This is an interesting sound

The chorus is Soaring though

Mmmm the “you and I” is so good

Yeahhh and then that high synth up there, that’s pretty

Post-chorus rap, let’s go

“Getting dark dirty naughty” oml

Did they just meow??

No lol that’s a synth

This is so funny though

Like I don’t know what to make of this song, but in a good way

9/10 I guess??

Back

Woah, all metallic ig

And now we’re all hip hoppy

And this is like, proper 80’s hip hop

Yes I understand how to spell back thanks

You’re only 24, this late into your career? Jeez

Actually fair enough, I know a couple of them were 14 at debut

Certainly Hyuna was anyway

“I’m not a doll” has to be one of the most cliched cliches in kpop

I’m so curious what the Korean is bc the chorus is So generic

Maybe that’s intentional though?

Bruh the bell out here like

Okay the vocals at the end are really nice, fair play

Oh apparently this is the least listened-to song on the album

7/10, I do not know what to make of this song

OPPA

…huh?

The hits, whatever they are, feel like firecrackers

The english though is So generic omg

This is another song that I just don’t know how to feel about

It’s enjoyable to listen to but like … what??

I heard ‘molla’, that’s like my favorite Korean word or something

Yeah the english is like, almost painful to listen to omg

Oh okay

Nmixx moment

This 100% elevates the song

Wait okay hold on what?

I guess that was supposed to be the Toy moment of this album then?

8/10 ?????

Faded Love

Love this soundscape

Mmmmm and here’s the beat, god man this synth is So good

If you asked me to grade this set of sounds then it would get an A+

Dude the vocals wait what

Da da da da da da… mmmm

I love the strings

Both the violins and the guitar

This bass is having wAY too much fun

Was that a ritardando for a second there?

9/10, this was purely enjoyable to listen to

GONE

It’s kind of amazing that Twice debuted in the same year as this album

Like how Red Velvet are older than 4 Walls, it just feels kind of Wrong for some reason

Oh as far as this song goes, this is Gamer

The synth runs are fun

Pretty vocals

You can tell I’m mentally fried by this point though by how little I’m trying

8/10

Remember

The second least listened-to song on the album

Feels kinda Disney in the intro

Oh no

That “clink”

I’d know that clink anywhere

That’s the slow jam clink

Yep haha, the drum groove, the vocals, the background music

But y’know what? They definitely earned it, both in this album itself and in terms of their career as a whole

I really like the “Baby I’ll always remember your love” lines, those are sweet

Yeah, we did in fact earn this. If the whole album was this then I’d hate it, but in context it actually fits so well

8/10

#album #kpop #Wonder Girls

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db-reviews · 2 years

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#118 - Raindance - Gryphon (1975)

Been a while since I have reviewed a Gryphon album, let’s change that. After their third release, Red Queen to Gryphon Three, the band has gone into a more progressive stance, more than they ever had in their career. At this time they had two fairly solid albums that played in their medieval wizardry, combining their folk influences with more electric styles of playing, creating a unique sound they bathed in. Here, in Raindance, we get some of the same-ish material that Red Queen to Gryphon Three brought to the table, but with something a little different this time.

The first time I heard this album I was very confused since it never really felt like Gryphon, heck more like a variety of other bands that weren’t them. This could be due to them trying to evolve their more progressive rock sound they started with Midnight Mushrumps and evolved with Red Queen. However as shown with the first track of Down The Dog, it seems like sometimes evolving to where you cannot have much of your original sound retain some curfew is a way to make you fly too close to the sun. The thing about Gryphon that made them special was the medieval sound that they have retained since their beginning, and only expanded more through their career. Here though it is all but lost. We get keys similar in vein to Gentle Giant, fewer acoustic instruments, and a lot more percussion than usual. Not only does it not feel like Gryphon, it feels more like parodying off of progressive rock but not doing it effectively, unlike some of their other progressive folk contemporaries (cough cough Jethro Tull). While it is far from bad, it’s far from Gryphon, and in its wake, I cannot feel right at home with it.

Despite this, they do have some folk aspects still retained, like in the title track of Raindance. This album's new age mix to their past sound does give me a glimpse of an idea that Gryphon might’ve had for this album. With Red Queen, it was a concept record based on a game of chess, with a lot of calculated yet seemingly random movements. For me this song could relate to maybe another concept that was scrapped away with, possibly the concept of rain as they transform their sound to something a bit more electronically wavey than more rock-ish. As for the song itself it took me a bit to fully appreciate it. I think it does lead to an interesting development in the band’s sounds, and I’d say it is much more preferable for me in the context of Gryphon than anything else. It is a solid new-age track that feels weirdly at home with Gryphon’s past sound. As it does sound very much at home with Gryphon, it feels like they are taking a bit too many notes from the lack of Mike Oldfield or Tangerine Dream. I’d say this entire album feels like they are peeking at the homework of all the other acts that were going around, almost as if they are copying. This leads me to feel as though they aren’t trying as hard with this album, and that sucks a lot of the charm of Gryphon right out for me.

However, the most striking info for the claim in my point is a cover song of The Beatles’ Mother Nature’s Son. While I do not feel weird about the fact they are covering a song, it loses the album’s charm in every sense of the word. While the last track made me question if they were even trying, this is definitive proof that they pretty much aren’t. It’s kinda sad in a way. It is like Icarus flying too close to the sun due to putting extreme faith in their wings. The thing that gets me is that none of the songs are bad, it’s just they aren’t original.

Things get more off-putting with "Le Cambrioleur Est Dans le Mouchoir" being almost a show tune that one of The Beatles would make. The thing too is that it pretty much doesn’t fit with Gryphon’s sound, creating the first true dud of the album. It is so short too that it makes it feel wasteful concerning the album as a whole. They wasted potential in what would be a mediocre album. This is even more so with the track afterward being Ormolu, however, with that track it does sound more like a classic Gryphon track so it may be the most original track on the album, but it is so short that it feels less like a track and just a snippet of what we could’ve gotten.

I think there should be some positives this album could bring, like for example with the Fontinental Version, a track that does feel like they aren’t copying anyone really and instead trying to create their progressive rock track for once. We get a unique, almost Irish-sounding symphonic-styled prog here, making a unique flavor that I think only a band as definitely experimentative as Gryphon is. While it does almost feel like the band became less of what they once were, it isn’t entirely bad and I think what it held in sound and scope does allow it to be a fresh and new track in a sea of mediocre melodies.

The last few shorter tracks of Wellbanger and Don’t Say Go end with a Canterbury stylization, very much like Caravan. I have stated before that this made it almost extremely lackluster and unoriginal, so you can connect the dots with that. A shame.

However, we get a huge glimpse of what the album should’ve been with (Ein Klein) Heldenleben, the 16-minute epic that feels like what the evolution of Gryphon’s sound should've been on this album. A mix of the more electricity of guitars and keys with the acoustic medieval stylizations that they were popular for. This feels like what Gryphon should sound like, minus the more rock-layering drums. Each small movement brings me to the same joys Red Queen led me on when I first reviewed it a while back. It ends pretty great too, not ending with a big guitar solo but more just strums of the acoustic guitar with light percussion. It is pretty great and their best epic since Midnight Mushrumps, heck it exceeds that song even further and beyond. It does make me ponder, like the man in the nude man on the album cover also listening to this album. It makes me ponder what this album could’ve been if they went in a more original direction than trying to copy their contemporaries. It is an epic that makes me question an alternate history where Gryphon led a different charge for this album that could’ve led them to further stardom rather than a fall from gracefulness.

It is very awkward how high Gryphon rose and how hard they fell within just two years. Red Queen was when they made their winning move, creating an album that, while imperfect, could’ve been the basis for a great progressive folk band that’d be considered a classic next to Jethro Tull or Harmonium. Instead, though, we get mere homework copying as Gryphon looks around the class, cheating on the test and only writing a fairly great write-up at the end of said test. No wonder 2 years after this release, and another album, they would disband, though they did come back in 2018 and made an album at the beginning of this decade so maybe after this day they learned their lesson. Hopefully, not certain, but hopefully.

2/5

#music review #album review #progressive rock #folk

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barsformars · 3 years

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reaction: when you are intimidated by them; ateez

req: Hi, could you maybe do a ateez thing where the reader is friends with another member and when the reader is introduced to another member by the other one the reader is scared of them or shy around them. (...) maybe this is simular to that be its when the reader and member meet for the first time?

a/n: thank you for requesting this! sorry it took this long and also it might be a lil all over the place this was kinda hard to write ngl jkesbfjefjwe but i tried my best so i hope you will like it hehet

genre - fluff, angst | pairing - ateez x reader | warnings - brief mentions of food | word count - 2.3k

⭒❃.✮:▹ seonghwa

you honestly didn't think for a second that you would be this timid and shy in front of seonghwa because even jongho didn't make you feel this way, despite his inhumane strength and athleticism. you've also heard from jongho many times that seonghwa is nothing like how you would think purely based on his appearance, but it's hard to remember that when you're right beside him as the two of you wait for your orders at the coffee shop, his slightly furrowed eyebrows as he typed away on his phone only amplifiying the sheer coldness of his aura.

"oh sorry about that, the boys were asking me to get some fruits from the convenience store on our way back," seonghwa said as he slid his phone back into his jeans pocket. "so i heard that you two met at the gym?"

"who?" obviously he meant you and jongho, stupid, you thought to yourself as you held back the urge to facepalm, not only because of how stupid that question was, but also because that came out about 5 times higher than your normal speaking voice, you literally just squeaked.

"you and jongho, met at the gym right?"

"oh, jongho...yea" it was very obvious to seonghwa now that you were either intimidated by him, or you had a thing for him, because back at the studio you were socialising pretty well with the other members even without jongho's help.

seonghwa would probably try to break the ice between the two of you by sharing some stories about jongho and hoping that you would be able to relate and share some too, like "you know, everytime i order iced americano with more than one pump of syrup, jongho just has to say that he drinks his without any"

"I KNOW RIGHT, but im telling you he does, sometimes, after an intense workout."

"urgh, i knew it"

⭒❃.✮:▹ hongjoong

it was simply just how serious and intelligent he had looked while he was discussing about what he was envisioning for the current song he was working on with the other producers in the studio that scared you. he was more impressive than you had expected and you blame that on seonghwa for always telling you about him as if he was this very soft and shy music geek that seonghwa had to baby, which is true to a certain extent but really, to say that was an exaggeration.

"what do you think?" hongjoong asked once the two of you were alone again in the studio, the both of you just waiting for seonghwa to come back from his morning radio schedule before heading out for some food. he had played a snippet of what was supposed to be one of the title tracks for their upcoming album and you honestly really liked it, but you hesitated with that comment. you were scared that your simple comment would sound very thoughtless, how could you not when the other producers actually had constructive and educated feedbacks?

"i think the addition of the...uhm...gayageum..sound..at the prechorus part was nice, and then the change in...counts..at the chorus was refreshing and..unique."

hongjoong could only chuckle at how you were trying your best to give him a proper feedback, not because he found it ridiculous but because it was endearing and he appreciated it. and he was really only asking while expecting a simple answer, because if the song didn't sound good it wouldn't matter how creative he was with it. if the both of you were friends, he would most definitely tease you saying that he didn't change the counts even if he did but for now he just says, "so it sounds good, yes?"

⭒❃.✮:▹ yunho

everyone would probably think that you're silly if you told them that you were intimidated by yunho. yunho? that cute handsome guy with soft cheeks and the warmest smile? really? maybe because everyone described him as such that you were disappointed with how....cold he actually was, in comparison, when hongjoong had finally introduced you to the other members. it's not that he wasn't friendly, he just didn't take the initiative to strike up a conversation with you like you had expected him to, and frankly, you were planning to rely on his extrovertedness to ease you into this new social circle. it felt like he was doing everything out of courtesy because you were hongjoong's friend and that he actually didnt really like you or your vibe or whatever it was. every move he made, everything he said, all felt so robotic and well thought out. and that scared you truly because, is he always like this? is this who he really was as a person?

but yunho is quick to pick up on the fact that you were giving him back the same energy he gave you even though you were quickly warming up to the other members and the room was getting a little noisier. he still wouldnt randomly jump in and start a conversation with you because that would be so weird after half an hour of completely treating you like a random stranger so he waited until someone brought up a topic that the both of you really enjoyed — gaming.

so of course yunho takes the opportunity and asks you to play games with him, and from then on you could see that he was finally putting his mask down and being more like what you had expected. i mean, it's hard to hide your true personality when youre playing an intense game. anyways, he ended up apologising for being so "fake" initially and that he was only doing that because he didn't want to embarrass hongjoong in front of his friend. he's a thoughtful boy.

⭒❃.✮:▹ yeosang

yeosang is a certified good boy by all his members and you know they love him to death, even picking him as the only one they would introduce their sisters to if they had one. he's just as thoughtful as yunho, i don't doubt it, but in a very different way. if yunho was "okay i cannot do anything weird or hongjoong would look bad", yeosang was more of a "how far can my jokes cross the line with them? should i start off with some easy banter and sarcastic remarks to give them a feel of how it's like to be my friend or should i just bombard them with the worst and see whether they are still up to be my friend"

so you and yunho decided to make some food so that you could all bond over a meal and yeosang just happened to come into the kitchen to get a glass of water. yunho pulls yeosang over to the stove, feeds him a spoon of whatever you were in charge of cooking, and asked, "how does it taste"

"i can tell you tried your best but birds of the same feather really flock together" and it really doesn't help that he says it with such a stoic face.

honestly? yeosang thought that it was pretty decent, but in his mind, just saying "it's good" sounded way more insincere and thoughtless than a banter. it's as if no matter how it tasted he would have said that it was good anyways because it was polite, and yeosang didn't want you to feel like that was the case. but how else was he going to express his thoughts and emotions without being too weird like showering you with praise.

but the moment he saw you kinda panic and grabbing another spoon to taste your food hurriedly, and the way your eyes could no longer meet his own both out of embarassment and intimidation, he quickly clarified himself, "i mean it's edible"

"yeosang, that is not making things any better"

⭒❃.✮:▹ san

maybe it's because you were so used to yeosang's dry humour and icy cold rbf that when you met san, who just oozes gentleness and warmth despite his insanely godlike facial and bone structure, you were intimidated. it made you feel so small because, damn, people like that really exist? he has such an outstanding aura physically yet he is so down to earth, the contrast between his personality and his looks so large that it didn't feel real. you were definitely putting him on a pedestal on this point because its hard to remind yourself that he is also just a normal human being like yourself when he was that perfect in your eyes.

yeosang had left you alone with san in the dance studio because you have been requesting to see him dance up close irl for the longest time possible. and you dont know if you had overestimated your ability to not be so obviously awestruck in front of san, or if you had underestimated his ability to make you feel so small and irelevant. watching from the side, your eyes only dared to watch his reflection in the mirror instead of his actual body, and san could tell what you were feeling right away as he also watched you through the mirror in front of him.

san would do anything to make people feel comfortable around him and if messing up the choreography was going to make you see him more as a human you could befriend rather than a great performer that you could never associate yourself with, he would gladly do so. so he does, pretending that he had slipped a little, or falling to the floor halfway through a tough choreography and all of that while he made eye contact with you and laughed at himself.

"it's so hard, im so tired. y/n, save meeeee," he would also whine a little later in the dance session, figuring that by opening up a little more, you would do the same too, hopefully. and it worked, because by the time yeosang comes back into the dance studio, he feels like a third wheel but for friendships if you know what i mean.

⭒❃.✮:▹ mingi

he looks so put together, his voice sounds so mature just like his thoughts and the things he say, his presence just as big if not even bigger than his height itself, his aura just as sharp and intimidating as his facial features. it's not that you feel that you don't deserve to talk to him, of course you do btw, it's just that you feel like you shouldn't, like you would only make a fool of yourself. because the brands that he's wearing right now? some of them you haven't even heard of before and you feared that he would think you were shallow for only knowing more mainstream luxury brands.

and mingi only made things worse when he complimented your shoes which were probably ten times cheaper than his, he didn't do that to point out and remind you that your shoes were not as fancy as his, but somehow it felt that way. but he's not stupid, he can tell that you were internally shrinking when you hesitated to accept his compliment and even adding that they were very cheap, to which he said, "you know i wasn't born dressed in designer clothes, right? i don't appreciate things purely based on their price value, those are really some nice shoes you have."

you can't even blame him at this point because you feel even more stupid and shallow for thinking that mingi was a snob just because his outfit of the day could probably pay your tuition fees.

"hmm, san must have said that i was super cool and that he wants to be like me, huh?"

"huh?"

"why else are you so afraid of me?"

⭒❃.✮:▹ wooyoung

you appreciate how friendly he is, you really do. but perhaps someone needs to teach this boy how to GRADUALLY make friends with people and not just scream into their face and jump into their arms on the first meeting. you won't deny he makes you feel as if he has known you all his life, and it makes you feel very welcomed and accepted int his social circle but damn, you're scared. scared because what if you can't match his energy and he finds you not worth his time anymore, because this fast food type friendship always seem too good to be true, most of the time they are people looking to drag you into a cult but,,, uh, yeah,, anyways.

you and mingi have known each other for years now but the two of you have never even bit each other, not that it was a common thing to do between friends, but then wooyoung came and bit your shoulders before greeting you, "HELLO MINGI'S FRIEND WE'VE HEARD A LOT ABOUT YOU, NICE TO MEET YOU. YOU ARE HIS FRIEND SO YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY OUR FRIEND TOO"

even though he was so hyped up in front of everyone else, when only the two of you happen to be away from the rest, wooyoung would probably check with you if he had crossed the line earlier on. because while he wants to just be himself, he also understands that not everyone is comfortable with it, and that maybe him being so loud and open gave you no chance to open up to him, ironically. conclusion, he's also a thoughtful boy, just a little too excited sometimes.

"oh yeah, and sorry i called you "mingi's friend" instead of your name, i kinda forgot."

⭒❃.✮:▹ jongho

there's a lot of things about jongho that intimidates the hell out of you. why is this boy good at literally everything???? you wouldn't win him at sports, or singing, rapping, drawing, and the list just goes on and on. you were always a little intimidated by him, but today was just,,,, too much. so you were trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle with wooyoung and jongho just had to come into the room right when you were visibly stressed out.

"wooyoung, i really can't find this piece i need oh my go- grrrrr" you grunted as you sift through the countless number of puzzle pieces with one hand, the other pushing your hair away from your face. and jongho just watches the two of you quietly from the corner of the room with a plate of fruits in his hands because he doesn't know if it was the right time to interrupt.

"can i help" he finally asks after a few minutes. so you let him, and somehow he's piecing the puzzle together faster than you and wooyoung combined, and this scares you because now you feel like a fool. and being so stressed out in front of him was just embarrassing with how he was doing this with ease. on top of all of that, you didn't need to be worse than jongho in yet another aspect. but on the other hand, your friend was very amused.

"shit, how are you so good at this too" "you just got to stay calm so you can think straight and see clearly" jongho answers, intentionally shooting you a glance and a smile, and you feel heat rushing to your cheeks. you can't tell if he was making fun of you or not, though you would not even blame him for doing so. jongho leaves the plate of fruits with the two of you and leaves the room shortly after helping piece almost a quarter of the puzzle. but right before he leaves, he says "feel free to ask me for help if yall are still struggling"

"wooyoung, please tell me that was him being friendly"

#kwritersworldnet #kdiarynet #8makes1teamnet #ateezlovenet #ficscafe #ateez reaction #ateez scenarios #ateez writings #ateez imagines #ateez #ateez fluff #ateez angst #ateez ot8 #requested

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unsaid-stardust · 4 years

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“Julie and The Phantoms” No Longer Phantoms as They Debut at #1

Only a year ago today, internet band “Julie and The Phantoms” took the world by storm when they posted a cover of Taylor Swift’s “You Need To Calm Down”. From there, the band, which consists of lead singer Julie Molina (16), guitarist Luke Patterson (17), bassist Reggie Peters (17), and drummer Alex Mercer (17), continued to post weekly covers which garnered an average of 3 million hits per video. Sure enough, the band got picked up by Hollywood Ghost Club Records and signed on to record a total of 3 albums.

It would be easy to see that such rise to greatness could cause some trouble in paradise, but the band told a different story when I sat down with them at a local diner.

I was quick to notice that Julie had looked to her bandmates, careful not to overstep anyone wanting to answer, but the 3 boys had all eyes on her. Luke had nodded and teased “all you boss”, seemingly some sort of inside joke, which prompted Julie to take the lead just as she does on stage.

J: Ah well, we’re not really allowed to give any details quite yet, but we can say that there’s definitely some discussion happening behind the scenes!

I: of course! That all must be very exciting considering only a year ago today you guys were posting covers on YouTube!

L: Yeah, yeah it’s all super exciting. The boys and I had talked about it long before we even knew Julie, so it’s just crazy to see it all happening and now with a wicked beauty of a singer to light up the stage every night? What more could we have asked for?

Luke winked and clicked his tongue towards Julie who’s smile got brighter than before. The shooed her hand at the compliment though, a teasing “oh, stop it” sounding from her.

I: You mentioned that you knew Alex and Reggie before meeting Julie. Can either of you tell us how you guys all met?

A: Well Reggie, Luke, and I actually all knew each other since the 2nd grade. We met in the music room and the rest was history. With Julie though, Luke actually had seen one of her original songs--which was “Wake Up” I know that for a fact because you can’t forget the first time you heard a voice like that--floating around on YouTube at the time. Reggie and I had just been chilling in our studio and Luke came running in with his laptop and said-

R: Wait-wait! I Wanna take this one I do a great Luke impersonation

A chuckle escaped from Julie’s lips and the two boys in question had shook their heads.

A: Do you...? Okay.

Reggie then began to pretend that he was preparing for an acting gig, his thumb pressed to his two fingers as he brought them in front of his face, releasing a breath of focused air.

R: guys guys you have to check out this insanely talented wicked beauty. Her pipes are just insane

L: I did not say that

R and A: Yeah you did.

Julie took the reins then just as natural as she were taking the reins on stage.

J: Well, even if you did or didn’t say that, that is how you guys found me. They emailed me after that and they invited me over to their studio where we had a impromptu jam-sesh. We didn’t even have a song planned to practice which is how “Bright” was actually born. So, after copious amounts of begging and begging and begging-

Luke playfully punched the lead singer in the arm and as Alex and Reggie threw out objections.

J: ok ok, I said yes to joining the band right away and as Alex said earlier, the rest is history

I: Oh, you guys for sure were meant to make this history together. You just have this natural chemistry with one another. I mean just from hearing how you guys met and then from seeing you guys today--you guys have been so in sync this whole time. I mean Reggie, you and Alex answer the same. And Luke and Julie, you two have moved the same the entire time. It’s just amazing watching you all here and on stage. But speaking of Luke and Julie, I have to ask...are you two dating?

The two shifted in their seats, but they never took their eyes off of the other, which is not the only time that Patterson had been the culprit of doing so. Both took the time to answer giving Reggie the leeway.

R: They’re not, but they should be

It’s hard to tell if the sun had just hit Julie and Luke at the wrong time or if the L.A temperature had suddenly gotten to them, but Julie was quick to respond to the bassist.

J: A-ha you’re so funny Reggie. No, no we um....we aren’t dating. I love all the guys right here next to me and I feel like I’ve bonded with them so much over the past year; they're pretty much my family. Alex and I have dance parties in my room and paint each others nails and Reggie and I gush over Taylor Swift’s newest albums and Luke and I...we just have a different bond from songwriting, you know? So I really just take that speculation as having great chemistry with my band which is definitely needed when you spend hours locked in a studio trying to get an album done.

I: Speaking of the album, can we talk about the album cover for a minute? It’s just so unique and eye-catching! Can you tell us what inspired you to choose this for your debut album cover?

Alex: Our really good friend and PR assistant Flynn actually designed it. She said that she took into consideration all of our personalities and what made us “Julie and The Phantoms” and went into photoshop and designed this masterpiece. The colors behind us our each of our favorite colors and the space background kinda comes from the idea that all of us feel like something fated us together. The universe maybe, but whatever it was we were meant to play together. And the font is a homage to Star Wars for Reggie!

I: that’s amazing! So what you’re saying is, I need to contact Flynn for all my graphic designing needs?

The band immediately nod their heads in agreement.

J: yeah she’s amazing. She’s actually my best friend too and she was the one who really got us going. We wouldn’t be here without her!

I: Sounds like a true friend! Alright, well, thank you guys for letting me sit down with you guys. It was a pleasure, one more thing to ask though--if you could have written any existing song, what would it be?

R: ooooo definitely ‘home is where my horse is’ that one is a masterpiece

The band, excluding Julie, groaned at the title.

L: Reggie stop trying to go country it’s not gonna happen

A: and that isn’t answering the question since it doesn’t exist!

J: hey, hey, it exists in Reggie and Me’s heart ok.

The bassist reached over to high five the lead singer.

A: I wish I would’ve written “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by the icon that is Whitney Houston.

J: ooo that’s a good one. Anything by Alicia Keys for me. Or Aretha Franklin. Those two were definitely my idols growing up

L: oh “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day for sure. The lyrics in that one hit hard man I'd love to just write a song that does that to people one day.

I: Well, looking at the charts, it appears like you might have already! Thank you so much again for sitting down with me today. Hopefully we’ll get to talk sometime soon and I look forward to seeing what you guys get up to in the future!

You can now stream “Bright Forever” on Apple Music and Spotify!

#Julie and The Phantoms #Jatp #julie molina #Luke patterson #Alex Mercer #reggie peters #jatp au #jatp edit #this is sort of an au I guess #literally dont know how this happened lmao #sakljdfh #bree edits jatp

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dandaelions · 3 years

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kai's 🍑 album thoughts

yeah this is a week late. I tried. 🤠

peaches: ooooh the opening is so pretty and atmospheric, love the cascading twinkles here. the electronics in the background add so much movement between jongin's spoken phrases. OH THEN THE BEAT DROPS and that's so satisfying! I feel like there's quite a bit of empty space and it really gives you that feeling of being suspended in space and time - reminds me of taeyong's "long flight" and key's "eighteen (end of my world)". love the contrast between the softer elements and the beat machine. jongin sounds so soothing, like a golden voice in the wind. oh the bridge is so interesting - at first the beat is paused, and then comes back in double to add some nice texture. oooooh that sustained note! very nice and pleasant, this is a vibe!

vanilla: interesting instrumentals - almost sounds like a summer rain pattering away on a window. a bit more subdued and quieter than "peaches". the daft punk-effect on his voice adds an interesting texture and contrasts with his quite exposed voice in other spots. the ending with those horns is a really nice touch. warm and calming, just like a vanilla candle :)

domino: HE SAID WAKE TF UP WE GOT SOME 🍑 TO POP!!! reason walked so that domino could run!!! oh man this is what I was waiting for - just some good dirty 808s and house-shaking bass lines. OH FCK IS THAT JONGIN??? wow I don't think I've ever heard him sing in this way before, with his natural chest (?) voice instead of elevating it like he normally does (again I don't have a formal vocal training so sorry if those are the wrong terms lol). the call-and-answer section adds so much groove omg. oh but then in the pre-chorus he switches to his normal singing voice which adds so much contrast! this sounds kinda like a throwback to 90s or early 2000s hip-hop and rap, and it's so refreshing after the slower songs that came before. yeah this is my fave!

come in: back to the same atmospheric feels as the first two songs. ooh lots of syncopation here, it adds this disjointed-groove that's oddly satisfying. kinda sounds like what you'd get if you combined "peaches" and "domino". nothing super over-the-top going on here, super pleasant and smooth!

to be honest: hmm...the synths add a little bit more grit here and it's nice, but at this point it's all kinda starting to blend together sonically, don't know if I have anything unique to add here that I haven't already said for previous songs.

blue: a downtempo close to the album. I really like the muted beat machine in the beginning, but then they bring it back up to the surface again and it starts to sound a little too similar with previous songs. I really like how emotive jongin sounds here though!

overall: there's a warm, hypnotic aura that permeates through this album and pulls you into his dreamy world, quite different from his previous release. it's a very cohesive album, very well produced, but there's an element missing here that I can't quite put my finger on. I don't know if it's fair to compare this with kai the album, but I do feel that album is stronger than this. not that "peaches" is bad by any means, maybe it's just that my personal preference is to have more layered synths and heavier beats than this album had. "domino" was a nice reprieve! I wish there was some more sonic variety because it all ended up blending together. but it's been really nice to see some of the creative content accompanying this and I know this is just start of jongin's solo career. I'm really glad he got to showcase this side of himself!

#album thoughts #trying to fight through covid booster brain fog this morning so idk if any of this makes sense lol #yeah like a lot of it is just stuff I could put on in the bg and vibe to #nothing super complicated or jarring #but it also didn't hold my attention the way kai the album did #domino is a BOP tho!

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struwwelzeter · 4 years

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Ok, here it is. This is one of my all time favorite interviews. It doesn’t really contain anything new, and I am still convinced it has been translated before, but that is beside the point. He is so chatty, and I get the impression he was quite at ease with the interviewer, and he’s just and adorable dork. I gave up on trying to capture his “voice” pretty fast because it’s impossible. Maybe it’s because I know how he sounds when he speaks english, but he’s ... a bit of a hazard, in that he sounds dumb one minute and sophisticated the next, and some of the things he says are actually not translateable, so I just concentrated on trying to get what he says across and gave up on the how.

Interview with Richard Kruspe of Emigrate and Rammstein

by Marcus Schleutermann of Rock Hard Magazine, August 22, 2008

—-

Richard, where and in what kind of circumstances did you grow up?

Until I was seven I lived in a small village called Weisen. That was a beautiful childhood with alot of nature, cats and dogs and a big family with two siblings. Then the big break came unfortunately, with the divorce of my parents. My father was gone from one day to the next, and we moved in with my stepfather in Schwerin. We didn’t ge on at all. The situation between me and him escalated quite a bit and I often ran away from home quite often. Sometimes I slept on park benches or in a friend’s basement and was looked for by the police. When there was the chance to start an apprenticeship somewehre else I jumped on it right away and went to Hagenau. Since there was nothing there other than a big army base, I did nothing but spend two and a half years worth of sparetime playing guitar. Looking back, I have to say that my stepfather at least taught me basic discipline. I profit from that by now, because as a musician there is no outside obligation to sit down and compose every day.

Where would you most like to live?

At the moment, I live both in Berlin and in New York. I like that duality. New York has a unique energy that drives me. I never really warmed up to Berlin on the other hand. When I first came here, the negative attitude of the people here totally spooked me. It’s always a no at first. Apart from that it’s pretty cold here. But by now quite a few things have changed for the better, especially this refreshing multiculti-thing, which of course doesn't only work between germans and turks, but between all sorts of nationalities. I would most like to live in Cape Town. You have the mountains on one side and two oceans on the other. The people are open and friendly and there is a very beautiful light that is good for my mind. (I feel obligated to say that he uses the word «Gemüt» which could also mean mood or soul and kind of means all of those 3 things at once.) I can imagine that as a retirement retreat.

Were you more of nerd or a bruiser in school?

I think that goes without saying - quite a bit of a bruiser.

So you did end up in brawls now and then.

Certainly. At the age of 10 to 14 I got into situations all the time where I - lets say - could let loose physically. But when I started wrestling I learned how to chanel my aggressions. I trained 5 times a weekand had competitions on the weekends. Unfortunately I was way too offensive most of the time and had no patience while fighting. I wanted victory right away, like tyson.

Are your parents proud and of you?

I think my biological father is very proud of me. My mother always wanted something else for me, but by now my muscian’s life is okay for her. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you are successful. Especially for the post-war generation of my parents materialistic value is still held above evrything.

So what does money mean to you?

Essentially, only the freedom to be able to do what I like to do. Money means independency to me most of all. The problem with that is of course that you get used to a certain level of luxury and lifestyle. When I earned the first bit of money with Rammstein I was in seventh heaven and thought I would never need more. With my two apartments in London and Berlin and the constant travelling I need a bit more nowadays.

How do you define success?

Success is relative. With Emigrate I got great reviews, sold a good number of albums worldwide and got releases in America and Australia. Therefore, I could assess my solo project as a success, but in comparison with Rammstein, who sell millions, Emigrate are small fry.

What was the most miserable job you ever had?

The worst job was window cleaner, because I suffer from vertigo a bit [laughs]. Initially I was a truckdriver, but I lost my license after an accident. After that the company deemed I was supposed to become a window cleaner and climb up the Schwerin television tower. No way! I just put up the ladder for them and told them: See you later! (He actually uses english for the see you later. More impactful, you see.) To get by, I made shoes myself and sold them. Espardrilles and the likes. That is funny, because I am actually not talented in crafts at all. But I am streetwise and inventive when it comes to survival. I always had to improvise to get by because I couldn't handle authority at all. As a teenager I apprenticed to be a cook/chef (Same word in german. Probably more a cook than a chef to be honest here.) That's a tough job going off the tough hours alone. Apart from that it gets quite hot by the stove after a while.

That is not that different with Rammstein’s pyro show.

Quite true, hahaha! I believe cooking and making music has so much in common anyway. I have always cooked without a recipe. I just take what is there and conjure up something delicious. Some things maybe don't fit that well in the beginning, but you learn that quite quickly and then you develop an intuitive sense. That is the same with composing.

What would have become of you, if you hadn’t become a musician?

Hm, good question. I would like to produce a band some time - so kinda switch to the other side. Other than that I love to write and could imagine screenwriting would be a suitable job for me.

Speaking of Hollywood, how about being before the camera? Are there characters you would have loved or love to play?

Two characters I find brilliant: Taxi Driver and Leon the Professional. And those gangster flicks are cool. Goodfellas and Reservoir Dogs for exemple.

So more the underdogs and the villains - not the heroes.

Yes, they just have more potential. After I shot some erotic scenes for a video the other day I could also imagine doing an entire film in that direction. I was quite nervous in the beginning, but the longer we were shooting the more fun I had. Erotic, mind you, not pornographic.

So, you’d undress for Playgirl?

Not anymore [laughs]. Although probably not before either. I do have a pretty easy going relationship with my body and run around naked in my apartment alot, but then I am not that exhibitionistic that I'd strip for some glossy magazine.

So you’re a at-home nudist.

Yeah, that's an east thing, I think. When I opened my apartment door in New York naked once when the door rang while I was in bed with my then wife, she was completely bewildered. The shameless ossis (east germans) and the prudish americans - that was a meeting of the worlds. [laughs]

Are you vain?

Unfortunately, yes. I'd like to be more above that because vanity is a negative quality that has something to do with insecurity and ego. I work on myself and as I got older I luckily developed a more casual attitude. At some point you start to accept the degredation of the body.

Theoretically you could counteract that with plastic surgery. How about an appointment with Nip/Tuck, hm?

That's not something for me, but I don't have anything against plastic surgery. If people are unhappy with their body and gain new self esteem and sense of life through an operation, they should go through with it. I do see a problem in the danger of it getting exorbitant and to develop some kind of addiction like with tattoos that goes far beyond the reasonable. The body won't go along with everythig after all, and such things as calf implants are pretty crazy.

Speaking of crazy, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

That must have been asking a woman to marry me two days after meeting her. She said yes, and the rest is history. (They are divorced at this point, as the article points out here - in brackets too.)

Cue: Woman: What type do you prefer?

Like almost everyone I do have some sort of type. You need a relationship that mirrors yourself and to develop. So in that sense you're looking for a partner that drives you forward in certain aspects. To have a good relationship you need to keep a balance of passion and friendship - if it's just one it will overturn at some point.

What do you think of groupies?

They just belong to it all. This symbiosis of star and groupie is like theater. The relationship between both has of course nothing to do with reality, and is just an illusion, but you shouldn't destroy that. I'm personally not really tempted by groupies because I like it when I have to fight for a woman. But I like the glamour their presence emenates.

Do you believe in god or reincarnation? Are you spiritaully inclined?

More and more. I don't believe in god in a church sense, but I'm a spiritual guy and believe in a form of justice; that the things we do come back to us in some way eventually. Karma, so to speak. I also have the slightly feminine habit of using astrology to understand people. I use it as a tool to decipher characters. Once you know how someone's house is build, it's easier to place their actions. To be clear: I don't mean horoscopes or such nonsense. There's alot of maths in astrology and you can't compare that with the usual star-sign pulp in TV programmes.

Could you live without television?

Nah. I have a huge beamer in my New York apartment's bedroom. I love lying in bed, smoking and watching good movies more than anything. That is the only thing where I can really switch of other than sex. Lots of both, please. [laughs]

Reading isn't your thing?

I used to read alot, but now I'm unfortunately too lazy for it most of the time. Even on the plane you get a monitor and a huge selection of movies since a while now. But I still have a good reading recommendation: The New York trilogy by Paul Auster.

What's the most important invention for human kind?

Each century has it's own big invention and right now that is clearly the internet. Before that it was electricity, which made everything else like the light bulb and the elctric guitar even possible.

To which era would you most like to travel if there was a time machine?

I guess the sword and blade time as I always call it. Knights templar, 11th century. I can answer that this well, because I like to watch even stupid movies when they deal with that period. I just have a huge affinity to it somehow and would love to find out how things were going back then.

Do you have a phobia?

Other than the aforementioned fear of heights I have a phobia of snakes.

When did you cry the last time?

Now you got me. That is a huge problem of mine because I just can't cry. I think that is a pity myself, because crying is an outlet with which you let grief go. Maybe that's why my music is so important to me, it's like my tear duct and helps me to live out my feelings.

——————-

- sorry for any spelling mistakes but I’m dyslexci and I can’t be bothered.

#i love this dork very much ok #what he says about gropies is 100% what this singer i used to know also said and it’s true and I believe it 100%#he is so predictable #paul auster of course what else #and then he wants to play wild west with the knights templar #i love him #struwwel translates #richard zk #richard z kruspe #rzk #rammstein

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argumentl · 4 years

Text

The Freedom of Expression Episode 23 - The worst album in the world rated highly by Kurt (Cobain) and (Frank) Zappa.

K: Hi this is Dir en grey's Kaoru, starting this episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome. Hows it going recently?

J: I've just had my wisdom tooth out, I'm still quite swollen.

T, K: Oh yeh, you are!

J: Its really tough getting your wisdom teeth out at 52 years old.

K: Its quite late to have it done, right?

J: Yeh, Im doing it late. What about you, Kaoru?

K: I don't have any left.

J: All four?

K: Yeh.

J: You had this hell already taken out?

K: Oh, it was awful with me!

J: When you had them out?

K: When I first had one of the bottom ones removed, it took about an hour and a half.

J: One hour...thats awful.

K: It was growing like this (*places fist horizontally against vertical palm)

J: Ahh, if its not growing like this..(*indicates vertical growth angle with hands). This type (*horizontal) hurts.

K: Then in the end, the anesthetic wore off. I had been given anesthetic, but it wore off.

J: Eughh!

K: Then after the tooth was out, my head hurt, my whole face hurt for about two weeks..I couldn't eat anything..It was hell.

J: You didn't have live shows did you?

K: No, not at all.

J: So, you had it done in your time off? Ahh, that sounds so painful. What about you, Tasai?

T: I still have mine.

J: Oh, you have them?

T: But after hearing this, I don't want to have them out anymore.

J: Hahaha

K: Are yours like this? (*growing horizontally?)

T: No, I think they are pretty straight.

K: Well, in that case, you don't really need to have them out.

T: Yeh, but yours sounds like it was painful, Kaoru.

J: For a hour and a half...that must hurt.

K: Yeh

J: Mine was out in ten mins, and Im still this swollen. I still have my lower left one remaining, Im gonna have to get that one out too...(*Kaoru smiles) Look at him! That face! Seriously!

Um, about Hanshin...

K: Hahaha

J: Didn't you say they would win by a mile, Kaoru?

T: He did.

K: They are...in last place by a mile. (*On screen note: 'The rank at the time of filming').

T: But they did win before now, so..

J: They did win before now?? He said they were gonna win by a mile!

K: Well, at the moment they've had two consecutive wins..then yesterday was raining, so that fell through, but..I think they are onto a good winning style now.

J: I see. From now on...

K: Mm, they finally got to the starting line.

J: Hahaha.

T: Starting with five in debt, right? haha.

J: This won't make them lose heart.

K: Well, cause they've only just started.

J,T: Well, yeh.

K: Everyone has ups and downs.

J: Thats true. Still, Hanshin are strong in the summer, aren't they?

T: Thats when they get consecutive wins, right?

K: Well, I mean, its always like this, last year was the same, but in the last month or so, they suddenly get good, its like 'Weren't you losing?' As soon as you realise, its like 'Eh?!, How'd you get that good already?'...kinda.

J: How come they can never get off to a good start?

K: Hmm, probably a lack of coordination, haha.

J: Hahaha.

T: Yeah, but at the start thier pitcher did catch corona and stuff, so they couldn't practice properly from the beginning.

K: Thats only an excuse.

J: Well, its tough, as expected. But, you know, I have zero interest in pro baseball, but this year..

T: You're watching it a lot!

J:...whether or not we'll have this event depends on it, so im putting my all into showing support. Still, it may be empty support, everytime I check the results I'm like, 'Whaaat?'

K: Oh, theres still a lot more to come.

J: Like, what was with those words you said with big subtitles, 'win by a mile'?

K: That was my desire. At the time this is broadcast, they'll be doing well.

J: I see

T: Right.

K: This will be broadcast in how many days? (*Works it out) Ah, maybe not by then.

J, T: Hahaha

J: Your attitude gets weaker and weaker.

K: Ok, lets have today's story please.

T: Ok, well this has been creating a bit of a buzz at Tokyo Sports, a really terrible band has been discovered to be in a list of Kurt Cobain's (of Nirvana) Top 50 albums. People who are into music might know this already, but the band is 'The Shaggs'. They are really terrible. I've also had a listen to them on Youtube, and you could say they sound like beginners, but I did think...Huh? Hang on a sec.

J: Hahaha. Like 'whats going on here?'　

T: Yeah. But somehow ???*1, and since this has come out in the news, its become quite a talking point.

J: I see.

T: Like people are saying, 'In reality, they're really good', or 'On no, they really are bad', and stuff. Joe, do you know of them?

J: I do, yeh. I've played them on the radio before, and whenever I do, there is a big response. When people hear this novice-like performance, they really respond. There must be something more to this. The sound quality of the recording is quite high, so whenever I play it, people think 'Woah, this is so interesting! ...'. What do you think of it, Kaoru? Have you listened to it?

K: Yeh, I have. Well, I mean, its a type of expression, right? I doesn't matter whether they are skilled or not. I thought it was interesting. It leaves a lasting impression .

J: Conversely, right?

K: ???*2

J: But if you had to say if they were skilled or not, you would say not, right?

K: Well, if they are seriously trying, then they are bad.

J, T: Hahah

J: If this is thier best, then they're bad?

K: Yeh, cause this is thier recorded sound. In that case, they're bad. But someone other than the performers has actually recorded this, and said, 'yes, lets go with this'.

J: Yes

T: I see

J: No one tried fix it.

K: Yeh, they didn't try to do a re-take or anything. They wanted to make the record.

J: This is the completed version, right?

K: Yeh, so maybe it was meant to be like this *3

T: So, if you look into this story a bit more, by the time of thier second album, their performance technique had improved a bit, and conversely, they lost their uniqueness. It erased what was special about them.

J: Ahhh, thats tough. But growing up in the 80s, back then all the pop idols were really untalented, weren't they?

T: Haha

J: But they made a lasting impression. Its not really a case of whether or not they were skilled. But, on the other hand...who was that guy?... *sings* 'Watashi no ohaka no mae ni...'...Akiyama something-or-other (*On screen text: Akikawa Masafumi*), I played some of his more rocky stuff on my show, but it didn't resonate because he's just too good.

T: Ehh.

J: The songs require a certain kind of atmosphere.. and singing really well like..(*imitates a tenor's voice*), it didn't work at all. It was interesting.

T: Yeh, so there's something more to it, other than just skill.

J: I think so.

K: Well, it also comes down to who it is making the songs.

J: Yeh, that may have something to do with it.

T: I see

K: I mean, I don't know if these people (The Shaggs) wrote the songs themselves, but the songs are unique precisely because this band is playing them. This is how they do it.

J: But surely, if the songs were played properly, they wouldn't be that impressive, right?

K: Right! Haha.

J: Thier uniqueness comes from thier lack of skill.

T: Joe, can you understand how Kurt Cobain and Frank Zappa would appreciate this kinda thing?

J: I think so yeh. Like, Kurt Cobain, even in his appearance, he was grungy, like, appearing in public wearing pajamas and stuff. And in the 80s, slightly before his time, there was also that computerised music, like ???*4. Frank Zappa was also mentioned, and he was an artist with really experimental aspects, so I guess they would like this kinda of thing, the type of thing where there nothing else like it. I can really understand that.

K: Yeh, people who know nothing about music might listen to some super technical and progressive music, and then listen to this, and they might think they sound the same. One of them might sound a bit off, but the other might sound way off to some people. They might just look at them the same.

J: Ah, that may be, yeh. Well, to put it simply...its not your average music, is it?

T: Yeh.

J: Its quite interesting. Its like you said Kaoru, if the progressive stuff is too advanced, it will be written off, and in this case, this band may be regarded in a similar way for doing nothing special. Still, is it possible? Whenever novices like me do Karaoke, you have to do something, don't you? Like, impersonating the singer, or getting a bit excited..if you don't, it would be a kinda chilly performance. So, with this band doing nothing like that...are they not cooperating or something?

T: Well, its hard.

J: Maybe they are professionals *laughing*

Kami: Its interesting how thier Dad forced them into it, right?

J: Oh yeh.

Kami: Its like, why does he know this stuff. They were forced..Didn't they say that in an interview or something? Thats quite interesting.

T: So, from what I've heard, thier Dad was on a mission to strike it rich, in a kind of swindler fashion.

J: Oh, that was it.

K: Ah, I see.

T: And made his daughters...

Kami: Ah, he was an imposter?

J: He tried to be

Kami: So he was witness to the recording and gave it the OK then?

T: Hmm, probably.

J: He was after something.

Kami: They had no money to record, so he just said, 'yeh, this'll do', kinda.

K: The Dad didn't have any talent either.

J, T: Hahaha

K: Or maybe he did?

J: Which is it?!

K: I don't know.

J: Right...But even if it was a ramen shop or something, if it said, 'The Worlds Worst Ramen', you'd want to try it just once, right? Its maybe the same kind of pattern.

K: But it does stay in your head, this band.

J: It does, surprisingly.

Kami: When you listen to it, there is some kind of message, right?

T: I see.

J: Well, Punk had to contend with a lack of skill, didn't it?..in that respect. 70s punk didn't use very complicated chords at all. But when it became more advanced, it kinda faded out.

K: Yeh, people from that generation ???? *5 There's quite a difference, isn't there?

J: There is, there is. What is that all about? Its like, why all the irregularity? Well, they are seeking something different, for sure...Well, we are getting carried away, but if you search for this band, you'll find it. If you search for 'The Shaggs', you'll be able to find them. The name of the album is 'Philosophy of the World'.

K: Ok, let's finish here. Please subscribe.

J: Yes, please do.

K: Thank you very much.

T: Thank you.

*1, 2, 4 Couldn't catch

*3 Could't catch explicitly, but I think thats what he means

*5 I can hear what he's saying, but I just couldn't put together what he means. Feedback always welcome btw!

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #tfoe #kaoru

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feverinfeveroutfic · 3 years

Text

chapter seventeen: the city by the lake

“So here we are in Lone Pine—what's next again?” Alex asked her as he drank down his fresh coffee.

“Independence. Fort Independence and also Manzanar.”

“Oh, damn.”

“Yeah. I remember the first time I polished up on my history and my dad told me about it. I was horrified, especially by how it's so close to home, too. But yeah, it's Independence, Manzanar, and then Big Pine, and then finally Bishop. We'll stop there and I'll show you one of mine and my parents' favorite places to go at during this whole road trip: right on the main street. Maybe the next time around—like when it's closer to summer, we can go up to Tom's Place—up the hill north of Bishop. My dad stopped at Tom's Place once years ago, and he said they have literally the best blueberry cobbler.”

“Yum,” Alex declared as he rolled his eyes up into the back of his head, and it made her giggle.

He sipped on his coffee some more and he peered out the window which looked out to the west. Mount Whitney was still buried underneath those clouds, but every so often, those feathery wispy sheets dissipated and they both looked on at those high jagged points as they stood strong and foreboding and blanketed with a fresh layer of pure white snow, like the highest most haunted castle in all of the land. Sam shivered at the sight of those points and then she returned to her French toast.

“Just looks cold up there,” he said.

“Where? Up there?” Sam pointed out the window to the top of the mountain, and he nodded. “You know, we're not too far from Death Valley.”

“Oh, yeah, there's that race they have every year. You know, the run from the very bottom of Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney.”

“Oh, that! Yeah! That takes place every summer, though. I mean, it makes sense—given how cold it is up there and everything but—still.”

“Right?” Alex showed her a little grin as he reached for another piece of toast. “We should go to Yosemite at some point.”

“I dunno if we can go up there, though,” she confessed. “I didn't see the sign that says that the roads are closed, but that one in particular on this side of the mountains—Tioga, because it's so high up—is closed for most of the year.”

“'Cause of black ice and whatnot,” he added.

“Right! But that's another adventure for us, if you ask me, though. When I went on the road trip with Louie, he mentioned the Eastern Sierra being so peaceful. I kinda wish I agreed with him the first time around because—it really is. There's so much to this side of California. So much to offer, so much to see, so many unique adventures away from L.A., San Diego, and the Bay Area. So much more than meets the eye.”

“It's almost as if you're showing me the one place that you go to when no one's looking,” he said with a thoughtful look on his face. Sam hesitated and then it dawned on her. She really was showing it to him. She was showing him her quiet place. “And at some point, I probably should show you mine, too.”

“You have a quiet place, too?”

He nodded at that and the black hair dye on the crown of his head seemed to fade away with the movements of his head.

“It's not where you think, though,” he explained. “If and when you and I have time and there's a right place for it, I'll show it to you. And I want it to be just you and me, too—there's only one other person I think of who's been to it and that was my mom.”

“Mama took her baby to a place to keep him quiet,” she teased him as she brought her cup of coffee to her lips.

“Yes! Exactly!” he laughed at that, and he raised his coffee cup to her and they made a toast to one another. A toast to one another and then they ate up the rest of their toast. He took one last sip of his coffee and then he leaned back in his chair.

“Feel better?” she asked him.

“Oh, yes,” he replied with a nod of his head and a hand on his stomach, “a lot better actually. I was getting ready to roll out of the car, chase something down and kill it with my bare hands.” She burst out laughing at that.

“I was, though!” he insisted. “And it was that—like—real sudden hunger, too. You know, it's like you're fine one second and then all of a sudden, it's like 'hooooly fuck, I'm starving!'” He said that last part under his breath. “It's sudden and leaves you feeling kinda sick, too. It's almost like you're carsick.”

“Ooh, yeah, that sucks,” she said with her nose wrinkled, and then she took another sip of her coffee. “It also didn't help you were actually in a car, too.”

“Right!”

One more sip of her coffee and then she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

“Shall we?” she offered him.

“We shall,” he said back to her and he put his sunglasses back on over his nose and gave his flattened stomach a loving pat. Sam led him back outside, and she held the door for him all the while.

“Thank you,” he told her and he adjusted the lapels of his windbreaker. The cold winds flooded down from the Whitney Portal and the rugged tall mountains off to the north; she huddled closer to him as she got the keys ready for the next stint of the trip and yet even more cold desolate desert.

Soon, they returned to the road and the short series of stoplights all the way to the edge of town and even more barren, wide open road. Alex peered out the window and the morning sun, which had now risen up over the windswept landscape: a fine layer of clouds blanketed those cold rays as if it behaved as a veil. The shine on those mirrored lenses appeared as more of a glow rather than a straight glare.

“So new album's gonna be called Practice What You Preach, right?” she asked him as the signs for Manzanar entered her view.

“That's the running title, actually,” he explained, “I do hope it's gonna be called that. It just feels appropriate, you know? Especially for this time and era, but at the same time, I don't wanna be like—really on the nose about the things I'm thinking of with writing lyrics.”

“The power of art!” she said. “I still owe you a demo.”

“It's okay,” he assured her, “we needed breakfast after all. And there's so much you wanna show me, too.”

“There really is, Alex. Like I said, this whole road is like a gateway to a whole bunch of adventures. A lot of things that so many don't know about, and a part of me wants to keep it all to ourselves.”

“You didn't call it a quiet place for no reason,” he pointed out.

“True.”

On the left side of the highway, the sage brush and scraggly low trees gave way to partially collapsed chain link fences and the low buildings that made up that old Japanese internment camp. The house in Elsinore felt like a prison for sure, but the sight of that old abandoned compound left Sam speechless. She took a glimpse over at Alex and the thoughtful expression still plastered on his face, even with the sunglasses upon his nose.

To think that she and him wanted nothing to do with each other at one point, much like how she didn't care for Marla at first, and to the point she was willing to take Charlie from her. She still had a long way to go with him, especially when the beautifully desolate desert gave way to even more low rolling foothills and steep slopes along those ferocious towering mountains with their thick sheets of snow, those massive, thick glaciers indicative of the Palisades, the rather treacherous part of the Sierra Nevadas. Even in broad daylight, they looked ready to take these two young kids under their darkness as if they were dragons that guarded the castle down by Mount Whitney.

All along the fine white sands under the seemingly endless droves of scraggly sage brush. All within even more black volcanic rock.

Within time, they reached Big Pine and the titular big sequoia tree at the northern end in all of its lush light greenery even in the dead of winter, like the tallest turret of the castle.

“Here's a fun li'l fact for you, Alexander,” Sam started again. “That tree right there was planted by Teddy Roosevelt.”

“Really?” He was genuinely stunned by that.

“Planted it almost a whole century ago, and it just got bigger and fuller and healthier with time.”

“Sounds like my belly,” he joked, and she laughed at that.

“Past that tree is yet another road to Death Valley. But keep going on it and you end up in Nevada and eventually the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest—right on the other side of those mountains over there.”

“Ancient bristlecone pines,” he echoed that.

“Literally some of the oldest trees in the world out there.”

“Yet another adventure for us.”

“Right?”

The Palisades soon gave way to a far more elaborate complex of rugged rough mountains, all covered with even more snow and glaciers. Meanwhile, the sun dipped behind a thicker part of clouds, such that Alex took off his sunglasses and revealed his deep set eyes to the world. The black hair dye upon the crown of his head glimmered and shone under the faint gray winter light and for a second, she swore that she saw that little tuft of gray there right over his brow once again.

“Do you plan on dyeing your hair again?” she asked him.

“Um—” He stopped and those eyes caressed over the immense corridor of land before them. “Actually—no. Unless there's a reason for it.”

“I don't want you to,” she told him. “That little tuft of gray hair is what makes you—” She hesitated for a second in search of the right word. “—unique.”

He nibbled on his bottom lip and sighed through his nose. She was sincere with that: that little tuft of premature gray set him apart from everyone else whom she had known before then.

Another fifteen miles of flat sands across the landscape and soon the first trees, the ones that weren't bristlecone pines or anything akin to them, appeared in their view. The mountains dipped away into the low hanging gray clouds and gave way to a bowl shaped valley before them. The town of Bishop emerged in their view.

“So the place that my parents and I liked to go to on the way through here,” she began as they slowed up for the main street and the deserted, rolling golf course off to the left, “it's—on my side.”

He looked out the windshield along with her. They rolled at a slow pace, past all the little shops and boutiques. The big city of the middle of nowhere right at the base of all the giant mountains. All the rocks to climb and master. All to uncover and carry the weight upon: for a fleeting moment, Sam thought of Belinda and how much she loved to work with her hands. She wondered how Belinda would fare in such a stark terrain because it all but required one to work with their hands, especially if they were artists.

She recognized that rusted sign as it poked out from the side of the road, right beyond the stoplight at the center of town.

“Ah! Here we are.”

Lucky for them, there was no one else in the parking lot given it was New Year's, and thus she eagerly took the first spot closest to the heavy wooden front doors, right in the narrow parking lot. The clouds overhead thinned out a bit for the sun's rays as it began to reach the apex of the sky: but the fact that the mountains had disappeared behind a block of white clouds told Sam that the snows were upon them.

She led him inside the bakery, into that initial narrow corridor followed by the room off to the left with all of the bread and pastries they could possibly imagine. On the far side of the room stood the case with all the fresh cookies and cakes either of them could ask for. She thought of Joey on the previous New Year's Eve, in how they could have all the ice cream they could possibly imagine some day.

A part of her felt as though she and Alex could have all the fresh pastries they could ever ask for some day themselves. Alex himself set a hand on his stomach even though they had only eaten an hour before; Sam raised two fingers to the older baker, who then took out one of the fresh dark reddish brown cookies with a kiss of pearly white frosting on the front side from the row right before her with a sheet of white tissue paper.

Alex chuckled at what she was buying for him.

“Yet another ginger snap,” he remarked.

“Except these have frosting on them—these are nothing like the one I bought for you when we were in Germany. And you're getting two this time around, too.”

“I really am going to gain weight hanging out with you,” he joked with a straight face and a shake of his head.

“It's all good for ya, son,” the baker behind the counter said. “Handmade ginger cookies.”

“Think of it as healthy weight,” she pointed out. “Healthy weight for your little body. And ginger's real good for your stomach, too.” She returned to the baker. “And I'll have one of these big round sugar cookies here, too, please.”

He kindly got the big cookie in question for her and then wrapped all three in that tissue paper, followed by a little brown paper bag. She thanked him and then the two of them doubled back towards the cashier: all the while, Sam swiped a bag of freshly baked cheesy bread from one of the racks.

“My parents love this stuff,” she told him. “It's like the ultimate road trip snack for us.”

“Just break off a piece and eat it every so often,” he followed along. “It's so humble. I kinda like it.”

“We don't have much but we have each other,” she stated.

“We don't have much but we have each other, right.”

She reached the cash register at the wooden desk first and she took out her wallet from her purse.

“I'm gonna be right over here,” he told her, and she nodded at him. She stepped forward with his ginger snap and her sugar cookie in that little paper bag as well as the cheesy bread, and the cashier rang her up in one fell swoop. She looked over at Alex as he walked on over there.

“Beautiful boy,” the cashier told her in a low voice. Sam glanced over at Alex, who gazed on at the rows of freshly baked breads on the racks on the other side of the room.

“Yeah, I guess he is,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. The cashier squinted her eyes at her.

“Hon—he's gorgeous,” she told her. “Don't lose him. It's not often you see a boy as gorgeous as him.”

Sam pursed her lips together and the cashier handed her her change. She just treated him as she would a good friend and treated him well, even with all of the complex thoughts she had in mind: she dared not look at Alex that way, especially with him still not even old enough to drink alcohol yet. She still had those thoughts within her, but thoughts would have to remain as thoughts regardless of everything else. She thanked her and beckoned Alex to follow her back outside to the gray late morning: the sun disappeared behind the thin veil of clouds once again as they returned to the car yet again.

“You smell like freshly baked bread,” she told him as he buckled in.

“And you smell—like—baked bread, too,” he retorted to her, to which she giggled at him. She fired up the car again and they doubled back to the mouth of the driveway, and back onto the main road once the light turned red. They were alone on the street: despite it being the big city of the middle of nowhere, the sidewalks had already rolled up for New Year's Eve.

She caught the next and final light green and she rounded a lefthand turn, away from the next turn off to Highway 6: she had a vague memory of that turn off, and how her father told her it extended all the way out east, all the way back to New England, but she dared not tell Alex that just yet. They had a mountain to climb in front of them.

The highway separated out into four lanes once again, two in their direction and two which headed back to Bishop: in between was a sandy barren center divider.

The clouds collected all around the summit of the gargantuan Mount Tom right before them.

“Right up this road here,” she explained as they stared the mountain straight on, “when we get to the top, is Tom's Place.”

“The place with the amazing cobbler,” he recalled.

“That's the one!”

They soon cleared the city limit and they meandered over even more barren landscape. So bare and stark, and yet there was something so endless and stunning about it all, much like the coastline. Where the coastline with Louie's presence proved to be serene and intense at the same time, the mountains paired with Alex's presence brought her in touch with herself more than ever. She dared not tell him about it as they reached a series of pastures and ranches on the edge of town.

The highway took a sharp curve around the bend and they were met with a daunting hillside.

“This part of the trip here bothers me the most,” she admitted.

“Why's that?” he asked her.

“It just goes up.”

“It just goes up?”

“All the way up.”

She realized that they were in an older car, too. She had no clue if they would reach the top still in a cool spot.

She gripped onto the rim of the steering wheel and sighed through her nose. The snows were upon them after all: she could feel it through the glass of the windshield.

She took a glimpse over at Alex and his relaxed pose, although those deep eyes were locked onto the cold pavement before them. Another glimpse and she realized how wide they had gotten with the sight before them, as if he had seen a ghost of some sort. She recognized that look in his eyes from the fire ball incident in Germany.

Sam sighed through her nose and, once she switched off the heater, she let the road guide their way.

They climbed all the way up the hillside, a continual gradual incline to the very top, high above the desert and the Owens Valley, and almost level with the mountain tops. The halfway point already had a fresh dusting of snow upon the ground.

“Jesus,” Alex muttered as the road continued on and on up the side of the hill.

“Yeah. People overheat on this mountain pass all the time.” Once the words left her lips, they passed a trailer with a water tank aboard specifically for that problem in question. She took a glance down at the narrow red needles within the gages: the one with the temperature rose a little bit but she knew their saving grace was the cold and the snow.

More snow emerged along the sides of the road. More snow, more slope. Alex shifted his weight in the seat: he clung onto the safety bar over his head. His breathing was steady but she could still see it in his eyes.

They both sat still until they spotted that sign on the side of the road that told them they reached the top of Sherwin Summit. A gentle curve downwards and then the road finally leveled out. At least a foot of snow covered either side of the road and all of the dark forests that lined the way. Miles and miles of thick dark forest covered in white snow so they resembled to those fake trees on a display at Christmas.

“Reminds me of the Black Forest,” Alex said aloud.

“Reminds me of upstate New York,” Sam followed up.

It really did, too: the highway snaked through the trees, complete with big views of Mount Tom and all the snow capped mountains before them, and Lake Crowley and the Long Valley Caldera along the way it all made her think of Finger Lakes and the thick lush forest that she and Joey drove through over to his parents' house. Alex switched the heater back on, but it was rather futile given the cold and icy feeling of everything outside the car.

She pictured Joey in the back seat right behind them as they passed the turn off up to Convict Lake as well as even more forest. She knew that, had she shown him this trip sooner, he probably would never have met Krista in the first place. He probably would love this place as well, especially with the added fact that it was all volcanic.

“This place is so stunning,” Alex remarked as he peered out the window to the vast volcanic plain, now blanketed with fresh pure white snow. “Can't believe this has been right under my nose the whole time, too.”

“Some day I'll show you Convict Lake, Rock Creek Lake, and June Lake,” she vowed as they scoured the rim of Lake Crowley: its black waters glassy under the gray sky and in between the white snow. “There's one place I haven't been to up here with my parents yet and that's Mammoth Mountain, Mammoth Lakes, and Devil's Postpile, right up this way—”

Straight ahead, Mammoth Mountain towered back against the cold gray, but soon they reached another gentle curve in the road and headed for more dark forest. More dark forest lined with small snowy clearings and tiny ponds of black icy water.

“Somewhere along the way here is Obsidian Hill,” she told him as they slithered through those tall trees, “a literal five hundred foot high pile of obsidian.”

“Volcanic glass,” he said.

“Don't take any of it, though,” she advised him. “We are in a volcano, after all.”

“Something about the goddess Pele or something?” he recalled. “I remember reading about her in that book when we were in England. The one where I read about the Wandering Jew. Like if you take something from a volcano, it'll erupt or something—I don't completely recall it.”

“Please the goddess somehow,” she declared. “But how is another question.”

They reached the top of the next ridge, albeit a low one in comparison to the hulking Obsidian Hill, which hid away back in the trees like a troll. Another sign appeared on the side of the road which told them they reached the top of Dead Man Summit. At that point, Alex set a hand on his stomach yet again.

“Ginger snap time,” she said.

“Time for a snap,” he said with a snap of his fingers. He took one out of the paper bag in between them: right underneath it was the cheesy bread. While he took a cookie for himself, she reached into that bag with one hand. With two fingers, she sloughed off a piece of that bread and stuck it in her mouth.

“Yeah, I'm gonna be so plump by the time I'm thirty,” he confessed as he broke off a piece of ginger snap and set it on his tongue.

“Let me ask you something,” she began.

“Ask me anything.”

“Why are you so concerned about your weight? Like that's something that I worry about. I've never met a guy who was so finicky about that.”

“'Cause I'm Jewish—we have health problems galore. Obesity and trouble with the heart runs in my family, too.”

“Aw, I had no idea.”

“It's okay—you didn't know. But—you know—I can't help myself sometimes. I don't care. I like to eat!”

“You grew up in the Bay Area, too. You guys aren't really known for your food so much.”

“No, we aren't! When we eat, we eat.” He took another bite of ginger snap and closed his eyes.

“Man, I wish we had Mexican hot chocolate with us,” she declared. “You ever had that?”

“YES,” he replied with his eyes so big that he resembled to a cartoon character.

“I made a couple of cups of that for Cliff when we were together,” she said in a soft voice, “he loved it. And I feel like that cookie there would go excellent with a little cup of that.”

“Oh, my god, talk about spicy,” he said as he covered his mouth with his free hand. He then swallowed. “By the way, what's the food like over in New York? I only caught a small sliver of it the times Testament went out that way to record but is it really as extensive as everyone says it is?”

“That's an understatement,” she told him. “Alex, I only lived there for three years but I feel like I only scratched the surface. Marla and Bel know far more about it than I do and I think they get overwhelmed from time to time.”

“Jew boy paradise,” he said as he took another bite.

They passed the June Lake Junction followed by a small series of frozen creeks in the woods, and then they were met with a watershed in the shape of a small valley. A thin layer of snow covered the grass out there. Once Alex finished his ginger snap, he licked his lips and gave his black hair a little toss back. In that stint of the trip alone, the black hair dye faded even more to the point Sam could actually see those grays once again.

“Kinda thirsty,” he said.

“We'll stop in Lee Vining and get some water,” she assured him, “we need to get gas anyway.”

Indeed, they turned the next bend, which brought them down lower into the watershed: off before them stood the noxious glassy salt water Mono Lake. They turned another bend and she caught a glimpse of the salty turrets down by the shoreline.

“I remember Mark Twain talking about this lake,” he said aloud, “how it's so salty that it's like swimming in brine.”

“Yeah, it smells, too,” she added, and she couldn't help but think of the East River back in New York all the while; “and not how the beach and the ocean smell, either. Salty and even more volcanic than Lake Crowley. Not the best combination for humans.”

Even though it was midday, the shadows of the mountains next to them cast down upon them like a veil. Sam thought about Zelda and the name she wanted to give the Cherry Suicides' album, that of Black Veils. She was yet another person she wished could see this trip with her and Alex.

They passed the turn off for Tioga Road, which led into Yosemite, and all the while, he muttered, “some day... some day...” to himself.

“Some day, indeed,” she vowed; the road dipped down and they slowed up a bit for the town of Lee Vining. She brought them to the gas station right in the center of town, where he offered to fill them up and she offered to get him some water. She was the only person in that gas station, too, such that she considered merely taking the water bottles for herself when the clerk in the back stopped her in her tracks. They had a good laugh but she was in fact serious about it.

“Man, there is no one here,” Alex said as he stood before the tank door and held the pump steady.

“Middle of the day on New Year's Eve,” she told him, “all the hicks and the tourists went home or they're in the city.”

Within time, and after he washed his hands, they were back on the road and they scoured the edge of Mono Lake. He peered out the window at those dark waters as they loomed just under the road's edge. Lucky for them, the snow hadn't yet come again and they cleared the lake's edge in no time. They stared straight ahead to the next kink in the road, or rather series of kinks in the road as they ascended up another side of a mountain.

“Yet another hill,” he said as he took a piece of cheesy bread for himself.

“Well, at least this time around they got it right,” she assured him as they turned the first right hand corner.

The next one turned left and they rose up a bit. The next one to the right. To the left. To the right. And on the third left one, Alex clasped a hand to his forehead.

“You okay?” she asked him.

“Kinda dizzy. This road is making me dizzy.”

“It's alright, we're almost at the top. Just one more little grind up this hill and—”

A sign appeared on the side of the road that told them they reached the top of Conway Summit, at eight thousand feet above sea level. They made a sharp right turn and began on down the other side of the hill. There at the top, the snow was the thickest it had ever been: tall steep drifts lined the sides of the separated highway as if they were genuine walls.

“Poor guy,” she said aloud.

“This is such a new thing for me,” he confessed, “being a city boy and all.”

“The rough country life is not for the faint of heart,” she told him. “Although a part of me sees you thriving out here.”

“Nah, I'd rather be in the city. Although that doesn't mean I can't not appreciate the wilderness, mind you.”

The road snaked along the other side of the hill: Sam peered out her window at the wispy light gray clouds over the mountains on the far side of the valley.

“Over that way is Twin Lakes,” she pointed out. “My mom's family visited this place so much when she was growing up.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, my great aunt is buried down here in Bridgeport.”

They scoured the edge of a huge snowy pasture and right before they reached the outskirts of that small town, they passed yet another junction to a road less travelled, the highway up to Yerington.

“We're getting close, Alex,” she told him as they strolled through Bridgeport, which too had buttoned up for New Year's Eve. “Another eighty miles—I think.” At the edge of town was another sign, but a thick layer of snow and ice obscured the words from her view.

Another straight shot across the pasture ended by a sharp right hand corner past an old dilapidated house surrounded by barren cottonwood trees, and they headed back to another series of hills.

“How's the car doing, by the way?” he asked her as he reached for his second ginger snap.

“Doing excellent! The only time I was kind of worried about it was when we went up the Sherwin grade. It got a little warm but it never went any higher because it's so cold outside. I dread to think how it'd be if we went in the summer time.”

“Oh, right? And how're you doing?”

“I'm doing excellent! My hands are a little stiff, but I've got it, though.” He flashed her a wink and took a little nibble off of the cookie.

The hills only rose up around them as if they too withheld dragons inside. All the dips and curves in the road and they were soon at the top of a hill. Another sign told them they reached the top of Devil's Gate Summit, and the fourth and final one to boot, and the one that ran adjacent to a creek.

But then Sam remembered.

Within a matter of minutes, those low snowy hills to the left gave way to high stony columns that looked as though they were about to close in all around them. And that creek gave way to a full on rumbling river that ran parallel to the road.

“Let me guess,” Alex started as he licked the crumbs off of his fingers and put his sunglasses back on, “this is the—Walker River?”

“Yes! It's the west fork, too. Even in the summer time, that water is so cold and crisp.”

“Just looks cold,” he remarked as he took a drink of water.

The black river waters washed over beds upon beds upon beds of smooth stones: every so often, a small waterfall emerged out in the open. Meanwhile, the two lane road wound through the meandering canyon like the full body of a serpent. A big beautiful serpent, lined with dense evergreen trees and tall high stony cliffs, to which the head brought them to more snow covered grass land and the rim of Lake Topaz.

“The stateline, Alex!” she declared as they zipped through the snowy scraggly trees.

“Just saw a sign back there that literally called this place 'the quiet side of California,'” he told her.

“And that's exactly what this is,” she assured him with a wink.

They rode all along the edge of the lake, which too appeared so cold and crisp that a mere glimpse sent a shiver down her spine. A final straight shot uphill and—

“Welcome to the Silver State!” Alex proclaimed as he took another drink of water.

“You know, I had a feeling we'd get here by the middle of the afternoon,” she told him as they passed a small casino on the side of the road. “Anyways—welcome home, Alex.”

“Ah, you're taking me to Carson City!” he declared.

“One of the three places I call home,” she continued, “the others being New York City and L.A.”

“Wow,” he breathed out.

The road led throughout more low hillsides and low forests, this time of stubby little bristlecone pines and pinion pines, and then they reached Gardnerville and Minden. Another ten miles across a flat valley and they reached a low ridge. On the other side was Carson City, that old familiar crown jewel that always felt so close and so far away at the same time.

A little ways down the main street and she turned right on Clearview Drive, followed by another left onto Silver Sage Drive.

That old familiar neighborhood, all of those old familiar houses now covered in a blanket of that infamous powdery snow. If only Charlie was there to see it for himself. If only Cliff could see it all, especially when held in comparison to the house in Reno.

“So this is where you grew up,” he said aloud.

“One of the neighborhoods, anyway,” she corrected him. “This one, one up in Reno, and the one down in Elsinore.”

“This is all so precious,” he declared, “it'd be like me taking you to the place I grew up.” He froze and then he looked over at her. She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Funny, uh—there's another place I wanna take you, too,” she declared, “but we gotta hustle, though. It might snow again.”

“Oh, yeah?”

She pulled up to the stop sign and nibbled on her bottom lip.

She remembered the way up. It would prove to be a bit of a challenge, especially since they had already gone over four hundred miles in that car. But she was willing to do it for him.

She made another left so as to head back to Carson Street.

Up the ever so slight hill, past the car dealerships and the little restaurants featured on the way out of town, and she recognized that old turn off to that big mountain road. She had only gone up that way once before and she was rather small when it happened. But that winding mountain road felt like visiting an old friend again.

She was amazed that it was even open despite all of the snow on the ground.

Alex shook his head a little bit at one point but she kept her focus on the pavement before her. A sharp turn followed by another and another so as to resemble yet another snake. He parted those sensual lips and let out a low whistle in response to the feeling within him.

But they reached the top, and all of those thick lush trees clustered together against the dense snow, and Sam recognized even more glassy black waters on his side, cradled by the stark mountain top.

“Spooner Lake, Alex,” she announced.

“Holy wow,” he breathed out as he ran his fingers through his black hair.

But it was an appetizer for what awaited them at the very top and beyond the forests and the next bend in the road as it overlooked the enormous valley down below, and as far as they both knew, the entire world at their whim. They had climbed the mountain to see the world, but before them was what she held dear, and for him in particular.

The snowy scapes cradled those freezing, perfectly still black waters before them. Where they had seen the ugly salt waters of Mono Lake, they were met with the massive beauty of Lake Tahoe. Alex lifted his mirrored sunglasses off of his nose for a better look before him.

“One of the places my mom loved going to when she was growing up,” Sam started again as the road gently dipped downward, “was Incline Village.”

“Is that what this is down here?”

“Nah, this is Glenbrook over here. Incline's over that way—” She pointed out his side of the windshield and the lush banks of snow that covered the forest along the lake side. “I have no doubt that had she not picked Catalina, she would've moved there. To the city by the lake.”

“What stopped her?”

“Her publisher's based out of L.A.”

“I see.”

“We'd have to turn around and head back to Spooner Lake to get there, too. But—” She bowed her head for a better look out the windshield. Even though it was only five o'clock in the afternoon, the night was upon them, as were the storm clouds overhead. All the way up they had gathered around the mountain summits, but now they were officially upon a mountain summit, and thus it warranted snow.

“I don't know if we can get back over there before the snow comes in, Alex,” she said aloud. “Or back down for that matter. That road sucks when it snows.”

“What do you think we should do?” he asked her, concerned.

“Well... we have that blanket in the back and we have our jackets with us.”

“That means we gotta fold the seats back, though,” he pointed out.

“And? Here—”

She slowed to a stop at the next side street, which brought them closer to the water's edge as well as a few long low buildings, including a bar. Once they had come onto smoother pavement, the winds picked up. She pulled behind the bar, away from the water and ultimately the incoming wind and the blizzard.

“We'll park behind this bar here so we're out of the wind.”

“Eat some more of that cheesy bread, too,” he said.

“I'll go into the bar here if you want something more to eat,” she promised him. “I don't have much left on me except enough to get us back down the hill and then over to some place like the Bay Area, but that's for later on, though.”

“And I'll keep you warm,” he promised her.

Five o'clock in the afternoon and yet Sam was exhausted, with no desire to go any further. Indeed, she could see it on his face as well. Both of them had traveled hundreds of miles together and without the sense of a tour lingering over him in particular. She killed the engine and they both climbed out. Both of them wore windbreakers and yet Sam knew it wouldn't be enough. He opened the passenger door and took the blanket off of the seat before he adjusted it back: she did the same when flurries fluttered down from the darkening sky overhead.

“I got another couple of jackets back here, too,” he told her as he took a pair of dark puffy jackets out from under the seat closest to him. “Use these for pillows—”

He rolled up the first one and lay it down in front of him, and did the same for the next one.

Sam brushed the extraneous snow off of her head before she climbed in and onto the flattened back seat. Alex followed suit, although he had to skirt around the edge of the seat so he could lay right next to her. He shut that door above their heads and she shut the other door down by their feet. He then took the blanket and spread it over their bodies.

“Just like that—yeah—yeah—yeah, you got it?” He lay there on his side with the jacket rolled up right under his head; she nestled down right next to him with her head upon the other jacket. She lay right there with only an inch of clearance between herself and the tip of his aquiline nose. Four hundred miles of driving and they both had had enough despite it being early still.

“I do,” she told him in a hushed voice.

“Okay.”

His slender body was so very warm; even though he had slimmed down a great deal, his stomach was still very soft. She kept her arms around his slim waist: even as a thin, almost delicate young man, he had rather prominent hipbones and such thick sinewy thighs. Even when thin and having shed most of his childhood weight, he was still as warm and soft as a teddy bear. She pictured him as even more delicate in a few years time at the rate he was going at with his weight: even having eaten to his heart's desire at the house down in Catalina, he still maintained that slim figure. She tucked her head under his chin so she could better feel the warmth from his neck.

To think that she was laying like this in a bed in West Germany not long ago. To think that she had no one next to her, and for months, in that bed in the house down in Lake Elsinore. That room all to herself for months, such that it felt like a prison of sorts.

“This feels so weird,” she confessed.

“Why's that?”

“Well—because the last time I got this close with a guy was Joey. And I dunno if we're even a thing anymore.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. She kept her hand on the small of his back: it wasn't long ago she lay the same way with Joey before and with her hands down lower on him. Maybe she overthought the whole thing and he really was fooling around. No way she could ask him at that point, however.

Alex shivered a bit.

“Are you cold?” she gently asked him.

“A little bit—I'm feeling kind of a draft on the side of my neck. I also think I've lost too much weight.”

“What makes you think that?” she asked him.

“Even under the blankets, I'm cold.”

With a bit of a struggle, Sam lifted her hand and she tugged on the blanket a bit so it covered the side of his neck. She brought her hand towards the small of his back and she burrowed even closer to him so he was warm. Outside, the snow pummeled on the street and the sidewalk beyond the car: given they were behind a brick wall, every so often some of the snow hit the roof or the hood, but not enough to deafen them.

“I will say this,” he started again with a sniffle.

“What's that?”

“I'm glad we parked behind this bar here—” His voice was low and crisp sounding, as though he had a sore throat. “Listen to those winds.”

Sam nestled even closer next to him as the winds picked up out there to where they formed a ghostly howl. He may have felt cold, but his chest was warm and his body was soft and tender. He bowed his head a bit so he could better keep in the warmth between them.

“God, you're so soft,” she told him, “you're like a little teddy bear.”

“I'm gonna say this, though,” he said, “I'm sure you can feel my arms.”

“I do.” Indeed, even though his body was soft, his lanky arms felt so firm and toned, even when covered in that thick windbreaker. “I see you just being so elegant, though,” she confessed as she recalled his life's wish. “All wrapped in lace and standing tall.”

“I dunno 'bout lace,” he said. “Velvet, maybe. Velvet with—silk.”

“All silky soft,” she joked and he chuckled at that.

She had no memory of what happened after that: they both fell asleep, and she woke up to total darkness and the howl of the cold winter winds. And yet even in the wake of the noise outside, Sam caught the sound of voices on the street. Against the wind, she swore she heard church bells ringing.

“Happy New Year!” a man shouted. “Happy 1989!”

“Happy New Year, Samantha,” Alex whispered to her in a broken voice.

“Happy New Year, Alex,” she whispered back. She was practically squeezing his thin little body at that point, but she knew that he would be toasty warm in the morning.

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tyonfs · 3 years

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🤧:

me watching hot sauce for the first time: whoa that was a fever dream

also me: *watches it two more times right after*

I was so worried I wouldn’t like it and while the beat is definitely unique I really like the song it slaps! The pre-chorus is my favorite especially when Renjun sings it 🥰

Also Jaemin is trending on Twitter — makes sense he looks good — and Jeno hair slicked back makes me 🤩🤩

However my eyes were naturally on Renjun 99% lmaoo HE JUST LOOKS SO GOOD AND CUTE AND ATTRACTIVE AND JAHAHQJ LIKE HOW CAN YIU NOT LOVE HIS TWO-TONED HAIR PEOPLE HE JS JSUY YWUUW

Okay sorry I had to squeal to someone about the album and comeback ahah

I ordered the album (boring ver.) and my sister joked the world will end if I get a Renjun photocard — probably because I will be screaming lmaoo

Also thank you for the Renjun pics I always save them 🥺💓

What do you think about the comeback? I never told you but I missed you too and hope you are doing well 💕

Also can we talk about how WE FINALLY GOT A FULL ALBUM 💿 damn sm took you long enough

ANONNN IM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS COMEBACK LIKE PHEWW SO MANY GOOD SONGS AND HOT SAUCE IS A BANGER

gonna rant ♡

also before i simp, will start off with your comment in the end — i missed u too !! hope you’re doing well 🥺🥺 it’s my midterms week again so i’m kinda dead ish but not as much as before LOL

going back to the comeback !! honestly i get that, like i’ve heard a lot of ppl say they were worried ab it LMAOAOA personally i was digging the beat but MAN dream doesn’t disappoint like PHEWWW AND YES OMFG MY FRIEND AND I WERE CRYINT OVER RENJUNS BRIDGE he seriously ate up the vocals in every single song and left no crumbs my god

and hyuck’s high note??? i was in SHAMBLES AND PLEASEEE JENO AND JAEMINS WHISPERING PARTS I WWANTED TO COMBUST

also i’m jaemin biased so in my eyes he just eats up every single look but he SERIOUSLY ATE THIS UP LIKE GODDAMN WHOEVER WAS HIS STYLIST I HOPE THEY GET PAID HANDSOMELY and omfg i don’t know how the trends look like for you but renjun is the top trend on my twt 😳😳 his POWER

(and jaemin we’re gonna need those pictures later the fuck)

AND OHMYMGODSH YOU HAVE TO SEND YOUR PULLS WHEN YOU GET THEN ‼️ i impulsively ordered the set oops 😳 so pray i pull a jaemin like i have 6 chances so Pls 🙏 honestly my luck is all renjun and hyuck 😳 honestly insane bc i bought we go up, we boom, reload, and resonance and got renjun pcs in all of them but TBH i really really really really want the renjun pc for the boring version he looks so good 😭 SO I HOPE YOU GET IT SO I CAN LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH YOU OR WE CAN BOTH GET IT AND TWIN

also i’m GLAD you save all the renjun pics and even if you do i’m just glad you like them bc yk we all could use a little renjun in our lives as a pick me up 🥰💓

also if you get me here, hot sauce just sounds very nct ?? like it’s just the perfect song for the neos and i think this comeback was just very “we are seven. we are nct dream” yk? idk if that makes sense LMAO but all the members got a chance to stand out like there are parts for all of them that are stuck in my head and just 😰 i’m mindblown

and YEAH honestly pissed that sm didn’t let them get their first album before but i’m just so happy it’s here and i hope sm stops sleeping on them :( they’re already the sm group with the most presale orders for their album so 💆‍♀️ maybe sm’s gonna come to their senses and give us more dream content

and ofc gotta drop the rics (renjun pics) 😽😽

#tyonfs asks #🤧 anon #okay i’m passing out but in conclusion #no thoughts head hot sauce

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wordsandsound14 · 3 years

Text

Switchfoot albums ranked (not including interrobang)

I've been thinking about this a lot too recently. Ik I'm late to the party on this one but I don't get on reddit often. Only got on since the band did the ama. I won't include interrobang since it's so new and ranking it seems difficult. (worst to best)

11. Learning to Breathe - While this record has some of the best written songs (Learning to Breathe, The Loser, Love is the Movement), it also has some of my least favorites (Poparazzi, Innocence Again, Living is Simple). I often just find myself bored with this album and disappointed. There are plenty of dipping of toes in ideas and then abandoning them. For instance, the beginning of Erosion is such a cool unique sound and then it's abandoned for the rest of the song. The themes of this album are also really boring to me, even when I was a christian. I just found it wasn't taking a unique perspective or doing anything different with its themes when they have done so before.

10. Where the Light Shines Through - I feel this was the band when they were the most uninspired. It feels like it was trying to sell itself to the CCM crowd and make some waves there since it's been the most consistent place of making waves and it still didn't do that. Don't get me wrong, there are great songs here (If the House Burns Down Tonight, Float, Holy Water). The first half of this album is super good. It's that back half that feels like an axe to the first half. Every song on the back half has something that disappoints me. And I'm fine with christian themes and all but it felt like this album had more just praise songs vs the questioning of faith. Would've been a great EP and it kinda made sense that they went into hiatus after this album. I also feel that the themes of the album didn't really make it to it. Jon talked about how he was in a some struggle and storm before the album and then by the time they got recording it more so became an album after the storm. And I just wonder what was going on. Cause there's only small hints. I can only feel that an album that actually talked about that or coming out of the storm would've worked but we got way after the storm and leaving a lot of good inspiration behind in a ball of mystery that we still don't know about. I don't need to know every information that he went through but the songs got effected by it.

9. New Way to be Human - I think what holds this album down the most is it's lack of direction. I can feel them trying to tackle all of their ideas from folk to pop to indie while maintaining their identity. I just don't feel these ideas get fully fleshed out. But these songs are really well written and the philosophy bleeding into these tracks and ending up being a basis of many future songs can all be tracked back to this album. This album is just a very specific listen so I don't often turn to this album. I do think Something More is the most overlooked song, with Amy's song being a close second. I also think Incomplete is a just a better version of I Turn Everything Over so it feels like a repeat track. But I really appreciate what this record represents in their career and see it as a stepping stone of sorts. (Company Car is one of their best earlier works)

8. Native Tongue - Seems a lot of people have very different feelings about this work. I think the biggest thing that makes Native Tongue feel distinct is that it feels like a Jon Foreman project with Switchfoot. Like Jon was the only one who couldn't stay away from the studio and was calling the other members. They came and were happy to but it was Jon with the initiative. At least, it's how it sounds to me. A lot of these ideas are incomplete. But when they aren't, they hit really well (Native Tongue, Dig New Streams, Oxygen). And the amount of trying different things! Granted a lot of ideas of modern production ideas but I'm glad they happened. But some I'm not too fond of (Joy Invisible, Wonderful Feeling, The Strength To Let Go). I feel this album also really fell short without a good producer. It's not the production value that doesn't work but Switchfoot works best when there is a producer there that works with them and pushes them. I fell they could have been better but it also has some solid songs in here.

7. Legend of Chin - This is one of the most fun Switchfoot records but has such a distinct sound and charm to it. I understand that a lot of songs are about girls that Jon doesn't even know any more but there isn't a bad song on here. It's all just fun from 3 guys jamming in a room. I used to not like the closing track but it's grown on me and I crave that sound more and more. Some standout tracks are Home, Chem 6A, You. With Underwater being a super creative song. I don't have a ton to say other than this is root Switchfoot and their cores are on display here.

6. Fading West - I feel this is their most misunderstood record. The struggle this album went through is tremendous. Take the two best things Switchfoot is known for and strip them away and they still make a record worth listening too imo. It's not their best but it's really ambitious, even if accidental. Originally, they were going to only strip the guitars away but when you listen to the story of Fading West, going on a journey to feel inspired. There are plenty of lines hinting that Jon was having writer's block (blood clot pen). It does mean the lyrics suffered some here but I don't think they suffered a ton. They achieved the california surf music. However, I do think they missed a huge part that I feel the fans were wanting. It's the sound that's on the ep. It's the one we were advertised and didn't receive on the album. I would loved if the album had the sound of Edge of the Earth (the song). But I really appreciate the risk cause it's a huge one. (stand out tracks: Love Alone Is Worth the Fight, BA55, Slipping Away).

5. Vice Verses - This was the best they have ever been as musicians (you could argue this for Oh Gravity too tho). But the amount of pushing their musical talent is very apparent on this album. The bass lines and drum rhythms are amazing. The only songs I'm kinda eh about are Rise Above It (still has great production and energy) and The Original (still has amazing bass and guitar parts). This album does have a weird issue with the lyrics either hitting really deep parts of your heart or being a very vague or simple line. The production is also the best imo and everything is layered super well. The only production that I disagree on is on Where I Belong (the digital claps for why and some parts sounding a little inconsistent with the rest of the album). But the choices in the sounds of the guitars and genre jumps and the grunge. Still lacking in some areas but still a solid record. (Holds my favorite Switchfoot song Thrive)

4. Oh! Gravity. - Oh yes, the golden era as I call it. I pin this album as the core Switchfoot sound. If you want to hear what Switchfoot sounds like, this album nails it. Guitars, fun, great lyrics, and musical variety. I don't have much words like I did for Chin. It's a pretty simple album to digest and it's the quickest made one (from what i'm aware of) and it shows but in the best way possible. It's also only made better by the podcast series they made. The only things that hold this album down a bit is American Dream and Burn Out Bright being repeat tracks of another (American Dream being the better one) and the double edged sword of it being simple when surrounded by high effort long works that are beyond exceptional.

3. The Beautiful Letdown - The Classic Foot album that defined their careers. It's not a joke tho that everything went up a whole level with this album. Something clicked in Jon's head that turned out some of his best lyrics and the song formats and sound just grew a ton. Jerome being an essential new member. And only one song that's a little meh (Redemption) and even the meh song is still catchy. Overexposure might be why it's not higher but I feel I have more reasons being that it does sound dated. Most of the time for better but a little for worse. I also feel that if Drew was a part of this album, it would be up a another level also. There's just a slight amount of incompleteness to this record. Not sure exactly but regardless the songwriting on this album is amazing and the questions and the way they are asked remain timeless.

2. Nothing is Sound - Grunge at its best here. I'm still not certain what Jon was going through here other than what the lyrics mention but whatever he was feeling hits hard. It resonates so much. To this day, these songs hold my throat. Not a bad song on here. It's a really good album that only gets beat by it's production value. Some songs could've been produced better (ironically Jon mentioned that recently too lol). Golden, The Setting Sun, and We Are Young Tonight are the forefront of those. And it's not like they are terribly produced but they are missing a little from what they could be. But literally it. Front to back, this record just rocks while wallowing in despair from the fallen world and the loneliness and helplessness it brings. It also represents a huge decision on what to do after a breakout record and is one of the best records after a band reached public success.

1. Hello Hurricane - The whole sound of this record is the most complete the band has ever sounded to me. The writing on this album is so great. Not one song is a waste and process this album went through is amazing. I get that they can't (prob shouldn't) do this process but damn was it worth it. This project sounds so complete and so organically made, even with two songs that I feel could have been switched out. (Always isn't my favorite but I may having it be a song for a past relationship. But it also does still have a lot of raw emotion in it that I appreciate and can get past my own perceptions. It's the lesser of the offense. Free is the other one only cause it kinda is booty in studio. It's live version makes ya wish it was that way on the record). But i adore these lyrics and I love the sounds they used without washing it up with production but still using production (Sing it Out) as a tool. It's so good and I love this album so much

quick review of interrobang is that it’s a very solid record and I love the sound of it so far. It doesn’t take my top record but it’s an insanely catchy album with a lot of listens in the future. I’d probably rank it as 2 or 3. Not sure if it’s above or below nothing is sound. but really give it a listen. It’s exactly what i’ve been wanting from the band for so long

#switchfoot #music #ranked #list #rock music #alternative music #pop rock #Interrobang

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deukaeloveclub · 4 years

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Response to @wickymicky ‘s top ten kpop songs of 2020

I was gonna drop an ask or message but this got long so I’ll annoy the whole tl

10 Izone - Fiesta) I'm not a huge izone fan but I think Fiesta is the song I like the most and I agree about them filling a niche.

9 Gfriend - Crossroads) Crossroads definitely is an emotional song but it's really driven and pulls at your emotions. The choreography is excellent! I also love pink Eunha ✊🏾

8 Cignature - Assa) Oh I haven't thought about Assa in awhile but it's also my favorite cignature song. It's slick yet fun. I think your descriptions of the concept are spot on.

7 Dreamcatcher - BOCA) I totally agree with your first two paragraphs about BOCA being a good follow up to Scream. And tbh the 2nd installments of trilogies are notoriously weak and BOCA doesn’t fall into that but I am def excited for part 3 with Handong back

6 NCT 127 - Kick It) Kick It was definitely very NCT and very iconic. Like the level of coverage was kinda crazy (I wish like even a quarter of the amount of people had covered superhuman cuz I feel like it’s their best song) It was a great title for a great album tho

5 Cool - Weki Meki) Cool is definitely smartly written because it completely conveys the title. I really like Cool although I think I like Oopsy a little better song-wise. So I have the hipster lean of not wanting to bias the ioi members in any post ioi group and even naturally I didn’t gravitate towards dodaeng but one thing about Oopsy was that it was the first time that I was really hit with how good Doyeon’s singing is? Which is kinda weird because it’s not like she lacked lines to show it in the past but it just never really stuck out to me. But it’s not even just Doyeon, although that was the most prominent, all of their voices really stood out to me in Oopsy. Particularly Elly, Suyeon and Lucy you know how you listen to a group and your like ‘oh that’s the main vocal’ I hadn’t quite had that moment with Suyeon yet. Weki Meki has really cool song production so that’s often what I’m paying more attention to. Oopsy still has a solid instrumental but something about the way it’s written or mixed really allows me to appreciate the vocals. But lol sorry for making this about Oopsy. I am also really happy to see Lua’s confidence and the attention she’s getting. I remember when La La La came out I noticed her and was like oh yeah she’s an amazing dancer (who is also main dancer) and being confused that no one seemed to pay attention to her. But I think all eyes are on her now :)

4 Everglow - LA DI DA) Just like you said as soon as I heard this I understood the hype and knew I was also gonna like it. Which came as a surprise to me because up to this point I was not a fan of Everglow’s music. Bon Bon Chocolat to Dun Dun just wasn’t my style of music although I will say that I think they are excellently written particularly Dun Dun. I’m also a 96 baby but I love 80s music or anything inspired by it because 80s music is very often dance music and that’s my favorite kind of music. The strength and consistency of the creative direction between the visuals and audio makes LA DI DA an even stronger package. Adios and Dun Dun being “too built around the drop” I feel that. I also didn’t expect much from LA DI DA though I like it but I ended up listening to their whole mini album so much that one of the songs managed to make it to my top 100 list

3 Gfriend - MAGO) This song is light and easy to listen to because like you said the whole song flows so well. I didn’t get the chance to listen to it too much so Crossroads is still above it for me but I do really like the way they sing in this it’s like a little bit sultry? I didn’t even attempt to follow the arc from crossroads but your interpretation makes sense.

2 Weeekly - Tag Me(@Me) Tag Me came out of nowhere for me too. Youtube had recommended me some of their predebut covers but I don’t think I watched or if I did I forgot. It’s interesting that you compared it to Picky Picky because I also made a comparison between them and early Seventeen (Adore U, Mansae, Aju Nice). There’s that overbrimming youthful energy, incredibly catchy song, the fun and unique choreo. But Weeekly and Tag Me can stand on their own (and they are). I actually think I remember one of your posts about not having checked out Tag Me yet 😂 I remember thinking something like just wait til you do. But yeah every part of the song is amazing I hadn’t even thought about how impressive it is for Monday to have gotten and done that rap part so well as the groups main vocalist :o The group is so talented. And company supporting and pushing Jiyoon's composing that makes me really excited for the future too!? And on top of that they’re all really fun. Sometimes I’ll like a groups music and check out variety/behind the scenes stuff and you don’t really feel drawn to anyone but with Weeekly I immediately latched onto like all of them. I was trying to map out a bias ranking and I realized that I put Jihan 5th and I was like 5th sounds too low for how much I like Jihan. They’re all so adorable and likeable 😭 They really are a breath of fresh air.

1 Dreamcatcher - Scream) Sceram being the most EDM-inspired but the most metal is interesting. I think the mv is also the more horror-themed than the cbs before it. You like music that is noisy and more metal but I also like non-noisy music a lot so I think that’s why the verses don’t bother me as much. It’s also something is present in other dc songs. The soft verses against a very distinct rock chorus/drop. Wow “what was kpop to me before scream”, funny story I think I was odd InSomnia out during the year because I really wasn’t sure if I like Scream of BOCA better. I saw so many people definitely having a favorite but I kept vacillating. And then after seeing them perform both songs at the concert with Handong I immediately realized that Scream is also the song I prefer 😂😂😂

I think you had a very respectable list and it was cool to here your thoughts on the songs. I’ve only just started my list 😭 but I think all of these besides Fiesta and Assa are also up for consideration for soty for me too!

#key talks #gwen #discussion #sweet sweet moots #kpop #oh also the links worked for me at least on desktop (writing long posts on mobile is annoying)

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doomedandstoned · 3 years

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Chatting with Austin’s Shitbag

~Doomed & Stoned Interviews~

By Shawn Gibson

In his never ending quest to find the filthiest bands from around the world, Shawn Gibson brings us face-to-face, virtually speaking, with frontman Keith Young from Austin, Texas trio SHITBAG. The band dishes out a harsh blend of crust, grindcore, hardcore, and sludge, a sound you may already be acquanted with if you've heard their new EP Burden on Transylvanian Recordings. (Editor)

SHITBAG - BURDEN by SHITBAG

So why are you a Shitbag? What's the name all about?

I guess when I came up with the name, the thought was that Shitbag was a person I didn't want to be and I lived in fear of becoming. It's a catchy two syllable band name. (laughs)

Oh very catchy!

Half of it's just taking the piss right?

Oh yeah.

People think it's great or they think it's really fucking stupid.

I love the name Shitbag. It grabs your attention. It is so fitting for your style of music, the sludge-grind duo.

Definitely. The idea was to get a very dirty sound from the start. The name stuck with me. You can tell from some of our earlier releases to hone the sound but you can see that it's falling into place. I think we were zeroing in on the sound on the album we put out last year.

Which was 'Furnace,' right?

Correct.

Your latest release 'Burden' is out now.

Yes, that's now through Transylvanian Records.

Awesome, they are a good label! I have definitely heard of them and have some of their artists' music. So is 'Burden' your third release?

I guess it's our fourth, if you count the first EP. We don't really push that one out anymore.

Furnace by Shitbag

'Furnace' is a really good album! I think I bought all your digital albums on Bandcamp.

Oh, thank you.

I definitely fell in love with the sound! "Emasculator" is a great sludge song from the record Can you tell me a little about that one?

It is about castration. The riff was a fun thing I kind of threw out there. I told Eli our drummer this is in 4/4 and he said" it is absolutely not, I can try to play along to it anyways." As usual, he did. the different pieces kind of fell into place. The bass guitar always stuck out to me on that one. The speed of the song and the mix we got on those recordings allows the bass to shine through I think. Also, I think that might be one of my favorite vocal performances off of Furnace as well.

Who all is in the band and what roles do they have?

So I play guitar and vocals. Eli Deitz plays drums and Eric Prescott plays bass.

I would say 'Burden' sounds heavier than 'Furnace.' Can you tell me about your guitars and the set up you use for writing and recording?

Oh, sure!

What are you using to get that Shitbag sound?

So first off I think it's worth noting that we recorded Burden at a different location and we had more power at our fingertips. The guitars definitely did get beefed up. For the first two releases I had been playing a Randall RH 150 with a Randall 150 amp head. It gets this really nasty distortion right out of the box, you don't need a distortion pedal, which is pretty convenient. It wasn't reliable at high volumes. That was becoming a problem more and more playing alongside Eric, as he was playing an "O-R something" Orange head and also running that through an HM2 and some fuzz stuff in front of it, as well. He gets a very loud, snarling bass tone.

He's covering the low end, but there's an intersection where the guitars and bass compete when we are playing live. So I needed something that I could crank up just to keep up. The Randall wasn't cutting it. May of last year I purchased a Sunn Coliseum 880. That was great but I needed to beef up my cabinet setup. Before I had been playing out of a Laney 4x12 with two different Celestion speakers and an old Marshall 2x15. The Celestion speakers are just not cut out for running something like a Coliseum880. At 4 ohms I think it's already at 230 watts.

Oh, wow!

That is when I moved up to a Worshipper 4x12. It's an Intown establishment, and some good friends of mine run it. They got me a new cabinet in 8 to 12 weeks. Kinda crazy to think about from what I heard from Dillon at Worshipper they had good business during the pandemic.

That is great! I love to hear that everyone's keeping up the practicing at home.

Yeah, It definitely has a silver lining. I got a 4x 12 and I'm trying to remember what speakers are in it. My technical knowledge of that stuff is a little limited, I'll be honest. I went with Dillon's recommendation. I told him what I was using currently, this is what I want out of it. I already have a 2x15 cabinet so I don't need a whole shit ton of low end power coming out of the 4x12. He kind of went with something that had the right profile and could handle 320 watts. After that was the matter of finding a distortion pedal, because Sunn Coliseums don't really have a built in distortion the way a Randall does. For a while I was a really great distortion pedal that does all kinds of great stuff the Earthquaker device's grey channel.

It has six different clipping presets, clipping diodes, and you can do just about everything from straight up gain to kind of a fuzzy effect to full-on Moss clipping diode, which does the whole balls to the wall heavy metal thing. Great diversity on that pedal but it wasn't quite hitting the right spots. I went to a Boss HM2 and was very reluctant to do so because I know everyone does those. I ran that with a Graph equalizer like I would any distortion pedal. I made it not sound like I'm playing in tuned riffs. That's my equipment set up and how it evolved from Furnace to Burden.

Awesome, thank you. Something that attracted me to Shitbag's music is the sludge is the jelly and the grind is the peanut butter that makes this great Shitbag sandwich. There are moments in your music that it is as thick as swamp mud, then the next it's firing out like bullets out of an AR-15!

Hell, yeah!

Cordycep by Shitbag

With that being said you have a song like "New Day" that's grind as fuck, clocking in at a minute long, just blasting through! Then you have songs like "Rogue Furnace" that's right up the sludge/doom alley clocking in at 15-minutes, 20-seconds. Shitbag has a really great balance between different styles in your music.

Well, thank you!

What bands influenced Shitbag's music?

Yeah, so I think the time I was getting into sludge and doom in my college days and I came across Primitive Man.

Oh, yeah!

I grew up listening to death metal and shit like that.

Me too!

The way they threw that together with just oppressive doom sound. It was something I had never heard before. I instantly heard that and said"this is the future." I don't want to shit on anything but Black Sabbath has been around 50 years and that sound has been around 50 years.

Newer and current bands are still using that sound, yeah.

Maybe I shouldn't disparage it, right? Even the stuff I'm drawing influence from is 30 years old now. Maybe I shouldn't say it that way. I think it's a matter of pervasiveness rather than how old something is. There are a lot of bands in the sludge/doom canon that are like, "Black Sabbath, hell yeah!"

You can find lots of music that was coming out of the death and grindcore scene in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s that had very slow, lurching oppressive moods. To me, it's not so much a matter of the notes that are being played or the rhythms, it's the atmosphere. So yes Primitive Man, God Flesh, they are a big one. I'm a big fan of Assuck, Dystopia, and Grief. Then a lot of older death metal shit, too. Napalm Death, Eric and Eli loved Entombed. Full Of Hell is tight as shit, too!

Yes they are! By chance have you heard of Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire?

Oh yeah, yeah.

I thought you might, being they were before Primitive Man. Great shit, as well!

Every band of theirs that the members of Primitive Man have been in that I have checked out, I have been very much into.

Vermin Womb, Many Blessings...

John put out an album with a death metal band called Black Curse last year that I thought was fucking phenominal!

I'll have to check that out! I like just about everything across the board, personally.

You are mentioning that we're striking this blend, we are not even playing the same genre through the whole EP. It's kind of like there's moments where it's one thing then there's moments where it's another. I think the more important thing is that it sounds like a cohesive thing. I hope we manage to do that.

You do! Shitbag has it's own sound that is unique to you guys!

Well, thank you!

I stumbled upon Shitbag's music on Bandcamp on Fathers Day. I saw the song title "Fathers and Sons" off of Burden and thought, "That's no coincidence -- I need to check this band out!" I was wondering if you can tell me a little about that track?

The song is about grappling with father and son relationships that are, I don't want to say estranged but you know trying at times. That was something that was a really big deal for me over the past year and a half, cause my mother passed away at the end of 2019.

I am sorry to hear that!

Thank you. When you have a death in the family like that, there is a lot of time for reflection that comes about. That's where the concept came about. I would not say that it's entirely autobiographical, there is definitely some exaggeration in there. We had the music for the song written and we couldn't figure what to write the lyrics about. I was just spitballing ideas and concepts to Eli. That was the one he said, "Yeah, I'm not really a fan of this draught but this is the concept to go with. Keep going with this."

Historically, I think I have been a weak lyricist. I would not call myself good by any means. We definitely made that part of the writing more collaborative process. Like the music has always been with us. We ironed out the words with each other so it felt a lot better. We came out with something more polished.

I understand completely.

A little graciousness opens yourself up. I think it's true with lyrics, as well. You probably don't have people say that to you very often, I imagine. I think it's especially true with lyrics when you're trying to make something that's personal and vulnerable. Having someone say, "Hey I would word that differently!" YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

Exactly. (laughs)

Take a step back from the initial knee-jerk response and just let it sit. You can really go places with that. I think lyrics are different just because people are not accustomed to making themselves vulnerable in that way.

What bands from Austin and surrounding areas that are heavy and you love to see them play or play with?

Let's see... Zyclops, really fucking great! There's bands like Glassing, Inhalants, Portrayal Of Guilt.

Yep, familiar with them.

There's a band called Godshell, they are new. I saw them play at a house show in North Austin in a living room full of people younger than myself. A crowd that was young enough to make me feel old. They played an outstanding fucking show! Those guys are rad live! There's also Metal Abortion, who is a pretty fun noise core band that Shitbag has played with a couple times. They put on a hell of a show and they have some crazy fucking records, too!

We have had the pleasure of playing many great shows with Desist on account of Shitbag and Desist being the two "Austin sludge" bands. Lucas is an outstanding vocalist and an even better human being. I don't know if Desist has been active through the pandemic but word is they have shit in the works. Another band forming a major constellation in the Austin shit-verse is the crusty blackened thrash outfit Vacha. Every show we've played with them was a fucking barn buner. I have nothing but love for all those dudes! Special shout out to Carlos for his God-like endurance behind the kit.

What makes Shitbag laugh? What's funny to you guys?

Oh, man. Eli and I have decided that a good way to get around when I bring a riff and don't know the time signature, is that we count everything in one. There 's no more time signature.That's a fairly recent joke. There are times at practice instead of playing a Shitbag riff with the distortion and everything balls out, I will go to the clean channel and push on the wah pedal and play with a funky staccato thing.

Hell yeah!

I think everyone else finds it annoying.

I have always enjoyed when the one guy in the band during practice either gets funky or jazzy, one of the two.

There is also something that Eli does that is fucking histarical. He never warns me he's going to do it. We will be in the middle of a song in the intense parts of the song he slips in the ba-dum tiss like a joke was told. When he nails it it's really a special thing.

Well, Keith that is all I have for you. Thank you again for your time!

Thank you very much, Shawn! The cassettes are available through Transylvania Recordings and Bandcamp. They are up for pre-order. I am not sure when those pre-orders will be in. There are some delays.

Several bands and labels having a tough time with vinyl getting pressed and shipping, too.

If you order the cassette you will get it eventually. I hope there is new music to announce in the near future.

We hope so, too!

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#D&S Interviews #Shitbag #Austin #Texas #doom patrol #sludge #metal #punk rock #Shawn Gibson #Transylvanian Recordings

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