#the town in maine was giving twin peaks vibes i loved it

[theseance1968]

"a Klaus that Claire likes" 🥺🥺💕💔💟😭🥺💞🥺🥺💖💔❤️‍🩹🥺🥺🥺

[mejomonster]

So first of all, Dark Shadows is on archive.org library (so is Xena Warrior Princess)

Second of all, i started it. Getting gothic horror vibes. Victoria Winters is a perfect name. Ive never seen a soap opera older than the 90s so im curious of this writing steucture. Im also used to shows older than 90s having few character arcs or long term plots, as ive only seen old sci fi shows that were pretty much self contained stories with at most small background character arcs. So curious if the plot will be more involved since its long running and can manage to have the time for it. It gives off Twin Peaks energy so i think maybe twin peaks was a kind of evolution of this type of show - drama, gothic, surreal, unsettling, mysterious small town full of secrets.

[oosteven-universe]

Resident Alien: Your Ride’s Here #1

Resident Alien: Your Ride’s Here #1 Dark Horse Comics 2020 Created & Written by Peter Hogan Created & Illustrated by Steve Parkhouse    Harry's learned a lot about himself and the possibility that other aliens have been stranded on Earth, too. He needs to figure out what to do with Honey, the only resident in Patience, USA, who sees him in his true alien form, as well as deal with his feelings toward Asta, his best friend. Harry's been stranded in a small town pretending to be a human doctor for so long, loneliness is bound to creep in.    Kudos on the fact that this has been picked up by SyFy for a live-action series.  It has been among my favourites since I discovered the series.  There really is something about this that makes this utterly charming and with each new arc a tad more ambitious and dangerous.  Also that there seem to be many different layers surrounding the main story here and how some of them will lead towards the main and how others will remain separate and create these arcs all their own.  The writing that I see here is phenomenal in that regard as well as how easy it is to fall into such a familiar pattern with the townsfolk.  I doubt anyone who gives this more than a decent shot will find themselves as much a fan as this as I am.    I love the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well.  You would be surprised at how small town life mimics life in larger cities all over the world and to see how these elected officials go about their business is both familiar and comforting as well as annoyingly predictable.  That however I believe is the point of how we see them.  The character development is fantastic!  The fact that it doesn’t matter who we see that they are fleshed out as much as they are continues to be so impressive.  The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and a few twists and turns along the way we are treated to an interesting day in the life.    The way this is structured with all the layers within the story is beautifully rendered.  I love that Honey sees him for who he is, children of course are ever the innocent can see more than adults since their minds are more open.  I do like how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow.    I like the interiors here.  How we see the linework and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level of detail work is amazing to me.  I personally would like to see more backgrounds being utilised but then that’s just me because we do get them and they are utilised nicely throughout.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a stellar eye for storytelling.  The colour work is gorgeous and i like seeing how the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work.  There is some beautiful work happening here and it’s always a joy to see. ​    There is a reason this was optioned and that it has a such a following in the comics world.  The writing is incredibly strong and the interiors are absolutely gorgeously rendered.  If you are at all a lover of solid storytelling with interesting characters and some of that Mayberry meets Twin Peaks kind of vibe then this is definitely for you.

[theshortwavemystery]

NOTES FROM WATCHING THE FIRST EPISODE OF “RIVERDALE”

1. Riverdale is a bizarre town that seems cut off from everywhere else, temporally straddled between an eternal 1950’s—more accurately a 1950’s stuck in an endless repetitive loop. But it takes place in the late 2010’s. Even so, the decor in the town is vintage, and the characters recognize this. The activities of the kids are vintage. the internet and cell phones exists, millennials are named, but it doesn’t seem to matter. something is very weird here, as if all these people are ghosts. all the stock scenarios and characters are here, which is to be expected for a teen drama, but there’s an exactness, a literalism, that is too perfect to be unintentional. 2. what is this world? it seems to be a staging of a certain inertia in american culture, which changes in superficial ways—technology, new TV shows, music new taboos—but all if this somehow serves to reinforce, or justify a return to the “leave it to beaver” universe. 3. any reminder that these are modern kids—their frequent references to contemporary TV shows like Mad Men for instance—only serve to increase the spooky vibe. everyone in this town seems to be low key crazy, making the show feel like twin peaks but written by what’s left of your local shopping mall. 4. the show’s script is constantly making fun of itself to the point that we seem directed by it to avoid taking the drama seriously—it is perhaps a smoke screen, like the haze of the presumably northwestern woods that seem to surround the town (it is filmed in Vancouver). the gay best friend is named as the gay best friend, establishing him as a living archaism��i felt bad for him after this. 5. plot points are shown to be cliche—the fake lesbian kiss, once scandalous in the 2000’s, is brushed off as false and an erasure of real lesbians. the script fools us, indicating it means to aim for more intelligent territory. and yet, veronica’s confrontation with cheryl, her tough girl speech, where she reveals her vulnerability as a rich girl fallen from grace but also stands up for betty—this goes without an ironic comment, even thought it is also a cliche, but a more contemporary oneq—the “mic drop” moment. so we see how the naming of particular cliches, employed ironically, serves to hide others the show is earnestly employing. 6. veronica says she needs to be redeemed for her father’s crimes, how is that fair. 7. archie’s desire to make music seems like a stand-in for a recognition that he’s gay. they cover this up by making his character straight but i don’t buy it. because his music itself clearly doesn’t matter. this is similar to the dead poets society where the kid kills himself obviously because he’s gay and he’s afraid his dad will disown him. why? nobody kills themselves merely because their dad shames them for doing theater. the reason is simple: theater is already such a humiliating and abject thing to love that you have to be totally shameless to even start doing it. once you become a theater kid your dad has lost you. in the second episode, the gay friend of betty reveals that he agrees with me here. 8. archie is the decentered center of the show, not a particularly interesting character so much as a holding container for female desire/fantasy. he’s dumb, cute boy who’s kind of artistic and kind of jockish, but the complex psychology belongs to betty, veronica, cheryl so far—all plotting, calculating characters, whereas archie just wants to enjoy himself and be liked—and to be fair, these shallow needs get him in plenty of trouble, but they’re simple needs. but this is always what archie was, even as a comic book character. he’s kicked around like a football like a more jocular charlie brown. 9. archie’s problem is identiied as the problem of "all millenial men", who need to be told what they want—but this is really everyone’s problem. what makes the girls/women different is that they don’t care that they don’t know what they want—they just act on feelings, and try to make the world match up with the feelings. archie thinks he ought to know what he wants, and then do it. but the women, whose desires as women are not even encouraged from day one, are free from this tedious problem. this is why archie is the one who has to be the moral authority regarding his mutual witness to the murder with the hot teacher, while the hot teacher is only afraid people will find out she fucked a student. veronica brushes off archie’s identity crisis as a false dilemma, critiqueing the categories of “jock” and “artist” and insisting he can be both, and anyway who gives a fuck? but this whimsy and indifference toward boundaries can get devious with veronica, who is betty’s friend one second and hooking up with archie the next. 10. although women are still often denied full subjectivity in literature, in real life it’s always been the opposite—men tend to forego personality development in favor of power or the illusion of power, and end up more shallow, rigid and fragile, more prone to the whims of their entourage. they never really have to become anything in particular--masculinity functions like a hive mind. if male relationships superficially appear to have less friction, it is only because men are brutally conformist and end up with little personal to argue about, usually coalescing around some common interest and not prone to discussing their respective inner lives--except, occasionally to defensively deny their existence. so-called "sensitive" men only do this in more devious ways--it's obvious that jughead is the most devious character we've met so far. women, in contrast, are each a hive mind unto themselves, compelled to construct an array of selves, carefully deploying them to get by in a world structured by the male gaze and booby-trapped by the machinations of other women. this complexity is of course terrifying to men who either submit to it as a fetish or suppress it— and one way of accomplishing that suppression in literature is to create stories where the men are supposedly complex and the women supposedly shallow and dependent wholly on men--the typical gaslight job of the mediocre male writer. this is clearly a show that, whatever its other blindnesses, is not going to let that happen. 11. we are told through veronica that archie is more dangerous than he looks. why doesn’t the show want us to figure this out ourselves? this feels ironic on the writers' parts, another winking use of cliche. 12. everyone’s problem is a cliche—archie’s father pressures him to do sports to get into college, he wants to do something else. betty’s mom is controlling and betty is a people pleaser who already in the first episode explodes about how perfect she has to be all the time and can’t she just do something for herself for once? 13. the music is annoying and cloying but it also grounds the contemporary nature of the show, because of its peculiar sense of melodrama, which is endemic to this time period, and the neoliberal overvaluing of the self. 14. the video on this show seems filtered into oblivion, or photoshopped or otherwise conspicuously treated. just like the self-awareness of the script, it contributes to the sense of unreality. 15. more self-aware cliches: archie and betty grew up next door to each other—they’re stuck in a feedback loop of being the ____ next door. cheryl describes herself as the queen on stage at the dance. 16. classic literature is referenced oddly—betty loves toni morrison, even though by the end of the episode, we have been introduced to zero black main characters. is this self-aware critique of white fetishization of blackness? and there's also thornton wilder’s “our town”… veronica suggests that the high school is part of the lost epilogue from “our town”—wilder also presented a transparently fake and timeless town to stage his existentialist story in, one in which horrifyingly, dead people remain in a liminal space between death and life, vainly trying to communicate with the living they can still see. 17. every celebrity/media reference is bizarre. a thin veneer draped over an unchanging reality. "Riverdale" seems not so much about the dark underbelly of suburbia, but about the idea of suburbia is the dark underbelly itself. a murder has to happen because someone has to bring death here, lest everyone become paralyzed by their immortality. 18. archie’s “making a deal” with the hot teacher is way more erotic than anything he’ll do with b or v… why is this happening at the Dance lol, unless we are to read it this way? they have shared the most precious thing in this town, death... why does archie love the teacher and toy with his peers? because they can't give him death. clearly archie is blackmailing the hot teacher into continuing the relationship, but he does so seemingly unaware of his own motives. he lives in the age of youtube tutorials, he doesn't need music instruction. and here is another paradox of the modern gender binary--men think they don't know what they want, but unconsciously they know what they want--they receive their instructions from the Borg Queen of masculinity and pursue it ruthlessly, whereas women end up thinking they know exactly what they want, but unconsciously they don't, because it's fractured amongst their afformentioned hive of selves. This is why both traditonally-socialized genders are completely right in saying the other is full of shit. 19. “we have no past” goes the song josie sings—and maybe this is america’s problem—the past is empty, the past of ordinary suburbia, interrupted only occasionally by wars perhaps but untouched by cultural progress—and because we have no past we can have no present, only an empty recycling of the same void, the same problems, the same catharses—new episodes of the same show. we live forever at the cost of never changing. is riverdale a socially critical prestige drama LARPing in the ironic costume of a CW teen soap??? 20. all the characters are trapped in a carnival haunted house ride. the theme: adolescence. 21. cheryl’s party—brett kavanaugh could have been at this party 22. jughead is the narrator, and i like the idea that this is all in jughead’s head, which is why it’s so unstuck in time aesthetically, so stylized and knowing. and it's no wonder he's the most popular character, because he represents the writers themselves, and fandom is to have an illusion of a privileged relationship not so much with the characters, but with the property's creators--and to be hyperinvested and, if necessary, hypercritical of their choices. 23. the gay hookup is interrupted by the presence of a corpse—a classic trope in teen horror but it’s interesting to see it with a gay pair. it’s as if in the clash between the perpetual 1950’s aura and the contemporary references and morality, a gruesome surplus appears, the specter of homophobia. which, incidentally is a corpse of a man guilty of a sexual act that is still considered taboo—incest. a corpse symbolizes the death of innocence for a hetero couple, but for a queer couple it can’t just be that—it also must evoke the threat of actual murder. which makes this a very different moment. 24. jughead says riverdale has changed—but it has only been revealed to be what it always was—"full of shadows and secrets", as jughead puts it. he must be putting us on—this place is way creepier than Sunnydale, and that place had actual demons… but this is often what a change amounts to—not the addition of a new trait, but the acceptance of one that was already there. 25. jason blossom is a ginger like archie and he therefore seems tied to archie in a unique way. he dies on july 4th, given some fuel to my reading as a show with something to say about america’s self-image. 26. all the parents are single parents or in strained, unhappy marriages in this town. this us realistic, but that should tip us off: what in the show has been realistic so far? debuting in january 2017, "Riverdale" seems retrospectively shaped by the trump era-a teen drama not about the undead, as buffy was, but a teen drama which is itself undead, fitting for a president who also wished to raise the dead, and also what had never lived. riverdale’s preservation of the old “great” america is superficial—indoors, a very contemporary isolation and alienation reign, in contrast even to the desperation of actual 50’s suburbia. 27. is everyone dead already in this show? is riverdale purgatory? is that what explains its being unstuck in time and drenched in fog? but i’ve been to small towns in the northwest that look like riverdale—nothing has been updated since 1954. in order to seem fake, riverdale has to be even faker that real life, even more uncanny—and that’s a tall order.

[thefatfeministwitch]

Monday’s Witch is tranquil and white Tuesday’s Witch wields fire and might Wednesday’s Witch is wacky but wise Thursday’s Witch keeps their eye on the prize Friday’s Witch mixes coconut and lime Saturday’s Witch can bend space and time but the Witch who works on Sunna’s day will always bring bright blessings their way

Everyday, as you’re getting ready to leave for work or hit the town with your friends or look for that perfect new job, you take stock of the general vibe of the day so you know how to approach it. You stick your head out the window to check the weather, notice how quick the second hand on your clock is moving, and try to read the dispositions of those you meet on the street. Every day has it’s own energy and when you walk out the door in the morning (or the afternoon, no judgements!) as a good little witch, it’s best to have your magickal arsenal backing you up!

The word “correspondences” doesn’t sound hella interesting or witchy, so don’t think of this as a post about magickal daily correspondences, think of this as your witchy weather report for the days of the week! Much like a daily horoscope (like the ones from Broadly, which I LOVE and check religiously), these daily bits of astrological magick will tell you the kind of spells to focus on, colours to wear and use, witchy tools to wield, or just in general how to be the best witch you can be that day. When you combine this daily witchery with things like moon phases, current astrolgoical phases, and the season you’re in with your own witchy intuition you have a fully fledged magical almanac.

One of my favourite things about daily magick is that it helps break up ruts and monotonous magical slumps. It gets you thinking magickally every day and gives you small things to focus on. Over time this builds into a great daily practice. You don’t have to be an expert, you don’t have to write your own horoscope or even be fully versed in astrology. I’m not! Every day and once a month I read a hororscope from Broadly, I get weekly and monthly astrology reports from Georgia Nicols in my inbox, and I love the Hoodwitch’s weekly witch tips. When we move into astrological seasons I trust other astrologers to give me the highlights, and the same with the astrological signs of the moon. I use that info from those brilliant people, with my own witchy knowledge of daily magick to give myself daily witchy forecasts so I have a head start on the day. I use a magickal day planner to keep it all in and make it look pretty and colourful so I can start the day off right. (OK SO YEAH I’M AN OFFICE SUPPLY NERD, OK??) This week I’ll be posting about the energy of the day every morning so you can start your day off right and maybe do a little magick.

Wednesday

Planet: Mercury

Planetary Symbol: ☿ Mercury’s winged helmet and caduceus

Element: Air

Colours: Orange, purple, yellow, light green, light blue

Stones & Metals: Quicksilver; Fluorite, quartz, opal, agate

Incenses, Herbs & Oils: Lavender, bergamot, eucalyptus, lemongrass

Tarot Cards: Wheel of Fortune, The Magician, Eight of Pentacles

Wednesday gets its name of the Norse god Odin or Woden, and was known as Woden’s Day. Before that the romans attributed it to the god mercury. It’s a day of wisdom, intelligence and communication, but has a mercurial almost trikster like energy to it. It can be a bit scattered or unpredictable.

Mercury and Hermes were the roman and Greek good of travel, communication, and self-expression. His winged sandals made him the fleet-footed messengers of the gods and gave him a ton of time to play tricks on his fellow deities. Odin was the king and patriarch of the Norse gods and was a god of great wisdom, shamanism, and poetry. His two pet ravens Huginn and Muninn – Thought and Memory – circle the earth and constantly bestow upon him news and knowledge from all over the world. Athena is a Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and crafts. Athena was serious and compassionate, and devoted herself to craft, knowledge and the safety of her people. She’s often pictured with an owl on her shoulder, which is a symbol of wisdom.

All of the birds associated with the gods above solidify Wednesday’s association with air, and airy and light scents like lavender and bergamot make excellent Wednesday incenses. For clarification and focus, eucalyptus is sure to wake you up. Bergamot is the main ingredient and earl grey tea, which is a perfect balance of calming and focus – thanks to magical, magical, caffeine.

  Stones for Wednesday are ones with varying looks and purposes, anything that can go with the flow. Clear Quartz, as a stone that can stand in for everything is especially good on Wednesdays. Opals appear differently in different light or from different angles and are a stone of transformation. There are as many different kinds of agate and there are birds in the sky and each has a specific purpose so you’ll always be able to find an agate for your purposes.

Types of Wednesday Magick: spells for communication and self-expression, crafting magickal items and tools, working meditation such as painting or colouring, spells for good luck and humour, space and energy clearing, “general purpose” magick such as meditation and spells for better focus and memory retention, communicating with other worlds and spirits, or other witches. Wednesdays are my favourite day for tarot readings because I feel the cards and I just communicate better, I also participate in #WiccanChat on twitter to talk with other witches about a whole bunch of magickal topics!

from the Tarot Del Fuego

from the Twin Peaks Tarot

Tarot: Though swords of the suit of air in the tarot, that sharp energy is just a bit too severe for Wednesday. The Wheel of Fortune card is the card of luck and fate, and carrying it without throughout your day may make fate smile on you. The Magician is often drawn as mercury himself and is a figure of communication, skill and confidence in himself and his magic. Use this card as a significator when you ask your tarot about increasing your skill in your craft. The Eight of Pentacles, though an earth card, is the card of craftsmanship and skilled trade and pride in your accomplishments. Use this as inspiration in spells for skill and creativity.

Dress for magickal success: Wednesday’s energy is ever changing and as such it’s hard to pin down a style. Patterns that are airy and feature imagery like birds, clouds and the sky work for mercury. Bright colours like yellow, lavender or bright green are colours of luck and magic. Wear something that really communicates who you are, and express yourself openly. Don’t be afraid to mix bright colours and wear colour changing stones like opal or fluorite, or even an old mood ring! I love to wear things that seem a little over the top, but are still really comfortable and airy. This bird dress is my ultimate Wednesday attire- mustard yellow with purple, teal, and hot pink hummingbirds and geometric shapes.

Older picture but I’d just gotten a really good haircut

  Wednesdays are one of my favourite days of the week. I don’t feel a mid-week slump now that I work for myself, and I like the kind of fun and wacky energy. I like how mis-matched things seem to go perfectly together on wednesdays and like anything seems possible.

TOMORROW WE’RE GETTIN’ RICH, WITCH!

Some of my favourite sources of daily magick:

Magical Fashionista by Tess Whitehurst

The Book of Witchery by Ellen Dugan

Coloring Book of Shadows Planners by Amy Cesari

The Witch’s Almanac by Weiser Books

Llewellyn’s Witches Companion and Datebooks

Plus the online sources listed above! Where do you get your daily magical advice?

It's a wacky, #witchywednesday y'all! Bust out your favourite mood ring and make some magick! Monday's Witch is tranquil and white Tuesday's Witch wields fire and might Wednesday's Witch is wacky but wise…

[tjd-art]

Brand New - Science Fiction

my review:

Brand New’s first #1 album on the Billboard Top 200. The first independent release to hit #1 of the year. I’ll start off my review by saying it’s great and my current #1 album of the year unless something can top it by December...

I started listening to Brand New in 2009 I believe. I had an iTunes gift card and I was looking for random new music to try out by looking through the recommended albums. This must have been shortly before Daisy came out, but I don’t remember the release of that album honestly. (When I finally did listen to it I thought it was great though, despite mixed reviews from other BN fans). What I saw on iTunes was the album “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me” with its incredible album art staring me in the face. At the time I was into mostly metal, and my tastes didn’t venture too far outside of that. But when I listened to the preview of the track “Sowing Season (Yeah)” something struck a chord with me. It was the only non-metal song I truly loved for a spell. I didn’t have the funds to get the entire album though. It would be even longer before I delved into the entire discography. And this means almost my entire tenure with loving Brand New was when they weren’t really a band anymore.

A few years later around when I graduated high school, Brand New was becoming one of my favorite bands ever. Deja Entendu, Devil & God, and Daisy were all beloved albums of mine. As I walked through the halls on my last day of high school, as I left the building on that day I was listening to “Jesus Christ” ceremoniously. Something about that song felt like a good way to end my high school years.

I wanted to go see Brand New in concert when they returned, they were going to play in my home town. But the show sold out in 2 hours. At the time it was the fastest selling out show in the venue’s history. So fast forward to 2016 when they were to play here again, I bought tickets right when they went on sale. In preparation for this concert is honestly when my love for the grew to its highest point. It’s when I learned the words to most every song. And at the concert they played “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me” in its entirety. It’s one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.

So fast forward again to August 17, 2017. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I was just getting out of work when I saw an instagram post from Brand New with what looked like album art. I assumed it was for an album coming out later, but it said “available now” and as that sunk in I was completely overcome with an excitement I don’t think I’ve ever had for an album before. I listened to the first 3 songs on the drive home. I had a smile on my face all the way through “Can’t Get it Out”

So now it’s been 12 days since the release and it’s sunk in enough that I finally want to talk about it at length.

It felt strangely coincidental that I was looking for some good science fiction novels to read just moments before this dropped. That is to say I was more than ready to feel some space-y vibes coming from this. This, luckily, comes right away in the spaced out intro to “Lit Me Up” where a woman describes a strange dream. Right out of the gate they brought the familiar burning metaphors and an overall incredible song. I’ve heard consensus that the reversed talking at the end of this track is a reference to Twin Peaks, which is also quite welcome from me (one of my favorite shows) and helps that “Sci-Fi” theme.

Then comes track 2 “Can’t Get it Out” which is when I felt like I was listening to a masterpiece even though there were still 10 tracks to go. I don’t know if I’m crazy but this song hits me with a lot of “Deja Entendu” feels. Science Fiction overall feels like it takes parts of all Brand New’s past work combined to create a wonderfully nostalgic final album. But back to “Can’t Get it Out,” I have to mention some of my favorite lyrics on the record when this some comes to a climax, “Not just a manic depressive Toting around my own cloud, I’ve got a positive message Sometimes I can’t get it out.” It seems that Jesse Lacey doesn’t like the impression that he only has negative things to say in his music, that really he wants to say much more positive things but can’t seem to get it out.

But I feel as though he did get out a beautifully positive message on the song “Could Never Be Heaven” which seems to be a bit of a love letter to his life outside the band. His family. It feels silly now to say I wished the album would’ve been ‘heavier’ around the first listen, I didn’t realize how much I needed songs like this and the album as a whole.

“Same Logic/Teeth” does bring the old Brand New sound back a little though, with some of the screams that might sound familiar on past albums. And then I have to mention these little musical interludes that make an appearance on many of these tracks, my favorite being the one found on this track. These really bring the album together from being just a collection of songs to being an album.

This goes right into “137,” a song that took some time to grow on me, but became a favorite. This is a beautiful love song to... not being blown up by nukes. Maybe the most since over 50 years ago we live in a world where many are reasonably afraid of nuclear war. My favorite lines are the playfully sarcastic “Let’s all go play Nagasaki, we can all get vaporized.” This song particularly stand out because I think it’s one of the most dynamic on the album. The explosion into the guitar solo in the latter half is one of the greatest highlights of the album.

Then comes the song “Out of Mana” which has some delightful video game metaphors that I approve of immensely. Another favorite, the main guitar lick being so addictive that I almost immediately picked up a guitar and tried to learn it myself. Science Fiction truly might have some of Brand New’s best and most entertaining guitar work.

Moving onto the song “Desert,” a song that, once the weight of the sarcasm hit me it became another favorite on the album. It feels fitting to have this song near the end of the band’s final album, a band that has so many religious references. This song essentially seems like a sarcastic nudge to religious bigots. With references to the Bible calling homosexuality ‘abomination’ and tailing the song with the likely sarcastic “God is love.” Brand New have openly supported marriage equality in the past so it’s clear they don’t want to be associated with the religious zealots against it.

No Control was a song that hit me pretty instantly. I love the slight grunge feel it has to it. It brings a 90′s feel without seeming like it’s trying too hard to be nostalgic or taking too much from that particular sound to be unoriginal.

The final 2 songs, “451” and “Batter Up” were another 2 that had to grow on me a bit, but “451” brings an incredible final hard-hitting rock track that moves on into “Batter Up’s” soft and bittersweet goodbye. The space-y and ethereal soundscape that the song becomes at the end brings an album “Science Fiction” to a perfect close as it feels like we’re all drifting off into blackness.

When I was in my car about to play this album for the first time, I thought about how this the last new Brand New album I’ll likely ever hear. “I hope it’s good,” It turned out to not just be good, but to be the best new music I’ve heard all year. I feel as though Brand New has ended their time as a band with a 5/5 incredible album discography. A lot of bands don’t end up being this consistently good, but Brand New managed it in my opinion. Thank you Brand New for sticking with it a little longer and finally getting this new music out to the world. I’ll be giving this album the slightly odd score of 9.9/10, because it’s honestly nearly perfect. But I feel like it might still have room to grow on me more. The first few listens weren’t as great as the next few, and so on and so on. The album gets better with every listen as more lyrics and musical moments hit me in different ways. I feel like I’ll be coming back to this record as a classic for years and years.

faves: Can’t Get it Out, Out of Mana, Desert, 137

[bleederziine]

“Feeling the Way the Song Feels When You’re Writing It”; An Interview w/Alex Rebek of Modern Vices

Modern Vices is a name that comes up a lot when you talk about Chicago music these days. But unlike many bands that form under the influence of a specific music scene, they don’t sound much like the other guys. Their songs sound like slow moments of significance and extremes, calms and lows. Their show on friday at Beat Kitchen with White Reaper will be the first time I see them, but I can imagine people dancing to their music in a trance, not exactly violently moshing like you might see at an Orwells or Twin Peaks show (though there is always a place in my heart for plenty of that). Here is my interview with frontman Alex Rebek; enjoy, and see them May 5th with White Reaper @ Beat Kitchen!

How did you get started with music?

Alex Rebek: Back in middle school me and my friends thought it would be cool to start a band, so one thing led to another… We were covering bands we liked, like the Strokes and Radiohead. As time went on we got more serious, writing our own songs. After being in three bands, I’m in this band! How I started making music was my sister and I sang with each other all the time. Overtime, music has just become a main part of my life. Same for the rest of us, we have all evolved over time, and now we’re together.

Whats behind the name of your band?

AR: Modern Vices was originally called Baby Baby, after the Supremes song. After releasing our first record, we found out there was another band called Baby Baby, and we had to change it for our record deal. So it took us like an entire day to come up with ideas but we just landed on Modern Vices, and it just stuck with us.

What are your favorite things to write about?

AR: I want to say like love, and struggles, you know? Just everyday struggles and I feel like thats what translates the most with us, into our music and how we’re able to express ourselves. So romantic stuff,  but also the underlying issues that would make anyone emotional. Also just writing in the moment, like however I was feeling that particular day. I really like doing that because thats as real as it gets, when your actually feeling the way the song feels as your writing it.

How does being a musician in Chicago effect how you make music, or how does it inspire you?

AR: In Chicago the scene is really great, and everyone is really supportive of each other. All the bands are pushing each other at the same time, so its a good environment for rising bands. There is some competition, but everyone is still supportive. So its just a good way to progress at becoming a better band. Living in Chicago has really pushed us to be who we want to be.

Yeah, I think when musicians are really competitive, they rarely get too far since they don’t want to work together with anyone else.

AR: Yeah, there’s always that underlying competition, I guess, but when you’re also friends with these people, everyone’s supportive of each other. I’ve gotten together with bands and we’ve had little listening parties, and listened to each others new music, not to criticize it, but to give constructive criticism. Its a good place to be because you don’t think you’re the only band in town, because you’ve got all these bands around town that you’re constantly thinking about, like, “oh what are they doing”, or “could we do that differently?” Since moving from the suburbs to Chicago we’ve become good friends with Twin Peaks, and being friends with them has helped us in a lot of different ways, in terms of their support and the shows they’ve gotten us on.

How has your approach to making music changed since you started as a band?

AR: When the first record was made we were all going to college. I was going to college in upstate New York, at Skidmore, and the rest of the guys were going to school in the city. Peter was at Columbia, and Patrick, Thomas, and Miles were going to Depaul, and we decided we were going to make the record over winter break, just as a fun thing to do. We were like, we can just make this record, put it out, and thats it. Once the record was released, it actually got some traction and the record label hit us up and was like “do you want a record deal?” and we made some decisions, and dropped out of school for the band. Since then, with the second record, the one we’re about to finish today, we’ve taken a lot of time to think about what band do we really want to be, and we’ve definitely evolved a lot. There’s still little snippets of the first record, like similar vibes, but with time we’ve become something really different.

Whats your least favorite thing about being a musician?

AR: Hm… thats a hard one… I feel like a while ago I would have said touring, not just touring but just driving a lot. But I’ve grown to like it. So I’d say my least favorite thing is maybe the schedule, it just messes up your schedule. You’re always up late, waking up late. That might be the worst part, but all around I think we all really enjoy it, and want to continue to do it.

Do you have any guilty pleasure music?

AR: Just like hip hop, and random songs that really aren’t that good but are fun to put on. There’s probably a lot that we listen to and always joke around about, but I can’t narrow it down right now. But you could put Drake down, I think thats a good one.

BAND PHOTO BY GRANT MILLS

[bessiesreviews]

Hey everybody, I wrote a (totally not an assignment for my local newspaper) review of Riverdale.

(most under the cut)

I had almost no knowledge of the Archie comics when I sat down to watch the pilot episode of The CW's new show Riverdale. If anything, all I had was a vague familiarity with the characters and their relationships, and a dim awareness of some kind of love triangle.

That's probably a good thing. Apparently, that was all I needed.

The story of Riverdale takes place in the small town of the same name, which is populated by characters out of the beloved Archie comics. The pilot episode opens on the town at the end of summer. Golden boy Jason Blossom has just drowned in a tragic accident, and other dark secrets have been piling up, ready to be revealed.

The concept is intriguing, reviving a familiar universe with a well-meaning attempt at a Twin Peaks vibe. This update to the Archie story has brought with it a few refreshing details to delight fans of the original comics. There are several nods to the source material, from the old-timey Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe to the clunky computers of the school's newspaper room. Riverdale also brings a new level of diversity: main character Veronica Lodge and her mother are rewritten as Latina women, and the famous girl rock band Josie and the Pussycats become three African American girls with a serious message about equality.

If viewers come to Riverdale with a modern appreciation for diverse representation and serious issues, they must also come with an appetite for scandal and drama. In an attempt to deliver, The CW has been a little too generous. Along with the murder of Jason Blossom, viewers buckle under an avalanche of indulgent melodrama, from a social-media-incited revenge plot to a romantic relationship between Archie and his teacher. It is not surprising that this show comes from the creators of Glee and shares a channel with Gossip Girl. Fans of these shows should expect nothing less of Riverdale and, unfortunately, not much more.

One of Riverdale's initial hooks for me was curiosity. This program marks actor Cole Sprouse's first time on screen since he left his role as half of the famous duo in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody to finish his education. Though he hasn't acted professionally since 2011, he hasn't lost his touch. In fact, he is only one of a cast of impressive new actors, which also includes New Zealand actor K.J. Apa as Archie, whose sincere performance makes his fake red hair somewhat forgivable, and Camila Mendes, who plays her first-ever acting role of Veronica Lodge as just the right combination of caring and willful.

It is unfortunate, then, how these actors are limited by Riverdale's mediocre writing: the kind of cheesy one-liners and over-the-top dramatic pauses that you want to hope are ironically self-aware, but you can't quite bring yourself to pretend that they are. The show attempted to bring Archie and his pals into a refreshing new story, but so far, the characters and the dialogue are so two-dimensional that they belong in the panels of a comic book. Perhaps there, the stiffness and exaggeration would go unnoticed.

Some details are reminiscent of the comics in a good way. The coloring is even beautiful. Playing with bright reds and blues, it perfectly captures the neon-light glow of a 40's diner. Much of the set and wardrobe looks like it could have come right out of the first comics: cotton turtleneck cheerleader uniforms and letterman jackets show up beside both vintage cars and iPhones to evoke the feel of town caught picturesquely in the past. Visually, the show is a masterpiece.

So while not particularly sophisticated or compelling, Riverdale's pleasant visuals, classic cast of characters, and brave new spin (which I hope will be worth the risk) render it passably entertaining. In short, Riverdale could be your new guilty pleasure, but I expect anyone who gives up an hour out of their week to watch it (Thursdays 9/8c on The CW) to feel at least a little guilty.