#twee hop

[joanofarc]

woo, patch (1996).

she says, "go away but not forever"

[uneasylisteningradio]

Songs That Make People Think of Me April 27, 2024

My new birthday special theme! I asked people to tell me what songs made them think of me! And then I played them along with some formative songs that make ME think of me!

listen to the show

Seiji Tanaka - サタデー・ナイト The Cowsills - I Really Want To Know You

DJ speaks over Fugazi - Sweet and Low

Aileen Quinn & Orphans - Tomorrow Chumbawamba - One by One Shopping - Long Way Home

Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train Dog Faced Hermans - The Hook and the Wire Sam Taylor - Heaven on Their Minds Kleenex - You Red Cross - Annette's Got the Hits The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl Klaatu - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft Palast Orchester & Max Raabe - You're My Mate The Monks - Shut Up Chumbawamba - Voices, That's All

The Osmonds - Crazy Horses Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band - Ukulele Lady The Fun and Games - The Grooviest Girl in the World The Ex - Hidegen Fujnák A Szelek Workers' Party of Jamaica In-House Reggae Group - The Internationale

Dragnet - Lighten the Load The Coup - The Guillotine The Monkees - Porpoise Song (Theme from "Head") The Poppy Family - That's Where I Went Wrong Bikini Kill - Resist Psychic Death

Lost Cherrees - Pleasant Valley Sunday The Modern Lovers - Astral Plane Thin Lizzy - Do Anything You Want to Do The Pennywhistlers - Cotton Mill Girls

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping (live)

[ninyard]

i am a BIG supporter of create what you want for your own joy, so absolutely do what you would like to do for the trial!! no one should be pressuring you to do it a specific way unless that’s how you Want to do it.

but if you were asking about what we’d like… personally i would love to see the whole trial as much as possible (i really don’t want you to overwhelm yourself) especially for higgin’s and nicky’s parts!! i like when we see more than just Big Main Parts, especially bc you flesh it out so well <3 sometimes it’s even more hard hitting when it’s Not from the people we expect, you know?

also, thank you for making the socmed aus!! they make me giggle and kick my feet every time, and also wail in agony and clutch at my chest… you have the range <3

GOD i wrote a whole long ass response to this and i didn't realise until too late that my phone was going to die </3 and it died </3

But it was something along the lines of I'm really glad that the general consensus seems to be to do all five days of the trial, or however many days it ends up being, from start to finish. For me personally it'd feel unfinished if I skipped parts just to get to the ~interesting~ parts, and I think if I'm going to make something like this then I want to show it all.

It's not this deep, but I guess it's like... It's fucked up. People are making memes about a murder trial involving rape and other things that are just not funny at all. And skipping parts just to get to "GOD NEIL IS SO CHAOTIC ON THE STAND" or whatever feels,,, insensitive? Unjust?? I don't know

but people are also doing that shit in real life. About real people, real trials, with real victims and real perpetrators. Sensationalising trials just because it's a celebrity on the stand, or it's an "interesting" murder trial or whatever. People are making memes and jokes about them. And people are making their own minds up about the verdict because of it. I want to show people who think Aaron's guilty because of something the cop who arrested him said. I want to show people who think Andrew is an unreliable witness because of something Higgins says, somebody who thinks Aaron isn't guilty because a forensics team mentioned something about the crime scene that they don't think sounds right. I want to make this from the outsider view on the publics reaction to a trial, and specifically people who almost idolise Aaron, or Kevin, or Neil, or Andrew. People who don't see them as human, but as celebrities, as people who are supposed to be perfect. People who see a trial like this and think, "it's okay for me to make jokes about this, or to post about this, because they're just famous people. They're not like real people to me."

People are at home becoming twitter lawyers and making up their minds based on what they read or see online, and it almost separates the reality of the situation from the "characters" that people create out of defendants and victims. You see people hopping on bandwagons or hate trains or whatever when it comes to these kind of public trials. People making clips of something "funny" a lawyer or witness said for the sake of content. People making temporary celebrities out of the judge and jury and legal representation. For what? For likes?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to show the different sides of how people actually react to trials like this without becoming insensitive to the fact that trials like this,,, do actually happen. But by making a fan tweet a joke about murder, I'm making that, I'm thinking of the words that go into the tweet. So it's tough. And again I know it's not that deep, but that's kind of... most of the reason why I've been putting it off? Because it's hard. It's hard not to feel like it sensationalises those kinds of things. It's hard not to feel like "God, am I just making fun of this situation here?" while also being reminded that yeah, maybe, but people actually react like that.

So is it worth the tumblr post to make memes and tweets out of something that happens irl, and affects real people? Is it insensitive, or is it just fandom stuff that isn't perceived in an insensitive way at all, because it is just that, a fandom post?

[lakesbian]

the problem with the term girlboss/the girlboss poll is the etymology is like this

Phase 1: used solely in an unironically twee pink cutesy liberal "wooo girl power!" way that uplifts/praises shitty things powerful women do without question just bc they're women while simultaneously demeaning women by explicitly framing "boss/successful person" as a male role by default and "girl bosses/successful women" as an exception to the rule (+ also marks those perceived exceptions as hyperfeminine and aesthetically unserious instead of neutral/unmarked like successful men are)

Phase 2: the "do you think Margaret Thatcher had girl power?" era, people using the phrase ironically while criticizing women who Really Suck and were praised for their success in a male-dominated field of atrocities w/o consideration of whether or not succeeding in that field was ethical, people using the phase ironically in reference to female characters who fit the description of "girl for whom being a stereotypically attractive feminine powerful girl is a main point of her characterization, and whom Genuinely fucking sucks." did glory girl have girl power when she committed police brutality?

Phase 3: people hopping onto the trend of using it to refer to characters, using it too broadly, and wrapping back around into the milquetoast misogyny of using it to refer to any female character they find cool while still talking about male characters as if they're whole entire people not defined solely by their gender

which is to say i think people should be banned from calling women girlbosses unless they write two paragraphs explaining why they feel it's a sufficiently ironic commentary on her to receive a permission slip

[love-from-sasha]

Beats and Breaks from the Flower Patch (1998)

Kitty Craft

tracklist

☆ Par 5

☆ Inward Jam

☆ When Fortune Smiles

Alright

Half Court Press

☆ Mama's Lamp - American Mix

Locked Groove

Down For

☆ Shine On

All to You

☆ Caught High

Leaves Your Breath (Bonus Track)

☆ Faultered (Bonus Track)

Beats and Breaks from the Flower Patch by Kitty Craft (Pamela Valfer) is an endearingly sweet lofi/indie pop album released in 1998

the whimsical mix of trip hop drums and dainty twee vocals is perfectly encapsulated in the playful album cover - the tracklist feels like something that really came from the heart, with looping breaks and samples that are warmly reminiscent of childhood nostalgia

i dont think i can think of a better way to describe this album other than the title itself, as it truly sounds like beats and breaks from the flower patch

with love,

sasha

[the-tipsy-tailor]

let’s randomly generate a character using dice! 

here is a dice roller: https://g.co/kgs/2EYNRV

here is a picrew character maker i like: https://picrew.me/share?cd=S5wg4qvVID -or- https://picrew.me/share?cd=U5QPIcqS7f (edited 6/14 to replace dead picrew)

roll the indicated die and choose from the table below. 

d100 - this indicates character age in percentage of lifespan 

d20 - a trait

cannot resist snuggling any small animal

cursed to only swear in a long dead eldritch language 

addicted to sweet rolls 

favourite color is outside the visible spectrum for most humanoids 

has clockwork prostheses 

takes any excuse to infodump about the small aquatic creature they studied in college

becomes violent over board games 

raised by a polycule 

always has a pen 

really into sappy troubadour romance poems

theatre kid 

“this form is for your benefit, my true form would drive you to madness!”

mom friend 

a sweetheart in every port 

hoards books 

anarchist revolution evangelist 

makes all their own clothes

secretly one of the most famous artists of their generation 

doesn’t trust food that isn’t pickled or dried 

had a near death experience and can’t stop talking about it 

d12 - lineage 

demonic

angelic

draconic

dwarfish

gnomish

elvish

human

goblinkin

aquatic

subterranean

eldritch 

birdfolk 

d10 - hair color

green

violet

silver

indigo

black

auburn

blonde

violently pink

rainbow

bald

2d4 + 2 - indicates how queer they are on a scale of 1-10 

d8 - pronouns 

they/them

he/him

she/her 

fae/faer

it/its

he/they

she/they

none 

d6 - style

counterculture (fantasy equivalent of goth/punk/grunge/hip hop etc)

twee

academic

gives no fucks

high fashion 

fae 

d4 - stature

Short and wide

Short and thin

Tall and wide

Tall and thin 

use the picrew to make an avatar. i’d love to see your results! 

[thesinglesjukebox]

CHARLI XCX FT. ROBYN & YUNG LEAN - "THE 360 REMIX"

17 pop writers out here doing damage...

[5.94]

Taylor Alatorre: Elvis Presley/The Clash/OutKast = iconoclasts become standards, e.g. "Dancing on My Own" in RS 500 Greatest; "Elvis moment" = Eminem c. 2000; "lyrics on your booby" = hip hop mode of dominance over male competitors/listener, but femme-coded; "Robyn on the beat" + muffled "hey!" chants = long tail of DJ Mustard; camera flashes as skeuomorphic e-fame; demographic triangulation as art/alchemy; “no one understands it” + "so carelessly" = indie aesthetic of insularity/self-sabotage, still necessary for branding/coping; cult of the child star = youth’s gravitational hold over memory, easily exploitable; 1994 = beginning of Robyn's career, but also Max Martin's, represented here by apprentice Cirkut; Scandinavia as pop/anti-pop breeding ground; my dad: “cross between Britney Spears/Kesha" = highest possible praise for Charli song; he doesn't even know about "Till the World Ends" or "Die Young" remixes; conspicuous whiteness of collaborators + calculatedly ableist lyric video = winking at Dimes Square reactionary chic, though Benga is on "Von dutch" dubstep remix, and Robyn is Robyn; "pets/family" = emergent Millennial desires for domesticity, cf. "I think about it all the time"; Brat = niche pop stardom as crowdfunded perma-adolescence; Julia Fox in Uncut Gems + True Romance/"Ginseng Strip 2002" = sublimated wish for Eternal 2013, i.e. pre-Ferguson/Gamergate -> future blueprint for Gen Z conservatism? I don't see how I can hate from outside of the club – I can't even get in! [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: “360” is the most complete Charli pop culture moment (and video) we’ve had in years, and “365” perfectly wraps up the confessional, raw moments of Brat in delightful, utter mess. The first time I listened to both, I couldn’t help but think to myself how incredible it is that Charli’s self-reference comes across as effortlessly cool rather than cloying or annoying. I must have spoken too soon, because this remix is awkward. Yung Lean and Robyn sound fine, but “360” removed from the iconic hook is, just, not Julia (ah-ah-ahhhhhh). “Dancing on My Own” is one my favorite songs of all time—yes, I have big feelings—yet that can’t prevent me from cringing a little bit when Robyn references it. Two extra points, though, for Robyn saying the words "email" and “booby.”  [7]

Jonathan Bradley: In “360,” Charli XCX has one of her most compelling songs in years: sharp and hooky, drawing on the hyper-pop palette but translating it into reinvented, broad-appeal synth pop. It dispenses with one of the more frustrating tendencies she’s had throughout her career, which is to make concepts rather than songs. “Boys,” for instance, was about the idea of Charli making a song about boys rather than actually evoking love or affection; “1999” was about the idea of ’90s nostalgia rather than anything distinct about the era. The remix of “360" (I won’t bother with the twee titles Charli’s used for Brat's various expansions) loses the focus and efficiency that makes the original so replayable and returns to concepts. It’s Charli with two more artists whose niche and highly online fanbases are noted for enthusiasm rather than size, and they don’t do anything more interesting than provide their names to be credited alongside her. For a posse cut that features each performer finishing one another’s sentences, they have zero chemistry and provide none of what makes their own work special. Robyn should be encouraged to never rap — her cutesy “Konichiwa Bitches” mode is her worst side — and Yung Lean… well, I’m not sure what appeal he usually adds, but he should also be encouraged to never rap. [4]

Andrew Karpan: Rustled up and confusing, neither Robyn nor Yung Lean succeed in turning the Brat opener into a SoundCloud loosie. Instead, their new, rattling voices make the song feel crowded, an email correspondence that pales in comparison to the more movingly distant Lorde remix that quickly overshadowed this glittery mess.  [3]

Jackie Powell: What bothers me about this fascinating collaboration is that "360" loses what makes it most compelling. The original "360" is essentially a slice-of-life song. It paints a subculture and a social circle incredibly well and showcases Charli XCX’s ability to manipulate vowel sounds and write with such assonance and consonance. She’s a magician with how she can manipulate the name Julia (as in Julia Fox) into an earworm or an aria. Charli, Robyn (!) and Yung Lean definitely vocally complement one another. Lean’s rapping almost acts like a baseline, while Charli and Robyn harmonize with each other, talk-singing more than rapping during their respective verses. It’s also quite amusing when Lean hops into a pre-chorus that is supposed to pay tribute to Ciara’s "1, 2 Step" like the "360" original, but instead just sounds like an interpolation of Pitbull’s “Hotel Room Service”: When Lean says “supersonic, push up on it, right in your ear,” he sounds eerily similar to when Pitbull raps “we at the hotel, motel, holiday inn.” But what’s disappointing about the remix is that it’s so much less clever than the original: it's less redundant, but it doesn’t have as much purpose and direction. Also, I’m not sure how much of a remix this is when the only thing that remains is the instrumental. [6]

Harlan Talib Ockey: One of the great things about Brat is that Charli went in assuming she was talking to her closest friends, who know the world she moves in and the life she lived in the late ‘00s club scene. Hyperpop has always been obsessed with nostalgia, but this isn’t just about old pop and internet esthetics. It’s about Charli’s own experiences. “The 360 remix” only kind of carries this over for Robyn and Yung Lean. “Three child stars out here doing damage” sounds like it’s about to crack open an interesting train of thought, but it quickly veers back into "we got many hits,” rather than anything more revealing about their past or present. This remix also doesn’t reach the heights of the original (a [7], btw) without its soaring chorus; because the same riff underpins the whole song, it starts to feel like one very long verse. Plus: “now my lyrics on your booby”? [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The most extravagant act of self-mythologizing this side of the J. Lo autobiopic — I'm not quite as impressed by these three as they are, but I'm meta-level impressed that they managed to get in this many boasts in such a compact passage. Robyn sounds diminished relative to her standards, while Lean sounds enlivened after his recent stay in the Drain Gang Post Punk mines. Charli hits right down the middle — so it's up to A.G. Cook to pick up the slack, delivering one of his best beats since the heyday of PC Music. The taut synth riff sneaks perfectly in between the overlapping vocals, at once accentuating and playing foil to the melody. It's unspeakably stylish, cool enough to cover up what is ultimately a threadbare song. [7]

Katherine St. Asaph: The thing about pandering to nostalgia -- there are people who formed their personalities around Charli and Body Talk, and I'm sure Yung Lean was formative for someone -- is that it inherently causes listeners to think about the things they're nostalgic for. And this sounds like "Fembot" running on energy saver mode. [3]

Julian Axelrod: "The von dutch remix with addison rae and a.g. cook" is the sound of one pop scoundrel passing the torch to another and burning down the song from the inside. "The girl, so confusing version with lorde" is a parasocial inversion of its source material, deepening and resolving its initial conflict. By contrast, "The 360 remix with robyn and yung lean" is ... fun! And a little silly! And very Swedish! Charli's always been a pop nerd at heart, which is both her secret weapon and the reason she will never know peace. No pop star in their right mind would think, "I must turn my biggest single into a '90s boy band B-side where Robyn sings about her boobs and Yung Lean interpolates JJ Fad." That's the kind of sick shit only a stan would dream up. If this remix feels less essential than its brethren, it's because the original is such a complete statement on its own. It's easier to fill in the cracks on an album cut than build upon perfection. [7]

Brad Shoup: Huge whiff to not go the "I Got Five On It (remix)" route and make this a true Swedish pop posse cut. Rednex can take a lap as the best band with a fiddler since Alabama. Whale gets their flowers for putting on the hobo' humpin' slobo girlies. Army of Lovers can take credit for... damn near anything they want. Get Petra Marklund bragging about changing the trance-pop game. (It would be a nice 360 moment.) As it is, this remix ends up a tribute to Robyn with some Ciara/Missy love tossed in. Lean takes the "1, 2 Step" baton from the Charli in the original, though he's never more engaged than when he's acknowledging that yes, Robyn's on the beat. That might not be true in all senses, but the couplet "I started so young, I didn't even have email/Now my—lyrics on your booby" was totally worth the wait. Charli's line about "three child stars out here doing damage" is really smart, really canny. Better than anyone I can think of, she embodies the child star's soul war: the twin impulses to dial into shimmering subcultures and to just phone it in. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: The problem with Charli XCX being the popstar of the future is that she is very much the popstar of the now. The ability to absorb newly born sub-genres born of nostalgia for the '80s/'90s and twist them into stranger, wilder forms is a current popstar ideal, not a futuristic one. When Robyn enters, you can barely tell her and Charli apart, so closely they've been tied together in being smooth, catchy and lithe -- their voices blend right into each other. Hence the presence of Yung Lean, whose clumsy, awkward flow disrupts the song and allows it the appearance of rough charm that AG Cook and Cirkut's scalpel-cut drumbeats prevent from emerging. Robyn seems happiest to be here, while Lean comes across as disengaged. That could count as cool elsewhere but feels apropos of nothing next to Charli, who is always on, no matter the cost.  [6]

Mark Sinker: “Complicating, circulating / New life! new life!”: something sweet and funny to me that Charli is igniting old-school critical discourse where discourse is still found (“rockism” on bluesky; “auteur theory” on ilx), when both versions of this song are the words and moves of self-declared super-hot cyborgs stepping out and taking a fine narcissistic-mechanistic strut through in the city. Killing this shit since 1981 (complimentary).  [9]

TA Inskeep: Pure fun, giving nods to 1987 Miami freestyle -- this would sound great bumping from cars that, y'know, go boom -- while Charli, Robyn, and Yung Lean party your body. I actually wish this track were denser and had more going on, because it could handle it; as is, it's great but yet too spare.  [7]

Will Adams: In its original form, "360" was thin, its silly references obscuring the astounding insight that the rest of Brat offers. This remix does it no favors; the instrumental is unchanged, the earworm hook of "bumpin' that" is downgraded to "got that," and Charli and her guests pass the mic aimlessly. It was already inessential before it was rendered entirely superfluous by the superior remix that is "365." All that's left is me wondering which Robyn lyric someone got tattooed on their boobs. [4]

Oliver Maier: The "360" remix mercifully spares us a guest verse from Julia Fox, but still feels like a misstep -- perhaps the only one, in fairness -- in Charli's zeitgeist-conquering Brat campaign. The more I listen to the original, a near-perfect pop song that thrives on its conciseness, the more it feels like a strange choice for a repurposed posse cut. There's a tinge of the Pop 2 mix-and-match philosophy to the feature choices, but the manic, first-thought-best-thought intuition of that era is not so present here, and the poor Swedes sound a bit adrift. Lean just about holds his own, but Robyn's contribution is woeful, particularly for an OG brat. By the end, you're desperate for Charli's hook from the original to break through, but relief never comes. [4]

Ian Mathers: Sometimes when you call something a "victory lap" you mean it derisively, but this is an example of when the term feels both earned and positive. If I didn't love Robyn and think she deserves all the praise she can get, you could probably take a point or two off my score. I'm much less familiar with Yung Lean, but he fits in just fine, in the kind of way where despite never actually listening to an album I totally buy that he makes sense rubbing shoulders with Robyn and Charli. It helps that the original is so strong, and that Charli just takes the production and ditches the old vocals so she's more a part of this version instead. [9]

Alfred Soto: Charli's having fun, and I endorse her delight in sharing that burbling synth bass and ticking sequencer with her friends as if it were freshly opened prosecco, but this is a party where she's better off dancing on her own.  [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[princesssarisa]

Sleeping Beauty Spring: "The Sleeping Beauty" (1889 ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Of the three ballets composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker might be the most famous, and Swan Lake might be the most original, but The Sleeping Beauty is often considered the crown jewel of them all. A mainstay of ballet companies throughout the world, it serves as a grand showcase for classical choreography, for luxuriant sets and costumes, and of course for sweet, sumptuously romantic music. Its popularity has influenced retellings of the fairy tale far beyond the world of dance: for example, this ballet marks the first use of the name "Aurora" for the enchanted princess, but it would be far from the last version to give her that name. And excerpts from Tchaikovsky's score, particularly the famous Garland Waltz performed near the beginning of Act I, have become a musical mainstay in other Sleeping Beauty adaptations.

The ballet's scenario is mostly faithful to the familiar story, but with a few embellishments to provide showcases for dance, and only a few varying details between different productions. It's officially based on Charles Perrault's version of the tale, but it follows the Brothers Grimm version in cutting Perrault's second half, and in letting the King and Queen join their daughter in sleep and survive to the end. A prologue depicts the christening of the newborn Princess Aurora, attended by six good fairies led by the Lilac Fairy, who softens the evil fairy Carabosse's curse from death to sleep. After this, Act I consists of Aurora's sixteenth (or twentieth) birthday celebration, during which she dances the famous and difficult Rose Adagio with four suitors. The festivities are cut cruelly short, however, when Carabosse arrives in disguise as an old peasant woman and gives Aurora a drop spindle as a "gift" (or hides it in a bouquet of roses), causing her to prick her finger and collapse before the horrified eyes of the whole court. But the Lilac Fairy reappears to console the King and Queen and to put everyone to sleep along with Aurora.

Act II begins a hundred years later, when Prince Désiré (or Prince Florimund) is shown a dancing vision of Aurora by the Lilac Fairy, who then leads him to the castle and thwarts a last feeble attempt by Carabosse to stop him from kissing the princess. Finally, much like The Nutcracker's final act in the Land of Sweets, Act III leaves the plot behind and consists only of a royal wedding divertissement. The guests include an array of characters from other French fairy tales, who each dance in turn: Puss in Boots and the White Cat, Princess Florine and the Bluebird, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Cinderella and her Prince, and Hop o'My Thumb, his six brothers, and the Ogre. (In performance, the Cinderella and Hop o'My Thumb dances are often cut.)

The demanding role of Princess Aurora is considered one of the ultimate showcases for a ballerina's art. But she's not the ballet's only plum role, as Prince Désiré/Florimund, the Lilac Fairy, Princess Florine, the Bluebird, and other roles also shine. Meanwhile, in some productions, Carabosse is a grotesque character role danced by a man, while in others she's a more glamorous figure danced by a woman, but either way, she's a flamboyant, scene-stealing villainess. Besides dance, most productions are also vehicles for glittering, flower-decked scenery and rich, colorful costumes, with an atmosphere of luxury that suits the world of fairy tale royalty. Most productions set the prologue and Act I in the 17th century Louis XIV era, and Acts II and III in the 18th century.

To some lovers of Perrault and the Grimms, this ballet might be too pretty and twee, without delving into the story's potential emotional depth or darker side. Some might also find it too long: at nearly three hours when performed uncut, it's the longest of Tchaikovsky's ballets. But no one can deny its appeal to lovers of classical dance, or the elegant, atmospheric beauty of Tchaikovsky's score.

Both as an adaptation of the classic fairy tale and as a mainstay of the standard ballet repertoire, Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty most definitely looms large. Every subsequent retelling of the story arguably stands in its glittering shadow.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @thealmightyemprex, @faintingheroine, @reds-revenge, @thatscarletflycatcher, @comma-after-dearest, @the-blue-fairie, @paexgo-rosa, @autistic-prince-cinderella

[joanofarc]

concentrate, new bad things (1997).

everyone is leaning out their windows everyone is staring at the sky it becomes easier and easier to say yes to me the more you try

[meat-wentz]

meat I know you love indie sleaze and I have a question about it! crystal castles is kinda lumped in with this genre and to me is has an “edgier” appeal (when I listen to it I feel like a vampire) and I was wondering if this had a specific name within the genre. and if I’m being honest I see indie sleaze thrown around for a lot of things (from early lady gaga to skins the tv show) so does it even count with that? if it is do you have any recs for music like cc/ crim3s/sidewalks and skeletons? hehe thank youuu <3

yes!! so one of the issues with the label "indie sleaze" is that it's being retroactively applied to encapsulate an entire era/scene/aesthetic vs. an actual genre. back in the day we just referred to basically any indie label music as "indie" which could span from folk to twee to underground rock to electro to club pop to hip-hop. much of indie sleaze was based in having wide-ranging eclectic tastes and sensibility for the underground, so hopefully that clears up a little bit why the indie sleaze label gets so messy when it comes to defining a sound and look and attitude!

in regards to crystal castles and their sound, they really super stood out as a very dark version of the more electronic fueled projects at the time, which tended to go for more dance-oriented beats, and crystal castles was super influential in having this specific kind of wild chaotic energy but also these dark droning tones and sounds. their genre kind of formed around them and their sound later as we moved into a more dubsteppy era around 2009-2010 and continuing into 2012-late 2013 (at least at the height of the genre from my perspective on the scene) and was given the name "witch house." weirdly, crystal castles have always carried that "indie" genre for me even after the witch house subgenre became popular, i think just because of that early exposure to them in tandem with other artists like justice, ladytron, boys noize, sebastiAn, etc, where they all sort of kind of had that dark thread throughout their music (i def recommend all of them), and i still don't entirely characterize crystal castles as having all the characteristics of witch house, even though they were a huge influence. witch house was easy to identify due to the way their musicians and titles were stylized, lots of v's in place of u's (CHVRN) or used as an inverted A, all caps, usage of crosses like literally everywhere †††. usually marked by a dark droning sound and high pitched or deep gravelly gothy vocals, as well as darker ideas present, song titles like SACRIFICE, RITUAL, BURIAL. it should be noted a bunch of early witch house was also influenced by remixes, so some of the earlier examples of witch house songs are one off remixes of other electronic songs. you can also see the influence of witch house on a lot of later and current artists like purity ring and polica and laura les, etc.

here's some super cool artists to check out that have that same dark, droning sound or whiplash chaotic feeling or both! (a bunch of these are straight from tumblr mixes i downloaded in 2011-2012):

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore march 2024 update!!

a Lot more guitar music based than last month (this could be bad or good, you be judge) but it's mostly a back and forth between different styles of electronic and assorted flavors of rock and punk, with a few pop and rap outliers here and there. for the electronic chunk of the list, it's mostly composed of (as ever) the more percussion-driven styles of electronic: dreamy and chill breakbeat courtesy of eris drew, uk bass/electro/post-club mutations from little snake (that whole 20/20 ldn comp is solid stuff, still prefer the halftime sound from their earliest releases, but this is nothing to scoff at either), heavy hitting hard (h)drum from ahadadream, priya ragu and skrillex, d.silvestre and company pushing the gnarliest side of funk brasileiro to its more brooding limits, maddeningly catchy garage and uk hip hop crossover presented by kwengface and joy overmono, a whole section of different footwork offerings from sinistarr, heavee, dj clap and anysia kym, two portrayals of modern drum and bass sounds with dbridge presenting his signature minimal ventures, and machinedrum and tinashe bringing one of my favourite liquid dnb / r&b crossovers in a minute, and finally, the return of the french prince of darkness, mr. gesaffelstein, doing a heel-turn from the unsufferable dreck that was his previous album and diving head-first into 80s synth punk / ebm / minimal synth revivalism by way of daf and two lone swordsmen, and it is a much, much more welcome addition to his repertoire.

for the guitar side of the list: yeule's cover of broken social scene, taking the indie rock original and twisting it into an ambient / glitch pop piece, indie pop ventures from casiotone for the painfully alone (instantly recognizable band name, for sure) and alucinaciones en familia (first time there's an uruguayan project on this list! there may be more over the course of the year, my goal this year is to listen to as many albums and eps from local artists as i'm able to), hauntingly pretty and poppy neo-psychedelia bliss by broadcast (i definitely need to get into their stuff as soon as possible, i've really liked the few songs i've heard from them so far), everyone's favourite shoegaze-etc band mbv with a hit from the pre-loveless days, a very of-its-time yet very compelling emo-pop track by further seems forever, a strange yet impossibly interesting and singular blend of screamo, bedroom and twee pop as well as math rock(!) from your arms are my cocoon, and a hard-hitting and emotionally raw final blow by post-hardcore / alt rock project tenemos explosivos, the band behind my favourite album of 2022, whose discography i should definitely dive more into in the future.

as for the rest: the two solitary rap cuts in here, firstly a cut from the most recent schoolboy q project (much like gesaffelstein, a very clear improvement when compared to his last album) and later on, corroded and destructive trap and industrial crossover courtesy of shapednoise and moor mother, two artists very keen on sonic experimentation, delivering a mystifying experience every time; a strangely familiar and comforting blend of 80s synthpop and 90s soul by way of more modern indie production in the nourished by time track, an impeccable piece of electro-disco / synthpop from juliana gattas, vocalist of miranda!, one of the best pop acts from latin america, and produced by alex anwandter, also a name to watch if you're interested in pop from this side of the globe, and finally: kylie minogue with one of the best pop songs of all time, never gets old.

the one non-spotify highlight this time around is volt mix do bruxo by chediak, taking a cut from one of the most boundary-pushing scenes in all of funk brasileiro, the enya-sample-led baile do bruxo by tropa do bruxo, a collective of various mcs and djs spearheaded by ronaldinho of all people, and flipping it into a homage to the earliest forms of funk, more initially inspired by electro and miami bass. it bangs, what can you say

tube it!!

[slothgiirl]

leo messi drabble

It starts raining halfway through her walk. Which isn’t unusual for the Netherlands as far as she’s aware. Or Holland. She was never great at geography. 

What matters is she’s in Utrecht for the day from Amsterdam. It’s not far, but given the only two people she knows in the continent of Europe stayed back, it feels like she might as well be on another planet. Another planet with similarly Flemish style buildings and a map the size of a4 paper: the better to hide the most obvious sign of her being a tourist. She doesn’t really have a plan other than exploring the city aimlessly; a plan the rain’s putting on hold.

She shoves her map into her bag, glancing around the street to find somewhere to duck into while the worst of the rain passes. 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Last summer when she’d been planning this with Rocio and Yadira it had been the dream girl's trip. A month in Europe going from hostel to hostel before taking on university. They’d fit in museums in the afternoon with late nights bar hopping. Yadira had written some useful dutch phrases, carefully copied from the yahoo page that had taken ages to load. 

Then Yadira had pulled out. Her friend had decided to put the money into university tuition over a graduation trip. 

And Rocio’s solution was to bring her boyfriend along.

So now she was a third wheel. 

Javier was fine. 

But it wasn’t the same. 

She didn’t mind when they went to museums, even at clubs it was nice to have a guy around, just in case. It was at restaurants when she felt like the odd one out. 

Maybe she was being too sensitive. 

Ducking into one of the many pubs with their neon colored Heiniken signs and terrace tables filled with smoking patrons ambivalent about the rain. She drags her shoes over the mat, cleaning off her shoes before glancing around.

The place was filled with guys who might have finished school alongside her with questionable hairstyles that ranged from hippie-long to gelled to the point it might hurt to touch. Tourists then, she thought. Or some travel group. She’d seen plenty of those at the Rijksmuseum. It had been a battle of endurance to wait while an entire school group from the states walked down the stairs in the Anne Frank House. 

Some were even cute. 

With glasses of beer in hand, they were definitely celebrating something. 

She beelines to the bar. A coffee sounded amazing but she would settle for a beer. Rest while the rain passes and just enjoy the view of the street. Traveling made even streets interesting. The streets were even cobblestone instead of the cracked pavement and pothole stricken streets around Veracruz. 

Still, she’d have traded anything for a taco. Even just the warm tortilla cooked on the woodfire stove would beat any meal she’s had here.

“Un cafe,” she leans against the bar, “coffee, koffie?” The words sounded foreign on her tongue. She usually tried English first, as she was more familiar with it. But years of instruction in school still left her fumbling, the pronunciation garbled in her mouth. 

Well, they sounded similar enough.

“Twee vijftien,” the bartender’s an older man, maybe a decade older than her parents with cauliflower ears. He plots the paper receipt in front of her. 

It’s a fumble of coins: digging them out of her purse and figuring out which coins were how much. 

She sets her euros on the counter, trying to make eye contact to make sure he knows she paid while he helps one of the guys. 

His t-shirt is blue with blocky white font reading Argentina. (It’s a safe bet where they’re all from.) The shirt is too large, and his jeans are just as wide legged. She’ll never understand why guys loved to buy jeans that were too large only to get a belt. 

His hair was long and mousy brown as he patiently tried to order which was a complicated matter when the bartender didn’t speak spanish, and the guy clearly only spoke in spanish to him. 

“Birra. Una birra,” the guy waves his hands trying to communicate. 

“Beer,” the barkeeper raises a brow, “Yes.” He points at the pint, “beer.”

“No,” he sighs dejectedly, “de-una caña?” 

He had church boy-help old ladies with their grocery bags written all over him. 

“Como corona?” She butts in. 

It wasn’t rude if she was trying to help.

The guy looks over at her, smiling kindly in a manner that is contagious. “Si. De cristal. Vidrio? Nunca se con eso que el castellano cambia de pais a pais.” 

“Verdad!” She nods, mirroring his easy going smile, “o mas bien, che vos.”

He takes her light teasing in stride, looking down at his shoes and laughing. His cheeks turn pink in a charmingly sheepish way. 

She tries to get the message across. “Beer,” she mimes with her hand, “in…bottle?” 

“Ah,” the barkeep nods, and fetches an amber glass bottle. It’s a random dutch brand, but better than nothing. He also hands her her cup of coffee. 

“Leo,” Leo extends his hand like he’s going through motions. 

She shakes his hand, introducing herself.

Whatever easy moment passes as he can’t hold her gaze for long, a thread of self consciousness in his stance. 

“Are you here with school,” she asks.

This makes him snort, “no-a. . .work actually,” which only seems to amuse him more.

“Really?”

“Well,” he tilts his head. “The world cup. Sort of.”

“Isn’t that next summer?”

“Under 20,” Leo rubs the back of his neck, “but it’s still a world cup.”

“That’s cool as fuck.” She looks him over again, trying to imagine him playing semi-pro, pro(?), either way, it was crazy to think about when he seemed so normal. Football players came off pretty arrogant in the press clips but then again, she didn’t follow any team that closely. 

“I keep waiting for it to feel real but even benched for Barca,” he shrugs because Leo can’t put the feeling into words. It was bigger than that.

“Did you win?” 

Leo meets her wondering gaze. His amber eyes twinkle with mirth, “just a little.”

“Ha! Trying to be humble?”

“It was close,” he says seriously, “I’d rather be honest than humble.” 

“So you play pretty well?”

“I love football.” He shrugs as in a what can you do about it before taking a long drink of his beer. 

She wets her bottom lip, before remembering her own drink and looking away. 

“And you?” Leo fidgets with the beer cap in one hand. 

“Just. . .touristiando. Taking in the sights before I hit the books.” It sounded woefully inadequate compared to playing at any level of a Fifa world cup. Had she already failed at life? She was only eighteen but already she was falling behind. 

Her grip tightens on the coffee cup.

“See anything good?” He asks leaning into her.

The pub feels cozy now. Not as loud as when she entered. She doesn’t mind having to put her walking on hold.

“The canals. Some ancient tower. I think this isn’t a tourist centric city. Must be why it’s a day trip,” she tells him truthfully. “I had lunch in the park. That was really nice. It’s been nice just to wander around.” Not every vacation day had to be jam packed. 

“Do you want to get dinner,” Leo says suddenly, going still. “With me.” He swallows.

It was nice, skipping the whole song and dance and just getting to the point. She liked that about him. She liked Leo. And she was on an entirely different continent. Why not? 

She was an adult. She was going to start uni soon. 

Her gaze kept flickering over Leo. Like an optical illusion, he looked like a guy she might have shared a class with yet more attractive than any guy she knew. 

Why not?

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

She giggles.

Leo ducks his head.

She was glad it had rained on her day trip.

[beerspanl]

6 redenen om de Good Beer Spa te bezoeken en waarom u Beer Spa-therapie moet volgen

Stel je een plek voor waar de rijke geschiedenis van het brouwen gepaard gaat met de rust van een spa, waardoor een ervaring ontstaat die het normale leven volkomen overstijgt. Van verwennerij tot ontspanning, in dit verhaal gaan we op de reis van bierspatherapie. Dit concept overstijgt het louter brandmerken van hoe heerlijk bier en welzijn in plaats daarvan voor u kunnen worden gecoöpteerd.

Betreed een ruimte waar de gouden gloed van bier het warme comfort van warmwaterbronnen ontmoet. En het is niet alleen maar een leuk toevluchtsoord; er is een nieuwe manier om te ontspannen die zowel fysiek verkwikkend is als behoorlijk geruststellend voor de geest. Laten we de bierspa in Brussel eens in detail bekijken.

Uniek spatherapieconcept:

Ten eerste biedt de Good Beer Spa een individueel en ander soort spa-therapieconcept dan je in andere winkels aantreft. Centraal in het concept staat het 'bierbad': een kans voor gelukkige feestgangers om te ontspannen in een poel met zorgvuldig bereid warm water en pils.

Deze unieke vorm van therapie streeft ernaar de verfrissende effecten van bier te interpreteren als een genezende eigenschap op zichzelf, waarbij de logica erachter vrijwel gelijk staat aan de traditionele westerse geneeskunde.

Huidverjonging met bier:

Eén reden om, althans gedeeltelijk, een bierspabehandeling te zoeken, zijn de voordelen van de huidverzorging. De Good Beer Spa selecteert bieren van hoge kwaliteit met een rijke moutsmaak, waarvan wordt gedacht dat ze voedende antioxidatiesequenties en vitamines voor de huid bevatten. Met de twee samen, badend in warmte en bier, blijft de huid vochtig en zijdezacht, een zoet gevoel van wedergeboorte.

Stressverlichting en ontspanning:

De bierspa-therapie gaat verder dan de voor de hand liggende fysieke voordelen en is ontworpen voor mentale ontspanning en stressverlichting. De hulpverlenende ingrediënten van het bier zorgen voor een vredige sfeer: toevoegingen als hop zorgen voor rustgevende omzwervingen op de omweg van het leven.

Met een vriendelijke glimlach op het gezicht kan de warme en gastvrije sfeer in de spahal het algemene ontspanningsniveau verhogen. Dit is een ideale plek voor een korte onderbreking van uw drukke schema.

Aromatherapie en ontmoet de zintuigen:

Bij de bierspatherapie van het merk zijn alle zintuigen betrokken. Wanneer gasten in een bierbad wegzakken, dompelen ze zich onder in een wereld van geuren. We combineren deze aromatische ervaring met het tastbare plezier van het onderdompelen in warm, rustgevend bier.

Daarom verbetert het de spa-therapie voor een werkelijk wonderbaarlijk gevoel. Gasten worden uitgenodigd om het zintuiglijke avontuur aan te gaan en te eindigen met een bezoek aan de Good Beer Spa in Brussel, dat in sommige gevallen werkelijk onuitwisbare herinneringen achterlaat!

Aanpasbare spa-pakketten:

De Good Beer Spa biedt verschillende aanpasbare spa-arrangementen voor gasten die hun ervaring op maat willen maken. Of u nu een bierliefhebber bent die zoveel mogelijk tijd aan het bierbad wil doorbrengen of gewoon op zoek bent naar beide, de spa biedt allerlei mogelijkheden.

U kunt kiezen uit een volledig assortiment massageruimtes, maar de spa biedt ook gezichtsbehandelingen en traditionele saunatherapieën. Gasten kunnen hun spa-agenda afstemmen op hun ontspanningsdoelen.

Sociale en plezierige ervaring:

Biertherapie in de Good Beer Spa is niet alleen een ervaring van individuele ontspanning, maar ook een sociaal en ontspannen avontuur. De spa is perfect voor vrienden, geliefden of zelfs individuele reizigers om samen te komen en te genieten van de unieke charme van bierspatherapie. Het gelach en het gezelschap tijdens deze spasessies zijn een welkome ervaring die het waard is om te onthouden.

Conclusie

De combinatie van de pittige smaak van bier en de verfrissende kwaliteit van water is wat de Good Beer Spa hoopt dat uw problemen zal wegnemen - hoewel de waarheid wordt verteld, gebeurt dit één voor één. Good Beer Spa is een vakantie die zowel lichaam als geest nieuw leven inblaast. Dus als u op zoek bent naar een goede bierspa in Brussel, dan bent u hier aan het juiste adres.

Zorg ervoor dat u door het assortiment prachtige houten accessoires van GoodBeer Craft bladert voordat je weggaat. Deze unieke items belichamen een heerlijke en tijdloze charme, waardoor uw kleding een boost krijgt en u met vertrouwen een statement kunt maken.

[colorisbyshe]

"it is IMPERATIVE that you listen to weird niche music of some kind." And what weird niche music do you listen to hmmmmmmm

Oh, you got my ass!

To be upfront, I mostly listen to... the poppiest, most accessible versions of Weird Niche Music and I have been open about that! So, I might be posting more friendly songs from more experimental artists. Or I might be posting Really Popular Artists from more niche spheres--like "The Silver Cord" by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizards, which lots of people know of by now but the average person might not.

And I'm also rly open about also just... very sincerely loving vapid, formulaic pop music as well. So! Enjoy those caveats, enjoy this list

"Juxtaposition" Silica Gel is the middle point between cerebral and abrasive Korean rock. They just released an album, check out the entire thing.

"Dancing When You're Dead" STAP Sigh Boys. Kinda funky, weird vocals, but also just a nice, retro sound with modern trappings.

"American Psycho" .grouptherapy. Alternative hip hop with guitar on this track but they're great at tackling and morphing many genres (see their collab track "Disco Pantz" vs "FUNKFEST" vs "Thatsmycheck")

"Aladdin" Wednesday Campanella. I suppose if you've been into Japanese EDM, even via anime and video games, this sound isn't that niche but it's still fun. Found via my dashboard.

"The Mad Stone" Everything Everything. Their entire discography, actually but this song is the most... out there in recent times. Starts off with a twee, folksy sound that actually kinda pisses me off btu then really pushes boundaries and transforms into something new.

"Captain" redveil. The entire EP this is from is a lightly experimental landscape. He was featured on a JPEGMAFIA track if that clarifies the playground he's in.

"Calla" Rubio. Actually, a kinda convention sound in that it fits the kinda slow, sweeping synth sound that you'd associate with a time past. I just wanted to highlight Rubio because he's Chilean and it's more difficult to find info on him (in American) than it should be!

Or like, I could recommend "Mephisto" by Queen Bee, which is Japanese Rock, but has near operatic elements but... was an ED for an extremely popular anime.

But that invokes a question, doesn't it? What is NICHE and weird music? I feel like the more you explore and open up your mind to music that isn't just fed to you via Tiktok or Similar Interest Algorithms (where you're confined to 1.5 genres), the harder it is to confidently say your music is niche.

Is something niche if it's popular in a different country/culture than you? Is it just niche if your friends don't know their name but their sound is the same as/nearly adjacent to what's on the radio? Is it still niche if, yes, it's part of a more narrow subculture BUT it's like... baby's first artist in said subculture/subgenre?

Like... before Kpop got bigger in the west, if someone told me Shinee was niche, I'd still be like ??? SHINEE?? But to someone who has never ventured into kpop or even "foreign" music before, yeah, I could see the argument.

I listen to "Sezon Pomidorowy" by Franek Warzywa & Młody Budda and hte sound is definitely weird (Polish musicians bringing an almost hyperpop sensibility to a song structure that is a lot more... acoustic than that?) but I found them via a big music critic and I think they have had big songs on tiktok. (I would not know but google mentioned something about tiktok, so idk.)

The point about encouraging people to listen to more niche music isn't necessarily to have people prove Their Music is Truly Weird (I don't think any of the music on this list is that weird) but more to encourage people to try out music outside of what is fed directly to them.

In part, because I think people have a looot of music that they would LOVE but just do not naturally encounter via following trends, and it would benefit both them and the musicians if they discovered said music.

But, on a selfish note, also because I think it makes it harder for people to hype up truly rote music as Revolutionary because, well, you'll encounter more experimental music that has Already Done the Thing.

I've said before, there is no bad taste in music (outside of VERY rare exceptions) but there is underdeveloped taste in music. And I think not exploring different sounds, musicians, genres, national outputs means not being equipped to truly judge music.

So like I could list dozens of songs I don't think any of my followers would know by musicians they've never even heard of but that kinda... misses the point.

That post isn't a DPS Check for Rare Music but rather a place to say... hey, have you tried new music recently? Clicked a music rec from a mutual that sounds almost scary to you? Have you been scared off a song because it's not in a language you speak? Listen anyways. Does a genre sound startling? Try a song in it anyways.

Maybe you don't like it. That's fine! But you fucking tried it!!! And that counts for something.

[robbiefischer]

Can I ask 🎶 for Julian AND any other OCs you’d especially like to answer it for?

Of course you can, anon! Sorry to sit on this for a few days, but apparently music taste is a thing I will agonize over. Hopefully it's okay, but I think I'm going to do this for Niko, Alexei and Elijah as well. Thank you so much for this lovely ask, I really appreciate it and I hope you're having a great day! 🖤

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

Julian listens to music all the time. Well, okay, that's likely hyperbole but he'll often have music playing in the background if he's doing something else and really likes being surrounded by it whenever it's practical. He just really enjoys setting the vibe with music, and also thinks it's crucial for him to listen to a wide range of genres and artists to inspire him as a musician. He considers it research, in a way and gets a lot of inspiration for his songs and new sounds to explore with fables from listening to other bands and singer-songwriters. There are very few genres he won't explore and doesn't enjoy, but if he's just listening for pleasure he tends to gravitate towards indie folk and indie rock, alternative, emo, singer-songwriter, indie pop, twee, chamber pop and avant garde. Think some Matador Records (both current and historical - he loves Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, boygenius, Shearwater, Sonic Youth, Boards of Canada, Modest Mouse) with a twist of Sufjan Stevens/Elliott Smith/Seabear confessional and that'll give you a good starting point for what he tends to like. I'm really hoping to upload a Spotify playlist pretty soon of what I imagine a lot of his all-time favorite songs are, but it might take me a little bit because it needs to be perfect for my boy.

Niko's also a fan of having music playing whenever he can. His tastes in music tend to run a lot heavier and darker than Julian's in general. He's more into post-punk, art rock, alt rock, funk, electronica, goth rock, industrial metal, darkwave, synthpop, glam rock, that kind of thing. He loves The Cure, Soft Cell, Joy Division, The Talking Heads, Sisters of Mercy, The Birthday Massacre, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Bauhaus, PJ Harvey and Queen, to name a few. He also loves Hozier, go figure.

Alexei likes anything pop or dance pop. Really, if it's got a good beat, he's into it. He doesn't listen to music all the time (partly because he can't) but it's always on in the car or when he's getting ready for work to pump himself up. He tends to especially love female artists most - he really loves Carly Rae Jepsen, Dua Lipa, old Madonna, The Go-Go's, Kesha, La Roux, Lady Gaga, Charli XCX, Ladytron, Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue, The Donna's, Olivia Rodrigo, Adele, Ladyhawke, Billie Eilish... but he's pretty open to new genres and artists.

Elijah tends to have music going in the background most of the time, but what it is depends on what he's doing. He listens to a wide variety of genres and will try pretty much anything. When he's streaming, in scrims or running strats with his team, he's probably listening to some lo-fi hip hop/chillhop kind of thing because the lack of lyrics works better for him and it doesn't distract him from whatever game or match he's focusing on. Other than that he tends to gravitate towards electronica, techno, house, EMD, electronic pop, synthpop, triphop, dance-punk and new wave.