#you get a digital version of the album? i assume?

[beehop]

wtf is a qr version and why does it have to be so cute

[rosewaterconley]

I solved a mystery that only I care about lol

ok so I have no clue what I'm doing and social media terrifies me. I will probably never touch this account again. why did I have to follow 3 algorithm-selected accounts to get into this website? I can actually name 3 people I'd want to follow on here and it's none of the people your fucking robot told me to follow. but hey, I feel like I have to post it here rather than my blogspot since nobody in the world actually uses blogspot and I want people to see this!

so anyway, there's this band out of the city of Milwaukee called Hero of a Hundred Fights. they dropped a couple CDs in the early 2000s and seem to have broken up, though all their members have been in bands since. that'll be important a little later. for now, Hero of a Hundred Fights are important to me on 2 levels:

I'm a Wisconsinite who has a tiny bit of an obsession with local history and art and really fuck with their weird mathy little corner of the 2000s hardcore scene

I'm a Faction Paradox fan and their 2001 EP The Remote, The Cold contains numerous references to the series! if you've heard of this EP before, it was probably in the context of some "music that references Faction Paradox" list or another

about #2... see, everyone already knows that track 2 is called Faction Paradox and track 3 is called The Celestis. we've all long since put together that the title is a reference to Lawrence Miles' Interference. but what about the lyrics? unfortunately, we don't know. they're not online, and the vocals are good, mind, but rather incoherent.

well, we didn't know. until I ordered a CD copy for like $8 lol. that's all it took! so here you go, the lyrics booklet plus some of the other artwork featured on the CD. artist Nick Slough did a great job on this art and it's a shame only the cover is widely available online (though that's hardly a problem unique to the physical version of this one album). turns out, this is some kinda concept album based on the Miles novel Interference. cool! really love the lyrics on Rope especially. "I need your blood to get this vessel running" and "my life was in your hands, I cut them off and now they're mine" are both raw as hell.

the cover art is pretty interesting. this album was recorded in 2000, released in 2001. the entire creative process occurred before the first standalone Faction Paradox release, The Book of the War. this means the album is entirely Doctor Who-based, not based on the FP series itself. it also means, if we assume the humanoid characters on the art are supposed to be the Remote, that this is the first-ever professional art depicting them!

disclaimer: the booklet lyrics don't 100% match up with what's said in the songs! it's mostly accurate but unfortunately there are some sections missing, some repeated bits that are only written once et al. that's all par for the course but I figured I'd mention it - especially in the case anybody wants to use this to transcribe the lyrics on Genius or some other site like that.

and while we're here, Hero 100 member William Zientara has been in a billion different bands, and I think he's probably the most responsible for the Doctor Who theme on this album. See, he was also in a short-lived band called Managara - named after a Doctor Who tie-in novel so obscure even I, owner of a complete set of Virgin New Adventures who spends my work breaks combing through digital copies of old fanzines, have only ever heard it discussed a handful of times. one of their songs is called Happiness Patrol. more recently, in 2021, he was in the band Fuiguirnet, who have a song called What Grows From the Seeds of Doom! which means Zientara has been randomly tossing Doctor Who references into songs from at least three different bands for twenty years!

so uhh without any further rambling here's the lyrics and art:

[ctrl-altgr]

When does Omori take place?

[Content Warning: Spoilers for Omori, character death, weapons.]

This is a very long post, grab some popcorn.

[EDIT: Thanks for the addition by @basil-daisy, given the in-game dates and mention of a weekend in the photo album, it's more likely that headspace and the real world take place in 1996 and 2000 respectively, this actually adds on to the console idea. Though, I think the Dial-Up thing was probably more of a joke from Omocat, since it doesn't fit with the time-frame as well]

One of the main questions we dont get answers for in omori is when the game takes place, neither from the real world or sunny's headspace. However, it can be narrowed down to a decent margin of error.

Month Mentions?

We learn from Kel that Hero is coming home from college during the "Three days remaining" chapter of the game. This can be assumed to be the very beginning of the summer vacation. This would be arround May or June for colleges in the USA, which is likely where the game is set judging by the USA-style housing. This means the game takes place at least a month before Sunny's birthday, either in May or June, but what year is it?

[ID: A quote from Kel to Sunny, "Actually... Since we're here, I should probably get a gift for HERO. He's in college right now, but he should be coming back sometime tomorrow." He and Sunny are stood by the entrance of a hobby shop, Hobbeez. Kel is grinning.]

Headspace Hints?

Headspace is by far the largest part of the game in terms of playtime, so there should be one or two clues hidden in there right? Well, inferring from the environments and one specific line of text, we can narrow it down to the decade.

In the Foe Facts journal, it is stated that the Dial-Up and Mixtape enemies are "Ancient," and "A relic of the past," giving us a large timeframe.

[ID: A description of the Dial-Up enemy. To the left, there is a drawing of what it looks like. It appears to be an old CRT monitor showing a character similar to the old AOL logo, the monitor stands on a computer placed on its side, both of which are placed next to a telephone modem representing the Dial-Up. The description of the enemy to the right says, "An ancient form of accessing communication networks. Makes a horrible ear-piercing noise when used. - OMORI," Hero adds on to this by stating "Ah, this sound reminds me of the good old days..."]

This description of Dial-Up suggests Hero, being the oldest of the group, was old enough to fondly remember Dial-Up internet, but Sunny, in the form of Omori, does not. Hero is stated to be 15 by Sprout Mole Mike in headspace, and Omori is approximately 12, as Mari dies two months after Sunny's 12th birthday. Meaning Sunny and Hero are apart in age by 3 years.

In a recent patch of the game, and in all of the console versions of the game, one specific line of text gives the exact decade the headspace takes place in, which could be inferred either way.

If you talk to Mr. Jawsum post-Humphrey fight, he hands over the Last Resort to Hero, which adds a portrait of him to the hallway following up to an elevator that leads to a waiting room. The desciption of this portrait tells us the year that Headspace takes place in, 199X, where the last digit of the year is hidden from us.

[ID: A hallway in the Last Resort. Portraits line the wall, each of the previous and current owners of the Last Resort. All previous owners, shown to the left, are sharks (the last anthropomorphised). The most recent owner, to the right, Hero, whom the portrait description says began managing the establishment starting year "199X," where supposedly the final digit of the year is obfuscated.]

However, there is a slight contradiction in the years here. Broadband had a surgance and overtook Dial-Up as the main internet provider post-2000, and so Sunny may be misremembering things, unless Hero's family had access to broadband internet in the 90s. Which is unlikely. (There is also not much information that I could find on the popularity of different internet providers between 1990 and 2000)

So then, it is likely that headspace takes place between this shift, towards the end of the 90s.

Town Tips?

From the real world, we don't get many clues to the placement of the story time-wise. So, what can we infer?

Well, a large amount of the households in Faraway do not have computers, and if they do, they are usually in the parents' room, as a work computer. And, all of the computers and televisions use CRT rather than LED/LCD, with most people having CRT monitors up to 2007.

Using the merch produced by Omocat, we can also see that the hooligans as a group have been around since 20XX, with the final two digits of the year hidden. However, we know that Sunny has not been outside for 4 years, meaning we can narrow it down to 2004 or prior.

[ID: Official Omori merch. A black bomber jacket showing depictions of nail-bats, flowers, pinwheels, a statue of a gate, and two road signs, one showing a bicycle, the other showing three scooters. The text across the bomber jacket reads "Faraway Town - The future belongs to the dreamers - Since 20XX - Ride or die - Hooligans"]

Hobbeez also has a few gaming consoles in stock, with the newest one in there having cartridge games. It appears to resemble a SNES, however it is unlikely that is what is, since they discontinued production in 1999 in North America.

[ID: A zoomed in screenshot of the "Brand new console system" found in hobbeez. Sunny, seen to the right, is looking at the console.]

What is more likely for this to be is something similar to a N64, which released after the SNES but also sold its games as cartridges. The first nintendo console to start using compact discs was the GameCube, as such, this gives a narrow window for the placement of the game. So, when did each of these consoles start and stop production?

The N64 was discontinued in April 2002 worldwide, with the GameCube being released in North America November 2001. This gives us an approximate window for when the real world of Omori takes place, as it is unlikely that a small hobby shop like Hobbeez would be selling many of the brand new consoles day one of the GC's release.

Conclusion?

Well, with headspace being Sunny's memories, it is unlikely for complete consistancy with the timeframe of the story, but headspace most likely takes place in the years surrounding 1998, four years prior to the real world timeline.

Faraway however most likely takes place May 2002. Though Kel takes notice to the price of the console, which would be much lower than its release price, it would still be a lot of money for a 16 year old. It is also unclear if the description "brand new console system," refers to the specific console in Hobbeez, or the system as a whole.

Wow, we're done. What do you think? If you have any other ideas of to what year this could take place, feel free to mention it to me!! :D

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Jeff Buckley: Sketches (For My Sweetheart The Drunk) (Columbia)

Jim Irvin, MOJO, June 1998

FANS OF Grace might find this album tough going. For one thing, it's hard to divorce the circumstances of its existence from the music – some of which is very beautiful, yet you know it wouldn't sound this way if Jeff Buckley had lived. In other words, you're listening to this record because he died.

Secondly, there are several moments that seem too private, things we probably shouldn't be hearing. At these times you might experience the same uneasy fascination you'd get from illicitly reading someone's diary. You might also find yourself distracted by questions like, "Who chose this running order?", "Why are there two versions of two songs with nothing much to choose between them?" or "Was this song finished?"

We'll never know if Jeff Buckley wanted anybody to hear the ugly clutter of ‘Haven't You Heard’, we can be certain he had more in mind for the complex ‘Murder Suicide Meteor Slave’ than the detuned, trebly mush it is here and we can only wonder at how its lovely Beatle-ish interlude would have turned out. Did he lay down the home-made cover of ‘Back In New York City’ (a Genesis song from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway) with a view to putting it on record or simply for his own amusement, something to get the creative juices flowing? Is there any real value in hearing tracks as nascent as ‘Demon John’ or ‘Your Flesh Is So Nice’ – barely written songs, with arrangements just hinted at by slapdash guitars and extemporised melodies you know he'd have nailed later or abandoned completely? Is it right to include performances where his singing is unfocused, lazy or tired? Or those where the band are just feeling their way?

As I understand it, from talking to his management shortly after his death, Jeff Buckley's unreleased legacy runs thus: the remainder of the Live At Sin-E recordings; radio sessions and solo spots such as those on the French ‘Live At The Bataclan’ EP (which he hated); one outtake from Grace, ‘Forget Her’ (removed to make room for ‘So Real’); the "live in the studio" solo sets recorded during the making of Grace; a series of 24-track live recordings with the full band (some of these, like the extended version of Alex Chilton's ‘Kanga-Roo’, have appeared on B-sides and promo discs); the sessions recorded with Tom Verlaine in Memphis a few months before his death; a few tracks recorded in New York soon afterwards; and a large number of 4-track demos Buckley cut in the last weeks of his life.

After he drowned, the inevitable question of what to do with this material had to be faced. Manager Dave Lory spent days going through the tapes found in Jeff's house. He had to listen to everything, no matter what it said on the box, as Jeff had a habit of cutting demos on whatever came to hand. Sure enough, he found one new song halfway through side two of an old Michael Bolton promo cassette.

He then met up with Steve Berkowitz (Jeff's A&R man) and Andy Wallace (the producer of Grace), to make a definitive inventory of all the extant recordings and dub the demos onto digital masters. These were three of the men who knew Jeff's working methods best and they argued every day about what might be done with this stuff, which songs Jeff would have been happy with, how best to release the material or, indeed, if any of it should come out at all.

Just as they were finishing this process, they were 'fired' by Jeff's mother, Mary Guibert, who'd inherited her son's estate and assumed the responsibility of compiling an album with another Columbia A&R executive, Don DeVito, (who'd not worked extensively with Buckley while he was alive). They asked Buckley's friend, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, to "sit in Jeff's seat". Andy Wallace was rehired to complete his mixes of the Verlaine sessions which make up Disc 1 of this collection.

When Buckley completed those tracks he told Lory that he "couldn't find his soul" in them. He was aware there was a lot of work still to do before he could cut a worthy follow-up to Grace, so he temporarily dismissed his band and retreated to his rented house in Memphis to revise the songs and write new ones. (Some of these, ‘Mood Swing Whiskey’, ‘Sky Blue Skin’, ‘Don't Listen To Anyone But Me’, ‘Woke Up In A Strange Place’ and ‘Let's Bomb The Moonlight’ remain in the can.) Disc 2 features seven of those demos, retakes of two of the songs on Disc 1, some CD-ROM material (which was not available for review) and a stray radio recording from 1992 of the country standard ‘Satisfied Mind’ ("I went with a satisfied mind"), clearly chosen as a pointed closer.

Diametrically opposed to it, Disc 1's opener, ‘The Sky Is A Landfill’, is a bleak, relentless torrent of anger. As "evil blacks the sky" Buckley advises that we "Don't suck the milk of flaccid Bill K Public's empty promise to the people". "This way of life is so devised to snuff out the mind that moves," he continues, moved to send a mail bomb to "Mr Strong Arm", who is "useless like the cops at the scene of a crime" Although impressive, it's a curious track to open with, throwing a grim shadow over what follows. It takes a few listens, then, but gradually Sketches' pearls begin to shine through.

‘Vancouver’ kicks off with a Byrdsian riff and a beautiful double-tracked falsetto, spinning into a dizzy song driven by piano, fuzz bass and crashing guitars. ‘Nightmares By The Sea’ is great, too. After an intro reminiscent of Nirvana's ‘Come As You Are’, it turns into a churning pop song – and check the lyrics: "Stay with me under these waves tonight/Be free for once in your life tonight! Bluebeard's young and handsome/So new to your bedroom floor/You know damn well where you're gone." Likewise, the a cappella ‘You And I’ (again, a song whose melody was not fully developed) starts with the line "Oh, the calm below that poisoned river wild". It can't be too long before someone ekes out a morbid dissertation concerning the water imagery in these songs.

However, it's the second track that will be this collection's calling card. ‘Everybody Here Wants You’ draws from the same divine well as ‘Lover, You Should've Come Over’ on Grace. It's a lump-in-the-throat soul ballad which sways like Smokey Robinson's ‘Cruisin'’ or Chic's ‘At Last I Am Free’. Jeff sings it in a tender falsetto with a hint of jealous ire shading the delicious, pleading chorus – "Everybody here wants you! Everybody here thinks he needs you/I'll be waiting right here just to show you our love will blow it all away" – as the bass tumbles along lyrically. Awkward middle-four aside, it's an instant classic. And it serves to make the lesser tracks here an even greater source of sadness, simultaneously reminding us that this wonderful voice has sung its last.

There's a lot of fine material still unheard and we must hope its trustees are careful with it. One thing's sure: a definitive selection will never exist, except in our heads and, one day perhaps, on our personal 'Ultimate Jeff' compilations.

At best, Sketches has much the same function and effect as The Beatles Anthology collections. It's a document of a great musical mind cranking into gear, a series of clues to what might have been. If you were hoping for a record to equal Grace, well, you'll be disappointed. But be assured that Jeff Buckley's sketches overshadow most artists' completed works.

[timetravelstudies]

whats a good starting point for a guy who wants to get into led zeppelin!!

HEHEHEHEEHEHE… hello anon, come in come in….. sit on this nice cozy chair dont mind the leather straps on the armrests heheeh……..

ok in all seriousness. And ill try to keep this as short as i can. theeee lz experience is hearing them play live, rather than the studio recordings. This may sound weird to hear from a guy born 20 years after lz stopped doing shows lol but theres a LOT of material out there that u can watch/listen to if u wanna get (what i assume is a fraction of) the experience. Probably the easiest thing to find and in best quality (though in my exp the quality of online streams is still atrocious, maybe theres some hq torrents though?) is “the song remains the same”, a concert film of three dates they played at MSG in 1973. but theres also videos floating around of their concerts at Royal Albert Hall 1970 and Earls court 1975 (you can check yt for these) plus a few odds and ends here and there (im a big fan of this tv appearance in france 1969, though this was super early on so their performance “style” isnt yet well defined, esp wrt plant, but the actual playing is still peak imo)

as far of audio-only live recordings go, theres of course the album version of TSRTS, the BBC sessions album (of various radio appearances they did through the years), and the album called “how the west was won” with live versions of many of their more popular songs taken from a couple dates in california in i believe 1972. These are all on spotify or yt or wherever else u listento music. Theyre also really well mastered (and remastered, and re remastered…) bc Jimmy Page is anal like that. So even if theyre live theyre great quality and u can hear every instrument distinctly.

ALSO theres like a million lz bootlegs out there, which is like its own niche subfandom(?). A bootleg is an illegal recording that fans made back in the 70s and then spread around and/or sold for money. the digital versions of many of these are available on yt and archive.org but theres also a huge marked of selling them, the og 70s vinyls are especially prized. idk much about lz bootlegs bc i never could listen to a single one all the way through as all the noise bothers my brain lol so if anyone reading this does and has tips please share<3

I spoke about live stuff bc in my opinion, and also according to members of lz, fans, various music critic type people, basically everyone agrees lol lz studio songs were just kind of the first iteration of what would then mutate and stretch into a more loose, longer, live experience. Imo lz, studio or live, is some of the best music ever made point blank period, but its definitely not for everyone, in that you have to be able to get in that classic rock/prog rock* type of mood of songs lasting anywhere from 6 minutes studio to 35 minutes live, and taking you on this weird journey with ebbs and flows, rather than having a tight structure that is easier to follow and listen to like all pop music ever. i mean this in an entirely value neutral way: a pop song, whether from 1965 or 2015, is easy to listen to bc IT carries YOU through the listening experience, whether you want to or not, whereas for instance a 20 min version of dazed and confused live requires you to willingly be there. Its not work or effort, exactly (at least not to me) but it definitely requires a different type of attention.

and btw maybe you knew all this already lol but i said it incase you or anyone else who ends up reading this doesn’t know a lot about rock

ANYWAY, of course theres also the actual studio albums. i dont think theres any specific way you should listen To them, like my friend has been going thru them chronologically but back in the day when i was just getting into lz i just jumped from one song or album to another as the mood struck me (which is how hoth ended up being the first lz album i ever heard… i think itd finished torrenting first and i liked the cover and took it on my ipod on holiday with me, and now its my favorite album of all time & engraved on my very soul lol). If you want MY recs of the stuff i like best, i have this recruitment playlist where i put a mix of my fave lz songs and the ones i think are must-listen for any new fan.

Ok so i ended up writing a bunch anyway LMAO. ty for the ask lmk if u have any specific questions ❤️

[xaviermattthews]

something in the orange tells me you're never comin' home.

location: x and van's home, aurora bay drive.

when: july 13th 2024, early morning.

triggers warnings: death, parental death.

With sixteen track names scribbled across ever-shuffling flashcards, X pours over the running order he's settled on in his ninth attempt that morning to finalise Submergence's next album's tracklist. He plays a snippet of each song in his mind, listening to how he thinks it might flow before he actually puts them together in that order for a full listen.

By the time he gets to eight, he's already decided it's bloated, the sharpie in his hand drawing two large x's through what would have been nine and eleven so he could cull it down to a 14 track run.

The finish line was within reaching distance and he could feel the frustration and the apprehension that went with it right down to his bones which was why he found himself grateful for the solitude his girlfriend had granted him by taking their energetic border collie with her on her run. Nothing he decided on would be finalised without Van's input as well as their other bandmates, but if it was going to be an argument then he wanted to be certain he believed in what he wanted first.

There were few people who had been granted the digital permission to bypass his Do Not Disturb feature, one being Van herself and another being his drummer and friend. It's the third time in a fifteen minute that the name BOWIE SHORE flashes on his screen and the man knew him well enough to not ring more than twice unless it was vital because he ignored his phone for a good reason.

He picks up and answers on the fifth ring, greeting his friend in a clipped tone.

"You keep blowing up my fucking phone Bow and there won't be an album for this rollout, you get that, yeah? What?"

"Have you not been online at all?"

"No, whatever it is, I don't have the time." X informs him, assuming what must have been stressing him out was another old resurfaced interview or an article musing on whether or not they had lost their way after he had gotten sober. He's read it all in every font.

"X, can you just check your texts, please? I'm sending you a link. Look man, I don't know if it's real or not and I really hope it isn't but it's not the only place I'm seeing it."

There's a furrow in his eyebrows then as he switches the phone to loudspeaker, swiping up to his messages that were in the triple digits of unread -- nothing new there -- and clicked on the text thread under Bowie's name.

"Alright, hold on."

He can see his name in the preview, his eyes rolling instantly at the source being TMZ. He clicks it, a pop-up version of the article opening for him. The last face he had expected to see was that of his father's, someone he hasn't seen in person in over a decade now.

The sight alone causes a twist in his stomach that only worsens as he reads the headline and the words in print that follow it.

Panic creeps through him as his eyes scan over the syllables, all that he could manage to combat it with was a stronger sense of denial that leaves his mouth in an overly-sure scoff.

"This is bullshit, Bowie. You know TMZ ran a story saying I died. Twice. My dad's not fucking dead, he lives by too strict a daily itinerary for that. Doesn't fit into the schedule. You really need to not believe everything you read online."

In the back of his mind, he knows one of those misprints made sense given it had hit the press immediately after his near-fatal overdose, but the one that had proceeded it was false intel taken as fact.

That's what this was -- he's certain.

( It had to be. )

"X, I think you should call your m--"

The beep of another incoming call distracts him from his bandmates voice, his band manager Dalton the contact that flashed up. He always found Van more levelheaded than X to deal with and she was his first port of call for band related business.

He declines the call and cuts off Bowie's in process, ignoring the way he can hear his heartbeat in his ears. He clicks through his contacts and scrolls to his sister's, holding the phone back against his ear as he listens to the dial tone.

It rings and rings and rings, each one inching him closer to what feels like an anxiety attack. His free hand is balled into a fist, the side of it tapping lightly against his own chest as he paces around the room.

When it goes to voicemail, he reminds himself she's twenty-six.

No twenty-six year old answered the phone this early on a Saturday, that was all.

There's only one other Matthews in his contact list who had made it through every phone and number change of his, carrying over the digits to each device despite the fact that he hasn't used them in years.

( Darren Matthews was the kind of man who never changed his number -- ever reliable in the way his son wasn't. )

He hadn't called it no matter how dark things had gotten because he knew he would answer despite their harsh parting words and he's never been ready for that conversation.

He's not ready for it then either, but no matter what he has to say to him, he knows hearing his voice was the only thing that would quell the swirl of emotions within him that are starting to make him sick.

There's the same dial tone as before, ringing and ringing, the floor beneath him feeling shakier and shakier as it did. He thinks he's actually about to be sick when the call clicks to signal it had been picked up, the relief that flooded him felt like a tsunami -- just like his new album's title.

"Hey, it's me. X. M'sorry for calling, this is going to sound so fucking weird but there was this dumb article that--"

He's cut off by a voice on the other end interrupting him, softer than the one he expected, shakier than he had ever heard her.

"Xavier, Xavier, darlin'."

He would know his mother's voice anywhere, the warmth of it having an opposing effect on him in that moment, turning the blood in his veins to what felt like ice.

"Why do you have my dad's phone, mom?" X asks, sounding and feeling like the thirteen year-old he had been the last time he had seen them in a room together as a couple, before the foundation of his life had shattered with a divorce and splintered into two houses, two families and one X who didn't know where he was supposed to fit into it all.

What Addie says next he can only pick up in disjointed snippets, the ringing in his ears louder than her sob-wracked words.

He hears his name again and an it's your daddy, he's gone, I'm so sorry. There's an apology that follows but it's too frantic for him to catch all of it -- she was going to call, someone was meant to call, she thought someone called.

He's not aware that he's crying until his hand reaches up to his face and he finds a steady stream of tears streaking his cheeks. It stings when he blinks and he can't find anything to say to comfort his mother, the silence on his end nothing new to his immediate family, it was the only thing he did consistently for them.

He can still hear her wails as another voice speaks down the line, one that sounded so close to what he could remember of his father's that he's almost fooled again into thinking TMZ had been wrong.

It's only when he registers the words does he realise that it couldn't be Darren, it had to be Ernest, his uncle and his father's brother who spoke in the same cadence as the late man but used words X knew he would never have said to him if he was alive.

"Y'need to come home, Xavier. You need to come home."

[kindheart525]

It's ok if you don't have any ideas about this yet, but I'm just wondering how you see life/pop culture being like in Chucky's time (Late 2090's Early 2100's)

All I really have an idea about the pop culture in this time is that Mr. Frog is still popular.

#Dottieverse

This is forever one of my favorite Aus! :3

Thank you so much, that seriously means a lot from the bottom of my heart ❤️ This started out as a silly little side project but it has grown so much and I've been honored and excited about all the engagement it’s been getting! I deeply appreciate it

I haven’t thought too deeply into this tbh, because that point is a good 70-80 years from now so literally anything could happen. People in the past could sometimes predict our now-current technology somewhat right (ex: video calling technology in The Jetsons) but they never get it spot-on and pop culture is an especially tricky thing to predict. It’s hard to even know what will be popular in 30 years, let alone 80. Here’s what I do have in mind:

Gen Alpha is now all old and giggling over skibidi rizz gyatt jokes in the nursing homes. It’s like us rn hearing an old person use 1940s slang, it was popular when they were young but now we associate it with old people. Till has no idea wtf they’re talking about but is begrudgingly willing to do a ye olde TikTok dance if it’s the only thing that will get your grandma to take her meds

Physical media is a rarity now; nobody keeps photo albums or physical copies of movies or anything. Everything is digital. It’s already starting to get like that today but by that point it would be even more extreme. Till however is the traditional type who prefers physical photo albums and has multiple books full of their parents’ pictures

People do still play traditional board games, tabletop RPGs, card games, etc but online/digital versions are just as popular if not more

AI is probably running rampant ngl, in the real world it’ll probably get regulated at some point but the SF world is too wacky for regulations on anything. Dead influencers and artists are still “creating content” after signing some contracts before their deaths, for example. It’s pretty freaky

Mr. Frog himself is likely still alive. Zach and Michael said in the Season 1 commentary that he’s actually a demon so I don’t think he’d have a normal lifespan. And assuming he’s still alive, he’s most certainly still running his show and wreaking havoc

Not pop culture but Rotten the (former) Snowman is also still alive. Now that he’s part of the ocean he literally cannot die no matter how climate change affects it. He once terrorized Chucky and Till during a beach vacation

[cj-6]

Xdinary lore

What is their project of the year - the closed beta project. This will need most updating along the next couple of months and is currently the most incomplete.

Ok so around the 2nd of April Xdinary heroes changed their banner and profile picture on YouTube. It spelled out Xperiment project, which at the time didn't know anything about, but here is what I've been able to find.

On Twitter (or X whatever you want to call it) they made an official announcement that are doing a series of solo concerts. If you go on to the JYP official site you can find all the specific dates, but it ranges from April to September.

Now for literal meaning of the title, closed beta refers to a software release where versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation. In the current context it refers to that they play unreleased songs there. The pattern which has been prevalent so far is that they play three shows in one weekend (from Friday to Sunday), and that they play something unreleased, which is then released the Monday after.

Here is one of the pictures from this announcement I mentioned.

This diagram is the earliest version we had, but has been updated with each notice we have gotten. From this we can see the months in which they will perform concerts, and then an increment in the version for each set of concerts (version 6.0 is in April, version 6.1 is in June,...). This poster is a type of flowchart, which is a diagram that is also commonly used for computer systems to display the processes / the steps it goes through.

Also the squares in this diagram (all named closed beta) are concerts, whilst the circles mean a single release, and the diamond shape might mean an album release. If this last thing is correct, we might get another album/ep at the end of the year, which could contain all the digital singles released throughout 2024.

4 single releases and the album release

I will just quickly write down an overview here of all the releases:

Closed beta v6.0 - April - Where No matter, Little things, Money on my mind, Dreaming girl, until the end of time, and Night of the fireworks were played before the official release.

Closed beta v6.1 - June - Boy Comics (solo stages of Jun han and Jungsu)

Closed beta v6.2 - July - Love and Fear (solo stages of Gunil and Gaon)

Closed beta v6.3 - August - Save me (solo stages of O.de and Jooyeon)

Closed beta v6.4 - September - iNSTEAD! (cover stage of the hyung line and unreleased song by the maknae line)

Comparisons to the EveryDay6 project

I would like to make this crossover because these two projects show quite some similarities. Day6 are the seniors of Xdinary heroes, and have done their own project of releases at the beginning of their career. I'm assuming this similarity exists because they are both under the same music sublabel. Day6 set out to create a new title track for every month of 2017, after debuting in 2015. This has two exceptions, as they released an album at the end and halfway through the year, which included all the singles they accumulated and some rebooted versions and such. All the singles of the first half of the year are on Sunrise, and the second half is on Moonrise. This also makes me more likely to believe that XH will do the same with their releases.

One of the biggest things I found to be the same is the way they deal with the album covers. In the every Day6 project you can clearly see the cover being more filled up with color with every release, in a clockwise motion (; a bigger share of a pie basically). You can see this very easily if you open up their discography and put them all side by side. Now we can look at what Xdinary heroes has been doing. Their album covers for open beta have been exactly the same, but more filled out with each release. With each release so far, a graphical line in the color of the theme of the release has been added, as well as a part of progress to the progress bar that you can see below it.

I know the picture is not much but here you can see that the release of Love and Fear made the completion of the bar about half full.

So, I think these projects are overall still unique but find similar traits in their way of releasing and their cover art.

Music videos #2 << Xperiment project >> Additional sourcing

[neitherabaron]

You mentioned that you've finished writing Gobelins, and I'm wondering if you're gonna raise money to produce it, or do it out of your own pocket? Either way, I'm very excited to hear it, hope your op goes well!

Thanks for a great question! There's definitely gonna be an Indiegogo fundraiser at some point before I start production, but the scale of that is going to need to depend on what my life is looking like at that time. In other words, when I’m physically able to devote time to the album again, I’m going to have to assess my capacity before deciding the scope of the project.

Basically, there's an "ideal" way I'd like to make Carnaval des Gobelins, with a physical edition, cool merch for backers, guest musicians and liner art commissions. I think it's gonna be the most satisfying experience for listeners and the best move from a "growing my business" point of view - producing that kind of stuff gives me a chance to order excess merch and another little revenue stream, which would take me a little step closer to making this my main job. But, it's also a big project to manage and as much as I want to do it that way, I'm not gonna bet on being physically well enough to do that until things are clearer. I'm pretty dang ill.

Then there are other options - like limiting that stuff to a digital version for Bandcamp and streaming, plus physical CDs that are a bit more pared-down in terms of liner content. And on the other side of the spectrum, there's just producing a digital album, like I did for The Wassailant, which while still a big project would be logistically simpler and would require the least amount of funding.

I'm going to run a fundraiser no matter what the scope ends up being and the reason for that is that I'm handling the production for C des Gs alone, in my studio. I have a great set-up and good technical knowledge nowadays and can make stuff with much higher production values without the spiralling costs of studio and engineer hire. However, to get the album done, I'm going to need to treat it as a part-time job for about a year and so I'm going to have to find a way to help me through that time financially. The reason I was able to finish The Wassailant within a year was because of all the time spent at home during the pandemic! I'm not going to start production until I find a new part-time day job anyway, so I certainly won't be trying to raise the sort of money to depend on! But I probably will be earning less from a day job while I work on the album and I will need a small amount to supplement that/keep for emergencies if something goes wrong for me in that time - so that I don't have to halt production part way through.

So the low-scope, digital-only version would still be a crowd-funded affair, just a fairly low scale one. For the big one with all the cool rewards and awesome CDs and everything, I guess my other mini-worry is I don't actually know whether the funding goals I’d have to set to produce all the awesome extras are actually realistic to what people can afford. I don’t know if I could fund a project at the same level as a Mechanisms album for example, because I don’t have the same reach the band did. But we’re probably looking at something comparable, cost-wise, to The Bifrost Incident (but closer to its goal, not the final amount it was pledged) to produce the “full scope” version. Plus, the last time I ran projected costs for the project was before the cost of living crisis, so I don't know right now whether the CD/merch suppliers' costs will have increased.

I genuinely feel a ton of support and goodwill from people like you who really want to listen and I know there are plenty of you! But also I truly don't want to assume anything from you, so we'll have to see how realistic it is to make the full bells-and-whistles version, financially or in terms of my capacity, nearer the time. The way I'm feeling as I type this is that I may run the Indiegogo with a lower inital goal and just a couple of reward tiers (aiming to fund production and release the digital album and a simpler physical edition) and try to do some of the other stuff like an expanded liner or producing merch (and making merch available at discounted rates to backers who want it) as stretch goals.

Anyway, that is almost definitely a much longer answer than you were looking for, so I'll stop now. I really do appreciate the great ask; having the chance to thing about a proper answer has helped me straighten a few conflicts in my head that were causing me a little worry. Hope you have a great day!

If you've read this far, thanks! Please reblog this if this sort of thing is something you'd be interested in supporting and would like to spread the word. I don't know when I'll be ready to start a campaign, but I want more than anything to get dates for my ops, recover to the extent I can, and do it soon.

[musiccomplete]

Explaining each track of the Get The Message reissue bonus disc.

basically just in case you didn’t know Get The Message - The Best of Electronic is getting reissued on the New Order website and it comes with a bonus disk of a bunch of songs, most of which previously unavailable on streaming in North America. I will point out the ones that were already available.

Getting Away with It (Vocal Remix)

So, Getting Away With It (GAWI) has several versions. This one specifically was the twelfth track of the cancelled Best of Electronic album, but hasn’t been officially released since the GAWI cassette and CD remix single, though that was already on streaming since 2013. Nice to see it on a compilation album like it desperately wanted.

Lucky Bag

B-side to GAWI. This was the first promo single for this bonus disc with Electronic’s social media claiming that it’s the first time the song has been released to streaming. It was not it was also available on that digital single. They just lied. It is an instrumental.

Feel Every Beat (DNA Remix)

This is one of the… 6 remixes available on the US CD single. This is the sixth one on the single, just before Second To None. Like GAWI (Vox) this is the first time since its initial release that it’s been printed. Unlike GAWI (Vox) though this was unavailable on streaming.

Lean to the Inside (2013 Edit)

One of two B-sides to FEB. Albeit it is for some reason the 2013 edit from Electronic Electronic’s special edition 10 years ago? I can only assume this was for storage space or something..? The full version is unavailable on streaming too so... weird.

Get the Message (DNA Groove Mix)

A remix of GTM by DNA. Features on the GTM CD single. Available on streaming everywhere except North America and on the American 2022 Record Store Day Mini Album.

Free Will (Edit)

Free Will is the B-side of GTM. The edit itself is probably the 7" one and is probably only down by a few seconds. Anyhow this is also an instrumental. Available on streaming everywhere except North America.

Disappointed (808 Mix)

Ended up being the second promo single! This indeed was completely unavailable on streaming before. Was the fourth track on one of the Disappointed singles.

Idiot Country Two

A remix of Idiot Country (don’t know who remixed it…) from the Disappointed single (theres a lot of variations), also on the 2013 release bonus disk and the RSD mini album. The third promo single, to my chagrin. I don't know why it was the third promo when it was already rereleased twice. Sigh.

Gangster (FBI Mix)

This is also from Disappointed. Previously unavailable on all streaming. Was on the RSD mini album.

I Feel Alright

B-side of For You, originally was meant to be on the cancelled Best of Electronic but when Get The Message first released, its sister, All That I Need, was placed instead. Previously unavailable on North American streaming.

A New Religion

B-Side of Forbidden City. Along with Imitation of Life although ANR was never meant to be on Best Of. This song is especially important if you’re invested in Bernard because it’s the only one he wrote the lyrics to (and partially rearranged) on Prozac. Previously unavailable on North American streaming.

Turning Point

B-side to Second Nature. Was on 2013 Self Titled albeit edited, so this is the first time the full song will be on American streaming.

Until The End Of Time (Fluffy Dice Remix)

UTEOT has a few remixes for its promo single but this one was mixed by Bernard himself. Yknow, GTM’s original tracklist was made by Johnny and Bernard filled in two songs that were missing. Ythink this is a similar case?

All alternate mixes of UTEOT were unavailable on streaming before this, in all regions to my knowledge. This one makes the most sense to reissue.

King For A Day

Bside to Late At Night (which is on GTM album), LAN was a withdrawn single. Previously unavailable on streaming in North America. But was released to Twisted Tenderness' deluxe edition CD. Previously unavailable to stream in North America.

Radiation

Ditto but it’s the Bside to Vivid instead. (And Vivid was not withdrawn…) Radiation is an instrumental. Also released to TT's deluxe CD and previously unavailable in North America.

uhhm. i don't have a conclusion. bye.

[audio-luddite]

Streams of stuff.

Yes something is not there.

I suspect it is something to do with a mix or the remaster for Apple Music. I was playing that Paul Simon album rhythm of the Saints. It is good clear and all that. Good bass, good treble yada yada yada. I like the album a lot.

At the end of the standard tracks there are a few bonus outtake like things. One is an acoustic version of "born at the right time". That sounded very different. It was closer, more intimate, and hinted at those silly little things I like such as lips parting. I literally sat up and took notice. That would be the mix I am sure.

Earlier I was streaming some classical tracks. Gustav Holst actually. And when one track started there was I swear turntable rumble. It was a famous performance from back when. So the only copy they had was an LP? Or did they add low frequency noise deliberately? Or was there a delivery truck going by?

Right now I have "There goes rhyming Simon" going, lossless high rez. When the last song side one (of the album) finishes I am playing the LP.

Here goes... In this corner flat plastic disc...

The vocal sounds more forward. The band does too. I am more aware of the backing vocals as separate tracks. PS is singing in the back up and lead. There is probably more compression on the LP. Quiet is still damn quiet. SN ratio got no advantage here.

Tenderness just started, The Dixie Hummingbirds sound better. Just better. They are bigger and more spread across the space. They sound like real people. Oh ya that baritone at the end, big and tall and they way I like. Shit day and night from the stream.

Mardi Gras now. Same thing. This is an ancient LP, 1973 issue. Err shit that is 50 years. I am sure my old man hearing does not miss the extreme treble, but the high hats in the drums sound like metal.

Something so right. Yup same again. And I am getting some of that close mike action as this is a quieter song. Bits of tiny details around the S and T consonants. Not sibilance mind you. I did not notice this on the stream.

Last cut. One man's ceiling. Yes there was a bit of flawed vinyl noise at the very start as there always has been. My old Shure V15 III had a hard time with this cut. There is a massed vocal part where they may have pegged the Vu a bit here it comes. Hey no problem.

Ok in this example LP wins. It is better. I hear things I like to hear. It is the same music, the same recording.

Now is it because the LP is compressed a bit? Does that actually help? Is it because my Phono amplifier has one tube in it that makes some magic? I kinda doubt that one.

Or is this just the sound I prefer?

Well as that guy said. Streams are convenient and I may have to buy Rhythm of the Saints on LP, though a CD would do in a crunch.

***

Further thoughts. Part of this difference may be money based. My phono system was far more expensive than the digital dohickey. The turntable and cartridge are about 3 to 4 times the cost of the Node-Nano. It is the same argument with my CD player. That assumes that cost is directly proportional to quality which I think is shaky in digital. The digital world is all about chips and microprocessors. Supposedly the chips in the Node-Nano are good ones. These things are commodity devices.

Also the thing did review well, but then there is the bit about reviewers saying nice things when they should not. Oh well.

[bmpmp3]

Happy mothers day! STOP spending time with your loved ones and READ my posts about music instead <3

So for this week's Cover-Remix Weekend, I'm gonna talk about another oldie: -ERROR by niki!

(I couldn't really do this for the first one super easily, but for these posts I am going to try to point to places to buy these songs (MP3 or CD) if applicable. You're own your own with streaming unless there's a KARENT link or something that compiles everything though: I'm an MP3 freak (as you may have assumed by my username...) and outside of YT and NND videos, streaming means nothing to me. For fellow MP3 freaks, I do recommend OTOTOY specifically: lots of vocal synth music is put on there and its easy to use as an overseas buyer!)

-ERROR! A song that is difficult to google ("-" is a boolean thing that removes excludes terms from results HKJDSHldgkdgfd) but a wonderful tune nonetheless!

The original 2010 version above, and the later Youtube upload below that appears to have different mixing, and maybe tuning too:

You know, it seems this song wasn't super huge when it first came out (we'll talk a bit about its rise later) and its original versions are kind of overshadowed but listening to it again - the original NND upload is quite strong. Obviously the instrumentation and melody is great, I love a good big huge emotional rock ballad. The bit of digital theming (errors and such) is also a classic, you don't see it as often anymore but I'm a sucker for vocal synth music that plays a bit into the virtual aspects of the software. I also quite like niki's use of drums, the sort of marching band sound. But going back to the vocals, even though the NND original is a bit muffled, it kind of works for me! Lily's singing her heart out even as she's being drowned out... AND of course the remade Youtube upload sounds perfect.

My familiarity with niki is moreso through his heavier electronic works, such as WAVE:

and on the same album, GLIDE:

Which are absolute classics for my vocal synth journey, especially the latter! He uses these like, velvety deep synth sounds and really.. heheh.... GLIDES across the track with them and I'm a big fan!

The game can't run on my phone so I don't really know much about Project Sekai, but I do check out the music: earlier this week a commissioned (?) song was released for the game by niki and its really good! 烈火 (Rekka):

Those signature fading-in deep synths make an appearance again! I also like the black-haired girl's vocals, especially in the bridge with her vocalizations combined with the bass synth line underneath. I also am a fan of the lil orange guy's vocals at the beginning of the second verse, a sort of campy articulation that sounds quite nice. Luka sounds very interesting here, I will say: as in... she doesn't sound very much like Luka... BUT um. she still sounds great and um. that might. be because I'm not really a huge Luka fan (is immediately dragged away and shot out back)

JK JK Luka's fine I love her character and design, I love that she is pink and there is. octopus. but unfortunately I tend to find her vocals a bit weak in most songs using her: she might just be hard to mix, because she tends to blend into instrumentals too well for me. BUT I do like her here, she sounds a bit brighter and doesn't get fully eaten by the music which is nice~

TANGENT ABOUT OTHER SONGS and also Luka DONE, BACK TO -ERROR. Speaking of mixing, I think -ERROR might be a really hard song to mix. Most of the covers I'm going to highlight are vocal synths, and I'm realizing that it's probably in part because a human being singing this song is already a challenge (intense high ranged and powerful chorus) but also, I think the mixing will really sneak up on you! The instrumental with the emotional drum work and unrelenting guitars is gorgeous but also it's REALLY hard to keep a voice above instrumentation like this without it either falling under or separating entirely. I wonder if maybe the extra digital edge of a vocal synth voice helps it stand out from the more naturalistic rock backing track...

Anyway, now it's time to talk about this songs rise to fame! While I can't verify it's pre-2012 popularity, it seems what really bumped this song into particularly the English-speaking vocal synth canon was a cover featuring the UTAU voicebank Namine Ritsu by kyaami:

At over 2 million views, getting popular enough to be released on KARENT an entire decade ago, this cover is. well. pretty big! Kyaami also released a remake in 2018 using a different Namine Ritsu voicebank that's nearing 3 million views now:

I think both covers are really, REALLY good obviously, there's this sharpness in the 2012 one using Ritsu's old "kire" style bank (a style of voicebank where lower pitches are recorded softer and higher pitches get gradually more powerful, also called "powerscale") that I really enjoy, and the 2018 has a wonderful clarity in the mix. Both covers have a great emotionality in their vocals, which may be why they nearly have a combined 5 million views!

One of my absolute favourite covers is this piano arrange with MEIKO V3 by Earthy X6:

I'm a big Meiko defender, she's hard to use for those expecting a Miku or a Rin, but I adore her character and design and I think she can sound really beautiful and expressive such as here! Using her V3 expressions for softer parts and powerful sections sounds so so good, I really love it.

And here's a KAITO V1 cover by someone named ミズキ (Mizuki) on NND:

I'm a Meiko defender in general, but I'm especially a Meiko and Kaito V1 defender: honestly I prefer Kaito's V1 sound over his V3 most of the time! A really nice richness and depth that's missing in his later iterations, and for this song specifically the robotic aspects of the engine work in its favour! Very nice cover.

And on a slight detour: for years my absolute favourite cover of this song was, interestingly, this rock arrange English cover as the demo for the UTAU KYE's ARPAsing voicebank by his creator, WinterdrivE:

Now I'm not so sure which I would consider my absolute favourite, I'm almost 26 and I like too many things to choose one!! But it still really is an absolute highlight for me: this is the first time I'd ever heard an arpasing voicebank, and as someone who's still a bit too scared to figure out how English voicebanks work in UTAU I barely understand what's going on BUT man what a first example to hear! At the time this was honestly the best English vocal synth I'd ever heard in general, he sounds fantastic.

The mix is also great, the well placed breaths emphasized and his rich and slight nasal vocals sit nicely within the instrumental without getting drowned out. I also think his vocals just sound really nice singing these lyrics despite some lisping here and there, I dunno, I think it makes him sound like a dude making maybe slightly imperfect but very passionate garage rock, which I feel fits the character well! And in general I tend to like expression and character over perfection in music, as you might be noticing in these posts so far LOL

Speaking of lyrics, the English lyrics by AkiGlancy are really REALLY good. Translating any song from one language to be sung into another is genuinely one of the most difficult things in the world in my opinion, because you really have to mess with cadence and melody if you want it to sound natural: languages just got different things going on! I'm pretty picking with English translyrics, I tend to prefer that people try to get the emphasis sounding natural and the general meaning the same rather than trying to get too literal - localization is an art! But these lyrics are interesting in that they seem quite close to a lot of literal translations floating around, yet they still sound so natural with the emphasis on all the right parts. Really awesome translyrics.

And one more before I go, a human cover! The cover by the utaite Alfakyun!

I was talking about this earlier but I really think this song is like, deceptively hard to sing AND hard to mix. It gets high in those choruses! It's really hard to not get lost in the instrumentation! But Alfakyun does absolutely unreal here: sometimes with this song people either have to forego expressiveness to get more power, or forego power to allow more expressiveness, but she manages to kep both in the chorus. I'm an expressiveness girlie so I tend to value that more but I can appreciate some power here and there and this song really shines with both. A very very good cover.

That's all the covers of -ERROR I wanted to talk about today, thank you and you may go back to your beloved family members again. (bluescreens and all my internal mechanisms overheat and explode)

[stevensaus]

Finding, fixing, and synchronizing all your MP3 music album art MOSTLY automatically (BASH script)

I like album covers -- enough that I keep writing programs to display them. The problem is, my MP3s come from all over the place. I literally have music files originally recorded from the radio, onto cassette, and then encoded into MP3. So my album art is ... not always great. Some MP3s were missing embedded art. Some had different covers embedded in the files than were in the cover.jpg and folder.jpg files in the album directory. Some were missing album art altogether. And with a digital music library as large as mine... that's a lot to double check. That's what computers are for. I wrote a script to finally fix those f'in covers in your music directory and to synchronize them between cover.jpg, folder.jpg and what's embedded in the file. (Standard disclaimer: It worked on my system and files, I've done my best to catch edge cases, but backup your files first or use --safe.) If they all match, it will ensure they're all the same. If one or more locations is missing the cover, it will add it there. (Including embedded in the MP3 with --autoembed. If the cover.jpg, folder.jpg, or embedded cover differ, it will present them to you (with an audible alarm if you use --ping) so that you can select the correct one. If you choose none of them, it will search online for cover art. If you use --safe it will merely output what commands it would run. If you use --remove it will remove existing covers from MP3s before adding the chosen cover. If you use --loud it will spit a lot of stuff out onto the terminal. Some sub-commands output text to $STDOUT whether I want them to or not. If you use --checkall, it will prompt you to confirm each album cover, even if it all matches. You can also force it to search online for each album using --everything, which implies --checkall in practice, as the checksum of a downloaded cover probably is slightly different than what you have. Which sounds like a lot, but you can point f_fix_covers.sh at your entire music collection, or just at a specific album directory. Feed the ones you want to check in one at a time with xargs if you feel like it. Two important notes: - This script assumes that each directory contains the same album, even if the artists are different. You will get wrong results if you have a bunch of different MP3s from different albums in the same directory. - If there is a single existing cover -- or single version, rather -- in the directory, the script assumes it is correct and will automatically assume that it is the correct cover. If you want to verify existing covers, use --checkall or --everything. You can find the script in my yolo-mpd repository on GitHub, GitLab, or my personal git repository. Featured Image by Enzo Abramo from Pixabay Read the full article

[citrus-cactus]

FrontierFest, Day 14

Favorite supplemental media

Definitely the image songs, if "favorite" means "have experienced the most!" I've had them on computers, CDs, and media players going back many a year. I like all of them, but my faves are both of Takuya's ("Salamander" and "Secret Rendevous"), Kouichi's ("With Broken Wings"), and Tomoki's ("Say Yes"). I'm also quite fond of Bokomon and Neemon's duet ("Spirit Daisakusen")... well, if you can call it a duet, because Neemon is Neemon XD The versions of "FIRE!!" and "Innocent" from We Love DiGiMONMUSiC are great too, with the five boys singing "FIRE!!" and Izumi, Bokomon, and Neemon singing "Innocent" (Kikuchi Masami ACTUALLY SINGS on that one too, I'm assuming because it was too hard to stay completely in-character as Neemon and hit those notes!).

Along those lines, I wanted to bring up the first Frontier audio drama as well, "Things I Want to Tell You." Each track is one of the Chosen Children composing a letter to someone important to them. My favorite sections are Kouji's and Kouichi's, who are traveling to meet each other on their birthday (I'll bet you can guess who each of them picked to write to!). Overall, it's very sweet and heartfelt (almost entirely serious, but it does get a little silly in Takuya's and Junpei's sections), and gives us some neat character details and little snapshots of their thoughts during and after their adventure in the Digital World!

Anyway, If you haven't heard/read translations of any of the Frontier audio material, I highly recommend that you track them down, because they're tons of fun! And I just realized I have never actually listened to the Christmas song or Duskmon's image song, so I might try to rectify that right now! THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM ART IS SO CUTE. Gotta love double-hatted Kouichi!!

[spade-riddles]

Submission: Adjusting expectations

Okay, guys. Wading in here where it’s possible no-one wants me, but … here goes. 

We - Kaylors - are in a hard place right now. People feel hurt, they feel hopeless. They feel like they were led on by the likes of Spade. I’m not here to invalidate any of the feelings that come from seeing Karlie and Taylor play out this charade.  

But I think we (collectively, as a fandom) need to take a breath and ask if any of this is really as bad or unfixable as we think it is. Because, for me, the recent stunting is hard to stomach but not truly surprising. On some level this is how I expected Karlie and Taylor to handle both the birth of the baby and the launch of the rerecorded albums. As much I wanted to believe in the idea of spring breaking loose and bringing with it a fervent revolution … I could see the pieces still in play on the board and I doubted it was coming. 

I think the problem is that there was a split between the optimist and pragmatist sides of the fandom, over the last year or so. To be clear - I’m not judging the optimist side of the fandom. Not at all. Taylor has pulled wildcard moves before, and emotions run so high in all this, especially with a baby involved now, that I don’t blame people for wanting to believe the best. But it reached a stage where some of the things people were trying to talk themselves into were just wildly unrealistic. And when that happens, of course you’re going to get hurt. It’s inevitable. 

But let’s really look at this for a second. We should have known that neither Karlie nor Taylor was going to be shaving her beard in March. Ditching Jerk right after or just before the birth would have been too soon for Karlie. It’s not unusual for a celeb marriage to fizzle out within a year of the birth, but before the baby even arrives? That would be weird, and would draw attention just when it seems Kaylor don’t want it. They just had a baby. That’s an adjustment in itself, and Karlie is suffering enough social media hate on top of that. I wouldn’t blame her for just wanting to take a break and lie low during this difficult time. And unfortunately, for Karlie, that means maintaining the status quo of the situation she put herself in with Jerk. She may be doing the bare minimum to maintain it, but if she wants to avoid attention, she has to make it seem like everything between her and her “husband” is normal. And that she’s trying to make it work, which I believe will be important later. Good people try to make it work, even in bad relationships. 

Toe wasn’t going anywhere either. Taylor had relied on him so heavily during the promotion of Folklore, with the William Bowery narrative, that she was almost backed into a corner. She had to give some allusion to his air quotes “creative input” and their so-called happy relationship, or her failure to do so would have become the story and overshadowed her night. The headlines would have either been break-up speculation or complaints that she didn’t give him his due. We think the cutesy coverage after she named him in her acceptance speech was bad, but negative headlines have a far longer shelf life and can take on a life of their own. They would have been worse. Whatever we might think of Taylor’s actions, Folklore is one of her best albums and she deserved to have her night. 

So, on to the announcement of the birth. This is a tricky one, and again, I completely understand why people reacted so badly against it. It was everything we as a fandom said we didn’t want. It was Jerk using the baby for personal good PR. But I have to be honest here. I always thought we were kidding ourselves believing he would NEVER be seen with the baby or implied to be the father. I do believe Karlie is doing her damnedest to minimize the digital footprint of his involvement and keep her actual baby out of it. But he was always going to get to bask in the glow of playing daddy for a while. It’s the trade off Kaylor made when they used him to shore up their closet. 

This is also why I increasingly suspect the timing of the announcement got the green light from Kaylor too. If Jerk was always going to be assumed to be the father of Karlie’s baby, then there was always going to have to be a birth announcement that incorporated him somehow - unless the girls were ready to answer awkward questions, and it doesn’t seem like we’re there yet. So the best way to minimize the damage is to have his moment of glory overshadowed by a bigger win for Taylor. It worked pretty well actually. Even on Kaylor blogs the stunt was mostly buried by Taylor content.

I know a lot of fans feel gaslit by all the hints, but I do think there’s a possibility Taylor really didn’t grasp how hurt Kaylors would be. From her perspective, she “fed” fans three times over that night. She gave us a beautiful performance, a gorgeous red carpet moment, and a win to celebrate. I think it’s possible she really didn’t realize the double whammy of stunting that night would make it all feel worthless for many.

Taylor is in an awkward position. As a consequence of Kaylor retreating into the closet, the support base for them has shrunk. (When I use the words “Kaylor fandom”, I refer to this support base.) I would say Kaylor fandom consists of two parts. There is a silent portion, who observe events and comment anonymously, but don’t say anything “on main”. And then there are the small corps of true believers, who think Karlie and Taylor are still together and the baby is theirs. This latter group do most of the actual talking about Kaylor, but they tend to be pretty battle-hardened. They’ve been around for years, they never believe any of the stunts and their capacity to be hurt by them is, as a result, pretty limited. These Kaylors criticize sometimes, but they tend to fall back in line eventually and mostly adopt a “let’s wait and see how this all shakes out” approach. The problem is that I would say these “chilled” Kaylors are the minority. For their own sanity they curate their blog experience and often don’t post the more negative anons they get. Which is fine, but if you were looking at it from the outside, I could see how it might create an impression that the fandom as a whole can roll with the punches. And for a lot of the silent majority, that’s not the case. 

But again, I can see how Taylor might not necessarily know that. She went quiet after the Grammys, when I might have expected more celebratory posts from her. If I had to guess, I’d say she didn’t expect the backlash. I’m especially noticing a backlash against her for allowing Karlie to take so many hits while her own reputation has never been better. And I can’t defend her on that one, except to say I hope she has a plan. But I understand where people are coming from when they say the songs aren’t enough and actions speak louder than words. It’s tough to watch. 

Still, we’re in a position we should realistically have been able to see coming. We should have known Jerk wasn’t going to be out of the picture immediately after the birth. This is one of those things nobody likes, but maybe we all just have to be patient on. I don’t see Karlie busting out of the closet to admit her marriage was a fake, or testifying to the FBI. I think she’ll just let her marriage quietly fall apart, as many real marriages did during the pandemic. And for that to work, she needs to make it look like didn’t throw away a family unit lightly. Hence the “I tried” post, the social media break, and the suggestions of spending time with Jerk’s family. All of this can be spun later into a narrative of Karlie having tried to make it work, only to never really be accepted. The hate online affected her mental health and she gradually realized how unhappy she’d become and decided she needed to break free and find her old self again for her baby’s sake. This is the most likely narrative for Karlie’s freedom and it’s one that could work - but it’s going to take time to unfold. Personally, I’m giving it a year. If we don’t see a separation by then, and definitive moves to a reunited Kaylor, I’ll be bowing out. I’ll still know what I believe the truth to be, but I won’t see the need to devote my energy to defending it. ,

Meanwhile, the masters rerecords are about to be released, and Taylor has invested a lot in their success. Because of this, I can’t envision her coming out until at least the big three (Fearless, 1989, and Red) have dropped. She might drop hints, but I don’t expect anything earth-shattering. Even the order of the album releases seems to confirm this. She’s breaking out the big guns first. 

I’ve seen people speculate that because Rep can’t be rerecorded until 2022, Taylor will hold off on any coming out until then. And I’m not so sure of that. Yes, people listening to the album for clues would give Scott and Scooter money, but if we’re being honest, a fair amount of people are probably listening to those albums already, regardless of the drama. Those sleazeballs are profiting from Rep, full stop. But if Taylor profits more, from her bigger albums, she still wins. And she can still put out a Taylor’s version of Rep with vault tracks and collabs, to seduce people away from the Big Machine version in early 2022. Honestly, I think there’s a good chance Taylor would consider this is a worthwhile trade-off anyway, if it meant she got to live a more open life with Karlie - and most crucially, begin to repair Karlie’s reputation. As children get older and the world begins to leave the pandemic behind, it becomes harder to live behind closed doors. I guess we’ll find out how Taylor finds the reality of such a life, and what she considers worth sacrificing to step away from it. 

All this to say: I can’t predict the future more than anyone else, but I don’t think the situation we’re in now is irreparable, and if we’re being really objective, I don’t think it’s even surprising. I do think Taylor should give us something, if she wants to keep us around. No-one can live on a complete absence of hope, and as I’ve stated, letting the fandom dwindle to this extent has its own dangers. But I think we also need to keep our time frames realistic, even if it means rejecting lifelines like the Spade riddles. We shouldn’t expect Karlie to be free of Jerk for around a year, and we shouldn’t expect Taylor to do anything much beyond general music promo until at least the big three have dropped. Sucks to say it, I know. But at least this way we won’t be disappointed, and if Kaylor do pull a wild card and move towards freedom, we can be pleasantly surprised. 

Just my two cents. 

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Well written and fair arguments on our reactions and expectations. I had typed up more, but I will let others post their comments before I chime in.

[putschki1969]

KEIKO / 【Official】現実のメタファー -Music Video-

As promised, here is the MV of KEIKO’s 6th digital single 「現実のメタファー / Genjitsu no Metaphor / Reality’s Metaphor」! Ohhhh! I love the hairstyle! Those pigtails (?) are so cute!! The top of her outfit looks very fancy, the rest is a bit weird. Interesting location.

With all these MVs they are planning to add as bonus feature on the album, I am starting to wonder if they actually made full versions of all MVs...Initially I had assumed that they would definitely include the full versions as extras but now I am not 100% sure anymore...9 FULL MVs would be a LOT...Oh well...we shall see...

You can now purchase and stream KEIKO’s single on various sites. if you have the means, get the digital track on mora, Ototoy or in your local iTunes store! Also check out my post where I share my initial thoughts on the song ^_^

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BUY it on mora (TUTORIAL here)

BUY it on Ototoy (no proxy or registration required)

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Please be sure to ❗SUPPORT KEIKO❗ in any way you can!