10 Question Tag

thanks so much @sundaynightnovels​ for tagging me in this interesting game!

ill tag: @evergrcen​ @writeness​ @ardawyn​ @velvetinewitch​ @urbanteeth​

1) How did you come up with your WIP’s title? What does it mean in relation to the story?

The Eternity’s Magic was honestly a little easy (though i do plan to change it, i don’t like it that much). most of the story surrounds the Aeternum, a tome with incredibly powerful spells, and the quest to search for it. (there’s also some other stuff but haha spoilers)

Aeternum, of course, came from the word eternity. so the story is about The Eternity’s Magic! ‘the’ is there partially because it’s not just eternity, it’s the eternity. the Aeternum.

2. Do you title your chapters? If so, what’s your favorite?

i do! i didn’t do it at first, but i decided to on a whim and it turns out i love it! so i’m sticking to it lol.

my favourite from book one has got to be either ‘Dance, Dine, and Duel’ or ‘Change of Heart.’ i really like the first one because it’s just clever—it’s actually a fight scene, but there are mentions of dancing (a metaphor) and dining (asking someone out (; ) too.

Change of Heart is... well... it’s misleading. that’s why i like it. it sounds good, right? like a character has changed and it’s all better now. but who knows, maybe that’s not the case...

3. What’s a recent line you really like?

“The four of us trudged toward the fairies, basking in the glory of our well-earned victory.“

- the final line of Chapter 29, The Eleventh Hour

4. Are there any writing-related quotes you really like?

“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.”

- Chinua Achebe

5. Do you have an idea for cover design for your story?

haha unfortunately not. i have ideas for posters, which are definitely not covers, but i know i want it to be a really pretty one, kind of like the one from The Hazelwood! either that, or Questions I Want To Ask You. i’m one to judge books based on its cover, and i don’t really like the Cassandra Clare-style of covers.

6. What sort of AU can you imagine your story being?

OOH definitely a high school AU! all the characters but two are teenagers, so it works out. Vrenht can be a teacher and Aryia could be just be aged down—sge acts a little like a teenager sometimes anyway! one of the senior students, maybe.

7. Which OC would be the most angry with you as the writer?

er... uh...

probably all of them. i’m sorry guys.

BUT if i had to choose one, probably Easton! he, uh, definitely suffers the most. PTSD, a lot of pain, and... yeah. whoops.

8. If you had to tell the story from a different POV, which character would you choose?

my story is multiple POV but if i had to choose one, probably Aryia. i’ve stated before that she could be considered the main character of TEM, but i wouldn’t want to because it would spoil everything. lmao.

9. What would be your OC’s taste in music if they lived in our world?

i’ll just do Easton! his music taste is quite similar to mine, but less indie. more alternative rock, rock, and pop. despite him being a very happy person, he listens to a lot of depressing songs (see: Billie Eilish lmao). he does play video games occasionally as well so he might listen to video game soundtracks!!

10. What’s one personal goal you want to achieve by the end of the story?

uh... i want to graduate high school and get into university, specifically of Toronto! i guess that’s my goal. and i suppose i also want to have published the first book by the time i start the third one! it’s unlikely but that’s my dream lol.

on my shelf: soundtrack to my fourth year of uni - winter

Wow, it’s that time of year again! So, you’re supposed to finish my course in 3 years, but barely anyone actually does... This semester I had very few classes and commuted very little, but there’s still a couple of albums that I listened to a lot and so here we go....

Tessa Violet: Bad Ideas (2019)

Finally!! I’ve been eagerly anticipating this album ever since Tessa first announced she’d be releasing one and opened a Patreon for it (was it 2017?? maybe 2018). The first single, “Crush” is kind of different from her older music, but not in a jarring way - you can definitely hear a progression towards this lowkey indie-pop sound throughout her previous EP “Halloway” (very recommended too btw!). “Crush” sounds more cheeky though, but in a very specific way: Throughout the whole album Tessa’s voice has this quality of “trying to play it cool”, but as the story progresses, she becomes more sincere and more openly distressed. Basically, the album tells a story, but that story is never-ending because the album is cyclical - the last song connects thematically and sound-wise to the first song. It starts off with Tessa forming a “Crush” on a guy but she wants to keep it casual. Eventually she realizes he is playing “Games” with her and she mentally spirals down from there, uncovering things that are beyond just heartbreak, ending up at a place where she feels completely emotionally isolated, in the last song “interlude iii”. Throughout all this there’s certain instruments and motifs that keep coming back, but they’re twisted in different ways each time, manipulating what they meant the first time you heard them and connecting all the songs to each other in a way. 

TL;DR this album is so well crafted in music and lyrics.

Tomorrow X Together: The Dream Chapter: Magic (2019)

This album opens with such a good bass riff, right out the gate, and continues moving through seemingly different genres, but everything flows nicely. The boys have audibly matured from their first release, The Dream Chapter: Star, in the sense that the music still sounds fun but less Disney Channel (which was not a bad thing for Star!). As I mentioned, they also tried out more different styles, like R&B and almost-Indie-Pop, this time around and all of them fit them very well. Something that stands out about TXT compared to other K-Pop groups I’ve heard is that they lack an overbearing power and someone with a very deep voice (both things I personally find kind of annoying). They thrive on a more young, yet not childish, image. From their looks alone you’d think they were very innocent, but the lyrics show the concerns about the future and friends of a teenager, which half of them still are. The music has a sort of comforting aura. On this album only one of the members contributed to a song, but seeing as the other members seem to be busy writing too, hopefully we can hear what their perspectives sound like on the next one.

Red Velvet: The ReVe Festival Finale (2019)

The first Red Velvet song that caught my attention was “Umpah Umpah”, the lead single off The ReVe Festival Day 2 because it reminded me of Disney Channel music of my childhood. Listening to that entire album is so incredibly pleasing to my ear because of the way the girls’ voices sound. They mesh together perfectly and cover a range of different tones, which is something I’d not heard much in K-Pop girl groups, who tend to have most members singing Soprano with a very specific tone that makes me uncomfortable for some reason. Red Velvet’s mix of tones work very well together and that shows especially well on their R&B and Ballad songs, while their more Pop songs stand out because of their specific sound, but also the combination of incredibly catchy upbeat sound and slightly more sinister lyrics and music videos (a favourite combo of mine). So this album specifically combines the songs of the previous two albums, The ReVe Festival Day 1 and Day 2 and adds 3 new songs, with the lead single being “Psycho”. This repackage made me listen to the songs off Day 1 more. For a K-Pop album, many of them don’t make sense, but taking that lense off shows what good Pop all of these songs make. In a way, a song like “Zimzalabim” (which was initally met with much confusion) is very K-Pop because of its strange structure that somehow still makes sense to the ear. It just doesn’t have the typical sound, even the EDM-breakdown lacks something (in a positive way). Either way, all of these songs have a tendency to be on a very loud loop in my head constantly but I can’t stop listening to them because the texture of these songs are so pleasing and at times very visceral.

Wonder Girls: Reboot (2015)

For this album’s performances of the lead singles, the girls had to learn to play instruments and they did so pretty well. I doubt they played on the album itself (though all the members did write on the album) but they definitely did play them live during a couple of performances, which is amazing for a K-Pop group to do and I wish more would use a “band concept”. This album is very obviously influenced by 80s synth pop especially because of some of the instruments they used, but it retains a modern feel and of course a bit of that specific K-Pop sound that’s hard to describe exactly. It flows well from song to song and, similar to Red Velvet, sometimes has this specific effect on my ears where the aural texture feels very visceral. In general this album feels somewhat melancholy, but remains interesting and well crafted musically. If you like 80s synth pop but want something more modern that doesn’t seem like a parody or a carbon copy, then this is for sure the album for you.

__________________________________

btw there’s also been just a constant stream of BTS (nothing’s changed there).

So this semester was very female and K-Pop heavy, but not your typical type of loud, aggressive, and/or bright K-Pop. The texture is very important and everything tends to lean more towards R&B. I’ve also been loving certain songs here and there (like Mamamoo’s “gogobebe” and “HIP” and ITZY’s “Dalla Dalla” and “ICY”, songs that SUGA has produced, and Epik High’s “sleepless in ____” EP, as well as K-R&B in general). I’m planning on writing my BA thesis on K-Pop so uhh yeah this is uhh research.. A year ago I wanted to avoid Korean music as much as possible but I think that was mostly because I knew I was gonna get sucked in like this. But now it’s helped me find an interesting topic for my thesis, which is something I was worried about for a while, so so what? 

Album Review: Dumb - Club Nites

  Best Tracks: Club Nites, Cursed, My Condolences, Columbo  

  FCC Violations: Beef Hits, Some Big Motor Dream

  This is probably the most indy album I’ve ever heard in my life! Insert “LOL” anywhere you’d like and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Filled with underground angst and shenanigans intertwined with a few unknown characters that are roasted through a narration-style of vocals, Club Nites is out there in the stratosphere somewhere but I can be sure of one thing: I’ve never heard anything like this before. It’s aggressive, out of the box, covered in a blanket of punk rock, and pulls you in with its weirdness and colorful textures.

  ‘Club Nites’ - it’s that title track heavy-hitter that starts off the record while basically showing you what to expect in its entirety with short songs just over the two minute mark, in-your-face belligerence while holding the title of definitely not being the music your parents… well, probably grandparents listened to. Yeah, I’m just old enough to have a teenager. Where has the time gone!

  Anyways, back to the intro-track. Midway through, the lines “I got punched out dissing whining trading favors for regrets/I get it you’re an artist yeah you’ve got so much to say,” has that airy pretentiousness with a hint of hypocrisy and elitism but maybe that’s what Dumb is going for here: being hipster within the hipster realm and as such, trashing out your own social community in a satirical way. I dig it and if this sample of sound was regurgitated into television, it would be a Netflix original series comedy. Maybe baby Franco could reprise his high schooler counterculture role from 21 Jump Street as a spin-off series.

  The bass tracks are superb, especially in ‘Cursed’ and ‘My Condolences’ where the bass keeps a clean ride while holding the fort down so the other instrumentation can glide effortlessly in the chaos. Shelby Vredik is a talented bassist for sure. I mean, you’d have to be to keep the foundation strong in a band that excels in organized mayhem.

  There’s even a cowbell! Used in ‘Some Big Motorcity Dream’ as an eight-count in the intro, it kicks in with the gritty, paving the way to an abruptly placed pre chorus with Vredik’s vocal harmony and upstroke guitar chords.

  Oh, I forgot, De Mas is sung entirely in Spanish which is just another reason to take this band at more than just its name and musical ambiance. This track is a fun one with fantastic drumming and by gosh a breakdown? Yep, that’s what ended the song, lasting no more than 8 seconds.

  Somehow, everything works here for the Canadian four-piece who seem to be experts at blending noise effectively to give the listener a rollercoaster of a ride. It should be known, the band made some noise while playing on the Vancouver independent music scene from 2015 to 2016, releasing three EPs and two albums in that small timeframe. Dumb is a workhorse that more than deserves a look see.

- Justin Capoccia 

YEAR OF WHAT HAPPENS ON EARTH STAYS ON EARTH

[longer version of what I contributed to the new yorker’s year-end package. you can read that here, and listen to the accompanying megamix the video team made! links to previous year’s lists at bottom.] I did not grow up going to church, and I am not a particularly religious person. A few days after the inauguration, I wandered into a nearby church and took a seat in the back pews. I’d gone there right after the election. There was some time for anyone with anything on their mind to stand up and speak. If you need others to pray for you, just let us know. A middle-aged black man in a leather jacket got up and began telling us about an argument he was having with a friend on Facebook. It was about the election, but it was actually about the intractability of racism. He was getting frustrated while describing it to us, in part because he seemed to value being the cool and level-headed one. Plus he was describing the kind of argument millions of people were having on the Internet. “I just hope he finds peace,” the guy said. He paused, then put his hands on his chest. “On a lighter note, today would have been Jimi Hendrix’s seventy-fourth birthday.” He opened up his leather jacket to show everyone his Hendrix t-shirt. “I just wanted to say that, because he was just awesome.” So I returned here, the day after marching through Manhattan with a poster that said “HOLD ON, BE STRONG.” I needed to be in a room that was powered by something other than hate--to be reminded of vision and purpose, even if they weren’t mine to claim. To listen to wisdom gleaned from a book I’ve never read, and pick and choose what I wanted. To hear others pour themselves into songs I never, ever sing along to. I wanted to steal their vibes.  Instead of a hymn, they passed out small pieces of paper with the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” This is not the type of church people come to for the music. The pianist started playing, and I remember thinking about how it felt like magic when I learned how to play those chords as a kid. I couldn’t believe we were doing this. We sang, tentatively at first, as though we could not believe these words in this space. Picture it: singing of “no heaven” and “no religion, too,” with humility and hope, inside a house of worship. It was like an admission that faith was inadequate. All we had was one another. “Imagine” is a song I’ve heard millions of times, the type of song that is so ubiquitous that we rarely bother scrutinizing its words, its vantage point, the possibility that someone wrote these words because he actually believed them. I sang along with a room of strangers, and we looked at one another, and, for the first time in months, I began to cry.   TWO LYRICS THAT REMINDED ME OF POLITICS EVEN IF THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS "Wrote this shit January 21″ “Take me back to November / Take me back to November” “I’M AN ANGRY TEENAGER” Novelist, “Street Politician” ONCE THEY START, I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE END Jim O’Rourke’s recently unearthed cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” Kanye’s sitcom-length remix of “Bed” THURSDAY NIGHTS ON NBC Ross from Friends’ very Madchester guitar-y Boiler Room set DJ Seinfeld, Time Spent Away from U Nino Man, Jadakiss and Styles P, “Friends”

IN ANOTHER YEAR FULL OF NIRVANA/KURT COBAIN REFERENCES (DID YOU SEE JAY:Z’S JACKET?) MY FAVORITE SONG, PROBABLY: this Trippie Redd snippet

SOME VERSIONS OF THE NINETIES THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK THE WAY GRUNGE ENNUI HAS, BUT WERE SO POSSIBILITY-RICH TO ME BACK THEN Kicking Giant, This Being the Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993 Helium, The Dirt of Luck/The Magic City LIKE MANY WHO LOVED “A STORM IN HEAVEN,” I OVERLOOKED THEM AT THE TIME Acetone, 1992-2001 A REALLY GOOD BOOK ABOUT ACETONE, LOS ANGELES, DREAMS OF GREATNESS Sam Sweet, Hadley Lee Lightcap WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS IN 1994, 2002 OR 2017 Big Thief, Capacity CREDIBLE AND DOPE EARLY NINETIES R&B HOMAGE, SAX AND ALL Joyce Wrice, “Good Morning” SPEAKING OF THE NINETIES, LEECH MADE A MIXTAPE OF JUST THE FLOATY/DREAMY PARTS TAKEN FROM CLASSIC GOOD LOOKING/MOVING SHADOW SINGLES Leech, “Just the Liquid” FOR THE COMEDOWN, DARK-ASS STUFF ASSEMBLED EXCLUSIVELY FROM SLIPKNOT SAMPLES Croww, Prosthetics NOSTALGIA, ULTRA (UK GARAGE/BASSLINE EDITION) tqd, ukg SUMMERTIME ‘SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE’ VIBE Opus III, “It’s a Fine Day (Burt Fox remix)” UNEXPECTED BURIAL SUMMERTIME VIBES Monic, “Deep Summer (Burial remix)” NO REISSUE OR  tk ANNIVERSARY TIE-IN, JUST SOME OLD SONGS I RE/DISCOVERED THIS YEAR Active Minds, “Hobson’s Choice” El-B, “El-Brand” Kamal Abdul Alim, “Brotherhood” Spiritualized in Reykjavik  U2, “Numb (Soul Assassins remix)” U2, “Mysterious Ways (Massive Attack remix)”

SAME, BUT TAIWANESE INDIE ROCK EDITION Chocolate Tiger, “Piecing Together” REISSUES, OR: PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WEIRD AND SPACY#, OBSESSED WITH NATURAL BEAUTY## # Planetary Peace, Synthesis # Pauline Anna Strom, Trans-Millennia Music ## Pep Llopis, Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonaut REISSUES, OR: WHEN I WAS A CHILD THERE WERE NO BETTER SONGS THAN THE ONES THAT PLAYED THROUGH TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE AND FOR SOME REASON THIS JOYOUS EP REMIND ME OF THAT SHEEN, THOSE HOOKS, THE PERFECT, THEATER-SIZED ECHO Om Alec Khaoli, Say You Love Me BEST ALBUM-LENGTH METAPHOR FOR THE CITY, ITS LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES Wiki, No Mountains In Manhattan SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE IT WAS DESCRIBED, JAMAICA VIA OUTER SPACE Equiknoxx, Colon Man I NEED TO GO OUT MORE Jex Opolis, “Mt. Belzoni” KH, “Question”

I LISTENED TO THIS ABOUT TEN TIMES, MY SENSE OF ENCHANTMENT GROWING AND GROWING EACH TIME, BEFORE REALIZING THERE WERE BARELY ANY DRUMS ON IT Mr. Mitch, Devout SERIOUSLY THE MR. MITCH ALBUM WAS REALLY MOVING AND FANTASTIC Mr. Mitch f/ Denai Moore, “Fate” CRAZY WISDOM MASTER Vince Staples, Big Fish Theory C’MON AND RAISE UP Rapsody f/ Kendrick, Lance Skiiwalker, “Power” SO ICEY Zomby, Mercury’s Rainbow ECHO PARTY Demen, Nektyr Evy Jane, “Give Me Love” THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Vic Mensa, The Autobiography DUNGEON FAMILY, EVEN IN DARKNESS Earthgang f/ J.I.D., “Meditate” FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY Lee Gamble, Mnestic Pressure Pessimist, s/t NOT SURE HOW THIS BECAME THE DIWALI OF 2017 BUT OKAY French Montana f/ Mariah, Rae Sremmurd, PNB Rock, Belly, Elephant Man, Vybz Kartel, J Balvin, NORE, Wizkid, “Unforgettable” HOW ARE THIS MANY PEOPLE ON A FOUR MINUTE SONG? GOOD VIDEO THOUGH A$AP Mob f/ A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert and Frank Ocean, “RAF” I LIKE IT WHEN FERG’S VOICE GETS ALL NAGGY Ferg, “Plain Jane” METRO BOOMIN MADE A BEAT THAT REMINDED ME OF RADIOHEAD Post Malone f/ Quavo, “Congratulations” THE MARIACHI VERSION IS PRETTY SWEET Brian Imanuel, “How I surprised Post Malone with a mariachi band” ”IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LYRICS, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO CRY, IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO THINK ABOUT LIFE...” JonWayne, Rap Album Two CORNBALL PIANOS AND THEN THAT SYNTH DRAGS, AND THEN THE DRUMS KICK Tee Grizzley, “First Day Out” “BUT WILD/WITH MY MONOTONE STYLE” 21 Savage, “Bankroll” Kodak Black, “Candy Paint” Rich Chigga, “Glow Like Dat” ANNUAL SPOT RESERVED FOR LA MUSICA DE HARRY FRAUD French Montana f/ Pharrell, “Bring Dem Things” WHEN LAETITIA SAYS HER OWN NAME ON “EMBERS” Vagabon, Infinite Worlds WHEN JESSIE LEANS INTO THE WORD “FUCK” Jessie Reyez, “Figures” THAT LIGHT MISTING, THAT CASUAL SPRITZ OF SYNTHS Lanark Artefax, “Touch Absence” A GOOD ANTI-DJT THING THAT CAME OUT EARLY THIS YEAR, WHICH FEELS LIKE EONS AGO Lushlife + friends, My Idols are Dead + My Enemies are in Power THE BABY, THE FLUTES, PIERRE’S OBNOXIOUSLY LONG TAG, THE JESSE LINGARD DANCE Playboi Carti, “Magnolia” ILLEST SHIT I SAW THIS YEAR, BABY-RELATED A child at a restaurant watching an iPad and an iPhone at the same damn time “[FREE] PLAYBOI CARTI TYPE BEAT” YBN Nahmir, “Rubbin off the Paint” GUNS N ROSES, BEFORE ONE OF THE WEIRDEST BEEFS OF THE YEAR Trippie Redd f/ 6IX9INE, “POLES1469″ SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO BELIEVE YOU CAN SING, AND DO IT WITH CONVICTION, AND I WILL LISTEN Trippie Redd, “Rack City/Love Scars 2″ ALL THE BACKGROUND NOISE/ECHOED-OUT ADLIBS MAKE THIS BlocBoy JB, “No Chorus Pt 10″ SMERZ HAS FUN DESPITE THE AWKWARD OF IT ALL Smerz on NTS IT SEEMS REALLY EASY TO MAKE A GOOD-SOUNDING SONG THESE DAYS Global Dan, “Off White” OF ALL THE DOPE SHIT THAT FUTURE APPEARED ON THIS YEAR, THE MOMENT I WILL REMEMBER IS That tiny pause before he sings “I need fresh air,” when he seems happy and content IS THAT A GEORGE MICHAEL SAMPLE? Mozzy, “Prayed for This” THE FIX C Struggs, “Go to Jesus” "IT’S COOL, BUT IT’S NOT...END ZONE” Lil Uzi Vert, “XO TOUR Llif3″ AN ALBUM BOOKENDED BY TOTALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF COLIN KAEPERNICK/TAKE A KNEE REFERENCES Miguel, War and Leisure IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR Brockhampton, Saturation I-III SZA, Ctrl SPEAKING OF SZA: WHAT A GREAT TITLE, BESIDES IT BEING ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Kingdom, Tears in the Club THE KELELA ALBUM WAS LOVELY, AS ARE THESE Kelela x Bok Bok, Dub Me Apart A RANDOM YOUTUBE COVER THAT I ALSO LIKED, BECAUSE IT CAPTURED HOW MELODIC THE ORIGINAL ACTUALLY IS Kathleen Nguyen covering Kendrick and Zacari’s “Love.” DAMN. WAS GOOD Almost as good as “The Heart Part 4″ LIKE A DE LA SOUL ALBUM, SOMETHING THAT I KNOW I WILL CONTINUE ENJOYING/UNDERSTANDING ANEW FOR YEARS TO COME Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy ”BLONDED RADIO” MADE ME JOIN APPLE MUSIC Frank Ocean, “Chanel” Frank Ocean, “Biking (solo)” Tyler and Frank, “Where This Flower Blooms” MACH HOMMY MAKES GOOD MUSIC THAT’S HARD TO ACCESS “x Earl Sweatshirt” EP ty Soundcloud IT’S A WEIRD TIME B/W THIS BEAT IS SO DEMENTED Tay-K, “The Race” PROBABLY MY FAVORITE PHARRELL BEAT Kap G f/ Pharrell, “Icha Gicha” MAYBE THE GREATEST MUSIC EVER MADE, REISSUED Pharoah Sanders

REMINDED ME OF PHAROAH, WHEN IT WASN’T REMINDING ME OF BON IVER Joseph Shabason, Aytche AND I ENJOYED AYTCHE FOR SIMILAR REASONS I LIKED ZONING OUT TO Tom Rogerson and Brian Eno, Finding Shore ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR MUSIC I LOVED THAT FEATURED HARP Alice Coltrane, World Spirituality Classics Vol 1

SAME, BUT FOR HARP STUFF THAT ALSO SHOUTS OUT WAWA Mary Lattimore, Collected Pieces ANNUAL SLOT RESERVED FOR TASTEFUL VIBRAPHONE Jenifa Mayanja, “Warrior Strutt” YOU TRYING TO GET THE PIPE, TO PLAY IT, OF COURSE, AS PART OF AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSITION? Mary Jane Leach, Pipe Dreams THERE’S A MOMENT DURING THAT BAD BOY DOCUMENTARY CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP WHERE IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT EVERYONE WHO WORKS CLOSELY WITH DIDDY EVENTUALLY TURNS TO GOD, AND IT WAS LIKE THE STRANGE OBVERSE OF Jay Z et al, 4:44 footnotes 2016, BUT I SAT IN THE MET BREUER AND WATCHED THIS OVER AND OVER FOR ABOUT AN HOUR Arthur Jafa, “Love is the Message, The Message is Death” I WANT TO WATCH THE FULL FOUR HOURS OF THIS Dev Hynes talking to Philip Glass TRICKSTERY BUT KINDA MESMERIZING! Klein, Tommy Lolina, Lolita EP Hype Williams, Rainbow Edition “NOT ANOTHER GOT MORE SEOUL, UNLESS YOU KOREAN” (CHILLWAVE REMIX) Mogwaa, Deja Vu “THE TING GOES SKRRRAHH, PAP, PAP, KA-KA-KA/SKIDIKI-PAP-PAP, AND A PU-PU-PUDRRRR-BOOM/SKYA, DU-DU-KU-KU-DUN-DUN/POOM, POOM, YOU DON’ KNOW” Big Shaq, “Mans Not Hot” IBID., BUT “PERKY” Drake, More Life I WANTED TO LIKE THE WIZKID ALBUM MORE, BUT THIS WAS AWESOME Tiwa Savage f/ Wizkid and Spellz, “Ma Lo” LISTENED TO THIS QUITE A FEW TIMES SIMPLY BECAUSE ”BREAKING NEWS: WILD GOAT ON THE LOOSE” IS A WEIRD LINE Lancey Foux f/ AJ Tracey, Kojey Radical and Jevon, “Wild Goat” UNITED TIL I DIE BUT AJ TRACEY’S TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR KIT LAUNCH FREESTYLE HAD ME BUZZZZZZIN AJ Tracey, “False 9″ DIFFERENT TIME OF DAY, KINDA LEFT ME SPEECHLESS Grouper, “Children” Colleen, A Flame my love, a frequency Kara Lis Coverdale, Grafts Ryuichi Sakamoto, async LEFT RYUICHI SAKAMOTO ENVIOUS Metaphors: Selected Soundworks from the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul FROM OMNI TRIO TO THIS, A PRETTY VISIONARY CAREER Robert Haigh, Creatures of the Deep A SONG THAT FEATURED TWO PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE PRETTY BIG IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS DJDS f/ Amber Mark and Marco McKinnis, “Trees on Fire” LIKE, THIS IS GREAT Amber Mark, “Lose My Cool” AWESOME YEAR FOR POTIONS Social Lovers, “Drop Me a Line” Boss, “Song for Gods” WHISKED ME BACK TO MEMORIES OF the enormous room Joakim, “Samurai” Calvin Harris f/ Frank Ocean and Migos, “Slide” Amp Fiddler, “I’m Feeling You” Chaos in the CBD, Accidental Meetings LIKE FALLING ASLEEP ON THE SUBWAY, OR A TRUCK HITTING A POTHOLE AND SPITTING OUT A RECORD COLLECTION, OR HEARING A NANOSECOND OF BRAND NUBIAN THROUGH SOMEONE’S HEADPHONES AS YOU PASS THEM ON THE STREET, IT’S A VIBE Standing on the Corner, Red Burns MIKE’S A SAVIOR Mike 1. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME THIS YEAR THINKING ABOUT THE STRENGTH, ELASTICITY, FRAGILITY, GRAIN OF THE HUMAN VOICE AND SOME OF THIS WAS TOTALLY NECESSARY AND SUBLIME Deep Throat Choir, Be Ok Diamanda Galas, All the Way Moses Sumney, Aromanticism 2. SO ACHINGLY GOOD AND INTIMATE, ESPECIALLY THAT FAINT CROAK IN THE FIRST CHORUS Rostam f/ Kelly Zutrau, “Half-Light” 3. OF COURSE THESE WORLD-MAKERS TOO Bjork, Utopia Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, The Kid Valerie June, “Astral Plane” 3a. A STRANGE PROPOSITION THAT I ENDED UP ADORING KAS covering Sade’s "By Your Side" THE BAY AREA IS JUST DIFFERENT Droop-E, Trillionaire Thoughts Lil B, Black Ken THE “BUILD YOU UP” VIDEO WAS FUN AND ALL BUT I’M REALLY GLAD THIS WASN’T THAT Kamiayah, Before I Wake THE BAY TO L.A. AND BACK AGAIN Mozzy f/ G Perico, “Blammatory” G Perico f/ Mozzy, “What’s Real” GYEAH MC Eiht, Which Way Iz West OUTRUN THE BEAT SOB x RBE, “Lane Changing 2″ BANDS THAT ALWAYS SOUND LIKE THEMSELVES, IN WAYS THAT I FIND COMFORTING the xx, I See You King Krule, The Ooz SAME AS ABOVE, MIDDLE-AGED DIVISION The Feelies, In Between Slowdive, “Star Roving” SOMEONE WHO SOUNDS LIKE NO ONE ELSE Jlin, Black Origami THE NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM Dreezy f/ 6LACK and Kodak Black, “Spar” I LOOKED UP EACH TIME THIS CAME ON THE SHUFFLE Shanti Celeste, “Loop One/Selector”

PROBABLY MY FAVORITE SONG GoldLink f/ Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy, “Crew” OR MAYBE Jorja Smith x Preditah, “On My Mind” THIS WAS SICK TOO GoldLink & Co. covering Outkast’s “Roses” MAYBE THE BEST SONG J Hus, “Did You See”

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER YEAR WHERE MY FAVORITE RELEASE WAS PROBABLY FROM YAEJI, THE “GLASSES FOGGING UP” LINE WAS VERY RELATABLE Yaeji, EP2 THE SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER   I MEAN, IT’S WAYNE’S WORLD, WE JUST LIVE IN IT ### SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

Fresh Listen - Linus, White Marks on a White Wall (2010, LINUS!) & Psychobabble (2016, LINUS!)

(Some pieces of recorded music operate more like organisms than records. They live, they breathe, they reproduce. Fresh Listen is a periodic review of recently and not-so-recently released albums that crawl among us like radioactive spiders, gifting us with superpowers from their stingers.)

The template for rock and roll music is crude and simplistic. Musicians who wish to abide by the genre and still retain a shred of creative integrity are required to make sacrifices. They must offset precision with just enough slop. They must sublimate their truest expression to the conventions of electric guitar chords and riffs. They must cleverly dumb things down. They must revivify the corpse of a retrograde and, for the most part, passe aesthetic with a contemporary feel, making sure not to stray too far from the primitive yawp and drum beat of the ancient past. 

Most importantly, a credible rock outfit must not only internalize the sum of their influences, they must transcend them, just as Ezra Pound threatened to supersede Walt Whitman (but never did). Just as Bob Dylan sprouted from the fertilizer Woody Guthrie threw into the Heartland, and Ray Charles emerged from the seed germinated by Nat King Cole, and the Ramones tore out, Alien-style, from the abdomens of The Beach Boys and The Trashmen. There are plenty of serviceable bands who’ve made attractive rackets while comfortably nestled in the grooves of their forbears (The Red Walls and Natural Child come to mind), but the rock band that can grow, branch out from its myriad influences, will age with dignity, and is less likely to wither because of stagnation or redundancy.

Linus was/is a local Hawai‘i rock band who, like most Hawai‘i rock bands, surrendered dreams of magazine covers, record deals, and stardom for the harder-earned, more secure institutions of professional work and family. In my time on the scene--Honolulu in the early 2000′s--they were much beloved, even over the swampier rock group The Haunted Pines, which had dug itself out of the grave of Kite Festival. Dynamic, tight, tuneful, and equipped with a seemingly endless catalogue of memorable Indie (with a capital “I”) rock songs that were played better, and sounded better, than anything on the radio back then, they humbly and unofficially reigned over less stellar lights--The Persephone Myth, terodactyl, Life in the Iron Lung. The singer could actually sing, and was an even better guitar player. The bassist interacted with his instrument as organically as if it was a third appendage hung from his shoulder, and injected a muscular bounce into each song.

Misguided production marred the band’s first long release on 2005 of The Construction. Unnecessary electronics were overused, especially on singer-songwriter David Neely’s vocals, smothering them, as John Lennon would have put it, in ketchup. (Demos and live recordings of the band around the time, easily available, provide joyously stripped down versions of The Construction’s setlist). Maybe they were overly infatuated with the technology of the recording studio, but The Construction emerged as a stiff, oddly detached aspect of Linus. They weren’t able to successfully bottle the magic of their interplay until 2010′s White Marks on a White Wall.

Key to that magic, and arguably equally important to Neely’s songs and guitar work, is the springy fretwork, busy and miraculous, of Niklaus Daubert, which elevates Linus’s sound from chunky hard rock to groovable dance music in which a Twist, a shimmy, or even a skank wouldn’t be remiss. Though I would have preferred the bass turned up even louder on White Marks on a White Wall, the instrument is recorded effectively--less melodic than percussive, thundering out deep sensations--I hesitate to call them “notes”--between, and in-and-out of, somewhat straightforward drum beats.

White Marks begins with the mellow, melodic guitar riffage at which Neely excels. “Hold On Hold On” is evocative of the of indie-rock sensibility of the latter half of this century’s first decade, and brings to light key aspects of Neely’s songwriting. While Neely crafts indestructible verses and bridges in his songs, he is averse to outright choruses, preferring a carefully placed refrain here and there, often unexpectedly.

The band evokes the urgency of “Reptilia”-era Strokes on “Listen Up!,” featuring some of Neely’s most impassioned vocals of the album. A strangely dismissive 2010 capsule review of White Marks in Honolulu Magazine wrote, “Lead Singer David Neely is still sometimes pitchy, but the band’s best songs--’SoSo’ for example--build hooky guitar riffs to an irresistible crescendo.” As someone who has heard Linus from their early performances, I believe that Neely’s “pitchiness” has always been the point to his singing performances. From “Sad to Say” (one of their early favorites) to “Girlfriend,” Neely has experimented with warping his authoritative baritone toward something like vulnerability. Throwing his voice out of whack for the high notes is another way of singing how he feels.

“Holiday” and “Sasha” are emotive beach rock, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. They are both sad rages against the dying of the light, what one says when a love affair is over and the summer is gone. “I Left Home” has more structure than it needs, the pretensions of Wolf Parade evoked through Eighties pop metal.

True rock bombast, with its winking theatrics, leads into “Hobby Hunter,” though Neely first undercuts the heaviness with an intro ripped straight from Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom,” before a signature Neely riff carries another set of sensitive lyrics. While the slinky interplay between the guitar and Daubert’s bass is the stuff to build a classic in “Honey and Buttercup,” there is something limp in the sentiment, though it is probably the most technically ambitious track on the record. 

It’s a shame that White Marks’s final stop is “Kentucky Woman,” a fake-out that, on paper, evokes Neil Diamond’s pop hit of the same name. In actuality, it is a jumpy but soggy kiss-off tune. It probably works better in live performance. I could imagine the wordless instrumental sections providing that last squirt of gas to a sweaty audience nearly all played out, driving them to spasm the rest of their energy away on the closing song of the night.

Preceding “Kentucky Woman” are two tracks that have become canon in the catalogue of Linus, and would be proud moments on any band’s playlist. First “SoSo,” which means nothing when you put the lyrics together--it is a open-hearted example of rock posturing, a whole bunch of cliches and nonsense strung together in perfect combinations, like in “Be Bop A Lula” or “Twist and Shout.” “You Talk Too Much” is, to lack a better description, simply the essence of Linus’s whole thing (pointed bass line, driving guitar crunch with overhanging jangle, and above all swinging so hard it kills) and the best of Neely’s songwriting: a melody line just outside the range of his voice (consciously so), a carefully constructed build-up with an inevitable, visceral, and almost primitively satisfying release.

By 2016, the band had incorporated fire diverse influences into its evolving expression, some more gracefully than others. On their album Psychobabble, Neely, now occasionally sharing vocal responsibilities with Jun Yoshimura, inhabited his voice with a new confidence, the gruff brown twangs all smoothed over. From the first track, Psychobabble is a minor-key experience, sonically more compelling and more emotionally complex.

The ballad “Nakameguro,” about the dissolution of a relationship at the beginning of a vacation, evokes the helplessness of a traveler trapped with someone for whom they no longer have love. The production is grown-up, the memorable riffs replaced by an adult contemporary arrangement, a muted piano suiting the sentiment of the words.

The guitar is not dead, though, on Psychobabble--it has simply transmogrified. “Waikiki” and “Unbreakable” both leap away from Vampire Weekend’s West African guitar styles, and Neely shows that he can adapt to the trickier timing fluidly. “1991″ is the bittersweet story of every teenager who dreams of filling Madison Square Garden or seeing their name in parentheses under a song title on a 45, but instead finds themselves behind a desk the majority of their days. The song is affecting in both the simplicity of the lyric and the arrangement.

There are some wonderfully minimalist Korg synth sounds on “Shoots” and “Indian Summer,” the latter co-sung by Jun Yoshimura. “Indian Summer” is a departure for the band--the listener is no longer solely directed by Neely’s distinctive voice. The chorus, one of the true choruses on either of these albums, is both cringeworthy and cathartic. “Forever let us be / together you and me” Neely and Yoshimura chant, but with such conviction that you buy into it wholeheartedly. This is not a songwriting strategy that Neely has mapped out. This is instinctual music making, a pre-conscous awareness of how to put the pieces, those inspirational missives that strike from the void, together into resonant expression.

The album concludes with “Red Thread,” a Middle-Eastern vibe married to to beat of Jonathan Richman’s ��I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar.” Like on White Marks, the last track seems almost an addendum, a detour from where the band had been leading us all along.

Which is, after all, the story of Linus--a constant detour, from the music they were inspired by, from the music they played, from the music they made available to the people who loved them. There is no reason Linus shouldn’t be adored by millions, written about in publications far more prestigious than this blog, spoken about in the same breath as Spoon or the New Pornographers. But they took a left turn into an alley and never arrived at the town square. Despite the universality of their sound, they took active steps to deconstruct formula indie-rock, seemingly always above the genre, or just to the side of it, but never totally sucked into it. I’d like to think they walked the path with their eyes open, making the noise they wanted to make, stopping when they didn’t have anything else to say.