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pwrlessobvious · 3 years

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hey there’s a long ass opinion about PTD under the cut bc apparently it triggered something in me, if you don’t care about bts and/or are here to hate don’t interact *mwah mwah*

don’t get me wrong i would DIE for bts and up until now i loved their american songs, i was the biggest apologist when my army friends were shitting on them. the american songs are funky and cool and give me serotonin and that’s all that matters tbh buttt. this has got to stop now for realsies.

i applauded hybe/bh and bts for wanting to prove that america is in fact racist and xenophobic (shocker) through releasing songs in both korean and english and seeing how they chart. of COURSE the english songs charted higher and are charting right now, Butter has just stayed its 7th week on #1. it’s a huge achievement and what they did with Dynamite was a big deal as well, so they have proved to the world the ugly truth that the language and the way the song is built do matter if you want to be as successful as white american artists and i LOVE that and i support that. both Dynamite and Butter have a simple structure, clear verses, bridges and chorus that are easy to identify, simple beats, the sound is similar to what america has known for decades, etc etc. they were both made to be played on the radio, they were both made with becoming summer anthems in mind, they are both simple and cheerful songs that people could listen to and smile and forget how horrible the world is right now, y e s. it’s fabulous and bts have given the people what they needed to hear. with PTD I understand that they wanted to make a song that would celebrate the end of the pandemic - that way, what started with Dynamite could sort of evolve and come to a close in a natural way. in that sense i can totally see why it needed to come out. but i’m mourning one thing and that’s the loss of quality.

there are fans who hated Dynamite, then they hated Butter even more and now under no circumstances can they get through the entire 3 and something minutes of PTD. i was a fan who really enjoyed Dynamite, liked Butter even better and now is extremely disappointed. so while some could say that it’s been getting progressively worse, i would say that none of the three were top notch bts we’ve been used to for the past 8 years but they weren’t tragic until now. with Dynamite, it was preceeded by MOTS7 that redefined what music is (except for the Sia feature) and brought the best bts song of all time (Black Swan). Dynamite was followed by BE, an entire comfort album of straight bangers. Life Goes On, like Dynamite, was made to comfort people, but it was written and done in a way that didn’t lack the typical bts vibe and artistry - not saying that Dynamite was bad, but just very different. more party and good time, less actual in-your-face “it’s going to be okay.” both were needed, both were needed to co-exist. made total sense.

then we got Butter and Butter is the PERFECT summer anthem and it would have been stupid of hybe not to want to follow their biggest US release thus far with another one for the summertime when chances of success are the largest. and it turned out to be really freaking cool; maybe the lyrics are a bit questionable but the sound makes up for what they lack. so: MOTS7 - Dynamite - BE - Butter. one proper comeback, one american single, then again and again. makes perfect sense. aaand now we got PTD. i’m not saying they’re jinxing the end of the pandemic but they totally are - i’m kidding ofc but ..also not? i just don’t get the timing. even the mv says 2022 and we’re currently halfway through 2021, so why was the song released right now? it feels like there’s a logical error here somewhere. maybe i’m missing something and need someone to enlighten me, but while the US has been successfully rolling out jabs, many if not most parts of the world are still hecking struggling. whatever progress there is, it’s small. but there is hope now bc of the vaccines, unlike last year, so yeah, okay. let’s sing about that hope for 2022 then. but I don’t get a hopeful vibe from the song at all. it’s like everything is over in the world the mv and the lyrics are presenting and suddenly everyone can go out and party and kiss each other and whatnot, and that’s simply not true. i know it probably sounds a bit ridiculous but that genuinely bothers me lol especially since both of the previous songs had a clear reason as to why they came into existence.

i guess i want that clear reason from PTD as well because I need to be reassured that this is just a phase, the american songs, the american lyrics, the american song structure, the exclusively american promo. you can make positive, light-hearted, funky songs and they can be good, but PTD just isn’t. and bts in my eyes are next level artists when it comes to sound, lyrics and choreography, so when i’m faced with the kind of creation that is PTD i can’t help but be disappointed, especially when we saw the light-hearted stuff twice already, three times if we include boy with luv.

let me be clear - i’m not expecting bts to be at the top of their creativity and the artistry that we’re used to all the time. i’ve always said that the world needs simple party songs, and i sincerely hope and believe that while bts release and promote these songs (that were not written by them as well) they get to rest and recharge to later release something that our brains won’t be able to comprehend after just one listen bc it will be that good. i want nothing more than the general public finally realising that bts are a bunch of super talented dudes who can dance super intricate choreos and sing the highest notes and rap the most quality verses, so when they succeed the most with and thus become most popular for songs like the three english ones, it really upsets me because i know what they can do. maybe the american general public have seen what they can do when they were promoting MOTS7, ON and Black Swan, maybe. idk, i’m not a specialist in the field, i’m not even american, but something tells me that no, they know them bc of Dynamite and now Butter. and i don’t think it’s good to be known for songs like that only. i’m afraid that they’ll need to redeem themselves one day because people will end up thinking they only do silly dancey-dancey songs and that’s really not fair. and ughhh it feels like armys look a bit stupid now because we’ve always said that we value bts for what it stands for, the message and the art and all the deep stuff, and now the general public will hear that and go ‘is that what you call art and deep lyrics?’ yeah. anyway, i know for a fact that this will not last forever and we will be getting a regular comeback soon. i’m happy that they get to rest creatively. i’m SO happy that they’re receiving the recognition they deserve, finally. i just hope people will be there to chart their korean songs when they release some too.

#i think this is valid criticism so don’t come at me saying i hate them when i don’t okay #or that i don’t like the song and i’m bitter #no #that’s not true #and i think this proves that it’s not true #but yeah don’t yell at me ok #i needed to get this off my chest #okay bye

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arukit · 5 years

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idolish7 - Part 3 Chapter 15.2 Translation

Chapter 15.2 - A song linked to memories

Tenn: Good evening! We’re TRIGGER! Audience: Kyaaaa…. Tenn: I’m glad we can finally meet again. We’ll be singing with all of our might just for you! Audience: Kyaaaa…. Audience: ….Tenn-kun…! Gaku-san! Ryuunosuke-san! I love you!

Salaryman 1: Whoa, what’s going on with those girls over there? Salaryman 2: Maybe they’re spectators of that live house? Ah… TRIGGER is playing. Salaryman 1: So it’s TRIGGER! It seems like they’re still popular. I haven’t been seeing them on TV lately, but I’ve been watching Yaotome Gaku’s drama series.

Security guard: If this many people gathered here, it may bother the residents of the neighborhood and the other people as well… If you don’t take measures, this could get troublesome. Anesagi: I apologize for the trouble we have caused you…

Gaku: Thank you for coming to see us! Ryuunosuke: It’s incredible. The audience is so close that I can see everyone’s faces! Audience: Kyaaaa….

Anesagi: Eh?! We’ll be prohibited from performing here? Live staff: We’re thankful for the full house but… with just today, we really can’t meet the logistic requirements for TRIGGER’s lives. Live staff: Even the police came several times to give warnings… You’re better off at a place with a much bigger capacity! I’m wishing you luck! Anesagi: …

Mister Shimooka: That was IDOLiSH7’s “Sakura Message”! Riku: Thank you very much! Audience: Kyaaaa….

Woman 1: Apparently Riku-kun’s favorite food is omurice! Woman 2: So cute! Hey, did you see this month’s magazine? When he tried making carbonara, he ended up boiling soumen noodles! Woman 1: He was the one who said he ate together with Iori-kun, right? I want to see that! I wish they had a camera at their dorm! Woman 2: ZOOL has gotten popular but somehow, they look scary so I couldn’t really get into them. Fufu… Riku is so nice! Woman 1: He makes you want to cheer for him!

Iori: After MEZZO”, Nanase-san also received a radio work offer… Iori: Seeing how he cannot talk by himself, it’d be better if he teamed up with someone else. Tsumugi: The recording session will be done during the day but the show will be on air late at night. For this reason, I was thinking of someone outside you and Tamaki-san. Tsumugi: Since Mitsuki-san is a regular on several shows, fitting his schedule will be difficult. That’s why I thought Nagi-san would be the best choice. Iori: …Can those two really organize a show together? Tsumugi: It’ll differ from MEZZO”’s soothing mood and I think it could become a fantastic show like no other before!

Riku: Good evening! This is IDOLiSH7’s Nanase Riku with… Nagi: Hello~! This is Rokuya Nagi! Riku: Here is our first postcard! The topic is “Methods to fall asleep when feeling sleepy”! Nagi: Methods to fall asleep? Let’s see. In my case… Riku: Hold on, I got it wrong! It’s “Methods to stay awake when feeling sleepy”! Nagi: I lay down on my bed. See you next week! Riku: Don’t end it already!! That won’t do! We want methods to keep our eyes open! Nagi: You’re the one who mixed it up, Riku. OH… The postcard is so intricately decorated with colorful pen and yet you still read it wrong. Riku: Hey now… It was my bad. I’m sorry. Nagi: What else could the lady do even more for you to read correctly? Riku: She could whisper softly into my ear. Nagi: Nice idea! Let’s implement that. Very well, with your postcard in hand, dress up nicely and come to the broadcast sta-- Riku: Don’t say that! Don’t come, alright? Please keep sending in your postcards! Nagi: Akin to a whisper in our ear, please decorate your postcards intricately, as intricately as you can. Riku: Alright, for our next postcard… Nagi: OH! Oh my god… Riku: Hey now, don’t get so carried away on the radio! Ahaha! You’re infecting me. What’s up? Nagi: We didn’t even spend a single minute to discuss the previous topic! Riku: Ahaha! That’s true! That won’t do. Come on, methods to stay awake! Nagi: At this point, I’m already wide awake.

Sougo: Continuing, let me introduce the next song. This song “Melody Blue” was released in 1982 by “Baby Beer”. Sougo: It’s a hardcore masterpiece. The bass line is heart wrenching, along with the penetrating vocals and the mixing that-- Tamaki: What’s hardcore? Rock? Sougo: It’s indeed rock. The most extreme type of rock. Tamaki: Earlier you talked about al…. al… Sougo: Alternative. Tamaki: That, didn’t you say it was rock too? Sougo: It’s indeed rock. Tamaki: What exactly is rock? Is it something like humans? Sougo: Humans? Tamaki: Like if rock was like humans, then hardcore could be the Americans and Alternative could be the Japanese or something like that. Sougo: Ooh, I suppose that is one way to see it. It… does feel that way. Everybody could be like rock. TamakI: What’s with that category? Sou-chan, you normally go into details so wasn’t that too broad of an answer? Sougo: It’s actually more convoluted than that and personal tastes also come into account, so it’ll differ from one record shops to another. Tamaki: What about hip-hop? Sougo: I believe that its roots come from jazz but there are thinking schools who say it comes from rock, so who knows? Hip-hop is quite divided. Tamaki: Is it okay for rock to be such a broad category? Next time, can I compare salt, pepper and soy sauce to rock all I want? Sougo: Not a chance. Those are seasonings. Tamaki: Don’t mess with me! It’s unfair that only rock gets to do it!

Riku: Haa… I’m so tired… Mitsuki: Are you alright, Riku? Riku: Yeah. My body is in good shape. It’s just that my exhaustion finally set in when I returned to the dorm and saw everyone’s faces. Yamato: Same here. I’ve been feeling really worn out. Sougo: Once things settle down, it’d be fun if we could all go on a trip somewhere. Tamaki: I want to go! Fall is probably impossible, then what about winter? How about going to Nagicchi’s country to see the aurora? Nagi: OH! The cold in Northmare during midwinter is extremely harsh. The nights are long and the sun only rises for short hours. Tamaki: Why? Is that place still on Earth? Nagi: Iori, you’ve slacked off on teaching Tamaki geography, haven’t you? Iori: Why did the blame have to fall on me? Riku: How did the people of Northmare from the ancient times manage to live in such a cold place? Nagi: Northmare’s ancestors were Vikings. During summertime, they invaded the neighboring lands and pillaged the food and treasures. Nagi: During winter, they secluded themselves on a safe territory and awaited the arrival of minstrels. Mitsuki: Minstrels? Nagi: They are wandering singers who told tales through songs. During the ancient times in Northmare and the neighboring countries, tales were told through songs. Riku: Tales through songs… Nagi: They would typically be from the Codex Regius written in Old Norse or the Poetic Edda. Nagi: Riku, since you’re an avid reader, in Völuspá… Perhaps you might be familiar with the seeress’ prophecy. Nagi: It is a poem of a myth that tells from the creation of the world to the deaths of the gods. Would you know about it? Riku: Ah! You must mean Ragnarök! I see, it’s from Norse mythology after all! Nagi: Yes! Mitsuki: Then, during winter, the wanderers who sang the poems of myths were anticipated by everyone? Nagi: That is correct. When the rays of light cannot reach them and the world is buried in white, the people took joy in the songs and tales. Nagi: And that is no different from this era. Nagi: Even without needing to be cornered by blizzards, we still have sleepless nights when the heart is lost in a well of darkness where light can no longer reach. Riku: I can understand… When that happens, Tenn-nii would sing for me. The songs had all sorts of stories associated with them. Riku: There were the songs’ own stories and then there were the stories of the memories I had with Tenn-nii. Mitsuki: I wonder if it’s the same with our fans. Just how many stories do our songs have with all the people who listened to us? Mitsuki: Every time they listen to our songs, they’d recall the events of the previous day or something like that. It’d be great if we could connect to them this way. Yamato: So songs are stories, huh… That must be why everyone holds TRIGGER dear. Momo-san holds Re:vale dear just as well. Yamato: If we could no longer listen to a song that we associated to ourselves, the pain would feel like losing a part of ourselves. Sougo: However, we will relive that feeling each and every time we hear it. Even the feelings that we forgot will resurface… Iori: Happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin… I can say this now but for some time, I didn’t have it in me to listen to “miss you…”. Nagi: OH! For me, it was when TRIGGER sang “Natsu ☆shiyouze!” It felt akin to drinking a bitter cup of coffee. Yamato: When I hear “NO DOUBT”, it reminds me of the time I was so overwhelmed that I caused a huge ruckus. It was so uncool, I should have learned to relax my shoulders. Mitsuki: When we did a unit song with TRIGGER, we only kept good memories from that one, didn’t we! Those guys were so cool and we had a lot of fun. Riku: When I was made IDOLiSH7’s center in “MONSTER GENERATiON”, I was so happy… Riku: It felt like I was finally acknowledged but then a lot happened and I lost my confidence… Riku: But when I sang “RESTART POiNTER”, I felt like I did grow up a little. I felt like I could finally forgive myself. Riku: I love the members and the fans after all. I remember not to ever hesitate whenever I sing or listen to that song. Iori: Nanase-san… Riku: There was something that Tenn-nii told me a while ago. He said that even if the world was to stop spinning, it was our job to keep on singing. Riku: When I first heard that, I thought that it was so sad that it had to be so harsh, so unforgiving and so difficult. Riku: But I understand what he meant now. If our songs were associated to a good memory to someone or brought a happy story to someone, then… Riku: Each time we sang, someone would be reliving their story. We can make them relive that feeling of joy and happiness. Riku: Like a shooting star flying across a starless sky. Riku: We can become stars or even a rainbow.

To be continued.

#Idolish7

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djbimbu-blog · 5 years

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Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

For the first review why not start with the album this blog is named after, Bruce Springsteen’s fourth album, 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town. Why did I name my blog after this album? Is it my favorite album? Favorite album by the Boss? Nope. It’s not even my favorite Springsteen album (that would probably go Born to Run, but Darkness is close). It’s just what I happened to be listening to when I decided to start a blog because I needed a hobby, and I spend most of my time reading about whatever record I’m listening to anyway, so I might as well write down my half assed research and opinions.

I don’t remember when I got this record, a few years ago at some point. I bought it from one of my usual record stores. I had already tried to buy it once at a flea market, but when I got it home the record actually was an Elvis Costello record inside of a Springsteen sleeve. And try as I might, I just can’t get into Costello. I learned the hard way (probably about $8 hard) that you don’t just look at some of the grooves for scratches, look at the label and make sure its the right fucking record in there. So I had to buy a second copy. It’s in decent shape, has a few crackles here and there, but I don’t go for mint condition stuff. I go for the record that’s the cheapest one out of the three copies the store has, because the sleeve is a little worn and one song has a scratch in it. I buy records to listen to first and foremost. I’m not rich, and I’m not buying them to look at, so some of my records are of questionable condition.

The first copy I bought is now framed and hangs right above my stereo. A reminder not to be such a dumbass with my record shopping, and a reminder to stop being so quick to shit on artists based off mental cliches you’ve made about their fans. Basically a reminder to be a more open minded person, and less of an asshole.

Most of my life I had written off the Boss as boring baby boomer dad rock, stuff you hear on the radio in the waiting room of an automatic car wash, stuff along with solo Clapton, Toto, The Eagles, Journey’s slow songs. So you’re drinking free Keurig coffee while ESPN plays on the TV, hoping the balding, goateed man next to you doesn’t ask you you’re opinion on the draft because you didn’t watch it and don’t want to deal with the awkwardness of a judgmental look for being a 20 something man who doesn’t care about sports. In his mind my dull, offended, smart phone generation is destroying the spirit of the country, and in my mind, I thought Springsteen was his music, music from when “men were men”, worked at factories, ate McDonalds when it was still legally a food product, and Reagan was going to turn everything around from the malaise years of Carter. He probably listened to Springsteen back in 1980, played high school baseball, dealt with all the bullshit in his life by looking forward to Friday night when he could get drunk, hang out with his girlfriend, and drive around with his friends in a shitty rust box Nova (with the inline six, not even the v8 that still didn’t make 200 horsepower). Needless to say, I had judgmental opinions about Bruce Springsteen and the kinds of people who listened to him.

At some point something happened. I honestly think it was mostly just that I grew the fuck up just enough to hear Springsteen on the right day and it finally connected, finally all made sense. I remember where the change happened. I was sitting in one of my old apartments, a few years out of a bad break up (and dropping out of college), living with some of my best friends, working a dead end job, starting to drink too much, mentally planning a half impulsive move across the country away from it all…and binging The Sopranos for the first time. At the end of the first season finale, Tony and his family are driving in a bad storm, and seek shelter in the restaurant of Tony’s long time friend Artie. Artie, trying to close up, reluctantly lets them in to eat. Other friends and family are there dining, Tony and his family sit down, then Tony toasts to remembering “the little moments, like this…that were good.” Fade to black, and this faint acoustic guitar comes in over the credits, with this haunting voice, coated in a slap back delay, singing about having a “clear conscience for the things that I’ve done.” It’s a beautiful scene from one of the pinnacles of television. And I had to find out what the fuck that song was. It was like a combination of Elvis singing “Blue Moon”, Bob Dylan’s “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” with a touch of Suicide’s Alan Vega thrown in. I do some internet digging, and find out it’s this song called “State Trooper” by Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen? The guy behind that “Born In The USA” song drunk assholes ironically jammed on the Fourth of July, that I couldn’t stand? Was I wrong about him this whole time? So I started to dig into the Boss, first into the Born to Run album, since the song “Born To Run” I always had sort of guilty pleasure liked when it came on the radio. Within a year or so I would consider Springsteen a musical genius, and one of my absolute favorite musicians of all time (though I must admit I only deeply know his first 7 albums). All from hearing one of his least Springsteeny songs in the end credits of a tv show I was watching more than 10 years after airing.

On to the album. Springsteen had already recorded three albums, his last, Born to Run was a massive success, that had him maturing as an artist and writing songs that were absolutely beautiful and somehow could be absolutely depressing at the same time. Listen to “Jungleland". If it doesn’t make you feel every emotion at once, you’re not human. The lyrics tell a story I’m still not quite sure I understand, and it has the best saxophone solo ever put on a record (and for what it’s worth, the “Jungleland" sax solo is my favorite part of any song ever). It’s a perfect fucking song. It was a hard album to top, and I’m still not sure if he did. Darkness is a fantastic record, though I’m not sure if it’s as good as Born to Run (I’m also not sure if it’s worse). But you have to applaud Springsteen for not pulling an AC/DC, writing more of the same, and riding it out for the next 30 years. He came into the studio with a new band member, Steven Van Zandt (who I will still always think of first and foremost as Silvio Dante), and recorded a massive collection of over 50 songs. Some are available on the album The Promise which didn’t come out until 2010.

Ten were picked for the record, which was harder hitting, darker, rawer, and more stripped down. It wasn’t as poppy (if you could consider Born To Run that), and wasn't as successful. The highest single off Darkness only made it’s way to No. 33 on the Billboard charts. How could he top Born To Run? He couldn’t, but the lack of relative success doesn’t make it any less of an album. It’s his In Utero, so to speak.

“Badlands” kicks off the album. With a rhythm Springsteen claims to have “borrowed” from The Animals “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” it moves quick. It has raw, crunchy guitars, you can already tell this isn’t Born To Run. The lyrics follow similar Springsteen territory, but you can tell right away this is a different album. The problem with “Badlands” though is the version on the Live 1975-1985 album just has that little bit extra. “Badlands” is a great song, but I usually find it just leaves me wanting the live version instead. The version of the live album comes from a 1980 show in Tempe, Arizona, which has concert footage on youtube. Honestly, most of the tracks from that show are better than the album. I have a hard time finishing Darkness sometimes without getting sidetracked watching Springsteen live videos on youtube about halfway through.

“Adam Raised A Cain” is maybe Springsteen’s heaviest song. It starts off with a fast, overdriven guitar, and goes right into a ripping, pissed off, guitar solo. The tempo picks up a bit in the bridge, and then the chorus hits you hard, with yelling background vocals and squealing lead guitar. The guitar solo comes in later, reminiscent of the intro solo, but with a few unique lines thrown in. At the end they go back into the chorus for a solid minute, and jam on it until the end. Springsteen doesn’t have many songs like this. I wish he did. It’s really fucking good.

“Something in the Night” is a slower tune. It’s not bad, but I find it a little forgettable. If I’m scrolling through Spotify for the car or something, it’s not the tune I’d pick out if I only have a 5 minute drive. I do really like last half though, where the vocals get a little less ballad, and a little rougher, a little louder.

“Candy’s Room” has just not aged well. Something about the piano line, the driving bass, the drums, I’m not sure what. Some of the production on this album is pretty dated, but for some reason more so on this one. Maybe because it’s about a girl named Candy, and nobody’s been born with that name in quite a while (at least not that I know). It just sounds very 1970’s, and not in the good way. It’s a little boring, and the lyrics don’t really do much for me. It has a pretty good guitar solo though, so points for that. Probably my least favorite track.

“Racing In The Street” heads right into a different direction. It starts off with a solo piano, and Springsteen singing about his 69 Chevy. I’m a bit of a classic car lover myself, so I appreciate the references, and only a few people could sing a love song about girls and muscle cars and not make it hokey as shit. It’s definitely not Van Halen’s Panama. How though? A song with this subject matter should be corny and terrible, but it’s really fucking good. It’s pure beautiful Americana. It’s the musical equivalent of having a fire on the beach with your best friends in the summertime. It’s simple, but taking simple stories and making them something relatable to everyone is what Springsteen is the best at. Even if you don’t like cars, anyone can listen to this song and have something in you’re life it could be about.

“The Promised Land” starts off with a midtempo guitar and a matching harmonica. I don’t quite know what the lyrics mean, but you sure as hell want to get to the promised land too. The song slows down in the middle, with a guitar solo, and rips right into a classic Clarence Clemons sax solo. This is probably the “poppiest” song on the album, which is not to say it’s “Dancing In The Dark.” It’s still in full rock and roll territory, but it’s fucking catchy. Another song you need to watch the footage of from the 1980 Arizona show. The album version is good, the live one is perfect.

“Factory” is one of the lesser songs on the album. I honestly usually skip it. It’s just a little too slow after “The Promised Land” and the song after “Factory” is really good. It’s not a bad song, but just a victim of track listing choice. Especially if I’m not listening to the vinyl, in the car or the gym or something, it’s getting skipped. If it’s on the record, I’ll listen, but I’m not that invested. The lyrics aren’t Springsteen’s best, a little too on the nose.

“Streets of Fire” is another slower tune, but a little harder. I doesn’t have that much in common, but it reminds me a lot of “Backstreets” off Born To Run. It starts off pretty mellow, with just an organ (some sort of keyboard, I’m going with organ), but starts to pick up and hits hard when the guitars come in, and then goes right into one of the coolest guitar solo’s on a Springsteen album. The guitar tone is just fuzzy enough, it’s loud, drenched in reverb, and the rest of the band just lays back. It comes out of nowhere. The rest of the song is more of the same and fades out, but that solo makes the song.

“Prove It All Night” is a classic mid tempo Springsteen rock and roll love song. Nothing ground breaking, but it’s still one of the better tracks on the album. In the middle it goes into a sax solo, and then up another level with another great guitar solo. This is definitely the best Springsteen guitar album. The solo’s hit hard, sound mean, but aren’t showy or lame 1970’s rock show off stuff. They serve the songs really well. Something about this song though makes me feel like it would fit better on The River. Another song to check out live footage of. It turns into an extended jam, and is just a little bit quicker. I think if they recorded it with the tempo of the live show, it would have brought it from one of the decent tracks on the album to one of the best. I don’t know why, there’s nothing about this song particularly interesting, but I find myself throwing it on quite a bit.

“Darkness on the Edge of Town” ends the album. It’s a little bit of a middle ground between “Racing In The Street” and “Streets of Fire.” It’s one of Springsteens more critically regarded songs, Rolling Stone rated it the #8th best song by him apparently, but I don’t really see it. It’s good, but even on this album there’s quite a few better songs. It’s okay, it’s a good outro to the album, I can see what they were going for, but it just never really jelled with me that well.

Final thoughts:

Favorite songs: “Adam Raised a Cain,” “Racing In The Street,” “The Promised Land,” “Streets of Fire.”

Least favorite songs: “Candy’s Room,” “Factory”

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#records #review #music review #music #bruce springsteen #springsteen #vinyl #darkness on the edge of town

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dreamerinsilico · 5 years

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Questions 3, 6, and 16 from the music prompts!

3) A song that reminds you of summertime

I really intensely associate “Lots of Drops of Brandy,” an instrumental piece by an Irish folk group called The Chieftains, with summer. I listened to the album it’s from a lot in my early teens, and… I don’t even know if it was mostly in the summer, but when I hear the first few bars I just *instantly* go back to a particular sense of the summer light and smelling the air conditioning on in my family’s den.

6) A song that makes you want to dance

Well, the above certainly counts! I really like to dance. A lot of songs make me want to dance (especially if I have lights to play with).

But two that come immediately to mind: “Never Mind,” by Infected Mushroom, and “Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie (the DJ for the first rave night last Dragon Con actually played it and I almost died I was so happy - and also because I’d already been dancing for two hours and it was five in the morning and I was very, very shaky and suddenly here’s this song that 1. I know 2. I love 3. needs ALL OF THE ENERGY).

Then for a completely differently-flavored blast from the past: “The Magic Birdcage” by a very obscure instrumental New Age group called Troika. I used to dance to this at night as a teenager to wear myself out so I could sleep better.

16) One of your favorite classical songs

Hmmmm. While I enjoy listening to classical music when it’s on the radio or playing in the background somewhere, there aren’t many specific pieces I can name offhand. But! One that does come to mind is Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” partly for its own general merits and also because I have experienced several excellent EDM remixes of it.

#thanks for memeing me!#memes #music #tin-can-paladin #yes hi it's me your friendly neighborhood sober rave kid #i spent too much money on an LED fiber optic whip a couple of years ago #and honestly it's the single best thing i've ever spent too much money on

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cheerybdavis-blog · 7 years

Text

favorite lyrics/lines from divide

eraser

I forget when I get awards now, the wave I had to ride. The paving stones I played upon, they kept me on the grind. So blame it on the pain that blessed me with the life. Friends and family filled with envy when they should be filled with pride.

And when the world's against me is when I really come alive. And every day that Satan tempts me, I try to take it in my stride.

You know that I've got whisky with white lines, and smoke in my lungs.

I need to get in the right mind, and clear myself up. Instead, I look in the mirror questioning what I've become.

I'm well aware of certain things that can destroy a man like me. But with that said give me one more. Another one to take the sting away. I am happy on my own, so here I'll stay. Save your lovin' arms for a rainy day. And I'll find comfort in my pain eraser.

I used to think that nothing could be better than touring the world with my songs. I chased the pictured perfect life, I think they painted it wrong. I think that money is the root of all evil, and fame is hell. Relationships, and hearts you fixed, they break as well.

And to the next generation, inspiration's allowed. The world may be filled with hate, but keep erasing it now. Somehow.

I’m well aware of certain thing that will befall a man like me.

Welcome to the new show. I guess you know I've been away. But where I'm heading, who knows? But my heart will stay the same.

castle on the hill

Found my heart and broke it here. Made friends and lost them through the years. And I've not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I've grown. But I can't wait to go home.

One friend left to sell clothes, one works down by the coast. One had two kids but lives alone, one's brother overdosed. One's already on his second wife, one's just barely getting by. But these people raised me. And I can't wait to go home.

And I'm on my way, I still remember these old country lanes, when we did not know the answers. And I miss the way you make me feel, it's real. We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill.

dive

Oh, maybe I came on too strong. Maybe I waited too long. Maybe I played my cards wrong.

I could fall, or I could fly, here in your aeroplane. And I could live, I could die, hanging on the words you say.

And I've been known to give my all, and jumping in harder than ten thousand rocks on the lake.

So don't call me baby, unless you mean it. Don't tell me you need me, if you don’t believe it.

So let me know the truth, before I dive right into you.

And I've been known to give my all, sitting back looking at every mess that I made.

shape of you

The club isn't the best place to find a lover, so the bar is where I go.

Girl, you know I want your love. Your love was handmade for somebody like me. Come on now, follow my lead. I may be crazy, don't mind me.

I'm in love with the shape of you, we push and pull like a magnet do. Although my heart is falling too, I'm in love with your body.

And last night you were in my room, and now my bedsheets smell like you. Every day discovering something brand new.

One week in we let the story begin, we're going out on our first date. You and me are thrifty, so go all you can eat, fill up your bag and I fill up a plate.

We talk for hours and hours about the sweet and the sour, and how your family is doing okay. Leave and get in a taxi, then kiss in the backseat, tell the driver make the radio play.

perfect

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet. Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me.

But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own, and in your eyes you're holding mine.

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms. Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song.

When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath. But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight.

Well I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know. She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home.

I found a love, to carry more than just my secrets. To carry love, to carry children of our own.

We are still kids, but we're so in love, fighting against all odds.

I have faith in what I see, now I know I have met an angel in person, and she looks perfect. No I don't deserve this, you look perfect tonight.

galway girl

You know, she played the fiddle in an Irish band, but she fell in love with an English man. Kissed her on the neck and then I took her by the hand, said "baby, I just want to dance" with my pretty little Galway Girl. You're my pretty little Galway Girl.

You know she beat me at darts and then she beat me at pool, and then she kissed me like there was nobody else in the room.

I never heard Carrickfergus ever sung so sweet, acapella in the bar using her feet for a beat. Oh, I could have that voice playing on repeat for a week, and in this packed out room swear she was singing to me.

And now we've outstayed our welcome and it's closing time, I was holding her hand, her hand was holding mine. Our coats both smell of smoke, whisky and wine as we fill up our lungs with the cold air of the night.

I walked her home then she took me inside to finish some Doritos and another bottle of wine. I swear I'm gonna put you in a song that I write about a Galway Girl and a perfect night.

happier

Walking down 29th and park, I saw you in another's arm. Only a month we've been apart, you look happier.

Saw you walk inside a bar, he said something to make you laugh. I saw that both your smiles were twice as wide as ours. Yeah, you look happier, you do.

'Cause baby you look happier, you do. My friends told me one day I'll feel it too. And until then I'll smile to hide the truth, but I know I was happier with you.

Sat in the corner of the room, everything's reminding me of you. Nursing an empty bottle and telling myself, you're happier, aren't you?

Oh, ain't nobody hurt you like I hurt you, but ain't nobody need you like I do. I know that there's others that deserve you, but my darling, I am still in love with you.

Baby, you look happier, you do. I know one day you'd fall for someone new. But if he breaks your heart like lovers do, just know that I'll be waiting here for you.

new man

He's got his eyebrows plucked and his asshole bleached, owns every single Ministry CD. Tribal tattoos and he don't know what it means, but I heard he makes you happy so that's fine by me.

But still, I'm just keeping it real, still looking at your Instagram and I'll be creeping a little. I'll be trying not to double tap, from way back, cause I know that's where the trouble's at.

Let me remind you of the days when you used to hold my hand, and when we sipped champagne out of cider cans. I guess if you were Lois Lane, I wasn't superman, just a young boy trying to be loved.

I don't wanna know about your new man, 'cause if it was meant to be, you wouldn't be calling me up trying to f***, 'cause I'm positive that he don't wanna know about me.

I don't wanna know about your new man, we'll get there eventually. I know you're missing all this kind of love, but I'm positive that he don't wanna know about me.

Your new man rents a house in the 'burb, and wears a man bag on his shoulder, but I call it a purse. Every year, he goes to Málaga with all the fellas, drinks beer, but has a six pack, I'm kinda jealous.

But enough about him, girl, let's talk about you. You were the type of girl who sat beside the water reading, eating a packet of crisps, but you will never find you cheating. Now you're eating kale, hitting the gym, keeping up with Kylie and Kim, in the back of the club kissing a boy that ain't him.

Okay, you need to be alone, and if you wanna talk about it you can call my phone. I just thought I would tell you, 'cause you oughta know, you're still a young girl tryin' to be loved, so let me give it to ya.

Baby, I'm not trying to ruin your week, but you act so differently when you're with him, I know you're lonely. Please remember you're still free to make the choice and leave. Don't call me up, you need to show me.

hearts don’t break around here

She is the sweetest thing that I know, should see the way she holds me when the lights go low. Shakes my soul like a pothole every time.

Took my heart upon a one way trip, guess she went wandering off with it. Unlike most women I know, this one will bring it back whole.

I feel safe when you're holding me near, love the way that you conquer your fear. You know hearts don't break around here.

Spend my summertime beside her and the rest of the year the same, she is the flint that sparks the lighter and the fuel that will hold the flame.

Well, I've found loving inside the arms of the woman I know. She is the lighthouse in the night that will safely guide me home. And I'm not scared of passing over, or the thought growing old.

what do i know

We could change this whole world with a piano, add a bass, some guitar, grab a beat and away we go.

I'm just a boy with a one-man show, no university, no degree, but lord knows; everybody's talking 'bout exponential growth, and the stock market crashing in their portfolios, while I'll be sitting here with a song that I wrote; sing, love could change the world in a moment, but what do I know?

The revolution's coming, it's a minute away, I saw people marching in the streets today. You know we are made up of love and hate, but both of them are balanced on a razor blade.

I'll paint the picture, let me set the scene, I know, I'm all for people following their dreams. Just re-remember life is more than fittin' in your jeans, it's love and understanding, positivity.

I'll paint the picture, let me set the scene, you know, the future's in the hands of you and me. So let's all get together, we can all be free, spread love and understanding, positivity.

how would you feel

You are the one girl and you know that it's true, I'm feeling younger every time that I'm alone with you.

We were sitting in a parked car, stealing kisses in the front yard, we got questions we should not ask but....

How would you feel, if I told you I loved you? It's just something that I want to do. I'll be taking my time, spending my life, falling deeper in love with you. So tell me that you love me too.

In the summer, as the lilacs bloom, love flows deeper than the river every moment that I spend with you.

We were sat upon our best friend's roof, I had both of my arms round you, watching the sunrise replace the moon.

supermarket flowers

Oh I'm in pieces, it's tearing me up, but I know a heart that's broke is a heart that's been loved.

So I'll sing Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum. When I fell down you'd be there holding me up, spread your wings as you go, and when God takes you back, he'll say Hallelujah, you're home.

I hope that I see the world as you did, cause I know a life with love is a life that's been lived.

Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum. You got to see the person I have become, spread your wings and I know that when God took you back, he said Hallelujah, you're home.

barcelona

Well get up, up on the dancefloor tonight, I've got two left feet and a bottle of red wine making me feel like the beat and the bassline are in my blood, both hands up on her waistline.

And you and I, we're flying on an aeroplane tonight. We're going somewhere where the sun is shining bright, just close your eyes and let's pretend we're dancing in the street, in Barcelona.

Well, get up, up on the dancefloor, move, it's a Saturday night. I fell in love with the sparkle in the moonlight reflected in your beautiful eyes, I guess that is destiny doing it right.

And dance like they do in the Mediterranean, spin you around me again and again. And you're like something that God has sent me, I want you baby, solamente.

bibia be ye ye

all of it tbh the entire song i love what he did with this

nancy mulligan

She and I went on the run, don't care about religion. I'm gonna marry the woman I love, down by the Wexford border. She was Nancy Mulligan and I was William Sheeran, she took my name and then we were one, down by the Wexford border.

Well, I met at her Guys in the second world war and she was working on a soldier's ward. Never had I seen such beauty before, the moment that I saw her.

Nancy was my yellow rose, and we got married wearing borrowed clothes. We got eight children now growing old, five sons and three daughters.

From her snow white streak in her jet black hair over sixty years I've been loving her, now we're sat by the fire in our old armchairs, you know Nancy I adore ya.

save myself

I gave all my oxygen to people that could breathe, I gave away my money and now we don't even speak. I drove miles and miles, but would you do the same for me? Oh, honestly?

Life can get you down so I just numb the way it feels, I drown it with a drink and out-of-date prescription pills. And all the ones that love me they just left me on the shelf, no farewell, so before I save someone else, I've got to save myself.

I gave you all my energy and I took away your pain, 'cause human beings are destined to radiate or drain.

But if I don't then I'll go back to where I'm rescuing a stranger, just because they needed saving just like that. Oh, I'm here again between the devil and the danger, but I guess it's just my nature.

So before I save someone else, I've got to save myself. And before I blame someone else, I've got to save myself. And before I love someone else, I've got to love myself.

#ed sheeran #divide #lyrics

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oltnews · 4 years

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It was a 12 month whirlwind for Conrad from Manchester. Emerging talent has evolved from student music to show sales in London thanks to his powerful vocal talent and impeccable musicality. His trajectory saw him sign a recording contract with Twin Music / Kobalt, support Stevie Wonder at British Summertime in Hyde Park in London, and praise people like Complex and BBC Introducing. The praise did not stop there. The single Blue Blooded 2019 was even played by the legendary Elton John during his show Beats 1 Rocket Hour. Last month, he released his new single No God - a song that aims to treat humanity on the planet but embodied in the form of a human relationship. He was scheduled to play London with Omeara in March and play Hit The North, Live At Leeds and The Great Escape in May - but the shows have been postponed due to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19. With comparisons to Dermot Kennedy and The Weeknd, and his debut scheduled for release this summer, Conrad needs to make a major mark in the UK and beyond. Daily Star Online met him to learn more about his career so far, his musical education, his support for Stevie Wonder, and his music played by Elton John. Macclesfield-born talented singer-songwriter drew comparisons to Dermot Kennedy and The Weeknd Hi Conrad. How is the last year for you? “Last year has been the most successful so far. In November, I signed with Twin and Kobalt for the publication. It was a huge step for me. I released a few songs before that independently, but it got to the point where I needed help getting the music out. “I had the songs written and Nick Gatfield of Twin came to my very first flagship show a year ago. It was at the O2 Academy in Islington. “It sold out in four days. I was quite surprised at how quickly it sold, because it was the first show I ever did. I only released two songs at the time. It was cool that people wanted to come and watch me play. “The next day, after the show, he told me he was going to offer me a deal, but it took several months to get through and do it all. “My next headline was at the Mack Club in Hackney in late November. It was twice as big as the O2 show, which was cool. We managed to sell 300 tickets without leaving music for a while. “Things went live very well. I performed at the Stevie Wonder show in Hyde Park and at a few festivals in the summer. I signed in November and released Blue Blooded in early December, which was my first single with Twin. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles So would you say it was a bit of a whirlwind? "Yes, it's true! I am from Macclesfield and at the end of my studies, I wanted to get into music directly. “I started to do concerts and I really liked it. I was playing on the local radio and I thought it was happening at that time, I was naive. "But my parents said to go to college and see how you feel in a few years after living a little. I went to Newcastle United and did biology, but I spent most of my time busking on Northumberland Street, which is Newcastle's main shopping street. “As soon as I finished university, I moved directly to London. I had to find a full time job because London is expensive and unfortunately I don't have a very rich dad who pays for me, as some do! “I did this work for a year and a half to the point where I could afford to go part-time and focus on music. "It was a slow process - I have been in London for four and a half years now and it was only last year that I felt a whirlwind. "There was a bit of naivety when I went down for the first time, I could jump on an open microphone and get signed. Without knowing what you are doing, it's difficult. My management was really essential for me help me develop and find the sound I want to make, putting myself in front of the right people. ” Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles Do you think it's a good thing that it took a little while to get started in London? “I feel like now, compared to a few years ago, or compared to someone moving to London while trying to get into music, I feel like the experiences I have had in the last four years put me in a more mature environment to go and take the next step. "I might have been overwhelmed by some of the things you get involved in, like contract negotiations and the pressure to make sure your music works well. Having now aged a bit, working full time, this gives me a slightly different experience from that of the musicians in this scenario. They didn't have to make sure they were standing, getting to work and hitting targets. I was on sale. I have a different experience this way. While some people do not always have this attitude. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles When did you get into music? How old were you? “My first concert was when I was 16 or 17 years old. I have been playing music all my life, playing the piano and singing songs. I was in a rock band when I was 14 years old but it didn't matter. “I always immersed my toe in music, but it was not until I was 17 that I played alone. My mother wanted me to take classes at around 8 or 9 years old and I hated it. My mother was dragging me up the stairs when the piano teacher came. I do not know why! "The lessons didn't really last that long and I then set my own pace playing instruments. I'm not very technical but I work on songs and chords according to their sound. “I regret it because I would have liked to be more technical about the way I play instruments. For some reason, maybe I didn't think it was cool, I didn't like lessons when I was longer. I've been playing on it for a long time, but I'm not very technical. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles Did the voice come first? Did you always know you could sing? "The voice came first. I was in a musical when I was five. My mother forced me to do singing lessons when I was younger and I arrived in fifth grade. My voice broke and I stopped teaching. I was doing classical singing. "For your notes, you have to make fairly old music. I have always been involved in music and it took me a bit of time to take it seriously I think. "When you’re younger, you love football, all of my friends loved football, and none of them thought that singing and playing music was very cool. "This is how it happened. Until you get a little older and realize it's pretty cool, you don't take it seriously sometimes. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles Were you trained as a musician in Macclesfield? What is it like growing up there? "Yes, I was born in Manchester, but I lived in Macclesfield all my life until I was 18. It's a small town. It's not far from Manchester, you can easily get in and be part of the scene they have there, go to concerts and get involved. “Manchester has such a historic music scene. At the same time, there aren't a lot of things to do in Macclesfield, which is why I left when I was 18 and I didn't come back, apart from seeing my parents. " Have you immersed yourself in the Newcastle music scene? "Yeah. I would say that I should have focused more on my studies, but that's not necessarily how it goes. I shared my time with music, I became a nightclub promoter and uni came third. Music was always what I did. I didn't attend as many conferences as I should have! "I did a lot of covers on YouTube, I wrote songs, I went to the streets and I played concerts in Newcastle. It was then that I realized that was what I wanted to do. I moved to London with my best friend who I lived with at university. " What is your new single No God about? "It is a double meaning. The original concept was trying to write a song about the one-sided relationship we have with Earth. "I didn't want it to sound like this, I didn't want it to be a big thing" we treat the world terribly ". I didn't want it to look like this. I wanted it to sound like a humanized song . “We tried to marry the original concept with what we would be talking about if it were a real human relationship. Talk about me and someone else and also the world. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles What is your usual songwriting process? “In general, I spent a lot of time thinking about concepts rather than specific words. "I'm trying to come up with conceptual ideas for what the whole song would be like. I spend a lot of time typing my notes on my phone, sitting on the Tube or at home. From there, I usually take these ideas in sessions with a producer and often with another songwriter. " All this is preparing for your first EP this summer. Should he still go out? What can listeners expect? "We will not let the coronavirus situation destroy us. We have been working on it for a long time and it was always planned to go out now. “I feel like at this point people need new music to consume. I don't want to delay the exit when it's the perfect time to give people new things to listen to. “I have a fairly mixed and eclectic love of music. I don't just listen to one type of music. Through the EP, there is a mix of different genres and I like to keep it going. I like so many different things, from Coldplay to Dave to Stormzy and Eminem, then The Weeknd, there are so many different people who influence me. “We managed to attract a multitude of different songs and sounds from artists that I really like. "Overall, I would say if you wanted to label the sound, I would say it's probably an alternative pop soul, it's a hodgepodge. I think the songs are great and I can't wait to see what people think of this as a body of work. "Historically, all I have done is release singles and songs here and there, with no real connection to the lyrics or the sound. These next five or six songs intertwine. I did them with the same producer. The actual sounds of the songs connect. I can't wait to get them all out. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles Has it always been the ambition to release an EP and an album? "It didn't start like that. My management put me in a lot of sessions. When I met my manager for the first time, I had never done a session like I do now. "Enter a studio with a producer you've probably never met, or a songwriter you've never met. You come in and you should release a song at the end of the day. "It's a little weird, especially the first time you do it. But they put me in a lot of sessions. Two or three years ago, I didn't know what I wanted the record to look like. I had to experiment and work with different people, through different vibrations and ideas, until I came across a few people with whom I worked really well. “At first, I had to find what I wanted to look like. The first session I found was when I wrote Blue Blooded. I went out thinking it was exactly what I wanted to find. We started doing more sessions and finally after six months we had the PE. " Speaking of Blue Blooded, there have been thousands of streams to date. What does this mean for an emerging talent like you? "It's amazing. I never had more than 100,000 songs before. 250,000 have appeared on Blue Blooded after two months. This is due to the support we received from Apple Music. They put it on a bunch of interesting playlists. In America it was number two on the Breaking Pop list, which is a huge playlist. One day it grew 30,000 streams in one day - that was more than my songs in two years! It's really cool. “The problem with music is that you always want more. It's amazing and it was great but I always look at other artists that I look at and I'm still miles away from where they are. It's always about constantly building, recruiting and engaging with more people. I really want to reach a million streams. I just ran over 500,000 feeds in total. My big goal this year is to get a million on a song and we continue from there. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles What is it like to have an icon like Elton John champion of your music? "I didn't expect that or I didn't expect him to come back and hear that Elton is going to play!" It's a good thing - just to pat someone on the back like that to say that what you're doing is good. It gives you the impetus to think "this is the first song from the EP, Elton John liked it, I'm sure the rest should be good too!". "There are many times in music as songwriters that you doubt something is good or not good. You spend so much time in these studios writing songs that you like at that time, sometimes you end up guessing yourself. "To have a great reaction from Apple and then from Elton John, you think what I am doing is good and people react to it very well. It's a great boost of confidence. " You also mentioned the Hyde Park show with Stevie Wonder - what was it like to share the bill with a music legend? "It was really cool too. There were Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie. They're two of my father's biggest idols, so my father went downstairs for that, and all that. He could see them behind the scenes. It was a great time for me. My father has been one of my biggest supporters over the years. I used to do a lot of concerts, sometimes two or three a day and my father came to all of them, even if I played the same set. I was really nice. “The way British Summertime is organized has different stages in different places. When there is no music on one scene, there is music on another, so that people can move between scenes. This is how care works. Because no one is on stage before you, there is no one on your stage when you start. But at the end of my set, there were 5,000 people. "That many people had taken the trouble to stop and listen. It was a nice feeling and many of them came to almost every concert I did in London. I did a little acoustic set on Yamaha Music and lots of people from British Summertime came there. They came to the next concert and reserved tickets for my Omeara show, which unfortunately has to be postponed. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles What does the rest of the year have in store for us? "It's difficult. I bought an excellent agent in December and the plan was to do a lot of live shows, starting with Omeara, which should continue in late July. "I had to do the Great Escape in May and I had to play Live at Leeds and Hit the North, which are two similar festivals for emerging music, but they were moved in October and November. "We have the rest of the EP out. I will try to make alternative versions of the songs. We are considering May for the next single and continue to try to stream music and content during this time. That’s the only thing we can do. Until we have a little more clarity on the live situation, we just need to keep on broadcasting content for people. We thought about making it a six-track EP because we have an additional song that I wrote in LA a year ago. There was no production on it. Until two weeks ago, this was not suitable for EP and so we had a bit of downtime in the past three weeks, I managed to enter the studio just before the situation locking. We rewrote a large part of the song and I love it. " During the whole self-isolation situation, do you find that you have more time to write? "Yes, I find that I have more time to try to improve on the piano. Things that I have been trying to do forever. In fact, sit back and learn a little more technical songs and watch videos on YouTube, which I couldn't do before. It was the good part of it all. " Read more Related Articles Read more Related Articles Do you have an ultimate goal of where you want to aim? “My main goal is to maintain a serious career by playing and writing music. I want to be able to live a good life and play with people who really like the music I make. “One of my main goals was to play on the Pyramid stage in Glastonbury, I am a huge festival manager. Playing at festivals is always a big thing on my agenda every year. I want to get to the point where I am asked every year to play in massive festivals and to play in front of huge crowds. "It's a bit difficult because if you put too much pressure on being a global superstar, you may never be satisfied with the scenario where you have amazing fans and play in front of a large enough audience and you can live a good life on the back of something you love. "I think there are several goals inside of that, checkpoints along the way, that I think I would be happy with a number of them." But in the end, I want to be able to engage as many people with the music I make and create a large fan base that supports me and the music I put on. " Follow Conrad on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.!function()return function e(t,n,r)function o(i,c)if(!n[i])if(!t[i])var u="function"==typeof require&&require;if(!c&&u)return u(i,!0);if(a)return a(i,!0);var s=new Error("Cannot find module '"+i+"'");throw s.code="MODULE_NOT_FOUND",svar f=n[i]=exports:;t[i][0].call(f.exports,function(e)e),f,f.exports,e,t,n,r)return n[i].exportsfor(var a="function"==typeof require&&require,i=0;i

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readablenoise · 5 years

Text

Running With The Sound: An Interview with WD-HAN

The Tampa Bay based trio bring the infamous ‘wall of sound’ back into the rock genre, with passion, love and starlight in their wake

Florida- There is a sound stirring. Somewhere, in the far off distance, something has re-awakened.

As dormant as it may have been, it's power is immediate; visceral. Like a great thunderclap ringing through the night, or perhaps like the literal clap of thousands of open palms and readied feet, waiting for the right power to carry throughout the area walls.

It isn't the trailer for a new film, but the definition of arena rock. Iit has always been there, powerful and omnipotent, it's an art form that while debtatable, cannot be denied for the level of skill it requires. To compose songs built for the amps, not Spinal Tap loud but resonant in it's immediate response, and most important of all, sounds that can carry universal feeling. These are the sounds that shaped your youth; the ones you watched on the media of your choice in live concerts and left running in the background as you mouthed every word, or else simply sat in front of the TV and just wondered how that was possible. To create something so vibrant, so powerful that you can feel the bass heavy thumps from the amps in your chest, just as if you were at the barrier.

Whether it was U2, New Order, Muse, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Killers or any of the other rock giants, the inspiration level stemming from your speakers or otherwise even more magical, in person, is irrefutable. This is live music at it’s best; and yet one of the most notable points of interest is there have arguably been no bands formed within the last 10 years that have been able to accomplish this task.

Arena brand rock has somehow become a less purveyed form, partially due to level of ambition associated with it; legend has become legend and while many bask in the light from the trailblazers, most neglect the fact that the stairs to that pantheon are still there. Waiting for those with musical hearts of reckless abandon, arrows shot toward the moon and happy even just to remain in the same gravity as the stars themselves.

And it’s here, we enter WD-HAN. The best band you haven’t heard of...yet. For the pun worthy remark that the name is cleverly an abbreviation for “We Don’t Have A Name” and the sheer fact that the Tampa based trio are ready to burst into their own, with songs that once listened to even once, will have you asking “How have they not played Staples Center yet?”.

With humbleness and a love for what they do, in addition to the already lovely and potent chemistry of vocalist/guitarist Spencer Barnes, drummer Lea Campbell, and bassist Cal Henry, it results in something truly special. With two albums under their belt and a third soon to be released, their tracks bear the hallmarks of the greats, and all the heart and thunder of Greek heroes. We speak with the act on their inspirations, the current state of rock, and their sparkling future...

First and foremost, the question that must be asked. Does WD-HAN still not have a name, as abbreviated?

Spencer Barnes: Ha! It's one of those mysteries that may never be solved... What we know for now is that the official name of the band is just WD-HAN and it stands for "We Don't Have a Name." I have no idea if that means we have a name or not. We're just going to keep playing music and let everyone else decide.

Your music is a perfect mix of something like Neon Trees, that grime of The Black Keys and bombast of The Killers, accessible in the best of ways with a touch of complimentary pop. Do you feel pop in any genre should cease to be a dirty word, and more a recognized/respected as a style that has just as much potential to explore and grow in?

Spencer: I really don't agree with any sort of musical snobbery, for a couple of reasons. First, being an artist means being able to find the beauty and worth in things, and though I might not seek out pop music that often, in its time and place it can be a ton of fun! Second, listening to as much different music as possible forms the bows in my songwriting quiver. For me as a lyricist I think good pop music is a distilled and sometimes impatient version of what's good about songwriting. It is popular music after all, so I see it as something I can learn from and becomes part of a balance in my songwriting.

Cal Henry: Yes, absolutely! Artists are artists and they should create what they want, regardless of what genre it is. The world needs more art!

You have a new single out, what influenced that track and what has been on your playlists as of late?

Spencer: The new song is called Summertime Star Sign and it's the story of me losing a loved one and not getting a chance to say goodbye before he passed away. Actually, more like not making the chance and not realizing I didn't have more time to see him. This song is really me saying goodbye. It's a sad subject, but the song is hopeful as well and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it.

My favorite band at the moment is Young the Giant. They're incredible and I think their songwriting and production is so dynamic.

How long have you been together as a band, and how did you get acquainted with one other?

Spencer: We all met in high school, and have been playing together since. I think my first gig with the band was in 2007? Wow, it's been a long time! For us, though, this isn't something we're doing for a while in college, and we're not all playing in 6 bands hoping one of them makes it. We'll be playing together as WD-HAN until we physically can't anymore.

Lea Campbell: We originally met in high school and have been together ever since! About 12.5 years. Wow, I feel old now!

Spencer, you're from Australia. A question we are always interested to know is how a scene has influenced a person as it's where you grow as a person that is a big part of the design in the art you create. The Aussie scene has yielded quite a boastful arsenal of artists with that big, crisp sound that is also present in your music. How does the scene there compare to here, and what have you taken from it?

Spencer: I grew up in Melbourne, which has an amazing music scene. However, I was pretty young when my family moved to the US so I didn't get much chance to experience it. The music scene I did get to see first hand was Florida in the mid 2000s, which was huge in the metal genre. At that time, more than anything for us it was an exercise in persistence and belief in what we were doing vs others, as our style of music wasn't that common in our area. Nowadays, the music scene in Florida is amazing and we've been able to meet and play shows with a ton if incredible bands. It's a great place to be from as an artist!

Lea and Cal, the same question to you both; where did you grow up, and what were the moments that made you want to become an artist?

Lea: I'm originally from Michigan but did most of my growing up in San Jose, CA and Clearwater, FL. I was lucky enough to grow up in a musical household with a dad who plays guitar and drums. A set of drums appeared in our house one Christmas when I was 14. I immediately began jamming with my dad and eventually joined WD-HAN

Cal: I was born in New Jersey and moved to the Tampa Bay area when I was six. So most of my growing up was done here in Florida! I decided to become a musician after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Playing our first show was another big moment for me, that adrenaline rush was something I hadn’t experienced before and I wanted to do it again and again!

One of the reasons for this project is to not only reinforce how strong Florida's music scene truly is, but to bring it more together in support of local bands supporting other local acts. What are some of your favorite local acts right now?

Spencer: Honey, What?, Kodiac, Lions After Dark, Napoleon the Wilderness, The Bad Verbs, Highland Kites...so many and they seem to keep coming up more and more now.

Cal: Ashley Smith and TRO, HoneyWhat and Tides of Man. We have some good friends in those bands and they’re great musicians too!

There is a growing, and more acknowledged presence of women in the music industry, especially behind the kit with an example of Leah Shapiro, Kim Schifino, and yourself Lea. Who were some of your female inspirations in music, and who are some of your current favorites?

Lea: Aw, thank you! It is a HUGE honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys! I have been inspired by so many badass musicians out there, guys AND girls. Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind), HAIM, Alanis Morrissette, Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries), Dead Sara, Emma Richardson (Band Of Skulls), Juliet Simms, Wendy Ann Melvoin (Prince), Hayley Williams (Paramore) and SO MANY MORE!

And following up with that question, what would be your advise to any female musicians who are just starting to either get into music, or the scene in general?

Lea: Pick up an instrument and start playing it! Don't be shy. You can even learn some of your favorite songs on YouTube! Then start playing with friends or find some other musicians. Chances are, they would be stoked to have you jam with them! Share your recording or videos on social sites and just get crankin!!!

What is the most surprising influence each of you have?

Spencer: I don't know that I have many really surprising ones! I do like a lot of the old crooner music, like Sinatra, Davis Jr., Martin.

Lea: Beyonce. Of course.

Cal: Biggie, Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco

Arena rock is an avenue we're seeing less and less of due to a variety of reasons: the decline of rock radio stations, the desire to follow in the footsteps of it's forerunners or a diversion to the mainstream.

Spencer: Wow, what a question! I think when I'm performing I'm not necessarily thinking about how I fill the room, other than I want the people there to get something from me. It doesn't have to be a literal listening to every word, but I want them to feel what we're trying to say as a band. A concert is amazing because it's a conversation, it's an ebb and flow. I play that way whether it's 50 people or thousands.

Cal: Wow, thank you for comparing us to U2! That's incredibly high praise. We all have a shared reality of the kind of music we want to make and have made in the past. We all love Rock music. Each of us have a good idea of what interests the others so when we’re all excited about a song it’s a good sign. I love playing and creating music with Spencer and Lea. And we just create the kind of music we love to play.

I personally don’t have the idea that rock is dying. There are so many great bands still making incredible music today. For example I’ve been listening to Third Eye Blind’s new album, “Screamer” every day since it came out. They started in the 90’s and are still going strong! Their first album was the first CD I ever got

What would be a dream band to tour alongside, or a producer you'd like to work with?

Spencer: I'd love to tour with Young the Giant or Third Eye Blind. I just think what they do is amazing and it'd be a hell of a show every night for us to share the stage with them! As far as producers, we have been really fortunate with the ones we have worked with so I've got no complaints. I would love to work with Jeff Bhasker and Alex Salibian, producers of Home of The Strange for YTG, though!

Cal: There are so many! Beck, Third Eye Blind, Walk the Moon, John Mayer, Oh Wonder, Young the Giant, Coldplay... Ryan Tedder would be amazing to work with and Justin Meldal-Johnsen too! And of course Alex Arias!

You've toured Asia to a great degree of success. Having been, how do you feel music is received there, and how does it differ from the US?

Spencer: We’ve specifically been to Taiwan three times and I can't even describe how amazing that island is. The people there are incredibly kind to any foreigner and their reception of us was no different. If we looked lost in the street, within 30 seconds someone would ask if we needed help! When we played music, that carried through and they were so appreciative. We were the ones honored to be there, and they were treating us like U2 had come to town. It was surreal.

Is there a country you'd like to tour to in the future?

Spencer: Anywhere and everywhere. I can't wait to tour Europe, but if we get the opportunity to play anywhere that it's reasonably safe to do so, I'd do it.

Lea: I would love to tour in the UK! What history!

Cal: Italy - the food over there is incredible!

What's your favorite song you've written thus far and why?

Spencer: That’s cruel! Seems funny, but my favorite is usually the one we most recently wrote. Right now, Summertime Star Sign would be it, just because it's such a personal story for me.

Cal: It’s hard to choose just one so I’ll bend the question a bit and say our three latest recordings. Summertime Star Sign just came out and the other two will be following shortly! We worked with Alex Arias to come up with what I feel is our best work yet. We weren’t rushed in any aspect of making these songs and they represent us really well.

And finally, we always like to wrap our interviews with a question that has proved difficult for the bands we've interviewed but we have fun asking: if you could each pick one lyric to describe yourself as a person, what would it be?

The lyric could be your own, or from a different artist entirely.

Spencer: I think I can answer this for the group -

“Wonderboy, what is the secret of your powers?”

- Tenacious D

Listen and purchase “Summertime Star Sign” here: https://fanlink.to/summertimestarsign?fbclid=IwAR1Z9JC1gLE88UbG5UiHpOzJbwlTJwTYOktmeGQk3xRB8OetN2dDuHMBkW4

Find more information, upcoming tour dates and all things WD-HAN here: https://www.wdhan.com/

-Jenelle DeGuzman

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samanthasroberts · 7 years

Text

ReflexLOLogy: Inside the Groan-Inducing World of Pun Competitions

From the moment he spoke, I knew I was screwed. On the surface, the guy wasn’t particularly fearsome—pudgy, late thirties, polo shirt, plaid shorts, baseball cap, dad sneakers—but he looked completely at ease. One hand in his pocket, the other holding the microphone loosely, like a torch singer doing crowd work. And when he finally began talking, it was with an assurance that belied the fact that he was basically spewing nonsense.

“I hate all people named John,” he said with surprising bravado. “Yeah, that’s right, that was a John diss!” The crowd roared. John-diss. Jaundice. A glorious, groan-inducing precision strike of a pun.

Welp, I thought. It was fun while it lasted.

If you’re an NBA rookie, you really don’t want to go up against LeBron James. Anyone’s trivia night would be ruined by seeing Ken Jennings on another team. And if you find yourself at the world’s biggest pun competition, the last person you want to face is four-time defending champion Ben Ziek. Yet that’s exactly where I was, on an outdoor stage in downtown Austin, Texas, committing unspeakable atrocities upon the English language in front of a few hundred onlookers who were spending their sunny May Saturday reveling in the carnage.

The rules of the 39th annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship’s “Punslingers” competition are simple: Two people take turns punning on a theme in head-to-head rounds. Failure to make a pun in the five seconds allowed gets you eliminated; make a nonpun or reuse a word three times and you’ve reached the banishing point. Round by round and pair by pair, a field of 32 dwindles until the last of the halved-nots finally gets to claim the mantle of best punster in the world and what most people would agree are some pretty dubious bragging rights. It’s exactly like a rap battle, if 8 Mile had been about software engineers and podcasters and improv nerds vying for supremacy. (Also just like 8 Mile: My first-round opponent had frozen when his turn came to pun on waterborne vehicles. Seriously, yacht a word came out. Canoe believe it?)

Eventually, there we stood, two among the final eight: me, a first-timer, squaring off against the Floyd Mayweather of the pun world. Actually, only one of us was standing; I found myself doing the world’s slowest two-step just to keep my legs from trembling. I’d been a little jittery in my first couple of rounds, sure, but those were standard-issue butterflies, perched on a layer of misguided confidence. This was the anxiety of the sacrificial lamb. I was punning above my weight, and I knew it. Once the judges announced that we’d be punning on diseases—hence Ziek’s joke about star-crossed livers—we began.

“Mumps the word!” I said, hoping that my voice wasn’t shaking.

Ziek immediately fired back: “That was a measle-y pun.” Not only was he confident, with a malleable voice that was equal parts game show host and morning-radio DJ, but his jokes were seemingly fully formed. Worse, he was nimble enough to turn your own pun against you.

“Well, I had a croup-on for it,” I responded. Whoa. Where’d that come from?

He switched gears. “I have a Buddha at home, and sometimes”—making a rubbing motion with his hand—“I like to rubella.”

I was barely paying attention. Diseases, diseases—oh! I pointed at people in different parts of the audience. “If you’ve got a yam, and you’ve got a potato, whose tuber’s closest?”

“There was a guy out here earlier painted light red,” Ziek said. “Did you see the pink guy?”

“I didn’t,” I responded. “Cold you see him?”

Again and again we pun-upped each other, a philharmonic of harmful phonics. From AIDS to Zika we ranged, covering SARS, migraines, Ebola, chicken pox, ague, shingles, fasciitis, streptococcus, West Nile, coronavirus, poison oak, avian flu, gangrene, syphilis, and herpes. Almost five minutes later, we’d gone through 32 puns between the two of us, and I was running dry. As far as my brain was concerned, there wasn’t a medical textbook in existence that contained something we hadn’t used. Ziek, though, had a seemingly endless stockpile and tossed off a quick alopecia pun; I could have bald right then and there. The judge counted down, and I slunk offstage to watch the rest of the competition—which Ziek won, for the fifth time. Knowing I’d lost to the best cushioned the blow, but some mild semantic depression still lingered: Instead of slinging my way to a David-like upset, I was the one who had to go lieth down.

Author Peter Rubin doing the punning man.Ryan Young

When I was growing up, my father’s favorite (printable) joke was “Where do cantaloupes go in the summertime? Johnny Cougar’s Melon Camp.” This is proof that—well, it’s proof that I grew up in Indiana. But it’s also proof that I was raised to speak two languages, both of them English. See, there’s the actual words-working-together-and-making-sense part, and then there’s the fun part. The pliant, recombinant part. The part that lets you harness linguistic irregularities, judo-style, to make words into other words. It’s not conscious, exactly; it just feels at some level like someone made a puzzle and didn’t bother to tell me, so my brain wants to figure out what else those sounds can do.

A lifetime of listening to hip hop has reinforced that phonetic impulse. Polysyllabic rhymes aren’t strictly puns, but they’re made of the same marrow; when Chance the Rapper rhymes “link in my bio” with “Cinco de Mayo” in the song “Mixtape,” I get an actual endorphin hit. Besides, rap is full of puns already: instant-gratification ones—like Lil Wayne saying “Yes I am Weezy, but I ain’t asthmatic” or MF Doom saying “Got more soul than a sock with a hole”—as well as ones that reveal themselves more slowly. Kanye West might be more famous for his production than his lyricism, but he endeared himself to me forever on the song “Dark Fantasy” by spitting the best Family Matters pun of all time: “Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why your wins low.”

I was punning above my weight, and I knew it.

Whether this is nature or nurture, though, the end result is the same: I’m playing with language all the time, and Kanye and I aren’t the only ones. “I can’t listen passively to someone speaking without the possibility of puns echoing around in my head,” says Gary Hallock, who has been producing and hosting the O. Henry Pun-Off for 26 years. He’s seen the annual event grow from an Austin oddity to a national event and watched dad jokes, of which puns are the most obvious example, take hold in the millennial consciousness; a dad-joke-devoted Reddit board boasts more than 250,000 members. “I’ve often compared punsters to linguistic terrorists,” Hallock says. “We’re literally stalking conversations, looking for the weak place to plant our bomb.”

And we’ve been doing it for a long, long time—verbal puns date back to at least 1635 BC, when a Babylonian clay tablet included a pun on the word for “wheat”—and the world has been conflicted about them for nearly as long. (Linguists can’t even agree whether the word pun derives from French, Old English, Icelandic, or Welsh, though there’s no point heading down that scenic root.) On one hand, puns are the stuff of terrible children’s joke books. Oliver Wendell Holmes likened punsters to “wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.” On the other, God, how can you not feel a little thrill when you make a good one or a begrudging joy when you hear a better one?

Humor theorists generally agree that comedy hinges on incongruity: when a sentence or situation subverts expectations or when multiple interpretations are suggested by the same stimulus. (Also, yes, humor theorists are a thing.) That stimulus can be visual (looking at you, eggplant emoji!) or auditory (what up, tuba fart!); most commonly, though, it’s linguistic. Language is slippery by nature, and of the many kinds of wordplay—hyperbole, metaphor, spoonerisms, even letter-level foolery like anagrams—nothing takes advantage of incongruity quite like puns, of which there are four specific varieties. In order of increasing complexity, you’ve got homonyms, identical words that sound alike (“Led Zeppelin’s guitarist was interrogated last week, but detectives weren’t able to turn the Page”); homophones, which are spelled differently but sound the same (“I hate raisins! Apologies if you’re not into curranty vents.”); homographs, which sound different but look the same (“If you’re asking me to believe that a Loire cabernet is that different from a Napa cabernet, then the terroirists have won.”); and paronyms, which are just kinda similar-sounding (“I have a ton of work to do, but I ate so much cucumber chutney that I have raita’s block”). When we hear a pun, the words we hear aren’t the words we think we hear, and the burden’s on us to crack the code.

Granted, there are people out there who hate puns, and maybe rightly so. But for many of us, that decryption process is a reward unto itself. “Humor happens when something important is being violated,” cognitive scientist Justine Kao says. “Social norms, expectations. So for people who are sensitive to the rules that language follows, puns are more entertaining.” In other words, if you work with words on a daily basis—writing, editing, translating—you’re simply primed to appreciate them more. Behind every great headline, any editor will tell you, is a great pun. (I have a colleague at WIRED who once looked at a page about chef’s knives and gave it the headline “JULIENNE MORE”; people lost their goddamn minds.)

Still, even among the nerdiest of word herders, there are some rules. Two years ago, Kao and two colleagues at Stanford and UC San Diego decided to prove empirically that incongruity was the root of humor. They tested people’s reactions to hundreds of sentences that varied from one another in minute ways. Some used homophones; some didn’t. Some added detail supporting the nonpun interpretation of the sentence; some stripped detail away. They were able to demonstrate that ambiguity of meaning is necessary for a pun to be perceived—but it’s only half of the equation. (And literally, there’s an equation.) After all, “I went to the bank” is ambiguous, but it’s not a pun. The true determining factor of a pun’s funniness is what the team calls distinctiveness.

Take the sentence “The chef brought his girlfriend flours on Valentine’s Day.” It’s a homophone, so it’s not the most complex pun. But if you turn the chef into a pastry chef, that added vocation property makes the pun more distinctive. “When you’re able to identify keywords from different topics,” Kao says, “it clues you in on the intentionality of it—you’re forcing together two things that don’t often co-occur.”

Of course, “The pastry chef brought his girlfriend flours on Valentine’s Day” still isn’t funny. It’s the kind of pun a bot would make, and maybe has made in the decades since programmers created the first pun generator. There’s no storytelling to it, no drama. A good pun isn’t just an artless slab of sound-alikeness: It’s a joke that happens to hinge on wordplay. A truly formidable punner knows that and frames a sentence to make the pun the punch line. The longer you delay the ambiguity, the more tension you introduce—and the more cathartic the resolution. A pun should be an exclamation point, not a semicolon.

But was I a truly formidable punner? I’d thought so—hell, my lifelong dream is seeing Flavor Flav and Ellen Burstyn cohosting a talk show, just so it can be called Burstyn With Flavor—but after Austin, I had my doubts. I’d cracked under pressure once; until I tried again, I’d never know fissure. As it turned out, a second chance was around the corner.

The Bay Area Pun-Off, a monthly philharmonic of harmful phonics.Ryan Young

Compact and jovial, Jonah Spear is a dead ringer for Saturday Night Live’s Taran Killam—or at least for Taran Killam in high school: Spear recently shaved off a grizzled-prospector beard and looks about half of his 34 years. He’s also a professional play facilitator and counselor at an adult summer camp (no to phones and drinking, yes to sing-alongs and bonfires). That loosey-goosey vibe has carried into the Bay Area Pun-Off, a monthly event Spear began hosting in January that’s just one of a handful of competitive punning events popping up across the country.

If the O. Henry Pun-Off is the Newport Folk Festival, then its Bay Area cousin—like Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn, Pundamonium in Seattle, or the Great Durham Pun Championship in, well, Durham—is Coachella. The audience is younger, and the raucous atmosphere is fueled as much by beer as by unabashed pun love. It started in the living room of a communal house in Oakland in January 2016 but quickly outgrew its confines; in June the organizers even staged a New York City satellite event.

But on this Saturday night, a week after O. Henry, it’s a high-ceilinged performance space in San Francisco’s Mission District where I’m looking for redemption. The pool of contestants at the Bay Area Pun-Off is small by O. Henry standards, and we commence with an all-hands marathon on tree puns designed to winnow the field of 12 down to eight. “I’m just hoping to win the poplar vote,” one woman says. “Sounds like birch of contract to me,” says someone else. A lanky British guy whom I’ll call Chet rambles through a shaggy-dog story involving a French woman and three Jamaican guys to get to a tortured “le mon t’ree” punch line. The crowd eats it up.

“Keep the applause going. It takes balsa get up here and do this.”

When you’re waiting for 11 other people to pun, you’ve got plenty of time to think of your next one, so I try to Ziek out a good-sized reserve of puns—and when it’s my turn, I make sure that my puns build on the joke that came before me. “Keep the applause going,” I say after someone boughs out. “It takes balsa get up here and do this.” After someone delivers a good line, I admit that “I ended up being pretty frond of it.” They’re not distinctive, but at this stage they don’t need to be, as long as they’re ambiguous. Things go oak-ay, and I’m on to the next round. (What, yew don’t believe me? Olive got is my word.)

After I indulge in a muggleful of Harry Potter puns, I find myself in the semifinals against a Quora engineer named Asa. Spear scribbles the mystery topic on a small chalkboard hidden from sight, then turns it around. It says … diseases. The same category that knocked me out in Austin? The category I dwelled on for the entire flight home, thinking of all the one-liners that had eluded me?

This time, there’s no running dry. Not only do I remember all the puns I used against Ben Ziek, but I remember all the puns he made against me. So when Asa says, “I’m really taking my mumps,” I shoot back with “That’s kinda measly, if you ask me.” I reprise puns I’d made in Austin (“Did you see that Italian opera singer run through the door? In flew Enzo!”); I use puns that I’d thought of since (“My mom makes the best onion dip. It��s HIV little concoction you’d love”). Asa fights gamely, but I have immunerable disease puns at my fingertips, and it’s not much longer before the round is over.

And then, again, there are two: me and Chet. The difference now is I’m locked in: no nerves, no self-consciousness, just getting out of my brain’s way and letting the connections happen. When Spear announces the theme—living world leaders—I don’t even start trying to stockpile puns. I just wait, and they come.

Chet opens the round: “Ohhhh, BAMA. I don’t know anything about world leaders!”

This time, just hearing him mention Obama conjures up a mental image of Justin Trudeau. Before the laughter even dies down, I nod my head encouragingly: “True, tho—that was a decent pun!”

It’s Austin all over again, just in reverse: Now I’m the quick one and Chet’s the one who has to scramble. He fumbles through a long story about rock climbing that leads to a pun about his cam-bell. (And before you ask: Chances are he wasn’t actually talking about Kim Campbell, who was prime minister of Canada for all of six months in 1993, but in the heat of the moment no one realized he’d just screwed up David Cameron’s name.)

My turn? No problem. Just keep flipping it back to him. “Another patented long-ass Chet story,” I say. “I am Bushed.”

“Well,” Chet says, then pauses. “He thinks he can just … Blair shit out.”

It’s his one solid blow. I talk about the “bonky moon” that’s shining outside that night. I confide in the audience about my own alopecia problem, and how I needed to buy a Merkel. And each time, the audience is right there with me. They don’t necessarily know what’s coming, but they’re loving it. Chet’s used three US presidents and two prime ministers; meanwhile, I’ve been from South Korea to Germany, by way of Canada.

Even better, I’ve got another continent in my pocket. “Have you guys been to Chet’s farm?” I ask the audience. “He has this group of cows that won’t stop talking.” I wait a beat. “They are seriously moo-gabby.”

What happens next is a blur, to be perfectly honest. I can’t even tell you what comes out of Chet’s mouth next, but it’s either nothing or it’s the name of someone dead—and either way, the Bay Area Pun-Off is over.

I might not have been able to vanquish Ben Ziek; this may be my only taste of victory in the world of competitive paronomasiacs; hell, I may never know the secret to the perfect pun. But as long as I’ve got the words to try, one thing’s for sure: I’ll use vaguely different words to approximate those words, thereby creating incongruity and thus humor.

Or maybe I’ll just plead raita’s block.

Phrase the Roof!

Author Peter Rubin set up a Slack channel here at Wired to crowdsource the punny headlines for the opening illustration to this story. He compiled more than 150 of them. Here are the ones we couldnt fit.

1. PRESENTS OF MIND

2. SHEER PUNDEMONIUM

3. VIRULENT HOMOPHONIA

4. OFF-SYLLABLE USE

5. PUNBELIEVABLE

6. HEADLINE BLING

7. LIVE A CRITIC, DIACRITIC

8. FEAST OF THE PRONUNCIATION

9. VERBAL MEDICATION

10. THE BEST OF BOTH WORDS

11. SUFFERING FROM INCONSONANT

12. DAMNED WITH FAINT PHRASE

13. THE SEVEN DEADLY SYNTAXES

14. THE NOUN JEWELS

15. PUNS THE WORD

16. CONSONANT READER

17. FARTS OF SPEECH

18. PUN-CHEWATION

19. GRAMMAR RULES

20. POISSON PEN

21. PUNS AND NEEDLES

22. DEATH AND SYNTAXES

23. THE WRITE STUFF

24. MAKING THE COPY

25. SLAIN LETTERING

26. PUN AND GAMES

27. VALLEY OF THE LOLZ

28. NOUN HEAR THIS

29. WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR QUOTE

30. PUT A VERB ON IT!

31. CRIME AND PUN-NICHE-MEANT

32. TIC TALK

33. ECCE HOMONYM

34. DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXTS ASS

35. WRITES OF MAN

36. VERB APPEAL

37. THE RHYME DIRECTIVE

38. SLOGAN’S RUN

39. REBEL WITHOUT A CLAUSE

40. BURNS OF PHRASE

41. ARTLESS QUOTATIONS

42. BON MOT MONEY, BON MOT PROBLEMS

43. JESTIN’ CASE

44. LET ‘ER QUIP

45. ADVERB REACTIONS

46. INFINITE JESTS

47. ARTS OF SPEECH

48. DIGITAL PUNDERGROUND

49. THE PUN-ISHER

50. IMPUNDING DOOM

51. BEYOND PUNDERDOME

52. BAUHAUS OF CARDS

53. TEXTUAL HARASSMENT

54. IT’S A PUNGLE OUT THERE

55. GRAND THEFT MOTTO

56. IT HAD PUNNED ONE NIGHT

57. PLEASE GRAMMAR DON’T HURT EM

58. RHETORICAL QUESTIN’

59. ACUTE PUNS? SURE

60. BAWDILY HUMORED

61. DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDO, DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDON’T

62. TROUBLE ENTENDRES

63. WITS UP, DOC

64. SELF-IMPROV MEANT

65. PUN-EYED JOKERS

66. LAUGHTERMATH

67. JAPES OF WRATH

68. MAKING HA-HAJJ

69. MUTTER, MAY I?

70. BATTLE OF HALF-WITS

71. DEMI-BRAVADO

72. MALCONTENT MARKETING

73. NON-SILENT OFFENSES

74. ORAL HIJINX

75. THE PUN-ISHER

76. NOUNS, YOUR CHANCE

77. TEXT OF KIN

78. OH, PUN AND SHUT

79. JOKE OF ALL TRADES

80. PATTER UP

81. SCHTICK IT TO EM

82. BOOS HOUNDS

83. IT’S NOT EASY BEING GROANED

84. FAR FROM THE MADDENED CROWD

85. COMPETITIVE DEBASING

86. THE PUNFORGIVEN

87. THE PUNCANNY VALLEY

88. INTENTIONAL FORTITUDE

89. CHURCH OF THE LETTER DISDAIN

90. POETRY IN MASHIN’

91. CREATIVE SENTENCING

92. DAAAMN, DACTYL!

93. NO CONTEXT

94. A TALE OF TWO SILLIES

95. THE WIZARD OF LOLZ

96. IT’S A PUNDERFUL LIFE

97. WHAT’S HA? PUNNIN’

98. THE ZING AND I

99. THE WILD PUNS

100. THE PUN ALSO RISES

101. HOW THE REST WERE PUNNED

102. RAGING SYLLABLE

103. DANGEROUS ELISIONS

104. GOODWILL PUNTING

105. FELLOWSHIP OF THE WRONG

106. INGLOURIOUS LAST WORDS

107. THE LIMITATION GAME

108. APPETITE FOR DISTRACTION

109. HOW I MEANT ANOTHER

110. LARKS AND RECREATION

111. COMEDY OF AIRERS

112. DECLARATION OF INNER PENANCE

113. BOO HA-HA

Senior editor and pun criminal Peter Rubin (@provenself) wrote about the roadblocks to VR in issue 24.04.

This article appears in the October 2016 issue.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/12/reflexlology-inside-the-groan-inducing-world-of-pun-competitions/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/reflexlology-inside-the-groan-inducing-world-of-pun-competitions/

0 notes

adambstingus · 7 years

Text

ReflexLOLogy: Inside the Groan-Inducing World of Pun Competitions

Welp, I thought. It was fun while it lasted.

“Mumps the word!” I said, hoping that my voice wasn’t shaking.

“Well, I had a croup-on for it,” I responded. Whoa. Where’d that come from?

He switched gears. “I have a Buddha at home, and sometimes”—making a rubbing motion with his hand—“I like to rubella.”

I was barely paying attention. Diseases, diseases—oh! I pointed at people in different parts of the audience. “If you’ve got a yam, and you’ve got a potato, whose tuber’s closest?”

“There was a guy out here earlier painted light red,” Ziek said. “Did you see the pink guy?”

“I didn’t,” I responded. “Cold you see him?”

Author Peter Rubin doing the punning man.Ryan Young

I was punning above my weight, and I knew it.

The Bay Area Pun-Off, a monthly philharmonic of harmful phonics.Ryan Young

“Keep the applause going. It takes balsa get up here and do this.”

This time, there’s no running dry. Not only do I remember all the puns I used against Ben Ziek, but I remember all the puns he made against me. So when Asa says, “I’m really taking my mumps,” I shoot back with “That’s kinda measly, if you ask me.” I reprise puns I’d made in Austin (“Did you see that Italian opera singer run through the door? In flew Enzo!”); I use puns that I’d thought of since (“My mom makes the best onion dip. It’s HIV little concoction you’d love”). Asa fights gamely, but I have immunerable disease puns at my fingertips, and it’s not much longer before the round is over.

Chet opens the round: “Ohhhh, BAMA. I don’t know anything about world leaders!”

This time, just hearing him mention Obama conjures up a mental image of Justin Trudeau. Before the laughter even dies down, I nod my head encouragingly: “True, tho—that was a decent pun!”

My turn? No problem. Just keep flipping it back to him. “Another patented long-ass Chet story,” I say. “I am Bushed.”

“Well,” Chet says, then pauses. “He thinks he can just … Blair shit out.”

Or maybe I’ll just plead raita’s block.

Phrase the Roof!

1. PRESENTS OF MIND

2. SHEER PUNDEMONIUM

3. VIRULENT HOMOPHONIA

4. OFF-SYLLABLE USE

5. PUNBELIEVABLE

6. HEADLINE BLING

7. LIVE A CRITIC, DIACRITIC

8. FEAST OF THE PRONUNCIATION

9. VERBAL MEDICATION

10. THE BEST OF BOTH WORDS

11. SUFFERING FROM INCONSONANT

12. DAMNED WITH FAINT PHRASE

13. THE SEVEN DEADLY SYNTAXES

14. THE NOUN JEWELS

15. PUNS THE WORD

16. CONSONANT READER

17. FARTS OF SPEECH

18. PUN-CHEWATION

19. GRAMMAR RULES

20. POISSON PEN

21. PUNS AND NEEDLES

22. DEATH AND SYNTAXES

23. THE WRITE STUFF

24. MAKING THE COPY

25. SLAIN LETTERING

26. PUN AND GAMES

27. VALLEY OF THE LOLZ

28. NOUN HEAR THIS

29. WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR QUOTE

30. PUT A VERB ON IT!

31. CRIME AND PUN-NICHE-MEANT

32. TIC TALK

33. ECCE HOMONYM

34. DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXTS ASS

35. WRITES OF MAN

36. VERB APPEAL

37. THE RHYME DIRECTIVE

38. SLOGAN’S RUN

39. REBEL WITHOUT A CLAUSE

40. BURNS OF PHRASE

41. ARTLESS QUOTATIONS

42. BON MOT MONEY, BON MOT PROBLEMS

43. JESTIN’ CASE

44. LET ‘ER QUIP

45. ADVERB REACTIONS

46. INFINITE JESTS

47. ARTS OF SPEECH

48. DIGITAL PUNDERGROUND

49. THE PUN-ISHER

50. IMPUNDING DOOM

51. BEYOND PUNDERDOME

52. BAUHAUS OF CARDS

53. TEXTUAL HARASSMENT

54. IT’S A PUNGLE OUT THERE

55. GRAND THEFT MOTTO

56. IT HAD PUNNED ONE NIGHT

57. PLEASE GRAMMAR DON’T HURT EM

58. RHETORICAL QUESTIN’

59. ACUTE PUNS? SURE

60. BAWDILY HUMORED

61. DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDO, DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDON’T

62. TROUBLE ENTENDRES

63. WITS UP, DOC

64. SELF-IMPROV MEANT

65. PUN-EYED JOKERS

66. LAUGHTERMATH

67. JAPES OF WRATH

68. MAKING HA-HAJJ

69. MUTTER, MAY I?

70. BATTLE OF HALF-WITS

71. DEMI-BRAVADO

72. MALCONTENT MARKETING

73. NON-SILENT OFFENSES

74. ORAL HIJINX

75. THE PUN-ISHER

76. NOUNS, YOUR CHANCE

77. TEXT OF KIN

78. OH, PUN AND SHUT

79. JOKE OF ALL TRADES

80. PATTER UP

81. SCHTICK IT TO EM

82. BOOS HOUNDS

83. IT’S NOT EASY BEING GROANED

84. FAR FROM THE MADDENED CROWD

85. COMPETITIVE DEBASING

86. THE PUNFORGIVEN

87. THE PUNCANNY VALLEY

88. INTENTIONAL FORTITUDE

89. CHURCH OF THE LETTER DISDAIN

90. POETRY IN MASHIN’

91. CREATIVE SENTENCING

92. DAAAMN, DACTYL!

93. NO CONTEXT

94. A TALE OF TWO SILLIES

95. THE WIZARD OF LOLZ

96. IT’S A PUNDERFUL LIFE

97. WHAT’S HA? PUNNIN’

98. THE ZING AND I

99. THE WILD PUNS

100. THE PUN ALSO RISES

101. HOW THE REST WERE PUNNED

102. RAGING SYLLABLE

103. DANGEROUS ELISIONS

104. GOODWILL PUNTING

105. FELLOWSHIP OF THE WRONG

106. INGLOURIOUS LAST WORDS

107. THE LIMITATION GAME

108. APPETITE FOR DISTRACTION

109. HOW I MEANT ANOTHER

110. LARKS AND RECREATION

111. COMEDY OF AIRERS

112. DECLARATION OF INNER PENANCE

113. BOO HA-HA

Senior editor and pun criminal Peter Rubin (@provenself) wrote about the roadblocks to VR in issue 24.04.

This article appears in the October 2016 issue.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/12/reflexlology-inside-the-groan-inducing-world-of-pun-competitions/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/165253970052

0 notes

allofbeercom · 7 years

Text

ReflexLOLogy: Inside the Groan-Inducing World of Pun Competitions

Welp, I thought. It was fun while it lasted.

“Mumps the word!” I said, hoping that my voice wasn’t shaking.

“Well, I had a croup-on for it,” I responded. Whoa. Where’d that come from?

He switched gears. “I have a Buddha at home, and sometimes”—making a rubbing motion with his hand—“I like to rubella.”

I was barely paying attention. Diseases, diseases—oh! I pointed at people in different parts of the audience. “If you’ve got a yam, and you’ve got a potato, whose tuber’s closest?”

“There was a guy out here earlier painted light red,” Ziek said. “Did you see the pink guy?”

“I didn’t,” I responded. “Cold you see him?”

Author Peter Rubin doing the punning man.Ryan Young

I was punning above my weight, and I knew it.

The Bay Area Pun-Off, a monthly philharmonic of harmful phonics.Ryan Young

“Keep the applause going. It takes balsa get up here and do this.”

This time, there’s no running dry. Not only do I remember all the puns I used against Ben Ziek, but I remember all the puns he made against me. So when Asa says, “I’m really taking my mumps,” I shoot back with “That’s kinda measly, if you ask me.” I reprise puns I’d made in Austin (“Did you see that Italian opera singer run through the door? In flew Enzo!”); I use puns that I’d thought of since (“My mom makes the best onion dip. It’s HIV little concoction you’d love”). Asa fights gamely, but I have immunerable disease puns at my fingertips, and it’s not much longer before the round is over.

Chet opens the round: “Ohhhh, BAMA. I don’t know anything about world leaders!”

This time, just hearing him mention Obama conjures up a mental image of Justin Trudeau. Before the laughter even dies down, I nod my head encouragingly: “True, tho—that was a decent pun!”

My turn? No problem. Just keep flipping it back to him. “Another patented long-ass Chet story,” I say. “I am Bushed.”

“Well,” Chet says, then pauses. “He thinks he can just … Blair shit out.”

Or maybe I’ll just plead raita’s block.

Phrase the Roof!

1. PRESENTS OF MIND

2. SHEER PUNDEMONIUM

3. VIRULENT HOMOPHONIA

4. OFF-SYLLABLE USE

5. PUNBELIEVABLE

6. HEADLINE BLING

7. LIVE A CRITIC, DIACRITIC

8. FEAST OF THE PRONUNCIATION

9. VERBAL MEDICATION

10. THE BEST OF BOTH WORDS

11. SUFFERING FROM INCONSONANT

12. DAMNED WITH FAINT PHRASE

13. THE SEVEN DEADLY SYNTAXES

14. THE NOUN JEWELS

15. PUNS THE WORD

16. CONSONANT READER

17. FARTS OF SPEECH

18. PUN-CHEWATION

19. GRAMMAR RULES

20. POISSON PEN

21. PUNS AND NEEDLES

22. DEATH AND SYNTAXES

23. THE WRITE STUFF

24. MAKING THE COPY

25. SLAIN LETTERING

26. PUN AND GAMES

27. VALLEY OF THE LOLZ

28. NOUN HEAR THIS

29. WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR QUOTE

30. PUT A VERB ON IT!

31. CRIME AND PUN-NICHE-MEANT

32. TIC TALK

33. ECCE HOMONYM

34. DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXTS ASS

35. WRITES OF MAN

36. VERB APPEAL

37. THE RHYME DIRECTIVE

38. SLOGAN’S RUN

39. REBEL WITHOUT A CLAUSE

40. BURNS OF PHRASE

41. ARTLESS QUOTATIONS

42. BON MOT MONEY, BON MOT PROBLEMS

43. JESTIN’ CASE

44. LET ‘ER QUIP

45. ADVERB REACTIONS

46. INFINITE JESTS

47. ARTS OF SPEECH

48. DIGITAL PUNDERGROUND

49. THE PUN-ISHER

50. IMPUNDING DOOM

51. BEYOND PUNDERDOME

52. BAUHAUS OF CARDS

53. TEXTUAL HARASSMENT

54. IT’S A PUNGLE OUT THERE

55. GRAND THEFT MOTTO

56. IT HAD PUNNED ONE NIGHT

57. PLEASE GRAMMAR DON’T HURT EM

58. RHETORICAL QUESTIN’

59. ACUTE PUNS? SURE

60. BAWDILY HUMORED

61. DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDO, DAMNED IF YOU INNUENDON’T

62. TROUBLE ENTENDRES

63. WITS UP, DOC

64. SELF-IMPROV MEANT

65. PUN-EYED JOKERS

66. LAUGHTERMATH

67. JAPES OF WRATH

68. MAKING HA-HAJJ

69. MUTTER, MAY I?

70. BATTLE OF HALF-WITS

71. DEMI-BRAVADO

72. MALCONTENT MARKETING

73. NON-SILENT OFFENSES

74. ORAL HIJINX

75. THE PUN-ISHER

76. NOUNS, YOUR CHANCE

77. TEXT OF KIN

78. OH, PUN AND SHUT

79. JOKE OF ALL TRADES

80. PATTER UP

81. SCHTICK IT TO EM

82. BOOS HOUNDS

83. IT’S NOT EASY BEING GROANED

84. FAR FROM THE MADDENED CROWD

85. COMPETITIVE DEBASING

86. THE PUNFORGIVEN

87. THE PUNCANNY VALLEY

88. INTENTIONAL FORTITUDE

89. CHURCH OF THE LETTER DISDAIN

90. POETRY IN MASHIN’

91. CREATIVE SENTENCING

92. DAAAMN, DACTYL!

93. NO CONTEXT

94. A TALE OF TWO SILLIES

95. THE WIZARD OF LOLZ

96. IT’S A PUNDERFUL LIFE

97. WHAT’S HA? PUNNIN’

98. THE ZING AND I

99. THE WILD PUNS

100. THE PUN ALSO RISES

101. HOW THE REST WERE PUNNED

102. RAGING SYLLABLE

103. DANGEROUS ELISIONS

104. GOODWILL PUNTING

105. FELLOWSHIP OF THE WRONG

106. INGLOURIOUS LAST WORDS

107. THE LIMITATION GAME

108. APPETITE FOR DISTRACTION

109. HOW I MEANT ANOTHER

110. LARKS AND RECREATION

111. COMEDY OF AIRERS

112. DECLARATION OF INNER PENANCE

113. BOO HA-HA

Senior editor and pun criminal Peter Rubin (@provenself) wrote about the roadblocks to VR in issue 24.04.

This article appears in the October 2016 issue.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/12/reflexlology-inside-the-groan-inducing-world-of-pun-competitions/

0 notes