#listen the guitar hero mode has changed my life
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Need to write and need to make gifs but all I do is play Fortnite for six hours
#ewbie.txt#🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️#oh honey it’s time for you 6 hours of Fortnite!#listen the guitar hero mode has changed my life#anyway good morning yall 🥰🫶
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Kaminari Denki headcannons!!
Bc it’s his bday and I love him (this will not cover his fam bc I switch between backstories with him so much that I just have no clue)
Buckle up bc this is a very long post I did not mean to get this deep lol
Let’s start with the most obvious- he makes friends easily, but I’m not just talking other students, I’m also talking the staff. This boy makes friends with the janitors and the lunch ladies and even the teachers!! He also makes friends with the security bots and pranks them a lot
This stems from him wanting ppl to like him. I think this bc of the fact that his character sheet says he likes all things “trendy” - I think he rlly wants to be known as the cool guy bc he is rlly insecure of himself
And as much as I think he is very trendy, I also think he is a big literature nerd! I believe he is more likely to listen to audio books tho, but I’m not entirely 100% sure though. He tries to keep this underwrap, but eventually he does join momo’s book club and brings completely different analysis to the table :D
He is just generally into the arts (we see this in cannon- he plays guitar, is seen drawing Aizawa, references Hemingway) so I see him as a more creative guy rather than a logically minded dude
This boy has adhd, anxiety, and dyslexia and dyscalcula (he was able to work through dyslexia bc he read so much, but still has problems with his dyscalcula) and this causes issues for him in school. He also a HUGE procrastinator. He often feels stupid and dumb bc if it (also doesn’t help that even his friends joke abt it too, but as long as it’s just a joke he shouldn’t make a big deal abt it right??)
I say he has anxiety because of the way he reacts to when he is training- always panicking and frying his brain. I think what stans between him and being rlly op is his anxiety and view of himself
Speaking of him frying his brain, I headcannon he has litchenburg figures, which if u don’t know r these rlly cool scars that look kinda like branches with what kinda looks like flowers so cool tbh, and BEFORE u say “he obviously doesn’t have them cannonly” let me just say that his quirk affects his brain cannonly!! It’s not weird for it to also affect his skin!!! I think he might have had litchenburg figures if they were more commonly known as it is a very cool thing tbh
I also think that bc his brain gets impacted by his quirk, sometimes his nerves get impacted too. This means he sometimes can’t taste food (and he doesn’t eat it when he can’t taste it, which pisses Bakugo off) and he also can’t feel things as well (I believe the class figures this out after Denki went to poor himself some tea but didn’t know the kettle was still rlly hot and so he grabbed it not knowing he was burning himself until he handed it over to someone who then dropped the pot bc it was so hot- needles to say he had to go to recovery girl that day)
He has never been to the aquarium bc as a child he had terrible control over his quirk and that made ppl nervous to put him near water (he goes as a teen with the bakusquad and is absolutely floored- his favorite creatures are of course all the sting rays, jelly fish, and electric eel- cue bakusquad comparing him to the brainless jellyfish)
He also doesn’t know how to swim till he was in middle school (once he was in better control of his quirk he went out and learned to swim on his own bc he had to learn how if he wanted to be a hero u know? He never quit got the hang of it tho)
Storms make him very energized and his already low ability to focus worsens. Prone to accidentally zapping ppl. He mostly stays in his room when storms happen bc he doesn’t want to hurt ppl/ wreck electronics on accident. He doesn’t even get to chat with friends on the phone bc he would wreck it so storms get rlly lonely :(
Also is basically a lightning rod. It hurts bc of how forceful it is, but it’s also not that big of a deal to him
Is prtty forgetful unfortunately due to all the times he fried his brain. It’s something he really tries not to think about
He probs can’t sleep very easily due to all his energy
He hates frying his brain bc it’s very hard to understand what’s going on when he does. Everything is a lot more sluggish and things are simultaneously way too much and he gets hyper sensitive and at the same time his senses are also very groggy and weird. It’s over all a bad time, but he got used to it
Whenever he fried his brain instead of being all wheyyy and thumbs upy he use to act more vegetative which rlly freaked ppl out so he eventually learned to get to where he is now when he fries his brain
Kids use to take advantage of his whey mode and do pranks on him which often got him hurt, but he never rlly felt it at first so he didn’t mind to bad. As long it was just joking and they were having fun right??
Time for happy ones!! His favorite foods (besides burgers, those r his favorite cannonly) all have some coralation with memes (speggeti tacos, mac n cheese, “chonky” milk, chicken nuggy, etc)
He is a meme lord yes
Stans pikachu (obvi)
U cannot convince me that he doesn’t paint his nails black, maybe with a little lightning bolt on his middle finger. This boy cannonly wears a choker common
He does face masks with Mina!! I believe he cares abt his looks greatly, and does beauty routines with Mina all the time. I’m constantly switching btween wether or not he owns it, or is a bit insecure and tries not to show this side to much to the boys
Why does this show not give him skinny jeans?? I mean common his entire style calls for skinny jeans. Maybe it’s Japan fashion or smth bc if it was in America he’d have skinny jeans bc it’s the trendy thing u know
Cannot cook. Can barely work the microwave. Claims unmarked food and eats it at midnight
Has a lot of weird info stored in his brain- how weather works, psychology stuff, weird facts abt bees, etc- that he learns randomly, never rlly trying to learn them but it sort of just happens u know. This frustrates Bakugo and jirou to no end bc he knows all these useless facts about how 1,200,000 mosquitos is all it takes for them to all at once drain a human of all their blood in a second, but not about how to work the pathagorean theorem
Idk why I think this (and it’s a popular headcannon too), but he knows at least 3/4 languages. It just suits him?? Bc he is a ppl person??? I don’t know??
Gets major test anxiety
Teachers either love him or hate him no in between. A lot of his elementary teachers absolutely hated him and would tear him down by calling him stupid and annoying. In middle school when he learns to control his quirk better, teachers rlly liked him- in the way that class clown trouble makers are liked by teachers. He may not excel in his class but he is a pretty funny dude.
He is constantly either underestimated or overestimated. Kaminari himself does this as well. It’s part of the issue with his hero training
Cats do not like him. They may like being petted bc if the static electricity, but when Kami pets cats he just absorbs the static- no pleasure :(((- or he accidentally has too much static electricity. If so then only tge rlly fluffy cats like him. Either case, shinsou finds a cat that likes kaminari as well and it is very cute :33
THE class prankster. Even on the teachers! The death glare Aizawa gave him on the one time prancing him worked is one kaminari will never forget (he still tries to prank him despite this lol)
Constantly teasing Bakugo as a way to press his buttons. It’s debatable on wether or not this helps bakugo’s anger issues
He is the wingman between Bakugo and Kirishima change my mind!!
Also mandatory kaminari is bisexual headcannon bc he rlly gives me those vibes. I think he doesn’t know yet that he’s bisexual, and when he thinks a fellow bro is hot he thinks he’s just admiring his bro u know. Maybe even thinks he is jealous. He does flirt with all genders tho mostly as a joke. He draws dicks as jokes but he always puts a little too much detail in them for him to rlly be straight
Can be used as a defibrillator as long as he can focus
Honestly there’s so much stuff kaminari has the potential to do with his quirk it’s a shame the manga/anime doesn’t use it
Like I rlly want to see him use his quirk in training to blow out all the lights in a building so he can use it for his advantage
That’d be badass
Also his quirk makes him very hard to be caught when their training. He can slip out of ppls grasp easily with a shock, and he also just has good reflexes in genral (I think this is cannon). Cue class 1-a running around trying and failing to catch him lol. Their best bet is to get him to fry his brain :(
He was popular in school before UA bc of his quirk and bc of how charming and easy to get a long with he is. This lead a lot of his friends to be very shallow. He didn’t rlly think about wether or not someone was trying to be his friend or not, he just liked being liked. This lead him to his whole liking trendy things, and he often felt that if he wasn’t seen as cool or funny his friends would all leave him. His whole rlly liking to talk thing caused a lot of ppl to think he was annoying at times, but he was never rlly able to lose that trait
The bakusquad was the first friend group he got rlly close too. He felt he can be himself around them and be the crackhead he was always meant to be. He still always concerned about wether they might leave him if he’s too annoying bc of anxiety but he’s getting better :)
He is a bringer of chaos and that’s part of his charm! Never dull with Denki around. He’s always doing the weirdest stuff, and ever since Mina, Kiri, and Sero, this has only doubled!
He is always calling Momo a genius (bc she is) and they are rlly good friends
Is an unofficial emo squad member (just look at his hero costume)
A sinnamon roll I’m srry but he ain’t a cinnamon roll. He has a dirty mind lol
Peepee jokes
Probably does tik tok dances I’m sorry
Nintendo fan for life
Xbox or PlayStation?- “Nintendo wut u mean”
Abbreviates so much it’s kinda hard to read,. Like if u thought I was bad this boy is soo much worse
It’s kinda ironic bc he has a very large vocabulary lol
He only uses it when he’s being sassy or very passionate
Mixes his gen z lingo with his big brain vicab to create atrocities of sentences
”bro the rise of the proletariat is lit tbh”
He is the worst to text with. He gives Bakugo aneurysms
Yeet yote to be yoted
3am shower thoughts
Unpopular opinion: i don’t think he likes weed. It probs reminds him too much of his whey mode
He’s a good strategist, but let’s the other team members think of the plans bc of insecurity, and otherwise his anxiety causes his smartness to shut down
Very good at zoning out. Sometimes he accidentally zones out so hard during class he misses the entire lesson and is only brought out bc of the school bell. Aizawa is best at snapping him out of it
Tbh I don’t think UA would be good with mental health. You’d think they’d hire a professional therapist or smth, but maybe it’s bc hero’s are so glorified ppl don’t ever think about these issues
I doubt the teachers had very good teacher training u know
We’ve mostly seen young heroes. I bet that’s bc they die so often, and if they don’t die in battle the mental health issues that stem from trauma and the media’s pressure are such an issue that it’s not uncommon for hero work to have high suicide rates
Anyway I’m starting to lose track of things thanks for coming to my ted talk I think I’ll stop here
#bnha denki#bnha kaminari#denki#denki headcanons#kaminari#mha#denki kaminari#kaminari stan#kaminari denki#kaminari analysis#accidently turned into analysis#not gonna lie#happy birthday kaminari
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Serious question, peanut butter or nutella?
Peanut butter. I don’t get the Nutella hype to be honest.
Do you prefer baked potatoes or mashed potatoes?
I refuse to choose cause I love both.
What is your oldest sibling’s middle name?
I’m not sharing that.
Do you like breadsticks?
Yes. The more cheesy-garlicky, the better. <<< Yesss. With marinara or some kind of olive oil sauce for dipping.
What are your favorite things to spend money on?
Food and clothes.
Which would you rather have a new puppy or kitten?
Puppy.
How old will you be on your next birthday?
33.
Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people?
Yes. I’m a picky and particular eater, even when it comes to how I eat. Plus, I take forever to finish my food, so I’ll still be eating longgg after everyone else and I just feel awkward and rushed cause I don’t want to keep anyone waiting.
When you opened your eyes this morning, what were your first thoughts?
What time it is is generally my first thought.
What is one thing in the room you’re in that reminds you of somebody?
A framed photo of my dog, Brandie, who passed away December 26, 2016.
Would you ever want to be a supermodel, or date one?
I have no desire to be one. Not like I’d be cut out to be one anyway, so it works out. As far as dating one... I don’t know if I’d want to date anyone in the spotlight like that. That kind of life is not for me.
Honestly, have you ever made fun of somebody so bad they cried?
Nooo. I don’t make fun of people or purposely try to hurt someone.
Honestly, would you rather be complimented on your looks or intelligence?
Intelligence.
Have you ever purchased a pregnancy test, for yourself or otherwise?
No.
You can get one thing, anything, for free right now. What do you pick? Why?
All expenses paid vacation.
Honestly, have you ever danced naked?
No.
What was the first illegal thing that you did? Did you get caught?
Take candy from the candy bins at the grocery store when I was a kid. I was a big rebel, I know.
What is the home page on the computer you’re on?
Google.
Do you like to write poetry?
I don’t write poetry. I’m not a poet and I do know it.
Are your ears pierced?
Yeah, my earlobes.
If so, were they pierced with a piercing gun, or with a sterile needle?
I’m not sure, since my mom had them pierced when I was a baby. I would guess piercing gun, though. <<<
Do you wear makeup regularly?
No. Prior to my brother’s grad party back in May it had been like 4 years since I wore any makeup. I haven’t worn any since then.
Did you eat cereal for breakfast today?
No, I made a microwave breakfast egg scramble thing with these microwave mini pancakes.
When was the last time you tripped over something?
My doggo likes to leave her toys right in the way so it’s not such a rare occurrence.
Who was the last person you yelled at?
Not yell, but had to get stern with my doggo earlier when my aunt brought her doggo over. Mine was getting too hyper and excitable and wanted to play of course, but her dog is a tiny chihuahua and was scared. My dog forgets how big she is sometimes lol. To be fair, she hasn’t had a lot of interaction with other dogs, which is something we should have tried to do more.
Why did you yell at them?
^ That.
Favorite type of apple?
The brand, ha.
Ever seen live horse racing?
No.
How about live greyhound racing?
No.
What’s one thing, besides the obvious, that you couldn’t live without?
I need my coffee, ha.
Have you ever touched a giraffe?
No, I wish!
What does your mom call you?
She often calls me “Sis.”
What stresses you out the most in life?
My health.
Do you play any PC games? What is your favorite?
Yeah, The Sims 4. I’ve been obsessed again lately. I go through phases with it.
If you were pregnant, how would you tell the father?
Well, that would depend on the circumstances. Did we want a baby? Was it a bad surprise, a happy surprise? I can't answer this with just one idea. < Yeah. <<<
What’s the hardest level you can play on Guitar Hero?
I rocked out hard on easy mode, ha.
What ever happened with you and your first boyfriend?
I realized I wasn’t ready for a relationship and he was moving too fast for me so I ended it.
What’s your favorite country song?
I like several, but the first that just randomly popped into my head is “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves.
What is the worst thing a former boyfriend/girlfriend has done to you?
Use and play me.
What were you for Halloween last year?
I stopped dressing up a few years ago.
Are you feeling guilty for something?
Yes, a few things.
Are you usually quiet or loud?
Most definitely quiet. No one would describe me as loud.
How many hours do you spend on the computer a day?
It really varies. Some days definitely more than others.
What is the show that you watched when you were little, and you still do?
Rugrats, Hey Arnold, and Doug to name a few.
Do your siblings text you?
My younger brother does.
Do you want a small or big wedding?
I don’t plan to ever get married.
Have you ever searched for your own house on Google Earth?
Of course. That was like the first thing everyone did when it came out, which is quite funny because you could search anywhere and we chose our own house haha.
Who is your ex dating/talking to?
I have no idea nor do I care to be honest.
Ever kissed someone who smokes?
No.
Does it take a lot for someone to annoy you?
No, especially not nowadays. I’m so moody and irritable.
Do you own your own computer?
I do.
Did you ever have to share a room with one of your siblings?
No.
What noises in the room you’re in, do you hear at the moment?
The ASMR video I’m listening to, my fans, and myself typing.
Have you ever dated someone with longer hair than yours?
No.
What’s the biggest upcoming event for you?
I don’t have any.
What do you typically order from Wendy’s?
Meh, I rarely go to Wendy’s but if I did I’d just get a cheeseburger, fries, and a frosty.
Have you ever been given a lapdance by an actual stripper?
No.
What do you love most about yourself?
:/
Have you ever received a hickey from the last person you kissed?
No.
What are you doing right now?
This and listening to an ASMR video.
What’s bothering you right now?
My stomach.
What was the last thing you drank?
Water.
Be honest, do you like people in general?
I’m not a people person.
Do you want your tongue pierced?
No.
Do you change your phone background a lot?
I change it for the season or holiday.
Have you ever made someone so mad that they broke something?
Not that I know of.
Have you ever been strip searched?
No.
Do you have a funny last name? Does anyone make fun of it?
No, a lot of people have said they like it.
Ever have a drug overdose? What did you OD on exactly?
No.
Do you get sick of people who call themselves bipolar all the time?
People do throw that term around too loosely. That one and OCD.
Describe your day so far in three words:
My stomach hurts.
What was the most stressful project you had so far/while in school?
There had been many.
Choose one- Butterfinger, Milky Way, Snickers:
Butterfinger.
Have you ever stepped in dog poop?
Ugh, yes.
What was the last thing you spent money on?
Food.Yeah.
Have you ever slept in the same bed with the last person you kissed?
No.
Is there a guy that knows a lot about you?
Yeah.
Is there someone you just can’t imagine your life without?
My parents and brother.
Do you prefer Starbucks coffee or small cafe coffee?
Ooooh, both. I love coffee. <<<
Would you ever consider getting a piercing in your septum?
No.
Do you enjoy being outdoors?
At the beach, yes.
Do people tell you that you have an accent?
No.
Do you enjoy watching fireworks on the 4th of July?
I wish they weren’t so damn loud.
What’re some unspeakable subjects for you?
Meh.
Is there anyone you would take a bullet for?
My parents and brother.
Do you enjoy tanning?
I don’t mind if I get one while I’m at the beach, but I don’t actively go tanning or get tanned.
Are you a virgin?
Yes.
Who’s your celebrity crush?
Alexander Skarsgard.
Did or do you get good grades in English class?
Yep. English was always my best and favorite subject.
What part of your body are you self-conscious about?
All of it.
Are you expected to help fix Thanksgiving dinner?
No. I like doing the appetizers, though.
Have you ever lost anyone close to cancer?
No.
Do you personally know anyone who is transgender?
No.
When was the last time you got a shot?
It’s been many years.
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1x08 - Seventeen Candles
It took me longer than intended (again) but here’s the recap for this episode, which is another of my all time faves.
Once again posting under a break because this got way too long.
Thoughts I had while watching the episode:
The start of this episode is hilarious. There’s being melodramatic, and then there’s Blair Waldorf, guess that’s what happens when one surrenders their virtue to a self absorbed ass.
Seriously the way she describes the whole thing to the priest is so funny. Also 20 minutes? wow girl. Thank god he’s a total pig who will act as if it never happened... yeah
Vanessa? Serena. To be honest I wouldn’t put it past him
One wants to be open minded and be kinder and objective with characters I hated the first time around, but God Vanessa is so annoying
Blair coming out of the church, exchanging her little facinator for those glasses, “one week of danger” playing in the background is just one of those scenes that really got stuck in my mind, girl’s killing it
“Would you consider avoiding me over breakfast?” this is so one of my fave scenes of them, it sets the mood so much.
Nate’s parents are so patronizing
Remember when mp3 players were a thing?... somethings never change though, like parents having to deal with teens isolating themselves via earphones.
I still don’t like the Vanderbilt Ring, also llike “im not asking you to get engaged son, but please give your girlfriend this engament ring” and the way Anne say’s it, Nate’s mom is such a pro at emotional blackmail.
Blair jumping around in her room, thanking God because her boyfriend bought the diamond necklace, aww. Also this is so relatable, the jumping around obviously, not the diamonds.
I sort of have a soft spot for Chuck standing akwardly behind the door not knowing how to deal with his best friend..,this is such a disaster waiting to happen and I’m loving it
Smooth Chuc, hiding the little gift back before Nate notices it (gotta confess I didn’t notice he did this the first time around, oh the pleasures of a rewatch)
Typical, your best friend that never pays attention for once is catching up on the little facts, like you shouldn’t know he broke up with his girlfriend
Though... If the town car was waiting for Nate to take him to Victrola, and it’s Blair the one that ends up using, shouldn’t have Nate realized that Blair and Chuck saw each other last ninght
The good old days when Chuck cared only about three things “Money, the pleasures money gave him, and Nate”, and even then when he’s saying it, is already kind of a lie.
He may have his own agenda, but yeah regardless Nate did needed to put a stop with his parents
She’s been in like three episodes and she already has invated herself to like two UES parties already, wow Vanessa.
“you wish, no you wish” and then the butterflies!!!!! This is a scene that admitedly I’ve seen more than once already and I love it every time. Chuck’s a delight here.
The real first of one of those shared moments of Jenny and Nate... the fist tase I would said.
“Blair about Vanessa being like This is such a problem” you don’t know the half of it.
That little wage was so pointless, as if Chuck would have left Blair alone.
Watching them play guitar hero is making me so nostalgic.
“You didn’t tell her?” she may say it wiht a smile and innocent eyes, but no Vanessa, I don’t buy it, and it was bitchy.
You get grosser by the minute, and you get older” :’) also, that’s a really pretty cake.
Happy Birthday B! What a bitch
Nate finally growing some spine and putting a stop to his parents manipulations.
Seriously how pretty is that necklace. Also I’ve never really thought it but Blair probably wore that dress (which I love) and her hair up because her previous call to the jeweler.
Serena’s face in the end is prceless is just like “oh god no, what a mess”
I missed Lily
Honestly 1x07&1x08 are some of my favorite episodes in the whole series. And this rewatch hasn’t changed that. While 1x07 is in some ways the turning point of the show, this is the first episode that Chuck and Blair are one of the main plots, and since the start it doesn’t dissapoints.
One of the things I love about this episode is how teenage-ry it feels. The focus of the episode is typical teenage drama: break ups, hook ups, a bit of jelousy between the girlfriend and the best friend. Made me a tad nostalgic, and much more interested in the storylines involving the young cast. In part because I honestly don’t care about the Humphrey family drama, and by this point is obvious how shitty Nate’s parents are. Also there was no rufly which I’ve enjoyed a lot the past few episodes.
So, this episode is the one where the little animosity between Serena and Vanessa comes to an end, and it just shows that in the end Serena is very understanding and also really friendly, I do like that it never actually evolves into a catfight, seriously is a shame to see girls fight for a guy, worse if the guy is Dan Humphrey. There was also Nate and Jenny, which I enjoyed because this was the first real tease of what could be between them... it’s also the moment where Nate finally decides that the best for him and Blait is to break up, so far my main issue with Nate is that he lacked the nerve to really do what he needed to do, from breaking up with Blair to standing up to his parents, he does both this episode. Finally
Obviously Chuck and Blair were my favorite part or the episode. Lowkey is a very telling episode about how they see each other, and their eventual dynamic.
One side there’s Blair. Beyond how hilarious it is to see her confessing at church after sleeping with Chuck Bass, one line in her tirade is quite interesting: “he’s a pig who will act like it never happened”. If one thinks about what we been showed of Chuck so far this is in many ways a very logical conclussion. To Blair’s surprise he does no such thing: he seeks her out for breakfest and it’s clearly no interested in pretending it never happened, he’s actually embracing it, Blair wants to go back to how things were before; the only life she knows
Sure last night she realized that her relationship with Nate had reached it’s end, and that there was much relief in that because in many ways her failing relationship with Nate was a constant reminder of all her insecurities, and that relief led her to just be and do whatever, and what she did well that wasn’t on the plan at all. “No one of my friends would understand” and I guess in a way she doesn’t understand her impulses either, and Blair doesn’t deal well with change, and so she goes into denial mode, and that means gaining her boyfriend back.
And so the episode goes and we see her on and on trying to grasp to her Nate once more, and Chuck is constantly there telling her basically two things: 1) let’s do it again because what happened yesterday won’t leave my mind, and that’s weird and 2) accept reality, in this case you and Nate are done. She stubornly holds to her ideas until everything crashes around her, and once it does Chuck’s still there, and she finally sees him, listens and gives in. And just like the song last episode in retrospective is almost a preview of how their relationship is going to play out, their behavior this episode is also a preview of what ends up being a predominant dynamic their whole relationship, the details and circunstances are going to vary, but Blair’s going to hold with eveything she has to what she believes her life should be, the script she wants that it’s probably best without Chuck and him trying to prove her wrong and that best option is them.
Whereas Blair’s actions are consisten to what we know of her so far, Chuck’s actions doesn’t. So far he’s been a giant asshole to all the female population, a self absorbed womanizer who once he got wanted is like “thank u, next”. Sure he and Blair are close friends but still, to him sex is just sex and she knows how he is, that’s why he asked her if she was sure. That’s what we know and what we could have expected of him. Instead he seeks her out, and when he rejects him, he still doesn’t hesitate her and he goes out a buy hers the gift she’s expecting from her boyfriend. Who happens to be his best friend
From the episode where Nate gets tricked by Carter we learned how loyal Chuck is to Nate and that their friendship is really important to him. And yet he doesn’t hesite to try to stir him far far away from Blair, sure the advices he gives him is good for Nate but he says more in the vain of keeping Blair single rather than in Nate’s best interest. Chuck schemes,we know but up until now it was hard to picture him scheming against him.
The more interesting bit for me is however the first scene between him and Blair at the balcony; not only because it points to the fact that these characters are equals “you forget who you’re talking to, so do you” but mainly because of the answer he gives when Blair ask him if he likes her, he doesn’t denies it he even admits to having butterfies and sure he claims he is ashamed and suprised by it even bactracks a little but it’s a very quick admission anyway, and it makes me wonder the why of it. Why is he so eager to explore this? It’s not his style and if he wanted only sex he knows he could achieved that easily some where else
It’s obvious they had chemistry between them, and that in itself may be a good reason, but to me it’s probably because on some subconcious level he liked her even before this. It’s not that I picture him pining for her in the background for her waiting sadly for the day she dumped Nate, more like he was lowkey always fascinated by her, on the earlier episodes there is more than one shot of him in the background watching her closesly, with a knowing smirk and amused by whatever she did.
So there’s this girl he finds interesting, extremely atractive, and also a close friend that he gets along really well to the point of being the one he takes to see his first business venture, and know she’s unattached and he also enjoyed quite a lot having sex with her, and for the first time he really stops to think about it and it’s quite obvious there was something there, fluttering, he’s just noticing it now because he can.
That scene where he gaves her the necklace he has being somewhat in smarmy mode before but when he see she’s hurt he tries to make her happy and as honest as he can be, last episode when it was just a dare between friends he tells her she’s ten times hotter than the dances, this episode he says “something this beautiful deserves to be seen on someone worthy of it’s beauty” the diference in sentiment is amazing because now there’s feeling behind it, and it’s such an honest and tender moment, this is the moment when the posibilty of Chuck and Blair finally takes root in both their minds (also that shoulder kiss is one of my favorite details ever through the show)
For the longest time I didn’t believe he felt something for her pre limo, but the more I think about it especially the way things happen later, for him to be that into her since the first moment and how it hit him when things went wrong it had to be because it was something he had felt in some way for a time, he’s not surprised because he felt something for the first time, I think he’s surprised by how much and because he quite can’t believe it’s a possibilty, this something he never dared to really think about.
Random bits:
Silas was the creepy monk in the Da Vinci Code right?
They actually used the demo version of “one week of danger” in this episode, I’ve heard the actual finished one, but I’m ruined and prefer the demo one.
Search TM, because we can’t use google’s name
Falling like Britney at the VMA’s, it’s hard to think that was so long ago.
I love Serena’s dress, chic and comfy.
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MyRock ; issue n°44 (Jan/Feb 2017)
A Nameless Ghoul from Ghost interview.
Photos: Manon Violence
Interview: Mark Renton
2017 has been the year of all records for Ghost! After an exceptional concert at Hellfest, a nicely lead Download Festival (despite voice problems) and a France tour still in minds, the band then launched a triumphal American tour. Meanwhile, the satanic clergy also draw its awesome “Popestar”, EP lead with drums beating by the heady single “Square Hammer”. Telephonical talk with one Nameless Ghoul to take stock on the past, the present and future of this definitely fascinating band.
//Before continuing, note this issue is still available for international orders on their online shop. Direct link to this issue’s page in source! Don’t be surprised by the first cover shown there, it’s litteraly a two covered mag… The mag is meant to be read in 2 time: you start by one side, no matter which one, and when you reach the middle, you have to close it and flip it then tadaaa you have more to read on the 2nd side!//
(Read the full interview under the cut and feel free to point out mistakes!)
Hello, who’s calling?
Nameless Ghoul: Hello! I’m one of the Nameless Ghouls.
Which one? Which instrument do you play in the band?
N.G. : I’m our clergy’s official spokesperson. I’m also Ghost’s founder, main composer and, most of the time, I play guitar.
How do you feel at the approach of Papa Emeritus III’s end of reign? Because there’ll certainly be a new Papa Emeritus soon…
N.G. : You’re right, we’re close to the end of a cycle. Personally, I always saw change as a good thing. It’s stimulating. We still have a lot of concerts to give in 2017, but I think I can safely say that at the end of the next year, all Nameless Ghouls will be tired of Papa Emeritus III! It’ll be nice to see a new leader coming to guide us.
How would you describe the personality of Papa Emeritus III compared to his predecessors?
N. G. : First of all, Papa Emeritus III is an entertainer! He loves projectors, he loves the public, and he loves success. The first Papa Emeritus was someone very rigid, very strict, and very solemn. A real son of a bitch! (laughs) To be honest, we don’t miss him at all! Papa Emeritus II was a pervert a little bit sadistic, and, in hindsight, I think he wasn’t very at ease on stage. He wasn’t a showman, unlike Papa Emeritus III! Him, he’s the guide we missed to rise up the quality of our shows, to reach the step above and communicate with our fans. We will be eternally thankful for his work. I believe he have paved the way for his successor…
Precisely, what are you waiting from the future Papa Emeritus IV?
N.G. : Well, I want him to be scary. That he bring back something more tenebrous, while remaining spectacular. Broadly speaking, I want the next album to come back to a gloomier atmosphere.
Fueled by ego
On a more personal viewpoint, what is your relationship with your character?
N.G. : What’s exciting me the most with Ghost, it’s that the project is a real challenge for the individuals involved. Everybody is on an equal footing. Furthermore, there’s something really thrilling to embody a character which is a part of yourself, but never totally you. Traditionally, rock stars always reach the point where they fuse with their creature. In the end, rock’s always been fueled by ego. Even if you’re part of a fully honest and underground band, you’ll always have this desire to be under the spotlights, to be recognize, famous and loved. Those pretending the contrary are liars. Roughly, no matter the music you make, you all secretly dream to be a kind of Justin Bieber. (laughs) To be masked is something very different. It’s a kind of anomaly in the entertainment system. Because every day, you never receive the admiration you deserve. When I’m not on stage with Ghost, I’m going back in anonymity. It’s very positive for me. I would say, my character brings me some stability in my daily life. But I’m aware my case is a bit special since I’m Ghost’s main composer and thus I’ll always be linked in a way or another to this project. But being in the obscurity is sometime more complicated to manage for the other Nameless Ghouls…
This mystery surrounding Ghost inevitably attracts the fans curiosity. This year, some of them started a vast quest to discover your identities. We imagine it’s part of the game, but what are you feeling regarding it?
N.G. : From the beginning, we knew it’ll be impossible to keep the secret until the end. It’s already a miracle we held this long. (laughs) Personally, it doesn’t matter. I think the work accomplished pays its own way. I mean, our albums, our concerts and our universes are that strong they succeed to supplant the reality. Today, people don’t care to know who’s under Papa Emeritus’ hat. When they come to see us play, they want the real Papa. It’s a bit like if our creature ended up escaping us to live its own life.
2017 has been a successful year for Ghost, with appearances in huge festivals, a colossal American tour and the worldwide success of the EP “Popestar”. How did you live that?
N.G. : This year has been amazing on every points, really! We’ve been able to see how much the band has grown by federating more fans. However, I’m not someone who contemplate our success and congratulate myself. The past doesn’t interest me. But the future does. When we take a step forward I always try to have in mind the next one. 5 years ago, we played at the Olympia supporting In Flames and Trivium. It happens that on 11 April next we’ll come back, this time as the headliner. But instead of rejoicing, I like to tell myself: “OK, it’s cool, but what I really want to do is Bercy!”. And if one day we make it to Bercy as the headliner, I know in a corner of my head there’ll be the Stade de France. I’m ambitious. (laughs)
I come from extreme metal.
Ghost is one of the rare bands to link metal to the general public. Do you think it explains this popularity?
N.G. : I think, yes. We see more and more diversity in the public at our gigs. Of course, there are metalheads with long hair and battle jacket, but there are also hipsters, girls who usually listen to pop music, and alternative rock lovers. I find it fantastic. You know, musically, I come from extreme metal. It’s been in my genes since my teenage years. I listen to many other things, but it’s where I come from. It’s my identity and it’s what forged my mentality. At the point that, when Ghost began to be successful, I started to feel guilty. I had that feeling I transgressed underground metal’s tactical rules, which are systematic rejection of success and popularity. It took me a lot of abnegation to understand success isn’t nefarious, on the contrary, it’s the reward for an hard work. And deep down I think I was scared to be rejected by my own community, to be treated like a sellout.
Have you ever been confront to animosity from fundamentalists metalheads?
N.G. : Oh yes, mostly now! On internet, some start to let their hate flow on Ghost. But it’s OK, I understand. Myself, if I wasn’t in the band, I think I would hate Ghost. (laughs) Because in metal, once a band makes money, they’re sellout. It’s like this and I accept it. It’s also an old metalhead’s thing. People who were here during the rise of the extreme genres grew up with a certain code of conduct, with a more rigid thinking. By the way, I’m going to tell you a secret: some of my best friends abhor Ghost. They hate the band. They don’t understand what we do, they think it’s crap. But it’s nothing. They can. They stay my friends after all. (laughs) It’s different with kids, they are more open minded. But in hindsight, I’m figuring out that me too, in my daily life, I’m an old fart. (laughs) I listen to a small amount of new things. Nothing give me more joy than a good old “Master of Puppets”, a “Seven Churches” by Possessed, or a King Diamond, my hero!
King Diamond & Merciful Fate.
Would you say King Diamond was the biggest inspiration for Ghost, in terms of theatricality?
N.G. : Indeed! As far as I remember, I’ve always listened to King Diamond and Merciful Fate. At home, my mother listened to a lot of 60’s and 70’s classic rock, like Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. My brother, him, listened to harder stuff like AC/DC, Sex Pistols, Rainbow… I liked all of this, but when my neighbor introduce me to King Diamond I had the feeling to be someone special. I was listening to this crazy stuff that no one else knew at home! I was 8 and, at this age, as you can imagine, I was very marked by his albums’ visuals. King Diamond is the one who open me the door to this gloomy universe which is now find in Ghost.
Kid from the 80’s.
We also guess an interest for the 80’s! If previously you made a cover of Depeche Mode, your EP “Popestar” offer us covers of Echo & The Bunnymen and Eurythmics.
N.G. : I’m a kid from the 80’s, it’s the soundtrack of my life. I think it’s mostly thanks to the radio, which was always switch on at home. I like all classics: Mike Oldfield, Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics, Midnight Oil… When I was a teenage, I kind of liked to show of and act like a thoug one who only listen to extreme metal, but secretly, in my bedroom, I listened to Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Bronski Beat. (laughs) And, in the end, Ghost is exactly this: a mix of Kiss, Depeche Mode and Merciful Fate with a bit of Pink Floyd over it, especially “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “A Saucerful of Secrets”.
On your last EP, there is the heady single “Square Hammer”. It’s the first time you embrace that clearly pop’s codes. Is this song representative of the sound you would like to have on the next album?
N.G. : You know, album after album, each time we ask ourselves how far we can go. It was already the case with “Infestissumam”. At the time, we wondered if the song “Ghuleh/Zombie Queen” wasn’t too much. After a moment of hesitation we were like “Fuck! Black Sabbath made ballads so why not us?”. On “Meliora”, we wondered if there weren’t too many ballads. Then, when we composed “Square Hammer”, we found the title too direct, too effective. We were scared our fans wouldn’t understand. We’ve always had this metalhead consciousness tugging us. But in the end, we thought a good song is a good song, no matter the shape. So to answer your question, I think our next disc will wander further more into these melodies, indeed.
You have a break until the resumption of the tour, on March. Will you write the new album while you’re at it?
N.G. : Of course! I’m already on it, I have some new songs… And a good idea where I want to go with this album, but it’s too early to talk about it. The problem is the 2017 tour will extend and I’m not sure we’ll have the time to finish the recording before going back on the roads. I think we’ll finish it in late 2017, with a potential release in 2018. Earlier seems difficult to me! All I can tell you is that visually, the next album’s imagery will come back to something way darker than “Meliora”.
What can we expect for your next date at the Olympia, on 11 April next?
N.G. : I saw today that our concert is sold out, it’s amazing! It’ll be very alike shows we gave in the USA this year. We have a stage structure more sizable compared to the last time we came in France. Visually, the show will be impressive, but we’ll also play some rare titles. The only deception is we won’t have the pyrotechnical effects, because they aren’t authorized at the Olympia. So it’ll has to work doubly hard! You know, we love to play in France. We are always very well hosted here. Moreover, what I most loved since the release of “Meliora” it’s to play again and again in France. I really saw our public grow out there when it comes to Hellfest or Rock en Seine. To feel appreciated like this is the greatest reward. Furthermore, the food is succulent in France, people are lovely and you have this attitude a bit impertinent which is rather close to that of Ghost. France, it’s our second home. We’re eager to be back at the Olympia and to party with you! (Translator note: Ooooh you and your sweet like honey words~ We love you too, dear.)
Bonus anecdote:
(Almost) naked with James Hetfield!
Our new friend Nameless Ghoul is an ultimate fan of Metallica. Before becoming friend with James Hetfield, he met him in circumstances rather… embarrassing: “Metallica, it’s the greatest band in the world! I hadn’t have time to fully savor their last album but I’m so happy to know they’re alive and in great shape. It also means they will tour, and thus we’ll get the occasion to meet on the road. James Hetfield has been one of Ghost’s first supports. I had the chance to meet him several times, and since we often message each other. The first time he’s been introduced to me, the situation was rather… surrealistic. We were in our lodge, changing ourselves, and here come James Hetfield suddenly appearing by the door to say hi. And you know what? I was in underwear! It was the most embarrassing situation of my life! I was there, in underwear, in front of my greatest idol! How embarrassing!”
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Final Space S1 Starter Sentences (6-10)
Feel free to change pronouns as needed!
"I think you need to, uh, crawl in a vent."
“I can do this.”
“We can’t let this guy win.”
“It’s my destiny.”
"Can I be your everything?"
“You’re not a good guy.”
“This is the end of the world.”
“I’ve been a terrible father.”
“You’ll only have 6 hours.”
“If you hit me, I will end you.”
“You sure there isn’t anything else that needs to be done?”
"Let's tear _____ a new butthole."
"Did you just whack me in the face with your stick?"
"Every time you go it alone, it ends in failure."
“We’re running out of time.”
“Are you detecting anything worth chatting about?”
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
"You givin' me a little clap back? You givin' me the old clap back?"
“The more you resist, the stronger the trap becomes.”
"As excited as I am about today, I'm even more excited for tomorrow."
"What kind of cookies we talkin' about?"
"We've gotta get them out."
“Why do you even like me?”
“The cookies are done.”
“What do you say we beat the crap out of him?”
"You're not alone."
"I never thought I'd be creating a murder squad."
“Please don’t. Stop. Please. Stop!”
“I got a point? I know I do.”
“You’re getting worse.”
"You will need to manually navigate it into the aperture."
“Get off my ship!”
“I don’t know who you are.”
“It’s not that impressive.”
“If he wants a war, he’s got one.”
“I passed you years ago.”
"I cannot believe we are doing this."
“All of us are broken.”
“I had only one regret when I left.”
“You still want anything to do with me?”
“Should we get up?”
"He's impetuous, irresponsible & he takes nothing seriously."
“I have to save _____.”
“He above else demanded loyalty.”
"I feel so alone."
"Didn't know that could happen."
"Just gonna get my keys."
“Stand back.”
"Can you get me to _____?"
“We both know you won’t tell me.”
“I was sent to give you a choice.”
“He stays with us.”
“The time has come.”
“I thought you’ve just been skulking around.”
“Is this bad? It sure the hell is!”
“I don’t know what we are.”
“Would you stop making the face & hurry up?”
“I have no idea what that is, so I’m gonna look at you & nod in agreement.”
"It's, like, really freakin' piping hot."
“Fine boy you have here.”
“I can make you very happy here.”
“It’s obvious he’s been bathing.”
“This looks better.”
“I’ll miss you, friend.”
"That was love in action mode."
“Drop your weapons!”
“Things are about to get real.”
“We’ll never be able to break through.”
“Will is be dangerous? You betcha.”
“What if it’s too late?”
“You can tell me when you come back.”
“____ won’t let me have a guitar.”
“Everyone you’ve cared about is gone.”
"Thank you very much for believe in me."
“That’s a real, raw promise.”
“Traps are just open casting calls for heroes.”
"I'm struggling here."
“I sense doubt in you.”
“I can do ‘nowhere near close enough’.”
"That's not helping."
"It's okay, you can admit it."
“That was insensitive. Sorry.”
"Get me the hell out of here!"
"I'm not curious. I don't think anybody's curious."
"I'm going to kill _____ before he destroys all of us."
“What’s going on with _____?”
“Should I kill ____?”
“Quick, follow me.”
"We're all gonna die."
“Anything for _____.”
"I don't like this. All this right here, I don't like."
“I will use every last breath to make sure you succeed.”
“He would’ve figured this out.”
“You’re almost as good as me.”
"You're a danger to all of us."
“I’m not coming back.”
“Dude, no one’s surprised.”
“That makes you employee of the freaking month.”
"Don't worry. That's normal."
"The question is; are you ready?"
“Don’t shoot us.”
"This isn't a joke?"
“Do you really think I’m going to hang myself by guitar strings?”
“No one left to trust.”
"What do you want to do?"
"Don't let me go."
“All of what you see now will be gone.”
“You got my back, little buddy?”
"Did you just call me dad?"
"Great news. _____ is breathing."
“I spent many hours of my day planning this.”
“There’s a 99% chance that this is a trap.”
“You promised.”
“They don’t need me anymore.”
“Is this what death feels like?”
“You can abandon ship.”
"_____ is dead!"
“Goodbye, _____. I’ll miss you.”
"Let's fly through a sun!"
“It’s dangerous! It’s life-threatening! We’re probably gonna die.”
"Maybe it's a good time for me to move on."
“We’re gonna do both jobs.”
“Am I dreaming?”
"You & I are not gonna get along."
Please do not screw this up."
"I'm not doing that."
“You can’t do that.”
“I want you to experience the same pain you put me through.”
“He’s better than I would’ve ever hoped.”
"You're not hanging out with _____."
“What the heck took you so long?”
"Tell ____ what happens."
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“All files have been deleted.”
“This is no job for a kid.”
"What...the crap...are you doing?"
"Can we change that to something more cheerful?"
“I’m going in to get it.”
"Are you cold?"
“If we’re going out, we’re going out big.”
"_____ makes an excellent point."
"_____ wants to kill _____!"
“The good guys win in the end. They always do.”
"We're coming. Deal with it."
“This isn’t a fight. It’s a death sentence.”
"Is he breathing?"
“You’ve set a collision course.”
"We need to stop her right now!"
“I wish killing you could last a lifetime.”
"I got what I need."
"What the hell? You failed to mention me."
"You're the worst."
"Cut the crap. I want answers."
“Dude! What the freak!?”
“You’re saying _____ is worth the lives of-”
“The siren’s call is beckoning us to embrace.”
“I will never leave you.”
"I offer not madness, but salvation."
“Hang tight, little buddy!”
“I was chosen.”
"You have no chance."
"I was done anyway."
“I’m finishing the job.”
"Buckle up. This will be a bumpy ride."
“We’ve been doing missions together for years.”
"Any ghost-related stuff at all would be great."
“_____ always puts other people’s lives before his own.”
“Do I have to explain myself to you? I don’t.”
“Why would you even say that?”
"It's always, like, ten degrees colder in the shade."
"We've got bigger problems!"
“This guy is making great strides.”
"I need a sign."
“I didn’t invite you into my mind.”
“It’s so beautiful.”
“We need to get to _____.”
"Don't...don't say it."
“Seeing as I know you won’t listen to me - hurry.”
"What are my chances that I'm secretly an immortal?"
"You don't want to do this. Trust me."
“We’re being yanked into space.”
“We’re being attacked by ninja sea turtles!”
"Look at all the crap."
“There is no one beside you.”
“They chose their side & we’re on the other.”
"You should talk to _____."
"I would love to live."
"I think they're going to pick a fight."
"You have a more immediate problem."
“Shouldn’t we be concentrating on this?”
“I should probably start by apologizing to you.”
"You got this!"
“There isn’t much time.”
"Good lord, that's dark."
“Get her back!”
“What? No tunes, baby?”
“What is he doing here?”
“Thought I was never gonna get the chance to see the man you would’ve grown up to be.”
“You’re doing great.”
“Get on with it, you fun-sized devil.”
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Hey i was wondering if you could do one where the readers band is on tour with all time low and at night she sings herself to sleep and jack listens to her and starts developing a crush on her? You can change it up a bit so it doesn’t suck but thanks :)
AN Hey guys! Sorry it’s been three years since I’ve posted lmao. I think I’m slowly coming back to these. For one thing I’m at my job, and I work graveyard so I’m bored as hell. For another, I really miss creative writing. I’ll update you on my life if you want next time I visit this, but other than that, hello! I won’t be updating the halloween imagines for the time being, especially since I’m trying to come back to this. I know I had one (1) request to update the side blog fanfics I had going on, but as for now, I’m going to try to do it one at a time. @ my motivation? Where r u (and im so sorry i cannot sleep i cannot dream tonighttttt) Anyways! Also I just realized that it was Creeper who were atl’s opening band on the european mainland tour for lyr and now im emo all over again. The text conversation is in the story already, I just felt the need to make it for you lol
Your POV
I knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. Our manager knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. My bandmates knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. We all were well aware, and now the fans were too. But holy shit, is it surreal. Starting from nothing, playing a max of ten people, then going to 1,000 cap rooms, oh my god is it fucking incredible. Not to mention All Time Low have been my heroes for as long as I can remember.
I’m in a pop punk band, and I play the bass. I’m not quite a singer, but I can do back up. I have three other bandmates. One sings, her name is Maria, one plays guitar, that’s Drew. And we have Allison on drums. Altogether we’re pretty badass.
I had heard in the industry that Jack was a bit of a flirt. Having Drew in our band, we didn’t think much of it. Granted, Maria was engaged, and Allison’s gay, so it’s not like either of them were available. But I knew of Jack’s wiles, so I knew to stay on my toes. We were touring in Europe around the mainland for Last young Renegade, All Time Low’s new album, and it was my band’s first time being in Europe, so we were stoked. We were up at like 8 am, exploring around the city. Though trying to fall asleep is critical, especially jet-lagged. I don’t know about most things, but what I do know is anytime I go anywhere, even if it’s in the same time zone, I’m always jet-lagged. Maybe I’m just always tired?
So we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first stop on our European tour, and we meet the guys at their bus, and I’m a little star struck. Alex Gaskarth and his iconic hair. I’m not saying I’m in the fandom, but Alex’s brown hair is nothing short of iconic. Especially when it’s longer. Huge throwback to Timebomb era, and hooo boy. That was an era to be alive. Alex was wiping down the table in his bus, muttering about these “good for nothing men, who can’t even pick up after themselves.” Jack is behind him opening the fridge, then opening the cupboards, then opening the fridge, then opening the pantry, I smiled a bit at that. Zack and Rian weren’t anywhere to be found, at least from what I could see, staring down the bus’s hallway. We were to be dragging behind them in our small little van pulling a trailer. Drew coughed, and Alex looked up. “Guys!” he smiled, throwing away his wipe. “You’re here!”
Jack looked over from his rampant searching of food and smiled at us as well. I felt my face grow hot, but tried to brush it off like I was alright. I kicked my other food and looked down at the ground to try and forget I existed for a bit. I noticed Maria smiling at me, probably knowing exactly what was going on. She knew that Jack has always been a celebrity crush of mine since 2008. “What’s up,” he said to us, nodding in our direction.
“We’re in GutterPunk,” Drew responded, usually taking initiative. “Nice to meet you guys. We’ll be on tour with you throughout the mainland.”
“Sweet!” Alex smiled, and came over to us, probably intending to shake our hands. “What’ll you be riding around?”
“We kind of don’t really know yet? We have to go pick up the rental van and trailer soon. We just wanted to meet you guys.”
“Well I’m Alex,” he said gesturing to himself. “And that fiend over there is Jack.” Jack paused from his cupboard raid and waved, then went back to it. “Hope to enjoy your guys’ music and energy out there.”
“Stoked, dude.” Drew shook his hand, and turned to walk away, out of the bus. We were all standing in his way. So he had nowhere to go.
“I’ve been a fan since middle school!” Allison told him, also shaking his hand. “Y/N and I have always dreamed of touring with you guys. It’s been a dream, really. You’re a huge inspiration! At least half of it. Tre Cool has always been my biggest, but don’t sweat it. He’s a fucking god on drums.”
“Here here!” came a voice in the back.
“That’s Rian,” Alex chuckled. “He always makes himself known at any mention of Green Day.”
I thought I had seen Jack peak over at us when Allison mentioned my name, but then again, it was all happening so fast, I didn’t have any idea as to what was going on. I tucked my hair behind my ears and introduced myself to Alex. We talked a bit before we had to go to the rental agency and get our modes of transportation. It was to be about a month in the van with these guys, tightly packed. Thank god we weren’t a ska band.
After a couple days on tour in Europe, I was getting my bearings. I started to get a feel of how it would be like throughout the month. It was a show every night for a couple days, then we’d have one or two days off. Our van broke down the fifth day, and we were ready to call it quits, me being on the verge of tears, and Allison kicking the wheel of our shitty van rental. Alex graciously offered to let us stay in their bus, but we all refused, trying desperately to figure out another way to travel. He insisted.
“Are you sure this is okay?” Maria asked him as we gathered our stuff in their bus
“Oh, it’s fine!” Alex waved us off. “You’ll just stay with us. It’s not fair that we get this huge ass bus for four of us and you guys all have to share that tiny van. Make sure you get your money back though, because that’s bullshit. Jesus Christ, man. I told Fueled that we should’ve just shared a tour bus but they’re all about ‘separating bands’ or whatever. Why we ever signed to this record label I’ll never know.”
“It was your idea,” Zack chimed in. We all laughed. “Well it was! After going to Hopeless, twice, Alex wanted to branch out. Which we all agreed to anyway. It was funny though, because he complained about it every chance he got.”
“I’m well aware of that. But Fueled by Ramen seems to forget that we were once small too! Power to the little people!”
We all laughed again and gathered in their bus to prepare for the next night which was to be a day off. I was nervous, because this meant that Jack would be just down the hall, if you can even call it that, from me. It reached 1 am that night after the show, and we had all gathered in our beds to try and sleep so we could get out and do fun things around France.
I always used to sing myself to sleep to calm my nerves, and after about an hour of tossing and turning, it seemed like that was my only option if I wanted to sleep. I started off by humming softly, in case I would wake anyone up. After about ten minutes of that, and no sounds of stirs happened, I sang quietly. First was Lullabies, which is my go to song to sing when I need to sleep. Something about the line “Sing me to sleep, I’ll see you in my dreams” makes me feel at peace. After I finished with that, I heard the quiet patter of feet. I stopped for a bit, to wait to see if it came again, and when it didn’t I started again. Snuff by Slipknot is another one that calms me down, and I sang that, but right at the bridge I heard the patter again. I drew back the curtain, and saw Jack standing there. He looked scared to see me notice him, and promptly turned back towards his bed, and didn’t look back at me.
I frowned but pulled the covers up. I guess he doesn’t actually want to get to know me. I closed my eyes to try for the.. Was it the fourth time? Third time? I lost count. But I tried once more to sleep. Then I heard the pang next to me of a text message.
I promise I wasn’t trying to listen to you sing.
It was from Jack. We had all exchanged numbers at the beginning of the tour. My thumbs danced over my screen as I thought of what to say.
Don’t worry about it
I just heard it and then i couldn’t stop
It’s fine, jack. Really
Your voice is really pretty tho
Can we talk tomorrow?
I have something I need to tell you
What could he possibly need to tell me? I was freaking out. And now I can’t sleep even more. Fuck. This was going to be a long night.
I mean I’m awake right now
I can’t really say it right now
Well, what the fuck does that mean? I sigh and then turn around and face the wall. The bus was moving, but I felt like my stomach was moving ten thousand times faster. Him talking to me like this is the first real conversation he’s had with me. Most of the time he avoids me. Whatever it is, I guess I can wait. I prepared for a long sleepless night after that.
When I woke up, everyone was bustling about, getting ready for the day off. “Jack! Y/N!” Rian called down to us. I guess neither of us had gotten up. “We’re going out to breakfast!”
I moaned in recognition, and heard nothing from Jack, so I assumed he had gone with them. I threw my covers off and went straight to the bathroom. When I got out, I saw a tall lanky man with bed head staring at me.
“Uh. Hello.” I said stupidly.
“Hey, uh. About last night.”
“It’s fine if you don’t want to say anything. I get it. I’m a backup singer for a reason.”
“No that’s not it! Um.” He stopped talking to look down at his feet. “Look. I know this is weird. Especially since I hardly know you. But, I’ve actually been following your band for a while. And dude, you’re like insanely hot. And then I find out you’re a good person too? Last night, hearing your singing it made me realize.. Fuck, this is so stupid. It made me realize I’m in love with you.” With the last uttering of those words, he looked up at me. “Sorry.”
“Are you fucking serious?” I raised my eyebrows, completely awestruck. Jack Barakat, the celebrity crush of my teen years was telling me he was in love with me? When it looked like he in fact, was not kidding, I immediately blushed and looked away. “Dude. I’ve been in love with you since I was like 14.”
A smile lit up his face as he started talking really fast, rambling. “Oh my god! Really? Holy shit okay, so like we can go get breakfast with the others, or we can go get breakfast by ourselves, we could walk down the Seine, we are in France after all. Holy fu-”
I started laughing, but grabbed his hand with mine, since he was waving it all around. “Slow down there, I can barely keep up. Let’s go get breakfast first, and talk this out. You’ve basically been avoiding me since I got here.”
“Well yeah, I didn’t really know how to strike up a conversation.”
I chuckled. “This is weird, huh?”
“So weird.” He nodded in agreement. I realized I was still holding his hand, but I didn’t let go. Instead we walked off the bus, headed towards the cafe for breakfast. My heart was in my throat but this felt right. After the initial break of the ice, he wouldn’t shut up, but I loved hearing his voice. He could talk for hours on end if he really wanted to.
#jack barakat#jack barakat imagine#jack barakat fanfiction#all time low#all time low fanfiction#all time low imagine#band imagines
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#19 - 6000 Headphones, 12 Mobile Phones, SOO Many Shoes, And An Earworm Inside The Biebs’ Head
What better way to fight a war than with love? And what better way to rule the world than with love? Because how do you fight back against love? How do you? What’s that lawn sign? Love trumps hate—Or, what did Taylor say? Hater’s gonna hate (hate x3), is my math right on that? How many times does Taylor say the word hate in Shake It Off? Or, if you live in the south, Gators gonna gait…. Get it? Because there are gators always walking around in the south and the word gait is another word for how a person walks, although, I don’t know if it can be applied to an alligator walking around because I’m pretty sure they crawl instead of walk. Although, perhaps one might describe alligators as slithering around like snakes, then again, if you ask a snake, they’ll be like… WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Alligators don’t slither, don’t even try to steal my mode of mobility, they saunter, and maybe alligators do saunter about. But, let’s just pretend alligators gait, because it rhymes with haters gonna hate. There’s a lot of pretending going on in this story. Just remember that, play pretend and you’ll follow along just fine.
Stay with me here for a quick second and a hot minute before I get back to the story—suppose that this Elvis sound were real, obviously it’s not because it’s just a story and not real, remember we’re just playing pretend, unless… it IS real and I’m coincidentally writing fiction about something that DOES happens to be real, I just don’t happen to know that it is real, I suppose there’s always that highly unlikely scenario—but just for a moment, let your imagination run wild and really think about it. Back in the day when Rock and Roll first came into existence it changed the world, or so I’ve been told, it changed everyone who encountered it, again, not from personal experience, just what I’ve been told, the groove made you move, brought people together in a new and different way. It’s hard to know what that experience was like if you didn’t live through it, especially since it’s all part of our society and history nowadays. But, there was a time before it existed when no one even knew something like it could exist, and then ears at the time were infected with infectious melodies that they couldn’t get enough of, they hungered for more of this new and incredible musical genre, of course it wouldn’t be the last time a new genre was created and ears hungered for more.
But an interesting side effect of it all was that it created cultural icons, as the new genres continue to do. It created idols, you know, like those with the first name of Billy, it created nice days for white weddings, and to start again. And of course, these days there’s a new Billie in idol town, but I’ll get to why I bring her up later on.
Early rock stars and pop icons became immortalized, living on long after death, they’re gods and goddesses, a new era of decorated war heros or royals, as Lorde so eloquently put it, the weapon of choice a microphone or a guitar, or maybe both, or sometimes a keyboard, or a plethora of other instruments, insert instrument of choice here, maybe even a ukulele! Mostly, though, early on the rock and roll army was a guitarmy.
These rock gods and goddesses all image and no human being, especially true of those who are no longer with us, the human being may be gone, but the image lives on, and we still look up to those who can sing and dance and gel their hair back in slick new ways. Fantastic fashion abound, and the preferred weapons around, like I said, musical instruments, maybe some guitars, and guitar solos the ammunition. Some would argue, not me, but some would say that’s what has gone wrong in our modern society, we mourn the loss of great guitar solos from these songs at the top of the charts.
Could one correlate a graph with a rise in violence directly inversely correlated with solos in rock music? Maybe. But anyone can correlate anything if you tried hard enough, which is the point here, like fictionally connecting modern day Billy Porter in Taylor Swift’s music video for You Need To Calm Down, to back in the day Bill Porter, the sound engineer with the golden ear that recorded with Elvis in The Sixties. But it does seem as though the guitar solo has been quietly replaced, those wailing solos instead becoming a bank of samples on which most music is now based. Samples upon samples spliced in and layered over top of loops and mashed together with other samples and loops, but where did the samples originate? So many musicians use samples in music without knowing anything about their origin. It’s the wild west of sampling. Anything that sounds good can be put in a beat or a hook. And of course top it off with “The Drop”. Ah yes, The Drop—the silence before a storm of melody, and perhaps that silence is what does it, what makes you anticipate the hook, what makes you addicted to the noise. It sucks you in, and holds your ears hostage, note after note after note. Making it so hard to turn the song off, we simply can’t get enough of the stuff.
Suppose the sound were real though, go all in with suspension of disbelief, and samples upon samples of it were layered into songs you listen to, some of your favorite songs of all time, the ones you can’t get enough of and press repeat again, and again, exposing your ears over and over to the sound… Changing your brainwaves and playing with your mind and emotions… each new track artists put out an even more potent version to pull fans in, the only choice the fans have is to follow, unable to break away from the influence of our favorite icons and idols as we hang on their every word. I mean, is it so absurd? We continue to break streaming records, sell out stadiums, and fans are willing to fight for the right for their favorite artist to part ways with a record label, if you were an artist or a band, and in the market for fans, wouldn’t you sign up for it too? What’s the harm in a little bit of sugar and spice to make everything already nice… Well, even more so, maybe twice or thrice that spice?
And is it really all that hard to believe? How many times have you pushed the back button on a song and listened to it again, a third time, a fifth time in a row? How many times have you done something you wouldn’t normally have done because of a song? How many times have you turned yourself around because a song changed your mood or mind, or your heart, asked someone to dance, or texted someone you probably wouldn’t have texted because of a tune you heard playing out on the town, or while shopping, or a song playing in a movie or TV show—how many times was just hearing the slightest snippet of a certain song taken as a sign and changed the course of your entire life? I’m willing to bet more than a few of you out there just raised your hand.
Oak Felder finished making another point, “…but all that is lost to history and now pop stars are using it to control their fans.”
“Lure them in with love.” Ariana said smiling. “I mean, it works!”
“This is like, really blowing my mind right now.” Scooter said. “This just keeps getting even crazier! It’s like, be careful what music you listen to because you have no idea what might happen to your mind…”
Scott reminded Scooter. “And especially in Justin’s case, yeah—because his mind could be wiped if he hears the wrong song while he’s earwormed.”
Oak looked over at Pop, “Well, hold on to your seat, Scooter, because I found something else noteworthy! We took Ariana’s suggestion to Shazam the sound, and—though I didn’t exactly do that—while we were analyzing it last night I did extract the sonic footprint of it, and Pop here was able to cross reference the footprint against the Shazam database in its entirety.”
“Yeah?” Scooter responded, bracing for something extremely mind numbing.
“It seems as though Scott’s mystery Porter Pyramid noise, AKA ‘The Elvis Egg’ sound, may be in a lot more music than we thought. It seems to show up across the Shazam library as small bits and pieces, or as these small pieces of music are more commonly referred to as, samples.”
“Wait, you mean sampling?” Justin said, sitting again beside Ariana Grande but this time in a small but fun looking and colorfully designed IKEA-esk chair right beside the oversized beanbag chair, since Ariana had already called perpetual fivesies on the bean chair Justin had to find a new seat from the last time the group was in the studio. Fivesies, for those not in the loop mean you have a claim to your seat after getting up, but that claim lasts for no more and no less than five minutes. Although some people don’t always adhere to the rule, I won’t name names, but you know who you are. Was that ten years ago? Yes. Am I still bitter? That was my seat and you know it—Whatever, I’m allowed to be upset, how could anyone reading this possibly know what it’s like to have something that used to be yours suddenly in the possession of someone else. It was mine, and then all of a sudden someone else is sitting on it, and wouldn’t let me have what was rightfully mine—even after I called fivesies! It’s frustrating when someone takes something that was yours. I mean, Taylor gets it, she called Fivesies on her back catalog of recordings and someone else, I won’t name names, totally took it from her. Sorry, I digress, I’ll get back to the story—I’m in one of those writer’s moods, if you couldn’t tell.
Oak responded very matter-of-factly. “That’s right Justin, sampling. You know it as beats, grooves, drum breaks, horn sounds, and guitar riffs, just to name a few examples. Most listeners have no idea that the original source of the sounds isn’t a direct recording, but a mashed up copy of a copy of a copy, sometimes many times over.”
“So, does that mean there are bad samples in music?” Ariana said swooping in and stealing the response directed at Justin—maybe you should have called fivesies on the convo, Justin.
Scooter scooted into the conversation too, taking some response time as well, being that it was there for the taking, like how Taylor’s masters were, so why not? Why buy a vowel when you can buy an entire sentence in the form of a question, “What, like, you’re telling me that music is infected? How? Is it all music?”
That was three questions Scooter; you were only supposed to have asked one, you only bought one question, not three.
“No, not all music. Just certain samples—“ Pop Wansel replied very Goldblum-y. It was his turn to be Jeff. Everyone gets to be Jeff Goldblum at least once and you can’t call fivesies on being Jeff Goldblum, only Jeff himself can do that.
Oak leaned forward in his Spaceship command chair. “What’s the most sampled song of all time? Does anyone know?”
“Umm…” They all unknowingly blinked their eyes in the same cadence of the Capitol Records light and shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, Justin’s cats moved their tails back and forth as they sat sleepily on the laps of two humans in the room, I’m not at liberty to disclose which two laps the cats sat upon, but they sat on two laps. No fivesies were called, cats don’t need fivesies, they just sit wherever they please.
“No one knows the answer? Well, the year was 1969. A funk soul band named The Winstons released a single called ‘Color Him Father’. The B side of that record contained a funked up version of a gospel song named ‘Amen, Brother’. Now, of course, Color Him Father would win a Grammy for best R and B song after hitting number seven on the Billboard hot 100 charts, but the B side to that record? Well, no one really paid it much attention for years… Eventually it would become the most sampled drum break in all music, it’s called the ‘Amen Break’. It was first added to a compilation named Ultimate Breaks and Beats, which was popular with Hip Hop producers and DJs during the early days of Hip Hop. The breakthrough hit Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. most likely propelled it into the mainstream, Straight Outta Compton contained a slowed down looped version of the Amen Break in its entirety, although it was used on other songs at the time as well. I believe the first track to sample it was I Desire by Salt-N-Pepa. Eventually it was broken apart, spliced up, and bits and piece of it were used in thousands of songs.”
“So, are you saying sampling is bad?” The lawyer asked, his red pen poised and ready to make a new note on his notepad.
“No. Oh, of course not. There are a lot of great songs that contain samples, but as with any tool, or invention, it’s in the way that you use it, like Eric Clapton says. Same is true with any sign, or symbol, or any product of a culture, or subculture, it’s the way you use it, or more importantly, what meaning becomes attached. Musically speaking, it’s about what hooks on to those catchy hooks. Brands are a whole other ballgame and a conversation for another time—Sometimes just by wearing a certain brand, or putting a sticker on the bumper of your car, you can say a lot about what you stand for, without using any words at all. Without going really deep into the meaning of life, for whatever reason we humans have a way of creating things that represent the good in the world, the bad in the world, and additionally, the indifferent—or one point of view over another—like I said, conversation for another time. But the meanings shift, something that had absolutely no real meaning can become a symbol of power, or a movement. A heart symbol could say love, but it could be a declaration of war depending on the context and who sends it to you. How many individuals took a knee before Colin Kaepernick did? Did the gesture of taking a knee change in its meaning after Colin did it? How about when Nike made a deal with Colin, how did that change the meaning of the Nike symbol? I’m going to let you think about the answers to those questions. Music, brands, gestures, bumper stickers are simply what they are, but in the context of society and culture in a specific place and time the meaning can be so much more. Music isn’t just music, it’s so much more. Every person will tell you his or her personal attachment to any song, and it can be a shared experience, or a singular one. I’m sure we can all think of a song that takes us back in time, and maybe it’s a memory you share with millions, or an experience only you know about. Humans have a tendency not to start out making anything to be a symbol of a moment, that usually happens later on, we make things, usually with the best of intentions, but sometimes just because it’s something that we are passionate about, what starts out as innocent, or cool, or just something to do, can become a beacon of hope, in the right hands, or a nightmare down the road should it fall into the wrong hands. The future of anything can’t be predicted. Rock and Roll had a start with a small group of musicians who probably didn’t even know it was Rock and Roll at the time, and that it would eventually spread through the entire world. The Amen Break started with one single drummer Gregory C. Coleman, and later would be used in thousands of songs.”
“And that’s causing this war with the Swifities? The war with Taylor?” An Arianator asked.
“We aren’t at war with Taylor…” Oak replied, his tone of voice turning very serious, “We’re at war with an unfortunate scenario. Taylor isn’t fighting a war because she wants to, she’s fighting it because she needs to. It’s not her fault, she’s a victim of circumstance... as so many other innocent people on this planet have been and continue to be.”
Scott grabbed his share of the conversation as well, “Trouble’s gonna follow where she goes…”
Oak took it back, “Trouble follows us all, we are all victims of circumstance. And we’re all fighting wars made of personal battles. Just some of us more than others.”
“She’s a victim of her own music holding her hostage, like how I’m a victim of this earworm in my head.” Justin said solemnly.
Ariana turned to Justin sitting beside her, “Since you don’t want to talk about what happened, I may be out of place by saying this, and I hate to have to say this Justin, but if you hadn’t broken up with Selena like twenty times, you might not have her earworm in your head right now.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Justin said back.
Ariana stifled a growl of frustration with her hands, turning her attention to Oak instead. “So we’re fighting to free Taylor from her old masters? Or specifically, from that egg sound—from samples used… We’re fighting for her, not against her?” Ariana asked for clarification. She reached for her phone in her pocket and gave it a squeeze. With the masters tracks back in Taylor’s hands, she now held the only recording of the easter egg track should they need it. She decided to keep its existence a secret. If they found out they may take it from her. For a minute she felt a rush of power wash over her, like some energy from the past or another dimension was trying to come to her and take over. The power pulsed through her for a brief moment, chills down her spine, before she was able to push back against whatever it was creating the rush inside her.
“As long as I still get to own her.” Scooter said, “I mean, own her old masters, sorry, that’s what I meant. A deal is a deal and I bought them fair and square.”
Everyone glowered at Scooter.
“What? I mean, after this is all over of course.”
Everyone continued to glower.
“Why am I the bad guy in this?”
Flower power was big in the 60s, but in these modern times glower power is where it is at.
“Okay FINE, once this is over I’ll work with her to figure out a way for her to buy back her masters, or something.”
Glower power for the win.
Scooter uncrossed his fingers from behind his back. You sly devil you.
“The Elvis egg sound isn’t good or bad in itself, just like The Amen Break isn’t good or bad, Rock and Roll and Hip Hop are music, but to paraphrase Clapton, it’s in the way that she’s using it. See the egg sound in itself makes you feel trippy; Which makes sense, it’s from the 60s. The Elvis egg sound is from the start of the decade, and the Amen Break is from the end of the decade. The egg sound makes you feel good. But, as we’ve come to learn, when it interacts with specific sound samples, such as The Amen Break—that’s when you get… Well, it seems you get side effects. But those side effects used in a specific manner, like what was done to Justin here, can be used as a weapon—” Oak told them as much as they needed to know. It’s a bit like when scientists first invented the atom bomb, too much knowledge about something with that much power can be dangerous. Musical genres have more power and are more influential than anyone could possibly fathom. “It’s a weapon of war.” He said plainly.
“That’s where the earworm came from. You combine specific samples together… and anything is possible. It can be used to push viral content, or addict and hook fans, or you can disarm your opponents, make them unable to fight back.” Pop clarified for the ears in the room. “When you combine new and old samples, things get really tricky. Take, umm… Old Town Road, for example, that song took off seemingly overnight, but why?”
“Well it obviously took off because of me when I shared it on social media for all my Beliebers.” Justin said. He tried to sing the song and do the dance… “Gonna take my love to the love love road to love love, I needed to lose you to love me… “ He stopped trying and sat there lost inside his head again.
“That’s not quite how it goes, but I’m fascinated by the mashup of music going on in your head. Does anyone else want to comment on the song, does anyone know the origin of the track used behind the vocals?” Oak asked.
“Didn’t he just find it online, Soundcloud, or YouTube or something, and then… Lay down his vocals over it?” One of the Arianators offered.
“No, I think he bought it from a beats site for 30 bucks. Wait, let me Google it. Okay, it says here ‘The hook was originally purchased for $30 on BeatStars, a rap-focused beats marketplace.’ That’s cool.” The other Arianator replied back.
Oak stepped in, his voice soothing and constructive, “Well, so the original sample in Old Town Road is actually a Nine Inch Nails song named 34 Ghosts IV. And it was placed over a trap beat and posted online for sale by a Dutch teenager Kiowa Roukema, who also goes by ‘Young Kio’. Now, when you consider the entire Old Town Road song together in final form you have various tracks recorded at various times and places using various microphones and instruments, and other recording equipment including effects processors and such. Each individual sound recording and sample was layered on top of one another, even the original sound sample from Nine Inch Nails had already been mastered, yet it was mastered again when it was posted for sale as a beat, and then mastered another time when Lil Nas X posted his version online, then the remix was mastered yet again. It’s like Scooter said, an omlette of eggs. If any piece of it contains the egg sound, you have a very complex variation of the original sounds that has been manipulated and mangled many times over with every sub master, the same has happened over the years with The Amen Break. For all we know the Amen Break could be in that song, as there isn’t a clear source of every sample used to make the trap beat. It’s a potent mix that when played into someone’s ear can have some very strange effects—”
“Love love… To love love… I needed to lose you to love me… Dammit Selena! Get out of my head!” Justin erupted cutting off the conversation. “It’s GETTING WORSE!” He shouted then kneeled down on the floor holding his head between his hands he hummed Selena Gomez’s song Lose You To Love Me, softly at first, then yelled out, “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” He started to cry, just for a few tears, before wiping them away and sprawling out on the floor looking up at the ceiling fan. His tears of anguish continued, flowing from his eyes and running down his cheeks. “I give up.” He said quietly, his lower lip quivering. “I can’t stop hearing it. It’s just there on repeat—over and over again. I just give up. I want it to stop. Make it stop. I can’t take it anymore! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! SELINA GOMEZ MAKE IT STOP!!! I WANT OUT OF THIS! I DON’T WANT YOU IN MY HEAD ANYMORE!!!”
“Oak you gotta help him. Can’t you do anything?” Ariana begged rushing to Justin’s side.
Oak looked over at Pop. They nodded to one another. Justin couldn’t wait any longer.
Pop got up and walked over to a Star Wars movie poster on the wall. He turned around and held his hand out, Oak tossed the replica light saber at him, Pop caught it without flinching and then stood in front of the poster mimicking the stance of Skywalker.
The poster began to roll up revealing a door.
“No way!” Scooter gasped. “What the?”
Oak smiled. “Shall we?”
Ariana helped Justin up and walked with him. Her two Arianators rushed over to help carry him.
Everyone walked over to the doorway previously hidden behind the poster and one by one they walked through it.
The doorway led into a passageway that resembled the engine room of a spaceship—It was something out of every movie you’ve ever seen that takes place in space. Hidden LED lights glowed spreading a soft even light, a blue hue that matched a humming sound, the engines of the spaceship.
Oak Felder and Pop Wansel piloted the crew through the copious amount of twists and turns. Several times forks in the tunnel shot off to the left or right of them.
“How much money did it cost you to build this?” The lawyer asked at one point. Oak didn’t answer until they reached their final destination.
“I didn’t build it for me, it was initially my wife’s extended shoe closet for shoe’s she refused to throw out, even though she knew she would never wear them again.”
Scooter laughed. “My wife would be jealous, her shoe collection is taking over the house! I used to think ‘why would you keep shoes if you’re never going to wear them again?’ Ah, I was so young and naive. I know better now. But why? Why so many shoes!”
Ariana responded “It’s just a thing. It’s like keeping photos, memories of the past. Also, you never know, there MIGHT be an occasion when you need that EXACT shoe! And then if you had previously owned that pair and thrown them out you’d be kicking yourself. Also, if you can afford that many shoes, why not spoil yourself? Whoever said money can't solve your problems, must not have had enough money to solve 'em, they say, ‘Which one?’ I say, ‘Nah, I want all of 'em’, happiness is the same price as red-bottoms.”
Oak stopped the group at a large door. The door glowed amber around the edges outlining its silhouette. He pulled out a key. He inserted the key and turned the key clockwise. While still holding the key in its turned position he pressed a large button, the first few seconds of a song began to play then it stopped. He named the artist and the song. Another song played, then stopped, again he named the artist and the song speaking out loud towards the door. This continued for three more songs, after which a sixth and final song played for a little longer than the first five. It played long enough for a few song lyrics to be heard before stopping, he continued singing the next line picking up where the song left off.
A small display beside the key and button read, “You win this round of trivia tunes!”
With that the door opened.
“SO that’s how you’re soo good at the audio round when we go to trivia night.” Ariana said jokingly.
“You got me.”
With that Oak ushered everyone through the door.
“Whoa!” Scott shouted out after the motion sensor lights turned from a low amber glow to a bright and cheerful yellow, fully illuminating the room.
Half the room was filled with rows upon rows of headphones—All different kinds, vintage, modern, big clunky over ear headphones, sleek new sport Bluetooth ear buds that slipped inside the ear, every different type anyone could possibly imagine, there were thousands upon thousands of headphones, the collection seemed to go on forever, endlessly. The other half of the room was filled with an equal amount of shoes, which also seemed to go on forever.
“Yeah, my wife really likes shoes. What’s that phrase? Happy wife, happy life. All those songwriter royalty checks mostly go to two things, new toys for the studio, and my wife.”
“Oak, I was saying whoa about the headphone collection, but the shoe collection is equally as impressive as well.” Scott scanned the room with his eyes. “How many headphones are in here Oak?” Scott asked out of curiosity.
“Hmm, I’d say at least six thousand. I’ve lost count.”
“Six thousand headphones!”
“I had more, but my wife made me get rid of some to make space to move more shoes in.” He shrugged as if to silently say, what are you gonna do about it? Nothing. “Okay, let’s see what we can do for Justin.”
Oak held his finger in the air and wiggled it towards him indicating for the group to follow. They walked down a few rows of headphones as though they were walking through the aisles in a headphone only thrift shop. Headphones clung neatly to hooks as low as a few inches off the floor all the way to the ceiling three stories up. Ladders like one might find in an old bookstore ran along the shelves for access to the upper levels.
Oak picked up one pair and handed the headphones to Justin. They were super vintage, 70s or 80s maybe? Well worn, large and clunky. He plugged the audio cable into the same device he had used to diagnose the earworm playing a sound through the headphones. “How about that?”
Justin stood for a minute with the headphones on his head then shook his head no indicating that the worm was stronger than ever. Taking the headphones off he handed them back to Oak. They walked a to the end of an aisle then down another, “AH HAH!” He took another pair off a hook. This time the pair was Bluetooth capable modern and flashy, customizable and comfortable with an over the ear fit. He carefully placed the headphones over Justin’s ears and tapped on the digital touch screen of the earworm device after syncing the Bluetooth connection. He cycled through various settings.
“Anything yet?”
“No. I don’t think so.” Justin shook his head, and then shifted the headphones to fit better. Oak continued to tap through various settings.
“Wait!” Justin smiled slightly. “Go back!”
Oak tapped the screen again.
“There! I mean, I can still hear it slightly, but it’s barely even noticeable just soft background music. I can deal with it like this. Whatever these headphones do, keep doing it.”
Oak searched for the right response, “Umm, well it’s complicated science, let’s just say they’re emitting a phase cancelation noise that is close to what the earworm sound is.”
“Works for me!” Justin said in an upbeat voice.
Ariana high fived Oak and then low fived Justin.
Just then the lawyer’s phone rang. He walked away for privacy. “Uh huh… Oh, interesting…”
“That’s not good.” Scott said staring at the lawyer.
“How do you know?” Scooter asked.
Scott shook his head. “He only says ‘oh, interesting…’ when it’s something bad. He’ll never say anything is bad, just ‘interesting’.”
“How does he get cell service down here?” Oak asked. “Even I don’t get cell service!”
“With him, it’s better not to question such things, just accepted it.” Scott replied.
“Okay then.” Oak said, backing off the subject.
After the call ended Carl, the lawyer walked back over to the group.
“What is it?” Scott asked.
“Just got off the phone with… Well, I’m not at liberty to disclose who the caller was… but let’s just say they had an interesting piece of information.”
“And that information is?” Scott said in a coaxing voice.
“Taylor is going to place the porter egg sound behind her song Lover during her performance tonight at the American Music Awards, she’s using the string arrangement as a guise.”
“She can’t do that, we have to stop that!” Scooter screamed out. The room fell silent aside from the humming of a few air ventilation fans.
“There may be a way.” Oak finally said, breaking the silence. “It would require getting two specific individuals to join with us—we’ll need someone on the inside who can get access to the equipment in order to swap the sound a second time with a placebo track, and we need someone to interrupt Taylor Swift right before her speech, long enough to swap out that backing track she’s going to play during Lover.”
“I can think of two people who might be perfect.” Justin’s spirits were picking back up, he seemed to be closer to his old self and less distant.
“Who?” Scott asked.
“Well, the insider will already be there… Billie Eilish. We’ve been chill ever since Coachella, you remember, Ariana,” Ariana nodded, how could she forget Coachella. Justin continued, “and of course more recently she let me record a vocal track on another version of her ‘Bad Guy’ single. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t made an alliance with Taylor yet. I know, I KNOW, I was wrong about Ed Sheeran, but I think we can trust Billie.”
“Okay, that would work. What about the other person? We need someone to interrupt Taylor before the song, we need someone who has experience, who can get it right, we’ll only get one shot at this…”
They glanced at each other, not saying a word.
Scooter smiled, “Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? There’s only one person with the skill and experience to interrupt Taylor Swift at precisely the right moment.”
“KANYE WEST!” Everyone yelled together.
The helicopter blades spun up as the group climbed through the open doors. Scott told his ‘Where we’re going we don’t need roads, because we’re in a helicopter!’ joke again. Oak laughed.
“See, Oak gets my humor.” Scott said, satisfied that his joke was finally a hit.
Sushi and Tuna could be seen sitting in a window of the house looking out. They were to stay at the spaceship studio in the care of the Defenders just in case Taylor tried to make any further kitty cat kidnapping attempts.
Pop was the last to climb on board, a Defender handed him a large black duffle bag after he was safely inside the helicopter. He then handed the bag to Oak. Oak unzipped the bag to make sure the contents were all there, enough gold headphone cases for each one of them. He passed the cases out. “Don’t lose these.” Oak instructed them. “There’s a set of over ear Beats by Dre headphones, special grade custom made Solo Pro with Active Noise Cancelling technology. They’re linked with an integrated communication system so we can communicate with each other. Works up to five miles away in a mesh network, so as long as each one of us is within at least five miles of another person, we can all talk. Battery runs off kinetic energy, as long as you’re breathing, the headphones will work. Unfold them to turn on, fold them to turn off. There’s one mode for active cancelation with communication and another pre programed mode matching Justin’s frequency in case you get earwormed. We don’t know if they have one strain of the Gomez earworm, or multiple, but right now, it’s the best we have. This does mean Justin won’t have communication with us through the headphones, someone’s going to have to stay with him should the need arise for us to use these.”
“What are these little ones?” Scooter asked picking a smaller set of ear buds from perfectly cut-to-shape spaces within the foam. They sat snuggly inside the case beside the Beats Solo Pro headphones.
“Lookalike AirPods—although, they aren’t Apple, Taylor’s been handing out some kind of custom set to her Swifties, they call them SwiftPods. These will work in a pinch to protect you from both the Swift sound, and possible exposure to an earworm, but they contain no communication and it’s hard to hear anyone trying to talk to you, the noise cancelation is complete and contains no filters. They basically work like earplugs, but they look like SwiftPods so you won’t blow your cover in close proximity to a Swiftie.”
“We won’t be needing these,” Ariana grabbed Scooter’s case out of his hands and handed it back along with her own case. “Can you drop Scooter and I off at LAX before we stop at Kanye’s house? My private jet is waiting—we’ve got a show to make…” She looked over at Scooter disapprovingly.
“Better do as she asks.” Scooter said to everyone.
“But that’s out of the way!” Scott exclaimed. Ariana stared at him, her eyes piercing through him. He quickly backtracked, “Yeah, we can do that. Sure thing, not a problem Ms. Grande.” Scott said to her after looking to the lawyer and getting a nod of approval from the lawyer.
“Will you two be alright out there?” Oak asked.
Scooter shrugged.
“We’ll be fine.” Ariana said in a decisively powerful tone. “My Arianators will protect us from any Swifties if they try anything tricky, it’s Justin that you need to look out for, they’ve already used him twice in this war game, first with the kittynapping and then the earworm weapon, they’re likely to strike again to get to Scooter.”
The helicopter lifted into the air headed first for LAX and then to Kanye West’s house.
#taylor swift#swifties#arianator#ariana grande#shoes#earworm#justin bieber#amen break#kanye#kanye west#billie eilish#beatsaudio#rockandroll#billy idol#elvis#nike#happywifehappylife#lovetrumpshate
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Ely’s Ever-Changing Playlist - Sat. Aug 31st
You can find the playlist on Spotify right here. The Ever-Changing Playlist is best listened to on Shuffle Mode. I plan on updating this playlist every Saturday, and rotating songs out and in with new releases and whatever’s caught my fancy this week.
Feel free to send me music you like, I’m always open to new songs to listen to and I like literally every genre except death metal and polka. (I’m also not a big fan of musical theater, tbh). But like seriously, fuck polka.
This first playlist is a pretty eclectic mix of new releases and not-so-new releases, in a variety of genres. Probably a little heavy on the rock, to be honest, but that’s the mood I’m in this week. You’ll get whiplash, though, ‘cause there’s some good country and pop on here too.
Song list and comments are under the cut!
Scrawny by Wallows - I love self-deprecating but somehow still kind of cocky rock (like Polaroid by Imagine Dragons). They also have that bedroom rock kind of vibe that I love. Plus I love the line “I’m a scrawny motherfucker with a cool hairstyle” and hardcore relate to the line “I say the wrong shit at the right time.”
Wild Roses by Of Monsters and Men - I honestly didn’t know how to feel about the new album for a couple of weeks. They’ve definitely gone for a more pop vibe to their songs - Alligator was catchy but it seems like a lot of the songs on their Fever Dream album just don’t have the same lyrical depth as songs like King and Lionheart or Wolves Without Teeth or Little Talks. It’s a good song - catchy, like I said - but honestly I was hoping for better when I heard a new album was coming out.
Blame It On my Youth by Blink-182 - This may actually be my most highly-anticipated release this year. For one thing, Blame It On My Youth actually sounds like Blink-182, like you could follow it with All the Small Things and there’d be no real musical shift. Which is honestly amazing, considering how much they’ve been through as a band, and of course, the lineup changes. Hoppus still sounds like Hoppus, though, and the music is still that glorious “fuck you, watch this” guitar that kickstarted the whole early 2000s guitar rock (you wouldn’t have FOB without Blink-182, and you can tell in the early FOB albums). I love to see Nine come out on September 20th - Blink-182 is a legendary band in the punk genre and hearing this song felt like coming home. “I was bored to death, so I started a band/ Cut my teeth on the Safety Dance, my attention span never stood a chance.”
Love All Night (Work All Day) by Yola - You know those gentle 70s rock/soul songs? Vaguely influenced by country, definitely influenced by R&B, leave you with a feeling of home and comfort while also kind of inspiring you to go out and work on some social change? It’s definitely got a Memphis rock vibe, but it also really made me want to listen to The Temptations and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The best part about it is that this album came out this year.
Circles by Post Malone - I’m actually a huge Post Malone fan, because I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. You might be wondering how those two things add up. Post Malone cites one of his major influences to be Stevie Nicks, and in fact his vocal (when he sings, instead of rapping) draws a lot from Stevie’s unique vibrato and slurring of the words. Circles captures this beautifully, but if you really want the best that Post Malone has to offer (in the singing department, I’ll fight people over how good Wow. is), you really need to check out his remix and mashup of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams from his August 26th mixtape. Check it out here. The unfortunate thing is that it can only be found on Youtube or the mixtape app DatPiff.
Drive by The Cars - So this is on the list because Tim McGraw put out a cover, and I usually like Tim McGraw, but Drive is not a song you can make a country cover out of. You can’t do it. Listen to this one instead of the Tim McGraw version, and if you’re really wanting a Tim McGraw fix, Neon Church is good.
Refugee by Melissa Etheridge - Speaking of covers, this is my girl Melissa’s cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s Refugee, and frankly, I like it more. She goes hard, is the thing, sings every word like she fuckin’ well means it. That’s the thing about Melissa Etheridge, she is passionate about her music. This cover was released on her greatest hits album in 2005 - fun fact, this album included four new songs total, including I Run for Life, written for others, like Melissa, who have gone through breast cancer. It’s a damn good album, I had to recently buy a new hard copy because I wore the first CD out.
Mornin’s Gonna Come by Brent Cobb - I actually don’t know why this hit the Apple playlists this week, considering it was released on the album Providence Canyon back in 2018. It’s a pretty southern-rock style song, despite the country label, and sounds like a party song right up until you’re listening to the lyrics. Turns out it’s about the fact that everything done in the dark will eventually come to light, whether that’s a hangover or something deeper.
Soon You’ll Get Better by Taylor Swift feat. Dixie Chicks - Okay, listen. I love this song. Hearing Natalie come in on the vocals in the background for the first time since 2006 made me bawl. The Dixie Chicks were the main music of my childhood, I grew up with Wide Open Spaces and Fly. Add in the poignant lyrics about watching someone struggle through illness - Taylor opens up in an article that it’s about her parents’ battles with cancer, but we all take something away from music we listen to and it made me cry because I relate to it from a mental and chronic illness standpoint.
60 & Punk by Death Cab for Cutie - So, Death Cab actually has a new EP coming out and the new single on it Kids in 99 is pretty good, but I’m still stuck on their album Thank You for Today. I don’t know if it was my stint in the Pacific Northwest that kickstarted my Death Cab love, or if I’m just naturally drawn to their music, but I would argue that Thank You for Today may be their best album. 60 & Punk is sad, honestly, about watching your heroes grow old and give into the world around them. But it’s good.
Reaper Man by Mother Mother - Mother Mother is one of my favorite bands, and Reaper Man is right up there in my self-deprecating-but-cocky genre. Released in 2014, and a staple on my playlists since.
Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Clark (of We The Kings) - Okay, raise your hand if you can still sing Complicated or Sk8er Boi from memory, because I sure as hell can. I can also do Check Yes Juliet from memory, because I grabbed it off the free iTunes download back in the day before it ever blew up - I’m a hipster. Anyway, Avril’s surfaced with a frankly marvelous album about growing up, getting divorced, and dealing with the devastating effects of Lyme disease. This is a bonus single - you can find her solo version on the album also titled Head Above Water.
Hollow by Barns Courtney - There’s really no deep meaning to this one for me, I just really love Barns Courtney and haven’t found something they’ve put out that I didn’t like yet. Catchy and rock and pop, this song makes me want to dance.
Summer Girl by Haim - Everyone I knew back in 2013, in my little pocket of rural America, turned their noses up at Haim. I was like, “Oh my god, they’re amazing!” and my coworkers are like “Why does she sing like that?” It was weird to me because The Wire was named one of the best songs of the year, hit charts all over the place - weird. Anyway, Summer Girl has a super lowkey acoustic vibe, and I love it.
Far From Born Again by Alex Cameron - So Alex Cameron is pretty hit or miss for me - I either hate what he puts out, or I obsess over it. Far From Born Again is an obsess-song, because it’s honest-to-god the best sex worker song I’ve ever heard. Every time a “positive” sex worker song comes out, it’s always something like Porn Star Dancing or Shakin’ Hands or Pay Me. The worker is always over-sexualized and vilified in some way or another, and frankly, it’s exhausting. I like Far From Born Again because it’s super realistic to my experiences - lines like “It ain’t your goddamn business if she does it for pay” and “pays bills while you all still text jerks” and “she’s a woman earning more than a man” - puts the focus where it should be. She’s not some over-sexed nympho doing it for the thrill of it, it’s a job that she’s good at.
Don’t Call It Love by Quiet Riot - So, literally everyone has heard Cum On Feel the Noize or Metal Health. It’s interesting to see Quiet Riot pop on charts again, especially considering that they haven’t had a founding member of the band in the lineup since 2010. That said, the members currently do include Banali and Wright, who were in the band at the height of Quiet Riot’s success in the mid 80s. Current vocals are done by James Durbin, as the vocalist Kevin DuBrow passed in 2007. Quiet Riot as we know it was revived mostly to celebrate the memory of DuBrow, actually, and on the insistence of DuBrow’s mother.
Last Day Under the Sun by Volbeat - I just really fuckin’ love Volbeat. That unique mix of hard rock and rockabilly, mixed with my frankly inappropriate feelings for Michael Poulson’s voice, gets me every time. I was drawn in by Lola Montez and here we are today.
All Apologies - Live & Loud by Nirvana - So this live album was actually released in 2013, and just popped up on my feed because it was just put onto Apple Music, which is where I get all my music from. You can also watch the whole concert for free, which I can’t bring myself to do yet. Nirvana is my favorite band of all time - literally of all time - and All Apologies has the ability to bring me to tears. I actually have “All in All is All We Are” tattooed on my back. Vinyl is coming out, concert is up, go live your grunge baby dreams with me.
Black Hole Sun (Live from The Artists’ Den) by Soundgarden - So this is a recent release of their 2013 Artist’s Den concert. It’s a bittersweet release for the band, who decided earlier this year to disband after the death of Chris Cornell, following their only concert without him. They chose to release the live album because they remember how much fun Chris had that night, according to a Spin article. Of the major original Seattle grunge bands, that means that only a few remain - Alice in Chains lost Layne Staley, Nirvana lost Kurt Cobain, and Soundgarden lost Chris Cornell. Pearl Jam is still going strong, though. (Technically Alice in Chains is still active, but DuVall has nothing on Staley).
Can You Feel It? by White Eskimo - Okay, so following all that rock trivia, I was absolutely floored when I found out that White Eskimo had recent music... because I only know them as the band that Harry Styles was in before One Direction. Anyway, it’s a pretty catchy pop-punk song, I dig it. I love that the first actual info I found about them, with current news, was on the Harry Styles wiki.
Lullaby by Kalie Shorr - Here’s that whiplash again, how about some country? Brand new country, even. I have a bone to pick with country lately about how it all sounds like pop with exaggerated accents and how that pisses me off, but I like the acoustic vibe Kalie Shorr has going on. It’s that good old country song about loving someone you shouldn’t and then letting them go. She honestly reminds me a lot of Sunny Sweeney.
Tennessee Whiskey (Live from City Winery Nashville) by Sara Evans and Olivia Barker - This is a classic country song, written for a half-drunk slow dance with your sweetie at the dive bar (which is honestly the best way to hear it, not gonna lie). The best version is the without a doubt Chris Stapleton’s cover, and this cover is a cover of that cover, but if you want to go back, it was originally recorded by country great David Allan Coe - of “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” fame if you do the bar circuit like I do. It was also recorded by George Jones in the 80s, and then a bunch of other people. There’s a reason Sara Evans is a modern country great.
The Chain (from The Kitchen) by the Highwomen - I got a lot of bones to pick with the Highwomen - I don’t like them and I’m not afraid to say it. I think it comes from the fact that The Highwaymen was created by the pioneers of outlaw country, who were pretty much on the outskirts of country music due to their lifestyles and other factors. The Highwomen have good sound and good writing, but they’re all pretty mainstream, and they should have chosen a different name. Anyway. This is a good country cover.
The Daughters by Little Big Town - I like this song because it tackles a lot of issues still prevalent in societies in country and rural areas, primarily feminism. A lot of people don’t realize that out here in the sticks, the gender norms are alive and well - if you don’t have a kid by 21 and you’re a girl, you’re out of the norm and you’re gonna die alone. You get a lot of women who get married young, then spend their lives cooking and cleaning and never thinking about anything more because this is all they know, this is what their mothers did. The song goes over the delicate balance a woman plays down here - you have to be strong but not too strong, and you have to “know your place.”
The Louvre by Lorde - I wasn’t a fan of Lorde’s second album at first, because I was very much stuck in the sound of the first. It’s growing on me.
Remember the Name by Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and 50 Cent - So I’m a big fan of Ed Sheeran, and my mom loves Eminem and 50 Cent. I like some Eminem, and some 50 Cent, but overall I’m not a fan of rap. What I like about this song is that it sounds like an early Eminem a la “The Real Slim Shady” so it’s catchy and easy for my audio processing issues to follow. I also just dig cocky songs.
20 Something by SZA - I started listening to SZA when my brother sent me the DJ Khaled song Just Us that featured her vocal. I love her voice and lyrics, and also the fact that my little bro relates so much to a lot of her music that it sometimes makes him cry (apparently Just Us made him cry). 20 Something is my favorite off her debut album - I mean, everyone I know is a 20-something right now, and the lyrics hit home.
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Sep 27, 2017 – Phoenix, Arizona – AK-Chin Pavilion
Depeche Mode Never Let Us Down at Ak-Chin Pavilion
Take off your hat, sir.”
I've come to enjoy the security theater that happens outside Ak-Chin Pavilion every time I go see a show there. The security staff at Ak-Chin is really committed to their roles. Like the finest of ham actors, they know not to let an opportune moment pass them by.
Warpaint are already playing inside the venue. Their dancey yet moody music spills out into the parking lot. A swarm of black-clad revelers are amassing at the entrance, eager to get their Wednesday night goth club stomp on. I'm standing behind a gentleman wearing a blue baseball cap, who's rather nonplussed that the security guard is asking him to take his hat off.
“Dude, what could I possibly have under this?,” Blue Hat asks. The guard shrugs and flashes him an “I know, right?” grin. But the guard still insists he take it off. I imagine Blue Hat plucking off his cap, revealing a razor blade Scotch-taped to the bald spot on the top of his head. But alas. He was contraband-free.
Walking past the cops lined up at the entrance, the mood changes instantly into one of conviviality inside the venue. People look stoked to be here, more so than at most shows I've been to. Perhaps it's because the crowd skews older – the average age here has to be early 40s. People move about, buying beers and merch, with purpose: They had to pay babysitters so they could be here, they had to take the day off work tomorrow, so you can bet your ass they're gonna groove to some dark jams tonight and get lit.
By the time I get to my seat, the quartet of ladies in Warpaint are wrapping up their set. A set of screens that look like windows loom behind them, with smoke curling around their sides and lights flashing purple, blue, and yellow across the stage.
The handful of songs I get to hear them play leave a powerful impression, though. Tracks like “New Song” take their ghostly vocals and moody atmospherics and give them driving rhythms and pop energy. For a band that sounds so spectral and introverted on record, they have the volume and the presence to hold a stadium crowd's attention.
The stage is cleared for Depeche Mode.
A tall elevated stage/backdrop is set behind the instruments, including an array of guitars, keyboards, and a peace-sign decorated drumkit. Throbbing electronic instrumentals kick and snap through their preshow. When the lights cut out and the fuzzy strains of The Beatles' “Revolution” starts playing, the crowd leaps to their feet. It's only fitting that the first thing we see onstage is feet: a pair of cartoon white legs, striding purposefully forward on a projection screen hanging over the stage.
As the band enters, the backdrop comes to life with a brightly colorful Jackson Pollockian splatter image. They begin playing “Going Backwards” and Dave Gahan enters, dressed in black.
Throughout the entire show, Gahan is the only one onstage without an instrument. But he doesn't need one – more than his voice, his body is his instrument.
He sashays and chicken-walks and spins and struts onstage. You can tell that he must have studied the great rock 'n' roll frontmen the way guitarists study Hendrix and Clapton – he had all their moves down cold. The Bowie Thin White Duke poses, the Pete Townshend windmill, the messianic Bono lean, the Mick elbow-on-the-hip, the cock rock crotch-grab (a move nobody could miss because the Jumbotron cameraman lingered on it — he knows that you gotta give the people what they want).
Speaking of Bono: Seeing Gahan with his slicked back hair, leather vest, and Claude Rains mustache made me wonder if he was one of the models that Bono used for creating his decadent Fly character during the Achtung Baby/Zooropa years.
Onstage, Gahan embodied a kind of sensuality and cheerful sleaziness that you don't see much of anymore in modern music – few people have the charm, the chops, or the chutzpah to pull it off. But Gahan is so good at it that it's criminal that nobody's cast him as the Master of Ceremonies in a post-punk production of Cabaret yet.
The band worked their way through their later work for the first half of the set, supplementing impassioned live performances with video projections and backdrop changes.
During “So Much Love,” a video of Depeche Mode as a trio appeared behind them, playing the song in black and white as they stood in front of a chainlink fence. Later on, Gahan would appear onscreen as an astronaut walking around town as the group tore through “Cover Me.”
The best multimedia moment of the night came during “In Your Room.” Starting off with the image of a woman reclining on a velvet couch getting felt up by a dude with a mohawk, it turned into a ballet. The two of them danced in a crumbling apartment, their bodies spinning and intertwining and breaking away as Depeche Mode played their cacophonous tune.
That was perhaps the most surprising thing about their set. Depeche Mode are fierce live, far louder and rocking than you'd ever imagine from listening to their records. They even strike some interesting stage pictures, like the way Martin Gore would sometimes play a guitar shaped like a sparkly silver star or how they introduced “World in My Eyes” by having purple lights overhead shake and tremble like the beams of lights were having a seizure.
After “Cover Me” ended, Gahan headed offstage for a bit. In an interesting departure, Gore took up vocal duties for the next two songs: “A Question of Lust” and “Home.” The former was a highlight of the set. Backed only by a spare keyboard arrangement, Gore's plaintive and moving vocals inspired the crowd to singalong. As great as it was to see Gahan showboat, commanding the stage like a goth Joel Grey, it was a refreshing change of pace to see the more reserved Gore seize the stage with such a different approach.
Gahan returned to the stage with “Where's the Revolution” (a bit too heavy-handed a song for my tastes) and “Wrong.”
Following those numbers, Depeche Mode closed out their set with four all-time classics: “Everything Counts,” “Stripped,” “Enjoy The Silence,” and “Never Let Me Down Again.”
“Everything Counts” inspired a singalong as fervent as the one that broke out to “A Question of Lust” with people shouting along to “everything counts in large amounts” as the band made sprightly video game sounds onstage. The cameraman swooped around the crowd, showing people looking positively jubilant and dancing to the music. One lady even held up a license plate that read DM DVOT.
“Enjoy the Silence” stood out with a series of arresting images of neon-lit animals onscreen — cows, pigs, chickens, dogs, and rabbits. The song dissolved into a synthy, noisy jam as it lead into “Never Let Me Down Again.” Had the band ended the show right after that point, it already would have been a pretty great gig.
But then there was the encore.
I normally hate encores. They're often so perfunctory: “Here's two more songs that you knew we were gonna play!” Credit to Depeche Mode. Their encore was the rare one that dazzled. It was basically a second mini-set.
The encore opened with another Gore vocal turn – this time for “Somebody.” Gahan came back on to do “Walking In My Shoes” as a video of a trans person getting dressed for a day out on the town played behind them.
The band played a subdued, wintry cover of Bowie's “Heroes.” A black flag rippled on a white screen as they paid their respects to one of their biggest influences. The band, for a moment, sounded like they had morphed into New Order — early New Order circa “Ceremony,” when they were still trying to shake off the ghost of Joy Division.
Depeche Mode ended with the one-two punch of “I Feel You” and “Personal Jesus.”
For a band famed for their synths and keyboards as poster boys of New Wave, many of the evening's most memorable moments came from guitar licks. As much as “Personal Jesus” is defined by Gahan's insinuating vocals and the electronics twitching in the background, it's Gore's weird, loose-spring guitar riff that makes it such a classic tune.
It was the perfect song to end a night of music that made me want to reach out and touch faith. Or at the very least, it made me want to lose some weight so I could pull off wearing a leather vest the way Dave Gahan can.
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Magnitizdat: Soviet Aligned Pop and New Wave
Mix seven of seven. The previous mixes can be found here. The YouTube playlist for this mix can be found here. Below this paragraph is the tracklisting for this mix; below that are my notes on it. It’s been a gas.
Bravo, “Koshki”
Klaus Mitffoch, “Jezu jak się cieszę”
Spenót, “Szamba”
Tango, “Na šikmé ploše”
Forum, “Davayte sozvonimsya”
Urszula, “Wielki odlot”
Pankow, “Rock ‘n’ Roll im Stadtpark”
Florian din Transilvania, “Mă simt minunat”
Trick, “Elektronnoto kuche”
Dzeltenie Pastnieki, “Sliekutēva vaļasprieks”
Marika Gombitová, “Prekážky dní”
Grazhdanskaya Oborona, “Zoopark”
Gigi, “Divat a fontos”
Maanam, “Lucciola”
Silly, “Die Gräfin”
Kino, “Posledniy geroy”
Sfinx, “An după an”
Első Emelet, “Amerika”
Aya RL, “Skóra”
OK Band, “Žižkovská zeď”
Nastya, “Tatsu”
Magnitizdat: soviet aligned pop and new wave
In a just world, just about every nation represented here would get its own mix: Poland, Hungary, Czechia, and Russia, to name just the largest pop scenes, were (and are) too capacious to be summed up in the paltry handful of songs I’ve allotted them. But I’m already teetering on the furthest outside edge of my understanding. My grasp of Europe is comparable to Saul Steinberg’s legendary view from 9th Avenue: the further East of the Pyrenees I get the more featureless and notional everything is.
To make things more complicated, although the seven nations (at the time; now 13½) represented in this mix were formally Soviet-aligned in terms of foreign policy and general economic structure, they all pursued different approaches to cultural policy, and those policies changed radically over the decades, and even from year to year. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Soviet Union was perhaps the most officially censorious in terms of rejecting Western influence, whereas places like Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia were relatively open to current trends in Western European culture, especially following the Prague Spring of 1968. Then too, one of the necessary preconditions for good pop is money (which doesn’t necessarily mean pure capitalism: state-funded arts education and broadcast media, e.g., made British pop the envy of the world), and many of the Eastern Bloc nations, whether or not they were eager to support international-style pop, were among the poorest in Europe.
Still, life finds a way. Electronic music in particular was taken up enthusiastically by many Warsaw Pact composers in the 1970s, both as a technical challenge and as a path forward into a Communist musical future that owed nothing to the dead traditions of the West. Young musicians in Warsaw, Riga, and Leningrad got hold of contraband records or reel-to-reel tapes (called magnitizdat in Russian, in parallel with printed samizdat, according to Wikipedia) of new and innovative forms of rock and pop, imitated them, and added their own perspectives. And Eastern European nations held their own national and international versions of Eurovision, and broadcast local singers in a variety of traditions, both as light entertainment and as a way to reinforce cultural nationalism.
So although Eastern Bloc pop in the 1980s was often cheaper and perhaps chintzier (or at least dedicated to different notions of cool) than its Western counterparts, there was still plenty of it; but it was also unevenly distributed. My division below is less about population size or global importance (either today or historically) than about what would fit into a single mix. There are six Soviet songs (five Russian, one Latvian), four Polish, three Hungarian, two East German, two Czech, one Slovak, two Romanian, and one Bulgarian. Linguistically, it’s my most diverse mix by far, with six Slavic languages, one Germanic, one Uralic, and one Romance language represented (the runner-up, Melodier, had five Germanic languages and one Uralic). Google Translate is my everything.
All of them are great songs, and most of them are great records as well (we’ll get to the exception), although I doubt anyone actually living in Eastern Europe, either at the time or presently, would group together these precise performers in this way: some were defiantly underground, some boringly mainstream, and most somewhere in the middle.
Most of these mixes have taken 1981 and 1987 as the boundary years: while this one ends with a longish 1987 track as per tradition, the rest of the songs are mostly clustered between 1983 and 1985. Due to protectionist policies (both Eastern and Western), inefficiencies of resource allocation, and the slow-to-arrive effects of glasnost, the new wave (if that’s even a useful term to describe a shift towards 1980s-era modernity in the diverse Communist scenes) rolled over Eastern Europe several years after it had blanketed the West. My early investigations all centered on 1984, and further research still marks that as a pivotal year.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve fallen in love with. I hope you dig it too.
1. Bravo Koshki
no label | Moscow, 1985
WIth all apologies to Long Island’s Stray Cats, Southern California’s Blasters, England’s Shakin’ Stevens, West Germany’s Ace Cats, and Barcelona’s Loquillo, the greatest rockabilly revival act of the 1980s was the Russian Браво (Bravo). Formed in 1983 by guitarist Evgeny Havtan, with singer Zhanna Aguzarova signing on later that year, they played 1950s rock and roll with a side order of 1960s ska, with lyrics simple and catchy enough to be universal but subversive enough to get them into trouble. “Кошки” (Cats) could be a children’s song: “Cats don’t look like people, cats are cats,” is the opening lyric. But when Aguzarova adds that cats don’t talk nonsense or care about bits of paper, that’s questionable, and when she launches into some of the most thrilling scatting ever heard in rock & roll it’s downright revolutionary. After the band had self-released their first recordings on magnetic tape, she was arrested for using forged identity papers in 1984, and didn’t release a proper record until 1987. She left the band in 1989 for a solo career, and is beloved throughout Russia as a sort of Lady Gaga avant la lettre, while Bravo under Havtan and a succession of singers has continued to plow their rockabilly furrow to slightly diminished success.
2. Klaus Mitffoch Jezu jak się cieszę
Tonpress | Wrocław, 1983
One of the most important Polish new wave bands, Klaus Mitffoch combined punk energy, two-tone nimbleness, and post-punk solemnity in a compulsively listenable and sometimes danceable mix. Their first single, Jezu jak się cieszę (Jesus, I’m Happy; the name is an interjection rather than an address) is a mordant portrait of callow youth that doesn’t think past the next payday, fight, or fuck, and of the system that keeps them that way: the shouty chorus translates as “Get up and be busy and own things/I can’t really do it/I don’t really want to.” A Polish “I prefer not to,” it’s a critique of the capitalist contract which worked just as well as a critique of Communist expectations: the lack of real difference between the oppressiveness of East and West will be an ongoing theme.
3. Spenót Szamba
Start | Budapest, 1983
Although I’ve been attaching the tag “new wave” to these mixes, one of the signature sounds of the US new wave has been entirely unrepresented: the beachy kitsch of the B-52’s. Until now. Spenót (Spinach) was a Budapest arts collective founded in the early 80s which only released one single on the rock imprint of the Hungarian state label: “Szamba” (Samba) b/w “Hová tűntek a szőke nőket” (Where Did the Blondes Go). Casio, bass, guitar, and disaffected vocals from Kriszta Berzsenyi (now a costumer in the Hungarian film industry) make for a minimal-funk tribute to proletarian hero Popeye, as the refrain “Everything’s perfectly fine, I’ve got spinach flowing in my veins” makes clear. A late entrance from a mariachi trumpet only adds to the delightful kitsch effect, and makes me grin ear to ear every time I listen.
4. Tango Na šikmé ploše
Supraphon | Prague, 1984
Although the island-borrowed rhythms and frontman Miroslav Imrich’s vocal qualities in this early song are rather heavily reminiscent of the Police, in terms of cultural positioning Tango were rather closer to Madness: a ska-pop band that could be goofy or heartfelt depending on the song, and burrowed deep into Czech working-class cultural identity, in part thanks to their inventive and prolific videos. Their first single, “Na šikmé ploše” (On the Slope) is a heartfelt and rather poetic love song on skis. Even after Tango’s dissolution, Imrich has been a consistently popular singer and songwriter in the years since, his work, both solo and in collaboration, ranging from ballads to techno.
5. Forum Davayte sozvonimsya
no label | Moscow, 1984
A Russian synthpop band who owed nothing to such English decadents as Human League or Depeche Mode, Форум was fronted by singer Viktor Saltykov, who had previously sung with rock band Manufactura, and anchored by synth wizard Alexander Morozov. The video for Давайте созвонимся (Let’s Call Each Other), from an early television appearance, has become a minor internet classic of kitschy Soviet aesthetics, but a google of the lyrics reveals as thoughtful and sensitive a song about love under modern technological conditions as anything Gary Numan or Scritti Politti ever recorded. Forum’s debut album wouldn’t see official release until 1987, by which time a lot of Russian pop had caught up to them.
6. Urszula Wielki odlot
Polton | Lublin, 1984
Perhaps Poland’s most prominent female rock star for the last forty years, Urszula Kasprzak has recorded in a variety of styles, from hard rock to dance-pop; but her 1984 album Malinowy król (Raspberry King), recorded with members of prog band Budka Suflera, is a minor masterpiece of cool, reflective synthpop. “Wielki odlot” (The Great Departure) was the leadoff track and the album’s lowest-charting single, but I love its stately swell and the apocalyptic lyrics (or maybe it’s just about emigration, which is another form of apocalypse). I’m looking forward into digging around into the rest of Urszula’s discography.
7. Pankow Rock ’n’ Roll im Stadtpark
AMIGA | Berlin, 1983
East Germany probably had the most thoroughly Westernized and extensive pop scene in the whole Eastern Bloc — only natural, given its proximity and exposure to West German media. But child star Nina Hagen had to leave East Berlin to help found the Neue Deutsche Welle: East Germany preferred shaggy 70s rock even as icy synths overran the NATO countries. Pankow, formed in the eponymous suburb of East Berlin, was a case in point: definitely a new wave band, they still clearly adored old-fashioned boogie rock. “Rock ’n’ Roll im Stadtpark” (Rock ’n’ Roll in the City Park) is an anthem of Communist rock (even the shouted refrains are collectivized): dancing to rock & roll in the park is better than bourgeois disco or high-priced cinema, because it’s free. Of the people, by the people, for the people, oh yeah.
8. Florian din Transilvania Mă simt minunat
Electrecord | Bucharest, 1986
The hermetic and impoverished Romanian scene, tightly controlled by Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Maoist-modeled authoritarian government, was the slowest of the European Communist nations to catch up to the present of the 1980s: officially supported music tended to be folkloric, balladic, and at its most up-to-date, hippie-era hard rock. Mircea Florian was one of the grand exceptions: beginning as a mid-60s folk-rocker in the mold of Dylan and Cohen, and maintaining a parallel interest in electronics and modern composers like Stockhausen and Nono, he moved through many progressive, electric, and Eastern-influenced musical phases over the next twenty years, often butting heads with the regime. His last great record, 1986’s Tainicul vîrtej (The Secret Swirl), released just before his defection to West Germany, was a summation of his folk- and art-rock past and his new-wave present. This opening track “I Feel Great,” is a statement of gleeful modernism, the lyrics an expression of bucolic alienation while the synthesizers and drum machines wander off on prog-rock solos before being recalled to robot rhythms.
9. Trick Elektronnoto kuche
Balkanton | Sofia, 1985
If the Romanian rock scene was impoverished, its Bulgarian counterpart was even more so. Trick was a vocal group — two women, one man — put together out of music school in frank imitation of Western acts like ABBA, Boney M, or even (if the record sleeves are any indication) Tony Orlando and Dawn. But this cut from their first LP, “Electronic Dog,” was produced by the young, ambitious Kristian Boyadzhiev to a hypermodern sheen: if the girls are still essentially singing disco harmonies, at least the music has heard of ZTT. After release, the song was suppressed by Bulgarian state media on the grounds that the goofy lyrics and synthesized dog barks were making a mockery of Bulgarian electronics. But today, it sounds like it might predict Eastern European trance.
10. Dzeltenie Pastnieki Sliekutēva vaļasprieks
no label | Riga, 1984
The underground new-wave scene in Latvia was apparently the most active and prolific in the Soviet Union outside Mother Russia: the Baltic seaport of Riga, as one of the USSR’s few access points to global culture, saw bands like Pērkons, NSRD, and Dzeltenie Pastnieki making waves even as their magnetic-tape recordings were suppressed by the Soviet authorities and not released for decades. I chose this song by Dzeltenie Pastnieki (Yellow Postmen) not because it’s exceptionally better than the rest of their material, which is all pretty great, but because its combination of electronic loops and sensitive guitar sounded surprisingly to me like the Postal Service. The pitch-shifted vocals, sure, sound more like “The Laughing Gnome,” but that’s no deal-breaker.
11. Marika Gombitová Prekážky dní
Opus | Bratislava, 1984
Probably the biggest Slovak pop star of the era, Marika Gombitová had been well-known in the eastern half of Czechoslovakia since 1977, when she sang leads for the popular rock band Modus. This synthpop gem (Daily Obstacles) from her fifth album, the unselfconsciously-titled No. 5 (it was her first stab at singing to synthesizers), uses sporting metaphors to talk about desires that slip forever out of reach, the evocativeness of which imagery would not have been lost on a contemporary television-watching audience: Gombitová had been confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed from the shoulders down, following a car crash in 1981. Her marvelous voice, thin but strong, reminds me of Cyndi Lauper’s: and the gorgeous production, with its slippery bass and a haunting electronic solo in the middle eight, makes this maybe my favorite song in this mix.
12. Grazhdanskaya Oborona Zoopark
no label | Omsk, 1985
Here’s that not-great record, meaning only that it’s extremely lo-fi, so much so that the tape hiss and room tone plays practically an aesthetic role, turning a simple rock ballad into a fuzz-pop gem that could sit side-by-side with contemporary work by the Beat Happening or Hüsker Dü. Гражданская Оборона (Civil Defense) was the psych-rock project of Siberian-born Yegor Letov; after their first magnetic tape, containing “зоопарк,” was recorded, band members were institutionalized, their subversive attitudes having been dutifully reported to the authorities by the guitarist's mother. That subversiveness isn’t hard to detect in this song, in which Letov dreams of finding other crazy people (like him) with whom he can plot an escape from the zoo of contemporary life.
13. Gigi Divat a fontos
Start | Budapest, 1985
Nobody on the Internet seems to know anything about Gigi, not even whether the name is of a performer or a group. The writing credit on the Hungarian compilation LP where “Divat a fontos” (Fashion Matters) appeared is to “Gigi Együttes,” which latter word just means Ensemble. But a bunch of people on the Internet, some in Hungarian, some in English, and some in Polish, have warmly praised this song, an aerobic synthpop jam that combines the best of Kim Wilde and Olivia Newton-John. It’s apparently all that this Gigi (the thirty-first entity of that name on Discogs) ever recorded, but it’s enough.
14. Maanam Lucciola
Polskie Nagrania Muza | Kraków, 1984
The post-punk band Maanam, on the other hand, are legends of Polish rock, with dozens of records and a rabid fanbase: one of the most successful and important Eastern European bands of the decade. Lead singer Kora (Olga Jackowska)’s vocal style owed little to Anglophone precedent, digging deep into Slavic and Polish modernism, even when, as here, the most frequent word in the song is the Italian woman’s name of the title. In “Lucciola,” Kora dispassionately portrays a man searching for the titular woman in the night wind, while the band’s brawny Gang of Four funk motorvates right along regardless.
15. Silly Die Gräfin
AMIGA | Berlin, 1982
Probably the most interesting East German rock band of the 1980s, Silly was centered around the vocal performances of Tamara Danz, who could be kabarett-outrageous in one song and luminously synthpop-tender in the next. “Die Gräfin” (lit. The Countess, but also slang for any stuck-up woman) is a funk-rock vehicle for her gift for satirical vocal caricature, as she mocks the decayed German aristocracy from a victorious proletarian point of view. Not that Danz was a strict ideologue: in 1989, she joined other East German musicians in demanding greater freedom, in protests that helped lead to the collapse of the Communist consensus. She died in 1996 of breast cancer, far too young.
16. Kino Posledniy geroy
AnTrop | Leningrad, 1984
The only Russian band represented on this mix whose music was officially released within the era under consideration, Кино (Cinema) were no less skeptical about the Soviet system than their peers, just luckier in that they hooked up with the independent Leningrad-based AnTrop label, which gave them cover for sarcastic, despairing songs like Последний герой (Last of the Heroes), in which the familiar 80s theme of nuclear annihilation gets another airing, and East and West turn out to be not so different after all.
17. Sfinx An după an
Electrecord | Bucharest, 1984
When Mircea Florian was one of the leading lights of Romanian prog in the 1970s, one of his few competitors in the field was the band Sfinx (Sphinx), formed in the mid-60s to play Western-style pop/rock. In the following decade, they grew more ambitious, taking cues from Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis, the last of whom, in their 80s incarnation, is a reference point here. “An după an” means Year After Year, and even though it was only their second LP (they were constantly running afoul of the Romanian censors), it was occasion for a wistful look back over the last twenty years.
18. Első Emelet Amerika
Start | Budapest, 1983
Perhaps the most popular Hungarian rock band of the early 80s, Első Emelet (First Floor) was formed from the remnants of several less fortunate acts which imploded around 1982. With a bright, energetic sound, witty lyrics by songwriter Péter Geszti, and an irreverent comic sensibility to their visual presentation, they were just the kind of band that would have been a lock to appear on MTV if they weren’t from a Communist nation. In fact, they did anyway — one of the television screens in Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” is playing an Első Emelet video. Their first single, “Amerika” is a terrific satire of that consumerist paradise, rendered with all the plastic pomp the subject deserve.
19. Aya RL Skóra
Tonpress | Warsaw, 1984
One of the greatest long-running European indie-rock bands, Aya RL (for Red Love) formed when Russian keyboardist Igor Czerniawski and Polish singer Paweł Kukiz met in Warsaw. “Skóra” (Skin), their biggest hit and most well-loved song (I dare you to get that wordless chorus out of your head), is somewhat unrepresentative of their more psychedelic and intellectual work — but it’s a great song, a portrait of love despite the turmoil and violence of the heavily politicized street culture of Warsaw in the 1980s.
20. OK Band Žižkovská zeď
Supraphon | Prague, 1982
If you didn’t know anything about Eastern Bloc music in the 1980s and relied only on what the Western media of the time showed you, you might expect it all to sound like this: icy, measured, foreboding. In fact, “Žižkovská zeď” (The Zizkov Wall) is just about the slowest and coldest song in Czech synthpop act OK Band’s repertoire: most of it is much cheerier and romantic. But I really dig its coldwave vibes and the sound of Marcela Březinová’s voice singing about the awful feeling of seeing your name written in graffiti by an unknown hand.
21. Nastya Tatsu
no label | Sverdlovsk, 1987
Thanks no doubt to my own global position — in the (allegedly) democratic West — I’ve been focused throughout this mix on how the music of Communist Europe responds to or relates to or recalls its Western counterparts. But with “Tatsu,” the gaze shifts not West, but East. Nastya, a band formed on the border of Europe and Asia, and named after its frontwoman, singer, composer and poet Anastasia Polova, was fascinated with Japanese folklore, history, and mythology. The Tatsu of the title is both a Japanese child left for dead in World War II (that’s where the bits in English come in), and a mythological dragon-god protecting islands in the Pacific. It’s an amazing song, the centerpiece of an amazing album, and the fact that it only circulated as a bootleg tape for a decade before being officially issued in the mid-90s is the strongest indictment of late-Soviet cultural policy I know. I say that as a Communist.
That’s it, that’s all the mixes. For now, anyway. Thanks for reading and listening and sharing and liking. I’ve got other projects to keep me busy; I’ll try to mention them here from time to time.
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I was tagged by my pal the legendary @blumarvel (see what I did there? I’m hilarious, aren’t I)
Bold the statements that are true for you :)
APPEARANCE:
I am 5′7″ or taller
I wear glasses
I have at least one tattoo
I have at least one piercing
I have blonde (highlights) hair
I have brown eyes
I have short hair
My abs are at least somewhat defined (lmfao as if)
I have or have had braces
There is something I would change about the way I look
PERSONALITY:
My Hogwarts house is: GryffindorHufflepuff Ravenclaw Slytherin
I am an introvert
I like love meeting new people
People tell me that I’m funny
Helping others with their problems is a big priority for me
I enjoy physical challenges
I enjoy mental challenges
I’m playfully rude with people I know well
I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it
There is something I would change about my personality
ABILITY:
I can sing well
I can play an instrument
I can do over 30 pushups without stopping
I’m a fast runner
I can draw well
I have a good memory
I’m good at doing math in my head
I can hold my breath underwater for over a minute
I have beaten at least 2 people in arm wrestling
I know how to cook at least 3 meals from scratch
I know how to throw a proper punch
HOBBIES:
I enjoy playing sports
I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else
I’m in a orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else
I have learned a new song in the past week
I work out at least once a week
I’ve gone for runs at least once a week in the warmer months
I have drawn something in the past month
I enjoy writing
Fandoms are my #1 passion
I do or have done martial arts
EXPERIENCES:
I have had my first kiss
I have had alcohol
I have scored the winning goal in a sports game
I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting
I have been at an overnight event
I have been in a taxi
I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year
I have beaten a video game in one day (does guitar hero on easy mode count?)
I have visited another country
I have been to one of my favorite band’s concerts
RELATIONSHIP:
I’m in a relationship
I have a celebrity crush
I have a crush on someone I know
I have been in at least 3 relationships
I have never been in a relationship
I have asked someone out oradmitted my feelings to them (yikes)
I get crushes easily
I have had a crush on someone for over a year
I have been in a relationship for at least a year
I have had feelings for a friend
MY LIFE:
I have at least one person I consider a “best friend”
I live close to my school
My parents are still together
I have at least one sibling
I live in the United States
There is snow right now where I live
I have hung out with a friend outside of school in the past month
I have a smartphone
I have at least 15 CDs
I share my room with someone
RANDOM SHIT:
I have breakdanced
I know a person named Jamie
I have had a teacher with a last name that’s hard to pronounce
I have dyed my hair
I’m listening to one song on repeat right now
I have punched someone in the past week
I know someone who has gone to jail
I have broken a bone
I have eaten a waffle today
I know what I want to do with my life
I speak at least 2 languages fluently
I have made a new friend in the past year
I tag my pallest pals: @alienpeep @mactaggertmoira @huntiingseason @babiijayla @shirokirito-sao and anyone else who wants to do this you can tag me as the one who tagged you if you want.
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Do you have a sensitive gag reflex?
Yes. Certain smells will trigger it, too. Like, the smell of old food for example. The other day my mom was cleaning out some leftovers from a few days prior from the fridge, so she dumped the food in the sink and used the garbage disposal, then cleaned the containers the food was in. The smell was so overwhelming to me when I went into the kitchen that I started gagging really bad and had to get out of there. She ended up pouring some cleaner stuff down the sink to try and get rid of the smell, but I still had to stay out of the kitchen for awhile. No one else was bothered by it. I’m really sensitive to smells.
Where are you the most ticklish?
My neck.
What was the last situation to upset you?
Well, it was more irritating and pissed me off, but last night while I was eating some stupid annoying gnat kept coming near me and my food and when it would land, I’d try to kill it, but it kept getting away. THEN, something buzzed by my ear and I saw a fly flying around my room, too! It finally landed on my table next to my food, but of course I couldn’t find the fly swatter. So, I was just super annoyed at that point and quickly finished my food. Later on I’m in the living room and I had placed my cheesecake on the TV tray I was about to eat, which thankfully it was packaged, and stepped away briefly to get something. When I came back, the stupid fly was on it! I finally found the fly swatter and swatted the hell out of that thing. Take that fly! Don’t mess with me. lol. I’m so glad my cheesecake was packaged because I would have been PISSED if it landed ON the cheesecake. I swear they like to taunt me and only me.
Have you ever had an online argument?
Yeah.
Do you like to listen to music while filling out surveys?
I listen to ASMR videos while doing them.
Do you ever eat/drink while you fill them out?
Not eat, but yeah I always have something to drink nearby, even if just water.
Have you ever done a survey whilst high or drunk? How’d it go?
Yeah. It went fine?
Are you at risk for any medical issues?
I know there’s a history of diabetes that runs in the family as well as different cancers. <<< Same.
The general subject of your last text conversation?
My mom asked me what I wanted for dinner.
Is there anything near you that’s considered dangerous?
No.
What is just down the hall from where you’re located?
The bathroom and my parents’ room.
Do you ever do surveys at other peoples’ houses?
No. I’ve always just done them at home by myself.
Do any of your friends know you fill out surveys?
I don’t have any friends, so.
What is your least favorite question to answer?
In a survey? Questions about exes, who I last kissed, who I like, relationships, getting married, having kids... they’re in every survey it’s annoying.
Do you like the controversial/political surveys?
Nooo. I don’t do those.
Do you tend to answer with only a phrase or word, or do you elaborate?
Some questions don’t require much, but I definitely elaborate where I can and feel like doing so. Makes it more interesting.
Who/What did you last spend time worrying about?
My pain doctor wants me to get a CT Scan for some ridiculous reason. Like, we know the source of my back pain, I’m a paraplegic with scoliosis and metal rods who has had 2 spinal fusion surgeries.. it’s really no mystery. And some other things that have already been determined by other xrays and doctors in the past that contribute to my pain. It’s an ongoing, chronic issue; nothing has or will change. I’ve been going to this place for almost 3 years and the previous doctor saw my medical records and knew my history, she didn’t need to order more xrays. Well, last month I was given a new doctor cause the previous one left for whatever reason and this new one wants to order xrays, tests, and physical therapy??? It’s ridiculous. She just comes up in here and orders random stuff, ignoring everything previously. She also told me last time if I don’t get the CT Scan she won’t prescribe my medicine. She wasn’t a pleasant woman at all. It’s so fucked up. It’s all for money.
Has anyone ever told you that you needed to get a life? Did you?
Not to my face, but I’m sure people think that. I’ve said that to myself numerous times. But no, I’m still lifeless. How does one obtain “a life”, exactly? Is it something I purchase?
How long do you spend on the phone each day, on average?
I rarely talk on the phone, certainly not daily. If I talk on the phone, it’s very brief. My parents or my brother are the only ones who call me and it’s just to ask or tell me something, or my mom calling me on her lunch break to talk for a bit.
How about in the microwave? Are you more likely to use this?
I haven’t had to use it much in awhile.
Is anything in your hair right now, like gel, hairspray, &etc?
Nope.
How do you typically style your hair? Does it take long?
Ha, style my hair. By style I just throw it up in a messy bun or pony tail.
Would you try to be a hero in a hostage situation?
I don’t think I could. :/ I wouldn’t be of any use or help.
When were you last offered something illegal?
I don’t get offered illegal things.
Did you accept or decline that offer?
When was the last time you were up before the sun?
For most of this year since I haven’t even been going to bed until like 7 or 8AM. :X
What are you most confident about? Most insecure about?
I’m confident that I’m a mess and insecure about everything.
When was the last time that you saw fire?
Last December in the fireplace.
Do you like wearing sunglasses? Why or why not?
I don’t wear sunglasses. I have to wear glasses all the time or else I can’t much for shit. I could get prescription sunglasses, but nah. I’ve had transitional glasses in the past, but adding that gets pricey and I’m honestly fine without it.
What do you think in general of girls with short hair?
I don’t think anything?
How about guys with long hair?
Do what you want.
Where’s the best place to get your favorite dish?
Wingstop.
When are you most likely to fill out a survey?
Between like 3-7AM. Sometimes a little later. My sleep schedule is a real mess.
What’s the last thing you put in your mouth?
Starbucks Doubleshot energy drink.
Last person you rode in a car with under the age of 20?
Uh, my brother before he turned 20? lol. He’s 21 now. I’m not around any teenagers or kids.
Last time you walked further than a block?
Uhhhh.
Can you play guitar hero?
I rock out on easy mode, ha. I wanna play now.
Name the last person that made you laugh?
My mom.
What brand of digital camera do you own?
I don’t. I just use my phone’s camera.
If you could move somewhere else, would you?
Yes, my family and I want to.
Have you ever seen somebody get shot?
No. I’m a victim of gun violence, though.
Where are you at right now?
In my room on my bed.
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Harmonix’s Fuser is a music creation tool disguised as a game • Eurogamer.net
Harmonix has developed many games about recreating and performing music. This time around, the Guitar Hero and Dance Central studio wants players to get creative. Fuser is all about creating mashup remixes out of popular songs, either in a campaign, freestyle mode or multiplayer.
After preview events earlier this year, this is the first extended hands-on with Fuser, giving me a full four days with 31 songs, two campaign missions and the freestyle mode.
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You manage four channels – each song is divided into drums, a bassline, and a melody instrument such as synths or strings and vocals. Each of these categories is mapped to a fixed button, so you always press the right-hand button for the vocal track, the left hand one for drums and so on. As intuitive as the controls are, Fuser is immediately a lot. Unlike previous Harmonix games, which have you focus on your instrument by relegating the crowd and your avatar to the background, there’s a whole music festival virtually standing between you and your table. Initially, I had a good giggle at the idea that attendees at a huge festival like that would dare to shout “I want country!”, but it’s just one of the ways in which gameplay doesn’t really fit the rest of Fuser’s ideas. The skill it asks of you lies in dividing your attention between crowd requests, in-game tasks and, oh yeah – making actual music.
Fuser is such a departure for Harmonix not only because it ditches the dexterity challenge of classic rhythm gaming, but because the developer is actively trying to reach players who either aren’t interested in music gaming as a test of skill, or are unable or unwilling to invest in peripherals by basing everything around your controller only.
“With how things have developed, Fuser is coming at the right time,” marketing director Dan Walsh tells me, referring to how the coronavirus crisis has made it more difficult for peripherals to be produced and shipped. “But the overall accessibility was our main concern from the beginning. Fuser works the same no matter what platform or controller you play with, and there is no wrong way to play it.”
Walsh also mentions Fantasia: Music Evolved and DropMix, the latter of which is probably the closest to Fuser but struggled due to the large board it required and its prohibitively high price at launch. “DropMix used the mechanics of a board game, and asked players to make strategic decisions that weren’t about the music, first and foremost,” Walsh says. “With DropMix and Fantasia, we went into the direction of introducing more player agency, something Guitar Hero for example didn’t have. With a game like Guitar Hero, your experience with a song and my experience are going to be indistinguishable, we both reach a five star rating the same way. In Fuser, skill has a completely different meaning.”
Product director Daniel Sussman adds: “We’re never gonna tell you your mix is bad. Taste is subjective. We’re asking you to put yourself out there and we’re not gonna punish you for that.”
There are few categories you’re actually scored on, and you can’t lose points, but I soon discover that what brings you points isn’t necessarily musically interesting. This regularly put my instincts as a musician and a player at odds with each other. Let’s say you’ve just found a mix of tracks you want to keep going for a bit, only to be interrupted by a request. Whatever the digital festival-goer shouts at you might go terribly with your current mix, so you likely won’t change just one thing, but everything. Sure, it keeps you on your feet, but it gives you very little time to just enjoy the music for a bit or wait until the song has reached a good point for a break. You have the option to ignore the request, but fulfilling requests and quickly changing anything on the fly is ultimately where the points come from. There’s also an overall crowd appreciation meter that’s likely driven by the software interpreting how well your chosen tracks go together. To satisfy Fuser’s requirements as a game, I sometimes ended up building mixes I personally didn’t like, even though most tasks are open to your interpretation, like “play a song from the 2010s” or “only use three discs”.
Everything is automatically mapped to the same beat and the same key, but I’m assuming tracks where the vocals have to be immensely sped up to fit the beat will make you less of a hit with the crowd than those that have a more natural fit. As a player going for a high score, it worries me that I sometimes can’t tell what exactly I’m scored on. All I know for certain is you get the most points for dropping and ejecting tracks on the downbeat. There’s a visual aid showing you the timing depending on your beat, but if you don’t drop a record immediately and instead hover it over the plate by holding down the button, you also see markers for points at which it would sound more natural and interesting to drop a new melody or beat. The fact that making points and making something that sounds good can at times be mutually exclusive is Fuser’s one big letdown. At times, the software defiantly works against you to make something it deems acceptable, too: I did try my best to break the game, but if something doesn’t go with the rest, Fuser is likely to just mute sections of the offending disc or use it to replace the track it’s at odds with. Things can still sound awkward – I got a small victory out of successfully finding a place for tracks that didn’t seem to go with anything at first, but more often than not, I felt Fuser was gently taking the reins before I could make ears bleed.
With Fuser, Harmonix stresses diversity and open-mindedness. Your avatar doesn’t have a set gender, and there is a generous array of body types and skin tones. Similarly, Fuser forces you out of your musical comfort zone by making you familiarise yourself with songs you might not know or like. The demo has a big focus on rap and pop songs, but then there’s a lone country song, daring me to use it with a host of songs that couldn’t be more different. I ask Walsh and Sussman if these real-life musical differences ever lead to difficulties in licensing music.
“We’ve definitely had artists tell us no because they’re not comfortable with being remixed in this way,” Walsh says. “Artists from the 2010s who are more familiar with mashup culture and remixes were generally more open to the idea when we’ve explained what Fuser is.”
The first stage you play in the demo is the full game’s first stage and thus features a short tutorial. The second stage available to me is one from later in the game and features a previously unavailable sample pad. At one point, you need to create a short loop with your pad, record it, and then use it in your mix. This requires me to navigate to a menu, choose a sample pad, roughly know what sound it makes and what I’m going for and record, all within a time limit. It’s a lot. It’s not something you can be good at using the skills games usually ask of you, and it does give me great respect for real-life DJs. You will have to get intimately familiar with the up to 16 songs you’re using at a time. Whenever I’m not playing, I’ve been whistling the horn section from Lizzo’s Good As Hell, because thanks to Fuser I now know what it sounds like. I also know it goes great with the bass line from Rock the Casbah. To me, these are exciting discoveries to make. I love to be able to take songs apart, listen to what makes them so recognisable and then use that in a different context, but getting to know something so well takes time, time the campaign mode likely won’t give you. I’ve already played most of my hours in Freestyle Mode because the feeling of it all coming together, of it sounding just right, is better to me than any high score. But in Fuser, the chase for a high score and freedom of expression are often the only things that don’t mix, even when everything else does.
from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/harmonixs-fuser-is-a-music-creation-tool-disguised-as-a-game-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=harmonixs-fuser-is-a-music-creation-tool-disguised-as-a-game-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net
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Anime Opening Songs Guaranteed to Lift Your Spirits
Anime soundtracks are a huge reason why I developed such a lifelong love for music. Growing up, me and my siblings had anime opening (and ending) themes on endless rotation. Armed with an array of blank cassette tapes, we used to hold a stereo up to our TV and delicately record anime tunes from VHS recordings. I remember so many hours spent hunched over that stereo, listening intently to those songs. Somewhere in the sounds of those slightly warped, low-quality recordings, I found a deep sense of peace and joy whenever I felt lonely and hopeless.
There are plenty of difficult and terrible things in our world today, and it can be hard to find reprieve. In the midst of painful times, it's important to still find warmth and beauty where we can. Here's a list of nine anime opening songs — both old and new — that bring me comfort time and time again. Though some of these songs might also bring tears of joy, each tune carries an inspirational drive toward feelings of hope. Let's dive in!
"Butterfly" by Kouji Wada — Digimon Adventure tri.
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With its simple yet effective guitar riffs, "Butterfly" is the fantastic opener from the beloved anime's first season, and it brings back heaps of nostalgic memories for me. The Digimon Adventure tri. version in the link above contains the same touching magic that made the original version so fantastic: soaring vocal work by the late Kouji Wada (RIP). This is undoubtedly one of those rare songs that blissfully conjures a sense of bittersweet longing, resolve, and hope.
"Just Communication" by Two-Mix — Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
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I was first exposed to Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, like many others, when it aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami. The Toonami version axed the incredible original intro, and "Just Communication" along with it (though we were still treated to a pretty amazing instrumental version for the ending US credits).
Two-Mix's synth-based brand of J-Pop perfectly nails the sort of sounds you'd imagine in a mech-filled future. The song also shifts through an emotional palette fitting for the Gundam universe, going from upbeat fight-mode intensity to contemplative verses that echo feelings of love and sadness. Bittersweet moments notwithstanding, "Just Communication" is a timeless anime opener that will get you fired up to duke it out— Wing Zero style — with whatever life throws your way.
"Sora ni Utaeba" by Amazarashi — My Hero Academia
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Going off an entirely unscientific poll, "Sora Ni Utaeba" seems to be fairly underrated compared to other My Hero Academia openers (which are also fantastic). This track serves as the opening tune that covers some of my favorite moments in the series, from Todoroki reaching greater self-understanding, to the unforgettable battle with Stain. "Sora Ni Utaeba" is a propulsive anthem you shouldn't miss.
"Silhouette" by KANA-BOON — Naruto Shippuden
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This Naruto Shippuden theme really took the internet by storm. Covers of KANA-BOON's electric "Silhouette" abound on YouTube, along with tons of memes related to the track (and let's not forget the pretty sweet Avengers: Infinity War fan-made video too). Even though it might suffer a bit from online oversaturation, "Silhouette" still stands out as one of the most motivational — and memorable — shōnen tunes ever made.
"Great Days" performed by Karen Aoki and Daisuke Hasegawa — JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
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It was really really hard to only pick one JoJo's Bizarre Adventure song for this list. Every season features inspirational openers, but "Great Days" is probably the peak for me. There's an especially buoyant, optimistic quality to the chorus that can instantaneously brighten my day. Also, the upper key change in the final section is *chef_kiss.png.* "Let the voice of love take you higher," indeed.
"Gurenge" by LiSA — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
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LisA is quite prolific in the world of anime. Her songs have been featured in shows like Fate/Zero, My Hero Academia, and Sword Art Online. But for me, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's opener "Gurenge" is undoubtedly her crowning achievement.
"Gurenge" is the one opening anime song in years that straight up floored me when I first heard it. I also can't stress enough just how flawlessly the song pairs with Demon Slayer's opening visuals. And whether or not you're a fan of Panic! At the Disco, this video of Brendon Urie crooning along is a very apt example of the song's indisputably powerful and infectious vibes.
"Cruel Angel's Thesis" performed by Yoko Takahashi — Neon Genesis Evangelion
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While many people think of Neon Genesis Evangelion as a gloomy soul-wrencher doused in religious and philosophical symbolism (not saying this as a pejorative, as I consider NGE to be the best anime of all time), the same depressive qualities can't be ascribed to the show's iconic opening song.
"Cruel Angel's Thesis" expresses the sort of resolve and strength you wished Shinji could find. It's also beyond impressive that the song is still just as moving as it ever was, even after years of an almost inescapable amount of online spoofs and memes. If you want to feel like you're hopping into an EVA unit with your A.T. field at maximum and guns ablazin', look no further.
"Moonlight Densetsu" — Sailor Moon
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For most people, this unforgettable classic is likely the first song to come up whenever anime music is mentioned. What's not to love? It has thumping early '90s drum fills, sparkling synths galore, and a jaw-dropping central melody that can make any musician green with creative envy. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that "Moonlight Densetsu" has been dear to me in just about every phase of my life. And I imagine its vibrant sense of celestial wonder will continue to motivate me — and many others — for years to come.
"Hohoemi No Bakudan" by Matsuko Mawatari — Yu Yu Hakusho
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For me, this is the penultimate feel-good anime opener from a quintessential '90s anime. "Hohoemi no Bakudan" really delivers on every level. Prince-esque guitar riffs, groovy basslines, keyboard horns, and an indelible vocal melody to top it all off. It's unusual for me to call anything perfect, but this is one of those rare pieces of art that I consider flawless.
That concludes my list of anime bangers destined to lift your spirits. We could all use a little extra music in our lives during times of tumult, so I hope this list inspires you to relisten to some of your favorite anime openers!
Are there any other anime openers you'd include on this list? Let me know in the comments!
Do you love anime? Do you love writing? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!
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It’s only April, but Fiona Apple may have already given us the lyric of the year: “Fetch the bolt cutters, I’ve been in here too long.” Fetch the Bolt Cutters is, in fact, the title of both the song where she murmurs the line as a refrain and her first album since 2012. Apple couldn’t have known when she quoted the line, first uttered by Gillian Anderson in the BBC crime drama The Fall, that she’d be releasing the record into a world on house arrest. But Apple has always been spookily prescient about the mood of the culture, magnifying her own internal landscape until it starts to look like a near-future map of the universe.
As a young artist in the late ’90s she wrote piercing songs about, among other things, her experiences with sexual assault and mental illness—topics mainstream pop culture mostly avoided until well into the 21st century. Critics praised her music but mocked her preternatural candor; in retrospect, you get the sense that the presence of such a talented, articulate, tortured brain in the head of a beautiful teenage girl threw them for a loop. Two decades later, Apple has outlasted her haters and now lives a tabloid-proof life in Venice Beach. For company, she has her dog, a roommate and the roommate’s dog. When a reporter asked her, last year, whether she’d seen the movie Hustlers—which includes a scene where Jennifer Lopez strips to Apple’s 1996 hit “Criminal”—she replied, “If I were a person who actually left my house, I’d go.”
It figures, doesn’t it, that Apple was voluntarily self-quarantining years before the rest of us were forced to? She even did much of the work on Bolt Cutters at home, where she cobbled together a studio and recorded with the help of GarageBand and a three-piece band of veteran musicians (bassist Sebastian Steinberg, drummer Amy Aileen Wood and singer-songwriter David Garza on guitar), with whom she shares production credits. According to a recent New Yorker profile, Apple laid the rhythmic foundation for the album by leading the ensemble around the house, where they chanted and banged on homemade percussion instruments. Comfortable though its author might be in semi-seclusion, the album arrives as a message in a bottle from one castaway to a sea full of them. You bet Fiona Apple knows what it’s like to be bouncing off the walls of your bedroom—and your skull—with too much time to second-guess every choice you’ve ever made. How lucky for listeners that her unsparing introspection possesses the alchemical power to make us feel less alone in ours.
Mountaintop sage is a role that suits her better than enfant terrible ever did. Now that the culture is catching up with her, Apple has evolved in the public imagination into a sort of folk hero—trolling powerful sexists, reaching out to other artists who struggle with mental health, donating two years’ worth of proceeds from “Criminal” to refugees. In a 2018 video, she responded to a fan’s question about whether she still believed the words she’d notoriously muttered during a photo shoot in the ’90s: “There’s no hope for women.” Apple patiently explained that she was a scared kid back then and that the music industry in particular had changed for the better in recent years. “We’re gonna be fine!” she exclaimed, shifting into encouraging-big-sister mode. “There’s always hope for women. We are hope.”
Courtesy of Epic Records
That’s not to say she’s gone full girl-power cheerleader. Bolt Cutters can be quite dark. In “For Her,” Apple executes a devastating variation on the standard “Good Morning” with nothing but sparse, hollow percussion as a net: “Well, good mornin’, good mornin’, you raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in.” Like most the album, it’s a song that calls attention to its own construction, transitioning from one sound to the next with minimal artifice. What begins as a clapping, stomping jump-rope rhyme becomes a rhythmic chant whose intonations fall at the intersection of rap and R&B, then stretches into something bluesier. Finally, the shocking “Good Morning” line gives way to a layered, angelic chorus that feels like a sonic representation of healing. The song reportedly originated from Apple’s anger over the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
Her (mercifully non-literal) form of Trump-era rage coexists on the album with blunt dissections of her past, personality and public image. The incantatory refrain of “Relay”—“Evil is a relay sport, when the one who’s burned, turns to pass the torch”—makes for a timely indictment of our hate-poisoned political discourse but actually comes from one of Apple’s teenage notebooks. She vents her resentment at fakes, jerks, people who present their “life like a f—ing propaganda brochure.” (Never one to perform happiness she doesn’t truly feel, Apple is a conscientious objector to influencer culture.) Yet the song resolves with her finding the wisdom to break the relay’s chain: “I know if I hate you for hating me, I will have entered the endless race.”
Bolt Cutters takes a special interest in her relationships with women. Though she’s proven her feminist mettle over and over again, she has also taken more than her share of abuse from women—especially early in her career, when she was accused of giving girls eating disorders and allowing her 19-year-old self to be objectified in music videos. On “Ladies,” she repeats the title until its two syllables become meaningless, then slides into a lilting torch song for “good women, like you/Yet another woman to whom I won’t get through.” Still, Apple admits that she can be weird with, say, her exes’ new girlfriends. Amid a gentle metallic clatter, the title track opens with a plaintive, charmingly clumsy admission: “I’ve been thinking about when I was trying to be your friend—I thought it was, then, but it wasn’t—it wasn’t genuine.” Perhaps because having compassion for women also means having compassion for herself, she affords herself the same respect: “Kick me under the table all you want/I won’t shut up,” goes the sing-along chorus to “Under the Table.”
The record’s conversational tone, manifested in Apple’s talky delivery as well as in lyrics that scan as prose more often than poetry, creates a rare intimacy. And it’s echoed in compositions defined by their rough edges: hand claps; a cappella passages; sudden shifts in tempo; vocals that alternate ragged whispers, attenuated moans and bracing falsetto with her unmistakable throaty croon. Ambient sounds—the dogs barking, people talking—as well as seconds of near silence, made their way into the mix. As beautiful as the melodies and the epiphanies they carry often are, the songs are not what you would call “pretty.”
This makes the album a significant departure for an artist whose early style was defined in large part by sophisticated, bespoke arrangements created with collaborators like acclaimed producer and composer Jon Brion. Yet Bolt Cutters wouldn’t be the extraordinary experiment in aural and lyrical honesty that it is if it sounded too polished. The record is a missive from the mini-studio in Apple’s house to whatever confined space we’re stuck in these days, compelled as we are to spend a lot more time than usual in our own heads. It offers us a roadmap to understand who we are and make peace with who we have been; to take responsibility for our worst selves and protect our best ones; to come out of our ordeal stronger, wiser, but still self-critical. From Fiona’s lips to God’s ears: We’re gonna be fine.
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