See Jazz, the recording project of Brooklyn-based songwriter Aaron Pfannebecker, uses drum machines and synthesizers to construct warped bedroom collage pop guitars and earworm vocals. Jennifer Kelly liked the single “1982” from Pfannebecker’s Is This Anything? a whole lot, noting its “vertiginous balance between tremulous, astral ideality and wounded, grounded vulnerability, the same contrast between ragged doubt and heavenly solace.”
Some songs that stick to me lately
Cyndi Lauper — The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough
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I’ve always loved this song and I recently rediscovered it on a dive into Lauper’s music again and it always puts me in a great mood. It just makes me happy like a lot of Motown does especially The Jackson 5. It bops.
The The — This Is the Day
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This is a top 3 song of the 1980s and probably was the biggest influence on this record I just made whether I knew it or not. I could listen to this on repeat forever and never give sick of it.
The Osmonds — Denim
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No one’s written a better song about a decade.
Minnie Ripperton — Les Fleurs
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One of my favorite songs. It has the biggest chorus that hits like 20 “Smells Like Teen Spirit’s.“ It’s epic. It’s holy. Minnie Ripperton’s voice is one the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. Maya Rudolph is her daughter and Ripperton died way too young.
Jeff the Brotherhood — Camel Swallowed Whole
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Jake and Jamin have always made great music, but this is by far my favorite thing they’ve ever done. It’s great. Everyone should hear it. Kunal Prakash also plays on this I think, and you couldn’t ask for more awesome people to be making great art together.
Bob Dylan — Precious Angel (Live at the Warfield Theatre)
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One of the things I think we all take for credit is Bob Dylan’s ability to always evolve and change a song. People use to slam him for not being able to recognize classic songs they wanted to hear because he plays them entirely differently than their record versions. I think people are coming around now and we all should. Its’s rare and it’s brave and no one owes anyone anything especially in art. This take isn’t too different than the recorded version except for one thing. It’s got 100x more soul.
New Order — Regret
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This is probably my favorite song by New Order. Although that could change. It’s got everything I love about them. Incredible drums over great drum programming. Peter Hook’s the best melodic bass player from the UK. He shines here. The tones of the keyboards fit perfectly and Bernard Sumner’s guitar is perfect. His direct lyrics are perfect.
Haruomi Hosono — Sports Men
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Philharmony is a record I keep coming back to. It’s dense and still open and very much a vision of one person. YMO is great but this one hits me harder and “Sports Men” is the poppiest song on the record. It’s straight ahead in an unusual way or unusual in a straightforward way. Whatever you want it to be, it is.
Discovery Zone — Dance II
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This is the last new song I’ve heard that’s still my favorite new song I’ve heard. It’s been a couple years and it’s still my favorite new song. It’s the perfect pop song. Discovery Zone is the recording project of JJ Weihl. She’s brilliant.
R.L. Burnside — Let My Baby Ride
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This is a great genre collision. 1 + 1 = 3. It’s still new and it’s evolution. It’s got a very early Beck feel. I love everything about it.
New Video: Be Your Own Pet Returns from 15-Year Hiatus with a Roar
New Video: Be Your Own Pet Returns from 15-Year Hiatus with a Roar @byopband @grandstandhq @jaclynulman
Nashville-based punk outfit Be Your Own Pet — Jemina Pearl Abegg (vocals), Jonas Stein (guitar), Nathan Vasquez (bass) and John Eatherly (drums) — originally formed back in 2004 while its original lineup — Pearl, Stein, Vasquez, Eatherly and JEFF The Brotherhood‘s Jamin Orrall — were all attending Nashville School of the Arts. The then-quintet honed a spastic-yet poppy sound playing house shows…
I've got a little 3 page comic about objects, tea, and memory debuting in Hungry Zine's Issue 07: Funeral Foods, which you can pre-order now.
Hungry Zine's Issue 07: Funeral Foods, features 60 pages of writing and art by: Jessica Truong, Cree Stoney, Virginia Boudreau, Elisia Synder, Ryan Lacanilao, Kyla Pascal, David Kahane, Marco Melfi, Jin He, Wendy McGrath, AGLENNCO, Jeff Ku, Meghan Klak, Sophie Gareau-Brennan, Michael Filtz, Ivy Lerner-Frank, Emmanuelle Chateauneuf, Brotherhood of Plates, Haley Pukanski, Andy Rubio “No-Body:)”, Marie-Eve Bernier, Christine Wu, Carmen Smith, aina z. paguergan, Hailey McCullough.
CALL ME BY FIRE (SEASON 3): Participation of Jeff Satur
Now this has been the most uncanny crossover I never saw coming. A show I've been watching for years, and my introduction to thai BL which initially put Jeff's name on my radar. Here's some context for any fans who have heard of his participation and want to know more.
Call Me by Fire is a mainland Chinese TV competition show. They invite 33 established male celebrities with the goal to form an ultimate "boy band" by the show's conclusion. What tends to be the incredible pulling factor is they'll invite a combination of singers, musicians, actors, dancers, idols, presenters - incredibly well known faces in the industry - many of them hugely respected OGs in their field. (The demographic is usually late 20s+) so there's an intentional sense of maturity, experience and wisdom amongst the ensemble. The emphasis isn't really on forming this 'fictional' boy band, it acts as a mechanism for us to get more up close and personal with these artists. Allowing viewers to appreciate their creative genius, as well as who they are as people.
This show came as a spin off of another series 'Sisters Who Make Waves' which has the exact same premise but for female celebrities. Because it became such an instant hit, they made a male version shortly after.
As a Chinese speaker, I've been watching both shows since they started in 2020. Both are in their third season (with Call Me by Fire broadcasting right now). This year they've decided to include more participants (of mainly Chinese/Asian descent) from America, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand - along with the majority from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Why I find this show both incredibly entertaining and compelling is because you get to watch spectacular collaborations between some of the most talented artists of this generation, and witness them embark on a journey of brotherhood through a shared love for performance (they live, work and perform together for the duration of the show). For me, theres also a massive nostalgia factor, because a large portion of these artists will be people I grew up watching.
There will be a lot of new attention on this show due to the Jeff's involvement (whose dubbed ‘Luo Jie Fu’ in Chinese). We’re only on Episode 2, and he's already making a huge impression, earning one of two MVPs spots after their first live performance - his group ranking 2nd out of 8, and his personal ranking being 7th overall (based on the live audience popularity vote).
The show is uploaded onto Youtube in full (post-broadcast on a Saturday). Just to warn you, the episodes are usually very, very long (sometimes between 2-3 hours in total), but I personally really enjoy that. There are English subtitles but the translations don’t always capture the nuances.
Jeff is doing a superb job so far and he's very brave for taking this on. He brings something distinctly unique in his showmanship and personal sense of style. It's a daunting prospect for someone who can't speak or understand Chinese, but the other brothers are doing their best to help him feel as welcome and settled in as possible.
If anyone has any questions about the show or clips featuring Jeff they'd like to know more about, I'm more than happy to translate.
After Zalgo and Slender were separated in the lab, Slender was put with 3 other test subjects, the four became so close that they gradually treated each other like brothers. The three before Slender were already close and gladly accepted Slenderman into their brotherhood.
SLENDERMAN
-Slenderman is the voice of reason for his brothers
-Feeds off human bodies
-If anybody whether a worker or a brother needs advice, Slender is the go-to guy (unfortunately for him)
-Slender is the youngest brother of the group
-Slender doesn't exactly hate his brothers
-He just gets constantly exhausted and deflated whenever their around because these guys ALWAYS cause some sort of trouble
-Needs very long rests after they visit and he doesn't even need to sleep
SPLENDORMAN
-Middle Child, younger than Offender and Trender
-Joyous motherfucker
-Feeds off joy and happy energy
-He does have his own forest and his own workers, he enjoys managing them and being invovled
-He treats all his workers like friends
-His joy is seemingly never ending, so much so that it's scary to imagine pissing him off
-Its even scarier when you HAVE somehow pissed him off
-He. Goes. Ballistic.
-But it's only ever happened once
-The one time he invited Offender over, something unsavory almost happened to one of his workers
-Splendor promptly beat the absolute shit out of him
-Other than that, whenever he goes to Slender and his workers he never loses his cool
-Splendor will have tea parties with Sally and Lulu whenever they want because Slenderman refuses
-He tries his best to get everyone all together to have little parties and game nights
-The game nights barely ever work and somebody gets punched in the first 20 minutes usually by Jeff
OFFENDERMAN
-Second oldest brother
-He has workers but a very limited number
-Feeds off sexual energy
-Hes sorta of a Valentino from Hazbin esque character
-He rarely sees his brothers because everyone really hates him
-Slender has banned him from his forest, Splendor tries to avoid him at all costs and Trender tries to forget he even exists
-He has his workers under mind control, if they ever awaken from the mind control they will kill him
-He's sorta like a queen bee of a colony
TRENDERMAN
-Oldest brother
-He treats his workers like his models
-His workers don't kill, he's never had an interest in death and doesn't need to eat people to survive
-He has no need to eat or sleep, so he spends most of his time working
-He doesn't spend a lot of time with his brothers but will babysit the younger members of Slender's Forest (E.g. Sally)
-The most truthful and responsible brother
-Uses his workers as models
-He is where mannequins come from lol
-He watches MLP with Sally, his favourite is Rarity
Among all the relationships that existed in Kinnporsche, the ones that tugged my heartstring the most are Kinn and Kim. I don't know why, but there is something about these two brothers that I want to know more about. I just want to know what dynamic these two had. We get plenty of Khun and Kinn, and I love every second of it and wouldn't change it for the world, but I crave more of Kim and his brothers' interaction. I want to know more about these brothers. It was so unfair that we got only one scene of them all together which was also the only scene where Kinn and Kim were in one place. Every time I saw a pic of Mile, Tong and Jeff together, I mourned the potential for the brotherhood storyline that we could get from these three.