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davidmann95 · 3 years

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Did you see the interview Morrison did with CBR on Superman and The Authority? Any thoughts on it if so?

Anonymous asked: You see that interview with Morrison about S&tA? They’ve got me excited, confirms it’s basically a spiritual successor to their Action Comics run, an ending story for the Golden Age Superman the way All-Star was for the Silver Age. Very intrigued at how they’re doing this older, kind of pissed off Superman

Anonymous asked: Morrison talking mad shit about Injustice and the Snyder film plans made me happy. Just wanted to share even though you have much more positive feelings on both than I do lol.

Anonymous asked: Well Superman editorial continues to suck massively per Morrison. Almost comforting how even after the entire department gets purged, the people there would rather continue to do evil Superman than anything else.

Anonymous asked: Any thoughts on the new Morrison interview?

Anonymous asked: Have you read the CBR interview with Morrison on Superman and the Authority? Interested to hear your thoughts.

Plenty of thoughts.

* I suspected pretty much from the beginning that their choice to go with The Authority had to do with that crew representing for Morrison a bittersweet nostalgia for the turn-of-the-millenium promise of a more radical, just tomorrow (especially given that they repeatedly noted in interviews at the time they felt it had rightfully supplanted their own JLA, and with Millar and Quitely doing the second run on it), so it delving into that makes sense to me. I did not expect that to be in the form of Kennedy showing up (add New Frontier to the list of stuff this is implicitly drawing on, another comic asking 'has Superman sold out?'), but it makes me ten times more fascinated; I assume that was allowed in the first place because this was planned initially as part of 5G where Superman would have debuted in the 60s, and now because of the post-Death Metal 'it all counts' ethos.

* The DC perspective is an unsurprising downer (I imagine Morrison pitched The Authority angle as a commercial way of doing that they could actually work with), but it's notable that those initial plans were in 2018; I think signs point to the perspective of the higher-ups on Superman having shifted pretty dramatically in the last couple of years. Also holy crap they had a Morrison Superman mini in cold storage for four years, I don't know if it's abhorrent that this was kept for us or admirable that they waited for perfect timing. It's also kind of shocking that this wasn't written contemporaneously with Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3/The Green Lantern Season Two/Detective #26, because it seems so much the conclusion of the capstone they represent.

* In a weird way, this is them doing an all-encompassing take on Superman ala their Batman they never have before. All-Star and Action are often flattened out into 'Silver Age' and 'Golden Age', but really it's them doing their interpretation of classic, iconic Superman vs. their idealized personal reinvention drawing from several eras. This is the one that goes 'no he lived through it all, what are the consequences of this and what does he regret'.

* "It's kind of a reflective age for Superman who looks back and wondered if it worked, all that gaudy presentation, fighting with Doomsday, having Crises? Were we all wrapped up in our superhero bullshit and not dealing with all the problems that we started out with and tried to [solve]?" This feels almost ripped from the page from Blackstars and it casts that story in a very new light knowing that they'd already been writing this at the time, as if the take on Superman in there was built to ultimately justify the changes in here.

* I guess I'm not strictly as harsh as most but to qualify my feelings on Injustice or the Snyder movies as "much more positive" than most I'm pretty sure they would've had to run over a beloved childhood pet. Yes, I read some Twitter responses, they were hilarious.

* Talking up Clark's alien perspective makes me wonder if that's part of why the books doubling down on "he's half-human and born on Earth, in a way even his dad can't be he's seen and lives as one of us" with Jon as the impetus for his own apparent progressive journey in Son of Kal-El. Curious what capacity Jon might be in this, since again, Morrison played with him a lot in Blackstars and this apparently sets stuff up for his book.

* Superman as the dad picking you up after you get really drunk for the entire planet is such a killer framing, and also makes me think of this, which they wrote around the same time:

* Love the described stuff with Midnighter and Apollo, wild that it's just now a full decade after their incorporation that Apollo's meeting Superman and Midnighter still hasn't met Batman.

* Are those preview pages the final colors? I suspect not but I'd be so down with it if they were and this book was going with a bold near-monochromatic take.

* Finally, realized this is the conceptual sequel to Multiversity: a pulp-age hero (who's apparently been around since then) dealing with the 'successor' heroes of tomorrow, the post-Millar post-9/11 breed, hoping to act as a brighter example but terrified he's become inexorably an instrument of the status quo and that maybe it's all just shit. Think there's a low but non-zero chance The Gentry might show up to go after Superman for breaking all the rules. It is also, god help us, their Doomsday Clock - can Superman redeem DC's metatextual perceived embodiment of realistic cynicism?

#Superman and The Authority #Grant Morrison #Mikel Janin #Jordie Bellaire #Superman #The Authority #Multiversity #Opinion

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alkrinal · 3 years

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Hey look, an AU to Power of Three, haha let’s get to explaining.. So obviously, the first thing off the bat we notice, is our three favorite kitties to create AU’s around! Look away for a second to the bottom, “There will be three, kin of your kin, and they will hold your blood in their claws”. Pretty different from the original prophecy, I know right? Anyways, I came up with the bright idea of switching the protagonist and antagonist. Firestar and Tigerclawstar have been switched, the second series is... Wack. And the fourth... Eh. Now, these three and Sol have switched. But let’s start all the way back to Firestar’s Quest. Firestar finds SkyClan alone like normal, but realizes he’s more connected to cats there, and since he isn’t good at goodbyes... Takes on the role of a warrior again, and just leaves quietly. Couple of moons pass, and the clans decides Firestar has died. Sandstorm, not liking this, leaves as well to find him. She finds him in SkyClan, and yells at him for a while, but they both decide to stay in SkyClan because I said so. They still have Squirrel and Leaf, Leafstar isn’t named leader, Sharpclaw is, Hawkwing is his deputy , yada yada. Squirrel finds love in Rainfur, they’ll prob have kits idk. Leaf decides to journey on because she’s gifted and is connected to StarClan. She finds the chosen cats (Bramble, Feather, Storm, Crow, and Tawny) and falls in love with Storm instead. Feather dies as usual, but Leaf is there to help him. They all go separate ways, but Storm and Leaf promise to meet once every other moon at the area where Feather died to pay respects (Brook doesn’t exist in this universe). Graystripe chose Brackenfur as his deputy, and is Graystar atm. Storm had left RiverClan after Feather left, and went to live with his father, who happily accepted him along with his new clanmates. Storm tells Gray what happened, and he’s devastated. The clans all eventually move and stuff, and once they’re all settled, Sol is found wandering ThunderClan territory. Storm and Leaf are still meeting, and Leaf eventually gets pregnant with kits, Hollykit, Lionkit, and Jaykit. SkyClan is thriving and still in secret, only Storm knows of it as the ThunderClan cats who remember Firestar leaving for SkyClan think he died with Sandstorm out there and there never was a SkyClan. Leaf asks Storm if she can come to ThunderClan to have his kits. Storm realizes that he could be found out as a code breaker, and doesn’t want to disappoint his father (Gray has secret kits with Millie, so Bumble, Briar, and Blossom are “random” rogues he “found”). Storm declines all to quick, and Leaf is disappointed. She doesn’t visit the next time they plan to, and is exiled from SkyClan because Sharpstar found out about her having kits with a cat outside the clan. Squirrel goes with her so Fire and Sand know that they’ll have each other. Leaf has her kits in Leaf-bare, and takes care of them as a rogue with Squirrel. Leaf slowly starts losing sanity, and forces Squirrel to train them to hate the clans. Sol is a rogue who studied SkyClan, and followed Leaf to her last meeting with Storm. After Leaf leaves, Sol goes up to Storm, and offers him reassurance. Sol for the next few moons, helps out around ThunderClan, but never becomes a full warrior. Holly and Lion as kits would tease Jay for having bad eyesight (he wasn’t born blind). As they grew, they found out that they could trick cats, Squirrel and Leaf were killed by some rogues, and had saved Holly, Lion, and Jay from being killed. They all plotted, and decided on simple roles, the Brains, Brute, and Bait. Jay was used as the Bait, since he was scrawny, had bad eyesight, and smaller from his siblings. Lion was the Brute, since he was the strongest of the three. And Holly, the Brains, she came up with their plan on getting revenge. Holly decided to wound Jay, bad enough to him looking vulnerable, but not enough to where he couldn’t fight. Lion clawed at his eyes, and gave him a huge ass scar on his right shoulder. Jay’s eyesight died out because of the claw marks on his eyes, and the blood dripping into his sockets, but he didn’t say anything. Holly knew this would happen, and helped him to his spot. Lion waited in a tree (Squirrel has taught them all the moves she knew from SkyClan) and pounced when the four cats (the ones who killed Squirrel and Leaf) came. He was barely touched, and killed all four (Jay and Lion have their same powers, as StarClan thought they’d hold the ‘stars’ in their paws, Holly was given leadership and the power to make cats speak the truth). The three continued doing this for about two years. Sol, on the other hand, chose his path as a medicine cat, and became Sunpaw of ThunderClan, under Cinderpelt. Gray got the prophecy “There will be three, kin of your kin, and they will hold your blood in their claws”. Gray tells Bracken, Cinder, and Sun about this. Cinder decides to go to the moonpool to ask StarClan more on this. Cinder is killed by the three, and never returns home. Sunpaw was named ‘Sunsmoke’ by Graystar, and they basically forget about the prophecy. About a year later, Holly, Lion, and Jay arrive to ShadowClan, and are taken in (Blackstar was having a bi panic attack at Holly, Lion, and Jay). They make their first appearance to the clans as the ShadowClan warriors Hollythorn, Lionstorm, and Jaytalon. Jay was challenged before the gathering, and had beaten Russetfur because of his swift movements. Sunsmoke goes into a vision, and sees the drawing shown above (without the text) and cats staring up in horror at them (or the missing sun?). He is shaken by the scene and tells Gray after the gathering. Storm recognizes some of Leaf in the three, and wonders if those are his kits. All the same happens, with the roles reverse, the three acting as friends towards ThunderClan, and the fighting and plans still happens. Sun in covered with the three in front and yada yada. In the end, Gray is killed with Storm but the three. A lot of plot holes, but I just thought of this yesterday so..

#Destruction of Three #Power of Three #Warriors AU #Warriors #Hollyleaf #Jayfeather #Lionblaze #Sol Warriors

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warrior-verse8 · 4 years

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Random Warrior Facts!!

Random Warrior facts -First leader with nine lives was Windstar -First leader to die was Shadowstar -Dawn of the Clans takes place in 1950s -Warriors takes palce in Southern England -The Prophecies Begin take place in 2000s -If a Kit dies when its eyes are still closed, its eyes will be open in StarClan -If a Queen dies before giving birth, they will probably give birth in StarClan -The Moonstone is actually some sort of crystal -The twolegs with the Beavers were wildlife scientists who wanted to re-introduced beavers to the area -Tribe of Endless Hunting cats keep there injures -Tribe of Endless Hunting cats age and fade away -The Tribe's ancestors dont have stars in there pelts -Spottedleaf was 3-4 years older then Firestar -Scourge struck 9 major organs, each one enough to kill Tigerstar on its own -Boulder was the one who suggested allying with Scourge -Rainflower was sorry for how she treated Crookedstar -Leopardstar died from diabetes -Squirrelflight requested Hollyleaf's Warrior name, so that she could be named after her true mother Leafpool -Brightspirit, Braveheart and Shiningheart were originally from SkyClan -Sol was once a Kittypet known as Harry -Rock is dead and is more of a spirit, than a ghost -Midnight is actually dead, and is a ghost -The "clear, shiny, sticky water" in RC was gasoline -Tigerstar liked Bramblestar more then Hawkfrost -Hollyleaf is scared of thunderstorms because of what happened with Ashfur -Mousewhisker and Minnowtail were mates and why they went to the Dark Forest -Cinderpelt and Brackenfur were apprenticed before they were 6 moons old -Bramblestar loved Hawkfrost as his brother -When Bluestar crossed Thunderpaths, she thought of Snowfur -Firestar thought he was being replaced by Silverstream -Spiderleg neglected his kits cuz his parents had more kits -Graystripe favored Feathertail -Brightpaw loved Swiftpaw -Average age for a cat is 8-10 years -Leopardstar loved Tigerstar -Tigerstar hated Firestar cuz he reminded him of her father, Pinestar -Darkstripe loved Tigerstar -Honeyfern was expecting kits when she died -Pure-bred RiverClan cats have webbed paws -Tigerstar loved his kits -Sunstar loved Moonflower -Bluestar named Firestar after Oakheart -Most med cats are gay or lesbians -Hawkfrost loved Ivypool -Crowfeather never loved Nightcloud -Mousefur loved Redtail -Briarlight loved Jayfeather -Bramblestar was once in love with Sorreltail -Breezepelt was the runt of his litter -Sandstorm cheated in her warrior assessment -Blackstar was a polydactyl, he had 6 toes -Scourge hated the teeth and claws in his collar -Sasha went back to being a kittypet after the clans left -Firestar always wanted a son -RiverClan cats can hold there breaths for 20-25 seconds -Tornear loved Ashfoot -Frost was blind in one eye -Firestar favorite food was vole -Jake loved Nutmeg more then Quince -Berrynose loved Honeyfern more then Poppyfrost -Russetfur loved Blackstar -Purdy can understand twolegs -Barkface was the longest med cat -Graystripe loves Silverstream more then Millie -Cinderheart had a crush on Jayfeather -Daisy doesnt believe in StarClan -Barley believes in StarClan -Echosng was pure kittypet -Sweetpaw was bured alive and died from suffication -Cloudtail is tring to believe in StarClan -Tribe cats have an accent -Shrewpaw had a crush on Squirrelflight -ShadowClan saved Tigerstar as a kit from a fox -Sandstorm is a 3 moon older then Firestar -Heavystep had kidney disease -Yellowfang has persian blood -WindClan came up with the thought of mentors -Blackstar has WindClan blood -Stormfur blamed himself for Feathertail's death -Crookedstar named Stonefur "fur" after Bluestar -Mudclaw went to StarClan -Cody told Princess about the Clans leaving -Millie can speak dog -Icecloud secretly liked fish -Leopardstar hated Graystripe -Leopardstar loved Whiteclaw -Mothwing had a crush on Leafpool -Nightstar had asthma -Foxheart had a small crush on Scorchwind -Tigerstar loved Goldenflower more then Sasha -Crookedstar kept his broken jaw in StarClan -Nightcloud badied Breezepelt -Sandstorm was ThunderClan's best hunter -Graystripe may have had a eating disorder -Bumblestripe may have had a eating disorder -Ashfur hated kittypets -Tigerstar was afraid of the Moonstone -Fish Leap had a crush on Half Moon -Jessy is kin to Jingo -Ravenpaw 3 moons older then Graystripe -Snowfur acts like a mother to Mosskit -Crookedstar's jaw aches in Leaf-bare -Brackenfur was almost made deputy -Ravenpaw died in his sleep -Gray Wing had asthma after the fire -Squirrelflight and Leafpool are 5 yrs in Bramblestar's Storm -Stormtail never really loved Moonflower -Shellheart will always love Rainflower -Stormfur had a crush on Squirrelflight until Brook -Ashfur helped Hawkfrost to try and kill Firestar -The three lost there powers in Dovewing's Silence -Border between Dark Forest and StarClan is a white light -Runningnose was allergic to moss -Thistleclaw always loved Snowfur -Blackstar regretted killing Stonefur -Littlecloud had a crush on Cinderpelt -Tawnyspots had stomach cancer -Pinestar is older the Leopardfoot's parents -Cloudtail was unaware that Daisy had a crush on him -The kit Yellowfang lashed out on when she 1st came was Ashfur -Feathertail watched over Leafpool's kits -Mistystar was made deputy cuz Leopardstar was making up for killing her brother -Half Moon died from a vomiting sickness -The journey from forest to lake took 100 miles -Goosefeather went insane after Moonflower's death -SkyClan left the forest 20 years before Bluestar was born -Sorreltail had nightmares about Deathberries -Tigerstar was spoiled as a kit by all the queens -Brick ran away after The Darkest Hour -Jaggedtooth made the sign for Tigerstar to become leader -Appledusk blamed Mapleshade for his kits deaths -Hollyleaf befriended a baby fox -Sorreltail was kept an apprentice for 10 moons due to an injury -Reena didnt go to StarClan -Willownose is Appledusk's mother -In Clan legends, if a cats born during a thunderstorm, they have a great destiny ahead of them -The Tribe of Rusing Water was formed 60 years ago -The water in the Dark Forest is slimy, bloody mud -Runningnose's cold goes away in StarClan -Palebird had post natal depression after Finchkit died -Shellheart and Pebblefur dead of cancer -When Breezepelt dies, he will go to the Dark Forest -Rock's fur was once greyish-brown coloured -Jayfeather's biggest fear is water -Sunstar was only given 8 lives cause Pinestar was alive -Graypool was surprised that Stonefur and Mistystar thought she was there mother -Brightheart has post-traumatic-stress disorder from the attack -Graystripe is very sensitive that he eats a lot -Russetfur is older then Blackstar -Clawface was once loyal to ShadowClan -Bluestar thought Runningwind wouldnt make a good mentor -Loners are the least common non-Clan cats -The cat that trepassed on Scourge's territory was Brokenstar being thrown out of ShadowClan -Queens threaten kits with the Dark Forest when there bad -Brightheart doesnt go to the lake cuz she doesnt wanna see her face -Mapleshade had hallucinations driven by grief -Speckle loved Sol and wish he was her kits father -Leaf discivered ThunderClan's revine -Thistleclaw never sat vigil when he was made a warrior -Holowflight liked Ivypool -One Eye might be the first Dark Forest cat -Jayfeather hated learning how to fight -Dark Forest cats can give a leader a life -Dark Forest cats dont feel hunger -Leopardstar hates half-clan cats -Dustpelt hated that Ravenpaw was his sibling -Bone's collar was dark blue -Scourge had a high-pitched voice -Cats dont normally mentor kin -Willowbreeze was named after her WindClan heritage- breezw -Graypool was named after her WindClan heritage- pool -Mistystar was the first half-clan leader of RiverClan -22 cats have trained in the Dark Forest -15 cats have died and gone to the Dark Forest -Sorreltail broke her leg as an apprentice -Whitewing never liked Ashfur -Bluestar wished she fell in live with Thrushpelt -Smoky loved Floss more then Daisy -The river in RiverClan runs down to SkyClan's gorge -Harestar had a crush on Heathertail -Mousewhisker had a crush on Hollyleaf -Willowpelt loved Tawnyspots most -Crookedstar still loved Rainflower

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yoshifan4456 · 4 years

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all of em

UUUH OKAY

Anemone: My favorite character is Oakheart. He was the first character I ever saw, and after that i kinda just stuck with him. It’s varied a bit over time, like at one point it was Riverstar and at another it was Onestar, but it mainly stays Oakheart, and if it wasn’t for him, i couldn’t have a favorite in the first place.

Aster: My least favorite is Rootpaw. I don’t like him. I get Moonlight and Tree having the power, but i wasn’t ready for a warrior to have it. I think he should have been a medicine cat, and I don’t like how he steals attention from his sister Needlepaw, who’s literally named after the cat who saved their mother’s life.

Bee Balm: My favorite is Bluestar’s Prophecy. I just like her story. My favorite part is when she keeps telling herself and the cats around her that Snowfur’s just “hurt” but she knows inside that she’s gone. It’s very sad.

Begonia: Fire and Ice’s reprint cover. I like the way the W kinda looks like the ear bent itself to make room for it.

Bluebell: I ship Longtail and Mousefur, Oakheart and Redtail, and Giofilms and Tim Allen.

Chrysanthemum: Apprentice. I don’t have a long lifespan. Besides, it’s better if I die now than at 87000 years old in the elders den with people i don’t know but are the great grandchildren of my kits like all boring characters that make it to the warrior status do.

Daffodil: Technically not yet. But I found it in March of 2017 and was fully invested by May.

Dahlia: Yes. [Stares at Mosskit, Cinderpelt, Firestar, Badgerfang, Moonflower, and a whole lot of others]

Daisy: GOLDENFLOWER. Nothing against Daisy but she’s just Goldenflower’s replacement (is big and yellow, has a flower in the name, is best known for the queen rank, lives forever, never gets to meet her important ancestors, and broke up with a brown cat that she outlived)

Gardenia: I’ve thought about it and have tried many times. But I keep coming back thinking it will be better. It never is.

Hydrangea: I think it’s Scourge. I always end up drawing a blank and saying Mapleshade for being Rainbowpelt’s main inspiration, but I think that Scourge did a better job.

Iris: My favorite ships are: 1. GrayxFire, 2. TallxJake, and 3. JayxBriar. My least favorite one is IvyxBlossom. I don’t get why people are so obsessed with it. However, I don’t like ThornxBlossom either because it’s kinda like child abuse and none of their kits matter to me.

Laurel: 1. The main characters stay main until they die*. I don’t like how Graystripe wasn’t important the moment Firestar’s dead body hit the ground. 2. Some characters (like Marshkit, Mosskit, Swiftpaw, and Juniperclaw) would get to do something/redeem themselves before their death or disappearance. And 3. SkyClan isn’t important. Get rid of SkyClan.

Lilac: TigerxFire. Kill it please.

Lily: Oakheart would be maple syrup, Bluestar would be Barqs, Blackstar would be a chocolate bomb cake, Swiftpaw is a Fruit by the Foot, and Onestar is a cinnamon roll.

Marigold: Not yet.

Morning Glory: I’ve peeked in there a few times, but i have yet to actually do anything on it.

Orchid: Making Firestar and Scourge half brothers and not giving each other knowledge of that. If Firestar had known, he would have probably spared his life and offered him a spot in ThunderClan. If he had accepted, then maybe a really great warrior would be made. I imagine he wouldn’t take in a mate, but who knows? I imagine he wouldn’t like anyone at first, but in time maybe he warms up to some cats. He would probably die in the Great Battle, fighting alongside his brother’s kin. He might go to StarClan, it depends if he actually started to believe in them, but no matter where he would go, he’d probably still keep his *purple* collar.

Petunia: My favorite arc is the Prophecies Begin because warrior Firestar is best Firestar. AVoS takes too much away. I hate it. (Sandstorm, Briarlight, Rowanstar, Needletail, Thornclaw and Blossomfall’s kits being born...)

Poppy: I like the hc that the dark forest cats are kinda just mist and attacking them temporarily separates their body.

Rose: (i don’t know what that means so i’m taking a guess) I name my characters creatively (like Clawmoon, Rainbowpelt, Whitedove, and Mittenstar), but sometimes i do more simple of names (like Graywhisper and Rabbittail).

Snapdragon: Leafpool is banished after Firestar finds about her incoming kits with Crowfeather. She shelters herself in a cave, where she meets Mothwing unexpectedly. She says Mistystar banished her because she has no use to the clan after Hawkfrost admitted he made up the prophecy. She helps Leafpool deliver her kits, named Bluekit (jay), Squirrelkit (lion), and Nightkit (holly), Brambleclaw believes that she might be telling WindClan secrets of ThunderClan, and goes to kill her. He is stopped by Mothwing and Squirrelflight (she breaks up with him), and Leafpool, Mothwing, and the kits are brought to ThunderClan because of injuries. Mothwing dies, and Firestar asks if she would still like to live in ThunderClan, to which Leafpool responds that she wants her kits to have good lives, and leaves back to the cave, living out the rest of her days alone. (she still assists in the birth of Moonlight’s kits; that’s still when she dies.)

For curious people, WindClan and ShadowClan aid in Bluewillow’s medicine training.

Sunflower: I don’t really like the hc that Squirrelflight is small. I see her as an absolute unit.

Tulip: CyAn

Violet: Fox lengths. like who tf went up to a fox and calculated the distance between its head and tail??

Wisteria: Yes and no. I don’t really know at all.

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dan-wreck · 7 years

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BOWIE #2 - STARDUST MEMORIES

Photo by Mick Rock

Oh stop groaning, you can name a piece of writing with a Woody Allen pun when the person you're writing it about is a cultural Zelig.

Soon there's going to be a whole generation where the Bowie they remember is the dead Bowie. The sanitised version who is forming in the popular imagination. Then after that there's going to be a generation who don't have a Bowie. Figuratively and literally, kids born into a post Bowie era. Pity them more. I guess how you first encountered him is a question of when you grew up and your surroundings: a guy I worked with at my last job, 20 years older than me, announced "That guy from Labyrinth is dead!". Presumably, somewhere, there's a die hard Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence fan who was mourning the death of Jack Celliers. We may never know.

For many people the Bowie they remember is Ziggy Bowie, whether they were alive to see him bringing bisexuality onto the BBC or not. Maybe this is one of the reasons behind the recent cringeworthy trend of calling him "the Starman" the same way that faux-matey twats call Paul Weller the Modfather. Maybe it's just that these people are idiots. Bowie himself didn't really seem to think of Ziggy as an enduring character or perhaps he just felt like he’d said all he could through that conduit. He laid him to rest after Aladdin Sane after all: around 42 years before he finished creating. Ziggy was really strictly speaking a footnote. The relatively anonymous figure of Major Tom, however, was one he kept returning to: after Space Oddity he came back in Ashes To Ashes, then again in Hallo Spaceboy (the Pet Shop Boys remix particularly) and then finally we see him dead in the Blackstar video.

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Ashes To Ashes for instance: Major Tom is strung out in heaven's high and hitting an all time low. This, though, at a time when Bowie's cultural stock was quite high. He was incredibly cool. He was still selling a lot of records. He was the one person who could hang out in the living room of a confused and senile Bing Crosby or at a tiny punk gig and fit equally well with either. There was no point reviving Ziggy because a whole load of New Romantics and Goths were doing it. The fact that this new flock of painted birds were very inspired by him was something that'd become crushingly obvious when Bauhaus did their borderline karaoke version of Ziggy Stardust in 82. Bowie embraced his bastard children with open arms, casting them as his grim entourage in his video, with one notable exception.

Gary Numan. A huge fan who wound up getting thrown off the set of a TV show they were both on and being dismissed as the "same old thing in brand new drag" in Teenage Wildlife because our man was feeling a bit insecure about this new pretender. Which is a bit rich, really, considering that young Bowie himself was a fusion of Iggy, Newley, Scott Walker and whoever else he could latch onto. Numan was certainly no more derivative than Bowie and it wasn’t just Bowie he was drawing from: he drew as much from JG Ballard and Philip K Dick novels and John Foxx as he did from the Spider from Bromley. It’s allso amusing considering that he sings Teenage Wildlife in a voice uncannily similar to that of Billy MacKenzie, who his people had recognised the grand high art high camp potential of when they heard the Associates cover of Boys Keep Swinging and offered them a publishing deal; then later on "The midwives to history put on their bloody robes" is delivered in the voice of another Bowie acolyte, Richard Butler.

Make no mistake, Ashes to Ashes is simultaneously a high water mark, a brilliant pop record and the point where Bowie stopped being ahead of trends and started chasing them. It just so happened that a lot of these trends were started by people catching up to him. Confusing, no? In fact, this is the one point where you could maybe give some credence to the lazy critics idea of Bowie as "chameleon". Now at his best Bowie was never a chameleon. Especially when he was first Ziggy, actually because there's no way Bowie / Ziggy was blending into the background: he was an incredibly beautiful, sexually ambiguous peacock character. But during the 80s he did blend in quite a lot. He was just another one of the rank and file whether prancing about onstage with anonymous session hacks on the Glass Spider tour or just being "one of the guys" with Tin Machine. It didn't really suit him. It was unnerving. It still seemed like a costume but a very lazy one. The equivalent of Bowie turning up to the macabre Halloween coke party of 80s pop in casual clothes and saying "I came as David Jones".

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So the next time we saw Major Tom in a lot of people's eyes he really was hitting an all-time low. Not everyone's, not the die-hards and not people who buy and listen to music based on what they hear, not what they're told by a music press who had been swallowed up by the sexless and jingoistic Britpop craze. See, with Outside what he'd done is released an elaborate concept album rife with pervy sexualised violence, violent sex, drugs, strange invented characters and references to obscure artists and art movements like Chris Burden (already visited in the Berlin days on Joe The Lion), Herman Nitsch and the Vienna Actionists. The visual component was a huge part of it all again, with unnerving videos like Samuel Bayer’s The Hearts Filthy Lesson. In interviews he was talking up Tricky and The Young Gods and saying how much he wanted to work with Glenn Branca. Being ahead of the curve by talking about the power of the internet as everyone thought he was nuts. He was even working extensively with Eno again.

You know - the sort of thing you want from Bowie!

This isn't what the British music press wanted. They wanted safe flag-waving and to be told what they knew to make them feel like they hadn't dumbed down to a degree which is still marring pop music with waves of Oasis clones because for a while it was acceptable to make bland drivel devoid of imagination or sensuality. They smeared Bowie's dabbling with jungle and drum'n'bass as a sad old man trying to stay in touch when in reality it was really just in continuity with him learning to play sax as a teenager because that's what all the cool jazz musicians he looked up to did, making "plastic soul" on Young Americans and welding the cold European sensibility of Low, "Heroes" and Lodger to the beating heart of the black American rhythm section of Davis, Murray and Alomar. Cultural segregation, two world wars and one world cup was what they wanted and they didn't want ageing mavericks showing up and demonstrating how hopelessly conservative they were.

A lot of the incredibly dull music being hyped up to the skies was, just like it was with the New Romantics, made by Bowie fans. So the time was right for him to come back but could he have not just have given them Ziggy again? Something with nice short songs, loud guitars, some dramatic strings. This time a bit more hetero, though, so the lads mag readers weren’t left shifting about uncomfortably again the way they were whenever they saw Richey James Edwards.

"Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days"

If you're not paying attention you can almost miss it but Hallo Spaceboy is, in fact, mentioning Ziggy / Bowie as much as it mentions Major Tom if not more. In those two lines we see Bowie cagily re-opening the closet door now it's safe for him to do so, and doing so on a mind-fuck of a concept album closer to the spirit of Ziggy or Diamond Dogs than almost anything he'd done since (The Thin White Duke was as much coke psychosis as an actual character). Before this the last time he was really clear about this was on Scream Like A Baby where he talked about queer bashing ("They came down on the faggots") and obliquely mentioned a gay love affair. Then let's look at the remix: it doesn't get much gayer than The Pet Shop Boys, really, does it? The Pet Shop Boys remixing a song from a polymorphously perverse album where he sings from the point of view of various genders: just listen to his alarming pitched-up Baby Grace voice or the strange androgynous Vocoderised ice queen voice of Ramona A Stone.

Most offensively of all, though, however much you laughed at him it didn’t really work because he was very aware that it was funny. The segues between tracks were full of gallows humour and the Algeria Touchshriek voice sounds like nothing so much as Peter Cook’s E.L. Wisty character; it’s very serious stuff but as you hear Bowie intone “The screw is a tightening atrocity, I shake as the reeking flesh is as romantic as hell” in The Voyeur Of Utter Destruction (As Beauty) there’s a faint smirk under it. He is always aware of his own absurdity.

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1.Outside didn't spawn any of the sequels he talked about doing but it's no surprise: artists tend to talk about at least five times as many ideas as they actually follow through and work on. There were drum'n'bass and jungle rhythms creeping in on I'm Deranged and We Prick You, some classic Bowie ballads like Strangers when We Meet (itself, like Teenage Wildlife, in the "Heroes" continuum and one of my favourite Bowie songs) and some homages to what Scott Walker was up to at the moment like The Motel or A Small Plot of Land. He wasn't setting the trends now: he was following them and the best you can hope for is that rather than trying to assimilate into it as he did in the 80s he was putting them into the Bowie blender.

This, however, misses the point that he was never that original in the first place! The way he presented his ideas was, and he had a unique singing voice but the fact is that he just had his ear to the underground and did these things to a mass audience so they just looked new. In that respect Outside is no more or less original than Low or one of the records everyone goes on about it just happens that when it came out it wasn't the first time the masses were hearing these sounds as it was when he made the second side of Low which sounds like Cluster or Harmonia. Bowie’s value wasn’t as an inventor of new sounds it was as a way of making them digestible and emotionally accessible to everyone in a way which may then allow the actual innovators (and he did always cite his sources) to break through to more success: this is quite laudable.

So then of course he went on tour with NIN, continuing to refuse to "act like a man his age". Now this raises an interesting question about Bowie's public perception. How is it that he was an old man 20 years ago when he was in his late 40's - early 50's but then when he died he was too young to go? Could it be that as rock'n'roll, still a young artform, develops that our perceptions of performers capability changes? The fact is that for a pervy old man, as he was labelled at the time, he still looked very youthful and very vital. Far sexier, far more dangerous than any of the Britpop boys who'd grown up on his music but who shuffled about in tracksuit tops and shapeless jeans. As this live TV clip shows, with Gail Ann Dorsey looking just as androgynous and unworldly as he ever did but with seemingly the minimum of effort; and Mike Garson looking deranged.

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The right people were listening: Fincher saw the potential to run The Heart’s Filthy Lesson over the credits of Se7en and Lynch used I’m Deranged in Lost Highway. Both were similarly grim end of the 20th Century blues, meditations on madness. Both soundtracks, coincidentally enough, featured the work of NIN and Coil: it’s a little frustrating how close in terms of interests Bowie and Coil are, how few degrees of separation there are between these immensely influential queer occultist artists and that they never actually worked together.

He continued in this vein with Earthling, still upsetting everyone by continuing to do what he felt like doing rather than digging up old characters. A subtle “fuck you” to the beige whitewashed sounds of Brit-pop in the cover where he wears a stained and tattered Union Jack coat as he looks out over an idealised version of England’s green (screened) and pleasant land. This on an album as infused with contemporary black music as Young Americans was. Even his huge 50th birthday show was as much of a celebration of Bowie present and looking forward as a fond look at what had been. Then, of course, "Hours" came.

Now "Hours" is perhaps an unfairly maligned album: if anyone else had put out an album with songs as great as Thursday's Child and Survive on they'd be praised to the skies and rightly so. They are moving, perfectly constructed pop songs but there's no real fire or spark of innovation in them. What little emotional impact there is has been drowned in high-tech production that covers everything in an unpleasant sheen. This is possibly as much Mark Plati and Reeves Gabrels fault as Bowie's as this is his most straightforwardly collaborative album (with every song co-credited to Gabrels) but I'm not sure. I feel like Reeves Gabrels gets unfairly criticised as he's been involved in some of the most ridiculous things Bowie has done (i.e. Tin Machine) and he appeared onstage in daft outfits playing wanky guitar solos.

He's also been involved in some of my favourite Bowie songs, however, and if you see him playing with The Cure he's not as huge a presence. He’s not jumping all over everything with fretboard tapping and lunging around waggling his tongue like Gene Simmons with a PhD: this implies that he cut such a larger than life figure because his boss wanted him to as much as anything else. So despite his persona bordering on that of a middle-aged man enthusiastically demonstrating FX pedals to you in a guitar shop, blaming him too much is misguided.

According to the excellent Pushing Ahead of the Dame blog, it was around this time Bowie started thinking about making a Ziggy Stardust film and as such he was annoyed by Velvet Goldmine's fictionalised steps into the same territory. Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine is an enjoyable film but I can see why he'd be so annoyed with it: it is clearly the work of a gay fan feeling betrayed by him “going back in” circa Let’s Dance. Possibly the great man was realising this wasn’t one of his best moves however well it worked at the time. After "Hours" was out and around the time of Heathen in 2002, Bowie changed his tune regarding Ziggy: “I’m running like fuck from that…Can you imagine anything uglier than a nearly 60-year-old Ziggy Stardust? I don’t think so!".

Similar ambivalence towards the idea is hinted at by the shelving of the video for the Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (itself a dual reference to The Stooges and Hunky Dory) where Bowie is menaced by huge puppets of past characters: the Pierrot from Ashes To Ashes, The Man Who Sold The World, The Thin White Duke and of course Ziggy. Maybe he judged it to be a bit on the nose.

It is an interesting change in perception we've undergone. In 1996 he was too old to be performing like he used to do but in 2013, at the age of 66, there were whispers about how great it'd be if he toured again. Not in any other industry do you expect a 66 year old man to get up onstage and dance about trying to be sexy for two or three hours a night. He could've done it like Dylan or Cohen (who only started touring again when he was much older than Bowie, true) but it wouldn't really have been his style: here was a man for who dance and mime and stagecraft had been an integral part of what made him a star. It’s still very present in his last videos and one of his final works was an honest to God musical after all.

So in the Blackstar video when we see that Major Tom is dead and at peace at last what are we to make of it? Clearing house for a whole new phase of experimentation and new ideas or a man on his last legs knowing that even if he didn't die straight after making this album he didn't have forever and was in the winter of his years? This is where we start to maybe give him too much credit. He was a man, and a great man but not a superhero. Superheroes don’t do things like release terrible covers of Iggy Pop songs with Tina Turner bolted onto them. “Ah but he only did that to keep his good friend financially solvent.”. Okay, good point.

He was a very intelligent man but not some towering inhuman intellect who could've predicted the moment Blackstar's "Something happened on the day he died, his spirit rose a metre and stepped aside" soundtracking the moment we knew we knew we knew. Maybe he predicted that it'd be a long while before somebody else took his place because things aren't set up that way. The industry has no interest in promoting bravery, the shock of the new. But he can't possibly have predicted that he was soundtracking millions of people thinking "He's gone, isn't he?" when he wrote that in remission. To think that he did is ridiculous, isn't it?

Isn't it?

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#david bowie #1. outside #ashes to ashes #ziggy stardust #blackstar #brit pop #jungle

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afutureinnoise · 7 years

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DAVID BOWIE, PART 2

BY DAN WRECK

Photo by Mick Rock

BOWIE #2 - STARDUST MEMORIES

Oh stop groaning, you can name a piece of writing with a Woody Allen pun when the person you're writing it about is a cultural Zelig.

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You know - the sort of thing you want from Bowie!

"Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days"

youtube

Outside didn't spawn any of the sequels he talked about doing but it's no surprise: artists tend to talk about at least five times as many ideas as they actually follow through and work on. There were drum'n'bass and jungle rhythms creeping in on I'm Deranged and We Prick You, some classic Bowie ballads like Strangers when We Meet (itself, like Teenage Wildlife, in the "Heroes" continuum and one of my favourite Bowie songs) and some homages to what Scott Walker was up to at the moment like The Motel or A Small Plot of Land. He wasn't setting the trends now: he was following them and the best you can hope for is that rather than trying to assimilate into it as he did in the 80s he was putting them into the Bowie blender.

youtube

“Ah but he only did that to keep his good friend financially solvent.”.

Okay, good point.

Isn't it?

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#david bowie #by dan wreck

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rocknutsvibe · 7 years

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2016: On The Cusp Of A Rock Awakening

OK, so we lost a lot of great musicians in 2016, and world events were unsettling to say the least. But all things considered, it was a pretty good year for music, with some older artists hitting late-inning home runs and some newer acts seemingly approaching greatness. I really get the sense that Rock is in an exciting period of transition, with so many artists both young and old willing to take risks in the search for new sounds and new approaches. I honestly believe that we are on the cusp of a new Rock awakening. Here are my selections for Top 10 Albums of 2016.

10. The Claypool Lennon Delirium – Monolith Of Phobos

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People sometimes forget that Sean Lennon inherited artistic genes from his mother too, one of the most famous avant-garde musicians who ever lived. With this in mind his musical partnership with mad genius Les Claypool seems like such a perfect fit. This album won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — it’s way out there sometimes — but to me it felt fresh and wild and unique. Lennon and Claypool seem to bring out the very best in each other’s oddly twisted personalities, flavoring their distinctly original take on classic proggy sounds with wit and whimsy. Claypool’s jaw-dropping virtuosity on the bass was no surprise, but Lennon’s lambent talents on guitar and vocals certainly were, and I really hope these guys keep making music together.

9. Rolling Stones – Blue And Lonesome

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This is like one of those albums that NASA would put into a Voyager satellite to introduce extraterrestrial civilizations to human culture, except in this case it landed back on Earth in 2016. The album captures — for a new generation on this planet — the electrifying intensity of those early-sixties blues and R&B recordings, recorded live and hot and off the floor. But this ain’t the 1964 Stones cheekily imitating the old bluesmen, this is a band with the chops and the savvy to actually be the old bluesmen. Sometimes Jagger sounds like an old man and sometimes he sounds like he’s 25, but either way he and his mates are as authentic as it gets, and god knows there’s a hunger for authenticity out there.

8. case / lang / veirs – case / lang / veirs

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Take three fiercely independent singer-songwriters who don’t know each other very well, put them in a room and tell them to write songs together, and you’ve got a prescription not only for bruised egos but quite possibly broken bones as well. Unless of course the singer-songwriters are women, in which case you’ve got a much better chance of co-operation and a successful collaboration. k.d. lang admired the work of Neko Case and Laura Veirs and suggested the three get together and create some new songs, not as a three-point harmony trio but more like a real band where each member’s individual strengths are given a chance to shine. The end result is one of the finest collections of songs released this year, where even the production and arrangements are well-conceived and beautifully implemented. See what a little co-operation can accomplish?

7. Bon Iver – 22, A Million

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Up to this point Bon Iver was widely considered a balladeer, a singer-songwriter of deeply personal, atmospheric songs who used electronica mostly as a way to process his distinctive falsetto vocals. Folk electronica, if you will. But on this, his third album, Bon Iver takes folk electronica to new horizons with beats and kinetic energy, a huge and I think welcome departure from his drony balladeer thing. The album contains some beautiful acoustic guitar, piano and horns, but it also includes tracks like “10 (Deathbreast)” which has him spitting out spoken lyrics over a driving cascade of electronic beats, sounding more like Kanye West than a folk artist. In fact, West had sought out Bon Iver’s recording expertise for one of the rapper’s earlier albums, so I guess what goes around comes around. Rock happens when different musical genres come together, and this album sounds like something new being born.

6. The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect

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Alex Turner has talent, charisma, and a willingness to take artistic chances, a great combination for any musician. As swaggering front man for the Arctic Monkeys, Turner gained fame for his wickedly clever power pop, but as a partner in The Last Shadow Puppets he takes that wicked cleverness on a completely different tack. The Rock elements are still there, but the defining sound on this album is a standout orchestra section arranged by the brilliant Canadian violinist and producer Owen Pallett. It gives the album a very Euro feel as the band pays discreet homage to the various pop styles that make use of strings – ‘50s doo-wop, ‘60s soul, ‘70s disco, ‘80s spy movies – as well as some really original arrangements that can easily stand on their own. I don’t understand why this album wasn’t a huge hit.

5. The Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem

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With this album The Hip completes their transformation from literate, edgy roadhouse Rockers to literate, mature Rock gurus, comfortable in their wisdom yet searching for truth more rigorously than ever. After 30 years together the Hip keeps growing as a band, boldly adding new textures and instrumentation and themes and emotions to their kit bag, while at the same time keeping their kick-ass edge as sharp as it ever was. If, as seems likely, this is to be the band’s last album due to Gord Downie’s serious health issues, then by god what a way to go, and what an inspiring lesson in personal and artistic growth for the rest of us.

4. Warpaint – Heads Up

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There are some pretty sophisticated Rock sensibilities at work here on the L.A. quartet’s third album. Originally an atmospheric/chill type outfit, Warpaint displays a subtle but still striking versatility on this album, skillfully and seamlessly weaving analog and electronic instrumentation together as well as anybody has ever done it. One minute bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa are laying down big fat beats, the next minute guitarist Theresa Wayman is serving up soaring or spiky licks over an electronic bed. Emily Kokal’s plaintive lead vocals may not be the strongest, but the band’s three-point harmonies are outstanding and lay at the heart of Warpaint’s sonic signature. This is definitely a band to watch.

3. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

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So the story goes that Iggy Pop finally had enough of the rat race and wanted to drop out after recording one last album. Ever the showman, Iggy decides that if he’s going out, he’s going out in style, so he turns to Josh Homme for help. How could this not be a recipe for a great album? These are two Rock giants coming together. Homme, one of a handful of artists destined to carry the torch for Rock & Roll deep into the new century, brought his unique gifts of edgy songcraft together with Iggy’s brutally frank street truths, sprinkled it with a little anti-materialist populism, and helped create a bold and original statement, not just for Iggy, but I really think for the ages. Homme deserves a co-credit on the album, but he’s too generous a soul to want it. Meanwhile Iggy keeps dreaming “about getting away to a new life / where there’s not so much fucking knowledge”, and I have to admit that does sound appealing.

2. Esperanza Spalding – Emily’s D+Evolution

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I’ve always subscribed to the theory that the greatest artists are the ones that push the envelope so far until they discover new territory. Well Esperanza Spalding is one brilliant artist and with this album she has found musical ground where nobody has stood before, and that is saying something. Sure, the lithe vocals, explosive bass lines and complicated jazz time signatures are all still there, but this time around she brings thundering and soaring guitars into the mix, making the album sound at times more like prog than jazz. Think Joni Mitchell meets Frank Zappa and Shuggie Otis, or maybe St. Vincent with the angular corners rounded out. On top of all this, Emily’s D+Evolution is a concept album where Spalding’s alter ego wrestles wordily with powerful thoughts on love, gender, race and class in the 21st Century. This is a dense, rich album that delivers increasing rewards with every listen.

1. David Bowie – Blackstar

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There will never be another album like this one, just as sure as there will never be another David Bowie. It’s an album about Bowie’s life and about his death, and it is loaded with riches. I was never all that big on droning medieval melodies, but I now love the five minutes of it on the title track because “at the center of it all” lies the shimmering beauty of the middle section. Kudos to my colleague Jordan for pointing out the “whore” of the raucous second track is quite likely Bowie’s cancer. “Lazarus” still makes me weep sometimes because I can’t get the haunting video out of my head, but it has sure given me some insights into death that were never quite available to me before. “Sue” is cinema verite in modern jazz wrapping, while “Dollar Days” and “I Can’t Give Everything Away” are as beautiful as anything Bowie has ever made. How long will it be before this album starts showing up on greatest of all-time lists?

Honorable Mentions

Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger Wilco – Schmilco Charles Bradley – Changes Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate Andrew Bird – Are You Serious Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial Anderson Paak – Malibu

Photo- Esperanza Spalding; credit: By JBreeschoten (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons

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#Rocknuts #rock #music

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jamesellistheartof · 6 years

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CHAPTER FIVE HEROES 6/ 4/ 16 Sun’s shining through the French doors. I’m sitting here, writing, listening to a late 1960’s Neil Young live show and thinking about all the different artists and writers who’ve inspired me down through the years. I suppose you could call them my heroes. We all have them, those people who inspire us to reach further than our lives, whether they’re famous or not. People we respect and admire, either in how they approach life or how they approach their art. Sometimes its both. When it comes to how I approach my writing I always find myself drawn to the kind of artist who doesn’t like repeating themselves, those pioneers who follow the muse instead of the money. I respond to artists who try something different each time, who aren’t afraid to take risks, who don’t worry about failing or falling. Once you’ve accidentally stumbled upon a successful formula it follows that you stick to it, but those giants I admire don’t do that. They’re not content to do that, because once they’ve figured out to do something, and do it well, they don’t do it again, because the challenge is gone. I believe, like them, that your best work comes from challenging yourself. It’s certainly not commercially sound, because it can be difficult to pin you down creatively, but when it comes to doing work of substance, work that lasts, I think it’s the only way to go. I guess they’re my heroes because they’re like minded. They see things the way I see them and they’re not afraid to go to the places I like to go. They’re always searching for a new challenge, a different way of doing things. They follow their own course in life and they take their own counsel in the decisions they make. It’s a good way to live your life, creatively or otherwise. I admire them for that, for their willingness to stand out from the crowd, to go off along their own path. I’ve always looked up to people like that, creative or not, since I was very young. They never try to fit in, they never want to fit in, they never try to part of a particular crowd or tow the line. I get that. I admire that. Life’s too short. First up among these heroes of mine is Neil Young, the Mighty Canadian. An artist who’s always followed his muse and not given a fuck what other people think. He’s absolutely refused to be pigeon holed in over fifty years of making music. That’s some feat and to be applauded. He’s made many albums I’ve loved and deeply admired, but he’s also made a few I still can’t bring myself to like or listen to all that much, but I still respect him for making them. Not everything you do creatively is gonna pay off, but you’ve still got to try. I believe it’s always better to take a risk, follow your instincts because more often or not you’ll be surprised at what comes sailing from those particular seas. Oddly enough, another Neil also sits at the top of my heroes list and for pretty much the same reasons. Neil Gaiman. I came to his work pretty late, about five years ago now. If you know anything about Neil’s work it’s that each new project is usually vastly different from the last, whether in tone or style or language. He tries something different each time, simply because it’s what he likes to do and it challenges him. And also, because he’s witnessed first hand what creative stagnation can do to a writer from his early years as a jobbing journalist. I feel like I owe Neil a hell of a lot. I’d always felt kind of constrained in my writing until I realised what he’d been doing throughout his career. I didn’t want to just write prose. I wanted to try my hand at everything. Comics, children’s books, picture books, theatre plays, film scripts, the whole spectrum. But I thought writers didn’t do that. I was already doing it, had been for a while, but I thought you had to pick one eventually and then go public with that. Be known for just one thing. I didn’t know there was another way. Then I discovered Neil. Now I write whatever feels right to me, whatever I want to write and now I don’t worry when I do, and in a huge way that’s because of Neil. I’ve never met him, but I owe him a hell of a lot. He showed me the way. If it wasn’t for ‘The Sandman’ then ‘Modern Days’ certainly wouldn’t exist. Bob Dylan is pretty high on my list too. Another pioneer, another game changer. He changed the whole way albums were done up to that point with ‘The Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan’ and then he did it again with music itself when he made ‘Like A Rolling Stone.’ To a lot of people he ‘just went electric’ but for me and a lot of others it’s more pure than that, more fundamental. He was searching for something and he went looking for it, no matter where it took him or the reaction it got. That kind of thinking is always very appealing to me. He trusted his instinct. He went with his gut. That’s what was important to him. Changing music in the process was just an expected bonus. I learned from him that writing lyrics isn’t just about your feelings, about love and relationships. It’s about writing what you want to write about and not conforming to the conventional rules about the way things are usually done. Dylan didn’t care about that, nor do I. Bruce Springsteen falls upon similar ground for me. I admire the work ethic behind his music as much as I admire the man. He never gives up. He fights against his own struggles and adversity as much as he speaks for us facing them in our own lives and he meets mortality head on. There’s an honesty and sincerity to both his words and music that goes beyond something you can just pin down. You just know what he means and you know that he means it. It’s not bullshit. You know he means everything he sings and for me good art, good music, something that lasts, always has that sense of really meaning it. If something doesn’t achieve want he wants from it, if it doesn’t work thematically for him within what he’s aiming for then it usually doesn’t get released. It fascinates me how many classic songs never made it onto his albums for those reasons. He’s absolutely tireless in his devotion to perfectly getting that thing he hears in his head. He seems to approach songs like scenes or chapters of a book and if said scene or said chapter doesn’t work in the context of the whole it gets cut. It’s a way I like to work and I’ve gained a lot of inspiration from his approach. David Bowie looms pretty large on my list too. Bowie always seemed to me to be larger than life, but at the same time when you read or saw interviews with him he seemed so very down to earth as well. That contradiction always fascinated me. It still does. Who was he really? Like the other artists I’ve mentioned here he absolutely refused to be put in a neat little box or categorised in any way. He refused to stand still and always kept moving forward. He kept experimenting, kept pushing the boundaries of what he could do, right up until his last days. When I heard of his passing I was surprised by how personally I took it. It was like someone close to me had died. I guess I just thought he’d always be around. He was always part of my life and with ‘The Next Day’ and ‘Blackstar’ it felt like he was just getting started again. Maybe we just assume our heroes will live forever. I guess in a way they do. Another inspiration is a pretty recent one. I’ve been aware of Frank Turner for a number of years, heard the odd song, seen the odd video, even had his second album ‘Love, Ire & Song’ in my collection, but it wasn't until early 2016 that I properly investigated his back catalogue and his career so far, and when I did I found a fellow writer I really got. I admire his approach to his craft, his dedication, his vision, even his self doubt, and I especially like how he interacts with his fans. I feel a kinship, I see myself in him, his constant drive, born of his anxiety, born of that fear of not knowing whether he’ll get to do everything he wants to do before he dies. I guess I just get where he’s coming from. He’s in it for life. It is his life. For him it’s as real as anything else. He doesn’t compromise on what he sees in his head. He follows his own path. He’s candid, speaks his mind and tells us just how it is. All traits I admire. Patti Smith and Stephen King are also right up there in the higher echelons of those who inspire me. Not just because of the work they do but because of how they go about it. They truly understand the calling of what it is we do, they follow their own path despite the doubters and are uniquely gifted in their understanding of how we as humans tick. Patti’s ‘The M Train’ and King’s ‘On Writing’ were as pivotal to me writing this book as Neil Young’s ‘Waging Heavy Peace’ ‘Frank Turner’s ‘The Road Beneath My Feet’ and Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run.’ Pretty high on my list too is Guillermo Del Torro, who with ‘Cronos‘ ‘The Devil‘s Backbone‘ ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and the ‘Hell Boy’ films has brought me some of favourite images ever put on screen. Not only that, but I admire him as a writer, as a creator of truly colourful characters and rich fantasy worlds and it saddens me that no one in Hollywood still hasn’t had the balls or vision to finance ‘Hellboy III.’ When I began writing ‘The Fairytale Thief’ I certainly had many of the images Del Torro has created over the years swimming through my mind. ‘The Secret Of The Woods’ owes him a pretty big debt as well. Also of special mention is Florence Welch, a brilliant enigma of an artist, and PJ Harvey, who never fails to both innovate and surprise. All of these, in one way of another, have had a fairly large and profound influence on me and my writing. Not just in their art, but how they approach that art, whatever it may be. How they’ve somehow kept true to their original aspirations and remained faithful to those intentions no matter what’s been thrown at them along the way. They inspire me for the simple fact that they stick to their guns, they stay true to what they believe in, which in this life can be trickier than it sounds. They remind me to keep at it, keep chipping away, keep true to myself and never give into those who will tell me to give it up. We all need heroes in our life. They are mine.

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devils-gatemedia · 6 years

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Apart from being a bloody good weekend, any of the numerous Hard Rock Hell events are key because they also bring countless bands over to the UK for regional live dates. No point in flying over for just one show, might as well make it a party, and everyone is invited, dude! LA rock n’ rollers Little Caesar graced the stages of rock clubs and pubs from London to Glasgow to shake off the cobwebs in time for HRH AOR. Going by tonight’s performance, any band having to follow Little Caesar will have to be on the top of their game.

With the forthcoming new album ‘Eight’ to promote, this was a lesson in how to blend the newer material that some people will be unfamiliar with (‘Time Enough For That’ goes down rather well, and the classics from the last few decades, including ‘Stand Up’, ‘Rum & Coke’, ‘Hard Rock Hell’). The eponymous debut album from 1990 currently nestles in my top three debut albums of all time (alongside Pearl Jam ‘Ten’ and Thunder’s ‘Backstreet Symphony’, if you are arsed), so when vocalist Ron Young beckons everyone to take a few steps forward closer to the barrier, and the opening bars to ‘Rock-N-Roll State Of Mind’ kick in, it’s time to drool like a cop in a doughnut shop. The current Little Caesar line-up features Young on vocals alongside original members Tom Morris on drums, and the Energizer bunny himself, Loren Molinare on guitar. Accompanying these original three amigos are bassist Pharoah Barrett (who also packs a hefty punch as a vocalist) and ex-Bang Tango guitarist Mark Tremalgia, who joined late last year. I’m not really sure how many shows that they have together under their belts, but the good-natured banter, and the way that they feed off each other, would fool you into thinking that they have had many years on the road together.

The debut album forms the backbone of the set. Apart from the aforementioned set opener, we are treated to the ballsy rockers ‘Hard Times’, ’‘Down-N-Dirty’ and ‘Drive It Home’ (the latter coming with a great intro from Young about the much-missed art form of the double entendre). Little Caesar were always about more than just the riff rockers, Young has an incredibly warm, soulful voice, and his Motown influences shine through. Before ‘In Your Arms’, Young tells the wonderful tale of growing up watching all the great black vocal groups (The Temptations, Jackson Five etc), and the inspiration that they gave him. The song is a stunning example of a band taking the influence from an era where it was all about the hooks, ramping it up, and running it through a stack of amps (Blackstar naturally). Chuck in a few bars of ‘Proud Mary’, and it’s just one of the many highlights of the evening. Another would be when we are treated to an upfront airing of ‘Mama Tried’ from the new album. Christ Almighty, it is off the hook! A bonafide outlaw country classic from Merle Haggard that Little Caesar have turned up to eleven and put their own spin on it. The guitar work from Molinare and Tremalgia is stunning, and even Blind Pew himself couldn’t miss how much fun these two are having playing alongside each other. There are times during the set that I glance over at Tremalgia, and he is busy watching Molinare bounce all over the stage with the energy and enthusiasm of someone much younger. Loren Molinare is the real deal folks; founding member of Michigan band, The Dogs. Thought punk began with Malcolm McLaren, et al? Nope, think again. Detroit Michigan, MC5, Iggy & The Stooges… The Dogs… sticking it to the man before punk was a movement, and when gobbing at bands was the in thing. Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!

Before long, the dreaded curfew looms and Little Caesar put the foot down. ‘Cajun Panther’ from the debut album is as sizzling as ever, and when Young leads the band through an incredible version of ‘Nobody Said It Was Easy’, from another under-appreciated band that Young was a member of – The Four Horsemen, then it truly is manna from heaven. Finishing on a raucous mash up of the Stones’ ‘Happy’ and Rod Stewart’s ‘Every Picture Tells A Story’, it is a fitting end to an incredible evening. Little Caesar were stupidly lumped in with the “hair metal” brigade. The truth is, they belonged over here, as did other American bands like The Four Horsemen and Junkyard. American born by the way of Detroit and Tamla Motown… but with a little British blood in the roots. We do get some things right over here… just now and again, though.

No bullshit, this was one of those nights when you just had to be there, and with something like only eleven weeks of 2018 gone so far, it’s hard to imagine anything topping it. Little Caesar end their run of UK dates at HRH AOR, before hitting mainland Europe later this year… roadtrip!

Review: Dave Stott

Images: Dave Jamieson

Review: Little Caesar – Cathouse, Glasgow Apart from being a bloody good weekend, any of the numerous Hard Rock Hell events are key because they also bring countless bands over to the UK for regional live dates.

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the-excursion · 7 years

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Keeping Promises & Completing Contracts

The wind was still, and the air quiet, it was a calm day. Nylo was lying down on the grass. She was resting in the middle of a large field filled with healthy green grass. The sun shined brightly over the grass. Nylo wasn't wearing her armor instead she had on a casual looking under suit. She rolled over and looked at her sheathed sword that laid beside her. She grabbed her sword by the sheath and jumped up onto her feet. She stretched and yawned as she looked towards the sun she met the sun's blazing heat with an equally warm gaze. After realizing a staring contest with the sun couldn't be won she moved her gaze a bit to the west of the sun. Now she stared at the Blackstar. When the sun was out so was the Blackstar. She grabbed a lock of her silver hair and looked at it. Simply looking at the Blackstar made Nylo think back to her family and the Nissian blood that flowed through her. Her grip on her sword became tighter.

Nylo decided she had rested long enough. She started to walk towards the nearest town. She had no plans on where she was going or what she was going to do. She arrived at the small town and made her way to its small market. She took in the different sights and smells. Many of the vendors shouted out across the market trying to get the attention of potential patrons. Nylo ignored the shouts and pleas for business, but something penetrated through to Nylo. What cut through to her senses was the smell of a freshly made batch of chicken stew. Nylo’s mouth began to salivate as she made it across the small plaza and towards the savory smell. She arrived to the origin of the smell. It was a quaint inn made of brick. Many of the the people within the inn were sitting down enjoying a meal from the inn’s kitchen. Nylo walked up to the main counter and leaned against the counter. As she did this her stomach growled. The inn keep heard this. “So will it be the stew?” He asked Nylo. She laughed. “Yeah actually,” Nylo said awkwardly. “That'll be two blossoms,” the inn keep said. Nylo started patting herself and checking her pockets. She remembered she had spent all the money she had. She put on a frown, but before she could give some sort of excuse a man sat by her. “Yes can I get two bowls of the stew,” the man grinned. The inn keep nodded and walked off to his kitchen.

The man turned to her. “So you’re a knight?” He asked Nylo. “No I'm not a knight.” “Oh so you're a sellsword,” he replied. “Sorta,” Nylo nodded. “Well then that's perfect I needed someone to accompany me to the Athenaeum in Hirth, and it seems you're low on funds, and I'll pay 100 blooms” Nylo thought about his proposition. She thought about how far Hirth was from here, and if the compensation was fair. Nylo shrugged off any rational and figured the journey would prove beneficial to her and give her a reason to finally visit the city Hirth. She nodded to the man. “I'll go.” “Great I prefer to bind agreements and contracts. That's okay right?” The man asked. Nylo was familiar with concept of binding contracts but she had never actually done so before. Nylo nodded and put her palm facing down on the counter. He started to reach in his bag he was carrying for his ink bind. He made sure the stamp was fully saturated in the ink then he stamped it on both of their right hands. The ink disappeared into their skin. “I won't ask anything of you beyond protecting me, and ensuring my safe passage to the Athenaeum. The blooms I'm giving you can’t be used by you until I arrive to my destination,” he very briefly explained the terms of their agreement. Nylo nodded and they shook hands. Where the ink stamp had been applied now gave a faint glimmer. Nylo looked at her hand, and shrugged. Gareth then reached into his bag and grabbed a sack of coins he handed the sack to Nylo. “The binding seal is pretty simple. It won't let you open the sack and spend any of the blooms till I arrive at the Athenaeum,” Gareth further elaborated. “Sounds simple enough,” Nylo said as she grabbed the sack of blooms.

Nylo looked to the counter and realized that the innkeeper had brought the stew already and that it had been sitting getting cold. Nylo pulled the bowl to her and began to quickly eat it. Once they were both done eating they got up and began to walk out. “Oh my name is Gareth by the way,” he said as he gave room to Nylo so she could pass by the doorway leading outside. “Nylo,” she said as she shook Gareth's hand again as he also made it out the inn. Gareth explained to Nylo how they were going to take the rail motive most of the way to Hirth. Then they were going to ride on horseback the rest of the way.

They made their way to the rail station, and Gareth purchased two tickets for the rail ride. Nylo stood back leaning against a wall watching over Gareth. Gareth jogged up to Nylo. “Nylo were going to miss the rail motive. It's about to depart,” Gareth exclaimed jogging over to the tracks. Nylo followed him and they quickly made their way inside one of the rail cars. They found a pair of seats and sat down. Nylo sat in the seat beside the aisle and Gareth by the window. “So the silver hair and red eyes, but no pointy ears. You’re a demi-elf.” “Yeah I am,” Nylo replied. “I've actually had the pleasure of meeting a few demi-elves, but you’re the first demi I've ever met who makes it known like you do. All the demis I've met dye their silver hair to a less conspicuous hair color, and they go about changing their eye color as well. Also they don't carry ancient Nissian weapons with them,” Gareth said as he glanced at her sheathed sword. The sword’s scabbard was the color of obsidian and had bright blue detailings. The hilt was also the color of obsidian. Nylo unsheathed the sword ever so slightly keeping most of the blade within the scabbard but allowing a small segment of the blade to be seen. The blade's metal was a bright blue. Nylo quickly sheathed the sword again. “You’re familiar with the sword,” Nylo exclaimed in a soft tone. “One of my areas of study is of Nissian technology and artifacts, and that's the Cat’s Glaive. The weapon of the legendary Nissian guardsmen Ailuros Amory. If my memory serves me correctly this guardsman settled down with a simple human farm boy. Then she shared her name and blood to her kin. That was over two hundred years ago. You also make no effort to hide your name you told me you were Nylo. That makes you Nyloria Amory. There’s not many demi-born families it's not hard to keep tabs on them,” Gareth said. Nylo smiled. “I usually travel with my armor on. I picked the wrong day to not do that I guess. Was all that the reason you approached me and got me to travel with you?” Nylo asked. 'Well sort of. I just wanted to travel with the lost princess. People within noble and adept circles are well aware of your disappearance. Your father died and then you disappeared. There are all sorts of rumors about your disappearance. Either your father's killer killed him and made his way out with you. He died of natural causes and you left out of grief, and some of the rumors even sound like you killed him and fled your castle with the family arms, that sword, but I don't really care about any of that. I just wanted to hang out with a demi. It has been awhile since I have,” Gareth said. Nylo squirmed around in her seat a bit trying to get more comfortable. “I kinda figured there was some sort of catch to that bowl of stew,” Nylo said. “Ehh not really. I needed a good travel partner you seemed like one and you happened to be a demi. Also you were low on funds seems like it worked out for all of us,” Gareth finished. Gareth took out a book and began to read. Once Nylo got comfortable she fell asleep.

About an hour had passed. Gareth was still reading and Nylo was still asleep. “Hey Nylo I need to use the bathroom,” Gareth said as he poked Nylo. Nylo quickly woke up. “Hmm what's wrong,” she asked. “I gotta pee,” he whispered in an embarrassed voice. Nylo got up and started walking towards the back of their rail car. “So how close are we to our stop?” Nylo asked him. “We’re pretty close actually. Probably like ten minutes left to the next town. It's actually as far as this rail goes. The rest of the rails laid out by the Nissians that lead to Hirth were actually destroyed about a hundred years ago,” Gareth explained. Nylo nodded just as they reached the laboratory in the back. Gareth entered and began to go about his business. Nylo leaned against the door that lead connected the exterior of the rail car and led to the other rail cars. Nylo looked out the door and looked at the rails that were directly adjacent to the ones they were on. Another rail motive was beside them but this one was carrying only cargo. Nylo felt a presence behind her from the cabin they just came from. She turned around and seen a man wearing a hood slowly entering into the hallway she was within. She turned back to the cabin with her back facing the door again. She tensed up slightly once she did so the man took out a dagger and began to lunge at her. She grabbed the hilt of her sword and decided to utilize the technology bestowed upon the weapon. She quickly conjured her armor and unsheathed her blade.

The armor was a dark almost black blue with a much brighter blue accenting the armor. Around the cheek plates of the armor were whisker like grates and the gloves of the armor were clawed these features are what helped give name to the legendary Nissian warrior of old 'The Cat.’ The armor appeared to be new even though Nylo has used it many times. When it was dematerialized any dents and scratches seemed to disappear. Nylo met the attacker head on. She swung her sword for the attacker’s dagger in an effort to pluck it out of his hand. Nylo was very skilled with her blade but hasn't fought in about two weeks her moves were not as graceful and her swings did not do exactly as she intended. Instead of plucking the dagger out of his hand she had plucked his hand off of the rest of his arm. Nylo flinched at her own action, but she decided to roll with what she had done. The man didn't yell loudly, but the pain he felt was clearly visible. He dropped to the ground where Nylo went to quickly meet him. She clawed her sharp gloved fingers into his neck ending his pain and reddening her ‘claws’. Once she took her claws out of his neck she got up off her knee but as soon as she did so the door behind her was opened and she was quickly grabbed and thrown outside of the rail car. She was now on a metal platform that connected the rail car she was just inside of to the one behind it. She could hear the wind zipping by her. Nylo was not on her feet and her sword was just out of arm's reach. She looked up and seen the man who had thrown her back. The man was also hooded but bigger than the one before. His blade was less conspicuous and much larger. The man could not quickly find an opening or weak point on the armor to stab through so instead opted to pick her up and throw her off the motive.

He grabbed her by the helmet with both his arms. Nylo thought quickly and jammed her clawed thumb into his elbow pit and the rest of her claws made it into the other side of his arm, his elbow. This rendered his arms about useless. She then got up on her feet and used her shoulder to shove him off the fast moving motive. Nylo panted a bit. Her hands were on her knees and she was looking down to the floor. She was taking a breath. Her armor gave her a number of abilities one of which added to her sensory and perception. She could feel that two more of these would be assassins were above her. She looked up and found her senses to be right on point. Two more hooded men were standing above her one on each of the rail cars that were connected by the small platform she was still on. She grabbed her sword and used the rail car behind her to wall jump up onto the top of the rail car and meet the assailants head on. She blocked his first sword strike with her forearm. She then quickly grabbed the sword by the blade using her gloved hand and then she speared the sword into the abdomen of the other assassin who was jumping onto the rail car she was currently on. The force of her sword throw stopped his jump and dropped him to the ground. The one who's sword she took and had thrown was taken aback by her actions. Nylo used this opening and placed her gloved hand on his head. Nylo now utilized another one of the abilities the suit of armor allowed. The Cat's guard allowed her to create and conduct electricity, and she used the ability to hastily electrocute the assassin. That amount of electricity to one's brain if not fatal is very damaging. She took her hand off his head when she did so clear burn marks were visible where her gloved hand had been. His body dropped to the ground and with that Nylo dropped back down to the connecting platform. She could see the station they were departing at now. The man who was dropped by the thrown sword was on the connecting platform still hanging onto life but was sure to lose it in due time. Blood was spilling out from his mouth. The sight disheartened Nylo enough to drive her to end his pain. She carefully but briskly put the tip of the blade through his neck. She thought back to the few that she had just killed. She wasn't sure on who they were or why they were doing this but was sure they wanted Gareth’s life and she had a contract to uphold. 'Evil or not all warriors deserve their due rest,’ she thought to herself. “Rest in peace.” Her words were carried away by the wind.

She walked back into the rail car she was originally in and knocked on the laboratory door. “I took care of the problem Gareth. Who were they and why did they want to kill you,” Nylo said pressed up against the door. She waited a moment for a response but didn't get any. She then opened the door to find Gareth was still in there. Still inside of the bathroom but no longer breathing. Some assassin slipped passed Nylo’s perception and slit Gareth's neck.

The train stopped, and Nylo was processing all of this. Her mind quickly moved to the contract she was supposed to fulfill. She sheathed her sword and dematerialized her armor. She looked at her hand and found the binding seal was still there. Still shimmering and reminding her of the contract she had to fulfill. She had to think quickly the new passengers were about to board onto the rail motive. She grabbed Gareth's body and snuck off the rail motive. The binding seal seemed to bind its contract even in death. She decided to bring his body to the Athenaeum hoping that would end the contract.

The station she was able to sneak away from with Gareth's body bordered the mid sized village and a rainforest. Running deeper into the rainforest while holding Gareth proved to be very tiring for Nylo. The Cat’s Glaive did not bestow any strength enhancing sort of abilities when the armor was not materialized, and even when it was the strength she is given is only nominally higher than her own. The foliage was high and thick making it easy for Nylo to hide Gareth's body. She was going to go into the village to buy a horse that she could use to bring her and Gareth to Hirth. The binding seal won't allow Nylo to use the coins Gareth gave her as payment until her job is complete but the contract didn't speak of using any of Gareth's possessions. She rifled through Gareth's bag and found a suitable amount of money. Nylo decided to be more alert she rematerialized her armor and made her way to the village’s stable.

Once there she looked at the horses and thought about which one would suit her best. The stable owner was glaring at her from afar. Nylo realized it might be her wearing her armor. She started to walk up towards the stable owner. She took off her helmet before she got up to the stable owner. She extended her arm out to the stable owner. She looked at her hand and remember her hand was armored she awkwardly lowered her arm and just waved. None of the that mattered though the stable owner was fixated on her face. His scowl had disappeared now and he was in awe. It was her hair that caught his attention. “Your an elf,” the stable owner stammered over his words. Nylo was confused for a second, but she remembered common people rarely if ever got see elves or demi-elves. A silver haired girl was enough to be looked at as a kin of the surviving elves from the civil war two centuries ago. Nylo maybe looked at as one of those kin, but she is far from any pure blooded Aurea Nissi. The silver hair and red eyes proved to be a dominant trait even when mixed with human blood. Even with this the difference in a demi's ear to that of a pure blooded elves ear was enough for any non-commoner to distinguish the two.

“Many years ago my son was fatally ill. I had nothing to my name but a beautiful Nissian women came to our help and healed my boy. At the time I had no way of paying her back. She insisted that she did what she did for her not us, that she needed no pay. So she made off after my son was fully recovered. Now I own this stable and do quite well for myself. I know you're not her but please take a horse of your choosing free of charge,” the man explained why he was so in awe of her. Nylo nodded at his offer. Nylo was slightly curious with the boy. ‘If she was a truly a Nissian and not just a demi like me then what did she want with the boy. An Aurea Nissian while not inherently malice don't just help any random boy,’ she thought to herself “Thank you, and about your boy where is he?” She asked him. “Oh he grew up to be a noble young man. He's one of the few Westerners to become a knight of the east. Probably the only red headed one at that,” he told her. “Again thank you, thank you so much,” Nylo said as she walked back over to the stable and picked out a horse. Nylo didn't know much about horses. She picked the one with the cleanest mane and hooves. She found the one she picked to be a hardy horse that would be able to endure the hardships he'll have to face even after her current journey. He was a black horse with a white mane. She walked the horse over to the stable owner. “Haha I thought you would pick that one. His name is Randal. Here I'll saddle him up for you,” he said as walked into a shed near by. He came by with the saddle and two bags. He saddled up the horse and properly set up the bags to the saddle. The saddle was ready and able to carrying two persons. Something that was very useful for Nylo in her current situation. “Thank you for your hospitality,” she said as she decided to hug the stable owner. Nylo mounted the horse and rode off back near the rainforest.

Nylo made it back to the outside of the forest much faster with Randal. She hitched Randal to tree and went into the forest to go and get Gareth. She found his now cold body. She sobbed at the site. She didn't know him terribly well, and Nylo wasn't too fond of mage types but she found Gareth to be a bearable adept. She slung Gareth's cold body over her shoulder and made her way back to Randal. She quickly set Gareth on the back of her horse and started to ride towards Hirth away from the rainforest and the village. It took the rest of the day to ride to Hirth by the time she made it to Hirth it was the dead of night making it easy for her to ride into the city with a dead man. There was no polite way to drop of a dead man so she just neatly placed his body on the steps of the Athenaeum. She looked to her hand, the binding seal disappeared. She grabbed the sack of coins she was originally given and opened it she grabbed one of the coins and felt it in her hand. “I kept our agreement,” Nylo awkwardly said to Gareth's cold body. She flipped the coin and landed it on Gareth's forehead. She got up on Randal and started to slowly ride away she looked back at Gareth one last time and gave her last words to him. “Rest in peace.”

#Blackstar #Nylo #a part of the Blackstar saga #the-excursion #fiction #writing #fantasy #science fiction #T.G.

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boylebreakdown · 7 years

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My Favorite 25 Albums of 2016

Apologies for posting this in 2017. I listened to and enjoyed quite a bit more new music in 2016 than I usually do. Whenever I tried to make a top 10 based on my typical format, there were too many albums that it felt wrong to leave out. Anyways, here goes...

25. Jagged Jaw - Tonight Is

Jagged Jaw is the solo project of Bobby Lord, who engineered Terriers’ upcoming 2017 LP (I swear on my life it will be released in 2017!). Although his debut Tonight Is is definitely an album made by a friend, it’s objectively a solid project. He dropped it midyear out of nowhere with little to no fanfare, but the hours put into it and its attention to detail are obvious. Each synthy power-pop gem on this album has a unique arrangement that fits the song nearly perfectly. There are so many tasteful, varied production touches throughout that I’m amazed someone I know made this album. Check it out!

24. Woods - City Sun Eater in the River of Light

City Sun Eater is a really quality collection of pyschy folk rock songs. It ventures between well executed singer-songwriter pop craft and the jam-like tendencies that a psychedelic rock band would have. I’ve never really been much of a Woods fan before this album, but I really enjoyed this one. You can sense a maturity and well-calculated approach here that a band making their 9th studio album should exhibit.

23. American Football - LP2

I definitely curbed my enthusiasm leading up to this album’s release. Anyone looking to compare it to its classic predecessor is sure to be disappointed. These dudes are nearly 20 years older than their college selves who recorded it. It would be insincere to try capturing the lightning in a bottle that the original LP/EPs did. I’ve often felt that LP2 sounds a lot like an Owen record with American Football members as the backing band, and I think framing it as such and not as a true followup is the right line of thinking. When viewed as a standalone, I find plenty to enjoy -- the guitar interplay and drumming are still very clever and off-kilter; there are plenty of good hooks, whether on guitar, horns, or the new additions of vibes; what’s lacking in effective minimalism of their previous work is often made up for in lush, full arrangements. Avoid the purism and just enjoy a good album.

22. Deerhoof - The Magic

This album is a bit a let down after how focused La Isla Bonita was. Deerhoof are one of the most unique bands in music, who are always tweaking their sound. What made La Isla Bonita great was its settling into a comfortable melting pot of all their signature sounds. The Magic is definitely an album created along the same lines, but doesn’t have the same precision and focus. There are definitely songs that tap into Deerhoof at their best here -- the playful and calculatedly manic “The Devil and His Anarchic Surrealist Retinue”, the synth dream pop meets bass/drums slog of “Criminals of the Dream”, the unabashed punk pop of “Plastic Thrills” -- but there is undoubtably some filler in between. I wish this album was higher on my list, but any Deerhoof project at this point will end up being something I’d recommend.

21. Wilco - Schmilco

Though it was born out of sessions for Star Wars, which I view as the best summation of new era Wilco, Schmilco is definitely a unique direction for the band to take. In stripping down their sound and putting more of a focus on Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting, which is almost unparalleled in the genre, I found a lot to like. As has been defined since Sky Blue Sky, Wilco doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to make a quality album. But going simplistic and showcasing their singer-songwriter chops makes for an unexpectedly great addition to their catalogue. A band that practically can do no wrong in my mind.

20. David Bowie - Blackstar

As much as anyone could want to view this album as a work separated from his 2016 death, it is impossible. Lyrics often touching on pertinent topics to a dying man perfectly contextualizes their weight in light of David Bowie’s death a mere 2 days after the release of Blackstar. This alone made the album an important one to any fan. The music, helmed by exploratory jazz players Bowie recruited after seeing them play at an NYC bar in 2014, is his most relevant sounding of his 2000s work. It reinforces his chameleon persona and penchant for surprises. Everything here makes for one of the grandest exits in history for a legendary musician. R.I.P.

19. case/lang/veirs - S/T

case/lang/veirs is a truly shared project between Neko Case, K.D. Lang, and Laura Veirs. Although none of the three fall far from the tree of adult alternative/indie rock, this album is still an organic blend of the three members’ specific styles. Each of the three is known for their high level songwriting and signature voices, and their collective experience in their careers makes for a really interesting work of collaboration. Most notably, K.D. Lang’s smokey alto sounds great over textures that are typically more in Neko Case or Laura Veir’s mature indie rock stylings (“Honey and Smoke” being the best example). Although I was brought to this project as a fan of Neko Case’s solo work, this album will have me diving deeper into the other two members’ individual catalogs.

18. Porches - Pool

This album may have been a little overhyped, but there’s no denying the existence of some very well executed pop moments here. Songs like “Be Apart”, “Car”, and “Mood” are some of the catchiest songs I heard all of 2016. While achieving this, Pool captures a very satisfying blend between dancey, electronic texture and guitar based introspective dream pop. At the front of it all is Aaron Maine, who’s unique voice and solid songwriting chops set this album apart from its sometimes lackluster contemporaries.

17. Wye Oak - Tween

Another solid LP from Wye Oak, who in my opinion are one of the better indie rock/pop bands out there right now. This album consists of outtakes spanning the Civilian and Shriek sessions, which is significant considering how different those albums are in style. There is definitely a melding of Wye Oak’s signature anthemic singer-songwriter guitar/drums approach and their experimental foray into bass driven electronic pop. What is impressive is how cohesive they make the album sound in spite of this. Although this album doesn’t quite live up to their previous two efforts (as a collection of outtakes, I’d be surprised if it did), it would have been a shame not to give this solid set of songs a release.

16. Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered

There’s a great photo on the internet that parallels Kendrick’s chronological discography to Radiohead’s -- Overly Dedicated/Pablo Honey put both artists on the map, but lacked the critical acclaim; Section.80/The Bends spoke to amazing potential; Good Kid/OK Computer serve as respective breakouts and potential all-time classics; To Pimp a Butterfly/Kid A offer a huge style shift but a similarly huge impact. It’s almost uncanny then that untitled/unmastered, a collection of sketches and B-sides from the TPABF sessions, has yet another Radiohead album parallel in Amnesiac, the companion LP to Kid A. But this album needs to be viewed as such: a great document for fans of Kendrick’s work, but not a proper follow up to what was my favorite album of 2015. The most fleshed out songs on this album (e.g. “untitled 03” of Colbert Report fame, “untitled 06”, and “untitled 08”) were some of the best songs of 2016 and give me the same excitement that many songs from TPABF did. But as to be expected on a B-sides album, there are too many average/inconsistent/incomplete songs to make this album deserve a top 10 designation. Considering no one was expecting this album in 2016, I can’t complain much about that!

15. Bon Iver - 22, A Million

Though the big public takeaway on this album is Bon Iver’s jump toward extreme experimentation and fracturing of structure, I don’t completely buy it. To me, this is actually the logical progression from Bon Iver’s 2011 S/T release. The expansiveness of the project is still in tact, but 22, A Million simply utilizes a few more tricks. Most notable of these is the digital compression to the point of distortion and cutting out in songs like “22 (OVER S∞∞N)” or the end of “29 #Strafford APTS”. Autotune and vocoder are utilized to add a powerful and icy texture to Vernon’s voice, which is a centerpiece on this album (he uses a Prismizer vocoder this time around, which became a whole new instrument for Bon Iver live performances). At this point, Bon Iver has a established an effective and unmistakable style. Just because I believe 22, A Million doesn’t signal a seismic change, it doesn’t diminish how solid I believe this album is.

14. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

How crazy is it that Radiohead, a band that has been making albums for over 20 years, is still writing music of critical relevance and of importance to listeners? Though I’ve only been an attentive music listener since late middle school, every Radiohead album release since then has been a significant event for me. I vividly remember the nervous anticipation I felt downloading In Rainbows off their website; hearing “Bloom” in a record store before I had heard King of Limbs in full. This year, it was cueing up the “Daydreaming” music video for the first time, making sure it had my undivided attention, and then feeling that same awe once I’d finished watching. This album is by no means a step forward for the band, and some have lamented that it is more boring than their recent works. However, there’s no arguing how detailed and labored-over it sounds, just like their music always has. Because that hasn’t changed, it was a grower for me. After nearly a year of listening to it, I feel like it serves as a high quality conglomeration of their styles and sounds, from electronic to organic.

13. KAYTRANADA - 99.9%

This is my favorite “producer” album since Disclosure’s Settle. 99.9% is a fun and complex blend of different production styles Kaytranada is capable of. One minute its jazz fusion with “WEIGHT OFF” ft. Bad Bad Not Good; other times its pop crossover with “TOGETHER” or “BULLETS” ft. Little Dragon; next its complex, sampled-based house with “TRACK UNO” or “LITE SPOTS”; whatever it is, its always flowing seamlessly as an album and executed at a high level. The features also mix things up: you get budding stars like Anderson .Paak and Vic Mensa, but also R&B/Hip Hop vets like Craig David and Phonte of Little Brother, too. It’s one of the more exciting debut LPs of the year and serves as a great showcase of Kaytranada’s production talents.

12. A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it from Here...Thank You 4 Ur Service

One thing I love about this album is how evident it is that Q-Tip and crew have been continuing to be influenced by music released from 2000 on. While many comeback albums released 10+ years after a band’s previous release struggle to find a comfortable niche in the current musical landscape, We got it from here... infuses classic Tribe jazz samples and beat work with hip hop sounds and features that are not just applicable in 2016, but fresh. It also doesn’t hurt that many of today’s biggest rappers (Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak, most significantly) exhibit heavy Tribe influence in their own sound, making a final Tribe release all that more appropriate. Working in verses from Phife Dog, who died earlier in 2016, including one in on his tribute song “The Donald”, makes the album feel especially poignant.

11. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

If you live in Chicago as a music fan, whatever you think of his music, its nearly impossible not to admire Chance the Rapper. It seems that no other artist today is as dedicated to his/her own vision -- unwilling to compromise to a record label, unwilling to stop blatant displays of hometown pride regardless of his growing universal appeal, and unwilling to stop making quirky, joyous, and infectious hip hop music. Coloring Book is the highest example yet of Chance’s no holds barred approach. It is eloquent in its introspection and illumination of Chance’s struggles, whether they be personal (“Same Drugs”, “Smoke Break”) or grander in scope like fighting the Chicago violence epidemic (“Summer Friends”). However, the consensus descriptor of Coloring Book is “gospel album” for a reason. Through its various religious references (“Blessings”, “How Great”) and uplifting, hope-for-a-brighter-day messaging, Coloring Book has a uniquely spiritual vibe that even non-religious people can feel good about. Though there are some indulgent songs I could do without (the aimless “Mixtape” and contrived Bieber featured “Juke Jam”), this project is his most ambitious and fully realized to date.

10. The Hotelier - Goodness

Although there are a few exceptions, I struggle with bands that fall into the category of current day “midwestern emo” revival (inspired by bands like American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, Promise Ring, etc). The music too often borders on insincere in its melodrama and its instrumentals that flex dexterity just to prove it can be done. The Hotelier moves away from the sound of the revival and centers more towards consensus indie rock on Goodness. However, keeping their best qualities in the midst of this shift is what made me surprisingly love this album. Beyond the solid writing and performances from the band and singer Christian Holden, there are little touches that make this album special -- the suspension of all instruments but drums until the second chorus in “Goodness, Pt. 2”, the lengthy build section in “Sun”, etc.). The Hotelier have always been discussed as an upper echelon band in their scene, and Goodness surely has cemented their place there.

9. The Avalanches - Wildflower

The Avalanches do not disappoint on their first album since 2000’s Since I Left You. As expected, Wildflower is another vast, impressive sample collage. This time around though, the pool they choose from lends to a more psychedelic, mind-altering experience, reaching beyond their previous hip-hop leanings. The main sample in “Colours” is a great microcosm of the success of the direction they take on Wildflower -- an old children’s song plays in reverse, drums are added, and something immediately anthemic is created. Their ear for picking the right sounds to make something from seemingly nothing is what makes this album special.

8. Angel Olsen - My Woman

Although I’ve been a fan of her previous work, this is my favorite Angel Olsen album to date. The jump to greatly vary her timbral palette on My Woman makes the album almost play out like a double LP from a classic rock band -- think Sandinista by The Clash or Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin. At one moment its recalling classic pop structure and tones of the late 50s/early 60s (“Never Be Mine”); next, it’s purposefully meditative or repetitious, building to something exciting and cathartic (“Sister”, “Woman”); at times, it’s even right at home in a more modern and electronic texture (“Intern”). And that only covers about half of the directions it takes! The ambitiousness of this album in relation to her previous work is obvious, but it stays grounded in touchstones of Angel Olsen’s musical identity. Her songwriting has often ventured between classic singer-songwriter simplicity and more emotional stream-of-conscious looseness. And, like always, her voice drives it all, demanding your full attention at its most airy and delicate or in its chilling howls.

7. Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

This band drew me in for some of the same reasons Cloud Nothings initially did: really solid pop songwriting in a rock/punk styling, shining without any added production gloss. Because Cloud Nothings’ jump from lo-fi to hi-fi on Attack on Memory made it easier to hear the quality of their music, I can’t help but compare that album to Teens of Denial and the similar success it’s afforded Car Seat Headrest. Though there is less pure angular bliss here than on Attack on Memory, Teens of Denial offers some of the best lyrics of its genre, ones that get better upon every opportunity to unpack them. There’s also something very endearing about the emotional croon of Will Toledo’s voice, whether its lazily talk-singing a la Stephen Malkmus or at the peak of its screaming powers.

6. Anderson .Paak - Malibu

2016 was the year of Anderson .Paak. Spurred into the spotlight by his significant contributions to Dr. Dre’s 2015 comeback, Compton, the stage was set for Malibu to be the breakout album it was. On one hand, its an album that is immediately accessible and has strong mainstream appeal. It evokes joy that only music designed specifically for having a good time could. On the other hand, it is an ambitious, critically-acclaimed masterwork, blending modern elements of hip-hop and electronic music with funk and soul effortlessly. It was a consensus favorite for many of my music listening friends this year, and I think its delicate balance between immediacy and expansiveness was the reason. As successful as this album and Anderson .Paak’s 2016 was, I believe it’s only a signal for bigger things to come.

5. Pinegrove - Cardinal

Cardinal has all of the solid elements of a great rock album. It has lyrics that catch your attention: it uses impressive wordplay and conjures vivid imagery, while keeping it genuine and deeply relatable (especially to someone also in his mid-20’s). Additionally, the music provides a unique take on various niches of rock: it pulls from alt-country, midwestern emo, and indie rock, but it isn’t beholden to any of the above. It’s very catchy while being ambitious enough in structure to keep it attention grabbing. Evan Stephens Hall has a voice that can accurately evoke the emotional highs and lows that the band and the music intend to. Add it all up, and such a solid set of elements on a debut album predicts very exciting things for Pinegrove going forward.

4. Solange - A Seat at the Table

There’s a wealth of production from different spheres of music on this album. R&B master producer Raphael Saadiq and Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors serve as the main co-producers, just two of a whole host of eclectic contributors (Solange is also listed as a producer and writer on each track). It all makes for a vintage R&B/new wave/indie pop blend that feels uniquely its own. Additional to this, A Seat at the Table is very 2016 appropriate in its lyrics and messaging. Throughout the album, Solange speaks from a focused black female perspective on today’s society, eloquently communicating the struggles she faces (“Don’t Touch My Hair”, “Weary”) while showing introspection and confusion in how to cope (“Cranes in the Sky”, “Where Do We Go”). Much like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, it’s an album beautifully constructed of emotive, far reaching, and thought provoking musings on today’s everyday issues.

3. Andy Shauf - The Party

The Party offers production that is uniquely warm and intimate. It’s inviting in its vulnerability and sparseness, but enveloping in its tastefulness of arrangement and dynamics. Andy Shauf treats this album as a singer-songwriter experiment, choosing to focus in on the storytelling of one terrible party from the perspectives of multiple guests. Everyone can relate to a bummer party experience they’ve had, but the fact that he can embody this concept for an entire album without being pretentious is amazing. I already really loved this album before I saw Andy Shauf live last year, but the show brought my appreciation of him as an artist to a whole new level. For an album so dependent on orchestral instrumentation and the execution of the quietest dynamics, his four piece band captured the same vibes pretty effortlessly. It was one of the better shows I’ve seen in a long while -- one that brought back fond memories of my awe-filled first year or two of experiencing live music.

2. Frank Ocean - Blonde

I’ve always felt that Frank Ocean had a unique ability to use sparseness and simplicity, whether it be in language or musical arrangement, and make it feel purposeful and profound. Channel Orange touched on this talent a few times (“Bad Religion”, “Forrest Gump”), but it mostly was a showcase of Frank Ocean’s amazing songwriting abilities (often in the form of experimental but accessible hip hop/R&B leaning pop). On Blonde, Frank Ocean not only features this minimalism in his instrumentals, but dives much deeper in song construction as well. It is often very stream of conscious -- multiple songs have only one or two instruments at one time and no drums, setting the stage for him to meander through chorusless structures and extended meditative sections. This shift made for an initial disappointment for many fans of his previous work (including me). However, given time to digest Blonde, it doesn’t come off as contrived at all. Blonde is an excellent example of an artist experimentation, one that pushes Frank Ocean’s songwriting talents into more challenging, but often more rewarding, territory.

1. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Pretty Years

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that Cymbals Eat Guitars are my favorite band. I’ve long believed that it has less to do with objective arguments of what makes bands typically great and has more to do with things they do well that really hit on what enjoy most in music. At the core of this is Joe D’Agostino’s songwriting style, lyrically and harmonically. Because that is an element that truly doesn’t go away no matter what happens to their evolving sound, I’ve always been deeply moved by their music. This album is definitely their least ambitious from an album construction standpoint, but it also is very tasteful and diverse. There is a lot of purposeful homages to classic rock (“Wish” recalls Bowie, the claustrophobia of “Close” calls to mind elements of krautrock, “Well” definitely has some Springsteen vibes), but they always balance out to something that is uniquely Cymbals (mostly thanks to the familiarity of Brian Hamilton’s keyboard work or Joe’s voice). As bands who rise to fame from the Pitchfork hype train don’t typically stay around forever, I’ve been expecting for this band to fall off at some point or another. However, this album is just as solid as it comes and gives me a lot of confidence in Cymbals staying power. The boys have done it again!

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