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deathbecomesthem · 7 months

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No Shelter 1

Rockstar!Eddie Munson x AFAB!Partner!Reader | 3.2K

Series Setting: 1999 Los Angeles - No Upside Down AU

Summary: You are Eddie Munson's partner of 12 years. You've been together through everything. You managed Corroded Coffin while they were establishing themselves. But who are you? When you look in the mirror, you only see yourself through Eddie's eyes.

This is a series about being lost in a relationship, and seeing if there's a way to find yourself without tearing it to pieces. This is also a story about being queer and very in the closet. (It's the 90s)

Warnings: Angst, drinking, breaking things in anger, secrets, Eddie will have sexual trysts in future installments that are not with the reader (not cheating), and allusions to smut in this chapter. (There will be more smut in future installments. I don't expect it to be overly explicit, but will use the appropriate warnings when I get to those parts.)

A/N: This is not your typical rockstar story, so be prepared to be disappointed if you're looking for immediate debauchery and cheating tropes. *This story has been posted on my other blog previously. I think it fits better in this space, so I'm moving it over to this corner. In short - I do what I want, and this is it.

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It’s been creeping up for a while now. Possibly forever. It’s quiet and sneaky, somewhere very deep inside. Somewhere you’ve hidden it away, kept it out of the sunlight. You keep it in the deep and dark places. You keep it secret and safe. It thrives in the shadows, it gobbles up the light and good things. It feasts on the happy times. When you see him again after months apart. When his arms wrap around your body and hold you close. Those are the things that used to be a comfort. Used to feel like home. But that thing inside – dissatisfaction - has twisted your comfort. Made you realize your home isn’t built on a firm foundation, but on the moving sands. The tide’s rolling in, and the stilts under the floor are sagging. It won’t take much more than a stray wave for them to buckle. A loose bolt threatens the whole structure. The strong grip of Eddie’s hands, his need for this home to stay upright, is not enough to keep the walls from falling.

–

It’s Sunday night. Tomorrow he leaves again. This time for only 3 months. Only. There was a time when his absence for more than a couple of weeks would send you into a grief spiral. That was how it happened, how you became an essential member of the team. It was meant to keep you with the boys as much as possible, just some light personal assisting work. But then, it was suddenly so much more. You were the one that did the bookings. You were the one that made sure it was exactly how it should be, down to a case of Mountain Dew before the shows, and the case of PBR after, and every other detail in between. You hired costume designers. You talked to the lawyers. You made hotel reservations, and eating arrangements.

Hiring Terry last year was a nail in the coffin. The first nail. Eddie didn’t understand why, after this many years, you needed to step down. He didn’t understand why you couldn’t give him a reason, any reason, for abandoning the band. Your argument, if you could call it that, was that you weren’t abandoning them but you were putting them in the hands of a professional. Besides, you had your own project on the horizon. In the way that Eddie does things, he pouted and then accepted. He came to grudging terms, and then it was all fine suddenly. You knew why. He loves you, and he needs you, not as the band’s manager, but as his one and only. His paramour. His light. His life. His home. His everything. His.

You stand in the small bathroom that sits adjacent to the master bedroom of your modest home. Modest for a rock star, extravagant for a couple of kids from a trailer park in the middle of Indiana. You look at your face. It’s not the lines at your eyes and around your mouth that set you on edge. It’s not the way that your once firm skin looks a little looser than it did when Eddie first cupped your cheek and told you how beautiful you are. It’s the way you can’t see yourself in the reflection. The mirror reflects a face you do not know. It’s something behind the eyes. You think if you could get close enough to the glass, you might be able to see a different set of eyes peering out from the pupils that face you in this reflection. That’s not me, you say out loud, but inside your mind. You want to scream it. You want to throw your ornate metal hairbrush and watch the glass crack into a hundred pieces. You want to scatter that wrong face all over the basin in front of you.

You won’t scream, because Eddie is in the bedroom. He’s laying under the quilt that you had specially made for him by a seamstress in New York. It’s macabre and matches the drapes that have been dyed to appear to have blood stains splattered across them. It was fun at the time, but now the theme sets your teeth on edge. Eddie is completely satisfied in his space, his readers sit on the end of his nose. That nose that you’ve loved so well. You’ve kissed the tip of it thousands of times while gazing into his beautiful eyes. Those eyes that you’ve looked into while reaching the highest peaks of pleasure, and the deepest trenches of grief. You know him. Every piece of him, and you love him.

Why isn’t it enough anymore?

Dissatisfaction. It’s the word that swims in your mind when you wake in the morning and when you lay your head on the pillow to sleep at night. The soft silk fabric against your skin offers no real comfort. The big bed, the one you purchased after months of looking for the perfect one, does not hold you like it used to. The warmth of your man next to you, the low hum of his breathing, the whispers he sighs while his mind sleeps do not light you up. They do not make you feel held and safe. They make you feel trapped. They make you feel alone.

His arms used to be your comfort, but now they feel like a cage. Maybe they always have been. Maybe you’ve grown to resent the prison you placed yourself in all of those years ago. You resent the way he needs you. How can he need a thing that isn’t real? You touch the cool glass of the mirror and run the tip of a finger along the lines of your features. Who is she? Who is this person? Is she anything more than what she can offer to him? Has she ever been?

“Terry called while you were still in bed, told him you’d call him as soon as you got up.” You tell Eddie as his slow-moving form moves to your end of the kitchen. You’re pouring coffee into a travel mug, while his arms travel around your waist. His nose finds its favorite place, the crook of your neck. You feel the air move against your skin as he breathes you in. This is what he does every morning that you’re together, he holds you like this. In this moment, he is home. He is safe. He is loved.

“I don’t give a fuck about Terry right now. Where you goin’, sugar? You leavin’ me?” Eddie’s gravelly voice is spoken directly through the skin of your shoulder. He’s leaving again tomorrow for the second leg of the tour. You know that’s why he’s extra clingy, why he’s holding you too tight. Why his lips are traveling along your collarbone in that way that makes your knees buckle.

“I have an appointment, baby. I’m sorry. We’ll have dinner tonight, ok?” You keep your voice airy. You give his wrists a squeeze and a gentle rub of your thumb before working your way out of his hands. You turn your face to him, rest your forehead on his chest and search for any bit of comfort that can offer you. It’s hollow for you, but it means something to him.

“I can go with you, if you want.” Eddie’s voice has a hint of a plea, a need.

“No, you call Terry back. You’re leaving tomorrow. I’ll be home later, baby. I promise. I love you, Ed.” These words are true, and you reassure him by looking into his eyes. You place your hand on his cheek and let him rest there for a moment before pulling away and grabbing your bag and coffee. You leave Eddie, your baby boy, in the middle of the kitchen of your shared home as you walk out the front door.

You have no appointment today. The sun shines on you as you step into the day. It’s bright already and sweat begins to form in the crease of your elbows and knees before you even make it to the front door of your car. The Corvette was a Christmas gift, something that suits the weather of your current home any time of the year. If you were still in Indiana, it would be even more ridiculous than it already is to own something like this. The house is modest compared to the cars and bikes the two of you own, most of which sit in a garage outside of town that rarely gets visited. The Corvette is yours, and you think about how you’ll go about keeping it if – if what, exactly? If things change, maybe keeping the Corvette will be that last of your worries.

You let the fantasies run riot through your head while you let the tires spin through the hills, taking turns like a dream. Eddie decides to start fucking one of his groupies – no, that thought is like a shot through the heart. Eddie tells you he wants a break – best case scenario that will never happen. You tell him the truth – how can you tell him the truth when you don’t know what the truth is?

You think about sitting down with Eddie, your best friend and lover of over a decade, and telling him that you’ve started renting a studio apartment in the arts district. That when he’s on tour, you leave the big house, and never step foot in it again until he returns. That your skin looks wrong on your body. That his embrace brings no comfort anymore. That you, Eddie’s home, has an infestation of resentment, and it’s threatening to crumble at any moment.

It’s been worse lately, since Eddie and Terry have started fighting. Whispers between Eddie and Jeff about reinstating you as an interim manager if they fire Terry have put you right on the edge of a breakdown. You’ve done your time for them, and you love them all, but you’re done taking care of their shit. Except. Except that you’re not done taking care of their shit. That’s what you do, and it’s what you’ve done for so long. Saying no feels like abandonment. And that’s how he’ll see it, not Jeff, not Gareth, but Eddie. Eddie will feel abandoned. The others will understand. You’re not their home. They don’t need you in the same way Eddie does, as his shelter.

You pull your car into the parking garage attached to the building that butts against the studio. You park in your spot, $50 a month. You walk up to the elevator and make your way to the top floor. You use your key, the one you keep on the keychain in the zipper pocket of your purse and open the door of your place - $900 a month. You walk into the living room where a couch - $300 – sits next to a high-end stereo system - $1,200. You walk to the small desk in the corner facing the windows and turn on the iMac - $1,300. The rest of the space is empty. The couch is where you sleep when you stay here. The kitchen has a refrigerator and a microwave, no other appliances come with the unit. An oven is on your list of things to get, but it can wait. It’s not that you don’t have the money. The money hasn’t been an issue for a long time now.

Every purchase feels like a betrayal. The bank account, secretly opened months ago, is something that no one knows about. You know that you probably don’t even need a secret account with your maiden name attached to it, Eddie never looks at the finances. He trusts you completely. You take care of these things, and there’s more than enough to go around. You can have anything you want. Well. You can have anything that money can buy. He would say that to you, and he would mean it. But this - this is not something he would ever consider.

You sit on the couch. You pick up the remote control and turn on the stereo. You hit play on the CD player and listen to the discs shuffle before the sound of Chris Cornell’s ethereal voice sings out to you from the speakers positioned around the room. You close your eyes and let yourself be in that place for a few moments before you begin the work you can only do alone.

Eddie Munson, frontman of Corroded Coffin, Playgirl centerfold, and recently guest hosted an episode of MTV’s Loveline (where his monologue about cunnilingus was so censored, the station had to cut it completely) cannot stop staring at his telephone. Is he angry? He doesn’t know. Mostly, he’s fucking terrified, but that idea doesn’t reach him. How can he be so sure about something, someone, and it’s not real? How can you, the only thing in the world that he truly knows and trusts, be false. If you’re not real, if you’re sneaking like this, then who is he? What does it mean?

It brings him no satisfaction to pick up that bulky piece of plastic and throw it against the wall. To watch broken pieces of plastic spray across the fine Persian rug that you purchased 3 years ago for $5,000. The cost of it is the first thing that moves across his mind while he looks at the thing. And he wonders, has he not always given you everything you could have ever dreamed of? Has he not held you tightly in his arms and loved you with every piece of him? Has he not sung songs about your beauty in front of thousands of people for years and years and years?

Yes, he has. And yet, you do this. The pain is intense, and it twists inside of him. He can’t allow that pain to take over, he can’t let it touch him. Not now. Not when he should be packing his shit. Not when he should have you here with him right now. You should be letting him drink you in, love you, cherish these rare moments of being together. Instead, you hide. He looks at the paper where he’s scribbled down the address. Terry told him about the apartment after checking in on some odd financial reports. Terry even hired a PI that specializes in this kind of research. Terry is a fucking prick, but Eddie knows now. He can at least give him that.

Eddie’s mind is flooded with thoughts as he moves through the house. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, he just knows there’s something. There’s a clue somewhere. What did he miss? There’s a thought that keeps floating to the surface of his brain that threatens to make him crumble completely. He keeps pushing it back, avoiding it. It hurts too much to think about. It can’t be that.

Is there someone else?

–

You stay in your apartment too long. The sun is hanging too low in the sky. The hands on your wrist watch tell you that it’s late enough, and your stomach growling tells you that you skipped both breakfast and lunch. Foolish. You consider calling in Chinese and snatching it up on the way home to share with Eddie, it’s his favorite, and you remember that the apartment doesn’t have a telephone hooked up yet. It’s one of the reasons you like it here so much - no one knows how to find you. You have a mobile in the glove box of the Corvette, but you never use it. Eddie has one too, but the both of you view the devices as obscene, only to be used in a severe emergency. Being a bad partner is not an emergency.

It’s so easy to get lost here. You moved all of your old things, your journals, your music, your letters, into the apartment the same week you signed the lease. The original idea was to have a space to dive into the past. Sophia had come to you with a proposal. She wants your memoir. A publisher is interested in the behind the scenes details of the life of Corroded Coffin’s former manager and current partner of Eddie Munson. They say they want your story. What they want, though, is the story of Eddie and the boys seen through the eyes of a bystander.

What you found when you dug into yourself, into your journals, your old songs, was a person you have forgotten. What you found was something you had well and truly lost along the way - yourself. There were things in those journals that show hopes and dreams that look nothing like the life you’re living. Your face in the mirror is a shade. A person living in the shadows of someone larger than life.

Eddie. Eddie “The Freak” Munson. Eddie Fingers. The man with the diamond tongue. Eddie Munson, who once spent a year in prison for murdering a cheerleader when he was 20 years old and a third year senior. His story is legendary. Your story is a thread within his finished piece.

Right now, you need to get back to him, because you said you would. Because he needs you. He’s leaving tomorrow. He’ll want to hold you close and tell you about how much he worships you. He wants to tell you that, without you, he’d be nothing. Less than nothing. He needs to let salty tears run down his cheeks while he’s inside of you, while he’s searching for his home. You’ll let him, and you’ll search that place between the two of you for some kind of comfort. You’ll tell him the truth, that you love him fiercely, that he’s everything, that no one in the world is like him.

And it will leave you feeling empty.

–

You power down the iMac that sits at the tiny desk in the corner of your apartment before clicking off the lights. It’s almost dark now, and you’re cursing yourself under your breath. He will surely have questions, so you begin to formulate a story. Maybe you ran into someone downtown and decided to get coffee. Yes, that will have to do, even if it’s thin. Eddie might think it strange, but he trusts you. He won’t think it’s a lie.

You slip your bare feet in the sandals you left by the big blue door at the entrance of your apartment. You check your bag, make sure you have the essentials, and unzip the inner pocket to bring out the secret apartment key. You unlatch the chain, you unbolt the lock, you turn the knob, and you see the world you know crumble apart.

“Eddie.” You manage to whisper out his name before the air is sucked out of your lungs. You can’t breathe. The smell of whiskey is coming off of him in waves, and you see dried blood on his knuckles. It’s a combination of sights and smells that you haven’t seen since that first year the two of you were together, and you feel your chest tightening.

The tide has finally reached its arms up into the sands of your beach, and you’ve been dragged under.

#eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson #eddie x you #eddie x reader #eddie munson angst #eddie munson smut #eddie munson x afab!reader #eddie munson x queer!reader #rockstar!eddie munson #eddie munson au

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scotianostra · 2 months

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April 15th 1924 saw the birth of Rikki Fulton.

Robert Kerr “Rikki” Fulton was a Scottish comedian and actor best remembered for writing and performing in the long-running BBC Scotland sketch show, Scotch and Wry.

The youngest of three brothers, Robert was born into a non-theatrical family at 46 Appin Road, Dennistoun, Glasgow. Fulton completed his education in 1939 and decided to enter the world of acting after a backstage visit at the Glasgow Pavilion Theatre.In 1941, aged 17, Fulton joined the Royal Navy. The following year he was posted to HMS Ibis, but that November the ship was sunk in the Bay of Algiers. Fulton spent five hours in the water before being rescueHe later joined the Coastal Forces for D-Day, travelling back and forth between Gosport and Arromanches with vital supplies. In 1945, four years after signing up, Fulton was invalided out of the Navy due to blackout, leaving with the rank of sub-lieutenant

In the early 1950s, Fulton moved to London and became the compère of The Show Band Show, working alongside the likes of singer Frank Sinatra.

After a short period, Fulton returned to Scotland to perform for Howard & Wyndham Ltd inn pantomime from 1956 at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow with Jimmy Logan and Kenneth McKellar followed by the “Five Past Eight” summer revues with Stanley Baxter and Fay Lenore. In 1985, under the pseudonym “Rabaith”, Fulton, along with Denise Coffey, adapted the French playwright Molière’s, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme as A Wee Touch o’ Class.

Alongside his Scotch and Wry co-stars Gregor Fisher and Tony Roper, Fulton made two appearances in Rab C. Nesbitt; once in 1988 and 10 years later in 1998. Although he would reprise his famous Rev I.M Jolly character one last time for a short skit on New Year’s Eve 1999 as part of the “Millennium” celebrations. Rikki’s early shows include,The Rikki Fulton Show The Five past eight, The Adventures of Francie and Josie but he also acted in various shows like Charles Esquire , Square Mile of Murder, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, Bergerac, Local Hero, Gorky Park, Comfort and Joy, The Holy City, The Girl in the Picture, Supergran and the aforementioned Rab C. Nesbitt. Notable Characters Scotch and Wry Supercop a frequently dimwitted traffic cop who rides a motorbike, his trademark is how he removes his goggles (pings off and flies off camera), is often getting into more trouble than those he stops.

Rev. I.M Jolly a very downtrodden and pessimistic minister of the Church of Scotland, presents a fictional show “Last Call” where he has a heart to heart with the audience where he tells them what he has been up to that week. his tone is always low-key and down beat.

Dickie Dandruff owner of “The Fourways Café” also goes by the moniker “The Gallowgate Gourmet” and presents a cooking segment called “Dirty Dick’s Delicat'messen” where he prepares food in comedic style from his filthy café kitchen in the Gallowgate area of Glasgow.

Fulton’s death sparked numerous dedications in his memory. The then-BBC Scotland Controller, John McCormick, said “he [Fulton] was a legend for people across the whole country.”

Fulton’s funeral took place six days after his death. In tribute to his Scotch and Wry character Supercop (a police traffic officer), police motorcyclists escorted the funeral cortège as it made its way to Clydebank Crematorium. The Reverend Alastair Symington, who was a close friend of Fulton, led the service, which featured tributes from Fulton’s widow Kate Matheson and Tony Roper.

Symington had previously collaborated with Fulton on the book, For God’s Sake, Ask!. Both Rikki and his Kate were strong supporters of the Scottish SPCA, which received a financial donation following Fulton’s funeral. A Scottish SPCA inspector represented the animal welfare organisation at the service.

Fulton's funeral took place six days after his death. In tribute to his Scotch and Wry character Supercop (a police traffic officer), police motorcyclists escorted the funeral cortège as it made its way to Clydebank Crematorium.

#scotland #scottish #history #comedian #entertainer #actor

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lesbianchemicalplant · 1 year

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In the days before a hapless studio technician erased Steely Dan’s “The Second Arrangement” in 1979, Roger Nichols, the band’s late, great longtime engineer, made a rough mix of the track on a cassette tape. The song was nearly complete. Horns and a fade would soon be added. Producer Gary Katz already was imagining it as the band’s next single. When Nichols returned to his apartment at 30 Lincoln Plaza in New York, he set the tape aside and forgot about it. “Roger would bring home work tapes from the studio almost every night,” says Conrad Reeder, Nichols’s widow. (He died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 66 in April 2011.) “He wasn’t much into cassettes, though, because he didn’t want to hear a track at anything but the highest fidelity. So the tapes would just be lying around the house.” The day of the “Second Arrangement” fiasco, Reeder recalls Nichols coming back from the studio hours earlier than usual. “He walked in the door and looked ashen, as if somebody had died. I was like, ‘What happened?’ He told me an assistant engineer had erased the song—everything up to the fade.” For a time there was hope that the song could be salvaged from one of the rough mixdowns. Engineer Elliot Scheiner came forward with a mix that had been made at a lower speed setting—15 inches per second (IPS) as opposed to 30 IPS. “‘Do we want to try and overdub on that?’” he asked. “I gave them the tape, and Roger put it up and listened to it,” but the quality wasn’t quite up to the Dan’s lofty standards. “We tried cutting the song again,” Nichols wrote in a post on an EQ magazine audio forum in 1999, “and finished it. Horns, backgrounds, lead vocal. We listened to it and Donald said, ‘NAW…scrap it!’” At some point Nichols put the “Second Arrangement” tape into a drawer of a roll-top desk. And there it remained, undisturbed, until after his death....

23 JUNE 2023

SECOND ARRANGEMENT TAPE IS REAL

it's WAY higher-quality, less garbled, and more polished and finished than the Second Arrangement recordings that have previously been put online in The Lost Gaucho + Various Demos, Outtakes, & Alternate Versions (which are still super interesting collections, don't get me wrong)

#steely dan #music #lost media #beta #my posts #my uploads #my uploads (unjank)#second arrangement #the second arrangement

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sunburnacoustic · 8 months

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Rich Costey: Producer

Recording Muse's Absolution

(article in Sound On Sound by Richard Buskin in December 2003)

Photo: Tom Kirk

With their number one album Absolution, British three-piece Muse have established themselves as one of the most ambitious and innovative rock bands in the world — and in Rich Costey, they've found an engineer and producer who understands their aims and encourages them to experiment.

"I believe that anything should be possible at any moment," says Rich Costey. "The records that I'm most fond of are ones where people have taken as many chances as possible in service of the material. The process itself may yield both successes and defeats, but you'll never know unless you're free to explore, and that's something an outfit like Muse is very comfortable with. Those guys have been playing together for a long time, and as a result they are completely fearless and will try anything. That's one of the reasons why we had such a good working relationship."

A guitarist in high school who turned to producing indie bands in Boston and New York, Costey spent three years as the in-house engineer at Looking Glass Studios in Manhattan during the mid-'90s, assisting modern classical composer Philip Glass, and it was there that he steeped himself in the experimental approach to recording that has characterised much of his subsequent work, including the aforementioned Muse's acclaimed new album Absolution.

"My time at Looking Glass was just a thrill for me," he recalls. "I had been a huge admirer of Philip's, and it was no trivial matter for me to be able to work on his records day after day. When you're mixing for him, he holds out the score the whole time to ensure that you can hear all of the parts and are following the dynamics, as he simply composes on paper in the traditional manner. One day I was mixing something for him, and he was describing some of his compositional methods — he would use his motifs in an almost modular fashion, plugging in and reusing different parts of the same material within the same piece — and he told me 'Attempting to exactly repeat a success is bound to seem a failure, whereas if you move forward it's far more likely to seem a success.'

"How that translates to me in terms of making records is that I tend to reject the notion that there's a sort of penned-in area regarding how rock music is supposed to sound. These days there's a certain guitar sound that people think of as the guitar sound, and that's unfortunate. Previously, artists were more comfortable pushing things forward and trying things out, and obviously there are still artists who do that, but not many. That's what I'm interested in doing, though it usually means a bit more effort and occasionally a bit of risk."

Finding The Muse

After relocating to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, Costey teamed up with Jon Brion to produce and mix Fiona Apple's second album When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts... This led to assignments from producer Rick Rubin, which included the mix of Rage Against The Machine's Renegades album in 2000. Since then, Costey has undertaken numerous mixing projects, as well as production and engineering for the likes of Dave Navarro and, most recently, the London-based Muse trio of guitarist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenhome, and drummer Dominic Howard.

Originally hailing from Teignmouth, Devon, the three began playing together at the age of 13, first as Gothic Plague, then as Fixed Penalty and Baby Rocket Dolls, before adopting their current name in 1997, when they released their eponymous debut EP on Dangerous Records. A second EP, 1998's Muscle Museum, led to critical acclaim, a rapidly growing live following, and a contract with Maverick in the US, and in the wake of albums Showbiz (1999) and Origin Of Symmetry (2001), the band have attracted plenty of interest thanks to songs that meld melodic, sometimes unconventional lead vocals with strains of grunge, punk, psychedelia and arena rock. All of these elements are prevalent on Muse's new album, Absolution.

"I had become a fan of theirs, particularly after hearing their last record," says Rich Costey. "This was conveyed to them by some mutual acquaintances and we decided to collaborate. They had worked with the same people for a while, and I think they were interested in mixing it up a bit. By the time that I came into the picture, they had already recorded several tracks for the new album with John Cornfield and Paul Reed: 'Butterflies And Hurricanes' and 'Blackout' were among them. Those had gone very well, but they were interested in trying out some other ideas and seeing what else might be out there."

Costey would end up mixing 'Blackout', which utilised mandolin and real strings recorded at AIR Lyndhurst in north-west London, and recutting the vocal, bass and piano on 'Butterflies And Hurricanes'.

"Initially, we went to AIR just to see how things would work out between us," he recalls. "I did what I normally do, and they sat back and observed me. In retrospect it's kind of funny, because now, having gotten to know them so well, I realise they were a bit coy. There was also something of a continental divide between the American use of superlatives and the more reserved English use of them, but I wasn't aware of this at the time. For instance, soon after we went into AIR, my engineer Wally Gagel and I got what I thought was a great sound for the band to track live, and when I finally rolled some tape and they came in the control room to listen back, I thought they'd be over the moon. However, their response was along the lines of 'Uh, yeah, it's fine. All right, let's crack on...' and I felt deflated. It turned out that they did like it, but they were simply a bit reserved. They loosened up later — and I'm sure I did, too — when we got to know each other better.

Tractors & Water Sports

Grouse Lodge Studios, where much of the tracking for Absolution took place.Photo: Tom Kirk

Opting for a rural residential facility to complete the recording sessions for Absolution, the band members located Grouse Lodge in Ireland via the Internet, and it turned out to be a successful choice. "We just showed up and took our chances, and the place was fantastic," Costey remarks. "We had a great time there. It's the only place I've ever been where there are windows all the way around the control room and tracking room. And it was kind of funny, because at one point Dominic was in the live area while we were sitting in the control room, and just as he was playing a really intense drum part, some guy on a tractor drove by the window that was behind him. You don't see that too often in a studio! Fortunately the isolation was good — there's no tractor on the record.

"Grouse Lodge has a Neve VR, and although it was a good-sized board, we still brought in 14 [Neve] 1073s and several [UREI] 1176s as well as some Pultec EQs. The studio contacted a number of rental companies for additional mic pres, and apparently that was all we could get because Iron Maiden were tracking somewhere and using up all of the other 1073s in the UK.

Recording the introduction to 'Apocalypse Please': Dominic Howard plays a drum fill from the Grouse Lodge swimming pool, with the driver from an NS10 speaker used as a close mic.Photo: Tom Kirk

"Of course, one of the advantages of a residential studio is that you can just kind of take over the place, and so we were able to do things like set up mics in the residences, while for the song 'Ruled By Secrecy' I had this idea that I wanted the drums to be intimate and very close, yet with a unique distant ambience.

"At one point, while we were rehearsing in the smaller Studio B, the band was running through the number with the doors open and I could hear it echoing around the courtyard. It sounded fantastic, so one afternoon while we were tracking I decided to set up the drums outside. We brought out a whole bunch of mic pres to ensure that the mic line was as short as possible, and we spent a number of hours setting this all up.

A less successful experiment: Dominic Howard plays drums outdoors in the Grouse Lodge courtyard. Photo: Tom Kirk

"The kit was backed up into a sort of corner, with brick on one side and stone masonry on the other, alongside a tractor. Directly behind it was open, and it was good that Dominic was close to the wall because that enabled him to get a little more bass out of his kit. We set up a couple of distant mics and ran them through some Neves, and then I sat down in the control room and he started playing... and it sounded terrible. I think we captured one take, but we didn't use it at all. We got a little bit of ambience out of the courtyard, but the overall sound was unbearably thin and it just didn't have the presence that I'd expected.

"Still, one idea that we did try and that was really good found its way onto the tracks 'Apocalypse Please' and 'Time Is Running Out'. The intro to 'Apocalypse Please' has a tom section, and I really wanted that to sound just ridiculous and as epic as possible. So, lo and behold, the studio had a swimming pool, which of course was full of water, and what we did was bring over a couple of kick drums, put them on stands, and miked one of them really close with the disembodied woofer of an NS10 to get a low, thumping sound, while a few C12 ambient mics were placed in the swimming pool area. We also had to bring mic pres into the pool area for all the same reasons, and Wally and I set things up so that Dominic could actually stand in the water while he was playing, just because it looked really good."

So, were there any lapping sounds? "Not during that section, although we did do some hot-tub overdubs later on. We did a couple of takes of the bubbling water, but again we didn't use it. In fact, we did a bunch of stuff. I'd seen a modern classical performance a few years back where there was a whole back line of people hitting gongs and dipping them in water. The water gong is not an unusual 20th-century classical instrument, but as we were gong-poor, we took some samples of doing the same thing with cymbals, hitting them loads and loads of times while dipping them into the water. Of course, cymbals have nowhere near the sustain and heft of an actual gong, and whatever they did have would dissipate as soon as they went into the water, so that was pointless. But it was funny.

"One thing that actually was useful was recording a couple of takes of Chris diving into the pool — we used that on the start to the bridge of 'Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist'. Listen really closely and, right where the bridge hits, you can hear him jumping into the pool. We used rather nice microphones to capture that, so we made sure to keep them clear of the water, and we also had to move really quickly because I was concerned about humidity affecting the mics."

Reaching For The Overheads

"I didn't want to do anything that sounded like their previous records. I liked Origin Of Symmetry quite a lot, but one of the reasons why I thought I might make a good producer for Muse is that I believed I could hear what they were reaching for and felt there were moments where they weren't quite getting there. For example, it struck me that at their basic level they wanted to sound like a colossal, dynamic, epic and powerful rock band, but there were a lot of moments on their past two records when they didn't quite achieve that. So, the first thing I wanted to do was make sure that they sounded pretty damned big and aggressive when they were supposed to, and that was down to the recording methods as well as their performance.

The control room at Grouse Lodge is based around a Neve VR desk. Photo: Tom Kirk

"For their part, the guys had heard some of my mixes for Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave and they were quite keen to get a sound that was just as big and assertive. They play extremely well together and they sound quite powerful on their own, but as usual we needed to explore different drum kits to obtain the right sound. Dominic's very good at tuning his drums and Chris has his own bass tone down really well — he's got three amps with different degrees of distortion coming out of each. I also brought in a Diesel guitar head, which I'm pretty fond of, and Matthew played a bit through that as well as his own custom Marshall, and overall I set them up a bit differently to what they were used to.

"In fact, I spent quite a while trying to sort out the drum sound, because Dominic is a pretty aggressive drummer and he tends to hit his cymbals rather hard. A bit of thought went into how to have the individual drums sounding defined without being washed out by the cymbals, and to that end I did something that I wouldn't recommend anyone doing carelessly, using far too many microphones. For overheads you might use a stereo pair, maybe accompanied by a mono microphone, but we ended up using that for an overall kit sound and tight-miking each of the cymbals. I myself normally use [AKG] C12s, and then for the close mics I use [Neumann] KM84s whenever they can be found, and I'll slightly mix those in to get a lot of attack — that way, the overheads themselves can be fairly low, and you can mix up the attack of the cymbals without the overall sound being too brash.

"Chris's monstrous amp rig consisted of three Marshall bass heads and three different Marshall cabinets, and how much room we had in any given studio basically determined what size of cabinets we set up. One of them produces a cleaner bass tone, while the second amp largely goes through [an Electro-Harmonix] Big Muff [distortion pedal], as well as a few other pedals that he'll occasionally hit. Then his third amp, which is the most distorted, uses an obscure Japanese distortion pedal, which is pretty weird, expensive and apparently difficult to find. It has a real nasally tone that doesn't necessarily make any sense on its own, but when you mix it within the context of the rest of the bass sound it's critical to what Chris wants. He has several bass guitars, and there's a well-worn Pedulla that he's particularly fond of.

"I like to use condenser mics whenever possible on the bass cabinets. They tend to have a much more open sound, the transients come through a lot stronger, and the net result sounds a lot more like you're standing in front of the amp. There certainly is a place for dynamics and I am a fan of them as well, but to me they colour the sound much more than a good condenser. That having been said, I've actually got a fair bit into recording the bass with this mic made by Blue, called the Mouse. Wally Gagel and I used it last year on the Antenna album by Cave In and it was excellent, so I used that on Chris's bass rig and I also used it on the snare, doubled with an SM57 whenever possible. I sometimes use a Neumann FET47 to record the bass, but Chris's rig was so loud that I didn't think we could get away with that — nowadays, I think people play much louder than they did when 47s were introduced, and one of the advantages with a newer mic like the Blue is that it can take a stunning amount of level.

"Aside from that, we used a pretty standard setup on the bass: [Sennheiser] 421s and [Electro-voice] RE20s. We tried a whole host of things while working at different studios, and we used different stuff each time. The full band was set up at AIR in the lead-up to Christmas, and then a couple of months later we set up at a place in Ireland called Grouse Lodge, where we did the majority of the recording over the course of about four weeks. We didn't have exactly the same microphones to choose from there, but we tried to copy the AIR setup as much as possible so that the basic tracks didn't sound totally foreign next to one another."

Learning Reserve

Muse singer Matthew Bellamy hits some pretty amazing vocal notes on the new record, most notably on cuts such as 'Apocalypse Please', 'Time Is Running Out', 'Hysteria', 'Blackout' and 'Butterflies And Hurricanes'. "He has an amazing voice and an amazing range," confirms Rich Costey. "He is completely confident with what he's doing. He'll just get in and, in three takes, he'll have everything he needs. Sometimes, with the vocals, not unlike the rest of the process, we would try out different things, different directions even once we knew we had something great, and while this would occasionally produce improved results, most of the time it wouldn't because Matthew's own first instinct was exactly right.

"In terms of the vocal mics, we would switch between different ones according to the song. I'm a big believer in that as well. For example, he sang 'TSP' into a [Shure] SM7 that I had — one of the advantages for many singers who do a lot of shows is that they can grab hold of the SM7, carry it around the room and do whatever they want without creating very much handling noise. To me, that sounds quite a bit better than your more typical SM58, which a lot of people might use in the studio. The singer can press his face right up against the microphone without any worry whatsoever, so we used that on a few songs, while we mainly used a C12 for Matt on most of the more sedate vocals. Then again, in the case of 'Endlessly', we tried out a few mics — we tried an RCA 44, but that was just a little too dark, so we ended up going with the 77.

"Matthew has tremendous vocal capabilities, and if anything he's still learning what those capabilities are. I think one of the things that he became more comfortable with during this project was the ability to sing in a little more reserved fashion. Like on the verses of 'Sing For Absolution', his tenor voice is very quiet and just beautiful, whereas normally he's pushing himself quite hard. Any time you work with a great vocalist it's pretty exciting.

"Matthew's styling determined, to some degree, what I'd want to do with his vocals. For example, when he's singing loud, part of his sound frequently amounts to clipping the mic pre — I'd deliberately clip the mic pre on 'Time Is Running Out' as he sang louder and louder, adding more intensity and grit to his vocal. Distorting a vocal is so commonplace nowadays that to me it's the same as distorting a guitar or a bass. And much of the time when I'm mixing records for other people I'm distorting the vocal... whether they know it or not!"

Things That Have Character

In the months between the AIR and Grouse Lodge sessions (see box), Matthew Bellamy did more songwriting and Rich Costey took care of overdubbing some of the first-batch songs at AIR: 'Sing For Absolution', 'Stockholm Syndrome', 'Hysteria', 'TSP' and 'Fury' (which would end up as a bonus track on the Japanese release). These were then completed at North London's Livingstone Studios during a 10-day period following the Christmas/New Year break.

"We used the custom vintage Neve console at AIR, and whenever possible I only monitor on ATC SCM20s, which they also had there," says Costey. "Every facility was booked at the last minute, and when you're going from studio to studio it's really a crap shoot as to what you're listening to. On the other hand, the console at Livingstone was an SSL G-series, and it made a big difference switching to that from the vintage Neve. We rented a bunch of Neve 1073s to use as front-end mic preamps, and I also brought my old Universal Audio 1108s with me to warm up the sound. The UA mic pres are Class AB, whereas the 1073s are Class A. I largely only record through vintage Neves, but in this case we couldn't find a UK studio with one at short notice, and while I wasn't able to completely match the sound, I didn't mind that. I find it tedious when records sound the same all the way through. I'm much more interested in things that have character, and so long as they sound good, that's all that matters."

Rich Costey and Matthew Bellamy in debate at the desk in Grouse Lodge. Photo: Tom Kirk

Matthew Bellamy's custom Manson guitars were mostly recorded through the aforementioned Diesel and Marshall amps running into a variety of cabinets. "The band played live together, facing each other in a semi-circle, and Matthew was singing, too, which he apparently doesn't normally do when they're cutting basic tracks," Costey explains. "Still, once we'd created those basics, it was a case of anything goes. I don't really believe in any hard and fast rules after that, and I don't necessarily like to go with one setup for a whole record. So, after we got the basics, we would try to push every single overdub to make it as interesting as possible.

"The way that I and the band chose to work — and I like to work this way, anyhow — was to concentrate on one song at a time for a while. I remember that we did quite a bit of work on 'Stockholm Syndrome' and 'Sing For Absolution' at AIR. We'd just put up a song, see what it needed, and explore it for hours, days, whatever, and then at the point where we felt we were slowing down we'd move on to the next thing. That process continued at Livingstone.

"On 'Sing For Absolution', I had a pretty clear idea as to what I wanted to hear on the chorus: big, broad-sounding guitars with a little bit of echo — it's hardly ever the case that something goes down without getting run through a [Maestro] Echoplex. I'm addicted to them, although recently both of mine unfortunately have gone ill on me. Still, I wanted the big, broad guitars with Matthew's voice just peeking out over them without being too far in front, keeping the chorus kind of subdued and real simple whereas the verses really needed to sound expansive and three-dimensional. We did some basic stuff at AIR on that song, and then when we got to Livingstone we spent time treating different pianos.

One of Rich Costey's much-loved Maestro EP4 Echoplex delays. Photo: Katy Alverson

"The main piano sound on that song was heavily treated. I laid nails, guitar strings and all sorts of metal objects on top of the piano strings themselves so that they rattled, and then I miked all that with a pair of C12s. I had the dry piano coming into the console and I then split the signal so that half of it went to tape and the other half went to a [Digitech] Whammy pedal. In fact, the Whammy pedal also got split, so that half of it went to — no surprise here — an Echoplex and the other half went to a [Lovetone] Doppelganger pedal. That achieved a fake stereo, with a dry attack front and centre, while the Doppelganger with the echo was on one side and the Whammy's echo was on the other. Then we doubled it, so that it wasn't even fake stereo any more; it was two performances, which made a lot more sense.

"Once we had that down, the song took on a much more melancholy sound, and thanks to the piano it also had kind of a broken sound which, I think, worked well with the lyrics. After that, we did some ambient passes of various synths running through different effects and doing volume sweeps while Matthew played throughout the song. We just wanted things to sweep in and out around the vocals."

Although the songs were all comped, with each of the band members performing a minimum of passes, Costey was keen to guard against too much editing. He typically treats Pro Tools as if it were a tape machine, not because of a retro mindset but simply in order to enhance the music by way of a more human touch, and he'd therefore utilise as much as possible of a single take before editing in parts only where this was absolutely necessary. The same applied to overdubs — he'd use as much as possible of complete takes, and never once was a performance flown into another section of a song.

"I made that mistake years ago," Costey admits, "and what ends up happening is that the record has a real thin veneer to it, almost like a genetically engineered tomato that looks perfect but has absolutely no flavour."

Three People Trying to Sound Like 10

The approach paid off. Absolution boasts a collection of very live-sounding tracks that convey the effect of the band members playing complete performances. Then again, in terms of aural imaging, for all of the reverb and power chords, the manner in which the instruments blend into one another creates a sense of the musicians being bunched close together within a fairly confined space.

"I think that's partly the design of the band," says Costey. "Because they're only a three-piece, Chris's bass tone is engineered from the ground up to go from the low lows of the bass through the bottom end of the guitar. And Matthew, by extension, because he switches quite frequently to the piano, doesn't necessarily feel like he has to carry the brunt of things with his guitar. What you have is three people trying to sound like 10, and they've got it down pretty good, so that their instruments sonically tend to overlap one another, and the way they play off each other tends to overlap more than it does with a lot of other bands. Often you hear bass players who tend to double the guitar roots very low and function as a mere guitar support, but that isn't the case with Muse.

The Grouse Lodge live room. Photo: Tom Kirk"

At the same time, another reason for the tight sound may be that I don't tend to use much reverb on things like drums when I'm mixing. I pretty much just used whatever ambience was to be found on the room mics. Then again, when we were at Grouse Lodge in Ireland, we occasionally augmented things in terms of the drum sound, and this was especially so on 'Falling Away With You'. We ran a couple of Earthworks mics way down to the other end of the building, in the hallway towards the residences, and the track had this ridiculous, cavernous pomposity to it. This wasn't very useful if the drum part was busy, but if it was a simple part then it sounded terrific, and so there were a couple of moments where I cranked those up quite a bit."

One notable aspect of 'Falling Away With You', which starts off as a ballad before seguing into heavy rock, is the prevalent sound of Matthew Bellamy's fingers sliding on the strings of his guitar. "That's simply the sound of a human playing guitar," says Costey. "Matthew was playing his black Manson guitar very quietly through an Overbuilt amp, and all we added was a bit of reverb, so it was fairly clean. However, if you run just a little bit of compression you're bound to enhance those finger noises. A lot of people find them distracting, but for me that's the sound of someone playing an instrument. I have worked with people who play in such a manner that you don't hear any finger noises at all, and in those cases I just defer to the musician, but with Matthew you can hear the sound of his fingers on the strings, and this created a kind of intimacy that perfectly suited the quiet section of 'Falling Away With You'."

On some tracks, Matthew Bellamy didn't want to track his vocals until he really had a feel for where the music was going to lead him, whereas on others he'd record his part and, in so doing, highlight the fact that some more musical texture needed to be developed underneath the vocal. One example of this was the song 'Endlessly', with its loungey-sounding Wurlitzer intro and backwards cymbal and conga during the short instrumental break.

"That song was really a work in progress up until almost the last minute, and we took a different sort of vocal approach with it," Costey recalls. "Obviously, it's too slow to be a dance number, but there is a kind of subdued four-to-the-floor, 909-sounding rhythm going on throughout the track. That's largely due to the fact that Matthew did a couple of demos, and one of them featured him performing on a piano as well as a drum machine that was playing that pattern. There was such an honesty to it and a directness to it that even though we tried it with a full band approach, nothing seemed to work as well as what he had on that demo, which was just a real pure intro and a really heartfelt vocal. We therefore took that approach and built on it, and we had Dominic play loads of different drum patterns within that tempo and then actually cut up ones that had kind of a light jazz feel with a couple of fills."

More Chet Baker, Less Arthur Baker

After the work was completed at Grouse Lodge, the project switched location once again, this time to Cello Studios in Los Angeles, where three weeks were spent overdubbing before the mix then took place. It was here, during the overdubs, that 'Endlessly' really came together.

"Although we were happy with the drumming aspects of the song, we were still dissatisfied with a lot of it," Costey explains. "We were in Studio Three, where the Beach Boys had once recorded Pet Sounds [when the facility was still known as United Western Recorders], so we tried to conjure up the spirit of Brian Wilson by bringing in an old S6 tube monophonic synthesizer. I mostly wanted Matthew to use it to play some arpeggios, but those didn't end up sounding very good, and so he then reached over to these auto-chord figures on the left-hand side of the keyboard, where you can just hit one button and it will play the chord. Underneath it is a button that you can press to control the volume of that note, and while we were running the track down Matthew started playing the chords to the song and using the dynamic button to tap out a rhythm. That ended up being the main thing that the rest of the song was centred about: the real soft, moody, warm keyboard sound that plays in the chorus.

"At that point, we absolutely knew that we wanted the sound more Chet Baker and less Arthur Baker. So, Matthew sang into a big old RCA 77 ribbon mic, and we did a number of other overdubs on the track, but we tried to keep it as sedate as possible even if, by the end of the song, it gets a bit expansive. There's a treated type of opera vocal coming in later in the song, and we tried to be very careful with that, because it's a dangerous area."

Meanwhile, another song that starts off in fairly staid and straightforward fashion before building in force is 'Ruled By Secrecy', on which thundering piano bass notes are interspersed with high notes that ride over the top of the vocal. "A lot of the time we would actually cut the right-hand and left-hand parts separately and treat them separately," Costey remarks. "The beginning of 'Ruled By Secrecy' was all CP80, which is an old Yamaha electric piano, and while that was a left-hand part we also doubled it up with a right-hand part that was actual piano. We also took the CP80 and ran it through a couple of guitar amps only for the left hand, so that the left hand would have a larger tone to it when Matthew hit those notes. Then, by the end of the song, when he was hitting the more sustained left-handed parts, I trotted out the old Echoplex as well."

'Time Is Running Out' was probably the most difficult song for band and producer to nail down, especially with regard to an intro that required mucho experimentation. "We tried out all sorts of percussion ideas," says Costey, "including people clapping their hands and slapping their knees. At one point Wally even miked up Chris and Dominic scratching their heads to produce a shaker track, and that worked suprisingly well, but we didn't end up using it. Eventually, we concluded that the bass would comprise the centrepiece of the intro, so we had to come up with a unique, very characteristic tone, although I wasn't totally convinced about the bass line that we initially settled on. We spent an entire day trying to get the greatest bass intro sound ever created in all humanity, and by the end of that time we went with an acoustic bass guitar running through a ton of pedals and different amps. Then, just as we'd attained a sound that we thought was pretty good, Matthew walked in, listened to it and said, 'Fantastic, you've just spent eight hours on a flanged bass?' He was right of course, not having spent hours on the floor, toying with pedals and cables. We didn't keep any of it. Still, there was always good give-and-take like that, and we trusted each other enough to go with our respective ideas."

The well-stocked gear rack in Cello Sound, where Absolution was mixed, with Rich Costey's own gear on top and in the portable rack to the right.

As most arrangement decisions regarding the songs were made while recording, the overall modus operandi amounted to settling on a direction that would subsequently determine the nature of the overdubs and then the mix. This, in turn, ensured that the mixing process was relatively short and strightforward; about three weeks in all.

"The biggest challenge on Absolution was making sure that the whole thing hung together cohesively," Costey asserts. "We tried out so many different ideas, and in a couple of songs we didn't get the arrangements totally nailed down until it was time to mix. At that point, if you're not happy with something it's too late to go back and change it. So, during the last week there was a certain amount of making sure that all those loose ends were dialled in, and that the songs sounded good next to one another and sounded like the same band. Hopefully, that's what we achieved. By the end, for all of their British reserve and my over-the-top American enthusiasm, the guys were very excited about this record — and so, of course, was I."

#muse band #muse #Rich Costey #2003 #Sound On Sound #on production #Muse Absolution #production #hi! I've been away for a lil bit haven't I? Have a cool interview with Rich about recording Absolution #fitting for 20 years since this beautiful beautiful album #(also don't you think I've left tumblr this is temporary; Sept is a bit busy)#Muse interviews #long post #music production #producers #Sound On Sound full interview #Long post

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skeletonsloverockcandy · 2 years

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After having read the synopsis for the Magnus Protocol on the kickstarter, the brain worms are starting to kick in oooo I’m so excited

It clearly takes place Somewhere Else in a universe where Jonah Magnus existed but perhaps was not supernatural as this Institute was based in Manchester not London, and burned down in 1999, the same year there was supposedly a mass statement leak in the TMA universe. And this follows the work of Office of Incident Assessment and Response, some sort of civil government service organization in England with the characters Alice and Sam, our new main characters, dealing with the “legacy” of the Archives “almost 25 years after it burned down” and will put them in “grave danger”.

This being a world that is Somewhere Else, it means that it previously had no Entities and now it has Entities, so I think that’s what the grave danger will be, and Jonny and Alex have said that we may here some old voices, but not in the way we expect.

So here’s what I’m positing, my theory, one might say, tho I see it more as a possible fanfic idea than a likely turn of events:

Wouldn’t it be awesome if this government agency stumbled onto some of Jon’s tapes from the TMA universe that were brought over with the entities by the Spider, and this Incident response team was like “welp, that doesn’t make any sense, this is dated 2016-18 and the Magnus Institute burned down in 1999” and so they have to form a protocol for when they find these tapes. What if they’re like Lietners in this universe, at the very least in the concept of someone having something named after them even if they didn’t cause the phenomenon, like the books for example? Or what if they DO cause supernatural phenomena to happen? Then that’s really interesting because then there are consequences 😈 and Bad Things Happening. I think then anything supernatural that happens after these tapes are found will be linked to the Magnus Institute or the tapes by proxy, since this world has no prior experience with this level of supernatural phenomena, and so the government needs a solution, or a protocol for these things, if you will, and thus The Magnus Protocol is born.

Now say that our main cast of characters from TMA all still exist in this universe, but never joined the institute because it burned down. So they could be walking about their normal lives, none the wiser and working normal jobs not accosted by Fear Entities. Now imagine these tapes, if they appear, do not appear in order, and so now there is a mystery a foot, and quite frankly some disturbing things to put to rest in these “statements”. And so they investigate, and find that one Mr. Jonathan Sims lives in London working as a researcher or museum curator or publicist or actor or band member or coffee barista or whatever his job may be in this new world, and take him in for questioning.

Imagine how juicy that would be, here is this Sims, none the wiser to supernatural entities or horrors, and then some shady government agents take him in without telling him why, and 2 low level agents come in, trying to keep stoic and cool, but are just a little bit spooked when they look at him and know who he is. Now Jon is here really confused and he starts asking why he’s here, is he in trouble, etc., and they say they just want to ask him some questions. They ask him if he’s ever been to or worked at the Magnus Institute, and he says no, what’s that? Or didn’t that burn down? I was 8-9 at the time so obviously not, that’s impossible. His captors share a glance and then pull out a tape recorder asking if he could please explain this then please. He is like, what. You want me to talk into that old thing? It looks ancient. Are you sure it even works? And they’re like, oh we’re sure Mr. Sims. And we don’t need you to talk into it, just listen. And they press play. And say, maybe the Spider still has a soft spot for old Jon here, and isn’t above inflicting some old terror in a new way. So say the statement they pull is MAG 81, A Guest for Mr. Spider. So this Jon, wildly confused and now beginning to get scared, hears his voice on the other end, describing accurate details of his childhood, and an incident that never happened, and wait is that Georgie? He knows Georgie, he dated her in uni, and he’s on the run for framed murder?? Jon is agape, but recovers and begins angrily demanding if this is some sort of prank, who set this up, it isn’t funny, how did they get his voice? And he’s scared. The 2 agents, Alice and Sam, glance at one another again and tell him that’s what they would like to know. They have dozens of these tapes with his voice on them, dated from 2016-18, and claiming he’s the Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, and Mr. Sims, if this is some sort of elaborate game, or ARG, or fiction project of his, they would like to know that now so they can put this to rest, because if these are real… then that presents a whole new challenge, doesn’t it? When it’s clear Jon doesn’t know anything, they let him go, but he’s shaken badly by the incident, wondering if he has a doppelgänger out there somewhere impersonating him, but if that’s the case, how did they know so many personal details about his childhood and his grandmother? Given a bit of time to think, I think he would try to do some investigating of his own, maybe discover what this Other Him had to say on these tapes or where they came from or what they mean, maybe return to this organization and ask if he can listen to more of the tapes or try to help in their investigation. Or else go full on season 2 full paranoid Jon mode and begin questioning if anyone he knows is in on this as well. Either way, this presents a fabulous opportunity for reoccurring side character Jonathan Sims! Head of nothing and not the Archivist :) would love to see him get brought in again for breaking and entering into a place he was trying to investigate to look for clues and Alice and Sam just get slowly used to his shenanigans and like “Oh Sims is in again.” “3rd time this week?” “You know, I’m really regretting bringing him in for questioning the first time.”

Anyway that’s my idea, I think it would be great :)))

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thegeekswillinherittheearth · 3 months

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Ok but did you know that blink-182 (originally known as blink) is a pop punk band formed in 1992. Lead singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge was kicked out of his old high school, in which he moved to another. He became friends with the bassist and co-lead singer, Mark Hoppus, finding him through his sister. The high school they attended was holding a Battle of the Bands competition, in which Tom decided to enter. As he did that, he met the drummer Scott Raynor. They all clicked, and made it to Tom’s house. They went in his garage and decided to record a song. The first ever song they recorded was Carousel, which ended up being released on two other albums. In 1993, they released their very first EP, Flyswatter, on May 1st 1993, by the label Fags in the Wilderness. It has been told that it was recorded in Scott’s bedroom, according to the liner notes. A year later, in January of 1994, they released their demo tape (as Mark does not consider it a real album), Buddha. There are two separate releases of Buddha, one CD being very rare. The difference was a few songs were missing, like Transvestite and Degenerate; neither of which making it to the later releases on both vinyl and Spotify. Then, on February 17, 1995, they released their first “real” album, Cheshire Cat. Many songs were re-recorded from Buddha, in fact, seven songs from Buddha made it onto Cheshire Cat, some like Fentoozler, Strings, and Sometimes. However, when the album was supposed to be quickly produced, it got delayed due to a threat on legal action. As previously mentioned, the band was originally called blink, However, coincidentally, there was an Irish band who went under the same name. They threatened to sue the band multiple times, causing them to add the -182. Due to this, some releases of the vinyl without the -182 exist, which are rare and expensive. To add onto that, there’s a version of Cheshire Cat where instead of the cat having blue eyes, it’s eyes are red. Those are expensive and hard to find as well, but they’re even more expensive if they don’t have the -182. Then, in February of 1996, they released an EP called They Came to Conquer… Uranus. It had 3 songs on it, and it was pressed on green, blue, yellow (all being clear), and black vinyl. It was only 7 minutes long, but was good nonetheless. However, a year later, on June 17, 1997, they released their first hit; Dude Ranch. It was also the last album from them to feature Scott Raynor as the drummer. One song from Dude Ranch was pre-recorded on Buddha (Degenerate), and one was from They Came to Conquer… Uranus (Waggy). They released a song from the album that changed their whole career— that song being Dammit. It is well known, also called Growing Up, due to the chorus. Dammit set them off as a band, it being their first hit. Other songs on the album, like Josie, also promoted them. They didn’t release anything the next year, however, the year after, they released their most well known and famous album. On June 1st, 1999, they released their greatest hit, Enema of the State. However, Raynor was not the drummer. He was kicked out in 1998, and replaced with previous drummer for The Aquabats!, Travis Barker. He’s known for drumming in many bands. 3 singles released, all being big hits. The most popular song, bringing them more recognition, was All The Small Things. However, the other 2 singles were popular as well, being What’s My Age Again?, and Adam’s Song. The band skyrocketed in popularity, as many heard songs on the radio. They even got to play at Vans Warped Tour. This album would change blink-182 as a whole; giving them their pop punk sound, unlike their two previous album, which had more of a punk sound to them. The album cover featured famous porn actress, Janine Lindemulder, in a nurse outfit as she pulled a blue rubber glove down her hand. It featured her on the back as well, with the band half-nude. Two years later, they released another album with that pop-punk sound, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, having famous hits likei dont wanna fuckignnfinish fhis jsuf lisgen to blink 182

#blink 182

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herrlindemann · 2 years

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KERRANG! - April 14, 2001

Rammstein have promised to bring a truly spectacular live show to the UK for a one-off show at London’s Astoria on June 10. Previous shows have featured vast amount of fire, explosive pyrotechnics, an extravagant light show and, most controversially, huge dildos and simulated ejaculation. During their last US tour, the band were threatened with arrest for indecent exposure following a simulated sex act on stage. Rammstein have recently speculated about the possibility of bringing a huge tank of formaldehyde on tour with them. However, plans to use water and neon during the show have been scrapped.

“We came to the conclusion that water was much too hazardous to use,” states guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein. “The danger of being electrocuted was just too real. People have called us irresponsible when it comes to the stage-show. Should something happen to the band members, well, that’s okay, but we would never jeopardize our fans.”

Rammstein’s last live extravaganza was captured on the band’s 1999 DVD/VHS release “Live Aus Berlin”. The latest stage-show is being designed by the band with Roy Bennett a New York-based stage designer who has previously worked with Marilyn Manson, Kiss, Nine Inch Nails and Prince. Although Rammstein have yet to finalise the details of what the new show will involve, they have stated in recent interviews that popular elements from the old show will remain, including frontman Till Lindemann ritual of setting himself on fire.

“The songs of ‘Herzeleid’ (Rammstein’s 1995 debut album) were too static,” says Lindemann, about the band’s first forays into using fire onstage.

“I held onto the microphone stand while others were dancing or flinging things through the air. But that didn’t suit our music, and it really didn’t suit me. So one day I had these two Roman candles in my hand, and that is how the whole thing exploded into life.” Lindemann has become a qualified pyrotechnician in order that no-one outside the band be required to take risks while executing their pyrotechnic effects. He is apparently now only one level away from being qualified to blow up condemned buildings.

“We will try to bring the crowd, the band and the stage as close together as possible,” Kruspe-Bernstein told Rammstein fan site Herzeleid.com recently. “One of our highest wishes is to use video projection throughout important parts of the show. We think it would add yet another dimension.”

Tickets for Rammstein’s London gig are priced at £11 and are available now from all the usual outlets. The band’s new four K-rated album, ‘Mutter’, will be released on April 16 through Motor/Universal.

You can read our exclusive interview with Rammstein in next week’s issue.

#Rammstein #Till Lindemann #Richard Kruspe #interview #2001 #*#*scans

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all-action-all-picture · 11 months

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youtube

Darts with their version of Duke of Earl from Top of the Pops on 19 July 1979. Produced by Roy Wood (of Wizzard and ELO fame) it reached Number 6 in the UK charts and was their last top 10 hit. Darts usually had 9 or 10 members and of the singers Griff Fender is on lead vocals here with the others being Bob Fish (falsetto), Rita Ray and Kenny Andrews (who had replaced original bass singer Den Hegarty who was probably the most memorable member of the band). Griff, Den, Rita and many of the backing band had previously been members of Rocky Sharpe and the Razors.

The song was originally released in 1961 and was a hit for Gene Chandler. The title came from a vocal warm up (do, do, do...) and one of the songwriters being named Earl. As simple as that.

The only bit that annoys me is that I don't think the 'my Duchess of Earl' lyric fits in naturally to the flow of the song. There usually only seems to be enough music for them to sing "my Dutch of Earl".

Most of Darts are still with us. Pianist Hammy Howell died in 1999 and Bob Fish in 2021.

Personally I think this is the best version of the song, partly for nostalgic reasons as this is the first version of it I remember hearing.

Another great cover version of Duke of Earl (with added choreography and gold lamé suits) coming soon!

#Youtube #darts #1979 #music #top of the pops #roy wood #wizzard #duke of earl #19jul

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greensparty · 8 months

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Album Reviews: Chris Shiflett / Duff McKagan / The Rolling Stones

This week I got to review new solo albums from members of two of my favorite bands as well as the newest album from one of my favorite legendary bands!

Chris Shiflett Lost at Sea

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Guitarist Chris Shiflett has to be the hardest working man in music. When I say hardest-working musician, I mean it: In addition to his “day job” as the guitarist for Foo Fighters, he is the host of the Walking the Floor podcast, just started a vodcast Shred with Shifty and he is an accomplished solo artist as well. Although he has been with Foo Fighters since 1999, Shiflett has roots in the punk world from his work with No Use for a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Since joining FF, he has also explored side projects including Jackson United and The Dead Peasants. His 2017 album West Coast Town had some solid tunes and the title track made my Best Songs of 2017 list. In 2019 he released Hard Lessons (read my review here) and I included it on my Best Albums of 2019 list. With his solo albums he has explored his passion for country, but rock finds its way in quite often. In July 2018, I was lucky enough to see Shiflett do an intimate acoustic concert at City Winery in Boston (read my concert review here) only a night before he played Fenway Park with Foo Fighters (both shows tied for my #1 Concert of 2018). Seeing both shows in one weekend was super exciting to see his musical range of bringing it at a stadium rock show as well as a smaller club show. Now only a few months after Foo Fighters' newest album But Here We Are and I saw them at Boston Calling, Shiflett is releasing his newest solo album Lost at Sea on Blue Elan Records this week.

me with Chris Shiflett at his City Winery Boston show on 7/20/2018 (I met him previously at the band's in-store at HMV in NYC on 11/1/1999 shortly after he joined)

It goes without saying, he knows his stuff with guitar. These side and solo projects show him letting loose in ways he can't with Foo Fighters (they have done acoustic songs but not country). I'm by no means the biggest country fan, but I can certainly appreciate the genre when it's really good and Shiflett truly has a passion for old school country. He recorded the album in Nashville with superstar producer Jaren Johnston. But as always, his rock side comes out in doses here and there. There's also a sense of humor that comes out on these songs too. I'm looking forward to seeing Foo Fighters at Fenway Park next Summer and I can only hope that Shiflett slips in an acoustic show of these Lost at Sea songs the night before, similar to what he did in 2018.

For info on Lost at Sea

3.5 out of 5 stars

Duff McKagan Lighthouse

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I've always found Duff McKagan to be an interesting musical figure in that he’s always had one foot into the alt-rock world from his Seattle roots in the 80s pre-dating the grunge explosion and one foot in the metal world from the L.A. Sunset scene with Guns N' Roses in the 80s. When he was only a teen in the early 80s he played in numerous Seattle bands including The Fastbacks and The Living (read my 2021 profile of the band when they reissued their album). When he moved to L.A. he began playing bass and eventually joined GNR, becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet from the late 80s to the early 90s. Duff even sang lead vocals on "So Fine" on Use Your Illusion II (read my review of the 2022 Use Your Illusion box set). I was lucky enough to see them in Sept. 1992 when they co-headlined Foxborough Stadium with Metallica. What a show that was! He has also played in a number of super groups, but he's no stranger to alt-rock: he has played with members of Jane's Addiction, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, and many many more. For a profile of McKagan check out the 2016 documentary It’s So Easy and Other Lies (read my interview with the doc director Christopher Duddy here). In addition to GNR, Neurotic Outsiders, Velvet Revolver and too many to fit into this space, Duff has also released a few solo albums since 1993. This week sees the release of his third official solo album Lighthouse (4th if you count the unreleased 1999 album Beautiful Disease).

With this new solo album, he recorded it in his Seattle home studio. Since Duff has a ton of musician friends, there are some notable appearances including GNR bandmate Slash, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, and Iggy Pop. I wouldn't say the album is bad by any means, but there's nothing that really jumps out the way that 2019's "Tenderness" (off the album of that same name) did. It's cool that Duff is evolving as a songwriter, singer and all around musician, but I wished it would have more face-melters. But this is a grower, where each time you listen you notice more and it gets better. Ask me for my rating a few months from now and it might be higher!

For info on Duff McKagan

3 out of 5 stars

The Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds

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This marks a historic achievement in the history of this blog! You see, I've had the pleasure of reviewing reissues, live and compilation albums from The Rolling Stones, including Live at El Mocambo, A Bigger Bang: Live on Copacabana Beach, Steel Wheels Live, On Air, Beggars Banquet, Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, Let It Bleed, Goats Head Soup and Tattoo You. But this marks the very first time I've gotten to review a new studio album from The Stones. Their 26th U.S. studio album Hackney Diamonds drops today. It is their first album since 2016's Blue and Lonesome (which I named my #4 Album of 2016). That blues covers album was their best since the 70s IMHO. But if we're talking original albums written by the Glimmer Twins of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is their first original album since 2005's A Bigger Bang. But it also marks their first album since the 2021 death of longtime drummer Charlie Watts, who actually recorded two songs for this album before he died (sessions began in 2019).

In a way it's kind of fitting that I reviewed all three albums in one review this week. Chris Shiflett and Foo Fighters have opened for The Rolling Stones and the band backed up Mick Jagger when he was on SNL in 2012. Duff McKagan and Guns N' Roses opened for The Rolling Stones in 1989. But I digress. In addition to the bond of Jagger, Richards, and Ronnie Wood, there's the tracks that Charlie Watts plays on as well as his touring replacement Steve Jordan (Stones fans know him for his work with Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos) and bassist Darryl Jones, who has been touring with the band since 1993. There's guest appearances from Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Sir Paul McCartney (Sir Paul and Jagger have had a playful rivalry in the press over the years, but there's nothing but respect both have for each other), and most impressive of all is an appearance from former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, who left the band in 1992. There are some serious bangers on this album! My goodness - something has lit a fire under them to make an album this good when all members are in their 70s or 80s. Co-producer Andrew Watt (who produced Eddie Vedder's excellent solo album Earthling) also co-wrote a few songs with Jagger and Richards. There is a chance I'm just blown away by a new Stones album that is better than expected and in a few years I won't be as blown away, but I will say this: I stand by Blue and Lonesome being their best album since the 70s, but if we're talking original studio albums, this is their best album since 1981's Tattoo You. It's like a full circle album of the band re-visiting blues, hard rock, disco and R&B. The guest stars definitely are a treat, but it's that sense of a band 60+ years into their career making a rocker of an album reminding fans what we loved about them to begin with. Amen!

For info on Hackney Diamonds

4.5 out of 5 stars

#chris shiflett #duff mckagan #the rolling stones #album reviews #foo fighters #guns n roses #mick jagger #keith richards #ronnie wood #paul mccartney #elton john #stevie wonder #lady gaga #andrew watt #music nerd

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chaosincurate · 10 months

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My month in music - July 2023

Prince - 1999

New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

The Beatles - Revolver

Squid - Bright Green Field

Squid - O Monolith (relisten)

Nothing But Thieves - Dead Club City (new)

Slowdive - Souvlaki

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson - Discipline

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

black midi - Hellfire (relisten)

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (relisten)

Gabriels - Angels & Queens (new)

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES (new)

Alvvays - Alvvays (relisten)

Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

Regina Spektor - Far

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (relisten)

Alvvays - Blue Rev (relisten)

Regina Spektor - 11:11

JPEGMAFIA - LP! (Offline)

Write-ups below

Prince - 1999

In a continuation of my "I was wrong about Prince" arc, I gotta say, this album is incredible. One of the most admirable traits Prince's music has, is the ability to lock into a groove and just keep it going for insane runtimes without it overstaying it's welcome, and that is very much a trait that is on display on this album, with only two songs being under 5 minutes, and only a couple of the others are noticeably long.

I imagine it's safe to assume anyone reading this has already heard the title track and Little Red Corvette, so realistically you've already had a taste of this album, but if you're looking for another song to try, D.M.S.R. stood out to me as an exceptional example of that previously mentioned ability to lock into a groove for ages without it becoming noticeable.

New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

A brighter, more hopeful version of Joy Division, as they are often labelled, New Order creates a distinction between itself and it's predecessor by simply being a less challenging listen, emotionally and intellectually. That isn't to say that it's any less deep, though. There is still plenty to dig into here, but I would argue that it is more optional here than with what I've heard from Joy Division.

I think if I were to recommend an individual song, I'd put forward the opener, Age of Consent. It's an excellent establishment of the band's personality, whether or not you're familiar with Joy Division, and therefore the majority of New Order.

The Beatles - Revolver

I think it's time to admit that I'm never gonna get The Beatles. I understand that they were incredibly influential and that some of my favourite bands wouldn't exist without their work, and many of them would be drastically different, but I just don't understand how people can listen to it with the developments we've made since and not find them incredibly lackluster. After listening to Abbey Road, Help, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (not a concept album btw), and now Revolver, I have only enjoyed the first of those as a whole project. Granted, I hear picking a version of Sgt. Pepper's to listen to is like playing Russian Roulette with a half full revolver, so maybe I just chose wrong there, but the other two don't have that excuse. I just don't get the hype when it comes to modern listening.

Squid - Bright Green Field

I remember seeing this album a lot when it was first released, and my tastes must not have been ready for that yet, because I do remember, quite distinctly, listening to something off of this album. Clearly though, I was right to hold off, because my tastes have since broadened enough for me to absolutely love this. Bright Green Field is an energetic art-punk album with a compelling breadth of themes and executes all of them with a very engaging subtlety that balances having a clear meaning with allowing the listener to have their own interpretations. The way this manifests, is that you will have a general idea of what the song is pointing towards, but will have to fill the nuances in for yourself, which I find gives you a better connection to the music.

A great example of that in action, and possibly my favourite song off the album, is Narrator. It is pretty clear that, no matter what your interpretation is, whatever the woman in the song represents is being victimized and forced to beg for scraps from a more powerful being. For me, the interpretation that makes most sense is that the song is about patriarchy, and how both men and women are pushed to act a certain way, but how men often get the better deal, even if there are many ways in which they are equally trapped, playing their respective parts. However you look at it though, it is a great demonstration of how power dynamics like that are entirely damaging.

Squid - O Monolith

For the most part this album is pretty stylistically similar to Bright Green Field, but I'd say this one is more consistently experimental than their last effort. Overall though, if you liked BGF, you'll probably like O Monolith. There's not a lot that you can say about the former that doesn't apply to the latter.

My favourite song off the album is The Blades, another great song by Squid about power, in this case the abuse of it and the loss of it, seemingly through the perspective of a police officer or soldier who inflicts pain and torment under the guise of protection, and then feels inadequate when they lose their position. The line "Another man's hand on the joystick instead of mine" feels full of the kind of jealousy one would feel when they are being cheated on. A righteous spite and tinge of self-hatred, like an all encompassing emotional poison.

Nothing But Thieves - Dead Club City

Nothing But Thieves are a band I talked about before, in my Top 100 One Song Per Artist post (at 52 to save you some time if you're interested), and I made sure to mention that they were crucial to developing my music taste, but I do feel like I've largely grown to have a disdain for their music. I look at their older stuff with a similar love to the one I had in my younger days, albeit with a slight undercurrent of acknowledgement that if it weren't for nostalgia I may not like it so much; but their new music always feels strange to listen to because of that. There are only a few songs I can actually get into without it feeling like a hollow nostalgia. This isn't their fault, of course, it's me who's changed, but it does result in a strange experience.

Also, for a more objective criticism, what is it with bands just having, like, 3 songs that contribute to a theme or story and calling it a concept album? This could have been a cool concept album, but there's just an opener which introduces you to a concept (a thinly veiled metaphor for the internet, most specifically social media and the other dopamine pumping addiction machines across the web), then maybe slightly touches on it a couple times, then has this epic, riotous closer that has no payoff because there was basically no buildup. I understand most people just don't care, but I really like concept albums, and the amount out there that claim to be one while offering no greater cohesion than the average album is infuriating to me.

Anyway, I did really enjoy Do You Love Me Yet? It felt like it was contributing kinda well to the concept, and the way they mix orchestra and crunchy, headbanging alternative rock is novel and works surprisingly well. The lyrics are painfully mediocre, but the concept of the song and the instrumental carries it well enough for it to not be that big a deal for me.

Slowdive - Souvlaki

I feel like I've kind of been unintentionally circling and prodding at the genre of shoegaze, especially since listening to, and subsequently adoring, Blue Rev by Alvvays. This month I decided to take an intentional dive into this music that seems like such a good fit for me by listening to one of the subgenre's most beloved albums. Unsurprisingly, I liked it. I was a little hesitant to listen to something shoegaze, because my first experience was with my bloody valentine a little while back and I didn't like how the lyrics were seen as so secondary to the music. I've since become a little more open to that, so maybe it's worth a revisit, but that experience with the shoegaze album kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Fortunately, between Blue Rev and this, my palette has thoroughly cleansed and sweetened.

I love how the genre, when done well, entirely envelops you similarly to metal, but with a sweetness, like the difference between a hug and a sleeper hold.

That being said, my favourite song off of the album is probably the one that probably adheres to it the least, that being Souvlaki Space Station. The guitars here have this kind of alarm-like sound that gives you a deep sense of something going very wrong, and that enveloping that I mentioned earlier feels less like a hug now and more like a crowd of panicked people rushing past you for the nearest exit. It's an incredibly anxious atmosphere, and the album would be harmed by more than the sum of the songs parts were it not on the track list.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Not much needs to be said about this one. It's a classic for a reason. If you're after a captivating experience that melds charismatic vocals and one-of-a-kind guitar playing, then look no further than The Jimi Hendrix Experience. You've almost certainly already heard and fell in love with the incredible cover of All Along the Watchtower, so you have no excuse to not bless your ears with more of the same as far as I'm concerned.

If you must dip your toes a little more though, I'd recommend Rainy Day, Dream Away personally, with the 15 minute Voodoo Chile also being a highlight.

Madvillain - Madvillainy

This is a very deceptively rapid fire album. The beats aren't super invigorating and DOOM is so laid back as he makes history with his dense flow and wordplay. It makes for a very hard album to keep up with for someone with as little melanin as me, but what I kept up with was exceptional and hinted at a deserved legacy.

It's not just MF DOOM that makes this album great though. Madlib's beats are complex enough to be captivating, but not enough to feel like they're trying to take the spotlight off the awe-inspiring lyricism and flow that DOOM brings.

If I were to recommend a song, I'd struggle first and foremost because it's a very consistently amazing album, but the one that has really stuck with me is Fancy Clown. You really can't go too wrong though.

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

I'm not remotely likely to reach anyone who hasn't heard this album before (or at least knows if they ever will) with this, but I really loved this album. It is one of the best examples of an album that I have ever heard. The sequencing is damn near perfect, making the album feel noticeably effortless in a way that is hard to explain. It's so rare that an album is sequenced in such an excellent way and it feels so primally easy, like the very core of your being was made to listen to this album, like it has some ancient understanding of this project that predates both you and the album. It's immaculate. It's glorious. It's beautiful.

Kendrick is also clearly great at making albums that feel significantly more cohesive than albums that are supposed to be concept album. I've spoken about how irritated I get about albums just being called concept albums when that label doesn't apply, but for reference, this is how concept albums are done. Not having one or two songs connected to the concept, but only having one or two that don't. It's focused and it makes it so much more affecting.

With that in mind, I'd first and foremost recommend just listening to the album if you haven't already, but if you need to hear a song to be convinced, Money Trees is my suggestion. It is, as you'd expect from the title, a well executed depiction of the hustle culture and money obsession that comes with growing up in an economically deprived area, where the safety it can provide is invaluable.

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

I feel like the entirety of this album would be ruined if there were a single point where the performances slipped. On a conceptual level, it seems like there is a sense that it is better than it is. Like it doesn't recognize its simplicity, but because Janelle Monaé is an incredible performer, and the band is on point constantly, it elevates it and makes that conceptual simplicity a positive somehow. The incredible execution legitimizes the concept, at least it does for me.

To demonstrate Janelle Monaé's awesome skill as a performer, take Tightrope and imagine some random X Factor or American Idol finalist making it. For me, it turns into childish, top 40 slop in my imagination. But because it's Janelle Monaé, it feels sincere and meaningful, if a little self-aware in it's lack of conceptual complexity.

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

Probably the album at the top of the must-listen list for prog-rock. I enjoyed the album enough to agree with that too. The songs are all really long but the experimental nature of the album really makes the album consistently attention-grabbing and entertaining.

It's a basic choice, but I really enjoyed 21st Century Schizoid Man. It's huge, it's anthemic, it's got bombast and aggression, along with that previously mentioned experimental nature.

King Crimson - Discipline

Discipline didn't impress me quite as much as In the Court of the Crimson King, but it was still a pretty great experience. It's very much more of the same great sound that made Crimson King such a standout record, but just to a slightly lesser quality in my humble opinion and with more of a focus on settling into a repetitive groove than on their earlier record. I'd definitely recommend that you listen to that before Discipline if you're interested and haven't already.

The standout track for me, and the song I'd recommend is Thela Hun Ginjeet. I feel it embodies the unique elements of this record in particular pretty well.

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

I don't really think I'm a Bob Dylan sort of guy because I just couldn't get into this on anything other than an intellectual level. Because of that, and the fact that as I write this I'm a few days past the day I wanted this to be posted by, I'll just say that I'd recommend listening to Tangled Up In Blue if you're unsure and move swiftly on.

black midi - Hellfire

I've spoken at length about this album multiple times before, so I'll keep this pretty brief, but this is quite possibly my favourite album of all time. It was my first exposure to black midi because, based on the album art and the name, I assumed it was heavy metal or something equally heavy. I was very wrong about that. They are absolutely a band that will overwhelm on first listen, but not in a heavy metal sort of way. There is a complex intensity to the album that, at least for me, inspired an almost religious experience where I couldn't even begin to grasp what I just experienced, but it just felt right to me.

I could very easily recommend any song off the album, but today I'll go with Sugar/Tzu. It's a very theatrical song, using a boxing match as a metaphor for... Something. It's pretty abstract and open to interpretation. I'll leave you to come up with your own.

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

Another one I've written about a lot already, I should really just write about these albums so I can link somewhere when they pop up in future.

Anyway, I've been on a bit of a Regina Spektor kick lately and been listening to some of her other albums, and I gotta say, as much as I love and appreciate those albums too, they all just make me appreciate how special this one is even more. None of her other albums that I've listened to have the same quirky, artistic charm that this does. It's all a little different. Here, the songs feel of-the-earth, dug up in this incredibly affecting, raw, primitive state that spoke directly to emotions in the language of emotions. It's incredible and I don't expect I'll hear anything quite like it for a very long time, if ever.

Recently, I've really enjoyed Chemo Limo, and I see no reason not to suggest that as a single song for those who want to dip their toes.

Gabriels - Angels & Queens

I'm going to be honest, I was distracted when I first listened to this album and never revisited it fully. That being said, the title track popped up on shuffle a lot and I got really into it in that less focused context, so I imagine that's a good recommendation for an individual song.

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

This whole album is so chaotic, anthemic, exciting, and weird enough to earn it's title. JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown's energies click so perfectly too, which really gives this album an infectious, propulsive flow. It's definitely my favourite hip-hop album of the year so far and I'm disappointed that it took me so long to listen.

I think this album is at it's best when it's chaotic energy is at it's highest, so if you're looking for a song to try it out first, I'd go with the opener, Lean Beef Patty. It's an explosive start, and prepares you perfectly for the experience you're about to have.

Alvvays - Alvvays

I've made no effort to keep the fact that I absolutely love Alvvays under wraps. In fact, I've made a whole ass post about it. That being said, this is clearly a version of the band that wasn't quite as keen to explore new sonic palettes as they have since become. It's pretty one note, but they chose a great note to linger on, like an F#. Solid note for sure, but if I were to nitpick, I'd like a few more.

As I implied in that first paragraph, the album is incredibly consistent, so it's another one of those albums where you could close your eyes and point to a song to try if you were unsure, but here I'd like to recommend fan favourite Archie, Marry Me. Much like the rest of the album, it's dreamy, twee, and euphoric, with some sardonic lyricism courtesy of Molly Rankin, where, depending on how sarcastic you think she's being, she's either targeting the pressure to marry, or the person who is unwilling despite their shared commitment to one another. It's really good and fun and full of indie charm, you should give it a listen.

Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Much like the Bob Dylan album I talked briefly about earlier in this post, I enjoyed this way more on an intellectual level moreso than on any other, although I was able to get into this one a little bit more. It's a very intense experimental hip-hop album generally centered around grief, which makes it more intense and, at the same time, more harmonious for the way it intensifies that innate intensity.

The best songs off the album are towards the end in my opinion, and to suggest you listen to one of those before the album as a whole would probably lead to a worse experience with the album, so I'll suggest Superman That as an introduction instead. It's glitchy and stuttered which grants a heightened level of desperation to the sound of the song as the hook "ain't no saving me or you" punctuates it.

Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

As I said earlier, I feel like Regina Spektor, if she was trying to, struggled to recapture the very specific charm of Soviet Kitsch, but as they say, shoot for the stars, and if you fall short you'll make it to the moon. There is still plenty to love here if you aren't comparing it to a once-in-a-lifetime record. The lyricism is still fantastic, albeit in a different way now, with Samson in particular being a song from this album that felt incredibly poetic. Après Moi on the other hand shows off her ability to make lyrically focused music instrumentally interesting. It's still a great album, just not as unique as I was hoping after hearing Soviet Kitsch. I'd still highly recommend giving it a listen if you like lyrically focused art pop ballads.

Regina Spektor - Far

A lot of what I said about Begin to Hope applies here too. I saw a few people pointing out Eet as their favourite Regina Spektor album, but I'm going to have to disagree there. Personally, my favourite ended up being One More Time With Feeling. It's just one of those songs that make you feel backed up and supported in whatever challenges you may be feeling. It somehow reminds me of Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads in that respect.

All in all, this was by quite a way my least favourite Regina Spektor album so far, but it is still very much worth a listen for me. She's just a very special artist, the likes of which don't come around very often, and that has been clear in every single album I've heard so far.

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

I imagine I've written about Jubilee before, but not often enough. It's such a great example of an album being fun without sacrificing depth. Admittedly, not every song here is positive, but the majority are, as the title would suggest, and I can't describe in words alone how happy I am that there is an album out there proving to the depression snobs that you don't have to be sad to be interesting, and proving to the lazy that you don't have to give up meaning to make music that expresses the positive sides of life.

The example I adore most is the opener, Paprika. Its an absolutely gorgeous song that has dug it's way deeper and deeper into my mind since I listened to it to the point that I'm convinced one day my whole personality will be Paprika by Japanese Breakfast. The song, and by extension, the album, opens to slow, ascending synths that are instantly positive and comforting. Then you hear the beautiful lyrics, "Lucidity came slowly, I awoke from dreams of untying a great knot". the words that have not left my head for more than a day in months. Gorgeous. Then you get a triumphant drum line to give the song a soft drive, and eventually the chorus

"How's it feel to be at the center of magic to linger in tones and words?

I opened the floodgates and found no water, no current, no river, no rush

How's it feel to stand at the height of your powers to captivate every heart?

Projecting your visions to strangers who feel it, who listen, who linger on every word?

Oh, it's a rush"

I had to share it in full. It's such a beautiful ode to music, it brought a tear to even my dry eye.

This has grown to be my favourite song off the album for it's summation of everything within the project, but aspects of this beauty are reflected in other moments on it. If left-field pop is even in the vague vicinity of "your thing", this is a must listen. If not the album, Paprika at least.

Alvvays - Blue Rev

I've talked enough about Blue Rev by now. It's a fantastic noisy, shoegaze album. Listen to After The Earthquake if that sounds up your alley. Even if you've heard it before, treat yourself. You deserve it.

Regina Spektor - 11:11

I really loved the sparse production on this album. It allowed the lyrics to take center stage alongside Regina Spektor's amazing, expressive vocals, that prevent the music from feeling empty. It's some great artistry on display to almost make the sparsity go unnoticed.

I think there are two great songs that serve as microcosms of the album as a whole. First, Rejazz. Here, there's only a bass and Regina Spektor's immaculate vocals which cover ground from deep growls, to delicate highs within the space of seconds in a way that feels natural, as if it's just an attempt to squeeze out every single bit of emotion she can as she sings of losing someone and recognizing the catastrophizing she is doing, convincing herself that she will cry forever and realizing how untrue that is.

Next, I wanted to bring up I Want to Sing because it is a great example of the intimacy that the sparseness of the album creates. Here, there are no instruments at all, taking that acoustic idea to the absolute max without literally having a silent track, and therefore making it feel almost as if you're in the room with her in some cheesy romance film moment. That's not to say that this is a simple love song though, because she recognizes the absurdity of her situation with glimpses of that aggressive anti-cliché writing that initially drew me to Spektor's music with Soviet Kitsch.

JPEGMAFIA - LP! (Offline)

After listening to and being blown away by SCARING THE HOES, I developed an itch for that sort of sound, and considering JPEGMAFIA was responsible for my favourite parts of that album, I decided to start here, and I was impressed. I didn't enjoy it as much as STH, but it was an abrasive and chaotic enough experience that the itch is very much scratched for now.

As much as it seemed out of place as the fourth track on the album, I'd recommend listening to the song END CREDITS as a first taste of the album.

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Unofficial Chronological History of Marilyn Manson by Angelynx (Paula O'Keefe) 1990-1996

Our subject is a five-piece band from the Fort Lauderdale area of southern Florida, previously best known for its metal scene. By all reports, it was founded sometime in 1989, when a restless journalism major with a dark exacting take on American culture and a notebook full of poem/commentaries met an equally restless guitarist-composer with five bands behind him and an itch to do something really different. The writer had done some music coverage for local publications; the musician had last been involved in a Cocteau Twins/Sonic Youth blend of ethereal noise called India Loves You; neither was content. Lyrics and music clicked, and the pair joined forces.

The writer's first move was to change his name. Immersed for months in tabloid TV shows, he had decided on one that he felt displayed the entire spectrum he wanted to project, borrowed from two classic icons of the 1960s: Marilyn Manson. The guitarist agreeably followed suit and became Daisy Berkowitz, setting the pattern for all members of the band until 1996.

By 1990 they were Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids: Manson singing and Berkowitz as lead guitarist, drum machine programmer and general tech whiz kid. Their earliest known lineup included Olivia Newton-Bundy on bass (Brian Tutunick, later to join Florida metallers Collapsing Lungs before moving on to Nation of Fear), Zsa Zsa Speck on keyboards (one Perry Pandrea, who didn't stay long) and a nameless drum machine. Newton-Bundy and Speck were soon replaced by bassist Gidget Gein and keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy.

Their first cassette releases, Meat Beat Cleaver Beat (or Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat, by some accounts), Snuffy's VCR, and big black bus, were created during this membership shakeup. More on the cassette releases a little later on.

Among their gigs at this point was one which which would have far-reaching consequences: they opened a show on Nine Inch Nails' summer tour. NIN was still embroiled in the TVT battle, and Trent's ownership of his own label was a long way off, but he liked the young band ("It must have something to do with both of us coming from the Midwest," says the Ohio-born Manson, though probably only a relocated Floridian would think of Mercer, PA, as Midwestern) and became a friend and informal mentor. Manson and Reznor would stay in touch and trade tapes over the following few years.

The Spooky Kids were set apart from the start by Manson's ambitious and imaginative promotional campaign. The memorable logo he designed - the now-well-known black and white "Eyes" design - displayed "MARILYN MANSON" in a dripping monster-movie font with narrow images of Marilyn Manson's seductive gaze above and Charlie Manson's wild-eyed stare below. The band wasted no time in getting this striking visual onto a line of T-shirts and stickers, a move credited with grabbing them a good deal of local attention. Meanwhile, connections Manson had made while wearing his journalist hat helped to spread the band's name and get tracks from big black bus onto local radio.

At the same time, the Spooks were tossing a wide range of theatrical, visual, and shock devices into their rapidly evolving stage presentation. Anything might turn up, from a Lite-Brite [TM] toy arranged to read "Kill God" or "Anal Fun" and peanut-butter-&-jelly sandwiches tossed from the stage, to caged or crucified girls, skinned goats' heads, nudity and arson. Manson might wear an entire outfit of stripes or a woman's bathing suit while playing Charles Manson soundbites or reading from "The Cat in the Hat". Gacy had a little booth marked "Pogo's Playhouse" standing over his keyboard (he had already adopted child-killer Gacy's clown pseudonym as his own nickname). Berkowitz might play in skirt, halter and long blonde wig, guitar worn low and cigarette hanging off his lip, born to the role of cute debutante gone bad. Anything was fair game for maximum effect.

It's hard to be this flexible while tied to a programmed rhythm track, so in 1991, the Spooks retired their drum machine, an event celebrated by a jubilant little newsletter. Illustrated with a mixture that would become a band trademark - Manson's morbid cartoons and band caricatures, altered Dr. Seuss figures, guns, needles, and characters from "Scooby-Doo" - it welcomes Sara Lee Lucas, who is credited with "baked goods and percussion". (Though the first cassette release to actually credit Lucas is 1992's The Family Jams, he had probably played on at least the previous tape, mid-'91's Lunchbox as well.) The addition was a good one, and the band began to draw notice. By now they were writing and performing songs that are still staples of their repertoire, including "Cake and Sodomy" and "My Monkey". (They carried lunchboxes, too.) By the time South Florida's Slammies, designed to offer recognition to the overlooked thrash, hardcore and "hard alternative" scene, held nominations for its first award show in 1992, the Spooks' fan following was large and vocal enough to get them nominated for both Best Hard Alternative Band and Band of the Year.

Another 1992 event of note was the "Miami Rocks" East Coast Music Forum, held Jan. 30 - Feb. 2 1992 at the Button South. A promotional event designed by local music business folk to draw national attention to the Florida scene, it featured bands submitted for consideration by area managers and chosen by a panel that included radio and recording studio reps. Marilyn Manson made the cut (beating out their then-manager John Tovar's other submission, the redoubtable Amboog-A-Lard) and played on Feb 1st. A cassette tape was issued to promote this event.

Some of the aforementioned fan loyalty is almost certainly due to the band's direct efforts to connect with its listeners. They issued a newsletter, designed and distributed elaborately illustrated concept flyers for shows, and operated an answering machine "hot line", evidently taking the role of mentor quite seriously. In a 1991 Florida newspaper article on the band, Manson explains that he wrote the lyrics of "Learning To Swim" in response to a request for advice, and says, "…in this position I've put myself in, I have the responsibility of influencing the minds of teenagers. So I do choose my words…because I care. I care about what I say." [Such earnest gravity, from someone all of 22 years old at the time. Though the nickname was frequently used with perverse overtones, it's still no wonder that fans began calling him Daddy.]

Another means of staying in touch, and one that's perhaps more interesting to current fans, was the band's series of self-produced and self-marketed demo cassettes. Very little information on the previously mentioned first two demos - Meat Beat Cleaver Beat and Snuffy's VCR - has turned up, save to say that in all likelihood only Manson and Berkowitz played on them, and that they were composed of (to quote a fan interview with Daisy) "weird instrumental stuff that we never sold." According to studio engineer "Graveyard Ralph" Cavallaro, the lineup on big black bus, too, was solely Manson and Berkowitz - Gein and Gacy, though in the band at the time, did not play on these sessions. Keyboard effects were created on a Yamaha RX8 synthesizer by the versatile Berkowitz (who also played both lead and bass guitars and programmed the drum machine). An entire side of this was reportedly taken up by answering machine messages, a practice the band has never abandoned. The late 1990 demo Grist-O-Line was the first one to feature the band's full lineup of Manson, Berkowitz, the drum machine, Gein and Gacy. It would be followed by After School Special in January 1991, Lunchbox sometime in mid-1991, The Family Jams in mid-1992 and the band's final cassette release, Refrigerator, in early 1993. Produced and mixed by the multi-capable Berkowitz and decorated with more of the above-mentioned idiosyncratic artwork, these little gems feature the first recorded versions and variations of "Cake and Sodomy", "Dope Hat", "Lunchbox", "My Monkey", "Dogma" (as "Strange Same Dogma"), and "Cyclops", along with a wealth of otherwise unavailable originals. Though produced in tiny batches -Refrigerator was an edition of only 100 copies - and sold only at the band's shows and in local record stores, the cassettes still prove the Spooks' determination not only to be heard but to be presented on their own terms and maintain complete creative control.

By the end of 1992 the name "Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids" had apparently become too awkward, and was trimmed to just Marilyn Manson. This caused some temporary confusion with the lead singer's chosen name, but after tossing it around a little (he's credited as simply "M. Manson" on the Refrigerator cassette and as "Mr. No Name Manson" on The Family Jams) he settled on the semi-formal "Mr. Manson" for general purposes.

None of the changes troubled the fans one bit. They turned out loyally in the voting for the 1993 Slammies, piling up a stack of nominations for MM: Band of the Year, Best Hard Alternative Band, Best Local Release (the Family Jams cassette), Song of the Year ("Dope Hat") , and even a Best Vocalist nomination for Mr. Manson. "Dope Hat" won in its category, and the Mansons collected their first Band of the Year award. --Mr. Manson also added a memorable touch to the ceremony as presenter of the Best National Release award, which went to Saigon Kick for "The Lizard". To a chorus of boos from the crowd (home-state fans considered SK to have abandoned them at their first touch of national fame), Manson ascertained that there was no band representative present to collect their engraved ceramic skull, and simply tossed it into the moshpit, where it was stamped to bits. (Amusing side note. Manson had a cohort in this small crime: the Slammie-winning rhythm guitarist for local metal band Amboog-A-Lard, a close friend of Manson's. Within the year he would undergo a magical transformation…)

The summer of 1993 was a busy stretch for the Mansons, who picked up not only their first Slammies but a genuine recording contract. Having finally won a measure of independence from TVT, and launched his own label, nothing, Trent Reznor had offered the band nothing's first contract plus a support position on his upcoming "Self-Destruct '94" spring tour. Both were accepted, and they headed into Criteria Studios to begin recording their first LP, Portrait of an American Family.

The sessions, however, didn't go well. Reznor, then busy with The Downward Spiral, assigned producer Roli Mossiman to the band. Mossiman, who had worked with Young Gods, Machines of Loving Grace, and Jim Thirwell's multi-named Foetus project, was expected to bring a raw sound to the mix. By all reports, however, he did just the opposite. The band was unhappy with the results they were getting, feeling that the sound was being smoothed and polished out of all recognition. Manson: "I thought, 'This really sucks.' So I played it for Trent, and he thought it sucked." Reznor, supporting the band's decision, took over the production reins, and they spent seven grueling weeks of fifteen-hour days in L.A.'s Record Plant, tearing down, repairing, even recreating parts of Portrait from scratch. (Reznor is credited as Executive Producer on the LP.) In January 1994, the project was finally finished and presented - doubtless with a collective sigh of relief - to Interscope, distributor for nothing.

By Christmas 1993, however, bassist Gein was no longer a member of Marilyn Manson. In Mr. Manson's words, "he felt that his drug addiction was more important than playing bass for us." (One might speculate that it was the stress of the studio marathon that forced the issue.) His replacement was - you guessed it - that aforementioned member of Amboog-A-Lard, who was apparently more than willing to mutate from jeans-wearing rhythm guitarist to transvestite bass player. In a move that caused harsh words and a reportedly permanent chill between the Amboogies and the Mansons, Twiggy Ramirez became the newest member of Marilyn Manson.

While Twig went into training for the NIN tour, Interscope's qualms about Portrait were settled (two photos were removed from the design for the sleeve, including a childhood shot of Mr. Manson, discreetly nude), and things seemed to be on a relatively smooth upward course for the band. Their first single was "Get Your Gunn", released with accompanying - and widely unplayed - video on June 9, 1994, followed by the LP on July 12. The album's release was celebrated by the band and 1200 or so close friends on July 3rd at the 1994 Slammie Awards, where the Mansons headlined the show and won their second "Grand Slammie" for Band of the Year. Mr. Manson also collected that year's skull (plus a free tattoo) for Best Vocalist, his only receipt of that honor.

[Side note: Fans will have noticed that in the sleeve and promotional photos for POAAF and its singles, Mr. Manson is still wearing blue contact lenses in both eyes. It's not certain when he decided to wear only one lens, creating the bi-colored blue/brown stare that has become his trademark. Quite possibly one blue lens was simply lost or damaged. It is however definite that the blue eye is a contact lens and not a glass or artificial eye; in early Spooky Kids video footage his natural jasper-green (tends to photograph as an amber/golden brown, but it's green) eye color is clearly visible in both eyes.]

After some scattered May and July 1994 dates with NIN, the band officially hit the road with them for fourteen weeks, from August 29th to December 11th. This was, without a doubt, the major breakthrough of Marilyn Manson's career, establishing in one swoop virtually their entire non-Florida fan base. Their powerful material, combined with an intense and highly visual stage show which had developed and tightened steadily since the early days of animal entrails and women in cages, made instant converts. (Footnote: It also caused enough invasion of new MM fans into the Usenet newsgroup alt.music.nin that the eventual proposal to establish alt.music.marilyn-manson passed virtually unchallenged. Today the band is represented on the Internet not only by that newsgroup, but also by at least two mailing lists and a constantly-growing host of Web pages. In fact, if you look up the name "Manson" in AltaVista, you'll find more citations for Marilyn than for Charlie.)

The tour produced several incidents which have made their way into MM history, notably the Salt Lake City, Utah, show on October 18th. Though this episode is commonly blamed on the city's notoriously conservative Mormon patriarchy, it was actually an independent decision by the equally tense management of the evening's venue, the Delta Center. Center staff had gotten advance warning about the Mansons and sent a delegation to view their October 16th show in Las Vegas, which they found objectionable on several points. As a result, the Center first made some stipulations about the presentation (which were accepted by NIN and MM); then, when the tour reached town, decreed that Nine Inch Nails would be allowed to play, but MM - though they would be paid - were forbidden to play unless they met an additional and more stringent list of conditions. According to a SLCity radio interview with Manson at the time, these conditions included demands that Manson not say anything between songs, that he alter the lyrics of certain songs, and that MM not sell any of its t-shirts or other merchandise at the venue.

The bands allegedly agreed to these terms, but during NIN's set the newly-ordained Reverend Manson was invited to join Trent onstage. He brought along a copy of the Book of Mormon. Reznor read a letter explaining why MM was forbidden to play, then offered his candid opinion of the letter and the situation in general. The Reverend made a few pointed comments about sin and the crowd's general beliefs, shredded the book (intoning the old daisy-petal chant "He loves me, He loves me not…" topped off with a bitter "--fuck Him!"), tossed it to the crowd and went off to help trash the dressing room. --When a Salt Lake City date was announced for the 1996-97 tour, no one was surprised to see that it was not at the Delta Center. (Or that it, too, was eventually postponed and relocated out of town.)

October, it should be noted here, had already included an event of personal importance, namely Mr. Manson's meeting with Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan. Long influenced by LaVey's writings and philosophy, Manson arranged the meeting while the band was in California, and the two had an apparently cordial conversation. "He shared with me a lot of very important things that I've taken into effect in my life," said Manson to Seconds magazine, "and he also expressed that he felt Marilyn Manson was one of the more Satanic bands to come around in our time…. I was very happy that he noticed me for what I was doing." As a "reward for my good work", Dr. LaVey named Manson a priest of the CoS, and he has accordingly taken to using the title "Reverend", particularly when signing his writings. (It also for some time was his favorite form of direct address.) --The California date nearest to LaVey's San Francisco residence was in Oakland on Oct. 14th, so Mr. Manson quite probably received his new title a mere few days before the Salt Lake City show.

The other incident which has become well-known is the elaborate hazing which NIN engineered and executed on the hapless Mansons on the last night of the tour, December 11th. Something was expected, Manson explains, since it's commonplace for the headliners to prank the opening act at tour's end. This one, however, began before MM's set with a fistfucking dare (Manson duly performed the deed - as fistfucker, it should be noted; not fistfuckee; the recipient has never been identified), followed by a dousing in salsa and baby powder; male strippers sent onstage during the set; a further dousing after the show (whipped cream this time), and the topper: handcuffing the Mansons, hauling them away in a pickup truck, and stranding them, soaking wet in 25-degree weather and with exactly $1.00 between them, in the very nasty downtown area of Philadelphia with a parting "Find your way home." By a nearly miraculous turn of luck, they were able to persuade some college students to drive them back to the venue. (Manson has commented that he was able to respect this, as it represented considerably more cruelty to a friend than he thought himself capable of, but what he thought at the time can only be imagined.)

After this, the Mansons may have counted themselves lucky to be back in Florida's relatively friendly surroundings, but by now they had seemingly become a trouble magnet. Hardly more than two weeks later, kicking off a set of four in-state dates at Jacksonville's Club 5, they discovered that their audience included a clutch of vice cops. Mr. Manson was arrested after the set, harassed, and spent sixteen hours in jail on a charge of "violation of the Adult Entertainment Code" - i.e., public nudity. Club management had been under pressure from the Christian Coalition to cancel the band's performance, and Manson has said he feels the club basically handed them over to the law. (--When MM played the same club about six months later on the Danzig tour, their set was cut short by a sudden loss of electricity. Curious…)

With the second single from POAAF, "Lunchbox", now in release - accompanied by a video shot in 48 hours snatched from the NIN tour back in September, under the direction of notorious underground filmmaker Richard Kern - the Mansons hit the road once again for two months in early 1995, this time headlining, with Monster Voodoo Machine as support. MVM, an energetic hard rock-metal outfit, proved a fairly comfortable fit, and the shows were impressive. However, the next key element in the MM pocket mythology - the chicken - was about to assume prominence, and MVM must be held somewhat responsible.

Once again, it was the last night, this time March 11th, at Alcatrazz in Columbia SC. Acting on the January 13th incident at Trees in Dallas TX -- in which MM knocked a caged chicken around the stage, then tossed it into the mosh pit, and were later widely reported to have killed/sacrificed the bird (though it in fact escaped without losing more than a few feathers) -- MVM blanketed the stage with chicken parts, forcing the Mansons to perform in a slippery minefield of raw meat. [To be fair, the Mansons, having apparently learned bad habits from NIN, had sent their road crew to assault MVM during their set and plaster them with eggs, tomatoes, flour and vinegar; "got the makings of a complete Greek salad up here," cracked MVM singer Adam at one point. However, the voodoo monsters' retaliation was particularly inspired.] The set was disastrous, exacerbated by an indifferent-to-hostile audience, but some of MM's improvisations - notably MWG's "Kill the chicken!" and of course "Next motherfucker's gonna get my chicken" - became staples of the following tour, along with a flock of similar references. (We can testify that during at least one 1995 Ohio soundcheck the band was heard to play a thunderous new song with a chorus that unmistakably howled "Kill the chicken, break its wings!" Pity it wasn't committed to tape.)

It should also be mentioned here that the previous night's show had featured another milestone, namely the last straw for drummer Sara Lee Lucas. Relations between Manson and Lucas had reportedly been tense for much of the tour (the Limelight show had featured a running barrage of water bottles and drumsticks between the two), and Manson had been repeatedly frustrated during the North and South Carolina gigs by local ordinances barring elements of their performance. Bad combination. Mistakenly believing this was the last night of the tour (he overlooked the Alcatrazz gig, which had been scheduled to make up for an earlier cancellation), he decided to go all-out with his beloved butane, torching not only his usual lunchbox but Sara's drum kit for a grand finale. Problem is, Sara was still behind it at the time, and found his exit route suddenly blocked by a bank of flame. The unnerved drummer lost some hair in his hasty escape, and by several reports, quit as soon as the tour was over. (Later remarks from Manson that Sara couldn't keep time may or may not be so, but almost certainly isn't the only reason for his departure.)

The hardworking Mansons, who had now been on the road virtually nonstop for seven months, took a bare two weeks off to catch their breath and run drum auditions. New drummer Ginger Fish, a likeable and accomplished studio tech, rose commendably to the considerable dual challenge of mastering their set in next to no time and making peace with the good-looking Lucas' disappointed fans.

Then they were off again. This time they centered the bill between KORN and black-metallers Danzig, from March 24th to May 19th, 1995. Anyone who speculated that there might be some interesting common ground between Glenn Danzig's oft-mentioned interest in diabolical lore and Mr. Manson's connections with the Church of Satan - misinformedly, of course, as the CoS doesn't believe in an actual Devil - was disappointed, as no such camaraderie materialized. Mr. Manson told a startled interviewer from South American MTV's Headbangers' Ball that "we've been naked with his (Danzig's) bus driver [the now-infamous Tony Wiggins], but that's as close as we came to sharing." (And said it with a straight face, too.) --Indeed, inter-band relationships reportedly grew a bit edgy as the tour progressed and the Mansons, tight, ferocious and honed to a killing edge, consistently blew the headliners' performance off the stage. If anyone thought being stripped of their usual props, limited to an abbreviated set, and (incidentally) plagued by equipment problems would show them up as a gimmicky concept band, s/he soon ate those words raw; Marilyn Manson won more fans every night with a series of blazing gigs that proved their stage sets and toys mere buttercream frosting.

--Not to suggest there was serious hostility between the bands, however. Mr. Manson soberly credits Glenn with saving his life at an East Coast venue, where "security" thugs took offense to being spat upon, and attacked Manson, Pogo, and road manager Frankie after the set. The assailants meant business, and this might be a shorter and sadder article had not the muscular and martial-arts-trained Danzig waded into the fight swinging a set of nunchuks.

With all this going on, it's understandable that the Mansons didn't go home for the 1995 Slammies. Nominated for Band of the Year, Best Vocalist, Best National Release for "Portrait of an American Family" and Best Single for "Lunchbox", they won the latter two. "The only band not on hand to accept their skulls was Marilyn Manson", noted the ceremony's press release in disappointment. "The band is filming a new video in New Orleans, where they plan to relocate." You can just hear the Floridian fans thinking: Saigon Kick all over again. --However, the band's New Orleans move was only temporary.

By now online fandom was buzzing about the next single, "Dope Hat", originally rumored to come out in late June/early July with another headining tour in support. But twas not to be. The Mansons wrapped up the Danzig tour and took a much-deserved but semi-working summer vacation, which included not only the shooting for the "Dope Hat" video but the studio sessions for what was rapidly spreading and crawling out of all semblance of a mere single. As summer became fall the "Dope Hat" single morphed into the EP Smells Like Children (the title's a quote from beloved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang villain The Child-Catcher), a 15-track mini-album including some of the band's most loved cover versions and illustrated with an inspired photo-portrait of Manson as a nightmarishly charming synthesis of Willy Wonka, the Child-Catcher, and the Cat in the Hat. It debuted on the Billboard charts at #53, while Portrait of an American Family finally achieved gold status in the fall of 1995. And speaking of Willy Wonka, the mind-boggling "Dope Hat" video, a hallucinatory, brightly colored and deeply disturbed riff on the boat ride sequence from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," was approved and rejected by MTV enough times to give it a complex (they did actually play it a handful of times, albeit nervously, in an edited version, and in the freak-basement hours of 2-5 AM).

By October 24th, when SLC was released, Marilyn Manson had become cool news. Mainstream rock magazines began elbowing the newspapers and local zines aside in their haste to describe, review and interview this latest voice of the extreme edge. RIP's cover story led the way for features in Live Wire, Metal Edge, and a big push from that voice of grassroots American fandom, Circus. Guitarist Daisy even got a solo interview in Guitar World. Formula/nothing's clever press release for SLC sounds downright prescient in retrospect: "See them now before they are in jail, dead, or the hottest rock band in America!" "Hottest in America" is stretching it a long way (remember, POAAF had only just gone gold) but they were definitely growing out of cult status.

And see them you could, because they were back on the road as headliners, with thud/thrashers Clutch and a scattering of others opening. (Dull as wet cement and Christian to boot, Clutch failed to endear themselves to Manson fans, and will not be mentioned again.) The "Smells Like Children" tour opened on Sept. 12, 1995, at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa OK, and ran almost nonstop until the first week of February 1996, when it wrapped up on the Mansons' Florida home turf. Those five months took the band and their fans through some of the most extreme and bone-chilling winter weather in U.S. history; when in January a tired-out and flu-suffering Daisy dubbed it the Snow Tour, no one disagreed. (Alternate sources for this term have since been suggested.) Manson, prone to respiratory ailments, was reportedly ill with varying degrees of colds, flu and bronchial pneumonia for much of this stretch. This played havoc with his throat and vocal capacity, and at several venues he resorted to hits from an oxygen tank to carry on. As the tour wore on, such measures were no longer enough, other vagaries arose, and a string of January shows was cancelled altogether.

The most famous incident of the Snow Tour, and one of the few MM stories that's purely comical, is the stranding of the band in Allentown, PA, after their Jan 6th show at Starz. The culprit was the titanic Northeast blizzard of that weekend, which dumped 2-3 feet of snow on the seaboard, completely closed the city of Philadelphia, and generally forced anyone anywhere in Pennsylvania to stay put for at least the following few days. (Except, of course, us. We had no idea what we were heading into, and headed home from Allentown the morning after the gig; the usually-casual 3-hour Philly-to-Washington-DC drive took us eight scary and grueling hours. --But I digress.) The Mansons' Allentown hotel was also temporary home to, as only a fate on drugs would have it, the touring company of "Sesame Street Live" and the Orlando Magic basketball team, home of seven-foot superstar Shaquille O'Neal. A memorable quote to the New York Times from Orlando backup center Jon Concak sums it up: "Remember the bar scene from Star Wars with all the animals [aliens]? That's what it looked like last night. It was the Twilight Zone, man. A bunch of basketball players, Sesame Street, and some guy with green hair dressed like the Grim Reaper, chain-smoking." --At last report, all parted on friendly terms, though there may not have been the 3 AM "C Is For Cookie" singalong we can all picture.

As the New Year 1996 got underway, news and rumors were already beginning to circulate about the band's forthcoming second LP, Antichrist Superstar. The interviews which describe the history and creation of this "soundtrack for the Apocalypse" are without a doubt the strangest given by Manson and Twiggy to date, and boosted the fear among online fans to a level of sustained dread which took months to subside. The album was already recorded, because it came from the future, they said; it meant the end of Marilyn Manson, the end of the world, the end of everything; it was being created in Trent's New Orleans studio, in an organized torture chamber of sleep deprivation, pain, Kabbalistic magick and heavy drugs that made it possible for them to exactly capture Manson's vivid dreams; and it would be their last recording. No one knew what to make of this, and literal-minded speculations of band separation and even mass suicide were pandemic.

Out of this period also came another wave of rumors, and these regrettably proved true: lead guitarist and MM co-founder Daisy Berkowitz was unhappy with the new music, on the outs with Manson, and planning to leave the band. After a flurry of announcements and denials, during which it was unclear if he was even present in the ACS recording sessions, his departure was made official in early April. Fan sorrow was keen, as the good-natured guitarist with the vivid blue-green hair and unique sonic style was a great favorite. Tension had obviously been developing throughout the Clutch tour --most blatantly displayed in the NYC New Year's Eve show, when Manson actually shoved Daisy off the edge of the stage at the end of the set-- but outsiders couldn't be aware things were this bad, and the shock expressed online was genuine.

Both Manson and Daisy have commented at length regarding Berkowitz' departure. It is beyond the scope or intent of this article to cover their arguments in any detail. Manson's general line is that Daisy was unwilling to completely commit to the band and its ideas, and considered Marilyn Manson basically a lucrative day job; Berkowitz, for his part, is considerably more acrimonious, and has filed a lawsuit against Manson for financial damages and breach of contract. See Kurt Reighley's 1998 biography of the band, titled simply Marilyn Manson, for details. The lawsuit is still pending as of mid-1998.-- Under the name Three Ton Gate, the Artist Formerly Known As Daisy (plus vocal support) issued a 1997 LP, "Vanishing Century", before joining perennial Florida shockdolls Jack Off Jill.

Back to 1996: Spring and plans therefore progressed, and the second single and video from Smells Like Children were released. This was the much-contested "Sweet Dreams," a darkened cover of the 1984 Eurythmics hit. Easily the most accessible and radio-friendly of the SLC tracks, it was the natural choice for a single - a deceptive bait for SLC's trap. With the help of a cryptic and visually striking but carefully inoffensive video, which (to some fans' horror) attained Buzz Clip status on MTV, SD looked likely to be Marilyn Manson's next breakthrough. But its very openness attracted a wide range of new listeners, from the newly devoted to the merely curious and the thoughtlessly trendy, and this influx of strangers into our little world polarized MM fandom like nothing before. The debate raged among online "Spooks" (the "Spooky Kids" moniker dropped by the band has been adopted by its followers) for months - some tearful and bewildered, some reasonable, many defensive and furious. Who were these know-nothing Manson newbies, the much-reviled "SweetDreamers"? Mindless consumers, sucklers at the MTV nipple; flighty fun-seekers who'd be gone tomorrow; cynical sensation junkies here to vampirize the energy; violent mosh addicts out for blood; or genuine could-be Family members who'd just arrived a little late?

--All of the above, of course, but that didn't keep many online fans from pulling up the drawbridge and taking to the barricades in a determined attempt to keep the newcomers out. To a degree this is understandable. The core of Marilyn Manson fandom is hurt and troubled kids to whom MM's music and ideas are intensely personal. Like NIN fandom when "Closer" became an unexpected hit and swamped them with hordes who only knew "that fuck-you-like-an-animal song," many Spooks thought of the SD'ers as outsiders who didn't and couldn't truly understand. Eventually it should dawn on everyone that we were all new here once, but SD long remained a bone of great contention, and for quite awhile any new arrival who wanted to be taken seriously took pains to state that s/he was not a SweetDreamer.

As the summer passed, rumored release dates for Antichrist Superstar came and went. June 6th (6/6/[9]6 - cute) was popularly batted about for awhile, but October eventually delivered both the true release date, 10/8/96, and the schedule for the band's next headlining outing. In America, some record stores opened at midnight to sell copies of ACS as soon as October 7th became October 8th -- an unusual tribute for a band of MM's stature, as special openings are usually reserved for hot commercial acts like Hootie or long-standing stars such as U2. Keen speculation and a few clandestinely-leaked advance tapes had helped push fan anticipation to a fever that undoubtedly boosted ACS to its surprising debut in Bilboard's #3 slot. Reviews were overall positive, generally agreeing that ACS was a serious, dark and intense work showing considerably more maturity and depth than POAAF. Fan feeling ranged from mesmerized awe to a rather poignant regret, as some mourned the stark darkness of tone and the loss of the old songs' creepy carnival humor. Others dove into analysis of the new work, recalling Manson's statements about the use of Kabbalah, numerology and other occult systems in its creation. The cryptic and complex packaging was scrutinized almost as closely as the songs, much time being devoted to figuring out the numerical codes and sigils tracing through it. Deserving of equal study is Dean Karr's evocative photography, including an amazing sequence which shows Manson's actual metamorphosis from a half-larval "wormboy" to a triumphal insect-winged angel-form.

The Kabbalah, an ancient system of Jewish mysticism, also served to provide the name for the newest Manson member, Zim Zum. After screening a reported 150 respondents to their Village Voice ad, Marilyn and Twiggy chose as their new guitarist this Gothic-looking Chicagoan, formerly (briefly) with Life Sex and Death. (He does not play on LSD's one CD, which had already been released when he did his two-week stint with them.) While the name Zim Zum has been defined to some of the press as the name of "an angel who did God's dirty work," it seems as likely to derive from the Kabbalistic term tzimtzum or tsimtsum, which refers to the empty space God made (i.e., withdrew his presence from) in the Universe, to make room for the Creation. Magickally-inclined fans can perhaps see the parallel here, in which band co-creator Daisy is withdrawn, leaving an empty space that must be filled with a new creation. (It should be noted that diligent Spooks did manage to turn up a serial killer and a fashion model who could fit the name "Zim Zum" into the per-existing nomenclature mold. Zim himself admitted he was impressed by their ingenuity, but the name isn't intended to match that pattern.) --Zim was introduced to fans in the video for ACS' first single, "The Beautiful People" - where some baffled fans mistook him for Trent Reznor - and was featured in the flood of publicity that accompanied ACS' release.

This barrage of coverage was the most impressive - and somewhat unsettling- that Marilyn Manson has received. At one point in late 1996 it was possible to walk into your local magazine dealership and see the band's name or Mr. Manson's face on the covers of no fewer than ten periodicals at once, from the cheesy pulps - Hit Parader, Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs - to high-end glossies like Details and Rolling Stone. HuH Magazine did an insightful feature with moody sepia-tone portraits of Rev. Manson by James&Matthew; went for a full-splash fashion spread delectably photographed by Bettina Rheims, putting the Rev. in velvet tuxedos and riding jackets by Gucci and Jean-Paul Gaultier, or sheer rayon mini-dresses and dripping stigmata, sprawled and bloody Zim and clutching Twiggy at his feet; veteran UK metal mag Kerrang! announced its sponsorship of the band's forthcoming British dates; a full-color, inch-square, 1992 photo of the Spooky Kids --yes, the Spooky Kids, with Gidget and Sara Lee! -- even appeared in, of all places, Seventeen magazine. (November 1996 issue, page 108. Check Marilyn's red vinyl jacket and Sara's leopard spots!) Fans who had been distressed when SD became an MTV Buzz Clip must have found this flash of high visibility downright nightmarish; even for those of us who didn't really mind, it was acutely surreal. The band that we were convinced was just too weird and subversive to ever appeal to any but a cult following, was suddenly this month's mass-market slice of freak chic.

Zim Zum's first live show with MM was at this year's "Nothing Night" showcase on September 5th in New York City. According to all reports, it was a rocky debut, ending in havoc, thrown guitars and overnight hospitalization for drummer Ginger. Trent Reznor, thanking the attending bands at the close of the show, pointedly did not mention Marilyn Manson.

This can't have reassured the new kid, who, like Ginger before him, now faced the prospect of setting out on tour within a mere few weeks of accepting his Manson role. The stats in themselves were daunting. The "Dead To The World" Tour was to be the band's most extensive yet: 18 months, including MM's first ever shows in South America, Europe and the UK, plus showcasing an elaborate stage design unlike anything MM have used before. About the only mercy the fledgling guitarist could count on was that he didn't have to learn much of the band's older repertoire along with the new material, as the set for this tour was predominantly songs from ACS.

The stage production was truly impressive, including a full backdrop suggesting a ruined church complete with stained-glass window (depicting a female angel in combat with Satan), framed by impaled angels; a pipe organ for Gacy; a towering podium for Manson; costume changes and even snow machines.

Tied tightly to a precisely-timed succession of per-recorded material and audiovisual/lighting cues, the tour's stage presentation was early on plagued by technical glitches and the resultant frayed nerves, causing a string of Eastern shows to conclude unfinished. These were (thankfully) ironed out in the second half of the tour, of which only a few gigs failed. The nervous tension was doubtless worsened by a series of macabre rumors that raced with viral speed through the Internet during September and October 1996, predicting Manson's onstage suicide at the band's Halloween concert. It was shocking to see how many audience members (we will not call them "fans") at the Oct 30th and 31st shows clearly believed their ticket price included a good look at the public death of at least Mr. Manson and possibly the whole band. (The Reverend is reported to have stated decisively that he wouldn't be that easy to get rid of.)

In December, while Manson was dealing with media hysteria and shows in Great Britain hastily relocated under pressure of moral outrage, an old enemy resurfaced at home. In mid-December, former "drug czar" turned self-styled "culture warrior" William Bennett held a press conference to chide MCA Music for releasing several objectionable CD's - one of which was Antichrist Superstar. (We and our "NINnie" cousins well remember Bennett as then-Senator Dole's ally in the 1995 attack on Time-Warner, which prominently targeted Nine Inch Nails.) Bennett alleged that MCA head Edgar Bronfman, who as CEO of Seagrams (the well-known whiskey distillery) purchased the 50% of Interscope which Time-Warner was harried into selling, had promised Bennett he would not profit from the sale of any "violent or profane" material. --Alas for Bill, with sales of 600K units ACS may well be considered profitable. Bennett, flanked by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn) and long-time pro-censor/anti-rock & rap crusader C. DeLores Tucker, made a memorable presentation backed by an enlargement of the ACS back cover art. Indicating the image, which shows Madonna and Twiggy inhaling from face-mask hoses attached to Manson's prosthetic dildo, Bennett charged that if Bronfman "can't tell this is filth and crap" he shouldn't even be in the business. Bronfman's response is not recorded. --The news conference was actually reported on CNN, probably the widest single exposure of Marilyn Manson's name and image up to that point.

Reported in the band's future at the end of 1997 were: the tour's return to America; cover features in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines (yes, like his beloved Dr. Hook, Manson finally makes the "cover of the Rolling Stone" --and within days of his birthday too); the already-legendary February 14th 1997 show; the "Tourniquet" single and video; and breast implants for Marilyn and Twiggy. Or so they say. =)

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