#like if you thought the outro to this year (volume 1) had a lot of no children.... prepare for volume 4

[vyvesvi]

updated top albums list + recommended tracks from each bc im bored lol

*tentatively* in order

unnatural - wjsn | recommended songs: all of them (especially unnatural, supermoon, and yalla) except for rewind | skips: just rewind bc ballad /// im not sure what style to call this album but they really made such a smash, its crazy that it came out so early in the year and no gg is touching it (album wise). literally the only complaints i have are the obligatory ballad (that they always do bc they can all sing lmfao), the album cover/title (dont love the cover design and i dont love when the album name is the tt name, except in certain circumstances (a full album (especially where the title isnt necessarily from the title track) like montero) or when it's a single album (the inverse of this being rsq's prequel which couldve just been called colorfull since that was the only damn song 😐)). i also was disappointed with the outfits for last dance but that's peripheral.

timeabout, - yukika | recommended songs: insomnia & secret | skips: none /// okay to keep it very real im genuinely scared that she'll never surpass soul lady. i love, and i mean LOVE timeabout, but soul lady was on another plane of existence. like she could've held that album a little bit

the other side of the moon - gwsn | recommended songs: like it hot, starry night, i cant breathe | skips: i sing, depending on my mood /// i dont have much commentary tbh,this is just a very solid mini idk. id like to see a fusion of i cant breathe/tweaks/after the bloom/burn, maybe on their next mini. i love their brighter stuff but maybe a darker concept next (halloween cb pls pls pls)

montero - lil nas x | lowkey too soon for me to pick recommended songs but i'll say montero, scoop, lost in the citadel, sun goes down, and am i dreaming for now. will update! | skips: none /// i cant say that this is this year's sawayama bc sawayama was kinda more like a collection of really strong singles? whereas i feel like these songs shine as an album. i dont even know what to say except that im soooo surprised and impressed because i didnt know that this is the type of music he made???? like he raps but theres a lot of singing? not like belting but definitely not rapping. its kinda...alt ish? in some places? if i had to use ine genre to describe the whole album id probably say alt pop? idk but whatever it is it's definitely working

hide & seek - purple kiss | recommended songs: zombie & so why (tbh all of them) | 2am and zzzz depend on my mood but theyre def not full skips /// no bad song on the album this is crazy....i might rerank since i just listened to it for the first time but as of now idk, its good im just super impressed. ponzona wasnt for me but this cb theyre really doing all the things, lovr tht for them

produced by: [myself] - onlyoneof | recommended songs: coy & night flight | question mark depends on my mood /// im still mad at them (read: 8d) sooooo...idk. i can’t really listen to their music rn. but this mini is still good

play game: holiday - weeekly | recommended songs: check it out, weekend, holiday party | i like memories of summer rain and la luna but it depends on my mood /// very cohesive mini, def their best overall imo! not much to say, but i hope jiyoon gets well soon TTTT

enchant - orbit | recommended songs: gokurakuchouka & never gonna get away but also all of them except flor lunar | skips: flor lunar is nice but boring /// i need kpoppies to get into it im tired of being here alone cmon y’all

set - woodz | recommended songs: feel like | skips: none /// i prefer his bright tracks but this mini was solid as usual. where is the full album tho seungyoun hmmm????

guess who - itzy | recommended songs: sorry not sorry, tennis (0:0), kidding me | skips: in the morning, occasionally wild wild west /// i remember being very surprised that i liked this album, especially given that i dont like mitm. not anything groundbreaking but still solid. i think the naming of tennis (0:0) was really clever

intersection: trace - bae173 | recommended songs: green light, loved you | skips: none (sometimes the intro tho) /// honestly their music is really good??? mbk just hasn’t promoted them well, i feel like they make it a little hard to stan...i really appreciate that they’re not doing the stereotypical hard bg concept thing

lilac - iu | recommended songs: coin, flu, ah puh, troll | skips: honestly id have to relisten, some of the songs a lil boring but idr them at the moment

hello future - nct dream | recommended songs: hello future, life is still going on | skips: idr tbh, probably hot sauce though //// was very surprised that i liked this album, but the outro of hello future really got me after a few listens so i had to check it out. very decent!

killa - mirae | recommended songs: killa, sweet dreams, 1 thing | skips: none really but all of the bsides are a little mid tbh /// i will be 1000% honest in saying that the three reasons this allbum made this list are 1.) killa (the tt), 2.) none of the songs are bad, 3.) lien’s vocals. something about lien....he really just sells whatever song he’s on. his belting >>>>>>>>>>>. he makes their music very enjoyable to listen to, next in that department would be junhyuk. based on their most recent cb, siyoung and khael also contribute a lot as well. shame that the rest of the cb album kinda does nothing for me idk. random but i would really like a gg to cover higher and/or killa

& - loona | recommended songs: ur, ptt | skips: a different night, dance on my own /// these r my girls but this is not their best. ur is wonderful though, and ptt is addicting somehow. wow and be honest are fine but really not their best. i like wow’s choreo tho! 

albums im excited to listen to (no particular order):

last year was weird volume 3, tkay maidza (i’ve already listened to a bunch of it but i need to sit and just listen to the whole thing)

troubled paradise, slayyter (same as above, but i didn’t even realize it came out this year, i thought it was old for some reason lol)

jo1, challenger (every song of theirs i hear i like pretty much so i need to take an organized look at them lmfao)

jo1, stranger (same as above)

only lovers left, woodz (duhhh its woodz. not out yet but im excited! i do prefer his brighter concepts and this def isn’t that. he says its not gonna be like what he’s done before but the title and concept photo that’s out rn is giving lift up)

the book of us: negentropy - chaos swallowed up in love, day6 (the title kinda bored me but we’ll see. also sungjin’s gone so.....................we’ll see.)

ancient dreams in a modern land, marina (i barely got past venus fly trap because its soooooo good. i’ve listened to a little after that but the songs i heard didn’t really compare. i have to give it a shot tho)

the chaos chapter: fight or escape, txt (i liked the blue hour mini so i need to give them a chance i suppose)

333, tinashe (i just feel like i should idk)

honorable mentions (no particular order):

blue hour, txt - discovered this year, came out last year. retroactively makes the 2020 albums list bc whew the market research that went into that thing paid off

hula hoop/ starseed ~kakusei~, loona (why tf does the album not have a name) - duhhh loona + synths = a smash. in fact like i said when it dropped i dont even wanna call them loona anymore. this is kongetsu no shoujo!!! this isn’t on my top albums list because im counting as two songs and my limit is 3. i might add it anyways lmfao. we’ll see

ugly beauty, jolin tsai - discovered this year, came out in 2018. i just really like jolin tsai idk. i had only heard that album w play and i’m not yours, both are iconic but the production quality sounds...low? like its older but ik they’re not *that* old. either way, ugly beauty does everything i wanted it to - dramatic, vocals, rapping, boa vibes...jolin tsai is a queen what can i say

also, there are of course a ton of singles that i love as well, this is albums only though lmfao. i have no idea if i could even attempt to organize the singles lol

#vyvesvi's year #song rec

[stuffromymind]

An Orphan Song That Had A Truncated Upbringing 

I was visiting a fresh young band who was jamming in their garage on a hot Sunday aft, aboot 8 doors down from the $ Pit. They’d just been paid a visit by a Redneck cop, surname Lee - who thought himself our own General Lee- who’d told them they had to play with the door closed or be fined as it was ‘The Lord’s Day’.

This despite the fact that this fecking BUBBA was one of a number of mouth breathers who, not 15 hours earlier, WELL after the municipality mandated 10 pm curfew, were racing stock cars around an 1/8th mile dirt track a block away spewing not only MUCH more noise but clouds of dust. As they did EVERY Saturday night.. This upstanding ‘law enforcement officer’ and his perpetually-left-turning pals were doing so in contravention of that edict from the town that stated every minute past 10 pm was a $100 fine.

Which they never, ever, paid as they’s got good ol’ boys on town council, Fukkerz.

So hearing about Bubba being a Pig, instead of a Cop, pissed me off. I walked out onto the sidewalk just hoping he’d drive by whilst I was strumming my guitar, (plugged into a half stack), and pontificating, stream of consciousness, aboot how fukt up his hypocrisy was, how religion is more problems than it is worth, (this yahoo was a devout Christian - his Sasquatch spouse bellowed in the church choir, no less), and how much better the world would have been if God hadn’t sluffed it on Day 7 and had just worked out all the bugs, literally and figuratively.

Then I started singing aboot it. The other 3 loved it and didn’t believe I’d made it up as I went along. So I made up a few key drum parts for the 15 year old, 10 months on kit, drummer to play and made up the bass parts and taught them as well to the bassist. I let the guitar guy, older brother of the drummer, do his thing cuz he can lead my ass off. Then we recorded it in 1 take onto a cassette.

6 weeks pass.

Phone rings.

They’re playing their first ever gig at a talent nite at the local pub, can I come on and do this ditty I whipped up, “God, You Lazy Bastard”?

Surely.

I drive to their other rehearsal spot, 8 miles away, in the woods and safe from Redneck holy rollers. We run through the song for an hour, I add the preacher middle bit with the volume swells/”church organ” on guitar and added the rocked up outro. We do that 2 times. The young lad on drums had a tendency to speed up so I’d worked out a sideways bobbing head signal from me to let him know when to hit the brakes. So you can envision me doing exactly that during the outro. Lol-o-rama!

I leave.

The bar manager asked me to change the word “God” to something else as his very devout mom was going to be in attendance. (Seriously: 6 1/2 churches for 800 people - It was, ironically and as one might expect, HELL living there). So I changed it to “Bob” before going on stage. (If you listen closely, at one point I sing “Goh--B, you lazy bastard”. Oops).

I added the countrified twang to my delivery because there were some particularly odious rednecks there, Pete & Marlene McQuacker in particular, who I sneered at while singing in their, much loved, ‘country boy’ style.

We get on stage.

You hear it here.

That’s a lot of story for a little song. But I like it.

The story and the song…..

So if you think it sucks, it didn’t get a whole lotta loving growing up.

#Jehova #God You Lazy Bastard #Original Music #1 Take Wonder #Rednecks #Holy Rollers #Jehova Kicked My Nuts

[secretradiobrooklyn]

New York State Tax Edition | 3.20 & 3.27.21

Secret Radio | 3.20 & 3.27.21 | Hear it here.

Liner notes by Evan (except * for Paige), Art by Paige

1. Antoine Dougbé - “Towe Nin” 

There was a while during which I tried to listen to every single T.P. Orchestre song that could be heard via discogs.com. They’ve released dozens of albums, probably close to a hundred if you count all of the albums attributed to various members, so that was a very daunting task… though really what it highlighted was the sheer volume of songs that just are not available to be heard in digital form. Those songs take on a sort of mythic quality as we listen to the huge variety of styles and periods that this band passed through in their prolific and very obscure career. But the ones that loom in the imagination the largest, for Paige and me, are the songs attributed to Antoine Dougbé. He writes for the band but doesn’t record with them, and in most cases Melomé Clement arranges the songs — and these are some of Melomé’s finest arrangements, in my opinion. “Towe Nin” isn’t a propulsive powerhouse like the Dougbé tracks on “Legends of Benin,” but it does have tons of style, and the band sounds extremely confident. My favorite detail of many — like, listen to the shaker solo in the middle! — on this track is the final passage, where three voices suddenly meld into an extremely Western, Beatle-y harmonic finale (with an unresolved final chord). Where did that come from?! It blows my mind to think about how these guys were hearing music and writing music in Benin in the ’70s…

2. Hürel - “Ve Ölüm” - “Tip Top” soundtrack

The other night we watched a DVD that was part of our Non-Classic French Cinema Program that Paige has been drafting for us, featuring movies she figures French people would know but that didn’t get exposed to American audiences. This one was… baffling — the problems were French cultural ones that we really didn’t grok at all. Which was kind of cool. An odd detail was that this song featured prominently throughout the trailer and the film, though we couldn’t figure out, like, why. But we knew immediately that it was awesome.

And… this track sent us down the rabbit hole of Anatolian rock, which turns out to be Turkish psych music from the ’60s & ’70s. We’ve played Erkin Koray’s “Cemalim” and thought that was cool, but had no idea it was a burgeoning scene with tons of creative writers and amazing songs. We’ve spent a lot of time checking out Anatolian music since, and I can tell we’re just getting started. So: thank you to a giant French crowdpleaser movie for the Anatolian clue-in!

3. They Might Be Giants - “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes” 

I was not expecting to experience a They Might Be Giants renaissance at this point in my life, but this is just further proof that time has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. This song tells me a lot about what I like now by re-presenting what I liked then, showing off completely new facets I hadn’t yet appreciated. This song is lousy with insights… including that super Slanted Malkmus-y scream at the very end!)

4. Jacqueline Taïeb - “La fac de lettres”

Jacqueline Taïeb is probably my single favorite French pop artist, even though her body of work is way smaller than most of the runners-up. (I would say the closest contender is Jacque Dutronc.) She’s so full of irrepressible character, it just bubbles up out of the vocal performances. Her biggest hit was “7 heures du matin,” in the character of a bored, rock-obsessed teenager trying to figure out what to wear to school that morning, and “La fac du lettres” kind of picks up the thread: now she’s in the auditorium at school, learning about British history — the invasion of Normandy, the Hundred Years’ War — and pining to get back to the recording studio. 

5. La Card - “Jedno zbogom za tebe”

I didn’t know what circumstance would call for Yugoslavian synth pop warped by endless cassette plays, but it turns out that driving a thousand miles west in one fell swoop requires a certain amount of ’80s vibes. Turns out Yugoslavia had a pretty rich punk/new wave scene in the ’80s, and even though the songs were often critical of the Communist government, they were not only allowed to be played but, to a certain extent, supported by the government, and there were also several magazines covering punk, new wave, ska (!), and rock music in Yugoslavia.

6. Suicide - “Shadazz” 

Maybe it’s the band name, but I was never able to find a place for myself in the music of Suicide, despite how many bands I dig who cite them. But Paige pulled this track, and now I’m starting to get it. I also really like how the kick drum fits against the cymbal-ish sound loop that leads the percussion. 

7. Girma Beyene - “Ene Negn Bay Manesh”

Man, Ethiopia was swingin so hard in the ’60s and ’70s! This track combines the organ-driven band dynamic with a smooth Western vocal croon that I’ve never quite heard before. 

8. Os Mutantes - “Trem Fantasma” 

I still can’t believe that I haven’t been listening to this album my whole life — it’s so freaking amazing from beginning to end. Every song feels like its own complete cinematic experience, with narrative twists and turns, a high-drama dynamic, and each voice taking on a host of characters, independently and together. “Trem Fantasma” is an entire album contained in a single song — and that’s what it’s like with every song on their debut album. PLUS it’s got the coolest possible cover. Truly, I’m still in awe at this album. It makes me wonder: what did the Beatles think of this record?! 

9. The Beatles - “Think for Yourself” 

This is one of those songs that I feel like established whole new harmony relationships in Western pop… and this likely isn’t even one of their top 50 songs for most Beatles fans. Apparently, they had the main tracks recorded already — this is one of George’s first songs, it’s just 1965 — and they threw the harmonies on in “a light-hearted session” between two other things they were in the middle of, because they were under pressure to get this album finished. That’s amazing! Also, this song is the first one to use a fuzzbox on a bass: Paul played one (excellent) part on clean bass, and another one one all fuzzed out, which became the lead guitar — in fact, John had a guitar part but scrapped it to play an organ instead. What a righteous song to kick off the concept of lead bass guitar! That was Harvey Danger’s big compositional secret: Aaron wrote and played most of the lead guitar parts on bass, and had a fantastic sense of what he could do with the tone of his instrument. 

10. Erkin Koray - “Öksürük” 

Anatolian rock! It has its own note scale, that gives it this Eastern tonality while working in Western rock shapes and with what feels like a very relatably wry sense of humor. Erkin Koray is right up there in the firmament for us — the whole genre is full of welcome discoveries, but Koray is a really unique guitarist and composer beyond any particular genre. This track plays up his lead guitar passages while maintaining a pretty undeniable disco downbeat, and his vocal delivery strikes me as more French than anything. And yet the whole thing is so deeply and fully Turkish.

11. Vaudou Game - “Pas Contente”

We’ve been so head-over-heels for Beninese funk and rock from the ’60s and ’70s that our fantasies about that music are completely separated from any music happening today. But Vaudou Game is led by Peter Solo, a Togolese musician who grew up on the sound of T.P. Orchestre and decided to work with it himself. His band is handpicked and mostly I think French — the sound is I think a really impressive take on classic Beninese style but with very modern feel. This track is from 2014. I’m looking forward to digging in some more, because it’s a thrill to find a live wire in this music style. 

12. Cut Off Your Hands - “Higher Lows and Lower Highs”

This is one of my favorite tracks from the last 5 years. I get so absorbed in the way the bass part relates to all of the other pieces. The bass is absolutely the reason this song works — just tune into it and check out how the whole world of the song bends to accommodate it.

The Gang of Roesli - “Don’t Talk about Freedom”

Years ago, when I took over Eleven magazine, there was a giant stack of mailed-in CDs in the editor’s office. I didn’t hang onto many of them, but there was a set from Now-Again Records that just looked like something we should spend more time with. Turns out that one of them was “Those Shocking Shaking Days,” a collection of trippy, heavy Indonesian rock. I didn’t get it at the time, but lately I’ve certainly been picking up what they were laying down. The baroque keys, the vocal la’s, the hitched-up bass and guitar, that little bass lick, the harmonica… I would love to have been around for the session this came from. 

13. Warm Gun - “Broken Windows” - “PAINK”

More paink from France, in the mode of Richard Hell, short sweet and rowdy.

14. Duo Kribo - “Uang” - “Those Shocking Shaking Days”

This is another amazing Indonesian track — amazing for a completely different reason than The Gang of Roesli. Such a note-perfect rendition of chart-topping American (and German — what’s up, Scorps?) rock, but their own song nonetheless! This song attracts me, repels me, attracts me, repels me, on and on in equal measure. To me the kicker is the outro section, which sounds like something Eko Roosevelt came up with… thousands of miles and many genres away from Duo Kribo.

15. The Real Kids - “All Kindsa Girls”

Even as the theoretical pleasures of Facebook overall continue to recede, I find myself glad of a FB group somebody let me in on: Now Playing. The only stipulation about posts is that you have to include a photo of the actual record that you are actually playing — beyond that, it could be any genre, any period, whatever. People post interesting albums all the time, and will often write up their thoughts or memories about the band when they do. Boston’s The Real Kids just sounded like something I should know about, so I hunted it down and man, they were not wrong. Not everything on the album was for us, but right from the African-sounding guitar intro, “All Kindsa Girls” certainly was. Lead guitar/vocal guy John Felice was an early member of the Modern Lovers and a fellow VU devotee with his neighbor Jonathan Richman — he also spent time as a Ramones roadie. I’m tickled by how much the penultimate guitar riff sounds like something off the first Vampire Weekend album, and the final riff was destined to become a punk classic.

16. De Frank Professionals - “Afe Ato Yen Bio” 

We broadcast the first part of this episode from the cockpit of the van rocketing between New York and Illinois. Not long after we got here to the woods, a package showed up from Analog Africa with our new “Afro-Beat Airways” reissue, as well as their first indispensable T.P. Orchestre collection, “The Skeletal Essences of Afro-Funk 1969-1980.” We’re celebrating that record with this absolutely killer song by De Frank Professionals, a band about whom very little is known. I am in love with every part of this song, from the sixth-beat hi-hat accent to those tandem vocal parts and that beautiful guitar tone. This track has quickly risen to being one of our all-time faves. Bless Samy Ben Redjeb and everyone at AA for doing the work to find these amazing recordings, track down the musicians, pay them for rights to release, and making these miraculous finds available!

17. Ros Serey Sothea - “Shave Your Beard” 

Concurrent to our African fascination has been the gorgeous and thoroughly tragic revelation of Cambodia’s richly talented and expressive rock scene that was utterly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. There were so many amazing musicians in the scene, but certainly the most flat-out amazing voice was Ros Serey Sothea’s, as this track makes clear. I also love just how sophsticated and innovative these Cambodian song arrangements are — they really take Western ’60s pop into a new world, with intricate guitar parts and really solidly satisfying instrumental structures.

18. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - “O.N.E.”

This is a hard band to keep up with, for a variety of reasons — they can be so intense, and their guitar-rock prog virtuosity can get a bit off-putting if you’re not ready for it. This track, though, reminds me of a host of favorite reference points from the last twenty years of rock. This recording makes me wish that they could have played with Bailiff in Chicago in 2012 — I think everyone would have gained a lot from that connection.

Also, the video is so beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkZd2lBQb2c

19. Ettika - “Ettika” - “Chebran: French Boogie Vol. 2”

French culture is shot through with African references. Ettika was an early ’80s hit with musicians besotted by synths and American rap styles. This band was produced by a noted French composer who was married to a Cameroonian and very much into African groove. This “French Boogie” collection is full of African-style gems heavily refracted through the decade’s new technology.

20. Spice Girls - “Wannabe”

I yield the floor.

*As I mention in the “broadcast” it just felt right. That confident opening line. What are guilty pleasures? How do you feel listening to this song? And y’all already have our phone numbers, so that’s no surprise!

- The Gang of Roesli - “Don’t Talk about Freedom”

21. Steely Dan - “Reelin’ in the Years”

Gut reaction: do you actually love this song? Do you actually hate this song? Do you find that your reaction changes moment by moment within the experience of listening to the song, where your personal experience clashes with your cultural memory associations? Me too.

22. Zia - “Kofriom” - “Helel Yos”

I don’t remember how I got to this track, but holy smokes am I glad we did! It’s pretty freakin hard to find out anything about Zia. The cover of this album portrays an older man with dyed hair and a white blazer over a black collar… but I did actually find a video of Zia performing this song on Iranian public television, and he looks considerably younger and less flash than that. In fact, he’s sporting a tan three-piece suit with a wide tie, all alone on a heavily mirrored stage, and he kind of looks like he might be running for a senate seat in his spare time. It’s a very weird effect. But meanwhile: this whole album is super cool, very expressive of an emotional state I definitely don’t understand. The handclaps are absolutely top notch in the rhythm — they remind me of Ayalew Mesfin’s awesome “Gedawo.”

23. Jo LeMaire & Flouze - “Je Suis Venue te Dire Que je M’en Vais”

Doesn’t this sound like something you could have had intense adolescent feelings to? 

*I first heard this song in the trailer for Boy Meets Girl  and then later in the film. (Not my personal favorite Carax but definitely great, and the music and sound design is top notch.) Then my French teacher suggested I check out a song, and it was this song. So that’s neat!

24. Rung Petchburi - “Pai Joi” - “Thai? Dai!: The Heavier Side of the Lukthung Underground”

We’re still just getting to know Lukthung music, but for the last couple weeks we’ve been getting deeper and deeper into Thai rock, psych, surf and funk. It’s a rich vein, and it shares some really interesting characteristics with seemingly unrelated regions, like Turkey and Ethiopia.

Black Brothers - “Saman Doye”

I’m telling you, “Those Shocking Shaking Days” will improve your life immediately.

25. Nahid Akhtar - “Dil de Guitar” - from “Good Listener Vol 1,” 

This collection just came out this month, which was a surprise because we just stumbled across this track by reading about Nahid Akhtar elsewhere. What an AMAZING track! This was recorded and released in Pakistan in 1977, and I can’t even imagine how they wrote it, much less recorded it. The drum loops seem like they hadn’t been invented yet… but there they are, cranked up to their highest speed. It’s a collage of ideas and hooks, all just crammed together into a single song. the main hook reminds me a bit of “Jogi Jogi,” our favorite Pakistani song on WBFF thus far. I feel like I could listen to this song a hundred times and hear something new each time. Akhtar’s voice is so expressive and confident in those long held notes — and who is that ogre doing call and response with her? So weird. So cool.

[rachelratesmusic]

folklore

folklore: Taylor Swift’s first album to be labelled Alternative, her second genre change since country to pop, this time from pop to alternative, or folk, but we definitely still have that country story-telling flare that Taylor has always capitalised from over her approximately 14 year career.

And her second album to not be capitalised, after reputation. 

Track 1: the 1

First line of the album? “I’m doing good, I'm on some new shit.” Couldn’t think of a better lyric to start. New genre. New producer (Aaron Dessner of The National). New album. New Taylor. She’s doing good! Let’s go! 

Track 2: cardigan

The ~delicate~ piano and Dessner production continues from track 1 to track 2, but this time, sonically, there’s an eerie-ness that emphasizes this sadness in the song, which is set from the perspective of someone who has been heartbroken, which Taylor herself has described a teenage love triangle, who’s story is told this track, track 8 august, and track 14 betty. The metaphors in the lyrics tell the story so maturely and beautifully, kind of like this teenage girl is far beyond her years... Maybe someone fairly recently turned 30 and had a lot of life experience…? Maybe Taylor’s most beautifully written lead single ever… Actually not maybe - definitely.

Track 3: the last great american dynasty

Another piano intro… ok… this is definitely sonically cohesive so far.

Oh! An 808 beat now. I’m head nodding! Oh… and she’s still storytelling… nice, that’s why it is called folklore. We take a slight turn here in terms of the mood instrumentally, but not really in terms of the lyrics, or this album's case, the stories being told. The mostly staccato piano chords contrasting the legato guitar slide fills along with the 808 electronic drum beat create a sort of light, bouncy, exhilaration, but what cleverly stops this exhilaration is the word painting where a minor chord is used on top of the second last word of the chorus, which is the word “ruining”, as well as a string section rising in volume to introduce us to the bridge, which is the climax of the story and the highlight of the song. Because in the bridge Taylor does what Taylor does best, which is the contribution of her own story through the lyrics, and that’s a part of the reason why we’re all devoted listeners.

Track 4: exile (featuring Bon Iver)

tbh... I’d never heard any Bon Iver music before this... I know, I know, I’m sorry. So on first listen I was ~low key~ startled at his hella low voice. But this song has grown on me. It can easily be compared to The Last Time on Taylor’s Red from 2012 where she duets with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol but I prefer exile. What makes this song imo is when Bon Iver sings the word “CRyin’” around the 2 minute and 20 second mark, which again like the last track, the bridge of this song is what you’re waiting for as a listener to take you to new heights, where both vocalists deliver here, with Bon Iver ~nearly~ belting and Taylor being the opposite responder at more of a soft, tender volume, they both deliver the two different sides of the story in two different captivating ways.

Track 5: my tears ricochet

Look… I’ll be honest again… This is... MY FAVOURITE TRACK.

The standout part of this song is it’s whole buildup and the lyrics. ---(come on, we’re talking about a Taylor Swift track 5 here, historically we know it’s going to be a standout in the lyric department and Taylor herself has described every track 5 of each of her albums to be her saddest songs) Also historically, Taylor fans know that this section of her albums are where the best lyrics are kept. 

First track on this album to be produced by long time collaborator of Swift, Jack Antonoff, the track begins with vocal ‘ohs’ reminiscent for me, of Imogen Heap, where now I feel I have to mention when Taylor collaborated with her on Taylor’s standout track “Clean” on 1989 from 2014. While Heap’s work may be littered with vocoders and electronics, my tears ricochet is natural, and surrounds the listeners ears with panning and reverb like they’re in a room surrounded by echoing Taylors. Then she makes you feel like you have betrayed her with how far she lets in, both with her detailed lyrics and how she is singing with the pacing of the melody, stopping and starting.

The build up is really noticeable as the bridge starts and the thundering drums hammer home the idea that Taylor can’t go home and after all this building, she lets go on the words “stolen lullabies”, where you feel this sense of freedom when the backing vocals of the intro return before the last chorus and again, the outro of those surrounding vocals we know so well.

With lyrics like “and if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?” and “you wear the same jewels that I gave you, as you bury me.” my tears ricochet easily triggers chills. (literal chills)

Track 6: mirrorball

And now… we have stepped into the past. The tone and picking of the electric guitar in the intro and first verse take me right back to the 70s… when I wasn’t alive…

Anyway, it’s another song about her personal struggles around fame and trying to “fit in” and stand out, which she encompasses so elegantly in the metaphor of being a shiny, shimmery disco mirrorball. 

And sorry, as much as I do love it… it is the one song I would skip if I had to… and sometimes it’s skipped by choice, which tells you it’s the weakest track on the album in my opinion, but not easy to live up to the previous track that is so intense, so it is nice to have a more chill take in music and lyrics, although the lyrics can be really thought provoking if you want them to be.

Side note: where are the drums in this song? To hear the kick drum I have to focus really hard, which can be a good thing if you’re looking for a chill song, like I said I was after my tears ricochet, but it’s not a good thing either...

Track 7: seven

Every single little detail of this song is so elegant. Aaron Dessner’s light touches on the piano and guitar as well as the accompanying string section are just guides for the vocals telling the story of the love shared between friends throughout childhood and how that love lasts, so long which Taylor describes so eloquently in my favourite lyric of the entire album, “passed down like folk songs, our love lasts so long.”

The slightly higher pitch and slightly hushed tone Taylor sings in as the song begins, is unlike anything she has sung before. It reminds me of her previous tracks “Sad Beautiful Tragic” from her fourth album Red from 2012 or “Safe and Sound'' from the The Hunger Games soundtrack, but those songs were hushed and low pitched. 

Where she sings like this is labelled as the first verse by Genius, where everyone gets the lyrics to songs nowadays, but how the two contrasting melodies are sung, to me the first section or melody seemed like the chorus the first few times I listened, but the second section or melody is also the closing melody and it would make the most sense the end on a chorus. While this may be confusing, at least it is a bit to me, I’m glad that Taylor has strayed away from the traditional pop structure in this track which is another reason why seven really stands out to me. 

Track 8: august

The third song to be produced by Antonoff, August is what I’m going to describe as a getaway song - and by that I mean there’s a certain urgency to the pacing because something wild is happening! Whether it’s robbing someone or something in “Getaway Car” from reputation (2017) or crying in the back of the car in Lover’s “Cruel Summer”, also both co-written and produced by Antonoff, August joins this exclusive club.

The chorus melody is pretty and bright - while it feels mature, at the same time it feels like I am hearing this story from a love struck teenager, which you’re supposed to as it’s a part of the teenager love triangle story Taylor has going through the album, with this being the point of view of the third person in the relationship.

August’s bridge is it’s invitation to my made up Getaway Song party, which is a very exclusive and elitist party. The urgency in the pacing to pump up the climax of the story she’s telling, is very much becoming a TS trademark, I’ll be very happy in the future to give out more invitations to the Getaway Song party.

Track 9: this is me trying

Not gonna lie… this is simply one of my favorites because I feel it! This is me trying dammit! At least I’m trying! But this is what Taylor Swift does best, when you have the same feelings or emotions as her, and she decides to express those emotions in song, you can feel like you’re not alone for a moment which can be freeing.

While not outstanding production wise, I feel I can let it pass, because I love Taylor’s storytelling and ability to depict the craving for wanting better of yourself and trying...

Track 10: illicit affairs

Where were these pre-pop Taylor acoustic guitars before on an album called folklore?! Taylor is a guitar girl and I need my pre-pop Taylor acoustic guitar instrumentals!

While the title clearly indicates the story’s substance, this track feels like it’s over in the blink of an eye, while yet again, the highlight of the track is the bridge. Personally, it’s my favourite of the album beating “my tears ricochet” and “august”. There’s just something about it’s steady beating progression and particularly the way she emphasises the words “kid” and “baby”. It draws you in to feel the pain of the story’s protagonist, as well as it makes you want to shout the lyrics to help the protagonist get some sort of justice.

Track 11: invisible string

The acoustic guitar continues, and I am overjoyed, but this time it’s different, where a muting technique is employed, with an accent on the highest pitch string, which isn’t muted to create a sort of release. While writing this description of the guitar, despite having already listened to the song a million times, I thought, the song is called Invisible String, a guitar has strings, and the muted are muted, or made to sound invisible? Nice word painting Taylor. It took me a second. (If it was even done on purpose.)

More on the actual “invisible string”, I love the metaphor of it which seems to be based on Chinese mythology’s “Red Thread of Fate”. Which you get a loose description of through the songs lyrics. Along with the previous track, “the 1”, “invisible string” sounds the most pop-like to me out of the entire album so far. This is because there is a clear difference between verse, chorus and bridge, where the chord pattern actually changes between each of the three. All of these things combined makes for one of my favourite tracks on the album. And lastly, how can I not mention the mentioning of her own song “Bad Blood” in the second verse? 

Track 12: mad woman

I can’t help but think this is the grown up version of The Man. In saying that however, I don’t mean at all that The Man is not good - it brings up serious issues in a very dignified way. 

But “mad woman” is a song all on her own with beautiful, but at the same time, dark instrumentation and lyrics that really make you think about what she's talking about, which is something slightly different to “The Man”. Whether it’s her core shaking lower register or her first use of an F bomb ever, it’s sure to catch your attention before she opens to the lyric “you made her like that”, and then the bridge, where I have probably mentioned before in this review, Taylor really opens up the story, while plainly stating, “you took everything from me.”

The sonic cohesion continues with the guitar in the back of chorus, very similar to TLGAD, which is peaking out as being a signature of Aaron production.

Track 13: epiphany

“Epiphany” stands out. In the best way, and if you’re a Taylor fan you’d expect it to, as track 13s have traditionally throughout her discography, being her lucky number. 

I’m not going to lie, this is the hardest song to describe and rate. Because it is so different, and honestly, that is why I really love it. Strung out vocals in the verse, contrasted with more staccato vocals in the chorus, the wide, elongated instrumentation, behind those vocals, it’s easy to depict some sort of battlefield scene in your head. Which actually links to it’s one thing in common with the other tracks in this album.

And what is the one thing in common with the other tracks in this album? It’s storytelling. And this story’s substance really makes you think, continuing the tradition from “mad woman”, but with a completely different storyline focusing on and drawing together the harsh events of 2020 and a past war where Swift has stated that the track was also inspired by her serving grandfather. 

Track 14: betty

“Betty” concludes the teenage love triangle trilogy of songs and stands out as one of the more pop-ier songs on the album. Like Bon Iver’s voice was a surprise on “exile”, the harmonica was a welcomed surprise on “betty”. 

There are two components to this song that make it a great one, those being it’s clear instrumentation, and it's clear story. Let’s start with story, where I already said that this is the final chapter to the teenage love triangle story, I believe this song doesn’t need an explanation, because, and this is the last time I speak about storytelling, this one song is like a good book and tells the story (one side of it, that’s where the other songs come in) from beginning to end. 

And then the instrumentation, which is just vocals and harmonica on top of a marvelous sea of all sorts of guitars, with the strumming acoustic keeping the beat, and electric swells. With this track being the only one that joins both Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff as producers, it’s not hard to imagine they’ve both just picked up guitars and added to Taylor’s charming story. 

In the ending where we see a key change and slight change from the chorus lyrics to tie up the happy ending to the story, “betty” cannot not be compared to Taylor’s 2008 hit “Love Story” where in the ending the lyrics are changed to sum up and fit the joy of a happy ending.

Track 15: peace

This track begins with a pulse, which Dessner has described as Bon Iver inspired. This pulse then flutters away and leads into more guitar, and by this stage you should know it’s what I’m waiting for - but it’s a bass guitar taking the lead ostinato or riff this time. Even better, because it’s unexpected, a punch in the guts, they say, like a harmonica on a post country Taylor Swift album? I need to stop going on about the harmonica, this album is called folklore.

While this track illustrates the love shared with that one person, it is no “Lover” (the song) or “Love Story”. It’s like this is the real life side, or the grown up side to real love, with statements like, “sit with you in the trenches” and that one question, “would it be enough if I could never give you peace?” I think it really demonstrates how far she’s come, along with that pulse soundscape , bass guitar and piano towards the end makes for an uncomplicated lead to Taylor’s most thought provoking lyrics in a romantic based song ever as well as being probably her most sophisticated song ever.

The devil really is in the details with Taylor’s music, which is both super comforting and complicated at the same time, with references to past songs, and I’m not even going to start to explain how Taylor is obsessed with leaving her fans easter eggs, but it’s kind of funny how this album had pretty much zero easter eggs in the lead up to it. Now I’m feeling comforted again. 

Track 16: hoax

Speaking of feeling comfortable - shh. I’m listening to “hoax”, sitting next to the fire burning in my fireplace, wrapped in a blanket, with snow falling ever so softly out my window. Nope, that’s just the image in my head I get from listening to “hoax”, I live in Australia where it doesn’t snow much. 

“hoax” is slightly lackluster dynamically for an album closer in Taylor’s discography, compared to Daylight from Lover or Clean from 1989 with New Years Day from reputation being the exception, which I also feel is slightly lackluster. Based on it’s soft sound, I’d prefer it wasn’t the album closer, even though it is lovely to feel so cozy as the album does close out. 

But besides that, it is a cozy sounding song with some not so cozy lyrics. Closing out softly, it’s another case of Taylor leaving possibly her best and most beautiful words for last, with lyrics such as, “Stood on the cliffside screaming give me a reason, your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in.”

3 Facts:

1. This is the first time ever that Taylor has had an explicit rated album and songs. So exciting.

2. Her first collaboration with Jack Antonoff was in 2013 when they created the song “Sweeter Than Fiction” for the film One Chance, and Taylor has since used Antonoff as a producer on every one of her albums.

3. Nobody knows for sure who William Bowery is. Who is William Bowery you ask? William Bowery is a co-writer of “exile” and “betty”. There is speculation… But no one knows...

To tie things up, Taylor delivered, this album is what a lot of people wanted, including myself. And what we wanted was a warm, acoustic, story focused album, which we got. But for me there is one thing missing, and I’m not exactly sure whether it is possible that it would fit on a flok-y warm album, but I miss Taylor’s pop catchy melody songwriting that we’ve all grown used to, where a hook would get stuck in your head for days. Not exactly folk-y, I know, but I miss it from Taylor. Not to take away from the fact at all that this is a very strong, solid album in her discography and a completely different weapon up her sleeve compared to her pop and country past.

My favourite tracks: my tears ricochet, seven, peace, this is me trying, illicit affairs, invisible string, epiphany

4.7/5 - it’s not perfect, but is it Taylor’s closest album to perfection? Possibly…

[irlpinkiepie]

tmg concert writeup

so me and @butchaligned went and saw a mountain goats concert last night, here’s my thoughts

i’d like to preface this with two important notes: one, this was the absolute best experience i’ve ever had, and two, as of me starting to write this it is 3:25 am and i’ve resolved to stay up until i finish it so i can’t guarantee this will be intelligible by the end

so, are you familiar with “the cow song”? i wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t, because it’s an obscure song from the hound chronicles and is quite frankly? not that good. well, over the course of about an hour and a half, i became well acquainted with this song - turns out it was played at an ohio live show in 2006, and the people right behind us in line were determined to get him to play the cow song again (or, one of them was, one of them was staunchly against the idea, and one was indifferent but supportive) so we spent most of that hour and a half singing or hearing the cow song - which, i remind you, is really not a great song. if you’ve ever wondered what a mountain goats concert is like, take that fact, add in the fact that there were at least a dozen lesbians in attendance, and you’ve got a pretty good idea

the concert venue itself, i might add, was nominally a theatre, refurbished from what was once a church - that added a lot of wonderful ambiance to the whole scene, but it also severely limited the amount of available space. i’ve never actually been to a concert before this one, and i kind of had the impression that there was a potential to sit down at some point. there was not. we stood for four hours. and we loved it

then the opening act comes out, and they play a bunch of songs, and they’re pretty darn good, and then they walk off the stage. that may seem like an unfair summary, but hear me out:   1) it is technically accurate   2) while their music was indeed very good, it also was distinctly forgettable? case in point i totally forget their name (jenny besetzt, google tells me) - it was very enjoyable in the moment but looking back on it i can tell you very few things about it stylistically that i remember; it was sorta rock-y but with not much lead guitar, and i couldn’t really make out the vocals at all so   3) because the mountain goats were playing right afterwards, there wasn’t space at the back of the stage for another drum set, so they had their drums right at the front of the stage and it kinda overwhelmed everything else - not ideal, but not particularly avoidable sidenote though it was exactly the kind of music that i could see in like, the soundtrack of a hollywood movie, and as such it would have been the perfect music to kiss your gf to. wanda if you’re reading this we gotta go to a concert at some point

(also worth noting that they are genuinely very good; just also there were a lot of factors about their performance that made it hard to remember)

so then the stage is cleared and set up for the mountain goats themselves. the keyboard desk is set up, then covered with a red sequined cloth, then topped with a wooden cobra statuette. white electric candelabras flicker to life at the back of the stage. truly, they are living up to the spirit of their newest album. the fact that it took about 20 minutes to set up the sound systems adequately can be overlooked at this point.

and then..... it begins. and bizarrely, the songs that they start their show off with? letter from belgium, slow west vultures, mole, and cotton. not that those aren’t all jams, and letter from belgium was absolutely a powerful opener, but there’s something about choosing 4 songs in a row from we shall all be healed that’s pretty impressive

then they go into their new stuff - john has a really long story about unicorn tolerance and what the unicorn symbolism has meant to him throughout his life, and he plays it on this black lightning bolt shaped electric guitar and it’s rad, and then they do rain in soho and andrew eldritch and it’s all a blast, and then jon and matt and pete walk off stage and it’s just jd on stage with his acoustic guitar and i’m like ‘okay. clearly the real show has begun now.’ this is a gross error on my part, but i’d like to believe it’s an understandable one.

he leads in to the next song with the phrase “the best love songs hide their intentions as deep as they can”, and then plays night light which. WOW i’m just floored, especially since that’s one of my favorite songs of theirs, and then after that someone asks him about the tax bill and he says ‘well, y’know i’m self employed, so i get taxed a huge amount, and it sucks to have to give your money to someone else - unless you’re a christian, which i am, but uh - i believe that we should all be taxed exorbitantly and the money should go to help us all” and the crowd cheers, and then he says “i also am very cynical about institutional politics and very depressed about it all... as you can probably tell by this song” and he plays moon over goldsboro and during a couple of the instrumental breaks including right before the last few lines he played this quiet little guitar riff and i swear you could have heard a pin drop in the audience when he did it and then for those last few lines suddenly it all picked up and he was almost shouting them and it was incredibly powerful to listen to and i’m like ‘wow okay yeah this is what it’s all about’ (again, misconception, but understandable) and then pete walks back on. they play linda blair was born innocent, which was a jam, and then the rest of the band walks back on and i’ve kinda lost the plot at this point

but i’m willing to roll with it, and they play another couple songs from goths which i know less well (the grey king and the silver flame attunement and shelved) and then they do you or your memory and hearing it with the full orchestration live is just absolutely life-changing, and then they play see america right and my soul has thoroughly ascended into heaven at this point because there’s really nothing that prepares you for the experience of hundreds of other people relating to a song at the same time and in the same raw and visceral manner and then they play foreign object and matt douglas is actually playing the saxophone live and he does a couple awesome solos and i sing along the whole way and my voice just doesn’t give up

and then they play up the wolves, which is just this magical experience and i adore every second of it, and then they do their bows and leave the stage but the crowd just keeps cheering for another solid minute or so, and they walk back on and do an encore, which. i’m not sure what i was expecting an encore to be, but i feel like it was somewhere in the region of ‘one popular song, maybe no children / this year since they haven’t hit those yet’. instead, they play we do it different on the west coast (which john actually starts singing the second verse in the middle of the first, and just has to stop and talk through the chord progression until it repeats - good performance tip) and instead of the piano outro it’s replaced by this sax bit which is really rad, and then they go from there into the diaz brothers which is awesome, and then they play game shows touch our lives? but instead of the really slow and somber album version it’s this incredibly upbeat rendition which, i didn’t realize you could do that with music but i’m so glad you can because it made the communal listening to the song that much better

and then from there they played this year, and somehow again i just sing along the whole way despite having never done that before, and they bow and walk off stage and the crowd keeps cheering, and then everyone but jd walks on and starts playing an instrumental, and then jd walks on doesn’t even pick up an instrument he just goes straight to the mic and starts talking and he talks for a few minutes and i don’t remember everything he said but he ends it with ‘this song is in 6/8, you can sing along’ and they play no children and somehow without the guitar it sounds so much more powerful especially since john is screaming the lyrics at this point and so is the entire audience, and he’s like leaning down into the front row and interacting with the fans at this point and during the ‘hand in unlovable hand’ line he reaches out and grabs someone’s hand from the audience and then just as the song is building to a crescendo all the volume cuts out but the intensity is still there and it goes into this super slowed down, no guitar, life-changing rendition of spent gladiator 2, and that’s the actual end of the show

overall it was 100% worth the two and a half hour drive it took to get there and back (in fairness i was asleep most of the way back (sorry aaron) so that wasn’t too bad) and is absolutely an experience i’d like to repeat but also i’m not sure if my body could handle that. 10/10

#talking always yes lots of reading #donut rebagel #i'm very delirious right now but genuinely this concert was so great

[anothersievefistedfind]

Fugazi, Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival, Brazil 8/94 - Photo © by Nino Andres

1994 Brazil tour

With Brendan spending months and months away from home in 1994, Fugazi did not tour much that year, focusing on writing new music instead and playing just a handful of local shows. In between, the band did manage a short string of 8 dates in Brazil, an experience which appears to have left a lasting impression.

In an interview with Thicker Magazine, Ian elaborates, 

“[the 1994 Brazilian tour] was cool, it was like the model Fugazi experience.  We did this one huge festival that was 4000 people, it was the first ever Brazilian music festival. It was sponsored by the city, the city paid for everything. It was a free show in the plaza, and thousands of people just came out to check it out. Then we did a couple of gigs in Sao Paulo, which was two nights at a rock club, with a thousand people each night, and everybody knew all the songs. Then we did a show in this village where no foreign band had ever played, 4 or 500 village kids were just totally going crazy, just because they were so pumped up on the music period, they hadn’t really heard of us. Then we did a gig at this sort of punk club with a lot of Sid Vicious guys screaming, “Fuck you” and starting fights, and we did three nights at this little basement club, one night was like 50 people, and we played for two hours. It was great, we did eight shows and every show was so different, and such a perfect analogy of our experience.“

In a 1995 interview by Tunde Oyewole, Guy notes,

”Man, I tell you, it was different every night. Some nights we were playing in tiny villages, like one-generator towns, and then other nights we played in big cities. So it was incredibly different every night. But the kids there-I mean the whole situation down there was just incredibly strange. Just really, really strange. I would say Brazil was a serious mind fuck. It’s the most extreme place I’ve ever been, on every level. You go there and you’ll see the most intense natural beauty and the most intense pollution of nature that you’ve ever seen in your life. You’ll see the most incredible rich communities, and you’ll see the most unbelievably fucked up poverty. It’s really strange down there. And so the shows were kind of the same way. It was just very weird.“

Find below a rundown of some personal thoughts and observations related to this particular tour:

Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival, Belo Horizonte, August 15, 1994 (FLS #0628)

First ever Fugazi gig in Brazil, set at the Belo Horizonte Independent Music Festival in the presence of some 3000 attendees.

While the band appears appreciative of such a unique event and the performance is overall tight, little is left to chance. In fact, most of the set list pretty much gets sorted in-between songs, as the band members audibly suggest and discuss what to play next, which is quite a departure from the organic, spontaneous modus operandi.

Even though the volume levels are a bit low, the mix is quite evenly balanced and enjoyable (note that the sound is pretty much reduced to mono during Rend It and Great Cop). 

The set includes the live debut of both Birthday Pony and Target (two songs featured on the 1995 Red Medicine studio album release). Other highlights in my book include Nice New Outfit, Turnover, Waiting Room, Margin Walker, Give Me The Cure, Target and definitely Promises. 

To top things off, it can be noted that this is Joey Picuri’s (soundman) birthday show!

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Facet Squared 4. Public Witness Program 5. Interlude 1 6. Reclamation 7. Interlude 2 8. Nice New Outfit 9. Interlude 3 10. Birthday Pony 11. Turnover 12. Interlude 4 13. Waiting Room 14. Margin Walker 15. Song #1 16. Interlude 5 17. Give Me The Cure 18. Interlude 6 19. By You 20. Instrument 21. Rend It 22. Interlude 7 23. Great Cop 24. Interlude 8 25. Target 26. Interlude 9 27. Promises 28. Outro

Circo Voador, Rio De Janeiro,  August 18, 1994 (FLS #0629)

One of my favourite recordings from this particular tour, considering it is one of the better sounding ones (maybe a bit rough around the edges) but also because the event played out at a smaller venue, the Circo Voador in Rio De Janeiro in front of a rowdy crowd.

The result is a more tumultuous gig and lively event, which gets interrupted repeatedly because of people stage-diving and the security issues arising from this. Listen close as even Joe loses his temper at one point.

You can pick up on quite a bit of Portuguese as well, as some of the locals step up to translate for the band and mediate.

The recording includes 16 songs total. Steady Diet of Nothing provides most tracks (5), with the 7 Songs or S/T EP (3), Red Medicine (2), In on the Kill Taker (2), Repeater (2), Margin Walker EP (1) and the 3 Songs 7 inch (1) following suit.

Personal highlights include Stacks, And The Same, Waiting Room, Give Me The Cure, Exit Only and Shut the Door.

The set list:

1. Opening Remarks 2. Joe #1 3. Merchandise 4. Interlude 1 5. Walken’s Syndrome (aborted) 6. Interlude 2 7. Reclamation 8. Runaway Return 9. Interlude 3 10. Stacks 11. Smallpox Champion 12. Interlude 4 13. And The Same 14. Interlude 5 15. Bulldog Front 16. Waiting Room 17. Give Me The Cure 18. Long Division 19. Target 20. Birthday Pony 21. Interlude 6 22. Exit Only 23. Shut the Door 24. Outro

Col. Leao XIII Hall, Itaborai,  August 19, 1994 (FLS #0630)

This one sounds like an average audience recording at best. This is unfortunate, since it hints at a phenomenal, intense performance, and because the set list includes one-off live renderings (this tour) of both the Steady Diet instrumental and KYEO.

Forensic Scene, taken from the Red Medicine album, makes its live debut after Guy notes that ”you’re probably gonna hate this song, but we’re gonna play it anyway.“

In-between song chatter features more praise for the Brazilian journey, and Guy taking pleasure in getting his hair cut at a local spot that day.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Steady Diet 3. Exit Only 4. Greed 5. Interlude 1 6. Turnover 7. Interlude 2 8. KYEO 9. Forensic Scene 10. By You 11. Interlude 3 12. Repeater 13. Two Beats Off (w/ Summertime / The Place I Love tags) 14. Interlude 4 15. Bad Mouth 16. Bulldog Front 17. Waiting Room 18. Interlude 5 19. Blueprint 20. Interlude 6 21. Instrument 22. Public Witness Program 23. Sweet and Low 24. Outro

Aeroanta, Sao Paulo,  August 20, 1994 (FLS #0631)

This concert showcases tour exclusive live renderings of Latin Roots and Sieve-Fisted Find. Fell, Destroyed, another cut taken from the (then) upcoming Red Medicine album is added to the live repertoire in instrumental form.

The mix takes the opening song to settle, but once it does, the sound quality of the recording is quite good and balanced. Note however, that the audience is rather low in the mix, that Guy’s guitar cuts out occasionally, and that there is a bit of distortion (buzz) crosscutting some of the quieter parts.

An enjoyable performance overall, featuring 21 tracks total, favouring the Repeater album (6), followed by Red Medicine (4), Steady Diet (3), Kill Taker (3), the S/T EP (2), Margin Walker EP (2), and 3 Songs 7 inch (1).

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Styrofoam 3. Latin Roots 4. Facet Squared 5. Sieve-Fisted Find 6. Reclamation 7. Interlude 1 8. Two Beats Off (w/ Summertime / The Place I Love tags) 9. Interlude 2 10. Birthday Pony 11. By You 12. Margin Walker 13. Bad Mouth 14. Break-In 15. Waiting Room 16. Interlude 3 17. Smallpox Champion 18. Interlude 4 19. Instrument 20. Blueprint 21. Interlude 5 22. Long Division 23. Target 24. Repeater 25. Encore 26. Fell, Destroyed Instrumental 27. Promises 28. Reprovisional

Aeroanta, Sao Paulo,  August 21, 1994 (FLS #0632)

Second night at the Aeroante, Sao Paolo, according to Guy “an amazing city you live in, this is like 37 Manhattans all put together, it’s totally crazy.” This is arguably the best sounding recording from this particular tour, even though somewhat high on treble (note that Joe’s bass, ironically, is low in the mix on Joe #1).

The set list features a number of strongpoints in my opinion, e.a. a vibrant version of Exit Only, Long Division (which appropriately addresses a fight that broke up moments before), Returning The Screw, and the powerhouse combo Shut the Door into Glueman to close out the night, yet my absolute highlight is Runaway Return, i.e. specifically Ian’s guitar playing out against Joe’s bass which catches some eerie reverb on the go.

The recording captures an outstanding performance, even though Guy’s vocals sound a tad fatigued, and adds up to 18 live tracks, drawn from In on the Kill Taker (5), S/T EP (4), Repeater (3), Steady Diet (3), Red Medicine (2), and the 3 Songs 7 inch (1) respectively.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Joe #1 3. Exit Only 4. Interlude 1 5. Merchandise 6. Interlude 2 7. Cassavetes 8. Repeater 9. Interlude 3 10. Rend It 11. Interlude 4 12. Long Division 13. Runaway Return 14. Interlude 5 15. Waiting Room 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Suggestion 18. Interlude 6 19. Forensic Scene (“a slow, slow, sad song so you might look to your neighbour and do a nice slow evil Lambada”) 20. Returning The Screw 21. Smallpox Champion 22. Interlude 7 23. By You 24. Interlude 8 25. Great Cop 26. Encore 27. Shut the Door 28. Glueman

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 25, 1994 (FLS #0633)

First out of three consecutive concerts at the 92 Graus, a small underground bar in Curitiba. The instrumentation, the drums particularly, are rather low in the mix, the overall sound coming off suppressed or muffled. As such, it pretty much fails to engage in my opinion.

Note the tour exclusive live performance of Dear Justice Letter and a solid take on Shut the Door.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Joe #1 3. And The Same 4. Interlude 1 5. Cassavetes 6. Merchandise 7. Public Witness Program 8. Interlude 2 9. Instrument 10. Walken’s Syndrome 11. Interlude 3 12. Birthday Pony 13. Dear Justice Letter 14. Interlude 4 15. Suggestion 16. Give Me The Cure 17. Waiting Room 18. Interlude 5 19. Forensic Scene 20. By You 21. Interlude 6 22. Stacks 23. Runaway Return 24. Shut the Door 25. Outro

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 26, 1994 (FLS #0635)

Previously released as part of the original hardcopy Live Series (volume 11), this here is a recording I’ve always enjoyed listening to.

Admittedly Guy’s Rickenbacker partially drowns out the rest of the guitar play or instrumentation, yet otherwise it’s deliciously right up there in your face, as are the vocals. Add in some altercations or puta musings, and you have a recording which demands attention and favours repeated listening.

Personal picks include Exit Only (a couple of people address the audience in Portuguese at the beginning of the song), Two Beats Off (w/ subtle The Place I Love / Summertime hints), Blueprint, Reprovisional (w/ Roadrunner tag) and - pretty much as per usual - Promises to close out the set (Ian plays a handful of introductory notes to Sweet and Low right before ending the gig).

Returning the Screw, on the other hand, surprisingly falls flat here in my opinion, as the band doesn’t seem to get the pacing quite right.

The Repeater album provides most tracks (6), followed by the Kill Taker (5), Steady Diet (3), Red Medicine (2), Margin Walker EP (2) and the 7 Songs debut EP (1), adding up to a total of 19 live cuts.

Footage of this concert (mistakenly dated August 25) can be found here.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Brendan #1 3. Facet Squared 4. Rend It 5. Great Cop 6. Exit Only 7. Greed 8. Turnover 9. Reclamation 10. Two Beats Off 11. By You 12. Waiting Room 13. Margin Walker 14. Long Division 15. Blueprint 16. Birthday Pony 17. Reprovisional 18. Returning the Screw 19. Smallpox Champion 20. Promises

92 Graus, Curitiba,  August 27, 1994 (FLS #0636)

On paper, hands down my favourite set list from this particular tour. The Red Medicine instrumental Version makes its live debut and is served as set opener to boot (note that the song did not make another appearance until the October 8, 1995 gig in St. Louis, Missouri).

It has been mentioned that the quality of the recording is subpar due to the sound cutting in and out. And while this is true, fortunately only the first couple of songs are affected by this. As soon as Merchandise, everything pretty much balances out, and leaves us with the bulk of the recording to enjoy even though the overall sound remains a bit thin or shrill, atleast up to Two Beats Off. The cassette gets turned after this and once Song #1 kicks in, the sound quality improves some more (technical hindrances do persist).

Probably the longest show of this tour, with 21 songs total (note that Glueman is cut short before the final breakdown or finale), slightly favouring the Repeater album (6), followed by Steady Diet (4), 7 Songs or S/T debut EP (3), Red Medicine (3), Kill Taker (3), and the 3 Songs seven-inch (2).

The second half of the show, i.e. the whole Bulldog Front into Glueman streak is pure bliss, and includes the only live rendering of Last Chance for a Slow Dance from this Brazilian string of shows. Plus, Interlude 3 essentially is a rough cut of Lusty Scripps as featured through the 1999 Fugazi documentary and subsequent soundtrack Instrument.

The set list:

1. Intro 2. Version 3. Exit Only 4. Interlude 1 5. Merchandise 6. Interlude 2 7. Turnover 8. Reclamation 9. Interlude 3 10. Nice New Outfit 11. Styrofoam 12. Target 13. Interlude 4 14. Birthday Pony 15. Two Beats Off 16. Song #1 17. Interlude 5 18. Bulldog Front 19. Bad Mouth 20. Break-In 21. Long Division 22. Blueprint 23. Instrument 24. Last Chance for a Slow Dance 25. Sweet and Low 26. Encore 27. Repeater 28. Glueman

#FLS1994 #fugazi #dischord #brazil #belo horizonte #rio de janeiro #itaborai #sao paulo #curitiba

[kaye-scheidsblogs]

Legal and Illegal Streaming (anime and manga)

Disclaimer

Pirating anime and manga is and always will be something that happens in this community. There isn’t a single person I can think of that has never pirated anime or manga before. I’ve done it and everyone reading this blog has done it. I understand that extenuating circumstances can prevent some people from legally watching anime. I am not writing this blog to demonize or antagonize those people. But instead I want to express my own thoughts on the matter and also offer other resources for watching anime and reading manga legally that some may not know of.

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Illegal Streaming

Tons of people have already researched and proved that illegal streaming does negatively affect the anime and manga industries. So, I’m not going to parrot that information here since most of you probably know the gist of it. Illegal streaming is not okay and if you want the links to all the people who have done the research, here you go:

"Being an Animator in Japan is Brutal"-first hand experience from an animator working in Japan

"There's no Good reason to pirate anime"-Mother's Basement video breakdown

"How much money you cost the anime industry when you illegally stream"

"Crunchyroll contributes $100 Million to the Anime Industry"

[C]Side Note: that last link is for the people that think they’re “voting with their wallets” when they pirate anime because they think Crunchyroll and every other legal streaming site has a bad business model. That last link and basic business principles disprove that train of thought immediately.

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Legal Anime Streaming

There are two reasons that I hear most often when people explain why they pirate: “I don’t have the money!” and “It’s not legally available in my country.” For the latter, I believe it is 100% okay to illegally watch anime. If a company does not allow you to watch an anime or read a manga, then that’s on them. I’ll talk a bit more about a website that is good for watching anime illegally as it doesn’t make any money off of pirating and you may also be able to watch some anime legally on it too. As for the former, with a bit of searching and the help of Because.moe the first reason doesn’t hold much weight if you’re just looking to watch a completed series that is legally available in your country. For seasonal fans, I understand the dilemma of having to wait a week to catch up because part of being a seasonal fan means having up to date discussions with people in the community. And since all anime streaming platforms require a Premium fee to watch seasonal anime the day they come out in Japan, I understand how money can come into play and push someone to pirate.

But before you go to That One Pirating Website That Everyone Knows, please check out this and any other pirating website first. Because as one of the links from the beginning of the blog explains, the amount of money This Website makes is stupid. And that website is: YouTube. Believe it or not, there are tons and tons of anime available on YouTube. Some legal and most illegal. But it’s great because YouTube only puts like one or two ads on their videos that can be skipped. And illegal anime on there don’t have ads, so no one is making money off of the stolen content. Now you may be asking, “where on YouTube is there legal anime?” Well, the Funimation YouTube channel actually has a lot of full subbed series on there. Some of which were anime I watched back when I was getting into anime and only used YouTube. Nozomi Entertainment also has a YouTube channel that has a few older anime available legally and for free. Including but not limited to, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Emma: A Victorian Romance and Space Adventure Cobra. Even Crunchyroll puts out the first few episodes of some popular series like Yuri On Ice. So yeah. YouTube is a really big option available that a lot of people don’t even bother to think about. So before you go and risk giving your computer a virus (adblock doesn’t guarantee your computer’s safety from ads on pirating sites; I speak from personal experience) , check YouTube for the anime you want to watch.

Despite what many seem to think, a free account on Funimation and Crunchyroll will let you watch all of the series they have to offer. It costs you zero dollars to watch anime on these websites. “How?” you may ask? Because each episode will also play commercials, similar to TV but much shorter. I’m calling them calling them commercials because in this context that is exactly what they are; breaks in the program for a scheduled advertisement. Commercials longer than 30 seconds are usually skippable after 15 seconds. And unlike TV, you only get 3 or 4 commercials each break. Episodes typically have 4 breaks, one at the beginning, two in the middle and one after the outro song, so really on 3 if you don’t want to watch the episode to the end. And that goes for Crunchyroll, Funimation and Yahoo. Yes you read right, Yahoo.

Because.moe is a site where you can insert your country and then the title of the anime and it’ll show where you can watch that anime legally. For America the legal streaming websites that I know of are Crunchyroll, Funimation, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, HiDive and Yahoo. I was incredibly surprised that Yahoo had licensed anime available for streaming. Which includes but is most certainly not limited to, Seirei no Moribito, My Hero Academia, and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun. I always check this website first if I’m not sure if an anime is available legally or not.

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Manga

Before I wrap this up, I need to address the problem of illegally reading manga because it’s not as easy a fix as the anime streaming problem. There is no digital, free and legal manga reading platform. There is the somewhat inexpensive option (compared to overseas print prices) in BookWalker, which I have been using recently. But BookWalker doesn’t even offer SimulPub. You have to pay for each volume individually and some manga are priced by the chapter. Which I will be the first to say is complete bullshit. Now, with the limited resources on manga licensing, I have found that it is generally more expensive to license manga than it is to license anime. Why this is, I don’t know. And I can’t say for certain that there is a way for Manga licensing companies to follow the Crunchyroll and Funimation models of having a premium monthly subscription But for the time being it looks like all that is available to us is the expensive translated print manga and a bit less expensive eBooks through websites like BookWalker.

This is actually a problem that I want to fix in the future. It has become my goal to expand the manga licensing industry for the betterment of our community and the amazing people that create these stories. I’ll be studying abroad in Japan for a year starting in September to further my Japanese language skills and maybe gain some sort of insight on the state of the manga licensing business. I have a vague idea of how I’m going to do it, but at least it’s a start.

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TL;DR

There is only one (1) 100% good reason for streaming anime illegally: it is not legally available in your country. If money is short for you, then there are plenty of free ways for you to legally watch anime which were listed and discussed in this blog. Illegal streaming is not okay. And lastly, you have more options than you think when it comes to watching anime legally.

#anime #manga #pirating anime #legal and illegal streaming (anime and manga) #Crunchyroll #BookWalker #Funimation #YouTube

[appleshampoo]

DTR#2 Riverfenix - Riverfenix

Okay, firstly some admin.;

Firstly this is listed as DTR release #3. DTR release #2 is a compilation album called ‘Where’s The Beef?’ and I’ve taken the decision not to do the various compilation albums, mainly because there’s a DTR/Pure Volume joint-release that features 145 sodding tracks. It should be noted that Where’s the Beef includes a Get Up Kids track and on one of the later DTR comps. Jimmy Eat World are included so armed with that information you can surprise and delight your friends by telling them TGUK and JEW actually put out music on DTR (assuming your friends are at all like a few of mine and would actually care about that stuff..)

Secondly, Riverfenix’s self-titled debut LP was re-recorded and re-released shortly after the band changed their name to Fenix TX due to a cease and desist order from the estate of actor River Phoenix. A lot of the tracks are the same (with a couple on one but not the other) and the track-listing is different but for the purposes of this I’m going to group them as one album. Also, the Fenix TX re-release doesn’t seem to have a catalogue number but again, I’m using Wikipedia for reference so take the catalogue numbers with a pinch of salt...

Anyway, I love this album. I bought Fenix TX - the re-release at HMV in Wakefield around 2001/02. It couldn’t have been any earlier as I went in specifically to buy their 2001 follow-up Lechuza but it had sold out, by sold-out I mean that someone had bought the one copy in stock in the week between me noticing it was in-stock and then going back to buy it. So I bought their debut instead, it seems slightly daft to think now but on first listen I thought this was the hardest, fastest example of pop-punk I had ever heard - this sounded like a proper punk record to 16-year old me. It challenged the fairly narrow preconceptions of what I understood as pop-punk that had developed through listening to Enema of the State on repeat. I'm fairly sure I was turned on to Fenix TX directly through the video to Man Overboard by Blink 182 (a venue is shown billing Fenix TX supporting Blink). It’s possible that I hadn’t heard a note of their music when I bought this record. I had also learnt that Mark Hoppus or ‘Mark (Suge) Hoppus’ as he is billed in the ‘thank you’ liner notes had managed the band at one point. Links to Blink were all I needed to inform me of what music to listen to at this stage (I bought American Hi-Fi’s first album purely as it had a sticker on the front with the tag-line ‘the Blink that think’).

I knew I had to listen to this album at least once for the purposes of this post and I’m pleased to report that it still holds up - in fact I’ve listened to it four times today. These are really well written pop-punk songs and the production on the re-release takes it up a notch in adding a little more ‘shine’ but maintaining the original’s live feel. ‘All My Fault’ will always be a pop-punk anthem but almost every track here has a massive chorus in a way that all the best Drive Thru albums do. Fenix TX/Riverfenix sing about girls and relationships on their debut, this will come as no surprise but Will Salazar delivers them thevocals with an urgency and emotive quality that elevates the whole record. I’ve always thought there’s an epic, cinematic feel to Fenix TX songs (on this and Lechuza) and I can’t quite put my finger on why but safe to say it keeps me coming back to records that are 15/20 years old in a way that I don’t with a lot of other pop-punk albums from the same time.

In my previous post I queried why Richard & Stefanie would chose a Cousin Oliver record as the first on the label. As far as I’m concerned they knocked it out of the park with the second.

DTR Catalogue #2

Track List: (Riverfenix released 16/12/1997)

"Apple Pie Cowboy Toothpaste" – 4:58 "G.B.O.H." – 3:18 "Minimum Wage" – 1:57 "All My Fault" – 2:51 "Jolly Green Dumbass" – 3:06 "Skinhead Jessie" – 2:50 "Ben" – 3:17 "Speechless" – 4:10 "Jean Claude Trans Am" – 2:27 Untitled intro to "Philosophy" – 0:33 "Philosophy" – 2:10 "Jaw" – 3:48 "No Lie" – 2:41 "Rooster Song" – 4:04 "City of the Dead" hidden track – 4:55 Untitled outro – 0:31

Track List: (Fenix TX released 13/7/1999)

"Flight 601 (All I've Got Is Time)" – 3:28 "Minimum Wage" – 2:02 "Surf Song" – 2:37 "All My Fault" – 2:49 "Jolly Green Dumbass" – 2:51 "G.B.O.H." – 3:25 "Ben" – 3:27 "Speechless" – 4:13 "Philosophy" – 2:18 "No Lie" – 2:38 "Apple Pie Cowboy Toothpaste" – 4:50 "Jean Claude Trans Am" – 2:37 "Rooster Song" – 2:30

Sample lyric: I never said a thing to hurt you/ It's what I didn't say that made you cry/ And in all honesty/ I never would have deserted you/ I never dreamt that you would say goodbye (Speechless)