#the incredible amount of songs and variety in genres?

[hybridshadowz]

HAPPY MIKU DAYYYY! Keep on slaying queeennnnn~☆

#man I have listening to vocaloid music since my high school days #never stopped #I’m not musically inclined but god the amount of good shit out there #the incredible amount of songs and variety in genres? #amazing #thank you Miku for kickin off this amazing journey for a lot of artists both visual and musical #keep that creativity going folks! #heres my art for ya queen #hatsune miku #vocaloid #fanart #hybs art

[r-2-peepoo]

A pretty good list of the best Codywan fics you will ever read:

I recently noticed I had a very sweet ask about Codywan fics recs but I didn’t realise saving drafts of ask replies wasn’t an option so I accidentally deleted it. If you are the lovely anon who sent that message on (I believe) the 29th of October, I’m sorry for not seeing it sooner, and here is a list for you!! A definitely-not-comprehensive guide to Codywan fics because I'm actually only a few months into shipping them myself. These are just some of my favourites.

I mainly read modern AUs but I’ll try and come up with a good variety so hopefully, there’s something for everyone. Also I’ll @ the writers who have accs on here because they deserve all the praise and credit in the world (but do let me know if you’d prefer to be untagged!!)

Modern AUs

An incredibly sweet oneshot featuring Teacher!Cody hosting a parent-teacher conference and a very overwhelmed Obi Wan trying his best to raise Anakin. The characterisation of Obi Wan in particular just makes my brain go brrrrrrrrrrrr because it reminds me of how he's written in the canon novels, as in you get to see a side of him that isn’t so polished and held together. The most unconventional yet adorable meet-cute ever. I have read it many many times.

THIS FIC. Oh my gosh. I've read it three times so far and I just adore it. It's an AU based on the movie Happiest Season (although I personally think this fic is far better than the movie). I'm always here for Christmas fics and they're always quite hard to find in my experience and yet here is this absolute gem, heavy with plot and drama and the most wonderful use of canon characters and dynamics.

I've spoken about this fic by @kckenobi before and I will do it over and over until everyone on earth has had the privilege of reading it. This is, without a doubt, the best fanfiction I've ever read. I can say that definitively. My recommendation for this would be to download the playlist that goes along with it. There's a link in the notes of the final chapter. Ngl I have Apple Music so I had to individually search for each song and add it to a playlist but it is beyond worth it. Aside from the writing being phenomenal, listening to the songs while reading is honestly life-changing. I have such a soft spot for classical and orchestral music and when I tell you you won't be able to look at any other fic without thinking about what a magical experience this one was, I'm not lying. The Codywan is quite minor compared to the rest of the plot but it is incredibly sweet and feels very natural. This is great if you like Obi Wan-centric fics.

This one is very special to me because it was one of the first fics I ever read in the fandom. This author (I don’t think I can tag them but their user on here is the same as their ao3) in general has been integral to my Codywan journey and there's so many of their works I've had the pleasure of following the publication of in such a short amount of time. Another unconventional meet-cute, which just seems to be a trope that suits this ship down to the ground.

But my personal favourite fic of theirs is Natural Wonders, a Photographer!Cody and Park Ranger!Obi Wan au, because I followed the publication of it from start to end and it was an absolute blast. This author's work ethic is unparalleled. Just take a look at the range of fics they've written. It's seriously impressive. Truly one of the best writers to begin with if you're new to the ship because they've done so much. You’ll be able to find basically any genre you like the most and every single one is insanely well written.

This fic is so sweet that reading it will rot the teeth right out of your head. This is by the wonderful @legobenkenobi who is not only the loveliest person ever, he is also a remarkable writer. Cody and Obi Wan work in a library together, Obi Wan comes in with a cat, which belongs to neither of them, out of absolutely nowhere one day (which is the most in-character thing I’ve ever heard) and the fluff ensues from there. While you’re there, read everything else he’s written because every single fic should be put in a museum.

Canon Compliant/Divergent

Cody and Obi Wan get married by accident. It sounds lighthearted and funny, which it is a little, but it also feels like hugging a thousand knives at once. This author manages to capture the painful longing between the two men that would be present in the canon-verse. It's under 1k words and yet they manages to inflict so much pain so quickly. There's something so delicate about the way they write and it's such a poignant, heartwrenching take on what is usually used as a solely comedic trope. I don’t read angst that often but every word of this was beautiful.

This fic is just... I can't even describe it. It's so in-depth. I feel like you really get to experience the Star Wars universe here. There's so many characters that are usually underutilized in fics, but not here. It features blind Obi Wan and how this affects his experience as a Jedi and as a General. It’s tactful and magnificently written. You really get to go on an adventure with the characters and it's so rich in plot and follows the actual plot of parts of Clone Wars but with such a unique perspective added. The story just slots so nicely into canon. I don't want to spoil too much but it's such a fascinating take on Obi Wan's character. Also!!! It explores so many relationships that canon itself neglects to. My personal favorite other than Codywan is Obi Wan's interactions with Ahsoka. This is still an ongoing fic so get in while you still can. You won't regret it, I promise.

This is also one of quite a few times where I've been a fan of someone's work before joining Tumblr, only to realise after following them that I've been reading their work for ages. @foreverchangingfandomsao3 you are immensely talented. Thank you for writing such an immersive story. I am in love with your take on Obi Wan.

This is another ongoing fic by the lovely @farores-oak-tree. It's a post-order 66 fic and it's so so so good so far. Other than Codywan's inevitable reunion, what I love the most about this is how it uses its other characters. Sabé features heavily and I always wanted to see her again so this was a delightful discovery. Again' I don't to spoil too much because its still being posted but there is such an interesting use of canon events. It's been so much fun so far so please give it a read if you like post-order 66 Codywan. This could be the plot of Kenobi S2 and I would completely believe you. It's so good.

This is another fic I read and absolutely loved and then started following the person who wrote it on here without realising. @frostbitebakery is behind this particular work of art. This is a Sith!Obi Wan AU and honestly it’s the only one you’ll need. I really love the way it’s structured and I don’t know if this makes sense, but this author has something about their writing style that is so careful and distinctive and you can see that same style coming through in their art style too (seriously, have a look at their art, it’s absolutely insane). It’s so detailed and you can feel how much time was spent on it. Such a delight to read.

Another recommendation of a work I’d been subscribed to who I think is actually written by a mutual of mine. I’m not certain about that but regardless, I can’t begin to express how much I love it so far. It’s another ongoing fic. I have a thing for fics that detail how Cody and Obi Wan first meet because canon does nothing to show this. If it turns out this is actually how they met and how things unfolded for them, I would completely buy it. It just suits them so much. It feels so true to their characters. It’s so natural and it flows so well. I could read a thousand chapters of this.

I could recommend so many others but these are the ones I always think of when people ask for recommendations. I think I put the usernames of everyone who has an account on here but I’ll keep looking in case I missed anyone. I’ve been in a lot of fandoms but I genuinely mean it when I say Codywan authors (and artists) are the most accomplished I’ve ever seen.

#codywan #codywan fanfic #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #clone wars #star wars prequels

[kitsaystransrights]

Okay I’m starting a new series on here called “I just finished this game” where I gush about a game I just finished.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of musicals, visual novels, or Greek mythology, you NEED to play Stray Gods.

If you haven’t heard of it before, Stray Gods is a visual novel with branching story routes, but it has the twist of also being a musical! Many of the game’s major choices take place in the songs themselves, and the songs will actually changed based on your decisions! Each song has numerous different permutations based on around 3-5 choices in each one. I recommend checking out Challenging a Queen, one of the early game songs that’s relatively light on spoilers, to see how some of the choices really add some spice to the game and weave through the songs.

The game’s story just follows Grace, a 20-something girl who witnesses the death of Calliope, the Last Muse, and to make matters worse, she has inherited her powers and role. The Chorus, leaders of the remaining Greek gods (known as Idols), give Grace one week to prove her innocence before she is executed, and the line of Calliope is gone forever.

Accompanying her on this journey are a variety of gods, monsters, and her mortal (strictly platonic… strictly) roommate, Freddie. The cast of Stray Gods is easily its best aspect, full of lovable and complex characters, leaving you laughing a lot, sobbing sometimes, and sometimes not knowing who to trust. And when it’s backed up by a fantastic voice cast, and nearly every character getting their own song if not multiple, I’d be astounded if you managed to get through the game without getting attached to SOMEONE lol.

(For the record, my favorite characters are Freddie, Persephone, and Aphrodite hehe)

And of course, what’s a musical without its music? The soundtrack of Stray Gods is absolutely incredible, even beyond the incredible amount of work and dedication it took to integrate so many variations of all the songs in the game. Lots of variety with the genre, sometimes even changing in the middle of a song! If I haaad to pick a few favorites, I suppose it’d be The Ritual, Look Into Me, and If Only. I’m a sucker for the emotional songs, but Look Into Me is suuuuuch a banger, it feels so threatening and I LOVE it.

OKAY now I’m gonna gush about my favorite parts of the story and get all spoilery so if you don’t want to be spoiled, DON’T KEEP READING! Go play the game yourself! Iirc it’s on all current platforms. Enjoy :)

So HOLY SHIT APHRODITE’S SONG HIT ME LIKE A BRICK??? I love the moral dilemma her whole cycle of rebirth puts you in, deciding whether to honor her wishes and let her die again or to convince her to find peace in life rather than trying to forget. I tried SO HARD to save her without forcing her and she ended up passing on anyways.

Persephone’s character is also SOOOO well done here, the reinterpretation of her story where she kills Hades is a fantastic direction to take her character. She ended up being my main investigative partner for the game and I did NOT regret it. I almost ended up romancing her, and I definitely will on my next playthrough, but I didn’t this time because of…

Freddie!!! Freddie absolutely rules and is my favorite character in the whole game. Mortal Greek mythology nerd who is super gay and wears a cool hat, how could I NOT love her??? My heart was completely torn to shreds when she died, and even though I knew she had to be able to come back somehow because you could romance her, the fury it raised in me made me blaze through the last four hours of the game and finish it in one sitting XD.

And JEEZ the way they let you bring her back is so well done. It’s not outright good or bad, it’s complex! Freddie and Grace are both traumatized by her death and resurrection, and the fact that you went against Freddie’s wishes and passed the line of Calliope onto her just makes it even more interesting from a storytelling perspective. It’s part of what makes If Only one of my favorite songs in the game. And of course, I’m a sucker for stories of unrequited love like Freddie’s is for Grace and now I’m gonna feel so guilty romancing anyone else 😭. Freddie is so relatable istg.

Anyways uuuuuh that’s all I have to say, maybe I’ll do a full review on my YouTube? Thanks for checking this post out tho! Okay bye :)

#I Just Finished This Game #indie #indie games #Stray Gods #greek mythology #queer #visual novel #musical

[staenless]

I think what the Drake and Kendrick situation showed me was that a lot of users on Tumblr have incredibly white music taste. Like not even only in genre, but they just "prefer" white artists. So, as one white fujoshi website dweller to another, it doesn't matter what genre you like, there are amazing black creators making that music. Yes even that weird ass fucking genre you were about to protest with. The problem is black musicians really don't get the amount of support they deserve outside of "traditionally black" genres (rap/hiphop/rnb) and so a lot of the time it's up to listeners to decide "am I happy listening to white guy number 500, or am I interest in expanding my library?" having a variety of musicians in your playlists is an active thing you can, and should, do. Often these creators are doing something very unique, or bring a different perspective to the genre and you're seriously missing out not listening to them. So here's what you do, you think of a genre of music you like, then open your prefered music app and type in "black /genre/ artists/artists of colour". It's literally that easy. You'll be shown playlists, albums etc and now you can listen through them and find a new favourite song, or even artist.

This applies to more than just music FYI. If all your video essayists are white dudes try giving female/POC creators a view (there are some very very good ones out there who make amazing shit). It's very easy to fall into this weird space where you consume media mainly made by white people because it's generally given more support, but making an effort to expand beyond this is important too, and I hope more people realise that and make the effort👍

Anyway feel free to reblog with your favourite creators/musicians recommendations I want them

[severalpossiblemusiks]

I have an issue with prog rock/metal

To start: I love prog, and have a pretty extensive collection of prog albums, but I also find prog kinda… bland. Which seems antithetical to what prog is supposed to be.

When prog got started in the 70s, it was a child of psychedelic music, which took elements of rock, folk, world, classical, jazz, avant-garde, and early electronica to make the weirdest and most unusual music possible. It had a close cousin in space rock, though it has to be noted that space rock was more heavily improvised, while prog was carefully composed with no sound out of place. Bands like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Camel, Gentle Giant, Kansas, Rush, and Genesis were part of this early prog scene, and are some of the best bands: they combine and utilize a wide variety of musical inspirations and methods to make some incredible songs.

Fast forward and prog was dead in the 80s, with a few bands like Rush and Genesis surviving the shift, while new bands like Asia and Marillion made “pop-prog” in the 80s.

Enter prog metal. Dream Theater took the Rush style of progressive hard rock and made it heavier, with some next-level musicianship, and led into the 90s with a full head of steam. Several other prog metal bands also got started, but none quite held the same grip on defining the genre as Dream Theater.

And this is where I think things get bland for me. As I said, 70s prog was a cornucopia of musical influences and styles. The 80s forced a stripped-down prog that focused on uncommon time signatures and synths. By the time prog metal comes around in the 90s, and especially in the 2010s with the djent subgenre, it really hits the point of “weird time signatures, and that’s about it”. Bands like tool, Polyphia, Tesseract, Meshuggah, and a lot of solo YouTubers, do incredibly virtuosic stuff that to me sounds like empty posturing, if that makes sense. All this musicianship, and not a single song that sounds like a song. What I mean by that is a song is a story, even an instrumental. It has rising and falling, ebb and flow, a start and an end, and by the end it feels like you went somewhere.

Take for example the Rush song YYZ. All instrumental, an iconic Morse code opening rhythm, which leads into an equally iconic and catchy guitar line, so catchy in fact that live performances often had crowd singing along to an instrumental! It’s not terribly easy to get those results. The song gets louder and quieter, the song has discernible sections, and it ends on that same Morse code rhythm. It’s a story and it takes you somewhere. A fair amount of contemporary prog I’ve heard doesn’t seem to do that.

Now I have to be aware that musical trends change and styles evolve and develop into new things, and tastes are different from person to person, band to band, genre to genre, decade to decade, etc. but my big thing is that prog was conceived as a sort of fusion genre: it would fuse multiple different styles and musical traditions and instruments. Now it’s just math with a guitar. I miss when prog had violins and spacey synths and could devolve into a polka rhythm before rising again to a 5-against-3 polyrhythm or something like that.

One prog band that I think still follows the spirit of the 70s prog bands is Ayreon. He mixes analogue synths with classical, jazz, folk, metal, electronica, and even opera to achieve his sounds. And each album is an epic rock opera telling the epic tale of humanity as an experiment by the godlike Alphans, and the “pulling back of the curtain” to see what all goes down in this weird universe.

Anyways I should stop ranting. Modern prog is good, but it lacks the progginess of old prog.

[polariskai]

my clementine. │ prologue

summary growing up, your conception of love wasn't clear. You always thought it was fickle and illogical, but there was just something about your ex-bestfriend, choi beomgyu, that you're drawn to. No matter how hard you try to forget him, he's eternally painted on your mind. You and beomgyu used to be neighbors back then when you guys were 6, and after a little incident involving halloween candy, you guys became close friends. Ever since then, you two were inseparable, almost like you were glued together until you two had a fall-out during the beginning of your high school years because of a misunderstanding. The two of you were too stubborn to make up and haven't spoken a word to each other since then. Now, you're a freshman in college and on the first week, you decided to attend the freshman party in hopes of gaining new connections, what you didn't expect however, was to see beomgyu, the one person who you were afraid of seeing again.

pairing(s) beomgyu x fem!reader, some hueningkai x reader

genre angst, fluff, childhood friends! to strangers! to lovers???, romance, college! au

word count 4.2k words

contents/tags sfw, mutual pining, reader and beomgyu both have an avoidant attachment style,

warnings  family problems, miscommunication, emotional neglect, mentions of divorce, reader is insecure(?)

notes this is heavily based on the song clementine by grent perez !! I highly recommend listening to his ep conversations with the moon while reading :)) 

( not proofread so I will be editing this soon I'm sorry that it's a bit messy )

taglist @baekberrie​  @woncheecks​  @y00nette​ ( if you’d like to be added, just send a dm or ask !! )

≡ masterlist 

It was October 31, every kid's favorite day of the year. It was a fun time for kids to dress up as their favorite character and well, mostly for the excuse to get and eat candy as much as they wanted from a night of trick-or-treating. You were most especially excited for the costume part as you had planned a week before to dress as a vampire princess.

Once it was around 5pm, you and your dad had gone trick-or-treating together throughout the entire neighborhood. Your neighborhood was relatively small so trick or treating lasted for around 15 minutes or so. Despite it being a quick run of trick-or-treating, you managed to overfill your little pumpkin bucket with varieties of candies as your neighbors were so generous and adored your unique little costume.

Afterwards, your dad decided to bring you to the little kids’ halloween party that your neighbor next door was throwing. They prepared a little event with a bunch of games and a movie-viewing for kids within the neighborhood to enjoy while the adults came over to talk and drink together.

“Y/n go and have fun with the other kids, I’ll be there at the adults table okay?”You nodded and your dad kissed your forehead before leaving you with the other kids situated at the table at center of the living room.

Once your dad left, you took the opportunity to show off your over-filled halloween basket filled to the brim with varieties of treats.You proudly stand up and point to your bucket, bragging like you’ve found an incredible amount of treasure.

“Y/n y/n! Can I have some please!!” “Me too me too!!” “I wish I had your candy!” The other kids approached you and their eyes sparkled at your basket, in awe of the amount of candy in your hand. You nod and being the kind and considerate person you are, you offered your candies to the other kids.

You had generously offered your candy, until you realized you only had half of the candies left. You frowned when you started to realize how quickly you lost your candy but you were still happy to give your candies after seeing how others didn’t even have any.

However, one of the boys you gave candies to didn’t seem too satisfied as you only gave him three pieces after you had decided to stop giving away any more candies. He threw a tantrum and pushed you a bit too harshly that your bum landed on the ground.

“That’s so unfair! I hate you! You gave the others so much! You know what, I don’t care I’ll take all of your candy.”The kid yelled before grabbing the candy bucket that fell on the ground as it fell from your grip after the impact of his push. He smiles and greedily laughs before running away.

You sat on the ground and frowned, tears starting to form in your eyes as the bucket you were so proud of having just got stolen from you. You started sobbing uncontrollably after realizing you were left with no candy at all. The other kids didn’t care about your sobbing and sniffles, afraid to give up the little candy they had to themselves.

You felt a light tap on your shoulder and you turned your back. It was another little boy your age that you weren’t really familiar with. He looks at you and frowns at your state.

“I have no candy, I c-can’t give you any.” You said in between your sniffles.

“No! I don’t want more candy, I saw you’re sad and another boy stole your candy so I want to give you all of mine.” The boy let out his bucket in front of you. It was a lot smaller than yours, but you were so happy at the sight of the candy in front of you.

“Really? But you’ll have no candy.” You said and frowned, he shook his head.

“It’s okay with me! I feel bad and I don’t want to see you sad.” He said and your heart fluttered at his selfless gesture. All the other kids wanted to take all your candy, but this boy was very willing to sacrifice all of his for you.

“Thank you!” You smiled and took the basket from his hand.

“I am y/n, what is your name?” You asked him.

“I’m beomgyu!” He said before taking a seat on the ground, next to you. “Do you want to be friends, beomgyu?” You asked, letting a hand out in front of you for him to shake and seal the deal of your friendship.

He nodded and shook your hand.”Yay! Sure!”

And that marked the start of your friendship with Choi Beomgyu.

From then on, you and beomgyu had grown closer as years passed by.

You and beomgyu were pretty much inseparable, almost like you two were glued together. Every morning, you and beomgyu got to school together and spent the entire school day side by side, even after school has ended you would go and mostly hangout in beomgyu’s place after school. Beomgyu turned out to be your next-door neighbor and you often dropped by each other’s house.

You two got along with each other so well despite people around you thinking how you both seemed to have different personalities.

You were known as someone who was was quiet and serious, yet also kind and smart. Although you weren’t popular, people felt intimidated by you for being someone who seemed reserved and incredibly smart, you were a kind student too, often placing top 1 in your grade, while also known as a nice and generous person in your batch.

Beomgyu on the other hand, was known as the class clown. Known for his bright personality and also good looks, he was one of the popular students. He often seemed laid back and happy-go-lucky to his peers, becoming well-liked for the positive energy he gives all-around.

Despite the two of you possessing quite different personalities, you both found home in each other for the fact that you both had quite similar backgrounds. You both didn’t grow up in great families.

Your mom and dad divorced when you were at a young age. Your dad cheated and left the both of you for another family. Your family wasn’t exactly rich either, so your mom struggled to take care of you alone while also working. Your mom was quite strict. Growing up, you being an only child has automatically made you bear all the high expectations your mom placed on you. You were an overachiever, the top-1 student in your class. You made sure to do everything your mom expected of you, scared of being deemed a failure to your mom. She wished for you to follow everything she had wanted you to do, and you sometimes felt like you never had any autonomy over your own life. But you followed everything, not wanting to create any conflict in your life. You barely fought with your mom but she often neglected your emotional needs.

And that was why you often turned to beomgyu. He was the only one who knew about your problems. He always reassured you and cheered you up at those times you felt upset. He was the only one who made you feel loved and understood.

Beomgyu had family problems too. When he was only five, his parents fought a lot and he then grew accustomed to all the arguing. A year later, his father one day left without a trace, leaving him and his mom devastated. His mom became depressed and hopeless. From a young age, He became all cheerful and bubbly, to make sure his mom wouldn't be depressed or worried about him. He was a mediator and this led to him having a difficult time opening up to others. Despite owning a bright personality, he did feel quite lonely.

you knew about this too and you were the only one who knew.

You two confided in each other. Despite feeling like the world was against the two of you, you were both happy and content knowing you both had each other, even promising that you would never ever leave each other one day.

You would never imagine beomgyu drifting away from you. You would never, ever let anything get in between your friendship.

That was what you thought until sophomore year rolled around.

You and beomgyu still hung out together after school everyday as usual. It was simply a routine you’ve gotten used to. But some things were about to change.

It was one fine afternoon after school. You only had a half-day schedule for school and you were hanging out with beomgyu in his house. The scorching sun was glaring over your town, the heat was hotter than ever.

You sat in front of the electric fan to get some cool air to beat the hellish heat of the weather.

"Hey hey hey! give me some of the fan too, you're not the only one suffering here." Beomgyu jokingly yells and sits himself down next to you, slightly pushing you to the side.

"like I care, get your own fan." You push him back and you put your hands on the fan, continuing to hoard it from him.

"Come on! Sharing is caring." You two start bickering over the fan until beomgyu just decides to remove the plug.

"If I can't have it then no one can! and also we could've just turned on the ac."he says and lightly laughs before grabbing the ac remote and turning it on.

You get up from your seated position on the floor and plopped yourself on your bed.

He lays himself near you and places his head on your lap. He closes his eyes and clasps his hands together, resting them on his stomach. You both remain silent for a few minutes. The sound of the air con buzzing being the only thing heard in the room. You take a moment to take in beomgyu’s facial features.

He’s cute, you thought

You felt your heart skip a beat. Was he always this good-looking? You couldn’t lie, you always found him quite good-looking but why did you start to feel something different at this moment? maybe he was just looking extra different today?

Do I have a crush on him? Oh, come on maybe I just find him good-looking, that’s all.

Your stare at his lips and notice how soft they were. Oh, how badly you wanted to kiss him at that moment. You’ve never kissed anyone before nor have you ever felt like doing that.

Impulsively, you lean in closely and cup his face before planting a kiss on his lips. You feel a sense of warmth and comfort in the kiss. Beomgyu kisses back and gets up from his position. You wrap your arms around his neck. Beomgyu pulls away and flicks your forehead.

“Earth to y/n?” You were taken back into reality as you realized you’ve spaced out while staring at beomgyu the entire time. He furrowed one of his eyebrows in confusion.

y/n that’s weird what the fuck?

You look away immediately and bring your hand to your mouth, feeling embarrassed. A tint of red painted on your cheeks and you shook your head ,trying to get over that moment in your head. You feel weirded out over your thoughts.

What has gotten into you, are you insane? Ew kissing your best friend, really ?

“Daydreaming about me?” he teases and gets up, leaning close to your face. A bit too close. Your heart starts beating really fast, nervousness slowly taking over you.

“ew get over yourself gyu.” You scoff at him and shoot him a glare.

“Yeah okay okay.”Beomgyu laughs at your reaction and proceeds to lay down on your lap again.

“Hmm do you have a crush? Anyone caught your eye in your class? You’ve been crushless since forever.” He mentions and you scratch your head.

“No, and like I said crushes are stupid. Like I've always said, I literally don’t care about that stuff, just a waste of time. Besides, nobody would like me and I like it that way.” You say.

“Yeah okay, ms. anti-romantic.” he rolls his eyes jokingly.

“Oh shut up, not like you had any either throughout high school, you got multiple girls and even guys in line who want to date you but you’ve never batted an eye to any of them. Ooj wait..do .you like someone?”You chuckle before raising an eyebrow to tease him.

“Well..actually..I don’t know. There’s this girl I’ve been thinking about lately.” Your eyes widen in shock and you feel your heart beat going fast again.

“Oh who’s this girl?”You ask and he bites his lip before sitting up.

“secret…I’m not even sure about it plus I think it’s just irrational and temporary whatever. I highly doubt she’ll ever like me back and I’m just kinda scared..”

“Beomgyu you’re just like me, of course crushes and romantic love would feel irrational but I don’t think you have to be so scared.”

“But this crush feels different..it’s weird? I’ve liked people purely because I found them cute but never really felt you know..that certain way. Like for the first time, I actually feel like wanting to date someone.” He looks down and plays with his fingers nervously.

“Gyu you know, you’ll be fine! I know I also have these issues too but you know what, go get this girl. You never know, she’ll like you back and maybe a relationship wouldn’t be so bad after all.” You say and pat his back to reassure him.

“But I don’t know..she’s confusing too but whatever. Ugh whatever crushes are just stupid and unimportant I kinda don’t wanna talk about this, let's focus on something else.” He shook his head and turns towards you and a smile was once again plastered on his face.

“All that really matters to me honestly is that no matter what, you’d be by my side forever. I know it’s kinda cheesy but let’s promise each other that we’ll never let anything get in the way of our friendship, not even our crushes or lovers! “ Beomgyu says and raises a pinky in front of you.

You wrap your pinky around his and nod. “We’ll forever be the strongest force of the universe.” You both laugh.

His phone buzzes next to you and you look over, multiple texts from soojin flashing on the screen.

“Oh gyu, someone texted you, uh soojin?"

You pass his phone to him and he looks over and grins while typing on his phone.

“Oh who’s soojin?”

Beomgyu looks up. “oh uh she’s actually a girl from my class, she’s new in school. I've been talking to her a lot lately, she's pretty cool and kinda cute." He says and shyly scratches the back of his head.

Oh is she perhaps the girl he has a crush on?

you feel a small wave of a strange emotion wash over you and your heart starts beating fast.

what the hell does this mean? It's nothing deep. Why is my heart beating so fast? It doesn't matter, really. But God why do I feel a bit Mad? Upset?

Jealous?

Day by day, you felt a shift towards on how you felt towards beomgyu. Some moments were you felt your heart skip a beat being near him. Each and every time you guys hung out, you started feeling butterflies in your stomach.

And that’s when you knew it, you liked him.

You tried to deny it multiple times but your thoughts were just full of him. While the butterflies occupied your stomach and thoughts of him flooded your mind, the feelings of fear and love clashed in your heart.

You were so scared. How could it come to this?

You feared that it would ruin things between you. Scared that these feelings would bring nothing but destruction to your relationship. He was your best friend and the one person who mattered the most to you. But a part of you also wished he’d never like you in the same way. It would probably only complicate your relationship. And you didn’t want to lose him over that type of love.

A part of you also thought maybe you could be the girl.

However you also started to notice how he got closer to soojin. You believed that maybe she could be beomgyu’s mysterious crush. He often talked about her to you. You asked him if he ever had a thing with her and he’d always deny it.

As it turns out, she was someone close to perfect. She was a student who thrived in all aspects in school. She was extremely popular around the school , being a student who was the top of her class, active in school organizations. She was well-liked for her lovely personality and gorgeous looks. You talked to her a few times and you could sense she had a strong and lovely aura.

Something you weren’t. You thrived academically, but you weren’t popular or that active. You didn’t exactly have a super warm or loving personality either.

He’d never like you. He probably likes soojin.

You would often see the two of them in the school hallways together. Even rumors flew that they’ve been secretly dating each other. But beomgyu would tell you if they did, right? But why did you feel slightly hurt?

It wasn’t like you wanted him to like you back anyways, right? He could do whatever he wanted.

At some point, the two of you were barely meeting up, you didn’t completely drift apart, you were still seeing each other once or twice a week but it just wasn’t the same. He started cancel on you, saying that he was busy over extra circulars at school. You figured he just started to be more active at school.

Your birthday was coming up and you were supposed to have a sleepover movie marathon like you two would always do. You were quite excited for this day every year for it was one of the times in the year, you and beomgyu enjoyed the most and it was something he would make sure to never miss.

You both were definitely hiding something from each other.

The bell finally rang, signalling the end of your last class. You excitedly thought about your movie night as you packed up your things. It was your birthday and after a whole week of waiting, your seeing beomgyu.

But unexpectedly, he texted you that something urgent came up in one of his clubs so he had to cancel. You sighed upon opening your phone and reading his text. You felt your spirit was down upon seeing that text. It was the day you’ve been looking forward to all week and it got cancelled just like that.You were quite upset but you understood anyways, it’s just one birthday anyways.

You were about to exit your class but you feel someone tug your arm by the door. You stop and turn to your right and see soojin, grinning at you.

“Hey y/n, we need to talk, do you mind sparing a few minutes with me.”she asks.

“Sure..”you nod and smile.

She looks inside the classroom to check if it was empty before grabbing your wrist and dragging you inside. She closes the door behind her and the expression on her face drastically to a scary one. You feel goosebumps and you start to feel nervous.

“y/n I need you to stay away from beomgyu. Please stop seeing him.” She says in a serious tone.

“Uh why? Who are you to tell me that plus he’s my best friend?” you ask, a bit confused.

She steps forward and glares at you. You were shocked at her sudden hostility.

“We’re dating, and I don’t want other girls around him, understand?If you’ve been wondering why he hasn’t been hanging out with you lately, we’ve been seeing each other a lot for awhile.”You felt your heart drop. He lied about being busy with school?

“Oh dear, do you like him?”She asks and steps forward, her glare sending shivers down your spine.

You remained silent with your head hung low, scared to speak up.

“Oh just give up, you’re nothing compared to me. You’re nothing but a best friend to him I promise. And girls and boys just can’t be friends, you know. You’re just getting in between me and beomgyu.” She chuckles before continuing to taunt you. You feel tears forming in your eyes.

She is right, beomgyu would never like you in that way. You can’t just be friends.

“O-oh okay, I’m sorry.”You nod and gave in. A smile is once again plastered on her face. But the smile you once saw as a seemingly warm and kind one instilled fear in you now.

“Thank you, dear. Thank you for making it easy.” She turns around and leaves you standing there.

Tears start falling down. You never wanted him to like you back, you wished for that to never happen but you felt so hurt. But you felt so conflicted. You didn’t know if it was the fact that he didn’t tell you they were dating hurt or perhaps the fact that he was actually in love with someone else hurt you.

You thought you couldn’t get worse, as you exited the classroom, rushing towards the stairs. You catch the sight of soojin and beomgyu sharing a kiss through the window inside one of the other classrooms.

You felt your heart ache but you walk past the room like you’ve witnessed nothing. Beomgyu saw you and as you walked towards the school gate you feel someone grab your wrist.

“y/n wait I need to explain things to yo-”beomgyu tries to catch his breath before trying to explain the situation but you were somehow so enraged you just cut him off.

“You told me you were busy, not dating around! It would be okay with me but remember we promised we’ll always be honest to each other but you lied to me beomgyu.”It was a rare for you to ever get angry. The tears continued to stream down your face and beomgyu felt his heart ache at your state.

“No y/n listen, we aren’t dating and I’ll make it up to you for missing your birthday I promise..please don’t be like this!” You turn around and continue to walk away. Beomgyu continued to chase after you, with you just completely ignoring him. His grip on your arm was getting tighter. Your rage was building up and you just turned to him again.

“Beomgyu just stop! So what? I don’t want to talk to you, just leave me the fuck alone! ”You yell at him and beomgyu loosens his grip on your arm. You notice tears starting to form in his eyes and he looks down at the ground, feeling guilty. He froze on the spot and mutters a small “sorry..”

You walk away once again and on your way home, the tears just continuously flowed down. People were side-eyeing you as you walked home, questioning why a teenage girl was crying so hard. But you didn’t care, and all you could feel was guilt and despair. You just lashed out on your best friend and lost him for reasons that you knew weren’t so bad enough to be infuriated.

But you felt that it must’ve been the best decision.

 It was best to follow what soojin asked, maybe if you continued talking to him, it’ll only cause problems.

You also knew this might have probably been the only way for you to get over him.

Right? You just need to hate him to forget the feelings you’ve garnered for him the past few months.

But was it really worth it losing him?

From that day on, you both avoided each other like you never once knew each other.

If only you two just properly communicated. So many unspoken words between the two of you. You and beomgyu were afraid to speak up and all those years of friendship went down the drain. The promise you both agreed on was broken.

If only one of you swallowed your pride and just talked it out, things would be okay but just like that.

You guys became strangers to one another.

≡ masterlist │next.

a/n: ik some things might’ve been confusing but a lot will be explained in the next part !! this is also written only from reader’s pov after all :))

#beomgyu x reader #beomgyu angst #beomgyu au #beomgyu fluff #txt angst #txt fluff #beomgyu series

[robogrind]

What songs would you recommend for someone trying to get into psych rock? I find it interesting but I have no idea where to start;;;

Hi!! this is a really fun question, i'll try to answer it the best i can!

a great place to start is with the classic stuff from the 60's, it's definitely how i got into it. stuff like Sgt Pepper by The Beatles and Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix are incredible albums. Check out this playlist Spotify has!! ----> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWSDoVybeQisg?si=4ae4cf6fd3e24a06 <----

now if you wanted the modern stuff, there's such a crazy amount of variety and i don't wanna make this too long LOL but King Gizzard and the Lizard wizard is absolutely my favourite band ever, have a look at I'm In Your Mind Fuzz. some personal favourites are Melted by Ty Segall, Take It From The Man by The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Man It Feels Like Space Again by Pond. here's another playlist full of great stuff! ----> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX7k3T9O9bscd?si=cd04997e6e814ee4 <----

ultimately it's such a diverse genre it's a bit hard to squash it down into one answer BUT i hope this helped a little :-) Xx

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I saw two of my favourite musicians live the other night. It was brilliant, here's some stuff I wrote down.

Quick bit of background because I probably write posts like this too often without context: Canada has four East Coast provinces - Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia is full of Scottish descendants and Newfoundland is full of Irish descendants and as such, there is a lot of Celtic folk music in both those places, with a lot of overlap but they have their own distinct culture. Distinct partly due to their roots (get you get more Scottish Gaelic lyrics in Nova Scotia and Irish Gaelic lyrics in Newfoundland, the Nova Scotians are always wearing/singing about the Nova Scotia tartan, that sort of thing), but also they've developed their own Canadian styles of folk music that are in some ways distinct from each other but in many ways similar. There are lots of great folk musicians from all over Canada, but the East Coast provinces are where folk music is by far the most popular, ranging from traditional to modern, from Celtic-inspired to their own thing. There's an island that's part of Nova Scotia called Cape Breton where they teach (Scottish) Gaelic in language class and step dancing in gym class and fiddle in music class so all the kids grow up to be folk singers and you cannot throw a rock without hitting someone who's won an ECMA (East Coast Music Award, they're a big thing if you're into that sort of thing). My dad raised me on folk music in general but specifically on East Coast music, which now that I think about it is a bit odd because it's my mom's side of the family that's actually from Nova Scotia. He doesn't only listen to East Coast music and neither do I, there is more to Canadian folk music than just the East; my dad grew up buying every album by Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn, and he saw Neil Young play in a bar in 1975. But a few islands on the East Coast of Canada are responsible for a shocking amount of my favourite music per capita.

Dave Gunning and JP Cormier are both Nova Scotian folk musicians (JP Cormier is one of those guys who adopted the East Coast despite not actually being from there, but in this case “East Coast Canadian folk music” is more of a genre than a specific location) who’ve been among my favourties since I was young, so I was delighted in 2017 when I heard they were putting out an album together. When I actually got to hear the album, it exceeded my very high expectations, it’s one of my favourite albums in the entire world, by anyone. It’s called Two.

They’re both among the best on their own for different reasons, but together they’re so much more than the sum of their parts. The biggest thing that I still cannot get over about them together are the vocal harmonies. The seams between their voices disappear completely on every song, they do it like it’s nothing. It’s incredible.

JP Cormier is head and shoulders above most of his peers as an amazing multi-instrumentalist. He can play the guitar and the fiddle and the mandolin and the banjo and the cello and somehow percussion and piano. And he doesn’t just “dabble” in the variety. He put out an entire album of instrumental-only guitar tracks once and it was amazing, he’s also won multiple awards for his fiddling. Also he’s got the most beautiful melodious singing voice. On pure talent he’s just the best at everything. I saw him do a two-hour solo concert at a bar in 2008, his album The Messenger had just come out and he played almost every track off it and that is such a good album, and it was one of the best fucking things I’ve ever seen.

In 2009, when I was 18, I went to the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, Nova Scotia. JP Cormier had played that festival every year for decades, he was a hero there, and it was a big story throughout the festival that this year, for some reason, he’d agreed to perform at the Sudbury Folk Festival on the same weekend so he wouldn’t be at Canso. It was disappointing. It was my second time at StanFest (it’s a 16-hour drive from where I live, followed by a weekend of camping, I’ve been in 2002 and 2009), and I had greatly enjoyed seeing JP Cormier there the first time I went, so I was sorry that my second trip happened to be the one time he wasn’t there.

On the Sunday, last day of the festival, they have a tradition where at noon, they stop all the stages besides the main stage, so everyone at the entire festival gathers in the big field at the main stage for an hour. They put about 12 musicians on stage, who take turns singing Stan Rogers songs/playing backup music on each other’s songs, and at the end of the hour everyone in the entire crowd singings Barrett Privateers and Northwest Passage a cappella and I get to see some old people around me cry so that’s fun (seriously, it’s fucking beautiful).

That weekend, they’d just finished introducing the 12 musicians on stage when suddenly I heard the crowd around me erupt into cheers and they were all turned around, so I turned around and saw this huge man walking down the aisle separating the lawn chairs. The cheers were deafening and kept up all the way until he reached the stage, walked up, grabbed the mic out of the announcer’s hand, and shouted “I was on the plane to Sudbury when I realized I belong here, so I told those people they can shove it and I turned around!” And then he proceeded to back up all the other musicians in their Stan songs, and he sang one of his own. And you have never seen a crowd of senior citizens go so wild.

It wasn’t until after it was over that my dad pointed out to me that they never said his name. JP Cormier’s got a pretty distinctive appearance – basically he’s massive – and every person in that entire crowd all recognized him instantly, and collectively lost their shit despite him having no introduction. That’s pretty cool. It also, of course, occurred to me that actually, if he really canceled on a different festival at the last moment, that’s kind of a shitty thing to do. But I’m going to hope he was just saying that for bravado to a crowd that wanted to hear it, as he didn’t arrive in Canso until noon on Sunday. He’d have had time to play a bit in Sudbury and then fly back. Hopefully that’s what he actually did. But that crowd in Canso, Nova Scotia was pretty fucking happy to hear he’d told Sudbury to shove it for them.

I’ve seen JP Cormier live lots of times, but the other major one that comes to mind was in 2019, when I went to the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. My parents and I got tickets to see him in a concert hall with Tim Edey, this British guy he’d been touring with. They both started playing guitar at the beginning of the hour… and then they didn’t stop. Not once. For the entire hour. Mostly they played at the same time, sometimes one or the other would play solo for a bit, but the whole time, neither of them said a word, and at least one was always playing. Sometimes one of them would slow down enough to make it look like they were going to stop this, turn to the crowd, say “Thanks for indulging our fun improv”, and then start playing their actual songs, which was what the audience had expected (it hadn’t be advertised as anything but a normal concert by two guys who do have songs). But just as they’d almost faded out, they’d renew their energy and start playing faster. Sometimes they’d get in each other’s faces, one would play something particularly fast or odd, challenging the other to match or one-up it, and they would, the other one would repeat the riff and add something, and then other would repeat that but even faster, and they’d go back and forth and it would be incredible. They did not stop until the hour was over, when they waved to the crowd and walked off stage.

I suppose that technically, the audience didn’t get what they expected when they paid for the tickets. But I cannot imagine a single person in that building could feel cheated. I’ve seen many concerts, but I’ve never seen anything like that. My parents and I still talk about what an incredible thing we all got to witness that night.

So JP Cormier is a fucking legend, which makes it odd that off the two people in the double act I saw the other night, if pressed to choose between them, I think Dave Gunning would be my favourite. Dave Gunning’s a strong candidate for my favourite musician. I would probably say Lennie Gallant is my favourite musician, but I think I’ve spent more hours of my life listening to Dave Gunning than to Lennie Gallant. I’ve spent more hours listening to Dave Gunning than to JP Cormier. To almost anyone.

I first saw Dave Gunning at the Lunenburg Folk Festival in 2014, when I was 13 years old. I normally went to folk festivals with my father, but he was back home while my mother and I were visiting my grandparents in Nova Scotia. We drove into this little Nova Scotian town called Lunenburg, because their folk festival was on while we were there, and a Cape Breton guy I really liked named Bruce Guthro was playing.

Bruce Guthro had a guy opening for him, just playing about three songs before Guthro did his full hour. That guy was tall and skinny and appeared mildly terrified to be there, but then all three of his songs absolutely captivated me. My mom and I kept nudging each other to say “Oh wow, this guy’s better than we were expecting.” At the end of his short set he plugged his solo show that he was doing later that day at a (smaller) stage at the same festival, and his then-new album, Two-Bit World. I enjoyed the Bruce Guthro show that followed, but when it ended, my main comment to my mother was I couldn’t believe how good the opener was. We went to his own show in the afternoon, saw him do an hour of socially awkward patter around incredible songs, they were too good to match how self-effacing he was. We immediately went to the CD tent and bought his album.

This was exciting to me, because until then, all my favourite music was stuff to which my dad had introduced me. My dad had a huge CD collection that I was lucky enough to be able to use as a library when I was a kid, taking CDs to my room a few at a time to play on my boom box stereo, because that’s the era in which I grew up. I hear people talk about what was the “first album” they bought, and I’m not sure what mine was, because my favourite albums as a kid were all things I didn’t have to buy as my dad just let me use them.

So when I was 13, Dave Gunning became the first music I ever got to introduce to my dad, rather than the other way around. I was so excited to play the CD for him when we got home from Nova Scotia. He asked how he didn’t already know this guy, and I said I don’t know, I can’t believe he’d missed him. My dad listened to that CD once, and immediately started looking into acquiring Gunning’s other albums, and looking up when he was performing out our way so he could see him live too.

Dave Gunning has been a staple in our family ever since. We did acquire the stuff he made before 2004 – a live album from 2002, and one from 2000 called Caught Between Shadows. He also has a couple of albums from the 90s that I have tried quite hard to find but they do not appear to exist anymore.

I have no idea how many times I’ve seen Dave Gunning live since that day in 2004, but it’s a lot. A lot of times my dad and I would see him several times in one festival, just following him from one stage to another. He was on stage at StanFest 2012 when JP Cormier made the whole crowd scream at once by telling Sudbury to shove it, and the day before that, I think I’d seen Dave Gunning play four different workshops. I have every album he’s released since Two-Bit World, and I think for all but two of them, I saw him live at least once when that album was new and he was promoting it, so I’ve seen him play most of his albums live. I’ve seen him play in fields and basements and pubs and concert halls and community centres.

I think anyone would admit that Dave Gunning does not have the blinding multi-instrumental talent of JP Cormier, because absolutely no one has the blinding multi-instrumental talent of JP Cormier. But pretty well no one can write a song like Dave Gunning. They’re deceptively simple but subtly complicated. They’re sometimes playful and sometimes contemplative and sometimes devastatingly poignant and sometimes meaningful stories and a surprising number of them are about old-timey executions.

My mother’s parents grew up as high school sweethearts in Nova Scotia, then moved all over the place as my mother was growing up, and 30 years ago retired back to rural Nova Scotia. They’ve been married for almost 67 years. This year they both turned 90 – my grandmother in November 2023 and my grandfather in January 2024. I wanted to make them something special, so I found a bunch of old pictures from when they were young, and put them together in a video to play at their birthday celebration and make my grandmother and my mother cry (that mission was very much accomplished).

There was no question about what song to use: Dave Gunning’s Saltwater Hearts, a song about an elderly Nova Scotian couple that had lived their lives by the Atlantic Ocean together. This song is off Two-Bit World, the first CD I ever bought by him, and it was one of the three songs he played the first time I ever saw him, when he opened for Bruce Guthro. The first time I ever heard that song it made me think of my grandparents, and now, 20 years later, my grandmother calls me every few weeks to tell me she’s watched the video again with the pictures and the song about her and my grandfather. Dave Gunning's music is now embedded into my family history.

I’ve written before about the kid at the centre where I work as an autism therapist, who loves music. He can only say a few words, he doesn’t have the cognitive capacity to use augmented communication, he gets overwhelmed easily and can try to hurt himself or others, and unlike a lot of the kids there, he’s not interested in toys, so there’s not much we can do to keep him happy. The only thing he really likes is music, but he loves that, so I’ve learned how to use that to help him emotionally regulate. I play him a big variety of stuff, but I think I can say Dave Gunning’s his favourite. It’s probably the stuff I play him most often. It started because Gunning’s put out a couple of Christmas albums, and I played the kid some Christmas songs because that’s good kid-friendly stuff. But then one day I accidentally put on one of Dave Gunning’s fiddle medleys, and the kid loved it, so now I play him Dave Gunning’s full catalogue, from the silly Christmas songs to the trad Celtic stuff and everything in between, and it all goes over well.

I think the kid’s favourite album is Dave Gunning’s Tribute to John Allan Cameron, which I first saw Dave Gunning promote at a bar in Halifax where he played most of the album and the crowd went wild for it and it was amazing. That album came out in 2010, four years after the death of John Allan Cameron, who was a Cape Breton guy who got credited with taking the folk songs that got sang in kitchens of Cape Breton, and playing them in public to popularize them. He died, Dave Gunning made an album with a combination of covers of songs written by John Allan Cameron and songs that John Allan Cameron liked a lot, it’s Gunning’s most traditional album because John Allen Cameron was a trad music guy, it’s also the kid’s favourite album, proving that I never had to be concerned about avoiding playing him music that would be too traditional for a kid. A silly concern, really, as I loved traditional music when I was a kid.

One time I was able to stop the kid in the middle of a meltdown by putting on The Mingulay Boat Song – he went from standing up and crying to immediately sitting down on his knees, closing his eyes, and just swaying back and forth until the song ended. Because of that kid, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dave Gunning the last eight months or so, as I’ve been playing it at work as well as at home.

I have so many memories of Dave Gunning across so many years. I remember the first time I heard his song Made on a Monday, played at some folk festival or other (I think it was the Stewart Park Festival in Perth, Ontario), which he introduced by saying he wrote it after being told to never buy a car that was made on a Monday because no one does their best work on Mondays. When I heard that song, it was the first time I ever thought, “Oh, cool, there’s an adult who knows how I feel.” I now, of course, know that the world is full of songs about teenagers who don’t fit in, it's not an unusual topic for music. But I didn’t know that when I was a teenager, because I only listened to folk music, which didn’t cover that feeling quite as often as teenage music did. So it was a revelation to hear an adult sing about feeling like you’d been made wrong.

That was the same album that had the song Big Shoes, so I’d have heard that for the first time at the same festival, in probably the same set. I don’t remember the exact circumstances around it, but I distinctly recall the first time I heard that one, sitting on a lawn chair in some field and being overwhelmed by hearing a man describe how music felt to me. Big Shoes is a song that Dave Gunning wrote about how he felt when he saw Stan Rogers and John Allan Cameron live, but I heard it and looked up at Dave Gunning and thought that’s how Dave Gunning makes me feel, as does so much else at that folk festival. “It was rock and roll to me/He might as well have been the king.” Amazing line to hear when I was 19 and had this music that I loved and shared with no one but my parents, no one at school had heard of any of it, they were all talking about their teenage bands and I just had these folk musicians who were my rock and roll. (In my late teens/early 20s I did actually get into various genres of rock music, as well as alt-country, but for the first 20-ish years I was pretty exclusively into Canadian folk music, which meant I had nothing to contribute to conversations with people my age about what we were listening to.)

Given all this, you can imagine my delight when JP Cormier and Dave Gunning put out a joint album in 2017. And you can imagine my further delight when it was even better than I’d expected, even better than the sum of its parts, it’s now one of my favourite all-time albums. And you can imagine my further delight when they put out a follow-up album in 2023 called Leather and Dust. And you can imagine my mixed emotions when, in summer 2023, my parents were in Nova Scotia at the same time as Gunning and Comier were playing a small folk festival out there to promote their new album, while I was back home and couldn’t go. Both my parents went, and I made my dad send me pictures and videos. It looked amazing.

I actually got pretty emotional about that, because I realized I’d seen almost no live music in several years, since pre-COVID. I’d taken folk festivals for granted for so much of my life, as a staple of every summer, as well as more live music sprinkled across the year. When 2020 cut all that off, I just never took up live music again. Watching short videos of my parents seeing Gunning and Cormier last year reminded me of how much I missed it.

I figured I can’t have the amazing East Coast music scene because I’m not in Nova Scotia, but they still have stuff here, so I Googled folk music in my area. Learned about a relatively new venue that plays folk music exclusively and has a monthly Celtic night. Bought tickets to that Celtic night, attended it in August 2023, loved it, resolved to take up live music again. Since then, I’ve been to a bunch of gigs at that same venue, it’s a wonderful place, I’m so glad I was prompted to discover it. A folk festival crowd all year round.

In November, I was browsing that venue’s calendar because I didn’t have a Christmas gift for my parents, and I saw that Gunning and Cormier were playing there on April 25. Perfect. I got tickets. Well, I got Garnet Rogers tickets for my mom and I, which we went to in February and that was also great. I got Gunning and Cormier tickets for my dad and I. I shared the plan with my mom and she got a ticket too.

And that is where I was a couple of nights ago. Fucking amazing night. I’m still most blown away by the harmonies. I’d never seen them play together before (not specifically as a double act, anyway – I’d seen them share stages with lots of others a few times at festivals), and it was incredible how little setup there was. I hear the magical vocal combinations on their albums, and I assume they must plan that carefully, do several takes, have to get into the zone to be able to pull that off. But nope. Live, they can be joking around with the crowd, and then two seconds later they’re playing their guitars and matching their voices perfectly. If I close my eyes it could be one person singing.

They put on a great show. JP Cormier is gruff in his inter-song patter, such a contrast to his soft and lovely singing voice. Dave Gunning talking is exactly what you’d expect from his songs, exactly what you’d expect from his gangly appearance, awkward and humble and differential to JP, but repeatedly genuinely funny. They were both funny.

They gave interesting stories to explain some of the weird shit going on in their Leather and Dust album, which was cool, because I had been wondering. It’s a wonderful album, but in some cases, fucking weird. They’re a couple of Nova Scotian folk singers, but this album contains covers of The Alan Parsons Project, this weird American guy who sang about school shootings among other things, Stompin’ Tom Connors, and The Killers. The last one being one of the few songs off Leather and Dust that they didn’t play and also didn’t acknowledge at any point, we got no explanation for why they did that. Human by The Killers – a pop/rock song that used to be inescapable on mainstream radio – is just on a Gunning and Cormier album and they felt no need to tell us why.

It reminds me a bit of that time when Great Big Sea wrote an apology for going all weird on us after they got famous in the States, and put it on the same album as a Led Zeppelin cover. To be fair Gallows Pole is a traditional song and therefore technically more in the wheelhouse of Great Big Sea than Led Zeppelin, but Robert Plant has an arranging credit on a Great Big Sea album, and that is the only case of East Coast Canadian folk musicians covering something out of character that’s more weird than Gunning and Cormier doing The Killers.

Anyway, though, the point is that the concert was great even if they didn’t explain that. Dave Gunning pulled out his Stompin’ Tom impression briefly, which reminded me of that time on his live album from 2002 when he did an entire Stompin’ Tom cover in character as his Stompin’ Tom impression, and it’s a fucking good impression. I once played that song for my mother without telling her what it was, and it took her over two minutes to realize that wasn’t the actual Stompin’ Tom singing.

James Keelaghan was in the crowd (at the gig the other night, not during the live album from 20 years ago - I mean he might have been there too, I guess), which was fucking cool, you know you're at a cool music show when other musicians you like are also there (I've been playing a bunch of James Keelaghan for the kid at work lately, it's been going down well). They even referenced something I remember from years ago! When I was a kid, I saw several folk festival workshops with Lennie Gallant and James Keelaghan on the same stage, where they'd always tell the story of how they once got into a debate about who had killed off the most people in their songs. "And I thought I'd won," Lennie would say, "Because I've written a song about the Titanic. But James wrote a song called Everyone Dies." The other night, Dave Gunning and JP Cormier made some jokes about how they keep writing songs about outlaws getting hung on guillotines, and they like to kill people off in their songs, and then they pointed at James Keelaghan and said of course, the master of killing people off in songs is here tonight. That was fun.

During the intermission, Dave Gunning came out and was walking around. JP Cormier stayed backstage, which is fair enough, and while I heard a few people asking where he was, my father commented “That’s what I’d do, if I were him, rather than go out and make small talk with strangers.”  You can see why my father and I get along so well.

I’ve written before on this blog about how I get painfully star struck; the few times I have been in the same room as comedians I like, I have found it overwhelmingly scary to imagine them even briefly perceiving my presence. Last year I managed to push this aside enough to get autographs from both Josie Long and Grace Petrie at their shows, which was cool as fuck, but I did do a lot of panicking and quite literal stuttering at them and basically being an incoherent mess during our brief interactions. I do not do well with meeting famous people.

However, that doesn’t normally apply to the Canadian folk musicians. I think because I’ve been seeing them since I was a kid, so I am used them. My parents taught me the etiquette when I was young for the acceptable way to approach after a show or during intermission: buy something from their merch table – even if you already own all the CDs, buy another copy anyway as a bribe for a moment of their time and then just give it to someone as a gift or something – go over to them with a marker and ask them to sign it, politely tell them you’re a big fan and the show’s great, then run away before there’s any risk of outstaying your welcome. I’ve done it many times, I know the drill.

I think I might also be less intimidated by Canadian musicians than by British comedians because – well, I tend to operate under the assumption that if someone lives all the way in Britain but I’ve still heard of them from Canada, they must be very, very famous. While with Canadian folk musicians, I might slightly under-estimate their fame, because I live in the country where they’re from and I never meet anyone who’s heard of them (besides my parents), so they can’t be too famous to have twenty seconds to talk to me when they’re signing CDs, right? Even though of course that’s a fallacy, because these people are quite famous, just not among people my age.

Anyway, the other night, I looked over the merch table to see what was on offer. There were a bunch of CDs I already owned, and, interestingly, a couple of vinyl records. I don’t have a turntable, but I thought it would be cool to have a Gunning and Cormier vinyl album cover on my bedroom wall. Especially if it’s signed. The price was a bit steep for what I’d be essentially using as a poster, but it wouldn’t consider it too much money for a signed poster.

I bought the album and saw Dave Gunning over by the bar, talking to a woman who’d bought an album just before me and was getting it signed. I went over and stood sort of near them – close enough so I could get in there once she moved along, but I hoped, not so close that I’d seem to be awkwardly putting pressure on the situation.

As I stood there, I started to get very anxious. I’d done this many times before, but not for years (not with Canadian musicians, anyway), and I suddenly started thinking about the massive influence Dave Gunning has had on 20 years of my life and how fucking wild it was that he was just standing right there in person and how I didn’t belong here. It was the first time I’d been in a room with Dave Gunning for about five years, even though I used to see him two or three times a year. My mind started racing, and I worried about taking up too much of his time when I approached him, and then I realized the record had plastic packaging on it, and I didn’t want to make Dave Gunning wait while I took that off.

So I started taking it off while standing by the bar, making sure that when Dave Gunning was free, I could approach him, hand him the album, hand him my dad’s pen, get a signature, mumble the words “big fan”, and get out in under 20 seconds, he’d barely notice me, it would not be a big thing, it would be fine. While I was thinking this, I finally got the plastic off the album, but it turned out I was holding the case upside down, so when the plastic came off, the record fell out and loudly hit the floor.

My efforts to avoid attention had backfired, as a bunch of people in the area turned to look. Including Dave Gunning, as the woman talked to him had just wandered away and he was now free. I immediately started apologizing to the people around me, saying it’s okay, no need for a commotion, the record is fine, I’ll just pick it up. But before I could do that, Dave Gunning came over and picked up my album off the floor. He asked if it was okay, and I said yes yes it’s fine sorry it’s absolutely fine I’m so sorry yes it’s fine. Dave Gunning then walked a few paces away where there was better light, and he held up my record to the light to look for scratches. On one side, and then he turned it over to check the other side. He told me, “If there’s any damage we’ll get you another one.” I just stood there freaking out, not wanting to take up the time of an important person, but also not wanting to tell him: “Look, I basically bought this to use as a poster, I don’t even have a record player, it doesn’t matter whether or not the record itself is scratched.”

Dave Gunning finally pronounced the record unharmed, and handed it back to me. I stammered that the reason I’d unwrapped it in the first place was to ask him to sign it, and then I reached into my pocket and panicked again when I could not immediately find the pen my father had lent me for the occasion. Dave Gunning said not to worry, and then he pulled a sharpie out of his own pocket and signed the cover. Then he put the record back in the cover, handed it back to me, and showed me the correct way to hold it so nothing falls out (it turns out, for anyone who’s unaware, you’re supposed to hold it so the opening is at the top), I thanked him several times and then ran away, and realized afterward that I hadn’t even had the presence of mind to say the words “Big fan” to him.

But he was so nice. He’s so so cool. So cool. And after the concert, I stayed at my parents’ place where I was reminded that they have a turntable, so we played the record for a bit before I left for work the next morning. I ended up leaving the record itself at my parents’ place, so they can play it on their turntable. But I took the cover home.

My mother even found a couple of glass frames that are meant to hold vinyl records. Because she had two of them, she told me I could take my pick from her/my dad’s record collection and have one other record cover to put on the wall next to my new one. I picked out Ian Tyson’s Cowboyography, because it’s an iconic album that pretty much started Canadian country music in its modern form (modern form only, of course, all due respect to Hank Snow). So now I have this on my bedroom wall:

In a larger section of my bedroom wall that contains my Cape Breton Nova Scotia poster (okay, it's a dish towel that I got in my stocking at Christmas one year and decided to put up on my wall like a poster instead of using it as a dish towel), the photograph of Signal Hill in Newfoundland that my dad bought me after a trip there years ago, the old Josie Long poster that I got signed last year by both Josie Long and Grace Petrie, the printout of one of my favourite Bugle quotes, and the Nova Scotia sea glass art that my mother bought me when I graduated university:

Pretty good, I think. Solid use of bedroom wall space.

I miss live music and I'm glad I'm getting more of it back into my life. I'm planning to go back to that venue next month for their Celtic music night. Here are JP Cormier and Dave Gunning playing together at the Celtic Colours Folk Festival in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 2018 (I wasn't there that year, but I did get there in 2019 to see JP Cormier play guitar for an entire fucking hour like the coolest person in the world):

And here they are on April 25, 2024 (I only took one quick picture and then put my phone away, I promise):

#Youtube

[mchughrobbins34]

Unleashing the Future of Music: AI Lyrics and Songwriting with Contenthubai.com

Artificial intelligence has undoubtedly revolutionized various industries, and the world of music is no exception. Thanks to the incredible advancements in technology, we now have access to AI lyrics and songwriting tools that foster creativity and innovation like never before. One such platform that stands out in this realm is Contenthubai.com. With its cutting-edge lyrics generator and song lyric maker, Contenthubai.com is leading the way in unleashing the future of music composition and songwriting.

Gone are the days of struggling to find the perfect words to bring a melody to life. With Contenthubai.com's AI-powered lyric generator, songwriters, musicians, and even enthusiasts can tap into an endless wellspring of creativity. This innovative tool offers a variety of features such as lyric creator, song text generator, and even rap lyric maker, catering to diverse musical genres and styles. Whether you're a seasoned songwriter looking for inspiration or a budding artist seeking a starting point, this AI lyrics generator is here to ignite your creativity and help you craft unforgettable compositions.

By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Contenthubai.com ensures that their lyrics generator remains user-friendly and intuitive. With just a few clicks, users can easily generate random song lyrics or build intricate verses filled with rhyme and emotion. Furthermore, Contenthubai.com's AI technology continuously learns from vast libraries of existing songs and lyrics, enhancing its creative capabilities and allowing users to access authentic and engaging content. The possibilities are boundless, whether you're seeking to create memorable pop song lyrics, heartfelt country ballads, soul-stirring R&B verses, or even gritty rap lines.

As we venture deeper into the world of AI-generated music, it is crucial to understand and appreciate the role of platforms like Contenthubai.com. Their AI lyrics generator not only inspires the creation of original songs but also serves as a valuable tool for songwriters looking to experiment and explore new horizons. Through the synergy of human creativity and artificial intelligence, we witness a harmonious fusion that promises to reshape the future of music. So, whether you're a seasoned wordsmith or an aspiring artist, embrace the power of AI lyrics and songwriting with Contenthubai.com, and let your musical vision soar to new heights.

1. The Power of AI in Music: Revolutionizing Songwriting and Lyric Generation

AI Lyrics and songwriting with Contenthubai.com provides a groundbreaking solution for musicians and songwriters looking to unleash the future of music. With the advent of AI technology, the process of creating lyrics and song texts has been revolutionized, enabling artists to explore new creative possibilities.

One of the key features offered by Contenthubai.com is its lyrics generator, which allows users to effortlessly create original lyrics for their songs. This powerful tool eliminates the need for extensive brainstorming sessions and writer's block, providing instant inspiration and ideas. Whether you're a seasoned songwriter or just starting out, the lyrics generator can be a game-changer in your creative process.

In addition to the lyrics generator, Contenthubai.com also offers a comprehensive songwriting lyrics generator. This tool enables musicians to generate song texts based on their specified genres, styles, and themes. It opens up a world of possibilities for artists, as they can experiment with various song structures and explore different lyrical themes with ease.

The AI technology behind Contenthubai.com's song lyric generator goes beyond simple word suggestions. It has been trained on vast amounts of data, including popular songs from various genres, allowing it to generate lyrics that are both engaging and relevant. Songwriters can now save precious time by using this AI-powered tool to generate a solid foundation for their songs.

The power of AI in music cannot be overstated. AI lyrics and songwriting tools like those offered by Contenthubai.com empower musicians and songwriters to tap into their creative potential, explore new genres and styles, and push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of music. With the rise of AI, the future of music is undoubtedly exciting, sparking a new era of innovation and artistic expression.

2. Contenthubai.com: The Ultimate AI Lyrics and Songwriting Tool

Contenthubai.com is revolutionizing the music industry with its advanced AI lyrics and songwriting capabilities. With its innovative technology, musicians and songwriters can now effortlessly generate captivating lyrics that resonate with their audience. Whether you're a seasoned artist or just starting your musical journey, contenthubai.com is the ultimate tool to unleash your creativity and take your music to new heights.

Using the lyrics generator feature, artists can easily create original and personalized lyrics for their songs. Gone are the days of struggling to find the right words or getting stuck in a creative rut. With contenthubai.com, you can input keywords or phrases related to your desired theme or emotions, and the AI system will generate a wide range of lyric options to choose from. Whether you're looking for heartfelt ballads, energetic rap verses, or catchy pop hooks, this AI-powered tool has got you covered.

Not only does contenthubai.com excel in generating lyrics, but it also offers a unique songwriting experience. The song lyric generator feature allows you to input existing lyrics or titles and instantly generate melodies and chord progressions that complement the chosen lyrics. This innovative approach enhances the songwriting process, making it more intuitive and efficient. With contenthubai.com, you can explore endless possibilities and experiment with different musical styles to create songs that truly reflect your artistic vision.

Moreover, contenthubai.com is designed to cater to various genres and musical preferences. Whether you're into metal, rap, country, or pop music, this AI-powered tool can adapt to your specific needs. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data from different genres, ensuring that the generated lyrics and melodies maintain the authentic essence of each style. So, whether you're a solo artist or part of a band, contenthubai.com empowers you to create music that resonates with your audience and showcases your unique sound.

In conclusion, contenthubai.com is the ultimate AI lyrics and songwriting tool that empowers musicians and songwriters to unleash their creativity. With its groundbreaking features, such as the lyrics generator and songwriting capabilities, this platform revolutionizes the way music is created. Say goodbye to creative blocks and welcome a new era of effortless music composition. Whether you're a budding artist or a seasoned professional, contenthubai.com is the perfect companion to fuel your musical journey and bring your vision to life.

3. Exploring the Benefits and Limitations of AI for Songwriters

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a range of benefits for songwriters, revolutionizing the creative process and unlocking new possibilities. With platforms like Contenthubai.com providing AI lyrics and songwriting generators, musicians can tap into an extensive collection of tools and resources. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the limitations of AI in this creative field.

First and foremost, AI lyrics and songwriting generators can be incredibly useful for sparking inspiration and overcoming writer's block. These platforms provide a vast database of words, phrases, and ideas that can help songwriters find unique combinations and unexpected connections. By generating a wide array of options, AI can push songwriters to explore unfamiliar territory and discover fresh perspectives.

Moreover, AI lyrics generators also offer valuable time-saving advantages. Songwriting is a meticulous process that often requires hours of brainstorming and refining. With AI, songwriters can speed up this process by leveraging algorithms that generate lyrics quickly. It allows artists to focus more on the actual composition and overall sound of the song, rather than getting caught up in the initial stages of crafting lyrics.

However, it is important to note that while AI can be a fantastic tool, it does have its limitations. taylor swift lyric generator is the lack of human emotion and intuition that AI possesses. Songwriting is a deeply personal and emotive art form, with lyrics often serving as vessels for expressing complex feelings and experiences. AI-generated lyrics may not capture the same depth of emotion or authenticity as those created by human songwriters, as they lack the ability to draw from personal experiences and emotions.

In addition, AI lyrics generators may also struggle with cultural nuances and subtleties. Every genre and style of music has its own unique characteristics and linguistic conventions. AI may not always capture these nuances accurately, resulting in lyrics that may feel generic or lack the distinctive qualities associated with specific musical styles. This can be a limiting factor for songwriters looking to create music that resonates with particular audiences or genres.

In conclusion, AI lyrics and songwriting generators provide songwriters with valuable tools for inspiration and efficiency. These platforms offer a vast array of options and can help overcome creative blocks. However, it is essential to recognize the limitations of AI when it comes to capturing human emotion and understanding cultural nuances. By understanding and embracing the advantages and disadvantages, songwriters can effectively integrate AI into their creative process and unleash the future of music.

#AI song writer #AI lyrics writer

[hyvnjinns]

Hi! If I wanted to get into stray kids where should I start?

Oh my goodness anon, I'm so thrilled to receive this ask!! ❤️ Apologies in advance for the long reply ahead, and please don't hesitate to ever send in any other asks if you need clarification or have any other questions! I'm always happy to talk about Stray Kids ^^

I'd say the first place to start depends on whether you are already a kpop fan! If you aren't, it might be helpful--but not required at all!--to take a look at some guides to kpop to get an idea of what people mean when they talk about liners, generations, bias wreckers and daesangs. A good starting place is the kpopfairy carrd--it's a very good introduction to the terminology and culture you might encounter if you choose to become a more dedicated SKZ fan (side note: SKZ is the abbreviation for Stray Kids!).

In terms of getting into their music: a lot of their discography is heavily influenced by trap/EDM and even, notably, psychedelic trance (Side Effects--probably one of their most polarizing songs. It's incredible live though, I have to say). But even if those genres aren't quite your thing (they aren't always mine!), SKZ have one of the most diverse discographies in KPOP and almost certainly most Western groups. The music is almost completely self-produced by three of their members, and their lyrics often focus on issues like growing up and mental health. They have 18 albums + EPs + repackages in total, so the discography can be a bit overwhelming. I recommend watching their most popular title tracks--for instance, God's Menu (2020), the song about their unique musical style that catapulted them to fame both inside and outside of the KPOP circle. I also recommend a video that speedruns their songs across genres, like this one, to get an idea of their varied sound! As far as personal recommendations go, I love Phobia, Cover Me, Winter Falls, Haven, N/S, and SUPER BOARD. And, if you're into something a bit more...mature, Red Lights (a subunit song featuring only 2 out of 8 members) is their most-watched music video ever. Not only is the song amazing (and horny!), but the MV was directed by a queer Korean director who incorporates some kink elements in his work, and it's incredibly sexy. (And pretty rare to see something like that in KPOP, tbh.)

As is common in KPOP, Stray Kids have a lot of "variety" content--their SKZ-Talker series goes behind-the-scenes of award shows and when they're on tour, they sometimes do individual vlogs showcasing days in their life, and on and on! There's also their main variety show, SKZ CODE, where the content ranges from them solving murder mysteries, doing drag for an elaborate "SKZ Family" skit, or playing baseball. While all of these shows are hilarious and very fun to watch, they can be pretty overwhelming at first due to trying to tell everyone apart + reading subtitles while 8 men are shouting all at once! My biggest recommendation is to start by watching some fanmade Intro to SKZ videos like this one or this one. They're not entirely up-to-date (for one, Chan doesn't do Chan's Room anymore, which is tremendously sad), but they provide a great insight into the members' info and personalities. There's also this video which was a godsend when I was trying to figure out who's who! Once you feel comfortable enough with that, it is pretty easy to start watching some of their variety content, especially if you begin with individual vlogs where it's generally just one member!

I hope this makes sense and isn't overwhelming--I know it seems like a bit much since there's a huge amount of content from them! There's absolutely no pressure to consume all of it; I've been a fan for four years now and there's definitely still things I haven't seen and probably never will. Stays (the name for SKZ fans) are also by and large very accepting of casual fans who aren't hugely active within the fandom, and the SKZ Reddit in particular is really welcoming/drama-free with an entire weekly thread for new fans called "Baby Stays" where people can chat with others and ask questions. Have fun!! 💙

#anonymous asks #stray kids

[batboxfm]

Show Playlist 10/3 & 10/4

In our Inaugural Week I decided to play a variety of genres rather than focusing on just one sub-genre! Variety is the spice of life and music is made to taste (more food puns pending)

Most of the bands I played this week can be found on Spotify or Apple Music but I will be linking their respective Bandcamp. My academic-new-year's-resolution is to try to steer away from traditional streaming platforms for music. This is for two reasons: I want to make sure the maximum amount of money and exposure is going to individual artists AND with the punk and metal scenes being more DIY than ever, many incredible bands are missing from broader streaming sites. With that all being said here's the playlist!:

anti-extinction ep by Zenith

I Tried To Fight It But I Was Inside It by Nervous Curtains

Gathered in the Ancient Woodlands by Ossification

Profiteur/Hässig split by Profiteur

Chasm by Persephone's Legacy

The Hunt by Ulvesang

Grey Maiden by Gatekeeper

No Dawn For Men by Feminazgul

In The Eyes by Tributary

Spider In My Beer And Other Songs "the nice price" by Stop Calling Me Frank

Scale of the Fish (Single) by RAT BATH

The Unlawful Assembly by Dawn Ray'd

Wake of a Nation (EP) by Zeal and Ardor

Lights, Marching Lights by Black Stag Rising

Demo by NyreDolk

Comedy Gold by Queen Wolf

Odyssey to the West by Slice The Cake

Solar Cremation by The Hallowed Catharsis

Lay Down The Sun by Unmother

A Distant Fire by ALDA

#metal music #punk rock #punk #metalcore #folk metal #radio #antifascist #playlist #music recs

[healthy--change]

Crafting the Perfect Playlist for Your Mitzvah Event

A mitzvah event is a special occasion for any family and friends, so making sure the music is perfect for the celebration is essential. Crafting the perfect playlist for your mitzvah dj event is an important step in making sure that everyone has a great time. Whether you’re looking to create a lively dance atmosphere or a more subdued background, the right music can make all the difference. From traditional Jewish tunes to contemporary pop and hip-hop, there are a variety of songs to choose from. Selecting and sequencing the music can be a creative and enjoyable process, and with the right guidance and careful planning, the perfect playlist can be created for your mitzvah event.

Gather Inspiration

Music is an incredibly powerful medium that can have an immense effect on people’s emotions. As such, it is important to be thoughtful about the type of music you choose for your playlist. Think about the types of music that you enjoy, and draw inspiration from it. If you are creating a playlist for a special occasion, take cues from the theme of the event. For example, if you are making a playlist for a wedding, you may want to choose songs that evoke feelings of joy, love, and romance. Consider the music that you would want to hear at the event, and use this as a basis for your playlist.

Consider Your Audience

When creating a playlist, it is important to take into account who the audience is. Are you creating a playlist for a party where people of all ages will be present? If so, you may want to choose songs that are more universally appealing and that people of all ages will be able to enjoy. Alternatively, if you are creating a playlist for a specific group of people, such as a group of teenagers, you may want to choose songs that are more popular among that age group.

Choose the Right Genre

Once you have an idea of the types of music you want to include in your playlist, it is important to consider the genre of the songs. Different genres of music evoke different emotions and moods, so it is important to choose the genre that best suits your needs. For example, if you are creating a playlist for a wedding, you may want to choose music from genres like pop, rock, and classical.

Have a Mix of Fast and Slow Songs

When creating your playlist, it is important to have a mix of both fast and slow songs. This will help to keep the energy of the playlist at a steady level, and will create a more balanced listening experience. A good rule of thumb is to have one slow song for every two or three fast songs. This will ensure that the playlist has a good flow and that the energy of the songs will not become too overwhelming.

Balance the Classics with Something New

While it is important to include some classic songs in your playlist, it is also important to mix in some newer songs as well. This will ensure that there is something for everyone to enjoy, and will make the playlist feel fresh and exciting. Try to find a balance between the classic songs and the newer songs, so that the playlist has a good mix of both.

Add the Right Amount of Instrumentals

In addition to having a mix of fast and slow songs, it is also important to have a mix of instrumental and vocal songs. Instrumentals can be a great way to break up the flow of the playlist, and can add an interesting texture to the listening experience. However, it is important to be careful not to add too many instrumentals, as this can make the playlist feel monotonous and predictable.

Test the Playlist Ahead of Time

Before releasing your playlist, it is important to take some time to test it out. Listen to the playlist from beginning to end to make sure that it flows well and that the energy of the songs is balanced. You may want to ask a few friends or family members to listen to the playlist and provide feedback as well. This will help ensure that the playlist is enjoyable to listen to, and will help you make any necessary changes before releasing it.

Conclusion

Crafting the perfect playlist for a mitzvah event is an important task for any event planner. It's important to choose music that is appropriate for the audience, reflects the theme of the event, and creates an enjoyable atmosphere. In addition, it's important to consider the length of the event, the type of music, and the order of songs. By carefully considering all of these factors, event planners can create the perfect mitzvah playlist that will make the event memorable for everyone in attendance.

#mitzvah dj

[thebandcampdiaries]

blehsyu is back with a brand new studio work: "Medusa."

October 2022 - blehsyu is an artist focused on creating one-of-a-kind music that blurs the lines between different influences. Their sound covers an incredibly broad range. Anything goes from the hazy soundscapes of shoegaze down to the impact of post-punk."Medusa" is characterized by a psychedelic-tinged feel. It is a very ethereal sound, demonstrating that the artist can focus on the arrangement quality overall without compromising sound design and texture. In other words, blehsyu has produced a very enveloping sound filled with pathos and attention to detail. The listening experience is very rewarding, thanks to the great quality of this production. blehsyu offers the perfect combination of haze, melody, arrangement quality, and songwriting chops with "Medusa." The project is a great example of their artistic potential, as it s a very creative musical moment with a dark and lush flavor in which the sonic fabric is the background to the ethereal and sensual melody. "Medusa" was a mythical figure with snakes for hair and a gaze that would literally petrify anybody who would look at her directly. Perseus had to devise a clever strategy of attacking her through mirrors to shield themselves and win. Much like the mystique that drives the legend, this song has a very otherworldly twist, in line with the mysterious and ancestral nature of the tale. The track has a huge cinematic scope to it, and it feels incredibly sprawling and easy to relate to. This song is yet another fantastic addition to the sound and work of this talented artist, who is always ready to explore new musical ideas and tones in a fantastic way. With each song, it seems that blehsyu is able to explore a huge variety of influences, making their sound so distinctive when compared to the work of many other artists in this particular genre. It is not always easy to be innovative and passionate at the same time, but this artist definitely makes it look easy due to the amount of talent and focus they put into everything that they do here! The flow of this release is very natural, and the vibe is absolutely on point, making for a huge dynamic range to add weight to the sound. blehsyu set out to swiftly defy all expectations and perform glistening alternative music that combines many micro-branches of the broader shoegaze tree, including dream pop and coldwave. "Medusa" ultimately finds blehsyu closing in on a formula that's innovative yet timeless while employing a more refined, crystalline sonic palette. In addition, this release is also quite distinctive because of the sheer quality of the production. The mix is balanced and very detail-oriented, making for a lively, edgy, and stark sonic approach. In other words, there are many subtle nuances in this release, which add to the track's richness when summed up together. The frequency spectrum of the mix is also very balanced, with a tight yet deep low end working wonders along with a smooth top end, which adds a sense of clarity to the music.It is not always easy to stand out in a musical genre that often requires very specific sounds and compositional dogmas. Still, "Medusa" shows that blehsyu managed to rise up to the challenge beautifully. The sound has a unique duality as it is mellow and infectious but also upfront as it washes over the listener while projecting itself forward. With such a gorgeous and dreamy atmosphere that permeates the entire work, it's the kind of piece of music you can just get lost in. This will most definitely be up your alley if you enjoy the sound of artists such as My Bloody Valentine, Dead Rituals, Beach Fossil, Slowdive, Pretty Sick, and more.Find out more about blehsyu and check out "Medusa." This new release is currently available on some of the very best digital streaming services out there.

https://lnk.to/blehsyu

https://youtube.com/channel/UCVwAslmtlO3sKqWixIiZ2xQ

https://instagram.com/blehsyu?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0IgDANBWT6PIBv21ZfBTU6?si=5JBh3CVPRVOjmKJOA2y4Vg

[db-reviews]

#127 - Changes - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard (2022)

This year we have gotten 5 albums from our favorite band from Australia. Not only that, but they have all been consistently well-made. Made In Timeland is a unique progressive electronic album filled with fun 15-minute movements that are quite delightful. Omnium Gatherum is a jack-of-all-trades album that features a lot of different styles from jammy psych rock to heavy metal to even hip hop. Ice, Death was an incredible jazz fusion album that I think held that style of theirs to even more high regard. Laminated Denim struck me the most with that fun yet relaxing jams that continued some ideas from Made In Timeland and Ice, Death but added new stuff to make things even more phenomenal. Now we get into their last record for this year, their 23rd album, in fact, Changes. I am surprised the band can put out high-quality records like hot cakes, heck 5 this year is a jaw-dropping amount, just as much as they did 5 years ago in 2017. This band works fast and does things incredibly well. Within this October trilogy we have gotten the more jammy side of King Gizzard, but never the more compositional workings they can certainly deploy. Within Changes, that, no pun intended changes that. These are recordings of songs they have written from 2016 through today, and with that, we get a variety of eras the band has explored through the years.

It all starts with the track of Change. This 13-minute, the tranquil melody is extremely good. Within the 13-minutes you get some very tasty mellow space rock movements that are all chilled out in their approach to music. This keeps up for most of the 13 minutes until at the end it ramps up the heat and becomes a lot more jammy, yet it feels extremely natural and focused. It also has some pop elements, which even as a Prog fan I appreciate. I think it’s fun to cool your head with some more poppy elements once in a while. It even has some rapping too, really making King Gizz a band that can do any genre of their choosing. Pop? No problem. Hip Hop? Sure why not. Psychedelic rock? You know it, baby. This song is a great example of how you can still be progressive without doing blatantly progressive music, sometimes it’s good to do some more accessible elements. I think as said by the great Neal Morse, “I like to have simpler things break up the epics.” I agree with that mentality, and I think King Gizzard agrees as well.

If the first song didn’t tell you to shut up and have fun then this song will. Hate Dancin’ is best described by the lyrics, “No more caring about what other people think, let ‘em kick up a stink.” It is a song not meant to be too artsy or too wild and crazy, it is meant to be a very fun pop song for the world to enjoy. While my inner progressive rock fan is telling me this song sucks, my outer self loves this song. It is way more than a generic modern-day pop song, no I find it to be something more. It is a song that is happy because the band is happy, and if the band is happy, I am happy as a result. It doesn’t tell you to be happy for happiness's sake, because why should it tell you to be happy when the song itself is filled with joy? This is really how I see bands like Moon Safari or Cheeto’s Magazine create their music. They make these fun, whimsical, and jovial songs that aren't just happy for artificial brownie points but are happy because the band is happy. Hate Dancin’ is like that but in a pop form rather than a progressive rock form. I do love this song, it is just so fun.

Next up we have Astroturf and from the lyrics, I can interpret this was written during Fishing For Fishies, but the sound is very in line with Butterfly 3000. Due to those two factors, I get a strange sense of nostalgia for this song. It is weird but incredibly well-pronounced in the musical department. We get a mix of some R&B and synthpop mixed in with the band’s psychedelic nature. This combination makes for more fun music to be had. Not only that but they try more conventionally odd instruments in the mix of the more pop sound, such as flutes and horns. It does bleed out a jovial sentimentality in me, and because of that, I cannot deny its greatness.

If you thought Change was chill, then you have heard No Body. While not as long, it is so much cooler than what Change offered, and for its benefit, it works well. What I love about this song is the bass work of both Stu and Lucas. They deliver some fresh and almost dream-like work here that goes towards the more trippy psychedelic atmosphere even more than usual. It is lightweight but has some good weight to it. It is at a perfectly reasonable length too, being 3 minutes long, which allows the listener to get attached to this style of music and possibly seek more stuff out from it. It is a very chill song that doesn’t overstay its welcome, and I like that.

I think though the album does have one rather weak moment and that is Gondii. I am a fairly reasonable fan of the more synth-pop sound the band can deliver, after all, I did praise Astroturf for that aspect, but with Gondii I think it is a little bit of a poor man’s take on the genre. I think my main problem is that the electronic music being made here doesn’t sound as good as I think they hoped it’d be. It honestly reminds me of that weird 80s revival from the late 2010s where every art project was trying to look and sound like the 80s and either succeeding in what that era of music had, or just sounding way too stale despite that decade having some amazing sounds and bands. I think this song has that problem, and while I do not hate it, I don't love it either. If anything, it is the weakest link this album has to offer.

Though we do get some remedies for Gondii with Exploding Suns, which, mind you, continues that the path Change and No Body had, but refined them a bit to make for a great song. It is so calm, collected, and pretty in its sound, really letting the air breathe around the instruments as the sounds just wash you away in a nice sea of tranquility. If anything it is the most chill song the band has made, and with that I expect it to be on a lo-fi compilation playlist soon. I joke, but this song is relaxing. A mind laxer for these trying times.

The album ends with a reprisal of sorts for Change but in the form of Short Change. It may be 2 minutes but these end the album with a bang. It is a wild song, with lots of sounds, intensity, and immaculate finishing movements that, while not being the longest closure for a King Gizz record, add another layer to this album’s sound and makes not only for closure for an album that was pure bliss for the most part but closure for a good year of King Gizzard releases. It is wild, it is great, and it is just fun.

That is what this album is, pure fun. No strings attached, just pure bliss and energy, from the more relaxed and chill type of fun to the wild parties. It makes its pop sounds in a way that they aren’t just happy sounding, but happy feelings as well. This is the trademark for optimism right here for this very great band. I highly suggest checking it out, heck I think it can serve well as a good starter for anyone looking to get into King Gizzard. It is a great end off for this year of King Gizzard music, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

4.5/5

#music review #album review #pop #psychedelic rock

[jacksonhauge]

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[bikerjongho]

thaumaturge | ateez ot8

genre: supernatural, fantasy, action, horror

characters: occult!ateez ot8

description: Eight evil and magically supernatural beings have their fair share of fun and violence as they travel through a witchy black market.

word count: 6.6k

warnings: swearing, murder, violence, decapitation, death

author’s note: thanks to ateez’s new song the real, this was created. this is genuinely one my favorite pieces that I’ve ever written, so I hope you all enjoy, even if it’s a bit a lot... dark. extra kudos if you can figure out why hongjoong has a flute...

taglist: @itsapapisongo @mangomingki @irehlevant @blueprint-han

The airy noise of a flute from far off in the distance met the ears of people in the black market. The sound whispered around suspicious potions, illegal trinkets, and unsavory objects, giving the market a blanketing noise that masked the chattering of the merchants and customers. Although it was nothing more than a musical note, the noise was unknowingly synonymous with trouble and evil.

The flute belonged to Hongjoong, a man with frightening amounts of power and evil in his systems. The flute not only announced his arrival before his physical appearance, but it also announced his seven other teammates that were equally as dangerous and versed in unconstrained destruction as him.

On the outskirts of the black market, a small and dirty child played with a pile of rocks in front of his mother's tent. His mother, a woman greased with sweat and exhaustion, shuffled around her tent of potions and gathered what she could of food. She pulled out a small piece of chicken from a bag at her feet and carefully cut it into two unequally sized pieces.

She hastily shoved the smaller piece onto a graying plate near her before placing the larger one onto another plate and pushing it towards her son. But the son was still too busy with rocks to be bothered with eating, so the woman began placing more onto her son's plate - bits of lettuce that were more than a few days old and lumpy potatoes that looked undercooked, overcooked, and expired all at once. The meat was good enough and the potatoes were fine, but the withering lettuce was more than enough for Seonghwa.

Being the only folioric, a controller of plants and vegetation, on a team of mostly corpics made Seonghwa's power unique and highly valuable. While the others made blood boil and toes curl, Seonghwa had the proprietary job of dealing with plants, and more importantly, the poisons and trouble he could cause with them.

Magical black markets were incredibly engaging and amusing to him, so he enjoyed whenever his team made a detour through one. Seonghwa had studied and mulled over the existence plants and toxins for ages. He knew every potion that had plants in it and had even created his own. He was the root that connected botany and humanity. So, strolling through a black market that had false plant advertising, horribly made potions that even a beginner folioric could make to perfection, and toxins that were wildly inappropriate for their listed job, he couldn't help but chuckle at their inferiority. They were pathetic.

He was dressed like he was a regular customer at the black market, something that Hongjoong had strictly enforced whenever they wanted to cause a little bit of fun trouble. "The best place to hide is in plain sight," he'd always say. So, Seonghwa wore a green robe that went down to his knees. The end of the sleeves were embroidered with gold and black thread. A simple brown belt was tied around his midsection, and he wore black pants underneath the robe. His black buckled boots hugged and climbed up his legs.

This entire green ensemble was meant to show off his knowledge and abilities in botany, though in crowds like these, he doubted anyone would notice or realize the significance behind the clothing. Yet, the confidence the clothing gave him because on-goers did ogle the fine fabrics was more than enough to satisfy his hubris. It wasn't unusual to see someone of higher wealth in a slum-like market such as this one. In fact, it was usually good to see someone of that caliber - it meant there was likely something sold that was of worth, hidden between the utter filth that most sold. But Seonghwa wasn't there for buying.

Seonghwa shifted and narrowly avoided a dust cloud from a grimy child playing with rocks on the ground. There were numerous amounts of children like that around the black market. Families stricken with poverty had nowhere to turn except for illegal business, and even then money was tight and squandered. Seonghwa glanced at the boy's mother who ran her stand of sub-par potions, filling a plate of greens and meat for her son. He frowned at the lettuce.

Lettuce was one of the first plants he had to deal with at botany school - back when he was still enrolled and still had a cent of good in his blood. The professors would purposely let the lettuce wilt in the greenhouses and it was up to Seonghwa and the other foliorics to restore them. The memory made him cringe. The school, in his opinion, had suppressed his great powers and used them solely for mundane tasks. He had found it deeply insulting and was still insulted by it today. He had left the school and learned on his own how to harness his plant abilities to the fullest. In school, it had been a challenge to revive the lettuce that the teachers set out in the greenhouse. Now, he could be yards away and completely change the chemical biology of the lettuce with a lazy wave of his hand.

Seonghwa flicked his hand, and the lettuce winked at him.

"Lunch," the mother said to her son and pulled him to his feet, picking the rocks out of his hands and throwing them to the ground. She tried her best to dust him off and wash his hands with water, but most of the grime wouldn't come off. Seonghwa walked away as the mother handed the plate to her son, who began eating like he had never seen food before.

Seonghwa put his hands in his pockets. A glimmer of a smirk appeared on his face when he heard the child thud to the ground behind him, and the mother's subsequent scream.

Wooyoung trailed in behind Seonghwa, but the two acted like they didn't know each other, not sparing any glances or gestures at each other. He slid by the child that Seonghwa had killed while the mother's broken sobs rattled his eardrums. This team of evils, the eight of them, were journeying to a different city to buy rare botanical and medical supplies, the reason why they were cutting through this market.

"Instead of going around, we can cut though this black market," Hongjoong had announced only hours before and was met with joyous hoots and hollers. "Black market" was synonymous with fun - it allowed for the boys to cause behind the scenes trouble to people that they didn't care about or would ever meet again. Jongho had called it a warm-up for their powers and was met with agreement and laughter.

Wooyoung went in a different direction than Seonghwa, who was still strolling through stands of botany and stacks of medical potions. While Seonghwa was a folioric, Wooyoung was a corpic. Corpics, the broad term used to describe people that could manipulate the human body, were by far the most common variety of occult people. No one was truly sure why - but it showed in the fact that six out of eight members of the team were of this variety. Further categorized, Wooyoung, and also Hongjoong, Jongho, Mingi, and San, were spirabics, a subset of corpics that specifically dealt with living human bodies and feelings.

Wooyoung dealt with bones. Bending, breaking, and general manipulation of bones was his talent that had been bestowed to him at birth. Similar to Seonghwa, Wooyoung had been taught at school how to use his power for good, such as repairing fractured bones, but had quickly lost interest and dropped out when he realized his true potential.

Though, dropped out wasn't the correct word. This occult school did everything in their power to keep students from dropping out - they knew the merit and the sheer responsibility of the powers their students had. Using it for unrestrained evil was their worst fear. Wooyoung had deserted the school after two months of enrollment and then broke the spines of the teachers and guards that had gone to retrieve him when they realized he had deserted.

Wooyoung took a different route than Seonghwa not just because they wanted to be separated, but also because he was bored to death with plants. The area he strolled by was far more interesting - a small woman with a tight face manned a stand that claimed to sell human hearts and organs. On the stand next to her, full fingers, hands, and skeletons were on display like jewelry would be in a jewelry store.

He stared at the skeletons with his hands behind his back. He was aware of the stares because like Seonghwa, he was dressed in fine fabrics - blue instead of green - but he elected to ignore them. The stares also could have been for his peculiar interest in the skeletons.

"They're real," the shopkeeper told him flatly, and Wooyoung had to keep a straight face. None of the bones were real.

"They're gorgeous," he said, and then realized how odd that sounded. "For bones, I mean. You keep them cleaned and polished." But Wooyoung knew well that real bones could never be as white as the ones in front of him. He showed off a smile and nodded his head.

"Have a nice day," he said, and as the shopkeeper turned away, Wooyoung clenched his hand and snapped the shopkeeper's tibia. He strolled away with a smile as the man howled with pain, and the customers that were eyeing Wooyoung's clothes dove like hungry piranhas to steal the worthless and fake bones off of the stand. There wasn't any real reason why Wooyoung had broken his bone - it was just a fun activity to do in a market of strangers that had no impact on his life.

The flautist and San entered the black market as a pair soon after. Hongjoong, dressed in a shade of blue similar to Wooyoung's and flute strapped onto his side, strode by the mess of a mother Seonghwa had made and what was left of the bone stand. "I see they've done their job," Hongjoong yawned to his dark-haired friend. San grinned.

"No bones about it," he said, and Hongjoong gave him a look that could cut steel. San was dressed similarly to Hongjoong - a darker blue color, but the same fitted robe and high black boots. Hongjoong and San, like Wooyoung, were spirabics. Many thought that Hongjoong's flute that never left his side was a part of his magical ensemble, but that wasn't the truth. Hongjoong could raise levels of pain so that a paper cut felt like a heart attack. Sometimes his flute was a part of his sorcery - blowing a high note next to someone's ear and raising the pain was fun - but in truth, the flute was an elegant accessory given to him by his mentor before he passed away years ago.

San, in his smoldering and smirking glory, manipulated blood inside of humans. He could make blood clot or stop flowing or flow out of a body like a raging waterfall. He could make it boil like he was preparing a delicious vat of spaghetti. In many ways, he was one of Hongjoong's most coveted teammates, not only for his incredible power, but because of how useful he was when partnered with Hongjoong. So when San proposed the idea of working together to spread trouble throughout the market, Hongjoong couldn't refuse his offer.

"Who should we do?" San asked, hands behind his back and eyes flickering around the market and its sellers. San had been one of the first to accept Hongjoong's offer of making a team, and was therefore one of the most experienced and capable of their group. But he was also one of the most angry and dastardly ones. Hongjoong had seen the full extent of what San could do with years of being around him. Hongjoong knew better than to make him upset and laughed at those that did.

Hongjoong also eyed up some of their potential victims. Many of the sellers looked the same - sunken eyes, old and dirty clothing, and even dirtier intentions hidden in their hands and goods - but one stood out to him. Hongjoong nodded his head to a man that was a few stands down from where they were. "Him."

The man was considerably a different variety than most other sellers in the market. Besides wearing clothing that was close to the pricing of Hongjoong's and San's outfits, he sold considerable botany that even Seonghwa would look at and fine jewelry that both of them knew better than to touch. He was a gem in the midst of trash, and Hongjoong knew nothing would make him happier than to knock him down a few pegs.

San smiled at Hongjoong's choice. "A rich boy," he said, quirking his eyebrows. "Why?"

"I don't like how he carries himself, thinking that he's better than everyone else in this market," Hongjoong said flatly, eyeing him with suspicion. "He reminds me of me."

San chuckled. "Then, let's not hold back." He sauntered over to the seller with alluring eyes and struck up a conversation. Hongjoong couldn't hear exactly of what words were being exchanged, but it was clearly an engaging talk with how the seller's stance turned from tense and alert to relaxed and easy-going. He must have thought San was going to rob him as he approached. He should have been more wise. San was a vampire of the worst kind.

"The king just simply cannot have all of this stuff lying around," the merchant was laughing to San while Hongjoong slid up next to him. "Oh? A friend of yours?" He asked, looking at Hongjoong up and down.

"A friend indeed," Hongjoong said to him. He struggled to read San's face, because now it had changed. San had been engaged in the conversation, Hongjoong could tell even from far away, but now his demeanor had fallen. There was a hint of rage hidden behind his eyes, and Hongjoong knew exactly why.

San had once been a healer of sorts for a royal family. Almost every member, from the queen to her youngest son, were anemic, and it was up to San to regulate their blood at all times. But he quarreled with the king frequently, who thought San was doing a less-than-ideal job at helping his family with their condition. It wasn't until the youngest son died because of his anemia did the king react violently to San and threatened to fire him. But San had reacted back equally as violent - stopping blood flow to his heart and giving the king a heart attack as they fought in the throne room. The palace had revived him with another spirabic, but the damage was done and San's reputation was ruined. San fled the castle before the king could awaken and accuse him of an attempted assassination.

Hongjoong knew of his backstory and had spared no time in recruiting him. After all, the news of a defective royal spirabic spread like fire, and the flames had interested him.

But standing with this merchant, he had to applaud San for his restraint to not blow the head off of the royal merchant. Perhaps the prospect of blowing it off later with Hongjoong is what kept him only simmering. It was another mystery as to how the merchant didn't even recognize San. Hongjoong decided to not complain about the luck they had.

"Ah, the blessed kingdom?" San said, putting on a shining smile that Hongjoong almost believed. "Why must the king go here to sell things? Is he not content with the riches he has?" The merchant was shocked at San's boldness, but San's laugh that came after was so hearty that he joined in.

"I'm not sure why he wants to sell these trinkets here," the merchant said. "But it's what His Highness requests, so I oblige." San nodded his head and gave a soft smile. Hongjoong wasn't sure what rage or anger he had boiling his blood, but he was sure that San was done with being nice to a royal family kiss-ass. He gave a look to San, who was glad to reciprocate it.

Hongjoong shoved the merchant's table forward. All of the contents on the table shuddered and remained on the table, but the table hit the merchant's leg. "Oops," Hongjoong shrugged while the merchant furrowed his brow and rubbed his leg. "You're okay, right?"

"Yes, I'm fine," the merchant said, ruffled, and Hongjoong clenched his fist from inside his pocket. He could immediately see the pain rise like an enormous wave behind the merchant's eyes. He cringed with pain but still managed to stand. It wasn't in Hongjoong's interest to make him scream - he gave that privilege and right to San.

And San was more than ready. San's hand moved and the merchant furrowed his eyebrows even more. "Is everything okay?" San asked with a smile as the merchant's eyes began to twitch. He looked back and forth between Hongjoong and San like they had something to do with his pain, but ultimately focused back to his leg. Hongjoong wasn't sure what San had done, but it seemed slow and painful.

"Not really," the merchant said, wincing. "Excuse me, gentlemen," he said before limping into his stand's back area. San flicked his hand again and the merchant whimpered from behind the stand's back curtain. Almost immediately, a band of small children rushed in front of them and stole the rare plants off of the merchant's now vacant table.

"What did you do?" Hongjoong asked as he helped put the botany into the children's bags.

"I cut off blood flow in his left leg only," San said simply. His mouth quirked upward. "Or you could say, I blocked an artery. If he's fast enough, he might be able to have surgery to fix it. If he doesn't..."

"Death," Hongjoong finished, and San could only nod.

"Or amputation. I'm not sure how good the court spirabics are anymore. I don't care, either way." San gave a smile and waved for Hongjoong to follow him further into the market, his anger now behind him. A third party was hurt, and only half of the team was present in the market.

Another blue-robed man strolled into the market, but he was flanked by a man in grey. Mingi and Yeosang were the next of their group to enter the black market. Yeosang, the one clothed in grey, was a corpic like many of the others on their team. But he wasn't a spirabic, he was a cerebric, a special classification for corpics that dealt with the mind rather than the body. He could manipulate and damage the minds of anyone so long as he touched them. Yeosang's eyes, which had anything but mindlessness in them, flickered back and forth at different merchants in the black market like he was sizing up his victims.

Mingi, the taller and blue-robed one, was a spirabic. But in many ways, he was closer to Yeosang's power than any of the other spirabics in his team. Mingi could manipulate feelings and spike hormones on a switch. And while he didn't directly deal with the mind, he could still make anyone lose their mind if he added enough adrenaline to their body.

But while the two of them had powers that were very similar, they had drastically different backgrounds. Yeosang was a rarer breed of occult that was classified as dangerous by most schools that taught occult students. Hence, he was barred from most schools and didn't bother trying to convince them otherwise. There wasn't a good bone in his body and fellow occultists had made sure of that.

While Mingi, like many of the other spirabics on the team, had tried occult school. Mingi had learned how to lower adrenaline and calm anxiety. He had been the cure for marital problems and the savior for depression. But he had quickly learned it was infinitely more rewarding to cause pain and chaos rather than healing.

"This place is a dump," Yeosang scoffed as they weaved through the endless paths of the market. "Truly, people have lost their minds even without our help. Their products are shit."

"Less of a market and more of a dump," Mingi replied and walked by a little girl standing near a stand. She burst into tears. Yeosang was mildly amused.

Just as Yeosang was about to glance at a stand's contents, a running customer rammed into Yeosang's shoulder without warning. Neither Mingi nor Yeosang seemed too worried - in fact, a smile grew on Yeosang's face. He turned around stared at the customer while he kept running.

Almost immediately, the man stopped running and began screaming, hopping and clutching his feet like he had stepped on a thousand spikes barefoot. "Lava!" He howled before diving directly into a nearby stand, and Yeosang had to bite his lip to not burst into laughter as the stand's owner began yelling and swearing at the man who was saving himself from lava.

"Don't bump into me, next time," Yeosang murmured under his breath as a group of young men started a fist fight as Mingi strolled by them. Mingi held up his hands by his face and circled around the fight like he was surprised by this sudden confrontation.

"I'll say it again, this has got to be one of the most disgusting markets I've ever walked in," Mingi muttered when he and Yeosang were clear of the fight he had evoked. "But I guess that makes things more fun."

Yeosang nodded, side-stepping a man who was moaning for medical help and clutching his ankle. "Who should we really have fun with?"

The two surveyed the crowd of people around them, from dirty merchants to buyers with large inheritances to families with six children. There was a large variety to pick from, and Mingi was going to suggest doing a usual mind warp of a random merchant when Yeosang nudged him and nodded towards a young girl standing by a stand, paying no attention to the objects sold at the stand.

Her focus was only on the boy selling the items at the stand. Any blind person could see that she was madly in love. With how her body was only moments away from turning into a pile of mush and her eyes were physically in the shape of hearts, Yeosang and Mingi almost felt pity for her - the guy that she was in love with gave her no attention. His attention switched from a small amount of cash in his hands to the strange purple and green bottles on the table in front of him, like the girl wasn't even there.

"Playing matchmaker, are we?" Yeosang smirked at Mingi.

"Perhaps at first," Mingi murmured, walking closer to them so he could see his handiwork more clearly. "But you'll make sure that's not the end result." He pulled his hand from his pocket and waved it, a gesture seemingly innocent and regular.

The boy dropped the money in his hands and looked at the girl with a new appreciation, and the girl was startled by the sudden interest. Yeosang had to stifle a laugh as he nudged by the boy and got his own magic to work.

"... you're so beautiful," the guy was saying like he and the girl were alone in the market. "Truly a sight. Forgive my forwardness, but I have a small sum of money. Could I go to dinner with you and spend it all?"

The girl was a frantic and blushing mess. "Of course," she hummed, grabbing his hands and holding them close to her chest.

"They're gonna kiss," Mingi said and hastily put on a pair of sunglasses.

"And those sunglasses will save your sight?" Yeosang murmured as the two lovers locked lips right in front of them. Mingi's eyes weren't visible anymore, but his mouth was in a prominent frown. Public affection was apparently the price to pay for evil deeds.

"What exactly did you do?" Mingi muttered again, only seeing his own magic working. "We're playing Cupid rather than mind-fucking magicians."

"Watch," Yeosang said, and Mingi closed his mouth.

The new couple was now enwrapped in each other's arms like they were puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly. The boy stroked the girl's hair while he stared at her face and a few passerbys gagged and swooned.

"I love you," he said, not wasting his time in the relationship. The girl sighed and began pulling her hair tie out of her ponytail.

"Yeosang," Mingi hissed. "I do not want to watch a few teenagers rail-"

But he was cut off by a shriek from the girl. She was clutching the boy's small necklace around his neck with rage in her eyes. Yeosang glimmered.

"You have someone already," she growled and shook the necklace in front of the boy's face. It was just a normal necklace and the boy was sputtering out of genuine confusion. And it was a normal necklace. But Yeosang had made the girl think that there was a couple ring strung onto the chain.

"You're a genius," Mingi said, he himself not entirely sure of what exactly Yeosang had done. He flicked his hand again.

"You asshole!" The girl screamed, flames in her eyes. Mingi raised his eyebrows and admired his handiwork of adrenaline. She yanked the boy's necklace backward so that the chain clung tightly to the boy's neck. "You fucking cunt," she bellowed and pulled the chain as hard as she could. Mingi saw an opportunity and took it. He wasted no time to flick his hand again and the boy's head came off of his shoulders with a superhuman yank of the necklace from the girl.

Shocked bystanders began rushing towards the girl and pulling her away as she began to stomp on his decapitated head and scream swears at his corpse. Some were holding her back and others were trying to soothe her, but Mingi wasn't sure that was possible anymore. He smiled.

"Nice job," Yeosang and Mingi murmured to each other, amused at the scene they had created. Mingi had taken off his sunglasses. This was infinitely more entertaining to pay attention to.

"It'll go into the books," Yeosang said casually and began to walk away from the scene. The girl's yelling and screaming was a noise to behold. He was sure Hongjoong would want to know about it once they were all through the market.

"Decapitated by Cupid's machete," Mingi said, and followed him away from the lovestruck wreckage and further into the black market's depths.

The final pair of occults from the team entered the market. Again, there was another member with a blue robe and big eyes that showed his youth. They sparkled with a child-like glamor, but the glamor was of malice rather than wonder. The tall one beside him was in all black.

Jongho was a spirabic like most of the rest of the team and was their newest recruit. Only two months ago he had been at school and had genuinely enjoyed school, unlike the rest of them that had attempted academia. His power was something Hongjoong had never seen, so he had made it his priority to claim Jongho for his own when he first heard about his power and potential. When part of the team had arrived to meet him disguised as scouters for a more specialized school for talented spirabics, he was lowering the heart rate of a sleeping patient in the school's infirmary.

He had greeted them with bright eyes and a smile that could melt anyone. "You're the recruitment school, are you not?" He said politely, his dark hair fluttering as he nodded his head in greeting.

"Jongho, have you ever killed anyone?" Hongjoong said without preamble. The rest of the spirabics that were with Hongjoong - Mingi, Wooyoung, and San - shuffled in surprise to hear how upfront he was.

Jongho's eyes widened like he had been slapped in the face. "No!" He cried, putting a hand over his mouth. But Hongjoong watched as his eyes began to flicker around the infirmary. They were the only ones there. Incrementally, his body began to lose tension and he stepped backward to feel the consciousness of the sleeping patient.

"No," he had repeated, his eyes darkening. "But I want to."

And now Jongho had killed dozens already as a new member of the team with his power of manipulating bodily vitals. Lowering heart rate for restful sleep had turned into stopping hearts. Healing lungs had turned into snatching the air from them for a quick death. Even when Jongho had just joined their team to make them eight, Yunho had still seen bits of humanity in his eyes. It had made his eyes bright and gave illumination to their group of darkness and treachery. There was no light in them as he twitched his fingers and a nearby merchant was dead before he hit the floor.

"Nice," Yunho murmured.

"He had a bad heart anyway," Jongho said idly, shoving one hand in his long coat pocket and slipping a silver chain from the dead man's stand into another pocket.

Yunho reveled in the sight of dead bodies. His interest in them was not only because he relished in killing, but because he himself was a manipulator of the dead. Being a mortuumic, Yunho was even more rare than Yeosang's brand of corpic. He was also much more feared and despised by other occults of any kind. He had been an obvious choice for Hongjoong's team - no school wanted a boy that could animate their dead loved ones like a mad puppeteer. Hongjoong had looked in his general direction and Yunho was more than happy to be of use and join him.

"I know what we can do," Jongho muttered to Yunho as they slithered through the packed crowds. "I know what would be fun." He nodded to what Yunho thought was the dirtiest and most disheveled homeless man he'd ever seen in his life.

"Him?" Yunho said, raising his eyebrows. The usual plan when Jongho and Yunho were together was to murder and then reanimate a person. They had done it a few times already with success, such as robbing a villager's shop with his deceased brother's body a month back. Yunho didn't need to wonder if that was their plan for this homeless man - it was a given. But he was shocked when Jongho quickened his pace towards the homeless man and knelt down before him in a kind gesture.

"You're probably hungry," he said in a soft voice that was unlike him and took out a piece of bread from his pockets. He held it out to the homeless man and gave him a sweet look. The man's face broke into a smile so large that it cracked the dry skin around his mouth - he had not smiled in a long time. His graying hands stole the bread from Jongho's hands and he was eating it not even a second later. Yunho was surprised to see that the bread wasn't laced with poison and he hadn't dropped dead immediately.

"Why?" The homeless man croaked after he had finished his meal, looking at Jongho with wide eyes. "You are a man of silk and wealth. Are you a God come to aid me?"

Jongho's eyes shimmered, and Yunho wasn't sure with what. "Yes," he said softly, then pulled out the silver chain he had stolen only minutes ago. "Take this, sir. I only wish to see you happy for the rest of your life."

The man burst into tears as his calloused fingers rubbed the fine chains. He couldn't speak, but his body shaking with sobs and how he held the chain was telling of how much he appreciated the gesture. Jongho stood up and dusted off his blue robe, the man sobbing at his feet like he was Jesus. And he almost did look like him; in that moment, his soft and regal eyes reflected the good deed he had just done and his robe yielded a commanding yet gentle presence that did make him seem kingly. But Yunho knew better than to think that this was all Jongho had planned. Yet, he was still confused by his teammate's actions.

Yunho opened his mouth to ask Jongho what his plan was exactly when the sobbing suddenly stopped. Yunho's eyes darted to Jongho's hands immediately and saw they were in a fist shape. The homeless man was writhing on the ground, clutching his chest like his heart was about to burst from his body. Then he was motionless, his eyes devoid of the light that had been brought into them by Jongho's kindness. Jongho's eyes glimmered again, then he locked eyes with Yunho, a smirk dancing across his lips.

"Now, I pass the torch to you," he said softly.

And it now clicked as to why Jongho had done what he had done. Yunho had a fear that even during those first few seconds of the homeless man's death, someone in the busy market would have noticed. But Jongho had turned the focus to himself by being a samaritan for the man, and unless closely inspected, it appeared that the man was too happy over his recent fortune to be able to stand up. His delirious smile was still etched onto his face, commanded by Jongho's statement that he would be happy for the rest of his life.

But it was now Yunho's turn to show off. While Jongho could manipulate the living, Yunho commanded the dead. His eyes flickered with rapture and he lifted his hands in a gesture he had done a thousand times. He acknowledged the presence of the man's still heart, and then, carefully, let it beat.

It was a soft and slow beat, not a rhythm that any human could live by. But it was enough to flood bits of pink to his cheeks, hands, and neck to make him appear a little more alive. Yunho felt the man's legs, arms, and chest, then willed him to rise in a flourish of necromancy. The man stood, his smile now relaxed and natural. He swung his newly acquired silver chain in his hands and gave a wild grin to Jongho like he had just said a humorous joke.

Yunho wasted no more time on showing off his talent of necromancy. He flicked his arms and the homeless man took off running through the market with that joyous grin on his face that Jongho had given him, attracting attention from everyone who passed him. "Stole it!" He proclaimed, lassoing the chain around his head. Yunho whirled his finger and the man did a flying leap before snagging a bottled glass potion from a nearby table and nearly running over a toddler toddling in the street. The salesman shrieked, and soon the homeless man was being chased by multiple shopkeepers as he kept stealing trinkets and trophies off of stands and tables.

Jongho watched the entire spectacle with a bored expression. "Cheer up," Yunho whispered to him and flicked his arm. The man did a pirouette. "I haven't even gotten to the fun part yet."

The scene of the homeless man running gleefully with an armful of black market treasures while a stampede of angry shoplifters on his heels was a sight to behold. A shopkeeper was approaching him rapidly though, so Yunho decreased the homeless man's speed so that he could catch up.

"You thieving fuck," the shopkeeper growled before grabbing a hold of the man's shirt collar. On cue, Yunho dropped his hands and the homeless man dropped to the ground with them, dead as he was when Jongho had first halted his heart.

The shock on the shopkeeper's face was indescribable. "He's dead," he cried, but his voice was swallowed up by the squabbling shopkeepers that had raced close behind him, now circling the dead man to reclaim their belongings. It didn't seem to matter that their thief was a corpse on the ground, not when there were still living customers to be served.

Yunho grinned with pleasure. Jongho nodded to him. "Nice," he said, giving a small clap. "What a scene. A true spectacle. I would have paid money to see that."

"Then what a treat that it was free," Yunho smirked. He straightened himself and yawned. "And now, we can get ourselves out of here."

Yunho and Jongho walked out of the black market and found Hongjoong first, San mulling around behind him with a glimmer of triumph in his eyes. "We had a fun time," Yunho shared, and Jongho nodded his head in agreement.

"I was called a God by a homeless man," Jongho bragged. "Before I killed him, of course."

"We also had our fair share of fun," Hongjoong grinned and looked at San. "We met a royal merchant. San gave him some painful blood clots."

"Sounds absolutely riveting," Yunho smiled.

Seonghwa came up from behind them with a smug look plastered across his face. "I mostly strolled around, but I killed a boy with lettuce," he said casually.

Wooyoung was carving intricate patterns into a suspiciously shiny bone using his fingers. "And I broke someone's leg."

Yeosang and Mingi emerged from the market, smiling like they had just won the lottery. "And we decapitated a guy," Mingi said with cheer, giving a thumbs up to his team.

The eight of them looked at each other for a moment and then burst into laughter, Seonghwa holding onto his stomach and Wooyoung bent over while he howled.

"That was fun," Wooyoung exclaimed. "The most fun at a black market that I've ever had."

"If only causing trouble was ever that easy or entertaining," Yeosang mused. "It's hard to conceal what you're doing to someone out in the open. The crowds made it so easy to go unnoticed."

The eight of them chatted about their experience in the market, from the nonexistent cleanliness to the terrible and fake items being sold. Seonghwa was ready to go onto a long tangent about the utter disrespect he witnessed for many different types of plants when Hongjoong held up his hand and silenced him.

"I must remind you all that our journey isn't over just yet," he said, his eyes hovering over all of them with a look that only leaders possessed. "We're not yet in possession of our medical supplies."

"Or the botany," Seonghwa reminded him.

"Or the botany," Hongjoong added. "And it may sell fast. Therefore, we cannot waste any more time on trivial talks. At least, not just standing here." His hands went to the flute on his side and he slid it out of its case. "You all go forward. I will be right there."

The others knew what Hongjoong was going to do. They parted from him, and Hongjoong put the flute to his lips. He then blew, and a soft, airy note rose out of the instrument, not unlike the one he had played when they had first arrived on the other side of the market. The note was the team's farewell to the market. But it was also a haunting reminder that they would be back at the market on their return trip, obsessed with the science of pain like moths to a flame.

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