#3+5

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

One of the asks I'm sitting on is about Henry and James, but I really almost don't even know what to say except that I LOVE where they are by 1992 or whenever:

[beatsforbrothels]

Melt-Banana - Stopgap

[bortchilladelphia]

Jared's Top 10 Albums of 2024! 10. Melt-Banana - 3+5

Perhaps a comeback album over 30 years into a band's career is a weird spot to buy in to them. Such is life, I suppose. I had heard Melt-Banana before of course, but their particular brand of turbospeed post-hardcore weirdness had left me somewhat cold. So what changed on 3+5?

Honestly, It's hard to say. The formula is not drastically changed. Yasuko Onuki still delivers hyper-energetic vocals over a kitchen sink mix of jackhammer drums, guitars slicing in and out of focus, and various synthesizers, keyboards, and whatever else the band feel like. Much like their fellow countrymen Boredoms, it's very easy to pick a Melt-Banana track out of a lineup. Perhaps it's the fact that, in spite of the stark black and white cover, the sound feels a little more technicolor, with a glittery synth tone that really compliment's Yasuko's "brightly colored anime come to life" delivery. Maybe it's that the guitar riffs are pushed a little more to the forefront, with an exciting tone that can sound conventional and completely out of the box at the drop of a hat. Maybe it's just that listening to more Japanese noise rock bands helped rewrite my brain enough to appreciate the hyper-technical nature of the band's songwriting.

Whatever the reason, I find 3+5 to be a fantastic shot of delirious energy that easily blends pop, hardcore punk, and bits of shattered electronic music. It's kinda like slamming an energy drink, and doing a backflip. It just might give you a headache, but damn if it wasn't cool while it was happening.

[dustedmagazine]

Melt-Banana — 3 + 5 (A-Zap!)

A squeak, a screech, a battery of tortured guitar sounds, an ear-piercing chant, and they’re off. It’s been 11 years have elapsed since the last Melt-Banana album, a geologic era in pop culture terms, but the duo of Yasuko Onuki and Ichiro Agata seem remarkably unaltered. 3+5 sparkles and blitzes and caterwauls, a sugar-y tuneful-ness glittering amidst jolts of industrial noise.

These songs hurtle forward like an amusement park ride, they rush, they swoop, they hang you upside down then careen back to safety, delighted screams trailing. The pack maximum sensation in brief, adrenalized containers, the sounds a heart-pounding blur. “Hex” judders to life on a sped-up Talking Heads riff, dodges shrapnel from incoming percussion and musters an undeniably anthemic chorus in trebly Minnie Mouse register. It’s over two and a half minutes but feels like a universe.

“Stopgap” is even shorter, a rocket launch of a cut, all strobe-lit stabbing guitars, battering how-am-i-going-to-keep up drumming and a shrieking spatter of verbiage. “Flipside” sounds a lot like the Lightning Bolt, which is to say molten and out-of-control and full of strident joy. Everywhere, Melt-Banana is going as fast as it can, moving like heat-excited particles in a physics experiment, and every jerk and punch and explosion is precisely timed and executed. Yasuko is famous for insisting that she’s not influenced by anyone, but you could draw lots of connections to noise artists from Japan and elsewhere: OOIOO, the Boredoms, Deerhoof and Otoboke Beaver.

This is a Red Bull of an album, a total kick in short bursts but likely a strain on your heart in larger doses. I wondered what this kind of mayhem would look like, on stage, and found this video. Nice place to visit. Living there would kill me.

Jennifer Kelly

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

[a-random-fandom-friend]

Because of Re: Carmilla, I thought you all would enjoy my edition of Carmilla :

The holes go all the way through, the sides of the book are red, and on some pages the text is colored red just under the holes !

I was so happy when I found it in a little french bookshop specialized in queer texts ❤️

[brokenclockgears]

while the cameras are turned away

[imperatoralicia]

I get a lot of entertainment thinking about how containers are used in video games sometimes.

[eydilily]

🌻 my piece for the @pearlescentzine ! im partnered with @hopepetal who wrote the fantastic fic with this for Secret Life! 💌

[acantheira]

hi I wanted to say that your office vore comics are awesome! I also noticed that some of the characters especially the big ones have mini co workers dose rix have one? if not I have an idea why not a little prey who dose snack rounds on a cart during break?

just a thought! you don't need to add if you don't feel like it I don't wanna push any stress onto people

Thanks a lot for your appreciation!

My big characters are the boss of their office, what you call 'mini coworkers' are their assistant (who have the privilege to be off the menu). Rix is just an employee who also happened to hunt on his colleagues.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll think about it

[gunpowdercarousel]

Persona 3: Save the world from evil monsters with your badass sexy monster-hunter friends in the most magical city in the world (Tokyo)

Persona 5: Commit sexy fucking crimes with your badass awesome sexy thief friends in the most magical city in the world (Tokyo)

Persona 4: You are in OHIO. Your friends are LOSERS. You are WET. Go hang out at TARGET.

[vivitalks]

best types of brennan NPC

autism haver

stoner

frat bro who has unlearned hypermasculinity so hard that he's gone 100% the opposite direction about it

anticapitalist proletarian

the most insane person you've ever met

[dimeadozencows]

My personal understanding of the situation