#Ally Records

[bandcampsnoop]

2/28/23.

I've had the Dwaal Troupe tab open on my computer for over two weeks. People I follow on Bandcamp had bought it, and it's on Ally Records (North Carolina) - so it was only a matter of time before I posted about it.

"Lucky Dog" was released digitally by Dwaal Troupe (Chicago...same city as Horsegirl) in 2021. It reminds me of Guided By Voices and Sebadoh crossed with New Zealand pop (think Sneaky Feelings). I'm not surprised that Ally Records is releasing this considering their affinity for New Zealand (Cake Kitchen and T54).

[victorie552]

Ok, so Noldolantë, "The Fall of the Noldor" is a lament composed by Maglor about what happened before, during and after First Kinslaying at Alqualondë. It's such a good song that it's played regularly in Aman and Valar listen to it often (I swear, I swear it was in the Silmarillion I just can't find it now).

It's also a more or less common fanon that Maglor continues writing Noldolante through the whole First Age. Makes sense - it's about fall of the Noldor, and Noldor did a lot of falling back then.

Headcannon time: So my first thought was that Noldolante must a long, long, long epic of a song. So it probably has many parts, right? Iliad has 24 books/parts, somehow I think Noldolante would be at least just as long, and there are longer epics. And again, just like Iliad, unless you're a scholar, in the daily life you don't really listen to/read the whole thing, just reread and repeat the most dramatic fragments. What I'm trying to impress upon you all is that the story would have different segments, or chapters, if you will.

And if Maglor continues to write the story during the FA, there would absolutely be a moment in the lament where the OG Noldolante becomes Noldolante 2, and even Noldolante 3. There may be the same musical motif or something, I decided that Maglor IS that good of a bard to keep it all consistent enough so you know it's all the same story, but the style changes a lot - it's been 400 years in the making, let The Music Elf have fun!

So, Point 1: Many, Many Parts, basically Maglor's FA WIP

My second thought was that, while Feanor invented his alphabet, elves learned their history mostly through oral tradition aka songs and spoken stories. Noldolante is definitely a historical record, where a historical event was archived for future generations.

(It was a also a way to deal with grief, guilt and blame Maglor and all Noldor have faced regarding First Kinslaying - free therapy! But that's not what this post is about)

Archived.

My 2.5 thought was that Noldolante isn't just recallings of how pretty and horrified the beach looked during the murdering or how mad and sorrowful the sea was at everyone during the voyage or even how awesome and charismatic Feanor looked during his speeches that every single Noldo was ready to fight Morgoth barehanded in his name - no, this is a record of who killed who, who got killed by whom, and how.

Noldor and Teleri knew each other (were friends, even!) before the First Kinslaying, so I'm confident that after a lot of interviews, detective work, and cross-referencing, Maglor could and would create a very good... name list. Practically every Noldo and Teler present during First Kinslaying would get a stanza in a song, more if he killed someone, most if he killed many people. Killers and killed would show up twice, first in a fragment listing the killers and their victims, then in a part listing the victims and their murderers. Basically it's the same thing twice, but from different POVs. With when, where and how included.

(It was seen to be in bad taste to compare kills during Maglor's Regency, when most of his interview-part work happened. People did it anyway. There were a Saddest Kill, Funniest Kill, and Weirdest Kill discusions. There was a Tier List. These were weird times to be a Feanorian Noldo.)

(It WAS in Bad Taste, but at least people talked about it. I cannot stress enough how much free therapy this lament provided)

(Little did they know, when Teleri started getting reembodied in Aman, they had very similar discussions, but more in a "I can't believe he killed me like THAT" way. Long, long, long after the First Age. Noldolante is a gift that keeps giving)

So, Maglor had all the historical grith and no common shame to create a "We Killed All These People And We Feel Bad About It" banger of a song, and every Noldo had a very personal reason to at least remember the fragments they are in. It's a hit on a scale never seen before.

(I'm not sure how to tackle the issue of Nolofinweans and Arafinweans learning about Noldolante after crossing the Ice. But there were discussions. There was anger, there was "????", there was controversy. Basically, the song got bigger and bigger rep no matter what your opinion on it was. By the time of Mereth Aderthad it was an important cultural and political piece and at least Fingon's forces were included in the main song. It had parodies.)

Point 2: Archive Function/Kill count storage. Cultural phenomen, every Noldo included

This is where my personal nonsense begins: Main Noldolante was done, there was nothing more to say about First Kinslaying, all killings and deaths were well documented.

But the Siege started. And the Noldor kept dying.

It was less dramatic than it sounded - between the big battles the siege was maintained, but orc raids also happened and sometimes one to few Noldor died in skirmishes. The legal procedure was to document the death of a fellow elf and send a word to king Fingolfin. The cultural procedure, technically started by Feranorians but adapted by many more, was to send the name, common characteristics and cause of death to Maglor's Gap. After few months, King Fingolfin would send reinforcements, short condolences and financial compensation if they had family. After few months, family of an elf would also receive a personal lament for them and a place for them in a Noldolante.

Yes, every lament Maglor created in that time was technically part of the Noldolante. Noldolante 1.5, if you will. Laments make in that time were very customized, and simpler than Noldolante Main, but were still considered a part of the same song. Of course, nobody was expected to know and remember laments for every single Noldo, younger Noldor born in Beleriand could even only know fragments about their family members. Only Maglor would ever know Noldolante in full, but it was understood that everyone had their place in The Song.

The results of Great Battles were harder to document, but Maglor did that. Of course, Dagor Bragollach was hard on him personally, but he worked his way through.

(High King Fingon forbade creating laments for his father. There were no songs for Fingolfin. Apart from in Noldolante, of course. Of course. Maglor did not share the lament with anyone, but he sat long hours and many nights with a blank paper before him, looking at the candle flame and thinking of the past and the future. The song unsung, but there)

Nirnaeth was... Maglor was never more hated and more approached at the same time than then. Still, Noldolante grew and grew, as if people knew the end was near.

It was Second Kinslaying that destroyed the myth of Maglor's song. Feanorians didn't know the Sindar they killed, but surely, they couldn't just left their names unmentioned like they did with orcs? So, Noldor talked, but the battle happened in caves - it wasn't uncommon to find dead bodies in empty rooms, with no witnesses to what happened. Surviving Sindar didn't want to share any names, even when Maglor strong-armed some into talking with him, and good for them. Maglor made a big lament anyway. Maglor, wild, with no shame and dead brothers, with legacy crumbling around him. Noldolante, with holes.

After Third Kinslaying, Noldor didn't want to talk. Lament for Sirion didn't have any names. Clearly, songs weren't a way to go anymore, it was always about live witnesses. And so Maglor raised the twins.

Lament for Maedhros was sung repeatedly. There was no one to hear it.

Point 3: Only Maglor knows Noldolante in full. But that doesn't matter, because everyone knows the important part: the Noldolante is finished. The Star of Hope rises in the West and the story goes on. The Fall has ended.

[garadinervi]

The Art Ensemble of Chicago: Four Evenings of Great Black Music, The Studio, Los Angeles, CA. From: Individual Collective: A Conversation with Senga Nengudi, by Allie Tepper, «Living Collections Catalogue», Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, 2019

[pochapal]

btw for reference Here are all the spoiler glimpses of beatrice's form i've been accidentally exposed to for the sake of transparency and also so you can know how surreal/funny it is for me to be unravelling the meaning of this vicious murderwitch in canon while also seeing occasional iceberg tips of what seems to be some kind of extremely thorough and comprehensive blorbo memeification going on. i think you guys are doing some breaking bad fandom shit to this woman.

[feyarcher]

Sooo... can we keep the Russians out of the sport permanently yet? Or are we eventually going to let them come back with more doped up children? Something tells me the ISU and I have different opinions on what the answer should be.

Kamila Valieva: Russian figure skater given 56 medications and supplements over two years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/68570073

[ginncide]

no voice to cry suffering

ko-fi

[stargatelov3r]

Elizabeth Weir Daily

Day 297

[livingwiththeinternet]

[crystalpallette]

I heard we had some BIRTHDAYS announced huh, couldn't have given us... any more advance warning than the day of...!!

anyway I love them your honor. also missed opportunity to make their birthdays 2/14, come on, it's right there,, you were two days off,,,

(+a transparent version under the cut! the ribbon turned out super cute but it muddled the composition a bit so this is my compromise.)

[creatively-cosmic]

notes regarding the creation, anatomy, and growth of our new era of personal cookie game lore

[bandcampsnoop]

9/2/22.

I first heard and bought a T54 (Christchurch, New Zealand) release several years ago when I first "discovered" the Melted Ice Cream label (Christchurch, New Zealand). I remember they were bundling cassingles and T54 was in one of those bundles.

Years later, Ally Records (Raleigh, North Carolina) is reissuing "Drone Attacks", originally released in 2011. Here is their "press release" on Bandcamp:

Before New Zealand’s Salad Boys, there was T54, also fronted by Joe Sampson, joined by Matt Scobie on drums and Sam Hood on bass. Originally released on CD in NZ in 2011, Ally Records is proud to be putting out an expanded and remastered limited double vinyl edition of T54’s "Drone Attacks" -- their first EP now with additional tracks, including home recordings and live in the studio, and it's housed in a full- color gatefold jacket. If you're a fan of Joe's other bands, or other NZ stalwarts like The Clean, The 3Ds, or The Gordons, you're in for a treat!

T54's second album was released on Flying Nun Records. Ally Records is also releasing another The Cakekitchen LP.

[autistme]

go here this is truly one of the videos of all time

[jessicas-pi]

The Shuttle AU where Nigel Anstruthers is even more devious and DOESN'T separate Rosalie from her family, and he pretends to be nice and good and even invites Bettina to spend her school holidays at Stornham Court one year.

(That last one was not his best idea, tbh.)

Through chance, circumstance, or maybe the weaving hand of Fate, Bettina Vanderpoel and James Hubert John Fergus Saltyre meet, speak, and quickly discover their mutual distaste for Sir Nigel Anstruthers...

Anyway I call this one Jem and Bett Ruin Nigel's Life (Ten Years Ahead of Schedule)

[blackcatanna]

When you're chatting about Skyrim with the new guy and are looking forward to having a new nerd buddy but then he casually drops that he thinks black women are inherently violent because they have the wild blood of Africa flowing through them.

[poppytuft]

bothers me very much when people use Ted getting upset telling the denver broncos story as like evidence that he could be queer instead of thinking about an old friend drowning in loneliness and saying to himself “i should’ve been there i should’ve supported him” is him reflecting on his traumas, as if this is not a man who heard his dad kill himself at age 16 and carries that guilt wherever he goes. he tells EVERYONE he loves that he supports them no matter what the struggle is and colin’s struggle was internal and invisible, WHICH SCARES HIM. he’s terrified by invisible struggle and he always has been BECAUSE of that childhood trauma. so TO ME…… it reads very media illiterate to take it that way, because Ted didn’t have some tender gay experience with his denver broncos friend in the 90s, he’s haunted by knowing there was someone he loved who went through something alone (even if it was silly and minor like watching the Super Bowl alone) and doesn’t want anyone to ever feel like that again, (especially if it’s something as big as being one of two gay men in a room in an industry that hates them) let alone one of his players on the team that he has worked so hard to turn into a family!!!!!!!!!! damn!!!!!

[barb-alayna-artstuff]

Just browsing…

I love spending hours browsing through vintage record stores…

Allie

Riiiiight… More like “browsing” the female customers…

Barbie

FYI - Allie’s got quite the collection… of girls… not records…