#Beauty Pill

[confessionsofabargainbinaddict]

My Favorite Albums of 2023*

*not necessarily from 2023

Last year, I decided that, instead of limiting my "favorite" list to just the past year, I would broaden the scope to include any CD I acquired that year, whether it was released that year or not. Over the past 12 months, I've added 155 CDs to the already over-burdened collection (which may seem like a lot but it's down from 260 last year, so I believe some praise is due). These are my favorite 9, in alphabetical order by album title.

Foo Fighters - But Here We Are

"Times Like These," whether he intended it to be or not, was one of the very few, great post-9/11 songs. And while I might expect that from Springsteen, Grohl didn't immediately spring to mind as a voice of comfort and empathy, so the song's impact may have actually been a bit greater than something akin to "The Rising" (which, don't get me wrong, is an amazing song). And now, a couple decades later, it shouldn't be surprising that a Foo Fighters album dealing with intense and intimate grief would also be stunning, but, like before, I certainly wasn't expecting it and also, like before, I've turned to it a hell of a lot more than I would have thought.

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

You know those albums where you really like a bunch of the songs but not all of them but you also know that, with each repeated listen, you're going to find ways into the songs you didn't like as much on previous listens and come up with reasons why you actually do like those songs and therefore, think the entire album is brilliant? Yeah, this is one of those albums.

billy woods and kenny segal - maps

Let me preface this by saying that I am years late to the billy woods party, so I do not have any way of comparing this to his previous, abundant discography, but if it is at all indicative of the rest of his work, I have some major catching up to do! woods is a top notch lyricist with a clear love of language and the ways in which it can be structured. His metaphors and imagery are complex and layered but never so obtuse that they alienate the listener. And all of this verbal brilliance is nestled comfortably on segal's inviting but never settled production. I'll come back to this one often.

Stevie Wonder - Original Musiquarium I

I'm not normally a fan of "best of" compilations but this one, with the addition of the four unreleased tracks capping each "side," is so well put together and clearly thought through, I'm thrilled to have it as a part of my collection. Plus, it's really hard to ever go wrong with Stevie.

Laura Mvula - Pink Noise

Roughly 5 years ago, I heard "She," and was blown away. I added Sing to the Moon to my discogs want list but never got around to snagging a copy. About 3 years ago, I heard "Got Me" and decided to be a bit more active in trying to acquire a copy of Pink Noise, but I think there were some transatlantic issues because nothing seemed to be remotely affordable. Fast forward to midway through this year, the album miraculously pops up on Amazon for under 10 bucks and a day or two later, I'm finally blessed with these 10 fiercely intelligent yet uncompromisingly catchy pop bangers.

Pool Kids - Pool Kids

It's mathy, it's tappy, it's stupidly technical, but if you strip that all away, at its heart, these are 12 solid pop-punk/emo songs. So while the base effort is already worthwhile, the tremendous musicality turns them into something truly special.

Atmosphere - Sad Clown Bad Fall 10

Okay, so it's only 5 tracks but hear me out. I was introduced to Slug and Ant through their brief stint with Epitaph Records and their, imho, brilliant album, Seven's Travels. Over the years, I've picked up an Atmosphere album here and there, but my takeaways have been lackluster and I started to wonder whether they were just a one-off in my book. And then I found this at a used record store in Seattle, and it not only reignited the flame but made me want to revisit the rest of my collection. That's pretty impressive for only 16 minutes of music.

Triple Fast Action - Triple Fast Action

Triple Fast Action were probably the favorite band your favorite 90's alt-rock band (The Colour and the Shape was, apparently, greatly influenced by Broadcaster) and with only two albums to their name, it was a wonderful surprise to discover this treasure trove of unreleased and rare tracks, most of which were recorded in their rehearsal studio. While not everything is great, there's a general bittersweet air hovering around this 2-disc compilation - they could have been big, but for whatever reason, the stars didn't align. At least we now have so much more music.

Ratboys - The Window

Ratboys aren't reinventing the wheel here. They pull upon most of the major indie rock tropes of the past couple of years (Americana, pop-punk, prog rock...) but even with the genre hopping, the album shifts seamlessly from track to track and always feels authentic. What would we do with a new wheel anyway? Wouldn't you rather just get the top-of-the-line version?

Other assorted 2023 stuff

Favorite Albums NOT acquired in 2023:

Proper. - The Great American Novel

Tigers Jaw - I Don't Care How You Remember Me

Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth

Face to Face - Face to Face

Florence + The Machine - High As Hope

Beauty Pill - The Unsustainable Lifestyle

Favorite Live Bands seen in 2023:

The Verve Pipe (City Winery - 4/23)

Home Is Where (Elsewhere - 7/8)

Four Year Strong (Rocks Off Concert Cruise - 10/15)

The Hold Steady (Brooklyn Bowl - 11/30)

Favorite Movies watched in 2023:

Soft and Quiet

Poor Things

Shotgun Wedding

Pearl

Favorite TV Shows watched in 2023:

Alice in Borderland (Season 1)

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Curse

This is Pop

Channel Zero (Seasons 1 and 2)

Evil (Seasons 1 and 2)

The Last of Us

Favorite Books read in 2023:

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

Wraith - Joe Hill and Charles Paul Wilson III

Favorite Podcasts listened to in 2023:

Fearful Symmetry

Love and Radio

Detoxcity

U Springing Springsteen on My Bean?

"Finn and the Bell" episode of Radiolab

"Wake" episode of The Memory Palace

[emmanuelscastle]

i don’t post a ton about my life here but i do music writing occasionally and have started doing it again after years and years. anyway, here is the most recent one on Beauty Pill’s Blue Period reissue, written for Post-Trash. if you’re unfamiliar and read the review, i hope you’ll check out the record!

http://post-trash.com/news/2023/5/11/beauty-pill-blue-period-album-review

https://beautypill.bandcamp.com/album/blue-period

an excerpt if you’d like one:

While the subject matter is weighty, the band’s consistent tunefulness permeates even the darkest sentiments. Take “Prison Song,” which features Rachel Burke’s voice, the musical keystone of the record, over simple acoustic strumming and the musings of lovers estranged by incarceration and a love that’s curdled into obligation, or “Such Large Portions!,” which has some of the most indelible guitar playing on the record in the form of the lush, whammy barred chorus riff, pure kinetic energy before all tension releases and Burke’s voice comes out from the black. When she sings “The food is poison here, you can’t eat it / but in such large portions!” the sentiment is somehow even more biting when paired with the sweetness of her voice.

[omegaradiowusb]

MAY 6, 2023 (#350)

Beauty Pill: "Nancy Medley, Girl Genius, Age 15" En Attendant Ana: "Wonder" (***NEW) Le Pain: "Is That How You Want Me to Feel" Mo Dotti: "Guided Imagery" Ribbon Stage: "Playing Possum" S.C.A.B.: "Why Do I Dream Of You" Gum: "She Never Made It To Tell" Burning Yellows: "We'll Die Too" Star Party: "Crystaline" Meow Meow Fuzzyface: "Gloo / Crazy Love / Vol. IV: The Conversation" (***NEW) Haress: "Litres Into Metres / Susurrus" Squid: "Swing (In A Dream)" (***NEW) Glare: "Soft" Nyxy Nyx: "Frank Told Me: "Love Is A Kick"" (***NEW) Mono: "Scarlet Holliday" Lavender Blush: "My Pal K" Chrome Waves: "When Night Falls" Enola: "Does Anyone Else" Cold Gawd: "Flight Of The Navigator"

Take a wild springtime ride with Omega Radio when we delivered two hours of deluxe new, current, and relevant shoegaze, dreampop, alternative, and jangle. We encourage all of our listeners to search for and keep all of tonight’s plays for future nicer-weather use.

One more Springtime broadcast to go before we make way for Summer Omega. We hope to hear from you in two weeks.

May 20, 2023 (10PM New York City): final deluxe Spring Omega  

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 9, Number 1

The Beauty Pill

Every January, we grind the gears shifting from records that came out in the previous year to the ones that will come out in the current ones.  It’s a rough transition, and lots of us have leftovers that deserve attention. We manage it, in part, with a late January Dust that clears out the backlog and allows us to focus on the new year. It’s not an iron clad rule.  We will certainly cover a few more 2022s in the weeks to come, and there’s at least one 2023 in this batch (the estimable Dischord-era retrospective from the Beauty Pill, pictured above). But it’s a turning point, and we’re turning. Are you ready to turn with us?

Contributors include Tim Clarke, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Jonathan Shaw, Andrew Forrell, Ray Garratty and Patrick Masterson.

1 Mile North — The Sunken Nest (Mutual Skies)

The Sunken Nest by 1 Mile North

Jon Hills discreetly snuck out his latest album as 1 Mile North in mid-December, a notorious no-man’s-land for new releases. However, this is strangely fitting for The Sunken Nest, which possesses an understated majesty and rich melancholy that harks back to the first wave of post-rock artists who emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hills’ close attention to dynamics and tone extend to the assembly of the track list, where the individual song titles together form a poem: “Plunge forth / Into muted depths / Where light collapses into night / Exhale and sink / Find rest / Amidst the ship / Your sunken nest.” The opening run of songs works especially well. “Into muted depths” nails Labradford’s signature sound of glacial guitar traced out over pulsing electronics. “Where light collapses into night,” the album’s longest and most satisfying piece, builds patiently into a hard-earned crescendo that’s almost anthemic. And the guitars on “Exhale and sink” have a post-metal edge that threatens to build into a cathartic climax, but instead settles for tense slow burn.

Tim Clarke

 Beauty Pill — Blue Period (Ernest Jenning)

Blue Period by Beauty Pill

The Beauty Pill hid its sharp edges in a dream pop sheen, but they were there all the same. In the early aughts, the band recorded a full-length and an EP for Dischord, setting off a thousand hot takes about whether they were or were not a Dischord band (since they didn’t sound very much like Fugazi). But I’d suggest that the Beauty Pill was as fierce and intense and off kilter in its way as Fugazi, and there was more punk in its croon than most people would admit. The sleek, harmonized chill of “the mule on the plane,” for instance, explodes subliminally with rupturing drum energy. “Terrible Things,” bristles with its bass lick’s muted ferocity. “such large portions!” overlays the most beautiful white noise guitar skree over its loping, narcotized vocals. The music itself incorporates both beauty and destruction—and that’s before you even get started on the words, which are sharp and devastating. Take for instance, the couple that introduces “Goodnight for Real” and encapsulates everything you need to know about difficult music and its fans: “There’s a band on stage tonight/every note they play turns its back to you/still you want to add them to the sad list of things/you’ve said yes to.” Or the dual verses from “Terrible Things,” that coolly observe David Chapman and Idi Amin (“And David chapman shakes and hovers in the shadows of the Dakota/ hearing voices one of which will never sing again when this is over”). The Beauty Pill’s output slowed—but didn’t entirely stop—when bandleader Chad Clark suffered a rare viral infection of the heart. They’ve had one more full-length (Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are) and two EPs since. But if you’re just getting going, this double LP is a reasonable place to start. It collects all the songs from both Dischord releases, the You Are Right to Be Afraid EP from 2003 and The Unsustainable Lifestyle from 2004, along with a smattering of unreleased alternates and demos.

Jennifer Kelly

 Best Fern — Earth Then Air (Backwards/Youngbloods)

Earth Then Air by Best Fern

Nick Schoefield is a Montreal-based ambient artist last observed distilling electronic and synthethic sounds into radiant, crystal-pure abstractions. His 2021 solo album, Glass Gallery, tinted Reichian rhythmic explorations with the glowing prettiness of melody. Best Fern, Schoefield’s collaboration with the singer Alexia Avina, dips even further into pop idioms, draping airy vocal motifs over lattice-work electronics. “On and On,” the single, distills the sounds of stringed instrument and, maybe, banjo, into a blinking bank of luminous tones, then tips Avina’s voice over in cascading waves. It is cerebral yet inviting. “World Spins,” by contrast, is nearly unadulterated indie pop, framed in keyboard chords, but putting wispy vocals up front; it sounds a bit like the earliest iteration of the XX. But “Way Inside,” the other single pits a cyber-storm of tinkling sounds against piano and subtly altered vocals, the organic world abutting the theoretical one in a lovely, arresting way.

Jennifer Kelly

 David Blue — Stories (Eremite)

This 50th anniversary reissue of David Blue’s Stories is undeniably a labor of love. It also represents the acme of craft. The retro, flip back sleeve and dead quiet vinyl have been manufactured with the determination to getting details right that one expects from Eremite Records. But who’d have expected that the label would break a quarter century run of jazz-derived releases with a singer-songwriter LP that was originally issued on Asylum and was made by a guy who ran with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen? Love makes a body do strange things, but that’s how you know that it’s really love. Blue’s writing style is as exacting and precision-oriented as Eremite’s production technique. His lyrical details are stark, his delivery muted, and the production (slide guitar by Ry Cooder, vocals by Rita Coolidge, strings by Jack Niesche, etc.) frames each tale with exquisite understatement. His baritone singing is similarly just-right. There are really no flaws to explain why Stories was a commercial dud back in the day, except that maybe the portraits of losers and love affairs were a little too real for comfort.

Bill Meyer 

 Color As Time — Soma Schema (Adhyâropa)

soma schema by color as time

Color as Time is Joshua Stamper’s jazz-into-classical project, which filters the composer’s bright, lucid melodic aesthetic through the improvisational lens of a six-member ensemble. Soma Schema appears to be the group’s second album, following 2018’s This Light Use to be a Mountain, perhaps incorporating some of that disc’s earlier material—there is a track on this disc called “This Light Used to be a Mountain,” though not on the album by that name. The music here flows effortlessly between fusion-y jazz and pointillist classicism, with individual instruments sometimes taking different sides in the argument. In “close cover gently,” for instance, Paul Arbogast’s unmistakably swinging trombone solo winds through the starry twinkle of abstract electric keyboard; later a saxophone (played by Mike Cemprola) blows blearily, earthily through that same pristine, percussive background. The other long piece “with (con) turning (verse)” lets cool flute and saxophones wander through a radiant, 3 a.m. jazz club space. Sophisticated, fluid and hard to pin down.

Jennifer Kelly

 Fucked Up — One Day (Merge Records)

One Day is yet another high-concept release from Fucked Up. This time around, the band members each spent a maximum of 24 hours (that titular “one day”) on their contributions to recording the music. It’s an interesting idea, folding Fucked Up’s attraction to the Big Idea into its formal processes; it also ends up being a useful corrective measure to some of the more expansive excesses (and, frankly, bloat) that have marked the band’s recent records. This reviewer liked Dose Your Dreams and was charmed by some of the nuttier aspects of Year of the Horse. But it was a lot to process, and all the accumulating bagginess and sagginess left its unhappy mark on Oberon. By contrast, there’s a very appealing zip and straight-to-the-gut punch to some of the tracks on One Day. The title track has the big-hearted, maximum-volume appeal of Fucked Up at their best, and opener “Found” reminds you what it’s like to be in the room when the band is making its violent, joyous sound. Look out, folks. Fucked Up is writing rock songs again.

Jonathan Shaw

 Glassine & Sam Haberman — Radial (Cached)

Radial by Glassine & Sam Haberman

Radial is an intriguing collaboration between Baltimore-based producer Danny Greenwald, who releases music under the moniker Glassine, and Sam Haberman, who plays drums in avant-rock instrumentalists Horse Lords. If you’re expecting a record that sounds anything like Horse Lords, however, you’re out of luck — Radial is a mostly placid, intimate record. Haberman sent field recordings and four-track experiments to Greenwald, which he manipulated into these impressionistic compositions, to which the duo then added textural overdubs. The resulting half-hour of music veers between malfunctioning electronica (“Up, Together, Reach”), throbbing ambient drone (“St. Pete”), clattering percussive workouts (“Brushes in Woodstock”), and what could almost pass as vaporwave (“Behind a Seatbelt”). Together, the eight tracks are pleasingly disorientating, especially on headphones.

Tim Clarke 

 Joy Anonymous — “Joy (God Only Knows)” (self-released)

Right up until the last week of the year, if you’d said 2022’s best dance edit was Ploy’s remix of Khia’s “My Neck, My Back,” you’d have been right — but Christmas came right on time for those hip to London duo Joy Anonymous and you might want to have a rethink yourself after giving this a listen. Henry Counsell and Louis Curran’s accelerated treatment to a 1975 Betty Everett cover of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” was a favorite among those who saw them open for Fred again.. in recent months, and it’s easy to see why: Even twice removed from Brian Wilson’s original vision, “Joy (God Only Knows)” soars with life-affirming positivity and the kind of smile-inducing energy made for outdoor summer dance parties, illegal warehouse raves, your living room, the biggest rooms (as God might have it)… anywhere open arms and hearts seek to groove together, that is to say. If you’re feeling bitter and despondent, tired of an uncaring world and fed up with pretending like there’s any chance of salvaging something from all of this, fine, maybe you’re right — but for at least four minutes, Joy Anonymous will have you reconsidering. I speak, of course, from personal experience.

Patrick Masterson

Kraus — Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! (Soft Abuse)

Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! by Kraus

Kraus is an ultra-productive one-man band from New Zealand, and Fire! Water! Air! Kraus! stands out from his discography in two respects. You can get it on vinyl, unlike 14 other entries in his 19 album catalog. And it’s his first production of completely electronic music. While he doesn’t publish the specs, one suspects that he is working with a combination of analog and digital gear. The drum machine pops, synthetic squelches and fluttering fake flutes on “Gunther’s Button” all bring to mind a world where pushbutton telephones were spanking new technology. The bright resolution of the chimes on “Canal du Midi,” on the other hand, suggests higher-bit sampling rates that might come from the sort of cheap, high-powered contemporary gadgetry. Kraus likes tunes, but he lets them emerge from squirming nests of short loops. And while he likes machine sounds, his music is most attractive when it sounds like a heavy human hand is manually retarding or accelerating the spinning cogs.

Bill Meyer

 Memoriam — Rise to Power (Reaper Entertaiment)

It may be indicative of where metal finds itself that the first song on Memoriam’s Rise to Power is titled “Never Forget, Never Again (6 Million Dead).” Memoriam is not a war metal band, in subgeneric terms, but like singer Karl Willets’ old band Bolt Thrower, Memoriam expends a good deal of creative energy making war-themed death metal. And in our current cultural environment, if you’re going to record anthemic metal tunes titled “Total War” and “Annihilation’s Dawn,” it makes sense to lay down a marker indicating just where you stand on the Holocaust. That said — and done — Rise to Power is a satisfying record of sometimes doomy melo-death, written and played by a crew of dudes with serious heavy-music chops: bassist Frank Healy put in nearly two decades with Benediction and briefly played with Napalm Death; drummer Spikey Smith has seemingly played with everyone, from Killing Joke to the English Dogs to Conflict to (say what?) Morrissey. For anyone familiar with Bolt Thrower’s early records, Willets will have the most recognizable presence, and his gravelly growl suffuses these sometimes by-the-books songs with some gravitas and drama. The opening 12 minutes of the record are its best, most ruthlessly grand passage, sometimes recalling the tougher sounds of Planks or invoking a meatier version of At the Gates.

Jonathan Shaw

 E Millar & Christof Kurzmann — Rare Entertainment (Mystery & Wonder)

rare entertainment by e millar and christof kurzmann

Entertainment and improvisation certainly coexist on a frequent basis, but when it comes to improvised music, the pairing is not a given. So, the title of the CDR, which contains a performance by Canadian clarinetist Elizabeth Millar and Austrian singer/electronician Christof Kurzmann may raise questions. If you’re wondering if this is a slice of Bennink/Breuker/Zorn action, the answer is no. Over the course of not quite 50 minutes on a June night in Montreal, they judiciously added layers of hum, rattle, hiss, chime and whine, only occasional letting themselves sound like they were actually playing anything. Every once in a while, Kurzmann gently croons in English, Spanish or German; hearing Tall Dwarfs’ “Think Small” bob in the slow-moving swirl is not exactly entertaining, but it’s definitely an emotional inflection point . So, gestures of overt entertainment are rare, but if you’re ready to indulge some existential pondering whilst settling into a state of uneasy immersion, this duo has your sound bath ready.

Bill Meyer 

 Ivan Nahem + ex->tension — Crawling Through Glass (Arguably) 

Crawling Through Grass by Ivan Nahem + ex->tension

Ivan Nahem came up through NYC’s no wave/post-punk underground, playing a role in such bands as The Situations, Carnival Crash, Swans and, most recently, Ritual Tension with his brother Andrew. This new project is far more reserved and atmospheric than anything in his history and reflects, in part, his experiences with the meditative aspects of yoga. “The Exhaltation of Nothing,” a track which he wrote with his brother, stretches the dissonance and clangor of punk guitar into infinity, turning the sounds that these instruments make into drones that melt in glowing, serene pools. “51st St Savasana” floats lighter, airier tones over skittering vibrations, buried spoken word and isolated pings of acoustic guitar. This latter cut brings in collaborators from prior, more heated projects, Norman Westberg of Swans and Carnival Crash on guitar and Mark C. from Live Skull on keyboards and synths. The music remains unruffled, though not without drama, big swells of organ tone promising revelation but delivering mostly calm.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sneeze Awfull — Exercise #1 (We Be Friends)

Exercise #1 by Sneeze Awfull

Pittsburgh trio Sneeze Awfull are collagists whose outsider DIY background belies the sophistication of their music. Beneath the spoken word samples, twitchy beats and electronic effects lies a collection of art pop songs that evoke the work of Arthur Russell and These New Puritans. Vocalist Hunter, cellist Ricki and JF on beats, samples and synthesizers use all the busyness of their overlays to enhance rather than disguise the poignancy at the heart of Exercise #1. On “qlip qlop” Hunter’s vocal floats above the beat of marching feet as Ricki plucks jazz inflected riffs on their cello, CF drops a sample of what sounds like a grey flannelled mansplainer “I can really tell you’ve lost a lot of weight/That’s good, I said”, a polyphony of voices follows, more in conversation than competition. Such juxtapositions are a feature of their work, moments of intense beauty rising above the thrum of the world, the tracks constructed like intricate nested boxes, that reveal new secrets with every listen.

Andrew Forell 

 Torben Snekkestad / Søren Kjærgaard — Another Way of the Heart (Trost)

Another Way of the Heart by Torben Snekkestad / Søren Kjærgaard

In the 1970s, ECM Records’ penchant for packaging audiophile instrumental performances within strikingly colored album sleeves earned the label an association as a purveyor of soundtracks for imaginary fjord vistas. Not only does Another Way of the Heart sound about a three o’clock twist of the reverb knob away from being a vintage ECM release, it was actually recorded on the Western Norwegian island of Giske, which is one ferry ride away from some cruise-worthy fjord views, with the express intent of evoking the regional vibe. Both pianist Kjærgaard and reeds/trumpet player Snekkestad rein in their more extroverted tendencies in order to favor long, breathy tones, reverberant keyboard gestures, and creeping tempos. Each track draws its title from the poetry of Torben Ulrich (yep, Lars’ dad), and the music lives up to names like “Wind and Floating Lines” and “Into Particles of Light.” This is not an album for all occasions, but if you’re ready to reflect, it may be the one you need.

Bill Meyer 

 Valee — VACABULAREE (Shell Company)

A proper original and maybe even a creator of its own genre, Chicago MC Valee now makes properly boring and unoriginal music, the kind AI could make if all Valee’s lyrics were fed into it. White audiences who likes their rap chilly and not daring will love it. Last year, MC Valee made an album titled The TrAppiEst Elevator Music Ever!, but VACABULAREE elevator music in the worst sense.

Ray Garraty

Zaliva-D — Misbegotten Ballads (SVBKVLT Records)

孽儿谣 Misbegotten Ballads by Zaliva-D

The haunted soundscapes of Beijing based duo Li Chao and Aisin-Gioro Yuanjin speak to entrapment in tradition and the harsh lockdowns from which China only recently emerged. Mixing eastern and western music into a disquieting hybrid, Zaliva-D, offer no easy entry into their world. The tracks on Misbegotten Ballads fall somewhere between the blasted bastardized blues of Beefheart or Waits and traditional music injected with off-kilter beats, discordant machine music and the wordless wheedling lamentations of ancestral spirits. Built on distinctly Chinese rhythmic cadences and played at a uniformly deliberate pace, the duo’s music is at once aloof and strangely engaging. Club music at the end of a labyrinth of alleys for which no map exists. Arm yourself with a large ball of string and venture forth.

Andrew Forell

 Tucker Zimmerman & Joshua Burkett — Tunnel Visions (Idea/Mystra)

Tunnel Visions is a collaboration between poet Tucker Zimmerman and acoustic guitarist Joshua Burkett. The former is a Californian long transplanted to Europe who has been making records you never heard of since the 1970s, the latter has pursued a similarly obscure course for a quarter century whilst running Mystery Train Records in Massachusetts. Neither is too concerned with getting things perfect, which makes them perfectly suited to each other. As Zimmerman raspingly rhymes about seasons, long-gone musicians and radios saying things you know they’d never really say, Burkett and a few of his old freak folk friends trace meandering string tracks with just the right amount of bounce and melancholy to keep you listening past the words into the darkness of a very late night. This one might take some looking to track down; at press time, the only sources were Midheaven Mailorder or Burkett’s shop.

Bill Meyer

[vampire207343]

In this Life and the next

What if the last time Lily Evans turn down James Potter in their 5th year, he decided that she would never love him like he loved her so he decided to move on with his life and even agree to an arrange marriage his parents set up for him with French pureblood witch by the name Erika Petrov the only child of Lord Lucas Petrov and Lady Amara Petrov née Bellarosa.

Note: Harry's friends and year mates are going to be 2 years later.

James Charles Potter married his betrothed Lady Erika Lilac Petrov as soon as he graduated Hogwarts in the year of 1978. While he didn't loved Erika Potter née Petrov the only heiress of the Petrov and Bellarosa when they both got married but it didn't mean that he didn't slowly fell in love with her during the time they are both married to one another. Before Lady Erika and Lord James Potter had their first child together in the year of May 7, 1980 they both welcome their daughter Aahana Potter.

While Lily Evans has been regretting her decision of her turning down James Potter many times as she did. And She has found out her feelings for him to late by time she did he was already betrothed to marry his current wife, Lady Erika Potter née Petrov who is half French and half Italian pureblood witch and they recently had a daughter together. If she wasn't mistaken they named her Aahana Rosella Potter.

If she never turn him down many times it's possible that she would most likely be married to him by now and have son or a daughter, but she has no one to blame but herself on how her life turn out. No one was forcing her to turn down James many times as she had.

So now it's her turn to watch the man she love so dearly be with be someone else that isn't her and start a family together.

Somethimes she wish she turn back the clock on their 5th year at Hogwarts and prevent herself from turning down James one last time but that isn't possible the only choice she had was to move forward with her life. And she could only ever dream of marrying James in her dreams which are never going to come true since he is married to someone else and had fallen out of love with her and nothing she do would ever change that. It didn't help anything that the current lady Potter is a beautiful woman with long blonde hair that reach pass her shoulder blade and having a beautiful glassy lips than anyone ever had along with a beautiful light blue eyes like the sky.

(Lady Erika Potter née Petrov)

lily Evans wanting to move forward and heal her broken heart, she accidently end up getting drunk in the Leaky Cauldron and end up hooking up with Lord Antonio Smith for the night. Who was also very much drunk after lossing the woman he loved after the birth of their son Zacharias Smith even after year has pass he still mourning the death of Helena Smith née Macmillan.

That drunk one night stand, they had with each other resulted in Lily Evans to end up pregnant with her first born which Lord Antonio Smith wasn't so trill to find out he hot someone pregnant that wasn't his late wife and Lily Evans herself wasn't happy to beging pregnant with a child that dodn't belong to James Potter but never the less Lily gaved birth to a daughter she gaved the name Jasmine Lily Smith who is born out of wedlock that the child is look down upon by many pureblood and half blood witches and wizards even some of the myggleborns, Since her parents Lily Evans and Antonio Smith never married each other and tend to avoid her all together thst she was basicly raised by the house elf of the Smith family.

--------------------

Growing up Aahana Rosella Potter learning everything she ever desire even began learning muggle Martial Art at the age of 5 years old such as Tai chi, Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Kyūdō, Kendo, Kenjutsu, and Karate to a full mastery and she even kearn how to ride a horse like a pro that ahe has her own horse she named Joséphine.

Even though she is still very young she wanted to learn many things like how to care for her own nails, teeth care and how to take care of her own skin to healthy. And she even learn how to cook by the time she was seven years old.

And when they were in Japan, where their family decided to settle down in Tokyo after the dark Lord Voldemort was said to be defeated by the infant son of of Frank Longbottom and Alice Longbottom née Bell and the boy was decaled the Boy-who lived when their percious daughter Aahana Potter was just 4 years old at that time even though the dark lord was gone his fallowers are still out their so they didn't want to chance any death eather attacking them. It was good thing to because while both Alice and Frank Longbottom survive the dark lord's attack but it didn't take long before the the Lestrange attack them after the defeat of the dark lord and was torture to insanity that lead to their current state of mind, that in a way Neville Longbottom still lost his parents. When he was 1 years old that he now lives with his grandmother.

By the time Aahana Rosella Potter is 7 years old she already began attending Mahoutokoro located in Japan, while she was their she study many different type of magic she could find useful to her use in the future. That by the time she turn 14 years old she graduate Mahoutokoro after earning her gold robe.

After that she decided to travel around Japan and end up in Fuyuki city where she end up befriend one Rin Tohsaka where she decided ask her to teach her how she make her home make skincare, haircare and teethcare in exchange for teaching her she would be given a high grade Jewels.

Which Rin accepted taught Aahana how to make her own brand if skincare, haircare, teethcare in exchange for the high Jewelry after all the Tohsaka family are well known for their Jewel magic and it hard to obtain high grade jewel, so she didn't think twice to teach her. And she wasn't the only one her other friend Shiro Emiya taught her his own brand of cooking exchange for a heroic catalyst. Which he would taught her his brand of cooking even without an exchange anyways.

It wasn't long after she learn everything that she receive words from her parents that her mother Erika Potter is pregnant which made her quickly return home before saying goodbye to the friends she made their. When she return home she saw her beautiful mother pregnant and ready to pop anyday now. Which excited her she always want a sibling of her own growing up which she would be voming true anyday now.

7 days later...

Erika Potter née Petrov finally gaved birth to her first born son on March 7, 1994. His name is Arius James Potter the new heir of the Potter family. The moment I first saw my new little brother, I quickly fallen in love with and made silent promise to myself and to him that I would always protect him even if it cause me my life.

I decided to help mother with my Arius which allow her to get more sleep since at Arius seem to keep mother up all night at most night in doing so I learn how to care for my baby brother and how to calJm down a baby.

During my free time I decided to learn how to play music with any instrument I could get my hand on which didn't take me long to master any of the musical instrument I got my hand on as it turn out I'm a music Prodigy and I most play Ocarina than instrument.

5 years later...

Arius James Potter very much love and adore his 19 years old sister

Aahana Rosella Potter who has always been by his side whenever he needed her, she has always made time for him that's why he loves her so much. Which is why he was devested when she died protecting him from that Obssesive Muggleborn that his father use to have a crush on before he ever meet their mother.

ln Lily Evans Obssesive mindthat if she can't have our father she would need to get rid of us before along with our mother to have our father but unfortunely she was catch but not before she fired one killing curse my way which my beloved elder sister took the blow which devested him more than anything. Their parents Erika and James Potter were both devested at the lost of their only daughter because of Lily Evans, which they both insure that she would roth in azkaban prison till her dying days. And they also made sure that Albus Dumbledore can't get her out of azkaban prison with the help of their Honorary Uncle Sirius Orion Black.

Their lives keep moving on since Aahana Potter's death but everything she ever taught to her beloved brother she keep close to his heart forever.

--------------------

Aahana Rosella Potter thought that her death was the end of her, but she thought wrong lord death has always love the family line of Ignotus Prevell that has always watch over them and out of all Ignotus descendants his favorite by far is Aahana Potter herself that he allow her to be reborn in another world with all her memories and skills obtain over the years she was alive, which Aahana was greatfull for.

But never thought that she would be reborn in a World which is a chinese oriented world that every people use nartiarl art those who are unable are seen as useless unless they can't afford to be Martial Art. She was reborn as the secound miss of Xiao family as the twin sister of the first daughter Xiao Ling and the youngest child of Concubine Fang with her husband Xiao Yuanchen. The name she was given in this new life is Xiao Ming-Yue the secound daughter of Concubine Fan.

The Royal family of Nanyi country, bestow Princess Royal to Xiao Yuancheng as his secound wife as his Legal wife. And since Princess Royal Huang Huiwen would be the legal wife of Yuancheng soon. She has made Concubine Fang a citizen of Nanyi country, since her future husband seem to have forgotten to making Concubine Fang a citizen and gaved her the proper education she require as noble. And erasing her history as former Slave turn Concubine. With Concubine Fang given citizenship which remove her past of ever being a slave that her two daughters would have better chance of marrying up than they would have had Princess Royal not made their mother a citizen and removing her history as a former Slave.

During Princess Royal Huiwen and Prince consort Xiao Yuancheng wedding Qin Qi made a sacandal by seducing the newly named Concort Xiao Yuancheng that Qin's father disown her on the spot and Princess Royal made her husband made him marry Qin making her the secound Concubine of Xiao Yuancheng.

It wasn't long after the twins of Concubine Fang turn 1 years old did Concubine Qin herself give birth to her first child a son who is Legal born being first born son of xiao, his mother gaved him the name Xiao Zhongqi.

After Concubine Qin's son Zhongqi turn 1 years old that Princess Royal Huiwen gain a new maid she found in Miyang and took as one of her maid. And it wasn't long before Princess Royal was call back to the front. But when she return she found her maid Xue became one of husband's new concubine after getting pregnant with Yuancheng's newst child which turn out to be the 3rd daughter who was Xiao Qiyun named after her own grandfather. By then Concubine Fang's twins were 2 years old by then.

By then Princess Royal Huiwen a close friend to Concubine Fang decided to gave a high cultivation pill for both Ming-yue & Ling's future use, along Eye mid Pill, Sliver Snake Pill, Bone Washing Pill, Beauty Pill even a high grade Space Ring for them since she doubt their husband could even afford to allow the twins to cultivate especially with having three Concubine specially with his low paycheck. So she decided to help Fang and her two daughters.

A year after Yun was born Concubine Xue got pregnant again and gaved birth to son named Xiao Zhonglei but beging youngest son he was no use to his mother that he was ignore in favore to his older blood sister.

By the time Fang's twin daughters were 4 years old, Concubine Qin gaved birth to a daughter name Xiao Rou by then her son Xiao Zhongqi is already 3 years old. And Xue's daughter Yun is already 2 years old and her son is 1 yeard old.

Princess Royal Huiwen gaved birth to her own daughter a month before Xiao Rou's own birth she was given the name Huang Beiyue. Out of all the Xiao children the one who treat Beiyue well are Concubine Fang's twins.

2 years later...

It's now both Xiao Ling and Xiao Ming-Yue's presentation infront of the family. It was discover that the youngest has a triple Elements and they are Fire, Earth and Lightning while Ling has Element like the rest of the family.

after the family discover thst Ming-Yue has the talent to be a Summoner the family had a party for having a summoner in the family while Cobcubine Xue is unable to attend the party and the twins Presentation since she is to busy taking care of a 4 years old Xiao Yun, so Concubine Xue is unaware that Xiao Ming-Yue is a Summoner of three Element.

A few months later it was time for presentation of the family childe, Xiao Zhongqi and he is like Ling but ths family decided to Sacrifice Ling's future as Martial Art for Xiao Zhongqi's cultavition as he is the family childe.

The Xiaos were going to Sacrifice Ling's future for the Family childe's cultaviation so Princess Royal Huiwen decided to offer to Concubine Fang to pay for both her daughters Cultavations and she already gaved them a few pills for the twins use 2 years ago so it was no problem to obtain a couple more cultavation Pill she got from her childhood friend Prince Xaoyao. Which Concubine Fang was greatful for the kindness of Princess Royal the twins also thank her for her kindness.

2 years later...

It was discover on Xiao Yun's presentation that she has the talent as a summoner like Xiao Ming-Yue since she has the Element of Ice. When the Xiao discover this they celebrate it like Ming-Yue who is now 3 star Summoner under the teaching of Princess Royal.

Xiao Twins who are now 8 years old are both traing in their reflex, Reaction and Endurance that their slightly stronger than any cultivator. Another to two years when Princess Beiyue and Xiao Rou had their presentation it was discover that Beiyue is unable to cultivate that many Nobles see the young princess as useless because of it even the other Xiao kids look down on her except for the xiao twins since her mother is the one paying for both their cultivation so they are the only one who was ever nice to Beiyue along with their mother Concubine Fang when Princess Royal is the front fighting for Nayi Country.

For 10 years old, Xiao Ming-Yue is a powerful Summoner beging already a 4 star summoner and a Sliver Star Warrior like her older twin sister Xiao Ling.

By the time the Xiao twins Ling & Ming-Yue turn 12 years, Princess Royal Huiwen began acting odd, but not before asking her brother the Emperor to take Miyang province and Qinghe province, should anything happen to her until Beiyue is old enough to care for it herself if anything thing were to happen to her even keaving Beiyue in the care of General Geng. Since she doubt her husband Xiao Yuancheng would care what would happen to Beiyue if she ever died so she needed her daughter away from this house hold if that ever happen and the only one she knows that would most likely protect Beiyue would be General Geng.

And it wasn't long before Princess Royal died suddenly without any expectation which devested Concubine Fang and her two daughters who Princess Royal payed their cultivation and trained Xiao Ming-Yue to be a summoner and a Warrior while traing xiao Ling to be a Warrior since their family the Xiaos prioritized the cultivation of the xiao Childe Xiao Zhongqi the first child of Concubne Qin who is now 11 years old.

Princess Beiyue who is just an 8 years old child is devested to find out the death of her own mother. And she was move in the house of Geng after her mother's unexpected death.

Xiao Ming-Yue and her sister Xiao Ling and their mother Concubine Fang still mourn the death of Princess Royal but their life must keep moving forward for time waits for no one. By then Xiao Ming-Yue has began teaching her sister Xiao Ling along with their maids how to cook her brand of cooking as when she was Alive as Aahana Potter. Since she can't take eating blad food anymore she need to. But they mostly get their cooking  ingredients from Concubine Fang's own garden so they saved alot of money over the years. That concubine fang is now the richer than Concubine Qin or Concubine Xue, But they kept it a secret that they have money since Xiao Yuancheng might stop giving them allowance if they do their back to being poor again.

Xiao Ming-Yue made tonics for skincare, enchance Beauty and terminate ugly gene. Having pink natural Lips  and having smooth and shiny hair, which both Xiao Ling and Xiao Ming-Yue, herself use even Concubine Fang. By then Xiao Ling and Xiao Ming-Yue already master Embroider and Cooking. She created two type of mouth wash the 1st one are ment to clean the teeth and it removed dental tartar by dissolving it. And the 2nd one is ment for dental whitening for pearly white teeth. Which not even royal family has pearly white teeth.

It wasn't long before Xiao Ming-Yue who is now a 6 star Summoner manged to obtain a Fire Gemstone Dragon

for a summoner that her own family dosen't even know she have it yet, Only her mother and sister. After obtaining her Summoner it increase her cultivation by 2 star summoner so she's now an 8 star summoner.

7½ years later...

Xiao Ling and Xiao Ming-Yue are now both 20 years old are a powerful Warrior and Summoner their both War God now while Ming-Yue is also Divine Summoner Rank 5. And they both somehow manged gain a Duke for a future husband which concubine Xue was seething about when her own daughter Xiao Yun who still haven't gotten enganged even though she's now an 18 years old woman and she still not enganged even Xiao Rou who's 16 years old already enganged unknown to concubine Xue the reason no one wants Xiao Yun for a fiancee was because many noble had her background check to findout she is a daughter a former slave turn Concubine which no noble would marry a daughter of Slave unlike Concubine Fang who's own history as a former slave was erase by Princess Royal herself which able her two daughter to be Engaged to a Duke while Xiao Rou gotten Engaged to a viscount while Xiao Yun is still single like Princess Beiyue is now after her divorce with her old Fiancee Xue Che, who Concubine Xue tried to get her daughter Yun engaged with but he turn her away since Xiao Yuancheng forgot to make Concubine Xue a citizen when he made her his Concubine. And Yun might not have choice to marry up like the rest but marry down instead if no one wants her since even his secound son Xiao Zhonglei gotten engaged to a commoner woman.

It wasn't long before the Xiao Twins graduate after turning 21 years old and the first one to get married between them is Xiao Ling

(Xiao Ling, 21 years old)

Who is a powerful War Gods unlike Xiao Children like Xiao Rou or Xiao Zhongqi who is only a Sliver Class to the twins War God. And it dosen't help anything that before she took the high grade bone washing pill that Princess Royal haved her she was already strong with the training that Ming-yue put themself that made their bones to have Jade bones. It wasn't long before Ling married Duke Che Hong.

And it wasn't long after Ling got married

(Xiao Ming-Yue, 21 years old)

Xiao Ming-Yue who happen to be a powerful War God and a Divine summoner that even her 18 years old sister Xiao Yun could never come call to a summoner of her caliber since she still a simple 2 star after all those years she should have at less level up three star by now but she hasn't that the Xiao and the rest of Nanyi Country found out she has no real talent to summoning like Xiao Ming-Yue or Crown Prince Zhayne that she became laughing stock replacing Princess Beiyue who gotten stronger when I last saw her. Ming-Yue end up marring Duke Chong Wu.

it wasn't long after their marriage did Princess Huang Beiyue suddenly disappear Nanyi Country without telling anyone where she is going not even to her only maid Dongling who also happen to be her most trusted friend. With Dongling basicly abandoned by Beiyue, Ming-Yue decided to take her in as her secound maid, In her new house hold after all at one point they were friends until she and Princess Beiyue left the Xiao house hold when Princess Royal died.

It wasn't long after Princess Beiyue's disappearnce did Concubine Xue's crime ov gelping the murder of Princess Royal that seal Yun's fate of ever marrying up instead of down because no redpected noble man would ever marry a daughter of a murder much less make her his legal wife. After obtain all information from Concubine Xue's mind that she was excuted for her crimes.

The xiaos family lost face luckly the Xiaos who were married by then wasn't affected for the crimes of Concubine Xue who they had nothing to do with even their concubine Fang was clear of any crimes. But the same can't be said for unmarried Xiaos daughters like Rou snd Yun. Concubine Qin is doing all she had save her daughter's reputation to prevent her beging left by her fiancee, viscount Kai chang. Luckly for Rou she wasn't left behind for Concubine xue's crime the one the most affected by Xue's crimes were her two children mostly Yun since Zhonglei isn't known as Xue's son, he was mostly mistaken as the unknown son of Concubine Fang instead of Xue.

3 years later...

Huang Beiyue was spoted in Beiyao along side Prince Feng Lianyi as his Legsl wife and Empress that Dongling's feelings for her former mistress and friend was nothing but betrayal for leaving her without any words if it wasn't for Xiao Ming-Yue the current legal wife of Duke Chong Wu who knows where she could have possible end up if it wasn't for her which she will forever grateful for.

Huang Yingye was heartbroken to discover the man she has always loved has taken her cousin Beiyue as his Empress she never even gotten the chance to tell him what she felt for him not that it matters anymore.

By then Ming-Yue already had a child a son who was name Wu Jian who is his father's first born son which makes him the family childe and legal son not that it matter since his mother is the legal which essentially legal born, even if he was born from a concubine his father would still favor him after all he love his mother than Concubine Lin and Concubine Yan. And fallow after his birth Ming-Yue gaved birth to another son a year after Jian was born and was given the name Wu Xiang.

The two sons of Ming-Yue is vety much favor by their father beging their mothet's children that the concubines daughter were mostly ignored by their father but at the same time he still give them the chance to cultivate when their old enough.

---------------

Ming-yue live a happy life with her husband but always watching her back from the two Concubine her husband has she raised her two son well until they themself married and taught their wifes to cook properly since I will not allow any wife of her sons unable to cook properly. But she didn't lived long to even had the chance to see her sons gad children of her own since Concubine Yan poison her when she let guard down but she has no regret.

[rcmndedlisten]

Beauty Pill - “Fugue State Companion”

“Fugue State Companion” is a bold reminder that art’s past will always be appreciated in a future lens, and what may have been dismissed then could very well be regarded as nothing else like it was yesterday -- or even for that matter. The penultimate track and unreleased gem off Blue Period, the D.C. art punk heroes Beauty Pills’ forthcoming compilation of then-ired 2003 - 2005-era Dischord Records releases -- rich with additional B-sides, demoes, and lost tracks -- we hear the band’s leader Chad Clark attuned into a direction that pushed the scene’s cosmetically punk aggression into an introspective layer where atmosphere plumes and softer melodies set the political and social of his lyricism into its own wandering daze. We’re still wandering and lost in a modern day America, and the music of the punk has only gravitated into this direction as well.

Blue Period by Beauty Pill

Beauty Pill’s Blue Period will be released January 20th on Ernest Jenning Record Co.

[riylcast]

Episode 586: Chad Clark (of Beauty Pill)

Last year, Chad Clark got a new heart. It was an emergency transplant, after a mechanical version failed – the latest in a horrific season of events that began when he was diagnosed with a rare heart virus.

The condition has been a surprise motivator. For one thing, the $2 million fee was only partially covered by insurance.

Facing massive medical debt, Clark opted to release a remix of the band’s 2015 album, Beauty Pill Describes Things as They Are.

Touring presents its own issues, in the age of Covid, but Clark presses on, determined to product art and make the most out of his second – and third – chance.

[faybelinesworld]

[thankgod4pattsu]

I feel alone and scared.

[nartml]

Nah, you know what makes my blood boil?

Seeing characters degraded, vilified, and desecrated in the name of ship wars.

No, Aang did not strip Katara of her agency nor did he only accept the "digestible" parts of her, leave my baby alone.

No, Zuko isn't just a selfish colonizer, bro did not have one of the greatest arcs of all time for you to reduce him to that.

No, Katara wasn't just a mother to everyone, for fuck's sake, did we watch the same show?

I can go on and on and fucking on, but all I'm gonna say is I'm fucking tired of y'all's shipping discourse.

It was never that serious, it will never be that serious.

I think that both Zutara and Kataang are great ships in their own right, with their respective pros and cons. I also think it comes down to personal taste.

Of course, people can have differing opinions on characters, regardless of the inclusion of ships or not. But at the very least, stick to your own.

Ship and let ship. Remember when this was fun?

Don't invade spaces that aren't yours to start trouble, and stay appropriate with the tags. Fandom etiquette, it's pretty neat.

Y'all suck the joy out of everything.

[iwishtobefine]

I feel so lovely when I don’t eat it’s actually addicting

❤️❤️❤️

[lunearobservatory]

I'm a very strong it rains in the PNW every time Oregon cries believer ‼️

[radarchives]

[rcmndedlisten]

Recommended Album: Beauty Pill - ‘Blue Period’

Deemed critical atrocities against punk and intellectual hardcore aesthetics by your favorite gatekeepers of cool at the time of their release, the rebirth of Beauty Pill’s Dischord-era releases coupled with unearthed treasures as Blue Period is deserved karma against its initial naysayers. The art created during this Picasso period in the life of the D.C. band led by Chad Clark (then joined by vocalist Rachel Burke, guitarist Drew Doucette, bassist Basla Andolsun, and drummer Ryan Nelson) is the definition of an essential re-discovery (or, even more envious to those who may be discovering it for the first time...) as the compilation resonates decades later as one of independent rock music’s most forward-thinking endeavors, many years ahead of its time. Within the remastered listens of The Unsustainable Lifestyle and You Are Right To Be Afraid EP are the blueprints etched by an artist challenging the norms within the scene through a collective reactive “softness” in their sociopolitical loudness by sculpting in varying voices and more pronounced dark humor through non-linear patterns and rhythm, nuanced in definition. It wasn’t the knotted-up bursts that preceded it, and for that, Beauty Pill were derided, but when you observe how you still see the impressions of their stepping outside the box trailblazing paths for an artist as big as Bartees Strange, it left a longer lasting mark than any review ever could.

Highlights: “Goodnight For Real”, “Drive Down the Cost”, “Fugue State Companion”

Blue Period by Beauty Pill

Beauty Pill’s Blue Period will be released January 20th on Ernest Jenning Record Co. Buy | Stream

[starxcxboy]

— Devs (2020), an FX original miniseries created, written and directed by Alex Garland.