#I don’t think there would be a trademark issue for any of the albums once they were at this stage

[tsmerch]

I think there’s a strong chance they’re going to do cardigans for the rest of the re-records.

I think the Red TV one was a test to see how well they’d do- (hence why it didn’t have a patch that said ‘Red Taylor’s version’ they didn’t get a specific trademark for it)

I don’t think think they did one for Evermore/Midnights because hey wanted them to be there own thing outside of Folklore (or maybe it was just a trademark issue)

Maybe! But it doesn’t really make sense from a marketing perspective to start the cardigans with a new album and then only have them for re-records. I think they knew how popular they were and used Red TV as a test, and it went well. But we’ve seen many times that they don’t release merch we expect them to. I personally don’t see a legitimate reason for not having a midnights cardigan, from a marketing perspective. It could simply be that they didn’t want to or couldn’t get the design and supplier in time. 🤷‍♀️

[ahgaseda]

Can I say something real quick? I have discussed the subject of Got7 renewing with JYPE and it is no secret I despise JYP the man, but also the company. I don’t want to speculate, but I wanna bring up some facts that I’ve seen a lot of discourse about mostly on twitter.

Full disclaimer I am not trying to start anything with this. I just wanna put some of yall at ease because I see baby birds getting worked up over some of these issues. I love my ahgafam always.

Yes, Got7′s contracts expire next year. There is a strong chance that they already conducted negotiations this year (all of the members’ parents were spotted in Korea and at JYPE in January) and the final decisions will not be revealed until the actual expiration month. This is due to how the announcement will heavily influence stocks.

Also, this argument that JYP is no longer CEO and is not to blame for Got7′s mistreatment is incorrect. He is still the largest shareholder of JYPE. He is on the creative board. He still directly manipulates Got7′s activities. He constantly meddles in their music. Keep in mind the members actively fought for Page to be the title track of Spinning Top and lost because JYP pulled rank. Don’t think for a second he can’t do the exact same thing for business decisions. Division two didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to poorly manage Got7. They got their instructions from the top.

Jackson stating he wants to move to Beijing next year does not mean he’s leaving Got7 or JYPE. It means he lives in hotels every time he promotes in China and maybe just maybe he wants to have a permanent residence while promoting there. He wouldn’t just drop a bombshell like that if it implied something more serious. He has more tact than that.

JYPE not renewing a contract in Japan for Got7 is not suspicious. Got7 can still go on tour in Japan. They just won’t have anymore Japanese releases. The smart move is for Got7 to work more into the Chinese market, considering how well Jackson and Mark do there. Or to push for more activities in the west. We’ve seen groups signing with American labels for promotions here.

JYPE renewing the Got7 trademark through 2024 is not the end of the world. If Got7 does not renew their contracts next year they can still promote as a group with new material. We all know Jaebum has a whole hard drive of rejected bops. Not to mention Yugyeom and Youngjae actively write songs with the group in mind. All that music they haven’t released would not fall under the trademark and would be completely owned by Got7 however they choose to rebrand themselves. Also the members would continue getting royalties for songs they produced while under JYPE.

Everyone likes to shit on Got7 for not being popular in South Korea, but make no mistake it is known how much money they bring in internationally. Got7 would not get blacklisted for leaving JYPE. They could very easily get snatched up by a smaller label that knows their worth. The more likely scenario is that they make their own label together.

This next part is my opinion based on what I’ve gathered, but it’s still an opinion so keep scrolling if you don’t wanna read it.

All this being said, I don’t want them to renew with JYP and I honest to god don’t think that they will. Go on Youtube and look at the videos of Got7 shading JYP and then the video of JYPE mistreating them. It’s also no secret how well artists have thrived after leaving that shit hole. Just look at Sunmi. The first rule of management is to keep your employees happy or they will leave.

Jaebum is not happy. He has made that abundantly clear. He is not given any artistic freedom though he has more than proven he has the ability to make great music. I personally think JYP is trying to stagnate Got7′s growth while also spiting Jaebum, because Jaebum does not willingly submit to JYP and his massive ego. The way JYP openly ridiculed them on Knowing Bros and his behavior toward Jaebum on Hyena on the Keyboard was very telling.

Mark is not happy. JYP has time and time again made it impossible for him to go home and see his family despite other members given the availability to go home. Mark is doing quite well in China, though JYPE keeps his activities to a minimum. He needs more freedom to promote there. We also know the infamous Papa Tuan tweet that eluded to Mark thinking carefully of what to do when it was time to renew his contract.

Jackson is not happy. Team Wang has thrived and Jackson has built it from the ground up, and despite JYP having zero aid or input still gets a huge chunk of Team Wang’s earnings. As hard as Jackson works I know he does not like having to cut a check to a company doing nothing for him and his employees. Also comparing clips of Jackson with JYP to now, you can see they no longer have the friendly relationship they once had.

Jinyoung is not happy. JYPE is closing their actor’s division. We all know Jinyoung is passionate about acting. It has always taken a back seat to his commitment to Got7, but it is still something he very much wants to pursue. He also enjoys making music so it doesn’t seem he wants to entirely abandon idol life for actor life. I won’t even get into how much shade Jinyoung throws at JYP. He’s not exactly shy about it.

Youngjae is not happy. Got7 has been debuted for six years and Youngjae is just now getting solo activities. A radio gig and soundtrack songs are not enough. He should have definitely had a solo album by now. Given what little activities JYPE has gotten for him, he’s had plenty of time to not only put an album together but also promote it. There’s simply no excuse. JYPE has completely dropped the ball in giving Youngjae activities.

Bambam is not happy. Of the other members Bambam has gotten the best deal thus far. He’s been able to thrive in Thailand and we know Thai ahgases carry this fandom on their backs. But still he apologizes to us. He tells us he’s sorry and how scared he is that Got7 will disappoint us. He apologizes for short promotions and the poor job division 2 does. He knows what’s going on and he always acknowledges how hard we work and how frustrated we are.

Yugyeom is not happy. Resorting to his soundcloud and constantly having songs rejected for albums. Not to mention his limited promotions. He killed on Hit the Stage. Also most importantly with the recent incident of sasaengs trying to call him while he was on vlive. Ahgases have reported sasaengs and antis and JYP has done absolutely nothing to protect the boys. They don’t even release a statement.

My suspicions are that JYPE is milking every drop out of Got7 with minimal promotion as they have done for years. From a business point of view, Got7 churns out maximum income for very little effort. In addition to that, I have always thought that JYP mistreats them to a) stagnate their growth, b) spite Jaebum and the other boys that don’t fall in line, and c) because he’s a worthless turd that gets his kicks ridiculing underage girls for their weight.

I recently had a discussion with my friend who is a business major and she said something interesting. The big question was why does JYP mistreat Got7 when they are their biggest money makers? She said that’s exactly it. They know Got7 is leaving. Got7 has grown beyond their control. Got7 heavily influences investor confidence. They are trying to undermine Got7, to slack their popularity so that Got7 does not have such an influential hold on the company and its business interests. In a way they are trying to lessen the blow when it comes next year.

The fact that Dye promotions were bad, similar to YCMN, implies that Got7 did not renew if they did so already. If they had chosen to renew you can guarantee it was with the stipulation they would receive better support and promotion. JYPE in good faith would promote them better. Now if this next comeback supposedly happening in September has great promotions then I would change my mind. But I don’t think it’s likely. I know ahgases are hopeful that JYP will give Got7 their own sub-label if they renew but I don’t think his ego can handle that. He just has to have his hands in their music, getting a slice of that money.

In conclusion, I think it’s noble for ahgases to be campaigning so heavily for better treatment for Got7 but it’s a lost cause. There is absolutely no doubt that JYPE knows what’s up. They know if Got7 is staying or going, whether it’s already been renegotiated or not. It’s not like they sit in an office on contract expiration day and wait for the big decision. It’s like any other business. They make sure they know so they can prepare.

tl;dr: Got7 and JYPE already know if they are renewing their contracts or not. By the way Got7 has vocalized their disdain and how JYPE continues to mismanage their activities, it is likely Got7 are not renewing their contracts.

[naivesilver]

Vecpio Week - Day 1: Music

"Hey, Es, what's wrong?"

Espio blinks, looking up from the piece of paper he's been staring at for the past five minutes. Vector is standing in front of him, arms crossed, eyebrows raised, the very picture of perplexity.

"Nothing. Why are you asking?"

Vector shrugs. "You look stressed."

He is, as usual, terribly blunt and not nearly as smooth in his attempts to comfort someone as he thinks he is. It would be hilarious if it didn't send through Espio a spike of irritation that he struggles to quell down. "I'm not stressed" he mutters, crumpling up the notebook page he was trying to do some accounting on and tossing it aside.

That's a lie if he's ever told one, and he's pretty sure Vector knows that, but what they both know is why he's so stressed, and it's hardly something that can be fixed by talking about it.

Espio has always considered himself a level-headed, pragmatic chameleon, so he's not in the habit of lying to himself, and at this point he can't ignore that their situation looks dire, at the very least. They're running out of money, which isn't new per se but is rarely a comforting thing to know, and they haven't had a lead on a case or a new case in ages, so it's improbable that they'll be out of it anytime soon.

And then there's Charmy, who not only sent their expenses through the roof, but also is even more a nuisance than they'd expected him to be. Anything he does, be it eating or playing or screaming for attention, he does it loudly. Even as they speak the bee's trying to stuff something in his mouth, with a sucking, slobbering noise that's grating on Espio's nerves. The only thing he craves more than a new paycheck is a minute of complete silence.

Not that he regrets taking in the kid, or opening the agency, or any of that. If nothing else, they're pretty much the only ideas of Vector he's followed that haven't ended in utter disaster. He's happy. He should be happy.

It's just that, well. He's never had such a hard time keeping his spirits up. There's always a nagging thought at the back of his brain, reminding him of the hundreds of ways things could go to hell if they don't find a solution fast. Even meditating has grown difficult, and not just because it tends to be interrupted by a baby wailing for food. His worries creep in and nothing he does can shake them off, even after all those years he's spent learning how to clear his mind from stuff like that.

He's spaced out again. Great. Now Vector will have yet another reason to believe he's losing his mind and fret and try to solve the issue in some creative and yet decidedly unhelpful way. There might be a valuable lesson to learn there, but Espio is too tired to decide whether it's "let your partner help when you're struggling" or "never let anyone see you lose control ever again", and it's not like one is in the mood for absorbing any kind of lesson when they're making an effort not to freak out, so...

He's snapped out of his reverie once more by the feeling of something being slipped over his ears. For a few moments he's too stunned to say anything, because those are Vector's headphones the crocodile has taken off and given to him, and the thought alone is so confusing that Espio struggles to process it.

It's not that he's never listened to Vector's music. In fact, Espio has heard enough of it for a lifetime and then some, because Vector is nothing if not enthusiastic about sharing his passions. He has yet to understand how anyone might listen to some of those songs willingly, because to him they're nothing but a cacophony of clashing sounds, but it's not as if he's banned it from the house.

He'd thought he'd made it clear, though, that Vector is to keep it for himself (and for Charmy, because whatever genre that stuff ascribes in, it gets the kid to sleep in no time, and while Espio is not above threatening his boyfriend at knifepoint to get him to lower the volume when Charmy's got the headphones on, he's not so stupid as to forbid anything that can knock a toddler bee out for good). The crocodile hasn't tried to force him to listen to that garbage in ages, so why now, of all days?

It seems he's in for a day of surprises, though. Before Espio can protest, Vector fiddles with the tape player and music fills his ears, leaving him shocked once again.

It's...not what Vector usually listens to. It's slower, for a start, quieter, with no voices screaming over one another. Espio can't recognize the instruments, nor the tune, but it flows in a way that catches his attention, almost mesmerizing after what he'd expected to hear in its place. It reminds him, oddly, of a lullaby, or of some tunes from his homeland, from when he was way, way younger.

"Been trying to find something you may like for a while now" Vector says, trying and failing to pretend that whatever's going on is not that big of a deal. "The album says it's supposed to be relaxing music. I don't know if it's your style, but you looked like you needed it."

"It's...it's nice" Espio replies.

To be honest, he's not sure he can judge the quality of the music right now, when there's so much going on behind it. If he were meaner than he is, or even just less exhausted, maybe he'd berate Vector for wasting time on a thing like that when they're supposed to be looking for paying jobs. He should be upset - he should say something more, at the very least.

As it stands, though, the gesture causes something inside him to break. It's as if he were made of clay, only needing the gentlest of pushes to be cracked and let fresh air filter in. His tongue feels like clay too, thick inside his mouth: as much as he wants to, he can't force the words to come out, and he just sits there, dumbfounded, listening to a song he doesn't know the name of roll through his brain.

Vector looks like he knows it, though. He smiles his trademark grin and sits beside Espio, wrapping an arm around the chameleon's shoulders.

"Come on, Esp, it's gonna be alright" he says, barely loud enough to be heard over the music. "We're going through a rough patch, but we'll get out of it, okay? We're a team. That's what we do."

Espio breathes in. Breathes out. He doesn't know if it's Vector, or the physical contact, or the soft chant still filling his ears, but the rumble of thoughts in his mind seems to quiet down a little. Not to the point that he's suddenly bursting with solutions to their problems, but enough to leave space for something slightly less pessimistic and just a tad more hopeful.

Vector goes on. If it's because he senses he's having success, or because he likes the sound of his own voice, Espio doesn't know, but he's not about to complain. He's too grateful for that. "We'll work it out together. You, me, and the little mite. Promise. On my honor as a detective."

Espio snorts at that, and the crocodile lets out an indignant noise, even though he looks clearly pleased by the effect that he's having. "Oh, come on. What will be of this agency, if no one’s respecting its boss?”

But his voice grows softer a moment later, and he tugs Espio closer. "We're gonna make it. We are. Alright?"

"Alright" Espio whispers, closing his eyes and leaning into the embrace. He's not sure he can stop worrying anytime soon, but the warm, cozy feeling of being cradled close to someone else and the lull of the music covering anything that's not Vector's voice form a small, safe bubble, one he's not about to burst until he can face the day head on. For a minute, he can allow himself to relax.

"Thank you."

[blackkudos]

Mary Wells

Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, "bridging the color lines in music at the time."

With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including "The One Who Really Loves You"", "Two Lovers" (1962), the Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch" (1962) and her signature hit, "My Guy" (1964), she became recognized as "The Queen of Motown" until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her popularity. She was one of Motown's first singing superstars.

Life and career

Early life and initial recordings

Mary Esther Wells was born near Detroit's Wayne State University on May 13, 1943, to a mother who worked as a domestic, and an absentee father. One of three children, she contracted spinal meningitis at the age of two and struggled with partial blindness, deafness in one ear and temporary paralysis At age 10, Wells contracted tuberculosis. During her early years, Wells lived in a poor residential Detroit district. By age 12, she was helping her mother with house cleaning work. She described the ordeal years later:

Daywork they called it, and it was damn cold on hallway linoleum. Misery is Detroit linoleum in January—with a half-froze bucket of Spic-and-Span.

Wells used singing as her comfort from her pain and by age 10 had graduated from church choirs to performing at local nightclubs in the Detroit area. Wells graduated from Detroit's Northwestern High School at the age of 17 and set her sights on becoming a scientist, but after hearing about the success of Detroit musicians such as Jackie Wilson and the Miracles, she decided to try her hand at music as a singer-songwriter.

In 1960, 17-year-old Wells approached Tamla Records founder Berry Gordy at Detroit's Twenty Grand club, with a song she had intended for Jackie Wilson to record, since Wells knew of Gordy's collaboration with Wilson. However, a tired Gordy insisted Wells sing the song in front of him. Impressed, Gordy had Wells enter Detroit's United Sound Systems to record the single, titled "Bye Bye Baby". After a reported 22 takes, Gordy signed Wells to the Motown subsidiary of his expanding record label and released the song as a single in September 1960; it peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard R&B chart in 1961, and later crossed over to the pop singles chart, where it peaked at number 45.

Wells' early Motown recordings reflected a rougher R&B sound than the smoother style of her biggest hits. Wells became the first Motown female artist to have a Top 40 pop single after the Mickey Stevenson-penned doo-wop song "I Don't Want to Take a Chance" hit number 33 in June 1961. In the fall of that year, Motown issued her first album and released a third single, the bluesy ballad "Strange Love". When that record bombed, Gordy set Wells up with the Miracles' lead singer Smokey Robinson. Though she was hailed as "the first lady of Motown", Wells was technically Motown's third female signed act: Claudette Rogers, of Motown's first star group the Miracles, has been referred to by Berry Gordy as "the first lady of Motown Records" due to her being signed as a member of the group, and in late 1959 Detroit blues-gospel singer Mable John had signed to the then-fledgling label a year prior to Wells' arrival. Nevertheless, Wells' early hits as one of the label's few female solo acts did make her the label's first female star and its first fully successful solo artist.

Success

Wells's teaming with Robinson led to a succession of hit singles over the following two years. Their first collaboration, 1962's "The One Who Really Loves You", was Wells's first hit, peaking at number 2 on the R&B chart and number 8 on the Hot 100. The song featured a calypso-styled soul production that defined Wells's early hits. Motown released the similar-sounding "You Beat Me to the Punch" a few months later. The song became her first R&B number 1 single and peaked at number 9 on the pop chart. The success of "You Beat Me to the Punch" helped to make Wells the first Motown star to be nominated for a Grammy Award when the song was nominated for Best Rock & Roll Recording in 1963.

In late 1962, "Two Lovers" became Wells's third consecutive single to hit the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100, peaking at number 7 and becoming her second number 1 hit on the R&B chart. This helped to make Wells the first female solo artist to have three consecutive Top 10 singles on the pop chart. The track sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Wells's second album, also titled The One Who Really Loves You, was released in 1962 and peaked at number 8 on the pop albums chart, making the teenage singer a breakthrough star and giving her clout at Motown. Wells's success at the label was recognized when she became a headliner during the first string of Motortown Revue concerts, starting in the fall of 1962. The singer showcased a rawer stage presence that contrasted with her softer R&B recordings.

Wells's success continued in 1963 when she hit the Top 20 with the doo-wop ballad "Laughing Boy" and scored three additional Top 40 singles, "Your Old Standby", "You Lost the Sweetest Boy", and its B-side, "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One". "You Lost the Sweetest Boy" was one of the first hit singles composed by the successful Motown songwriting and producing trio of Holland–Dozier–Holland, though Robinson remained Wells's primary producer.

Also in 1963, Wells recorded a session of successful B-sides that arguably became as well known as her hits, including "Operator", "What Love Has Joined Together", "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" and "Old Love (Let's Try It Again)". Wells and Robinson also recorded a duet titled "I Want You 'Round", which would be re-recorded by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston.

In 1964, Wells recorded "My Guy". The Smokey Robinson song became her trademark single, reaching number 1 on the Cashbox R&B chart for seven weeks and becoming the number 1 R&B single of the year. The song successfully crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, where it eventually replaced Louis Armstrong's "Hello, Dolly!" at number 1, remaining there for two weeks. The song became Wells's second million-selling single.

To build on the song's success, Motown released a duet album recorded with fellow Motown singing star Marvin Gaye, Together. The album peaked at number 1 on the R&B album chart and number 42 on the pop album chart, and yielded the double-sided hits "Once Upon a Time" and "What's the Matter With You Baby".

"My Guy" was one of the first Motown songs to break on the other side of the Atlantic, eventually peaking at number 5 on the UK chart and making Wells an international star. Around this time, the Beatles stated that Wells was their favorite American singer, and soon she was given an invitation to open for the group during their tour of the United Kingdom, thus making her the first Motown star to perform in the UK. Wells was only one of three female singers to open for the Beatles, the others being Brenda Holloway and Jackie DeShannon. Danny Tyrell accompanied her in live shows in Detroit. Wells made friends with all four Beatles and later released a tribute album, Love Songs to the Beatles, in mid-decade.

Former Motown sales chief Barney Ales described Wells's landmark success in 1964:

In 1964, Mary Wells was our big, big artist, I don't think there's any audience with an age of 30 through 50 that doesn't know the words to My Guy.

Leaving Motown

Ironically during her most successful year, Wells was having problems with Motown over her original recording contract, which she had signed at the age of 17. She was also reportedly angry that the money made from "My Guy" was being used to promote The Supremes, who had found success with "Where Did Our Love Go", just as "My Guy" was promoted, using the profits from another, earlier hit Motown song. Though Gordy reportedly attempted to renegotiate with Wells, the singer still asked to be freed from her contract with Motown.

A pending lawsuit kept Wells away from the studio for several months, as she and Gordy brokered the contract details, with Wells fighting to gain a larger share of the royalties she had earned during her tenure with Motown. Finally, Wells invoked a clause that allowed her to leave the label, advising the court that her original contract was invalid, as she had signed while she was still a minor. Wells won her lawsuit and was awarded a settlement, leaving Motown officially in early 1965, whereupon she accepted a lucrative ($200,000) contract with 20th Century Fox Records.

Part of the terms of the agreement of her release was that she could not receive any royalties from her past works with the label, including use of her likeness to promote herself.

Career struggles

A weary Wells worked on material for her new record label while dealing with other issues, including being bedridden for weeks suffering from tuberculosis. Wells's eponymous first 20th Century Fox release included the first single "Ain't It The Truth", its B-side "Stop Taking Me for Granted", the lone top 40 hit, "Use Your Head" and "Never, Never Leave Me". However, the album flopped, as did the Beatles tribute album she released not too long afterwards. Rumors have hinted Motown may have threatened to sue radio stations for playing Wells's post-Motown music during this time. After a stressful period in which Wells and the label battled over various issues after her records failed to chart successfully, the singer asked to be let go in 1965 and left with a small settlement.

In 1966, Wells signed with Atlantic Records' subsidiary Atco. Working with producer Carl Davis, she scored her final Top 10 R&B hit with "Dear Lover", which also became a modestly successful pop hit, peaking at number 51. However, much like her tenure with 20th Century Fox, the singer struggled to come up with a follow-up hit, and in 1968, she left the label for Jubilee Records, where she scored her final pop hit, "The Doctor", a song she co-wrote with then-husband Cecil Womack. (Meanwhile, she had attempted a film career, but only managed a guest starring role in 1967's "Catalina Caper".) In 1970, Wells left Jubilee for a short-lived deal with Warner Music subsidiary Reprise Records and released two Bobby Womack-produced singles. In 1972, Wells scored a UK hit with a re-issue of "My Guy", which was released on the Tamla-Motown label and climbed to number 14. Though a re-issue, Wells promoted the single heavily and appeared on the British TV show Top of the Pops for the first time. Despite this mini-revival, she decided to retire from music in 1974 to raise her family.

Comeback

In 1977, Wells divorced Cecil Womack and returned to performing. She was spotted by CBS Urban president Larkin Arnold in 1978 and offered a contract with the CBS subsidiary Epic Records, which released In and Out of Love in October 1981. The album, which had been recorded in 1979, yielded Wells's biggest hit in years, the funky disco single, "Gigolo".

"Gigolo" became a smash at dance clubs across the country. A six-minute mix hit number 13 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Club Singles chart and number 2 on the Hot Disco Songs chart. A four-minute radio version released to R&B stations in January 1982 achieved a modest showing at number 69. It turned out to be Wells's final chart single.

After the parent album failed to chart or produce successful follow-ups, the Motown-styled These Arms was released, but it flopped and was quickly withdrawn, and Wells's Epic contract fizzled. The album's failure may have been due to light promotion. She still had one more album in her CBS contract, and in 1982, released an album of cover songs, Easy Touch, which aimed for the adult contemporary radio format.

Leaving CBS in 1983, she continued recording for smaller labels, gaining new success as a touring performer.

On the April 21, 1984 edition of American Top 40, Casey Kasem reported that Wells was attempting to establish a hot dog chain.

In 1989, Wells was celebrated with a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation during its inaugural year.

Final years

In 1990, Wells recorded an album for Ian Levine's Motorcity Records, but her voice began to fail, causing the singer to visit a local hospital. Doctors diagnosed Wells with laryngeal cancer. Treatments for the disease ravaged her voice, forcing her to quit her music career. Since she had no health insurance, her illness wiped out her finances, forcing her to sell her home. As she struggled to continue treatment, old Motown friends, including Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, members of the Temptations and Martha Reeves, made donations to support her, along with the help of admirers such as Dionne Warwick, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin and Bonnie Raitt. That same year, a benefit concert was held by fellow fan and Detroit R&B singer Anita Baker. Wells was also given a tribute by friends such as Stevie Wonder and Little Richard on The Joan Rivers Show.

In 1991, Wells brought a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Motown for royalties she felt she had not received upon leaving Motown Records in 1964 and for loss of royalties for not promoting her songs as the company should have. Motown eventually settled the lawsuit by giving her a six-figure sum. That same year, she testified before the United States Congress to encourage government funding for cancer research:

I'm here today to urge you to keep the faith. I can't cheer you on with all my voice, but I can encourage, and I pray to motivate you with all my heart and soul and whispers.

Personal life

Wells married twice: first, in 1960, to Detroit singer Herman Griffin. The marriage of the teenage couple was troubled from the start due to their age and Griffin's unhealthy control of Wells; they divorced in 1963. Despite rumors, she never dated fellow Motown singer Marvin Gaye, who would go on to have successful duet partnerships with Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross after Wells had left Motown.

In 1966, Wells married singer-songwriter Cecil Womack, formerly of the Valentinos, and the younger brother of musician Bobby Womack. The marriage lasted until 1977 and produced three children. Wells began an affair with another Womack brother, Curtis, during her marriage to Cecil. Her relationship with Curtis Womack was reportedly abusive. Wells was a notorious chain smoker and went through bouts of depression during her marriages. After separating from Cecil, she attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills when word had leaked of her affair with Curtis who was married. After the failed suicide attempt, Wells sought other methods of what she called "meditating," including using cocaine. Over time, she developed a heroin habit. Her drug habit ceased after she became pregnant with Curtis' child. After splitting from Curtis in 1990, Wells focused on raising her youngest daughter Sugar (b.1986) until her cancer appeared.

Wells had four children: Cecil, Jr., Harry, Stacy (with Cecil Womack), and Sugar (with Curtis Womack).

Death

In the summer of 1992, Wells's cancer returned and she was rushed to the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles with pneumonia. With the effects of her unsuccessful treatments and a weakened immune system, Wells died on July 26, 1992, at the age of 49. After her funeral, which included a eulogy given by her old friend and former collaborator, Smokey Robinson, Wells was cremated, and her ashes were laid to rest in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in a Womack family crypt. Family friend Sam Cooke is buried in The Garden of Honor, about 850 feet (260 m) to the west.

Accolades

Though Wells has been eligible for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, being nominated twice in 1986 and 1987, she has yet to achieve it.

Wells earned one Grammy Award nomination during her career. Her song "My Guy" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Wells was given one of the first Pioneer Awards by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1989. A year later, the foundation raised more than $50,000 to help with her treatment after her illness had wiped out all of her finances.

Wells was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2006. She was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.

[chloca-cola]

(Un)Corruptible Chapter 5

@minteyeddemon

TW: none that I can think of

Word count: 1,757 ish

~~

“Hey...now might not be the coolest time for this, but...can I come in and see Cassiel...it’s been ages.” Nero asked, clearly nervous on how Meande would react to his request, which she smiled softly at, and she nodded. She knew how close Nero had gotten to her mother as they were growing up, she was like a mother to him just as much as she was to her, and Meande knew it hurt Nero just as deeply when they thought she was dead.

    Meande, Nero and Nico walked up to the doors of Devil May Cry and Meande inhaled deeply through her nostrils, letting the breath out slowly. She steeled herself and pushed the door open, and Cassiel, Dante and Vergil all looked at her.

    “Oh good, you’re ok babycakes.” Dante went to Meande, she was barely in the door, and he pulled her into a warm embrace, which she meekly returned at first, still warring internally if she should forgive him, but she quickly melted into the hug, breathing in his familiar scent deeply. “Meande, I’m so sor-”

    “Is there anymore shit that needs to be piled on me right now while I’m open to it?” She spat acidly, still hugging Dante tightly. Cassiel gasped and Meande pulled back from Dante to look at her.

    “Nero...is that you?” He gave her his usual smirk and she laughed. “My, you’ve grown into quite a handsome man.” She complimented causing a slight dusting a pink blush to heat his cheeks.

    “C’mon, Mrs. LaSalle...don’t be like that.” Cassiel laughed.

    “Oh, right, I forgot, you’re a punk.” She stated, waving her hands apologetically, and they embraced quickly.

    “Cassiel.” Vergil said curtly, bringing her back to the issue at hand, and she shot him a cold glare, before turning back to Meande.

    “Well, a demon named Maltheal is coming for you. I don’t know why or when, but...it looked as if he was torturing you.” Meande gave her a sardonic smile, releasing Dante to clap in the same sarcastic  manner.

    “Oh, don’t know when or why? Goodie! It’s like a game, huh?” Meande knew she wasn’t being fair, but it’s like she couldn’t stop herself, she knew it wasn’t easy controlling some psionic powers.

    “Meande, this is serious, react appropriately.” Vergil warned, standing from Dante’s desk, coming around to stand next to her, and she craned her neck to look up at the taller man, the sarcastic smile dropping from her face.

    “Oh, really. How am I supposed to react?” Tears flooded her eyes, and for some reason she felt ashamed to cry in front of Vergil, so she wiped her eyes angrily, growling in frustration. “I’m pissed, scared, hurt, happy, sad, conflicted. Which is right, Vergil?” She was up on her tiptoes now, trying in vain to get into the elder Sparda twins face, which he was unamused by, and she felt Dante’s arms wrap around her waist from behind. “I dunno what to do, I just know I feel like that weak girl from five years ago!” Vergil watched her as he breaths quickened and her pupils dilated, eyes darting from him frantically, he tucked his chin slightly before rearing his hand and back handing her across the face. 

    The force caused her to ragdoll in Dante’s arms, nursing her cheek tenderly from the shock of it, and a litany of shocked dissent filled the room. Dante let her go to shove Vergil, who barely reacted to it, pushing Dante aside to grab Meande’s arm and pull her back towards him.

    “It’s ok, everyone. I needed that, thank you Vergil.” She commended, and he gave her a quick nod.

    “You were going into hysterics.” He explained in his matter-of-fact way, and she sighed, turning to face her mother.

    “Anyone have any idea why this Maltheal is coming for me?” Cassiel looked at everyone but shrugged.

    “You know how limited promotions are, they’re more like guidelines than anything really.” Meande sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, knowing how true that was.

    “I guess then we will just have to be vigilant…” Meande hated not knowing what was going to happen, what’s the point in having abilities like precognition if you can’t use it when needed. She then turned to Dante, running her hands up his chest to grab two fistfuls of his jacket lapels. “I love you, Dante.” She purred, before yanking him down to be face to face with her. “But if you ever lie to me again about something like this, I’ll kick your ass.” She promised, and he gave her a cheeky smirk.

    “Sounds kinda kinky babe.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and Meande tried in vain not to laugh at him, but she couldn’t help it, and he pulled her into a kiss.

~~

    After dinner, Cassiel went into the kitchen to help Meande wash the dishes. It was a tense silence, and the two women kept sneaking glances at each other as they worked. Meande had forgotten just how beautiful her mother is, and she found herself wishing she looked more like her, Meande was a near perfect balance between her parents.  Porcelain skin from her mother, a spray of cinnamon freckles across her nose and cheeks from her father. Short like her mother, but slightly stocky from her father. Meande sighed.

    “I like what you did with your hair.” Cassiel complimented, breaking the silence and Meande hummed, looking down at her shoulder length dreads.

    “Thanks…” She muttered, smiling slightly.

    “Is that like a mohawk hairstyle?” Meande nodded, shrugging as shoulder as she cleaned the last dish.

    “I think it’s more of a death hawk really. I’m not a punk like Nero.” They both shared a small laugh.

    “Anymore…” Meande let out a small indignant squeak, looking at her mother, mouth agape.

    “You’re really just gonna call me out like that?” Cassiel then let out a loud laugh, hip bumping her daughter playfully. “I really did miss you, you know?” Meande finally admitted once their mirth ended and Cassiel smiled softly.

    “I missed you too, baby girl.” The two looked at each other before finally hugging and Meande let out a cathartic sigh. She could choose to let this make her mad at the world, turn her back on everyone, but how many people really get a second chance to have their mother back? She wasn’t going to squander it on mistakes made in the past in a panic. She didn’t agree with how it was done, but there was care behind it.

    “Ooh, hang on, I got something to show you.” Meande ran from the kitchen to her desk in the lobby, searching through her drawer until she found the lone photo album she saved from her old home. “I kept this.” She announced, plopping down at the table, motioning for her mother to join her look through the album.

 They made hot chocolate and browsed the memories, laughing at the funny pictures her father had taken. Life had seemed so much simpler then. Meande sat forward slightly when she came upon a picture she had forgotten about. It was the first time Nero came to her house to play, she was 10 and he was 4, no other kids seemed to want to play with him, so she quickly befriended him.

“Hey, mom...I’m sorry...but I need to find Vergil.” Cassiel narrowed her eyes at Meande.

“Why?” Meande blinked at Cassiel’s tone, her forehead knitting and she realized, her mother doesn’t know.

“Vergil is Nero’s father.” Her mother's eyes widened to dinner plates.

“Oh, jeez, Meande, I’m sorry...I thought...nevermind…” Meande blinked, tilting her head slightly.

“I love Dante, mom.” She nodded waving her hand dismissively.

“I know that, I’m sorry.” She took a drink of the warm creamy liquid, watching as her daughter left the room.

    Meande trotted up the stairs to Vergil’s room, knocking softly on the door.

    “Vergil?” She called, smirking after no response. ”Vergie, I know you’re in there, I can hear you brooding.”

    “Don’t ever call me that again.” He deadpanned, causing her to laugh, as she cracked the door open, peeking her head in.

    “I’ve got something for you.” She offered, stepping inside, once he marked his book, snapping it closed and setting it aside. She walked over to him, holding out the picture for him to take. “It’s a picture of Nero when he was like 4, sorry I’m in it too.” She stated, clasping her hands behind her back, watching him as he looked at the picture. “I know you weren’t there for whatever reason, so I figured you’d like a picture of him.” She smiled sweetly at Vergil when he looked up at her, the look eliciting a weird stirring in his chest that caused him to shift in his seat.

    “Thank you, Meande.” She nodded, moving to stand beside him to look at the picture over his shoulder, before turning her face to look at his profile.

    “I’m sure I’ve got more in that photo album, you’re welcome to them, if you want them.” She leaned against his shoulder, patting his chest where her hand dangled. “He’s a good guy, Vergil.” She pushed herself off of him, walking back towards the door.

    “Meande.” She turned, clasping her hands behind her back again, taking a few steps back towards him, smiling again. “I want you to know I do not agree with how your mother and my brother handled this situation . You deserved the truth from the beginning. If I had been in Dante’s place, I would not have kept it from you.” Meande’s smile faded and her eyes averted from him to the floor.

    “I know, and I agree, but it's in the past, and we can’t change the past. All we can do is not let us hate.” Meande looked up at Vergil, who seemed almost taken aback by her answer and her brows furrowed. “You ok, Vergil?” His face returned to it’s stoic nature, before he gave her his trademark curt nod, but she didn’t believe him. “Well...ok…” She began, tilting her head at him. “But, if you ever wanna...talk, you know I’m here, right?” Vergil watched her for a long moment and she could almost see the gears turning in his head, as if he was trying to work out if opening up to her would hurt him in the end. He finally gave her a small smile, and she nodded and left the room.

[amisbro]

Deep Dive:  Shining Live’s Missing seasons(?)

I know that me talking about Shining Live at times gets annoying and it gets frustrating.  This is why this is under a cut already so if you see the title as someone I knew on here that would occasionally tag their posts you can “keep calm and scroll on”. This post comes at a time when ,during the recent collection event (which I love more than I thought I would btw...best event type ever IMHO regardless of outcome for me) I had reached the end of the story songs and I had seen an ask recently about HEAVENS coming into the game.  I think what a lot of people are going to have to realize is ,until Broccoli and KLab make a statement about them either being or not being included at some point its going to be a question asked.  Its going to be a question asked because whether people want to admit it or not HEAVENS is gaining popularity (recently a shop in Japan released a line of plushies for the group which is kickass) so fans asking when they will be included into things is only going to keep up until something is officially said or done...just how it is. One question that I saw asked recently was about the “Duet Idol songs” that had STARISH and HEAVENS involved. Now let’s go over something because I feel like this needs to be repeated When this game was originally announced per a partnership with Broccoli and KLab it was over 2 years ago...May to be specific.  When this happened (at the time) HEAVENS’ only song was of course “HEAVENS GATE” so it would make sense to not include them Since then HEAVENS has had the Idol Duet songs with STARISH and HEAVEN SKY.  in a little over 3 weeks the group will be a part of “Shuffle units” (and I have concerns that I expressed on twitter about those) so that will make another batch of songs for them. Here is where the title of this post comes in Currently in Shining Live there are two seasons of songs that are prominently featured Maji Love 1000% Maji Love Revolutions Now...this WOULDN’T be an issue but we know that the game HAS featured (and the songs are currently on the song list as well) Ai no Reincarnation and Poison Kiss which both came from that season right?  Well they also featured (in the campaign) Maji Love 1000 (Rainbow Version) which...that’s fine BUT I wondered if KLab understood that that song was performed AFTER STARISH had already beaten their opponents in HEAVENS at the UtaPri awards?  ODD! This brings me to the idea of the “missing seasons” So far to date when the seasons are put into the “Setlist events” the seasons prominently featured are the ones I mentioned which...fine! HERE IS THE ISSUE! I get that they want to feature STARISH and QN because the game is currently called “Shining Live” and I say “currently” because of something I will bring up in a bit.  The issue is that as it stands they haven’t added any of the Season 1 songs (which I had suspected would have happened by now) OR if they were going to just flat out skip that then at least do the “Gen 1 Shining Theaters” (I need an excuse to play Masquerade Mirage at nausea alright?!) Now here is something that has been suggested they could do with the HEAVENS songs (and characters) if they are to appear in the game The songs could appear in the game but just not have HEAVENS OR HEAVENS can be in the game but possibly not voiced Allow me to break down the issue with both of these ideas Idea 1 This idea might not fly with fans because of the idea that if you put in HEAVENS GATE you would expect (since the vocals are HEAVENS anyway) that they would put in the characters to perform the song.  This would make sense because not having HEAVENS perform their trademark song in the game would be like if a really bad cover band did “Invisible Touch” by GENESIS (and you can argue that the last incarnation without Phil Collins as front man was REALLY BAD even if they did have some of the original members I grew up with). Like if you put in HEAVENS GATE but keep it strict to just STARISH or QN my question would be this So are Broccoli going to basically have them do a cover of the song for the game?  Okay if so who matches what characters vocal range from HEAVENS because otherwise you are gonna have fans get real hot trust me.  I’m not saying you’ll lose players but what would happen is some would demand the genuine article This brings us to the second idea Idea 2 Could HEAVENS be put in the game and not voiced?  Yes that is possible and it might shut up fans of the 7 “Renegade Princes” but it might also cause great anger because if you put them in the game but don’t let them be voiced and yet STARISH and QN are voiced there will be those that feel that HEAVENS is being treated unfairly just because of popularity reasons...despite the fact that HEAVENS HAS beaten STARISH on the Oricon once on the daily BUT people don’t want to talk about that...just live in this falsehood that they have no popularity. What would happen if HEAVENS did get this treatment?  Would there be enough outrage among at least the “Domestic” (Read:  Japanese) fanbase to force KLab to get them voiced or else they would stop playing the game?  Like okay in Stand my Hero (I know weird diversion but work with me here) there are some characters not voiced when there are like 2 side characters that are.  I get that there might not be that much outrage there but we also have to remember that that game is also 3 seasons long in what...a year’s time?!  Shining Live is a year old and we haven’t finished the first season songs yet! One thing I thought about is that when they do a season of songs its going to start with Season 3 because that had the STARISH “Cross-Unit” (That’s so bullshit but okay) and the QN Idol songs.  Now I thought about THAT because of the four seasons its the only one that has both units featured. “So okay then” I hear you starting to ponder “if that is the case then what do you do with the other seasons and especially Season 1 since it is featured in the main story?” See that’s where it gets tricky for me because to me that should have come AFTER the the season songs for Season 1 (and yes I know Season ED singles come out before the character singles but for that kind of chronology it would have worked better) and then called it a day...same with Season 2. The thing that forever perplexes me about KLab’s choice to not start to introduce S2 songs is they not only included ML2K ,ML1K (Rainbow) ,Ai no Reincarnation and Poison Kiss but they also did (if I remember last year) the single for Shining Star Xmas...its starting to look more blatant than anything that HEAVENS wouldn’t be in the game somehow even if (for now) to supplement a story with a STARISH character...hell do an event story with like Tokiya and someone and have Yuuma voice Eiji when he appears in the story.  See what kind of reaction THAT gets! Now I know I harped on S2 but we need to discuss S4 as well The last I checked (and I could be wrong) “Legend Star” was a STARISH song right?  The only way I could see that song being blocked for now is because HEAVENS did vocals in it but I am 99% positive that didn’t happen (and if someone can prove me otherwise I want you to do so.  I am genuinely curious about that) so why that song has not appeared yet when the season (as of next month) will be two years old boggles my waterlogged brain. Here is a completely crazy thought...and I don’t THINK this is the case but it very well could be Could it be possible that ,for January when the EN version’s anniversary comes up, they start “season 2″ for the game and thus start adding in Season 1 on up because the fact that it seems that the content has seemingly dried up this early doesn’t seem possible right? Like I tried to think when the last time the game had a BIG update and I think August was when they did the Anniversary and then like what...a month or two later they did the revised Birthday boxes right? Like I’m half expecting a big announcement of some kind of update to content in the game as far as songs go.  I thought that the game would have done something for this collection event where you had to unlock songs in the list but the only song of consequence they do that with is “Top Star Revolution” (which is a song I never gave proper dues to because it was a Natsuki song but its actually really good!) There is a part of me that believes still that S2 and 4 WILL be included in the game (along with 1 and 3 in the main story) BUT they are waiting for things to calm down a little with the schedule because HEAVENS has the radio show that starts next Wednesday (And I’m going to listen to it for sure) and you have the 6 releases with the shuffles and also HEAVENS’ min album eventually dropping and that was a cluster we need to discuss in the next post. Now WHEN would I think they would include HEAVENS in the game (or the songs as a starting point)? Earliest would be January in a content update and the latest would be March-April.  I do think they are coming its just a matter of how they want to handle it and I think there is a plan in place but no one is privy to it yet. Here is hoping we will learn soon right?

[wearemozzerians]

Here’s today's full interview with Morrissey Official by 

Chrissy Iley for The Sunday Times:

I'm inside Morrissey’s hotel room at the Sunset Marquis, West Hollywood. It smells incensy, instantly exotic with a dangerous edge rather like the man himself. He’s in LA because he’s performing at the Hollywood Bowl and because Friday, November 10 has been declared Morrissey Day by the mayor of Los Angeles. He lived near here until a few years ago, but now he’s just visiting. Where does he live now? A sigh. “I’m in a different place all the time. I’m not sure why everyone wants to know where I live, what that says about me. It means my credit card is permanently blocked for security reasons. They think I’m an anonymous person if I’m never in the same place. I never ask people where they live, but they always ask me as if it would reveal anything about me. I’m here now, as you can see.” Because he’s performing. “Well … I don’t perform. I’m occasionally on a stage, but I don’t ever perform.” How very Morrissey. It’s as if he never wants to be really seen — except by tens of thousands every time he is on a stage, or when he makes one of his trademark outrageous comments, whether that’s about politics, or last week, defending Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey (more of that later). He no longer lives in the house next to Johnny Depp? “No, he bought it to put his argumentative relatives in when they came to stay and since then I have been homeless. I just move around the world, which is a fascinating way to live. People say, ‘But surely you need your own kitchen.’ But I’ve managed for many years doing without.” Does he cook? “Yes I do, and it’s a very nice idea to have a kitchen ...” But room service will provide? “It tries, but it’s difficult sometimes. We don’t like to wait do we, really, for anything?” Does he travel light? “I have a sickening volume of possessions. They’re all stored away in different parts of the world waiting for that moment when I stop and buy a house and relax.” Does he ever relax? “No.” This is a moment where I want to tell him about the first time I heard his voice. So soul-curdling and deep-reaching when he sang How Soon Is Now? The Smiths are remembered by their fans with a huge amount of romanticism. It seems that they were around for ever, but in fact it was only five years — 1982 to 1987 — and four studio albums. But so many songs, such poetry that spoke for a generation about love and loss and waiting. Post Smiths, there was a series of solo albums, starting with Viva Hate, some of which were less loved. There was a dark autobiography in 2013 and a strange foray into novel writing — List of the Lost was reviewed as “turgid” and received the Bad Sex Award in 2015 for a scene describing a “giggling snowball of full-figured copulation”. But now Morrissey is back, as unconventional as ever. And with the release of the new album, Low in High School, he is on the radio, the television, that voice strangely more fluid and insistent than ever. Some of his views must jangle with his new generation of younger fans. He has said that he thought Brexit was magnificent, and the new single Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up on the Stage ends with a haunting chorus of “exit exit”, which some people have translated as “Brexit Brexit”. He denies it. “No, it’s not a Brexit song. There’s no Brexit in it,” he insists. “The line is, ‘All the audience head for the exit when she’s on stage’, so it’s nothing to do with Brexit. People just rush to stupid conclusions and create facts and create their own truths and slaughter the issue.” But he did say Brexit was magnificent, right? “I thought it was a fascinating strike for democracy, because the people said the opposite to Westminster, and that was extraordinary. David Cameron didn’t imagine the result could be as it was, but at least he did the honourable thing and slid away. The unfortunate thing is that politicians only speak to other politicians. They don’t speak to the people, so on that day their bubble burst. And now I don’t think Brexit has taken place, or even will, because Westminster don’t want it. It’s not that difficult. They’re just finding a way to not make it Brexit.” Is it true that he banned David Cameron from ever listening to a Morrissey-penned song? “No, that was never true, but these are the things I have to live with.” Big sigh. “I didn’t say it and it’s nice if everybody listens. It really is.” There’s nobody he wants to ban? “Well, only the obvious — the obvious international pest.” The orange one? “Yes.” “He’s beyond salvation. Beyond any help. The biggest security threat to America and the world. He’s like a two-year-old constantly reaching for something, damaging it and then moving on to something else and destroying it.” Indeed, the next day when I go to his show at the Hollywood Bowl, one of the backdrops is Morrissey holding a toddler with Trump’s head superimposed. A tiny tyrant. It goes down well. Morrissey is still mesmerising on stage as he lashes and whips his microphone cable. He gives us the songs that still speak to us even though they’re decades old. This audience — a diverse collection: black, white, brown; young, old and very young; men, women, gay, straight — seems to be with him all the way. No one minds that on Morrissey’s orders the only food sold is vegetarian. I’ve been to that same stadium many times and seen artists of similar years with pretentious trousers and hair plugs. I’ve seen them sing their old songs to a crowd of middle-aged spread. This concert was not like that. Though I could have done without the bit where the 58-year-old threw his jacket into the crowd and flaunted his unworked-out torso. But it was unselfconsciously done. On the sofa in his hotel room we sip bottled water and he asks me if I would like anything more dangerous. I suggest a coffee. He shrugs in despair. “That’s not what I meant.” The new album has created a buzz. “It feels good. People always want their latest offspring to be the cutest, I believe,” he says. He doesn’t have children. He has songs. Does he have a particular track that’s more important than the others? “No. I mean if you gave birth to quads you wouldn’t say which quad is the best one, would you? You would love all your quads equally for different reasons.” I tell him I’ve got four cats. “There. I rest my case. I bet you don’t pick one out and say you’re the one I love and boot the others in the linen cupboard.” We chat about how Russell Brand’s cat is called Morrissey. “Yes, and he’s still alive. I don’t mean Russell — I mean the cat. He is getting on now: I do mean Russell. I don’t mean the cat.” I read that Brand named the cat Morrissey because he’s an awkward bugger. He grins. “There you go. You should have guessed that one straight away.” But however difficult he can be — for instance, during the preparation of this article he spends four days saying he will do a photo shoot and then doesn’t — he is having a moment in the spotlight. “It’s certainly a moment that might annoy many people, but here I am and I offer no apologies and no excuses.” Hmm. The first single on the album, Spent the Day in Bed, has had more airplay in America than any Morrissey track ever. “I don’t spend the day in bed often but people love their beds,” he says. He advises several times that people shouldn’t stay in bed and watch the news because it is so depressing. He should know: Morrissey has spent much of his life depressed. Surely that’s where quite a few of the hits came from. “Years ago I sang a song called Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, and it’s like an old school uniform. People insist I wear it, but I’m really not that miserable. I’m not an unhappy person. Not in the least. I’m certainly very surprised and very pleased to still be here.” I’m wondering if his new resolution to appreciate life had anything to do with it nearly being taken away. He is in remission from oesophagus cancer. “I’d had quite a few scares and was on a lot of extreme medication. I lost a lot of hair. You can be as healthy as possible, but something will always get you in the end. I thought, here we go. Just accept it, but I’ve done very well. I’m not on any medication now.” And his hair is back — greying — and the Morrissey superquiff is perhaps not as super as it once was. “It’s real. A lot of people my age don’t have hair. They don’t have teeth, so I feel quite blessed.” Following his diagnosis in 2014, he “had a lot of scrapings, but they weren’t all painful”. Wasn’t he worried a procedure involving the scraping of his oesophagus would affect his voice? “No, incredibly,” he laughs. “In fact my voice is better, absolutely better than it was. I had to give up 150 things, from red wine and beyond, but that was OK because I don’t really like red wine. When you sit before a doctor and they use the c-word you hear it but you don’t hear it. You just say, ‘Ah, yes,’ as if it’s something you hear every day. Your mind goes into this funny little somewhere and you say, ‘Ah, yes,’ as if you knew it all along.” I’m not sure that’s how most of us would react, but then he’s always been one of these people who seem to be able to dislocate himself from his own being. “Giving up red wine was meaningless to me anyway.” Doesn’t he drink alcohol? “Just not red wine.” He also has a dislike of mushrooms. “Oh they are horrific, fungus — truffles make me cry. I say to people, ‘What are you doing eating fungus?’ Truffles shock me and the smell. Ewwww. Garlic is also horrific.” Morrissey’s superfood of choice is potatoes. “I’ve never had a curry and I’ve never had a coffee. I’ve never wanted one and I’ve never been handed one. I have Ceylon tea, very, very weak with an alternative milk. Cashew milk is beautiful. Dairy farms all over England are collapsing. Non-dairy milk is now 51% of the market, which is fantastic.” Thirty-two years ago, when he first sang Meat Is Murder, veganism was rare. A vegan diet was difficult to maintain. Now, vegan food is in supermarkets. “What about champagne?” he says. I’m not sure if he’s offering to crack open a bottle, but I hate champagne. “I’ve never met anybody that hated champagne,” he says. I’ve never met anybody that hasn’t drunk coffee or eaten curry, I ripost. “I don’t like any food where the following day you can still taste it or you smell of it or your clothes smell of it. I’m very, very bland as far as food is concerned,” he says. It is as if the psyche of Morrissey is so piquant, he needs to balance it with food that tastes of nothing. Not only has he never had an onion bhaji — “I’ve never had an onion. That would make me cry. It’s just too eye-crossing. I’m strictly bread and potatoes.” Not for the first time, the conversation drifts back to politics. Does he think Trump will be impeached? “It’s a long time coming and there have been multiple reasons and it hasn’t happened. It’s a shocking reflection on American politics. I understand people wanting somebody who is nonpolitical, who is not part of a system. But not him. They thought that he was something he absolutely is not. Surely people realise it now. Everything he says is divisive. It’s meant to be. It’s meant to distract you.” He is similarly disparaging about Theresa May. “She won’t answer questions put to her. She’s not leadership [material]. She can barely get to the end of her own sentence. Her face quakes. She’s hanging on by the skin of her teeth. She has negotiations about negotiations about negotiations about the EU. I’m not a Conservative, but I can see she’s actually blocking the Conservative Party from moving on and becoming strong. But as we know, politicians do not care about public opinion. And she wants to bring back fox hunting.” This is not only “cruel and disgraceful”, but signifies that May is “out of step and not of the modern world”. Morrissey loves talking about politics, there’s always an opinion. But then he says: “I’m nonpolitical. I always have been. I’ve never voted in my life.” At the last election there was a story going round that Morrissey voted Ukip. In fact, at a concert earlier this year, he appeared to support Anne-Marie Waters, an outspoken Ukip politician with anti-Muslim views, claiming the party’s leadership contest had been rigged against her. He is the most political nonpolitical person on the planet. He’s shy, except in front of thousands. He writes about love, but only admits to one proper relationship — with Jake Walters, a boxer from east London. They lived together from 1994 to 1996. When he was in the Smiths he declared himself celibate and said he hated sex. After Walters, he discussed having a baby with Tina Dehghani, a friend whom he met while living in Los Angeles, and in his autobiography he refers to a relationship with an Italian whom he calls Gelato. He’s said in the past he’s only attracted to people who aren’t interested in him. He’s never been on a date. He only writes about wanting to be loved. Many contradictions. “Well, I’m human. I’m not interested in being part of anything. I don’t see a party that speaks to me and I haven’t ever. My vote is very precious. I won’t use it just to get rid of somebody I don’t like because they’re all absolutely the same.” Does he think Jeremy Corbyn is the same? “He has had many opportunities to take a strike against Theresa May and he has resisted. It’s hard to believe that this is the best England can produce at this stage of the game. We survived Thatcher by the skin of our teeth, and somehow we’re all still alive and we are presented with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.” I laugh, and he corrects me: “It’s a tragedy. The UK is in a state of cultural tragedy, dominated by political correctness. Nobody tells the truth about anything. If you tell the truth in England, you’ll lose your job.” This is not a rule, however, Morrissey feels applies to him. I ask him about the behaviour of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey who are both accused of multiple cases of sexual misdemeanours. He is in no mood to condemn them. “You must be careful as far as ‘sexual harassment’ is concerned, because often it can be just a pathetic attempt at courtship.” Most people wouldn’t see the kind of behaviours these sexual predators are accused of as in any way “courtship”. But Morrissey is undeterred. As this interview went to press it emerged that he’d told the German magazine Der Spiegel that the claims against Kevin Spacey — one of which alleges a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy — were “ridiculous” and argued, as he did with me, that definitions of harassment and assault have become too broad. “Kevin Spacey was 26, boy 14. One wonders where the boy’s parents were,” Morrissey said. “One wonders if the boy did not know what would happen.” On Weinstein, he said to Der Spiegel that some of the movie mogul’s alleged victims: “play along”. “Afterwards, they feel embarrassed or disliked. And then they turn it around and say, ‘I was attacked, I was surprised.’ But if everything went well, and if it had given them a great career, they would not talk about it.” He added: “I hate rape. I hate attacks. I hate sexual situations that are forced on someone. But in many cases one looks at the circumstances and thinks that the person who is considered a victim is merely disappointed.” Our conversation covers similar ground. When I ask him about these sexual attacks he says: “I’m sure it’s horrific, but we have to keep everything in proportion. Do you not agree? I have never been sexually harassed, I might add.” Perhaps that is why he seems so unsympathetic. Morrissey’s sexuality has always been a point of some discussion. Is it still true, I ask, that he doesn’t identify as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual but, as he puts it, “humoursexual”? “No, humasexual as in we’re all humans.” Oh, I thought it was only about sleeping with people that you had a laugh with. “That would dramatically limit things, but certainly I think we are obsessed with labels, obsessed with knowing where we stand with other people, what we can expect them to do, and it doesn’t make any difference really.” Just like veganism, he insists, being sexually fluid and gender fluid is now much more accepted. “It’s extraordinary. People seem to be very relaxed by it.” But when Morrissey announced his humasexuality in 2013, he was a lonely voice. “Yes, I was. I spearheaded the movement. I know no other way, so nothing has changed for me, but the rest of the world leaps on. I am pleased because I want people to be happy. There is an expiration date on our lives on this planet. You have to be yourself and hopefully get some happiness from it. It seems everybody, in every respect of their lives, is coming out of their cupboard saying this is the person I’d like to be. I want to wear these clothes, not those that have been imposed on me. As long as nobody’s harmed, I think it’s good.” Is it true that he’s never been on a date? “Yes, I’ve never been on a traditional date. I’m not that kind of person.” No one’s ever said I’d like to take you to dinner? “No, never. But I’m happy with my vocation.” What does he mean by vocation? “I’m very interested in the singing voice. I’m very interested in making a difference in music, not simply being successful.” Isn’t it possible to do that and have a date? “No. I’ve never found it to be so.” It’s one or the other? “Well, life leads me. Does it lead you? Are you successful at the cost of something else?” I’m quite shocked by his question. I suggest that it’s not valid because I’m not really successful. He says, “Well you’re not working at KFC, are you?”and laughs a conspiratorial laugh. He’s interested in the way journalism has changed. “The Guardian, you can’t even meet them halfway. They are like The Sun in 1972. So obstinate. They don’t want to talk to you. They want to correct you. You can’t simply say, ‘This is how I feel,’ because they’ll say, ‘How you feel is wrong.’ And they’ll say, ‘He’s racist. He should be shot, he should be drowned.’ It’s very difficult to sit down with somebody and simply convey your feelings. In a democracy you should be able to give your opinion about anything. We must have debate, but that doesn’t happen any more. Free speech has died. Isn’t modern journalism about exposing people? When I was young I saw a documentary accidentally about the abattoir and I fell into an almost lifelong depression. I couldn’t believe I lived in a society that allowed this. The abattoir is no different to Auschwitz.” The tack back to animals reminds me he was once voted Britain’s second most important cultural icon by the audience of BBC 2’s The Culture Show, after David Attenborough. “It was beautiful but I don’t know about Attenborough’s regard for animals,” he says. “He often uses terms like ‘seafood’ and there’s no such thing as seafood. It’s sea life, and he talks about ‘wildlife’ and it’s free life. Animals are not wild simply because we pathetic humans haven’t shoved them in a cage, so his terminology is often up the pole.” I tell him one of my favourite songs on the album is Israel. It’s a romantic hymn to the country. How did that come about? “I have made many trips there and I was given the keys to Tel Aviv by the mayor. Everybody was so very nice to me and I’m aware that there’s a constant backlash against the country that I could never quite understand. I feel people are judging the country by its government, which you shouldn’t do. You can’t blame the people for the rulership. Israel is beautiful.” Steven Patrick Morrissey was born and raised in Manchester. A lapsed Catholic, he went to a religious school. Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s was damp, somewhere he wanted to escape from. Part of that escape was through television — and soap operas. He was once offered a part in EastEnders, but turned it down. “I was invited to be Dot Cotton’s other son, a mysterious son no one had ever spoken about, who returns to the Square, doesn’t get involved with anybody and doesn’t immediately have sex with anybody as most characters who come into the Square do.” So basically he’d have played himself. “Yes. I didn’t do it.” Is it too late? “For many things, yes … I was also offered a part in Emmerdale. I was to play an intruder in jodhpurs — which I’d longed to be, of course, I had waited years to be an intruder in jodhpurs — an intruder at Home Farm, but I refused to wear the jodhpurs. As they say, it’s nice to be asked.” He has no ambitions to act, his time occupied with the new album and a tour that will include China, Australia and Europe. China has one of the worst records for human and animal rights in the world, I point out. “You can’t simply fold your arms and say I’m not going to China because of the cat and dog trade, which is absolutely tearful, but hopefully your presence can make a difference,” he says. His only problem with not living anywhere is he has no animal companion. “My best friends have been cats. I had one cat for 23 years and one for 22. They just walked into the house, one when I was a small child and one when I was slightly older. I won’t say they were like children, because I don’t know any children that are actually nice. They were black-and-white and called Buster and Tibby. Tibby had been kicked in the face so he had to be fed by hand. He couldn’t eat from a plate. He required a lot of patience but he cured himself and became a healthy, incredibly happy cat. They certainly enriched my life.” It’s been hours now. Morrissey is too polite to end our meeting and I feel if I don’t end it I may never leave. For me, meeting Morrissey is like meeting a battered, black-and-white alley cat. Sure, he’s not to everyone’s taste. But that is the highest compliment I could ever give — although Morrissey is the only one who could recognise it as such.

The Sunday Times Magazine - Interview by Chrissy Iley:https://t.co/0rq4KHtItW 

We Are Mozzerians.

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Styx/Journey: Random Quarantine Thoughts

Styx

1. Surreal Live... If you watch a concert with all of the original members of the band you are witness to a unique life experience. They get unbelievably theatrical, while looking unbelievably ridiculous and dumb doing it. They dance, bob their head, strut around the stage like the biggest losers in rock ‘n’ roll history. Apparently, nobody told Dennis DeYoung that he was not on Broadway. You can read about his theatrical tendencies all you want, but you will still be amazed at how much he does it nonetheless. Yet, you have to admire the guy because he does it with total conviction and enthusiasm.

2. Tommy Shaw Is Just As Lame... Guitarist Tommy Shaw was always making fun of DeYoung for these theatrical tendencies, but the truth is he is just as lame. The dude jumps around, bangs his head, and kicks his legs in such ways that you actually feel bad for him because he really has no idea how stupid he looks.

3. 3 Lead Singers or At Least 2... Throughout any concert, you typically see Tommy Shaw, Dennis DeYoung, and other guitarist JY Young almost fighting for the crowd’s attention. This is something that I have not seen very often. Styx in a live setting looks like they have three guys on stage trying to be the lead singer all at once. Sometimes, you will not even see the other two guys for most of the song because they are in the dark. Such a thing really is not normal. Young, who sings the occasional song, does all of these flamboyant gestures all over the stage, but in truth, just ends up looking creepy and lame. At times, I think they forget to play because they are so caught up in these competitive theatrics. Also, for some reason they have this thing about standing back to back. One guy will sprint over to another guy, so they can play guitar or sing and play guitar back to back. This makes absolutely no sense to me.

4. Dennis DeYoung Wrote Most of Their Hits... For the longest time, I thought that Dennis DeYoung was the problem in the band, which is why he was forced out. This is most likely not true. Shaw and Young wanted him out because they were embarrassed about the Broadway tendencies of the band, while they wanted to take the band in a rock ‘n’ roll direction. The problem is DeYoung wrote most of their hits, and those songs are all ballads. The reason three albums went triple platinum was not because of their rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities. The two guitarists were basically clueless as to what made their band so successful. I find it laughable that these two morons had the grand illusion or shall I say grand delusion that this group could remain relevant with a heavier dose of rock and roll and all but eliminating any power ballad. Styx is basically what would happen if Jesus Christ Superstar became a band.

5. Max From Armageddon... I keep looking at the bass player, Chuck Panozzo and wondering what he thinks of all of this. If you watch Behind the Music, he is interviewed sparingly during the entire episode. If you watch a live show by the band, then you notice that he does not do anything theatrical, but instead just plays his guitar. I have to believe that through the course of his time with the band that he has learned to roll his eyes quite expertly with all of the drama. I kept thinking of the character Max from the movie Armageddon after they defuse the nuclear bomb. He says, “Man it sucks here in space.” I could see that bass player saying that all the time to the drummer. “Man, it sucks here in Styx.”

Journey

6. Steve Perry and 4 Guys... I was watching a documentary on the band when I suddenly realized that the other guys in the band actually had names. Now, on a more serious note, if you ask the average person on the street to name someone besides Steve Perry I would imagine that you would get a lot of blank faces. This reminds me of a more current band Stone Temple pilots with Scott Weiland. I was quite surprised to find out how accomplished the lead guitarist for Journey had been playing for Santana at the age of 14. What is his name? I could not tell you.

7. Not The Same...I have seen Journey play live twice. They have replaced Steve Perry with a guy from the Philippines, who sounds amazingly like him. Yet, there is no getting around the fact that he is not Steve Perry. Please refer to number six to understand why this is an even bigger issue. This makes any concert experience with the band just a little bit empty and incomplete. I was in Los Angeles when Journey opened for Fleetwood Mac at Dodger Stadium. I was talking to a lifelong Journey fan while waiting in line for a beer. The guy said to me, “They are great, but there is still a tiny piece of me that wishes that was Steve Perry up there.”

8. Stop Believing You Can Use This Song... The song “Don’t Stop Believing” has been used a couple of times as a kind of rallying anthem. In 2005, the Chicago White Sox used it as their theme song as they went on to win the World Series. More recently, I have read that people are using this song for positive moral support when it comes to the coronavirus. Now, I am all for music being used in this way, but I am also a big fan of context. I went back and read what the lyrics actually meant to the song. This is about a guy, who does not want to stop believing that he and his girlfriend will get back together. In what way, does a song about a broken relationship equate with either the game of baseball or a deadly virus killing thousands of people around the world. If you use this song, then you have to use every lyric. You cannot not just hijack the chorus and forget about everything else in the song. Hell, who knows maybe the guy in the song actually deserved it because he was a complete asshole.

9. Coup De-What... Recently, two original members of the band said a couple of other members of the band were trying to stage a corporate coup d’état. This meant that they were trying to somehow steal the band’s name, so they could play under its trademarked name, while forcing The other two out of the band altogether. I think it would have been easier just to push the two guys off a cliff, rather than this complicated scam. The other thing is let us just call it what it really is, a scam. Corporate coup d’état makes things sound way more sinister and important than it actually was in reality. This happens all the time in bands when one member sues the other for use of the name. The only difference here is they did not go to court, yet.

10. Jealousy Needs To Go Their Separate Ways... I read that the other original members of the band besides Steve Perry were not going to allow him on the stage for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2017. I keep seeing this again and again where usually the guitarist becomes really jealous of the lead singer. I find this behavior to be absolutely moronic. Did you not understand what would happen when you signed up for this? These guitarists do not get that when something is verbally spoken to you from a singer a fan thinks they are being talked to in a special way. The other part of it is there are probably a whole lot of people in this world that do not appreciate nor do they care to appreciate how band’s create the sounds that they do. I keep thinking of the “Separate Ways” music video, where every other member of the band is trying to desperately garner some attention by either lipsyncing or playing their instruments in a theatrical way. Yet, that does not change the fact that the voice you are hearing throughout the video is Steve Perry.

[oneweekoneband]

Ninety One, “Mooz” (мұз), from Qarangy Zharyq, 2017

(Warning: flashing lights around two minutes in; also, some violence. Here’s the audio-only video.)

But, like, it’s still just a band: they were never actually protecting anybody or setting anyone free. (from a post by @whitehotharlots​)

To make a long story short: about five years ago I fell in love with a pop group. Like spending-hours-on-Tumblr-learning-all-the-in-jokes love. Like imagination-run-wild love. Like as-opposed-to-grief, as-opposed-to-despair love. But once the initial euphoria-through-learning-through-euphoria phase had run its course, the love was a static thing, directionless. One of the great pleasures of love is doing things for the beloved; but what, exactly, was I supposed to do?

The company, and the performers themselves, said: buy our albums! Stream our songs! Help us win awards at music shows! Come to our concerts! And I did those things; but trying to think of them as expressions of love left me feeling inadequate and a little sordid. Other options were to leave messages and hearts on their livestreams, and I occasionally did that too, using Google Translate to turn “I hope you’re doing well” and “Thank you for your hard work” into Korean, but thousands of other fans had the same idea, and the resulting rush of love felt impersonal, statistical. They, the performers, had no way to know who we, the fans, were; and furthermore any attempts on our part to make them know would be so forced as to violate the very spirit of love that had prompted the attempt in the first place. Each of us was speaking singularly and truly, but the sameness of our language, and the volume of our messages, flattened us out.

What can I do? I kept asking. Which is another way of saying How much power do I have?

We (who have the ability to get online) have a strange relationship to power, in this day and age. Entire books have been written about how people with ostensibly enviable amounts of power might not feel secure enough to actually accomplish anything. (The late Benazir Bhutto apparently once said: “I’m in office, but I’m not in power.” The quote came up in a discussion of Aung San Suu Kyi’s responsibility for stopping the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.) Meanwhile those of us with less formal titles are nevertheless capable of possibly destroying people’s reputations with a single Tweet, or perpetuating unjust systems simply by growing up in them. It feels like we have a great deal of power, wanted or not, to do harm; and seemingly much less power to do good.

That becomes even more pronounced in pop fandom. We want to believe, so badly, that we have the power to do good things for our faves, or at least make them feel loved and valued. But our attempts at exercising our power frequently add up to very little, at best. We also want to believe, so badly, that we can do good with pop music, support the virtuous and punish the wicked; but that, too, carries the risk of being much ado about nothing, or degenerating into a series of sniping wars where everyone’s fave is problematic and no one has any self-respect left.

That pop group I fell in love with wasn’t Ninety One, by the way. When I started writing about Ninety One I said cheerfully to friends: “Oh, I’m not, like, emotionally involved here. These guys are fun and cute but this is just a fun intellectual activity, a side way of getting at some of these questions I’ve had. I’m not crying or anything, thank goodness.” Please remind me I said this next time I try to give you a stock tip.

In my defense, I said it before “Mooz” came out, which is to say before I realized Ninety One was thinking about power and doing good too.

***

I haven’t seen the movie yet. Reportedly NTK, a channel with which Ninety One has struck some sort of deal, is promising to put it online at some point (most likely with Russian, but not English, subtitles). I assume bootlegs are traveling around YouTube. A lot of the footage in the “Mooz” video was already featured in the two-minute trailer uploaded to Ninety One’s YouTube channel in early August.

It’s the story of the first couple years of Ninety One, but not a documentary; rather, it’s a docudrama, with scenes acted out by the guys themselves months after the fact, but everything based on What Actually Happened--90% true, I’ve seen Kazakhstani Eaglez say. I’m not sure how great an idea it was, mental-health-wise, to have the members re-enact confrontations with would-be rioters during the 2016 tour, let alone whatever happened to prompt AZ to put a gun to his head. But even if I’m right (and I’m speaking with my own understandings of what happened and how it got processed, which could very well be way off the mark), something can be emotionally costly to create and still be worth it.

Without knowing about the 2016 tour, “Mooz” is hard to understand, since it’s not a typical believe-in-yourself song. It’s subdued. Ace has the chorus, but he sure isn’t belting. Bala has “I have a dream,” but he prefaces his lines with a little chuckle, as if he’s somewhat amused by all the twists and turns this star-in-a-pop-group idea has taken him on. AZ’s rap is pure lament. Alem at one point just flat-out stops lip-syncing and simply stares into the camera, looking devastated and unsure.

There’s a sense of uncertainty in the wake of damage done. Ace keeps singing, Мүмкін күн шыққанға дейін, бірге күте тұрамыз? The official English translation is “Let’s wait together until the sun rises.” The Russian lyrics, similarly, drop the question: Может вместе подождем, пока солнце не взойдет. “Maybe together we’ll wait until the sun rises.” (Says Google Translate.) But in the original Ace is asking a question: can we wait together until the sun rises? Is that even possible? And AZ continues: the whole world, in fact, we are strangers to each other? The members’ collective sense of their own ability to proceed forward--to do good--has been called into question.

Moreover I think the uncertainty stems not just from the experience of having had their concerts shut down, though that’s the most extreme (and audience-pleasing) culprit. The trailer actually begins with black-and-white footage of masses of Eaglez screaming at concerts. In the interview this summer the members say, no no we’re glad that we’re not The Band That Spawned a Thousand Thinkpieces right now, we don’t want to be regarded as just controversial attention-getters, we want fame on our own terms. All according to plan, Bala says in the song; but “the plan” calls for greater fame, and greater fame is going to mean less and less power, in terms of their ability to control their own images.

Here I am thinking of a video I’ve seen but won’t link to, of Ninety One at some kind of industry dinner at the beginning of the year. Alem sees the camera first, as he’s about to go into the dining hall, and he waves, throws a V sign, seems happy to have the attention. But the camera continues inside, and when ZaQ and Bala catch sight of it they’re clearly uncomfortable; they’re not looking to be public figures performing for fans right at that moment.

Thinking, also, of Rana Dasgupta’s recent essay, “Notes on a Suicide”:

The problem was that, for the most part, it did not matter how widely broadcast your discontent was: no one cared. The great majority of celebrities – in this new world where even nobodies were celebrities – were lacking in that basic attribute of the celebrity, which was fame. They were half-creatures – unfamous celebrities, anonymous superstars, VIPs like the entire rest of the world – and unlike their fully formed counterparts, the world did not gasp when they expressed their thoughts and feelings. Everything was lost, in fact, in the infinite cacophony….

In the world of social media, where everyone becomes a celebrity, they do not inherit merely the life force of stardom – its beauty, achievement and sex. What is transmitted also to these faceless ranks of superstars is the inner knowledge of death. For, as all true celebrities discover, the media image feeds parasitically on human energy, starving them and removing them, slowly, from the realm of the living.

Even setting translation issues aside, the odds that Boss Yerbolat and Ninety One read Desgupta’s essay before filming the video for “Mooz” seem pretty low. But seeing the brief manipulation of ZaQ’s face into that of an old man’s, I wonder if they haven’t had similar thoughts about what they have to lose, in staking their accomplishments on the awareness of strangers.

***

And yet, and yet, and yet.

They keep yelling Eaglez! It’s practically a trademark: Сәлем, Eaglez! Part of that may be marketing. Part of it. Not all of it.

There are a lot of directions they could have taken with “Mooz,” and didn’t. They could have chosen to laugh off or minimize the disruptions, reassure fans that nothing can touch their commitment to Ninety One. They could have refused to address the uncertainty altogether. They could have done more easily sellable songs about love and relationships, as they did on Aiyptama. They could have put out something more upbeat and generic.

Instead: Неге бəрі мұз? The English translator on duty has Ace’s line as “Why is everyone so cold?” But мұз actually means ice. A better translation might be “Why is everyone frozen?” To continue the metaphor from “Su Asty,” and spell it out: even with gills, you can’t breathe in frozen water.

Ace says, can we wait together? AZ says, and why am I still hugging my knees? Alem says, I don’t know who is who, but my heart continues to believe. ZaQ says, Either their judgment will crush me, or I will pass by not noticing them. Bala says, I will not give up so fast. To me it adds up to, continuing on in the face of profound uncertainty. That they don’t know exactly how to love Eaglez back en masse but they’re going to keep trying. That they can’t be sure this will all work out to their benefit, but it’s still worth doing.

And then, for the first time in their discography, they switch to English:

When you feel alone You can breathe with the world Just keep our rhythm One love, one rhythm

And because now is not the moment for subtlety, Ace looks at the camera for the first time, and Bala makes a heart gesture record-setting in its sincerity.

It’s grandiose. Of course it is. It’s a grandiose idea to begin with, to say, This was my experience, and I think you had an experience like it, and here’s what I want to tell you, this helped me, I think it will help you too. It’s grandiose to think you can talk about the meaning of true happiness in a pop song. It’s grandiose to talk about love and one rhythm to millions of people you’ll never meet.

It is grandiose, in truth, to assume you deserve enough power to be able to do good.

***

There have been times, putting this week together, that I’ve wondered if it hasn’t been a gigantic waste of time, or worse. Quite a lot of time flew away while I happily wrote, and then I looked up and the doubts crowded in. Everything from Are you sure this is worth taking time away from your kids for? to It’s just a pop group, after all to You’re just flattering yourself into thinking your consumption choices are somehow “deep” or “ethical” to Who gave an ignorant American woman first dibs on writing about a Kazakhstani pop group anyway? to Even if you do somehow succeed in getting Ninety One more publicity, that’s not necessarily going to make them more comfortable or happier to All this time, and no one’s going to read it, and meanwhile you still haven’t washed the dishes.

You have to understand: I come from city planning. As a discipline we’re swamped with two things: people who enter with the fervent, heartmost desire to do good, and examples of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. And as a general rule of thumb, the bigger the intention, the less predictable and controllable the consequences.

I think Ninety One want to be famous with their work, the way most people who like to create original works (myself included) do. I think they want the power of visibility for themselves, their genre, and their country; more specifically to beat back the powerlessness that comes with invisibility. And I think they want to do good. “Mooz” feels like an acknowledgment that none of this is simple, that the power to do good is hard to get and harder to use; and a resulting combination of resolution and humility. The desire to reach out, still; to use their song to speak; but their promise is small. When you feel alone, not “you are not alone,” not a promise of connection they can’t deliver on; but, you can breathe with the world. That’s all. Just breathe. Such a small thing.

What was the superpower ZaQ and AZ boasted about in “Su Asty”? We have gills, remember? Simply breathing underwater. Breathing.

That’s it? Ace asks. That’s it, Bala says.

Why did I even start getting so obsessively into pop music and its stories in the first place? To feel less alone. And then to marvel at the idea that people on the other side of the world, speaking other languages, coming from experiences fully foreign to mine, were willing to offer enough of themselves to cameras that I could, in fact, feel less alone; even if there was absolutely no way of my being able to do half as much for them in return.

As best I know Ninety One hasn’t seen this. I don’t know how to show it to them--I don’t even know what would be the best platform for jumping up and down and yelling HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I WROTE AND IT’S ALL ABOUT YOOOOUUUUUU, leaving aside any issues about queue-jumping in front of other Eaglez who put time and energy into their own presents. I don’t know how to tell them that I find them lovable and inspiring, or that thanks to them I’ve had a great deal of fun learning about Kazakhstan and Kazakhstani music. I don’t know how to say thank you--рақмет сізге, or maybe Спасибо--loud enough for them to hear it; and even if I did, there’s no good reason why I should be the one who gets heard and not some other fan.

But it’s still worth doing.

introductory post / all Ninety One posts

[uptightcitizensbrigade]

Annie Clark is not where she’s supposed to be. At the last minute, the artist known as St. Vincent decided that instead of trekking to a country store as planned, she wanted to stick closer to her studio in the hills of Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon. When I arrive at our new meeting spot, breathless from a steep climb, the first thing I notice is that neither of us is dressed appropriately for a rendezvous in the domesticated wilderness. Of course, in Clark’s case, this means looking pretty damn cool, in a sky-blue duster, gray sweatshirt, and leopard-print shorts, her trademark curly dark hair (which took a silvery lavender turn last album cycle) pin-straight and tucked under a Duran Duran cap. We make our way to a picnic table in the middle of a hiking trail that apparently enjoys more use as a bird lavatory. “Is this OK?” she asks, straddling the bench and setting down her mug of Yogi tea. It is. Anything to stop moving vertically.

“Up,” however, is a fitting direction for the 34-year-old Clark. Over the past decade, she has evolved from a clever multi-instrumentalist to critical darling to indie icon—her last record, 2014’s St. Vincent, took home the Grammy for Best Alternative Album. She’s a road warrior (with the bed bug stories to prove it), having toured for much of her life, beginning as a teenager when she was the tour manager for her uncle’s jazz duo, Tuck & Patti. And her latest album, MASSEDUCTION, is most definitely a career summit. It’s her Lemonade, her OK Computer—whatever reference conveys the urgency with which it demands to be listened to when it drops on October 13. “This one’s better,” she says of her fifth solo effort, nodding. “I was focused on writing the best songs I’d ever written.”

That goal comes at a cost, or so Clark’s body language seems to say on this late-August evening. She stifles a yawn, and cradles her tea. For the last couple of months, she’s been celibate and sober. Some of the monasticism she favors during recording stuck: An illness last March prompted her to quit alcohol altogether. “I loved my white wine,” she says. “But I just can’t stand the smell anymore.”

She is also insanely busy, still recuperating from yesterday’s flight home from Australia for press, not to mention the whirlwind trip to Tokyo that preceded it, where she performed at Summer Sonic (and shot this cover). And while it’s been three and a half years since she released an album, Clark’s been working on it all the while. “I’ve just been collecting things, bowerbird-style, and making elaborate plumage,” she says. Meanwhile, she’s been flexing her creative muscles: A week ago, Lionsgate announced that the Dallas native would be helming its female-led adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. (Clark made her directorial debut earlier this year with a short called “The Birthday Party” for the female-driven horror anthology XX.)

She’s also spent a good part of the last year getting over her breakup from 25-year-old British supermodel and actress Cara Delevingne. The pair dated for 18 months, thrusting Clark into a tabloid existence she’d never known before. You won’t find her in any formal pictures from (the old) Taylor Swift’s last Fourth of July bonanza in 2016, but she and her soon-to-be ex were captured by paparazzi in a private embrace. “It was really bizarre,” she says. “No joke, I’ve been in high-speed chases in London with at least five cars and six motorcycles following me and Cara. You’re going to kill someone, and for what? A photo of a sweet girl?”

The last thing she wants to talk about is how much of this album was informed by that relationship. She’s baffled by such inquiries—she only just recently admitted that 2011’s Strange Mercy was partly about her father being sent to prison for investment fraud. “I never think, ‘If I only knew who Kate Bush was singing about in “Running Up That Hill,” I could enjoy the song,’” she says, shooing a mosquito off my shirt. “I do not wonder who or what songs are about. And the Texan in me is like, ‘It’s none of your goddamned business.’” I ask whether she cleared the disclosure of her dad’s incarceration with him beforehand. “Is it OK with me that he’s in prison?” she responds dryly, but quickly adds, “I’ve only ever spoken highly of my father.”

Clark is a vivid storyteller whose knack for relating tales of dirty policemen or down-on-their-luck friends would make her the most popular guest at a dinner party. On MASSEDUCTION’s first single, “New York,” which debuted last June, she sings along to a plangent piano about “the only motherfucker in the city who can handle me.” While the song’s grief over lost heroes could easily apply to David Bowie or Prince, as Clark has suggested, it’s the identity of the “motherfucker” that piqued curiosity. “I totally understand it, I do,” she says, and frowns thoughtfully. “But the point is for the song to mean whatever it means to somebody else. Some people have a real hang-up about being misunderstood. I don’t care.” She stops to clarify this point: “I would be concerned if someone was like, ‘Wow, she seems like a Holocaust denier.’ But racism, sexism, or homophobia aside? I’m happy to be misunderstood.”

In the past, Clark’s music was more often respected than adored, like Love This Giant, her 2012 album with Talking Heads savant David Byrne. She is a masterful guitarist, a performance artist unafraid of experimentation. Artificial sounds, brass sections, unhurried choruses? All play a part in her eclectic repertoire, and she rarely stays monogamous to any one genre or rhythm.

“A lot of people are skilled at bending notes, but I think she actually bends the parameters of what guitar is,” says longtime friend Carrie Brownstein, whose prowess on the same instrument helped usher Sleater-Kinney to stardom. “She doesn’t approach it in a traditionally worshipful way. While she’s playing guitar, she seems to be destroying the very concept of it, which I think is very exciting.”

The opening track of her last album famously depicted Clark running naked from a rattlesnake. MASSEDUCTION (pronounced “mass seduction” on the title track) somehow finds her even more exposed. Clark says “New York” was the first time she ever wrote something and thought, “This could be somebody’s favorite song.” The same could be said of many tracks on the album, which, taken as a whole, sounds like Clark violating her own sense of privacy in order to grant access to her vulnerability. “I’m not eschewing any of the work I’ve done in the past,” says Clark. “But I was less concerned [here] about doing a lot of musical tricks that to me are intellectually interesting. The point of the record was to go, like, mainline to the heart.”

For this, Clark enlisted co-producer Jack Antonoff. Through his work with Lorde and Taylor Swift, as well as his own band Bleachers, Antonoff has developed a reputation for channeling ideas and emotions into their most approximate, frequently synth-driven expressions. “Jack changed my life for the better,” says Clark. “He makes you feel like anything is possible. We were merciless, trying to push all these songs past the finish line to accept the gold medal.”

None of which is to suggest that Clark has sacrificed any virtuosity or ambition. Several of the best songs break off into their own compelling codas. “How could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their mind, too?” moans Clark on “Los Ageless,” backed by an aggressive beat that would not be out of place at an adults-only club, before dissolving, like a film melt, into a series of bleary synths and barely audible whispers.

The theme of Clark’s last record was “near-future cult leader.” Here, having traded in those wild lavender-platinum curls for an austere black bob, “It’s dominatrix at the mental institution,” she says. “I knew I needed to write about power—the fiction of power and the power of fiction.” The concept is at its most powerful on the more adrenalized songs, like “Pills,” whose opening lines function like a Valley of the Dolls reboot: “Pills to wake/ Pills to sleep/ Pills, pills, pills every day of the week.” The words are delivered by Delevingne in a demented, cheerfully vacant chant.

“You mean Kid Monkey, obscure DJ,” says Clark, gamely referencing her ex’s pseudonym. “It needed to be a posh British voice. I was like, ‘Cara, wake up. I need you to sing on this song.’ And she’s kind of grumpy. And I’m like, ‘Please. It sounds so good. One more time.’” That song, too, starts with a blinking alertness but finishes drowsily, like Pink Floyd at the planetarium. Clark says the inspiration came to her after popping a sleeping pill on tour, and speaks to larger issues of opioid addiction that have affected people she cares about.

But the song that’s most likely to be picked over lyrically, for obvious reasons, is “Young Lover.” It’s set in Paris, where gossip rags once reported that Delevingne, proposed to Clark. The relationship described in the song suffers as a result of the titular subject’s hard-partying ways. “Did I have experiences that emotionally resonated in the way they do for that character? Abso-fucking-lutely,” says Clark, who’s also been linked briefly to Kristen Stewart. “But did that exact scenario happen? No!” She makes a dismissive face.

Clark didn’t grow up feasting on the sordid details of celebrity coupledom, though she admits to a fascination with Kate Moss, Shalom Harlow, and the early-’90s supermodel set. (The musician has recently done some modeling herself as one of the new faces of Tiffany & Co.) Her parents divorced young, and Clark lived with her social worker mother and two older sisters. “I was free to be a wild card, because the other roles were spoken for,” she says. A breeze kicks up and she rubs her legs as they prickle with goosebumps.

A tiny part of her early musical education includes a crate of CDs that fell off a truck in front of their house. “It was good taste for someone in the suburbs of Dallas,” she says, citing Nine Inch Nails and Pet Shop Boys. Clark started playing guitar at 12, and was encouraged by her maternal uncle, who hired her as a tour manager for his jazz duo when she was a teenager.

Eventually, her family swelled to include eight siblings, with whom she is close. A younger brother now works as her assistant. “We grew up hearing my dad talk business on the phone, and it was ‘motherfucker’ this and ‘fucking cocksucker’ that,” she says, laughing. In part, this informed her curse word of choice on “New York.” “If people don’t curse at all, I always think they’re hiding something,” she says.

The next day, Clark is filming a video for MASSEDUCTION’s as-yet-unannounced second single at a soundstage in Hollywood. She spends more time on the West Coast now that she has built a studio here, but still keeps properties in New York and Texas. She hesitates to use the word bicoastal, which feels “kind of douchey,” she says.

The video set changes from a Pepto-Bismol pink beauty salon, where the pedicure tubs are filled with green slime, to a yoga studio. Clark is dressed in a cheetah-print leotard with an open-face hood. She’s been bending over for 15 minutes straight in order for director Willo Perron to get a dolly shot of her face hanging between her legs. I marvel at her stamina. “Are you really asking me how I’m good at bending over?” she says, wryly. She rests between takes, curling up on the yoga mat like a cat in a sunbeam.

Clark wasn’t involved with the concept for the video. Back in Laurel Canyon, she admitted to being preoccupied with Dorian Gray, working with Elle screenwriter David Birke and rereading the book for the first time since high school. “I jumped at the chance to explore themes of transgression, narcissism, youth, beauty, queerness, but through a female protagonist,” says Clark, who’s currently considering a cast for the project. She’s new to this milieu, but credits Tuck & Patti with teaching her the rigors of knowing her shit. “They really were the coach in Rocky,” she says of her uncle’s duo. “I learned how to be professional. It’s not as if I need to be a camera expert in order to direct something, but you have to have the respect of the crew. This is not a vanity project. This is something I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Melanie Lynskey, who starred in Clark’s XX short, was pleasantly surprised by the musician’s command of the set. “It was like working with someone who had been doing it a very long time,” she says. “She’s so smart and she had such a clear idea of what she wanted, but gave me all the room in the world to come up with ideas and collaborate.”

In the meantime, Clark is also preparing for this fall’s Fear the Future Tour. As we slowly make our way down the hill, clutching at branches to steady ourselves, she says there won’t be as much postmodern dancing this time around. “The record is full of sorrow, but the visual aspect of it is really absurd,” she says. “I take the piss out of myself. The last tour I sat atop a pink throne, looking very imperious.” She kindly helps me down the last step. “This one will let people see that I have a sense of humor.”

[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christensen Dio – Sacred Heart Record Label: Warner Bros Release Date: August 15 1985

In one of my last reviews, I talked about Ronnie James Dio, an artist that influenced my taste in metal. I talked about his second band, Rainbow, and how I wasn’t too crazy about them, although I think they’re quite good. The album that I reviewed, 1976’s Rising, was a decent little neoclassical metal album, but it was a perfect example of Dio’s early work that was more rough around the edges. There’s nothing wrong with the album, or even any work from Rainbow, but at the same time, this is Dio before his prime. Holy Diver, the 1983 epic debut album from his eponymous band that he formed after Rainbow, is definitely his best album. Because I loved that album so much, and still do today, I wanted to hear more of Dio’s later work. I’ve listened to a few more of his albums, including 1984’s The Last In Line, 1987’s Dream Evil, and 1990’s Lock Up The Wolves, and they’re all pretty good. See, Dio is one of those bands that is very consistent in their sound, and it doesn’t do a whole lot for me after awhile. Holy Diver is their magnum opus, and I hate to say that, because I sound like “the older stuff” kind of music fan, you know, the ones that miss the “older stuff.” They can’t say anything different, weirdly enough, but it’s not that I just miss the older stuff. Holy Diver is the debut album, but it’s one of those debut albums that came out incredibly strong. The band would have to pull a miracle for the sophomore album, or any other album, to be as strong as the debut. It’s a bit frustrating when that happens, even if the album is great, because you want their other albums to be as great, or even better. It’s not that they even got worse, or “devolved,” it’s more that later albums tried to recapture the “glory” of the debut. That’s what happens with Dio’s later work. I mean, The Last In Line was really good, but Dream Evil and Lock Up The Wolves were fine, but nothing all that special.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t like them, because as a Dio fan, I enjoyed them. I mean, we get to hear more vocals from Dio, and no matter what, he sounded great, but it’s just that the songs themselves weren’t anything that different. I’ve heard all of this stuff before, but at the same time, it’s not a bad thing. If you enjoy a band’s sound, chances are you’ll be fine to hear more of that. It’s just when you’re not into it that it can be an issue. I’m not a huge fan of Yellowcard, for instance (I like them a bit more, but I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan), and it’s mainly because of how samey they are. They have a unique sound, but they take too much advantage of it. When every song sounds the same, that unique sound doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s also got something to do with the fact that I’m just not crazy about their sound. It’s just pop-punk with violins. There’s nothing that amazing about it, but I digress. I happen to enjoy Dio’s sound a lot, especially his vocals, and that’s why I can somewhat get into his other albums. I’ll admit, though, that a lot of this kind of metal does suffer from being too consistent. Metal in general has that problem, but I don’t mind it too much, since I happen to enjoy a lot of these bands’ sounds. If it’s done well enough, too, I can get into it okay. I’ve been listening to more classic metal lately, such as Iron Maiden, Slayer, and Judas Priest, but I wanted some Dio albums to listen to. I’ve already talked about Rising, and I will be talking about Black Sabbath’s 1992 LP, Dehumanizer, but I wanted to talk about another Dio album. I thought about what album to listen to, and I remembered that there was more 80s album that I wanted to listen to from him. That would be 1985’s Sacred Heart, and it’s the last album from the first half of Dio’s discography that I need to listen to. I’ve heard this LP was pretty good, also having a couple of his biggest songs, but I knew what to expect.

What I expected, well, was what I got – straightforward, epic, and sweeping heavy metal from Dio and company. I’ve mentioned this before, but that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes you want to know what you’re getting into, right? I love being challenged, and listening to something unpredictable, but I want to have something straightforward once in awhile. I might know what I’m getting into with Sacred Heart, but if what I know I’m getting into is good, what’s the problem there? There definitely isn’t one, that’s for sure, because this album is solid. It’s not amazing, by any means, but that’s because it has the same issues I have with all of Dio’s albums, minus Holy Diver. It tries to have that same sound, and it does come close in some places. The Last In Line and this one do have their shining moments, for sure, but it’s nothing compared to that entire album. It’s hard to top an amazing debut, but for what it’s worth, Sacred Heart is totally fine. It’s a very good record, and if you want to listen to this LP, you’d be fine with it. Dio is one of the few bands that I recommend to people that aren’t familiar with metal, but want something more accessible, as Dio’s voice is very melodic, epic, and spacious, and there are hooks galore. If you knew nothing about Dio, and went into this album with an extremely open mind, I think you’d be alright. You might enjoy Holy Diver more when you listen to that, or if you listen to that, but this LP (and many of his others) are totally fine to listen to on their own. That’s only if you could only find this one, but I would definitely get Holy Diver first, because it’s the album that put Dio on the map. Otherwise, though, you’re not missing a whole lot, since this LP doesn’t do anything different, unique, or insanely weird, but it has the trademark Dio sound. It’s another Dio album, and while that can be a bit lackluster to some people, if you enjoy Dio’s sound, that’ll be literally music to your ears.

[emisonme]

Simon Cowell's 5 year plan...

Guys, it is important that you understand, this is all part of the bigger plan. Lauren, Dinah, Normani, and Ally did not write those statements. Management wrote those statements, signed the girls' names to it, and sent them out over their SM accounts. Camila wrote some of the statement released on hers, but not all of it. She put in the personal touches, but I imagine Roger wrote the rest.

It's also important that you realize, no matter what they put out there, Camila was not kicked out by the group, nor did she choose now to leave. The timing was chosen for her. She was always going to be the first to leave. That was part of Simon's plan from the very start. They just had to wait for certain things to happen, before they could start fully implementing the plan.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm almost certain Simon built 5H around Lauren and Camila. They told Camila from the start they wanted her to concentrate on Pop Music. That's why the basically made her the "stand-out" of a female Pop Group. When the group finally breaks big in the Pop scene, you break your pop star out of the group.

The other four girls, especially Lauren, can't stand Pop, or the Genre as a whole. Once you break your pop star free, you can concentrate on making other types of music. The girls/LAND, and the fans, have been begging Epic to let the girls do R&B for a while, now. Their vocal styles all match R&B much better.

The Labels did not want Camila to be involved in much R&B, they want her to concentrate on Pop. Without Camila, they can now revamp 5H/4H, to a more soulful R&B group. That's why Camila is no longer a member of 5H, and is now concentrating on her solo career. It was time for her to do so. It was all part of the plan.

The next step in the plan, is to make Lauren and her husky lower register, the focus of the next album. Why? Because Lauren was Simon Cowell's chosen "it girl", all along. They knew they were going to use Camila all along, as the "bad guy", when the transition time came. They needed to preserve Lauren's image to continue building her brand.

That's also why they have gone above and beyond, to kill Camren. No one would believe the narrative they are trying to sell us now, if Camren were real. No one would believe that Camila would just betray Lauren like that, and no one would believe that Lauren would take part in a statement that was basically calling Camila a backstabbing bitch, if Camren was real. (The sun must take it's leave, for the moon to shine it's brightest)

No one seemed to notice, the two songs they spent the most money and time promoting, were the two most successful songs of 5H's career. "Worth It" and "Work From Home". Back to back releases I might add. "Worth It' was the last single released from their Reflection album, and it was Camila centric. "Work From Home" was the first release of their 7/27 album, and it was Lauren centric.

When 'Worth It" hit it big, like they knew it would, it was time to start distancing Camila from the group, and start building her solo brand. That's why we got IKWYDLS, and later on, BT. To promote her potential as a successful solo artist away from the group.

In December of 2015, is when the wheels began falling off the bus for the group we all fell in love with. The success of IKWYDLS was all Simon needed to know, to put his plan into full go mode. Part of that plan was to create tension within the group and make it appear Camila was absolutely miserable. It worked. Everyone fell for it.

December 2015, is also when they hired Dina LaPolt. They knew then they were going to break Camila free of the group, and they hired a good Attorney to handle the legal side of things. Sometime between April and June of 2015, Roger Gold was hired to be Camila's solo manager, and to handle the legal side of things for her.

Dina was hired to represent Fifth Harmony, the group, and the Brand. I don't think the girls have enough money to hire someone like her, on their own, so I think she was probably hired by Simon Cowell. Like I said, I believe she was hired to handle the legal issues, and to lay the ground work for Camila's exit from 5H. Her and Roger probably worked together on some of it.

Yesterday, I found out that the girls now own the brand Fifth Harmony, Fourth Harmony, and H4RMONY. Apparently Simon Cowell sold the Brand to Lauren, an actual partner of the Brand, for 10$, plus other considerations. Now, Simon Cowell is a business man, and I don't think for one second he gave up all his rights to the Brand he created. I think that's why he probably hired Dina to represent the Brand and the girls. The "other considerations" probably had to do with his side of the deal.

The trademark stuff should be opening everyone's eyes to something much more important than it really is. It proves to me, and should prove to everyone else, this stupid fucked up narrative they are trying to sell us, is a huge load of CRAP. It tell me, that everyone knew, all the way back on April 11, 2016, that Camila wasn't going to be a part of 5H anymore. EVERYONE KNEW BEFORE 7/27 WAS EVEN RELEASED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why would the girls try and convince Camila to remain part of a group, she was no longer a Trademarked partner of. The Trademark was sold to the partnership of Lauren, Dinah, Normani, and Ally. Camila was no longer a listed partner at that time. THAT WAS IN APRIL BEFORE 7/27 CAME OUT, AND BEFORE THE 7/27 TOUR.

That's why we didn't see Camila in the Ads 5H was associated with. That's why we didn't see Camila wearing any of the 5H merchandise. That's why we didn't see Camila promoting 5H on her social media. She did the whole damn tour with them, and she wasn't even a partner of theirs. SHE DIDN'T GET TO PROFIT OFF OF THE 5H BRAND THE WHOLE 7/27 TOUR CYCLE, YET SHE'S CONSIDERED BY SO MANY AS A FUCKING SNAKE. REALLY!!!!!!!! Camila's contract wasn't up like they keep telling us. It was all part of the fucking plan.

So, what is this 5 year plan, and why does Simon Cowell keep manufacturing these groups of potential solo artists on his talent shows? It's actually a brilliant business plan.

It can take anywhere from 4 to 6 years, sometimes more, to break a solo artist into the mainstream. It takes a lot of time and a shit load of money, to market and promote a single person into a successful solo artist. Simon created a method to promote and market 5 potential solo artists, and break them all into the mainstream, at the same damn time. I can't stand the SOB, but he is brilliant.

It sucks for us fans, who fall in love with the group, but it's a great business plan. He takes these young talents, locks them into long term contracts, through his talent shows, and when he feels the time is right, he begins breaking up the group. He doesn't break them up completely, though. Hell, he still hasn't dissolved 1D, yet.

When the time was right, they broke Camila loose of the group, and will hopefully have a successful solo career, and they still have a successful Girl Group. Epic/Syco will not only be making money off of 5H/4H, they will now be making money off of Camila Cabello, the solo artist. They locked her into a long term contract, and they did the same with Lauren. But, like I said, she is the original "it girl" and it wasn't her time, yet. It will come, though. Now they get to build up her solo image and brand. We get to watch it all over again! 

[reviverradio]

The 14 Most Visionary Sound Pictures of 2017

Set your pitchforks and delight in some of the finest 2017 had to offer you.

Since  I wash off so lots of people in sharing my preferred music videos of 2016, I have decided to go a slightly different route with this year’s version. We’re all conscious of it. The whole issue with each one of these end-of-the-year lists that ranks songs, film, TV shows, etc. is that–guess what? –art is subjective and everyone has different preferences. Nobody is wrong in their opinions!  

As somebody who has a very unique set of preferences, I am really conscious that what I enjoy isn’t for everybody (just ask my father). With that   disclaimer in place, I’m discussing what I believe to be among the most visionary music movies of this year. Instead of rank them, the songs movies are listed in a manner that, when played with in sequence, should mash up into its own story.

When it’s their budget, theme, or moderate, these selections push boundaries in every sense of this term. Most of all, all of them highlight precisely how fascinating the music video kind could be. It’s been a difficult year for a great deal of individuals, but one positive is an extraordinary urgency apparent in art, an outpouring of voices from every portion of the world.    

You may either sit back and let it ride or you can take a look at the highlights from 2017 in almost any order you would like.

Kendrick Lamar – Element.

Manager –  Jonas Lindstroem & The Little Homies

This isn’t the only time you’ll visit Kendrick Lamar on this list.   King Kendrick put three amazing music movies this season at  Element. , DNA, and HUMBLE. , and every was fueled by gorgeous vision, Don Cheadle, or powerful social messages.   Element.  Introduces us with the artist at his strongest.  

The juxtaposition between beauty and violence combines perfectly with Lamar’s lyrical content. In actuality, after several watches, it is difficult to separate the songs in the movie. If you think about one, you immediately think about the other, and that’s what makes this movie great. A number of these images are direct   recreations of this work of Gordon Parks, the photojournalist who captured much of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

As Cassie da Costa wrote at The New Yorker back in June, “In Element. , blackness, or the dynamic existence of black bodies and the lifestyles that inhabit them, is reimagined not just lyrically and narratively but also visually. The movie’s aesthetics are not additional but, instead, essential to this activity within and significance of every scene.”  

Kamasi Washington – Truth

Manager – AG Rojas

Yep, this is a lengthy one. That is no real surprise considering Kamasi Washington’s last record The Epic clocked in at almost a three hours long. This year’s launch, Harmony of a Difference, is a far simpler record to digest because of several reasons.   Washington debuted his suite earlier this season at the Whitney Biennial, and because  Truth  acts as the record’s culmination and climax, it is only fitting that part of this installment  contains  this short film from celebrated music video director AG Rojas.  

At just 37 minutes in length, it won’t require an eighth-of-a-day to listen to, and also its memorable theme weaves in and out through every track, directing the listener together. The exact same could be said about the above video which goes back and forth through space, time, and topic, constantly returning to a picture on which you can grasp while still keeping a sense of cosmic mystery. Kinda like Terrence Malick, wouldn’t you say?

Björk: The Gate

Manager – Andrew Thomas Huang

Just Björk being   Björk.

Un Lock – Drowned Beast

Manager – Dr. D Foothead

Very few people can inform an epic work of science fiction in just under 5 minutes. Dr. D Foothead, whose function is featured on Adult Swim, is the rare exception. Having made a name for himself along with his brand of comedic, music movie psychedelia, you might dismiss his art as “trippy,” however the apt way to describe it is “characterized by hypnotic detail, hyper-saturated color and lively, flowing kind. The characters in his work navigate outer and inner worlds, experiencing conditions of mental abstraction, mystical sin, and transformation.”   The pen and paperwork is, very  simply, some next level shit.

In addition, this is a sterling example of how a visual artist can create a story entirely of his own from just a grain of sonic inspiration. As un Lock frontman John Dwyer stated of this animator/director, “I wrote this song largely from the studio and it had been, in my head, about the insatiable appetite of mankind, but kind of bent in this weird fantastical way.” Once Foothead got control of it, however, it appeared to change into something else completely. ” I enjoy working with Dr. Foothead,” Dwyer continuing. “Due to his take is always coming from another planet.”  

Pipe-Eye – Sweets & Gamble

Manager – Alex McLaren along with Sean McAnulty

Jumping from pen and ink to stop-motion cartoon, Sweets & Treats   is something along the lines of which you have probably never seen (or heard) before.   Clay and candy aren’t the key tools you would usually encounter when seeing a multimedia job, but I will be damned if the mix doesn’t work perfectly for this sweet yet nightmarish clip.  

St. Vincent – New York

Manager – Alex Da Corte

This one definitely takes the cake for best use of color palettes and art management. Da Corte also led St. Vincent’s music video for Los Ageless which acts as a companion piece to New York.   Being a lover of Da Corte’s visual art, St. Vincent seemingly reached him out using a pitch along the lines of “do whatever it is you do this well.”

In an interview with Pitchfork, Da Corte pointed out one of the best benefits of this moderate, saying, “Moving images and moving movies, set to songs or not, are all artworks in themselves. What is really special about creating a music video is all the fact that it may be shared so quickly and so widely. Everybody can gain access to it. It is actually free.”

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Over Everything

Manager – Danny Cohen

Whereas New York shows us the possibility of vibrant color, Over Everything  proves how its lack can prove just as successful. For people unfamiliar with this particular international supergroup, Kurt Vile, an American rock staple, and Courtney Barnett, an up and coming Australian celebrity, found their music preferences aligned so closely that they needed to come from across the world to collaborate on a record together.  

In Over Everything, we get a glimpse of just how similar these two  are as they swap verses. The actual stars of this movie, but are the artists’ respective backdrops.     Danny Cohen took the movie in Philadelphia and Melbourne, sourcing a new team from every city. His excruciatingly close attention to detail has been observed with every mirroring background. No matter how stark the contrast is between our two society’s cultures, the settings show how music is able to bridge the gap. Particular kudos to the place scout, a hat that I can only envision Cohen wore as well.  

Manchester Orchestra – The Sunshine

Manager – DANIELS

The DANIELS are always a divisive directing duo, but I am firmly on the side of “I’ll like these men put out since they truly don’t give a f***.” Both are no stranger to the art of audio movie, catching their biggest breakl using the legendary clip for Lil Jon’s Switch Down For Everything back in 2014. However, with the success of their debut feature Korean Army Man this past year, some were bound to wonder whether they had outgrown the moderate.

It appears they are at least ready to do it one more time to the man who scored their feature. Manchester Orchestra given the sonic vibes for Korean Army Man, therefore it was only reasonable to refund with a visual favor. The result is this movie for The Sunshine, which comprises a few of DANIELS’ trademark out-there humor and capacity to blend CGI oddness into seemingly normal conditions.  

The Babe Rainbow – Peace Blossom Boogie

Manager – Kristofski

The Babe Rainbow is probably the closest thing to a group of traveling hippies that we have in today’s music landscape. Together with Peace Blossom Boogie, manager  Kristofski masterfully captures the spirit of this group through what appears to be a Super 8 film straight out of 1964.   The YouTube page also has what I believe are the most precise comment of 2017 using “I can not believe these folks exist.” Everybody in Australia is seemingly beautiful, forcing double-decker buses to bright areas where they could frolic the afternoon off. Seems like an alright life.

Jay-Z – Moonlight

Manager – Alan Yang

JAY-Z came out with his new record 4:44 this season and with the launch came the opportunity to bend some TIDAL muscle. Many of the music movies he dropped were initially only available to see on TIDAL for a lengthy window following their premiere. This, obviously, was utilized as an incentive for people to sign up for the streaming support. If that money has been used to fuel the creation of movies like   Moonlight,   then I’m all for it.

The hype around this audio video was certainly real. A reboot of Friends starring some of the freshest African-American confronts in Hollywood and led by Master of None co-creator Alan Yang? Who wouldn’t wish to see what that looks like? The result is an allegory that’s more melancholy than funny, more short film than audio video. It has to’ve generated a great deal of new subscribers for HOV.  

Young Thug – Wyclef Jean

Manager – Pomp&Clout

You do the best with what you got, and this movie illustrates that.

Tyler, The Creator – Who’s Dat Boy

Manager – Tyler, The Creator

Tyler, The Creator is one of those rare few who can do it all. At just twenty-six years old, he’s been, well, producing, because the beginning of the Odd Future move back in 2008/2009. That includes everything from several albums to multiple TV shows, his own clothing line, and music festivals.

This year’s release   Flower Boy was clearly a significant step forward for this artist. Previously criticized for leaning too heavily on sophomoric humor, Tyler, The Creator’s movie for Who’s Dat Boy is the consequence of many years of satisfying his irreverent, damaging style. He’s unleashed his private struggles with identity out to the world, and when it is too dreadful for some to witness, then so be it.

Ty Segall – Split a Guitar

Manager – Matt Yoka

Many guitars were hurt in the making of the film. The great Matt Yoka strikes using his kaleidoscopic music movie for Ty Segall’s Split a Guitar. If you’re a lover of this rock-and-roll, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as watching guitars being obliterated to smithereens, particularly if Jack Black, Henry Rollins and Fred Armisen would be those accountable for their own destruction.  

The thing to note here is that none of all these explosions were set together in post with VFX. They are all the practical work of the   pyrotechnicians at Court Wizard, and also this movie simply wouldn’t be the same if the  consequences were not completed on set.   Do not worry, there has been a set medic in place to ensure nobody got hurt. Cronenberg fans will also be Delighted to find an almost frame for frame Scanners tribute at the end.      

Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE.

Manager – Dave Meyers & The Little Homies

As I said initially, this is Kendrick’s entire year, therefore it is only fitting we feature at least 2 of the movies on this list. While Element. May be the more powerful of both, HUMBLE will wind up being the one that we most remember. It could just be the most iconic movie of 2017.

from reviverradio http://www.reviverradio.net/the-14-most-visionary-sound-pictures-of-2017/

[ulyssessklein]

Naming your band — in 10 easy steps

Having been through the naming process so many times, either with my own bands or ones I’ve taught, I’ve learned that trying to find THE GREATEST BAND NAME EVER is a fool’s errand. The best you can hope for (and what most bands settle for) is the LEAST BAD BAND NAME.

Many famous bands don’t like their name:

Smashing Pumpkins “is a stupid name, a dumb bad joke and a bad idea”

Goo Goo Dolls: “We had a gig that night and needed a name. If I had had five more minutes, I definitely would have picked a better name”

Hoobastank: “It was fun to say at the time, and when we named the band we were a lot younger”

Smokey Robinson And The Miracles picked their name out of a hat. Even the TV show Sesame Street‘s name “was set at the 11th hour and fifty ninth minute.” Almost everyone on the show disliked the name. But they hated The Video Classroom, 1-2-3 Avenue B and Fun Street more. They set a deadline to come up with a better idea and “went with it because it was the least bad title.”

Back in the 80s it was enough to come up with some misspelled and often laughably umlautted monicker. I spell Vengence Vengeance incorrectly to this day thanks to my time in a metal band. In those simpler times, as long as people could pronounce your name you were OK. And if your band had the same name as one on the other side of the world, it wasn’t an issue till one of you signed to Warner Bros. But the internet changed all that. Here’s 10 steps to naming your band.

1. Brainstorm A List Of Names

Write down at least 50-100. Write them ALL down. Every single one. No matter how silly. Don’t judge. Don’t debate. The stupidest will make a cool talking point during interviews (and you never know – some goofy garage band or tribute act may use the rejected name in your honour).

2. Mix And Match The Names You Have

When you can’t think of any more, try taking a word from one name and adding it to another. Look for unusual juxtapositions like Sound-garden, Radio-head or Led Zeppelin.

3. Change The Numbers

If any name contains a number, try multiple versions with different numbers. Three Blind Mice? Four Blind Mice! Six Blind Mice! Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch 22, was originally called Catch-18, but that’s less, erm, ‘catchy.’

4. Google It – For Rival Bands

Google “YOUR BAND NAME band” or “YOUR BAND NAME music” or “YOUR BAND NAME lyrics” If there is another active band with your name YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT USE IT. Yes, you might beat them to the punch if they haven’t registered it, but what’s the point? If it’s so cool and original how come someone else thought of it first? Is it really worth spending money on?

The one caveat is ‘active band.’ Was the last gig mentioned on their Facebook page in 2004? Is their web presence limited to a MySpace page? You MIGHT be OK. But don’t assume – your namesake may be gigging like crazy but lousy at social media.

5. Google It – For Rival Brands (And Other Things)

What if your chosen moniker isn’t a band name, but a ‘thing’ out there in the real world? If it’s a trademarked product or a person – forget it. Disney, Pepsi and Simon Cowell have bigger and uglier lawyers than you. If it’s just a ‘thing’ you may be OK, but ask yourself – is your band going to get lost in the internet ‘noise’?

For example ‘Whale’ is terrible name for your band because when someone types ‘Whale Music’ or ‘Whale Album’ into Google your album will join the queue behind 600,000 hits for Greenpeace.

6. Does It Mean Something Bad?

Does your name have nasty or unfortunate connotations? Think about it and ask lots of other people (eg “What do you think of when I say “Ben Dover And The Batty Men?”). It might seem funny taking your name from some obscure sexual practice until your fan’s eyeballs get a baptism of fire on google images. Check Urban Dictionary and a regular dictionary too.

If you have a multiword name, try typing it without spaces as in ‘yourbandname.com’. Sometimes a perfectly inoffensive name can create a terrible URL. What business do you think Penisland.net, Expertsexchange.com, Speedofart.com and Powergenitalia.com are in?

7. Is It A Song Title?

More specifically, is it a song by a band that you are heavily influenced by? Then Don’t. Just don’t. Nothing marks you out more clearly as a slavishly unimaginative copycat.

But otherwise, that’s fine. ‘Radiohead’ is a song by Talking Heads. Judas Priest took their name from a Bob Dylan song ‘The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest’. Deep Purple, Jet, The Kooks, Death Cab For Cutie, Nine Below Zero, Right Said Fred and The Sisters Of Mercy are all named after music they sound nothing like.

8. Can Everyone Spell It?

Think carefully about this. Is it something that people are going to have trouble spelling? Or remembering?

I was once part of a band called Aistaguca. Pronounced Eyes -Ta – Goo – Cha. It doesn’t mean anything in any language. It’s not spelt phonetically. I lost count of the number of times people who had really enjoyed our gig asked me what we were called. Then asked again. Then asked me to spell it. And then I would see their eyes glaze over as they resigned themselves to the fact that they were never going to be able to find us online, tag us on Facebook or even tweet that they’d seen us. FAIL.

The only exception would be spelling your name ‘wrong’ to help people get it ‘right’. Led Zeppelin went with the ‘Led’ spelling to prevent people saying “leed” – as in ‘lead guitar’.

9. Don’t Pick A Name That Sound Like A Completely Different Genre.

One day a hundred, very unhappy, very drunk, thrash metal fans will show up to watch your folk trio play the local art gallery. Your ironic name won’t seem so funny then.

10. Live With It

Once you’ve got it, stick with it and get on with the real business of making music. If you do a good job with that, the music itself will come to define what that name means, not the other way around. Say Buffalo Springfield now and we think of Neil Young and a bunch of hippies not the steam-roller they were named after. And when you see the word ‘Beatles’ you don’t think about insects or ‘beat music’ do you?

Sources:

Smashing Pumpkins [Cracked] Goo Goo Dolls [Rolling Stone] Hoobastank [Rolling Stone] Sesame Street [That Eric Alper] Catch 22 [Spectator] Judas Priest [Classic Bands] Jet [Wikipedia] Speedofart.com [Boredpanda]

  This article was written by Matt Blick of the Beatles Songwriting Academy, and it originally appeared HERE.

The post Naming your band — in 10 easy steps appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.