#John lowkey loves pop punk

[ms-rampage]

Kate loves Pop Punk music!!!

_______

Kate (driving; blasting American Idiot by Green Day): *singing loudly* Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alien nation, where everything isn't meant to be okay

John *sitting in the passenger seat; silently cause Kate told him driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his cakehole*

Kate *singing loudly*: Television dreams of tomorrow, we're not the ones who're meant to follow. For that's enough to argue *drumming fingers on steering wheel*

John *looks over at her; also trying to restrain himself from singing and head bobbling*: Do we have to listen to this??

Kate drumming fingers on steering wheel*: YES! *singing* Well maybe I'm the-

John *changes radio station; Oh John starts playing*

Kate *slowly turns her head towards him*: How dare you!!!!

John: I don't like that part (cuz Billie Joe says faggot)

Kate: Oh! So you have heard that song before!?! That song came out in the mid 2000s. When you were probably in high school!

[rottingmanifesto]

Discussion/Ramble of post-9/11 AU

If you’ve read On Leave already, you’re aware of my American Idiot AU which is simply just Mafia 3, but post-9/11. Music plays a huge role in this as well, hence the title being one of the most politically scathing punk albums of the early 2000s. (What can I say? I’m a die hard pop punk and punk rock fan. I’m in the top 0.5% for Green Day and top 20% for Dead Kennedys, so that should say something.)

American Idiot takes place in a post-9/11 America and follows Lincoln Clay and John Donovan on their bumpy roads through (pseudo)-recovery, emotions, and pop culture. It’s essentially a semi-modern universe with punk music and it’s just one kid writing it instead of numerous people.

Here’s the ideas/WIPs I have at the moment:

American Idiot: The main “fic”, which is most likely going to be more of a timeline and general overview of the plot. I’m still undecided on how I want to execute this frankly.

City of the Damned: stories of Ellis, Danny, Giorgi, Lincoln, and Nicki (pre-Lincoln joining the Army). It’ll most likely include their reactions to 9/11 and domestic terrorism, so be warned.

Holiday: I honestly forgot, but probably just some small stories of Lincoln with his family/community.

Unnamed: A peek into John’s backstory, mainly his teenage years.

Novacaine: Lincoln smokes and talks with a war buddy while back in the states temporarily. He doesn’t go back home, for a myriad of reasons.

Coming Clean: Lincoln discovers that he’s not straight.

Know Your Enemy: John meets Connor Aldridge in the 90s (pre-9/11) and somewhat admires him. That gets destroyed after the events of 9/11, and the fic starts (or ends?) with John holding a gun to Aldridge’s head.

Letterbomb: Roxy is pissed at Lincoln for working with known racists (and a CIA agent, just look up the history of what the US government has done to the black community for details on that one), and loses her temper on him. That passion that Lincoln loved backfired on him.

I’m struggling with how Sal gets the money plates or if he should do something else, as the money-plates was heavily era-specific, but I’m open to ideas! Speaking of which, I probably will try to explore potential disorders that the characters have (I am not a professional, please don’t treat me as one lol) and how it manifests now that there are labels.

There’s more but that’s the basics for the actual verse!

History Ramble— Lowkey Important to ‘Verse

So I keep mentioning how a post-9/11 America directly mirrors the Cold War, and though it’s complicated to explain fully, I want to try to convey the basics of it. Warning for mentions of n@zis and general war/bad shit.

Note: this will be long, so click below to read!

Let’s start with WWII. USSR and US kinda hate each other, but meh, the n@.zis are way worse (well technically they took inspo from both other nations but that’s for later) so they shake hands and spill blood. Yay. The war’s won, which means we can now properly fistfight— well not really, because nuclear warfare is in its infancy, Europe is just fucked, and the US’s men are now boinking every broad they see, leading to the baby boom. No one really wants to have a WWIII, so the USSR and US stew. USSR develops (further) into an industrialist coalition of unwilling nations, and the US does its own imperialism and development. The next decades get… sticky, so bear with me.

1950s: The first hydrogen bomb is tested in 1950, the Korean War is a proxy-war for the USSR (North Korea) and the US (South Korea), and both the Space Race and Vietnam War begin, with SR being in ‘57 and VW in ‘59. The important thing here is the cultural change— modern ideals of ‘traditional’ are solidified here.

1960s: Ideally, Mafia 3 was a decent overview of general (and mildly romanticized) history, but during this era, the Vietnam War was in full swing (basically Korea part 2: the commies win), Civil Rights became a national debate, Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs, and the USSR dropped the largest atomic bomb known to humanity. By the end of this era, the threat of MAD (mutually assured destruction) and increasing costs of outright feuding between both superpowers caused a lull in tensions for a while. Basically like WWII— “fuck you, but I’m broke and not crazy so I’m not gonna nuke you.” “Same.”— and now it’s time for…

1970s: Economic crash right off the bat for the US. Hell, there was very little economic prosperity on either side, and the 70s saw far less public tension than the past 20 years. But ‘Nam dragged on, people became far more restless, and the CIA (and FBI) was head-on against the KGB. Going to be honest, not a lot happens in regards to the Cold War in the 70s, but you know what does happen? The CIA peddles drugs to underfunded and over-policed neighborhoods, specifically the black community! Who would’ve guessed. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic, fuck the US government. Sorry Donovan, that includes you.) Also evangelism takes a hold on the former 60s hippies, and would take America in its clutches. It would actually lead to Ronald Reagan’s popularity in the 80s, but that’s its own can of worms.

Side note: Ronald Reagan funded the Taliban ( AKA the CIA did it and used Reagan as a front man) during the time periods 1979-1989. I will DEFINITELY discuss this in American Idiot! because John will have an… interesting response to discovering his president and coworkers funded one of the largest Afghani terrorist organizations. Anyone who says John would like Reagan is absolutely wrong and doesn’t understand John nor the history surrounding it. Anyway, back to the timeline.

1980s: Whoo boy, there’s a lot. But here’s the main things:

1981: Ronald Reagan is elected president of the United States. Find out how he radicalized American politics here!

1989: the Berlin Wall is destroyed in one of the most monumental moments in modern history

Also 1989: USSR withdraws from Afghanistan after Operation Cyclone

1990s: The USSR officially crumbles on December 8th, 1991, after 45 years. Boris Yeltsin becomes leader of the “Commonwealth of Independent States”, but I don’t know enough about that to say how that affects anything.

Now to 9/11! Again, warnings for terrorism (including wh!te supremac!st domestic terrorism) and general war discussions, as well as islamaphobia. School shootings will also be mentioned.

Late 1990s: With the USSR no longer a threat, the US seemed to prosper until a little something known as Jihadism reared its head. During the dispute between the USSR and the US, numerous extremist groups such as al-Qaeda rose to prevalence in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. During this time, both domestically and internationally-fueled terrorism occurred, the most notable being below.

Right-Wing Terrorism

Oklahoma City Truck Bombing (1995), one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on US soil at the time. Left 168 dead.

Eric Rudolph’s many acts (1996-1998), namely the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing, killing two and injuring 111.

Columbine School Shooting (1999), two teenagers, affiliated with neo- n@zi beliefs, shot up their school and then killed themselves. 13 people died, 12 students and 1 teacher (not including them).

Side note: General Ku Klux Klan actions were occurring alongside the other attacks, but as per usual, the federal government did barely anything to combat these hate crimes. To no one’s surprise.

“Lone Wolf”

The Unabomber Ted Kaczynski (1970s-1990s), mailed his targets more than a dozen bombs that killed three people and injured many others.

Jihadist

New York World Trade Center attack (1993), a failed attempt to bring down the trade center that left six people dead.

Attacks on Kenyan and Tanzanian US embassies (1998), more than 200 left dead after the simultaneous attacks.

2000s: This decade became the catalyst for the new McCarthyism— fear of “who’s a terrorist”. It’s a hectic, loaded decade with political turmoil, some of my favorite albums/songs ever, and a push for social equality much like the 1960s (albeit it would be far more prevalent in the 2010s-20s.) Here’s some of the key events.

2001: September 11th, 2001. The twin towers in New York City are destroyed by two planes, one plane crashes into the side of the Pentagon, and the last lands off-course when the passengers fought their captors (sadly, ending their own lives in the process). This becomes the biggest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, and leads to a boom in nationalistic fervor with many young adults joining the military. Bush’s response of immediate attack also caused much of the modern perception of this era, but that is too long to explain in a Tumblr post.

2002: France openly criticizes the United States’ response to terrorism, causing a spike in hatred against the French/Western Europe (that heavily would affect meme culture in the late 2000s-today). “French fries” becoming “Freedom fries” is frankly pretty stupid in hindsight, but it goes to show just how common it was to hate anyone who disagreed with the government— this can be seen strongly during Trump’s presidency.

2008: Obama becomes the first black president, and the Recession occurs. The Recession mimics what 1970s America faced, with rising gas prices and an outdated federal minimum wage.

2010s: It’s impossible to really summarize this era, but here is what I’ll say: the radicalization of the right due to the alt-right pipeline (online spheres), as well as Jihadist recruiting via social media, heavily resembles mid-60s tensions and late 70s/early 80s evangelism.

2020s (thus far): The United States after 11 years officially withdraws from Afghanistan on August 30th, 2021, directly mirroring the USSR’s withdraw post-Op Cyclone. Right-wing terrorism and “satanic panic” rises again through right-wing online platforms such as QAnon, and we’re right back to where we began. Turmoil, a divided nation of ideals, and the CIA being cunts. Truly, a second Cold War.

Personal anecdote: QAnon’s effect on baby boomers could very well lead to a resurgence of the KKK. Just saying that makes me unbelievably pissed, but unfortunately, those who denounce history for being too “woke” are doomed to become the villains to the next generation. I could go on about how the political right wing uses fear tactics and strawman arguments without ever truly acknowledging any beliefs outside their own, but meh, that’s its own topic.

All sources not already linked:

Cold War

Missile Museum

PBS.org

Modern Terrorism

CNN

New America

US Department of Justice

————

I’m going to discuss how these events affect the characters/ their personal timelines in a later post, this one is getting way too long. If you stuck around this long, have some history memes for your patience.

[afrival]

Hetalia Characters and Their Music Tastes

I’ve been in the hetalia fandom for like a year now and I stg thinking abt what these bitches listen to NEVER gets old

no warnings

will feature mostly modern day music, like 1950s-2010s

I don’t know a lot of artists that don’t sing in English so there’s probably A LOT that I’m missing on here, not even including shit from like the 1800s

The Allies

Alfred:

Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, Crazy In Love by Beyoncé

- Listens to basically everything, but particular fond of like 80s rock and early 2000s shit

- Likes country music bc ofc he does, a huge fan of Carrie Underwood, Sam Hunt, and The Band Perry

- Got his love of rock from England 💀 Especially during the like the 60s-80s when Queen, The Beatles, and Elton John really popular

- They really only bond over their love for this period of music lmao like they would absolutely go ape during karaoke

- He loves more mainstream artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, all those iconic mfs

- Probably enjoys old wartime music just for nostalgias sake. Shit from the 40s and he listens to Civil War tunes (Union Dixie lmao)

- Definitely listens to musicals and forces Ivan to as well. His favorites are Hamilton, Hairspray, and Chess

- LOVES LOVES LOVES The Backstreet Bogs holy shit. This man had a whole phase where he dressed like they did. Don’t even dare play I Want It That Way because he WILL sing along

- Speaking of which he’s actually a really good singer, like he probably used to sing at clubs and shit back in the day

- It’s very specific but I imagine his voice to sound like Taron Egerton’s cover of “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John

Arthur:

Killer Queen by Queen, Set Fire to the Rain by Adele, Tiny Dancer by Elton John

- Old man who had a weird punk phase in the 90s. Definitely listens to The Beatles and Gorillaz

- Like I said, he and Alfred bond over Queen and Elton and Bon Jovi and FUCKING Michael Jackson

- Refuses to admit he really likes Elvis

- Oh boy. He had so much fun in like late 2000s and early 2010s— Panic at the Disco, MCR, Green Day, he absolutely got his ears pierced during this time

- Doesn’t listen to like current mainstream music that much he will sob to Adele and probably really likes the Cry Baby album by Melanie Martinez.

- Francis plays so much Lady Gaga in the car that at this point he really likes her music

- He likes Ed Sheeran I am so sorry </3 and he absolutely gets bullied for it

- He can sing too honestly? I know I just said he listens to Ed Sheeran but I honestly think he kinda sounds like him too just maybe a little deeper

- Listen to Galway Girl and you’ll get a basic idea of what I imagine he sounds like

Ivan:

Dance and Cry by Mother Mother, Baby One More Time by Britney Spears, смерти Больше нет by IC3PEAK

- THIS MANS MUSIC TASTE MAKES NO SENSE. It ranges from fucking Aerosmith to Ic3peak to Lady Gaga

- Literally has every Mother Mother album downloaded and probably on Vinyl bc he’s a fucking dweeb

- Also a huge musical stannie, loves Wicked and Hairspray

- He and Al will split the parts to sing along to in the car

- Alfred made him listen to Britney Spears ONCE in like the 90s and now he’s obsessed

- Speaking of the 90s he went absolutely fucking ape during this time. The USSR wasn’t very big on western music but when it fell there was a HUGE influx of it and suddenly like it was just his favorite thing ever

- Alfred also got him into Carrie Underwood, literally lost of his music taste comes from Alfred forcing him to listen to shit

- During the 70s/80s he got really into Fleetwood Mac and Aerosmith, maybe even a little bit of disco but not a lot

- Went to a club with Al a few times and he won’t ever forget dancing to Footloose by Kenny Loggins at like one in the morning and having the absolute time of his life, easily one of his favorite memories

- Like I get so soft thinking about him just letting loose and actually having fun, even though he was very stiff and shit during the 1900s

- He can’t sing LMAO but my friend and I said once that he could lowkey rap really well and now it’s all I think about

Francis:

From Eden by Hozier, La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf, Primadona by Marina

- If you look up the gay agenda his playlist would just show up

- I mean seriously he has it all: Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Lorde

- HOWEVER she does really enjoy softer sounding music. Edith Piaf, Louis Armstrong, and Vera Lynn are favorites of his

- Listens to the Les Mis soundtrack like once a month

- REALLY REALLY loves Hozier, like a whole lot. He’s probably one of his favorite artists along with Sufjan Stevens

- Even more of his homo playlist includes Marina, Madonna and Troye Sivan

- Bullies Arthur for liking Ed Sheeran but he also really likes Ed Sheeran, just refuses to admit it

- Stromae ofc 🙄🤚 can’t just not include like the most popular French musician or whatever

- He can also sing but he sounds kinda raspy, it’s nice tho

Yao:

- I don’t think he listens to music LMAO, if he does it’s probably instrumental

The Axis

Ludwig:

Elastic Heart by Sia, From Now On from The Greatest Showman, Natural by Imagine Dragons

- Also doesn’t really listen to music but my friend said that when he does it ranges from classical to heavy metal

- For some reason I think he really likes Sia, he seems like a Sia kind of guy

- Doesn’t listen to Hozier but really loves Take Me to Church

- Most of his music listening comes from giving Feli the aux in the car

- The whore listens to Imagine Dragons like he fucking loves them

- When The Greatest Showman came out he had the soundtrack on repeat for a solid month, From Now Onis one of his favorite songs ever

- Cannot sing Jesus Christ do not let him near a mic

Feliciano:

Thank u, next by Ariana Grande, Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder, Bella Ciao by Manu Pillas

- Pop music! So much pop!

- Loves Ariana Grande and Conan Gray

- Probably listens to A LOT of classical because of his time with Austria

- His music taste is kinda all over the fucking place and it’s mostly happy and peppy shit

- Weirdly tho he listens to GRLwood? Like it’ll just shhow up on shuffle and suddenly he’s an entire different person

- Will listen to absolutely everything just to find something that Ludwig likes, was so proud of himself when Ludwig really ended up loving The Greatest Showman

- Doesn’t sing but plays like 5 instruments. Violin and piano are his faves

Kiku:

It’s Been So Long by The Living Tombstone, Faded by Alan Walker, Ophelia by The Lumineers

- LISTEN. LISTEN. HE LOVES VIDEO GAME MUSIC AND FUCKING THE LIVING TOMBSTONE

- The fnaf songs are his guilty fucking pleasures, he fucking loves them

- Loves loves loves the Undertake Soundtrack

- Listens to a lot of anime openings 💀 Me too tbh they’re so good at for what

- Big fan of TheFatRat

- In general he enjoys techno shit? Idk what the word is but it’s a lot of instrumental

- Listens to regular music as well (The Lumineers especially)

- Likes listening to Elvis because it makes him happy to see Alfred having fun

- Feli also introduces him to a lot of music but he can never fucking remember the names of the songs or artists

- He hums a lot rather than sings, and it’s really soft and gentle

If anybody wants any more characters lmk bc I love coming up with these, also I do have playlists for these bitches 😎✌️ Spotify is in my linktree (bio)

[markodragic]

do you have any hcs on what sort of music the gang would enjoy? you don’t need to list all of them of course but just if you have ideas

I’m sorry it took ages to answer this ask but I decided to do the whole gang JHKHKJK ✨ also this is set in a modern AU so that I have more genres to work with!

• dutch: he strikes me as an obnoxious elitist jazz fan. the type that will not shut up about how vinyl is superior.

• arthur: he likes acoustic folk stuff. he can and will cry on public transport listening to sufjan stevens.

• john: he only listens to speedcore and one (1) linkin park album.

• hosea: like all cool old men, he listens to 70s prog rock. he always has good album recommendations.

• sadie: she’s a big fan of death metal, industrial, and anything that sounds like a total racket. may or may not unironically listen to death grips.

• charles: he’s an ambient music kind of guy. he’s into boards of canada and aphex twin, and he also likes lo-fi hiphop stuff, j-dilla beats etc.

• sean: he only listens to terrible gamer dubstep. and the dropkick murphys.

• lenny: he likes weird nerd musicians like lemon demon and tally hall. anything that’s particularly creative and unusual is his jam.

• javier: he says his music taste is totally highbrow, but his itunes library is lowkey full of boyband music.

• strauss: exclusively listens to grimes (this one’s for u eva)

• mary-beth: she just loves cheesy pop music honestly. in her opinion if you can’t bop to it then what’s the point.

• swanson: he’s into 90s downtempo electronica stuff like underworld and moby. just chill music that he can zone out to.

• tilly: she’s a big fan of future funk stuff like night tempo. she likes the fun vintage feel of the genre.

• karen: she vibes with punk rock, especially classic mid-70s punk rock, because it appeals to her defiant nature. also she’s discovered that playing it too loud will annoy susan which is a bonus.

• abigail: she likes big band swing music - she always listens to music while she works so she prefers something high-energy and catchy to keep her motivated.

• molly: she enjoys artsy indie stuff like mitski and florence + the machine. anything that’s super cathartic basically.

• susan: she’s a wine aunt so she just loves ABBA and the whole disco genre in general.

• trelawny: he is an absolute hoe for musical theatre. don’t pass him the aux cord because he’ll just play the entire phantom of the opera soundtrack.

• kieran: he mostly listens to emotive indie music like the mountain goats, mother mother and any other band that you can have a crisis to at 4am.

• pearson: “hey kiddo let me show you this cool band from back in my day that you’ve probably never even heard of” *plays an ac/dc song*

• uncle: carameldansen (10 hour loop, bass boosted)

[qintennie]

okay hey! 

I’m q/kian, 13+, queer and i’d like to think i’m funny 

I really wanna make friends and moots!! here’s some stuff i’m into; 

books:

anything adam silvera 

neil gaiman

queer ya lit in general 

 literally just. books

music:

 kpop (mostly smtown? but also day6)

musicals (k, fine, hamilton) 

lowkey indie artists 

alt (mostly emo/pop punk)

classical music, somehow? we do not question

shows:

andi mack 

bbc merlin

skam (og + druck)

jatp

doafp

chocolate guy’s netflix show

phineas and ferb (oh cmon)

queer eye or random netflix reality shows 

bfu/puppet history/watcher/etc

oh and THE LOTR MOVIE i do not shut up about the lotr movie

assassination classroom, one piece (ish) [anime]

people: 

twosetviolin

dan and phil (yes, i suffer)

doctor mike 

daniel thrasher 

inexplicably, james acaster and richard ayoade

john mulaney

other undefinable things: 

undertale and deltarune

interior design 

psychology

mythology

- random conversations over the insignificant existential crises that perpetuate our reality 

- cats

if we share interests, or if you just wanna talk, DM me!! or comment, or whatever- i’d love to talk to you about anything! If it counts, I can be a good listener too :) 

Please don’t reply if your blog is 18+ or if it contains any sexual content. 

My blog is a safe space for all bipoc, LGBT+ people, and people of any and every religion, place, or background. (I’m South Asian and queer myself!) Discrimination, racism, homophobia, transphobia, enbyphobia, biphobia, panphobia or anything in the same vein will not be tolerated. 

[obxfics]

Outer Banks Characters as People found on Tinder in Central Florida

John B: those dudes who are super hot and you know are out of ur league but u still swipe right on them and ur super surprised when theyre actually nice and dont immediately hit u up for ur snap... alternatively any skater boy who doesnt look like a douche (theyre hard to find but theyre out there)

JJ: fish pic (listen we all know it’s true...) alternatively hot surfer dudes using passport from Australia or New Zealand who are always smiling with their friends (do not have those weird pics where they just like... stare at the camera as if it makes them look sexier)

Pope: usually has some quote in their bio or mentions liking anime somewhere (sorry but its true) alternatively any guy who puts a STEM major in their bio we love to see it (and yes specifically any dude who hits me up for animal crossing dates or talks to me about tony stark)

Kie: my fav types of bi/lesbians who use like rainbow or lil leaf emojis just those soft vegetarian or vegan wlw (theyre so cute and sweet okay) alternatively skater lesbians who listen to alternative or pop punk (its me okay but i also am in love with them)

Sarah Cameron:  lowkey like lowkey any girl that says “married to the love of my life but looking for a girl to spice things up 😝” (im sorry but she gives off those vibes) alternatively those sorority girls who actually look super sweet (again theyre usually from Rollins) and hype up ur profile pics and like ur insta posts

Topper: literally any dude from Rollins (especially if they have a pic of them in their nice ass boat which they almost always do) alternatively “6′ because apparently that matters”

Rafe: okay now HE has the fish pics but also the hunting pics and pics of them on their 4-wheelers (is that what they’re called?) and have m*ga hats or tr*mp 2020 flags flying in the back of their raised pick-up trucks used to have “swipe in the direction of ur political views” in their bios (usually from fucking polk county 🤢)

[deliveryghibli]

Trevor and Chris headcanons:

They've known each other since they were kids, and have always been best friends. It was LJ and Gen, Kavinsky and John Ambrose, and Trevor and Chris.

They were always the odd ones out, even in their own group. Chris was always thought to be too strange, a freak, while Trevor was the idiot jock. They bonded over it.

They are not dating. Chris is asked about it all the time. She hates it. They. Are. Not. Dating.

They talk a lot, ok? They have a lot of fun together. They go to concerts together and tease each other and play fight and have 3 a.m. Denny's runs every Friday and tell each other things they have never told anyone else, but they are 100% not dating.

They are just best friends, and that is fine for both of them. Until Chris wakes up a couple of months after the end of P.S. I Love You, and realizes, "Holy shit, I'm in love with Trevor." Chris tells him when they hang out later that day. He just grabs her hand, interlocks their fingers, and says, "I know. Me too."

It's simple, like them.

Music is a huge part of their relationship. Trevor makes playlists for Chris all the time, and Chris is always dragging Trevor to the latest concert at her favorite dive bar. They both like rock, but Trevor is more into pop punk while Chris prefers metal.

Chris got Trevor that Valentine serenade, all right? She knows he loves the Backstreet Boys, and thought he would love to be surrounded by the acapella club in the middle of class, all eyes on him.

Trevor isn't vain, but he does like it when people notice him, especially if he can have fun while doing so. He's proud at this point that people see him as a fun-loving dude who's good at lacrosse (and has good hair). Chris likes it too but is more lowkey, so when they do start dating they have to learn how to find a balance that is best for both of them.

(Their relationship doesn't change much when they start dating. They practically were together even when they weren't.)

Cris starts to dress up with LJ for the lacrosse games when she and Trevor officially begin dating. She had always refused to do it before, had always ignored the look on Trevor's face when she told him no. The joy on his face still makes Chris blush when she thinks about it.

[sarinataylor]

Joger ask: how would they cope with Roger having a crisis about the fact that John has written hit singles including their biggest ever hit and he has yet to pop his a-aide cherry? Is he rubbish? Is he really just a pretty face? He knows he brings lots of musical input & the sonic volcano & ‘the girl for everything’ for the band but really, who is he kidding? And John can’t deny that he aced his degree or does the finances or wrote hits... Thankfully Radio Gaga comes along and all ends well...

hmmmm ok. this got? long. very ramble-y. apologies

so like. roger is so fucking proud of john y’know???? and it’s not john’s songs being more successful than his which is cutting deep (because, well, commercial success is somewhat ehh to roger now that they’ve already made it big. the music he’s writing and creating, off on the side, is more about the music than anything else), it’s that he didn’t see it coming

100% did not see aobtd being a hit. hated recording it with his drums taped up, and thought the whole thing was a waste of time which.... it obviously wasn’t because john’s latest royalty cheque was big enough to have even freddie blinking in surprise

and. well. roger’s kind of always been the one with his finger on the pulse, so to speak. roger was riding the early waves of punk before the sex pistols had so much as looked at a safety pin and thought, “hmm, i wonder”. and his ability to keep up with, stay just one step ahead, of the trends has been invaluable in the past and now.... he might be slipping behind?

because even though he fucking hated half of the lines in ymbf he... he knew it was going to be a hit in the US. that sort of soft poppy feel, with a funky little bassline? the american’s eat that shit up in spades. of course it was going to be popular.

but, yeah, he didn’t see aobtd being a hit and now he’s starting to wonder if maybe the reason he isn’t writing hits isn’t because he hasn’t been trying to appeal to the broader audience, hasn’t been trying to write songs that will get massive air time or be played in clubs, but because he’s got no fucking clue about what people want anymore

‘girl for everything.......... except knowing what people want’ doesn’t, uh, sound as good

and it’s not? it’s not a Big Deal, not really. he just gets a little quieter about voicing his opinions on tracks because, well, maybe he doesn’t actually know what the fuck he’s talking about?

and so, hot space

brian’s losing his gd mind arguing with everyone and everything because he feels backed into a corner, freddie isn’t playing the peacekeeping role he usually does, john is being Just a Little Bit of an egotistic shit, and roger is........... not getting involved. which works kind of awfully because both brian and john take his silence as tacit approval of their position, which boils over into a lot of misunderstandings about just what it is roger thinks about what’s going on in the studio

(and mostly what roger thinks about what’s going on in the studio is that this album is going to be a Fucking Disaster because instead of ripping apart one anothers songs and building them back up stronger all they’re doing is ripping into one another and calling it creative differences)

and he tosses up a couple of songs and lets them do what they will with them (and oh my god if you haven’t listened to action this day performed live???? do urself a favour and do it oh my god i fucking hated that song until i listened to it live) because well. they probably know better than he does at the moment, because he doesn’t quite trust himself. and tensions are high enough that inserting himself into the cockfight when he isn’t actually Sure about his opinions just seems an unnecessary risk.

and. uh. hot space...................................................... does as it does

and john is pretty mortified about the whole thing because.... ???? all of that work and fighting and it’s flopping which is. made all the more worse by brian’s oh too casual sympathetic comments during the press junket, and then even worse by the way that roger. doesn’t seem surprised?? because. well. even when it was a love song written about roger roger was honest about what he didn’t like about it, but now there’s a whole fucking album that john pushed really hard for and roger a) didn’t like it and b) didn’t tell him

he thought they respected one another more than that. he thought they were more secure than that. 

which sort of........ simmers uncomfortably between them as they gear up for the tour and sort of. explodes when roger starts making suggestions for changes to some of the songs for the live performances that. annoyingly sound much better and why didn’t you bring this up when we were recording the fucking album, roger (look aight atd sounds SO MUCH BETTER LIVE, IT’S BEEN MONTHS AND IM STILL SHOOK)

and roger’s sort pussyfooting around it because oh well... you know you and freddie really wanted to this one as a sort of concept album..... and brian and i didn’t want to interfere...... (brian: very much did want to interfere) ............ so ya know................ it’s not really my style so i didn’t wanna stick my foot where it doesn’t belong.........

and john’s like???? its music what the fuck are you Talking About? you know music you know what sounds good and what doesnt and it’s not like you’ve ever been shy about voicing your opinions before, so forgive me if im a bit confused about the sudden reticence 

regardless, it’s Not a Big Deal. no really. roger will insist this til the day he dies

and things calm down? they take a break and, as they are wont to do, the tensions of the band slowly start slipping from john and roger’s day to day lives? like, when they’re not living in close quarters and feeding off of the energies that brian and freddie and mack and everyone else is putting out. it’s just them, yeah? 

but anyway, roger’s still been writing music and ha enough for a new solo album so he’s like. yeah. think imma do that and john’s a bit taken aback because? fuck, you’ve been busy then you said you didn’t have much of anything for hot space??? and roger’s like. uh, yup. been busy. busy bee, me. ya know. while ur out painting the shed i gotta keep myself occupied somehow

except. well. john’s obviously lending a hand with bass and mixing, and brian’s in and out too, so’s freddie and. it’s freddie, actually, who picks up that roger had been working on the beat of  I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion) back in the studio when they’d been working on hot space which.   doesn’t make sense, because he definitely hadn’t shown them it to them which is odd, because roger usually shows them everything he writes in case they want it for queen? 

and then brian chimes in because, actually, he recognises the lyrics for killing time? 

and john is like what the FUCK is going on because this is just? weird? 

so john ends up lowkey cornering him at home in a totally not cool sneaky fashion (read: he gives him a fucking mindblowing orgasm and then is like [head propped on roger’s chest] SO)  because???? ofc he supports rog’s solo career but also? why didn’t he share what he was writing with him? what’s going on? music’s always been a language they’ve shared, even if they tended towards different dialects, and now it... well it doesn’t feel very good that roger seems to be inching him out of something that john knows is so very important to him

and roger’s like huh no idea what you’re talking bout. been really busy writing recently. shame though, means i might not have much for the next queen album

and john’s like? do you want to leave queen, if that what this is about?

and roger’s horrified because what the fuck no i’m just not sure i’ll have much to contribute is all which has john like?? because. it’s roger of course he’s got something to contribute what the fuck are you talking about

but roger’s like oh well ya know nothing im really writing at the moment is much of our current style so. that’s cool, though. that’s fine

but john is confused bc well. hot space was a bit of a failure so they’re probably headed back to more consistent waters so that’s not a problem, and hey, maybe if roger had injected a bit more of his style into the album things might have been better right?

ANYWAY basically john’s like yo my man like. if u dont wanna write any material for the new album that’s? fine ig? but we kinda Need You to be a little bitch about the things u dont like because.... things work better when ur being a nitpicky little bitch than when ur being silently supportive of me :) though that was sweet

and rogers like oh i was 100% not being supportive of either u or brian’s bullshit tbh i just. disco isn’t my forte ya know i didn’t wanna chat shit ab smth i know nothing about like, god, imagine if you’d listened to me about aobtd????????? 

which. john’s like. i? i mean, i did. fuck sake, the whole thing got rewritten to be about our dog (steve) bc u made a joke about it? i.     i did listen to u about aobtd

and john has honestly NO IDEA what any of this is about? because roger has an awful tendency to sit on things until they’re Much Bigger than what they were to begin with. like, john’s actually not great at that? he’s not very good at hiding that he’s angry or upset, not for the long term. roger’s a lot better at it in the worst kind of way, because unless you pick up on it right at the beginning by the time you’ve figured out something’s wrong it’s months down the track and so many micro interactions or events have been tacked onto the Original Problem that it’s a sprawling mess of “i dont want to communicate that im feeling vulnerable about something so instead im gonna try and turn my vulnerabilities into armour” - like deciding to turn all of your writing, not just the stuff that won’t fit on your main project’s albums, into solo material because your solo stuff doesn’t have to be successful 

but also, ok fine. 

and so he sort of? lets it go? because tbh once roger latches onto something, when u havent go in there early enough? your best bet is to just wait for him to.... get over it. which he generally does. he doesnt have the patience for decade long grudge matches, not really.

and then it all comes to a head when brian writes and shows them all machines (or: back to humans) which obvs came about from an idea of roger’s and. well. freddie thinks its amazing, john is nodding along even as he sends him small little side eyes and well. fuck it, right?

and so the next week he comes in and slams down the first rough draft of radio gaga, the music heavily influenced by I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion) which freddie had been complaining about being used up on a solo album 

and then he goes home and tops the hell out of john, the end.

[melekseev]

so i FINALLY bring you my esc19 toplist, all under the cut, with short comments.

also be aware i literally... enjoy my top 31. so twenty something places might sound bad.. BUT THEYRE REALLY NOT, I JUST LOVE A LOT. i went into this year thinking it was weak, and then after i had this playlist on so much, hello, i love a ton. nevertheless, just my taste and opinions and good luck to all of them~

1. France ABSOLUTE KIN G stuck in first place because this is undoubtedly my most listened song this year, and i'm absolutely hooked on it. i am somewhat worried about that coming revamp, but. but i fcking love this song, and he improved those vocals like d amn 2. Russia i.... am in love. every time i hear this song it gets me into that sort of dramatic ecstasy and it's so big and beautiful that it just... it kills me. i die. thats it 3. Italy soldi is still my jam, and i adore it to bits 4. Slovenia this masterpiece is one i just want to protect. so soothing, i LOVE listening to it, it's just ethereal 5. Netherlands this song, at one point, was almost at every possible spot on my list from middle to top 15, but then it stuck with me and now it's utter love 6. Hungary i adore his voice, no bias. his whole vibe, his unique delivery and technique, that folky sound, like... yes please 7. Switzerland i am not ashamed to say i am utter trash for this song. every single part i love about this. like holy shit, this time switzerland better make it thEY EARNED IT 8. Australia she is QUEEN, i considered dropping it from my top 10 when trying to readjust ONE TIME and upon relistening i instantly was like "okay no way it's going anywhere", i just unironically love it a LOT 9. Norway actual legends... this song just cheers me up to SUCH an extent! love the joiking... i love eveything, bless you norway 10. Belgium at first, i had issues with it, because i wanted a bigger drop near the end, but now i'm just absolutely... in love... it convinced me. the instrumental, the building up, the dark undertone, just. i adore this 11. Poland oH I LOVE THEM SO MU CH. li s t en. i can't explain it, but they give me like a lowkey vibe of soft punk-rock theme but also like...?? japanese pop?? but no, it's polish and slavic and traditional and i'm really really vibing with it, because some of it is familiar from my own culture, and these girls S LAY 12. Albania albania always delivering those vocals.. i love the mystical vibe with the ethnic sound, it's simply gorgeous 13. San Marino can you believe i unironically HONESTLY thoroughly enjoy this song?? serhat is an icon, but his voice actually really fits with this song and i always get super into it. i'm so happy this exists lmao 14. Azerbaijan i'm very very much into this song, and i'm EXTREMELY curious to see how he pulls this off live as it seems to be such a radio song, but i have hopes. i just dig it, like... like a LOT 15. Czech Republic this is the most chill song this year, and despite the silly, easygoing lyrics it's just... extremely fun, and it's been my jam since it came out 16. Croatia listen. l i sten. i love... theatrical. i love big strong voice explosions. this CHILD is talented as fuck. i know many people hate this, but the song actually grew on me, and then today i just honestly love it. i wish the whole song was in croatian, but even with the not so great lyrics, i'm eating it up and singing along. i know he won't make it, but oh well. it's okay Roko, i love your voice and song 17. Armenia i really love this one, too. she convinced me further in amsterdam bc she absolutely killed it (although i feel like she had a nervous slip in the very beginning) but then after that.. holyshit. such a tiny girl with such a huge voice 18. Spain honestly, if you tell me earlier it would end up this high at one point i wouldn't believe you.. i never /hated/ it per se, but i also wasn't really impressed or as into it as most people were. i think the revamp was the one that convinced me in the end, because it forced me to face the fact that i do honestly enjoy this more than i want to. also now im nostalgic towards anything spanish, even if its different, bye 19. Finland yes, this might be nothing special, but i just... enjoy it. i genuinely do, and there are certain parts i especially love, and so therefore. like. yes. 20. Estonia as much as i didn't want to like this originally, i do. like, i really do. it just happened, and i'm not mad about it 21. Romania this song is a big grower for me, and to this day the more i hear it the more i get into it still 22. UK Michael's live delivery elevates this otherwise not so amazing song like... so much. i feel like the UK does tend to send songs with this particular theme, but i actually enjoy it quite a lot when he's doing it live. his voice is impressive, and so... here he. 23. Sweden these two ^ i always moved around together for some reason, as if they were linked, which might be because John wrote both songs, although i learned that later(??? but in the end, i feel like i prefer UK a bit more. this is also really good though, it works, and it has a great vibe for esc 24. Portugal so this one slipped quite far off, as with time i sort of lost the enthusiasm for it. i still find it unique and enjoy it nevertheless though, so it could definitely be worse 25. Greece i'm in quite a pickle because after not necessarily being super into this song, i started to really like it (VOICE, BRUH) but then the amsterdam concert happened. I KNOW she was sick, though, so i sort of have this on hold. if she delivers later, which i'm sure she will, she stays, but if not, this might drop a few slots 26. Lithuania this is another song that just makes me happy and makes me smile, and i can't explain it. i love lionboy. i'm just here for it 27. Serbia her voice is quite literally pristine, i love that she's singing in serbian, and i do appreciate her a lot as i honestly enjoy this song when it's on. it tends to slip my mind, though, which i hate it does, because it's beautiful and i'm rooting for her 28. Cyprus super unpopular opinion, but i actually like this a lot more than Fuego, and don't necessarily compare the two. HOWEVER i do kinda feel like i'm seeing the same thing from the same country, like, immediately after, which makes me a little less excited about it, oof 29. North Macedonia see, the message is very nice. the song actually grew on me a bit compared to the first time i heard it, but i still just... wish it was better. i like it overall, but it's just about pushing it 30. Israel he's actually very talented and on point vocally. the only reason it's not higher is simply because it's just not really my style, but it's one i still appreciate on stage 31. Georgia there is something about this that i like. i respect him, and when near the end there's sooo much power, then especially i really dig it 32. Montenegro the revamp did help them quite a lot, but overall it still kinda feels like a high school chorus, and i'm just not really for it 33. Moldova her voice is really nice, and despite how i found it just... done several times and kind of boring (oops), her live made me appreciate this just a bit more 34. Ireland i feel like this song is just kind of... there, for the sake of being there. it's not even bad, it's just... meh? 35. Malta that chorus is a major turn off for me, and it's neeeearing that point where a song just starts to annoy me... which i feel like is worse than simply not liking something, so it's on thin ice 36. Austria first of all i think her voice is very lovely. BUT... after about the 4th yo-o-o-ouh it does tip and starts to annoy me, which i wish it didn't, but... but it does 37. Belarus i wanna talk about how they had a huge shot with Michael Soul, but i will not go down that road and focus on Zena. this song just feels like a mess to me. like... a young britney spears song, but bad. i really don't get the appeal, at all 38. Latvia hhhhhhh. this one annoys me so much, i just can't begin to explain. it's flat, repetitive, and the chorus (??) fries my nerves in a matter of seconds, IM SORRY 39. Denmark oof... o o of. i don't want to be rude but basically this feels exactly like what you'd expect a junior eurovision song to be like.... except those are actually better. it's just... no. no. way too much sugar. it’s all just... no 40. Germany speaking of songs that annoy me? i feel like this is definitely the one i can't stand the most. *screeches* SISTAH x4 41. Iceland listen i'm not going to talk about this for long but basically i really heavily dislike this for a few reasons and can never listen all the way through without like.. suffering. the funniest thing is that i love the beat. but then.. the singing (NOT even the style) it just. it makes me angry, cuz this could be good. but it's not. also i don't like the pretend-gay stuff. but that's just me

[spamzineglasgow]

(ESSAY) A Shining Mess: Anthropocene Poetics in Caspar Heinemann’s Novelty Theory

In this essay, Maria Sledmere unpacks Caspar Heinemann’s Novelty Theory (The 87 Press, 2019) as an example of anthropocene poetics, challenging what it means to write about ‘Nature’, being, identity and everyday life in the context of the paradoxical deep-time ~novelty~ of our ‘newly’ fraught geological epoch.

> There’s this John Cage quote, paraphrased in Joan Retallack’s The Poethical Wager (2003), which goes like, ‘Let the mess shine in!’. I can’t find the quote anywhere else, but such contingency or obscurity feels relevant: where do we find anything in our obsessive mess of discourse? Cage’s quote captures the idea that mess bears recognition as a critical term, a technical concept. Caspar Heinemann’s Novelty Theory, published earlier this year by London-based The 87 Press, is a highly dense poetry collection whose ethos seems to match that of Cage’s. The title plays with all doomsday passé around ‘the end of theory’ and energises this question of explanation, thought and principle with novelty: that is, a carte blanche array of pop cultural reference, paratactic punch, playful registers and ‘millennial irony’. This is a book of the commons, of reversals, conflicted feelings, endless things. Bhanu Kapil’s blurb declares Novelty Theory ‘an anthem for alien beloveds everywhere’. Certainly, Heinemann’s poetry deals equally in intimacy and strangeness, subjectivities and otherness, capitalism and mysticism, leaving a petulant scent of patchouli in its wake. Novelty Theory is an anthem, sure, kissing the winds of extinction: a song of praise for living with contradiction, embracing chaos in the want for order.

> To know yourself as an alien beloved: at once a stranger but warmly held, to be loved but not to be wed to identity. Embracing yourself, your kin and the more-than-human around you as alien beloveds might be a central ethic for living in the anthropocene — not to mention its knotty entanglements of late-capitalism, colonialism and gender politics. I want to suggest that in Novelty Theory, letting the mess shine in is a tactic of what David Farrier (2019) has named anthropocene[1]poetics. Distinct from the established traditions of ecopoetics and nature poetry, anthropocene poetics is less about elegising or celebrating a specific idea of ‘nature’, and more about dramatising the existential conditions of living in a geological epoch distinguished by human intervention within the earth’s systems. Another feature of anthropocene poetics is its conscious situatedness within, response to and divergence from histories of nature writing or lyric renditions of subjectivity through ‘world’. Anthropocene poetics problematises the very idea of self and world, of ‘presence’ itself, while highlighting the material contradictions we experience in everyday life, in relation to late-capitalism as much as ecological crisis (and of course, the twain meet symbiotically). No facet of quotidian existence is off limits: where the nature poem (bear with my crude distinctions) typically looks to the hills and woods, the anthropocene poem might trace the material histories, ethical dilemmas and affective intensities felt in locales of domesticity, leisure and labour. Its setting may well be the city, the internet and the gentrified coffee shop, its registers conflicted, overburdened or charged with the weight of what Timothy Morton (2010a) calls ‘the ecological thought’: this enmeshment and total intimacy with nonhuman entities. I don’t mean to be prescriptive about what anthropocene poetics is; rather, I’d like to explore Novelty Theory as a case study in what anthropocene poetics, as a set of thematic gestures and formal tendencies, might provoke in our readings of contemporary texts, within the developing ontologies, ethics and (con)texts of climate emergency.

> While a broader discussion of anthropocene poetics and its emergent practitioners is outside the scope of this review, suffice to say Heinemann might be situated as part of a generation who have grown up around increasingly mainstream questioning of ecological responsibility, crisis, ethical conflict, identity politics and material precarity. I want to situate Novelty Theory alongside works that split apart the colonial, often masculinist or heteronormative narratives of typical nature writing. We might think of CA Conrad, Craig Santos Perez, Cecilia Vicuña and Evelyn Reilly: poets who work with ritual, lyric unravelling and juxtaposed collage to dramatise the necessary hypocrisies of everyday life in the anthropocene, alongside a sincerity of commitment to improving ecological attunement. Writing that unpicks the colonial, racialised, ruralised, heteronormative and ableist assumptions often present in traditional nature writing. Writing that works with ‘Nature’[2], but often in a state of refusal which shows up the term’s historical uses and abuses. Another recent 87 Press publication, Callie Gardner’s naturally it is not (2018), is a good example of this engagement with ‘Nature’: structurally challenging the existential arrangements and sensory associations we attach to traditional seasons. In the reader’s notes, Gardner reminds us, ‘“Nature” itself is a capitalist and imperialist invention, designed to protect those aspects of the world it does not want to change and to abdicate its responsibility to anything outside of “culture”’. My sense is that anthropocene poetics does valuable work in performatively blurring the pedestalled ‘Nature’ with the elusive ideologies of ‘culture’, exploding the complexities and assumptions held within such prior distinctions.

Nature Poem

> In Tommy Pico’s landmark Nature Poem (2017), the speaker blatantly rejects essentialising associations between indigenous peoples and ‘Nature’, while framing this rejection in the ironic genre politics of a sequence titled Nature Poem:

I can’t write a nature poem bc it’s fodder for the noble savage narrative. I wd slap a tree across the face, I say to my audience.

There’s an explicit ‘audience’ here, the necessity of establishing lyric voice as performance. Anthropocene poetics draws out a processual, reflexive legacy that goes back to Wordsworth, using a kind of dramatic irony to remind us of the speaker’s presence in the ‘world’ of the poem, and all her accompanying dilemmas, commitments and responsibilities around and towards the subject.

> Pico is an American Indian (NDN) poet who situates anthropocenic conditions of  sexuality, identity, consumerism and urban space within a reflexive critique of what it means to write a Nature poem. Nature Poem throws up questions around colonialism, indigeneity, essentialism and poetic tradition which challenge ideological constructs of Nature. As Morton puts it, much ecological thinking thus far has ‘set up “Nature” as a reified thing in the distance’ (2010a). Pico’s work explodes such reification within everyday life, showing that Nature is something we ‘do’: it’s an instant message (‘gaia is alive in those pipes’), it’s in the way we relate to objects, to each other, the way we ‘break’, the way we fall or feel or fuck. Eileen Myles argues ‘a poem says I want’ and Nature Poem asks what it is to want anything at all when almost everyone’s trying to identify you with the ‘natural world’ — as, essentially, a backdrop, a static facet of landscape.

> What does it mean to write or read a Nature Poem from the heart of Brooklyn (where Pico currently resides), mindful of fellow New York poet Frank O’Hara’s famous assertion, ‘I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life’. There’s something deliciously liberating about Pico’s punk attitude to eco-clichés: ‘The world is a bumble bee / in the sense that, who cares?’. Anthropocene poetics involves wrestling with a generational nihilism or general air of hipster indifference towards what might be perceived as a useless, dying ‘Nature’. But it also means playfully staging our very immersion in the conundrum of what that Nature might mean: ‘Nature is kind of over my head’, ‘Nature keeps wanting to hang out’. Pico’s casual personification of Nature serves to remind us of the term’s social construction while staging its ideological invention within material, affective and social contexts.

> If it’s difficult, nigh impossible, to actually think extinction, maybe what we need is an ethics of life instead. An amalgamation of Romanticism, physical immediacy, queer desire and the act of a pause becomes, in Nature Poem, the redeemable expression:

Knowing the moon is inescapable tonight

and the tuft of yr chest against my shoulder blades—

This is a kind of nature I would write a poem about.

The strange, specific pathos of that line, ‘a kind of nature’. By saying ‘The world is a bumble bee’, Pico plays with the arbitrariness with which we define the world as such, its conflations of scales and agencies. As Timothy Clark (2018) reminds us, a ‘given scale’ is ‘a kind of grammar whose presence is overlooked in our habitual attention to individual things’. What Pico and other poets’ work does is recalibrate our grammar of scale by twisting familiar Nature tropes within the aesthetic and ethical contexts of quotidian life. The moon of Pico’s poem is not dressed up in metaphor but simply there, ‘inescapable’. It doesn’t replace anything else, it’s nobody’s feeling. There’s a lowkey opulence to that sense of urgency. Poetry warrants acknowledgement of the beauty of what’s left of Life. And sometimes that’s as cheap as knowing you can’t cut the moon out of your poem, your night — you probably wouldn’t even want to.

> In response to an Elizabeth Bishop poem, ‘At the Fishhouses’, Farrier writes: ‘Difference persists; in this granular vision, the qualities of the particular (texture, depth, grain) mark the queerness of all bodies in the deep strangeness of evolutionary time and of our Anthropocene future’ (2019). Such ambitious claims for anthropocene poetry can also be applied to a poetics of riff, repetition, modulation, phraseology and collaged register. Heinemann: ‘my drag / persona is called Nature’ (‘Full Moon Leech Party’). What do we wear of what’s over there in the weave of our lines, identities? Where Bishop’s poem connects material detritus — ‘the silver of the benches’, ‘the small old buildings with an emerald moss’ — with deep time, Pico proclaims the violent theory of contradiction and connection: ‘the fabric of our lives #death / some ppl wait a lifetime for a moment like this #death’, ‘just do it #death / Got #death’. Borrowing from the associative, non-linear clusters spelled by the hashtag, Pico renders death a hotspot within the general web of extinction, a pedal note thrumming hypnotically through its song.[3] Repurposing familiar commercial slogans, Pico confronts cultural taboos with a gleeful insouciance. Nature is death as much as Life — a practical fact — and maybe, with an eye to Lee Edelman’s No Future (2004), this acknowledgement is one way out of ‘reproductive futurism’. Instead of ‘the colonial legacy of the future’, its depressing speculative intricacies, just ‘Give me / a minute’ (Pico 2017). Like chill, the world is warming but we’re here and now: let’s talk. The pragmatism of anthropocene poetics, perhaps, is a making of space; not just buying us time but also scattering the seeds with which we might still (in spite of our increasingly precarious lives) nourish ideas, philosophise, interrogate and experiment what it means to live and die in what’s happening — at the scale of the planet and that of the microbes inside us, tweaking our ethical and affective inclinations. ‘[E]thics for the Anthropocene’, Joanna Zylinska argues, should urge ‘a return to critical thinking [...] a reparation of thought’ (2014), wary, of course, that ‘catalogued over bullshit reams, praxis makes nothing happen / to the seeds in snow’ (Gardner 2018).

Pragmatic Opulence

> Heinemann’s Novelty Theory resurrects a dusted signifier, ‘theory’, as a gestural architecture for holding the book’s sprawling morass of impressions, encounters and streams of thought. Like Kapil’s work, a degree of enchantment runs through reems of disaffection or cynicism: where Kapil often references minerals, colour (the pink lightning of Ban en Banlieue) or a quality of light, in Novelty Theory this is held in the ritualistic detritus our speaker returns to — spices and flowers, herbs and teas. Heinemann dares you to critique the value of what might be called twee: ‘the tragedy of it all / lukewarm milky surrender punk upholstery / the bittersweet kettle i needed for this nettle tea’. Acts or artefacts of ritual significantly conduct the order of how we deal with everyday trauma. Heinemann’s poetics has that candied, medicinal quality of internal rhyme: good enough to chew but might (as) well sting. It makes you stop to think, pursuing its own excess. The Nature of Novelty Theory is monstrous, opulent, ‘thick and deeply slimy everywhere’ (‘Theses on Land Masses (After Iain Hamilton Finlay)’). In their Goldsmiths dissertation, ‘FUCKING PANSIES: Queer Poetics, Plant Reproduction, Plant Poetics, Queer Reproduction’, Heinemann argues that poetry itself is a ‘speaking through flowers’, and in being so

the consequences of communication are non-linear, cross-pollinated and dispersed, the eternal and cyclical affectively and effectively meeting to produce models of life which could be described as pragmatically opulent.

Pragmatically opulent seems to me an extension of Cage’s imploring to Let the mess shine in!, albeit situated within genuine political and bodily struggle. Pragmatic opulence is a strategy for queer survival but also world-making, a way of ‘produc[ing] models of life’ within pressurised social systems. It problematises familiar symbolic objects as kitsch synecdoche for some Natural paradise over there:

Nature in the sickly pine air freshener fighting its discrete privately commissioned battle against the zombie economy of life, the shape of the pine tree as futility.                                   (‘Theses on Land Masses (After Iain Hamilton Finlay)

There’s something sickly, abject even, about the landed associations of pine forests, the deep ecology of a dark green wild. The air freshener hangs limply, ‘fighting its discrete’ war against life eating life. The shape of this Nature is useless; it’s not even beautiful. It isn’t life so much as a cheap, deified logo, as pre-millennial passé as your uncle’s old air freshener. What we need is a more eclectic ambience.

> Throughout Novelty Theory, Heinemann’s poems fly between forms: jagged lines that read with the transient glaze or aphoristic charm of a text message, block stanzas, a travel diary, all-caps and extravagant use of punctuation — particularly the slash and the exclamation point, marking moments of undecidability, rupture or dramatic emphasis. This variety comprises a non-linear, variable and maximalist poetics of play, subversion and flourishing within the everyday contexts of late-capitalism and the anthropocene. It shows the necessity of confronting these contexts with a queer sensibility, if we recall Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s classic definition of queer as ‘the open mesh of possibilites, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically’ (1993). To queer-read Nature, like gender, is to work with that ‘open mesh’. For Heinemann, that seems to demand a kind of pragmatism and opulence, a stylised critique of real conditions, their desires and demands.

> I want to trace what kinds of pragmatic opulence are found in the life of Novelty Theory, aware that in naming a book of lyric poetry Theory, Heinemann is surely inviting us to question the very division or frisson between life and theory, voice and world within contemporary existence. We might describe the whole book, in fact, as a kind of theoretical or speculative world-building. The poems engage in acts of redress or recontextualisation, kind of anthropocene camp: ‘I actually think capitalism is quite a beautiful word and look forward to appropriating it to mean something like spring dawn sunshine ladybird sex’ (‘Travel Diary Summer 2016’). Throughout Novelty Theory, Heinemann has this radical ostentation that blithely redefines the things it challenges: poetry as active world-making, ethics as poiesis, chipping away at fixities to let forth what’s glowing, proliferating and strange underneath. In a recent Zarf review of the book, Gloria Dawson notes the collection’s ‘wit, bratty polemic, and knotty etymological adventuring’ (2019), which seems about right. What happens if we took the capital out of capitalism and made it a five-syllabled evocation of sticky, butter-fingered summer afternoons? There’s a childlike quality of vivid bricolage to Heinemann’s craft. What if this revamped capitalism itself was a knotty, queer ecological utopia, a stubborn arbor of vines, a mesh of delicious instants, or is this just sheer sly irony on Heinemann’s part? We have to sit with that contradiction, swinging our legs over the verge where conflicts might connect.

Mystic/Mesh

> Back to Sedgwick’s idea of the ‘open mesh’. Queer ecology, for Timothy Morton, is the manifest ‘mesh’ of all life-forms: ‘a nontotalisable, open-ended concatenation of interrelations that blur and confound boundaries at practically every level: between species, between the living and nonliving, between organism and environment’ (2010b). Queer ecology would be some kind of intersection between nonessentialist views of gender, sexuality, biology and evolution more generally. Novelty Theory stages this enmeshment through its lateral poetics of interwoven association, its registers of irony, darkness and play. Its speaker’s identity coyly thrown around like laconic copy from a Tinder profile: ‘i’m a leo moon dickhead w a gay agenda’ (‘according to wikipedia i am in the “initial struggle for success” phase of my life as bruce springsteen’s life’), rewriting Linnaean systems or evolutionary rules via casual astrology patter. The mysticism that runs throughout is part of Novelty Theory’s disjunctive world-building, its problematising of distinctions between inside and out, dream and reality, virtual and actual. Take the Borgesian tenor of statements like ‘All land is fictional, that is both the problem / and a potential source of the solution’ (‘Theses on Land Masses (After Iain Hamilton Finlay)’). The critical thrust of Novelty Theory is its mycelial ability to expose the undercurrents and assumptions of everyday life within late-capitalism and the attendant anxieties of the anthropocene. Often this takes a surrealist twist:

a thousand constellations held in a single double stomach romantic service station burger king            the wormhole could be anywhere                                                                    (‘A CHEMTRAIL IN CURVED AIR’)

This collapse of scale, the inside and out, is highly symptomatic of anthropocene poetics. It’s easy to read the poems of Novelty Theory alongside, say, Morton’s idea of hyperobjects as ‘things that are massively distributed in time and space relative to humans’: with characteristics of viscosity, nonlocality, nonhuman temporality and interobjectivity, hyperobjects usher us into ‘a new human phase of hypocrisy, weakness, and lameness’ (2013). There’s a kind of sublime here which takes David Hockney-esque Americana or pastel suburbia and transplants it through the ‘wormhole’ of environs and spacetimes enmeshed by ecological relations, ethical patterns and constellations of cause and effect, showed up to us in the twenty-first century as though by x-ray. You are what you eat, and here it’s infinity. Elsewhere, however, it might be ‘the banal / constantly flowing cappuccino of existence’ (‘another empty threat to disappear’). Wherever we look, Heinemann puts a decadent rip in your Cath Kidston jacket, lets the fantasy flora free, wears the countryside as highbrow punk with pocket-knife irony.

This One Weird Tip

> Speaking of infinity, a word on the internet: an obvious theme and modality within Novelty Theory. ‘My anxiety levels get up and stay hard for hours with this one weird tip’ (‘Travel Diary Summer 2016’). The masculinist, ambient-porno imperative to ‘stay hard’ is here conflated with anxiety and the suffusing presence of internet ads offering impossible, faux-sage advice with ‘this one weird tip’. I wonder if this is also a dig at deep ecology, whose commitment to embracing wilderness and environmental immersion often comes off with a stinky, viagra-macho flavour. Getting deeper into the book’s web, conspiracy theories are cited with the kind of exuberance that weaves their dismissal as nevertheless somehow essential to a broader resistant narrative: ‘recruit, recruit, recruit! i WISH that the queen waws a lizard’ (‘the only reason i was abducted by aliens in kathmandu in 1994 was that in 1994 i went to kathmandu to be abducted by aliens’). There’s an ouroboros sense that you get eaten, or at the very least bitten, by the narratives you pursue online — or indeed in any virtual mode (including poetry — see Ben Lerner for more on ‘virtual poetics’). You could call it meme poetics wired up to the trembling motherboard of lyric. Who or what gets charged and when. Where did they get those minerals? What if I won’t turn on tomorrow?

> The hyperconnected consciousness enabled by our online lives is also manifest in Heinemann’s playful intertextuality. Every other line seems to reference or code a cultural trope, to cite some other poem or tradition. ‘No value / just pina coladas’ (‘according to wikipedia i am in the “initial struggle for success” phase of my life as bruce springsteen’s life’) weirdly took me back to William Carlos Williams’ ‘No ideas but in things’. Maybe that’s a clickable blink that activates poetic lineage, extends the song of Heinemann’s polemic under the deep canonic sea. Sometimes they play with aphoristic or supplementary modes to ‘tack on’ a certain message or dramatise a violent fact (i.e. extinction), forcing you to hold all declarations in the bewildered, hyper-stream adjunctive mode of email, IM, browsing: ‘p.s. imagine a world without wild life’ (‘Travel Diary Summer 2016’). There’s a psytrance version of a New York poem in ‘If you think pigeons are too common to be beautiful don’t call yourself a communist’, where a salutary coke is poured for Frank O’Hara and the streets become the stage for contradiction, Picasso’s dog, pain and ‘The slobbering ecstasy of now’. Psytrance because this is a collection of ecstasies achieved with your tongue firmly lodged in your cheek, your jaw gurning hard with each stream of detail, flash, repeat. Syncope. Like Nat Raha, Heinemann has weaponised the grammar of breath to speak vulnerability and power within and between each jagged line, strikeout, blank or marked delay, caesura. A catalogue of bodily pleasures and social conundrums, unsolved ethical dilemmas in the modernist canon: ‘I am a Picasso dog / Picasso was a misogynist / but it’s okay, dogs have no gender’).

Sentient Excess

> Anthropocene poetics often stages its own conditions of production. There’s a turn between inside and outside, a questioning of representational agency. For instance, in Ash Before Oak (2019), a diary of survival and gardening reminiscent of Derek Jarman’s iconic Modern Nature (1991), Jeremy Cooper’s gloomy protagonist muses, ‘I ask questions of the mole I’d do better directing at myself’. What do we put upon the more-than-human that really we want or demand from ourselves? How do we write in this space of curiosity or lack? In Novelty Theory, awareness of the body’s contingencies, its material traces and hormonal surges runs throughout. With some degree of irony, Heinemann maps the kinds of everyday precarity experienced by the millennial freelancer onto the broader precarities of climate crisis. Maybe it’s not to write from curiosity but anxiety. At one point, Heinemann even dramatises the real-time of ‘writing’ in relation to the body’s nervous arousal:

i fill the keyboard with all my leftover skin shit, same as the next hoarder of sentient excess some just trade it all in for gold                    just like that all gone in the blink of an eye the world vanishes and reappears and vanishes and reappears so many times every minute and yet i am still so scared every single time don’t fucking stop                   (‘I like scaffolding as much as the next attempt to create order’).

‘Sentient excess’ sums up a lot of Novelty Theory. Sentient because Heinemann’s speaker is highly reflexive but also human: a bundle of nerves, hormones, skin and bones, pleasure and pain. Writing the world is a fort-da process of vanishing and reappearing, it has a kind of sexual imperative that mingles pleasure and pain, presence and absence — ‘don’t fucking stop’. Desire is terrifying but we just can’t help it. The world is a virus, flashing upon your screen. And then again it just is your screen. It’s in the code. It’s a form of capital, ‘gold’, and writing is its supplement, the unfinished gesture towards holding, structure, containment. The keyboard generates worlds, bears our traces in time. Heinemann’s poetics are lucid, striking, high-retina. Let the mess shine in.

Millennial Hell or Heaven

> Novelty Theory is a book of a certain generation: it challenges the affects of ‘millennial existence’, both riding on and unravelling the assumptions put upon us. It’s a cheap cliché to say choice makes us miserable, but now the imperative is to choose to be happy. In ‘Depression Calculator’, Heinemann chiastically quips: ‘i can’t be ideological about my happiness even though happiness / is entirely ideological’. In The Promise of Happiness (2010), Sara Ahmed writes: ‘Happiness shapes what coheres as a world’, it can be used as an affective tool for ‘redescrib[ing] social norms as social goods’ — for instance, in the phrase ‘domestic bliss’. This quote from ‘Depression Calculator’ mirrors the guilt I feel in trying to write about the anthropocene while, say, being in a joyous state of mind, feeling loved or inclined to a state of play. The point is, we shouldn’t have to choose one or the other. Who benefits when the capitalist guilt-machine shames us into recycling, taking the heat off the wider environmental abuse of toxic corporations? When Heinemann writes of ‘the hollow surface of liquid soluble anxiety’ (‘visualisation…’) I think of Morton’s description of the ‘chocolate layer’ of ‘shame’ that coats ecological awareness, a ‘dark-sweet’ quality within its depression. Grief, shame, depression: in confronting the anthropocene, these are the affects we ‘melt’ into with a degree of both pleasure and suffering. Is there relief? Novelty Theory is a good exercise in working through such contradictory affects in relation to everyday life, as well as the praxis of writing about the anthropocene from the p.o.v of an actual, breathing person — who takes the days as they come, who both suffers and thrives but doesn’t necessarily claim this as their sole identity. Who doesn’t assume a set, heteronormative route to happiness and human flourishing. Who dwells upon a ‘tender verge’ (‘another empty threat to disappear’). Is this what a queer form of staying with the trouble (speaking with Donna Haraway here) looks like?

Post-Vaporwave Poetics

> One thing to love about Novelty Theory is its conflict of registers. Unlike a whole tradition of ‘serious’ ecopoetry, the book invokes the tropes of current anthropocene discourse in a parodic manner which nonetheless falls upon sincerity:

the forest’s infrastructure is devastated by Dutch elm disease, which is not the point it’s just also happening in the world            near the point outside the harsh city limits of                   the point is everything that constitutes the periphery leaks into the centre, the centre is undeserving of the bioluminescence in the centre of the octopus  (‘visualisation: you are a small shark in the aquarium in the office of the CEO of a nondescript corporate body in a mid-80s postmodern swirl carpeted disaster zone where all the glass is cleaned except yours, the day is broken with elevator music but you don’t know this is what this is. You are nibbling on some plankton and waiting for communism and you write a poem on the discretely moulding moulded glass of your aquarium. the poem reads:’).

Riffing off the ‘tentacular’ thought of Haraway et al, Heinemann evokes a grandiose vision of arboreal devastation as one ‘point’ among many that slide between the centre and periphery of the everything that is the anthropocene, or indeed extinction. Heinemann asks: for who do we write this kind of poetry, what is the instrumental ‘point’? If we pursue that imperative, do we just end up with ‘make narrative fate again’ and surrender our agency to the forces of (Manmade, Trumpian, triumphant) history? If Dutch elm disease is a hyperobject, somehow it also leaks, viscously, into the ‘bioluminescence’ emitted from another life-form surviving deep within some other element, thousands of miles away. And let’s not forget that in this poem, the addressed reader is ‘a small shark’ encased in a 1980s corporate office environment.

> You could say this is a post-vaporwave poem, where office hauntology evokes sympathies between trapped animals and trapped human-animals (what if the aquarium was just your computer, what if plankton is all we can eat in the future-past, what if we all became (loan)sharks in the credit extinction, trying and failing to eat what’s left on the Darwinist food chain of neoliberal survival?). We’re asked to visualise this poem, experience it in a medial, meditative way: it’s clear there’s a dark ecological poetics of attunement here, a staged duration. Heinemann plays with the temporal confusions of the anthropocene and prods our susceptibility to a certain pastoral nostalgia with lines like ‘like most people, the earth just gets hotter with age’. The earth as a (excuse me) ‘bod’ is one way of figuring, literally, the existential dilemma of the anthropocene as a man-made decimation of earthly systems.

Requiem for Sustainable Theory

> By no means has this been an exhaustive review of Novelty Theory, let alone this thing I’m calling, after Farrier, the poetics of the anthropocene. With its Matthew Welton-esque marathon titles, Heinemann’s book has the air of a James Ferraro track: all cut-up, glitch and ambient late-capitalism set to the tone of a slick, surreal sublime. Yet there’s something freeing in the all-too-real dreamscapes of Heinemann’s poetics of anthropocenic disorder, millennial anxiety and conflicted desires, inclined to banality. The low-caps ‘i’ that jumps across the collection like a dissident pro in poetic parkour refuses essential identity and makes room for incident, contingency: a more fugitive and less hubristic lyric. What forms of tenderness are at stake here? How might we flip an ‘Adorable pastoral avant garde’ (‘Theses on Land Masses (After Iain Hamilton Finlay)’) into something useful? What is the ‘point’ in everything, and moreover who will look after the octopus as it wraps its tentacles around the world so grossly? Where do we situate anthropocene poetics in relation to ecopoetics, consciously or otherwise on the part of the poet’s intentions, given that the godfather of ecopoetics Jonathan Skinner suggests the form is a ‘site of converging, intersecting practices and is most politically useful [...] when it keeps as many of these frictional nodes as active as possible’?

> Perhaps anthropocene poetics is unique in presenting a degree of situatedness within ‘avant-garde’ traditions, which historically bear a more urban resonance (although with the anthropocene, of course, such distinctions of urban/rural are broken down in the mesh of everything). Writing of their book We Are Made of Diamond Stuff (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2019) in relation to Novelty Theory, Isabel Waidner notes: ‘Relationship with the historical avant-garde: complicated’ (2019). This ‘shared investment in, but disappointment with, the promises of the historical avant-garde’ (Waidner 2019) — whether Situationist dérive or Dadaist collage — is felt throughout Novelty Theory: not as a roadblock in literary history so much as a set of what Waidner refers to as ‘portals’. Think again of Sedgwick and Morton’s invocations of the mesh. Anthropocene poetics needs to be something that queers, dis-identifies, labours and exposes everyday strangeness; it needs to let fall where we stand while also holding us. It needs to be a shining mess. It needs life and death, irony and sincerity, collapse and creativity, journey and destination, work and play. It needs to not choose but somehow continue to dance, seduce, weave theory and upset the representation of what comes before or after, because image is power: ‘i’m regressing again / but all i hope is when we picture the end of the world / we end the picture of the world’ (‘Ferocious Lack Harmony’).

Works Cited

Ahmed, Sara, 2010. The Promise of Happiness (Durham: Duke University Press).

Clément, Catherine, 1994. Syncope: The Philosophy of Rapture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

Cooper, Jeremy, 2019. Ash Before Oak (London: Fitzcarraldo Editions).

Dawson, Gloria, 2019. ‘On Caspar Heinemann’, Zarf #13 (Glasgow: Zarf Poetry).

Kapil, Bhanu, 2015. Ban en Banlieue (New York: Nightboat Books).

Farrier, David, 2019. Anthropocene Poetics: Deep-Time, Sacrifice Zones, and Extinction (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

Gardner, Callie, 2018. naturally it is not (Sutton: The 87 Press).

Haraway, Donna, 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University Press).

Heinemann, Caspar, 2017. ‘FUCKING PANSIES: Queer Poetics, Plant Reproduction, Plant Poetics, Queer Reproduction’, academia [online]. Available at: <https://www.academia.edu/32408905/FUCKING_PANSIES_Queer_Poetics_Plant_Reproduction_Plant_Poetics_Queer_Reproduction> [Accessed 29.7.19].

— 2019. Novelty Theory (Sutton: The 87 Press).

Jarman, Derek, 2018. Modern Nature (London: Penguin).

Morton, Timothy, 2010a. The Ecological Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

— 2010b. ‘Guest Column: Queer Ecology’, PMLA, Vol. 125, No. 2, pp. 273-282.

— 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

— 2016. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence (New York: Columbia University Press).

Pico, Tommy, 2017. Nature Poem (Portland: Tin House Books).

Retallack, Joan, 2003. The Poethical Wager (Berkeley: University of California Press).

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky, 1993. Tendencies (Durham: Duke University Press).

Zylinska, Joanne, 2016. ‘Photography After the Human’, Photographies, Vol. 9, Issue 2, pp. 167-186.

~

[1]Against its general usage in academic and news discourse, I deliberately de-capitalise anthropocene to recognise the term’s assimilation into a broader cultural vernacular, whose shifting interpretations bely the insistent fixity implied by a capitalised proper noun. With anthropocene, not Anthropocene, we are working with a pliable term whose definitions are open to critical resistance and semiotic play. We are figuring out the definition of the anthropocene through practice, rather than accepting a totalising framework which suffers from a similar hubris around species as that which underlies the anthropocene ‘condition’ or ‘cause’ as such. I follow Joanna Zylinska in thinking of the anthropocene as more of ‘a thought device that helps us to visualise the multiple event of extinction — but also to intervene in the timeline of the extinction’ (2016).  

[2]Following Timothy Morton (2010a), I will occasionally capitalise ‘Nature’ to, as Morton puts it, ‘highlight its “unnatural” qualities, namely (but not limited to), hierarchy, authority, harmony, purity, neutrality, and mystery’.

[3]Notably, Pico’s Poetry Foundation profile describes him as a ‘karaoke enthusiast’.

~

Novelty Theory is out now and available to buy here, via The 87 Press.

~

Text: Maria Sledmere

Published 7/8/19

[guardians-ofthe-lastyoungkilljoy]

musicians that get constant stream on my Spotify

doing this cause I'm actually so bored. this is going to be a long post

5 Seconds of Summer (Australian)

I’ve loved these guys since their first album dropped and seeing them grow into these beautiful young men they are now fills my heart with so much love and pride. 

Year I started listening - 2014

First song I listened to - She Looks So Perfect

First 2 albums have pop-punk vibes. 2nd album gets quite personal and has helped me through some shit. 3rd album is different but cool. Very vibey alt-pop stuff. EPs are very underrated. 

All Time Low (American)

Whipped from the start. Probably the most unproblematic artist out there. Just a couple of boys who want to play their music and see their fans. Pure™️. On the final Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - Dear Maria, Count Me In

All albums up to Don’t Panic are very pop-punk. Future Hearts is pop-punk but there was this idk growth thing and it was just somewhat different to its predecessors. Kind of the record where they grew out of the ‘whiny pop-punk sk8er bois’ and into more alt-rock. Last Young Renegade was very different. Some pop-punk tracks some alt-rock some completely different. Loved it nonetheless. New songs scream Dirty Work and I’m living for it. Dirty Work is also extremely underrated and everyone should listen to it. 

Boy Hero (American)

A bit like the love child of Sleeping With Sirens and Panic! At The Disco. Idk how to describe it but it’s hell good. 

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - How Far I'll Go (Cover). Rebel Flesh (Original song)

These guys have a whole bunch of covers. Self titled is pretty good. Also they like anime and they do twitch streams. Lead singer lowkey sounds like Brendon Urie. Got a powerful voice. 

Bring Me The Horizon (UK)

Big British metal core band

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Can You Feel My Heart

First album was deathcore then went to metalcore and got less heavy over time. Lots of people didn’t like the last album but I liked it. It was different but good different. Liked how they decided to play with new sounds. Also makes it easier to cover their songs. 

Counterfeit (UK)

British rock band. Also surprise remember the guy who played Jace in the Mortal Instruments movie yeah well he’s the lead singer. 

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Lost Everything

Got a some EPs and the album is great. Should not be slept on. 

Ed Sheeran (UK)

Ok everyone should know him or you’ve been living under a rock. 

Year I started listening - 2011

First song I listened to - Give Me Love

First album was straight up acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. Cute and stuff. Next 2 albums experimented with sound and it was great. There’s at least 1 song on each album that will make you cry. Actually went to his concert for the divide tour and it was great. Very chill. 

The Faim (Australian)

Alt-rock with some pop-punk influences in there. Fairly new band and went under the name of Small Town Heroes before the name change. Sounds a bit like Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and All Time Low.  

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Midland Line

The EP Summer Is A Curse is out now and boy it is good. Just waiting for the album to be released. They wrote some tracks with Ashton Irwin, Mark Hoppus, Pete Wentz, Josh Dun and John Feldmann and Zack Cervini produced it. I have very high hopes for the album. Entire band has this amazing stage energy which is absolutely mesmerising to watch. 

Fall Out Boy (American)

Once again if you have’t heard of them you’ve been living under a rock.

Year I started listening - 2016

First song I listened to - Immortals (bless Big Hero 6)

Extremely pop-punk before the hiatus. Went into some cool different stuff after hiatus. Mania was very different than their previous albums and I actually didn’t like it too much at first but I gave it a few more listens and I loved it. 

Gang of Youths (Australian)

An Australian indie band. Different to what I usually listen to. Very chill.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows

Latest albums is amazing. All the albums have a mix of bops and sad songs so you never know what you’re going to be hit with. Great lyrics throughout. Talks about real life issues in a number of the songs, some personal to the band’s life.

Green Day (American)

You have been living under a rock if you haven’t heard of these guys.

Year I started listening - 2016

First song I listened to - Wake Me Up When September Ends

Before American Idiot was like underground punk rock songs. After American Idiot got some pop influenced melodies which got them into more mainstream rock. Bops, anger, sadness and overall feelings throughout. Broadway Musical version is extremely slept on and I saw the production and it is a masterpiece. Left me kind of breathless at the end.

Harry Styles (UK)

Living under a rock if you don’t know who this wonderful man is

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - Sign Of The Times

Super different from his 1D career. Has some old classic rock influences. Bops and sad songs throughout. Powerful voice and has an amazing stage presence. Media portrays him so badly when he’s actually such a wonderful human being.

I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME (American)

Ex Panic! member and ex Falling In Reverse member come together to make some cool different music. 2 beans chilling in a band together.

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Choke

Music is kind of weird but cool. Bops throughout and should really release more music. Label company really needs to hurry up with whatever they’re doing cause the album’s finished but they haven’t released it.

Mayday Parade (American)

This band literally writes the saddest music known to humankind. Also unproblematic and everyone loves them. On the final Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - Miserable At Best

First 3 albums are very pop-punk. Next 2 go into more alt-rock and pop-rock. Last album are a mix of both. It sounds pop-punk but still maintains that level of growth the band has gone through since the start of their career. Be prepared with tissues cause this band will make you cry. 

Mike Shinoda (American)

The rapper dude from Linkin Park. Literally the only rap artist I listen to.

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Crossing A Line

Latest album is super personal but a masterpiece. Raps are amazing and vocals are on point. 

My Chemical Romance (American)

Should this even be on my list cause they’re not a band, they’re an idea

Year I started listening - 2016

First song I listened to - Welcome To The Black Parade

1st album was post-hardcore and somewhat depressing. Albums got less heavier over the years. Each album also has a different theme so there’s days where I feel like I need to listen to Danger Days and other days where I need to listen to The Black Parade. Also my music teacher likes them which really surprised me since he’s an old guy that likes to listen to jazz.

One Direction (UK)

Was a 1D fangirl and still is a 1D fangirl

Year I started listening - 2011

First song I listened to - What Makes You Beautiful

All of the albums are absolutely amazing. Got less pop over time. Lots of bops with some sadness thrown in which makes my heart hurt. Not afraid to bop to them in public.

Palaye Royale (Canadian)

Actually found them when CrankThatFrank did a video with them. Still waiting for the kazoo kid to perform with Satan’s Favourite Boy Band. Just 3 brothers who want to play some music. On the final Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Mr. Doctor Man

Boom Boom Room Side A is a quality album and I’m so hyped for Boom Boom Room Side B. Rock band that likes fashion and makeup. EPs have solid songs in them. 

Panic! At The Disco (American)

Living under a rock if you haven’t heard of them.

Year I started listening - 2016

First song I listened to - I Write Sins Not Tragedies

Each album has a different vibe to it so it depends on what you feel like that day on what you listen to. Didn't really like Pray For The Wicked but gave it a few more listens and I love it. 

Pierce The Veil (Mexican-American)

Post-hardcore band of Sexicans based in America. 

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - King For A Day ft. Kellin Quinn

Got less heavy over each album. Collide With The Sky is probably my favourite album. Currently writing album 5 which I am extremely excited for. Vic Fuentes’ voice is quite high and but you get used to it. Screams are excellent. 

PVMNTS (American)

Pronounced as pavements but they decided to not have vowels. Also remember Tyler Posey from Teen Wolf well yeah he’s the lead singer in the band. On the final Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Jumping Stairsets

Has a lot of early 2000s pop-punk influences. Sounds like Blink-182. Very excited for some more music from them. These guys did a UK tour with The Faim. Released an EP recently.

Shawn Mendes (Canadian)

Living under a rock if you haven’t heard of this sweet boy. 

Year I started listening - 2015

First song I listened to - Stitches

Newest album is very real and super chill. Got some new different sounds in it. First 2 albums are heavy on the singer songwriter genre. Amazing writing and his voice has a somewhat raspy tinge and extremely powerful at the same time.

Sleeping With Sirens (American)

Yes this is the band where the lead singer sounds like a girl.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - If You Can’t Hang

Newest album is quite different to their past stuff but I really like it. Explored some issues in the songs which they haven’t previously done. Overall either angry or soft. 

Story Untold (Canadian) 

Pop-punk band. Lead singer (Janick Thibault) used to post a lot of covers on YouTube. Went under the name of Amasic before. Lead singer low-key sounds like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. Also kind of looks like Alex Gaskarth and Awsten Knight. On the final Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - History

2 albums out currently. 1st album was extremely pop-punk. 2nd album explored some different sounds but still pop-punk. Also signed to Hopeless Records. 

A Summer High (American)

Found them through CrankThatFrank when he did a reaction vid to songs I’ve never heard before. On the last Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2018

First song I listened to - Pretty Little Liar

Think fetus 5SOS and that’s basically their sound. Basically the kids who never left their pop-punk sk8er boi phase. Has quite a few covers and needs to tour with 5SOS. All 3 of them can sing and they sing like angels. 

SWMRS (American)

Yes this is the band that has Billie Joe Armstrong’s kid in it. Also it’s pronounced Swimmers. Just they didn’t like vowels. Originally named Emily’s Army but they changed the name. Found these guys through a reaction to songs I’ve never heard before from CrankThatFrank 

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - Lose It

Kind of like indie-surf-punk idk but it’s good. Drive North has some anger and some bops just an overall good album. Can’t wait for some new music from them. 

Twenty Øne Piløts (American)

Living under a rock if you haven’t heard of them. Can’t even begin to describe the genre cause they’re just that different.

Year I started listening - 2016

First song I listened to - Ride

Bops mixed with deep lyrics and sadness. Raps are amazing. Poetic writing. 2 talented beans who deserve so much. New music is heavier and it will go so hard live I cannot wait. 

The Vamps (UK)

I had a phase with this band and their first 2 albums get heavy repeat. 

Year I started listening - 2014

First song I listened to - Somebody To You

First 2 albums are absolute bops. Mixed feelings from their 3rd album. Vocals are great.

Waterparks (American)

Metaphors. Metaphors everywhere. God’s Favourite Boy Band. On the final Warped Tour. 

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - I’m A Natural Blue

The EPs are great also angry and a lil bit of screaming. This band are a blessing sent from heaven and are pure boys. Follow Awsten on Twitter for the best quality content. Don't expect anything from Otto on social media he never uses it. Double Dare is cute but also slightly angry. Entertainment is full of anger and angst and sadness and it’s beautiful. Excellent songwriting. 

With Confidence (Australian)

Pop-punk. Very pop-punk. Jayden Seeley has a beautiful voice. On the last Warped Tour.

Year I started listening - 2017

First song I listened to - Voldemort

First album is a poetic masterpiece. Some bops and some sadness (looking at you Long Night). Excellent songwriting throughout. Love and Loathing is probably one of the best albums of 2018.

Lol that’s it. Will probably update everytime I get into another band.

[four-pages-zine-blog]

Issue 1: Tass

How long have you had your store: I started officially selling clothes after I finished college in 2013 and moved back home to the suburban midwest, so I guess 5 years now! I was working at the local newspaper at the time but was looking for an extra way to kill time, not necessarily even to make money. I started with Poshmark and loved connecting with other people who liked similar clothes, which was actually kind of rare for where I lived. I loved being able to see people showcase their own style in the form of their own closets and let people “shop their closet”. I also became really interested in clothes trading, which I like doing with my irl friends, so the fact a lot of people were willing to trade items was also really cool to me and something I hadn’t seen before.

How would you describe your shop? I think the clothes I sell are kind of more one-off like something that would be worn as a funny statement piece - I love a bright color and bold pattern, power clashing, and anything rainbow, glittery or that can incorporate faux fur in a tasteful way. It’s pretty reflective of my midwestern lifestyle and probably the clothes I consistently have the most of are windbreakers and winter coats, the main way we can express ourselves here for half of the year or more… There are a few sticker art projects I have in my store that I started doing around 2012 out of boredom when I was still in school, the most prominent one probably being the 6 foot tall Britney Spears poster that’s completely covered in (vintage) Lisa Frank stickers but never intended to actually finish or take seriously. Over the years I used sticker collaging as a way to keep my mind off things and have it be a means to add color and vibrancy to otherwise more plain posters/art.

When I first opened my shop in 2013, I made a holographic wall out of posterboards to hang my clothes on and that was my first store display on Poshmark and Etsy and always tried to have unique ways to show my clothes ever since, and to change the look of my store at least once a year. I’ve wavered between thinking having consistent “branding” is best and thinking it’s best to change as my ideas change, and have ended up going with the latter at whatever expense that has had, resulting in my store bio now being “Hi I’m Crazy Branding” lmao. The last time I re-did my store I got a mannequin from the city off Craigslist that I painted hot pink and move around my yard or put against different backdrops/bright colored walls to model the clothes. At one point I put velcro on the back of all my stuffed animals plushies and trolls and stuck them to a white wall in my apartment I was living to use as the background. I used to love to bring around solo holographic poster boards to my friends’ houses before we went out so that we could all take pictures behind them as the backdrop, portable aesthetic is essential.

What era or year is your favorite in fashion? My favorite looks are early 90s minimalistic grunge but not too minimal - Black jeans, velvet dresses, and plain tees, all of that, but then on the flip side I love the super excessive part of those eras of fashion too, like rainbow everything and floating glitter inside plastic holographic accessories. My favorite outfit of all time is something my aunt gave me from her 80s closet, it’s a long elastic teal leopard mermaid-style skirt with a matching teal leopard flowy button down shirt, all cotton and polyester. I love outfits that are completely matching like that and have been seeing that lately in brands that I follow, so I hope that sticks.

What item of clothing in the world are you lusting after or saving up for?

One of those new robot dresses that react to your moods or whatever lmao but if I’m being more realistic there is a designer who I really love that I found on Instagram who knits beaded sweaters using like thousands of different colored beads and completely covers them. They’re works of art and I would love to have one some day and be able to support an artist too! I’m definitely always lusting after new pairs of plain black pleather platform (but not too high anymore) shoes. I love the brand Hot Lava and I guess if I'm saving up for one thing it would be their "Barbed" rainbow matching bralette/pants combo.

Favorite clothing brand/brands and why? Since I usually only buy thrift for myself these days, my favorite brands are probably just based on design only but I love Discount Universe and other sequins-covered clothes or otherwise outlandish/tacky patterns, especially if they’re owned/designed/produced by women - Wacky Wacko, I have the Tabloid Dress they made a few years ago and it’s one of my favorite of all time even though I never wear it I also LOVE everything from Big Bud Press and YardSale666 in general.

What music do you like, does it play a role in your personal style? The music I listen to most now is probably "experimental pop" and growing up I loved pop punk. Both of those have affected my style and stayed with me to this day, I still wear skinny jeans and slip on Van-style shoes most often no matter what else I’ve layered on top of it. I used to like to purposely wear edgy clothes and do my hair to provoke a reaction out of people when I was younger - my brother would pass down band shirts to me that said things like “What the F*** are you looking at?” (lol) and I would cut them off into a crop top and wear it with a super long high-waisted thrifted pink and purple plaid skirt. That was definitely my go-to outfit for like an entire summer straight. I’ve always liked clothes that makes a statement even if it’s in a literal way with words, clothes with a lot of text on them, and I really like the new wave of DIY embroidery, especially on thrifted or up cycled clothes. Band tee shirts were also just like a huge part of growing up for me, buying them at shows and collecting them and wearing them all the time. Also in my shop I have a guitar that I completely stickered/bejeweled which was one of my longest running projects that I really want to make more of. It was one of my brother's old acoustic guitars that he let me completely deck out and it perfectly combines the femme pop elements I love with an actual instrument. Music and fashion are so intertwined all the time I think, and clothes/accessories are something that always stuck out to me about singers and bands too! I love how fashion plays a role in music today too and can make or break an entire aesthetic or era.

Does living in your city/state inspire you? Where are you most creative? Yes lmao living in rural suburban Illinois actually inspires me a lot and I’m probably the most happily creative here. When I lived in the city, things were a lot more stressful so it made me work on a lot of projects to distract myself, but I eventually burned out from that pretty bad. I get inspired by midwestern people but mostly in a way that most people find cringey, I mocked it more when I was younger but now try to tastefully incorporate it into my looks. State Fair Chic is inspiring to me. My mom has a lot of handpainted and iron-on sweatshirts for different holidays that are staples of my closet. Living in the midwest and being bored definitely made me thrift more and imo makes the thrifting better, it made me always be working on craft projects, and always changing my hair and style.

What things do you love to create? I think my favorite things to create are entire rooms and looks, I like to make different aesthetics through combining colors, furniture and fabrics that all feel familiar even if it’s a little chaotic. My long term project with my bedroom was turning my walls of thrifted art (with 20-30 framed pictures) into matching colored frames that fit the whole look of the room, so I guess just really getting at the details of design. I think I’m pretty tacky so I like to stick to things that embody that and will always love stickering huge projects, painting everything plain into bright colors and incorporating anything I find thrifting or in the garbage into larger art aesthetics. My favorite thing to do is thrift and upcycle clothes, furniture, wall art, lamps, etc. anything that I see “potential” in lol.

Who are some of your favorite artists?: There are a ton of artists I follow that inspire me every day, definitely just “regular” people or like more lowkey artists. People who thrift or collect and refurbish toys are amazing to me and I love the doll community on IG. Witches or people I’ve met through astrology who are creating more spiritual art inspire me every day with their words and presentations. I also love comedians and movies, I love John Early and Kate Berlant and recently saw they collaborated with Peggy Noland and Seth Bogart of Wacky Wacko so that was iconic to me.

I collaborate a lot with my brother who has done a lot of graphic design stuff for me over the years. He makes resin toys of his own and designs t-shirts. He’s great at painting and drawing, two skills I never was good at that I really appreciate in him that he is always willing to lend a hand to me. He is two years older than me and went to school for advertising so exchanging ideas and doing projects with him is something I like to do too. He also has more of a background in music production so we recently started trying to make music together. We both love combining fashion and music!

What album do you recommend to pick up ASAP? Hayley Kiyoko - Expectations, hands down the vibe for summer

Follow Tass on Depop!

Depop.com/trashbitch 

[heckin-harrington]

87 question tag!

87 random questions

I was tagged by @steveharringtonofficial ♥︎ thank you my friend!

I’m tagging: @mileven-353 @lovelydacre and anyone else who wants to do this! (ofc, don’t feel pressured to)

-

1. Where do you live? Texas

2. One cool item you own? A bracelet from an African Bushman tribe :)

3. Moon or stars? stars

4. Places you’d like to travel to? back to Africa, Japan, and Australia

5. Favourite song? The Only Reason - 5sos or High Enough - Damn Yankees

6. Do you have any fears? lowkey the dark, heIGHTS, roaches

7. Do you feel different than you did last year? eh, slightly worse slightly better ???

8. What is your race? white

9. Pet peeves? people my age who call me pet names bc they’re ‘older’ than me, people who think they’re the shit, just negative humans in general

10. Any siblings? one sister, two stepbrothers, and two half brothers

11. Are you a gamer? i wouldn’t consider myself a gamer but i love me some horror games and Crasj Bandicoot

12. Sexual orientation? i hate labels and i just like nice people so i’m just here :)

13. Does a broken mirror mean bad luck? eh

14. What do you feel is your mental age? maybe a little older than i am now (16) but not much, maybe 18 or so

15. How old were you when you started dating? 15 but nothin’s happened bc it gives me hella anxiety

16. Where do you do most of your online shopping? amazon or hottopic

17. Favourite animal? cheetah !!

18. What’s one film from the 2000s that you like? all my fav movies are from the 80s but i love all of the Disney Channel Original movies and ofc the HSM trilogy

19. What’s your favourite scary movie? IT bc it’s the only horror movie i’ve ever seen :,)

20. Fun fact about yourself? i’m on the autism spectrum :) i have asperger’s syndrome

21. Shoe size? 8

22. Which fictional character(s) do you relate to the most? Hermione Granger, bc i’m a huge book worm/nerd and Steve Harrington, bc i act all macho and confident but my self esteem is low but i would protect my friends at all costs

23. Where do you see yourself living in ten years? hopefully Africa working with cheetahs or San Diego working at the safari park there

24. Ever wore clothes that were just wayyy too tight? yup yup yup, theatre perks

25. What’s on your mind? my dream from last night... oh how i wish i was still sleeping to carry it on

26. Are you religious? yeah, but not a bible thumper

27. How tall are you? 5’3”

28. Favourite band? 5sos always and Def Leppard

29. Do you remember 2009? I was 8 so no, not really

30. Cats or dogs? cats

31. Fruit or vegetables? fruits

32. Do you want to get married? not currently but everyone says i’ll change my mind

33. Do you want children? no but again ^^ but if I were, I’d want a son

34. Flamingos or peacocks? flamingos

35. What superpower do you wish you had? teleportation or time travel

36. Are you a germ freak? to an extent

37. Did swearing baby, ghost car, or ghost caught on tape scare you as a kid? what???

38. Do you prefer sweet or salty? both

39. Tea or coffee? coffee

40. Are you superstitious? depends

41. Do you like stripes? yeah i guess, i don’t wear ‘em tho

42. Favourite shows as a kid? Blues Clues, Dora, Bindi the Jungle Girl, or Power Rangers: Jungle Fury

43. Favourite shows growing up? all the good Disney Channel shows

44. Favourite musical? Rock of Ages

45. Favourite movie? Monsters Inc. or any 80s movie

46. Birthday? September 30

47. Are you a grammar Nazi? sometimes

48. Ever gotten drunk? nope

49. Do you have a carrier bag? yes

50. What would you do if you were the opposite gender for a day? good lord, i have no clue. probably play with my hair (like style it ‘n such) and sing all the good guy songs from musicals

51. If you were the opposite gender what would you change your name to? apparently if I was a guy my name would’ve been Seamus (aye Irish squad where y’all at) but I’ve always liked the name Tristian

52. What song is stuck in your head? the Stranger Things rap... *sigh* leTS GO BACK TO INDIANA—

53. Celebrity crush? Michael Clifford, Joe Keery, and Dacre Montgomery hULLO

54. If you could live in a non-English speaking country, where would it be? Namibia (i have a fascination with Africa y’all)

55. Are you a good dancer? hA NO

56. Have any allergies? tree nuts

57. Any bad habits? i bite my nails and procrastinate like there’s no tomorrow

58. Ever broke a bone? nope but i have busted open my head twice

59. Are you a city or country person? city

60. Do you like your home country? yeah, America is pretty snazzy

61. Sunflowers or daisies? sunflowers

62. Tulips or roses? roses

63. Oak or maple? maple

64. Disney or Nickelodeon? Disney with a splash of Nickelodeon (iCarly, Victorious, and Drake & Josh were my SHIT)

65. WYR be obese or anorexic? obese

66. WYR be over 6 feet or under 5 feet? under 5 feet

67. Rubies or sapphires? sapphires

68. Are you stubborn? yes

69. Have you been in scouts/Girl Scouts? Yup! Currently an Ambassador Girl Scout :)

70. What type of music do you listen to? 80s hairband, pop-punk, emo, a lot of stuff actually

71. Favourite vine? “welcome to t-t-t-t-target!! *airhorns*” and sO MANY MORE

72. Beaches or castles? beaches

73. Pick the closest book to you, and write the line for page 36, line 16: “When they get to me, I cop a plea that I wasn’t in control of the car, that I was scared and pleading for the guy to stop.” -Mindhunter, John Douglas

74. Anyone in the same room as you right now? in the car with my stepdad

75. Which is worse; throwing up or diharreah? throwing up, i cry when i do... it’s a mess

76. Butterflies or lady bugs? lady bugs!

77. Do you say “K” when you’re not mad? nope, i just say it on a daily basis

78. How do you react when purposely scare you? i scream... then slap

79. Most overrated celebrity? beyonce or the kardashians

80. Do you have a globe in your room? nope

81. Do you have a dream catcher in your room? nope, I used to

82. What do you see when you look out your window? my neighbor’s house or if i look out my closet window, the street and coldesac

83. Have you been on an airplane? yup, many a times

84. Do you believe in aliens? obviously

85. Do you believe in ghosts? yES

86. Do you believe in God? yeah

87. Do you believe in yourself? haha nope

[floofsta-x]

Get to Know Me / 30 Questions Tag

Though I’ve done this one before (I think,) I decided to redo it because a lot of people are curious and have tagged me in it in the last couple days! If I missed anyone, holler: @stopkihyun ❤︎, @x--monpechemignon ❤︎, @missyou-mp3 ❤︎, @vchangkyun ❤︎, @diamondsforyoo ❤︎, @kimiin ❤︎, and @yeommyyug ❤︎!

This is long, so I’m putting it under a keep reading

Rules: Answer 30 questions and then tag 20 people you would like to know better !!

Nicknames: Mainly Bry, I answer to both Bryony and Bry~ I was also known around the internets as Blue in my younger days.

Gender: cis female

Star Sign: Virgo

Height: Somewhere between 5′9″ and 5′10″.

Time: At posting, 12:18 am

Birthday: September 20th

Favorite bands: (lowkey copy + pasting from a previous answer haha) 

Monsta X (2CHAIN), BIGBANG, VIXX, the group formerly known as HISTORY :(, ASTRO, Cross Gene, Pentagon, BAP, Block B, GOT7, ToppDogg, 24K, KNK, IMFACT, UP10TION, Super Junior, SHINee, Boys Republic, Day6, FTIsland, Royal Pirates, Romeo, the group formerly known as SISTAR, Blackpink

Outside of K-Pop/Rock: Def Leppard, Journey, Air Supply, AC/DC, Tower of Power, Skillet, Disciple, Thousand Foot Krutch, Caravan Palace, Cheat Codes, Blasterjaxx, Daft Punk, NERO

Favorite Solo Artists: All of the BIGBANG boys individually, Jooheon (of course??), Oliver Heldens, Throttle, John Dahlbäck, Jonathan Mendelsohn, Skrillex, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and probably a ton I’m forgetting because I listen to far too much music to recall all of it at once...

Song stuck in your head: I’ve had Sweet Dreams by Air Supply on repeat in my head all day, so now I have it on loop in Spotify.

Last show you watched: Weird Wonders of the World (BBC) with my family on the Netflixs

Last Movie I watched: Um I think London has Fallen, with my parents

When did you create your blog: Um my first post is June of last year but I think I created the blog before that.

What do I post: All the Kpop Boybands ever, but primarily my loves, dorks, and owners of my heart, Monsta X

Last thing you googled: other than google search history... Peter Dinklage! We were talking about him at the supper table the other night.

Do you have other blogs: Yes, I have a secondary main and fic blog under the pen name Ellyne, at @nice-n-floofy and @ellynefics. Let’s see, @hithere-rapmon is my BTS blog. @ppdc-mx is my bliss blog of MX/Pacific Rim crossover au. @bryony-raylene-rps is my (now out of use) RP blog. I also own a ton of other urls and things that aren’t in use. I have a custom page set up with a list if you truly have to know all of them. haha.

Do you get asks: yes, often, from my lovely mutuals and when I put out an ask game or something 💖

Why did you choose your url: my floofy boys are floofy. Also my friend Fiona was like THAT’S SUCH A CUTE URL

Following: 1093 right now. I was so happy when I hit 1000 :)) I want to follow every monbebe blog on this site :))

Followers: I hit 400 today, I think it’s at 403 now??

Favorite colors: Greens of all shades, green-blues, dark pinks

Average hours of sleep: 6-8

Lucky number: I’ve never really determined, but 23 and 42 have always been great for me.

Instruments: this was in my blog description for a long time until I shortened it for my new desktop theme recently. I’m a music major, and I primarily play clarinet and saxophone (Tenor & Alto). Since I’m in the education program, I can barely play the rest of the instruments as well. In addition, I sing in choir (took private voice lessons for years), drummed on a church praise team, and took piano lessons for a while too (though I suck now lmao).

What am I wearing: ..uh just underwear and pants? It’s hot!

How many blankets do I sleep with: 2, a light sheet and a soft fuzzy one. I rarely have the soft fuzzy one on me though.

Dream Job: I used to think I knew (college music professor), but I’m not so sure anymore :((

Dream trip: A tour of Europe! If not that, a while in the Colorado Rockies <33

Favorite food: Ask my family, I’m obsessed with Kraft Mac n’ Cheese. If not that, lasagna.

Nationality: White (Swedish, German, Irish, Scottish)

Favorite song right now: Sweet Dreams by Air Supply... help...

I’m too lazy to tag look at that

[fancypantshoodlum]

ALBUM REVIEW: HAIM ‘Something To Tell You’

The wait is over! HAIM's second album is here, but it's not like they've been completely off the radar. 

There was that collab single with Bastille which was fun, 'Pray To God' with Calvin Harris - a leftover from the 'Days Are Gone' sessions that I'm hoping the original pops up on an anniversary reissue in, gosh, 2023, 'Holes In The Sky' from the soundtrack of the 2nd Divergent movie that I wasn't feeling at all, and their cover of Tame Impala's ‘Cause I'm a Man' which is BETTER than the original (sorry Kevin).

While all this was happening, they were making an indelible but overlooked mark on the pop and cultural landscape - which I’ll elaborate on in seven topics

 TRENDSETTING

I started hearing their inventive brand of polyrhythmic synth guitar pop crop up in tunes like Shura's 'Touch' (lowkey soulful icy synth HAIM), 'Emotion' by Carly Rae Jepson (Latin Freestyle HAIM) and most recently Paramore's 'Told You So' and 'Forgiveness' (all of the above).

Just like The Strokes East Village thrift was hugely influential back in the day on Mens fashion (what Spin magazine hilariously described as “part Bowery Boys, part CK One hotties”) 

HAIM definitely popularized a uber long hair, leather jacket and cropped shorts LA boho look that was practically everywhere in 2014/5 (or maybe just in the hipster places I hang :P )

There is an actual website called What Would HAIM Wear?

 DAYS ARE GONE MARK II

Now here we are with 'Something To Tell You' - not a repudiation but builds on 'Days Are Gone' - a sequel and clear step forward that's more confident and audacious in its approach and teeming with new musical ideas and different sonic textures.

While still largely stuck to love songs, the lyrics represent a quantum leap in terms of thoughtfulness and maturity.

 THE INTERPRETATION GAME

 The first glimpse of this record we got was 'Right Now' which came in the form of a video filmed as they recorded a take - giving an instant impression of muso credibility. a down tempo, foreboding ballad, not really a summer jam but hot on it's heels came 'Want You Back' the euphoric banger if there ever was one.

Lyrically they could be two sides of one story, 'Right Now' a tempestuous rebuke against an dishonest ex whose come crawling back.  Like an argument that evolves into a full on row , the song builds and builds with each incrimination like thunder, a guitar squalls, Taiko drum patterns rumble - and then it all explodes. 'Want You Back' the ex, having gone back into the dating world, realises that they miss the narrator, apologises '' I’ll take the fall and the fault in us. I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you''.

'Want You Back' has the wistful wisdom of a folk song which makes complete sense when you learn that it was originally written as a much slower song on an acoustic guitar. I remember John Lennon saying on The Beatles Anthology Documentary (or it could've been from Ian MacDonald's Beatles book 'Revolution In The Head') that whatever instrument a song is written on influences the flavour of the song, and its defo left its mark.

I really love 'Night So Long' though. The desolate blend of echoic harmony, ambient guitar twang & weeping melodies gives it a real nocturnal, countrified, dark night of the soul vibe to it. a lovelorn hymn that's really evocative of post break up, being lost in quiet despair, resigned to another crack around the merry-go-round of Love - for the narrator Romantic Love is a Sisyphean act

I could get really SAT English Literature with my interpretations of these songs but I'll spare you the pain lol

 STUDIO AS AN INSTRUMENT

One of the common critics of HAIM albums, especially this sophomore release is that it's over produced. To be honest it's no more heavily produced than a classic Neptunes track or Timbaland one a decade before and Trevor Horn back in the 80s.

The Daddy of them all being Phil Spector whose Wall of Sound approach was a dense aesthetic that included an array of orchestral instruments—strings, woodwind, brass and percussion—not previously associated with pop music, characterizing his methods as "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".  

Brian Wilson, a huge Spector fan, used a similar recording technique, especially during the Pet Sounds and Smile eras of the Beach Boys, the most recognizable examples being "God Only Knows", "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and especially, the psychedelic "pocket symphony" of "Good Vibrations"

Wilson says "Before Spector, people recorded all the instruments separately. They got great piano, great guitar, and great bass. But he thought of the song as one giant instrument. It was huge. Size was so important to him, how big everything sounded. And he had the best drums I ever heard."

‘Something To Tell You’ (and ‘Days are Gone’ too) is very much in the spirit of Spector but with a modern vernacular. ‘Ready For You’, ‘Want You Back’ and the title song are really sonically dense and defly work in a lot of elements.

The dichotomy of the synthetic, adventurous interpretation of the songs on the record compared to the more reigned in, organic live version isn’t unique to HAIM.

Led Zeppelin live were, as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs described them, 'a thunderous, near-undifferentiated tidal wave of sound that doesn't engross but envelops to snuff any possible distraction' or in Robert Plant's words it was a "very animal thing, a hellishly powerful thing,". In contrast Page's production on the records gave their songs a sense of auditory cinema to what could have been, in a less-imaginative producer’s hands, simply bombastic rock songs.

There’s all sorts of panning and added the effects, echo-chambered voice drops into a small explosion of fuzz-tone guitar, including using Low Frequency Oscillators on tape machines that was really startling to hear at the time.

I had qualms about the use of pitched vocals that are at the start of ‘Little of Your Love’ and in the call back in the chorus of ‘Right Now’, because in the latter I thought it undercut the poignancy by having something so alien sounding in something so human, and the prior I thought a synthetic touch in something so throwback was jarring – like T Pain at the start of Springsteen’s ‘Hungry Heart’ – but maybe not a teenager who hasn’t grown up with sounds being rigidly compartmentalized in genres the way people did in the 20th century.

SIDE NOTE: In fact it could be argued that auto tune / vocal pitch shifting (techniques for deliberate misusing of programs designed for correcting pitch as a way of colourizing the human voice with distortion) is the musical signature of the 2010’s the same way a Wah-Wah pedal makes you think of the 60s or the sound of a Fairlight CMI is very 80s. Which if true makes Cher’s ‘Believe’ ridiculously ahead of it’s time – the pop equivalent of what The MC5 were to Punk?

 SPOT THE INFLUENCES

 Critics love to play ‘Spot the Influences’:  X sounds as if The Reminder-era Feist fused together the acoustic riffs of ‘I Don't Want to Know’ and ‘Never Going Back Again’ – it weirdly reminds me of families gathered around a new-born baby talking about how it has it’s mother’s eyes but grandfathers nose – all these are just cosmetic judgements that are useful to introduce the uninitiated to artists they’ve never heard about but music, like babies, are more than the sum of their parts.  

When critics would name check Fleetwood Mac in reference to HAIM in 2013 it always felt tenuous though I knew what they meant – the songs didn’t sound like Fleetwood Mac in the autonomy of the song structure but in the emotional resonance. People hadn’t heard a guitar pop band sing about relationships like that, in a style like that for a long time – since probably Fleetwood Mac and so made the connection – but the fab ‘You Never Knew’ completely pastiches the gossamer textures of Tango In The Night era Fleetwood Mac in its production to its detriment I think because every time it starts I’m half expecting Christine McVie to come on and tell me sweet little lies.

 NO GENRES

I once stumbled on a useful insight about art criticism from an article that the writer and journalist Janet Malcolm wrote in response to vitriolic critiques on J.D Salinger's writing made by literary luminaries such as Updike and Didion: ''negative contemporary criticism of a masterpiece can be helpful to later critics, acting as a kind of radar that picks up the ping of the work’s originality''.

Now, I’m not saying this record is a masterpiece - It's really good - but unpacking and investigating the critiques have lead me to some interesting places, like this douchey one from the Guardian.

‘’…Haim were swiftly co-opted by the world of mainstream pop, which seems less interested in their place within a lineage of classic Californian rock than their way with a honeyed melody.’’

 From the off this is not true because they did tour with Florence and The Machine and play the big pop extravaganza that was Chime For Change before they even dropped an album. This smells more like a Luddite Gen Xer hang up about transgressing the dividing lines between musical genres.

Music critic Lizzy Goodman on the promo trail for her excellent book ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’ a thrilling 600-page oral history of New York’s Rock renaissance of the 2000s  - brought up a fantastic point on a podcast about the analogue kids of The Strokes generation and their Post Napster successors Vampire Weekend, Grimes and HAIM etc.

Listen to that podcast here (it’s brilliant)

https://soundcloud.com/the-watch-podcast/lizzy-goodman-on-the-rebirth-of-rock-n-roll-in-new-york-city-from-2001-to-2011-ep-153

 but here’s the paraphrased version of what I want to highlight:

 Interviewer: The time between ‘Is This It?’ and Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut is 7 years – one was the beginning of something and one was the end of something.

LIZZY GOODMAN: You could imagine The Strokes debuting in 2008 but you could not imagine Vampire Weekend happening in 2001 because there is no Ezra brain without the internet.

Interviewer: When I interviewed Ezra for Spin, I became the most oldest man in the universe! I was so angry, I was like: ‘’how dare you go to an Ivy League school, be white and like Hip Hop’’ says the guy who went to an Ivy League school, was white and loved Hip Hop, but how dare you talk about it (so well) and have fluency in all these different worlds and jump between things and never break a sweat.

LG: He’s literally like ‘I don’t know what you mean?’

This is normal to a Millennial but to a Gen Xer that level of musical sophistication is unheard of because they didn’t have the access to everything ever recorded pooled together in one space that the internet is. This Age of Musical Plenty has freed people up from the rigid lock of genre and toward an eclectic palette which is also reflected in the music they make.

  BAND BY IT'S COVER

I LOVE ALBUM ART! (I'm also a keen linear notes reader *did you know there's a Grammy for best linear notes? musicians take note lol*) when done right they're great windows into the tone of the record inside. 'Days Are Gone' & 'Something To Tell You' are really cool to contrast.

'Days Are Gone' was the start of a huge career for the band. The album offered listeners a look into their sunny, romantic lives and the cover art too reflected HAIM's bright prospects. Seated in three fold-up chairs on a big green lawn (suburban kids) the heads of the HAIM sisters are turned to the left, eyes averted and covered in shades (future's so bright, I gotta wear shades)

They followed the Spice Girls’ template of being a charismatic group, whose individual styles all added to the bigger picture - their meshing of high street and storied, thrift store pieces gave them an indie rock relatability. They looked like regular joes with great personal style.

On the flip-side 'Something To Tell You' is the glam fulfillment of that promise. It's like a souped up version where the pastoral suburban LA setting of 'Days Are Gone' gives way to more traditional iconic rock images of LA interspersed with glam fashion editorial-like images and (my fav) the quirkier bold coloured zoot suit-y David Byrne-esque stuff.

  'Something To Tell You' is a clear step forward, artistically and career-wise. You can hear adventurous enthusiasm in how they approach every song and from the lyrics you get that too that the uncertainty that was a motif in a lot of the songs from their last LP is gone and not only do they finally know what they want from life but are racing towards it. Record #3 is going to be an exciting listen.

[floralmarsupial]

it's the clipping. anon again and HELL YES i see all of that so damn much!! both u n dave have like,, real good taste. i can totally see zion 1 being such a formative artist for him and zammuto and die antwoord holy shit yes!! as for clipping. w like the raw sound and shit i was thinking more early clipping. e.g. like midcity?? i can see him digging that. what kinds of music do the other kids like?? i feel like john isn't v picky but will also defend his music to the DEATH,, i love this au sm,,

OK CLIPPING. ANON you’ve waited like a fricking month for this answer back (thank you for all the messages btw I really appreciated it!!) I had so much fun thinking of these kids, but yeah, Ok to answer your question here’s the other beta kids fave music

Dave - Look at this post . Also!! I totally forgot to put this in the original post but I think Dave would really like Outkast.

John- 

Ok so like, canonically, we know that John doesn’t “get” rap or at least doesn’t think it’s as cool as Dave thinks it is, but that’s really the only hint we have besides maybe him knowing all the words to “How Do I Live.” 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that John almost exclusively listens to movie soundtracks. If you look at his music library it’s just soundtrack after soundtrack after soundtrack for the shittiest most campiest movies, (that boy has every Shrek album I know it) including lots of OSTs from like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. 

Besides that, John’s tastes in bands is just as awful and campy as his movies, also I feel like John get’s easily weirded out by Punk/Heavy Metal/pretty much everything on Rose’s library. Like the most Alternative thing John listens to is Cake.

Anything else on his library is probably shit he picked up from his Dad (which is mostly classical) or Grandma tbh, esp, like The Temptations. Also he’s..a huge sucker for one-hit wonders.

THE TEMPTATIONS//Smash Mouth///Barenaked Ladies//Creedance Clear Water Revival//PROTOMAN//The Proclaimers//Baha Men//Everclear//Third Eye Blind

Rose

-God Rose is just the most edgy, freak folk, alternative/indie rock kid in the whole cast and I lowkey think she has a bit of a superiority thing about it and loves to put on her music knowing that everyone else in the room probably won’t like it? That said she definitely likes the more theatrical, popular artists too (I can see Rose eating up the Bad Romance video so much). 

Rose is just the right amount of pissed, emo, and bad with people to be really into The Mountain Goats btw. Also due to the levels of Gay, Tegan and Sara is obligatory,

Peaches//ST VINCENT//Frightened Rabbit//Neko Case//Grimes//alt-J//Cocorosie//Lady Gaga//Radical Face//TEGAN AND SARA//The Mountain Goats//Yeah Yeah Yeahs//Metric//Beach House//Kate Nash//System of the Down//Death Cab for a Cutie//Gina Wigmore//SIA//Panic at the Disco//Hasley//Against Me!//Three Days Grace…..//Rilo Kiley//Hop Along//MS MR//The Birthday Massacre//Le Tigre//EVANESCENCE FUCK//…Good Charlotte (only karkat is allowed to know about this one)

Jade

-Jade for a fact has the widest variety of musical tastes out of all the kids, nobody can tell me differently. She just loves music in all of it’s forms and can almost find good in anything anybody puts on if she listens to it enough.

Her favorite genres definitely yo-yo between contemporary Pop, New Wave, and Funk to a shit ton of 60′s-late 80′s stuff that Jake got her into, like the Beatles. Jade loves the Beatles and if she’s ever in a bad mood will put on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and go for a walk on their massive property. She’s also the one who got all the other Beta’s into Queen, her and John have seriously bonded over it and love to screech sing “on road trips. 

She also probs listens to a lot of jazz because of Jake too.

JANELLE MONAE//Kimbra//Lizzo//Laura Mvula//SOLANGE//Jidenna//Santigold//Kimya Dawson//ARiana Granda//BEATLES//FLEETWOOD MAC//Simon and Garfunkel//ARETHA FRANKLIN//Nina Simone//Florence and the Machine//The Cure//QUEEN//fun.//Lorde//Glass Animals//Ingrid Michaelson //Arcade Fire//FALL OUT BOY//Imogen Heap//MIKA//Regina Spektor//Madonna/Cyndi Lauper//Depeche Mode//Passion Pit