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passionate-reply · 3 years

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Stan Ridgway is best remembered as the guy from Wall of Voodoo, and Wall of Voodoo are best remembered as the guys from “Mexican Radio.” But there’s a whole lot more to Ridgway’s solo career, which began with 1986′s The Big Heat--Americana, epic narratives, and a whole lot of digital synth. (Transcript below the break!)

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, we’ll be looking at an often overlooked solo debut: Stan Ridgway’s The Big Heat, first released in 1986.

Stan Ridgway is best remembered as the original frontman of Wall of Voodoo, and Wall of Voodoo, in turn, are best remembered for the single “Mexican Radio,” a landmark bit of New Wave eclecticism that became an unlikely hit thanks in large part to heavy rotation on MTV. That said, like a lot of ostensible “one-hit wonders,” the span of Ridgway’s artistic career is quite a bit more varied and more interesting than this solitary recording might suggest. While I don’t believe that “Mexican Radio” is simply a novelty song that can easily be dismissed, I will set it aside for the time being, because any attempt to cover the rest of Stan Ridgway’s work is probably better off without worrying about it. Instead, let’s take a look at his first bona fide solo release: the 1983 single, “Don’t Box Me In.”

Music: “Don’t Box Me In”

“Don’t Box Me In” was a collaboration between Ridgway and percussionist Stewart Copeland, then known chiefly for his work with the group The Police. While Copeland is now fairly well known for his work composing scores for cinema and video games, this was one of his first forays into that field: the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation of Rumble Fish. Based on a novel by S. E. Hinton, most famous for The Outsiders, Rumble Fish was actually a tremendous flop for Coppola, perceived to be a bit too avant-garde for its own good, and Copeland’s percussion-led score for the film, experimental in its own right, certainly didn’t help that perception. Despite all of this, “Don’t Box Me In” managed to do fairly well for itself as a single, achieving substantial alternative radio play purely on its own merits. And merits it has, weaving together the experience of a fish trapped in a tiny bowl with a more universalized sense of human ennui, being overlooked and underestimated by everyone around you. Not to be underestimated himself, Ridgway has not only written these evocative lyrics, but delivers them in a manner that shows a complexity beyond his semi-affected Western twang, conveying fragility and uncertainty alongside indignation and determinedness. This is also the version of Stan Ridgway whom we meet when we listen to The Big Heat.

Music: “Camouflage”

Despite being the very last single released from The Big Heat, the eerie war yarn “Camouflage” would go on to be the most successful track from the album, and Ridgway’s best-known hit as a solo artist. Perhaps surprisingly, the single was largely snubbed in the charts of Ridgway’s native USA, becoming a much bigger hit throughout Europe. While playing the harmonica and sporting a bolo tie, Ridgway seems to almost play the character of the quintessential American, and perhaps it’s that quality that’s caused this apparent rift. Is it necessary to analyze his art through the lens of exoticism in order to find it appealing?

It’s a hard question for me to answer, personally--I might be from the US myself, but at the same time, the vast majority of the music I listen to is European, as a natural consequence of being chiefly a devotee of electronic music. There is still a sort of novelty factor I find in Ridgway’s work. I remain in awe of the fact that a musical genius exists who uses a hard R, and says “huh?” instead of “pardon me?” But, of course, I am amazed by this moreso because it makes me feel “represented,” for once, in a musical tradition which is important to me. If people from Britain’s crumbling industrial centers like Sheffield and Manchester have made great electronic music, then surely synthesisers can also tell the stories of the American Rust Belt, where I come from? For that, we’ll have to step away from the sort of typified narrative of “Camouflage,” and take a listen to the album’s title track.

Music: “The Big Heat”

“Camouflage” told us a tale as old as time, in which a benevolent ghost offers one last act of aid to a vulnerable human being. The album’s title track, on the other hand, alludes to a particularly 20th Century form of storytelling: the detective drama and film noir, as hinted at by its allusion to the classic Fritz Lang film of the same title. Ridgway assumes the perspective of the hardboiled detective, hot on the trail of some mysterious quarry, and it is the innocent passers-by he seeks information from who respond with the song’s banal refrain: “Everybody wants another piece of pie today.” For as much as people have mocked Ridgway’s singing style over the years, you’ve got to appreciate his lilting delivery of this line here in the first verse, where it comes from the mouth of a female character.

It’s easy, of course, to see such apparent non sequitur lyrics in Ridgway’s oeuvre as merely ridiculous, as many quickly do with the likes of “Mexican Radio,” but the more you listen to him, the more his style begins to make sense. The instinct to find humour in things is deeply connected to the feeling of being surprised, and encountering the unexpected. Ridgway happens to be all about delivering the unexpected, and it’s precisely the surface-level absurdities and surprises his lyricism offers that make us think more deeply about the stories he tells. The title track of The Big Heat isn’t about pie, but rather the fact that everybody its characters encounter appears to be grasping for more out of life, and hungry for something else. It’s what drives criminals to transgress against the law, and it’s also, perhaps, what drives the detective to devote himself to the pursuit of the abstract principle of “justice.” To both the villain and the hero of this story, the civilians they brush past are little more than means to an end, despite their display of greater wisdom and insight into these issues than anyone else. Ridgway excels at conveying this sort of saintly everymannishness, and does so with similar gusto on the track “Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)”.

Music: “Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)”

“Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)” was actually not released as a single, which is perhaps surprising given its hooky quality and sprightly synth backdrop. While “Camouflage” is assembled chiefly from traditional instruments, with only a subtle intrusion of Yamaha DX-7 to remind you that it came out in 1986, many of the other tracks, like this one and the title track, are willing to double down on electronic influences, and ride the wave of “peak synth-pop” that was easily cresting by the mid-1980s. That aside, the central theme of “Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)” is the quotidian avariciousness one encounters among ordinary folk, and the psychological effects of living in a “mean world.” While the text mostly revolves around the idea of living in fear, and the paranoia of knowing that “everything changes hands when it hits the ground,” it reaches a climax by showing us an actual situation where this occurs: the pathetic figure of a filthy old man who finds a small bill in the road, and, in a fit of folk superstitiousness, is said to “thank the street.” The song’s tension lives between the bustle of the jealous ones, and the reality of life for those desperate enough to pick up money from the street. Like many of Ridgway’s greatest works, this track simultaneously portrays the mentality of the common man in a direct and serious manner, but also opens up room for it to be criticized. This everyman bystander persona is assumed more directly in the track “Drive, She Said.”

Music: “Drive, She Said”

While the album’s more electronic elements are its main draw, in my eyes, there are still a number of tracks that remain dominated by traditional instruments, “Drive, She Said” being a prime example of them. While narratives are always at the center of Ridgway’s work, “Drive, She Said” moves us away from omniscient narration like that of “Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)” and back into the mind of a specific and individualized narrator--in this case, a cab driver who somewhat reluctantly transports a bank robber, with whom he might also be falling in love. While it doesn’t have the supernatural implications of “Camouflage,” the two stories do seem to have much in common: an ordinary person meets someone who quickly reveals their extraordinary nature, and despite the brevity of their encounter, the protagonist is deeply affected, and perhaps changed, by the events. Much as “Pick It Up (And Put It In Your Pocket)” sees fit to shatter its apparent main premise, with an interlude that shifts the tempo of the music as well as introduces the contrasting figure of the old beggar, “Drive, She Said” introduces an interlude of its own: the driver’s reverie, in which he runs away with his enigmatic passenger. As in many of Ridgway’s tales, we must consider both the beauty of a wonderful dream, and its sheer impossibility.

On the cover of The Big Heat, we see a portrait of Stan Ridgway looking glum, which is not itself terribly unusual for an album cover, though the fact that he’s behind a metal fence certainly is. The main focus of the image seems to be Ridgway’s environment, a bleak industrial setting full of towering machinery, and no other traces of human beings. The absence of other figures in this scene draws attention to the scale of the machines, as well as the fact that in many parts of the US, including my own, it’s very common to see equipment like this that’s fallen into disuse and disrepair. Much as ruined aqueducts and palaces mark the places in Europe where the Roman Empire had once held fast, these sorts of derelict manufacturing facilities are a common sight in America, and serve as reminders of the squandered “American Century.” While many album covers have shown me places I like to imagine myself visiting, I don’t have to imagine what being here might be like, having grown up in a place whose pride left soon after the steel industry did. It strikes me as exactly the kind of setting that Ridgway’s narratives ought to take place in: dirty, simple, well-intentioned, doomed, and all-American.

Ridgway’s follow-up to The Big Heat would be 1989’s *Mosquitos,* an album that largely abandons the many synthesiser-driven compositions found in his earlier work. It’s hard to fault him for this decision, given how much the mainstream appeared to be souring on synth-pop and electronic rock by the end of the decade, but it does mean that this album offers little I’d want to listen to recreationally. That is, with the exception of its third and final single, “Goin’ Southbound,” a practically epic drama of small-town drug smugglers trying to survive, and one that fires on all cylinders when it comes to fiddles dueling with digital synths. This track feels like it would fit right in on The Big Heat, so if you’ve enjoyed this album, don’t miss it.

Music: “Goin’ Southbound”

My favourite track on The Big Heat is “Salesman,” which, to my surprise, received a small advance promo release without ever becoming a true single. The titular character, an unctuous but insecure traveling salesman, is as rich a narrating persona as any of the many in Ridgway’s catalogue, and I love the way the refrain just feels like a song you might make up while idly doing something else, silly and yet primal at the same time. It captures the feeling of living “on the edge of the ball,” enjoying the freedom of spontaneity, but also, perhaps, suffering for its enforced sloppiness. That’s everything for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “Salesman”

#music #album review #album reviews #great albums #stan ridgway #wall of voodoo

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kenkamishiro · 4 years

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Ishida Sui’s Review of 2019

I didn’t think I’d ever finish this with my onslaught of classes including pharmacology, but I somehow managed! 6k word count, the longest TL I’ve done to date besides Parvati’s interlude for FGO. Lots of insight into Jack Jeanne’s production and what Ishida’s been up to for the past year. It was tough to translate because it was so long, but I had a lot of fun.

Let me know if there are any mistakes, I’m sure there’s a whole bunch. Have fun reading!

Original can be found here.

＊＊＊

2019. I’m reflecting on this past year while flipping through my agenda. Since I’m writing this for my sake, there’s going to be a lot of sections without much explanation.

January

○ This was when Jack Jeanne had yet to be announced, so I was mostly doing preliminary work at the time. Stuff like “BU” and “character facial expressions” will be finished some time this month, is written in my schedule book.

○ New Year’s party in Tokyo from the 16th - 19th. The New Year’s party is a joint party that’s comprised of the 4th editorial department (Shueisha’s seinen magazine branch) that’s held every year in January. I attended the party with the staff every year during serialization, minus my first year.

2019 will be the first New Year’s party since the series ended, but I thought I should stop inviting the staff to attend since we’re not working together anymore (plus it’d be a hassle), so I didn’t really invite anyone. But the day before the event, Editor M brought up the topic inside the taxi and asked, “Are none of the staff coming this year?” (Even if they’re invited now, it’s going to be impossible, asking them to fly the next day and causing a ruckus…) When I replied, “Hey, I’m sure it’d be fun if you invited them and they all came~”, the editor contacted Goubaru-kun, and after said, “He said he’s going.” Guess he wasn’t busy. In the end, the staff during serialization and several people from OB and OG came, almost identical to the lineup from previous years, and it occurred to me that maybe I should have just invited them from the start.

Anyway, at this year’s New Year’s party, I don’t really remember much of what happened. I talked with my senpais from back when I was an assistant for Kingdom, and outside the venue I sobered up from the agoraphobic dizziness I was feeling inside. At the second party I remember people talking to me haphazardly and being photographed. I wish I’d refused. Also, I was sexually harassed by Rikudou Matsubara, my senpai from the same region as me. This New Year’s party will be my last.

February

Briefing session for the game held in Tokyo. Key visual created. It says here [on the agenda] that I want to go to Kagoshima. Every week there’s a checklist for 10 km of jogging and weight training 2-3 times a week. I spent about a week doing some composition work. It ended up being helpful for me, but it made me decide not to work anymore with people with different levels of interest from me.

○ TRPG is written for the 28th. Usually we use the DX (Double Cross) system, but this time one of our participating players, M’s schedule was under mysterious attack. As game master, taking consideration of everyone who’d made time in their schedules for tonight, I thought we could switch to Cthulhu and asked them to wait an hour. 2 hours later I finished coming up with a scenario and began the session. It was fairly fun.

March

Finish BU this month, is clearly noted down. BU stands for bust-up, which are drawings of characters in standing poses [sprites] that are common in ADV games. Normally, since it takes a huge amount of work, the BU work is always divided up. The original drawings are done by the illustrator, in this case I do the base illustrations (line drawing & colouring), and using them as the base, the department sharing the work cleans up the line drawings and recolours it...that’s how the process goes. But since I’m a mangaka and don’t have the technology needed to make gaming assets, I thought it’d be best to leave it to the pros in that field, so that was how that stage proceeded. At that point in time at least.

I also had plans written down to go to Kagoshima. Looks like I didn’t go.

○ TRPG on the 25th. Player M’s schedule lined up with ours, so we played DX with 6 PL plus me as GM. We went to the aquarium, were attacked by witches, and so on.

April

Finish BU, is faintly written down. It seems like the work was more or less completed earlier this month.

○ High school friend K’s wedding on the 6th. Up until then I’d only been to two other wedding receptions. The weddings were for a different friend from high school, and Tajika-san, one of my senpais from Kingdom. This suddenly reminds me of that time at Tajika-san’s reception, when I took a super early flight because I absolutely didn’t want to be late whatsoever, but I ended up not being able to fly for about an hour and a half because of engine trouble or whatever, so I entered at almost the same time as the bride and groom during the reception…

K’s wedding was the first time in my life where I was present all the way from the wedding to the reception, but how should I put it, I was struck by a beam of light. I don’t know who he’s getting married to, I have no clue what their relationship is like. But I was somehow bombarded...by all these thoughts that became jumbled in my head, like the energy in this place, the power of their oaths, questioning what it was, how light isn’t always justice.

I got the feeling that this was what proper, respectable humans take part in, but since I'm fine with not being a proper, respectable human, I decided to not do anything other than what my heart desires.

I'm definitely not good with places where I’m in the spotlight. But congratulations.

○ “Play Sekiro” is strongly noted down. Thank you for supporting me in the first half of 2019.

○ TRPG for the 29th - 30th. DX. Player M’s character dies.

May - June

My schedule book is starting to look more scattered now. On the other hand, since I’ve got a good memory of this time, I can write while recalling the events.

○ I did the covers for the Touken stage play book.

I drew the cover illustrations for the Touken [Ranbu] stage play that Mikasano-san, who I’m grateful to for his work on the anime and movie scripts for TG, worked on. In my mind, it feels like I'm watching the back of who I'd consider my older brother in the creative world, or a fellow comrade on another battlefield fighting to the death. I think it came out quite charmingly, so I’ll include the links for now. Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

During this time of work for Jack Jeanne, I was working on “model sheets”. Blueprints for the characters’ attire, not just from the front but also the internal structure.

Unlike most other games, Jack Jeanne has “performance costumes” in addition to normal attire. Because of its “revue” theme, costumes that will be worn onstage needed to be prepared. I was shocked when I suddenly admitted that I needed model sheets for 5 different performances (spring, summer, fall, winter, final) for the 6 main characters, making 30 designs in total.

Back in the TG era, these kind of drawings that I just explained, or drawings that needed a lot of layers, were a pain in the ass. Plus I wasn’t good at them, so I thought that I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life if possible. But it seems like I have to do this myself. With a sense of determination, I decided to work solely on this for all of May. At the same time, I made nothing but curry for all my meals. There’s no deep reason behind it, but my aim was to kinda boost my ability to concentrate daily by choosing to be decisive in that action.

○ Working on model sheets It came with an unintended effect. Because I spent a month on work that required balance and consistency, my right-left checking skills got better, and completely unrelated, I improved in drawing perfect copies. The design work for the model sheets itself became really fun to do, starting around when I became obsessed with the scarf design (sumo wrestler drawing) I definitely couldn’t use for Neji’s summer costume. I discovered that it’s precisely because I’m not good at this that my labour bore fruit. I feel like this was my experience for the latter half of the year.

July

The cast members were chosen. Unlike TG, there are 6 people + 1 person who can be referred to as the main character, so it was interesting to have a cast with some breadth.

Seems like lyrical work was the main thing I worked on.

Lyrical work. In Jack Jeanne, each performance contains several songs to sing and dance to, so each one is supposed to be sung. ...hence the lyrics.

The topic of what to do with the lyrics was brought up in November 2018. What happens typically is that, let’s say there’s singing in an idol game, then a company that specializes in it is asked to produce the songs. Even for Jack Jeanne, there were several candidates I could pick and choose from. But after a quick look-through, frankly speaking, they all looked the same to me. There’s one person that’s good, it’d be great if we could get them...is what I thought, but, “Even though I don’t have the skills, I’m the one who understands this world the best,” crossed my mind. ...should I try? I tried it. To be honest, I was super embarrassed since it’d be seen by a lot of people, but it evolved into, “Who cares if you’re doing it?” And so Jack Jeanne’s lyrics were tasked to me.

I mentioned this earlier, but there are multiple songs for each performance. So if you combine those plus the opening and ending songs, that makes 17 songs in total. Lyrics for 17 songs that I’m fully responsible for. What the hell...am I doing? Maybe it was from that moment that I started losing it.

Including the lyrics that I’d been working on bit by bit every month, the remaining ones were finished in one go this July. By the time I finished everything, my current state was, “Give me more songs...let me write more lyrics!” But it wasn’t over just yet.

August

Every time I meet someone I tell this story. I’m thinking of keeping it up. Here I am, relieved to have finished the lyrics, when a message pops up on the Skype group chat. It’s from Yamashita Daisuke of Broccoli.

To briefly touch upon Yamashita Daisuke, he is a young man who’s been involved with this project since October of 2018, and a poor soul who was tasked with conducting very important meetings on his third day of working at the company.

The producer from Broccoli was going on maternity leave, so he was scouted as her replacement. As an aside, if I have to be honest, the exchanges between me and Towada-san, and Broccoli’s Jack Jeanne team up until then were quite frustrating. “How about doing it like this?” they would counter. And we’d respond with something like, “This part is going to be developed later on, and since this will become foreshadowing for the entirety of the story, it can’t be modified that easily.” This kind of situation, having to explain everything in detail one by one, going 3 steps forward and being held 2 steps back, had been going on for about 3 years, so the two of us would often whine about it over drinks, going, “When should we quit, this is ridiculous,” etc.

Finally when things began going more smoothly, the producer who was leading the project took her leave, so I wondered if we’d be able to get along with Yamashita Daisuke, but he was, how should I put it, very diligent. For the last year I've been working with people who don’t put in their best effort, so I was very hopeful and thankful to him.

But I digress. This was the gist of the message that Daisuke sent.

“Kosemura-san’s who’s in charge of musical composition wants ‘scratch vocal tracks’ for when the singers are recording.” “Does Ishida-sensei happen to know anyone he could ask for this favour?” “I’m sure it won’t be a problem for you!” “Frankly speaking, it’s okay even if they’re bad.”

Huh. Well, as you might have already guessed, even with the lyrics, it’s impossible to really understand the song at first sight without knowing what kind of rhythm, what kind of emotions are being expressed in the bar measure. Of course we’d need ‘scratch vocal tracks’ to explain the general feeling of the song.

Now, what Daisuke said was, “Do you have anyone you can ask? It’s okay even if they’re bad. Or even you can do it.” But if I found a “it’s okay even if they’re bad” kind of person, we’d still have to show them how to sing it and explain how the rhythm goes. Daisuke already knew which was probably why he asked for the favour. “The person writing the lyrics would be able to make the scratch vocal tracks the fastest.” ...come to think of it, the demo songs that Kunimitsu sent me every time that were sung using Vocaloid, weren’t they also scratch vocal tracks?

Daisuke must have been in a pinch trying to figure out how he should ask me candidly. Ishida-sensei, I couldn’t just ask you to sing it, so I had to ask in a roundabout manner.

I’d already given my answer, but I was still hesitant. It’s true that after I finished writing the lyrics for the 17 songs I’d already lost sight of myself, but if I sang, my singing would reach Broccoli and Kosemura-san’s team’s ears. But I couldn’t just leave poor Daisuke hanging.

So I consult Towada-shi, whom I’d been collaborating with in creating the scripts for Jack Jeanne, for advice. (He had been in charge of TG’s novels, and I’ve known him for a long time.) “Did you check Skype?” “I did.” “What do you think?” “Start by looking up scratch vocal tracks,” so we paid a visit to YouTube. The first search result that came up for ‘scratch vocal track’ was a video of a vocalist who was used to sing a scratch track for AKB or something. I see, so that’s what it looks like. Innocuous, but I could see it was very professionally done.

And the second result that came up was Tsunku♂-shi. The figure of Tsunku♂-shi himself recording a scratch track for his idols. The producer himself became an idol, and was singing really cutely, in his emotions and how he sang it. “This is it?” I said. “Yeah, it is,” Towada-shi agreed. If Kosemura-san and his team, and the people who will be performing the songs have to listen to it, it’d be a disservice to them to half-ass it. I don’t like people who don’t try their best. That means I have to show that attitude myself. Let’s come out of my shell for poor Daisuke as well.

“You’re gonna become Tsunku♂.” “Yeah...I’m gonna be Tsunku♂!” And that was how I became Tsunku♂.

I replied to Daisuke on the Skype group chat. “Understood, I’ll do what I can.”

So this guy, who doesn’t even know what the ‘D’ in DTM stands for, first downloads the software, and begins setting up a recording environment. Other work is pushed aside. I set 3 days to work on this.

I timidly begin working on the scratch tracks. From the perspective of someone who doesn’t have to listen to their singing for a living, it starts out as a living hell, but you get used to it as you listen to it over and over.

And so I kept learning new things. I noticed I was harmonizing with myself.

Just like Tsunku♂-shi, I’d change the voice for each character. If it was Jack (male in a male role) I’d sing like a man, and if it was Jeanne (male in a female role), then like a woman, while the main character Kisa (female) should sound cute... No, Kisa needs to be cuter! I re-recorded her part many times. Depending on the song, I’d sing for 7 people. I was Jack Jeanne now.

Tsunku♂ (I) recorded 17 songs in 3 days, and sent the data first to Towada-shi. Since I was now Tsunku♂, I no longer felt any sense of embarrassment.

“I listened to it,” the reply came, and I called him. Towada-shi was roaring with laughter. I regained the embarrassment I’d forgotten.

“Oh no, I was laughing ‘cause I was impressed,” he said, but my heart was already as fragile as that of an abandoned dog.

“Even this is a big help to Kosemura-san, and Daisuke should be grateful, right?” Yeah. Although Towada-shi guffawed at me, Daisuke will surely thank me. And then he’ll definitely tell me what a good job I did!

I dumped the music into the Skype group chat. “I did what I could,” I added.

How will Daisuke react to my Tsunku♂? I waited restlessly. Three days later on August 5th, a formal message arrived after it was received.

“Thank you very much. We will schedule a meeting with Kosemura-san…”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. My hard work got dismissed with, “Thank you very much.”

Daisuke, why? I thought you were in a pinch, so I...were...were you fooling with me from the start? Answer me! Daisuke! Just tell me I did a good job, or follow up with something, I’m fine with anything! So much for my heart being like an abandoned dog, it’s more like a grown-ass man left naked on a snowy mountain. I did what I could! This feeling was welling up inside me, but was it myself that managed to do it?

○ Later, at a meeting with Kosemura-san “It’s great that you could do this much for us. You didn’t have to do all that.” With the gist of those words, a warm blanket was finally placed over my heart, which had almost frozen to death.

“I didn’t know how to respond. I wasn’t sure if Sensei was the most who did it in the first place,” Daisuke said, so I decided to satisfy myself by threatening, “I’m gonna tell this story until the day I die.”

September

○ Responses to the Questions to Ishida Sui contest We did a “Ask anything to Ishida Sui” contest as a project for the art book “zakki:re”, where purchasers could apply with a postcard. I was writing the replies for them.

I thought there’d be a lot more questions about TG or its contents, but surprisingly there were a lot of questions asking for life advice. There were quite a few questions that I had to seriously think about to answer.

It was kinda tough since there were over a hundred of them, but I thought it’d be nice to get in touch like this every once in a while.

○ BU work for Jack Jeanne Once the music-related tasks like lyrical composition and scratch vocal tracks were completed, I worked on BU. ...BU work? Wasn’t it finished back in April?

Well, a similar situation arose just like what happened with the lyrics. Regarding sprite quality I might not be able to beat the pros, but since I’m the one who best understands how the characters look best and their body balance, I had decided to do all the line drawing colouring myself in June. I had no clue whether I’d make the deadline or maintain the quality, but thanks to Broccoli’s understanding, I was allowed to make it myself.

I realized once again that I’m terrible at splitting up work. If I can do it by myself, I will.

Plus, it’s, how should I put it, starting from my TG days, even though it wasn’t a lot I got to see various types of workplaces. I’d see places where there was no sense of responsibility whatsoever, or the work may have been divvied up appropriately, but it felt like they were making something without a sense of purpose, like a main plot line that isn’t going anywhere.

It’s impossible to accomplish big things with that kind of stance, and I understand that the more people that intervene, the more uncertain the core becomes, so I didn’t like that kind of approach. It makes me wonder whether there’s any meaning in creating a work that’s conservative and unchallenged, and if it’s nothing more than a money grab.

Since I don’t have any desire for material things, getting fed up about it is useless, but I just can’t help thinking about it.

Of course, it may be difficult to get what I want 100% of the time, but I want to create things in an environment that I think is beautiful, even in places that I’m slightly involved in.

...in other words, BU work is tough, but I began remaking the sprites once again by myself. This was the toughest work I’ve ever done out of everything, including the serialization...

○ Scratch vocals training camp at the end of September I went to the recording for the scratch vocal tracks. Based on the scratch tracks that I made, we got professional vocalists to sing it again properly. This is what the actual cast would use as a reference to sing. (So my version was like the pre-scratch vocal track.)

I was stuck in Tokyo for almost a week. Wake up, get ready, go to the recording studio. Come back at 8 or 9 pm, rest and sleep, repeat.

It was like I was back in school, and since I don’t have a steady lifestyle, I enjoyed it.

Kosemura-san’s team is really great, and I know I mentioned this before, but I felt like their workplace was a very healthy production site. When I was drawing manga, I never had much time to talk with fellow manga artists, and I’ve never had the chance to experience what other professionals’ workplaces were like, so it was very exciting for me to see people as professionals tackle one thing seriously. The vocalists were as amazing as I expected, and although my scratch tracks were played at a loud volume to annoy me, I had a great time.

The game might have a high level of entry, but it’s worth listening to just for the songs, is what I truly thought.

○ Parting words to Editor M-shi This might have been back in August, but from 2018 to 2019 I had a lot of things on my mind, so I began talking to the editor.

In between the 11 years of serialization starting from my rookie days, I’d received guidance from him so it wasn’t easy, but I expressed to him that we should keep our distance for any future works.

“I want to become absorbed in myself, not to Ishida Sui or Tokyo Ghoul,” I told him. The other part said he also felt the same way, and accepted it. The next time we meet, I hope we can talk about what we’re into, what we’re going crazy over, he said.

And so, 2 months after that conversation was the scratch vocals training camp in Tokyo, and I had the chance for the two of us to talk again. That day I was completely tuckered out from recording the scratch track, but it was a day filled with accomplishments.

He took me to a restaurant with delicious food in Ebisu or somewhere, and after concluding our brief business meeting, I tried throwing out the cliched, “So, what are you up to lately?” As the lead writer, there was a part of me that was curious about how he was doing after that talk we had.

The editor began talking about homemade curry.

...that’s what he’s into? I decide everything from selecting and picking the ingredients myself, and next time I want Ishida-kun to also see how delicious the curry is...he told me passionately, but how should I put it, the conversation wasn’t very spicy.

The food was delicious.

October

○ BU work

What’s hard about BU work is that it’s difficult to separate the layers according to the face, hair and clothes, and they all have to have the same style and touch to it. If it was manga, then maybe...no, even in manga, there’s still some need to match the outfits, but it doesn’t really matter to that extent.

It’s because I don’t like game sprites. “This character has so much energy from their sideways pose! Amazing!” This never happens…

Around this time of the year, my older sister called this elaborate task, “the task you’re probably the worst at.”

○ The bean life I’m not really fat in particular, but I made up my mind to try dieting. At the time, my body fat percentage was at 18%, and I’ve never been below 10% ever in my entire life, so I’m thinking of aiming for that. Instead of eating rice with unseasoned chickpeas and black soybeans, I began my lifestyle of consuming vegetables and cuts of meat with less fat. Hopefully I can achieve my goal in about six months’ time.

○ Ano-chan, Honda Keisuke, and I After Ano-chan left “You’ll Melt More!”, her official Twitter account removed every single account she was following, but for some reason only two people remained. Those two people were Honda Keisuke and Ishida Sui. To Ano-chan, Honda Keisuke and Ishida Sui belonged in the same category. After some time passed, even we were removed, but I consider this one of my hottest mysteries of 2019. Ano-chan! I’ll always be waiting, so let’s have tea some time with Honda Keisuke!

November

○ BU Need I say more.

○ Main cast’s first recording session from the 26th - 27th.

I visited Tokyo with Towada-shi to supervise the main cast members’ recording session. Wow, everyone was so amazing~

Of course, not just the main characters. Terasaki Yuka-san who plays the main character, Tachibana Kisa, was wonderful as well.

In this kind of game genre, the position as the main character feels less important than the male characters, but I want her to stand firmly in this story’s script. I thought it’d be nice to have the main character not stand out too much and have her watch over the male characters, and I felt that Terasaki-san’s voice and acting fit that image perfectly.

About the cast members, it seems like there’ll be a chance to speak to them eventually, so I’ll come back again.

○ 1 month into the bean life I’m steadily losing weight. Basically I always work from home. I go to the gym and supermarket 2-3 times a week. I started cooking for myself. I got a brand new refrigerator to replace the one that suddenly broke. It actually cools things down now. Living standards have risen.

December

○ I break off ties with M who I played TRPG together with. He was a former classmate who was even chief assistant at some point during the series’ run, but eventually he ended up getting fired due to falling asleep at work. He said he’d attend the last session for the story that day (although his own character had already died), and I was working on a schedule to accommodate him, but once again he cancelled at the last minute.

It’s fine to cause trouble for me (although I’ll probably get pissed), but I can’t overlook treating others the same way. And it’s not the fact that his schedule didn’t match up, it’s because he was complete trash who didn’t know how to behave like an adult once he made plans with others, that I felt sorry for the other TRPG people who took time out of their schedules. Since I felt ashamed when I was together with him, I decided I’d had enough.

This was a year where I cut ties with a lot of people, but I think what they had in common was that I was ashamed to be with them. From now on, I don’t want to associate with such people.

What’s more, when I finally told him, he didn’t even try to deal with it and just gave up, responding, “So that’s how you felt about me. Okay. My bad.”

I won’t go anywhere with those kind of people again.

○ The bean life ⇒ the potato life. I changed it to potatoes.

○ BU is over...

On December 17th, I finally finished the BU work that I spent ageeeeeeeees on.

Although I said that serialization is tough, as long as I finished 18 pages a week that was it (although there were times where I was chasing myself with other work), so I could finish it as long as I didn’t sleep. I somehow managed to finish both the manuscripts and the colour illustrations this way, so expecting BU to be similar, I wasn’t really scared about it never ending, but BU truly was despair. When is this gonna end? I’m even working super hard… This is how it went on the entire time for over a month.

There were about 200 different sprites I had to make myself, including the different costumes and poses, and I had to do all of them.

For one thing, when, “This process is necessary,” came out, I had to go through the same process roughly 200 times, that it felt like I was facing the final boss who already transformed many times. Also, it’s like not equipping myself with a lot of equipment and recovery items in the previous town, but the dungeon I somehow managed to enter is extremely dangerous and even though there’s no safe points anywhere in sight, the boss suddenly comes up behind you, and you go I’m gonna die I’m gonna die

○ If you eat a lot while you’re losing weight, you’re going to have a bad time.

On December 15th I had trouble concentrating, so I tidied up the living room, created a space in the middle of the room, and darkened the lights. After an hour of meditating, only the sound of my breathing could be heard in the room, and so I went back to work with renewed concentration after confronting the issue (like a monk?).

On December 16th, I’ve been working the entire time since morning. I thought today was going to be the last day, but an entire day has passed and I don’t have any energy...

I’ll buy a midnight snack, replenish my energy, and end it once and for all. I’m trying to lose weight, but I went to the convenience store while thinking about how I’m gonna eat a katsu sandwich (I didn’t have the energy to cook).

While looking for something at a convenience store I can eat during weight loss, I think back over the last few months.

Like how it seems like BU is finally over, how a lot of things have happened, how I’m working hard, how lately I’ve been eating only potatoes, vegetables and meat.

And then I suddenly thought, “I wonder if the reason I don’t have any energy is because I haven’t had any rice lately.”

...I thought I should go on a diet in October, so I’ve been living a very modest life since then. Thanks to that, my weight has steadily decreased, and my body fat percentage has gone down 3% to 15%. What will happen if I continue with my relatively strict dietary restrictions during this difficult time?

...even if you’re losing weight, there’s a technique you can set up to binge eat during periods where weight loss stagnates, called cheat day (though results may vary), but what is it that makes no-cheating so inefficient even for weight loss?

...should I have a cheat day today?

“Huh, is it really okay?” I asked my mind. “Do it!” was the answer I got. From that moment, everything around me morphed into things I could eat.

No exaggeration, my knees trembled.

I crammed into my shopping basket carbohydrates, carbs, more carbs… It’s okay just for today, I say as I shove cream puffs, dorayaki, pudding, Family Mart chicken and ice cream. (Even if it's a cheat day, it’s probably not a good idea to take non-nutritional foods, but shh.)

With food in both hands and in high spirits, the first thing I ate was the delicious part of the Family Mart chicken.

I groaned loudly, all alone in the room.

Alright, let’s finish this work! I was energized, but my blood sugar levels spiked so much that I felt extremely sleepy and went to bed instead.

The next day on the 17th, I wake up at 4 am and immediately notice something unusual. My body is burning. I’m sweating.

I immediately wake up, and overflowing with energy, I head for my desk. I’m working actively, and I finish the BU work. It felt like I was pushing forward with only positive energy, feeling uplifted.

I break out a laugh at a slight joke I found funny from a foreign drama (The Mentalist) I’m playing while working. The greenery of the plants and the lighted sink glisten, and the scenery is vivid.

What is this?

I suddenly recall the story of a YouTuber I saw recently. He lives in a region where medical marijuana is legalized, and he explained in detail what changes would occur if you smoked cannabis.

To put it roughly, you feel calm and your senses sharpen. Trivial things can become funny, and funny videos can make you roar with laughter.

Then maybe...I thought, I'll watch Nagareboshi (a comedy duo) on YouTube. Usually I go, haha, that's funny! But that day I exploded with laughter...all of their videos were just too funny.

I learned that when you’re losing weight and suddenly eat a lot, it alters your mind and body as if you smoked cannabis. (※ Just to be clear, I don’t know what cannabis is like.)

Thus the BU work ended with me being high as a kite.

(※ I’m covering it with mosaics for now. I’ll remove it once I can announce it.)

○ I stopped playing TRPGs. I’ve been doing it for about two and a half years, but it also helped me in honing my creative skills. I’d sometimes perform, so it was useful when I was recording the scratch vocals… It was a good experience, managing to vicariously live the energy of ending a story. It was a story about a group of friends, so it was easy to appreciate.

Summing up 2019

After the weekly series finished in 2018, I was in a daze for a few months, but in 2019 I worked only on Jack Jeanne for the year.

This year I tried various things, and trite as it may seem, felt the possibilities within myself expanding. I had many opportunities to realize how important it is to keep a distance from bad things that don’t do anything for me.

During my work on Jack Jeanne, I vaguely thought about my future creations. The work I’m doing now in game production is fun so I wonder if I can keep working in this field, but I’d also like an environment where I can release things more constantly.

I can’t promise anything specific, but I’m going to work on things that I want to do.

I look forward to what 2020 has to offer. Have a happy New Year.

2019.12.31 Ishida Sui

#Jack Jeanne #Ishida Sui #Translations #my translations #time to hibernate

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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KH3 Plot Holes and Analyzing the Weapon Names of Organization XIII (Part 1)

After beating KH3, I was immensely disappointed. All I could think of was how poor the story was, how many plot holes there were, how many questions I had that should have been answered, how unsatisfying so many character arcs felt, and how little closure we got on so many topics Nomura previously promised answers to. Almost all the issues that felt unsatisfying or poorly explained are now being tied to the next game, when by all rights they should have been resolved in this one. And most of these subplots are now being tied to Union X, when they had no foreshadowing that they involved that game’s lore or original characters ever before.

One of the main topics I felt NO closure on was Ansem’s six apprentices, as well as Lea and Isa’s connection to them. We know Nomura originally intended 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage to be a full-volume game, and that it would have made the characters “more complicated”. Given the scenes chosen in Blank Points, it seems we would have learned much more about the apprentices and their fall to darkness. Here are the things Nomura said in interviews that indicate how much more we were supposed to learn about the original Organization XIII:

What sort of people were Organization members 3-8 as humans?

We know now that they had ordinary lives in Radiant Garden. In BbS we’ve seen one part of Xigbar’s past, as well as members 3-8. 3-6 were apprentices under Ansem the Wise and did things like act as guardsmen, but Axel and Saïx were just young boys who were friends.

What happened to Ansem the Wise?

He is left wandering in the Realm of Darkness. Ansem the Wise, who had been banished to the Realm of Nothingness by his six apprentices, in KHII, wanted to release the Kingdom Hearts made from people’s hearts that the Nobodies of his apprentices had made. The machine that he used for that ended up exploding, taking him with it. It looked as though he died, but we know from the secret event in BbS that he was sent into the Realm of Darkness. Ansem tried to encode the heart’s form into data with his machine, but it didn’t go as planned and the machine went berserk. Ansem the Wise was thrust into the Realm of Darkness, forgetting all of his memories except those concerning Sora.

Did Apprentice Xehanort really lose his memories? Master Xehanort commandeered Terra’s body, and became Ansem the Wise’s apprentice. According to Secret Ansem Report 1 From KHII, the young man asked to become a test subject for Ansem’s research so he could get his memories back. After that they began the study of darkness, but did he really lose his memories? And are those memories Terra’s or Master Xehanort’s?

Why is Xemnas searching for The Chamber of Waking?

To find Ventus. The Chamber of Waking is the room where Aqua leaves Ventus sleeping in Last Episode, and is a part of Castle Oblivion. As you can see from Xemnas calling Aqua’s armor his “friend”, it seems Xemnas has Terra’s memories and he is searching for Ventus, making the other Organization members look for the Chamber of Waking. The only one who can solve the mysteries of Castle Oblivion is Aqua, though, so the Organization was never able to find it.

What are the details of Ansem’s apprentices fall into darkness? Most of what had happened with Ansem’s apprentices before their fall into darkness is unknown, aside from what was touched upon in Secret Ansem Reports. And the mystery of “the plan that was decided on after Axel and Saix entered the Organization” that was talked about in the Secret Reports in Days still remains. According to Nomura there is still much about the Organization’s humans that has yet to be said.

Where is Master Xehanort’s keyblade? As was stated in Secret Ansem Report 13 in KHII, while studying darkness the young Xehanort opened the door to the heart of Radiant Garden. This would have been possible if he had a keyblade, but according to the Ansem Reports 4-8 in KH, he did not yet know about the keyblade at the time. In Last Episode Master Xehanort used his keyblade up until going to the world of darkness, but what happened to it after that...?

Roxas, the "Sora + Ventus" Nobody, was able to use a Keyblade. In contrast Xemnas, the "Terra + Master Xehanort" Nobody, wasn't able to use a Keyblade. Why is this?

I'd rather that point remain a mystery. It's possible that he intentionally wasn't using one.

The King seems to come in contact with Kairi, the heroine from Kingdom Hearts I.

Because the story takes place before Kingdom Hearts I, the part about Kairi couldn’t be ignored. However, the cause for her going to Destiny Island and her detailed history are not revealed. It draws on the mysterious special existence.

Why did Kairi end up with Sora and Riku?

It has to do with Aqua’s “magic”. Nine years before KH, Kairi was thrust into the outside world, and found herself on Sora and Riku’s world. Ansem Seeker of Darkness thought that she had been able to search for a keyblade wielder, but what actually saved her was the magic spell Aqua had put on her.

Lea and Isa also lived in Radiant Garden apart from the Organization members up to No.6.

That’s right, however they are merely residents at this time. They’re just innocent Frisbee playing boys.

Where did the Organization’s coat and mark come from?

Xemnas remembering his human years. One year after BbS, Xehanort as well as five other apprentices toss aside their hearts. Then the Nobody Xemnas was born, and the Organization which he creates takes a lot of things from his memories as a human. But as Xemnas had two people who he was, Terra and Master Xehanort, he takes from both of their memories.

In KH BbS, Master Xehanort's goal behind opening Kingdom Hearts was to "create a new world." But in this game, he says it is to "reset the world." Why the difference? What was revealed in this game was another piece of the truth: his goal was "this world is no longer any good, and we have to recreate it from scratch."

We are interested in why Xehanort would come to such a conclusion. At first, I did want to use a next game to dig down into how Xehanort went from that simple boy playing the chess-like game to an admirer of the darkness. But, if I do that, then the Dark Seeker Chronicle wouldn't have ended with KH3 after all (laughs.) Some ideas had solidified to a degree, but it's shelved for now.

The Dark Seeker arc has concluded, but since when have you been thinking about the conclusion?

The Dark Seeker arc has been a concept ever since KH2. In those days, I just kind of threw together and decided an outline. I was often told by the manga artist that they felt "the characters come alive however they want", and some parts did change from their original conceptualization, but in the grand scheme of things not much changed.

Emphasis mine on the mention of things changing from their original conceptualization. There are many details I suspect were changed, while keeping the overall grand scheme the same. I believe there was supposed to be way more backstory to the Organization than what we actually got. So I decided to look for possible clues in the story. 358/2 Days revolves around Organization XIII and I noticed that the names of their weapons are very unique and interesting. They may very well shed light on what the members’ backstories could have been.

In Days, the weapons are sorted into specific Gear types. The are three types that are the most interesting and most defining for the character. The first is Pandora Gear, “a formidable weapon with exceptional capabilities.” For Organization members, this Gear grants them two of their most powerful weapons; the color scheme is the same for all of the Organization's weapons provided by the Pandora's Gear, consisting of black, gold, and blue or red.

The second is Zero Gear, “a powerful weapon that draws forth its wielder's true worth.” The Zero Gear is emblazoned with the Nobody insignia, signifying that for the Organization members, as well as others who wear the Black Coat, this gear produces that character's signature weapon.

And finally, perhaps the MOST interesting is Mystery Gear “a weapon that draws forth its wielder's personality.” When equipped, it transforms the user's weapon into one that "draws forth its wielder's true personality.” Were these weapons a hint at the mysteries of Organization XIII’s true personalities? I will analyze all of Organization XIII’s weapons, but not necessarily in order.

No. IX - Demyx (Melodious Nocturne)

Prefers to kick back with his sitar, and leave the dirty work to the water under his command.

Not all the Organization members have weapon names that are super interesting, possibly indicating a fleshed out backstory was not thought of for all of them during the creation of 358/2 Days.

Most of Demyx’s Sitars are named after musical or rock and roll terms. Basic Model, Tune-Up, Quartet, Overture, Old Hand, Da Capo, Power Chord, Fermata, Interlude, Serenade, Songbird, Rise to Fame, Rock Star, Eight-Finger, Concerto, Harmonics, Million Bucks, Fortissimo, Up to Eleven, Arpeggio, and Prince of Awesome (joke weapon). The joke weapon is a tennis racket and its name is a reference to the "Prince" brand of rackets, which have the general shape of Demyx's sitar. It may also refer to the anime and manga series, The Prince of Tennis.

Demyx’s Pandora Gear is Sanctuary, a reference to the English version of Utada Hikaru’s opening song. His Zero Gear is Arpeggio; musically, an arpeggio is the playing of notes from a single chord in rapid succession. Dance water, dance! His Mystery Gear is After School, a broom. It is probably a reference to after-school clean-up of a classroom, which is common in Japanese schools. For some, this assignment may have been given as punishment for getting caught sleeping in class. Because it brings out Demyx's true personality, it may be a reference to his tendency to "sweep things under the rug" or evidence that he was a rather ordinary person compared to the rest of the Organization.

No. XII - Larxene (The Savage Nymph)

Wields sharp knives and a sharper tongue. Her lightning strikes as quick as her temper.

All of Larxene’s knives have French names relating to storms and heavenly bodies. Her weapon names translate to Sharp Edge, Thunderstorm, Whirlwind, Tempest, Carmine, Meteor, Star, Irregular, Dissonance, Eruption, Setting Sun, Indigo, Wave, Flood, Squall, Typhoon, Eradicate, Southern Cross, Luminous, Moonlight, and Damselfly (joke weapon).

Some of her weapon names seem like a reference to Final Fantasy games. Squall, Lightning, Typhoon (summon) and Luminous (the engine). Other than that, they seem to describe a stormy femme fatale personality. The Tempest is a play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s. When the play begins, Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, and his teenage daughter, Miranda, live on a remote island where they have been stranded for the past twelve years. Unbeknownst to them, the storm is the work of Prospero, who aims to shipwreck them on his island. It is a tale of magic, deception, revenge, and marriage. The main political theme of the play is gaining power and control over others. A reference to her role in Castle Oblivion?

Her Pandora Gear is Vol de Nuit or Night Flight in English. Vol de Nuit is the name of a book from the French author Antoine de Saint Exupéry, in which a pilot is trapped in a storm. A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Her Zero Gear is Lightning. Her Mystery Gear is Light Bulb. The light bulb is the symbol of invention, intelligence, and a great idea. Perhaps Larxene was a lot more complex and intelligent than we have gotten a chance to see.

No. XI - Marluxia (Graceful Assassin)

In the arc of his scythe, flowers grow and all else perishes. His pretty face hides ugly motives.

All of Marluxia’s weapons are named after flowers along with a typically negative adjective. The only exception is the Stirring Ladle, one of his joke weapons. His weapons allude to some tragic backstory, as well as his inner resolve.

The rest of his weapons are Fickle Erica, Jilted Anemone, Proud Amaryllis, Mad Safflower, Poor Melissa, Tragic Allium, Mournful Cineraria, Pseudo Silene, Faithless Digitalis, Grim Muscari, Docile Vallota, Quiet Belladonna, Parting Ipheion, Lofty Gerbera, Gallant Achillea, Noble Peony, Fearsome Anise, Vindictive Thistle, Fair Helianthus, and Solemn Magnolia.

His Pandora Gear is Hallowed Lotus.The lotus flower is regarded in many different cultures, especially in eastern religions, as a symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth. His Zero Gear is Graceful Dahlia. The dahlia is known to represent one who stands strong in his/her sacred values. His Mystery Gear is Dainty Bellflowers or Dainty Liliies-of-the Valley in Japanese. Bellflowers symbolize unwavering love. The Lily of the valley means "return to happiness" and most often symbolizes chastity, purity, happiness, luck and humility. It does apparently indicate that Marluxia was not conceived as an evil character, even as early as 358/2 Days’ writing.

No. X - Luxord (Gambler of Fate)

Life, to him, is just a game to be won...and he has all the time in the world to do it.

Nearly all of Luxord’s weapons are named after tarot cards, with the exception of his joke weapon. His joke weapon is Finest Fantasy 13, which takes the appearance of many compact discs; an obvious reference to how the PS1 Final Fantasy games came on multiple discs.

The rest of his cards are named after the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The Fool, The Magician, The Star, The Moon, Justice, The Hierophant, The World, Temperance, The High Priestess, The Tower, The Hanged Man, Death, The Hermit, Strength, The Lovers, The Chariot, The Sun, The Devil, The Empress, and The Emperor.

His Zero Gear is Fair Game, his main weapon from Kingdom Hearts II and not related to the Tarot. His Mystery Gear is High Roller’s Secret. Instead of being related to the Tarot, its name and design is drawn from the superstition that four-leaf clovers are blessed with good luck. His Pandora’s Gear is The Joker. The Joker is often compared to The Fool in the Tarot deck. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function.

Nomura said that the “Wild Card” that Luxord gave Sora while he was fading away will come into play later and that perhaps it holds the key to Sora's revival. The Fool Arcana is often also called the Wild Card in Tarot decks. The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.

Luxord wrote a report in 358/2 Days indicating he admires children for some reason:

“I find myself envying the children. Perhaps some fundamental difference exists between those who become Nobodies as adults and otherwise. The longer you have lived, the more you are positioned to lose with such a gamble. But a child can look forward, unafraid even in the face of immeasurable odds. I doubt they even see life as a gamble the way we do.”

#anti kh3 #kh spoilers #kh meta #kingdom hearts meta #larxene #kh demyx #kh larxene #kh org #organization xiii #kh3 spoilers #marluxia #luxord #kh3 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 358/2 days

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disinvited-guest · 6 years

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10/25/18 Ithaca Recap

I was a little worried about this being a seated show, since my spot (the second row far house left) was a little further from the stage than I would have preferred. I spent the whole time at my seat low key freaking out about the situation. I shouldn’t have worried. As soon as they came onstage, Marty started freaking out on the drums and Flans demanded everyone stand up, come up to the front, and fill in the aisles.

I didn’t have to be told twice, and ended up in the front row, to the left of the keyboards, giving me a great view of all the guys throughout the show (with the exception of Marty, who was blocked by the keyboards.

A few general notes before I start the recap in earnest. Flans was wearing the jacket that has been the center of fso much discussion over the past week. Pictures don’t do it justice, the thing is a beacon! Also, this is the first show I’ve been to where they’ve made extensive use of video projection. They were a bit distracting at first, but after I got used to them I thought they made a nice addition.

They started into Damn Good Times and before the first verse was done, Danny looked my direction and recognized me. He gave me a smile, and I think he was a little surprised to see me. Flans took time in the middle of the song to thank us for coming, noting that we “Had our choice of They Might Be Giants-like bands. The song ended with Dan’s always wonderful solo, and the crowd cheered as the song ended. As we fell quiet, a few people in the back started to cheer again, Flans looked out at them, put his finger to his lips and said “Shh!” as they started into I Left My Body.

During Your Racist Friend, Flans began singing the second verse where he should have sung the first. Dan made a face when he realized what was happening, but Flans kept going, just switching the two verses entirely. Curt’s big intro was as perfect as always, and he took his place on the riser, demonstrating clapping enthusiastically as they segued into Particle Man. The crowd was a little off the beat at times, but we got it on track for Linnell’s interlude of Here You Come Again.

As the song ended, Flans walked right over to me, hand outstretched, with the clear intention of giving me his guitar pick. I raised cupped hands, not trusting myself to take it in my suddenly shaking fingers, and he dropped it into my palm before moving back upstage. I was in shock, and checked my front left pocket thoroughly for any holes in the lining (fool me once…) before placing the pick there. As I did, they started into The Famous Polka. I didn’t even connect the dots between me having the pick and them playing that particular song until Flans was holding the guitar right over me. I desperately reached for the pick in my pocket, it taking enough time that Flans felt the need to offer me another he had in his hand, but I got the first one out in time. It was simultaneously one of the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of my life. I couldn’t even look at the guitar directly as I went, the view I remember is of Flans’ left hand changing chords for me. I was so worried I would mess it up but I didn’t! I’m not saying it was good, but it was passable and then it was over and I had played Flans’ guitar. I was in shock and I must have looked it. As Flans walked away Danny, who had been watching the event, cracked up when he saw the expression on my face.

After the polka ended, Flans asked Linnell what he had done that day. Linnell said that he had heard that ACDC was getting a new singer, and that it was a crow. He did an impressive crow imitation, moving from a few simple “caws” to saying “back in black!” in a crow’s voice.

Flans mentioned that “the guy who wrote Back in Black and was with the band for 30 years” had to go because “you know how new guys are.”

Linnell then informed us all that crows were really smart and asked if we had seen “that video of a crow trying to get food out of a jar.”

“They [ACDC] could work that into the act,” Flans told him.

When asked what song was next, Linnell said that this was the first time in 30 years they had had a good segue for the song, and that it was about what they were just discussing. Flans was clearly baffled, but Dan and Danny, who were looking off the setlists, were nodding and laughing behind Linnell. “See, Dan and Danny know,” Linnell told Flans.

“I know they know,” Flans replied, a little frustrated “I wish I had a setlist in front of me so I could know too.”

The next song was as fitting as Linnell had said: Birdhouse in Your Soul. They then went straight into the Guitar, meaning two of the highest energy songs of the night were back to back. Linnell was jumping around a lot, and his one ear monitor, which he had out of his ear and hanging fairly loose, bounced so much it almost hit him in the cheek. While Flans was introducing the Future of Sound, asking us to put our hands together, Linnell “demonstrated” by pounding his two fists into each other. Flans noticed and changed to copy him, telling us to put our fists together. “Who will win?” Linnell asked, once we all were, effectively, punching ourselves.

“Left fist! Ow! Right fist! Ow!” Flans chanted rhythmically. We all switched back to more conventional clapping as the Future of Sound began. Linnell was basically responding to Curt’s trumpet using his Kaoss pad, but he also would bang his fists and head on the keyboard. Altogether, it was the perfect blend of funny and musically interesting.

After they wrapped up The Guitar Flans stepped back up to the mic to ask Linnell what song was next. When Linnell told him it was off of Mink Car, he replied “Aww that’s not good. That’s gonna mess up...it was going so well!” Rather than go straight into the song, Flans told us that he loved Ithaca, and “I spent four-thousand dollars at an antique store today.” He then began describing one of his acquisitions to us, a bottle labelled “lead and opium wash” which he has since posted to his instagram. He told us that he was amazed that it was freely available for sale, since there was some liquid still left in the bottle. “I could do without the lead,” he announced, getting a laugh from the audience, “And I could probably do without the opium.” Linnell noted that it was just like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, “It will balance your chakra, and it’s also addictive!”

Flans told us that the strangest part was that it said “poison” on the bottle. “Would you like to buy some poison?” he asked us in a gravelly voice. He moved on to speculate what exactly a lead and opium wash would do to him.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Linnell answered

The audience laughed, but Flans said “And that is pure research.” Apparently this was a reference to a movie, but Flans couldn’t remember the title. He described it as being about two identical twin scientists, and one of them going crazy. Eventually Dan came up with the title (which I can’t remember) and Flans started to go on with his description, but then stopped, saying that he shouldn’t be telling us spoilers in front of Marty. Marty protested that he had already seen the movie, but Flans went on to say that Marty is “so anti-spoiler that, even though we hadn’t seen the movie, mentioning the title of A Star Is Born was a spoiler because it revealed that a star was born.” Linnell then relayed that Marty had seen the movie already, so Flans went on with his story.

He explained that in the movie, when the one brother goes crazy, the other brother is trying to cover for him, and so he tells everyone that he had moved to pure research. According to Flans, he and Robin now use that term to refer to someone “flipping their shit.”

Linnell then told Flans that he always claimed that he was researching a character “whenever I’m throwing a temper tantrum.”

Flans then asked Linnell what the next song was again. Linnell told him it was from Mink Car, and Flans remembered “Oh right, and it’s going to ruin the energy of the show.” He paused, then added “More than this long, rambling…” he trailed off and they started into Bangs, which sounded amazing and didn’t ruin the show’s energy at all.

From Bangs, the band started straight into Authenticity Trip, but Linnell wasn’t ready, and announced that he hadn’t come in when he was supposed to. The band kept playing the opening refrain, obviously expecting him to join in so they could move on, but he made them stop and start over again because it was “what his character would do.”

After all but crawling on the ground during authenticity trip, Flans returned to his mic stand to call for some audience participation, since it was the part of the show where we got to be “masters of showmanship” like them. He told us that when we heard the words “new song” we had to pretend we were excited, “I know there’s nothing worse than hearing a band’s new songs,” and cheer and throw our hands up in the air.

We tried it, Flans announced that they were going to play a new song and we screamed for all we were worth. Linnell, who was coming over to his accordion mic, pretended to be blown backwards by the noise. Flans had us do it another time, then they played Let’s Get This Over With. They segued into Doctor Worm from there. In final verse, which Linnell usually does in that broken-sounding, croaky voice, he instead shouted the first word of each line over Flan’s backing vocals, which sounded really neat.

Linnell announced that the next song was one they hadn’t played yet on this tour, then paused and added “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

Flans told him it was so the audience would “get to see us looking at our hands.” Rather than start the song from there, Flans told us more about his shopping trip, announcing “I bought my first piece of taxidermy today.”

He described it as looking like a tiger, but much smaller. He wasn’t sure what the actual animal was, and Linnell seemed skeptical from the description that it was real, and a bit put-off by the concept.

Flans had already worked out a plan for bring the thing home “Before I unwrap it, I’m going to tell R-- I’m going to tell my wife Robin that if she never wants to see it again, that’s fine, but if she likes it I’m gonna start waxing my mustache.”

Linnell told him that introducing taxidermy to a person was just like introducing a new song. “You have to introduce it slowly, and if she stands up and claps you know it’s good.”

Danny, who had been looking anxious throughout the banter, stepped behind Linnell to ask if they were going to start or not. “Danny wants to start the song,” Linnell told us, and made some reference to what his character would do before they began Museum of Idiots. I’d never heard this live before, and it was fantastic. I was especially enthused about the bassline, which is as amazing live as on the recording.

As they finished, Linnell mentioned that he thought it had gone well before moving to get the contra alto clarinet from it’s stand. Flans agreed with him, then introduced the instrument as being on the endangered species list.

“Like miniature taxidermied tigers,” Linnell shot back.

This brought them onto the idea of a “miniature taxidermied contra alto clarinet.” Flans decided that “once you make a taxidermied contra alto clarinet, you know everything there is to know about taxidermy.” This got a huge cheer. Danny then pointed out that this was another new song which Linnell relayed to the crowd and we cheered again as they started into All Time What. I always love to watch Linnell joining Curt on his riser during this song. Once he’s up there, he always bows to Curt, which is hilarious.

Linnell put the clarinet away as Flans announced they were coming to the end of their first set. They played When Will You Die, during which Linnell included “and that’s Curt,” and moved on to Spy.

The beginning of the song was what I can only describe as a personality-filled intro from Curt. It sounded amazing, but it was also clear that he was having a lot of fun with it. He was stepping around Danny, angling his trumpet so it was aimed directly at his bass, and sometime out at the crowd. As he finished and started to walk back to his drum riser, he turned and played a bit more over his shoulder before they started the song. When it was Linnell’s turn to direct the ending he started by playing that “now the night is gone” alternate the band. Then he switched to his crow imitations from earlier that night. The next time he let the band go, Dan played the guitar riff from Back in Black (Because apparently he can just DO that!) When Danny looked over at him, surprised, Dan just shrugged like it was no big deal. When Flans directed, he started by having Curt then Danny play really closely together, which they managed to an incredibly precise degree, eventually expanding to the rest of the band then bringing the audience into the mix. We were a little slow on the uptake, but eventually got the hang of it, and Flans began to experiment with just how little he could move to cue the band or the audience. By the end, he would sway just a fraction of a degree one way or another, his movement barely perceptible. Eventually, he grew tired if it, and they finished the song, finishing out the first set.

A few people returned to their seats during the break, but most of us stayed where we were. After Marty’s electronic drums had been set up, they were covered by a Canadian flag with a pot leaf in place of the maple leaf.

After we all watched the Last Wave Video, Marty and the Johns returned to the stage, with Flans introducing the first song by telling us we “probably heard the title in 9th grade AP History Class.”

“Like all the songs in our second set,” he continued, “this song was written by George Soros.” He explained that George Soros had written this song in the early 19th century because “he doesn’t age.”

Linnell jumped in to note that “As you can tell, we put our own spin on it,” before they started into Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.

Flans told us that the next song was also by George Soros, but for this one, they were going into the future: 1844. Flans went on to reveal that at a meeting of their secret society, they had stolen the song for themselves before having Linnell introduce James K. Polk.

I believe it was at the end of Polk when a series of loud pops could be heard. After they finished, Linnell turned to Flans and said he wanted to “make sure that wasn’t just me having an aneurysm.”

Flans told him “It was all three of us having an aneurysm.” Before learning that the PA had briefly gone out. He told us all that the problem with that kind of noise is that “they have to happen an even number of times.” He checked that everyone could hear him, then asked the people in the balcony if they could hear him. When they cheered in response, he called up “Good! We thought you were just being nice!” He then stepped forward and said in a much quieter, mumbling voice to the people up front “They can’t hear us. They’re just being nice.”

By then, Curt had joined them onstage, with Flans introducing him, and getting the asked-for cheer when he told us they were about to play a new song, I Like Fun. Watching them perform this, I noticed that Linnell has become a lot more confident with the contra alto clarinet since I first saw I Like Fun performed, which makes the song tighter and better-sounding overall.

The next song Flans introduced as being from September “awakening all of those fond September memories,” and was, of course, Applause Applause Applause. It was amazing! Marty got to use a whole lot of weird and wonderful sound effects on his electronic drums for it (bells, clicks, etc) and Curt’s trumpet sounded amazing in place of the sax on the dial-a-song version.

The last song of the Quiet Storm, introduced simply as being from Factory Showroom, was How Can I Sing Like A Girl. Flans then reintroduced Curt as being on the trumpet AND the valve trombone, who began the intro to Istanbul downstage of Marty’s drum riser. While he was blowing everyone away, Flans and Danny helped Fresh to move Marty’s electronic drums off the stage. They finished with plenty of time to start Istanbul.

As Curt returned to the drum riser, I noticed that his thumb was wrapped in gauze and secured with neon electrical tape. I guess it made his a little clumsy, as he dropped his water bottle cap, which bounced off the riser out of his reach. He looked at it for a moment, then shrugged and put the bottle down capless and continued with his part. I hope it didn’t spill later on!

The song was capped off with two especially committed fake endings, the second one fooling me for a moment. The final ending included a bit of Dan and Curt switching off lead, which is always one of my favorite concert moments.

Flans then moved upstage so they could do their phone call bit. The phone ‘rang’ and Linnell apologized, saying he had to take it. The call came from their new manager, Richard Face, who wanted to introduce himself.

“Richard Face?” Linnell asked.

“That’s the name my mother gave me.”

“Your mother Mrs. Face?”

“MS. Face. I was born in the 80s.” replied ‘Richard’

Linnell thought about that for a moment, then asked if his mother’s first name was Jerk.

“No.” was the only answer.

Linnell said he was glad to meet him, and then announced “our new manager!” to the audience.

‘Richard’ grumbled “I don’t know, I might sell your contract to Live Nation,” then ended the call.

The dial tone ended, and Linnell was about to move on, when the phone rang again. Danny, from behind Linnell, looked over at Flans moved to sit on the edge of the drum riser, apparently deciding the bit might take awhile.

It was Richard Face once again. “Hello? Oh, that was a pocket dial. I have to go buy a Chevy Volt.” He said, and then the dial tone sounded once again.

Linnell chuckled, then explained “That was a call back to a conversation we had backstage.”

The phone rang once again. This time ‘Richard’ was angry “I didn’t appreciate that comment about my mother.”

Linnell told him it wasn’t a comment at all, but “pure research” and the dial tone sounded again. This time, Flans kept pressing and letting go of the button, so the sound stopped and started repeatedly. “I don’t know if we’re done with this segment or not,” Linnell told us after it had gone on for a few seconds. This prompted Flans to stop pressing the button and walk away to begin the next song. After a few steps though, he stopped, looked over at Linnell, and reached back to press the dial tone one more time. He moved away once again, and Linnell introduced the next song as “about an ancient near-eastern rock band that had a TV show on at 8:30/7:30 central when I was growing up.” This, of course, led into The Mesopotamians, and from there straight into Why Does The Sun Shine?.

The song was going along with amazing energy, Danny was absolutely killing it, and Flans had the lyrics. Then, it was time for Linnell to share the sun facts. In the driest, slowest, most high-school-teacher drone, he began. It was the funniest thing I had ever heard, especially in contrast to the loud, fast song. I’ve forgotten bits of it because I was laughing too hard (and because it’s hard to sort between nights...shh). The highlights:

“The sun i so hot that everything on it is a gas aluminum, uhhhh copper….metal, gas. Gas is a gas on the sun.”

“It’s 93...miles away. The sun is 93 miles away.”

“Scientists...they say they’re scientists”

“is caused by the nucleus. That’s all I know.”

At the end of his last fact, it was clear everyone else on stage was waiting for him to say more. He finally said, in that same, slow voice “I’m done. You can play the rest of the song now.”

They did, and moved from there straight in to She’s An Angel, which started with just Linnell’s voice.

After it was over Dan, who was on his acoustic, played a few chords. Flans heard him and said “That’s right, we’re moving up the half step,” and they started into Number Three. During the song, Flans almost smacked his guitar into Danny’s face! He noticed at the last minute nad moved it out of the way, but it was a near thing.

Dan left the stage briefly while they played Don’t Let’s Start, then returned as they played Whistling in the Dark and Let Me Tell You About My Operation without pause. Flans then went up to the mic and told us that it was almost the end of the show and that he had three stage announcements to make “Let’s see if I can remember them all.” He ticked the announcements off on his fingers as he went. The first announcement was that “this next song is available for download at our website, which is 1-800 GOT JUNK.” The second was that the IFC was open for the next few weeks. Flans didn’t say much about it, telling us it was our responsibility to “do some digging.”

The third wasn’t much of an announcement. Flans asked for the house lights to be turned up so he could thank some people individually. He thanked maybe 4 or 5 people, but the one that stands out is when he thanked the guy in a Science Is Real shirt. Flans thanked him for supporting their political agenda, and then went on a rant pretending to be a guy who hates when bands went political. It was muttered into the mic, tight and fast, and demanded that band “get in line and accept this dystopian hellscape that we life in,” and made an appropriate introduction to The Communists Have The Music, which is amazing live, and finished out the set.

They were back soon for the first encore. They played Twisting, and then Flans told us it was time to introduce the band. Curt, Dan, Danny, and Marty all were introduced and wowed us with their respective skill in turn. I was really happy about this long-form introductions, because I felt like it really gave each of them a chance to shine. After the introductions Linnell, who had been standing upstage on the far side of the drum riser, returned to the keyboard and said into the mic “You guys hurt my feelings!” The audience laughed, some cheered for him too, and one person shouted that we loved him as well. “Not you guys,” Linnell responded indicating the crowd.

I believe it was here that the Johns discussed playing in Baltimore the next night. Flans told us the name of the venue was “Curt Ramm’s Head Live.”

Linnell added that they didn’t know if it was all just in Curt’s head, or if was a real place. They would only know when they got there “And maybe not even then!” They finished out the encore with the always beautiful End of the Tour, then left the stage.

As they came back on stage, Flans went straight up to the mic. He told us they were playing in New York City on Saturday. He told us that they would play different songs at that show “but not too many,” and said that if we knew anyone on the other side of the state, we should tell them about it. He then announced the next song as being by the band Cub, and about New York City. After New York City, Flans announced the next song as being the b-side from their 1987 single and they ended the night with Hey Mr. DJ.

Before the house music had even switched on, Fresh was bringing the case of stickers on stage. Marty, Danny and Flans all came out onstage. Danny came over to me to shake my hand and say hello (he’s so nice!) before he joined Marty and Flans giving away stickers.

They didn’t have much luck. Aside from those of us at the very front, most of the crowd left right away. As things cleared out, Flans looked across the house at the people leaving and shouted “Hey!” trying to get them to come back and take their stickers. I got a setlist from Danny and left, walking on air.

A brief, post concert note: After a bit of unpleasantness trying to leave, I finally got to my car. As I stopped at the garage’s entrance, I saw Dan walking into the hotel across the street!

#tmbg #recap

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working-on-becoming-a-better-me · 4 years

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Day 7– July 19, 2020

A week. It’s been a week. The first few days were slow going, but then, but then, I began waking up earlier... the BIGGEST and BEST change ever.

This morning I woke at 6:50. Tempting to stay in bed, but I put my glasses on and sat up a bit straighter. I saw the sky was lightening, so I went to the window and– it was breathtaking. I stared at the sky until 7:03 until I decided to grab my book.

So, I read a chapter of my book out loud to the birds while occasionally glancing up to marvel at the shifting skies. By 7:30, most of the clouds were white and the sky was losing the pink touch, so I headed back inside. I’d just finished my chapter around that time and so took a final few seconds to relish in the cool morning breeze and bird song before hopping back into bed.

I looked at college things for about forty five minutes* while also marvelling at how my sheer curtains were slowly beginning to turn golden from the beaming rays outside. It’s 8:30 right now!

*I’m so scared about college– my sister got into such a good school and I have a lot of friends who just graduated going to really good schools (a close friend of mine is going to Cornell. He regrets EA-ing because he though he could do better– he honestly could though; the kid’s a talented genius. But omg if my sister gets into a good and widely known school and I go to... idk not that great of a school, I will be so embarrassed...

I really can’t believe, though, how much of a difference this new routine has made on me. A part of me feels guilty for ‘wasting time’ (like spending an hour looking at colleges). I look at the time and I’m like, ‘8:30 already?” But then I reflect on the fact that I don’t need to spend every minute being productive– but in fact I am. Every minute I spend breathing in the fresh air is another minute for my mind to rest and my body to feel happier. Every second I stay looking at colleges is another second to fuel my motivation, to teach me something new about schools I might apply to.

I feel like, since I’ve made such a drastic switch, my automatic response is to make a drastic switch. But I have to remind myself that waking up at 6:50am as opposed to 1:30pm is also plenty good. I don’t also suddenly need to become a robot who never relaxes. If I do that, if I buy into the mentality that to become better, I must do so instantaneously, this process won’t be fun and I’ll probably end up giving up.

Exactly 9:00am right now. I’ve written on my other tumblr blog (idiosyncrasy at its finest), scrolled through tumblr, and emailed my apush teacher about the five I got on the AP exam I still can’t believe it I am so so so happy and so proud of myself.

By 10:28, I’ve gotten ready for the day (ooh skincare routine <3), I’ve reviewed SAT notes my sister took from an online course (I highlighted to make sure I was comprehending and to avoid skimming on my part), and I’ve clipped my nails, on both my toes and fingers– a small thing, but a thing nonetheless! Taking care of my physical appearance and also minimizing the risk of more chipped nails and painful bendings (? you know when your nails are long and you hit a cabinet door or some other object and it bends past the white part? ouch! happened to me yesterday :( ). All the while, I was letting MinuteEarth videos play in the background (I particularly liked their one on Ambergris!). Their videos are always on interesting topics with equally catchy video titles + are typically very short, which is good for my short attention span. Occasionally, if still interested, I’ll google the topic and read further. Love them!

Short summary of events:

*watched a movie (Ghost Town)

+ went to the store to buy corn + sugar

- dad scratched the car

+ to try and cheer him up, I gave him a massage - he brought up race relations and... it was very frustrating for me to try and be positive and be glad I was making an effort... I tried to be positive, but mainly just sat and rolled my eyes or scrunched my nose when he said something offensive

+ I took a shower and sang! So loudly! I was belting, voice cracking (but not really! I sing better loudly!)

*family came over + I baked brownies while my family got a headstart on eating... I was a bit upset because the evening hadn’t been going that smoothly, I felt rushed in having to get everyone cups, drinks, chairs, silverware, taking dishes away... + I washed a lot of dishes - gagged a lot because I wasn’t feeling well + people liked the brownies! They were Betty Crocker, but still... - I had to wait a long time but + got to crush my cousins in MK11

- I ended up going to bed at 12:00 + Even though I had to sleep later, I didn’t want to give up my nightly reading. There was an interlude in the book, and I’m thankful I made it there that morning so I only had a few pages to read! I shut off my reading light at 11:58 * my fitbit says I fell asleep at 12:17

#progress #tracking #night #sleep #routine #positives #negatives #self care #self #self betterment #better #betterment #waking up early #care #track #journal #logs #daily #update

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gigsoupmusic · 5 years

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Taraf de Impex and Fanfare Ciocărlia electrify Brixton with Balkan Beats

Forget about Roman London. Last night, London was proudly Romani. The Electric Brixton was packed to the rafters with well over fifteen-hundred frenzied punters as first Taraf de Impex, and then Fanfare Ciocărlia, brought a taste of the Balkans to Lambeth. 'Felicitări!'

Ask the average Brit on the street to name a Romanian contribution to the music scene and, sadly, you would be hard-pressed to hear anything other than the Cheeky Girls. Ask someone a little more erudite and, if you're lucky, they may have heard of Angela Gheorghiu, the soprano singer, whose version of Puccini's La Rondine is out of this world and a firm favourite among opera enthusiasts.

As it happens, many Brits and indeed people around the world will have heard Fanfare Ciocărlia's music before, though they will be excused for not realising they were Romanian. During the end-credits of the controversial comedy about a fake Kazakh journalist, Borat, cinema-goers heard their bizarre uptempo cover version of Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild, originally made famous in the classic 1969 movie Easy Rider. However, with no prior knowledge about the soundtrack, most will have assumed, erroneously of course, that this was a Kazakh band. But Fanfare Ciocărlia are no more Kazakh than Hammersmith-born Sasha Baron Cohen. They are Romanian. Very, very Romanian. Given that the average Brit's knowledge of Romanian music is so poor, it is thanks to music promotors such as Kazum, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, and the media company Romanians in UK, among others, to help set the record straight. And, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of the congregated throng appeared to be from the Romanian diaspora, a decent percentage of those voices I heard around me appeared to have London accents. So perhaps, in a few years time, and with more concerts such as tonight's, there will be less ignorance about Romanian music in general.

I first fell in love with this type of music via the outstanding opening to Emir Kusturica's Palme d'Or-winning Serbian movie, Underground, which came out in 1995. The classic comedy begins with a marching band running behind a horse and cart, playing Balkan gypsy music written by Bosnian composer Goran Bregović, who later went on to compose Ovo Je Balkan, the song that allowed Milan Stanković to represent Serbia at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. It is a scene that has stayed with me for almost twenty-five years and it introduced me to this genre.

It is not at all odd to discuss Serbian traditional music in a review about Romanian music. Balkan traditional music is very much intertwined across those many borders that have been defined politically. A brief look at Fanfare Ciocărlia's discography will reveal songs written by the legendary Romani Serb Šaban Bajramović (aka Šabi), and you must check out an album called Balkan Brass Battle, in which Fanfare Ciocărlia took on, battle-style, the Boban & Marko Marković Orchestra, a brass band from Serbia, which was recorded at the Pensiune Dracula hotel in the north of Romania in 2011, one of the classic albums from the Berlin-based Asphalt Tango Records, who were furthermore one of our many hosts yesterday evening in Brixton.

Gheorghe Anghel "Caliu", on violin

The evening started with a real treat. Taraf de Impex is a brand-new side-project of Taraf de Caliu, a group of lăutari (Romanian traditional musicians) headed by charismatic violinist "Caliu", which is the nickname of Gheorghe Anghel (no relation to the similarly-named aforementioned opera singer). Many of the other musicians bedecking the Electric Brixton stage were, like Caliu, former and present members of a rather more well-known group called Taraf de Haïdouks, who appeared in many movies, most famously Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, starring Johnny Depp among others, who is a huge fan of the band.

The best way to describe their music would probably be 'electro-Gypsy', though it's very hard to define it exactly. We were introduced to one song as being a cha-cha-cha, but it was like no other cha-cha-cha I had ever heard before. Many tracks were gloriously jazzy. Various guests were brought on, clearly luminaries from the Romanian gyspy scene, including Haïdouks' accordionist Marius Manole and some really unique singers towards the end who deftly showed how one can truly turn one's own voice into a musical instrument.

Caliu (left) and Marius (right)

It was a joy to watch some of the traditional instruments come out, in particular to hear the cimbalom, a type of hammered dulcimer originally from Hungary and known in Romania as the țambal mare. This was a unique opportunity for most of the Westerners in the audience, though no doubt quite old-hat for the many Romanians who made up the majority.

The traditional cimbalom, or țambal mare.

Following a short musical interlude of Balkan tunes courtesy of DJ Sacha Dieu, the main act came on to rapturous applause. Fanfare Ciocărlia began fairly low-key, with openers Toba mare and Sirba monastirea, the latter from their celebrated first album Radio Pașcani, but soon began to up the tempo in a way that only these twelve Roma musicians know how, including a number of tracks from their most recent album, Onwards to Mars!, including Saintes & Dates and Mister Lobaloba, the latter being as far removed from Mr Bombastic aka Shaggy's original song as you could possibly imagine.

Fanfare Ciocărlia take to the stage As it happens, there weren't as many cover songs as we were anticipating. A blast of the intro to their version of Gershwin's classic Summertime was disappointingly short, as was their nod to the 007 James Bond theme-song. They didn't even bother with the Venezuelan classic Moliendo café, though I was most disappointed not to hear their famous version of Duke Ellington's classic Caravan, one of the many songs they played alongside the Serbian brass band on the aforementioned Balkan Brass Battle album of 2011, and which had previously appeared on their fourth album, the 2005 Asphalt Tango release Gili Garabdi – Ancient Secrets of Gypsy Brass.

There again, with such a large back-catalogue, there were always going to be some disappointed people. Not that we could see many, however. All around us people were whipped up into a frenzy, with hands in the air, girlfriends on shoulders, coats and jumpers thrown around the auditorium. When the band finally played Born to Be Wild, the crowd went, well, 'wild', as foreshadowed from the song's title. Now, back in the mid 1990s I was a regular at this venue, then known at The Fridge. I was a devotee of the Goa trance scene, attending the legendary Friday-night parties Return to the Source and Escape from Samsara, as well as the odd Pendragon event. I have not, since those heady days, seen a more up-for-it crowd in this venue than I did last night. In fact, I would even say that they were on a par. Hands flailing around to the high-energy Balkan beats made trips to the bathroom hazardous, especially while carrying an expensive camera like we were. Plastic glasses of beer procured from the bar often did not complete their journey intact as they made their perilous voyage towards our vantage point. Although the smoking area on the top floor was packed early on in the night, so much so that people had to sit on the floor between the legs of strangers, as soon as Fanfare Ciocărlia came on, said area was completely empty, as this photo below shows. Indeed, in my three visits to the smoking area during their set, I did not see another soul.

The smoking area at the Electric Brixton, empty throughout Fanfare Ciocărlia's set Such was the power of this village band from Zece Prăjini in the north-east of Romania that that the hoards of erstwhile chain-smoking Romanians that had earlier filled the smoking area had decided to stay on the dancefloor, as though under a gypsy spell; a spell that had so captivated a sound engineer from Berlin who came across them by chance in 1996 – around the time I was dancing to Goa trance at The Fridge, as it happens. The rest, as they say, is history. Come 2012 they were entertaining the audience at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Ironic, as 'peace' is the last thing you can expect from this loud band. They are not called a 'Fanfare' for nothing.

Born to Be Wild was swiftly followed by Iag Bari, the eponymous track from their third album, and two stage invaders began to dance with the musicians, which did not appear to faze them too much. As the security chased them off, the band was coming to the end of their set, which – unless we imagined it – included a short cover of The Turtles' classic Happy Together. Finally, to rapturous applause, they finally left the stage, but not before all twelve members decided to join the audience and play their instruments among the sweaty already tightly-packed crowd. Some members of the public even slapped notes onto the shiny foreheads of some of the players. This is a tradition that goes back some time, most notably at Balkan gypsy weddings, and commonplace at music festivals such as the famous Trumpet Festival held at Guča in Serbia, which attracts over half a million people every year and succeeded in leaving Miles Davis astounded. Below you can check out a nine-minute video we filmed last night, starting with Fanfare Ciocărlia's version of Born to Be Wild, followed by the band's promenade through the Brixton crowd at the end of their set. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Mfej5KxgQ Video of Born to Be Wild, followed by the promenade through the crowd Do check out the book Gypsy Music: The Balkans and Beyond, by Alan Ashton-Smith, which dedicates quite a lot to both Taraf de Haïdouks and Fanfare Ciocărlia as well as describing traditions such as the gifting of money to musicians as detailed above, and so delightfully reconstructed in London SW9.

Kudos to Kazum and all the other promoters and organisers who made this fantastic evening happen, and for promoting Romanian music to a wider audience. Hopefully, one day the Cheeky Girls will no longer be the first to come to the mind of the average Brit when asked to name a famous Romanian musical act. A fantastic evening. Or, as the Romanians would say, 'Extraordinar!'

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#Caliu #Electrogypsy #FanfareCiocărlia #TarafdeHaïdouks #TarafdeImpex

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canvaswolfdoll · 7 years

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CanvasListens: The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone was a tough sell to me, despite (and possibly because of) seeing it pop up as various artists I respect began getting into the podcast.

First off, despite my love of the hobby, I have a rather low tolerance for second hand accounts. Short stories focusing on a singular, amusing event is great. Multi-part text narratives are a no go. Likewise, I’ve always had difficulty getting into actual play podcasts, since most that I encounter don’t really put a lot of weight on actual entertainment over, you know, just putting a recorder in the middle of the table during the usual game night. So I listen to very few Actual Plays.

And by ‘few Actual Plays’, I mean One Shot (Which does a good job of rotating content and keeping the separate narratives relatively short and self-contained) and Campaign (Which started with good production quality, and already had my loyalty due to being a One Shot spinoff show.) I don’t even listen to rest of their network.

I’d made a couple attempts at Critical Role, but since it’s a continuation of the cast’s ongoing campaign (thus continuity lockout) and was confined to YouTube for years (thus I couldn’t really listen while driving, running errands, or doing chores), I just couldn’t force myself to be invested. And it’s cast is a bunch of Voice Actors! I love voice actors!

Basically, a bunch of the usual complaints I have about media accessibility.

Further, as Adventure Zone’s popularity began exploding, I admit there was a degree of resentment on my part. I’ve longed harbored a desire to have my own Actual Play show, and if the genre’s exploding now, while I’ve still got no concrete plans, chances are, once I do have my act together,[1] I’ll again be starting during the twilight period of the genre.[2]

Dang it, McElroys! Don’t you burn the fuel before I even board!

Still, it was becoming a talking point, and was a downloadable podcast, so it wouldn’t hurt to try. Probably drop it after an episode or two.

The first couple of episodes were not promising. Players were mostly newbies, with a lot of rules talk; they were running the adventure that comes prepackaged in the Starter Set, which means I had to sit through the session that I’ve literally either tried to run or play several times. And it never gets past the freaking bugbear.

So, of course, after completing that specific portion, the McElroys promptly leave the rails, lightly skip past Phandalin, so I didn’t even get to finally see what’s supposed to happen after the lengthy mechanic and battle tutorial!

However, that’s also the point Griffin began making the story his own, so I might as well keep listening as I eat my slice of pre-work CostCo Pizza.

That’s what the series mostly was. Background noise as I prepared for work. The first couple arcs were okay. Not amazing, but okay. The performers were good comedically, and they seemed to be having fun, so it was alright.

I was intrigued by the premise of the second arc. Train-based mystery, huh? Sure. I’m always game for playing with tropes. Griffin, and the players, were beginning to explore character voices, and the NPCs were getting livelier. I admit, I was a quick sell on Angus. The precocious boy detective being placed in the middle of a train mystery, perpetrated by a serial killer, with a rather maimed body is just the right balance of darkly inappropriate.

Especially since Angus was there to solve the mystery in case the Boys were too incompetent.

Still, wasn’t too absorbed. I began swapping between TAZ Arcs and One Shot series. If I got too bored, I’d just drop TAZ, since podcasts are one of the few mediums I’m able to do so, since I can only will myself to consume them in limited circumstances (basically, while in transit, or some other activity that is physically busy but mentally void).[3]

Combat, however, remained a time for Canvas’s eyes to glaze over, and nothing of value to remain.

The Lunar Interludes were fun! Building comradery with a small community is what I’m about. Especially with their bunkmate, Pringles! Even though Griffin clearly didn’t want anything more to do with Pringles.

Poor Pringles.

Petals to the Metal is marked by many as the real turning point. I… liked it a little less than Rockport Limited? It started strong while the Boys were infiltrating a bank, and Taako has a semi-hypocritical moment I recognized from my favorite Pathfinder character, where this kleptomaniac wizard objected to Merle and Magnus taking time to rob the bank while supposedly saving it.[5]

However, this was followed by a sequence explaining the Mad Max race and infiltration to steal parts which… was actually kind of dull. The dialogue with the guards was great, but then it was long stretch of explaining a compound we’d never see again, and a large fight. Then there was a charming sequence where The Boys selected their animal motifs, with Taako getting an actually pretty nice (if meta) serious moment regarding his Mongoose mask.

Then the race itself was… a giant combat. Interesting enemy concepts. Still a giant combat.

The ending of the race, while exciting, didn’t carry much weight because I’d lost the thread due to not paying attention.

Then there was the final boss fight.

Petals to the Metal had a lot of combat, okay? I don’t enjoy combat!

However, music was beginning to be introduced, and it was pretty good. I was beginning to feel it.

Then the Crystal Kingdom knocked it up just enough notches for me to go ‘Huh. The finale’s coming soon? Better catch up.’ and gently set One Shot aside,[6] lean my head forward, and marathon with purpose!

The sound design continued to improve, to the point of being used to foreshadow the events of the arc. The events also helped highlight how the show creators were paying attention to and heeding the words of their audience. In a positive aspect, Griffin began reading out the lyrics of the song. And, in a bit of hilarious and spiteful worldbuilding, explains the origins of what were (apparently) the much discussed elevators.[7]

In retrospect, a lot of plot stuff happened in the lab. Weird.

It was a good arc for callbacks and call forwards.

Eleventh Hour, however, is my favorite arc. For some reason, I’m just a sucker for Groundhog Day loops.[9] Compounding this, Eleventh Hour was set in a small community of new characters, there was a mystery element, plenty of space for shenanigans, puzzles, ominous prophecy, and a well done tragic villain. Also, backstory for the three leads.

Oh boy, the backstory for the three leads.

I was a Taako fan until this arc. He clearly was the best character. However, as it turns out, Travis really did devise a solid backstory. A few quick early life scenes, then we’re shown he found happiness, won a happy ending already, and had it stolen.

Then Magnus showed his true strength of character, and I was sold. Magnus was my new boy. He’s great.

Anyways, episodes with ‘Finale’ in the title were showing up in the feed, and I wanted to stop spoiling myself, so I really had to buckle down.

Luckily, work kept putting me in the garden center as the season was in its death throes, so I had plenty of time to sit in a small hut with my phone and a pair of headphones. I’d begun actively looking for opportunities to listen to more, take longer errand runs to have an excuse to get through Eleventh Hour and more episodes.

It was a good time.

The Suffering Games however, was less good. Not because it was designed to be a miserable experience, which I naturally love. The sequence of events had a lot good character work, especially for Magnus. The Wheel of Sacrifice is an amazing concept once your players are high enough level, and Griffin does a good job narrating and describing what each sacrifice does.

Especially the loss of memories. Each one stung. And Griffin did a great job of making a few of the choices hurt in surprising ways; in particular, Merl giving up his unused Axe proficiency. What was originally a cop out, Griffin expertly weaved into a solid loss. Then Magnus was given a surprisingly insidious choice: losing the memory of who he had sworn revenge on.

Also a mercy, considering losing Julia might’ve been worse. However, narratively, that would’ve removed Magnus’s main drive and significant portion of his character. Remember, GMs, carefully consider how the threads are weaved before cutting them!

Plus, we also got a good demonstration of how close The Boys were when Taako and Merle agreed to take over the vengeance quest without further details. It’s important to Magnus, and now someone else needs to do it.[10]

Taako got off really light, as the only narrative sacrifice was his beauty, which Taako quickly rendered moot via magic.[11] Because we learned a lot about the other two, I wish Taako could’ve loss more.

However, the non-wheel of sacrifice parts were… well, they fell flat, and since there wasn’t space for any significant character interaction with someone outside of the party (even Cam got put into Magnus’s pocket), it was just gimmicky encounter after gimmicky encounter. It turned repetitive.[12] Prisoner Dilemma's don’t work if those on the other side aren’t emotionally significant.

Sure, looking back and examining it, a lot of interesting things happened. But sitting in the garden center, waiting for customers, it felt tedious. Not sad and emotionally devastating, just… eh.

Were I to replicate it, I’d probably combine the prisoner's dilemma and Wheel of Sacrifice, and make the players compete against one another. If you both spare the other, then you’re both given a choice between two sacrifices. If you’re forsaken by someone you spared, then you take both. And if you both forsake… I guess the GM just gets to decide which one you take?

If you want to up the ante in later rounds, offer to return something lost in later rounds if you forsake your partner. And if you want to twist the knife, have those spared choose the sacrifice for those they betrayed.[13]

Sorry, slipping into SepiaDice for a moment. Back to the review.

Reunion Tour was a good trip into the apocalypse, and final check in with a lot of the minor characters as everyone bugged out. Bad things are coming, and Madame Lucretia Director has a lot of secrets to be found.

Stolen century was... I don't know how I feel about it? There was a lot of backstory that needed to be conveyed suddenly, yes, but after the arc was concluded, I didn't feel like I'd learn much new about anything substantial. Nothing new about the world, since the places visited came and went so fast, that few left an impression.[14]

There were four characters for us and the players to get to know, but... Well, that didn't pan out too well. Of course, focus had to remain on the players, but ended up giving little room for Davenport, Barry, and Lucretia to develop. So, while it was an arc of vignettes, which is usually my jam, in this case, the vignettes were too small and delayed the plot so long, that I was just waiting for them to get on with it.

(Though, it probably didn't help that I was ill during the latter half of Stolen Century and the first two parts of the finale, making it kind of a blur.)

How to possibly improve it? Well, let's put the SepiaDice hat back on, I guess.[15]

First off, I wouldn't have changed systems, and not just because I hear about Powered by the Apocalypse so often I've become burnt out without ever playing it. Staying with 5e would've maintained a level of consistency with the rest of the series, and let the players use their experience to act the part of the well traveled people they are in the arc.[16]

Second, instead of a bunch of ten minute scenes for a handful of worlds, spend an episode on a world and do a one shot. Show them preparing to leave their homeworld, then the first world. Then do sessions covering the rest of the details that need to be conveyed.

Finally, integrate the other four crewmembers into these adventures. There's two viable methods: rotate through them as a sort of 'Guest NPC' (or Guest PC if they want to bring on temporary cast members). Or, let the players run two characters (Give Lup to Justin, Davenport to Clint, and probably Barry over to Travis) while Young Lucretia can be mission control until it's time to toughen her up.

So... that's Stolen Century, I guess? I'm having a hard time remembering specifics.

Story and Song was a good finale.

I don't get to play many endings. In fact, I’ve played only the one, and... it wasn't a good campaign to begin with, so it is what it was.

The Adventure Zone, meanwhile, did what every good narrative should do: give a cameo to everyone they practically can, tying up any fraying that may have occurred. That way, the audience gets a chance to see their favorite character at least one more time.

Then, for the players, they were split up, and given an epic scene that contributed to the final conclusion, and closed their character arcs (even if that closure involves an old running gag.)[17]

Afterwards, into the breech for a fancy final battle.

Finally, the epilogue. I don't want to spoil it, but I do wish to speak on the framework. Griffin handled the epilogue perfectly. First, he asked the players to describe where the characters are a year later, then pitched what he (Griffin) would like to have happened while making it clear the player got final say, before both were happy with where we leave Taako, Merle, and Magnus.

That's how you finish a game.

Suffice it to say, I may have started with a lot of reservations, but I learned a lot, and hope to apply it to my own games and projects.

If you enjoyed this... whatever I just wrote... maybe poke around my blog. I have other reviews and essays. Maybe I wrote something else you like. If you'd like to support me and my creative endeavors, I have a patreon! I like money.

Thanks for reading.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Heh, wordplay. [2] Though, to be fair, I kinda knew Sprite Comics were ignoble going into Nintendo Acres. Still, it had its charm. [3] This is foreshadowing to the fact that I ended up making a conscious effort to listen to the show while hanging out at home.[4] [4] I was also sick with a stomach bug at the time, though. [5] In my case, Trix was happy to loot a corpse the party found on the side of the road, but not the crypt they were dungeon delving. In my defense, the road corpse had his things by accident, while the items in the crypt were deliberately interred. It’s a respectability thing. [6] I’ll be back soon, don’t worry. [7] As someone who had a player try and call out a clock as anachronistic, I can understand how that could be irritating.[8] I solved it by just saying ‘this isn’t Earth, and there’s a wall clock.’ But different strokes, I suppose. [8] There was also an ongoing debate about whether sandwiches existed. I was in the ‘Sandwich like things likely existed before the Earl of Sandwich’ camp, but I never got around to dredging up the Good Eats segment. [9] Fair warning: if I figure out how to replicate Endless Eight on my actual play show, I’m doing it. Same session, on repeat. And you’ll have to sit through it. [10] This better come up during a live show! [11] It’s always annoying when a player does that. [12] You may ask, ‘Canvas, you hated the repetitive feeling, yet you want to emulate Endless Eight?’ Well, you see, I also deeply love meta jokes on the audience. And I’m just a little Chaotic-Aligned. [13] Obviously, you’ll need a mature game group to do this, and an emotionally satisfying conclusion. [14] One was the world of TAZ Nights, but since I find participating in the Max Fun Drive off-putting for unknowable reasons, I had no context to care. [15] Which is probably a giant paper mache D12 mask. [16] But mostly I'm just sick of Fate and ApocalypseWorld. [17] Especially if it delivers on that running gag's punchline.

#CanvasReviews #the adventure zone #taz #D&D #podcasts #SepiaDice

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burritodetodo · 7 years

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Some words about Adventure Time: Elements

Elements wasn't a bad idea, it had the premise that if Finn and Jake left Ooo for a while something big would happen and it did. The set up of this idea was okay, showing that Patience used Magic Betty to boost the elementals and failed, terraforming the huge island in four regions.

All was very weird, Magic Betty and Simon knew the key to save the day, blah blah blah. But let's go to the things that I didn’t like:

Something that annoyed me the most was Magic Betty using the Farmworld Enchiridion (where did Finn get that? Would AT fix it in the future like Crossover or what?) to open another portal and bring back her Simon. The same way Magic Man wanted Margles back and, as the Martian, Magic Betty failed and was popped to Mars (!!!). I don't know if she's going to get back her sanity or if the new King of Mars is going to show her the way to cure her loved one.

Hero Heart promised a, kinda wanted by fandom or some fans, kingdom war. It was just a battle between Fire and Candy only, not Slime and Ice. I felt dissapointed by that, despite it had lots of fun and cute moments like Marshmaline playing with Flame Princess or Bonnie singing that nice, creepy song.

Patience went from the main antagonist to be put aside! She had lots of potential to or be the baddest one or redeem. It was wasted.

The whole event was rushed, forced. I read that it could worked better as the arc of an entire season, which would have worked better because it would also fill some gaps that were shown on Elements.

And I liked:

Cloudy, guys! The highest point of the miniseries. An episode that was the classical interlude before the end. It was really a S1 episode, you could feel the vibe and reminded me of Rainy Day Daydream. It showed us how Finn and Jake coped with anxiety issues in a lightened, fun way

The set up was good, not as the development, the gaps and so.

The return of some characters, like Choose Goose. They were as background characters, but it still was nice to see them. Special mention to candyfied people. I mean, Marshmaline please! Or BMO.

LSP redemption. She really deserved development, or a stellar moment. LSP was used mainly for comedy or drama (due to her exaggerated personality), but never to save the day (well, on The Monster she saved the village). Despite the Deus Ex Machina, I liked her being the anti elemental. Sweet P could also be, but I believe he has to deal with something more powerful (I'll explain later). I wish LSP gets final character development through the road to the end, like RS did with Rigby.

Voice acting: everybody were great. Magic Betty's new VA was definitely better than Lena Dunham, kudos to that. Hynden singing the creepy song and doing duets again with Olivia Olson (last time was What was missing, but don't remember if on Stakes they did). Speaking of the cute vampire, playing the candy Marceline with games and giggles melted me.

And after Skyhooks II we began the road to the series finale and there's too many things to tie: Sweet P had to retire because *SOMETHING* happened, and I believe is the evil Lich essence. If you are watching S5 of Samurai Jack, you know Jack has to deal with his fears and inner ghosts, and I believe Sweet P is going to go through that same way.

Normal Man being the new King of Mars was foreshadowed on S7 episode. How did he repair Mars and get Abe's powerful wand? Rememer GOLB? Remember it kidnapped/murdered Margles? Now that NM is the ruler of Mars he may want revenge and he has Magic Betty (and I believe he'd ask Finn and Jake for help) to finish the monster.

And Alien Jake, something that took us for surprise. Will his shapeshifting powers keep him as Classic Jake? Or it'd be a blue shapeshifted dog? It seems we’re going to have Alien Jake for a while according to @kingofooo

#burrito reviews #adventure time #atimers #elements

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the-hindu-times · 5 years

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January 2019 reviews roundup

Before I knew his backstory, I handed rock-wordsmith, Neil McCormick, one of my own demo CDs at a charity event he was hosting at Islington Assembly Hall, which included performances from Gabriella Cilmi, Bo Bruce, The Magic Numbers and fellow underachieving musician, David Ford. He gave me a look of ‘thanks but no thanks’; gritting his teeth through a previously care-free, joyous smile which immediately swayed to the upset expression of someone taking the most offense possible. After hearing him talk on stage of how he tracked down the evening’s headliner, David Gray, for an interview, I thought he might entertain my similar-styled efforts for a potential leg up. His expression seemed to suggest that he should be the one doing the approaching – maybe that was just what he was used to as he first came over to London from Dublin in time for the early 1980s to chase record labels. Either that, or me handing him the CD had dragged up his unsuccessful past to the surface. Fast forward a couple of years. ‘Later with Jools Holland’ is on the TV, and there he is - Neil McCormick, promoting the new film based on his life (and book ‘I Was Bono’s Doppelganger’) ‘Killing Bono’. Suddenly, his unanticipated mannerisms began to make sense. Fast forward another few years to tonight. We were at the Soho Theatre for ‘Chasing Bono’ - the latest adaption of the tale, in the form of a play. Most of the 1.5 month run (+ matinees) had limited availability but tonight, there are a few extra seats that could have been taken. Sat directly in the row in front of us, though, was nonother than Neil McCormick, himself – awaiting the accuracy of his fantastic fable. As soon as we entered the theatre, the stage-set suggested that this was not the typical, low-budget production expected to be housed here. This was already as mainstream and ‘West End’ as the credits would suggest; billed as a new comedy by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais - creators of acclaimed television programmes and films including ‘Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?’, ‘Porridge’, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’, ‘Lovejoy’, ‘The Commitments’, and ‘Still Crazy’, whilst directed by Gordon Anderson (‘The Catherine Tate Show’, ‘The Inbetweeners’, ‘Shameless’ and ‘Fresh Meat’). The attention to detail on design was a spot on as the delivery of the dialect in the best play we have seen since ‘The Edge Of The Pier’.

The irony is that Neil and Ivan McCormick’s band, Shook UP!, achieved the kind of success that most new bands would love but will never achieve. Not many groups could still be continuing their success now, since the mid ‘70s though. However, we headed north straight from the theatre to see a group that fitted that exact description. Taking their name from Arabic for the meaning of "black", Asward continued to add R&B and Soul to their Reggae sound tonight at Camden's Jazz Cafe. Although they are descendants from the Carabien, they pointed out that they are from Ladbroke Grove. With at least one song played from all their previous LPs, it was setlist closer 'Shine' that had first brought me to the attention of the band in 1994.

After Enter Shikari the following evening at Brixton Academy, we learned how both Ricky Gervais and Ben Howard had made their shows for named ticket holders only, with fans not even able to give their spare tickets away; losing out on money whilst those, willing to take them off their hands, missed out on the show altogether.

The following week saw 2 nights from Irish national treasures, Bell X1, at the Union Chapel in Islington. Starting out life as Juniper, lead singer Damien Rice soon left the band to pursue a solo career, forcing Paul Noonan to make the transition from behind the kit to lead vocals. Tonight, he was still switching between the two, rotating roles with David Geraghty after the band scaled down to a three-piece since the departure of film composer, David Crosby. The numbers were made up by the addition of the ‘Dowry Strings’ section, who created a delicate subtlety, impossible to have been attempted at Bell X1’s high energy, 2006 arena performance at the Dublin Point for their live DVD. I had only witnessed the band live once before – and that was just in soundcheck when they played at the Kings Cross Scala; having left to go to Soho for Ed Sheeran at the Borderline, before he later announced his own headline Scala show at that larger, 800 capacity club. The second half of tonight’s show was opened by just the three band members huddled around one microphone, otherwise playing purely acoustic – certainly not breaking the sound barrier - but similar to Norah Jones’ encore when we saw her at the Palladium. Their songs performed this way felt better than on record, and the intimacy gave them a stronger meaning, if not forgiving of some literal lyrics and some often, Frames-styled, cheesiness.

After Dan Skinner’s character, Angelos Epithemiou, headlined Outside The Box at the Fighting Cocks in Kingston, we went to see Stephen K Amos’ new show ‘Bouquets & Brickbats’ at Epsom Playhouse a couple of days later. Ever since leaving his role as the interlude, in-between the booked comics, at the Big Fish Company clubs in South London in 2001, he has been travelling to Edinburgh to perform a new show every year. Tonight, rather than just leaving it at one hour, he calls back to material from previous tours when necessary. He covered thought provoking ideas on race, sexuality and political correctness, before revealing some true tragedies that have struck him and reasons why we need to laugh. Maybe that’s why he is at the best he’s ever been, reflecting on the turnout; having nearly doubled since the last time he was there, making the show close to a sellout.

The following evening saw a disappointing show from Gruff Rhys at the Roundhouse. After seeing an impressive solo instore from him at Rough Trade East, I went along to the Barbican Centre to see him and his band brilliantly perform his fantastic new album with an orchestra. Remembering how good Lisa Hannigan was at an all-seated Roundhouse, having also seen her with an orchestra at the Barbican, I was hoping for a repeat experience. However, this evening’s sound and lighting were in battle to see which one could give you a headache first whilst the songs were not coming across as strong at all, with little dynamic.

The next day, I was in Angel for Star Shaped club at Islington Academy 2 – a one off evening that felt like how every evening was in the ‘90s but everyone there tonight was much, much older than back then. Maybe it’s strange to have a club that isn’t for the young, and mainly for larger-drinking men but who else would want the non-challenging musical playlist of Shed 7 and The Bluetones? Tonight had the guitar and percussion wizardry of Aziz Ibrahim and Inder Goldfinger performing the songs they made with Ian Brown for his solo albums. Taking on the additional roles of singing and operating a drum machine, Aziz demonstrated how important his riffs were. The small room, still with plenty more space to fill, made it possible to appreciate the techniques involved in producing these sounds and grooves, with the whole show benefiting from bringing these two masterful players to the forefront. January ended with Josh Widdicombe at Outside The Box comedy club and Nina Nessbitt at Banquet Records. Nic Bennett

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buuckybuuchananbarnes · 7 years

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Karaoke Drabble

Pairing: Bucky x Reader Words: 2,654 A/N: This drabble escaped from me a bit. Warnings: Implied smut, this drabble in general is just pretty sexy.

The smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol filled your nostrils. Turning back around, you grabbed your drink and took another swig. Most of the people in here were tipsy, if not already drunk. You looked up in time to see Wanda getting on stage. Tonight was what the Avengers infamously called “karaoke night”.

The night consisted of going out to a karaoke bar and drinking. The rule was, the first three people to get drunk enough to go on stage were allowed a free pass at their chores for the next week. The ones most commonly passed on were cooking or cleaning. What made it more interesting was that the three to sing could pass on their chores to whomever they so pleased.

Usually the two who got handed the chores were Steve and Bucky. It technically wasn’t their fault that they could never get drunk. But it was always fun to see them roll their eyes as they received the others’ chores.

Just last week, Sam gave Bucky the chore of cleaning the bathrooms. Which didn’t sound too bad until Sam told you that he gave Bucky all the bathrooms. In the entire Tower. You rolled your eyes at Sam’s prank but internally smiled. The feud that went on between Sam and Bucky was extremely funny to you. Even though it had gotten old to the rest of the Avengers, you were still new to everything.

You were recruited to the Avengers initiative about a year ago. Sam enlisted you after he saw you take on a couple of Hydra agents and come out victorious. Since you turned seventeen, you realized that you could turn invisible. This sounded awesome to anyone who did not have this power. To you, it was ridiculous.

At seventeen you struggled with low self-esteem. You absolutely hated being the center of attention. Anytime you were, you turned invisible. This made your high school a real hell as everyone would try to embarrass you enough for you to vanish. You quickly became the laughing stock of the whole school, and as such, you learned not to become embarrassed. Instead, your invisibility had become an asset to you as you learned how to control it. You could listen in on people’s conversations and get back the bullies who mistreated you.

In college, you learned about your ability to create force fields. One night you had seen your best friend and her ex fighting outside of a bar. He was drunk and she was trying to get away from him. You stepped in when he raised his hand to hit her. To your surprise, you created a force field. Glowing blue around the two of you, you both ran to your car. It held long enough for the both of you to get out of the situation.

As you learned about your powers, you grew increasingly stronger. However, this had put you on Hydra’s radar. Luckily, Sam had been there as well. He had given you a safe haven: The Avengers Tower. Though you liked Sam, you weren’t sure at first. When you walked into the Tower however, you felt at home. You liked the building, it was so big and there were always things going on. Whether that be Stark’s extravagant parties, movie nights, or other events – the team could never stay still for long. You liked the people, Wanda and Steve being your favorites. You and Wanda had instantly gotten along, and Steve was like an older brother to you. Because you now had friends with incredible abilities, you no longer felt weird.

After Wanda got off stage you gave her a huge round of applause. You took another sip of your drink, and suddenly started to feel invincible. Getting up from your seat, you went up to the stage yourself.

You decided that Dream a Little Dream of Me was easy enough to sing. Hearing the notes of the song, you counted yourself in and began. The whole time you sang, your eyes were locked on Bucky. When the short interlude came, you sashayed your hips, doing your best to look sexy. Always keeping your eyes on him.

Bucky hadn’t taken his eyes off of you either. As the music started and you sang those first few notes, he looked up at you. Though it was clear you were drunk, you had the most incredible voice. He became mesmerized by it, and couldn’t take his eyes off of yours. He thought that it was almost like being hypnotized – he had no control over where his gaze continued to stay.

You and Bucky’s relationship was fairly nonexistent. It wasn’t that you didn’t like Bucky. It was actually the exact opposite. You thought that he was the most gorgeous man in the world, but you had no idea how to talk to him. With people you had no attraction towards, talking to them was no big deal. But the ones who caught your attention always had you blushing or stumbling over your words. You learned how to deal with not becoming embarrassed, but cute guys were always the exception.

So instead of ever talking to Bucky, you would bat your eyelashes at him from time to time and smile. You decided to keep your distance and to never get too close to him, out of fear he might dislike you. However, tonight was different. The alcohol in your system was giving you the false confidence you needed. After your song you walked straight up to him, and smiled.

“Y/N that was incredible,” Bucky said, his eyes still on you. He gave you a small smile, and you blew him a kiss in return. It was clear that you were drunk, but Bucky didn’t mind. She had been incredible after all, he thought to himself.

“You. Are. Gorgeous.” You said, smiling into his icy blue eyes. Steve intervened at that moment. He knew that you already said enough to make your next morning, and sober self, embarrassed for a week.

“Y/N, let’s get you home,” Steve said. Bucky offered and Steve obliged, begrudgingly. Steve could only hope that you wouldn’t say anything else before you got to your bed.

However, Steve’s hope was quickly squashed. On the way home, words came tumbling out of your mouth, expressing your feelings for Bucky. You told him that you were always so scared of saying the wrong thing when you were sober. So you only ever looked at him and smiled, hoping that he would catch your drift that you were interested.

The admission didn’t stop there. You thought it was apparent he know about every single physical thing you liked about him. Running your fingers through his hair, you admitted that it was as luscious as it looked. Looking into his eyes, you told him how much you loved the color of them. An icy blue that you could never get enough of. Booping his nose with your finger, you smiled up at him. Grabbing the top of his shoulders, you remarked on how muscular they were. Running your index finger gently down the metal plates of his arm you beamed. You began to crawl from your seat, straddling his legs. The thighs of betrayal, you said to yourself and smirked at him. You started to palm his dick, but Bucky stopped you with a smile before you could do any more damage.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Bucky said, lifting you off of him. He knew that while very drunk, you were telling the truth. He also knew that he was not supposed to be hearing, and definitely not seeing, these things. He tried to block them out quickly, but he couldn’t help his feelings quickly rising to the surface.

Feelings, that for quite some time, he tried to keep buried deep within himself. He was a murderer, and you were, well, adorable. Even in her drunken state, Bucky smiled. Especially in her drunken state he thought to himself. He had never even entertained the idea of having a chance with you. In his mind, you belonged to someone better. Someone, like Steve. But with this new admission, and the way you had drunkenly thrown yourself at him, he started to think that maybe, he had a chance.

When Bucky finally got you back to the tower, you were unconscious. He walked you to your room and laid you down on your bed. As he did so, you stirred slightly. Tucking you in, he watched you for a few minutes before retiring to his own room.

When you woke in the morning, your head ached. It felt like someone had kicked you in the face repeatedly with cleats on. The light was also not helping you out. Dimming them down, you crawled back into your comfy bed, and lay there for a couple minutes.

As you started to wake up, the memories of last night started to rush in. You could physically feel your eyes doubling in size, realizing what exactly you had said and what exactly you had done. You began to feel even more mortified when you realized who you had done it to. You sat up, and placed your head in your hands. Groaning, you couldn’t believe how stupid you were last night.

“Hey Y/N, how are you feeling?” Sam walked into the room and seen you groaning. “That bad?” He chuckled.

“No…. Sam, I told Bucky how I felt about him. I didn’t just tell him how I felt though, I quite literally threw myself at him,” you said. You knew your face was bright red and you watched as your skin started to become transparent.

“Y/N, I think Bucky realizes that you were very drunk last night. You were the second person to get up on that stage after all. I think he’ll give you a free pass,” Sam said, putting his arm around your shoulders. You sighed, feeling very stupid for all the things that stumbled out of your mouth on the ride home.

After Sam left, you realized that you were starving. Walking into the kitchen, you grabbed yourself some breakfast and saw that there was no sign of Bucky. You sighed with relief, knowing that there was no way you were ready to face him yet. Or face him ever again. Fixing yourself a bowl of cereal, you walked into the living room and turned on some cartoons. You were so hungry you ate like you hadn’t eaten in a month. Once you finished your cereal, you curled yourself into a ball on the couch. Falling back asleep with cartoons playing in the background.

When you woke up, you saw that someone had covered you with a blanket. Steve was in the kitchen, and you smiled to yourself. “Thanks for the blanket Steve, that was really sweet of you,” you said, making your way up from the couch and stretching out your muscles.

“I can’t take the credit for that one,” Steve looked at you, smiling. “Bucky covered you in that blanket.” As soon as he said it, you felt heat rise into your cheeks.

“Did he… mention anything about last night?” You inquired, trying to sound nonchalant. Steve laughed and then looked at you, “you’re going to have to find that out for yourself.” Screaming internally, you knew Steve had been made aware about some of it. Grumbling to yourself about how Steve was no help, you begrudgingly decided that it was time to face the music.

Walking up to Bucky’s room felt like a death march. You knew the conversation was coming and you had a knot in your stomach. You took a couple breaths before knocking on the door.

Bucky opened the door on the second knock. With sweat glistening on his body, you deduced that he just finished his work out. You did your best not to stare, but gave in quickly. Noticing the way his Henley was hugging him allowed you to see his well sculpted body. You couldn’t remember if you had said chest last night, but that was going on the list as well. Knowing the quickest way out of there, you turned around and started for the elevator. There was no way you could do this. Not when he looked that damn good and you were still in your pajamas. But Bucky followed after you.

“Y/N, where… are you going? You just knocked on my door and then turned around and started walking the other way?” You could tell he was trying his best not to laugh.

“I literally cannot do this right now,” you said, looking into his eyes. Sweat started to form on your forehead from how insane his body was driving you. You needed to get out of there and fast.

“And why is that?” Bucky asked, looking completely lost.

“Because there is sweat glistening on your body and literally the only thing I can even think of doing is jumping your bones,” you rambled, and began to walk away again. Focused on trying to catch the elevator. However, before you could even make it, Bucky grabbed your hand and spun you to face him.

“Who’s to say that I don’t want you to?” Bucky looked at you devilishly. Without a second of hesitation, you grabbed him and laid a kiss on his lips. After your lips had met his, Bucky took charge. Sliding his tongue over your bottom lip, you immediately granted him access to deepen the kiss. Jumping onto him, you wrapped your legs around him. Bucky caught you immediately. He grabbed your ass to support you and tried to open the door to his room with his other hand. When he finally got the door open, you two sprang apart, helping each other to get your clothes off.

“You still like my dick?” He smiled at you smugly, the two of you stripped down. Bucky was wearing nothing but black boxers, and you could tell that he was well endowed. You thanked your past self for wearing your matching Victoria’s Secret underwear last night.

“Shut up Barnes,” you said, grabbing him once again, and locking the door behind you. Tagged: @ailynalonso15

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #marvel imagine #bucky imagine #bucky barnes imagine #mcu imagine

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jazzworldquest-blog · 5 years

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USA: #jazz @lynstanleyjazz The Sultry Swing Singer Lyn Stanley Releases Her Most Adventurous Project “London With A Twist – Live At Bernie’s”

The Sultry Swing Singer Lyn Stanley Releases Her Most Adventurous Project

“London With A Twist – Live At Bernie’s” A Direct To Disc Live To Metal Lacquer Recording With Superb Recording Quality That Was Performed Live With Instantaneous Mixing And No Editing.

Her second Julie London tribute album features the singer on a dozen standards with her Jazz Mavericks, an all-star quintet with guitarist John Chiodini, and pianists Otmaro Ruiz and Mike Lang.

Lyn Stanley has had a remarkable career in music. With the late pianist Paul Smith and singer-vocal coach Annette Warren as her mentors, she began her career out of nowhere in 2010. Her debut recording Lost In Romance ranked in the top 100 albums played by American radio stations and, virtually by herself, she has built up a large worldwide following (particularly among audiophiles) and released such popular albums as Potions {from the 50s}, Interludes, The Moonlight Sessions Volumes One and Two, and the Julie London Project, all of which have been big sellers. She was awarded Female Jazz Vocalist of the Year for 2018 by Saul Levine, programmer for KKJZ-FM, Los Angeles' top jazz radio station. Her secret, beyond her unique sultry voice and her impeccable taste in picking out gems from the Great American Songbook, has been her planning and attention to details. Whether it is the packaging, the sound quality, the material, the arrangements, the always-danceable tempos, the top-notch musicians or the producer, Lyn always goes first class. Following up on the success of her Julie London Project, Lyn Stanley decided to take a chance and record London With A Twist as a direct-to-disc album. Direct-to-disc recording is a process that bypasses the use of magnetic tape, recording audio directly onto an analog disc. The sound quality is impeccable but it can be a very difficult process that requires nerves of steel. There is no opportunity to “fix” mistakes later on, to change the balance, use overdubbing, or to do any editing. The music is recorded live, one song after another. If a mistake is made, either the entire process stops or the musicians continue playing. While all recordings prior to the Lp’s debut in 1949 were direct-to-disc, since 78s usually only held around three minutes of music, stopping and doing a second take was easy. When Lps, which held 15-20 minutes of music, took over, most recordings were made utilizing magnetic tape and engineers could repair any mishaps. In the 1970s and ‘80s a handful of direct-to-disc albums were made for the audiophile market who wanted much better sound quality. While some of those projects were successful, because the musicians had to play nonstop until a side of an Lp was filled, much of the time they played it safe to avoid last-minute mistakes. On London With A Twist, the exact opposite occurs. Utilizing her Jazz Mavericks, an all-star group consisting of guitarist John Chiodini, either Otmaro Ruiz or Mike Lang on piano, bassist Chuck Berghofer, drummer Aaron Serfaty, and percussionist Luis Conte, Lyn Stanley sounds relaxed and swinging. The singer has found that the most rewarding performances occur when she and her musicians create music spontaneously, not using any written-out arrangements. That way all of the players own the music and the results are creative, looser and joyful, sounding like a late-night set performed purely for the fun of it. And with this release, Lyn Stanley has become one of only five singers who have created a direct-to-disc vocal album containing at least three songs and 12 minutes of music; London With A Twist has over 43 minutes. Among the dozen selections on London With A Twist are such standards as “Route 66,” “Blue Moon,” ‘Goody Goody,” ‘Bye Bye Blackbird” and “Body And Soul.” Adding variety are two offbeat choices, Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac,” that one could imagine Julie London interpreting in a similar fashion. Lyn Stanley’s interpretations of these classic songs do justice to the melodies and the lyrics. She and her Jazz Mavericks create fearless performances during a swinging set that audiophiles and lovers of high-quality music will treasure.

Lyn Stanley's Favorite Takes London With A Twist Live At Bernie's (ATM 3108) Street Date: June 30, 2019 Lyn Stanley, vocals; Otmaro Ruiz, piano; Mike Lang, piano; Chuck Berghofer, bass; Aaron Serfaty, drums; John Chiodini, guitar; Luis Conte, percussion UPC Code: 672713983095 https://lynstanley.com

CDBaby's Top Selling Artist with five releases in top 300 (1%) of all sellers.

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LynStanley

Over 40,00 albums sold- Audiophile reference recordings-and thousands more in downloads and streaming

Wikipedia bio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyn_Stanley

Press Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services 272 State Route 94 South #1 Warwick, NY 10990 Ph: 845-986-1677 Cell / text: 917-755-8960 Skype: jazzpromo [email protected] www.jazzpromoservices.com "Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.” Radio Max Horowitz Crossover Media 347.267.9563 | [email protected] http://www.crossovermedia.net

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millhouse32 · 7 years

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A few weeks ago, on a random Thursday night, I went from having no real plans to meeting and seeing one of my favorite punk bands play both a sound check and a full headlining set, all for the price of on the house. This was all thanks to a contest I entered on Brooklynvegan.com via Twitter (which I really only use to enter contests such as these). The winners were to get early access to the Bouncing Souls show at Irving plaza (night 1 of a 3-night tour), see them perform a soundcheck, meet and greet the band, and then be able to stay for the regular show later that night. In the exaggerated words of Christ Traeger, it was literally the best night of my life.

I was told that the doors for the soundcheck opened at 4:30 and the event would begin at 5. Luckily I was working from home at the time and could duck out easily, responding to emails when needed. I grabbed my buddy who also works from home, and we headed down to Irving Plaza for 5 pm start time.

So they actually didn’t let us upstairs (where the band was playing), till about 5:30 or so, but with easy access to the bar with happy hour prices this didn’t phase us too much. Then we got to go up, and it was literally the 20 people who won the contest, a few crew members, and the band. It was definitely really cool to see these guys just fooling around, still in winter clothes since the venue was so cold without people in it, and actually practicing some of their older and more obscure songs, as well as some from their new album, since they didn’t know them as well as their live staples. We learned that they were planning to do something special and unique each night of their 3-night run, and tonight was going to be a 4 song medley about BMX bikes, pulled primarily from their albums in the 90s. After about a half hour of an essentially private show, the guys came out and spent some time talking to all of us. And I must say, they were some of the nicest punk guys I had ever met. We were able to engage in small talk with Pete, the guitarist, and Bryan, the bassist while shaking hands with all of them and taking a few pictures where we could. Keep in mind this is a band I’ve been a big fan of for years and even made my most recent top 20 album list.

At that point it was only about 6:30 or so, and doors wouldn’t even open for another half hour. I kept thinking, what the hell does the band do during all this waiting? It reminded me of a few points made in Laura Jane Grace’s new book: each show is very scheduled in terms of load-in time, sound checks, and stage time, but there are hours in between all of this where the bands essentially have nothing to do. Add the fact that most of the venues offer them free drinks, and it becomes a little easier to understand how musicians can fall into this cycle of binge drinking and other vices.

Finally, at around 8 pm the show actually began. First up was The Scandals. I’m not the biggest fan of them but have seen them a few times, including Jared Hart as a solo performer and backing guitarist for Brain Fallon. I definitely respect their brand of gritty Americana punk rock (or orgcore as some people are calling this genre nowadays). They performed a solid set and even threw in a little “American Girl” by Tom Petty during the end of one of their tunes. I’m going to have to explore their discography a bit more, seeing as how they are so respected by many of the bands I love in this scene.

Next up was Masked Intruder. This was a band I knew absolutely nothing about and tried to do a quick Google search on my phone, just to discover that they are gimmick band that wears face masks to cover their true identities. While no words can fully describe the experience I had listening to them for the next 40 or so minutes, it included masked band members as the internet promised, slightly offensive jokes in some melding of a Jersey/Brooklyn accent, cheesy pop punk songs with song titles like “Hey Girl,” “Saturday Night Alone,” “With You Were Mine”, and a “security guard” who proceeded to jump in the crowd and join in mosh pits, eventually stripping down to a thong on stage. While the stage show was more performance art than anything else in my opinion (and drew some comparisons to Peelander-Z), the songs are quite catchy.

At approximately 10 pm, the Souls approached the stage. They ripped into a lot of their fan favorites, including the BMX interlude as promised, and just having fun with a crowd that knew the majority of their catalog. As predicted, the majority of their set pulled from the 2000 fan favorite release, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, also my favorite release they’ve made. Noticeably missing from their set was any stage diving. The Bouncing Souls are infamously known for allowing fans on stage during their sets, but this was absent this time around. Maybe this was due to restrictions from the venue, but I was surprised. Nevertheless, they sounded great as always, and I loved hearing some of my favorites such as “Lean on Sheena,” “True Believers,” “Gone,” and “Kids and Heroes.” I always thought the Bouncing Souls were a very good live band, but not a great live band. Maybe it’s because they’re getting older (and I’m getting older), maybe it’s because lead singer Greg doesn’t play an instrument, or maybe it’s because I still have my pretentious undertones (and was hungover from a holiday party the previous night), but hearing my favorite songs by these guys didn’t give me that amazing feeling I get when I hear other bands play some of my favorites. I can’t really complain though, it was an amazing evening and I want to thank Brooklynvegan, Irving Plaza, and Bouncing Souls for creating a fantastic experience.

Bouncing Souls Setlist:

That Song

Sing Along Forever

East Coast! Fuck You!

Kate is Great

Driving All Night

Say Anything

Lifetime

The Something Special

Writing on the Wall

Streetlight Serenade (To No One)

East Side Mags

The BMX Song

Bullying the Jukebox

Lamar Vannoy

Lean on Sheena

Punx in Vegas

True Believers

The Ballad of Johnny X

Hopeless Romantic

Kid

Manthem

Kids and Heroes

Here We Go!

Up To Us

Gone

Additional Links:

Brooklynvegan Review and Photos

Encore Fan Video

“Manthem” Fan Video

Setlist.fm Post

Show Review – Bouncing Souls, Masked Intruder, The Scandals, Irving Plaza, 12/15/16 A few weeks ago, on a random Thursday night, I went from having no real plans to meeting and seeing one of my favorite punk bands play both a sound check and a full headlining set, all for the price of on the house.

#bouncingsouls #brooklynvegan #irvingplaza #punk

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themusicenthusiast · 6 years

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Saturday, May 19th, 2018 – Unhindered by an Off Night, Josh Abbott Band Entertains the Masses at Rockwall’s Founder’s Day

The sun was beginning to disappear beyond the horizon as the 2018 Founder’s Day event in Rockwall began to near the end. It wasn’t quite over yet, though. Shooter Jennings had just gotten the masses warmed up for one of the treasures of Texas Country music, Josh Abbott Band, who had been tapped as the main headliner of the event. Free to attend, the turnout was incredible. The grounds of Harry Myers were pretty full even at six that evening, when things had first gotten started on the main stage. A couple hours later and people were packed in tight, either sitting in lawn chairs or on blankets, eagerly awaiting JAB. Introduced by a host of city officials – all of whom were elated to be welcoming the Josh Abbott Band to their stage – the country ensemble stepped out onto the stage appearing grateful to be there, all of them all smiles. The last to step into view, Abbott received the most fanfare, and he wasted no time in plainly stating what their mission was for the night. “Hey, everybody…” he began, greeting the throng of fans and onlookers, thanking them for choosing to be there. “Our goal is to have you sing along and dance. That’s what these songs are about…” he remarked, later adding he even hoped they would get some people up out of their chairs at some point. The mentality of a legitimate showman, he didn’t speak in absolutes. That happening wasn’t a definite, though what was certain from the way he articulated himself was that he and his band mates were going to do everything within their power to work to make that happen. It was respectable, to say the least.

In true Texas spirit, Abbott and company broke into a rendition of “Deep in the Heart of Texas” as they set the show in motion, playing but a snippet of it. Just enough to really appeal to the heart of a native Texan, as it acted as more of a precursor to their original material. Songs such as “My Texas”, which it set up quite nicely, especially as Abbot sang about a plethora of things that define the Lone Star State. That was one of the mainstays, a cut fans expect to hear; and in the time since I had last caught JAB, they had released two albums, 2015’s Front Row Seat and the still new Until My Voice Goes Out (out on Pretty Damn Tough Records). With so many more songs in the mix in relation to that last live experience I had, I was curious as to what kind of balance they had struck. In other words, having already had a host of songs that were viewed by fans as either favorites or signature JAB tunes, just how would they would still accommodate them while also showcasing the newer material. The answer readily became apparent: they would maintain a rip-roaring pace and squeeze as many in as possible. Unrelenting, the seven-piece outfit seldom stopped, knocking out one song and then almost instantaneously firing up the next. Spectators had only begun to applaud that previous hit when they launched into the first of several songs that focused on living in the moment and savoring life, “Live It While You Got It”. “…I got to admit, this is pretty awesome,” Abbott commented afterwards, responding to the adoration that they were being shown. Shortly after they took an actual pause as he extended his gratitude to Shooter Jennings for playing before them, promoting Jennings forthcoming new release while stating how kind he had been each time their paths had crossed. The honky-tonk sounding “Hangin' Around” further perpetuated the fun party vibe that Abbott and company were working to achieve, the cheer that seeps out of it infecting those who had left their seats and congregated at the front of the stage. The work of Preston Wait and Austin Davis, on the fiddle and banjo, respectively, sounded extra lively, making it even easier for the loyal fans to surrender to the music; though the sing along that Abbott encouraged (fans asked to sing, “I’m drinking a beer” at the choruses), never got off the ground. At least it was never fully audible. Caleb Keeter got to fully showcase his chops on the guitar during “Wasn't That Drunk”, the solo that follows the second chorus being more emotional and sizzling than what is portrayed on the album. (And it already sounds quite incredible on Front Row Seat.) Upon finishing it, the mood got more mellow and sentimental, Abbott informing everyone that the next number was his personal favorite from their new record, dedicating it not only to the love birds in attendance, but also the guys who knew they were the lucky ones. An excellent and gorgeously penned piece from Until My Voice Goes Out, “I’m Your Only Flaw” was another track that sounded even better live, the full scope of emotion invested in it being more prominent. “Texas Women, Tennessee Whiskey” was another great offering from that record. Sans the horn section that is featured on the recording it was definitely different, though it was every bit as good. It could even be argued that it was better. Still a different song by JAB standards, it serves to expand their wheelhouse, though the rendition this night was more in line with a country sound, instead of the blend of that and soul heard on the record. From there the band embarked on another series of fan favorites, their rendition of “FFA” along with “Flatland Farmer” still being a striking combination, while “I'll Sing About Mine” was the icing on the cake. Together they all crafted an accurate depiction of being a farmer and/or the small-town life, reconnecting it with reality, stealing it back from some of the pop country artists who have stolen it, singing about that life without having ever actually experienced it. The classics didn’t stop there, either. Abbott shared an anecdote from just earlier in the night, a young kid approaching him, offering up a fist pump and telling the singer, “I was born for road tripping.” For him, they dusted off “Road Trippin'”, something every fan was grateful to hear. Throughout the performance the instrumentalists demonstrated their potent chemistry. During what could be considered an interlude earlier on, the drums and bass, courtesy of Eddie Villanueva and James Hertless, were in full force, creating a dynamic yet soothing piece that segued into one of the songs. Then, once that aforementioned song was finished, it was Wait that took the spotlight momentarily, playing some striking notes on the fiddle. It was made all the more captivating once Villanueva chimed in, the pair yielding something theatrical. Without question, “The Night Is Ours” had to be the anthem for the night. Another song about savoring the moment, it summed up the collective feelings everyone had about this night, and followed by “While I'm Young”, it made for another strong pairing. One where the stories seemed to intertwine in a way. Abbott even initiated a clap along during the latter of those two, the percussion being conducive of it. That was the most vibrant the crowd had been all night, most everyone finally seeming fully engrossed by the music. Good vibes and fun times may have been abundant while Josh Abbott Band was on stage, though it wasn’t a constant, things getting quite somber when the lead musician shouted out someone special that had resided there in Rockwall and was an avid fan of theirs. A woman who had passed away the previous year, Abbott acknowledged her husband who was there, sending out what had been her favorite song to her and him. And just like that, “She's Like Texas” was cast in an entirely different light. It’s surely safe to say that it is generally perceived to be a love song, one about falling for a kind and caring soul and detailing all the things that have left the individual enamored with this woman. In a sense it still was all about that, yet it suddenly also became a song that was a celebration of life, now presumably describing the endearing qualities that will never be forgotten by this particular woman’s family. A sweet and compassionate song suddenly became more of a tearjerker, especially at the end. “She's as bright as the Dallas sky; she always holds her head up high. She loves the company of her family. She has faith in God's greater plan; she trusts that I'm a good man, and that why I'll always believe. She's like Texas, and she likes me.” Abbott added on one additional chorus, performed entirely acoustic, allowing it to make that much more of an impact. To say it was a touching and emotional moment would be an understatement; and one didn’t have to know the couple in order to feel the depth of it. Things were nearly over at that point, a couple more songs rounding out JAB’s 77-minute long set. Some people proceeded to pack up, either assuming it was over or wanting to get a jump on the traffic out of there. Most stood (or sat) steadfast, though, expecting an encore and waiting to see if it would happen or not. Sure enough, Abbott made his return to the stage, first treating everyone to a solo acoustic number before his band mates rejoined him. “Amnesia” was what they opted to close this “very fun show” with, the song reaching a climatic finish that was downright amazing. The songs and overall sound was perfect this night. The Josh Abbott Band boasts more components than a lot of groups, though Wait, Villanueva, Hertless, Keeter, Davis and keyboardist David Fralin have struck up a chemistry that outshines many others as well. Cohesive and polished, they operate exceptionally well independently and as a unit, each knowing when to standout and work to further grab the attention of the audience or hold back. That revolves around Abbott and what is necessary at the time, all being absolutely in tune with one another and what works best at the given moment. Together they know how to best play to the group of onlookers gathered before them; Abbott possessing one of the best voices in Texas Country music. Delicate and sincere when necessary, he can really belt it out as well, delving into the full power of his set of pipes, a twang ever present. Yes, they sounded in fine form this night, though the show in terms of the performance felt a little off. Perhaps they were having an off night, but it just didn’t feel as moving as a JAB show typically is. At first, I believed it was perhaps because a festival environment like this just wasn’t conducive of the full show experience. There are few venues where you’re apt to find people sitting down during a concert, and in a setting like Founder’s Day some can view the music as being an afterthought to them, something die-hard fans that would shell out money for a ticket at a standard show would never consider. At the same time, the first time I saw Josh Abbott Band I had a seat at the back of a famous honky-tonk in Fort Worth, quite removed from the action but was still left in awe over the spectacle they unleashed. That feeling was absent this night, hence why I say perhaps it was an off night for them, whatever the reasoning may be. They certainly tried hard, their work ethic being incredible as they worked to make sure everyone felt like they were part of what was going on. And overall it was an enjoyable performance, but it lacked that certain magic that is usually exuded at a Josh Abbott Band show. That’s bound to happen every now and again. They have a busy month ahead of them, quite a few Texas dates planned through June, along with a few in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and even Colorado and Nebraska. A complete listing of their upcoming shows can be found HERE; and check out Until My Voice Goes Out in iTUNES or GOOGLE PLAY. Set List: 1) “Deep in the Heart of Texas” (partial) 2) “My Texas” 3) “Live It While You Got It” 4) “All of a Sudden” 5) “Hangin' Around” 6) “Louisiana Saturday Night” (Mel McDaniel cover) 7) “Wasn't That Drunk” 8) “I’m Your Only Flaw” 9) “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” 10) “Girl Down in Texas” 11) “Texas Women, Tennessee Whiskey” 12) “FFA” 13) “Flatland Farmer” 14) “I'll Sing About Mine” 15) “Road Trippin'” 16) “Where's the Party” 17) “The Night Is Ours” 18) “While I'm Young” 19) “Drinkin' My Baby Goodbye” (Charlie Daniels cover) 20) “She's Like Texas” 21) “Until My Voice Goes Out” 22) “Oh, Tonight” Encore 23) “Touch” (Solo acoustic) 24) “Amnesia”

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