#but he's beatle adjacent

[beatleswings]

BRIAN EPSTEIN watching THE BEATLES perform at the Washington Coliseum. February 11, 1964. Footage taken by The Maysles Brothers.

[supernovafics]

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄

"i'll be there for you" universe masterlist

pairing: bestfriend!roommate!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 5.6k words

warnings: explicit language, alcohol consumption, mentions of weed, “the beatles” slander (sorry?), just a lil bit of angst

summary: in which you force you and steve to have a housewarming party

general note: everything in this universe/series can be read as standalone oneshots but to understand the full “lore” it would prob be best to read the other stuff too<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Fall 1985

“Oh no, you’re playing The Beatles at full volume... On a scale of one to ten, how worried should I be for you right now?” 

Hearing Steve’s voice right then put a timestamp on how long you’d been in your current position— lying in the dark on the couch in the living room of your shared apartment, an oversized hoodie, which just so happened to be Steve’s, covering your body; even the hood was pulled over your head because you wanted to feel completely cocooned. 

He finished his shift at Family Video at seven and the drive usually took no more than twenty minutes, and you’d gotten home from your last class around five. That meant you’d been sulking for over two hours. A part of you felt a bit disappointed in yourself. 

Not enough to stop sulking and get up from the couch, though. 

Steve flicked on the light, which made you groan and pull on the strings of the hoodie so that your eyes were covered too, and then he walked over to where the record player sat atop a low shelf that was full of books, magazines, and random trinkets including a pink piggy bank that contained stray arcade tokens rather than actual money. He turned off the record player, putting a stop to the Abbey Road vinyl that you had been playing on repeat for hours. You absolutely detested The Beatles so whenever you were in a melancholic mood, it felt only right to play their music.

“Our neighbors probably hate us now,” Steve said as he joined you on the couch, moving your legs for a moment so that he could sit down and then placing them over his lap. “If we don’t get the cookie basket from Miss Johnson for Christmas, I fully blame you.” 

He expected that to get a laugh or at least a smile out of you. The mention of the sweet old woman a few doors down who had given you two a welcome basket full of freshly baked muffins when you moved in and then promised to bring you the cookies that she always made and gave to people in the building during the holidays. 

You didn’t do either of those things though. Your mouth felt too stuck in a straight line to even think about smiling. Therefore, you instead disregarded everything Steve had said since he’d entered the apartment and mumbled, “Why are guys such idiots?” 

He placed a hand over his heart as if he’d just been wounded. “Ouch.”

You pulled the hood off your head and then propped yourself up by your elbows to finally look at him. “Obviously, you’re the exception.” You then thought about your words for a brief moment. “Well, sometimes.”

“Double ouch,” He said. “But yes, guys are idiots. Which one are you talking about, in particular? Charlie?” 

You sighed and looked away. “Sadly.” 

“He’s lasted longer than I expected,” Steve told you. He fully thought that the crush you had on this guy from your early morning Statistics class wouldn’t stem past a few weeks.

“At this point, I wish I didn’t like him anymore,” You responded and then looked at Steve again, a small amused smile gracing your lips as you thought of something. “Any hot people come into Family Video lately?” 

Steve simply laughed and shook his head at you.

It was almost too easy for you to develop a crush on someone. So much so that many of them you wouldn’t even mention to Steve or your other friends because of how fast they’d come and go. 

Most of the time, the inevitable abrupt ending of the crushes would leave you feeling something adjacent to heartbreak because most of the guys you’d ended up liking were, in fact, idiots, or you’d feel disappointment because your feelings never lived up to how they were at the beginning of the crush. But there was always still something about the idea of liking someone that was surprisingly fun to you. You wouldn’t necessarily call yourself a hopeless romantic, but it sometimes felt as if you were exactly that.

You finally sat up from the couch and moved close to Steve. “Okay, spare me the supportive best friend ‘we’ve known each other since we were ten and I only want the best for you’ spiel for a few moments and just answer a quick question for me, okay?” 

Although he was completely confused and would’ve killed for more context, Steve nodded at your current antics. “Okay.” 

“If we had just finished a really hard test, and you were worried about how you did on it, and I did this,” You grabbed his hand, linking it with yours and giving him the sweetest smile that was typically only reserved for when you were hardcore flirting with someone. “While saying ‘I’m sure you did great,’ you would understand that I have a massive crush on you, right?”

He glanced down at your intertwined hands for a brief moment before ultimately nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, I would.”

“Exactly,” You said as you dropped Steve’s hand and then slumped back against the couch. “So Charlie pulling away— no smile back or anything— and simply saying, ‘Thanks. You probably did good too,’ in response to that means either he can’t read my stupidly obvious flirting cues, or he’s not into me. And, honestly, I’m almost certain it’s the second one.” Suddenly you were hit with a fresh wave of sadness and you pulled the hood over your head once again. “Please put back on The Beatles and let me wallow in peace for the rest of the night. I promise I’ll be better by the morning.” 

“I’d rather hear Harold running on his squeaky wheel all night than The Beatles on repeat,” He said and you actually perked up at the mention of the pet you two had gotten only a few months ago, barely a week after you’d fully moved into the apartment, the brown and white furry creature formally known as “Harold the Hamster.” 

Currently, he was sleeping only a few feet away in his cage that sat on the coffee table. Somehow he managed to be completely unbothered by the music you’d been loudly playing. 

“Okay, how about this,” Steve started. “Let’s order a pizza from that place close by. I’ll even suffer and let you put olives on it.”

You pushed the hood off your head again so that you could look at your best friend, only slightly intrigued by what he was saying. “Keep talking…”

“And then we’ll watch The Breakfast Club because you love it and you immediately rented it out from Family Video when we got it in,” He continued and you perked up even more at the mention of one of your favorite movies. “Which, by the way, is a copy that is weeks overdue and has probably racked up an insane amount of late fees at this point.”

You smiled at him. “Good thing I know someone who works there. And he would never let me pay any late fees.”

“Wow, he sounds like a great guy.”

You shrugged as you looked away from Steve. “Meh, he’s alright.” 

He immediately poked your side, causing you to laugh loudly. “I’m gonna make you pay all of the late fees now.”

“That’s very evil,” You said with a shake of your head, but you were still laughing because you knew that he wasn’t being serious. 

Steve ordered the pizza as you put the Breakfast Club tape in and then you both settled on the couch again. You had probably watched the movie five times since you rented it, but somehow you hadn’t grown tired of it yet. Instead, it managed to effectively take your mind off of Charlie and the entire situation with him, at least for the time being. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Steve may have been the one who worked at Family Video, but you knew that place so well it was almost as if you worked there too. His almost never-changing schedule was practically seared into your brain, and you knew the exact times the place was always busy and the moments when it was pretty much dead aside from a handful of random customers.   

Somehow Fridays at noon were one of the store’s emptiest times. 

Steve was standing behind the counter sorting through movies on a cart when you walked in. 

“Hello,” You smiled at him. “I come bearing one not-at-all overdue copy of The Breakfast Club and very fun news.” 

Steve was quick to smile back when he saw you, but it dropped when it seemed as if he remembered something. “Shouldn’t you be in your Psychology class right now?” Just like you knew his schedule like the back of your hand, he knew yours. “Your parents will find a way to blame me if you’ve dropped out of school, y’know.”

“My professor canceled last minute; her sister went into labor. So, don’t worry, you won’t be hearing any sort of lecture from my parents,” You answered as you dug in your bag for the movie. 

Steve grabbed it from your outstretched hand and placed it on the cart before looking back at you. “What's your news?” 

“Okay, so remember when we were ten and on that cruise, and you liked this random girl from New Jersey— Rebecca, I’m pretty sure her name was?” You said. “She was sixteen, completely unattainable, but I still tried to help you talk to her.” 

That cruise was actually when you and Steve met. It was a very weird serendipitous kind of moment where your parents bumped into his at the buffet one of the first few days and found out that they not only lived in Indiana, but in a town that was two over from yours, and they even had a son that was the same age as you. 

You had been somewhere sitting by the pool when this romcom-esque “meet cute” happened, but when your parents found you, they introduced you to Steve. Although at first, it felt like a friendship that was being forced upon you both, it was still nice to have someone other than your parents— actually, someone better than your parents— to hang out with on the ten-day trip. 

You beat him countless times at air hockey at the arcade onboard and the two of you spent most of the nights successfully sneaking into the “club” that was only meant for kids fifteen and up— which was where his crush on Rebecca began and subsequently ended.

“Yes, I remember that, not my finest moment. But, I also don’t blame her, it probably would’ve been weirder if she wanted to flirt back to a ten-year-old,” Steve responded and then furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, I’m confused, though. Is your news that you found her or something?” 

You immediately shook your head at his question. “No, what I’m gonna say actually has nothing to do with that, but I wanted to remind you of how supportive I was of you during that time, and how supportive you should be of me right now with what I’m about to say.”

“I’ll always support you,” He didn’t hesitate to tell you. “Unless you’re pitching the matching tattoos idea again. And then, in that case, I guess our decade-long friendship will have to end here.” 

“One day I’ll eventually convince you to do it; mark my words. And the tattoo will be one of those stupidly cringey ones where we each get a flower with the other person’s name blooming out of it.” 

Steve did nothing but groan and shake his head at you, which only made you laugh. 

“But, anyway, my actual news is that we’re having a party tonight,” You said and then continued before he could say anything in response just yet. “Kind of like a housewarming party. I realized that we never really had one.” 

“We did have one.”

You shook your head and let out a sound that was a cross between a scoff and a laugh. “Robin and Eddie coming over on our first night and all of us smoking weed on the fire escape and then falling asleep on our mattresses in the living room because we didn’t have any furniture yet did not count as our housewarming party.”

Steve laughed a bit. “It was very fun, though.” 

“It was great,” You agreed with a nod. “But, not an actual party, so that's why we're having one tonight.” 

Steve only looked at you for a moment and you knew that he was trying to read you. He was the only person that you were certain could completely see through you— he could tell what you were feeling even when it was too hard for you to put those muddled thoughts into words, and he could see right through all of the bullshit you’d spew at times. Sometimes it annoyed you, but most times it felt nice to be so completely seen and understood.

It only took a second for things to seemingly click into place for him. “Is all of this about Charlie?” 

“No,” You immediately answered, but you didn’t even sound convincing to yourself. 

Of course, Steve didn’t believe you at all and he didn’t have to verbally say that for you to know, the unspoken words were clear in the deadpan look he gave you. 

“Okay, fine. Yes, it is,” You said and then sighed as you leaned against the counter. “I saw him today and he said that he was planning to go to this party tonight and he wasn’t that excited about it, but it’s better than doing nothing on a Friday. And then for some insane reason, I blurted out that he should come to my party tonight instead. In hindsight, I probably should’ve immediately backtracked when I said that, but I didn’t and instead, this whole “housewarming party” plan was born.”

“Is there any way I can say no to this?” Steve asked and you quickly shook your head. 

“Sorry, but no. Remember what happened on the cruise. Remember how I tried to be helpful with Rebecca,” You told him as you walked around so that you were behind the counter with him. You began sifting through the cart which was full of movies that people had just returned. “And honestly, I just wanna use this party as a last-ditch effort to see if he likes me, and if not then I’ll just make out with someone else at the party to get over him. So, actually, this is a win-win situation no matter what, and this party needs to happen.”

Steve only sighed in response at first, which made you look at him again. He then was quiet for a moment before ultimately nodding and plastering on the brightest and fakest smile you’d probably ever seen from him. “Okay, fine, let’s throw the best two months late housewarming party ever.”

You smiled back at him. “Thank you.” 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

There were a lot of things Steve wanted to tell you.

One of the main things being how even though he hadn’t met him yet, he knew that Charlie definitely didn’t deserve you basically throwing a whole party for him just for you to see if he liked you back. Also, how actually most of the guys you ended up crushing on didn’t deserve your attention for a second. 

However, he knew that he couldn’t tell you any of that. Not when you’d been there through his ups and downs when it came to dating, and not when you were always supportive; even though a lot of the time it was easy to tell that you weren’t the biggest fan of the girls he went out with.

Early on in your friendship, it was unspokenly decided that bearing through each other’s plethora of shitty relationships just came with the territory of being best friends, and whenever things inevitably went downhill you’d both just be there for each other to pick up the metaphoric pieces.

However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t internally roll his eyes when about an hour into the party he finally did meet Charlie. It was a brief interaction where you introduced them when he entered the apartment and then Steve almost immediately walked away because he knew that you wanted to be alone with Charlie. Well, as “alone” as you two could be with a party that was in full swing around you. 

Your shared apartment quickly became full of at least forty people. It was a mix of people from your classes, the small handful of people from high school that you still sometimes talked to, a bunch of people that Steve knew, and anyone else that Robin and Eddie also wanted to invite. For a party thrown together at the last possible second, you both had to admit that it was a pretty solid turnout.

And also for a party that Steve hadn’t really wanted to have in the first place, he was actually having a good time. He was playing a drinking game version of Uno with Robin and a few others circled around the coffee table; Harold’s cage was placed next to him on the couch for the time being. 

After a second round in a row where Robin won— she was always crazy good at the game— Steve wanted to ask you to join because he knew how much you loved the game, even though you were very bad at it. He was even tipsy enough that he would’ve been fine with Charlie joining in as well.

He looked around, trying to find you, and it was something that should’ve happened in seconds. No matter what, it was always somehow easy to spot each other in any sort of crowded room— how effortless it always was almost felt equivalent to some weird kind of party trick. However, this time, Steve couldn’t find you. 

At first, he thought that that meant that things were going well with Charlie, but when he eventually spotted him standing in the kitchen talking and smiling at a girl who was definitely not you, he had a feeling that things had probably gone the opposite.

“I’m gonna sit out this round,” Steve said to Robin as he got up from the couch. 

The short walk to your bedroom was more difficult than expected because maneuvering through all of the people in the apartment proved to be a battle in itself. He ignored the sign on your door that said “Keep Out!” which you put up right before the party started to discourage people from going into your room and using it as a place to make out or have sex; Steve also had a sign on his door. 

When he walked in, he didn’t see you on your bed or sitting at your desk, or even lying on the floor, so he headed to the door right next to your closet that led to your bathroom.

“Hey, you in there?”

Twenty minutes ago, when you went into your bathroom, you had initially thought that you didn’t want to talk to or see anyone— you wanted to wallow alone and in silence. But, it turned out that hearing Steve’s voice right then didn’t annoy you or make you upset. Instead, it was the exact voice you wanted to hear in that moment— because, of course, Steve never counted as just anyone. 

You were sitting in your empty white tub. The cool porcelain felt nice against the exposed parts of your skin that the dress you were wearing didn’t cover, and you thought that the small confines of your bathroom would be the perfect place to spend the rest of your night; a night that had gone downhill almost too fast.

“Yes,” You mumbled, but it was loud enough for Steve to hear. 

“Can I come in?”

You nodded even though he couldn’t see you. “Yes. But, please don’t turn on the light.”

“Okay.”

You heard the door open then close and then the sound of the shower curtain being pushed to the side caught your attention and you looked up at Steve. 

“What happened?” He asked. Your eyes had long adjusted to the darkness so you could make out his face fairly well and you could see the concerned look on it. 

“I don’t wanna lie and say nothing, but I also don’t really wanna talk about it right now.” 

“That’s okay,” He said with a small nod. “Can I sit?”

You didn’t verbally answer and instead simply pulled your knees up to make room in the tub for him. He got in, pulling his knees up as well, and for a few moments, it was quiet. You could faintly hear the sound of music coming from the living room, but you couldn’t fully make out whatever vinyl Eddie decided to play on the record player.

“Someone gave us a plant,” Steve told you, breaking the silence. “Housewarming gift.”

“Oh, no,” You responded with a small sigh. You and Steve were probably the least “green thumb” people ever. “It’s gonna be dead in a week.”

“She said it’s a low-maintenance one so we’ll see how true that is,” He said as he shrugged. “Now that I’m thinking about it, though, is it weird that we can easily take care of a hamster, but a plant will barely last a week with us?”

You shook your head. “Harold provides us constant love and affection— even when he’s running on his squeaky wheel at three in the morning, it’s somehow still adorable— a plant does not do that. So, which one are we gonna remember to care for?”

“Very, very true.” 

“At least one person gave us a gift, though,” You said. “Now that I’m remembering that we called this a housewarming party, I’m actually kinda upset that we didn’t get any more presents. Where’s our fancy plates and cookware, or even a nice throw blanket?”

You were only slightly joking with your statement, you would’ve actually loved getting a blanket.

Steve laughed a bit. “If that’s what you wanted then we should’ve invited our moms and their friends.”

“Fuck, we really should’ve done that when we moved in. Such a missed opportunity.”

“I fully think that if we did do that our apartment would look eerily similar to Miss Johnson’s,” Steve said and you could imagine it completely. Frilly white curtains in the living room instead of the black ones that were currently up that blocked out the sun perfectly, and flowery pillows on the gray couch instead of the sage green ones that you found on sale a few weeks ago.

You inwardly shuddered at the thought. “Okay, yes, that’s probably true, but at least we would be using nice plates and not the Mickey Mouse ones we got from that thrift shop.”

Steve jokingly gasped, offended. “I love those Mickey plates, actually.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at that. Just for a moment, it was nice to completely forget about what happened not even an hour ago and what led you to essentially hide away in your bathroom in the first place. 

Things got quiet again and it was the kind of silence that you liked; the kind that made you feel completely comfortable with spending the rest of the night avoiding everything and staying right there in your tub with Steve, and you knew that he would’ve been okay with that too. Even though your bodies would’ve probably started aching after just thirty minutes of being in this position, and he was taller so it would be worse for him, he wouldn’t have complained. 

You focused on the muffled sound of the music playing in the living room. This time you managed to make out the familiar beat of the song; Somebody to Love by Queen. You let out a sigh because that song playing right then somehow felt way too on the nose. 

Steve reached over and lightly poked your knee. “You okay?”

You were so close to pushing the question away again, avoiding the topic and bringing up something else completely— maybe saying that you actually loved those damn Mickey Mouse plates too— but you actually didn’t feel like brushing the topic away anymore. 

“He doesn’t like me,” You abruptly said, voice quiet. “I was tired of trying to read between lines and shit, so I just asked him, and he said no.”

You noticed the sad look cross Steve’s face, which only made a fresh wave of embarrassment and sadness wash over you, but you kept going before he could say anything just yet. “And then to make that whole moment even more embarrassing for me, after he said no he pointed at this girl— I don’t know her name, I think Robin invited her— and asked if I knew if she was single or not.”

Steve’s response of “What the fuck,” was immediate and it was really nice hearing how angry he was on your behalf and it made you smile a bit.

“This past hour has been extremely humbling for me. And I know I said I’d find someone to make out with if things didn’t work out with Charlie, but I’m not even in the mood to do that,” You told him as you leaned back against the cool tub and closed your eyes. “And you wanna know what the worst part of all of this is?”

“What?” “I’m not even drunk right now, so I’ll sadly remember all of this tomorrow.”

You weren’t entirely sure what you expected Steve to say in response to that, but you fully did not expect him to laugh. You opened your eyes and lightly kicked his leg. “Wow, thank you for laughing at my pain.”

“I’m sorry. I am a little drunk right now, so you saying that you’re not is kind of funny because it feels like the roles are reversed,” He said and you slightly hated how right he was. At any party you went to, he was usually the sober-ish one helping you out whenever you drank too much. “Robin and I were playing the Uno drinking game with some people.”

“What? I can’t believe I missed that.”

“We can go play it now. You’d honestly probably win for once since you’re the only one of us who isn’t drunk.”

“Ha ha,” You said with a roll of your eyes as you reached forward so that you could playfully hit him. “I know I’m the worst at that game, but it doesn’t make it any less fun.”

“Okay, come on, let’s go play,” Steve said before standing up, and then reaching his hands out toward you so that he could help you up.

He was trying to cheer you up, you could clearly see that, and you almost took him up on his suggestion. But, the thought of leaving your bathroom or even the comfort of the tub didn’t sit well with you. Mainly since you were unsure if Charlie was still out there and you didn’t want to see him or what he was doing because you knew you’d only feel embarrassed all over again. Yes, it was your apartment and you could’ve easily kicked him out if he was still there, but it felt so much easier to simply stay right where you were. 

You looked up at Steve and shook your head. “I don’t really wanna play, actually.”

Steve sat back down with you. “Okay, I haven’t seen you this upset over a guy in a long time. What is it about Charlie? Why is he so special?”

It only took a second for an answer to come to your mind because it was something that you had actually been thinking about a lot lately but had yet to verbalize it.

“I don’t– I don’t even think it’s really about him specifically. It’s just, I’m so tired of having crushes— of liking a guy and it going absolutely nowhere… I want something real. It’s been what feels like forever, and the last time was with that guy whose name we will never say in this house. And we both know how that horrific relationship ended.” It was rare that you ever talked about that relationship anymore, so hearing you mention it right then— even in just a minor way— actually surprised Steve, it even surprised you a little bit. That relationship was something that went on from the end of your Sophomore year of high school to the middle of Junior year; close to a year of your life that you really wished you could get back because you put up with a lot of shit that you now knew you shouldn’t have.

“I want something good for once, and I thought that maybe I could have that with Charlie. I thought maybe he wasn’t an asshole. But, now I’m back at fucking square one, and it’s just so…” You trailed off with a sigh, not bothering to finish your statement.

“It’ll happen. You’ll find someone. Someone actually good,” Steve told you, his voice was soft and you could hear the sincerity behind his words. 

You let out a sigh and leaned your head back against the wall. “Sometimes I hate talking about relationship stuff with you.” 

“What? Why?” Steve asked. He sounded genuinely confused and for a second you felt bad because there wasn’t supposed to be anything you didn’t like talking about with him— you were best friends.

“Because you can get a date with any girl ever, and you could probably easily be in a committed, serious thing if you wanted to. Meanwhile, I’m getting rejected left and right or falling for complete idiots,” You answered, letting the words fall out and not really thinking about them too much because they just felt way too true. However, once they fully registered in your head, you could feel yourself inwardly cringing. “Ew. Oh, God, I sound pathetic. Please forget I said anything.” 

“It’s not true,” Steve told you with an immediate shake of his head. You almost said “Which part?” but he continued before you could ask that question. “I go on dates, yeah. But, none of them are close to, or are even leading to, something real. Even if I wanted it to, the girls I date don’t want something real with me.”

You considered his words for a second. “Well, in that case, they’re idiots.”

“Charlie’s an idiot too.”

“Cheers to that,” You responded. “God, I wish I was drunk right now.” 

Steve laughed at your words and then opened his mouth to say something. For some reason, you had a feeling that he was going to try and coax you out of the bathroom again, and you were still unsure if you wanted to get up just yet, so you decided to say something before he could. “Do you ever want something serious?”

He was quiet for a second, as if really thinking about your question. “I don’t know… It changes a lot.” You nodded at that before he continued. “Most of the time I think I do, though.”

“Well, with what you just said about the girls you date and with what happened to me tonight, I think you and I are just gonna be alone together forever.”

He let out a small laugh. “I think so too.”

You smiled at him. “And I know that should sound at least a little bit sad, but right now, it honestly doesn’t.”

He smiled back at you. “Yeah, that actually sounds okay.”

Neither of you got the chance to say anything else because the sound of the door opening caught both of your attention. 

“Okay, two things,” You both recognized Robin’s voice before she pulled back the curtain to look down at you two. “One, I really need to pee so I need you both to get out of here, please. And two, Eddie pulled Harold out of his cage and is trying to teach him to do tricks.” 

You groaned as you started standing up. “Oh, God. Not again.” 

Steve followed suit, standing up as well, as he rolled his eyes. “Why is that always his go-to thing to do when he’s high?”

Robin laughed, you easily noticed how tipsy she was. “And what makes it even funnier is that he does this all the time but Harold has not actually learned any “trick” yet.” 

“The day that Eddie somehow teaches him how to “roll over,” I will pass away in shock,” You said as you adjusted your dress, fixing how much it had ridden up while you were sitting in the tub.

You and Steve stepped out of your bathroom to let Robin use it. But, you hesitated to open your bedroom door and let you two step back into the party happening in the rest of the apartment. 

Steve easily noticed your hesitation and his hand found yours, giving it a light reassuring squeeze. “You handle Eddie, and if Charlie is still here, I’ll tell him to leave, okay?” 

You inwardly sighed in relief hearing him say that because, of course, he knew the exact thing you had been worried about.

“Thanks.” There was so much more said in the simple one-word— thank you for reading my mind, thank you for always being able to do so, thank you for being the best goddamn person in my life. 

Steve nodded and gave your hand another squeeze, hearing all of those underlying words and then some. “I have been waiting all night to do this, actually, so thank you. And we’re playing the Uno drinking game after.”

You smiled at that and gave him a quick nod. “Okay.”

You then opened your door and stepped out, giving Steve’s hand a squeeze of your own before pulling away as you started making your way toward Eddie, who was sitting on the couch with Harold in his lap. You pretended as if you were completely unaffected when you briefly noticed Charlie standing in your kitchen and talking to the same girl he had pointed out to you earlier. 

“Edward Munson put Harold back in his cage right now.” 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(also requests are open for stuff you wanna see in the universe/series!🫶🏾)

[m1ssunderstanding]

Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Day 16

Not the Love Actually India footage! https://archiveofourown.org/works/40600110/chapters/101720886 by @inspiteallthedanger is a favorite I should revisit after this painful day.

“Yes, what Were we doing?” Literally, why did you start this conversation, Paul? What did you think John and George were going to do? Just let you have your little casual chat about the footage? Come on, you know them better than that. “In your room?” “Yeah, right. I remember, yeah.” You set yourself up for this, babe. 

I would LOVE to know the real context for John’s mic-job. Because yes, that is real. He really did do that while staring like That at Paul. But it wasn’t after he said, “I don’t regret anything. Ever.” What was the real moment where John decided that was his move? And did Paul really just keep talking right over all of that? Beatles tumblr deserves access to all that footage just for all the obsessing we do. 

It is noteworthy, certainly, that we know for a fact that a good chunk of John’s India footage is just Paul, but in how much of that footage, I wonder, is Paul also focused on John?

We all know Paul approves, but why did we have to use valuable time to show monkey sex? I did not need to see that. 

“I have all the tapes, too.” Those laughs. You guys aren’t as sneaky as you think you are. Also, @ Lennon estate you won't release the tapes. Chickens.

George is just SO sick of their shit. “Because that was the purpose of going there was to try and find who yourself is.” AKA ‘I took your dumb asses on this beautiful spiritual retreat and you had to make it about your stupid psychosexual obsession just like you do with everything else.’ “And if you were really yourself, you wouldn’t be any of who we are now.” AKA ‘if you two would stop fucking hiding, we – me and Ringo too, you’ve dragged us down with you – wouldn’t be in this hellish mess.’ And here’s the thing. He’s pissed off. And rightly so. But he’s still going along with their veils and secrecy. A callback to his strumming over Paul ranting at him. He’ll still protect them even when he fundamentally disagrees. George is such a beautiful person and so underrated by people like me.

 Paul’s appreciative little look as John finally ends the difficult conversation. 

"Bye, Bye Love” is DEFINITELY *meaningful*

John calling Two of Us “Four of Us” is so sweet. Like saying to George and Ringo, “You are important too. Just because we don’t have weird thoughts about your physical adjacency to Elvis Presley, doesn't mean we don’t love you.” 

I think John’s willingness to be taught is also an underrated leadership quality of his. All the old men obsessed with Leader Lennon won’t acknowledge it, but that’s what it is. It’s humility and a recognition of other’s strength and it’s leadership.

Literally everyone else: Just don’t look and it’ll go away. John: what? Don’t look at Paul? I don’t know how to do that.

George and Ringo honestly had the patience of saints to just sit there and play through Two of Us eight million times so John and Paul could do their little accents and silly voices.

And then John can also do the traditional leadership, too. “Start again, ey. Shh, don’t talk when he’s playing there, gang.” And really, he’s the best of the four for that job by far.But it’s far from acerbic or cutting. Get Back John is certainly almost undiluted Lovely John. 

Quick reminder to anyone who may have forgotten: those boots George is wearing are literally Paul’s hand-me-downs. Earlier on the nagra reels, George was describing a kind of boots he’d like a pair of and Paul was like “I’ve got some you could have.”  Permanent baby brother status. 

“That’s a good idea, John.” “Yeah, well I’m full of ideas like that, I’m famous for ‘em. Literary Beatle, you know.” Puhlease. I know fics with more realistic dialogue.

“The things that’ve worked out best for us haven’t really been planned any more than this has, it’s just. You know, you just go into something and it just does it itself.” Yeah, George. Because of Brian. 

Paul really wants to do a big Thing at the end, because he loves performing, yeah. But what’s this about John and Yoko’s black bag? Does he think that performing together will remind John that being a Beatle with Paul is what he loves? Or does he just want closure before everything falls apart?

He really does hate to see him upset, doesn’t he. Like, I think he does a lot of things purposely to get a reaction out of Paul. And sometimes he needs to see him hurt to know he even cares. But from the way he’s watching Paul chewing his nails and rocking, you’d think Paul’s worries affected John physically. And then he breaks into “I Lost My Little Girl” almost as a sort of knee-jerk comfort instinct.  

These two shots are comedic gold.

My cabaret boys again. Heck, maybe I’ll write it just for myself. Honestly though I love that the two Beatles who loved performing and who would’ve been performers in any life (would’ve been performing circus elephants if they’d been reincarnated as animals) got to continue doing it into their eighties. One of the few happinesses in the end of the Beatles.

Get Back really is such a great character study, though. George hands John a drink. John takes it without looking at George, let alone the drink, and gulps. George hands Paul a drink. Paul smiles at him, then proceeds to sniff it and swirl it and inspect it like it might be poison before he gives it a taste. 

John chewing the mic. I hope you didn’t do That to Paul’s dick in India. What if that’s all that happened?

Bitching and gossiping: top requirements in the job description for John Lennon’s Codependent Special Person.

In these last few minutes of the day, I’m relating more and more to George. I’m sick of John and Paul and all their drama and stupidity. John suggests they write another verse of Let it Be together, and Paul looks frankly horrified at the idea.

So John lays his head in Yoko’s lap, reminding me painfully of that “ . . . except you can go to bed with it and it can pet your head without . . .” quote.

And then a few minutes later, Paul’s spiraling again and asks to go home to which John responds with a tease. “I’m just tryna get the group working, you know,” and “You’re gonna have to be strict, Paul.” And it’s just dizzying and frustrating at this point. Where are they possibly going to go at this rate?

[butchsophiewalten]

There was another space last night. Only found out about it this morning and apparently they mentioned a dog animatronic named Ringo. Could you do a recap on it?

OK twitter space recap again. Just for clarity, a lot of these answers are effectively verbatim, but have been chopped down for clarity and to remove some less relevant information.

-Someone asks what the hardest part of making an episode is and Martin goes 'Fucking, coming up with what's gonna happen in it.' And talks about how like, if TWF4 took three years to make, half the time was just preproduction and him figuring out what the hell was going to happen. He talks about how TWF4 was originally going to be a return to form for the series, and then one day he woke up and thought about it and was like "this is fucking shit." and that's when he decided to make it more cinematic.

-Someone asks if TWF4 will have Spanish subtitles, and Martin says no, because writing the English ones was a pain and he doesn't want to go through that again.

-Somebody asks who Martin would cast for Brian if The Walten Files was a live action series, and Kyle extends the question to 'Who would you cast for Everyone?'. They spend the next while just spitballing answers, which I've condensed here:

Kyle thinks it'd be fun to cast Jack as "Weird" Al Yankovic, and Martin thinks that's funny. He doesn't know who he would cast for Jack. Martin says Brian would be "The guy from Whiplash", who is Miles Teller.

Martin says Derek Collins would be Michael Mckean, but Kyle picks Clancy Brown.

Kyle says Charles should be Adam Driver.

Martin says Felix would be Michael Douglas as he is in Falling Down, and says that he's always thinking of him whenever he goes to draw Felix.

Martin says Sophie would be Ally Sheedy as she is in The Breakfast Club, and how Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club) was in part inspiration for Sophie's character. Secondary pick Martin gives is Mia Goth, but says they aren't the same in the face or the mannerisms, just that Mia Goth would make a good portrayal of the character because she's such a good actress.

Martin picks Shelley Duvall for Rosemary, saying again that they don't really look alike, but that she'd do a great job portraying the character. Kyle says a young Jane Kaczmarek would make a good Rosemary, too, and Martin mentions that he could also see a very young Carol Burnett, "...because she has a very smile-shaped smile."

Martin says that they aren't at all the same physically, but that Tina Parker would make a great Susan. Inspired heavily by her role in Better Call Saul.

-Martin hems and haws for a bit about who a good Jenny would be, saying that it's difficult, because she has such a particular face. On the topic, Kyle brings up how fans so often portray Jenny as "chubby", and how that's really impacted how he thinks of Jenny as a character, where he imagines the fanon version of her before even the canon one.

Martin agrees like, "This kinda influenced the way I draw her. I've been drawing concept art for Jenny recently and I noticed I've started drawing her a little chubbier. Not to the extent of the fanon, but the way I look at the character has changed a lot because of the way the fandom draws her... But I could definitely see Jenny as a chubby character, she just has that vibe." (<-Mostly paraphrased)

-Martin and Kyle say they both keep running into a funny problem where they google Charles using his full name, and wonder why all of the results just call him 'Charles Walten Files', forgetting that his full name is not public information yet.

-Martin says that if there was anything he would change about The Walten Files, he'd make Bon less adjacent to Bonnie from Five Nights at Freddy's. He says he wishes he'd made Bon a dog named Ringo, and that the name "Ringo" has a specific lore reason behind it (Unrelated to. The Beatles.)

-Martin talks about how when he first named Bon's Burgers, he thought he was being really clever, because in French "Bon" means "Good", so it was like calling it "Good Burgers".

-Someone asks what Martin would rename Bon's Burgers to if Bon's name had been different, and he says he'd call it "Wonderland".

-Martin gives a story about him actually seriously injuring himself opening a can of Palmitos, slicing his palm open and needing to get stitches, but how the main thing he was worried about was it keeping him from releasing TWF4 on time, and how he was really scared of the fan reaction of like, 'he always fucking does this, he always delays the episode', before he talked to some friends and calmed down about it. This all happened like less than a week ago. He tells everyone not to worry to much about it, that he's still in some pain, but he's fine.

-Someone asks about the "Bontest", the contest where people could submit their original characters to appear briefly in TWF4, and Martin says that he plans to work on it last, as a reward for himself.

-Someone asks if a Welcome to Bon's Burgers remake could ever happen, Martin answers: "No. I would have wanted to, but I'm really trying to stay, like, legally distinct from Five Nights at Freddys. So no more Welcome to Bon's Burgers, ever."

-Martin asks Kyle, "Is Charles mean? or nice?" and Kyle says he thinks Charles has like. Fun Uncle energy. That he's the sort of person you'd maybe think was mean, but that he's ultimately pretty silly and laid-back. He calls him the type of person to doodle in the margins of his work.

-Someone asks if Boozoo is a magician or a ringmaster, and Martin says that he is both. When he's not on stage, he falls into the ringmaster persona, but when he's performing he's doing magic tricks and the like. He switches between both.

-"Boozoo has a mechanism where he can take off his hat, and there's a very tiny plush rabbit in his hat"

-"Will we ever get to know how Jenny and Sophie met and/or became a couple?" "Yes. We will see it in the series, I have the whole thing planned out. Yippie!"

-Martin talks about how when making WTBB, he went through a phase where he really hated Banny, and took her out of the game. Then he was like, fuck, I need a new girl character, and that's why he created Sha.

-"Who has been your favorite character to develop personality-wise and role-wise?" "Felix Kranken. I fucking love but I fucking hate Felix kranken... I feel like the viewer keeps indirectly giving Felix chances, like, to make things right. And you will see how he uses those chances."

-Someone asks for a Felix Fact, and Kyle jokes that he smells bad. Martin says he disagrees, and that he thinks Felix smells like car air freshener.

-Actual Felix Fact: He loves Louis Wain's paintings, and has many in his office. Martin says he really connects with the story around them, and that he also feels a deep connection to cats.

-"How many takes did the phone call in BunnyFarm take to get right? Was the wavering in Jack's voice before he got angry intentional?" "It took three takes and yeah, yes it was. I did one take that was like, screaming angry, and another one was very whispery, and then i got the version that was used." They talk for a bit and then Martin goes "I think Jack here like, works best when he's not like, exaggerated, but you can tell that he's on the verge of just-- punching you fucking skull, but he doesn't like, explode. And it's this tension of like, when will we see this character like, genuinely lose his mind, yknow?"

-Someone asks if Bon could ever learn to like or be nice to Banny, and Martin says that if the showstoppers had any kind of linear story then he would probably grow to be nicer to her eventually, but because they're in like an episodic thing where everything resets, he's just gonna hate her forever

-Linda Lore: This isn't necessarily canon, but Martin kinda imagines that she'd move out of hurricane after only a couple of weeks because it's such a ghost town, so she moves to Nashville end ends up starting a family there and having two children.

-My question! I asked Kyle and Martin what musicians/bands they listen to. Kyle lists Gorillaz, Tally Hall, and Tenacious D. Martin lists MF Doom, Tyler, the Creator, and Canserbero.

-Martin mentions an incident with Bon's Burgers where a guy showed up and stood on a table demanding to eat pizza, and stayed there for 20 hours demanding to eat pizza.

-Martin imagines a funny scenario where Charles' car breaks down on the way to work and Jack gives him a ride. Charles asks to listen to some music, and Jack starts playing "obscure 30s music", and Charles is like, "what the fuck?", while Jack is bobbing his head like he's listening to heavy metal.

-Someone asks if there's any Autistic characters in The Walten Files, and Kyle brings up his personal headcanon that both Sophie and Jenny have autism, but that Jenny has it comorbid with ADHD. Martin mentions that it's actually canon that Charles has ADHD, and how it was one of the first things he decided on for his character.

-Kyle specifically asks if there's any Walten Files characters Martin can imagine being Autistic, and Martin gives a long answer I've written out as follows:

"Okay, so, this is really complicated, but the episode 5 draft is finished, and I sent it to Eva, and- this episode has a bigger focus on Sophie, episode 5, and I think a lot of things- Eva- I talked a lot about it with Eva, and she mentioned how Sophie, was like, had many many traits that imply that she is autistic.

And, while I said yes, that the intention was to like, sorta allude to it? I would never confirm it because I wouldn't be able to represent it properly. I would never be able to fully represent it, because it's not an experience I've gone through. But there's a lot of like, unintentional double meaning with Autism, with like, what's going on in her head and how like, she behaves, in a way?

But I feel like, from what Eva told me, from her experience as an Autistic person, she told me it was a really good representation, for like, the character. Even if it wasn't intentional, because she's never represented as like, mentally unstable, or not fit to, like-not competent... But you can still see some of her personal struggles in her behavior."

-They talk for a while about how Kyle likes to think that Boozoo is gay, but he's not especially a fan of the relatively popular ship between him and Bon. Martin says that a better Boozoo ship idea could maybe be Pete the Hippo, provided that the recasted his VA.

-On the same topic, Martin agrees that Boozoo and Bon would be a bad ship idea, because he doesn't like the idea of Bon being with anybody who he treats poorly, and how this is the reason why he really tries to be nice to Sha, even if he isn't especially good at it. Martin mentions that the thing that really makes Bon like Sha is that she's the one person who can really tell him off, and for a while he was a little scared of her.

-Martin talks about a funny showstoppers story he's thought of, where Banny gets a crush on a girl from school and Boozoo and Sha help her work up the courage to ask her out, but the girl is just so unapologetically mean to Banny and totally breaks her heart, and so all the showstoppers come to defend Banny, and they go and beat up this teenager on her behalf.

-Someone asks for a "Susan Fun Fact" but typos it as "Susan Gun Fact". Martin says that Susan would think that the American attitude towards guns and gun control is one of the things most wrong with the United States. Kyle says it'd be funny if she was the type to believe that, but then own a gun anyway.

-Martin says that he really loves Susan's voice, and thinks it's so perfect for her character.

[krispyweiss]

Pete Best Band with the Cyrkle at Valley Dale Ballroom, Columbus, Ohio, July 28, 2024

Pete Best says his four-show American swing is designed to take audiences “back to the days I played with four guys named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe.”

That it did. Though the crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling of Columbus, Ohio’s 1920s-era Valley Dale Ballroom likely didn’t remind Best of the dingy U.K. and European clubs in which he put the backbeat in the Beatles from 1960-’62.

Best made the comment after his eponymous Band’s opening salvo of “Rock and Roll Music,” “What I’d Say,” “One after 909” and “Chains,” which were played on a stage bookended by screens that showed images of the Best-era Beatles together on- and off-stage.

It was the one time on July 28 the 82-year-old, black-clad Best would emerge from behind his white Gretsch drum set, from which he, alongside brother Roag on an adjacent kit, drove the all-Liverpudlian quintet though 23 songs and 90 minutes of authentically rendered, pre-Fab Beatles music.

Recreating Beatles tracks is a ridiculously difficult proposition, as Best’s tour mates, the Cyrkle, demonstrated during their hourlong opening set. The Brian Epstein-managed group, which has two members remaining from the lineup that played on the Fabs’ ’66 tour, offered such selections as “If I Needed Someone,” “Eight Days a Week” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps;” numbers by the Ides of March (“Vehicle”) and Ohio Express (“Chewy Chewy”); and its own two hits, “Turn Down Day” and “Red Rubber Ball.” The musicianship was shaky; the set list often beyond the Cyrkle’s grasp, particularly on the Beatles songs and McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed.”

But where the Cyrkle stumbled, the PBB soared, reigniting a 60-plus-year-old jumble of energy on Beatles numbers both mostly forgotten (the Lennon-Harrison instrumental “Cry for a Shadow,” Lennon-McCartney’s “Hello Little Girl”) and still-beloved as with “P.S. I Love You” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”

Best’s wisdom lay in his sticking with his era and avoiding songs with which he wasn’t involved. Tony Flynn, who proved his Britishness by praising the virtues of Olive Garden’s Italian food, was particularly adept on throat-shredding numbers such as “Please Mr. Postman” and “Mr. Moonlight,” yet softer fare, including “Besame Mucho,” “Till There was You” and “Like Dreamers Do” fared just as well, sounding right at home in America in 2024.

And by the time the Pete Best Band said cheerio with the pairing of “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey,” fans could only be grateful Best returned to music in the 1980s and continues to share the fruits of his truncated career with Beatlemaniacs who are better off for his musical generosity.

Sound Bites still isn’t sure what he expected from Best. But it surely wasn’t an exceptional gig such as this.

Pete Best Band setlist: “Rock and Roll Music;” “What I’d Say;” “One after 909;” “Chains;” “Please Mr. Postman;” “Hello Little Girl;” “Mr. Moonlight;” “P.S. I Love You;” “Roll over Beethoven;” “Besame Mucho;” “Cry for a Shadow;” “Till there Was You;” “Slow Down;” “Money (That’s What I Want);” “Like Dreamers Do;” “Ain’t She Sweet;” “My Bonnie;” “Lucille;” “Memphis, Tennessee;” “Some other Guy;” “I Saw Her Standing There;” “Twist and Shout;” “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey”

Grade card: Pete Best Band with the Cyrkle at Valley Dale Ballroom - 7/28/24 - A/C-

7/29/24

[manygeese]

mega projecting rn, this is

PERCY JACKSON CHARACTERS AS SONGS FROM MY PLAYLIST

aka what I think they would do for karaoke, what’s they like, and what song is them coded

PERCY

What he’d do karaoke to: Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin. Son of Poseidon thinks water songs are funny.

What song he’d like the most: either Angry Young Man or Allentown, both by Billy Joel. Hard hitting lyrics and instrumentals to match.

What song he has the vibes of: Kodachrome by Paul Simon. Silly, jaunty, but kind of soothing at the same time. Reminds you of your childhood, almost.

ANNABETH

What she’d do karaoke to: Stand by Me by Ben E. King. She’s a romantic lady, what can I say? She’d totally be winking at Percy when she sings the chorus.

What song she’d like the most: Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross. She has classical vibes and this is the closest thing to classical as I have on my playlist. Also, I feel like she’d love jazz and this is jazz-adjacent.

What song she has the vibes of: She’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel. Sentimental, cool, but still oozing with emotion.

JASON

What he’d do karaoke to: Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. Boy puts on a performance.

What song he’d like the most: My Way by Frank Sinatra. He feels good about himself and all the stuff he’s been through while listening to it.

What song he has the vibes of: Out of Touch by Daryl Hall & John Oates. Edgy, cool, and a bop.

PIPER

What she’d do karaoke to: Lovefool by The Cardigans. Daughter of Aphrodite thinks love songs are funny. She’s a really good singer though, so she can choose any song and still knock everybody’s socks off.

What song she’d like the most: Yesterday by the Beatles. I think she’d like sad songs (not breakup songs, more like “wallowing in self pity, wondering what happened to us” songs).

What song she has the vibes of: Thank You For the Music by ABBA. Self worth problems, putting all your value in one ability? Piper coded.

LEO

What he’d do karaoke to: Let’s Hear It for the Boy by Deniece Williams or Thank God I’m A Country Boy by John Denver. The first because he’s some sort of LGBT+ and thinks it’s funny, the second because he’s Texan and thinks it’s funny. Also Fernando by ABBA.

What song he’d like the most: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham! He identifies with it. Also he loves the dorky Just Dance for it.

What song he has the vibes of: Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra. Hopeless romantic vibes right there.

HAZEL

What she’d do karaoke to: Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra. She’d eat any jazz song up, really, but this one’s got her name written all over it.

What song she’d like the most: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce. It’s got that school house rock vibe that you know she’d love. And also, bar fights! Yay!

What song she has the vibes of: Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae. Happy, sends a message, gives off sunny day and Hazel vibes.

FRANK

What he’d do karaoke to: Delilah by Tom Jones. He’s belting this shit in the shower at 3 AM.

What song he’d like the most: Oh, What A Beautiful Morning by Gordon Macrae from the musical Oklahoma. He’s embarrassed to admit it, but this boy loves old Roger’s and Hammerstein musicals (The Music Man, Carousel, etc.) that go on for too long and have unnecessary songs. He thinks they’re pretty.

What song he has the vibes of: Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin. Gentle giant vibes.

NICO

What he’d do karaoke to: So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III) by Tom Lehrer. He’s a sucker for old satirical songs and loves watching his friends react as he sings them.

What song he’d like the most: The Vatican Rag by Tom Lehrer. Again, because he likes satirical songs. He cried laughing the first time he heard it, having grown up in the Catholic Church (of Italy, no less).

What song he has the vibes of: Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas. Stark contrast from the earlier songs but it’s just… so Nico coded. The type of stuff you can head bang but also perform ballet to.

REYNA

What she’d do karaoke to: We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel. She memorized the whole thing and likes flexing on everybody else about it because they don’t have the guts nor the dedication.

What song she’d like the most: Fame by Irene Cara. She unwinds to this in her room after a long day. She also totally does embarrassing dances to it.

What song she has the vibes of: Leningrad by Billy Joel. A song about war, seemingly endless cycles of violence, but small victories and reconciliation.

[mywifeleftme]

298: Wolf Parade // Apologies to the Queen Mary

Apologies to the Queen Mary Wolf Parade 2005, Sub Pop

Apologies to the Queen Mary is on the short list of ‘00s indie records that I’d consider masterpieces. The funny thing is that my list, as someone who was there (or there-adjacent), is pretty well fixed in time, whereas the consensus among Zoomer critics continues to morph in ways I’d never have figured. (Or maybe it’s not funny, really—just always how time and memory work.) In 2008, I would’ve bet my left pinkie that TV on the Radio (and especially Return to Cookie Mountain) would be the defining band of the era. Meanwhile, in 2024 the Killers are still riding the same five songs to a second greatest hits record and fifty times TVotR’s monthly residuals; the National have tween fans; and I hold a mug weird. Time clowns us all and Wolf Parade are a dad band now, owners of a few anthems from the era before genuinely weird indie bands could near the summits of the pop chart, economically compelled to continue touring small theatres together despite both Boeckner and Krug having been more invested in other, even less profitable projects for some time now.

Wolf Parade is one of those bands with two lead singers who sound indistinguishable before you know the group well, and instantly identifiable thereafter (like John and Paul of the Beatles, or Felix and Will of Chapo Trap House). They’re both yowlers who let their voices crack pubescently as shorthand for the frayed emotional spectrum they traffic in, given to barking and hooting to help drive their bric-a-brac compositions forward. Boeckner is a lanky post-punk looking fuckboy in roughly the Richard Hell mould, given to posing sweatily in torn undershirts and starting projects with a succession of raven-haired keyboard players he’s also dating. He loves motorik dance rock and Wire, but also has a substantial helping of Bruce Springsteen in his songwriting. Krug is a stocky, normal-looking guy who doesn’t really meet your eyes and self-deprecatingly called his solo project Moonface. He writes lyrics that sound like philosophy and love letters translated from an alien language, and prefers his music to both thwack and quaver.

Their similarities give Wolf Parade coherence, but much of their dynamism comes from how the two singers pass the controls back and forth. Backed by electronics tinkerer Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson, a drummer (crucially) capable of serving as a rhythm section unto himself, Krug and Boeckner find the perfect balance between Krug’s experimental art collective predilections and Boeckner’s slyly sexual rock ‘n’ roll heart. Krug leads with the empty warehouse strut of “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son”; Boeckner parries with the hooky acoustic rocker “Modern World”; Krug closes with the brittle seven-minute dirge “Dinner Bells”; Boeckner responds with the pinkly-hued Suicide-Springsteen collab “This Heart’s on Fire.”

Both Boeckner and Krug have made wilder, stranger music elsewhere, and there are plenty of other brilliant Wolf Parade songs to be found across their subsequent records. But Apologies remains the greatest blend of their particular talents they ever managed, a perfect example of two guys pushing each other to do their best work. With luck, a future generation will reconsider Wolf Parade and its many, many satellites (Sunset Rubdown, Operators, Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Divine Fits…) as one of the most interesting micro-scenes the whole post-alternative rock era produced. And if not, I’ll still be here spinning the record a few times a year, believing in it all all over.

298/365

[tenderlady]

I feel morally obliged, after seeing your tags on this post, to ask you for your Beatles-adjacent casting and re-telling to THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS!

I'll kick things off by proposing John as Eli Cash? "Wild...cat..."

I am, as always, obsessed with your mind and am a big fan of putting Beatles places they were not intended to be. I definitely could see John-as-Eli (writerly, self-constructed, aggressive, insecure), and by that logic I think that probably Paul would be Chas (rigid, overachieving, trying to hold the family together despite not particularly liking any of them) and George would be Richie (wounded, overshadowed, best hair in the family). By default this means that Ringo would be Margot, which, uh.....fascinating.

I think the general conceit of The Royal Tenenbaums, of "getting the band back together" (ba dum tss) because of a family member dying (sorta) could really work, which I suppose would leave Royal as Brian?? Honestly, I couldn't blame him if he wanted to fake a life threatening illness to get all the boys in the same room and to put all their differences aside for five minutes. Also the idea of the Tenenbaums being a family of child prodigies who are all trying, with various degrees of success, to cling to that prestige into adulthood is Very Beatles.

Will be rotating this in my mind for the rest of the day, but I welcome your insights as well, O wise crepesuzette2023...

Other semi-related ramblings under the cut.

As much as I love and am obsessed with this idea, I was actually referring to the copyright boondoggles around the soundtrack when I reblogged that picture. The opening includes a choral cover of Hey Jude, but was originally supposed to be the actual song. I've also heard (although I can't find the original article I read now) there was a semi-illegal showing of it once that had the soundtrack replaced by all Beatles songs. The only information I can find on that now is that the original version of the film included both Hey Jude and the Anthology version of I'm Looking Through You, but George's illness at the time of filming got in the way of securing the rights.

I actually kind of love how difficult it is to secure the rights to Beatles songs, because it often forces filmmakers to make interesting choices to get around it. Another one that I can't find the receipts to prove now but love the idea of is that Hideaki Anno wanted to use Hey Jude to score Third Impact in End of Evangelion. I can kind of see it, but either way we got Komm Susser Tod instead, which is like Hey Jude if it hated you.

[prairietrashdotcom]

one time when i was like six my dad wanted me to get into the Beatles but he didn't want me to listen to their earlier more pop adjacent stuff because he considered it inferior so he put the second disk of his "Beatles: Best of" compilation in my cd player and then put me to bed so i was left alone in the dark to experience psychedelic music for the first time

[phoneybeatlemania]

Hi Phoney! Love your blog, you're so knowledgable about the boys❤ Id like to ask you if you could recommend some beatles books? There are dozens (hundreds?) of them and i have no idea which ones are worth picking up and which ones are trash. Peace and love✌😎

Hiya anon! Sorry you sent this in February and im only just answering, hopefully it pops up on your dash anyway tho

So Im pretty sure Erin Torkelson Weber said theres upwards of a 1000 books written about the Beatles, which means obviously theres a lot to get through. Honestly, having read quite a few, there are none that are going to be 100% unbiased, 100% truthful and 100% satisfactory for everyone, but heres a few that I think are worthwhile:

1. A Day In The Life: the Music and Artistry of the Beatles by Mark Hertsgaard

Personally I really enjoyed this book when I read it. Its not the most insightful book about them out there, but I think its a solid starting point for anyone new to Beatles-lore, and the way he writes about the music I found to be quite endearing.

2. And In The End by Ken McNab

As someone who is especially interested in the “breakup era”, this book is pretty useful in establishing a timeline of events for 1969. It goes through the year month-by-month, and I remember there being quite a few niche pieces of information in here, that you might not find in most other beatles books.

3. The Beatles Off The Record by Keith Badman

Theres 2 of these books and id recommend getting a copy of both if you can! They’re both effectively a transcription of quotes and interviews from the band, so it isn’t really a book that you’d sit down and read. But it is useful to keep a copy on your shelf, and you can turn to virtually any page and find something interesting to discuss.

4. Beatles ‘66: The Revolutionary Year by Steve Turner

I read this book originally to answer an ask I got about 1966, but I dont think I ever actually got round to answering it in full. Either way, I did learn a lot about them during this year, and similar to McNabs book, because its centred on a specific year it does offer a few pieces of information that might get overlooked in broader biographies.

5. John Lennon: The Life by Phillip Norman

Im going a bit against the grain here, and I know a lot of people would disagree with this recommendation, but I don’t personally believe this book is as bad as a lot of other people might. Norman definitely is someone you want to read critically, but I do also think he’s had the opportunity to speak to many beatle-adjacent people, and there are things we can learn from this biography. The problem I think is that he can be quite heavily biased, and a lot of his sourcing can be questionable. But again, just read it critically to the best of your ability, cause there are imo some relevant pieces of info in here.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

I haven't seen it mentioned here, but there's a yt interview from a few months back where Wings' Laurence Juber remembers Paul in the late 70s being upset about Yoko controlling what John would eat. I always thought Yoko was unfairly blamed for John's low weight at the time as he clearly wanted to be very thin, but it's sad and sweet to know it bothered Paul enough that people remember him talking about it decades later, even though "he didn't talk about the Beatles very much".

He also said "if [Paul] showed up in a slightly pissy mood it was because Yoko had done something" lol.

Huh that is interesting. Can you link me? (and if you have time timestamp)

I do want to be careful because it seems several Beatles-adjacent people (and Beatles themselves) have fallen victim to narratives and seemingly misremember things. On the other hand John undereating isn't exactly part of mainstream discussions surrounding him and Yoko. Also, while I do think John was ultimately responsible for his own diet, I don't think that fully excuses Yoko if she was actively enabling his meal-skipping.

[soup-of-the-daisies]

🌟SIRIUS 🌟

HIIII :))))

2 to 4 songs that are probably on their iPod

maybe… Gonna Buy Me A Dog by The Monkees (because it’s funny); The Bitch Is Back by Elton John; She Said She Said by The Beatles; and something like British Bombs by Declan McKenna or Bang A Gong (Get It On) by T. Rex

the one place they sometimes end up falling asleep — where they’re not supposed to

James’ lap (he belongs there) or under his bed whilst contemplating every mistake he’s ever made in his entire life

the game they’d destroy everyone else at

Chess and poker :)

the emoticon they’d use most often

Either 🙄 or 😈

what they act like when they haven’t had enough sleep

He usually doesn’t get enough sleep so Sirius acts perfectly normal. Sometimes, when he hasn’t slept at all, he’s got a shorter fuse than usual and it’s significantly easier to piss him off

their preferred hot beverage on really cold nights or mornings (or whenever)

Coffee on cold mornings; thick hot chocolate on cold nights. During the day, he likes a hot mocha.

how they like to comfort/care for themselves when they’re in a slump

Doesn’t. Sirius is a disaster. James usually notices and begins the care (naps forehead kisses long talks in the dark)

what they wanted to be when they grew up

When he was really little he wanted to be like his father (which is, depending on the universe, always generally terrifying to other adults in his vicinity. Orion’s just an intimidating wizard aristocrat in canon-adjacent universes and an intimidating lawyer/judge in muggle ones). Later, he figured he’d become a teacher of run a shop/rescue along the lines of The Magical Menagerie, but then the war happened and he got arrested and after he got out, he had to 1) lay low, and 2) couldn’t think of anything but Harry so everything just sort of fell through.

their favourite kind of weather

Slightly rainy, not too cold, not very windy. So he can breathe. Padfoot likes it too (PUDDLES and MUD)

their singing voice

Incredible, tbh. He’s got this low, smooth voice that’s perfect for lullabies and a solo ballad. He rarely sings though.

how/what they like to doodle

Deer, rats, wolves, and dogs. Little cartoon animals playing. Maybe someone’s mouth.

[slashdementia7734]

A Eulogy to Gary Floyd by Jeff Smith (Hickoids).

Pour one out for the man I hold up as the greatest American punk vocalist of all time, Gary Floyd of The Dicks.

I first saw The Dicks when I was 16 or 17. They were a ramshackle freight train oozing danger and a dark romance that telegraphed the message  “our love is doomed — but the cops will probably kill us before we can fall apart.” Fatalistic but defiant with some unquantifiable level of simmering violence lurking beneath.

If all the clownish portrayals of punk rock to be seen on television and in movies during the late 70s through the mid-80s had conveyed one fourth of the power of The Dicks on a good night, punk rock might have actually been banned.

To be sure, the original outfit was more than the sum of its parts - a true band. Glen Taylor’s twitchy, dissonant and inimitable guitar playing cast a hollow spread over the relentlessly bouncing frame of Buxf Parrot’s ever-moving groove while Pat Deason’s steadfastly off-kilter drumming reminded one of a twenty-five-cents-for-fifteen-minutes motel bed shaker that occasionally coughs and still chugs when the quarter has run out. All of this propelled Gary to sing at the top of his lungs while laying atop this queasy chemistry, secretly hoping his voice will rattle the plaster off the ceiling and maybe the whole fucking roof will cave in so he can forget about that man, the pigs and every other cruel thing the world has thrown at him. And then maybe the whole seedy motel will collapse and it will all seem random rather than intentional, so he can go to sleep for a long, long time in the comfort that it’s not just him.

It’s the soundtrack of decay and desperation.

Decadence fed by heartache.

I saw some fucking great punk and hardcore bands in the day…but I have rarely if ever seen a punk band (or rock-adjacent band of any genre) who could deliver with the emotional power of The Dicks.

The reason was simple: Gary’s struggle was real. By late ‘70s Texas standards, the notion of an openly gay, morbidly obese, Maoist poor boy from East Texas fronting a band of novice outcasts was the stuff of a pornographic sci-fi novella a la Martin Amis. And, not to short change another group of local heroes fronted by an outsized gay man, the Big Boys, but they had more to do with the good times than the bad. It’s not necessarily a great analogy but they were the light of The Beatles compared to the darkness of our Austin punk rock Stones.

On a musical level Gary and The Dicks found their greatest power (like the Stones on their epiphanic masterpiece Exile On Main Street) with the blues, and were the first punk band, American or otherwise — with the possible exception of The Gun Club — to fold the style into punk in a successful way. In spite of the greatness of the art, one could make the  argument that Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s narrative and musical choices had a studied contrivance not found in The Dicks. “Successful” is used here to mean artistically high-performing rather than financially rewarding, of course.

The world is chock-full of guitar players who can hit the notes and bend the strings while making the ugly sex face. Our planet is also fully stocked  with those who can carry a tune and string together a rhyme of heartbreak and appear emotionally vulnerable while doing so. That doesn’t make it either good to my ears or moving to my heart.

Gary was free of artifice when it came to his singing. Not to say that he couldn’t be a sometimes silly yet riveting frontman, but his poetry was always forceful and direct. Folk music stripped of everything that distracted from the point. As a young man, I failed to fully grasp where he was coming from - it was too far from my realm of experience. But he sang with his whole body and absolute conviction, whether the subject was heartbreak or injustice. I might not have understood where all of his pain came from, but his voice told me it was real. And while a lot of other punk singers of the era spewed opportunistic political diatribes that amounted mostly to complaining, Gary simply belted out his truth. Even though the conflict might not have been mine, his voice made me understand the righteousness of the fight. Gary’s words helped provide me with the empathy starter kit I lacked.

Gary had a couple of other very good and more commercially palatable bands after The Dicks - Sister Double Happiness and Black Kali Ma. He didn’t get the commercial success he deserved, but he’s not alone there. Still, I believe he died a happier man than he was in the era I remember him most vividly from. We exchanged messages on FB and spoke on the phone occasionally during the past decade.

Rest in power my friend. It’s not just you - it is the world.

You might not have changed the world in the way you once hoped, but you changed mine.

Gary Floyd // 1979 // 📸: Tom McMahon

[standupcomedyhistorian]

out of curiosity, has bo every mentioned what kind of music he listens to? i feel like it's safe to assume he like phoebe-adjacent stuff to some degree but i wonder what he personally has recommended

Great question!

So his favorite band is Radiohead (it's mine too!), but he has expressed admiration for The Beatles, Animal Collective, Paul Simon, Burial, MF DOOM, Anderson .Paak, Eminem, Childish Gambino, Kanye West (obviously lol), and musical comics like Tim Minchin.

Here's a wonderful video with Elsie Fisher where they both discuss their favorite music (and the question is from Elon Musk? It's probably a parody account, but 2018 was WEIRD haha).

And here's Bo's reply in a 2013 interview where he mentions being inspired in his comedy career by Kid A:

I really like The Beatles. Obviously there’s comic songwriting like Tim Minchin and Tom Lehrer and Bill Bailey, but even people like Radiohead influenced me as much comedically as they did musically. I always loved bands who would try to change their sound radically album to album, experiment in one album and revert back in another. I didn’t really see that in comedy much. Comedy mostly just seems like album to album it’s just refining this singular voice that becomes more and more specific, peaks and then plateaus and falls off.

Seeing people like Radiohead being brave enough to put out “Kid A” would give me confidence when I was worried, “Oh man, can I do something that’s a little different? Do I need to rely on what people liked before?” I’m certainly not saying that I’ve made “Kid A” but I am saying that I had a little bit more confidence to take risks because of a lot of the musicians that I enjoy.

Finally, you can find out a lot more about Bo's musical tastes in his Reddit AMAs.

Hope this helps, and feel free to ask more questions! ✌🏼🐔

[pauls1967moustache]

John would’ve loved Nicki Minaj tbh

Sorry I’m gonna use this as an excuse to tell you my John Lennon hip hop headcanons bc I’ve actually been thinking about this since I made the post. John would love so much rap music like.. the word play but also the general narratives about experiencing oppression and the fact that the rest of the “old white men” of the music industry hated it in the beginning. John would not be the first white boy rapper but he would do some sort of spoken word thing on a song inspired by hip hop that would be kind of rap adjacent and then 20 years later everyone would be like “it was the first white rap song” like they talk about Rapture by Blondie.

I think he’d like the arty, alternative hip hop side like A Tribe Called Quest. Like he’d be down to give Tribe his blessing to use a Beatles drum sample on Low End Theory or something, which would then kick off a whole trend in hip hop about using Beatles samples (now I’m just fantasising but I WISH, god I could do a whole separate rant about this. PAUL FREE THE SAMPLES!!)

Although tbh due to proximity maybe he’d be more into the New York artists like Biggie and Wu Tang. Jay-Z and Nas in their time, which like actually..

He’d LOVE Kanye. Like blah blah Kanye production, but also Kanye oldies are funny, and tell me saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” on live TV isn’t the most John Lennon shit to go spouting off hdkshskaj. They’d be such besties. He’d work with Kanye way before Paul. He’d put a Kanye feature on his album. He’d let Kanye sample God on Yeezus. When Kanye got into his whole religion thing, John would do an interview like “I love him but I don’t really get it” and then they’d get into the craziest beef.

But also, per your point I think he’d like Nicki’s thing of doing a voice bc people told her to sing pretty. Idk if he’d relate as much to her lyrics but, like Kanye, Nicki’s songs are funny so I could see him being into it. Plus she’s like objectively excellent when you catch her on a great song and I think he could appreciate that. He’s friends with Kanye! He heard her Monster verse! He gets it! Although I could also see him saying something mildly critical in an interview and then getting attacked by barbs on twitter, which would honestly just be really funny.

But he’s so opinionated in general that he’d be such a fun voice to add to rap conversation, not even in the sense that he’d have anything important to say about it, but he’s smart! I think there are things about hip hop that he’d understand well before other people, (and obviously things about it he’d completely overlook due to his age and privilege) but it’s not like we’re hearing any in depth Beatle opinions on rap music and I just think his would be fun and chaotic.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Helga, She Wolf of Stilberg (Rhomm, 1978)

This review contains mild spoilers.

I'm not much of a fan of Nazisploitation, but of the movies I've seen from or adjacent to the genre, my favourite is easily Greta, the Mad Butcher AKA Wanda, the Wicked Warden AKA Ilsa, Absolute Power AKA Jess Franco's Ilsa movie. And I think it's worth unpacking why that one works as well as it does and this and others come up short in comparison. For one thing, Franco's movie brings some actual political conviction to the proceedings. Perhaps he was making movies in (the other) Franco's Spain and butting up against censors, there's actual blood in the movie's veins when it comes to depicting the evils of a fascist government and sympathy for its victims. This movie, like Franco's, opts for an unspecified fascist government instead of explicitly depicting Nazi Germany, but is much less interested in sketching out the political environment of its story. There's some reference to rebels, who we finally see very late in the movie, but the movie halfheartedly takes the perspective of the oppressors.

Which gets at the biggest problem this one has, in that you never really identify with the protagonist. For what it's worth, Patrizia Gori tries to emote her heart out in the role, but she isn't introduced until a third into the movie and takes another third to emerge as an actual character. Franco's movie wisely aligns us with the perspective of Tania Busselier, giving us a sympathetic figure to latch onto in order to navigate the proceedings. You actually end up caring about what happens as a result. Franco's movie also has Lina Romay, who is like a cheat code in elevating the material. I will say that while Malisa Longo is no Dyanne Thorne, she is well cast as the villain. In large part this is thanks to her great big feline eyes, which she uses to dole out piercing stares, often with her nostrils flared. Her performance is not sophisticated by nonetheless effective. She also has an amazing wardrobe, getting to put on a nice floral dress, a silk robe, and an outfit consisting of a red silk shirt and leather pants that she usually wears while torturing prisoners or going riding. It is a versatile outfit, is what I'm saying.

At the same time, and this might sound contradictory, Franco's interest in Sadean themes means that the torture scenes in his movie are a lot more engaging. Basically he's getting off on them, and as such they carry a certain charge. This one cycles through a number of indignities, like rapes, whippings and medical examinations, but the execution can be charitably described as low energy. There's one scene where some of the prisoners have their heads held under a tap that has all the excitement of trying to give a cat a bath. This copies the other movie's tactic of denying the prisoners any underwear beneath their uniforms, which guarantees flashes of bush anytime there's a physical altercation. Listen, this movie doesn't have a lot going for it, I'm willing to throw it point for this one little thing. There's also a pretty funny scene where Longo is down in the dumps so she hurries to the dungeon to torture somebody so she can cheer herself up. I'll throw the movie a point for this scene too.

This movie has a bunch of talent from French porn, including director Patrice Rhomm, Dominique Aveline AKA the guy who looks like Mario, Alban Ceray AKA the guy who looks like the lead from Taste of Cherry, Richard Lemieuvre AKA the guy who looks like Ringo Starr, and a bunch of the ladies too. Aveline gets a sex scene with Longo, which is like if Mario banged Princess Peach, but in a fascist context. Aveline also later tortures Lemieuvre, which is like if Mario tortured one of the Beatles, but in a fascist context. This is also shot in a castle in the French countryside, so it looks nice enough despite the obvious low budget. On that point, at the end, the rebels adopt a strategy of arresting people like they have a huge army behind them, a strategy the movie imitates by throwing in a bunch of stock footage to make the battle scene look a lot bigger than it is. Anyway, this is pretty boring and has some really lame last minute attempts to create emotional resonance, but I suppose I liked Gori and Longo, and the movie did prove useful in showing why Franco's Ilsa movie is good. But if you're looking to get your genre jollies, maybe just watch that one instead.