#damien youth

[mywifeleftme]

198: "Various Artists" // Box

Box Boots / C.C. / Snake & Remus 2006, HP Cycle

For more than 25 years the gloomy weirdo unknown folk artist who created Box has released his music from behind a veil of secrecy, changing his alias and “record label” with each recording. In 2002, Rojvi (credited to Terry) and Music Performed by the High Mass (credited to Jim Collins) trickled out into the market, distributed without fanfare on the mail order lists of record collectors Paul Major (of Endless Boogie) and Stan Denski; in 2017, a dozen lathe-cut 7” and 12” records appeared in a thrift store, all credited to different artists, each possibly the only one of its kind in existence. His music has tended to be unearthed rather than released, with the exception of 2006’s Box, which collects three LPs originally discovered separately in 2004: Boots (Boots), No Tape Outside (Snake & Remus), and Live at the Rainbows End (C.C.). Box was distributed in an edition of a few hundred by HP Cycle, a Canadian label that, while miniscule, has endured longer than the cicada’s flight enjoyed by each of the artist’s own enterprises. In this sense, it is the closest thing the artist has provided to an intentional entry point to his work—the black peak marking a dark berg beneath the waves.

Mysteries naturally draw adventurers, and I’m indebted to the Discogs user known as envious for the information above, which I’ve drawn from his blog Rabbit Run Down the Hole of a Skull (which also hosts a near-complete digital archive of the artist’s known music). I think it’s helpful to parrot his research here not only because the story is in itself interesting, but because when I post this it will create another node for other seekers to access the next layer beneath the surface. According to envious, the first of the artist’s known pseudonyms Robyn Nice, and this name has become the catchall his small following uses to refer to him. (envious also occasionally refers to Nice as the Crystal Spider, which yes, instantly made me cum.) It’s thought that in his youth Nice spent time living on an acid-drenched Louisiana artist’s community called the Compound. The Compound was led by Damien Youth, himself a somewhat enigmatic folk musician, until harassment from suspicious local police forced its dissolution. Much of Nice’s work seems to call back to the image of an idyllic community, though its frequently bitter, despairing tone suggests the posture of an Adam mourning in exile—or a Manson in the making. envious’s blog digs much more deeply into the Nice mythos than I can here—one of my dream projects after I finish this year of record reviewing is to listen through Nice’s 15-hour catalogue in its entirety.

Moving on to Box itself, we find three 12” records in plain white sleeves, each hand stamped with a title and alias. All three records have a similar structure: free form, acoustic outsider folk songs on the A sides, lengthy jams or field recordings on the flip.

The individual records are packaged in plain sleeves with labels in blue print, like the original 2004 releases.

On the self-titled Boots record, Nice’s voice hits somewhere between early Peter Gabriel and Dylan, but the lyrics are wacked out ravings. On one track he snarls about “shitcaked corpses” and raped children before proclaiming “I’m a farm” and imitating a braying donkey. On another he bellows at what sounds like the top of his lungs about “compromised smells.” His deft progressive folk-inclined guitar playing tends to follow the emotional arc of his vocals, reserved at the outset, ragged and battered by the end. The B-side (“New Earth”) is roughly five minutes of faux-tribal New Age followed by 13 of minimal synth.

On No Tape Outside by Snake & Remus, the artist sounds somewhat older, which may indicate the albums collected in Box don’t all come from the same period. At any rate, Nice is in a more pensive mood, the trancelike songs expansive and beautifully played on guitar with various minimal piano/synth/percussion accompaniments (suggesting Snake & Remus could be a duo project). In place of Boots’s misanthropic rage, No Tape Outside is shrouded in despair at failing relationships, a fallen world. The B-side is fully instrumental, sharing the autumnal feeling of the vocal tracks but skewing more psychedelic, building through passages of rippling echo to a climax like a dozen clocks having a quiet disagreement over the exact time. Unlike the other records in the set, this record has no track names stamped on the disc’s label, leaving you with few moorings. I recall certain passages of inspired playing, snatches of strange poetry (“voice from across the sea / drips red into me / says my mother was wine”), a general sensation by record’s end of doomed peace.

The outlier here is C.C’s Live at the Rainbows End, which clearly features a different (considerably more technically proficient) vocalist. Good news, it’s also weird, though it sounds less like it was recorded by the guy on the cover of Aqualung than the others. envious speculates C.C. may be another Compound personality who used the alias Chris Cologne and recorded a CD called Horn for Blackberry, Nice’s early stab at a conventional indie label. C.C. is either a Brit or affecting an accent (I think the latter), and has a gentle, sighing way with his phrasing that suits these hushed ballads in a Nick Drake-ish mode. There is some downright gorgeous fingerstyle acoustic playing on this one and more conventional musical structures, even a few refrains (though no choruses). The guitar could plausibly be played by Nice, though the technique is cleaner and less shamanic than what we hear elsewhere on Box, but even if it isn’t Live at the Rainbows End shares a certain paranoid energy that somehow marks it as a product of the same artistic camp. The B-side offers one more short romantic tune followed by “Paul’s Jennifer is Dead,” a fifteen-minute field recording of a bonfire and distant, indistinct conversation. envious once again offers an astute guess here, suggesting this may reference the nighttime bonfires where members of Youth’s Compound once communed at the end of each day.

Overall, your mileage with Box will vary depending on your yen for the wilfully obscure. My interest in a savage, disoriented record like Boots is ultimately curious (maybe even prurient), in the same way I like to collect strange postings on street poles around my city. No Tape Outside on the other hand is a genuinely entrancing avant-folk record, while Live at the Rainbows End houses a delicate collection of misty-eyed tunes forked by morbid suspicion and trembling yearning. I think both are superb in their own ways. I am haunted by my questions about Box’s provenance, but also by its contents—both of which make for a strong endorsement to new listeners attuned to similar currents in the musical underworld.

198/365

[south-park-dimensions]

(Got an animation in the works hehe)

(Hopefully wanna finish it soon, but started a new job soo that’s been on my plate atm)

[alister312]

did doodle requests for some discord buds a bit ago and they’re all cute actually so now i’m making everyone else look at them too

[xlife-lightx]

Youth Pastor Craig: no demons shall enter this holy place!

Damien, Satan Stan and imp Tweek playing Uno behind the altar: Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that buddy.

[cremationisirreversible]

anyone have a link to that live performance Loke Rahbek did where some male model urinated on him in a warehouse for like thirty minutes? i think it was called "perfect aesthetics" and it was probably on vimeo ☹️

[cupioriot]

tfw you panic meeting new ppl who seem transphobic and lie saying you're just a testosterone deficient guy (you're pre t)

no genuinely what am I supposed to feel how do I play this out

[vampacidic]

mmm. been thinking about. stuff

[waterfall-ambience]

wow im actually making progress on the character design lineup and while i'm simplifying luna's outfit somewhat, i realised that it'd actually be really good if it really did look like a costume. most of the other characters wear various forms of 'regular clothes' but luna with his hat and impractical fantasy cape is forever locked into his role.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Danny and Damien are twins au, but a slightly redeemed vlad makes Danny the CEO of Vlad Co and DALV and all his other shell companies. Danny is danny, he got pushed into this against his will and is very overwhelmed by CEO duties, so he reaches out to one of his father's sons, Timothy Drake-Wayne, for advice

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

So, danny definitely knows his heritage in this au. He was the spare to Damien's heir, and while their relationship was strained by the constant competition, they still love each other, even when Danny started to show more proficiency in infiltration and subterfuge than assassination. Damien and Danny have a huge fight before Danny leaves, with Damien swearing to never forgive Danny for his betrayal, while Danny is like "what betrayal??? I just cant bring myself to kill someone outside of self-defense??"

(One of the things I hate about Danny and Damien Twin AUs is this depiction that, just because (usually) Danny is unwilling to kill, that makes him weak and a traitor. You think the medical staff in the LoA are assassinating people? Or the lawyers? He's not useless, he's just not good as an assassin)

He was sent to the Fentons at like... seven? eight? to study how the Fentons are purifying lazurus waters from Jack and Maddie, both of whom are partly sponsored by the League of Assassins. He's also learning more about spying from Jack, surprisingly, because no one would expect him of being a top tier spy. He has the occasional mission as a child, but it's mostly shadowing Jack to learn how to spy.

Danny sends letters to both Talia and Damien regarding updates on his training and the Fenton's research, but after a year of no reply from Damien, it's only to Talia. He's feels super hurt by this, and abandoned by the LoA, but the Fentons are kind and familial, and Talia visits once a year. She's unwilling to risk visiting more often, lest she risk getting the JL or the Spiders attention, but sometimes she even manages to visit on his birthday!

(Meanwhile, Talia starts sending birthday assassins to kill Damien so she can spend their birthday with Danyal. She's a really hot and cold mom.

Talia: You can choose me, and have a birthday dinner. Or you can choose your father and have a birthday assassin. You're choice. )

When Slade blows up the LoA, Danyal is given permanent orders to remain as Daniel Fenton until Talia, and only Talia, brings him back to the League. No missions and only one letter every six months. But when Ra's comes back to life and the League is back in power, Talia... never tells Danyal. Because she's seen how happy Damien is being a normal child with their father and wants that for Danyal too. Plus, she wants to continue to have a good relationship one of her children, sue her bruce.

So Danny is completely convinced that the League is mostly gone other than his mother, her zealots, and knows that his brother is living with their father. and he's... relieved. His brother is safe, and his mom told him their grandfather was avenged, so Danny can just enjoy his life. Which he does.

He sends out his six month report days before the portal accident.

Canon stuff happens until Danny is sixteen and Vlad, the fruitloop, steps down as CEO and strong-arms Danny into becoming CEO in his place. Jack and Maddie (who at this point know [or have always known in Jack's case, adn Danny didn't appreciate his dad using his his poker face against him like that] about Phantom) are thrilled.

Vlad is using his "foster son" (Dark Danny, but in this idea, he's Dante Masters) as an excuse as to why he's stepping down, since Dante needs all the attention he can give as a "troubled youth". Danny secretly hopes Dante kills Vlad in his sleep, but signs the papers away.

And there's so much work.

Danny has some idea of what he's doing (Vlad co is a tech company and DALV is weapons manufacturing, plus vlad gave him a crash course on CEOing). Sam and Tuck even help! But he wishes there was someone who could understand the pain of being a CEO while still a teen. But... his father's son, his brother, is one such person. And even though the other would never know, he really wanted to get to know his other siblings. So Danny reaches out for advice to Timothy Drake-Wayne.

Tim is immediately on guard when this Damien clone walks into his office claiming to be the new Vlad Co CEO. The clone acts nothing like Damien, but he still thinks this Danny Fenton is a league plant.

His paranoia doubles when Damien freaks out and confesses that A) Danny is apparently his twin brother and B) that he's been with the League of Assassins this whole time. Damien, who really doesn't want to admit that the reason he forced himself to forget his brother was because said brother didn't want to kill people, says "Tch. I didn't want to associate with the likes of him, so I put him out of my mind." Tim now believes that he's dealing with a master assassin with a huge grudge against Damien and Danyal showing no signs of malicious or aggression in their meetings only convinces him that Danyal is a master actor too.

Which, Danyal is a master actor. But all that other stuff is just Tim reaching.

[lifebecomesartrefracted]

🧸 (foooorr Damien on blueheartedmayor?)

@blueheartedmayor

Miles was an odd one.

The 12 year old was visiting some cool-looking town buildings after school, not yet wanting to go home. His mother may be worried, but he made a habit of… taking the scenic route. Yes, that’s the phrase.

So, that’s how he ended up in city hall, stepping into the cold building and tilting his up at the tall ceiling. His glasses glinted with the lights, and his grin was a bit too sharp for an innocent kid’s smile.

He stepped up to the receptionist’s desk and tilted his head at them. Miles’s smile spread wider. It… didn’t sit right on his face.

[piffany666]

Happy pride! I figured this is as good a time as ever to vomit up all my queer resacted Headcanons!

David and milo are bisexual and asher is pansexual

Angel identified as "bicurious" for a while (in denial) but eventually (after meeting the other mates) came out as bisexual

Babe is also pansexual and gender fluid

Sweetheart is also bi and non binary

Sam dosnt identify himself with any labels but he is attracted to all genders

Tank is bi has a preference for women and sam takes that as a complement

Vincent is bi with a preference for men and lovely (cis female) takes that as a complement

Lovely (like many listeners before her) realised she was queer after meeting tanker

Will also dosnt agree with labels but he's the same as sam

Porter is a gay man who dose drag in his free time and treasure is trans masc

Alexis is the type of girl to meet a lesbian "try it" have it absolutely destroy her wold veiw then never speak of it again. Think any song written by chapel roan

Bright eyes is a trans masc gay man and Freddie is also gay

Gavin is a trans masc pansexual

Freelancer is non binary

Damien and Huxley are both gay but Huxley is the only one out of the two to find that out through trial and error eg hes experimented before coming to that conclusion

Lasko and dear are both gay men

Vega was wardens gay awakening

James is bi and his partner is the biggest cis het ally shes the type to wear a "I love my gay child" (if james and her did have a kid that is) t-shirt. She's the type to offer free hugs at pride parades to queer youths that dont have sporting parents

Smartass is a twink who wears long flowy skirts

Anton and love are both gay men

Asset is aro ace

Bestie is non binary

Honey is a trans fem and guy is pansexual

[teabunnee]

I see your writing for afk would you ever write for korin in afk?

Korin as a boyfriend 

Not quite dilf energy, Uilf maybe? 

Korin is a rather awkward fellow. Not quite like Valen, but still just as charming. He’s a bit shy, through and through. He also likely has more experience with romance from his youth. 

He’s not really the sort to ask about your likes and dislikes directly, like a normal person, instead he just kind of guesses or asks people around you. Like with Damien. Only with a lot more teasing. 

Because of Korin’s time with the camp, he also has a small army of the elderly and children giving him advice and suggestions. Sometimes they will come and just so happen to ask you a question, only to nod and leave after giving your answer, not a day after, Korin will have something for you. 

Damien is also his wingman, btw, much to Korin’s chagrin. He likes to insert himself into spending time with the both of you. After a while, you might be considered his family.

Korin sometimes worries about his hands, they are made of vines and tree bark, he’s worried about giving you splinters just by touching you. As a result, he’s very, very gentle around you. He’ll brush leaves from your head, barely grazing your skin, or take your hand as if it was a flower petal. 

If you take his hand, he goes very quiet, he can’t quite feel your skin, but he can feel the pressure, and it’s really reassuring in a way he can’t describe. 

I think he likes his face touched a lot, a sudden kiss on the cheek can render him speechless and dazed for the rest of the day. He also nuzzles into you quite a bit, his beard and moustache scratching you gently.  

I think most of the AFK lightbearer men have acts of service as a love language in some way or the other. Korin in particular loves to cook for you, and most dates are dinners he prepares himself, and sometimes with you helping him cook and wash up. 

Dates with Korin tend to be at home, I think, or in an isolated place in the woods. He feels most at home there, most himself. He also doesn’t do much PDA, but the amount of care he gives you alone will show how much he loves you. 

[south-park-dimensions]

(I got another fic up on ao3! It’s Youth Pastor Craig and Damien centric. They have a brief chat over him “wrongly” being in hell)

[alister312]

Summary:

Tweek's in a panic because his boss got dumped and he just knows that'll spark the end of the world if he doesn't find him a new boyfriend. Damien's got a thing for mortals, though, which means Tweek has to turn to the only one he knows for help.

As a pastor, Craig knows he shouldn't be helping out an imp, or the Antichrist for that matter. But if Clyde is looking to do something cool, who is Craig to not help him out by setting him up on a date with a prince?

The only thing on Damien and Clyde's minds, though, is the desperate need to prove to the other that they aren't a loser.

Read now on ao3!

[yourmaidsp]

Some East Park ideas dump:

-Craig n Damien have some secret rivalry due to Craig's part time job working as a Youth Taoist disciple performing exorcism. And Damien showed up, scared most of the spirits in East Park away, causing Craig's business performance to drop. So Craig had to investigate who's behind it🤔

- Turned out to be the son of Hell Lord

- He's so pissed and whenever they meet ( preferably if they're after the same spirit) Craig'd be throwing tons of spell paper on Damien

- With his middle finger

- Luckily Pip secretly followed Damien and shoot off the spells with arrows.

- Kenny's still immortal in this au bc his name is written with a crayon on Hell Lord's big book of life and death, u cannot cross that off with ink and brush, so his death becomes illegit.

- There's still a 40m tall mecha robot in this au so um yep, Pip still dies

- But the ending's different, I won't spoil it🤔

Ch:

East Park main theme🤔

[regicide1997]

Making a new post because the other one (currently pinned) has gotten too long, but my friend Kaleigh needs help finding stable housing/getting back on zir feet in Indianapolis (or Central Indiana in general). Ze's transfem, intersex, and multiply disabled, and ze's had some terrible experiences with the Wheeler Mission. Kaleigh is currently staying with a friend, but ze has to leave by March 20th between 2pm and 4pm (or later if someone local would be willing to drive zir).

Money would be helpful, but moreover we need advice. Ze's 34 years old, so youth orgs like Trinity Haven are not an option. We're exploring the possibility of using the Damien Center's housing services, but we're not sure if they'll be able to accommodate zir. Ze is an SA survivor (both as a child and more recently when ze was put in a men's jail for a week in December), but we don't know whether that qualifies zir for the Julian Center's housing services.

If anyone has any leads on a place ze can stay, please let me know.