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akiarathewitch · 6 months

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Saw Wish (2023) recently and tbh it wasn’t as bad as ppl said it was, but it was pretty unbefitting for disney’s 100 anniversary movie. I feel like if it weren’t high stakes put on it and was just a regular disney film, it wouldve gotten average reviews. Tho i dont think it deserves to be nominated solely for the fact that a lot of better animated movies came out, i think it still had a lot of neat stuff in it (I mildly enjoyed the message and some of the songs). But even then, it still had many flaws, like the songs being all pop instead of a broadway-style and not rly memorable, as well as not developing the story more.

Another thing I would like to add is that it truly doesn’t appreciate the legacy it’s trying to showcase here. it only encapsulates what the company is to a marketable and modern audience, so it only includes relevant and recent disney pop culture references rather than include stuff from one of the older movies. it shows us what disney, the corporation, is; not disney, the animation studio, is.

I’m just gonna blurt out a list of things what I personally think would make the movie better since it had a lot of potential but wasn’t directed well. again this is my opinion so no need to get all defensive or aggressive:

• first of all, the music. they shouldve gotten either a.) a new and upstart musician from broadway since Ashman himself stated that most of the disney melodies we now know are pretty much a broadway musical but animated or b.) gather a band of all the musicians that wrote for disney and each of them contribute a song. Like in the beginning the songs could sound like golden age of disney songs and then it progresses until we get to the end where we get the modern taste of it.

• wouldve also been nice for the animation to also progress with the music. from 2d to 3d as the film goes on but that could translate poorly so I suggest just making it 2d since it’s the best way to incorporate the storybook style.

• next, the villains. i rly agree with the concept of a villain couple, not just because it would be really fun but also could comprise of characteristics from both past male and female villains of disney.

• random idea but these villains should have like henchmen/apprentices. I know asha’s there to be the apprentice but I think I wanna shift the plot a bit here. now all these apprentices reference a disney villain and agree with magnifico’s philosophy about wishes. at the end of the movie, when the big baddies are defeated, they hide and go out into the world where they become the true baddies we know them to be. Preventing dreamers from achieving their dreams.

• Asha as a character should have traits that resembles the majority of the disney princesses, not just the recent quirky trope. Should be somewhat naive but a dreamer and still kind but also misunderstood. idk just like a character that symbolizes the typical disney heroine. They also shouldve given her clothes that resemble more of a fairy godmother (specifically the one she wore during the climax) rather than her rapunzel-esque outfit to distinguish her more

• they shouldve made star have human-like qualities and included the romance with the star. i like how disney’s going with the no-romance thing but romance was a big part of the disney franchise for a long time, and it wouldve been nice to see that again, but with more modern romance tropes (e.g. black cat gf/golden retriever bf, etc) to appeal to modern audiences, so younger kids could understand what made the early films so dreamy and charming.

• flesh out the citizens!!! if the seven friends are the seven dwarves, add more to them. i was especially sad with grumpy since he was more annoying than grumpy. Justify his personality, as well as the others. give us a reason why the citizens need their wish back instead of just showing one character that without their wish, they are just boring. Show the entire population just being outright miserable and blank without their wishes.

• another thing to add to the point above is to establish the people of rosas’ dreams. Because we see in one scene with magnifico that each person dreams of becoming something magical (e.g. one person dreaming of being peter pan and another wanting to become mary poppins). wouldnt it be nice to establish that the people of rosas ARE the disney characters we love and know, which makes them getting back their wishes so important. without it, they wouldn’t be the childhood favorites we know and love today.

• it wouldve been really swell for the grandpa to be a walt disney adjacent character that dreams of learning how to draw. yes he’s a controversial figure nowadays but if ur gonna make a disney 100 celebration, at least make it a point to include the guy u named the company after.

• it also wouldve been really swell if the sidekick character wasn’t a goat but a mouse that resembles mickey in a way, plus a whole gang of other side characters that references mickey’s gang (a female mouse, two ducks, two dogs, etc). they are the official mascots of the company so it’d be really weird to not include or reference them.

• this is going into fanfiction territory but i want the ending scene to be about how the people of rosas finally achieving their wishes and setting forth out into the world to inspire others to follow their wishes (including the evil apprentices in the hopes of destroying those dreams). in the end, when nothing is left, asha just looks out into the distant and transforms into the fairy godmother and then the rosas castle kinda becomes the disney castle we see in the intro. ik this sounds bad on paper and it probably is but by adding stuff i think we could make it better.

I know all of this is bordering fanfiction but like it wouldve been nice for the disney creatives to just go all in. And as a viewer, i did see the potential this movie had, but it just wasn’t done right. And it rly did make me sad to see a good premise go to waste because the message of the movie is what captures that disney magic: the ability to make a wish and seeing that wish come true.

tl;dr: Wish, although one of the less better animated movies this year, really had the potential to be great but wasn’t done right due to pressure of it being the disney 100 celebration. Instead of showcasing the passion and heart that the Walt Disney animation studios did for 100 years, it only displayed the heartlessness of the corporation it has grown to be. And I for one, though I attempted to fix it, am still saddened to see that what was once (and should be) a celebration of creativity and passion got turned into a moneymaker that billionaires see only as products, not as art.

#my posts #didnt explain a lot of it well #but u get the point #wish 2023 #wish #disney #walt disney studios #disney 100 #sorry if my grammar is bad i promise i could write better #but im sitting in the coldest room known to man so my fingers are ridged and not rly wanting to type now #plus that misconstrued concept wherein your brain thought u wrote that word down but u didn’t #I honestly appreciate what other ppl say abt this movie and would like to see what yall guys think would make it better if u didn’t like it

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songsofprotestpeacerevolution · 1 year

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Immigrant Song · John Daversa Big Band · DACA Artists

Multi-Grammy nominee John Daversa brings us a deeply personal, emotionally stirring and timely project that gives voice to young undocumented people known as ‘Dreamers,” children who were brought to America through no fault of their own and raised with American culture and values. There are 53 Dreamers featured on this recording, representing 17 states and 17 birth countries. There are spoken intros from nine Dreamers, telling their heart-wrenching stories in narrative or poetry before the musical track ensues. Some of these will leave you in tears. The music sometimes stretches boundaries as a few selections move into a kind o Charles Mingus Bid Band territory but mostly they are patriotic, hopeful, and uplifting.

Daversa is a trumpet and electronic valve instrument (EVI) master as well as a composer, arranger, and bandleader. He’s also the Chair of the Studio Music and Jazz Department at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. As a father and educator, he has deep connections to young people and respects his ancestral roots, with blue collar grandparents who immigrated from Italy. The decision of this Administration’s decision to rescind the DACA policy, struck a nerve. “I wanted to provide an opportunity for Dreamers to share their stories through music,” says Daversa. He continues, “You don’t need polemics or a bullhorn to make yourself heard. The young people I worked with are just amazing, and I want this project to reach a wide audience, so that others could be touched, as I have, by their abundant courage and hope.”

[The rapper on Immigrant Song,] Caliph came here from Senegal at age seven, earned a University scholarship but couldn’t attend because of his immigration status.

https://glidemagazine.com/214046/john-daversa-and-his-big-band-featuring-daca-artists-bring-poignant-stories-to-american-dreamers-voices-of-hope-and-music-of-freedom-album-review/

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steveinscarlet · 1 year

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Presenting for your consideration a gig review and interview with Joe and Steve from 1980. This is the article referenced in the infamous 'Wayne' Rockline interview.

A few points before we begin:

I said it was long!

Apologies that I can't do proper scans - tho given this is 40 yr old newsprint, I don't think that would help much!

Interesting decision to give a cover and centre spread to a band you don't like just so you can be mean to them

The journalist has decided to write all the interview answers in a representation of the Yorkshire accent, because apparently northern accents are hilarious, which makes it kinda hard to read

I can totally see why the band got pissed off with the British music press!

This is 1980 so standard warning that language is used that would have been commonplace at the time but is unacceptable now - I cut one paragraph out of the text version because Joe uses a slur a bunch of times and I just didn't want to have that on my blog. You can still squint at the image if you want to read the full thing. (No Joe-hate, he's just talking the way working class blokes did at the time, there's no malice behind it)

The new Lords of Denim

His ears bleeding from white noise and thick northern accents, Allen Jones debates heavy metal and other apocalypses with Def Leppard, leaders of the HM new wave.

"We're the Dooleys wi' goolies," says guitarist Steve Clark.

Their first rehearsal studio was in an old building near the Sheffield United football ground. A single room, it cost them a fiver a week to rent.

After work on Friday, they'd go down there and rehearse, often until 4am. There were four of them. Pete Willis played guitar. He knew Rick Savage who played bass. There were several drummers in those early months. Then Rick Allen joined. Pete and Sav were 17, Rick was 15. Joe Elliott had never sung in a band before, although he played a little guitar and had depped as a drummer in a local rock 'n' roll band. They told him that he looked the part. He was tall and brawny, with a shock of curly blond hair: an identikit heavy metal frontman, really. They were persuasive. He joined them in October, 1977.

They plundered Thin Lizzy and Bowie albums for songs for their early repertoire, playing "Jailbreak", "Rosalie" and "Suffragette City". They began writing their own songs, too. "Sorrow Is A Woman", which they still play, was written then, though it was called "Misty Dreamer" in those days. Joe wrote the lyrics. Pete and Sav handled the riffs.

There was another song called "War Child". Their faces twist with embarrassment now when they recall "War Child". They dismiss it quickly as being derivative of Black Sabbath. "An 'orrible fookin' mess, it were," Joe Elliott cries, his accent as thick as a girder of Sheffield steel.

They introduced "Emerald" to their repertoire when Steve Clark joined and they realised that he and Pete Willis could duplicate Thin Lizzy's guitar harmonies. Steve met Pete at the local college of further education. They were both attending the same day-release class. Steve saw Pete reading a guitar manual and realised they had a mutual interest. They met again at a Judas Priest concert at Sheffield City Hall and started talking guitars. Pete invited Steve to a rehearsal. Steve was impressed. He was invited to join the group. He accepted.

They called themselves Def Leppard. Their intention was local fun rather than international success; at first they nursed no grand ambition. They debuted in July, 1978, at Westfield school in Sheffield. They say they were dreadful, but copped the promoter for five quid, anyway.

They were not satisfied rehearsing four hours a night, five nights a week; they'd spend weekend afternoons developing and refining their heavy metal assault, their armoury of bone-crunching riffs. And their local reputation grew into a northern cult.

Impressed by the enterprise of young punk bands who'd financed their own recordings, they saved and scrounged enough money to go into Fairview Studios in Hull, where they cut a three-track EP of their own songs. They released it on their own label, Bludgeon Riffola; "Ride Into The Sun", "Overture" and "Getcha Rocks Off". Those who know about such things will tell you that "Getcha Rocks Off" is destined to be remembered as a classic heavy metal performance.

They found an enthusiastic supporter in Andy Peebles, the Radio 1 deejay. Even John Peel played the record. HM aficionados in the music press began to shower them with adulatory notices. People were beginning to talk about them as one of the leading bands in the new wave of heavy metal, future threats to the supremacy of UFO, the Scorpions and Judas Priest.

Then, last summer, Phonogram released a single, "Wasted", a blustery performance marred by an indifferent production. Phonogram placed them as support on two prestigious tours: first with the American hard rock singer, Sammy Hagar, then with AC/DC. They estimate that they played to over 40,000 people on those tours.

Their impact must have been considerable. In this paper's reader's poll in November, they were voted into fourth place in the "Brightest Hope" category. In the same category in the NME's readers' poll they were voted into sixth place, above more fashionable contenders like the Undertones, the Pretenders, the Gang of Four, Secret Affair and the Selecter. Def Leppard's first album is released in March.

Follow the moon to the end of Sauchiehall Street. Turn into Tiffany's before you reach the corner; sprint up the stone steps into the glare of the foyer. Past the ticket office, quickly. There are the bouncers in their tight-fitting tuxedos; look at them, with their necks bulging out of their starched shirt collars. The manager leads the way into the pumping heart of the ballroom.

The air is ravaged by the hysterical excess of Rainbow, screaming through the house PA. When the tape finishes, Zeppelin replaces Rainbow on the cassette deck. It's going to be that kind of night.

The manager declares himself pleased with the attendance; at least 700 headbangers so far, he estimates. Not at all bad for a Sunday night, especially for a band headlining its first concert in Glasgow. Mind you, he says, the Specials played here on a Sunday and they had 2,500 rabid kids packed into the ballroom. And the police were squabbling outside on Sauchiehall Street with at least another thousand. He rolls his eyes at the memory. One of his bouncers was struck that night by a girl wielding a hat-pin. He and one of his men dragged her to the back of the auditorium. They tried to calm her down. She stripped off her shirt and, naked to the waist, tried to run off. She was tackled by a police officer. She felled him with a well-timed kick in the balls. The manager chuckles to himself as he tells the story.

Tonight's audience is already pressed tight around the stage, fists clenched, punching the atmosphere in the familiar heavy metal seig heil! Their feet are stamping, their heads shaking violently. The imaginary guitarists are out, too. Just a few for the moment, though: the Deep Purple Formation Dancers will not take to the floor in force until Def Leppard are on the boards and tearing holes in the fragile fabric of the local ozone. The crowd around the stage began chanting. Their message was unclear at first.

Then their ranting become ominously clear. "We hate the mods, we hate the mods, we hate the mods... we hate, we hate, we hate the mods!"

Def Leppard were racing down the narrow staircase from their dressroom to the stage. Joe Elliott must have heard the chant. As the band plugged in and roadies made last-minute checks on equipment, popping up like greasy glove-puppets behind the amplifiers, Elliott grabbed his microphone.

"D'yer want us ter do soom Sec- ritt Afferr songs fur yer?"

The reply was lost in a landslide of noise as Def Leppard smacked out the first powerchord of their set.

That first chord was like a grenade going off in your hand; surviving the rest of the performance was like living through Pearl Harbour.

The drummer sounded like he was shitting amplified house bricks. His bass-drum kicks walloped holes in the chest; each cymbal crash was a sustained opera of alarm. The guitars were a thick carpet of shrieking chords. And Elliott's voice came howling through the debris, like the devil calling in the damned for supper.

And this was just the first number. It left me more confused than a conversation with Robert Fripp.

The boys sure could whack it out with the best of them, as earlier observers have been quick to remark. I saw UFO a year ago at the Hammersmith Odeon. Compared to this lot, they sounded like schoolchildren rattling the railings with their rulers.

As a visual spectacle, Def Leppard are a whirlwind of frantic gestures, arm-swinging, headshaking and microphone twirling. So completely do they epitomise the satin-and- leather flash of heavy metal they almost become caricatures. There were more bare chests on that stage than you'd find in a topless bar on Sunset Strip. Willis and Clark have perfected every manoeuvre in the HM handbook of macho poses, throwing more shapes in one song than the entire front line of Thin Lizzy in an entire set.

One significant distinction should, however, be made between Def Leppard and their HM predecessors. Solos are infrequent, usually quickly despatched, more often tightly contained within the blistering structures of the songs. Willis and Clark prefer to maintain the pace of the attack, which relents only for the obligatory moody ballads.

Of course, this did nothing to deter the denim-swathed ranks of phantasy guitarists. They lined up at the back of the crowd in neat batallions, heads down, right hands scrubbing their chests while the left tore up and down imagined fretboards. They were even more energetic and frantically nimble than the band. Whhooosh! There went one, a vertical take-off from a standing start! Craaammmm! There he went, smacking down on his knees, back bent over in an impossible arch, the back of his head dusting the ballroom floor. There was a marvellous moment towards the end of the set. The guitars dropped out, leaving Rick Allen alone for a brief drum flourish. Suddenly, everyone was an imaginary drummer.

It's difficult making notes with both hands clamped over your ears, and dodging flying riffs that are threatening to tear off your kneecaps rather prevents one's assimilation of individual subtleties. However, I do remember that "When The Walls Come Tumbling Down" was an epic about apocalypse, complete with characteristic HM imagery of doom and destruction. The final encores, "Ride Into The Sun" and "Rocks Off", seemed standard hard rock outbursts, fiercely played and lavishly received.

After the gig it took at least four double vodkas and a sharp slap on the back of the head to recover the power of speech.

"Loud?" exclaimed Pete Willis at the hotel, "We only used half stacks t'night."

He looked at me as if I was the biggest wimp on the planet. I didn't reply. My ears were still bleeding.

Willis, Allen and Savage have gone off with the road crew to the local fleapit. Rather appropriately, they have gone to see "Apocalypse Now".

Eliott and Clark are in their hotel room fielding questions. Elliott is affable, forthright, confident; not at all the offensively cocky individual I had been led to expect. Clark is drunk and getting worse.

"We all knew when we started the band that it were goin' t'be heavy rock," Elliott is explaining. He has the kind of accent you hear on voice-overs for Hovis commercials. "We knew it weren't going t'be poonk. An' it weren't goin' t'be Lena Martell. We all knew it were goin' t'be based around Lizzy, Zeppelin, UFO."

I had wanted to know why such a young band had turned to heavy metal rather than punk, like most of their contemporaries. When they formed punk was, after all, the most fashionable trend. And Def Leppard shared both age and circumstances (bored teenagers, working-class) with the majority of new punk bands storming the barricades in '77.

"We never thought about it," Clark blearily attests. "We just did what we wanted to do. We never thought, 'Well, punk is fashionable, heavy metal is dated - let's be fashionable, let's be a punk band."

"If we'd done that, it would've been unnatural," Elliott elaborates.. "You get certain bands who say, 'We've tried for 18 months at bein' this kind of band. We're not gerren anywhere, let's be summat else. We'll change us name and change us image... Like, apparently, there used t'be a really weird, heavy rock band called Black Widow. Apparently, some of them are now in Showaddywaddy."

He looked suitably aghast, as if someone had just walked over his grave.

"It would've been false for us to pretend we were summat we weren't," he continued. "It would've been wrong for us t'say, 'Right, we'll go and cut us hair and dye it blond and wear bondage trousers with zips all over t'place and be a poonk band. But it's not tha' we didn't like poonk. I though t'Pistols were greet. An' Clash. New wave were greet. It's a cliché now, but it did give music business a kick up the arse. People must've been gerren pissed off wi' bands like Supertramp. I like Supertramp mesel', but I can see kids' point of view - when there's nowt 'appenin' apart from yearly release of a new Supertramp album or Pink Floyd, kids'll get pissed off, look for summat new. So when they gerra band like t'Clash comin' up, they think, 'Wharra great fookin' blast of energy.’"

Elliott is eager to stress the catholicism of Def Leppard's musical tastes. Pete Willis might be more emphatically involved with heavy metal "he only ever listens to UFO and Priest" but Sav was into Queen and Boston, and Rick Allen was deeply into funk, especially Parliament and Funkadelic.

"I've gorra case full o' tapes over 'ere," Elliott went on. "You can look through it, if yer like. None of 'em are heavy rock. The nearest thing t'heavy rock in tha' bag is Meat Loaf. I've got Tubular Bells, 10cc. I just like music. It's just that I don't think I'd like it as much playin' 10cc's music onstage."

"Thing about new wave," Clark said, looking up from his beer mug, "were that the bands had a definite feelin' for audience. They were just like audience. There was a sort of rapport. An' it's the same wi' new wave heavy metal bands. Like, wi' old wave heavy metal bands, like Rush, it were 'Look at me. I'm in a band. I'm on a ten-foot stage. I'm above you.’ There isn't the same rapport. I fookin' ‘ate that. We haven't got that attitude, that Sabbath, Deep Purple attitude. We believe that it's t'kids what count. Like, we'll put on show whatever… I could break me back, but I'd still play show even if I had t'be carried onstage. We wouldn't pull out of show just because we didn't have a proper soun'check or bollocks like that."

Whatever their own sympathy for punk, it could hardly be said that the punks had ever displayed a reciprocal sympathy for heavy metal, old wave or new. Didn't that smart a little?

"No doubt some would think so," Elliott replied. "But fact that Johnny Rotten might not like us don't mean it's goin' t'put me off likin' him. If I ever heard an interview where Rotten or Joe Strummer were sayin', 'Oh, Def Leppard - wharra load of bollocks! I'd just say, 'Fair enough, he don't like us.' Tha's no reason fer me to go an' break all me Clash albums in half and say, 'I don't like you any more."

Clark had already made one distinction between the old guard of heavy metal and its more recent, youthful manifestation. Elliott thought there was an even greater difference.

"Frankly," he said, after some pause, "I don't think t'old wave of heavy metal bands are a patch on't new wave. I'm not talkin' just about us now. You compare people like Purple and Sabbath wi' UFO, wi' Michael Schenker. Purple and Sabbath aren't in't same category. I mean, Sabbath weer just really heavy. No light or shade, no melody. UFO and to a certain extent Judas Priest, there's more variety wi' them. It's a totally different sound. Like, wi' us it's more commercial. Some of our stuff, like 'Rock Brigade', if that ever came out as a single, it'd be commercial. It wouldn't just appeal to heavy metal fans. You can't compare summat like that wi' 'Paranoid' or 'Child In Time'. It's short, punchy. It's three minutes. It's straight though. Bangbangbang. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, guitar solo, stop. That's it."

They didn't, then, approve of the old "Ben-Hur" length guitar solos (and bass and drum solos) much favoured by their predecessors? They certainly didn't.

"Guitar solos are borin'," Elliott stated unequivocally.

"That's why we don't do any," Clark hiccupped. "We don't have half-hour drum solos like John Bonham wi’ Zeppelin. We think it's borin'. We try to strike a balance between what Sabbath were doin' and what the fookin' Clash are doin'."

As far as the press was concerned, though, they were more likely to be treated with the derision traditionally reserved for Black Sabbath than with the often sycophantic reverence afforded the Clash: they would most often be seen as a kind of desperate joke, I told them.

"I can't understand that, to be honest," Elliott said. "In any kind. of music be it punk or heavy rock, or even country and western there's always a brilliant artist and there's always a shit artist. Like, in heavy metal, where you get a really good band, someone like UFO, you'll also get your Motorhead. I think Motorhead are fookin' terrible, I saw Motorhead at Sheffield City Hall. After two numbers I had to put me fingers in me ears (I knew the feeling). Lemmy's not got the sweetest o' voices at best of time. That night he had a cold. He sounded like ferret bein' strangled…”

"Wharr' I'm sayin' is there's good and there's bad in all sorts of music. But the press always seem to slag heavy rock wi'out thinkin'. Do you know why?" he puzzled.

I didn't. I simply pleaded guilty.

"I just don't see why they do it," Elliott continued, immersed now in the argument, giving his tonsils a hell of an airing. "I can't see how they do it. The Clash might be great, excitin' an' that - but musically they're not a patch on UFO. In my opinion, heavy rock is the second best music for the actual musical competence of people in't bands. Jazz rock I'd put top. People like Chick Corea and Billy Cobham, musically they're brilliant. To listen to I think they're borin'. I mean, one like John McLaughlin - now he's probably t'best guitarist in't world. I dunno, but I couldn't watch him play live, sittin' cross-legged on't bloody floor. I'd rather watch Chuck Berry play three notes and duckwalking, you know. I mean, you go to a concert, you expect summat to be goin' on. You don't want to see someone sittin' cross-legged on a bit of carpet sayin' prayers for audiences before he starts playin' guitar. I'd rather watch Clash, frankly."

Elliott pauses for breath. I rinse out my ears.

"I think," he says, "the majority of heavy rock bands are musically more talented than the majority of new wave bands, And probably put on a better show, too. I'm not sure, though - I imagine a band like the Boomtown Rats might put on a good show. But bands like the UK Subs, I imagine they'd be totally useless live, 'cos they're totally useless on record. That Charlie 'Arper, I think he's a waste of time. He looks old enough to be me grandad.”

So you resent the fact that the press characterises heavy metal bands and their audiences simply as moronic headbangers?

"Course I do," Elliott said. There is a lot of talent there. "It really does annoy me that the press will knock band cos they're labelled heavy rock. They say they're just another joke band, they can't play. But if they took the time to be totally unbiased and watched the bands they'd see a lot of people who can really play. Like Steve 'ere." He threw his thumb over his shoulder at Clark who was trying to light one of the two cigarettes he could obviously see in his mouth. "Steve can really play."

He paused dramatically.

"Steve were trained classical," he declared like a triumphant parent, commending his child on his first heart transplant operation.

I wondered, though, whether he thought that most heavy rock/HM bands didn't actually invite ridicule with their costumes, light shows, lasers, dry ice, leathers, perms and juvenile mysticism.

"There's summat in that," he said, sounding like Len Fairclough pondering a foreign body in his pint. “But I don’t think the songs and the music do.”

Clark took his nose out of his beer.

"I don't know what the kids think or what the press thinks," he said, his words sliding down his tongue like runaway toboggan down the north face of the Eiger, "but when we do a gig, we don't think we're heavy metal. For me, someone like Black Sabbath, Motorhead or Van Halen - that's heavy metal. We're not into noise. We like volume, but it's got to be nice. We're trying to make music that's appealing and exciting. If you like quiet bits, we've got quiet bits in our show…”

I told him I couldn't hear them for the noise. He ignored me.

“...if you like loud bits, we do that, too."

Elliott jumped in quickly to stress the variety of Def Leppard's material.

"You can't say all our songs are the same. There might be a basic similarity because they're all hard rock songs - so you're going to get your guitar solo and your wailing vocals an' all that nonsense. But we do all sorts of different things. Some of the songs we do are slow, some we do are ridiculously fast, some we do are quiet, some we do are loud. And we do some that are fast and slow in the same song."

A veritable Noah's Ark of variety!

I was prepared, after an incoherent outburst from Steve Clark about the virtuosity of mad Kraut guitarist Michael Schenker, to go on to the next point on the agenda. Elliott had been thinking, though.

"Frankly," he said, "I can see your point, where you say bands like us might be inviting criticism. because of the dry ice and the leather trousers and smoke bombs. But there's a certain obligation, certain unwritten rules you have to stick to. People expect things of you. If we ever did a tour of your Hammersmith Odeons and what have you, we no doubt would use dry ice in slow bits and open with an intro tape and have fookin' explosions every other second. It adds to the visual side of it. That's what people expect.”

"But," he said darkly, "the music press would just go, Phahblahblah - it was all dry ice, leather trousers, open-necked shirts, gold medallions, wailin' guitar solos, all the usual stuff - let's get back to the bar…”

I wondered where he had seen me in action.

"Thing is," he said, and I could sympathise with him, "because heavy rock has always been knocked, it will be knocked."

“But," said Clark, "it'll go on. It's existed for ten years, despite all t'other trends. And it'll last longer, than mod or ska, or whatever revival it is.”

This was unusually coherent for the guitarist. I asked him if he might explain the continuing appeal of heavy rock.

He tried, rather bravely in the circumstances.

"People who listen to heavy rock are workin'-class kids. They're not interested in fashions and trends. They don't give a shit about what's happenin' in't papers. They stick by what they know they like. They don't change image every week. Just 'cos there's supposed to be a mod revival, they won't sell all their Judas Priest albums and rush out an' get Secret Affair's album. They'll think, 'Fook it, I'll listen to what I want to listen to.’ They won’t change clothes just 'cos it's fashionable. If they want to wear flares, they'll fuckin' well wear 'em.”

Clark's fleeting reference to Secret Affair had conveniently brought us into the Eighties. I wanted to know what Def Leppard thought of various performers. With no real idea in mind I reeled off a few names: Springsteen, Costello, the Pretenders, the Specials.

"We don't dislike any of 'em," Clark smiled cheerfully.

"The Pretenders," grinned Elliott. "Chrissie Hynde. I'd like to marry 'er one day."

"We don't dislike anybody, really," Clark belched. "We like everythin'."

"I can't stand bands like Specials," Elliott blurted, destroying Clark's magnanimity. "An' what's that other load of tit tha's just coom out? The Beat. Can't stand 'em, either. Tha's mod. Don't appeal to me. As far as I can see they're just revampin' an' ruinin' old songs. Tears Of A Clown' by Smokey Robinson were brilliant, but Beat have done it and I think it's a load o' rubbish. Same wi't Specials. An' Madness, I don't know if I like 'em or 'ate 'em, 'cos every time I watch 'em I just crease up. They're really funny t'watch. They remind me of Split Enz to be honest, the way they kind of lumber about like idiots."

Clark is awake again. "Bands like Specials and Madness and the mods and th' parkas an' all that shit," he said, "all they're doin' is just re- vampin' what was happenin' in 1966. But what we're doin' isn't revampin' 1969 heavy metal. We're takin' them roots, but we're buildin' on 'em."

Exactly the same could be claimed for the Specials and ska, I protest.

"I don't know that much about ska," Elliott intervened tartly, "all I know is that they're revampin' summat that's older than heavy rock and they're not gettin' slagged for it. They're revampin' 1964 or whenever... Like the mods. Like, two or three year ago, the 'Oo were borin' old farts. Now they're t'heroes of all t'mods. Does that mean in 18 months their mod audience of now is goin' to be walking about wi' kind of Indian waistcoats wi' long dangly tassles?

"I reckon." Elliott calculated, "that by about 1983, we should have all these parkas thrown on't fire and they'll be gettin' headbands owt of cupboard again."

This argument had a certain logic; but weren't they really deluding themselves. Didn't even their kind of new wave heavy metal actually depend upon its predictability? The closer they stuck to the established clichés of the genre - in appearance, sound and presentation - surely the greater the chance of success? They weren't really straying too far away from classic HM themes of sexual dominance, celebrations of hedonism, macho posing, apocalyptic rantings about the end of the world.

"All right," Elliott argued, "So there are clichés in what we do. At same time I could run through thousands of punk songs that are all about the same old punk clichés. There they are, singing 'I wanna be an anarchist, I don't wanna conform, I'm on the dole. I've got no money an' life's so hard…’ All that crap. So you get some heavy metal band singing about death and destruction, astral trips t'moon an all that. But we haven't got songs about death and destruction… wi't exception of 'When The Walls Come Tumblin' Down'. That's the only one. Most of our songs are more poppy than anything else.”

"If you listen to 'Walls’" Clark said, "you'll realise that it don't revive all those things about death and destruction that you had in '69. It's lookin' forward.We wrote tha’ songs perhaps a year before all this crap came around in Iran and Afghanistan. If you listen to the words: 'All the people came together in fear of the end…’"

Yes?

"Well, it means something." Clark insists. "It's a prediction. It's not going back over that old Black Sabbath shit.”

"It's in the future tense," Elliott added, trying, presumably, to be enlightening. "If you ever get the chance to read t'words when album comes out, you'll see that they explain exactly what would happen if there's a massive atomic war. If there is ever an atomic war, I reckon that 90 per cent of those lyrics will prove to be accurate about what'll happen." He paused for a moment, considering this.

"Give or take the odd thing," he said at length. "Like the women bein' 'captured an' chained"."

"That's a cliché," Clark said, farting wetly.

"Maybe," said Elliott. "But the bit about 'national suicide'... you will get a lot of people killing themselves. And, like - ‘America fell to the ground' - you're goin' t'get buildin's fallin' down, you're goin' t'get kids left crippled, whether it's wi' atomic rays or wha'ever."

"Whole cities fallin' down," re-peated Clark dreamily.

"A lot of it'll be like that. Of course," Elliott added modestly, "I'm not sayin' that I'm some kind of messiah who can see into the future."

“I’d like you to know that I haven't got one Black Sabbath album," Clark admitted suddenly, as if this had been haunting him since childhood.

I quickly asked Elliott what Def Leppard thought about the other bands with whom they've been associated in the vanguard of the new wave of heavy metal. I mention Japan and Girl.

“I don't think Japan are heavy metal," he said authoritatively. "I don't think Japan are anything near to heavy metal. Japan to me are a brilliant band. I've got 'Adolescent Sex' and I think it's a great album. But it's not heavy metal. The fastest song on it's a Barbra Streisand song, 'Don't Rain On My Parade".

"I've never heard Girl. I can't really comment on them. But to be honest, I don't think they've got a future. Their image is all wrong."

Paragraph omitted. Starting back again with Joe...

"I've been in trouble before for sayin' that birds don't buy records. But I don't believe women buy as many records as blokes. An' I reckon they'll appeal more to birds. An' I don't think birds go to as many concerts or buy as many records. Of course, you've got your exceptions wi't Rollers where it were totally all birds. An' a lot of birds probably buy disco records. There are bound to be exceptions. But I think there's percentage of't lads that go to concerts”.

Elliott is convinced of Def Leppard's commercial success, though he admits it might not have been possible without the commercial breakthrough last year of both Judas Priest and UFO, I ask him why he thinks those bands finally found commercial success after years (15 between them) of unsuccessful stabs at the chart.

"They got airplay for a start," he said. "They tried to be more commercial. They made better records. They made commercial records. They didn't try to do in the studio what they do onstage. They made really good heavy rock albums instead of average heavy rock albums."

"They realised," added Clark, "that people don't want to see Jimmy Page playin' a 20-minute guitar solo wi't violin bow. It's out now. At same time, you don't want to go t'see t'Damned who don’t play a guitar solo all night. They want summat in between. Summat between the Dooleys and Black Sabbath."

“The fookin' Dooleys?" Elliott asked, utterly confused. "Wharra yer talkin' about now?"

"We're the Dooleys wi' goolies," Clark attempted to explain.

"Why do you keep bringing up the fookin' Dooleys?" Elliott demanded, still confused. "What 'ave we got ter do wi’t Dooleys?”

“We’re in't middle,” Clark struggled to clarify his statement. "People fed up wi’ bands shoutin’ about anarchy. There ‘as t’be a balance between bands like Rainbow, bands wi' ripped knees in't jeans and Genesis. An' I think the balance is us. We can play but we can still roar.”

Elliott looked at Clark, looked at me, looked confused. I was going to ask Clark to elaborate upon this point, but I didn't.

He'd fallen back upon the bed, unconscious.

#def leppard #joe elliott #steve clark #press cutting

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doublegoblin · 1 year

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Song to OC

Rules: Assign a song that fits the vibe of your OC.

Thank you to @asterhaze for the tag! This is certainly an interesting one!

Whoms't've to no pressure tag: @angie-j-kay @randomstupidchaos @conkers-theficwriter @hallwriteblr

I'll be going through the songs for Alex the POV character from Rituals and Red Tape. With a little bonus at the end~

Try to not take the lyrics too much into account, as is for the vibe!

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Okay so I'll be honest and say I had not seen what the english for this song was until just recently (like putting this together recently) and dang, the lyrics fit the vibe more than I thought they would ^^;;.

What I had in my mind original was, well, and opening to a show. The first big bass hit would have been a big stack of paperwork being placed on Alex's desk. Then just like a montage of stuff.

Really they want to just exist in this world with no issues, but, other dreamers make problems and so they need to fix those problems; otherwise they risk a talking to by Dave, oh and reality would come undone too so that wouldn't be great either.

The vibe I try to go for with Alex is an overtired and burnt out office worker/park ranger kind of thing.

youtube

Now don't get it twisted though, they may be tired and burnt out but they are not going to let their team down. During their most difficult times they look back on everything, everyone that is counting on them and they rise to the occasion. They also use this past knowledge and experience to try and uplift those around them so they don't sink. In a place where time doesn't matter, the body you are in is just a vehicle to experience the world, and you are so removed from your waking self you are an entirely different person; it's can be taxing to always pick yourself up and keep going. Eternity is a really big thing.

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No big text for this, just the vibe of when Alex first came to the dream reality. This band also has a song that was the inspiration/unlocked the writer block, for the final confrontation of the book~

NOW FOR BONUS

Dave-

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You go into your boss' office for an employee review. It's a gray coast line, obsidian pillars start to rise from the ocean, and the sky break open. You forgot your employee handbook, what do you do now?

#writing #writeblr #original writing #tag game #Rituals and Red Tape #RART #This was a lot of fun #I realized I don't often think of music for characters but more for scenes #Like so many of my breakthroughs come from listening to music #My person Alex just wants nothing to go wrong for ONE CYCLE #putting music to characters #my oc #my ocs #writing tag game #I also wanted to give a wide array of music #Youtube

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legion1227 · 11 months

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Voyager: "Fearless In Love" Album Review

I need to go out on a whim more often.

Every week, artists always drop new albums or singles. Before the new month, I like to scour through Genius and see what artists are dropping on what days. The artists I choose to listen to will usually be names I recognize or enjoy. Voyager was chosen because I'd heard of the band before but never listened to their songs. So, my first listen to any of their songs ever came from their latest album, Fearless in Love.

Fearless in Love is the eighth studio album by Voyager, an Australian progressive metal band, released on July 14th, 2023. Voyager's latest outing makes me desperately want to seek out and listen to the previous seven albums. Voyager left an everlasting impression throughout its eleven-track run. Within its 44-minute runtime, the album doesn't drag or breeze by too quick. It's a perfect pace. And it starts with a bang with its first track, "The Best Intentions."

Despite being a metal band, there are hints and elements sprinkled throughout the album of a techno element. It's heard first within the very beginning of "The Best Intentions" before diving into exhilarating instrumentals. The verse is short and singular, but the chorus and instrumental breaks are filled with energy that carries for the rest of the song. Following "The Best Intentions," Voyager continues the album with an impressive six-track run. The next few tracks are of excellence equal to the opening song.

Track number two, "Prince of Fire," follows the same pattern as the first. The techno element is heard clearly in the opening seconds, and the instrumentals dominate as a highlight of the song. The lead singer, Daniel Estrin, croons soulfully and sounds incredibly pleasant for the duration of the hook, verses, and otherwise. The next few songs, "Ultraviolet," "Dreamer," and "The Lamenting," are on par with the previously mentioned songs. Each song continues the strengths and formula of the previous one but still distinguishes each song from one another with unique sounds.

"Submarine" is the last song of the run that cements the high quality. After "Submarine," the album starts to waver. "Promise" is not only one of the singles of the album but a lesser song in comparison to the others. By no means is "Promise" a bad song, but the single doesn't stand out particularly. Guitar riffs and techno elements are not as strong or impressive as the previous songs and leave no impression. The album does pick up slightly once more with "Twisted." One of the album's better tracks, which sticks out more with engaging lines. ("Seeking resolution that may never come/ Is this evolution? Am I on the run?").

Unfortunately, there's a slight downturn with the last three songs. Like with "Promise," the final three tracks are not bad but pale in comparison to the top-tier songs that preceded them. Vocally and instrumentally, the tracks are a tad inferior, but the overall project remains a solid listen. Voyager's latest project reaches incredible highs and lows that are not as low as one may believe. The progressive rock band knocked it out of the park with its latest album, ranking high as one of the better albums I've listened to this year. A definite recommendation for rock fans. 4/5.

#review #music review #album review #voyager band #new music #music #fypツ

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newmusickarl · 1 year

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youtube

5-9’s Album of the Month Podcast – Episode 3 Out Now, Episode 4 Coming Soon!

Just a reminder that the latest episode of the 5-9 Album of the Month Podcast is now available, reviewing some of the best albums we heard in March. As ever I take a seat alongside 5-9 Editor Andrew Belt and Check This Out’s Kiley Larsen to review five high profile album releases from the past month in music, and ultimately name one as our Album of the Month at the end of the discussion. With some divided opinions between us, which one reigned supreme?

Then for our April review episode dropping in early May, the five albums we will be discussing are:

Language by Circles Around The Sun

Fuse by Everything But The Girl

72 Seasons by Metallica

First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The National

Garden Party by Rose City Band (Poll winner!)

If you want to listen to the latest episode simply click the link below, but also be sure to follow 5-9 Blog on Instagram and Twitter for more news and polls relating to the podcast, along with other great content like film reviews, sports articles and more.

Listen to the March 2023 episode here

Album & EP Recommendations

A Kiss For The Whole World by Enter Shikari

I feel like I say this every time Enter Shikari bring out a new record, but they really are one of a kind. When they first released their incredible debut Take To The Skies back in 2007, the euphoric collision of trance and metal was unlike anything I had ever heard. As a teenager at the time that record was everything and whilst many (including shamefully myself initially) wrote them off as surely being a flash in the pan, the St Albans quartet have just gone from strength to strength.

Across six brilliant albums, their rave/metal fusion has since evolved to include more elements of grime, pop and punk, whilst their lyrical messages both social and political have also grown in scope alongside their sonic ambitions. Their musical journey has been nothing short of a triumph and album number seven feels like them taking stock of just how far they’ve come.

When we last heard from the Shikari boys, it was at the height of lockdown when they were found revelling in the abyss on their most ambitious outing to date - Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible. Now with A Kiss For The Whole World, it’s like the band have re-emerged from those depths, this time filled with hope, positivity and gratitude. There’s a sense of optimism in the songs here, with the band also referencing their previous work multiple times (“You’re still standing like a statue” on the title track, “Wish I was back at the Dreamer’s Hotel” on Jailbreak and “I went to live outside to find myself” on Giant Pacific Octopus to name just a few easter eggs).

It presents an interesting dynamic at the heart of the record, almost like the band know how dire the world is right now, but on the flip side they are just so grateful for their fans and the career that they’ve been able to have until now. With these contrasting emotions driving forward the writing, it all makes for a thrilling 30-minute listen that’s impactful yet joyous, and also plays out like a love letter to their fans.

The kitchen sink of ideas thrown at Nothing Is True… has also been refined a bit more this time too, with this album seamlessly flowing from one track to the next. As ever with Shikari, the singles for the record sound better in the context of the whole, as electronically-charged thumper (Pls) Set Me On Fire and motivational anthem It Hurts both hit much harder now. Leap Into the Lightning is then a dubstep-induced message of encouragement to make bold choices, whilst Dead Wood is a string-tinged adaptation of Pinocchio, with Shikari seemingly getting in on the Hollywood trend of revisiting that story but of course doing it in their own unique way.

If Dead Wood is their Pinocchio then Jailbreak is their Papillion, as the band repeat their mantra “I hope I keep hope intact” during the euphoric outro. It’s already one of my favourite Shikari songs and it leads seamlessly into Prodigy-inspired banger Bloodshot. As great as the main part of that song is, the Coda for the track that follows may be one of the most beautiful arrangements the band have ever put to record – an utterly stunning orchestral composition that successfully brings out all the goosebumps. It all then gets brought to a rousing climax with the poignant closing two-parter Giant Pacific Octopus, where frontman Rou Reynolds questions “I don’t know you anymore - or maybe I never did?”

When I get asked what Enter Shikari’s best album is or am asked for suggestions on where someone should start with their catalogue, I always struggle to find an answer. The reality is each new album is always as good as the last one, with the band yet to deliver a misfire across their 15+ years doing this - even when their batshit crazy, genre-bending sound is almost tailor made to serve up a misstep or two. With each new release and each new triumph my respect and admiration for the band only grows stronger and it seems with A Kiss For The Whole World, the feeling is mutual. One of Britain’s most underrated bands and I really hope they finally get their first number one album later today – fingers crossed!

Listen here

MTV Unplugged (Live) by Twenty One Pilots

Whilst not for everyone, I’ll be the first to admit I love these MTV Unplugged sessions. From Nirvana serving up an all-time classic live album with theirs back in the mid-90s, to incredible recent releases from some of my own favourites like Placebo and Tash Sultana, these sessions have given us some great music over the years. So when I saw that mainstream superstars Twenty One Pilots had released their own MTV Unplugged live album, I was naturally intrigued as to what they might do with the concept.

As opposed to simply taking the easy route and busting out a few acoustic versions for fans, the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun instead use the Unplugged concept to present their live show in an interesting new format. Rather than just using a pre-recorded track as they would normally, the pair use hands-free looping and sampling to build their songs out in front of the crowd in real time – even using the audience themselves at points as their instruments. Not only that, but the arrangements of their biggest hits have been reworked, some mashed up together whilst others simply remixed into a new alternate version.

Altogether it makes for a fascinating 30-minute listen, with the duo using the audience members as their drum kit on a cool mashup of Ride / Nico And The Niners, whilst also elsewhere serving up awesome live versions of Shy Away and Stressed Out. However, the pair save the best moment for last, combining two of their best songs in Car Radio and Heathens into a spectacular grand finale.

Listen here

Exotico by Temples

If you are looking for a summer indie rock record bursting with catchy melodies, glistening guitar solos and trippy instrumentals, then look no further. English Psych-rockers Temples recently returned with their dazzling new album, Exotico, which is just a whole heap of fun.

Drawing shades to the likes of Tame Impala, MGMT and Life Is Yours-era Foals but with that vintage 70s psychedelic sound, this is Temples at their bold, cinematic best. Single Gamma Rays already feels like it could be one of the songs of the summer, whilst the title track plays out like the soundtrack to a futuristic Western. The first third of the record really is all killer and no filler, with early favourite Oval Stones boasting the catchiest orient-inspired groove.

Of course, at 16 tracks and pretty much an hour in length, the less patient few may find listening to Exotico front to back in one sitting a bit of a challenge, especially within the current trend of shorter 30–40-minute albums. However, Temples do reward those who stay the course, with the hypnotic synths of Giallo, the mesmerising tropical guitars of Inner Space and the paranormal sonic vortex that is penultimate track Afterlife, just some of the delights in the latter half of the record.

I’m already finding a lot to enjoy in this new Temples record, and I can’t wait to return to it on those hazy summer days that are (hopefully UK weather!) coming up.

Listen here

Forever Means EP by Angel Olsen

And on the shortplay front, American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen recently returned with a spellbinding new four track, 15-minute listen. Opener Nothing’s Free is my personal highlight, a haunting ballad centred around Olsen’s soft vocals with a light jazz-blues inspired arrangement. Once those horns arrive towards the back-end, you’re sure to be swept away.

The title track also leaves a big impression, featuring a simple guitar backing and Olsen’s aching falsetto vocals with some slight shades to the late, great Jeff Buckley. The folksy Time Bandits is equally gorgeous, before Holding On offers up the fist-pump-the-air, triumphantly defiant finale, full of big rock guitars as Olsen heartbreakingly sings “Couldn’t see the light you brought to me, now you’re gone and I can see.” An excellent EP that continues Olsen’s typically fantastic recent output.

Listen here

Garden Party by Rose City Band

“There’s no better way to describe Rose City Band, and this new record especially, as the tightest, most enjoyable first set the Grateful Dead would perform in the late-70s - one in which we’re treated to the best freeform guitar interplay that’s still reigned in before the sun sets on a second set full of surprises. “Porch Boogie” invites the dirt churners to groove as Paul Hasenburg’s keys work (phenomenal throughout the album) fills the gaps of Johnson’s psychedelic solos.

As much as Earth Trip fit the times in which it was crafted, Garden Party returns to the carefree picnic days of Summerlong and builds upon that feeling for their best record. Letting the Rose City Band catalog breathe on the road has opened the door to the complete capabilities of Johnson’s vision for the project, and his supporting cast is absolutely locked in right now.”

Read Kiley Larsen’s full review here

Listen here

Also worth checking out: 72 Seasons by Metallica, Fuse by Everything But The Girl, Plus Ultra by Chappaqua Wrestling, Multitudes by Feist, Intellectual Property by Waterparks, Big Picture by Fenne Lily, Stay Teenage EP by Billy Tibbals

Tracks of the Week

Couldn’t Make It Up by Ben Howard

Two years since his last release Collections From The Whiteout, singer-songwriter Ben Howard has announced his new album Is It? will be released fairly imminently this coming June. With Ben you never really know what to expect from his albums other than they are usually a fascinating listen, but he’s given us a bit of insight to the album’s possible direction with this jangly summer number that will serve as the album’s opening track.

Listen here

A Child’s Question, August by PJ Harvey

Also announcing a new album this week is the legendary Polly Jean Harvey, whose tenth album will be coming this July and is titled I Inside the Old Year Dying. Interestingly it will also be her first independent release since 1992, having recently signed with Partisan Records. In her own words, “the album is about searching, looking – the intensity of first love, and seeking meaning.” The first taste is A Child’s Question, August, a typically stirring folk track led by ritual-like drumming and Polly’s choral voice.

Listen here

The Score by Grian Chatten

The Fontaines D.C. frontman also made a splash this week, releasing his debut solo single - The Score. There’s no official word on a full length yet, but this first taste of what Chatten’s solo material could deliver is mighty intriguing, a sunkissed and string-tinged acoustic number written on a lustful night in Madrid.

Listen here

Mermaids by Florence & The Machine

Last Friday, Florence quite unceremoniously reissued her acclaimed 2022 album Dance Fever, this time titled The Complete Edition and featuring a couple of reworked versions and a few new tracks. One of these new tracks is Mermaids and it is already one of my favourite Florence & The Machine tracks. Powered by rumbling horns, exquisitely written lyrics and an anthemic refrain of “Cheerful Oblivion”, it’s a phenomenal track that I can’t quite believe didn’t make the original album cut.

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This Is A Photograph II by Kevin Morby

One of my Top 20 Albums of 2022, Kevin Morby’s This Is A Photograph was an incredible project, autobiographical and reminiscent whilst also sonically invigorating. Now, the Texan singer-songwriter is releasing a new companion project to that record, titled More Photographs (A Continuum). The album will feature reworkings as well as completely new songs, with this first taste a sort of a mix of the two – a funky and cinematic sequel to the original album’s brilliant title track.

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Love Make A Fool (Orchestral Version) by James

Mancunian indie legends James have begun their much-anticipated new tour this week, where they will be joined by a full orchestra and gospel choir on all dates. Alongside the tour their new orchestrated record Be Opened By The Wonderful is due out in early June, celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary. Although it will predominantly feature reworked versions of their greatest hits, there is also this new gorgeous new track, Love Make A Fool. Wonderfully arranged with poignant lyrics, it serves as a welcome reminder as to just how James have managed to still endure after all this time.

Listen here

Double Fantasy by The Weeknd featuring Future

It won’t be long now until The Weeknd’s HBO show The Idol hits our screens, due to premiere this June. Naturally I’m expecting the show to have a killer soundtrack, and this atmospheric, neon-soaked collaboration with Future is a good indicator that my expectations are correct.

Listen here

Mother by George FitzGerald & SYML

Hot off the back of his brilliant 2022 album Stellar Drifting, electronic musician George FitGerald has announced a new four track EP titled Not As I will be arriving this June. Mother is the first single from the project, a beautifully ambient groove featuring American musician SYML on vocal duties.

Listen here

High Life by Bloc Party

It has become tradition for indie legends Bloc Party to release a standalone single following the release of an album, with gems like Two More Years, Flux and One More Chance gifted to fans over the years. Whilst High Life isn’t quite to that standard, it’s a great upbeat summer tune with a danceable central guitar riff and a catchy chorus.

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Children by Opus Kink

A band who released my EP of the Year in 2022 with ‘Til The Stream Runs Dry, ska-punk outfit Opus Kink have a new EP on the way in May titled My Eyes Brother! Children is one of three tracks to have been released from the project so far and is my current favourite, a wonderfully maddening sensual barrage of snarling vocals and cacophonous trumpets.

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The Analyst by pecq

And finally this week, electro indie duo pecq have recently released their latest single from their forthcoming EP, Amnesia’s Ritual, which is due out in early May. Offering unique, entirely self-produced soundscapes, pecq blend ambient electronics, ethereal vocals and field recordings into tracks that are quite special. The Analyst is a perfect example of this, and a good way of introducing you to their dreamy sound.

Listen here

Also worth checking out: Ribs by Rachel Chinouriri, Don’t Let Me Down by Gus Dapperton & BENEE, Rescued by Foo Fighters,The Canary Trainer by Smashing Pumpkins, Jealousy by The Xcerts, Three Drums by Four Tet, Time (is a healer) by Keir, Life Is Yours (Dan Carey Dub) by Foals

REMINDER: If you use Apple Music, you can also keep up-to-date with all my favourite 2023 tracks through my Best of 2023 playlist. Constantly updated throughout the year with songs I enjoy, it is then finalised into a Top 100 Songs of the Year in December.

Add the playlist to your library here

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matthewburnside · 2 years

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SELECTED WORK OR INTERVIEWS APPEARING IN LITERARY MAGAZINES:

2023

“Fable” Prose Poem, Nurture Literary Journal. Forthcoming.

2022

“A Tooth is a Tree” Poem, The Meadow. “Perpetuum’s Sonata” Fiction. Cream City Review. “No Exit: A Gallery of Existential Horrors” Nonfiction, Post Road. “Here is a Little Book to Comfort You During These Unusually Dark Times” Chapbook, Poems, Selcouth Station Press. “Transmigration of the Soul: a Cheat Sheet” Story, Phantom Drift Limited. “Hungers | Hunches| Hunts | Haunts” + “True Story” Stories, The Pinch.

2021

“An Advent Calendar to Assay the Dolorously Heartsick” Hybrid, Meow Meow Pow Pow. “Technologies of Sorrow” Poem, The Shore. “Attention All Poets!!!” + “Can You Just Be Serious Already, Please?” Prose Poems, Sledgehammer. 3 “The Artist of the Ugly” Story, Contrary. “Not a Prose Poem” Prose Poem, Unbroken Journal. “Ramshackle Heavens” Prose Poem, Ice Floe Press: Pandemic Anthology. “Reliquaries of the Loveless” Story, Hominum. “Ghost Story” Story, Hobart After Dark. “Encore” Story, BULL. “Infinity Paradise Oblivion Cubicle” Story, Trampset “Digital Dreaming in Analog” Story, Heavy Feather Review. “Starskins” Story, Hobart. “Caustics: A Love Story” Story, Always Crashing.

2020

“Three Prayers” Poems, Rejection Letters “I cut my hand on a flower sharp with absurdity” Prose Poem, Giallo Lit “¤ Clockwork Melancholies ¤” Flash Fairy Tale, GASHER Journal “Young Escher Reconsiders the Human Heart as a Series of Tessellations Unspooling Toward Eternity” + “All of Tomorrow’s Rust is Electric,” Prose Poems, No Contact “∂ Tetherlings ∂”, “₾ Pilgrimage ₾,” Flash Fairy Tales, Lammergeier “Postlunar Lovesong” Poem, Pithead Chapel “The Prognosticators” Short Story, Okay Donkey “Meditations on an Echo in a Cave – Part I: A Brief History of the Coffee / Tea Break in Nintendo’s Mother Series, Writing as Getting Lost, Bombs, Wolves, Wax Jesus, & The Art of Pretending to Pray” Nonfiction, Grimoire “Wiki of Infinite Sorrows” Novel, KERNPUNKT. Forthcoming “13 objects of obscure power” Digital Chapbook (poetry, hybrid) – [https://matthewkburnside.wixsite.com/13objects] “Dear Wolfmother – Part 3, Serialized Digital Novel, Heavy Feather Review. Forthcoming

2019

“Secondhand Heavens,” Story, Cartridge Lit “Moments After My Wife Informs Me from the Passenger Seat That Lightning is Merely a Bundle of Negatively Charged Ions but What We Famously Know as Lightning Is Actually Just the Positive Flash of Afterlight Crawling Its Way Wounded Back Up the Sky,” Prose Poem, The Hunger “Story of a Dollhouse,” Poem, 8 Poems “There,” Poem, The Stay Project “Dear Wolfmother - PARTS I&II: Allegro/Summer”+”Adagio/Autumn” Serialized Digital Novel, Heavy Feather Review “Interview with Josh Denslow,” Interview, Lit Reactor “Parting Letter,” Nonfiction, Brevity blog

2018

“Rules to Win the Game,” Novel, Spuyten Duyvil “Meditations of the Nameless Infinite,” Poetry Collection, Robocup Press.

2017

“A Topography for Cataclysmic Dreamers,” Mixed Media Collaboration, 7X7 “The Architecture of Emotion,” Interview with A.A. Balaskovits, Cartridge Lit “Band-Aids are Some Bull,” Poem, Lit.Cat “Brief Index of All My Past Lives Leading Up to You,” Poem, Maudlin House “Postludes: An Interview with Matthew Burnside,” Interview with Koh Xin Tian, Ploughshares blog “On Postludes,” Interview with Lauren Prastien, Michigan Quarterly Review “An Interview with Matthew Burnside,” Interview with Patrick Font, Arcadia 4 “An(other) Interview…,” Interview with Sarena Ulibarri. Spec Fiction blog

2016

“The World is Flat” Poem, JMWW, Exquisite Duet “Spies” Story, Day One “Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost” Poem, Cartridge Lit “Totidem Verbis” Digital Poem, Permafrost

2015

“In Search Of: A Sandbox Novel” Interactive Novel-in-Progress, Best American Experimental Writing “Six Books to Light the Way Through the Darkest Night(s) of Your Soul” Blog post, Ploughshares “Reading as Intoxicant, Part II: Ten Books That Are Basically Drugs” Blog post, Ploughshares. “Reading as Intoxicant, Part I: Neurochemical Qualities of the Modern Manic Page Peeler” Blog post, Ploughshares “Carefully Curated Catastrophes” Blog post, PANK “In Search Of: A New Media Crash Course” Blog post. PANK “My Literary Zombie Apocalypse Dream Team” Blog post, Ploughshares. “Interactivity and the Game-ification of Books” Blog post, Ploughshares. “Stories You Can Touch” Blog post, Ploughshares “Bestiary” Fiction, Los Angeles Review “Postludes” Fiction, Gingerbread House “The Devil (and God) in the Details” Nonfiction, Passages North Blog “Rules to Win the Game” Fiction, MARY: A Journal of New Writing [reprint] “Five Literary Games” Blog post, Ploughshares “The Virtue of Stillness” Blog post, Ploughshares “An Incredibly Brief Introduction to New Media Lit” Blog Post, Ploughshares “Is Anyone Reading Your Blog Posts?: Building a Literary Community in the Age of Facebook” Blog post, Ploughshares

2014

“On Bitterness” Nonfiction, Passages North Blog. July 25 “I’m Sorry Princess But Your Plumber Is In Another Castle,” Nonfiction, Entropy. July 13. “As We Speak Pink is Pissing in the Mouth of Tyranny,” Poetry, Black Heart Magazine. June “I am a Quantum Wizard,” Poetry. Literary Orphans “Twelve Classic Poems Rewritten By Twelve Classic Video Games,” Poetry, Cartridge Lit. "Directing James Franco," Nonfiction, DIAGRAM. Issue 14.2. “The Root to Heel is Peeved with Ghoul Intestines," Poetry, The Electric Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature/The NewerYork “Anti-Midnight in the Kingdom of Yes” + “Consequence of Splitting the Atom,” Poetry, OmniVerse [reprint]. ZombieVerse: Resurrection Issue

2013

“Oblivion’s Fugue,” Fiction, Revolution House [reprint]. Volume 3.3. December “Questionable Lessons on the Craft of Writing Deciphered from Some Shitty Translations of My ‘What Would I Say’ Results,” Nonfiction, Sundog Lit Blog “Novel Excerpt from In Search Of” + “Interview with Matthew Burnside,” Fiction, Interview, Squalorly “My Kingdom for a Placebo,” Fiction, Schlock Magazine “Mow a Field of Flux” + “Iguana Ambulance,” Poetry, The Electric Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature/ The NewerYork “Preludes,” Fiction, Prick of the Spindle. Vol. 7.2 “The Zombie Apocalypse Will Be Televised?” + “Anatomy of a Clockwork Cock” + “Four 5 Ways to Drown a Cloud,” Poetry, Literary Orphans "In Japan There Are Crows as Big as Bicycles: An American’s Brief but Indispensable Guide to the World at Large," Nonfiction, The Molotov Cocktail “J Franco Uploads a Video of Himself Singing Ke$ha to YouTube,” Nonfiction, Defenestration. April 17 “Index of Humilities: a Self-Study (of Sorts),” Nonfiction, Sundog Lit Blog. March 11 "Careening Down the Highway in a Stolen Bumper Car, Slappy Sullivan Has His Last Laugh" + "The Puppy Apocalypse Will Not Be Televised" + "At the Sour Patch Kids' Birthday Party," Fiction, Black Heart Magazine. February 19 "note found on vanity mirror one hour after your melting away," Poetry, Interrobang Magazine "For Kevin," Fiction, Apt "For Mom," Fiction, Necessary Fiction "For Dad," Fiction, Monkeybicycle "On the Benefits of a Lego Heart, Which Unlike Human Hearts Can Be Rebuilt Again and Again Knowing the Resilience of Their Delicate Construction Even as They're Being Smashed Against Something like a House or Tree Trunk or Even Your Daddy's Old Pickup Truck With the Missing Left Rearview Mirror and Faulty Cab Lights," Fiction, Hobart. January 30 "Horoscapes," Poetry, Menacing Hedge

2012

"Chronology of a Black Hole,” Poetry, Ilk. Issue 6 "11 More Inflexible Rules for Upstart Writers," Nonfiction, PANK Blog. December 3. "For Heather," Fiction, Bartleby Snopes. Issue 9 "Romance: Beyond Thunderdome," + "Death Metal Music Box," Poetry, Used Gravitrons. Issue 9 "Cosmonauts/nots/knots," Fiction, Ninth Letter. Debut Online Issue. "Primer for Imaginary Theft," Poetry, Unshod Quills. October 10. "Into the Purple," Poetry, Photography, Extracts. October 3 "Only the Gods Know What Steve Buscemi is Capable Of," Fiction, Untoward. Volume 2, Issue 12 "Totems for New Combustible Life," Poetry, OF ZOOS. Issue 1.2 "The Internet Brushes Her Teeth With Candy Skulls," Poetry Collaboration, co-written with Nathan Blake, OF ZOOS. Issue 1.2 "Poem from the Cobbled-Together Statuses of Mom's Facebook Friends," Poetry, Rorschach Occasional "Futures," Fiction, LITnIMAGE "On the Failure of Language to Comfort You Following the Death of Your Pet Rock, Pebble Without a Cause," Poetry, The Northville Review. September 4 "This Poem is a Legitimate Threat," Poetry, Banango Street. Issue 2 "Manifesto in Autopilot," Nonfiction, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. August 6. "Nineteen Uses for a Room Its Walls Perfumed With Kerosene," Poetry, Radioactive Moat "For Kylie," Fiction, Jersey Devil Press "A Brief/Infinite Summer of Playing House," Poetry, Gargoyle "The City She Sings Noir, Softly First & Then Without Mercy," Poetry, A-Minor. July 30. "Dear Poem," Poetry, The Fiddleback "11 Inflexible Rules for Upstart Writers," Nonfiction, PANK Blog. July 3. "Concerning the Sad Magician," Poetry, Word Riot "Sunken Dreamers' Almanac," Fiction, Pear Noir! Issue 8. "Escapology," Fiction, NAP. 2.10 "Oblivion's Fugue," Fiction, The Stone Hobo "A Good Mandible is Hard to Find," Poetry, Birdfeast. Issue 3. Summer 6 "Karma Sutra” + "Trading Cards for the Legally Paranoid" Poetry, Dirtflask. Issue 3 "Anti-Midnight in the Kingdom of Yes" + "Consequence of Splitting the Atom" Poetry, > kill author. Issue 18 "Ahmed Builds a Miniature Trebuchet Out of Milk Cartons and Popsicle Sticks, Aims it at Nobody," Poetry, elimae "Yul Brynner Doesn't Give a Motherfuck" + "No Orgasm Will Ever Make Me Feel the Way Morgan Freeman's Voice Sounds" + "Trapped in Gary Busey's House, One Text Left" Poetry, Dinosaur Bees. Issue 4 "How to Build a Human Child From Spare Parts," Poetry, Used Furniture Review. February 3.

2011

"Revival," Fiction, Juked. November 15 "This Poem Will Not Save You," + "Romance like a Pneumatic Hiss" + "Tao of Right Now" Poetry, The Chaffey Review. Issue 7 "Literary Short Story: A Mad Lib," Fiction, PANK. Issue 6 "Robots in Tokyo," Pale Horse Review, Poetry "Emily on Fire, Waltzing, Waiting for the Rain," Poetry, Ginosko, Issue 11. "Rules to Win the Game," Poetry, Zahir "21st Century Postmodern Love Song" + "Scenes From a Fractious Lucid Dream," Poetry, Psychic Meatloaf "Moon on Fire," Fiction, Revolution House. Issue 2. "Biography," Fiction, decomP "Ballad of a Wingless Butterfly, Torn Asunder By Unforeseen Windstorms," Fiction, The Dirty Napkin. Volume 4.4. "Promethean Proclamation," Poetry, Danse Macabre. Poésie D'été: Summer Issue "Procession of the Dogface Lepers," Fiction, Gloom Cupboard. Issue 128. "Pan's Lobotomy," Fiction, State of Imagination "Ballad of a Bumblebee Trapped in Honey," Fiction, Contrary, Summer Issue. "Splinter," Fiction, Short, Fast, and Deadly. Issue 81 "Hey, got a light?" Fiction, Pulp Metal Magazine. May 29

2010

"Cautionary Notes on a Blood-Splashed Sneaker Sole, Size 6½," Poetry, PANK. November "Headline," Fiction, The Cynic Online Magazine. Volume 12, Issue 9. September "Adrift," Fiction, Barrier Islands Review, Issue 4 "Be a Minecatcher" + "Meditations of the Nameless Infinite" Poetry, Neon Magazine, UK. Issue 23, Spring

2009

"Dog Death Requiem," Fiction, Concho River Review. Vol. XXIII, Spring

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