#feels fine

[mywifeleftme]

49: Shopping // The Official Body

The Official Body Shopping 2018, FatCat (Bandcamp)

If they ever tour again, London dance-punk trio Shopping are the kind of band you should drop everything to catch. I saw them on a stacked bill at Toronto’s Baby G in 2018, supported by Detroit experimental garage punks Tyvek and local emo act Feels Fine, and it was one of the sweatiest, most pogo-powered gigs I’ve ever been too. Shopping have a kind of loving telepathy onstage, exchanging lead vox, lacing together jittery high-stepping funk rhythms, and constantly cracking each other up. The last show I had tickets to before the pandemic lockdowns set in was a Shopping gig at Montreal’s La Vitrola with (adequate) electroclash act Automatic and (much-missed) post-punkers Dishpit that was rescheduled, rescheduled, and finally canceled.

That anecdote’s emblematic of the way the pandemic hip-checked a lot of the best indie rock bands of the late ‘10s just as they were building momentum, especially those who thrived on word of their live prowess to entrench their reputation. There hasn’t been much word from the Shopping camp in the past coupla years, which blows because they also really have the goods on record. The Official Body, produced by Orange Juice’s Edwyn Collins, is the successor to ESG that the early ‘00s Rapture-Franz Ferdinand-LCD Soundsystem revival never really provided. Guitarist Rachel Aggs, bassist Billy Easter, and drummer Andrew Milk are all beasts on their chosen instruments, and the sound they make together has something of the endless party vibe of African highlife or soukous music. They’re a little more lyric-forward than ESG ever were though, kissing off the square world with a stream of deadpan personal-is-political sloganeering.

Collins has an unfailing sense of Cool, and his production helps Shopping sound like the kind of band that will always be in style. If their lyrics’ hyper-concern with the body and telling the straight world to keep its hands to itself will date-stamp it to a certain cultural moment, it will be in the same way Gang of Four’s talk of Armalite rifles and warfare on 18-inch screens does—speaking in specifics about concerns that are endemic to life in western society, while agitating always to change things for the better.

49/365

[copepods]

crazy how 4 hours of work will literally take up my entire 15+ hour day. who allowed this

[seagiri]

you're okay

[taffywabbit]

they should invent a new type of "staying in bed for 2-3 hours after you wake up repeatedly opening and closing apps on your phone" where it makes you feel awesome and energized and emotionally fulfilled

[menlove]

like can you imagine if you, as a housed person, said "oh man im really struggling financially right now I can't pay my bills- my electric is going to be cut off, my car might get repossessed, and I definitely can't afford to get a new laptop after mine broke"

and someone who had a lot more money than you said "I can help you!" and you were like"oh my god great thank you so much-" and then they just offered to take you to olive garden. and you say "hey man that's really nice but I'm actually okay on food right now, I really just need to pay some of these bills. I already got food somewhere else (foodstamps, friends, food pantries) and I really just need money. if you can't do it that's fine but I don't need food"

and the rich person said "you must not really need money or be poor then or else you'd take me up on my offer. I bet you were going to use that money on drugs anyway"

that's what yall sound like when you refuse to give homeless people money & just offer to buy them food

food is great! if you need it and that's what you're asking for. unfortunately food doesn't buy clothes, hygiene products, shelter, pay a phone bill, or yes even buy drugs or alcohol if you're going into detox and can't do so safely without literally dying

[mothwriter]

[direpunk]

filming friends

[kymsys]

fixing it for gege. 💔🩹

[starrysharks]

friendship is magic

closeups:

[wombywoo]

bad dreams 🌙

[canisalbus]

✦ La Campanella ✦

[teaboot]

I've received asks on the topic a few times so I think I'd like to address the subject as clearly as I can

Okay, so like. You're on vacation, right? And you decide you want to go swimming. And you could go to a pool, or a lake, or the ocean, or the river. Wherever you want. And you see on the map that there's this one place called The Alligator Hole.

So you go there, and there's a sign on the shore that says "WARNING: ALLIGATORS", right? And you decide to go in. And when you get there, there's alligators. So you get out!

But then you go back in, with a stick, and you start hitting the alligators.

Because you don't want alligators where you're swimming!

And the impulse is understandable, because lots of people don't like swimming with alligators. Alligators are scary. Being in the water with alligators can be very stressful and damaging for people who aren't prepared to deal with alligators.

But at the same time, you must understand- there will probably always *be* alligators. Hitting a few with a stick probably won't eradicate them from the planet. There are SO MANY alligators! All over the world! And the vast majority of them will never ever hurt any swimmers!

And at the end of the day, nobody pushed you into The Alligator Hole, right? You saw a place literally called The Alligator Hole and decided that you wanted to go in there, and then you made life miserable for all the alligators.

Sure, there are places you like to swim where alligators probably shouldn't be- like suddenly, in your bathtub, uninvited and unwelcome, in the middle of the night- but alligators have to go *somewhere*, you know?

So if there are going to be alligators, no matter what, and we don't want to be surprised by them, then isn't it nice that we have places like The Alligator Hole

[kaiju-krew]

affection aggression pt 2

[villowstar]

day 2 - CASUAL

Entry for @glowweek

Out of curiosity of how Steven would look with straight hair, Connie convinces him into straightening his hair. Unsurprisingly, he ends up looking like Greg from the 80s.

I was also going to draw Steven helping Connie dye parts of her hair a teal color, but I had run out of time. might make it later though :D

[risibledeer]

joel being a Disney princess

look everybody my art is arting properly again! also pls send me any asks as i'm awfully bored lol

[lizardkingeliot]

I can't stop thinking about the way Lestat was punishing himself. Not only denying his body the blood by feasting on rats. Denying himself modern comforts. Vanity...

He was also denying himself true music. Denying himself the pleasure of playing. Sitting there in his sad little shack caressing a plank of wood on which he'd carved himself the facsimile of a piano. Caressing the immobile keys while a concerto being played by someone else leaked out from the speakers of his iPad, what appears to be his one and only modern luxury.

In season one, Louis referred to music as Lestat's last remaining link to humanity. And honestly, I know we joke about rockstar Lestat. I know it's kinda campy and goofy. But Lestat getting back out into the world by playing music feels very significant in the context of... all of this...