#found out mcr made a new song

[theneighborhoodhimbo]

Oh no… I just got the sudden urge to put on eyeliner and shave my head….

[wonderbutch]

genres and bands i listen to and how i got into them: an entirely too long useless list i made instead of sleeping

celtic punk

shoutout to the genre ever? i grew up listening to celtic punk literally since i was born. my dad sucks but his music taste does not. this genre is 32% responsible for my leftist punk attitude, which is ironic if you know anything about my father.

- the dropkick murphys: first band i can ever remember hearing. as a toddler i called them “the bastards”. still a favourite forever and everrr. their newish album “this machine still kills fascists” fucks HARD. the band will forever be a formative reminder of my working class upbringing in a miners family

- the rumjacks: late nights and early mornings in my dads car introduced me to this band. i really will tell me ma when i get home and i wont feel guilty about it

- paddy and the rats: one of the only celtic punk bands i actually discovered on my own. in 2018 i went on a sailing ship for a week and that got me rlly into celtic punk again LMAO. this band is so fucking good

emo/pop punk

i was 13 and tbh it was a phase but i still love listening to fob and mcr and sws

- my chemical romance: unironically i think i got into them through band memes

- fall out boy: literally just thru scrolling through youtube when i was 12

- [REDACTED]: [REDACTED]

- sleeping with sirens: this band shaped me as a person. kellin quinn the original gender envy. ohhh i miss this band sm

- all time low: a kid in my class in year 7 introduced me to all time low and ill remember him forever for it. hope youre well, jaiden.

- la dispute: got to see them live last year after @starcam413 got me into them! theyre kinda more screamo like sws but not in the same way as sws but definitely emo too

- set it off: this band is still SO GOOD. so fucking good oh my god. truly the fucking era

- the score: i was a greek mythology nerd as a kid (its my major now!) of course i listened to the score. i miss being 13 and listening to the score on youtube on my laptop at 3am so bad

folk punk

celtic punk and folk punk are very related, and i grew up listening to bands like the pogues and the violent femmes. is it really any wonder how i ended up Like This

- the violent femmes: as a child my dad would play country death song in the car. yes i am mentally ill and have daddy issues can you blame me????? (the song is literally about killing your daughter and then offing yourself)

- toby foster: really one of my proper introductions to the genre and what ultimately led me to discover bands like ajj and pat the bunny. found him on youtube through his song tennessee. i was 13 i think?

- pat the bunny: after toby foster i was completely hooked on the genre and of course ended up listening to the king himself, pat the bunny. your heart is a muscle the size of your fist is such a comfort song to me even now. it sucks he no longer makes music but im very happy he got sober!

- schmekel: im trans and punk of course i listen to schmekel. fantastic trans and jewish band that helped me a lot with my transness as a young teen

- mal blum: im counting his music as folk punkish, sue me. no idea how i got into them either. their song new years eve is the song i listen to on repeat every single new years eve, and i have yet to change this tradition. Help Me.

- the front bottoms: I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS. THEIR EARLIER ALBUMS ARE FOLK PUNK AS HELL. genuinely my favourite band ever. i can’t remember how i got into them but is how i ended up friends with @starcam413 (hi jon!)

- she/her/hers: sooo formative to me when i was 15/16 struggling with being trans.

- harley poe: ohh i love this guy so fucking much. why do i relate so much to a middle aged divorced man????

- days n daze: one of the most popular folk punk bands so i mean. Duh. sooo good i love them.

punk

- the sex pistols: listen. listen to me LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN. i dont even fucking like this band. in fact i despise it. but because my dad is an idiot, he loves this band and played it a lot when i was a kid.

- the queers: i think i heard them on a spotify playlist last year? big fan.

- the muslims: i believe this was recommended to me on reddit?? amazing black and brown queer band, i love it a lot

- tribe 8: im a lesbian with a complicated gender identity of course i listen to tribe 8. trans queer punk band that i listened to a lot when i was like 15 i think

- against me!: listened to them a lot when i was 15

new wave/post punk

got into this genre in 2022 and Hella into it late last year. blame paper girls brainrot.

- devo: got into them in 2022 thanks to an online friend hi ira 🌀 theyve never made a single bad song

- the cure: once again my dad showed me a lot of the cure when i was a kid and getting into music

- blondie: ….have you seen the batman and harley quinn movie….please dont make me say more. the first cassette in my collection is from this band!

- new order: one of my favourite bands right now. like most things for the last three years of my life, i got into this band because of a comic book. the tv adaption of paper girls features two new order songs and it got me absolutely hooked on this band.

rock/all that shit??

- danzig: once again you can blame paper girls for this

- bon jovi: also paper girls. i am obsessed with jon bon jovi’s hair in the 90s. gender envy as fuck

- queen: when i was 14 i found my grandpas mp3 player from the 2000s, he was a big fan of queen. i ended up putting all my music on the mp3 player and ive used it every single day since.

- billy joel: i was raised by my grandmother of course i listened to billy joel. played a lot on our old radio with my nans ipod when i was a kid. apparently my nan isnt even a big fan of him so i guess he was only formative to me lol????

indie

probably one of my most listened to genres just because. i have no reason. ive come to realise that most of my indie music taste is stolen from aura.

- girl in red: shoutout to discovering im a lesbian in 2017/2018 and to my best friend @vampoholica for introducing me to girl in red

- bastille: i love bastille sm icarus is such a good song and as a greek mythology kid i was so obsessed. bad blood youll always be famous to me

- mitski: oguhfhgh i dont know how i got into mitski but good lord. literally life changing.

- the smiths: fuck morrissey. i think this too was aura’s fault and i forgive them bc i love the smiths

- chloe moriondo: ahh the youtube ukulele era how i miss you

- alex g: i can’t remember how i got into alex g but i got into his music in 2022 and now im obsessed and unwell about him

- adrienne lenker: again this is aura’s fault and i am so fine with that. music sooo devastating it makes u wanna throw up and sleep forever

- elliott smith: i started listening to him because of simon vs the homo sapiens agenda

okay thats it thank u for reading this stupid post lol

[eternalspring4]

seeing parallels between heaven help us (mcr) and hell followed with us (aj white)

so i started rereading hfwu and im already insane about it. and i was listening to my hfwu playlist while i worked on a painting of benji, and heaven help us came on. and then i realized, the line, "mostly i've been sprawled on these cathedral steps while spitting out the blood and screaming, someone save us now" parallels PERFECTLY with benji's begging god/something to save him from new nazareth AND how he vomits up the flood rot/organs for the "spitting blood" part. then i realized the entire song narratively represents the book. lets go one verse at a time.

hear the sound, the angels come screaming / down your voice / i hear you've been bleeding / make your choice / they say you've been pleading: someone save us!

okay, well here the angels represents...the angels... the sound could either be their prayer or gunshots. and i think the next part matches up with how nick recognizes the flood rot benji spits up and knows that benji is the seraph from the first time they meet. the choice nick makes is to take benji into the ALC and to not say anything. the pleading is how benji frequently begs god to save him from new nazareth

and out of this old hotel / but i can't tell if i've been breathing or sleeping or screaming or waiting for the man to call / or all the above / cause mostly i've been sprawled on these cathedral steps while spitting out the blood and screaming, someone save us

"this old hotel" is the ALC, and benji "waiting for the man to call" could refer to how he's just waiting for the angels to come capture him again OR for the seraph to take him. then the spitting blood part is the flood rot organs vomit thing. yeah.

as you're falling down / and will you pray for me? / or make a saint of me? / and will you lay for me? / or make a saint of me? / cause i'll give you all the nails you need / cover me in gasoline / wipe away those tears of blood again

this part goes with the devasting part towards the end when benji is in new nazareth again and how the angels all praise and worship him. i'm not sure about the nails and gasoline part, this book doesn't deal much with themes of crucifixion. HOWEVER, the gasoline COULD be with the ALC fire scene.

and the punchline to the joke is asking: someone save us now / come crashing down / we'll hear the sound / as you fall

this part matches a little too perfectly. at the ending of the book, it's the IRONY. that benji uses the weapon the angels made of him to destroy the angels. the punchline to the joke is that benji uses all of his manipulation and trauma to fight back. the ALC group will witness benji take down this group that has killed lord knows how many people.

final thoughts:

im not accusing aj white of plagarism or anything, it's probably a coincidence. i genuinely just found this super fucking cool. i'm posting this so that i can look back on it and possibly make an animatic one day. also sorry if any of this is off or anything i haven't gotten past page 40 and i don't remember a whole lot of details

[danielfuckingricciardo]

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Daniel Ricciardo x Reader

Pairing - Daniel Ricciardo x Reader (University AU)

Word Count - probably around 3k ish?

Content Warnings - swearing, smutty references, but just fluff

Synopsis - You and Daniel had been dancing around one another all year, and so at the Christmas party hosted by your lecturers, he finally decides to make a move via your favourite obscure Christmas song.

Author’s Note - I don’t write a lot of AU fics, except for the massive one that will be coming your way in the new year!! Keep your eyes peeled for that!! But this goes out to all my fellow former emo kids. Congrats, you made it, though like me you probably still have some MCR in your Spotify playlists. Anyways, enjoy this one, and I’m sorry it wasn’t actually posted on the day I said I would post it! I am battling against the seasonal plague (I have a sore throat) and so I got an early night last night instead of staying awake to write till 2am lol 😂

Inspired by the My Chemical Romance cover of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is You

You had only begrudgingly agreed to attend the Christmas party your lecturers had arranged to celebrate the festive season. All of your favourite outfits were stashed away in your laundry bag ready to take home, allowing you to take advantage of your parents’ washing and drying facilities. After all, the laundry room was always full, and it never really left your clothes smelling right, and you had to pay £7.50 for the privilege.

But your friend Yasmine had dragged you out shopping as she searched for an outfit for the party, and so when you spotted that one outfit in the window, you thought ‘fuck it’ and drained your bank account to almost empty. It wouldn’t be until January when your next student loan dropped, but you wouldn’t exactly be spending much while stuck back at home.

Besides, the party would be your last chance to see Daniel before you all left, travelling across the country, and in his case, across the world to spend Christmas with your families.

It was your second year of university, and the small group of students who hadn’t dropped out during first year were all eager to celebrate and say goodbye, especially to your lecturers who were all pretty chill and had become like friends themselves throughout the past semester.

The group chat had been filled with people sharing their eager anticipation for tonight, letting you know who would be bringing what drinks, who would be hosting pre’s and afters at their flat, and all manner of other things.

George had been the one to organise most things, after all, he was the most eager to say goodbye, having to return home to his stuffy home in the country where the only company would be cows and the odd sheep for the Christmas season. He wanted the first half of the year to go out with a bang, and so, you found yourself pressing the buzzer to the gate to be allowed into the boys’ flat to get a little drunk, before going out to get even more drunk, and then returning again to get progressively drunker and to inevitably end up passing out on the sofa again.

“Who goes there?” The voice on the intercom says, and you roll your eyes.

“George, for fucks sake, do we have to answer three riddles before you’ll let us in? It’s fucking freezing out here.” Yasmine says, and you chuckle, pulling your jacket tighter around your body to protect yourself from the cold winter air.

“Not this time, I’ve had too many to think of a riddle, never mind three. I’ll buzz you in, Daniel’ll be down to let you in.” George says, and the gate beeps, slowly swinging open.

You walk over to block B, your heels clicking on the ground as you walk past a group of students sharing a spliff.

“Alright?” Daniel says, his head peeking around the door.

“I’m fucking freezing and these shoes are hurting already.” Yasmine says, pushing past Daniel into the warm corridor of their building.

“I’d lend you mine, but I think they’d be too big for you. But hey, you know what they say about men with big feet?” Daniel says, a cocky smile on his lips as you enter the building.

“Big socks?” You respond quickly, as he guides you down the corridor towards their flat.

“You betcha.” He says, and he opens the door, which was already leaking sounds of voices and some pop song you didn’t recognise.

The boys all cheer as you enter the kitchen, setting down the bottle of vodka you had been carrying onto the counter.

“Ah, you legend!” George exclaims, “you want a drink?”

“Sure!” You respond, and George pours a large measure of cheap vodka into a plastic cup, topping it off with some coke.

“I’m taking my shoes off, they hurt like a bitch, no one look at my feet!” Yasmine yells, steadying herself on your shoulder as she pops off both shoes.

“Be careful, Lando has a foot fetish.” Daniel says, and the boys erupt into laughter.

“I do not! Besides, I’ve seen your feet enough to put me off them even if I did.” Lando says, poking Daniel in the chest.

“So you admit, you did have a foot fetish.” Daniel says, his head tilted slightly as Lando turns a dark shade of red.

“No matter what I say, I’m not gonna look good after this, am I?” Lando says, turning to you with a chuckle.

“No, he’s backed you into a corner there, Lan.” You say, rolling your eyes at Daniel as you pat Lando on the shoulder to put him at ease.

You throw yourself down on the sofa next to Charles, whose head was buried in some textbook you vaguely recognise.

“The grind never stops, eh Charles?” You ask him, and he looks over at you.

“It’s interesting! I was just getting to the end of this chapter before I joined in with whatever those idiots are doing.” Charles says, his eyes returning to the page and scanning quickly downwards.

“I’ll go and pour you a drink, you’re going to need it if the music playing in here gets any worse.” You say, standing up and wandering over to the counter.

The rest of the guys were already several drinks in, and George was trying to convince Alex to try the local IPA he was drinking by describing the taste in excessive detail. Alex was smiling and nodding along, but clearly checked out of the conversation. George had simply had too many drinks already to notice.

The boys flat consisted of George, Daniel, Lando, Alex, Charles and Max. The six of them had decided to live together following the first year after all hating their original housemates. They had asked you and Yasmine to join too, but you decided against it, instead opting for a small two bedroom flat a few streets away, ‘the boring flat’ the boys had dubbed it. You were sure they would have driven you crazy, just spending time with them during lectures was enough, and you didn’t fancy having to put up with their antics 24/7.

You had however ended up sleeping on their sofa more than once as the club you often frequented was right next door, and the boys were always far too drunk to walk you home. But you found that Daniel was always sober enough to pass you a blanket each and every time. The blanket that smelled just like him, and your drunk self would often wrap up within it and pretend he was right beside you.

It was so embarrassing, but you had a big crush on Daniel. You had from the first day you met him, when he showed up in his ripped black skinny jeans and Bring Me The Horizon t-shirt, with chipped black polish on his habitually-chewed fingernails. He liked all the same bands as you, he played guitar, and he had a wicked sense of humour. To you, he ticked all the boxes, he was perfect. You just wished that he felt the same way about you.

Daniel wasn’t one to shy away from flirtation, and received a lot of attention from the other people on your course, and he always managed to pull someone whenever you went out. You minded, of course you did, but what could you say? You’d only make a fool of yourself. So you would just glance at him every so often, his tongue lodged down some other person’s throat in the club, and wish he’d see you that way. You wished he wanted to kiss you like that too.

What you didn’t see, was that whenever you turned away, he would look at you too. Knowing that whoever he may or may not go home with that night wouldn’t be you. But you weren’t interested in him, right? You were just a friend, a friend with their life together who was so much better than he was in every respect. You’d never waste your time with someone like him.

“Lando’s playlists are shit, aren’t they?” Daniel says as he slides in next to you at the counter.

“You know I prefer something a little heavier, but you know how it was when we dragged everyone to emo night… They did nothing but complain and then went for a kebab at 2am.” You say as you empty the remainder of the cheap vodka into Charles’ cup.

“True, I started playing Slipknot earlier and they threatened to go on cleaning strike unless I turned it off. And no song is worth being forced to clean Max’s jizz off the shower screen without moral support.” Daniel says, and you burst into laughter.

“And you wonder why I didn’t want to live with you guys.” You say, rolling your eyes as you top up Charles’ cup with sprite.

“Did someone say my name?” Max says as he enters the kitchen, a vodka red bull in hand.

“No, no, must have been the song.” Daniel says, firing a quick wink in your direction before taking a sip of his own drink.

“Yo, Charles, time to get drinking, you’re lagging behind!” You say, leaning over the back of the sofa to pass Charles the cup.

Charles sets his book down beside him and takes a sip, his mouth twisting as the drink which was mostly vodka hits his palette.

“Did you actually put any mixer in there? Fuck.” Charles says, his face still slightly twisted.

“It’s the (y/n) special, 3 parts vodka to one part sprite. You need to catch up with the rest of us.” You say, and Daniel laughs beside you.

“We are going to a Christmas party with our lecturers in ten minutes, you know? I don’t think we want to be pissed before we get there, might not be the best impression, eh?” Charles says.

“I think it might be too late for that.” Daniel says, gesturing over and Alex and George who were already considerably drunk.

“Well, we’d better get going anyway. Yasmine, get your shoes back on. Alex, Lando, scrape up what’s left of George from the sofa. Charles, down that drink. Max and Daniel, let’s go!” You say, grabbing your bag from the counter and holding the kitchen door open.

“Yes, ma’am.” Daniel says, saluting you mockingly as he squeezes by, his hand brushing yours for a split second as he does.

You managed to herd the boys into the university building and to the large room your lecturers had booked to host the Christmas party.

You were all offered a glass of Prosecco on arrival, which you took graciously and nursed as you talked to your lecturers about the previous semester.

“Next semester we’ll be doing the pairs presentation. We wanted to make it interesting, so we’re assigning the pairings.” Sebastian, the leader of the course says, and you nod your head.

“Any hints on who I’m partnered with? I’m not all that keen on surprises.” You say, tilting your head inquisitively.

“I’m not allowed to say names at this point, but if you list off some names I may nod if you say the correct one.” He says, and you rack your brain to try and guess who you might be paired with.

“Yasmine?” You say, and Sebastian remains still.

“Charles?” He doesn’t move.

“Max?” Sebastian takes a sip from his glass of red wine.

“Alex?” Yet again, no movement.

“Daniel?” You finally say, and Sebastian tilts his head up and down ever so slightly.

“Really? Why him?” You say, and Sebastian places his finger to his lips, shaking his head at you slightly.

“I thought you’d be stoked to be paired with someone of my level of genius.” Daniel says, appearing from behind you with two glasses in his hands.

“Eavesdropping, are we?” You say, waggling your finger at Daniel as you would a naughty child.

“Nope. I just have keen ears.” He says, a cheeky grin on his face.

“I’ll leave you two be. You’ll have a lot of work to be doing together after Christmas.” Sebastian says, before walking away to talk to some of the other students.

“Okay, so, you, me, a weed brownie, a PowerPoint presentation, and a perfectly curated playlist made by yours truly. Doesn’t that sound like the all-night library session from heaven?” Daniel says, and you roll your eyes at him.

“You see, this is why I’d rather be paired with Yasmine or Charles. They’d take the assignment seriously!” You say, downing the rest of the sparkling wine in your glass.

“Hey, doing things the Daniel way hasn’t failed me yet.” He says, gesturing openly with his hands.

“Yet being the operative word.” You fire back.

“Oh, you know you love me really, you big nerd.” He says, and how desperately you want to exclaim ‘yes! Yes I do love you! I want to kiss you and do lots of kinky sex things with you!’ But instead you roll your eyes again.

“Here, I have a spare, you want?” Daniel says, gesturing to you with the full glass of Prosecco in his left hand.

“Sure. God knows next semester I’m gonna need it.” You say as you take the glass and swallow half of the alcoholic beverage.

“Look, DJ Lando has taken control of the playlists here too. I think he’s actually playing his own stuff now.” Daniel says, pointing to where Lando and George are stood beside the speaker in the corner of the room.

“If he keeps up with this DJ shit then Yasmine might actually jump his bones later.” You say in Daniel’s ear and he looks at you with a shocked expression.

“Lando? Really?” He says rather too loudly, and you shush him.

“She loves a DJ. Now, don’t tell anyone I told you this, but apparently she had a lot of fun with a DJ when she was out in Thailand on her gap year. He still replies to every one of her Instagram stories.” You say, and Daniel laughs.

“Really? I didn’t have her down as the gap-year-romance type.”

“Well, she wasn’t, she just loves a guy with a big deck.” You say, lifting your glass to cover your laughter at your own stupid joke.

“What about you? I’m sure Charles would be down if you just asked him, y’know?” Daniel says, and you look at him, perplexed.

“Me and Charles? Please! What the fuck gave you that idea?” You say, your eyebrows furrowed.

“I don’t know, I suppose the way you always gravitate towards him whenever you visit.” Daniel says, suddenly seeming rather awkward.

“Usually it’s to ask him about what I missed when I snooze my alarm too many times before a 9am lecture.” You laugh, “no, but Charles is nice, he’s just not my type.”

“Oh really? So what is your type?” Daniel asks, and you tilt your head to appear deep in thought.

“Hmm.. I like a guy with a good sense of humour. Aesthetically, I like the tall, dark and handsome types, y’know? Also goth guys, goth guys are really hot. And they’re extra hot if they play guitar.” You say, and Daniel raises his eyebrow.

You feel your cheeks begin to heat up as Daniel leans in to say something in your ear, but he’s interrupted as Lando begins to play a Christmas song, and Alex and George steal him away to dance.

You take a seat on the edge of a table and watch on as everyone dances on the makeshift dance floor, swaying and singing along to the lyrics of that Ariana Grande Christmas song you couldn’t remember the title of.

Daniel pushes his way through the crowd as the song comes to the end and stands in front of you, blocking your view to the rest of the room.

“I put in a request with DJ Lando, this one’s for you. Dance with me?” Daniel says, offering you his hand for you to take.

“You know I don’t really do Christmas songs.” You say, shaking your head at him.

“Oh, I know you like this one.” He says, and you hear that familiar voice begin to play over the speaker system, and gasp. He remembered? But how would he remember such a trivial thing as that from last year?

“Okay, I’ll dance with you.” You say, taking his hand and walking to the dance floor, where many of your friends were confused at the song that was playing. It was familiar, sure, but they hadn’t heard this version before.

You hear the drum beat kick in and immediately start to jump as the guitar plays. Daniel takes your hands in his and spins you around, and the confused people that surrounded you give in to the beat. Eventually, the two of you had formed a mosh pit on the dance floor, and even Lando was pumping his fist aggressively beside the speaker as he stared at his phone.

“How did you remember I liked this version?” You shout over the music at Daniel.

“You told me you liked it, last year, when I asked what song you were listening to.” Daniel says.

“Yeah, I remember, but how do you?” You say.

“I guess I wanted to. I remember everything about you, (y/n).” He says, and you feel yourself blushing as he takes a step closer to you.

“That’s really sweet Daniel.” You say.

“I can be sweet, sometimes, when I want to be, especially for someone I-“ Daniel stops talking as the song transitions into a slow 80s song. You recognise the melody as True by Spandau Ballet, a song more commonly played at a wedding disco than a college party.

Lando looks over at Daniel, giving him a thumbs up with a smug grin on his face.

“Oh I’m going to kill him.” Daniel says, shaking his head.

“Go on, finish your sentence.” You say, looking up at Daniel as you sway your body to the music.

“I can be sweet, for someone I love.” Daniel says, and without thinking, you pull him in closer, crashing your lips to his.

“And that, ladies and gentleman, is why I am the greatest DJ who ever lived.” Lando says, and both you and Daniel stick out your middle fingers at him almost simultaneously.

By midnight, you were all kicked out of your university building, with plans to return to the boys’ flat to continue the party with a few more drinks and more of Lando’s DJing talents.

“What even was that version of the song? I’ve literally never heard it before.” Alex says.

“It’s a cover, from a while back now. All I Want For Christmas is You by My Chemical Romance. It’s more to my taste than the original.” You say as you walk briskly beside him, trying to keep warm in the cold night air.

“Oh, it’s very you. But how did Daniel know to play it?” Charles interjects.

“Because he’s embarrassingly in love with her, and remembered she liked it after she told him last year. Get with it, Charles.” George yells, his verbal filter completely gone as a result of his drunken state, and Daniel blushes.

“He’s not the only one embarrassingly in love, (y/n) has wanted to lick whipped cream off of his surprisingly toned body since day one.” A very drunk Yasmine chuckles as she wobbles into Lando on the pavement.

“It was a dream I had one night, don’t read too much into that.” You say, and Daniel looks at you with his eyebrow raised.

“We don’t have any cream, but you’re welcome to the caramel sauce and sprinkles in my cupboard.” Max says, and you jab him in the back.

“I feel like I’m being ganged up on here. Just wait till you guys hear about Yasmine’s thing she has about DJs.” You say, and it’s Yasmine’s turn to blush.

“(Y/n)!” She exclaims, running up to you in her heels to slap you on the shoulder playfully.

“Hey, you might be in there Lando, unless she only likes good DJs.” Alex says, and you chuckle as Lando shouts an ‘oi!’ from the back of your walking party.

You reach the gate of the boys’ building and stop as Daniel pulls out his keycard.

“Oh, we’re going to go to the club next door, do you wanna join? Or are you two going to be occupied with Max’s caramel sauce?” George asks, and you scoff.

“Do you wanna go out? I don’t feel much like clubbing right now, my ears are ringing after George’s rendition of Sweet Caroline.” Daniel asks.

“I’ll stay here with Daniel, you guys have fun though!” You shout as they begin to walk away, sending a herd of whoops, cheers and wolf whistles in your direction.

You shake your head at them as your enter the courtyard and Daniel opens the door to his flat for you to step into.

It was surprisingly quiet without the other guys in it, and the situation you found yourself in suddenly felt all too real.

“Would you like to join me in my room?” Daniel asks, and your eyes go wide, “I’m not trying to sleep with you, I’m not that sleazy, it’s just, the radiator in the lounge is broken so it’s warmer in my room.”

“Sounds good. I don’t think I’ve seen your room before, and I like being nosy.” You chuckle as you follow him to the door marked with a number 3.

He pushes the door open and you follow him inside, noticing the guitar resting against the desk, a half-dead succulent beside his laptop, and an arrangement of photos stuck on the wall.

“Did you take all these?” You ask, studying the photos one by one.

“Yeah, it’s a little hobby of mine. I’m not very good, but I like to capture important moments so I can look back on ‘em later.” He says, standing beside you, resting his hand on your shoulder.

“It looks nice. Australia, I mean. I’d love to visit some day.” You say, turning to him.

“You could come and visit me in the summer, I’m sure my mum wouldn’t mind making up the spare room, or you could share mine?” He says, letting out an awkward chuckle.

“You know, for someone who I regularly see making out with strangers in the club, you’re quite shy.”

“You’re not just a stranger in a club, (y/n).” Daniel says, reaching out to caress your cheek gently with his fingers.

“All this time I thought you’d never give me a second glance, and yet, here we are.” You say, stepping back to take a seat on the edge of Daniel’s bed.

“Are you kidding me? You’re gorgeous, (y/n), you’re kind, you make me laugh, and you have a killer taste in music. And, as it turns out, excellent taste in guys too.” Daniel says, sitting down beside you.

“So you really do like me? You’re not just having a laugh?” You ask, and Daniel offers you a small smile.

“Why would I be joking? I really like you (y/n), and I’d like it if you stayed with me tonight.” Daniel says, and you place your hand gently on his thigh.

“I’d love to, Daniel.” You say, and he presses a small kiss on your temple.

“This is going to make that presentation much easier to organise next semester.” Daniel says, and you laugh.

The truth is, all you really wanted for Christmas was Daniel, and this year, your Christmas wish had been very much fulfilled.

[ficklepenguin]

ok so i found it recently that despite what i had thought in the past, i had never heard a single mcr song besides black parade. i found this out because i thought, i like the one song i know they wrote, i should find out what other songs i like but didn't know was by them, but the answer turned out to be none of them. i didn't know any of their songs!!

but instead of just shrugging it off, i listened to their whole discography while playing power washing simulator and now i think i've been changed in my soul, i lost nine hours to this. literally just sat there for 9 hours playing power washing simulator and listening to the entire (to my knowledge) mcr discography on repeat.

it's really embarrassing for me to admit this because i'm in my 30s now and there's this stupid stigma in my brain about listening to a "new" (to me, kind of) band and feeling Changed but I'm admitting this because it's a STUPID STIGMA and i could literally feel it healing my inner teenager. i haven't stopped listening to them all week now. i dislike most recordings of live music with very few few exceptions but i listened to one of their live recordings and it made me cry.

i think adults my age and older should allow these kinds of things to happen to them, i feel like there's this resistance in a lot of us, i definitely had it too. but it feels really good and i'm really glad i did it.

[angstics]

this post is about "father", a song name attributed to a few existing black parade songs.

first, it isnt an unreleased song. the oct 2006 comments under the title's page on songmeanings.com tell a short story of how the user who added the song to the website grabbed it off of limewire. the lyrics were originally for "the end", as indicated by another commenter. the original poster said limewire mislabeled "the end" as "father" then edited the lyrics to be what they are now -- an off sample of "i dont love you". they source the mcrmymusic myspace page for the new lyrics. i can not find any post on the site about it.

"father" is also mentioned in the songfacts.com page for "the end", by both bailey from nj and indigo from australia. indigo says: "I always thought [The End] was called Father until i bought the actual cd and it was changed to The End." i think this may be consequence of limewire, or similar sites / programs, mislabeling the song. all these varied accounts point to the same conclusion that "the end" was called "father" at some point.

so, where did this mislabeling come from?

gerard way introduced a song as "father" at the march 2006 secret show mcr performed at sxsw for shirts for a cure (their friend and photographer beemer's charity project that supports people with breast cancer). this post by @ephedrineshot is a great primer on the show. basically, they came out unannounced and performed a short set including some new songs that turned out to be for their next record, the black parade.

here's a quote about the event in blender mag (june 2006), courtesy of ephedrineshot (full page):

the article frames it like this: gerard announces a "new, unrehearsed" song called "father" then says "we're going to regret this". i havent found any other account of this speech. in this video before starting what we know now as "the end", gerard says, "this got bad idea written all over it". though the quote in blender mag is different, the sentiment is the same. concert speech transcriptions are not fully reliable.

most of this could be found through a google search. well, livejournal is Designed to be impossible to search (at least to me). while browsing the community chemicalromance, i came across this post from july 27, 2006:

it's a direct transcript of my chem performing "the end" at sxsw -- most importantly the identical "wave your fucking arms" line. based on the post and comments, there seems to be a lost video that at some point connected "the end" to "father" -- whether it be in the gerard speech described in blender or video details like title / description.

at some point, the black parade began with the song "father". it sounded a lot like "the end". it'd be identical lyrically if not for the line "you've made your conclusion / just call me a fag" and the missing final verse.

there's another interesting change that you almost cant catch in the video because of the bad audio quality. in the ew article on the show, they say: "As the slobbering faithful chanted 'one more song' after the band’s initial exit, MCR returned to unveil a new, partially complete opus. Featuring a 'na-na-na' finale that had the crowd instantly singing along, the song suggested an even more pop-friendly future for the rambunctious quintet." basing my knowledge of the show from the setlist.fm page, i couldnt figure out how CANCER of all songs would have an audience singalong part. either setlist.fm or ew is wrong about the setlist because at 0:45 of the video, when gerard tells the crowd to wave their fucking arms, you can hear him and the audience exchange "na-na-na"'s. if i had to trust one source over the other, id go with ew.

more about the show: austin chronicle 1 | austin chronicle 2 | punknews | metrosiliconvalley

[lunasalix]

Can't sleep, so here are my thoughts on Riot Fest Day 1 as an attendee:

For background, I'm not new to festivals and rowdy crowds. I go to Louder than Life regularly.

I got there by Uber at 2 because I couldn't figure out the train system. The community was protesting the festival, but I didn't find out why until later. This festival harms the black and Latino communities that use Douglas Park. There were tons of security at the entrance, so I went in thinking the festival must be very safety-focused. Boy, was I wrong! Looking back, I realize that the metal detectors were either very weak, turned off, or staff didn't care, because my belt always sets off detectors, but they waved me straight through.

I went straight for merch and had to wait in line for an hour. The lines only got longer as the night progressed. It was hot and I knew I'd need water and food to be able to stay in the pit from 5-10:30, so I walked to the first food I saw, which was by the midway. The signs did not reflect what the vendors actually had, and the lines were ridiculously long. I waited 30 minutes and barely moved 20ft of the 200ft line, so I gave up and went to find the rest of the food trucks.

On the way, 2 things stood out: the festival prohibited any other vendors from selling water and the only water refill station had the longest line of the whole place; and second, the festival layout was confusing and winding so that it would be easy to get turned around and trapped in an emergency.

Once I found the food trucks, I was again shocked by the lines. There had to be at least 15 food trucks, all with lines that took over an hour to get through. Clearly the festival had not planned adequately for the number of people.

I was thankful for the large amount of shade! The festivals I've gone to before had little to none. I sat under a tree to eat, then set out to get water. The line to buy water took another 30 minutes. I finally made it to the main stage about an hour before Taking Back Sunday.

Upon surveying that area, I had immediate concerns about the possibility of crowd crushes. The stage was sandwiched between a barricade for the neighboring stage and the barricade for VIP, which was slanted in as it approached the stage.

I decided to stay near the VIP barrier so I could jump over if things got out of hand, and I stopped about 200ft from the stage. During Taking Back Sunday, I made friends with a group of women and we all agreed to pull each other to safety if it got scary. We were shoved in every direction and there was 1 crowd rush toward the stage that swept us forward about 50ft, but nothing too abnormal yet.

Next was Alkaline Trio at the stage beside us. This is when the crowd rushes got bad on our section. We tried hard to plant out feet and keep from being swept forward, but somehow we ended up about 100ft from the stage. Toward the end of Alkaline Trio, a man behind us was picked up to crowd surf and nearly dropped twice. At that point, the women I was standing with left, but I made the decision to stay. It was still not nearly as bad in that area as it was for Korn, Slipknot, and Stone Sour at Louder than Life.

Just before MCR went on, there was another rush. This time, my feet left the ground and didn't return until a few long moments later. I kept telling people to stop because they would crush those up front. A few did, but most pushed forward. The people immediately around me were nice, though, so I still felt safe.

As MCR was playing, they kept having to pause between songs to ask people to step back and allow their crew to pass out water. The people in my area all stepped back. You could hear the stress and frustration in Gee's voice and it made me so sad. This is the first show since their return where they did not appear to be having fun.

After the 4th song, they started turning the stage lights on the crowd to check for injured fans. Gee kept directing the crowd to make a path for paramedics. Trains of people were going by me trying to escape the crowd with terrified looks in their eyes. One girl was being carried out by her friend and looked barely conscious.

About an hour in, I joined a train to leave. People in the train were using the phones to light a path and grabbing frightened fans from the crowd to get them out.

I got to an area in the back where everyone had plenty of space to move and noticed the area speckled with dozens of people using mobility aids. They oversold tickets to the ADA section and these people had no view of the stage.

Finally, I found a spot where the vibes were fun and stopped. As I talked to those around me, I realized many were originally near the front and had to escape after being crushed.

Exiting was terrifying. They drove everyone to a single exit, so it compacted the crowd through the winding festival grounds. Twice I was carried against my will by the liquid flow of the crowd. I broke out and sat by a tree for an hour before braving the exit, which was still packed and took 20 minutes to get through.

Next, I waited in a line to use a portapotty which was unsurprisingly out of toilet paper. Then, I sat by another tree for an hour and a half waiting for phone service so I could call an uber. As I waited, I watched dozens of cars and motorcycles blatantly driving drunk, running red lights, and hanging out for the windows to celebrate Mexican Independence Day while the cops stood around and watched. I watched 2 people hobble past me on clearly broken legs. Talked to a man who witnessed a girl walking out of the crowd with her head injured so badly that blood was pouring down her face and shirt.

I finally got uber to load and had 3 drivers cancel on me because of traffic before I was finally picked up another hour later. It took 1.5 hours to get to my hotel 11 miles away because the traffic was so bad and police had many exits blocked off. My driver showed me why. My hotel is in the wealthy part of town and the cops were trying to keep the celebrations from disrupting those neighborhoods. No care for the rest of them.

I finally got back and read countless stories of people getting broken bones, passing out, and fearing for their lives. I saw one post on Twitter stating that they saw a gun in the crowd, which is believable given the metal detector situation.

I'm so fucking sorry for everyone who was hurt or scared. No one's concert experience should go that way. I definitely didn't have nearly as much fun as I did in Nashville's show, but I'm still grateful to have seen them twice this tour. Gee was perfect and the band and crew were great. They saved lives while festival staff stood by.

I will not be returning to Riot Fest in the future unless they demonstrate that they can fix the safety issues and move to a location that is less disruptive to the surrounding community.

[tyforthevnm]

Interview: frnkiero andthe cellabration

By: Kelly Gonsalves for Pop Break

Posted on September 3, 2014 

When he was just a teenager, Frank Iero began having pangs of pain in his stomach after eating. Soon after he learned from his doctors that he has a “bacterial overgrowth of the lower intestine,” which, among many other symptoms, causes the stomach to send signals to the body that it’s in pain while it’s digesting food. The end result: a lifetime of nausea, medication, steroid treatment and stomachaches.

“I think anytime you’re dealing with pain management […], it makes everything difficult,” Iero tells me. “If you’re constantly nauseous and just not well, it kind of zaps your – especially your creative side – but it kind of zaps your whole personality. If you don’t feel well, you don’t want to do anything.”

But while the reaction of most might be to crawl under the covers, sulk and never get out of bed for the rest of eternity – and the former My Chemical Romance guitarist admits he used to fall into this spell of despair all the time as well – Iero soon found a way to channel that pain into something else.

“I found for me, being creative and writing songs or writing short stories or creating something or poetry or something like that – if it came out good, if I enjoyed it, I could kind of ride that creative high for at least a day or two. And I felt normal again,” he says. “I would have to force myself to do something productive, and then it made me forget about myself.”

Last week, Iero released his first solo album, stomachaches., a compilation of 12 songs written almost two years ago during one of his worst bouts with his digestive condition. Toward the end of 2012, the multi-instrumentalist began creating music in a makeshift studio in his basement as a means of diverting his attention away from his physical ailments. He recorded most of them in early 2013, just as My Chemical Romance was winding down. The songs, he says, were never meant to be heard by another soul other than himself, let alone to be actually released for public consumption.

After MCR finally called it quits in March 2013, Iero’s focus turned to Death Spells, a two-man project with former MCR touring keyboardist James Dewees that had been brewing for almost a year. Death Spells did some touring, and those solo songs written in the basement saw the stage every now and then just for kicks. It was around this time people started telling Iero he should think about talking to labels.

It all came together this June, when he announced his signing to Staple Records. His new solo project, frnkiero andthe cellabration, was born.

“Everything’s different,” he says. “It’s strange. With this, it was written because over the time as I felt terrible, I would go downstairs, and I would just write, you know? There wasn’t a deadline. There wasn’t a record. There wasn’t a label. No one knew I was doing anything.”

And he has every reason to “cellabrate” – it’s a real success story when you think about it. After all the push and pull, Iero has a tangible product to show for it all. The experience has definitely been “rewarding,” he tells me, despite all the physical turmoil that inspired the album.

“I think now my life has changed enough, you know, having kids and all,” he says. “I kind of wanted to show them that you can take a bad thing and turn it into something positive if you put your mind to it. And that was, for me, taking a defiant stand against it. If you’re not going to go away, then I’m at least going to get something out of you.”

The bold spirit is very characteristic of the punk rocker – one look at the music video for thecellabration’s single “.weighted.” tells you the man is not faint of heart in the least. (Spoiler alert: It gets real ugly real fast.)

But what does catch me a little off guard is the softness found in the underbelly of everything he says. He is gentler than expected, both in his tone and in his perspective toward the world. His children, for instance, repeatedly come up in our conversation. When I ask about his upcoming tour with Taking Back Sunday and The Used, his excitement to show off his new work is mixed in with some nervousness about leaving his family behind.

“I think the hardest part to come to grips with is that when you’re away for so long, it’s hard – it sounds stupid – but it’s hard to remember that life doesn’t stop at home,” he says. “Like you go away and two years later you come back, and your loved ones are older, and things have changed. They’re like strangers. It fucks with your head, you know?”

His three kids are now old enough to miss him, to say “come home.” It scares him, he says with a half-hearted chuckle.

Still, it’s something he almost needs to do, he says. His creative outlets – browsing through his personal website reveals the man’s talents rest not only in music but in poetry, photography, short stories, to name a few – are what keeps him sane. These artistic expressions are what keep him in the state of mind he needs to be in to do the things he needs to do.

“I’ve started to realize that in order for me to be the person I wanna be, the dad I wanna be, the husband I wanna be, I need to satisfy this creative side because that keeps me level. And then I can ride that level and be happy,” he says. “So that’s where I’m at. The only thing now is trying to find that happy medium.”

—

frnkiero andthe cellabration will perform at the Gamechanger World in Howell, NJ, on September 6. Click here for tickets.

[foundationsofdickay]

MCR Detroit 2022

(Also known as "No, I was not there, but I already make these recaps for my friends so why not post them here too". Warning that these are just the parts that I found most interesting, not necessarily a full summary of the shows)

Setlist:

[Image Description: the setlist for the MCR Detroit show over an image of a broken angel statue, titled Detroit Setlist. There is a drawing book with The MCR Archive written on it in the corner, next to the hashtags #MCRchive and#MCRTour. The setlist reads Foundations, Not Okay, Give Em Hell, Bury Me In Black, Summertime, Our Lady of Sorrows, House of Wolves, Boy Division, Destroya, Black Parade, Teenagers, Mama, Nanana, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, The World is Ugly, Famous Last Words, and Sleep. There is then a line followed by the songs from the encore: Vampires Will Never Hurt You and Helena.]

• Gerard dressed like an old timey nurse, said something like “I’m gonna keep this hat on as long as I can”

• Drum said “sick”

• Frank: the usual, wearing his merch. go check out his ass on Instagram tho that’s the most important Frank news of the day

• ESPECIALLY since one of his new ass tattoos is an mcr tattoo (swarm w bug)

• Worm also got a swarm tattoo

• Mikey: some shirt with a fairly deep v neck???

• Ray: tshirt and jeans

• Gerard repeated “take your meds” instead of moaning during destroya

• No vamp money

• Gerard jokingly made fun of frank for his hat?

• “Lemme check the menu” (the setlist) - Gerard

• “You made it, we made it. So long, and goodnight” (intro to Helena)

• Gerard talked about burping apparently

[allnightlongzine]

Join The Black Parade: My Chemical Romance And The Politics Of Taste

Daoud Tyler-Ameen | OCTOBER 21, 2016 | npr.org

Sunday is the 10th anniversary of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade, a defining album for both the band and a generation of pop-punk fans. A decade later, NPR's Daoud Tyler-Ameen is still processing what it means to love this record, and what its impact says about the culture around it.

Click the audio link for his roundtable discussion with Tracy Clayton, host of the Buzzfeed podcast Another Round, and Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, poet and MTV News columnist — or find it in the All Songs Considered podcast feed. For more on how their conversation came to be, read on.

Common wisdom suggests that the culture you're exposed to in your teens and early 20s ends up informing your taste for the rest of your life. For most people, those years are where the very notion of taste begins. Books, movies, music, fashion, friends: You realize you have options, and you reject the ones that don't match your idea of who you are. The stuff that does stick — be it posters on a wall, patches on a jacket, a dog-eared paperback stuffed in a back pocket — you add to your coat of arms, self-definition by way of curation. What you like informs your understanding of what you are like, and vice-versa.

But every so often, taste leads you somewhere complicated. Sometimes you love a piece of art, but not what that love says about you — and the self-portrait you've so rigorously composed threatens to flake away. This is where I was 10 years ago, when My Chemical Romance released its third album and crowning achievement, The Black Parade.

In 2006, amid the rising tide buoying the fates of Fall Out Boy, Paramore and Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance was as just about as big as it got. This was a boom era for the kind of band whose LPs are stocked at Hot Topic, but the Jersey quintet had always seemed to aim beyond its base. MCR had come out of nowhere with 2004's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, an album born of hardcore but ringed with enough melody and melancholy that all stripes of emo and pop-punk buffs could find themselves in it, too, resulting in sales that zoomed past Warner Music's 300,000-unit target on the road to platinum status. The record had hits, it had hooks, and it had reach, especially once the cinematic visuals for "Helena" and "The Ghost of You" found their way to MTV. Crucially, it also had a sense of humor — see the video for "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," in which freaks-versus-jocks teen comedies are skewered with note-perfect precision — which meant I couldn't dismiss the band as some self-serious Marilyn Manson hangover, even if singer Gerard Way did favor eyeshadow and funeral garb. Three Cheers was really, really good, and that was a problem for me.

Emo had found me in 10th grade, when a two-month relationship left me with a bruised heart and a taped copy of The Get Up Kids' Red Letter Day EP, and had followed me to Yale, where I hipped my freshman roommate to Dashboard Confessional. My Chemical Romance's music was not itself the issue — rather, it was the scale of the thing. This band was so popular, so grandiose — and thus, it was also a punching bag, derided as "mall punk" by the same people who had a few years earlier indicted Britney and *NSYNC as signs of the apocalypse. At a moment when mannered indie-pop and roughshod garage-rock were infiltrating the mainstream, MCR was earnest, dramatic and unapologetically massive, in a way that made it conspicuously uncool. And for me — a gawky black kid at a fancy white university, feeling very much stuck between identities — uncool seemed like the worst possible thing to be.

Writer Carvell Wallace has described the struggle this way: "Having black skin but liking white things is a little like walking on a tightrope ... You have white friends with whom you can never talk about race but you avoid groups of black people because you fear they will hear what's in your headphones and call you out as a traitor." Those words come from a Pitchfork Review profile of TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe, with whom Wallace had overlapped years before as an NYU undergrad, and identified as a kindred square peg — the kind of black kid who might not take great care of his sneakers but would agonize over which ratty band T-shirt to wear to a party. That's the needle I was threading when MCR arrived in my life: wrapping myself in thrift-store accessories, loudly claiming bands like TV on the Radio as my heroes, positioning myself as the kind of black bohemian (Pharrell and Basquiat come to mind) who can move between cultural groups by dint of the fascination he inspires.

This version of me wasn't a lie, just a selective presentation of the truth. But committing to My Chemical Romance, which in spite of its success was scorned far and wide as mass-market histrionics for sad teens, threatened to shake the myth apart. So I kept my love of Three Cheers to myself. And when The Black Parade arrived, heralded by an orchestral lead single whose video employed period costume, gothic sets and scores of extras, I was mortified — and pushed the band out of my life altogether. I was out of school by then, playing in bands of my own, working office jobs and learning to carry myself as an adult. Even closeted fandom seemed like a bad habit in need of shedding. The inner emo kid, I thought, had to go.

This summer, a cryptic teaser posted to My Chemical Romance's YouTube channel briefly lit up the social web, stoking fevered rumors among those who'd been missing the group since it disbanded in 2013. A day later came the letdown: There was no new album, no reunion tour — just a 10th-anniversary reissue of the record that had come to define the band's career.

Fans took to Twitter to voice their disappointment. Two voices in particular jumped out at me: Tracy Clayton, co-host of the Buzzfeed podcast Another Round with Heben and Tracy, and Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, a music writer and the author of a remarkable book of poetry called The Crown Ain't Worth Much. Both of them are friends of friends, part of an extended media family that platforms like Twitter have helped to illuminate. Both of them create work rooted in blackness, Tracy in searching interviews that sound unlike any in her field, Hanif in poems that read more like cultural essays, refracting issues like gentrification and police violence through the grammar of hip-hop and pop culture at large. Both of them were legitimately upset that My Chemical Romance was not getting back together. I knew I had to talk to them.

It isn't just that I've come around to The Black Parade in the past year, though that helps: When I finally allowed myself to listen to it all the way through, when I researched its underlying narrative about a cancer patient's journey to the beyond, when I stumbled on live videos of the band dressed in marching gear and corpse paint, the weight of it all hit me over and over and over. The record is a monument, as moving a statement about death as has ever been made. Twenty-two year-old me would have loved it, and loved talking about it. But it may well have taken the media environment of 2016 to show me how to have that conversation — in public, no less.

I don't know how much of this revelation comes from a change in the industry, and how much is just my own senses becoming more finely attuned, but the sheer plurality of black voices that move through my social timelines and podcast feeds these days is such a rich, resplendent comfort. When you can follow the work of not just a handful of black writers and commentators, but dozens upon dozens, running on their own or within enshrined institutions, you stop focusing on how different their perspectives are from the rest of the world — and begin to take notice of the many differences among them. You witness their minor debates, and pick sides. You see and hear them making guest appearances in one another's territory. "Rep sweats" fade from the picture; instead, you take as a given that people of color do and make and like all kinds of things.

And so, to toast the 10th birthday of The Black Parade, I called up two black writers whose work I adore and whose taste I admire, to have the exchange of ideas I wish I'd known how to have way back when. Here's hoping it reaches a few brown kids still learning how to trust themselves.

Andrew Limbong and Brent Baughman provided production support for this story.

[noblest-roman-of-them-all]

Happy Birthday, Virgil!

I can't tell if feels like longer than a year or not even a year since I last wrote to you, time is weird, you know? But either way we have made it!

A lot has changed in the last year, in the last six months, really, and one of those things has been my taste in music. Your playlist really opened up a new genre of music to me and I am really grateful for it. And maybe that sounds silly or inconsequential, but it truly means a lot to me.

Songs like Sing, Famous Last Words, and Welcome to the the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance have pulled me out of some grim places this year.

(Coffee's For Closers), Hum Hallelujah, The Kids Aren't Allright, and Disloyal Order of the Waterbuffaloes by Fall Out Boy are songs that never fail to get me singing and having a good time and help me to feel seen in a lot of way that I can't quite explain.

The Only Difference Between Martydom and Suicide is Press Coverage, The Ballad of Mona Lisa, Do You Know What I'm Seeing, High Hopes and New Perspective by Panic! At the Disco have become absolute staples in my music library.

Roman may have introduced to to Marina and the Diamonds, but you, my friend opened up a whole new world of music to me. I found music box versions of some songs for Panic!, MCR, and FOB, that have been absolute game changer for making my bedtime routine so much more tolerable.

I still use the tools of dealing with anxiety that I learned from you and Logan all of the time, and I am still very grateful for those things, but I know I mentioned that in my last letter, and I wanted to have something different for this year. So thank you for opening up my world of music.

To a lot of people music is just another trend, it's not something that deep, but music is incredibly important to me and it can be really hard to get myself to open up to new stuff and full honesty, if it wasn't for your playlist, I probably would never have found what are now some of my favorite songs and bands.

Happy birthday, Virgil, and thank you so, so much for sharing your favorite music with me. It's not always an easy thing to do, but I'm really grateful you did because it has helped me so much. Thank you for everything. And Happy National Emo Day as well.

And thank you to @thatsthat24 for sharing this incredible character and series with us. It truly has made such a positive impact on my life.

[explosionshark]

hi! what would u say are starter metal bands/albums/songs for people who have never listened to metal? i'm interested in exploring new genres but i know NOTHING about metal and you seem to know quite a lot!

See I love trying to answer this question but it's honestly a little tricky! The thing that makes metal so great imo is the fact that there's a billion subgenres. But that's also what makes it hard to find the right recommendation for someone off the top of your head! I might send you a metalcore song that does nothing for you, but if I had gone with like. Stoner metal or something you'd have found your niche.

That said I recently made a playlist for a friend asking me the same question. I tried to throw in an array of different styles. Check it out if you have Spotify! Feel free to skip when a song isn't working - there might be something you like more further on

Aside from that, click below for a couple of recommendations for stuff I find to be more accessible/appealing to a broad audience

Sleep Token - here's an alt metal band that's really blowing up right now! They're about to release their third LP. I'd suggest checking out a few of the singles they've already put out for it. This band has been great for attracting new folks to metal: they play with a lot of different genres and while they certainly have heavy moments, I feel like their pop-friendly approach makes them a good band to on board people to the genre.

Invent Animate - this is a metalcore band that also just put out an early contender for Album of the Year imo. There's a mix of harsh and clean vocals, a very atmospheric sound throughout, and a good mix of technically impressive instrumentation and strong hooks. If you like this sound I'd suggest checking out other bands like Spiritbox and Bad Omens.

Lacuna Coil - hey, do you like Evanescence? Do you like beautiful women with incredible singing voices? This band might be for you. I'd recommend their 2002 record Comalies to start, or you can check out their most recent album as well. If you like this sound, you might be interested in checking out bands like Epica or Ad Infinitum next!

Iron Maiden/Judas Priest - interested in a more classic sound? Maiden and Priest were two titans of an era called NWOBHM (the New Wave of British Heavy Metal) - characterized by fast, aggressive music and clean vocals that tend to be on the higher end. I'd highly recommend Number of the Beast for Maiden or Screaming for Vengeance if you want to get into Priest. If you're looking for contemporary bands playing with a similar sound, I'd suggest Sumerlands or Sonja, who both had excellent records last year.

Nu Metal/Alt Metal - sometimes it can be tricky to talk about these genres because people get very passionate and nitpicky about the terms. But generally speaking if you like the sounds that dominated the metal/hard rock charts around the turn of the century you might like the following bands: Kittie, Slipknot, Tallah, Nova Twins

Post-hardcore/metalcore - more into that MCR-ish emo sound? Try Static Dress or If I Die First! Not super heavy, but still with an edge. These are young bands who are again playing in a very 00s space.

Deftones - here's a band that I find pretty accessible! There's definitely a heaviness, but there's also a strong shoegaze influence that creates an opportunity for some really beautiful songs. This band has been active since the 90s, huge catalog of great albums. Start with White Pony. There are a lot of bands right now who are very influenced by Deftones - if you like this band check out Loathe or Moodring next

Stoner/Doom - we're talking about big fuzzy riffs here! Slow/mid-tempo songs usually with a longer song length than more punk-influenced subgenres. Try bands like Windhand, Faetooth, Red Fang, or King Woman

No Harsh Vocals Please - okay, like heavy sounds but don't like the screaming? Check out these bands: Katatonia, Evergrey, Unleash the Archers

There's so much more I could get into but I need to stop eventually. I hope you find something you like somewhere in these recommendations! If you do, feel free to come back to me with what worked for you and I can offer more suggestions along that line.

Happy listening 🤘

[twopoppies]

This is gonna be a long one so strap in 😂 tbh ive been a tad apprehensive today about going purely cause of what ive seen in Twitter (and we all know its bullshit but it sent my anxiety reeling). this probably isnt exclusive to harry but the people around me standing werent super friendly (i say this off the back of mcr in which you buddied up with the people around you in an instant for mosh pit safety) but we move - this soon changed and i found friends (going solo can be tricky) but there were still some bad vibes. i got to the venue literally as doors opened so ended up at the back (which for Brixton is still very good)

The pre show playlist is VERY one direction heavy. H is lierally the biggest fan.

cannot even begin to describe how good he was, the crowd were insane and there was a moment during little freak where he genuinely looked surprised at how many people knew the words. Matilda made me sob but whats new there, especially when he prefaced it by saying we had to make sure we loved ourselves.

mitch literally hid in the darkness when harry talked about writing sings with him - this poor man just wanta to play guitar in peace bless him

anne was there and he apologised for some of the lyrics he was singing including cocaine, sideboob choke her with a sea view

before boyfriend's he read out a sign from a girl whose boyfriend had slept with her best friend. safe to say some strong words were said - this is a family show.....or is it 😂

love of my life was beautiful - i have no words

had lil break which was nice and they whacked the ac up which cooled us all off.

adore you and watermelon sugar wete epic as always - he said something about it being to do with oral sex (i may have misheard) - there was also some very vulgar signs toward the front that people held up during 😡

his rendition of wmyb is interesting? im not sure how i feel but i had a great time anywho. Ended on kiwi and my god his lil dancey dances ate adorable, he made sure to baptise the first few rows at least (if not more) with water.

it was amazing, i cant wait till june and it felt so intimate to be in such a small venue - it didnt feel like he was hartd styles the household name, it felt mire like we'd all popped in for a lil sing song 🥺

Apologies for the trash photos 😭

Ahhhhh! It sounds like a great show!! Sorry about the bitchy people at the beginning though. And yeah, I heard he said something about oral sex. 🙄 I cannot believe people brought vulgar signs to such a small venue. With his mother there, on top of it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway, sounds like you had so much fun. Thank you for the update!!

[transmogrified-in-the-void]

I'm Not Okay (I Promise) (I'm Lying)

So here's the tl;dr for this essay/creative nonfiction piece. I first heard im not okay when i was at my worst socially, physically, and mentally. it became my gateway into a wonderful community, it was the catalyst for the most fun writing project ive ever been in, and single-handedly saved my life.

there will be discussions of minor eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, self harm, and toxic relationships.

i would also like to thank Joey @space-bones-official Rae @spacingout Naima @ianthe-the-dyke and biz @gayslutraytoro for being the people that helped bring me to where I am today. No matter what happens, I will never forget you.

September 2019. The beginning of my sophomore year of American high school. The small group of three friends I had made in my final year of junior high had increased near tenfold. No longer did we need the end of long tables filling a room that had become obsolete, and instead almost thirty people pushed two large semicircle tables together to sardine themselves in the largest social circle of the cafeteria.

Despite being close to the largest and loudest personalities of the group, it was very rarely that I was heard without acting preposterous or "insane". And even then, I would have to push my vocal boundaries to make a tiny dent in the cacophony of discussion I could barely participate in anyways.

This was the year where it became more apparent the narrow scope of my knowledge. My closest friends were talking about games and movies and music I had never even heard of, and could barely remember due to the amount of noise that took up the space in my head. Even if it was something I understood, I never understood enough to contribute, or I was never loud enough to have my contributions matter.

This special brand of isolation coalesced into a poisonous and slow-killing method of attention seeking. I started to cause small amounts of pain to myself in public. I had been hitting myself and causing myself unseen harm much earlier, but I started to pick and scratch at my skin, or stab a pen into my arm until there was a large and irritated black spot. When that didn't work, I started to not eat. Maybe, I had thought, maybe they'll notice now.

They didn't. Looking back, they wouldn't have noticed if I had said it out loud, but it's hard to see the situation when you're drowning in it.

Then came September. One of my best friends, J, had decided to join us and not sit with the band that day.

I can't remember the discussion, only that I had turned to someone next to me and said something, only for them to start talking to someone else right afterwards. Not even a moment passed where it seemed that I was heard. For the first moment, I felt like I was truly alone.

In the minute that lasted eternity, it felt like everything that was real had started to fall away. If I couldn't be heard, was I even real? Did I even matter?

And it was J's earbud being placed in my ear, and the whispered statement that started my spider's thread escape.

"This song is about having a shitty experience in high school." He had said. "I think you'll like it."

And then I'm Not Okay (I Promise) by My Chemical Romance started playing. My life would never be the same.

I went home and listened to the entirety of The Black Parade while cleaning my room. It was good background noise, something that I could listen to but not need to focus on because it was new. I remember finding the time that Blood played (1 minute 30 seconds, a discovery that brought me much pride). After that, I put My Chemical Romance to the back of my mind, where I was aware but not truly into it, and wouldn't pick it up fully until early November of 2019, shortly after the reunion.

I can remember the reason why, too. I had, by that point, met Joey and remade my Tumblr to get away from the toxic online situation I had found myself in, and I found a post that said that MCR had gotten back together. I told one of my closer friends this, and their response was along the lines of "Why does that matter?".

The sudden turning down of what I had said sent me into a minor spiral. Why does it matter? Why do they matter to me?

I went back to the first song I ever heard, and it made more sense to me. I ended up playing I'm Not Okay (I Promise) for three days straight, before venturing into the rest of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

My journey from there was much more intense and streamlined than before. I listened to Danger Days next, and loved the more synth-pop sound and vocal performance (especially as a vocalist). From there, I listened to The Black Parade, and found that, of all the albums I had heard in my life, that was the one that fit my emotional state the best.

It went stagnant, and I wouldn't gain the confidence to listen to Desert Song or I Brought You My Bullets until a month after March 2020, when I started to make some of the most influential and closest friends I will ever have in my life.

Quarantine was what started my deep dive into the My Chem fandom, leading to one very important Tumblr post. I had made a fun post talking about a theoretical coming-of-age school drama TV show without the bad tropes based around the music video of I'm Not Okay (I Promise). My good and wonderfully talented friend Grody said that they were interested, and thus started a very fun writing project.

I won't speak on it long, it's not that important to the overall story, but the I'm Not Okay Projekt was the most fun and innovative writing project I have ever had.

I stopped listening to My Chemical Romance somewhere near the end of 2021. I don't remember why, it just happened, but it does bring me to today.

This past week I've been listening back to most of the MCR discography. I say most because I had been putting off I'm Not Okay (I Promise) because I didn't know how I would react to hearing the song that saved me from living in such isolation, a state where I probably would have ended up dead.

Today I listened to it.

I listened to it through headphones one of my best friends gave me when I lost mine a few weeks ago, running to my first and only class of the day, knowing that afterwards I would be hanging out with my friends.

Listening to a song that resonated with me so strongly that it single-handedly changed the course of my life three years after the fact, in a completely different situation, with completely different context, it still has the emotional weight. Not the same kind of weight, but the same weight nonetheless.

Instead of the weight of isolation and self-hatred and the shittiness that is high school (and that was my sophomore year), it was the weight of an old friend. Still heavy and draped on my shoulders, but this time it was spread out. Warm. The sensation of nostalgia mixed with waking up on a winter day.

Maybe I'm not okay. Maybe I'm lying. Regardless, I am a better person because of the domino effect that this song started.

[autistme]

GREAT QUESTION. YOU WILL NOW RECEIVE A LATE NIGHT INFODUMP.

TLDR; Yes hiatus is up to James, but no it's not based on the accident

SO. the 2020-2023 timeline is

>Against me! is working on 8th album >starts tour two (2) days before shutdown >tour is cancelled >Zoom/virtual shit is just out of the question >???? shit happens >guess we will just wait until the world is back >James starts making pedals in his basement and selling them >Laura works on and releases Stay Alive on her own in 2020 because even if she cant coordinate shit online, at least she can work on the remnants of the album on her own (most if not all of Stay Alive was already written [including Shelter in Place despite the name!]) >Laura does a few shows in 2021, releases an EP >Atom joins a new band and releases an album, also does touring drums for a few bands throughout 2022 >Andrew joins a duo and the two of them release an album >Laura starts doing actual tours again in May 2022, live demoing songs left and right >James, surprising even himself, becomes Frank's guitar tech for MCR+Dunes >Against Me! is finally confirmed to be on indefinite hiatus in August 2022 >well shit >Frank was considering starting ANOTHER new band with James and Tucker, no clue how that's going nowadays or if it was dropped >Atom gets in a motorcycle accident and breaks several bones >well shit >passage of time >as of 2023 Atom is now fully recovered and in a wild turn of events joined Alkaline Trio >well shit >Laura remains touring and is releasing another solo album soon

SO. what does this all mean.

>Atom is probably not coming back (although who knows!) >Andrew is a complete wildcard, I did not see his return coming at all in 2018 so like anything could happen if the band gets together again!

BUT

These two, while like obviously important to the band with Andrew being the longest running bassist and Atom being a year shy of being tied with Warren for longest running drummer, Laura can make the situation work as it has happened several times where either a drummer will leave OR both the drummer and bassist will leave the band within short time frames. It sucks but the band has managed to keep going twice with the rhythm section having to be fully replaced.

BUT

What matters most is James. James isn't TECHNICALLY a founding member but he is what made the band a 4 piece and his arrival (right around the release of Crime) is when the band really started Being Pretty Serious and like The Truest Lineup of the band to Laura. And so like he has stayed with the band for over 20 years through 8 entire members coming and going over the years. So like, Laura does not see the point in keeping the band name if the last remaining core member dips, at that point the band is just Not The Band Anymore in her eyes. So we just kinda wait for if/when James comes back. Like his pedal business is going super great for him, he's probably going to be Frank's tech for the Dunes summer tour since he posted from the rehearsal yesterday, and most of all there's always behind the scenes stuff exists that We Don't Know, so who knows what the future holds! Laura is keeping the faith that thing will be back eventually.

[half-doomed]

rules: share your 12 favorite songs from this year (one from each month or just your favorites overall) and tag 12 people!

So @smileandasong tagged me in this quite literally 2 years ago and i never finished it but I always liked the idea (and I found the abandoned draft of it recently) so I'll do it for 2022!

january: silently screaming by bad suns

This album came out in january so it only makes sense for a song from it to be january's song! It also perfectly captures the vibe lol

february: bone bag by superet

We saw superet open for idkhow in february so I was really getting into them around this time!

march: come on home by franz ferdinand

I really don't know what I was listening to around march but I know I was listening to this band a lot more this year! And i think it started around march ? Idk this month was a blur tbh

april: american dream by weathers

I started getting into weathers around this time! (We saw them live in may!) This song is also a huge mood because I was extremely disillusioned with my job (and I'd end up finally leaving in June)

may: what a day to lose my mind by dbmk

I started getting super into dbmk again because we saw them live (and met them) in may! They also started releasing new music around this time! (Which everybody should go listen to)

june: parade by joywave

You can literally see exactly when i started going feral over joywave lol. I got obsessed with them immediately after the hellvetica tour was announced. And then, along with idkhow, they completely dominated my spotify wrapped for this year.

july: thelma + louise by bastille

I was starting to get into bastille by association with joywave lol. Plus a lot of joywave friends I had made were also into them! They're also a slightly spring/summer band to me

august: hang em high by mcr

I was getting really into mcr around this time because we saw them during this month and again in september! I almost went with a different mcr song but they played this one at my first show 🤠

september: mad iqs by idkhow

September was hellvetica month!!!!!! No thoughts only mad iqs

october: simple by de'wayne (feat. idkhow)

It's a feature so it doesn't count as a repeat artist. This song came out this month! And so did his album!

november: genius of love by tom tom club

I got really obsessed with this song for a short period of time

december: goodnight socialite by the brobecks

Because apparently almost all my other top songs were actually christmas songs?? But truly one of the Most songs of all time ever

Tagging @vanweezer @girlmikeyway @comfortingdecay @fangs-frthmmrs @goodbyetommyyy @intheblueglow @aftercoffees @cyncity2000 @softnsquishable @ofalltheginjoints @voluntaryvictim @purgatoryhips if you want! Sorry if I double tagged you!