#he's almost unrecognizable from the first ep too

[mayomkun]

Finally done with teen wolf rewatch. Phew

[arttheclown]

alright alright i finally had time to sit down & compose my thoughts on how beelzemon / beelzebumon’s villain arc was handled in the original japanese sub versus the english dub because holy shit they are. different. i think both versions have their merits but there are things the dub got so wrong, especially as far as beelzemon’s relationship with renamon is concerned.

first off, i’m gonna talk about the differences - not so much which version did what better, but what sets them apart.

putting this under a cut because this is gonna be a long one. (also keep in mind i still have a couple eps left to watch from his villain arc in japanese, so i may reblog with an update or write a part 2 soon.)

1 -- the tone of impmon’s talk with caturamon (the “deal with the devil” scene) is very different in japanese. while it’s still a somber scene in dub & you feel sorry for impmon, his sarcasm is much more subdued in the original, drawing more attention to how scared & helpless he feels rather than his defence mechanisms.

i think what really drives this point home is that the little montage where he reflects on his time with his friends & realizes he’ll have to betray them in exchange for power; in the dub, old conversations are re-played for the audience, while in the og, these flashbacks are silent aside from a sad song that plays. this not only puts us in impmon’s shoes better, but helps set the tone for the tragedy of what’s about to happen & the gravity of his choice. i plan to upload a comparison soon. also, maybe it’s just me, but given that the last image we land on during the flashback montage is impmon striking renamon in the face... i’m inclined to believe that was supposed to signify that he was sorry for doing it, especially since the context of the flashbacks was that he’d harassed all of the main digimon in some way. maybe impmon was trying to tell himself that he’d already been so awful to them anyway that he might as well just cut his ties? who knows - but that’s something i feel sad music sold a lot better than voice-overs. 2 -- beelzemon / beelzebumon’s entire characterization. jesus christ, as someone who’s been praising how the dub handled such a dark storyline for years (and to be fair, derek stephen prince absolutely KILLS his role as beez in the best way), i was completely thrown off to see how radically different he is in the original. in the dub, beelzemon is still recognizable as impmon even during his reign of terror. he’s gone off the rails, but his speech patterns & personality remain the same - we’re just seeing a much darker side of him. it feels a lot like we’re watching a smaller person stumble around in a body that’s too big for them.

in japanese, beelzebumon’s demeanour is entirely different from impmon’s. his speech patterns aren’t the same & his cheeky from humour before is pretty much gone. he’s much colder. you don’t know who the hell you’re looking at anymore, which lends some disturbing credence to beelzebumon’s insistence that “impmon is dead.” for a second, you actually worry he might be telling the truth.

and then there’s his relationship with renamon & the role that plays in this particular storyline, which leads me to my next (and arguably most important) point.

3 -- i’m just gonna say it! i think the dub did the relationship between these characters dirty in this very pivotal storyline. i think there are aspects to enjoy about dub!beelzemon and sub!beelzebumon (depending on your preference on how his personality is portrayed), but they just. totally dropped the ball on his confrontation with kyubimon in episode 34 and i’m gonna explain why.

as mentioned before, sub!beelzebumon seems like a jarringly different character from impmon. almost unrecognizable. when caturamon reminds him that he has a job to do, he agrees to do it and seems prepared to carry out the gruesome task... until the moment comes for him to strike down kyubimon.

i’m gonna let these screencaps speak for themselves.

it’s only NOW that we see him breaking. he isn’t enjoying this, he doesn’t WANT to do it. he’s falling the fuck apart & it’s only now that we realize all of beelzebumon’s behaviour up until this point has been a facade. he blows up at kyubimon for “making him look like an idiot” because he’s still the same sad, insecure person he was before he evolved.

in the dub, we’re given pretty much the reverse of this set-up. beelzemon still acts very much like impmon - albeit an overpowered one - and doesn’t seem very happy when caturamon reminds him of their deal. (”let’s get this over with,” he says in response.) it gives the audience false hope that maybe he won’t actually follow through with it, making it feel like that much more of a betrayal when he does try to kill everyone & successfully takes leomon out of the picture. some people may praise that kind of bait-and-switch, and i get it, but...

there is far less real build-up to beelzemon going berserk in the dub. one minute his heart isn’t in it and the next he’s suddenly kicking kyubimon around and going out of his way to harm her. (which puts a really icky, abusive spin on their relationship that i don’t like at all.) the sub makes it much clearer that he’s trying to punish her for helping him & attempting to make things easier for himself by taking out the digimon he has the strongest connection with first. still a sick, unforgivable act, but one i can follow along with better on a psychological level.

which brings me to my final, and other Most Important point: the context of leomon’s death.

4 -- much like kyubimon, leomon recognizes immediately that beelzebumon doesn’t actually want to do this & that this isn’t the right path for him.

in the english dub, the dialogue is different & ultimately boils down to leomon telling beelzemon to fight him instead of going after the kids. that doesn’t happen here. beelzemon just kills him mid-conversation while leomon is trying to reason with him, and - having committed an act he knows is unforgivable - spirals out of control.

so no, i won’t say the dub butchers the entire storyline so much as choosing to handle aspects of it differently... but those choices aren’t always for the better, and i wish they just left a lot of this alone. the original context for these scenes are much more powerful & handle the characters & their dynamics more thoughtfully.

tl;dr: even if you have a soft spot for the tamers dub (which i do too, mostly for nostalgic reasons), try watching it in japanese at least once. it puts a lot of things into perspective & elaborates much more heavily on themes & ideas that the dub just skims over.

[muromi86]

Bloody Knuckles

a fezco x reader fanfiction (:

description: In the wake of violence, sometimes confessions of love can be made.

warnings: contains spoilers for the first ep of season 2, mentions of blood, fez beating the shit out of nate, very slight angst, definitely shitty writing, I'm a little rusty.

a/n: I'm trying to test the waters of fic writing, this may not be that good or well written, but I'm trying so be easy on me y'all.

….

“Go to the car and wait there with Ash."

You knew that look. That look he got whenever he was going to do something either ridiculously stupid, or dangerous, maybe even a little bit of both.

"Okay, mind telling me what's going on?" You asked, needing to know if what he was planning was going to end up getting him hurt, or in jail.

"I ain't playing with you y/n, go to the car and wait with Ash." Fez repeated, keeping eye contact with you the whole time, attempting to show how serious he was.

Ever since you and Fez had met three years ago, you have become inseparable. You've picked up every little quirk, facial expression, his body language, pretty much just everything else there is to know about him. You also know, how sickeningly in love with him you are. And how much it eats away at you every single second you go on without him knowing. As for right now, proclaiming your love isn’t very high on your to-do list. You know what's about to go down is going to be bad, you can feel it in your gut. You can see it in the way Fez is standing, how he's looking at you, the way his breathing has grown ragged. You just know. But you also know, he's just not going to let this down.

He won't leave you alone until you leave, just the way he asked. You let out a sigh and turn on your heel, exiting out through the back door. You don't leave, instead you turn back around just as you step outside, peering around the corner in search of Fez.

Your eyes glide over the crowd, eventually landing on him. He's taken off his green sweater now, standing there in just his white long sleeve, his gold chain glistening in the faint party lighting.

You can't help but think about how good he looks like that. Your senses come back to you and remember exactly what the hell your doing in the first place. You look over to who he's speaking to.

It's Nate

Oh, shit. Not good.

You sneak back in, inching closer to hear exactly what they're talking about. You lose sight of Fez and Nate through the crowd. But then, you hear it.

A loud crash and screams.

You push through the crowd to see what's happening, a million thoughts race through your head.

Is it Fez? Is he okay? What happened?

Finally, you get through and thats when you see it.

Fez is repeatedly punching Nate, glass shards litter the floor. Everyone stands in a circle, either horror, worry, or hilarity etched across their features. Blood rushes down Nate's face and neck, making him almost unrecognizable. Nate is completely limp at this point, but Fez keeps going. And it almost scares you, almost.

But you know Fez too well for him to ever scare you away. You find yourself constantly having to remind Fez of this. He thinks you're too good for him, thinks you deserve better, or that the things he does, the business he's in will make you want to walk away someday. Walk away from him. And in that moment you knew tonight would be no different. You knew that you'd be up until three in the morning trying to convince him you weren't going to leave, that you'd always be by his side.

Eventually Fez is pulled off of Nate.

Fez turns to leave but then he sees you, you expect him to be pissed, but instead, he looks like he regrets what he’s just done, embarrassed, even. He grabs you by the arm firmly but not too rough and leads you out of the house. On the way out you make sure to pick up his green sweater that he discarded onto the floor.

The ride back to his place is silent, but you don't miss the glances he's sending your way from the rear view mirror.

You know exactly what he's doing. Fez is trying to read your facial expressions, trying to see if you're scared, angry, or uncomfortable. Finally, you arrive. Fez practically runs inside. Once you and Ashtray get inside, Fez’s bedroom door is already closed. You and Ashtray share a look.

Ashtray loves his brother, but he knows its better for you to check on him right now.

You know exactly what you have to do, you head into the kitchen, filling up a bowl with lukewarm water, grabbing a rag, and a bag of peas. You knock lightly on his door.

“I come bearing gifts.” You say sheepishly through the door.

Fez opens the door and looks down at you, and looks at what's in your hands. He leaves his door open, and walks back into his room and takes a seat on his bed. You take this as a signal that you can come in.

You set down the things you brought and take a seat next to him on his bed, you soak the rag in the water, "Hands please."

Fez sticks out his hands for you. Gently, you rub the now drying blood off. You can feel him staring at you, and you look back up at him. He seems to just stare in your eyes for a moment. Your heart stutters for a split second. You hate, but you also love the effect he has on you.

"I told you to go wait in the car." Fez states.

You snort, "You really thought I was going to listen?"

"Hoped you would." He responds back.

There's a long pause after that, like Fez is trying to find the words he wants to say to you.

"I get it if you don't wanna hang around here anymore, I do." Fez tells you, you can hear the sadness in his voice, and it breaks your heart.

"Nope, don't want to hear it. I've told you this plenty of times Fez, and I will keep telling you until the moment we both croak and die. I'm not leaving, I never will, you're stuck with me and I love you." You're eyes go wide realizing what the last three words that came out of your mouth were.

Okay, so maybe you lied, you hadn't told him all of that plenty of times, because you had never said that last part before. But you really did mean it, you meant it more than anything else, because it was true. You really, really did love Fez, you were in love with him. So in love, you'd walk to the ends of the earth with him. Though, you weren't so sure if he would do the same. You knew he loved you, but you weren't sure if it was like a sister, or if he loved you in the same way you loved him.

All of your worries seemed to have washed away the minute he kissed you. It was soft, sweet. No man had ever kissed you this way before, you could sense the love behind it.

"You're crazy if you thought I wasn't about to say that I love you too."

[dawsonscreekwasalwaysbad]

season 6 thoughts

hey quick question why the FUCK did you start with that

like on the one hand i’m glad that now i know what happened right after the end of “that’s too much man!”. on the other hand… ow

the mountain bojack climbs is called “metaphor mountain” God bless Lisa Hanawalt

i LOVE the way the episodes are framed… like you get one flashback to bojack drinking and you think that was the first time then it’s like NOPE he was even younger

CINDY CRAWFISH AKSHDJDSF

AND BABY BOJACK SNUGGLING UP TO HIS MOTHER… TRYING TO FEEL AN EMBRACE SHE WOULD NEVER GIVE… CATCH ME CRYING IN THE CLUB

WHO THE FUCK CAME UP WITH THIS NEW INTRO

AND THE WAY IT HAS ALL THOSE FLASHBACK SCENES BUT IT STILL ENDS WITH HIM FALLING INTO THE POOL AND DIANE AND PEANUTBUTTER CHECKING TO SEE IF HES OK AND THEN HES JSUT LOUNGING IN HIS APPLE SHORTS;;; it’s just,, he’s going back home in the end, going back to the place where he started, as if everything will go back to the way it was before and he’ll find himself stuck in the same cycles he tried so hard to escape… all im saying is, i dont think this season is gonna end well

and how it dwells on his past, everything he did wrong, all the most heartwrenching moments, and there aren’t any changes to the intro (as far as i could tell) until episode 8… nothing changes if all you do is look back.

I am LOVING the Mr. Peanutbutter we’re getting this season. I was never really attached to him before; it’s not that I hated him, just that I liked all the other main characters better. and now that they’ve had him do something really bad and reckon with that,, he’s plumbing new depths, exploring those dark places, questioning if he’s truly as happy as he says he is

and bonding with bojack??? who would have guessed

bojack keeps giving advice that is, at best, the kind he doesn’t follow himself, and at worst, bringing others down into the well of self-pity that he’s been stuck in the whole series

Someone give Princess Carolyn a break…

SHE NAMED HER DAUGHTER RUTHIE IM CRYING

Guy seems like a cool guy but I feel like they’re setting him up to seem nice so that it’s more surprising when it’s revealed he’s not. I’m probably being too suspicious, but also we don’t know much of the details about his divorce, do we? Lakeith Stanfield's great tho

EPISODE 4 WAS COMEDY GOLD

The return of Queefburglar69

I WANNA WRAP PICKLES UP IN A BLANKET LIKE A BURRITO AND TELL HER EVERYTHINGS OKAY

Oh man Pickles talking about how her subscribers will always be there for her… like… it’s not one person, it’s a cloud of people, the contents and shape of which changes, might even be completely different and unrecognizable from one year to the next, but they’re all still there as this nebulous support system. and it reminded me of what bojack said to young sarah lynn about how her fans are the only things she can count on

Todd is babey.

Also him wearing the ace colors under his hoodie!!

I knew Diane’s rationale for going to chicago was bullshit. she said it makes her feel good, but “it doesn’t matter where you are, it’s who you are,” and she still dwells on her bad feelings and hates herself just as much in chicago as she did in LA. moving somewhere else isn’t necessarily gonna change those tendencies, she has to work on it herself.

OH MAN AND WHEN BOJACK GETS DR CHAMP DRUNK AGAIN… THROWING THE BOTTLE OUT THE WINDOW WAS A WAY TO AVOID RUINING ANOTHER LIFE AND HE ENDS UP DOING THE EXACT THING HE HOPED HE WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN

was honestly kinda hoping that Dr Champ was just pretending he got drunk to show how bad bojack could get if he relapsed but at the end when he was like “stay…” that’s how i knew that shit was real.

todd is so fucking stupid i love him

ngl am kinda disappointed that todd’s confirmed white, cause i’ve kinda been picturing him as latino for a long time and i know rbw said he doesn’t want to alienate latino viewers who relate to todd. but it makes a  lot of sense, cause he always gets away with stupid shit and gets to the top of things without even having to try just because he knows a guy. and maybe the reason he’s so positive all the time is because it’s so easy for him to be, he never has to worry about shit bc of the privilege his whiteness affords him. also I love that we got to learn more about his backstory

THE CONTRAST BTWN “all the shitty things I did that I can barely even remember because I was high or drunk or it was thirty years ago” and “I remember everything. I’m sober now.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!

sharona sounds like a cross btwn princess carolyn and margo martindale

I have… mixed feelings about the haircut

Oh man Mr. Peanutbutter had a moment… he finally got that crossover episode… I was kinda hoping for a joke that went “Mr. Peanutbutter and BoJack Horseman in the same room? What is this, Philbert?” or “What is this, a short-lived show on a streaming network that got canceled because the star got addicted to painkillers and strangled his costar in a drugged haze?” but this is SO MUCH BETTER. I've never seen him cry before and the way he reacts to himself crying suggests that maybe he’s never cried before at all, and that’s why he just keeps laughing, almost like it’s forced, cause this is supposed to be his happiest moment and it’s not supposed to make him so sad. fucking,, character development

and the cold open of ep 8… you can forgive yourself and move on from your past wrongs but it doesn’t erase the things you did, the effects they have on people, and the trauma they’ve suffered. and then like, how can you forgive yourself if they never forgive you? how do you maintain that balance? why should you move forward if they can’t?

its weird to have an episode consisting entirely of guest stars but it also illustrates the extensive world they’ve built and i applaud that… also where the fuck is ana spanakopita

GINA RETURNS!!! HELL YEAH

her quote about not wanting to be defined by what bojack did to her has always stuck with me, and i feel like now, that quote has sort of come true. like, her saying that made us avoid reducing her to what happened to her, and thats why i wanted to see her come back this season, hopefully moving past it. but she can’t. it traumatized her. and everyone can see the effects of it but she feels like she can’t come forward, cause if she does she’ll be punished. shit like that changes you.

and it’s another instance on the show where someone chooses to advance their career & preserve their reputation over doing the right thing (like what bojack does with herb & sharona), but bojack does it out of self-interest, and gina does it so she doesn’t have to relive her trauma every time she gets interviewed or recognized by a fan. but even when she keeps quiet about it she’s still reliving her trauma

noah fence but what a waste of the once-per-season fuck word. youre really gonna use it in an episode IN WHICH BOJACK DOES NOT EVEN APPEAR, and not only that, but RECYCLE AN OLD SENTENCE FROM A PREVIOUS EPISODE

netflix places no limits on a show’s use of the fuck word (i think), so… fingers crossed for something better in the second part?

OH MY GOD PETE REPEAT INTRODUCED HIMSELF AS PETER ITS ALMOST LIKE HES TRYING TO FORGET THAT TIME & THAT PERSON HE WAS (im probably reading into it too much, I’m sure it’s mostly so we wouldn’t figure out who it was immediately. maybe im just like the kid with the coffee cup.)

and just… ppl describe this show as “family guy or the simpsons except the protagonist faces consequences for his actions” but bojack has gotten away with everything.

you ever just like… you ever watch a scene and feel the cliffhanger vibes creeping up and you just know it’s gonna end there and leave you unsatisfied and begging for more but at the same time that’s what makes it such a good place to end it. that was me with this. (and also the ending of undone)

the thing about this show is, it illustrates what it’s like to be a toxic person. and sure, he has it hard, but the show never asserts that he has it any worse than his victims, even if bojack himself does so. and he only does it so he can feel better about himself. he deserves a reckoning, he needs to pay for his bad deeds. but then, when you know what made him this way and what goes on inside his mind and that he wants to get better, it makes you feel for him, and forces you to ask if he deserves to get better and forgive himself and move forward. but even if he does, it doesn’t change the things he did. it doesn’t fix the lives he’s ruined.

anyway sound off if you think bojack’s gonna die at the end. hopefully not by suicide

[gayregis]

I'm anon who sent you the ask about Philippa's actress, sorry if it caused confusion! I think generally she seems to have a good presence and definitely a stunning look that's befitting of Philippa, I was just so caught up in the "oh my god gayregis was right. Lauren really is only casting actors of colour as villains" that I didn't really think about how I brought that across.

no worries! i think your point was clear, it is just difficult to exist in a fandom where you kind of get used to assuming worst intentions from everyone 😭😭

like there’s just so many racists out there who bitch and moan about the inclusion of people of color in the witcher just because they don’t want people of color in it, so there’s always a kneejerk reaction for me? when anyone talks about casting in the witcher netflix where i’m like, guns poised, “is it one of these freaks?!” but due to reading comprehension it’s easy to tell the difference once you actually read what is being said.

it’s super sad though like there’s pretty much no black actresses or actors cast for protagonist characters, only as side characters that get easily disposed of and as villains/antagonists who exist to fuck up the protagonist’s shit.

anya chalotra is a woman of color who is in a protagonist’s role, she is indian, but she isn’t black and she is also pretty white-passing/one of the people of color in the cast who is moreso light skinned, so it’s kind of like, why do actors of color with dark skin and “non-white features” get cast as side characters and antagonists only, why can’t they be protagonists?

plus, through the writing, they made yennefer a much more naïve and dislikable character and focused more on her body and gore than the first two books ever did, literally they objectified yennefer more than sapkowski did, which i previously thought was impossible to do. additionally they really amped up and hammered home her reliance upon geralt (she meets him in the middle of a fucking orgy in ep 5 (pun not intended), they bathe in the same bath naked together and she’s much more open to him when they first meet, at the end of ep 5 their sex is raunchy and terrible instead of vulnerable and careful like at the end of tlw (iirc literally she says “well, that was short” LMAOOOO), and in ep 6 she forgives him for leaving her almost instantly, he insults her dream of being a mother and is cruel to her, and he tells her to fuck off at the end and she’s just like “:( ok bye sorry”. that’s such a powerless relationship for fucking yennefer of vengerberg to be in).

so i like anya’s presence and performance (asides from the fact that i think the writing of twn is bad and that she doesn’t look like yennefer in my mind (too young and her hair is straight), she is a skilled actress), but i wish that the witcher netflix was ACTUALLY diverse and represented people of color in a positive light, instead just as tokens of diversity and background/forces opposite to the protagonists.

and it feels like It Continueth in the second season. i just hope they don’t fuck up philippa’s character so badly that she’s unrecognizable, and i hope that ms. clare actually gets some good scenes / lines where philippa’s ambiguous morality is explored, isn’t reduced to just “evil woman” and she gets a chance to act and really take the scene.

i also hope that she’s well-represented in regards to being gay and not oversexualized in that (if they choose to represent her sexuality, which isn’t really mentioned iirc until time of contempt, baptism of fire, and tower of the swallow? like the first time we see her actually having sex with a woman instead of just offhand comments about her being gay is in tower of the swallow iirc?)

[go-go-devil]

If You Have Ghosts: The Story of a Song

This is an informative/personal essay I wrote about the history of Roky Erickson’s well-beloved song, “If You Have Ghosts.” Honestly I should have written & posted this on the 1-year anniversary of his death back in May, but I completely forgot. This piece is mostly a study of Erickson’s original and the band Ghost’s famous cover of it, alongside some other things. I would also appreciate some feedback on this if you all don’t mind.

The information I used as a reference when describing the making of the original song comes entirely from Joe Nick Patoski’s writing on Roky Erickson’s career and the making of The Evil One (included as a booklet in recent vinyl additions of said album).

Throughout our lives there will be songs that capture us in ways that we cannot escape from. Oftentimes it’s as simple as an infectious melody that we refuse to discard from our memories, either due to it becoming attached to a pivotal part of our lives or because we cannot dislodge it no matter how hard we try. Other times it can be something that attracts us so much that we begin to covet it to the point of obsession, and it is through this attitude that the song transforms from merely a piece of music into a piece of ourselves.

“If You Have Ghosts” is one of these songs for me.

What can I say about this wonderful track that hasn’t already been said? It is fierce, yet subdued. It is both hard rocking joy incarnate and a solemn reflection of one’s self, and it says so much by saying so little. The reason for all of these seemingly contradictory phrases I’m using is because this song, unlike many others, is a shared entity that exists in multiple forms. Quite an odd way of stating that the song has been played by more than one band, but hopefully this essay will demonstrate how the meaning of the original piece can mutate into different forms while still keeping its essence intact.

There’s no better place to start than with the original, recorded in 1977 and released in 1981 by rock n’ roll legend Roky Erickson.

Originally recorded as part of a four-song demo of what would later become his first solo record, The Evil One, “If You Have Ghosts” contains many of the themes Erickson presents in his music as a whole. Those of which being: horror-themed esoteric lyrics, high-energy playing, soaring guitar riffs, and a general sense of raw, psychedelic power.

In less than 15 seconds the song has already built itself up and blasted into your eardrums, but never does the melody ever resort to sounding like a wall of noise. Each instrument weaves its sound around each other like some tripped-out embroidery design in order to create a rich tapestry in the listener’s mind. The lyrics are as catchy and repetitive as any of Roky’s songs, yet for this one he sounds less like he’s singing but instead simply proclaiming each line like it’s a definitive statement.

“If you have ghosts, you have everything”

“One never does that”

“The moon to the left of me is a part of my thoughts and a part of me is me”

“In the night, I am real”

“I don’t want my fangs too long”

Barring a few other scattershot words present in the chorus, what you’ve read above is all that you get for what this piece is trying to say. Unlike most of the other songs from the album, whose lyrics clearly convey the story/theme presented, this one does not have a lucid form to it and thus its meaning can only truly be grasped through interpretation. Personally, I always saw it as a proud declaration of one’s deviance from society, with the rip-roaring instruments serving to show how this person’s mind finally feels free enough to run wild in the night, with only the moonlight and their own invisible spirits to guild them.

But of course, all forms of speculation can never undermine Roky’s own intent when crafting this song, which, unfortunately, is not nearly as liberating as my previous presumption…

“If You Have Ghosts” as we know it is a direct product of Erickson’s mental illness. There really is no way of sugarcoating it. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 68’, Roky was sent to various state hospitals in 69’, where he was subjected to multiple electroshock treatments by doctors alongside being heavily sedating with Thorazine. Even after he was discharged in ’72 he never fully recovered from the abusive “therapies” he was given, resulting in decades of battling intense mood swings and heavy drug reliance as well as making it difficult for him to record many of his songs in studio.

Roky was under one of these spells whist recording the vocals for this song. He was only able to sing the chorus once, and after recording was no longer able to remember any of the lyrics. Out of all the tracks, Producer Stu Cook had to put the most effort into inserting the vocals into this song using a complex progress called wild-syncing to place multiple takes of audio alongside the instruments without using synchronization. It’s honestly a miracle that we even have this song fully formed in the first place given the circumstances of its creation.

Despite all of the hardship and effort put into creating this piece, for a long while there didn’t seem to be as much appreciation for it compared to Erickson’s other work. Partially because it was not present on certain releases of the album back in the day as well as the fact that Roky seemed to rarely play it live in concert (even on YouTube, recordings of these performances are scarce). As much as I love this version of the song, even I’m willing to admit that if I were ever forced to rank each song on The Evil One, I would probably place it somewhere in the middle. What can I say? When you make an album that great, the competition can be fierce!

For many obscure classics, the story would end there. Yet another buried treasure forever existing in the mind of one musician. But that’s not what happened, for several decades later a new band from Sweden will emerge, different in form but identical in spirit to Roky’s sound, whose frontman will breathe new life into a once forgotten masterpiece…

…Or at least that’s what I would lead into were it not for the existence of this version.

Interestingly, the first notable cover of “If You Have Ghosts” was not done by Ghost but instead by an English folk-rock group called John Wesley Harding & The Good Liars on the 1990 album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson. This now-obscure album consisted of a compilation of various bands and artists covering the songs of, you guessed it, Roky Erickson. There was actually a great deal of artists present on this record, including several well-known musicians such as ZZ Top, R.E.M., and The Jesus and Mary Chain (and even Butthole Surfers too!).

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not at all familiar with John Wesley Harding or his backing band; however, I will say that this piece is a worthy follow-up to the original in it’s own right. It slows down the song to a level not unlike the many psychedelic songs that followed in 13th Floor Elevator’s wake, keeping the main melody in tack while filling in the gaps with many little flourishes as a means of expanding it into something new. I’m especially fond of the echoing effect given to the vocals, which gives the already obscure nature of the lyrics a more outwardly ethereal quality.

Anyway, on to what you’ve been waiting for!

After enduring another two decades of invisibility from the public eye, the song was once again exhumed and resurrected by an emerging metal band named Ghost for their 2013 EP If You Have Ghost. Considering Roky Erickson’s wide array of demon-inspired songs, it’s interesting how Linköping’s residential Satanic metal group chose this piece as opposed to more well-beloved hits like “Night Of The Vampire” or “Stand For The Fire Demon,” many of which work perfectly with the band’s themes of evoking retro horror films and devil worship. It almost seems like they just chose “If You Have Ghosts” solely on the basis of it having the word “Ghost” in it. However, just one listen to this cover will quickly prove otherwise.

Right off the bat, the instruments and vocals are a far cry from the original. Unlike the previous J.W.H. cover that made sure to keep the main melody in tack while adding onto it, Ghost instead chose the more daring option of altering the melody and tempo of the piece significantly. From the ominous drawing of violin and cello strings in the opening seconds to the melancholic metal sound of the guitars throughout (with the rhythm guitar being played by none other than Dave Grohl, who also produced the EP), this version slows the once fast-pace beat of the song down until it becomes almost unrecognizable save for the lyrics. Even Tobias Forge’s singing creates significant contrast with the original; his silky smooth, haunting baritone guiding a melody once held by Roky’s hard-edged yells.

And yet… the spirit still remains.

Although the sound itself has been thoroughly converted to the stylings of Ghost, they still managed to keep the fierce energy that ran through the veins of Erickson’s version, albeit with a twist.

Both songs convey a contemplative examination of one’s mind, with instrumentals and singing that amplify the power one feels from this reflection. However, Ghost’s version differs in that it amplifies the sense of isolation and longing present in the lyrics. The music notably softens at the beginning of many of the verses, particularly lines like “One never does that” or “I don’t want my fangs too long,” only to grow in power through the repetition of each line. It conveys the feeling of the singer having to grapple with these feelings before they can fully accept them.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the band’s acoustic cover of the song.

At this point, the piece has been stripped down to an entirely naked form, its themes conveyed only through the guitars of two nameless ghouls alongside Forge’s vocals (presented here in his previous stage persona, Papa Emeritus III). There is no triumphant shouting or swelling electric guitar solos here anymore, just a somber reflection gently carried by melodic strumming and mournful singing. Despite now being as far from a rockin’ tune as humanly possible, it actually manages to come closest in recapturing the sense of rawness in the original, albeit on the exact opposite scale.

I remember watching a recorded acoustic performance in Paris back in 2015 where Papa introduced “If You Have Ghosts” as being a song about “loneliness,” which is an interpretation I can definitely agree with. In fact, I would even say that with this acoustic cover brings the entire meaning of the song full-circle. Through its peeled-back, unflinching depiction of being enclosed in darkness and isolation, it serves as a perfect end-note for a song that began from such troubled origins by telling the listener that, despite all the hardships, this beautiful piece of music will never lose its everlasting spirit.

Thanks for giving us everything, Roky.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 03/07/2020

Sword Art Online: Alicization: War of Underworld (Alicization Exploding) EP#32 (08) - Blood and Life: After having unleashed the laser bomb, Alice finds the chief of the Ogres, Furgr, still alive, and quickly defeats him. Having figured out that Vecta is after Alice, the human army create a decoy force, consisting of Renly, Bercouli, Alice, Sheyta, Kirito, Ronie, Tiese, 1000 human volunteer soldiers, 200 priests, and 4 dragons, and head out to the Dark Territory to draw the dark army away from the corridor of the human empire. With the dark mages having figured out why their art failed, Dee Eye Ill sacrifices orcs to generate more spatial resources and allow them to cast their dark art, with Emperor Vecta's approval. As the decoy force move out, the dark mages cast an art to create a swarm of deadly insects and send them in to the human empire. With no way to defend, Eldrie sacrifices himself and uses himself to shield everyone from the art. Revenge driven Alice then takes out the entire Mage unit on her own.

My Hero Academia Remedial Course Arc Season 4 EP#78 (15) - Smoldering Flames: Up in the mountains, the police along with Gran Torino find Kurogiri of the League of Villains, but they unexpectedly ran into one of All for One's servants, Gigantomachia. At the hospital, Izuku checks on Mirio before he leaves for school, but Eri is still feverish and must remain behind in her bedroom. Meanwhile, Shoto and Katsuki head off to get their Provisional Hero licenses, this time guided by All Might and Present Mic. At the training facility, Endeavor confronts All Might and says he wishes to speak with him.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind EP#17 - Baby Face: Melone finds a sample of Bucciarati's blood on the train. Using his Stand Baby Face and the genetic information of a woman on the train, he spawns a remote-controlled baby Stand. Bucciarati's crew stop on the roadside and prepare to steal a car while Baby Face Jr. tracks them down on Melone's motorcycle using Bucciarati's DNA. Using its ability to chop up and reconstruct humans, Baby Face Jr. captures Bucciarati and Trish inside Coco Jumbo. To stop Giorno from telling the others, it begins removing parts of Giorno's body. Giorno then uses Gold Experience to replace the missing parts of his body and turns Gold Experience's hand into a piranha which attacks Baby Face Jr. from the inside.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Natagumo Mountain Arc EP#19 - Hinokami: Tanjiro barely dodges the thread but is left with a deep cut across his face. Inosuke marvels at Giyū's ability, who so easily killed one of the Twelve Moons, but Giyū says Father wasn't one of the Twelve Moons, or on their level at all. Inosuke challenges Giyū but Giyū ties him up, saying he was too injured and to stay there. Shinobu compliments Zenitsu on slowing his breathing and the poison's spread and injects him with an antidote. He sees more Demon Slayers freeing the other people trapped by the elder son, making him smile. Rui launches a web of threads at Tanjiro, but Nezuko jumps out of her box and takes the blow, the threads badly wounding her. Rui realizes they're siblings and is shocked a demon would protect Tanjiro, even as family, seeing a genuine bond. He decides he wants it more than his pretend sister and cuts off Daughter's head, saying he'd kill her if she didn't kill the people on the mountain. The Daughter picks up her head and leaves. Rui tells Tanjiro he is so moved that if he gives him Nezuko, he'll let Tanjiro leave alive, though Tanjiro refuses and says he'll kill him first. Rui wonders if he can, revealing he is the Twelve Moon member. He uses his threads to pull Nezuko to him and Tanjiro charges. Nezuko slashes Rui's face with her claws and Tanjiro dodges the threads. Rui leaves Nezuko suspended in midair with threads cutting into her as punishment for her defiance. Nezuko falls asleep to recover from the wounds. Tanjiro uses the Final Form of his Water Style, creating a water dragon, and charges Rui, his swings becoming strong enough to slash the threads. Rui enhances the strength of the threads, turning them red with his Blood Art, making a cage to enclose on Tanjiro. Tanjiro fears he will die and remembers his childhood with his family. His father was a frail man, but on New Year's he would dance a kagura dance as a prayer to the God of Fire to ward off harm, as their family worked with fire. Tanjiro wondered how his frail father could dance in the snow and his father told him of a special breathing technique that allowed him to dance forever. Tanjiro uses his father's kagura dance with his sword, igniting the water dragon into one of fire that is able to slash the enhanced threads. He comes within striking range, intent on killing Rui despite knowing Rui's threads will likely kill him in turn. Nezuko is visited by a vision of her mother, who wakes her from her slumber to save her brother. Nezuko uses her blood on the wires suspending her in a Blood Art that makes the blood ignite, burning through the threads. The fire travels down the threads to Rui, severing the ones about to strike Tanjiro, and Tanjiro's blade lands. Tanjiro vows the bond between he and Nezuko can't be severed as his blade, with Nezuko's burning blood on it, cuts off Rui's head.

Food Wars: The Second Plate Totsuki Autumn Election Arc EP#32 - The Battle That Follows the Seasons: In preparation for the final, Soma and Megumi go to the fish market, where they come across Kurokiba and Alice. There, they learn of the varying factors for picking the best pacific saury, which Kurokiba appears to be an expert on. Learning that Hayama also has a talent for picking out the best fish, Soma worries about how to compete with against them. Soma decides on aging his saury, asking for help from Ryoko, Ibusaki, and Ikumi. He tries their aging techniques: using malt rice, smoking, and high humidity, but manages to think of a way to surpass his competition after a run-in with Fumio. On the day of the final, Soma brings out a completely unrecognizable saury.

Black Clover: Elf Tribe Reincarnation Arc EP#108 - Battlefield Dancer: In a flashback, Acier Silva, the mother of Solid, Nebra and Nozel, dies after Noelle is born. Noelle grows up bullied by Solid and Nebra while Nozel forced her to join the Black Bulls. In the present Noelle intentionally casts the spell that almost drowned her after first meeting Asta. Kivn is engulfed in water, forcing her to cancel her spell, allowing Nozel to seal her in mercury. Nozel surprises everybody by admitting he always cared deeply for Noelle but due to her strong resemblance to Acier he was always terrified she would one day die, so he placed her with the Bulls to keep her safe. After seeing how strong she has become he admits he was wrong and apologises. Nozel is suddenly impaled as Kivn breaks free and recasts her magic distortion spell. Noelle, desperate to protect her family, unlocks a new spell, Valkyrie Armor, covering her in water armour identical to the steel armor worn by Acier. Kivn is knocked out by Noelle, but before she can help her siblings, she is surrounded by six other elves. Zora suddenly arrives with Paplo Espuma, a servant of House Silva who starts healing Noelle's siblings. Zora's trap magic easily knocks one elf unconscious. Nozel remembers that he promised Acier he would protect his siblings, especially Noelle, so he seals his wounds with mercury and rejoins the battle. Zora realises the elves, having been dead for centuries, have never experienced complicated modern spells like trap magic, and they are easily overwhelmed.

Slightly Damned Page 953: https://www.sdamned.com/comic/953

[lisinfleur]

What is your opinion on the episode? Did you have any favorite moments?

Ohh.. nice question. I think it was… tepid. 

But it was just the first ep of a new season so we couldn’t really wait for too many revelations and dramatic scenes. Somehow this introduction just showed me that, at some point of this season, every single character will stop, look back and think “I screwed up”. 

Looking to each character, Lagertha seems to be old and tired, exhausted of battles and betrayal; Rollo is still the same fool he always was for me; Björn is too angry to think clearly and he will end up screwing up something because of all this anger; Ubbe changed too much and is almost unrecognizable to me; Torvi keeps being the support character she always was, just existing in this episode to give Ubbe some lines; Ivar is the same selfish egocentric bastard he always was, but now, with a crown and not a clue of how to approach a woman; Freydis… what to say… Her empty smile remains the same and the only thing that changed was that Hirst made her some more repetitive lines to fill sausage and extend the scene between her and Ivar; Harald is pretty less depressive than I thought he would be with all the deaths around him…

My great surprise was Hvitserk and his action towards Margrethe - it was pretty sweet of him to stand for her and I had to say it warmed my heart even knowing it will be a great mistake and probably the reason why he’ll end up separating from Ivar. 

Favorite moments? The celebration scene was funny with the goat queen, Hvitserk’s moments and laughs were delicious to see, but to be honest, my favorite moment was the conversation between Ivar, Hvitserk, Rollo, and Harald: Hvitserk narrating the battle to Rollo was sweet and the way he became displaced among the fratricides was hilarious. 

I have to say all Marco’s moments in this episode were my favorites and what I liked the most in this episode was the idea Hirst gave me that Marco will have more lines, more presence and more scenes. I really like Marco Ilsø as an actor and Hvitserk, imo, was a char almost not developed in the last seasons so it will be pretty good to see some more of this charming dark prince I love so much!

Thanks for questioning! And you, dear nonnie? What did you like the most?

[whtmrwrites]

start with this - ep one (idea to execution)

Pick an idea that you’ve had for a while. Take exactly 1 hour to work on it exclusively. This can be one continuous hour, or 30 minutes for two days, or 10 minutes for six days. Then put it out there. Consider this your first try of many at this idea.

start with this is by night vale presents. i'm simply going through the prompts to work on my writing.

Melissa looked outside, to the woods. She had almost been certain that she had heard something coming from the treeline, stalking its way over to the cottage. All she could see were fireflies. It was a bit strange, it being the middle of the night and a bit too late for them, but it wasn’t the strangest thing she had ever envisioned at the edge of the wood by her grandfather’s cottage. Some summers, she had vivid dreams of an icy pale man watching her from the trees, or a woman with dark yet iridescent skin soaking up the first rays of dawn. Fireflies at midnight were hardly anything of note.

Two eyes revealed themselves among the asynchronous flashing, a stern blue-tinted silver Melissa recognized from somewhere deep in her mind. An aura of disapproval washed over her, radiating from the pair. She looked over her shoulder then back before lifting the window, careful of the aging wood. A small creak came from the joints and she paused, holding her breath. Melissa would hate to wake her grandfather this late at night for something so silly as an image conjured up by her overactive imagination. His snoring from the other room prompted her to sigh and continue opening the window. She bit her lip and slid one leg out, then the other.

The dewy, fresh-cut grass tickled Melissa’s feet. She was grateful she didn’t put on socks, and grateful the approaching summer’s heat kept the night warm for her to leave behind her coat. She left the window cracked so she could sneak back in without trouble, just as quietly as she snuck out. The night was cloudless and the moon was full, guiding her path without so much as a candle.

As she approached, the eyes began to sink back into the forest. Melissa considered calling out for whoever it was, but her voice caught in her throat. It crossed her mind that it could very well have been some sort of animal, although she couldn’t recall what sorts of animals had eyes that could genuinely glow like that. There was also the possibility that her call could wake her grandfather, and as accepting of her fantasies as he was, it wouldn’t be a very good excuse for why she snuck out alone instead of simply pursuing it in the much safer daylight. She bit her lip. All this internal deliberation wouldn’t get her anywhere. Melissa went out a few yards further and called out.

“Hello?” She paused, scanning her eyes across the trees. Some moonlight filtered in past the thick summer foliage, but not enough for her to make out who--or what--could be hiding. “Do I know you?”

The question seemed to echo back to Melissa from the woods. “I know you,” the echo replied. The voice was distorted, not in the typical sort of way echos are, but it was very much not like her own. Deeper, wiser, older.

Melissa furrowed her brow. “May I come closer?”

“Come closer,” the distorted echo replied.

She balled up her fists. Turn back, her mother whispered in her mind. There’s nothing in the woods but an echo. Melissa’s rationality always took the shape of her sweet, sensible mother. But everything else, every last hair on her head wanted her to walk into the woods, explore what this was. One step, then another. The eyes no longer retreated, and the fireflies moved, creating a gap in their line so Melissa could enter the woods without disrupting their movements.

As she got closer, the owner of the eyes came into focus. It was a tall, broad man, the one that had been a feature in her dreams since she was a little girl. He had the same full, silvery beard and elaborately done hair, with the expensive looking pins and fabrics styled into the thickest braid down his back. His clothes looked similarly expensive, dark and shimmery all at once, reminding Melissa of the constellations so much more visible in the countryside than in the crowded streets she spent the rest of the year in.

“Melissa, come with me.” The man gestured for her to follow her deeper into the woods.

Against all rationality, Melissa found herself following, just as he had asked. If she had later been asked why, or if her mother got a hold of her, she couldn’t really give a good reason as to why she began following a strange man into the woods. He was familiar, Melissa reasoned. Quite literally the man of her dreams. For all she knew, this was a dream.

To her surprise, they began to follow a well-worn path. In all her exploring of the woods in previous summers, there was no path, and it looked too old to have been formed in the months she was away. Melissa looked around, and then back up to the man she was following. In theory, she knew the woods like the back of her hand, yet despite not going too far, they were somewhere unrecognizable to her, at least, the memories of her lucidity. It was like a dream, trees shifting and growing in ways she couldn’t explain. No fear gripped her, only a deep curiosity for who he was and where they were going.

The further down the path they went, the larger the trees, or rather everything, seemed to get. Melissa relaxed herself, finding comfort in this. It was just another dream, and she’d copy it down to her journals as soon as she returned home and awoke. The trees grew larger and larger, or perhaps the two of them got smaller. If Melissa had to guess, she was no taller than six inches, or the trees become colossal giants to tower over them.

“You seem to be handling this well.”

Melissa was surprised to hear him speak, her cheeks going red, “Oh, well.” She cleared her throat and straightened out her nightgown, despite him not being able to see her. “This is just another dream of mine.”

“Hm.” He didn’t turn back to look at her.

If you want to be on my Start With This taglist or my general taglist, please let me know!

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Jeff Buckely Mystifying Caucasian Male  by KARA VANDERBIJL

Jeff Buckley’s brief intro before launching into a cover of “Dido’s Lament” is murmured in a ghost’s timbre, barely outdoing the white noise on the recording even at highest volume. His audience laughs, spooked, then the piano opens. “Thy hand, Belinda,” Jeff sings. His is a freakish voice, made all the more odd by the grainy quality of the recording; a high falsetto mimicking the dramatic mezzo-soprano for which Purcell wrote the aria. He wails — his voice almost breaks, but doesn’t. Listening, we want it to break; the melody is too pure, its perfect desperation too stringent for this wild, unpredictable thing. Remember me, forget my fate. It’s this drama, the constant rediscovery and redelivery of a familiar, worked-over, oft-repeated tune that defines Jeff Buckley’s work. Like his voice, each song defies an original genre or mood, turning back to a more primal source. Is it a lament? A mockery? A strange self-issued prophecy from a man who, two years later, would walk into the Wolf River in Memphis, TN and drown? Like many of his other performances, this one (a set at the 1995 Meltdown Festival in the UK) now only exists on the web, maybe even on fragments of a video somewhere. Had Jeff Buckley lived past the age of 30, it might have remained among the other, less-than-perfect detritus of a long and successful career. But when the talented die young, we like to watch their home videos. Their unprotected moments. Their failures, blow-ups, fuck-ups. Anything that might give us clarity about their end: what “brought them to this point.” Short of simply accepting that it was death that did Buckley in, we might say it was the success that got him.

Only four years earlier, Jeff had sung in public for the first time, at a tribute concert for his estranged father Tim Buckley. They had met once, when Jeff was eight, after one of Tim’s shows; two months later, Tim overdosed on heroin. Neither Jeff nor his mother Mary Guibert were invited to the funeral. When Jeff stepped onto the stage at Saint Ann’s in Brooklyn to sing Tim’s “I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain”, most people weren’t aware that Tim had a son, and most people who knew Jeff didn’t know he could sing — he’d patented himself, stubbornly, as a guitarist — so the evening unveiled not only Jeff’s vocal talent but also exactly where it had come from. This pissed Jeff off. If anything, he had hoped to use the brief set as his way of paying his respects, of breaking away from Buckley senior. Years later, when a fan shouted a request for one of Tim’s songs, Jeff looked her straight in the eye and said, “I don’t play that hippie shit.”

Jeff escaped Anaheim, CA, where he’d been born, leaving behind what he described as a “rootless trailer trash” existence. He’d been struck by New York fever. Over the next year and a half, he played at coffee shops and nightclubs in Lower Manhattan, and eventually earned a regular Monday night slot at Sin-é in the East Village, accompanying himself on the guitar. He covered Bob Dylan. Nina Simone. Van Morrison. Singing “Sweet Thing” once, with Glen Hansard, a then still-obscure Buckley drew a crowd — so large that people began pressing up against the windows outside the club — by taking the second verse through a series of vocal gymnastics that lasted fifteen minutes. A brief writing streak with Gary Lucas resulted in two original songs, “Mojo Pin” and “Grace”, that Jeff nevertheless rarely played in his set. Lucas also invited Buckley to perform in his band, Gods and Monsters, early in 1992. By that time, however, the streets outside Sin-é were lined with record label executives hoping to snag Buckley for a solo album. That October, Buckley signed with Columbia, hired a drummer and bassist, and recording for what would be his first and only studio album, Grace, began the next summer. A quick EP, Live at Sin-é was released in November ‘93, documenting Jeff’s coffee-shop years, a time he’d long for intensely almost as soon as he left it. Jeff was not prolific; of the ten songs on Grace, he penned only three on his own. Lee Underwood, Tim Buckley’s guitarist, said once that Jeff suffered from an all too-relatable sort of creative inertia. “[He] felt uncertain of his musical direction, not only after signing with Columbia, but before signing, and all the way to the end. He did not know himself — which musical direction he might want to commit himself to, because taking a stand, making a commitment to a direction, or even to composing and then successfully completing the recording of a single song, was extremely difficult for him. One the one hand, creativity was his calling. On the other hand, any creative gesture that offered the possibility of success terrified him.” To speak nothing of the looming shadow of a father he never spoke of, to whom he was inevitably compared, as well as a sort of dogged perfectionism that plagued his studio sessions.

Spending hours, as he did, overdubbing the vocals until he had reached what he felt was the optimal delivery, Jeff seemed reluctant to pin any one mood onto his work. Andy Wallace, Grace’s producer, had to piece several of the songs together from dozens of takes. The music was in constant metamorphosis, to the point where later, live renditions of the songs sounded different, singular, wed to whatever Buckley had learned or felt or needed in between one performance and the next. He seemed to rewrite them each time. Grace is disparate, wavering between the almost cacophonous landscapes of “Mojo Pin”, “Grace”, “Last Goodbye”, and “Eternal Life”, the hushed, sacramental “Corpus Christi Carol”, and the desperate “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”. Buckley alternately whispers or wails, seems to laugh and growl, shreds remarkably. The music is a story as emotionally complex as its author — calling it simply brooding or romantic minimizes its scope. In reality it is confused, mystifying, indecisive.

The album, like the EP preceding it, sold in a slow trickle. Jeff’s songs rarely made it to the airwaves. Critics were either charmed by its triumph or turned off by what, altogether, seemed to be a confusing melange of emotions and genres. The French loved it, though, and in 1995 awarded Jeff with the Grand Prix International du Disque, an honor he shared with the likes of Edith Piaf, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. David Bowie claimed that Grace was the one album he’d want with him on a desert island. Meanwhile, Jeff silenced restless crowds in concert halls across the globe with a few strums of his guitar, with a Buddhist-like opening chant called “Chocolate” that hushed chatter until you could hear a pin drop. Only then would he break into “Mojo Pin”. Putting Buckley’s cover of the Cohen song in a separate category — as I undoubtedly must — “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” is Grace’s masterpiece. Jeff introduced it first at Sin-é when he signed with Columbia, luring listeners who had previously doubted his ability to produce a decent song of his own. Back then it was just Jeff and his guitar, sans the divine harmonium intro, the swelling gospel choir, absolutely pure. Lyrically, it’s as seductive as it is sad — as Jeff escalates to “It’s never over/my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder,” a tingle begins deep down. It’s as much the power of his voice as the power of his poetry. He chokes it out, like an old love letter he’s been forced to read aloud.

I will say this about “Hallelujah” — everything blooms from the single, conquered breath that opens it. Buckley is remembered for these quieter contributions, and appropriately so; in a way they serve as auto-epitaphs. An incredible mimic, he nails Nina’s voice during brief moments in “Lilac Wine” and rivals any choir boy with Britten’s “Corpus Christi Carol”, which had been introduced to him by a friend in high school. But it’s palpable anger that colors the rest of Grace, anger that Jeff would take with him on tour and into the beginnings of his second album, My Sweetheart, The Drunk. He butted heads with the bigwigs at Columbia when he refused to make a music video. He alienated friends, his photographer Merri Cyr, and some of his strongest supporters with careless words. Seamlessly integrated into his public image were frequent moments of conflict, uncertainty, and stubbornness, most of them related to his burgeoning fame, and almost always triggered by casual comparisons with the late Tim Buckley. When People Magazine nominated Jeff as one of their “50 Most Beautiful People” in 1995, something snapped. He dyed his hair black and stopped washing it. He wallowed, thin, in giant thrift-store plaid shirts and Doc Martens. On stage, Grace changed: “Buckley and the band were now playing harder, faster, and louder than ever before, transforming slow-burning epics — ‘Last Goodbye’, ‘So Real’, ‘Eternal Life’ and the title track — into rock and roll firestorms that bordered on the metallic. ‘Mojo Pin’ circa 1996 was almost unrecognizable: Buckley screamed so hard as the song built to its thunderous climax that you feared he’d cough up a vocal cord,” wrote Jeff Apter, one of Buckley’s biographers.

Touring took its toll on Jeff; he needed peace and quiet to work things out, to create, but the frenzy of the road worked up a hysteria in him. Once, in Ireland, he disappeared for a few hours in the afternoon and walked around singing and playing guitar in the pouring rain, skipping interviews and a sound check. Another time he arrived so drunk on stage he broke into a rendition of one of his father’s songs. Yet another time, wasted, he fell asleep underneath a table at a show in Manhattan. Another musician would have been thinking of giving the public a second album to chew on; Jeff was just trying to stay alive. Returning to New York in 1996 after two years on the road, he found the Village, which had once afforded him the comfortable hum of cappuccino machines, the safety of coffee shop anonymity, completely transformed. Sin-é had closed its doors. What few shows he did play, he had to advertise under pseudonyms. He needed a quiet spot, a shrine. So, in early ‘97, he went to Memphis. During the last few months of his life, Jeff Buckley lived in a shotgun house which he rented for a paltry $450 a month. He owned little more than a couch, a telephone, and a telephone book. What time he did not spend cycling back and forth from a Vietnamese restaurant he spent lying in the grass in his backyard, or at the butterfly exhibit at the Memphis Zoo. He played at a beer joint called Barrister’s, quietly. He recorded sketches of new songs on Michael Bolton cassettes that he’d picked up for pennies and sent them to his band in New York. My Sweetheart, The Drunk tremulously came together. On May 29th, the band flew into Memphis to begin recording. That night, Jeff sang Led Zeppelin as he waded into the river.

[musikmusing]

ARRIVING AT ‘THE ALTAR’ WITH BANKS: A TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEW

(By Regan Wojick for Atwood Magazine)

The artist known as BANKS started out somewhat of an enigma. The Los Angeles songstress, who drops her first name Jillian when she hits the stage, rarely ever made waves on the black holes that are Twitter and Instagram. It only added to her mystery. Really, social media presence isn’t entirely necessary when your music speaks for itself. In 2013, she released two EPs, Fall Over and London, lighting a widespread fuse for BANKS . Without breaking a sweat, she absolutely lived up to all of the well deserved hype.

Late in 2014, BANKS put out her first full length, Goddess. The album was on everyone’s playlists, whether they were into pop, indie, electronic, R&B, etc. At the same time BANKS was able to isolate her listeners yet reach out to eclectic groups of people by referencing influences like Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, and the Weeknd. Goddess was an in depth look into the pain and passion revolving around love in relationships. Jumping forward two years, after long months of touring and releasing singles here and there, we have arrived at The Altar (released 9/30/2016 via Harvest Records).

In religious terms, the altar is symbolically a place of sacrifice. It may seem like an old-fashioned tradition now, but a majority of weddings have happened at the top of an altar, where the groom awaits his life partner. It raises the important question: Do love and sacrifice go hand in hand?

When BANKS is involved, the answer seems like an absolute yes. Perhaps, it is the sacrifice of giving up independence. However, it is never that simple with the multi-layered singer. With an album like The Altar, you can’t just look inside the thematic box; you need to look around, under, and above the box. It’s possible that the album works as her altar as she bears all in front of the world, when her own timidness could not let her do so before. The Altar is a place where things are front and center. BANKS can be BANKS, with her emotional curtains drawn.

Any fan cannot help but notice the drastic difference between the two albums visually, lyrically, and sonically. On her debut album cover, Goddess, BANKS is almost unrecognizable as she was hiding behind her dark bangs and the deep red album art. Again, running with her mysterious persona. While The Altar’s cover is different in every way possible. The album art is light gray with her au naturale face front and center, embracing her freckles. (What? BANKS has freckles?) Just by the look of the new record, you can sense an aura of change.

She has grown in confidence, and is welcoming it with open arms. With each song, you can hear the gradual evolution of BANKS: from a shy, less controversial singer to an artist with bold lyrics and vocals that are not be messed with. The Altar takes a similar approach following her debut, musically,  but amps it up even more. Each beat hits harder and each synth is striking. Although her last album was entitled Goddess, BANKS has embraced the Goddess she is supposed to be more than ever.

Gemini Feed

The opening track of the album sets the mood for what listeners can expect for the next 12 songs to follow: honest, passionate electronic pop music with indisputable soul. BANKS sings each emotional line in a lower, growling almost frustrated, voice. We can all relate to a time when, no matter how loud we spoke, we couldn’t get through to someone; pride works as a barrier, deflecting anything and everything having to do with feelings.  

“I tried to say I love you but you didn’t hear me And you’re passive aggressive Convinced me other people they don’t care about me”

BANKS reflects on the way she was treated by her passive aggressive ex. While she was only trying to mend their spiraling relationship, he only brought her, and her crushed ego, down.

So, what exactly does being a Gemini entail you might be wondering? With the growing obsession of astrology signs, it’s slightly shocking that you don’t know, but I’ll refresh your memory. The sign represents a pair of twins, so Gemini’s often have dual personalities and you might not know which personality you’re dealing with. Putting two Gemini’s together might not exactly end in harmony.

“When I said I miss you, you never believed me And we were so depressive You and me together we were Gemini feed”

Likeness and differences can make or break a relationship, and in BANKS’ case, they may have been too similar to work their differences out.  

“And to think you would get me to the altar Like I’d follow you around like a dog that needs water But admit it that you wanted me smaller If you woulda let me grow you coulda kept my love”

In the verses, BANKS may have been using a gruff voice, but by the piercing choruses, she was ready to get her point across. Loud and clear. The last chorus is where listeners are properly introduced to The Altar. When she looks back on the relationship she was in, she can hardly believe her love was almost sacrificed to be with a man who made her feel lesser than he.

Fuck With Myself

BANKS gives us a lesson in self-love with the fervent and sexy “Fuck With Myself.” The second track, and the first single released off the album, reeks of imitable confidence. There’s a definite cockiness to song, but it feels more like well deserved self assurance. The song explores different electronic sounds, and uses familiar hip-hop beats making it fall somewhere in the left field pop, R&B region.

The song reiterates, in it’s own unique way, that you need to “fuck with yourself,” or love yourself, before you should step up to the plate to love somebody else. Pushing romance aside, being able to feel and trust yourself is important in all relationships, whether it’s personal or business.

Lovesick

The introduction to “Lovesick” is reminiscent of moments on Goddess, particularly, the heart wrenching ballad “Change.” This time around though, BANKS isn’t recounting the sad moments of a crumbling relationship, nor is it her offering to change herself just to salvage what was left of their love. “Lovesick” is a sweet ode to her love. It narrates the simplicity of an instant love affair; the kind that has a pure, undeniable connection from the start.

This is one of the happier, lighter tunes that BANKS has to offer on the album, which works as a nice contrast to her darker, more intense tracks of heartbreak. The song starts off as a slower piano ballad, but by the end of 3 minute and 20 second track, you’ll undoubtedly be bobbing your head and tapping your foot.

Mind Games

“Mind Games” explores the pain of toxic relationships. As humans, we need confirmation in love; we crave attention and adoration. “Mind Games,” the longest song on the record, brings us into a dark state of mind. It’s heartbreaking to love someone and to know that you can’t, or shouldn’t, be with them. At times, we’re blinded by fond memories, but “Mind Games” focuses on each twisted thing that happened within the relationship.

“I foresee it’s true That you would love me better If I could unscrew All of your moods that make me wanna runaway But I got stuck with faulty legs”

Her ex let let his bad moods get in the way of their own love. Although she knew the kind of man she was partnered with, she could not muster up the courage to leave him. Perhaps, she was afraid she wouldn’t find anyone again.

“You claiming I’m a handful when you show up All empty-handed The way you say you love me like You’ve just been reprimanded Cause I know you like mind games”

It sounds like a war of tug and pull. She had to squeeze the word “love” out of ex’s mouth, and he only ever said it like he was being condemned or forced, which may have been all part of his “game.”

“Do you See me now”

The last line of the song is powerful. She repeats “do you see me now,” and each time it’s uttered out of her mouth, it’s grown stronger. It’s as if she’s saying “look at me, I don’t need you.”

Trainwreck

The fifth track on the record follows behind “Mind Games” with a similar theme, but in a different voice. On “Trainwreck,” BANKS has let her frustration boil over, and she is not being shy about it. The pop, trip-hop track is an absolute banger. We find the songstress practically rapping her biting lyrics over solid electronic beats. BANKS has a unique style of rapping. She speaks each line in a sweeping breathe. She strings words together that just shouldn’t make sense, but of course, they do.

“Talking to ears that have been deaf for as long as I Can remember. A self-medicated handicap so i speak to Myself and i try so hard to get his stupid deaf ears to hear that I’ve become illiterate. I become dumb”

She’s dealing with the same man she’s been dealing with for a long time, and now, she’s over it. Rather than talk to someone who won’t hear her, she’s decided to talk herself out of the mess she’s in. She tried to save him, but realized it was useless when he wasn’t willing.

“And I saved you from your darker days Born to Take care of you Or I thought so Maybe it was just a phase”

Some of us are born as savers: people who so badly want to help those who can’t get up in the morning. BANKS is one of those savers. Some people can’t be helped; if you don’t want the help, then you won’t get it.

“You showed me all your letters that I Should’ve confiscated Both of my eyes were weighted I had to get away”

It’s dangerous to be in a trapped relationship. The walls close in, and there’s no light at the end of a tunnel. BANKS escaped the “trainwreck” that her fate was headed towards and is ready to move on.

Now when people ask me what BANKS is like, this will be the song I play.

This Is Not About Us

BANKS has a smooth way of saying “it’s not me.. It’s you.” In “This Is Not About Us,” she tries to let down a man in her life, who’s been attracted to the idea of a relationship for a long time. Maybe they were short term lovers that didn’t work out. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the memo.

Sonically, this is the most pop she gets on the record. It has a catchy chorus with a radio friendly instrumental.

Weaker Girl

Through the record thus far, we’ve already seen evolution of BANKS not only an artist, but also as a person. She is strong, confident, and candid. Although she didn’t exactly lack candid moments on Goddess, there was some power missing behind some tracks. “Weaker Girl” is a song would have been unfathomable on BANKS’ debut, but on the new record, it makes perfect sense. It echoes the cockiness that we heard previously on “Fuck With Myself” and the self-awareness of “Gemini Feed.”

The dark R&B track is sultry and tempting  with the repetitive chorus “I’ma need a bad motherfucker like me.” No matter how sure she sounds in the track, there was a time when BANKS could never say that. And in such an explicit, this-is-what-I-want attitude. She recalls when she was a “weaker girl” and how her ex still wishes she was that girl. When she grew taller, she was seen as a threat. This song is an ode to her newfound badass-ness.

Mother Earth

The only song transition, which is seamlessly beautiful I might add, is between “Weaker Girl” and “Mother Earth.” It might seem like an odd pairing, but it’s a reminder that she is multi-layered, and that for each time she is rough, she is also warmly tender. BANKS’ entire album is certainly full of soul, but with kind words and gentle vocals, “Mother Earth” stands out as the most soulful tune.

BANKS bears all and takes the role of an older sister, a kind neighborhood, a best friend, or a mother figure. The artist has had her fair share of heartbreaks and pain, so she’s reaching out to anyone who might listen. She’s gotten in touch with her roots and femininity, and she’s offering to be that shoulder to lean on.

Judas

Judas: the notorious biblical figure most famous for his kiss of betrayal. His name is now synonymous with traitor. In “Judas,” BANKS bites back at the treason her ex committed. Traitors always seem to be the closest people to us until… they’re not.  

Too dumb to deal Too numb to feel the knife in my back

As a younger woman, it’s hard to stand up for yourself. Real life, altering situations can be hard to deal with, and hard to realize.

Beggin me for thread, I think you need to change your brain

This line is kind of a reference to BANKS back in her Goddess days. The tables are turned, now she’s the one with the power and control. She’s grown far beyond the timid and guilty woman she was on her debut.

Haunt

I’ve always felt that BANKS had a witch-y side to her, and “Haunt” slightly confirms my suspicions.  The track is spellbinding with tropical beats and experimental production. It sounds like running through a dark, cold forest with crickets and animals of the night.

BANKS holds a steady tempo in an even tone for the duration of the track, almost like she’s hexing her ex. Although her vocals stay in the same range for the majority of the song, there are moments where she channels the lower BANKS growl that I love so much. The tenth track on the album perfectly describes the way we feel “haunted” by people that have left our lives when we most needed them.

Poltergeist

“Poltergeist” and “Haunt” are back to back, making for a sultry pair of songs. “Poltergeist” follows in the same manner, being disturbed by the thought of someone, even when they’re gone. The eerie track’s production does a good job of making the singer sound like she’s, for lack of a better word, possessed in some bits. This song is at the top of my favorites list at the moment because of the crafty lyrics. Again, I can’t stress the importance of her production; each line brings you into BANKS’ dark, twisted little world.

To The Hilt

“To The Hilt” is the only pure piano ballad on the record. BANKS’ vocals pair so beautifully with the piano, I wouldn’t mind a record full of just ballads. Her voice is light and gentle, like she’s trying to get what she has to say out before her emotions take over. Most her songs deal with romantic relationships, but on “To The Hilt” she sings about the pain of a friend leaving her behind in the music industry.

“We backed each other to the hilt Now I live in the house we built”

They’ve built this music, their brand, and now that she’s right where she wants to be, she can’t share with the person who helped her get there. It’s an interesting internal conflict: to be happy with success but be haunted by the person who aided your way there.

“You saw me as a superstar when i was in a cave You helped them to see”

The person she sings of believed in her when no one else did. He made her feel like she was capable of things, maybe when didn’t feel so capable.

“Hated you for leaving me You were my muse for so long Now I’m drained creatively But I miss you on my team”

Artists and muses have beautiful relationships, but sadly, one cannot work without the other. Not only does she miss having someone to help support her creative outlet, she simply misses the friend who’s been with her since the beginning: before BANKS was BANKS.

27 Hours

BANKS ends on a high note, with her voice loud and powerful as ever. By the end of the record, we realize that she isn’t as fragile as she used to be. She’s bold, brave, and sometimes, a little bit mean. The passionate feelings of love or hate that have been prevalent in each and every song are what make humans, human. It’s what makes soulful music honest.

“27 Hours” is her owning up to hurting a man, after telling him to stay away. She does not shy away from the incident. No, instead she’s  open and unafraid to bear all, even if it means revealing her mistakes. It ends the album on a memorable note; it’s the kind of song that echoes through your head at night.

The Altar is the artistic, and personal, evolution of BANKS as she navigates her way through life, pain, and love. She is only human, and as humans we learn from our mistakes with no shame. This is pure BANKS, on her Altar, unafraid and uncensored. You can embrace it or you can leave it.

[32ortonedge32dh]

John Frusciante - Foregrow

　

Track by Track Thoughts

The title track, "Foregrow," is as traditional as you'll find this EP: a 7/4 time signature with frenetic, almost danceable drum patterns that slowly take shape throughout the first two minutes of the tape.  The two main synthesizer tracks compete for your attention throughout their time together, but paying attention to either or is quickly forgotten once a third joins the mix.  High pitched, whiny but not pitchy, and reminiscent of a classic Frusciante solo in something like "Throw Away Your Television," it becomes the focal point from its genesis.  Add in the cryptic lyrics and lushly layered voice of Frusciante on his only vocal appearance this time around, combined with the almost orchestral background synths, and you have a standout of his electronic discography thus far.

"Expre'act" is deliberately anti-convention; the drums that would usually provide the rhythmic center cannot find theirs in constantly shifting patterns both as a whole and within the individual components.  Where the synths worked harmoniously on the first song, these are off kilter in relation to each other and only take the drums as a suggestion rather than a guide.  Much like others on this release, the feel of the track switches up past about midway through.  While the helter-skelter drums remain, some synths strip away and we see the first appearance of a real guitar, and its solo is not flashy, distinct, or anything like you'd expect from one of the greatest guitarists ever.  It almost sounds accidental until you understand the context of the song and the EP as a whole; it (intentionally) lazily follows one of the existing synth patterns as the drums continue to provide no structure at all, even getting more out of hand with additional raucous hi-hats.

"Lowth Forgue" begins fun, another upbeat 7/4 track with bright synths reminiscent of the opener "Foregrow" on a psychotropic.  The drums start off light before dropping into the kick- and hat-driven measured frenzy we're used to.  They drop out not too long after, and those bright synths get higher and higher before you're hit with a menacing, almost brassy pattern that might not sound out of place on a Kanye production.  New drums emerge, as does another solo of sorts with three different synths taking turns before the track changes into something unrecognizable, not really driven by anything until another new drum beat kicks in

The EP winds down with "Unf," an 8/4 downtempo closer.  A low synth powers the first section of the song as John's guitar comes back in a beautiful swingy, maybe island-y riff before succumbing to the genre and resurfacing with glitches and distortion galore.  The melodic bridge calms things down further, as new synths imitate but not quite copy the earlier guitar riff before spiraling up into the high end while something resembling bass fills out the low end, then we're hit by a brand new bit that wouldn't be out of place on a 2004 John solo track or even a lost Julian Casablancas demo.  This is followed by Frusciante quickly rebuilding a controlled chaos, which evolves into something taking a dancelike clap- and guitar-driven life of its own (and the guitar feeds that jittery funk rock fix many RHCP fans have been craving for a decade) in another distinct portion of the track to cap off the experience

Final Thoughts

John Frusciante shows marked improvement over his past electronic releases, and it's interesting that this coincides with him adding less and less natural sound to his music.  Fans of the genre should undoubtedly give this EP a spin; at only four tracks and 21 minutes, it's very listenable and will be a familiar yet somehow new experience for even longtime listeners.  Fans of Frusciante should give it a try; everything he's done has his soul in it and it's clear that this is no different.  The casual observer who may not be too into John or electronic music should approach cautiously.  Starting off with something like "Expre'act" is a great way to sour both the artist and the genre for yourself.  My recommended listening order for people in that category would be "Foregrow," "Unf," "Lowth Forgue."  Come back to "Expre'act" after getting your feet wet, maybe.

It's hard to find too many negatives with this release.  Many of the sound effects were unnecessary, which comes with the territory, but some of them actually added to the experience.  The length of the songs may look daunting before giving it a listen, but they switch up so many times within themselves that you hardly realize you're only listening to four tracks.  It hit right around the Goldilocks length: it doesn't feel incomplete but it doesn't drag on.  There's decent replay value, it's not exactly background music you can throw on whenever but repeated listens can give way to new discoveries or simply a good time all over again.  I'd give Foregrow somewhere around an 8/10.