#i mean the singer Natch

[fagsex]

no one quite understands me like the protagonist of girl all the bad guys want

[lunapaper]

Album Review: 'HOLY FVCK' - Demi Lovato

Holy fvck really is the perfect way to describe the past few years for Demi Lovato.  

In 2018, the singer suffered a near-fatal overdose, which left her legally blind. She came out as non-binary, preferring to go by she/they pronouns. She became the ambassador for a conspiracy theory website. She revisited past trauma on 2021’s Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over. She had beef with that frozen yoghurt store, which drew criticism from fans and critics alike. 

Lovato now channels all their fear, longing and fury into big, chugging, metal-inspired riffs and snarling pop punk on her eighth album. But while everyone and their mother seems to be jumping on the bandwagon, trying to score a collab with Travis Barker in the hopes of becoming the next Olivia Rodrigo, Lovato’s love of rock, metal and emo is true. Not too long ago, they recounted the time she crowdsurfed at Norwegian black metal band Dimmur Borgir’s show as a teenager in an attempt to evade the moshpit. 

And Lovato wears her influences proudly on her sleeve. 

First single ‘SKIN OF MY TEETH’ is a formidable tribute to Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin.’ ‘Demi leaves rehab again/When is this shit gonna end?’ Lovato drawls as she longs to be free of her much-publicised demons (‘but I can’t ‘cos it’s a fuckin’ disease’). ‘SUBSTANCE’ owes a lot to Jimmy Eat World’s ‘The Middle,’ the singer searching for meaning in an increasingly shallow and fragmented world. Though it’s kinda ironic that Lovato would decry a lack of substance in the world while choosing to align herself with a platform that pushes misinformation… 

‘EAT ME’ is vicious and ragged, with Royal and the Serpent’s Ryan Santiago providing the sickly-sweet yin to Lovato’s raspy yang. It wouldn’t have looked too out of place on Poppy’s I Disagree, at the same time maintaining a Muse-like grind. The title track has a slinky groove and dirty, filthy bass akin to The Pretty Reckless, with riffs like flames licking at the walls and Lovato revelling in the leather-clad melodrama. Standout ‘BONES’ has ‘Trouble’s Coming’-era Royal Blood in its blood, an underrated cut of salacious disco punk that has the singer wanting to jump a lover’s bones (natch). 

HOLY FVCK is as preoccupied with the sexual as it is the sacramental, Lovato making her desires known while burning down the toxic purity cult that Disney kept her imprisoned in for so many years. 

‘HEAVEN’ is a dizzy, wailing ode to self-love channelling Marilyn Manson’s ‘Beautiful People,’ with Lovato trying to reconcile the deeply-held Catholic beliefs of their family with masturbation, inspired by Matthew 5:30 (‘If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, because it’s better to lose one part of your body than your entire body to hell’). She plans on christening every square inch of LA in every position possible on SUM 41-style filthfest, ‘CITY OF ANGELS.’   

’29,’ however, is a much, much darker.  

‘Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy/But was it yours or was it mine?’ Lovato spits back, allegedly at their ex, Wilmer Valderrama, a grimy, gasoline rainbow of a rock banger that’s since become an empowering catch-cry for hundreds of women on TikTok who’ve also been preyed on by older men. The singer doesn’t hold back, offering up skin-crawling lines such as ‘Just five years a bleeder, student and a teacher/Far from innocent, what the fuck's consent?’ But it’s definitely among the most cathartic of HOLY FVCK’s tracks, its chorus thrashing like a wild animal that’s burst out of its cage. 

The crux of the album, though, lies with ‘HAPPY ENDING.’  

‘Am I gonna die trying to find my happy ending?’ Lovato wonders, ‘And will I ever know what it's like.’ It paints a brutal portrait of the realities of addiction, never truly free of her demons. It also has a lot in common with her 2018 track, ‘Sober,’ released after suffering a relapse, but this time, Lovato seeks to turn hopelessness into something hopeful. ‘The feeling I hope that people take away from listening to this song is that I hope they don’t feel alone,’ she told fans via her website. ‘In this song, it’s talking about feeling so hopeless but I want my fans to know they’re never alone and someone has felt this way before and made it out of it.’ 

Then we reach the halfway mark, and the album’s tension begins to wane, Lovato soon retreating into the inoffensive Disney pop rock of years past (bar ‘DEAD FRIENDS,’ of course). The scuzzy sleaze rock of ‘HELP ME’ (featuring Emily Armstrong of LA rock trio Dead Sara), however, is a bright spot, taunting and swaggering back at the listener ‘thanks for your useless information’ and shoving their pointless opinions back in their faces. 

If you’re gonna go full rock and metal, complete with the metal-style V in the album title and the bondage and crucifix imagery to match, then commit. Why hold a ‘funeral’ for your pop music if you’re just gonna end up getting cold feet halfway through and end up resurrecting its corpse? 

HOLY FVCK is a long overdue burst of anger from Lovato. Rather than wallow in her pain, she revels in it, entices it and grabs it by the fucking throat – at least for the first half of the record.  

It could also do with a little subtlety: For every stark confession, there’s a cliched platitude or goofy lyric. Lovato’s boasts of being ‘ungodly but heaven-sent' can also come off as trying too hard at times. 

Still, ‘[y]ou can’t have light without dark,’ Lovato recently told the LA Times. ‘The dichotomy was really important to me, and I had to take my anger out of the shadows in order to heal. I am owning my dark side, and it doesn’t have to take me down.’  

And by doing so, she’s never sounded better. Hopefully Lovato keeps fvcking things up like this… 

- Bianca B. 

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #608

Top Ten Supporting Monsters from The Nightmare Before Christmas

So Halloween is upon us once again, and therefore I need to make some kind of tenuous spooky-themed list. It is what it is.

So this Halloween I’m looking at one of the best creepy flicks that’s also, y’know, for kids, and also a Christmas movie in disguise (disguise being a really big part of Halloween, natch). I am of course talking about Henry Selick’s wonderful stop-motion spooktacular, The Nightmare Before Christmas, which – scarily enough – is thirty years old this year.

One of the (many) things I love about Nightmare is its cast of characters. Yes, obviously, the main guys and gals are tremendous; Jack Skellington, all angles and spider-walks, is an empathetic delight as the lead, and he’s backed up by Catherine O’Hara on adorable form as Sally, with creepy doctors, mayors, various holiday personifications, and the genuinely creepy Oogie Boogie all filling up the film’s cast nicely. However, I’m not going to talk about those guys today. Nope, I’m focusing on the background freaks.

Nightmare is, infamously, referred to as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas on most posters and imagery associated with the film. This despite the fact that he didn’t write or direct it; he serves as a producer but, more importantly, he came up with the story and even the original designs of some of the characters (and, I believe, the famous Spiral Hill). Whilst sticking his name on the cover had the unfortunate effect of sidelining the less-famous people who actually made the thing, day-in and day-out, there is definitely a very strong Tim Burton-y vibe to the whole thing, and the various artists and designers did an excellent job in translating the look and feel of his scratchy drawings into 3D models.

Anyway, the result of all this is that we get a film populated with a ton of fantastic background freaks. Horrific zombies, angry ghouls, old-school monsters, dead people, and tons more besides; the many denizens of Halloween Town are delightfully macabre. It’s especially impressive considering that, for what is ostensibly a kids’ film (a Disney film, no less) it does go to some very sinister places with some of these characters.

This, then, is a celebration of those guys, gals, and ghosties; the horrific and loveable Halloween Town residents. The backup singers for the Pumpkin King. And, yes, I’m stretching “main characters” far enough to include Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the three “Boogie Boys” – just in case you’re wondering where they are. They’re off in their groovy perambulatory bathtub.

Now. What’s this?

Corpse Child: he’s part of a whole Corpse Family, who could all be championed, but I’ve singled him out coz he’s special. A little dead toddler-bot, looking like he’s been dredged from a lake, with his eyes all sewn up in rather disgusting fashion; he reminds me a little bit of some of the little buggers from Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. Truly freakish and disturbing. Cute.

Winged Demon: is he a bat? Is he a child? Who knows, but this is another distorted and disturbing monstrosity, some kind of tiny bat-thing with an enormous head who gets about by walking along on the tips of his oversized wings. Batty.

Monster Who Lives Under the Bed: only glimpsed in darkness during the opening number, this guy gets a high spot because he’s just frankly terrifying. Visible only as a pair of glowing red eyes and a set of razor-sharp fangs glinting in the darkness, he describes himself as “the one hiding under your bed, teeth filed sharp and eyes glowing red.” I mean, what? This is meant to be a kids’ movie!

Wolfman: rather simple this fella but I like him. He’s a werewolf. He’s a wolf-man. He’s a slightly portly boy with tiny legs, wearing a nice yellow lumberjack shirt that’s too small for him (I can relate). He’s basically the audience surrogate for all the dads.

Behemoth: another big boy, this fella is a bit slow on the uptake, wearing dungarees that scream “body disposal”, and he has an axe lodged in his cerebellum. Like Wolfie, he’s adorable; the fact he appears to be properly dead makes him a bit freakier mind.

Clown with the Tear-Away Face: another one of the truly terrifying buggerlugs from the opening number, Clowny is a scary clown (check one) riding a unicycle (check two) who can – get this – remove his face leaving nothing but a yawning chasm of darkness behind (check three). Beats making balloon animals, I guess.

Melting Man: I don’t know what to tell you about this guy. He looks like he’s made of toffee. Or possibly shit. He’s a sticky, dripping, melting… man. Really, he’s gross. You wouldn’t want him round your house unless your furniture had those plastic coverings on it from the eighties.

Monster Who Lives Under the Stairs: the third “Monster Who”, this one boasts a fairly Burton-esque design, with his long stripy neck reminiscent of the Beetlejuice sandworms. He’s got a long beakish face, with at least one huge spider living on top of his head. Oh, and his fingers are basically snakes. Yeah. What’s not to love?

Mr. Hyde: Mr. Hyde is a truly freakish looking bloke, with his Victorian stovepipe and all; he looks more like Jack the Ripper. Anyway, like a Russian Doll crossed with an undertaker, he has smaller versions of himself inside himself, which pop out to give him a hand with stuff. It’s a bit weird, really.

The Devil: he’s the Devil. He’s got horns and beard and whatnot. That’s his whole deal. He’s voiced by Greg Proops, apparently.

[tessandscottforever18]

May 17

Being Connor Brashier: Meet the 22-Year-Old Boy Wonder Shaping Shawn Mendes’ New Vibe

In just a few years, Brashier has already worked on some of the biggest projects of Mendes' career, from art directing the single cover for 'Senorita' to serving as creative director for the singer's 'Wonder World Tour'

On the First Monday of May, Shawn Mendes strolled out of New York’s Mark Hotel and into a waiting car for the roughly half-mile drive to the Met. A gala red carpet was awaiting him.

Wearing a custom Tommy Hilfiger jacket and suit, the singer drew comparisons to everyone from Lord Bridgerton to a Disney prince. Whatever the comparison, his regal presence was palpable. And though Mendes stepped onto the Met carpet solo this year, he wasn’t entirely alone. On this night, as on most nights, Mendes was trailed closely by Connor Brashier, the singer’s friend-cum-confidante-turned-creative director. If Mendes’ Met Gala look saw him crowned as fashion royalty, consider the camera-toting Brashier his charming courtier.

At just 22 years old, Brashier has already worked on some of the biggest projects of Mendes’ career, from art directing the single cover and promo materials for Mendes’ “Senorita” collab with Camila Cabello, to serving as creative director for the singer’s upcoming “Wonder World Tour.” The Laguna Beach native is responsible for much of Mendes’ merch too, and advises him on everything from styling to social media.

In the same short years, the self-taught photographer and videographer has also worked on projects with artists ranging from Kygo to Madison Beer, while helming campaigns for brands like Flow Water and Frankies Bikinis (starring Mendes and Sofia Richie respectively, natch). To hear Brashier talk about it though, the lines have always been blurred between work and play.

“I would always be the person in my group of friends who would just go out and get the camera, shoot whatever I shot, capture whatever I captured and then come back and edit it,” he says, hands cupped over an Americano on a recent afternoon back in LA. “But it never crossed my mind that that could lead to a career.”

After tailing Beer on tour — shooting behind-the-scenes videos and photos for the singer’s social media channels — Brashier landed a gig with the DJ Frank Walker, who wanted help with concepts for his tour and album covers. Brashier and Walker worked together for about a year before a chance meeting with Mendes’ manager led to Brashier shooting the singer’s Global Citizen Festival set in 2018. “I did it and kind of like instantly bonded with Shawn and they liked the video and the next thing you know I was on tour,” Brashier recalls. When the tour (the aptly-named “Shawn Mendes: The Tour”) ended in 2019, “[Shawn] kind of approached me and he was like, ‘Hey dude, I want you to have more of a creative director role.’ I was texting my friends to be like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy,'” Brashier says. It was the first time he had been approached for an official “creative director” role. He was 20 years old.

Since then, Brashier has been a constant presence by Mendes’ side, most recently working on the music video for the singer’s new single, “When You’re Gone,” in addition to consulting on Mendes’ Met Gala look (the two were also spotted high-tailing it to Miami recently for the Miami Grand Prix). But Brashier has been a welcome presence for Mendes as well, serving as a sounding board and companion in the midst of music industry madness. It’s something Mendes says he appreciates the most about his teammate, colleague, and now, best friend.

“Connor is brilliant,” Mendes tells Rolling Stone over text. “I feel he is deeply tapped into what it means to be an artist. Everything he creates is a reflection of his heart and I’m constantly blown away by the beauty he’s able to pull out of things.”

“The thing I admire most about Connor though,” Mendes says, “is his ability to support and inspire the people around him to be the artists we know deep down we truly are.”

Over coffee with Rolling Stone, Brashier — on this day dressed in a faded oversized hoodie and baggy jeans — talks about how he landed his dream job, his connection with Mendes and why you don’t have to know it all to succeed — as long as you know your worth.

Rolling Stone: Congrats on Shawn’s new single. What was the thought process behind the video and the single artwork?

Brashier: “When You’re Gone” is really the first time we have gone into a release without any “world” we wanted to live in. Instead, we aimed to bring back the Shawn that fans and viewers in general don’t get to usually see, or at least hadn’t in a while — just Shawn in his natural element writing, rehearsing, performing.

What about the cover art?

The artwork is an especially interesting story. We actually had a plethora of ideas inspired by old Sixties and Seventies photos and covers of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, etc. and had a design we all thought was strong. About a week later, after announcing the song, our tour photographer, Miranda McDonald, shot this super cool frame of Shawn on stage at SXSW silhouetted by one of the screen visuals. The next day, I saw a fan edit on Instagram of that shot mocked as cover art and Shawn, myself, and the rest of the team instantly knew we had to use it. Shoutout to @distorted.vinyl on Instagram for making my job easier than ever! (laughs)

It’s pretty incredible that you get to work with one of the biggest artists in the world right now. Did you always want to get into the music and creative industry?

When I younger, I was a big surfer and skater and everything you do in Southern California. I think as soon as I picked up a little GoPro — not even an HD one — I started realizing like, “Hey, my friends are a lot better at surfing than I am and a lot cooler than me, so I’m going to start filming them [instead].” And I think after that, I found a passion specifically for editing videos. But it never crossed my mind that that could lead to a career.

Was there a moment where that thought changed?

It wasn’t until I think I was 17 or 18 that I started connecting the dots. I started to be like, “Okay, like I really love something about movies and something about film.” And so I posted my videos to YouTube and then kind of made an Instagram video account, eventually posting like 15-second clips cause that was the limit back then. I did the whole Vine thing too and I remember I had to hack into Vine to be able to upload a video back then (laughs). And I guess it all started there.

Do you remember what your first “big break” was?

My first real industry opportunity, I would say, came through Madison Beer. We were both kids — I was 17, she was 18. I met her when I was assisting on a photoshoot that one of my best friends Sam Dameshek was doing, and she just loved us and we started hanging out and she took me on her U.S. and European tour. It was the first tour I ever went on. It was also my first time in Europe.

Madison Beer: When I first met Connor, I instantly knew he had a natural and undeniable eye and talent. I was lucky enough to meet him at his very early stages and take him on my first tour with me. His progression through the month-long tour alone was so impressive, let alone the last four years since then. He is also just one of the most kind-hearted and fun-loving people [that] I’m lucky enough to call a friend. Seeing him blossom into such a visionary and impressive talent has been such a gift.

What do you remember about your first time working with Shawn?

He asked me to put together a little deck or mood board for a few of the songs for Wonder. On the second page, I brought back a memory that we had of talking about David Bowie’s big stadium rock anthems, and Shawn just went like, “I don’t know how to describe it but it’s like wonder,” and that became the theme for the album. After that deck it was like, “Here we go, us two — let’s figure it out.”

What Bowie reference did you use in the deck?

The iconic album cover with Aladdin Sane. He’s one of the best references anyone could include.

How would you describe your role on Shawn’s team versus other teams you’ve been a part of?

It’s tough because to this day, I don’t think anyone entirely knows what the word “creative director” means. With Frank [Walker] I was able to be like, “Okay, let’s make this a little cooler, a little more like fresh, and you know, more youthful.” It was about establishing a brand and so [the job] felt like it was more of an overall branding opportunity more than anything. And when we started with Shawn, it was about the same process and helping with the same content. But if the pool was four-feet deep with Frank, it was 20-feet deep with Shawn and I was learning how to swim.

What’s the process like when working with Shawn?

When I joined the team, I noticed that we were always on the road. For a full year, Shawn was very focused on touring, but he had a few singles come out and he’s always like hovering over what everyone’s doing or working on, and I’ve never seen him so involved in the creative process in general. So it’s good that I can report directly to him because he’s the one who approves things, not the lawyers, the people at the label, or managers, or whatever you want to call it.

“Connor is brilliant,” Mendes says. “I’m constantly blown away by the beauty he’s able to pull out of things”

Do you think people were skeptical of you at first, like, “Who is this kid and how did he get this job?”

A hundred percent. I think it’s always been that way for me. I’ve always been the youngest kid on set and the youngest kid on tour. And you know, to a certain extent, you have to like step up in the chair. You can be a kid — Shawn and I, we’re the same age, we’re both kids and we love to be kids — but when you’re put in a very professional setting I think you can make up for a lack of experience with just being a good person. Carry your name with the good reputation, build strong relationships and be kind to everyone in the industry. You know, that goes longer than any form of my opinion.

Also, all these guys on Shawn’s team don’t treat me as inferior — they treat me as equal. I am very lucky that I can say that, and I think it comes from being friendly and wanting to reach out and also just being honest, like, “Look, I don’t really know what the fuck I’m doing, I want to learn from you and see what you do.”

What’s your day-to-day like?

It depends on what we’re working on. There are two things that really stand out when someone releases a song: cover photo and music video, and so those are the first two things that kind of get in the back of our mind. Everything unravels from there. I try to be very involved with the treatments and work with Shawn and with the director. And then we just start shooting and see what feels right. A lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes that’s hard to describe. Like, my roommates are two of my friends that I grew up with and even they’re like, “Dude what do you even do?”

But there’s lot that goes on behind the scenes, a lot of long-term projects that don’t see the light of day for a year. We’ve been working on Shawn’s tour designs for a year now. So some of these things take a lot more patience than I’ve been used to. You know, so many ideas get thrown out and then we have to start over. Sure, some weeks I’m not doing much, but other weeks I’m working 16 hours.

What is your creative process like?

I believe creativity is not a method nor magic, but a combination of both. I set my intentions to patiently learn the method, while allowing the unpredictable and unexpected (magic) to come.

I try not to approach anything too heady as far as like, you have to offer the craziest, most creative, original idea of all time. Because I don’t think that’s the right way to do it, and I don’t think that serves Shawn’s music. To answer you: Shawn and I will both say it’s all about the vibe, the emotion.

For the “Wonder” video, some of it is based on a TikTok I saw of this guy dancing in a storm. I was like, “Wait, these are two opposite things” — like there’s this dark storm and this guy’s just out there dancing, having a good time, right? It looks so free. And I was like, “That’s pretty cool.” And so that music video is like a parallel, contrasting the rain and storm with freedom and expressing yourself.

A lot has been made about you working with this huge global superstar. Do you feel any pressure to succeed?

As an artist, Shawn’s pressure is different than for me. I don’t feel pressure to deliver anything good ever as an artist. I believe in myself and I feel capable of a lot of things. But I think more than that, it’s just the relationship I have with Shawn. You know, he’s one of my best friends and he’s my boss and the best boss I could ever ask for, and that honest sort of dialogue that we’re able to have is because we’re so close. We trust each other and it’s stripped away all the pressure because it’s not like I’m spending two weeks on a PDF of cover options and sending it to him. We’re talking about it day after day and going back and forth and, you know, before the cover’s even established, we already know what it’s going to be. And if it doesn’t work out we’ll go try it again.

“I believe creativity is not a method nor magic, but a combination of both”

At times we have felt a little bit of pressure on things like “Okay, this has to be marketable,” or like, “Make the text a little bigger.” But as far as pressure to perform, I’ve never felt that and I attribute that all to Shawn; he protects everyone under him really well.

Anything you’ve had to learn quickly?

I think I could be better at my expenses and my payroll (laughs).

You’ve talked about how your vision for a video treatment or photoshoot is usually aligned with Shawn’s. But have there been times where you haven’t seen eye to eye?

There have been times where like, me and Shawn have been on set and we have our opinions, but we’re all so tightly knit, like a family, that we can give each other attitude, and bounce back in ten minutes. I have such an open conversation with Shawn at all times. Once I’m proud of something, it’s easy to be like, “Shawn what do you think?” and he’s like “Love!” or “Hmm, I’m not really feeling this.”

I’m definitely stubborn and I love hearing my opinion, and it took me a while to realize like, “Hey, Shawn knows his fans better than I think any artist [does].” So whatever he says, he must be connecting to them in the right way and in a way that I am not.

What’s a concept or idea you pitched to Shawn that never went through?

At one point I remember he had long hair and I was like, “Let’s do something crazy with your hair: let’s dye it, let’s spike it up, put on some makeup; it’ll become your new look, like the Bowie look!” And he was like, “I think it’s really cool but I love my hair the way it is and I’m not going to change it.”

I think a few of my ideas took a little bit too much commitment. Plus Shawn knows how to do his hair really well.

Aside from the failed Bowie idea, how have you helped to evolve Shawn’s image and branding since you started working with him?

I think I had to mature up to Shawn. Because he started in the industry so young, but he’s also raised so incredibly well and he’s an old soul. And the music also progressed and that helped a lot. A lot of his younger pop hits were written when he was young, and now he’s looking to constantly evolve his sonic landscape and I think that’s always the outline and framework for what we can do – does it match the music?

Considering the music got more mature, it made it easy for us to try more artistic, left-of-center videos and photos. But I think there are two sides of artistry, and I appreciate both. There’s like very honest songwriting about what you’re doing [and] how you feel today. And then there’s the sort-of fantasy world where artists might lie a bit to push [an idea or aesthetic].

Some songwriters can only write what they’re feeling in a honest way and I think that has to be mimicked in an honest visual way. You know, I couldn’t have been like “Okay Shawn, let’s go emo,” right when he got the girlfriend and he was on top of the world. That wouldn’t have made any sense.

But we also change things up. I mean, he wore skinny jeans for like 105 shows straight. He was very excited to go more like, Sixties and Seventies, with a little bit more flair, and go a little bit more baggy, while still maintaining the integrity of who he is and what he likes with the classic tank top that he wears.

I feel like Shawn’s 2021 Met Gala look was a big departure for him.

It was Michael Kors. I remember I went to the fitting and we had some amazing custom fit suits and they all looked great and then they took us to the archive section and there were all these black suits, which is not something Shawn would really wear but something he’s always wanted to wear, to be like the rock star. And then we were like “Shirt? No shirt?” Shawn was like “What do you mean? I want to take my jacket off; I want to go fully shirtless.”

You don’t get that edgy side of Shawn too often because that’s not him, but I think he loves to play dress up and push his artistry like, “Here’s my look today, let’s have fun today.” Shawn loves to play around and put on makeup or eye shadow for a shoot or be shirtless or something like that. He knows what people want.

What other creatives are you inspired by?

I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been surrounded by some of my favorite creatives in the world. Like Glen Lutchford shot Shawn’s cover photo and he’s one of my favorite photographers of all time. I’m on set with Matty Peacock who’s a jack-of-all-trades who’s been doing so many things for so long. I really look up to David Fincher, who’s a director that’s really created his own style.

Artist-wise, I like Tame Impala, Playboi Carti, I love what the Dominic Fike team does – I think it’s all very special. I love Olivia [Rodrigo’s] stuff; I think her stuff is amazing.

But I also think there’s a really dangerous trap when you’re uninspired, to look at what other people are doing. I think that’s a really dangerous thing to do, and whenever I’m out of ideas, it sounds weird, but I honestly like to just literally put on my AirPods, get up and move around my room, close my eyes listening to the song [and] just feel it and get into it.

What advice do you have for people who want to do what you’re doing?

Use your youth and inspiration that you get as a kid and that jittery feeling you get. When you produce something that you love, run with that and fucking fly with that, because it runs out and that is when you’ll make the most progression as an artist and as a person. And don’t let one bad experience or a few bad experiences drag you down and pull away that inspiration. Use it to fuel you to do something bigger.

But I would also say to treat every situation with a sense of gratitude and try to learn from everything and don’t come on set thinking you’re the big guy. But come on set with a professional demeanor, a chill demeanor and if you don’t have that yet, go on set and learn it. You’re going to learn it quick.

Can I add something else?

Of course.

I can’t claim anything as my own. It’s all about the big grand operation, you know? All of Shawn’s team is like one big family and they took me in. I’ve been so lucky that I trust the team a lot and there are really really cool young people who work with us.

I’m also lucky that I’m surrounded by people who are so good at what they do to the point that even if I disagree, I can trust that their opinion.

Anything else to add?

You know, I wanted to come to this interview acting like I knew my shit and the truth is, I really still don’t. I’m still figuring it out. But I actually think there is something about that process. And like I said about being thrown in the deep end and learning what it meant to be a creative director, I’m very lucky that I didn’t know what to fear. So that stripped away a sense of pressure and I was just focused on approaching every situation like, “Here I am, I’m giving it my all and I’m not looking back.”

I think that can apply to a lot of young people, if they choose to see it like, “Wow, I lack experience but I balance that with extreme gratitude and inspiration.” That’s priceless.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume Five, Number 8

Graham Dunning and his mechanical techno rig

Our occasional survey of records we might have missed continues with a late July edition of Dust. This time around, our hot and hazy listening spanned localities and genres from Norwegian folk to Black Dirt jam to Swedish dream pop to Ohio noise-electronics, Kashmiri war metal and well beyond, with the usual stop-over in Chicago for free-improv jazz. Writers included Bill Meyer, Justin Cober-Lake, Ian Mathers, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Andrew Forell and Nate Knaebel. Stay cool.

Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli — Salika, Molika CD (Hubro)

Salika, Molika by Erlend Apneseth Trio

This project unites two musicians who have set themselves the task of reconciling contemporary means with Norwegian folk music materials in the 21st century. Erlend Apneseth plays Hardanger fiddle, a violin variant with sympathetic strings that give it a striking resonance; his trio includes a drummer with a feel for Norway’s pre-rock popular dance grooves and an acoustic guitarist who doubles on sampler and other electronics. Frode Haltli is an accordionist who has shuttled between the worlds of folk and free improvisation. Their collaboration scrambles lucid memory, which is represented by archival field recordings of folk songs and dances, with a mildly feverish dream of a trip through ambient textures that somehow detours every now and then through beats that’d earn you an extra beer if you played them in a Nordic country dance hall. The field recordings exert a gravity that counteracts the lightness of the spacy passages, and Haltli tucks his virtuoso command of the squeezebox into hiding spots, ripe for discovery.

Bill Meyer

 Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples — NATCH 10: Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples (Black Dirt Studio)

NATCH 10 - Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples by Hans Chew & Garcia Peoples

After a few years off, Jason Meagher's Black Dirt Studio has resumed its NATCH series of releases, with volume nine (ignoring the prefatory release) coming from Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane in June, and the latest pairing Hans Chew and Garcia Peoples. The series offers artists the freedom to collaborate however they please to create freely available releases. Chew and Garcia Peoples make for an ideal match on paper, and the actual pairing pays off.  

Garcia Peoples started their cosmic psych just last year, with two albums out in short order. Pianist Chew has been putting in his time for longer, taking his roots-of-rock and Southern rock sound into increasingly spacey places, turning more and more toward a jam sensibility without sacrificing his songwriting. His Open Sea started taking hints from Traffic, so it's no surprise that this release includes a Dave Mason cover, “Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave.” Chew fits effortlessly into Garcia Peoples' jams for a couple tracks, and they meet him in his bluesy-ness for “No Time.” In the middle we have the acidic meditation of “All Boredoms Entertained,” the hinge between the two more rocking segments. The partnership works best when everybody takes off, and the 10-minute opener “Hourglass” burns as hot on record as it would at a festival.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Death & Vanilla — Are You a Dreamer? (Fire)

Are You A Dreamer? By Death & Vanilla

On their third album, this trio from Malmö, Sweden show a devotion to making the most gossamer strain of dream pop without ever losing sight of a knack for peppily compelling song structures. Two of those four earlier albums may have been live soundtracks for movies, but none of these eight deceptively sharply-written songs fade into the background for a second. Singer Marleen Nilsson may be swathed in gauzy atmospherics throughout, but whether on the swooning opener “A Flaw in the Iris,” the foreboding thrum of “Mercier” or the orchestral surges of “Nothing Is Real,” she effortlessly commands center stage here. The music deserves the obvious comparisons to Stereolab and early Broadcast, but Death & Vanilla manage to put their own spin on the influences they share with those earlier acts, and the result is a good reminder that there more than enough room on that territory for multiple bands.

Ian Mathers

 Graham Dunning — Tentation LP (White Denim)

Walk Tentation down on the turntable without foreknowledge of who made it or how it was made, and you’re likely to think that you’re hearing a bit of in sync but off-kilter techno. It sounds like some lost Kompakt release got shaken up and dubbed out with a bag half full of Lego pieces. But the truth is stranger than that. Graham Dunning plays a real time mechanical techno with a homemade, eternally changeable set-up that can simultaneously play a stack of records whilst affording him the means to fuck with individual sounds. True to his techno ambitions, this stuff bumps in ways the kids won’t question. But his willingness to get hung up on a sound and play with it, and then play with it a bit more, mark him as an experimenter with a feline sense of play. “Do I put a bit more reverb on this bit of echo,” one can imagine him musing, “or do I just knock it under this bump in the rug?”

Bill Meyer

  Erin Durant — Islands (Keeled Scales)

Islands by Erin Durant

Erin Durant has a lovely, old-fashioned country voice, flute-y with vibrato at the top-end, rich with emotive sustenance in the mid and lower ranges. It’s the kind of voice that careers are built on, yet Ms. Durant, born in New Orleans now living in Brooklyn, refuses to take the easy road of relying on in-born talents. She brings into complication, depth and contradiction into her songs with a sharp, modern writer’s pen and an idiosyncratic cast of supporting musicians. Her crew on Islands is headed by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone and includes percussion-centric composer Otto Hauser, the boundary pushing pedal steel artist Jon Catfish DeLorme, at least once on harmonica, the eccentric folk singer Kath Bloom, and a large ensemble of brass and reeds. So when on opener “Rising Sun,” she playfully dabs at the Animals’ blues-rock chestnut (verses begin with the phrase “There is a house in New Orleans”), it’s within a precise lattice of country guitar, of multi-tonal percussion, of flickering bits of flute and woozy surges of trombone and trumpet. It lighter and more delicately structured than the song it references, yet built out elaborately with complex layers of instruments. The title cut, likewise, lifts off in airy weightlessness from the gospel chords of piano, as tied to tradition as it needs to be for resonance, yet fundamentally self-determined. There is nothing lovelier than Durant’s massed, multi-voiced choruses here, but the prettiness isn’t everything, far from it.

Jennifer Kelly

 Four Letter Words — Pinch Point (Amalgam Music)

Pinch Point by Four Letter Words

The Chicago-based trio Four Letter Words comes full circle on its second album. Pianist Matt Piet, tenor saxophonist Jake Wark and drummer Bill Harris first convened to play a night of trios at the venue Constellation, but then pursued an investigation of written material before returning to spontaneous music making for this nicely packaged, short run disc. You can get a lot out of this music by focusing on Harris’ inventiveness and humility, or Wark’s angular impetuousness or Piet’s astonishing capacity to pick the best ideas of a half century of jazz practice and put them in just the right places. But you might get more from listening to how the trio collectively imagines musical environments, realizes them, and then pushes off to the next idea at just the right moment to leave you wishing they’d stayed a little longer.

Bill Meyer

  Jake Xerxes Fussell — Out of Sight (Paradise of Bachelors)

Guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell has a knack for curating old music, but his first two albums were more than simple collections of reworked folk music. His sharp playing and intelligent production (give William Tyler some credit here) have turned old tunes into something a little more vibrant. For Out of Sight, he adds a proper band to his presentation, and the presence of Nathan Bowles on drums is worth noting, even if that sympatico artist largely keeps in the background. In expanding his lineup, Fussell also expands his sound; he no longer just mines particular folk traditions, but instead he inserts himself into a larger Americana conversation. 

The move, intentionally or not, puts more of Fussell himself into the album, to its benefit. If anything held back his previous releases, it was this sense at the edges of the sound that Fussell had tied his own hands, his traditionalism tending toward that curator impulse. The songs on Out of Sight come from a variety of places (though if you plotted most of them on a Seeger-Lomax axis, it would make sense), but they're put into Fussell's current vision. “Three Ravens” builds a broad frame for a singular meditation, the sort of moment his work has hinted at without maintaining. Fussell sounds like he's deep in tradition, but committed to pushing it forward in his own way know, and it's a wonderful step for a gifted artist.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Halshug — Drøm (Southern Lord)

Drøm by Halshug

“Kæmper Imod,” the first track on Halshug’s new LP Drøm, could easily fit onto the second side of Black Flag’s The First Four Years, which chronicles the singles and EPs the Flag released during Dez Cadena’s tenure as front man. The Danish hardcore band hits all the necessary notes, channeling Greg Ginn’s ugly guitar tone and the vicious, overdriven quality of Southern Cali hardcore, c. 1981. The song might be a love letter, but the first side of Drøm doesn’t move far beyond the established sounds of a style now nearly 40 years old. On second side of the record, Halshug does some more varied stuff. “Tænk På Dig Selv” shifts in and out of competing rhythms and makes a winning ruckus. Most interesting are the industrial racket of “02.47” and the extended instrumental “Illusion,” which moves from hard rocking groove, to thunderously exuberant crusty riffing, to arcing drone, and then back again. It’s a hugely fun, sonically engaging song, which makes you wish Halshug would ditch the Hermosa Beach vibe that dominates much of the record.          

Jonathan Shaw

 DJ HARAM — Grace (Hyperdub)

Grace by dj haram

Philly based producer DJ Haram (Zubeyda Muzeyyen) builds the tracks on her Hyperdub debut Grace on darbuka rhythms in homage to her Middle Eastern roots. The album also reflects her involvement in the experimental scene as a DJ and half of noise/rap duo 700 Bliss (with Moor Mother). Over the delicate percussion she layers flutes, big slabs of synth, heavier beats and disruptive stabs of noise. “Candle Light (700 Bliss Remix)” introduces vocals with an impressionistic poetic rap over a purely percussive backing. There is an urgency here driven by the restless, relentless rhythms which makes Grace is a disquieting and claustrophic listening experience. Fans of Muslimgauze and Badawi will find much to admire. DJ Haram uses a limited palette to full and focused effect building atmosphere and impressively drawing a line between middle eastern and western electronic music.

Andrew Forell

 Tim Hecker — Anoyo (Kranky)

Anoyo by Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker may make music that envelops the listener with beatless, thickly textured sound, but don’t call it ambient. For while ambient music holds at least the possibility that you can get lost in its drift, Hecker likes to short-circuit comfort. Soft sounds turn grainy, plush clouds disappear and if you catch him in concert you’ll feel the music as much as you hear it because it’s that loud. Anoyo is a companion to last year’s Kanoyo, and like its predecessor originated with some collaborative sessions between Hecker and an ensemble of gagaku (Japanese traditional ceremonial) musicians. He mixes their sounds up with warped and reversed strings and squelchy synthetic bass, and shapes the resulting amalgam into aural vignettes that are less extravagantly mobile than the tracks on Kanoyo but equally dislocating as national traditions and diverse equipment collections swirl and meet on uncommon ground.

Bill Meyer

 Kapala — Termination Apex (Dunkelheit Produktionen)

Termination Apex by KAPALA

By its very nature, war metal is retrograde stuff. The fact that the bands most strongly associated with the subgenre (Proclamation and — yes, seriously — Bestial Warlust) hailed from nations that haven’t experienced much by way of war-related trauma for decades doesn’t help. Does it make a difference that Kapala live and record in Kolkata, and that India and Pakistan have effectively been at war in Kashmir since Partition, and have been in a U.N.-mediated ceasefire (sort of) since 1965? And that both nations are nuclear powers? And that India is led by a fiery Hindu nationalist? And that the cover art for Termination Apex features a stylized mushroom cloud? Yikes. Aesthetically, war metal has its appeal. It features simplistic riffing, technical primitivism and hammering percussion, all taken to sonic extremes. But its romanticization of industrially scaled destruction and nihilism is repugnant and culturally corrosive. Kapala will attract some attention just through exoticism — metal from India? Sure, I’ll check it out. But a reactionary artwork is a reactionary artwork, wherever it comes from.

Jonathan Shaw

 Khaki Blazer—Optikk (Hausu Mountain)

Optikk by Khaki Blazer

“Mothafucker ain’t nobody playing grooves in 13. You can’t get paid for playing grooves in 13. Ain’t nobody gonna shake their booty. That’s why you’re fucking broke,” observes an uncredited voice in the spikily difficult “4/4,” a typically intricate rhythmic concoction of electronic squeaks, blurts and rattles for this Kent, Ohio-based outfit. Pat Modugno who heads up Khaki Blazer, as well as Mothcock and Fairchild Tapes, constructs giddy, multilayered rhythms. In “Conga Line” sampled, altered voices do battle with rackety bursts of drumming and urgent, antic whistle of a melody. The parts work every which way, throwing elbows, stepping on toes, in furious conflict that somehow resolves itself into slinky rhythm. Whether in four, in six, in seven or in thirteen, Khaki Blazer cuts never take the easy way, but they are grooves all the same.

Jennifer Kelly

 Lambchop — This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) (City Slang/Merge)

Fourteen albums in and Nashville’s increasingly sui generis Lambchop, led as always by Kurt Wagner, is doing something that feels unusual, at least for them. 2016’s digitally-enhanced FLOTUS was a sprawling statement of a record, and given the restlessness that led to the processing Lambchop used there it wouldn’t be a surprise if their new record went off in a totally new direction. Instead the focused, somewhat more straightforward This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) could almost be a hefty postscript to FLOTUS. It doesn’t boast anything with the majesty of the two ten-plus minute tracks on the previous album, but all the songs here sound even more comfortable in their own hybrid skins, and as always Wagner is in fine lyrical form. It remains to be seen if this constitutes as Lambchop settling down, but if so it’s in a richer and more bracing way than most bands half their age can manage.  

Ian Mathers  

 Régis Renouard Larivière — Contrée (Recollection GRM)

Régis Renouard Larrivière was born in 1959. But if Discogs is a reliable reporter, despite having been involved in music as a student, instructor, and composer of musique concrete, this is only his second album. Presumably his works are intended more for the multi-speaker listening environments available to the Groupe de Recherches Musicales; certainly it’s not hard to imagine this LP’s three pieces caroming from speaker to speaker, elevating the listener into a mind-altered state induced more by unfamiliarity than sensate distortion. The way they leap off the vinyl of this 45-rpm LP is a trip in itself. No substance, prescribed or otherwise scored, will get you where this stuff takes you. Even when a sound seems familiar — there’s some identifiable drumming amidst the synthetic twitter and boom — it behaves in ways that are unconcerned with the laws of music. Despite its unnatural sound content, Larivière’s music moves more like some force of nature. “Esquive,” for example, evokes leaves in an updraft, circling and dispersing. Like those leaves, each sound has tactile identity that invites you to deal with his compositions at the atomic as well as meteorological level. Strap in, enjoy the ride.

Bill Meyer

  Gabriele Mitelli / Rob Mazurek — Star Splitter (Clean Feed)

The recurrent astronomical imagery in Rob Mazurek's music makes this much clear; his horizons are farther off than most. A restless multi-media artist (his work includes sound and light installations, painting, and composed and improvised music performed with various brass and electronic instruments in the company of musicians from at least three continents), he nonetheless has certain modes that he revisits. In Gabriele Mitelli, he has found an astute companion to follow him into the realm of ritual. In 2018, the two men stepped into the Mediterranean and blew their horns in the direction of the African refugees trying to cross the sea in untrustworthy vessels. No one showed up while they played, but the energy they projected took wind and you can still get a taste of it on Youtube. On Star Splitter, which was recorded on dry land in Florence, they add electronics, voices, and unidentified objects to their brass (Mitelli: cornet, soprano sax, alto flugelhorn; Mazurek: piccolo trumpet) to stir up four sonic maelstroms in celebration of planets from our solar system. Direct our ears in their direction and see how far your own horizons recede.

Bill Meyer

  Tony Molina—Songs from San Mateo County (Smoking Room/650 Records)

Songs From San Mateo County by Tony Molina

Tony Molina is a master of concision. No sooner have his songs stated their killer riff or indelible melody than they’re over, and damned if you wouldn’t like to hear them again. His blistery guitar and way with tunefulness evokes Teenaged Fanclub, and here, on a collection of unreleased and unfinished material from 2009 to 2015, it becomes clear that he doesn’t have to work that hard to hit that sweet spot. The odds and sods are as fetching as anything on his last three albums. Sure he plays fast and loose with some baroque guitar licks on “Intro” and “Been Here Before,” and maybe that’s a little bit off center for power pop genre. But he weaves them in, at least in “Been Here Before” in a way that reinforces the doomed romantic vibe. He rocks a little harder than usual, too, on cuts like “Hard to Know,” with a sidewinding guitar break worthy of Brian May in his prime, but as usual, any hint of rock star excess is limited: the cut is less than a minute long. “Separate Ways” layers sublime dream pop hooks over an incendiary racket, like J. Mascis stepped in to a Raspberries session. The whole collection is so catchy and so satisfying that you have to wonder what else Molina has languishing in his hard drive. Let the songs out, man. We can always use more of these.

Jennifer Kelly

 Mark Morgan — Department of Heraldry (Open Mouth)

The rise and fall of the guitar in popular and critical esteem relates directly to the fact that a lot of people play the thing, and a lot of them sound like lesser imitations of someone doing something that you never wanted to hear done with the thing. If this is your problem with the guitar, Mark Morgan is not part of your problem. The former member of Sightings makes a case for the instrument as a vehicle for creative sound manipulation that cannot be refuted by lazy reference to the dozens of records in your collection, or memory, or once-clicked, never closed browser pages. This music sounds like it is being chewed and digested during the passage from his amplifier to your eardrum. Molars indent twangs, incisors gnash chunks of fuzz, and acids strip off the crusty coating and lay bare the jagged bones of sounds that you really, really shouldn’t be swallowing, but that you really need to hear.

Bill Meyer

Private Anarchy — Central Planning (Round Bale)

Central Planning by Private Anarchy

Titular intimations of both anarchy and planning suggest internal tension that is born out by the music on this album, which is the inaugural vinyl release by hitherto cassette-oriented Round Bale Recordings. Private Anarchy has a bit of an identity crisis; shall one emulate the petulant, gotta get this off my chest delivery of David Thomas c. 1979 or the twangy stride that the Fall hit around the same time? Since the combo is really one man who is acquainted enough with the 21st century to put a laptop computer on the LP’s cover, Clay Kolbinger has taken the time to figure out how to do both at once. The admittedly derivative sounds are well executed, with enough apprehension to suggest that he is similarly motivated by a discomfort that cannot be assuaged.

Bill Meyer

  Rodent Kontrol — Live (Fuzzy Warbles Casettes)

Rodent Kontrol Live (FW13) by Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes

Delivering post-Meatmen teenage punk knuckleheadedness at its explosively deranged best, the short-lived Ann Arbor high-school band Rodent Kontrol played this impromptu live set on the University of Michigan's WCBN in 1987 following a performance by the Laughing Hyenas. The latter were one of the toughest acts to follow, but Rodent Kontrol's calamitous, search-and-destroy assault is so gleefully unhinged, and full of the kind of ill-defined yet apoplectic animosity that can only be mustered by the young and the reckless, they truly give Brannon and co. a run for their money. While Live is on the one hand an amusing artifact, it is on the other a true gem of a release in our current era of archival overabundance. Make no mistake, this is rough, sloppy, perhaps offensive stuff, and Rodent Kontrol didn't break any new ground musically or aesthetically. But the nearly sublime agitation exuded by these guys here is truly something to behold, creating a genuinely unnerving sense that something very bad about is about to happen, and when it does it will feel absolutely good. If that's not the point of this kind of thing, I don't know what is. In addition to the 1987 live performance, this cassette release (also available as a download) adds a 2012 reunion show featuring a slightly tighter, slightly more "mature" version of the band, but certainly no less nihilistic. 

Nate Knaebel

 Sail into Night — Distill (self released)

In the three years since this Dubai-based Pakistani duo’s very promising debut, it feels like if anything they’ve pared down their already elementally satisfying, nocturnal variety of post-punk slowcore to its simple, direct, powerful essence. Zara Mahmood’s harmonium, Nabil Qizilbash’s guitar, a drum machine and their vocals continue to be enough to generate surprisingly heavy music; although you’d be hard pressed to fit the music stylistically anywhere in the heavy metal realm, emotionally and tonally it exists somewhere between the “stonegaze” of a band like True Widow and the stark grandeur of early Low. From the chiming “Lighthouse” to the closing grind of “Apart,” Distill packs a lot of dark energy into a compact 30-minute run time.  

Ian Mathers

  The Schramms—Omnidirectional (Bar/None)

You might know Dave Schramm as an original member of Yo La Tengo or for his guitar work for a whole slew of artists ranging from The Replacements to Freedy Johnston. You might even remember a string of clever, understated country-pop albums from the early 1990s through the turn of this century under the nom de guerre The Schramms — though it’s been a long time. But this seventh Schramms album, the first since 2000, will take you right back to all that’s wonderful about Dave Schramm: quiet intelligence, unshowy but impressive skills, an alchemical way of slipping abrasive rock sounds into soft pop melodies, quality over flash, but still a bit of flash. Take, for instance, the way that “Faith is a Dusty Word” opens up from a rambling piano ballad into swoon-y Pet Sounds-worthy vocal counterpoints, or how contemplative “New England” blossoms from wispy indie pop into a bitter sweet rock anthem, a la American Music Club. Schramm plays with long-time drummer Ron Metz (their partnership dates back to the 1970s Ohio cult band The Human Switchboard) and bassist Al Greller, an original Schramm, so it’s all very burned in, with the easy, unstruggled-for precision of people know what will happen next. Subdued, well-thought-out guitar pop is definitely not the flavor of the month these days, but who cares about fashion when it’s this good?

Jennifer Kelly

 Slow Summits — Languid Belles (Hundreds and Thousands Records)

Slow Summits come jangling out of Linköping, Sweden like the keychain on a building supervisor’s belt. Their debut EP Languid Belles presents four tracks of perfectly rendered, chiming and literate indie pop. The foursome of Anders Nyberg (vocals, rhythm guitar), Karl Sunnermalm (lead guitar, harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel), Mattias Holmqvist Larsson(bass, keyboards, percussion) and Fredrik Svensson (Drums) enlists Amelia Fletcher (Tender Trap, Talulah Gosh, Heavenly) on backing vocals on two tracks. If these guys worship at the altar of Postcard-era Scotland their songs pay more than just homage to Orange Juice, The Pastels and international contemporaries The Go-Betweens, Beat Happening and Felt. Sunny melodies and kindly sarcastic lyrics driven by a tight and swinging rhythm section hit every serotonin and dopamine center of the musical brain. Slow Summits are the latest Scandinavian band to keep on your radar; Languid Belles is irresistible and will leave you “simply thrilled honey”  

Andrew Forell   

 The Way Ahead — Bells, Ghosts and other Saints (Clean Feed)

Peel back one layer of the Scandinavian jazz scene and you’ll find another layer. If you’ve spent much time paying attention to Cortex, Friends & Neighbors or Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit, you’ll recognize most of the members of this horn-heavy, piano-free octet. André Rolighten (tenor saxophone, clarinet) and Tollef Østvang (drums) write the tunes, and as you’d surmise from a band that finds three ways to pay homage to Albert Ayler in the album name, those tunes owe a lot to his ecstatic/anguished sentimentality. But they aren’t locked into Ayler’s modes; there are also passages that have a distinctly European brass band feel, and some brusque, almost boppish moments. The band might seem ironically named if you take the title literally; this music is rooted in the 1960s, a time before most of the band’s members were born But if you recognize that name comes from an Archie Shepp session with a similar line-up, their sincerity comes into focus. These guys are just trying to blow some life into music much like the stuff that first made them want to play the kind of jazz they’re playing, and they’ve got the wind power to do it.

Bill Meyer

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

A Star is Born

It’s hard to like a movie that’s on its third remake. By this point, if you think you’ve got something new to say, you’re either pretty arrogant or pretty stupid or both. Also, it’s even harder to like a movie you’ve been forced to see trailers for approximately 680 times. Especially when they forced you to watch 5 different trailers for it before one movie (side note to Bradley Cooper: the next time the studio pitches the idea to show a trailer for one of your movies 5 times before The Nun, I’m gonna need you to say “Um fuck no we’re not gonna do that” to save future audiences the pain that I have endured). 

That’s why it feels like a miracle that A Star is Born is not only likable, it’s actually a work of art that is pretty damn remarkable. How could such a thing be possible? Well... 

I’d like to introduce you to a woman named Ms. Gaga. Although, that may be overstating things - I think the true alchemy of this movie is that unspeakable magic that happens when the right chemistry between the right people with the right script comes together. Any one element can be good, and in this case I’d argue that they all are exceptionally good. But together they are more than the sum of their parts. Together they make gold. 

So the basic story goes like this. Boy with substance and alcohol abuse issues (Bradley Cooper) who’s also an Eddie Vedder-type angst-superstar meets girl. Girl (Lady Gaga) is a club singer/waitress who desperately wants to make it big in showbiz. Boy and girl fall in love; boy supports girl’s dreams and puts her in the spotlight; girl’s talent eclipses boy’s; the relationship goes through more ups and downs than a fly-by-night carnival ride put together by meth heads, and ends in as much tragedy as a fly-by-night carnival ride put together by meth heads.

Some thoughts:

Everyone is going to tell you that Lady Gaga is a revelation in this film. It’s not up for debate. But I will say this - when it comes to acting (NOT singing, just straight up acting), she’s doing a perfectly fine job. I’m gonna get heat for that, but it’s true. And honestly, there’s not that much time where she’s acting without singing, and that’s to the film’s credit - because when she sings, she’s channeling something otherworldly. The performance when she’s allowed to use all the tools in her talent toolbox is...I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. 

Why is Andrew Dice Clay in this movie? Why is everyone ok with it? Like, that means that next year, someone will be able to introduce him as “starring in the Academy-Award nominated A Star Is Born” and I just?? ANDREW DICE CLAY??

Same question but with an entirely different tone of confusion re: Eddie Griffin and Dave Chappelle. Are they like...friends with Bradley Cooper? Did they owe him a favor of some kind? Is this a mouse removing a thorn from a lion’s paw situation? Dave Chappelle, I know you have better things to do than to be the Magical Negro helping Jackson Maine come down from a bender. 

Can we all agree that no other person should have a mustache besides Sam Elliott? He may not have invented them, but he sure as shit perfected them. Glorious. 

Here are things that honestly made me cringe: corny as fuck dialogue between Jackson and Ally the entire night they meet; a dick-measuring contest featuring “fuck” as every other word to the point where it becomes like, not a real word anymore and you’re just repeating it in your head and disassociating from reality; half the music, especially the awful pop songs that were, apparently, not meant to be awful; and some inauthentic character beats that defy suspension of disbelief. AND YET. I honestly think it’s one of the most interesting works of art I’ve encountered this year. HOW??

Honestly, I think 80% of it was the direction. Bradley Cooper is an actor’s director (natch) and he frames everything close and tight - so close and so tight, it’s a weird dizzying form of forced empathy that you as an audience member are forced to feel. From the very first opening number, we are one with Jackson Maine and with Ally, and it creates this very intense intimacy between us and them, which only reinforces the intimacy between the pair of them. And when we’re not framed right up tight on their faces, it’s for devastating reasons. I’ve never seen a long shot so emotionally affecting as a dog pacing back and forth outside a garage, made tiny by distance. The directing does a huge part of the heavy lifting here and creates a level of emotional connection that helps to forgive any cheesiness or cringy-ness, which is, frankly, a goddamn magic trick.

Nothing about this movie should work. It should be too earnest, too overdone, too corny. But through some actual sorcery of direction, performance, incredible music (half of it anyway), and real, raw emotional connection, this is a movie worth seeing just for the spectacle of it all. A movie like this this reminds you why we go to the movies in the first place - to be moved. 

[aliensnipe]

Tagged by: @soysaucevictim

Rules: Write the first 10 songs that come up on shuffle and quote your favorite lyrics from each. Then tag 10 people.

(I do not tag. I am tag-agnostic. But I want YOU to do this. Yes, YOU. Pleaz. =3)

I had to skip instrumentals, natch. They’re in italics below, if you’re curious.

Kenzo - “Sora ni Hikaru” (Neo-Progressive)

1. They Might Be Giants - “Fingertips” (Comedy / Alternative Rock)

I heard a sound

I turned around

I turned around to find the thing that made the sound

(...John and John, you utter trolls. X3 The ONE song (or series of songs... or series of three- to four-second musical phrases) that makes this meme break down. I could infodump about “Fingertips” all day, but we’re short on time, so just message me or something if you wanna know what I’m rambling about.)

2. Angelique Kidjo - “Try Everything” (Afropop)

Birds don’t just fly

They fall down and get up

Nobody learns

Without getting it wrong

(I’m really beginning to like Angelique Kidjo, but I need to track down more of her original work, because most of what I’ve heard from her is covers. Like, say, the above.)

Toby Fox - “Reunited” (Chiptune)

3. Serenity - “Wings of Madness” (Symphonic Power Metal)

Out on the silent battlefield

While the killing work is done

And the crimson haze is gone

Still lies the deadly sword I wield

And I’m dreaming of your face

Have begun to count the days

4. Eskaton - “Automute” (Zeuhl)

Je mate et puis j'imite

Ceux qui creent, ca m'epate

Moi je sais pas j'imite 

Je copie, j'automate

(...this is less “my favorite lyric” than “the one thing I can find a reference for with my utter ignorance of French”)

5. Rush - “Halo Effect” (Hard Rock)

What did I see, fool that I was

A goddess with wings on her heels

All my illusions projected on her

The ideal that I wanted to see

6. The Psychedelic Furs - “Pretty in Pink” (New Wave)

The one who insists he was first in her line is the last to remember her name

He’s walking around in this dress that she wore

She’s gone, but the joke’s the same

7. Joe Dolce - “Shaddap You Face” (Comic)

What’samatta you, HEY! Gotta no respect

Whaddaya think you do, why you looka so sad

It’s a not so bad, it’s a nice-a place

Ah, shaddap a-you face!

(...cut me some slack. It can’t be multi-layered prog rock and death metal alla time)

8. Yes - “Parallels” (Art Rock)

It's the beginning of a new love in sight You've got the way to make it all happen Set it spinning turning roundabout Create a new dimension When we are winning we can stop and shout Making love towards perfection

9. Elvis Costello - “She” (Singer-songwriter)

She may be the reason I survive The why and wherefore I'm alive The one I'll care for through the rough and ready years

Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears 

And make them all my souvenirs And where she goes I've got to be The meaning of my life is she

10. The Smashing Pumpkins - “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” (Alternative Rock)

The world is a vampire

Sent to drain

Secret destroyers

Hold you up to the flames

And what do I get 

For my pain

Betrayed desires 

And a piece of the game

11. Spock’s Beard - “Afterthoughts” (Progressive Rock)

To keep them out, I keep me in

‘cause they don’t get to hear the things I know

The bats up in this belfry 

Fly in circles ‘cause they don’t know where to go

12. Opeth - “The Drapery Falls” (Progressive Metal)

Pull me down again

And guide me into 

ah ah ah, ah-ah ah ah, ah-ahhh...

The Seventy Sound - “Bluephoria” (Library Music)

13. Premiata Forneria Marconi - “Geranio” (Progressive Rock)

Balla piano nella via Balla il vento della notte Balla un sogno che non c'è più Balla l'ombra della luna Sfiora il tempo la fortuna Balla piano, balla laggiù

(I don’t speak Italian, either, so this is the same situation as the Eskaton lyrics. Though I will say that these refrains are quite pretty in translation.)

Brand X - “Red” (Jazz Fusion)

14. The Psychedelic Furs - “India” (New Wave)

All the women form a line

Put your face upon a line

This is for the discotheque

This is stupid, I object

15. Alabama Shakes - “Gimme All Your Love” (Funk)

So much is goin’ on

But you can always come around

Why don’t you sit with me just a little while

Tell me what’s wrong

If you just gimme all your love

Gimme all you got, baby

Gimme all your love

15. Golden Earring - “Radar Love” (Classic Rock)

Radio playin’ that forgotten song

Brenda Lee comin’ on strong

And the newsman sang his same song

One more radar lover gone

16. Wolfmother - “Joker and the Thief” (Garage Rock)

Can you see the joker flying over

As she’s standing in a field of clover

Watching out every day

Wonder what would happen if he took her away

(...and they NEVER TELL US ALL THE STORY ‘BOUT THE JOKER AND THE THIEF IN THE NIGHT. NO, I’M NOT LETTING THIS GO.)

Gryphon - “Second Spasm” (Symphonic Rock)

17. Sonata Arctica - “My Land” (Power Metal)

My own land has closed its gates on me

All alone, in world that’s scaring me

I am here to prove you wrong

I’m accused of something, I live on

(...having been kicked out of home at a relatively young age, this song gives me Feelings)

Yes - “Mood for a Day” (Art Rock)

18. Yes - “Heart of the Sunrise” (Art Rock)

Love comes to you, then after

Dream on, on to the heart of the sunrise

Lost on a wave that you’re dreaming

Dream on, on to the heart of the sunrise

Sharp distance

How can the wind with its arms around me...

Sharp distance

How can the wind with so many around me...

(damn! Spotify shuffle really hittin’ the Yes tonight!)

19. Barclay James Harvest - “Who Do We Think We Are” (Progressive Rock)

All around we're travelling the universe Do we believe there's someone watching over us Can we be sure? Who do we think we are?

20. Rush - “Heresy” (Hard Rock)

The counter-revolution

People smiling through their tears

Who can give them back their lives

And all those wasted years?

All those wasted years

All those precious, wasted years

Who will pay?

[sohannabarberaesque]

Crazy Claws' Wisconsin Dells Diary: Distraction #15

So it's three weeks until the Wo-Zha-Wa Character Convocation, perhaps the biggest gathering of cartoon characters which Wisconsin Dells probably ever saw (which was probably unlikely before this particular time, considering where it;s mostly a local proposition when it comes to the tourist distractions), and it no doubt means quite a busy and at once frustrating time getting things set up. Particularly when it comes to such components I'm bound to identify with as a cheese, sausage and crackers confab and a bratwurst grill to end all bratwurst grills.

Yet you're not the type wanting to patronise Walmart or Home Depot out of conscience or principle, while at the same time not wanting to be seen as looking foolish for having way too small a grill for the bratwurst blowout in particular. And you want to have some of the finest in all regards, seeing as where Wisconsin epitomises cheese, sausage and bratwurst at their finest, yet you don't want to be reduced to the same par as a certain Top Cat and crew, as in being outright scammers. Especially as Wo-Zha-Wa is something of a major event in the Dells, and you want to put on as good a face as anybody in an image-aware town such as this.

Also planned to be on tap: Having a special excursion into the Upper Dells (with the Witch's Gulch and Stand Rock shore landings) and on the Ducks, my old stomping ground. Never mind the narration on the latter being a legend for sheer cornyness and bad puns, you can be certain quite a few of my Hanna-Barberian ilk are going to love the Ducks tour (especially in the legendary Artifical Lake Delton, never mind that the Tommy Bartlett Show ended its run on the Sunday of Labour Day weekend). As will the Arts and Crafts Show, in particular our Very Own Laydeez Of (and I have to acknowledge that Clue Club's Pepper looks rather attractive, with Taffy from the Teen Angels not that far behind), who can appreciate some rather homey handicrafts.

Likewise with the Cattanooga Cats, who prefer it a little countrified for especially their Gatlinburg retreat. And did I mention their joint appearence with The Banana Splits in the Sunday afternoon parade, which I'm certain is bound to make some wonderful music in the vein of "Love Can Make You Happy" and "Harmony" in the vein of the James Last Singers?

But in any event, our Wo-Zha-Wa presence is bound to mean one thing: Plenty of opportunity for interactions with such who work on the assumption of their being fans as have probably outgrown such, yet want their children to have a newfound appreciation for the stuff they likely grew up on. Interactions including selfies, autographs--and the likelihood of paying calls at some of the "fascinating" shops downtown, let alone The Sand Bar, Nig's Bar, Monk's Bar and Grill and the fudge kitchens (natch). Especially Wisconsin Dairyland Fudge and its rather unorthodox fudge selections.

(Uh, just got a call ... Top Cat and crew are thinking of helping out ahead of time....)

[mattbrothersscriptwriter]

Once Upon A Time

I’d like to have a little ramble and shout into the void about a truly unique, life affirming and heartfelt movie. Not because any of this hasn’t been covered before - I’d bet my guitar case full of coins it has. Not as a review or a hot take or a think piece, though perhaps it’s a little of all of those things. But because I recently rewatched the 2007 musical drama Once (dir: John Carney) and it reminded me how much this movie makes me fucking feel… which is also the hardest thing for me to eloquently put down into words but hey, I’ll try.

Once tells the simple story of Guy (Glen Hansard), a busker in Dublin who lives with his Dad and works in his hoover repair shop. He’s a talented musician but is still living in the shadow of a long since broken relationship, something that evidently both haunts and drives him. This inner conflict has inevitably kept him stranded in the same place – possessing the skills and the ambition to transform his passion into a career but lacking the courage and the heart to truly see it through. That is until he meets Girl (Markéta Irglová), a Czech immigrant who gets by selling flowers and the Big Issue. She’s a keen pianist and the unlikely pair quickly form a unique friendship, bonding over songwriting, heartbreak and Dublin itself.

Shot for next to nothing in three weeks, it’s a film so raw (and perfectly suited to that style) that just a single step in either direction would shatter the illusion. Too glossy and the magic is somehow lost. Any more ramshackle and there probably wouldn’t be a finished film to even worry about. Cillian Murphy was supposed to play Guy but dropped out, making way for director John Carney to convince Hansard, who was already set to write the music, to take the natural next step and just play the role himself.

It’s a story that manages to exist in the moment like nothing else I’ve really seen, thanks in part to the guerrilla style production but also thanks to its immense, bittersweet heart and commitment to bottling the ‘life as it happens’ feeling. It’s how we all experience life after all and it’s only afterwards that we may look back on certain memories as feeling like scenes from a movie: those perfectly captured instances where decisions have huge consequences and it feels like some higher power is writing you into a cruel plot twist or inevitable turning point. Its one thing to physically make a movie feel so grounded but to write and perform it that way too shows a real understanding of the tone they were aiming for – and absolutely nailing in the process.

It’s a joyful movie but an effortlessly melancholy one too. Like I said, it’s bittersweet. Anyone who has ever had a dream, ever been in love or ever wished for something more, you can understand and feel all of that through one look at Hansard’s exhausted face. Avoiding saccharine movie tropes and clichés, he’s simply a bloke who rides the bus with his guitar. Who chases thieves stealing his busking money. Who exists in our world. We probably see him every day, out on the streets or hunkered away in a corner of the tube. His or her music echoing through crowds, ignored by most but probably connecting to more people than we might think.

Guy never seems more vulnerable than when he’s hiding behind a forced smile or his sad, puppy dog eyes and watching this mask of happiness slowly blossom into something genuine is where the film really hits me. It reminds us that we have to seek change – or allow change to happen to us – to move from where we are to where we want to be.

I love how Guy is a thirty something pessimist whilst Girl, despite living with just as much of an uncertain, unstable future as Guy, is a ray of sunshine in comparison. She’s a stubbornly joyful extrovert, happily striking up conversations with strangers - a comically recurring trait that rewards her with casual piano practice in the music shop, helps to secure a bank loan for the recording session AND score a reduced charge for the studio hire later on. It’s the ‘if you don’t ask, you won’t get’ mentality, utilised by someone with no ulterior motives; a real pure soul who finds happiness in what she has, not what she’s lacking.

She speaks her mind, unconcerned with any risk of social awkwardness. Her abrupt “I have to go now” way of announcing she’s leaving becomes something of a catchphrase and it works wonderfully in establishing not just the generational difference between the two characters but the cultural one as well. I really love how we first meet her in the film – when she is drawn to Guy performing his most emotionally raw song (the amazing ‘Say it to Me Now’) all alone, in the middle of the night. This exorcism of his repressed feelings, expressed only through his music, is in fierce contrast to Girl’s happy go lucky outlook and she wastes no time in probing him for the truth.

This film is one of the most genius, underplayed and natural musicals ever – essentially doing the ‘bursting into song’ thing whilst remaining firmly in reality, never quite breaking that thinly veiled fourth wall that all other musicals do. Here, it’s in a beautifully captured song-writing-on-the-fly sequence (‘Falling Slowly’) or a late night jam session between family and acquaintances (‘Gold’) or in a great sequence where Girl sings lyrics to an instrumental track given to her by Guy whilst on a walk back from the corner store to buy batteries (’If You Want Me’). It’s so relatable; from the street kids watching her go past to her fluffy slippers to the clunky portable CD player in her hand. Who hasn’t done something like that? A more traditional musical might have been tempted to convert the pedestrians to background singers, cooing harmonies over her shoulder or snapping their fingers in a dance routine through the street but this film shows that life can be full of ‘movie-adjacent’ moments and not feel cheaply earnt whilst portraying them.

This movie is something of an Irish, folksy Before Sunrise – except Guy is probably in the period of his life where he’s actually living in Before Sunset (jaded, wondering what could have been) whilst Girl is firmly in Sunrise (open to new connections, optimistic about the present). They’re on different paths and perhaps even swap roles throughout, with Guy becoming more enlightened and eager for new experiences whilst we learn that Girl is caring for a small child who is product of her past. These two never really come to any real conflict themselves. The closest they maybe get is when Guy makes an awkward, kinda sad pass at her one night – but it’s practically all forgiven and forgotten by the next day. That’s real life too and I’m glad a moment like that is addressed in the story but promptly resolved. It doesn’t need to be this instance of overly contrived setup/payoff, it’s just a misunderstanding that the characters are aware enough to acknowledge and put aside. In fact, so much of this narrative goes against the grain. Guy never gets ‘the Girl’. He chooses to chase down a woman who is probably bad for him. And Girl ends up giving her husband another shot – a character we’ve never met and have barely heard about. Again, just because we aren’t aware of a person’s backstory doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or that we’re responsible for making any grand change to the way things pan out. Here, a kind gesture of purchasing a piano for a kindred spirit is more than enough… if a little unpractical.

So much of this movie acts as a mirror to the lives of the people making it. The struggling artist narrative is straight out of Hansard’s life, even recording the demo tape in the same studio as he once did. The ex-girlfriend who moved to London is right out of Carney’s own past. All of this helps blur the line between fact and fiction, The scene where Girl tells Guy that she loves him, unprompted and ingeniously unsubtitled, is perhaps the most quietly powerful moment in the film – because the line between performance and truth is shattered as we, like Guy AND Hansard, perhaps can’t tell who’s saying what anymore – the character or the actor. In reality, it may have been both. And it’s captured right there on screen. Lightning in a bottle.

Arguably, this film is set in the last era of when a story like this could be romantic – or at least romanticised. If it was made today, in 2018, Guy would be recording in his bedroom, uploading to Soundcloud, plugging his Patreon page and filling a Youtube account with cover songs sang directly to his webcam. There’s no doubt that the advancements in technology has added an artifice to the whole struggling artist thing and it means something very different in this day and age. Here, in the far flung days of the mid 00s, there’s no real social media presence (Myspace was sort of at its peak but was more of a Facebook precursor than the platform for music it slowly morphed into) and Guy ends the movie with a handful of CDs to show for his time in the studio. Ah physical media, how I miss thee… sometimes…

This is definitely one of those movies that is firmly lodged in my brain. Despite only having watched it twice, three times at most, I’ve had the soundtrack on rotation for ten years and the time I caught Glen Hansard himself in concert (at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2015, natch) was legitimately one of the most memorable gig experiences I’ve ever been to. Everything from the setlist to the showmanship to the intimacy to the grandeur, it was just incredible. An unplugged encore starting with Say It To Me Now up on a balcony in the crowd through to Falling Slowly on piano? Woop woop! 

But I digress… this is a film that is firmly time-stamped in my memory. I watched it on the very same night that I first properly met someone who ended up becoming a huge part of my life. Nearly ten years ago to the day, me and some friends - energised by both the movie and the hazy summer evening - trekked across town to a housewarming party. This was a decision which would inevitably change the very direction of my life, which is insane when you really sit down and think about it… and being able to pinpoint the origin of such a huge personal crossroads is kinda what Once is all about so it really does resonate.

And I think this rewatch really did resonate, because I now saw myself more as the cynical, pessimistic person Guy is at the start of the film – just trying to keep on keeping on and push himself out of his comfort zone. To achieve something special or worthwhile. Without getting too personal, I can be my own worst enemy and while 2008 mostly feels more like a lifetime ago, there are times when it feels like it was just yesterday and I blinked and went from then to now in a flash. And we all have these moments. Be it meeting someone influential, deciding to move house, to travel to a new country, to quit that job and take that risk; they can be scary or freeing or even traumatic but they’re an element of life that movies strive to replicate… and this one just does so by downplaying the weight of these moments rather than draw attention to them in an artificial manner.

John Carney has said that the title of the film is in reference to other talented musicians and artists that he knew, who always said ‘once I do this and once I do that, then I’ll pursue my passion’ etc, referring to the realities (and the safety nets) of life that can sometimes stop people from taking the plunge and chasing their dreams. I’ve definitely felt the same way and have constantly had that conversation inside my own head: that once I get these things sorted then these things lined up then I’ll do such and such and how in the end, time just keeps on moving regardless… so you have to act. 

This film is about making that choice to act.