#i wish i wish i wish this series existed on streaming instead of a vhs recording of a tv screen

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

Rescue 77 S01E01 Pilot.

[thesinglesjukebox]

TOMMY RICHMAN - "MILLION DOLLAR BABY"

Depressing math problem: how many streams of this song would it take for Mr. Richman to achieve its title status...

[6.92]

Tim de Reuse: In the TikTok age, when something goes megaviral and catapults an unknown into multi-platinum status, it's usually got, you know, a sound in it: something momentary, immediate, salty and fatty yet ephemeral and light, instantly repeatable, easily recontextualized. What single melodic hook or sound-flourish defines this song's insane popularity? It has found a way to not need one, opting instead to appeal by oozing personality out of every measure. The instrumental is bracingly dry, bright and spiky, with all atmosphere created by an uncountable set of overlapping, processed voices, braiding around each other, leaving no clear single path for your attention to follow. My favorite touch: the crunchy, dissonant minor seconds that are punched out by that synth right in the middle of the mix. The miracle here is that of a stylistic confidence, in composition and sound design, insistent enough to be as addictive as any melodic hook. [8]

Alfred Soto: Watching this model of simplicity -- beatbox, awkward falsetto, fat Miami bass -- go top five made my year. Like other flukes it justified itself. I expect no follow-up. [9]

Kylo Nocom: Great in parts: sticky funk synths, a slowed vocal sample, and some whining backing harmonies make for an impressive, cross-generationally likable cross-section of R&B. Unfortunately, the tune itself is lacking in small but vital ways, and not for the "TikTok era" song-length reasons that so many pop listeners bemoan. The chorus has a slight awkwardness that makes for increasingly grating relistens; the verse is negligible. Richman might be Brent Faiyaz's protégé, but the falsetto errs too close to Justin Vernon shoutiness for my liking. His voice is best as pure texture, so check out the "VHS" version to hear this in its peak form: densely-boosted bass clashing against strained vocal runs in a bid for primacy. It's close to what pop's decades-enduring noise vs. melody juxtaposition should be in 2024, a lineage traceable all the way back to the Wall of Sound and beyond. Gripes with this song aside, I still have hopes that this guy's got it: a recent TikTok snippet has the melodic immediacy I wish was here. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: I don't like you praising Rick Rubin, so I initiate the beef. Fuck those faux Timbaland beats, let's see you push Danja's teeth! You better off hiding his falloff than worming up to me, he's Tim Mosley, I'm Tim Curry, I'm zapping peeps. [4]

Aaron Bergstrom: Just to be clear, when I say "this dude gives me Kreayshawn vibes," what I mean is "hell yeah bouncy novelty summer jam goodness," not "I would like to have an exhausting and ultimately meaningless conversation about race." Thank you.  [8]

Taylor Alatorre: Ariel Pink if he had grown up watching MTV Jams instead of 120 Minutes, except that actually sounds like something with the hypothetical potential to be cool. Tommy Richman was born in 2000 and not 1987, but "Ariel Pink if he had grown up watching curated YouTube playlists" doesn't have the same internal symmetry. This isn't the first digital native to exploit a pan-generational Pavlovian affinity with the 808 cowbell, and it surely won't be the last. [4]

TA Inskeep: I like the vibe he's going for, and I wanna love it ('90s R&B yes please), but this is a series of Casio keyboard presets in search of a song. [5]

Harlan Talib Ockey: Whenever someone unexpected lands a huge hit, I love looking back at their previous discography to see what made this song specifically click. (Just in case there's a One Hit Wonderland episode someday.) Many of Richman’s other songs exist somewhere at the intersection of Jai Paul, Chic, and Trilogy-era The Weeknd, which is theoretically a fun mix, but they’re largely hookless and nondescript. Where's the hook in “Million Dollar Baby”? Technically the chorus, but it's this production that really makes it bang. The ominous pitch-shifted chant (apparently just "do what I should think," according to Genius, which is a little disappointing). The beeps, which are doing a shocking amount of atmospheric heavy lifting. The "oooooohs". It all builds into a particularly grim kind of sleazy desperation. (This is a compliment.) [8]

Jonathan Bradley: What does the Commonwealth of Virginia have to offer us in 2024? Rumors of Drake's hidden progeny still echoing long after Pusha T first whispered them? A download-only Pharrell Williams album? Missy Elliott being accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? How about some rando signed by Brent Faiyaz exhuming the one-part soul, two-parts trunk rattler sound of UGK's country rap tunes and sending it to the upper reaches of pop charts around the world? That will do nicely, thank you. [9]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: However funky and fun this will sound all summer long, it’s in spite of Tommy Richman, who sounds underwater and gasping for breath.  [5]

Katherine St. Asaph: Tommy Richman, a rando whose every photo has the distinctive pose of a college freshman trying to look badass, was largely unknown before 2024 except for (checks Google search-by-date) a Complex roundup, an interview about how he idolizes Andy Serkis and Dennis Rodman, and probably some PR juice behind the scenes. This guy listens to some dirty funk and R&B, attempts to match its freak, and... doesn't fail? Must be my critical faculties that are failing. [6]

Ian Mathers: Okay, I'm aware the background genres are very distinct (fuckboy funk-rap here, fuckboy post-punk there), but am I the only one kinda reminded of that Artemas song we covered last month? There's a similarity in vibe (although Richman seems less odious), they both basically just figure out a good hook repeat it for a little over two minutes and that's it, and I suspect the natural environment for each is driving around the city at night in the summer. They feel like beefed up interludes or parts of songs (not a complaint, honestly!). Or am I just telling on myself by revealing I'm too old for TikTok? [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Every time I listen to this I feel like I'm moving further and further away from sanity. This is not a pop hit but a funhouse mirror version of one, a misremembered version of every year between 1989 and 1998 thrown into a blender and then reconstituted; Tommy Richman's falsetto is possessed by an amateurish sort of confidence that ought to have annoyed me to death after a month of this song's omnipresence. Yet every time I hear this song -- whether by my own choice or as it blasts at dangerous volumes from passing cars -- I am all the more endeared to it. The bass, whether VHS-boosted or not, activates something within me that disarms all critical impulse; I feel swallowed up by this groove as much as I enjoy it. It's the kind of song that defies analysis -- what am I going to do, write a 4,000 word essay on the transformative power of Tommy fucking Richman? Those stacks of harmonies, those radar synths and cowbell pops and dense chord stabs: they talk enough for me, self-evident of the delirious craftsmanship of this track. People valorize the garage rock and avant folk savants of the 1960s -- the Alex Chiltons and Norma Tanegas of the world -- and I get it; this feels something like that transplanted to the modern context, a little pop symphony that sounds not quite like anything else in the world. A small miracle of the song; let me stop writing before I embarrass myself any further. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[ladywhaiyvern]

Musings of An Otaku #3: Otaku vs. Weebo?

As someone who has been into Japanese animation since 1997 and other aspects of Japanese culture longer before that with Americanized Super Sentai. I stumbled upon a little glorious movie playing on the Sci-Fi Channel’s Saturday Morning Anime block- “Tenchi in Love: the Movie,” due to my boredom of watching the same rerun of “Power Rangers” at the time. I fell in love with the detailed artwork of the characters, the intricate backgrounds, the music composed and the overall story. I had not seen anything like it in an American produced cartoon series or cartoon movie. I was around when Anime was basically non-existent on store shelves. Not a single manga issue could be found in a library or local book store. VHS titles were sold in very selective stores with 1 or 2 episodes per tape. And forget about wanting to change the language track. You either had to find the dubbed video tape or the subbed video tape. No easy button switching back then! And for television- no station openly aired Anime (outside of the Sci-fi channel). Some movies such as “Ninja Scroll” aired on pay-per-view movie channels late at night. No Toonami existed. 

Anime was obscure in America. Hell, I remember going to my local video store and asking if they had anymore titles of “Dirty Pair Flash” (as I had found the first vhs volume there). The look the store clerk gave me was priceless. Thought I was probably talking about a porno or something! Shit, I was into Anime and was made fun of by my fellow students in Middle School and High School because it was different. Now it’s main-stream and all over the place. One can walk into big box stores and find manga titles in the book section, dvd/blu-rays openly on the sales floor, merch like shirts and toys. Now you have dedicated sections on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu and not to mention streaming services from Chrunchyroll, Funimation and HiDive that focus on nothing but Anime. But what does all this reminiscing have to do with my title?! Simple.

During the birth of the Japanese Anime boom here in the United States, us select fans had gathered together and decided to call ourselves a name. Granted, the origins of this name were very negative in the Japanese culture. As “otaku” was viewed as a socially inept individual. A subculture of Japanese society that was viewed as being derogatory. A fan of any subgenre of entertainment (not just Anime). However, we adapted this word and started using it. We took away that negative stereotype. We started using it to represent a group of people who not only enjoyed Japanese Animation, but other forms of Japanese entertainment as well. It was an umbrella term for “fan.” It wasn’t meant as someone who lived and breathed anime and manga. They weren’t obsessed over it. They were just fans who enjoyed the art form. Now, I know in the early 2000’s- many Japanese still looked at the term as being negative and probably thought of us as being crazy for wanting to adapt such a term. But we were proud to be called otaku. We were not embarrassed by it at all. Even now, I know it has lost some of its derogatory meaning across the ocean but will still never be 100% accepted. Recent series of both anime and manga poke fun at the otaku subculture in a humorous way instead of negative. It is something that is no longer just pushed under a rug or tossed into a corner and forgotten about as it had in the past. Kinda like how some mental disorders are done here in the States today. That is something I do not wish to touch with a 10 ft pole though...so moving on.

Now, where the hell did this term “weebo” come from? Why the hell has it become such a thing? WHY?! JUST WHY?! According to the Urban Dictionary it is an overly obsessed individual who lives and breathes anime and manga (usually mainstream titles only). They do not branch off into the older titles or even bat an eye at the obscure titles (which I absolutely love). They only “love” what is currently airing. I am using the term “love” lightly. More like they only enjoy it as the current fad. Next mainstream series comes along and they move onto it like a leech. Sooooooooooo from my understanding they are wanna-be’s. They want to be an otaku but don’t want to deep dive into the full anime subculture. They only use Japanese terms and phrases picked up from mainstream shows. And use them periodically out of context. They show no interest in other aspects of the Japanese culture or learning how to correctly speak the language. They think it's the “cool” thing to do. OMG, look at me- I can speak a couple of words of Japanese thanks to this show that everyone else is watching. Look at me, look at me! They scream fake. I’m sure you know a couple. I know I do and they annoy the hell outta me. You try to have an intelligent conversation with them and it all circles around back to the one mainstream series that they are currently obsessed with. This is seriously the main reason I did not get along with some of my former coworkers. Oh well, let them be them and I will continue to enjoy the wide range wonders of all genre anime and manga (especially older titles). 

Now as an otaku of not only anime and manga but video games, Super Sentai, Asain Horror, Japanese music and the list goes on and on and on and on; as well as someone who has taken the basic Japanese language classes; and as someone who enjoys learning about different cultures (especially Asian history and culture) due to my cultural anthropologist background- this term offends the hell outta me. Why?! It’s just a word. Maybe I finally understand why some people find the word “moist” offensive as this is along those same lines. I still don’t understand why. It is a fun word to say. Moist! Mooooooooist! Moissssssssst! It’s like do not give yourself a label. Do not think this “weebo” thing is a cool thing to do. It is not. You're a fake, a fraud. Many of us otaku from the older generation can see right through it. Don’t obsess over something if you do not intend to appreciate and understand the full cultural context that it offers. Japanese animation and manga is something that should be appreciated as an art form because in reality that is what it boils down to. It is an art form. It should be enjoyed by all. But to only enjoy something because it is the cool thing to do and you want to impress people, no. Not cool. That is just a slap in the face to those that enjoy it as a whole. 

These are my musings, take them or leave them! Enjoy them or don’t! Have fun, don’t be a weebo!