#if you've got nothing

[dustedmagazine]

CLASS — If You’ve Got Nothing (Feel It)

Photo by Rosie Clements

CLASS, out of Tuscon, makes a punchy, anthemic punk rock that harks back to first wave bands like the Clash and the Scientists, while touching latter-day landmarks like Exploding Hearts and the Marked Men.

Not much information is available about the band or its members. Gerard Cosloy, who wrote the bio, refers cryptically to “several of American punk’s leading lights” without naming any of them, but it appears that Erik Meyer (of Sweet Tooth, Mongoloid, Rik and the Pigs and sundry other punk and hardcore outfits) plays a role. In any case, If You’ve Got Nothing follows one other full-length LP, last year’s Epoca de Los Vaqueros and a smattering of cassettes and EPs. It is very tightly, crisply produced by the Resonars’ Matt Reardon, a man who knows how to make a punk hook resonate, and it’s god-damned good.  

The songs package sheer punk aggression in the catchiest of melodies, see “Behind the Ball” which starts in a firestorm of furious strumming and progresses to a truly sing-along tune. The song is about striving and whether it’s worth it, and the bright triumphant sound of it battles mightily with words that go “Are you gonna hurt yourself or just keep trying?” It bumps crushing disillusion right up against the most fun you ever had—and it rocks.   

“Two Way Track” is similarly anthemic in that first-album Clash kind of way, with crashing power chords and irresistible hooks and an everybody-shout chorus (“it’s back and forth on a two way track”). Later “Between the Lines,” inquires, “How low can you go, just to feed that ego?” but in a way that has you all-in, jumping up and down, punching the air in agreement. Withering disdain was never such a party.

But really, it’s hard to pick favorites because every cut is a banger, played in a fury and distilled into extremely lucid, legible sound. If You’ve Got Nothing has plenty. Check it out.

Jennifer Kelly

[thedreadvampy]

people seriously pretending EEAAO is overrated suddenly bc it swept awards? it swept awards largely because it is very very very good. I cried like someone who's just had a religious revelation BOTH times I watched it bc it touched something raw and real and beautiful but it was also just very, very funny. everyone's performance kills and the concept is creative and interesting and doesn't distract from the emotional core. you guys are just contrarian.

[lazylittledragon]

Hello I love your bg3 content and your Dorian is so lovely! Can we get like an alternative reality with Dorian and Ascended Astarion? What would your headcannon be for them? 🙇

something like this, probably

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[sepia-stained-sunset]

Duke: Jason, the only person who thinks you're a "bad boy" is you

Jason: I do illegal stuff all the time

Tim: So do we, we're vigilantes, remember?

Jason: I break into buildings- as a civilian!

Duke: Correction; you stay in libraries after hours, with permission, to read.

[dudethatsmyundeaduncle]

Had this Headcannon that when Multi-Lingual Dick and Jason get drunk they start singing Ballads in Spanish. Yeah some classical shit like Vicente Fernandez but also the most wild Selena you've ever heard.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

being nonbinary in a world that refuses to acknowledge more than 2 genders is weird bc like. i've literally found myself thinking "what if i go on hormones so my parents misgender me but in a different way"

[alpacacare-archive]

Not enough joy and light today. Time for silly dadster and papyrus 🙏

Bonus:

[kristybluebird]

Broke: Smash the world's shell.

Woke: Burn through the VHS tape; Escape the narrative!

[gethalloweened]

Take a moment, remind yourself

To take a moment and find yourself

Take a moment to ask yourself

If this is how we fall apart?

[aroaceleovaldez]

luke's stupid completely normal golf club from demigod diaries you will always be famous to me

[cozylittleartblog]

if star wars was pitched for the first time in today's entertainment industry it would be turned down. and so would any other thing that's currently a "big IP". where do idiot executives think the IPs come from to begin with???

[gay-ppl-real]

Outfit swap!

All the neighbours who usually wear trousers in skirts, and all the neighbours who usually wear skirts in trousers (or, well, dungarees and a jumpsuit...)

I had fun drawing these. Experimented with how I was colouring and shading a little!

Here's the full page and also a bonus dark version cuz I liked how it looked lmao

Eddie would still want to be professional in a skirt so he'd wear a pencil skirt even though they suck to run in because he's got to look the part!

Wally would think a flowy skirt was fun Frank would not.

[kurozu501]

genuinely feel like the rhine lab record of originium manhua is a better arknights story then the games main plot tbh lmao.

An actual focus on curing originium through the story of ifrit's condition in the past, and trying to save the darya girl in the present. A discussion of medical and scientific ethics vs a "results at all costs" perspective. The story is simultaneously about a lot of big picture arknights lore stuff like the columbia scientific community, the secret military project ifrit represented, the sarkaz shard she was implanted with, etc, but its also this really small personal character story about silence, saria and ifrit forming a tiny happy found family in a den of vipers. How they were eventually torn apart by both the lies others told them and their own actions. The constant flashes between the past and the present creating an incredible contrast and mystery as we slowly uncover how things got this way with some of the best writing ive seen in ages. its fantastic.

i really feel like its a much better introduction to the world and themes of arknights then the game itself.

like at the end of the manhua when silence calls herself powerless but then valiantly swears to someday find a cure to originium, to save ifirit, joyce, and all the others suffering, THATS the first time i actually felt invested in the supposed overarching goal of finding a cure to the disease. that's supposed to be the whole plot reason rhodes island exists? but in the games actual story our main characters doctor, amiya, and kaltsit are always too busy running around fighting terrorists and sarkaz royalty. There's zero focus on actually finding a cure. and thats fine, that stuffs not bad, its just kinda funny to me that if we do ever reach a point in the story where they achieve a cure, im gonna be happy for silence, not amiya.

[buwheal]

I'm sorry, Spamton. I know you won't believe me, but I'm sorry we hurt you.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

I have seen both critiques of ttpd and positive interpretations of ttpd which all overwhelmingly make me think a lot of people simply cannot read.