#shrek soundtrack FOR THE WIN

[polardestiny]

very genuinely can't wait for frankie to get into a situation where someone is able to get them to break down their walls and they absolutely have a breakdown over losing everything they thought was true in one fell swoop

[formosusiniquis]

Water is wet, the sky is blue, and Eddie Munson is a music snob.

Sure, he listens to more music than Steve even knew existed. Sure, he can curate a playlist that gets you from Korn to Disney without it feeling jarring. Sure, he can give you a full college quality lecture on the history of modern rock and metal and how it can all be traced back to the blues.

But he’s also the same guy who brutally eviscerates anything that even approaches popularity. He’s watched Eddie drop bands the second their music starts making radio play because it’s a short trip to an album that’s been engineered in a lab for maximum radio play.

An educated music snob is still a snob is the point.

But the rest of their friend group is also a collection of snobs and bitches, so when Eddie suggested they do a Spotify Wrapped viewing party it quickly became an annual tradition. They all make sure they have the night off when the Wrapped drops, meeting up at Steve’s house where they spend the night stuffing their faces and roasting each other for the music that made up their soundtrack to the year.

Eddie the Snobbish is of course the most vocal critic.

“Girl in Red, Buckley, really? There is such a thing as leaning too far into the stereotype.”

“Get fucked, Munson, they’re my number five.”

“And your number two is Hayley Kiyoko, but she’s actually good so I kept her out of it. Honestly, it’d be faster to just shout from the rooftops that you’re queer.”

“Yeah, yeah, wait ‘til we get to you, Eddie.”

“I drew 7 so you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

It goes like that all night. Eddie makes at least one comment about each person’s wrapped as the night goes on. But then everyone takes at least one crack at the others. From listen time to top genres nothing is safe and nothing is sacred. Sometimes the only comment needed is the sounds of nine other people shrieking in laughter because Accidentally in Love from the Shrek 2 soundtrack cracked your top 5.

“Seriously, Sinclair, the rest of it is so good!”

“I refuse to be critiqued by the same man I caught singing Nickelback last week.”

“Damn, seeing the family resemblance between you and Lady Applejack now.”

Sometimes his mockery is flavored like concern.

“William, the top .05% of Mitski listeners? Do you need help? Should we call your mom? This feels like a cry for help.”

“She’s classically trained, musically a genius. Sorry, we can’t all spend our time listening to Ozzy struggle through a basic melody.”

And Eddie isn’t afraid to get other people in on his snobbery.

“Ten bucks, Stevie, your little Dusty has Weird Al in his top 5.”

“I don’t make bets, I know I’m going to lose. That’d be like saying ‘I bet he’s going to have Neverending Story in his top 5’, it’s practically guaranteed.”

Robin’s not as afraid to get involved, “Five bucks, Neverending Story is his number 1.”

“Oh you’re on, Bucks, no way it’s not a parody.”

They’re both wrong, deciding that neither is out the money, and Steve wishing he had gone ahead and bet when it turns out to be a movie instrumental. “He can’t listen to music with words when he’s building shit, and he’s always tinkering with something in his room.”

“It was from the Neverending Story soundtrack, I still think that means I win.”

“Absolutely not.”

It’s always a big moment when it’s finally Eddie’s turn, he’s the whole reason they had to start drawing their places at random. He spends so much time talking shit about everyone else’s music taste that by the time his turn rolls around half the group is ravenous, a pack of feral dogs snarling at a feast before them,  ready to give him a taste of his own medicine.

The earliest bits are the most boring. The strange emotion tags are always a little jarring, though no one is surprised when spooky makes its way onto Eddie’s. It’s a little concerning just how much time Eddie is clocking on Spotify, “Over 40,000 minutes, Eddie, that’s almost an entire month.”

“How come your math is never that quick when you’re adding up your damage, Henderson?”

And then Spotify helpfully announces that Eddie Munson's most played song of the year is Head Over Heels by Tears for fucking Fears, clocking in at 267 plays. 

It could go without saying that all hell then breaks loose, but then not saying it makes it sound like a regular amount of hell is breaking loose. And not the kind of hell that can only come from a room full of people who show their affection through ruthless teasing and mockery finding a massive hole in the armor of someone who had spent most of their friendship unassailable.

It’s mean. It’s targeted. It’s the standard brand of teasing that this group is built on.

It would be a lot funnier if Eddie, someone who is normally pretty good about taking the same kind of shit that he deals out, didn’t look like he wanted the floor to swallow him up.

The jokes all reach a logical end. The kids have a killer’s instinct when it comes to weakness, but they’re soft where it counts, and there’s not a joke in the world that’s still funny when it’s being laughed at instead of with.

And Steve, normally the first to tease Eddie about his dad rock playlist can’t think of a single thing to say that isn’t going to come out, “Why was your day with the most listens right after the weekend trip we took for my birthday?”

That wasn’t going to be, “Do you want this the way that I do?”

The rest of the reveal is standard, nearly 19 hours of playtime does put Tears for Fears in the 5th spot of Eddie’s Top Artists but no one comments on it. Steve doesn’t even make fun of Eddie for being the only person under 40 to still listen to Metallica.

Because he’s finally found something to say that isn’t going to come out, “Do you know someone else who only listens to new wave or do listen to that song and think about me?”

“I’m going next.” Eddie finally, finally, makes eye contact with him instead of staring out into the middle distance. Maybe his announcement does sound more like, ‘let me say it back.’

“Steve, you drew last. Nancy’s next.”

Nancy, who knows him uniquely. Knows him in a way that no one, except maybe Eddie one day, ever will. Nancy cuts through the bullshit decisively. “Steve can go next.”

“No appreciation for the rules, why do we even have them?”

Steve does not give a single shit about his wrapped outside of it being a source of amusement for his friends. His taste in music is as close to nonexistent as it gets and, really, if he’s going to listen to something he’s probably going to pick a book over music if he’s by himself.

Except this year.

The teasing is a little tamer now. Normally, Steve is happy to take the brunt of it. 

From Eddie picking at his lack of taste. “Pick a genre, Steve, god.” 

To the kids joining in because they want to impress Eddie, “Can you even listen to the playlist without getting whiplash? I Will Survive to Part of Your World, jeez.” Nevermind that they’re both basically power ballads, and Wheeler can mock but I Will Survive was the soundtrack to his break up with Nance and sometimes he wants to be both nostalgic and angry-sad. 

This year is quiet, like they’re worried they went too far with Eddie and now they’re afraid to take shots at their other favorite babysitter.

It’s fine. Steve has pretty much unfailingly had one song playing at any point anymore. Maybe it took him a little longer than April, but he knows without a doubt what his top song of the year is going to be.

Eddie takes the armchair for Wrapped nights, he’s the meanest normally and says he wants to be out of the direct line of fire of any noogies or Robin’s lethal elbows. It means Steve has to reach to kick the side of the chair to make sure Eddie is watching.

Rainbow in the Dark was Steve’s number one song this year with 171 plays.

And maybe it would be appropriate to say that all hell breaks loose once again. Steve wouldn’t really know, too busy staring at Eddie. He’s in the eye of the storm now, while chaos breaks out around him Steve can only wait to see how Eddie reacts.

Wonders if that pink blush is because Eddie realizes that the day he repeated it the most was right after he heard Eddie play it for the first time. Fell asleep to it playing on repeat, thinking about Eddie’s fingers and Eddie’s smile, drowning out the sounds of fireworks that still trigger panic.

"It makes me think of you," Eddie, brave and shy and only hiding part of his face behind his hair, answers the only question Steve needed answered.

"Yeah," he agrees, hoping it sounds less like a breathless demand for reassurance and more like, 'listening to this song all year was the closest I could get to imagining what it could be like having you.'

"Yeah." And Steve hears, 'I  still expect to be wined and dined, Harrington.' Maybe because it's the kind of silly request Eddie would make, or maybe he just likes giving the people he cares about everything he can.

"But seriously, Stevie, why the fuck is Careless Whisper in your top 5? It should be a crime for Dio and George Michael to be that close together."

[songbird-is-crying]

Good Omens 2 may have wrecked my heart and soul and I may not recover until season 3 is released but believe me when I tell you it DELIVERED. I am a sucker for a good confrontation in a love story, and but I (personally) so rarely find them. It is a miscommunication trope, but it’s just a lack of understanding and innate differences in character that are keeping them apart!! rather than someone overhearing something and getting the wrong idea (looking at you, Shrek and the Fiona Sunflower scene). But when it is derived from programmed ideals and nurtured habits and beliefs it is so interesting when they conflict, i mean…

Do y’all understand how narratively SATISFYING it will be when aziraphale and crowley come together in the end and learn how to be with each other?? Just be?? The catharsis we will all experience because these two motherfuckers will have gone through the abyss or the bottomless pit or whatever the rock bottom stage is called in the hero’s journey only to come out of it?? And still choose to love each other?? Do you know how strong their love has got to be to pull that off??

Because this show is all about how love wins. LOVE WINS!! Not in some low effort, poor design quality slogan to grab your attention as well as your wallet in a target pride merch section, but in a real sense that love conquers all. Ok, that is still cheesy, but it really does!! The lengths that people go for each other because they love, it can’t be beat!! Like, the fact that Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s Miracle Magic Time is strongest when they work together because they are in LOOVVEEE. Good Omens is not about choosing a side and fighting to the death for loyalty’s sake, it’s about loving someone to the extreme that you will go to any lengths for them, fight to protect them, care for them, want to make the world better for them!! That is a force that cannot be beaten because love refuses to bow to anything!!Because love is bloodthirsty and raw and domestic and charming, and the breakup basically guarantees that we WILL see this force in action because we already KNOW their love is strong and deep enough to withstand this…

GIRL…

When these two come together in the end, I will fall to my knees in worship and make a god out of Neil Gaiman Himself because they will have earned it, because they will have come to a better understanding of themselves and be prepared to love without hesitation and without barriers. And it will be so beautiful.

Can you honestly sacrifice this future just for the instant gratification of them getting together at the end of season 2?? Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you prefer them living in unresolved, nonverbal ignorance because you’re too afraid of making them face their fears of being alone and being without purpose first??

Season 1 made me realize my personal philosophy on the nature of humanity and choice and sides, but now I really see that it’s about choosing to be on the side of what you love, and how that loyalty is the only true thing and the universe.

(But before you think “well, Crowley was ready to give up everything and love Aziraphale, but Aziraphale chose not to be on his side and love him” you forget that Aziraphale wants to fix the system to be fair to people like Crowley because he loves him and believes him to be the most “good” out of anyone he’s met, even himself! He loves him so much he wants to fix the world for him, and he did what he thought was right by not wavering and committing to his mission, even if that meant losing him!!)

God, I love this show so much. The book, the radio, my precious vinyl records of the soundtrack (love you David Arnold, muah), and even the graphic novel I will never see for at least a year, it’s just all so incredibly important to me. Good Omens has helped me realize what I truly believe in and has really influenced my outlook on life. And wow that is cheesy, but it’s ok that this show makes me insane, how it makes me ramble on tumblr at midnight because of the appreciation it has given me for the world around me, because I feel so much love doing so.

I wish I could express everything this show has made me feel. But my feelings are simply ineffable.

I LOVE LOVE!! I LOVE LIFE!! I LOVE EVERYTHING!! THE WORLD IS GOOD AND KIND BECAUSE WE HAVE PEOPLE AND THINGS AND PASSIONS TO CARE ABOUT!!!

[2ramunecafe]

WHY SHREK 2 IS BETTER THAN THE PREQUEL

Amongst all animated films the studio, Dreamworks, has produced, the Shrek series or franchise is undoubtedly the most popular of all as it is adored by audience of all ages. Shrek was a film created in 2001 which was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. It tells the story of a grumpy ogre trying to protect his home, the swamp, from the fairytale creatures the diabolical Lord Farquaad exiled. In order to get his beloved swamp back, the green ogre must go on a quest to rescue a princess for the Lord to marry. Due to the overwhelming success the movie had, more movies had followed suit and thus the Shrek franchise was born. However, in terms of quality, Shrek 2 is the best movie in the franchise.

According to Allison Picurro of HBO, Shrek 2 is definitive proof sequels can be better than the original. While the source of Shrek 2 already seems flawless, the sequel adds things to the main plot that we never knew we needed. After Lord Farquaad was defeated, Shrek and Fiona got married and spent their honeymoon in the ogre’s beloved swamp which was now shared by the two. All seems well until Fiona’s parents learn of their marriage and request to meet Fiona’s husband, completely unaware of the curse that had struck their daughter and with the expectation of meeting Prince Charming, not an unhygienic ogre. When Shrek comes to the conclusion that the King and Queen of Far Far Away are disappointed at the ogre whom their daughter calls her true love, he sets off to find a way to become human and gain their approval; this led to the introduction of Puss in Boots, Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother, who were indeed memorable characters in the franchise.

Second, aside from the entertaining plot and introduction of new characters, Shrek 2 also possesses one of the most important elements in a movie: a killer soundtrack. The second movie features hit songs like “Holding out for a Hero,” “Livin’ ‘la Vida Loca,” “Funkytown,” and more. “Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler was sung by Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) to set the mood for Fiona and Prince Charming’s dance which also set the viewers’ mood for the climax of the movie. This particular scene is one of the reasons this film deserves the number 1 spot on the list of Shrek movies.

However, some fans argue that Shrek is better because of its IMDb ratings of 7.8/10, which is .6 higher than the sequel. But according to Matt Reynolds (2017), movie-ranking sites such as IMDb should be ignored because the ratings are much more biased towards the opinions of men. Men often make up 70% of the voters for films and they tend to favor movies with more masculine themes. Moreover, IMDb ratings don’t really matter as the film went on to win two Academy Award nominations and compete for the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The film also garnered a box office of 919.8 million USD, which is two times larger than the original’s box office, making it Dreamwork’s highest-grossing film up to date.

With a box office of 919.8 million USD, Shrek 2 is the best movie to ever come out of the Shrek franchise. Packed with comedic references to pop culture figures and fairytale stories, a killer soundtrack, and entertaining plot with no Lord Farquaad in sight, the sequel properly deserved its success and deserves to be the definitive proof why sequels can be better than the original.

REFERENCES

Picurro, A. Shrek 2 is definitive proof sequels can be better than the originals. HBO Movies.

Sharman, A. (2018, October 30). Unpopular Opinion: ‘Shrek 2’ is Better Than ‘Shrek’. The Harvard Crimson.

Reynolds, M. (2017, October 24). You should ignore film ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Wired UK.

[bjsmall]

05.03.23

We watched Shrek 2 (2004). IMDb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298148/ Shrek 2 is a 2004 computer animated comedy film by DreamWork's Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is based on the 1990 children's book 'Shrek!' by William Steig. It is the sequel to Shrek (2001) and the second installment in the Shrek film franchise. The film stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murpy and Cameron Diaz, who were also the main voice actors in Shrek. Shrek 2 follows on from the events in the first film with Shrek and Donkey meeting Fiona's parents for the first time. Her parents are: King Harold (voiced by John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (voiced by Julie Andrews). Fiona's godmother, played by Jennifer Saunders wants to wreck Shrek and Fiona's marriage so Fiona has to marry Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett). Shrek and Donkey team up with a cat called 'Puss in Boots' played by Antonio Banderas to foil her plans. For the action packed plot, see Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek_2 The film is memorable for many reasons, but my favourite scenes include: - When Shrek enters the factory, the receptionist tells him that the Fairy Godmother is out, but she is definitely in! - The factory floor scene where Shrek, Donkey and Puss in Boots steal a Happy Ever After potion from the shelves. Other potions break and spill onto the workers turning them into magical characters. - Shrek visits the potion factory and meets the Fairy Godmother. She tells him that there is no happy ending for an Ogre in a fairytale. - The prison escape scene where Shrek, Donkey and Puss in Boots are rescued by the fairytale creatures. Pinocchio is caught wearing a ladies thong! - The Fairy Godmother ‘I Need a Hero’ scene where Prince Charming tries to win Fiona over as the Fairy Godmother sings 'Holding Out For a Hero' to them. Shrek and the gang break into the castle to stop Fiona and Prince Charming kissing. It is a really fast moving action sequence. Other great scenes include: 

- When Shrek and Donkey meet Puss in Boots - (hairball!) 

- When Donkey turns into a handsome steed.

- The closing scene, which shows Dragon introducing Donkey to their new hybrid offspring! They are very cute little donkeys with dragon wings!

Shrek 2 premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and was released on May 19th by DreamWorks Pictures. It went on to become the highest grossing film of 2004. Production of Shrek 2 began in 2001 before Shrek was completed. Mike Myers, Eddie Murpy and Cameron Diaz negotiated an upfront payment of $10 million dollars each for voicing the film. The studio added more human characters to the film and improved their appearance and movements with the use of new rendering software.

The animation for Puss in Boots was particularly difficult with a new set of production tools required to enable fur shading.

The equipment used to bring Shrek 2 to life included high Performance HP xw8000 workstations and ProLiant DL360 dual processor servers all running the Linux operating system. Read more here: https://www.awn.com/news/hp-technology-behind-shrek-2#:~:text=HP's%20xw8000%20workstations%20provided%20SHREK,a%20richer%2C%20more%20believable%20world. For in-depth reading of the technology used in the Shrek franchise, see:

https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/decade-shrek-tech

The soundtrack for Shrek 2 was composed by Harry Gregson Williams, who previously composed the score for the first Shrek film with John Powell.

John Powell was not involved with Shrek 2, he is however mentioned in the end credits. Shrek 2 was released on VHS and DVD on November the 5th 2004. Selling over 37 million copies, it became one of the best selling DVD releases of all time. A DVD called the ‘Whole Story’ featuring all four films was released in 2010. Blu-Ray versions of the film were released at a later date. Shrek 2 was released on 4K Blu-Ray in November 2022. Shrek 2 is regarded as one of the best animated sequels ever. It has an approval rating of 89% and 7.7 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. The sequels are often not successful, but Shrek 2 proved to be fantastic family entertainment. I first saw Shrek 2 at school in 2005 and have enjoyed it ever since. It is not a film I have watched very often, but when I do, it reminds me of just how good it is. I particularly like the CGI effects with the texturing, lighting and realistic water simulation. Watching Shrek 2 makes me feel happy!

[lemonprick]

thoughts on puss in boots 2: the last wish

spoilers for puss on boots 2 if anyone cares enough about it. you’ve been warned!

i didn’t even know there was a sequel until i saw the thumbnail for schafrillas productions’ video on it, now i’ve watched it and um. it’s actually kinda good?

i had such a weird fondness for the first one. the spanish aesthetic, score, the animation, just the absurdity of this tiny adorable cat, that looks so much like mine, being voiced by antonio banderas. (this is coming from someone who didn’t watch any of the shrek films except the first.) but the story did suck, and humpty dumpty is easily my most disliked character in all of dreamworks history, barry b benson included.

so i figured i’d enjoy this one the way i did the first too; cool fight/dance scenes, good soundtrack and animation, bonkers ideas. turns out i was right in all the wrong ways.

first of all, the fuckin animation?? holy crap what is dreamworks doing? where is the realistic lighting and fur/leather textures you’re known for and why have you given us such gorgeous painted landscapes and layered models?? are you out here trying to steal sony animation studio’s thunder because you truly are! every single fight scene in this is a delight (as expected from dreamworks), was not expecting the 2.5d effect thing they’ve got going on and was straight up blown away by the colours. the kung fu panda influence is strong in this movie. i do think the effects are not quite as earned as in spiderverse of kung fu panda, since its styles are kind of all over the place and not as thematically cohesive, but it’s such a surprising departure from the usual dreamworks look. of course i hope they don’t completely move away from that era, but the designers have really shown us what they can done and i am here for it. i will say the way the frame rates noticeably slow down every time a fight goes on can get grating, but i got used to it halfway in.

secondly the story. yes it is rushed, yes it’s a mish-mash of ideas, yes it doesn’t quite explore each character’s motivations or conflicts to warrant any strong emotional responses, yes it was resolved all rather quickly; all these were issues in the first one as well. goldilocks is especially egregious since we know that she loves her family; look at all their little interactions! they’re the crime family! the writers did drop the ball by making her wish for another family. whatever was that all about?

but jesus christ i was not expecting death to straight up be the antagonist of this film. what an unexpected plot point for what i assumed was marketed as a family fun adventure film, but at the same time oh so expected, because a cat using up his nine lives makes for such fun storytelling? sure it can get a bit too on the nose, but death’s design and entrance is so darn cool i can forgive it a thousand times over.

also the writing. it was pretty clear that they’ve started running out of jokes at some point in the middle and so it did get a lil sluggy in the dialogue, but otherwise? holy fuckin hell how is this a movie for children. you have raw-ass lines like “has the legend gotten so big there isn’t any room for anyone else”? plot-twist-gut-wrench-holy-crap moments like santa coloma?? “it wasn’t just one bad heist. it was a church with priests and guests”?? “lives flashing through your eyes? / no, just one”??? telling death himself to pick up your sickles because i know i can’t win, i’m just going to go down fighting anyways????

and the absolute explosion of bleeps and curses that was perrito. seriously, how did they greenlight that? they put “shit-for-brains” in a kids movie??

(also, the side characters are so casually killed in this movie that it’s kinda insane. dreamworks has never shied away from a good “oh he’s dead now” gag but the way the girl just turned to gold and the baker’s dozen were straight up thanos-snapped away without a moment to spare. chilling to think about.)

not much to say about the acting, it was fun enough to service the film without being outstanding i guess. antonio banderas is having fun as puss as always, for some reason i always thought penelope cruz voiced kitty? but she’s cool in this anyway, finally the comedic relief third-trio-character doesn’t have an annoyingly comedian voice and just sounds like a sweet little dude. florence pugh is fine but there are moments where you know she’s not a voice actor, whoever voiced baby bear sounded a tad too much like james corden and i got chills whenever he spoke. i’d say john mulaney does a decent job selling jack horner, the way he delivers absolutely horrific sentences with such nonchalance and glee is so entertaining to watch; guy may have problems but he is still a comedian with iconic joke delivery.

more of a subjective preference than commentary, but the score was a bit of a let-down. i was so hoping to hear more of the gorgeous spanish acoustic sound that i loved from henry jackman’s previous tracks but this film seems a tad too eager to introduce electronic sounds. some parts do get real castanet-y and brassy, which were my favourite parts; a bit sad diablo rojo or the puss suite didn’t get an encore but oh well, it has been a while.

so i guess the takeaway is that i’m so well-versed in how the studio uses comedy that i was yet again able to predict the “leeches!” line about ten minutes in right before the barber said it.

an objective 7/10 because of the weird pacing and ending, a subjective 9/10 just because i would never have taken a puss in boots movie seriously enough to rank it like i would with other movies. incredibly high-quality absurdity, stellar action, amazing antagonists, absolutely insane lines, a better magical forest adventure than frozen 2. go watch it guys.

(additional comment because i haven’t said enough: this also marks the third 3D animated movie set in a hispanic country where a character dies by being crushed by a bell. only in the case of the book of life the guy was exploded inside the bell but still. a bell.)

EDIT: UPON SECOND WATCH i immediately watched it again the next day because i was so baffled by this movie. i loved it a whole lot this time around! revisiting this makes me realise how good the voice performances actually are, like now with the context that antonio banderas is 62 and still voicing puss with such energy and rigour, just how different john mulaney sounds than his other roles but still delivering deliciously evil lines so well, and i found myself enjoying goldilocks a lot more. also i realised i judged the soundtrack too quickly, even though i’m still not eager on the synths i did appreciate the orchestrals a more (i’m just really stuck on henry jackman’s score). pacing-wise i had initially thought it ran too fast, but now i’m realising maybe it’s just because i loved every single moment in the film that it didn’t feel like it had any room for downtime; too full of fun interactions and chilling moments for me to realise time was passing. still a 9/10 subjective rating, holy fuck this has been one of dreamworks’ recent strongest and it's a shrek spinoff movie

[cartoonemotion]

 ♫ + fethsteel perhaps 🤔

cheating by doing more than 1 but both of these r very short so its fine

my beloved monster by eels ! (which will sound familiar if you heard it for the first time, like i did, off of the shrek soundtrack) and i'd like to see the bad guys win by margo guryan !

i think these both skew a bit more toward's fethry's pov but theyre both very sweet and cute and have their own kind of cartoony feel to them imo (especially the margo guryan track which became a fast favorite of mine the first time i heard it)

[pastelburnish]

Nobody knows I'm listening to the award-winning Shrek the Musical soundtrack on the bus right now

[blowupmusic]

Brody Brown and Bino Rideaux's Latest Hit 'No (Know)'"

Brody Brown, known for his exceptional contributions to the music industry, is a musical genius who has been leaving an indelible mark on the world of music. His journey from a young, church-bred musician to a sought-after producer and songwriter has been nothing short of extraordinary. With influential figures like Quincy Jones, George Clinton, Dr. Dre, Battlecat, and DJ Quik as his musical heroes, Brody Brown's passion for music has always burned bright.

Hailing from Compton, California, Brody's musical roots run deep. His early days were filled with the sound of drums, as he enthusiastically played on anything resembling drumsticks. His family's television set bore witness to his musical ambitions, marked by ink stains from his makeshift drumming sessions. However, the young artist's ambitions exceeded mere drumming, and he set out on a quest to master various instruments, driven by a desire to express himself fully through music.

Brody's instrumental repertoire is nothing short of impressive, ranging from bass and guitar to percussion and piano. His grandmother played a pivotal role in introducing him to the piano and music. Using baseball lingo, she taught him the importance of hitting first, second, and third base before reaching home. This lesson not only shaped his approach to music but also left a lasting impression on his songwriting process.

At the tender age of 14, Brody's talent was recognized by R&B star Bobby V., who invited him to play bass on a tour. This opportunity was a significant turning point in his career and eventually led him to join the ranks of the highly acclaimed production team known as 1500 or Nothin'. His musical journey included tour gigs with renowned artists like Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, T.I., and American Idol finalist Katherine McPhee. An internship with the Grammy-winning production duo, The Underdogs, further honed his skills and expanded his portfolio, including work on soundtracks for Shrek and The Smurfs.

In 2009, Brody Brown's career reached a pinnacle when the then-unknown Bruno Mars enlisted him to work on Mars' debut studio album, "Doo-Wops & Hooligans." This collaboration resulted in the Grammy-nominated, seven-times platinum single "Grenade." Brody's journey with Mars continued as he served as Mars' music director while also showcasing his versatility by playing bass and keys.

Since then, Brody Brown has quietly but steadily risen to prominence as an in-demand songwriter and producer, accumulating a remarkable list of writing and production credits through word of mouth. Some of his notable collaborations include co-writing "Young, Wild & Free" by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa featuring Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson's "Feel Right" featuring Mystikal, Cee Lo Green's "F*ck You," T.I.'s "Love This Life," Adele's "All I Ask," Lukas Graham's "7 Years" and "Mama Said," and Nipsey Hussle's "Feeling Myself."

Press and media have been captivated by Brody Brown's unique talent and ability to connect with artists on a profound level. His secret to success? Listening and studying the artists he works with, ensuring he understands their vision and desires. For Brody, it's not about money; it's about leaving a lasting legacy and doing the best he can in the world of music.

Brody Brown's latest music release, "No (Know)," featuring the talented Bino Rideaux, is a testament to his incredible journey in music. This track, a standout from his debut album, "The Kick Back," showcases Brody Brown's artistry and authenticity. It seamlessly blends elements of Hip Hop and R&B, offering a musical experience that delves into the complexities of love and life. Critics and journalists have praised the depth and creativity of this latest release, solidifying Brody Brown's position as a musical genius.

Watch "No (Know)" here:

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[bowtiesnmusicals]

Here is my recap of the Tis the Season Finale (Journey to Regionals) episode of the podcast.

We made it to the season 1 finale of Glee.

None of them knew if they would make it this far and most of them didn’t think they would.

This episode originally aired on June 8, 2010. Normally shows in May. They had a big break between the first 13 and the final 9 episodes of the show.

The cast was in Emmy magazine around this time. Kevin kept the vans from this photoshoot for years. Jenna remembers it b ring chaos because there were so many of them. Kevin doesn’t remember if they took the group pictures together or if they just photoshopped it together.

A month later the show as nominated for 19 Emmys. When they came back to set their was a huge banner congratulating them on the nominations. They got a banner for any big award nominations.

Glee The Music Journey to Regionals the album was released the week the finale aired. It featured 6 tracks from the finale episode. The EP debuted at #1 on both the US Billboard 200 and Soundtracks chart. It sold 154,000 copies. The album became the casts third #1 album on the Billboard 200. Kevin said he doesn’t remember that. Jenna does remember it. Kevin said it’s crazy that an EP from just a single episode was #1 and sold that many copies. Jenna said it was a really was a huge shock that they got so big so fast.

This was the most viewed episode of any new shows season finales that year. It had almost 11 millions viewers. In season 2 it just kept growing.

Jenna was very weepy during the filming of this episode and weepy watching it back. Kevin was weepy watching it back. He said there were some scenes that feel a little real. He said this goes back to Ian’s point about where they sometimes commentate about what is actually happening. Their is a speech Will gives to the kids about sort of the journey the have had and how much Glee club means to everyone and that years from now you won’t remember songs you did or each others names. it made him reflect on their group and how they have stood the test of time. It also makes him think about doing the show every week and trying to remember what songs they did. The show as tiring and Kevin didn’t know how applicable that speech would be to their real lives.

They started shooting season 2 in August so they only had a few weeks of break between tour and starting the new season.

Kevin and Jenna went to Monaco. Then they went to London to do press for Glee. They then went to Paris for a day trip where Kevin was very hung over and slept on the tour bus. Then Jenna went back to New York and Kevin went to Brazil. Then they had all the Emmy press when they got back and then they went to the Emmy.

That paparazzi photos of Jenna and Kevin at a beach in Monaco were released June 2010. It was the day they became a celebrity couple. Kevin said it was they day the peaked.

Jenna and Kevin found at at Comic Con that year that Artie and Tina were only juniors and would have another year at the school. It was a wild wild journey.

The #1 song was still OMG and the #1 mov was still Shrek Forever After (There are apparently negotiations to make Shrek 5 and the original cast is in)

This episode was directed by Brad Falchuck

Josh Groban is back. Olivia Newton John is back. Idina and Groffsauce were also back.

So many Journey songs in this episode.

Bohemian Rhapsody is one of Jenna’s favorite numbers ever.

An overview of the episode is that it’s regionals time. Sue is up to no good and gets herself on the judging panel. Will spirals because he knew so there is no way they can place or win with Sue as one of the judges. The idea of the episode. Is what can we do and what does Glee club mean even if they don’t win.

Mr. S hue having all the kids at his house to decide the set list is a little bit suspicious. Jenna remembers filming this clearly and getting to sit on Mr. Schue’s couch. Kevin forgot this was season 1. Jenna remembers having to cry again. She remembers Brad coming into talk to them. They were telling ghost stories between takes. It was filmed on really late on a Friday and probably around midnight or 1 am. Paramount Studios shares a wall with a graveyard, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. There are stories about the lot being haunted. Naya told a story about when she worked on the lot as a child with Red Fox and saw him pass away on set. Everyone else was looking up stories about sets and the lot and how it was haunted. They had fake rain going on making things even spookier. The set was really dark as well. They were freaking themselves out so badly. This is all Kevin could think about when he rewatched this scene. Brad came in and was good at relating things back to real life and tried to get them back in the scene reminding them to think about how it would feel if this was the last time they ever got to do this. Look at how at how far we’ve come, the friends we’ve made, all we’ve achieved and now it’s coming to an end. Meanwhile they were telling each other ghost stories and spooking each other.

Schue then goes to Emma and asks her for advice. He finds out Emma is dating a dentist.

Mr. Schue driving his beat up car and pulls over and Don’t Stop is playing on the radio. This inspires him to do a Journey medley.

Kevin loves he name Aural Intensity.

Brad had the two green room scenes from this season. They were afraid this one was going to take as long if not longer then the sectionals green room which was miserable. Brad had it all blocked before they even got there. The green room was on Paramount and was some of the Ryan Murphy tv offices. The hospital later in the episode was also just random hallways at Paramount.

The scene between Finn and Rachel where Finn says I love was so good. Kevin said he was floored by Cory during this whole episode.

Kevin watched Air the new Matt Damon and Ben Affleck movie and I Can’t Fight This Feeling is in the movie. Kevin burst into tears when heard the song. He then went home and watched this episode. He was having a full Cory in his emotions day.

Kevin said he is so good. it pisses him off that he was such a good actor and he doesn’t think they told him enough. He also thinks about the things they will never get to see him do.

Kevin said Faithfully is such a good version of the song. He is not sick of this song. He will listen to the Journey version adn the Glee version. Jenna said the tour version is also good.

They did the Carlton during this setlist. Jenna said the dresses were very itchy and smelled really bad. She said the bump it’s were a choice. She didn’t know what they were thinking.

Kevin said between this episode and the first episode of season 2 there is a glow up.

Kevin was sick and had a reaction to a medication he was on. He had hives and it looks like he had horns coming out of his head. Telly had to take him to Cedars Sinai. They shot at the theater for two days. He was still covered in hives the second day. People were making fun of him because he was so it out of it from taking Benadryl.

The first shot of Lea in profile you can see the dummies in the audience. If you keep pausing it you can continue to see the dummies . They a re usually on the edges. There were also some people from the make-up department in the audience.

Kevin thinks they did the key change after the fact. He is adamant they did not record it that way.

Jenna said those two days were laborious. They performed a thousand times and then went to rehearsal and went home and did it all over again the next day. Kevin said it can feel like you aren’t doing anything because it teak so long. The girls were in heels all day. Jenna said the shoes were terrible.

After New Directions perform we then get to Quinn’s mom showing up and Quinn’s water breaking.

Kevin said the Bohemian Rhapsody montage is one of the most insane/brilliant performances ever. Jenna said it is a very Ryan Murphy montage. Imagine you were watching the show for the first time and had no idea what was happening. Vocal Adrenaline with John Groff in the middle like a hoo-ha being birthed is brilliant. Jenna said those dancers are doing it. That combo is so intricate and professional level stuff. Zach and Brooke got to show off their choreography skills. The dancers for that number probably rehearsed that number for a day. The New Directions had days to learn their performances.

Kevin said Groff does incredible. He thinks that is the best lip sync of anyone in the first season. He has the spit flying, a trademark of Groffsauce, and it’s perfect. Kevin said that John’s lip sync was always meticulous.

Diana matching the parts of Bohemian Rhapsody was insane. Mark and Amber also did a good job.

Quinn has her baby and Bohemian Rhapsody was executed to perfection. Rachel doesn’t go to the hospital. She watches Vocal Adrenaline and then runs into Shelby. She tells Shelby that Quinn had her baby.

Kevin and Jenna talk about how nursery’s don’t really exist anymore. Babies are usually kept with the parents now.

Back to the show…Shelby adopts Quinn’s baby who she names Beth.

Then we go to the judges room. It was fun to watch Josh Groban and Olivia Newton John play elevated versions of themselves.

Vocal Adrenaline wins and New Directions does not even place.

Emma goes to bat for the glee club. We get that fun scene of her screaming at Mr. Figgins. Will and Emma have a moment in the hallway where she tells him that he can’t give up on the glee club. This end up in them kissing in he hallway in the middle of the school day. Then Rachel walks up and is completely unfazed by it all to tell him to meet the kids in the auditorium.

This lead to To Sir With Love. The kids go around telling Mr. Schue how he has affected them and impacted their lives. Jenna remembered Brad telling them it was okay to cry. Kevin said this was just a reflection of his failures and inabilities as an actor because everyone else would be crying. Jenna said it would. Be weird if they were all crying and Kevin said that is way he did it. Kevin had trouble remember thing background vocals for this time. Kevin and Jenna hadn’t heard the song before they recorded it. It is hard to cover up not knowing the words when you are just sitting and singing. Jenna got teary eyed as she watched this scene.

We see Sue in the background getting emotional. Sue then meets Schue in the choir room. Kevin had no revolution of Sue’s line about the room being as barren as her. She has some insane lines in this scene. She doesn’t want to lose him as an enemy. Jenna said in the scene where Mr. Schue is cleaning up the room and packing it away the wiener dog statue was from Matt’s choir room and belonged to his choir teacher. While Sue is giving backhanded compliments it is revealed that she went to Mr. Figgins to get him to give the glee club another year. it is also revealed that she voted for New Directions to win Regionals.

Then we get to Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was very sweet.

The New Directions gets another year and we get some Sue being nice to end off the season.

Jenna loved this episode a lot. It was very well done episode. Kevin said if you watch season 1 and go right into season 2 it can be a jarring.

Jenna said the first episodes of the seasons after season 1 never quite meet the expectation of a season premiere for her. Kevin said he can’t wait to talk about it because it’s pretty crazy.

Tartie Takes:

Cringe Moments aka Ouchies - Will and Emma kissing in the hallway

Worst Dance Move - Jenna said her arms in the Carlton

Best Dance Moves - Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Song - Faithfully and Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Performance By a Prop - the baby (they are a teenager now. They would be 13 years old now. Thanks Kevin for making all of us feel old.)

Favorite Lines - Jennas was when Will said I should shake your hand. Sue says not unless you have hand sanitizer. I’ve seen that car you drive. I don’t want to catch poor. Kevin’s is Dianna screaming shut up during the birth scene

Shit We Found On TikTok:

A Chicago drag queen named Annie Andrews. She does the full Quinn. She It’s A Man’s World with a pregnancy belly and the episode version of Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s incredible. Jenna said there is nothing better then drag queens doing glee.

Well that is it for Season 1 and now onto Season 2.

[harrowianthe]

shrek soundtrack stay winning

[d-criss-news]

Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

[omniuravity]

Update: Semi-Serious Opinion on How I Feel About Tony Award-Winning Musicals

Best Musical:

Hadestown (2019): I still love this musical, and I actually get to see it for my birthday! I really like the music more than anything, because I'm a sucker for beautiful harmonies, and I also love how they tell the story.

Hamilton (2016): Low-key the very first musical I ever got into. It's always been a favorite (even though it is also overplayed) and I love both the ethnic diversity in the cast, the music, and the storytelling. It's everything a musical should aspire to be.

Hairspray (2003): In my opinion, Hairspray is a celebration of life in general. There is so much diversity in this musical and I love it. Even though if I auditioned for this musical I'd probably get cast as Penny or Amber, I wouldn't be mad because I love this musical that much.

Best Musical Revival:

Chicago (1997): Chicago is absolutely magnificent. I love every single song in this musical, and that isn't something I can say for even some of my favorite musicals.

Best Original Score:

Fiddler on the Roof (1965): Okay, this musical got 8 Tony Awards in 1965 and for good reason too. They got Best Musical, Best Producer, Best Leading Actor, Best Featured Actress, Best Director, Best Author, Best Choreography, and Best Costume Design. It is that good.

Sweeney Todd (1979): This is actually a very good horror musical. It sticks very well to the source material (the book), and the movie adaptation is phenomenal despite the minimal singing experience of the main cast. This musical is very very good.

Best Choreography:

Bye Bye Birdie (1961): It had Dick Van Dyke in the lead role, are you really that surprised? I was actually in this musical in middle school, I was in a barbershop quartet (despite me being a girl). It is a really good musical, and I'm proud to say I was a part of it.

Newsies (2012): Again...are you surprised. Newsies has a very special place in my heart, because I just love everything about it from the set design to the dancing, to the amazing dialogue, to the costume design, and especially the music. Definitely the music.

Best Scenic Design:

The Sound of Music (1960): This musical also has a special place in my heart for one reason alone, the music. Maria has been played by a lot of wonderful actresses, but my favorites are Mary Martin and Julie Andrews. I just love everything about this musical, but its music has a very special place in my heart.

Spongebob Squarepants (2018): Okay, but hear me out...it's a good musical. I grew up when Spongebob was in its prime, and the musical brought me back to when I was younger and I would sit in front of the TV after school and watch Spongebob. This musical has so many great character moments and they do such a great job on the set design in particular.

Best Costume Design:

Shrek The Musical (2009): They're not wrong. Shrek's costume design is that good. I really like this musical anyway, but the costuming is phenomenal.

Best Leading Actor:

The Phantom of the Opera (1988): Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius...nuff said. Also, Michael Crawford is a God.

Hairspray (2003)...again: This goes out to more the actor in particular that won this award, Harvey Fierstein. He won this award for playing Edna Turnblad, and he absolutely killed it.

Best Leading Actress:

Peter Pan (1955): This is my love letter to Mary Martin who played Peter Pan, and also got the same award for playing Maria in The Sound of Music. Mary Martin is the woman that made me want to go into musical theatre, on top of that she grew up where I grew up, and now I am working hard to become like her one day.

Wicked (2003): I know it didn't win best musical the year it was put on Broadway, but I need to talk about it. This summer I saw it live and it was an experience I will never forget. It is truly an astounding musical even just listening to the soundtrack, and seeing it live gives it a depth that you couldn't imagine. Also Idina Menzel is a goddess, and she is also part of the reason I want to go into musical theatre.

[princesstarazi]

zari singing ever fallen in love to win because that’s the power of the shrek 2 soundtrack

[steveandbucky]

i actually cant get over how bad cruella is both as a premise and in execution, disney really said "we're going to take this puppy-killing evil villain from an old movie and give her an origin story, but since we're a family-friendly media company, there can be no puppy-killing" they literally whitewashed their own villain and made her into a really bad heroine. like the whole 'i killed my mum' 'oh wait no it was the baroness' shit is just like. cringe.

if it was ANY other original character, it's a good movie! storyline-wise, at least. its about a scrappy recently orphaned eccentric girl who has dreams of being a fashion designer and does bad things to survive because like, living costs money. and ok the acting is still bad. i really liked emma stone in easy A and crazy stupid love but i think that's her roles. fun comedy movies. i did not like her in this film. the character is edgy, especially when she adopts the 'cruella' alter ego and the actress is... very mild. but as a heroine, it's not a bad character. i just feel like her whole 'i'm evil now' arc felt forced, and it should have been a natural progression. you find out your boss killed your mum, and you go apeshit. but she did not go apeshit. embrace your deranged side or go home!

the villain of the story, the Baroness tries to be a Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, but she falls short. so short. its like the cheap knock off that falls apart in a month. however her actual character of like, rich white woman who does bad things in order to retain money, fame, and power, these are good villain traits. i would sympathise with the poor girl and want herto win!

i did not care for the 'oh no the villain is the heroine's biological mother!' plot twist (ok i didnt see it, i read the synopsis on wiki after the 1.5 hour mark because HOW is this movie 2h17min!!!!!!!) i mean its been done, i think? it feels tired? nothing fresh here either.

the soundtrack is. kind of bad too. again i feel like they are trying to copy...something? but failing pretty badly like either do it all the way with songs that slap shrek-style or do something new and original. the whole lotta love cover was particularly bad imo, but maybe bc i love the song and i hated the cover so thats my personal opinion

i have heard people say they liked the movie for the costumes and like ok yeah i like pretty dresses and fashion design and i can admit it was good in that sense, there are nice visuals and i do like the style and the retro 60s-70s vibes but its hard to enjoy those when the movie sucks so bad.

but the main problem really is that they took a puppy-killing villain and made her into a campy quirky girl who was wronged, gets revenged on the woman who wronged her, and wins, and her and her friends and their dogs live happily ever after.

AND THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE A FUCKING SEQUEL?!

[pixarplanet]

Soul won the Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Soundtrack at the Academy Awards last night!

Pete Docter now holds the record for directing the most films that have gone on to win Best Animated Feature. (Pete directed Up, Inside Out, and co-directed Soul with Kemp Powers. Monsters Inc. lost to Shrek.)