#sony timeless

[adanethel]

different world

[ecemf]

The Interview — Matty Healy

18+! MDNI!!!!!! Explicit!!!

Okay so I've never written fanfic or smut before so this could be ass but I just love jealousy sex & the idea of being on a red carpet so...

CW: smut, choking, dom/sub dynamics, dom!matty, sub!reader, use of y/n, alcohol usage, jealous!matty, possessive!matty, established relationship, thigh riding, i think that's it?? lmk if i missed anything

WC: ~3k

Ok I hope y'all like it ENJOY!!

The Interview.

The cameras are almost blinding as you stare out into the crowd of photographers shouting your name, trying to get the best angle for whatever publication they’re working for. Being a top executive at Sony Music meant you mostly worked behind the scenes; out of the spotlight. However, seeing as 18 artists on your label (five of which you yourself handpicked) were up for awards tonight, you couldn’t not show up to The Grammys. Besides, it felt good to dress up once in a while, especially if that meant wearing custom Chanel.

Continuing down the red carpet, you’re stopped by a reporter for Rolling Stone, Bryan Wilson. From the few brief interactions you’ve had with him at industry parties and the stories that have circulated about him, you know the guy’s a sleaze. But, given that there’s a Canon XF605 pointed directly in your face when he asks if you have time for a short interview, you smile sweetly and comply.

“You look stunning tonight, as always, Y/N”, he begins, in typical sleazy reporter fashion, “Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re wearing?” His eyes travel down the expanse of your body, grazing (quite slowly, to be frank) over the daring V-cut of your gown.

You couldn’t really blame him for checking you out, you did look incredible in this dress. Layers of black satin expertly draped over your body created an elegant but sexy silhouette complete with a plunging neckline and a timeless backless design. You knew you looked good, you didn’t need Wilson eye-fucking you to tell.

“Isn’t this The Rolling Stone?” You giggle in response, half-joking, “Shouldn’t you be asking me about Sony Records and leave the fashion questions to Vogue?” To the untrained ear, your tone is light-hearted and sincere, however, there’s an intended edge you’re hoping is coming through.

If he was picking up on the edge, he wasn’t showing it. Wilson continues on checking you out, responding “We hear about Sony Records enough, but it’s a treat to see the woman behind the magic,” he looks directly into the camera and gestures to your body, “especially when the woman looks like this!” He looks at you now, “Why don’t you give us a spin, Y/N?”

You clench your jaw into a tight smile, “You know, I’d really rather talk about the artists up for awards tonight. It’s a record-breaking night for my company, and I’m extremely proud to be here…” You’re trying your best to refocus the conversation on the real reason you’re on the red carpet tonight, but Wilson’s wandering eyes are making it difficult for you to focus on anything.

Finally feeling fed up, you clear your throat, “Sorry, Bryan, am I boring you?”

He breaks out of his stare from your chest and goes red. “Oh! No, I’m sorry I was just… looking at your necklace!” He gestures to the Tiffany & Co. pendant that hangs (conveniently for him) right between your boobs.

“Stunning, innit?” You hear your boyfriend say from behind you as he comes up and possessively wraps his arm around your waist on camera in a way that will definitely be circulating Twitter tomorrow. “Just bought it for her yesterday when I first got to see the dress.” Matty grips your right hip so tight that the satin puckers under his fingertips. You get a feeling he’s been watching this “interview” from afar.

“A beautiful necklace for a beautiful woman, indeed,” Wilson so boldly responds, either not noticing or not caring that Matty was already quite irritated.

With that final comment, Matty grips your hip even tighter, “Right, then,” he says shortly, “Cheers, mate!” He yells over his shoulder while quickly ushering you away from the train wreck of a media appearance.

“I’m gonna kill that guy,” he leans down to quietly whisper in your ear as the two of you make your way into the venue, “Staring at you like a piece of meat live on camera, isn’t he embarrassed?”

“It’s really not a big deal, baby,” you try to reassure him. And to you, it wasn’t, really, compared to some of the other harassment and objectification you’ve experienced in such a male-dominated industry, “He’s just some stupid reporter,”

“Yeah some stupid reporter who doesn’t know how to keep his stupid fucking eyes away from what’s mine,” he growls under his breath.

You grow a bit warm at your boyfriend’s possessive words and decide to push him a little further. “So what, people aren’t allowed to look at me now? We’re kind of on a red carpet if you haven’t realized,”

Matty rolls his eyes as the two of you take your seats at your assigned table. “You know what I mean,” he scoots a bit closer to you, wrapping his arm around your waist, “People can look at you all they want, but these,” he trails his hand up your torso, palming your left tit and slightly grazing its nipple through your dress with his thumb. You gasp. “These are mine, and you know that.” he says lowly into your ear.

This was going to be a long night.

—

Seven wins, two acceptance speeches, and a few too many bottles of champagne later, the ceremony was coming to an end. You were so proud of your artists, even those who hadn’t won tonight.

To your (and your aching feet’s) misfortune, your boyfriend was insistent on “making an appearance” at the afterparty, to “touch base with some important blokes”. You weren’t thrilled about the ordeal, but you had a nice buzz going from the free champagne earlier and figured a gin and tonic to top off the night wouldn’t hurt anyone. Boy were you wrong.

You were standing by the bar by yourself, watching Matty “touch base” with the aforementioned “blokes”. Nursing your second gin and tonic, you wonder how much longer their conversation will take, and when you can finally go home (and take your boyfriend to bed). As your mind indulges your fantasies of being fucked to sleep later, you hear an annoying and familiar voice from behind you.

“It breaks my heart to see such a gorgeous woman drinking alone,” no one other than Bryan Wilson saunters up beside you at the bar, “Where’s your man? You think he’d be smarter than to leave such precious goods unattended…” he slurs to you, obviously a few more deep than you were at this point in the night.

As Wilson drunkenly gets too close to you, you turn back to where Matty was talking to see him staring holes into the man’s skull, clenching and unclenching his fists. Your nearing-on-past-tipsy mind flashes back to your boyfriend’s words earlier, and his reaction to the reporter’s initial efforts towards you. You consider your options: 1) tell Wilson to fuck off and continue being bored by yourself at the bar, or 2) play this up a bit, make Matty jealous, have some fun, and probably go home early. Your sixth drink of the night tells you option two is far more enticing, and you agree.

You lean into Wilson a bit, closing some of the distance you were intentionally making. “Ever the flatterer, Bryan,” you lean back and give him a once-over, “I’m shocked that you’re still single, a handsome guy like you with such a smooth mouth on him.”

“It’s intentional baby,” he puts a hand on your arm - uh oh. “Why would I tie down this smooth mouth to one lucky lady? There’s plenty enough to go around…” and just as you think he’s about to make a move you feel a bruising grip on your upper arm tearing you away. Away from Bryan Wilson, away from the bar, away from the party.

You get your bearings and find yourself in a secluded hallway outside the party with your very angry, very sexy boyfriend staring you in the face. “What the fuck was that?” He spits at you, fuming.

“What was what?” You respond, looking up at Matty with your best doe eyes.

He cages your body in between his own and the wall of the hallway, “Don’t play stupid with me now, things can only get worse for you from here, pet.” As you look up at your very jealous partner, and feel the energy radiating off of him, you think to yourself that things can probably only get better.

You maintain your look of faux-innocence as you reply in your sweetest voice “Baby I was just talking to-“

“Don’t ‘baby’ me,” Matty growls as he grabs your throat and pushes you harder into the wall behind you. “You were letting that perv practically fuck you in front of everybody here. Making everyone think you’re anything but mine.” He pushes his hips into yours to punctuate the word, and you can feel how hard he is. Oh dear. Maybe it’s time to drop the act.

“I’m sorry, you were just taking so long talking to those guys, and I was getting so impatient and needy for you,” You bat your eyelashes in an attempt to seduce your way out of undoubtedly being fucked silly in some corner of this hotel right now. “I just want you to take me home, baby,” You run your hands down his chest, the way you know he likes.

Matty scoffs at this. “Aw, my poor little slut can’t wait longer than an hour for me to take her home and fuck her?” You feel a heat pool at your center from his words and absolute condescension. His hand around your neck comes up to grip your jaw, holding your head so that you can’t look anywhere but his eyes. “So fucking pathetic. Having to whore yourself around in public so that I can give you some attention? Trying to embarrass me in front of all our colleagues meanwhile, the only thing embarrassing is how stupid you look letting that scumbag put his hands on you,”

He holds your face an inch away from his own, his eyes searching for a response in yours. “I think you may need to be reminded just who you belong to.” He says darkly. And with that, he’s dragging you again, this time into the bathroom at the other end of the hallway.

As soon as the door closes he has you pressed up against it face-first. He wastes no time undoing the back of your dress, practically ripping it off of your body. You hope he doesn’t do any damage to the new gown, but to be honest, you’re not sure you care in this moment either way. Upon removing the dress, your boyfriend can see that you’ve forgone any undergarments (half because of the dress itself, half because you knew it would drive him crazy - which it does).

“Oh my fucking god,” he practically moans when he sees your now naked form pressed up against the door for him. “You’ve been ready for me all night, haven’t you princess?” He whispers in your ear, pressing himself to your back, slightly grinding into your bare ass. You squirm with his words and the minimal stimulation he provides.

“Well let’s just take a look,” He reaches his hand around from where he’s standing and drags a finger through your soaking folds agonizingly slowly. Your breath hitches. “Oh my poor girl,” he tuts, “how long have you been soaking through your dress baby?” He resumes his teasing, touching everywhere that isn’t your clit or your entrance. You whine and push your hips back in protest.

Matty grabs you by your waist and holds you in place against the door. “I think I asked you a question, slut.” He barks. You only grow wetter at his words and his toying.

“Since-“ you start, but you’re cut off by a moan when he takes his free hand to pull on your left nipple. His teasing is almost overwhelming, and you’re not sure you even remember the question the way your head is clouded with lust and need.

You’re pulled out of your hazy state by a hard slap to your pussy, “Since what? Huh? I haven’t even taken my cock out and you’re already fucked dumb. Answer me. How long have you been this wet?” He asks again, rolling your nipple between his fingers while inching closer and closer to your entrance with his calloused hand.

“Since you were grabbing my hips on the red carpet,” you manage to stutter out “during the interview.”

With that answer, he removes both of his hands from you. You put your hands up to brace yourself from slamming into the door from your newfound loss of support. Matty laughs darkly.

“So that’s what this is about, huh angel?” He grabs you by your hips, spinning to face him and pushing you even harder into the door behind you, “you like it when I get riled up, so I’ll treat you like the whore that you are?”

You look up at him with your glazed-over eyes and nod dumbly.

“Well here’s the problem with that,” Matty begins sucking on your neck harshly, no doubt leaving bruises, “You… are… my… whore… no… one… else’s…” he punctuates every word by leaving a new mark on your chest with his mouth. He takes a step back, admiring his handiwork. “Gorgeous,” he mutters as he admires your now hickey-covered tits, “you should really see this baby.”

Matty leads you over to the sink of the bathroom, turning you around to see your naked and marked-up form in the mirror. Looking at the new marks on your chest, you realize that he’s left them in the distinct pattern of your dress’s neckline, meaning there’s no hiding them. No hiding the fact that you’re his. You squeeze your thighs together at the thought.

Leaning over your shoulder in the mirror, you watch as your boyfriend trails his hand down your body to the place you need him most. Unsurprisingly, though, he doesn’t touch you, he simply ghosts his hand over the outside of your now sopping heat. You press yourself into him.

“Please, baby,” you whine, making your best puppy eyes in the mirror at him. “Please, I need you to touch me.” You’re so desperate he doesn’t even need to ask you to beg.

“Do you think you deserve to be touched?” He responds, continuing his teasing, “You’ve been quite a bad girl tonight, baby. And bad girls don’t get what they want.”

“I’ll be good, I promise,” you beg even more, tears forming at your eyes with the desperation he’s built in you.

“Prove it,” Matty responds, trailing his hand up to your mouth. You gladly take his digits in, watching as he toys with you and stretches you out, wishing he would do that in other places. You hear the clinking of his belt, and you perk up, thinking that maybe he’s just going to put you out of your horny misery and fuck you already, but of course he’s not.

“Can’t have you getting yourself all over my nice trousers now can we love?” He says as he pulls his pants down to his ankles. You watch still with all four of his fingers in your mouth as he takes his newly naked thigh and roughly slots it in between your legs from behind. Your eyes roll back at the much-needed friction it provides. Matty leans in, “Right then. Be a good girl and ride my thigh, hm? You’re gonna have to get yourself off before I believe you after tonight’s theatrics.”

Embarrassing as it may be, you are in no condition to care in this moment. You immediately start feverishly fucking your boyfriend’s thigh, moaning around his fingers at the friction you’ve been needing all night, a ball already forming in the pit of your stomach. Not more than a second after your head falls forward in relief, your boyfriend grabs you by your hair to force you to look in the mirror, “Nuh-uh” he growls, “You’re gonna watch while you fuck yourself on my thigh. You’re gonna see just how pathetic you are, crying with relief and coming undone when I’ve not even touched you.”

Matty’s words and the sight of him and you in the mirror add to the very quickly growing warmth in your body. Your skin is on fire as you grip the sink in front of you, trying to use whatever leverage you can to get yourself off faster. You take one hand to start kneading your tits, playing with your nipples, hoping some added stimulation will help; you whine at the new sensation.

“There you go princess, that’s it,” he coos in your ear, “so good f’me, taking directions so well baby.”

The praise goes straight to your core and you can feel yourself clench around nothing. Matty can tell by your breathing that you’re close, so he grabs you by your hips to help you, moving you back and forth on his thigh, assisting in your rhythm. “Come on my thigh,” he demands in your ear; and you do. That white-hot pleasure you’ve been chasing since you saw your boyfriend on the red carpet this afternoon finally washes over you. But it’s not enough.

Matty takes his fingers out of your mouth but keeps you firm against him. As you come down from your high, you look at him in the mirror desperately. Your orgasm was, well, an orgasm, but you know it could be so much better if he would just fuck you.

“Matty please,” You whine, still making sweet eye contact, “Baby, I need more.”

Matty nods his head in the direction of the door. “Put your dress on, love,” You think you might cry, until he whispers in your ear, “I’m not done with you yet, princess.”

---------

Ahh!! Should I write a pt. two when the couple gets home?? Thank y'all for reading my first smut omfg I can't believe I did this...

[lol-jackles]

Kripke confirmed on the SPNpodcast that he's been trying to get Jared on The Boys and still hopes to do so by season five. My question is why this in any way benefits Jared, not just Kripke. I see Kripke trying to consolidate his "base" for future sales potential on projects. But for Jared? It's more a favor to a friend. And while Kripke has power, I'm not sure it would offset the damage to Jared's brand if it's a gross sort of part with scenes like Jensen had. Your thoughts on if it's worth it?

No I don’t think it’s worth it.  First, Jared doesn't need the exposure and it runs counter to his family-friendly brand.  Second, it’s topical and they get irrelevant really quick.  Third, it’s deconstructed media and people generally don’t remember them once the novelty wears off and people go back to feel-good timeless stories.  At best the deconstructed media ends up in the cult fringe category that is occasionally dug up by college hipsters to “prove” their edginess.  

If Kripke is serious about the SPN trifecta, then a mere cameo appearance by Jared won’t cut it, his TB character will need to have a semi-substantial purpose.  But Kripke had spent 9 months filming 8 episodes for season 4, and you know it’s not going to be better for season 5 unless Sony or Amazon brings down the hammer.    Jared is putting out there that he has producing projects outside of Walker so he won’t have time for TB if Kripke still plans to spend 9 months shooting season 5, which is supposed to start this month.

Personally, I think Kripke knows Jared has no interest in The Boys when he said Jared was too busy rangering to be part of The Winchesters.

[aimsarte]

September 30th 2023 I married the love of my life. 💖💍

I helped design a Toro Inoue and Kuro (Doko Demo Issyo) cake topper for the special day!

—

Cake topper by World Cake Topper 🎂 Photos by Always Timeless Weddings 📷 Kitties belong to Sony Interactive Entertainment🐱

[asgoodeasgold]

A broody C. S. Lewis as Sigmung Freud tests and unsettles him.

Again, can I say the photography is superb. It plays right into my obsession for chiaroscuro 🖤🤍. This shot in particular is stunning and beautifully showcases Matthew's timeless profile.

And broody Matthew, now I am in heaven!

📷 My edit from Sony Pictures Classics trailer of Freud's Last Session

Link to trailer

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Amazing 'Grace': How Australia Gave Jeff Buckley His Biggest Hit

23 August 2024 | 12:00 pm | Jeff Jenkins

“In that moment, Jeff Buckley became a superstar in Australia.”

“I’ve got something I’d like to play you,” the woman from the overseas label announced.

It’s the start of 1994, and I’m at a Sony sales conference on the Gold Coast. We’ve been running through the major priorities for the year – Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam and C+C Music Factory – when the representative from the company’s New York office mentions a new signing.

“I’ll play it during morning tea,” she says.

As she pressed play on the CD, you could hear a Mojo Pin drop. The Sony staff – music fans, grizzled music veterans and cynical indie types – were all united. No one had to say a word. The look on everyone’s face said it all: “This guy is special.”

In that moment, Jeff Buckley became a superstar in Australia.

Hearing him sing Hallelujah for the first time was a revelation. Nothing needed to be said. It was as if Sony’s Australian staff made a pact: we’re going to make this record a hit.

Jeff Buckley’s debut album, Grace, was released in the US 30 years ago today. The album’s Australian release came the following month, when Inpress editor Andrew Watt put Buckley on the cover and eloquently explained the album’s appeal. “Every now and then a new artist comes along whose sheer quality and artistic vision is so obvious that you just know you’re going to be listening to him for a long, long time.

“Grace is an album that seems so complete and so vivid in its expression that it’s almost an insult to try and deconstruct it and examine it to try and find out what makes it work.

“Probably the highest compliment that can be paid to Grace is that it’s timeless. It’s a brilliant album now, it would have been 10 years ago, and it will be in 10 years’ time.”

The record company bio that accompanied Grace had a section where the label listed what format it fitted. Grace ticked most of the boxes – alternative, AOR, easy listening, heavy metal, jazz, jazz/rock and “all other”. But Buckley responded: “That’s all just useless typing … everything it’s not, it is.

“What is it?” he added. “It’s just American music.”

And yet, Grace didn’t connect with American audiences. It peaked at number 149 in the US. Australia was the only country where it landed in the Top 10.

The American critics were initially unsure of what to make of the album. “Jeff Buckley sounds like a man who doesn’t yet know what he wants to be,” stated the three-star review in Rolling Stone.

John Encarnacao had no such reservations in his four-and-a-half-star review in Juice. “What kind of person wouldn’t like this disc?” he asked. “Maybe someone afraid of involvement. Or someone unprepared for music to penetrate their outer layers. Or anyone who rolls their eyes at the names Joni Mitchell, Neil Young or Sinead O’Connor. Grace is one of those sacred recordings.”

Grace received some play on US college radio but was shunned by the mainstream stations. “The songs were too long, and they didn’t have any hooks,” Buckley explained, relaying the complaints of the American radio programmers.

“It’s all a question of taste. I have no idea. I don’t know how their minds work, and if I ever do find out, I’ll hang myself from the nearest tree. I’m not really bitter about it at all.

“It’s a total crapshoot dealing with radio, so it doesn’t matter. Just so long as people come to the shows and enjoy it and get what they want, I can’t ask for more.”

And that’s exactly what Australians did – they embraced Buckley live. That first Jeff Buckley tour in 1995 is referred to in the same hushed, reverential tones as The Beatles’ 1964 visit and Nirvana’s shows in 1992.

You had to be there.

In Melbourne, Buckley did three shows at small venues – the Lounge, the Prince Patrick Hotel and the Athenaeum Theatre, as well as a set live to air on Triple R’s rooftop.

Lainey Wilson Has Never Been In It For The Awards: ‘I Want To Feel Something & I Want People To Feel Something’

Amazing 'Grace': How Australia Gave Jeff Buckley His Biggest Hit

23 August 2024 | 12:00 pm | Jeff Jenkins

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“In that moment, Jeff Buckley became a superstar in Australia.”

Jeff BuckleyJeff Buckley (Source: Supplied/'You And I' album cover)

More Jeff BuckleyMore Jeff Buckley

“I’ve got something I’d like to play you,” the woman from the overseas label announced.

It’s the start of 1994, and I’m at a Sony sales conference on the Gold Coast. We’ve been running through the major priorities for the year – Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam and C+C Music Factory – when the representative from the company’s New York office mentions a new signing.

“I’ll play it during morning tea,” she says.

As she pressed play on the CD, you could hear a Mojo Pin drop. The Sony staff – music fans, grizzled music veterans and cynical indie types – were all united. No one had to say a word. The look on everyone’s face said it all: “This guy is special.”

In that moment, Jeff Buckley became a superstar in Australia.

Hearing him sing Hallelujah for the first time was a revelation. Nothing needed to be said. It was as if Sony’s Australian staff made a pact: we’re going to make this record a hit.

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Jeff Buckley’s debut album, Grace, was released in the US 30 years ago today. The album’s Australian release came the following month, when Inpress editor Andrew Watt put Buckley on the cover and eloquently explained the album’s appeal. “Every now and then a new artist comes along whose sheer quality and artistic vision is so obvious that you just know you’re going to be listening to him for a long, long time.

“Grace is an album that seems so complete and so vivid in its expression that it’s almost an insult to try and deconstruct it and examine it to try and find out what makes it work.

“Probably the highest compliment that can be paid to Grace is that it’s timeless. It’s a brilliant album now, it would have been 10 years ago, and it will be in 10 years’ time.”

The record company bio that accompanied Grace had a section where the label listed what format it fitted. Grace ticked most of the boxes – alternative, AOR, easy listening, heavy metal, jazz, jazz/rock and “all other”. But Buckley responded: “That’s all just useless typing … everything it’s not, it is.

“What is it?” he added. “It’s just American music.”

And yet, Grace didn’t connect with American audiences. It peaked at number 149 in the US. Australia was the only country where it landed in the Top 10.

The American critics were initially unsure of what to make of the album. “Jeff Buckley sounds like a man who doesn’t yet know what he wants to be,” stated the three-star review in Rolling Stone.

John Encarnacao had no such reservations in his four-and-a-half-star review in Juice. “What kind of person wouldn’t like this disc?” he asked. “Maybe someone afraid of involvement. Or someone unprepared for music to penetrate their outer layers. Or anyone who rolls their eyes at the names Joni Mitchell, Neil Young or Sinead O’Connor. Grace is one of those sacred recordings.”

Grace received some play on US college radio but was shunned by the mainstream stations. “The songs were too long, and they didn’t have any hooks,” Buckley explained, relaying the complaints of the American radio programmers.

“It’s all a question of taste. I have no idea. I don’t know how their minds work, and if I ever do find out, I’ll hang myself from the nearest tree. I’m not really bitter about it at all.

“It’s a total crapshoot dealing with radio, so it doesn’t matter. Just so long as people come to the shows and enjoy it and get what they want, I can’t ask for more.”

And that’s exactly what Australians did – they embraced Buckley live. That first Jeff Buckley tour in 1995 is referred to in the same hushed, reverential tones as The Beatles’ 1964 visit and Nirvana’s shows in 1992.

You had to be there.

In Melbourne, Buckley did three shows at small venues – the Lounge, the Prince Patrick Hotel and the Athenaeum Theatre, as well as a set live to air on Triple R’s rooftop.

“His shows caused the biggest buzz in town since the Stones were here in March,” I wrote in Inpress.

I took my friend Nova Weetman to the Athenaeum show. She wrote about it in her recent book, Love, Death & Other Scenes. “I was down the front,” she recalled, “weeping as the strains of Hallelujah lifted us up.”

Buckley was a potent mix of Jackson Browne and Jimmy Page. He had the heart of a poet. And he could rock like a god. As one Rolling Stone live review said, “The punchline is, Jeff Buckley can get away with anything.”

Interviewing Buckley was no easy task. He seemed troubled, knowing that the interviewer would inevitably ask about his father.

Jeff’s mother, Mary, had been briefly married to a then-unknown Tim Buckley. When he was eight, Jeff spent a week with his dad; apart from that, he never knew him. Two months after that meeting, Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose.

The young Buckley loved record stores. “They’re a really emotional place,” he said. “All my life, I tried to work in one, but they never accepted me, and now I’m in them. I go to Tower Records and see all these lives in the bins.”

He noted the sad irony of his record being filed next to his father’s catalogue. “Separated all our lives, and now I’m right there in the bin next to him.”

David Browne, the author of Dream Brother, the biography of Jeff and Tim Buckley, noted that the younger Buckley “was painfully aware of the mistakes Tim had made in his life, and struggled to avoid them”, though “the weight of acclaim helped undo them both”.

That first Australian tour sent Grace into the Top 10. I remember a backstage scene when a Sony rep informed Buckley that the album had gone gold and was headed for platinum. “But do I really want that?” the artist responded.

In Sydney, he visited Bondi Beach at sunrise. “I tried to swim, but the water was too cold,” he smiled. “My nuts totally contracted into my body.”

Thirty years after it was released, Grace has gone eight-times platinum in Australia, and it remains a consistent seller.

Buckley returned in February 1996 for bigger shows, forging a rare connection with Australian audiences.

On the morning show on ABC radio in Melbourne, Raf Epstein has a popular segment called Changing Tracks, where a listener talks about a song that was playing at a pivotal moment in their life.

Recently, Julie recounted her memories of driving down Puckle Street in Moonee Ponds in September 1995. “I was listening to triple j,” she wrote. “I had just given birth to my only daughter … and I was in a loveless marriage. I was feeling extremely emotional and desperate. My husband had not wanted to be a father and was reluctant to involve himself in parenting.”

Like Tim Buckley decades before, Julie’s husband said, “I don’t want this.”

She realised she would be better off on her own.

“Listening to the radio that morning, I heard Jeff Buckley for the first time,” Julie continued. “Singing with a lilting, powerful, emotionally charged voice, he seemed to soothe my pain, and it lifted me out of the hole I had found myself in. I bought the CD that day, and his music supported me through probably the worst 12 months of my life.

“Every time I hear Jeff singing, he reminds me of the strength I found in the most vulnerable time in my life. For that, I am grateful.”

In that first interview with Inpress, Buckley revealed his desire to write a new American national anthem. “I hate the national anthem,” he declared. “The song itself is about having kicked somebody’s arse in war with bombs and stuff. Someday, there will be a [new] song, and hopefully, if I live into old age, I’ll make a stab at it.

“That will be my crowning achievement if I can replace that awful thing called the national anthem.”

He also said he hoped that Grace would be timeless. “If I make it into old age, I’d like to be able to visit it and have it still be true. The things I love the best are very timeless.”

Buckley highlighted Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Duke Ellington and Allen Ginsberg. His favourite Ginsberg poem was Kaddish, which includes the line:

And how Death is that remedy all singers dream of.

Sadly, Jeff Buckley didn’t make it to old age. On May 29, 1997, while in Memphis working on the follow-up to Grace, he went for a swim in the Wolf River. His body was found on June 4.

Jeff Buckley never got to write that new national anthem. But one of his wishes came true: Grace is timeless.

In that first Australian interview, Buckley mused about his second album. “I’ll make an album that’s so not me,” he predicted. “But it will be me.” He even revealed he had a title for the record: My Sweetheart The Drunk.

The posthumous album Sketches for My Sweetheart The Drunk was released the year after Buckley’s passing.

“The songs that would have been My Sweetheart The Drunk (as well as all the other recorded material he left behind) are the true ‘remains’ of Jeff Buckley, not the speck of dust that was pulled out of the Wolf River,” his mother Mary Guibert said.

The Sketches album entered the Australian charts at number one. It was Buckley’s first number-one anywhere in the world.

Guibert also compiled the 2000 live album Mystery White Boy, which included five songs from the Palais Theatre in St Kilda, as well as Buckley’s cover of Big Star’s Kanga-Roo, recorded at Sydney’s Phoenician Club.

The great tragedy of Jeff Buckley and the modern music business is that Grace was his only completed album.

In the liner notes for Sketches, Bill Flanagan wrote: “If the music business ran in the ’90s as it did in the ’60s, Jeff would have had five albums out … But Jeff loved searching more than arriving.”

By the time Tim Buckley died, aged 28, he had released nine studio albums. Jeff, who died at 30, released just one.

But then, we were blessed to have experienced Jeff Buckley’s genius. One perfect album and some magical live shows.

Hallelujah.

[r0z0]

Gin Gagamaru's music taste headcanons!

I would say he does listen to mainstream music, but the 2000's type of music.

Of course he knows what's popular now, it's just not his cup of tea.

He likes the classics that probably everyone knows.

It gives the 'ride with your parents to your holiday destination at 3 a.m.'.

He also enjoys some timeless hits, such as Modern Talking and ABBA.

As for the bands on his playlist, it's literally every single music genre known to human.

I would have him classified as Deftones boy, but in this lonely way. Due to him living away from society in his little forest.

He also listens to TV Girl, but does not know that some of the lyrics are showing extreme misogony and how bad society can get when it comes to women.

Your average Oingo Boingo enjoyer, which means he is the 'kind of weird, kind of cool' friend.

Likes Ghost, but has never seen any of their music videos — bless his "innocent" soul.

Would also love Red Hot Chili Peppers. Scar Tissue is one of his fave songs, due to his ear being ripped and him almost losing to the bear.

He enjoys Gorillaz and Daft Punk, but does not listen to them often.

Also knows The Weeknd, Tame Impala.

Got to know Air afer he watched the Virgin $uicide$ movie. He finds it confusing because be never was a 14 year old girl.

He has Mother Mother saved up on his playlist, but only listens to it when he is in specific mood.

Radiohead listener. Nothing else, just a weirdo.

Also loves Pink Floyd. I just have the feeling yk.

He loves the soundtrack from 'Hercules'. Knows every song's lyrics by heart.

He grew up with Disney, so he knows more movies.

Definitiely has a Hercules poster in his room and other stuff related to that movie.

Owns these 2005's type stereos and has a stack of CD's right next to it.

Had a walkman is some point of his life, now he just owns some JBL or Sony wireless headphones.

Music is not a big part of his life, but he does listen to it very often.

Loves cleaning and doing his homework to Pitbull music.

Reference pictures (Pinterest) :

[thatastrobae]

I'm late posting this, but Happy Black Love month! Here's a nostalgic flowerbyte/jeffrio fic.

art credits go to @juicetea_ via tiktok

[arthuriouslife]

Sony PS-LX310BT Turntable with Bluetooth

Enjoy timeless vinyl in modern quality with this Sony wireless turntable. Bluetooth connectivity pushes high-quality audio to wireless speakers and headphones, while a built-in phono audio output ensures wired devices can be connected as well. 

$248 on Amazon

[blazehedgehog]

What do you think of the Horizon series?

I'm sure they're fine. They sound fun. They look fun. But there's also this weird vibe where they are maybe the most "Here is a shrine we built to spending a lot of money."

There's this sense that Horizon games kind of "fake" being important. They fall in to a specific archetype of open world game but never really set any standards or really evolve the genre or have much lasting impact beyond the standard six month release window.

Like, I'm still seeing people sharing Breath of the Wild videos of crazy things they pull off in that game. They never stopped. That game came out in 2017 and regardless of how close or far away the sequel was, people have always been buzzing about Breath of the Wild.

Same might be true Elden Ring. That game's over a year old and people are still doing weird things with it. It still has a presence.

I mean, heck, people are still doing wild things in GTA5, and that game is like a decade old!

Neither of the two Horizon games have that kind of presence. They came out, the mainstream said "yea that's good" and then moved on. Nobody in my purview is like "yeah guys I really love Horizon Zero Dawn so let's start a weird gimmick run where I try something new."

Which is fine. Games don't always have to shake the pillars of heaven. You can just be a regular old " good game" and that's okay.

But Aloy gets treated like this big important ambassador of a titanic Sony game franchise. I remember when Fortnite started doing game crossovers, we got Master Chief, Kratos, Lara Croft, Ryu and Chun-li, and then the next big character was... Aloy.

Who, at the time, only had one game to her name. And Fortnite was putting her in the "Gaming Legends" series next to people with decades of success behind them.

And now, y'know, there's a Genshin Impact crossover, there's all this merch, and she's on the cover of Vanity Fair... and it's like, really? For Horizon? The robot dinosaur game?

Like I said, I'm sure they're good games. I'm not doubting that. But they're not industry defining. They're not really risk taking. But they're being treated that way, when I have a hard time seeing Horizon being this timeless, eternal franchise with much staying power past, say, a third game.

It'd be like if Fortnite added, I dunno, Cole from inFamous as a "gaming legend." Like, in 2023, you're like "Who? Why?"

Horizon's popularity feels forced to some degree just because they throw a lot of money at it, but if it wasn't for that, it wouldn't get nearly as much hype or merchandise. And it's weird to realize that.

I have no immediate desire to play either of them.

[spider-xan]

Okay, so I just got out of the Spider-Man 2 (2004) special screening, which is the first time I have seen it in a movie theatre since the original release twenty years ago (Sony, stop being stingy with the rep theatre screening rights), and I have a LOT of thoughts I want to think about before I share them, but the short version is that it's amazing how well this movie holds up after two decades and how even after watching it so many times during those years, I still came away with new thoughts and observations - some of which are due to seeing some things through the lens of what came after, but even just on its own, there's just so much in there.

For sure age and maturity is part of it too bc I was a teenager when it came out and now I'm an adult, and some of the things I read one way as a kid, I see very differently now as an adult with more life experience - especially the Peter and MJ romantic conflict, which honestly feels much better written than a lot of people give it credit for.

The other thing that struck me is how on the one hand, it very much feels like a superhero from the 2000s, at the same time, it felt timeless and not at all dated, and I think that's largely bc Raimi leaned into the comic book camp and avoided references like contemporary tech and pop culture that date media, which was also why the eBay reference was kind of jarring.

[tinseltine]

LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH | Filmmaker Dawn Porter | Documentary

When I look at the covers of these albums I get a good, warm feeling in my heart.  These were the songs I grew up on. My sister, LeVonne and I were Luther nutz! Seeing him in concert every time he stepped foot into Philly. We started being fans around the ages of 12 and 14. Even as a kid I realized my musical taste was rather mature, we loved the same artists Luther loved – Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Aretha. There’s nothing throwaway or bubble gum pop with these artists, and Luther had that same ability to create lasting, timeless music.  As big a fan as I was/am, I can’t say I really knew much about his personal life.  I mean it was always a question as to his being gay or straight, which is addressed in the doc. Philly’s own, Patti outs him, but his closest friends and collaborators, who he’d known since high school: Fonzi Thornton, Robin Clark, Carlos Alomar continue to respect his privacy on the matter.  If he was gay, and most-likely he was, it’s even sadder that he didn’t live long enough to say F*ck it!  I’m me and I love who I love.  But I do understand that his main concern was how his mother would react.  I feel like over half of my life decisions were based on what I thought my mother would say if I did this or that. Giving undo deference to a parent can keep you hovering low to the ground.

There’s plenty of performance clips, including when the NAACP Honored Dionne, and Luther serenaded her but good with “A House is Not A Home”. Niles Rodgers is interviewed, of course, is there a music doc that doesn’t call upon him to be a talking head? Another usual suspect is Music Journalist Danyel Smith, she’s funny when she talks about the difference between Motown and the Sound of Philly – “Motown is formality – we’re matching and in by midnight vs. Sound of Philly is come as you are and scream a bit”. Jamie Foxx is a producer of the film and provides his Luther vocal impressions. Jon Platt Chairman/CEO, Sony Music Publishing is interviewed along with Clive Davis and Mariah Carey. 

How did I not know that Luther Vandross wrote “Can You See A Brand New Day” from The Wiz, what!?! And I either forgot or never knew about the devastating car accident that killed one of his close friends, which he pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and just barely avoided prison time. That seemed truly a breaking point in his life, triggering the returning weight, as he always admitted to being an emotional eater. As would be expected, a good bit of the doc covers the struggles he had with yoyoing weight and diabetes. It’s hard to think of him without the thoughts of fat Luther vs. thin Luther? But Porter’s overall theme is to capture his musical talent and the career goals he met before leaving us all too soon.

This part is not in the doc. but I found out the Luther Vandross Foundation, which provides financial assistance to students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), is managed by The Philadelphia Foundation!

[backup-baby-backup]

any theories about how the speak now tv tracklist is going to look? I'm confused

So my running theory is

1-14. Regular Speak Now

15. Ours

16. Superman

17-22. The following songs, in some order:

Castles Crumbling

Someone Just Told Me

His Lies

Wonderful Things

I Can See You

Let's Go

This is based on the fact that there are 9 Speak Now-era unreleased self-written songs registered in the Sony/ATV catalogue (the above six plus Bother Me, Foolish One and Timeless), but if you look through the GEMA repertoire there's an interesting thing where the first six songs have multiple entries*, but the three songs only have one. I don't know what that exactly means, but it leaves us with exactly six vault tracks so there's that. Also no Drama Queen because that's a Martin Johnson cowrite.

*FYI a brief search shows that all the Fearless vault tracks have multiple entries as well

Anyway I can't wait for Taylor to prove me completely wrong with her silly little purple washing machine!

[tweetybyrd21]

HAPPY 35th ANNIVERSARY TO THE MAGNIFICENT DEBUT ALBUM OF ALL TIME..... IN EFFECT MODE!!!! Released on this day May 3, 1988. The first soundtrack of my life!!!! The classic ALL TIME tune Nite and Day will ALWAYS be the the most cherished favorite song of mine.

SERIOUSLY cannot believe that this beloved gem of an spectacular album is 35 years young!!!! Seems like yesterday this album was fresh and new& selling off every record store shelves by the dozens across the Globe.

To see this young handsome man from Money Earnin' Mt. Vernon NY step out on the scene as the new kid on the block, win the Sony Innovator award, numerous no.1 hits on the Billboard charts, sold out concerts worldwide, numerous award wins and nominations, certified triple platinum album, massive TV show appearances etc. This man has truly honed his craft for the Love of R&B 35+ years and became the greatest architect of the New Jack Swing Era!!! And is a living testimony that God has created to tell his story and teach the new generation for many years to come.

@officialalbsure CONGRATS on a TRUE, TIMELESS, CATAPULTING INNOVATED NATIONAL TREASURE that would eventually become the GREATEST debut album of ALL TIME!!! This album will always be a gem to me and the millions and millions of Al Beez fans alk over the world!!! KUDOS TO YOU BELOVED!!!🎉🎉🎊🎊👏🏾👏🏾🥂🥂❤❤

#AlBSure #InEffectMode #NiteAndDay #OffOnYourOwn #RescueMe #NewJackSwing #80s