#tannen records

[diana-andraste]

Francesco Chiacchio

Midnight Lilacs + Marc Ribot - Tannen Records, 2013

[doctorbrown]

MCFLY JULY ‘24 ⸺ 「 31 / 31 * PEPSI FREE — ACROSS TIME 」

[timechange]

MCFLY JULY ‘24 — “don’t need money, don’t take fame.”

APRIL 28, 2011

“Dad?”

Marty is never, ever gonna get tired of hearing that. He immediately stops, setting his pen down and the freshly signed CDs aside and giving his full attention to Emmett, who is hanging around the doorway like he still isn’t sure, after almost thirteen years, if he’s allowed to come in.

“Hey, kiddo,” Marty greets warmly, his son flashing him a small smile. “What’s goin’ on?”

Emmett looks around before stepping inside, and Marty is reminded of when Ellie, after input from Jules and Verne, assigned everyone animals when she was nine. Uncle Doc’s a mantis shrimp, she’d proclaimed, Auntie Clara’s a bear, Dad’s a whale, Mom’s a raven, and Emmett’s a pangolin! While he’s not sure about the rest of her picks, her choice for her brother… Yeah, at times like this he can see the resemblance.

“Dad…” he tries again. “Dad, did we ruin your life?”

Marty’s kind of glad his abject, heart shattering horror at that statement coming from his son outweighs his impulse to laugh in disbelief at a statement that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Of course not,” he reassures, opening his arms just in case his boy didn’t feel like he was too big for a hug. His son folds himself into him, burying his head in his shoulder. “The day you and Ellie were born,” Marty tells him, rubbing his back, “was pretty much the best day of my life.”

“…Even though Mom almost broke your hand?” Emmett asks, voice muffled, and Marty laughs.

“Yeah, even then. Y’know, if I could go back,” which he could, but his boy didn’t need to know that right yet, “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Emmett starts to pull away and Marty lets him go, but still holds him at arm’s length.

“Now,” father asks son, “where’s all this coming from, huh? You’re not hanging around that Tannen kid again, are you?”

Emmett’s face twists in disgust.

“No, Dad, are you nuts? That whole family’s crazy.”

“Attaboy,” Marty says proudly.

“...I found some of your old concert videos on YouTube,” Emmett finally admits. “And Dad… you look like you’re havin’ the time of your life. How come you gave it all up? It was because of us, wasn’t it?” His brown eyes are big and watery and Marty squeezes his shoulders.

“Aw, Em,” Marty sighs. “I had a blast on tour, you’re right. Hangin’ out with the guys, getting to see the world… It was a lot of fun for a while, but when it stopped being fun, we quit. And I have a blast here, too, with you and your sister and your mom. If you ask me… that right there’s the adventure of a lifetime. I love music, and I’m always gonna play music, but it was never about any kinda fame or fortune for me.” What would superstardom be like? He can barely keep up with the merch and the interviews and the producers and the long nights at the recording studios and the music videos as it is. He’d hate being so far away from home, never getting a moment’s peace, never being able to breathe.

“Then… what was it about?” Emmett asks.

“Believing in myself,” Marty says after a moment of thought. “Getting my voice heard. Y’know, I was a lot like you when I was your age.”

“Really?” Emmett breathes, awestruck, as if unable to conceive such a thing. “But everybody says you’re like Ellie.”

“And I am.” It takes the wind out of him sometimes, how similar he and his daughter are. She’s just as fiery, just as creative, just as stubborn. Everyone’s always thought that, just like how people have always compared Emmett to Jennifer. But when he looks at his daughter, so often he sees his wife’s determination and intelligence, and when he looks at his son… sometimes he has to double check he’s not in the DeLorean.

“But I’m also like you, Em. It’s hard as hell being a kid, y’know? I remember. You got so many ideas and so many thoughts and you feel like you’re in this world that you don’t really understand yet and that’s gonna shoot you down every chance it gets. I just wanted somebody to see me, but that’s a scary thing. I tried real hard to pretend like I was tough and to make like I wasn’t afraid of anything… but I was terrified, kid. Still am, sometimes.” Marty rubs the back of his neck. “What I’m trying to say is, it’s okay not to be sure of yourself yet, and it’s okay to be open about your feelings. And whenever you wanna talk, I’m here for you, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Got it?”

“Got it.” Emmett smiles and hugs him again. “I love you, Dad.”

“Love you too. So damn much.” Marty kisses the top of his son’s head and ruffles his dirty blond hair, which is immediately greeted with protest.

[bttf-dork]

So I was thinking more about a No Pines and Twin Pines Marty team up and this is what I’ve got so far. All credit goes to @bg-sparrow for the No Pines timeline!!

Twin Pines Marty wakes up and noticed things wrong with the timeline (objects disappearing, small changes in peoples’ demeanor, etc.) up to the point where Doc disappears and no one seems to remember him

Twin Pines Marty goes back to 1931 based on the changes in the timeline (no written record of Doc past young adulthood, George and Lorraine don’t remember a Doc Brown living in town, etc.) and Doc’s initial disappearance during BTTF: The Game

Twin Pines Marty makes it back to 1931 right before the DeLorean disappears from existence and encounters No Pines Marty

Twin Pines Marty and No Pines Marty have met before, from when No Pines called the terrorists in 1985 and Twin Pines intervened to stop him. They are on very bad terms

1931 Doc runs into both of them before they can get a serious altercation, and Twin Pines introduces No Pines as his weird cousin

1931 Doc immediately gets along with No Pines Marty (like all Martys in every timeline) and No Pines hates it

Twin Pines figures out through conversation that No Pines is on good terms with Kid Tannen’s gang, and logically deduces (partly from No Pines calling the terrorists on Twin Pines Doc in the past) that No Pines tipped the Tannen gang off to where 1931 Doc was after he inadvertently got Kid arrested, and the Tannen gang killed him

Twin Pines Marty punches No Pines in the face

Twin Pines and No Pines Marty start disappearing, since without Doc their timelines fall apart as well

No Pines reluctantly teams up with Twin Pines and 1931 Doc to fight off Kid Tannen and his gang

Twin Pines Marty punches No Pines in the face at least one more time while they’re helping Doc

Twin Pines and No Pines don’t really get along any better by the end of things, but No Pines at least understands why he can’t keep trying to kill Doc. So that’s progress (I guess)

[dragonsarecool]

June of Doom Day 8 - Prisoner Trade

A/N: Instead of trying to hang the stranger, Buford decides to use him to bargain for a fellow gang member's life. An alternate version of Part III.

If he didn't have white hair already, Doc knew today would've been the day he earned it.

He'd emerged from his workshop for a mid-morning stroll to clear his mind from the smoke of his furnace, only to be surprised at the number of officers swarming the town square. They were stopping almost everyone they passed by, asking questions about something that the rest of the town had seemingly witnessed. Some were eager to talk, others appeared traumatised by the experience. "You'd think the president himself had come to town or somethin'," Chester had joked, pouring Doc a glass of water. "Didn't make for great viewin', in my opinion."

"Mind letting me in on the secret?" Doc inquired.

"Did you seriously miss it?" The bartender chuckled before realising Doc was serious. "You must've been buried in that shop of yours to miss Tannen and his gang stormin' around!"

"Tannen?! What the hell was he doing here?" Bastard still owes me money!

"Didn't even get to find that bit out!" Chester lamented, throwing his hands up. "They'd just come in here and were harassin' me when this kid walks in, and before I know it there's bullets flyin' all over my bar, and they gots so cheesed off with him that Buford knocks his lights out before carryin' him off to God knows!"

Oh God. "A kid? How old?! What'd he look like?!" He didn't care that he was babbling an unusual set of questions; if it was who he thought it was, then his situation was about to escalate quickly.

Chester was too busy wiping down the counter to notice the scientist's sudden change in demeanour. "Young-ish lookin' lad…I'd say twenty at most? Had the strangest clothing I've ever seen; some sort of ugly pink suit with frills. Thought I was dreamin' at first, 'cause he looks so much like Seamus that I thought it was a relative of his-"

The rest of the bartender's words faded as Doc abruptly slammed into the floor.

Damn that kid…

****

"…didn't even have a drink today, just the water!"

Doc's head was swimming, the timber of the saloon ceiling gradually coming into focus. Strange, I don't remember having any-

His brain seemed to come alight, with one emotional thought after the other bombarding his cerebral cortex. Great Scott! Marty!

First the damn kid disobeys my explicit wishes and comes back here, endangering the space time continuum even further. And then he has to go and get himself kidnapped by the most notorious outlaw in California!

I'd almost say this was an achievement of some kind…

"Emmett? You with us?"

Doc groaned as he accepted a hand from Chester to extract himself from the floor of the bar, trying not to think of how much dirt and grime he'd been lying in. He decided he could waste no time in denying his extreme reaction, and wracked his brain for a cover-up story while ignoring the shocked stares from concerned patrons. "The boy who was taken-"

"Yeah, why the hell were you so alarmed?" Chester laughed. "He's not a secret son of yours you've been hidin', is he?"

Doc shook his head, giving the bartender the most serious expression he could muster. "He's my nephew."

Chester's jovial manner quickly disappeared, replaced with embarrassment. "Oh. M-My apologies, Emmett-"

"No need, Chester. You couldn't have known. I was expecting him to visit, but…" Doc rubbed his forehead. "It seems he's arrived earlier than I anticipated."

He tipped his hat to the bartender before marching out of the saloon, his steely eyes locked on to Strickland's office. Marty's obviously managed to come back here for a reason, and I'm sure this wasn't part of his plan…

Marty McFly, you are not allowed to become another statistic in Buford Tanner's criminal record.

****

Guess I'm a danger-prone damsel at this point.

The coarse rope fibres had already begun cutting into his wrists, the thickness of his shirt apparently being inadequate to protect his skin. Though they weren't tight enough to restrict blood flow, it was enough that he had to keep prompting himself to flex his fingers to prevent them from tingling. He could already feel the thick layer of dirt and grime that had begun forming under his fingernails, and his palms stung from stopping his face from being smashed along the ground, though whether his pounding headache was from Seamus's fence or Buford's pistol whip, he couldn't tell.

A high-pitched sneeze flew from his face, prompting a bout of laughter from his captors on the far side of the campsite. Marty growled quietly to himself, trying to shuffle away from the flowers of the bush he currently occupied. Damn allergies…Haha, yeah. This is hilarious, Tannen.

He kept unconsciously biting into the sooty rag that had been roughly shoved in his mouth, frustrated that his attempts to spit it out were quickly stopped by a second cloth being secured around his head. All of his protests and threats towards the outlaw had been reduced to pathetic squeaks, which embarrassed him so much that he decided to stay silent and stare despondently at the leaves surrounding him. This is just humiliating. I feel like a trussed-up chicken.

Once he'd been dragged onto Buford's horse and whisked into the outskirts of town, he'd rapidly accepted the ever-growing prospect of his death; Tannen was going to take him out into the desert and make sure his body was never found. There would be no record of his death, or of his existence in this time period at all, and his family would go on in the future without knowing where their youngest boy had disappeared to.

Or so he'd thought. The fact he was still alive with no bullet holes in his flesh was almost mind-boggling. What the hell could he use me for? He doesn't even know my name! Maybe he'll just beat me up for shits and giggles and then just let me go…

Marty wasn't stupid when it came to westerns. He'd watched enough of these fictionalised hostage situations to know that a bit of roughing up and some rope was expected with being kidnapped by an outlaw - especially by one as ruthless as Tannen. What he hadn't expected, however, was Buford possessing a couple of extra braincells than the villains he'd seen on TV. There had been no interrogations, no clues given away and no opportunities for him to ask what was going to happen to him.

The rest of Tannen's criminals had barely spoken two words to him since they'd snatched him from the front of the courthouse, apart from telling him to shut up a few times during the lengthy ride out of town. Once they'd arrived at their current campsite, they'd quickly restrained and dragged him into his current hiding spot, which Marty had worked out was very deliberate. Even if the sheriff found his way here, they'd assume I wasn't here…

Damn my genetics. Dave would be sticking well out of the top of this bush.

He couldn't seem to find a comfortable position, though he mostly attributed this to the lack of a tree to lean against. To pass the time he'd twisted and contorted his body into various positions, desperate to take the strain off of his back without having to lie flat in the dirt. He could hear the rest of Buford's group taunting him from their seats around the campfire, though most of the time their conversations were quiet enough that he couldn't make out anything. At one point he thought he'd heard them muttering about a prisoner, but whether or not they meant him specifically was up for debate.

Wonder if I was meant to be one of the twelve men Tannen said he killed…

Marty's body involuntarily shivered. He forced his torso upright and lifted his head as high as he could above the bush, blinking in surprise at the beginnings of inky blackness enveloping the horizon. Is it that late already?

"Ay, it's Buford!"

Marty's head snapped up. Tannen? He squinted in the twilight as the telltale sounds of a horse and its pissed-off rider came charging towards the campsite. He's been gone for hours! What on earth was he doing?

"You're back, boss!"

Tannen roughly dismounted his horse, huffing as he pushed past his eager crowd of welcomers towards the campfire. He snatched a half-eaten bowl of stew, ignoring the dismayed sighs from one of the goons as he drank the rest of the meal. "…That sheriff is a gutless coward!"

"W-Why, uh, why do you say that, Buford?" The shortest gang member asked nervously.

Buford wiped his mouth on his grotty sleeve, the thunder in obvious in his face. "He's agreed to give us Ryans back, but he's not gonna release him until he sees the runt is alive!"

Marty couldn't help but scoff. What did you expect, dumbass? The sheriff isn't dumb enough to let you make the rules.

"So we're not gonna dump the kid here then?" The soup-less gang member asked, still eyeing his stolen meal. "He's comin' with us to get Ryans tomorrow?"

"If we wanna see Ryans again, we have to bring him!" Buford snapped.

An resounding chorus of disappointment echoed throughout the campsite, as did various complaints and expressions of frustration. One gang member said something about having the noose already prepared; another commented how it wasn't a good week without a dead hostage.

If he'd seen this exchange on TV, Marty swore he probably would've laughed. But he suddenly found being at the centre of this particular discussion was anything but funny.

"But," Buford tossed aside the empty bowl, "it doesn't mean I'm gonna give up the kid without a fight!"

The gang member's moans were quickly replaced with triumphant cheers and clinking bottles, though Marty was distracted by the sight of Tannen slowly making his way towards him. Shit shit shit, don't tell me he's gonna strangle me now or something!

Tannen knelt in the dirt next to his captive before grabbing him by the chin, his uncut and filthy fingernails digging into Marty's skin. The young man found himself staring directly in Buford's eyes, the familiar psychotic smirk that he'd come to associate with the family sending panicked chills down his spine.

Of all the Tannens he'd met up, Buford was by far the one he feared most.

Even the law couldn't stop him. What hope did he have that Doc could?

"You're damn lucky, runt," Buford whispered menacingly. "Sheriff tells me you're the blacksmith's kid. Means I have to keep you alive if I wanna see my man get released."

Marty couldn't help but let his eyes widen. Doc! He knows I'm here?!

Tannen suddenly tightened his grip on Marty's face, chuckling at the frightened squeak his captive made in surprise. "Hopefully I still get to kill ya anyway."

The teenager stared in disbelief as the outlaw dropped him and walked away, his chest tight with emotion. He tried to curl in on himself, though it did nothing to stop the goosebumps from rising, or his aching stomach from growling. That soup looked super shitty, but damn I wouldn't mind some right now…

He ultimately found his tears to be warmer than the rest of his body and welcomed them gladly.

I just wanna go home…

[oflowtides]

⸻  JACK QUAID. HE/HIM / have you ever heard of SATURDAY by fall out boy, well, it describes FINCH FLETCHER to a tee! the twenty eight year old, and CASHIEER AT RIGHT ROUND RECORDS was spotted browsing through the stalls at portobello road market last sunday, do you know them? would you say HE is more self deprecating or more APPROACHABLE instead? anyway, they remind me of soft conversations at loud parties, an extremely specific way to organize records, a yearning for 70s music culture and doing what you know is right, maybe you’ll bump into them soon!

time in notting hill: one year

Dealt a bad hand from the start, Finch opted not to think too hard about his childhood. His mother insisted some famous band member was his father, and he spent a lot of time traveling around with her as she followed bands around, often being left in situations where he could have been kidnapped or worse. He remembered vague snippets of a tumultuous life before he was suddenly alone, unsure of where his mother had gone, or if she was even alive.

Entering the foster care system was not easy; Finch had a lot of attachment issues, and was fussy for much longer than one would expect someone his age to be. Most foster families weren’t exactly willing to take in such a difficult kid, and that’s how he wound up in a group home and met Copeland.

The two were kindred spirits, in a way; while all Copeland wanted to do was read and focus on school, Finch just wanted to listen to music. The two often spent time in the same room, her reading and him with large headphones on, just enjoying each others quiet company. School was annoying, but he pushed through it despite it all.

Tannen was a huge wrench in Finch’s world, disrupting the one attachment he felt he could rely on, and while he wanted Copeland to be happy, he struggled immensely with the fact that she was changing and snuck out all the time. Needing something to pour his time and energy into, he picked up guitar lessons, deciding that his calling in life was to be in a band.

When Copeland left, Finch felt his entire world tilted aggressively to the left, upending any stability he had. He soon aged out of the group home and bounced from minimum wage job to minimum wage job, making just enough to afford a place and his guitar lessons, focusing solely on getting good enough to try to audition for a band.

The time without Copeland was hard, and while he didn’t hear from her often - she did try to reach out to him when she could. Clearly Tannen was bad for her, but there wasn’t much he could have said to change her mind. He just had to let things run its course, and while he was devastated to hear that he never had her best interest at heart to begin with, he was glad she was free to be her own person again.

He couldn’t even really tell you how he stumbled across his half brother; it was definitely by chance, but there were odd resemblances; he could see pieces of his mother in him (or maybe it was a reflection of his own features, he couldn’t really tell), and that tipped him down a hole of trying to figure out how he could meet up with this guy and talk to him.

Hearing that Copeland had moved to Notting Hill - the place his potential half brother also lived - Finch spent very little time packing up the few things he owed and relocating, hoping to find the answers he was looking for and relive the better parts of their childhoods by living nearby again.

Finch is a very sweet, albeit awkward guy who tends to form attachments a little too quickly but also get distressed when things change or the feelings aren’t returned. He’s a pretty talented guitarist, though he has very little faith in his own abilities, and still finds extreme solace in music, having extensive knowledge on just about any genre you could ask him about, which is why he got a job at the record store. He’s still on the hunt for Halford Stone, and while he’s not sure if finding him will bring him any real sense of blood family, having Copeland and Addison is as much family as he needs.

[thepengweeno1andonly]

Today, I took a call at work to the most lovley lesbian couple, and they are new to my area, so they were having a side convo about their chest nut tree. The main lady I spoke to said something like yea cause the nuts from chestnut trees are pecans, which created a record scratch moment in my arborist brain, so I very abruptly went. WHAT? which led to an entire convo about trees and how their crack pot neighbor said they couldn't eat the nuts from the tree which is not true which led to me telling them most trees that say don't eat the nut usually mean don't eat until they've gone through a toxic tannen removal process which led to me recommending them my favorite tree youtuber (justinthetrees if you were wondering) all this to say. I am not chatty at work. I don't like speaking with people. I don't know about anything, really. I don't even like my job. But I do like talking about trees maybe too much. And that is autistic masking in a.......nutshell 🤗

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 883: Voting and Loathsome Characters

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: We’re talking about what you’re signing on for. If you support Trump or vote for Trump or vote for anybody but Biden, really, because a vote for anybody but Biden works in Trump’s favour. Back to the Future came out in about ’83, maybe, plus two sequels throughout the rest of the ’80s. The main villain in the movie, a character named Biff Tannen, looks and acts a…

[docrotten]

THE RETURN OF DRACULA (1958) – Episode 136 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“There is only one reality, Rachel, and that is death. I bring you death, a living death.” Living death? Oxymorons abound in vampire flicks. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Chad Hunt, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, and Jeff Mohr, along with guest host Dave Dreher – as they take in this alternative version of the bloodthirsty Count as depicted in director Paul Landres’s The Return of Dracula (1958).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 136 – The Return of Dracula (1958)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL, which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

After a vampire leaves his native Balkans, he murders a Czech artist, assumes his identity, and moves in with the dead man’s American cousins.

  Director: Paul Landres

Writers: Pat Fielder (story) (screenplay)

Music by: Gerald Fried

Selected Cast:

Francis Lederer as Bellac Gordal / Count Dracula

Norma Eberhardt as Rachel Mayberry

Ray Stricklyn as Tim Hansen

John Wengraf as John Meierman

Virginia Vincent as Jennie Blake

Gage Clarke as Reverend Whitfield

Jimmy Baird as Mickey Mayberry

Greta Granstedt as Cora Mayberry

Enid Yousen as Frieda

Charles Tannen as Mack Bryant (uncredited)

William Fawcett as Eddie – Station Master (uncredited)

Belle Mitchell as Cornelia (uncredited)

The Return of Dracula, from Gramercy Pictures and United Artists, was chosen by Dave Dreher because of the effect it had on him while watching at his grandmother’s house as a young boy. He was mesmerized by the silhouette of a man with just his eyes bathed in light. The silhouetted man, the hand coming out of the coffin, the coffin filled with smoke, and other haunting images became the keystone of what he thinks of as classic horror and motivated him to go back and watch the Universal Horror offerings. To this day, he still holds The Return of Dracula in high regard.

Daphne describes the film as “wonderful.” She loves the ordinary folks placed in this bizarre situation and atmosphere and applauds Francis Lederer’s performance as the devilish, but debonair Count. Chad describes The Return of Dracula as answering the question, what if we dropped Dracula into the middle of a 1950s sitcom? From the outside, the film looks like a throwaway Dracula movie, but it is amazingly well-written by Pat Fielder and is well worth a watch. He describes Francis Lederer’s performance as stealing the show. He really believed this charismatic and magnetic personality as this evil slimy villain against the dichotomy of this wholesome family backdrop. You might think The Return of Dracula is a bit lame if you’re not paying attention, according to Jeff, but he too loves Francis Lederer as well as the family dynamics and the great character actors. Topping it off is the excellent writing from Pat Fielder.

Anyone viewing or listening to a podcast on classic horror will most certainly enjoy The Return of Dracula. At the time of this writing, the film can be streamed from Dailymotion or a Vudu PPV option and is available on physical media as an Olive Films Blu-ray.

Please check out these Decades of Horror: The Classic Era’s podcasts on other vampire movies:

DRACULA (1931) – Episode 20

NOSFERATU (1922) – Episode 21

VAMPYR (1932) – Episode 55

CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1959) – Episode 73

(HORROR OF) DRACULA (1958) – Episode 109

SON OF DRACULA (1943) – Episode 132

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule and chosen by guest host Richard Klemensen, the owner and publisher of Little Shoppe of Horrors: The Journal of Classic British Horror Films, will be Hammer’s The Brides of Dracula (1960). Also joining us will be Alistair Hughes, author and illustrator of Infogothic: An Unauthorised Graphic Guide to Hammer Horror and frequent illustrator for Little Shoppe of Horrors. This should be a fun episode. You won’t want to miss it!

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for listening!”

Check out this episode!

[musicmakesyousmart]

Stefano Pilia - Blind Sun New Century Christology

Tannen Records

2015

[lamiaprigione]

Non chiedermi se canto Forza Italia o no

Da 24 anni senti come suona sempre uguale. Ventiquattro.

[ericadrianleedesign]

Piero Umiliani - Il Dono Del Nilo Soundtrack

Spettro (2017)

[lord-radish]

The Weepies: An Introduction

The Weepies are an indie folk duo who formed in 2001, made up of singer-songwriters Deb Talan and Steve Tannen. They were individually active as musicians before 2001, both of them being fans of each other's work - and then they met, got involved and began making music as the Weepies.

Over the course of their 20 year career, they released five albums and one live recording. They also wrote for Mandy Moore on one of her albums, and they released a handful of singles for compilations and soundtrack albums.

This is probably gonna sound really silly, but the way I want to describe their music is "lovecore". A lot of their music has a very blissful, very romantic sort of sound to it - songs like "Gotta Have You" and "Happiness" are really positive tunes about being in love and having each other. A lot of their music offers a very earnest perspective on love and relationships, and it's really pleasant to listen to.

Albums

(song links are in pink if you want to listen to any of them)

Happiness: their debut album, featuring the songs "Somebody Loved", "Happiness" and "Simple Life". The cover features a pair of salt and pepper shakers, which adds to this vibe of two complementary forces finding each other and working well in tandem.

Say I Am You: my favorite album of theirs. The production and writing on this project are a big step up from Happiness, with songs like "Gotta Have You" breaking some really interesting creative ground and being very endearing. This album also has one of their biggest singles in "World Spins Madly On" - if you're a Scrubs fan, you've heard that one on the deja vu episode where JD and the Janitor play out the same plotline as an earlier episode.

Live Sessions EP: notable for the renditions of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen's solo material, as well as a song that would appear on their next album Hideaway. The songs on this EP are my favorite versions of them on any project - "Old Coyote" and "Rocks and Water" are GOAT songs on this EP, but I would heavily recommend listening to them using headphones.

Hideaway: contains "All This Beauty" from the Sex and the City soundtrack, "All Good Things" which was co-written by Mandy Moore for her 2007 album "Wild Heart", and "Orbiting" which is a really pretty-sounding song about changing orbit in your life and realising that someone you care about isn't on your side.

Be My Thrill: I don't have much to say except that "Hummingbird" is one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's very busy and very warm, and it feels like when the sun is setting in late summer so everything is warm and lazy and tinged in a strong amber glow.

Sirens: their final album, and notable for the context surrounding it. Deb Talan was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this album was produced during the course of her recovery and released after she had received a clean bill of health. Contains a cover of Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly", as well as originals like "Sirens", "Brand New Pair of Wings" and "River from the Sky".

Content Warning: There is a song called "Ever Said Goodbye" that contains a slur for Romani people. My opinion is that it was used in ignorance, given the twee nature of the song, but my intention isn't to downplay the term or give it a pass. I'm making this post because I've connected with this band's music a lot, but I understand if this invalidates whatever goodwill you may have had towards the band and I understand why that would be the case. I don't condone the use of the word.

Music

A majority of the songs made by the Weepies feature Deb Talan on lead vocals and Steve Tannen on backing vocals. One notable exception is "World Spins Madly On", which may be their biggest hit - that's a prominent example of Steve taking the lead and Deb backing up his vocals.

I will say that I prefer Deb's voice, and I prefer the songs she sings lead on. No hate to Steve Tannen, but most of his songs don't really vibe well with me and - to be frank - his songs can occasionally feel a bit weird and reductive. This goes into their solo stuff too; the Deb Talan material on their Live Sessions EP is better than the Steve Tannen material, in my opinion.

One thing I think they really mastered was the short-form song - just a handful of chords, a couple blunt verses and a single-line chorus. "Somebody Loved" and "Keep It There" are some of my favorite songs of theirs - skeletons of songs at ~2 minutes apiece, but which hit hard and go home.

And to mention the cover of Happiness again, where the salt and pepper shakers symbolise two complementary people working together and forming a more robust whole, I think that their harmonizing and back-up singing on each other's songs works really well. Steve's voice isn't as melodic as Deb's is, but he can enhance her songs by backing up her singing in lower registers and adding texture. Similarly, Deb's voice can add an incredibly sweet flair to Steve's songs - her voice really makes those songs soar.

The End of The Weepies

In late December 2021, the social media feeds for the band sent out some bad news. Deb and Steve were divorcing, and the Weepies were disbanding.

This hit me had for a couple reasons. The first reason was because the Weepies were this light in the darkness that I found just before the pandemic came down - like damn, so much other stuff has gone wrong, and now one of my favorite bands is about to break up. That sucks, goddamn.

The second one was because of the "lovecore" vibe that the band exudes. They're this awesome married couple with all of these songs about love, and they're getting divorced - it makes a lot of that lovecore vibe kinda sad in retrospect.

It's not entirely surprising that things ended like this, the last Weepies album was six years ago and Deb's last solo album was four years ago - but it was still a huge downer when I heard about the split, y'know.

But the music is still there, and it helps to have something so cheery and earnest to contrast with the grimness of the real world. And the band don't just make bright and cheery love ballads - "Sirens" has this undercurrent of death to it, and every album since "Say I Am You" has had at least one introspective song about insecurity, loneliness or the end of a relationship. There's a lot of depth there, and it helps to build hope for a better life going forward and to process bad things that have happened in the past. It's just really good, healing music.

Conclusion

I hope that by making this post, I can fully express my appreciation for the band - I hope that someone gives them a shot and ends up enjoying what they hear. I also encourage people to visit Deb Talan's solo work; three of my favorite songs of hers are "Rocks and Water", "Forgiven" and "Comfort".

Thank you for sitting through this post, and I hope it was of some informational/entertainment value to you.

[the-infinite-jukebox]

Cheekface - Too Much to Ask (Album Review)

(Album Review #412, August 3rd [2022]) Too Much to Ask is the latest studio album from quirky indie rock band and highly beloved oddball band Cheekface. After the very strong Emphatically No. hinted at some serious excellence coming from the trio last year, Too Much to Ask is Cheekface filling their own shoes and creating something that truly stands out.

Much of the band's charm relies on something that may initially be perceived as novelty. After all, Cheekface's preppy instrumentals and song lyrics that would give Lewis Carrol a run for his money in terms of surreal engagement can be equally off-putting to new listeners. However, there is something significantly more self-enduring that latches onto Too Much to Ask. Despite the record's bouncy and often somewhat humorous nature, the band pull things off with a sense of grace that elevates them above the vast majority of their similarly self-aware peers. Amanda Tannen's bass work is consistently groovy and never falls out of place, while you couldn't ask for a more constantly tight and practiced drummer than Mark Edwards. Frontman Greg Katz's guitar work walks a cartoonish line between punk and pop rock, not unlike acts such as the Minutemen and Gang of Four that came long before the Cheekface name ever existed. This leads to a sort of evolved dance-punk sound for Too Much to Ask that allows the three-piece to grow as musicians while never straying too far from what made them such an endearing act in the first place. It also helps that Katz's vocal delivery is as endearingly deadpan as ever. The aforementioned dance-punk influence is something that cements Too Much to Ask's place as Cheekface's most stand-out listening experience to date. It has been an undeniably relevant sound in recent years, with some of the most successful artists of this kind including Parquet Courts and most recently Viagra Boys. There have, of course, been less successful ventures into this subculture of punk as well. Paired with Cheekface's signature brand of humor, this sound works extremely well. Hearing a song like "I Feel So Weird!" come across as so ridiculous and brilliantly left-field yet distinct and attitude-filled is great. It all just goes to show the progression that Cheekface have been making in becoming a better band with each passing record. The trio have always verged on Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! levels of out-there, so an off-kilter sonic aesthetic perfectly fits everything that Too Much to Ask is about conceptually. Speaking of which, the band's humor is just as successful as it has been in the past on Too Much to Ask. Nothing new is done here in that regard, meaning that people polarized or even turned off by Cheekface's nonsensical comedic style will likely continue to feel the same throughout the entire Too Much to Ask listening experience. Then again, a record with songs like "Vegan Water" and "You Always Want to Bomb the Middle East" should hopefully make this aspect of Cheekface aware to anyone before even hearing them. While the notion of a band sticking to a lyrical style that could easily grow stale over the course of a single record, Cheekface always manages to keep things interesting. There is enough variety and self-restraint that Too Much to Ask never goes into the realm of total pointlessness sans the semi-transitional filler track "Noodles." Songs like the single "Pledge Drive" are even pretty intelligent at times, further developing the band as one of the most underrated and under-estimated in indie music at the moment. In conclusion, Too Much to Ask is by far Cheekface's best album yet. While they may be far from getting any major accolades, it isn't hard to see why this three-piece is continuing to gain a loyal fanbase and traction within the indie community. Too Much to Ask is a beautifully executed slice of chaotic humor and dance-punk adjacent sounds made all the more exciting with the knowledge that Cheekface can still pull off even better works in the future.

Final Rating: 4/5 (Great)

Essential Tracks: “Vegan Water,” “We Need a Bigger Dumpster,” “When Life Hands You Problems”

[bttf-dork]

Would you possibly be willing to share more about your lightning powers au? It seems super cool!

Yeah of course! Thanks for asking :)

So this is the main post about it, but basically Marty unwittingly gets time travel powers from extended unsafe exposure to the DeLorean, and only realizes that when he accidentally goes back in time to 1931.

The impetus of this is a fight with the Tannens, and the powers become activated with Marty’s intense fight or flight response. Since Marty has zero control over any of this, he gets zapped back to a time where he know he would be safe (i.e. with Doc). Unfortunately this has the side effect of knocking Marty out cold, since the whole ordeal expends a significant amount of energy.

Emmett finds him passed out in the town square and lets Marty stay with him and his father while they figure out how exactly Marty got there and how to send him back (with Marty being very cagey and tight-lipped about the whole time travel thing). They eventually figure out that Marty’s powers are triggered by emotion, and can cause lightning-based damage to physical objects, after a major argument about how secretive and manipulative Marty has been throughout their entire friendship (which was a long time coming honestly). This ends up both being the breakthrough that they need to help Marty get back to his time period, as well as the tipping point for Marty emotionally, who is worried that all of this scientific experimentation is only hurting/going to hurt everyone around them.

During this same time Marty gets involved in record keeping and historical research at the courthouse for Judge Brown, Doc’s father, via accidentally demonstrating his breadth of historical knowledge. This drives a bit of a wedge between Emmett and his father, as although he is more accepting of his son’s scientific career than before, he is not 100% on board with the idea. Marty does not like this one bit and ends up mediating more than his fair share of their arguments and disagreements. This all comes to a head with Marty revealing he’s actually a musician, not a lawyer or historian, much to Emmett’s delight and Judge Brown’s (mild) chagrin and further acceptance of his son and his career path. This is more or less a B plot to the main story, and is functionally supplemental, but I still find it an interesting thought exercise.

Marty and Emmett continue to experiment with which emotions trigger which kind of reactions, using a jury-rigged version of the mental alignment meter. Emmett at this point has begun catching on to the fact that Marty is involved in time travel, although he doesn’t have all the details, and is mostly avoiding the topic due to Marty’s reactions. This culminates in Emmett essentially realizing “wait, you’re a time traveller!” in front of Marty and Marty imploding into a panic thought spiral of “oh god I doomed the entire timeline,” which has the unfortunate ramification of a massive power outburst that Emmett now has to contend with. Emmett basically shoves a guitar into Marty’s hands in a panic and hopes for the best based on what Marty had told him about his love of music and how it helps him relax (from the the B plot). Thankfully they find out that musical instruments can act as something of a power conduit and calming measure, and that Marty is able to control who and what the lightning harms just from Emmett being able to shove a guitar into his hands and come away unburned. They also begin having healthy discussions about the risks of scientific endeavors from here on out.

From that point onward Marty and Emmett have the fun task of figuring out how to control the lightning/time travel powers to send Marty back to his time period without accidentally stranding him in the Stone Age or the Twilight Zone. This ends up taking a lot of trial and error, but it eventually works and they are able to send Marty back home. I also like to think that although Emmett doesn’t have 100% of the details, his adventures with Marty do end up surfacing in his eventual plans for a time travel machine in a fun paradox moment of narrative looping.

And that’s pretty much the au, plus or minus a few run ins with the Tannens and at least one friendship hug. :)

[sonyclasica]

BACK TO THE FUTURE

BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL - ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING

Masterworks Broadway se complace en anunciar el lanzamiento de la grabación original del reparto de Back To The Future: The Musical. El musical se presenta en el Teatro Adelphi del West End de Londres e incluye nueva música de los ganadores del Grammy Alan Silvestri y Glen Ballard y éxitos de la película incluyendo The Power Of Love, Johnny B. Good, Earth Angel y Back In Time.

Consíguelo AQUÍ

Detrás del esperado espectáculo están los productores Colin Ingram (Ghost – The Musical), Robert Zemeckis y Bob Gale, los creadores de la trilogía de películas Regreso al futuro. El espectáculo se traslada al West End tras su estreno fuera de la ciudad en marzo de 2020 en el Manchester Opera House, donde fue muy bien recibido por crítica y público. Roger Bart y Olly Dobson darán vida a los personajes de "Doc Brown" y "Marty McFly”, respectivamente. También vuelven Hugh Coles como "George McFly", Rosanna Hyland como "Lorraine Baines", Cedric Neal como "Goldie Wilson", Aidan Cutler en el papel de "Biff Tannen" y Courtney-Mae Briggs como "Jennifer Parker".

TRACKLIST 

01 Overture 02 Only A Matter Of Time 03 Got No Future 04 Wherever We’re Going 05 Hello Is Anybody Home 06 It Works 07 Don’t Drive 88! 08 Cake And Eat It Too 09 Gotta Start Somewhere 10 Gotta Start Somewhere Reprise 11 My Mytopia 12 Pretty Baby 13 Future Boy 14 Something About That Boy 15 21st Century 16 Put Your Mind To It 17 For The Dreamers 18 Teach Him A Lesson 19 The Letter/OAMT Reprise 20 Deep Diving 21 Earth Angel 22 Johnny B Goode 23 The Clocktower/For The Dreamers Reprise 24 Power of Love/Only A Matter Of Time 25 Back In Time