#80s glam punk make up

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

#sigue sigue sputnik #tony james #martin degville #glam punk #80s glam punk #rm magazine #cyberpunk #cyberpunk fashion #21st century boy #80s punk #80s hair #80s fashion #80s make up #hi NRG #new wave #synth pop #post punk #electronic #80s glam punk make up #80s glam punk hair #80s glam punk fashion #80s punk hair #80s punk fashion #80s punk make up

[metalhoops]

The place was Chicago. The year was 1990. 

It was early enough into the year that the term ‘1990′ still sounded space aged. It’d been the 80s for as long as Eddie cared to remember. It was late enough in the year that everyone kept telling him winter was over. Nevertheless, he wore the leather jacket he’d ‘borrowed’ from his ex-boyfriend. Spring in Chicago was worse than a million L.A. winters. 

Eddie hated California on principle, but his record label was in Burbank. Despite the band being one of the biggest rising stars in the metal scene, he didn’t have room to get cocky. He’d spent the break between tours last year with his aforementioned ex-boyfriend in his New York apartment. 

The place had been small enough that smoking with the windows open felt like a hotbox session. There was one window in the apartment. It was in the bathroom and only opened an inch if you could get it to open at all. It wasn’t the rockstar life he’d fantasised about back in high school, but he was getting by. 

So how the hell did he end up in Chicago? He was getting there. 

As the filmmaker he’d slept with in Toronto had told him, opening in media res was the best way to hold an audience's attention. Was that what Eddie was doing? Trying to retell the shitshow of his life back to himself? Trying to make sense of it all, make it climax to something meaningful? Maybe. 

Eddie had gotten into the habit of keeping a journal, mostly for lyrics. The band was meant to be recording their third full-length studio album in a matter of months and Eddie only had three songs that were worth anything. To make matters worse, the other two had been concept albums. 

Corroded Coffin’s first and sophomore albums had been different enough that the band hadn’t been boxed into anything. Yes, they were a metal band, but they got their fair share of punks, goths and even a handful of yuppies that’d shown up to their gigs in the past. Hell, their opening act had been a grunge band. It sounded pretentious as fuck, but Eddie wasn’t afraid to transcend genres. The metal scene was changing. They had to learn to change with it.

The nail in his goddamn Corroded Coffin was that the band were known for their concept albums. Their first album Knightmare was a D&D-inspired thrash, metal album. Think Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, with a few more homoerotic undertones. Their next album, Dream Dimension was more sci-fi leaning. It told the story of an unnamed group of kids who’d stumbled into another dimension. It was a little more glam metal. Some of the B-sides like ‘My Year’ and ‘Lakeside Interlude’ had been downright shoegaze. One magazine had likened the story to Dream Warriors, which Eddie thought was fitting. 

It wasn’t like Eddie didn’t have ideas for the next album. That was the problem. Eddie did have an idea. He just couldn’t write the damn thing. It was meant to be his magnum opus, the third album that’d stand on its own but also interconnect with the other two. 

He’d call it Daydream. It followed the story of a white-collar guy living the perfect nuclear family life, complete with a white picket fence and a Malibu Barbie, dream house. The thing was, the dude was miserable. He’d spend all his free time daydreaming about adventure and forgotten realms. 

The kicker was halfway through the album the listener would realise the guy was the titular knight from Knightmare. His perfect suburban life was turned upside down when his kid disappeared à la portal to another dimension. It’d be perfect. All Eddie had to do is write it, and that was the damn thing. He couldn’t.  

All his albums were about something. There was always a meaning beneath the meaning. Knightmare? Easy, that was about escapism. Dream Dimension? It was about growing up too fast. Daydream? That was more complicated. 

Daydream was why Eddie needed to write in his journal. It was why he needed to remember that the year was 1990 and that he was in Chicago. 

The thing was, Eddie didn’t remember writing Dream Dimension. There was a 1988 sized hole in his memory between their first and second US tours. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew exactly what caused it. In their early days, they were practically paid in 8 Balls and party favours. Eddie always had an addictive personality and getting into anything stronger than weed had been a bad idea.

It wasn’t until his bandmates had an intervention that he’d been able to see the forest through the trees. Realising there was a whole chunk of his life he’d missed out on was petrifying. So, Eddie kept a journal. 

He’d been sober for almost a year. He was practically fucking straight-edge without all the pretentiousness that came with it, but he knew one slip-up was enough to send him spiralling. That was how he ended up in Chicago.

It was the last show of their Dream Dimension tour, and they were in Chicago. Eddie was always lively on stage. Gareth had abandoned one of his drumsticks during a solo only for Eddie to run across the stage, slip and bite the dust with his ankle going one way and the rest of him going another. 

He’d woken up in a hospital with a lump on his ankle the size of a baseball and the uncomfortably familiar feeling of being high off his face on painkillers. 

To answer the question, Daydream was about getting older. It was about being okay with getting older. It was about doing it your own way. Back in the thick of it all, it’d looked like Eddie wasn’t going to make it to thirty. He was trying to be okay with the idea that he might. 

Last year, Jeff got married to a nice girl who’d been their costume designer for their first music video. It’d shaken him in a way he didn’t know how to explain. He was in his mid-twenties, yet suddenly he felt old. Wayne had retired and with Eddie’s help brought a Winnebago. He was probably fishing in Nebraska right now. 

See, the thing about the titular character in Daydream, was that he’d conformed to what life was supposed to be. By the end of the album, he’d have left that life behind for another, one of action and adventure, because Eddie could never understand why Dorothy wanted to leave Oz for fucking Kansas. Fuck Kansas, on principal.

Something about the album wasn’t clicking. Knightmare was leaving his boring life but ultimately, he was alone. Was that what getting older was all about? Being okay with being alone? When you were gay in 1990, it might be. 

After the tour ended he hadn’t wanted to go back to his apartment in Burbank. He hated it there. He’d entertained the idea of heading back to New York but it was depressing. It reminded him of Jack, and how so many of their friends weren’t around anymore. 

When all was said and done, he and Gareth decided to stay in Chicago. He never said it out loud, but Eddie was sure his friend had stuck around to keep an eye on him. 

Sometimes, Eddie just wanted someone to come home to. Maybe that was why he’d had a string of shit boyfriends. If you weren’t picky, people would walk all over you. 

Jack had been the one that’d made Eddie swear off dating. It wasn’t worth the trouble. He’d rather die alone. His name wasn’t even Jack, it was Corey, but everyone called him Jack. Short for Jacket. Eddie wished he was joking. That should’ve been the first red flag. 

The thing about Corey was he always wore the same goddamn custom-made, leather jacket, all year round. He’d liked having sex in front of his full-length mirror with Eddie always on his knees, which should’ve been at least a yellow flag. He never liked anything gentle. Corey liked the idea of having a rockstar boyfriend more than he actually liked Eddie or monogamy. That was why when Eddie left, he took his jacket. 

He didn’t know why he was still wearing it, but he was. He pulled it on as he hobbled in his moon boot across the street from his and Gareth’s rented apartment to the record store. He hadn’t gone outside in a week, and he was about to start climbing up the goddamn walls. He just needed to go somewhere, and Eddie loved record stores, especially little indie ones. 

Once inside, Eddie noticed the place was practically empty save for the guy behind the counter. They had an eclectic mix of records and zines lining the shelves. Eddie was glad the place was quiet. He didn’t have to worry about being spotted. It wasn’t like they were The Beatles. They could go places but in a big enough crowd, he was sure to turn a few heads. Some days, Eddie just wanted to disappear. 

They had Corroded Coffin records on the display shelf and a couple of magazines with his band's name on the cover, which made pride swell in Eddie’s chest, but he wasn’t here for stroking his ego. He wanted to know what other people were doing and get back in touch with the scene. 

He was busy sifting through the bargain bin when he felt someone slide in beside him. He cringed, almost expecting it to be some over-enthused metal head with a pen and a Corroded Coffin tee shirt, but it was just the dude behind the counter.  

“Sorry, can I squeeze past?” the guy mumbled, a crate of records awkwardly tucked beneath his shoulder.

Eddie did his best to make himself small, his dumbass ankle making a simple task seem like an effort. He didn’t miss the way the man’s free hand brushed over his side as he passed, as though trying to assure Eddie stayed stable. 

“Place sure is quiet,” Eddie observed glancing over at the man.

His jeans were fitted, tight in all the right places. He’d rolled up the cuffs of his shirt to reveal more of his bicep than Eddie deemed necessary and god his hair. There was something about his hair. Something about him seemed familiar. Eddie really hoped they hadn’t hooked up once. That’d be awkward as hell. 

“Yeah, we usually close around five,” The man replied putting an album on the shelf. 

It was almost six. Shit. 

Eddie hated when people did that. They treated him differently because his name was in the papers. Everyone wanted something from him, and they thought doing favours was a good way to win him over. It wasn’t. The guy could clearly see something shift in Eddie. 

“It’s no big deal. I have to stay an hour late to replace the stock, plus my roommate has a girl over, so I’d rather be here,” The boy laughed, shooting a look at Eddie over his shoulder, a stray strand of his perfect goddamn hair falling in his face. 

The boy paused, teeth worrying away at his lower lip, his hand falling to his hip as his eyes searched Eddie's face. 

“Do I know you from somewhere?” He asked. 

And there it was. Sometimes people did that. They played dumb about who he was before making a big goddamn deal out of it. Eddie suddenly wanted to crawl back to his apartment and spend another month in isolation. 

The boy snapped his fingers in triumph.

“Munson,” He practically shouted and holy fucking shit, that wasn’t what Eddie expected. 

No one knew his last name, not his real one. Everyone changed their names when they got famous. He’d gone for something simple, Eddie Emerson, it had some alliteration, just like Corroded Coffin. It wasn’t too far from his real name but not even the die-hards knew him as Munson. 

Then Eddie remembered. 

This guy was Steve goddamn Harrington. He didn’t remember many people from high school, but he remembered Steve. 

“Harrington,” Eddie breathed in disbelief. To his surprise, Steve screwed up his nose. 

“Unfortunately,” He admitted and stuck out a hand expectantly. Eddie leaned down and clasped Steve’s hand. From what he remembered of Steve, the guy had never been this friendly. 

“Nice to re-meet you I guess. I’d like to think I’ve changed a little in over five years.” He had, Eddie didn’t know how to explain how he knew, he just did. It was something about the way the boy held himself. 

“What brings you to Chicago?” He asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that one of Eddie’s records was sitting on the shelf beside him. Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air to find someone who didn’t know who he was. He could keep the charade up a little bit longer. 

“Oh you know, work stuff,” Eddie answered vaguely, toying with his hair. 

That was something he did when he was flirting and holy shit, he needed to squash that right goddamn now. He wasn’t looking to date anybody, and he remembered Steve being very straight in high school. He needed to save himself from another heartbreak. 

“You live in Chicago now?” Eddie asked. The‘ because you didn’t seem like the type to ever leave’ was implied. 

“Yeah. Rob, my roommate, she practically dragged me here. We’ve been attached at the hip since I graduated. It wasn’t like there was anywhere else I wanted to be,” Steve answered. 

A little detail about the statement screamed for Eddie’s attention. 

“The same roommate that has a girl over?” He pressed and watch Steve fold his arms over his chest, all huffy indignation locked and loaded, begging for Eddie to choose his next words wisely. 

“The same,” he confirmed. Now that Eddie knew, he noticed they were selling a couple of queer zines. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. Steve might just be progressive. 

“I thought you were meant to be the lady's man, Steve,” Eddie tried hoping that was enough to make Steve’s defences fall. To his surprise, Steve snorted and shook his head. 

“Like I said, lots changed since high school. My luck in the dating department couldn’t be worse,” he admitted as he returned to stacking the shelves. 

Eddie watched the planes of his back move beneath his shirt, wanting to push himself against him, to feel what it was like for Steve to move beneath him.

He really needed to get a hold of himself. 

“Couldn’t be worse than my luck,” Eddie rebutted offhandedly. 

Steve shook his head and shot Eddie another glance over his shoulder. He inhaled deeply as though preparing to tell a long story. Eddie leaned against the shelf to show Steve he was all ears. 

“Last month, I went on a date with a girl and she asked me if she could call me by her ex-boyfriend’s name,” Steve began. 

Eddie screwed up his nose in response. 

“Worse still, I was so shocked she’d asked, I just agreed to it.” It was Eddie’s turn to snort. 

“Stevie, you didn’t.” 

Stevie. Goddamn Stevie. Don’t do this to yourself, Munson. Pet names are one step away from a full-blown crush. 

“I did. Do I look like a ‘Juan’ to you?” Steve asked honestly. The question had Eddie doubled over in stitches. 

“Alright, alright. That’s pretty bad, but that’s one bad date,” Eddie reasoned. 

“Dude, I wasn’t finished. The girl before that realised she was a lesbian, while on a date with me. Which is like... the third time that’s happened,” Steve admitted.

Eddie’s hand had betrayed him and returned to toy with a strand of his hair. He hid behind it as he tried to mask a laugh. This guy did have shit luck. 

“You’re a lesbian magnet,” Eddie reasoned watching as Steve hid behind his hands. 

“And the time before that, I thought I was getting somewhere with a guy. We’d been on three dates before he told me he had a wife.” 

Steve made the next confession a little quieter than the others, a little more reserved. Eddie felt the hairs on his arm stand on end. Steve had changed since high school.

“Once I hooked up with a guy who’d only give me head if I sang to him while he did it,” Eddie admitted, feeling the need to get Steve off the defensive and add to the pity party. He watched the boy’s features shift.

“Oh wow, that’s bad. You should’ve pretended to be tone-deaf,” Steve reasoned, once more proving he had no idea what Eddie did for a living. 

“See I was torn between that and singing La Cucaracha at the top of my lungs.” Steve snorted, honest to god snorted.  

The two lapsed into silence but it was a comfortable one. Steve smoothed down his hair five times within the space of a minute before taking a deep breath. 

Eddie knew what was coming. He wasn’t dumb, but a part of him would always be trapped back in high school. It kept screaming there was no way a popular kid like Steve would talk to a loser like him. He thought he’d buried that part of himself, yet here it was, rising from the dead. 

“Do you want to get a drink?” 

And there it was. Eddie didn’t mean to cringe, but Steve caught it, his hands stuffed themselves into the too-tight back pockets of his jeans. 

“Or not,” He muttered averting his gaze. 

“No. It’s not that. I... I don’t drink.” 

There you go Gareth. He was responsible enough to look after himself. 

“I could do dinner though,” Eddie tried to throw Steve a bone. 

Eddie waited for Steve to throw up one of the red flags he’d gotten used to seeing with all the men he’d dated or hooked up with. Eddie would say he didn’t drink, and they’d give him a funny look or mutter something about him being a killjoy. 

“There’s a place that does a wicked deep-dish pizza not far from here. You said you weren’t from Chicago, right? You’ve gotta have the pizza, it’s a rite of passage,” Steve ploughed on.

“Sure,” He muttered trying not to look as surprised as he felt. 

He watched Steve buzz around the record store, shutting up shop and then extending a hand shyly to Eddie. Right, his stupid goddamn leg. At least it gave him an excuse to get up close and personal with Steve in the street and not draw too much attention. 

The two made the short walk to the pizzeria at a plodding pace, talking about nothing in particular. 

“What happened to your leg?” Steve asked as they slid into the booth. 

“Slid on a drumstick and took a nosedive off a stage,” Eddie admitted. He wasn’t going to outright lie to Steve. 

“Ouch,” Steve mumbled, passing the menu over to Eddie. 

“So, you still do band stuff? I remember that high school talent show,” Steve noted, and Eddie cringed, letting his head drop to the table. 

“I really wish you didn’t,” He chuckled before confirming,

“Yeah, I still do band stuff,” as he raised his head and chanced a glance at Steve. 

“Cool,” was all he said before they shifted the subject. 

They were swapping stories about best friends, roommates, shared high-school trauma and generally flirting when a figure approached their booth. It was a kid, who couldn’t be older than fifteen with a shaved head and a battle jacket. He reminded Eddie of himself at that age. He knew what was coming.

“You’re Eddie Emerson, right? From Corroded Coffin,” the kid asked, his hands shaking. He watched as a furrow appeared on Steve’s brow before his jaw dropped. So Steve wasn’t totally clueless. 

“One and only. You want me to sign something for you?” Eddie asked, having gone through this song and dance a million times before. He tried to be nice, after all, it was a kid, but sometimes he got tired of always having to be on. 

To make matters worse it happened in front of Steve. Something about people coming up to him always sat wrong with other guys he’d been with. He wasn’t sure if it was jealousy or ego that did it, but he knew if he ran into a fan on a date, the rest of the night typically went sideways. 

He signed the back of a napkin as he listened to the kid rattle off praise for their music. He talked about his favourite songs and lyrics. Eddie wished he knew what to say, wished he knew how to take a compliment but he didn’t. To his surprise, he heard Steve speak. 

“Hey, did you make this?” Steve asked indicating the kid's battle jacket, forcing him to come up for air.

“Yeah, all on my own.”

The kid blinked and ran his hand over a couple of the hand-sewn patches. Steve obviously knew nothing about the scene because if you didn’t make your own jacket people would call you a poser. It was a nice shout though because he watched the kid light up. 

“Even the safety pins?” Steve asked curiously.

Eddie watched as the kid launched into a story of every little pin and stitch in the jacket, turning his attention away from Eddie, and giving him space to catch his breath. It was nice. He felt like Steve had seen him.

After another few minutes, the kid’s dad came to collect him and Eddie felt his body sag against the diner booth. 

“You get that all the time?” Steve asked, his foot nudging Eddie’s under the table. 

“You wouldn’t believe it,” He grumbled scrubbing his face. Steve nudged his foot again, giving him a goofy grin. 

“At least he liked your stuff,” He proposed. 

“I’m guessing it’s not your thing,” Eddie reasoned. He wasn’t one for stereotypes, but he really didn’t look like the typical Corroded Coffin fan. 

“I’m not too picky when it comes to music. I just listen to top forty stuff.” Eddie shot him a disbelieving look.  

“Dude you work in a record store,” he laughed and Steve shrugged.

“Among other things. I just got the job to hang out with Robin. She works there too. She only took the job to try and peddle her girlfriend Nancy’s zines. Sometimes I write the sports section because Nancy, Robin and Jonathan don’t know anything about sports.” Eddie rested his head in the palm of his hand, listening attentively. 

“Wait, is that the same Nancy that you dated back in high school?” He asked, trying to sound scandalised, glad to have a break from the rock star bullshit. 

“Like you said, lesbian magnet,” Steve grumbled, mirroring Eddie’s gesture, resting his head in his hand. 

“What are you actually doing in town?” Steve asked, more curious than nosy. 

“Trying to run away from writing our third album,” Eddie spoke. 

It’d been the first time he admitted it out loud. He didn’t talk about his music until he thought it was worth something, but Steve was a good listener. To Eddie’s surprise, he found himself spilling his guts to Steve. He told him all about the third album, about the goddamn symbolism, and the way things just weren’t clicking. 

“Why don’t you give him a reason to stay?” Steve asked when Eddie finished his monologue, as though it was the simplest solution in the world. 

“I mean, Dorothy doesn’t go back to Kansas because she doesn’t like Oz, she misses home. She misses her family. You want your knight guy to stay in fantasy land? Give him someone to stay for,” Steve proposed, and it was like the final puzzle piece sliding into place. It was brilliant.

“Stevie, I could kiss you,” Eddie spoke.

“Is that a promise?” Steve asked with a cheeky grin.

“Let’s get out of here and find out.”

#steddie ficlet #steddie #steve harrington #ficlet #corroded coffin #eddie munson #drabble #prompt fill #stranger things #rockstar eddie munson #normal guy Steve Harrington #this won my prompt poll #it's not usually a trope I reach for #but I really LOVED writing this #I don't know how to explain it #but it came so easy #tw addiction #also I guess a blink and you'll miss it #reference to #aids/hiv #because it felt disingenuous to leave it out #some context for y'all #an 8 ball is #an eighth of an ounce of cocaine #while a party favour just generally refers #to hardcore party drugs #also 'Dream Warriors' is the third Nightmare on Elm Street film #and also a song #by the glam metal band Dokken #Corroded Coffin makes concept albums

[slavghoul]

First musical emotion?

TF: I grew up in an environment full of music, with a very open-minded mother who listened to a lot of pop and rock music and, above all, an older brother who was 13 years older than me. That's how much I was immersed in teenage culture as a child. I was 3 years old in 1984 when the glam metal wave invaded the airwaves and TV screens. These bands, like Kiss, WASP or Mötley Crüe, very strong visually for a child, attracted me irresistibly. And let's not forget Twisted Sister. I Wanna Rock is the track that remains the basis, the trigger for everything for me. A song that, at 3, 13, 23 or 43 years old, still has the same effect on me as soon as I hear it: to jump in the air like a madman.

First record bought?

If not Kiss, probably a Rolling Stones album. It didn't make much of an impression on me because my brother used to buy so many of them, so my money was mostly spent on Star Wars stuff. There are tons of bands I love, but I think the Stones are my favourite. Because they embody everything I love about rock, even though they weren't as sophisticated as the Beatles or Pink Floyd. Between 1967 and 1972, in their darkest period, nobody did it better than them: they had the look, the attitude, the style and, on top of that, the songs! Let It Bleed is incredible, with songs like Midnight Rambler and Live With Me. As much as I admire technical singers, virtuosos of harmony, Jagger remains unique. I've never tried to imitate him, but as a performer he is the absolute model.

First concert of note?

My brother used to take me to see local punk bands at a very early age, but I remember B.B. King most of all, when I was about 5 or 6, with my mother. It was a jazz festival, outside in the courtyard of a castle, a very cool atmosphere. As soon as B.B. King started playing, there was electricity in the air. Everyone got up and started dancing, I was blown away. And as I was the only one of my age, I could move around freely, so much so that I found myself in the backstage, in front of B.B. King himself! He invited me into his dressing room: "Do you play the guitar?" - Yes! - so don't stop!" And I took his advice. Even though I sing on stage, the guitar is still my favourite instrument, the one I play and master the most.

The band that best managed to avoid the pitfall of the image taking precedence over the music?

Kiss, unfortunately, was far from being up to the task musically. Alice Cooper, after two minor first albums, went on to make four incredible albums with the original Alice Cooper Group. Above all, he made a phenomenal comeback with Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975. After that, the show took over... The band that managed to stay straight and dignified, without compromising the artistic quality of their work, is undoubtedly Iron Maiden. All of their 80's production is impeccable, and if they had a slump in the 90's, they came back even stronger with the return of Bruce Dickinson, and have been going strong for twenty years! Their work ethic is exemplary. With Ghost, we take up Phantom of the Opera, one of my favourite tracks from their early period, and one of the few where I felt we could add a little something to it.

Best punk song in the world?

There are so many, because I was also brought up on the sounds of the Pistols, the Ramones, the Dead Kennedys... But as a kid, I never got tired of listening to The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle again, especially the sequence where Sid Vicious sings My Way. His version is one of my favourite songs of all time. What could be more awesome than to see a guy slaughtering this standard while doing the same, shooting the shit, with the audience that came to see him! It was like the ultimate middle finger, and it made me happy, and it showed me the way.

The band that remains the grail for you?

Queen, because the show side, the big show, is the ultimate for me. In the early 70s, my favourite musical period, there were no big shows yet, like the Stones started doing afterwards. Queen is the same. Of course, their best albums are from the 70s, but the peak of their career for me is the Wembley concert in 1986. Magic wasn't a great record, but the show was breathtaking, dantesque, with a repertoire as vast as it was delirious. If Ghost could ever come close to the 1986 Queen, I would be delighted.

The greatest Swedish band?

ABBA, of course. No one will ever be able to stand in their way. The Beatles are the monarchs of English rock, ABBA the monarchs of Swedish pop. Björn and Benny are national heroes. I found myself at a huge, formal party when Benny suddenly sat down at the piano and started Thank You For the Music. There was silence in a second. This guy is a monument. You can't imagine what ABBA has done, not only for pop music, but also for Sweden and the Swedes. This band proved that you can move mountains.

Which Ghost song are you most proud of?

Cirice, probably. I often write my songs by singing into my phone a melody that is in my head. We were about to finish the album Meliora. And the co-producer tells me that a really heavy and powerful track is missing. I tell him I have this heavy, heavy, macabre sounding tune with a long intro and a crushing riff. He suggests I tweak it while he goes for a run. When he came back, I had written a chorus, lyrical, catchy. It wasn't the leaden track he was hoping for. But it won us a Grammy!

The most evil band?

Certainly not Mercyful Fate, as one might imagine. They, like most Norwegian death metal bands, more or less satanic, are the most charming guys I've ever met. They seem more like nice teachers than evil creatures. The scariest band is probably Von, a mythical American black metal band from Hawaii. These guys were really scary, with their terrifying size, they looked really dangerous. But I think the evil is mostly on the side of those who pretend to defend the good. For me, the most evil and unattractive musician is Ted Nugent. He's pro-life, pro-hunting, and claims he's only fighting for freedom. But the world he defends is about as free and tolerant as Vladimir Putin's. I refuse to listen to him.

#the band ghost #tobias forge #interview

[fizzingwizard]

Why I like Cats (the musical) 2024 version

Cats the Musical's smash success in the 80s stunned everyone, including those who made it. But despite the critics claiming it's baffling and has no plot, it was popular anyway. And remained popular. For years.

"But why?" shriek the naysayers even now, decades later, in broad daylight, because they've never met a real Cats fan, and frankly don't believe they exist, and the massive audiences of yore which attended the shows in London, New York, Tokyo etc were paid actors contributing to the farce that is Cats the Musical. Or maybe they assume every furry dutifully attends every performance of Cats as some kind of furry confirmation ritual.

Now that we've seen the Hooperian nightmare that is Cats 2019, internationally recognized as a pre-pandemic harbinger of doom and torment, making fun of Cats is more fun than ever.

But no pedantic Youtube critic will ever pry Cats (THE MUSICAL) out of my fierce, feline clutches! No! I won't let you! Not even you, Tom Hooper! You don't need opposable thumbs to be irrationally devoted to old-ass musicals from the 80s!

Anyway here's why I like Cats (the musical)!

Wicked whimsical fun times!!

Cats is the fun uncle at the family New Year's party. He's young, he's confusingly hot-yet-not, he gets around, he always smells faintly of weed. He's down for anything and somehow gives off chill vibes while also exuding the barely restrained energy of an ostrich mating dance. He doesn't have a job. No one knows what he does on a regular, non-party day. Maybe he just... ceases to exist. You like him, without knowing or caring whether there's anything about him to like.

A celebration of dance!!

Tap, jazz modern ballet, gymnastics! There's even a trapeze! Cats has it all... as long as it was popular among white audiences in the 80s, anyway. Attempts to diversify have been hit and miss. But since many of the dance styles have fallen out of popularity, it's refreshing, in a way, to go to a Cats show and see a guy in an orange unitard tap dancing passionately. Like teleporting into a bygone age of the catpeople. Heck, even in the clusterfuck that was the 2019 movie, Skimbleshanks stole the show.

Jokes aside, the loose story structure isn't just because no one on staff knew how to plot anything, it highlights the performances themselves: dance and music are central to Cats, which is part of why making a film version is so damn hard. You can't just say no thanks to the choreography or interrupt the songs for dumb bratty quips (Hooper!!). That's what this musical is.

Yes, they are cats, and it's cool, not freaky. (But also freaky)

The costumes and makeup are for a stage show. They're overdone on purpose to have an impact from far away. It's due to that distance that the actors can seem pleasantly cat-like without appearing like they're doing this under hypnosis. That's another reason why translating Cats to a live action movie is kinda doomed to fail. With movies you're too up close. Welcome to the Uncanny Valley, hope you survive your stay!

The costumes are also very 80s. They have changed... but not all that much. If you know glam metal and punk rock then you probably cotton on to the references and why a lot of the old pictures look like a hair band's photo shoots. Young fans may not be aware of those roots and just accept the wigs and the color schemes and the setting as a whim. But the truth is undeniable. The 80s live on!

Much of the dance is choreographed to reflect feline, seemless movement. The actors spend their down time on stage mimicking relaxed cat behaviors, including the cute and clumsy ones that made Youtube rich. But they don't forget that they are actually humans any more than the audience does, or that getting too into it would be pretty weird. How well it works for you probably has a lot to do with whether or not you like Cats the musical. It's not supposed to be realistic or freaky. Just evocative and atmospheric.

Except the orgy. That simply Is. Sex through ballet. In unitards.

The stage!

The stage is a huge draw for seeing Cats live. There's so much detail and fun things to spot. It's a junkyard! Cats pop out of the strangest places! Honestly it's so impressive that it makes the way Old Deut magically reappears under a blanket rather more noticeably lackluster... (I did really enjoy the way the Broadway revival revamped that bit with the dark and the hand-held light dance)

You've seen it once, you've seen it twice, you still haven't seen it

The legend of Cats is that no two performances are the same. You can go to the same theater with the same cast night after night and spot subtle changes. Because the characters aren't that important overall, there aren't real relationships to interrupt by letting someone be friends with someone else in one show, and ignore each other in another. The most fun comes with watching the actors not currently center stage, who can do whatever they want. They're always moving, darting here and there, interacting with each other in an unobstrusive way. It's like a treasure hunt to work out whch cats are friends, which are rivals, who has a crush on who, heck, who's a grown cat and who's still a kitten, depending on the performance. I love this pliable approach, it gives the play a sense of living and changing.

Electric guitar!!!

Like, it's par for the course these days. Nothing unusual. Even so, I always lose my shit at that electric guitar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There IS a story!! There is!!

It's just not the most important part. Or even the second most important. Possibly not even the third most... yeah.

One thing worth noting is that the vibe of the musical has changed a lot of over the years. Most versions in the US and UK still retain some of the original grungy, gritty, patchwork aesthetic. A lot of it has been cleaned up and polished. The Japanese version (the only non-English version I've seen live) is almost like a Disney story imo. But thanks to the costumes, characters, and stage setting, it feels less like the 80s have gone than the 80s have been reinterpreted into modern preferences. I really enjoyed the 2016 Broadway revival for example, although I know some fans didn't.

All that to say the story which we fans have more or less pieced together ourselves has evolved over the years, and isn't super official. But it is regular. Hooper's movie doesn't get credit for giving Cats a plot, it already had one, just told in a not especially coherent way. That incoherence, despite being panned by everyone and especially their dog, I think is one of the best parts of Cats. You get to leave the show feeling like you missed nothing, then see it again and notice something new, and then leave feeling like you missed nothing. Rinse and repeat. The perfect show =)

Now about that plot.

The Jellicle Cats assemble once a year to have an orgy a ball. They're so happy to see each other and they just have so much to catch up, plus the kittens only opened their eyes like last week so they need a whole run-down of who all these older guys are. We meet the maternal cat, the storyteller cat, the railway cat, the twin thief cats, the excitable cat, the magical cat, the Jagger cat. They're all kind of sort of in competition to win a new life (cats have nine you know) by being chosen to go to the Heavyside Layer. Not that they compete - they all just want, vaguely, with a sort of existential soul-deep yearning for something too ineffable to define. This contrast of the transient with the permanent, the fleeting with the eternal, is introduced early in the show, when the cats tell us they have two names: a name they're called by on a daily basis, and a secret name that is wholly and uniquely their own. These themes continue throughout scenes of the actors grooming each other's fur and panting in bisexual lust due to sexy Tugger's sexy hip thrusts. It's deep bro. Gets me right here, bro.

Meanwhile there's an outcast called Macavity who is Bad, but most of the sightings of him are false alarms. He doesn't show up properly till near the end of the second act and there's a whole cat fight, it's awesome, I love picking out which cats stay to fight and which run away. He abducts Old Deut, the patriarch, and the only chance the cats have to get him back is Mister Mistoffelees, who depending on the performance is kind of clumsy and insecure, or really effing amazeballs at magic. I prefer the first because it makes more sense why Rum Tum Tugger sings his song for him (old versions have Mister Mistoffelees singing at least part of his song). Then Old Deut's back and now it's time for the Heavyside Layer!

Meanwhile meanwhile, there's Grizabella, who is haunting the Jellicle Ball with much more tangible yearning. She's washed up, a has-been. She can't dance anymore. No one trusts her. Why? Idk, people are just like that. The other cats fear Macavity, who represents destruction and chaos, but they look down on Grizabella, who is failure and regret and mortality. For whom all the broken dreams could be forgotten if she could join just one more dance. Defeating Macavity isn't the Jellicles ultimate test - accepting Grizabella is.

ETA: I feel like I didn't quite get across why this is so important. The show spends so much time building up our dread of Macavity, but sightings of Grizabella leave us feeling wrong-footed and uncomfortable. And the reason is: Macavity is destruction, but Grizabella is destroyed. A grizzled beauty - someone with no more life left in them. She's a vision of a grim future which the Jellicles want to reject. She's been made small and weak and pathetic. So they blame her for her situation, because then they can go on with their ball without all that discomfort. And they don't just decide to redeem her in the end - first, Grizabella has to sing "Memory." Grizabella needs to tell the Jellicles "There was a time before I experienced destruction too, when I didn't know how happy I was." The only thing which keeps that spark in her alive is the memory of it, and it's that which makes her the chosen candidate to go the Heavyside Layer. A threat like Macavity, while very scary, is mortal and temporary. But Grizabella's ability to look back on her life and find the happiness in it, and reach out to the others while on death's door, despite the risk of harsh rejection, speaks to something eternal. And the Jellicles have a choice whether they will show acceptance for that full course of life.

Then up she goes via the Stairway to Heaven and who knows what happens to her after that. Idgaf really, ask the Everlasting Cat. And then we sing a song about how great cats are because it's true. I mean come on. Shakespeare would write this.

Um wait up... plot holes???

Wait - why did Macavity kidnap Old Deut in the first place though? This is pretty unexplored backstory. Generally fans assume Macavity torments the Jellicles on the regular, and that he did something to Demeter in the past, which is why she's often depicted as the most skittish when he's mentioned. He's a bad egg - his song details enough - and also he's got his paws in the community, thanks to Griddlebone and Mungojerrie.

OK, so not knowing what his motivation is, as well as not knowing why Mungojerrie, who is fairly lovable despite being a thief, is involved with him, is kind of a big plot hole. It'd be nice to know that right? It'd be nice to know what happened to Grizabella - did she leave the Jellicles by choice, did she shun and reject them before she went off on her own? What did these characters do leading up to the events of the show?

This is what defines the True Cats Fan. The True Cats Fan not only doesn't know the official answers to these questions (there aren't any, shut up Hooper), but PREFERS them that way. Number one, it turns the show into a single evening suspended in time. We are voyeurs - guests come to witness the holy day of the catpeople. We are foreigners. We don't understand everything we see because we are not one of them. "What's a Jellicle Cat?" The cats are stunned that we don't know, but can't explain it to us in full either. A Jellicle Cat doesn't need it explain. They always know. So the story is what it is, you know what you know, and what you don't, well, it's not inconsequential, but it is for tomorrow. And tomorrow isn't today, that's the thing.

Number two is that the True Cats Fan doesn't want these questions answered because... we'd rather answer them ourselves!

LAST. The fan lore rocks!

Cats is just so much fun to fan girl in. Because the canon is so whatever, we can come up with our own ideas about backstory and relationships, and when we go to the next show, it's gleeful fun to see what elements of pure director's whim support our fan theories. If you're not interested in headcanons or fan theories you can leave now, here's your certificate, now you know what Cats fans love about the musical Cats. If you're a true freak, read on!

A lot of these are influenced by the 1998 DVD because that was the most accessible way to watch Cats (the musical). But the best ones have roots in any show canon, or extrapolate from like, a single lyric. Making sense of the nonsense without committing to getting rid of the nonsense, because we love nonsense. Also these DON'T all go together, they are independent headcanons, otherwise some of them would be really Not Good hahaha.

OK, so Old Deut is everyone'd dad. BUT, he's particularly dad of Munkustrap, Macavity, and Rum Tum Tugger. Sometimes in that order, sometimes not. This is hilarious to me. I love the idea that Munk and Tugger are brothers and that's why they drive each other batty. And who doesn't love a secret third brother who is als evil, or prodigal son who kidnaps his own father?

Demeter was Macavity's girlfriend before he got kicked out, or sometimes she went with him and came back once she realized he lost his marbles. She's been traumatized by him and that trauma is even choreographed or her. There's behind the scenes video, I think it's from the 1998 DVD, where they explain that, so it's rather more than a theory. She often has a role in the fight scene - an actual fighting role, rather than a cowering one. Now Demeter is Munkustrap's mate, which, if you accept the "Munkustrap/Tugger/Macavity are brothers" theory, makes for all kinds of juicy drama.

Victoria is Plato's girlfriend. Victoria is Mistoffelees's sister. Victoria is Mistoffelees's girlfriend. Victoria is Munkustrap's girlfriend??? Take your pick lol.

Victoria can't speak and/or is deaf and that's why she communicates through dancing.

Demeter and Bombalurina are sisters

Sillabub/Jemima is Munkustrap's daughter (ok...).

Munkustrap is the Jellicle leader of sorts. Old Deut is the real leader, but he's old y'know. And Munkustrap is kinda sorta his son. But Munk doesn't do a lot of leaderly things. He disciplines sometimes and controls the kittens, and he fights in the battle scene. But mostly he sings songs and tells stories. So there's a headcanon that Munk has reservations about being Old Deut's successor and wishes he could just tell stories all the time. So wholesome...

Rum Tum Tugger is a bi disaster and Mister Mistoffelees is his twink boyfriend. Gay cats, they're gay, it's theater, it's a show about cats with a cat orgy, did you really expect different? Now although I make fun I am into it. Tugger, brash and vain yet insecure, and Mistoffelees, insecure with inner pride. In some shows older cats like Skimbleshanks and Gus will be shown trying to lead Mistoffelees away from Rum Tum Tugger during his song, as if concerned by their promising, talented young friend's interest in the local Bad Boy. Mistoffelees's real talent humbles Tugger, and Tugger's audaciousness enables Mistoffelees to take risks. Thus the day is saved! Tugger and Mistoffelees weren't always a set on stage - it could be Mistoffelees and Munkustrap as the two leads, or why Tugger sings Mistoffelees's song would just go without explanation. But these days it's a popular enough duo that it's become fairly regular. And the 2016 actors put Tugger/Misto fan art on the wall in their dressing room therefore it is Canon.

Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots are a couple, inspired by the way he teases her during the Gumbie Cat song

Skimbleshanks is a DILF

Grizabella was Old Deut's girlfriend x'D or is Macavity's mother or something. Personally I don't need this theory lol we've already got enough overlapping relationships to write twelve soap operas so.

Cats with collars are house cats, cats without are strays. Not super reliable but fun to think about.

Some cats aren't named, or have different names depending on the country or decade. These cats can have some really, really dedicated fans whose personal headcanons about these completely undeveloped characters are ironclad.

Asparagus and Gus are father and son. This is to explain why the actor who plays Asparagus is always around, and called Gus/Asparagus, and then for Theater Cat and Growltiger he seems much older but is still called Gus. It's the same actor in slightly different costumes but fans just pretend there's two characters to explain it.

Same thing with Admetus/Plato, who doubles as Macavity in the 1998 DVD, and in many stage performances as well. Macavity is Plato's evil alter ego, but he's in love with Victoria so he doesn't want anyone to know. Or he's not even aware that he is Macavity. A Jekyll and Hyde sort of deal.

Mistoffelees is Macavity's son and that's why he can do magic. (Ergo why Macavity can make Old Deut disappear and Mistoffelees can make him reappear).

Alonzo was Munkustrap's gay fling in college so to speak. Or Alonzo is Munkustrap's half-brother

Coricopat and Tantomile are psychic twins (almost canon) and coach Sillabub/Jemima because she sings really pretty when she's in a trance and seems to Know Ineffable Stuff. In fanfics they're often depicted as not liking Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, which is kinda funny because I guess I would have thought twins on twins would have been The Thing, lol.

Griddlebone was Gus's wife and sometimes Jellylorum's mom. She's evil, independently of Macavity, but also in cahoots with him because song lyrics. ETA: Also that she's Grizabella when she was young!

There's a cat just called George who everyone loves. He's an ensemble cat with no particulars. Love George. Worship George.

Look there's like ninety seven thousand characters in Cats (the Musical) and three times as many headcanons. I'm leaving a lot out but I can't remember any more right now and I gotta go make dinner.

#cats musical #cats the musical

[milfzatannaz]

Goth wardrobe advice

hiiiii baby bats!!!! I just wanted to write a lil post on how to start building a goth wardrobe! I started around 6 months ago and I’ve been very happy with the looks I’ve been able to create, and I thought to just write down how I was able to rlly curate my aesthetic! (though I will tack onto this post that goth is a music based subculture so you can be goth without fancy elaborate looks)

when it comes to shopping for clothes, my personal advice is buy individual pieces, not outfits. meaning you buy clothes with the intention of mixing and matching which will save money and help you from over-buying. plus flexibility in your wardrobe allows for more fun and creativity!

the look

The first step to creating your style is to envision what kind of look you want to go for. goth style pulls from so many different sources! Trad goths from the 80s evolved from punk, and subsequent iterations of the style have Victorian, glam, etc sentiments. you can lean more romantic or more edgy, it’s up to you! the first step is to create a vision board. I love Pinterest personally. from there I typed “trad goth” “casual goth” “90s goth” and streamlined what I want to emulate. Don’t forget to watch goth rock music videos for style inspo- siouxsie is my personal icon and wore such interesting things, as well as Patricia Morrison! there’s also a level of gender nonconformity in goth that you can lean into. for instance, I’m femme but with a shaved head that really compliments my style and makes me feel really confident. It’s all so variable and individual. one of the original tenets of goth was the DIY aspect, which I think is super important. don’t be afraid to rip, cut, add safety pins, or paint on clothes you buy.

shopping

shopping for goth clothes has a lot of misconceptions. you really don’t need to ever buy from a fast fashion site like killstar or dollskill to get the looks you want. In fact most goths would prefer that you look elsewhere at first, bc a lot of us aren’t comfortable with the way our subculture has been commodified and commercialized. thrift stores have given me tons of luck. I typically prefer red white and blue, but goodwill can have good stuff too! (now, thrifting is more environmentally friendly, but that doesn’t mean that the company is ethical, like Salvation Army and goodwill. it’s a matter of choosing what’s right for your personal values.)

you can buy black clothes at pretty much any store which makes creating outfits somewhat easy. shop where you can afford it and what has good options for your body type and comfort level. I buy most of my stuff secondhand but I own a few things from H&M and Pacsun. pacsun has amazing corset tops that are affordable during their sales, and H&M has foundational pieces for okay quality. Try Depop too because I LOVE vintage clothes and you can find amazing things on the app, like dresses from the 90s and 70s blouses!

General wardrobe items

here’s what I bought when building my wardrobe:

- black trousers

- black skirts (midi AND mini. I prefer long skirts but I like to have choices)

- band tees for my fav goth bands

- a white button down blouse

- bustiers/corsets. I have incredible luck thrifting them but some I’ve gotten new. They’re sexy and fun on their own but even cooler layered over something!

- tights! fishnets are a must as well as solid sheer black and other fun patterns

- dresses in plaid or solid colors. you don’t have to JUST wear black, in fact siouxsie wore tons of color back in the day. black is just what we’re known for but maroon, purple and white are great too.

- long sleeve sheer tops. I have one black mesh and one black lace top. These can be worn over bras for an edgier look or under band tees to add texture and complexity.

- SHOES! I don’t buy secondhand shoes only bc I have wonky feet. My two main pairs are my doc martens Jadon platforms and Mary janes. Shoes are an entirely personal decision so do your research! A lot of ppl like Demonias but I haven’t swung for those yet.

- accessories, accessories, accessories. Perhaps what makes someone recognizably goth is our funky accessories. I have multiple belts, ranging from the standard black with grommets to a triple belt and a corset waist cincher. I buy my jewelry off Etsy or I buy them from flea markets, and I lean towards ankhs bc I’m a sandman nerd lmfao. (I own 3 ankh necklaces, a bracelet, and two pairs of earrings oops). I also have a few silver crucifixes and a spiked collar.

- outerwear. I’m a leather jacket aficionado and I hand painted a trad goth jacket, but other options are black long coats and blazers. vests are pretty great too.

final notes

I’m a baby bat myself so I, too am learning the ropes and exploring my style. remember that it’s about self expression and making yourself stand out, not uniformity. there are so many unique alternative subcultures and no one is stopping you from pulling from all sorts of inspo! Remember to have fun when shopping or getting dressed above all else!!!!

other great resources can be found on r/gothfashion and from goth YouTubers!

#goth tag #IDK IF THIS IS HELPFUL BUT. I TRIED

[imnottheonlyone]

what happened to high school?

When I was young, I thought high school students were so cool and grown up. I watched as they started driving, dating, having sex, and going to parties and I couldn't wait to be that fun age. Now that I am in high school, where has the fun gone?

As people have realized, generations are starting to look younger and younger. When you imagine a senior in high school, you often don't imagine the people that I go to school with. Their baby faces haven't gone away and the growth spurts have not hit yet. Part of the appeal of high school is the feeling of adulthood and maturity, not only in the classes you take or your social endeavors, but in the way you look. I don't know if it's because there isn't as much of an age gap between myself and a senior in high school now, but when I was little, they just looked so old. I don't see that anymore. 

Also, technology is nowhere near new and exciting. It's a part of our everyday lives and I will resent that for the rest of my life. While it comes in handy for teaching and grading, and Google is a major plus, it shouldn't be our only source of school these days. I rarely get assignments on paper and honestly, I wish they were. I want physical copies and mementos from my high school days. Not to mention, I don't even have a real school identification card. It's in an app. 

When social media and technology was new and exciting, it acted as a third space for teenagers. Like malls and roller rinks in the eighties and nineties, Tik Tok, Instagram and Tumblr are the "hang-out spots" for teenagers in the late 2010s and 2020s. In the early to mid-2010s, teenagers still went to malls and roller rinks to hang with friends while also adjusting to the new online world. It was a place for teenagers to communicate their ideas and express themselves. Now it has become a part of everything. I almost never have conversations where someone doesn't whip out their phone mid sentence

Also, we have no defining trends for our generation. Social media has brought forth something called the microtrend. A song, make-up look or body type will be a trend for two weeks before out short-attention spanned peers decide it's not interesting or cool anymore and move on to something else. While the nineties had grunge and glamor and the eighties had acid wash denim and big hair, the 20s has....leggings? And Utah curls? What I mean is, when you think of the 1990s, a specific image comes to mind. Grunge music and dark eye make-up. When you think of the eighties you picture big curly hair and neon spandex. When you think of the 2020s, nothing in specific comes to mind because we can't decide on one thing. Nothing is interesting or cool enough anymore. We live in such a capitalist, consumerist society that once we engage in something too much, it becomes boring and we have to find something else. Social media and influencers only amplify that. I don't know if it's Gen-Z's push-back on being categorized or defined by anything, or if nothing is good enough anymore. 

And don't even get me started on the music. In the 20th-century, different music trends came and went. In the 70s hair metal and power ballads became huge. In the 80s glam metal, synth, and pop started to materialize and in the 90s alternative rock, grunge, nu metal, and boy-bands made their breakthrough. This overbearing control of the music industry made music a novelty and allowed teenagers to be a part of a subculture. When punk came about in the 70s and goth in the 70s and 80s, it allowed teenagers to interact with another and create relationships because of the subculture they identified with. This made high school the stereotypical version we see in 90s and early-2000s movies. The goths sit over here and the popular kids sit over there. Even in the 90s with grunge and the 2000s with emo. Though to come it seemed “clique-y”, it made making friends and self-expression more cohesive and less stand-out. Even into the early 2010s, those who liked pop punk, didn’t hangout with the kids who like mainstream pop or trap beats. 

With the rise of the influencer and easy access to higher paying or earning jobs, anybody can make music, even if they’re horrible at it. Content creators online put out singles or albums that sample the same beats as everybody else and have the same dense and shallow lyrics, where it is obvious they’re trying to sound deep and meaningful but they’re fully missing the mark. It’s hard to want to claim a genre or use a specific sound or style of music to identify your generation or simply the people you hangout with. New music doesn’t have that power anymore. New major music genres have not been pioneered since the 90s with grunge and nu metal. People that are making music aren’t creative and the creatives aren’t making music. 

The things people listen to and the way that they dress says a lot about them. For teenagers, it has said everything about them. However in the last ten years, social media and technology has ripped those ideals away from us. Nobody wants to be perceived as one thing. They want to be everything and nothing is good enough to define anybody anymore. Tik Tok has ruined the essence and the glowing aura that once was the teenager. 

#high school #school #student #academics #social media #social skills #tech #trends #hell is a teenage girl #teenagers #technology #2000s emo #gothic #pop music #artists on tumblr #trap #hip hop #nu metal #grunge #90s #80s #70s #2000s #2010s

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Fuse Presents Hell by Hell 2000 House / Techno / Deep House / Electro / New Wave

Goddamn, man, I'm not gonna say outright that this mix in particular is the greatest shit in the world—although it's pretty close!—but the ethos behind it certainly represents what has ultimately led to some of the most astonishing sets that we've ever had the pleasure of witnessing as a species. There's this late 70s-and-80s-rooted spirit that's equal parts unpredictable and eclectic, in which the overall route of the set doesn't feel pre-planned at all, because the DJ takes risks by linking tracks together that you yourself would never expect to hear in succession. The overall journey from point A to point B that you get taken on is one that's long and winding and full of surprises, and the DJ themselves doesn't really have any particular destination in mind to begin with either, because the perpetual question that's always most immediately on their mind is, "hmm, what banger do I want to play next? 🤔"

And I feel like this flying-by-the-seat-of-its-pants approach to DJing has largely faded from the limelight and has gradually been replaced by either the DJ who specializes in one specific dance subgenre that's in one specific range of BPMs for a whole set, or the DJ who just plays mindless EDM claptrap from a pre-loaded USB stick 😒. All of it's so safe and hermetically sealed shut. Where's the danger, the fun, and variety of it all?

See, what you really have to understand here is that there was no place on the planet that was more sonically diverse than your typical late 70s and 80s dancefloor. House, freestyle, synthpop, disco, hi-NRG, pop, post-disco, art punk, art rock, art pop, electro, hip hop, funk, boogie, post-punk, new wave, dance-pop, dancehall, two-tone ska, glam rock, sophisti-pop, soul, alternative dance, R&B, etc., etc., etc., all had the potential to be played at any given moment during a set, and the ultimate job of the DJ was to craft a breathtaking sonic collage out of any of it.

And that's exactly what Germany's DJ Hell channeled here with this commercial mix from 2000 for the second ever installment in Belgian club Fuse's own series. But what's more is that while Hell was deriving his inspiration from an attitude of a bygone era, he also happened to have about an extra decade of music at his disposal that his spiritual predecessors didn't. And the 90s ended up seeing a mega-expansion on the frontiers of electronic and dance music entirely, so while Hell certainly picks out his classics from super popular acts like Donna Summer and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, on here you're also gonna find stuff from contemporary dance legends like Todd Terry and Carl Craig, different flavors of rock from Tuxedomoon, Sparks, and the Flying Lizards, Brazilian-sampled techno from Andrew McLauchlan, and deep house from Bougie Soliterre. In reality, almost none of this track list makes any lick of sense on paper, but that's the inherent beauty of the whole thing, folks! Once you put it on and get a taste of Orange Lemon's (Todd Terry's) "Extended Club Mix" of "The Texican," you really start to get a feel for the vision that's been laid out here, and it's one that's mindbendingly motley, and more in the vein of how a lot of old DJ sets used to be!

The best DJs to me are the ones who appear to be doing it purely off the dome and are just living right in the moment while barely thinking ahead. They know how to wow a crowd with a memorable blend of classics, a contemporary hit, and obscurities from any decade, place, or genre, but they make adjustments if and when they feel the need to as well. And above all else, they possess an uncanny ability to play songs that you don't see coming—or that you never even knew existed in the first place—while also convincing you that the choice they made is one that's both thrilling and logically sound. It's a tough act to balance, like a halftime gimmick who rides a unicycle and spins plates on a long rod that sits on their chin while also juggling bowling pins, but DJ Hell is someone who clearly has the knack for it and puts it on full display here.

The world could always use more of this kind of DJing in it, especially when so many of us now have access to more music than we know what to do with that's all sitting right at our fingertips.

And by the way, I didn't really get into specific tracks with this post here, but "Desire," by 69, which is just a nice alias that was used by Carl Craig, is one of the most stunning combinations of string synth and drum break that I think I've ever heard in my life. Good lord, what a tune that is! 🤯

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Speedy J - "Evolution" Ché - "The Incident (Wet Dream Mix)" Orange Lemon - "The Texican (Extended Club Mix)" Liaisons Dangereuses - "Avant-Après Mars" Tuxedomoon - "What Use" 69 - "Desire" Mitsu - "Shylight" Donna Summer - "I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Megamix)" Sparks - "Beat the Clock" Phuture - "Rise From Your Grave (Wake Side)" Foremost Poets - "Pressin On" Bougie Soliterre - "Superficial (Main Vocal Mix)" G Strings - "The Land of Dreams" Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Two Tribes (Annihilator Mix)" Dopplereffekt - "Rocket Scientist" Andrew Mc Laughlan - "Love Story" Filippo "Naughty" Moscatello - "Disco Volante" The Flying Lizards - "Steam Away"

#house #house music #techno #deep house #electro #new wave #dance #dance music #electronic #electronic music #music #70s #70s music #70's #70's music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #2000s #2000s music #2000's #2000's music #00s #00s music #00's

[fumblingmusings]

Overly long musings about a potential characterisation of Fem!England that doesn't match what would be canon nor should it necessarily be canon but I think would be neat here we go...

Don't get me wrong I do enjoy Fem!England's design - particularly as she's just as scrawny and thin as Arthur but I kind of want an aesthetic that's less skinny child and more emaciated and hollowed out adult.

The kind of woman who smoked excessively and had an opioid addiction throughout the 19th century not entirely of her own making (laudanum and how it could just keep spiralling from there) that she still struggles to shake through to the 21st.

The kind of woman whose hair is a dark wild curly crows nest which never reached Gibson Girl level of dishevelled glam no no it's just a pre-raphaelite mess. That's what I view her as - if Arthur's a punk delinquent then she's that tragic Victorian waif seen in so many operas and plays.

She is certainly someone who would fit right in with 80s punk or 90s grunge no problem (she certainly buys into the lifestyle), but she's someone who used to stand at the end of the hallway in a white gown holding one candle and make Alfred squeak as he snuck upstairs after drinking a midnight milk snack because she truly is as ephemeral and as solid as a ghost (he didn't mean to have her thrown in the river in the 1690s - honest - he knows she's not a witch but when she looms like that...)

And even when she 'cleans up' she's just swallowed up by the sashes and dresses and jewellery. She doesn't hate wearing them but they sure do not enjoy being worn by her.

She stops wearing red after 1918. Green is safe and alive. White are her cliffs that protect her and the pearls that Caesar invaded her for. Red is... everything that is wrong with the world. Everything that she did wrong.

She's still got a stick up her arse, just like Arthur, she's still a menace for the rules until it serves her to break them, just like Arthur. That feeling of helplessness, passivity and apathy that churns and gives way to smug superiority as a front to hold herself together, just like Arthur, is forever present.

Unlike Arthur her anger is more internally directed and set to a permanent broil rather than lashing out at the smallest infraction at the closest recipient. It's a system which rots her from the inside out, but she's nothing but a martyr (still so much like Arthur) and thus she will endure.

Her disappointment and melancholia is more feared than her anger by her kids. She doesn't get angry at them. No no. That's not what mother's do. The kids - only in glimpses - catch their mother's erratic mood swings, unable to predict the pattern of when she'll take them strawberry picking and make jam for them or leave with them with a nanny and lock herself in the attic nursery for five weeks and spend it peeling off the yellow wallpaper - It's not that they doubt she cares for them, loves them even, it's just the fact that their mere presence sometimes makes her question things that it would be much easier to ignore.

So like. Her relationship with the colonies are arguably more fucked up than Arthur's ever could be. A genuine desire for motherhood that got conflated and wrecked by Empire so every moment like these:

Feels like propaganda to her (because isn't it???) and it's to the point where she can't tell what's genuine anymore. In reality she would want nothing more than be that sort of soft mum but she's not. She can't be. Because it's selective on who she can show it too. Because it's encouraged by the wrong people. So she thinks, and broods, and the anger continues to bubble.

Sometimes she can live in the construct, tell herself she's playing pretend, only for it then to feel very real, too real, and she panics and refuses to play house and lie.

Except she's not sure if she was lying. Like was she just feeding into this motherland mother country white woman's burden bullshit or should she admit the equally scary option that what she feels for the kids is genuine? Only she can't express it without buying into said oppressive system and...

She's conflicted for about three hundred years.

...Hmm. I just think a female England would be quite an interesting vehicle to explore that intersectionality of gender and empire - making it worse in that it is a role she genuinely wants - being a mother - and even so she cannot express it in her own way because it seems to only be used by those who make it harmful. So it eats her from the inside out until you reach... idk. Say 1945? 1956? When her government admits the idea that she's the world's caretaker is a lie. When her eldest best beloved boy has come of age and her regency has ended.

She was shit at it anyway. So she tells herself. And now she'll never be a mother again; she'll never be given the chance or the right as she does not deserve it. The older children don't need or want her anymore (if they ever did to begin with and they did, when those times did feel real and her songs and embraces were sweet memories). But the desire still leaks out. Moments still occur. And despite everything she is still lady mother to a few, even if it's not a term spoken out loud. Sentimentality remains, and she can be incredibly sentimental when in one of her moods.

She's better now, essentially. Still half rotted. Still hollow. Still unsure of what her genuine self is and where that belongs. But at least she's not frightened of that love for her kids. At least her impulsively kissing Mattie on the temple doesn't send her into fits of madness anymore.

Small victories.

#hetalia #hws england #fem!england #headcanon #arthur's parenting #this appeals to... checks notes... ah. me. #hyup! #op #historical hetalia

[sesshy380]

I updated Kat's ref pics. While I enjoyed the whole 80's punk glam thing going on with her hair, side-by-side with her demigod form it just looked a bit too rough. Softened her hair and it really makes a difference. She also looks more like she fits into the Yugioh universe now. (also, brain no longer screaming at me to fix it lol)

Also added a few things I forgot with her demigod form. They're mostly minor, barely-noticeable details, but I knew they were missing so I had to fix them just for brain to shut up. (it was her whiskers, forgot to color her nose, and add some minor shading around the eyes)

#my art #oc art #ref sheet update #had to fix things so brain would stop yelling at me

[gwydionmisha]

‘80′s Goths (aka Trad Goths)

A thing I wrote about '80's Goth style in response to a comment from an obviously younger person commenting on the '80's make up video from the previous aggregate.

Early Goth basically grew out of Punk with a lot of metal and some new wave thrown in.  Goth had no sub-genres yet because those didn't develop until some point in the '90's.  It was all just Goth.  You can see the cross pollination in the music of the period.  Sisters of Mercy is as quintessentially as '80's Goth as it gets, and you can hear how heavy their sound is compared to the also very Goth Smiths at the other end of the sound spectrum.  Goths of my era listened to an eclectic mix of stuff.  It was totally reasonable to be a Goth and also like Metallica (Metal), and classic Punk and poppier new wave influenced things like Depeche Mode.

Glam hadn't really been a thing since we were kids.  Bowie wasn't Glam himself by the time Goth was happening, remember, though some of us DID look back stylistically to his Ziggy Stardust Era which you can see in the corsets and make up choices, but you can also see a lot of new wave in hair and make up mixed in with the original punk and some metal influence.  Clothing was often where punk and metal really mixed.  

My first Mohawk was black, but my second in early '89 was a dark purple.  Goths were allowed to have whatever hair.  Not everyone could afford hair dye in the era before the brighter cheaper colours came in.  Again, it's a matter of what you could afford and what you had access to.  I saved up to get mine done professionally, but we were in the era of bleach and Koolaid options as well as people repurposing DIY hair products.  If you had dark hair, you could get bright orange with Sun In for example.  Yes, black was most common and you actually could buy black Clairol or the like, which made it the most popular option, but most popular doesn't mean only option.

You can't really separate the 80's Goth Look from the '80's Goth Music because the two things were so intertwined and so much what early Goth was as a culture.

Something it is super hard to make people who didn't start dressing this way until after commodification really grasp is just how DIY early Goth was.  You couldn't just go to a store and buy Goth clothes and jewelry at first.  By the end of the decade you could buy an ankh necklace because of things like sandman, but most of the jewelry was handmade by the people wearing it or other Goths, selling it, often on blankets while they made more, or it was vintage stuff that had be repurposed, bought from second hand stores or raided from older relatives.  Building a goth wardrobe was exhausting and time consuming and often involved patience.

Finding clothes was an endless round of scavenger hunting and DIY and repurposing.  Most of us were very poor and again, nothing was made for us except a few things other impoverished Goths made at the end of the decade.  Basically, think etsy only without the internet, so consignment stores and craft fairs and little pop up carts next to those people selling their jewelry on blankets and really that's more an early '90's thing.

We would scouer second hand shops.  Luckily places like Good Will were not as picked over then.  We looked through old boxes of elder relative's clothes.  We learned to do it yourself dye things that were a good cut but the wrong color.  We used to make things or repurpose things or patch things together out of multiple pieces and maybe some netting.  We learned to add trims and frills if we were into that.  We bodged things together with safety pins like the punks we grew out of.  We made do.

Yes really, some people had things with glittery fabrics some times or beading or lace or sequins.  It depended entirely on your taste and what you could find or knew how to make.  Some of the nuance is lost in the photos because this was an era of Polaroids and film photography and some stuff aged better than others.

There was no uniform.  No one true style.  No mass production.  Everything was individual.  I can not describe '80's goth in terms of strict criteria because that criteria didn't exist.  It should NOT exist now.  We knew Goth when we saw or heard it.  That was enough.

I think this is why so many of us Elder Goths go ballistic when someone starts trying to police or gate keep Goth.  (Except for literal NAZIs who can fuck right off.  We don't want them, whatever they are calling themselves that decade.  It's the same thing as the Punk community self-policeing over that).  Anything else? It's like Gender: you are Goth if you say you are Goth.  Work out your own version of what that means.  

So yes, purple hair in the late '80's is historically accurate.  Yes, you could have things like a glittery or sequined or beaded shirt or sweater or dress for those who wore dresses or skirts.  (Some Goth clothing was gendered; some was super androgynous.  A lot of '80's and '90's goths were some brand of queer, gender-nonconforming, trans, and or what we'd now call non-binary, but back then we mostly called ourselves androgynous.  Some cis men wore skirts because they liked how they looked or found them comfortable.  A lot of them switched to kilts later on, but not always.  In the late '80's-early '90's Goth culture was full of people playing with gender expression for a host of reasons).  

There was a mainstream trend for fancy tights and pantyhose with designs or glitter or different colours in them.  Goths could actually find black pantyhose and tights and fishnets at a reasonable price in mainstream stores.  Some of the panty hose had cute little patterns on them, usually at the ankles or up the back, but also all over sometimes.  some were glittery or extra shiny.  It was fine!  It was the same with lace and fishnet and long satin elbow gloves mostly thanks to Madonna.  This is why you see old trad goths wearing these types of accessories.  You could afford them!  You didn't have to hand make them!  The bead and cross and rosary thing was because you could buy those cheap at stores because mainstream people also wore them.   Thanks to people like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna creating a mainstream market for accessories we could use too.

Our subculture hasn't been properly captured in media it's easy to access.  Most of Goths in movie or TV in the '80's and early '90's were stereotypes made or chosen by people who weren't goth either to demonize us as part of a moral panic or as a punchline or a freak show.  The fair representation is in the photographs taken of goths by goths at the time and in the memories of Elder Goths like me.

Trust me, the Karolina Żebrowska makeover looks just fine to me, within the range of what people were wearing then.  She could have walked into a club or a house party and fit right the fuck in.  Looking at her made me a little nostalgic for the scent of clove cigarettes even though I'm allergic.  She did just fine.

#Gotth #Goth Fashion #Goth Music #Goth Culture #Trad Goth #Elder Goths

[attentionthisisarobbery]

Eddie Munson's Music Taste

So for anyone that isn't well versed in metal, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at Eddie's taste in music for anyone wanting to write fanfiction or make fan content of any kind.

First off, let's look at the bands we know Eddie listens to from costume design, set design, and the script.

Metallica and Black Sabbath are the ones we know about from the script itself. Looking at Eddie's battle jacket, we can add W.A.S.P., Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, and Accept (from the pins), Motörhead, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth (from the patches), and Dio from the back patch. Then, if we look closely at Eddie's room in the trailer, we can see that he also likes Anthrax and Liege Lord. Now, a lot of these bands would be considered heavy metal:

Motörhead

Iron Maiden

Judas Priest

Mercyful Fate

Accept

Dio

Liege Lord

Black Sabbath

A couple would be considered Thrash Metal:

Metallica

Megadeth

Anthrax

But one straddles the line between shock rock, heavy metal, and glam metal (or as Eddie would have called it in the 80s, hair metal):

W.A.S.P.

So, Eddie likes heavy metal, thrash metal, and hair metal - in that order, right? Well, not necessarily. Anthrax actually prompted the creation of the term "thrash metal," after their 1984 song Metal Thrashing Mad, and as such, there weren't a ton of thrash bands on the scene in 1986. So, it may not be that Eddie prefers heavy metal to thrash; it may just be that heavy metal is a well established genre that he's been exposed to for a longer period of time.

Then there's W.A.S.P. - our little hair metal outlier. Hair metal, or as it's usually referred to today, glam metal, is actually a source of tension in the metal community to this day. The entire culture around metal as a musical genre is heavily based in nonconformity, with popular metal bands creating music that would be seen as less accessible to the general public, because they refuse to fall in line with the mainstream.

Metal is a form of protest on top of being a great musical genre. A part of what classifies different types of metal (thrash, black, death, etc.) is what the lyrics are protesting against. For instance, black metal tends to be very anti-Christian, and thrash metal, emerging in the 80s, tends to be anti-conservative, anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-environmental destruction. Check out Disposable Heroes by Metallica for strong example of this.

Hair metal came onto the scene at about the same time as thrash metal, and boy did metalheads have a lot to say about it. Hair/glam metal is still metal, but it's more accessible, more pop-influenced, and as a rule, doesn't really protest much through lyrics. Instead, the songs were designed to be just mainstream enough that they could top the charts and make more money as a result. Think Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister, and Bon Jovi. But for metalheads, this was a departure from everything they stood for. Metal couldn't conform to the mainstream's expectations and still be metal.

Now, W.A.S.P. is kind of a special case, because although their sound is very much based in hair metal - pop hooks and guitar riffs combined with a blend of heavy metal, hard, and punk rock, with songs starting off slow and building in tempo with the occasional shred guitar solo thrown in - nothing else about them was palatable for the mainstream.

Their lyrics were considered highly offensive, so much so that their first single, Animal (Fuck Like A Beast), was removed completely from their first album release in the US, so it could be sold in chain stores. Their live performances were equally shocking: this is why they are classified as "shock rock." They became known for cutting up meat with chainsaws on stage, and then throwing said meat into the audience, as well as very raunchy displays of partial nudity, S&M, and simulated sex acts. W.A.S.P. actually became quite controversial in later years for their misogynic lyrics, being accused of promoting abuse and sexual assault.

But forget the politics for now. What does this mean for Eddie? Well, by virtue of also being shock rock, W.A.S.P. gets a bit of a pass when it comes to the conformity of hair metal, since they were still completely unpalatable for a mainstream audience. But the thing I want to point out is that Eddie doesn't hate W.A.S.P.'s sound. He might actually enjoy other hair metal bands as well, but wouldn't feel comfortable advertising it.

This is all just food for thought. You can use this information however you like in your fanworks. Maybe Eddie's trying to keep up an image and secretly loves ABBA, who the hell knows? I just thought I'd share this for anyone who wanted a little extra insight in the character and his music taste. It also might be cool to note that throwing horns (see Eddie in the picture below) originated with Ronnie James Dio back when he joined Black Sabbath in 1979. He said that his grandmother had used the gesture to ward off evil.

ALSO, I have to add this last part because the vocabulary used by metalheads can be confusing to the uninitiated. So, 'metal' is an umbrella term for all kinds of metal music. 'Heavy metal' is ALSO an umbrella term for all kinds of metal music, but it can also refer to the specific musical style established by the bands listed above under 'heavy metal': Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Iron Maiden. So someone might refer to thrash metal as a subgenre of heavy metal, and then turn around and say that they prefer thrash metal to heavy metal. You just kind of have to use context clues to figure out how the words are being used.

ALSO ALSO, please stop calling Eddie a punk, goth, etc. Those are different things. If in your fanwork Eddie is actually a goth, then by all means, but as he exists in canon, he would consider himself a metalhead. (could be funny to see how he reacts to other characters mixing it up tho)

#stranger things #eddie munson #metal #metalhead #heavy metal #thrash metal #80's thrash #glam metal #hair metal #shock rock #I'm not gonna say how I feel about the whole W.A.S.P. thing #but I didn't link the song in case someone might be upset by it

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

#sigue sigue sputnik #cyberpunk #martin degville #tony james #neal x #miss yana ya ya #ray mayhew #chris kavanagh #flaunt it #synth pop #new wave #hi NRG #post punk #glam punk #electronic #80s punk #80s glam punk #80s hair #80s make up #80s fashion #80s glam punk fashion #80s glam punk hair #80s glam punk make up #pinterest finds #80s punk hair #80s punk fashion #80s cyberpunk #80s punk make up #80s cyberpunk fashion #cyberpunk fashion

[1000punks]

tagged by @adevilyoudo thank you friend! 🜏

Do you make your bed? i do, i never used to but it's nice to not climb into a mess of blankets at the end of the day.

Favourite number? 13!

What’s your job? i work at a convenience store :')

If you could go back to school would you? i would, i want to get my master's degree at some point

Can you parallel park? i can!

Do you think aliens are real? i do but in more of the way that "we can't be the ONLY intelligent life in the universe" type of way. if i saw a little green man with my own eyes, i would have to concede that those exist, i think

Can you drive a manual car? in theory? yes; in practice? no

What’s your guilty pleasure? i don't really feel guilty about pleasure, darling

Tattoos? i have ten, i want ninety more

Favourite colour? deep purples

Favourite types of music? hoo boy uhh, a lot? alt, punk, metalcore, post-hardcore, kpop, korean alt-rock, korean r&b, j-metal, japanese alt-rock, japanese punk, new wave, synthwave, darkwave, coldwave, 80s pop, 90s/00s r&b, country, folk/americana, 70s metal, hair rock, glam rock, rock opera, house, d&b, progressive rock and metal, horror punk, uhhh blinks yeah

Do you like puzzles? i do!

Any phobias? clowns! :)

Favourite childhood sport? probably basketball or just straight up track. i love running.

Do you talk to yourself? i do, and i'm fucking hilarious

What movies do you adore? the crow, little miss sunshine, fargo, mean girls, bring it on, ten things i hate about you, the lost boys, scream, SLC punk!, juno, into the wild, constantine, iwtv, queen of the damned, the batman, the breakfast club <- movies i've watched hundreds of times and will never grow tired of, essentially

Coffee or tea? coffee~

First thing you wanted to be growing up? a cartoonist, which... i'm halfway there

i'm tagging.... @treshmind @song-writer-melo-wrath @kirahlene @eradelum @/ anyone else who wants to do this, go hard

#.txt #about me #tag meme

[henriiiii-1001]

Anon whose life support is Spotify /lhj I'd like to offer my help if you want it (search tip: search genres and subgenres on Spotify or YouTube playlists, it's much faster)

Having Thea's band be a street one sounds pretty cool, since some later very popular singers / bands started by "busking" on the streets too, like Tones and I (the singer of "Dance Monkey") , so Thea's band specific genre can be anything really, but since she's following Nathan's footsteps then I'll assume she went for the world of rock too

I was listening to Alice Cooper (the solo artist not the band) when you published the UG masterpost, and while obviously I don't think you'd make the BeatCRASHERS main genre be psychedelic like Alice, there are other genre options that came from psychedelic rock you can choose from, like Glam Rock (ex : T. Rex) , Hard Rock (ex : Bon Jovi) , Metal / Heavy Metal (ex : Metallica) and Punk Rock (ex : Green Day)

This thing of "street music can be anything" also technically applies to Adam and Lily, but honestly the only thing that is coming to mind right now is Metallica's "Master of Puppets" , and their main genres are Heavy, Trash and Speed Metal and Hard Rock, so you can pick any of those or their subgenres if you want

This one also came to me while still listening to Alice, specifically his song "Bed of Nails", so what do you think of Sub-Zero main genre being Classic Rock? Technically Classic Rock is more of an umbrella genre for rock/metal songs made in or similar to the 60s and 70s, sometimes 80s too, but could be interesting. If you need some genres that fall under "classic rock" there's Garage, Punk and Soft Rock and Sunshine Pop (from Pop Rock)

Ah, I also took the liberty (I was bored) to write up ideas for song or album names for the bands / artists in UG I hope you don't mind

BeatCRASHERS : "Arms that drag me"

Sub-ZERO : "Child Shadows"

Mateo : "Afortunada Virgen" <- Reggaetón is Reggaetón lol

PUPPET333R : "Havoc Strings"

Star CrXssed : "Spacetime Combustion"

Lily : "Snake's Nest"

Yeah, I think I've written enough, bye-bye

sounds really cool!!!! though when i refer to street i was mostly referring to like. hip hop and rap. the (fictional) group they’re based on does hip hop and rap, and i thought people would get reference if i referred to them as a street group. thats my bad though and i should have made that more clear.

also thea’s group isn’t a band, just a music group. while she takes nathan as inspiration, she’s a different person, has different tastes, and i wanted to reflect that in how she expresses herself in music.

that all goes for lily and adam too. for adam though he’d definitely be more on the techno side (YAY i finally decided. maybe he does a rock song every now and then as a treat. lily might take more of the rock pileline tho bc i’d say she’s pretty intense w her music.

as for Sub-ZERO i think i was thinking classic rock for them!!! maybe punk rock bc nathan and Sub-ZERO doing a cover of american idiot would be SIIIIICK!!! also bc i’d say that genre fits nathan p well

the album names are sick too!!!! definitely gonna take some inspo from those >:D

im really glad you put this much thought into your suggestions though!!!!! it helps out a lot :DDDDD

#interview box #unholy gift #also i dont have spotify so that’s not an option for me LOL #im fine w it tho i prefer youtube to listen to music anyway #thanks for the suggestions though!!!!!! sorry for not clarifying on the “street” music thing though

[box-of-chaooos]

Updated anatomy and heacannons list of frank and len 🤘🏻

Anatomy

Their nervous system is conjoined. Whilst they have their respective sides each will still feel pain if it’s from the others respective side like in sunny daze (days?) len steps onto the hot steps and frank feels it too. Only both feel it if it’s a strong pain, if len bumped his leg or something frank wouldn’t feel that only len and vice Versa hence why they can pinch each other and the other not feel it.

They have 2 stomachs but sometimes still eat for 1 person. Ruby might make a batch of special cupcakes so they’ll halve it between them, but if it’s a normal meal or there’s enough for everyone to have their fill the two will eat as they wish as well, Ruby usually provides more for them both.

Both are technically zombies, as mentioned imo frank died of suffocation and len of Illness so both of them are quite slow, len more so because his brain was shut down so quickly as a baby due to his illness hence why he blinks out of unison a lot or seems to stare out into space alot. Frank also blinks out of unison or can be ditzy but slightly less so.

Headcannons

Frank is nonbinary and bisexual, he doesn’t have a preference

He has one blue (right) eye and one green (left) the blue is more prominently coloured than the green which is a sort of muddy green as opposed to his bright blue eye.

They’re autistic and have a strict routine they follow each day but it’s usually messy due to len (why in lens area)

Do not call him frankie he will actually strangle you.

Whilst he loves rock he typically likes sorts of 80s rock or alternative and they quite likes jazz too.

He has a fear of suffocation due to the way he died as a kid, he constantly has anxiety about how he might stop breathing randomly or even end up drowning.

He is actually more adventurous than len, he loves to get outside (mostly in hopes of finding a talent scout)

Between the two they take the career a little more seriously than len

Assigned female at birth

They’re technically older than len having been born first

———————————————————————

Len is trans and gay but he always talks about girls he just appreciates a beautiful or hot lady when he sees one

He’s gay but put a muscular punkish lady infront of him he will say some shit that is straight as.

Autistic and adhd, he struggles to stick with routine and constantly wants to do his own thing which is tricky due to franks routine.

He tattooed himself with a pen and safety pin because he was bored.

To him the music career isn’t as serious and more fun

The better singer of the two (don’t tell Frank)

He has one green eye (right) and one blue (left) his green eye is a very bright green whilst the blue is more greyish which is the opposite to franks

He is a raging insomniac and barely sleeps which ends in him falling asleep through the day all the time randomly.

Loves all rock categories but favours heavy metal and punk rock even death metal, though he loves hairspray/glam metal too.

Assigned female at birth, but doesn’t mind embracing his feminine side E.g wearing eyeliner

The pink parts of his eyes aren’t makeup rather from when he died his skin drooping what you see is his water line.

Has a very server phobia of illness and sick (emetophobia) due to his death as a kid and often avoids eating due to it, checks dates constantly misery helps ease the worries.

#lgbtq #trans #gay #bisexual #nonbinary #zombies #death #tw death #rock #frank and len #ruby gloom #ruby gloom frank and len #frank and len stien #headcannons #2headcannons #phobias #ruby gloom headcanons

[annonniiiiieeeee]

what kind of music do you think the bros listen to?

Well let’s look at the music they wanted to Emulate.

Leo likes glam rock.

This includes but is not limited to: Queen, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Kiss, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Sweet, and many more

Raph likes soul

This would be: James Brown (his outfit from these episode is meant to represent him) Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Huston, The Temptations, and more

Donnie likes electro dance music

Daft Punk, Skrillex, Marshmallow, David Guetta

Mikey is rap/hip hop

I’m going to be honest I don’t know rap and hip hop well enough to put out suggestions here. I will let someone more knowledgeable then me fill in here.

But their is cross over of music. You’ll notice that specifically Raph and Leo’s music tastes have an 80s feel to it. Lou Jitsu movies and Jupiter Jim moves seem to be made in the 80/90s. Since that’s what they watched as kids that really effected what sort of music they like. Those soundtracks were pact full of 80/90s hits

Donnie might be the theater kid but I think all the brother like some form of musical. They sneak into the rafters of broadway. They have seen phantom of the opera, wicked, newsies, les mis heathers, Beetlejuice and many other shows.

Disney of course makes it’s rounds through the house when April meets them.

They all love a pop queen, Beyoncé, Britany Spears, Lizzo

While they listen to Taylor swift it is Leo and Donnie who are Swifties. Which is quite fun because in cannon of my fic, Leo missed midnights. He missed the album being announce he missed the album drop. (He also missed Beyoncé‘s renaissance) so he comes back with a lot of music to catch up on.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #asks