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starf · 2 years

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StarF's Top Ten Albums of 2021

IT'S TIME LET'S GOOO!!!

10. bbno$ - eat ya veggies

I'm not going to lie, I struggled hard with the #10 spot on this list. There were a ton of great albums in 2021 and narrowing down what wasn't going to make it on the list was tough. In fact up until just a couple days ago the number 10 spot was reserved for Greatest Hits by Waterparks, another cool album and their best release in awhile. All of this is sort of my way of cheating my own system and giving that Waterparks album the unofficial 11th spot on the list.

However, I realized that even now deep into January of 2022 that I'm still consistently listening to eat ya veggies and just having so much fun! This album definitely comes out swinging harder in the first half than the second, but it's still a fun ride the entire way through. And what I can only assume is a formula based on streaming and TikTok trends sees every song but one coming in at under three minutes, which means if you don't like a jam it'll be over soon.

In fact that may be my only real gripe with the album, because when I do like a song (such as the absolute banger that is "edamame") I wish it went on for a little longer. Obviously the entire point is to loop it faster to get more streams, but damn dude.

9. You, Me, And Everyone We Know - Something Heavy

I discovered the band You, Me, And Everyone We Know in 2015, which made their breakup in 2016 pretty tough to handle. I got in on what I thought was their final release (the Dogged EP) and fell in love with the back catalog. I even drove to Chicago to see their final show, which was an absolute blast.

So imagine my surprise and excitement when out of nowhere they dropped a new single and announced that they were releasing a new album. Something Heavy delivers a cautious optimism painted in the signature sound I've come to expect from this band. I wish there were more eyes, or ears as it were, on this band because they seem to be very underrated from what I can tell.

8. Timbuktu - It's Alright In The Daylight

Hey speaking of artists who sort of just came back out of nowhere, I've been a big fan of Timbuktu's album Stranger Danger for like a decade now. There was another album in 2014 that for whatever reason didn't really capture my attention in quite the same way, and then nothing for awhile. In 2020 Tim dropped Million Pound Note, which I enjoyed quite a bit but still didn't top my list. Given the pattern I expected it would be quite a wait until we saw another Timbuktu album again. But surprise! A year later another offering hot off the press, and this one is killer front to back.

It's Alright In The Daylight manages to recapture the energy and vibe that got me hooked on Stranger Danger back in the day. I don't know exactly what it is or how to explain it, but in my opinion it's his best album since then. If you're looking for some good chilled out hip hop then look no further than this album.

7. Fishboy - Waitsgiving

Oh boy, another storybook from none other than Fishboy! If you've read my lists before you'll no doubt be familiar with Fishboy, and my affinity for his album Art Guards. This new offering takes a similar approach in format, each song following a specific character as the album weaves together a narrative to follow.

While this particular story didn't captivate me in quite the same way that Art Guards does, it's still a wonderful addition to the catalog, and a fun journey to listen to. The pianos are bouncy, the guitars are jaunty, the tunes are catchy, and perhaps most of all it's nice to listen to music that's just not based in reality. If you still haven't given Fishboy a chance, this would be a fine place to start!

6. Marc With A C - low fidelity (or "how i spent the nervous breakdown")

While we all may be turbofucked, ttist and (full disclosure) someone I am delighted to be able to call my friend. Friends aside, that has no influence on where or why this album is on this list. It's here because it's a damn fine album. Throughout his discography up to this point I would say there are sort of two sides to Marc's music, a lot of the earlier albums which are mostly striped down jams based around an acoustic guitar, filling out more and more around Motherfuckers Be Bullshittin'. Low Fidelity is a massive (by today's standards) album that combines both avenues of Marc's music into a reflection of this world.

While we all may be turbofucked, at least we can go down with the ship listening to some good music. One of my favorite additions to this album that haven't been prevalent in previous Marc With A C albums is the addition of instrumental pieces such as Sleepwriting and Not Sure Exactly Where... that are gorgeous and give the album a good sense of pacing. This album serves as the final act of "Phase I" of Marc With A C, and it's a great finale to go out on. I'm excited to see where we go from here!

5. Telethon - Swim Out Past The Breakers

More nepotism?! No! I just have a lot of really cool friends who make incredible music! Telethon, who stunned me solid in 2017 with their album The Great Spontanean and kept the hype train moving in 2019 with Hard Pop have returned once again with a great offering in Swim Out Past The Breakers.

Having solidified their sound as the aforementioned hard pop, this album continues seeing them do what they do best: writing jams that are as catchy and infectious as they are dense and packed with feeling. Come for the fun tunes, and stay for the lyrics that will have you looking back on your life asking "why am I like this?," but, you know, in a good way.

4. The Death Set - How To Tune A Parrot

The Death Set released what I consider to be a perfect album back in 2011 called Michel Poiccard. Then they seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth. A full decade later they re-emerged and didn't miss a step at all. Sounding fresh of the heels of their 2011 album, How To Tune A Parrot is still as fresh, electric, and vital as ever. I don't really have much else to say about this except you absolutely must give it a chance, because it is a wild ride.

3. Rare Americans - RA2

Rare Americans is a band I discovered in late 2020, and luckily I didn't have to wait too long to get the experience of listening to a new album from them! Actually I got that experience twice last year because they release both RA2 and RA3 within the year. The latter, also titled Jamesy Boy & The Screw Loose Zoo was literally also good enough to be on this top ten list. In fact in my first iteration of the list I had both albums on it. Ultimately though I decided to just give it up for what I think is the more solid of the albums and leave RA3 off (but you should absolutely listen to both).

Rare Americans combines so many elements that speak to me. Musically they combine hip hop and rock music in a way that is not, I repeat, not the "rap-rock" you might associate those words with. Combining these vocal elements with all sorts of fun musical styles, instruments, and sound effects, they weave narrative tales with colorful characters, and throughout all of this make each song unique and infectious along the way. There was definitely a portion of time early in the year before this album came out that I had the song Hullabaloo on repeat for weeks. Give it a listen, and if you like what you hear make sure you watch the music videos as well!

2. Aesop Rock x Blockhead - Garbology

Aesop Rock is somehow as prolific as he is talented, releasing album after album year after year without ever missing. Sure, some may be weaker than others, but overall they're never bad. I surely need to learn to stop doubting that a new Aes project won't live up to the hype in my head, because every time a new album is announced I think "another one? already?! it has to be too much!" but it never is!

Garbology is my favorite Aes project since 2019's Malibu Ken, which in Aes years feels like a lifetime ago. Taking up a loose concept around garbage and the theory of garbology (the study of a culture by examining its waste), Aesop Rock digs into the dumpster fire that is our own society and returns with a collection of insights and gems laid over thick and enchanting Blockhead beats. It's grimy, it's dirty, but what else would you expect?

1. Cheekface - Emphatically No.

The first time I heard a Cheekface song randomly come up on a Spotify playlist I knew I loved it. That said, I didn't expect to be quite as taken with their album as I was. Emphatically No. is so immediately accessible and entertaining. Almost every day a random song from this album, or its b-sides (titled Emphatically Mo. which also appeared on my favorite EPs list) pops into my head. I don't know how to explain what they've done hear, but they've perfected their own formula to a degree that their band name should probably just be Earworm.

Speaking of band names, I hate having to tell people to listen to Cheekface. I think it's a bad name, and yet here we are, and I'm telling you emphatically yes that you should listen to this album. It may not be for everybody, but for the people that it is for it'll be a heavy hitter very fast. Combining often sarcastic or sardonic lyrics, the deadpan delivery of verses is expertly transitioned into catchy hooks that will have you singing along by the second chorus on your first listen.

This album is fun, it's insightful, it's cynical yet optimistic. And overall it's just a good time. I am shocked that in all of the top lists for 2021 I've seen so far I haven't seen anyone talking about this album at all, because for me it was probably the thing I listened to most over the year.

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for-i-am-dying-of-such-love · 4 years

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that time I watched Antony + Cleopatra

I don’t even know where to start with this one. Please don’t mistake my criticism of the episode with my hating it, because I actually think there’s a lot going on here with Xena (and Gabrielle too, but I am less focused on her arc) that’s quite nuanced and compelling. I love that Xena’s role in orchestrating Marc Antony’s downfall contributes to her moral and emotional conflict. What I abhor (and refuse to accept) is the suggestion that it’s born out of her falling in *love* with him, especially when there are far more consequential things in Xena’s life, past and present, fueling her angst in this moment. I have my own reading of what’s causing Xena’s uneasiness here, but more on that in a bit.

First: I think my greatest frustration is with the show itself. Like, THE FUCKING AUDACITY to foist a Boyfriend of the Week on us with just a handful of episodes left in season five. After everything, *everything*, that Xena & Gabrielle have suffered through (actual, literal HELL), and the continued devotion they show for one another, it’s just not believable that Xena would fall in love with someone else, let alone a ROMAN GENERAL. The emphasis here is important, but patience grasshopper, I’ll get to that.

Now, here’s where we start to get into the weeds with this notion of ‘Xena falling in love’ and there’s a lot to unpack around it, but before I do, let me just finish unspooling the threads of frustration I have with the show and it’s AUDACITY. Because it’s important to note that the show’s intention *was* to frame Xena’s attraction for Marc Antony as romantic - on top of whatever else she may have initially felt (indifference, intrigue, lust) - and not just sexual. And while I’ll concede that a story where Xena is forced to sacrifice her heart for the greater good by killing the man she loves is intriguing, it’s one we’ve already seen (Immortal Beloved). More than that, it’s a story that doesn’t fit with the Xena we know now, and the show, better than anyone, should have recognized this.

I know I’m being hard on the show runners here, so allow me this small tangent to give a little contextual understanding before furthering my arguments. As much fun as it is wrestling with the internal logic of this show (a surprisingly uphill battle all the time), I understand the unfortunate truth is that character motivations don’t always drive the story in the ways you would expect. Sometimes external factors complicate the stories XWP wants to tell and the ways it’s *allowed* to tell them. I get that.

I also get that Xena: Warrior Princess - both the show and the character - was expected to be sexy (hello, an easy win because Xena & Gabrielle). And that means, from time to time, it had to tease the audience with sex and seduction and romance (I guess fighting demons in Hell for the soul of your SOULMATE is not romantic enough, but I DIGRESS). What that often translated as on screen was a parade of Boyfriends of the Week for our two favourite Gal Pals, and by this point in the show, well, frankly it had been a while since Xena had had her a boyfriend (the Ares arc in season 5 doesn’t count). Simply put: a Marc Antony type was past due.

In this case, he wasn’t just past due, he served a dual purpose - fulfilling their Boyfriend of the Week quota, but also helping to re-establish Xena’s sexuality after she’d had her baby. I happen to think the latter take is overly simplistic and misguided (because, what, pregnant women are not also capable of being sexual creatures?), but it’s something Rob Tapert has commented on. So, ok, sure, fine whatever.

To be fair, I’m not sure if the show was deliberately signalling the return of Sexualized!Xena, or if it was simply a byproduct of the chemistry between the characters, and the inherent sensuality of the story’s setting. Regardless, the end result was certainly titillating. And I get it. I get why they want Boyfriends of the Week sometimes. Sex sells, and this episode was a blockbuster.

And before I return again to being hard on the show runners about dumb boyfriends, I just want to point out that my specific problem isn’t that Xena has been given a *boy*friend. Xena is bisexual, so men are always going to be an option when she’s considering a romantic or sexual partner. My issue is that she’s considering *any* romantic partner at all! By the gods, she’s essentially married to Gabrielle at this point.

Ay, but there’s the rub. Because the same expectation that dictated XWP should be sexy, also dictated that it should be heteronormative. The show can repeatedly double down on Xena’s & Gabrielle’s emotional and spiritual fidelity but it can never be seen explicitly to be sexual too (just a reminder, I haven’t seen S6 yet). That’s the unfortunate and uncomfortable reality of television in the late 90s and early 00s.

But this is where I take umbrage: XWP may’ve been limited (by studio notes) to giving us a chalk outline of what Xena’s & Gabrielle’s relationship really looked like, but they most definitely had the ability to control how they coloured the relationships Xena & Gabrielle had with their Boyfriends of the Week. And again, in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ the show chose to frame it as a love story, a romance, when simply playing it off as Xena’s libido run amok would have satisfied the episode’s need for sex appeal, while also honouring the fact that her heart has long been spoken for (don’t worry: taking Xena’s heart out of the equation won’t lessen her moral or emotional conflict any - I’m getting there!).

Because here’s the thing: Xena getting caught up in the heady thrill of a seduction play, especially with a man as attractive and powerful as Marc Antony is totally believable. And really, Xena taken in by *lust* makes sense, especially at this point in her life. I mean, it’s been a while since she’s had to play this seductive cat-and-mouse game (Ares doesn’t count) and maybe she’s forgotten how easy it is to slip into this character, how much fun it can be. Maybe it’s even a little liberating - this return to form from when she was wild and free - because a lot has changed since she last had to do this; she’s changed and in ways she never anticipated. She’s settled down, even if she’s still travelling the known world. Made a commitment to Gabrielle to share a life together, had a baby, and now the three of them are carving out their own little domestic sphere. And all of this is happening while she’s still reconciling the person she was before with the person she is now. Maybe she’s a little itchy.

Because this… this tension, the cadence of a feint and parry charm offensive, it’s familiar. Comfortable in a way she didn’t know she missed until she felt it again. It would be easy to see her drunk with dark delight, to momentarily lose sight of her head. It would be believable. What’s not believable is that she - a pragmatist - would ever lose sight of her heart. Because the stakes of the game are so high, for Egypt but also for her. (And for you in the back who’s clearly read ahead on the syllabus and is about to point out Xena’s checkered romantic history and her self-proclaimed soft spot for Bad Boys Who Love Like Fools - don’t worry, we’ll get there too.)

What I’m taking a generous amount of time to say is this: if they simply wanted to give us a lush and sexy episode, they could have delivered on the sexiness without attaching it to a love story! We are long past believing Xena only kisses people she’s in love with, or that she’s in love with all the people she kisses. There’s no need to pretend her sexual agency is only relevant or operational within the confines of a romantic plot line. But more than that, throwing an unbelievable romance into the mix really only serves to threaten the integrity of Xena’s motivations, because it risks reducing the entirety of her turmoil to: Xena loses another boyfriend, how le sad. And that is absolutely not the point.

Because the point is this: Rome fucking corrupts and perverts everything it touches. And Xena’s motivations are built from her (and now Gabrielle’s) tortured history with the empire and the men who run it. And if you’ll permit me, like 4,000 words, we can get into it and, hopefully, you’ll agree that shit is heavy enough on Xena’s mind without a ‘star-crossed lovers’ storyline. Remember, it was only a year ago that they both were nailed up by Romans and left to die under a cold, grey sky at the foot of Mount Amaro. That cross alone, and the long shadow it casts, is more than capable of supporting the dramatic weight of this episode, never mind the crosses that came before it.

So, I can’t overstate the importance of Xena’s past connection with Caesar and Rome. It informed so much of who Xena was to become, as a cruel and bloodthirsty warlord, and then later, as a warrior fighting for good. Even now, after Caesar’s death, that connection is still informing her. It will never stop. And, Rome will never be absolved of its sins against Xena & Gabrielle. There’s simply too much trauma in that shared past. Trauma that‘s telegraphed onto every interaction Xena has with Rome and its strongmen going forward.

And it’s exactly the reason Xena would never fall in love with Marc Antony. She might well lust after his body, but she will never pine for his devotion. Because, even in that moment under the stars when he is just a man with his chest cracked open, offering up to her his heart, beating strong and hungry in want of her affection, she can’t help but see the hardened, black veins where the love of Rome - like a creeping scourge - has left its vile mark. Of course she recognizes it, her own heart bore the same disease. A gift from Caesar. The pretty boy with his pretty words and his pretty promises, who so subtly disarmed Xena and then skillfully stripped away her defences until she had bared her heart to him. Who didn’t hesitate to flay it with a knife of her own making, it’s blade poisoned with his love for Rome.

He did not take her heart - sometimes she wished he had - but left it to rot in her chest, slow and angry. And it nearly destroyed her. Nearly drained her of every ounce of humanity she had left, as hatred and spite and cold brutality filled her up instead. He had weaponized Xena’s affection for him and used it against her and she was forever changed. In that singular moment she saw Caesar, and Rome - because Caesar was Rome and Rome was Caesar and they were one and the same - for what they truly were: insidious and unrepentant in their calculated villainy. And she hated - not just the man who betrayed her, but the monster who nursed him with poisoned milk, and all the other strongmen who nursed at the same teat. Because in that moment too, Xena learned that all the men who kneeled before Rome and lusted after her glory were the same.

But she didn’t let her hatred go unproductive. She had been careless and imprudent in her dealings with Caesar, and nearly paid for it with her life. Except she survived and then thrived, in her own insidious, unrepentant, calculated villainy. And she never forgot what Caesar had done to her, how he had done it. She turned it over and over and over again in her mind. Studied it from every angle. Studied *him*. Until she knew how he thought, how he moved, where he was weak and unsuspecting. Until she knew every single one of his plays, and how best to counter them. Where and when to lay siege. A secret weapon she cultivated, not just to destroy the man who destroyed her heart, but to lay waste to all the fools who followed in his footsteps. She wouldn’t be taken in by Rome again.

And, to be fair, the episode doesn’t try to run from this history. It just doesn’t linger in it any longer than is necessary to give a brief nod to Brutus and the crucifixion (which is a shame, because it informs so much of both Xena’s & Gabrielle’s psychology, but we’re getting there!!!). Even still, Gabrielle’s first words are loaded with its legacy, if not also quiet resignation: “Are we really going to do this?” Because: Fuck! Rome, again? They’re only willing to go another round with Rome because of Cleopatra, only willing to embrace the ghosts this will stir up because they feel they owe it to a friend.

So, of course they’re going to do this. Only, it’s no longer about vengeance, at least not the white fury that once burned hot in Xena’s veins. This is different. Xena’s ire still seethes, but she doesn’t plan to wield it like a mighty sword, rather she’ll channel it with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel poised to excise a tumour, deliberate and clinical. The plotting is easy - Xena has a library of schemes stored away in the vast reserves of her grey matter - but made easier by the fact that she knows Caesar’s playbook so intimately. The man may be dead but he lives on in Rome and the hearts of all the faithful men who love her - proud and predictable. Puppets whose strings she knows she can deftly manoeuvre. The problem is that Xena’s too comfortable in her self-assuredness. Her plan and her assumptions of how Roman strongmen operate and her ability to manage everything is founded on her understanding of Caesar. And none of these men are the next Caesar. And it’s a problem, because this was supposed to be a quick and straightforward trip up the Nile to Memphis to do a little housekeeping on behalf of a friend and it’s been complicated by the fact that her pawns are not being cooperative.

This entire endeavour is not what she was expecting, Antony is not at all what she was expecting. He’s disarmingly handsome and charming, like many of Rome’s great strongmen, and their chemistry is electric - a bonus when you’re really trying to sell your part in a seduction play - but she realizes a little too late that the game she plays with him is not the one she had planned on. It’s actually much more dangerous.

And, I get that many fans believe Xena’s sexual attraction to Marc Antony is meant to telegraph an underlying romantic attraction as well. That as their physical encounters become more intimate and intense, so too must Xena’s feelings for him. And it’s easy to read it this way because Gabrielle’s own jealousy seems to reinforce the very idea, and Xena, herself, looks increasingly unsettled after each interaction. But I think it’s too simplistic an answer. Xena’s unease about Antony is growing because her plan has been frustrated by unforeseen hurdles, none of which include her falling in love with him. And Xena is frustrated in return.

We totally see this play out in Xena’s treatment of Gabrielle. She is curt and cool and dismissive (at least until their balcony talk), especially after Gabrielle puts a spectacular halt to Xena’s picnic with Marc Antony. But Xena’s distance here is not because she’s being defensive (at Gabrielle’s continued suggestions that she’s lost the plot), or because she’s angry for the interruption (ok, I’m sure there’s a very base part of Xena that *was* disappointed), or because she’s hurt (how could Gabrielle not have faith in her?). It may come across that way, but, really, Xena’s just acting out her frustrations.

Because this whole situation with Marc Antony, if a little intriguing at first, is irritating. And Xena’s frustrated. On many levels. The most obvious, and least surprising, being that Antony’s attentions have left her itchy and it’s distracting. And not because the chemistry between them has set off a chain reaction of romantic feelings for him - Xena is not spending her free time daydreaming about the man behind the General. It’s simply because there’s a kind of fire in her veins now that she wasn’t expecting to deal with this time out and it has the tendency to keep her on edge. And it’s not that she can’t handle it - spontaneous combustion is sometimes an occupational hazard when she’s playing at desire - it’s just that this particular element was not part of her plan.

That’s the real frustration: Xena’s not used to her plans being stymied. Her opening move - rolling herself, naked and chained, out from a carpet - though, brazen, should have been the perfect lure, should have painted her Cleopatra as an easy, if not unwilling, target for Antony’s ambitions. Because all Roman strongmen are the same: pretty boys with pretty words and pretty promises and pretty predictable tastes for cunning and seduction that they weaponize for the glory of Rome; heartless but for their love of res publica.

And so, this exact play is one Xena is confident any ambitious Roman would pounce on - remember: she knows their playbook, was once herself on the near-losing end of such a gambit, back when she was still a little naive and the right words could soften her heart; before her legs and her psyche endured the full force of Rome’s wrath. Except Antony doesn’t take the bait, like she expects, and it catches Xena flat-footed, a position she rarely finds herself in and one she isn’t particularly fond of. And so now she finds herself having to regroup and change tactics on the fly, which is fine - she’s used to that too - it’s just that her forward momentum is frustrated by the fact that she can’t get a good read on Marc Antony, doesn’t quite know his angle. He’s an unknown and unpredictable variable in a plot that already has a lot of moving parts and it introduces just the tiniest element of doubt into the equation.

Which is why it doesn’t help that Gabrielle is dubious of Xena’s motivations surrounding Antony. Not that Xena blames her for her concerns. She knows they aren’t really meant to provoke - that they come from a place of genuine anxiety, born from Gabrielle’s intimate understanding of Xena’s unhappy past with both bad-boy types and the ravages of Rome. Knows that Gabrielle, whose heart has traced all the scars of that past and let her love be a salve, is steadfast in her belief in Xena, even when the wheels are falling off. But Gabrielle’s questions do provoke. They pique Xena’s frustrations. It leaves her feeling cagey - like her back is up - and she hates it because it means she’s dangerously close to being on the defensive.

And really, by the time Marc Antony invites her to meet him under the pyramids, Xena is running out of options. Her back isn’t just up, it feels dangerously close to being backed up against a wall. She’s only playing this game because she’s confident she’ll win - that’s why she led with such a shameless opening bid, presenting herself to Antony as she did - but with each round Antony’ coyishness has forced her to up the ante while she waits for him to play his hand. Once upon a time she might have enjoyed and encouraged this slow, deliberate back-and-forth - would have been willing to play it out until she was out of chips (and her clothes) - but she no longer has the patience. Not that she’s entirely immune now to the thrill of what they’re doing - Xena has always enjoyed the hunt and then playing with her food - it’s just that she needs him to reveal his hand before he can call her bluff because there aren’t anymore chips to spare and she has too much on the line to go all in.

But Xena’s emotional conflict isn’t just being driven by her frustrations with the way her plan is playing out - it’s priming the engine, to be sure - there are other feelings at work here too. And chief among them is a deep and growing unease with the roles she and Gabrielle have cast themselves in and the very real consequences that will come from their interference. It doesn’t sit well with Xena, the way they’re toying with the futures of Egypt and Rome - as if they are just prizes to be won and Brutus, Antony and Octavius are the game pieces that need to be maneuvered around the board until a winner appears. As if there aren’t millions of lives at stake. She hates it. Hates that she has been somehow cast above it all, to dabble, like some unworthy god, in the lives of so many, and yet also stuck in the thick of it, an unwitting pawn herself.

And the longer Xena’s game is in play, the murkier everything becomes. What seems like a straightforward plan on paper, is actually a mess of competing interests, each as cold and ruthless as the next. And right at the heart of it all: Xena (and Gabrielle too), judge, jury & executioner. Because despite her business-like approach when they arrived in Egypt, Xena’s ability to remain detached and objective is under pressure, especially as all the players in her game reveal themselves and their motivations resolve into finer focus.

And there’s something about Marc Antony. He’s truly unnerved Xena. Because he didn’t play by her rules, the rules she owed to Rome - and he, a Roman no less. Maybe there would have been a time in her past when this would have endeared him to her, but now it’s left her uneasy. He needles at her resolve, the confidence she has in her plan. There’s a part of her that starts to wonder if she’s mis-read him completely, and that’s the start of a slippery slope into thinking she has mis-read this entire situation. And she doesn’t have the time for back-sliding.

But the problem is this: no matter how she looks at it there’s no clear answer, only devastating consequences if she’s wrong. For herself, for the lives she’s playing with, and probably for most of the known world. Because Rome and her strongmen will stop at nothing to take it all. And that thought never leaves her. Rome is a constant drum beat in her mind: Rome Rome Rome. Xena knows what Rome is capable of, what these three men jockeying for her power are capable of, even if Xena doesn’t know *them*. It echoes in her mind every time one of them is before her - even as Marc Antony’s kisses leave behind a fever in her blood - Rome Rome Rome.

And while her mind whirls constantly, turning over strategy and tactics, she’s tried to keep her heart mostly out of this affair. Left it unburdened by the machinations of statecraft and violent political intrigue. Except for a dull ache - when she thinks about Eve downriver in Alexandria, or when her eye catches Gabrielle in an unguarded moment - Xena could almost believe the desert sun had turned her heart to dust. Almost. Except that ache is there and, like her frustration and unease, it’s been growing more persistent.

Because Xena has more than herself to consider now. Sure, she’s spent the last five years dedicated to preserving the greater good - whether fighting for her closest friends or the nameless, faceless masses - but it’s different now, she’s different, and not just because she has a daughter who needs her to come home. She has Gabrielle too. They have a little family. And even though Xena has loved Gabrielle for years, she feels fiercely protective of Gabrielle’s heart and love now, in a way she’s never felt before, with anyone. But then, maybe it’s not surprising: they did battle demons in hell for each other’s soul. That sort of thing changes everything.

And Xena can see how this is affecting Gabrielle, even if she doesn’t say it out loud. Remembers the pierce of iron through the flesh of Gabrielle’s hands as surely as she remembers it through her own. Rome has robbed them both and Xena sees the weight of it in Gabrielle’s gaze. Sees, too, the way Gabrielle traps her bottom lip in her teeth as Xena smiles seductively at Antony. Watches the flush creep across Gabrielle’s pale skin when Antony’s kisses become more emboldened. Catches the dangerous flash in Gabrielle’s green eyes. The one that hasn’t gone away since they arrived in Egypt. Xena sees and it makes her heart lurch. To watch her beloved watch her take delight in the charms of another. And to know the sight of it is a white hot grip on Gabrielle’s heart. Xena feels the burning clench around hers too.

And this is the Xena we see when she meets Marc Antony under the pyramids. Frustrated and uneasy, heart aching. Tired. Tired of this game and her role in it. Tired of Rome, but mostly tired of all the horrible things that happen by her hand because of Rome. And then there is Marc Antony waiting for her. Disarmingly handsome and charming, unnerving in his refusal to play into her hands, a Roman above all: a pretty boy with pretty words and pretty promises. And like all Romans, she expects the promises to be lies. Except, there’s something in the way he’s played his hand, the way he’s held back all this time, that tells her there might be truth in his words when he tells her he wants her love.

She can sense his confession even before the words are out. Maybe on some level she always knew, had seen the inevitability of this moment even as she refused to believe in the possibility. But his words pierce the haze that has kept her from seeing her own folly. And it’s like lightning in a bottle. The way every frayed nerve snaps and jumps and arcs all at once - the rain of sparks illuminating everything that had left her mind and heart unsettled - in an instant of sudden, total understanding. It steals her breath and slices at her heart, this clear and unbearable realization. What she’s done and what she still has to do to bring this absurd game to a close.

See, she’s made a terrible miscalculation. Because in her mind Roman brutes are heartless. Capable of loving only Rome. And her seduction of Marc Antony was only ever meant to be a power play. How could it be anything more? She had weaponized lust and sex in the past to get the things she wanted, this was to be no different. Except that it was. And her hubris - her prideful overconfidence in her infallible, little plan, coupled with her resolute belief that all Roman men are Caesar at their core - has led her to overplay her hand. Not that she won’t still find a way to win. It’s just the cost will be much higher than she could have anticipated.

Because she has unwittingly weaponized Marc Antony’s affection for her and now she is going to have to deliberately use it against him. It is devastating. To see his chest bared to her so willingly, and to know that she must flay his heart with a knife of his own making. It shakes her resolve. It brings tears to her eyes.

But of course it brings tears to her eyes. She has done the unthinkable: she herself has become Caesar. The thing she hated most. The man who won her trust and her love and then betrayed her. Cold and hard and heartless. Brutal and ruthless and willingly so. In this moment she is Caesar. And soon she will become Rome, sacrificing another man, who might yet have been good, in the name of her unrequited love.

This moment under the pyramids is so important. Everything hangs on this declaration from Marc Antony, on Xena’s tears. I know people see it as confirmation of Xena’s feelings for him - and she has feelings to be sure - but they’re not romantic. Xena’s emotional reaction, and the genuine unease she wears thereafter do not hinge on her being in love with him. Xena’s humanity is enough to soften both her heart and her regard for Antony in this moment. Her compassion and regret are not dependent on attraction or attachment. And so the story doesn’t need to frame her tears for Marc Antony as a lover’s heartbreak, because her heart was always going to break for him, as it breaks for herself and Gabrielle and the ruin left in their wake.

And there will be ruin. Xena is certain of it. Although, for a moment, she might have held a glimmer of hope for Antony. This Roman who’s willing to give up his army for love. For love. Not that she wants what he’s offering. She just wants to believe he could be different. Not for her. For Rome. But then his sword is hilt deep in the belly of one of Brutus’ men and then slicing through the throat of another. And Xena knows - even as she and Gabrielle dance around the subject hours later, bathed in moonlight and disquiet - that any hope for him is misplaced. Knows exactly what he will do with Brutus’ army and Octavius if he prevails. Is keenly aware of what awaits if he learns of her deception and is allowed to live.

Because once upon a time she was the one who trusted and loved and was betrayed and lived. And thousands paid the price at the end of her sword for Caesar’s treachery. Xena can’t even imagine what Marc Antony, favoured son of Rome, might do. Can’t risk the chance. So he must pay the price at the end of her sword too. Xena wishes it weren’t so, tries to avoid the fight that will take his life - because now that she’s seen the humanity in her enemy she wants no further part in this madness she’s helped to orchestrate - only she doesn’t have a choice now. Alea iacta est - the die is cast, and her blade and her betrayal find Antony’s heart all the same. And when the end comes, there’s Xena, soaked in blood and rain and tears, in the middle of this fucking mess, the dead and wounded scattered about her. She can’t escape the truth of it then: she did this.

And it’s this! All of this - the many layers of trauma in need of reckoning and Xena’s tangled heart, twisted further by the part she is forced to play in Egypt and the goddamn fucking senselessness of it all - that carries the emotional weight of the episode. Who needs a Boyfriend of the Week when there’s already all this angst?

And, ok, I hear you say: Pattie, you’ve made some valid points about Xena’s state of mind, but why can’t Xena’s emotional and moral conflict be born from this fraught personal history AND from the fact that she *was* falling in love with Antony? Wouldn’t that make it an EVEN MORE dramatic and powerful story? Because she was specifically falling in love with a ROMAN GENERAL, the very epitome of the thing she has spent most of her adult life hating?

I would like to agree with you, dear skeptical reader, but the simple truth is that there isn’t room for both in *this* story. The reality is this: a 44-minute-long, action-focused show like XWP just doesn’t always have a lot of extra time to linger on the emotional beats. And this episode, in particular, already so busy with all the palace and political intrigue, has even less. So much of what we’re able to read of Xena’s psychological state - and *why* it’s so deeply fraught - doesn’t even come from this episode. It relies on past emotional beats to inform our understanding of her behaviour. (And, I don’t know, perhaps this is why a casual viewer might pass off Xena’s and Marc Antony’s interplay as romantic - because most of the horrible things that have happened to Xena by Roman hands are left unsaid, and surely, if we’d been reminded of them we would never accept that Xena would fall in love with a golden boy of the empire.)

As it is, there’s barely space for any kind of meditation on how either Xena or Gabrielle are feeling about the roles they are being forced to play and the seemingly callous and ruthless tactics they increasingly use to do so, let alone a tenuous romance. And the former is what this episode should be actively engaging with: the moral ambiguity that has been driving season five and will continue on through the end of the series.

Further complicating things with a love story, doesn’t make the episode more dramatic, it just takes up emotional bandwidth that could be better served elsewhere. Because, yes, Marc Antony is the epitome of the thing Xena has spent more than a decade hating! Xena’s history with Caesar and Rome (and everything they both stand for) is richly layered and devastating. It cannot be erased or ignored. To suggest that she is capable of falling in love with Antony (and to ask us to then believe it) without also deliberately exploring the tension inherent in that act is obtuse.

Those kinds of emotional beats need room to fucking breathe. And the episode doesn’t do this because there’s just too much happening. It tries - in broad, moody strokes - to capture the tenor of Xena’s emotional landscape, and it succeeds in wrapping us up in the same angst that drapes Xena, but the source is nebulous. Her haunted looks and tears - under the sphinx and when her sword finds Antony’s belly - can only telegraph so much, especially when we have been given very little reason to feel invested in her supposed affection towards him.

And here’s where we finally touch on Xena’s checkered romantic history - and her self-proclaimed soft spot for Bad Boys Who Love Like Fools (10 points to Ravenclaw for your patience) - because I’m sure you’re about to suggest that Marc Antony’s air of a Bad Boy is itself cause enough to garner Xena’s affection. Powerful, disarmingly handsome, and charming? Check, check, check. Capable with his ‘sword’? Bonus: super check. But just because her past is littered with dysfunctional relationships and Bad Boys - though I’m sure not all were bad, and some were definitely women - doesn’t mean she’s interested in repeating her mistakes. The Xena of old is vastly different from the one we know by season five, even if there are parts of her that are very much the same.

The principal driving force in her early adult life and formative romantic relationships was lust. It ruled over every part of her. Lust for: power and for violence and for blood and for riches and for infamy, and, of course, for sexual gratification. And so, she sought out partners - themselves driven by the same hunger - who could satisfy all of her desires, not just her (very) carnal appetite. She fell hard and fast and burned white hot until something, or someone, else came along and made her feel even more incandescent. In those early days, Xena wasn’t looking for *love*, she was looking for a good time.

Now, that’s not to say Xena’s past romantic entanglements were frivolous or lacking in genuine sentiment. At the very least, I suspect many were sustained by the warm affection that comes naturally from the intimacy of sharing your life with someone, whether they’re riding into battle alongside you or just warming your bed over a long winter. Nor is it meant to be dismissive of whatever fondness she felt for her lovers. Because: not all love looks the same. There are different kinds of love and different ways to love.

For Xena, though, whose heart had been so thoroughly and devastatingly mangled by Caesar’s betrayal, love was immaterial. At best, it was the unintended, if pleasurable, byproduct of a mutually beneficial arrangement. At worst it was a weakness that her enemies could exploit. Mostly, it was just a silly notion to scoff at. And the feeling Xena would come to associate with love - whether she acknowledged it as such, or not - was informed by both the dynamics of her relationships with Bad Boys and her own dark, irrepressible designs. It was selfish, and often cruel. Grounded in hot blooded impulses and savage desire, rather than growing out of an honest and patient connection.

And it became so thoroughly ingrained in her psyche. It was her overriding view of love. Even after she came to recognize how different love could be - and look and feel - once it was no longer centred in selfishness, when it was open and giving and kind, it was a struggle for Xena to undo her conditioning, to rewrite her love language. Because: first, she had to accept that she was worthy of this new kind of love, and then she had to actually accept it once it was offered.

But, old habits die hard, even for Xena, and I’m sure there were times - when she was just beginning to reframe how she viewed love and was learning how to reopen her heart - that she slipped back into her outmoded ways of thinking. Conflating lust with something else; allowing herself to be tempted by dalliances with partners who stoked her selfish desires, instead of tempering them. And maybe if Xena had crossed paths with Marc Antony then - back at the beginning of the series when her history with Rome was still messy but not nearly as tortuous as it is by the end of season five (you know after Britannia and its fallout which was the beginning of The Rift, and the deaths of Crassus and Ephiny and Pompy and the countless others who were the collateral damage surrounding those events, and, of course, Xena’s & Gabrielle’s own death on the cross) - I’d be willing to believe that she could love him.

Because, at one time Xena might have been interested in a man like Antony, might have been able to look past the Roman tunic and pursued him, taken in by his magnetism and allure. But by this point in the series Xena just isn’t interested, and not because her duplicity has made it impossible for her to be, but because by now her entire understanding of love - of being loved and giving love and nurturing it and making room for it to grow - has fundamentally changed. It’s been re-centred in selflessness, and everything that Marc Antony represents is antithetical to this new appreciation.

And I get that there’s an argument in here somewhere, that suggests Xena’s new approach to love might have softened her heart in such a way that she’s both able and willing to see the man behind the General, and be open to loving him too. But I would argue that the very things, the very people, whose love has transformed Xena’s heart are also the very things that would stop her from ever letting her heart go there. It’s not just that her point of reference on love has changed, it’s that she’s had years now of lived experience to break that cognitive dissonance between her attitude - knowing the kind of love she wants, the kind of love that’s *good* for her - and her behaviour - choosing that reaffirming, selfless love instead of the tempestuous, selfish one. She’s not blind to her past weaknesses, she knows exactly the sort of temptation Marc Antony offers - as surely as Gabrielle does the moment she lays eyes on him - but recognizing it is not akin to considering it. Because: Xena’s already found the love she needs and wants (and knows she’s earned and deserves).

Ok, but what of Xena’s admission on the balcony, when she cops to having a soft spot for Bad Boys Who Love Like Fools? I think it’s less about admitting (to herself as much as Gabrielle) that she’s developed romantic feelings for Marc Antony, as it is about Xena acknowledging a certain sort of fondness she feels for these ‘Bad Boys’. A fondness that’s born from a mutual understanding. Because: I think Xena sees herself in these men - at least an earlier version of herself - when she was ‘bad’ and foolhardy at love, and her heart tugs at the memory of it. Some curious mix of nostalgia and empathy, that softens her regard for them.

And she certainly sees herself in Marc Antony. The parallels between her story with Caesar and the story she’s now playing out with Antony are unavoidable, and if she’s cast herself as Caesar in this shadow play then Marc Antony is her younger self. Of course she would have a soft spot for him, she knows how this story ends. Knows, specifically, what it’s like to be willing to give your trust and your love only to be betrayed in return. And, of course, it’s made only more complicated with the knowledge that she’s the one who will ultimately be his ruin.

So, finally, exhausted and exasperated and, like 7,000 words into this, I hear you ask: what does it really matter? Xena doesn’t choose Marc Antony in the end, so what does it matter if it was lust or love or guilt or a fucking mid-life crisis that was driving her in this episode? Well, dear, patient reader: it matters because Gabrielle deserves better (THIS IS A BOLD STATEMENT, I KNOW, AND IT’S NOT AN INDICTMENT ON XENA’S CHARACTER EITHER, IT’S JUST THAT I FEEL VERY PROTECTIVE OF GABRIELLE’S HEART, OK! AND THE ONE THING THIS EPISODE DOES IS GIVE GABRIELLE THOSE LITTLE BEATS WHERE WE LINGER ON HER VISIBLE REACTIONS TO XENA’S TETE A TETE WITH ANTONY AND SHE’S CLEARLY JEALOUS AND HURT AND WORRIED AND SO, LET’S NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE FACT THAT HER EMOTIONAL STAKES ARE ALSO INCREDIBLY HIGH IN THIS EPISODE, NOT JUST BECAUSE HER LIFE PARTNER IS SEDUCING SOME DUDE, BUT ALSO BECAUSE THE LEVELS OF BRUTALITY SHE’S INCREASINGLY HAVING TO EMPLOY ARE ALARMING. AND SO, SOMEONE IN THE WRITER’S ROOM WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS WHEN THEY WERE OUTLINING THE STORY - UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE’S AN UNDERCURRENT IN XENA’S & GABRIELLE’S RELATIONSHIP THAT WOULD MAKE SEEING XENA WITH ANTONY UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT THEN NOT ALSO RECOGNIZING THAT THAT SAME UNDERCURRENT WOULD MAKE IT EQUALLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOR XENA. AND IT’S JUST LIKE: TEAM, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THAT TO GABRIELLE? HER HEART MUST HAVE BEEN IN A TERRIBLE STATE. AND WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE XENA COMPLICIT IN THIS?)

But, seriously, I’ve spent all this time diving deep into this episode and the ways it comes up short and why, and while I’ve alluded to it, I’ve mostly avoided the elephant in the room.

We need to talk about Gabrielle.

Because: Gabrielle is at the heart of why a romance between Xena and Marc Antony feels contrived and unconvincing. At this point in the show, it’s clear Xena & Gabrielle are fully and completely committed to each other (and, yes, I know that doesn’t necessarily preclude either of them from also seeking romantic or sexual partners elsewhere... I just don’t think they’re the sharing types, but I DIGRESS) - I mean, we *just* had ‘Kindred Spirits’ where they were nesting and talking about domestic bliss and privately teasing each other about their sex life in the most blatant way possible and failing miserably at breaking up but winning at being cute and married and adoringly in love. And I think it’s important to acknowledge the weight of Xena’s decision to very clearly have Gabrielle as her *life* partner - because implicit in the act of choosing to commit yourself to another person is a vow of fidelity, a bond that would be near-holy to Xena, whose word means everything.

But more to the point: Xena loves Gabrielle and Gabrielle loves Xena, and their love has been the beating heart of this show from the beginning. Gabrielle’s care and tenderness has been transformative - everything that Xena has come to understand about love, everything that she does to honour and protect it, is because of Gabrielle and the heart she’s so selflessly given of. And it’s this love story - and how the show has framed its slow and beautiful unravelling - that becomes the bench mark, the gold standard, for how all other love stories in this universe should be viewed, for how Xena, herself, now views love.

So, I guess what I’ve been saying all along is this: Xena can’t possibly be falling in love with Marc Antony because she’s already in love. Deeply, profoundly, bound-for-all-eternity in love. And no one, in this life (or any other, let’s be real) will ever compare. Not pretty boys with pretty words and pretty promises. Not Bad Boys Who Love Like Fools. Not even a god himself. There is only Gabrielle.

#xena #xena warrior princess #xwp #otp: for i am dying of such love #xena and gabrielle #S05E18: Antony + Cleopatra #pattie has some thoughts #the fucking audacity #i still cannot even

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secretradiobrooklyn · 3 years

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Secret Radio | 7.24.21, 8.7.21 & etc.

“Better, Better, Back” Secret Radio | 7.24.21, 8.7.21 & etc. | Hear it here.

- Mort Garson - “Plantasia”

1. Jean-Pierre Djeukam - “Africa Iyo” - “Cameroon Garage Funk”

The main musician I think of from Cameroon is Beti-Beti, and this is a whole different thing. Endless props to Analog Africa for providing fiery track after track. This is the sweat from their newest collection!

2. Eyedress - “Jealous”

Paige hears something in this and when I unfocus my eyes I do too. (Literal?) high school skate kids gettin in their shallow feels. I will admit that the chorus “time-time” is killer.

3. Nahid Akthar & Tafo - “Takra We Gutt Bhar Le” (I think)

Nahid Akthar’s voice is so completely bewitching that the amazing arrangements almost sneak by. Tafo is the producer of this track I believe, and the narrative structure of the music is just so confident and encompassing. But then also: man, that VOICE. She’s right up there with Ros Serey Sothea in expressiveness and character.

4. Oruã - “Escola das Roas” - “Sem Bênção / Sem Crença”

My thanks to you, Marc, for pointing this band to us. I have fallen in love with this particular recording, it just gets more thoroughly better with every listen. Calvin Johnson mentioned this band in a recent K newsletter — they’re a Brazilian band who corresponded with Doug Martsch as mutual fans until at some point Doug decided his own band needed replacing and he brought them out as Built to Spill and also as Oruã. This track also has shades of Sonic Youth’s “Master-Dik,” one of my all-time ultra faves. It really hits me in the ’90s, and I rilly want to see how some of this music is performed live.

5. Jacques Dutronc - “Le Responsable”

I’m so thankful to have Jacques Dutronc in my life. His rock songs knock me into gear like nothing else — and the whole band has its own very specific flavor. It kicks!

6. Sleepy Kitty - “Alceste in Silverlake”

At very long last, there is a new Sleepy Kitty album on the way! It’s in line at the record plant as I type this. And this is a song from the perspective of a musician-seeking drummer in LA, crossed with the most brutally honest man in all of France.

7. Sakuran Zensen - “錯乱前戦ロッキンロール” (I Wanna Rock & Roll)

We only knew one song by this band (that we’ve played here) because the video was rad, but I looked to see what else was there and this song is just freakin great with me. The chords are really cool and his vocal delivery is just so over the top it’s impossible not to love. And the guitar solo is basically a full-on tonefest, which I appreciate more than a bunch of flying fingers. The video helps fill in the picture nicely too, I think, though I like the song while not looking at it even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPCqT3e89SU

- Mort Garson - “Concerto for Philodendron & Pothos”

8. Clothilde - “Fallait pas ècraser la queue du chat”

All hail the French instinct for chamber music instruments as pop instruments, and then as a kind of technicolor weirdness. The orchestration of this song is a work of art in itself, and that doesn’t even account for her self-harmonizing melody. If you haven’t already, picture a brunette bob and deep mascara.

9. Public Service Broadcasting - “Spitfire”

I can’t remember now how I found this music, though I think it might’ve been from Josh’s playlist? This is from 2012, but they have a new album coming out almost exactly a month from now. In Bound Stems Tim and I got really into interlacing snatches of other people’s words into the music we were making, and this is very congruent with that interest. I feel like this song passes tests as it goes.

10. Shocking Blue - “Send Me a Postcard”

I first heard of this band when I was learning everything I could about Nirvana, and I’d heard both versions of “Love Buzz” and knew they were both great, but we only recently caught this track. It’s the bridge between “White Rabbit” and “Territorial Pissings.”

11. Metak - “Tetrapak”

Our favorite Croatian band! Everything about this song is delightful. I feel like if this song was in English I’d probably cringe at the lyrics, but in this format I can only hear how much fun the song is to play. I am one-quarter Croatian, which means I can’t understand any of the lyrics either but I do see little ghosts of myself in the pictures of the band somehow. It’s weird.

12. Katerine - “Louxor J’adore”

-Anything I could say about this song is eclipsed by this excerpt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD7QuV6f_MA

The performance to the cemetery knocks me out

13. Erkin Koray - “Seni Her Gördügümde”

Whenever we’re listening to Anatolian psych, the songs with the most creative ideas and satisfying riffs and great vocal passages are always Erkin Koray. The four-piece arrangements are so good, and then he doesn’t hesitate to step up with his guitar to narrate a passage. Also, I really like how Turkish rock sounds so Indian and also Arabic and also French.

14. WITCH - “Chifundo”

Zambian prog rock! I haven’t heard anything like this track anywhere else in Africa yet. The thing is, this version of prog includes the exact flavor that Yes totally lacks, and thus I really love listening to this track in a way most prog rock doesn’t hit me. The time switches and the lead part over the top are just so smooth!

15. Ezra Furman - “Psalm 151”

We’ve been listening to a lot of Ezra Furman’s music lately, and it’s only getting better and more engrossing with every listen. We toured with Ezra Furman’s band about 5 years ago and every night was a pleasure. They’re finishing up a new album, which makes this a great time to listen to the others. This entire album, “Transangelic Exodus,” is a masterpiece as far as we’re concerned, and I find myself thinking the whole time too about Tim Sandusky’s production. Tim’s such a home town for us, and to hear his full attention on this album is just such a pleasure.

16. Ralph Stanley - “White Light, White Heat”

It was one of my favorite musical influence moments ever when my dad’s bluegrass band, The Prozac Mtn Boys, played VU’s “What Goes On.” Knowing that there is a recording of one of my dad’s true banjo heroes playing “White Light White Heat” is just an endless blessing. And actually hearing it is even better.

17. Kim Jung Mi - “Ganadaramabasa”

I know basically nothing about this track except that she’s Korean and this is from 1973. She’s got a real Diana Ross thing going on, and her band has a real Supremes vibe too… but it doesn’t sound like one of their songs.

18. Penny Penny - “Yogo Yogo”

We just got this record recently, and based on this track I wouldn’t’ve necessarily pictured the remarkable-looking guy who actually made this music. This is from the album “Shaka Bundu.” I’m sure it’s been cranked up and sent through some great house remixes — how could this not be? — but I like how this tempo operates at its own pace. It’s so truly and thoroughly ’80s, very 20th century. In the 21st century this tempo is practically cerebral.

19. Baris Manço - “Binboganin Kizi”

More Anatolian action. It’s really interesting to me how Turkish stuff was always associated with psych music but I didn’t really know how except for the opium thing, and I now understand that it’s in the chord relationships, well, and a lot of the vocal melody and delivery. In that way, Turkish rock pretty much defines what psych music sounds like. Wow. And check out that keyboard solo, so next level!

20. The Velvet Underground - “Countess from Hong Kong”

People are always asking Beatles or Stones and the answer is Velvet Underground. (And the Beatles, and the Stones.) They were just operating along a different balance beam than those other guys — performing different tricks for a different audience. While the Beatles were defining pop music, the VU were destroying it… but then later, they reveal their deep affinity for Western music, even as they never drop in to the blues-centric reading of it. It’s truly punk. I guess they are to punk what the Beatles are to pop — the definition of pop is whatever flows to or from the Beatles; punk is whatever flows to or from the Velvet Underground. Certainly more than any single band in 1976 or 7 or whatever.

21. Bella Bellow - “Denyigban”

The piano phrase that kicks this song off is surprisingly close to the opening of Bound Stems’ “Appreciation Night.” We got that phrase from the demo mode of Radz’s keyboard, and it’s surreal to hear a high-overlap version in a song from Togo. Her voice is so clean in tone and pitch, and what’s strangest to me is that I register the instrumentation in an almost Disney mode — but then realize that’s because Disney will draw on Caribbean and African elements at times as they establish characters and settings. Such an elegant song though!

22. Rail Band - “Mouodilo”

One of the first insights that got us into WBFF was the realization that James Brown had even more fundamental influence on the music of the world than the Beatles did — certainly in Africa. Hearing how his delivery interrelates with so many bands from all across Africa is such a revelation. This track just keeps winding around you til you can’t hardly live without it.

- Asha Bhosle - “Salma Jarir Jhalak”

All I know about this is that it’s in Bangla and it’s from a movie.

23. Unknown - “Chemirocha” - from “Love Is Love”

Several years ago, when African records looked interesting but we literally didn’t know anything about them, we bought a record called Love Is Love, in part because it was a beautiful cover and in part because the music seemed mysterious and full of possibility. Now, when I go to look for it online, I see no sign — I think it’s just a really small pressing from a… pirate group, I guess one could say? But really I think just hardcore music lovers. Anyway, it has this song “Chemirocha” on it, and there’s a story about this song that is really probably just best to link to because it’s so amazing. I guarantee you will find the information in this article worth your read:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chemirocha-how-an-american-country-singer-became-a-kenyan-star

24. Sparks - “Do-Re-Mi”

We’ve known about Sparks, but we’re late to a close listen. We’ve been listening a lot in anticipation of — not the band bio pic but “Annette,” the new film by Carax, one of our favorite directors ever. For that matter: make sure to watch “Holy Motors” by Carax. It’s probably best if you watch “Lovers on a Bridge” before that, but if you have to go straight to “Holy Motors,” dive right in. It’s amazing.

Meanwhile: This take on the Mary Poppins classic is TOO MUCH — I can’t stop smiling at the end, when the bells start tolling over the crashing drums and crescendoing vocal waves as their third finale fades away. How can anyone make this song, the very definition of not-rock, rock so fully?

- Mort Garson - “Ode to an African Violet”

25. Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost - “She Brought Me to the Wire”

I will forever be glad that we not only landed in a city where we could find out about the person and the works of Bob Reuter, but that we got to know and work with him. Bob Reuter was one of the definitions of St. Louis to us, and when he passed, so did some of that city. But also, he left music and photos and stories in Eleven and chapbooks that I truly hope last forever. He was the hard-living romantic that you hope lives in the heart of every hard-luck case… and in his one instance, it was true. Bless your soul, Bob Reuter.

photos by Bob Reuter from The Pageant and El Leñador

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buttonholedlife · 4 years

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Techno-loving polymath Francesca Lombardo exposes the tricks behind her idiosyncratic audio

With a myriad of very little, specialist, deep-seated and progressive-house launches on renowned tags like Crosstown Rebels, Online Poker Flat and Armada-- plus a recent, phenomenal nu-disco remix of spirit legend Teddy Pendergrass' Perform Me-- Francesca Lombardo is actually as prolific as she is actually genre-straddling. Even with being actually an established real-time performer and also DJ, she was actually intense to prevent scrutiny coming from an early grow older.

" My dad utilized to sing constantly and used to participate in a great deal of equipments for exciting. He just liked popular music!" Francesca reminisces. "I fancied popular music considering that I was actually birthed, essentially. When I was super-young, like three years of ages, I will sing facing everybody, however I would certainly conceal my face as well as ask everyone to cover their faces while I was singing, also! When I was actually five or even six, my moms and dads bought me a keyboard to view how I responded to it as well as if I would participate in. A handful of years later they got me a piano, and I started to take lessons."

Old school

In addition to learning to execute, Francesca's early desire to compose her personal music manifested early in lifestyle: "When I was actually seven or 8, I composed a tune along with verses. I don't forget the particular day; I was having fun with Barbies on the floor around my mum as well as grandmother due to the fact that my moms and dads were separated. I don't forget singing the tune and also taking it to university and I proposed our experts could possibly perform it in the course of the school play. I performed the song to my classmates as well as taught it to them, and our team finished up singing it as part of the play, which was actually tremendously great! Then when I possessed the piano, I will write tunes to pick the vocals, so I've been actually composing tracks because I was a kid."

Although her talents got her the appreciation of her family, Francesca's natural bashfulness stopped her coming from fully embracing popular music until later on in everyday life. "My mother as well as my granny resembled: 'Oh, you've received a beautiful voice, someday you are going to be actually a singer!' I presume this was really a poor thing for me, given that they kind of embeded my mind the suggestion that a person day I would certainly simply carry out that as well as I became actually timid due to the expectation. While I was maturing, I was too bashful to utilize my vocal and also it had not been up until I headed to college in my 20s that I actually felt great."

Regardless of all the advantages of doing work in package,

Francesca still

chooses the petting of equipment, deciding to mix utilizing a physical blending desk. Understanding arc Francesca relocated to Greater london to examine in 1999 and also, having actually currently been launched to psychedelic as well as electronic music through her uncle, she quickly located a house in the urban area's humming techno performance. "I started to go to rave gatherings, and also I got involved in DJ' ing myself for fun. I started to meet all these wonderful people and DJs, as well as every person had a workshop! I entered DJ' ing with my upstairs neighbor that possessed some center tools herself. I registered for a music-technology program as well as acquired a car loan coming from the banking company for ₤ 5,000, which I must repay over approximately 10 years! That allowed me to acquire everything I needed to have to begin along with-- an amp, sound speakers, a Personal Computer, a little mixer-- only the essentials. I will go and also show all these artists my songs and I had excellent ideas, yet I was actually definitely bad, mixing sensible! The songs weren't playable."

Receiving her paths around blemish was actually a concern for Francesca, that found she discovered it much easier to partner with components instead than software. "It took me an even though to strengthen. I took one more training program at an institution phoned IMW. You just reached utilize the center concerning once a month, but remaining in the workshop, as opposed to on a computer, helped me. I favored the audio engineering components as well as making use of hardware. I certainly never really made just about anything at the beginning.

" I still really did not have the appropriate noise; it took me an although. I was actually efficient creating and writing songs, however when it came to the modern technology, it only didn't seemsufficient. I must deal with it on my own and also inquire people for aid. I was actually DJ' ing and in bands meanwhile, but our experts never ever released anything. I didn't discharge my initial keep track of till 2011, eight or even nine years after I began examining popular music innovation, so it was actually a slow-moving method."

The physicality of the patch gulf is another plus for Francesca in her studio. Obtaining physical Right now after practically a years of launching her rich, typically dark dancing designings, Francesca is actually so much more certain regarding her specialized capabilities. However, she still finds she chooses to make use of components where achievable. "I like to mix and also tape-record my stuff via a cognate workdesk, since it gives a little of advantage to the sound," she excites.

" I possess it specify up so that I can use impacts as well as aspects ... I don't mind applying results in-the-box, also, yet I such as to be able to touch points! I just like to do work in the cognate domain when I am actually developing, as well, given that every thing emerges on a different stations on the work desk and I blend as I go, primarily. I have the patchbay too, thus everything is linked. It's tremendously simple. I acquired my bodily stuff established up by a pal that used to operate at Funky Scrap in London; he established it up so it is actually simple for me so I may only attach one thing by using a wire as well as then have it happen through on the workdesk. In some cases, I utilize people to mix my stuff because I don't possess allthe equipment I wish to possess and also I believe often, it's great to obtain it mixed elsewhere."

Francesca isn't in any way hesitant to disclose that she's possessed a lot of assistance over times. "I have possessed impressive instructors throughout my life, like several of my buddies. Lawrie Dunster from Arc Drug Dealer. I utilized to live over their massive workshop and he's an actually buddy of mine. So sometimes after job, I will go down to this fantastic workshop as well as create a monitor without any computer system. I additionally worked enjoy this along with Darc Marc, that likewise discharged on my label as one-half of Delos. These people, they reside in their mid-40s, so they resemble educators, you recognize! There were actually a number of others, too. I was actually privileged considering that I had these individuals around me that were delighted to teach me."

1400 "elevation =" 1050" >

Eventually, Francesca wishes to make use of only the Arturia Beatstep for shows. Growth of the makers Along with such a fondness for the hands-on components encounter as well as having currently produced songs in a pc free-environment, carries out Francesca ever before experience the wish to channel her present sequencing software program Logic Pro as well as go DAWless?

" In some cases I assume, 1 day, I will enjoy to make techno cope with no laptop pc. I possess an operator right now, which is the BeatStep Pro coming from Arturia. You can easily link it through Curriculum Vitae or through SKIRT as well as it possesses three different sequencers you can designate to different makers. It's like a MIDI operator, but with three networks of SKIRT, thus you may handle a drum structure and also regulate a lot of traits along with the other two channels. You may make your monitor just utilizing this operator. So I do that occasionally, however then I videotape it in to the pc. For my next step, I would certainly love to get a tape equipment, only a stereo one. I just recently tape-recorded a monitor with Hannes Bieger on a 24-channel recorder as well as it appeared therefore fantastic, yet I can't afford that!"

alt=" Francesca Lombardo with MPC "width =" 1400" elevation=" 1050 ">" It sounds various when you example one thing and also modify it in the MPC". Vintage atmospheres Yet another little sequencing equipment Francesca utilizes to break devoid of the restrictions of the computer system is the Akai Specialist MPC2000XL. "Certainly, now there are actually easier means to perform that example, however tobe honest, it is different: there is actually one thing that resides in the groove and also it seems various when you example one thing and also edit it in the MPC, and it's enjoyable! I prefer to utilize it extra, however time is limited in the studio. I would certainly like to perform a keep track of simply using the MPC. I placed the outcome expander in it, so I have eight outcomes plus the stereo system out-- and I substituted the saggy drive along with an SD port, so I can easily put as a lot of examples into it as I want to right now."

Normally, given her history Francesca is actually an equipment synth fan, however what are her favourites? "Of the synths that I have? Properly, obviously, the Moog Voyager. And I enjoythe Roland SH-101, the noise is wonderful, I have utilized it on very a few keep tracks of as the bass synth. I possess the Arturia MatrixBrute currently and also it is actually terrific. I still believe I need to discover exactly how to use it much better.

" You need to invest thus a lot time just knowing your equipment, it is actually so vital that you perform that otherwise, you're acquiring something and also not getting one of the most from it. It's certainly not such a problem if it is actually one thing simple like an SH-101, all these vintage synths they truly work the same, however brand new synths are far more intricate. But my favourites without a doubt are actually the Moog and the SH-101 due to their noise, they are therefore cognate and warm, I like all of them!"

=" Francesca Lombardo with Roland SH-101" distance=" 1400" elevation= "1050" > The Roland SH-101 is a center old synth for Francesca. Viral success Lombardo doesn't merely limit herself to analogue synths and possesses an exposed nerve for a digital classic, as well:" I have actually obtained an Access Songs Infection An and a Virus C," she reveals." When I resided in the workshop over Lawrie, he gave me the C. Keeping that one I did the very first launch on Crosstown-- there were a handful of audios on there that I used. I purchased the A, considering that I found one extremely cheap on Gumtree. I constantly intended to acquire yet another C because it reminded me of Lawrie's tracks, and afterwards I bought some of those at the same time! They are actually various, and also I would like to use if for real-time efficiencies. I likewise acquired the Sequential Prophet-6, the 'brand new' one, which is actually a great synth."

width= "1400" elevation=

" 1050" > Certainly not one to shy away from contemporary musical instruments, she also collaborates with the Arturia MatrixBrute. Deeply performing Vocals are actually a crucial part of much of Francesca's keep tracks of, so how does she record as well as method these? "I've received a preamp, a Universal Sound 6176 that I use, and also my much-loved mic is the RØDE NTK. I likewise possess a Mojave mic, which is actually a bit rough, yet it gives my vocal a hoarse top quality. This region is one thing that I yearn for really to put in cash in. I want to acquire a Neumann, but it's a ton of funds!

" I enjoy to record my voice when I'm alone in the center. I have actually discovered a means to make a recording that appears excellent. It's an environment on my preamp, plus the mic as well as I possess a bunch of impacts that I utilize to make my vocal seem a bit fanciful. On the incredibly early monitors like Is It Correct or Life Of Leaf, they are virtual impacts; I utilize Soundtoys a great deal. I enjoy Soundtoys: particularly Crystallizer as well as EchoBoy. Right now I have a couple of new impacts like MOD Duo, which is equipment. MOD Instruments is actually a provider from Berlin, you hook the MOD Duo up your notebook, you head to their web site and also you can easily create your very own result chain basically as well as then wait on the components. It's outrageous! It is actually such a great tool. You may make just about anything you really want!"

Tutorial: Just how Francesca Lombardo shaped the beat on her keep track of Psycho

"https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/1EGggefEWJePrvG2UN9m7d" size="one hundred %" elevation="80" frameborder="0" >< span data-mce-type="bookmark" design="display: inline-block; size: 0px; spillover: concealed; line-height: 0;" > #td _ uid_1_5dd29ce504824. td-doubleSlider-2 . td-item1 [email protected]) 0 0 no-repeat; #td _ uid_1_5dd29ce504824. td-doubleSlider-2. td-item2 uploads #td _ uid_1_5dd29ce504824. td-doubleSlider-2. td-item3 www.musictech.net 1. Along with Reasoning's Network EQ, I took the reduced regularities out of the zing and also marked out

a shrill regularity that might have been annoying and also hampered other noises 2. To create the zing audio fuller, I incorporated yet another coating of boots. This brand-new layer had much more low-end to incorporate satiation. I used

Enveloper to soften the attack on this zing to aid it mixture much more perfectly along with the very first zing 3. I likewise took some low frequencies away from the 606 toms along with one more Network EQ, then used some squeezing along with Waves V-Comp to help all of them sound snappier and also attract attention a lot more in the mix

For more of Francesca, follow her on SoundCloud, Facebook and Twitter. Find out more job interviews along with artists as well as producers right here. The article Techno-loving boy wonder Francesca Lombardo exposes the keys responsible for her idiosyncratic noise appeared initially

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rickrosset · 6 years

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365 Days of 90's Songs

Every day of 2017 (or at least close to it), I posted a different song from the 1990′s on my Facebook page. When I started it, I had no rules and no plan. I just started posting songs that came to me that I enjoyed from that era. To be honest, I had always done a lot of research on 90′s music because in film school (2010-ish), I outlined a screenplay set in 1996 and deep dove into the music then. As 2017 went on, and I continued to work 70-80 hours a week in film production, updating the list became cumbersome, but I still refused to post weak 90′s songs like “U Can’t Touch This”, “Barbie Girl” or “Blue (Da Ba De)” etc. If you like songs like that then please go listen to them, but I’m not going to pretend that I enjoyed them at all in the 90′s or now.

Looking back on this list, I wish I had put a little more thought into creating a cohesive mix or including my favorite songs, many of which were left off because I ran out of time, but most of the fun of doing this list was just winging it and seeing if anyone liked any of the random songs I did when I was 7-17 years old. I’m going to make an Apple Music and Spotify playlist out of all of these songs but compiling this full list in the proper order already took enough time for this weekend.

1/1/17 - Guns 'N' Roses "You Could be Mine" 1/2/17 - Ice Cube "It Was a Good Day" 1/3/17 - System of a Down "Spiders" 1/4/17 - The Fugees "Fu-Gee-La" 1/5/17 - Backstreet Boys "Everybody" 1/6/17 - Nirvana "On a Plain" 1/7/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm" 1/8/17 - 2pac "Brenda's Got a Baby" 1/9/17 - Oasis "Wonderwall" 1/10/17 - Billy Joel "River of Dreams" 1/11/17 - Metallica "Sad But True" 1/12/17 - Blind Melon "No Rain" 1/13/17 - Blackstreet "No Diggity” 1/14/17 - Garth Brooks "Much Too Young to Feel this Damn Old" 1/15/17 - Aaliyah "Are You That Somebody?" 1/16/17 - Santana F/Rob Thomas "Smooth" 1/17/17 - Sublime "STP" 1/18/17 - Go West "King of Wishful Thinking" 1/19/17 - Goldfinger "Here in Your Bedroom" 1/20/17 - Lisa Loeb "Do You Sleep?" 1/21/17 - Bobby Brown "Humpin' Around" 1/22/17 - Bad Religion "21st Century Digital Boy" 1/23/17 - SWV "Weak" 1/24/17 - Jesus Jones "Right Here, Right Now" 1/25/17 - Ghostface Killah "All That I Got Is You" 1/26/17 - The Chemical Brothers "Setting Sun" 1/27/17 - Mr. Big "To Be With You" 1/28/17 - Busta Rhymes "Gimme Some More" 1/29/17 - Elastica "Connection" 1/30/17 - Ace of Base "The Sign" 1/31/17 - LL Cool J F/Boyz II Men "Hey Lover" 2/1/17 - Mazzy Star "Fade Into You" 2/2/17 - Deftones "My Own Summer (Shove It)" 2/3/17 - Beastie Boys "Sabotage" 2/4/17 - Pearl Jam "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" 2/5/17 - Travis "Why Does It Always Rain One Me?" 2/6/17 - LL Cool J "Momma Said Knock You Out" 2/7/17 - Len "Steal My Sunshine" 2/8/17 - Bell Biv Devoe "Poison" 2/9/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" 2/10/17 - R. Kelly "I Believe I Can Fly" 2/11/17 - Beck "Loser" 2/12/17 - A Tribe Called Quest "Scenario" 2/13/17 - R.E.M. "Strange Currencies" 2/14/17 - Garbage "#1 Crush" 2/15/17- Spacehog "In the Meantime" 2/16/17 - DMX "Ruff Ryders' Anthem" 2/17/17 - Enya "Orinoco Flow" 2/18/17 - Foo Fighters "Everlong" 2/19/17 - Orgy "Blue Monday" 2/20/17 - 10,000 Maniacs "Because the Night (Unplugged)" 2/21/17 - Dr. Dre F/Snoop Dogg "Nothin' But a G Thang" 2/22/17 - U2 "One" 2/23/17 - Sneaker Pimps "6 Underground" 2/24/17 - 311 "Homebrew" 2/25/17 - Tom Petty "You Don't Know How It Feels" 2/26/17 - Notorious B.I.G. "Juicy" 2/27/17 - Soul Coughing "Super Bon Bon" 2/28/17 - Janet Jackson F/Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell "Got Til It's Gone" 3/1/17 - Faith No More "A Small Victory" 3/2/17 - Korn "Got the Life" 3/3/17 - The Afghan Whigs "Going to Town" 3/4/17 - Goodie Mob "Cell Therapy" 3/5/17 - Charles & Eddie "Would I Lie To You?" 3/6/17 - En Vogue "Free Your Mind" 3/7/17 - Ini Kamoze "Here Comes the Hotstepper (Remix)" 3/8/17 - Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" 3/9/17 - Seal "Kiss From A Rose" 3/10/17 - Black Star "Definition" 3/11/17 - Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta" 3/12/17 - Chris Isaak "Wicked Game" 3/13/17 - The Verve "Bitter Sweet Symphony" 3/14/17 - Shai "If I Ever Fall In Love" 3/15/17 - Jay-Z "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" 3/16/17 - Jeff Buckley "Last Goodbye" 3/17/17 - Eric B. & Rakim "Juice (Know the Ledge)" 3/18/17 - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "Where'd You Go?" 3/19/17 - Cypress Hill "Hits From The Bong" 3/20/17 - The Offspring "Self Esteem" 3/21//17 - Nate Dogg & Warren G "Regulate" 3/22/17 - Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing" 3/23/17 - Eazy-E "Gimme That Nutt" 3/24/17 - Green Day "Longview" 3/25/17 - Sinead O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U" 3/26/17 - Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" 3/27/27 - Daft Punk "Da Funk" 3/28/17 - Bush "Comedown" 3/29/17 - Missy Elliot "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" 3/30/17 - Tool "Sober" 3/31/17 - Third Eye Blind "Jumper" 4/1/17 - Mariah Carey "Vision of Love" 4/2/17 - Weezer "Undone (The Sweater Song)" 4/3/17 - Alanis Morissette "You Outta Know" 4/4/17 - Alice In Chains "Would?" 4/5/17 - Limp Bizkit "Stuck" 4/6/17 - Paula Cole "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" 4/7/17 - Placebo "Pure Morning" 4/8/17 - Juvenile "Ha" 4/9/17 - Nine Inch Nails "Wish" 4/10/17 - Mary J. Blige "Real Love" 4/11/17 - Counting Crows "Mr. Jones" 4/12/17 - Radiohead "Just" 4/13/17 - Veruca Salt "Seether" 4/14/17 - Outkast "2 Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac)" 4/15/17 - Coolio F/L.V. "Gangsta's Paradise" 4/16/17 - Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus" 4/17/17 - Goo Goo Dolls "Iris" 4/18/17 -2pac "Ambitionz az a Ridah" 4/19/17 - Silverchair "Tomorrow" 4/20/17 - George Michael "Freedom '90" 4/21/17 - Marilyn Manson "Beautiful People" 4/22/17 - Toadies "Tyler" 4/23/17 - Fiona Apple "Criminal" 4/24/17 - Edwyn Collins "A Girl Like You" 4/25/17 - D'Angelo "Devil's Pie" 4/26/17 - Bruce Springsteen "Streets of Philadelphia" 4/27/17 - Green Day "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" 4/28/17 - Live "Lightning Crashes" 4/29/17 - The Cranberries "Dreams (live at Woodstock 94)" 4/30/17 - TLC "Creep" 5/1/17 - Garbage "Stupid Girl" 5/2/17 - Blur "Song 2" 5/3/17 - Montell Jordan "This Is How We Do It" 5/4/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Zero" 5/5/17 - Silk "Freak Me" 5/6/17 - Incubus "Redefine" 5/7/17 - Everclear "Santa Monica" 5/8/17 - Wilco "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" 5/9/17 - Ma$e F/The Lox, Black Rob, DMX "24 Hours To Live" 5/10/17 - No Doubt "Just A Girl" 5/11/17 - Destiny's Child "Bills, Bills, Bills" 5/12/17 - Kid Rock "Only God Knows Why" 5/13/17 - Prodigy "Smack My Bitch Up" 5/14/17 - Wu-Tang Clan "Protect Ya Neck" 5/15/17 - Nirvana "In Bloom" 5/16/17 - Cake "The Distance" 5/17/17 - Jermaine Dupri F/Jay-Z "Money Ain't A Thing" 5/18/17 - Soundgarden "Rusty Cage" 5/19/17 - Johnny Cash "Rusty Cage" 5/20/17 - Temple of the Dog "Hunger Strike" 5/21/17 - The Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" 5/22/17 - Nice & Smooth "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" 5/23/17 - Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way" 5/24/17 - The Breeders "Cannonball" 5/25/17 - Chumbawumba "Tubthumping" 5/26/17 - White Zombie "More Human Than Human" 5/27/17 - Rage Against the Machine "Killing In the Name" 5/28/17 - P.M. Dawn "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" 5/29/17 - Guns 'N' Roses "Civil War" 5/30/17 - John Spencer Blues Explosion "Wail" 5/31/17 - The Geto Boys "Minds Playin Tricks On Me" 6/1/17 - Flaming Lips "Turn It On" 6/2/17 - UGK "One Day" 6/3/17 - Fatboy Slim "Praise You" 6/4/17 - Mariah Carey F/ODB "Fantasy" 6/5/17 - Mobb Deep "Shook Ones, Pt. II" 6/6/17 - DJ Clue F/ Cam'ron, Big Pun, Noreaga, Canibus "Fantastic 4" 6/7/17 - Eve 6 "Inside Out" 6/8/17 - Nada Surf "Popular" 6/9/17 - The Presidents of the United States of America "Naked and Famous" 6/10/17 - The Beatnuts "Watch Out Now" 6/11/17 - Meat Loaf "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" 6/12/17 - Meat Puppets "Backwater" 6/13/17 - Rancid "Time Bomb" 6/14/17 - Lord Tariq, Peter Gunz "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" 6/15/17 - Folk Implosion "Natural One" 6/16/17 - The Black Crowes "Remedy" 6/17/17 - En Vogue "Don't Let Go" 6/18/17 - Letters to Cleo "Here and Now" 6/19/17 - Beenie Man "Who Am I? 6/20/17 - Salt-N'-Pepa "Shoop" 6/21/17 - Mobb Deep F/Lil Kim "Quiet Storm (Remix)" 6/22/17 - Tim McGraw "I Like It, I Love It" 6/23/17 - Alan Jackson "Chattahoochee" 6/24/17 - Metallica "King Nothing" 6/25/17 - Stone Temple Pilots "Big Empty" 6/26/17 - Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize" 6/27/17 - 112 F/Notorious B.I.G and Ma$e “Only You (Bad Boy Remix)” 6/28/17 - Soul Asylum “Somebody to Shove” 6/29/17 - KRS-One "Step Into Our World (Rapture's Delight)" 6/30/17 - Spice Girls "Wannabe" 7/1/17 - Seal "Crazy" 7/2/17 - Marc Cohn "Walking in Memphis" 7/3/17 - Pearl Jam "Alive" 7/4/17 - Pearl "Better Man" 7/5/17 - Outkast "Rosa Parks" 7/6/17 - Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth "T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You) 7/7/17 - Beastie Boys "Intergalactic" 7/8/17 - Monster Magnet "Space Lord" 7/9/17 - Creed "My Own Prison" 7/10/17 - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "Tha Crossroads" 7/11/17 - Westside Connection "Bow Down" 7/12/17 - Snoop Doggy Dogg "Tha Shiznit 7/13/17 - N.W.A. "Niggaz 4 Life" 7/14/17 - 2pac F/Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman "California Love" 7/15/17 - Too Short "Gettin' It" 7/16/17 - Dr. Dre F/Snoop Dogg, Kurupt and Nate Dogg "Next Episode" 7/17/17 - Makaveli "Hail Mary" 7/18/17 - Liz Phair "Supernova" 7/19/17 - The Wallflowers "One Headlight" 7/20/17 - Sublime “Doin’ Time” 7/21/17 - Cornershop "Brimful of Asha" 7/22/17 - Enigma "Return of Innocence" 7/23/17 - DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince "Summertime" 7/24/17 - Hanson " Mmmm Bop" 7/25/17 - Black Sheep "The Choice is Yours" 7/26/17 - Jay-Z F/UGK "Big Pimpin'" 7/27/17 - Alice In Chains "Man in the Box" 7/28/17 - Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me" 7/29/17 - A Tribe Called Quest "Can I Kick It?" 7/30/17 - Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" 7/31/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Soul to Squeeze" 8/1/17 - Blur "Girls and Boys" 8/2/17 - Sophie B. Hawkins "Damn, I wish I was Your Lover" 8/3/17 - Radiohead "Creep" 8/4/17 - Ol' Dirty Bastard "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" 8/5/17 - Real McCoy "Another Night" 8/6/17 - The Dropkick Murphy's "Amazing Grace (Live)" 8/7/17 - The Lemonheads "Mrs. Robinson" 8/8/17 - Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams" 8/9/17 - Limp Bizkit "Faith" 8/10/17 - Fugees "Killing Me Softly" 8/11/17 - UB40 "Can't Help Falling in Love" 8/12/17 - Nirvana "Man Who Sold The World" 8/13/17 - Metallica "Turn the Page" 8/14/17 - Deadeye Dick "New Age Girl" 8/15/17 - Onyx "Slam" 8/16/17 - Erykah Badu "Next Lifetime" 8/17/17 - Orgy "Stitches" 8/18/17 - Chris Isaak "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" 8/19/17 - R.E.M. “Losing My Religion” 8/20/17 - Backstreet Boy "I Want it That Way" 8/21/17 - Robyn "Show Me Love" 8/22/17 - Weezer "El Scorcho" 8/23/17 - Marc Anthony "I Need to Know" 8/24/17 - Wyclef Jean F/John Forte and Pras "We Trying to Stay Alive" 8/25/17 - Bush "Straight No Chaser" 8/26/17 - Queens of the Stone Age "Regular John" 8/27/17 - The Refreshments "Banditos" 8/28/17 - Jars of Clay "Flood" 8/29/17 - H-Town "Knockin' Da Boots" 8/30/17 - Jodeci "Feenin'" 8/31/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" 9/1/17 - Digable Planets "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" 9/2/17 - Melissa Etheridge "Come to My Window" 9/3/17 - Aerosmith "Cryin'" 9/4/17 - Neil Young "Downtown" 9/5/17 - JT Money "Who Dat?" 9/6/17 - Outkast "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" 9/7/17 - Wu-Tang "Reunited" 9/8/17 - Sex Pistols "Pretty Vancant (live)" 9/9/17 - Marcy Playground "Sex and Candy" 9/10/17 - Sheryl Crow "If It Makes You Happy" 9/11/17 - The Flys "Got You (Where I Want You)" 9/12/17 - Nas "New York State of Mind" 9/13/17 - The Foo Fighters "I'll Stick Around" 9/14/17 - Beastie Boys "So What Cha Want" 9/15/17 - Gang Starr "Next Time" 9/16/17 - Lauryn Hill "Doo Wop (That Thing)" 9/17/17 - Arrested Development "Tennessee" 9/18/17 - Sponge "Molly (16 Candles)" 9/19/17 - Deftones "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" 9/20/17 - No Doubt "Don't Speak" 9/21/17 - The Lemonheads "My Drug Buddy" 9/22/17 - U2 "Mysterious Ways" 9/23/17 - DMX "Stop Being Greedy" 9/24/17 - INXS "Not Enough Time" 9/25/17 - Destiny's Child "Say My Name" 9/26/17 - Eagle-Eye Cherry "Save Tonight” 9/27/17 - Radiohead "Paranoid Android 9/28/17 - Big Punisher “The Dream Shatterer” 9/29/17 - Dawn Penn “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” 9/30/17 - *NSYNC “Tearin’ Up My Heart” 10/1/17 - Pixies “Dig for Fire” 10/2/17 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Walls (Circus)” 10/3/17 - The Roots F/Erykah Badu "You Got Me" 10/4/17 - Bruce Springsteen “Human Touch” 10/5/17 - Pennywise “Bro Hymn” 10/6/17 - Weezer “Say It Ain’t So” 10/7/17 - Foxy Brown F/Jay-Z “I’ll Be...” 10/8/17 - EMF “Unbelievable” 10/9/17 - Peter Gabriel “Steam” 10/10/17 - Raekwon & Ghostface Killah F/GZA “Glaciers of Ice” 10/11/17 - Blink-182 “Adam’s Song” 10/12/17 - Eminem “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” 10/13/17 - Kenny Wayne Sheperd “Blue on Black” 10/14/17 - Violent Femmes “American Music” 10/15/17 - Faith Evans "Love Like This" 10/16/17 - Pearl Jam "Black" 10/17/17 - B.G. F/Big Tymers & Hot Boyz “Bling, Bling” 10/18/17 - Rage Against the Machine “Bulls on Parade” 10/19/17 - DJ Muggs F/Goodie Mob “Decisions, Decisions” 10/20/17 - Beck “Debra 10/21/17 - Public Enemy “Welcome to the Terrordome” 10/22/17 - Dishwalla “Counting Blue Cars” 10/23/17 - James "Laid" 10/24/17 - R.E.M. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" 10/25/17 - Keith Sweat “Twisted” 10/26/17 - Nas F/AZ, Nature, Cormega and Foxy Brown “Affirmative Action” 10/27/17 - L7 “Shit List” 10/28/17 - Faith No More "Epic" 10/29/17 - Godsmack “Voodoo” 10/30/17 - Rob Zombie “Dragula” 10/31/17 - Screaming Trees "Nearly Lost You” 11/1/17 - Guns N’Roses “November Rain” 11/2/17 - Wu-Tang Clan “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” 11/3/17 - Craig Mack F/Notorious B.I.G., L.L. Cool J, Busta Rymes & Rampage “Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)” 11/4/17 - Nas “N.Y. State of Mind II” 11/5/17 - Collective Soul "Shine" 11/6/17 - Aerosmith “I Don’t Want Miss A Thing” 11/7/17 - Pras Michel F/ODB and Mya “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are) 11/8/17 - U2 Hold Me “Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” 11/9/17 - Elliot Smith “Miss Misery” 11/10/17 - Underworld “Drive Slippy (NUXX)” 11/11/17 - Smashing Pumpkins “Eye” 11/12/17 - The Cardigans "Love Fool" 11/13/17 - Marilyn Manson “Long Hard Road Out of Hell” 11/14/17 - Supergrass “Alright” 11/15/17 - Boyz II Men “End of the Road” 11/16/17 - Butthole Surfers “Pepper” 11/17/17 - Tori Amos “Cornflake Girl” 11/18/17 - Ginuwine “Pony” 11/19/17 - Big Pun F/Joe “Still Not A Player” 11/20/17 - Tom Cochrane "Life is a Highway" 11/21/17 - Prodigy “Out of Space” 11/22/17 - Duran Duran “Ordinary World” 11/23/17 - Failure “Stuck on You” 11/24/17 - 4 Non Blondes "What's Going On?" 11/25/17 - 311 “All Mixed Up” 11/26/17 - Primitive Radio Gods "Standing Outside a Broken 11/27/17 - Phone Booth With Money In My Hand“ 11/28/17 - Noreaga “Super Thug (What What)” 11/29/17 - Duncan Sheik "Barely Breathing" 11/30/17 - A Tribe Called Quest “Electric Relaxation” 12/1/17 - Notorious B.I.G. F/ Ma$e and Puff Daddy “Mo’ Money, Mo Problems” 12/2/17 - The Crystal Method “Keep Hope Alive” 12/3/17 - Natalie Imbruglia "Torn" 12/4/17 - Jeff Buckley "Hallelujah 12/5/17 - Usher "You Make Me Wanna…” 12/6/17 - Björk “Army of Me” 12/7/17 - Teenage Fanclub “Mad Dog 20/20” 12/8/17 - Akinyele “Put I️t In Your Mouth” 12/9/17 - Cranberries "Zombie" 12/10/17 - Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away" 12/11/17 - The Dandy Warhols “Not If Your The Last Junkie on Earth” 12/12/17 - EMPD “The Crossover” 12/13/17 - TLC “No Scrubs” 12/14/17 - Counting Crows “A Long December” 12/15/17 - Limp Bizkit “Nookie” 12/16/17 - Nine Inch Nails “Closer” 12/17/17 - Camp Lo “Luchini (aka This Is It)” 12/18/17 - Oasis “Champagne Supernova” 12/19/17 - Ma$e "Feel So Good" 12/20/17 - Red Hot Chili Peppers "Scar Tissue" 12/21/17 - Better Than Ezra “Good” 12/22/17 - Semisonic “Closing Time” 12/23/17 - Madonna “Ray of Light” 12/24/17 - Juvenile “Back That Azz Up” 12/25/17 - The Offspring “Gone Away” 12/26/17 - Tool “Opiate” 12/27/17 - Cracker “Low” 12/28/17 - Method Man & Redman “Da Rockwilder” 12/29/17 - Britney Spears “... Baby One More Time” 12/30/17 - Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" 12/31/27 - Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit”

#365 Days of 90's #90's music

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