#also another member of that band is a major music producer who pretended to be 16 in the height of this band’s success but me and the girls

[edward-trumpet-blog]

Rick Braun:Life in the Fast Lane

BY TOM ERDMANN

Trumpeter, producer, composer, and arranger Rick Braun is an excellent example of a musician who has quietly worked hard for many years and suddenly is recognized as an “overnight success.” His album with saxophonist Boney James, Shake It Up, was number one on the Billboard magazine Contemporary Jazz Album chart for 11 weeks and has moved around in the top five positions for over a year. The first single from that album, Grazin’ In The Grass, hit number one and stayed there for nine weeks, crossed over to the R&B charts, and was named Best Song of the Year at the 2001 Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards. Braun’s awards also include the 2001 Oasis Smooth Jazz Award of or Best Brass Player and Best Collaboration with Boney James.

Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on July 6, 1955, Braun took up the trumpet in third grade, studied with Philadelphia Orchestra trumpeter Seymour Rosenfeld, graduated from Dieruff High School in Allentown, and enrolled  at  he Eastman School of Music. While at     Eastman, he was a founding member of the fusion group called Auracle.      Their distinctive style was quickly imitated by a number of jazz groups and their recordings became  mainstays on jazz radiostations through out the northeast. Braun’s first song to hit the Billboard Top 20 was Here With Me, written for the rock band REO Speedwagon. As a trumpet sideman, Braun has worked and toured with an incredible list of musicians including Tina Turner , Rod Stewart, Glenn Frey, Natalie Cole, Rickie Lee Jones, and War.

Braun released his first solo album in 1992. It was, however, his time with Sade on her Love Deluxe tour that helped him focus on a unique style. Braun’s second recording, Night Walk, has been likened to “listening to Sade instrumentally.” Braun’s big break came on the heel s of his third recording, Beat Street, which spent 13 weeks as the number one contemporary jazz album in Billboard magazine, breaking a record previously held by K enny G . Beat S treet was eventually named the Smooth Jazz Record of the Year. It also won the G avin Artist of the Year and Album of the Year awards in 1996. Braun’s next release, Body and Soul, earned him another Gavin Artist of the Year  award. His latest release, Kisses in the Rain, has also hit number one on the Billboard chart.                                    

Braun has never been busier or happier than he is right now. Offered more playing and producing opportunities than he can possibly accept, he is also in demand as  a jazz musician performing in clubs throughout the Los Angeles area. Braun is truly enjoying his time in the fast lane and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.                                                          

TE: Why did you choose to play the trumpet?          

RB: One of my older brothers played the trumpet and because of that there was a trumpet in a closet at home when I was eight years old. As a kid I was into everything, including the closet. I found the trumpet, put the mouthpiece in, and found that I could get a sound out of it. I think everybody who has ever played the trumpet knows that some people can get a sound out of the instrument, and some people can’t. It’ s not an instrument like the guitar where you just put your hand over the strings and a sound comes out. My first choice had  been drums, but I grew up in a small  row    home in Allentown and I’m one of six kids, so as you can imagine, I was gently steered away from the drums. What my parents didn’t know was that the trumpet was the next most annoying instrument for a beginner to play. I didn’t give up much in the way of offense (laughing); I was still able to annoy my siblings!                  

TE: Did you come from a musical family?              

RB: My mother, who is 84 now, is still very musical and has a good ear. She’s a self taught banjo player.

She played a four-string banjo, the really old kind, and learned piano by herself. On her side of the family my grandfather was a country fiddle player, my grandmother played the piano, and one of my uncles played the cornet. All of the musical talent was on my mother’s side. When my dad tried to sing to us kids at night we would pretend we were asleep so we wouldn’t have to listen to him. The only song he knew was the Notre Dame Fight Song, and he didn’t even like Notre Dame!

TE: I have read that you studied with Seymour Rosenfeld. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and was impressed by what a nice man he is.

RB: You know, he really is.        

TE: When did you study with him and how was he able to help you?      

RB: I started studying with him my junior or senior year in high school, during the early 1970s. We got into some of the mor e advanced trumpet studies, like thematerial from the Saint-Jacome Trumpet Method and other materials of that nature. He was also the first teacher to introduce me to orchestral excerpts. He wanted me to audition for the Curtis Institute and was really preparing me for that, but I didn’t get in. That year they took only one trumpeter from about 100 who auditioned. As it was I ended up at Eastman, where I really wanted to study jazz.          

TE: Were there any other early teachers who inspired you?        

RB: My first trumpet teacher, Richard Hinkoe, was great. He is still active as a director of one of the Allentown concert bands. My brother told Hinkoe about me and he agreed to teach me. Hinkoe brought me along especially in music theory. His high school theory courses covered collegiate-level material. When I arrived at Eastman I was put in with the advanced placement theory students and didn’t learn anything  new . Hinkoe’s theory course          included solfege, sight-singing, counterpoint, four -part harmonic writing, the rules   of contrary motion and correct resolution, dominants, altered sixth-chords, and more! He was an amazing teacher!

TE: Allen Vizzutti has told me what an incredible experience Eastman was for him. What was Eastman like for you?    

RB: Allen and I  played together i n some of the bands at Eastman. He can play anything! I was at a concert where he played one of the Verne Reynolds etudes as a solo. He is just an amazing player. Eastman, on the other hand, was very tense. It was a nerve-wracking experience.

There was one student who developed a nervous habit of pulling out his own hair. I remember during winter midterms one year someone starting lighting couches on fire. That was one side of it. On the other side, it was an outstanding educational experience that was just not for the faint-hearted. It was a highly competitive atmosphere. I had a friend who would get up at 5 a.m. and practice out on the lawn to try to get an edge on everybody else. In many ways Eastman was a humbling experience for me.  While in high school, I thought I was the hottest thing around, so I needed to be humbled! The major thing Eastman gave me was exposure to music I’d never heard before, like the music of Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Freddie Hubbard. I really started to listen to their playing. I worked to understand the way they played blues changes and how their styles were put together. The education I received at Eastman was exceptional.

TE: Did you graduate?

RB: No I didn’t. I finished my junior year and later took some extra classes at UCLA, but some of the guys in Auracle (Steve Raybine, percussion; Ron Wagner, drums; Bill Staebell, bass; John Serry Jr., piano) were one year older than me, had graduated, and were itching to do something. We planned our next step and realized California was the place we ought to be, so we headed west. Steve Kujala (Auracle’s woodwind player) and I left Eastman one year early, much to the chagrin of our families. It all worked out in the end.

 TE: What happened once you arrived in California?

 RB: We landed in a band house in the San Fernando Valley. Steve Kujala, Bill Staebell, Ron Wagner, and I all lived together. John Serry and Steve Raybine lived in another house. We struggled, made two records, and played the Montreux Jazz Festival, which w as a big deal. It was fun, we were all good friends, and got a little taste of what it was like to be recording artists at a very early age. Then the whole situation blew up. Our label, Chrysalis, broke up the band after our first recording by signing John Serry to a solo deal. He made a couple of records that didn’t sell well while the rest of us went ahead and made our second record. None of us was really up to the task of filling Serry’s shoes at that point, and it did not go well. It’s the classic story of a record label taking one guy out of a band and destroying the chemistry.              

TE: After the band broke up and you found yourself living in California, what happened?

RB: That was probably the darkest time  of career. I was not yet established as a trumpet player.

I had some early experiences at session work, but for whatever reason, at that early age, I wasn't able to break into the TV, movie, or commercial scene. I ended up doing odd jobs outside of the music business in order to make enough money to live. I remember being so broke that I wrote a bad check in order to buy food, but ended up taking the food back because I just could not go through with it. I would look at the phone wondering if it was off the hook because nobody was calling. Then, slowly, things picked up. I started to get some gigs playing with Latin bands in East Los Angeles and that developed into steady work. Then I got into playing with rhythm and blues bands and out of that work started touring with War. I also played a lot of bars and weddings, whatever I could find, and joined Jack Mack and the Heart Attacks. They were an R&B band that was very popular on the west coast. As a result of being in that horn section I began working with Glenn Frye and some other well-connected musicians including the guys in Tower of Power. I actually played in their horn section on a Tom Petty record (I played piccolo trumpet on that recording). At some point during that time I hooked up with some of the ended up receiving a call to join that band. I had been struggling, and all of a sudden I’m touring the country with Rod Stew art in a private plane, staying at Four Seasons hotels, and making more money than I ever had in my life. It was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that I was better off financially than I had ever been; the curse was that I started to get into drugs and began to drink a lot. On the road there are plenty of ways to get into trouble as far as substance abuse is concerned. The good new s is that I bottomed out and sobered up, and that became a major turning point in my life.  

TE: Wasn’t it a kick to play for so many people nigh after night?                                            

RB: It was amazing. I think the most people I ever played for was during a show   I did with War in Chicago when the first African-American mayor of that city was elected. The city held a huge concert in Lincoln Park with  several hundred thousand people. People were as far back as you could see. The columns of speakers went on forever. I’ve been fortunate; I’ve played for quite a few people in my life.                              

TE: How did your association with REO Speedwagon come about?                                            

RB: When I wasn’t on the road with Rod, I come back to L.A. and look for gigs. As part of the Jack   Mack horn section I played on a n album with REO Speedwagon. The lead      singer and writer of REO, Kevin Cronin, and I became friends. Kevin and I had been playing clubs together in a band we had put together with some of the REO Speedwagon guys and some other people. We were both going through hard   times over women so I wrote a song about my experience. I had  composed it like          the  Beatles song Yesterday, just a series of verses. Kevin heard it and liked it, and was able to come up with a chorus that really fit the tune. He played it for the guys in the band and they loved it. REO Speedwagon recorded it and it went into the top 20.                                              

TE: Can you tell me how your first solo record came about?

 RB:I happened to be in Canada on the road with Rod Stewart and through Steve Kujala I had been introduced to Frank Davies, who is a publisher in Toronto, Canada. I met with Frank one afternoon and played him some of my songs. I invited him to come to the show that night, and it turned out he had worked for Rod way back on his first single. It’s a small world! When Frank heard my instrumental material he said he thought he  could get me a deal. He took it from Toronto to Burbank, just 30 miles from where I was living, and got me an independent deal with Mesa/Bluemoon. On Intimate Secrets, my first record,        I included a song called Theme from t he Midnight Caller. That song got some significant airplay. My next compact disc was Night walk, followed by Beat Street. During this time I went back on the road with Rod. We         were in Europe when my manager called and said that, in America, Beat Street was getting a lot of attention and doing so well that I was going to have to make    a decision. I was either going to have to continue to be a highly-paid sideman or give my notice and take the solo gigs that didn’t pay a lot of money but would help me build a career as a leader. I took all of two seconds to think that over. I gave Rod my notice and jumped on a plane back to the States. I was willing to take the risk.

TE: That had to be an exciting time.                                          

RB: It was really exciting. When I first came out with Intimate Secrets, the promotion guy at Mesa/Bluemoon was trying to get some airplay for the recording. He told me that many stations would not play it because it featured a trumpet lead. At that time the only horn players getting airtime were saxophone players. I finally broke through when Beat Street was released and won Artist and CD of the Year Awards at   the Gavin Convention (Gavin covers the American radio industry, collecting and compiling the playlists of more than 1, 300 radio stations). Beat Street broke Kenny G’s record for most consecutive weeks as the number one contemporary jazz record and helped set me up as a solo artist.                                                    

TE: You have stated that work you did with Sade was important to your musical development. Can you elaborate?                                                          

RB: The Sade tour was important because she helped me establish a style. Sade's whole show is about sensuality. I've never been a b listening  lead trumpet player, and that tour gave me direction and helped me solidify the idea that I don't have to be an Arturo Sandoval type of player in order to get my message across. Sade is a minimalist on stage. From that, I realized that what I have to offer as a musician is valid, and as long as I believe in it and I'm committed          to it, I can create a musical fingerprint.                              

TE: (Jazz saxophonist) Joe Lovano once told me that the great ar tists have a sound  that is recognizable in the first three notes. I remember he and I were laughing about the truth to tha t statement and he said,“Three notes, boom, John Coltrane; three notes, boom, Eric Dolphy.”

RB: That is it exactly. Look at Miles.                        

TE: I read a critic who said that you are the man who reintroduced the trumpet to the contemporary jazz scene. For the longest time, the only music that was getting played by horn players was by saxophonists. How does it feel to have had that kind of an effect on the music scene?

RB: It feels good that I've got a house I can pay for by doing the thing I love to do. That is the ultimate gift—doing what I want to do for a living. I am amazingly fortunate. I think part of the reason I've been so blessed has to do with timing. When I came out with Beat Street, there was a need for another voice. At that time there were only saxophonists like Grover (Washington Jr.), David Sanborn, and Kirk Whalum; George Benson on guitar; and David Benoit and Joe Sample on keyboards. After Chuck Mangione stopped getting airplay, the only other candidate was Herb Alpert, and he had stopped making records with any degree of frequency. There was a window of opportunity and I was fortunate to be in a position to make records. Another thing that happened with Beat Street is that people started coming up to me and saying, "Man, I knew that hip-hop beat was going to catch on." Interestingly enough, the production on that album was minimal at a time w hen bands like The Rippingtons and SpyroGyra were doing complicated material. Beat Street by comparison is really very sparse.      

TE: I have to admit I hate the term “smooth jazz,” but there are a number of traditional jazz musicians who have been putting out albums under that title; saxophonist Kenny Garrett and keyboardist Rachel Z come to mind. It  seems that many jazz artists are going in this direction. I have found that with the best players there is no snobbery in music anymore.

RB: Well, I wish that were true for everyone. We cannot get a decent hearing from any of the reviewers in Los Angeles. The L.A. Times has the door totally shut. The reviewers won't even stay for the shows. I had a conversation with one of them who just started slamming the music. I was convinced he hadn't even listened to my record, which turned out to be true. I told him that maybe he should listen to it before being critical. He did go home and listen to my compact disc, and called me back to say that he enjoyed it.

 TE: I've let a number of my collegiate jazz students borrow some of your recordings. The other day one of them came by and mentioned how he was surprised and delighted that you find ways to go past stereotypical smooth jazz, both harmonically and melodically.

 RB: Last week I played a straight-ahead gig with Gerald Albright on saxophone, Harvey Mason on drums, Dave Garfield on keyboards, and Kenny Wild on bass. We played at the Baked Potato, which is just a little club here in California. We didn't tell anyone we were going to do it, but as often happens, word spread. For me, it is just so much fun to play straight-ahead. And when I practice, I   practice that way. I practice scales, flexibility, etc. For me, the way I'm going to improve as a player is by learning how to play changes better. No matter what you have laid out as a solo, you still have to navigate the changes. It probably sounds          simplistic to even mention it in that way, but that's the way it is. It's a lifelong challenge!

TE: Many musicians say it’s the struggle that seems to keep them going. They’re always looking for the next mountain to scale, pardon the pun, or the next musical peak to climb.                              

RB: Yes, exactly. Along with that thought, I          always found myself thinking that the moment I ’m really pleased with something I ’ve played, I immediately find something else I didn’t like. It’s really about taking a Zen approach to the music. For me, when I practice, it’s about refining the craft, improving my technique, and increasing the number of too ls available to me. I’m always working to increase the number of scales, patterns, and other musical materials which I have available. When I perform I want to approach the music with the Zen concept of not thinking ahead or behind, just being in the moment. That’s when I think I’m doing my best work.                      

TE: Do you still find the time to practice?                          

RB: Yes, I really do. I don’t practice as much as I would like to. When I ’m producing, I need to spend  a great deal of time with the artist. When working with other artists, there are a number of other things that go into the pr oduction, and those things take        away from the time I want to spend practicing. When I’m traveling, I’ll have to spend the whole day on the road, and when I finally arrive in the hotel it’ll be time to sleep. I’ll have to go into a big show without practicing the previous day.

TE: Are there things you like to practice on a daily basis?

RB: What I’ll try to do now is find patterns of five or six notes that I really like and then explore them, fully develop them, interpolate them, and run them in all        key areas. I’m trying to build my musical vocabulary. I also like to play the piano. Having an instrument that allows me to  think of harmonies in a non-horizontal way helps to visualize what’s going on underneath the melody. Another thing, and I’m not ashamed to say this, is that part of my practice is done to the Jamey Aebersold recordings. For the most part, when the music is recorded with a live band, as opposed to when it sounds like it was sequenced, it is absolutely great.          I have a studio here at home, and I’ll transfer a track like Joy Spring onto my hard disk, set up  a microphone, and lay down several tracks. Then I’ll go back and listen critically. I try to under  stand where my problems are and then work to improve my weaknesses.

TE: What advice do you have for young musicians?            

RB: Here’s what I did that was a mistake. When I was at Eastman, I used to go to the practice rooms in the basement where everybody would walk by and hear you. I’m a natural ham. I always wanted to sound good and to impress people, so I would play the first couple of bars of Brandenburg No. 2. I couldn’t get through the whole thing to save my life, but I had the first entrance nailed! I think kids need to know that you have to practice what sounds bad. Play the material that sounds the worst, and practice it the most. Of course you want to play stuff you can play well, and I do too, but instead of always playing in F minor, play in B minor or F-sharp minor. Instead of playing a blues scale, work on the Lydian chromatic concept and Mixolydian scales. One of the things I did when I was learning the trumpet was to take the Clarke Technical Studies and incorporate them into as many different scale forms as possible. Early jazz education is usually restricted to major, minor, and diminished. Rarely do you learn about altered or Dorian scales until you get to a more advanced level. By adapting the Clarke studies i n a variety of ways, you create a big toolbox. If major and minor are the only scales that are second nature, you will be limited. It would be like fixing a car with only a wrench and a screwdriver. You’ll soon find that you need more tools!

 Equipment

 Mr. Braun plays a Getzen trumpet and flugelhorn from the custom series. His trumpet has a cryogenically treated bell. His mouthpieces are from his own signature series by Marcinciewicz Music Products.

#rickbraun #trumpet #beatstreet

[martholomew-from-the-party-blog]

andi mack band au (or a story?)

Jonah, TJ and Marty form a band called the trio™.

They have been together for a ridiculously long time. Band formed when they were 15-16 (now they're around 20-21). It became popular very quickly, but since they were very young, their recording company and producer have seen the potential of having 3 cute young boys and manufactured their whole image. 

Now they're one of those typical boybands, making mostly pop music for the masses. They are like any typical disney channel band (jonah brothers in 2007 or big time rush on nickelodeon), but popular.

Jonah is a lead singer and guitarist, TJ is on the keyboard (and also sings) and Marty is on drums.  

Jonah may be a lead but TJ is most popular among fans since he has that "womanizer bad boy" persona (and Jonah isn't interacting with fans that much ever since he had to be institutionalized a few years back because stress from a tour caused him a major breakdown).

TJ doesn't realize that he is gay for a very long time since he has been in so many relationships with girls that he doesn't even get a chance to think about it. 

The GHC are all university students and childhood friends, going to the same university (they never met the dumbass trio before). 

Andi is like obsessed with the band and specifically Jonah.Cyrus and Buffy couldn't care less about them. They think that just thinks the band is fake (which they are) and that their music is overrated (which it kinda is).

So one day Andi drags Cyrus and Buffy to Amber Kippen's (famous model) birthday party because she knows that Amber's brother and his band will be there. Something serious occurs and two squads get to know each other that night. (my ideas are that either someone gets hurt, drugged or they all get kicked out of the party together - idk yet) 

TJ gets super interested in Cyrus who doesn't buy his fake ass persona and believes he is much more than that but also doesn't hesitate to drag him for his bullshit. So TJ finds every opportunity to hang out with him. (Their story is basically just Starstruck, except nobody suspects they may be into each other because the whole world is convinced TJ is extremely straight)

Major drama in their relationship starts when TJ realizes he may be non-platonically into Cyrus and his internalized homophobia can't accept it so he gets involved with Kira (fan of his) just to prove it to himself and everyone else. 

Muffy meeting is 90% the same as in AM. Buffy is like "yeah I don't know this dude from a band my BFF has been obsessing over for years" and Marty pretends to buy it. When their crews start getting close, they become banter buddies. 

Muffy relationship is a lot like Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. They make take shots at one another, kinda think they hate each other (and around their friends act like they do) but without realizing it, they love spending time together. They become closer and ultimately start dating when major drama occurs with other characters (maybe with tyrus) and they gang up to help their mutual friends. 

Andi tries real hard to get close to Jonah (like in AM) and they get together as a pair for a little while, but it's mostly because Andi loves the unreal image of Jonah the media presents and Jonah just really wants people to love him. In the end, they realize that their relationship isn't very good for either of them and instead become great friends. Jonah helps Andi gets some more confidence in her art talent, she starts to invest more in her career (she transfers to an art college). Andi helps Jonah realize that he doesn't need to please everyone and truly become his own person.

Optionally I have ambi subplot planned out (but it's not necessary for the story since i mostly want Andi and Jonah to grow as people, but I love ambi so): Amber used to date Jonah, but they broke up because Jonah (as much as I love him) was terrible as a boyfriend. Their relationship was very similar to Amber and Jonah dating in  AM s3.  Amber comes off as a bitch from the start, kinda sabotaging Andi's attempts to get closer to Jonah. Everyone thinks it's because Amber is the evil ex who doesn't want them to be together. In the end it shows up that Amber just wanted to protect Andi from getting hurt because she knew Jonah was not ready for a real serious relationship. She probably wouldn't care if it was anyone else, but Amber has been smitten by Andi from the first moment they met. 

As all the ships get together and the story ends, the band breaks up. They realize that they lost their way and it all became a burden, something that does more harm than good. 

4 months timeskip - the dumbass trio meets again, deciding to try it again with the band because they missed playing together. This time it's entirely different - their band has a  new name and they start playing indie rock/alternative rock. After years, Jonah starts writing songs again, TJ starts mixing music to give them something new, Cyrus works as their new manager because he is freaking good at it.

Bonus:

Buffy always makes jokes about how the band is just rip off from BTVS s6 villain group with the same name.

Andi later starts an art blog and becomes really famous on instagram.

Buffy has a basketball scholaship on university.

First song Jonah Beck ever wrote was totaly “I cried”, which is a huge flop and quickly becomes a meme.

Before getting back together, all dumbass trio members try a solo career, they all fail tragically.

Jonah writes “I cried” which isn’t just unsuccesfull - that song is so embarassing it starts a very popular meme. Jonah gets over it, when his next song “Being around you” becomes no. 1 hit in american charts.

TJ tries it as rapper, but all his songs are either about his boyfriend or about food so most of his views on YT come from his strong fanbase.

Marty mixes music. He only puts few of them on YT before people start begging him to stop. One of his mixes is called Old McDonald had a farm remix and goes kinda like this: “moooo, demolition sounds, screeeeeaaachhh,,,,, badum dum dun...oik oik,,,scraasshh,,,”. He later says that it was meant as joke. It was not.  @thelonious-the-pianoplaying-dork 

tagglist of people who seemed interested:  @dancerdramatic14 @gay-tyrus-trash @mrhearteyeskippen

#andi mack #andi mack au #the dumbass trio #tyrus #muffy #ambi #tj kippen #jonah beck #marty from the party #buffy driscoll #cyrus goodman #amber kippen

[angrylizardjacket]

morning light {John Deacon}

Anon asked: do you think you can write more fluff for deacy like a lil “morning after”ish bc i’m sad and i love him

A/N: 1877 words. I’m in sever pain and my ankle Hurt. I just want BoRhap’s Another One Bites The Dust!Deaky to tell me it’s going to be okay so picture him, and also just pretend he’s not married please and thank. Not exactly what the prompt asked for but God i’m a sap.

It’s... it’s weird waking up in the morning, and he’s still there, sprawled out beneath the duvet, morning light peaking through the curtains. Not weird bad, just weird. You didn’t really think you’d get this far; you’d been working as an assistant for the company that produced a majority of their music videos, and somewhere along the way, they’d started remembering you. Well, actually, John started remembering you.

It had started with ‘We Are The Champions’, in which you had the tedious job of being more or less an usher for the audience, though it was just a small crowd. While you were seating a particularly excited bunch close to the front, you look up for a moment to see the band warming up, and John Deacon smiling fondly at the excited audience members, before he looks to you. For just a moment, you share a look, and he gives a single nod of solidarity, which you return, before you both go back to your jobs.

When you show up to the filming of ‘We Will Rock You’, practically freezing your ass off in Roger’s backyard, you debate ever getting in to the music industry, and offer to go get coffee and tea for everyone as something to keep you moving.

“I remember you.” You’re so focused on the warmth of the drinks in your hands that you’re surprised when someone says more than ‘thank you’ when you give them theirs. It’s John, smiling at you, shivering, and holding the styrofoam mug so tightly you’re a little afraid it might burst.

“You do?” You answer, and his smile turns amused, before your brain kicks into gear. “I- yeah, I was there for the last shoot.” You agree. “I’m Y/N. I’d shake your hand but-” You gesture helplessly, both hands holding trays of drinks.

“Well it’s lovely to meet you, Y/N, I’m John.” He says, as if you don’t know, and you have to bite back a giggle. It’s then, when he sees the way you smile, and can feel his answering smile brighten, that he decides he likes you.

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you too.” You nod at him and he thanks you for his tea before you move on to the others, only preening a little bit when they praise you for bringing them warmth on the cold, winter day. ‘I remember you’ plays in your head on repeat; you can’t stop thinking about it, about the way he grinned at you like he’d know you his whole life, and you realise a few days later, when you’re still dwelling on it, you don’t even remember how cold it had been, just his smile.

“We really have to stop meeting like this.” On the set of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ you’re the one everyone turns to as the go-between for the band and the crew, seeing as how you’d been working with them for over a year at this point. Now, you’re holding out a water bottle to John, pulse a little quick when he fixes you with a surprisingly affectionate grin of thanks, “I was asked to give you guys these.” 

“Is that the water I asked for? That was quick; Y/N you’re a bloody legend.” You hear Roger call from behind you, bounding down from behind the drums to snag one of the other three bottles from your arms. John stays quiet as he takes the drink from you, watching Roger with an amused smile. 

“I’m parched, thank you, dear.” Freddie takes the second, and after you and John share a look, an endeared smile at the grabby but thankful nature of the others, you turn, raising the final water bottle above your head.

“Brian?” You call, and he looks up from where he’s been tuning his guitar.

“Is that for me?” He asks, and you nod with a smile. He comes to collect the drink, and they all disperse back to their original places.

“We really do have to stop meeting like this; it’s what, the fifth time?” John finally agrees once they’re out of earshot, and you turn back to him, grinning.

“Sixth, actually.” You say, and he nods, making a face like he’s cataloguing the information in the back of his mind.

“Six, wow,” and after a beat, his gaze returns to yours, “six videos and I’ve never seen you at a wrap party?” At that you duck your head with a chuckle.

“I work during the week.” It’s easy to admit; it’s not that you dislike parties, persay, but you’re also not fond of turning up to your day job hungover. John hums, low and thoughtful.

“You should come to tonight’s.” He says, and you hesitate for a moment, looking up in confusion. “You don’t have to drink or anything - ignore whatever Freddie and Roger say - but it’d be nice to have you.” After a beat, he shrugged with a small smile. “But only if you want to, of course.” And you can’t help the small, pleased smile that makes it’s way onto your face as you head back to your station.

You do attend the party, squirrel yourself away on a sofa in the corner of the room, nursing your drink and talking to a revolving door of people who are getting progressively drunker as the night goes on. It’s getting close to midnight, however, when John finally joins you. The two of you had had a few conversations during the night, but he was inevitably pulled away by someone else, and you didn’t like to admit to the sinking sensation in your chest. 

He asks you if you’re enjoying it, but your answering smile and nod is unconvincing. Truth be told, you were feeling a little lonely, a little out of place, and a little Cinderella having to still get up tomorrow at a reasonable hour. As soon as you admit you’re thinking of heading home, he offers to join you, to make sure you’re safe, telling you it’s no trouble when you try to wave off his kindness.

Your home is within walking distance, and you’re thankful for the breezy Spring air as you walk through the streets talking about everything and nothing with John by your side. He’s got his hands tucked in his pockets, and at one point you tuck your arm into his; he doesn’t comment on it, but you can see him smiling.

You’re an adult enough to admit to yourself that you’d developed a crush on him, observant enough to know he liked you well enough too, unsubtle enough that Roger had told you to get a move on, though he had been quite drunk at the time. As you walk, you’re not sure what’s holding you back, but you can’t bring yourself to say anything.

It turns out, you don’t have to, at your doorstep, he hesitates after saying goodbye, before quickly leaning in and kissing you on the cheek.

“Sleep well.” He says fondly, turning to leave. You reach out, grabbing his hand and he turns back in surprise, and you step forward to press your lips to his, soft and chaste. He’s actually blushing a little when you move back, seems a little surprised.

“You too.” You tell him, voice gentle and fond, and you head inside, catching his flustered smile as you look back over your shoulder.

He gets your number during the next video shoot, or rather, after.

“I should have your number.” Is what he actually says, voice serious like he’s been musing about it for a long time, despite the fact that he’s naked in your bed, a little out of breath, fingers linked with yours as you both take a moment. You’re heart’s still racing and you’re still in quite a heady state, and all you can do is laugh, warm and bright into the darkness of the bedroom.

You wake up the next morning and he’s still there, one arm around you where you’ve got your head on his chest. There’s an anxiety, an uncertainty in your chest, tension creeping into your muscles due to this change, this development in your relationship. But then he wakes up, voice rough with sleep, giving you an easy grin in the morning light as he greets you. 

He’s warm and secure, he always has been, but it’s strange to have such solid confirmation, to feel his arms around you and feel like nothing could move you from that spot if you didn’t want it to.

He calls you, actually follows through and asks you out, and the next thing you know, the two of you are sitting in a fancy restaurant on an actual date. He’s so unwavering genuine, in his smile, his words, in the warmth he gives off; when you talk, you knows he’s actually listening to what you’re saying. 

You learn he’s an engineer; he sort of fell into music, but he’s always had a passion for electronics, and after a few weeks, he shows you the amp he built (and then the false one he built for his mini fridge, which delights you). And then he’s plugging in his record player into the amp, puts on some old jazz single you didn’t really think he’d own, and he’s offering you his hand.

Taking it, you do actually giggle at the whole situation, a little bit flustered by the sweetness of it all. You’ve seen him dance on stage, of course, in videos, but here he wraps an arm around you, swaying gently in his studio, the carpet soft beneath your bare feet. As the music picks up a little, he gently prompts you to twirl, and when you’re back in his arms, there’s nothing but adoration in his eyes. You can’t help but kiss him. 

The music keeps playing, but it’s like the two of you are frozen in time, the world falling away around you as you kiss him. Still holding each other like you’re dancing, his grip tightens just a little on your waist, his thumb brushes yours where your hands are linked before he lets go, moving to hold steady on your other hip while you wind your arms around his neck. 

The song comes to an end, but neither of you break apart. The world feels right, here.

So even now, almost a year later, it’s weird to wake up in the morning, sometimes, and see him there, after everything he’s done in his life, all the places he’s been, and he’s still by your side. He takes your breath away sometimes, when he doesn’t even mean to, like now he’s not even awake but he’s so serene and you woke up holding his hand and you felt like your heart might burst. 

“Good morning, darling.” Voice scratchy, he yawns, and you press an affectionate smile against his shoulder, a little embarrassed for still being so sappy after all this time. His free hand is gentle when he coaxes you up, pressing a kiss to your lips, amused and endeared. “What’s gotten you all smiley?” He asked, and you kiss him again.

“I just love you is all.” You tell him, and his smile brightens in the early morning light.

“I love you too.”

#john deacon #john deacon x reader #john deacon imagine #bohemian rhapsody #borhap #bo rhap #borhap imagine #queen #queen imagines #queen imagine #fluff #roger taylor #freddie mercury #brian may #the angry lizard writes

[twatd]

The Truth Will Set You Free

Tim: We’re in the endgame now. With issue #43, the final plot dominoes fall into place and The Wicked + The Divine takes a major step towards its conclusion. But what do these last revelations mean, and how do they fit in with the thematic arcs the series has established. Thoughts, with accompanying spoilers, follow…

Issue #43 pulls off another subversion of our assumptions, a narrative trick that has almost become one of Kieron Gillen’s signature moves. At the end of the last arc, a question hovered over Laura – if she was no longer a god, what was she? The answer, of course, is that she never was a god, and nor were any of the Pantheon.

While I wouldn’t put it past Gillen to try and fit one last twist in, I think the remaining two issues will focus on emotional resolution, rather than plotting. Working on that assumption, we can probably accept that the series of flashbacks in the middle of the issue are the unvarnished truth. Some elements of what we’ve always been told seem to be true; there are 12 special individuals born every 90 years. But that’s about the limit of it.

They are not gods. They do not need to be awoken by Ananke. There is no need for them to die within two years.

Godhood is nothing but a story that these individuals have been convinced to live within. It provides them with access to greater power – Ananke calls it a “shortcut” – but it comes at a price. If you believe the story, and live as if it is true, it burns you out.

That initial bargain we were told about is still accurate – enormous power in return for a lifespan of two years – but there is nothing divine about it. The Pantheon are not reincarnated gods, they have simply been sold the same story as previous iterations. The names may change, but Ananke works from the same archetypes, and taps into common themes and weaknesses in order to convince the new generation that they are divine.

At the end of the day, it works on the same principles as every classic con-artist trick: it’s easy to convince people of a lie if they want it to be true. Every member of the ‘Pantheon’ wanted to be special, and along comes Ananke with a very convincing story telling them that they are. If I lived in the world of WicDiv, I’m sure I’d fall for it too.

Now that the mechanic behind the Pantheon’s power has been made clear, we can dig into what it means. Back when WicDiv was first announced, Gillen called it “a superhero comic for anyone who loves Bowie as much as Batman”. The revelation that our cast of characters have powers even without their ‘godhood’ certainly begs a comparison to things like Marvel’s mutants and Inhumans or DC’s metahuman population, a similarity that wasn’t there before. But in other, more crucial ways, WicDiv inverts the traditional pattern of superhero comics and turns metatext into text.

When writers are developing superheroic characters, they will often work from existing archetypes, ones that have developed over time as the genre has evolved. The classic hero. The dark antihero. The relatable teenager. The fish-out-of-water. The cunning rogue. While not every hero fits neatly into a simple trope, it’s worth noting that many of the more successful ones do, having been purposefully constructed to fill a role, adapted over time to work better or – for particularly successful characters – having built a new archetype around themselves that is then imitated.

This process is sometimes even acknowledged in the text – when working on the Justice League in the late 90s, Grant Morrison deliberately styled them as a ‘modern pantheon’, with Superman as a sun god, Batman as a nocturnal underworld figure, etc. However, WicDiv goes one step further and actually pulls this process into the fictional world of the book. It is only when they embrace an archetype that the characters gain their greater power. They draw their strength and ability from the cultural heft of their iconography, and lose that ‘divinity’ when they acknowledge that they are less (and more) than a symbol.

We can take this inversion even further when we consider Watchmen and other stories that examine the impact of superpowers on the human psyche. In these types of story, it’s frequently the case that having access to extraordinary power leads to characters becoming distant and detached from humanity. In WicDiv, that very act of detaching, of considering yourself apart, is what leads to the power.

It’s a theme that Gillen and McKelvie have included in their work before. In the second and third volumes of Phonogram Emily Aster details how, in order to gain power and cast off the misery of her adolescence, she had to create a new identity, one that was simpler and more archetypal. By becoming less of a person, she becomes a stronger Phonomancer. Unlike the characters in WicDiv (Ananke aside), she makes this choice knowingly and willingly – a sacrifice in return for power and success.

Of course, even though we’re quoting one of its creators, describing WicDiv purely as a commentary upon superhero comics is selling it short, and the metaphor of Ananke’s trick has more than one interpretation. WicDiv is also about art, performance and creation, and we’ve written numerous times before about how those themes relate to the identities that the Pantheon choose to inhabit. Persephone mentions that the alternative to embracing the story and ‘godhood’ is “a lifetime of work to learn what you can”, and as a metaphor for the cult of celebrity and artists buying into their own self-mythologising, it certainly works.

Every member of the Pantheon has pretended to be something they aren’t, or taken on a role they feel obligated to fill. Their divinity is just another variation of that, a story about themselves they chose to believe. Rather than simply a person who can do something that others can’t, they have separated themselves off as a different class, a higher being worthy of worship. Even Tara, who strained against her ‘divinity’, still believed she belonged up on a stage, believed that she had something that set her apart.

Go back to the very first issue of WicDiv – Laura wasn’t content to simply be in the crowd. She had to craft her own godly identity, marking herself as separate from the rest of the audience and as a peer to the ‘divine’ Amaterasu.

If we apply this lens to the world of pop music, then Ananke becomes the predatory agent, producer or record company, convincing those with talent that they are a star, molding them to fit a simpler, more marketable role. She pampers the ego of her charges, and has them compete with each other so they do not band together against her. Of course, this path leads to self-destruction, and when the talent is exhausted and gone, only Ananke remains, having secured everything she needs to carry on and search out the next wave of talent.

This final twist in the nature of the Pantheon brings together almost all of the themes that The Wicked + The Divine has examined over its run. It’s a beautifully elegant bow on the narrative, synthesising the ideas of identity, performance, humility, power, youth and more. It re-asserts the humanity of the characters over everything else, declaring that they are not just simple symbols, but complex and contradictory people.

There’s a Terry Pratchett quote about how most immoral actions can be boiled down to treating people like they aren’t people. Convincing people that they aren’t people is an even crueler trick, and seeing our cast break free from that thinking is immensely satisfying.

In issue #39, Persephone states that there’s only one way to end a story, and #43 shows it isn’t with death, or new life, or victory. It’s by deciding not to tell it anymore.

Like what we do, and want to help us make more of it? Visit patreon.com/timplusalex and pledge to gain access to exclusive blogs, ebooks, mixtapes and more.

#The Wicked + The Divine #the wicked and the divine #wicdiv #Kieron Gillen #Jamie McKelvie #TWATD

[idolizerp]

LOADING INFORMATION ON SIGNAL’S LEAD VOCAL, LEAD DANCE SEOL DOWON...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: N/A CURRENT AGE: 18 DEBUT AGE: N/A TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 16 COMPANY: KJH SECONDARY SKILL: N/A

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): wonnie, won mendes - a pun on shawn mendes, for being similarly scouted after going viral from a song cover posted online INSPIRATION: dowon has loved music his whole life, but never thought to pursue it as his career. on the record, he found atlas and became inspired to make music. off the record, he ended up changing his mind when his viral video reached the people at kjh and he thought he could actually have a future in this industry. SPECIAL TALENTS:

balancing anything on one finger - has balanced everything from a plate to a mic stand

abacus calculations

drawing caricatures

NOTABLE FACTS:

big xlnc fan

has an older sister and an older brother

ranked within the top ten of his grade every year in high school

wanted to be a prosecutor before he went into music

is allergic to cats 

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

dowon is focused on becoming a capable producer. it’s not enough for him to provide a chord here and there and get a producing credit slapped onto a song for the sake of being a producer-dol; he wants to feel like he’s really earned it and built the song himself. he’s pretty much only ever done covers prior to joining kjh, though, so it’s proving to be difficult to learn.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

in the distant future, when signal has debuted, dowon wants them to be unique. this seems vague, but he already knows that the moment their teasers are released they’ll be relentlessly compared with atlas as producers, atlas as artists, atlas as performers and global sensations. he wants signal to be able to set themselves apart by having and maintaining a unique sound and establishing their own audience. he believes the music they’ve been working on as trainees is already working towards this, but ultimately the goal can’t be realized until after they’ve debuted and had a few comebacks. as for himself alone, he’d like to continue what he started online and produce solo work. when signal has established themselves as talented songwriters as well as performers, dowon wants to debut solo with music he loves that he’s written only for himself. he’d like that feeling of community he had with his youtube channel, but this time on a much bigger and grander scale.

IDOL IMAGE

dowon has eyes that crinkle when he smiles and a laugh that lights up a room, a pretty face and a pretty voice. he’s also got brains, not inherited but earned after years of being instructed that law school was his goal and the only possible goal. as such, kjh has given him the label of the beagle with a twist, as if being able to do quick mental math or remember who was the last king of baekje is something that exists outside of being playful and fun. being smart has somehow also boosted his image as a musician, as he comes off as someone who had the brains and means to pursue an academic path but opted instead to do music from the sheer passion for it. it’s not the worst image the company could have assigned to it, and dowon isn’t necessarily against it, but it is exhausting. during variety training he’s told he has to keep his energy up at all times and provide the other members with energy when they start to lose it. he’s also still stuck studying, even though he literally just graduated from high school in february, to keep the smart half of his image sharp and ready for whatever questions are thrown at him.

in spite of all that, the most difficult part of his image for dowon to maintain is being an atlas fan. after he got discovered through an atlas cover, kjh told him to amp it up and really milk that link between the brother groups. his backstory now includes an anecdote where he heard atlas playing in a convenience store one day and looked them up and listened to their entire discography and - suddenly! - fell in love with music and decided it had to be his future. except dowon actually doesn’t like atlas, has never liked atlas, and doubts he ever will like atlas. he made one video for the views, and while the results completely changed his life they also continue to haunt him as he has to pretend a spiritual connection to a group whose music he dislikes. he does balance it out by praising musicians he’s actually a fan of whenever he gets the chance, like xlnc and midnight and imperial, but he knows that if kjh’s strict image management has anything to say about it, atlas will be following him for a very long time.

IDOL HISTORY

seol dowon was dutifully enrolled in piano lessons at the age of six, as his parents and siblings had been before him. they cited studies that apparently showed that children benefited from a musical education, that their minds grew to be better primed for studying and creativity and retaining information. what was a little less expected was that dowon fell in love with music, with piano first then guitar and singing once he’d picked them up. whereas his older brother and sister both abandoned piano by the time they entered middle school, he kept at it, attending lessons three times a week.

music was never going to be his career, though, and dowon kept his focus on getting good grades and fulfilling his parents’ dreams of him going to law school. he kept music up as a hobby on the side, from performing at his school’s talent show to briefly starting a band with his friends. when he was about fifteen, though, he started up a youtube channel, posting videos of himself singing or playing guitar and toying with different arrangements of popular songs. initially it was just supposed to be a way to record some of the things he was doing in his spare time, and his parents sent his videos around to relatives who lived further away. but at some point he began gaining a modest following.

he started to earn money from youtube. nothing major, no big bucks, but when enough people sat through the ads on his videos he got a bit of pocket money. it was enough that he started thinking he should focus on how to expand his viewership and maybe get more money out of it, make youtube a side gig to boost the allowance his parents were giving him. until then he had only been releasing a video whenever he had enough muse to put one together, and he was only doing covers of songs he liked and was interested in, but he decided to set up a schedule where every other week he put out something based on a viewer’s request - comment below, and the comment with the most likes gets done next time. as he moved away from doing covers of western rock bands and began playing more popular kpop songs, some of his original subscribers left, but they were quickly replaced and overtaken with people who loved his new content, who fawned over his cute smile and sweet voice.

maybe it was inevitable, then, that some fans of atlas would request that he play one of their songs. to be honest, dowon really didn’t like atlas. their music didn’t vibe with him, and maybe more importantly, he didn’t think he could adapt it to his style well enough to do a cover. he put it off as long as he could, but eventually atlas’ blood, sweat and tears was the top comment. he thought about just ignoring it, doing the next highest rated comment, but wouldn’t covering one of the most popular kpop groups on earth be a surefire way to get views? he could put it out, get some more subscribers, and go back to working on music he actually liked. he put it together a little more haphazardly than his other covers and released it, knowing it wasn’t his best but hoping it would do its work.

it did, and more. the atlas fans who already followed him snatched it up and started sharing the video around until it caught on to the whole fandom. they began making up stories about him - that atlas had inspired him to make music, that he was trying to follow in their footsteps. people started subscribing in droves, sure, but then his comments became exclusively atlas requests. he regretted making that cover soon after it was posted.

when the hype died down, he received an email. kjh global creative was the company behind atlas, and they thought he had potential to be a future artist with them. would he come in for an audition? he lived in daegu, so getting to the company’s headquarters in seoul for a meeting meant convincing his parents to let him take the train on a saturday. they pushed back - how was he supposed to get into law school when he was taking precious time away from his studying at a critical point in his studies if he was jetting off to audition for music companies? he swore he just wanted to audition to see if he could get in - a harmless adventure, something that could make for a fun anecdote later. of course they asked him to come back for another audition a week later, and by now dowon had predictably become infatuated with the idea of making music his career. i mean, why not? he was already making some money from youtube, clearly there were people out there who wanted to hear him sing. he snuck off the following saturday for his second audition, was offered a contract, and broke the news over the phone. his parents insisted he should at least get into law school before he throws his future away; he refused, afraid that he might never get this kind of luck again. they said fine, you’re on your own, on one condition: keep your grades up and go to university. dowon moved into the trainee dorms and transferred to a seoul high school later that week.

he’s lasted over two years now, getting by with a small allowance from an uncle who took pity on him and occasionally picking up a job here or there for some extra cash. he had to delete most of his youtube videos when he signed with kjh, leaving up some of the more successful kpop covers and, of course, the atlas video. he was lucky enough to be put into the predebut group meant to follow in atlas’s footsteps, even if he still doesn’t like them all that much and is already resenting the “atlas’s little brothers” label. he really feels proud that signal is meant to be making their own music and has begun taking producing seriously as a venture, although since his experience is heavily based on just playing with different arrangements and making covers, writing original music is proving more difficult than he originally thought. but even though kjh wanted them to be known as producer-dols, they still wanted signal to have strong focus on dance that will rival other boy groups. having no background in dancing means dowon spends long nights in the studio, working himself for hours to memorize choreography and build up the stamina to be able to sing while dancing his heart out. he’s come a long way from when he first joined the company, thanks to the long hours he’s put into focusing on dance and the post-practice endorphins he’s grown to crave. most of all, he wants signal to define itself as separate from atlas - not atlas 2.0, but a group that has their own sound and style. at the moment, though, he’s got a feeling they’ll be stuck waiting for a while - kjh unexpectedly got a girl group under their wing, meaning the boys will have to take the backseat for now. dowon only hopes they’ll get their chance soon so he’ll finally be able to prove himself.

#id.bio #id.kjh #id.signal #id.na jaemin #id.overthrow

[damnnjoon]

@rxnjuns has me thinking about nct dream aus and tbh...dream in an american high school (because idk how other countries’ school systems work...hell idk about schools outside of texas) ... let’s discuss

honestly i feel like they’d be friends in HS mainly because they’d all be in a lot of the same things? like academic groups/clubs and also electives (i think...i think i made them all NMSFs because i felt bad not doing so. what am i)

mark: senior, the one kid who’s in both band and orchestra and somehow in both the top band and top orchestra, swims (and is good at it... state level for three years in a row good) and tries to do track too but can’t attend half the meets because of swim, took 4 AP classes in 11th grade (would’ve taken more but his electives allow him no space) and decided to do that again in 12th because if anyone can handle that much academic, athletic, and musical pressure it’s him (he’s making solid As in his classes and the occasional high B), not in student council but is in the Rotary Interact and spends time in the summer overseas building schools, water tanks, wells, and other things, National Merit Finalist, constantly with donghyuck, works as a private lessons teacher in a music school, is applying to out of state schools as an english literature major but plans on staying in-state to save money before he can transfer out later 

renjun: junior, National Honor Society president, took cross country for two years and quit to focus on GPA/PSAT/SAT/ACT during crunch year, in the school choir, makes National Merit Semifinalist but his friends are more hype about it than he is (because he expected it - he works damn hard), in the art club, has 7 APs but handles them well - his only nonAP is choir, debate club, probably in the top 10, boxes on weekends at the Y to let off steam and take some time off for himself, is one of 3/7 who has a license (mark and hyuck are the other two - and jeno is working on his), prefers tea over coffee but likes starbucks’ muffins, doesn’t actually know what he wants to be in future, jaemin’s neighbor since kindergarten, likes to say that he’s “here for a good time not for a long time” but genuinely enjoys school and extracurriculars 

jeno: junior, StuCo president, plays varsity soccer but also wrestles (he’s only JV in wrestling as he’s more devoted to soccer), does the morning announcements everyday, needs glasses but doesn’t wear them - instead asks to sit up front or near the whiteboard in every class, violinist in the top orch, hangs out a lot with renjun and donghyuck and jaemin due to being in the same grade as them and tries his best to make time for mark and chenle and jisung, takes a solid 5 APs during junior year but vows to downscale that in 12th, has a permit but not a license yet because he started working on his permit late, a student ambassador (a person who shows new kids around the school), National Merit Semifinalist, member of the NHS, in art club and also spanish club... even though he isn’t in spanish, known for his smile, lifts weights alone in the school gym after school sometimes, likes science but is considering a double major in a STEM course and a humanities course, does HOSA

donghyuck: junior, has late arrival because he is tired (its the only reason he rushed to get his license - so he could drive himself to and from school), star forward on the varsity soccer team and does cross country in the beginning of the year to stay in shape, wishes he could play baseball because it seems cools and he likes the idea of hitting stuff with a bat, taking 5 APs, made National Merit Semifinalist on accident but is still glad, in National Spanish Honor Society and plans on making NHS in senior year, school’s broadcast head producer and scriptwriter (and....and director), in the choir and loves theater to where he auditions for the fall musical each year (and, of course, makes it...was the lead sophomore year and is the lead junior year as well), class clown type but only when there’s nothing actually going on in class, always volunteers or is volunteered for shit during pep rallies, debate club, plans on working at the local movie theater during the summer if only for the free popcorn, always driving jisung places and complaining about it

jaemin: junior, plays basketball of all sports, runs track during off season, goes to at least one game or match per sport per year (ex. a volleyball match, swim meet, etc.. he hits every sport every year), theater legend, another National Merit Semifinalist (he studied really hard with Mark, who’d made it in his junior year), yearbook editor, had jeno pierce his ears in seventh grade but never wears earrings, a little more laid back than his friends with 4 APs, but not by much because he’s in academic decathlon, has a redbull addiction, runs a famous meme page on instagram, posts aesthetic pictures on his main, has renjun drive him to pretty locations at ass thirty in the morning on sundays so he can get nice shots for instagram, plans on an athletic scholarship for college and knows he’ll get one, wants to major in biology (doctor!jaemin) but minor in photography

chenle: sophomore, already works at a fast food joint and steals fries on the daily, in the school choir and in theater, has a permit but never practices driving because he lives within walking distance of both his job and school, best friends with jisung since the beginning of time but nobody knows how they actually met (not even them), taking 3 APs because AP World History is required and because he genuinely enjoys AP Computer Science and because he somehow skipped a year of spanish and is in donghyuck’s AP spanish class, is in Rotary Interact, plans on joining yearbook or broadcast as a junior, has a tendency to call jeno at odd hours in the morning to talk about literally anything, is on the student council to make friends, isn’t sure if he wants to go into computers or into acting yet

jisung: sophomore, chenle’s best friend, family friends with donghyuck and always mooching rides off of him, in a dance crew outside of school and misses school sometimes for competitions, takes AP World History because its required but plans on starting the stress only in eleventh, hasn’t gotten his permit yet because he keeps forgetting, gets off campus phys. ed credits because of dance so only has 7 class periods a day instead of 8, skateboards everywhere within walking distance, has all of his friends’ schedules memorized but pretends like he doesn’t, goes to cross country practices but doesn’t participate in meets, does a bunch of UIL academics like UIL spelling and UIL biology, wants to take AP psych someday

#jokes on me guys im taking 7 APs in eleventh!! #like i know im gonna get straight As (knock on wood tho) but at what cost #nt dream #nct dream high school

[gukyi]

practice makes perfect (or at least, significantly better) | kth

⇒ summary: taehyung’s the drummer in a local punk band, and you’re the university’s first chair flute. this is a love story that doesn’t exactly go as planned, but then again, does anything?

⇒ punk band!au

⇒ pairing: taehyung x female reader

⇒ word count: 7k

⇒ genre: fluff

⇒ warnings: alcohol consumption and jazz solos

⇒ a/n: written for the one and only, the real mvp, the cutest peach who told me not long ago she was desperate for a punk taehyung fic, @jingukz . for u! i am also tagging @seoulscapes bc we’re currently at fic/bias wrecker war. inspired by this photo, which ruined my life to an extent i didn’t even know was possible.

In the world of a music major, there are three things you must never turn down: 1) an empty practice room, 2) good music, and 3) free alcohol, and while your local bar doesn’t have any individual practice rooms, complete with relatively soundproof walls and really shitty old metal stands, it can offer you the latter two of the options, and that sounds good enough.

For no particular reason, your music major friends have invited you out for a night of mysterious shots and sweaty dancing, complete with a small town punk band you’d never heard of as the cherry on top, and while punk music isn’t really your cup of tea—you are a flute player, after all—it most certainly makes for good stage music.

Free alcohol would be a dumb thing to reject anyway, at your age, because it means drunken mistakes and a buzzed mind without depleting the bank, and you’re already poor as hell, thanks to the age-old millennial struggle known as college debt. Fuckin’ economy.

You’re just walking into the bar, taking off your light leather jacket—because despite the frostiness of late November nights, the room is already steamy from the bodies radiating heat and you can feel beads of sweat pooling at your hairline—when your friend comes up to you, face tinged red from what must be a couple shots, swirling a bright scarlet drink in her hand.

“Y/N! You made it!” She exclaims, stuffing the glass into your hand. “Here! Drink this. We got a good spot near the front, come on! The band’s about to start!”

You barely have time to get out a ‘hello’ before she’s tugging you towards the stage, the beverage sloshing around in the cup and spilling over the sides, onto the wooden floor below. Sure enough, she and the rest of your music major buddies have secured a very decent viewing space of the platform, a little round table by stage left, allowing for an optimal side-view of the band as they set up their amps.

“Hey, it’s Y/N!” The rowdy marching band drum major, Namjoon, says as you approach the table, a lopsided smile on his face. “Glad you could come.”

“Like I would ever turn down free drinks and some nice music,” you scoff, sitting down next to him as you down some of that alcohol in your glass. It stings your throat as it hits it, a tangy taste of fruit of vodka dancing on your tastebuds. “The fuck is this stuff?” You say, holding up the glass to eye level, like it’s going to help you determine the ingredients.

“I don’t know,” Namjoon tells you, holding up his glass so that it’s even with yours. He’s got the same mysterious concoction, only he’s already downed most of his. “All Joohyun told me was that it’d ‘get us drunk real fast’, and then she drank the entire thing in one gulp.”

You both turn to look at her, her face as cherry red as it was when she greeted you. She’s clapping along to something even though there’s no music playing, only the static of an amp echoing throughout the room and the occasional loud pop! of a wire getting plugged in.

“Joohyun?” You ask, a hand on her shoulder. “You good?”

“Peachy! Y/N, did you know that you’d look really good with a chrysanthemum in your hair? Because you would,” Joohyun says, and she’s normally very positive but this is just strangely optimistic, even for her. Before you know it, she’s producing an actual chrysanthemum from her bag—where from, you don’t really want to know—and placing it above your ear, in the crook between the skin and hair, and smiling to yourself. “There!”

“Thanks, Joohyun,” you say, never ceasing to be amazed by the purity that is drunk girls, but she interrupts you with a hand over your mouth, shushing you.

“Shh, the band’s about to play, shh,” she says, taking you by surprise as you protest her hand over your lips. When she lets go, you turn to Namjoon, who merely chuckles as he shifts his focus to the stage.

There’s not much light in the bar to begin with, only the dim multicolored bulbs in the ceiling and the ever-so-faint glow of the city streaming through the windows, but the band onstage doesn’t let that distract them, letting the metal chains and rings on their clothes, their bodies glint as they catch the light, just for a second. It’s the only hint that they’re setting up, about to perform, that is, until the airy sounds of a keyboard bounce off the walls and reverberate off the wooden planks, and then the music is in full swing.

You can always trust this bar, because there’s never a time you’re here that they don’t have good music, and the group on stage is no exception. You know good music from bad—you fucking study it, for God’s sake—and there’s never a time when you don’t appreciate good music, regardless of the genre. Punk has, what Namjoon likes to describe as “rage channelled into a melody of fatalistic and existential despair” and what Joohyun likes to call “intense anger”, and both of them are equally as correct. Punk isn’t punk without passion, and what fuels passion better than fury?

There’s five of them. You haven’t brushed up on punk band lingo in a while, sticking mainly to your concert band jargon, but you know that there’s two guitarists, a keyboardist, a bassist, and a drummer. That part is easy to guess, especially since each of the instruments are so vibrant in their own way, their notes that are distinct, yet blend together perfectly. You’d vibe to this, if you didn’t spend all your fucking free time listening to the sick beats of Bach and Handel.

“Isn’t this great?” Joohyun asks somewhere between the fourth and fifth song, clapping along to the beat as she moves from side to side. One thing is for certain, and it’s that all music majors have never been the most fantastic dancers. They’d rather transcribe the music than bop to it.

“Yeah, for you,” you scoff.

“Just because I play upright bass in the uni’s jazz band—”

“Whatever, string player!” You exclaim, waving her off and pretending to disregard her objection. She gasps in mock-offense, appalled that you would refer to her as such a scandalous name like string player, and you both hold your poses for a quick second before bursting into laughter. As you turn your focus back to the band in front of you, you make eye contact with the drummer, sitting in the back and casually drumming through the second verse of the song. God, you hate it when you awkwardly lock eyes with someone, because nine times out of ten both of you just tensely smile at each other and go on with your lives, and then the interaction is stuck in your head for the rest of the night. But this time is one of those rare occurrences, where in place of a tense smile rests a smirk on the offending drummer’s face and this awful glint in your eye that has your flirt radar going haywire.

You look away immediately, not wanting to prolong the eye contact any longer than you absolutely have to, eyes shifting to your half-finished drink sitting on the table. The look he sent you sends shivers down your spine, and not in a particularly good way (not in a bad way either, though). You direct your attention to another member, avoiding the gaze of the drummer until you’re absolutely certain he’s not looking at you anymore. You don’t know what he’s thinking in that brain of his, but you’d rather not find out.

The set ends after what you think is about seven songs, though it feels like a mere instant in your mind. You don’t know how the final song came so quickly, but it comes and goes in a flash, and suddenly Joohyun is applauding obnoxiously beside you.

“They were good,” Namjoon says. “But I bet Seokjin could do better.”

“Seokjin plays jazz guitar,” you comment, a skeptical look on your face. You highly doubt Seokjin would know the ways of punk sheet music. He sometimes has a difficult time with regular concert music.

“And he’s fucking great at it,” Namjoon tells you, and you concede, because his solos are the reason your jazz band always wins Districts.

“Y/N! Come on, we should try and meet the group!” Joohyun urges, getting you out of her seat with that wonderfully bubbly expression of hers.

You turn your attention to where Joohyun is looking, and see a hefty line of a bunch of people who seem to have the exact same idea as her, waiting by the hallway to see if they can catch a glimpse of the next big thing.

“I don’t know, don’t you think that the line is a bit… long?” You ask, hesitant. You came here for free drinks and good music, not an autograph.

“No! It’s only a couple of people,” Joohyun says, waving it off like it’s nothing.

“It’s not like they’re celebrities, they’re just average guys who play instruments,” you insist, really not keen on getting out of your seat and going to try and meet them. You’d rather not risk coming in contact with Smirking Drummer, if fate allows you to have any say in the matter. “We’re like them, only less metal.”

“But we’re music major geeks,” Joohyun says, and while you know she’s not upset that she’s a nerd who likes classical music, you’re also aware that punk band member and concert band member don’t exactly go hand in hand. “They’re the cooler version of us.”

“Do I really have to go?” You ask, whining at this point.

“I’ll buy you another drink.”

Rule Number 3: Never turn down free alcohol.

“Fine,” you say, getting up and flinging your leather jacket over your shoulder. “I’ll do it for the booze.”

“You girls let me know when you need a ride home,” Namjoon says. “I’ve only had one drink tonight, so I can drive you.”

“Thank you, big, strong, heavyweight drum major!” Joohyun singsongs, and you don’t get the chance to say anything before she’s pulling you away as you watch Namjoon chuckle to himself.

Joohyun gets you your drink as promised, and somewhere along the way after that you lose her to the crowd, watching her lavender hair bounce away under the light as you’re left by the bar, sipping your cocktail and waiting for a glimpse of her. You know she’ll come around, she won’t get sucked into the fifteen minutes of fame and traipse off with a guy, because even drunk she’s decently reasonable, and she also has a girlfriend in Fashion Merchandising whom she loves very much. You just have to wait for her, which is the (un)fun part.

You set your drink down on the counter and pull out your phone, letting Namjoon know that you’ve lost Joohyun entirely and that you might end up waiting a while, when a figure clad in black and silver casually stands next to you. You pay no attention to them, shrugging it off as another person desperate for a quick fix, when the voice speaks to you.

“Why’d you look away so soon?” It asks.

You turn and, just as fate would have it—you should have known you would end up meeting him, one way or another—next to you stands the very drummer.

“What do you mean?” You ask.

“When I looked at you,” he elaborates, “you looked away. Why? Scared?”

“Of who?” You ask, arms crossed. “Of you?”

“Of me. My music, my band, my charming smile,” the drummer says, flashing you that smirk he sent you from up on stage. It’s a look that he’s probably practiced a thousand times, a smirk that he knows will work.

“I’m not scared of you,” you say.

“What do you do, hmm? You look too young to be out of university,” he asks. “I’m gonna guess. Interior design? English? Philosophy?”

“Try music.”

That catches his attention. “Music, hmm? What is it? Violin? Cello? Flute?”

You stiffen at his words. “Why do you care so much?”

“Flute it is, then. Suits you, I think,” he confirms, a smug look written all over his face. “With that flower in your hair like a fairy. You’re soft.”

“I am not!” You object, scoffing as you reach a hand up to grab the flower, pulling it out of your hair and throwing it to the floor, stomping on it like you’re putting out a cigarette butt. Sorry, Joohyun. “If you thought I was a soft spoken, innocent flute major who’d love to get in your pants, then you’re picking on the wrong girl.”

“Ooh,” the drummer says, wincing. “She bites.”

“She’s not afraid to.”

“Alright then,” he says, hands up in surrender. “How about a friend to talk to instead? You can take another sip of your drink, loosen up, and we can chat. No sex required.”

“Sorry,” you say, raising a hand quickly to get the bartender’s attention. Once you’ve got it, you hand over the drink, making up some bullshit excuse about how you weren’t feeling it anymore, and turn back around. “But I can’t trust that. For all I know, you could have put something in my Sangria.”

“She’s smart, too,” he muses.

“Not smart, just aware. Thanks for the chat, but I have to go pick up my friend before she gets trampled by your fans. Maybe some other time?” You say, knowing that you have no intention of having ‘some other time’.

“For the record, I didn’t drug your drink,” he says, grabbing your wrist but not in a possessive way. Just so he can squeeze in another couple sentences. “But I’m Taehyung.”

“I’m not interested,” you say, and he easily lets you out of his grasp. You swear you see a head of lavender by the doorway.

“Alright, Not Interested,” Taehyung says, “I’ll see you around. We play here often, you know.”

“I don’t.”

“Well, now you do.” He smiles, and it’s not that classic, signature smirk that you’ve seen plenty of times, it’s a different type of grin, one that tells you that he’s enjoyed his time, however brief it was, with you tonight. “Looking forward to seeing you at another gig.”

“Don’t get your hopes up too high, Drummer Boy. They always say that you can never trust flute players.”

With that, you’re flagging down Joohyun with a call of her name, Taehyung the Drummer Boy getting pushed to the back of your mind.

Joohyun never ended up actually meeting them, you would find out, which is the exact reason why you’re back at that same bar, sitting in the same seats, waiting for them to get on stage. To be honest, you have no idea how you ended up here again, especially after insisting to Taehyung that you would not be back. Way to fucking eat your words.

“Can’t we just go?” You ask her, tugging on her arm and looking longingly towards the door. It’s not too late to back out now. “What if they play all of the same songs?”

“I bought their album on iTunes,” Joohyun says. “I don’t really mind if I hear the songs live again.”

“I do,” you say, desperate.

“Boohoo. I wanna meet them, Y/N,” she quips back, and you know you’ve lost this battle before the following words leave her mouth. “You’d never leave me alone in a bar to fend for myself, would you?”

“No,” you huff, slouching in your seat as you brace for the worst.

When the chatter dies down and the stage lights flicker on, you immediately duck your head down in an attempt to avoid getting recognized, but to no avail. Joohyun grabs your arm and pulls you up at the same time that Taehyung walks onto the stage, and it’s not very difficult to miss the cocky grin scrawled all over his lips as you meet eyes. Goddamnit.

Rather than look away, however, you roll your eyes dramatically, knowing that he’s still gazing at you from behind the drumset. He won’t intimidate you any longer. Your reaction makes Taehyung laugh, tossing his head back casually as he chuckles in response. Normally, when you see people on stage from where you’re seated below, they look ethereal, like gods, like immortals, but watching Taehyung laugh so normally, so easily, it doesn’t make him look like any of those things. He just looks human.

“Who are you staring at?” Joohyun asks, noticing how your eyes always seem to be drifting to one person in particular. “Oh! Is it the drummer? He’s cute, isn’t he?”

“A little.”

“Only a little?” Joohyun says, one eyebrow raised in a skeptical fashion. “Come on, Y/N. I know you.”

“He’s kinda cute,” you finally relent, admitting the statement more to yourself than to Joohyun. There’s no denying Taehyung’s attractiveness, even to a stickler such as yourself.

You don’t take your eyes off of Taehyung throughout his band’s entire set, sitting back in your seat with your arms crossed over your torso, a smirk playing on your lips. Every now and then, he will turn to look your way, letting his hands do the work for him as he gazes at you. At one point, he gets off beat while you two are having another one of your staring contests, and he only notices once you raise your eyebrows to remind him that he should be fucking paying attention to the music he plays. You: 1, Taehyung: 0.

Not unlike last time, the set whizzes by, your mind once again occupied with thoughts of Taehyung, and suddenly he’s joining the rest of his members at the front of the stage for a quick celebratory bow as the lights in the seating area flicker back on the the spotlights dim.

“Fuck, the line’s already piling up,” Joohyun says, whipping her head backwards to see a heap of people by the backstage door. “I’m gonna go. You stay here, okay? So I can find you afterwards.”

“Are you sure about that?” You ask, looking down at her very large and very empty glass.

“It’s fine! I’ll remember,” she says, quickly waving you off as she shuffles away, worming herself into the herd.

At least she didn’t make you come with.

Another sip of your martini hits your throat as you down it, thinking that it’ll be easier to pass the time a bit buzzed than totally sober. It’s calming, sitting here in the hazy purple lights of the bar as the world moves around you, especially with the knowledge that Taehyung is probably trapped in that crowd, surrounded by excited fans who just want a glimpse of him and his brown eyes.

“Is this seat taken?”

“This one? Yes, actually,” you say, not looking towards the owner of the voice, though it is strangely familiar. This isn’t a good sign. Strangely familiar voices asking if a seat next to you is taken is never a good sign. Someone plops down in the seat anyway, and you know who it is before you even turn to them.

“I looked pretty cool up there, didn’t I?” Taehyung asks, taking a long, slow sip of a bright green beverage. “Is that why you kept staring at me?”

“You only looked cool because the lights were so dark and no one could see your actual face,” you quip back.

“Aw, don’t be like that. Dim light looks good on me,” Taehyung says, pouting.

You scoff, forcing a chuckle from your throat. “Sure thing, Drummer Boy.”

“Well, Not Interested, I’m pretty impressed that you managed to show up to another one of my gigs. Thought I couldn’t trust flute players,” Taehyung says, the drink giving him this warm glow to his face.

“My friend didn’t get a chance to meet you guys last time, so she dragged me here again,” you explain, trying to get the message across that you most certainly Did Not Come For Him. “Don’t think you’re so special.”

“I kind of am, don’t you think?” Taehyung asks. “Special enough to warrant a return from the girl who isn’t interested.”

“I didn’t come here for you.”

“You got me anyway.”

Oh, he’s so unbearable. Unbearably cocky, unbearably flirty, unbearably cute. Wait, what?

“Don’t you have another person to try and charm?” You ask him, a little flustered that he’s got the perfect response to every single one of your comments. “Or am I the unlucky one?”

“I’m not trying to sleep with you. I just wanna get to know you a bit better. You’re an interesting one, Not Interested,” Taehyung says as he looks you up and down. “And not in a bad way.”

“Never met many flute players that wear leather jackets and take shit from nobody?”

“You’re the first one, believe it or not.”

“I’m in shock,” You deadpan.

“Do you have an actual name I can call you by, or is Not Interested satisfactory enough for you?” Taehyung asks, chugging down another gulp of his drink.

“I don’t know, Not Interested has kind of a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” You hum. “Really gets the message across.”

“Believe me, message received,” Taehyung says, and it’s actually quite comforting knowing Taehyung’s not one of those stubborn guys who won’t take no for an answer, not one of those ruthlessly persistent frat boys who just want a quick fuck for the night. He’s accepted your answer and he’s not trying to change it.

“In that case, I’m Y/N.”

“Y/N,” Taehyung repeats, like he’s testing how the name sounds flowing off of his tongue, seeing if it’s suitable for his golden lips to utter. “I think that has a much nicer ring to it.”

“Oh, really?”

“Really,” Taehyung says, leaning over towards you and swirling that fluorescent drink in his hands, eyelids hooded. “You should tell people your name more often. Don’t you want to hear them say it? Moan it?”

There it is, the moodwrecker. Surprisingly enough, Taehyung’s sultry voice doesn’t do much to deter you from talking to him like it normally would if he were, say, a sleazy frat boy. If he keeps it up, it might give him a leg up on the situation.

“Only the right people,” you murmur in response, letting Taehyung lean closer, closer, lips puckering up ever so slightly… before you prod his chest with your pointer finger, pushing him right back into his chair, listening to it skid across the wood.

Taehyung looks sort of winded after that, palm flat on his chest as he catches the breath he didn’t even know he lost. He looks up at you, dazed and stunned, with his mouth open in something akin to shock, perhaps? He runs a hand through that silky brown hair of his, letting his bangs flop over his forehead as they leave contact with his fingers, and he smiles. “Not me, then, I suppose?” He asks you.

“Not yet, I’m afraid,” you say, shrugging apologetically but with a cheeky little grin nonetheless.

“Yet?” Taehyung repeats like it’s a challenge. And it mostly is.

“I’m not partial to anyone in particular, you know,” you inform him.

“Guess I better work a little harder, then,” he replies, and if that isn’t flirting then you’ll never know what is.

It’s simultaneously a relief and a bummer to see Joohyun bouncing towards where you’re seated, steps light and airy despite the fact that, to your knowledge, she hasn’t had anything more to drink. She pauses right before she reaches you, and you don’t realize why until you follow her eyes straight to where they’re gazing, which just so happens to be Taehyung’s smirking face.

“Is that—”

“Taehyung, at your service. Is this your friend, Y/N? The one with good taste?” Taehyung says, and he’s got that flirty vibe to him, the same one that surrounded him when he first spoke to you. It must be second nature, at this point, to see a pretty girl and immediately his brain switches off, replaced by none other than his dick.

“If she’s looking at you, I’d hardly say she’s got good taste,” you mutter. “Though you must probably assume anybody who gives you the time of day has got excellent standards.”

“Do you know him or something, Y/N?” Joohyun asks, positively astounded at the fact that she’s watching the two of you banter like old friends.

“No,” you immediately tell her, “we just met recently.”

“But it feels like I’ve known her for a lifetime.”

God-fucking-damnit, he always has such a perfectly cheesy retort for everything that you say. It’s hard to keep on top with him, but you’ve never been one to back away from a challenge.

“Can’t relate,” you deadpan, shutting him down entirely. “Ready to go, Joohyun?”

“Sure, if that’s okay with Taehyung,” she says, looking awkwardly from you to him was that hesitant lilt to her voice. “If I’m interrupting something…”

“You two ladies have a wonderful rest of your night,” Taehyung says, tipping his head like he’s the lead in a 1920’s silent film. You watch him get up and send you a sneaky wink when he knows you’re gazing at him, and the action alone makes you scoff as you turn your head around.

“You know, I got to talking with Hoseok, he’s one of the guitarists, and apparently he knows Seokjin! Isn’t that cool?” Joohyun exclaims as you’re walking out of the bar, hitting your arm like she always does whenever she’s excited about something. “I had no idea.”

“Seokjin knows Hoseok? How?” Guess the man had more roots to punk music than you thought.

“Apparently they did this guitar thing together back in high school! We’ll have to invite Hoseok to one of our next jazz performances somewhere,” Joohyun says, and the very idea is so entertaining to the both of you that Taehyung and his flirty little self once again get lost in the crannies of your mind.

Taehyung means nothing to you.

Alright, he means something to you. But a very small, insignificant something. It’s got to be the drinks that are compelling you to return to that hazy purple bar, not anything (or anyone) else.

It doesn’t even matter, because this time, when you show up to the bar alone, Taehyung’s band isn’t playing. Not that you’re surprised, especially because you did walk in without any knowledge of his gig schedule, but it is strangely disappointing to not see them setting up on stage, preparing for another performance. Like it was the only thing you were looking forward to.

Well, you’re here now, and you don’t want to practice the flute solo that Joohyun and Seokjin are forcing you to play for the university’s jazz band thing on Friday, so there really is no better way to spend the night other than piss drunk, or at least mildly hammered.

This isn’t a club by any means, which equates to no dance floor for you to embarrass yourself at, thank God. Standing by the counter has always done you well, especially because you can easily see which creepy middle-aged man is trying to flirt with you, so you stick to your spot and let your mind get hazy.

At least you’re a little bit buzzed when you see him. You’ve finished the first glass but it’s not enough to have you on the floor, so while you’re still well aware of your surroundings, your brain is moving a little slower than top speed.

What also is moving a little slower than top speed is Taehyung as he tumbles out of a hallway near the back, where things wait that you don’t want to know about. He’s dizzy and loopy, feet stepping on top of each other, but you’re not paying much attention to that. Your eyes, however foggy they may be, are focused on the girl on his arm, and from her disheveled hair and his lack of balance to the hallway they just emerged from, it’s not very difficult to put two and two together, even for a drunk you.

Guess Taehyung decided to show up after all. Only, sans band. Because that’s a thing.

Well, whatever. He can do what he wants, can’t he? You came here to forget that awful flute solo you absolutely must practice, not for him.

Even so, you can’t help but let your eyes wander their way every now and then (every two seconds, give or take a few) as they drunkenly giggle before the girl is off of his shoulder, blending in with the rest of the desperate bar-goers who thought getting totally fucking zazzed on a Tuesday night would be a good idea. Like you. Like him.

You wonder how on Earth that one-night-stand was so short that it didn’t even last a full night, but that’s a 2AM question for another time. Right now, you’re a bit occupied with the fumbling drunk man who’s approaching you.

“Y/N?” Fumbling drunk man has approached. “What are you doing here?”

“Getting drunk,” you tell Taehyung, grabbing his arm so he can prop himself up on the counter to prevent him from toppling right over, which he very much looks like he’s about to do.

“I did that already,” Taehyung groans, and holy shit, he’s a whiny drunk. This you did not anticipate under every circumstance under the sun. “I wanna do something else.”

“Well, go do something else on that couch over there,” you say. “Like taking a nap, ‘cause you sure as hell need one right now.”

“Naps are boring,” he whines. You turn to the bartender and make a desperate ‘my-sort-of-friend-is-sloppy-drunk-may-I-please-get-some-water’ face, and it has to be a face that that poor bartender has seen often, because within another thirty seconds he’s handing over a fresh, cold glass of ice water.

“Drink this,” you say, shoving the water in Taehyung’s face. “Drink this and then I’m calling an Uber and I’m taking you and your post-sex self back home. Or at least to Hoseok’s place.”

Taehyung whines again, and it’s really not a good look for him when he’s dressed up in all of this black leather and silver chains, but he complies, taking a tiny little sip of water and letting it slowly begin to wash away the taste of vodka on his tongue.

“You know I think you’re pretty, right?” Taehyung slurs.

“Yes, I assumed so, otherwise you wouldn’t keep flirting with me every time you spot me from across the room,” you say, patting his back somewhat soothingly as he continues to lap up the condensation on the glass. There are things you thought you’d see tonight, and things like Taehyung licking all the way around his glass.

“Then why don’t you like me back,” he whines, and it doesn’t really sound like a lovesick puppy question when the words leave his lips. More like a childish complaint, only with sincerity.

“You are so fucking toast,” you mutter to yourself. Before he gets a chance to slur out another soppy sentence, you’re feeling around his body, patting your palms all over his lower torso and jeans so you can find his phone and get the hell out of here. Taehyung, ever the romantic, takes the gesture a different way.

“What’s this for, Y/N?” He murmurs, and you’d find it totally off-putting if the mood wasn’t ruined by the redness of his face.

“For you to shut the hell up,” you order, locating the device and pressing down on the Home button, commanding Siri’s attention. You manage to get Hoseok on the line, poor guy, awake at 2AM on a Tuesday.

“Taehyung? What are you calling me for now?”

“It’s not Taehyung, it’s Taehyung’s temporary guardian. Um, he’s totally hammered and I need to get him back to his place or yours or just… someone’s, so could you give me an address?”

You end up dropping Taehyung off at Hoseok’s doorstep (“There’s no way Taehyung would have remembered his own apartment key”, said Hoseok when you asked), watching him tumble out of the Uber and forcing him upright so he at least looks somewhat presentable for Hoseok at 2AM.

“Thanks for doing this,” Taehyung mutters as his head crashes onto your shoulder, making you jump at the sudden contact.

“'S my job,” you say, shrugging him as you buzz what you really hope is Hoseok’s apartment. “Someone’s gotta take care of you.”

Hoseok opens the door almost instantaneously, bags under his eyes prominent, but he’s awake and prepared to resolve all of Taehyung’s drunk problems for the next however many hours.

“You both look like wrecks,” Hoseok deadpans when he sees the both of you, and the statement is hardly far from the truth. Taehyung is a messy, whiny drunk and you were given the daunting task of making sure he doesn’t die, so neither of you are really up to par on your appearances at the given moment.

“Him more than I,” you say, pushing Taehyung towards Hoseok. He stumbles over to his band mate, grabbing onto the man’s shoulders for support so he doesn’t collapse. “At least he didn’t pass out.”

“I’ll sober him up. Taehyung doesn’t get super drunk like this very often, so I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Hoseok promises. “You’re…?”

“Y/N,” you finish with a yawn.

“Y/N…” Hoseok says, like the name rings a bell. “Oh, I know! You play with Seokjin, in your jazz band.”

“Only sometimes,” you insist, not trying to let the heathens of jazz band tarnish your good first-chair-concert-flutist name. “Just when they need me to.”

“You’re doing that show on Friday, right? I’m gonna try and come, catch up with Seokjin,” Hoseok says, and he’s doing quite a fine job of both holding Taehyung up with his entire body and maintaining a nice, un-awkward conversation with you.

“Oh, well I guess I’ll see you there, then,” you say, turning to walk down his front steps and find another way home, the Uber having long gone.

“Wait, Y/N,” Taehyung calls out, and oh no, oh God, this is gonna be some romance movie shit and you are entirely unprepared for it, especially with how rapid your heartbeat has become with his eyes on you. You turn around hesitantly, already internally wincing, only to see Taehyung looking both longingly and apologetically your way. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

The night is quiet, even in this city, but your heart is loud and it rings in your ears, over and over.

By Friday, you’ve got your solo down to a science. Or at least, most of it. It’s probably fine, since you aren’t being judged and are just doing this performance for the hell of it, a good chance for you to practice should you ever decide to join the barbarians of jazz band. Which you will not be doing, but Joohyun tried her very best.

The venue is this outdoors-y picnic area, but it’s been totally decked out for the music festival you’re participating in, a gathering of the community for some good times and good music. You’re surprised to see that Taehyung’s band isn’t on the list, though Hoseok did tell you he’d show up as a part of the audience, rather than the performers. Suppose the rest of the members had this day off to do whatever they want, a music festival not at the top of their radars.

You feel so out of place with the jazz band, though you often do as the only uninitiated True Jazz Member, with your tiny little flute case in comparison to their heavy bass drum boxes and huge baritone saxophone cases. It’s like walking into a classroom where everyone has at least four notebooks and two three-ring binders, and you’re the one with a simple folder and a pencil. You belong, but not really.

“You ready to go?” Joohyun asks, and she’s running off of that pre-performance high, all bubbly before the set.

“I couldn’t be any more ready,” you say, shrugging as you tug on your black jacket. There’s no dress code for this thing, but your university’s jazz band has a thing for black and white because they have no originality, so that’s what you’re wearing.

“Great! We’re on in three,” she exclaims.

Three minutes goes by, somehow, too quickly and not quick enough, and suddenly you’re seated right by the bari sax player with your flute resting awkwardly in your lap, fingers mindlessly tapping the keys as the announcer introduces you. It’s not the solo you’re worried about, since you could probably fuck up about 18 times and no one in the crowd would really notice, not unless they were a Music Professional, it’s more the fact that you know Hoseok is out there somewhere, sitting in the crowd and waiting for you.

You finally spot him, in the middle of the hubbub, but what has your eyes widening is the fact that Taehyung is right next to him, a lopsided grin on his face that totally juxtaposes his all black getup. He doesn’t see that you’ve noticed him from that far away, and thank God, because suddenly your heart is thumping against your chest and you don’t think you’ll be able to calm it down before you have to go up to the mic and do your solo.

Before you know it, the band is starting and the music is in full swing, Seokjin opening up with a sick couple of chords before the rest of the members join in, every beat in sync. It’s pretty easy to let yourself get drowned out by the rest of the instruments, especially those goddamn trumpets, but the alarms are going off in your brain, reminding you that Taehyung is very much here and very much about to hear you solo.

The clock ticks down with each song until it’s the ballad that they all forced you to solo for, and you let your body run on autopilot as your feet bring you towards the mic as the piano part begins, both in dynamics and in instruments. You allow yourself one more look Taehyung’s way, and he’s watching you with the stage lights reflected in his irises.

One deep breath, and you’re closing your eyes, letting yourself feel your way through the music. You’ve practiced this solo dozens of times, it’s practically muscle memory at this point, and maybe you do hit a wrong F# in the middle of it somewhere, but other than that it’s flawless and fast, even if you’re performing a ballad. Jazz flute solos are always weird because they’re soft but meant to be spruced up a bit so they don’t sound like classical music, but you execute yours with ease.

It’s muscle memory that drags you back to your seat once the solo has ended, and out of the corner of your eye you can see Taehyung applauding from his seat, a little smirk etched on his face, and even though you’re no longer in the spotlight your heart still pounds, slowly beating its way out of your chest.

With the big hullabaloo over, the set finishes in what feels like a total breeze, letting the jazz consume you as Seokjin takes a killer solo during the last song that makes everyone lose their damn minds. People just have a thing for guitar players, especially handsome ones.

Once you finish your final song and shuffle off the stage, sweaty and still bouncing from that adrenaline rush, Seokjin gives you a great big hug.

“I’m proud of you, Y/N. Your solo was fantastic,” Seokjin says. “Best flute solo I’ve ever heard.”

“Aren’t I the only flute soloist?”

“And that makes you the best.”

“Y/N!” Joohyun shrieks, wrapping her arms around you from behind as she nearly picks you up, toes almost off of the ground. “You were fantastic! You totally have to join jazz next year.”

“Over my dead body,” you retort back. Concert band is your one and only home.

When you’ve packed away all of your instruments and are free to roam, you end up losing Joohyun somewhere in the festivities, leaving you alone with Seokjin, who just so happens to drag you to Hoseok, who happens to be attending the festival with Taehyung. He’s always the endgame, goddamnit.

“Seokjin!” Hoseok shouts when he sees the taller boy, pulling him in for one of those grab-hands-then-pat-each-other-on-the-back-unceremoniously bro hugs. “You sounded killer. You should come practice with the band.”

“I don’t know if the punk life is for me,” Seokjin says, chuckling, but you stop paying attention to their conversation there, too distracted with a certain someone striding his way over to you, hands stuffed casually in the pockets of his ripped black jeans.

“Sounded good, flute player,” Taehyung says. “We should practice together, someday. Have one of those solo-offs.”

You scoff. “Please, I’d beat you in that so hard you’d get whiplash.”

“I see what you did there.”

You shoot a finger gun his way. It’s nice to see he’s got the same taste in movies as you.

“I’m serious, though. You’ll, uh, you’ll have to teach me a couple things on the flute,” Taehyung says, a hand flying up to rub the nape of his neck, chains clinking with the movement. “You looked badass up there.”

“Only if you’ll show me how to drum like a professional,” you bargain, a sly grin growing on your lips. “Is that a deal?”

“Deal,” Taehyung agrees with a firm nod of his head. “Is that a date?”

And honestly, what do you have to lose with him? He already makes your heart race more than you care to admit. “Deal.”

leave any feedback/requests here and check out my masterlist here!

#bangtan bookclub #bangtanwriters-net #bts writing squad #kwriterskollection #bts fluff #taehyung fluff #v fluff #bts imagine #taehyung imagine #bts oneshot #taehyung oneshot #bts scenarios #taehyung scenarios #bts au #taehyung au #bts punk au #punk taehyung #THIS WAS REALLY CHEESY AND SOFT HOW COME ALL OF MY CHARACTERS ARE FLUFFBALLS #*blows kiss* for u sarah! #*puts fists up* come at me NOW em #w: practice makes perfect

[whenmusicspeaksfl]

Is it wrong to expect substance from music in the alternative/punk scene?

The crap thing about becoming successful and/or genuine with a certain type of subgenre, whether it’s pop punk, post hardcore, or metalcore, is that, soon after, a lot of lyrically and musically inferior bands come out to cash in on the trend. 

Enter Makeout from Rhode Island. Formed out of the ashes of generic but musically superior post hardcore band Like Monroe, it makes sense that they’ve written with 5SOS’ Ashton Irwin and Calum Hood as Makeout sounds like a 5SOS ripoff that’s trying to be edgier. The key word is “trying”. They're about as edgy as a 13-year-old wearing eyeliner, listening to Brand New, and claiming “It’s not a phase, Mom!” 

Take the song “Secrets”. One of three singles from upcoming album “The Good Life”, there’s little to like about it other than an oddly specific but creative insult that says: “go choke on a hot dog from 7-11”. I love a good angry song as much as the next person but I can think of four songs off the top of my head that are lyrically and musically more creative than the tripe that this song is. 

The aforementioned Brand New has one of my favorites called “Seventy Times 7”, I Prevail has “Already Dead”, and Set It Off has both “Hypnotized” and “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing”, “Seventy” has so many “holy shit, did he really just say that?” moments that you have to listen to the song 3 more times just to get the full effect. Some of my favorites include “So don't apologize. I hope you choke and die” and “So, is that what you call a getaway?/Tell me what you got away with/Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish/I've seen more guts in 11-year-old kids/Have another drink and drive yourself home/I hope there's ice on all the roads/And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt/And again when your head goes through the windshield/And is that what you call tact?/You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back/So let's end this call, and end this conversation...” 

The lyrics are also self-aware: “As if it happening wasn’t enough, I gotta go and write a song to remind myself how bad it sucked”. 

There isn’t a smidge of self-awareness to find anywhere in any of the stuff I’ve heard so far from Makeout. 

“Already Dead”, “Hypnotized”, and “Wolf in...” are bound to make the listener say, “well, damn, who pissed y’all off?” with lyrics like “I’d pull the trigger but you’re already dead/if I could bring you back to life/I’d kill you again” and “Wanna add a habit and light about 30 cigarettes? (You should)/You’re only mad about the fact that I put a light to you/basically tracing paper when all we see is right through you!” and finally, “If I could kill you, I would, but it’s illegal in all 50 states. Having said that, burn. in. HELL.” 

The music in these songs also creates a foreboding atmosphere what with the hammering drums, angry vocals, and dark sounding guitars. 

“Secrets” is so inexcusably juvenile that you’d think a group of 12-15 year olds wrote it, but no, the members of Makeout are 20+. In other words, they’re old enough to know better and should know better, especially with such big names as super producer John Feldmann and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker working with them. There’s nothing musically enjoyable about it either as it’s acoustic strumming with no variation during the whole song.  The cringefest continues for two more minutes after the hot dog line with lyrics like “...’all the money I spent on Sephora while I was on tour and you were with Kevin No more Nobu on my bill, you broke bitch” and “You blew it with your bullshit, you fucking whore/And every time I think of you I'm sick/And I bet you still think that you're the shit”. This is insultingly bad writing and it makes me angry that they exploit every bad millennial stereotype in order to be relatable: “I stayed awake watching porn on my iPhone/It's almost like I don't need you/I wish I knew it was easy as this then it wouldn't have taken me this long to leave you/Postmates me some sushi almost got me feeling human/Sugar daddy, I bet you already got a new one/I'm a do my best to make sure your life stay in ruins/And everybody knows that you're a bitch, say I won't do it.” 

This exploitation continues if you take a look at the track list for “The Good Life”: 

1. Childish 

2 Crazy

3 Lisa 

4 Ride It Out 

5 Open Minded 

6 You Can't Blame Me 

7 Clockwork 

8 Till We're Gone 

9 Salt Lake City Lyrics

10 Secrets

11 Where's My Charger 

12 Blast Off 

Their first single, “Crazy”, came to my attention when it was on my Spotify playlist, Release Radar. It’s also the only one of Makeout’s singles that won’t have you scrambling for the skip button. It’s catchy and bouncy enough to jam to if you don’t listen to the lyrics too closely. There are less cringe moments than on “Secrets”, but there’s still at least two: “You’ll be out all night then you sleep all day/Gettin' way too high, but I’m fuckin' with it anyway/Maxin’ out my cards when I just got paid/Went and crashed my car/It’s the same shit just a different day!” and “Every time you’re sexin’ me/Feel like I’m about to lose it girl you’re fuckin’ deadly...” 

“Ride It Out” is as generic as it gets when it comes to songs about dysfunctional relationships: backing vocals crooning “whoa-oh-oh”, slow, major chord opening, and equally as generic lyrics. 

Says the chorus: “Don't let this burn out/just leave your guard down Cause when I dream about you here I wanna ride it out (ride it out)/Know when you fall down/I'll have my arms out/’Cause when you're lying next to me I wanna ride it out (ride it out)...” So romantic. Every girl’s or guy’s dream words (said with extreme sarcasm): “This is basically a shitty situation but I’m too stubborn to let it go.” 

The song continues with this: “Breathe you in/The nights we shared I'd like to live again/Seemed like seconds that would never end/Can we pretend?” 

The listener is then treated to another unbelievably juvenile lyric: “Stop the clock/Draw our futures in the pavement chalk/Stretch the moments when we lock our eyes/And feel the light again...” The second and third graders I work with LOVE pavement chalk. i think that says everything. In somewhat related and hilariously ironic news, their Genius lyrics page doesn’t have a picture of the band, just a silhouette of a baby crawling on the floor. 

If you think I’m being too harsh, listen to these train wrecks for yourself and let me know: 

“Secrets” 

“Crazy” 

“Ride It Out” 

I’m also on Twitter and Instagram @ writergirlfl.

#makeout #makeoutband #like monroe #brand new #emo culture #3edgy5me #3edgy5u #alternative culture #punk culture #pop punk #5sos #ripoffs #substance please #bad lyrics #music journalism #blogs #music blogs #secrets #the good life #crazy #ride it out #rise records #i prevail #set it off #subgenre money grabs #money grabs #ick #why #go away makeout

[rockrevoltmagazine]

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2019 REVIEW

Review by Howard Keogh and Enda Madden with photos by Enda Madden

Some places mean different things to different people. If you mention Donington UK to a historian he may refer you the historic references in the Domesday Book of 1086. A motor racing enthusiast on the other hand will most likely tell you about the famous Donington Park Race Track and perhaps mention that Since 2013, Norton Motorcycles has had its head office in Donington Hall. To any self-respecting rock fan however, there is only one true meaning, Donington is the spiritual home of Download – rock music’s greatest festival which has been running almost every year since 1980. The festival has grown in popularity and under various names has played host to some of the biggest names in rock and metal from around the globe. However, just because the monsters of rock have played here does not mean there is no room for the young pretenders to peddle their wares. Some of the best acts have cut their teeth on the smaller stages at Download, where they are all welcomed by both the organizers and the crowd alike. As we know, even the gods of rock haven’t managed to control the weather in Donington and this year is no exception. Thursday is pretty wet but based on some high-profile mainstream media reports coming out in the lead up to Download you could have been inclined to pack a small inflatable boat or even make a start on building yourself an ark! Doubtless the revelers who elected to come early to the site were subjected to some incredibly challenging weather and there were a few who decided to call it a day. However, all credit to the Download team, who really get stuck in, making layout adjustments and spreading tons of straw around the arena each day in a mammoth effort to reduce the impact of the weather on the site and the music fans. In true defiant Download style, the vast majority of fans decided the show must go on….and so it did regardless of the rain. Navigating Download festival can be a daunting task for music fans, as the site is massive and the number of stages poses another problem, choice! There are always difficult decisions to be made as your favorite bands may conflict. However the sheer fun of Download is what makes it so special. Despite a very difficult start to the festival, spirits are high and the costumes are out again this year as many fans dress up for the event. So far, we have spotted Mario, Santa and his elves, and the Mother from the Alien movie series amongst others, and I promise you we have only had one beer! This year’s festival sees an extra environmental effort made, to reduce the use of single use plastic bottles. Another addition is a little light relief in the form of “Doom Yoga”, and Mindfulness sessions aptly named “Mind the dog” Now lets go listen to some music… FRIDAY 15th June: Tesla is the first band up to start proceedings on the main stage today. The band formed in Sacramento California in 1981 by bassist Brian Wheat and guitarist Frank Hannon. The band started their existence under the moniker Earthshaker which later changed to City Kidd. The band changed their name to Tesla in 1986 releasing the album Mechanical Resonance. They have toured extensively with Def Leppard in the past. This collaboration resulted in Phil Collen producing their most recent album Shock which was released in March. Their set today has a few technical difficulties and includes the power ballad “Modern Day Cowboy” and “Cumin’ Atcha Live.” Rating; 3.5/6 Super group Deadland Ritual, whose line up completed with the addition of Geezer Butler in 2018, play the Zippo encore stage. Unfortunately, they too suffer a few technical difficulties with sound but these get resolved. The band members include Steve Stevens and Matt Sorum. The set list draws significantly on the Black Sabbath catalog with the addition of “Symptom of the Universe,” “Neon Knights,” and “War Pigs” included in the set. The other band members back catalog also get a look in with the addition of “Rebel Yell” and “Slither.” The band’s first single “Down in Flames” released in 2018 also gets an airing. If you want to catch these guys they are also set to play Hellfest very soon. Rating: 4/6 Whitesnake are back with their new album Flesh and Blood and the mighty David Coverdale looks fresher and fitter than ever. His voice too is in fine form as he charms his way through the set. Today’s menu is full of old favorites and includes “Bad Boys,” “Love Ain’t No Stranger,” “Slow and Easy,” and the single “Shut Up and Kiss Me” from the latest album. However the highlight of the set has to be “Still of the Night” with its slow build to its epic finale. Fans have had a bit of a wait for new material from Whitesnake, with the last album being released in 2015 but the new release sees them make a glorious return. With a string of concerts planned across Europe, including Hellfest, and Graspop festivals, these boys are definitely back in full flight. Catch them while you can. Rating: 4.5/6 Opeth make a welcome return to Download with another pitch perfect performance from these Swedish masters of light and shade. Greeting the crowd in his own inimitable style Mikael Akerfeldt reminisces about dancing with one of Abba’s lovely ladies. Almost an Opeth trademark now is a short set of very long songs and Mikael Akerfeldt admits it openly. For those hoping for a preview of their imminent new album, it may be disappointing; however this is more than compensated for with a typically flawless performance that include gems like “Ghost of Perdition,” “The Drapery Falls,” and “Deliverance.” The sun makes a welcome appearance during Opeth’s performance, and Mr. Akerfeldt makes the crowd jealous, as he announces the band travel to Malaga to play on the beach. These guys are touring extensively across Europe for the rest of the year, so if they come to your town, don’t miss them! Rating: 5/6 Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators make a welcome return to Download this year. The set includes a sprinkling of Slash’s solo work and a blistering performance of the Guns ‘n’ Roses classic “Nightrain.” Slash is on top form pacing the stage like a tiger while Myles Kennedy knocks out the tunes. Another highlight of the set was “Anastasia” The tour continues throughout Europe until mid July before moving stateside for Canadian and U.S. dates Rating: 4/6 This year Def Leppard add another Download headline slot to their tally. Donington has always held a special place in their hearts, as it was where Rick Allen made his arena comeback after a horrific car accident in which he lost his arm. As with the recent tour, today’s offering features the band’s 1987 Hysteria album played in its entirety. Joe Elliot introduces Northern Ireland’s Vivian Campbell on guitar and after “Hysteria” we are treated to a pure gold selection that includes “Let It Go”, “Let’s Get Rocked,” “Photograph,” and the classic “Rock of Ages.” The polished performance is a fitting finish to a great day’s music. Rating: 4.5/6

SATURDAY 16th June: Saturday’s openers on Main stage are Alien Weaponry from New Zealand. Their set opens with a Haka-like chant, which draws applause even before the music starts. After a brief delay things get underway. The band’s set includes “PC Bro,” “Holding My Breath,” and “Kai Tanata”. The 3 members of Alien Weaponry all have Māori ancestry, and use their native tongue in a number of their songs. The band was formed in 2010, by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong. Recently the band made a 10 part documentary documenting their European tour entitled “Alien Weaponry shake Europe”. Their album Tu debuted at number 5 in the New Zealand album charts on its release in June 2018. As we see more and more bands beginning to sing in their own languages, possibly inspired by the mighty Rammstein’s success, this opens up a whole new exciting realm in music as we see more bands using their native language in their music. Rating: 4/6 Next up on the Dogtooth stage are Underside from Nepal. Exploding onto the Nepal music scene with their own unique brand of metal, these guys are not afraid to take on great tasks. They instigated the “Silence festival,” Nepal’s first annual metal festival. The band was also involved in fundraising efforts, following the massive earthquake in 2015, that left many parts of Kathmandu in ruins. Underside responded immediately raising emergency funding that helped rebuild a school. With such an unshakable determination, it is no wonder they have won over the crowd here today. The band’s stage show includes a masked demon dancer, who convulses to the beat of the songs. Once again there are a few sound issues during the set, leaving the demon dancer alone onstage briefly, but after a quick resolution the singer apologizes, thanking the crowd for their patience the show gets underway again. Rating: 3/6 The Zippo encore stage is our next stop to marvel at the intricate progressive instrumental style of Animals as Leaders. This American band from Los Angeles is well up for the fray, and if today is any measure of the European appetite for the band’s trademark tunes, the upcoming Scandinavian and European dates will go down a treat. Rating: 4/6 Darkness might be more fitting for the next act on the main stage, the mighty Behemoth from Poland. They make their entrance sporting Black Death masks, to a chant of “I will not forgive.” As the set starts an inferno of pyrotechnics are unleashed, and the ritual begins. Behemoth have planned an extensive European tour in advance of their US dates in July. They have always attracted controversy, and currently, an Irish politician is trying to have their upcoming Limerick show banned in Ireland. Behemoth front man, Nergal has responded “Nihil novi. Another attention whore which Poland’s politics is full of, but do we really need that kind of publicity? Nope. But I’m thankful regardless!” Either way the band have a fast-growing fan base with many upcoming shows sold out. Rating: 4/6 Skindred have secured a Main stage appearance this year at Download following many previous appearances. Despite the pouring rain, front man Benji Webbe manages to get the crowd singing, crouching, and generally jumping about. Skindred whose album Big Tings was released last year continue, with a string of dates after Download that include Hellfest in France. During the set Reef’s Gary Stringer joins Benji onstage for the track “Machine” Benji is looking like a lean mean rocking machine after his recent well publicized weight loss, and he makes light of the inclement weather while the crowd are lapping it up. The band’s trademark crowd participation “the Newport helicopter” is rolled out during “Warning”. and fans everywhere are removing their T-shirts and swinging them wildly over their heads. This as always makes for an amazing sight. This has been another superb high energy performance from a great live band. Rating: 5/6 The Hu in the Dogtooth tent attract a massive crowd which overflows out the sides of the tent due to a combination of the heavy rain and the Bands huge popularity. It appears Download may have misjudged this one, as The Hu could easily have been on a bigger stage. The band hail from Mongolia and have s unique style, incorporating traditional Mongolian instruments like the Morin khuur. Singing is in the ancient Mongolian throat singing style giving the band a very unique sound. The current tour takes in more UK and European dates before heading stateside. Rating: 3.5/6 Trivium who have racked up eight studio albums since their formation in Florida in 1999, have attracted a huge crowd to the Main stage. The weather has improved, and this only adds to the excitement of the fans and the band. The set today includes “Like Light to the Flies,” a blistering rendition of “Strife” and “In Waves.” The show is augmented by liberal use of Pyrotechnics and smoke, which add to the atmosphere. After the last tour was received so well, it is great to see Trivium at Download. The band has grown, and they admit they have their sights set now on a festival headline slot. Following this tour they plan to start writing material for a new album, so there is much to look forward to! Rating: 4/6 Halestorm are no strangers to Download festival. Enter Lzzy Hale who delivers an absolutely amazing vocal performance. In her new leather clad Joan Jett look, she and her brother Arejay open up and let loose on the crowd in a combined vocal and percussive assault on the senses. Lzzy thanks the crowd and says she is proud to be a woman and she gets all the women present to roar. The set opens with “Untouchable” and this is followed swiftly with a request from Lzzy to little brother Arejay to let loose. Arejay duly obliges with a percussive attack that is both technically amazing and entertaining to watch.. Staples like “Ms Hyde” and “Freak Like Me” are rolled out and as usual Arejay gets the opportunity to trash his drum kit during the obligatory drum solo. Today’s set is wrapped up with “Love Bites (so do I)” and “I Miss the Misery”. “Love Bites (so do I)” sees Lzzy joined onstage for a duet by Asami from the band Lovebites who also played a set at Download. Rating: 5/6 Slipknot are always a big draw at Download and as soon as they appear on stage the whole arena erupts. Their energy is contagious, and the crowd has contracted the disease. Corey Taylor is sporting his new mask which has attracted some negative feedback from fans. No-one cares tonight though as the maggots are in the mood for a mosh pit. The high octane setlist includes “People =s,” “Psychosocial,” “Disasterpiece,” and “The Devil in I”. What better way to end an evening than in the company of Slipknot. One final thought on Slipknot is that at the festival, a poster surfaced hinting at the possibility of live gigs in 2020. With the new album “We are not your kind” set for release in August via Roadrunner records, the prospect of more live shows can only add to the anticipation. Rating: 5/6

SUNDAY 17th June: I prevail are the first act on Main stage today and they put in a great set for the festival’s early bird punters. The band hail from Michigan in the U.S. and released their latest album Trauma in March of this year. Vocal duties are shared between Brian Burkheiser on clean vocals while Eric Vanlerberghe looks after the vocal heavy lifting. The new album is well represented in today’s set with the inclusion of “Bow Down”, “Rise Above It”, “Gasoline”, and the super heavyweight “Deadweight.” Although their slot is early they put in a rousing performance waking up the bleary eyed fans. These guys are definitely one to watch for 2019 Rating: 4.5/6 Godsmack from Boston, Massachusetts are hot on the heels of I prevail as the next act up on the main stage. The band has admitted to being excited to play the U.K. again and open with “1000HP,” then “Something Different.” Then it’s time for a duel, in which the drummer and singer battle it out on 2 drum kits through a medley featuring AC/DCs “Back in Black,” Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” This has been a lively and varied performance from these stateside rockers. Rating: 4/6 Amon Amarth did a question and answer session in the press tent today, and they announced a tour in November with Arch Enemy and Hypocrisy. Answering a question from an Irish Journalist about their upcoming gigs, the band say they are looking forward to another Viking invasion of Limerick after 1000 years. They last appeared on Download Main stage in 2016 and since then have been growing steadily popularity. When they hit the stage, they open with “The Pursuit of Vikings,” followed by “First Kill.” A Viking battle is recreated, as two warriors do battle during “The Way of Vikings.” The latest album Berserker, which was released in May, is on show today with “Crack the Sky”, “Shield Wall” and “Raven’s Flight”. The band compliment the crowd on their determination in the mud and call a toast raising their drinking horns with a “Skol” before launching into the song “Raise Your Horns.” Amon Amarth really are on top of their game today. Rating: 5/6 Lamb of God bring with them a very energetic show. As the sun shines down for the one of the few times in the 3 day festival, vocalist Randy Blythe greets the crowd and promises to f the place up, before launching into “Walk With Me In Hell” and hails the crowd of “maniacs” for their persistence in the bad weather. “512” is next with its reminiscences of Blythe’s time held in custody in relation to the death of a fan at one of the bands concerts in the Czech Republic. Lamb of God certainly know how to work a crowd.. Rating: 4/6 On a visit to the Avalanche stage, we catch the up and coming hot ticket – Fever333, who are currently touring on the back of their debut album Strength in Numb333rs. Their songs are politically charged, tackling social issues like racism, homophobia and sexual discrimination. The crown lap it up and if the response of the Download crowd is any indication, their other U.K. dates (which the trio also like to call demonstrations) should be extremely successful. Their style cites musical influences like Rage against the machine, Black flag and Public enemy. Rating: 4.5/6 Dream Theater have attracted a large crowd for their set on the Zippo encore stage. Currently touring their 14th studio album Distance Over Time the band show no signs of slowing down. The new album gets plenty of exposure, as the band open with “Untethered Angel,” and also include “Fall Into The Light” and “Barstool Warrior.” Dream Theater are no doubt technically talented and virtuoso players but sometimes it just feels like there is something missing. They close their set with a rousing rendition “Pull Me Under.” Rating: 4/6 Finally it’s that bitter sweet moment, the final U.K. performance by Slayer, one of the big 4 giants of thrash metal. Anthrax, one of the other 3, played the same stage just earlier in the day, a testament (no pun intended) to the choice of bands playing Download. A huge crowd has gathered to witness the spectacle and one can’t help wondering if Slayer should have been billed as headliners on the main stage. “Repentless” starts the show as Slayer move up the gears with “War Ensemble” and “Mandatory Suicide”. The band thanks their fans for hanging out. Paul Bostaph puts in a magnificent performance behind the drum kit, and the rest of the band are not too shabby either. As the show progresses, they go into overdrive with “Seasons In The Abyss”, “Hell Awaits”, “South Of Heaven” and “Raining Blood” all coming in quick succession. At this stage the crowd is at fever pitch with circle pits aplenty. The last U.K. performance of Slayer and the associated mayhem, finally draws to a close with the finale “Angel Of Death” but then Slayer fans don’t cry do they? Rating: 5/6 Tool are booked to close Download 2019 and may have certainly lost more than a few audience members due to the set time clash with Slayer’s final U.K. show on the Zippo encore stage. However, even disregarding that fact, the crowd numbers are definitely smaller than that usually seen for a Download headline act. Notwithstanding the draw of Slayer, this is a rare treat for any hardcore Tool fan, as live performances in the U.K. don’t happen too often. The band’s last Download performance was 13 years ago. The set opens with “AEnema.” The backdrop on the big screens light up with imagery that melds perfectly with the music to provide the audience with a veritable “audio visual trip.” Old favorites like “The Pot,” and “Schism” are there, and we are treated to some new material in the form of “Invincible” and “Descending.” The set is brought to a close with “Stinkfist” and a group of happy Tool fans have had their dreams come true tonight at Download. Rating: 4/6 And so, we come to the end of another weekend of music, beer, fun, and well…lots of mud, but you know as usual it has all been worth it. Once again Download Festival has proved itself as the great survivor. Despite the bad weather and the unfair press, the event has once again proved itself a triumph of Rock n’ Roll spirit over adversity. Roll on 2020. I can’t wait! Enda Madden & Howard Keogh – 2019

Connect with Download Festival(click icons):

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2019 REVIEW was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

#Donington #Donington Castle

[nonmillenniallive]

Freddie Mercury - What a Surprise

Freddie Mercury - What a Surprise Bohemian Rhapsody produced by Fox came out around the same time as A Star is Born. Chip and I went to the theater to see ASIB and it was playing later than we thought. So we bought tickets to Bohemian Rhapsody. Then changed them back to a ASIB. When I finally saw Bohemian Rhapsody on Netflix, I fell in love. I would actually go as far as say obsessed. I have been reading everything I can on Freddie Mercury and Queen. If it was somewhere playing on a big screen, I would go immediately. And, I'm still regretting changing tickets ... huge mistake. Why it is So Great? Bohemian Rhapsody's theme wasn't about decadence (even thought there was a lot). It was about living by three moral codes. Good thoughts; Good words, Good deeds. The expansive definition of family.Everything isn't how it appears. The Movie Premise The movie starts and ends with the Live Aid concert from 1986. It takes you through a journey of Freddie Mercury and the whole band … Queen. The story took the band members from kids to men with largest focus on Freddie Mercury. But this really isn't about the movie. Freddie Mercury Back Story Who'd have thought the flamboyant and exotic Mercury would have come from a traditional Tanzanian , loving family with a focus on doing the right thing. And, he was incredibly quiet and shy. He let few people into his true life. The mantra from his father was simple … good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Through out the movie you see this ideal come to light whenever Freddie was faced with a situation where the high-road was the best road. And, he could sing like no other. The Rest of the Band The members of Queen aren't a bunch of kids trying to make it in the world. They were a team of intellects … an astrophysicist, a dentist and an electrical engineer. Not just by eduation, but their day jobs before Queen became a viable band. They all were also traditional in their ways. Family first. Queen Dynamic It was a true collaborative group, who were different but bonded. They appreciated each ones special value to the whole. No one could produce their quality and creativity of music without having their idea challenged and added to. They considered themselves family. But Why Freddie Was Freddie There were three points in Bohemian Rhapsody that made me become extremely respectful of Freddie Mercury. First when you could see he had to change his name to transform to the needed persona of lead signer of Queen. Again, when you see him lonely in his home with no one to share his accomplishment and joy. Finally, the conflict of his love for Mary Austin (his ex fiancé) and his love partners.

Kind man amazing talent In fact, the last point is the one that won my heart. Since seeing the movie, I have seen some candid shots of Freddie Mercury within the non-public portion of his life. He comes across, gentle, kind and vulnerable. In the traditional part of his heart, he was bonded and married to Mary. The other part that demonstrated his loyalty and kindness is seen in how he distributed his estate. Every person in his life is remembered in very different ways. His bequeaths, working solely from memory (can't find the article I got this from), The majority of his wealth was split between his family and Mary Austin. One quarter of his royalties are split between the remaining members of Queen. His three primary lovers were each given a home and $500K. His manager was made the executor of his estate and control over all his money and given a substantial pay for doing this. And, just a FYI … the success of Bohemian Rhapsody is expected to generate about an extra $150 million for his family and Mary Austin. How Can an Introvert Become Such a Vivid Performer This is something I had to research some. From what I read, there are a couple reasons. The one I have applied to Freddie Mercury is that his introversion and vulnerability made it easy for people to relate to him. Another I read noted that because these performer are shy, the only way they can have a voice and be authentic is through their music. The other is that they have unusual lives or life-histories and performing creates a way to escape and become someone that can be liked and accepted. After getting this sense of his introversion and privacy, there are parts of his life that really get to you, there are times when he is pressed by the media to discuss his possible illness and partner preferences. In addition, he had to watch a confidant betray him in a public venue. HIV/AIDS This is a tough part to write about because it shifts the emphasis from the person to something different. I will suffice it to write ... From an interview with Brian May (Queen lead guitarist) , he reports that in Freddie's last days he was more concerned with others comfort with his weakened condition and even apologized for his appearance. Many sources say that he wanted to make music until the very end which is exactly what he did. And, most sadly, just months after his passing, the medical community found ways to control those with HIV/AIDS to preserve and prolong their lives. Things to Watch and Read Queen Live Aid Performance I watch or listen to this almost everyday now. BBC Documentary According to the Tampa Bay Times in October 2018, here are a handful of Queen documentaries to watch. Becoming Queen (2004): Amazon Prime features a host of free Queen documentaries offering broad looks at the band, a la any generic, hourlong TV special Becoming Queen (2004): Amazon Prime features a host of free Queen documentaries offering broad looks at the band, a la any generic, hourlong TV specialFreddie Mercury: The Great Pretender (2012): A sequel of sorts to Days of Our Lives, this Emmy-winning docInside the Rhapsody (2015): The song Bohemian Rhapsody is practically a movie in and of itself, so why shouldn’t it get its own documentary?Queen: Rock the World (2017): Facts That I Kinda Loved In Bohemian Rhapsody, they give a list of many of the bands on the Live Aid playbill. The list is actually a list of all Freddie Mercury's friends in the music industry.During Live Aid, Freddie had a throat condition and doctors advised he not perform, but he did. Thank goodness. I remember watching that performance.After one bad MTV video, Queen lost it's US audience willing to accept new material, but they had numerous charted songs around the world for years after 1986. Who knew?Queen music is everywhere. It's in commercials, background to radio shows (even NPR), on video games, in elevators, etc. How could I have missed it before?Freddie Mercury wrote over 70 songsAs I was writing this, I got a text from Chip of something trending on twitter about Freddie Mercury … what the f*** facts Let us know if you liked Bohemian Rhapsody and if it renewed your interest in Queen. watch the movie. Meanwhile, I'll be watching YouTube again. Read the full article

#bbc #bohemianrhapsody #brianmay #freddiemercury #goodthoughtsgoodwordsgooddeeds #johndeacon #liveaidqueen #lovefreddiemercury #maryaustin #netflix #queen #queendocumentaries #rogertaylor

[husid]

Uncle Huey’s 2019 Oscars Post!

A confession: I love the Oscars. 

A confession, extrapolated: I am an unabashed Oscars fanboy, who legitimately looks forward to the Academy Awards all year long. I love the opening montage where the host skewers self-righteous Hollywood stars, I love the cringeworthy banter of presenters pretending to have a non-scripted conversation (as if they were actual actors!), I love the montages reminding us why we should keep liking movies, I love seeing which recently deceased actors (it’s always the actors) cause people to break the “no-clapping-until-the-end” rule during the In Memoriam clip (Hollywood’s version of “you can only bring Valentine’s Day Cards to class if you give one to everybody”), I love the wildly reactionary vitriol thrown towards the Academy every time they make a decision about anything, I love the Academy reacting one-year too late to everything, I love the politics, I love the self-seriousness, I love the acceptance speeches in which you can tell the actor deeply resents his or her family, I love seeing the loser shots and trying to decide whether they’re legitimately happy for the winner (spoiler: they’re not), and I love seeing the same tired, rehashed Twitter jokes about how long the Oscars telecast is. 

Reading back through that paragraph, I realize how disingenuous my love for the Oscars sounds, but I do love the Oscars, if for no other reason than I really fucking love movies. And while I’m no critic, I do fancy myself a semi-educated film buff, and with that, as well as an uncredited extras role in The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas! that I ask that you indulge me in the first annual Hu’s the Boss Oscar Preview!

In the interest of full disclosure, this is where I tell you that I’ve only seen 11 of the movies nominated (Avengers: Infinity War, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Isle of Dogs, Roma, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, A Star Is Born), but whether it’s the utter predictability of some films (Green Book), or familiarity with a director’s work (Vice), I feel reasonably confident in my admittedly underinformed predictions.

You might have heard that the Oscars will not have a host this year, for the first time since 1989, and we all remember how that went! (I was 2 years old, I definitely don’t remember how that went, but the internet does, and yikes, it wasn’t good. Side note: I’d sooner tell my own grandmother that her matzo ball soup was overseasoned than do anything horrible enough to warrant Julie Andrews calling me an embarrassment in an open letter).  How did we find ourselves in this predicament? Blame the Academy. Well, also the internet. Maybe Kevin Hart too. President Obama as well. Let me explain. 

While in office, Obama had the opportunity to sign an executive order mandating that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey host every major awards show, but failed to do so. Given President Trump’s current feelings towards S&L, it feels like that window has closed. The Oscars are generally hosted by a mainstream comedian, and this year was shaping up to be no different, with Kevin Hart signed on to host. But then the unthinkable happened. The internet internetted, and found that Hart had performed some homophobic material back in 2009 and 2010. The backlash got real loud, real quick, and the court of public opinion sentenced the Academy to 10 years without Kevin Hart as host, with the possibility of parole once we realize that every comic who started writing before 2010 has included something homophobic in one of their sets. So you can blame Kevin Hart, whose jokes were clearly offensive; you can blame the Academy for either not vetting their host, underestimating the research capabilities of internet denizens, underestimating the outrage of the general public (hard to imagine, given the public reception of most of the Academy’s decisions of late), or, depending on your viewpoint, bowing too easily to internet outrage; or you can blame the outraged, for not understanding the evolution of standup comedy, or for making a stand when one may not be warranted.

I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions on who’s to blame for Hart not hosting, but I can tell you who’s to blame for there the absence of a host, period: Critics. Not since Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars for a 73rd consecutive time has any host be universally lauded. The host isn’t funny, the host is too mean, the host is too sophomoric, the host disappears for extended periods of time, etc. It’s been a thankless job for years now, and that was before a dissection of your extended comedy catalog became a prerequisite. Personally, I’d love to see the hosting job go to an up-and-coming comic and let them roast Hollywood for a bit. It would be a way to take the self-reverential mask off of Hollywood for a couple hours, and provide a massive opportunity for an up-and-comer. But ratings dictate that stars and stars alone must host, so I’m not holding my breath.

Ok. That sound you just heard is me jumping off my soap box. Back to movies.

“The field is wide open this year” is a great way to build up buzz for an awards show, but when it comes to Best Picture, it’s also a euphemism sugarcoating the fact that there were truly no great movies this year. Personally, I think nearly every contender has at least one seriously fatal flaw, and that, coupled with the rare lack of a huge late PR push for one movie above the others (a la The King’s Speech, The Artist, Argo, Birdman, etc.) mean that “wide-open field” isn’t just lip service, it’s true. Just not for the best reasons. Still, it makes for an exciting awards show, if you’re into that sort of thing, and probably means that the Academy won’t be on the hook for buying into one film’s hype and looking terrible for it down the line (Shakespeare In Love over Saving Private Ryan, The King’s Speech over The Social Network, Birdman over Boyhood, etc.). But these things aren’t always predictable, and maybe in ten years we’ll be talking about what an underappreciated movie Vice was in 2018.

Now on to the awards, where I’ll give my two cents on each nominee for Best Picture, then a brief thought on each subsequent category declaring my best guess for the actual winner and my personal favorite. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve watched the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, and usually pay a lot of attention to movie/Oscars buzz, but I’ve generally tried to avoid Oscar prediction articles for the sake of this post. Again, I don’t claim to be a film critic, but I do have lots of opinions on movies, so take everything with a grain of salt. To further highlight any conscious or subconscious biases I have,  I’ve put the films I have seen in bold in each set of nominees.

THE OSCAR GOES TO

Best Picture

Nominees:

Black Panther – A wildly entertaining and legitimately good movie, but it’s not even the best Marvel movie ever. This feels more like an acknowledgment from the Academy that it respects superhero movies, than a legitimate contender for best picture.

BlacKkKlansman – Given the wild true story the movie is based on, it probably didn’t even need Spike Lee’s direction to shine, and yet I left somewhat underwhelmed. Everything was solid, but very little really stood out, aside from costume design and a few warranted but ham-handed references to our current political climate.  Spike is one of the most provocative filmmakers of the last quarter-century, but with a story that I expected he’d be able to knock out of the park, I didn’t fell like I gained an interesting perspective or was shocked by anything; a rarity for one of his films. Maybe that’s more reflective of the times we live in, or maybe I just set unfair expectations for Spike, given the subject matter. Either way, despite enormous potential, this had all the trappings of a good-but-not-great movie.

Bohemian Rhapsody – Rami Malek’s performance and the final Live Aid scene alone catapult Bohemian Rhapsody into this year’s contenders. Unfortunately, that was all that was Oscar-worthy about this movie. The rest was a by-the-numbers music biopic that tried to pack way too much into 133 minutes. It’s no wonder this movie took so long to get made and so many writers/producers/directors/actors were involved and uninvolved at one point or another (Sacha Baron Cohen was originally slated to play Freddie Mercury), because there’s a lot to untangle between  the rise and “fall” of the band, Mercury’s sexual awakening, and his HIV diagnosis, all while the real-life remaining members of the band did their best to ensure that we got a PG-13 version of Queen history devoid of any real dirty laundry. The final result was a watered down, factually dubious mishmash that doesn’t go deep enough in any direction to have a true lasting impact. Those music scenes though, still make it one of the best music biopics ever filmed.

The Favourite – Of all the Best Picture nominees, the Favourite and Roma were easily the least digestable for mass market audiences. Period pieces aren’t for everyone, especially ones that have little in the way of plot, and take place exclusively on the grounds of an 18th century British palace. But the Favourite managed to be thoroughly entertaining thanks to top-notch set design, Oscar-worthy performances by Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, sexual intrigue and two hours of steady, if a bit slow, mischievousness. 

Green Book – I have not seen it. Obviously the reviews are positive, but no one has yet convinced me that this movie isn’t entirely formulaic. I haven’t seen this movie, but I’ve seen this movie, and I’m pretty sure it’s fine.

Roma – A beautiful movie about an underrepresented social class in an underrepresented era in an underrepresented country. It’s shot well and acted well, and the camerawork makes up for a meandering plotline. It probably is the class of this category, but I can’t help but think that it might be 15% worse if it wasn’t shot in black and white. That was clearly a conscious choice by writer and director Alfonso Cuaron, who, between Gravity and Children of Men, among others, has more than proven he knows how to make a film beautiful, regardless of subject matter. But the Artist won Best Picture for its two-part gimmick of being black and white and silent, and I’m not entirely sure that Roma’s colorless palette shouldn’t be considered gimmicky as well.

A Star Is Born – The most classic Best Picture fodder on this list, by leaps and bounds, and not just because previous versions of this movie have been nominated for Best Picture, among a host of other awards. But Hollywood loves a movie about the entertainment business, not to mention a story about underdogs and redemption. This was a really well done movie across the board, and while I thought the Grammys scene was a little over the top, I now realize that was an integral scene to the previous three versions of the movie, so its inclusion is a lot easier to justify here. Aside from the acting, which was exceptional across the board (Andrew Dice Clay!), I think the most impressive part about this movie was that it was a big-budget film about superstardom, yet managed to feel very intimate, and resisted using tired crutches of story narration/plot forwarding by way of TV/radio news reports or newspaper headlines – something Bohemian Rhapsody was unable to pull off.

Vice – I have not seen it, which is odd, because of every movie nominated, it’s probably the most up my proverbial alley. The initial mixed reviews were a part of my missing it, though I imagine my love for Adam Mckay’s masterful balance between humor and the depression of irresponsibly-wielded power in the Big Short and Succession (to say nothing of his comedy genius displayed in Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers et al.) would make me a more likely candidate than most to appreciate Vice. Alas, that’s all I’m able to really opine on.

Will Be: If there wasn’t a strong anti-Netflix bias in the Academy, as has been reported, I would go with Roma, but I fear that the safest choice here is Green Book, and in the absence of anything truly groundbreaking, that’s going to be the pick.

Should Be: I’m on the fence between Roma and A Star is Born. To me, Roma’s lack of plot and failure to explore its main character in depth separate it from A Star is Born, which really has no obvious flaws.

Actor in a Leading Role

Christian Bale – Vice

Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born

Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate

Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody

Viggo Mortensen – Green Book

Will Be: Having only seen two of these movies, it’s hard for me to make a real educated guess, but it’s also hard to imagine that Rami Malek won’t be rewarded for flawlessly playing one of the most eccentric entertainers in music history. All I know for sure is that Willem Dafoe will not be winning.

Should Be: Malek. Malek’s apparent real-life persona is shy and understated –essentially the exact opposite of Freddie Mercury’s – making his transformative performance that much more jaw-dropping.

Actress in a Leading Role

Yalitza Aparicio – Roma

Glenn Close – The Wife

Olivia Colman – The Favourite

Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born

Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Will Be: Glenn Close. When an actress from a movie you’ve never heard of keeps racking up awards, it’s a pretty safe bet the Academy will follow suit.

Should Be: I’m going to stick with Close, given how much consensus this pick seems to have. Of the movies I saw, I think Colman and Gaga are both very worthy. I can’t quite figure out Aparicio’s nomination. Given that she had never acted before, she was incredible, but the lack of dialogue and depth that the script afforded her puts her performance in stark comparison to the other women on this list. Close is the biggest lock in any of the acting categories.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams – Vice

Marina de Tavira – Roma

Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk

Emma Stone – The Favourite

Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

Will Be: Amy Adams. This is a really tight race that could legitimately go to anyone. With five very deserving nominees, the biggest differentiator is the fact that Adams has been nominated for an Oscar five times before, with no hardware to show for it. In situations like this, the Academy has shown it’s not above the unofficial lifetime achievement award.

Should Be: I’m a huge fan of every actress in this category, though my two favorites – Adams and King – are nominated for movies I haven’t seen. Given that, my pick would be Emma Stone, who portrayed innocence, quirkiness, resourcefulness, wittiness, ruthlessness and helplessness in one winkingly dry performance. Weisz was just as game from an acting perspective, but the script gave Stone a lot more to work with, making her performance more memorable.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali – Green Book

Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman

Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born

Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Sam Rockwell – Vice

Will Be: Mahershala Ali. The Academy loves him, and with good reason. In a tight race, the fact that Rockwell deservedly won this award last year for Three Billboards probably disqualifies him. Elliott was exceptional in A Star Is Born, but had a considerably smaller role than the other actors on this list. I thought Driver was good, but not Oscars-good, and obviously I haven’t seen Grant’s performance, but the buzz is very positive, despite being in a movie that not a ton of people saw. There’s definitely a cynical side of me that thinks Ali is the most justifiable selection among all the minority Oscar acting nominees, and its hard to imagine there aren’t at least some voters who are still trying to erase the scars of #oscarssowhite (to say nothing of minority representation over the course of film history) by essentially casting a vote for inclusion. But ultimately he may just be the best choice in a tight category.

Should Be: Ali. I’ll be rooting hard for Elliott, both because he tends to be my favorite part of any movie or show he’s in, and because it’s nice to see the older guys finally win one. Since Ali and Rockwell already have a statue, there may be some sentimentality votes going his way, and his career in mainstream American cinema spans much longer than fellow elder statesman Grant. Again, I haven’t seen Green Book, but I know Ali is as game as any of the actors in this category, and had the biggest role of anyone in the category. That’s good enough for me.

Directing

Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman 

Pawel Pawlikowski – The Cold War

Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite

Alfonso Cuaron  - Roma

Adam McKay – Vice

Will Be: Alfonso Cuaron. There’s talk of this going to Spike as a “my bad” award from the Academy for never having even nominated him for best director (not giving him even a nomination for Do the Right Thing borders on criminal). But he did receive an honorary Oscar from the Academy in 2015, and that, coupled with BlacKkKlansman being just a good movie make me feel like this isn’t Spike’s year. Vice is a very hype-typical movie that isn’t getting much hype, and Cold War is the only movie on this list not nominated for Best Picture. That leaves Roma and the Favourite, and the Academy has proven it loves Cuaron’s work, not to mention Roma is the most unique, visually stunning film on this list, which are usually two of the major criteria for this award.

Should Be: Cuaron, for all of the reasons listed above, but I wouldn’t be upset with Lanthimos taking it.

Adapted Screenplay

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

BlacKkKlansman

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

If Beale Street Could Talk

A Star Is Born

Will Be: I really have no clue on this one, but I’m confident that The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and If Beale Street Could Talk are the first two out. The remaining three are all unlikely to win in the other major categories so voters might simply choose their favorite of those three to ensure they win something. If that’s the case, my guess is the most popular among them is A Star Is Born.

Should Be: I won’t rehash my thoughts on BlacKkKlansman again, and I haven’t seen Beale Street or CYEFM, but when considering adapted screenplays, I like to vote based on degree of difficulty jumping from the source material to the screen. That’s why A Star Is Born falls short for me, given that it was adapted from three previous versions of ultimately the same movie. To me, that makes the writer’s job easier, not harder. I definitely have a Coen Brothers bias, so my vote goes to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which managed to take a collection of short stories written over the course of 25 years and transform them into a series of visually stunning, dialogue-rich (aside from Tom Waits’ story) vignettes that somehow formed a (great) movie.

Original Screenplay

The Favourite

First Reformed

Green Book

Roma

Vice

Will Be: First Reformed is getting buzz for this award, and it might be a way for voters to give some gold to a movie than many felt was snubbed in other categories. My take is that if voters loved the screenplay so much, it would have been nominated for those other categories. So the most likely pick here is Roma, a movie about an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City with a relative dearth of dialogue or plot lines that somehow ends up being as captivating as any other movie this year.

Should Be: I thought The Big Short’s screenplay was incredible, so if Vice is comparable in both style and quality, I’m sure I’d love it. But critics are saying otherwise, so I’m going to go with The Favourite, whose screenplay managed to make a thoroughly beguiling and darkly humorous film out of what could easily have been just another dry period piece.

Foreign Language Film

Capernaum – Lebanon

Cold War – Poland

Never Look Away – Germany

Roma – Mexico

Shoplifters – Japan

Will Be: We can pretend Cold War has a chance, but the award has all but been handed to Roma already. If it’s the only movie on this list that managed to be worthy of a Best Picture nominee, logic would dictate that it’s the only movie worthy of winning Best Foreign Language Film

Should Be: Having only seen Roma, I don’t have any great insights to add here, but I’m still confident in saying it deserves this one.

Best Animated Feature

Incredibles 2

Isle of Dogs

Mirai

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Will Be: Despite winning two of the last three years, Pixar doesn’t have the stranglehold over this category that it once did. In most years, Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs or Ralph Breaks the Internet would have a great shot to win, but this is simply Spider-Man’s year.

Should Be: I liked Isle of Dogs, but Spider-Man was probably my favorite movie of the year, and quite possibly the best. Sorry Pixar.

Cinematography

Cold War

The Favourite

Never Look Away

Roma

A Star Is Born

Will Be: Roma. Sweeping cityscapes, countryscapes and beachscapes (are those things?) + historical time period + black and white = Oscar.

Should Be: Roma. Sweeping cityscapes, countryscapes and beachscapes (are those things?) + historical time period + black and white = Oscar.

QUICK HITTERS

Production Design

Black Panther

The Favourite

First Man

Mary Poppins Returns

Roma

Will Be: Roma

Should Be: The Favourite

Costume Design

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Black Panther

The Favourite

Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Queen of Scots

Will Be: The Favourite

Should Be: The Favourite

Death, taxes, and a Victorian(ish)-era drama winning Best Costume Design are the only certainties in life.

Visual Effects

Avengers: Infinity War

Christopher Robin

First Man

Ready Player One

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Will Be: Avengers: Infinity War

Should Be: Ready Player One

This pick is based entirely on the trailer and my 1980s and 90s nostalgia.

Original Song

All the Stars – Black Panther

I’ll Fight – RBG

The Place Where Lost Things Go – Mary Poppins Returns

Shallow – A Star Is Born

When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Will Be: Shallow

Should Be: Shallow

Along with Roma winning for best Foreign Film, this is easily the biggest lock of the night. It’s also a really good song.

I don’t really have anything of substance to add for the rest of the categories, and if you’re somehow still reading, you’re probably not anxiously awaiting my take on all the documentary shorts I haven’t watched.

Happy Oscars Night, everyone! Looking forward to seeing you again next year, when we’ll get to predict the winners of the Academy’s new categories:

Worst Performance By A Best Actor/Actress Loser At Time of Award Announcement

Most Terrifying-Looking Live-Action Genie

Best Performance By People Trying to Bring Matt Damon Home

The Wes Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Whimsy

Worst Acting Performance by a Musician Who Now Thinks He/She Can Act Because of Lady Gaga

Worst Singing Performance by an Actor Who Now Thinks He/She Can Sing Because of Bradley Cooper

Best Use of “That Guy” (Andrew Dice Clay!)

[blackkudos]

Ice-T

Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958) better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays, one of the first hip-hop albums to carry an explicit content sticker. The next year, he founded the record label Rhyme $yndicate Records (named after his collective of fellow hip-hop artists called the 'Rhyme $yndicate') and released another album, Power.

He co-founded the heavy metal band Body Count, which he introduced in his 1991 album O.G.: Original Gangster. Body Count released its self-titled debut album in 1992. Ice-T encountered controversy over his track "Cop Killer", which was perceived to glamorize killing police officers. Ice-T asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records, and his next solo album, Home Invasion, was released later in February 1993 through Priority Records. Body Count's next album was released in 1994, and Ice-T released two more albums in the late 1990s. Since 2000, he has portrayed NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. On August 1, 2006 the fourth Body Count album Murder 4 Hire was released, followed by Manslaughter on June 10, 2014.

Early life

Tracy Lauren Marrow, son of Solomon and Alice Marrow, was born in Newark, New Jersey. Solomon was an African American, and Alice was Creole. For decades, Solomon worked as a conveyor belt mechanic at the Rapistan Conveyor Company. When Marrow was a child, his family moved to upscale Summit, New Jersey. The first time race played a major part in Marrow's life was at the age of 7, when he became aware of the racism leveled by his white friends toward black children, and that he escaped similar treatment because they thought that Marrow was white because of his lighter skin. Relaying this incident to his mother, she told him, "Honey, people are stupid"; her advice and this incident taught Marrow to control the way the negativity of others affected him.

His mother died of a heart attack when he was in third grade. Solomon raised Marrow as a single father for four years, with help from a housekeeper. Marrow's first experience with an illegal activity occurred after a bicycle that Solomon "bought" him for Christmas was stolen. After Marrow told his father, Solomon shrugged, "Well, then, you ain't got no bike." Marrow stole parts from bicycles and assembled "three or four weird-looking, brightly painted bikes" from the parts; his father either did not notice or never acknowledged this. When Marrow was 12 years old, Solomon died of a heart attack. For many years, AllMusic.com has stated that his parents "died in an auto accident", but Ice-T has stated that it was actually he who had been in a brutal auto accident and that was decades later.

Following his father's death, the orphaned Marrow lived with a nearby aunt briefly, then was sent to live with his other aunt and her husband in View Park-Windsor Hills, an upper middle-class black neighborhood in South Los Angeles. While his cousin Earl was preparing to leave for college, Marrow shared a room with him. Earl was a fan of rock music and listened to only the local rock stations; sharing a room with him spurred Marrow's interest in heavy metal music.

Gangs, criminal life, and the Army

Marrow moved to the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles when he was in the 8th grade. He attended Palms Junior High, which was predominantly made up of white students, and included black students bussed in from South Central. He attended Crenshaw High School, which was almost entirely made up of black students.

Marrow stood out from most of his friends because he did not drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or use drugs. During high school, gangs began to intensify in the Los Angeles school system. Students who belonged to the Bloods and Crips gangs attended Crenshaw, and fought in the school's halls. Marrow, while never an actual gang member, was more affiliated with the Crips, and began reading the novels of Iceberg Slim, which he memorized and recited to his friends, who enjoyed hearing the excerpts and told him, "Yo, kick some more of that by Ice, T," and the handle stuck. Marrow and other Crips wrote and performed "Crip Rhymes" .

His music career started with the band of the singing group The Precious Few of Crenshaw High School. Marrow and his group opened the show, dancing to a live band. The singers were Thomas Barnes, Ronald Robinson and Lapekas Mayfield.

In 1975, at the age of 17, Marrow began receiving the Social Security benefits resulting from the death of his father and used the money to rent an apartment for $90 a month. He sold cannabis and stole car stereos for money, but he was not making enough money to support his girlfriend and once his daughter was born he joined the United States Army. Marrow served a four-year tour in the 25th Infantry Division. He was in a group that was charged with the theft of a rug. While awaiting trial, he received a $2,500 bonus check and decided to go AWOL, yet he returned a month later after the rug had been returned. As a consequence of his dereliction of duty, Marrow received an Article 15. non-judicial punishment.

During his time in the army, Marrow became interested in hip hop music. He heard Sugar Hill Gang's newly released single "Rapper's Delight," which inspired him to perform his own raps over the instrumentals of this and other early hip-hop records. The music, however, did not fit his lyrics or form of delivery.

During his time in Hawaii as a squad leader at Schofield Barracks, where prostitution was not a heavily prosecuted crime, Marrow met a pimp named Mac. Mac admired that Marrow could quote Iceberg Slim and he taught Marrow how to be a pimp himself. Marrow was also able to purchase stereo equipment cheaply in Hawaii, including two Technics turntables, a mixer, and large speakers. Once equipped, he then began to learn turntablism and rapping.

Towards the end of his time in the Army, Marrow learned from his commanding officer that he could receive an honorable discharge because he was a single father, so he left four months ahead of schedule.

During an episode of the Adam Carolla Podcast that aired on June 6, 2012, Marrow claimed that after being discharged from the Army, he began a career as a bank robber. Using combat skills allegedly acquired in Ranger School, Marrow claimed he and some associates began conducting take-over bank robberies, "...like [in the film] Heat." Marrow then elaborated, explaining, "Only punks go for the drawer, we gotta go for the safe." Although Marrow may have been lying about his bank robbing exploits, he also stated he was glad the United States justice system has a statute of limitations, which had likely expired when Marrow admitted to his involvement in multiple Class 1 Felonies in the early- to mid-1980s.

Music career

Early career

After leaving the Army, Marrow wanted to stay away from gang life and violence and instead make a name for himself as a disc jockey. As a tribute to Iceberg Slim, Marrow adopted the stage name Ice-T. While performing as a DJ at parties, he received more attention for his rapping, which led Ice-T to pursue a career as a rapper. After breaking up with his girlfriend Caitlin Boyd, he returned to a life of crime and robbed jewelry stores with his high school friends. Ice-T's raps later described how he and his friends pretended to be customers to gain access before smashing the display glass with baby sledgehammers.

Ice-T's friends Al P. and Sean E. Sean went to prison. Al P. was caught in 1982 and sent to prison for robbing a high-end jewelry store in Laguna Niguel for $2.5 million in jewelry. Sean was arrested for possession of not only cannabis, which Sean sold, but also material stolen by Ice-T. Sean took the blame and served two years in prison. Ice-T stated that he owed a debt of gratitude to Sean because his prison time allowed him to pursue a career as a rapper. Concurrently, he wound up in a car accident and was hospitalized as a John Doe because he did not carry any form of identification due to his criminal activities. After being discharged from the hospital, he decided to abandon the criminal lifestyle and pursue a professional career rapping. Two weeks after being released from the hospital, he won an open mic competition judged by Kurtis Blow.

Professional career

In 1982, Ice-T met producer Willie Strong from Saturn Records. In 1983, Strong recorded Ice-T's first single, "Cold Wind Madness", also known as "The Coldest Rap", an electro hip-hop record that became an underground success, becoming popular even though radio stations did not play it due to the song's hardcore lyrics. That same year, Ice-T released "Body Rock," another electro hip-hop single that found popularity in clubs. Ice-T then was a featured rapper on "Reckless", a single by DJ Chris "The Glove" Taylor that appeared on the soundtrack for the 1984 movie Breakin'. He next recorded the songs "Ya Don't Quit" and "Dog'n the Wax (Ya Don't Quit-Part II)" with Unknown DJ, who provided a Run–D.M.C.-like sound for the songs.

Ice-T received further inspiration as an artist from Schoolly D's gangsta rap single "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?", which he heard in a club. Ice-T enjoyed the single's sound and delivery, as well as its vague references to gang life, although the real life gang, Park Side Killers, was not named in the song.

Ice-T decided to adopt Schoolly D's style, and wrote the lyrics to his first gangsta rap song, "6 in the Mornin'", in his Hollywood apartment, and created a minimal beat with a Roland TR-808. He compared the sound of the song, which was recorded as a B-Side on the single "Dog'n The Wax", to that of the Beastie Boys. The single was released in 1986, and he learned that "6 in the Mornin'" was more popular in clubs than its A-side, leading Ice-T to rap about Los Angeles gang life, which he described more explicitly than any previous rapper. He intentionally did not represent any particular gang, and wore a mixture of red and blue clothing and shoes to avoid antagonizing gang-affiliated listeners, who debated his true affiliation.

Ice-T finally landed a deal with a major label Sire Records. When label founder and president Seymour Stein heard his demo, he said, "He sounds like Bob Dylan." Shortly after, he released his debut album Rhyme Pays in 1987 supported by DJ Evil E, DJ Aladdin and producer Afrika Islam, who helped create the mainly party-oriented sound. The record wound up being certified gold by the RIAA. That same year, he recorded the title theme song for Dennis Hopper's Colors, a film about inner-city gang life in Los Angeles. His next album Power was released in 1988, under his own label Rhyme Syndicate, and it was a more assured and impressive record, earning him strong reviews and his second gold record. Released in 1989, The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech... Just Watch What You Say established his popularity by matching excellent abrasive music with narrative and commentative lyrics. In the same year, he appeared on Hugh Harris's single Alice.

In 1991, he released his album O.G. Original Gangster, which is regarded as one of the albums that defined gangsta rap. On OG, he introduced his heavy metal band Body Count in a track of the same name. Ice-T toured with Body Count on the first annual Lollapalooza concert tour in 1991, gaining him appeal among middle-class teenagers and fans of alternative music genres. The album Body Count was released in March 1992. For his appearance on the heavily collaborative track "Back on the Block", a composition by jazz musician Quincy Jones that "attempt[ed] to bring together black musical styles from jazz to soul to funk to rap", Ice-T won a Grammy Award for the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, an award shared by others who worked on the track including Jones and fellow jazz musician Ray Charles.

Controversy later surrounded Body Count over its song "Cop Killer". The rock song was intended to speak from the viewpoint of a criminal getting revenge on racist, brutal cops. Ice-T's rock song infuriated government officials, the National Rifle Association and various police advocacy groups. Consequently, Time Warner Music refused to release Ice-T's upcoming album Home Invasion because of the controversy surrounding "Cop Killer". In some of his songs some may assume that it will increase the amount of crimes and bad behavior because he talks about how much he hates the police which can influence others to do the same.Johnson, James D., Lee Anderson Jackson, and Leslie Gatto. "Violent attitudes and deferred academic aspirations: Deleterious effects of exposure to rap music." Basic and Applied Social Psychology 16.1-2 (1995): 27-41. Ice-T suggested that the furor over the song was an overreaction, telling journalist Chuck Philips "...they've done movies about nurse killers and teacher killers and student killers. Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining about that." In the same interview, Ice-T suggested to Philips that the misunderstanding of Cop Killer, the misclassification of it as a rap song (not a rock song), and the attempts to censor it had racial overtones: "The Supreme Court says it's OK for a white man to burn a cross in public. But nobody wants a black man to write a record about a cop killer."

When Ice split amicably with Sire/Warner Bros. Records after a dispute over the artwork of the album Home Invasion, he reactivated Rhyme Syndicate and formed a deal with Priority Records for distribution. Priority released Home Invasion in the spring of 1993. The album peaked at #9 on Billboard magazine's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at #14 on the Billboard 200, spawning several singles including "Gotta Lotta Love", "I Ain't New To This" and "99 Problems" – which would later inspire Jay-Z to record a version with new lyrics in 2003.

Ice-T had also collaborated with certain other heavy metal bands during this time period. For the film Judgment Night, he did a duet with Slayer on the track "Disorder". In 1995, Ice-T made a guest performance on Forbidden by Black Sabbath. Another album of his, VI - Return of the Real, was released in 1996, followed by The Seventh Deadly Sin in 1999.

His first rap album since 1999, Gangsta Rap, was released on October 31, 2006. The album's cover, which "shows [Ice-T] lying on his back in bed with his ravishing wife's ample posterior in full view and one of her legs coyly draped over his private parts," was considered to be too suggestive for most retailers, many of which were reluctant to stock the album. Some reviews of the album were unenthusiastic, as many had hoped for a return to the political raps of Ice-T's most successful albums.

Ice-T appears in the film Gift. One of the last scenes includes Ice-T and Body Count playing with Jane's Addiction in a version of the Sly and the Family Stone song "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey."

Besides fronting his own band and rap projects, Ice-T has also collaborated with other hard rock and metal bands, such as Icepick, Motörhead, Slayer, Pro-Pain, and Six Feet Under. He has also covered songs by hardcore punk bands such as The Exploited, Jello Biafra, and Black Flag. Ice-T made an appearance at Insane Clown Posse's Gathering of the Juggalos (2008 edition). Ice-T was also a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists. His 2012 film Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap features a who's who of underground and mainstream rappers.

In November 2011, Ice-T announced via Twitter that he was in the process of collecting beats for his next LP which was expected sometime during 2012, but as of October 2014, the album has not been released. A new Body Count album, however, is scheduled for 2017.

Acting career

Ice-T's first film appearances were in the motion pictures, Breakin' (1984), and its sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1985). These films were released before Ice-T released his first LP, although he appears on the soundtrack to Breakin'. He has since stated he considers the films and his own performance in them to be "wack".

In 1991, he embarked on a serious acting career, portraying police detective Scotty Appleton in Mario Van Peebles' action thriller New Jack City, gang leader Odessa (alongside Denzel Washington and John Lithgow) in Ricochet (1991), gang leader King James in Trespass (1992), followed by a notable lead role performance in Surviving the Game (1994), in addition to many supporting roles, such as J-Bone in Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and the marsupial mutant T-Saint in Tank Girl (1995). He was also interviewed in the Brent Owens documentary Pimps Up, Ho's Down, in which he claims to have had an extensive pimping background before getting into rap. He is quoted as saying "once you max something out, it ain't no fun no more. I couldn't really get no farther." He goes on to explain his pimping experience gave him the ability to get into new businesses. "I can't act, I really can't act, I ain't no rapper, it's all game. I'm just working these niggas." Later he raps at the Players Ball.

In 1993, Ice-T along with other rappers and the three Yo! MTV Raps hosts Ed Lover, Doctor Dré and Fab 5 Freddy starred in the comedy Who's the Man?, directed by Ted Demme. In the movie, he is a drug dealer who gets really frustrated when someone calls him by his real name, "Chauncey," rather than his street name, "Nighttrain."

In 1995, Ice-T had a recurring role as vengeful drug dealer Danny Cort on the television series New York Undercover, co-created by Dick Wolf. His work on the series earned him the 1996 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In 1997, he co-created the short-lived series Players, produced by Wolf. This was followed by a role as pimp Seymour "Kingston" Stockton in Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998). These collaborations led Wolf to add Ice-T to the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Since 2000 he has portrayed Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, a former undercover narcotics officer transferred to the Special Victims Unit. In 2002, the NAACP awarded Ice-T with a second Image Award, again for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for his work on Law & Order: SVU.

Around 1995, Ice-T co-presented a UK-produced magazine television series on black culture, Baadasss TV.

In 1997, Ice-T had a pay-per-view special titled Ice-T's Extreme Babes which appeared on Action PPV, formerly owned by BET networks.

In 1999, Ice-T starred in the HBO movie Stealth Fighter as a United States Naval Aviator who fakes his own death, steals a F-117 stealth fighter, and threatens to destroy United States military bases. He also acted in the movie Sonic Impact, released the same year.

Ice-T made an appearance on the comedy television series Chappelle's Show as himself presenting the award for "Player Hater of the Year" at the "Player-Haters Ball", a parody of his own appearance at the Players Ball. He was dubbed the "Original Player Hater."

Beyond Tough, a 2002 documentary series, aired on Discovery Channel about the world's most dangerous and intense professions, such as alligator wrestlers and Indy 500 pit crews, was hosted by Ice-T.

In 2007, Ice-T appeared as a celebrity guest star on the MTV sketch comedy show Short Circuitz. Also in late 2007, he appeared in the short-music film Hands of Hatred, which can be found online.

Ice-T was interviewed for the Cannibal Corpse retrospective documentary Centuries of Torment, as well as appearing in Chris Rock's 2009 documentary Good Hair, in which he reminisced about going to school in hair curlers.

A 2016 advertisement for GEICO features Ice-T behind a lemonade stand run by children. When people ask if it's Ice-T, the actor yells back, "No, it's lemonade!"

Voice acting

Ice-T voiced Madd Dogg in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as well as Agent Cain in Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. He also appears as himself in Def Jam: Fight for NY and UFC: Tapout fighting video games.

He also voiced the character Aaron Griffin in the video game Gears of War 3.

He was the voice of Jackie A in Tommy and the Cool Mule.

He voiced over the "LawBreakers" announcement trailer.

Other ventures

Podcasting

On December 27, 2013, Ice-T announced that he was entering podcasting in a deal with the Paragon Collective. Ice-T co-hosts the Ice-T: Final Level podcast with his longtime friend and manager, Mick Benzo (known as Zulu Beatz on Sirius XM). They discuss relevant issues, movies, video games, and do a behind the scenes of Law Order: SVU segment with featured guests from the entertainment world. The show will release new episodes bi-weekly. Guests have included Jim Norton. Ice-T released his first episode on January 7 to many accolades.

Reality television

On October 20, 2006, Ice-T's Rap School aired and was a reality television show on VH1. It was a spin-off of the British reality show Gene Simmons' Rock School, which also aired on VH1. In Rap School, rapper/actor Ice-T teaches eight teens from York Preparatory School in New York called the "York Prep Crew" ("Y.P. Crew" for short). Each week, Ice-T gives them assignments and they compete for an imitation gold chain with a microphone on it. On the season finale on November 17, 2006, the group performed as an opening act for Public Enemy.

On June 12, 2011, E! reality show Ice Loves Coco debuted. The show is mostly about his relationship with his wife of ten years, Nicole "Coco" Austin.

Style and influence

Ice-T cites writer Iceberg Slim and rapper Schoolly D as influences, with Iceberg Slim's novels guiding his skills as a lyricist. His favorite heavy rock acts are Edgar Winter, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. His hip hop albums helped shape the gangsta rap style, with music journalists tracing works of artists such as Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Eminem and N.W.A to "6 in the Mornin'".

His love of rock music led Ice-T to use electric guitar in the instrumentation of his hip hop albums in order to provide his songs with edge and power, and to make his raps harder; he used the fusion of rock and hip hop of Rick Rubin-produced acts like Beastie Boys, Run-DMC and LL Cool J, which featured rock samples in their songs. His work with Body Count, whose 1992 debut album Ice-T described as a "rock album with a rap mentality", is described as paving the way for the success of rap rock fusions by bands like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit; however, Ice-T states that the band's style does not fuse the two genres, and is solely a rock band. He is also a fan of the British singer Phil Collins; Collins claimed he was "incredibly flattered" when he learned this.

Personal life

In 1976, Marrow's girlfriend Adrienne gave birth to their daughter LeTesha (born March 20, 1976) and they attended high school while raising her. While filming Breakin' in 1984, he met his second girlfriend Darlene Ortiz, who had been at the club in which the film was being shot. They began a relationship and Ortiz was featured on the covers of Rhyme Pays and Power. Ice-T and Ortiz had son Ice Tracy Marrow in 1992. Ice-T married swimsuit model Nicole "Coco Marie" Austin in January 2002. In celebration of their impending 10th wedding anniversary, the couple renewed their wedding vows on June 4, 2011. They own a condominium in North Bergen, New Jersey, and built a home in Edgewater, New Jersey that was completed at the end of 2012. On July 27, 2015, Austin said she had announced three days earlier, on the set of their newly-begun talk show Ice & Coco, that she and Ice-T were expecting their first child together. On August 3, 2015, they revealed they are having a girl and would be naming her Chanel. On November 28, 2015, the couple announced their child had been born, without specifying a date.

Activism

During the popularity of Public Enemy, Ice-T was closely associated with the band and his recordings of the time showed a similar political viewpoint. He was referred to as "The Soldier of the Highest Degree" in the booklet for Fear of a Black Planet and mentioned on the track "Leave This Off Your F***in' Charts". He also collaborated with fellow anti-censorship campaigner Jello Biafra on his album The Iceberg/Freedom Of Speech... Just Watch What You Say!.

On June 5, 2008, Ice-T joked that he would be voting for John McCain in the 2008 American elections, speculating that his past affiliation with Body Count could hurt Barack Obama's chances if he endorsed him, so he'd choose instead to ruin John McCain's campaign by saying he supported him.

Personal disputes

LL Cool J

Ice-T had a non-publicized feud with LL Cool J in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Apparently, this was instigated by LL's claim to be "the baddest rapper in the history of rap itself". Ice-T recorded disses against LL on his 1988 album Power. On the album was the track, "I'm Your Pusher", in which a rap music addict declines to buy an LL Cool J record. The album also contains the posse rap track, "The Syndicate", which took aim at LL's lyrical ability, claiming that rapping about oneself so frequently was a "first grade topic". The song also mocked the song's hook "I'm Bad", which identified it as an LL diss specifically. In the book Check the Technique: Linear Notes for the Hip-Hop Junkies, Ice-T said that the song "Girls L.G.B.N.A.F." was also intended as a diss to LL Cool J, by making a crude song to contrast with the love songs that LL was making at the time.

On LL's response, To da Break of Dawn in 1990, he dissed Kool Moe Dee (whose feud with LL was far more publicized) as well as MC Hammer. He then devoted the third verse of the song to dissing Ice-T, mocking his rap ability ("take your rhymes around the corner to rap rehab"), his background ("before you rapped, you was a downtown car thief"), and his style ("a brother with a perm deserves to get burned"). He also suggested that the success of Power was due to the appearance of Ice-T's girlfriend Darlene on the album cover. Ice-T appeared to have ignored the insults and he had also defended LL Cool J after his arrest in the song "Freedom of Speech".

In August 2012, Ice-T said that the rivalry was "never serious" and that he needed a nemesis to create "an exciting dispute".

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em

In June 2008, on DJ Cisco's Urban Legend mixtape, Ice-T criticized DeAndre Cortez "Soulja Boy Tell 'Em" Way for "killing hip hop" and his song "Crank That" for being "garbage" compared to the works of other hip-hop artists such as Rakim, Das EFX, Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube. One of the comments in the exchange was when Ice-T told Way to "eat a dick". The two then traded numerous videos back and forth over the Internet. These videos included a cartoon and video of Ice-T dancing on Way's behalf and an apology, but reiteration of his feelings that Way's music "sucks", on Ice-T's behalf. Rapper Kanye West defended Way saying “He came from the ‘hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song.”

Wikipedia

#Ice-T

[girlsbtrs]

What are “Industry Plants” & does anyone actually know what the heck they’re talking about?

Written by Lila Danielsen-Wong. Graphic by Paula Nicole. 

The internet loves to discover new terms and find every possible way to misuse and mangle them until they don’t actually mean anything. A recent example of this is the term “industry plant.” 

A non exhaustive list of ways you will see “industry plant” used on TikTok is as follows:

An artist who has a label

An artist who has a label and acts like they don’t

An artist who got a record deal out of seemingly nowhere

An artist who only got a record deal because of nepotism

An artist who has rich parents

An artist who has industry parents

An artist who pretends to be poor

An artist who pretends to be alternative or indie

An artist who was marketed as alternative or indie and then won major awards

And my personal favorite, an artist who is just kind of kind of annoying

The internet has accused everyone from H.E.R to Billie Eilish to Clairo of being an industry plant, but what are they being accused of? What is the actual definition of an industry plant?

If you define the term based on the term itself  it is just an artist who “the industry” (ie, whatever label backing said artist has) is “planting” (or, really pushing on the public regardless of if they are what the public and general music listeners want), and the colloquial use boils down to someone who does not deserve the spotlight they are being given.  

Complex claims that there isn’t really a set definition and people’s range of understanding of the term goes from artists who are plucked out of obscurity and given a new sound and aesthetic at the direction of their record label, then jammed down the throats of consumers through avenues like playlists and radio,“ which also happens to be the definition of “artist development” and “getting signed”, and “any musician lucky enough to have a familial connection to the industry or the good fortune of financial resources as a plan”. Medium says that the “common definition” of industry plant is “an artist who has a Major/Indie Label backing their movement but presents themselves as a ‘homegrown start up’ label to create a pseudo organic following”. This is the definition I think I have seen most people in the industry use.

Both of these publications are mostly talking about Rap and/or Hip Hop, and so are most of the top search results if you google “what is an industry plant.” However, even as the term “industry plant” originated in these circles, the rest of the internet got ahold of it and has taken on a life of its own.

A big explosion of the term “Industry plant” has recently come with the band Tramp Stamps. If you’ve managed to avoid the TikTok storm, Tramp Stamps are a punk girl group that grew due to their technicolor punk-lite image. This could probably be a whole article in itself, but to keep it brief, Tramp Stamps released a song called “I’d rather die” and it came across as a little cheesy and try-hard. It felt to the Gen Z TikTok crew that they’d been pandered too, and very poorly at that. The hook of the song “I’d rather die/than hook up with another straight white guy” was quickly recognized as being disingenuous and thus the internet vultures came hard for Tramp Stamps. First of all, all of the band members are white, and one is even married to an aforementioned straight white man. Furthermore, the band’s indie status was called into question when Make Tampons Free, their label that they started, was revealed to be under the company Artists Without a Label, which is owned by a giant music publishing company. Two of the members also have deals with Dr. Luke’s (yeah, that Dr. Luke) Prescription Songs. So they’re technically independent but the layers rubbed many the wrong way. Overall, the TikTok audience just found Tramp Stamps too manufactured, especially for a band branded as punk, and the band paid for it with the combined whirlwind of being cancelled and becoming a viral trend (the trend was to destroy the band in the most savage way possible). 

Of course, there are less rabid examples. After H.E.R. won her Oscar there was a flurry on twitter and internet forums about her being an industry plant. Her father is a union ironworker, but the accusers seemed to be going more for the “how dare she be developed as an artist” route. Kanyetothe.com forum user Flyfree (who is currently banned from Kanyetothe.com) says “bitch got co-signed by Bryson Tiller (another industry plant) and Alicia Keys out of nowhere. The industry is not even trying anymore.” “Out of nowhere” is a debatable description, there are videos of  H.E.R. (aka Gabi Wilson) performing on The Today Show at age ten. The implication is that if the public doesn’t see an artist struggle to earn their success, it must have been somehow handed to them.

Furthermore, a lot of fabulous and important artists have characteristics of being “industry plants.” Lorde was signed as a preteen to a major New Zealand label, developed as an artist and songwriter by industry professionals, and then marketed straight to Soundcloud with her first EP as an indie teen. Doesn’t that exactly fit the Medium definition of industry plant? But does the fact that she was developed as an artist by a record label negate her talent or influence in the music industry?

Another example of a fabulous artist who fits in a definition of an industry plant is Willow Smith. Willow fits in the “well connected parents” definition of an “Industry plant.”  However, would the music industry really be better off without Willow Smith? One could even argue that we’re lucky that she had famous parents so that we are able to know and love her. 

One obvious thing that all of these artists have in common is that they are all women. There was a notable murmur on TikTok voicing this observation after Clairo went through her “getting called an industry plant” phase when some people figured out that her father is an executive at her recording studio. This was especially frustrating for music fans seeking sapphic artists, as this happened around the same time that fans got fed up with King Princess after she was revealed to be a Macy’s heiress and not the “resentful financial-aid kid eating Chipotle” as she was described in a New York Times article.

The thing is, it’s hard to find mega success in the music industry without connections, or at least some financial or class advantages. Writing songs may be free, singing may be free, but production equipment is expensive. Wouldn’t it figure that a good amount of successful musicians had access to some kind of music lessons growing up? Do you think that someone whose parents were willing and able to pay their rent as they pursue their dream full time would have an advantage over someone who had to work overtime to support family members. It doesn’t seem outlandish that someone who paid a reputable producer to professionally produce, mix, and master their song might find more success than someone who is working by themselves on the free version of pro tools. 

The point is, most very successful musicians fit into some definition of “industry plant:” be it wealthy parents, parents with connections in the entertainment industry, professional artist development, or a carefully curated artist story that makes it sound like they had a little less help than they did. Of course there are exceptions, but the fact of the matter is that it is easier to succeed in music with these extra boosts. However effective the term “industry plant” was when it originated to talk about rap and hip hop artists, it has been warped to include every advantage that people have that help them succeed in music. Perhaps the term “industry plant” has just become a word to voice all frustrations with nepotism and inaccessibility in the music industry. Of course, this doesn't mean that people who are successful because of these advantages aren’t talented or don’t deserve their success. After all, the reason that Willow Smith has a music career and Kim Kardashian (performer of the not-quite hit song ‘Jam’, in case you forgot) doesn’t is that all the money and connections in the world can’t make you a good artist. This just means that people are getting fed up with the fact that success comes easiest to the most talented of the wealthy and well connected, instead of the most talented of the general population. Perhaps the “calling everyone industry plants” craze is really just people trying and failing to find a way to voice this, and to find someone to blame. 

Bringing this back to Clairo and the fact that these discussions mostly only erupt around women artists, and in the case of Clairo and King Princess, queer artists. If people are trying to find someone to blame, it is not a surprise that the blame will fall on women, especially black and queer women. This isn’t a judgement on how much Clairo or King Princess deserve or don’t deserve their success, this is just to say that if you were to examine the male artists under this same microscope, the findings of wealth and privilege would be comparable. 

Overall, the term “industry plant” is vague and stretched a little thin at best, and means absolutely nothing at worst. Next time you want to criticize an artist, stop first and think about what you are actually trying to say, because just calling them an industry plant doesn’t really get any point across besides that you don’t like them. Do you just think they’re overhyped? Or does it irk you when artists pretend to be more DIY than they are? Are you frustrated with nepotism in the industry in general? Perhaps it’s just endlessly frustrating to see that successful musical artists, even very talented ones, started out with one foot (and at least one parent) in a door that you can’t even seem to find. It’s okay to feel that way, but if that’s what you want to say, just say that. If “the industry” wants to “plant” an artist, they’ll only find success if they have talent, or at least something exciting to offer; that’s why we don’t care that Lorde had label backing and development but it was a total game ender for Tramp Stamps. 

Instead of discussing if artists are “industry plants” or not, what if we focus our energy on more productive discourse, like how do we find and support small artists who are from less advantaged backgrounds? Maybe that’ll actually deal with the feelings behind this imprecise industry plant commotion.

Sources:

H.E.R. as a child: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNL1dG2UMY 

The kinda wild King Princess article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/11/magazine/king-princess-profile.html 

Clairo and her cancelling: https://www.intersectmagazine.com/post/is-clairo-an-industry-plant 

More on Tramp Stamps: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/20/22392694/tramp-stamps-industry-plant-band-tiktok-dr-luke

Medium: https://medium.com/@ftp96/what-are-industry-plants-and-are-they-ruining-the-rap-culture-1588ebc2ce6b#:~:text=The%20common%20definition%20of%20an,create%20a%20pseudo%20organic%20following.

Complex: https://www.complex.com/pigeons-and-planes/2020/03/what-is-industry-plant/Kanyetothe.com 

H.E.R industry plant discussion board: https://www.kanyetothe.com/threads/is-h-e-r-the-latest-industry-plant.5758778/

#lila danielsen wong