Video reblogged from HAIL THE PAGES TURNING with 4 notes
ok i’m definitely kind of obsessed with this song now.
I’m seriously angry that the NYC Lana Del Rey show is the same night as the Tori show in DC. If Lana was up against anyone but Tori, she’d win. Video Games may end up being my top track of the year, it’s been haunting me for the last couple months and it resonates more and more as time goes by.
The opening instrumentation alone is stunning, and then the vocals come in and the song becomes devastating. Initially the chorus didn’t work as well as the verses for me, but the contrast of the lyrics and the world-weary defeated tone of the vocals pushed me over to loving it.
Source: hailthepagesturning
Photo reblogged from MONEY, CASH, HO'S by David Cho with 17 notes
Christian Louboutin S/S ‘12
Not really for me to wear (I don’t think), but these are fucking dope.
So I don’t think I could let myself buy these (just a litttttttle too ridiculous and obviously insanely priced), but if someone bought them FOR me, I would have to wear them at least a couple times, just to be polite, right?
And then I would just wear them forever and ever.
Source: davidcho
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Austra- Lose It (Paper Bag Session)
When I saw Austra a few weeks ago, the one disappointing part of an otherwise great show was that she let her back-up singer handle the high notes in Lose It instead of doing them herself. That makes it especially nice to see her go for them here, even if the notes aren’t flawless.
The song itself loses none of its catchy-ness or power in this stripped-down form, and performing it in this way exposes the melancholy and desperation of the lyrics. The Kate Bush comparisons I saw in some reviews of Austra always felt gratuitous to me (I love Kate a lot, but not EVERY female singer owes a debt to her), but this shows there’s at least a tiny bit of merit to them, even if Austra’s facial expressions are no match for Kate’s.
Photoset reblogged from anal contractions with 1,912 notes
I fake it so real I am beyond fake.
Source: fat-monica
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“Diction and Linguistics with Professor Rogue” legitimately made me giggle like a child. It’s great to have an X-Men book that is a bit more fun and less heavy handed and dark.
Credit: ComicsAlliance
Audio post reblogged from Still a Weirdo with 22 notes - Played 41 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Liz Phair- Canary
I know Divorce Song, Flower, and Fuck and Run get all the attention but Canary and Shatter are the real heart of Exile in Guyville. The dissatisfaction and loneliness caused from living up to everyone else’s expectations and wishes is expressed in a devastating way here, and it’s one of the best examples of how Liz’s limited vocal range can work to her advantage.
Source: dustoffvarnya
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Tori Amos- Sugar (Milan 2011)
Because I’ve heard the majority of Tori Amos performances since 1996 due to my obsessive bootleg collecting, it takes a lot for her to really truly blow me away. I almost always enjoy her performances, but there has to be something unique or special for it to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This Sugar is one of those special performances. The first thing I noticed is the absolute confidence and power she’s projecting out into the audience. That “yeah, you just try and fuck with me, see what happens” attitude that was so prevalent in every performance from 94-01 and which seemed to completely disappear after 2005 (unless she was playing a character) is back in spades, and its making the performances feel unpredictable again. I’ve heard over 100 performances of Sugar (I told you I was obsessive!) and there are moments here where I don’t know what’s going to happen with her inflections and tempo, and that’s thrilling because every performance becomes about those particular moments and feelings, with no disconnect between the artist and the material.
The next thing to stand out about this performance for me was how tender it was. There’s still the anger and moments of fury that have been a part of Sugar since 1998 (a performance where “you’re just a pussy, my sweet boy” isn’t delivered right is a shitty performance), but “when they find you out…” has an empathy and quiet sadness that gives the song another dimension. Even as she’s ready to take this boy to task and call him on his bullshit, there’s still an understanding of his pain. And of course, if we learned nothing else from the 90’s, we should know that utilizing the quiet/loud (or sad/angry) dynamic makes both parts of a song more powerful.
Finally, how amazing are those ending high notes? It seems like somebody went back in time and gave Tori her 1998 voice again. They’re so clean and expressive, giving a difficult song a perfect finish.
OK, I think I’ve gushed enough for now. But trust me, I could probably go on for a few more paragraphs.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Kelly Clarkson - The War Is Over (Smoakstack Sessions Version)
I should know by now that every Kelly Clarkson album must contain at least one song that is a total gut-punch to me. My December had Maybe, All I Ever Wanted had its title track, and now Stronger has The War Is Over. This acoustic version of the song from the pre-order exclusive Smoakstack Sessions EP is similar to the album cut (enough so that I wonder why Kelly didn’t pick a track that would be a bit more different acoustically) but the slightly stripped back production gives Kelly a chance to deliver a vocal performance that’s a bit less bombastic but has more emotional nuances. Each time she hits that chorus, you can feel the determination in “I won’t let you pull me in…” coupled with the resignation and relief in “but the war is over”. This song (along with I Forgive You) has been my main entry point into Stronger, which I initially found disappointing but which has been growing on me with a few more listens.
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Brandi Carlile - That Year (live for Last.fm Discover)
Part of me is really hoping Brandi plays this (and/or her cover of Ray Lamontagne’s Burn) when I see her tonight, since you know, it’s a beautiful song and one of my favorites. The other part of me hopes she skips it since it’ll probably make me sad and depressed for the rest of the night, but that part’s lame and has bad taste.
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Trinity Mothers by Yasmin Liang
The colors in this are stunning, and it’s nice to see someone focus on some of the most important but under-utilized characters in comics.
It IS a little disturbing how Martha Wayne doesn’t have a face, but then she always has been defined more by her pearls than anything else. Unless she’s written by Greg Rucka, and then she’s a total bad-ass who calls Batman out on his bullshit. I miss Rucka.
Credit: ComicsAlliance
Alanis Morissette- Front Row
So I got a new computer last week, which enabled me to put all my music on one hard drive instead of having it split up onto two externals and my old laptop’s hard drive, and that sent me on a spiral into listening to old 90’s music I haven’t listened to in at least 6 months. I listened to Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis last night, and I was reminded of just how excellent an album it is and how crazy Alanis was for following up a HUGE hit record with 17 stream-of-consciousness rambles, angry rants, and lists about her insecurities. It’s basically one big fuck you to the commercial audience (specifically in Baba and One) and is completely self-indulgent but there’s some amazing lyrical insight and enough beautiful melodies/great guitar hooks that it all works. It’s an album that’s also saved by its sincerity, since you know Alanis really deeply means and feels every word on it, even when how open and unedited she’s being is making you cringe on her behalf.
Front Row is one of my favorites because of the contrast between the completely specific moments it describes and the more universal lines that generally come at the end of each verse. “I’d like you to be schooled and in awe, as though you were kissed by God full on the lips” is pretty much how I want everyone to react to me at all times. The production and layered vocals are interesting and unique in Alanis’s catalog, and it’s nice to start the album off with a more relaxed and fun beat before diving into the heavy guitar track/ballad/ballad/heavy guitar track/ballad categorization for the rest of the first part of the record.
Photo reblogged from with 17 notes
So this made my entire fucking life.
I’m okay with being really excited to the point of being a dork about my idol’s communicating with me. So what?!
Allison Wolfe is a really cool lady. I saw her do a talk/reading with Marissa Meltzer at McNally Jackson earlier this year, and she was really charming and had some great anecdotes about the early days of Riot grrrl. She also talked about the political side of riot grrrl and how disappointed she was in the lack of political action/writing by musicians during the Bush administration in comparison to the early 90’s. I know she’s more involved in activism and writing these days, but I hope she releases some more music at some point.
Source: babydonut
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Silsbee High School in Texas wants their cheerleaders smiling, energetic, and willing to cheer for their rapists by name. Go team!
H.S., a Silsbee student, reported being raped by Rakheem Bolton with the help of two of his friends, a fellow student and athletic star. In the end, Bolton ended up getting off without serving any jail time by pleading guilty to a lesser assault charge, spending two years on probation, doing community service, paying a fine, and attending anger management courses. Hardly seems like an adequate punishment, but it’s unfortunately not uncommon for attackers to bargain down their charges. What really gets the blood boiling is how the students’ high school treated the victim.
Bolton was set to be on the school’s varsity basketball team, and they couldn’t risk losing by barring him from playing for a silly thing like a rape charge. That could impact their chances at winning. Who cares about the traumatic impact it would have an a cheerleader who needed to vocally support a team including her rapist?
But H.S. fulfilled her role as a cheerleader, participating in all the cheers for the team as a group. She simply refused to shout the first name of the man who assaulted her when he stood up alone to make free throws. It seems like she was being more than accommodating, when an student athlete facing trial on rape charges most likely should have been suspended from the team, even if his presence wasn’t a source of immediate distress to his victim in her position as cheerleader. In a display of extreme disrespect for a rape survivor and disregard for her well-being, school officials insisted that H.S. had to scream “Rakheem” with the rest of the cheerleaders, or she’d be kicked off the squad.
Wow. Just…wow, this is fucked up on so many levels.
Source: slog.thestranger.com
Photo reblogged from Summer of Megadeth with 23 notes
Dude how does Dr. Strange ever find the time to fight crime when he is forever and constantly TRIPPING BALLS?!?!
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Source: zamboni
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