Start playing. Never stop playing. Practise. It doesn't matter if you start on a vintage Fender or a rubbish one off Amazon or your granpa's dusty acoustic. Listen to your favourite songs. Try to play them. Fail to play them. Try again. Play until your fingers hurt. Look up tabs. Play the tabs. Learn the notes. Forget the notes. Re-learn the notes. Find a practise room. Play in your bedroom with headphones on. Play in the park with your friends. Turn the volume up and play your favourite overplayed riff really badly because it last week you couldn't even strum a C chord and any improvement is good improvement. Get annoyed. Feel like you want to give up. Don't give up. Power through. Leave it alone for a few days. Return. Try to do a pinch harmonic. Improvise something that sounds bad. Improve until it sounds good. Play along to your favourite songs. Play even if you think you suck because every great musician sucked at one point. Don't compare yourself to the shredders on social media. Be proud of yourself. Play your favourite song for your friends and family. Feel the music. Let it bring you joy.
Play because you love it. Play because you hate it. Play because it changed your life.
But whatever you do, never stop playing.

Today's additions are:

From left to right: Oscar Schmidt Archtop OE40N (acoustic/electric), Maestro, Fender FA-125/SB, Seagull
I'm being gifted an amp next month and eventually (when I have room lol) I want add another electric bc this collection looks pretty bare. Honestly though I'm pretty happy with these.

Monday, May 13 - Sunday, May 19, 2024

Top M/V

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
11	1 comments	[M/V] Mulasaki Ima - femme fatale A	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
9	0 comments	[M/V] IS:SUE (イッシュ) 'CONNECT' Official MV
7	1 comments	[M/V] wacci - OK word	[AM] [Dzr] [SC]
7	2 comments	[M/V] RICEBALL - Jiku Romance	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr]
7	1 comments	[M/V] Yurie Kokubu - Just a Joke (1983)	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
6	3 comments	[M/V] Takane no Nadeshiko - Maid☆Supremacy [Dance Performance Video]
5	1 comments	[M/V] Girls²×iScream - D.N.A.	[Sp]
4	2 comments	[M/V] Palette Parade - My Way My Beat	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr]
4	2 comments	[M/V] [Hitomitoi - Dive (2012)
](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3r1NZAJlpY)	[Sp] [AM] [SC]
4	2 comments	[M/V] imase - BONSAI	[Sp] [Dzr] [SC]
4	1 comments	[M/V] Genin wa Jibun ni Aru. - Mania	[AM] [Dzr]
4	3 comments	[M/V] Scapegoat - Danzainorihito	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr]
4	0 comments	[M/V] WOLF HOWL HARMONY - Pink Flash Lights

Top Performances

score	comments	title & link	mirrors
8	2 comments	[Performance] milet - hanataba	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
7	2 comments	[Performance] Peaky P-key - ABSOLUTE	[Sp] [AM] [Dzr] [SC]
7	1 comments	[Performance] Milet - Anytime Anywhere (Acoustic live)
7	1 comments	[Performance] Lucky² - DISCO TIME	[Sp] [Dzr] [SC]
6	2 comments	[Performance] Tokyo Gegegay - Goose Bumps!	[Sp] [Dzr]
5	1 comments	[Performance] Regal Lily - キラキラの灰
4	0 comments	[Performance] Travis Japan to Embark on Inaugural Overseas Concert Tour – J-POP streaming

Top Remaining Posts

score	comments	title & link
85	37 comments	[Question] Has YOASOBI reached the state where it become "It's too mainstream now, it sucks"?
80	70 comments	[Discussion] How many here posted in classic internet JPop forums in the 2000s?
52	46 comments	[Question] Songs with “asphalt” in the lyrics
36	31 comments	[Question] Songs about being cute or the cutest in the world?
34	9 comments	[Recommend] The Oral Cigarettes are underrated

Actual legit player here. Today I’m gonna go through my analysis of the types of personalities that cheat in cs. The final one I respect.

Literal twink with degradation fetish:

Now I don’t use twink derogatorily, I mean it factually. Actual gay 140 pound femboys who love being degraded by big sweaty angry online men, they get off on it. Like actually. I say this with confidence because I’ve had the gayest sounding cheater randoms on my team before. Very sassy. One time I had one “not leaving spawn until you apologize to me” cause I called him out for cheats and said he’s being way too obvious. (We won anyways).

Guys who like making other people upset:

These guys’ usernames are always something like: “valorunt pro”, “I’m better than you”, “cs god”. You name it, they want to get on your nerves, they love it, it’s why they cheat, they love attention even if it’s negative. (I’ve had games where if you just ignore their shit talk in chat and don’t go all “YOU’RE WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS GAME CHEATER SCUM KYS I HATE YOU GAHHH THIS ONE GAME IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME.” they literally just teamkill eachother and abandon til they’re all gone. If there’s no reaction to them it’s a waste of time. These guys often spam chat with slurs lol.

Guys who cheat because they want praise from their team:

Although we need a psych evaluation on #2 these guys are far more fascinating to me, mentally anyways. Also depressing. These are the guys who just maybe need some friends, who just want to be recognized for something positive and cool. But they suck!!! Or they just don’t want to put in the work, either way these guys are usually meek and softer spoken. They just could use a hug or something. Typically actually pretty nice guys, like I said, incredibly depressing. I’ve had some of these guys get apologetic and sad sounding when you call them out with certainty. Bummer.

The guy who needs to justify his cheats:

Ever hit a nice one deag (or even a regular ol easy shot) and the guy with the brand new account goes “lol” or “k” or “yeah right”? (a million ways to accuse someone of hacks without outright saying it). Then for the rest of the game just blatantly cheats lol. I’ve had these guys ‘toggle’ (they were def cheating before) because of HEADSHOTS ON PISTOL ROUND. Absolutely retard levels of cope in this archetype. I guess if you’re a cheating trashcan that means anyone better than you is also cheating. Wild shit.

The blatant waller who ‘heard you’:

These guys feel the need to type in chat after EVERY KILL (not just one but every single one almost) that you did something to reveal yourself. You might say “well maybe they did hear you, why accuse them?” No. These guys, without ANY accusations in chat will justify from the get-go how they get every single kill. Imagine someone kills you and types “wtf I’m not cheating.” When they were never prompted once. Not even with a “?”.

Cheater accusing others of cheating:

Well well well looks like little retard closet shitter met a bigger fish. These guys are more of a subset of closet cheaters and not their own type. I’ve had guys who blatantly closet all game and will CRY in the chat that someone MUST be cheating on the other team. I mean how could he possibly not be able to kill these guys right? MUST BE CHEATING. These guys differ from #4 a bit cause these guys don’t ragehack but just cry and cry in all chat. They never turn it up a notch. Just continuing to trace ppl through walls yet their preaims are dogshit. Go play Roblox or something if you can’t go positive with cheats. Weird statistic is these guys sound fatter than the other cheaters, every time. Like especially with extra fat on their necks cause it creates a specific fat guy acoustic.

The guy hiding his cheats so hard he’s USELESS:

This one is particularly funny, watching these guys’ pov is always interesting cause at one point in the game you’ll be watch him check some insane obscure off angle perfectly then for the rest of the game buddy is a braindead retard. These guys will willingly swing looking the wrong ways to sell it, or just do shit that doesn’t make sense in terms of gamesense (for all you retarded cheaters out there, a part of gamesense is your understanding of where the enemies could be due to your DEDUCTION SKILLS and not walls, crazy I know). These guys never spray through smokes, and react purposefully slow to killing enemies on the edges of smokes. Any normal player wouldn’t bother considering what looks sus if they know when/why they’re spamming walls/smokes. Definitely play it way too safe.

Lastly, but not least. The only cheater archetype I have any kind of respect for:

THE CHINESE BUSINESSMEN.
These guys will not say or type anything all game. Strictly business only, they don’t care what anyone says to them. These fine gentlemen are just simply ranking up the account, then selling them. These guys actually get some of value out of their time. Probably not a lot of money, but still money. Truly just entrepreneurs of an era. Hats off to them.
Did I miss any? Let me know. These are just the personalities I’ve run into. You’re all such interesting people I can’t wait to meet more of you.

Looking for tips on where to start, I watched a couple instructional videos with a practice pad and I'm too far past for beginner stuff and can still read to an extent but.... How do you re-enter without developing bad habits and not have to start all over again from the beginning? Start from bottom and just go thru and progress quickly? I thought about forcing a new card in the deck so to speak, 1/2 and full shuffles like Rosanna etc have never been a strong point, thought about woodshedding with something like that and listening back to see where and how much I suck. Just want a good start.
I played pretty regularly for about 12-14 years and well, life happened. I always played acoustic and double bass.
I just recently, like yesterday, grabbed the Roland kit and tama hi hat and single bass pedal (basics first) among other things and the Simmons 10" amp (thanks for the good deals Guitar Center) and just getting set up.

My archtop acoustic after 4 years of sitting in a sunny room (albeit mostly with curtains on). Solid spruce top. Most of my furniture made of spruce and darkens over time as well. Actually like the looks as of now but after 4 more years will get dark 🟤. Should finally get a case.

A few years ago I used the web archive to pull all my old Blurty/Livejournal entries from 2003-2004. Below is my review of my favorite music of 2003. To this day I still believe we''ll never see another 2003. I didn't even think to put ...is a real boy on here!
Date: 2004-01-02 13:11
Subject: best and worst list of 2003
Security: Public
Mood: bored
Music: who knows
hello everyone.
after going through my CD collection I have put a lot of time and effort into putting together this compilation of the best and worst in music of 2003.
these are just my opinions of course so don't hate me for this.
let me know what you think.
BEST AND WORST MUSIC LIST OF 2003
Best CD's

Brand New - Deja Entendu - Duhhh. I have listened to every song on this CD at least 50 times i swear. Thats how much I love this CD. Just about every thing about it is perfect. Flawless. Outstanding.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way - My favorite band of all time did not go wrong with this CD. Every single song on it is genius. But it didn't quite measure up to Deja Entendu.
Mae- Destination:Beautiful - Compliments to Ashley for recommending this CD. I liked most songs at first. Then I fell in love with all of them. Awesome live band as well.
Armor for Sleep - Dream to Make Believe - WOW. Such an awesome CD from a new band. Eerie guitars own this CD.
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue - Every song here is different and thats what is so great about it. From country sounds to stadium-style rock and roll. This CD owns.
Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance - I was blown away by this CD. After seeing them at warped I knew I had to have this CD. Just like how I bought their old CD after seeing them with Coheed. Sweet guitars.
Blink 182 - S/T - So different, yet so perfect. A lot of different songs on here. I think if the song with Robert Smith wasn't on the CD that it would be pushed down to 15 or something like that.
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of the Silent Earth Part 3 - Wasn't too fond of it at first. But the high vocals grow on you and the lengthy songs with all the brakedowns are superior. LOVE IT.
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism - Such a soothing CD. Keeps me calm. Love it.
The Early November - The Room's too Cold - A LOT better than their previous attempt. More talent here. Good live band.
Vendetta Red - Between the Never and the Now - Really good CD. Better live though. Lots of anthems with a slower ballad every now and then. Too much distortion though.
Thursday - War all the Time - I was hooked on this for a while then it kind of grew old. Still very good CD though. Definitly a "headphone" CD. There's a lot too miss.
Saves the Day - In Reverie - No one really liked this CD. And neither did I at first. But the melodies were as contagious as an STD. Now I LOVE it.
Justin Timberlake - Justified - Come on....you know you like it. Now bring yourself and your CD player out of the closet and admit it. Great shower CD. Except be careful to not slip and fall while dancing...i i it happened to my friend...not me.
AFI - Sing the Sorrow - Never been an AFI fan at all in the past. But I stole this CD from some wierd kid in my drafting class. And I liked it. Still do. So it gets number 15 cause I don't legally OWN this CD. But good.

Most Dissapointing CD's

Offspring - Splinter - This CD is the KING of all suckiness. Come on...With lyrics like: "I'm not the one who acted like a hoe." How good could it be?
Dashaboard Confessional - A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. - I don't know what Chris Carraba was trying to pull here but this sucks. I bet "The Places..." CD sells more copies than this.
Rufio - 1985 - Still has the guitars. But what happened to the vocals? Just cause his voice sucks doesnt mean you have to drown it out. Hate it.
MXPX - Before Everything and After - Just got this CD. Nothing too good about it. Too catchy and poppy for it's own good.
ALkaline Trio - Good Mourning - Nothing on this CD struck me as good. I want the old Alkaline Trio back.
Something Corporate - North - BOORRIING. I hate to put this CD on here cause some of the songs are good but the rest are just sooo boring.

Best Ep's:

Straylight Run - Demos - WOW. LOVE IT!!!!!!! AND YOU WILL TOO. DOWNLOAD>>>
Senses Fail - From The Depths of Dreams - You'll dislike it, then it'll grow on you like cancer. So good.
Saosin -Translating the Name - Just got this CD a few weeks ago. But it is sooo good. Take Thursday and Armor for Sleep and put them in a blender = Saosin.
My Hotel Year - The Curse - The cleverest CD ever. I love it so much. Go Florida bands.
The Starting Line - Make Yourself at Home - JUST got this CD. But I like it. Good. All acoustic too.

CD's Your Mom is Most Likely To Love.

Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism - Take it from me. My mom loves this CD. And you will too.
John Mayer - Room for squares - Ok I know this came out in 2002 but I don't have Heavier Things yet so this will have to do. Great CD.

CD's Your Parents Will HATE:

Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance - MY MOM AND DAD HATE THIS. Waaay too loud for them.
Thursday - War all the Time - Ditto.

Best "Breakthrough" Band of 2003:

Brand New - Duh.

Most anticipated CD's of 2004:

Taking Back Sunday - It'll be about freekin time.
Straylight Run - Can't wait.

Biggest Controversy:

The Brand New/Taking Back Sunday/Straylight Run dilema.

well thats it guys.
i hope you read it all.
lemme know what you think of everything.
remember these opinions are only from the CD's I OWN.
so if there are better ones out there from last year then let me know.
-Chris
PS: If you would like ANY of these CD's burnt for you I would gladly do it. Free of charge of course.
11 COMMENTS POST A COMMENT

I’ve been playing classic and acoustic guitar for about 7 years now, it’s been an amazing experience thanks to the amazing teacher I got the chance to meet, he’s a pretty chill guy and I guess that my interest for the instrument allowed us to get along well really fast.
Fast forward to the present and I’ll be playing tomorrow at a concert “Stairway to Heaven”, and am extremely nervous and stressed because it will be my first time playing with an electric guitar in front of 20+ individuals ( amongst them my parents ). Not only that but as a fan of Led Zeppelin I feel a huge responsibility on not fucking up the song, and the worst part of all is that my teacher wishes me to do a little improv within the solo, which terrorizes me even more sense I don’t wish to disrespect such a legendary piece and be hated by every old school in the theater bc I even tried to change the song thinking I’d be a good idea. In todays rehearsal I was shaking and sweating a lot, I couldn’t focus and I would mess up the chords multiple times, even the solo was shameful, I couldn’t listen to myself, I felt like I wasn’t even playing anything.
I’ve presented songs in the past multiple time but only with an acoustic or classic guitar, not an electric one having to worry about a pedal, cables, and amps.
I just wish to deliver a good performance, not for making a good impression but for respect to my teacher sense he’s the one who has been working with me sense the day that I would complain about Nilon strings feeling like barbed wires till today that am able to play songs that I never thought I’d be capable of.
I really don’t want to fuck this up, does anyone have any advice to suck up all the stress during the concert and not freeze mid-stage?

I have been wanting to play the guitar my whole life so at age of 11 I bought an fender acoustic guitar pretty good I took classes initially trinity then I reached grade 5 in acoustic guitar. I never took any official tests after each grade. Due to my teachers recommendation I decided to learn rsl instead of trinity I play acoustic grade 3 bcs grade 5 was to hard. I kind of hated playing guitar bcs I always wanted to play electric but I thought I gotta learn acoustic to play electric I never told my goal was to play electric to my sir.
My sir again suggested to me try classical guitar grade 3 still using the same guitar I actually it was better than acoustic guitar pieces its not like I hate chords though. Now I even hate my new classical curriculum I discovered through the Reddit that I can electric without have experience in acoustic.Now I wanna convince my parents that I wanna buy an electric and I am damn sure I will love it. The problem is that I am scared to talk to my parents I am pretty sure they would understand me the second problem is that I am scared I would suck at electric since I am not so great in acoustic but I would consider my self above average skill with no motivation. Lastly, the only problem I can see is that my sir suggesting me to going from to classical to acoustic back again which I don’t want to he is a great man so idk what to expect I would need some help from people who face my similar situation or from experienced guitarists.
Yeah it might be good if u guys suggested everything needed in an electric guitar with specific model nothing too expensive but good enough to last me a couple years. I currently use CC-60S Concert no idea if its good but I wanna decent electric guitar which will not hold me back but I can like grow into it as my skill progress if I managed to buy one. Sorry this is my first ever Reddit post if u want me to to change anything please tell.

Went to two concerts at the MMH this last week. Both concerts I could barely hear the vocals, and the drums drowned out everything else the entire time. It sucks because it kind of ruined two acts I was really excited to see. I've been in similar size venues before and haven't had this problem, so I know it's not a limitation of the space. Is the sound mixing there just atrocious?

In Triplicate #8 - The Beths - Future Me Hates Me / Jump Rope Gazers / Expert In A Dying Field (2018 - 2022)
While a large discography is not necessarily the indication of a great band or artist finding a musician who can release three watershed albums, either outputting high quality work or exploring similar themes and motifs within them is to me nothing short of an amazing feat. It’s an achievement that is worth taking a deep dive to dissect, contrast and compare different works during a time of seeming creative wellspring. “In Triplicate” will be a bi-weekly spotlight on what I feel are artist at their peak by releasing three killer albums in a row chronologically and making observations on the world of music, their creative mindset and how these albums interlink, or pull apart, from each other.
Listen
Future Me Hates Me – Bandcamp - Apple Music – Spotify
Jump Rope Gazers – Bandcamp - Apple Music – Spotify
Expert in a Dying Field – Bandcamp - Apple Music - Spotify
-----
Guest Review by u/MCK_OH
Sometimes a band is just really fucking good. We all love a band that has a stake in The Narrative, but sometimes a great band is more self-contained. They aren’t great because they tell us something about how the world works, they’re great because they make great songs. On an unrelated note, meet indieheads favorite The Beths. The New Zealand based four-piece formed in 2014 and has since released 3 studio records: 2018’s Future Me Hates Me, 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers and 2022’s Expert In a Dying Field. All three of these records rule. These records do not contain much experimentation. They do not contain a shocking amount of growth. They do not contain messages that will change the way you view the world. They do not contain songs that changed The Narrative. What they do contain is 32 perfect or near-perfect songs, countless brilliant hooks, clever turns of phrase, fun harmonies and cool riffs. And while these records probably don’t contribute to The Narrative they do have A Narrative. I promise I’m not making this up. Let’s view the three Beths records not as three records but instead as one triple LP concept record. Future Jump Rope Experts Hate Me. A power pop Tommy except without all the parts of Tommy that kind of suck. Sadly there’s no “Pinball Wizard” either but you can’t have everything.
Act I: Wondering If You Feel The Same
What does it mean that Future Me Hates Me is so beloved in this subreddit? When we redid our essentials last summer, this record was one of the 40 named to the 2010s essentials. It’s not seen that way, I think. Fellow online music nerds don’t even agree! I think it means that we are a broadly anxious bunch because this is an exceedingly anxious record. Or maybe it just means that Future Me Hates Me is a perfect batch of indie rock tunes for the indie rock subreddit. A bit of both maybe.
Future Me Hates Me is probably the tightest Beths record. It’s the shortest (by 14 seconds, but still) and maintains an up-tempo pace more than the other two. It’s a record whose entire tracklist probably could be singles. Or, as proven by a series of Fortnite YouTubers, a record whose entire tracklist could be background music for your Fortnite highlights video. I’m not kidding! Look it up, there’s a distinctly strange amount of these and they all rule. Opener “Great No One” reveals what the record will be about pretty quickly. Immediately catchy, harmony-laden indie rock. That’s it, that’s the bag of tricks. Sometimes it’ll be slow for a bit - “Less Than Thou,” “River Run” - but mostly, it’s this. And that’s good because this is fantastic. There is no type of music in the world I like more than hooky indie rock. And no one does it better. Every song has something truly special about it. “Great No One” has those layered “Yeah”s on the chorus, “Future Me Hates Me” has the little guitar thing over the riff in the intro and after the first chorus, “Uptown Girl” has the name of a much worse Billy Joel Song, “You Wouldn’t Like Me” gets quiet and then loud (genius maneuver), “Not Running” has its ridiculous forward momentum from the drums, “Little Death” has the brilliant final chorus, “Happy Unhappy” has the way frontwoman Liz Stokes sings the word particularly, “River Run” also gets quiet and then loud (still genius), “Whatever” has the super fun guitar solo and “Less Than Thou” has the entire like 45 seconds when the band comes back in on vocals. It’s a perfect indie pop album. Every song is brilliant. The only records that I think I can fairly compare it to are If You’re Feeling Sinister and Alvvays in terms of indie pop perfection. Just 10 brilliant songs.
Oh yeah, the narrative. This is the first act of 3 in the conceptual masterpiece Future Jump Rope Experts Hate Me. It’s a simple narrative. Our narrator falls in love despite her knowledge that it will probably end badly, it works for a bit and then it falls apart. Our narrator is anxious pretty much the entire time. Simple, but effective storytelling.
Future Me Hates Me is about the first part of that process. Our narrator tries, and ultimately fails to convince herself that she doesn’t have a crush. The evidence to the contrary is simply overwhelming. She may believe that love’s no good idea (at all!) but on “Happy Unhappy” her every moment is haunted by wondering if he feels the same. She can’t even remember to take out the bins! On “Little Death” her body begins to fail her, dying the titular little death every time he comes near. Even then though, she maintains that “I’ll never tell, you’ll never guess.” On “You Wouldn’t Like Me,” she even admits that it “feels so much like being in love,” all the while worrying that she’s too unlikeable for it to work out. But on “Future Me Hates Me,” she comes around: she wants to risk going through future heartbreak. Future her may hate her but there’s nothing she can really do about it. And in the best song on the record, “Not Running,” she confirms that she’s not running away. It’s almost a response to the previous song, “You Wouldn’t Like Me.” It’s finally a song of trust - tell the truth. I won’t run away.. It’s okay to tell the truth. She was wondering if he feels the same and it looks like he does. Enough dying little deaths, worrying about future me. It’s time to meet the Jump Rope Gazers.
Act II: I Wanna Give It My Best Try
There’s a tendency, I think, to say that Jump Rope Gazers is the weakest Beths record. It has the weakest reviews, it has the fewest shooters among us non-critics, it is broadly just not quite as beloved as the other two. A classic sophomore slump. But I think that Jump Rope Gazers is, at the very worst, only like a quarter-step behind the other two Beths records. It would be like calling Ichiro’s 2002 season a sophomore slump. Yes, it was a step down from his rookie year and he would go on to have even better seasons but the dude still hit .321, stole 30 bases and made the all-star team. And yes, Jump Rope Gazers is a slight decline from Future Me Hates Me but it still has “Just Shy of Sure” and “Jump Rope Gazers” on it, which is the indie rock equivalent of hitting at least .321.
What sets Jump Rope Gazers apart from Future Me Hates Me the most at first is that it’s slower. Future Me Hates Me takes until the 8th song to slow down even for a minute, while Jump Rope Gazers slows down by track 3. It will slow down again at track 5 and track 9. These songs tend to be slightly weaker, though the title track is an exception. But there are still absolutely bangers on here. Opener “I’m Not Getting Excited” has a slightly gnarlier guitar sound than anything on Future Me Hates Me. Side 2 opener “Out of Sight” moves forward with the same momentum and pace that drives the best of Future Me Hates Me. “Mars, The God of War” does a little quiet/loud thing which is always welcome. While I can attempt to sort these songs into piles (“the slow ones,” “the bangers” etc) I think at the end of the day this is just another batch of excellent Beths tunes. “Dying to Believe” is a brilliant pop song that pulls out pretty much every trick in the book. I’m sort of in awe of it. It has sick harmonies! A bass solo! It has a part where the guitars are gone and then they come back! It’s another song about nervously waiting for the world to crash down around you but it sounds like a ton of fun. It has a super fun music video, the best they’ve ever made. It’s a ridiculous pop song that pulls out every trick without feeling overstuffed. “Acrid” has this faraway backing vocal at 3:33 that always makes my day. “Don’t Go Away” is like half chorus, and it’s a good choice because the chorus rocks. It’s a trick they’ll use again, to even better use on “Knees Deep” later, on Expert In A Dying Field. And the slow songs do still work. The chorus of “Do You Want Me Now” is absolute gold. One of their best. While “You Are a Beam of Light” is probably the weakest song between all three records, it’s still fun. The final chorus with the full band harmony is excellent. The best of the album’s slower cuts is “Jump Rope Gazers.” “Jump Rope Gazers” was the first Beths song that I loved. It has what is still probably the best set of opening lines of the decade with “I’ve never been the dramatic type / But if I don’t see your face tonight / I, I guess I’ll be fine.” Incredible, every time. The guitars sound really nice. The chorus sounds really nice. The melody is really nice. This whole song is just really fucking nice. It might be the one song from this band that makes you go “I’d want to live in the feeling of this song forever.” It’s the song that got me to fall in love with The Beths, and for that it will always be one of my favorites. But it’s not quite as good as the closer “Just Shy of Sure,” the best song on the record. It’s a high bar, but I think this one might have the best chorus melody of the Beths career to date. It feels like it has the same forward momentum of an “Out of Sight” while still having the more laid-back warmth of a “Jump Rope Gazers.” One of their perfect songs. One of the best songs of the decade. At the end of the day, what Jump Rope Gazers sacrifices in terms of bangers I think it mostly makes up for with a slightly more varied palette that mostly works wonders. It’s still a batch of Beths songs, which is among the highest compliments I’m willing to give anything.
Folks, meet the Jump Rope Gazers. The Jump Rope Gazers of course, are our narrator and the object of her affection. It would seem that our narrator has finally won the day. She is in love, willing to admit it and it seems like he is too. Of course, this has not stopped the worrying. On “I’m Not Getting Excited” she keeps her grip on joy loose, bracing for the potential for everything to fall down around her. On “Dying to Believe,” she’s willing to hope that everything won’t fall down around her but she also spends the song apologizing. She struggles with communication, with trust in herself and in her partner. There are true, earnest moments of joy on Jump Rope Gazers. The title track is a love song with no reservations. She wonders how this could have happened, despite all the worrying from Future Me Hates Me. She offers that she’s willing to give it her best try. The rest of the record tugs back and forth in either direction. You don’t get a sense listening to it whether it will work out long-term or not. While there are songs like “Jump Rope Gazers,” there’s also songs like “Do You Want Me Now” or “Don’t Go Away.” “Do You Want Me Now” indicates that communication here is often difficult. And anytime you need to say “don’t go away” 24 times in one song, it seems like things might not be going perfectly. The penultimate “You Are a Beam of Light” details a stilted phone call with tears involved but our narrator is willing to “meet outside in five.” Maybe they can work through this. Let’s return to the closer “Just Shy of Sure” and its brilliant chorus. What are the actual words in it?
“Oh, my head is aching
But if I keep very still
I might be able
To make this work until
The end of the weekend
Weak, but I’ll pretend
That you still want me
I’m the one you adore
But I’m just shy of sure”
More worrying! Not great probably. Sounds like it’s maybe not the sturdiest relationship in the world. Still, I hope they can make this work. That they can get around the insecurities, the doubts, the communication. Pull it together. Give us a happy ending. What’s the first lyric of the next album, as a sneak peak of where the jump rope gazers are headed?
“Can we erase our history?”
Ah, shit.
Act III: Staring Into Nothing (Or, I Hate Past Me)
If we continue to operate under the assumption that The Beths are the Ichiro Suzuki of indie rock (and we should, to clarify) then I think Expert In A Dying Field might be their equivalent of his dazzling 2004 campaign. After all, just like Ichiro in ‘04 this has a staggering amount of hits. Even more than the already staggering amount of hits from their previous efforts! It helps that, unlike the 10 songs of their previous records this has 12 songs. They manage to more than keep up the quality. While this is their longest and lengthiest record, it’s hardly The White Album. Lead single “Silence Is Golden” is a bit louder than usual, “I Want To Listen” is a bit quieter and “2am” is a slow, sad closer but really this is another batch of Beths tunes. Which, again, hell yeah. Can never have enough Beths tunes going around. Let’s all hang out and watch The Beths do the indie rock equivalent of hitting .372 and breaking the single season hit record.
The opener and title track, “Expert In A Dying Field” is the best song The Beths have ever made. The lyrics are as sharp and clever as they’ve ever been, the hook is gold and the song just keeps building momentum, and building momentum, and building momentum. What starts off as an understated pop tune has turned anthemic in less than four minutes. The backing vocals are fantastic, the guitar sound is great. It’s a song that could make you dance or cry. It’s the perfect Beths song. That last minute is unstoppable. I’ve gotten goosebumps listening to it more times than I can count. “Knees Deep” rocks. It’s like 65% chorus which is fine because it’s one of the best choruses the band has ever put down. It makes sense to keep hammering the chorus button if you’ve landed on something this good. No problems here. Speaking of great choruses, this record is just chock full of ‘em. The chorus on “Best Left” wasn’t my favorite initially but I’ve really come around on it. It’s really fun to sing along to. Important quality. “Change In The Weather,” written by guitarist Jonathan Pearce proves that there’s somehow more than one band member capable of writing brilliant Beths tunes. “Head In The Clouds” and “A Passing Rain” are Beths songs. Which, hell yeah as per usual. At this point it’s almost unremarkable how this band just churns out great indie pop tunes. Unusually happy “When You Know You Know” is heavier on acoustic guitars, providing a minor change on The Beths formula. It works wonders. The heavier “Silence Is Golden” similarly tweaks the formula, providing the perfect musical backdrop for Liz Stokes’ agitated vocal performance. It’s the song that probably best captures the feeling of loud construction being done beside your home. “I Want To Listen” is also a bit of a tweak on The Beths formula. It’s a jaunty little pop tune that reminds me of similar moments in the Rilo Kiley catalog. It is unsurprisingly great. “I Told You That I Was Afraid” returns to both the anxiety and the continuous forward momentum of Future Me Hates Me and does so exceedingly well. It rocks. It’s also an exceedingly tight song, the band seems to be moving as one on this one. “Your Side” is probably my second favorite song on the record, a melancholy post-breakup tune. It’s another one with a practically perfect chorus. Oh and the guitar sound is great. Especially the guitar after Stokes sings the “oo-oo” part after the chorus. That’s what music should be right there. Closer “2am” is a classic Sad, Slower Closing Song. Y’know like “My Hometown” or “Dublin City Sky” or “Gospel” or “Butterfly.” I’m broadly suspicious of this specific type of song. Slowing it down means you lose something in energy and just generally rocking (rocking, always a good thing!) so you’ve gotta make up for it somehow. And “2am” does. This type of song works when the lyrics pick up the slack, when the slow and spareness of the song makes you focus on the lyrics, and when the emotion in the lyrics complements the pace and atmosphere of the song. When the song is sad enough that mustering energy for it seems like it’s beyond the point. “2am” is a song like that. And to be fair to “2am” it does build towards the end. After an album of playing chicken with finally saying goodbye, “2am” finally does it.
So we reach the end of the road for the jump rope gazers. We were with them through the anxious crush stage, the even more anxious early relationship stage and now it’s time to say goodbye. “Expert In A Dying Field” laments all the time and knowledge now gone to waste. While on Jump Rope Gazer’s “You Are a Beam of Light” the late night phone call was stilted and sad at least there was a late night phone call, but on “Head In The Clouds” our narrator has no one to listen to her at night. The nervous self-doubt that’s shown up again and again re-appears at the worst times on songs like “A Passing Rain” and “I Told You That I Was Afraid.” Our narrator remains torn; on “Your Side” she wants nothing more than a dramatic, tearful apology, a romantic gesture, a chance that maybe they can get back together. Maybe it’s not over, or at least not over forever. But on “Best Left” she indicates that some things are best left to rot. Some things need to be put behind, and forgotten. One of the constants in these three records is that sense of uncertainty. On Future Me Hates Me, our narrator indicates that she’ll never reveal her emotions on one song while indicating she has to on another. On Jump Rope Gazers she’ll declare her love on one song, hoping it’s going to work out while indicating that she has no serious belief that it will in others. Finally, on Expert In A Dying Field she’s unsure if the best way forward is to keep looking back or to try to move forward. One way or another the story of the jump rope gazers is over though. On “2am” we finally hear how it all fell apart. We hear about the good times, but we also hear about the communication breakdown. We hear our narrator reminiscing about when it finally fell apart:
“There was news I was nervous to tell you
Through the filter softening the words we said
Were you mad? Tell the truth, I can take it
I could hear the engine as you drove away
Through the blinds, saw the glow of the light fade”
And that’s where we leave it. She asks one more time if he still feels it, but it seems there’s no response. This is it. To some degree, she was right; she probably does hate past her.
Outro: The End of the Weekend
The Beths, great band. If you’ve somehow read this far without having heard them go listen to them. I’d listen to them in chronological order but really you can’t go wrong. I admit I had to stretch the concept a bit, leave some stuff out of the narrative and all that. But I think that puts it more and not less in line with most concept records. In truth, I think these three records do work as a loose narrative if you want to view them that way, which I sometimes do. If you don’t then you can choose to view them as three of the best indie pop records of the past decade. That works too. Either way it’s a run for the ages.
As a music nerd I am naturally list-obsessed (sometimes I worry I’m getting too close to the High Fidelity guys) so here’s a bunch of Beths lists I assembled while I was writing this.
List 1: The Perfect Beths Songs
1. “Not Running”
2. “Little Death”
3. “Less Than Thou”
4. “Jump Rope Gazers”
5. “Out of Sight”
6. “Just Shy of Sure”
7. “Expert In A Dying Field”
8. “Knees Deep”
9. “Your Side”
10. “I Told You That I Was Afraid”
11. “Idea/Intent”
List 2: The Near Perfect Beths Songs
1. All the rest
List 3: The Abridged Tracklist to Future Jump Rope Experts Hate Me. Or, the songs that I think tell the narrative I’m trying to sell the best.
1. “Little Death”
2. “Future Me Hates Me”
3. “You Wouldn’t Like Me”
4. “Not Running”
5. “I’m Not Getting Excited”
6. “Dying to Believe”
7. “Jump Rope Gazers”
8. “Just Shy of Sure”
9. “Expert In A Dying Field”
10. “Your Side”
11. “Best Left”
12. “2am”
List 4: The Top 10 Beths Music Videos
1. “Dying to Believe”
2. “Knees Deep”
3. “Expert In A Dying Field”
4. “Future Me Hates Me”
5. “Your Side”
6. “Jump Rope Gazers”
7. “Uptown Girl”
8. “I’m Not Getting Excited”
9. “Little Death”
10. “Happy Unhappy”
List 5: 10 Actors Who Could Have Been That Actor In That One Particular Film
1. Jackie Chan
2. Jeremy Renner
3. Rebecca Ferguson
4. Dominic Monaghan
5. Owen Wilson
6. Charlize Theron
7. Matt Damon
8. Julia Roberts
9. Paul Giamatti
10. Viola Davis
-----
(Tentative) Schedule
May 27 - U2 - War / The Unforgettable Fire / The Joshua Tree
June 10 - R.E.M. Part 1 - Murmur / Reckoning / Fables of Reconstruction (Guest Entry u/p-u-n-k_girl)
June 24 - R.E.M. Part 2 - Out of Time / Automatic for the People / Monster
July 8 - Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend / Contra / Modern Vampires of the City
-----
Archive

Reading for about a week still have some concern about upgrading my system.
Current system- Morel Maximo 6.5 component x 2 JL RD900 5ch JL stealth box 2 10tw1 pancakes
No big 3 upgrade yet 240a Mopar alternator (tow package) Group 97R AGM battery 80ah?
Just really not happy with those pancake subs and I dont want a custom build box from a shop either but I ended up finding this full size 10”x2 enclosure from Fox Acoustic. I want to try some SPL stuff thought it would be fun. So hang tight with me.
Spec Underseat enclosure with 2” seat lifter Air space: 2.0 cubic feet NET Port tune frequency: 35hz https://www.foxacoustics.com/products/jeep-jt-gladiator-2-10-vented-sub-box
The customer service did recommend for SPL Sundown SA classic with 2000 watt amp will hit but the main thing is will that under the seat subs enclosure 2.0 cu ft take 3000- 5000 watts or it doesn’t matter or I’m stuck at lower watts system?
At first I wanted those budget friendly American Bass XFL but seem like I don’t have enough airspace for those subs as it require 1.25-1.5 cu ft each. Most of the people recommend bigger box saying need the space to push it but I also read if I give them more power than recommended RMS I should get a smaller box so in this case it’s okay to have less airspace? I’m confused. Also not sure it will even fit in the box.
The correct air space specs put me right at those Sundown SA V2 10” 1 cu ft requirement each and it will fit for sure. Sundown is not cheap at all so I’m not sure what to do here. Should I do a JP23 stripe later or JP23 V2 see if my electrical can handle it and be done with it (on paper should be a yes) or go bigger with a D4S LTO 6.0 battery and a JP33 should be pretty sweet setup right here just more money? Or fuck it go Sundown U series V2 and even more beans? I don’t think the subs box can push any other bigger subs.
So as of right now I’m leaning towards the JP23 V2 but the JP33 tho….
JP84 400 watts swap the 5ch JP23 v2 2800 watts Sundown SA V2 10 4 ohm x 2 Big 3
Honestly I have no idea what high watts “SPL system” are like and I will go shop around in local shops (they kind of sucks) but I already bought the enclosure and it is on the way so any thing will help.

I just can't stop thinking about the Cobra Rock Remix w/ Spiritbox. I've been listening to them for a while before this, I'm very into punk and metal, so I was really stoked to see them on this track. I think this is a much more in-depth move on Megan's part than I see her get credit for tbh.
Firstly, metalcore as a genre gets a pretty bad rap especially from the metal community - can't even really blame them though because so much of it honestly sucks for a lot of reasons. But Spiritbox is really solid and (obviously) has a female vocalist, which is incredibly rare in metal genres. That rarity is something Megan obviously knows a lot about.
Secondly, rap that infuses a lot of metal is getting more and more popular but it's rare for an artist as visible to the mainstream as Megan to do it, let alone do it in a way where she's working with artists within other genres. I am DYING to see more of this type of collaboration.
3rd, picking a metal band for the remix really underscores the themes that Cobra explores, as well as leads up perfectly to Hiss. Metal music usually really embodies the acoustics of rage with it's screaming, aggressive percussion, etc. While the original version sonically ties in more to the feelings of depression and sorrow Megan expresses in the song, the remix showcases the anger she felt, too. It means a lot considering how rarely someone in her position is afforded the space to lose their temper. And then the next track she put out carried the anger through (first thing she said was literally "fuck yall").
She's really pushing boundaries and I hope she does nothing but continue.

Hello!
I want to buy an acoustic guitar for my new Folk/Pop/Americana project. My budget is 500$ and the aesthetics are as important as the sound. I am mostly an intermediate player, can play mostly anything but not super virtuously. I play guitar as a tool to write music. I own several guitar, but all electric, and one archtop. As I live in Europe, I've got these options:
GUILD D-240E (Both the Westerly Archback and Flamed Mahogany) - I've heard only good things about these so these would be my first option.
Epiphone Dove and Hummingbird - These obviously look great, but how would be the sound compared to the rest?
Gretsch Rancher Jumbo - These are very flashy, I've also got a Gretsch New Yorker Archtop which for me plays fantastic, so I thinking this would not be far fetched as well.
Guild M-240E Troubadour Westerly - This is a parlour guitar I really like how it looks, but not sure about parlours.
P.S.: Please do not recommend YAMAHA's, every one I tried, they really don't fit me. P.S.2: Also, I live in a city where are 4-5 guitar shops, none of them stock these specific guitars.

Tonight’s show (I watched the livestream) was pretty much perfect, both in terms of energy and song selection. It featured about ten songs from Mink Car, each of which felt so fresh and lively. Mink Car was Broadway-level, with gorgeous piano glissandos and cowbell. There was also Drink (with Linnell playing both sides of the accordion), Hovering Sombrero for the first time in over two decades (incredible acoustic work from Miller), Cyclops Rock with Flans just exultantly throwing himself into it, and even Older with a guitabass battle and Linnell doing a low growl.
I noticed that both Johns were contributing lots of duet parts to each song, as well as Linnell having special keyboard settings for each song.
This show stood out to me as a peak Flans show. He was just so giddy the whole time. Nailed all of his vocal parts.
Drown the Clown is becoming an unexpected live staple, Linnell gets so into the vocals.
Glamour of Rock was a real treat. Flans remarked that song may be his lowest vocal register.
And then they did Cloissone and Linnell pranked Flans by making him do the raindrop verse twice. He did the highest possible falsetto.
Maybe the best Spy I’ve ever heard?!? I felt like I was sucked right through the screen, they were so lively!! Especially with how the Kaoss pad and the audience were involved.
And the onstage comedy was impeccable, with the Johns improvising a weird accordion ditty about having a parasocial relationship with the people in the balcony, as well as Linnell doing a 1940s announcer impression during Spy and roasting Robert Kennedy Jr. after Dr. Worm.
Great job to all in the band, I couldn’t believe how well rehearsed they were and how each member contributed so many unique instrumental flourishes for each song. I also can’t get over how well-trained their horn section is.

🪞 “It's much easier to get in that it is to get out,” Emilie Autumn used to say. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 - Part 4.2
She was not wrong. Welcome back to the Asylum write-up!
In this installment, we're finally getting down to the nitty-gritty of the enmity between EA and her fans.
It's time for war. It's time for blood. It's time... for tea. 🎵

THE PRESENT DAY: “ASK ME ANYTHING (WELL, NOT QUITE)”

"Ask me anything" titles are catchy, and that’s why I’m using one. But, obviously, don’t ask me anything, by which I mean that, if you think I wouldn’t answer it, you’re probably right. Ask me something really good. I’d love to answer you. I’d love to have comments on these posts, in fact, so that I could answer questions there regularly and ask you things as well, but insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, or so Einstein is supposed to have said, and attempting to create yet another interactive online venue after every previous attempt has ended in heartbreak—forums, facebook groups, social media accounts—it would indeed be insanity to think that this time would be any different. So there are no comments. This too is heartbreaking in the sense that, and you may not realize this, but I desperately want to connect more completely with you—to be able to intelligently converse and share and exchange. We can do that in person, of course, because the wrong people never show up in person. Isn’t that funny… So, perhaps we’ll have to arrange that;). I’ll start you off with an example question I’d want to know if I were you (I can almost guarantee that you do not want to know this). Q. Hey EA, how do you keep your wireless bodypack transmitter secure when you are leaping about in skimpy costumes and doing frequent costume changes? Also, dye your roots. A. Fantastic question, EA, and I just dyed my roots thank you very much. ... (Deleted blog post followed by a year of radio silence, 2022 📝)

Sooo. For the past five-ish years, the vibe in the Asylum has been that of a protracted Christmas dinner where everyone is tensely moving their food around in their plate, bracing themselves for whatever will trigger the screaming match. Wondering what it's going to be this time. Weary old-timers make small talk about the food because no other topic feels safe. Every glance, every forced smile, is fraught with eons-old grudges and unspoken regrets; every nervous pleasantry sounds like a thinly-veiled accusation. Aunt Emilie always insists on hosting, but not-so-secretly hates having people over. Sooner or later, she finds a way to get all of these assholes out of her house. Most of the adult children are daydreaming about going no-contact.
Everyone ready for some dysfunctional family history?
CW for discussion of bullying, online harassment, mental illness stigma.

YE OLDEN DAYS: CUCKOOS OF A FEATHER NEST TOGETHER

In the beginning, it was beautiful.
EA had the excellent instinct to start banking on her online presence📝 long before MySpace was even a thing. She had a website, several online stores, an active LiveJournal and a ProBoards forum right from the turn of the millennium.
In 2004, she attached an official forum to her website; the earliest archive shows 74 registered users. By the time Opheliac came out in 2006, that number had grown tenfold. And it was, by most accounts, a pretty dope place to be! (I should specify that this write-up focuses on the anglophone side of the fandom: there were also thriving fan-run communities in at least German, French, and Spanish. Because EA doesn't speak any of those languages, the lucky bastards were mostly left alone.)
Forum users enjoyed interacting with some of EA's closest IRL friends and associates – and with the mistress of the house herself (user flair: PsychoFiddler), when she occasionally responded to comments under her own posts. But that wasn't even the main appeal for many. For a long time, on top of all EA-related topics, the official forum had very active “Off-Topic” subforums, with lively and friendly conversation on a variety of subjects. (There was even a “Filthy Libertines (18+)” sub for a while, which was closed due to preemptive concerns about minors.) Swear words (not slurs) were allowed and encouraged, and moderation was overall pretty loose beyond basic enforcement of civility. There was a lot of mutual support, creativity, and solid banter going around.

It wasn't just about Emilie on the forums. People could chat about almost anything with near free reign, making connections and lifelong friends. ... This community mattered SO MUCH to people. They felt included, accepted, and understood within the walls of the Asylum. People invested their time and creative energy into keeping the forums a vibrant, active community, and made sure that carried over into the real world. ... I've never seen anything like it in a fan space. I doubt I ever will again. (@Asylum_Oracle - “Fandom History” Instagram highlight 🔍📝, which contains most of the sources for this segment.)

And it did, indeed, carry over into the real world. There were numerous meet-ups – a few organized by EA, many more spontaneous. People who didn't know any other EA fans in real life, or were just excited to add new Plague Rats to their friend group, would regularly connect with other forum users from their area to meet up and hang out before EA shows. “Who else is dressing up??”
In 2008, for instance, EA held an afternoon meet-up at Lincoln Park in Chicago. 📺 The event was free to attend; it featured live acoustic music and a reading from EA's upcoming book, the intriguingly-titled Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.
On the appointed day, EA rolled up in a fabulously tousled red wig, bedazzled white corset and steampunk-altered wedding dress. She had brought friends alongs. Sporting blue hair and a pink bustle and corset was her Chicago bestie, the main forum admin. Rocking a guitar and a top hat was EA's sound engineer, the soft-spoken wizard behind the Victoriandustrial sound, who was also a forum mod. The photographer from the original Opheliac cover art was there as well; he was formally introduced by EA and got his own round of applause.

People who would never normally be involved in an artist's fanbase were in EA's world. And not only were they known – they were respected and incredibly active with the fanbase. These people who managed an online message board were willing to engage in real-world meet-ups (with no security??) because of how tight-knit the community they had built was. People turned out to this event. People traveled to go to this event. It was a short reading of a book that hadn't been released yet, and wouldn't be for some time. Why? Because not only was it a chance to meet Emilie and listen to parts of the new book, but it was also a chance to hang out with their friends from the Asylum. ... The fandom really was a family for a lot of people. (@Asylum_Oracle)

“SERIOUSLY, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE.”

It all started with The End.
The End Records, that is! Quick refresher: in 2009, after three years or so with Trisol, EA split from the label over allegations that the owner was embezzling money from ticket sales. A few months later, she signed with The End Records. Understandably, EA still wanted to sell the album that had made her famous, and to which she had smartly retained the rights – which meant a brand new, “Deluxe” release of Opheliac. (Remember, from part 3? The one you could pre-order as a bundle with the book? Some projects are just cursed, I guess.)
At that point, Opheliac had been released three times already, as recently as the year before, with only slight variations in format and tracklist. (Yes, that is a theme in this story.) The End Records version would feature new cover art and a handful of new tracks, but overall, it was... you know... the same album.
(The following paragraphs are largely sourced from this excellent recap 🔍📝, which also provides potato screenshots for all quotes.)
One fateful day of August 2009, a user started a thread entitled “Opheliac US edition deluxe re-release??” in the “EA News” subforum. In the thread, some people were kind of balking at the re-do, pondering whether to buy the “new” Opheliac or sit this one out. Some expressed that after three years, they were jonesing for a new album. Others shared what B-sides or dream covers they would have liked to see included on the bonus disc. Just... fans being fans, in a fan discussion space.
And then EA jumped out from behind the curtains.

Fan: Okay. Before I start, I just want you to know that I think it's very good that EA is getting more popularity, and that she can release lots of albums, but - are 5 editions of the same album really needed? You may say now “ah, it's not the same, it has 2 bonus tracks” or whatever, but I mean: it's not new material. Now don't get me wrong. I'm happy for it, maybe I'll even buy it, but I'm just wondering if she shouldn't keep herself busy with other (maybe more important) stuff? * hides * EA: Nobody's forcing you to buy it. Thanks.

Record scratch.

Fan 1: is this Opheliac release version number 4? lol If she's recording NEW tracks, then surely they deserve to be sold by themselves, otherwise people are going to have to buy an album that they may have already bought twice (like me!). But... alas, I am a fool and adore everything this woman does... im buying it lol Fan 2: exactly – if it was just reissuing the last version of Opheliac to tap into new markets that would be fine (...) but if they start adding extra bits of material to albums people already have then the true muffins are going to feel obliged to buy new copies (...) EA: How exactly are you obliged to buy anything? Nobody is forcing you to spend a fucking penny, my dears. I suppose it would make more sense to you to simply not have my records available any more as the old label I just escaped from will no longer be distributing them? Forgive me for adding extra tracks. No obligation necessary.

...Okay, so I'm pretty sure that we can see both sides of the argument here. Fans are annoyed at the idea of spending money on barely-anything-new, because they love EA and buy every single CD she releases. EA is exasperated by fans acting like she's twisting their arm and somehow resenting the inclusion of new material, when she was just ensuring that her album would remain available for purchase and trying to keep things interesting.
But maybe we can also agree that those replies should have been screamed into a pillow rather than typed out on a keyboard.
EA was getting increasingly (and, I'll just say it: disproportionately) sarcastic and defensive in her replies. Enter poor FantineDormouse.
FantineDormouse meant well, I think. Maybe she thought, she's spiraling. Maybe she thought, friends don't let friends go down that road. Granted, FantineDormouse probably should have known better than to phrase it the way she did. Or to assume that EA perceived her as a friend.
Either way, at some point, FantineDormouse jumped in and posted the comment that finally made EA lose it. THE comment which, overnight, ended the honeymoon period of the Asylum, triggering a doomsday domino effect from which the fandom would never truly recover. Are you comfortably seated?

FantineDormouse: Uhm, Emilie, love, I don't mean to sound rude or anything... but maybe you should have a cup of tea and relax a little.

...
* sound of archduke getting shot *

EA: Excuse me? You can throw this onslaught of absolute cruel bullshit at me and those I work with in my own space that I own, and I can't say anything back? How fucking patronizing. Relax? Are you fucking kidding me? Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? FD: I'm not trying to piss you off even more, Emilie. And trust me, I have to deal with it myself, and as much as I would really love to punch the cunts I have to deal with in the face, I don't. You're pissed off, I get it. You're bipolar, which makes it 10x worse, I get that. I'm just not the person to stand around and do nothing when a fight where I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of regret is going on.

Famous last words. Literally! Immediately after EA delivered her irate closing statement – which includes one of my all-time favorite EA zingers, bolded...

EA: I cannot believe this... You just don't stop, do you? So just because I've shared the personal information with you all that I happen to be bipolar, I can't get pissed off at all of you being perfectly awful in the very space that I pay fuckloads a month to have up (has it ever occurred to you all that I pay dearly for this space you play around in?) Why not just tell me that I must be upset because it's my time of the month? Seriously, get the fuck out of my house. You are unbelievable, and your level of patronization is almost criminal. Don't make me write another book. With muffins like you, who needs enemies? Nothing I say or feel is legitimate, not ever ever ever because I'm bipolar... discredited before I begin... unbelievable...

...FantineDormouse got permabanned.
Jaws dropped. After days of infighting between white knights, detractors, and crossfire negotiators, several mod resignations, and general mayhem surrounding the ban, EA made a post entitled “In Which: I Invite You to Make a Fucking Choice.” 📝 For brevity's sake (cue laugh track), I can't reproduce it in all of its righteous splendor, but it's quite a read. It runs the gamut from fair and articulate points about how mental illness shouldn't be used to discredit someone's legitimate anger... to histrionic commands that “deserters to the cause” should “turn in their weapons” if they can't handle her way of doing things.

To those of you who appear not to understand why said posts, most especially those of the banned party, were offensive to me, I give you the option to either educate yourselves on your own time and in your own space (because please never forget that this is my space that I share with all of you at my own expense, and in which I generally give you all the freedom I would wish for myself), or to resign your posts in the Asylum Army – this is not the place for you, and I humbly suggest that you turn your attention and support towards other artists of a more placid, non-controversial, and less opinionated nature; there are more than enough of them out there, and I’m sure they all have forums of their own.

Some fans did leave. Most stuck around, whiplashed. Soon, the storm quieted down, and business as usual resumed on the forum. But something had been damaged beyond repair. The FantineDormouse fiasco had erected walls and drawn lines in the sand, both around EA and among her fans; its sad specter would haunt every Asylum crisis that spiked up forever after. “Fucking Patronizing Fucking” or “FPF” 🔍 became memetic shorthand in the fandom for overreaction and self-righteousness. 🐀
...And now you understand why, in the following years, some fans were so delicate and diplomatic in voicing their very legitimate complaints about messed-up orders, unsigned books, and puzzling lies... while unofficial platforms like Tumblr flourished with pent-up resentment and snark. 🦠

A NOTE ON HARASSMENT: “MAD GIRL, CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO YOU?”

Wouldn't they stop When you asked them to leave you alone? (“Mad Girl”, 2008 🎵)

Now, let's be clear, because it should not be minimized: EA has also been the target of genuine online harassment. Based on the simple fact that she is a woman with a public presence on the internet, I have zero doubt that EA has received (and perhaps continues to receive) more than her share of truly vile, bigoted, creepy and threatening messages – and, knowing what I know about the darker recesses of the Asylum, a terrifying amount of emotional blackmail and obsessive projection from people who hold her to punitively high standards. I'm also inclined to believe that it started way before she ever did anything that warranted any backlash. And that fucking sucks. It's repulsive and inexcusable, and the people who harass her should crawl into a hole and live among the worms.
Notwithstanding. In my decade-plus of following EA drama, the public comments on EA's own platforms (where people knew she was likely to be reading) have been, for the most part... civil and nuanced, and relatively mindful of the human? Even very confrontational comments (some clearly written from a place of anger and desire to shame) rarely resorted to outright name-calling or cruelty. When abusive or bigoted language did crop up, it was often promptly shut down by other fans as gross and uncalled for. In short: I have, with mine own two eyes, in real time, read some of the comment sections that EA described as cesspools of blind rage and odious attacks, and... I just couldn't see it.
If anything, for a long time, a lot of the angry comments directed at EA during any given controversy read more like break-up letters to an ex-best friend: harsh, curt and targeted in a way that cuts deep.... but also kind of screams how much love you still have for this person, against your better judgement.
Not that it wouldn't mess a person up to get hundred of those in a matter of hours, even if they don't individually qualify as “abusive”.
It's worth noting that prior to becoming semi-famous and regretting it, EA was also (by her own account and among other forms of abuse) a victim of intense childhood bullying. It feels like the two situations are closely connected in her mind when her focus seamlessly transitions from one to the other. 📺 I don't think that tremor in her voice is put on.
Based on her writings, I get the feeling that over the years, EA has developed a very black-and-white view of two monolithic groups of people. There's (an idealized vision of) her “real audience”, well-dressed, well-read, kind-hearted, and Asylum-savvy, who she fully trusts to “get it” – and buy it, and love it, unquestioningly, whatever “it” may be at any given time – because that is the true measure of love and loyalty. These are the people she makes art and merch for, the people she writes heart-emoji-filled newsletters to, and desperately longs to see in person again.
And then there's the lynch mob, those who really don't “get it”: the trolls, the faceless creeps, the basement-dwelling mouthbreathers, the ones who stalk her every move obsessively, waiting for any chance to spam her with vicious abuse and slander and obscenities. The latter only exist online (they are manifested into arbitrary existence by the internet itself, not by anything EA said or did), and there is zero overlap between the two sets of people. That seems to be the official narrative.

The "public eye" isn't an [enviable] place to be, and the closer I've come to it, the more horrified I've been. Because, for starters, who is "the public?" Is "the public" my audience? Hell no. My audience is special. They are not the general public. If they were the general public I would be a lot wealthier. The "public eye" means getting stalked, harassed, viscously judged, and put in danger. If I do things in the future that gain notoriety, I will do them in spite of fame, not because of it. I am out for world domination, but not fame. (Interview for The Moaning Times, 2014 📝)

In real life (well, mostly online, but I mean: on this shared plane of existence), things play out slightly differently. The Venn diagram of “true blue fans” and “people who criticize EA" and "people who know way too much about EA” is a circle. The call is 100% coming from inside the Asylum, and I think EA rationally knows that. But here's the thing: no matter how many shows and meet-and-greets you've dressed up for, how many loving and supportive comments you've left, or how many family heirlooms you once pawned to purchase a copy of the not-for-sale 2003 DJ pressing of Enchant... the instant EA feels attacked, everyone is a saboteur and a bully until proven otherwise, and suspected treason is dealt with on the spot. One strike, you're out. Unfortunately for everyone involved, her threshold for bullying seems to be “any remotely thoughtless opinion from any stranger on the internet”.
It makes for outstanding human-interest entertainment... but it also sounds an awful lot like the unhealthy patterns of a person suffering from all sorts of PTSD. 🔍 So, please bear that in mind as you read through this write-up. It's easy to make EA out to be the sole villain, a paranoid and delusional drama queen, based on her extreme reactions to things that often “weren't that bad”. Anything can, in fact, be “that bad” when you're thrown back into the very worst moments of your existence every time your brain decides that the situation is even remotely similar.
PTSD takes over your rational mind and actively distorts your perception of reality. That can be how a person ends up impulse-reacting to “a few people expressing an unfavorable opinion” as if the entire internet had just ganged up on them with knives. Which makes their audience feel unjustly accused, which makes them hostile, which gives the person actual good reason to feel attacked... and so the cycle of hurt continues.

You know the games I play And the words I say When I want my own way You know the lies I tell When you've gone through hell And I say I can't stay You know how hard it can be To keep believing in me When everything and everyone Becomes my enemy, and when There's nothing more you can do I'm gonna blame it on you – It's not the way I wanna be I only hope that in the end You will see: It's the Opheliac in me... (“Opheliac”, 2006 🎵)

And YES, it is extremely regrettable to have this as a trigger, when you're a public figure and you're bound to receive more negative feedback than the average citizen. “It's what she signed up for”, “it comes with the territory” and all that jazz. I really don't think EA was unaware of that fact when she decided to become a musician, share her personal life, and form an intense parasocial bond with her audience. But maybe she underestimated how hard it would be to process and recover from.
Just because you expect something unpleasant to happen, doesn't mean your psyche will be ready to handle it when it does – or that you'll pick the best and most effective strategy to deal with it.

A MADHOUSE UNDER MARTIAL LAW: MARCHING INTO THE FORUM WARS

There are two sides to every story... except for this one! (“If I Burn”, 2012 🎵)

You may have noted the military imagery in EA's “Make a Fucking Choice” response post – “resign your post in the Asylum Army”! What do psychiatry and the military have in common? They're both institutions of top-down social control. 🔍 EA's mixed metaphor may be a bit clunky, but it did foreshadow the evolution of the Asylum – in terms of aesthetics and power dynamics – in the years that followed the FantineDormouse incident and the release of The Book.
EA's next big release after the Asylum book came in 2012. It was a new album, an outline of the soon-to-be Asylum musical, called Fight Like a Girl (FLAG for short). As the name suggests, the main mood was bellicose. Incidentally, in the interim years, EA's communication style generally became noticeably more combative, incendiary, and (within her own spaces) controlling.📝 You remember those quirky word filters on the forum, that would change “fan” to “muffin” and “bra” to “teacup holder”? They kind of took on a Nineteen-Eighty-Four-burlesque flavor when you realized that one filter automatically changed “Fischkopf” to “Liddell” - and that circumventing the rule to address her totally real last name would get you banned, as would any discussion of her family. (“Wikipedia, random internet sites and heresay are not credible sources.” - Mod reminder of forum rules, 2010.)
Also, you try sustaining a serious, grown-up conversation among concerned fans about how Emilie Autumn should “take ratsponsibility for her mistakes out of ratspect for her muffins”. Thus, the official Asylum forum kept a tight grip on overt criticism of EA's claims and actions.

The Emilie Autumn forum is a dystopian hell. Truth be told, when I decided to leave you could not do anything but gush about Emilie. Otherwise all of her extremist arse kissing fans will be down your throat, ripping you apart in seconds, if you so much as questioned her behaviour. So much for freedom of opinion, let alone the idea of creating a harmonious community for ‘outcasts’. Hahaha. (2014 🐀)

The word filter thing really wasn't a big deal – I'm just pointing it out as one goofy expression of EA's need to control the narrative and rhetoric, which became especially noticeable in those post-book, pre-FLAG years. By that point, EA's fuse had been shortened by near on half a decade of non-stop touring / recording / writing / promoting / adjusting to the pressure and demands of an ever-growing fanbase, while also dealing with a horrorshow of personal turmoil and health issues behind the scenes. In other words: she was done taking any shit, in any form, or humoring anyone's ridiculous feedback regarding anything.
To be fair, it was never her forte to begin with. Will it come as a shock if I tell you that EA doesn't have the greatest track record for successful collaborative work? Let's do a quick-cut montage!
EA's very first corporate sponsor was her mother's “Enchant Clothing & Costume” online store 🔍; she went on to claim that her mother was dead. She sessioned for Billy Corgan, that went super well. 🎵 She liked Courtney Love for a minute, but that didn't work out because she felt that Courtney only valued her for her pee. 📝 (It probably didn't help that in early 2006, while EA was recording her post-break-up-tell-all album about Corgan, C-Love was recording her post-rehab-redemption album with Corgan. 🔍 Either way, EA didn't seem to like Courtney anymore after that. Courtney likes her, though! 📝) The one artist EA has ever approached for a duet (and by approached, I mean she recorded a demo and threw the CD on stage when he played Chicago in 2004) was, of all people, Morrissey. That never came to pass, thank mercy 🔍 – this fandom has suffered enough. In 2005, EA recorded some haunting vocals and violins for a potential collab with the frontman of Attrition. When, three years later, they were used on one track 🎵 of Attrition's All Mine Enemies Whisper, she alleged 📝 that the recordings had been obtained from her under the false pretense of a different project, then hideously altered to sound “out of tune”, and used without her permission. She enlisted her fans to boycott the album and the band, and threatened legal action. Meanwhile, on LiveJournal and Attrition's message boards, band associates were appalled: according to them, EA had been aware of the project's nature from the start... and had been completely unreachable, even through her label, during the months of its development. (Besides, Attrition is a semi-obscure English darkwave band from the 80s, whose micro-distributed albums don't even have their own Wikipedia pages... so I wonder what EA was hoping to get out of that theoretical lawsuit. These people own nothing but vintage gain pedals!) The song “Cold Hard Cash” 🎤 by Angelspit (who contributed a remix to one of her EPs in 2008) may or may not be an EA diss track. 🐀 Back when indie jewelry brand RockLove (which now has licensing deals with Disney, Marvel, and DC) was still someone's bedroom project, their first drop was an EA-inspired collection 🔍, which appears in many early Opheliac photoshoots. The partnership was terminated on bad terms, for unclear reasons; the RockLove owner shared in a statement that EA had “drunk the cool-aid” of Trisol Guy's shady business practices, and that the two of them had been spamming her with “crazed angry message[s]” for days.
Why am I talking about this? Because it was precisely one such ill-fated business partnership that triggered the Great Asylum Secession.
One fine day of spring 2010, the owner of vegan make-up brand Aromaleigh popped onto the Asylum forum to announce that they were cutting ties with EA, with damning receipts of copy-pasted emails (lost to time). Basically, the brand had been sponsoring her for half a decade, and while Aromaleigh had been actively promoting her music and tours, EA hadn't exactly been returning the favor. (Indeed, the extent of EA's sponcon seemed to have been a banner link to their website on her front page, and a single “random drunken endorsement” LiveJournal post that kind of reads like satire📝, from 2005.)
EA responded by banning the owner's account, deleting the thread, and posting this flippant statement a few days later:

Dearest Plague Rats, To be honest, I have no idea of what the hell happened with Aromaleigh, and I don't care to find out – the whole drama is a complete mystery to me, as I've been away for months touring and have not been in contact with anyone. All I know is that I've been promoting the company for ages and have not asked them for anything in years. (...) Please focus on more interesting things. I am. (“Save the Drama...” forum post, March 2010)

Posts questioning her good faith in the conflict were deleted from the forum. Shortly thereafter, citing how prolific and labor-intensive the Asylum forum had grown, EA shut down all non-EA related subforums – which, among many other topics, included a pretty active thread about Aromaleigh products.
So one Plague Rat decided to create a separate, members-only forum 📝, where users could recreate some of the now-defunct off-topic threads... and also freely voice their critical opinions of EA's behavior without fear of backlash from mods or rabid stans. Thus, “The Reform” was born. (Reform [n]: amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved.)
For a few weeks, the two-state solution seemed to work fine. And then word spread among forum mods and other diehard fans that there was this horrid other forum, where obsessive haters gathered to spew disgusting lies and vitriol about EA... and soon enough, it was bedlam in the Asylum.
Any explicit mention of the Reform was forbidden on the Asylum forum. Suspicion of participation in the Reform would get you banned. The party line was that The Reform was the enemy 🐀 – even though a number of people were active on both forums, because they liked freedom of expression almost as much as they liked EA. Double agents would lurk on the forum and report back with snark material; sycophants would infiltrate the Reform to identify traitors – much to the amusement of the “haters”, who mocked them and their ilk for “licking EA's pink sparkly boots”. There was no containing the seething, or the sass, among Asylum ranks.
Pretty soon, the insubordination spread to Tumblr. There was the “Ask the Reform” Q&A blog, where questioning fans could interact with “Rebel Rats”, get more details on past drama, and make up their own minds about the people EA called bullies.
And then, there were the “confession blogs”, which published anonymous submissions about EA, positive, negative or neutral, with little censorship. Finally, you didn't even have to pick a throw-away username on a private forum to voice your hottest / strangest / most controversial EA takes. Fans could vent, rant, lament, wonder, shitpost to their heart's content, anonymously. Obviously, given the context of frustration and censorship in the fandom, a lot of the first waves of confessions were EXTREMELY negative.
EA's acolyte Veronica managed to get the first one shut down. If memory serves, she misunderstood the confession blog format, and may have believed that all the posts on “Emilie Autumn Confessions” came from one or a small group of individuals. She was genuinely devastated, and wrote the blog admin to let them know that they were a terrible person who said terrible things. The admin was mortified, apologized profusely and deleted the blog of their own initiative. (Which goes to show that the concept did not come from cruel and malicious anti-fans, as detractors often claimed.)
But a new blog sprung up almost immediately, with a different mod team, and did not surrender. And much like in EA's own book, once the Plague Rats found out that they possessed the gift of speech... well, they really took to it.
Established in 2011 and passed on through generation after generation of mod teams to the present day, Wayward Victorian Confessions would turn out to be the longest-lived institution in the EA fandom. For over a decade now, through all the bleakest nights and dankest debacles of the Asylum, and despite its initial reputation as a troll den, WVC has acted as a kind of neutral ground and vox populi for the active fanbase and anti-fanbase. (The last nominally-active EA fansite to date, She Fights Like a Girl, is actually an offshoot of WVC: one of the old admins created it as a database to answer “frequently asked questions” about EA.)
Wayward Victorian Confessions has now outlived every other EA platform, official and unofficial. Were it not for the continued existence of the “troll den”, what little fan community survives in 2024 would be non-existent, plain and simple. To quote from late 20th century Canadian philosophy: isn't it ironic?

I feel like [WVC] is the only place I feel any of that old Asylum community kind of feeling I felt before EA got so focused on the book. It sucks that it’s so full of unhappiness, and I wish she hadn’t poisoned the sanctuary she claimed to have built. It’s just kind of fallen apart, like a crumbling building. (🐀 2016)

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

I live in a mid-sized Canadian community and have always enjoyed the music of Jackson Browne, since the Running On Empty album. Of course once discovering that album when it was released in '77 listened to everything before and after.
I was shocked when I learned that he was bringin his solo-acoustic tour to our city (13 years ago). He struggled through the concert, sucking lozenges to ease the sandpaper texture his throat must have felt like, but he made it through the concert, much to the appreciation of the crowd.
After the concert I purchased some merchandise... a cloth grocery bag with the "Saturate Before Using" design from the album cover.
Fast forward a few weeks and I get my credit card statement and there is some weird charge on there that I don't recognize. Like, really weird.
I contact the credit card company and they reverse the charge and issue me a new card. Months later I somehow figure out that the weird charge was from the purchase of the JB souvenir and the company on the credit card statement was actually a charity that received a portion of the proceeds.
Money was tight at this time in life and I delayed and delayed making good on the credit card charge reversal... until last week. Last week I went to the JB website, looked up charities that JB supports or is affiliated with and made a donation to Playing With Change... and wouldn't you know it... the next day on my Facebook feed appeared Jackon Browne playing Doctor My Eyes via Playing For Change.
My conscience is now clear.

Dumb question, chefs.
Any tips on recording videos in your kitchens when the sound sucks? I’m not trying to make great content per se, but the acoustics of the kitchen make recording video a bitch. Any tips, tricks or obvious things I would’ve tried if I were a smart person would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello all! I'm a complete beginner guitarist, who owns an acoustic, but is looking for more. I'm very interested in learning Jazz guitar akin to the sound of Barney Kessel, but don't want to restrict myself to solely that genre. For this reason I'm hesitant on getting a Hollow or Semi Hollow. I've heard pretty promising things about solid body hum-bucker guitars, and their ability to produce a great jazz sound.
For whatever reason, archtop les paul styles have been calling my attention. Originally I was pretty confident on the harley benton sc 550II, but after releasing that after shipping, the price would equal to that of a lightly used esp ltd ec-256, I became hesitant.
Any suggestions would be great, and feel free to go outside of the style I have described If you think a better option exists!
Thanks

My friend just bought a setup consisting of Fosi Audio Za3, Q Acoustics 3010i and a Polk Audio HTS 10 subwoofer. It's a desktop / small room setup. We played around with the subwoofer settings and inputs and it sounds best using sub out on the amp (well, obviously!) and the LFE input on the sub. Now I've always heard that in a stereo setup you should use line in on one or - when needed - both inputs. LFE should be used with a multi-channel AV receiver. Since LFE sounds best, we left it at that, but it's been bugging me for a few days now. Can someone please explain the situation? Is it simply because we both suck at setting the crossover and volume with better results than LFE produces? Maybe the combination of hardware and subwoofer placement by chance happens to be near ideal for what LFE does in this specific case? Would it be better to use one line in on the sub and keep adjusting to get an even better frequency merge? It sounds really good as it is, the speakers sound like pretty good floor standers now, so I guess the issue is just that it bugs me :)

Acoustic archtops suck

How to teach yourself guitar (my two cents)