Messages

26

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: October 23, 2018, 05:37:57 AM »

Charli XCX & Troye Sivan - Is a late 2010s ass pop song about 1999 with 1999 imagery on it.  Doesn't work for me.   Would have been interesting with either shittier autotune or none at all.  Not sure what to do with the beat though.  You could turn it into trashy eurobeat or something, but maybe not.

Lukas Graham - This made me want to listen to Murder By Death so badly.  I get the vibe he is going for, but it is way to clean and way too just straight.  Like he only really uses his range at the end.  None of it works for me, but I am definitely going back to Murder By Death since it has been ages.

Fromis 9 - The skirts and dresses in this are amaaaaaaazing.  I love all of the colour going on here.   It is a bubblegum pop song that is just like hey pretty good but I wouldn't really know what is going on in it compared to another one except that is absolutely about orgasms.

Matty B - Matty B will never be for me I swear.  He is definitely growin up!  He definitely still doesn't feel like he should be rapping the content he does.  His flow here is weak as well.

Olly Murs - I like this way more than Alex did.  it is mostly just pretty stock pop though.   Barely uses your Snoop bit though.  That is a lot of money for not a lot.

Andrew Hwang - It is an alright version of this kind of thing?  It probably would help to know who it is about.   As is I would rather listen to a Gabe remix.  RIP that best of boys.

Fromis 9 > Olly Murs > Andrew Hwang > Charli xCX and Troye Sivan > Lukas Graham> Matty B

27

General Chat / Re: What Games are You Playing 2018?

« on: October 15, 2018, 08:34:43 AM »

Yeah, the friend list thing fell really flat to me. My friends aren't actually doing anything, and if they were I'd hope they would support me in better ways than "helping me" against a final boss that I'm finding narratively ineffective.

RIP there goes all I was bringing to the table.

28

General Chat / Re: What Music are You Listening To in 2018?

« on: October 14, 2018, 03:43:44 AM »

The Coup - The Guillotine

Soundtrack for the year.

29

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: October 14, 2018, 03:28:15 AM »

melodysheep - Feynman quotes are still great.  I don't think 2018 deserves him.  I am also hoping he never did anything sketch that will ruin his legacy.   Works pretty well.

Pentatonix - Pentatonix doing musical songs is like so not me.  They are good and incredibly proficient, but this is directly outside my wheelhouse.

D-Sharp - Alex is pretty spot on here.  This is killer and works amazingly well.

Lady Gaga - I have said if she did an accoustic piano album before it would be like my favourite thing.   This is absolutely not that since it is for a thing, so it doesn't really have her belting out at full range and bleeding her heart out on a piano solo, but you know what?  I have said it before and will stick by it.  This is pretty basic Movie Soundtrack Single work and it is really good and her work on it is great.  There isn't much behind the song but it is still a great example of what it is and song writing is like the backbone of her career.

Sigala, Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor - I don't think this really is a super good use of any of the people here, its just verse chorus verse between all three of them and then for some reason French Montana gets a Featuring on it and is the best part of the track?

Halestorm - Halestorm doing some very Alice Cooper stuff.  I dig this a lot.  The top 4 is all pretty strong and like in a different week with less diverse top end this would probably just as easily be number 1 as it is number 4.

I don't think it is a week with a massive high, but it is a good chunk of just solid tracks




Lady Gaga > D-Sharp > Melodysheep > Halestorm > Sigala &co > Pentatonix

30

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: October 02, 2018, 11:50:14 PM »

With those guitars and drums mixed that way?   Yeah definitely.   Metal tends to have the snare way more forward in the mix than other genres if you get those firework pops of a snare coming through strongly that is one of the triggers where I will talk about “metal sounding drums”.  Same with the bass line as well.   Those two together tend to make the backbone of a song for me.  Whatever you do up in the upper register is going to just flavour what the bass and percussion setup.


They are even keeping with the zeitgeist surprisingly well for a band celebrating their 20th anniversary.  Like check out some Bring Me the Horizon or someone like that. More melodic stuff, production tricks in the mix and especially synth work is pretty common at the moment in the right subgenres.

31

General Chat / Re: What Games are You Playing 2018?

« on: October 02, 2018, 11:38:21 PM »

Marvel’s Spider-Man - so this is getting a lot of sugar talked around the place, so pulled the trigger on it after all.  The cops buying surveillance software off Oscorp is sketch for reasons it got a lot of talk about, but the rest of the game is all thumbs up so far.   About a third of the way through in one long sick day binge between feeling garbage.  I am playing it wrong because I go donlike all the side stuff as soon as I can, but it means I get to swing around a ton and that feels good.  Had one point of real friction during the intro to Kingpin bases where 6 waves of dudes felt really long but also simultaneously unable to meet the “get 10 finisher kills” bonus without nearly perfect play.   Then after I gave up on it I leveled up and got a second focus bar which is enormous (builds up as you get more hits without enemies hitting you, which fills up after the higher that combo meter is.  You use Focus to OHKO dudes or to heal).   That really opens up the combat system, then just generally more skill points helps.

The game feels fantastic in your hands.   It is great in motion and moment to moment is astoundingly fun.   It falls down a bit when you need to slow down in the free roaming bits thst aren’t setpiecws for you to do stealth stuff.   I had a mission that needed me to shoot air vents and I went about it wrong by climbing the building instead of swinging by doing strafe runs, but I was kinda committed at that point.   It worked it just was not the way the game is setup to handle.   In those set pieces it is spot on though.


The characters are all spot on so far, Peter is faithful but there is a thing I want to get back to.Mary Jane is straight up great so far, her as a journalist at the Bugle is straight fire.  JJJ as a reactionary shock jock after retiring from the Bugle is also quality and I love his rants that come through on his podcast feed.

Twitter analogue is pretty fun as well.

It is super polished and is a master work from the enormous team of people it took.

The timeline it takes place on is a bit weird, it isn’t bad, just weird.   It is set after Spidey has been around a while (side collection stuff references a 6 year old gym shirt, so 22-24ish).  Peter has fought most of the rogue’s gallery at this point, but they are clearly setting up Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus origin stories.  That doesn’t really mesh right with the rest of it all.  But I am also super happy it isn’t another Spider-Man origin story and Peter having two fathering figures around that will both turn nasty is solid.   Norman Osborn is kind of projecting a more sedate Willem Dafoe feeling Osborn, just in that he is a smiley slimey fuck.   Otto is great.   His VA is really doing a bang up job.   It isn’t like mind blowing but it all feels genuine.  The animation work on him is also a bit stand out.   His acting feels really good and someone got damn good use out of the massive prescription glasses they gave his model, it super focuses the eyes.


Anyway, I am glad we have the Peter/MJ relationship because it is one I really like in general, but also one with a strongly characterized Mary Jane goes far.   That said, what we do have repeating is the story of the breaking up, which repeats consistently in every retelling.  I am hoping that they can take this one further into discussing the complexity there rather than it being MJ needing him to be around more or Peter leaving so MJ is safer, but time will tell.  They seem to be thrusting towards MJ wanting to be able to help people in general and do it openly instead of behind a mask with her as an investigative journalist and with her talking about Peter’s work with Otto on prosthesis might help more than as Spidey.   They might go there, they might not.

With that said though, they broke up 6 months ago and apparently haven’t even spoken since and Peter is still carrying the torch. MJ seems to be as well (like she is pushing him into committing to asking her out isbtes did Just Friendsing), but it comes off way red flaggy than it is probably meant to.   Also it is incredibly frustrating how much the relationship completely shuts down because Peter doesn’t communicate, but that is clearly intentional.

Regardless MJ is fucking rad in this.

32

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: September 30, 2018, 01:21:24 PM »

Too Many Zooz > Marshmallow ft. Bastille > Chuck Roberts >  Within Temptation > Kid Ink > Jared Halley 

I like Marshmallow with Bastille almost purely on the strength of Bastille.  The film clip is direct and manipulative, but that's what you do with Bastille.  Chuck Roberts is good and it feels great to hear some pure house again.   Within Temptation is a pretty standard Within Temptation track, but the video looks like a Mortal Kombat movie sequel.   Kid Ink just kinda is, I am less enamored with it than Alexchan, it just feels like a rap over trap to me?   Jared Halley is fine for people into it, I just am so very not into  A Capella medleys at the best of time and this is not my kind of tribute.   

Too Many Zooz is probably too unique as a modern thing to overlook though.  I prefer Marshmallow and Bastille, but eh, its good and fun and more people could get some non-conventional instrumentation into their life.

33

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: September 23, 2018, 02:48:08 PM »

Sarah Blasko - I am assuming it is this track because it came out this week.  I am incredibly biased here because Sarah Blasko is just one of the most consistently good performers from Aus for over a decade now.   Every album is good from front to back.  The highs aren't as high as some contemporaries, but she is always a well above average performer and is absolutely in my wheel house.   She is probably easily in my top 10.

Kitten Girls - Yeah pretty on the money with this one, I don't have much to say about it.

Megaherz - It is that same sort of Rammsteiny Deathstars sound that I like.   It rates pretty good, but I don' t think it is better than Deathstars is.  So it probably means it isn't really in competition with Justice and Sarah Blasko which are the favourites of the week.

WJSN - Hits that same kind of feeling as like Dead Boy's Poem by Nightwish, but feels slow and when you are slow compared to Prog Metal then you are pretty meandering.   Feels way longer than the 2 and a bit minutes it is... It is pretty, but doesn't really have much for me to cling on to.

Two Year Vacation - Eh this ain't really me.   I like pop music, but this just isn't the kind of pop I dig.

Justice - Okay the video clip carries this pretty far.  It is solid Justice track but isn't quite as strong as some of their great classic.  Like there isn't as strong a wall of sound of one strong clear tone with that infinitely danceable beat like say D.A.N.C.E. has.   It is still a good track.


Sarah Blasko > Justice > Megaherz > WJSN > Two Year Vacation > Kitten Girls.


Same as Alex mostly but Sara Blasko is one of my personal favs, so eh .

34

General Chat / Re: Good Morning 2018: 3 More Years...

« on: September 19, 2018, 09:03:23 AM »

Google search for the below if you can’t work it out from the context clues it provides.

Stormy Daniels Mario Kart

35

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: September 15, 2018, 04:48:17 AM »

eminem > Nicki Minaj > Black Violin > Lee Jungpyo > Jake Owen > Paul McCartney


Black Violin - Its good.

Jake Owen - It is me and country.


Lee Jungpyo - Very pretty.

Paul McCartney - It is me and Paul McCartney.

Nicki Minaj - Yeah we know Nicki Minaj is one of the hardest working consistent artist in the last 10 or so years.

eminem - It is eminem, this is all apretty known quantity and his technique is unassailable at this point.

36

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: September 10, 2018, 03:26:29 AM »

Fuck.   How did I miss there was another page.   Goddammit.

37

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: September 08, 2018, 11:45:46 PM »

Andra Day > Northward > Dead Posey > French Montana > Zedd > Keith Urban

I can spill a ton of ink about Keith Urban about his history and rise to fame and all about how he is carefully crafted career to never be to my tastes.

Zedd track was kind of okay but nothing earth shartenning, so I thought by track three I might be suggesting French Montana purely on the strength of a catchy tune and a great video.   Northward and Dead posey are both revival types of track in genres I like with Northward being super poppy hair mentally hard rock, like it is reaching back to that period before it was all super glam, but you are still righting a power ballad.   There is probably an essay in me about the overlap of pop metal and pop country and how I enjoy the first and absolutely loathe the latter.   Dead Posey is another 70s rock revival sounding group and do a killer job at it.  A few years ago when I was right in that groove I would have been all about this for s few weeks.

But Andra Day was bang right in the place I am at these days.   Big strong vocals and dysfunctional relationships.   I didn’t catch that it was Hamilton related until near the end.   Good clean singing and super well constructed track.   It makes sense that it has a strong narrative carrying it through if it is from a musical.   Regardless it totally works as a stand-alone track and for me personally is high and above the best related thing to drop out of it in isolation.

38

Discussion / Re: DLCon 2018 recap thread

« on: August 20, 2018, 03:36:02 PM »

Sopko showed me pics of the bathrooms.   That was some truly precious well below code DIY.  You can SEE the moments of "I can do that cheaper on my own" and "well fuck" on every single wall.  It was amazing and resulted in a building that looks like an alien simulacrum of a living space.

Missed you guys but sounds like it was a good time in general.  Glad you seem to have enjoyed hanging out with all my good boys there Sierra.

39

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: August 20, 2018, 03:17:18 PM »

Elle King > Lethal Bizzle > Omnium Gatherum > Kiesza > Crush > Caleb Hyles

I love how loud all the clothes in that clip are.   The top 4 all have a lot going for them though, but Elle King is a mix of loud and strong and distinct character and sound that I want.   Lethal Bizzle is all running on outrage and Lady Leshurr feature, but that is two strong things.   Kiesza gets lots of points for being kind of weird and a dance version of Phantom of the Opera is a cool idea, but it doesn't completely nail it in some way that would have elevated it, but not sure what it needed to tip it over (probably just a better audience than me for it).  Omnium Gatherum shreds and is a cool track that is emblematic of a kind of metal I like.   

Crush is pretty damn good too and is solid, just didn't do heaps for me.

Caleb Hyles I guess shows that it isn't just Disney stuff I am not a super fan of that kind of cover, but *shrug*

40

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: August 12, 2018, 03:11:02 PM »

Aphex Twin > Le Butcherettes >>> Paloma Faith  > Red Velvet  >>>> Beyond The Black > Caleb Hyles


It was Le Butcherettes in a walk until Aphex Twin, but that is some seriously Aphex Twiny ass Aphex Twin.  He melts my brain still.

Le Butcherettes is really freaking damn good though.  Red Velvet is notable for how weird it all is.

41

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: July 13, 2018, 02:11:24 PM »

Korpiklaani > Christine and the Queens > Omnium Gatherum > Riton, Kah-Lo > Charlie Puth

Riton, Kah-Lo - This is a kind of rap I have already said I dig in the past and yeah this I like a bit more than Alex it seems, I think it is better than Okayish, but it isn't like auto top or anything.

Christine and the Queens - This is fucking sick.  Like it is a mix of stuff that I can't quite put my finger on (probably because I type this up as I listen to another song).  First part felt like Daft Punk but then it flowed into something else with the rhythm line and I was trying to pick that, then I lost it and tried to pick what the vocals reminded me of.  It doesn't really matter though, I really dig it.

Omnium Gatherum - This is also exactly a kind of metal I like down to the growly rough vocals and the kind of thing it is.  It is like Amon Amarth but less good, but I reeeeaallly love Amon Amarth.

Korpiklaani - But this is also what I am expecting is the Grefter bait.  Korpiklaani are constisently in my top picks and this is no different.   This one is especially mellow for them.  Like this isn't even metal drumming like is my usual Melodic stuff is actually metal.   If it wasn't an electric bass and a kit drum I could easilly just call this folk stuff to be honest.  But whatever it is still my shit.

Charlie Puth - I liked the first 5 seconds and then everything but the lead guitar riff was happening.  I hoped it was gonna be some cool fast rock at first and then it was oh nevermind.  It is some polished snooze pop in the year where that is not even a thing any more because everything got replaced with sad pop.

Kristen Collins - I like this a bit less than Alex.  There is some stuff to it, but its just less Grefter.

42

General Chat / Re: 2018 Miscellaneous Links: It's an Albany expression

« on: July 10, 2018, 04:40:24 AM »

White Wolf publishing in general is weird.   White Wolf do the new WoD setting and stuff, but there is a branch of stuff with a bunch of people that used to work at White Wolf that have a license to publish stuff for old World of Darkness stuff called Onyx Path Publishing.   They on the other hand are apparently pretty damn cool and well worth watching.


So.... just be careful with stuff and check who is putting out the work if you are looking into it.  It is all over the shop.

43

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: July 07, 2018, 11:01:53 AM »

Jupiter > Elza > Dillon Francis > Halestorm > Yellow Claw & Sofia Reyes > Golden Child


Part of me wants to say to pick Dillon Francis so I see you try and explain Fortnite to your family.

Elza is pretty fun in the same way all that kind of rap has been.  I like taking back Catch me outside.  Haltestorm, Yellow Claw & Sofia Reyes and Golden Child all feel a bit more flat.

Jupiter though?  After the weird 15 seconds of nothing (is there a different regional thing of putting your cross promotion up front in videos or something?) there is nothing bad I have to say about it.  I love all the fashion in here.   I love Japan doing speedy hair metal stuff.  I love that the entire film clip is Sierra/Castlevania as fuck.  Its just all around top of the week for me in every way.  It is like what if Dragonforce was good and also filled with Draculas.

44

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 29, 2018, 10:04:20 AM »

I didn't think Alex was going to reply that quick, so I edited in a bunch of things over the top of just saying Florence + the Machine because well of course that was my pick.

45

General Chat / Re: 2018 Miscellaneous Links: It's an Albany expression

« on: June 29, 2018, 09:13:48 AM »

Like all corporations are.

46

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 29, 2018, 09:12:00 AM »

Florence + the machine >>>> The Knocks => The Night Flight Orchestra > momoland > Kimbra x Dawn > Powerwolf > Rob Lundgren


Obviously Florence biases me massively.  So I was going to do top 6 of my own and order them, but eh I got 7 so thats fine.

Lots of stock metal with the numbers filed off.  The Knocks is probably the most unique of the week?  I dig the shades, but I am also super into Night Flight Orchestra and will probably buy the album.  momoland and Kimbra x Dawn both feel like I should have more to say but eh don't really have words.

47

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 25, 2018, 02:38:04 AM »

I just like a different kind of metal a tiny bit more, that is all this means.  Alex is pretty on point.

Kobra and the Lotus > Minseo > Diamante > Paul McCartney > A Sound of Thunder > Jared Haley

I could probably babble a bit about Paul McCartney and how much this sounds like a song from 10 years ago mainstream folk my rock but I need to hit Post.

48

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 15, 2018, 09:01:28 AM »

I don't think I really have tons to say this week that isn't kind of self evident?  Like can see a world where there is not much generally standing out because everything this week is really good.

For me though, I fucking looooooooooooove Tove Lo.  So bitches is easily the top track for me this week.  That said, man I really like Big Shaq.  It is a bit of a retread of the same joke, but I don't think that matters.

Also Lindsey Stirling touring with Evanesence is like some very very specific Grefter eras to target, but two things I dig a whole ton.  That would be an absolute killer night of music and if they both do live shows on the same tier as their music clips the costuming would amazing all damned night.

Tove Lo >> Big Shaq > Evanescense = Lindsey Stirling > Lily Alen > Kimura Dai x Sakakibara


None of this is a slam on any track, Kimura Dai × Sakakibara could easily top the week we went back to An Chi Hwan.   This is all absolutely a testament to how much I love that Tove Lo album and this mix with guest vocal doesn't hurt that track at all.

Also The Last of Us 2 is showing us that Lesbians are mainstream now.

49

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 12, 2018, 11:00:58 AM »

Kesha - I like this better than the last single.  It is a fairly stripped back song for a pop song, but it still very pop.  The real star here is the lyrics though.   Kesha is the humanist pop star we needed?  It doesn't matter what happens after we die, it matters what good we do now for everyone.  That's my jam, especially in 20XX this dark future we live in.

Hayley Kiyoko - Messy people, presenting about queer relationships, eh you would peg it as my kind of thing but something doesn't click.  It might be that I don't want a pop song like that after Kesha?  That just means that Kesha goes higher on the list though, so that's fine.

Babymetal - I am biased here, I have been listening to this for 2 years now since Metal Resistence came out and I like it a fair bit.  On the one hand, yeah Alex hit the nail on the head with how anime it is, but do you know what else it is?  It is really similar in song structure to God Gave Rock and Roll To You which is an incredibly formative song because of the Bill and Ted association.  Also this is an amazingly well produced live track.  Both from just like the quality of the performance and the quality of the video production.  They are just bang on with polish and execution

Meghan Trainor - This takes too long to get to the funk tones that nearly made me nearly dismiss this as completely losing her main style, but they get there with guitar tones eventually.  There really isn't much use of her vocally though.  The vocal style was kinda what I was there for?  So shrug.

snh48 - Being proto Babymetal in a week with Babymetal in a live track where they dunk all over you is not great.

Rita Ora - So I talk about how Hayley Kiyoko is a bit too pop compared to Kesha for me and then this comes on and it is pop with no rough edges left on it and yeeaahhhhh I still like this more.  Should I be worried about how commercialised specifically women are in this wave of stuff?   Could I talk about how some of this stuff doesn't get further than making out?  Probably not with that rap verse.  Definitely not with Tove Lo - bitches playing immediately after on the autoplay which has "Let me be your guide when you eat my pussy out" in the first verse.  THis is all pretty fun.

Babymetal > Kesha > Rita Ora > snh48 > Meghan Trainor > Hayley Kiyoko.


Feel free to drop Babymetal a place or two in working stuff out if you don't want my amazingly strong bias.  I love the band and that track is like bringing back  Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong or 풋풋 - Freshman Song again some time.  Songs I still really dig from way back when this started up.

50

General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: June 03, 2018, 01:32:42 AM »

Schmoyoho - prequel memes are pretty dead and Sand ones were run into the ground before Prequel memes were even a thing.  I will pass on this.

Sick Individuals - this is a solid “okay” in that trashy synth tones dance track genre I like.   There is a lot of that this week and it is probably the strongest musically for it.

KHS - These singers don’t need that auto tune.

Halestorm - I have aaaabsolutely been where what this song is about.   This is 20s Grefter and Zenny.wav and it is a kind of rock that I like.   So this is massively inflated for me.

Clean Bandit - the other trashy synth song of note.   It is an awful lot to just talk about masturbating.   Demi Lovato also got way more auto tune going on over her than I would want.   Rides more on the film clip than the music compared to Sick Individuals.

M.O x lotto boyzz x mr eazi - there is way too much going on here.   It is an incredibly busy song.   Stuff using that trap sound to make not a trap song sometimes seem to miss that the odd sound need to be given more space to work.

Halestorm > sick individuals > Clean Bandit > KHS > schmoyoho > M.o & more


I would be super down to revisit An Chi Hwan.