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(03/28/18 8:30pm)
By Tanner Kinney
The internet is a place filled with many strange things. If this column has covered anything, it’s the bizarre and oddly specific nature of internet obsessions. Some things may start as jokes, fun memes that originate from small communities. Then it spreads, and suddenly people that would never expect to stumble upon something strange end up on some bizarre website. But that’s enough about the forum for weirdos who chew ice, we’re obviously here to talk about vaporwave. First, start up this song, which is the first result when you type “that one vaporwave song” into basically any search engine. It’ll get you into the a e s t h e t i c mood.
Now, dear reader, your first question is probably what is vaporwave? Well, that or “why is this so pink?” or “what is the statue head doing there?” or “isn’t this just a Diana Ross song slowed down with some synth put over it?” I’m not going to answer those questions, because I don’t think anyone knows the answer. I do, however, know much about vaporwave. Vaporwave is a music genre that originated in the early 2010’s as an ironic version of chillwave which is a subsection of synthwave which spawned from electronic music. One of the earliest known songs to use the vaporwave name was a song called “Laserdisc Visions” in 2011. This song shares all the hallmarks of vaporwave: chill beats, stanky 80’s synth and midi loops, and parts of the song seemingly getting stuck and jumping back like a scuffed music CD. It’s all very a e s t h e t i c.
The video accompanying it also does a good job showing that delicious vaporwave aesthetic. It’s very 80’s, loaded with washed out, neon colors. In most cases, blues and pinks are used, combined with distortions on parts of the image, and use of Japanese text I can’t read, but I’m sure it means something. Actually, I’m not sure anyone making vaporwave with Japanese text can read it either, but it’s a key part of it. Old tech, like bulky computers and ancient Windows/Macintosh logos are also a part of aesthetic. Particularly, the Windows 98 GUI finds itself in a lot of vaporwave aesthetic images. These images are also loaded with dated references to things that would be only found on old internet. I’m not sure why a dolphin is trying to convince me it isn’t a virus, but that’s just suspect.
But that’s just base level vaporwave, and most of that is the publicly known meme side of vaporwave. Vaporwave, however, has deep lore and a number of artists that go beyond the ones already mentioned. My favorite Spotify playlist to listen to is a vaporwave playlist, which consists of artists like James Ferraro, VAPERROR, Black Banshee, Saint Pepsi, death’s dynamic shroud.wmv, 18 Carat Affair, and artists who have a lot of Japanese characters in their names. Even though much vaporwave is best when listened to as a full album from front to back, somehow shuffling all these different artists and music styles blends together into an aesthetic soup that is just addictive. I drink this soup by the gallon straight out of the pot and even though it burns my soul, I keep doing it.
Another staple of vaporwave is using soundbites and imagery from advertisements in the 80’s within the music, or creating a mock of those sort of soundbites. The album v i r t u a l r e s o r t ™ by the group CYBEREALITYライフ is a good example of this, as the lead on that album uses various text-to-speech programs (another very aesthetic thing) to introduce a fake website that’s actually a real website: http://virtualresort.org/. The website, of course, plays that song as well, which is just beautiful. The amount of care and effort put into something that seems like a complete joke is phenomenal and I wish I cared as much about things in my life. Saint Pepsi had a widely popular music video on YouTube that uses “Mac Tonight” from 80’s McDonalds commercials to accompany a song that really is a jam. Now, while Mac Tonight may have a… questionable image nowadays thanks to some little Fasclets on /pol/, the song is just so good, like the whole album.
A lot of vaporwave music videos (made by fans of the music more often than the artists themselves) use this kind of grainy VHS footage of old advertising to go with the songs, and it fits together very well with the aesthetic of the music. Particularly, videos that use clips from bizarre Japanese advertisments are my favorites, because Japanese culture is also a part of that vaporwave aesthetic. It may all seem a little strange, but that’s just how it is. I didn’t make it, though I sure wish I had. I’d love to have that tied to my life history, instead of just being a fraud.
Of course, all of this is still kind of a meme. Things like Simpsonwave or other pop culture icons with the word “wave” attached on the end seem to stem from vaporwave, even though vaporwave itself is a legitimate genre of music. Synthwave itself has a number of meme songs that aren’t considered vaporwave even though vaporwave is that sort of meme genre. This is just one of those times that the joke is so high quality that I actively want to listen to it. Vaporwave is like the Poe’s Law of music: you can’t tell if it’s satire or genuine until you ask the creator themselves. Then again, does it matter if the music is good? Even Simpsonwave is good despite being a meme. I’d say my particular favorite kind of vaporwave are songs that sample old video game sound effects, particularly Mario’s voice from Super Mario 64. I don’t know why I like it so much. I don’t know why I like any of this so much. I stopped worrying about it long ago. Don’t you understand? It’s all in your head.
And that’s about it for vaporwave. Does that explain anything? No, it probably doesn’t. There’s so much about vaporwave and its aesthetic that just seemed to spawn out of nowhere and our collective unconscious just accepts that it’s how life is. Of course vaporwave uses Japanese text and sculpture heads, why not? Even vaporwave itself just seemed to appear one day and had a small group of people latch onto it and spread it out beyond their subculture. Then the normies find it and are no longer normies because they understand vaporwave. Fun fact: I once tried to create a new genre of music that mashed up vaporwave and nightcore. I still have them buried deep in the hard drive of my computer. They’ll never see the light of day again. Trust me, it’s better that way.
(03/29/18 4:00am)
The internet is a place filled with many strange things. If this column has covered anything, it’s the bizarre and oddly specific nature of internet obsessions. Some things may start as jokes, fun memes that originate from small communities. Then it spreads, and suddenly people that would never expect to stumble upon something strange end up on some bizarre website. But that’s enough about the forum for weirdos who chew ice, we’re obviously here to talk about vaporwave. First, start up this song, which is the first result when you type “that one vaporwave song” into basically any search engine. It’ll get you into the a e s t h e t i c mood.
(04/01/18 2:00pm)
TRIGGER WARNING: POLITICS WILL BE DISCUSSED
(04/01/18 2:59am)
This week on Remixed/ Coven we are talking about inspirational women because this month is International Women's Month! We are also discussing Drake's cover of Lemon, Eminem's controversial new song, Lil Dicky's new song, and Pearl Jam's out-of-the-blue release.
(03/27/18 10:11pm)
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/remixeds3e7the-covens4e6-international-womens-month[/embed]
This week on Remixed/ Coven we are talking about inspirational women because this month is International Women's Month! We are also discussing Drake's cover of Lemon, Eminem's controversial new song, Lil Dicky's new song, and Pearl Jam's out-of-the-blue release.
Hosted by: Tyler Wheatley, Daley Wilhelm
Edited by: Dylan Bateson
Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm
(03/28/18 4:00pm)
We're back witches, with another magical episode of the Coven Podcast. This week, we're looking at social media and how it can have it negative sides. Social media can be used for a plethora of things, but there are definitely some negative activities that occur. Be prepared, because we talk about some serious topics in this episode of The Coven.
(03/25/18 1:00pm)
By Ben Sapet
On March 25th, 2008, Panic at the Disco (at that point sans exclamation point) released their delightfully strange sophomore album, Pretty. Odd. Despite radically departing from the taut angst of their first album, Panic asserts that they’re “still the same band” on the opening track. Maybe that’s true, but their tone and sound as they say it seem to indicate otherwise. Pretty. Odd. makes room to discuss what constitutes the essence of the band: whether it’s their sonic identity or the musicians themselves.
The Pretty. Odd. stage of Panic! at the Disco’s discography (when the punctuation shifted from their name to their album title) drastically stands out from the similar drama and breathy sexuality of their previous and next albums—A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and Vices & Virtues respectively. If A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out set its stage in a smoky burlesque club doubling as a brothel, Pretty. Odd. takes place in the morning when the debauchers have trudged out and the windows have been opened and the sun’s been let in for the building to breathe. After they brought the shutters back down for Vices & Virtues, Panic! has never returned to the sun-drenched parlor where it’s always nine in the afternoon.
That’s the magic of Pretty. Odd. It sits on its grassy hill distant from the Panic!’s cabinet of symbols and motifs, far from the taut moments of conflict that define their discography. Gone are the tense exchanges and trial-by-fire moments of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Instead, Pretty. Odd. finds meaning in vibrant personifications of nature and small doses of reality crouched in fantasy. A psychedelic naturalism and lively effervescence spills from its 15 eclectic tracks.
The album begins with an exuberant breaking of the fourth wall, thanking fans for their patience before seamlessly transitioning into the now-iconic piano opening of “Nine In the Afternoon”— the song that sets the stage for the eternal sunlit moment in which the album takes place. Then, on “She’s a Handsome Woman,” the band takes on an orchestra-backed, chugging Rolling Stones sound before promptly switching gears again. “Do You Know What I’m Seeing” juxtaposes a very Panic! at the Disco moment of tumultuous ultimatum with thoughts of wind, weather, and a life with priorities run astray. Over an orchestral ebb and flow of harmonica, acoustic guitar, prominent strings, and distant squawking crows, this is the point at which the album begins to reveal that, as another fourth wall-breaking transition indicates, “things have changed.”
Then, with a faint static crackle and an earnest singular acoustic guitar, all the layers are stripped away and Urie’s smooth measured tone seems to melt into its place alongside the music; “Northern Downpour” exhales and, six tracks in, we arrive at the clearing where Panic! finds the mellow mysticism that defines the album. At this point, Pretty. Odd. transcends the '60s rock influences that shape the album’s first half. The lyrics become beautiful abstractions that weave human love and nature into one and relish the sound and emotion of the words rather than the meaning (this lyrical style would go on to become one of the band’s staples—especially on Death of a Bachelor). The instrumentation changes as well, finding mystery and magic in its blend of baroque orchestra and tinges of folk—this made all the richer by production that begs for, if not necessitates, listening with a good pair of headphones.
Pretty. Odd. filters thoughts of lost love through a deeply romanticized, often psychedelic connection with nature. Songs like “When the Day Met the Night” feel like a floating daydream in which those memories of lost loves turn into a story of the golden moment “when the moon fell in love with the sun” and the moon’s plea for the sun not to break her heart. Several tracks later, on “She Had the World,” softly callous verses and a tender harpsichord tell the story of the girl (the moon) who “spun the stars on her fingernails,” but “couldn’t ever win me / Because she couldn’t catch me.” As gentle and reassuring as the song may try to be, it doesn’t hide the heartbreak at the end of the idyllic relationship formed in “When the Day Met the Night.”
As the album ends and the fantasy begins to dissipate, you’re left with two options: to move on into a world that feels much more like that of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and Vices & Virtues or to delve back into the mellow beauty of the place where it's nine in the afternoon and reality only comes in waves. After ten years and a handful of new Panic! albums, Pretty. Odd. still basks in its distant, timeless moment seeing memories form in the clouds.
(03/25/18 4:00am)
On March 25th, 2008, Panic at the Disco (at that point sans exclamation point) released their delightfully strange sophomore album, Pretty. Odd. Despite radically departing from the taut angst of their first album, Panic asserts that they’re “still the same band” on the opening track. Maybe that’s true, but their tone and sound as they say it seem to indicate otherwise. Pretty. Odd. makes room to discuss what constitutes the essence of the band: whether it’s their sonic identity or the musicians themselves.
(03/19/18 7:25pm)
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/remixeds3e6-stay-sleeping-on-bobby-tarantino-ii[/embed]
This week on Remixed we are discussing Logic's new album Bobby Tarantino II. Was it a flop or a banger? Which do you prefer, mixtape Logic or album Logic? All of this and more on this week's episode.
Hosted by: Tyler Wheatley, Matthew Yapp, Erik Dingus
Edited by: Joe Bursley
Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm
(03/15/18 9:37pm)
By Ryan Fine
In 2010, Titus Andronicus achieved a breakthrough with their towering Civil War concept album The Monitor, a record featuring wildly raucous vocals, bagpipe soloists, and a host of outside collaborators. After calming down with the relatively normal Local Business, the band established their reputation for reckless ambition with The Most Lamentable Tragedy in 2015. This five-act rock opera, which clocked in at over 90 minutes long, was so dense and expansive that some critics thought it pushed the boundaries too much for its own good.
To follow up this monolith, Titus Andronicus has returned with a concise effort that excludes many of the bells and whistles found in their previous work. Though several tracks on A Productive Cough exceed the seven-minute mark, the band’s vision is ultimately simpler and more focused than at any other point in their career.
(03/13/18 3:29pm)
Indiana is not exactly known for music production. While people like Michael Jackson and Matchbox Twenty’s Kyle Cook were born here, Indiana is no music giant. However, there are still artists everywhere working hard and producing work. Indiana is home to many incredible local artists.
(03/12/18 9:00pm)
by Baylie Clevenger
Indiana is not exactly known for music production. While people like Michael Jackson and Matchbox Twenty’s Kyle Cook were born here, Indiana is no music giant. However, there are still artists everywhere working hard and producing work. Indiana is home to many incredible local artists.
Former Vandal is a musical duo out of Fort Wayne, comprised of Quinn Wentz (vocals) and Christian Delzoppo (drums). Currently, on Spotify they have more than 57,000 monthly listeners. They also have popular songs like “Well Off” which has reached more than 700,000 streams, “War” which has reached more than 500,000 streams and “Good Kid” which has reached more than 188,000.
<a href="http://formervandal.bandcamp.com/track/war">WAR by Former Vandal</a>
<a href="http://formervandal.bandcamp.com/track/please-mama">PLEASE MAMA by Former Vandal</a>
They recently spoke with Byte about who they are as artists and what being an artist in Indiana is like.
(03/02/18 2:30pm)
by Ben Sapet
In the late 1970s going into 1980s, horror movies changed dramatically as genres shifted from psychological thrillers to slashers, and the piercing string-heavy scores gave way to tense, swirling synthesizers. This change was due in no small part to the now-legendary writer, director, and composer John Carpenter (most famous for Halloween and The Thing) who effectively changed the sound and atmosphere of horror movies. At the same time, theatrically macabre metal acts like Alice Cooper and KISS gave way to the pop-infused glam metal made famous by Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Quiet Riot.
The intersection of these movements in film and music inspires Carpenter Brut’s latest album, Leather Teeth. The French synthwave/darkwave artist has not been quiet about the inspiration he’s taken from John Carpenter (his namesake) and metal. The album manages to combine these inspirations to great effect.
Leather Teeth is framed as the soundtrack to an imagined 80s coming of age slasher movie of the same name. The release trailer introduces the movie/album’s concept. A freak lab accident transforms a nerdy high-schooler who’s been scorned by the cheerleader he likes and bullied by the football team into a Jekyll and Hyde-esque character. His Jekyll is Leather Teeth, the front man for the ghoulish glam rock band, Leather Patrol. His Hyde is known only as the Beast, a gruesome slasher who, in typical slasher movie fashion, hunts and kills the band’s groupies.
(CONTENT WARNING: Gore and sexual content)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CVqlEwHJrk
(02/26/18 8:30pm)
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This week on Remixed we are discussing the ever incredible Kendrick Lamar and his soundtrack for Marvel's new Black Panther. Join us in the lively discussion over this stellar album release.
Hosted by: Tyler Wheatley, Matthew Yapp, Dylan Bateson
Edited by: Kailey Fugate
Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm
(02/26/18 12:06am)
by Preston Radtke
On U.S. Girls’s sixth full-length album, the project finds a sonic balance, a beautiful conglomeration of sounds spanning multiple genres and personalities. U.S. Girls’ brand of electropop is more integrated and well-rounded on this release than ever before. Jazz, disco, and funk are all blended to help shape this project’s ever-growing sound. Thematically, the record deals with typical problems that women face in 2018. Lyrically, the record is fierce and defiant. Instrumentally however, that same angst and confidence seems lacking.
(02/24/18 9:17pm)
by Eli Sokeland
It’s been a little while since Franz Ferdinand has released an album. Their last release as a band was the studio album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action in 2013. In the meantime, they released FFS in 2015, a collaboration with the band Sparks. Since their previous album, the band has changed its lineup. While Nick McCarthy, a founder of the band, did leave, the band gained a music producer and two new full-time members for this album. With their most recent disk, called Always Ascending, there are obvious differences from Franz Ferdinand's most popular hits.
(02/22/18 11:31pm)
One day after Valentine’s Day we were graced with a gift better than any bouquet of flowers or box of chocolates: a new single from Frank Ocean. Ocean’s late-night Valentine’s gift to the world was not a new album, as some had hoped, but a striking cover of “Moon River.”
(02/21/18 6:45pm)
By Ben Sapet
One day after Valentine’s Day we were graced with a gift better than any bouquet of flowers or box of chocolates: a new single from Frank Ocean. Ocean’s late-night Valentine’s gift to the world was not a new album, as some had hoped, but a striking cover of “Moon River.”
Where the original Audrey Hepburn recording relies on her breathy whispers tinted with wistful longing to give the ballad its simple, dreamlike beauty, Ocean’s layered vocals and swelling, synth-infused instrumentals lend his version a poignant sense of heartsick contentment. Ocean’s “Moon River” speaks, like much of his discography, to the bittersweet aches of life and love.
As usual, Frank Ocean gives us more than we deserve. Our holiday dedicated to love seems mired in the hackney consumerism from online flower deliveries to poorly chosen jewelry and the obligatory chorus of groans from singles everywhere. This year, as the pink candy was discounted and the little red hearts went back in storage, the clouds parted and Frank Ocean descended with a rich, moody song to balm hearts overwhelmed by love found, love lost, and love never reciprocated.
As an artist, Frank Ocean continues to evolve and grow without ever letting his new work unravel the old. Every piece seems to pick up where the last left off, changing stylistically but without Ocean ever deviating from his role as the nuanced storyteller and gifted musician at the center of it all. Frank Ocean moved from the sample and reference-heavy memories etched into each song on nostalgia,ULTRA to the vivid imagery, elaborate production, and anthological storytelling of Channel Orange. Four years later, the layers were stripped back with Blonde. Its comparatively minimalist production, inward focus, and aching melancholy made Blonde a startlingly intimate, emotional experience that feels more like connecting to Ocean himself than observing his art. Now, Ocean’s “Moon River” follows the scattered exhaustion at the end of Blonde’s hour-long odyssey of unrequited love with a gentle croon that finally finds a tender satisfaction in remembering the love he felt.
We’re lucky to have Frank Ocean as he is: a sensitive recluse who pours his life almost solely into his art. Ocean’s near complete absence from social media and the celebrity news cycle makes the intensely personal nature of his recent art all the more influential. Eschewing the gossip and oversharing that characterizes modern stardom, Ocean’s life exists not in headlines, but in his music. His music isn’t a celebrity confessional that sparks gossip and stokes feuds to light social media ablaze. Frank Ocean uses his talents as a storyteller to share his own story by carefully reconstructing the emotions, moods, and moments that color his life. The jokes about Ocean taking his time and the pleas for more new music from him speak to more than just a restless fan base—we want to share another intimate moment with him in the world his music creates.
We haven’t done anything to deserve the intricate beauty Frank Ocean brings into this world, yet Ocean continues to use humanness, with all its raw spots and vulnerabilities, as his muse. As we wait impatiently for his next album, we should be thankful that Frank Ocean has decided to invite us into his life and his music.
(02/19/18 3:51pm)
by Ryan Fine
MGMT, the indie pop superstars who burst out of the gate in 2007 with the beloved Oracular Spectacular, may never have as much commercial success as they did with “Kids” or “Time to Pretend” or “Electric Feel.” But even knowing this, they’ve never allowed themselves to take that as an excuse to stagnate or play it safe. With Congratulations they followed up their debut with a strangely experimental but mostly successful ode to the past. Their 2013 self-titled album took a much bigger risk, removing the band’s signature pop hooks and replacing it with much more demanding left-field music. It didn’t land on most ears. Not even a little bit. In fact, with such a clear decline in quality between their second and third albums, no one really expected MGMT to be able to come back with nearly the same addictive strangeness they used to make.
Which is to say, no one expected Little Dark Age.
The title track and lead single from Little Dark Age is a bit of a misleading teaser. As one of the more serious and “normal” songs on the album, it occupies the niche of being a more straightforward song that’s heavily influenced by The Cure. But further singles like “When You Die” and “Hand It Over” have been much better signals of the absolute madness that defines this record, even in comparison to previous albums by MGMT. It brings back the strong choruses and hooks that define great pop music, but it also adds a near cabaret-level element of dramatic darkness to the mix. Little Dark Age is truly a head-scratching album, but only in the best possible ways.
(02/15/18 8:07pm)
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On this week's episode of Remixed, we discuss Keys N Krates, Rick Ross, Steve Aoki and Daddy Yankee, and LAXX. Kick back with us on some chill vibes from some electronic albums and some emotional love songs.
Hosts: Tyler Wheatley, Phil Akin
Edited by: Tyler Wheatley
Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm