Weird Al is an icon of the music industry. He might not necessarily be the best but certainly the most famous of a very niche genre, the musical parody. Weird Al has spent decades bringing humor to his audience with his trusty accordion and his knack for making up new words to songs that already exist. His most famous songs include Amish Paradise, Eat It, Like a Surgeon, and White and Nerdy, just to name a few. With such a strong focus of making Biographical movies in Hollywood these days, it’s not much of a suprise that Weird Al would get his story projected on the silver screen. However, if you were looking for a serious and informative movie on the life and times of everyone’s favorite accordion player, you are not in the right place. But if what you are looking for is a hilarious parody of the movie genre known as the BioPic, you are exactly where you need to be. It only makes sense that this is a parody, after all Weird Al made his name off of parodies. If this movie was in any way serious, it wouldn’t have been 1/32 as good as it was. Helmed by first time feature length director Eric Appel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story started off as a sketch on the website Funny or Die directed and written by Appel himself. Over the next decade, there would be discussions on making the Sketch into a full blown movie. During this time, Appel built up a reputation by directing episodes for hit sitcoms like The Office, New Girl, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Finally the project came to fruition with some serious talent attached. Not only does this movie star Hollywood heavyweight Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, it also stars Rachel Evan Wood as Madonna and Rainn Wilson as Dr. DeMento. It also features big name comedians Jack Black, Conan O’Brien, Will Forte, Quinta Brunson, Patton Oswalt, and Weird Al himself in cameo roles. The performances is this movie are spectacular, especially Radcliffe who is able to simultaneously capture the energy of Weird Al and the absurdity of Music BioPics. One minute he’s making sandwiches and playing his accordion and the next he’s doing copious amounts of drugs. Wood is also fantastic in her role as Madonna, who acts as the villain in the film. Madonna being the villain in a Weird Al biographical movie might be the weirdest sentence you have read today, but it is far from the weirdest thing in this movie. Weird is straight up weird, in every sense of the word. The movie isn’t even based in our reality and that might be the best thing about it. The jokes in this movie make fun of our reality and how artists lives are dramatized for the sakes of selling movie tickets. Almost all of the jokes land and at times, you’ll find yourself laughing uncontrollably. The story makes zero sense but in case you haven’t figured it out yet, that is not the point of the movie. Weird is excellent, probably the funniest movie of the year and does all of this while staying true to the essence of Weird Al. I highly recommend this movie to anyone even if you aren’t familiar with Weird Al’s Music. 5 Stars

WMU Student Releases Debut Instrumental Album No6o9y, also known as Michael Dabrowski, is a current sophomore at WMU studying Investments and Marketing. Originally from Farmington Hills, Michael has spent most of his time in Kalamazoo playing guitar, piano, and making music on the software program Ableton, which he started to learn in 2020. Prior to production, Michael enjoyed contributing to the editing community on Instagram. His first album OULUVESSENSE dropped on Black Friday, and we met with the artist to discuss his story. What is the definition of OULUVESSENSE? To me OULUVESSENSE is a place to escape, my place to escape. This is a word I made up, and my definition of it is: ‘The feeling of always being in a dreamy or dream-like state of mind’. I feel like other people would like to be in this ‘dreamy state’ of mind as well. I didn’t come up with the name OULUVESSENSE until late April of this year. I heard this song called Clairvoyant by MISOGI, and I thought ‘ooh, Clairvoyant, what a name, but it’s a real word in the dictionary, and I’m never gonna get something that sounds similar to that’ so I just came up with my own. I love that. Going through the tracklist of the album, what’s your personal favorite? Hmmm, that’s difficult. Nostalgia/009 means the most to me I’d say because it really felt like my dad was with me when I wrote it. He kinda guided me through it. That song just came out, it was easy, I made it an hour when usually I would spend four hours on a song. For You, I’d Give The World really hits, especially because it’s so short, like a short story. It means a lot. For what it is, it’s a lot. And then Emergency!. Emergency! is one of my favorites because I’ve never made a song where I couldn’t and didn’t want to add anything else to the melody. It was the first time I had the finished product. That was all I needed, besides a little drum beat that I added. Moving on from that, which song took you the longest to make? The single version of Spec!al definitely took the longest, and then In My Dreams, but those are on the album as instrumental versions. For the actual instrumental tracks, Fever Dream took me a long time to make. It didn’t at first because I only had the beginning section, but my friend ended up coming over a few weeks before I released the album and really helped me finish up everything. I spent the most time trying to get the ending perfect and wondering how to end a dreamy album. Right, because you want to stay in that state. Aside from working with friends, where do you draw your inspiration from, as a child and now? It’s weird because my mom always liked to listen to Drake and she really liked her RnB and hip-hop music. My dad liked electronic music, so he would listen to Skrillex and artists like that. I had the best of both worlds. Growing up, I really loved and I still love Drake, especially his old music, oh my god. That inspires me so much, along with Skrillex and deadmau5, all those artists from back in the day. When you mix both of those genres together you get cloud rap, which is a synthesizer, hip-hoppy, A$AP Rocky, back-in-the-day kind of vibe, and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. Now I’d say I have inspiration everywhere. There’s this new artist I found named DVRST, he makes funk music but dreamier. I still listen to Skrillex, I can resonate with a lot of his melodies. I also developed my own ear finding dubstep and electronic music on the YouTube channel Trap Nation. On there they post a lot of different artists, things like the Trendsetter remix by Lucian. You can hear that in my songs, I pull from everyone. They say when you try to make a song based off of anyone or anything else and you fail at it, it becomes your own music. That was my goal. I pulled everything I thought was creative and inspirational and made it mine. That’s great. I would love to hear the process of how you came out with an album. I knew I wanted to come out with an album in late December of 2021, but I didn’t know what I wanted the theme of it to be. In terms of the tracks, the earliest song I made was For You, I’d Give The World. I made that probably two years ago and it was just sitting inside my computer, but I thought it’d be the perfect interlude to bridge the first part with the second part of the album. The last song I made on the album was What Now. I made that a week before the album dropped (laughs). Wow! In the summertime, I was working a landscaping job so I had a ton of time to think by myself. I could focus, listen to music or podcasts, and that was my time to decide what I wanted to do with this music thing. During that time I thought ‘hmm, might as well just make it about my life’. I feel like my life in the last year or so has been pretty interesting, I went through a lot of tough situations. What’s the meaning behind it? I decided to write the album about going through something extremely traumatic in your life that actually alters something in you. I wrote about that happening, going through the aftermath, and then making sure you’ll be better than you were before. The first part of the album has a lot of regret and self hatred for thinking that it was a good idea in the first place. The transition, that bridge, is coming to terms with the event. The second half is moving on and being the person who doesn’t get mad about things anymore. They accept what has happened, ‘it is what is’, ‘this is my life now’. ‘This event doesn’t define me, it just built my character more.’ I basically took a bunch of songs from my files that were begging to be released and tried to figure out the story that linked them. I don’t create music to fit into a certain message. Instead, I make a bunch of songs and then listen to all of them to figure out what the story is, because indirectly and subconsciously, I wrote those songs about something. I make music to let out my feelings. Without specific lyrics though, you get to decide what it says. I feel like I’m giving the listener the story, which makes it more fun that they can interpret it how they want. However, future projects are definitely going to have more lyrics. I just wanted to prove that I could make an instrumental album. I feel like a lot of artists nowadays don’t do that. That’s a good point, to show you can make a story without the lyrics to guide you. Obviously this album is very personal to you. Yeah definitely, not only is my first ever self released album, but yeah, it was my life. I had to get that stuff out and release it somewhere. I believe that therapy works for everybody differently, and my therapy is music. Music gets to tell me how I feel. It was so nice to get that weight off my shoulders. Gosh, preparing an album is so difficult but so fun at the same time, and it was so nice to leave the story up for grabs and see what it means to others. Eventually I would love for some of my favorite artists like A$AP Rocky, Drake, Wiz Khalifa, and Lil Wayne to jump on the tracks and do whatever they want to them, think whatever they want about it, making art out of art. I see it! Speaking of art, tell us about your cover art a little bit. When I made this album I thought, ‘how much information can I put into something without telling them?’. The cover of my first single, In My Dreams, is me as a child reaching up for the stars, my goals. I’m realizing how much I need to accomplish to get to where I want to be, not believing in failure. The goals are in my head, in that dreamy state of mind, but mentally it’s very real to me. My cover art for Spec!al is me on a cloud in a criss-cross position holding one of my most valuable goals. I’m observing how it looks and feels to have your goal. I feel like at some point your dream world will merge with reality, and that’s going to be so cool. Some of my dreams have definitely become reality, but I have so much road to travel. I write about my dreams, in my dreams, and the music sounds dreamy too. It’s a triple entendre. The OULUVESSENSE cover art is the zoomed out version, the rest of my dreams. It’s me looking out and realizing I have so much more to go and it’s overwhelmingly so, because there are so many stars in that sky. I hyperfixate on being successful, it’s all I can think about. I wanted to make my cover art a collage that expresses what I live every day, going after those individual stars. Last question! We want to know, what’s coming next? What’s coming next… Well, you know what’s coming next. You and I have a song releasing on December 7th, my birthday, titled ‘Isn’t Love Something’. I wrote the melody a year ago, it has the same vibe as Emergency! because they were written around the same time. The rest of it I wrote in one go, I pulled an all nighter. It’s about missing a person and how that brings up conflicting emotions. Following that, I want to take some time to rest and let people sit with OULUVESSENSE. I might drop on New Year’s Eve to set the pace of 2023. Hopefully there’ll be some shows in 2023. Who knows, Valentine’s Day might be looking promising. We thanked Michael for his spoken interview and can’t wait to hear more released under no6o9y! In the meantime, stream OULUVESSENSE.

Christine McVie, keyboardist, co-lead singer, and writer of Fleetwood Mac passed away on Wednesday, November 30, 2022 at the age of 79. She was instrumental in the making of many of the band’s greatest hits, and I wanted to take time honoring her. Joining the blues band Chicken Shack in 1967, Christine Perfect helped the band reach its first minor hit – a cover of the Etta James song I’d Rather Go Blind, a song that Perfect would later rerecord for her eponymous debut solo album. It was on tours with Chicken Shack that Perfect would have multiple run-ins with then blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac. Mac’s founder, Peter Green even asked her to be featured on keyboards on the band’s second album, 1968’s Mr. Wonderful. When working alongside Fleetwood Mac, Perfect grew close to the bassist and the namesake of the Mac part of Fleetwood Mac, John McVie. She would soon marry McVie in 1969, taking his name and leaving Chicken Shack in fears of not seeing each other much when both working in separate bands. McVie released her debut album, titled Christine Perfect and later retitled to The Legendary Christine Perfect Album following her success in Fleetwood Mac. The album was blues and soft- rock, featuring a mixture of original songs and covers, including one of When You Say from the Fleetwood Mac album Then Play On. After helping with backing vocals and even painting the cover album of Mac’s fourth studio album, Kiln House, McVie officially joined the band. Future Games was the first Fleetwood Mac album to feature McVie as a full-fledged member, which also had Bob Welch on guitar, which started shifting the band away from blues rock, and more towards folk and pop rock. McVie wrote and sang lead on two of the album’s nine tracks. McVie’s time with Fleetwood Mac continued with Bare Trees, Penguin, Mystery to Me, and Heroes are Hard to Find. With each new album, Christine contributed more and more and became an integral force of the band. Some of the best pre-Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac songs are by her from this era, and I highly recommend songs like Spare Me a Little of Your Love, Remember Me, Did You Ever Love Me, The Way I Feel, Why, and Come A Little Bit Closer. Each song carries the soul that McVie would be famous for bringing into her later with the band and the Rumours five would even cover many of the songs on tour. The songs, helped by Welch’s guitar, Mick Fleetwood’s drums, and John McVie’s bass feel like they would fit right in with the band’s albums of the late 70’s and 80’s. After Bob Welch left the band at the end of 1974, Fleetwood Mac needed a guitarist. Mick Fleetwood, the band’s drummer, met with producer Keith Olsen who played a recently recorded album, Buckingham Nicks, which impressed the band. They approached Lindsey Buckingham to join as guitarist, who agreed on one condition: that his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks could also join. The band agreed to this on one other condition: that Christine McVie felt comfortable with Nicks. Christine knew that since Nicks didn’t have a dedicated instrument like the rest of the band, along with her unique style and fashion, she would likely become the figure head of the band. McVie never felt threatened, and agreed to the two joining the band, a decision that everyone in the band knew was right when they heard McVie sing with harmonies with the two newcomers, who added more pop to the blues. With Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks now in the band, the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album was released to moderate success. However, after touring for months on months, the album reached no. 1 on the US Billboard 200. The album was home to many of the band’s biggest hits, such as Landslide, Rhiannon, and Say You Love Me. Alongside Nicks’ Rhiannon, McVie was the writer and lead vocalist of three of the album’s singles Over My Head, Warm Ways, and Say You Love Me. The band had made for themselves and drew up plenty of talk as they worked on their next album, Rumours. After the release of the White Album, Fleetwood Mac was in a rough spot. Not only had Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks broken up, but Mick Fleetwood discovered his wife and mother of his two children, was having an affair, and Christine McVie and John McVie had begun to file for divorce, ending eight years of marriage. The McVies stopped talking to each other about anything but music and the next album. The making of the next album was fueled by this breakup energy and lots of cocaine and other drugs, resulting in exhausting and tension-filled studio sessions. Christine’s contributions to Rumours (named after wild speculation from the press), while also fueled by the tensions between the bandmates, provided more upbeat and softer music to balance Buckingham’s angst filled songs and Nicks’ more emotional songs. Track 4, Don’t Stop, was one such upbeat track, becoming the album’s third single and one of the band’s biggest hits, even being used by Bill Clinton as theme music for his 1992 presidential campaign. You Make Loving Fun is a song written about an affair McVie was having at the time, which she originally told her ex-husband was about her dog so as to not fuel any more fights, and became the album’s fourth single. Oh Daddy is a slower paced song dedicated towards Mick Fleetwood, who along with being an actual father, had to be the dad of the group during the recording sessions. Songbird is a beautiful piece comprising of just piano, vocals, and supporting guitar by Buckingham, and is one of her most famous songs. She wrote it in one night, and was recorded in an auditorium to get the right feel. The song has likely been played in thousands of wedding since it released. McVie, along with the rest of the band, contributed towards writing The Chain, with a demo of hers being used for many of the instrumental parts of the song, including the famous solo used for coverage of Formula One. Rumours released to instant success, selling over 10 million copies in under a month. It is heralded as the band’s best album, as well as one of the best albums of all time. To this day it is currently the 8 th highest selling album of all time, having sold over 40 million copies, and regularly is in the top 10 vinyl selling charts every month. Following the success of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac wanted to try something different and not just try to replicate the sound of Rumours. Buckingham took charge and in 1979, Tusk released. McVie provided six of the twenty songs in this double album which is known for its avant-garde style. McVie opened the album with Over and Over¸ beautiful and calming song that invokes the style of Rumours and was used by the album as a sort of bait into the wildly different The Ledge and other songs provided by Buckingham. One of the singles of the album is McVie’s Think About Me, which is beloved despite selling poorly. Tusk sold poorly, especially in comparison to Rumours, so the band decided to so back to a more pop-rock sound for the band’s 13 th album, 1980’s Mirage. Here, McVie contributes four songs, Love in Store, Only Over You, Wish You Were Here, and Hold Me, which became one of the biggest songs for the band and one of the band’s first music videos. Following Mirage, McVie released her second solo album, also self-titled, called Christine McVie. The next album Tango in the Night, is perhaps the biggest showcase of Christine McVie in the band. Here she wrote and co-wrote five songs, either alongside Buckingham or with her then husband Eddy Quintela. Along with the beautiful Mystified (and its even more beautiful instrumental demo on the deluxe edition), Isn’t It Midnight, and You and I, Pt. II, McVie wrote and sang two of the biggest hits of the band and of her career: Little Lies and Everywhere. Even just last month, Everywhere topped iTunes charts due to its presence in a car commercial. After Tango, Lindsey Buckingham stepped away from the band and they hired Rick Vito and Billy Burnette to replace him on guitar and vocals for the 1990 album Beneath the Mask. While the album was not as big a success as the ones created by the Rumours Five, it still sold well and Christine’s songs Save Me and Skies the Limit both performed reasonably. Stevie Nicks was the next member of the band to step away, with her leaving after rights disputes. Rick Vito also left, with one-time band members Dave Mason and Billy Burnette coming in for Time. The album did not do well, missing the charm of Nicks and Buckingham, but the highlights of the album remained with McVie. I Do, Hollywood, Nights in Estoril, and Sooner or Later all show off McVie’s talents, but my favorite song of the album, and one of my favorite songs of her is the penultimate track, All Over Again. This song was written as a farewell to Fleetwood Mac as most knew it, with the lines “Well it’s time to move on to the rain, and finally break the chain” as a nod to The Chain. After Tango released and her father died, she took a break from touring and never embarked on the Time tour. However, after Buckingham, Fleetwood, and both McVies collaborated on a solo project of Buckingham’s, they decided to have a reunion. With Nicks joining them, they went on tour and released the live album The Dance, which reached number one in the US album charts. In the album, McVie did live performances of Everywhere, Say You Love Me (ft. some killer banjo by Buckingham and a rare backing vocal performance by John McVie), and Don’t Stop, which featured the University of Southern California Marching Band. Also featured was an original song by McVie, Temporary One. Following the tour, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, but stepped back from Fleetwood Mac due to a developed phobia of flying, which was later treated. She only had minor contributions to the 2003 album Say You Will, which despite still being a great album, definitely felt different without McVie present. However, she did release another solo album in 2004, In the Meantime. It wasn’t until 2014 that McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac, spending the time between away from the public eye and with her family. She joined the band for tours since then, and in 2017 she and Buckingham released Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie, which featured every member of the Rumours Five except Nicks, and is essentially a Fleetwood Mac album in everything but name. The album is an underrated gem, with hits by both artists, and Christine’s vocals and arrangements are as great as ever. She contributes Feel About You, Too Far Gone, Carnival Begin, Game of Begin, and my personal favorite, Red Sun, which encapsulates the homeliness and comfort that makes Christine’s songs so good. McVie’s most recent release was from this past summer, Songbird (A Solo Collection), which encompasses many remixes of Christine’s solo work as well as two previously unreleased songs and a beautiful and majestic orchestral version of Songbird. This was the last piece of work released before she passed, and though many wanted a farewell tour of Fleetwood Mac, she stated in interviews that she was skeptical of it ever happening. And it looks like it never will. The chain has finally been broken. Christine McVie is the first of the Rumours Five to pass, a group that managed to make an album so universally beloved and a soundtrack of any bad breakup. Not to mention the countless other hits and songs McVie has contributed to, along with the keyboards and backing vocals on many of the other Fleetwood Mac favorites like Dreams or Go Your Own Way. Sympathies from around the music world have been shared through social media to McVie’s family, from classic rock musicians like the Heart sisters and Bob Seger, to modern musicians who grew up on McVie’s work. Some musicians who are on tour have even sung some of her songs at concerts, such as Keith Urban singing Say You Love Me or Harry Styles singing Songbird. And of course, McVie’s bandmates have all written notes and messages about McVie’s death and her legacy. Christine McVie may have passed, but her music lives on and will continue to touch the lives of listeners and fans for years to come.

As a person who loves music and data, I have been anxiously awating the release of Spotify Wrapped. So here is a little about my Spotify wrapped! My top genre of the year was Indie Pop. This did not come as a surprise to me, since I do listen to quite a bit of Indie Pop. I also play a lot of indie pop on my show, which I find my music for on Spotify. My next genre was Emo Rap, likely here mostly due to my Lil Peep listening. This is the second year in a row that emo rap was my number 2 genre. Honestly though I would love to listen to more, if you have recommendations please send them to widr.promotion@gmail.com Next is Pop, which came as quite a surprise to me at first. The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense to me. I listen to quite a bit of 2000s/2010s hits, as well as a lot of Taylor Swift which is what I believe got it ranked #3. Number 4 is Pop Punk, which was my number one genre in 2021. This fall makes sense to me, sense I do listen to significantly less pop punk than I did last year. My number 5 genre was Rock. Between classic rock, new rock, and many rock subgeres, this feels like a solid one to close out my top 5 Now onto what we really care about! I listened to 73,156 minutes this year, a 2,070 minute increase from 2021. I'm honestly quite annoyed that Taylor Swift is my top artist of the year. I listen to most of my Taylor Swift on iTunes or CD, so the fact that she is this high is slightly concerning. My number two artist was Lil Peep, down from #1 last year. I have a lot of Lil Peep in many of my different playlists, so this make sense. Next is Waterparks, whom are my favorite band right now. Their older stuff is mostly pop-punk, while the newer stuff I would say is more generally alt-rock. I play them frequently on my show so I'm actually surprised they aren't higher. Girl in Red is down 2 spots from 2021, which makes sense because I listen to significantly less of her this year. I just haven't been as into the soft-indie sound as of recent. For the second year in a row, Rav is in my number #5 spot. Rav is a rapper and producer whom I had the opportunity to see live in March. That said, I really haven't listened to a lot of his discography, and It's just me listening to the same couple of songs on repeat. My #1 song of the year was "Lovers Rock" by TV Girl. For the second year in a row, the number 2 spot is taken by "FUCK YOU HEATHER" by Boyish."Reverse Cowgirl" by Mickey Darling takes my #3 spot this year. In my number 4 spot is "Freaks" by Surf Curse. Finally, my fifth most streamed song was "what about you?" by Worst Party Ever. All five of these songs are songs that 'itch my brain' and that I listen to very frequently. These are also all songs I was listening to all year, so they had a lot of time to rack up listens.

Overly Polite Tornadoes is a husband and wife dream pop duo from Kalamazoo featuring Mark Andrew Morris and Holly Klutts-Morris. They have been releasing music and playing shows in Kalamazoo and elsewhere for 8 years now under the name, however both are members of ‘Glowfriends’ and ‘Tambourina’ with projects dating back to the late ‘90s. All three bands frequently played Kalamashoegazer, an annual dreampop and shoegaze festival that ran for 13 installments, with the most recent being in 2019. In October, Overly Polite Tornadoes released their fourth project, i will hold you someday. I had the opportunity to talk with Mark about the band and their new album. So, first, about the new OPT album. This being the first album released under the name since 2019, was the process of making the album particularly long, or was there a break between the last album and when production of this recent album began? We were originally working towards releasing a new record in 2020, but when Covid hit we put everything on hold. When it started to become apparent that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon, I decided to allow myself the freedom to just record songs as we wrote them (without giving any thought to whether or not they would become part of an album). Having an outlet during this time was super helpful, so we just kept writing and recording and it was really cathartic. Towards the end of 2021, we decided we were ready to listen back to all of the songs we had been recording. From that point on it was just a matter of figuring out which songs belonged together. I saw that the new album was released through Jam Records, as seems to be the case with the rest of the OPT discography. Can you talk about the relationship between OPT and Jam Records? My Dad has been releasing his own music on Jam Records since the 1980s and he helped me get my start with Glowfriends, which began as a recording project with my Sister, April. This record is a joint release through our label (Memory as Music) and Jam Records, which has been super helpful in getting our music out there during a time when more new music is being released than ever before. According to rateyourmusic.com, Glowfriends formed in 1996. Is this true? Is Glowfriends still active? Are there any other bands or projects adjacent to OPT and Glowfriends? I began writing songs in the basement of my parents house in 1996 with my older Sister, April. We recorded an album called 'Glad To Be Here' which was released in 2000, and we started to get a full band together around 2003. Glowfriends officially disbanded in 2014, but eventually the remaining members of Glowfriends started a new project called Tambourina. Tambourina is a four-piece Dream Pop band, and we released our first full length record in 2021. My sister, April and her husband Adam Zimont also have an acoustic, ethereal project in the works called Vida Eterna. Can you explain what Kalamashoegazer is? Are you involved at all in the event or do you just perform? Kalamashoegazer is an annual Shoegaze and Dream Pop music festival that started back in 2007. I have had different levels of involvement in booking the fest over the years (contacts, designing posters, ect), but April is the visionary making it happen year after year. The festival hasn't happened since 2019, but we are hoping to return it to being an annual event in 2023. With a new album, a music video and a few shows under your belt for the year, it seems that OPT is as prolific as ever. Are there any concrete plans or goals for future shows or music? My brother (Peter Morris) and I made the 'Porch Ligh't video together and we are hoping to collaborate on another music video in the coming months. Peter also has a couple bands (Cardboard Highway & Alarm Set PM) and he is planning to release a new Alarm Set PM album very soon. We are always writing and recording new songs and we are looking forward to releasing more music and playing more shows with Overly Polite Tornadoes, as well as Tambourina in 2023. I will hold you someday is available on streaming and on CD and vinyl through the Overly Polite Tornadoes bandcamp page.

Although this is my first time hearing sow, I first started listening to Scuare before seeing him at the Exoiety, "The Out of the Woods Tour" last spring. That said, this is my first time listening through one of his albums start to finish. Something I find interesting is that average song length on this album is higher than I feel like I'm used to seeing as of late at 3:30 a song. Before diving in I also want to mention that I LOVE this album cover. The album starts with "The Price," which I think is a great starting point for the album. It's pretty vibey, and had a good flow. Around 1:40 he gets pretty staccato, which I enjoyed. The last 20 seconds consists of a conversation with high distortion. Personally I prefer that kind of thing in the intro. Next is "I bet you think this song is about you" which has some static sounds which is very interesting, and something I'm not sure I've heard in a song before. It's an incredibley vibey song, with some really good lines. I added this song to my playlist. "Skin Deep" is the third song on the album, and a complete vibe. The energy isn't super high, but it kept me intrigued. It once again ended with distorted audio clips. "Fall Away" featuring No1mortant is the next song on the album and although it's really good, nothing really stuck out to me. "Runnin Man" is the most streamed song on the album, and for good reason. It's a super fun song, and I sent it to a couple of my friends whom I thought would enjoy it. I was super excited for "Open Wounds" featuring Kill Bill: The Rapper, another member of Exoiety. I really love the rhythm of the chorus and how they work off each other. I look forward to hearing this song in my rotation. "Which side are you on?" is the shortest song on the album. Like the end of the previous song, it has distorted speaking. On this song however he adds lots of interesting effects and sounds. I would love to see a longer version of this song in the future. "The Grift" features Jonny Jukebox, which makes this song stand out from the rest of the album, as he is more of a singer than rapper. I enjoyed Jonny's verse quite a bit. The last minute is mostly Scuare, and probably one of my favorites parts of the album. Next is "The Cost" is fun, and I enjoyed the listen, but nothing really stuck out to me. "Sun on the Horizon" is the least streamed song on the album, as well as the final song on the album. I think this was a great song to end the album with, it has many of the elements heard throughout the album and acts to bring everything together. I was expecting this to be a slightly higher energy album. I enjoyed the album, it's just not what I'm personally really into at the moment. If you are into vibey/chill rap though, I recommend you give this album a listen!

I was made familiar with Jeff Buckley by his version of the song Hallelujah, which I feel is where most people know him from. In September, Hallelujah had come on in my music shuffle and prompted me to listen to some of Buckley’s other work. Though I overall enjoy his discography, Grace is definitely the stand out album. The seventh song on the album, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” has got to be my favorite track on the album. The song takes you on a full journey, starting slow and mellow and building to the climax where Buckley belts his heart out. The song, which was inspired by a break up he recently went through, is about regrets he has about his recent relationship and how he wants her back again. Buckley’s heart wrenching lyrics paired with his strong vocals make for an extremely emotionally intense song. "Grace", the second track of the album, has a more upbeat instrumental with a lot of acoustic guitar in the mix, a running theme throughout the album. The song is about not being afraid of what life is going to throw at you, even death, because you are happy and motivated by the love in your life. The already deep meaning of the song resonated even more with fans after Buckley unfortunately passed in 1997 at the age of thirty. Though the original release of the album is only eleven songs, the Legacy Edition of Grace includes many other amazing tracks. My two favorites have to be his cover of "Mama, You Been on My Mind" as well as his cover of "The Other Woman". Though all of the extra tracks are studio outtakes or alternate versions, the understated vibe of these tracks have a certain charm to them. Mama, You Been on My Mind is such a calming song in general. The original version sung by Bob Dylan is great in its own way, it has a much happy, folk-like vibe to it. Jeff Buckley’s version feels like a completely different song due to the different vibe. It is a lot more mellow and makes what was once a happy song feel really sad. Similarly, Buckley’s version of The Other Woman, originally sung by Nina Simone, is my personal favorite version of the song. Though Lana Del Rey and Simone’s versions are both beautiful, hearing the song sung by a man makes it seem like a completely different song. Not to mention, the song shows off Buckley’s vocal range in ways other songs on the album do not. Overall, the album Grace is definitely one of my no skip albums, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Upon hearing the devastating news of Takeoff’s passing on November 1st, I was inspired to listen to some of his best verses not only as an individual artist, but also his contribution to the rap trio Migos. Takeoff was only 28 years old before his life was cut short, though his legacy is one that will not soon be forgotten. Unfortunately, so many more talented and young musicians have been lost to tragedies such as accidental overdose or gun violence. On last week’s ‘Playlist Show’, I was inspired to create a mix honoring the people who have become victims to the cruel undersides of the music industry. Some of these musicians include; Pop Smoke - Pop Smoke was only 20 years old when he was fatally shot during a rental home invasion in Los Angeles. His music, categorized as Brooklyn drill rap, has deeply impacted the hip-hop community. His label continues to release albums such as Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon, posthumously. Some of his most popular songs include Foreigner, The Woo with 50 Cent and Roddy Rich, and Show Out with Kid Cudi. Juice WRLD - This Chicago born rapper changed the game in the Midwest with his merging of emo vocals with hip hop verses. He was lost to a seizure induced by drug use at the age of 21, and the news of his passing shocked the country. His label continues to release albums such as Legends Never Die posthumously and he has additionally won American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards since his passing in 2018. PnB Rock - PnB Rock was a rapper and singer who first gained a following after the release of his song ‘Selfish’. He was killed during an armed robbery while he was eating at a Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles after his location was revealed through social media. He was a father and advocate for the artists in his industry. He was only 30 years old. Nipsey Hussle - The death of rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle deeply impacted his hometown of Los Angeles, California. Outside of music, he was recognized for his commitment to his community through his philanthropies such as Marathon Clothing store. In addition, he denounced gun violence through his lyricism, work, and influence. He was recently awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mac Miller Throughout the entirety of his twelve project run, Malcolm Miller left a large legacy on music and rap before his life tragically ended at the age of 26. His legacy continues to affect younger generations deeply. He continues to make change through the Mac Miller Fund, which works to support young artists in Pittsburgh. Additional artists lost to these tragic circumstances include The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Amy Winehouse, Young Dolph, XXXTentacion, and King Von, among others. It’s important to commemorate these people and raise awareness for the problems that they and their families have suffered from. Due to the nature of their careers, most famous musicians deal with mental health issues, while others additionally deal with violence. When we focus our attention on these problems, we can educate others and advocate for a greater change in our society. If you would like to spend some time remembering these artists, feel free to check out the TAKEN TOO SOON playlist on WIDR FM’s Spotify. If you yourself are struggling with substance abuse or would like to educate yourself on the reality of gun violence, consider utilizing the resources below. Counseling Services through Western Michigan University National Violence Prevention Hotline Gun Violence Archive SAMHSA Hotline: A support line for any American experiencing emotional distress 1-800-662-4357

I found out about Alex G. from the song “Sarah” and adored the song. My infatuation with the song led me to listen to the rest of the album. The sixteen track album is the perfect listen on a rainy fall day. The alternative, distorted, folk-like vibe of the music paired with the emotional lyrics makes for a very unique sound that scratches my brain. The sad lyric and upbeat backing is reminiscent of the Smith’s and their style. After a full listen of the album, the song “16 Mirrors” stands out the most to me. The background vocals paired with the acoustic guitar differentiates this track from the others on the album. Though the sound is slightly different, it still sounds cohesive with the rest of the album. The meaning of the album, and all of the songs individually, is left up for the listeners interpretation. My interpretation is that each song represents an individual “mirror” of how Alex see’s different parts of himself, and the final track of the album (“16 Mirrors”) is about how he sees himself as a whole and all of these different facets become one being. As said before, I love the song “Sarah.” The use of wind instruments on this song is really interesting and makes the song cohesive with the rest of the album. The heartwrenching lyrics of the song talk about going through the motions and letting others down, which at this time of the semester is quite relatable. The guitar in this song also stands out, it is very repetitive which adds a deeper meaning to the song. The repetition of the guitar represents the repetition of the days that someone feels when struggling with depression. Overall the album has a very cool and mystical vibe to it with heartfelt and meaningful lyrics. The pairing of the sound and lyrics makes this album one of my personal favorites and a no skip album.

Yooo guess who’s back It’s Nik back for his second installment of whatever this series is called, somehow my first blog didn’t scare off the people from WIDR! There really hasn’t been a solid string of albums I could critique and shittalk, it’s been kind of boring! So I kind of just picked out some big names in the past couple weeks that dropped stuff and kind of just ran with it!!!! First up: Black Eyed Peas’ ELEVATION I am extremely upset with myself for staying up to listen to this. I try to listen to at least one new album per Friday right after midnight, but nothing else caught my attention except for a new project from the Black Eyed Peas. As someone who hasn’t listened to the Black Eyed Peas since 2010, imagine my shock when I found out that the group hasn’t changed their sound since! I was honestly shocked they still made music. They threw in some reggaeton, but that’s all they did to change it up. This is an incredibly boring album littered with features from Daddy Yankee and other people I haven’t heard of, and a collaboration track with Shakira and David Guetta to cap it off, which is actually a deeply terrifyingly bad and severely outdated idea. It’s even worse in concept! There’s some really corny and bad stuff in this. If a collaboration from hell wasn’t enough to sell you on this album, there’s a track with an awful interpolation of “Scatman” by Scatman John. I am incredibly concerned that they’re actually trapped in 2010, and probably thinking about how one of these songs is gonna make a sick level in the next Just Dance game for the Wii. Rating - 2.5 / 10 (Actually Really Bad) Second: Yung Gravy’s Marvelous This is the first full album I’ve heard from Yung Gravy, and I’ve heard his music 2018 or 2017, long before he got his TikTok boost, and it seems like another case of where he hasn’t seemed to grow as an artist. It’s one thing to hear these tracks individually as singles, they’re a lot more tolerable that way, and it doesn’t feel as overbearing. However, when you have to listen to the exact same “I want to have sex with your mom” joke 15 times straight throughout the span of 40 minutes, it’s an absolute pain to sit through. Don’t get me wrong, he’s incredibly charming, but his music and charm really only seem to be digestible for incredibly short amounts of time. It can be slightly amusing, and “C’est La Vie” is a really strong standout single from this, but if he continues doing the same schtick he’s been doing since 2017, I don’t see him staying around for much longer. Rating - 4.5 / 10 (Not Very Good) Third: Drake & 21 Savage’s Her Loss God what a cover The rollout for this album has been very weird. Mentioning it’s being made a week or two before release, making fake Vogue covers and an NPR Tiny Desk performance and almost immediately getting a lawsuit in return, and Drake posting hentai on his Instagram story a few hours before release. I found it really difficult to enjoy this. My main issue was that it’s extremely boring, especially since it clocks in at a full hour and offers nothing interesting. A lot of people seem to believe this is the return of Drake, going back to his Nothing Was The Same and Take Care-era of music, but it’s not. I feel like it’s more of a result of the fact that his two past albums, Certified Lover Boy and Honestly, Nevermind, were so incredibly bad that people treat Drake when he’s just okay as if it’s the second coming of Christ. Outside of a Travis Scott feature, I remember nothing about this album. Check it out if you hate yourself ig Rating - 5.0 / 10 (Boring) Fourth: Joji’s SMITHEREENS "Glimpse of Us” is one of the best singles to come from this year so far, so I was looking forward to this album a lot. It was extremely disappointing. The album feels unfinished, and I really don’t know if it was supposed to be longer or not, but a 24 minute runtime is kind of ridiculous. It’s split into two discs, one side with “Glimpse of Us” and a few other, fairly forgettable ballads, and the other side with a quality to it that I can’t describe other than thinking it’s unfinished, most likely because the songs are labeled as demos and freestyles. How are you going to have an interlude between four songs? I don’t know if he was contractually obligated to make this “album” or if he felt like he needed to throw something out there, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by the result. Rating - 6.5 / 10 (Okay) Fifth, and Finally: Quadeca’s I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You Finally, the LAST album I wanted to talk about, from a rapper off of YouTube that I didn’t pay attention to until the rollout of this album. But wow, this was right up my alley. It’s got a folktronica sound to it, which I didn’t expect from a YouTube rapper, but on top of that, he got two features that caught me by surprise. Danny Brown, the rapper behind my favorite album of all time Atrocity Exhibition, as well as Swans’ Thor Harris, another incredibly good band with a similar sound to this album. It’s a very moody and emotional ride, and I left speechless by the time it ended. Songs like “born yesterday” or “fantasyworld” take you on a rollercoaster, and the production on those tracks, and the whole album, envelops you in these stories he’s trying to tell. I can’t really recommend it enough, I was surprised by it, the music community was surprised by it, and it may surprise you Rating - 9.0 / 10 (Incredibly Good!!!) Honorable Album Recommendations: Changes - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard SEE YOU THERE - Matt Watson De Todas Las Flores - Natalia Lafourcade

Last week I sat down for a conversation with Jordan Miller, the lead singer of The Beaches, and I like to think it was a good time despite my initial nerves. The Beaches are one of the most promising bands working today, after all, and have been since 2013! At this point in time, the Canadian rock band has gone from Family Channel child-stars to Juno Award winning openers for the Foo Fighters, Rolling Stones and Passion Pit. I just caught them at the tail-end of their first headlining tour in the US, and End of Summer--the band’s newest EP--has just come out. The future looks bright for Miller. How was your Halloween? It was very fun! I went to a wedding with two of my other bandmates and then I went to a couple parties and then an afterparty. So, yeah. A long one. This was yesterday? This was Saturday. Sorry, yesterday I didn’t do much. I just watched horror movies in bed. Any favorites? This year I watched The Exorcist. I was just playing in Washington this fall and passed by the stairs that the priest falls down at the end of the movie--sorry for the spoilers--and I remembered I hadn’t seen it in awhile. So, I’d never been to one to one of your shows before, and I was surprised to see both young and old audiences! Did you seek to appeal to both demographics? A little something for everybody? I don’t think when you’re a musician--or at least I’ve never found personally, that I intentionally try to appeal to any specific age group or any gender. I’m surprised by the variety of fans that we have, but like, I’m not super shocked by it. As a young woman, my songs probably appeal most to young women, queer women, young people… because they understand my perspective the most. But we also draw from so many 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s bands… so, I’m sure people that are older than us, or even like my parents’ age, find that we appeal to them as well because we remind them of the music that they listened to. There’s not necessarily a conscious effort, but I can totally see how we have such a varied group. You know, the most surprising group to this day are the frat boys who love my feminist songs! And I don’t know if it’s an ironic take or if it’s just a sign of the changing culture, but when I see a bunch of frat guys wearing my “Itty Bitty Titty Committee” shirts, it’s just a real surprise and a real thrill. They’re wearing the shirts?! Yeah, they love it! [laughs] They love it so much. They get absolutely excited. That’s hilarious. Yeah, it’s very cool. Do you have any especially funny concert-related stories? My first really big Toronto show that we played at the Danforth Music Hall. It was my first time playing there, and I was really nervous. I bought this beautiful set from Morocco in the sixties, and I do a lot of incredible dances onstage. I went to do a drop and my pants split open. I had to get my tour manager, who has been my guitar teacher since I was six-years-old, to literally tape my pants together--like tape down my asshole. So that was very funny. That’s a very good story. Yeah! So, to talk about your clothes, I know you wear a lot of fun outfits on stage, and I’ve read you’ve designed some of this stuff? Do you mean “design” or “style”? I may have read this wrong. I haven’t designed anything, but we’ve been styling ourselves. We style ourselves every once in a while. Style is a really important facet to us, because we feel like it’s something that’s often overlooked. Particularly in rock music, and particularly--no offense to the boys that I see sometimes--but I personally find it very irritating when I see guys wear jeans and t-shirts onstage and think that that’s good enough for a performance! They’re stuck in a rut! Well, yeah! I’m of the belief that you should never wear clothes that you wear before a show onstage. I think you should try to elevate what you’re doing. I’m not a big fan of the grunge scene for that reason. [laughs] So you and your sister, Kylie have been playing together forever, basically. All our lives. But I didn’t realize for ages that the history of The Beaches goes back to a band previously on the band on the Family Channel in Canada. Mm-hmm! My big question, I guess, is were you discovered there? I know you wrote a theme song for a show on the network too. Did you write the song for that show? Essentially what happened is, Kylie and I started playing guitar and bass together for about two or three years, and we decided to start writing some songs together. Our guitar-teacher, James--who eventually became our tour manager and musical director--thought our songs were really good, and decided to record them on set in his studio--just really on the cheap--and my father was just really proud of it. So yeah, just like homemade CDs or whatever--a lot of kids would do that, or at least those I knew of--and my dad used to just give them to everyone. And coincidentally, one day he handed it to a guy he knew at a hot dog stand where he worked in Toronto, and that happened to be a friend of Rain Maida of the Family Channel. I think Rain listened to it as a favor to his friend, and he thought we were really good! So it was through Rain and his wife, Chantal, that we got a deal at the Family Channel. We were very lucky, but again, we worked really hard and… we’re talented! I think with anyone who does well today, it has to be with all three of those things. Luck, talent, and hard work and tenacity. Do you have any artists you really enjoy right now who might not be getting the popularity you think they deserve? I’m a terrible music fan in that I don’t listen to a lot of new music honestly [laughs]. I’m a really large fan of live music and going to see people that, like, surprise me. Whenever I play music festivals I try to wander around because my real appreciation of music comes from live performances. My sister’s really the one who’s good about going past streaming services and looking at indie sites for the best new music out there. She’d be the one to ask about that. There’s a band in my city called Goodbye Honolulu, and I’m not sure if they’re together anymore but they were a fantastic band. [laughs] I’m sorry! I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. I’m a podcast listener. When your job is really just writing music all day and setting up and performing shows, I kind of value a break from music once in a while. Oh, I can imagine! Yeah. As for writing, your music seems to be taken from real life experiences. Not necessarily heartbreak, but generally being kind of pissed-off, really. I wouldn’t say “pissed off.” It’s like I’m an observer and I’m perplexed, I guess. Not angry, just more puzzled. How often do those songs… “T-Shirt,” “Let’s Go,” and “Walk Like That,” specifically… how often are those songs based on real experiences and how often are you just channeling feelings? Right. I used to write a lot of songs that weren’t from my perspective. Like, I used to write songs about the end of the world, or these really surreal sort of things, and then when I started doing the first album with The Beaches, a lot of people were like, we need to know what you guys are. With your first album, it’s basically a diary entry. People need to understand who you are. You have to be able to showcase a sort of “zeitgeist statement” through your lyrics. So I got really into trying to write diary entries in the form of songs, and since then I’ve been trying to do more of that. It doesn’t always come natural to me, because I’m not the best at talking about myself [laughs]. But then I realized that I could do it in this fun, funny, or sort of Carrie Bradshaw-ish way, where I can be kind of funny about it, or you know, tell stories about one night stands that went wrong, or how I can be a bit of a dirtbag, and I don’t have to feel super vulnerable or uncomfortable. I can use comedy in my lyrics to get my stories across. I think that’s essentially what The Beaches’ lyrics are. They’re really honest, but also kind of humorous and real. What lyric are you most proud of having written? Oh, that’s really tricky! I’m really proud of “Blow Up,” just because of the amount of lyrics that are in there. It’s almost like a rap song, the way the words flow together, and it’s also a little mournful. And then recently, there’s a song I wrote recently about my breakup that I’m very proud of. I’m probably most proud of that, but it hasn’t come out yet--it’s coming soon. And then I also really love “Orpheus” too, which is off of our newest EP. I got to combine a bunch of my favorite loves in that song. Greek poems, songs about my past and past loves… and yeah. I’m just really just proud of that one. And you do it in such a smart way in that song! It’s almost kind of played out at this point, just referencing either The Bible or Greek Myths. But it’s done so creatively, just kind of how it’s contemporary as well--or that myth, anyway. Well yeah, that’s what I think I really like about those old stories is that they’re universal. You can always re-contextuaize them and sort of flip the switch a little bit. For me, what I really liked about the Orpheus legend, and thought would be an interesting way of looking at it, would be from the perspective of Eurydice--and she’s the female lover of the story. We always talk about Orpheus’ perspective, but we never look at the woman’s perspective in that legend. I thought it would be interesting not only to look at the story through her eyes, but also set it in a modern time. And, as for this new EP? This is a new EP coming out? Yeah! We released three singles over the past fall and the summer--“Grow Up Tomorrow,” “Orpheus,” and “My People”--and we’re releasing it as an EP. I think EP’s are a great sort of way to pinpoint where your albums are going. So we’re really excited about our next album that’s coming out, but this EP has some more Beaches music before our album is ready to be released. We hope everyone enjoys it. And I noticed with this EP you’re going a little more poppy! Well, that’s right! You have this EP which is sort of like going in this direction, so like, yeah. Get excited for what’s coming! Are there any influences there? Not really. I think, like all musicians, we kind of swing on a pendulum. So our first EP was really natural rock, like Strokes-y, very simple chord structures; and then more experimental with our second--more like a dance rock album. Then, the pendulum is sort of swinging the other way now. We’re going more simple, more pop sort of lyric-structures, with also a bit more of a natural vibe. So yeah, pretty excited about that. And it’s all very Beaches. Yes [laughs]. And when you’re not writing music and listening to podcasts, how do you spend your free time? Love to party, dude. I should have guessed that. [laughs] Well, I love seeing my friends, I love reading, I love going to movies, I love walking around. Just an average young woman having fun! Now, I’m kind of scared to ask this next question because I got the designing clothes question wrong, but I read somewhere that you have a massive fear of fruit? That is true. That is true. Tell me about that! I just get really freaked out by it. I don’t like it. It’s a real thing, it’s called “fructophobia”, and I’ve actually met a couple of other people that have the same fear. When I was a little kid, my grandfather fed me a piece of expired fruit in my porridge and it’s one of my earliest memories. Every time I see a fruit now, regardless of what it is--and I know they all have different textures--I sort of have that gross memory of a rotten grape bursting in my mouth. That’s how I feel about all fruits. Like, clementine season’s coming up, and I know I’m going to find a bunch of clementine peels in the snow. That always makes me want to yack. Yeah… I don’t like them. Wow! Yeah! It’s a real fear! We’re out there, but yeah. I know it’s strange, but that is true about me. Wow. Well, I won’t say it’s funny… [laughs] It is funny. It’s objectively funny. What is your most controversial take? Hmm. I guess I don’t really care for the Kardashians. I’m sure a lot of women won’t come after me for that. [laughs] Yeah. Not a big fan of them. That’s a pretty universal opinion down here. I think you’re safe with that one. Oh! I also think Nicolas Cage is the best actor in the world. I don’t know if that’s a serious take, but… it might be controversial. Ah. Well, that’s because you have taste. Thank you. He’s on the comeback trail, that guy. Oh yeah! What would you like to see more of in the music industry? Specifically within the rock industry I’d like to see more diversity. Obviously I’m a woman, so I’d like to see more females--and not just as performers, but female DJ’s! Female sound-engineers, female roadies! Then I’d also like to see more people of color or queer people represented in rock groups. I think rock music is all about the outsider-perspective. That’s really, to me, what rock music is as an identity. And I think that’s why it’s sort of lost its relevance is it’s really only focused on the identities of single, white, bad-guys. So I think it’s in need of some new life, and that should come from a bit more diversity. Now, whether that come from the queer community, or through people of color or, like, women too. And then, my last question is--and this is just me being curious--it seems like some of your new music seems to have this rally-cry of repeating vowels. On “Bad Behavior” and “Blow Up” specifically. I was wondering how this came about. Well, on “Bad Behavior,” that’s me spelling my friend’s name. The song is about my friend, Ania. She’s Russian, and I’m spelling her name as “A-N-I-A, not A-N-A”. So, yeah. I’m just spelling her name and I’m saying “It’s A-N-I-A, not A-N-A!” [laughs] That’s just a bit of fun. Then “Blow Up,” that was just Jackknife, my producer’s idea. He just really likes increasing vowels and sounds rather than specific lyrics he really likes. His focus is always on “how things should sound” vs. “things specifically making sense.” So those are two sorts of things that he’s really into. He’s not really into bridges that have specific meanings, he’s just like “Let’s have a little bit of fun here!” Check out the Beaches End of Summer here!

Released November 8, 2022, "CRÈME BRÛLÉE" is the newest track from Claire Chicha, and her third single this year. After seeing Boyish comment "Best song in the world" on instagram, I've been anxiously awaiting this release. The first 7 seconds caught me off guard, with a very different sound than I'm used to hearing from Spill Tab. But after that they start to add more elements in, and Chicha comes in with vocals at around 13 seconds. As with most Spill Tab songs, there is quite a bit happening with the production/music. But, I think it works really well. I don't feel like it overshadows the vocals, which is something that can happen in tracks with more production. There is a great driving beat, keeping the song moving forward, that I really enjoy. As you listen you can feel a build up of energy through the end of, what I'm assuming is, the chorus. And at about 41 seconds this leads to a guitar solo. Which I greatly enjoy. It then goes back to the same music as before when vocals come back, and follows the same pattern of build up to guitar solo. At this point I thought the song was ending, but in fact it was just a transition for vocals to come back in at 1:40. It stays pretty tame through the end. Overall I enjoyed this song quite a bit and after a couple more listens, I decided to add it to my playlist. Check out "CRÈME BRÛLÉE" by Spill Tab here!

I have been aware of Mothica since 2020, when her song "Vices" blew up on TikTok. That year she also released an album, with multiple songs that I enjoyed. So, when I realized she released an album in July 2022, I knew I wanted to take a listen. The first thing I noticed when looking up the album was how short the songs are. Of the 17 tracks on the album, three are under a minute, and just 2 songs are over 3 minutes. After a little research I found that the 3 songs under a minute are interludes. However shorter songs are becoming more and more the norm, so the average length of about 2:12 did not come as a surprise. The album starts out with "SLEEPWALK" a very mysterious, lo-fi, vibey song. Next up is the title track, "NOCTURNAL" which had a lot of electronic influence before going into a more rock influenced guitar section. Next is the second most streamed song from the album, "SENSITIVE." This song has good lyrics, and fun production choices, with lots of elements that remind me of a carnival. "HIGHLIGHTS" is next, and is one of my favorite songs on the album. Although I don't love some of the production choices, I really enjoy the lyrics. "I" is the first of three interludes on the album, featuring "Moth Man" with relaxing music in the background. Thus closes the first 'act' of the album. Act two begins with the most streamed song from the album, "CASUALTY." There is a much stronger pop-punk influence in this song than had been in the previous ones. There is a lot more guitar and drums than in the earlier songs on the album. Next is "LAST CIGARETTE(feat Au/Ra)" which seems to have more of an electronic and pop influence. Although I added this song to my playlist, it is very much a 'background music' song to me. "BACK OF MY MIND" is the next song on the album. I really enjoyed aspects of the song, and it would have been one of my top songs from the album if it had a stronger beat drop. I felt like it built up to one, but it never had a really strong drop like I was expecting. "II" is the second interlude track on the album, and the end of the second section of the album. "R.E.M." is the 10th song on the album, and the first song of the third act. It felt like the slowest song on the album, and it is the longest at 3:04. This song is very forgettable to me, as nothing really stood out or caught my attention. "BEDTIME STORIES" is one of my favorites from the album both lyrically and musically. Next is "LULLABYE" which flows very nicely from the previous song. Elements of this song really reminded me of Melanie Martinez on "Crybaby." "III" acts as the closer of act three, and once again features Moth Man speaking over calming music. The fourth, and final, section of the album begins with "ABSINTHE," which has more pop influences. Although not my favorite, I did send this song to a friend I thought would like it, and they did! "THE RECKONING (feat. Polyphia)" felt quite different than the rest of the album. It felt darker(which I love) than some of the other songs, mostly due to the instrumentation from Polyphia. Next is "BLOOD," which I enjoyed, but didn't really stand out to me. The final song is "TEARS, " which starts off softer, with somewhat distorted vocals before clearing up, and adding some stronger instrumentation. Despite some songs I didn't love, overall I think this is a great sophomore album from Mothica and I enjoyed the listen. If you like female alt/pop-rock, you may want to give this album a listen here!

During the Summer of 2021, I went on a long camping trip where it rained from the Wednesday I arrived all the way to the Sunday night before I left. So when the forecast for Michigan Metal Fest 2022 called for rainstorms all day, you can believe that I wasn’t fazed one bit. After multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan Metal Fest finally returned to the gorgeous Leila Arboretum on Saturday, August 13. The lineup was largely the same as it was when it was initially announced in early 2020 with minimal changes, all while offering a wide collection of bands across the metal genre. “We had a couple changeups, a few for personal reasons unrelated, but for the most part we kept a hold of the whole lineup,” Co-Owner and Curator of Michigan Metal Fest Steve Maple said in an interview. Since the festival was postponed twice, it would be unreasonable to think that the lineup would be exactly the same. “We really weren’t trying to, honestly,” Maple added. “We kept a few of the bands because we wanted to still put them on, but for the most part after that much time off, we really just looked at this as a new start.” Nevertheless, there were a lot of names I didn’t recognize this year, so I decided to do the opposite of what I would normally do, and NOT listen to most of them ahead of time. I wanted to get a full-on first impression in the best way possible, and the only way to do that was to go in with as little information as possible. Whereas the previous three installments of the festival were marked by extreme heat and humidity, the fourth installment was characterized by rain, lightning and mud. Nevertheless, the wild and fun atmosphere shone through. Upon arrival early that afternoon, there was some light sprinkling going on, but nothing too crazy yet. The gray sky stood in stark contrast to the shocking green of the Leila Arboretum, creating an almost dreamlike overtone, especially with the elaborate sculptures across the grounds. Even though I wasn’t bothered by the prospect of rain, I still brought an umbrella and a poncho just in case. After all, there’s no sense in spending the day completely soggy if you don’t have to. There have been some changes to the festival layout since 2019. Instead of having two stages with two different rotating slots on each one, a third stage (Fountain Stage) had been added where the main stage would normally be, and the main stage itself had been moved further back into a part of the Arboretum I’d never seen. It was at this new main stage where I saw my first performance of the day, the tail end of the North Carolina-based act The Coursing. Although their Facebook page describes them as being “Nu-Metalcore,” I liken their sound to being more “blackened deathcore.” The breakdowns and other characteristics of deathcore were present, but the guitar tone and other effects had that much more “dissonant” sound of black metal. The orchestral sound effects were also reminiscent of symphonic black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir. I didn’t get to see the whole show, but I enjoyed what I saw. Lead singer Dillon Sheets, sporting corpse paint, even jumped down to the rail and got up close and personal with the fans during the last couple songs, which is always a nice touch. After this, I hung out at the press booth for a bit and watched the Michigan-based Final Confession for a time. The group contains members from Sterling Heights, Muskegon and Lansing. Their sound reminded me of Killswitch Engage and related acts in the mid-2000’s, but the dueling vocals of harsh singer Collin Huston and guitarist/singer Kaity Walstad sounded fresh. The band names acts like Ice Nine Kills and Famous Last words as some of their influences, according to singer Collin Huston. “I am actually brand new to the band, I’ve only been in the band for almost a year now,” Huston said in an interview after the festival. “Kaity, our guitarist and clean vocalist, she’s been at it for ten years. Final Confession is her band, she built it from the ground up. There’s been a few lineup changes, but she’s the original member of Final Confession.” Huston had never been in a band before, but a mutual friend pointed him in the direction of Final Confession when they were in need of a new harsh singer. “Needless to say, I got the position of vocalist, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since,” Huston said. “Before I joined Final Confession, I found it fun to just scream in the car, and I just happened to be good at it. I feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to join Final Confession, these guys have made me feel at home. I can’t thank them enough and I feel excited to grow with these people and see where music takes us.” When it comes to Michigan Metal Fest, Huston said the day will be one he’ll remember for the rest of his life, and it was only his third show with the band. “Heading out there, the weather was definitely not appealing,” Huston recalled. “But I just remember finding the bandmates, helping get set up behind the stage, the excitement building up, the nerves. I felt so sick I wanted to throw up, but it was one of the most amazing feelings. Being onstage and looking out and seeing all the people and smiling faces, the anticipation building from the crowd, meeting all these cool people at our merch table, getting to sign T-shirts and CD’s, taking pictures with people, it was just amazing. It takes words away from you.” Their performance also ended up being one of the last performances with their drummer Kody. A few days after the festival, the band posted an announcement saying that they had parted ways and are now searching for a replacement. So with that in mind, it was one of those “just in time” opportunities. In the meantime, the band has a fill-in drummer for upcoming shows. Soon after, I decided to go check out what was happening at the Dirtbag Clothing stage, which has historically been the second stage for Michigan Metal Fest, as well as the main stage for the Leila Arboretum in general. A set by the Detroit-based rock band Influence was already underway. The band describes themselves as progressive grunge, and their sound ranges from hard rock to almost Southern blues rock at times. Some parts reminded me of bands like Smile Empty Soul, but heavier. Their latest release, the Conspiracy EP, even features a guest appearance from Suburban Noize Records’ own Dropout Kings, which was surprising in the sense that I hadn’t heard about it sooner. This would be the one and only performance I would see at the Dirtbag Stage, as the weather would soon become bad enough to halt the event, and the stage would eventually be shut down for the day. (As I’m writing this, I’m listening to the Influence song “The Rain,” which seems appropriate). But the skies still hadn’t opened up completely yet, leaving enough time to catch a performance by Ohio-based metal band The Convalescence. The band has performed at Michigan Metal Fest multiple times, but in my opinion, this was their most memorable to date. The stop at Michigan Metal Fest was part of their “Undead Swarm” tour, named after their newest single released this year. I already wrote earlier about the gray skies contrasted against the green venue, but the band took the green to the next level. Their stage banners for the new single, plus an almost exclusively green choice of stage lights, and even green LED lights inside the bass drum created pure eye candy. Combine that with corpse paint, the light rain and their symphonic deathcore sound, and the incredible atmosphere could not be denied. There were also plenty of theatrics in place similar to what you would see at a GWAR concert, meaning liberal uses of fake blood and body parts. In 2019, I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt and caught a few sprays of fake blood while taking photos. Knowing what to expect this time, I knew better than to get close once the fake body parts started getting thrown into the audience. People were catching arms and hearts and holding them up like trophies. As for the fake blood, the last time I saw this band, they were simply using water bottles with holes poked in the lids. But this time, members of The Coursing came out armed with entire futuristic squirt guns full of fake blood. Needless to say, I took several steps back toward the rear of the crowd, but it was quite a sight! During their final song, they finished off with one last breakdown before the skies finally opened up and the rain came in full force. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but as I was standing in line for a pulled pork sandwich, lightning began to flash. Suddenly, I felt very nervous about holding an umbrella. The bad weather finally resulted in a temporary shutdown around 3:30 p.m., putting all performances on hold for the time being. Not knowing what else to do, I took shelter at the press tent and awaited further developments. Although re-entry was previously forbidden, staff decided to allow it so patrons could take shelter in their vehicles. But the shutdown didn’t last very long - just after 4 p.m., the music started back up again, and the rain would continue off and on for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the Dirtbag Stage would have no further sets on that stage for the rest of the day. As a result, multiple bands didn’t get to play, and a planned Body Suspension by House of Razorblades would not surface. “It was a hell of a day, it was a scary day,” Steve Maple recalled. “It really threatened us a lot. There were a lot of points where I thought we weren’t gonna be able to keep going, and I never really imagined that scenario, so that was really hard. We did have to shut the stages down, and [the Dirtbag Stage] was supposed to shut down at 7:30 and we had to close it down because the [audio mixing] board went into safety mode. So there was nothing we could do about it, that stage shut down. We have a few bands that we have to have some make-up dates to make things right with them. With the other stages, we thought we were gonna have to shut them down too. It just kind of kept coming out of nowhere to where we were able to keep it going.” And it wasn’t just the bands on the Dirtbag Stage that would be affected. The Miami-based experimental group I Set My Friends on Fire would end up canceling their show on the main stage due to the bad weather. However, they have since announced that they are working on booking a make-up show, so any disappointed fans should keep an eye on their socials for when that happens. In the midst of the rain, I found myself back at the main stage around 4:30 p.m. for the Chicago-based death metal band Embryonic Autopsy, who were actually playing their first-ever concert. A good portion of bands that have performed at Michigan Metal Fest over the years fall somewhere into the “core” genres, so it was really nice to stumble into some old school death metal. According to their Facebook page, the goal is to “bring back 90’s old school brutal death metal.” Their debut album from this year, Prophecies of the Conjoined, does just that. It offers a serving of Sci-Fi themed death metal, as well as guest appearances from metal heavyweights like Terrance Hobbs (Suffocation). With song titles like “Cannibalized by Octuplets” and “Cauterized Womb Impalement,” the band definitely brought that old-school flavor to Michigan Metal Fest. The band features Tim King on vocals, who was the singer for a band called Oppressor that was active in the 90’s. But I didn’t know ANY of this before seeing them, so it was a completely new experience for me. And I can tell you in no uncertain terms, death metal hits WAY differently in the rain. “You guys are brave for coming here in the storm,” King told the crowd. “Thanks for coming to see some real classic death metal.” The aforementioned “Cannibalized by Octuplets” was the standout track during this set, and I found out later that the studio version features a guest appearance from Doc Coyle of the band God Forbid. In terms of music, this ended up being my favorite set of the day. I’ll be looking forward to what comes next for this group, but either way, I can say that I was one of the lucky few who saw their first-ever concert, and it was at Michigan Metal Fest 2022. Maple would later tell me that even he was unaware it was their first concert until the band posted about it right before their set. Meanwhile at the Fountain Stage, bands were back on track, albeit slightly behind schedule, but every band scheduled on that stage was still able to perform. The closeout act for the Fountain was Kalamazoo’s Last Sleep, a self-described Metalcore/Djent band. The band formed in late 2017, according to leasinger Ethan Laymon. “I actually was not originally in the band, they needed somebody who could sing, and my former band had just broken up earlier that year,” Laymon said in an interview. “Bert [Saldana], our bassist, sent me a message on Facebook, and I had an audition three days later. Since then, Bert and our guitarist Logan [Stephenson] had left, and that was right before COVID, but they’re actually back in the band now and we’ve spent a lot of time writing.” They were one of the returning acts from the last installment of Michigan Metal Fest, writing ahead of time that they couldn’t be more excited to be back. A crowd of dedicated fans had gathered around the stage, all of which were rocking hard for the band on the soaked stage. “We got there at about 10:30 a.m. and it had already started raining,” Laymon said. “That part was terrible and it was pretty chilly, but from our experience this year, and looking at everything behind the scenes, I know Steve Maple and his team tried really hard to make it as good of a day as they could with what the weather was doing to us.” In a strange turn of events, the storm delay actually worked to the benefit of Last Sleep, as it gave them time to correct a critical error. “Logan forgot his laptop at home and we kind of needed that for our set,” Laymon said. “We were scrambling, it was like an hour before our set time when we found out, and Derek [McIntyre, drummer] was running around the festival grounds trying to find Bert, who drove us, and right after they left, the festival stopped. So our stage got behind by a good hour and a half, and we got really lucky. Our laptop has all of our secondary guitar sounds, we only have one guitar player, so we definitely needed that to even make our set possible. We have not actually come up with a way to run our set without that, it would have failed.” Weather delays and equipment issues aside, Laymon said the day was a blast for the band. “That was our first time playing a show in a year and a half, and it was also our first show with our original lineup back in the band,” Laymon said. “Bert didn’t tell us until after the set he was staying, we thought it was just a one-off thing, but I think that day reinvigorated a lot of things for us.” Following their first show back, the band plans to keep going full steam ahead. “It is really nice to be back after the last two and a half years of stress from the pandemic, and all of us seem to be going all in at the Last Sleep camp,” Laymon said. “Beyond that, Last Sleep is focusing on writing because pretty much all the material we wrote during the pandemic is null and void with the lineup change. We’re ready to get back into it, and we’re excited to be back.” Next, I returned to the main stage to wrap up some unfinished business. In 2019, one band I wanted to see was Filth, a band from North Carolina which has been described as “downtempo deathcore.” Due to last-minute schedule changes, I somehow missed them completely that year. Even with the weather screwing everything up this year, I wasn’t gonna let that happen again if I could help it. It was definitely worth waiting for, and I’m glad I was finally able to settle the score. The only word I can use to describe their set is “powerful” - the vocals from Dustin Mitchell shook me to my very core (no pun intended). In contrast to the harsh music Filth spewed forth, the crowd was having light-hearted fun. At one point, the mosh pit gave way to a large game of “Ring Around the Rosie,” which had me laughing pretty hard. Just as it was my first time seeing Filth, it was also my first time seeing a mosh pit take a turn like this. But if you think that sounds weird, you wouldn’t believe the antics of the next two acts. Next up on the main stage was what I considered to be one of two “wild cards” on the lineup - the Nu-Metal band Tallah, based out of Pennsylvania. This was one of the names that I was looking forward to ahead of time, wanting to experience first-hand what a new Nu-Metal (Nu-Nu-Metal?) band in 2022 could sound like. The only thing I learned about them beforehand is that they had done shows with Code Orange in the past, which was good enough for me. Once the band took the stage, I knew we were in for something else before the first note was even played. Lead singer Justin Bonitz was wearing a blood-stained hospital gown with rabbit ears, while turntablist Alizé "Mewzen" Rodriguez was dressed as a psychotic mime. This, coupled with the extremely thick smell of fog machines in the air, made me feel right at home. I spent four years working in a haunted house seasonally, and it made me think, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna enjoy this.” My instinct was correct, as Tallah ended up being one of my other favorite highlights of the day. I could try to explain their sound, but I really can’t do it any better than their label, Earache Records, has already done on their official website. Here’s an excerpt: “Formed with a singular and unifying mission of revamping the much-loved sound of popular nu-metal sensations of the early 2000s, Tallah draw influence from the likes of Slipknot, Korn and Linkin Park while simultaneously fusing it with a modernised, hardcore edge as displayed by current sensations Code Orange, Vein, Candy and Fire From The Gods.” Indeed, the slamming guitars were accentuated by crystal-clear turntable scratching, making them one of the most unique acts of the day, and unlike anything I’d seen in a long time. The performance itself was completely off the wall - the band members were jumping all around like the inmates of an insane asylum. But at the same time they legitimately looked like they were having fun. There were big smiles from the members and you couldn’t help but crack up with them. Even the police officers patrolling the area could be seen laughing at the onstage madness. I would later find out that the band was co-founded by drummer Max Portnoy, who is the son of the legendary drummer Mike Portnoy (formerly of Dream Theater). It was a surprise to me, but a welcome one at that. For this next part of the review, I’d like to note that the following performance by Green Jelly could almost be its own separate article, and I really must confess myself ignorant to several things regarding the band. First of all, I didn’t know that even though the name is spelled “Jelly,” the band name is still pronounced like “Jello.” I knew there was a lawsuit regarding the name at one point, but was unaware that they kept the pronunciation. Of course I knew their infamous song “Three Little Pigs” and had seen the claymation music video, but hadn’t delved much further into their works. I also didn’t know that Green Jelly is mostly just the work of one man, lead singer Bill Manspeaker, and that hundreds of members have been in and out of the band over the years. Apparently, Manspeaker just travels from place to place and hires local musicians for each show. “It’s like a network that they have,” Maple explained. “When we announced they were playing Michigan Metal Fest, a couple comments I saw were ‘Oh, I didn’t know we were playing!’, and it was just people that lived around Michigan, the closest people to that show.” So really, I might as well have known nothing about Green Jelly. To that end, I had no idea that the live show was such a SPECTACLE. So much so that I’m not sure I can properly do it justice in words alone, but I’m gonna try. If Tallah brought the haunted house vibes with their antics, Green Jelly took it a few steps further. Before the show started, audience members were invited to go backstage to participate in the show. Those who obliged were dressed up in all kinds of weird costumes, dubbed “punk rock puppets” by Manspeaker. Manspeaker himself was dressed in a Wal-Mart employee vest, but quickly ditched this and several other garments on top of the stage canopy. Large inflatable decorations that looked like the kind you get at Halloween City were now adorning the stage, including a giant jack-o-lantern and a grim reaper. There was also a ridiculous amount of band members on stage, all dressed in their own costumes. They all had weird names like “Hammy Sagar” and other puns like that. Among them was a lady wearing an organ bodysuit, a guy wearing corpsepaint playing a stand-up bass, a bass player dressed in pirate-like garb and more. Maple would tell me there were about 35 members at this stop; I’d lost track after ten. While everyone was getting ready, Manspeaker kept the crowd entertained with his over-the-top stage presence, setting up a chair to stand on one of the main amplifiers. “We only have two good songs,” Manspeaker exclaimed among other things. I thought he was kidding and there would be more than that, and when they opened with Three Little Pigs, I figured they were just getting that one out of the way early. But it turns out the entire show was built around these two songs - Three Little Pigs and a Flintstones-themed comedy cover of Anarchy in the U.K. by the Sex Pistols. (There may have been a third one in there, but I could be wrong). The aforementioned “punk rock puppets” joined all these bizarre characters onstage, and some fans were even given large puppets on sticks to carry around through the crowd (including Justin Symbol from the band The God Bombs, who I ran into). Manspeaker got the crowd going with a chant of “Green Jelly (Jello) Sucks!” before finally coming into full swing with “Three Little Pigs.” Another confession - I was AMAZED by what I was seeing. The notes in my phone literally say “craziest shit ever - Green Jelly being Green Jelly.” Band members would leave the stage and play out in the crowd, punk rock puppets were moshing in the middle, and a previously unseen guy was making sparks shoot all over the place with a saw. Ultimately, this would end up being my favorite set of the day. Not for the music itself, but for the pure showmanship that was impossible not to love. How many times can you say you’ve seen a concert where the audience became active participants? It was almost like the heavy metal equivalent of watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live audience. I can’t think of a single other metal show where I’ve been so ENTERTAINED through the whole thing - my stomach was hurting from laughter by the end of it. It seems that Manspeaker has taken the notion of being a one-hit wonder band and completely turned it on its head, which is actually pretty smart in my opinion. Attempting to further explain this would only result in me repeating myself. All I can say is that if Green Jelly is playing a show anywhere near you, I would highly encourage readers to consider going. It would be well worth the price of admission to witness this spectacle, and if they ever come around to Michigan again, I’ll be first in line. “Those guys were a riot, and we knew they were gonna be,” Maple said. “I have certain things that I want for this festival; a lot of it has to do with what metalheads in general want, what we want at a festival that’s not like everything else. But then on top of that, I reach out sometimes and grab a hold of things that I want. That’s something I was really happy to have there because they were iconic when I was growing up. They dominated MTV with that [Three Little Pigs] music video. They made it obvious that’s what they were doing, they’re here as ‘the worst band in the world,’ and you’re gonna enjoy it for a half hour,” Maple said. On a personal note, when it comes to my writing, I normally try to just let my own words paint a picture of whatever I’m reviewing. But in this case, I’ll make an exception. Any readers who want to get a better idea of what I saw can watch a video of the performance at this link. Following the craziness of Green Jelly, I found myself exhausted from the day and made the tough decision to head out early. But even with the bad weather and the cancellation of some bands, I was still in very high spirits. I was later told that during Attila, the mosh pit gave way into a large mud wrestling pit. I haven’t been in one of those since Dirt Fest 2012, but I’m sure those who joined in had the time of their lives. It just goes to show that when storms interrupt your day, the real question is whether you had fun or not. And that I did - even with rain and lightning causing a brief derailment, I can safely say that I still had a blast at Michigan Metal Fest 2022. “Honestly at about 5:00, I’m walking around looking at everyone thinking, ‘what are they doing, what are they still doing here? Why are these people here?’ And it’s because they only get this one day a year,” Maple said. I have previously written that as far as Metal events go in Michigan, there aren’t really any big-name festivals left besides touring ones that come through occasionally, like Knotfest. With that in mind, Maple and company have carved out a niche market over the last few years, which he greatly relishes. “As an adult, I have two kids, that’s my favorite feeling, is forging them into full adults who understand how to navigate through their emotions, finances and relationships,” Maple said. “But besides that, it’s the best feeling on the planet. It’s so good that I came back to it after a few years completely out of practice, having to go through hell to get this running again. It’s the best feeling to know that we made something for people that others are afraid to make at that caliber. And we not only did it to our best ability, but we hit this niche that no one knew we needed, and it’s wonderful.” With that being said, there is always room for improvement, and Maple and the rest of the staff are already looking at how to do better in the future, such as with infrastructure and communication. “One thing I want to point out is that I now have about a 20-person committee as compared to the two or three people that worked on this before,” Maple said. “The first thing we did was have a meeting two weeks after the event, and all we talked about was ways to improve. Anything we would normally talk about, we put everything aside and just 100 percent said, what can we do to make that event better? We have a lot in place, we’ve created subcommittees based on this. We’ll have multiple social media reps on the site next year, and they’ll be doing live updates with each band that happens and with each weather update and things like that.” As for makeup shows, there are already plans in place with more to follow. “Every band that wasn’t able to play, we’ve been working with all of them, and everybody who’s worked with us on it has been really happy with what we’ve come up with,” Maple explained. “We have FWAR, it’s an awesome GWAR tribute band that was gonna play. They will be performing at the Music Factory in Battle Creek for Halloween with a couple other bands on October 29. That’ll be a makeup show for them.” Further events are in the works, but are under wraps for now. “There’s a couple other bands that weren’t able to play, and we have them coming up a little bit beyond that,” Maple said. “We’ll announce a lot more details about that one soon, but we have to have it all composed first.” Closing Thoughts (Maple) - At the end of the interview with Maple, I gave him the floor to add anything he wished for closing thoughts. “I think basically this year, I just went into it really not knowing what to expect. With it being not only a comeback year, but it’s this whole reset button that we had to push on it. It was really hard to know what we were coming into, and to have a good year even though all of that rain happened. We had a lot of support from new people, new sponsors, new vendors and new fans. It was like this outpouring of new life breathed into this thing. I know it’s residual, it’s been waiting to get pumped back in, but I didn’t know that at the time. I was just a guy sitting over here running this landscaping company for the last few years. To have so many people jump in and start steering for me, taking over all these different divisions, it’s just amazing to me. It’s unbelievable to go through this and come back to it feeling like it’s so much bigger than what it was before. That was not the feeling I expected to have, even though everyone told me it was gonna be like that. That really verified what we have here.” My Final Thoughts - All in all, I feel that even with the bad weather considered, it really did end up being a best-case scenario. For the music, I think my strategy of not reading too much into the lineup paid off. I experienced a day full of surprises and discovered a ton of great new music in the process, whether it was death metal, comedy metal or Modern Nu-Metal. I would encourage readers to try this strategy at least once - going in blind can actually make the experience better. And because of the weather, I couldn’t help but think back to that camping trip where it rained the whole time. Someone had remarked that the trips that don’t go according to plan, for weather-related reasons or otherwise, tend to be the most memorable. I think the same is true about concerts and events. Years after Mayhem Fest 2008, I still remember it crystal clear due to the rain and the mudslide during Mastodon. And as previously mentioned, I vividly remember Dirt Fest 2012 thanks to the rainy weather which later saw a mud wrestling pit during Clutch. It might seem like a paradox, but by virtue of the bad weather, I can already tell that the day of August 13, 2022 will live on in my mind as one of the funnest days of the year, as well as of the most memorable events I’ll attend for years to come. Here’s to the return of Michigan Metal Fest, and many more! [PS - Hopefully this will be the last time I write about something coming back after being canceled due to COVID-19.] Further Reading - Michigan Metal Fest official website Michigan Metal Fest official Facebook page The Music Factory official Facebook page Next Level Entertainment official Facebook page

I listen to a really wide and weird range of music, and have a lengthy history of enjoying Epic Rap Battles on YouTube, so I’m basically like a music expert. I actually really like talking about music though, and my criticisms are kind of like an overall vibe rather than just like “Oh this track was really good but the other track? Not so much.” Whenever someone is reviewing music and is like “Oh yes, the production was impeccable, but great heavens, the sound editing left a lot to be desired” I get really really bored, so I want my review style to be like some guy recommending music to you! (please do not treat my word as gospel it’s really scary and a lot of pressure) I’ve been like, really good about keeping up to date with albums when they come out this year, and god, a lot of music came out last Friday! Is all of it good? I don’t know! First up to bat: Meghan Trainor’s TAKIN’ IT BACK Takin’ it back to what? Bad music apparently! Goteem!!!! I just don’t like it. She’s very obviously trying to take it back to her past style, with songs like “All About That Bass” and “Lips Are Movin’” with the doo-wop 50’s diner sound that won people and grocery store loudspeakers over in 2014, but it feels like it’s too little, too late. There isn’t a song I can point out and say I like, because the ones that sound even slightly okay to me feel just like recycled versions of those two singles that kicked her off. There are plenty I can say that I didn’t like, though! But I won’t bother, I got pretty mean with this one. Rating - 4.0 / 10 (Not Very Good) Second, the star of the show, probably: Taylor Swift’s Midnights I know Taylor’s fans are very ride or die with her music, which I get. I’ve actually liked her other albums! I don’t hate her! But god dude, I have to be honest, this album put me to sleep. It’s not bad by any means, she has too much money to let it be bad, but it’s very boring! It feels like a shell of her other projects, and that’s she’s just doing a whole rinse and repeat when it comes to her lyricism. It also doesn’t help that this is produced by Jack Antonoff, one of my least favorite producers right now, who just did The 1975’s new album that came out literally like last week, and the soundtrack to the critical darling Minions: The Rise of Gru, both just this year. However, one of the most empty tracks off the entire project is “Snow On The Beach”, featuring Lana Del Rey, which sounds really good on paper! The problem is that I genuinely couldn’t tell if she was in the song at all. She didn’t have a verse, people seem to keep claiming she did backing vocals, which I don’t really think sound count as a feature? It’s really misleading and I don’t get it, it’s not clear what part she played in the song. Taylor was on such a good streak too, dude. She came out with Folklore, and Evermore, which are both great, but this album feels very reminiscent of both Reputation and Lover, which even some Taylor fans will admit aren’t that good. It feels so weird hearing her curse in a song like “Vigilante Shit” and trying to be edgy, it doesn’t fit her vibe at all. It feels like she’s working backwards somehow, and I don’t know if I’ll stick around to watch. Rating - 5.5 / 10 (Average) Third: Carly Rae Jepsen’s The Loneliest Time WOOOOOOO yeah okay now we’re getting to that good shtuff Most people may not have known Carly Rae Jepsen still made music, let alone dropped any records after “Call Me Maybe”, but her collab with Rufus Wainwright, the titular synthpop single “The Loneliest Time” seems to have become a hit on TikTok, which is really cool to see. Besides that, however, she also has standouts such as “Surrender My Heart” and “Talking to Yourself”, both filled with excellent dance-worthy synth 80’s-inspired instrumentals, but riddled with some fairly depressing and lonely lyrics, reminiscent of The Weeknd’s past two projects, After Hours and Dawn FM. It’s a very good listen, and I don’t have much else to say besides check it out for yourself! Rating - 7.5 / 10 (Pretty Good!!!) Fourth, and Finally: Dry Cleaning’s Stumpwork Lastly, my favorite project from the last week. Over this last summer, I’ve fallen in love with the post-punk scene, with semi-underground groups like Black Country, New Road and black midi. This one is no different, I fell in love with it pretty quickly. However, in comparison to the other two groups, Dry Cleaning is focused on spoken word as well, which may or may not be a turn-off for some if you don’t like it when the singer isn’t singing, kind of like Talking Heads, but it made me feel smarter so I liked it. It also had some really surreal lyrics throughout the entire thing, some really nonsensical ones about water caterpillars or horse head tea or a family tortoise. I can assure you, the album does absolutely nothing to help you understand it. So if you want to hear some Cate Blanchett-sounding narrator saying some bullshit like “three times did the cheese move sideways to Switzerland by radio, but she never licked that parking permit” this is the album for you! It’s definitely my favorite album with pubic hair on the cover from this year! Rating - 8.5 / 10 (Really Good!!!!!!!!!) Honorable Album Recommendation: bag or die - bbno$